God desires to feed us with the knowledge of good and evil, but only a little bite at a time. Each time He gives us a bite He also gives us the power and wisdom of the Spirit that we may embrace what is good and reject what is evil.

Adam and Eve ate too soon. They were not ready, not able to cope with the knowledge of their nakedness.

Now in Jesus Christ our sins have been forgiven through the blood of the cross. We have been filled with God's Spirit. We are prepared to grow in Christ, in the ability to distinguish between good and evil.

God is ready to baptize His people with the fire of Divine judgment. We must be made aware of what is sinful and what is righteous; what is filthy and what is holy. To not know the difference between good and evil is to be as an innocent child. Like Adam and Eve, we are in a sinful condition and do not know it.

Now is the hour for us to buy white clothes from the Lord to cover our shameful nakedness.

Soon it will be time for Christ and His army to appear from Heaven and install the Kingdom of God on the earth. Each soldier who follows Christ is clothed in the white robe of his own righteous conduct, the righteous conduct that flows from the nature of Christ that has been formed in him.

Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) (Revelation 19:8 NIV)

No Christian will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, at His appearing, who is not clothed in the fine linen of a transformed life. No believer who rides behind Jesus Christ in the Day of the Lord will be worldly, sinful, or self-willed. I think you can see the reason for this.

One of the principal tasks of the royal priesthood will be to judge Satan and the rebellious angels. You can understand readily that believers who themselves are guilty of the sinful deeds of Satan will not have the authority of Divine judgment that will make it possible for them to remove sin from God's creation.

And this is the very reason for the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation. There Christ is telling us, from the Word of the Father, that only those who overcome worldliness, the sinful nature, and self-will are qualified to eat from the Tree of Life, to wear the crown of life, to govern the nations with the iron scepter of Christ's righteousness.

Those who overcome will sit in the Throne of Christ just as He overcame and sits in the Throne of His Father.

We have been chosen, in place of the angels, to govern all the works of God's hands. But we must be found worthy to do so. We must run the race until we are both qualified and competent to serve as members of the eternal royal priesthood.

To be continued.