Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Scripture reading from Isaiah 61. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- During this Advent season we have been contemplating “God’s Mission” in sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to bring us hope and joy, in the glorious Gospel of God’s gracious mercy and forgiveness. He also came to restore right; to make clear that sin is always sin, and that the solution for us is not to excuse our sin away or argue our case, but to trust in God’s redemption in Christ Jesus.
- Tonight we consider that it is also “GOD’S MISSION: TO GLORIFY HIS PEOPLE.” Now, we should NOT expect that God will glorify His people in the same way that sinful people glorify themselves – with wealth, power, prerogative, pride, and excessive gluttonous pleasure. No, the glory He bestows upon His people is much weightier and dignified and precious!
- Likewise then, it should not surprise us that sinful and spiritually blind people – the unbelieving – do not recognize how God has glorified His people. Sadly, often His own people do not recognize the glory God has bestowed upon them, and the glory that God has bestowed upon our fellow believers. This should not be so, dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus!
- So let us contemplate carefully that this is God’s mission and purpose in sending His Son Jesus, and let us take to heart just how He has already glorified us, we who have humbly turned to Him for grace and mercy!
- First, let us consider how:
I. God Has Clothed His People Gloriously
Text: “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
A. God Clothes Us With The Garments Of Salvation
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
1 Thess. 5:9 “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Heb. 5:9 “He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”
1 Pet. 1:10 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully.”
Gal. 3:27 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
B. God Has Clothed Us With His Righteousness
Phil. 3:8,9 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
Rom. 3:21,22 “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
1 Cor. 1:30 “And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, Who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
Statement: This “salvation” and “righteousness” with which God has clothed us is not drab apparel, but rather “as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” For most of us, the one day on which we are most gloriously dressed is our wedding day – both the bridegroom in dashing tux, and the bride in glorious white dress, with all the accessories!
Application: This is what God’s “clothing” or righteousness and salvation is like. Consider also, that no matter how rigorously we “gussy” ourselves up with good works and good intentions, there are always imperfections and sins. But in the matter of the clothing of God’s righteousness and salvation, it is God Who is doing the tailoring and clothing. I don’t think He is subject to making any mistakes!
First, consider that this is how you are attired – through baptism and faith in Jesus Christ. I know that we are well aware of our sin – and a degree of self-loathing in repentance is appropriate. But we dare not get stuck before that mirror, the mirror of God’s Law! For as the Scripture states: “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” [Rom. 10:4] Rather, we must see ourselves as God sees us after He has clothed us in “garments of salvation” and the robe of His perfect righteousness.
Second, consider that all of your fellow believers are similarly attired! Yes, you can see their sins, their weaknesses, their foibles and spiritual frailties! But you are using the lens of God’s Law to see these things; this “lens” is ended “to everyone who believes.” To forget this, is to deny and reject the Gospel itself! This is what Jesus meant when He warned us, “with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged.” Besides, it is a much more pleasant and optimistic experience to see what is real, what God has really done for us and others, in clothing us with His righteousness and salvation!
Transition: And as always happens with God’s Word, it creates what it speaks! And so:
II. God Is Making Us His Garden, In Which Righteousness And Praise Of God Is Sprouting Up Among All Nations
Text: “For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.”
Statement: It is God’s Word which causes plants to grow; so also God’s Word of life and salvation, His glorious garments we are clothed with, by His Word, causes changes: our lives now bring forth “righteousness” and “praise of God” to sprout up all over the earth, “before all the nations.” In this way God’s Mission succeeds: His people are glorified in this as well!
Application: It is true that as we bring forth righteousness, unbelievers will be eager to put spiritual herbicide on us, whatever anti-spiritual “Round-Up” they can find. Nonetheless, God’s new creation of our inner beings is always resistant to such persecution – we shall flourish and bring forth righteousness regardless of any and all opposition! For this is being accomplished in us by God’s own Word, His almighty Word.
So our “glorification” by the Word of God, by His doing, is not necessarily seen as glorious by the unbelieving around us, but it surely should be seen as such by believers! It is evidence of the reality and the power of God’s love, and His gift of salvation! This is what we should be attentive to, and attuned to – for it is “GOD’S MISSION TO GLORIFY HIS PEOPLE”!
Conclusion: It is a remarkable and beautiful thing that God has taken this on as His mission in the world! He has given us His Word that it is so, or else who could possibly believe it to be true? By nature, our reason and senses, we would never conclude or even suspect that these things are so.
So watch your sinful nature, and do not allow it to erase this Word of God from Isaiah from your heart and mind! Do not be forgetful of God’s Mission. See what God has done for you with garments of salvation, and robes of His righteousness. And make sure that you see your fellow believers as they truly and really are in God’s sight!
Then let us also sprout and grow in righteousness and praise of God. Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.