Good morning. Happy Sabbath from Sacramento central Seventh-day Adventist Church on the west coast of the United States of America. We welcome you this morning to our Sabbath school. We're glad that you are tuning in, however you are joining us this morning, whether you are listening on the radio, watching live on our website at saccentral.org, or on the various television networks. It is a privilege to have you join us as we study God's Word together.
And of course we start by singing. And today we are being joined by our own church choir and henderson pontel who is our conductor is playing the piano this morning, so he's multi-tasking. So we're very excited to have our choir join us. Smiling faces, yes. They're excited to be here too.
We're going to start with our first request, 216, "when the roll is called up yonder." This is a request from a lot of people who love this song. And it is a good one. Clinton and James in australia, Johnny and josiao in bangladesh, jonabeth and shantu in California, alvin, alve, loreen and tony in Canada, bezida, jim, diane, jamie and buffy in florida, desiree in Georgia, emmanuel in ghana, beverly, louis and charlene in honduras, bob and Paula in Idaho, sharnette in jamaica, helene in martinique, joyce in Minnesota, tina and catherine in Montana, prince in nepal. That's one of the few requests that we've had from nepal. That is very exciting.
Taswana in netherland antilles, trevar in North Carolina, jonathan in pakistan, frank in Pennsylvania, joyomoyopetarosino and jacqueline in the Philippines, trisha and tony in trinidad and tobago, gloria, jane, cherise, victor and adesh in united kingdom, maria in uruguay and lisa in Washington. Okay guys, you requested this and you're going to sing extra loud this morning, verses one, two, and three. 216, "When the roll is called up yonder..." You know there is one day, and I've been thinking about this all week. I just have this feeling that I'm sure lots of other people do too, that this world cannot go on much longer. There's just something that's happening.
And there is one day when we're going to be here at central church, and it will be the last Sabbath. It's gonna happen. And you know, we think of, you know, I've been here coming here I think for like 12 years now, been involved in music for as long as I can remember. And one day though it's going to end. And it's hard to wrap your mind around it, but when you look at what is happening in the world, it is--it is almost here.
It's scary, but it is really, really exciting at the same time. So I hope that you will each be there when the roll is called up yonder and we can have one big giant sing song in heaven on the streets of gold. If you have a favorite song that you would like to sing with us on an upcoming Sabbath, it is very, very simple. Of course if we don't sing it down here, we will sing it in heaven. 214, "We have this hope," this is a really, really good one for our current state that the world is in right now.
This is from ann in Alaska, colin in australia, lucas in austria, kershon, sheri, veronica, angel and jasmine in bahamas, ann in bolivia, guy and marita in California, tracy in Canada, calvin in china, justin in dominica, jim, diane, jamie, buffy in florida, harriet, laurel and barbara in Georgia, barak in New York, roy and mario and lou in new zealand, sandy, vern, jamie, jenny and cheryl in North Carolina, John in Oklahoma, souben in south korea, maria in togo, rodney in trinidad and tobago, davina, stewart and catherine in united kingdom and steve in Washington. Okay, the choir has hymnals that have two stanzas and that is what we're going to sing. So some of you gave up your hymnals for the choir, but you have the words on the big screens. And those of you at home, you don't have to worry about it, 'cause there will also be words. 214, "We have this hope.
" I want you to sing this like you actually believe it. And you are alive this morning. Jesus is alive. And we do have a hope, 214, first and second stanza... Father in Heaven, we look forward to that day when we will all truly be united in Christ, when we will see the clouds open wide.
And you will come and take us home. Father, thank you for the hope that you have given us. And may we each be faithful. Amen. At this time, our lesson study will be brought to us by Pastor Doug Batchelor.
He is our senior pastor here at central church. And he will be bringing us the study from God's Word this morning. Thank you to our song leaders, debbie and jenny and henderson, the choir. We sure appreciate that. It's nice to have The Songs resonating like that with a big group.
And I want to welcome our friends again here, our regular class at central church, any visitors that have wandered in, we're glad you're here, whatever brings you to Sacramento. I want to also welcome our extended membership that may be watching through television or satellite or the internet. And we're glad you're studying with us today. We're on lesson number two in our new quarterly dealing with the subject, "garments of grace: clothing imagery in the Bible," garments of grace. Today we're on lesson two.
And it's dealing more specifically with the devil, the adversary, satan, used to be better known as lucifer. And it's called, "from exalted to cast down," "from exalted to cast down." And we have a memory verse. A lot of verses we'll consider that are sort of all over the place, but memory verse is Ezekiel 28:15. And I'd invite you to say that with me, Ezekiel 28:15. Are you ready? "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
" Now right here in this verse, you've got one of the most profound diametric contradictions in the Bible. You've got the word "perfect" and the word "iniquity." A lot of the world struggles with how can a perfect God have iniquity? And we're going to be dealing with that in this lesson a little bit. I forgot to mention we have a free offer. And the free offer that goes along with today's study is called "the final verdict," "the final verdict." We'll send it to you simply for asking. And the number, call the number.
It's 866-study-more, 866-788-3966. And you say, "I'd like the free offer, 'the final verdict.'" And we'll send it to you. We do that by faith. And we know people support central church and Amazing Facts. And so the Lord has provided thus far and so we keep doing this.
Now back to our lesson. If God is perfect, and if God is good, and if God is loving, and if God is all-powerful, how could a good, perfect, loving, all-powerful God make an unloving, selfish, evil devil? And we have a lesson at Amazing Facts, "why did God create the devil?" Now that lesson really is a misnomer in itself, because God did not create a devil. When God made the world, if you want to find out how he operates, when he got done with creation, everything was good, good, good. I had a question someone wrote into my Facebook. I don't always have time to answer all of them.
I answered this one. And they said, "you know, I can't really find a Bible explanation. What was on the earth first? Was the devil cast down here first, or did God have adam and eve first?" And I said, "well, I don't think that's that hard to answer. When God was finished making adam and eve, he said everything was good. If the devil was here first, he couldn't have said that.
" And so satan was cast down to this world after adam and eve listened to him. They surrendered the dominion of the world to the enemy. Bible says in Romans 6, "whoever you obey, that's whose servants you are." And man originally was the ruler of this world. When he chose to listen to the word of the enemy, the devil, instead of the Word of God, he surrendered his dominion. But maybe we ought to begin by just talking--let's establish that God did make everything.
And we've got some verses we're going to consider in our lesson today. First let's go to John 1, Gospel of John 1:1-3. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." And before I go on with this, who or what is this "word" that was with God in the beginning? It's Jesus. You all agree with that? That is one of the many titles for Christ. He is the "word.
" And it says, "all things--" how many things? "All things were made through him, and without him was nothing made that was made." And I think I shared last week that that sort of explodes the idea that Jesus is a created being, because if all things were made by him, but he was made by The Father, than all things were not made by him. And so Christ is from everlasting to everlasting. He has no beginning or end, just like The Father, the alpha and the omega. But don't miss that. He made all things.
So did God make the devil? Alright, let's--I'm not answering that yet. Colossians 1:16, and 17 I believe. "For by him all things were created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created through him, and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist.
" There you have it again, speaking of Christ, "all things were created through him and for him." I got another one for you. Hebrews 1:1-2, I'll read this. "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to The Fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds." That's interesting, 'cause it tells us this is not the only one. There's other worlds. So is it clear that God made all things through Christ? So did God make a devil? No.
But if all things were made by God, is there a devil? We get questions every now and then at our Bible answer program. One fellow has called in, we almost know him by name now, because he's just got a real burden to say that man is really the devil. There is no devil. It's just lucifer and the devil are terms used spiritually for the evil side of a man. He makes these long arguments for that.
But Bible's pretty clear, there is a being that is very real. These forces of evil in heavenly places and principalities that have character. They are real. They're motivating. Satan has come down having great wrath.
He is going to be cast into the lake of fire. It uses every possible term in the english language we could use to identify a unique individual for the devil. He is real. But God didn't make a devil. God made a beautiful, perfect angel.
It says, "you were perfect in all your ways from the day you were created, 'til iniquity was found in thee." They're still trying to figure out where aids comes from or what chicken gets the first dose of the bird flu. Where does that first germ come from? There's a lot of mysteries out there that we just can't explain. And so the seeds of sin, where do they come from? Well, I'm going to take you to--this is kind of a background commentary. I believe it's inspired, from the book, "Patriarchs and Prophets." And this, by the way, is page 35. I think just about everything I'm reading is all on page 35.
Speaking of heaven before the fall of lucifer, "so long as all created beings acknowledge the allegiance of love, there was perfect harmony throughout the universe of God. It was the joy of the heavenly host to fulfill the purpose of their creator. They delighted in reflecting his glory, showing forth his praise. And while love to God was supreme, love for one another was confiding and unselfish. There was no note of discord to mar the celestial harmonies.
But a change came over this happy state. There was one who perverted the freedom that God had granted his creatures. Sin originated with him who next to Christ had been the most honored of God and was highest in power and glory among the inhabitants of heaven. Lucifer, son of the morning, was first of the covering cherubs, holy and undefiled he stood in the presence of the great creator, and the ceaseless beams of glory enshrouding the eternal God rested upon him." He's one of the cherubs there by the presence of God, by the throne of God. Some have speculated that gabriel is the other, or gabriel came in to take his place.
"Thus saith the Lord God," and this is quoting now from Ezekiel 28. We'll read this again later. "Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou has been an eden in the garden of God; and every precious stone was thy covering. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, 'til iniquity was found in thee." Of course that's the King James version. And that's Ezekiel 28:12-15. Notice, "little by little." How does it happen? How does sin come into us, our lives? How do people fall? How do they backslide? Little by little. "Lucifer came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation." And when he first recognized it, he knew it wasn't healthy, it didn't smell right, but he encouraged it, he nurtured it, and it kept growing. Sin first tolerated--you notice how it says in psalm 1, "blessed is the man that walks not or stands or sits.
" Starts out walking with, then you're standing there looking at, next you're sitting with. It's in degrees, little by little. "Lucifer came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation," pride. The Scripture says "thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, that was corrupt at thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. Thou has said in thy heart, 'I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
I will be like the most high.'" That's Isaiah 14:13. "Through all his glory--" I'm sorry, "thou all his glory was from God, this mighty angel came to regard it as pertaining to himself." Have we ever taken credit for the gifts that God gives us? "Not content with his position, thou honored above every heavenly angel, he ventured to covet homage due alone to the creator. Instead of seeking to make God supreme in the affections and allegiance of all created beings, it was his endeavor to secure their service and loyalty to himself. And coveting the glory, which was the infinite father--" sorry-- "coveting the glory, which the infinite father had invested his son, this prince of angels aspired to power that was the prerogative of Christ alone. Now the perfect harmony of heaven was broken.
Lucifer's disposition to serve himself instead of his creator aroused a feeling of apprehension. When observed by those who considered that the glory of God should be supreme--" they were concerned-- "and heavenly counsel, the angels pleaded with lucifer. The Son of God presented before him the greatness and the goodness and the justice of the creator and the sacred unchanging nature of his law. God himself had established the order of heaven. And in departing from it, lucifer would dishonor his maker and bring ruin upon himself.
But the warning given in infinite love and mercy only aroused a spirit of resistance. Lucifer allowed his jealousy of Christ to prevail and to become the more determined. To dispute the supremacy of The Son of God, thus impeaching the wisdom and the love of the creator had become the purpose of this prince of angels. To this object, he was about to bend the energies of his master mind, which next to Christ was first among the host of God." The highest of any created being. At one time, the friend, the associate, the partner of the creator.
You know how God made man in his own image? Whenever it was in the remote recesses of time that God made lucifer, the greatest of the angels, he made this being with incredible intelligence like his own to love, just like God made man to love, that would love him. And who knows how long that lasted. You might be thinking, "well, you know, obviously doug, there was something in the circuits, the transistors, the wiring of lucifer. God made a mistake or he wouldn't have been thinking that way. Why couldn't God have made lucifer so he never--i mean isn't God all-powerful? Couldn't he have made him so that he never would have entertained those thoughts of pride and selfishness?" No, not and make him free.
Understanding this point, is the--it's the axis of everything in your understanding of creation. God is love. God wants love. In order for us to give love, it must be given freely. Can you love a giant God who comes to you with a billy club and says, "you better love me, or I'm going to judge you?" Would that inspire you to love him? The only way you can love somebody is to choose to love him.
Forced love--some places, it's called rape, depends how far it's forced. Forced love is not love. It's the antithesis of love. You can't force love. You can do your best to be loving.
And God because he made his creatures free, he can be himself, and he's the essence of love, and hope that it will get reciprocal love. But the greatest evidence that God makes us free is sin. The very fact that we can choose not to love him and to love ourselves more is evidence that he's making us free. Now because God knows everything that we're doing doesn't mean he's making it happen. Did you get that? God is sovereign, God is all-knowing, but God is not up there like some Greek God manipulating for his entertainment these creatures down here.
He's made us all free. He knows what your choice will be, but he's not making you choose, because that would not be love. You must have freedom. Otherwise we would all be computers. We'd all be robots.
We'd all be preprogrammed, prerecorded androids--I'm not talking about the phones--that really have no choice. And they can't love. You've heard me illustrate this 100 different ways, you know. You can get a mechanical device that will repeat, "I love you. I love you.
I love you." And they say computers are getting smarter and smarter. Have you ever looked at the curve of the intelligence of computers just in your lifetime, what's happened to computers exponentially? And someone not too long ago told me, "doug, turn on your television set. They're playing the computer." I said, "what do you mean?" "On 'jeopardy,' the contestants are playing against the computer." I didn't know anything about it until I got that phone call. And evidently they--ibm's best engineers had engineered this computer. And I can't remember the name of it.
Watson. Ah, I knew someone here would watch. Watson. That was a test. And the best engineers at ibm had engineered--once they had one called big blue that played chess against a master.
Now they had one that could actually answer abstract questions that would be all across the board. And I think the computer won hands down. Soon they say they'll have a computer that's as smart as a mouse. Now actually that would be smarter than this computer because it will find its way into mazes and find its way out. And you know how powerful a mouse's brain is when you think about all that it does? And then eventually they say if life goes on, another 25 years, they'll have a computer that can think like a person.
And then if life goes on a little longer, they'll have a computer that is smarter than all of mankind collectively. I mean if you look at the curve of intelligence, that's what they're expecting it to do. And eventually they might get a computer that says, "man actually doesn't exist. I made myself," which is what man is doing right now. Think about how sophisticated your brain is and yet man is saying, "I happened by accident.
" "The ultimate insult," I actually am quoting ravi zacharias, "the ultimate insult is when computers will get to the place where they say, 'we made ourselves,'" which is what man is doing to God right now. But will you ever get a computer to really love? No. It requires freedom to do that. So God made this very bright, powerful angel free and for whatever reasons--you might say, "how, what--?" It's a mystery. It's called the mystery of iniquity.
Mystery of Godliness is how God could become a man to save men. The mystery of iniquity is why a devil would want to be God. So the creator of all that is made. Ezekiel 28:2. "Son of man, say to the prince of tyre, 'thus says the Lord God: "because your heart is lifted up, and you say, 'I am a God, I sit in the seat of Gods, in the midst of the seas,' yet you are a man, and not a God, though you set your heart as the heart of a God.
'" Now a lot of people are confused because there's a number of verses we're going to look at where it starts out talking about a man, a king. And then in the prophecy it transitions to talking about the power behind the King, the devil. Now that's one example. Alright, now please read for me Isaiah 14:4. "That you will take up this proverb against the King of Babylon, and say: 'how the oppressor has ceased, the golden city ceased!'" How many of you know that when you read Isaiah 14 it starts to transition into talking about the devil? But the prophecy begins saying, "take up this proverb against the King of Babylon.
" The one in Ezekiel says, "take up this proverb against the prince of tyre." Somebody read for me Daniel 10:13. "But the prince of the Kingdom of persia withstood me one and twenty days; but lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remain there with the Kings of persia." the King of persia actually let the children of Israel go. Why is it saying the King of persia resisted me 21 days or 3 weeks? That's also the same time that Daniel was praying about his vision. He was fasting. Alright, Revelation 12:3, let me read this, "another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.
And his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to have this male child, to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and his throne." Okay, who is that dragon that drew a third of the stars? Well, you read in that chapter, it says that old serpent called the devil and satan, no question. What kingdom did the dragon use to try and devour Jesus when he was a baby? Rome.
And so most Bible scholars interpret this prophecy to say that first red dragon represents the empire of rome. But it's obviously the devil working through the roman leaders. It was the devil that inspired--i mean how diabolical could king herod be to kill all the babies in a town? That's--he was so--his position was threatened. He was operating under the identical motives to lucifer himself. I'm going to read you another one.
Exodus 1:22, go ahead. Exodus 1:22, "and pharaoh charged all his people, saying, 'every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.'" Alright, satan knew that a Savior was coming. And he knew it was coming through the seed of Abraham. And he didn't know who it would be, but he wanted to destroy the Savior before he became a man. He was incarnate.
That's what happened in Bethlehem. That's what happened when athaliah killed all of the royal seed. Satan was trying to prevent Christ from coming. So he was operating through these earthly kingdoms. You got that? So when you're reading in Ezekiel, "son of man say to the prince of tyre," and then it segues in the prophecy to talk about the devil.
Or you read in Isaiah 14, take up this proverb against the King of Babylon. Who was it that said, "is not this great Babylon that I have made?" There was Nebuchadnezzar parading on his balcony, surveying the Kingdom in his royal robes and saying, "i, i, i," just like the devil. How many of those ancient pagan Kings declared themselves to be God's? Alexander the great, darius persian king, Nebuchadnezzar, the caesars of rome. You could just go down a long list, all the way even from the Kings of meso-America were declared to be Gods and the number of empires around the world, emperors of china declared themselves Gods. So these earthly Kings that said they were Gods, were they much different than what the devil wanted, who wanted the place of God? So in the prophecies it starts out talking about the earthly king, and then the prophet goes to the power behind the King.
And he then gives the particulars about the devil, okay? That's important to understand. 'Cause some people start reading the prophecy and they say, "how do you say that's about the devil?" He said, "I'm prophesying about the King of Babylon or tyre or persia." Well then read on and then see what the context is. First of all, if you go to Ezekiel and it says, "thou wast in eden." Was the King of tyre or Babylon ever in the Garden of Eden? No. It says, "you are the anointed cherub." Were they the anointed cherub? And so you begin to look at the different things it says. It's obvious it's not talking about the King.
It's talking about the history of the power that's manipulating this earthly kingdom. By the way, all those Kings we just mentioned, tyre, Babylon, persia, pharaoh, they all fought rome. They all fought against Christ and his people. So it's telling you what power that was. Someone else read for us now one more we got here.
John, the Gospel of John 12:31, who has that? Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. So these earthly Kings who thought they were rulers of the world, were they really the rulers? Or was there another ruler that was manipulating them? Jesus referred to the devil as the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air. Now in our lesson, and we're going to kind of transition a little bit and talk about the garments of the devil. When you go in your Bibles, go to Ezekiel 28:17. And--oh no, I take it back, I'm sorry.
Go to Ezekiel 28, verse 12. "Son of man, take up a lamentation for the King of tyre, and say to him, 'thus says the Lord God: you were the seal of perfection, you are full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the turquoise, the emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes were prepared for you on the day that you were created." Now there's several clues here it's not talking about the King of tyre. First of all, were you created or were you born? Adam was created.
Angels are created. Kings are born. So created is a clue right there. Angels do not procreate. They are not born, they are created.
It says, "you are in eden the garden of God." It says, "you are perfect." It's obviously talking about lucifer. And then it describes these adornment. I don't know, would you be proud if you wore clothes like that? By the way, some of the stones that are mentioned here that adorned the robes of lucifer, you know, let's suppose that angels wear different uniforms for their rank. God's got billions of angels, 'cause there's guardian angels that he has that watch over us, right? And angels seem to have, you've got cherubim and seraphim and angels. And it seems like there might be some different roles of the angels.
These are the ministering spirits of God. They're like an army. It makes sense that if lucifer was the leader, if there are cherubs by the throne of God, some of them got six wings, some have two wings, maybe they have different uniforms. Can I argue that? There's some identifying difference of their rank, their place, their job. That's not hard to press.
Of all the angels, who's the highest? So who is going to have the most--i mean who typically has a chest full of medals, the private or the general? So who is going to have the most outstanding robes? It's going to be lucifer. So he's adorned. He's made just below Christ in power. And it was probably spectacular to look at. And you know, when the other angels looked at him, they said, "oh, you know, salute the general.
It's lucifer." They probably had some recognition. And he liked that. But then when it came time to worship God, he thought, "ah, but there is one who outranks me." And that aided him. He wanted to love himself and serve himself more than serving God. You've heard the expression before, "power tends to corrupt.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely." And this is baron acton said this in 18--well he lived 1834 to 1902. He went on to say in that same quote, "great men are almost always bad men." Because power does tend to corrupt. Did it happen to king Saul? Started out humble. Did it happen to Solomon? Did it happen to David? I mean you just look down the litany of history, and you'll see that power can be corrupting. So it happened to lucifer.
Now is it wrong for a person to be in a position of influence and power? Does God want people that can be influential for him? But I'll tell you, when you get into a position where a person's got a lot of money, they've got a lot of influence, they've got a lot of visibility, that's when you really need to kneel and humble yourself before God and pray for wisdom. When Ellen white was first called to the prophetic office, one of her greatest fears was that she would be lifted up. Paul said, "lest I should be lifted up through the abundance of Revelations that God had given me." He sent a messenger from satan, a thorn in his side. Why? Keep him humble. And God, you'll find often the people he uses there's something going on in their lives that keeps 'em in their place.
Power has a tendency to corrupt. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." And people can become proud of face, race, place, meaning rank and apparel. This is something that lucifer obviously grappled with. "You were the anointed cherub," I'm in verse 14, "who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God," the highest place you could be in the presence of God. "You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones.
" He's burning gems around God. "You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, 'til iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, o covering cherub." He's cast to the earth, "from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor." Humility proceeds wisdom, and pride proceeds stupidity. When you think about it, what could be more stupid--pardon me, I don't even like using that word.
To me it seems crass, but it fits here--than the creation thinking it could kill the creator. When you really think about that, there's something a little bit insane about that idea. But isn't that what the devil is doing? For the thing created to think, "I can outsmart the thing, the one who created me, the one who was never created." It doesn't seem sharp. "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I saw this video clip on the news. You've probably seen these fashion runways they have in paris where when they're releasing the new designs for the coming season, they get all the designers from around the world and they come from south America, and they come from across europe and from America and all the who's who among the designers. And they gather on the runway in paris. And it's where the models walk down and they parade and all the photographers are there and the cameras are rolling. And these models, they get, you know, the most beautiful women in the world that they can find.
And they're carefully trained how they walk, you know. And they're supposed to be this little arrogance in their swagger. And they look up, you know. And one of 'em is walking down the runway, but you know they're doing quick changes in the back. And some of 'em are wearing these clothes so they're secret.
The releases are secret, so the models haven't even seen these things until they put them on practically. And they're putting on these clothes and these shoes and these hats and these things. And some of 'em are kind of goofy, some of the designs. And this model comes walking out and all the cameras are snapping. One model's walking back and this new model is walking out.
And she's you know, going like this. And her feet begin to wobble because she's got these high heels that are about like this high...you know. Maybe not that, it looks that high. And the high heels it's like a stiletto, they got a little point you're supposed to walk on. And then the bottom of the shoe is platform, it's got a ball on it.
It's got the most impractical thing in the world. I mean walking on stilts would be easier than that. And they've got to walk and sway and swish while they do that and try to look like you're composed. And she just began to wobble and went down in a heap. But like a pro, pulled herself together, got back up again, continued walking, turned around, on her way back out again, wobble, down.
And this was being reported by the news. Some news anchor was saying they had, you know, a little slipup on the runway in paris. And he started laughing so hard, and he had a co-anchor, that he couldn't collect himself. They had to go to a break. And you know, when I read about this where it talks about the devil, his glory, haughty spirit before a fall--now again, I just always need to correct myself.
Maybe you've heard of someone named lady gaga. I heard John lomacang refer to her this last night on his presentation on 3abn. And I saw this on the news. I do not watch or listen to lady gaga. I want to just again, the disclaimer.
But I do watch the news. Wore the most outrageous costume, didn't look like clothes. To me it looked like somebody had gone through a junk yard, tried to cover themselves up. I mean it was really bizarre. And she fell wearing that stuff.
But anyone who would wear stuff like that, you've got to want people to look at you, because you can't slip through a crowd wearing stuff like that. It's all about, "look at me." It's all about attention and flamboyance and pride and wanting the adoration and worship of others. And what does the Bible say? A haughty spirit goes before a slip on the runway. Something like that. You know, there is--well, let me back up here and read some things here.
Aaron wore the most beautiful garments. You ever looked at the garments the high priest wore? The best designers--and by the way, there's nothing wrong with being a dress designers. I think Christians ought to employ Christian principles in their design. Someone's got to do that. Any of you like to sew clothes? Won't admit it now, will you? But there's nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with clothes. I think Christians ought to be neat and clean and attractive, and our clothes ought to be good quality, durable. You want to, you know, get your value for your money. And I told Karen what I was talking about today. She said, "don't wear that bright tie whatever you do.
" But aaron wore--i was just finished reading through Exodus--the most exquisite clothing that they ever made in Israel. They got the finest craftsman to make his clothing. They were spun. They had little, what do you call it, threads of gold that were in his clothing. Why? So that he could go down the runway and say, "everybody look at me?" Or because he represented Christ our high priest who wears the robes of righteousness.
And just like even lucifer before his fall, every precious stone adorned him. On the breastplate of the high priest, on a golden plate, he wore those stones that represented God's people on his heart. Each one had a name of a tribe in it that he bore on his heart. But you know when aaron got ready to die, he was stripped of his clothes. You can read about this in Deuteronomy.
I'm sorry, it's actually Numbers 20:28. Numbers 20:28, "and Moses stripped aaron of his garments, and put them on eleazar, his son. And aaron died there on top of the mountain, then Moses and eleazar came down from the mountain." Here Moses goes up the mountain wearing these robes, high priest, the robes are taken off, they're placed on his son. And his son comes down in his place. Who was it job? When his wife said, "curse God and die," he said, "naked I came into the world, naked I'm going out.
" When we wear clothes, it's all just glorified fig leaves. When you really think about it, the thing that matters is do we have the robe of Christ's righteousness. But the devil, the robes, who made lucifer's beautiful garments? God did. So for him to be proud of that--any gift you've got, every gift comes from God, right? For us to be proud of those things--Deuteronomy 8:11. I don't--i haven't handed that out, but someone look that up for me real quick.
I want you to read that. "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes which I command thee this day. Now, thank you, you read the whole context of that in the chapter, in Deuteronomy there. And Moses is cautioning the people. He says, "you're getting ready to cross over into the promised land.
" Was it a good land or a bad land? It was a good land. I've ridden in what they call bad lands before. New Mexico they got bad lands, nothing grows, it's all rolling hills, it's rough, dry, hot, dreary country. The promised land back then didn't look like the promised land today, flowing with milk and honey, rich soil, vegetation. You know what happened is after the Romans and others conquered it, they cut down the trees.
They sowed it with salt. They deforested the land so that eventually even the clouds did not come over and it became--you've heard of desertification. Am I saying that right? Spreading desert. They began to experience the spreading desert from north africa. It was a different land back then.
They know that even from the archeology they've done, that it was rich in timber and lush forest, flowing with milk and honey, thick, rich soil, lots of flowers, lots of honey. And then he said, "you're going to go into cities that are built by these other nations, beautiful cities, beautiful homes. The wells are dug. The vineyards are planted. The orchards are planted.
The houses are built. And you're going to move into these nice houses, you didn't even have to build them. You're going to move into cities that you didn't build. You're going to drink from wells you didn't dig. You're going to eat from trees and vineyards you did not plant.
And the Lord is going to bless you, 'cause he loves you. But there's always a risk." You know when parents give everything nice to their children, what do they call that? You spoil 'em. You also don't teach 'em how to appreciate the work. You can spoil 'em through abundance. And they can start taking everything for granted and be rude to people and think that everybody owes them.
And we can be spoiled spiritually. And Moses said, "beware that you don't forget the one who gave you all these things and that it's a gift." And treat it as a gift. Don't stop being thankful. Don't start thinking, "look what I've done," like Nebuchadnezzar. "Is not this the great Babylon that I've built?" Nebuchadnezzar never would have got to wear he got in the zenith of his prosperity if it hadn't been for God's blessing him.
Matter of fact, one reason Nebuchadnezzar became so successful is because God raised him up to judge his own people. He would have never succeeded. And so we got to be careful that we don't start taking these things for granted. "He wanted to be God." That's another section we got here in our lesson. Acts 12:20, you all remember the story where Peter's thrown in prison by king herod? The angel opens the doors and Peter escapes.
Herod was so embarrassed he left town. And then it brings this story that tells about the end of herod. Peter survives but herod doesn't. "Now herod had been very angry with the people of tyre and sidon; but they came to him with one accord, having made blastus the King's personal aide their friend, and they asked for peace, because their country was nourished with food by the King's country." They had to trade, so they said, "we better have peace." "So on a set day herod, arrayed in royal apparel, he sat on his throne," in his royal apparel, probably got the sun glittering off his robes, "and he gave an oration," he gave a speech. "And the people kept shouting, 'it's the voice of a God and not of a man!'" And when he heard that, he being Jewish in his background, he knew that was blasphemy.
Soon as he heard that, he should have said, "shh, don't, stop!" When they tried to worship Paul and silas, you know what Paul and silas did? They tore their clothes and they ran in among the people and said, "don't offer sacrifice to us. Do not call us Gods." They thought they were mercury and zeus or something. They said, "we are mere men." They humbled themselves. Not herod. They said, "it's the voice of a God.
" He said, "I am something." And because he did not give God the glory, it goes on to say, "the angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died." And Josephus explains that that it appears that he had a bad case of worms and was eaten from the inside out. And he died from it in severe agony. Now I had somebody lined up to read for me 2 Corinthians 11:14, are we ready for that? Go ahead. "And no wonder! For satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
" In the last days, is the devil going to have false Christs and false prophets? Mark 13:22, "for false Christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders and deceive, if possible, even the very elect." And we need to be praying that we're not deceived, 'cause satan can create this illusion that he's an angel of light. Now, I got to be careful how much to say here. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover. I've seen some good books with bad covers. And there's a lot of good books, I think I've told you before that I never read because the covers were so bad.
I don't know I haven't read them, I'm just assuming I haven't read them. And we ought to dress in a way where we can be representative of God. Don't judge people by their dress. Isn't that right? But we ought to--we ought to dress in a way that is representative of God. Does how you dress say something about who you are? I believe that's true.
Let me give you a couple of quotes here from "the Spirit of prophecy." "The Bible teaches modesty in dress. In like manner, also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel. This forbids--" by the way, that's 1 Timothy 2:9-- "this forbids display in dress, gaudy colors, profuse ornamentation, any device designed to attract attention to the wearer, to excite admiration, is excluded from the modest apparel which God's Word enjoins." Have you ever read the last few verses of Isaiah 3 where it describes the daughters of Israel? And by the way, these principles apply to men and women. Have you read that? It's pretty serious. He talks about the pride of a nation.
And then he goes and he talks about the women on the runway to describe it, so to speak. And so Christians have to remember, we want to represent Christ not only in our actions and our attitudes, but even in our attire. And first of all, be robed with the robes of Christ, but also try and represent him in other ways. Alright, well I'm out of time. Thank you again friends for joining us.
I want to mention one more time we have a free offer if you missed it. It's called "the final verdict." And if you call the number 866-study-more, that's 866-788-3966, We'll send it to you. Just call and ask for it. God bless you, 'til we study again together next Sabbath. Virtually everyone on the earth regardless of religion or nationality recognize that there is some form of battle raging in the world around us, between the forces of good and evil.
A colossal struggle between light and darkness, truth and error, oppression and freedom, right and wrong, and ultimately life and death. Journey back through time to the center of the universe. Discover how a perfect angel transformed into satan the archvillain. The birth of evil, a rebellion in heaven, a mutiny that moved to earth, behold, the creation of a beautiful new planet and the first humans. Witness the temptation in eden.
Discover God's amazing plan to save his children. This is a story that involves every life on earth, every life. "The cosmic conflict," if God is good, if God is all-powerful, if God is love, then what went wrong? In six days, God created the heavens and the earth. For thousands of years man has worshipped God on the seventh day of the week. Now each week, millions of people worship on the first day.
What happened? Why did God create a day of rest? Does it really matter what day we worship? Who was behind this great shift? Discover the truth behind God's law and how it was changed. Visit Sabbathtruth.com.