Okay, we'll do one more example now; and obviously in that one, there's a possibility that they may not overcome, and they may not get the white garments. We're just going to go back in the Old Testament again, and I want you to look with me in Exodus 28. Now this again is God's idea. All of this is God's idea. It's not something anyone made up. Now I want you to look in Exodus 28, verse 2 through to verse 4. Now this is what God instructed Moses; He said: you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother - notice what the garments are for - here we get the first insight what this thing about these garments are, because otherwise you're going to think you're just going to have some kind of long flowing white robe, and you walk around in that. I want you to understand there's much more than that, there's far more than that, that's an inadequate description of something.
So here it is here; He says: notice that the garments are for glory, and for beauty. God's idea was that Aaron the High Priest, and his sons, have special garments that they would wear. That was God's idea; and not only that, God gave explicit instructions what the garments would be like, and the purpose of the garments, because God had in mind that this natural thing would be superseded by something that was far more glorious. So when we go to the Old Testament, which was the natural, He said: I want to have beautiful garments, garments for glory and honour, and magnificent garments, so when people see it they will be stunned at what they see. Why? Because down the line, it's not just going to be one person; it'll be in that priesthood. I've got a whole group of people I'm planning to make priests, and I have garments for them.
So right back there in the Old Testament, God required exact detail. There were jewels, there were precious stones on the breast, precious stones on the shoulders, special garments, every detail was spelt out. Why? Because God understood that in the future, He has something great planned for his people, that involves clothing them with great glory, and great majesty, and great honour; and so he prefigures it, or shows it up in the Old Testament, and then in the Book of Revelation. He says: you have to overcome to get there. You have to overcome to get there. Getting the idea?
Okay, so what we learn here, that in each of these cases that we've said, God associates - in the word of God in the Bible - it associates the receiving of garments with great position of honour and value, and esteem and majesty. In other words, it represents a reward for something the person's been positioned into. It's an acknowledgement of something about their life, and we see in every case, it did not go to every person. Actually, it came to some people. Getting the idea?
Alright then, so that raises for us then, when we come to Christ, we receive righteousness, and the ability to enter heaven, to stand before the living God. But while we're here on earth, our life's journey and ministry prepares, and lays up for us, the right to glory and honour and majesty in eternity. It's closely connected. The bride prepared herself, that's why she got this. In every one of these situations, they had to do something, in order to receive.
So okay, now let's have a look now. So eternal garments are expressions actually of God's glory and God's beauty, so the garments He's talking about, it's not like a shirt like this, or trousers like this, or anything like this. These garments that the Bible talks about, are a manifestation of God's own glory and beauty on a person's life. You've probably been to places, or seen significant events; so look at the Coronation, or something like that. You notice the way they all dress up - it's just majestic. Everything is just amazing, how they all dress. We saw when Prince William got married, and just the way everyone - the fuss that's on the bride's dress. You know, it's this great secret, and then it's out, and everyone wants to copy it, but they've only got a copy. There's only one original, only one original, okay?