I wanted to sing that song this morning because that is the subject of what is on my heart: this Man in glory.
Let us begin by reading a few Scriptures this morning.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood.
Behold, He cometh with the clouds.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters.
And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Let us begin with prayer.
Lord, we come to You this morning. This is Your Word, not man’s word. This is a revelation that is divine in nature, not something gained through knowledge and intelligence. It has to come by Your Spirit.
So we do ask, Lord, as we have been considering this Man in glory, that, Lord Jesus, You would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Lord, we ask for the anointing this morning to share and to hear.
Lord, just a special caution for me: I pray for Your mercy. I do not want to misrepresent this Man in glory as we share this morning. Lord, I plead Your blood over every word that is shared, and I ask that only what is of You would truly remain, and everything else be burned up. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, as I have shared before, the time is at hand. There is a burden on my heart that we be awakened to how soon the Lord’s return is about to occur, and that we not only have that sense of His soon return in our hearts, but also that we would have a readiness in our hearts and in our spirits to be ready.
There is this blessed hope of our Lord’s appearing. That is the blessing that we see in this book: Christ being revealed in His soon return. It is all about that. Are we ready? Are we prepared for that, brothers and sisters?
In sharing on being prepared, I mentioned that it is God’s love that constrains us. I do pray that you sense daily God’s constraining love in your life, that your heart might be ready for Him. It is every day—a constraining love of the Lord.
Oh, how precious it is, the sense of that constraining love of the Lord, drawing us on, drawing us to Himself, drawing us near to Him, drawing us to what is in His heart, and being able to share that with you and with me. That is a precious, precious thing.
His love constrains. That is the only reason you will ever begin to get ready: that constraining love.
Then I mentioned this grace that is also available, and this grace is Jesus Christ. He lives in you; that grace is in you. It is Christ in you who is constraining you daily, and it is Christ in you who wants to live, who wants to have His life expressed through you as a vessel of His expression—of His love, His mercy, of Who He is.
Last week, I mentioned the need for a fresh revelation of this Lord that we have—a fresh revelation. You know, revelation is not a once-in-a-lifetime thing; it is a continual thing in our lives, and we are always in need of fresh revelation.
I mentioned how all the great moves of God down through history were preceded by a fresh revelation of Himself: the One given to Adam as the Seed, the promised Seed; the One given to Moses who would deliver His people, and whom Moses needed to see in that burning bush.
And in these last days, I mentioned, He appears to John. Things were in a difficult situation in the churches. Many had fallen away from our Lord. Many had lost that fervour of first love.
The Lord gave John a special ministry of recovery, of bringing God’s people back to God’s love and purpose. You see it in the Gospels, because in the Gospels He reveals the very character and nature of God—not just what He did, but Who He is. And that is what was needed for recovery.
It is only when we have that fresh revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ that we really move on in our lives in our Lord Jesus Christ. So it is a continual need: fresh revelation.
This book is called The Revelation of Jesus Christ. It is the last book in the Bible—not the last one written, but the last one put there in order by the Holy Spirit, we believe.
It is a revelation of Jesus Christ as had never been known before. This is the apocalypse. Apocalypse means the unveiling—the unveiling of Jesus Christ in reference to His soon return, His glorious appearing.
The Lord, in His great wisdom, said, “What is needed is a fresh revelation of this Man in glory.”
The revelation of Him as the Lamb of God, the Bread of Life, the Door, our peace, and, as we shared this morning, as grace—all these revelations have been given to us. And now we have this revelation. It was given at this time in history that God’s purpose might be recovered in His church.
What we see in this revelation is the Man in glory—the King of glory. Last week I asked that we might be praying this week that we might see this Man in glory, really see Who He is.
That is my concern this morning. I feel like I know so little of this Man in glory, and I do not want to misrepresent Who He is. So may the Lord have mercy as we share this morning.
First of all, John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and he heard behind him a great voice as of a trumpet. Something is amazingly different.
You know, John is a man of heart, with such a heart for the Lord, for His purpose, and for His church. He ministered in a difficult day in the church, when things were in great decline at the end of the first century. He had been exiled on the island of Patmos because of his testimony of the Lord.
John is greatly concerned because he has given his whole life and his heart to ministry in these churches. He wants God to have His purpose fulfilled.
What does he see? He sees that the churches are there. He understands some of the difficulties. He understands the persecutions they are going through. He understands the weakness that he himself sees, and he is concerned. He is before the Lord.
I believe he is meditating before the Lord on the Lord’s day, with these concerns on his heart. What would happen to these churches—to the Lord’s church? Who would help them?
Not that John felt that he was anything, but he knew that this was a ministry that had been given to him. He was deeply concerned, probably in travailing prayer, just to be with the Lord on that day.
Interestingly enough, the Lord draws John away from his thoughts. How does He do it? He hears a loud voice like a trumpet behind him.
This is a different voice. This is not the voice of a lamb. This is not the quiet, still voice that we are all used to hearing in our meditations before the Lord. This is the sound of a trumpet.
The King of glory is speaking. It is the Lion that is speaking, brothers and sisters. Thank God for that lamb nature, but it is a Lion that is speaking to His people and to John. He draws John’s attention to Himself.
What does John see as he turns to look at this voice? He sees One like the Son of Man, standing in the midst of the churches—the seven golden candlesticks.
We should always be reminded that it is the One in the midst that this whole book is about. It is the One in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Our Lord Jesus is the One in preeminence here. The seven golden candlesticks are, so to speak, in the background.
The church has a great place in God’s purpose, called to be His bride and His helpmeet. But God’s purpose is Christ. God’s purpose is Christ. We need to always remember that.
Here we see this Man in glory, One like the Son of Man, in relationship with His church. How do we see Him, this risen Lord of glory? He is in their midst.
There are great troubles there. There is a lot that He sees that is not right, but He is still in their midst. That is what makes a difference.
These churches have no purpose and no reason to remain if the Lord is not in their midst. But He is still there—looking, searching, measuring His church, as I mentioned last time.
So we see this Man in glory as the Head of His church. Man is not the head. No convention of churches is the head. No group of men is the head. The leadership, as we call ourselves, is not the head. Bishops and pastors are not the head.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the church. That is the way He is seen here, walking in the midst.
The church was birthed at Pentecost. I think we are all familiar with that. When our Lord ascended into heaven, the anointing oil was poured out on His Head, and it came down to the skirts of His garments. That anointing oil flowed out on Pentecost upon one hundred and twenty believers, as the Word of God tells us.
At that moment in history, our Lord Jesus took on a new body. It was the church—the body of Jesus Christ.
These one hundred and twenty were individual, faithful believers before the Lord, faithful ones who wanted to follow the Lord in all that He wanted. They were there in that upper room, but they were yet just individuals, willing to do what the Lord wanted. Thank God.
But at that moment, with that anointing of the Holy Spirit, they were joined together as one and actually became the living body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, all who believed in Him became a part of that living body.
So He is seen here as the Head. He is the One in charge. He is the One with the brains. He is the One who initiates the actions. He is Head, and He is in the midst of the brothers and sisters.
Brothers and sisters, we have talked about the body of Christ for many years now. When I first, in the early seventies, heard about the body of Jesus Christ, it was a revolution to me. I had never heard of that before.
I had heard the term, but I had no idea what it really meant: the living body of Jesus Christ. I always thought the church was just an organization of men gathered together around the Lord, and that our whole purpose was to evangelize the world.
My view has been broadened since then, brothers and sisters. The church is the living body, the expression of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as your body is used to express what is in your head, that is the same with the Lord.
That is what happened at Pentecost, as the Lord went back to the throne as the Lord of glory.
Is this matter of the body of Christ knowledge, or is it revelation? It makes a big difference.
Let me say it another way. I am so grateful for these one hundred and twenty believers that were faithful. Pentecost could not happen until the Lord had believers praying for it and looking for it.
I think they prayed for ten days. They did not know exactly what was coming, but the Lord had asked them to go there and pray, and they did. One hundred and twenty faithful believers.
Now think about that. When our Lord first came and was working those miracles, He was flocked by the multitudes. Many called themselves disciples.
We remember when the Lord began talking about Calvary and the cross that many left Him. He asked those twelve, “Will ye also go away?”
How difficult was this matter of the cross to the people and to the disciples? They wanted a reigning king to overthrow Rome and make them the top people. Well, the Lord had a different idea.
When He began to talk about Calvary, they could not accept it. So many, many left Him. The more He spoke, brothers and sisters, the more He began to be rejected.
When He ascended from the Mount of Olives, we are told there were around five hundred. The multitudes had dwindled to about five hundred.
Out of that five hundred, one hundred and twenty were active in what the Lord was really after, really pursuing what the Lord was after—what His purpose was. Those one hundred and twenty stood faithful.
Because of the one hundred and twenty, we are here today, brothers and sisters, as the body of our Lord Jesus. We are brought into it. In other words, they paved the way. They made the way for us.
It is the principle of the overcomers, which our brother Kenny will be sharing.
May I say this to all of us? I think it is a real challenge, when we see the King of glory as the Head of His church, that we become active in Him and in His purpose.
In the end, once again, honestly, there will just be a few standing for His purpose. But because of the faithful ones, He will come again. He will come.
Those who have it on their heart are crying out, “Come, Lord Jesus,” not because they are just tired of this world, but because their love for the Lord and His purpose is so great that they will not have anything less. These are the ones.
We need to see this King of glory as the Head of His church, as John did.
We see Him in the midst of the seven churches also as the great High Priest. This morning it was mentioned from Hebrews how the Lord is our High Priest, who went into the heavenly sanctuary with His own blood once and for all, that we might be saved and have our sins forgiven.
Here we see that great High Priest in the midst of His churches. Our eyes need to be opened.
I mentioned this anointing that was upon our Lord Jesus as He ascended, resulting in Pentecost. Let us look at Psalm 133. It is so short, we can read it.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!It is like the precious oil upon the head,
That ran down upon the beard,
Even Aaron’s beard;
That came down upon the skirt of his garments;Like the dew of Hermon,
That cometh down upon the mountains of Zion:
For there the Lord commanded the blessing,
Even life for evermore.
In this psalm, we see Aaron, the high priest. He was anointed for his service as high priest, and that anointing oil flowed down from his head all the way to the skirts of his garments.
That is a picture of our ascended Lord Jesus on the throne: the anointing oil being poured out on Him as the High Priest, flowing down to the skirts of His garments—the church.
So we see Him as the great High Priest, brothers and sisters. Part of Aaron’s responsibility as high priest was to keep the candlestick burning brightly. That meant he had to trim the wick and keep it full of oil.
Only he could do that, I believe. I may be wrong on that one, but I do know that it was a function of the high priest. In other words, it was his responsibility to keep the light burning brightly—not dimly, not smoking, not flickering.
It was his responsibility to see that it burned brightly.
Here in the book of Revelation, we see Christ as the risen Lord of glory, as the High Priest. He is among His churches, the candlesticks, trimming the wicks and looking at the light to determine how brightly it is burning.
If it is not burning brightly, what is the matter? Is it flickering? Is it smoking? You know, when a candle begins to go out, it begins to smoke and creates more of an issue than it is good.
Well, He is checking. That is what He is doing here—checking those candlesticks. Is the light burning brightly? He is judging, looking for something that might be smoking even.
Brothers and sisters, when I spoke a few messages ago, I meant to mention that the reason we are not filled with the Holy Spirit is mainly because we are filled with the self-life. That is a great restriction.
We can only be filled to the point at which we are first emptied. That is why we go through a lot of emptying in our lives, brothers and sisters. Do not become too discouraged with the emptying process that you give up on the Lord, because His intention is to fill you with Himself.
Oh, what a great transformation that is in our lives. We suffer when we go through the cross, brothers and sisters, but on the other side it is the glorious life of our Lord Jesus Christ being manifested in us.
The same is true in the church. If the self-life, and not the Head, is in control, then there is a problem. The light begins to dim and flicker.
The self-life in control brings in the ways of man instead of God—the ways of the flesh. The love of the world begins to come in, as we saw in the history of the church: false doctrines, false teachings, perversions, and worship of idols.
All of those flow in as the self-life begins to control. It brings death and not life.
That is our responsibility: are we bringing in death, or are we bringing life to the candlestick? Not by our works, but by the work of grace in our lives. Is it life or death that we bring into the assembly?
Keeping the lamps burning brightly—that is what we see the High Priest doing here.
It says, “I turned to see the voice.” I saw the seven candlesticks, and in the midst, One like the Son of Man—One like unto the Son of Man.
In 1 Corinthians 15:45-47, which we will not read this morning, Christ is spoken of as the last Adam and God’s second Man. The last Adam, but God’s second Man. Christ is both.
When Christ came, He came as the last Adam, but as the second Man, to raise up a new creation in Christ. The old creation—Adam—was crucified on Calvary’s cross.
As the second Man, our Lord Jesus Christ was perfect in His life on this earth. When He came, He lived in total obedience.
He gave Himself up on the cross. He died as the last Adam. Our failure to obey, our sinful nature, was all wrapped up in the cross of Calvary.
He took upon Himself our sins, the sins of the whole world. But not only that: as the last Adam, He dealt with our sinful nature, not only with the sins that we committed through His blood, but with our sinful nature.
He was not only our substitute in death because of our sins. He was our representative in death, that the fallen nature might be dealt with. The only way to deal with it was to crucify it, and it is crucified in Christ.
Now He has ascended back to the throne. He has double glory.
I want you to understand this morning: something tremendous has happened. He not only has the glory of being the Son of God, the One with all authority and power and might, with the ability to create something out of nothing—He is the Son of God—but He also now has the glory of the victorious Son of Man.
Son of Man and Son of God: a double glory. He is different than He was before He left heaven, brothers and sisters. He is different. That is the One John sees.
This is the Man we see in glory. While on earth, He was called the Son of Man. In fact, He referred to Himself as the Son of Man.
But when John saw Him, he said, “I see One like the Son of Man.” Why did he put it that way? It is because He was more than just Son of Man. He was the Man in glory—Son of Man and Son of God.
He is triumphant. The Son of Man came to this earth and overthrew all the principalities and powers. He disarmed the enemy. He went into hell and took away the keys of hell and death.
This is the Son of Man who is now in heaven—not only Son of God, but Son of Man, the triumphant One in glory. Double glory.
So He is more than He was when He was in heaven before He left, and more than He was as Son of Man on earth. He is now the Man in glory. He is both.
You know, Daniel 7:13-14. Let us read that one.
I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and He came even to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him.
And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
This is the One. They are the same: the One in Daniel and the One in Revelation concerning One like the Son of Man.
Only in Daniel there is a little difference, because he saw the Lord before He came out of heaven. He had not yet become Son of Man on earth. Therefore Daniel says, when he sees Him, “I see One like the Son of Man.”
Brothers and sisters, it is on my heart that we see this One, this Man in glory.
Christ was God. Colossians speaks of His fullness in the Godhead, and we also know from Philippians that He came, took upon Himself the form of a man, even the form of a bondservant, and was crucified.
But we need to know this. Sometimes we misunderstand Who this Son of Man is. When He was on earth, He did not come acting in the power of the Son of God. He was God; He was still His Son. But He set aside the exercise of all that power as God.
Some people seem to think that He performed all these miracles because He was the Son of God in power. Well, He did not do it that way. He took on the form of a man. He came as a man.
That meant He had to set aside that divine power, and the power He manifested on earth in all those miracles was what was given to Him by God and by the Holy Spirit.
In other words, He had to function as we have to function today, brothers and sisters. We are called to depend on the Lord and the Holy Spirit in the same way. He took on the form of a man.
When He was scourged with a cat-o’-nine-tails—the whips—and His back was laid bare until there was nothing left but bone and muscle, just a mass of blood, it was not as the Son of God. He was the Son of Man.
He felt all the pain. His pain was no different than the pain you would feel if you had been beaten that way. In fact, for most of us, to endure what He endured, we probably would not have made it through the scourging process.
But He was so dependent on God for His life, for every breath, that God got Him through as Son of Man.
He suffered on the cross, not as the Son of God, but as Son of Man. He was nailed. Those nails hurt.
They spit on Him. They chided Him: “Come off the cross, if You are Who You say You are.” That hurt, brothers and sisters. He was the Son of Man. He felt the pain of rejection.
I have discovered in my little short life that one of the worst pains we go through is rejection. It can be from family members. It can be from our children. It can be from many places—work and elsewhere.
But there is hardly anything more painful than the pain of rejection. He had to suffer that, just like you and I do. He took on our sorrows there, brothers and sisters.
Do you know that? You are not alone. He took it on.
You have rejection, the pain of rejection. You have sorrows and wounds in your life. It says He took them. He experienced them all. There was none that He did not experience, but He experienced them as Son of Man.
It would have crushed any of us, but He depended on God and the Holy Spirit, and They got Him through—just as we should.
Brothers and sisters, not only have you been put in Christ, but Christ is in you. His triumph as the Son of Man is your triumph. You need to know that.
You will never be triumphant or victorious in your life unless you know this Man in glory, the Son of Man. He overcame it all as a man. He did it for you and me.
So we can triumph. We can be victorious. We can live that Christian life because we have this triumphant One in us—the Man in glory, brothers and sisters, as the Son of Man.
We have Him, and therefore we can make it through.
We need to see the Man in glory as the Son of God, brothers and sisters. He is almighty. He is the Creator. He is above us all. He is other—just other than what we are.
When we come before this One, we should be in fear and trembling. Not fear of being crucified or killed, but a fear that we simply are not up to Who He is. It is a fearful thing—a trembling.
We see how unworthy we are, and it is only because of His worthiness that we can make it. We are in awe, and there is reverence before this Son of God, this Man in glory.
It is difficult to stand before this Man in glory. John fell on his face as dead. The breath left him when he saw this Man in glory. We can only bow before this Man in glory, the Son of God.
I think we need to know Him in this way, because that is the way the Lord reveals Himself.
But this Man in glory is also Son of Man. That means He is approachable. That means He can reach down and lift John up.
You see what we need? He is one of us. He knows our infirmities. He understands the issues we deal with in our lives. He understands the pain, the rejection, the suffering. He understands all that we go through. I want you to know that.
This is the Son of Man in glory.
This is the One I think we are probably more familiar with—this Man in glory as the Son of Man. But He is both, brothers and sisters. We need that balance in our lives before Him: both as Son of God and Son of Man, this Man in glory.
Sometimes I struggle when people refer to God as “Daddy” and Jesus as “my big brother.” I struggle because—yes, let me say it this way.
One of the great revelations for many, many Christians is the revelation of this approachable God, this approachable Christ. Though He is the Almighty, you can approach Him.
You can lean upon His breast as John did. You can bring all your problems to Him. You can talk to Him, and He will respond. He loves you. You can fall into those everlasting arms.
It is a great revelation, and it is precious.
But at the same time, brothers and sisters, we need to remember that He is awesome. He is the King. He is on that throne. He is almighty.
Any little bit of unrighteousness in His presence is burned up. That is why most of us would not be able to stand before Him without this golden robe of righteousness that we are given. Because we are in Christ, we are able to approach the throne. Otherwise, we would be consumed.
He is the Almighty. He is the Almighty. We need to see Him in that way. He is both.
We have great privilege in being able to have a personal relationship with the King.
I cannot help but think of Esther. She had a relationship with the king. She was one of his wives. She had a personal relationship with him.
But she dared not approach that throne room unless she was asked. She had to approach that throne room very reverently and consider who she was and Whom she was approaching: the king.
So, brothers and sisters, there are both these aspects that we have the privilege of knowing in this Man in glory.
It says that when John looked at Him, He was clothed with a garment down to His feet.
Now, garment, brothers and sisters—I do not want to leave this Man in glory. I pray God will give us a new revelation and appreciation of this Man in glory, the Son of God and Son of Man.
But it says that He was clothed with this robe, this garment. Garment speaks of conduct.
Conduct is basically an outward reflection of the inward life. I think most would agree with that in general. Now, we can fake it; we know that. But in general, if we are not on our guard, our conduct is a reflection of our inward life.
We have a good example of this in Revelation 19:7-9.
Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are true words of God.
The clean linen is the outward expression of the inward life—the righteousness of the saints. That is conduct. That is conduct: righteousnesses, acts, specific acts of righteousness.
She is arrayed in a linen garment.
In Scripture, this is what I want us to be clear on and really see: when we get to that wedding feast, two garments are going to be required. To make it to the wedding feast, two garments.
Let us look in Psalm 45:9, 13-14.
Kings’ daughters are among thy honorable women:
At thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir.The king’s daughter within the palace is all glorious:
Her clothing is inwrought with gold.She shall be led unto the king in broidered work:
The virgins, her companions that follow her,
Shall be brought unto thee.
The queen is in gold of Ophir—a special, pure gold. Then in verse 13, this is the same person: “She is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold.” And she shall be brought to the king in raiment of needlework.
Two garments: a garment of wrought gold and a garment of needlework, this linen garment. Two garments.
We know that the queen represents the church—a bride for the King. This is a bride for the King. “Glorious within,” it says. Her clothing is of wrought gold.
That means there are no impurities. All the impurities have been eliminated. Amazing—impurities eliminated. Brilliant, bright, glorious gold.
I cannot imagine a golden robe, can you? We think of gold perhaps like a wedding ring. I do not have mine anymore; I had to take it off because of work.
I had it on for forty-four years, but I had to go on a job where, for safety reasons, they said to take it off. It was quite a job to get it off in the first place. I have gotten a little heavier in my days.
My wife said, “Jerry, maybe you just need to leave it off for safety reasons.” I said, “Okay, honey, I will do that.” Anyway, we are still married. The ring has not changed.
Glorious within, with that golden garment. It is actually a garment.
Now, what is righteousness? We talked about the linen righteousness, and this golden garment represents righteousness. What is going on here?
Righteousness is being right with God. That is the simplest way I know to put it. Righteousness is acceptable conduct, but it is more than just acceptable conduct. It is conduct that comes out of a righteous life, a life that is right with God.
So righteousness is conduct that is right with God, coming out of a life that is right with God. In other words, the inward life has to be there first, and it results in righteous conduct.
Before you came to Christ, before you accepted Jesus Christ, you may have had some good conduct, but the Word says that conduct is as filthy rags. Why does it say that? Why does God not recognize that?
A lot of people say, “I am a good person, so I should be in heaven.” It is just not that way. Our conduct before we accept Him is not acceptable. Why? Because it does not come out of an acceptable life.
You do not have the life of Christ in you at that point. Only conduct that comes out of the life of Christ in you is acceptable.
Christ was perfect in righteousness, in His inner life as well as in His conduct and His outer life. His actions always pleased God. He always did what God asked Him to do.
His conduct was perfect. It was righteous, and His life was righteous. So He had this righteousness. Christ is righteousness, if you want to get down to it. In fact, I think you have heard those words: Christ, your righteousness.
When you accept the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ becomes your righteousness. In other words, God puts you in Christ.
You know those words, “in Christ,” “Christ in you.” You are put in Christ. Let me put it a little differently: you are robed in Christ.
You are robed in righteousness. At that moment, He puts this golden robe of righteousness on you, brothers and sisters. It is glorious, because this allows you to stand before God.
Once you have this golden robe of righteousness on you, you can stand before God in the presence of God, because what God sees is that robe of righteousness. He sees Christ, and He says, “Okay, come on. You can come. You are acceptable, because you have the right garment on.”
The great thing about this robe—I want you to be clear on this morning—is that it can never be taken off. Once you have it on, it is there forever. Hallelujah.
It cannot be soiled by anything that you do or do not do. It is Christ. God has graciously given you this robe because of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have faith in Him as your Saviour, as your righteousness.
That is why good deeds do not save you. They are from the wrong life. But once you accept Christ, you have this robe of righteousness, and then you become acceptable before God.
You are a part of His kingdom, and He is not ever going to let you take that robe off.
I want us to appreciate this golden robe of righteousness. I think we do; we already have in some ways. But really think about this: God did not have to do that.
Because of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, this is the gift that He gives you. It is Christ, your righteousness. It is a golden robe—no impurities there.
He says, “Now, you come before Me in that robe, and I am going to listen to you. You can approach the throne.” Never marred, never taken off.
Now, we know that as Christians we have failed in obedience. We have failed in rebellion. We have failed in many ways, probably. But you know that robe is still on you.
God does not come up and say, “All right, that is enough,” and take it off. No, no, no, no, no. That robe is still on you. Your righteousness, your standing before God, is still there, even if you fail.
What has changed is your relationship. Your relationship has changed in the fact that there is a break in communion. You cannot really commune with Him now because you have offended Him. You have created an offense.
That offense needs to be corrected; then you can once again have communion. Of course, that comes through repentance and confession—something that has been done away with in the new Christianity: repentance and confession.
“Lord, I sinned. I come on the basis of this golden robe that You have given me. I come, and I tell You that I have sinned. I repent, and I want our fellowship restored.”
“When I look into Your Word, I want You to be able to speak to me again, Lord. When I meditate, I want to be able to hear that still, small voice. I cannot hear it right now because there is an issue between us, but I want to get that resolved.”
God looks at you and He sees that golden robe of righteousness, and He says, “Okay, I forgive you. My Son has paid the price for that sin, and on that basis I will forgive you.”
The golden robe is still there. Your fellowship is restored. Your standing has never changed.
But what about this linen garment? I will finish in a minute. What about the linen garment?
Regardless of your conduct after you accept Christ, that golden robe is there. Your standing does not change, no matter what your conduct. Now, does that mean our conduct does not matter? We know better than that, do we?
It does cut off fellowship, but it also inhibits the work of God in your life. So we do need to go before Him and get it straight.
At the wedding feast, it mentions this linen garment as well. In other words, first of all, to even be able to come—remember the parable about the wedding feast, and the person who came without the right garment?
Let me tell you this. It is possible for a Christian with that golden robe to try to get into the wedding feast. The Lord will say, “Yes, you have that golden robe. That means you are Mine. You are one of Mine.”
“I recognize that, and that gives you standing before Me. But I am also looking for that linen garment. Where is that linen garment?”
“Well, I do not have one.”
“Well, I am sorry. You cannot be a part of this wedding feast.”
It has nothing to do with your salvation or losing salvation. It simply has to do with your being invited to that thousand years of reigning and ruling with Christ. But it is the wedding feast, and you need both garments.
The linen robe stands for practical righteousness—practical righteousness in your life, not the imputed righteousness.
Theologians call this golden robe that you are given “imputed righteousness,” because it is given to you freely and without cost. It is given to you because you have faith in Christ, and that has been accounted to you. It is yours.
But this linen garment is the righteousness of the saints. It is the outworking of a righteous life within you.
Your conduct must not only be right, but it has to come out of a righteous life. That brings us back to the old theme that Jerry seems to have: we must deny self and allow Christ’s life to prevail in us.
We must do that. This is the righteousness of the saints—that righteousness which comes because Christ is in you, living in you, and you are denying self and saying, “Okay, Lord, You have to take over. I cannot do this. I cannot make this linen garment.”
Often, even after we get that golden robe, we are trying to have good conduct. We say, “Well, Lord, this is what You expect. This is what we do.” What it ends up being is a struggle of self-righteousness.
Job, if you want to read the whole story, fell into that trap. He wanted to be righteous before God, and he worked at it real hard. In fact, he thought he was righteous.
When he went to God, he said, “I do not understand what You are doing to me. I am righteous. I have done everything You asked me to do, and here all of this is happening to me. I do not understand.”
Then finally the Lord appeared to him in a fresh revelation out of a whirlwind. All of a sudden, Job’s eyes were opened, and he saw that his righteousness was just filthy rags. It was self-righteousness.
He said, “Lord, I did not know. I had heard about You before, but now I have seen You.” And he was set free.
It is Christ’s righteousness. That righteousness needs to come out of the life of Christ in you.
Here we see the Lord Jesus, robed full of righteousness—the Man in glory, full of righteousness—in the midst of His churches, looking for the linen garment.
Is that linen garment coming along, or has the work stopped?
Brothers and sisters, as I shared, we cannot do it. But He can. Christ.
You are in Christ; you have that golden robe. But Christ is in you, that that linen garment might be made.
I hope this morning, as we see this Man in glory, Head of His church, that we will actively take Him as Head of the church and join with brothers and sisters, like the one hundred and twenty, to serve God’s purpose.
We need to see Him as the High Priest trimming the lamp, that candlestick. All that self-life has to be dealt with. All the ways of man and everything else have got to be dealt with. He is a consuming fire—the Man in glory.
We need to see this One like the Son of Man: Son of God and Son of Man.
We need to be full of righteousness. Oh, praise God for that golden robe, brothers and sisters. Without that golden robe, there is no hope.
That is why you need to accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour. You will never make it in without that golden robe. You will never be acceptable, no matter how good you are, no matter how many good works you do. It is still out of the wrong life.
We need it, but we also need that life in us working, creating a righteousness that is not our own, but really of Christ—that linen garment.
Lord, we just come to You today. Once again, I have to pray, Lord, Your blood over all I have shared. I do not want to misrepresent You.
Lord, I pray that we will all get a fresh vision of this Man in glory, that we might be ready and prepared for Your soon return.
Lord, may we have that spirit in our hearts that says, “Come, Lord Jesus.” We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.