Five Witnesses

Title of today's sermon is Five Witnesses. Five witnesses. Perhaps you've had the opportunity to be a witness in a trial. Anybody here been a witness in a trial? Yes, we have a few out there. Are an eyewitness to an accident? Many of us have seen if you live on these roads or drive on these roads long enough.

Right, Michael? You're going to see you're going to be an eyewitness to an accident. Perhaps you had the opportunity to be an expert witness, which I did a couple of times, which is very intense. But the Bible talks about two witnesses coming in the last days at the end time. And everybody's so intrigued by who are the two witnesses. We have various people who claim to be one of the two witnesses, or maybe we probably have somebody claim they were both the two witnesses for all that matters, as you see in the Bible.

I don't have the answer to that, neither does anyone else. We'll know when they get here, as I gave a message on that a while back. But in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 19 verse 15, it said, by the mouth of two or three witnesses is a matter established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. It's even brought up and quoted by Paul in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 1.

I'll give it from a different translation, but it says the same thing. Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. I think we all agree to that. I have brought that up many times when we're looking at Scripture. Anything that's really important, that's a major doctrine in the Bible, a major teaching, is not just mentioned one time.

That means you just can't take one Scripture out of context and say, oh, we'll make a doctrine out of this. When all major doctrines and teaching by God through His Word is established two or three times and many times over.

I have something I would like Andrew and Benjamin to come up here, and I'd like to hand this out. I'd like you to look at, examine these for just a minute, these four witnesses. Can I have one? Thank you. You'll hand out on to each everyone here. I want you to look at the piece of paper I gave you.

It happens to be four pictures on there, four different people, or whether one picture has two people on it. But I'd like you to examine and see just how good of a detective you are looking at these pictures, because I'm going to ask you a few things about that today. As everybody have one yet? No? Just a few more as they're handed out there.

Does anyone look familiar? Maybe they do. Thank you, gentlemen. Everybody has had time to look, in case I have to do this for the camera. I'll walk up real close so those can look and see. Close enough. Are two close. Okay. Look at the picture, paper, piece of paper at the top. Top left. There's a man and a woman standing there. Does anybody know who that is? Dwight showed us a picture when he was 21 years and 21 pounds ago. Am I close? Okay. The person I want to talk about, our first witness, today, her name is Gertrude Janeway.

Gertrude Janeway. She was married and the man standing beside her is John Janeway. What is interesting about Gertrude Janeway was that she lived in a cabin in Tennessee. So did her husband. The cabin still exists in East Tennessee today. What makes her unique is she was the last widow, last woman, last widow, to be paid a pension for her husband who fought in the Civil War. She died in 2003. Her husband fought in the Civil War in the 1860s. 1865. 1864 and 5, to be exact. What's interesting is John Janeway, he was born in 1845 and he died 1937. John entered the war, the Civil War, for the South in the last six or eight months of the war.

John then was captured, not knowing much at all, and decided to join the North and fight against the South the last six months of the war. So he was, after the war was over with, he was not really welcome back in his hometown of Tennessee. He had turned sides. And so he went off to California, always heard about it, to make a living. And he stayed there a very long time, and then he decided, well, maybe most people forgot.

And he went back to his home in Tennessee, at which time he met Gertrude Janeway. He started courting her when she was 16. He did not marry her until she turned 18. What is unique about this? Well, they were only married 10 years before he died. And he was 81 years of age when he married her at 18. Quite an age difference, wouldn't you say? So she was 18 when she married him, and he was 81. And he died after they were married for 10 years. He died in 1937. So you put their lives together because he lived to be, I think, 93.

She lived to be 92. She died in 2003. Can you imagine what they saw combined together? Can you imagine that conversation? As I have talked to my grandfather, my great-grandfather, when I was younger, and he would tell me about what it was like back at these certain times. He would tell me about these things.

Can you imagine 185 total years between the two of them? He was born in 1845, and she died in 2003. A lot of history! What had they seen? What had they experienced? I can't imagine at, what, I'm 60, marrying an 18-year-old girl. I don't think that even enters my mind. My wife hopes it doesn't. But can you imagine that? But being 81, marrying someone 18, can you imagine? They saw a lot. They witnessed a lot. Go to our paper again. You'll see on the top right, does anybody recognize? The top right?

He says Brad Pitt. Anybody else? Dwight, this was a picture of me 30 years ago. How about that? Can I use that one? That's Mary's picture. This second witness is named Adam.

I couldn't find a picture of Adam in the Bible or anywhere, so I figured that's probably what he looked like. Can you imagine Adam? A unique witness. I mean, think on this. Adam was there at day one, and he lived 930 years, almost a millennium. He was there when there was no one else on earth, and he lived for 930 years. What did he see? What did he witness? And can you imagine people coming to him 500 years after he was created? Can you see them coming to him for advice? What did those people see in him? What kind of witness would he have been? Not only what he saw, but what kind of witness other people would have seen him? Would they have said, it's because of you? We have these problems. Oh, well, maybe people didn't blame people back then. You believe that?

Imagine! He saw the cruelty of men, of men to each other, men and women. The relationship between husbands and wives, he saw a lot of stuff that was not good. You think he related some of those things to people when he was 800, 900 years old? He would have had not grandkids, not great-great-grandkids, but great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great. Grandchildren, wouldn't he?

Imagine that, if you can, and think about what Adam must have seen.

I'd like you to look at your paper again. Look at your paper again. There at the bottom, left-hand. Does anybody know who this man is?

Take a good look. Have you seen him?

Bruce says he's an Indian. Bruce, you're right. His name was White Wolf. White Wolf was also known, aka Chief John Smith. Chief John Smith. What was unique about Chief John Smith, besides he was married to eight different wives and had no children, which was interesting, but you'll find that White Wolf, or Chief John Smith, was born in 1785. You want to write that down? 1785. This country was still being founded in 1785. They were still fighting for their independence. It didn't all come in 1776. It took almost two decades. 1785. White Wolf. He died, if you want to write this down. He died in 1922. He died in 1922. He was what is supposed to be the oldest, oldest Native American Indian. He lived to be 137 years of age. 1785 to 1922. Did the world change? Did his, where he was living, change? You know, we look, and we talk about, especially those who have a little gray in their hair, we look at what's changed in the last 20 years, don't we? We look how even Florida, I haven't been here, but almost eight years, those who have been here long, realize how Florida changed. Imagine 120, 130 years? You wouldn't even recognize it, would you? He was a witness to a lot. He could tell some stories. He could tell you about life. He could probably tell you about death. Someone told me one time that the worst part about my great-grandmother, she lived to be 99. She lived to be 100. Forgot, yeah, she got to be 100. She died just at 100. She said the worst part about living all that time is that all the death that you see. And so she had to witness a lot of deaths. I'd like to move on to our fourth witness there at the bottom, right hand. Looks like a jolly man. A rich man? Anybody know who it is? Anybody ever seen him? Joe Biden. Yes, who? Yes, you are correct.

No, you're talking about the movie. No, he is 96 years old and he's still alive. He is Mary's father. He is Mary's father. That is Mary's father. Very good. Very good. So when Chief John Smith died in 1922 the next year, my father-in-law, Dalton McElroy, was born in 1923 and he's still alive. What's interesting is I can talk to him and I have spent many a day talking to him because he grew up riding a mule or a horse to town. It's the only thing they had. Then came along a car and everybody would pile into whoever had a car. That was big! Alabama in the 1930s and somebody had a car, but he was born in 1923. Then he got to see an airplane and then computers, which he does not use. But he does love his television and he loves ESPN because he's a sports fan. I gained a lot because he was a farmer. A good part of his life. He was a logger. He was a lumberjack. Then he was a soldier in World War II. He was 21, almost 22, when he was drafted at the end of the war almost in 1944. He was a single young man and he was then sent to basic training where they sent him through very fast. And for some reason, unbeknownst to him, they made him a medic. And then they said, you're getting on some boats and we're taking you across the sea. And he stopped at England and then they prepared him. And in about a week, they shipped him out. His job as a medic, his very first scene of battle was Omaha Beach at Normandy. He did not crash the beaches. His job as a medic was to come two days later and pick up body parts and find dog tags. And pick up whatever he could and take care of whoever he could. Interesting stories that he only tells a few times. Mostly he tells happy stories. Occasionally, he is twice, he has told me about those times. He made such an impression because he saw a lot. He witnessed a lot. What have you witnessed? We've looked at four witnesses that have seen a lot. It seems by talking about the Bible, you see that witnesses are very important to God. What kind of witness are you? But just as important, what do people that witness you see? What do they see? Do they see a certain lifestyle? Do they see something that is quite different? Like to turn, I didn't know what Dwight was going to be speaking on. Well, like you turn to Hebrews, Hebrews 11, where Dwight was. I'll be reading from the New Living Translation today. New Living Translation. Hebrews 11, of course, is called the faith chapter. And it's the heroes of faith, can also be called the witnesses. The witnesses. Hebrews 11, I'll read from the New Living Translation. Hebrews 11.1. Faith is a confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It gives us assurance about things we cannot see. You have a certain belief about what is your destiny. You have a certain belief. You have a certain faith about what happens after death. You have a certain faith that there is a God. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. A lot of people lose their faith. When they lose their faith, they lose their God. Or they lose their God, and they lose their faith, however you want to say it.

I'll read from the New Living what Dwight talked about earlier, verse 13. As it talked about Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. It said, these people all died still believing what God had promised them. What did he promise them? The same thing he promised us, the Kingdom of God. They believed it. They believed God. And they believed God. Because there's a big difference between believing in God and believing what God says. There's a lot of people believe in God. A greater beat. But how many people actually believe what he says? He said, please do this. He's almost at a point of begging you to do this, so that you can become part of his family. And he so desires it. He's such a family man, if I can use those words. They saw these people died still believing what God had promised. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance. And they welcomed it. They saw it from a distance. I found it so interesting talking to my father-in-law. He had no idea that all the things that he sees and experienced now he couldn't believe 50 years ago that would ever happen. I remember being in high school, and one of the things that they showed us is that, and I graduated in 1977, that by the year 2000, you're going to pick up a telephone, and you're going to be able to talk to the people and see the people. And we all laughed. Try Skype. So many other ways you can see people. What do we see? Because he said, they all saw it from a distance. What do you see from a distance? Can you see the kingdom of God? Let's be honest. No. We can't see it. I mean, at the time of peace, and where everybody's getting along, and there's one religion, and everything that Isaiah talks about, and all this, and it's just like, oh, this glorious world, and no more pain, no more sorrow, no more tears. It's just this utopia. You can't really.

But God knew that. And that is one of the reasons He created His Holy Days, so that we could, a small glimpse, so we could see the kingdom of God promised in His Word from a distance. And yes, you just barely see it. But when you take away that, it's real. How beautiful is it? But they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on the earth. Boy, you ever feel that way sometimes? I see the news, and read the news, and think of what? Where do I live? Broward, Florida, and it's all Florida. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on the earth. Obviously, people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. It's called the kingdom of God. And that's why we go, and for eight days we experience that. For Monday, we will come here and experience the sound of a trumpet. Don't forget your trumpet. So far. Right? Because that's to wake us up. That's to guide us. That's to wake us up. Best to go, hey, hey, hey! The fall holy days are starting. We knocked out three. Here's four more. Bring them on. See, you have that bigger picture.

If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place. Heavenly homeland. Hm. Think about it. The coming kingdom of God is mentioned 86 times in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The coming kingdom of God. It's pretty important to Christ because most of them were quoted by Him. And contrary to many religious people, the kingdom of God is not here on earth. Right now. Because you've got religious preachers that will teach the kingdom of God is here now. Tell that to the Bahamas. Tell that to Haiti, Malawi. You can talk to Mark and her. He went through that hurricane in a house, hovered down. I don't think anybody there is going to say, oh, the kingdom is here. How happy I am. Right? Or some say, oh, the kingdom of God is in your heart. Really. And I'm going to be vastly disappointed because what stuff I read here doesn't have anything to do with the kingdom being in my heart. And there was a Jesus Christ that said, pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on heaven as it is in heaven. No. On earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God is there now. And it's coming down, and that's what we will read about, hear about, and experience during the Father Holy Days as we bring this in. It says, these all died in faith. My question to you, will we? Will we die in faith? That's why I brought up. There's people who kind of just said, huh, they did now last their clothes. Will we die in the faith? Will we believe to the very end that this is not all there is?

There's a man outside that walks the streets of Ocho Rías, Jamaica. Have people here who have been through to Ocho Rías, Jamaica. I see him about every time that I get. So I've seen him a dozen times or more. And he doesn't have any legs, and he has one good arm that goes about like this. And he pushes himself across the street in this little push thing that he's made to try to get money if somebody will give him some money. There's no way to make a living. You want to tell him that the kingdom is, this is all there is? If it is, I'm worshiping the wrong God. I'm worshiping a very cruel God. But I don't do that. I read what here. It's coming. It's coming. I thought it would be here before now, and many of you did too. Because we all think, oh well, even Paul thought it was going, Peter thought it was going to be in their time. And that's one of the reasons that the book of Revelation is written to the seven churches there at the end, because they all thought it should have already, Christ should have already come, made it all right. And some of them were giving up. Will you give up? Because we've been the witness just in the last five or ten years to a lot of stuff that's happened worldwide. And there's a lot of stuff still to happen that we are going to be witnesses to.

Go down to Hebrews. Hebrews 30 said, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets, by faith these people over through kingdoms, ruled with justice and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back again from death, but others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Do we have that same hope? Do we have not that hope, but faith? We have faith.

Verse 39, all these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised, for God had something better in mind for us, so that we would not reach perfection without us, that they would not have it without us. And then go down to chapter 12. Chapter 12. Therefore, which means what? Therefore, means a continuation of chapter 11. Since we've seen this, since we've seen all these people, he's given these examples of the incredible faith. It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses, such a huge crowd of witnesses, to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily traps us, and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. That is all he asks us to do. We don't know when the kingdom's coming. We don't know if it's coming in our lifetime, but it does not matter, just like it didn't matter to them. What matters to us is we run that race and do not give up. Keep our eyes on that city that Dwight was talking about. It's coming. Can we do it? It must be our destiny. You know, we are like the witnesses that we see right here. We should be grounded by faith. We keep the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, just like those witnesses before us. We're following the pattern that Jesus Christ lived. It's interesting. I find it interesting, because as I thought about this, we are the fifth witness. Our picture could be on this also, because we see a lot. We have seen a lot. We will see a lot in the future. And, brethren, if we live a godly life, people will see us. They will witness our living life like these people of faith. In Greek, the word witness is martus. It's where we have gotten the word in English, martyr. Martyr. All of you know what a martyr is. It's interesting that this martus is one who not only sees but gives testimony. Some people may ask you for a testimony. Of why you live the way you do. It's also one who is willing to die giving testimony. That's what the word witness in the Greek means, martus. God does not ask us to stand on street corners and hand out literature. And God does not ask us to go to Iraq, go to Iran, and thump them over the head with the Bible. God has an asset of us, has he? He says, all he's asked is we follow his book and finish our race and endure to the end. But one of the things that's involved in that is, as Revelation says three times as I brought out just a few weeks ago, those who will be called the sons of God, those who will enter that kingdom, one, they keep the commandments of God. That means all ten, not nine. And they have the testimony of Jesus Christ. That's what we do. That's what we teach. If it's not in this book, I'm not going to teach it. I can't.

So, what do people see? They see a witness. They see a witness when you keep his holy days. When you show up here Monday, everybody else is going to go to work. Right? You're going to be here, worshiping God because the book says it. That's a witness that you're not like everybody else. And they say, well, there's people who keep the Sabbath. Yes. Yes. People who profess, you add the Jewish people, which not all of them, half of them, I don't know how many, they don't even go but once a year to the day of a Yom Kippur. Right? Well, you weren't with us when we loaded that up. The guy who bought the furniture for him was Jewish. And he said, yeah, I got to go. He didn't go to church but once a year on Yom Kippur. He said, oh, but I won't be here that day. That's the only one. Now, he even works Saturdays. So, whether he's a Jew and name only, you know. But there's 7.733 billion people on earth today. I checked the clock today at that time. 7.333 billion. Do you know the people, if you add just the people who keep the Sabbath, that is listed there? It's less than 0.5, one half of one percent in the world. Of 16 million Jews, 18 million seven-day Adventists. There's more seven-day Adventists than our Jews today. The church who got seventh day, you add all these up. One half of one percent. Now, let me tell you this. Take in those who keep the Sabbath, the Ten Commandments, and the Holy Days. You're one hundredth of a tenth of a percent.

Know why? Because you're a witness. Just like he told Gideon, send them back. I don't need that many. But those that he has, brethren, it's special. It's a special calling that he has called us to be. God's people do it. We keep the Holy Days, and it is a witness before the world.

I'll see you witnesses on Monday.