Thank you, Brother James. Thank
God for His everlasting covenant, love for His people, love that
sent the Savior to bear our sins in His own body on the tree and
endure in our stead the wrath of God. Oh, love of God. Let's bow and thank God for His
love for unworthy sinners and ask Him to bless in this service. Lord, again, we cast ourselves
upon Your good mercy. And we give great thanksgiving,
Father, for Your love to us through Christ Jesus. as we read herein is love, not
that we love God, but that God loved us and gave his son to
be the propitiation for our sins. We thank you, Father, that the
son of your bosom, that one who has ever been your delight, who
has been with you always. We're thankful that He entered
into this world and laid down His life, the shepherd dying
for the sheep, to restore us, Father, unto You. We rejoice
in this great salvation that is ours through Christ, And we
know that you fully approved of and had pleasure in the sacrifice
that our Savior rendered unto you, a sacrifice of Himself,
for you raised Him from the dead, and you exalted Him to your own
right hand of glory. Our Savior is indeed the King
of kings and the Lord of lords. We bow to Him, we worship Him,
we adore Him, and we look forward to the day when we shall see
Him as He is, and we shall worship Him as we ought. Be with us now in this service
and give glory, Father, unto Yourself, O great Jehovah. And as you do that, then us sinners
will be blessed. For all things we're grateful.
For all things that come to us from your hands are according
to your infinite wisdom. And they shall all work out for
good to those who are your people. So speak, Lord, through me and
to these this evening. I ask in the name of the Son
of God and for His sake. Amen. Well, throughout the Word
of God, throughout the Scriptures, righteousness is often likened
to a coat, a robe, or a garment. When Adam fell, he and his wife,
made for themselves aprons of fig leaves. But that could not hide their
nakedness before God and their shame. But though they were deserving
of very swift justice, God having said, in the day ye eat thereof,
He will surely die." Though they were worthy of that, the Lord
passed by the sentence of death upon Adam and the woman, and
He killed animals in their stead. And we read in Genesis chapter
3 and verse 21, unto Adam also and to his wife, the Lord God
made coats of skin and clothed them. No doubt he removed the
fig leaf aprons from Adam and his wife, the garments that they
had woven with their own hands, which is a picture of man's self-righteousness
and man's attempt to cover his own shame and his own nakedness
before God by works of the flesh. So our Lord stripped them of
those fig leaf aprons, and the Lord got two animals, and He
killed them, He shed the blood, and He's the one who skinned
them, and He is the one who robed Adam and the woman, with these
coats of skins. I believe, though there is no
biblical evidence for this, but it is my contention that the
Lord then offered those sacrifices unto the Father because that
was the Lord Jesus in pre-incarnate form who spoke to Adam and the
woman. And it was our Savior who then
took the animals and He killed them and skinned them. And then
with those skins, He clothed Adam and his wife. I think the Son of God illustrated
for them what He would do Himself in 4,000 years. that he would offer himself the
perfect sacrifice to the Father that would satisfy divine justice,
put away the sins of his people. I am always preaching to you,
and God willing, I will preach these things to you until the
day that I have no ability to preach anymore, I'm always preaching
substitution and satisfaction. Our Lord Jesus, He was the substitute
for His people. He died in our stead, just like
those animals died in the stead of Adam and Eve. And our Lord
Jesus made full satisfaction to the justice of God. Nancy
and I, Shortly after we moved here, we bought two grave plots
out at Golden Oaks Cemetery. And it was interest free, so
we paid on it, and it has now been paid up. And so the lady
called us to the office this week, We not only bought those,
that's the only piece of ground we own in this world. And I don't plan on using that
indefinitely. I'll only need it until the Lord
comes back. But we bought that. That which came with it, of course,
was the vault and the grave marker. This past week, we went down
and we put on there exactly what we wanted with my name and Nancy's
name. And then you can put on it whatever
you want to put. It didn't cost any. It was in
the cost originally. And I had Nancy and I both agreed
under my name to put these words. He preached Christ's substitution
and satisfaction. And then she put a verse of scripture
under her name for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. This has been my subject ever
since I started preaching. And indeed, it is the subject
of every true preacher's message that of substitution and satisfaction. And our Lord Jesus, He found
suitable substitutes to die in the stead of Adam and his wife. And then by offering them unto
God, He made satisfaction on a temporary basis as a picture
of that that satisfaction he would render to God when he died
as the substitute for his people, as I said, some 4,000 years later. But those coats of skins, I pictured
righteousness. And as you go through the Bible,
and you can work your way through the scriptures, and looked at
the references that are readily available for you to read as
you take a concordance and look up the word righteousness. The
righteousness of our Lord Jesus is often spoken of as being a
robe, a coat, or a garment, which our Lord graciously gives to
us. And before he gives that to us,
he strips us of our self-righteous rags. Because it is written in
Isaiah 64 in verse six that we're all as an unclean thing. And the man who's writing that
by divine inspiration is Isaiah. He's a prophet of God. And he
says, we are all as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. That's what we produce. That's
the best we can produce, is just filthy rags. I don't want to
be found in my filthy rags when the Lord comes for me by way
of death or in His second coming, whichever happens first. I want
to be found in His righteousness. That's what I want. His righteousness,
which He Himself established. by His obedience unto death,
even the death of the cross. Look with me in Matthew 22. I'm going to start here. I'll
make my way back in just a little bit to that portion of Scripture
that Joe read to us, but look in Matthew 22. And this will
further establish what I've tried to say about righteousness throughout
the Scriptures, being likened unto a garment or a robe or a
coat. Which doesn't mean, by the way,
that the righteousness that the Lord gives us is just a pasted-on
righteousness. It is more than that. We're made
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus as a result of his sacrifice
upon the cross of Calvary. Here in Matthew 22, and I'll
not take the time to read the whole context, it's about a king
making a wedding feast for his son. And verse 11 is where I'll
pick up the reading. And when the king came in to
see the guests, here are all these people that were compelled
to come to the wedding feast, and as was typical back then,
they all would wear garments exactly alike, all provided by
the king. He saw there, when the king came
in to see the guests, he saw there, he looked very intently
upon one man. This one man had not on a wedding
garment. His garment was different. Everybody
else, let's liken it to this, it's like if, We're all going
to be dressed in the same garment and back there in the vestibule,
here are robes. Here's extra small and small
and medium and large and extra large to whatever is your size. And you come in and you get that
robe. Then you come in here and everybody looks alike. Everybody's dressed alike. Well,
this one man, he came in, he did not avail himself of the
robe that the king had provided. He felt he was dressed very appropriately
in his own robe, in his own garment. That is, the picture is, he was
dressed in his own self-righteous rags. which to him look just
fine. That's the way it is with a natural
man. A natural man thinks the good
that I do looks good to me and it looks good to God. It doesn't
look good to God. He does not approve of it. There's
only one righteousness that he approves of, and that's the Lord
our righteousness, that's Christ Jesus and his righteousness. So he saw there a man which had
not on a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, Friend,
how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And
he says this in front of everybody. And this man is speechless. He has no excuse. He's the odd
one out. Everybody else has thankfully
and gratefully taken the garment that the king provided for them,
but not this man. He was speechless. Then said
the king to the servants, bind him, bind him hand and foot and
take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There should
be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called, but few
are chosen. And I would ask you this tonight,
all of you who are here and those of you who are watching by way
of the internet, What sort of garment do you have on in the
eyes of God? Are you robed? in a fig leaf
apron that you have put together? You'd say, I'm living the best
I can, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. Or are you one who is robed
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, His obedience, His obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross? Is He your righteousness? Nobody can answer that but you
and God. And may the Lord give to each
of us honesty. The worst sort of deception is
to be self-deceived. I don't want to be self-deceived.
Lord, if I'm trusting in some righteousness of my own, I hope
you'll strip that garment off of me. strip that rag off of
me. I don't think I am. Don't believe
I am. Don't believe I'm trusting in
anything I've done, but maybe somewhere in my subconscious,
I don't know, maybe I think better of myself than all to think,
Lord, strip me of all of that right now, the sooner the better.
And robe me in the beauties of Christ Jesus. Look with me in
Isaiah. Go back to Isaiah chapter 61. Isaiah chapter 61. Listen to the prophet of God. Isaiah chapter 61 in verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for He hath clothed me." That's what I want. I want Him to clothe me and I
want to be clothed with that which He provides for me. For
he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation." Now watch this. He has covered me. He has covered
me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
He has covered me, Isaiah says. And that word covered also includes
the idea of he's made atonement for me. He has covered up my
sins. Back when the parents, mom and
dad of Moses, they put him in an ark of bulrushes, that ark
of bulrushes was covered within and without with pinch. absolutely covered. Those of
us who know God, we're covered. We're covered by the blood of
the Lord Jesus and robed in His righteousness. There is no sin
in us to be seen by the omniscience of God. All of our sins and iniquities
have been put away. And when God looks at us, He
sees us much different than we see ourselves. As you and I behold
ourselves in the Word of God, even though we're believers,
even though we're robed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus,
we look at ourselves in the Word of God and say, I'm still so
sinful. I'm still such a rebel against
God. My thoughts are not His thoughts.
My motives aren't right. And it's good to recognize your
own faultiness, but it's better to rejoice in the fact that God
sees you in the beauties of His Son. And you can rejoice in that. That's what Isaiah says, I'll
greatly rejoice in the Lord. I'm not rejoicing in myself,
Isaiah says. My soul is joyful in my God. My God who has washed me, my
God who has robed me, my God who has covered me with the garments
of salvation, and He's covered me, He's made atonement for me
by the blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He hath clothed
me. I didn't clothe myself. And I might add, I did not assist
in this clothing. My soul was naked before the
all-seeing eyes of God. But God sought me out. God found me by His grace. God
found the right sacrifice. And God killed Him. And in the death of that suitable
sacrifice, that substitute for sinners, I see my life. In His obedience unto death,
I see my righteousness. And as old John Bunyan said,
my righteousness resides at the right hand of God. You want to
know who my righteousness is? He's the Lord my righteousness,
Christ Jesus Himself. He's given me the robe of righteousness. The robe of righteousness. Let
me give you another reference. Go to the next to the last book
of the Old Testament, which would be the book of Zechariah. And
I'm sure you know that. Zechariah, and I want you to
look at the third chapter. And then next we'll go to that
passage Joe read to us from Luke chapter 15. Look at Zechariah
chapter three. Here's a center. Here's an accuser,
and here's a Savior, an advocate. Zechariah chapter 3, verse 1,
and he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel
of the Lord. Who is that? That's the Son of
God, Christ Jesus. And Satan standing at his right
hand to resist him or to oppose him. The Lord said unto Satan, the
Lord rebuked thee, O Satan. Even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuked thee. Is not this Joshua brand plucked
out of the fire? You thought you had him, didn't
you? You thought you had him deceived forever. But I plucked
him out, as it were, right out of the fire. Now, what was Joshua's
condition? Verse three, now Joshua, he was
clothed with filthy garments and he stood before the angel
of the Lord. And he answered and spake unto
those that stood before him saying, that is the angel of the Lord
spoke and said, take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, behold,
Be amazed, be shocked. This is very worthy of the word,
behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. And it passed to another, it's
what happened. And I will clothe thee with a
change of raiment. And I said, let them set a fair
mitre upon his head. So they put a fair mitre upon
his head. They clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood
right by him. That's what we've got to have.
We've got to have the angel of the Lord to clothe us with far
better garments than we've got. and that garment is the righteousness
of our Lord Jesus. So go to Luke chapter 15. Let
me go back to this and I'm going to read a verse to you and then
kind of give you the gist of the entire parable and then focus
on this one verse that I'm going to read to you. The verse is chapter 15 of Luke
and verse 22. But the father said to his servants,
bring forth the best robe. Bring forth the best robe and
put it on. And put a ring on his hand, that's
the ring of sonship and shoes on his feet. And bring hither
the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat. and be merry for
this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and he's found. They began to
make merry. You know, this entire chapter
is the parable of lost things. It is just one parable. And I
don't want to even focus on this verse of scripture that I'm taking
my text from, bring forth the best robe. I don't want to focus
on that till I give you a bit of an overview of the entire
parable. Because I don't want to be guilty of doing what lots
of other people do. They go to this portion of scripture
And they said, this is the parable of the prodigal son. No, it isn't
the parable of the prodigal son. That's only one third of the
parable. This is a parable of lost things. And it has three points. It's
like a pyramid with three sides. And each side of the pyramid
has got a different inscription on it. On one part of it is the
work of the shepherd. On another part of it is the
work of the spirit. And another part of it is the
work of the father. And if you try to make this parable
to stand on just one leg or one side of the pyramid, one third
of the pyramid, you have missed the whole message of it. Here
we have a shepherd, the shepherd who goes out seeking the lost
sheep. Who is the main character in
the part of the story, the part of the parable about the shepherd
seeking the lost sheep? It isn't the lost sheep. That's
not the main character in that part of it. The lost sheep was foolish and
he left. The main character in the first
part is the shepherd. The Savior so often, especially
in John chapter 10, talked about Himself being the shepherd. I
am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His
life for the sheep. And here the Good Shepherd goes
out seeking the one lost sheep. Our Savior said, the Son of Man
has come to seek and to save that which is lost. You see, here's what people do,
they take that last part of the parable, the prodigal son, and
they'll put it this way, they'll say, you know, all of a sudden
he just, he exercised his will. And he decided, I'm going home.
Well now, wait a minute. Did he have a redeemer? See,
that's what the first part of the parable is about. It's the
shepherd redeeming and reconciling and making things right with
God on behalf of the lost sheep. His name is Jesus. He shall save
His people from their sins. You've got to understand this. Each part of the parable sets
forth one of the persons of the Holy Trinity and that particular
work that is assigned to them, that they assign to themselves
in the covenant of grace. The Savior is the one who came.
He's the shepherd of the sheep. Somebody had to die for the sheep. You see, it's going to be very
costly to the shepherd in order to seek and find the sheep. What's
it going to cost him? His life. That's what it's going
to cost him. It's going to cost him his blood.
And if you leave this out, you've just got the prodigal son, and
this is what people do. They say, well, he exercised
his will. He came home to God. Wait a minute. What about redemption? That's
in the first part of the parable. What about reconciliation? What
about the shepherd laying down his life for the sheep? He said,
I'm the good shepherd. I'm the chief shepherd. I'm the
great shepherd. I'm the seeking shepherd. And then there's the second part
of the parable. That's, Part about a lost coin. Well, who's the main character
in that? Well, it isn't the lost coin. That lost coin's dead,
lifeless, dirty. It's down there in the dirt.
Who's the main character? The woman. Who does she picture?
The Spirit of God. First thing, she grabs a broom
and she grabs a light. The searchlight of the Word of
God. Here's the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. And He finds us. And He illuminates us. He shines
the light on us. He shows us what sinful people
we are. We're down in the dirt. That's
the kind of sinners we are. We're dirty sinners. We're filthy
sinners. We're in the dirt and don't even
know it. That's why people who are spiritually
dead can read the law of God that is like a mirror to reflect
our iniquities and transgressions. But since they don't have any
light, as they look into the mirror, they can't see themselves
as they really are. There's an absence of light.
Do you know when it is that you and myself as well, when we will
see ourselves as we really are? When the Spirit of God turns
the light on. And I'll tell you this, the more
light He gives, the worse we look. It's like going down into a basement
or a cellar that nobody has been in in a long time. And you got
your kitchen light on and you crack that door open and you
see that little stream of light runs in there. Man, you saw a
mouse run across there and look at all them cobwebs down there.
And the more you open that door, the worse things look. I've had people say to me, and
I've said this about myself, though I have been in grace,
though I have loved the gospel for many years, it does seem to me like I'm worse
now than I was before. Why is that? More light. More light. And I would propose
this to you. We will never, we will never
in this lifetime even begin to see, commence to see, get started
to see the fullness of our iniquity, not in this life, because we
couldn't stand it. There's only one man who ever
saw the awfulness of sin as he died beneath the weight of it.
And as he saw the consequences, this is just of sin being imputed
to him. The Father forsook him. And he cried out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? He saw sin for what it really
is. We just have a little inkling
of how horrible our condition is by nature. We're like that lost coin. Dead. You think that coin knew it was
dead? Of course not. Any more than if you threw a
quarter down on this carpet right here, that quarter doesn't know
it's dead. and a spiritually dead sinner
doesn't realize that he's in a state of death before God,
but he is. And there's nothing he can do
about it either. Now he has a responsibility,
she has a responsibility to repent toward God and believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, but they're dead. That means total inability. That's exactly what that means. You say, God demands of me what
I can't produce. Exactly. That's exactly right. And there've been many people
who've got upset with God over that. But he demands you repent of
your idolatry and of your dead works and turn to Christ Jesus. And yet, we all lost the ability
to do that in the fall of Adam. That's all. There's no use arguing
that point. That's just the way it is. And
the only one who can help us is the Spirit of God, who takes
the searchlight of this book, who takes the gospel of the grace
of God, and He, turns the light on so we can see our neediness
and then flee to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness. In the first part of the parable,
first side of this pyramid, it's the work of the Son. And then
the second part of the parable, the next side of the pyramid
is the work of the Spirit. Now then we get to the work of
the Father. Because you see in this last
section of the parable, most people think the emphasis is
on, or the main character in this last section of the parable
is the prodigal son. That's not right. That's not
right. He's just an old sinner. doing
what sinners do. The gracious one here, the kindness
manifested toward him and the tender mercies extended to him
is the mercy and the kindness and the love of the Father. The
emphasis is on the Father. And he waits to show mercy at
just the right time. Like the prodigal son, we wasted
our living. We've all fallen. But He sent
the Savior, the Father dead. He sent the Savior, the Redeemer,
the Shepherd of the sheep. He laid down His life. He died
that we might be redeemed and brought to God, reconciled. And
then He sends the Spirit of God who takes the Gospel, just like
the Gospel I'm preaching right now. And all of a sudden he turns
the light on and you say, I'm in trouble. And he shows you
that which must be done. And this is the graciousness
of God. You gotta go home to God. You
go home to God. You see, it wasn't of his own
free will. Because back before this, you've
got a redeeming Savior. You've got a seeking Spirit using
the searchlight of the gospel of God's grace. Who does a work
in the heart of the sinner. What is the evidence of the work
of the Spirit of God in the sinner? What is the evidence of the new
birth? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Comes home to God. And
then you have an understanding of the parable. Here's an understanding
of the parable. The shepherd, the spirit of God,
and the father. And of course, the prodigal,
as Joe read to us, he had his little speech memorized. And
he began to get in part of it, and then the father just interrupts
him, because the father runs out. The father is desirous of
showing grace. God is not reluctant to save. Hear me. God is not reluctant
to save. He's not reluctant to forgive.
He saves, He forgives one way. Through the Lord Jesus Christ
and His sin-atoning sacrifice. That's how God saves. And as
it says in Isaiah, He waits to be merciful. He waits to just
the right time, the time ordained in old eternity. He waits. And sovereign grace draws that
prodigal. And the prodigal says, I'm going
home. I'm such a fool. I'm going home. And the father is all the while
looking out. And he sees that prodigal. And
the father shows his anxiousness to show mercy. He runs out. And before the prodigal can give
forth his little speech, the father hugs him and kisses him. He loves on him. You see, all
that's been done for us sinners the death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our substitute, satisfying justice for us, the work of the Spirit
of God within us, taking the searchlight of the gospel and
shining the light on us. It's all due to the eternal purpose
of God. And He just hugged this sinner
just like He hugged us when we were drawn by effectual grace. Like the church says in Song
of Solomon, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Oh, to be kissed by Jehovah. Kiss of sonship. Kiss of grace. says the father saw him, had
compassion, ran, fell on his neck, kissed him. And then he said to his servants,
bring forth the best robe. What do you think the best robe
is? The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Put the best robe on him. The
robe of my Son. Bring forth the best robe. Why
is it called the best robe? Because it's the righteousness
wrought out by Him who is the perfect God come in human nature. That's the best robe. It's called
the best robe because of its costliness and its rarity. There's only one robe of perfect
righteousness, and you didn't have anything to do with making
it. You didn't even have one stitch
involved in the making of this garment. It's a garment made
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's called the best robe because
it's absolutely free. You can't buy it. You can't barter
for it. You can't work for it. It's just
free. Well, that's too good to be true,
preacher. Surely I've got to do something.
No. It's free. It's free to you.
Oh, it cost Him. But it's free to you. Many years
ago, and some of y'all remember Bob McNeill pastored Randolph
Street Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia. I went to preach
for Bob back in the middle 80s. I don't know if some of you have
been here for a good while. You may have come over and visited.
I don't remember. I preached for four or five nights. I was the only preacher there.
One of the men in the congregation took kind of a liking to me,
and he knew that I enjoyed playing golf, though I didn't play very
well. And he said, I want to take you,
because I stayed in the church, they called it Prophet Chamber.
They had an apartment right there in the church building. And that
big old church building, I'm in there in the bedroom that
they had. And that was fine. The accommodations
were quite fine. But I didn't know where to go
eat or anything. Somebody come pick me up to eat,
take me out to eat, and then bring me back. But this man said,
I'm going to pick you up at such and such a time, and I'm going
to take you to the best men's clothing store in Charleston. This is where the governor gets
his clothes made. That's where the senators get
their clothes made. These are, he said, it's a high-end
store. And I said, I'll be ready, I'll
guarantee you that. I'll be ready. And he took me
to this store and they had all these golf shirts out there.
He said, pick out about a half dozen of them. I was like a kid
in a candy shop, picking out these golf shirts. Then he said,
what size suit you wear, brother?" And back then I was 42. I said, size 42. He said, come
over here, I want you to meet my tailor. I said, okay. He took me over and this guy
said, pick out a fabric that you like. And I remember, I think
it was charcoal gray, as I remember, that's what I picked out. And
this guy started measuring me, stretch your arms out, all that
kind of stuff. And putting tape measure on,
he said, I'm going to make you a suit. It will be tailor-made
just for you. That's the only time in my life
I've had a tailor-made suit. I didn't have one before that
and hadn't had one since. And I outgrew that suit. But
it was perfect for me. And I got it in the mail, tried
it on. The guy called me and said, how'd
that suit fit? I said, boy, perfect. It's perfect. That was a suit
made for me. Let me tell you something. Our
Lord has a garment of righteousness, tailor made for all of his elect. And just like that suit that
was made for me, it costs us nothing. Nothing. That's why it's called
free grace. Free grace. And I'll tell you this. It's
called the best robe because once placed on us by the gracious
hand of God, it will never be removed. If He ever clothes you,
nobody's going to take it off of you. Satan's not going to
strip it off of you. And God's not going to take it
off of you. He that is just, let him be just still. He that
is righteous, Let him be righteous still. I'm righteous before God right
now. And I will never be any more
righteous before God than I am right now. Isn't that amazing? That's saying a mouthful, but
it's the truth. And it's called the best robe
because it'll never wear out. It never will wear out. Adam's
righteousness with which he was created, it wore out. Yeah. It outlived its usefulness,
but not the righteousness of Christ. It's ours forever. And it's called the best road
because it never needs cleaning. It never needs cleaning. It don't
need to be washed or laundered or sent to the dry cleaners.
It's always beautiful and pure and clean to the father. It's called the best robe because
it's always in style. That suit that that guy had made
for me had big wide lapels. That's kind of out of style now.
Now, you've got clothes, usually if you hang on to them long enough,
the style will come back in. But I'll tell you this, the robe
of Christ's righteousness, it's always in style. Always. And I'll tell you this,
it's called the best robe because it's our only title to heaven. It's the merits of Christ. It's
the person and work of Christ, the worth of Christ. And it's
called the best robe because it is so in the esteem of the
Father. It's the best robe. Don't you
think that any other robe can ever compete with it. You'll
never get to glory unless you're robed with this robe of righteousness. because then you're a competitor. Then you're like that fella who,
when the king came in, focused on a man who had a different
kind of garment. Friend, why'd you come in here
with that garment? Bind him hand and foot. You don't
want to hear those words. Oh my, you don't want to hear
God say that. Oh, from your heart of hearts.
Oh, Lord Jesus, you clothe me with your righteousness. I bow
to your way of saving sinners, free on our part, costly on Christ's
part. It's called the best robe because
it brings the greatest glory to God, glorifies all of His
attributes, And I'll tell you this in closing,
it's called the best robe because it is that robe only which gives
a poor believing sinner comfort and assurance and rest in this
world. It isn't you, it's Christ. That takes the pressure off.
It's not about you working out a righteousness. It's about you
submitting, submitting to the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus. Oh, if God would enable us to
bend the knee and bow to the Son of God. Let me give you one
more reference. Philippians chapter 3 and I'll
quit. Philippians chapter 3. Verses
8 and 9. Here's what Paul said, "'Yea,
doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ and be found in Him,' watch it now, "'not having mine
own righteousness, Not my coat, not my garment, not my robe. It's filthy. But that which is through the
faith or the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God, by faith, by faith. If you believe Him, you've got
that righteousness. Let's sing a closing song. I
learned this song years ago, 303, Jesus save your pile of
me. I've always loved it and I thought
it'd be a good hymn to close with this evening. It's just
three stanzas, it's a fairly short song. So let's just stand
and we'll sing all three stanzas, Jesus save your pile of me, 303
is the number. you