OPEN: Jesus told a parable about KING who invited everybody to his son’s wedding. Now, I’ve been told that the custom of the day was for the host to supply his guests with appropriate wedding garments, but Matthew 22:11 tells us “when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.” The King was amazed and asked the man “‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (Matthew 22:12-13)
The parable has to do with… Salvation. Jesus was teaching us that the only way we can be saved is to wear the wedding garment God has supplied. But what wedding garment would that be? Well Galatians 3:27 tells us “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” In other words, when we’re buried in the waters of baptism… we put on Jesus. We’ve put on HIS mercy; we’ve put on HIS forgiveness; we’ve put on HIS righteousness.
Baptism is not a “work” of our righteousness (the Bible NEVER describes baptism that way). Baptism is when we allow someone else to bury us in a watery grave, and then lift us out of that watery grave to walk in newness of life. Baptism is not OUR work… it’s the work of Jesus in us. Or as Colossians 2:12 says: we’ve “been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him THROUGH FAITH in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”
ILLUS: I once read that in some parts of Africa converts to Jesus burn their old clothes after baptism and then put on a new white robe to show what Jesus has now done with their lives. Jesus BURNS our past up… and clothes us with Himself.
In Genesis, we read that God gave new garments to Adam and Eve. After Adam and Eve sinned, they realized they were naked and God covered their nakedness with the skins of animals HE sacrificed for them. In the same way, God covers our nakedness/sinfulness with the righteousness of Christ’s sacrifice. That’s what happens when we’re baptized - we put on Christ’s righteousness. Our sin is covered and we stand before God as those who have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus
But the churches in Galatia apparently didn’t understand this. They’d been clothed with Jesus, but they began to think Jesus wasn’t quite enough. They began to think that they needed something MORE than what Jesus could supply; that they needed some rules to follow and some laws to obey. Somebody had convinced them to turn back to the Laws of Moses for salvation. That’s where the real rules were. That’s where the real laws could be found. I mean, when it came to rules and regulations, the Old Testament had a bunch of them.
And the Galatians had become convinced that if they just followed all those rules the right way, God would love them more.
And Paul said: “ARE YOU CRAZY?” Well no, he didn’t actually say that. What he said was: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6) In other words – if you’re a Christian - Jesus better be what you rely on. Why? Because Jesus isn’t about following rules, Jesus is about following … Jesus. You can’t add anything to Jesus.
In fact Galatians 3 tells us “if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin.” (Galatians 3:21-22) The law imprisoned people in a list of DO’s and DON’TS, and if you tried following that kind of lifestyle (of dos and don’ts) then you’d always end up looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re walking in a straight line. You’d never even be sure you’d done everything right.
But now wait a minute! If the “LAW” of Moses was such a BAD idea, why did God create it to begin with? Why give the Law to Israel and then require them to observe it? Well, Paul asked that very question: “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Then he says “Certainly not!” Galatians 3:21
Paul tells us that “The law was our guardian until Christ came” (Galatians 3:24) Or as the KJV says it: the law was our SCHOOLMASTER to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” You see, a School Master was a teacher. But what’s a teacher supposed to do? Teach us. The Old Testament Laws were given to teach us about what righteousness looks like. If you want to know what a Holy God looks like… read the Old Testament because the Law was designed to help us realize that there was a standard of right/wrong. For without God’s Law… there’s no absolute standard of what is moral or immoral.
But does that mean you can’t be moral without God? No, it simply means, that without God, morality ends up being based solely on each person’s OPINION. Without God, what’s moral for you may not be moral for me. But you can still be “moral” without God. Even atheists can be Moral people. Consider this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxiAikEk2vU (end at time stamp 3:30 – with the phrase “No action should be considered morally right or wrong.”)
(TRANSCRIPT OF THE VIDEO: Can you be good without God? Let’s find out (the video shows an atheist saving a cat from being trapped in a tree). Absolutely astounding. There you have it, undeniable truth that you can be good without believing in God.
But wait; the question isn’t “can you be good without believing in God.” The question is, “can you be good without God.” You see, here’s the problem: if there’s no God, what basis remains for objective good or bad, right or wrong? If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist.
And here’s why – without some objective reference point, we have no way of saying that something is really up or down (the video showed various spacemen floating in space in various orientations). God’s nature provides an objective reference point for moral values. It’s the standard against which all actions and decisions are measured.
But if there’s no God, there’s no objective reference point. All we are left with is one person’s viewpoint, which is no more valid than anyone else’s viewpoint. This kind of morality is subjective, not objective. It’s like a preference for strawberry ice cream; the preference is in the object, so it doesn’t apply to other people.
In the same way, subjective morality applies only to the subject. It’s not valid or binding for anyone else. So in a world without God, there can be “no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.” (quote by Richard Dawkins)
God has expressed his moral nature to us as commands. These provide the basis for moral duties. For example, God’s essential attribute of love is expressed in his command to love your neighbor as yourself. This command provides a foundation upon which we can affirm the objective of generosity, self-sacrifice, and equality, and we can condemn as objectively evil greed, abuse, and discrimination.
This raises a problem. Is something good just because God wills it? Or does God will something because it is good. The answer is: neither one. Rather, God wills something because HE is good. God is the standard of moral values. Just as a live musical performance is the standard for a high-fidelity recording. The more the recording sounds like the original, the better it is. Likewise, the more closely a moral action conforms to God’s nature, the better it is.
But if atheism is true, there is no ultimate standard, so there can be no moral obligations or duties. Who or what lays such duties upon us? No one. Remember, for the atheist, humans are just accidents of nature. Highly evolved animals. But animals have no moral obligations to one another. When a cat kills a mouse, it hasn’t done anything morally wrong. The cat’s just being a cat.
If God doesn’t exist, we should view human behavior in the same way. No action should be considered morally right or wrong.)
ILLUS: Back when I went to Purdue University, several professors pushed the idea that all morality is “relative.” Your standard morality was like the one flavor of ice cream you prefer over another. Someone else’s morality may differ from yours, but you have no right to pass judgment on whether someone else’s actions are moral or immoral. This type of thinking tended to backfire. Several years ago, U.S. News & World Report quoted a professor from a college in New York who reporting that “10 to 20% of his students... acknowledge the Holocaust but can’t bring themselves to say that killing millions of people is wrong.... ‘Of course I dislike the Nazis,’ one student told the professor, ‘but who is to say they are morally wrong?’” The article went on to note “2 disturbing articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education say that some students are unwilling to oppose large moral horrors, including human sacrifice, ethnic cleansing, and slavery, because they think no one has the right to criticize the moral views of another group or culture.” John Leo in U.S. News & World Report (7/21/97) quoting a professor Robert Simon of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y
THAT’S INSANE!!! Why wouldn’t these students criticize human sacrifice, ethnic cleansing and slavery? Well, they refused to criticize those atrocities because they’d been taught a morality that denied God’s righteousness. There was no objective morality… because there’s no God. There’s no standard of right and wrong.
But the Old Testament Law taught that there WAS a standard of right and wrong – God. The Old Testament taught that God and His righteousness were the basis of morality.
But there was a catch. While God was righteous… we aren’t. Psalm 14:1 declared “There is no one who does good.” And Romans 3:23 echoed that by saying “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In other words, no one can follow the rules perfectly. No one can be good enough to be good enough to deserve heaven.
Or as Charles Spurgeon once noted: “Morality will keep you out of jail, but only the blood of Jesus will keep you out of hell.”
So what good is the Old Testament Law to us? It teaches us that we can’t earn heaven.
ILLUS: Someone compared the LAW to a mirror. When you’ve been working in the yard all afternoon, you go into the bathroom and look at yourself in the mirror. And that reflection shows you the dirt on your face. Similarly, the Law reflects back the sin that has stained your life. But as you look in the bathroom mirror… does the mirror clean your face? Nope! You can look in that mirror all day long and it won’t change a thing. The dirt will still be there. So, how are you going to clean that dirt off your face? Well, you’ve got to wash it off.
When Paul became a Christian, he was told “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” (Acts 22:16) It’s by turning ourselves over to Jesus in this way that our sins are WASHED AWAY!
ILLUS: (This is a physical illustration that involves a dingy rag, a clear bowl filled with red dyed colored water) But there’s one more aspect of this “putting on Christ in baptism” that I find intriguing. This rag represents the life of someone who is tired of feeling empty. It’s drag and dingy, which represents the shame and guilt folks feel about their past… and they want to change. And so they come to Jesus. They believe in Him, repent of their sins, confess Jesus as their Lord… and then they’re baptized!!!
(Point to the red water in the glass bowl) This water is dyed red to represent the BLOOD of Jesus. That’s because its the blood of Jesus, and not the water in the baptistry, that changes people. (I put the rag down into the bowl of red water and let it soak). As I pull the rag out of the water, notice how it has changed color. It didn’t just get wet… it was saturated and took on the color of the liquid it was immersed into. Similarly, a person who wants to become a Christ goes down into the baptistry a lost sinner, and comes up changed on the INSIDE as well on as on the OUTSIDE. This rag was a drab brown, now it’s taken on the REDNESS of Christ’s blood. And that blood of Christ has soaked every fiber of the rag. It’s changed the entire appearance of that towel.
And that’s what happens when we’re baptized into Christ. It changes us. It doesn’t just get us wet on the OUTSIDE. Christ gets INSIDE us as well. That’s why, in Acts 2:38 Peter told the crowds: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
When you give yourself over to Christ God saturates every fiber of your being because the promised Holy Spirit gets INSIDE of you and you totally belong to God.
But "following the rules" doesn't make us righteous. It's the Spirit of God inside of you that begins to change you so you become more pleasing to God.
ILLUS: Now, I've used this illustration before. There's road that passes by the church building that I sometimes use to go to Indianapolis. Does anyone know what the speed limit is on that road? That's right - it's 55 mph. Now if I drive down that road to Indianapolis and go 55 mph... what's the rest of traffic going to do? They're going to pass me like I'm standing still. They know what the law says, they just don't want to do it. The Law doesn't change or modify their behavior, because they law is simply something that stands between what they have to do and what they want to do. The law does not make them law-abiding. It doesn't make them righteous.
But now, let's say I'm inclined to ignore the speed limit... but my aging grandmother (whom I love) is riding in the car with me, and she's a stickler for abiding with the stated limit. What will I do then? I'll stay under the speed limit - not because of the law - but because of my love for my grandmother. The law doesn't make it so I do righteous things. But having somebody there with me that I care about - that changes me.
And that's what Scriptures trying to tell us here. The Law only tells you what the speed limit is. But the Spirit of God inside of you (when the Spirit of God saturates your life) then you do what you do - not because you're trying to be "self" righteous. You do it because you want to please God. The Spirit helps you understand what God wants in your life.
INVITATION.
