PENTECOST – 2000

"The Seven Church Harvest" #6 - Sardis & Philadelphia

Fred Coulter  -  May 28, 2000

This is Church Harvest #6, and unfortunately for Church Harvest #5 I got it cut off because the tape ran out and no room to put anything else on it so what I’m going to do is I’ll finish up a little bit here concerning Thyatira and concerning the things with that, then we’ll move right on into Sardis.  So let’s go to Revelation 2 and let’s read just a couple of things here again that we need to understand. 

Let’s read Revelation 2:24.  “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine…”  That is the doctrine of Balaam through Jezebel, the doctrine of committing spiritual fornication, the doctrine of eating things sacrificed to idols.  “…And which have not known the depths of Satan…”  Which means that there were some that went way beyond as we saw. The depths of Satan or the paternal depth, as we read yesterday from the book Primitive Christianity in Crisis.  “…As they speak; I will put upon you none other burden”.

Now let’s go to Romans 10 and we will see that Paul, even in the book of Romans was bringing out something which directly connects with the deep. Let’s begin in verse 6.  Now remember that the Gnostic teaching was, the secret teaching, it had to come as an emanating energy or angel to you and this would enlighten you.  Now when we read this here in Romans 10 you’re going to see that Paul is refuting that kind of thing along with the depth.  Let’s read it, verse 6.  “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)”  And that was the whole thing concerning Gnosticism.  And when you get into the philosophical religion of the pagan Greeks, what did they have?  They had the gods that went up into heaven to bring down to mankind.  So this is a reference to the infiltration of this kind of thought into the Church, though this is quoted clear back in Deuteronomy. 

Verse 7, “Or, who shall descend into the [abyss] deep?…”  Now the lord of darkness was the one who, when the sun set, would go into the abyss or the darkness to bring the sun back at sunrise the next day.  Now the ‘deep’ here in the Greek is ‘abyss’.  Now what do we have about the abyss.  We have a couple things concerning the abyss, don’t we.  Let’s finish this here and then we’ll see that.  “…(that is to bring up Christ again from the dead.)”  And of course that all ties in with the mythological thing of Isis, Osiris, and Horus.  And he was the god of the dead, and you would have to be resurrected through Horus’s powers, you see. 

“But what saith it?  The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;” (vs. 8).  And of course God has made this available for all human beings when you stop and consider the number of languages that the Bible has been translated into, it’s pretty close to 300 languages.  The New Testament in about 1800 languages, and the gospel of Mark into over 2000 languages.  So God has made it available, see, in a language that’s in your mouth and in your heart.  It requires no special esoteric initiation or knowledge to get to it.  It is available to you because you can think and you can read, and what has been preached has been preserved for us in His word.

Now, let’s go to Revelation 9 and let’s talk a little bit about the abyss.  While we’re turning there the abyss is the depths of Satan, which we read yesterday, which was the paternal depths.  Now let’s read here in verse 1.  “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the [abyss] bottomless pit.”  The abyss, that’s the same word back there in Romans 10, “…Who shall descend into the abyss?  (that is to bring up Christ again from the dead?)”  Well, He was already resurrected, you see. 

“And he opened the [abyss] bottomless pit;…” (vs. 2). Now what came out of the abyss?  Millions of demons, because there are demons in the abyss who are restrained and reserved for the last time right here in Revelation 9. 

Now let’s come over here to verse 11.  It talks all about them, tells all about them down through verse 10 and verse 11 says, “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the [abyss] bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon [which then is Satan].”  He is the king of the abyss, or the paternal depths. 

So when people got into the deep things of Satan what they did was, they got into actual Satan worship.  And so what He is saying here in Revelation 2 is that He will have mercy upon those who did not get into the doctrine of spiritual fornication and eating things sacrificed to idols, and did not get into the depths of Satan, which tells you that those three things can disqualify you from being in the kingdom of heaven, or kingdom of God, because if I say kingdom of heaven someone is going to say, “Well, Fred Coulter is saying you are going to heaven.”  I’m not saying that.  That’s what Matthew used to describe the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of heaven. 

And we also know from Revelation 20 that when Christ returns the very first thing that is going to happen after the Beast and False Prophet are killed, is that verse 1, “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit [or the abyss, so there’s an angel who’s in charge of the abyss] and a great chain in his hand.  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the [abyss] bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season” (Rev. 20:1-3).  Now any tapes I have on the Last Great Day, I go through and explain what that means.  So that is the abyss.

Now then, let’s look at the opposite of the deep things of Satan.  Let’s come to 1 Corinthians 2, and let’s look at the deep things of God, because this is what we should desire.  And this is why vanity and carnality can never understand it. 

1 Corinthians 2:9, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”  So I might just interject here, since we discussed the wedding feast and the guests and the bride and the groom.  Regardless of where we fit into that, and God is the one Who makes the decision anyway, we are going to have an inheritance so great and so marvelous that it can’t even enter into our minds to fully comprehend it.  So if you’re not part of the Bride but if you’re a guest, don’t feel slighted, you know.  And I don’t say that from the point of view that I necessarily think that I’m going to be part of the Bride.  I just want to be there in the first resurrection is what I want to be.  Let God do all the deciding and we’ll be thankful for it.  So if you love God, He’s provided things that you cannot hear of, you cannot see of, and it doesn’t enter into your mind because you love God.  But He’s going to give you certain scriptures which will give you an inkling of it and that’s about all.  Like Paul said, we view things through a glass darkly.  And even this we view it darkly.

Verse 10, “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God [or the depths of God].”  And what we need to understand here is this: God will reveal the deep things to us that are contained in His word if we hunger for it, if we thirst for it.  If we go to God…let’s go back to Psalm 119 here for just a minute.  If we go to God with this attitude, and this is something we should continually pray about because God being so great, and so marvelous, and His word is so fantastic, and there are so many things put in there – line upon line, and precept upon precept. 

Here let’s go to Psalm 119:18, and here’s what David said.  This was part of his prayer.  “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things our of Thy law.”  And this is what we want, brethren, out of God’s word.  That we can behold wondrous things.  We can understand it.  And here we are living in the last generation before the return of Christ and we have all the word of God.  Think how much there is for us in the word of God that we yet do not even understand.  Because part of what we’re going to cover today, I’m just going to have to tell you I don’t understand.  I do want to understand but as of this point I don’t understand.  I hope to but God is going to have to reveal it just like He says here by His Spirit. 

Now come back to 1 Corinthians 2:11.  And here’s how we know that it’s not by might nor by power but by God’s Spirit.  Therefore we can say to understand these things it’s not by intellectual genius.  It’s not by brain power.  It’s not by cloistering yourself off into a monastery and all you do is pour over the word of God.  No, it’s revealed by His Spirit.  “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”  So that’s how we’re going to understand these things.  But we have to have that open, willing, yielded attitude to God, but at the same time have our guard set firm that we do not get involved in false doctrines and wrong thoughts and self-exaltation and vanity and things like that as I discussed a little bit earlier. 

Now let’s come back to Revelation 2 and see something else which right here in the middle of the seven churches, Thyatira is church #4, of which the Seventh Day Adventists allude to it in the movie Israel of the Alps, that they are somehow connected with them.  However, most Seventh Day Adventists today proclaim themselves to be Laodiceans, so…  And how many of you have ever been to a Seventh Day Adventist service?  So, whether they are Thyatira or Laocideans, I don’t know.  But the Seventh Day Adventists services I attended when our kids would graduate from the class, and so forth when we sent them to Seventh Day Adventist school, the services are just a bore.  I’m sort of debating in my mind, are they even part of Sardis?  I don’t know.  When we get into Sardis, you see. 

Here’s the thing, though we have the seven churches here, doesn’t  all of this tell us that we should not judge who belongs in what category here, see.  Let God do the judging.  It’s all we can do to judge ourselves with the word of God.  So if we find ourselves in any of the spiritual condition of the churches where they are told to repent, then let us be busy about repenting instead of trying to categorize everyone and try and figure out in our minds who belongs where.  Because ultimately God is going to make the decision.  It’s the same way with the place of safety, you see.  Everyone wants to go there.  But if everyone got there, you know we could say, who’s going to be in charge? 

Now let’s come to verse 23.  “And I will kill her children with death…”  Now these are all of the children of the spiritual fornication with Jezebel.  Now how many of that is, I do not know.  “…And all the churches…”  Now here’s a warning for all the churches right in the middle of the whole sequence of explaining about the seven churches.  “…And all the churches shall know…”  And of course this message, when you go through and read it, it says over and over, and over again, “…he that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches…”, which then tells us also that Christ is the one Who is doing the judging, and in particularly we will find that out right here in Revelation 2:23.  “All the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.”

Now this means something very special here brethren, according to the reins that He searches the hearts.  Searches the reigns and the hearts.  Let’s look at a couple of scriptures in the Psalms and see how that works.

Let’s come to Psalm 7:8, “The LORD shall judge the people…”  So there we go.  Is that not judgment back there in Revelation 2:23?  Yes.  “…Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.”  Which then is not his own really, but the righteousness which comes from God.  And in particularly for us who are under the New Covenant, because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us as a gift to inspire us to want to draw closer to God.  Not to give us license to sin. But you think of what a tremendous gift that is, that God imputes the righteousness of Christ to each one of us.  You know, just think what an absolute sinful thing it would be to take that and turn that around and use it for license to sin.  You know as Paul said, God forbid, or may it never be, see. 

Verse 9, “Oh let the wickedness of the wicked [one] come to an end; but establish the just…”  Now is this a prophecy toward the end-time?  Could very well be, because who is the wicked one?  Satan the devil.  And the wickedness of the wicked come to an end… all the wicked.  “…But establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.”  And so that’s why it’s important, as I have been doing on the one with the heart mind connection, that we have the heart of David and the mind of Christ.  Because that’s what God is trying, you see.  And here again we find in this particular case, though those in the first resurrection will constitute a group, there is no salvation by group because you belong to it.  There is salvation by individually because God has called you individually and you grow in grace an knowledge individually, God tries your heart and reins individually, judges you upon your attitude and your conduct individually, but when the resurrection comes then we will be part of the group in the first resurrection.  However, if you are in a particular organization, that does not guarantee salvation, nor does it guarantee you’re going to go to a place of safety.  It just means that you’re affiliating with that organization at this particular time. 

Now let’s go to Psalm 16:7.  “I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.”  So your reins have to do, I am sure, with your thoughts, and your mind, and your attitude, coupled with God’s Spirit.  Since God’s Spirit is in you God can know at any time what your thoughts, and your heart, and your mind, and your attitude is.  So this is what it means that “I try the reins and the heart to give to every man according as his work shall be.”  Notice the attitude here of David, but also this blends right on in to the attitude of Christ, as we will see here in the next couple verses.

Verse 8, “I have set he LORD always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.  Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.”  Now this right here is a direct prophecy of Christ.  “For you will not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”  Then it goes right on into the resurrection, verse 11.  “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasure for evermore”(vs. 8-11).  And that’s what all of this trying the hearts and the reins is all about.  Qualifying for the resurrection, as we saw yesterday, it’s the Father Who makes us qualified.

Let’s go to Psalm 26, and let’s begin right here in verse 1.  “Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity:…” Now God is always judging us.  Now we need to be careful in it that when we ask God to judge us that we be sure and have repentance first.  That’s very important.  “I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide.  Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.”  Which God is constantly doing all the time.  You see that’s very important. 

That’s why I keep stressing, and have stressed over and over again that God’s way is a way of life.  Just like in my last letter: we walk in the way of the Lord, see.  And we do so because it’s a way of life.  It’s not something we do on Sabbath, or something that we do on the holy days, but it’s something that runs through everything that we do in our life all day long.  And I know what it’s like working out in the world. 

When I was doing real estate loans, boy I had to plow back and forth, and up and down the roads, and in and out of real estate offices, and interviewing people, you know.  I tell you when you first start out doing loans and you walk into real estate offices they can spot you just like that (snap fingers).  Cause those real estate agents are used to that.  So here you come with your little rate sheet in hand, and if you have been out there canvassing, and you are really striving to get a loan because you know your funds are really low, and you don’t have much money and you only make it on commission, and you walk in the door and you have that hungry look, see.  You can spot it.  (Laughter)  So the real estate agents are very nice but they always have the test, which is this: they give you the crummiest loans possible.  And if you can qualify these unqualified people and get them the loan, then they will start doing business with you. 

But nevertheless, I had to learn the situation where all of you do in your work.  When you go out in the world and are working, it takes effort to keep your mind on God’s way.  And you have to take special time during the day, maybe five minutes here or ten minutes there, or whatever, to be thinking on God’s way and praying mentally and so forth.  And I did most of that as I was driving to and fro from place to place.  So God will examine us and God will prove us, and try our reins and our hearts.  That way then God is directly involved in our lives, see.  It’s not that Christ is way up there, which He is, in heaven.  But through the power of His Holy Spirit in trying our reins and heart and examining us and with Christ in us then He is right here.  It’s the same way when we gather together to study God’s word.  We ask blessing of God on what we study so that we understand His word.  God is the one Who can do that.  Now if we’re not in a right attitude then we end up like Malachi the second chapter, where because of sin God says He’s going to spread the dung of the feast upon the face of Levites, you see.  And we’ve sat in holy day services like that too, haven’t we?  Yes.  So here’s the opposite of it.

Ok, let’s come back and finish up here Thyatira of Revelation 2.  Now let’s pick it up here in verse 25.  “But that which ye have already hold fast…”  In other words even the things that you have though they may not be perfect, you hold fast what you have, “…till I come.”  Now is this an indication that this church is going to be in existence when Christ returns?  Possibly.  But the Lord can come upon us at any time, can He not?  So we cannot necessarily say that  it’s just at the second return, though I would say that’s what it means more than anything else. 

“He that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end…”  Now there are two ends.  Your life, and the return of Christ.  “…To him will I give power [authority] over the nations:  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of My Father.  And I will give him the morning star [that is a type of the glory that you will have as a spirit being].  He that hath an ear, let him here what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (vs. 26-29).

Now we’re ready for Sardis.  Let’s come to chapter 3.  Let’s read it all the way through and then we’ll come back and we’ll analyze it a little bit here.  Verse 1, “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God…”  Now these are the seven spirits which go to and fro in the earth, which then keeps God in communication with what’s going on.  

Now right here in this motel that I was staying in over here they had a little monitor section with four little screens on a big TV which monitored the front door, the back door,  and the side door, and the gate which goes in and out, which is operated by an automatic lift that you have your little key card that you put in there to open it, see.  So you can be out there, like it happened to me – my card didn’t work to let me out, so I pushed the button and the clerk in there looked on the monitor, pushed the button, the arm raised and I got out of there.  Well God has the same procedure with these seven spirits.  They are constantly going to and fro in the earth, kind of like we could say, roving television eyes.  And they inform God as to what is going on.  So what He is saying here in this is, is that He knows exactly what’s going on all the time. 

“…And the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.  Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die [now this is a pitiful case]: for I have not found thy works perfect [or that is complete]  before God.”  They have incomplete works.  “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.  If therefore thou shall not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.  Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy.  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before his angels.” (Rev. 3:1-5). 

Now I tell you that’s really something, isn’t it?  I mean you read that, this is pitiful, pitiful, pitiful condition.  Now, I would have to say that I do agree that the Church of God 7^th Day, in the main, do fit this description.  However I’ve seen an awful lot within other Churches of God who fit this description, so lest we label an organization, let’s be fair and say that this can happen to anyone anywhere.  But look at it.  They are in such a bad condition that verse 5 He says, “I will not blot his name out of the book of life.”  Which means then if they don’t repent then what is He going to do?  Going to blot the name out of the book of life.  So this thing of “once saved, always saved”, which I’m going to cover in one of the sermons that I bring in the book of Hebrews, is not true.  As we covered yesterday in Colossians 1, if you continue, see.  The condition is not with God, because He’s perfect.  The condition resides with us because we are imperfect.  And here they came to the point that they had a name but they were dead.  And I’ve referred to this at times as a corpse with a pulse.  Kind of like a body on life support.  You can actually have someone who is brain dead but keep them alive on life support.  Now they do this to harvest the organs to sell.  And did you know that they have bidding wars on hearts and lungs and livers, and all this sort of thing?  Aside from that.

Now notice, let’s focus on this “to defile”, verse 4.  “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments…”  Now what does it mean to defile?  What, first of all, are the garments?  Revelation 19, the white linen is the righteousness of the saints.  So if you defile the garments you are defiling the righteousness of God, which means that they are so sloppy in their commandment keeping that it’s all they can do to keep the remembrance of God in their lives.  Otherwise how could He say that they are dead? 

Now let’s go to 1 Corinthians 3 and let’s see another category of Christians, which I have covered before but now is the time to read it in the record here.  1 Corinthians 3:11.  Now what I want us to understand in this is that God gives us choices.  And our choices are very important.  God gives us free independent moral agency to choose.  How we choose and how we work in relationship to those choices then builds our spiritual character with Christ in us.  Now the Sardisites are in such a condition that Christ is telling them, “If you don’t strengthen up just a few little things that remain, I’m going to have to blot your name out of the book of life.”  In other words they will become spiritually dead forever. 

Now let’s notice here beginning in verse 1 Corinthians 3:11.  “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, stubble;”  Now here’s a very good example that you cannot have a complete carryover, because in Revelation 2 and 3 there are seven churches.  But here in 1 Corinthians 3:12 there are only 6 categories.  Which means that you can’t go pick out these six and apply them to the seven.  You would have to have seven categories and then maybe you could do it.  But gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, or stubble.  Now we’ll concentrate on the wood, hay, or stubble here because those are problematic. 

Verse 13, “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it…”  Now this day that declares it is the day of trial.  Not necessarily at the resurrection, because the resurrection is going to be the finality of it.  But as we saw with Thyatira, God is judging continuously.  “…Because it shall be revealed by fire;…”  And 1 Peter 4:12 says it’s the fiery trial that comes upon us.  How many here have had fiery trials?  Every one of us.  How many have failed their fiery trials?  How many have recovered from it?  Yes. 

Well, if you fail temporarily, that’s getting rid of the dross out of the gold, silver, and precious stones.  You may be rather, how shall we say, geologically ugly on the outside as a precious stone.  And I say that because when I was up in Idaho we had someone in the Church who had a ranch and it went back up on the hills behind, and it was actually volcanic stone underneath.  And there were these…what are these rocks that are spewed out?  I don’t know what they call them.  I think they’re moon rocks, but they’re like anywhere from the size of just a little stone, and they get up to be the size of an ostrich egg.  And you take and cut them, see.  On the outside they are ugly.  And they have deep pot marks in it from the volcanic action.  But you cut them and you open them up and they are beautiful crystals in it.  Because the heat refines the stone.  And the heat refines the silver.  And the heat refines the gold.  So if you’ve been through fiery trial, and you’ve made it through and you figured that you had failed but God lifted you up out of it.  What He did, he purged away some of the dross.  And with the heat with the precious stone, He has created greater inner character, just like those rocks which came out of the volcano. 

“…The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (vs. 13-15).  Now this comes the closest to describing the Sardisites, doesn’t it?  They just…those in Sardis who make it into the kingdom of God, just make it.  Be saved. 

Then he continues, verse 16.  “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God is dwelling in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy;…” (vs. 16-17).  Now doesn’t that sound very close to the Sardisites?  That you have a few which have not defiled their garments, which is telling us what?  Most of them have defiled their garments or they have defiled the Holy Spirit within their bodies because they are not clothed with the righteousness of Christ.  Or they’ve taken the righteousness of Christ, which is even worse, and they have defiled it. 

Now one of the defilement’s that you find in the Old Testament is to be defiled because you have touched a dead body.  See, so all of the analogies there concerning Sardis are really something.  They undoubtedly have to be the worst church of any of the seven.  At least the others, they could repent and still retain something.  Remember what He said to Thyatira, “I will give you the morning star.”  They have glory.  But here it’s told of the Saridisites, “You have a few who have not defiled your garments.”  They’re just going to make it by the skin of the garment, if we could put it that way.  (Laughter) 

“…For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.  Let no man deceive himself.  If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise [that is in Christ].  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness of God.  For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”  Now that ties right in with what I said about all those who are seeking some great religions office, see.  That’s all vanity, and God is going to turn it into foolishness.  “Therefore let no man glory in men.  For all things are yours;” (vs. 17-21).

Now let’s look at some more concerning defilement.  Let’s come to Ezekiel 36.  Now it’s one thing to commit adultery and fornication as Pergamos and Thyatirya did.  It’s another thing to get into the depths of Satan, which Thyatira did.  It is still bad enough like with Ephesus, they lost their first love.  And it’s terrible to be a Laodicean that you are lukewarm and claim to God you have need of nothing.  But the worse case is the Sardisites who are nearly dead and have defiled the little bit that they had. 

Now Ezekiel 36:16.  This may help us understand a little more of defiling. “Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doing:…”  So how do you defile the garments of Christ?  By doing your own thing.  And obviously then, leaving Christ out of it because it’s not a live work, it’s a dead work.  “…Their way was before Me as the uncleanness of a removed woman” (Ez. 36:16-17).  Now you can’t defile a garment personally any more than that.  I mean that’s descriptive enough in itself.

“Wherefore I poured My fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:” (vs. 18).  So again, when there is defilement God is going to punish…this blends into something else so we won’t…

Now, let’s come to Mark 7 and let’s see what else defiles.  We saw that defiling is doing your own way and doing your own thing by ignoring God’s way.  Now when God has called you and put you in His way, when you go do your own thing then you’re walking out of the way of the Lord.  And if you have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ then you are defiling those garments.