In John 15:22, Jesus said they have no cloke for their sin.  That’s because Jesus had come and exposed their sin to them.  According to Paul in Romans 7:17, sin dwells in you and me.  According to Romans 7:23 sin is in our members.

Sin is the ugliest, most anti-God force in the universe.  It is destroying God’s creation.  It so permeates the earth and heavens that God will have to melt them with a fervent heat to destroy the last traces of its evil influence and to rid us once and for all of it’s sickening, putrefying, deadly effects.  Sin is a monster and it dwells in the body of mortal beings.  You must die to be rid of it.  All of its work in your life is to strangle the life out of you while alluring and beguiling you with its evasive pleasures.

If you could see what your sin looks like in God’s eyes, if you could see what it really looks like, you would scream with utter horror and faint from the fright.  You couldn’t stand to look at it or smell it’s sulfuric stink that rises out of the pit of hell, itself.

Do you know why you can’t see sin for what it really is?  Because sin always disguises itself in cloaks. No matter what cloak it dons, it is the same grotesque plague of doom.

Royal robes – the cloaks worn by those in authority.  We must respect the office even though we don’t like the fellow in the office and we don’t agree with his policies, his character, or his morals.  Dressing sin up in a royal robe and giving it the embodiment of authority doesn’t make it any less sinful.  The kings will be judged right along with the beggars.  No king ever sat higher than Jesus Christ.  The trouble is that when you dress sin up in royalty, it can damn entire nations.  Just look what Ahab and Manasseh did to Israel and Judah.  They turned entire nations against the Lord.  As Talmage said, “Ahab’s sin hurled him from his throne and threw him to the dogs.”

Black robes – the cloaks worn by judges.  Judges determine what’s legal and illegal.  Watch the decisions they make, remove the black robes and you will find the hideous monster of sin inside.  The decision to remove prayer and Bible from schools, the decision to legalize abortion, the decision to legalize homosexuality and now same-sex marriages is all a result of sin.  Did the judges who made these decisions never learn the lessons of Sodom and Gomorrah? They are like the Pharisees after Christ’s ascension.  Soon there will be laws to silence preaching in Jesus’ name.  Don’t despair, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?”

Graduation robes – the cloaks worn by professors. What a procession of caps and gowns and multicolored stoles sin makes at graduation.  Sin is well disguised there.  Just notice what they teach: evolution, science falsely so-called, philosophy and vain deceit, and the wisdom of this world.  It’s all foolishness with God.  But oh how it has destroyed the youth of our country!

Priestly robes – the cloaks worn by religious hypocrites.  A priestly robe is a poor garment to cover a naked soul.  Here sin is dressed in religious garb and pretends to be holy.  In Christ’s day he disclosed what was underneath those disguises: vipers, serpents, fools, blind guides, hypocrites, and dead men’s bones.  All these are the work of sin.  If all you can say when asked about your soul is, “I go to Bible Believers Baptist Church” then take another look inside your robes and examine whether that’s sin professing to be holy or whether the conqueror of sin has taken possession of your soul.  Are you a sinner dressed as a saint?  Or have you truly become a new creature in Christ “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body!”

Satin robes – the cloaks of the high society sinners.  As Talmage said, “iniquity in satin is to God as loathsome as iniquity in rags.”  The drunk in the country club disdains the bum on the street and yet they will stand beside one another on the day of judgment and hear the same verdict.  “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived neither fornicators… nor drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God.”  The rich man who fared sumptuously on earth cried for one drop of water when sin brought him to hell.  He was thrown out of his mansion and into the pit.  Don’t think for a minute that sin’s riches, masquerading as blessings from the Almighty, will buy you one second of rest behind the pearly gates.  You’re going to rot in hell.

Clean robes – these are the cloaks of the morally upright.  This is sin dressed up in morality and it is just as damning as sin dressed up as vice.  Though the devil has transformed himself into an angel of light, he is still bound for the lake of fire.  He is still that grotesque seven headed dragon, that old serpent.  He is still the accuser of the brethren and the arch enemy of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.  I appreciate the fact that you are law-abiding, clean-cut, charitable, and ethical.  But, as Talmage said, “what you do right cannot pay for what you do wrong.”  You have found favor with the world but without Christ you’ll have no favor with God.  What you do will never change who you are!

Thank God that these are not the only robes. In exchange for these robes that could never save a man, the Lord offers us:

Robes of righteousness – the cloaks of the true saints of God, Isaiah 61:10. Sin stripped Jesus Christ to nakedness and God clothed him in righteousness.  Come to Jesus and he’ll rip away sin’s robes and your filthy rags and he will clothe you in his righteousness.  When the prodigal son came home to his father in Luke 15, his father dressed him in the “best robe.”

Sin, in all of its hideousness, will never change.  But you can change if you will acknowledge your sin before God Almighty and receive his righteousness in Jesus Christ.  Will you do that today?