Well, we're going to go ahead and get started. I want to congratulate you all for being here this morning. You set your clocks ahead and you're not late. I have a history here in church. I got a bad rap because of one year I forgot to set my clock forward or we got mixed up somehow. I'm in the shower, and Nancy tells me there's a phone call, and it's from our associate pastor, and he says, are you teaching today? I says, sure I am. I says, I'll be there. He says, well, we're all waiting for you. They made it a prayer meeting for the adult Sunday school class. I tell you, I get nervous at this time of year when it's spring forward or fall backwards. I'll be honest with you, I did set our clocks ahead, and I even went to bed an hour early last night. And I got up, I woke up an hour and a half before I wanted to, and I couldn't go back to sleep. So I laid there and prayed. So anyways, we're here, we're thankful. It's a beautiful, sunny day. We're getting close to springtime. But let's go ahead and open a word of prayer and we'll get started this morning. Our gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we are humbly bowed before your presence. And we thank you, Lord, for this time that we could come together. Lord, every Sunday, Lord, it's a joy to join our hearts together as your church, to greet one another in love and to join our hearts together worship and praise to you. Lord, what a special relationship you've given each one of us to be part of the Bride of Christ, Church of Christ. And Lord, we come this morning because we love you. We come for an opportunity, Lord, to join our hearts together to hear from you today. And Lord, even as we, during a sunny school hour, we call this our teaching time, And so, Lord, if we're gonna learn anything, we need your Holy Spirit's help, Lord, because He is the Spirit of truth. Lord, we need His counsel. We need His wisdom and discernment. I need His help. And He's the one who gives us understanding, Lord, speaks to our hearts. So we thank you, Lord, for giving us your Holy Spirit to be with us. What a wonderful privilege that we have as believers. that the Spirit of God dwells with us and comforts us and walks with us, encourages us. So we pray for that even right now, Lord, as we open up your word here. And then, Lord, this is a day in our church, Lord, where we're anticipating Nathan coming forward to preach for us and just to get to know him more. But morning else, Lord, we are praying for your help in these matters. Lord, we recognize that this is your church, you are a great shepherd, but Lord, you are calling under shepherds to help your church to be edified, to be built up. And so, Father, I pray, Lord, for this day that it would be a day that we come with expected hearts, Lord, that we come with anticipation of what you are gonna do, And more than anything else, Lord, we want your will in these matters. Lord, for Nathan and Janelle, we want your will for them. We want your will for us as a church. And so, Lord, we're praying that over today and over this coming week, as we commit ourselves to prayer, that you would reveal to us and confirm to us, Lord, and give us your peace in these matters. So I pray for Nathan this morning. I pray, Lord, that you would anoint him for the word that you've laid on his heart. And that word is for us today. And so I pray, Lord, you give him great liberty. Lord, take the fear out of his heart or anxiety, whatever that may be. And Lord, for us, that we would be attentive. And even, Lord, for later when we have our question and answer time, that, Lord, that we would do it in love with regards to the fact that we are trusting you as our God to guide our paths today. We just want to tell you we love you, Lord. And in the next hour, Lord, the most important thing is to worship you in truth and in spirit, to have our dear Savior Jesus exalted. And even now, Lord, as we're studying the very fact of him coming back soon, I pray, Lord, that you would be exalted. even in our study, and I pray and ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, if you'll again turn to chapter 19. Now, let me just say this. In chapter 19, we know that as we start out looking at this, we saw all the, you know, the the beatitudes, the praise the Lord for these things that God is doing. And we are looking at anticipation of Christ coming back and looking at the details of that. And last week we spent quite a bit of time just kind of confirming again as to what this looks like as far as our marriage to the Lamb and that we are the bride of Christ. We believe that by the time that we get to this section of Scripture, we the bride, the church, is already up in heaven with Christ. And then what I want to do is just finish up just what I thought here this morning, because I thought this was so important. When you look at verse 8 right here, it says, it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Now last week, I had told you and I promised to you that I would speak and talk much about the Bema Seat of Christ and how this really speaks here about this passage of the bride making herself ready for this marriage supper. Remember, I just want you to understand. Remember, the day you came to faith in Jesus Christ, you were born again. You were married to Christ. He is your bridegroom, and we are the bride of Christ. That's a position that was secured for us as we talked about the Holy Spirit given to us as an, sort of speak as an engagement ring to show that we are his. It's a beautiful picture when we look at the Jewish tradition or the customs of the marriage betrothal, the marriage itself, the consummation of the marriage. And remember, we said what's so important is that in that seven days of a traditional Jewish wedding is that when the groom went and got his bride, when the rooms were ready, the room that they would be together for seven days, and then the final house that he had built on his father's property for his bride. When that was ready, the father went ahead and said, go get your bride. And then he does that. He goes and he calls his bride to himself. And he brings her back to his father's house. And they went into that bridal chamber. And they locked the door. And they had enough provisions in there for seven days. And we believe that's a picture of the seven years of the Tribulation, when we're raptured, taken out of this world, and while God is pouring out His wrath upon this world, we're in that chamber with our dear Savior, and that's where we talked about the Bema Seat last week. We went through a time of examination. And in that examination, remember we said this, it's not a judgment for any sin. We are already forgiven of all of our sins, our past, present, and future. So our position is secure. What we are doing then, the abimacy was really Getting to the point here where we said that it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of Christ. And I want to talk about that before we move on to the next. I just have these things I want to share with you. When you and I were saved, we were given the righteousness of Christ. It's his righteousness that even covers you today, and so that when the Father in heaven looks down on you as His children, He doesn't see all of the sin that's in our lives, because we are covered Remember, it's the blood of Christ that paid for our sins, and so it's his righteousness that was imputed to us. I mean, in other words, it was given to us as a covering so that we then could have this right relationship with God, okay? So I just want you to know that when we first came to Christ, we are clothed with Christ's righteousness that was imputed to us. But now when we see right here, in this section here that she was made herself ready, once we go through that bema seat, remember when we left this world in the time of the rapture, we are shredded of this old nature, we are shredded this old flesh, and we are given a new resurrected body just like Jesus, okay? So we were raised with incorruptible new bodies, and we were joined with Christ in our flesh, our new flesh, body, soul, and spirit. That's the bride of Christ. What we see then is that when we come into that bema seat is that when we are examined, and all of what you did in your life on this earth, will determine the types of rewards, the types of linen garments that you're gonna wear as the bride of Christ, okay? And so that's why we say it's so important for us is that we want to live for the glory of Christ. We want, when our dear Savior comes back for his bride, we want, and when we're taken up, we want to be clothed in such beauty for him. That's why we live the way we do, because we love our Savior, and we want Him to say that, yes, she has made herself ready, and she's beautiful. That's what He died for, for us as His bride. So this is what the bride is going to look like. She's glorified now. How does she get glorified? Well, we've been saved by the righteousness of Christ. We have his nature that's been imputed to us, the righteousness of Christ. But now we are being presented to him. And so what I wanted to say to you that that now we have a righteousness of our own, okay? It's not just we're clothed over with Christ's righteousness, it's that now we have a righteousness of our own. We've been born again, we've been saved, we've been transported up into heaven as we've been raptured in our new glorified bodies, and now we're clothed with, it says here, the righteous deeds of the saints. And so what I want you to see right here is that it's not just a garment of righteousness put over her, okay, but it's her, she is no longer has any sin. It's her righteous acts that characterizes her as the bride. And this is, as I mentioned early in verse eight, is depicted in the fine linen, bright and pure. It's an idea of holiness. It's an idea of purity and spotlessness. So what I'm saying, see, at the beam of seat of Christ, all that that distracted from her beauty has been burnt up. Remember we said there was gold, silver, and precious stones. Those are the things that last. So in the character of what you became in Christ when you were born again, and all those things that you did for the honor of God, for His glory and to please Him, those motives have been judged, and only those things that were done for His glory, not for your own. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes as believers, we do things just to please our brothers and sisters, or sometimes we do it just to please ourselves, that make us look good. God is the one with those piercing eyes that looks into the heart and determines. as to what the MOVAs were. And so this is what the rewards were given. So now, based on that, I just want you to see, when we come to this point, when Jesus is ready to come back with all of us, and remember I said, once that Bema Seat is finished, and that seven years is done, and the time of the consummation of the marriage, remember, just like the Jewish custom, For seven days, they're locked together. And then when the doors open, the bridegroom comes out, and he says, man, I want to present my bride to you. Look how beautiful she is. She is everything that she has been ready, she has prepared herself, and look how gorgeous she is. And we are then presented to the glory of the host of heaven first. That's where we're at when we come out of this seven-year room with Jesus, our bridegroom, so to speak. But now we're gonna be presented to those who are here in the kingdom of God, and I wanna show you that, okay? So the bride has made herself perfect. This is the glory that was promised. Remember 1 John chapter three. Why don't we turn there just a little bit to the left? 1 John chapter three. And let's pick it up here at, Well, let me start at chapter 2, verse 28. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears... And here's the thing I want you to understand. It's so important that we live our lives for our Lord, so when he appears, we may have confidence You understand that? We'll have confidence and we won't shrink from him in shame at his coming. See, a bride waiting for her bridegroom, he says, be ready. He told his bride, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I'm going to come again. So when he comes, we don't want to be ashamed at his coming. We want to be a bride who says, Lord, we've been waiting for you. I'm ready. I got oil in my lamps. Come take me to be with you. for the place that you prepared for me. So he says here, he says, we don't wanna shrink from him and shame at his coming, and if you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. And that's what I'm saying. These righteousness, we're gonna be judged on, and that's the kind of clothing that this bride is gonna be clothed with, the fine linen, pure, just as we've just seen here. Now, look at chapter 3, verse 1. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But, I love the little buts in the Bible, but! We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. So as this bride, as we have been raptured out of this world, as we have been spent the seven years with our bridegroom in examination at the Bema seat, and now we've been, what it says right here is that she has made herself ready for the fine linen is the righteous deeds. of the saints. We shall be like him, but we shall see him as he is. Now, I asked the question last week as we finished up, I was kind of rushing through that, but it was just a charge to us. What kind of linen are you going to be wearing? And all of us should always be examining ourselves. It tells us in scripture to examine ourselves. to make sure that we're in the right relationship with him. But more than anything else, this should be a motive for us for godly living. The one who gave himself for us, the one who on the cross gave us the greatest illustration of love, somebody who knew no sin took my sin. upon him and paid the debt. And we owe so much to him. And I know it's in every Christian's heart, we want for the Lord someday, when we come to that consummation of that marriage, we want him to be pleased with his bride. Don't we? He's gonna show us off. So let's be the best that we can, all right? My brothers and sisters, Now let's move on then to the, I just thought we needed to really go through that just to finish that one more time, to understand about your clothing that you're going to wear in heaven when we take on to be his beautiful bride. And I just wanted to challenge with that. Let's continue to work and live for His honor and His glory so that you would be the one. I just can't, it's emphasis enough. He's going to show you off for eternity. He's gonna say, look, this is my bride. This is why I died. Look at her, how beautiful she is. And I really want all of us not to be ashamed, but to be pleased to Him, amen? All right, let's look at verse 9 now. He says, And the angel said to me, Write this, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true words of God. You know, it's interesting that this is the fourth of seven times that we see this beatitude, meaning that it's a praise to the Lord. This is the fourth time in Revelation that we see this type of beatitude, this blessing. And I just want to just kind of remind you, the first one was when we first started this whole series, chapter one. You remember that? Blessed are the ones who read Blessed are the ones who listen and those who obey that which, so he gave us right off the bat, as we start to look at what it means when we look at the glory of Christ, because that's what revelation is, it's really a revealing of who Christ really is in all of his glory. And so we spent much time in the beginning, chapter one, just looking at all those things that when we see Christ in his exalted being, What a bridegroom we have, what a savior, what a God that we have. And it was a picture then, and it was a blessing. And he said, it would be a blessing for you to read these things and to hear these things and understand that. And then the second one was where he gave a blessed are the ones who are dead, who will die in the Lord. That was in chapter 14, verse 13. And if you recall that, that was those who at that time, when it was, well, let me turn over there, chapter 14 to 13. I wanna make sure. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, write this, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. And as we talked about then, these are the ones that after the church is gone, For the first three and a half years, even through the times of judgment, God brings judgment to wake us up. Judgment should bring us to repentance. And for those who are left behind, God in his mercy and his grace, even when he's gonna pour out judgment, there's gonna be an opportunity for them to hear the same gospel message that you and I. It's not a different message, it's the same message. Christ died for our sins, and those during the time of tribulation are gonna have to repent of their sins and come to faith in a true God, in a time when there's much judgment coming upon this earth. So he says, blessed are those, because we learn is that many of those, because of what's happening at that time, when Antichrist rises and takes control and he wants people to honor him and to worship him, is that they are going to be martyred for their testimony. Now, it's not being a martyr that gains them salvation. Like I said, it's always the same, Same message, they come to faith just like you and I did, repenting of sin, and come to faith in Jesus Christ. But for these saints, I call them tribulation saints, they are going to eventually be martyred, most of them, a lot of them. But he says, blessed are you who die in the Lord, because they then will live with Christ's eternity, just like you and I will. And then the third time we see that, it happened when he says, blessed are those who stay awake. Remember in chapter 16, we're going through the bold judgments? And the bold judgments, I believe, are a little bit different than the first set of judgments. This is the wrath of God being poured out, okay? As I said before, I really believe is that once, just like in the day of Noah, For 120 years they were preaching. He was a preacher of righteousness. Helen warning people of this coming judgment. And then finally what happened? Ark was finished. God called them into the ark. After 120 years of building it, and God shut the door. Did he not? And then wrath came. Judgment came. And right here in these bold judgments, And it's really something where Jesus is kind of right in the middle between the sixth bow and the seventh bow, and all of a sudden you see Jesus saying right here, okay? Let me go back to it, let me turn to that, okay? Look at 14, I mean 16, 15. Behold, I'm coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake. Keep his garments on, and he may go about naked and be seen. He may not go about naked. So right in the middle between the sixth bowl of wrath and the seventh, it's almost like God is saying, for those right now, Those who may be studying, those who may be wondering what's going on, okay, as they read it, God is saying, it's almost like we said, it's a proliptic prophecy. It's already done. He is going to bring wrath, but he's saying, wake up, people. And blessed are the ones who wake up before these wraths come upon the earth. So he's given, blessed are those who are awake. And then as we see, the one that we're looking at, the fourth one, is what we're saying, who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and we'll get into that. And then the next one, it says, blessed are those who share in the first resurrection, and that comes out of chapter 20, verse six, meaning that Once he comes back, the general resurrection of the righteous are all those who have died in Christ during the tribulation. We believe it's probably gonna be some of the Old Testament saints, but this is the first resurrection of the just. And because then he says, these will then go in with him to the millennial reign for the thousand years. So he says, blessed are those And then we see then the last two is he talks about those who keep the words of this prophecy. And then finally the last one is in 2214 where he says, those who have washed, blessed are those who have washed their robes. They have a right to the tree of life. So we see these seven beatitudes or these seven blessings. And it really is, This means those who have the joy, those who are satisfied, fulfilled, happy, that's what he's saying. If you are obedient to Christ, and you're listening, and you're obeying him, and you've come to him, you're going to be blessed in these ways. You're gonna have a wonderful blessing. Now, let's talk about this statement, who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb, okay? This verse discloses the fact that there is going to be this wonderful marriage supper. And so it's assuming then when it says, because I want you to understand this, you and I are not the guest, are we? You look at, again, I want to get back to the Jewish custom of a wedding. The bride and the groom, they're not the guest. They're the honored ones. The guests come to participate in their joy. And so he's talking here then, it's given us that there is going to be a reception, and many guests are invited, not the bride, not the groom. They're never the guests, they're the ones who the ceremony is performed for, and these are the honored ones. The guests will include all believers up to Pentecost, as well as the tribulation saints who were saved during the tribulation time. The Jews and the Gentiles remember what we learned from Zechariah, that during the tribulation time, part of what the tribulation is for is to wake the Jewish nation up. And we learned in Zechariah is that one third of the Jewish nation during that time will come to faith. They will be the ones who are saved. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We learned that when we went through the book of Zechariah a little bit. So a third of the nation will be part of the guest. All those who are saved during the tribulation, and remember when we looked at that in Revelation chapter 7, let's turn over there for a second. And I want to pick up at this verse right here, verse nine. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes. And remember, He was asked, or the angel asked, well, who are these? John says, I don't know. Tell me. He said, these are those who come through the great tribulation. So as we mentioned earlier, these are the multitudes of people who come to faith during the tribulation time who are actually, most of them will be martyred. They will be there as the guests. So what is this assuming? This is assuming this wedding supper happens here on earth. Because it says, as I told you in chapter 20, when the first resurrection happens, Jesus then will come and reign with him and be with him during the millennial reign, 1,000 years of Christ. Okay, so that's what we see right here, okay? We'll probably see all of the Old Testament saints, the tribulation believers who are part of this earthly group. They will all participate in this marriage supper that's honoring Christ and we, his bride. Make sense? Well, let me show you a verse. I want you to turn with me over to Isaiah chapter 25 because The Jews are expecting this, all right? We should be expecting this. Isaiah chapter 25. I want to pick up verse six. Now listen to this. He says, on the mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food. I'm in Isaiah 25, okay, verse six. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food, full of marrow, of aged wine, well refined. And he will swallow up the mountain, the covering that is cast over the people, the veil that is spread over the nations. He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces. You see that? This could only happen during a time of Christ reigning, and a time when we will reign with him here. This is a picture of the millennial kingdom, and most of all, what we're learning here is a marriage supper where God is putting on this wonderful feast for everyone to celebrate together. He says here in verse nine, it will be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Do you remember even Jesus himself when at the time when he was given the last supper? Remember when he took the drink? He said, I'll never drink this again until I'm with you in my kingdom. I believe this is part of what's, when this will happen, is at the marriage supper of the lamb. Here, on this earth, in the millennial kingdom, reigning with our Christ when he comes back. And then he said the same thing when he said he took up the bread. He says, I will not eat of it until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Now let's go back to our text. Back over here to verse 10 again. Then I, meaning John, fell down at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant, just as you are. See, John had done a foolish thing. He allowed himself to get so enamored with the angel delivering this message that he began to worship a created being. And that's something that we have to really be careful about in our relationship with our Lord. He's the only one that we should ever bow down and worship. I don't care what we may ever come across in another person, how good they may be, You know, we may even see a miracle happen. And particularly in this case, John is looking at this angel, this powerful angel, and he gets down and he worships. And we know from scripture, God is a jealous God. He is the only one deserving of our worship. And we learned in Hebrews that that when he speaks of angels, it says in 114, are they not all ministering spirits to serve those who inherit salvation? So they are ministering spirits, and to us, the body of Christ. They're only there to protect us, assist us, anyway. but they are never, ever to be worshiped. Anybody who would ever, even Paul had to go ahead in Colossians 2.18, and he warns against worshiping angels. You'd be surprised. People got the wrong idea about angels, or even about other people that they would call saints. They even worship them and they pray to them. That's not right, that's against God's law. God is the only one that we should ever worship. Now then he speaks here in that same verse here, you must not do that with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he says, worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now, the spirit of prophecy is really, it refers to the preaching, the proclaiming, the speaking forth. Literally, it means to stand before and speak. And the very heart and soul of our breath of preaching should always be the testimony of Jesus. So the angel is saying to John, John, I'm sent to help preachers, apostles, prophets, to give testimony and witness to Jesus. all these angels that we have covered in this book of Revelation. And remember, we said that some of them, it almost looks like, boy, they're discussing Jesus. You know, it's a picture of Jesus. I mean, the things that it gives you, you know, we see some of the same things in the beginning when we went over the character of Christ being exalted in heaven. But as I said before, you'll never find anywhere in the book of Revelation where Jesus is referred to as an angel. Now there are many powerful angels that, it's like Moses when he was with God so long and he's shown and people, he came down and people, something's going on with this guy. The glory of God was shown him. There are certain powerful angels that exhibit some of the power and majesty that Christ was, but Christ is never ever referred to as an angel in the book of Revelation. So if a preacher isn't preaching the gospel and preaching Jesus, He's not gonna get the affirmation from heaven or the support that God would want to give those. So it's very important that all of us, even in our sharing with others, whether we're a teacher or not, we are always to give the testimony of Jesus as being the very heart of our preaching and teaching. Remember this, okay? Even Jesus, speaks about the fact when he was being challenged on some of his authority. And he made a statement. Search the scriptures, and then you think you have life, but it's they that testify me. You remember the two individuals that, after the resurrection, and these two are going to road to Emmaus, these disciples are downtrodden, they've been hurt. They're confused, fearful, and then who comes up to them? Jesus. I would love to be on that road to Emmaus and listen to our dear Savior. Because what he did, starting from the prophets of old and everything else, he shared with them all these scriptures that were pointing to him. And he said, was not this to happen? Was not, I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but he was saying, Was what happened to Jesus, was that not predicted? You know, he says that, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, interpret them, all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Well, let me go on to verse 11. Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse The one sitting on is called fateful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. Brother and sister, we've come to the point now, heaven is open. Now, it's not open for John to be taken up like it was before. Chapter 4, verse 1, that's what it says. Heaven was open. And then he hears this voice, come up hither. No, this is heaven open for Jesus to come back. I mean, this is the culmination of ages. This is what you and I are waiting for. This is what we should be waiting for. We should have great expectation. We should be looking forward to this. We should be joyous. And so here's the consummation of ages. Jesus, who basically said he's coming back again, is fulfilling what he said he would do. And heaven is being opened. See, now it's going to determine who will rule this world. For these years since Adam and Eve have fallen, they gave up their authority to rule as God had asked them to, to manage. and they gave it up. Satan took it over. Jesus referred to him as the prince of this world. Now, no more. Finished. No more. No more waiting. It's time. Then we studied that, and you know, part of what we learned in Revelation already is that no more waiting. Jesus has the deed. He is the rightful owner. He paid the price. And now he's taken back what is rightfully his. And we say, well, why didn't he do that in the beginning? Well, because, remember, we talked about the purposes. I believe it's all these tribulation saints who come to faith. One of the things we knew about is God wasn't done with Israel. no matter what some people would teach and preach today. God is a promise keeper. He made covenants with Abraham that were not covenants depending on their faithfulness. It was a one-sided covenant that God made with Abraham. In fact, Abraham was asleep when God confirmed that covenant when he walked down between those sacrifices. And he made a promise to them. And that's what part of the tribulation time of the judgment is to wake and shake them up. And now we're gonna see he's coming back. And he's going to reign. So we should be anticipating this place. Remember, even Paul makes this statement. He defines our lives as those who love Christ appearing. For a century, the world has scoffed at this. In Peter, it says, where is the promise of his coming? And people scoff at the fact. But here now, we see that heaven is open to us. And we see the white horse, and on the white horse we see the rider. So the reason heaven is open is not to let us in, but to let him out. It's time. Father has determined. It's time. Well, I'm out of time. So let me just kind of just in closing right here, I just want to give you, I'm going to be gone for the next two Sundays after. I'm going to, Nancy and I, we're finally going to get some vacation time. We're heading down to Florida and brother Joe is going to share the next couple of weeks. He'll be, you want to, what's your title or what are you going to be subject? OK, he's going to go over the Statement of Faith, Living Hope Bible Church. We feel that's important. So he'll fill in for me in the next two weeks. What I'm going to be sharing with you in the future is I'm going to get into some depth here because we're going to go over the different battles leading up to this point. There's some misconceptions about, I want you to understand, one of the things we see Jesus on his white horse coming, we see that his robe is dipped in blood. Well, when did that happen? When does he go and save the third of the Jews who are over in, we believe, down over in Petra, down in Jordan? Because remember when we went over the earlier chapters where the, The one was giving birth was Israel. And then, remember, Satan was gonna come against and wanted to devour her. And God miraculously saves her. Well, we believe that when the abomination of desolation happens, that's why Jesus said, you just go. Don't even go for your coat, just get out of here. He said that to the ones in Judah. He says, go, and he's got a place for them. And so we're going to talk about those Jews who escaped out of Judah, who are being cared for over the next three and a half years by the Lord in this place called Petra. And we're going to see how God then brings them back out of there and protects them and fights for them. And I just wanted to show you some of the battles. Some believe that the Ezekiel 38-39 happens during this time. Well, I'm going to show you that it's not. That's going to happen sometime. It happened today. It happened before the tribulation, before the rapture. It happened after the rapture. But the Ezekiel 38-39 war, we're talking about Russia coming down into Israel. we're going to see that that's a separate war. This is not Armageddon. This is not the end time when Christ comes back and he battles all of the nations of the world, not just the ones from the north. So I'm going to spend some time going over with you so that you have a better understanding, uh, cause it could be a little confusing. There's a, there's a lot going on. And so what I, I think it's important for us, is that we'll learn what that is. We'll see how these nations come together. Because at one point, they're fighting amongst each other. And at some point, out of what we call deception from the evil one, demonic forces, they finally join forces. Because it says when he comes, he comes to battle the nations of the whole world, not just Russia coming down. So I'm going to spend some time, when I get back, up from this point, because I think this is the time to really go through that. So I'm going to take a little bit of a break from going verse to verse, and I'm going to spend some time with you to show you all the sequences that are happening during this time around the world. Make sense? Any comments, questions? Let's pray. Father, we do want to thank you, Lord, for Just for the very fact, Lord, that we are your church, we are your bride. You died for us. You call this right now in your righteousness. So that when you see us, Lord, you see us clean, forgiven. You don't see us in our sin. Now you do deal with us, Lord, when we become disobedient, and we're thankful for that. Lord, you want a pure bride. And my prayer, Lord, is that we, till the time you call us, home. Lord, some of us may not live to see the day when you call us, when we're all raptured together, Lord, as we just seen in our own dear sister Joyce as she went to be with you on March 3rd, she's in your presence today. What a wonderful, he was so ready for seeing you. For us who are left behind, Lord, I pray, Lord, that we will continually to live our lives to please you, to honor you. Lord, we truly want for you to come back. Lord, we're expecting that. Help us, Lord, that we would be a bride who's ready, that has oil in her lamps. Help us, Lord, that we would keep ourselves pure and holy. We look forward to that day, Lord. But until we do, Lord, we are your church, you are our shepherd, and we need your care. And Lord, even for today, Lord, I pray as we go in this next hour, Lord, we come together as a church, uniting our hearts, and I pray more than anything else, Lord, we would worship you in truth and in spirit. Lord, we want Christ to be exalted in this place. And I do, Lord, pray for our brother Nathan, Lord, as he will come and share the word with us. Lord, you've laid a message on his heart for us, And I pray, Lord, you would grant him great freedom and liberty, an unction of your spirit. Lord, that you would speak to your church today. We would hear what you have to say to us. Lord, I pray for our worship time together. I pray for the worship team who will be ministering to us today. Lord, I pray you would continually put joy in their hearts. Lord, that when we gather here in this room together, Lord, you would hear one heart praise and worship that you are God. So bless this time together, Lord. I want to pray for Nathan and Janelle, Lord, even afterwards when we have a question and answer time, Lord. Father, we are asking for your Holy Spirit to confirm and give us peace, Lord, about how we are to go forward. with this brother and for us as a church. Lord, we are trusting you for that answer. So Lord, as we finish this time with Nathan and Janelle, Lord, and we have question and answer, and Lord, as we spend this next few days this week praying, praying, Lord, that you would confirm in our hearts what your desire is. We want to please you. So blessed now we pray in Jesus' name, amen.