Introduction: God CARES for the encouragement of His people. God sends judgments upon the world of the unbelieving. He has done this throughout history and will continue to do so until the final judgment at the end of the age. God sends messengers throughout His judgments, both to explain those judgments and to offer terms of mercy. God CARES for His people in all that activity. He cares for His people even as He does what He does with this world. That’s what He is doing during the three interludes we find in the book of Revelation. As God tells us what is coming in His future judgments of the world that lead to up to the second coming of His Son from Heaven to Earth, He also wants His people to know that He is sovereign, therefore — even if they suffer greatly — they are safe. It is interesting and instructive to see what God tells His people as He encourages us. What does God reveal for the peace and confidence of His people? HIS SOVEREIGNTY IS OFFERED FOR OUR ENCOURAGEMENT. Everything that is coming — He has ordained it. He can give us the time to which these events belong, the time that these events will endure, significant actors on the stage of God’s sovereign plans and activity, what their role will be, what the resistance to their role will be, and all that will take place as they carry out that role. ALL OF IT, GOD IS ANNOUNCING BEFORE IT HAPPENS. It is the sovereignty of God that explains the reality of futuristic prophecy. This is the greatest comfort the people of God have every day — OUR GOD IS SOVEREIGN. By itself, that would not demand our confidence, but coupled with the sure knowledge of God’s character, it is OUR GREATEST CONFIDENCE. The one who is sovereign is Holy, altogether good, and perfectly wise, and perfectly just, and HE LOVES HIS PEOPLE FAITHFULLY. HE — THAT PERFECTLY GOOD GOD — is the one controlling today and all our tomorrows. So, His SOVEREIGNTY is set forth in His Word for the encouragement and comfort of His people. OUR SAFETY IS OFFERED FOR OUR ENCOURAGEMENT. Not in the sense that He has not ordained suffering for His people. HE HAS TOLD US ABOUT THAT IN ADVANCE TOO. GOD’S PEOPLE DO SUFFER. Not in the sense that we escape all difficulties, some SEVERE difficulties, many FEARFUL difficulties — but in the sense that none of those things ever threaten us with ultimate and final harm. WE DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID BECAUSE OUR GOD IS IN CONTROL. AND OUR GOD LOVES US. We saw, last week, the measuring of the inward part of the temple, and the exclusion of what belonged to the gentiles, and the message was that for three- and one-half years the nations will trample Jerusalem — THE LAST HALF OF THE TRIBULATION PERIOD. That is going to mean great suffering for the Jewish people. But God has planned to do something for His glory with that people, and therefore He has measured them in a way that indicates preservation and protection which will ensure THE COMPLETION OF HIS PURPOSES. WHAT IS TRUE OF THAT PEOPLE, IS ALSO TRUE OF GOD’S CHOSEN MESSENGERS. Even in our verses today we see THE AMAZING REALITY that the people of God are INVINCIBLE, as they serve God, until God’s assignment for them during this present age is finished. We are told of two messengers, two witnesses, who will be greatly used by God, but GREATLY OPPOSED BY THIS WORLD. They will eventually BE KILLED because of their service. BUT NOT UNTIL GOD IS FINISHED WITH THEM. And even after they are killed, GOD’S DEMONSTRATES THAT THEY ARE PERFECTLY SAFE. So, before the sounding of the 7th trumpet. Our sovereign God tells us about two witnesses that will plague the world, but promote the truth, for 3 and ½ years. FIVE ENCOURAGING TRUTHS WE SEE ABOUT THEIR MINISTRY.