Yep, see if that goes. 1 Samuel 17. Everybody's pretty
well familiar with this story. This is a story of David and
Goliath. We're going to look at one aspect
of it. Let's start in verse 37 and just
read a few verses. 1 Samuel 17, starting in verse
37, David's having a conversation with Saul, King Saul. He's explaining
to him about how he slew the lion. And he said, you know,
I'm more than able to conquer this uncircumcised philistine
verse 37 david said moreover the lord that delivered me out
of the paul of the lion and out of the paul of the bear he will
deliver me out of the hand of this philistine and saw said
to david go and the lord be with thee go and the lord be with
thee and saw armed David with his armor, and he put a helmet
of brass on his head, and he armed him with a coat of mail,
breastplate. And David girded his sword upon
his armor, and he assayed to go, but he had not proved the
armor. And David said to Saul, I cannot
go with these. I can't do it. Because I have
not proved them. And David put them off. He took them off. Set it aside. I can't, I can't use this. I
haven't proved it. So my, I guess the message, the
title of the message is don't go forth with unproven armor. Unproven armor. It was and it
is not wise for anyone to go into battle with the incorrect
armor on, is it not? You want to make sure what you've
got on fits you. David specifically said, I cannot
go with these for I have not proved them. But I like the last
phrase, he put them off, took them off. Yet we are most certainly
to have proper armor on upon our persons, are we not? Yes,
I proffer to you that this armor in 1st Samuel, Saul's armor that
David was putting off is none other than the works of our flesh. It's the works of our flesh.
So it doesn't make a difference if the preacher Pastor, elder, teacher,
thinks you need to have certain armor on, but it's not yours,
it's not for you, it's not personal. This works of the flesh, this
armor that he put off, it's our own worthless, untried, unproven
in God's eyes, this armor, this coat of mail, this breastplate,
will never stop one of Satan's fiery darts, will never stop
God's judgment as it comes upon us, or any other frontal assault,
spiritually speaking. And we get assaulted daily. You go out in the world, if you
work, you get hammered. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
six. Ephesians chapter 6, but the Apostle Paul tells the
Ephesians, verse 13, Wherefore, take unto
you the whole armor of God, not of yourself, not of your well-intended
neighbor, not of your well-intended boss or your well-intended preacher
or whoever, that you may be able to withstand in the day, in the
evil day, having done all to stand, stand, therefore, having
your loins girt about with the truth, the Bible, the scriptures,
having on the breastplate of righteousness, that's what we're
going to look at, the breastplate of righteousness, this armor
this coat of arms, your feet shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace above all taking the shield of faith where
with you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And verse 17 and the helmet of
salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So
we are to be prepared. We're to have proper armor. And
this armor, as is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, is very
personal. You can't be saved for somebody
else. You can pray for somebody else. You can ask the Lord to
have mercy, like Job did his children. And we do that. Children,
grandchildren, neighbors, friends, we do that. But we can't be saved
for them. This armor has to take unto you,
personally, the whole armor of God. We got people coming, we
got our conscience coming and saying, this is okay. And then you go out into the
world and you just, you get whipped. You get whipped. Believe me,
I know this has happened to me so many times. It's a constant
reminder that we need to put on the breastplate of righteousness,
not our righteousness. Our armor is like that in Samuel. It's somebody else's or it's
ours of our own making. I think God would be pleased
if I do this. I've heard, I've heard this. I see this and I
see this a lot. Oh, I, you know, today's communion. So if I go to do that, there's
something magical or mystical about that. No, there isn't. No, there isn't. What we need
is to have on the breastplate of righteousness. And that's
the Lord Jesus. That's Christ. Now, I'm going
to ask you to do some things that you can't do. But this is
what the gospel does. The gospel charges you to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You, in and of yourself, can't
do that. The gospel says, put off the old man. The gospel says,
wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God. Now, he is
speaking to believers in a church of Ephesus. But as there's always
terrors in we, it doesn't matter. We just preach the truth. The
Lord is the one that makes it effectual. It's not up to me.
We must have Christ's righteousness upon us by grace, through faith,
and that not of ourselves. put off by divine enabling is
the works of our hands, the works of others' hands, and flee straight
to Christ and put on the Lord Jesus Christ and His breastplate
of righteousness. Turn to Isaiah 59. Never seen this before. Isaiah 59. starting at verse 16, and he
saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore, his arm brought salvation
unto him, and his righteousness, it sustained him. Look at the
next verse. For he put on righteousness as
a breastplate. Put it on. Put it on. You have none. David, at least,
was wise enough to say, this is not mine. I have improved
it. But we know that this breastplate, this is the work of Christ here
and his work for us. Donny Bell made a comment years
ago. He said, get on the bike and ride. You remember that,
Bruce? He said, get on the bike and
ride. Oh, that's easy believism. If the spirit of grace and supplications
gets a hold of your heart, you're going to do, you're going to
put on righteousness as a breastplate. And you know it's not your righteousness. You know you have none. You know
I have none. You know nobody else has none.
Zilk, nothing, absolutely none. We put on what Christ made for
us and became for us and has given us his breastplate of righteousness. You see, our righteousness, that's
another armor. Don't believe another gospel
that there is not another gospel. This armor that David couldn't
put on, don't put it on. It's not going to do anything.
We'll never do. How do I know that? Well, I'm born a woman, so I
know that, but whether I know it or not, when we talk about
Bible class, what's the scripture say? Turn to Romans chapter three.
Take a look. This is our righteousness right
here. Romans chapter three, starting in verse 10. As it is written, There is none
righteous, no not one. So how can you put on a breastplate
of righteousness? It's gotta be somebody, it's
gotta be Christ's. It's gotta be the just for the unjust, the
holy for us who are unholy. There's none, there is none that
understands, there is none that seeks after God. That's what
we spoke about last night. Well, the scripture says I didn't
seek after God you can get mad and say well I've done it ever
since I was a little toddler or you can say This word is right
and I'm a liar and flee to Christ for safety for protection Because
he sees there as completely naked anyway, unless we're clothed
with the breastplate of righteousness verse 12 they are all They are
all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. I know we say our kids are good
and they do good. I'm not talking about that. We're
talking spiritual. We're talking spiritual things
here. Comparing spiritual with spiritual. That's what we're
talking about. Their throat. is an open sepulcher,
their tongue they have used to seat, the poison of asp is under
their lips, whose mouth is full of cursings and bitterness, their
feet are swift to shed blood, as compared to putting, shodden
your feet with the gospel, and the breath, see how all these,
all these same things, the head, the feet, the mouth, which were
to be covered, and if God covers us, they're covered, if we cover
them, it's gonna tarnish. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of
peace, who's that? The way of Christ, have they
not known? There is no fear of God before
their eyes. We know that whatsoever the law
says, it says to them who are under the law that every mouth
may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. We need to put on by His grace,
the breastplate of righteousness. Well, we must have placed over
our own very person Christ's absolute perfection, complete
righteousness. And that word righteousness,
all it means in the Greek is rightness. Rightness. He has provided our
rightness. This then, once fully and securely
fastened by the hand and unction of the Holy Spirit, to believe
on Him, to believe on Him, this will be the result. Why is this
so important? Turn to Proverbs chapter 10.
Proverbs chapter 10. Why is this so important? We're
born in the state of death, and that's just spiritual. Otherwise,
we'd like to think we're not dying, but when we were born,
we're going to head to the other end of the spectrum, and that's
death. Proverbs chapter 10. Look at verse two. Treasures
of wickedness profit nothing but righteousness or rightness
or that breastplate that is placed upon us over our heart delivers
from death That's why this is so important That's why this
is so important everyone here unless the Lord returns First
is going to end up six feet under We're good. That's that's what
we're gonna you know Jackie and I were talking about what was
coming. You know, we're getting older. We're on the downhill
grade. Us four, us five, but you all
are too. You know, that's just the way
it is. So, and no one wants to die.
I don't, you know, I've got things I want to do, but really To live is Christ, to die is
gain. It really is. It really is. But I like that. I've never seen
this before either. Righteousness delivers from death. We know that, as he said in Romans,
there's none righteous, no not one. But we know that David put
off this armor, but he needs to put on armor. So you can overthink
it. could overthink it, or by the
grace of God, do it believing upon Him, trusting
Him. Not some man-made, weak, pathetic,
supposed goodness, but Emmanuel's flawless, faultless, thorough
righteousness. There's only one that God will
accept. One that God will in no wise
reject. He will in no wise reject. I
charge each and every one of us this morning, do not be found
with Saul's armor, or our own armor, or natural armor, or human
invention's breastplate. It is unproven in the ways of
God and grace and Christianity. It is not proven. He said, I can't, I'm putting it off. I
can't do this. I'm going to go in the name of
the Lord. David. Verse 42, back to our, in verse
1 Samuel 17, I'll just read this. And when the Philistine looked
about and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth and
ruddy and a fair countenance. And the Philistine said, David,
under David, am I a dog that you come to me with staves? And
the Philistine cursed David by his God. It's like we saw Romans
three. And the Philistine said to David,
come to me and I will give your flesh to the fowls of the air
and to the beast of the field. Then said David. In armor. Breastplates proved
by the grace of God. Thou comest to me with a sword
and with a spear, with a shield, but I come into thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. whom
you have defiled. That's the answer for every situation. I come to you in the name of
God and all that means. May we not, may we not, may, I guess the
thing is, is that when I, conviction and repentance and all these
different things, I guess if I could have gotten more specific,
which I just can't cross my mind, He David was gonna go but he
couldn't go because it wasn't proof. It was like it was uncomfortable.
I pray that this morning our children Would be uncomfortable
Some things I say if you don't know the Lord, I pray that you'd
be uncomfortable I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just trying to
Get you to just take the Lord take this armor off. It's not
doing any good. It's not gonna do me any good
today It's not gonna do me any good tomorrow. I'm trusting in
myself. I'm trusting in old religion
new religion Whatever. Trust in Christ. Put on that
breastplate of righteousness that has been provided by another. We could go to the garden. Adam
and Eve. It's natural. And we still do
it. Believers still do it. We still
look for things that I can solve it. I can do this if I know.
Trust in the Lord. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. But Adam and Eve, you know, they
sinned and then they took those fig leaves and they put them
on. And the Lord took them off and clothed them with a lamb,
with a sheep. He sacrificed an innocent and
covered the guilty. That's what I'm saying. That's
what I'm saying. These David's, these Saul's armor,
these unproven armor will not deliver us from death, but they'll
lead us right into death. They'll lead us right into death.
May we plead to be covered and clothed and surrounded with Christ's
virtue and integrity. Closed, let's look at two passages,
Romans chapter five. Romans chapter 5 and verse 20
and 21. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That, as sin hath reign unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Everything centers, this Bible's
a big wheel, and the spokes and the hub is Christ. It goes back
to Christ everywhere. and Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61. And I don't mean to bring this
up to embarrass terror by any means, but I remember years ago
when I got a phone call. I was at work doing a job. I got a phone call from Matt.
And he was uncomfortable. He was uncomfortable. Because
that armor that he'd been trying to put on for all these years, it wasn't covering, it wasn't
working. It's like that man, that no-name
man, that's us preachers, nobody, I'm nobody, you know, nobody. Took that arrow and at a venture
is what scripture says in Kings. And he just let it fly. And it
happened to hit and kill the man. And that's what we want
to do. We just, I'm not aiming at anybody. Actually, they're,
they're aiming at me as well. I'm not aiming at anybody. I'm
just, just shooting it with intent. Isaiah 61 in verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. For he hath clothed
me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments
and as a bride I'm sorry, as a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Beautiful. Glorious. But our beauty is not our own. Our beauty. The song says we're
dressed in beauty, not our own. We're dressed and covered. Now,
it's not just pretty to look at. It serves a purpose. Satan can't get to the heart
anymore. It's been changed. The head, and we struggle with
all these things, but he's made perfect provision because he's
a perfect redeemer. Nathan, would you close us?