Faith — Hebrews 11

0:00 Okay. Today I'd like to talk about faith. And more specifically, I would like to take the example of Abraham in Hebrews 11. You can turn to Hebrews 11. I'd like to take the example of Abraham and try to draw some lessons for ourselves.

0:22 And and hopefully, by enjoying the story of Abraham together, we can we can be be drawn to share in that wonderful exemplary faith that he showed. So, let's start with Hebrews one one one. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And so as I pondered this verse, I said, okay, faith is the substance of things hoped for. If we were talking about, say somebody expressed a thought and we said that, well that thought has substance to it, you know, and we would be implying that perhaps that it was good or that it was worthwhile and maybe maybe it was trustworthy, something you could depend on.

1:17 We would be, it would be very positive. So, I like to think of substance as something that you can get hold on, something you can rest upon And the idea behind it is assurance. Assurance. So we can rest on what God tells us. We can have assurance because of what God has told us.

1:38 And then the second phrase that faith is the evidence of things not seen, so it's evidence to my soul. It's that which leads to conviction. Something is talking to my soul and I'm being convicted, I'm being moved by it. And and so we could translate this and actually some some Bibles do. Now, is the assurance of things hoped for.

2:06 The conviction of things not seen. Now assurance is that which leads to confidence. So through the assurance of faith, I have confidence. And conviction leads to obedience. Through the conviction of faith, I'm moved in my heart to be obedient to this wonderful God whom I serve.

2:33 So we could perhaps say it like this. Through the assurance of faith, I have the confidence in my inner man that what God has said is true and what God has promised will come to pass, assurance. And we could also say, through the conviction of faith, I lay hold of God's promises in such a way that it forms my attitudes and it shapes my very way of life, conviction. Now now, if we if we each time we would think of the word faith, we would somehow in our mind, we would say assurance and conviction and and I I think it it we would we would we would maintain a sense of what god is saying to us in this verse by trying to always think, okay, faith, assurance, and conviction. The fruits of faith.

3:36 Without faith, turn to the sixth verse, without faith, it is impossible to please him for he who comes to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And so, God is expressing here in the clearest of words that without faith, it's impossible to please him. It just can't be done, you know, and so we somehow in our souls we become impressed that, you know, this faith thing, need to somehow lay hold of this, it needs to become mine, and how important it is to have faith because you just can't please god without it. Okay. So, let's let's go down and we're we're going to go to the eighth verse of the eleventh chapter.

4:32 We're going to talk about Abraham and his faith. Before we start, I'll remind us of the fact that Abraham is called the father of faith. So Abraham is a great example of faith in scripture. And so somehow, we're going to read the story and we're going to try to somehow enter into it and and maybe in by by this exercise of reading it and trying to understand it, maybe somehow we ourselves will be that faith will lay hold of us and will and we'll be able to to emulate Abraham. Eighth verse, by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out of the place where to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going.

6:04 And it was like the conviction that leads to obedience. Abraham, through faith, obeyed God what we want to do here is we want to lay hold of what it meant to Abraham to obey God. He was called to go out to a place which he would receive as an inheritance. So we have to understand that it wasn't something that he had already, it was something that he had to believe God that he was going to get. And all the more marvelous when we realized that he wasn't going to get it in his own lifetime.

6:37 It was his descendants that were going to get this land, but he was to go to that land and and the remarkable part of this call that he had was he went out not knowing where he was going. Now, just think about that. Now, he's gonna go off on a long journey. He's gonna pack everything up and he doesn't even know where he's going. So, we'll go here to this map and try to understand what it was like.

7:08 So, here's here's Abraham. He's way down here in Ur of the Chaldees down in Babylonia, Macedonia. Not Macedonia. He's down in Babylonia and and he gets this call from god and and he packs everything on the camels, you know, and and and he starts off with his father and and his his nephew and his wife and we could I I like in my mind to kind of imagine. So, so, Abraham, dear, where did you say we were going?

7:44 And and and you you could say, he said, you don't you don't know where we're going, Abraham? And so so I I I know that I'm I'm I'm having fun with it but but we have to understand that it was remarkable. He was he was packing up everything they had and he was going to do something that, who would ever do that? But he was doing it because he had the assurance in his soul that God had told him this. And somehow he had this he had this conviction in his soul that this what he should do.

8:19 He should obey god and so he takes off and he goes up here. Now, this says nine fifty five miles. I I took another map and I was doing some estimating. It's about five fifty miles up to Heron and another 400 miles down here to Shechem. And so he takes off, he goes up there and he's going away on this pilgrimage, we could possibly call it, and he up and up he goes up up the up the Euphrates River, little goes off a little tributary up to Heron and there apparently his father his father's health, I would judge that his father's health probably collapsed at that point and and he stays for some time in Heron, estimated probably around five years.

9:06 He stays at Heron. Eventually, his father passed away and after his father passed away, then it appears that God spoke to him again. And this is the message that God gives gives Abraham. Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you.

9:31 I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those that bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And so I've I've often wondered. Thank you, Carl.

9:46 I've often wondered. Why don't you set it right there? I've often wondered how did the lord actually speak to Abraham? We we know that in in one place in the fifteenth chapter that the lord spoke through a vision. We're also aware that in the eighteenth chapter that the lord appeared before Abraham as in the form of a man.

10:08 Both of them remarkable stories but but how did he speak to him here? Well, we don't really know. Maybe it's not that important to know but what we do know is that Abraham believed god and and changed his life completely. So, he does this this wonderful trip and he ends up where God sends him and he ends up there because he believed God. What an example for us Abraham is.

11:30 And so we even get the idea, we get real perception about like moral principles here here here god was going to punish the Canaanites for their for their tremendous evil but he wasn't ready to do it yet. He tried. They they hadn't gone to the point where he was going to actually destroy them and remove them out of that land. The time eventually came, but Abraham had to fit into God's plan. Isn't that important for us to realize that God has a plan and Abraham himself had to fit into God's plan.

12:04 And that plan involved Abraham having to receive the promise of the inheritance for his descendants and not for him himself. And so it could only be laid hold of by faith. That's the only way that you could understand this and lay hold of it. And so because God had laid this upon him, it gave a character to his life because he had to look into the future and receive by faith what was going to be his and led to a character to his life. He was always looking ahead to the goal and to the thing that was going to be his in the future.

12:44 And the character that gave his life is is the character of a stranger and a pilgrim. And we get that a little further down the chapter and we'll talk about it a little bit more down in the chapter. But but the way it practically worked itself out is that he lived intense continually and that's what's remarked that remarked here that he did this by faith. This was the answer of faith to what god had told him. He was dwelling in tents.

13:11 Now, he did this the rest of his life about a hundred and five years from the time that he left Ur of the Chaldees. So for for the rest of his life, he he lived in tents. Now, I'm going to read a verse in in in Genesis 12 that kind of Genesis 12 and verse six. Abraham passed through the land to the place of Sheppan. So, have it over here.

13:40 This is this is where he he first stopped when he came into the land. As far as the terebinth tree in Mora, interesting how specific it is, isn't it? And the Canaanites were then in the land and the lord appeared to Abraham and said, to your descendants, I will give this land And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. So we've already talked about a tent. We're going to read a little bit more about the tent.

14:06 But the other thing that Abraham had was the altar. So each place that he went, he would stop and he would make room for god so to speak in his life. He would he would build an altar. He would make offerings on that altar and he would worship the lord and and so we we might say what what what is the lesson for us? Lesson is that we would make place for god in our lives that he would he would wherever we went, we'd stop.

14:34 We say, god, I'm here with you and for you and and we would worship god. That would be the answer to the altar And and eighth verse, and he moved from there to the mountains East of Bethel, and he pitched his tent. There's his tent. He pitched his tent with with Bethel on the West and Ai on the East, and there he built an altar. There's the altar again.

14:59 Built an altar to the lord and called on the name of the lord and if you would read through the next chapter, you'd find in three different places. It talks about him moving from here to there and and each time he has he it speaks of his tent and most of the times it speaks about him building the altar. It also speaks in the eighteenth chapter when we're even going to talk about a little bit but it it it when the lord appeared to Abraham as a man, it says, Abraham was sitting in front of his tent. So so that's the way he'd spent his whole life. There was something that that energized him to it.

16:35 So, so he was looking forward to a heavenly portion and I and I had noticed that in one place that the lord said to Abraham, you yourself will fall asleep with your fathers And and so some... Somehow it... He he he came to the knowledge that God had something for him that was beyond even death itself. And and it was a portion for him. And that characterized his life.

17:00 That that brought a character to his life. Eleventh verse. By faith, Sarah also herself received strength to conceive seed. She bore a child when she was past age because she judged him faithfully with promise. Therefore, from one man, him as good as dead were born as many as the stars in the sky, in multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

17:28 So Abraham, remember he had the battle with with the the men who had captured Lot and he freed Lot and and we we we find that he he honored god even that's the time when when Melchizedek appeared to Abraham and he gave a tenth part of all that he had to God, good example for us. And and then right after that in the fifteenth chapter, we get a rather marvelous story here. It says, fifteenth chapter Genesis and after these things, the word of the lord came to Abraham in a vision saying, do not be afraid, Abraham. I am your shield. You're exceeding great reward.

18:11 Now, remember, this is a vision. So, Abraham, apparently it was nighttime and Abraham is either sitting or laying in in inside the tent and and this vision comes on him and and in in this vision, God appears to him. God's talking to him, and and it was a vision given to him from God. But Abraham said, Lord God, what will you give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Dasmascus? Abraham said, Lord, you've given me no offspring.

18:44 Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. Behold, the word of the Lord came saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body shall be your heir.' Then he, God, brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven. And so we, in our imagine... Imagination, in our eyes, we're seeing Abraham. I I I've puzzled a little bit about this.

19:13 Did this just happen in his vision or did Abraham actually get up? I think he did. He got actually got up and he goes out and there he is. He's standing out there looking up at the stars and then God says to him, Count the stars if you're able to number them. So Abraham gazes up in our minds.

19:39 Remember there are no city lights out there and the pristine heavens are above his head and the stars are glittering out. The Milky Way's floating past him and he's staring up there with us and God says, Count those stars. Count those stars. So in my imagination, Abraham starts to count them, suddenly realized, You can't count those stars. You can't do that.

20:04 There's just too much. God says, that's the way your descendants are gonna be. He said, so shall your descendants be. And now the remarkable result of this faith, and this is a much quoted verse in the Bible. And he, Abraham, believed in the Lord, and he, God, counted it for righteousness.

20:26 And that verse, that remarkable verse is quoted at least five times in the New Testament. That's how important it was to God. Abraham passed the test of faith. Abraham, when God came to him in this vision, Abraham believed God. Okay, Lord, I believe.

21:14 It comes through faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. But what about if you do have faith? Oh, God is so pleased and blessed because you have faith. And so he blesses us.

21:25 He believed in the Lord and he counted to him for righteousness. And so the promise was that he would have this magnificent blessing that his descendants would be more than the stars of the sky in number. And so time passes, we're fifteen years down the pathway, we're into Genesis chapter 18 and Abraham's 99 years old and it hasn't happened and and the the test is there. It hasn't happened. Will it happen?

22:06 Will god come through? Faith says, yes, it will happen. Assurance and conviction. Faith says, yes, it'll happen. Abraham sits in front of his tent and he's meditating in the heat of the day and he glances up and there standing in front of his tent are three men.

22:26 And so Abraham jumps up from where he is and goes out and he bows himself to these men and he asks them to stop and refresh themselves and he'll fix a meal for them. So they said, go ahead. And so Abraham, you see him running back to Sarai and saying, hurry up, fix some bread for these. And he runs out into the herd and he gets a young lamb and he butchers it fast. Now, he was going to get it really quick.

22:58 I guess they ran on a different time scale. This wasn't McDonald's. So he goes out and he starts working on, I suppose an hour or so later, this is Don's take on it. About an hour or so later, comes and has these three platters of food, you know, and he comes and he offers and the men sit there in the shade of the tree and they eat their meal. And then one of them starts to talk and it became pretty clear, rapidly clear that this was God.

23:35 This man was not really a man. This was God. And and he says to Abraham, and now he's out in front of the tent. Sarah Sarah's in the middle... In in...

23:45 Inside the tent, probably by the door listening. And and the man says, Sarah, I shall have a baby about this time next year. And, woah, maybe in his heart Abraham thought, who is this? Is this God? You know, I'm just, that's Don's imagination, but still, suddenly, suddenly, Abraham realizes that he's in front of God.

24:17 And and so in inside the tent there there is Sarai and and she overhears the remark and and in her heart she didn't believe. She she did not believe. And so she says so she's she laughs. And she actually says to herself, I'm sure most probably just in her thoughts, but she actually laughed and she, in her thoughts she said, shall I have a baby? I'm past the time.

24:45 It's over now, know? Can't happen. And she was 89 years old, so we kind of understand. I was kind of laughing as I was preparing the message. Was thinking of Sarah riding along on the camel and I was picturing that says, Oh wow, she was about the same age as my wife.

25:10 I wonder Kathy would feel if she was if if I put her up on the camera and said, hey, we're taking off here. Well, here's Sarai. She's now 89 years old and she says, no. Can't happen. And so she laughs and and god says to Abraham, Why did Sarai laugh?

25:32 Why did she laugh? Well, in my imagination, I can see the four of them standing out there and I can just see all eyes suddenly rotated towards the tent, And there's Sarai standing in the door of the tent. I can just, in my imagination, I can just see her say, just like, no, I didn't laugh. I didn't laugh. God says to you, you did laugh.

26:01 But it was going to happen and how would we know that it was going to happen? It's going to happen because god said it was gonna happen. And that's our assurance, isn't it? Our assurance that God said it. And and that's our conviction is that what God says will happen.

26:21 And so And so, now we have in our chapter in Hebrews the of the summary. Okay. By faith, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed. Wait a minute, Sarah was the one that left. Oh, but that wasn't the end of the story, was it?

26:40 So Sarah, God talked to Sarah, not just to Abraham. And yes, it was a rebuke. But you know, sometimes the rebuke of God is sweet when we realize that God is talking to us. And sometimes the rebuke of God is sweet. And what happened in Sarah's heart?

27:00 Well, I could say, I think I could say confidently from this verse that Sarah changed her mind. She says, wow, God talked to me. It's gonna happen. Abraham, it's gonna happen. I'm gonna have a baby.

27:12 And so she conceives and she bears this baby. She's 90 years old when she has this baby. She's 90 years old. Abraham's 100 years old And what did they call the baby? They called him laughter.

27:33 I just enjoy that song. I think it's by Michael Card. They called him laughter for he came after the father had made an impossible promise come true. Wow. And so here is Sarah and she says, she's holding the little baby, nursing the little baby, 90 years old.

27:58 She said, Who would have thought that Sarai would give birth to a baby? And so it was an impossible promise, but God's into that kind of thing, you know? And so I would say this, that we have the entire nation of Israel itself that owes its very existence to the faith of one little lady who believed God. It says, By faith Sarah herself received strength and conceived seed. And she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful who had promised.

29:12 Vision. Having seen them afar off and were assured of them, faith, they were assured of them, they embraced them, the confidence of faith, they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. God had grabbed them. God had taken their hearts and through faith, they lived lives that that went along with being children of god who he had made great promises to. What was the character of their lives?

29:43 They were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. So a stranger, someone that's like I think Abraham said he he himself said in I think it was the twenty third chapter. He said, I'm a foreigner and a visitor. A stranger, someone who who's not acquainted with this place. He's a stranger there.

30:07 He's not at home there. And then the other one, the pilgrim, it's called, I think many translations put sojourner. It's the idea that he's living in that land but he doesn't really belong there. That's not where he belongs. He he knows he belongs to that other place over there and and I believe the the thought if we were trying to captivate that thought and somehow apply it to ourselves, we would perhaps go to the expression that says, I think it's Philippians three, your citizenship is in heaven from which also you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ.

30:55 Your citizenship of heaven. We're we're, what nation are we citizens of? And I know we're citizens of The United States, but God says, no, I don't want you to look at it that way. I want you to look at it like you're really citizens of that place over there. It's called heaven.

31:12 I want you to think in terms of that, that that's where you belong and that's where you have your citizenship and that's where you're headed. You're going back over there. You're just a sojourner here, just living here for a little while and you're going to go over there. God wants us to have that vision in our soul and so and so, as strangers and pilgrims, we're living practically with the vision. I believe it's the kind of thought that the lord Jesus was expressing in John 17 where he talked about the believers being in the world but not of the world.

31:49 In the world, we're here in The United States, in the world, but we don't have to think of ourselves as being, you know, that we're we're going to, this this is this is where we belong. We don't belong here. We're headed somewhere else and god's trying to say that to us. He's trying to say, I'm I'm offering. I'm giving you a vision of something better and it'll change your lives if you listen to it.

32:12 Okay, so then then this was spoken of all those that had died in faith. Now, says, for those who say such things, they declare plainly that they seek a homeland. Now, here, this is going beyond the just the people that we're talking here that says, anybody that says this. So, brethren, if in our hearts, we we take the position of strangers of pilgrims, if we if we really do that in our hearts, then god saying, those that say such things, those that take that position, they're declaring plainly that they are seeking a homeland. So, the way I live my life is a declaration of something.

32:53 It's a declaration of where I really consider my homeland to be. And do I consider it to be heaven? Oh, God help us, rather, and that we that that would be our view, our vision would be that we that we see heaven as our homeland. It's the place we're headed. This world is not my home.

33:12 I'm just passing through. My home's over there somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door and I think it might be better to sing it. The savior beckons me from heaven's open door. I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

33:54 God places it in front in front of you as a choice. So, so this is what it says. It says, truly, if they had called to mind the country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity return. So, god saying to him, you know what? They they had a choice and they made this choice over here, not that choice over there and because they made this choice over here, because they made this choice over here, there was a character to their lives that was wonderful and that honored God and God was pleased by that choice.

34:27 So it's a moral choice that you and I take. The sixteenth verse. And now they desire a better that is a heavenly country. Now, can be no doubt, I mean, when we first read in the tenth verse that Abraham looked for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker of god is god and we think, we say, well, that sounds like heaven, doesn't it? But we get a little further down here in the chapter and we find, yes, that is heaven.

34:56 He is talking about heaven. He's talking about the fact that we're headed for heaven and and now, this is what god says. They desire a better that is a heavenly country. Therefore, god is not ashamed to be called their god and I think inherent to that verse is is this thought that that there would indeed be some that god would not would would actually be kind of ashamed to be called their god. We don't want to be there, do we?

35:25 But god says, you know what? You know what? If if your desire, if your vision in life looks beyond this life to that life, if that's the vision that you have in your life, then god says, I'm pleased with you. I'm not ashamed to be called your god. God help us, brother, and to seek that as the vision for our lives.

35:53 God is not ashamed to be called their god and it goes a step beyond that. It says, for he has prepared a city for them. And we drop in our in our minds, we drop back to the lord Jesus at the last supper and he's saying, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Now what I thought I would do is I would spend, and I know my time is out here, I'm gonna try to limit myself to about five minutes over. But want us just to quickly look at this as trying to make it practical for ourselves so that we would understand that.

36:36 Now, this is what god's talking about and he makes it clear. So, I've drawn a little timeline here and I put the day of grace, our current day that we're on and then I put the the tribulation, this is seven year time, then the millennial reign of Christ, this thousand year reign when the lord Jesus will reign over the earth and then finally, the eternal state. So, we'll start here with the day of grace. The it's the church on earth and so, here we are, we're living and and I think so Christian's mother passed away year and two years ago? One year ago.

37:08 Okay, Christian's mother passed away and and others of us, my mother passed away five or six years ago and and and so so these so we we see true believers and they pass away. What happens to them? Is that the end? And and of course, the answer is no and we fall back on on on Paul's statement here. You know what?

37:31 I'm going to take a time here. I had forgotten it. I have a handout I wanted to hand out in connection with this if I could get some help. But I'm just going to go on talking because of time. Okay.

37:46 So, so, you have the handout but but but I guess I can't I can't do that, can I? Oh, I forgot. I have this wonderful technology at my. There we go. Okay, so to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

38:02 So I've thought, know, death is a reality and I think, you know, I'm 69 years old now and I'm a lot closer to that moment when I pass into the Lord's presence than I was fifty years ago. So I give it some thought. So, so I say, okay. So, what would I like it to be like when I step through the door? You know, I I when I'm preaching the gospel down at City Mission, I sometimes say, you know, your our lives are like a long, long hallway and and we look way down the hallway there and at the end of the hallway, we can see there's a door but it's shut.

39:06 But if you don't have faith in me, there's eternal judgment. And God says, so important for you to trust in me in this life. Your decision must be made in this life and so, here here we'll say, here's the door here and we come closer to the door. You know, there's going to come a time and I I would rather it was the rapture but there's going to come a time if the rapture doesn't occur fairly quick here. Then, I want to stand at that door and and I'm going to be going through that door and and and I just I just want to say that I I want to go through that door with the right spirit.

39:48 Now, if god should so grant me that at that moment when I go through that door that I have mental clarity, I want in my heart to be thinking, lord, I'm just stepping through the door. I'm just going through a door. I'm I'm going into your presence, lord and and and to and to realize that as a reality, I'm going from this reality of life that we're in to another reality. I'm going to something that's very real. I'm going into the presence of the lord himself and it's just a step through a door.

40:21 Just just that clear. Are we prepared for this? Well, the lord tells us how to be prepared for it, doesn't he? That we need to have faith in the lord Jesus Christ, our savior. So, so now, my time is running out quickly.

40:35 So, I have about two minutes here. Okay. So, we have the we have the rapture here. So, that's the next prophetic event that we can we can look forward to and and so this rapture is is encapsulated in a verse first Thessalonians four sixteen-eighteen. And I just kind of like this.

40:58 So where's the Lord Jesus right now? Well, after He was resurrected, we find that He's up there in heaven. Thomas said, I saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God. So there He is, he's up in heaven, but the time comes. There's a timetable that God has.

41:16 The time comes and he's coming back. So Jesus is coming again, and so shall we say the bell rings or whatever, the time has come and and the lord himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of god. So, just imagine that trumpet that can be heard all over the world and the lord Jesus comes down into the clouds and there's the there's he comes with a shout. Have have you ever pondered what the shout was? I I I kind of I kind of like to think of it.

41:53 These things come and or all of you come, you know, my believers come, whatever. But it's a it's it's a shout to us to come and so so in in the scriptures, we're we're told that the dead in Christ rise first. So, lord has made the promise that just because you died, you won't be left here. Matter of fact, he's going to take you up first but just barely first. Then, we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air.

42:24 Can you imagine that moment? Try. Try. It's worth, it's worth the effort. Can you imagine that moment when the call comes, the shout comes, and brethren, I don't care where you are, just like that.

42:41 You're going to be in the presence of the Lord up there in the clouds. It'll be a fantastic moment. Just try in your imagination to think. It's really going to happen. It's really going to happen.

42:54 The Lord Jesus is coming down, and then the promise and the blessing, and thus, we shall always be with the Lord, the rapture. And then after that, we're up in heaven. The church is in heaven. Two characteristic, this is the time of the tribulation, a seven year period down on earth, but we're not there. We're up here.

43:17 Up in heaven, the whole church and there's two characteristic happenings there. There's the judgment seat of Christ which is mentioned in first Corinthians four and also in Romans 14 and then and and that's the time of evaluation. It's a time when when god takes account. Now, it's not a time of it's not a judgment in the sense that that we might be cast into hell or even punished but what we do suffer is loss because it's a time of evaluation and anything we didn't do in faith before god is gone. It's worthless and and that's found in first Corinthians three but after that, after this after this moment of evaluation, then, everyone of us because we're saved by the blood of the lamb, everyone of us enters into the marriage of the lamb, Revelation 19 and then, then, after immediately after the marriage of the lamb, the lord Jesus comes back with his redeemed.

44:16 Behold, the lord comes with 10 thousands of his saints to execute judgement. He cleans up. He cleans up the whole scene and he sets up his millennial reign and and my time is out. So, I'll leave you with the chart. Lord, bless us to make this a reality in our hearts, a reality in our souls that is really going to happen.

44:56 Let's pray. Father god, we thank you for your word which gives us the clear instructions of faith. Thank you, father. For the lord Jesus Christ who died for us, who who offers redemption, offers salvation freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We thank you for him.

45:20 Help us lord that we would take this to heart. Every one of us, to live our lives as heavenly citizens that are getting ready to go through the door. We praise your precious and holy name, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.