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WE CAN THANK GOD FOR THE CLOTHES ON OUR BACK! -- January 6, 2008

Sermon Text: Isaiah 61: 10 - 11

I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

I've got a question for you this morning: How long did it take to figure out what you were going to wear for church this morning? Now, there are two possibilities why it might have taken a while to decide what we were going to wear to church: either A) we've got a lot of outfits (and maybe we were trying to remember what we wore last time), or B) we haven't done laundry in a while, and we were trying to figure out what we had left to wear...

At times weve had members barely make it to church straight from work, and maybe they were wearing their hospital garb, or their shop clothes, and that's good! We would rather they come in their work clothes rather than not come at all. The Old Testament did have guidelines for the people coming to God's Temple, and that they be clean and prepared, but thankfully in our New Testament freedom, we can come to church as we're enabled to.

In our text for this morning, the Prophet Isaiah reminds us that

1.) (Which are) Garments of Salvation (Righteousness)
2.) Which God Brought About Through His Word

Part 1 -- Thank God for these GARMENTS OF SALVATION

Isaiah writes: "I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

The Prophet uses the illustration of a bride or a groom being dressed up for their wedding. It was about 19 years ago that my dad went with me into a tuxedo rental store, and he almost fell over when he found out how expensive it was just to rent tuxedos for my wedding. (That was 19 years ago -- I don't know if it's even more expensive today.)

In the same way -- if anyone went to a "black tie" New Year's Eve party last week, that meant wearing (and probably renting) a tuxedo. No small expense, but that's what the dress code called for.

Now note how Isaiah describes his clothes: "my SOUL rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with GARMENTS OF SALVATION and arrayed me in a ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS..." The cost of these garments that he's describing is not in any way cheap either. In fact, it cost a lot more than renting (or even buying) a tuxedo. As Luther put it: "Not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and His innocent sufferings and death." These garments of salvation with which we have been clothed as believers cost Jesus His life -- even death on a cross! Notice how Communion reminds us of that: "My blood... shed for you / poured out for you, for the forgiveness of sins."

These garments of salvation, these robes of righteousness allow us to enter into the strict dress code of heaven. No sinner can enter there. Only those who are sinless and holy are allowed into heaven.

When you stop and think about it, what are clothes for? At the beginning, there were no clothes, remember? Adam and Eve needed them only after they had fallen into sin, and then looked at themselves and were "ashamed." And since then, everyone has needed to wear clothes. (And if anyone does try to go around wearing no clothes, hopefully they're arrested immediately -- as they should be!) Notice that clothes can have the purpose of covering up things that are considered shameful.

Now think of the image that God uses in the Book of (Revelatno Ch. 7), of that large throng, all wearing white robes and standing before God's throne in heaven. Those white robes have the significance of purity, holiness and sinlessness.

What our garments of salvation cover up and hide is but our many sins, with which we have have dlrtied ourselves with. Or, as another passage says: "You have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and thus we've been made clean in God's sight."

So, yes, we can join Isaiah in THANKING GOD FOR THE (spiritual) CLOTHES ON OUR BACKS, and taking delight and finding joy in these GARMENTS OF SALVATION, these ROBES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS which God has covered us with.

Part 2 -- (Garments of Salvation) Which God Brought About Through His Word

Isaiah continues: "For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations."

Its an agricultural fact, a law of nature, that God put into force, that if you plant a seed, and it has the proper amount of sun, water, etc. -- it's going to grow.

We just closed out another calendar year, and we traditionally celebrate near the end of November the abundant harvest that God has allowed us again this past year. Our supermarket shelves are full of food and many good things. Produce is plentiful, and these are all blessings from God's gracious hand. (This is also something that reminds us again of God's promises to provide for our needs, and that He preserves us and our life here on this earth.)

The Holy Spirit uses this agricultural fact to compare it to God's Word and its growth among us, and its growth and the fruit its caused throughout the whole world.

Why are we here this morning ? Why didn't we sleep in ? Why did we get dressed and ready to come to God's house? Isn't it because God has caused His Word to grow and bear fruit in our lives? Isn't it to His credit that we're gathered here this morning, possibly in our Sunday best ? And what have we been doing while we're here this morning? Isn't it praying and singing and praising this same God who has also clothed us with these priceless garments of salvation?

The Sovereign Lord has indeed caused righteousness and praise to spring up before all nations. After all, over the course of this entire weekend, think of just how many Christians throughout the entire world will have gathered together to bring prayers and thanks and praise to our Savior God, and His Son, our Savior, Jesus?

God's almighty and powerful Word has caused all this to happen, and we can join together with Isaiah in thanking the Lord for the (spiritual) clothes on our backs - these GARMENTS OF SALVATION that we now wear. Remember that these invisible, spiritual clothes on our backs as Christians have made us ready and prepared for the dress-code in heaven.

Stop and think for a moment. Where else, how else, could we have been able to get ourselves ready for the dress-code in heaven? Could we have run to any of the after Christmas 50 to 70 percent off clearance sales and found ourselves something to get us dressed for heaven? Where could we have gone to find such clothes? Again, thank God that He has clothed you with a white robe of righteousness, a garment of salvation, by which He no longer sees you and me as sinners, but instead covered with Christ's righteousness and holiness. You are prepared, you are ready, all brought about by God's holy and effective Word working and bearing fruit on our hearts.

Continue to join with Isaiah in thanking Him for the spiritual clothes on our backs, amen.

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