And so today I want to take a
moment to help us understand and remind us that as we stand,
we do so, as Paul says, as the writer of Hebrew says, that we
hold fast to the confession of our hope. Because he is faithful. We hold fast without wavering,
without squirming, without moving, without shuddering, without running
from side to side. We hold fast to the confession
of our hope. In the same way, Paul here, in the letter to the
Ephesians, he says to stand firm in that confession of our hope.
Last week, as we looked at the belt of truth, we see that it
is indeed truth that holds all things together. Jesus, as he
spoke in John's Gospel, I am the way and the truth and the
life, and no one comes to the Father except through me or by
me. So Jesus just does not proclaim
truth. He is truth. The essence of his
nature is truth. All that is true is of him. And
so if we understand this, we recognize that the truth of the
gospel, that the gospel itself is the good news, the story,
the proclamation through the language given to mankind that
God has saved a people through the giving of the son. This is
the gospel. And responding to that gospel,
if I dare say responding, for the natural man is rejection.
It is not desirable. It is not something that the
world looks at and goes, I'd love to have the God of heaven
rule my life. But for those who have been born
again, we see the beauty of the Savior. We see the necessity
of the Savior. We see the glory of the Savior,
that as we look at the Savior, we see the Father perfectly,
without fail. And so when we come to this today,
we know that the belt of truth buckles all that is required
for battle. So when we look at the breastplate
of righteousness, the breastplate of righteousness cuts into the
belt of truth, the righteousness that we guard our hearts with.
is indeed held firm by the truth that is Jesus Christ. It is held
firm by the truth of the doctrine. It is held firm by the truth
of regeneration. It is held firm by the truth
of the Word of God, through which, and only through which, someone
can become a believer of Jesus Christ and be born again. So,
friends, we oftentimes take lightly the written word of God. God
chose through logic and reason, through communication and syntax
to verbally communicate himself to the world. He did not do so
through epiphanies and through visions and through and through
just meditations. He did it through the written
word of language that God gave. And through that word, truth
is known. And through that truth, sight
is given. And through that sight, birth
is given. And through that birth, life
abounds. So coming now to the breastplate
of righteousness, there's a lot that we need to understand. And
so today, though I don't believe this sermon will be long in nature
because I don't want to move into the gospel of the readiness
of the gospel for our feet. I will tell you that there's
a lot of misunderstandings about the breastplate of righteousness.
Yes, we are indeed standing in the righteousness of Christ.
Yes, we are understanding that the righteousness of God indeed
surpasses and is the only effect of righteousness through which
we as human beings stand. If you were to remember the words
of Isaiah in the 59th chapter, And we saw the evil and the oppression
and the wickedness, and we see the unjust way in which the world
was living. And we see that, as the prophet
says, we all growl like bears, we moan and moan like doves.
For we hope for justice, but there is none for salvation.
But it is far from us. For our sins are multiplied before
you, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are with
us, and we know our iniquities. Transgressing and denying the
Lord and turning back from following our God. Speaking oppression
and revolt. Conceiving and uttering from
the heart lying words. Justice is turned back and righteousness
stands far away for truth has stumbled in the public square.
Does this sound familiar? And uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. If there was ever a word for
the church today, I believe it is there in the day of Isaiah.
But in verse 16 of Isaiah 59, we hear this, the Lord saw it
and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there
was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede.
Then his own arm brought him salvation. He put on a righteousness,
excuse me, he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet
of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance
for Claudian and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. According
to their deeds, so will he repay wrath to his adversaries, repayment
to his enemies, to the coastlands he will render payment. So they
shall fear the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from
the rising sun, for he will come like a rushing stream, which
the wind the Lord drives. And a Redeemer will come to Zion
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the Lord.
Friends, all through the Old Testament, it's not just there,
but I found that this morning and felt, wow, what an awesome
picture of the righteousness of God and the wrath of God as
God clothes Himself in righteousness and wrath. And if we know anything
about the Gospel and we know anything about the picture of
Jesus, the Old Testament is to establish the coming of the One,
the Messiah, who brings peace. And then the parousia, or the
second coming, the second advent of Jesus Christ, he comes to
bring justice. In Ephesians 1.10 we see that
the mystery of God revealed is that all things shall be put
under the feet of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the mystery of
God shown, that Christ is the ultimate culmination of all that
has been created, that he will stand upon as ruler and judge
of all things, and all things will be made right. And this
is the glory of who our God is. And now Paul is saying, take
the truth of who Christ is and the power of that truth and buckle
all that you have been given in Christ around your waist and
prepare for battle, for Jesus is the victor. And now the breastplate
of righteousness. There's some things that you
need to know in truth about righteousness, and I say in truth because there's
a lot of Misunderstandings, as I said before. People think that
righteousness is something to be obtained and it cannot be
obtained. People think that righteousness is good works, but we see very
clearly Isaiah himself saying that it is filthy rags. Some
people think that righteousness is just the acting of of perfection,
though God understands that we're not perfect. That's a that's
a terrible lie. God. It's not understanding with
imperfection. He is judging imperfection. God
will judge wickedness. God will judge lawbreaking. God
will judge sin. And he will find those who are
guilty of sin as worthy of destruction. But the good news is now that
we who were once dead are being made have been made alive in
Christ Jesus, who took our iniquities on himself and then through faith,
We believe that God has declared us just in the person of Jesus.
So there are several things I want you to see about the truth of
righteousness. You must know this in truth.
One is that righteousness is required of all humanity. It's not an option. It's not
something that God has just said, hey, let's just stop. Let's just
work on this, if you will. God says, be holy for I am holy. Walk as I walk. Imitate me. From my very nature, you must
exist in the fullness of the essence of my perfection. And
if you do not, my judgment remains upon you. In Romans 3, as we'll
see in a few moments, we see there after verse 21 where it
says there's no distinction for all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God in verse 23. Friends, it is not some small
thing for us to fall from the glory of God. For the glory of
God is the perfect picture of his worthiness, that he's absolutely
holy and absolutely righteous and absolutely good and absolutely
just. So therefore, if we are not absolutely
imitating perfectly the absolute nature in our mind and our words
and our deeds and our affections, exactly the same way God is as
revealed through Jesus Christ. We have fallen short of His glory
and thus are due absolute justice and judgment. It is required
of us to be that way. We must be equal in all ways
to Jesus. minus his divine nature. We must
reflect the perfectness of Jesus Christ. We must be holy in all
ways. We must be loving at all times.
We must be just in all of our doings, lest we are judged. So how do we put that breastplate
on? Because it's been given to us
in Christ. Do not think lightly of your
sin, friends. It is not a joke. God does not
sort of understand sins. He judges sin and he condemns
sin. It's often been reminded to us
if we want to see what God thinks about our sin, look at what he
did to the one whom he loves without measure. He took him and gave him over
to the hands of men to be crucified as a criminal. So you need to know in truth
about righteousness, one that it is required of all humanity.
Secondly, as I've already alluded, it is the nature of God. Righteousness
is, what I like to say, the intrinsic worthiness of God. God's holiness
is a display of intrinsic worthiness, though, as Paul says in Romans
3, that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart
from the law and the prophets. Though the law and the prophets
bear witness to it, it's been manifested apart in the person
of Jesus. So all that God is in perfection, as he sees himself
in absolute excellence, Jesus is the epitome and the fullness
of that excellence. Friends, don't worm your way
through a selfish, lazy Christian life. Hold fast to those deep,
growing, groaning things that make us shudder and consider
just what it means to be like God and how Christ walked in
such a way that indeed God is perfectly seen, 2 Corinthians
4, 6. So, righteousness is the nature of God. Listen to Paul's
argument, just in Ephesians alone, about the righteousness of God
being displayed as the nature of God. Ephesians 4.24, Paul
says, And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of
God in true righteousness and holiness. So, if we are to be righteous
and to put on the breastplate of righteousness, then we must
see that, indeed, righteousness is the fullness of God. Verse 23 of chapter 4. And to
be renewed in the spirit of our minds to put on the new self,
created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and
holiness. Righteousness is required of
all mankind. Righteousness is also a perfect
picture of the nature of God. Ephesians 5, 9, the parenthetical
there that Paul places, he said, for the fruit of life is found. In other words, not. Righteousness
is found, but the fruit of light, the fruit of holiness, the fruit
of righteousness is found in all that is good, in all that
is right, and in all that is true. So therefore, the righteousness
of God displays all that is good, all that is right, all that is
true, and in His light, as John says in 1 John 1, he says, for
God is light and in Him there is no darkness. And because this
is true, because we are required to be holy and righteous just
as God is holy and because it is the nature of the picture
of God perfectly, then we also need to understand that righteousness
is the measure of God's judgment. He looks at us and he measures
us based on our righteousness. He measures us based on the standard
of his own nature, that God looks at me and he says, are you like
me in all ways? And he goes, no, so you're condemned. So what hope do we have? Jesus,
the righteous, who takes our sin and gives us his righteousness. Friends, the justification by
faith, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his life as
a child and a young man, an adult, and his willing passive obedience
is not something just to be learned as theory and facts. It's not
empirical knowledge to stick in our notebooks. It's absolute
power in our lives for us to walk in righteousness, for us
to see God and worship the one true God of heaven. If we don't
worship God because of his holiness, we're worshiping a false God.
So what, that he saved us? Thank you God, we worship you
for that, but we worship you because you saved us because
you're holy and we shouldn't have been saved. That's the beauty
of it. That righteousness is the measure
of judged forth. It is the fruit of truth. Righteousness
is the fruit of truth. If truth truly resides in you,
then righteousness will be the fruit of that truth. How so? Well, it is the fruit of truth
in God through Jesus Christ. This, my friends, is the gospel. It is the gospel. That's what
Paul says there in Ephesians 4. Put off the old self. Put
on the new man, which is yours in Christ. You have been given
righteousness. Walk in it. Chapter 5, verse
1. Be imitators of God, therefore,
beloved children. Walk as God walks. Ephesians
1.13, In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed
with the promise of the Holy Spirit. You hear the truth of the gospel
and the fruit of the gospel is your salvation. It is righteousness,
glorious, absolute righteousness. And not only are you given righteousness,
but you're sealed in righteousness. That's why John King so boldly
say and how Paul can so boldly say that if you are indeed in
Christ, you do not walk as a slave to sin. It cannot be. Ephesians
4 15, speaking the truth and love, we are to grow up. The
fruit of righteousness in maturity, the fruit of truth in God through
Christ in maturity. Grow up in every way into Him
who is the head, into Christ. Ephesians 4.21 Assuming that
you have heard about Him and were taught in Him as the truth
is in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4.25 Therefore, having
put away all falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with
his neighbor, for we are members of one another. The fruit of
the truth of righteousness is that we are now not just individuals
unto our own glory, but parts of a whole who are the body of
Christ. In chapter 4, verse 27, Paul
exhorts us to give no opportunity for the devil. Why would he do
that? Because we have the power in Christ to give no opportunity
to the devil. Do not let the sun go down on
your anger. Remember, what we are supposed to be angry over
is only that which God is supposed to be angry over, and anything
that angers God should anger us. And in our anger, we should
not sin, but always be loving, always be kind, always be respectful,
always be gentle, always be patient, always be concerned, always be
caring, to grow and discipline each other and disciple one another
in Christ, and always, even for the world, those who do not know
and reject the gospel, we do not scoff at them, we do not
hate them, we love them, and we pray that through us, God
might save them. As we preach and as we teach
the truth of Jesus. So those are things that I want
you to know. In truth about righteousness and now. I want us to apply it
then to the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate of righteousness
are in understanding that these are things to know in truth about
fighting with righteousness. Because we're fighting with truth
and we're fighting with righteousness. We're going to be fighting with
salvation. We're going to be fighting with faith. We're going
to be fighting with the gospel. You see all this? See how it's
coming together? There's no special formula here.
It's just a metaphor. It's a picture for us to sort
of visualize how this looks in our lives. To put on the new
self. I believe that the armor of God is the new self in Christ.
That's exactly what it is. It's the new self. Created in
Christ before the foundation of the world, predestined, adopted
and loved to be holy and blameless before him. To be just like Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ looks like the armor
of God. He is the armor of God. And we're told to put him on
because it's ours. How many things? Three things. Wow. How do we battle in righteousness? How do we fight? Well, first
and foremost, foundationally, not to be redundant, believers
battle with the righteousness of God. It'd be very easy for
me to sit here and say, OK, what we're talking about today is
that we stand firm in the righteousness of Christ. And God's righteousness,
as Isaiah 59 talks about, that God puts on the breastplate of
righteousness and stands in our stay. Yes, He does that. But
here, there's much more to the issue than just standing behind
God. Paul is saying to take that which
God is and has given to you and put it on. And that doesn't mean
we hide in our sin behind God. It means we stand with God in
righteousness that is not ours, that we have effortlessly placed
on us through the promise of God. It's our righteousness now. We're not borrowing it. It's
been given to us. It doesn't say in Ephesians 1,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us. with all spiritual blessings
for a time, or who has painted a picture of all spiritual blessings
for us to hang on the wall. It doesn't say who has temporarily
loaned it out. It doesn't say who has rented
it for a season. It says who has blessed us in all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places. We have it all. And if we're
not walking in it, it's because we're doing something wrong in
our truth. We've got something wrong in
our thinking because our renewal of our mind has not been focused
on truth. The doctrine that we have been
taught is wrong. Who taught it to me? We teach
it to ourselves. We teach wrong doctrine to ourselves
by seeing things and going, huh, that's cool. And we carry it
to an illogical, irrational, ridiculous end. And we don't
have the meditation on what is true enough so that we may discern
what is true and therefore knowing the will of God for us perfectly
and fully and ready and always living as a sacrifice. Sometimes
I think instead of living as a sacrifice, we live as decomposing
bodies. We shouldn't do that. We should
be alive. See, the law could not afford
a person's righteousness. The law could not complete righteousness.
The law cannot complete righteousness. It never was intended to complete
righteousness. God gave the law not so that men would be righteous.
God gave the law so he could judge them by the law. God gave
the law so he could show himself as the absolute, perfect, worthy
ruler of all things he made. God gave the law so that he might
display his righteousness in forgiving those who can't keep
it. by giving the Son to take their place on the cross. Romans 3, turn there with me.
I've been going here a lot lately, too. Romans 3, 21 through 26. All men are dead in Adam, and
they can only be made alive in Christ. The law does not save,
it kills. The Spirit gives life, Paul says.
But the letter kills. Romans 3, 21, but now the righteousness
of God has been manifested apart from the law. He's already started
to talk about the fact that people are who have tried to create
perfection in their lives, even if they follow the law fully,
cannot be redeemed through it. You can never sin in your life
and you will still stand in judgment as a sinner. For the fullness
of your being, your essence is fallen from the short, fallen
short of the glory of God. You know what falling short is? It's like for those who shoot,
if you're 200 yards out and you've got a target that big and you've
got to shoot it, and you shoot down a half an inch, that's falling
short. For the world, it goes, man,
that was good. You're close, but you missed. You missed. See, we think falling
short is, I'm going to do the best I can and that's good enough.
I'll bridge the gap. That's not it. Falling short
is going to the bullseye and in the bullseye being one hundredth
of a millimeter off. In the bullseye. That's falling
short. And so, unless we are absolutely walking perfectly,
absolutely just like Jesus did, we fall short. And those who try to make the
law their righteousness fall Man, the balances outweigh. I don't disobey the commands.
And I strive for all things. The rich young ruler, obey the
law of God. I do. I do. Love the Lord God with all your
heart, mind and strength. I do, he said. I've kept these
since birth. And Jesus goes, great. Give everything
you love and give it away. Take everything you love and
give it away. No, no, no, no, no, no. Well,
then the man just proved he didn't keep the first commandment. He didn't love God above his
wealth. He didn't love God above Christ.
I mean, above the esteem of following Christ, he didn't love God above
the culture who loved him and called him ruler. Chapter three, Romans 21, but
now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from
the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to
it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all who believe. Now stop and let me clarify some
things that are always boiling in the Baptist pot. And they
stink. They need to get out of there.
You know, you can have a delicious meal and if you let the water
cook out and continue, it burns and stinks. Let's take it out
of here and let's eat it and live by it and its nutrition
instead of just boiling it. The righteousness of God is what
we have to have in order to go to heaven. Let's just put it
in terrible terms. In order to be saved from God's
judgment, we have to have the righteousness of God. And we
are given that righteousness through faith. That means we
believe God gave it to us in Jesus Christ for all. That means everybody. No, it
means all that he's talking about. Who is all? Who believe. Oh my
goodness. You know what the gospel is?
Is that God, for those who believe, he justifies them in Christ.
Anyone who believes, all who believe by faith. But what is belief? Belief is
not praying a prayer. Belief is not coming down an
aisle. Belief is not just... Belief is a forever, always,
daily, continual, always, forever, daily, continual, always, forever,
daily, continual. You get it? I can do it four
more times. Believing, holding, trusting, adoring, worshiping,
loving, striving, pushing, moving, and focusing on Jesus Christ
as the only way that you're ever going to stand before God wholly.
That's believing. Full commitment. Forever. Absolutely. Hallelujah. It's not a point
in history. It's a present reality that preserves
until your body quits or until the Lord comes back. And you
may have moments where you stumble in a drunken state, but you will
not fall out of the hand of God and reject the gospel and live
for the world if you indeed are in Christ. You will come back
to repentance. Repentance is seeing your sin
and not wanting it anymore and running to the righteousness
of Christ who satisfies the judgment of God against you in that sin
that you want. That's why we repent and believe
the gospel. It's something that we always
do, church. Who can be saved? Anyone who
believes in Christ that way. Nicodemus, you are the one from
God, Jesus. You're wrong. He wasn't wrong,
but he was wrong. It's a right inference. We know
the prophets. We know the prophecies. We see
you, we see the signs. You're him, you're lost. You
can't see the kingdom unless you're born again. Maybe I'm
not. You're saying I can't understand
it. No, Nicodemus, I'm saying you can't enter the kingdom.
I thought I was a Jew. I thought I was in the kingdom.
Nope, you're not. Unless you're born again, you
can't enter. You've got to be born in the Spirit. The Spirit,
how? The Spirit grows where it wishes. Well, that doesn't help us at
all. Yes, it does. Romans 10 says, fate comes through hearing
and hearing through the words of Christ. And how are they to
believe? Whoa, a lot of messed up. How
are they to call on whom they have not believed? And how are
they to believe on whom they have not heard? And how are they to
hear if we don't go? That's the chain of salvation. We don't
have to go to Roman date. Everybody likes to debate. Let's
just go to Roman kin. It's over. So then Paul begins
to apply the fullness of that doctrine to the reality of salvation
and that calling on the name of the Lord without belief is
just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's all it is.
It has no power. And believing without hearing
is nothing. And hearing without someone preaching
is worthless. The gospel. How are we to go
and get people to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ? We
tell them the gospel with our mouths. No one's ever been saved
looking at people act like Jesus and going, Oh, it's just so beautiful. I want to be saved. No, it does
not happen that way. You want an example of that?
The Thessalonians. I might preach that next. The
Thessalonians walked in righteousness and in the power of the gospel
so well that towns all around, they heard about the Thessalonians.
And when Paul and the other apostles got to Thessalonica, the Thessalonians
met them at the city and said, tell us about this Jesus that
we've heard about in Thessalonica. Because if those people can change
the way they live, glory be to something, we want to hear about
it. You know what? They wanted to know more, and
they wanted to see the power, and they knew there was something
more, but they weren't saved until the apostles got there
and preached the gospel to their ears. So yes, our living will
display the power of God, but that's not going to save people.
How are you able to forgive people who treat you that way? Because
I'm forgiven. In Christ. What do you mean,
forgiven from what? The gospel. How are you able
to not be angry at people who mistreat you? Because God doesn't
mistreat me. He's not angry with me and I
mistreat Him. How are you able to handle the pressure that you're
under right now? I have joy. I don't care about
the pressure of this world, for I have an abiding, eternal kingdom
that's mine in Christ. Right living is a window to the
gospel, but the window is soundproof unless we proclaim it with our
mouths. And the gospel is not, would you say this prayer with
me? That's the devil. I hate to say that. The gospel is not sharing steps
to salvation. The gospel is sharing salvation
in Christ. You need to believe. Not cry. Believe. You need to trust. You
need to love. You need to run. You need to
hide from your sin and run to Jesus. You need to beg God to
walk you into righteousness and create a new heart in you. You
need to cry out, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. It's the only
prayer in the Bible that shows us how to be saved. But it's
not the words that save. It's the heart that is saved. Wow, this isn't even what I'm
supposed to talk about. For there is no distinction. Verse 23. So anyway, all who believe are
saved. And who are we to preach to?
Every single human being in the world. Who can be saved? Anybody who hears the gospel.
Anybody. God can save anybody who hears the gospel. Go preach
the gospel. Anywhere. To everyone. What about the elect? Watch God
work and shut up. Election is God's purpose of
grace. And that's God's purpose of grace,
not ours. And it's not a voting. It's not
an eeny, meeny, miny, moe. It's not a capricious pointation
of, and I made that word up, of picking. It's a sovereign
decree of God. For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. Just even a little bit, they're
done. And are justified by His grace as
a gift. See that? God gives grace, salvation. I can refuse a gift. Yeah, go
ahead and refuse it. What does it say in Hebrews? The wrath that comes from those
who refuse The gospel from the prophets, and I'm paraphrasing
here, oh, whoa! There's a quick way of summarizing
some scripture. How much more horrible will it be for those
who reject the one who comes from heaven? That's what it says.
Yeah, you... There's Jesus in the gospel.
God gave his Son for you. I don't believe that. Whoa! Keep rejecting the gospel. and
blame it on God and see how far that gets you. Don't dare do
that. And are justified by His grace
as a gift through the redemption that Christ bought us. He paid
for all who will ever believe in Christ Jesus, whom God put
forward as a propitiation. That means He satisfies the judgment
of sin by His blood. to be received by faith. Faith alone. Nothing else. Not faith plus words, or faith
plus circumcision, or faith plus holy living, or faith plus words,
or faith plus practice. Faith you trust is in Christ
alone. Faith is a is a gift given by
the grace of God in order to believe. And why so many people
in America who claim the name of Christ walk powerless is either
they're unregenerate or they're ignorant because nobody told
them about the grace of God. Why did He do that? Verse 25b,
this was to show God's righteousness. God's holiness, God's perfection,
because God in His divine forbearance passed over former sins. And
so God had to pay for those sins in the blood of Jesus. It was
to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might
be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus
Christ. So these are things to know in truth about fighting
with righteousness. We know that we battle with God's
righteousness, but that's not really what Paul is talking about
here. What Paul is talking about here,
then, number two, is that the foundation of truth empowers
the church, and part of that truth is that the righteousness
of God avails. But then number three, see, number
two is quick, so I spent a lot of time on number one. Number three is
that standing with the breastplate of righteousness on us, tucked
into the belt of truth, is practicing truth of righteousness. Do you see that? So, righteousness? Covering our hearts, covering
our body, righteousness. How do we make war against the
enemy? With the breastplate of righteousness.
We tuck it into the belt of truth and therefore be imitators of
God as beloved children. Ephesians 5.1. So we walk as
God walks and the power is righteousness. But we are required to walk.
We don't submit to sin and then say, well, Jesus has got my back.
We see sin coming. And we punch it in the nose by
running to the righteous one. We see sin and temptation coming
and we stand bold with our faith before the throne of grace going,
Father, this isn't me. I'm coming to you. So I'll summarize it this way. Righteous protection is fighting
the fight of faith through the living out of the Word of God
in deed, in mind, attitude and in action, words, minds, whatever,
put something there. So righteous protection is walking
in holiness. And you can do that because of
the truth that is in Christ Jesus that is yours. So what's it look like? I'm glad
you asked. It looks like this. As I've already
said, believing is an unreserved commitment. It's a covenant. We covenant to obey Christ. Christ
has covenanted with us before the world began to save us. And
we obey him. And then we love each other.
We're not individual Christians. We're one body under the praise
of its glory. So we are mutually submissive
in covenant to one another because that's what the scripture commands
us to. You know, there's very few things that are commanded
us as the church in the New Testament that have nothing to do with
community. Very few. Yes, have this mind
among you. think these way, those disciplines,
absolutely. But the actions of faith and
righteousness have everything to do with living with the church
and being around other Christians. So what's the commitment to?
There's many, many things that I could come up with, but just
in the worship of my heart, these are the things that God show
me every day. A commitment to the affection
of God and Jesus. That the biggest battle that
we have is to see all that the world has. And we don't, although
we might have an affection for it, it's a dying, it's a dying
thing. It's passing away. And so we don't want to give
all of our living love to something that's dying. And I dare use this analogy or
this example, but it's though as when I'm old, And preferably
that'll be at an old age and strong. And it'll be the day
before. You know, right after the day
I preached to a million people and I'm dying in my bed. The
very next day and I'm 99, my kids are 60s and 70s. And so
and they're all there, my great, great, great grandkids are all
there and they see me there and I'm done. I'm done. And they
know it. We're not saying, can we give
grandpa And daddy, another 50 years. I don't want that. I want
to go." And they sit. And then they start to say, hey,
grandpa's here. Let's add an extension onto the
house. And I'm days away from death. Call the insurance agent. Let's
put a retirement plan together. It doesn't work like that. And that's not even a good example.
But in that, we don't want to invest all that in someone who's
going to be gone in a week. We love them. We cherish them,
and just like there's some things in this world that are worth
loving, but the things of the world, the things that the world
provides, the sin and the temptation, the lust of the flesh, lust of
the eyes, the pride of life, the pride of possessions, these
are things that haunt us and suck us out of worship. Well,
the way we are committed to fighting the fight of faith is that we
walk with the breastplate of righteousness and the truth of
the gospel, and we say, I don't want to love that. We need to
have a commitment to the affection of Christ, not the things that
Christ even gives us. Secondly, I think we need to
have a commitment to the joy of Christ. I say this over and
over and over again, and as I say these words right this second,
God purposes in my soul on how to deal with certain circumstances
right now, personally, within my own life and relationships.
The joy of Christ. Joy is an absolute command of
God. And joy, I believe, is the foundational,
listen to me, foundational first litmus test of true faith. Where do you get that? I get
it from John 4, when Jesus is talking to this Samaritan woman
from Sychar, and she's trying to worm her way out of this uncomfortable
conversation about all of her wickedness. And all he did was
say she was shacking up and had five husbands. She was sort of
a person of not commitment. She's moving from one guy to
another, finding her joy in her lovers. Looking to people. If he loves me, then I'll be
somebody else. He's just like the last guy. Let me find somebody else. I'm
tired of marrying these guys. So these five husbands are done.
I'll just find me a, you know, a sugar daddy and we'll just
live together. That's what we'll do. And Jesus, she begins to
talk about worship. And Jesus is trying to focus
on and say, look, you're worshipping, you're, you're worshipping these
guys and their affection towards you. And she starts to say, whoa,
you're a prophet. Riddle me this then, prophet.
We say, Samaritans, That we're to worship on Mount Gerizim,
but you say, the Jews, you worship in Mount Israel, Jerusalem. What do you say? The time has
come and it is now. When no one will worship on that
mountain of this, but true worshipers, who the Father is seeking, will
worship in spirit and in truth. You see that? And oh my gosh,
that has... And for those of you who want, in about three
weeks, we start that John 4 on Tuesday nights. It's going to
be awesome. I can't wait. If there's nobody here, I'm going
to preach to myself. It's that good. It's good stuff. The joy that this woman had immediately. She leaves Jesus immediately.
She goes back to Sychar and with joy, she says, Come, I saw a
man that told me everything that I've ever done. Did he? No. She had joy. On her mind
and heart was every sin she'd ever committed. But the fullness
of her response to that was glorious joy. Jesus says in the Gospels,
when He talks about the analogies, the similes, that the Kingdom
of God is like a treasure hidden in the field. And a man working
in the field finds the treasure. He covers it up and he goes and
sells with, and actually Jesus says that, with joy everything
that he owns so that he may buy the field. Joy is a command. Friends, when
we walk in truth and stand in the righteousness of God and
walk in the righteousness of the power of the gospel, then
the joy of Christ is a commitment that we've made to walk in that
joy. And when we see ourselves complaining and fussing and frustrated,
we need to return that with joy. Commitment to affection, to joy,
and then real quickly, to the love. Three ways. To love. We need to have a commitment
to the love of God for Christ. The Father loves the Son without
measure. What does it mean to be committed to that? We need
to be committed to continually meditating on the reality that
God the Father loves the Son without measure. Why? Because
it's ultimately imperative for us to understand the power of
God's affection toward us in Christ. Secondly, the love of
God in Christ. The father loves us by giving
us the son, for God loved the world in this way, that he gave
his only son, that those believing in him would not perish, but
have eternal life, that those believing not in him are condemned
already, for they fail to believe in the son. That's John 3, 16
through 18, by the way. Seventeen. And then finally, the love, the
commitment that the love of God has in us, that because the Father
loves us and loves the Son and gave the Son, we in turn love
each other. We cannot walk in righteousness
in action and say we're walking in righteousness while not having
love for every person and faith and even our enemies. What does
it mean? Well, I love them, but I don't
want anything to do with them. Why don't you take what you have
that you love and you like and take it to your enemy and give
it to them because they need it? Not as much as you do. And you do it with joy because
you can't wait to see the glory on their face. And when y'all get that, let's
all talk about it. We've got to practice it. We've got to
strive for it. And we put it into play. And
we trust in the righteousness of God, because even when we
have the fullness of joys, we walk up to that doorstep and,
hey, I want you to have this. I love you. And they go, get
off my porch! And we're going, I'll kick them
in the eye. And they go, no, Lord, I don't
want to kick them in the eye. I need to kick myself in the eye and I need
to die for them. So we struggle in that. But we walk in it just
the same. 1 John, that letter is amazing. He says we need to practice righteousness
by loving each other, giving to each other, and continually
learning Christ while continually sharing Christ. Otherwise, we
conform to the world instead of being conformed to Christ.
And conforming to Christ is seen in these ways. The nature and
character of God. This is a review of what I've
already said. We conform to Christ through our commitment to walking
as Christ, and therefore we are conforming to the nature and
to the character of God when we strive for righteousness in
our actions and in our thoughts and our affections. Secondly,
we conform to the image of the Son. And finally, we conform
to the mind of the Spirit. Friends, saving faith is the
foundation of truth. The foundation of life and the
foundation of holiness. God has said that Christ died
for the sins of all who believe. Do you believe it? Do you walk
in it? Do you hold fast to it? God has
said that Christ has made righteous all who believe. Who were wicked
are now righteous. Do you believe that? Is it active
and powerful in your life? God has said that in Christ you
are justified. Just as if you'd never sinned.
You've been declared just. Do you believe that? God has
said that you were once dead, but now you are alive in Christ.
Do you believe that? Do you hold fast to that? Not
just that it's true, but you walk in that. God has manifested his righteousness
apart from the law in Christ. Do you believe that? I gave the
example Thursday to a friend who was talking about how to
truly display saving faith in Jesus Christ. Just out of the
blue, it came up with the idea of taking one of our children
and walking off to a cliff and just throwing them off. And then
all of the questions came to my mind just as our children
were like, oh, that's horrible. I think, well, why were we up
there? Why would you do that? Where was the cliff? How high was it?
It doesn't matter. The point is that for some odd reason,
there's a child that we love dearly that's falling off. And
if that was you, you have a phone with you and before you drop
it, you see a text message to come through and there's somebody
on the ground that says, just relax. We have you secure at
the bottom. If you're tense, you will break
into pieces. Just relax. Saving faith is letting
gravity work. And that's really bad. It's a
bad picture, but in some way, Trusting by saving and saving
faith in Jesus Christ is knowing that Christ has accomplished
it already. You're saved. You're righteous. He's satisfied God's judgment
against you. It's done. Quit fighting to become
righteous and just rest in the righteousness of God. So you
see the point? Cling to the work of Christ.
Let the work of Christ be your power. Let the work of Christ
be your hope. Let the work of Christ and His
Person, let Christ be your salvation. And then out of that, put on
righteousness that's yours, because He gave it to you, and walk in
it. You can, Christian, because of the righteousness that God
has given you in Christ Jesus, change your attitude. You can
change your affection. You can break bad habits. And
you can resist sin. The question is, do you want
to? Some things, addictions. Man,
you know what? There's a reason the Bible tells
us to confess our sins to one another because there are some
things in this life that we need help with. For the most part,
to say, well, God understands and I just can't stop, that's
not biblical. You can. You can't stop the thoughts
that pop into your mind, but I promise you, the more good
you put in there, the less bad will pop in. Doesn't mean it's
never going to be there. Temptation's coming. Testing
is coming. The devil is working. But we
can rest. We can rest. Knowing fully that
that breastplate of righteousness, yes, it is God. Yes, it is Christ. But now it is ours. Let's wear
it. Let's walk in it. And let's proclaim
that good news to a dying world. As we preach it to ourselves
and to each other. In Jesus name, let's pray. Father, we thank
you so much, God. For you have said we are yours
in Christ Jesus. And for that, we thank you. We thank you that your love for
us is sure and certain. We thank you that you have given
us hope, that you've given us power. God, I pray that as we
finish our time together today, God, that Your Word would just
sit hard in us. That it would just manifest in
such a way that we would just see Your power. Empower us to love You and to
worship You and to love holiness and to love each other and to
love the Gospel and to love Your Word. To love the lost. to love the church, empower us
to be patient and kind and loving and generous and affectionate,
empower us to see With patience, those who are ignorant or angry
or blasphemous and know that it's only through your word and
through our prayers that you will affect change in their hearts.
So, God, purpose us to pray. And when we hear your spirit
purposing us to pray, do not let us become lazy that we say,
well, you know what we need. Let us pray. Help us to pray with all sincerity.
Help us to walk with all righteousness. Help us to walk in all truthfulness
as your enemy comes against us with great power, but oh, so
powerless in comparison. Until we meet again, Father,
help us to be one body of one mind and one accord for your
cause and for the great sake of your name in Christ. Amen. Thank you.