Clothed in Righteousness

Today's episode is taken from the following programs:

"The Well-Dressed Christian Woman"

"We Have Been Approved"

"Oh! How to Cry Out with Passion, Power, and Faith"

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Dannah Gresh: I have such sweet memories of helping my daughter Autumn find her wedding dress. We spent time searching for the perfect dress, then there was the perfect hair,  and the perfect makeup—with appointments to practice. It was such a production . . . but a sweet one. 

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh.

It’s coming up on three years now. My how times flies. Wow! But ya know, more than I wanted my daughter to look beautiful for her wedding day, I wanted her to have a beautiful heart—a heart that longs for God.

In 1 Samuel 16:7 we find these beautiful words: "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."

Throughout the years, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has talked on Revive Our Hearts about the importance of what we wear on our bodies, but she has also said that the most important pieces we wear is the garments we dress our hearts with. We’ll talk about that today.

First, I want to read parts of Psalm 45—one of my favorite psalms. 

My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
  I address my verses to the king;
  my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
You are the most handsome of the sons of men;
  grace is poured upon your lips;
  therefore God has blessed you forever.
Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
  in your splendor and majesty!
In your majesty ride out victoriously
  for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
  let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!

All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
  In many-colored robes she is led to the king,
  with her virgin companions following behind her.
With joy and gladness they are led along
  as they enter the palace of the king.
In place of your fathers shall be your sons;
  you will make them princes in all the earth.
I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations;
  therefore nations will praise you forever and ever. (vv. 1–4, 13–17)

Here’s Nancy to explain what is happening.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: That whole passage, Psalm 45, is the story of a bride getting ready for her wedding. She's getting dressed; she's thinking about her husband. It's a love chapter. It's a picture of a wedding. Those of you who are married can think back to the time when you got married and remember the wedding day and all the preparations and the care. Not only the day of the wedding but the days leading up to the wedding. You found the perfect dress. You found just the right jewelry to go with it and the right hairpiece. All those things to make sure that it was just right for the wedding.

Well, that's what this bride is experiencing in Psalm 45. In verse 13 the Scripture says, "All glorious is the princess within her chamber"—the place where there's a the bridal room at the church, her chamber, the place where she's getting ready for the wedding. She's glorious within her chamber.

“Her gown is interwoven with gold.” This is a spectacular wedding dress! “In embroidered garments, she is led to the King.” You can just hear the wedding music start to play. This is a picture of the wedding procession. "Her virgin companions follow her," these are the bridal attendants, "and are brought to you" (NIV). 

Here's a woman who is dressed for her wedding. She's dressed for her bridegroom. It says that her gown is interwoven with gold. There's may be gold filament that is threaded through her gown. When we think of gold, we think of something that is pure, something that's valuable, something that has to be purified in the process of being heated up.

As we see this woman in her wedding dress, I think we're seeing a picture of our lives as the Bride of Christ and how in order to be fit for our King, fit for our heavenly Bridegroom, we have to take preparations. We want clothing that is pure, that's valuable—the priceless clothing of being sanctified. That takes place under pressure, as gold is purified under pressure.

Then her garment, it says, is embroidered. The King James says, “she is wearing rainment of needlework.” I don't do embroidery. I don't have the patience for it. Now, I have a sister who does beautiful needlework. I just know she sits there for hours and hours, patiently making those threads and those colors go in the right places. There's a lot of time and work and attention to detail in doing that needlework. That's true of this bride's dress.

But if we're going to be a well-dressed Christian woman, it's also got to be true of the preparation of our hearts. If we're going to be spiritually dressed like a bride fit for our King, it's going to take time and effort and attention to detail.

Dannah: That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, reminding us to take time to prepare our hearts. Preparing for a big event takes time, and Nancy is right. We need to be getting ready for our coming King. Our hearts need to be ready, which is so much more than putting on a dress, fixing our hair and applying make-up.

The first thing Nancy says we need is to allow God to clothe us with the garment of salvation. We see this in Isaiah 61:10, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation" (NKJV). Those garments of salvation are what Christ did on the cross for you. 

The second item is the robe of righteousness, and we read about it in the last part of Isaiah 61:10, “He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” In other words, we are covered with the righteousness of Christ. 

The word "righteousness" is a legal term. It speaks to how we are being put into a proper relationship with God, being made right with Him—even though we broke His law and sinned against Him. 

In order to put this robe of righteousness on, for God to declare us righteous, we do this by faith—by trusting in the righteousness of Christ, trusting that he has covered me with His righteousness.

Carrie Gaul was fifteen when she trusted her life to the Savior. She put on the garment of salvation. She read her Bible. She was consumed with her Lord. But over time and years she found less time to read her Bible. She stopped spending time with the Lord. And the sins she had so easily repented of and tossed away, well they started to rear their ugly heads. 

I think we’ve all been there a time or two. Maybe you’re there now. It’s an easy place to fall into. You know God was once close, but now you just don’t know how to find your way back to Him. And you'll just drive yourself crazy trying to it is on your own. Listen to what Carrie tried. 

Carrie Gaul: Oh, I knew I was saved—I knew that. I didn’t doubt that. But I thought I had to act my way . . . clean up my act . . . get it together in order to come back into His presence, to make myself pleasing to Him. So I worked harder. I’m a firstborn. I can get 'er done.

So I got more involved in church, and then I got involved in church leadership, and then I got more deeply involved in serving . . . and I loved it! I loved doing it. I did more and more and more of it. My unspoken goal, in my mind as I look back now (I could not have told you this then) . . . My unspoken goal in my mind—every morning when I woke up—was to be a better wife, a better mom, a better daughter, a better friend, a better servant of God—just go!—do it!—be better!

Because then, certainly then, God would approve me. Then He would accept me, then He would be pleased with me. The problem was, it was never enough. I always came up short because I always knew the reality of my own sinfulness in my own sinful heart.

I sat there that day in her office and I said, “I cannot do this thing called the Christian life. I can’t do it. It does not work for me. It works for you. I can see that it works for other people, but it doesn’t work for me, and I’m tired of trying. I cannot do it!”

And I will never forget Sue Ann tenderly leaning toward me over that desk and saying, “Carrie, why don’t you stop trying?” I could have given her a list a mile long of why I couldn’t stop trying. In fact, to be honest with you, I think I was somehow proud of the trying, the striving, the working hard, that I was doing, you know?

I could compare myself to others and say, “Well, I’m doing a little bit better over here.” But God used that question, “Why don’t you stop trying?” as the launching pad for a twenty-five-plus-year journey in my life, to begin teaching me the truths that we’ve been illustrating over the last several programs through the means of these two robes—this black, heavy, dark robe of utter sinfulness, and the gold, glittering, flowing robe representing the righteousness of Christ.

My prayer has been that these truths that have so radically impacted my life and my understanding of what it means to be in covenant with the living God . . . that you too, through the illustration of these robes today, you too will have a fresh sense of what has taken place in your own life.

The Puritans called it The Great Exchange . . . the fact that Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, the Beloved Son of God standing in our place to receive the punishment that we rightfully deserve, so that we could become the righteousness of Christ!

In her book, Radical Gratitude, Ellen Vaughn recounts a story that unfolded in 1941 in Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp, where every twenty-four hours eight thousand Jews could be stripped of their possessions, gassed, and then cremated. The Nazis took great pride, not only in their efficiencies, but in the fact that very few ever escaped the horrifying realities of Auschwitz.

When someone did escape, others would die for their crime. On one particular night, the air was filled with the baying of dogs and the cursing of soldiers and the roar of motorcycles. As the camp commandant screamed in fury, the veins in his thick neck bulged with rage.

A fugitive from Barracks 14 had not been found, and for his crime ten men would pay with their lives. They would die, not in the gas chambers, not by bullet, not even in the gallows, but in the starvation bunker where within days, denied both food and water, the already emaciated prisoners would go mad . . . their behavior often frightening even the guards.

Ten men were chosen, groaning, crying, sweating with fear. One man cried out, “My poor wife and children. What will they ever do?” And as the ten men began walking toward the place of their ultimate death, a commotion stirred in the long ranks.

A prisoner had broken rank, a cause for immediate execution. The camp commandant, revolver in hand, watched as Father Colby, a praying man—a man who had shared his last crumb of bread with other prisoners, a man who had comforted them, a man who had given them the Word of God, a man who had tenderly nourished the souls of those in prison with him—stepped forward.

And Father Colby said, “I will die in place of that condemned man.” Can you imagine such a sacrifice? Can you imagine the selflessness of taking the place of one condemned to die? That’s exactly what our Savior did.

I’ve asked Paula to come up again today as we put upon her this black, heavy, dark robe we’ve been speaking of throughout the last two days—representing our utter depravity and sin. In this black robe that Paula’s putting on, it represents how all of us are born. We’re born wearing this black, ugly, sinful robe. We’re on a spiritual Death Row. We’re destined for an eternity separated from the love and mercies of God—an eternity of punishment in the torments of Hell is what looms over our life in this robe.

But Jesus took our place! He stepped forward out of the throne room of Heaven, between the Judge, Almighty God, and the convicted, guilty sinner—you and I. Jesus stepped forward, and He said, “I’ll stand in her place; I’ll die in her place.”

He said, “I will take this ugly, sinful, black robe,” as I’m taking it off Paula even now. Jesus said He will take that black robe and, “I will put it upon Myself,” to the extent that Scripture says that He became sin. (As I’ve put this robe upon my own shoulders representing the way Jesus took our sin upon Himself.) 

Sin was never in Him. He was the perfect, spotless, blameless Lamb of God, but He took our sin upon Him, and He wore that sin all the way to the cross. He walked into the courtroom, as it were, and He said, “I will serve her sentence.” He became vile and detestable in the eyes of God, and God poured out upon Him the fullness of the measure of His wrath, until that wrath was fully spent.

First John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He [has] loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” That is a verse we hear often, but sometimes some of those words, we don’t always know what they mean.

I just like it simple. Let me get it simply. So I said to a pastor friend of mine one time, “Can you explain to me what propitiation means?” And he said to me, “Oh, absolutely, Carrie! Propitiation just simply means that Jesus became our wrath-absorber.’”

I have a glass bowl here that will represent the vessel of God’s wrath—the fullness of His wrath. And I have a glass goblet that’s filled with red liquid, representing the wrath of God that should be rightfully poured out upon us for our sin. That’s what Scripture says. That’s what your sin and mine deserves—the fullness of God’s wrath.

When Jesus stepped forward and said, “I will stand her place,” God took our sin upon Him and God poured forth—as I’m pouring into this vessel right now, He poured forth His wrath upon Jesus, the fullness of His wrath.

In Jesus’ death for us—we’re going to represent that today by the sponge I’m holding in my hand. When Jesus went to the cross for you, ladies, He absorbed the wrath of God for you, just as this sponge will absorb the liquid that is in this glass bowl.

When Jesus died, the wrath of God was poured out upon Him, but in His death He absorbed all of the wrath of God toward you. I’m holding up that glass bowl right now and I’m turning it upside down, because there’s no more wrath for you. The wrath of God is gone! It’s been absorbed in Jesus Christ.

There is no more wrath! God is not mad at you my friends. God is not angry at you. He’s not waiting for you to mess up one more time so that He can drop the gavel of His wrath upon you. Yes, that’s what your sin deserves. Yes, that’s what my sin deserves, but He poured it out on Jesus! Do you understand why the Savior is so precious?

You and I no longer receive that which we deserve because God poured it out upon the Savior!

Dannah: Oh, what God did for us. I don’t think I can ever get over it. Carrie Gaul has been sharing all our Savior did for us. We deserved wrath from God, but Jesus took it for us. He became our righteousness; He clothes us in the robe of righteousness. What a beautiful picture Carrie painted for us.

Song: “And Can It Be”

No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus and all in Him is mine.
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine. 
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown through Christ my Lord. ¹

You’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh.

Isaiah 64 is a prayer from God’s people. They are pleading for Him to help them. I want you to hear a bit of it starting with verse 4.

From of old no one has heard
  or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
  who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
  those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
  in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
We have all become like one who is unclean,
  and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

Byron Paulus is a leader at Life Action Ministries. He has led revivals all over North America, and Byron feels there’s a key component from Isaiah 64 that helps us further understand this robe of righteousness. First, I want to share Isaiah 64 verse 5 again. "You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways."

Here’s Byron.

Byron Paulus: When I get to verse 5, what I pray is, "God, would You give me a proper view of You?" Somebody has said, "We'll never have revival in America until first of all we get a proper view of God—that we see Him in all of His holiness, in all of His purity, in all of His righteousness, all of His might, all of His power, all of His mercy, all of His love, and all of His grace—until we get a proper view of God." Now if you think about that a moment, and we're going to look at the next verse in a second.

If you think about it, go back to Isaiah chapter six which we are all familiar with. Remember in the year that King Uzziah died? Is anyone in here old enough like I am to remember when JFK was shot? How many of you remember exactly where you were when you heard the news? Isn't that amazing? That's kind of the atmosphere event. In the year when King Uzziah died, when everybody's eyes were going to the fact that we'd lost our king, everybody could remember right where they were sitting when they heard the news that Uzziah died, Isaiah said, "I saw something else."

So in the midst of the tragedies that we are facing in our nation, we can't afford not to see something else. What does Isaiah see? "God high and lifted up and his train filled the temple and the cherubim cried out, 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.'" Then it jumps, doesn't it, to "Woe is me! For I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips." Look at the next verse here. Right after we get a proper view of God, we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags and all our... And so the same thing happens here.

So when you get to verse six, we get a proper view of ourselves because that happens every time we get a proper view of God. If you want to know how people can see the ugliness of their own heart, let them see the righteousness of God's heart. When we get to see God for who He is, in comparison we see ourselves for who we are.

That's what Paul's life was all about. Do you remember early in his ministry? He said, "I'm a sinner." And then he says, "I'm the least of all saints." Then at the end of his ministry he said, "I'm the chief of sinners." I used to think the older I get the more mature I got in my walk with God, the better I'd feel about where I am spiritually. Doesn't the opposite happen, really? But why is that? Is it because we are really that much more wicked? Maybe it's because we're seeing God more in our maturity for who He is and in comparison we see ourselves for who we are. And that's a platform for revival.

One of the godliest men I know is the father and the founder of our ministry who was an evangelist. I'll never forget. It was in the eighties. He was in South Carolina. He drove up to Michigan and said, "I want to go to lunch." We sat down to lunch just the two of us, and the moment he sat down he just began to cry. The waitress came, and I could tell it was awkward, and I said to come back later. And then he began to weep, literally, openly weep right there, just the two of us in that restaurant. And he didn't say a word. And I didn't know what to do. But finally he looks up and he says, "Oh Byron." He said, "The closer I get to the judgment seat of Christ," he said, "the more wicked I see my heart really is." And that's one of the godliest men I have ever met in my life. It hit me, you know, that's probably where Paul was. And that's probably where we'll be if we keep on that pursuit of understanding who God is, seeing Him in His ways, getting a proper view of Him. Then we get a proper view of ourselves.

Dannah: That’s Byron Paulus reminding us that part of putting on His robe of righteousness is getting a proper view of God, and to do that we must get a proper view of ourselves.

What a great reminder to spend time in God’s word getting to know all of Him.

Byron Paulus heads up the OneCry prayer outreach of Life Action Ministries. That message was from a workshop at True Woman '12 titled "Crying Out with Passion, Power and Faith." We have a link for his talk at our website, ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend. Just look for today’s episode. 

Also, while you’re there check out information for the True Woman '22 conference happening September 22–24. Some exciting days ahead. 

There are women all over the world spending time in God’s Word and listening to Revive Our Hearts. Did you know that Revive Our Hearts is now being translated into Portuguese and Turkish and many other languages? God is working wonders, and we are so excited to watch Him calling women all over the world to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. 

Would you consider giving a gift to help us reach even more women? You can do that by calling 1-800-569-5959, or go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and click on today’s episode. And when you give, we’ll give you our newest book called, Unremarkable: Ten Ordinary Women Who Impacted Their World for Christ. 

Next week, take an imaginative time travel trip with me to the Garden of Eden. We’ll talk about God’s beautiful creation, which includes my beautiful peacock, Napoleone. But God did something even more amazing when He created humans—when he made you! Let’s chat about it next week on Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

Thanks for listening today. Thanks to our team: Phil Krause, Blake Bratton, Rebekah Krause, Justin Converse, Michelle Hill, and for Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh.

Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

¹Stuart Townend. “And Can It Be.” Revive (Live Worship). ℗ 2009 Integrity Music.

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