Herbert W Armstrong

   Greetings to you from all of us in the community center. Certainly a beautiful morning, a beautiful scene to see all of you sitting here in this beautiful arena. I think this is one of the prettiest ones that I've ever been in.

   The lovely weather that we've had this morning, the rain. I guess the only thing bad about the rain is it sure is hard on my hairdo. Hadn't been for a next-door neighbor having some hairspray, I don't think I'd have made it today.

   I thought about getting a hairdo, a hair piece, but then on second thought, I thought, no, I better not get a hair piece. Got some good reasons for not getting a hair piece. Number one, nobody would recognize me anymore.

   Secondly, I'd lose more than half of my jokes because they're on bald heads. But most importantly, I'd have to change my CB handle because I'm the bald eagle. I hope children are enjoying the feast as well.

   A lot of times we do overlook children in our Sabbath services or maybe in the feast. I know one of our ministers back in Ohio has a couple of young sons. The younger son said to him one day, he said, Daddy, why do we have to go to church and go to the feast?

   His dad said to him, Why, son, God's presence is there. He says, I go week after week and I haven't found any presence yet. Sometimes the kiddos do run into misfortunes, I know.

   We used to have a lady, I think she wanted to get up and do the walk. Not the son. She'd reach over, I think, and pinch him so he would whine a little.

   And the moment she picked him up, and she was almost as big as he was, and strap him around her hip, he'd just smile as he walked away. So I think he was getting a lot of fun out of it. I remember one also, though, wasn't quite as fortunate.

   His mother picked him up, threw him over her shoulder as he was becoming unruly, and on the way out, he was saying, Help me! Save me! She's going to kill me.

   So our kids do run into a few problems at the feast. But I'm really thankful we've had a lot of things for the children, for the YOU. We've heard our children sing, and that has really been tremendous: the YOU Day all of that.

   We have had a wonderful time here these five days already. Next to the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, here on the weekly Sabbath, one day yet to go tomorrow, and then that all-important Last Great Day, which we hope to have Mr. Armstrong with us to speak to us that on Monday.

   We have been picturing during these days the wonderful world tomorrow, and I just cannot express how graphically I feel that the sermons thus far have been portraying when the blind are going to see and the deaf hear and the lame walk, when we're going to learn from the problems that we suffer now, how to be merciful priests in the kingdom, and how to rule and reign with Christ a thousand years to bring peace and happiness to all mankind, which we're picturing here. I would like for us just as a little bit of a preview this morning to touch base on two or three scriptures that I would like to bring to your attention before I really get into the heart of the sermon that I have for you this morning.

   There are so many scriptures. There are so many whole chapters of the Old Testament showing exactly what the Feast of Tabernacles is all about. Whole chapters that deal when, as you heard some of them read already, when the desert shall blossom as a rose.

   And all of the tremendous productivity and the peace and joy that's going to be there. Let the feast go by without our reading Zachariah 14. Mr. Luther referred to it yesterday, but I would like us to turn to Zachariah 14.

   See just a little bit of a scene of what's going to happen with Christ's return, which we pictured on the Feast of Trumpets just a few days ago, the binding of Satan on the Day of Atonement. We pictured that, and here we are picturing what happens after those events take place.

   I'd like to review, though, just a little bit in Zachariah 14, where he says in verse 1 (Zachariah 14:1): Behold, the day of the Lord comes, and your spoil will be divided in the midst of you. And he talks about the encounter around Jerusalem and the nations gathering there, the real showdown taking place. Then it says in verse 3, Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle.

   Verse 4 says, And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives will cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there will be a very great valley. Half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south.

   You see, this is just a reversal of what we find in Acts the first chapter, along about verse 11 (Acts 1:11). After Jesus had talked to the apostles, telling them things concerning the kingdom of God. And they had asked him, Is this the time you're going to set up the kingdom?

   And he said, It's not for you to know the times and seasons that God has put within his power. But you stay on, you're going to receive power, and you're going to become my ministers to go forth with the gospel, with the message of what it's all about, and get people prepared and ready for that tremendous day.

   And then it says, as they were standing there on this Mount of Olives, we find here in Zechariah 14:4, it says, He was taken up from them in a cloud into the heavens. And as they saw him going away into the clouds, The angelic messenger said, Why do you stand gazing up into the heavens? Because this same Jesus that is here taken from you this day shall so come again in like manner.

   Now we know in Revelation 1:7 it says, He's coming with clouds, and every eye shall see him. And the Lord my God shall come. But not alone.

   You see, Paul explained in I Corinthians 15 and I Thessalonians 4 that when the Lord descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, that the dead in Christ are going to rise first, and we, Christians, which are yet alive, will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and ever be with him. So he's coming back after his saints, those dead, those still yet living, have been changed. From mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible.

   And it says he will come and his saints with him. And then he goes on to say, verse 8: And it shall be in that day that living waters, John 7 shows this as a type of the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel 47 shows there will be literal waters coming forth to make the brackish waters sweet.

   But also the truth: God's word, God's message, His Holy Spirit is going to go forth out of Jerusalem, literally to the former sea or the Eastern Sea, the Dead Sea, and the Hinder Sea of the Mediterranean, summer and winter alike. Ezekiel shows that. You've seen that here in the presentation.

   Verse 9 (Zechariah 14:9, 16): And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, and in that day there shall be one Lord. And his name one. Goes on to talk about a plague that's going to fall on those who come to fight against Jerusalem.

   But let's drop on down to verse 16. After God has dealt with the people, other scriptures show about this threshing in the valley of concision or decision in the valley of Jehoshaphat. It'll come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

   There be those who would say, we don't need to keep the feasts anymore. But I'm here to tell you, it was in the midst of the feast that Jesus went up to teach there in John 7 and said, if anybody will come to me, out of this innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

   He ended the book of Revelation by saying, Come and let him that is athirst come and take of the waters of life freely. And they're going to come up to the Feast of Tabernacles, yes, in the millennium. And if they don't come up, it says there will be no rain upon them, the latter part of verse 17.

   And then they will even be plagued further. To teach them, God means business when He says we are to keep the Feast of Tabernacles because it's picturing the only hope for mankind that will survive the Holocaust and live on in to become the pioneers of the world tomorrow.

   And so, this book of Zachariah is showing us very graphically some of the sequence of what Jesus is going to do and what's going to follow thereafter. We've heard a good bit about the healing of the nations, the healing of the broken bodies. But I would like to focus in just a moment on the governmental aspects and how the people are going to be taught properly, and what will happen thereafter.

   I think you're well aware of the scriptures over in the book of Daniel, the second chapter, 44th verse, Daniel 7, 21, 27. Along in those scriptures, we've read them time and again, where it says, In the days of the kingdoms, out of that fourth beast, in that day which would lead right up to the time when Jesus Christ would come, it says, In the days of these kings, Shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

   And the saints of the Most High shall possess that kingdom forever and ever. Now, let's look at Micah 4 and see just a little bit of a scene of what's going to happen then once Zachariah 14 has happened. And the saints now come to possess the kingdom.

   And Revelation 20 shows they'll become kings and priests, rule and reign with Christ. Thousand years. And here's what's going to begin to happen then in Micah 4 (Micah 4:1), almost a parallel to Isaiah 2.

   Let's read Micah, the prophet's account. But in the last days, this will come to pass that the mountains, which is a symbol of a kingdom. In other words, the kingdom of God will be established in the top of the mountains or over all kingdoms.

   I think Mr. Luther referred yesterday to Revelation 11:15, where he shows at that seventh sounding of that trump. That the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall rule forever and ever.

   Now we read that the nations are going to come unto the kingdom of God. It says it'll even be exalted above the hills or smaller countries, and people will flow unto it. That is emissaries or representatives of all the nations.

   Many nations, their representatives, their ambassadors will come and say, Come, let us go up to the kingdom of God, to the headquarters of the God of Israel, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For the law will go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

   Now, when the government is straightened out, and when righteousness prevails, and the people rejoice, we read back in the book of Psalms. It says in verse 3 that he shall judge among many people. The Moffatt translation says, He will settle the disputes of the races.

   It goes on to say he will rebuke strong nations, or he will arbitrate between the strong powers and settle their issues. Then it says they will beat their swords to plowshares, their spears to pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

   Or some of the translation says, No longer will men learn to fight, but they will notice the peace and product that now will happen. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none will make afraid.

   For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it. For all of the people will walk, everyone in the name of his ruler or the one who is appointed over that city or over that country. And we will all be walking in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

   What a wonderful scene. What a wonderful time that we are here picturing now. And all of the happiness that we can share in now, as you heard in the songs a moment ago, try to imagine what it would be like to be into the kingdom of God with Jesus, Christ, and the saints, all of us calling to show the nations the way to live, to peace, happiness, productivity.

   There are people on the face of the earth today. I know Mr. John Halford was describing some of the conditions in Burma and those of Mr. Colonel was referring to that. Those people there in those nations, those countries, if they could be here with you and me in Tucson today, they would think they were already in the millennium now.

   That's the difference in where they are and where we are. But if you could even imagine that comparison, what do you think it would be like with us and the happiness we can experience in our free country? With all of our abundance to be then put into the kingdom of God.

   I don't think our human minds can really grasp that fully. What joy, what peace, what productivity is going to happen in the kingdom of God, the world tomorrow, the millennium that we're picturing for this Feast of Tabernacles. But you see, Jesus Christ, before he was conceived in Mary's womb, the angelic messager came in Luke 1 and said, Fear not, Mary, because you will be come with child, and that child's name shall be called Jesus, which is like Joshua or deliverer. He'll deliver his people from their sins. And it goes on to say in Luke 1:30, 31 and 2, let's take a look at that because I want you to see this with your own eyes, because this is where we come in.

   These prophecies we just reviewed just briefly are to come to pass, and we're to have a part in it because it says of Jesus, He shall be great, Luke 1:32, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob or house of Israel forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

   That's what Jesus came to qualify to do, as you've heard Mr. Armstrong say time and again, and he did in that gigantic battle with Satan the devil in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. And he qualified.

   And he, as we read in Luke 19, is like one going to a far country to receive a kingdom and then to return to reckon with us with what we do. With what God has given us to do with. And we all give an account, as we heard yesterday in the sermon.

   Now, Jesus, to then make this come about, for him to come back with his kingdom and set it up, gave a parable in Matthew 22. I would like for you to look. Matthew 22.

   In Matthew 22, Jesus said, beginning verse 1 (Matthew 22:1), Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is like to a certain king which made a marriage for his son. I think our minds, our eyes being open to understand this, now those around them cannot understand the parables, but Jesus had said to his disciples, To you it is given to know. Your eyes are open. Your ears are open to know.

   I think we can begin to see immediately, God is now going to prepare a marriage for his Son. His Son is to inherit the throne of his father David, we just read in Luke 1. And he's to reign over the house of Israel forever. He's to come back with his saints, and we are to rule and reign with him the thousand years. But for this to come about, let's notice the sequence.

   He sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the Wedding, and they would not come. They procrastinated. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I've prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready.

   Come to the marriage. But they made light of it and went their way, one to his farm, another to his merchandise, went on to his own material pursuits, and shunned the calling. You remember Jesus saying in John 1:11, he came to his own, but his own received him not.

   But to as many as would receive him gave he power to become the sons of God. And it says here, they made light of it. Jesus, even in his day, would call those to come after him, and they'd say, No, I've got to go bury my father.

   I've got to make sure of this farm. I've got to do this or that. He said, you let those things take care of themselves. Come, follow me. But they would not.

   Goes on to say, the remnant took his servants and treated him spitefully and slew them. Paul in Hebrews 11 said, The world was not even worthy of those servants who showed the way of God and preached the gospel. And history shows us that probably all of the apostles, save John himself, were killed violently for the message they taught.

   Verse 7 says, And when the king heard thereof, he was angry. And he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. And yes, that happened in 70 A.D.

   And we have read in some of the different writings, Josephus and others, of the horrible things that happened to those who would not receive the warning that Jesus said, When you see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, flee to the mountains. But they made light of that and they perished. Verse 8: Then said he to his servents, the wedding is ready.

   But they which were bidden were not worthy. They would not receive it, as we read in John 1:11. Verse 9, Go you therefore into the highways, and as many as you shall find, bid to the marriage.

   Now we know that when Paul and Barnabas began to preach there in Acts 13, it said the Jews began to scoff and make light of it. And Paul said, It was right. It was fitting that we should come to you first.

   But seeing you've judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, you will not accept it. Now we will turn to the Gentiles. And they will hear.

   And so he says to them: Go you therefore to the highways, and as many as you shall find, bid to the marriage. Verse 10: So those servants went out to the highways, gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was furnished with guests.

   Now, there are other parables that enter in. You remember the parable of the tares along with the wheat? And he said, Lord, you want us to go pluck up the tares?

   He said, No, let them grow on into the harvest. Lest plucking up the tares, you disturb the wheat also. Let them grow together till the harvest, but in the harvest, in the end time.

   And there are many prophecies that show that. He says, I'll gather the wheat into my garner, but the chaff will be burned. And the wine, the true wine, the vine will be saved while the culls are rejected. But you know what? It says, when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.

   And he said unto him, Friend, how did you came here to and not having a wedding garment. And he was speechless. And then said the king to the servant, bind him hand and foot. Take him away, cast him to the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called. The call is going to the many.

   But few choose it. Few seemingly hang on to it and will be accepted into the kingdom of God. Do you realize it says the call is going out?

   You and I, brethren, have been called with such a tremendous calling. I think the human mind has a difficulty in conceiving or perceiving of what the calling of God, his beckoning us to now come be a part of the marriage supper that he's going to prepare for his son at his return. Because a wedding is only to take two and make one.

   I understand. I think we're to have a wedding here in this area this evening, a couple of people. We know what a wedding is like.

   A beautiful ceremony, a beautiful thing that is to come. But you see, in this particular wedding, it says, here was one who did not have on the wedding garment. The call had been given, but he treated it lightly.

   He didn't make preparation. He came, as it were, unclothed for the occasion. The Bible talks about our calling being a holy calling.

   A high calling, a heavenly calling, in hopes of your calling. The Bible says all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. He's called us now for a purpose.

   That call will go to the entirety of the inhabitants in the millennium and then into the great white throne judgments, which we will picture next Monday. To those never having received the call. But are we committed, brethren, to our calling?

   We read over in II Peter 1:10 that Peter said, Wherefore give diligence to make your calling, your election, your selection for the firstfruits, make it sure. How committed are we, as you heard Mr. Cole saying the other day, when we were at the fork of the road, did we really commit ourselves? Ourselves for the duration.

   We as Christian soldiers have been drafted for the duration. You know what happens to a soldier who goes AWOL? We dare not turn our back on the calling God has given us. We dare not run over the hill and flee. God has called us for a purpose to go forward.

   And again, he talks about the armament that we're to put on in Ephesians 6, to be clothed for battle. And so I want us to look for a moment as I want you to focus your attention on an analogy that the Bible uses.

   The Bible is full of analogies. Paul seemingly did a lot of things concerning analogies, representations, and so on. I would like for us to look at the book of James, the first chapter.

   Because Jesus, who is to come to inherit the throne of his father David, God is going to prepare a marriage supper, a wedding, then there is some getting ready, some putting on the proper apparel. Do you ever imagine yourself to be, as it were, struck blind? Well, I think we do have blind people here.

   But just imagine for a moment. If you were all of a sudden blinded and you were led to a strange closet or wardrobe and you were told to dress, and you were to feel around, try to find a shirt, pants, coat, a blouse, a skirt, a dress, a scarf. And here you are trying to get yourself dressed in that kind of a condition.

   Then all of a sudden, the scales were dropped from your eyes and you came before the mirror. How do you think you would look? I'm sure we'd probably be speechless, breathless.

   What a mismatch out of synchronization and colors and patterns and so on. We would all of a sudden then try to match up the proper attire, wouldn't we? To look presentable, to go before maybe even at services like this or before some guest or someone we were to go before. Do you ever think that the Bible is God's spiritual mirror? It shows us how we are dressed in his sight?

   James, here the first chapter is talking about that. James, the first chapter, began to read along about verse 21 (James 1:21). Where James is saying, Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness, the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

   But be you doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. I think there was a Bible study on faith in works that was conducted right here. But then he says, But if any be a hearer, but be you doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

   Verse 22, verse 23, for if any be a hearer of the word, and not not a doer. He is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, a mirror. He beholds himself and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was.

   But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, God's spiritual mirror, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This man shall be blessed in his deed, his doing, his efforts. Now, you see what James is here presenting?

   Mr. Armstrong has explained this time and again that ladies know very well how this works. You take a little mirror or compact out of your purse, you look therein, you see some dirt or blotch on your face.

   You can't take the mirror and get it off. It takes some cleansing, a cleansing lotion or a cleansing napkin, and then by virtue of that, you remove the dirt.

   The mirror is only to show you what your life is like. The spirit, the spiritual mirror, God's law, shows us our condition, shows us our spiritual attire, if you please, how we are dressed in God's sight. Now, we can't take the word and all of a sudden just remove the dirt.

   That's what the Jews thought they could do by doing certain physical things are doing the letter of the law, they could receive justification. But Paul had to show that it was through the blood of Jesus Christ we are justified.

   So God's spiritual mirror begins to show us through various scriptures, like Isaiah 64, where he says, All our righteousness are just like filthy rags. Romans 3 talks about there is none righteous, no, not one.

   We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous. No, not one.

   So the Bible, God's spiritual mirror, shows us we need some changing. We need to get rid of the old garments and put on God's spiritual garments. To let God clothe us, to let God dress us up and put His cloak of righteousness upon us.

   Because we of ourselves cannot do it. We can try, try as we may, but our works, our garments will avail not. That's what happened in the wedding we saw in Matthew 22.

   The man just came with his own dress, he did not have on the proper wedding garment that God Himself could provide. Do you ever dream of being somewhere and you'd forgotten to put on part of your clothing.

   I've actually dreamed that I got up to preach in services and forgot to put my pants on. Now, that really gets embarrassing. I remember one of our ministers telling Mr. Armstrong one time that he was to bring a sermonette just before Mr. Armstrong was to speak. And he said, this dream was, I mean, an absolute nightmare.

   First, he forgot his notes.But then, secondly, once he got into his sermonette, he couldn't stop.

   He just kept going and going and he couldn't stop. And in the embarrassment of all, he looked down and he had forgotten to put his pants on. I was over to Terrejo, Indiana, on a visit out to one of her new churches there in the Cincinnati area.

   And I normally always put my vest and coat in the back seat of the car. I don't like to drive in a coat, so I normally just take my briefcase out and my suit coat, and then I'm ready to go. On this particular day, I got off in a hurry.

   And about halfway to tarot, west of Indianapolis, my wife said, I hope you put your coat in. I said, Oh no! I looked back in the back seat, there was only my briefcase.

   So I was quite embarrassed. I felt like I wasn't dressed completely because I had to explain to them. I'm not setting a new tradition, as you heard in the Sermonette this morning, or a new style, I had to preach without my coat on. And I really felt like something's wrong. I'm not all there.

   Then I got to thinking: if I'm that concerned about not having my suit coat with me, how concerned ought I be if I were standing before Jesus Christ, ill-clad? Not all there, not dressed for the occasion. You see, God is the One who can really clothe us as we should be clothed.

   Just to show you a physical example, let's turn back to the book of Genesis. See something maybe you had not noticed, just to show you how it works. In Genesis, the third chapter, Mr. Armstrong has gone through this time and again with Adam and Eve, the temptation. I think you know the history of Genesis 3:6. It says, When the woman saw the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree to be desired, to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat.

   And gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Verse 7 says, And the eyes of them both were opened. You see, they now began to realize the consequence of disobedience.

   Before they were naked and unashamed, but now, in that depraved condition, knowing they were guilty and cut off from God, everything looked bad now. And it says, They knew that they were naked and they. They needed to do something about it.

   They were exposed before God, guilty. So all of a sudden, they're going to fix that up. They're going to get clothed.

   How did they go about trying to clothe themselves before God? It says they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons or things to gird about them. What does that make you think of?

   Makes me think of the sacrifice of Cain and Abel. Do you remember what Cain's sacrifice was, and it was unacceptable? He took of what he could do himself, of the produce of the land, the thing that he had grown, his own words.

   God did not accept that sacrifice. Was God going to accept their covering here? Not at all, because it represented what they could do, what they sowed together, what they could muster.

   And God then comes on to face them with this situation and then pronounced a curse upon them, even upon the ground, and told them in verse 19, In the sweat of your face you're going to eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.

   And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of the living. But God can always take care of every situation in this particular situation. He was not going to leave Adam and Eve alone.

   He took care of the situation here of their nakedness. Are their exposure in their guilty state before God. And unto Adam and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.

   What kind of a sacrifice did Abel give? One that took a blood offering, a sacrifice for sin to atone for sin. It is amazing in the analogy to get the coats of skin, what had to happen?

   An animal had to be slain to picture that they were sinners before God. And he took the coats of skin and clothed them so God can take care of clothing us. And that's exactly what he says and promises through the scriptures that he will do.

   That he will clothe us. But we've got to be willing. As we look into The spiritual mirror and see that our garments are like filthy rags.

   Jude says they're even tainted by the flesh. James says they're moth-eaten. Our garments will not stand before God.

   But He can clothe us, so we will. He can remove the stain. The prophet Isaiah in the first chapter, along about the 16th, 17th, 18th verses says, says, Look, do you your sins be as scarlet, they can be white.

   Though they be red like crimson, they can be white like wool. But he said, If you be willing, if you be willing, if you seek to do good, learn to do rightly, as he said in Isaiah 1:16. But he says, If you refuse, you're going to be cursed.

   So we know that through Jesus, Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, our sins can be removed. We can go down into the baptism of cleansing, picturing our death, burial, and resurrection to a new life. Let's look in Colossians 3 in the New Testament because we get a very important analogy again, a very likeness of what happens at baptism.

   In Colossians 3 (Colossians 3:1-14), he says, If you then be risen with Christ. That was the same Paul that said in Galatians 2:20, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

   He said in Romans 6, if we've been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Like as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, even so should we rise to walk in newness of life. And this is what Paul is explaining in Colossians 3.

   And he says, Now set your affection, your mind. As the margin has it, and that's where we're going to find the clothing process taking place. We're going to see it as we move along through a scripture or so.

   Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth, for you are dead. We died with Christ, we laid down our life and went into death, then buried, then resurrected to walk in newness of life, to walk as he walked, to live as he lived. And then he says, Then, when Christ, before you are dead and your life is hidden, are entrusted, are held securely with Christ in God.

   Can you think of a better place you'd want your life to be? As you heard Mr. Boyed say in the sermon the other morning: if you fall, where would you want to fall?

   Yes, fall in the church of God with loving arms and certainly with Christ to pick us up, dust us off, and get us on the right track again. Verse 4, when Christ, who is our life, living in us, calling us with this holy calling and now living within us, when he shall appear, that's what we pictured with the Feast of Trumpets. We're picturing what's going to happen when he comes.

   Then shall we appear with him in glory, are glorified with all of the power and honor and the rewards that God has for us. So he says in verse 5, mortify. I think we know what that means.

   The mortician deals with death. Mortify or put to death your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, which means just unrestrained, uncontrolled, impure thoughts.

   Evil concupiscence or excessive sexual lust. He says, those are the things you have to put to death, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things' sake, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.

   In the which you also walked sometime, or at one time when you lived in them. But I want you to notice verse 8. Because now that we've been baptized, our past sins forgiven, we're clean in God's sight, we're now ready to be clothed with the spiritual garments of God and let him live within us and clothe us.

   Now he says in verse 8, but now you also put off. It's amazing in the Living Bible, this does say, away. With the filthy garments of anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

   Don't lie to one another. You've put off the old man with his deeds, and now you're ready to put on. Put on the renew man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

   Notice verse 12: that you put on. You see, there's something we put off, the old. Rotten garments of anger and strife and competition, ill will, and envy, rivalry.

   He says we put those off, those rotten garments, and we put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercy, real empathy, real concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ. That we put on these bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another.

   If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so do you. And above all these things, he says, put on charity, which is the bond of perfection. You see, these are the things that he says we are to put on, the things that will then be began to make us be teachable, pliable, humble, workable, just can mold us into the very character that God wants us to be. You know, the Bible talks about our becoming like little children. We heard the Phoenix Children's Choir sing, if we could be like little children.

   You ever think about how sweet and innocent little children are? How that out of their mouth will just come things that dumbfound you, yes, embarrass you as well. But it is amazing that Jesus said, unless we become as little children, we shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

   Heard about this lady one time that wanted to have some guests over. And so she was busy working about, preparing everything, and it was on one of those hot July days. And so she invited the guests to come and have dinner with her.

   Came time, they all gathered around the table, and certainly as a God-fearing Woman, she said to little Johnny, said, Johnny, you ask the blessing. Little Johnny said, Uh-uh, I don't want to. She said, Sure, Johnny, you go ahead.

   He said, I don't know what to say. She said, Johnny, you just say what you've heard your mother say. He said, Oh, Lord, why did I invite these people on a hot day like this?

   Little children so innocent and teachable and humble and just so approachable. That's the way we are to be. But we lose that along the way. I think we do need to get back to something Peter said in I Peter 5. I Peter 5. Let's notice I Peter 1 as we go toward I Peter 5:1 Peter 1. Along About verse 13.

   As I mentioned a moment ago in Colossians 3, he says, Set your mind on things above. Verse 13 says, I Peter 1:13, wherefore gird up, that is now to dress up, to gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation or the return of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance, but as he which has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conduct or conversation or conduct.

   Because it is written, Be you holy, for I am holy. And God can then dress us and really motivate us with his very righteousness, with his very character. Now let's look at I Peter 5. I Peter 5:5. Notice what God says, we are to be clothed with.

   Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yes, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

   Humble yourselves, therefore, unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, because he is concerned. He does have your best interest at heart, as some of the modern translations give it. You see, we read in Proverbs 16 that pride goes before destruction.

   If we in our mind, do not humble ourselves. Put on this very cloak or this very cloth of humility. God will not be able to use us to be an effective priest of God, a king or a priest or a teacher or a leader or whatever.

   We must be humble before our God because God resists the proud. He'll give grace to the humble and exalt them in due time. You remember the case of Saul?

   You remember how back that the people had wanted a king? Samuel cried all night about it, and finally God told him, said, Saul, Samuel, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me. But go ahead, give them a king.

   And Saul was appointed a king. God gave Saul instructions. But Saul fails to follow that instruction.

   You find over in I Samuel 15, you remember the account? We won't turn and read through it. What Saul.

   Saul used human reasoning to an order or a command of God. And he was told to go over and slay Agag and the Amalekites and all of that that had been a stench in God's nostrils, even the cattle and everything. And you remember the account, came back, and he had gotten the prize, the booty over there, and brought it back.

   And then he tried to squirm and lie his way out of it. And Samuel had these words for him. Saul, when you were little in your own sight, God raised you up to be king over all Israel. But now that you are filled with pride and your own way, God is going to take the kingdom from you and give it to another.

   Brethren, our minds have got to be clothed with humility. Vows of mercy, we read, that kindness and gentleness and goodness and faith. That God's Spirit brings. That's what we need to be clothed with as the people of God.

   It happens right here in the mind because He says we are to gird up our minds. Romans 12 says we are to be transformed, not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds so we can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Philippians 2:5 says, We are then to take on the mind of Christ.

   I Corinthians 2:16 says, We as Christians have the mind of Christ. And Christ was willing to humble himself and go to death for you and me to the death of the cross.

   And now God's exalted him to give him a name above every name, and at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. But it all begins right here in our mind. Are we resolved, committed, to our calling.

   I remember so well back in the days when I began to become aware of what this calling was all about. I had read my Bible when I was in basic training.

   I used to lay out in the foxhole and read this little New Testament. I couldn't understand it, though I'd gone to church all of my life. 1944, right before I went to the Army to wind up in Germany, I heard a voice.

   Over WOAI San Antonio. This voice was talking about Germany is going to go down, but rise again to be a power to be contended with. I went on to Germany, spent a year there at the war crimes trials in Nuremberg. Got back, I began to hear this voice again coming over XEG, XELO, as you heard Mr. Boyce mentioning. How well can I remember and see it in my mind's eye now, my wife, sitting there in the rocker, I in the other chair with our Bibles in our lap, notepads in our hand, taking notes from the sermons Mr. Armstrong was bringing. I finally got up enough nerve to subscribe to the Plain Truth in 48, became a co-worker in 49.

   When I heard that he would be there in the spring of 1952, my wife and I determined we'd be there. At Mr. Hammer's home. I remember when I first met him and his wife. I remember as he said to us there in the Feast of Unleavened Bread in that spring. I thought I'd read my Bible through, but I was hearing words that I'd never heard before.

   I Corinthians 5, 7, and 8 became alive. He said, Therefore, Christ our Passover being sacrificed for us, let us keep the feast. And doctrine by doctrine and bit by bit, it all came together. And I began to see what a tremendous calling this is. What a tremendous challenge.

   My wife and I were baptized in a little pond...

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   Than it's ever been, more precious, more to be thought than ever before. Because these days picture to us something this world does not know nor understand. They can't help that. I couldn't help it because I sat there in that foxhole and read my New Testament and didn't understand it. But God opened my mind to understand.

   Some of the ministers sitting out here mean so much to me. I remember it was in 1952 that I met Jimmy Friddle with his sister and little son. It was his sister and little nephew. Ken Pusher came along later, they mean so much to me because they're right hanging button in there, ministering to such people. You see, God has told us in these days that there would come a time when people, if they didn't watch it, might turn up without the proper attire, even as a church.

   If you would look over in Revelation the third chapter, we're not going to try to explain the real technicalities of it at all. These are the messages to the churches, Revelation 2 and 3. Revelation 3.

   It is amazing in verse 4 (Revelation 3:4), when it was even talking about the Sardis church. The thing He commended them for was that you have a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. He's not talking about physical dress, he's talking about the spiritual garments that God can clothe us with as he clothes us with his righteousness, his humility, his love, his joy, his peace that the Spirit of God brings as we read in Galatians 5, those fruits of the Spirit.

   And here they have not defiled their garments. Then he goes on to say, He that overcomes the same shall be clothed in white raiment. And we're going to read a little more about that in a moment. And he says, And I will not blot his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. How would you like to be standing before the Father?

   I think Mr. Luther was. Describing this yesterday morning, and have Jesus Christ say to the Father, He's mine. She's mine. I acknowledge them. I know Him.

   And the Bible does say the Lord knows them that are His. And let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Back in one of the letters of Paul.

   I know them. He says they'll be clothed in white raiment. And I'll confess their name before my Father and his angels.

   That's what I want to hear. I want to have Christ on my side. More importantly, I want to be on his side than I know he'll be on my side.

   Because James says, draw near to God, then he'll draw near to us. We often say, well, the Lord be with you, or God be with us. I think sometimes we ought to pray rather than God be with us. God, help us to be with you. Then your promise is you'll be with us. We're not worried about God being with us if we're with him. And that's why he says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and then he'll exalt us up.

   But what I wanted to get to is we drop on down to about verse 14, 15. There was a problem here. And he said in each of these messages that he says it to the church, and the church ought to be listening. He says in verse 15, I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot. I would you were cold or hot, but because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Now, what was wrong?

   What was wrong? And this is leading right up to the coming of Jesus Christ because it goes right on to say in verse 20, I'm standing at the door and knocking at these last three churches or conditions here. Are leading right to the return of Jesus Christ.

   Now, the point I want us to get is what's he saying? He said, Because you say, I am rich and increased with goods, have need of nothing, and you don't know or realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and what naked. Naked.

   Now, he says, It's time we as a church. Dress up, put on the garments that are going to be required at the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is coming so soon. Now, how do we do that? Well, he goes on to tell us how. In verse 18, he says, I counsel you, I beg you, I exhort you, I beseech you to buy of me gold tried in the fire. Now, what's he talking about?

   Why, it's simple. I Peter 1:7, he says, I want your faith to be more precious than gold, though it be tried with fire. What he's wanting in us is an enduring faith. That's what Mr. Armstrong has been talking about in the doctrinal matters.

   He wants us to get back to the real faith in God, the living God, who lives and rules supreme from the heavens. That's what he says he wants the church to have: an enduring faith that'll stand the test, be fireproof. Though it be tried with fire. And we've all had our trials. Yes, we have. We've all had our battle scars.

   But doesn't the Bible say in Romans 5, the trying of your faith works patience. And patience will bring experience, or the word is actually character. And character will bring hope. Hope that will not make us shame. With God's love flooding, shed abroad or flooding our being. And that's what he's talking about: the trying of your faith will work patience and experience and character we need for God's family. He said, Then you can be truly rich. He says, Also, I counsel you to buy of me or to obtain or come to me who can give white raiment that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear.

   What's he talking about? Over in Revelation 9:8, it talks about the righteousness of the saints being the white raiment. The white raiment is obedient, a teachable, learning, obedient, growing, developing mind with confidence in God. So he says, I want you to have an obedient spirit, obedient mind, a responsive, teachable, yielded attitude. That I can deal with.

   And then he says, you won't appear naked. And then he says, also anoint your eyes with eyesalves that you may see. What's he talking about? He's talking about what John said in I John 2:27. That the Spirit of God anoints us with the ability to comprehend and understand and perceive these spiritual things. I Corinthians 2:9 says, I can't see, ears can't hear. It can't enter into man's mind the things that God has prepared for them that love him. But he does reveal them to us by his spirit.

   He wants your eyes, my eyes, to be anointed with his spirit so we can understand, perceive, comprehend. I'll tell you: when you have an enduring, lasting faith, when you have an obedient, teachable attitude, And you have the Spirit of God to keep your mind perceiving and comprehending spiritual perception, then we're all dressed up, clothed, ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's what he's here saying.

   As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, so be zealous, therefore, and repent. Because a great event is coming, coming so soon, that we do read of in Revelation 19. Revelation 19.

   With Matthew 3:2 in mind, where he says the king prepared a wedding for the son, and he said, It’s all ready now, go out and call those who will come. But he says, When you come, you must be properly dressed. You must be ready.

   We read Revelation 19 as he begins to talk about hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God, verse 1 (Revelation 19:1). For true and righteous are his judgments, for he has judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth, as you read described in Revelation 17 and her destruction in Revelation 18.

   And now we're coming to the very scene of Christ's return. And he's avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again, They said, hallelujah, and her smoke rose up forever and ever.

   In other words, the lasting memorial of that destruction of this false system. And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen, hallelujah. And a voice came out of the throne saying, Praise our God, all you his servants, and you that fear him, small and great.

   And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and the voice of many waters, and to the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah. For the Lord God, omnipotent, reigns. He's come to reign, and we are picturing with the Feast of Trumpets.

   And Satan, the devil, is put out of the way, can deceive the nations no more. Then the Feast of Tabernacles is a reality. So he says, Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come.

   John 1:29 talks about Jesus Christ being the Lamb of God that bears away the sin of the world. So here's the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ Himself, and the marriage to the church is ready.

   The marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife. And I think we all understand the wife is a type or a symbol of the church. Where Paul is explaining in Ephesians 5 how the husbands are to love the church, love their wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might wash it and Cleanse it, and that it would be without wrinkle and without blemish or any such thing.

   And the church see that she certainly respects and responds to and reverence Christ who is the head. And so here the marriage comes, and to her, that is the church, was granted that she should be arrayed, clothed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen. And here we find the description, the fine linen.

   This white linen is the righteousness, the obedience, the yielded, submissive, teachable attitude of the saints. And he said unto me, verse 9: Write, Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. I ask in the beginning, how committed are we to our calling?

   How committed are we to our surrender to God? Here he says, Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper. Of the Lamb. And he said unto me, These are the true sayings of God. You see, God can clothe us. II Corinthians 5 talks about how we can be clothed with our home or our spiritual body, which is from heaven.

   Paul talks about in I Corinthians 15, there being the natural body and there being the spiritual body. And as we've borne the image of the earthly, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly. Paul Said that Jesus Christ there in Philippians 3:21 is coming back to change our vile bodies and make it like to his glorious body.

   John says in I John 3, he says, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. And it doesn't yet appear what we're going to be or what we'll be like, but we know that when he shall come, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And he is going to clothe us with immortality, with the state of incorruptibility, and we shall be like him.

   Then we can turn to the prophecy of Isaiah 61 and see how that scene then fits right in with this very day, these very days we're in right now. In Isaiah 61, Jesus quoted this when he was standing here in the flesh, but he was talking.

   It says, When he went up into the synagogue, he stood up to read, and these were some of the words he read, and said, All eyes were fastened on him. He said, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings, the gospel. That's what we're doing through our World Tomorrow broadcast and our pages of our literature.

   We're to give the glad tidings, the good news, the gospel. And Jesus was the one who came to bring the gospel to give to man, as we read in Mark 1. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison of them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn and violence to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning.

   Yes, now we are in mourning. We do groan and travail, waiting for this time to come. Sure, we have our problems and our trials, but I Corinthians 10:13 says, God will not allow any trial greater than we're able to bear come upon us.

   But will with every test or trial or problem or any obstacle give us a way to bear upon it and escape it. Now, he has promised that, and here he's talking about he's going to give beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness that we may have to bear now, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord.

   And Jesus said, You remember any planted, my father's not planted, shall be plucked up, and will be the planting of God and never be plucked up. And that he might be glorified. Notice the productivity through the world tomorrow, this Feast of Tabernacles pictures, and they shall build the old way places, they shall raise up the former desolations, they shall repair the waste cities, the desolation of many generations.

   The stranger shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of Alien will be your plowmen and your vine dressers, and will teach them and show them these wonderful things when they beat their swords to plowshares and their spears to pruning hooks. But you shall be named the priests of the Lord. Men shall call you ministers of God, and you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourself, or deck yourself with the splendor of the nations.

   Let's look on down to about verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. For he has. Notice here, he has returned. Now the wedding takes place. And he has clothed me with the garment of salvation. He has covered me with a robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom, which is Jesus Christ Himself, decks himself with arms, and he's coming with that vesture on his side.

   In Revelation 19, describes that great coming when the heavens roll back as a scroll, and Jesus himself descends with a shout. And he comes with the clouds to gather the gather by the angels gathered to gather his elect from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven, not one failing to be found by him.

   The bridegroom has decked himself with ornaments. And as a bride, the church, she's adorned herself with jewels. We're called a peculiar, special treasure to God. Our calling has now made us to be precious in God's sight. And he says, Those who think on him, they're in Malachi 3, he says, I will remember them.

   I will remember them, and they will be my special treasure. My jewels when I come to earth again. And here the church is ready, and Jesus Christ Himself decked out in coming to bring peace and happiness.

   For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown it to spring forth, so the Lord God will call righteousness, He will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. Before all the nations. Isn't that a beautiful scene when he is going to come in this sin-sick world and its struggles and its trials and its heartaches and its sin and its sickness and its diseases gone?

   That's what we're picturing now. That's what Jesus is coming to do to marry the church, to make her at one with him, that he then can use his church. He is coming to save the church because he's the savior of the body. We read in Ephesians 5. That's why, never, ever, ever, brethren, toss your calling into the wastebasket or treat it a cheap thing.

   Treat it precious because it is a high calling, a holy calling, a heavenly calling, a calling of hope, a calling to bring this whole world hope. And it's coming soon when Jesus himself will descend to marry his church that has made itself ready and clothed itself with Spirit of God preparing us for that day. What a day.

   God hastened that day. I want to see every one of you at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.