“Arrayed in Fine Linen”

“But though this and this and this and this, yet I will…” (Habakkuk 3:17-18) [man: Yet.] [man: The most important word.] [man: Yet.] “Yet,” that yet, that’s what I’m looking for: “yet.” Mainly because we know that the vision is for an appointed time and shall not fail. Does not lie, is not a lie. I can’t find it. [man: The last verses of Habakkuk.] Thank you. I’m not finding it, I don’t know why I’m not finding it. [man: Which one are you looking for?] One… there are two things I have, one is “though the vine wither….” [man: Three, “yet I will rejoice.”] That’s it, yes, right, the two things, thank you.

Context, of course, is… we can just take Verse 16: “When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.” That’s the context. So you can see it’s not just a light thing in which he is saying, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: ¹⁸ Yet…”

Yet… “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. ¹⁹ The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.”

And the other thing I connected was earlier on “because….” Verse 2 of chapter 2: “The Lord answered me.” Again, this is in the context of trouble, in the context of judgment, just as chapter 3. “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. ³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”

Then the following verse is very important, caught by “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” It’s like anyone… if that’s not where you’re standing on that truth that God’s truth will triumph, no other truth, no other half-truths, that they’re not going to triumph. You stand there and it’s “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him.”

And anytime we’re sitting here deciding what part of truth I will stand on, what part of truth of the truth of God is going to prevail, I am judging the truth, and my soul is lifted up. If I’m sifting and saying, “This part yes, this part maybe, or this part’s not for me,” it… that’s me lifting myself up. It’s not me bowing before God saying, “Thy truth is established in the heavens, Thy truth shall not be shaken, Thy truth shall come to pass.” You can see that it… you cannot take away, you can’t separate standing on the truth and holding on for the truth. You can’t take those…

You can’t separate yourself from the burden of holding on for the whole of God’s plan. Because if you do, you are not bowing before the Lord and saying, “Thy truth is established.” You’re saying, “This part—I’m above it. I’m deciding what is good for this time, and that part’s not good for this time,” or “I’m just going to let it go.” Can you see what kind of pride there is “I’m going to let this part go”? “I, I…”—that’s the same “I” that we are very familiar with and have to be very careful about.

“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright.” This is not the upright way. “But the just shall live by his faith.” And this isn’t just faith that we manufacture and we’ll say, “I will have faith in this,” or “I will have faith in that,” and we deciding what we will have faith in. No, “the just shall live by his faith” in God, in the truth of God, in all of God’s truth, which shall not pass away.

Because this is the point of the whole thing: the vision. And what vision is this? This is God’s vision. This is not… It was given to a man, so a man in a sense has the vision, but this is God’s vision. This is God’s declaration to man is another way of putting it. God declares to man so that man can understand. It becomes, to man, a revelation, but it’s God’s truth and God’s vision.

“The vision is for an appointed time. In the end, it shall speak,” it shall not tarry… pardon me, “Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come.”

And in that other sense, it will not tarry, it’s all on time, it’s all on schedule. God is not late, and we can know that from all of creation that we are told to learn from creation. I mean, we all expected spring. Note there isn’t anything that forgot that it’s spring, because God is on time, and the things that He does are on time and there are always the preparations ahead of time. If you look across the street or look at some in the fall, God’s preparing for the spring, because he sets the buds, right? (I have to defer to the man who knows more than I do.) But he sets, even in the spring, even in the time when it seems like the hope is lost. You know, fall and winter, you often think, “Well, will these things ever…?” You don’t know whether this little plant looks nothing but sticks will be, we don’t know what it will be.

But in those things are set the buds for the spring. In other words, are set the very things that will bring forth the plan of God. The plan of God… of course, his plan is the spring now, thank God. And thank God that you’re able to see those tulips we talked about all the time. [man: We did more than talk about them, somebody put them in the ground.]

And then you connect that with, “although the fig tree shall not blossom.” Now what does that…? It doesn’t mean that the fig tree will never blossom, it just means right now, it’s not blossoming and fruit isn’t on the vines. And somehow it seems like things are not coming forth.

“Yet I will rejoice in the…” Yet I will not be moved from my hope, which I have placed in God. It’s just like you take the hope and you place it in God’s hands. You put it in the bosom of God and you just say, “Well, God, you’re my hope. We don’t limit what we hope for.” You say, “Well, I’m hoping for this little bit or I’m hoping for half or I’m hoping for three quarters.” You put your hope in God and say, “God, bring it to pass, bring it all to pass. I will rejoice in the Lord.” And say, “I will rejoice in the Lord.” You can’t separate it. You have to rejoice in everything that God is aiming for. You can’t be half or… Certainly it’s no pleasure to God, people who are holding on for half of what he wants. [AB: What are they doing with the other half?] Well, they’re just saying, “Well, I’m not hoping or I’m not rejoicing in that part.” We rejoice in the Lord in all that He has.

“The Lord is my strength,” here’s the other half. The Lord comes in so many times with David. We had that, you know, “David encouraged himself in the Lord,” we had that last week, when Ziklag, I think, was spoiled, burned and everything and people were angry at David, almost throwing over everything. They talked about stoning him. And David, you know, he went off to himself in some kind of way, but he encouraged himself in the Lord. Not… he didn’t abandon the plan and say, “Well, I’ll settle for a little fiefdom here in Israel.” He didn’t cut down the size of the plan in the face of the burning of Ziklag. He encouraged himself in the Lord and the Lord said, “Well, just go and you will recover all. You will recover all.” And he recovered all. And the plan of God didn’t… it might have seemed like there was a stop there or there was a gap there. But no, the plan of God went right on because David went right on. He encouraged himself in the Lord.

“He will make my feet like hinds’ feet. He will make me to walk upon mine high places.” And what that says to me (it can say other things to other people), but He will put my feet in the place of victory where I’m headed. We’re all headed for high places in God, good things in God, high purposes in His plan. He will make me to walk there. He will bring me there to the fullness to which he’s called me. Amen.

One of the advantages of having been without water for about three months is that it develops an appreciation of having water that perhaps is not impossible before, but probably is impossible before, because there’s nothing… When you go to the faucet at your sink to turn on the water, I would think that there are at least some people and perhaps many people in this room that have never had the experience of turning on the faucet and not having anything come out, well, maybe once or twice with a shortage, but for week after week or month after month. And after having been without water, not having been able to turn on the faucet or turn on the shower or use the toilets, one appreciates those humble necessities of life dearly. Because suddenly, and this happened to us only last week, you can freely turn on the faucet without thinking if more than a quart or a quart and a half are escaped, there may not be a next time, because there were tanks built of some size by very careful conservation by not taking showers or using all of these things.

We never got to the place that actually no water came out of the faucets, but we did go up every day and measure how many centimeters, inches, the water level had lowered. And it finally got to the place that bit above the final pipe below which there would have been no water going down into the house, we were approximately four centimeters. I think that’s not quite two inches. So that we were about as close as we could be without actually coming to the place that we couldn’t even wash a dish.

And many of these things, for people who haven’t lived through them, have to be metaphorical. “Though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines…” Well, if the nearest you get to vines are the fruit on the shelf in the supermarket, it really doesn’t occur to you that for that fruit to be on the shelf in the supermarket there has to be somewhere a vine with water, care, tending, so that that vine is not a dry stick but produces fruit, or the labor of the olive trees shall fail. If the closest you’ve been to an olive tree is a bottle of olive oil, well, whether the olive tree fails or doesn’t fail, that’s not the question, it’s whether it’s there on the shelf. And the fields shall yield no meat, and the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.”

We rejoice in the Lord for the abundance that He has given us, in the midst of the abundance that He has given us. But we can hardly be said to rejoice in the Lord in spite of the fact that we don’t have what we need, because we do. Spiritually we have the Word of God, “precious beyond compare.” The fact that this Word exists in the language that we speak cost somebody and many people their blood, not just hours of toil and hard work—it cost that also. But, for some, the existence in every single person’s lap of a Bible, or at least one, cost someone blood. Someone paid a price so that this morning we are not dependent on somebody to drone on in Latin, which is incomprehensible to us.

The fact that we are here, free of centuries of traditions according to the vain traditions of men which have been heaped upon the Word of God to smother its power and efficacy, also cost many people their blood. The fact that we know the power of the Holy Spirit and all of those things that we count precious and can almost or even take for granted this morning cost somebody dearly.

The fact that we are here this morning on one level has cost Hannah her life and many years of standing when there was no one with whom to stand. And we can really not measure the cost price. It costs so much: tolls for those who drive and so much gasoline and so on to get here. But that is an insignificant part of the actual cost that our gathering this morning has. If we came… ask someone to come and do an appraisal, well, just let’s have… let’s do an… they call in Spanish a valúo, an appraisal of what these few hours this morning actually cost, not only in terms of what they will be worth in eternity—thank God, there’s also a future reference—but let’s just consider what it cost to bring us to this point. Each one of us knows, to the extent that we have paid a price to serve the Lord, that part of the cost. And we appreciate the more what we have, because it didn’t come free for us either. We had to say no to certain things.

I never thought of that before when Benjamin said, “Well, if we’re only… God doesn’t want those who are holding on to him halfway.” I never thought, well, if you’re only holding on to God with one half, what are you doing with the other half? It’s not in a vacuum. Vacuums are rather rare, they don’t last forever, and in the spiritual world they don’t exist, except as a matter of speaking. There is either that which is of God, or there is that which is against God. “He who is not for me is against me.” “He who does not gather with me scatters.” So it’s a valid question. If I’m holding on to God with one hand, what am I doing with my other hand in the meantime? If one half of my being is serving God, what half is… who is the other half of my being serving?

And we must be entirely, as I believe we are, we must be entirely clear that there is no such thing as merely serving yourself. Because you may think for a while you’re only serving yourself, but behind that there is one whose service is much harder and more difficult even than the service of self. The service of self is a very hard service, because it does not bring with it the joy, the lubrication, the freedom of serving the Lord. There are no rewards for serving self, except that which you can grasp for a while. But that which you grasp, “he who seeks to save his life” has this condemnation written over it, “he shall lose it.” So whatever you grasp, whatever you hold tight and dear, is going to slip through your fingers just perhaps even more tightly than you hold onto it.

And there is that deception that, well, if I do something for myself that’s the only way I can get anything out of it. Well, that is a hard service, because it doesn’t turn out. But behind that service of self, there is one whom you serve who has no mercies. On yourself you can have mercies and clear yourself of that or the other or take yourself into consideration. But there is one who doesn’t take you into consideration, or doesn’t take me into consideration, but is out with one single, simple, undiluted purpose. One thing you can say about the devil, he isn’t double-minded. He is single-minded.

And Jesus Himself said, “Well, the children of this world (who also are single-minded) are many times wiser in their generation than the children of light.” The reason being very simple: the children of this world who have nothing but this world are single-minded in their determination to get what they seek. And though they don’t always get all that they seek, they are not easily deterred, or they are not as easily deterred as the children of light who are yet afflicted with double-mindedness, inability to make up, finally, their minds about whether or not they will serve the Lord, whether or not it is better far to follow Jesus, those things which we can sing with such ease and do with considerably less ease.

“I’ll go all the way with Jesus, I’ll go all the way through” as we sang this morning. I know there wasn’t a person in the room that was not singing that. Well, God grant that it be true of me and that it be true of each one of us that we will go all the way through, because we sing it with ease. We do it at the cost of everything that we have, everything that we are.

As Hannah said this morning, so that when the Lord is through grinding and shifting and when He’s all through with us, all that will be left is God, and everything else will have been ground out, knocked out, crushed out, whatever God has to do with it, given up preferably, yielded preferably, so that we don’t… It’s better to go into heaven maimed, that is, lacking the hand that would grasp that which would mean our destruction, than to go into hell whole. But it’s better to go into heaven whole than to go into heaven maimed. And God does not insist on the cutting off of those things which we voluntarily give up to him, He doesn’t have to. Thank God.

There are things which if he loves us enough and if the prayers of others who care for us in him are strong enough, there are things that he will see fit to say that no more. And we will just find out that we’ve come to the limit or the end. But those things which he does not have to deal with us hardly on, praise God, we’re not grasped by or nor are we grasping those things.

And if we consider what it cost to get us here this morning, it cost us, each one of us, something, many things. It cost others who were praying for us in the dark nights, in the long hours when there was… if there hadn’t been someone praying for us, we would not have, I would not have made it. There were nights when if there hadn’t been someone praying, if there hadn’t been someone standing, if there hadn’t been those on their knees. The Lord did speak once, as He has spoken of, used the same passage for that, but in my draft case, as the church prayed, Peter was delivered. And I know that the church prayed for my deliverance from that trap that the enemy had sprung and I was delivered.

And I know that there is cost, there’s a very high cost and therefore we must the more value, appreciate and hold very dear and fight against that which would do anything to destroy that which is so precious, because it had or has a high cost, because it is to be of eternal quality. There are things which are not eternal and they don’t have the same cost. There are plenty of things that people do, nothing to it.

But to see the church formed, to see the vision come, not tarry, to see it surely come, not come in any old way. The vision doesn’t come somehow, the vision comes surely, it will surely come. It is coming. There is going to be a Bride to meet the Lord Jesus Christ on His return who hath made herself ready. There is going to be a functioning church in the end times to confront the works of darkness, to call them for what they are, and to give those who are without knowledge of their right hand and of their left the opportunity.

If God had mercy on Nineveh in the time of the Law, a Gentile city that was without the pale of God’s covenant. He had no covenant with Nineveh, he had no reason he had to warn that city, there was no background. If he took those pains to see a Gentile city warned merely because there were 600,000 people who didn’t know—120,000 people, that’s right, six score… “120,000 people who didn’t know the difference between their right hand and their left, besides much cattle”—how much more mercy is God going to have on those who don’t know the difference between their right hand and their left in our day in the age of grace? When Jesus has paid the price and has opened away and has shed the blood not for our sins only but for the sins of the world? Much more. And therefore, God is faithful. And with those whom he can find, he’s going to be faithful through them.

And thank God this morning for the privilege that is ours to stand upon our watch and to set ourselves upon the tower and to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. He didn’t blame anything on God. He thought that what was wrong had to be with himself. He knew that God couldn’t be wrong. And we can know that anytime.

We need not fight that part out ever, that there’s something wrong with the way God is dealing with me. Or “There’s been a mistake. Wait a minute, wait a minute. There’s been a mistake here, something’s wrong. There’s a mistaken identity. I’m not the one.” No, God makes no mistakes. And we need not wonder, “Does God know? Has God forgotten where I am, what I need, what He’s doing with me? Has God somehow overlooked me in His great plan and left me in a backwater? Doesn’t He realize this, this, this or the other?”

And that’s the line that the enemy takes to try to confuse, drag us down, bring us into some kind of thing. Why? Because he knows that if we can start, as Eve did, wondering about whether God is right or not, then the rest is easy for him, for the enemy. If we can, if he can get the first point in, well then everything else just floods. And as the tide of evil and rebellion has been flooding in ever since, the first, “Well, if it worked for her, why not try it again?” And he never gives up. Persistent and single-minded in his intention to undo any saint he can, because he will not be able to undo the whole plan of God. He will and has been able to undo individual saints, but he will not ever. And he knows that. So his attack against the whole takes the form of attacks against individuals. Because the whole…

He’s strategic and devotes his warfare… it would be… for the enemy to just say, “Well, I’ll see to it there’s never a church.” He’ll say that, but he knows that’s not going to be. He knows that just as sure as his doom is written, he knows that the victory of the church, the victory of Jesus Christ through His Body, is written, it’s sure. Therefore, what to do? Go about like a roaring lion, try to find someone that’s unprotected, unguarded, and sink his evil fangs into that unguarded, unprotected soul.

And that part, we needs must watch and stand and having done all still be standing and, no matter how weary we get, still be standing. And still they’re sure that no matter what else is the case, God is not wrong, God has not made a mistake, God is not treating me hardly. God, though the circumstances may be very hard and it may seem to be (fill in the blank, whatever you want to say there), it’s not God that’s… God may have permitted certain things, but God’s purpose, God’s actual definite result, if I let Him have His way with me, will be good.

“Yet I will rejoice.” Though everything is wiped out, though there be nothing to cause me to be encouraged, though spring doesn’t come, you could say, yet “I will rejoice. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength.”

God uses the means of natural production to provide what we need, but it all comes from Him anyway. So if it seems that the means have been cut off for a while, it doesn’t mean that God has ceased to be or that He has been… His storehouses have been emptied. The means may indeed be blocked and the channels may have been clogged for reasons we don’t understand and cannot see at the time. But God is still the supplier of our every need and He can… in that sense it can cause us the more to go directly to Him. When we see the means all the time and they’re that close at hand, well, thank God for them. But when we don’t see the means, thank God more, not less.

“The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hind’s feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.” There are high places that the Lord wants us to walk upon. And there are places which he has for us that he intends for us. Not somebody else’s high places. We’re to walk on them together, yes, but there are high places in God.

As Hannah preached that sermon years ago, there is room at the top. There is room in those places. Because to press through into those, there aren’t… there’s not a real crowd. Many things are crowds to get to them. But to get to the high places and God, you don’t have to worry that there’s going to be all that much competition. Because, and you know why? Because you know your own wicked deceitful heart—I know my own wicked deceitful heart—and there are so many detours before you ever get to the places. But there it is. I will, and He will make me to walk upon my high places. “Praise God to the chief singer upon my stringed instruments.”

Well, this is just beautiful what we’ve been through and that we do know well and we do… have had much word on it that no matter what, Habakkuk said that I’m going to serve the Lord.

I was thinking when we were talking about that, and you referred to it in Revelation 19:7, it says, “Let us be glad and rejoice.” Your heart certainly can leap, that after all of this world and the suffering, and as Andrew said, the cost price of it all. And the cost in the soul and spirit. The cost price there, some people don’t ever get into that, because they’re so rejoicing on the top and the surface.

As I remember, there used to be in Washington a pastor and he always came on the radio with “Happy am I.” “Happy am I.” He was really happy, everybody. And you can hear because those colored folk, they certainly had the voices and the blending, and you couldn’t get any more emotionalized. Then when he said, “Let’s come right on now, happy am I,” and went right on with it. I don’t think the soul—I don’t know about his personal soul—but the soul of very many people would ever be touched, cut through, anything. It was just, “We’re supposed to be happy,” he said, “all the time,” and you’re just “happy, happy, happy am I,” and that was his theme song. So they came on and they went off happy.

But this is really something. The difficulty with seeing the church formed and going through with it. Well, as you said, as we heard, it takes everything you’ve got and everything—the one that’s standing with you and everything that… Anybody that knows it, it takes everything you’ve got to stand, because everything is tested. And as Paul said, “Those that suffer for” what…? The Body’s sake, that that church might be formed—that takes suffering.

Some people would argue that and say, “Well, He suffered, He said, ‘It’s finished.’” He did. And in Ephesians, I think it’s 5, he said that that “Christ loved the church.” Not only just souls, though some people never go farther than salvation, but “Christ loved the church.” What would it just be, what would it consist of, if Jesus never could or never would have a bride—the main part? He died, He suffered. He died for the church as well as the souls to move on. You’d have nothing else than to just get safely into heaven and say, “Whatever happens, thank God we’re here.”

But it’s a bride that the enemy fights so. And we know that alongside of Jesus was a Judas Iscariot that walked three years with Him, and…. He was given the right to heal the same as the rest and to cast out demons. Judas Iscariot walked right alongside of Him.

I think I brought it out the other day that alongside of Martin Luther was just about the same time as Loyola—what was his whole name? [many: Ignatius.] And he just around then, he had his vision and Jesuits—he’s the head of the Jesuits—and just right there.

And always the enemy and working through Judas Iscariot right there alongside—the one that dips the hand in the sop, just that close, “Is it I?” Jesus hadn’t intimated it. If they would ever have gotten it, it would be just that it would be spiritually. They just put their head, their hands on their own chests or breasts, and said, “Is it I?” Because there was no idea. So they searched themselves: “Is it I, Lord?”

And He said, “Well, he got that near,” He knew all the time. And He said, “It’s the one that’s right here with me. And he’ll put his hand to take the sop, the same time I, and then you would know.” They… it was very difficult to get, because it had to be discerned spiritually. They couldn’t get it—“Is it I?”

But He knew all the time that He was working right with the enemy, right at His side, had the power to cast out. And He sent them out by twos; they went out 70 at a time. Judas Iscariot was right there with the whole thing. He wasn’t about to betray, it wasn’t time. He went about to betray Jesus, he knew the secret place where He always prayed. That’s why he could lead the mob, you could say, to Jesus where He was wont, as it said in the Scripture. But he went there and said, “Yes, I can tell you.” And then he said, “The one that I will kiss, that will be the one.”

Well, he had the plot. You couldn’t think that one that walked every day with the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, knowing that He was absolutely perfect, there was nothing, not a flaw. That one time He said that the prince of this world comes, but he doesn’t have anything in me, nothing. Showing that the enemy does come, and if he can find anything…. That’s why I side so with Jessie Penn-Lewis when she says, “Get rid of the ground.”

People have talked so much about casting out demons and there certainly is—it’s Jesus cast out demons plainly, we know that and the instances. But He said, “He’s coming right now, I’ll be seeing him. He’ll be here, but he has nothing, there’s nothing that he can accuse me of.”

Well, praise God. And we know God has had these kinds of people throughout the ages that could not be accused. I don’t think there were many, but they were there. And they were there and they’re there now. Praise God that the enemy just, well, he can kill them off and torture them to death and all of that.

And it’s one thing that that book Vanya (isn’t it?) that that young man, all he could think of was just so my flesh doesn’t go under when I’m tortured, just so I would never fail him; that’s the only thing. He communed with angels. You can see the more that you need Jesus, the more grace is there. We have to figure on that too, because you can say to yourself, “I could never do it, I don’t know how.” But His grace, you can figure on His grace as well you can feel on the temptation the weakness of the flesh. But he just always, “Just so I don’t fail Him.”

And at 21, he was sent… his body was sent back. And his own brother, who was communist, broke his mother’s and father’s hearts, you could say; they had to just let it pass. They sent the boy’s body back and stabs in the chest. Well, it just… he wouldn’t let them take the body out to look at it, but they could see from the front how he died. He died and he died tortured and he died in victory: “Just so I won’t fail the Lord. Just so I won’t fail You, Lord.” And the worst that in a sense that could come upon him, he had not much of the world to live for, but thank God he made it through.

The same as I was telling, I think Benjamin, that there was a Japanese pastor and he was the same. [AB: Korean.] Huh? Korean in Japan, wasn’t it? [AB: I don’t know.] Well, it was something when the Americans came, if he had gone the day before to the next city, he would have lived, because the Americans won and there were people trusting that he would just go to that city, but he knew that that was the side of failure for him. For him, it was failure. It would be taking the other side, going the wrong way for that instance, which cost him his life. But his main cry was, “Lord, that I won’t fail you in that terrible hour that will come.”

Well, then when you read this and it says, “Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him with the marriage of the Lamb is come.” So Habakkuk or Job or anyone that in their day, in their generation had the victory was all toward this end, all toward the same end: the marriage of the Lamb. That’s the great day. And, of course, it’s a high day in anybody’s life that marries. The greatest day, they can look back upon it, that is, if it turns out right. But say it does, and this will, but the greatest day of all was the day had come. And that’s for all the ages, just think. We don’t know how many thousands of years that that was in the making. Of course, they will be there, whoever, that day or generation.

“Let us be glad and rejoice.” Why? “Because the day for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife….” There couldn’t be a marriage without the bride or the wife. In another part it says that the wife, or it says that the—what do we call it—bride, the comprometida, we call it, the promised one. And all that time, we can look here, what is written or recorded, but we have no idea or all of or any of… very few of the details. We can think of those that made it that we know made it. We can think of those that came up to the point, but Moses himself didn’t make it. That really… when I found that out—nobody told me, I read it as any of us can do, found he said, “Well, Lord, Lord,” as he was [x].

He said, “Don’t talk to me any more about it.” It is something that when we decide, or it’s another thing when someone else decides about it or about this thing. But it’s another thing when God decides and says, “No, don’t talk anymore, you failed and it’s finished.” So the best possible would be… was at that day, “Take off your robes, your clothes”—whatever he used—“and put them on Joshua, because you will never go in.” That’s what I was praying today, “You never can go in.” So if… that would be the most terrible, because it’s finished. It’s finished as far as it’s God’s decision. You make a decision or someone else makes it, but then God… we have to figure on God’s decision.

But rejoice, because this is the day of days, the days, the day that all the world has looked forward to, because it’s the winding up of the whole, with glory. It doesn’t end with sadness if you’re on the right side. Because if with the countries, it’s just according to which side you’re on in a country, who’s the leader. Because if you happen to be on that leader side, then you’re not going to be wiped out. You think of what’s happening in Iran—whose side are you on? Were you ever, did you ever speak a word to the Shah by telephone? What did you say? You know, that decides the whole thing in Iran or many other places, which side?

So it will be that day, whose side are you on, that you’ve been on, that you came to this day, and He’s seeing all that rejoice. So we’ve got a great day ahead, the marriage of the Lamb. Just think, the greatest it can ever be. And the greatest marriage company and the greatest marriage supper and what—the greatest, greatest—you could use all the superlatives as you can try to get hold of because that’s it. Hallelujah.

It comes up to the “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him.” Well, who brought them through? Or who gave the vision that there was to be a marriage supper of the Lamb? Or whatever is the greatest day, the completion of all that is the whole plan of God is for His Son? And for His Son that suffered so and died and paid such a cost price? The Lord loved the church and gave Himself for it, the church. And this is the day of days, the hour of hours, the greatest that can ever be. My.

And His wife, the greatest thing… I was talking just a little bit about this. I didn’t… just was going at this angle, but to the Colombians, they really—I don’t mean just any comparisoning—those young Colombians, they really know the bride of Christ, the body of Christ. They have it. In other words, they have the vision. And say, “Well, what, how many are there?” Well, we have over five million people, I don’t know that they… they’re the only ones I know in Bogotá. It’s five million… over five million inhabitants. And so, I can’t talk about something I don’t know, but we do know they have the vision. And some of the newest ones that it’s just so wonderful, they are so lost in prayer. And it’s so beautiful to know that they got it and… Hallelujah.

Well, “it’s come, and his wife…” And I was saying—where was it, last Sunday morning maybe—I said, “She didn’t meet Him.”

“Well, look here,” he says, “what is this?”

“Well, oh, I just splashed that, I just spilt”—the word we use is salpicada, that means cut up fine and then the juice runs out of the fruit. You say you want fruit salpicada, very fine, cut up very fine. But if you get some of those spots on you, and then when you talk about a dress or something that is ruined, you say, “Well, it’s all salpicada.” It’s all, all over you.

So what happened to your dress? She wouldn’t think… I mean, the minute… Was it yesterday, Linda said, “Oh, you have a little spot here. Wait a minute, I’ll get a towel”? She was helping me to get it off. So right away, she was getting this out of my dress. I don’t know what it was, but we want to get that, all that spot. Just think if you have spots all…. would she ever meet him, all salpicado or all splashed up? And look down and the dress is… well, you couldn’t think of it.

But this bride or this wife has made herself ready. So she’s busy or has been busy on working on the spots. We have spot remover with the insta, we have all kinds of new things to get that spot out. But the bridegroom’s wife, it says, “And she had made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.”

Well, linen is made of what? Flax. And, of course, it has gotten into the place where it can be woven, as I say, warp and woof—what is that in Spanish, we just used it? Warp and woof is all just the whitest that it can be. Just when you think of them and you think of purity, because the God used that for the Levites that they couldn’t use anything of wool that caused perspiration. We have all kinds of things against body odor, you know, and all of that. Well, she won’t have any of that, because it’s a clean white, not wool. Wool rubs and causes the sweat, perspiration. None of that. Praise God. It has to be clean, white linen.

“For the fine linen…” And now, what is that fine linen? And I say she made her wedding dress herself, all handmade, and the cost price of it goes right straight through your whole Christian life—the righteousness of the saints. It says in one, it says “the righteous actions of the saints”—you weave it yourself. [AB: The word in Greek is plural, it’s the righteousnesses.] “The righteousnesses of the saints.” “I made it all myself, isn’t that nice?”

I started sewing very young, because I had an aunt who was a dressmaker and I tried to learn at her side. She wasn’t very anxious to teach me anything and I know I made many bungling mistakes. And then she goes, “Fine, it looks fine.”

I said, “No, but please let me know, what did I do?”

She said, “No, it’s just nice.” She didn’t want me to be discouraged. Or then also it would keep me from wearing it after I had spent the time and the money and everything and that’s…

“But Aunt Laura, please,” and I cried for her to tell me my mistakes. How many people are like that? [AB: They’re the other way around, they cry when you tell them.] (laughing) Not only cry, they’re really furious. They rise up and… But I cried and I said, “But, please, I want to know.”

“Oh, all right, then I’ll tell you,” with the imploring her to tell me.

Well, here it is this… I prayed this or just got hold of the real truth of that to make it that clear to me. I knew this was all there for years, so do you. But to think that she made it herself, it’s right, the warp and the woof of the whole thing is handwoven. It’s not only a handmade dress, it’s handwoven. She wove it.

And, you know, when you’ve seen to take a sock that has a hole there and you’ve got to fill that in with something, so you bring it down. You know how… anybody know how to do that? To mend the sock and put the whole piece in, then you make the… go there and you bring those two pieces together, so you’ve got to have a background. Then you start weaving through that up one down the other until you make another piece there. That’s real darning of socks. It’s not drawing it together and sewing it where the… [that’s where you’ll] miss. Do you know that, do you? [man: I saw my mother do that.] Yeah, so that’s how it is.

So it’s the warp and the woof. This down is the warp, then over the woof, and you weave that in, and then you have that hole filled in, right at the back there where it rubs. You know what I mean? [JV: Yes.] You know how to do that? [JV: No.] So there you have the whole dress is handwoven and handmade and hand done—it has to be by yourself. So she made herself ready and that linen is the righteousnesses of the saints, the righteous acts of the saints.

So are you starting on it? The girls that… we used to, in the other days, would have their trousseaus and their hope chest. And they’d have their hand embroidered things and put them in there, and maybe you’d try to buy some bags that are scented and have them there and put that in so it would always have a nice smell. The chair or the chest itself is a cedar chest that always keeps out moths and nothing can get to them, intact. And I still have some of my hope chest things that I made myself. I showed you the… I say to him, “Now this is what I made myself.” Because hand embroidering… I wasn’t just the greatest hand embroiderer, but I had those things that I tried on, I made myself. And so that’s all those years ago.

But this is going… this is lasting. And it’s gone through some time of getting there. And to her… well, he couldn’t have gotten married if he didn’t have the bride. And who does he have? But the saints. And the dress is made through the righteousnesses or the righteous acts of the saints. So here I am. And no spots or wrinkle, he tells you. It cannot have a spot or a wrinkle or any such thing. And I said that, because we used to hang out the wash. And for a neighbor to look over and see that—a sloppy wash with spots on it. And if the woman would happen to see a spot left in, it goes again. And, of course, we have all the bleach [ax] now and to get that all out. But then that’s the spots—without spot and then no wrinkles. That takes a hot iron to get the wrinkles out. So it’s a washed church and an ironed church, washed and ironed, spotless and wrinkleless.

So I just rejoiced at those two verses, that they’re so simple: “And to her was granted…” Well, the Lord, as Abraham believed God and what happened? It was counted unto him for righteousness. So it’s in his spiritual bank account, he had faith. So beside… in the right places, the bank, that was put in as faith—it was counted unto him for righteousness, I mean.

So he had his spiritual bank account. And there it was, he could go to the bank of heaven. Malachi tells us that there are windows: “Open now the windows of heaven.” You go to the window, put your bankbook in, and whatever you put in, you can draw out. And he put in faith and then that was to his account righteousness. Beautiful. God just did mark down straight, back faith, righteousness there.

So we can… want to look over your bank account this morning? See how much you can draw out? And it was counted unto her… it “was granted that she could be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen…” Is this just as clear as it could be? [man: Yes.] And that fine linen is the righteousnesses. It says: “counted for the fine linen,” and it’s been made up of the righteous acts of the saints as you’re going on. So when it gets to the place, and God knows today who’s in that bride, He knows who’s not in it or ever will be. You have to think of that, you can… it can be cut right off of you.

So there is the… just take that prophet that we talked about this morning. That as Andrew said, you can’t blame it on God, He’s never wrong, no matter what happens, you can never think in your mind God made a mistake. Never, He can’t be. But another thing, you can’t blame it on anybody else. You will never be able to blame it. Because whatever He permitted or allowed was to help you to get ready. And instead of paying back tit for tat or being this or that, that won’t do it. It’s for your good to work out and work off the spots while here. You can’t go to the wedding with the spots and you can never go with spot or wrinkle, you just can’t make it. No one can, not anyone. So whatever He permits here to work it off and work it out is a terrific blessing. Well, it’s the only thing to get us… to help us to get where to see it.

Because [you might] think, well, if you don’t have good eyesight, “I don’t see the spot,” but anyhow it’s there. You might not… your eyes might not be spiritually that good for your vision, but it’s there, the spot’s there. And He knows how to [x].

So He had Habakkuk to get seen and be discouraged because, as we know, we heard that the more he prayed, the worse things got. He said, “I think I will never see justice go forth.” And he went on and on and he said, “It’s so bad that now this is happening.” He goes through it with the Lord. But then, thank God, it came to him, well, something must be wrong with me. So I think I’ll get aside and take time out and just call on God for that.

So then the Lord…it’s beautiful: “Lord, what is this now? I will stand upon my tower, that is, my prayer tower, and I’ll see what happened to me.”

And as he did, the Lord said, “Well, your vision is good. Vision is alright, but I want other people to know it besides you. You’re on the right line, but the thing is I want other people to know, because I want them to have the chance, the opportunity as you’ve had. You are a wonderful intercessor.” And, in the end, we know that that will be when the rewards will be given out, that will be only to those that overcome, the rewards are for only those that overcome.

I don’t know just where they’ll fit in or what, but He said, “I know…” He first commends them. He said, “I know your works, I know they’re this, and I like the fact that you don’t do that and I’m very pleased with this. But whatever those spots or whatever those things that you don’t have the victory, they’re the things to work on.”

That would be good in any life, from childhood to work on what you don’t know. You know, if you’re so good on one thing, well, just put it aside a while. Maybe you can add like that. Well, all right, that’s fine. But what about the subtraction and the multiplication? Or whatever the things you have. There they are and they have to be worked on and at and up in any way, whatever preposition you want to use. But it’s that this is what has to be done.

Then He… He first commends and then He condemns. He said, “I’m against this what you’re keeping up now. And if you don’t do something about that, I’m going to take away, because I’m not going to waste gifts.” God does not waste grace. He does not waste His spiritual gifts that He has given.

He… just like the talent that we know about that on, that He takes away what that… “Oh, that’s so terrible, just one talent,” and He took that away from the man and gave it to the one that had ten, what does… he doesn’t need it. But he needs it because he’s used the ten. And he’s going to use that extra one that that—what do you call him, the impudent—impudent fellow that said, “I knew you were stern and strict, very strict. And I knew you’d want to reap where you never sowed anyhow, what more do you need?” And he said, “And then you would come and require that, so I’m going to give it to you intact. The polish, I don’t think has gone a little bit dark here, because I wrapped it in a napkin, and I buried it in the earth that nobody would know or could touch it or dent it or whatever. And here it is intact.”

He said, “You impudent and wicked servant. You knew that I was this kind of a man, you’re saying out of your own mouth that I would require… put out to the usurers, so you just kept it stuck there. So, take it away from him and give it to the man with ten.” It seems very unfair.

The enemy’s answer with that would be all, “We’re just right out. Well, how can God? God could never hurt anybody, God will never destroy anybody. You think God has got a hell for such few? You think with one little sin you could knock yourself out? Or you think with failing this?”

Yet, how many sins did Adam and Eve do? [JV: All she needed was one.] One. [JV: Started it all.] Was it a bad, bad, terrible sin? [man: Disobedience.] Disobedience. That’s why they were thrown out of the garden.

And God cared so much for the garden, and to keep it right and not to have strife or anything in that garden, that He put an angel that revolved. You see these revolving doors, just go right in. He had an angel revolving with a sword. Anybody would try to get in, he’d just go follow them right around that, it ends out; there’s only one way out. You might think you got in when you got there, but no, go right around and you go out. So you can never, never get into the clean, pure place that God has made. He did that with the garden; He kept it clean. He wouldn’t allow sin in the garden. [man: “So he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”]

That thing is protecting. Because with a sin, just the disobedience, to live forever—how was it to live on in this earth, forever and ever and ever and ever? No… nothing to get you out of it and live forever. It would be the most horrible thing. When death comes, well, something’s ended, either for the good or the bad. I mean, for the bad for you, but God is… There’s people in Colombia, you start on salvation and then they say, “I don’t mean everybody, but I’ve heard that so much for you.”

“Now, where are you going when you die?”

“God will know where to put me.” And I thought, how foolish, I just got onto it myself. Because He will, He knows where to… He knows exactly where we will fit for all eternity. So there’s more truth. Because they don’t mean it like that; they think, “God knows how good,” or what exactly and it sounds so nice to throw it all on God that that’s the response. But you had something to do with it. But God does know where to put every… He will know and He knows now where they will go. That’s the sad part, because He knows the end from the beginning.

But the whole thing, He called on the Lord, and the Lord said, “The main thing is to get it out, get the message out.” He’s gone over with us, maybe you too individually, so many times about this getting out the message. Yet it’s not out. Still we don’t have a tract on the Bride of Christ or the Lamb, the supper of the Lamb, marriage supper, “Rejoice and be glad.”

Well, I don’t know of anything, any more… any greater… the consummation of what He’s gotten out of the earth throughout the ages. Because His plan has worked and does work on earth to get out those for Him for all eternity. Tremendous. That’s the consummation of the whole purpose of Jesus, not only just to wash us from our sins, but that we’d make heaven. Not just that, but that we would be in the marriage supper, the greatest that can ever… the most wonderful thing. Well, the purpose of it all: that He would have His precious Bride. It’s just… well, there’s nothing, anything like it. Praise God.

It’s so… today, that’s why we’re here, and so little time. Life, just life itself is so short; compared with eternity that’s never ending. So there you have this little bit, let’s say, and then the hope forever and ever and ever and ever. And this, to live it right, to the best possible. And then by His grace, you’ve got all of His grace: “And it was granted unto her….” She could never make it anyhow, just say she did everything. But it was granted for that: her righteous acts. She is granted to be His bride, His holy bride, and to be at his side forever and ever and ever. Hallelujah.

Such measurements, no? Comes right down to plain talk. So what are you doing with that life every day? What am I doing? And there’s the enemy, so powerful. And that is true, he can wipe and try to wipe you out with one (snap). And that you don’t fail in the end. Because I said… well, I don’t know… didn’t know what to do when I found out… because I knew that Moses was the greatest, the most humble, the meekest, and what all, and then he couldn’t ever go in. Terrible.

He never could make… it’s more than just thinking, well, he didn’t make the grade. And then to think that it is horrible on earth to think of all that he did and he never made it. He could look from the mount over in to see the whole beauty. And then the pleading there, he said… (I can’t think where that is, do any of you know? Or does anyone know?) Where it says in [x] that the Lord said, “Don’t speak to me anymore about it, it’s all finished, you could cry and cry your eyes out.” There’s no place that he could get in. (You know where that is? I started to look for it the other day and I didn’t go through with it, something stopped me. I don’t know, I’m sorry.) That’s something to think of. He had the vision, the highest hopes, the only one that God picked out to lead those people and then he didn’t make it, such a high caliber [not to have ever made it].

And as you read or just take up, Joshua is one to… look, he was always on the job, you notice. He was always made it that he was there with Moses. Somewhere he was on the job, all the time, faithful.

So the day came and the Lord said, “Just put your clothes on. Don’t talk to me anymore about it.” (I’m sure that must be it.) “The Lord was wroth with me for your sakes and would not hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of the matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, northward, southward, eastward.” In other words, he had the whole view. What do you call it—panoply? [man: Panorama.] “And behold it with thine eyes.” So he let him see it with his eyes. “For thou shalt not go over this Jordan.” No way you can.

That’s it. As I said in the beginning there, as anyone also would know, it’s what God decides. He has the last… We praise you, Jesus.

But all… it’s been right along all the way through the—what do you call—the failures. God’s attempt for every dispensation, generation, God’s attempt to get out of all the failures for his namesake a people that will come to the end of that and be in that company.

And the question is will we individually, or as a people, be another failure? That goes with us. Yea, Lord, yea, Lord, I said one time a big yes, and then all the years, yes, yes, yes, yes, the little yeses. Keep them up, keep them going. Yes, yes, yes. Because it is a big “Yes, I’ll be Yours.” Because we don’t know, one doesn’t see… we don’t know from the other. But we don’t know what we will have to go through. But we say yes, and then the ascent to His call to His word, just has to keep right on going.

Whatever obstacle is there is to… just if he comes now that he won’t find anything in me that to just pull on me and ride on my skirt tail, so to speak. Because that’s what he does, he’s right there every step of the way; I don’t know one step he wouldn’t be to try to take hold. But we’re the ones to keep it clean, brushed—[the house]—garnished. And all that comes, whether “You better do this,” “You better leave,” “You better go,” “You better,” all that—that’s all the garbage of the enemy, just the trash that always wants to come and dump it on you again.

So he’s got all those waste baskets to him to—all that garbage to get rid of. So he knows just what will fit us. Because I said, that one time I prayed, and I said… I know you’ve… I guess about all of you have heard that the whole thing is so well-pictured as a shoe salesman. And, you know, after that, I don’t think I ever say I saw or maybe before that, I saw a woman that did just that. And I don’t know why I found her in either two stores or three stores. And she was going through that same thing. And the salesman was there and said, “Well, no,” and the boxes all in front of her and it’s a little bit here and there. And then he had one of these ladders, you know, like that, and pull it, “And I got,” what the lady’s just holding, keeps a good disposition and runs up that… We know that it’s a little bad here, just a little bit, but wait till he gets the right one. And he says, “You’ll never even feel that. It’s like a glove, it fits you. Just see how pliable and how soft, how wonderful it is.” No, it doesn’t have it.

Of course, to get that lady, that isn’t all that easy. But you can find… he’s got the thing and he’s never tired of running up and down the ladder or trying, “I’ll see what fits you. Well now, don’t you think…? Aww, that’s it,” and then starts to go into that depth and sink further and further down. “Well, you never were and you may… never could and you… why did you ever think you could start or make it or something? And then, oh yeah, that’s right. Now what else? Well, yes. Well, it’s just… is it like a glove? It fits you to the tee.”

So that’s… he’s got the very thing you need and he can put it right on you. All you have to do is say, “Yes, that’s it.” And then you can blame it on anybody you want, the Lord or the person, the other people, but it’s not that. Nobody can ever defeat you, but yourself; nobody.

And just you once start going down and watch it, it’s a real toboggan slide. So you hear people say, “Watch it for self-pity and watch it for this,” so, flagging you, lights are flashing.