THE “GOODIES” AND THE “BADIES”

Matthew 22:8-10, “The wedding is ready… go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.” Read the whole story of the Wedding Banquet in Matthew 22:1-14.

The heavenly kingdom is going to be filled with not only good people, but millions of bad people. Yes, that’s right. God invites all the bad people, as many as will come. What do you think of that? There’s only one condition. They have to wear the wedding garment. This speaks of the robe of righteousness which we receive when our sins are cleansed and forgiven through the precious out-poured blood of Jesus.

The guests were all seated at the banquet. The king arrived. He noticed one guest who did not have on a wedding garment. The Bible does not tell us whether this guest was one of the “goodies” or one of the “badies” but I have a feeling it was one of the “goodies”. I think that any of the badies would have felt so guilty and so conspicuous without a wedding garment that they would have made sure they had one. The king also referred to this man as his “friend.” Maybe he knew him. But perhaps this good guy thought he didn’t need one. He was a good person. He lived a good life and helped people whenever he saw a need. What did he need to be covered for?

But his good works were not enough. No matter who we are, good or bad, we have to have a wedding garment. We have to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We have to have a robe of righteousness which only Christ can give us. We can’t make this robe ourselves. It is a gift from God.

Isaiah 64:6 says, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…” The psalmist David says in Psalm 14:3, “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Even our piousness and all our “righteousnesses” are filthy. Actually, the word literally means “stinking”!

What happened to this “good” person? When the king asked how he was there without a wedding garment, he was speechless! There’ll be no excuse good enough if we don’t have a garment. The king then told his servant to “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

At our Above Rubies retreats we like to take time on the last day for Testimony time. This is always a very precious time and we have to make sure we have the tissue box handy! I am amazed as I hear the testimonies of some of the mothers. They look as though they are one of the “goodies”—happy, home-making, child-loving  mothers. But when they open their mouth and share the degradation from where God has delivered them, I stand in awe at the power of God. There is no sin that is too hard for God to forgive. There is no pit into which we fall that God cannot deliver us. He delights in redeeming the badies and making them into new creations. He delights to wash them with His blood and cover them with His robe of righteousness.

Maybe you have never been a baddie. You are one of the goodies. You need the robe just as much. You’ll never get into the Marriage Supper of the Lamb without your wedding garment, without repenting of all your “fleshly good works” and being covered with the blood of Jesus.

We must also lead our children to salvation. They can be brought up in a Christian home. They can grow up to be good people. But if they do not acknowledge their sinfulness and receive Christ as their Savior, they will not  receive a wedding garment. To have Christian parents is not enough. To go to church is not enough. To be homeschooled is not enough. They must receive Christ’s offer of salvation, when he died on the cross to pay the penalty for their sins.

May we and each one of our children receive the wedding garment.

1 John 1:7-9, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL, Above Rubies

PRAYER:

“Oh God, I confess my sin before you. I confess that I have tried to run my own life. I’ve thought I could do it better than you. Lord, I confess my rebellion and disobedience. I turn to you and ask you to cleanse me with your precious blood. Make me your child and one of your family. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

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