Appearing Before God - Sermon Transcript

Mr. Les McCullough

Sermon Transcript

January 6, 2001

Appearing Before God

What day is today? Now, that's kind of a funny question to ask to start a sermon, isn't it? Today is Saturday, January 6th, 2001. Today is the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath. It's a special day before God. It was created for a special purpose, and that's what I'm going to be talking with you about today.

Now, all of us know these points. We all understand that it is Saturday, and we all understand Saturday's the seventh day of the week. We all understand that Saturday is the Sabbath, if you want to use those terms. But one of my questions that I want to put before you today-and there's more than one-one of my questions I want to put before you today is, do we always look upon the Sabbath as special? What happens when Friday evening begins to roll around? Are we frantically scrambling to try to get to the store at the last minute and buy something or rush somewhere, do something one way or another; or are we considering the fact that we're beginning to approach the time of the Sabbath and that time of the next 24 hours, then, is very special in God's sight and should be special in our sight?

I believe it's important for us to, once in a while, be reminded of these things and to consider, maybe, what our actions are, because I know, speaking personally, I find that, all too frequently, more often than I would like, at least, it seems like the Sabbath sort of sneaks up on you and jumps on you from behind. All of a sudden, you realize here it's the Sabbath, or maybe a holy day or something of that nature in terms of being a Sabbath. So I would like you to think about and talk about the Sabbath and to understand that occasionally we do lose perspective. Consequently, we need to re-evaluate or, at least, occasionally be reminded so that when the Sabbath comes along, we're giving it the proper respect and approaching it in the way that we should, because oftentimes our approach to the Sabbath may well be indicative of our approach or our relationship with the Father. If the Sabbath is sort of a ho-hum, "I can't be bothered" sort of thing, then, obviously our relationship with the Father is not all that good.

So let's begin at the beginning. An old man that I used to know would say, "Let's begin at the beginning, Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1." Can't begin any sooner than that. That is the beginning. And it says in Genesis 1, verse 1:

Gen. 1:1 - In the beginning, before everything else, God created the heavens and the earth.

This chapter, chapter 1 of Genesis, as we all know, is the creation chapter. In the beginning, God began to create all of the physical things in this universe that have to do with an environment, if we use those terms-they are more modern terms-an environment for humankind, where they might live, where they might be able to procreate, where they might be able to go ahead and make their living. And so, He created the Sabbath as a very special time. Prior to that, He created the spiritual world that we can't see. We can see the physical world. We may not be able to see a great deal of it, in one sense of the word, because when you look up into the heavens and you see these far-off galaxies that are only a tiny pinpoint of light, we can't see a whole lot of it and know a whole lot about what's there; but with telescopes and so on, mankind has come to find out a good deal more about them. So we can see that side of the physical universe. But God also created a spiritual world that we can't see. So I'd like to go with you back to the book of Job to begin with here today, in addition to the book of Genesis.

In Job, chapter 38, here is the final revelation that God made to the man Job. All the rest of the book of Job is involved in his friends trying to tell him what was wrong with him and Job defending himself and about his righteousness and so on. In chapter 38, God begins to reveal Himself to Job. It says in verse 1:

Job 38:1-7 - Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Who dares stand up and say some of the things that you've said? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I put down the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

At the time of creation, all of what this is telling you is that it was such a marvelous thing to begin to see the universe take shape and the things in creation begin to fall into line and answer the laws of God; and the earth began to be created, this beautiful sparkling jewel set in the universe for mankind to come to live on. The angels of heaven, the sons of God, the morning stars, they rejoiced. It was such a great thing. It was a celebration to see what had transpired and what it was. They had some basic knowledge that God was continuing a creation and He was going to do some other very great things, although they may not have, necessarily at that moment, understood the entirety of what was going to take place.

Genesis 1 then goes ahead and tells us about the rest of the creation, the creation of the sun and of the moon, as far as their creation to be the part that they play on the earth, because, of course, there was a time span between verses 1 and verses 2 and 3; and, then, later on God began to recreate the earth and began to form and shape it so that mankind would have a place to live.

Ultimately, it's intended that mankind is going to have the opportunity to become a part of the very family of God. Now, exactly how much of that the angels understood, we don't really know. It doesn't explain specifically. At least at that point they didn't necessarily understand all of it; but man, mankind, humankind, is going to have the opportunity to become a part of the very family of God. They're never going to be equal to God. The Father's always going to be supreme, but they're going to share with Jesus Christ as a part of the family of God. In Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26, it mentions:

Gen. 1:26 - Then God said, Elohim said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." So they began to plan, then, and the intent was to create a human being in the likeness, after the manner, of God, physically speaking-not having all the spiritual powers and attributes-but, nonetheless, a physical creature that, in general, looks like, has a form like, God, and after the likeness of God. He said, "Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.";

So, man, when he was created, was granted the opportunity to begin to take charge of, take control of, and be responsible for, the earth-all of the earth and everything that was on it. Certainly since that time, as we have seen in movie after movie, or travelog after travelog, or National Geographic program after National Geographic program, whatever it may be you watch on television, humankind has tamed all of the animals of the universe. Humankind has been able to go ahead and make them sit up and do what he wants them to do. He can get elephants to stand on their forehead, can get them to sit down on a tub, can...all kinds of things; and you see that man has been able to teach and bring huge creatures to do his bidding. So mankind has had that opportunity, and he's been able to go ahead and enjoy the privilege of doing that.

What does it mean to be created in the likeness of God? Well, we talked about the fact that in being created in the likeness of God, it's a matter of being created after the manner, similar to God, in our general configuration; but there's something else that's very important that goes along with that. In the book of Romans, chapter 8, and verse 14, Paul was speaking to the church at Rome, and he said in Romans, chapter 8, verse 14:

Rom. 8:14-17 - For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. So, it isn't just every human being, at this point in life, that has the opportunity...well, they {will} have the opportunity in the future; but they're not necessarily, at this time, granted the opportunity to become a part of the family of God until after they have received His Spirit. So He says, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by which you can cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we also may be glorified together.

So man was created with the potential of one day becoming a part of the family of God, inheriting, right along with Jesus Christ, everything that there is in the universe. Now, that's so hard to comprehend. We just really have difficulty comprehending that and being able to put it into terms that our human minds understand; but, nonetheless, that's what he says. It's such a special creation that was made when man was created, because man is given the opportunity to one day, whenever it is in their particular time of life, to one day qualify to be a part of the family of God. So that all has to do with chapter 1.

Then in chapter 2 of Genesis, it says:

Gen. 2:1-3 - Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. God created them, and He gave them their special purpose that they fulfill in terms of being signs in the heavens, for seasons, and so on, as it tells you in chapter 1. Now, on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. So on the seventh day, He stopped the physical creating. He had accomplished what He was going to accomplish in the physical creation, and He stopped the physical creating on the seventh day and He rested. It says, Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

He blessed it and He sanctified it. The week closed with God stopping the physical work of creation and in doing so, by resting or by stopping that...now, God doesn't have to rest. He doesn't have to lie down on the bed and prop His feet up and relax; but by ceasing the labor of creation and resting, in that sense, He created, again, the Sabbath. He blessed it and He sanctified it. Now, all sanctified means is that it was set apart for a special purpose. It was set apart to signify something very special, a special use. It was to be a special day. Why? Well, let's go back to Mark, the second chapter, in the gospels. It says in Mark, chapter 2, and verse 27:

Mark 2:27-28 - And He said to them, Jesus Christ speaking to His disciples, "The Sabbath was made for man..." So, at the time of creation, when God ceased His physical work of creating-or the work of the physical creation, I guess I should say-when He did that, He created the Sabbath day; and the reason that He rested and created the Sabbath day, was for man. Christ says here, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath." Man came first, and then came the Sabbath. "Therefore the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, is also Lord of the Sabbath."

So the Sabbath day was made for man. Man, the creation of human beings, was so important that God created a special day for mankind and sanctified it, set it apart, for the special purpose of being time for mankind to remember the Creator and to worship the Creator. So, this day was especially created to give us time-us, in this day and age-time to honor and to worship God, time to relax and have a special time to honor and worship God. And that, obviously, should be a part of our consideration as the Sabbath rolls around on Friday afternoon, that we realize the next day we have a "responsibility," if you want to put it that way, of worshiping God, of honoring God, of using the time in a special way to give God the honor and the respect and the glory that is rightfully His.

Now, let's go back to Isaiah, chapter 58. Some of these you are very familiar with; but perhaps I'm going to be able to present something a little bit different or a little more food for thought. In Isaiah, chapter 58, verse 13, Isaiah was writing, and he said:

Isa. 58:13-14 - "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight..."

Now, that doesn't mean that you can't have pleasure on the Sabbath. You know, I think many years ago, there was sort of a certain attitude that many Church members fell into that the Sabbath is a time when you really sort of should be suffering, you know, and not too badly; but you shouldn't do anything that's any fun. You shouldn't do anything you enjoy. It shouldn't be anything necessarily pleasant because this is "holy, sacred," and so you have to be very careful that you somehow don't infringe or somehow don't do something you're not supposed to do. So people were extremely cautious and careful and...not that they shouldn't be. I don't mean to phrase this in the wrong way; but people were very, very circumspect and rigorous in their observance of the Sabbath. So what he's saying here is, he's not saying that you shouldn't be able to enjoy the Sabbath, that you can't do something that's pleasurable; but he's saying that the first responsibility is to give honor and worship to God and that the Sabbath should be a delight. It should be a time of pleasure. It should be a time that you enjoy. It should be a time that you can relax a little bit and know that you don't have to worry about all of the other things that you might worry about during the course of the week. He goes on to say, because the thought continues:

Verse 13 (continuing) - "... from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, not working, not out busy following the course of the world or earning your living or whatever else, nor finding your own pleasure...concentrating on just what you want to do in terms of personal satisfaction, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth..." He says, "If you'll use the day as a time to honor, to respect, to give glory to God and you use the day in a special way, in that sense, to honor and worship God, delight in honoring and worshiping God," because during the rest of the week, oftentimes, we may go along and not spend a whole lot of time or not have a whole lot of time where we devote ourselves to thinking about God or doing something in terms of what God would have done in a worshipful way, so on the Sabbath we can do that, to delight ourselves in the Lord. He says, "If you do that, I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken."

When we're considering the Sabbath, if we stop and reflect upon it and understand and accept the fact that He says if we delight in worshiping God, if we take pleasure in worshiping God, if that is a part of our usage of the day, then He is going to cause us to ride on the high hills of the earth. He's going to cause life to go along well for us. Oh, there'll be ups and downs; but the fact is, the ups are going to overshadow the downs. Now, I know, I know, there are some who can look back and say, "Boy, I don't know. I sure wish an up would come along here somewhere because it seems like I've had one down after another down." But, if we realize that God will provide and we steadfastly go ahead and serve Him, it's going to come about. It is going to occur. He is simply saying, "This is a very special time. You delight in doing what I ask you to do; and it's a very, very special time." So He says, "Don't just continue your physical mundane efforts, but rather, devote some time to the honor and the worship of God."

It is a time for God's people to appear before Him, whether {or not} it's in a service, necessarily. You don't always have to be in Church services. Again, I'm not just saying, "Why don't you just stay home." That's not my point; but there are times when we may be traveling, we may be somewhere where it's not convenient, and no services around. That doesn't stop the Sabbath being the Sabbath or stop it being holy time or stop the fact that we should be honoring and worshiping God on it. Whether it's in services or not, it is a time to come before His throne. Well, any time that we talk with our Father and appear before Him, we're appearing before the throne of God; and chances are, that sort of slips us, at least occasionally, that we don't necessarily think about that, that I'm appearing before the throne of God. Of course, these points are all going to lead one into another, some things that I think are good for us to understand and to acknowledge.

We come here to this nice hall, much nicer than some of the halls that other people in the Church of God may go to or other halls that I have been in over the course of my involvement with the Church of God. Some of them are pretty ratty. You don't necessarily say, "This is a nice hall," but this one is. This is a nice hall. We come here and we sit and listen to services. This is where we are. We're here. We physically are here, but there's more to it than that because there is something very special taking place.

I John, chapter 1, the book of I John at the end of your Bible, and chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. John was writing to the Church, and he said:

I John 1:1-4 - That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us-that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us... They're saying, "We're telling you what went on when we were present with Jesus Christ. We're passing on the principles that we learned as a result of having the opportunity to be with Him and a part of His discipleship. And then he goes on to say, And truly our fellowship, each one of us individually, each one of us as a unit, as far as a congregation, each one of us as the Church of God as a whole, And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

So, on the Sabbath, especially the Sabbath day, perhaps I should say, on any time that we're praying to God and talking to God, and so on, we have fellowship, we have personal relationship with the Father, just as much as we perhaps have in our human families, personal relationships with our fathers. Unfortunately, in some families that relationship isn't as good as it should be, or isn't any good at all; and people have difficulty relating to God because they say, "The father that I know is not a very pleasant individual to be around, and, therefore, I have some problems." But we have a relationship with the Father-with the Father who created all things, because He desires to share everything that's in the universe-{and} with all of those who will come to honor Him and come to worship Him.

So the Sabbath day is a time of special fellowship with God. We're in the presence of God. We're appearing there, I guess you can say, in spirit, in that sense. Our appearance is before God. We're here on earth, but, nonetheless, our talking with Him rises to His throne. So if we're before the throne of God, how should we act? How should we appear? That should be a part of our considering the Sabbath coming up and what's going to be going on. But let me set the stage a little bit. Let's go back to the book of Genesis again. We're not going to be in the beginning, but we'll be about halfway through the book of Genesis, chapter 28. And in Genesis, chapter 28, verse 10, this is the story of Jacob, traveling, having escaped from Esau and traveling through the land and coming to a place where he was going to have to spend the night. In verse 10, it says:

Gen. 28:10-11 - Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. Getting too dark to travel, so he decided, "I'll go ahead and camp here." And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.

Now, if you've been to the...I keep wanting to say "Tower of London" and that's not what I want. What's the church? Oh, yeah, the Abby {Westminster Abby}...in London. "Senior lapse," they call it. {Laughter} But if you've ever had the opportunity to be there...it's no longer true; you can't do this now. But there used to be the chair in the Abby that had this stone under it that, by tradition, was Jacob's pillar stone, the stone that Jacob laid his head down on. I don't know. When I saw that...of course, it was about almost as wide as the lectern here, and probably 18 inches deep and 6-8 inches tall. Why anybody would put that under his head, I don't have the faintest idea. But, then, if you see what some of these other groups of people do, you know, the Japanese have this little neck rest, a little wooden elevated thing about so high that is arched so that your neck fits down in it, and they tell me they sleep with that at their head. And, of course, the bushmen of Africa, a certain group of them, sleep on their elbow. They stretch out at night and they prop their head up on their elbow, and they sleep with their head on their elbow all night because if they put their head down flat on the sand, the bugs get in their ears, so you keep your head propped up so that the bugs don't have quite as big an opportunity to get into your ears. I mean, {there are} all kinds of interesting things that the people of the earth do.

I can't stand motels that have foam rubber pillows. They break my neck, and they're nowhere near as hard as a rock. So I take my pillow along, usually a nice soft, down, feathery, floating-on-a-cloud, all of that kind of thing; but Jacob was more of a man, I guess, because he got a good hard rock and he put it under his head. But, of course, as a result of putting the hard rock under his head...not really, but...as a result of putting the hard rock under his head, he dreamt. He wasn't sleeping very soundly, and he had a dream.

Gen. 28:12-17 - ...and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and it's top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it. And behold, the Lord appeared, stood above it and said, "I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth..." That's quite a promise. "Your descendants will be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. I chose this place to lie down and sleep, and the Lord is here!" And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place!" Now, you see, Jacob was right up with modern times. "Oh, that's awesome!" "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!"

Now, he didn't entirely understand everything; but his response was, in being before the presence of God, "How awesome this is, how imagination-defying, how almost frightening to be here in the presence of God." You don't feel that way on the Sabbath. I don't feel that way on the Sabbath. Now, maybe we shouldn't sort of feel like this is an awesome thing, but we're not fearing. You know, we know that our relationship with God doesn't demand our being fearful and frightened, in that sense of the word; but Jacob said, "This is such an awesome thing to be here."

Well, let's continue a little bit. In Exodus, the book of Exodus...we only have the rest of the Bible to go through this afternoon, having started in Genesis and Exodus, so this may take a little time. In Exodus, chapter 3, verse 1, the example of the burning bush.

Ex. 3:1-5 - Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. He didn't know what was going on. He came up there, and here this bush is blazing away; but it's not being consumed, and he said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight...if you can have an eternal burning bush, then you don't have to bother building a campfire at night, so I'm going to turn aside and see why the bush does not burn." So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."

Being in the presence of God is a holy matter, a sanctified, a set-apart...He was saying, "This area {is holy}, for the moment, right now, because the presence of God as the burning bush, or in the burning bush, made it sanctified and made it special, made it holy." So being before God also contains the matter of being in a holy situation. Sabbath services are the time, or the time of the Sabbath, is a time that was set apart for a holy use, the worship of the Father.

Being before God is very important. It's not something that we should just take as a matter of fact. Now, we don't have to always be on a high and, you know, there's always some great elevated sensation, and so on, but just the matter of realizing what it is that is occurring. We worship the Father, and when we're with Him...most of mankind today, most of all of humanity is still cut off from God. They still don't have the opportunity, as yet, of having God's Spirit; and without having God's Spirit, basically they're cut off. Now, sure He intervenes occasionally and He helps those who aren't a part of the Church, and so on; but, nonetheless, those that have His Spirit are very special to Him, and the rest of the world doesn't have that special relationship.

In Leviticus, chapter 19...see, we're moving right along. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus...Leviticus, chapter 19, God was talking with Moses again:

Lev. 19:1-2 - And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Moses, here's what I want you to say. Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: 'You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.'" But He was telling Moses that the congregation of Israel, the tribes of Israel, the nation of Israel, all of those who at that point were His physical people on earth, didn't have His Spirit in the sense that we understand today, but they were the nation of God, and He was saying to Moses, "You and all the people are holy," meaning they were set apart for a special purpose. They were given a special relationship with the Father. They were to be an example to all the rest of the nations of the earth of what God can do and will do for humankind. So they were told that they were holy because they had been set apart for a special purpose.

All of those who have God's Spirit today are holy because they're set apart for a special purpose. Now, we don't look upon ourselves that way. We don't go around saying, "Well, I'm holy." But, of course, as I have said to you in the past at times, we don't look upon ourselves as saints. And yet, Paul repeatedly wrote, "To the saints of the church in Corinth," and "to the saints of the church in Ephesus," and so on. So, saints, again, are people that have been set aside for a particular purpose and for a particular reason. We may not consider ourselves or think about it in that way, but we do know that we've been set apart. We do know and understand that we've been granted to have His Holy Spirit and that we, in that sense, have been set apart for a special purpose; and certainly if the people of ancient Israel were holy, the people who have God's Spirit today are holy.

Now, if we're going to appear before Him, let's consider what His throne is like. I want us to get sort of the feel of what the Sabbath is, some of the great things that there are in the Sabbath that, perhaps, we just don't think about or we get caught up in other things and we don't necessarily consider it as we might. So, once in a while we can be reminded, we can have brought to mind the fact of the rare privilege we have of having been called to God, of having become a holy people, of having the privilege and the opportunity of appearing directly before God, that when we pray and talk to Him, when we worship and honor Him, we're appearing before His throne.

There are not many examples in the Bible that talk about the throne of God, but let's go to Ezekiel, chapter 1. Ezekiel was given the opportunity, whether it was in a vision or whether it was an exact thing that occurred, I suppose you could argue that point; but in Ezekiel, chapter 1, verse 18, it breaks in on the thought a little bit, but it's talking about what he saw before him and that there were the appearance of wheels in verse 16:

Ezek. 1:16-22 - ...Their works was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel, sort of like a gyroscope, and when they went, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn aside when they went. As for their rims, they were so high they were awesome. The rims were so high that they were awesome; it was an incredible thing to see. And their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them. When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted...they were lifted...for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. The likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures was like the color of an awesome crystal stretched out over their heads.

So here was this apparent means of locomotion, and above that was stretched out a surface which, he says, was awesome like crystal. Now, if you've seen beautiful crystal, it can be absolutely gorgeous.

Verses 23-28 - And under the firmament their wings spread out straight, one toward another. Each one had two which covered one side, and each one had two which covered the other side of the body. Talking about the cherubim that are there.

Verses 24-28 - ...I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a tumult like the noise of an army; and when they stood still, they let down their wings. A voice came from above the firmament that was over their heads; whenever they stood, they let down their wings. And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne...so here's the throne of God that's being carried by these great spirit beings...the likeness of the throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God.

So he was describing, as best he could, what it was like to see this throne and the being that was there upon the throne. An incredible thing, all of these gorgeous colors and this crystal stretching out, and so on.

Revelation, chapter 1, the book of Revelation, chapter 1, verse 10. John is speaking here, and he is saying:

Rev. 1:10-16 - I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, in vision, in other words, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and "What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea." Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars...talking about the seven churches and so on. I'm just trying to get us to sort of get a concept of what God's throne is like, and the incredible thing it is that we are privileged to be able to appear before the Father, before His throne, in our relationship with Him.

In Revelation, chapter 4, verse 2, again he is speaking. He says:

Rev. 4:2-6 - Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. {And that has reference to the churches of God that it's talking about earlier in the chapter.} Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.

And it goes ahead to describe those. But he's saying, here's the throne and there's this great expanse of crystal that goes out in front of it. And there's thunder and there's lightning and there's great color and there's great beauty, and these beings that are there are giving honor and glory to God.

Now, for my purpose today, I'm saying this is sort of the setting that we appear in when we're having our relationship with God, when we're on the holy Sabbath day, when we're worshiping before God as His holy people, that here is all of this up there. Now, we're not supposed to try to imagine what God looks like and all the rest of that. It just gives us general feelings; but, nonetheless, here's all of this great beauty and all of this great majesty that we are privileged to be able to come before, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to be a part of what is going on and what is going to go on, on into the future, becoming heirs along with Jesus Christ, of everything that is to be inherited.

Colossians, chapter 9...I'm sorry, Colossians, chapter 1, verse 9, speaking to the church at Colosse, he says:

Col. 1:9-14 - For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding...Paul's prayer for the people of God...that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

That, again, is the great privilege that we have been given. His people, the people of God, are promised eternal life, living forever, and sharing in all of this glory and majesty. They have been called to a special purpose.

Now, bearing all of that in mind, how do we appear before Him? About this point, some are going to feel like I've "quit preaching and gone to meddling," but how do we appear before God? If you were going to go to a formal dinner or a prom, how much care would you take in your appearance? Prom night in Texas is an awesome thing. You go to a restaurant on prom night in Texas and, of course, you can't get in because all of the graduates are there; but it's the same way here, to some degree. Pardon my prejudice, but it's awfully hard to beat Texas ladies when it comes to dressing and getting all gussied up. It's just awfully hard to beat them. But prom night, the girls are decked out in the most wonderful garb. They spent the day at the beautician. I have read where the average girl may spend $100-$150 on her hair and getting ready. That's not talking about her gown or anything. That's just what's happening to the physiognomy.

The guys go out and rent a limo, and they're in tuxes. And here they all come moving in, in grandeur, to the restaurant. It's very common for the guys in Texas to spend five, six, seven hundred dollars for prom night. Every one of them! You'd think they'd get together and say, "Hey, let's break this..." But by the time they get through everything that's going on, they put a great deal of money...I mean they really are absolutely at their very top, the highest level of appearance it's possible for them to come to. That's prom night.

Now, if any of us were to appear before, I'm saying, you know, a formal dinner or a prom or whatever, or if we were to appear before President Bush, (President-elect Bush, they're still saying), the Queen of England, or the Pope, what kind of care would we take with our appearance? How much thought would we give to what we're going to wear? Would we just sort of say, "Well, let's see, this is the first thing in the closet. I'll put it on and away I go." No, I don't think so.

My wife and I have been privileged to go to a reception at Buckingham Palace and meet prince Philip and, you know, all of this kind of thing. Everybody there looked pretty good. They were pretty careful about the way they appeared because they'd have been thrown out the door if they hadn't appeared as they should.

You know, little things catch peoples' attention. I don't know whether you realize there's a book that's been written where the Pope is reputed to have said that in his meeting with Bill Clinton, he was quite upset with him because Clinton wasn't looking at him or paying any attention to him. He was looking around at the frescos and everything that was in the room, and he wasn't paying any attention to the Pope. The Pope didn't like that. You know, there needs to be a certain respect given to a position or responsibility or whatever; and I'm just saying here today, I think sometimes we need to sharpen up a bit. We need to be a little more cognizant of how we appear when we come before God.

If you are coming to a holy place, you are coming as a holy person before the great Creator God of all the universe, seated on His throne, with rainbows around and thunder and lightning and crystal stretched out in front of Him, twenty-four elders, everything else that's going on, I think it would be nice to sort of at least act like we had given a bit of thought to it. Because, in many cases, it seems that we have neglected that, that we have lost a little bit of...well, HWA's been dead since 1986, and most of you didn't have the privilege of being around him and getting the example that he gave in the way that he would talk and so on. Now, I'm not interested in trying to set standards of measurement for how long your hair should be or how long your skirt should be or, you know, whether you shine your shoes. I'm not talking about that. I'm just saying, here we are. If we evaluate ourself, and we say, "I'm going before God. I'm going before the Creator of the Universe. This is a time, two hours during the course of the week, that is especially devoted to a holy purpose, the worship of God. Do I look the way I would really like to look going into that situation?"

Mr. Armstrong was very particular about his appearance. If you were to have visited him in his home, I don't recall ever...I'm trying to think...well, certainly not very many times, I don't recall visiting him in his home that he didn't have on a jacket. He didn't go around in his shirt sleeves. I mean, as he would tell the Principles of Living class, that one of the first things he did in the morning when he got up was immediately comb his hair because he didn't want his wife seeing him with his hair all awry. And you say, "Oh, come on! Let's get real!" But that's the way he was. In his latter days...I was not there, but my understanding is (which I believe verily), when he couldn't get to church, before it came time for church, he would go up to his room and he would put on his suit, white shirt, tie, recently shined shoes, and go down and sit before the television set and tune in the services at the auditorium because he felt it was important. He always told us as young men, "You should save your best for the Sabbath. You should always try to look your best," and he would talk about how he would lay out his suit in the morning.

I understand, that's one individual; and I'm just saying the examples sometimes are good to understand or good to know how far some people will go. He would lay out his suit. He'd look for his best shirt, and he'd lay out his tie and he'd have it all laid out to get ready to go to services. Now, at the same time, he would tell us, "Well, in the early years, I had a suit for every day of the week, and I had it on!" But he would get up in the morning, and he would press his suit every morning before he left the house because he wanted to appear his very best. We can say, "Well, that's vanity." Well, maybe it is, to a degree; but there's nothing wrong with looking good and looking our best.

Dressing down in an office environment is all very popular nowadays; and when I go to our office over at Park 50, some of the people I see going into the office, you'd think, "Where are they headed? Are they going to the gym for a workout?" Showing up to work in sweats! Now, you can have a casual day; but sweats are not a casual day. I mean, some of them are downright slovenly. That's America today. That's society today. It just isn't something...we're relaxed, we're casual. We don't like to "put on the dog." Well, all I'm saying is, maybe it's good to put on the dog occasionally, especially when you consider what we're talking about today. Relaxed, casual, informal, whatever you call it. It's the mode of the day.

Back in Ezekiel, chapter 16, verse 3:

Ezek. 16:3-12 - ...Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem, or to Israel, Jerusalem acting as the capital city, "Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel...was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' Yes, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine," says the Lord God. "Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head."

That's how He dressed His bride. I know that's figurative, because we're talking about a nation, but He provided the very best. He provided the good things for them. That doesn't mean you ought to be going out and buying a lot of jewels, unless you can afford to. I mean, if you can afford to buy jewels, I think that's great. I love jewelry. That's one of my favorite things to buy. So if you can buy jewelry, why, great! But that's not...I'm not saying that everybody should go out and do that. Not everybody enjoys some of those things in the same way, but He's just setting an example. He's saying, "I provided the very best for My bride. I dressed her very well and took great care of her."

Well, so many things that we learned from Mr. Armstrong...he used to tell us...just after I was ordained, I was ordained in 1962. At a ministerial conference that year, Mr. Armstrong was there before all of the ministers and he said, "You men, you men, some of you just look so bad. Your wife does your shirts and they just don't look right. You should send your shirts out to the cleaners." Can you imagine what kind of difficulty I had trying to get my wife to wash my shirts? I'm kidding in that sense; but from that day on, my dress shirts went to the laundry until we moved to South Africa, and you couldn't get them done decently there. But, I mean, this was the kind of thing..."You men need to be aware of your appearance. You need to be aware of dressing properly," and we all took it to heart. Same conference, a Bible study on Friday night, one of the men was leading the Bible study up there and crossed his legs. Sunday morning, Mr. Armstrong said, "You men just aren't aware of your appearance. Why, just Friday night, this man sits up there and crosses his legs; and his hairy legs are sticking out." You know, that afternoon, you couldn't buy a pair of calf-length stockings in Pasadena. And you can say, "Well, that's extreme." Well, the way we accept some of those things and accept the examples and take them for what they're worth, they're very important, something very, very important. He always said that if you're going to buy something, buy the best you can afford. If you're going to travel, go the best way you can go. If that means Greyhound bus is the best you can afford, go Greyhound. And if you can afford Concord, go Concord, or GIII or whatever. But buy the best you can afford." Well, somehow our modern day, 1990's and 2000, now, some of those things are sort of lost. We don't stop and think about it that way because all of our icons, all of our people that we look up to {like} M&M...what a thing to look up to! You know, the starlets, with some of the absolutely absurd outfits that they wear and, boy, that's wonderful! So we've lost track of some of the finer things.

I'm not saying that everybody, all the men should be in a suit and tie on the Sabbath, although it might not be a bad idea. That's sort of up to you; and, of course, there are all these interpretations. What kind of a tie? Well, that doesn't mean that you can't wear a string tie, you know; but it's the idea of the way we appear.

In the Philippines men never wear a suit. They wear a barong shirt made out of banana cloth. It's a short sleeve for the week; and on the Sabbath, many of them wear a long sleeve barong shirt. Beautiful! All kinds of work done with them and so on and they're really beautiful shirts, because it's too warm. It's just not practical to put on a suit and choke yourself down with a tie and so on in that kind of an environment, but it's just a matter of being in good taste for the occasion. We're appearing before the Creator God, and we ought to be aware of the fact that we're appearing before the Creator God. This is me, personally, talking. That's what I think. Obviously you have your own ideas, you have your own thoughts. As I said, I'm not laying down some kind of a law. I don't mean it that way. I'm just saying, let's consider the fact that the 21st century seems to have lost the idea of decorum and modesty. It just doesn't seem to be there.

Decorum is defined as propriety, especially in behavior or conduct. Modest or modesty is defined as not extreme or excessive, moderate, not ostentatiousness or pretentiousness. You know, just what is appropriate. Being human, we tend to go along with the majority and what the majority is doing.

Profanity is so common today among men and women that no one thinks anything about it. And, yet, you know profanity is not acceptable. It's not acceptable language for one who is a possessor of God's Spirit. I mean, where it's a way of life. I know, people slip up and say something that maybe they shouldn't be saying on occasion; but I mean where that's just the normal way of talking. You go to the movies and you watch TV and so on, the normal way of talking is almost continually filled with some kind of profanity.

Our almost-former President set new standards for the youth of the country in regard to what constitutes the sexual act, and the young people of the country have used Bill Clinton as an example. There are all kinds of studies and things are being put out now about that. Some of you would be speechless if you heard some of the questions young people ask. Some of you would cover your head and die of embarrassment, and they're not being profane or they're not saying something in a wrong way. They have an honest question. "Here these things are occurring and what about this?"

The style of dress...well, how long could I go on? I don't mean to carry it to extreme; but on one of the morning news shows, the woman who is a part of the news show, her dress is usually so short that when she sits down, being on camera, she has to immediately put her hands in her lap in order not to expose herself. I say, is that modest? Why, it might be less modest if she didn't put her hands in her lap, but I would...well, to me, that would be so uncomfortable to have to be worried about that all the time. Young men, wandering around with two or three inches of their underwear hanging out over the top of their trousers...I'm just too old! Who wants to see some guy's underwear? But that's the style. So I won't berate this. I don't mean to. I'm just saying today, whether men or women, it would be good sometimes to evaluate whether or not modesty, decorum, respect, are getting some of the attention they need to get.

The Sabbath is holy. God's people are holy, sanctified, set apart; and I just think we need to be a little more appreciative of the fact that we go before the throne of God. Oh sure, if you're at home and you've just gotten up in the morning and you're in your bathrobe or your pajamas or something, fine. There's nothing wrong with that; but when we're going to a special occasion, the Sabbath day, in a public setting, I hope we just sort of ask ourselves, "How appropriate am I? How do I look? I'm going to go before God. I'm going to go in the presence of the Creator of the universe. Is this the way I want Him to see me?" He sees us in all kinds of conditions; but if we're there to worship Him and to obey and to serve Him, to honor Him, to revere Him, to give glory and majesty to Him, maybe there are some other ways we can do it as well.