Today I want to talk to you about what I believe is the most important subject in the Bible. It deals with a five-letter word that is very important and full of meaning in a spiritual sense as well as a literal sense, but I’m going to leave the literal alone today and focus only on the spiritual.

There are many important teachings in the Bible, and I don’t want to diminish any of them, because they’re all important or they wouldn’t be in there; but you can know a lot of things and end up being eternally lost in the end, can’t you? But, if you have this one thing I want to emphasize today, you will be saved, no doubt about it, and yes, in a sense that five letter word is Jesus, but the five-letter word I want to talk about is made up of different letters.

So, knowledge is important, but you can know who the beast of Revelation 13 is and what the image to the beast is and how Sunday has replaced the seventh-day Sabbath in the minds of most Christians today; you can know about the proper understanding of the state of the dead, and about the immortality of the soul hoax and that of an eternally burning hell, and you can even understand righteousness by faith, but just knowing about these things will not guarantee you heaven, will they? No! Understanding the truth about all these things may be important and even necessary to keep from being deceived, but knowledge alone will not place our feet on the straight and narrow path that leads to the kingdom of God unless we obey what we know. Obedience isn’t a five-letter word, but it’s very important nonetheless, but at the same time, it’s not a very popular word in today’s Christianity. However, it’s just as necessary to salvation as accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.

So, let me ask you this, if one is clothed with the righteousness of Christ when they die, or if they are alive and clothed when Jesus comes, will they be saved, even if they don’t know some of the Bible doctrines I mentioned earlier? Absolutely they will, no question about it. The clothes that Jesus puts on us are adequate to save our souls.

Now, when I say that, I don’t mean that one can neglect the truth in whatever form it takes, because everyone must live up to all the light the Holy Spirit has revealed to them in order to remain clothed with Christ’s righteousness after they receive it, but assuming that a person is obeying what they know, will they be saved? Yes! Therefore, to have the robe of Christ’s righteousness on when our individual probation closes is the all-important question to be considered.

I’d like to begin this morning in the book of Genesis, because that’s where everything started for us as human beings. I’d like to look at a few verses in the second and third chapters of the book of beginnings to see what we can learn from the mistake our first parents made, and I’d like to begin in Genesis 2.

The last act of day six of creation week was when God made a companion for Adam, and after Eve was formed from Adam’s rib, verse 25 says, “And they were both (what?) naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Naked is the five-letter word I’d like to consider this morning. So, Adam and Eve were both naked, and even though they were both naked, they were not ashamed, or we might say, they were not embarrassed.

Now, this tells me that because Adam and Eve were without sin at this point, that this was the reason there was no shame or embarrassment in being naked. Does that make sense? However, they were not naked as we might think about nakedness today, because they were clothed with a garment of innocence, or a covering of some kind from God. They didn’t have physical clothes on like we wear, but God enveloped them with a garment of light and security, and that’s the best I can do in trying to explain it. But it wasn’t very long before there was a problem, correct?

Because they disobeyed God’s express command, they recognized that a change had taken place. After they ate the forbidden fruit, Genesis 3:7 says, “And the eyes of them both were opened (not a good thing), and they knew that they were naked (and what did they do?); and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” Evidently before they sinned they hadn’t even thought about whether or not they were naked, but after they sinned it was then “that they knew that they were naked” and sewed fig leaves together. It was probably something like what Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan wore, if you used to watch TV when you were a kid. Mostly naked, but they did try to cover themselves up.

Even though they were naked at their creation and didn’t even think about being naked, they now lost that sense of security and knew automatically that something was wrong, something was different, and they became ashamed of their nakedness.

So, after they sinned, they were no longer innocent; they were no longer covered with that garment of innocence and had to try and cover themselves by the works of their own hands, but that wasn’t very successful, was it? This is a good example of why we cannot save ourselves by our own works either, but at the same time, faith without works is a faith that does not work, but that’s not our subject this morning.

When it was time for their evening visit with God, Adam and Eve heard His voice calling as He was walking in the garden, but what happened? They “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” And God said, “Where are you my children?” And Adam must have looked at Eve and said, “Oh no! What are we going to do now?” But whatever their conversation or thoughts might have been, they realized that a time of reckoning was about to take place, and it wasn’t going to be pleasant. And Adam said, probably with his head hanging down, “I’m over here!” And he said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Notice how fear and nakedness go together. When we are naked, there’s only a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation, Hebrews 10:27 says, and it all started right there in the garden. However, 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear”, and who is perfect love? Jesus. Therefore, if we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness there is no fear.

Now back to the ashamed couple. God said, “who told you that you were naked?” Nobody had to tell him, he just knew it. Guilt has a way of doing that. “Have you eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded you that you should not eat?” “Yes Lord”, was the answer, and then they were followed by these sad words, “this woman that you gave me, it’s her fault.” You see what sin does? When Adam first found out Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, he loved her so much he decided to share her fate, whatever that meant, but now he was willing to throw her under the bus in an effort to justify himself. And what did Eve do? She blamed God for making the serpent, not directly, but that’s what she did, and we know the rest of the story.

The point I want to make here is that sin took away the covering of innocence God gave to Adam and Eve at their creation, and spiritual death, and eventually physical death was the result. Likewise, when we become a new creation in Christ Jesus, we get that covering of innocence as well, and just as it was taken away from Adam and Eve when they sinned, so it will be taken away from us when we sin.

Adam and Eve got some semblance of that covering back through confession and repentance, and we can thank God for His mercy, because it’s available to us as well, but there are always still consequences, aren’t there? Now Adam and Eve had to put on clothes that God made for them from an animal. An animal had to be sacrificed to cover their nakedness, and of course that prefigured the fact that Jesus would one day sacrifice His own life to cover our nakedness.

Just like Adam and Eve, when we yield to sin our eyes get opened to something that we had never experienced before, and it’s never good, never. So, when we have the robe of Christ’s righteousness as a covering, we are candidates for heaven, but when we sin, we lose that covering that makes us whiter than snow and we’re no longer in a safe and secure place for heaven until we make it right with our maker and are clothed once again. Aren’t you thankful that God is merciful?

As part of the sermon on the mount, remember when Jesus talked with His followers about the fact that they didn’t need to be anxious about the necessities of life, and that if they would put God first in their lives, their needs would be supplied? Remember that? In Matthew 6:30 Jesus said, “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” We’re talking about much more than physical clothes here; we’re talking about that, but we’re also talking about a covering of righteousness that we can’t make by ourselves any more than Adam and Eve could.

Friends, if we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we don’t have to be anxious about anything. Now that doesn’t mean we won’t have trials and temptations along the way, but behind it all there is a peace knowing that God has our back, amen? It’s when we are naked that we forget the promises of God and give way to anxiety and worry and fear that we’ll come to want, and wouldn’t this be evidence that we have lost our covering and have become overwhelmed with the cares of this life? I think so.

The idea prevails in the thinking of most Christians today that they remain covered with Christ’s righteousness, or His covering of innocence, even while they are knowingly committing sin, but in reality they’re naked and should be ashamed, but the devil has pulled the old Switch-A-Rooney on them, which he’s very good at, and causes them to believe that they are in the same state Adam and Eve were in before they sinned, while they are sinning! That they are covered when their actually naked. That’s the idea behind the once saved always saved hoax. Some call it eternal security, but there’s nothing secure or eternal about it. It’s a lie! And those who believe this lie of the devil have been hoodwinked by his favorite deception.

The apostle Paul warned us about this big lie 2000 years ago in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12. Let’s take a look at it.  “And for this cause (that is, because people received not the love of the truth) for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Oh friend, do you love the truth? I hope so, because that’s the only way you will ever obey it from the heart; it’s the only way you will ever have victory over sin in your life. This is key, because it’s not difficult to do something you love to do, is it? But it becomes very difficult to do something you hate or dislike. May God help us to love the truth.

“For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” Now, we’ve discussed this in the past, but I think it bears repeating, because it’s an important point. The letter “a” where it says, “that they should believe a lie”, is by context more accurately translated “that they should believe the lie.” “A” could mean any lie, but “the” is a definite article and speaks of a specific lie. And what is the lie? “The lie” is that one can have “pleasure in unrighteousness”, or sin, and still get to go to heaven. In the Greek, the word “pleasure” means “to think well of, or to approve.” In other words, people in these last days, because that’s the context, would believe that they are approved of God, or that God thinks well of them even while they are sinning; even while they are having pleasure in unrighteousness, and isn’t that what most professed Christians believe today? Nearly all Christians will tell you that they are saved, and what they do or don’t do has no affect upon their salvation. That is the big fat lie.

This is also the deception with the alpha omega apostasy we’ve been warned would come. Not only has it already come, but it’s been with us for decades, and people don’t realize it. This apostasy Sister White warns about, isn’t so much concerned with the Christian world in general in these last days, although they are deceived by it as well, but the apostasy that would develop within the Seventh-day Adventist church. It started with a Seventh-day Adventist by the name of Doctor Kellogg as the alpha apostasy and ends up infecting the whole church as the omega apostasy. It’s really pretty simple, but people aren’t studying for themselves to know what it’s all about. They’re too busy having pleasure in sin and thinking it doesn’t matter, because they either   believe they can’t lose their covering of innocence once it’s given to them, or perhaps they think they will have the power to stop sinning once the latter rain is poured out. But all such will never receive it because it only comes upon those who have learned how to have victory over sin. The latter rain is a very interesting subject, and you can read all about it in Testimonies to Ministers beginning on page 506, and I encourage you to do that. But we’ll have to leave it right there for now.

But notice what it says in Sermons and Talks, volume 1, pages 341, 343 about the alpha omega apostasy. “In Living Temple (that’s the book Doctor Kellogg wrote back in the early 1900s) “In Living Temple the assertion is made that God is in the flower, in the leaf, in the sinner. (Now listen carefully) But God does not live in the sinner. The Word declares that He abides only in the hearts of those who love Him and do righteousness. God does not abide in the heart of the sinner; it is the enemy who abides there. . . Living Temple contains the Alpha of these theories. The Omega would follow in a little while. I tremble for our people.”

Is that clear? God does not abide in the heart of the person who’s committing sin, plain and simple, and I like plain and simple, don’t you? This is something a child can understand. If it was God who dwelt in the heart of the sinner, then every sinner would have eternal life, because 1 John 5:12 says, “He that has the Son has life.” That’s eternal life. But no, “he goes on to say, “He that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” When we accept Christ as our Savior, we receive eternal life, because the One who now lives within is eternal, but eternal life is not immortality. Eternal life is forfeited when we sin, because Jesus does not abide in the heart of the sinner, but immortality will never be taken away once we have it, and the last few verses of 1 Corinthians 15 tell us plainly that this happens when Jesus comes, and not before. So, in the meantime we can have eternal life, but that gift must be maintained by the power of the Holy Spirit through obedience, else we’ll find ourselves with no clothes on when it’s too late to put them back on.

Also, if you take the time to read it, Selected Messages, book 1, pages 193-208 explains this whole alpha omega apostasy in detail. We don’t have time to read it all but let me share with you a few excerpts from this chapter so you can get the gist of it. Sister White says, “For years our physicians have been trained to think that they must not give expression to sentiments that differ from those of their chief. (Dr Kellogg) O that they had broken the yoke! O that they had called sin by its right name! . . . Be not deceived; many will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. We have now before us the alpha of this danger. . . In the book Living Temple there is presented the alpha of deadly heresies. (And what are these deadly heresies all about? That God lives in the sinner; the big lie, it’s the doctrine of the devil!) The omega will follow (not maybe, but will follow), and will be received by those who are not willing to heed the warning God has given. . . I have been instructed by the heavenly messenger that some of the reasoning in the book Living Temple is unsound, and that this reasoning would lead astray the minds of those who are not thoroughly established on the foundation principles of present truth. It introduces that which is nought but speculation in regard to the personality of God and where His presence is.”

You see, Doctor Kellogg represented the personality of God as One who saves people in sin, and that His presence lives in the sinner. This is where this idea originated within Adventism, and unfortunately it’s alive and well today.

A few moments ago, I read in Sermons and Talks that “God does not abide in the heart of the sinner; it is the enemy who abides there.” So, we see that the alpha omega apostasy, that began within the church, has to do with this false idea that God’s presence dwells within the obedient and the disobedient alike, and this is the big lie the apostle Paul warned about.

Now, we’ve been talking about the difference between those who are naked and those who are clothed, and the devil would like us to believe that the naked are clothed with the garment of innocence even while they are committing sin. This is the alpha lie that began within the Seventh-day Adventist church over 120 years ago and has now developed into the omega apostasy through false teachings like the new theology of salvation in sin, which isn’t very new; through the false teaching that Jesus had an unfallen human nature; that perfection of character is not possible or even necessary in this life, because don’t worry, Jesus will change our character when He comes; the false teaching that one can have eternal life in disobedience, and kindred heresies. These are the teachings of Babylon, are they not? This is what the Sunday churches believe, and it’s the devil’s purpose to pull the wool over the eyes of Seventh-day Adventists in these last days, and he’s been very successful. This has been the end game of our great adversary for all of Christ’s followers for well over 6,000 years, because it started in heaven before the creation of mankind.

Let me read it to you from The Great Controversy, page 582, “From the very beginning of the great controversy in heaven it has been Satan’s purpose to overthrow the law of God. It was to accomplish this that he entered upon his rebellion against the Creator, and though he was cast out of heaven he has continued the same warfare upon the earth. To deceive men, and thus lead them to transgress God’s law, is the object which he has steadfastly pursued.”

Now, how do we know that this is true and that it has always been his goal? It’s true because this was the first lie promoted by the serpent in the garden of Eden. God said, “if you obey me, if you don’t transgress My commands, you will live and not die.” And the devil said you can disobey and still live, you will not die. Not only was this lie the first sermon ever preached on the immortality of the soul, but it has given people the false idea that they are saved in sin.

Let’s look at a few texts in the last book of the Bible now. We started out in the first book and now I’d like to end in the last. In other words, the warning about being caught in a naked condition is all through the Bible.

Notice what it says in Revelation 3:17, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and (what?) naked.”

The Laodicean condition is not a good condition to be in folks, but that’s how the majority of professed Christians are described in these last days. The seven churches mentioned in the first three chapters of Revelation represent seven periods in church history, or the Christian era, from the time of Christ’s first advent to His second, and we are now living during the time of the last of the seven. You can read that in Acts of the Apostles, page 585. And by the way, if we would be saved we must escape Laodicea and have the character of those mentioned in the church of Philadelphia, because it’s all about character, and Laodicea does not have the right kind to grant us entrance to the holy city, but Philadelphia does.

And here’s an important point: Laodicea never becomes hot or cold; it’s lukewarm and only lukewarm, which is a lost condition by evidence of the fact that they will be spewed out of God’s mouth. If one becomes a hot Christian they are no longer Laodicean, and if one is, or becomes cold, likewise they are not classed as lukewarm. Laodicea can never be classified as anything but lukewarm. And so, one must escape from it if they would not be spewed out.

And so, bottom line, we don’t ever want to claim to be a part of the Laodicean church or be a member of a church that claims to be the Laodicean church. Why? Because it’s a lost condition, it’s going to be vomited out. They have fallen for the big lie! If we heed the counsel of the true witness, as it says in Revelation 3:18, we will buy gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eye salve, and we can’t purchase them from Laodicea, because it doesn’t have any. We can’t receive faith and love and the righteousness of Christ and the discernment that comes through the Holy Spirit from Laodicea, we must go directly to God just like those who lived during the time period of the church of brotherly love.

Now, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, I truly am, but the official position of those who claim to be the remnant church also claim to be the Laodicean church, and that is an impossibility.

Notice what is written in the Adventist Review, August 28, 2008, page 5: “Today we hesitate to claim we’re the remnant [and that’s a good thing, because they’re not]; but as for Laodicea, that’s us! Us alone!  No other Christian group vies with us for the dubious privilege of being identified with it. (Why would they? Why would anyone?) . . . Claiming exclusive rights to Laodicea is not politically incorrect. So, unchallenged, we’ve become anchored in the view that Seventh-day Adventists are the sole group envisioned in the apocalyptic concept of that term.”

And that concept is not new, because in 1939 this same claim was made.

Advent Review, November 9, 1939, “The last church will not be spewed out; it will not be rejected; it will go through triumphantly.”

Then three weeks later in Advent Review, November 30, 1939, it says, “The Laodicean Church is the translation church. . . this is the very church that will be translated into the Kingdom of God.”

Now, I would agree that the true church will be translated during the Laodicean time period, but it will not be Laodicea that’s translated. Every person on this planet that is translated when Jesus comes will have escaped the Laodicean state and entered the state of those described in Philadelphia. That’s what the pioneers of our faith taught, but that has now been rejected. If you want more information on this, go to my website at gospel-workers.com and listen to the sermon titled “Escaping Laodicea” and you will find that the pioneers of our faith, which includes Ellen White, understood and taught that we must have the character of those of Philadelphia if we would be ready for Jesus to come.

The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is absolutely sure of who they are. They are Laodicea, and they are unchallenged about this, and I certainly wouldn’t challenge them on this statemnt either, because Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them.” But what does the Spirit of Prophecy say in regard to the Laodicean Church? That’s what we need to know.

In Selected Messages, book 2, page 66 it says, “The message to the Laodiceans is applicable to Seventh-day Adventists who have had great light and have not walked in the light.” And friends, if we have the truth and are not walking in it, what are we? Lukewarm, and lukewarm is lost.

God would rather that we were cold or hot, preferably hot. Why is cold better than lukewarm? It’s because, if you’re cold you know you have a need to put some clothes on, and if you’re hot it means you have information about the righteousness of Christ to share with others who are naked. God would have us be on fire for the truth and help those who are cold or lukewarm to become hot Christians, because hot Christians are the only ones who will be saved in the end, and lukewarm just doesn’t get it.

Notice what Jesus says in Revelation 16:15, “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk (how?) naked, and they see his shame.” The same kind of shame Adam and Eve felt.

Adam and Eve didn’t keep that covering of innocence they were given at the beginning, did they? They lost the covering that God gave them and tried to clothe themselves, but even though they had some semblance of clothes on, of their own making, they were still naked. Yes, they got it back through confession and repentance, but the time is coming when it will be too late. When Jesus comes as a thief, which means we can’t know when it’s going to happen, that’s why we need to be ready at all times and not look for a day in the future to put the clothes on, because when Jesus comes as a thief, that means that those who are unjust and filthy will remain that way, and those who are righteous and holy will also remain that way. That’s what it says in Revelation 22:11; it’s the difference between being clothed or being naked when Jesus says, “it is finished.”

Now please, think this through with me for a minute. Why do you think there are so many Adventists today that are not following Spirit of Prophecy counsel? Why so much jewlery, why immodest dress, why are so many not following the health laws, why music, so called, that does not honor and glorify God? Why so many celebration church plantings during the time of the anitypical day of atonement when we should be afflicting our souls? Why is the divorce rate nearly equal to that of the world? Why so much compromise with sin? Why is the gay movement gaining momentum within Adventism and nothing being done about it? Why are women being ordained as ministers when God’s word doesn’t sanction it? Why are transgenders being ordained as elders as has happened in the liberal state of California? Why are ministers coming out of Andrews University and using Neuro Linguistic Programming upon their congregations? Why did they give a gold medal to the pope instead of exposing the papacy as the man of sin? Why is the denomination involved in the ecumenical movement? Why do they teach that Jesus had an unfallen human nature? Why are they now teaching the Catholic version of the trinity? Why did former General Conference president Neal Wilson say that the church’s previous veiw of the papacy “has now been consigned to the historical trash heap?” Why did the church leaders take people to court and pay a Catholic lawyer from the sacred tithe to sue them because they were under conviction to call themselves Seventh-day Adventist?

Why, why, why? It’s because dear friends, “The church is in the Laodicean state. The presence of God is not in her midst.” You can read that in Last Day Events, page 49, and why would we want to attend a church where God’s presence is not in her midst. And to my knowledge, that designation has never been removed or reversed by inspiration. If the Holy Spirit was in control of the leaders, these kinds of things would not be going on, plain and simple. There is no other way to account for this sad situation, and I wish I didn’t have to tell you these things, but I must tell you the truth. God has called me to be a watchman on the walls of Zion, and He has called you, if you know these things, and if we don’t tell people the truth, guess what? Their blood is on our hands, and it’s doubtful, very doubtful, that there will be anyone in heaven with blood on their hands.

Back in the day, because church leaders rejected the righteousness by faith message presented at Minneapolis, Ellen White said she hoped that there would not be the necessity for another coming out, like when they had to come out of the Sunday churches when they rejected the second angel’s message, you can read that in the 1888 Materials, page 356. But I’m afraid her worst fears have now been realized. There was hope in her day that the church would heed the councel of the true witness, that’s why she didn’t leave, but that hope has vanished at this point, because they are stuck in the Laodicean mindset and are convinced that the Laodicean church is the translation church and count it a privilage to have that distinct designation. They are anchored in that view and they’re not willing to pull up anchor.

You can ask just about any Seventh-day Adventist today, leaders and laity alike, and they will tell you proudly that they are the Laodicean church, and the sad thing is, they would not be telling you a falsehood. They need the eye salve of the Holy Spirit, but they’re not willing to apply it that they might see, because they think they already see just fine.

Years ago, I came across a statement by the denominational leadership that says something very important about themselves that I’d like to share with you before we close, and it’s from their own publications. It’s really quite revealing, and I say this because many times when certain doctrinal issues come up, the church leaders will tell you that they have not taken an offical position one way or the other, but in reality they have, because they continue to propagate certain views in their publications. When certain things are allowed to come to print on denominational presses, they are offically telling you what they believe and have taken a stand regardless of what they say.

This statement is from Ministry, December 1948, page 23, which is published through the Review and Herald Publishing Association. “When the finished product carries the stamp of a standard publishing house, it bears denominational approval. It is then a denominational, not a private, publication. It has a measure of authority and dignity not otherwise possible.” Remember the statement about books of a new order that would be published? That was also, interestingly, in the context of the alpha omega apostasy.

Now why do they say that it bears denominational approval when published on denominational presses? It’s because, before it’s published it gets looked over by those in authority and they are in agreement that it is true, that this is what they believe, otherwise it wouldn’t be printed and sent out for the church and the world to consume.

So, here’s my final question, how can one remain clothed when they are supporting and attending a naked organization? The only way is if they do not know these things, and it’s our job to tell them so they can then make an intelligent decision for or against the truth. There’s a day of reckoning coming for those who support a naked church, just as surely as there was a day of reckoning that came to Adam and Eve when they decided to do what God said not to do.

The church that is properly clothed is described in Ephesians 5:27 as a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Nothing lukewarm about that, is there? No, because that’s the character of Jesus lived out in the lives of those who have shaken off the Laodicean stupor. “A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” is the only kind of clothing that is acceptable to God, and that’s the church I want to belong to, how about you?

Naked