The Bride of Christ
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” – Revelation 19:7-9.
There has been a wedding dress lost in North Texas and the North Texas Tollway Authority is trying to find the owner. The Tollway Authority said workers doing a cleanup project on the Dallas North Tollway in Frisco spotted a white box at the side of the road that contained the dress. They posted a photo of the white dress on Twitter in the hopes of finding the owner. Their spokesman Michael Ray said: “This is not a Sally Field, Smokey and the Bandit deal, it didn’t go flying out of a vehicle per se. It’s boxed up. It’s clearly somebody’s memory somewhere along the way they lost track with it and we like to reunite them.”
Ray said documents inside the box indicate the dress was boxed more than 20 years ago, but the papers didn’t provide many other clues pointing at the identity of the owner. He said the authority will hold the dress for at least 90 days while officials try to find the owner.
What about your wedding dress or I guess I should say wedding garment because if you know Jesus as our Savior you have one. It’s called the Robe of Righteousness. Back in the Old Testament as Isaiah prophesies in Isaiah 61:10 he says: 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, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
When you were saved, when you prayed for Jesus to forgive you of your sins to come into your life and be your Lord and Savior. When you did that, you were washed in the blood of Jesus, birthed into the Kingdom of God, sealed until the Day of Redemption and you were clothed with a Robe of Righteousness.
What is the Robe of Righteousness? It is the Righteousness of Jesus. Once clothed with this Robe when the Father looks at your life, He no longer sees the rotten worm of a sinner that you are. No, instead He sees the righteousness of Jesus. Jesus who was tempted at all points without sin and suffered and died on the cross for your sins.
The Robe of Righteousness is your wedding garment and I want to make it clear that once you have been clothed with it, you can never lose it. (This is the Southern Baptist perspective Romans 8:35-39; John 10:27-30.)
However, sometimes we do our best to try to throw our wedding garment away even though it is not possible to do. We drag it through the mud of sin, and it might as well be in a box thrown out on the side of a highway for all the care we give it.
When we do those things that we know are sins we are dragging our wedding garment through the mud. When we refuse to pray, refuse to assemble with other believers, when we refuse to give, refuse to serve we are dragging our wedding garment through the mud. It might as well be in a box cast out on the side of a highway.
If you’ve been doing that, dragging your wedding garment through the mud of sin…. If you’ve been doing that and you want to change the beginning point is always 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(What are you doing with your wedding garment?)