Good evening. Let's start this
evening's worship by singing hymn 15 out of the Spiral Bound
Hymnal. 15. And we'll stand together. It is finished, Jesus cried Then
he bowed his head and died Died for sins but not his own And
redemption's work was done Justice then was satisfied, God's elect
are justified, Righteousness our Lord brought in, And removed
His people's sin. Sin and death and hell subdued
by the power of Christ's blood, grace to sinners now is given,
pardon, holiness, and heaven. It is finished, can it be, That
Christ's blood was shed for me? Yes, I know He died for me, For
by grace I now believe. Be seated. No sweeter words to a believer's
heart is finished. Everything that God requires,
the Lord Jesus provides. Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews
chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. And we'll
begin reading at verse one. God who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets. Hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things
and by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholdeth
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which
of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day
I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth
in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all
the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, who
maketh this angel's spirit and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the son he saith, thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. It's the father speaking to his
son, he calls him God. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
That's a reference to the Holy Spirit and we have an anointing
of the Spirit of God in part. He had an anointing of the Holy
Spirit in fullness. He was anointed with the oil
of gladness above us. He's the Christ, the anointed
one. And thou, Lord, in the beginning
hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
works of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest. and they shall wax old as doth
a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall
be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail. Let's pray. Our blessed heavenly Father,
Thank you for the revelation that you have given to us of
thy dear son. Thank you, Lord, that you sent
him into this world, born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem those of us who were cursed by the law. Lord, we rejoice
in knowing that his work of redemption was successful, that he finished
the work that you sent him to do, that he did it in the full
power of the Holy Spirit and Lord, that our ability to believe
on him and rest in him and look to him and rejoice in him is
the evidence that he did it for us. Lord, forgive us for our
unbelief. We pray that for Christ's sake,
Lord, that you would minister grace to our hearts and cause
us to rest and rejoice once again in the accomplished work of thy
dear son, the putting away of our sins and the establishment
of a perfect righteousness before thee. Increase our faith, we
ask it in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand again and we'll sing
hymn number 17 in the hardback hymnal, 17. Yeah. Come thou fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace. From your mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come. And I hope by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger Interposed
his precious blood O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm
constrained to be Let thy goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering
heart to thee Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Matthew
14. We're gonna be looking at the same verses that we looked
at last Wednesday night. I've titled this message, Christ,
Our Righteousness. Our Righteousness. And He's all
our righteousness. We have no righteousness outside
of Him. Verse 34. And when they were
gone over, they came into the land of Gennesaret. And when
the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all
that country round about and brought unto him all that were
diseased and besought him that they might only touch the hem
of his garment And as many as touched were made perfectly whole. Last Wednesday night, we concentrated
our thoughts on the hymn of his garment. And I know I was encouraged to
know that a little with the Lord is much. that one drop of oil off of Aaron's
robe would be sufficient, that one crumb from the master's table,
that one word from the Lord would be sufficient to heal us. It's just the way in which the
Lord reveals the glory of Christ, that no flesh could glory in
his presence, that he demonstrates his glory little by little, precept
by precept, line by line. Growth in grace is very gradual. We just sang. We're prone to
wander. We wish we could, you know, we're
oftentimes, we're like a, you know, a 12-year-old who wants
to be 18, you know, just overnight. But it doesn't happen that way,
does it? Doesn't happen that way. And the pearl, the one pearl of great
price, the Lord Jesus reveals himself as, and that all else
is sold for him. Let him who glory, glory's glory
in the Lord, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Tonight I want us to to look at the garment. We started
with the hymn, but I want us to think and I trust rejoice
in the significance of our Lord's garment. Because surely it is
a picture of our covering and our righteousness before God.
We see it all throughout the scriptures. Before we even get into those
scriptures, I want you to notice with me the posture that must
be taken in order to touch the hem of the master's garment.
We know that that woman with an issue of blood came crawling
through the crowd thinking if I could just touch the hem of
his garment. And what'd the Lord say? Virtue
has gone out from me. And that word virtue is power.
Who touched me? Well, Lord, everybody's touching
you. No, no, somebody not only in
a posture but in a spirit of grace and faith has touched me. And the woman came and told him all
the truth. She was unclean. She was supposed
to identify herself as unclean, and she hadn't done it. What a contrast here. We see in the Old Testament,
there are several times in the Old Testament where the scripture
speaks of someone who is unclean touching a person who is clean
and that person who was clean now has become unclean because
they've been touched by someone. And that was the law. And what a contrast there is
between law and grace. Because here we have a picture
of one who is unclean touching one who is clean and in rather
making the one who is clean unclean, he makes us clean. Perfectly
whole. Perfectly whole. Now there was
a time when we touched him and he was made unclean. And that
was at the cross. Psalm 85. It says that mercy and truth
met together. Truth could not be sacrificed
for mercy. God would be merciful, but he
would do it in such a way as to maintain his truth. And so mercy and truth have met
together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. How could that be? God made him
who knew no sin to be made sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. And so we touched him with our
sin on Calvary's cross and God imputed to him all the sins of
all of God's people and he became unclean and became the sacrifice
for sin. But here Here we have the unclean touching
the clean and being made clean. That's the touch of faith, brethren.
That's how we come. We come knowing that there was
a time when the Lord, when the Lord bore our sins in his body
upon that tree and put them away. And now How many times we read
in the Bible of individuals falling at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
Here's the posture. We come to touch the hymn of
his garment, we've got to be down, we've got to be down low. And it's a posture of worship
and adoration. And we see it in many characters
of the Bible. We saw it with Peter, we saw
it with Mary. We saw it with Jairus, right
at the same time that that woman who had an issue of blood came
and touched the hem of his garment, Jairus comes and the scripture
says he fell at the feet of the Lord. And that's how we come. We come in this posture of worship,
not just in body, but more importantly in spirit. Turn with me to Revelation
chapter one. Revelation chapter one. Look with me at verse 17. John has just seen the Lord Jesus
in a way that no man's ever seen him before. And he describes
what he saw in the previous verses. And what a glorious manifestation
of Christ that he was given privilege to. And verse 17, it says, and
when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his
right hand upon me saying unto me, fear not, I am the first
and the last. The first thing the Lord speaks
is don't be afraid. Yes, I'm God. And yes, you are
taking your proper place in bowing before me in worship. But you
have no reason to be afraid. And he tells him why. Look at
the next verse. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. I have the keys of death
and hell. And what I open, no man can shut.
So here's our hope that the Lord Jesus, when we come, prostrate
before him, falling at his feet, touching the hem of his garment
in faith, he says to us, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. I died. and in my death I put
away your sin. And I'm alive now. The success of what I did in
putting away your sin is evidenced by my resurrection. And our Lord
is alive. Oh. You know, the gospel's good
news, isn't it? It's... News, in order to be news, has
to be fresh, it has to be alive, it has to be current. And the Word of God is called
the Living Word. And it's because when the Lord
gives us the grace to come and to touch the hem of His garment
in faith, and to bow before Him in worship, that He touches us. And he speaks peace and hope
and comfort to our hearts and gives us assurance that our sin's
been put away, that there's no reason to fear him for wrath. That's the point here. We fear
him in worship always, but we have no reason to fear the judgment
of God. We have no reason to fear his wrath. That's been,
that Lord Jesus has called our propitiation. And so we have
a, write these things which you
have seen and things which are and the things which are to be
hereafter. Write them down, John. Here's
the truth. This is our hope. And we come
to the Lord based on what's been written. what's been written. Thomas, it's good that you've
seen me and you believe, but blessed are those who have not
seen me yet they believe. Based on what? Your testimony.
Your testimony. The testimony of God's word,
the living word of God. Oh, I hope that. You know, the
difference between news and a documentary is the documentary just rehearses
historical events. And I, Have a, you know, I can do that. I can look back at historical
events in the Bible and see them just as documentary facts. Oh
Lord, spare us. Spare us from that. Cause your
word to be alive. Cause the gospel to be news to
us. Cause us to come fresh and bow
and worship thee in spirit. In the power of your Holy Spirit
and according to the truth of your word. That's how we come. And when we do, we are worshiping
him as our righteousness, knowing that that's what this garment
is a picture of. As these people were, we are
diseased with sin. We're in need of the Savior.
We're in need of a substitute. We're in need of Christ to stand
in our stead before God Almighty. And so we come before Him, always
dependent upon Him for that end. And so, this is what, you and I are naked
before God. You know, this matter of being
of having a robe of righteousness, which is what this clearly is
a picture of, goes all the way back to the garden. The Bible tells us in Genesis
chapter 2, the last verse of that chapter, that Adam and Eve
were naked and they were not ashamed. They had no shame. for their nakedness and what
happens as soon as they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, what happened? Their eyes were open and they
saw themselves as naked and they were afraid and they hid themselves
among the trees and they sewed together fig leaves to try to
cover their nakedness. There's the result of sin. Sin brings shame. And it causes us to see something
that we didn't see before. They were naked but not ashamed
in the same way that a small child doesn't think about their
nakedness. They've got no reason to be ashamed. As soon as that innocence is
taken away by sin, We say, with Adam, I
heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid. I was afraid. And the scripture says that the
Lord clothed Adam with coats of skin. That's the same robe
that we're looking at now. This robe is all the way through.
We've got to have our nakedness covered. And the only way for
us not to be afraid is to have our nakedness covered before
God. And so we're We're touching the hymn of his righteousness,
the hymn of his garment, knowing that our righteousness is all
of them are as filthy rags before God. We have no righteousness. He is all of our righteousness. Adam actually said, because I
was naked, I hid from thee. And God made him coats of skin. and clothed them. I've heard men question whether
or not Adam was saved. Of course Adam was saved. The
Lord covered him. He covered his nakedness with
a fleece. He said, well, he punished him
by putting him out. No, that was mercy that God put
him out of the garden. Because the scripture says that
God set at the east gate of the garden cherubim with a flaming
sword to guard the way, not to the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, which they had eaten of and caused them to die,
but to keep them from the tree, to guard the way to the tree
of life. Had they remained in the garden in their fallen state,
they would have never had the blessing. spiritual death of
physical death in order to be made alive spiritually you see
that's why God put them out of the garden and you and I have
been yes we have the consequences of our sin we We labor by the
sweat of our brow and the land produces thorns and thistles
and Eve still labors in childbearing and all those things that come
as a result of sin. But physical death, brethren,
for the child of God is not a curse. It's not a curse. The Lord Jesus
was cursed in his death, and he died so that we don't have
to die. He said to Martha, Martha, I am the resurrection of the
life. He that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. See, Adam
was put out of the garden so that he could shed that body
of flesh. so that the corruptible could
be made incorruptible, so that the mortal could be made immortal.
It all happened as a result of God clothing him with coats of
skin. So this need to touch the hem
of the Lord's garment for the unclean to touch the one who
is clean and to have him make us, as our text says, perfectly
whole, perfectly whole. The spirit of just saints made
perfect, the scripture says. That's talking about those who
have gone to be with the Lord, that they've been made perfect.
And that's our hope, that right now we're perfect in Christ,
by the imputation of his perfect righteousness. Abraham, Genesis,
Romans chapter four, Abraham believed God and it was counted
to him for righteousness. And yet we look through a glass
darkly now, but then face to face. Oh. No, what God did for Adam
in the garden and putting him out of the garden was God's mercy. It wasn't judgment, it was salvation. It was God providing for Adam so that he could experience the
fullness of his righteousness. This This word, this truth of the
righteousness of Christ is seen in the covering that's spoken
of in the Old Testament. That the ark was pitched within
and without and that word for pitched is the word covering.
You see, we've got to be covered of our nakedness because of our
fall in Adam and here we come and we touch the hem of his garment
and he clothes us in his righteousness. When John gets to heaven, he
sees the saints in glory and he says, who are these in white
robes? And the Lord tells him, these
are the ones who have washed their robes in the blood of the
Lamb and they've been made perfectly white, perfectly white. Here's where we're coming to
Christ for him You know, I started to title this message, The Robe
of Righteousness, but I changed it to Christ Our Righteousness,
because that's what this robe represents. All the way back
to that lamb that was slain in the garden, all the way through
to Revelation, the covering that we have before God is nothing
other than the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
our righteousness before God. In Jeremiah chapter 33, and she
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. I love that, don't
you? Don't you? That this imputation of righteousness
is not just a theological thing. It's not just a doctrinal thing. It's not just a something. No,
it's the person of Christ, the living son of God. who gives
to his people when they come before him, postured in worship,
touching the hem of his garment that they might be made whole. Falling at his feet, perfectly
righteous before God. Genesis chapter 27, Rebecca. is going to deceive her husband
Isaac by making sure that the birthright that belonged to Esau
was going to go to Jacob. So what did Rebecca do? She put
Esau's clothes on Jacob. And she took a fleece and put
it on his arm because the scripture says that Esau was a hairy man
and Jacob was not. And Jacob goes before his father,
Isaac. And Isaac says, the smell is
Esau, and the feel is Esau, but the voice is Jacob. Now putting
all the issues of deception aside, we have a picture here of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Providing for us that sweet,
what is the smell a picture of in the Bible? It's a picture
of prayers. Our prayers come up before him as a sweet-smelling
aroma. Is it our prayers that saves
us? Is it our saying, Lord save me, that saves us? No, it was
the Lord Jesus who prayed for us. Father, forgive them for
they know not what they do. Father, I pray for them which
thou hast given me. Peter, be of good cheer. I prayed
for you. You're going to deny me, but
I prayed for you. And so the smell coming before
the Father, and when we pray, we pray in Jesus' name. In other
words, Lord, fix these prayers and make them right to the Father.
My prayers are so feeble. You know, I'm like a four-year-old
out there in the yard gathering up flowers, you know, for my
mother, and when she takes them, she doesn't just jam them in
a vase the way that you gave them to her. No, she arranges
them, and she displays them, but only after she's put her
touch to them. And so it is with the Lord Jesus,
who has taken our prayers, and we pray them in faith. We pray
them looking to Christ, looking to him for all of our righteousness, And Esau said, the smell. Isaac said, the smell is Esau.
And the feel is Esau. The voice is Jacob. Oh, we come
to him crying in our voice. But we're looking. We're looking
in faith. And whatever's not a faith is
sin. And so whatever we do, We're always looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ for all of our righteousness before God. Lord, whatever you
enable me to do in service to thee, it cannot be made acceptable
because I did it. It can only be made acceptable
in faith. And what a perfect righteousness
we have in Christ. That covering is all throughout
the scripture. It's what the mercy seat was
all about. When the priest would go into
the holies of holies, Aaron would go in on the day of atonement
and he would place the blood on the mercy seat and God said,
here I will meet with you. And that was called a covering.
And the Lord said, when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. Scripture is very, very clear
about Aaron's robe. We saw last Wednesday night when
Aaron was anointed that the oil went down his beard and down
his robe and dripped off the hem of his garment. But on the
hem of that garment, the Lord told Moses, when you make Aaron's
robe, You put on the bottom of the garment, you put a pomegranate
and a bell, a pomegranate and a bell, a pomegranate and a bell,
all the way around the hem of that garment. And then when the bride is praying
in the Song of Solomon, she says that I've brought my wine, my
spiced wine, Spiced with the sweetness of the pomegranate
juice. What a beautiful picture of the bitterness that the Lord
experienced when he drank that cup dry. He drank damnation dry. He drank the dregs of that cup. when he went to Calvary's cross.
But as a result of that, we touched the hem of his garment and that
wine is now sweet wine. It's mixed, it's spiced wine
with the pomegranate. There we have a picture of the
Lord Jesus who has sweetened our union with God so that the
bitterness of God's wrath need not be. experienced and the bells
that were on his garment. Now, there is a tradition. It's not, there's no place in
scripture where they say that Aaron had a rope tied around
his ankle and if they heard the bells stop, they knew that he
had done something wrong in the holies of holies and God had
killed him. They could pull his body out without actually going
in there. That's not in scripture. I don't know whether that happened
or not. but I know that he had bells. And I know that those
bells told them where he was and what
he was doing. And that those bells rang success
when he came out of the holies of holies, that he made an atonement
that the Lord was pleased with. that the Shekinah glory of God
came down on that mercy seat while Aaron was in there. And
the fact that the bells were still ringing was the assurance
that those people needed to know that God was pleased with the
sacrifice that he made and he came out. That's the robe. That's all these
pictures beginning with Adam and going all the way through
to the book of Revelation. Here's why we come to Christ.
Because apart from him, there's nothing but bitter dregs with
God's wrath. Apart from his righteousness
and he standing in my stead, I have no reason to believe that
there would be any sweetness. But in Christ, in Christ, don't
be afraid. I am the first and the last,
I died and I forever live. We have an advocate with the
father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, the righteous one. What a perfect, they were made
perfectly righteous. Here's this, this is the robe.
And it's given to us over and over and over again in pictures
and types all throughout the scripture. And the Lord Jesus
said in Matthew chapter five, after he said, I have not come
to destroy the law and the prophets, I have come to fulfill it. and
accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall not by any means enter into the kingdom
of God. Now that would have been a shock
to them because the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees
as far as they were concerned was you couldn't exceed that
righteousness. And then the Lord even made it
more difficult when he said to them, you have heard. by them
of old. He's talking about these scribes
and Pharisees. That thou shall not commit murder.
But I say unto thee, was the Lord bringing about a new law?
No, this was always the law. You see, the scribes and Pharisees
were focusing their righteousness on their outward behavior. And
the Lord said, those scribes and Pharisees are telling you,
as long as you don't murder somebody, you're not guilty of murder.
But my law has always been a matter of the heart. And I say unto
you, if you have ought against your brother without a cause,
you've already committed murder against him. Your righteousness
has to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
You heard them say that thou shall not commit adultery. But
that law went further than that. It always has been. And they
may take pride in the fact that they think that they've kept
the law because they haven't done it. But I say unto thee,
and this is the way it's always been. The Lord wasn't changing
the law. He was interpreting the law. I did not come to destroy the
law and the prophets. I came to fulfill them and accept
your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees. I say unto you that if you Lust
after a woman in your heart, you've already committed adultery.
Man looks at the outward appearance, God's looking at the heart. Lord,
how am I gonna have that kind of righteousness? If you're able to see every thought
and intention of my heart, Lord, how am I gonna have a righteousness? Come like these people. Touch Him. His righteousness comes from
this robe. Lord, I need your righteousness. What power. All power has been given unto
me in heaven and in earth. Oh, the Father has given him
power to give his righteousness. to as many as the Father has
given to him. Lord, I've got to have a righteousness outside
of myself. Turn with me to Revelation 7. I did a poor job in quoting these
verses a few minutes ago. Let's read them together. Revelation
chapter 7. Verse 11, and all the angels
stood round about the throne, about the elders and the four
beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped
God. It's not how we come, it's how we worship. Saying amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God
forever and ever. Amen. So be it. And one of the
elders answered, saying unto me, what are these which are
arrayed in white robes, and whence come they? And I said unto him,
sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation, and this is not You know, the
dispensationalists will say, well, you know, at the end of
time, there's going to be a great tribulation and you're going
to have to die for the gospel in order to be saved after the
rapture. No, this is not that. This is talking about where we
are now. This is the world in which we
live. In this world, you shall have
great tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the
world. This is the shadow of the valley of death that believers
have been walking through since the beginning of time. And these are they which have
come out of the great tribulation and they've washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Lord, we're so prone to wander. Lord, we. We have no righteousness
in ourselves. The only way that I'm going to
have the righteousness of Christ is to have that robe washed in
his blood, his covering. That's what he said to John in
chapter one that we've already read. Don't be afraid. I'm the
first and the last. I'm the cause of your salvation.
I'm the finish, the fulfillment of your salvation. I was dead
and now I'm alive. We look in faith to the successful
sacrifice that the Lord Jesus made on Calvary's cross for our righteousness before
God. Look in faith to him. Outside of him, we have none.
Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we pray,
Lord, that you would speak hope and peace and grace to our hearts
and reveal to us the glory of thy dear son and give us faith
to look and rest and believe on him. For we ask it in Christ's
name, amen. 258, let's stand together. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock. that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love, and covers me there with his hand, and covers me
there with his hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock. that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. and covers me there with his
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment he crowns and filled with his fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory
to God, For such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock, that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. and covers me there with his
hand. When clothed in his brightness
transported, I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock, that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. and covers me there with his
hand.