righteousness - The Text Messages

January 23, 2020January 23, 2020

Proper Attire Required (Pt. 2)

It may have come as nothing new to you to read that “the many” who Jesus was referring to in His parable (Matthew 22:1-14) is a reference to all people. But Jesus was not teaching so called Christian Universalism or the view that, regardless of belief every human being who has or will ever live will ultimately be saved and restored to a right relationship with God.

The Bible makes it clear, while everyone will give answer to God in Heaven for the things that they did in the flesh, not everyone will live there for eternity. Those who believed in the Lord Jesus will give answer at the “judgement seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10) they will be judged and rewarded on the basis of the works they did for Jesus AFTER they believed in Him (see Matthew 16:27, Revelation 2:23, 1 Peter 1:17). The rest of mankind, all who ever lived but never believed in Jesus Christ will appear before Him who sits on the “great white throne” (see Revelation 20:11-15); but they will not have a part in the kingdom of Heaven.

That being said, how DO the “many” who are called become “the few” who are “chosen” (literally ĕklĕktŏs – selected , chosen out from among, or approved) by God?

Look again at the parable we are discussing; the king’s servants, without discrimination or partiality and per his orders again went out and invited everyone they could find to the feast. Those invited came just as they were in terms of character, social status and even apparel and were supplied the necessary wedding apparel by the host – the King himself; this was customary during the days in which this parable was told. That this was the case in our parable becomes apparent in (vs. 11-12):

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.”

Clearly, everyone at the feast came without the proper attire for a wedding. Graciously, the host provided appropriate attire to all, but one guest did not feel it necessary to take put it on. That one, represents all people (including the religious leaders to whom Jesus directed this parable) who because of self-righteousness, tradition, religion or their good works think that they do not need the approved covering which the king supplied by which to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. The improperly attired guest had been invited like the rest and a way had been made for him to be acceptable to the host but he refused it and was (v.13) bound hand and foot, taken away from the feast and cast “into outer darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

My friends, remember this parable concerns the kingdom of Heaven and specifically entrance into it; this man’s expulsion from the wedding feast illustrates a far more fearful outcome for the purpose of helping all people see the right and only way to enter into the kingdom of Heaven.

If you are a Christian today the process was NOT initiated by you. “He who began a good work in you” (see Phil. 1:6) – God the Father, by way of His Holy Spirit invited you into the kingdom of Heaven. The Spirit of God convicted you both of your own sinfulness and neediness (John 16:7-15) as well as of the love of God in Jesus Christ toward you (Romans 5:8-11) and when you believed, you were clothed in the righteousness of Christ (Colossians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 5:21).

The apostle Peter wrote in (1 Peter 1:18-19:

“…you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

That precious blood of Jesus, shed on Calvary’s cross cleanses us from all unrighteousness and by it, we are in essence clothed in garments of white (see Psalm 51:7, Isaiah 1:18-20; Revelation 7:9-14). To be clear, our covering is NOT external. While one day, in the kingdom of Heaven we will wear a garment of white, believers today have an internal covering: the blood of Jesus “cleans(es) our conscience(s) from dead works to (or, so that we can) serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14). By faith in the shed blood of Jesus, we “…were WASHED, but you were SANCTIFIED, but you were JUSTIFIED in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God;” (1 Corinthians 6:11) the blood of Jesus Christ having cleansed us from all sin (see 1 John 1:7).

The blood of Jesus and His righteousness exchanged for our sinfulness from His cross IS the covering by which we may be numbered among the accepted few….

Join me for the conclusion to this study tomorrow…

January 21, 2020

Proper Attire Required (Pt. 1)

In our introduction to this study, we unpacked what a parable is and how important the context of a passage is in understanding and applying it. We also identified that the main point addressed by Jesus’ parable found in (Matthew 22:1-14) is the mandatory prerequisite for entrance into the (v.2) “kingdom of heaven.”

Key to the understanding the parable is what seems to be the summary of the parable found in (v.14):

“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Before I unpack that pivotal and (in my mind) often misunderstood verse lets consider the parable in context.

In the parable which Jesus told, the King, representative of God sent his servants out (v.3) “to call those who were invited to the wedding;” twice he sent them “and they were not willing to come.” Instead those invited disregarded, literally they (v.5) “made light of” the kings summoning them to come, shamefully or “spitefully” (v.6) treating the servants the king sent and ultimately killing them. In response to their constant rejection the king (v.7), “sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.”

Jesus’ parable is not merely a story meant to illustrate a point, but biblical and historical allusions to God’s consistent effort to reach the Jewish people through the Old testament prophets as well as prophecy concerning His efforts to reach them through His Son Jesus Christ and the disciples He selected to reach out to those same people in the New Testament. All of them were sent by God to call people to God; both they and their message was rejected time and time again by a majority of the Jewish people and the messengers themselves, including the Lord Jesus Christ were killed only Jesus Christ to this day has risen again. God’s wrath on the nation for its disregard of His gracious invitation and the shameful treatment and murder of His messengers was poured out in AD 70 when the Romans razed Jerusalem and burned the temple to the ground. But neither the King of Christ’s parable nor the God of heaven and earth (whom the king of the story represents) was done.

The king sent his servants out one more time to invite (v.9) as many as they could find “to the wedding” and they (v.10) “gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

Who and of what sort of character were those invited guests labeled either “bad and good – were they unrighteous or righteous people?

Actually, the primary audience that Jesus was addressing consisted of self-righteous men – pharisees, chief priests and elders of Israel. The three parables found from (Matt.21:23-22:46) were spoken directly to these men – religious leaders who had rejected Jesus as Messiah and ignored the Holy Spirit concerning both their sins and their need of redemption. These, in my mind are numbered among the “bad” guests populating the wedding hall. But the fact is that by human standards some people are good – they are kind, giving, empathetic and compassionate towards others and some are bad – greedy, self-centered and self-serving; by God’s standards, no one is good. Jesus Himself, when one called Him a good teacher responded: “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Matthew 19:17) In reality we all fall under the assessment of Isaiah the prophet (Isaiah 64:6):

“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

What you and I need to understand here is that the “bad and good” people who filled the hall for the feast is a reference to you, me and every other human being past, present and future. We read in (2 Peter 3:9) that “the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that ALL should come to repentance.”

Look again at (v.14) of our parable, “Many are called…” That word called is translated from the GK word klētŏs which means invited. Jesus came “to save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21); His people is an immediate reference to the children of Israel – the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob thus “the many” who are called is first a reference to the children of Israel. But they refused to come, the Apostle Paul said of them in (Romans 11:11-12):

“I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!”

Because of their rejection of the invitation, “the many” of (v.14) refers to all of us – every man, woman and child from every nation, race, tongue and tribe – both Jew and gentile; both the bad as well as the good – we have all been invited.

From Rags to Robes of Righteousness

Look at that picture, what do you see?

Did you come to Jesus as bankrupt as this man did? Oh, he wasn’t penniless, the man depicted in this picture was a spiritual leader in Israel – the high priest Joshua in the days of the prophet Zechariah. His bankruptcy was not financial it was spiritual and the rags he wore represented the loathsomeness of the sins of Israel (and his own) in God’s sight – he was performing his priestly ministry, praying for the sins of the people and his own.

But I want you to look again.

What you don’t see is Satan, the accuser of the brethren, standing beside this man ready to oppose him – ready to protest any grace which may be afforded on behalf of the man or the people by God and to mercilessly accuse him before the Lord. You don’t see him but he’s there.

Before I go further, let’s look for a minute at where in the Bible this “picture” can be found (Zechariah 3:1-5 NKJV):

“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.”

In the passage, “The Angel of the Lord” stood before Joshua and rebuked the accuser but note what He did not do – He did not condemn Joshua, instead He pronounced over him the grace of God which Satan hates.

In the picture, you may have noticed that the Angel of the Lord is depicted to look much like we have imagined the Son of God – the Lord Jesus Christ looks like. The reason for this is simply that in the Old Testament, every reference to and appearance of “THE Angel of the Lord” is a reference to the preincarnate Christ. Remember that Jesus always was, always is and always will be (see Revelation 1:8); Jesus has no beginning or end, He was present at creation (see John 1:1-4, 9-10,12-14) and at various times in the OT (see Dan 3:24-25). He appeared before Hagar (the handmaiden of Sarah and the mother of Ishmael) in Genesis 16:7-11; before Abraham as he prepared to offer Issac as a sacrifice as God commanded (see Genesis 22:11-19) and before Moses at the burning bush (see Exodus 3:2); these are a few of the numerous Old Testament appearances of the Lord Jesus as THE Angel of the Lord.

Returning to the picture, Jesus (aka THE Angel of the Lord) is depicted to be covering the man’s filthy rags with what appears to be a scarlet robe. In the fourth verse of the passage we read, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will cloth you with rich robes.” All of us come to Jesus in the same way – dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1) and, spiritually speaking, wearing the “filthy rags” of unrighteousness (Isaiah 64:6) but the Lord covers us as He did the man in the picture – in garments of salvation and the robe of His righteousness (see Isaiah 61:10).

You see, when I look at this picture I also see me – do you see you?

This picture is a powerful illustration of each of our lives the day we met Jesus. Now I may be projecting myself onto Joshua at this point but can you hear the man saying through his tears, “Me Lord?! Who am I that you should do this for me?” Can you see the humility of this man and the profound gaze of Him who is not afraid to make sinners His friends? His gaze is not to say “This robe is expensive, it cost Me My life – don’t mess it up!” but to say, “I am giving this to you because you need it and I love you.”

The grace of the Lord is costly! His righteousness is priceless, but the Lord will so clothe you if you will but turn to Him in faith.

To hear more on the subject of grace and Christ-likeness, click the link https://www.thetextmessages.org/sermons/striving-for-christ-likeness-pt-8/