The Wedding Garment, April 21

When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. Matthew 22:11. (Read Matthew 22:1-14.)FH 123.1

By the help of the Holy Spirit, men and women can rise from commonness and live pure, holy lives. Those professed believers who do not do this lie against the truth.... They do not show forth in word and deportment the transforming power that attends the truth. How can the Lord be pleased with those who make no effort to rise to a high standard? Do they not claim to have received a high, noble truth? ...FH 123.2

God does not ask men and women to surrender anything that is for the health of soul or body, but He does ask them to surrender debasing, enfeebling vices which, if cherished, will exclude them from heaven. He leaves them room for every pleasure that can be enjoyed without compunction of conscience, and remembered without remorse. He asks them, for their present and eternal good, to cultivate those virtues that bring health to the body and strength to the soul. Pure thoughts and correct habits are necessary to our happiness as human beings and as Christians. Everything of a debasing character must be overcome if we would see the King in His beauty....FH 123.3

The Lord can and will help everyone who seeks His help in the effort to become pure and holy.... Have earnest efforts been made to overcome natural inclinations to wrong, to conquer the habits and practices that were a part of the life before the acceptance of the truth? Are those who claim to believe the truth as untidy and disorderly in the home and as un-Christlike in the daily life as before they professed to accept Christ? If so, they are not showing forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness. They have not put on Christ's righteousness.FH 123.4

Strive to make decided improvement. Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. Be neat and tidy in your dress, and kind and courteous in your manner. Be pure and refined, for heaven is the very essence of purity and refinement. As God is pure and holy in His sphere, so we are to be in our sphere.FH 123.5

Read carefully and critically the parable of the wedding garment, and make a personal application of the lessons it teaches.... Those who make a profession of faith, and yet remain unchanged in habit and practice, are represented ... by the man who came to the feast without a wedding garment.—The Review and Herald, February 26, 1901.FH 123.6