Would you join me in the book
of Isaiah this morning? Once again, it's so good to be
with you I've enjoyed this time immensely and I know I'm I'm
speaking figuratively, please but in the hands of God figuratively
he has a sheet of paper this morning and everyone on that
sheet of paper that's supposed to be here is here and and not
one is missing. It's the appointed congregation
for this moment. And I just trust the Lord in
that. I never get distraught in the
dowels when five people show up. That's the appointed number. Happy 4th of July. Over the millennia, God has allowed
a number of government forms to be experimented with on this
earth. When I was studying in college,
they shared with me monarchy and oligarchy and democracy and
dictatorships and republics and anarchy. There's probably two
or three more that were experimented with, but not one of those forms
of government ever caused anybody to cry out to God for mercy.
It's the preaching of the gospel. And if this country fall and
turn into an anarchy or a dictatorship, we still have the privilege of
preaching the gospel. Paul did it wrong. And people
in Caesar's household were saved. So I just don't get too worried
about things. Sometimes I'm concerned, but
I just don't get worried about it. Well, join me, if you would,
here in the book of Isaiah. And we'd like to speak a few
moments this morning on his robe. His robe. In the book of Isaiah,
chapter 61, I'd like to read verses 8, 9, 10, and 11. of the 61st chapter of the book
of Isaiah. For I, the Lord, love judgment. I hate robbery for burnt offering. And I'll direct their work in
truth. I love that very phrase there, I will direct thy work
in truth, their work in truth. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them. Their seed shall be known among
the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All that see
them shall acknowledge them, and they are of the seed which
the Lord hath blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. For he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels. You know, that's one thing about
going to a wedding. It doesn't take much to identify
who's going to get married that day. By their dress. They have identified themselves. And then it goes on to say, for
as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth
the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord
God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before
all nations. God demands absolute perfection. He will not accept nothing else.
I've had people say, well, I'm going to start doing good from
here on. And the Lord, what about all
that pastime? You know, we got all of that
history. We just never can reach perfection. It is an impossibility on our
part. We may reach the preacher's perfection,
and we may reach the priest's perfection, but we will never
reach God's perfection. We must have His perfection,
and it is termed in the Scriptures as His righteousness. We must
have His righteousness, and it must be given to us. It is not
something that we appropriate by our good works, but it's something
that is given to us. Now, a picture of this is found
in the Garden of Eden when the Lord, He had pronounced all of
those judgments upon the serpent and the earth and all those other
things. It says, He clothed Adam and Eve with the garments, with
the skins of animals. Now, sharing with you this morning,
that just reminds me of having to dress an infant. They don't
work. They don't help. It's only after
we get some age to us that we start to help. But an infant
is helpless. And God dealt with these helpless
couple, our first parents, and clothed them with the skins of
animals. They didn't participate in skinning the animals. They
didn't participate in putting those skins together to form
a coat. They didn't participate in anything. They were receptive
to it. They received it. And God gave
it to them. And that's how we find God's
righteousness for us. Now this morning, for a few moments,
I'd like to look at three passages of scripture in the New Testament
about the robes or clothing that the Lord Jesus Christ himself
wore that shares with us much about our robe of righteousness. The clothing that the Lord wore,
there are three incidents in the time in the life of the Lord
Jesus that really spoke to my heart about righteousness and
I'd like to look at them today. Now they are typical, they are
pictorial, they are not reality. Even the pictures of Christ's
clothing is not reality to us. It takes the pure righteousness
of Christ imputed to us for us to enjoy it. And that only comes
as God works a work of grace. We're just not standing out in
the field someday and he says, okay, it's required on his behalf,
it's required that we are permitted to hear the gospel. To begin
with, it is offensive, because it is so contradictory to our
very nature. The gospel is an offense. The cross is an offense. We don't
have to make it offensive, and it already is. It's offensive
to our very nature. But God works a work of grace,
and he makes his people gracious. And they are so pleased to be
clothed with this robe of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ,
Christ himself, our righteousness. So let's look at these three
passages of scripture in the New Testament that share these
wonderful truths about the righteousness of Christ. And first of all,
would you turn with me to the book of Luke chapter 9. Luke
chapter 9. In Luke chapter 9 there is an
incident that took place in the life of the Lord Jesus. Now I
want us to just think about this for a moment. The Lord never
took a step that He did not predestinate before the foundation of the
world. He never went anywhere that he did not predestinate
to go to before the foundation of the world. And he never met
anybody that he did not predestinate before the foundation of the
world to meet during his time on this earth. He met a madman
of Gadarene in the tombs by divine appointment. He met a woman at
the well. by divine appointment. He met
all of his disciples, apostles, by divine appointment. He had
an interest to fulfill his eternal purpose while he was here on
this earth. And all of that, he set his face
as a flint to Jerusalem to become the ransom for his people. So
as we follow this out, everything that happened in the life of
the Lord Jesus Christ, From his conception to his death on the
cross and ascension back to heaven, all of that earthly ministry
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, was predestinated before the
foundation of the world, and it was worked out exactly according
to script. I must needs go to Samaria. And we could just put that on
everything he ever did. And we had not harmed the Scriptures
one bit. I must needs go up to a mountain
and be transfigured. So join me here in the book of
Luke chapter 9. And in verse 28, And it came
to pass, about an eight days after these sayings, he took
Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion
of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white, and
notice this word, glistering. Glycerine. and behold there talked
with him two men which were Moses and Elias who appeared in glory
and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Now look at this passage of scripture
and we find that his raiment now that's what I want to look
at today as we looked over there in the book of Isaiah about that
robe of righteousness and that covering that Adam was given
by God Almighty there in the garden This robe, this raiment,
this clothing of the Lord Jesus Christ did something that is
recorded here in the Word of God. It says there in the book
of Luke chapter 9 that his raiment, verse 29, was white and glistering. Well, you know, I used to read
that wrong. Gleaming or gleaming, all kinds
of words. And then one day, the Lord made
me read it. Has that ever happened to you?
You thought you knew until you read it right? And I'm thankful
for that because it's the Lord that helps us to read it right.
It's the Lord that makes us to read it right. It's the Lord
that makes us to come to the right conclusion. And that does
not happen in completeness until after we're born again. We think
we know something about the Bible. I had to make this confession
after the Lord saved me. I knew something about the Lord
in my religion. But in the new birth, I knew
him." Totally different. Makes the
Bible afresh. Totally afresh. It's not history
anymore, it's the message of the gospel. And here we read,
his raiment was white and glistering. Now, that word white It could
be translated light or bright or brilliant. Something happened
to him on that Mount of Transfiguration with his own person, his own
persona. Something happened there that
revealed to his disciples something about the glory of God in eternity
past and eternity future. Here he is in his glory. or as much as could be revealed
at that time. I don't understand all I know
about it, but something happened on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And it was astounding. It was astonishing. It was something
that caught their eye. It was something that even put
their brain into gear that they should have kept their mouth
shut. Does that ever happen to you? We should build a tabernacle
for you and Moses and Elias. And the Lord says, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. He is the
only hope. The law could not save, the prophets
could not save, but both of them spoke of this one, the Lord Jesus
and his righteousness and his ability to pay a price that no
one else could pay on the cross. He could ransom his people. He could purchase his people
by his own blood. Well, this word glistening is
to send forth lightning. Can you imagine seeing the raiment
of someone that sent forth lightning? My grandmother used to have a
wool blanket. And one of the greatest experiences
I ever had was get to spend the night with my grandparents. And
she'd throw that wool blanket over. And on the underneath side,
my grandfather says, just rub your hands across there a little
bit. And there was electricity in there, static electricity.
We could have lightning underneath that blanket. It was fascinating. We were just, whoa, this is wonderful. Well, can you imagine that here
on the Mount of Transfiguration coming out a yard? I don't understand
all I know about it, but there's something happened here that
was not common. The disciples had never seen
a sight like this. These were shown of the glory
of God Almighty Christ Jesus the Lord. And it was a transfiguration
on that mount that they had never in their life ever seen. And
his raiment was so glistering. It was so white. It was so electrifying. You know there's one thing about
the righteousness of Christ? There's nothing in this world
like it. You can't manufacture this. The
righteousness by the law, it is just brown and dirty. It's unclean. But this robe,
this raiment was so bright and glistering that He was revealing
to His disciples and to us down here in 2021 at the Rescue Baptist
Church Bible Conference for the summer that this is something
that is not going to be found anywhere else. It's white and
blistering. There is an electricity about
it that you will find nowhere else. There's an animation in
this that you will never find in any other religion anywhere
in this world. In fact, we find out that everything,
and my dad and mother used to talk about those real bad religions. Buddhas, Mohammeds, and you know
what I got to put in the same collection now? Baptists. They all advertise their righteousness
by their own works. And yet the Lord shares with
us so emphatically, it's not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us, and it's
a righteousness you cannot find anywhere else, and it's the righteousness
that is given by God, imputed to us. So this wonderful experience
that these disciples got to see, and we get to read about today,
we get to see here that that raiment was special. And the righteousness of Christ
is beyond measure. It's beyond examination. It's
beyond thought. It's out of this world. It's
of God. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Matthew, if you would, chapter 14. The book of Matthew,
chapter 14. sharing in the word about the
raiment of the Lord Jesus Christ as it pictures the righteousness
of Christ. The righteousness of Christ that
he imputes to all of his people. Here in the book of Matthew chapter
14, begin reading with verse 34. Matthew chapter 14, begin
reading with verse 34. Now this is when the Lord and
His disciples, they were gone over, they came into the land
of Gennesaret. Let's just say this again, by
divine appointment. He didn't make a mistake going
anywhere. You know what's wonderful about
the Lord? He never had to try to catch His words right here.
Have you ever had to do that? He never spoke out of turn. He never spoke without reason. He never spoke that he had to
be, I'm sorry for that. You know, there was 5,000 people.
That's just counting the men. But there were women and children,
too. And he preached the gospel to them. And they got offended
at it. And they said, we can't handle
this. We're going to leave. And he didn't say one word. What
can we do to fix this problem? We need you. We need you. No.
You believe not? Because you're not of my sheep. Alright, now notice verse 35.
And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent
out into all the country round about, and brought unto him all
that were diseased. Can you imagine? They didn't
bring the king. They didn't bring the parliament.
They didn't bring anybody of authority. They brought the disease
to him. You know that's all we can do? We just... Bring the diseased. Come, hear this man that's preaching
the gospel. We already know their problem.
They're diseased. They don't have anything in themselves
that has any hope whatsoever. They're just diseased. Well,
it goes on to tell us here, and they besought Him that they might
only touch the hem of His garment, and as many as touched were made
perfectly whole. I read that and I just said, Everybody that touched the hem
of His garment was made perfectly whole. Now what does that say
about His righteousness? Well, the greatness is in Christ
our righteousness. He has the ability of curing
all our diseases. He has the ability of curing
our sin problem. He has the ability of doing for
us what we could not do for ourselves. He had the ability of keeping
all the promises of God. He had the ability of keeping
all the law of God. He had the ability of keeping
everything God demanded, but he also has the ability in that
to give to us what we desperately need, and that is His righteousness. And by it, it is symbolized we
are healed. Our sin is taken as far as the
east is from the west. We no longer have that hanging
over us. We can go before God Almighty
with a clean heart. We can come boldly into His presence
because He has taken the initiative to forgive us all our sins because
of the blood of Jesus Christ that dealt with it upon the cross. He might redeem us from all iniquity. I'm just amazed at the words
of the Bible that share with us all that Christ has done for
us and what His righteousness imputed to us means to us. He
never gives His righteousness where He didn't take care of
the problem to begin with. He never gives us that robe of
righteousness if, first of all, He has not taken care of the
problem before the foundation of the world in electing us and
then coming to this world and dying for us. He never wastes
the cloth. It's always His robe that He
gives to where He has promised to give it. By His own blood. Nobody else's, by His own blood. Turn with me, if you would, to
the Book of Romans, chapter 4. The Book of Romans, chapter 4,
verses 6 through 9. Romans, chapter 4, verses 6 through
9. David described it. Old Testament. Why? Because he's led of the
Holy Spirit. He's a servant. You know what David was? He was
a secretary. He's a reporter. Holy men of God speak as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. He's just a reporter, a secretary.
Verse 6, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven. and whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin." What a blessed state. And that righteousness
only is given where he's already done the work. where he's already
made sure of the sin problem. Now, there's one more I wish
you'd turn to about this robe, this raiment of the Lord. It's
white and glistering. It's beyond anything we could
ever imagine. The righteousness of Christ is
beyond anything. It's beyond imagination. It's
out of our scope to understand. But we, by faith, take it. We,
by faith, believe it. We just say yes and amen. He's
taken care of all my sin. And it is a righteousness that
dealt with all my diseases. Now turn with me over here to
the book of John chapter 19 for our last passage of scripture
as we look at this raiment of the Lord pictured as the righteousness
of Christ given to us. In the book of John, chapter
19, we're witnessing one of the events. You know, oh, it's the
worst event that ever took place on the face of the earth. That
human beings took the Son of God and crucified Him. And the
church says, that's wrong. This is the most glorious event
that has ever taken place on the face of the earth. He paid
for my sin there. It's a glorious event. Oh, the
seven sayings of Christ on the cross, they're glorious statements.
The events that took place there. He went before Pilate, and Pilate
made a comment that can just resound in the halls of justice
in eternity. I find no fault in him. And then what did they do? They
took him out and crucified him. Hallelujah, they found no fault
in him. God found no fault in him. They took him out and crucified
him. Now, around that cross, there's
some Roman soldiers. And they're going to do something
with some raiment. John chapter 19, verse 19. And Pilate wrote a title and
put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of
Nazareth, the king of the Jews. You know what? That is what was
put on his death warrant. This is the reason for this happening. This title then read, many of
the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh
to the city. And it was written in Hebrew
and Greek and Latin. Let everybody read this. Then said the chief priests, of the Jews to Pilate, right?
Not the king of the Jews, but he said, I'm king of the Jews.
And Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written now.
Verse 23, notice this with me. Then the soldiers, when they
had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts. Now I don't know all the garments
that they wore in that day and time, but there is one garment
here that they dealt with very special. Some of it they could
just put, okay Bill you get this one, John you get this one, Pete
you get this one, oh Norm you get that one. They made four
piles. They're there guarding the cross.
Let's keep everybody away from here. We want this sentence to
be carried out. But there is a garment here that
was so special even to these nitwits who understood nothing. God had imposed upon them this
very activity. What's it going to say? They
paid four parts to every soldier a part and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam,
woven from top to bottom. And they said, therefore, among
themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it
shall be that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, they
parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast
lots. These things, therefore, the
soldiers did." By divine appointment. They're doing exactly what they're
supposed to be doing and they think it's all of their own.
God is overriding everything that took place there that day.
I got into a discussion with my mother one time. She said,
you've just made yourself a puppet. And I said, it all depends who's
the puppeteer. When I see God working with these
soldiers to do exactly what the Word of God said they would do,
I say, thank you, Lord. Carried out exactly. Now notice
that one piece of cloth, that one raiment. What does it say
about it? The caslots, why? For the coat was without seam. Now what does that tell us about
the Lord and His righteousness? Without seeing. He's holy, harmless, and undefiled. Without seeing. He can't find
where there is any part here that is at fault. He's without
seeing. 1 Peter 2.22-24, who did no sin. People tried to find fault with
him, but they couldn't. He's without sin. He is that
glorious white and glistering. He is that glorious taking care
of all diseases and he can do this because he is without seeing. In Him is no sin. How glorious is His righteousness,
and how glorious is the Son of God, who imputes to us His righteousness,
because you can find no fault in Him. Oh my goodness, how glorious
that is. You know, if you look at Abraham,
a lot of folks look at Abraham. You can find fault in him. That
guy was a liar. The Bible records it. Oh, let's
go to David. David? We don't want to go there.
Oh, let's go back. Let's go back. Oh, we can't go
to Adam. Hmm. Where can we go? Moses! That guy's a murderer. You can't go anywhere in the
history of man and find anybody that has without seam. There's only one. Jesus Christ
the righteous. Now if you have his righteousness,
it's like nothing you've ever had in your life. It's a righteousness
that takes care of all diseases. Because it's a righteousness
of someone who had none. We're so thankful for the righteousness
of Christ. We're thankful He imputes it
to us, He gives it to us, He grants it to us, He closes with
us, and it's ours. It's not something that we just
put on and take off. It is... I don't know how to
explain it. It's just like my epidermis and
my dermis. He's made it ours. It belongs
to the church. It belongs to every member of
the church. It is so glorious. And it has taken care of the
issues that God had with us in Adam. And it has fulfilled all
that God demands. It was supplied. And we can just
walk away and say, thank you, Lord.