I'm delighted to be here. I appreciate
the invitation, and I agree with the sentiment
expressed by your pastor. He's one of my dearest friends,
and if I've got to spend six weeks with anyone, Todd Knobber
is a good choice. Having spent all that time with
him, Lynn, I greatly admire your perseverance. I invite your attention to the
nineteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, Revelation 19. In chapter eighteen we read of
the fall of Babylon the Great, the seducer in false religion, who has made herself drunk with
the blood of the children of God. But her fall is described in
the latter part of that eighteenth chapter. The nineteenth chapter begins
with these words, After these things, the fall of Babylon, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven. For the time being, let's assume
these are the angels of God. A great multitude sing, Hallelujah. In verses 1, 3, 4, and 6, you'll
find the only time this word is so translated. Hallelujah,
or hallelujah, means praise Jehovah. Salvation and glory and honor
and power to the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his
judgments." How do we know? Because he has judged the great
harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he
has avenged on her the blood of his servants, shed by her. And again they said, hallelujah.
And her smoke rises up forever and ever. And the twenty-four
elders Now this would be the Church of Christ in glory, sitting
on twenty-four thrones around the throne of God, representing
the twelve tribes of Israel and the followers of the twelve apostles
of the Lamb. And there they sit, ruling and
reigning with Christ for a thousand years. Notice also four living
creatures. These are seraphs or cherubs
on all four sides of the throne of God Almighty who have that
blessed privilege of incessantly bowing before Him and saying,
Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. Now they join in, and they fell
down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, and they said
also, Amen. We agree. Hallelujah. Praise
Jehovah. Then a voice came from the throne. We're not given the identity,
perhaps a sheriff, perhaps an angel. This voice saying, Praise
our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both
small and great. that is, from the lowliest angel
to the greatest saint, and in heaven they all will be great.
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, the
sound of many waters, as of perhaps a thousand Niagaras, and as the
sound of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia! For the Lord
God Omnipotent, the Almighty, Let us be glad. Well, if he reigns,
you can be glad. If he does reign, you should
be glad. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give him glory. For the marriage of the Lamb
has come, observe carefully, whose marriage it is. It is the
marriage of the Lamb, and therefore his wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted. to be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and bright." The color is, of course, white, but it's
not an off-white, nor an eggshell white. It is a bright white,
a glistening white, befitting her, for the fine linen
is the righteousnesses of the saints. Then he said to me, Blessed
are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb."
And he said, to me, these are the true sayings of God. I invite your attention to verse
number eight. God willing, we will address
the subject of the wedding garment of Christ's bride. And to her
it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. for the fine linen is the righteousness
of the saints." The Bride of Christ is his church. She is
identified as such in the fifth chapter to the Ephesians. And on another occasion in this
very book, an angel says to John, Would you like to see the Lamb's
wife? And he showed me holy Jerusalem,
descending from God out of heaven, the church of Jesus Christ. On
that final day, when the groom comes, he's coming for his bride,
and she will be arrayed in righteousnesses. The wedding garment of Christ's
bride is comprised, indeed, of her righteousnesses. Word in
the original text is plural, not simply a righteousness, but
righteousnesses. Some have wanted to say these
refer to righteous acts. If they are, they're not yours,
not mine. These are righteousnesses, a
glorious garment. A righteousness is that which
perfectly and completely satisfies the demands of God's law. I mean,
it must fulfill every jot and tittle of the law. Nothing is
righteous if there is the slightest mar or ding or dent in it. A righteousness is that which
is done as well as God Himself would have done it. It perfectly
satisfies the demands of Israel. Now, what are the righteousnesses
in which the bride of Christ are clothed? First of all, the
righteousnesses of the saints are not those of their own merit. No one is capable of such a righteousness. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none who does good,
no, not one. And did you note that Paul seemed
to indicate twice, as though to say, maybe you didn't catch
the first time I said it, no, not one. He does it twice. Nothing
in us is righteous. None of us has ever performed
a righteous deed. None of us has ever uttered a
righteous word. None of us has ever imagined
a righteous thought. None of us. No, not one. Todd
and I were on Tortola a few years ago, and I made that statement
in a message. The very next night, a pastor
from another island stood up to preach, or the very next day. It was within twenty-four hours.
The very next day, he stood up to preach at the same conference
and he said, When Daniel Parks made that statement saying that
I had never done a righteous deed, never said a righteous
word, never imagined a righteous thought, he said, I got so mad
I wanted to go to the pulpit and drag him out and beat him.
Within the space of 24 hours, the Lord taught him the truth.
And your pastor went down and preached to his church this year. And I was invited this year.
Here was a man who learned this truth, that there is none righteous,
no, not one, in anything we do. Indeed, all of our righteousness
put together, yours and mine, would never amount to one. And
the bride of Christ is arrayed in righteousnesses. To the contrary, all our righteousnesses
are like filthy rags. The Hebrew text indicates minstrel's
clothes. I am fifty-seven years of age
as of the first of this month. I have been in the presence of
many, many filthy rags. I have never seen one, though
I never wanted We are not Victorians, and so
the scriptures speak of this, and we will. Neither are we vulgar,
and we do not speak of the subject in jest. But I've never seen
one in a minstrel's cloth. The woman of any at all gentility
realizes the necessity of the instrument. Discards of it completely
and quickly once it has served its purpose. It is not something that you
wash on Monday, wring it dry and hang on the line for reuse. It's a filthy rag. The Lord even
described it as a very unclean thing. And all your righteousnesses,
all mine, are filthy rags. No young lady will save them
in order to make a wedding garment out of them so that she can present
herself in pride when her mistress clothes to her both. None, none. No, I take that back. Some will. Self-righteous people in false
religion adorn themselves in filthy rags of self-righteousness. They take the filthy rag of my
decision for Christ and the filthy rag of I found the Lord and add
to it the filthy rag of my church is better than yours, and the
filthy rag of law observance and Sabbath-keeping and ordinance-observing,
the filthy rags of good deeds that I have done. And the self-righteous
in false religion take all these minstrels' cloths, lay them down
on the table of free will and sew them together with the thread
of pride. And when they hear that their
husband is on the way, they take their garment of filthy rags,
adorn themselves in such a filthy garment, and say, It's perfect! I'm now ready to meet my husband.
Which speaks volumes not only of the worthlessness of the bride,
but the low estimation she has of her husband. Her husband is not the bride
of Christ. She is not the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ
will be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, a garment of
righteousnesses, and not a flaw in it. Now, these are not our own righteousnesses.
This is true even of possessors of what is commonly called imparted
righteousness, or that divine nature given to God's people
in regeneration. We are told that divine nature
is a divine nature, and we have become partakers of it. John
says of that divine nature that it cannot sin. Observe that. You have a nature in you, child
of God, that cannot sin. And yet, while you are on this
earth, you never can say, I have not sinned. There is no sin in
me. Because as long as you're in this flesh, you also have
that old Adamic nature with which you were born. And though you
have in you a divine nature that must do nothing but only righteousness,
there is also a corrupt nature in you that can only do unrighteousness,
and that corrupt nature of Adam within you taints and pollutes
everything you do on this earth. Everything. So that there is no righteousness
in anything that you do. None. Rather, the righteousnesses of
the saints are those of Christ alone, and observe that they
have been granted to her. Christ Himself is the saint's
only righteousness. Jehovah said His name should
be called Jehovah, our righteousness. Paul says that Christ is made
unto us righteousness. He is the righteousness. He is
righteousness. is his perfect and complete satisfaction
of God's law. He was born, he said, of himself,
I delight to do your will in this body that you have prepared
for me. Everything he did in life was
intended to satisfy the righteousness of God, and nothing was accepted.
Even when he goes to be baptized, he says to the man who baptized
him, it behooves us to fulfill all righteousness. Everything
he did in this life was done under the law of God under which
he was born, and he fulfilled it in every jot and every tittle. He did so first in his prescriptive
or active obedience. He obediently kept every positive
precept of God's law. We read of him that he committed
no sin. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. Did no sin, had no sin, knew
no sin, in Him there is no sin. That's in His life. Particularly
in His death, He fulfilled not only the preceptive or active
obedience, but also His penal obedience or His passive obedience
under the penalty of God's law. As in his life he obeyed every
positive precept of God's law, in his death he obediently bore
all the sanctions imposed by God's law against his people
because of their transgressions. And on the tree we read that
he opened not his mouth, when for the transgressions of my
people he was stricken. He was obedient in his life,
in his preceptive obedience. in his death, in his penal obedience,
and therefore Christ declared twice, two different times, he
said, I have finished the work you have given me to do. At the end of his life, when
he had fulfilled his preceptive obedience before God, he prays
in the garden and he says, Father, I have finished the work you
have given me to do. I have kept your law in every
aspect. And in his penal obedience, as
he passively is under the rod of God, he says it again, Father, I have
finished the work you have given me to do. When he shouts in victory,
it is finished. Righteousness was wrought. And this righteousness of Christ
is graciously imputed to believers in justification. We who have
none receive His righteousness through faith in Him by the grace
of God. And therefore, we who have received
it pray to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is from God by faith. Oh, let me not be found in my
own righteousness. I know what it is. I just described
it. I once gloried in it, and now
I find it despicable, but awe that I may be found in him. The
bride of Christ, therefore, will never confess or boast of any
personal or self-righteousness." Brides in other religions will.
This one will not. Rather, she will confess and
boast of the righteousness of Christ alone. which has been
graciously granted to her." Some years ago on one of those
trips with Todd, he mentioned the verse and he quoted it. Psalm
71, 16 says, I will make mention of thy righteousness, of thine
only. And Todd said, that is such a
remarkable verse. My response was, I've read that
verse many times and I don't think I ever saw it. I had not
seen it. I see it now. I see it in fact,
Todd. I have a wide margin Bible and
I write in the margins. There's a note at that text.
I did not write it. It's just a mental note. It's
Todd Nyberg's verse, Psalm 71, 16. I will make mention of thy
righteousness of thine only. And the bride of Christ makes
herself ready for her groom by saying, I will make mention of
his righteousness, of his only. Now, this theme is sounded throughout
all these scriptures. You heard a little earlier in
your reading tonight from Isaiah 54. In verses 5 through 8, Jehovah
identifies himself as the husband of his people, and he describes
the marriage that he will have with his bride, and then he says,
their righteousness is from me. His bride is arrayed in that
righteousness. She says, I will make mention
of his righteousness, of his only. And he says, and her righteousness
is from me. I brought it. I granted it. I permit her to wear it. Now, this theme is sounded in
other places and scriptures as well. In Isaiah 61, in verse
10, the Bride of Christ declares, He has clothed me with the garments
of salvation. He has covered me with the robe
of righteousness. Observe, garments of salvation,
a robe of righteousness. I suppose no woman takes as much
time getting dressed, not that we say that they do ever, but
I suppose they take no time, as much time to get dressed as
on the wedding day. If the wedding is scheduled for
5 p.m., she probably starts getting ready at 5 a.m. And a lot of trouble goes into
this. A lot of money has gone into this. A lot of effort has
gone into this. And the perfect dress and the
perfect garments and all the accessories. And our Lord says,
None of them is arrayed like my bride. My bride, in garments
of salvation, covered in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself
with her jewels. Look at her. Look at her, folks.
The bride of Christ, arrayed in not merely linen, fine linen,
clean and bright. she's clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. One more text, Ezekiel 16. Locate the passage if you like.
The sixteenth chapter of the prophecy of Ezekiel. And the word of the Lord came
to me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem," that's the bride
of Christ. Remember, John says, I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
descending from God out of heaven. Ezekiel prophesies of the church
in this passage. He says, "'Cause the church of
Christ to know her abominations, and say, Thus saith the Lord
God to Jerusalem. Your birth and your nativity
are from the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and
your mother a Hittite. These were among the worst people,
the most depraved, to use a term that anyone ever knew. Idolatrous,
licentious, wicked people. Amorites and Hittites. Well,
your father was one and your mother was the other. Doesn't
speak much of your genealogy, does it? As for your nativity,
on the day you were born, your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water
to cleanse you. You were not rubbed with salt,
which would have been about the only preventive means they could
have had in that day for cleansing a newborn and to purify it. And no one swallowed you in swaddling
cloths. No, I pity you to do any of these
things for you, to have compassion on you. But you were thrown out
into the open field like something unwanted when you yourself were
loathed or hated, despised, detested on the day you were born. Well,
that describes me. That describes the way I was
born. Conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity, I departed the womb
speaking lies. I could hardly wait to start
talking because I had so many to tell. Truth was a foreign
language to me, cast out into the world of sin. And when I
passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, a blood perhaps to some degree
from self-righteousness and what it is comprised of, I said to
you in your blood, Live! Yes, I said to you in your blood,
Live! Well, if the Lord says, Live,
you'll live. And I made you thrive like a
plant in the field, old dead sinner. Now you thrive, and you
grew and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were
formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare." Notice
that even when the Lord saves us, we still do not have a righteousness
of our own. naked and bare, devoid of self-righteousness,
that when I passed by you again and looked upon you indeed, your
time was a time of love." Nothing happened the first time
I met my wife, because we both knew that we were being introduced
in the hope that it was a matchmaker who set us up. And we both knew
it. I was not interested. I was 26
years old and my mom was going to take it home and go to school.
And I didn't need a wife. I had a mom and three sisters
that did all my lawn and everything else. And so, you know, nothing happened.
And then one day I passed by her and bang! It hit. I was in love. And the Lord said,
I passed by you again and it was a time of love. So I spread
my wing over you, I covered you, your nakedness." He did it with
imputed righteousness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and
entered into a covenant with you. He engaged himself to her,
he betrothed himself to her and he says, and you became mine,
says the Lord God. And then I washed you in water
through sanctification. Yes, I thoroughly washed off
your blood and anointed you with oil, perfumed oil. Removed the blood from those
cloths you were wearing, anointed you with oil. I clothed you in
embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin to cover
your feet. I clothed you with fine linen."
I think we read about that a moment ago, did we not? Fine linen. I covered you with silk. I adorned
you with ornaments. I put bracelets on your wrists
and a chain on your neck and a jewel in your nose, earrings
in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Observe carefully. From the sole of her feet to
the crown of her head, she is adorned gloriously. And one person has done it all,
not herself. He says, I did it. I put these
on you. I adorned you. Then you were
adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine
linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine
flour, honey, and oil, food fit for royalty. You were
exceedingly beautiful and succeeded to royalty." That is, she married
the king. Your fame went out among the
nations because of your beauty. Watch this carefully. For it
was perfect, perfect through my splendor, which I had bestowed
on you," says the Lord God. And it was granted to her to
be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. The righteousness
of the saints are the righteousness of Christ, and His only. Well, my friend, you're clothed
in something right now. Look carefully, what are you
clothed in? From the day we were born, we
began preparing a garment of filthy rags, and we proudly paraded
in it. Until Christ will come, we will
continue to do so. Only when He comes by and He
says, Live, and imputes His righteousness unto us, and we embrace it through
God-given faith, only through that means can we be clothed
in this garment, the righteousness of Christ. And I ask you, in
which garment are you clothed? O God our Father, May Christ have pity on us in the field of sin in which
we lay. May he draw us to himself, give us life everlasting, clothe
us in his righteousness, and give unto us that splendor that
comes from him alone. And we will say, Alleluia. Amen.