the feast is represented a work of judgment. The guests at the gospel feast are those who profess to serve God, those whose names are written in the book of life, but not all who profess to be Christians are true disciples. Before the final reward is given, it must be decided who are fitted to share in the inheritance of the righteous. This decision must be made prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, for when he comes, his reward is with him, to give every man according to his work shall be. Revelation 22, 12. Before his coming then, the character of every man's work will have been determined, and to every one of Christ's followers the reward will have been apportioned according to his deeds. So we see that this judgment takes place before the second coming of Christ. I hope we all understand this in this room, but brothers and sisters, not all Seventh-day Adventists understand this. I'm sure you're aware, New Theology teaches that it's at Christ's second coming that this is all determined. Selected Messages, Book 1, page 125. In 1844, our great high priest entered into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to begin the work of the investigative judgment. The cases of the righteous dead have been passing in review before God. When that work shall be completed, judgment is to be pronounced upon the living. How precious, how important are these solemn moments. Each of us has a case pending in the courts of heaven. We are individually to be judged according to the deeds done in the body. Notice that she says the righteous dead are being judged, but she says they're passing in review. One at a time, the Lord's going through the righteous dead, and the warning message to us is that very soon the work will begin with the living, and because we profess to be among God's people, we will be there right at the beginning of the judgment of the living. We all have no reason outside of the Lord laying to rest by some accident that we don't see coming. There's no reason why we shouldn't all expect to be here when the Sunday law arrives and when the judgment of the living begins. So depending on what our mental spiritual state is this morning, we can listen to this material and be thinking about other things at the same time, or we can be listening to this material and noticing that all the way through it, what Sister White is emphasizing, what the Bible is emphasizing, is that we have to have our character ready when our name comes up in the judgment, and our name's coming up in the judgment sooner than we think. While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin among God's people upon earth. This work is more clearly presented in the messages of Revelation 14. That's the great controversy 425. I hope we're all familiar with that.