The Blood of Jesus Christ — Al Whittinghill

Justification by Faith in Christ

Philippians, Chapter three, as a warm up for several texts, Philippians, Chapter three, the words of Paul. And this is the theme of our conference. And the Lord has put his finger on some things for many of us in these days.

And in verse seven of Chapter three, it says, What things were gained to me, I counted loss for Christ. Yes, doubtless. And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.

He keeps saying all things, all things loss, and I do count them but rubbish or dung that I may win Christ and be found in him. That's what he wants to be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law.

And when Paul uses that, he doesn't just mean the Ten Commandments. He means anything that will help me think I'm better or worse by performance or not performing any standard of behavior or list of principles or methods.

That's something from the outside coming in. You see the spirits from the inside working out. The law comes from the outside, so that's the law. I want to be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is by or of God, by faith that I may know him, that I may know him.

I want to just stop there and pray. And then I want us to turn to Matthew 22. Father, we want to know you, Lord Jesus. We want to know you, Holy Spirit. We want to know you. And we know that as we come to know you.

The things of earth will grow strangely dim. If we don't know you, the things of earth will become greatly grim, Lord, we know that we are under pressure and this love pressure to turn our hearts and minds to you, the things that we think are gain or preservation or that which is necessary in this world.

May we count them but rubbish, put them on the altar of God that we might win Christ, that we might know Christ and that you would clothe us tonight with the righteousness that's not our own, but rather that righteousness, which is the gift of God through faith in the Lord Jesus, as we'll see tonight through a precious, precious fountain that you've opened.

Make it real, make it heavenly wisdom, open our hearts to truth and do something tonight to culminate many things you've been saying and doing in these hours of this day. Bring it to a head and may it just be the glory of God tonight in the name of Jesus.

Precious Lamb of Glory, we thank you. Amen. Well, in the book of Matthew, chapter twenty two, we start with a parable with a very deep meaning, especially if you're Jewish. It's been my privilege the last couple of weeks to be at Beth Hallel.

It's a Messianic Jewish synagogue in Atlanta, and they're Jewish believers who have met Yeshua Hamashiach, the Messiah. And I'm telling you, it is such a blessing to be there with them and to see their eyes light up when the scriptures that they preserve for us, God opens.

I think Haynes was there and he saw it was a precious time we had there as we are sharing about the blood of Christ just before Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah there. There are some of their holy days, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, days of all ten days preceding.

The Wedding Feast and the Garment of Righteousness

And I have thought about bringing this these verses to them. Chapter twenty two, verse one, Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come again.

He sent forth other servants saying, tell them which are bidden. Behold, I've prepared my dinner, my ox and my fatlings are killed and all things are now ready. Come to the marriage. But they made light of it.

You know, that phrase made light of it is the same word over in Hebrews, chapter two, that when it says, how shall we escape if we neglect, neglect so great salvation or make light of? That's it right there.

They made light of it and they went their ways, one to his farm, the other to his merchandise or business. And the remnant took his servants and treated them spitefully and slew them. But when the king heard of it, he was angry and he sent forth his armies and he destroyed destroyed those murderers and burned up their city.

And he said to his servants, the wedding is ready, but they which were bidden are not worthy. Go ye, therefore, into the highways and as many as you find bid to the marriage. And so those servants went out to the highways and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good, because that's not the factor here, both bad and good.

And the wedding was furnished with guests, and when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man that didn't have all the wedding garment. Now, these wedding garments are long, white linen, pure and clean that come down to the wrists and down to the feet and come up around your neck and they're long and flowing and they stand for purity and dedication and holiness.

And in a Jewish wedding, the bridegroom would be at his father's house preparing a place for his bride. And then in the evening, the bride had to be ready with her maidens. That's the parable of those ten virgins in the in Matthew.

Twenty five. They had to be ready for in such an hour as they knew not the bridegroom would come and say, come to my father's house. We're ready for the consummation. And so these people for the wedding would come dressed in white down to the wrist, down to the feet, and everyone would have a garment and they would walk through the streets in darkness by the light of a light, by a lamp, and they would come to the bride's house and she would like her her lamps would be trimmed up and then they'd march back through the streets into a room where they would have the wedding and all and all the feasts and the and the celebration and everyone had on white garments.

And so here's someone that comes in without a wedding garment. And the king came to him and said, friend, how did you come in here not having a wedding garment? And the man was speechless and then said the king to his servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away and cast him into outer darkness.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many are called and a few are chosen, or as a little child said, many are cold and some are frozen, but many are called and few are chosen. There's a picture here of that Jewish wedding and there's this white linen garment.

It's called a Katana to the Hebrew and the Old Testament. It's a wedding garment. Now, this imagery, if you're a Jew, means something. If you know the Old Testament spiritually over in the book of Revelation, chapter 19, you see this carried out, turn there and you'll see this picture of the wedding and the white linen carried out.

You guys have done so good today listening. I'll tell you, you've sat there and you've listened and you've listened and you've listened. Hang in there. Revelation, chapter 19, verse six. This is when the hosts of heaven praise God.

The consummation is coming. And in verse five, the voice came out of the throne saying, praise our God, all ye his servants and you who fear him both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the voice of many waters and the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent.

He reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him because the marriage of this lamb has come of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. She's ready. She's made herself ready. And to her was granted or given that she should be clothed in fine linen, clean and white.

That's a wedding garment. If you know the symbols for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. It's a symbol for the righteousness of the saints, the bride of Christ. And they have this garment on.

It's given to her that she can put on white garments and they stand for the garments of the righteousness of the saints. It's a gift. And he said to me, write this down. Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the lamb.

And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God. You see, Jesus Christ is coming for a bride. Ephesians five talks about us having white linen pressed and clean, clothed and made ready as the bride of Christ, like we're to love our wives in the same way that Christ loves the church and has pressed and cleaned her garment.

So she's without blemish or without spot. So this wonderful image of clean, pure garments that are made white and we'll see how in a moment. You know, I've done a lot of weddings. I am a romantic person.

I like weddings and I enjoy weddings. It's always fun to go to the rehearsal dinner and meet the family and witness. And, you know, I've done weddings and seen all kinds of brides, all sizes and all shapes.

I've seen short brides. Do you take this man to be looking down? And I've seen tall brides. My roommate in seminary was six feet nine. We're both single. We used to pray for wives. And I got married first.

And he said, God will never send me a wife. He sent him a wife, six feet four. And she is gorgeous. And she says that he makes her feel dainty. And that's great. I'm telling you, she's it's precious. That's just like God, isn't it?

Praise the Lord. And and I've done weddings for beautiful brides and I've done weddings for brides, but I wondered if the groom was blind. I've done weddings for skinny brides and wide brides and all kinds.

I've seen them all different ways, but I've never seen a dirty bride. Have you? She's always clean. She always takes a bath and puts on her best clothes because it's her special day. And I'll tell you, Jesus is coming for a bride and not a widow.

He's coming for a clean and pure bride, and she will have made herself ready, responding to the word of God and the spirit of Christ. You see, it says in Second Corinthians, chapter seven, verse one about the promises of God.

It says Second Corinthians seven, one, having therefore these precious promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh. That's the outer life and the spirit. That's the inner life, perfecting holiness in the reverential awe of God.

White Robes Washed in the Blood of the Lamb

We've got the word of God that by this we might be partakers of the exceeding great and precious promises of God and by the promises of God, cleanse ourselves. Now. Now, John had seen this this vast multitude we just read about earlier back in chapter seven of Revelation, and we need to look there.

Revelation, chapter seven. And we see this multitude clothed in fine white linen, clean and pure. And in verse nine, he says, after this, I beheld in low, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kinds and peoples and tongues.

They stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. And they cried with a loud voice saying, Hosanna, which is what they did at the triumphant entry. But it says here salvation to God, which sits upon the throne and to the lamb and all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures.

They fell before the throne on their faces and worship God. It says they did that seven times in the book of Revelation. They got calluses on their nose from falling before the throne. And they said, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever.

Amen. Being curious in his heart about this great multitude in white, the angel perceived and discerned that and one of the elders answered, saying unto me, what are these that are clothed in white robes and where do they come from?

And he knew enough to say, sir, you're the one that knows. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation and they've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

That's how you make your robes clean. That's how you get white linen garments. And therefore, because of these white blood washed robes, they are in the presence of the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his tabernacle.

And the one who sits on the throne will literally, it says, spread his tent over them. He will spread his tabernacle over them back in the first chapter of Revelation. It salutes the Lord Jesus and the writer says unto him that loves us and has washed us from our sins in his own blood and made us kings and priests to our God.

It's through his own blood. He has loosed us or washed us from our sins in Revelation chapter three. It says that blessed are they that are worthy to walk with him in white. It says, watch that no man defile your garment in another place.

In Revelation chapter twelve, verse eleven, it talks about being an overcomer of the accuser of the brethren by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony and by the fact that we do not love our own lives, even to the point of martyrdom or death.

That's what it means. We've given it all. We've counted all loss, but rubbish to be clothed in the righteousness of another. So we are naked before God without the covering of the wedding garment that he gives to his bride.

White linen, blood washed righteousness. Revelation chapter five. Look there. They're praising him today, this moment around the throne because of his sacrifice and worth. Verse nine, they sang a new song.

This is all of heaven around the throne of the lamb that's taken the scroll of redemption. They're saying thou art worthy to take the book to open the seals of it because you were slain. You have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kind and tongue and people and nation and has made us to our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.

And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the beasts and the elders. And the number of them was ten myriads is the Greek word myriads and myriads of myriads saying with a loud voice.

It sounds like a heartbeat. Listen, this worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. It's the heartbeat around the throne of the universe.

Tonight is the heartbeat of that mighty celestial myriads of myriads saying thou are worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And then it gets even bigger.

Every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and all that's in the sea and in them heard I saying blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne and to the lamb forever and ever.

And the four living creatures said, amen. And the people at Covington said, amen. And the four and twenty elders fall down and worshiped him. That's what we should be doing. The one who lives forever and forever.

Imputed Righteousness from Genesis to the Patriarchs

You see, this white lemon here is the righteousness of the saints. Now, from the beginning of the Bible, God has chosen to teach man and women that they could not stand before God in their own righteousness, no matter how much they wanted, no matter how sincere they were, their righteousness had to be a righteousness that was given from God based upon the blood of a sacrifice.

And I want you to think back again, we're going to trace some things through all the way back till after that fall. And in Genesis chapter three, right after the Lord says to the devil, I will put enmity between your seed.

That's the seed of the devil and the woman's seed. And you will bruise his heel and he will crush your head. He's describing Calvary as Jesus feet are nailed to that cross. But beneath that heel of Christ would be the head of the serpent and he'd be forever crushed.

And it's the first he's called the first mention of the gospel. It's called in theological terms, the proto evangelium. It's the first mention of the gospel. And right after that, he curses the earth and curses the work of Adam.

And then Adam turns to his wife and says, by the way, your name is Eve first time her name is mentioned, which means mother of the living. Adam had seen something. He'd seen something in that moment. And God, then it says, makes them coats of skin in three twenty one coats, plural of skin, singular two coats out of one skin.

And this is before men ate food, by the way, of meat. Meat had not yet been sanctioned by God. And so this was a pure sacrifice. You couldn't even use the meat. And so God made a coat, which is from the word Kafar, which is from the same root of Katana, same root Kafar means to cover.

It's the same root for the word atonement in the Hebrew. God made a covering that was an atonement to cover like a coat, the nakedness of of Adam and Eve. But before that, you see, they had tried to cover their own nakedness.

He heard the voice of God, like some of you heard him this weekend and was afraid, afraid, which is good fear because he'd sinned. But he tried to do a wrong thing. And some of you may try to do that, try to cover it up with fig leaves.

That's the symbol of the Jewish nation through the whole Old Testament religion, in a sense, the Jewish. You see, if anything we could do, that's our own righteousness, anything we could do to cover our nakedness.

Let me tell you, you try wearing fig leaves in a bonfire. It'd be a hot time in the old town tonight. They wouldn't last. All of our righteousness are as filthy rags. They're just like it literally says a minstrel's cloth to God.

It's as loathsome that our efforts as a minstrel's cloth. And I hope you understand, I'm just saying what the Scriptures say. When God took that life of another, he took from its covering and gave to Adam and Eve and the covering of an innocent party became the covering of the nakedness of Adam and Eve.

And Adam saw it. He saw the Messiah coming and he believed that I believe Adam was saved. No question in my mind about it, because it says that he told his children, how do you know that? Well, it was by faith.

In the next chapter, Hebrews 11 says, by faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And to have faith, you've got to have faith comes by hearing the word of God. He'd heard from somebody, Cain and Abel came to a place that God had appointed for sacrifice.

It means appointed place on an appointed day. And Cain came with the best of what God had cursed, the fruit of his own efforts, bouquets of flowers and nice social things and offering to God his own sincerity and hard work.

You know what happened? God declined it. Abel came with the firstling of the flock, the blood of a lamb, and God gave some signal, probably fire. We don't know. It doesn't say showing that he bore witness to that sacrifice of Abel and bore witness that he was righteous.

And Cain became jealous and began to persecute, as you know, Abel, just like those who are trying to insist on their own righteousness due today. Those who have simply the coat of Christ on Cain and Abel showed it was by the blood that they came in chapter six.

God says there was a man named Noah who found grace in the eyes of the Lord grace. And God came to Noah and said, I'm going to judge the earth. Make me an arc of gopher wood. And I want you to pitch it on the inside and outside.

Pitch was a dark, rosinous, dark red substance. And the word for pitch there is the same root word as kaffir or to propitiate. And it means to cover on the outside, to keep out judgment and to cover on the inside.

It's inner and outer protection. And God said to Noah, I want you to go into that arc. Is that what he said? He didn't say go into the arc. See, let's suppose that I say to my children, you go in the house, I'm out here.

Well, they're in the house and I'm out in the yard and they're not with me. God didn't say go in the arc. He said, Noah, I want you to come in the arc. Come in here where I am. I'm in here with you and I'll set you in with the symbol of what's the atonement all around.

And there's only a window above. That's the only source you can look above. He was to be covered and propitiated. And when he got out of that arc, he dedicated the new heaven and new earth of his day.

He hit the Ararat on resurrection morning. Did you know that the 17th day of the seventh month, the name whose name is rest came down on holy ground and he sanctified the earth with blood with a rainbow to God, saying, I'm a covenant keeping God and the other half surround the throne of the land.

It's all perfect. Every word of God is pure. And in Leviticus, the priests would offer a sacrifice. And God said in chapter 17, it is the blood that will make an atonement for your soul, a coat, a covering, a cover or nakedness that which keeps out wrath.

The blood will make an atonement for the soul. No wonder that the writer of the Psalms named David, who understood this principle, cried out in astonishment. Chapter 32 of Psalms. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, covered, meaning with the blood, with the blood.

So you see, this is talking about imputed righteousness, the gift of God, that God would call someone righteous who wasn't righteous because they had on a coat that was given to them because the life of an innocent victim was stripped of it and given to the one who was guilty.

The Righteousness of Christ and the Priestly Garment

It's a picture all through the Bible, nakedness covered and wrath kept away. Zachariah said it this way. God is speaking to people and he says, as for the by the blood of my covenant, I have sent forth my prisoners out of the pit wherein there is no water.

God has freed us from the pit in which there's no water or the blood of his covenant. And God's guilt, our guilt is gone. But God's glory is given, not just passive acceptance, but total acceptance. Glory is given.

Isaiah sang about it in his song in chapter sixty one. He said this, Isaiah sixty one ten. Listen, talking about God, he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself as a bride dresses herself up.

He has done it. He's covered me. The Old Testament foreshadows, you see, of second Corinthians, chapter five, when it says he took the Lord Jesus, who knew no sin and made him to be sin in order that I in him might become the righteousness of God.

He took off Jesus coat and put it on me. He took off my filthy rags and put it on him and he became sin. Filthy rags put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 13, 14, first Corinthians, chapter one, verse 30, that says it is of God, it's his work that you are in Christ and he is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

All those things as we're in him. What a wonderful thing. This word for Katana is the same word from the root used for Adam and Eve's coat and also the coat of the priest, the undergarment. Did you know that?

When it talks about the priests in the Old Testament having their basic white linen underclothes that they would put their other garments over, it was a picture of a family that had to be born into a specific family, the family of the high priest.

They had to be born. They had to be separated. They were separated publicly. There would be a public bath by the high priests, and they'd put the blood on their right ear and on their right thumb and on their right big toe for cleansed doing, cleansed hearing, cleansed walking.

Then they'd put the oil on it and they had seven days of separation of fire and and all and they'd be separated. But they wore these white linen robes and without these, they'd be dead meat. Literally, all flesh must be covered.

A family of high priests, offspring born, consecrated by blood, clothed in pure white linen, anointed by the oil. And this is a picture of what the New Testament says we are to stand between God and man ministering in the holy place to God and out in the public court to those who are seeking him.

Mediators, ambassadors of the throne of God. First Peter, chapter two. Listen, first Peter, chapter two, verse five to nine. I'm starting to get excited. I can feel it rising. Give me a listen to this.

You are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. That means after Melchizedek, our Lord Jesus is order. You're born in his family, a holy nation, a peculiar people, some more peculiar than others.

God has chosen you that you should show forth the praises of him who's called you out of darkness into his marvelous life. He never calls you out of anything. He doesn't call you into something better out of darkness, away from idolatry, but not just from it's to it's to it's into him and all that he wants.

You see, it's called we are called priests in the book of Hebrews. We come boldly into the holy of holies through the bloody veil of the flesh of Christ. And we come to the throne of grace. The Ark of the Covenant sprinkle with the blood of better sacrifices than those bulls and goats.

We come boldly in with open face, saying all having a high priest over the true house of God, whoever liveth to pray not only for us, but to hear the petitions and give us grace and mercy to help in a time of need.

He is a consuming fire and let us. Therefore, if we wouldn't escape and we neglected his voice on Earth, how much less can we need to pay attention to his voice that comes tonight from heaven, from the throne of God?

Do you see it where his holy bride dressed, purchased where his priesthood? That's why David cried out after his sin. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Sprinkle me with the hyssop. What's on that hyssop that has to be sprinkled?

Christ as the Sinless High Priest

What we'll see before the night is over. It's white washed, blood washed linen. One glorious step further. You see, when the priests went on in offering those offerings as they developed, they would have to go up an incline of an offer of an altar.

The altar was on an incline. I wonder why that is. It was high and lifted up and they have to get that sacrifice and lift it up. If I lift it up, says the Lord, it would lift it up on that incline. And when the priest bent over like this to put his sacrifice over the flames, the backs of his legs would show.

And God hates all flesh. God made him grow his beard around like Lloyd down here in a big round under the chin thing so that he couldn't see his face. It's a good idea. No, no. But a big beard, because God said, wear bonnets, wear things around your face, beard, so I can't see flesh.

No flesh can glory my presence. And by the way, I want you to put on linen underpants, because when you bend over, I'm offended at what I see. It's in Exodus twenty nine. It talks about that to have this sanction of of linen covering their back parts, their hinder parts.

And without this covering, no priest would ever live. They would be struck dead immediately. They had to have this picture of righteousness. Well, all four Gospels cover it after the trial of Jesus. He was stripped completely naked.

I don't think he hung before Father God with that little loincloth that we graciously put on our pictures. And I think we should. But you know what? I think he was stripped before the eyes of a mocking world.

And it was the first priest in all of history who didn't have to have a covering. He was righteous in his own self and could in his own merit before Father God offer a linen, a living, beautiful sacrifice.

You know, just another step further, it says his flesh was the was the actual veil that was rent. Those those Gospels show the Lord Jesus in four colors of robes. There's a purple robe. There's a scarlet robe.

There's a word in the Greek called lampros. It means white, radiant. And his own robe was probably blue. Why do I say that? Because those are the four colors on the veil. And as he came with his own blue, seamless robe woven without seam from top to bottom, he came before Anna's.

Remember? And Anna said, are you? And he quoted from Daniel chapter seven. Are you the Messiah, son of the blessed? And the Lord Jesus answered because he put him under oath and said, I am. And in the future, you're going to see me coming with the power came and say with the power of God coming clothed with power and great glory.

And the priest did what was forbidden in the Old Testament. Priests were not allowed to tear their garments. In fact, they're warned in the book of Leviticus. If the priest tears his garment, it had a piece of a woven secure around the neck to keep it from ripping because there was to be no seam in the Levitical priesthood.

And so as this priest grabbed his collar and ripped, he ripped his garment. God had said the day the high priest rinsed his garment, the Levitical priesthood is over. It's ended. And little did he know that when he grabbed his neck and ripped that collar open that God said the Levi, the law is over.

And from that moment, Jesus became the high priest of Melchizedek after that order. And he went to the cross and he was stripped. And you know what? God's sovereignty had his seamless garment, not torn the cast lots for it.

See, God is in charge of it all. Seamless righteousness. Once we had no peace. Now we have peace through the blood. Once we were far off. Now we become near by the blood and by his blood, every man, woman, boy and girl can walk right into the holy of holies.

The Passover Lamb and Deliverance from Egypt

Now, there's a picture of this in Exodus 12. I want you to look at this where we'll spend the rest of our time. It's one of the best pictures in all the Bible, I think, of imputed righteousness under the blood, perhaps nowhere in all the scripture to the benefits of the blood more forcibly hit us than right here, graphically before our eyes in that first Passover, the first one.

Now, you know, the account of how the Israelites had come into Egypt and they were welcomed for 30 years. But after that, another Pharaoh rose up that did not know Joseph and began to oppress these precious people.

And for years, 400 years, they had to make bricks without straw. And they were they were in bad shape, walking in mud, not fed well. And it says in chapter two that their cry came up before God. They weren't praying particularly.

I don't think. But God's eye was on his covenant people. He's a covenant keeping God. God said their cry has come up before me and I've come down to deliver them. I know their sorrow. See, God knows your sorrows and he knows it all.

And as as this cry came up before him, God says, when I'm going to give my people deliverance, he takes he takes a man that's chosen and he gives him a word about the lamb. And that's what you're going to see here.

He picks Moses, his chosen. Moses has to get his own house in order. He thought he could overlook circumcising his own son and be used by God. And God, in chapter four, sought to kill Moses because Moses thought he could preach without doing what he's supposed to be calling others to do.

And his wife comes and circumcises the son and throws the foreskin down at Moses feet and said, you're a bloody husband to me, you're in covenant with me now, you owe me Buster's what she's saying. Women are bad about that, you know.