Transcription
Revelation 19 will be our scripture reading this morning. So if you have a Bible or even if you don't, I encourage you to, if you don't have one, to find one there in your pew. There should be one. And turn to way toward the end of the Bible, Revelation chapter 19. And let's stand together, if you're able to, out of respect for the reading of God's word. And our scripture reading will be Revelation 19:1-10. Shorter reading, but uh some longer verses here. Revelation 19, verse one, and then you respond with verse two, and so on. And when we get to verse 10, we will uh recite that together. Here we go.
And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia! Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power unto the Lord our God.
And again they said, Alleluia! And her smoke rose up forever and ever. >> Amen.
And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and all ye that fear him, both small and great. Hallelujah.
>> Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
>> And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
So we see here, this of course is a time in the future, a time we're gathered together as God's saints to to worship him. And we're commanded here to be careful, as we should today, to worship God and God alone. Worship God and and nothing else. And we see here that uh we should be in awe and great, with great joy and thanksgiving, that we could be people that could actually come around God and actually praise him.
And it says here that in verse 7, giving the illustration of the bride, you know, the bride of Christ, his wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For fine linen is the righteousness of saints. The importance of having being clothed with the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ. That's how we can know him. That's how we can worship him and praise him. And so we do, and they and they do many times praise him here. Amen. Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. And we praise him now. So let's do that.
Let's turn in our songbooks to number 52. It's so good to have you here with us this morning. Come, Christians, join to sing. Hallelujah! Amen. Number 52 in your songbook. Come, Christians, join to sing, Hallelujah! Loud praise to Christ our King. Hallelujah! Let all with heart and voice, Before His throne rejoice. Praise is His gracious choice. Hallelujah! Come, lift your heart. Hallelujah! Amen. Let praises fill the sky. Hallelujah! Amen. He is our guide and friend. To us He'll condescend. His love shall never end. Hallelujah! Praise yet the Lord again. Hallelujah! I shall not end the stream. Hallelu on heaven's blissful shore. His goodness will adore, singing forevermore. Hallelujah! Amen. Amen.
You may be seated. We look forward to that day. We can just praise Him forevermore without any sin or sickness and death. Of course, we still deal with these things now, but we can still praise Him. And so we're going to take some time now to reflect, some time to just make sure individually, personally, that our hearts are right with God and that we are in true worship, uh, in an attitude of true worship today. So let's take some time.
Dear gracious heavenly Father, we just come before You as Your people, uh, people who can actually say that we have righteousness, the righteousness of the saint. Saints, for those of us who know You, those of us who've been born again, uh, we have the greatest thing we could ever have, the righteousness of Christ. And Lord, we're so thankful that that righteousness covers our sin. That our sin, You remember our sin no more. That You don't uh see the nakedness and shame of our sin anymore. Even though it's real, it's happened. Still does happen. We still do it. But Lord, we're thankful that You saved us and given us Your righteousness.
And Father, we come before You today, uh, as needy people. Or we come before You people of different backgrounds, uh, people of different finances, people of different experiences. And we're so thankful, Lord, that You You see our hearts. Some of us might come this morning and not feeling our best. Some might be tired, different physical conditions. And Lord, we recognize that uh, that You see our hearts. And that can be a a daunting thing to think about. But yet, at the same time, we know that we love You, that You know that we, as we express our worship to You, Lord, that You receive that. And as we as we worship You in spirit and truth. So we pray, Lord, that You would work in our hearts today. That our hearts would be tender to receive what You have for us from Your word. That we would leave here, uh, knowing You better than we did before, closer to You than we were before, uh, more built up and established in the faith than before. And for anyone that's among us this morning here or listening online who has not been clothed with the righteousness of Christ, who's not been born again, I pray, Lord, today would be the day of their salvation. We want to ask Your blessing upon this time and that You would be pleased in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, let's continue in song. Let's turn in our songbooks again to number 424. Number 424. And you see the title, Jesus Paid It All. Now, remember, we know the traditional Jesus Paid It All. This is a totally different song that we learned last year, I think, sometime. Why don't we stand together for this? Hopefully, most of us know this quite well from when we learned it.
Jesus paid it all. Gone is all my debt of sin. Great change is wrought within. Praise the Lord. Gone is all my debt of sin. A great change is wrought within. And to live I now begin. Isn't from the fall. Yet the debt I did not pay. Some died for me one day, sweeping all the debt away. Jesus paid it all. Jesus died and paid on the cross of Calvary. And my heart was melted at His dying call. Oh, His heart was broken on the cross. You and me and the debt is cancelled. Jesus paid it all. Amen.
Now we're a little more back to being refamiliarized with it. Let's uh pick up the pace just a little bit on the second verse. Here we go. Oh, I hope to please Him now. Light of joy is on my brow. As at His dear feet I bow, safe within His love. Making His dead I own. From true He has bestowed. Oh, I'm singing on the road to my home above. Jesus died and paid on the cross of Calvary. And my hunger was melted at His dying call. His heart was not broken on the tree for you and me. Man, the debt is cancelled. Jesus paid it all.
Sing it out on the last verse. Not for me alone. Did the Son of God atone? Your death to He made His own cruel tree. Come to Him with all your sin. Be as white as snow within. Full salvation you may win. And rejoice with me. Jesus died and paid on the cross of Calvary. And my heart was melted at His dying call. His heart was broken on the tree, you and me. And the debt was cancelled. Jesus paid all. Amen.
Great singing. What a wonderful truth that is that Jesus paid it all. That we don't have anything that we can can do or could ever do that could earn God's love. That He loves us in spite of our sin. He died for us to pay for our sin. And uh with that, let's I'm going to change things up just a little bit. Number 559. I'm not going to have us sing two songs in a row that are a little less familiar. I changed it up. So, let's go to 559, the actual song. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. Instead of just the tune to a different one. So, number 559. Beautiful song. Be sure to contemplate the words as we sing. 559.
When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died. All my richest gain I count my loss, and for contempt all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that char me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
And on the third verse, See from His head, His hands, His feet. Sorrow and love flow mingled down. In air such love and sorrow for thorns compos'd so rich a crown.
On the fifth verse, Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Amen.
Wonderful singing. You may be seated. What a great, a challenging truth that is. Because God loves us, there's a proper response to that, and that is to serve Him, to love Him back, and to serve Him with our whole lives. And so that's part of the message of that wonderful song. I've got a few announcements for you before we take up our offering.
First of all, it's good to see guests with us, visitors today. It's great to have you with us. We're so blessed to have you uh here with us at Victory Baptist Church, and it'd be great to get to know you more. And uh so appreciate that. We're going to take up our offering here in a minute, and we don't want our guests to feel obligated to give to our offering. We're just glad that you have chosen to be with us this morning. And so, welcome. And uh a few announcements for you. Try to get through these quickly. Uh, we do have a men's prayer meeting tonight at 5:40. Don't forget that. That's a new thing that we're doing. Uh, short prayer meeting before the evening service. And then this evening service, also something we're doing a little differently is we're observing the Lord's Supper in the evening this evening. And uh, so after at the end of the service, like we would normally do in the morning, we will do that this evening, observing the Lord's Supper. And so, don't forget to prepare your hearts for that.
And then coming up this Saturday, what's going on on Saturday? Anything at all? Bible quiz. Where? >> Here. Okay, we're good. Remember, I've got a clipboard. Look at that. I've got a clipboard with opportunities. Let's say, let's call them opportunities. Okay, we're having chili for the Bible quiz. And so, sign up. There's different things you can sign up for on here. This is not signing up to eat those things. This is signing up to bring, just so we're clear. All right. Signing up to bring them. Okay? So, sign up for it. You can eat it, too. But first, we got to make it. So, I'm gonna pass start over here. And uh, just pass that around. And we're going to need uh some help. We're going to need all hands on deck for. We'll have more to come on that. I'll probably talk about that a little more tonight. I'm sorry. What? Friday at 6. Okay. Sounds good. Friday at 6. Friday at 6. We need help. Okay. So, if you can be here to help get things set up for the Bible quiz, that would be great. We have, I believe, four other churches uh coming to uh into this little building, and we've done this before, and it's gone well. So, let's do it again. So, Bible quiz this Saturday. And most importantly, we're memorizing Romans chapter 3, verses 1-18. Okay? And I'm slacking. I'm at verse, I think, 13 right now. So, uh, I'm going to have to pick up the pace, but we'll see how they do in the quiz. But, uh, hiding God's word in our hearts, that is the goal. So, okay, I think that's, I think that's all for announcements.
All right, let's have our ushers come forward for the offering at this time. The offering is, of course, a continuation of our worship to God, giving back to Him in thanksgiving and cheerfulness for what He's done for us. So, Brother Andrew, could you please lead us in prayer?
Thank you for this blessed church.
Song before the message. And I've chosen the songs wanting to, you know, I choose the songs carefully to kind of uh go with the theme. And we've sung this song, number 42, is what we're going to sing. We sang it not too long ago, but I wanted to choose this one because it does go along. We're talking about the importance of, we're we're talking about from 1 Timothy 2, and it does address their outward appearance and things like that, but uh, what comes first is our attitude toward God and our our heart toward Him. So, number 42.
Hallelujah! What a Savior. You may remain seated.
Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came, Ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood. Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Little, defiled, and helpless we, Spotless Lamb of God was He. Full of can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Verse four. Lifted up was He to die. "It is finished," was His cry. Now in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Sing it out on the last verse. When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransom'd home to bring. Then a new song we will sing. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Amen.
Great singing. I appreciate the crescendo there. And it starts soft, but it's really hard to sing that soft when He comes, our glorious King. It's hard to hard to sing that at a low voice because you just kind of want to shout that out. So, all right, let's turn our Bibles now to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2, to everybody's favorite passage of scripture. All right. 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 8. We're going to read right away the from verse 8 to the end of the chapter. We aren't going to be dealing with the whole rest of the chapter yet, but I'll read it all to see the context here.
First Timothy 2:8. I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
Now, we've been at this for a little while in 1 Timothy 2. And as we already established earlier in this series, our current culture is at great odds with God and the Bible. And with some passages, it is at uh greater odds than others, wouldn't you say? And uh I would say this would be one of those that is at greater odds. And as has been typical throughout the Bible and throughout church history, the tendency of God's people within an ungodly culture has been to accommodate and to acclimate to the gods of the world around them. And two of the greatest false gods of our day are the gods of sexual and of spiritual license. The idea of there's no there's complete autonomy. People want no restrictions, nobody to tell them any limitations on anything. Uh, it's all just about whatever self wants to do. And this is similar to see what we see in at certain times in the Bible, book of Judges for example. Thus, the teachings of the Bible that attract the most defiance today are those teachings that kind of challenge those notions. Those teachings that kind of challenge the idea that we're just kind of free to express ourselves however we want and nobody should ever can ever tell us any differently or that's just really bad if you were ever to say no. There's a limit on these sorts of things. And so they would say, don't you dare make any kind of truth statement concerning those things.
So I say all that to lead kind of into an explanation about where I'm going with this text and end this series. And there are some people that are relatively new to Victory Baptist Church. Others, we have, you know, some guests and visitors with us. So I want to kind of lead in to kind of explain, uh, kind of an on-ramp, if you will, to the to the text here. So we are at Victory Baptist Church where we what's called an independent Baptist church and I'm happy to be that for various reasons. Uh, but because of the the independent part, uh, independent Baptists are not monolithic by any means. It means there's a wide variety of of uh even doctrine sometimes and positions and attitudes. And one of the things that I do like about independent Baptists in general is the willingness to teach and to preach and to take standards on unpopular positions to not just try to blend in with the world and try to be cool and that sort of thing. Uh, so why am I talking about this? Well, because of the tendency because of the tendency to emphasize holiness and and being set apart from the world, not to mention some being very man-centered in their ministry. For many, the stance against the culture has become more of a backlash than it is a thoughtful biblical approach and resolve. And one of the problems with taking a reactionary approach is that you're kind of, you're always dealing with issues. This issue, we got to deal with this issue. We got to deal with this issue. It always is kind of like shooting fish in a barrel or playing whack-a-mole or something like that. And uh instead of just dealing with the texts of the scripture that God has laid out as He's laid it out for us. Uh, thus to many, to some people, depending upon, you know, the the variety of where they might of experience, uh, church, for some became more well known in and Baptists in some cases became well more well known for their stance against certain things than for the gospel of Christ and its power to transform lives. Now, when lives are transformed, things are going to be different, right? So, we talk about those things. To be clear, I I stand against a lot of things, too, and so should you. And the Bible speaks against certain things. And so, we should do that. And I'm going to show you uh why. But what I want to characterize us more than anything else is making Christ preeminent. That Christ above all things should have should be preeminent in the church. And I say all that to get to this point again, if you're relatively new here at Victory Baptist Church or if you're a guest here today, some some might could be inclined to think, oh, okay, so here we go. This is one of those churches that just rant and rave about issues all the time. And but if you've been here for any amount of time, you know that's not the case. I do rant and rave once in a while, but but you know that's not the case. And uh there's a reason for that because if you read in Paul on in Paul's writings to First Timothy, you come to, if you turn flip over there with me, Second Timothy chapter 3, we see here how we are to approach the word of God. And the word of God is not just something we're to kind of just pick and cherrypick, uh, whatever is, you know, whatever's eating us up, you know, whatever whatever kind of hot button issue or pet peeve or hobby horse we have. Okay, that's what I really want to talk about. So, that's not really the way we're supposed to approach the word of God, is it? And we see here in 2 Timothy chapter 3, it says in verse 16, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is. So all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Okay. So those four things and um, we see it, the scriptures are profitable for, what's it's this has been been said before using this phrase, for what's right, for what's wrong, for how to get right, and how to stay right. Over doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness. So scriptures are are profitable for all these purposes. But then if you look over at chapter 4 in verse two, it says they're what we are supposed to do with the word of God. What the preacher, what the what the pastor and those who preach are supposed to do for 2 Timothy 4:2, does it say preach the issues? Is that what it says? No. It says preach what? The word. But then it says, "Be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." So what I'm saying is that God charges the preaching, uh, being mindful of the rejection of sound doctrine because He says the reason we need to preach the word is it says in verse three, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." So some people in not preaching the word, what they do is they avoid certain issues. They'll avoid certain things because people have itching ears and they want to scratch their their itch and don't want to offend and don't want to make challenge people and drive people away and that sort of thing. There are other people who will preach issues in a way of just of just kind of ranting and raving about whatever their hobby horse is. We don't want to do either of those things. We want to preach the word. Okay? And so that's what we do here at Victory Baptist Church. Mo most of our preaching is what is commonly referred to as expository preaching or verse by verse in context preaching and teaching. So I am charged to preach the word and God's word isn't a book of hobby horses and pet peeves. And you know what that means? That means that sometimes you're going to come to a passage of scripture where it's very pleasant sounding and there's a lot of comfort and encouragement. And sometimes you're going to come to a passage of scripture where there is reproving, need a need for reproving and rebuking and exhorting. Right? Because that's what it says. Now it also says with all longsuffering and doctrine, doctrine, right? So it's not just ranting and raving about the issues. It's with longsuffering. That's patience and doctrine. Understanding from the text why we believe what we believe. And that's very important. And so sometimes we're going to come across Bible verses that address specific issues and we see that here in 1 Timothy chapter 2. But we are going to stop, pause for a moment to ask the Lord's uh blessing and help upon this time.
So Lord, we look to You. We are people. We ought to be people who are like the one that You look for, as it says in the Bible, the one who is of a contrite heart and trembles at Your word. Lord, we don't want to obey Your word so that we can put that on display so everybody can think that we're so great and holy, but we do want to obey Your word, both what it says about the inside and the outside. And so, Lord, I pray that what we do on the outside would reflect modesty and decency and humility on the inside, and godliness. It would be that which becometh godliness. And so, Lord, I pray that You would help us today as we under seek to understand the right attitude concerning these things because we do know that doing on the things on the outside with the wrong attitude is not pleasing to You at all. So, Lord, I pray that You would would help us in this regard to understand what You say about the outward appearance and what You say about our attitude toward it. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
So to uh quickly illustrate what I just said, if you could turn back to 1 Timothy chapter 2. I'm preaching through 1 Timothy. And in chapter 2, we see at the beginning of chapter 2, we see that the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he begins to exhort us concerning prayer in verse one and concerning public worship. And all of this, we have to understand, I keep harping on this, all this is in the context of gospel truth. None of this is just saying, "Oh, by the way, I've got some issues I want to talk to you about." It's in the context of gospel truth. We see that in the logical trail that Paul uses, we see that God wants us to pray so that we see in verse two, so that we would lead a a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. And so He wants, and we see that God wants people to be saved. We see that in verse four, "Who will have all men to be saved." And so God wants us to pray. And He wants us to pray for the ability and the availability and the freedom to reach people with the knowledge of the truth that Jesus Christ is the only way. We see in verse five that He is the only mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus is man Christ Jesus. He is absolutely the only way to be reconciled to God. He accomplished that by giving Himself as a ransom for all. We see in verse six. And so it is crucial in this crucial and foundational context that He writes in verse eight, "I will therefore," because of these things that are true about Jesus Christ and the gospel and Him being the only way, because of that, there are some, there's some instruction for how we, what are we to do when we are gathered together for the worship of God among the saints. And so He gives us the, we have these instructions then in verses 8, 9, and 10, instructions that involve both the internal attitude and the outward attire.
In last Lord's day, we talked about the priority of the inner man, the heart of the person. And this is clearly seen, if you'll look at the passage with me, and I very much encourage you to do so. We see this is, we see that the inward man is encouraged here by the phrases "without wrath and doubting." That is not just a matter of, well, to get up and do the ritual thing where we pray, but the heart of what is going on, what's going on inside matters. And so we see that for men. And then for women, we see the word "shamefacedness and sobriety" in verse 9, and that refers to the inner character, attitude of the woman. That's emphasized, different emphasis for men and women. We talked about that. But we cannot ignore the fact that also being addressed here is outward attire and action. We see here that the word of God says that men are to pray everywhere, in every local congregational gathering for worship. And they are to do so lifting up holy hands. That's external, right? That's something we're doing on the outside. That's an action. And we see in verse 9, addressing the women of the assembly, that they would what? Adorn themselves in modest apparel. That's on the outward. That's re referring to clothing, and it's referring to the outward attire. Also mentioned here are things like hair and jewelry, which are outward items as well. Of course, I'm going to talk about what the Bible says about those things. Um, and so we land at the question that I've been teasing, you know, for a couple weeks, and that is, is God at all concerned about our outward appearance? Is that a concern of God at all? Including your outfit, including what you wear. And as we stare at this text, which is in the word of God, in the same context of where we're told that Christ gave Himself as a ransom for all, we're told that God is actually concerned, obviously, about our outward attire, or this would, in verses 8 and 9 and 10, would not be here in the word of God. So the answer is obviously yes.
Now, I asked that question because of an interesting observation. It's a very clear and obvious observation I made. You can see if you make that this observation as well. Maybe do it later instead of, you know, doing church. Um, if you uh, if you check out a bunch of uh random church websites, uh, it could be evangelical, it could be fundamental, you know, church websites as well, you very quickly you can get a sense of what information churches are most concerned that people would know about them. What do people, what do churches want people who would look at their website to know? And if you check out these websites, you'll find that very, very commonly, one of the most important things that they want you to know is what they believe about the outward appearance. Can you believe that? Those Pharisees, they just want they're just interested in the outward appearance. What they want you to know more than anything else in the world oftentimes on these websites is, God doesn't care what you wear. It's prominent on mosth websites. God doesn't care what you wear. We We don't have a dress code. I mean, McDonald's does. I mean, you can look, look up McDonald's dress code. McDonald's has one. But apparently, you know, it's very important that you know that we don't. Um, and so it's very, very important that they want people to know that. Now, I understand though that some people have been hurt by the kind of cra in some circles, kind of crazed overemphasis on outward appearance. And to be clear, uh, we don't actually have an official dress code, you know, for attendance. Uh, I guarantee you at some point it would get it gets a dress. But, uh, you can come to our church service, you know, uh, in a je and jeans and a t-shirt. You can come to church to to our church in a suit and a tie. You you can come to church in a variety of attire, and we're we're just fine with that. Okay? But my point is, we don't put that on our website. Why? Because we wouldn't want to give the impression that the worship of God isn't what's most important. We also want to don't try to want to try to bait and switch people into the house of God by telling them something that isn't true. What's most important is the true worship of the one true God. And we don't want that to get buried beneath some kind of sales pitch. But anyways, at this point, before I go any further, I better take a step back and tell you what I don't mean when I say that God cares what you wear and what I what I don't believe the Bible means. Because based on what I said, you could get the impression that up next, I'm now going to lay out you for you with great precision some exact cookie cutter idea that we must all conform to. And don't worry, you know, I'm not going to try to become everyone's fashion consultant, okay? Um, we definitely don't want that. You don't want we want pastor to become your fashion consultant or advisor. Okay? So, uh, all that said though, immodesty and outward appearance is a biblical issue. It is a spiritual issue. And I'm not going to preach around it. I can't preach around it. I'm supposed to preach the word, instant in season and out of season. Some things are out of season. Preaching on this is out of season. Uh, people don't want to hear it, but it's in the Bible. So, let's get into it. What does the Bible say about the externals, about the outward appearance? So, you might be surprised, uh, where I'm going with this today, because the Bible says a lot about outward appearance that doesn't necessarily deal with dressing uh, a certain way in order to be modest or whatever. And so, first, what, what's first important? I have it in my notes. I I wrote, attitude greater than attire. Okay, our attitude about these things is more is is is more important than the attire. And the Bible says a lot about this. We're going to talk first about judging according to outward appearance. Judging according to outward appearance.
So let's turn to John chapter 7, if you would please. John chapter 7. And I know that you're you're all eager to hear what I have to say, you know, about clothing and modest apparel and hair and jewelry and all of that. And and don't worry, we'll get to that. But quite honestly, I don't think it's a good idea to get into that until we understand some important biblical principles concerning the outward appearance. So, I do not want this series to come across or to instill in us an attitude that is holier than thou. Oh, we are people that we we dress right, you know, not like those other people. I don't want that. So, first, we're going to talk again about judging according to the outward appearance.
So, here in John chapter 7 and verse 14, let's just read some verses here. It says, "Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" Okay. So the the context here is people are looking at Jesus's teaching and with great wisdom and and understanding, and they're they're judging Him, saying He can't possibly have this knowledge because He, what we have seen is that He never learned. He grew up a carpenter. How could this possibly be? So that's the context here. In verse 15, and the Jews marvelled, saying, "How knoweth this man?" I just read that, didn't I? Verse 16, Jesus answered them, and said, "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true. And no unrighteousness is in him." The person who seeks his own glory, it says, how much righteousness is in that person? None. It says, right? Or no, I'm sorry. He then isn't that one. That's true. It says righteous, no unrighteousness is in him. So that's speaking of Christ. Sorry about that. The cont the contrary is contrast is true as well. Sorry to distract you there. Verse 19. "Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?" The people answered and said, "Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?" Jesus answered and said unto them, "I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers; and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me because I have made every made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?" And then He says this, "Judge not according to the appearance, but don't judge at all." Is that what He says? No. "Judge righteous judgment." So here you see the context here is not clothing, but there's a principle here about the outward appearance. It does have to do with making assumptions based on outward appearance. It's important to recognize that here that Jesus is not saying that we should not ever make any kind of discernment, ever make any kind of judgment calls about anything. That's not what He's saying. He says, "Judge righteous judgment." So, we're not being challenged here to avoid all judgment, but to judge righteous judgment. And so, again, we can we can learn something from the context. I mentioned before that uh that Jesus here is uh, He, He, they're saying He, they're assuming that He can't possibly be who He says He is because He never learned. Says in verse 15, says He, He never, He never uh learned, "having never learned." Well, did they see His whole life whether He ever learned or not? And of course, what they couldn't see is that He actually existed from eternity past in all perfect wisdom. Right? So they couldn't see that. They had also assumed that Jesus was not of God because He healed. It says in verse 23, He healed on the Sabbath day. Bible never said not to do that, but they had it set in their pharisaical minds that it was wrong. Yet, they never stopped to think that they were being inconsistent and hypocritical. So, Jesus isn't saying that you, you should never look at something and come to conclusions. He's not saying that. But He is saying, don't just react in a knee-jerk fashion based on what you see, assuming that you know everything there is to know. Think it through to make sure you're being biblical and not make unbiblical assumptions. Very, very important, isn't it? Okay.
So, a similar thing happened with the great prophet Samuel. So, let's turn over to 1 Samuel chapter 16. 1 Samuel Samuel chapter 16 means it's time for some water. Now, some of you know this this account here, this story, and that is that David is about to be anointed king here, and Samuel is being tasked with that, and he's observing the uh, the brothers of David as to which one of them would be king. Okay? And so, I'm just going to read verses 6 and 7. 1st Samuel 16:6. "And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab," that's his oldest brother, David's oldest brother, "and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on what?" The outward appearance. "But the Lord looketh on what?" The heart. Okay, so we see that here. Now, what was it about Eliab that Samuel? Samuel was a godly man. But what was it about Eliab that made Samuel think, surely this is the Lord's anointed? What was it? >> What was that? >> He was tall. That's right. He was tall. Any any uh any other thing that he saw there about about him? It was, I'm sorry. Did somebody say something? He was also uh he was of uh his his countenance. So, he was he was handsome and he he was tall. Okay. So Samuel, a godly man, he was making an error in judgment here because he said, "Surely this is the Lord's anointed because he's tall and he was handsome." So um again, God isn't saying that Samuel should have just shut off his mind, just turned it off and not using used any discernment. He is saying, "Samuel, you aren't using the same measuring stick that I am." He was judging by his height. And Samuel was erroneously thinking that since Eliab was tall and handsome, he must be the one who was chosen to be king and because he was, you know, because of that outward appearance and and that didn't go well, which uh is, you know, that didn't go well with Saul because he had that opportunity with Saul. Remember, Saul was heads and shoulders above the people and he was he was handsome and uh Samuel should have been well aware of the fact that that didn't make somebody a good king, right? But still, he he aired in judgment. So how many false teachers though have gained popularity in part because they've kind of put together uh an impressive look, you know, an impressive outward appearance and they're taller or they're handsome or they just kind of have that cool look or whatever. But God's man isn't always like that. What did they what did the Bible say? What did people say about Paul's appearance in his days? Well, they said, "His bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible." That's the that's the Apostle Paul. His bodily presence was weak. He was not, he was not much to look at. Okay? And yet that's the Apostle Paul. That's 2 Corinthians 10:10. Not only that, not only Paul, but the Lord Jesus Christ could have come in any kind of human form He wanted to, right? He could have come 7 foot tall and and and all this. And what does the Bible say about the appearance of Jesus Christ? Isaiah 52:53:2, "He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not." So one of the reasons they had people had trouble believing that He was uh the Messiah was He, His that that He had no form or comeliness that they, no beauty, nothing about Him that they would say, "Wow, this must be the Son of God." And so when we talk about the outward appearance, when we talk about modest apparel, and we talk about God being concerned about such things, it's very, very important that we understand that we're not talking about a fashion show. There is a principle about giving God our best. But there's also a principle about not trying to appear a certain way in order to be seen of men, in order to get the glory for yourself.
In Mark 12, we can turn there if you'd like. I'm just going to be rather quick with this, but it's interesting. I've I've been in in circles. I've been in places where pe there were people or Christians who would see pe person's outward appearance, a very conservative, modest appearance, and just assume that that meant that that was a godly person. They, we lived at the Amish, uh, in an Amish area for in an Amish area for about six years. And I I knew some Christians who who would hardly even want to hear that they wanted to be saved, that they needed to be saved because, well, their outward appearance was so, you know, modest and so, you know, wholesome and but that didn't mean that they were righteous before God, did it? And so we see this here in the Bible, Mark 12:38. It says, "And he said unto them in his doctrine," this is Jesus speaking, "Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing." Long clothing is not a bad thing. But why did they go in long clothing? Love long clothing is a good thing actually. And love salutations in the marketplaces, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts; Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. But why did they wear a certain kind of clothing? Well, it was to it was to appear to be righteous before others. It was appeared to look how holy we are because we're dressed a certain way. Again, God cares about dressing right and dressing modestly and and and that sort of thing. But He not, He says you receive the greater damnation if your attitude is, look at me, look how great I am. So I'm talking about this because before we start talking about what it means to dress modestly, we have to understand that at its core, the word modest, and we'll look at it a little more next week, but the word modest refers to not dressing in a way that brings attention to yourself. The word modest there is not just talking about, you know, where your hemline is and that sort of thing, although that definitely applies. It's talking about dressing in a way that doesn't bring attention to yourself. And yes, of course, that brings not being not that means not bringing attention to your body in a sensual way. But it also refers to not trying to bring attention to yourself in a proud, self-seeking, attention-getting manner. So that's very important we understand that.
And so that brings us up to sec, that was just all talking there about not judging according to appearance. Erroneous kind of judging. But there's also a such thing in the Bible as favoritism according to appearance. Favoritism according to appearance. Let's turn over to James chapter 2. James chapter 2. This passage we're about to read deals with treating someone favorably or unfavorably based on status or based on class and that showing up in the appearance. Okay? And so although modest apparel means something, and dressing in your best in a dignified manner in a way that becometh godliness, that means something. That's a good thing because the Bible says it is. But we do have to be careful that we don't pigeonhole that to mean one exact kind of or or even level of attire. And I'll or fashion. I'll we'll see what I mean.
Thereby reading here. So let's just read in James chapter 2, verse one. And and just notice how serious, again, we've seen very serious statements that God makes about the wrong attitude here. Just, just, uh, pay attention to that as I read.
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respective persons? For if there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring, or a goodly appar, or goodly apparel, in goodly apparel, sorry. And there come in also a poor man in vile raignment. And you have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing. We don't like that phrase anymore, do we? It's fine clothing is what that means. And say with him, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place. And say to the poor, "Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool?" Are you not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
Hearken, my beloved brethren? Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him? But you have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called?
If you fulfill the royal law according to script the scripture, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," you do well. But if you have respect to persons, that's what he's talking about here, ye commit sin and are convinced of the law, that means convicted of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill." Said, "Also, do not kill." Now, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy. And mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
Obviously very important, isn't it? What he's talking about there. We have a command here for God's people in verse one. And it's every bit of a command of God as much as the command for modest apparel and vice versa. We're commanded, it says here, to not have respect of persons. And that refers to, uh, partiality. It refers to favoritism, uh, toward one another. It doesn't mean you can't have somebody who is a better friend than somebody else or somebody you talk. It doesn't mean that, but showing based on appearance favoritism.
And then we're given an example of two people coming into your assembly, it says coming to church. And one is wearing fine clothing. One is wearing goodly apparel, it says, and the other is wearing, it says here, vile raignment at, uh, that's the at the end of verse two. And, uh, that vile there is not referring to immodest. It's referring to filthy, dirty, old kind of thing because he's a poor man. And so you have these two men that are coming into the assembly. One is rich and one is poor, and one is dressed in fine clothing and the other is dressed in, in poor, filthy clothing. Which one is more holy? Do you know? You don't know, do you? You don't know. You, you couldn't know. And if you think you know, it says you become judges of evil thoughts. That your thoughts are evil in your judgment. Okay? So, you can't really know. I'm not saying it doesn't matter what we wear. I'm saying you can't just know that just by seeing somebody. And if our attitude is that the man coming in, you know, wearing a suit and tie must certainly love God more than the person coming in with jeans, that's unrighteous judgment. That's not just, you know, it's not just, whoops, I guess I whiffed on that one, but unrighteous judgment. According to this passage, if that's your attitude, it says you're demonstrating that you're a lawbreaker. How so? Well, because it's not loving your neighbor. When you just assume some that a person is unholy because, say, he can't afford a suit and tie or whatever this is.
Now, that is not an invitation to dress down for congregational worship to purposely say, "I'm just, it's just, it's just church." You know, it could be going to the store. It could be going to the beach. I'll go to church and it doesn't matter. It's casual. God's casual. It's not an invitation to purposely downgrade our attire for more casual worship experience. God is holy. We are to serve him acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12 says, "So God does deserve our best, but our best isn't always the same, is it? Your best isn't necessarily the same as my best." Okay? And so we don't assume, we ought not to. And that's why I'm very careful. Well, I think it's important to maintain a high dress standard, particularly for those who are on the platform. Well, at the same time, I'm not going to act like somebody dropped the Ark of the Covenant if somebody forgot their tie. Okay? It's, it's not the same thing. So, I hope you understand that's a tough line to walk, but I believe the scriptures compel us to walk it to be concerned about both.
And so I give you my word that we are going to get into the specifics of 1 Timothy, uh, 2:es 8-10 and modest apparel and jewelry and such. But, uh, we're almost out of time for today. And before I say anything else about outward appearance and clothing, if I'm going to start talking about, you know, what you know, what the Bible says about biblical principles of of dress and and clothing and that sort of thing. If I'm going to talk about that, which I will, I really need to tell you first about the most important clothing. I want to tell you about the most important clothing you could possibly wear. I need to tell you about the outfit, the one outfit that everyone needs to be wearing. You just have to have it, okay? And not because it's in fashion or or on trend. It certainly isn't. But we're going to talk about the most important outfit for the rest of our time. And with that, let's turn over to Hebrews. It's right before, if you're in James still. Hebrews chapter 4.
What is the most important outfit? Now that I have you all on the edge of your seat, you know, because I'm sure you're wondering, what kind of fashion advice is pastor going to give? I just got to know. You know, everyone wants to know what pastor recommends as the best outfit, right? Because, you know, I, I'm really up on that stuff. Uh, but, but we see here in Hebrews chapter 4, I'm just going to read verses 1 and two for now. We're going to see some other things, too. Says here, Hebrews 4:1, "Let us therefore fear." It's talking about the fear of God. "Lest the promise being left of us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." What is that talking about? You don't want to come short of this. This is really bad if you don't have this. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
So this passage, it uses, it's referring to an event, and I'm not going to read the whole context, but I'm just going to talk about a little bit. You can read it for yourself. It refers to an event in the Old Testament referred to here in back in chapter 3:15 as the provocation. Refers to a time when God was going to to bring the children of Israel. He brought them out of Egypt and now they were going to go into the promised land shortly after they came out of Egypt and Moses sent, uh, they they sent 12 spies into the land and some of them, most of them brought back an evil report. You remember how many it was that brought back an evil report? 10. That's right. I see 10 to 10 brought back an evil report. Two, if you're doing the math right, two, uh, believe God's promise. Okay. So, the vast majority of the people believed the the bad report and thus they rejected God's promise and would not enter into that rest as it says here. So, this is a picture of those who reject Jesus Christ and his gospel. It's actually not only a picture, they actually did reject the gospel. It says in verse two, and, uh, their problem though, if you look back in verse 10 of of, uh, chapter 3, what was the root problem here? Well, it says in he in Hebrews 3:10, "Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said, They do always err where in their heart, and they have not known my ways." Verse 12, it says, "Take heed, brethren." And that's talking to, he he's talking, brethren, generic terms. So he's talking to people who might not be saved. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil what? Heart of unbelief in departing from the living God."
Stay with me here. I know some of you are tired. Stay with it. All right. Uh, we're getting there. So, an evil heart. The Bible says that all of us by nature have an evil heart. And God sees the heart, as we saw in 1st Samuel 16. All of us by nature have an evil heart. The Bible says there is none righteous, know not one. They're memorizing that one. Uh, we all have that. We're all by nature sinful before God.
Now, what does this have to do with the most important outfit? You think? Get on with it, pastor. I need to know what to wear here. Well, the Bible also teaches that what is in the heart comes out and shows on the outside. In this case, we see in verse 17 of chapter 3, it showed up by their outward sin. Says in verse 17, "But with whom was he grieved 40 years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?" So, it showed up in their sin that they did not believe the promise and did not go into the promised land. They ended up trying to go their own way and got many of them got killed. And so your evil heart shows up in your life as well in your disobedience to God's commands. And that's why we need the word of God because the word of God doesn't just deal with outward problems.
Now, we're going to jump ahead to in chapter 4 because we see in verse 11, it says, "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest." Now, I'm going to be clear about that. The labor there doesn't mean you you work for this like you merit it, you earn it. It's talking about being diligent or striving to seeing this as very important. Okay? "Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Now this is why we need the word of God. Verse 12. "For the word of God is quick," that means living, "and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to where the dividing aunderder of soul and spirit." That's way inside, right? I can't do that. I can't come up here and get into your heart and your soul and your spirit. And it says, "and of the joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of what? Of the heart." So that's why we need the word of God because the word of God can get right down into the heart and see your problems, not just what you're wearing or what you're doing on the outside or what actions, what you're saying, the problems much deeper. And that's why we need the word of God.
Now with that in mind, look at verse 13. Likens our spiritual condition to being without clothing. Verse 13, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Speaking of God. So, before God, because now we we think of that. Isn't that great? God, you know, man sees the looks on the outward appearance. God sees the heart. Isn't that wonderful? But if you don't have the most important clothing, if you don't have the most important outfit, it's not wonderful at all. Because if God sees your heart, what he's seeing is as all sorts of wickedness. He sees everything. Everything is naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And, and so he likens our spiritual condition to being naked without anything to cover our sin and our shame before God. Okay? So keep that in mind.
So that idea is illustrated right from the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis 2, before sin, Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed. There was no sin. After sin, in Genesis 3:22, the Bible says, and this is a picture of salvation, "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them." Okay. There was a blood sacrifice pointing ahead to the Messiah that would come and and crush the serpent's head. And so he made coats of skins and clothed them. So it sounds like we need some clothing, doesn't it? Because we are in our sin naked before God. Even what righteous deeds we do, according to Isaiah 64:4, "All our righteousnesses are as what? Filthy rags." Even what clothes we try to have on, clothes of righteousness we try to have on, and we, we even what we would consider good deeds outwardly, to God are what? Filthy rags. Vile raignment. Filthy clothing in the sight of God.
So if all of our righteousness is as filthy rags, that's not even talking about our unrighteousness. If all our righteousness is as filthy rags, we need a new wardrobe, don't we? We need to get a new outfit. That one's not working. We need an outfit that doesn't come from our closet, you see, because everything in there is nasty and dirty and filthy. Spiritually, I'm talking, and doesn't cover sin. And if I try to cover up my own sin with with one of my supposed garments of righteousness, God just sees right through that to my naked and sinful heart. Everything is open.
So, are you wearing the right clothing today? God cares about what you're literally wearing, for sure. But I assure you, this is the outfit that the outfit that I'm talking about is the outfit that God is concerned about the most. And so, what is that outfit? Let's turn over to Isaiah 61, please. Isaiah 61. Pastor is finally going to pick out your outfit here. All right, we're finally getting to it. Isaiah 61. I know that's why you're all here this morning. Isaiah 61, verse 7. In all seriousness, this is very important. Isaiah 61:7, "For your shame, remember the shame, the nakedness and shame, you shall have double, and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess the devil. Everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the Lord love judgment. I hate robbery for burnt offering. And I will direct their work in truth. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and their seed shall be known among the Gentiles." This isn't just talking about Israel, is it? "And their offspring among the people. All that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God."
Here it is. Here's the outfit you need. "For he hath clothed me with what? The garments of salvation, and hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom deckth herself himself, sorry, with ornaments, and as a bride adornneth herself with jewels." He's using clothing as an analogy. And I will talk about next week of how what we wear on the outside should reflect that. But the most important outfit is the garments of salvation, the robe of righteousness. Are you wearing the most important clothing today? Has God clothed you with the garments of salvation? Has he covered you with the robe of righteousness?
In verse 10, well, you say, "Where can I get that outfit? Where can I get that? Because I need that because in my sin or my own or my own supposed righteousness, it's, it's I'm I'm naked in my sin. There's filthy rags that God can see right through. What are we going to do? Where can I get that outfit? I just, I need that. I've, I've got to have it." You see, we read earlier at the beginning of the service in Revelation 19:8 that "fine linen is the righteousness of saints." Fine linen is the righteousness of saints. So, this is really good material. But where do we get that robe of righteousness from? You see, it must come from someone who has a perfect robe of righteousness. One who hasn't been stained by any sin. 1 Peter 1:18 says, "Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ." Listen to this. "As of a lamb without blemish and without spot." There's no spot. He's had no stain on his outfit, no sin. That's Jesus Christ. And Ephesians 5:26 and 27 tells us that "Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church." Now that's talking about us. "Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." So he wants, he is a lamb without spot and without blemish. He wants us to appear before God the same way.
Let's one more passage. Let's turn over to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10 and verse three. I'm sorry. I'll have to take your question afterward. Okay. I apologize. Romans chapter 10 and verse three. Because of it's a robe of righteousness. And fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Where do we get that from? Well, this passage speaks of people, and I was talking about Israel, but it's very true of many, many people today. Maybe it's true of some people here this morning. It says in verse three, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves," very important, "submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the law is the end of the law." Sorry. "For righteousness to everyone that believeth."
What is the most important outfit? Are you wearing the most important outfit today? It's the righteousness of Christ. Now, let me explain here because it speaks here of in verse three of going about to establish their own righteousness. Many people do that. The idea of going about to establish your own righteousness. If I could just illustrate what that would sound like. If I were to ask you, when you stand before God, if you die and you stand before God, why should he let you into his kingdom? Why should he let you into heaven? And if your answer is about yourself, if your answer is, well, I've done this. I guess I've treated people pretty well. I, I haven't, you know, I haven't killed anybody. I haven't done too many. I didn't tell that. I, I lied a lot less than some people. And if you're just going down and if it's about your own righteousness, what's going to happen? Well, it says here that, um, in verse 5, "Moses describes the righteousness of the law that the man which doeth those things shall live in them." That means you, you'd have to. In Galatians 3 says in verse 10 says that if you were going to try to establish your own righteousness by keeping God's law, you would have to do it perfectly. You'd have to be without spot or wrinkle. Your outfit of righteousness would have to be without any blemish at all in order for God to look at you and say, "Oh, wow. You're good enough. You can come in." But is that true of any of us? No. Remember, it doesn't say all of our wicked sins are as filthy rags. That's bad enough. That's really bad. Even our righteous deeds are as filthy rags. So if you're going about to establish your own righteousness, if you think you are going to be reconciled to God or be right with God because of something you have done, you're going to be sorely mistaken. You're going to find that you will be judged for your works. Uh, but it won't be what you think. It's going to be judgment. It's going to be condemnation. The Bible says even that all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire. There is none righteous, know not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
So, we don't want to get, we don't want to have our own outfit. We don't want to stand before God in our filthy rags. But what it says here then is Christ, in verse four, "the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." And so, if you believe, if you trust in Jesus Christ, you submit yourself to the righteousness of God, the Bible says that you come to know him, you'll have your sins washed away. And that he give, he, he clothes you with a robe of righteousness with the garments of salvation. It has to be from him. It has to be through Jesus Christ alone, the one mediator. See, Christ purchased righteousness for us by his blood. He paid for our sins by, uh, hanging on the cross as a substitute in our place so that you could be saved. And it's a free gift. But you must receive it. You must submit yourself unto the righteousness of God. You must come to him his way and not your own way. See, he doesn't force the garments of salvation on anyone. You must put it on. Romans 13:4 says, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Speaking to the Christian there, but also could be an illustration of being saved. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you, do you have the garments of salvation? Do you have the robe of righteousness? If you stood before God, would you, would it be naked and open in shame? Or would it be the righteousness of Christ, uh, that is clothing you when you stand before God? Are you going to have nothing to show for yourself but the open shame of your sin? Or will you be clothed with righteousness? Have you put on Christ as your robe of righteousness?
And if you haven't, Bible's very clear of how you can have that robe, how you can, how you can have that outfit, how you can put that on. It's simply, see, if you are to be asked, why should God let me into his kingdom? It's only because of Christ. It's only what his, it's only because of his righteousness. "He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
Well, for those of us who already have that outfit, are already saved, God wants us to be concerned about how we reflect that. It's true. And we'll talk, get into that more next week. But today, perhaps you've been challenged about unrighteous judgment according to outward appearance. Have you had a problem with your attitude toward those who you think maybe don't dress as nice as, as you do? So, before we talk, you know, about about skirts and dresses and blouses and hair and jewelry and all that stuff, we've got to make sure that our attitude is right concerning outward appearance, that we have the right mindset. Let's have a word of prayer.
Father, I want to ask that you work in our hearts this morning, Lord. And if there's anything that we need to get right with you, Lord, I pray that we would take care of that. That we would come before you. Lord, I pray for anyone here who, regardless of outward appearance, does not have a robe of righteousness. Maybe there's someone or people here that trying to appear righteous before men but don't have that actual garments. They need to go into the to the kingdom. And so Lord, I pray for anyone like that that your Holy Spirit would work and draw them that there be submission to the righteousness of God. Not only profession but submission. And Lord, that there would be confession and believing that you've raised Christ from the dead. So Lord, I pray for salvation. I pray Lord for our hearts. Lord, if, if there is an evil heart of unbelief in anyone, that they'd be saved. But if we are judges of evil thoughts, if we have a wrong kind of judgment, Lord, I pray that you would convict us of that and help us to, to get that right. So Lord, I pray that you'd work during this invitation time in Jesus name. Amen.
Jonathan's going to play. If you need to get right with God about something this morning, if you do, I encourage you to do that now. Right. Our invitation song is number 150. Feel free to continue in prayer with the Lord. We're going to sing 150. You like to join with me? You can stand.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything. Number 150. I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be his than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than house or lands. I'd rather be led by his nail pierced hand than to be the king of the vast domain and be held in sway. I rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.
Verse two. I'd rather have Jesus than men's applause. I'd rather be faithful to his dear cause. I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame. I'd rather be true to his holy name than to be the king of the vast and be out of sins like breath. Rather of Jesus than anything this world affords today.
Verse three. A rare bird is sweeter than honey from out the cold. It's all that my hungering spirit leads. I'd rather have Jesus than let him be than to be the king of the vast and sway. Way I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today. Amen. And wonderful singing. And I hope, uh, we grasp the importance of what's behind. We are going to talk about these issues, but, uh, we have to get things in the right order with the right attitude and perspective. Really glad that you've chosen to be with us, certainly members and attenders, people, familiar faces, and also guests as well. We're really glad to have you with us and want to get to know you more. Let me know, please, if there's anything I can help you with. You have any questions about our church, about the Bible, about Jesus, about salvation, about heaven or hell? We'd be happy to show you what the Bible says.
So, we do have service tonight at 6 PM. Nothing else going on tonight, anyways. So, uh, we should be in, we can be in the house of God and, uh, celebrating what he's done. And, uh, so I hope you'll be here to join us tonight. And, uh, so we'll close with a word of prayer. We have brother Thomas Ross is going to be preaching tonight, and then we'll celebrate the Lord's table. So, Brother Gary Patterson, could you close us in prayer, please? Heart.