We turn now to the Word of God in Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, in the Sermon on the Mount. And our text will be in verses 28 to 30 today. Verses 28 to 30. And this is what the Lord says in these verses: "And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?"
Now you may wonder why suddenly I have turned to this passage today. This entire passage from verses 25 to 33 I expounded some five and a half years ago. And so, today we will not look at the entire passage, but only at these few verses. And again in your mind you will be asking yourself, "What is he trying to say from this passage? Could it be that these three from the second team are in some kind of financial need? Or maybe they are lacking in clothes to wear. And maybe he is appealing for some donation of garments to wear." Now if they were going to cool places, that might be understandable. But Hong Kong, you don't need a lot of heavy clothing. So maybe he is appealing for some shirts or some white clothes for these poor people unless they arrive in desperate straits in Hong Kong with nothing to wear. And so he is now talking about clothing and the like. Now this is not exactly the point I shall be turning to.
But let us read this whole passage to get the context of the verses, verses 25 to 33: "Therefore I tell you," the Lord Jesus says, "do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."
Life is more than food. The body is more than clothing. What is life for? What is the body for? Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
Now, let us look at this passage much more closely, the passage we are looking at in verses 28 to 30. Here the Lord Jesus says, "Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin." And yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not clothed like one of these lilies. How much more then, seeing that you are of more value than lilies in God's eyes, will God clothe you?
A discussion about lilies of the field. We think of lilies as white flowers with a long green stem that sometimes you see at weddings or at baptismal services—a symbol of purity. In fact, however, these lilies that we are acquainted with are not really the lilies that the Lord is talking about. Because the Lord is talking about lilies that grow wild in the field. These are wild flowers that God clothes. "The lilies of the field" means these are wild lilies, not the cultivated lilies that grow in your garden. They grow out there in the fields, among the weeds, indeed, even sometimes among the wheat. And the kind of lilies that are being spoken about are what we might call, or what the scholars call, sword lilies. Or sometimes gladioli. Gladioli belong to this family of sword lilies. Or iris, of the iris family.
And these lilies in Palestine are generally not of a white color. The white is also one of this group of families of the iris family. But they are generally flowers of a pinkish purple, or a deep violet purple, and sometimes also blue. And all these colors are royal colors. And hence the comparison to Solomon. The lily was also one of the flowers in Solomon's temple, mentioned several times in the Old Testament in connection with Solomon's temple. It is also a flower often mentioned in the Song of Solomon, and hence the connection with Solomon for all these reasons.
And these flowers often grew wild in the field. They grew very high. These are tall flowers, so that sometimes, looking even over the young wheat field, you could see the lilies in their dazzling colors, in their dazzling beauty, visible to the eye of the one who looks over the field. And the Lord is saying, "Look how beautiful these wild flowers are." Not cultivated by man, and yet able, in the midst of all these difficulties, to survive in the field, to grow forth in such beauty.
Now this being so, He says, if God can clothe these flowers with such beauty, how much more will He clothe you? Now, let us try to understand the logic of the thinking the Lord is saying here. If this is the line of reasoning, it is very easy to understand. The line of reasoning is like this: God clothes the flowers; you are of more value than flowers; therefore God will clothe you. With that line of reasoning, we have no problems at all. That God provides our physical needs, just as He provides for the needs of the birds of the air, and provides for our physical needs, even in clothing, is not a problem for any of us.
I think many of us have experienced these things. I remember one day I was in the Bible college in Scotland, and there was a knock on the door, and there stood a man with a great box in his hand. And he said, "Here is a box for you." And I thought, "So what is this?" He said, "Well, I am just asked to deliver it. I don't know where this comes from, but I am asked to deliver it from the shop." The shop was a well-known tailor's shop in England called Burton's. So I said, "Well, but who bought this?" He says, "I don't know. I am just asked to deliver it." And so I opened the box, and there was a beautiful overcoat inside. So clearly some brother or sister—I don't know who, or couple, whoever knows—considered that I was ill-clad and not well equipped for the winter of Scotland, since I had only a thin light raincoat that I had brought over from Hong Kong, and decided that I needed this overcoat. And so in their love, they went and bought this overcoat and had it sent to me anonymously. And so the love of God, working through this person or persons, saw to it that I was clothed. Clearly, if God had not been the motivator of that love, why should they buy me a coat? I mean, if I freeze, that's my business, not their business. But God works by His love through His people and provides for the needs of His people in this way.
And so I had this beautiful overcoat, and since then, mostly I have so many people giving me shirts and things that I hardly have to buy anything at any time. Such is the kindness of God's love working through His people, even in those days. Even the shoes I'm wearing—that one's from the first team. Because Tim, I think, came in looking very innocent one day, and when I was in another room, he went and measured my shoes, you see. And so suddenly I found a pair of shoes waiting for me. And I said, "What is this?" He said, "Apparently they decided that the other pair of shoes I was wearing was not very acceptable, and therefore I was to put on this new pair of shoes, which I'm still wearing to this day." And so the Lord in His goodness works to provide our physical needs, our clothing, our shoes. Ties—somebody thought the other day that my tie didn't look so good, you see. And so suddenly I got a new tie. So constantly God is moving His people through His love and providing all these things.
So, if the reasoning here is that God clothes the lilies, and because you are of more value, therefore He will clothe you—if this is the line of reasoning here, there's no difficulty to understand this at all. But so often, when we study the word of God, we are too superficial. And we thought we had exhausted the meaning of the passage, until we look more carefully.
Look more carefully at this. If we went from verses 28 to 30, and there was no verse 29 in between, we would have no problem at all. If we read like this: "And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. If God"—verse 30—"so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you?" See, the line of reasoning is perfectly clear—until we get verse 29 stuck into the middle of it. And then, when you look more carefully, if we are not too superficial in our thinking, we suddenly realize that the Lord is saying something much more to us that we had missed.
What is the something much more? Let us try to follow this line of reasoning. If God—now taking verse 29 into account—if God so clothed the lilies of the field to such beauty—not that He just clothed them, but He clothed them with such a beauty that not even Solomon the king of glory—to use the term of Josephus—Josephus, the ancient historian, described Solomon as the most glorious of kings. Most glorious. The idea of glory was always associated with Solomon. The glory of the temple that he built. The glory of the palace that he built. The glory of Israel under the reign of Solomon. The word "glory" was very much associated with Solomon. Everything he did carried the mark of glory. And so Josephus, the Jewish historian, says: the most glorious of kings, Solomon.
But the Lord is saying, when God clothed the flower of the field, He made even Solomon's glory look pallid by comparison, dull by comparison. Such is the beauty of the flowers of the field. And many times, if you look carefully at the flower, you have to admit, there is something about the beauty of the flower that no clothing can ever match. No matter if you put on golden ties, no matter what you put on, more golden buttons on you, no matter how you sew some more lilies onto your dress, you still cannot compete with the simple yet magnificent beauty, the living beauty, of the lily. You just cannot compete with it. Because whatever you put on is dead. What is on the lily is living. It is beautiful. It is alive. Whatever you put on is extrinsic to you. It is simply added on to you. Whatever is in the lily is intrinsic to the flower. The life and the glory of the flower is inseparable. But if you took Solomon's clothes off, then Solomon looked like nobody, no different from any ordinary human being. Because his glory was put on to him. It was extrinsic. Outside of him. It was added on to him. But the beauty of the flower is inseparable from the flower. It is intrinsic to the flower.
Now, this is the line of reasoning. If God made the flower so beautiful that even Solomon cannot in all his glory compete with it—"in all his glory," notice these words—compete with the flower—how much more will He clothe you? How much more? What does the "how much more" mean? What is this "how much more"?
If He dresses the lilies and He dresses us, there is no point of comparison. But the "how much more"—because now the reasoning is this: if God clothes the flower to the glory, or to the excess of the glory of Solomon, how much more, if the line of reasoning is to follow, will He clothe you to a glory exceeding that of Solomon's? Do you see the line? That means to say, not merely that this person bought from Burton's an overcoat for me, because that overcoat does not compete with the glory of Solomon. He would virtually have had to buy an overcoat for me in braided gold. Maybe that would just about compete with Solomon, in the way Solomon dressed. I mean, he was a king. He dressed himself in gold and silk, and not some ordinary overcoat. And if God clothes me with an ordinary overcoat, no matter how nice it may be, it certainly cannot compete with Solomon.
Do you see the point? I would have to be dressed in kingly array to be even on the equal level with Solomon, never mind to exceed his glory. But the reasoning here, as you have noticed, falls into problems. Even if God provided me with a silken gown in which there is gold braid everywhere in it, so that it is so heavy with gold that I might need to have two sticks to hold me up, I would by that time only be on the level of Solomon. I haven't exceeded him yet. Unless I know that Solomon had 50 ounces of gold in his coat, and now I have 60 ounces of gold, so I have 10 ounces more, therefore I have exceeded Solomon. Is that what the Lord is talking about?
But if so, I still have not gotten anywhere. Because the problem here is this: the beauty of Solomon, unlike that of the flower, is still extrinsic. Outside. Depends on some outward show. It's like the bride on the wedding day—is so beautiful. Because why? Extrinsic material has been added to the face, which is described as cosmetics. So that by the evening, when she washes her face, all this added-on glory, all the labor of the artist, the cosmetic artist who has worked on her face for two hours, is all washed off in five minutes of soap. And all the glory.
I still remember how I went to a wedding once, and I looked at the bride, and I wasn't sure that I still recognized her. Because I was supposed to know her, you see. But she was so painted up that I would have to look at her several times before I could recognize her. Because on her face was all this powder and this paint, and the eyes had black lines here, and the eyebrows were going there. I wondered whether I came to the right wedding. I mean, the bridegroom was still the same man, but did he get mixed up and got another bride in the meantime, you see? The glory was there. She looked beautiful. She looked like a work of art. Like a painted doll. Something that for a moment had escaped from Hollywood to get to the wedding, you see. The only problem is, what would she be like on the next day? She would be back to her ordinary self again. You see, the beauty was not even skin deep, because it was right on top of the skin, not inside the skin. It was purely extrinsic, external.
Therefore, if God clothed me with the beauty of Solomon, it would still be external to me. I still have no competition with the flower, because the beauty of the flower is internal. It is the real thing. My beauty would be simply the unreal thing. That is God-given; mine is man-made. And so there is the difference. One person is beautiful or handsome because he was born like that. Another person is beautiful or handsome because somebody worked two hours on his face. That is the difference between the intrinsic and the extrinsic.
Now, I am saying all this so that we can try to follow the line of reasoning. It shows that even if this passage means that because God clothed the flowers, He will clothe me, I have no problem there. But if He can clothe the flowers to a glory exceeding that of Solomon, then He must clothe me to a glory exceeding that of Solomon, since, according to this line of reasoning, I am worth more than the flowers. Therefore, if He clothed the flowers more than the glory of Solomon, then if I am worth more than flowers, He must clothe me to an extent more than the glory of Solomon.
Yet we run into a problem: that no matter what He clothed me with physically, I cannot exceed the glory of Solomon. I don't even know whether I have exceeded it or not. Even when I am walking encrusted in gold, I don't know still whether that gold looks as beautiful as the one that Solomon wore. Maybe he wore less gold, but the design was more beautiful than mine. So I still don't exceed the glory of Solomon.
What is it then the Lord is saying to us here? How is it that He will clothe me to a glory greater than that of Solomon? Well, for one thing, we can say again—we spoke about "greater than John the Baptist" last time—now it is "greater than Solomon." Is there some way that God can clothe me to a glory greater than Solomon? Is there some way He can do this? The answer is yes. And this is the whole point of today's message. How will He clothe me to this greater glory? Well, He has to do one thing for a start. He has to clothe me with a glory that, unlike Solomon's, as I said, is not external but internal. That is not physical but spiritual. Then He can clothe me to a greater glory. Because, as much greater as the spiritual is to the physical—if I have spiritual glory, clearly I exceed the glory of Solomon, because his is only a physical glory. If I have an internal glory, an intrinsic glory, that is really eternal and within me, that cannot be removed like a garment, then my glory exceeds that of Solomon.
Ah, now gradually we begin to understand. The Lord is speaking spiritually, and we thought He was speaking physically. This is not to deny that there is a physical reality to it. But we realize that He is saying much more than just physical provision. He is saying, "I will provide for you physically, yes, but I will do much more than that. I will provide for you spiritual glory, the likes of which Solomon had nothing to compare with."
And this is what I would like to say to the three of them who are going forth: do not go forth to serve the Lord anywhere until you put on the garments of glory. Until, when you go forth, people do not see you but see the glory of the Lord in you. Until then, don't go anywhere. Hide yourself in a cave. Because where are you going out to serve the Lord? That they want to see you? That they want to see me? Not at all. What they want to see is the glory of the Lord. You want to see that which pertains to eternal life in the person who ministers to you. And that glory, the glory of the Lord, anytime exceeds the glory of Solomon. There is the depth and the beauty of the Lord's saying here. When you go forth to serve the Lord, make sure that you wear the garments that the Lord provides for you.
Remember the parable of the wedding feast. The people were invited; they came to the wedding feast. And the Lord walked among the guests, and He saw somebody without the wedding garment. He said, "What are you doing here? How did you get in here without the wedding garment? You did not come with the garments appropriate for the wedding." And so I say to those who go out to serve the Lord: if you go out there to serve the Lord in your own strength and in your own wisdom, the Lord will say one day to you, "What are you doing here? Did I send you forth in your own name? Did you come forth here to serve me in your own wisdom? Did you come here to serve me in your own strength?" And then you will say, "What, Lord? What? I'm sorry, Lord, I made a mistake." You got into the wedding without the wedding garment? You got into the Lord's service without the garments of glory? Can you be a prophet without a prophet's mantle? Can you be a priest without the priestly garments? Can you be a king without the kingly garments?
Throughout the Old Testament and the New, the garments are the indicator of what you are. A remarkable thing in the Revelation—and some of you have been restudying Revelation—is to notice how constantly it speaks of white garments. The elders are dressed in white garments. The heavenly multitude are dressed in white garments. The angels are dressed in white and brilliant garments. Everyone is dressed in white and brilliant garments. Garments of glory, garments of light. Without those garments, you have no place in the heavenly kingdom. "Buy of me," the Lord says in Revelation 3, "buy of me those garments of white, that you may enter into life." Without those garments, you cannot enter into the kingdom. You must be clothed with the garments of righteousness that God provides.
So let us look at this matter yet more closely. And I want to share a few things about these garments. Because it is remarkable how much the New Testament has to say about these garments, the garments of the Lord, the garments that the Lord provides.
Quite in line with this, let us turn quickly to Luke chapter 24, verse 49. Luke 24, verse 49. And this is what the Lord says here to His disciples: "And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city," that is in Jerusalem, "until you are"—notice the word—"clothed with power from on high." From on high means from God. Don't go anywhere, the Lord says. Don't go out there to preach the gospel, because He just said, in the previous verse, verse 47, "and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations." All nations. Beginning at Jerusalem. But then the next verse immediately says, don't go anywhere. Don't leave the city until you are clothed. Clothed with God's power. And then you can go. Before that, don't move. Otherwise, you will go out in your own filthy garments. In the garments of your own self-righteousness. In the garments of your own wisdom. You are going out there, and you will not be serving me. But before you go anywhere, put on these clothes.
How—what does "clothing" mean? Of course, we know what He is referring to when "clothed with power." And the word "clothed" is correctly translated; that is exactly what the Greek is saying. Clothed—to put on clothes. Clothed with power. And we read in Acts chapter 1, verse 4 onwards, that they were, of course, to be clothed with the Holy Spirit. The power that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Now, what does the Bible mean by this clothing? The first meaning of clothing in the New Testament, of course, means to be equipped with. To be equipped. Just as putting on clothing means that you are equipped. Say, when it's very cold, you put on clothes; you are equipped to stand the cold. You don't go out in the cold with a shirtsleeve on. You put on your overcoat. You wear something. It is an equipment for you to be able to cope with that situation. Or, when you go to battle, you put on your armor. You are equipped with, clothed with, the armor to go forth to battle.
And this is what we read in Romans chapter 13, verse 12. Let me read it to you. Romans 13, verse 12: "The night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy." Verse 14: "But put on"—again, the same word here—"put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."
So first it says "cast off." The word is to take off your clothes. "Cast off the works of darkness." This way of dressing, this manner of conduct that you had before—strip it off like a filthy garment and throw it away. And instead, "put on the armor of light." What is light? Light in the Bible means righteousness. It is a symbol of righteousness, or holiness. Put on righteousness like an armor, because righteousness is that which will protect you against the attacks of sin, the ravages of temptation. So, in 1 John, for example, it says, "Walk in the light, as He is in the light." That is, walk in righteousness, walk in holiness, as He is holy, as He is righteous. Put on the armor of light—means righteousness will be your defense. Righteousness is God's provision to protect you from sin. God provides the clothing. We are to put it on.
Now, that is very important for us to understand. Because there are many people who think that grace and effort are irreconcilable. When you speak of grace, you cannot speak about effort; if you speak about effort, you cannot speak about grace. That, in the Bible, let me tell you, dear ones, is absolute nonsense. It is rubbish. Grace and effort in the Scripture are inseparable. God in His grace provides you with the garments of salvation. But He doesn't grab you and force you to put it on. You have to put on those garments. You put them on. And so Paul is saying here, "Put on." He is telling the Romans to put it on. God provided you with this armor of light. That is His gift of grace. He provides you with the bread of life, but He doesn't stuff it down your throat. You eat it yourself. If you don't eat it, the bread of life will stand in front of you, and you will starve to death looking at it. Grace and the appropriation of grace—those are two things which you must clearly understand.
And this is what I say to the three of them. God has made full provision for you. He has provided you with the garments of salvation. He has provided you with the armor of light. And if you get shot in the heart by some enemy dart, it's not because He didn't provide you with the armor of light. It's because you didn't put it on. There is the problem.
You know, there is the abundance of God's grace available to all of us. The problem lies not in the availability of grace. The problem lies in the appropriation of that grace. We are like Christians, sometimes like beggars, living in the midst of plenty. Everywhere we are surrounded by God's bounty, by God's bountiful provision. And yet Christians are beggars in the midst of God's abounding grace. Why? Because they think that they are just going to open their mouth and God is going to stuff the bread of life in. But even opening your mouth is an effort. Maybe they were waiting for God to open their mouth as well. And maybe they were waiting that God will also help them to swallow, because swallowing is also an effort. If you have ever had a sore throat, you will know how much of an effort it is to swallow. And there are Christians today who think that grace is to remain passive like this, doing absolutely nothing. And God will take your mouth and pull it open. He will stuff the bread of life down. He might even make you swallow it, and make sure that He will keep feeding you. What kind of Christianity is this? This is grace? This is ridiculous. This has nothing to do with grace at all. God provides all these things. You have to keep appropriating.
God opens the doors of life to you. You have to strive to enter. That's what the Bible says. Straining every nerve to get in. How much grace do you want? That He will grab you by the scruff of the neck and drag you into the kingdom too? I have stressed this point many times, but I cannot stress it often enough. Because if we had only continued to appropriate, to make use of the grace that God has provided for us, we would be giants. We would be growing with a spiritual growth that would astonish everyone. But yet we are struggling with elementary problems. We are every day being beaten by the same difficulties. And like our brother Pumpkin was sharing, we have problems getting on with one another even. As though God's grace is not enough to solve these problems? No. But we will still behave like non-Christians. We will still behave in shameful ways. Why? Because God's grace is not enough? No. Because we didn't appropriate that grace. When will we learn? When will we learn?
We become invincible, as Tim was saying. According to him, we have already learned invincibility. I am not yet so convinced about that. I think we have a long way to go. But of course, Tim meant it in a very gracious manner, and in that sense, I agree with him.
So here is the thing. I have never found, in living with brothers in the days when I was a bachelor, I never had any problem with anyone. I don't know why everybody has problems. Maybe they have problems with me, but I don't have problems with them. So maybe it's because I'm blessed with insensitivity. I cannot recall that anyone I shared an apartment with, I had a problem with them. Maybe they had a problem with me. I don't have a problem with them. I seem to have a great time all the time. What is the problem? I don't know. But people do have problems with me, maybe. Maybe you have to ask them. I don't know.
Here is the problem. Maybe if we could only appropriate more grace, we would be much more the kind of people God wanted us to be.
So the first meaning of "clothes" in the New Testament—meaning to be clothed with—is to be equipped with. But in order to be equipped with, not only does God have to provide it, but we have to put it on. "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Did you notice these words? "Put on" here in Romans 13 verse 14. It is an aorist imperative. For those of you who have studied Greek, you'll know what is an aorist. And if you don't know Greek, you'll still know what is an imperative. An imperative is a command. It is the command from the Lord to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the aorist stresses the point of doing so; generally, it has the meaning of doing so immediately. And the aorist is said to be a punctiliar tense, that is, in a point of time, as contrast with the linear. So an aorist imperative generally would have the meaning: "Put it on." Yes.
# Clothed with Glory Greater than Solomon (Part 2)
It is to be obeyed immediately and it is to be obeyed constantly. We are not only immediately to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, but we are to keep on putting Him on, or have Him on, all the time. Now what this means, we will look at more deeply in a moment. But let me still come back to summarize this point once more, that we fully understand this message of the New Testament. That to be clothed with the armor of light is to be equipped with. "Clothed" means to be equipped with.
But then we run into a problem. We may say, we may at once perceive, that whatever you put on appears to be extrinsic to you. Like clothing—what you put on is outside of you. If you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, maybe it is some superficial outward appearance of being a Christian. Because clothing, after all, you don't eat your clothing; you put it on. Maybe if you eat your clothing, it might be intrinsic to you. But since you put it on outside, it is extrinsic to you. But that is not the meaning in the New Testament. "Put on" has the meaning of being equipped with, but never in the idea of something being extrinsic or superficial.
For example, in Job 29 verse 14: "I put on righteousness as a garment and it clothed me." Job 29, verse 14. "I put on righteousness as a garment and it clothed me." It doesn't mean that righteousness that God provides for us is simply an outward shell that we put on for show. No, no. It means that we truly are righteous. We are truly righteous not only in God's eyes, but that by His transforming power, He also makes us truly righteous. He makes us pure in heart. Because how else could we become pure in heart unless He made us pure in heart? So His righteousness is not something only given to us in the sense that it is put externally upon us, but that His righteousness is something that truly is ours intrinsically once He has given it to us.
So "to put on" has another meaning in the New Testament. It means "to become." It means actually to become righteous. This we can see, for example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Let me read to you 1 Corinthians 15, verses 53 and 54, to see how this word "put on" is used. 1 Corinthians 15, 53 and 54: "For this perishable nature must put on"—this is the same Greek word, to put on clothes—"must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality." Verse 54: "When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"
Now here we are dealing with the same Greek word that we read in Matthew chapter 6. And I am in exposition dealing with exactly the same Greek word. Sometimes translated "to clothe," sometimes translated "to put on"—it is exactly the same thing. We could say, "For this perishable, when it is clothed with the imperishable," would have exactly the same meaning and would be exactly equally true to the translation of the text from the Greek. To say that the perishable puts on the imperishable means that the perishable is transformed into the imperishable. It becomes imperishable. It is not saying that the perishable now has an outward shell of being imperishable, which would be talking nonsense. It is saying that when the perishable puts on, that is, becomes imperishable. When the mortal puts on, that is, becomes immortal. When this mortal body of mine, Paul is saying, becomes, puts on immortality, so that it becomes immortal, then will be said, "Death is swallowed up in victory." Because if the mortal does not become immortal, then even if the outside still remains, the inside is dead, since the inside is still mortal. And then to say that death is swallowed up in victory would again be nonsense.
You see, the word "put on," four times in these two verses, means by God's power to be transformed into something else. The perishable physical body is transformed by God's saving power to become immortal, imperishable. "Put on" then means to be, to become, to be changed. Oh, actually, this is not difficult for us to understand. I mean, you go out there, you work in the garden, you wear filthy rags for work in the garden, and then when you come back, you wash yourself, and you put on new clothing—oh, you are transformed, literally changed in your appearance. But in the Scripture, it means not merely changed in the outward appearance, but changed truly and fully—an intrinsic, internal change. That is the scriptural meaning.
Now you begin to understand the point. To put on righteousness as an armor is not merely to be equipped with righteousness; it is to become righteous. It is to be transformed by God's power into being righteous. This is exactly, of course, what Paul says: "Once you were darkness, now you are light." You do not just put on light, but you actually have become light. When it says, when you put on light, you are transformed into light. You see that in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 8: "Once you were darkness, now you are light." By putting on the armor of light, you are actually transformed by God's power into light. This is truly something beautiful to behold.
Now how do we put on? Notice the first step. The first step for any person to be equipped with God's life and God's power—the first step is taken in baptism. Galatians chapter 3, verse 27. Let me read it to you. Galatians 3:27: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." How do we put on Christ? How do I put on this new life of grace that God has provided for me? The first step is something you do. You are baptized into Christ. Just as two weeks ago, the three persons were baptized. Did God or anyone else drag you into baptism? No. This was some decision that, by the grace of God, indeed with His enabling, but yet something that you had to make. You decided to be baptized. And so you came forward. You repented of your sins. You made your pledge and commitment to God. And you were baptized. So you put on Christ at baptism. That's what the Scripture here says.
But now, if you say to yourself, "Ah, now I have put on Christ, and therefore that is the end of my task"—you have not really understood the passage. Because in baptism you have put on Christ, indeed. But it is not once for all. And hence, we have just seen Romans. Romans chapter 13. What does it say? There He is speaking to Christians who have already put on Christ in baptism. Yet it is to these same Christians that He commands them to put on Christ. Why is this so?
The fact is this. When we read about putting on Christ, we see that it has to do with the whole change of our way of life. We take off the old clothes, means we put away the old person. The whole old way of thinking. The whole old way of conduct. And we put on the new person. We read this in Ephesians chapter 4. Let us look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 22. And though we have to turn around much in Scripture, I would like to show you that I am not preaching my own ideas. My task as a preacher is to tell you what the Word of God says, not what I say. Not what my ideas are, but what does the Bible say.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 22: "Put off your old person." The word "nature" is not a correct translation. The word—for any of you who know Greek, and even anyone who knows elementary Greek—knows that the word *anthropos* means "person." And that is the word that is in the text here. "Put off your old person, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new person, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and true holiness." Notice: true, genuine holiness. Not some external holiness. Not some external righteousness. But true, genuine, intrinsic, internal, and eternal. Because it is of God.
So here is the step. We take off the old; we put on the new. Notice it is all up to us. God provides the new. You've got to take off the old. The Lord is not going to say, "I will let you put it on without your taking off the old." So you wear your old garment and then you put Christ on top of your old garment as well? No, no. First, you take off the old. That is what you do in baptism. You repented of your old way of life. You have finished with your old manner of conduct, as it says here. And then, having finished with all that, you put on the new that God has provided for you in His grace.
Now, one or two important observations before we close for today. I have already stressed the point that God has made full provision in His grace for you and for me. It is up to you and up to me to put on the new man and to put off the old first. But having said that, the beauty of this message in Christ is this: it is not only up to us to do it, but that because of God's glorious grace, it can be done immediately and instantly.
At this point I would like to elaborate a little before I close. What is being said here—again, all in aorist imperatives, that is, commands intended to be carried out immediately—is "put on," "put off." These are all words in the aorist imperatives. Means that not only can we, but God expects us to make this change immediately. Now that is something wonderful. What point are we getting at? This means that for any person here, if you are not a Christian, you can immediately—because God has already made the provision, provided you are willing to respond to His call—you can at this very second strip off your filthy clothes. And at this very moment, by the grace of God, claim the new clothes of God's grace, and put them on. That, to my mind, is very wonderful.
What is the practical application for the three of them, and for all of us? But I'm addressing, of course, these words particularly to the three of them going forth to serve the Lord. It means that victory can be instantaneous. Not because we are able, but because His grace is at every moment ready to step in with the fullness of His power to give you the victory. Now if you can learn this lesson well—I say this to the three of them, but to all of us—if we can learn this lesson well, we will never long be defeated. For a moment, we might get a punch and go down for a few seconds; we shake our heads and we rise to victory again. This is the beauty. This is where invincibility—that our brother Tim was talking about—here lies the secret of this invincibility. Because God's victory can be instantaneous.
Let me give an illustration of this point from any one of us. For example, at this moment, you may have a wrong attitude to some brother or some sister. At this very moment, you are holding in your heart a wrong attitude. It does not require a long process to get rid of that attitude, as many people mistakenly suppose. There is nothing to stop you at this very second to say, "Lord, I realize—because Your Holy Spirit has convicted me—my attitude is wrong. At this moment, I throw away this attitude. At this very moment, I put on the new kind of clothes, the new kind of attitude that You provide for me. This very moment." You can change instantly, because God's power is instantly available. That is the beauty of it. That is a secret that I would like you to grasp, and particularly for the three of them. In the thickness of the conflict, in the thickness of the battle, you have instant, immediate victory.
That is why I like one word in Mark. I wonder if you ever noticed that word: "immediately." Immediately. Try to count how many times the word "immediately" comes in the gospel of Mark. Everything of God's power can come immediately into action, because today is the day of salvation. Today is the hour of grace. At this very moment, God's grace is instantly active. You call upon it this moment, it will change your life at this moment. Oh, this is something fantastic.
So, for example, supposing I have a wrong attitude to someone of you right at this moment. I don't have to waste time pondering, "Is my attitude right? I see that my attitude is wrong, but I can't get rid of it." Of course you can't get rid of it. Whoever said you could? But God's power is instantly available to help you to strip away this wrong attitude immediately. Love comes into your heart. What do you have to wait for? You think love has to build up like pumping the pressure up, and you go "push, push, push," and gradually the love is coming, coming, and pump some more, pump some more, and the love is coming, and finally you say, "Ah, I think just about now I can love you." And suddenly someone pricks the bubble and it's all gone, and you can't love anymore. Just start pumping again.
And I think this is the problem of relationships between brothers and sisters sometimes in the church and in the team. They work so hard pumping up this love for the other one, because all the time there are so many ugly thoughts, and they say, "Why don't you put on the new clothes?" I mean, how long do I have to wait for you to put on the new clothes? And so we pump, pump, pump, and finally we got there. "Ah, now I can love this brother for two minutes." And then it's all gone again, because the sharp spikes of the other guy pricked our bubble again, and it's all gone. So we start pumping again. But thanks be to God, that God didn't clothe us in a bubble. He clothed us in the armor of light. An armor should not be punctured so easily. Because if He had said, "I'm going to clothe you in a bubble," we'd be bursting all the time. And it seems most Christians are bursting all the time—their bubble is bursting. We got the wrong clothes. We went to the wrong store, you see. So we got dressed in bubbles.
The problem here is we are here to put on Christ. That means to put on Christ means not merely that God has equipped us with Christ, that He has given Christ to us. But remember the second meaning of the word "clothed"—we become like Him. We become Christlike.
I'm learning this lesson more and more, that God's grace is instantly available to me. And many times I find myself really disturbed, say, by someone's behavior or conduct, or even by my own attitude. And then what we can do is one of two things. We can keep groaning, moaning, nursing our wounds, saying, "Why does God give me this kind of co-worker? I mean, I got stuck with somebody like this—this is really desperate. I mean, consider what a great man of God I would have been if I had another kind of co-worker, and I got somebody like this." If one day, when I stand before God, and God said, "Why didn't you become a mighty man or woman of God? Is it because of this co-worker of yours?" I mean, this person, he or she, is like a porcupine, all full of needles sticking out, and my bubbles are being pricked all the time. I think that God will not find that answer very acceptable. Do you think He will accept the answer? No. He will say, "I provided you with all the grace you need, and you are telling me that My grace is not sufficient for you? Is that what you are telling me?" And you will say, "No, no, I didn't mean Your grace was not sufficient for me. The problem was because it was not sufficient for her, so it drained all the grace out of me." I don't think that will be acceptable with God either. No, no.
I would like us to learn this instant victory. Instant—not because we live in an age of instant milk and instant coffee, but rather because God's power is available for these things. God's grace is just right for the twentieth century. We live in an age of instant everything. But thanks be to God, God's grace was much more advanced than our instant coffee and milk. It was there long before these things were invented. God's power stands ever ready to move in and change us immediately.
Have you ever experienced this? If you haven't experienced it, it's about time we did. You feel really down, depressed, miserable, because again your porcupine friend has stuck a needle through in you. You feel really miserable about this. And yet, if you can seize the secret of this putting on—putting on these garments that the Lord has provided for us—how amazing. You can change from misery to happiness in the twinkling of an eye. If you don't believe me, try it. Try it. And you will see that God's grace works. Of course, if you don't draw upon His grace, nothing works. But if you avail yourself of that grace, instantly—instantly—joy floods into your heart.
I tried it this morning. I'm speaking with conviction. This morning, I was a bit upset about something, which I will not go into detail about. I went to my room and knelt down before the Lord. And instantly the Lord bore me up. And the whole thing dissipated as a cloud. It was just blown away by the Spirit of the Lord. And the sunshine came forth into my soul again, and I was at peace and went forth again. Quick as that. Immediately, in victory. Otherwise, I might still be feeling pretty bad right now. And you would have seen the effects of it in my message. I would be talking here with a long face. So probably I wouldn't have been able to preach this message, because I didn't find it true in my own life. So I had this very day the chance to put into practice the message. I didn't write this message this morning, by the way. This was already prepared. But the Lord, as it were, made me test my own message this very morning, so that I can speak of it with conviction. That is the beauty of the Christian life. And this is the message I would like to share with the three of them. Never stay down. Never wait to be lifted up. Immediately put on what God has so graciously provided for us. Immediately rise to victory. This is the beauty that God has made.
So, what I'm saying here is this. The Lord said, if God so clothed the flower of the field with such a glory that even the glory of Solomon is nothing compared to that, how much more will He clothe you with the glory that exceeds Solomon's any time? Now, try to picture it, my beloved ones, in your mind. Look at this whole church. Everyone clothed in the glory exceeding that of Solomon's. I'm glad I have color-changing glasses, because when the light shines, I might get blinded. So, just in time to save my eyesight, I see the glory exceeding Solomon's shining back at me. Ah, what a church. Do we see it? Well, we might have problems competing with Solomon still at this moment, you see. Still have to wait to get there. But try to imagine what the Lord is saying about His people. Every one of His disciples, redeemed with His blood, clothed with Christ—a glory exceeding Solomon's.
What did the apostle John say about the Lord Jesus? In the first letter of John, he said, "We beheld His glory. We beheld His glory." The glory as of the only begotten of God. And you are clothed with Christ. Should not somebody else behold His glory in you? Answer me, yes or no? Surely the answer has to be yes, or we are wasting our time—we wasted 35 or 45 minutes talking nonsense here. If we are clothed with Christ, and the apostle John beheld His glory—a unique glory, that of the only begotten—what has Solomon's glory got to be able to compete with the glory of the Son of God? And you have put on Christ—ah, what glory shines forth. The glory of God's love, the glory of God's holiness, the glory of God's compassion. I mean, if you cannot see it in reality, at least try to imagine it. And maybe your dream might yet come true.
I mean, right now, we may have difficulty seeing it in reality. I mean, your porcupine friend—you don't see any glory of Christ there. All you see are the spikes. And you are still thinking, "Well, one day, maybe, I can imagine this person clothed in the glory of Christ." And then you can pray for that person, and maybe one day you will see that person clothed in the glory of Christ. But the point I'm getting at is this: you don't have to wait 20 years or 30 years. This is now—to put on Christ. And if you put on Christ, now is the glory.
Let us close as we read Colossians chapter 3. And what do we read here in Colossians? Colossians 3, verse 9. Maybe we should read from verse 7 to get the whole picture. "In these"—that is, in verse—perhaps we have to go back to verse 5 to get the connection. Verse 5: "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away"—take them off like filthy garments—"anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old person with its practices and have put on"—verse 10—"the new person, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator, namely in the image of Christ. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is everything. Christ is all, and in all."
Verse 12: if we have put on the new man, what are the garments that we have put on? "Put on then"—again, aorist imperative—"immediately put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, put on these things: compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience, forbearing one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so also forgive one another."
And now, as I was looking at this, when Paul says "put on all these things," I was trying to imagine myself putting on compassion like this shirt, you see, and kindness like this tie, and lowliness like these beautiful trousers that I have, and meekness like my nice socks, and patience like my shoes. And then, when I put on all these garments—when I was thinking of it in this way—that's exactly what Paul was saying in Ephesians chapter 6: the helmet, and the armor, the shoes, and all these things that you put on. Think of this thing then as beautiful clothes, because that's what Paul was saying, because he says "put on"—he's talking about clothes. So put on this compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience. And when you put all this beautiful clothing on, your glory will anytime exceed the glory of Solomon. Nothing that Solomon wore had any of this kind of enduring quality, of this kind of spiritual beauty. Nothing of his stones and of his gold would anywhere compete with this kind of beauty.
In this sense, in this way, I say to the three beloved ones, as they go forth: go forth there clothed with the power from on high, clothed with compassion and beauty, clothed with Christ. So will every heart be drawn to Him, every tongue confess Him as Lord. Only then will you be able to accomplish your task.
Let us be quiet before God in prayer.