You and I looked at the resurrection
last Sunday afternoon, and I appreciate Brother Larry reading Matthew
28 for us. I'm going back to our regular
study this morning. In Ephesians chapter 6, this
has been on my heart most of the week, and sometimes when
I get something on my heart, I can't think of anything else
but that. Over in Ephesians chapter 6,
and I want to read all the text again that you and I have been
studying on, beginning in verse 10. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
10. I have something I want to say
after the message. Don't let me forget it. Would
you want it? Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. Put on the armor of God. the
whole armor of God, for this reason, that you might be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. Were foretaken to you the whole
armor of that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all to stand, stand therefore having your loins
girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness,
and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and above
all taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. and take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God. Pray it always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watch and learn to with all
perseverance and supplication for all saints." The whole armor
of God, from our heads down to our feet. If you have ever read
Pilgrim's Progress, One of the most appealing scenes is found
when Pilgrim goes up to the House Beautiful, and he spends some
time with those four virgins and talking with them and has
a wonderful discussion with them. And when he leaves there, they
give him this armor. that he's clad in. And what a
beautiful scene it is to see him standing outside of the house
beautiful, ready to go on his journey towards the celestial
city. And they had given him this helmet of salvation and
a breastplate of righteousness. And it went down to his loins
that he had girded and tucked up with this girdle. And he had
this huge shield in his left hand and the sword in his right
hand. One of the most beautiful scenes.
And this is what you and I want to look at this morning. The
breastplate of righteousness. And I want to remind us this
morning why this armor is so important. I remind you, I read
to us here in these preceding verses. that you and I as children
of God are in a battle. And our enemy is very powerful,
cunning, experienced, wise. They're called powers. In one
place they're called the gods of this world. Rulers. These
are formidable enemies that you and I have to face. And if they
cannot kill the children of God, then they seek to wound the children
of God. They seek to bring them down
and disable them in their walk. And last week we looked at the
loins of the mind, and we saw that was the gospel of truth
that gets under the mind and supports the mind. What is it
that supports the mind better than the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ? If God be for us, if God be for
us, who can be against us? He despaired not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us. How shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? And this supports our mind. But
today I want to look at this breastplate of righteousness.
I was on the internet last week looking at breastplates and doing
some study. And those old Roman breastplates,
they consisted of two parts. All of us have seen them. The
old soldiers in the breastplates. And they beat them usually out
of some kind of metal. The best were the brass ones.
And they consisted of two parts. You had to have someone to help
you usually to put them on. You had the back that covered
your back. Then you had the front plate
that covered your front. And they usually buffled together
with leather or some kind of rings to hold them together.
And they covered you from your shoulders all the way down to
your belt, your girdle. It covered these vital organs,
the heart, the lungs, the liver, kidneys, When soldiers went off
to war, they wore these breastplates. You'd never find a soldier going
to war without his breastplate. In the Old Testament, they're
called, what is it? Mail? What is it, Larry, they're
called in the Old Testament? A coat of mail. You remember
when David was going to fight the Philistine, Goliath, and
Saul the king put on him this coat of mail? and a helmet on
his head. But David said, I've not tried
these things. I can't fight in all of this. And he took them
off. And he went to meet Goliath.
And you remember Goliath had on this breastplate that weighed
155 pounds. His breastplate weighed probably
twice as much as young David. But this is what we're talking
about today, this breastplate of righteousness, and it's used
to protect these vital organs. You remember Joab. He was David's
general, and David was going to get Amazigh to be his general,
and it made Joab jealous. He hated Amazigh. And he was
walking up to Amazigh, and he had a short sword in his hand,
a knife, probably a long, sharp knife. And Amazigh didn't notice
he had his knife. And Joab wretched got him to
kiss him, and he stabbed him here. Amazigh didn't have his
breastplate on. And he stabbed him in the rib,
and his liver came out. And he laid there and watered
in his blood, and he died. So these breastplates were very
important when they went into battle. Now, remember this, brothers
and sisters, that when I read to you here about this armor
of God, this is spiritual language. The breastplate is not physical. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. These are spiritual. It is something
spiritual to protect our vital organs. Well, what is our vital
organs? And that's what you and I want
to look at first of all this morning. What does this breastplate
protect? Our vital organs. We talk about
the vital organs being the heart, being the lungs, being the liver,
being the kidneys, and so on. What do these represent to us
spiritually? Well, they represent to us our
most tender and eternal, internal emotions are tender affections,
heart affections. That's what these organs are.
I had some kidney problems one time. I've had several kidney
stones. Those things are awful. But it
seemed like every time I had a kidney stone, I was I was away
from home and Jo had to come and get me. So often she'd come
in there and there I sat in a wheelchair or laying on the bed and I didn't
care. I didn't care what was wrong with me. I was out of it. And she had to take responsibility
for me and make sure everything was fine because I was out of
it. And I asked the doctor, the specialist one day, I said, why
do you just have to put me out? He said, because your kidneys,
like all other of those organs, Those vital organs are tender. That's why it hurts so desperately
when you pass a kidney stone. These organs are tender. Oh,
this is what these inward organs represent to us. It's our most
tender part. It's our affections. It's our
emotions that's inward. The Bible talks a lot about our
inward parts. And when the Lord saves us, you
know what He does. He said, I'm going to take away
that old stony heart out of your flesh that can't feel, that can't
be broken. I'm going to take that old heart
out and I'm going to give you that heart of flesh. In other
words, a heart that's tender, a heart that's soft, that can
be touched, that can be broken, that can feel, that's pliable. I'm going to give you a tender
heart. A heart that knows something about joy, but a heart that knows
something about sadness. A heart that can laugh and a
heart that can cry. A heart that can feel gladness
and a heart that can feel sadness, remorse, peace and turmoil. A
Christian feels, doesn't he? You remember that publican that
stood in the temple and was beating on his chest. saying, God be
merciful to me, a sinner. You know what he was feeling?
He was feeling remorse. God, oh God, I'm a sinner. I'm an awful sinner. Some of
you know something about that, don't you? That's when God began
to awaken these inward emotions, feelings within you. And what
did you do? Oh, you felt remorse. But that
publican went down to his house and he had another feeling. A
feeling of peace, inward tranquility. You say, Pastor, how do you know
that? Because the Lord Jesus said He went down to His house
justified. And being justified by faith,
we have peace with God. So a believer is a man that has
these inward feelings, these inward emotions. And Paul tells
us in this very book to be kind and tenderhearted. tender-hearted. And these vows represent to us
these tender, deep feelings that we have. Sometimes get your concordance
and look up the word vows in the scriptures. And sometimes
it speaks of our physical vow. But most of the time it speaks
of these deep feelings, these emotions, these affections that
we have. The first time it's used in this
sense, you remember when when they brought Benjamin to meet
Joseph. And nobody knew who Joseph was,
and there he was on the throne down in Egypt. And they brought
Benjamin, Joseph's full brother. And Joseph hadn't saw him in
years. And as soon as Joseph saw him, here's what was said,
Joseph's bowels yearned upon his brother, and he sought a
place to weep. Now, that's self-explanatory,
isn't it? His desires His inward heart, his affections went out
after his brother to the point he yearned to grab him and hold
him and say, Oh, my dear brother. But he did not want to reveal
himself then. So he found him a place to weep. And listen to
this in Psalms of Solomon chapter 5 and verse 4. This is what the
church happened to the church. My beloved put forth his hand
by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for Him. How would you feel this morning
if the Lord Jesus Christ made Himself real to your heart? If
He spoke to your spirit and made Himself known to you, how would
that affect you? Wouldn't that affect your inmost
being? Wouldn't that affect your tender
emotions within? Wouldn't your heart go out after
Him? You'd be like those two on the
road to Emmaus. Did not our hearts burn within
us? Well, he spoke with us, by the way. Our hearts burning. That's what I'm talking about.
These tender, tender emotions that's within us. And we go over
to the New Testament and we often read there about these vows.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 3.12, put on therefore
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies. What does bowels of mercies mean?
That's tender mercies. That's heart mercy. Haven't you
had a sense of it? You've felt a sense of your need
of mercy. When the Lord made you aware
of your awful, sad, and perishing state before Him, didn't He make
you aware of your need of mercies? Well, Paul says now, Let your
mercies be tender, like your bowels, like someone would touch
your bowels and affect you. Let it be tender mercies towards
the other people. And these inward and deep feelings
are said to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll see that in
just a few minutes. This is a wonderful thing, when
we see these deep feelings in Himself. But Paul said in Philippians
1.8, listen to this, God is my record. how greatly I longed
after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ." He has bowels. He has
these deep inward emotions. And it's a wonderful thing when
we see those inward feelings towards the church, towards us. But these emotions, these bowels,
these inward organs, these deep feelings, have to be revived. Paul was writing to Philemon,
and he's there in verse 7, and he said this. He said, O dear
brother, we have great joy and consolation in your love, all
your deeds of love. Philemon was a wonderful man.
He went around helping believers all the time. And Paul said,
because the vows of the saints are refreshed by thee. Now why do these vows need to
be refreshed? Why do these inward affections
and emotions need to be revived? Well, brothers and sisters, for
this reason, we're not always up. We don't always experience
joy. We don't always have this deep,
settled peace. Just as these inward emotions
can be lifted up, they can also be put down. Just as they can
be on the mountaintop, sometimes they're in the valley. And because
they're tender, they can be crushed. Our hearts, our bowels, our lungs,
our inmost feelings sometimes can be crushed. We can be gotten
down by them, so they have to be revived. Listen to this. Listen
to Job. Remember Job when he was in this
awful trial? His children lost ten children. All of them killed at one time.
He lost all of his servants. He lost all of his cattle. Now
he lost his health. And he was sitting there with
these boils all over his body. And listen to how he describes
it. He said, My bowels boil within me, and rest not. How would it be for your bowels
to boil? My goodness, it sounds awful, doesn't it? His inward
affections had been crushed. And Jeremiah, Mark said something
to us the other day about this weeping prophet, Jeremiah. And
he lived when the Syrians, or Babylonians rather, came down
and burnt the temple. Tore down part of the wall and
carried all the Jews off into captivity. Jeremiah lived to
see that and was carried off into captivity himself. And here's
the way he describes that. He says, my bells, my bells,
I am pained in my very heart. My heart makes a noise because
thou hast said to my very soul, here's what my very soul has
heard, the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war. And boy, he was sitting there
in Babylon. And he remembered the temple was burned, the wall
had been torn down. And he said, my eyes do fail
with tears, and my bowels are troubled within me, and my liver
is poured out upon the earth. See how these inward organs are
used to describe our inmost feelings? How would it be for your liver
to be cut out and poured on the earth? That would be a great
affliction, wouldn't it? This is why these emotions, our
inmost feelings, has to be revived. They're a vital part of us. And
if they're crushed and stay there, there's no way we can enjoy the
Lord and our salvation. These feelings are also in the
Lord Jesus, as I said a minute ago. And listen to Psalms 22,
as He hangs upon the cross. He says, I am poured out like
water. My heart is like wax. It is melted
in the midst of my vows. My emotions, my affections, my
inmost feelings are melted. They're melted. I'm crushed in
my heart. And I love this, and if you want
to study on this sometime, this is found in Jeremiah 31 and Hosea
chapter 11. Two of the most precious things
because they show this filling. These inward emotions in our
God himself. Remember when the Lord had spoken
against Ephraim? Ephraim had fell into idolatry. And the Lord spoke against him.
He said, let Ephraim alone. He's joined to idols. Well, somebody
went to the tribe of Ephraim and they said, you know what
the Lord has said to you? Let him alone. Let him alone. And this so affected Ephraim. He was overwhelmed with grief,
and he began to smite his thigh and repent. And he said, Oh,
Lord, turn me. Remember that? Lord, turn me. How would you feel if you got
word that the Lord said to you, let him alone? Oh, that's the
most dreadful thing I could think. Let me alone? For God to let
me alone? I may not let you alone, and
you may know worse for it. But if God leaves you alone, and there sat poor Ephraim, striking
upon his thigh, and said, Oh my, I'm in a mess, and his spirit
was grieved and his heart was broken. And listen to what the
Lord said about him. He looked upon him and said,
Is Ephraim my dear son? Is Ephraim my pleasant child? For since I spake against him,
I do earnestly remember him still, therefore my vows are troubled
for him. I will surely have mercy upon
him, saith the Lord." See these deep feelings? That's in God's
heart. We see them in His heart. And
don't we love to see it there. Oh, the church prayed of old.
Listen to how the church prayed. She says this. She was in a sad
state. And she says, O Lord God, look
down from heaven, from your holy habitation, your throne of glory,
where is your zeal? Where is your zeal towards me?
Where is your strength towards me? Where is the sounding of
your vows of mercies? Are they restrained forever?
Don't you love to see that? When God shows you His heart,
towards you, and it's not a heart of anger, it's not one of wrath,
but it's a heart of tender emotions. Tender love and tender mercy. Oh, he says, I can't destroy
you. My heart's turned for you. My emotion, my love is stirred
up. The Lord Jesus said, with desire,
I have desired to eat this fast over with you. What in the world,
that's a strange language. With desire, have I desired? We don't use that kind of language,
but he does. It shows these inward affections
that he has for his people. And brothers and sisters, I don't
think anybody's a Christian that don't have these inward feelings. How can we be a true believer
and not have these bowels? Not have a heart? We can't feel. Somebody says, oh, you Calvinists.
You're just fatalists. That's all you are. You always
quote in that scripture, all things work together for good
to them that love God, and you just want us to have this attitude
of stoic. You're just robots. That's not
so. Every child of God has these
feelings, these emotions, and they're deep. And sometimes the
best believers, the best child of God, has the most tender emotion,
and they're greatly affected. Tender, tender emotion. And this brings me to this point. This is where the devils And
where the devil himself often attacks us and wounds us on this field of
emotions, inward feelings, tender attachments. I've often described our emotions
as the devil's playground. Because here, sometimes, he attacks
us and gets advantage of us and wounds us so. You know, emotionalism,
and I'm talking about a flash of emotionalism, is one of the
things that the devil uses more than anything else to deceive
people by. I worked with a man years ago
who was a Pentecostal. Not just a Pentecostal. He's
one of those far-out Pentecostals. He kept wanting me to attend
a worship service, and finally I agreed to it. I took my family.
I shouldn't have taken my family to it, but we did. And in the
worship service, they got this one poor fellow. I felt sorry
for him. You could tell he wasn't mentally stable anyway, and they
put him out in the middle of the congregation. The congregation
got all around him, and they began to hoop and holler, and
everybody was putting their hands on him. The poor man just began
to shake. And they hollered and hollered
and screamed and carried on. And it was just fleshly emotionalism. I saw, I was watching some clips
on the internet about some of the, this man was speaking in
some kind of a language, just to show really, but he was going
through the congregation and he was putting his hand out like
that and everybody was going backwards and they were all shouting.
You remember when when Elijah was upon Mount Carmel. And those
450 prophets of Baal, remember what they were doing. They were
carried away in all this flashful emotionalism. The Scripture says
they were jumping on the altar to the point they broke the altar
down. They were cutting themselves and crying and screaming. Emotionalism
is a tool of the devil. And he uses it to deceive people
by it. all the time. So I'm not talking
about emotionalism when I'm talking about these inward feelings.
I'm talking about the deep inward feelings of affections, love, joy, peace, and how sometimes
these feelings are crushed within us. Not emotionalism, but our
inward feelings. And it's here Satan sometimes
attacks us, and discourages us, and confuses us, and tricks us. Let me give you one or two examples
of this. I have a dear friend of mine
who lives down in Kentucky, and he was afflicted with sleep apnea. He didn't know what was the matter
with him, but he just knew that when he got up in the morning,
that he was as tired as he was when he went to bed. And he kept
working his job, and he got so physically drained that it began
to affect him mentally. And when it began to affect him
within his mind, therefore Satan took advantage of it. He began to fill him with all
these doubts. If I'm a believer, why am I feeling
this way? He began to put these blasphemous
thoughts into his head, he got him so confused, until he finally
was examined and they found out that he wasn't breathing during
the night. He would go over a hundred times
without breathing. His mind wasn't getting oxygen,
so his feelings were affected. And Satan came in and took him
in. You know our souls and our bodies
are so linked together that if you touch one of them, you're
apt to touch the other. And sometimes it's just a little
thing of you being sick physically. You're having some mental problem
that these devils and Satan himself will come in and that's where
he gets the advantage of us, these inward feelings. Remember
Peter when he had sinned against the Lord, denied the Lord, and
the Scripture says that he went out and wept bitterly? Remember
that? Remember what the Lord Jesus
said about that sin? Satan has desired to sift you. Can you imagine when Peter went
out weeping bitterly how he felt in his soul? Don't you think
he began to think, boy, I'm not one of his. I'm gone now. I've
denied him. I'm as bad as Judas who betrayed
him. I sold him too. Can you imagine how the devil
sifted his emotions? Here's what David said. David
describes this battle. And here's what he said in Psalms
42. He said, Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you
disquieted within me, my soul? And here's what he said. Listen
to this. My tears have been my meat day and night. while they
continually say unto me, where is your God? Who says that to
him? When he got cast down, he got
discouraged in his feelings, and somebody said, where is your
God? Well, he tells us in the very
next line, as a sword in my bone. See that? Sword. Where's it going? Right in here. That's why we
need a breastplate of righteousness. A sword in my bones. My enemies
reproach me while they say continually, where is thy God? Oh, he said,
why go I mourning? Because of the oppression. The
oppression of the enemy. Satan never oppressed you. Where
does he attack you at? In your feelings, in your affections,
in your inmost parts. And a believer is a person who
has them, and thank God for them. I doubt for you a believer if
you don't have these inward emotions. And you feel them deeply. And
that brings us to this, then, doesn't it? How does this breastplate
protect these feelings, our feelings, our deep feelings? Well, he says
here in my text, in verse 14, that it's a breastplate of righteousness. A breastplate of righteousness. I can explain all this. But here's
how this works. And I don't have to explain it,
just proclaim it. Listen to this. It's a breastplate
of righteousness. You know, we had righteousness
at one time. At one time, we had a perfect
righteousness. Back there in the garden? God
made our first parents upright. They were righteous people. But
our first father and our representative, he failed. He sinned and failed. And when he failed, he lost that
perfect righteousness. And you know something? When
he lost it, you and I lost it. Because he was our representative.
But thank God. Thank God. Another has brought
in a new righteousness. The Son of God has come down
from heaven, brothers and sisters. He's taken our humanity to Himself. And by Himself, He has worked
out a perfect righteousness. And He gives it to everybody
who believes on Him for it. Now, isn't that wonderful? Listen
to these scriptures. Listen to Romans 4, 3. Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. It
was put on his account. Listen to Romans 4, 6. Blessed
is the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Here's a righteousness that is
given to you. It's put on your account. But
it's not conditioned upon anything that you do. Your works. We can't
have it by working. It must be given to us. And it
comes through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to
this. It was not written for Abraham's
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also. to whom this righteousness shall
be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, and raised
again for our justification." Listen to Romans chapter 5 verse
19, "...as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." You
can have a righteousness, the righteousness that God requires,
a righteousness that you must have if you're to stand before
God, but it's not a righteousness that you work to get. It's not
one that you work out yourself, but it's the righteousness of
the Son of God who earned it Himself by His own obedience
in the days of His flesh. What is it that God requires?
Perfect obedience. Is it not? Perfect obedience. We can't excuse any obedience
whatsoever. He requires perfect obedience.
What was said of the Son of God? He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. And you know what else God requires?
He requires death for sin. The soul that sins, it shall
die. What did the Son of God do? He
died. Did He not? Did He not pour out
His heart's blood? Did that not make an atonement
for sin? By one sacrifice, He put away
sin forever. And this righteousness has already
been brought in. It's already been worked out. It's already been perfected.
And the author of this righteousness is in heaven this morning at
the right hand of God. And he gives his righteousness
to all of those who believe in him for it. Now let me ask you
a question. Have you ever heard of this righteousness before?
Have you ever heard of it? You say, Bruce, I've never heard
of it. You know, most people haven't. All the righteousness
they have is this that's called self-righteousness. something
that they're doing to commend themselves to God. And this righteousness
is as filthy rags. It's law righteousness. It's
based upon your obedience. And it won't cover these vital
organs, folks, I'm telling you. It won't cover these vital organs.
We must have another's righteousness, a perfect righteousness. Listen
to Isaiah 61 and 10. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. Why? For he hath clothed me with
the garments of salvation. And listen to this. He hath covered
me with the robe His robe of righteousness is
Paul's breastplate of righteousness. And the prophet says, he's covered
me. He's covered me. And this righteousness
protects my vital organs. A righteousness which justifies
from all sin, from all guilt, it gives us a perfect standing
before God. He gives us a continuous standing
and free access into God's presence. Oh, what a righteousness, the
breastplate of righteousness. Listen to these verses in Hebrews
10. I'd turn there, but we just don't have time. By one offering
has he perfected forever them that are sanctified, them that
he set apart. And he says to them, their iniquities
and their sins will I remember no more. Having therefore, dearly
beloved, brethren, boldness to enter the holiest by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath made for us
through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and listen to
this, having that high priest over the house of God. Let us
draw near. When? All the time. All the time. You say, Bruce, I just don't
feel like it. You don't feel like it? Well, that's those feelings,
isn't it? We don't have access, brothers
and sisters, by our feelings. We have access by our righteousness. the Lord, our righteousness,
by His blood, by His obedience on our behalf. Therefore, he
says, come boldly, come boldly, even to the holiest of holies,
into God's presence. Listen to Edward Mote. I think
he tells us better in his song that we often sing, how this
breastplate of righteousness protects our deep feelings. Listen to this very familiar
song. You'll recognize it. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And listen, I dare not trust
the sweetest frame. Oh, I love frames, don't you?
I love it when my frames of mine are sweet. I love it when my
affections are tender towards the Lord and towards His people.
I love it when I have peace and tranquility and joy in my heart. But he said, I dare not trust
the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And listen to what he continues
to say. His oath, His covenant, His blood support me in this
swelling flood when all around my soul gives way and I begin
to sing. Why are you cast down, O my soul?
I'm sinking in these fillings. My fillings are being crushed. He, then, is all my hope and
steady. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness
alone, faultless to stand before his throne. Isn't that it? Count Zenderdorf or something
is his name. He was an old German. He wrote
this song. You and I don't sing it, but
we've heard it so many times. John Wesley translated this.
And listen to this. This is what we're talking about.
Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress. What? His righteousness is my
beauty? His blood is my dress? That's what we're talking about,
isn't it? What a covering that can't be penetrated. Everything
behind such a covering is saved. It's protected. Misflaming worlds
in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. Bold shall I stand in that great
day, For who ought to my charge shall lay? Fully through thee
absolved I am From sin, from guilt, from fear and shame. O let the dead now hear thy voice,
Now bid thy banished ones rejoice. His beauty this, their glorious
dress, Jesus' blood and righteousness. I don't know exactly how it works,
but it works. We have these feelings, and they're
so changing. But I tell you what, I thank
God for them, don't you? If we didn't have these inward,
deep emotions, we couldn't feel peace. Oh, I'd love to feel his
peace, don't you? Feel his joy? If we didn't have
that, we would be like a rusted robot. We have them. But we dare
not trust the sweetest frame. We must have these frames protected
by this breastplate of righteousness. And you know something? That
righteousness never changes. It's there in heaven. Take your
bulletin. If you have your bulletin, Let
me just close by reading this to us. Look at this. I think this says something to
it here. We'll close with this. "'Twixt
gleams, gleams of joy and clouds of doubt, our feelings come and
go. Our best estate is tossed about,
and ceaseless ebb and flow. No mood of feeling, form of thought,
is constant for a day. But thou, O Lord, thou changest
not, the same thou art always. I grasp thy strength, I make
it my own, my heart with peace is blessed. I lose my hope, and
then comes down darkness and cold unrest. Let me no more than
my comfort draw from my frail hold of thee, and this alone
rejoice with awe thy mighty grasp of me." That's what I'm talking
about. Out of that weak, unquiet drift
that comes but to depart, to that pure heaven my spirit lift
where thou unchanging art. Lay hold of me with thy strong
grasp. Let thy almighty arm in its embrace
my weakness clasp, and I shall fear no harm. Thy purpose of
eternal good let me but surely know. On this I'll lean, let
change in mood and feeling come and go. Glad when the sunshine
fills my soul, not lost when clouds are cast. Since thou within
thy sure control of love dost hold me fast. It has something
to do with this breastplate of righteousness. It's perfect. It's unchangeable. It's a person.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Put you on the Lord Jesus. Let's pray.