Hey my friends, it's Matt. This is the 10-Minute Bible Hour Podcast. We're on a big long jaunt through the Bible looking at this the clothes maketh the man theme. And we're seeing this theme, this motif, really take shape and crystallize as we move from deep in the early part of the Old Testament to the end of the New Testament that we're going to get to today. So here's a little bit of intro music for you, and we're going to pick up where we left off yesterday. Oh, you can tell by the way I set it up that yes, I am sure. 1 Peter 5, 5, young men in the same way, be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. How interesting that that's the verse right there. We're talking about clothing ourselves in these robes of the righteousness of God provided by God. And then there's that verse. It's like God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. The robes are grace. The ability to clothe ourselves in this is a gift from God. The robes are his. We didn't make them. And finally, our journey through the Bible with this clothes maketh the man, being robed in the righteousness of God theme. Finally, we land in Revelation, which is so much more than just predictions about the end times, by the way. This is the summa theologica of the Bible. It's the end of theology, the completion of all of the arcs, the payoff for everything, the end of history as we think of history, and the vision for that, clearly pronounced in the book of Revelation, includes God's people clothed in his righteousness in a very tangible, observable way. So let's look at Revelation three, five. This is Jesus talking to the Christians in the church of Sardis. Says, yet you have a few people in Sardis who've not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will like them be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my father and his angels. You hear how that's kind of a payoff for that parable from Matthew 22 about the wedding banquet and being robed appropriately? If Jesus sounds a little mean in Matthew 22, well, this is still Jesus talking here in Revelation 3, and you better get what he was driving at after you read that. Let's turn over to Revelation 2. Starting uh no, Revelation 2, what am I talking about? Revelation 7, starting in verse 9. After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. So this is John talking, and listen to this. You and I've talked about the Old Testament a ton around here. This is the payoff right here. This is the vision of everything through the whole Bible. This is what the tension with Peter and Paul at the dinner table is about. This is what Galatians is about. This is what the vision of the sheet being lowered from heaven that Peter saw in Acts is all about. Everybody's here. The blessing that was promised to Abraham, that he would be a blessing to all the nations. We're visualizing it now. And what does everybody look like from every tongue, tribe, and nation who's showing up before the throne in front of the Lamb? They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. All those people from all those nations who used to disagree about everything and fight about politics and bicker about everything and squabble over resources, who used to have those deep-seated ethnic rivalries and racism between them, all it's all gone. No Jew, no Greek, no male, no female, no free, no slave. All those old divisions are antiquated in this scene. Instead, what's the defining characteristic of these people? They're robed in the righteousness of God, and they're all saying the exact same truest, realist thing. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Revelation 19 8, and then that will be it, for our clothes maketh the man journey through the Bible. I'm going to start in verse six. Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals of thunder shouting, Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns, let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, for the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. In quotes, fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. Then the angel said to me, Write, Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb, and he added, These are the true words of God. Again, huge payoff on what we see in Matthew twenty two, with the idea of that banquet. Again, huge payoff to the idea of being robed in the salvific righteousness of God. Again, huge payoff to the idea of the stuff that we were reading earlier from Ephesians and so forth, from Peter, about the idea of clothing ourselves with the values of the kingdom, humility, love, the stuff that looks like God. That's what we get in parentheses there, that fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. All made possible by God robing us in his righteousness. It all fits together. It's so dang good. As ultimately this motif of clothes maketh the man, way back in the mists of the Old Testament, goes from less clear to more clear to more clear to more clear to historical theological completion as God ultimately and finally robes all those who are in Christ in a way that is visible not just internally but externally manifest, to say, This is my visible kingdom, to point to the picture of the redemption that he has achieved, to point to the kingdom that he has built, to point to his own glory manifest in the lives of broken people who've had their fortunes and fate reversed, who were clothed in the sinful, filthy garments, but are now clothed in the righteousness of God. This language from Paul in Galatians 3, it would be really easy to be like, oh, that's just a very, very nice image. Thank you for that, Paul. I just wear it like a snuggie, and it just makes me feel Jesus all around me. But it's so much more than that sort of therapeutic level interpretation that's going on here. It's the payoff on a massive theme and motif that goes through the whole Bible about the redemptive work of God and about the 14-point swing that happens when God redeems from being dead and a slave and a foreigner and an outsider and having no participation in the kingdom to being a son, a daughter, an heir, an agent of the king with responsibilities and a role to play. And what do you know, the clothes make it the man? There's an outfit to match. And now we will actually go on to chapter four next time around. I love this medium in this format though, because it allows us to just get to what's next and let's go run it down hard. When else were we gonna do this, right? Thanks for being down for it. Thanks for being curious about this stuff with me. One other note, on the Patreon support side over there, you know, we switched over the funding and all of that. Patreon made it do it. It seems like all of that change to how it was all built and everything that Patreon did is pretty much stabilized out at this point. But I just want to jump in real quick here at the end of this big long theme to say thank you to all of you for enduring that. I was pretty stressed out about that. Like, is this gonna work? How are we gonna make this go? Still be able to like pay bills and stuff. Uh yeah, that worked out because you're all are awesome and I'm so appreciative. Also, thank you to those of you who've jumped in even since then. What a huge encouragement that is. Nobody ever has to support this thing. You don't have to. This is free, that's the point. But it means a lot that some of you do. Thank you for doing it. It really is why this thing is able to exist. So I'm super appreciative because if this didn't exist, I never would have gone and run down the stuff that we just ran down for myself or for anybody else. I literally only put in this work because you were here and you made me do it by being here and being curious about this and by showing up every day and by supporting it. So thank you. Not just for the support, not just for the encouragement, but thank you for the constant nudge you are to me to really dig into this stuff and see where it goes. It is a privilege to get to do this. All right, that's plenty. I'm Matt, this is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.