The Emperor's New Clothes

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Hans Christian Anderson wrote the story of the Emperor's New
Clothes.   I think that perhaps he had been reading the message
to the Laodicean church at the time.  

You probably remember the story.  The short, DeWitt version of
the story goes like this.  

Once upon a time, there was a great emperor, who was a very
proud fellow.  He was a bit of a dandy, for he liked to dress in
beautiful clothes.  In his closet were beautiful robes of fine
silk woven with threads of sliver and gold.  

One day, a man dressed in beautiful garments came to the
emperor's palace and claimed to be the world's greatest tailor. 
"I can make the world's most beautiful clothes," he bragged. 
"And I will only work for the kings and emperors." 

With much flattery and what we Irish would call, blarney, the
man convinced the emperor to let him create the most beautiful
garment ever seen by mankind.

"I will use the finest fabric known to man," the tailor said.   

The date was set to begin the project.  The emperor was excited,
because he loved beautiful clothes.  The people in the palace
were excited, because the emperor was excited, and he did kind
things when he was excited.

The tailor arrived right on time.  He was carrying a large bag. 
He came to the emperor and said that now he would show the
emperor the beautiful fabrics that he had to use.  

Opening his bag with a flourish, he reached in and drew out,
nothing.  At least that is probably what it would look like to
you and me.  

"Only the wise and insightful can see the beauty of this
fabric," said the tailor.  

Of course the emperor knew that he was wise and insightful, so
he saw the fabric, that really was not there.  

The tailor draped the cloth over his arm and fanned it out so
that the emperor could see a larger piece of it.

To make a short story even shorter, the man who claimed to be a
tailor made a complete outfit for the emperor from this magic
cloth.

No one in the palace wanted to tell the emperor that there was
nothing there, because they didn't want to make the emperor mad,
and they didn't want people to make fun of them since they
couldn't see the clothes.

On the day when the clothes were finished, the emperor declared
that he would display these fine clothes to the whole kingdom.  

The tailor helped the emperor into his invisible clothes,
smoothed them, and off the emperor went.  As rode through the
city, the people oohed and aahed over the emperors new clothes.  

UNTIL.  Until he happened to go past a little boy, who said in
that loud voice that children use just when you want them to be
quite.  "But mamma, he doesn't have on any clothes.  He is
naked."

That burst the bubble, and was the end of the tailor's career in
that land.

Today we finish our comparison between the 3rd Chapter of
Revelation and the 2nd chapter of Colossians with a topic that
we don't talk about in church a lot.  That topic is nakedness.

Rev 3:18  ""I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the
fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be
clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;
and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see."

Nakedness. Shame.  They tend to go together.  And we all have
shame.  It is a result of sin.

Let's go back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve. Forbidden
fruit. Fig leaves.  Hiding in the bushes to be away from God.  

Maybe for the first time they were cold.

But when trying to hide they found that there was no place to
hide from themselves or from God.

However, the problem with nakedness was not physical.  Note what
it was like before sin.  Gen 1:25 tells us: And they were both
naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

After sin, they are gathering leaves to make clothes.  What's
the issue here?

Let's move down a few years in time.  Adam and Eve have
children.  One son follows God.  Another claims to follow God. 
Both offer sacrifices.  One follows God's instructions to the
letter.  The other makes his own style of worship.  The one who
does his own thing, Cain, becomes enraged because Abel's
sacrifice is acceptable to God, while his isn't.  So he tries to
cover up his act, by killing his brother.  Trying to hide his
nakedness before God.

Here we have the second instance of humanity attempting in a
feeble way to make themselves acceptable to God by that they do,
as opposed to the one who depends on the Lord to provide
salvation.  

A person who feels no need of the blood of Christ, who feels
that without divine grace they can by their own works have the
approval of God, make the same mistake Cain did. To avoid
condemnation, we must accept the cleansing blood of Jesus
Christ.        see {PP 72.5}  

Unfortunately, most of the worshippers in the world are
attempting to depend on their own efforts for their salvation
just as Cain did.  The sacrifice that he offered was not a blood
sacrifice pointing to the cross of the one who would save the
world.  Without the blood there is no atonement.  We cannot pull
ourselves up by the bootstraps.  There is no other name given
among men whereby we must be saved.

 Let's move down in time a several millennia.  The Children of
Israel are at Mt. Sinai.  Moses is on the mountain talking with
God.  

He stays a little too long for the comfort of the Israelites. 
So they make the golden calf, something they learned for Egypt. 
Then they began worshipping it.  Dancing, singing, partying, we
would say today, without their clothes.  Worshipping something
that they made themselves.

Exo 32:25  "And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for
Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their
enemies:)"'

Nakedness here has two meanings.  It means physically, but it
also means exposure.  While Moses was receiving the law of God,
the people were exposing who they really were.  Unconverted. 
Sensual. Rebellious.  Engaging in the pagan style of making
their own gods, and worshipping the works of their hands

And God says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."  Not
even ourselves.

Jesus told a parable that everyone is familiar with, but we will
take a look at it again.  We read it for our scripture reading. 
A man comes to the king's feast.  He is offered a royal robe to
wear.  He spurns the king's clothes, preferring his own garments
to the king's.  In the scheme of things in that story, he has no
clothes, because the only clothes that count are the king's
clothes.  So no matter what he has on he is naked.  His
intentions, his loyalties, his arrogance is laid bare before the
whole crowd.  

When the king confronts him, he is speechless.  After all, what
can you say to someone who has offered you everything, and you
have turned it down?  

That's where Laodicea is.  God has offered us everything.  He
paid the whole price on the cross.  All he asks of us is to
accept it as ours.  But no, we, the Laodicean church, are proud
of our wealth.  We are proud of our insight.  We don't get too
excited about religion, so people won't see us as fanatics.  And
we stubbornly insist on wearing our own righteousness.

A legal religion is insufficient to bring the soul into harmony
with God. .......The only true faith is that which "worketh by
love" (Galatians 5:6) to purify the soul. It is as leaven that
transforms the character.  {MB 53.2}

And what was happening in Colossae and Laodicea?  There were
self-righteous people coming in and telling the people that
Jesus Christ was not enough.  They needed Jesus and
circumcision.  Jesus and sacrifices.  Jesus and the ceremonial
law.  Jesus and feast days.  Jesus and ceremonial sabbaths.  

Do we hear that at all today?  

It is vital for our survival as Christians to base our faith on
Jesus Christ and nothing else.  

Col 2:8  Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and
empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to
the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

9  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

10  and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all
principality and power.

Here is the perhaps the most important point in the chapter. 
You are complete in Christ.  When you have Jesus Christ there is
nothing else that you need.  With Christ in your life, he will
move you and direct you according to his will.

Paul goes on.

11  In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made
without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh,
by the circumcision of Christ,

12  buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised
with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him
from the dead.

13  And you, being dead in your trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with
Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

14  having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was
against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of
the way, having nailed it to the cross.

I have heard people arguing long and hard over what this means. 
I take it to mean this:  What Jesus did on the cross totally
removes us from condemnation as long as we are in him.  If it is
the moral law that accuses us, then Jesus took care of that.  If
it is the ceremonial law that accuses us, Jesus took care of
that.  Paul tells us how this is done.

15  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

What did he do?  Jesus declared that the emperor of this world
has no clothes.  He is exposed.  Stripped naked.  He was not
afraid to stand up and tell the truth, to live the truth, and to
die for the truth.  Who judges us then?

16  So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a
festival or a new moon or sabbaths,

17  which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is
of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, Christ is our judge.  He declares us
guilty, dies for us, and makes us innocent.  It has nothing to
do with our outward actions.  What did the angel tell Peter
after the vision of the animals in the sheet?  "What God has
cleansed let no man call common."  Three times, by the way.  

18  Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false
humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things
which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

19  and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body,
nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with
the increase that is from God.

20  Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles
of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject
yourselves to regulations;

21  "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,"

22  which all concern things which perish with the using;
according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

23  These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in
self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body,
but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

In these verses Paul is in essence telling us that we don't need
to try to get by with the world's emperor's clothes.  As a
matter of fact, his clothes are fantasy.  Our own works are
useless for salvation.  They may demonstrate where our heart is,
but they don't save us.  

Again, our completeness is in Jesus.  Our Judgment is in Jesus.  

This will be a life-changing discovery.  When Jesus is living in
me, I will naturally begin to want to act as Jesus acted.  When
Jesus is living in me, I will begin to show the concern that
Jesus showed for other people.  When Jesus is enthroned in my
heart, his compassion, his honesty, his sacrificial life, will
be demonstrated in the life that I live.  When Jesus is king in
my life, I am wearing his clothes.  And they are not
transparent, for they cover us completely, and what is seen
before the father is Jesus.  And I believe what will be seen on
earth will also be Jesus.  

Today I am going to ask for a response.  If you have been trying
to depend on your own works and manipulations for salvation, and
want to put that aside, I would like for you to stand just where
you are.  If you are tired of trying to keep a religious garment
that is full of spiritual holes from being seen, and want to be
covered with Christ's robe, just stand where you are.  If it is
your desire to say in the words of the old favorite hymn, 



"Not I, but Christ, be honored, loved, exalted.

Not I, but Christ, be seen, be known, be heard.

Not I, but Christ, in every look and action,

Not I, but Christ, in every thought and word."



If that is your hearts prayer, stand with me in dedication, as
we offer our rags to God in exchange for his righteousness.  

Father, thank you for opening our eyes to our true condition,
that we might also see you, the only hope.  Thank you for
letting us see our nakedness, so that we might reach for your
garment of righteousness.  Thank you for showing us our poverty
so that we can enjoy your eternal riches.  Lord we accept these
gifts, and rededicate our lives to you today. 

Amen