Some Really Cool Clothes

- Do you remember a time when you were really excited about Christmas? Maybe it was when you were a little kid and you really wanted something special for Christmas. I remember a time when I was in grade school when I really wanted a small Chemistry laboratory with real experiments to perform and I actually got it for Christmas that year. I was so psyched. But in addition to that, I always got some clothing items for Christmas. I would get some new pajamas. Maybe a few shirts, sweater and jeans and a healthy dose of underwear and socks. I was never very excited about the clothes.

- Isaiah, in our text for today, is very excited about what he was getting for Christmas. Instead of being excited about some toys and kind of overlooking the clothes, Isaiah is excited about the clothes.

- He writes, “I delight 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.”

- Why is Isaiah so excited about some clothes though?

- Although Isaiah did not see what Jesus would do for us, He trusted in God’s provision of a savior for His people. He was looking forward to salvation for all people.

- He’s excited because these are not ordinary clothes. These are the garments that give eternal salvation because of what Jesus has done for us by His death and resurrection.

- Have you ever been keenly aware of your sinfulness as it stands in stark contrast to God’s holiness? It is pretty humbling isn’t it?

- That’s the way it is for Isaiah. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees a vision of God seated on a throne in the temple. Seraphim were flying around him saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” The doorposts and thresholds of the temple shook at the sound of their voices. At the sight of that Isaiah says, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

- When we compare our sinfulness next to God’s holiness, we become cognizant of our need for a savior.

- Sometimes we can delude ourselves into thinking that we can justify ourselves but when reality kicks in, we understand that our righteousness has to come from outside of us

- That is where God kicks into gear. He dresses us in a robe of righteousness, as our text for today puts it. He covers us in the perfection that Jesus accomplished through His obedience to God’s laws. {PAUSE}

- I did a wedding yesterday. It always strikes me what a momentous occasion it is when two people are joined in marriage. God says that the two people become one flesh. Two families are joined together through the couple. It is an important occasion. People put on their finest to show the importance of the occasion. Bride and groom get special clothes, special jewelry that they wear when they get married.

- When I was the best man for my best friend from high school, I saw just how big the event can be. He was originally from India. They had people coming in from all over the world for the wedding. His parents special ordered him some clothes that were tailored in India from some relatives of theirs and arrived right before the wedding. It is a several day event and he needed a special outfit for each and every day and each outfit cost them several hundred dollars. He even had a special turban to wear for the day of the wedding.

- Preparation on the day of the wedding is the picture that we see in our text for today. Isaiah writes, “He has clothes 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 jewels.”

- My family came back into town Friday night on their way back to Texas. When they woke up yesterday morning, my brother-in-law went outside to pack up the car. He came back inside and remarked that it was so warm it seemed like a cool spring morning. It is supposed to be so warm this weekend and into next week, we might actually see some plants start to spring up, thinking that it is spring already.

- That is what Isaiah is talking about in the next verse. He writes, “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.”