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DIVINE CLOTHING

Norman Meek

I want to speak in this preaching, dear friends, as to clothing. It should be within our understanding. Man needs it; and I suppose the scripture that we read in Genesis shows that he needs it to cover his nakedness. These coats are not exactly coats of adornment or display; God has those too in His wardrobe, but these coats of skin are imperative and it is imperative that you have one. You say, Where can I get it? You can get it from the One who has made them; you can get it from God Himself. It is remarkable that He should be the first one who is spoken of in this way as a coat-maker. It is one of the great industries that has grown up, the making of garments of one kind and another. It is one of the prime industries extant in the world, but the first one to take it up was God Himself, and He and He alone can provide you with a coat of this kind. No other tailoring house has yet been able to make a coat of this kind; God alone knows how to make it and He has one your size and He is ready to supply it to you. "All things are naked" it says "and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do", Heb 4: 13. Sooner or later, dear friend, you will have to do with God, everyone will, whether he is a president or a pauper; sooner or later every one of us will have to do with God - it may be sooner. Sooner or later it will have to be so, it is inevitable, it is one of the facts of life, as inevitable as death itself you have to appear before God. And how will you appear? If you have not one of God's coats you will be naked before Him, you will be exposed. My sinnership, my state, will all be exposed and laid bare before His eyes, the eyes of Him with whom we have to do sooner or later you will have to do with Him. He has other coats for you as well, but this one is essential; it is of prime importance.

Now you will know without my telling you that you are a sinner. Maybe you do not want to be but you find that you do things which you know you should not. We find that when we are quite young, we find we are tempted, drawn away and enticed by lust which gives birth to sin (see Jas 1: 14,15). How will you appear before God? How will you appear, how will I appear before God? How can I come into His holy presence? He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity (see Hab 1: 13); how can I appear before Him? Dear friend, only through the precious work of Christ. The work of Christ is connected with this coat; it is a covering. I wonder if your sins are covered, or are they there in all their stark reality. You say, I have never murdered anybody. No, but they are still stark. You only need a small fly on a white wall and you can see it easily, it will show up as if it was as big as man's hand. When you come into a scene of absolute purity, what passed muster down here will be exposed in all its true character and nothing will escape. Thank God nothing will escape. Believers say that, Thank God nothing will escape. They are going into a scene, 'Where deceiver ne'er can enter, Sin-soiled feet have never trod', (Hymn 206). It is intolerable for a believer to think of any sin going into heaven, it would spoil the whole scene, it could not be. And yet sinners will be there, sinners who have been saved by the precious work of Christ. Are you one of them? Come now, are you saved? Have you that happy, blessed assurance in your soul that you are saved, that your sins have been dealt with? We have all heard of Martin Luther; it is said that in his dream he said to the devil, The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son, cleanseth me from every sin (see 1 John 1: 7). Could you say that? It is very happy if you can say it, dear friend. How can it be? The work of Christ is for you; the cleansing power of that precious blood of His is for you. It has been shed that your sins might be atoned for and you might be cleared, absolutely cleared from everything that offends the eye of a righteous and a holy God. God can cover you through the precious atoning work of Christ. He has a coat for you and He brings it along to a meeting Iike this. He brings them along and He knows who needs one; I do not know. You might be breaking bread, but you may not be saved. That would be abnormal of course. Are you uneasy? Would you be uneasy if you came into God's presence? You need one of these coats. Ask Him for it now. You can ask Him while you sit on that seat, tell Him that you want to be covered by the precious, matchless work of Jesus. Tell Him that you want to avail yourself of that divine provision. No one else can make these coats and no other coat will do, it must be this one. It is a coat of skin, notice; it is not a coat of nylon or terylene or one of these synthetics, it is the real thing, a coat of skin. And soberly we have to say this involves death somewhere along the line, and that death was the death of Jesus. This is the only character of coat that will do. Men make up their synthetics, they make up their ideas; man's mind is a very fertile area it can hatch out all sorts of schemes and all sorts of theories, but when it comes to the day of testing it will not stand. You want one of God's coats, dear friend. Persons go into shops and they look at the label, who made it; a lot of people buy by the label, the manufacturer's name, the inbuilt quality of it. Well, make sure you have one of God's coats. He has them, dear friend, and you can have one now. It is without money and without price and it is yours for good. You can wear it and it will not wear out even if you live to be one hundred, it is yours for good. Is it not wonderful? God's provision is a whole provision, not a temporary one. It is not one which is good for today and may not be current tomorrow; it is for ever; 'For I am His and He is mine for ever and for ever' (hymn 187). Not even eternity itself will ever wear out these coats. It may not be prominent in the mind and thoughts of those who throng those courts of heaven, and yet it will always underlie it, it will always underlie those happy feelings. Those persons will never forget the blessedness of a time when they first took on for themselves and embraced for themselves that coat. They will be there in the full assurance that all is well. A wonderful thing that! Oh, dear friend, it is a wonderful thing to have perfect and settled peace in your soul. Do you have that or do you have a certain anxiety lurking yet? The only thing you can trust in is the precious work of Jesus. He died for you, He shed His precious blood for you, He gave His life for you. He did not call up kings and governors and presidents to give their life for you; the Lord Jesus gave His own life: "who gave himself for us", Paul says, Tit 2: 14. Well, God puts these coats on persons, they come into His presence, they acknowledge their state. You will not get one, dear friend, unless you acknowledge the facts as they are, you will not get one if you try to cover your condition. It is for persons who repent the gospel is for repenting sinners. I would ask you again, What about it, have you this coat? It is important, most important, it is the most important coat in your wardrobe and it is fundamental.

I pass on to this other scripture in Proverbs. There you get someone else making garments too, and she is working for her household. A wonderful wife is this person who is described here in Proverbs 31. She can say a good deal, she can do a good deal, and she is active; she is not in any sense idle, she is doing things. It is not the work of Christ that is described here; it is really the activity of His people in the figure of this woman, and she is doing things and she is caring for her children and the household. She is concerned about them. These children will have to go out to school and they will have to face the world, go out to work when they get older; so it is a comfort to know that someone at home is caring for them, has their interests at heart and is busying herself for their welfare. God has these persons, dear friend, and they are persons who are interested in you. It is a very great favour in a world that is so wicked, and a world that is so selfish, to know that when you come home at tea-time you are going to enter another kind of atmosphere where persons care for you. This is in the gospel too.

It is not exactly the covering of sin here, it is the protection and warmth of the family circle, and God includes that too in His gospel for you. I suppose, dear friend, it is right to say that the world is going to get increasingly dark, it is going to get increasingly cold, self-centred, every man for himself is going increasingly to become the order of the day. In fact you sometimes wonder what is going to happen to civilization, you can almost see it grinding to a halt. The traffic controllers go on strike, and the dustmen do not come, teachers go on strike and it is every man for himself. You can almost see the anarchy coming, can you not? Dear friend, what an outlook! What a relief to turn your key in the door at home, is it not? Most of us can thank God for a home where there is a welcome, where the toast is ready and something else, a cup of coffee I suppose - in England a cup of tea, just what meets your need. Here is a person who is active in providing all this. Perhaps you have guessed by now that it is the focal assembly. These are the saints of God and you will find that in that company there is a bosom and you can rest your head on it too, a place of warmth and affection. I suppose when we are young we do not value half enough the privilege of a Christian home, and the privilege of a circle of brethren where there is affection, a place that has a bosom.

That is where Obed was put: "Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom", Ruth 4: 16. It is a place of warmth and affection, a place of welcome, a place of safety and a place of satisfaction. Do you not feel sorry for these children that go home and find there is no one at home to greet them? It is a feature of the world, is it not - there is no one at home to greet them. They have finished school and they make their way home but there is no one at home to welcome them. Not so in the believer's house; there is some provision, some care for the children; it is intended to be. I think it is so generally speaking. And along with that there is the local assembly. You may get some fine clothes there. They will tell you about some heavenly garment; you will learn about the best robe; it is the best one. They will tell you about it and they will even put it on you, give you some thoughts as to God's purpose for you. Is it not worthwhile to be in such company? Is it not worthwhile to go along and find a few believers reading the Scriptures and see what garments you have? You never knew they were in your wardrobe, did you? They are there, beautiful ones, garments which are going to suit even heaven itself If you were going to a reception at the White House you would be very careful, you would want to make sure that your garments were suitable. These garments are fit even for the presence of God.

I hope I have not spoken too mysteriously, but one of the cardinal truths in the gospel is that there is practical salvation for believers, not only in their homes but in a peculiar way in the circle of the saints. This person is busy, and I suppose, if I may say it practically, those of us who are older should not fail to be busy in relation to these garments and other things too, so that when young persons come in they find something interesting is afoot, they find there is something in the Scriptures that is theirs which they never knew, some privilege that is theirs and they never heard of.

May the Lord bless these simple thoughts. I would say again that you must make sure that your sins are covered in the sight of the holy God. He has made every provision for you, dear friend, but you must have to do with Him and ask for the benefit of the work of Christ. It means you need to acknowledge your sinnership and you will find that God has every answer to your need, not only for eternity but also for the present time. May you find and prove, and may those of us here who are older ensure, that as far as it is in our power it is so, that our homes and our local companies are places of safety and also places of enjoyment. For His Name's sake.

NEW YORK

4 September 1988

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