Reflecting Christ

Ephesians chapter 6. Tomorrow is a full moon.

It's the last full moon before Christmas. I know that Connell's excited about the full moon and deer hunting.

But a full moon, I remember when our kids were little or smaller than they are now, we'd say, who made that moon?

A full moon is that time when you get to see the moon that God created shining brightly in the night sky, only of course, technically, the moon is not shining at all, is it?

Moonlight is an illusion. The light that we get from the moon is actually reflected light from the sun.

The moon's glory really is kind of the sun's glory, isn't it?

Because it just reflects the sun. Well, as we look at Ephesians 6, what

I want to look at this morning is, as the moon reflects the sun, so the church reflects the glory of Christ.

Now, we've walked through the armor of Christ, so imagine, if you will, this morning, a shiny breastplate.

And this breastplate is so shiny and pristine that when the commander of the army walks by, you can see his face reflected in the breastplate.

This morning we spend one last week on this piece of armor known as the breastplate of righteousness.

And this morning I want to consider the church's duty to reflect Christ. So let's take up and read.

Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word? Let's remember our context.

Verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the

Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me, in me opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which

I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak."

Father, as we approach this text, help us to understand the complete and total armor of Christ.

Help us to understand what it means to put on this armor. Each piece, as we've taken weeks to work through, let us understand each piece and how it should fit, and how it attaches, and how it should be used in battle, and how ultimately it's a gift from Christ, and something that Christ has won for us.

Let us not be stubborn and try to do things our own way, but to rest in the finished work of Christ.

Bless the preaching of your Word today for your glory. We confess you, I confess you, holy and righteous

God, I need your grace. And I pray that you would supply abundantly today for both the preacher and the listeners.

And we pray it all in Jesus' name, Amen. You may be seated. We walk through now the armor of God, and we have completed so far the belt of truth, and this morning we complete,

Lord willing, the breastplate of righteousness. And I look forward next week to the next piece of armor.

The church has a breastplate that we have said is Christ's own righteousness imputed to His followers.

But what I'm communicating now is that this breastplate, if you will, take the analogy, is so shiny that you can see

Christ's image in it. That is, you can see the Lord Jesus in, you can see

His image in the life of His saints. And here is the reality that we resolutely affirm as we think about this armor.

When Christians choose God's ways, when Christians follow

His rules, when we obey His Word, we are better protected from the enemy.

This is not because of our own righteousness. This is because God's ways are good and wise and right, and they protect us against falling and sin and the devil.

Let me read to you a note from the Reformation Study Bible on verse 14. It says,

Believers are protected by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, and they can stand up to the accusations of the devil, whose title in Greek means slanderer.

Simultaneously, Paul sees believers taking on the righteous character of Christ, while their growing conformity to His image gives them confidence in resisting temptation.

So hear me clearly on this. I'm not saying that the breastplate of righteousness, I'm not changing all of a sudden. I'm not saying that it's the righteous deeds of the saints.

I am saying that it is the imputed righteousness of Christ. That is, the righteousness of Christ credited to our account when someone comes to Jesus in faith.

It is this righteousness, the perfect righteousness of Christ, that ultimately protects the church.

Without this righteousness of Jesus put onto our account by faith alone, in Christ alone, all flowing from God's sovereign grace alone, without this, we don't have hope.

And we really took two sermons to look at that. But for this sermon, I'm also saying here, this breastplate of Christ's righteousness, that there is an application now to the church that those who are in Christ and Christ in us, there is an application that we now actually reflect

Christ in our behavior. We don't reflect Christ for our justification.

Rather, it is because we are justified that we reflect Christ. Let me put it this way.

You can see the image of Christ in justified sinners. You can see what

Christ looks like in justified sinners. And I'm also arguing that when the church reflects

Christ, she's better protected from the evil schemes of the devil.

So this morning, three ways the church reflects Christ in her armor. Number one, by manifesting holiness.

How does the church look like Jesus with this armor on? How do we see the image of Christ, as it were, the reflection of Jesus in this breastplate of righteousness in the church?

Number one, manifesting holiness. Paul says, put on the breastplate of righteousness.

Now listen, I'm belaboring a point here, but let me read to you from theologian

Herman Bavinck. This is very good, so listen carefully here. The works accomplished after justification by faith cannot be considered for justification because those good works are still always imperfect and polluted by sin and not in keeping with the full requirement of the divine law.

God, being faithful and true, cannot view as perfect that which is not perfect.

As the righteous and holy one, God cannot give up the demands of the law nor content himself with a semi -righteousness, which is basically no righteousness at all.

Now, I'm belaboring the point, but I'm trying to make it clear that the works that the church does, the good works that we do, the obedience of the church, it does not add to or enhance our justification.

Our right standing with God is based on what Christ has done.

What the law requires, the gospel has provided. This is our only hope, and in a great hope it is.

The Son of God took on human flesh to be born of the seed of the woman, to obey

God perfectly, to fulfill all righteousness, to carry our sins on the cross, to crush the head of the serpent, to die under the judgment of God, and to raise again in victory.

Friends, you must trust this message. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, it is our only hope.

Now, what I'm emphasizing here is that those who do embrace this message, friends, they are changed.

And now we reflect Christ, albeit imperfectly, but we do now reflect our

King. Friends, the church obeys our King. There is a three -fold use of God's law.

The first use of God's law is this. Because God's law is a reflection of His holy character, it functions in the world today.

One of the ways that it functions in the world is it actually puts a restraint upon the consciences and hearts of men.

Like, the world is not as sinful as it possibly could be because of the law of God.

Secondly, God's law shows us our sins. So when we look at God's law like a mirror, it shows us our inability and wickedness, our inability to ever achieve its demands, and it drives us to Christ.

But there is a third use of God's law for the believer. And that is, the law of God for the believer is written where now?

Not on tablets of stone, but where? On our hearts. That's the promise of the New Covenant.

I will write my law on their hearts. So if you're a

Christian, if you're a believer, if you've been given a new heart, if you look to Christ in faith,

God has written His law on your heart. And now it serves as a guide and desire for us to show us how to honor

God and reflect Christ to a lost and dying world. And I would even add that this law on our hearts in context of our text helps to keep us from the pitfalls of Satan.

Verse 14, stand. How do you stand? One of the ways that you stand is having put on the breastplate of righteousness and letting your life reflect

Christ. Let me break it down for you very simply here. Doing what

God says to do helps us stand firm against the evil one and his wicked schemes.

You understand that God is not just a tyrant that just gives us these rules to live by and we're really missing out on a great way to live, but we have to do it

God's way. Oh, well, no, no. God's way is the best. It's right like our homes ordered rightly, like the husband leading and the wife following and the whole family serving

Christ together and the church ordered rightly and doing things by what the book says.

It is for the good of the church and it helps protect us from the evil one.

A holy church is a church well protected from Satan's traps.

A couple passages to consider here. One, we'll just flip over. Go to chapter 2 of Ephesians.

And we often remember verse 8 and 9, but don't forget verse 10. So chapter 2 of Ephesians, verse 8 and 9 and 10.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

So we usually stop there and we try to destroy works altogether, which it is important that we destroy works altogether for justification.

But this passage speaks of works in this way. Verse 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. In other words, the born -again sinner, the one who is born again and now has come to Christ and now is justified, we do good works.

Not for our justification, but maybe you could use this preposition, from our justification, right?

Not for the righteousness of Christ, but because we have been credited with the righteousness of Christ, we now seek to do good works.

Another passage I'll mention. You can flip over to Matthew 5. Just two passages here.

Matthew 5, 14 through 16. Jesus says to his disciples,

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your

Father who is in heaven. So, here's the idea. The world cannot see your justification.

They can't see it. You put on the breastplate of righteousness, they can't see that.

They don't see your imputed righteousness put on your account. But they do see what?

The result of that. Which is, because you have been saved, you now live differently, seeking to do good works.

The church walks in good works because we are image bearers of Christ. They may not be able to see our breastplate, but they can see a reflection of Christ in our life.

We walk in holiness because our King is holy. So the Bible says things like this, 1

John 3, 7. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous.

Now, the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, does not produce a church that seeks to live in sin that grace may abound.

Rather, the reality is, all that the law requires, Christ has completed. All that God demands,

Christ has accomplished. And this is applied to us in this way. We're drawn to God by the

Holy Spirit's work. We talked about this in Sunday school. He opens our hearts. He gives us new hearts to see the ugliness of sin, the change of slavery that we've been in, and the beauty of Christ.

And He grants us faith and repentance whereby we turn from sin and we run to Christ. We're united to Christ and we're justified, declared righteous.

But the Spirit is not done with us yet. We're adopted into God's family. And now with these new hearts, we are sanctified.

We are, the church is being made practically more and more holy in the image of Christ, as we seek to follow the

King. And it is in this sense that the church actually practices righteousness.

I want to tell you something, the hard reality of this, and there are some of you in this room that need to hear this.

Professing believers who have zero concern about holiness of life, you're in a grave spiritual condition.

You are unconcerned about adjusting your life according to the book in every way.

You're unconcerned about the things that Christ would have you to do. And the

Bible indicates that those who do such are not believers, because believers seek to live holy lives.

1 Peter chapter 1, 15 and 16 says, As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. Now, it's important that you remember last week's sermon, he put the two sermons together.

But this is the reality, that those who are justified desire to live holy lives, not for their justification, but because they've been changed.

This is why one of the ten distinctions of our church is biblical holiness. So let me just read, this is from our church documents.

We believe that God really and truly saves the vilest of sinners by his marvelous grace through the righteous life, prophetic fulfillment, vicarious death, and victorious resurrection of our

Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are truly born again persevere in grace and holiness.

We acknowledge the sad reality of false converts in our day, and teach and preach against false assurance, i .e.

those who say they are Christians, but display no demonstrable love for Christ, His word, His ways, the local church, and His mission.

We believe that genuine Christians desire to be a holy people, and because they follow

Christ, will ultimately be hated by the world. And holiness is defined by God's book.

Friend, let me just ask you a question this morning. Do you care about reflecting Christ? Do you care not only about the righteousness of Christ that we receive by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, do you also care about mirroring

Christ to those who are around you? This is what the justified life looks like.

We who have been imputed with Christ's righteousness seek to live righteously in Him and only by His grace.

We're not left now in our own willpower to just do good. God didn't just save us and say, okay, you figure it out.

No, no, it's God, the scripture say, who works in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. It's glory be to Christ in all things good accomplished by the church.

That way, if someone says, good sermon, or you did good in evangelism, or you did good in your generosity, whatever they may say to you, you turn it around and you say to them, all glory be to Christ, right?

It's only God working in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. We seek to be holy as He is holy, and we do so in His power.

And in this, we are better equipped against Satan's schemes. When our family is ordered by the

Bible, when our habits are ordered by the Bible, when our church is ordered by the Bible, when our personal lives are ordered by the

Bible, we are better equipped to fight this spiritual warfare here. Friends, obedience to God's Word is a high -duty and sacred privilege of the church.

How could we treat obedience as a light or optional? People talk about today, like,

I don't have to do this to be a Christian. I don't have to do that to be a Christian. I don't have to do this to be a Christian. And it says, oh, they've made the grace of God into a license for sin.

Friends, this is not the biblical teaching. We who are born again seek to reflect

Christ. And we do this, number one, by manifesting holiness. Secondly, by mortifying sin.

Manifesting holiness. Secondly, mortifying sin. Now, Christ never had to mortify sin in His life because He had no sin in His life.

Yet because He had no sin in His life, we seek to live in that way. And when sin is in our life, we seek to kill it.

So Paul says that we're to stand and we're to put on this breastplate of righteousness.

We talked about the imputed righteousness of Christ the last two weeks. Let me offer it to you this way.

Those who are no longer condemned by sin do not seek to compromise with sin.

Do you understand? Those who have received the verdict of no condemnation, Romans 8, 1, we do not now seek to compromise with sin.

If we're not condemned by sin, then we don't want to compromise with sin. Now, I've kind of laid the foundation for this point already in the previous point, but this is the opposite side of practicing righteousness, if you will.

Side one, practice righteousness. The opposite side of that is we kill sin. Turn in your

Bibles for just a moment to Romans. Romans 8. Romans 8, 13. This is what

Paul says. Romans 8, verse 13. So we reflect

Christ by manifesting holiness and secondly, by mortifying sin. So Romans 8, verse 13 says,

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. That is, if the flesh controls you, like your thoughts, your words, your actions, they're all just controlled by the flesh.

You live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

John Owen said it of this text this way, Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. That is, a little un -mortified sin in your life affects your whole life.

I'm going to do everything else right. At church, I'm going to be right. At work, I'm going to be right. But at home, I'm going to be like this.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. We must be killing sin. The 1689, 9 .4,

that is chapter 9, paragraph 4 has a great statement about sin. It says it this way, When God converts sinners and transforms them into the state of grace,

He frees them from their natural bondage to sin and by His grace alone enables them to will and to do freely what is spiritually good.

Yet because of their remaining corruption, they do not perfectly nor exclusively will what is good, but also will what is evil.

Listen to this. This reminds us of two things that the Scriptures teach. Number one, the believer is truly and really free from sin.

You never sin ever because you have to. You're free from sin. Secondly, there will never be a day in this life whereby we never have to battle sin.

A Christian fights sin and sadly, in some way or another, we are succumbing to sin almost, well, we can say it this way, in one way or another, whether thought, motivation, action, words, in one way or another, you succumb to sin every day.

You never finish this battle with sin in this life. This is why justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, is such good news.

If justification was by Jesus and your good works, you would have no hope.

Jesus has done his part, but you would never do your part. Justification is all what Christ has done on behalf.

We need Christ and his work or we'll never make it to heaven because even in our best deeds, the best thing that you have ever done has had enough remaining sin in it to condemn you to hell.

Yet because of Christ, because of the Holy Spirit in us, the believer really and truly labors daily to be killing sin.

Imagine for a moment if you have a beautiful portrait of your family, it's hanging in your living room on your wall, a big beautiful portrait, one of those you spend a lot of money on.

When you're going around and you notice a little dust on that portrait, what are you going to do? Just even the tiniest speck of dust, if you notice it, what are you going to do?

You're going to remove it from the portrait so that the portrait shines all the more beautifully.

Similarly, as we reflect Christ, we desire even the smallest sin to be removed from our lives because we want

Christ to shine all the more beautifully in central Arkansas. First John 3 says this, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.

This is something that really needs to come to grips in the Bible Belt.

We have taught a weird and unbiblical salvation that results in sinners remaining sinners instead of saints who fight sin.

That is, we teach today in the Bible Belt, now we don't teach it here at this church, but it has been taught, I've taught it before,

I've been guilty of this kind of mentality before, early on in my Christianity where we teach this idea that if someone ever says a prayer to God, if they ever show up in church, if they ever have read their

Bible, they've ever made some sort of movement towards God, then they're saved and then they live however they want, it doesn't matter.

If they post at some point a verse on Facebook, right, then they are a Christian. I have never, to my knowledge, been to a funeral in the

Bible Belt whereby the person who died was not a Christian. You understand what

I'm saying? I mean, they could be the worst living person that you know, but the preacher always says something like this, we're going to see them again in heaven.

Why do we have such a view of salvation? Friends, this is not what the

Scriptures teach. The Scriptures teach that those who are saved are born again, they seek to live holy, they seek to kill sin, and those who make a practice of sinning, they're of the devil.

Well, that sounds harsh. That's what John says, 1 John 3 .8. Write it down. Look it up later. There are not two categories,

I'm telling you, of Christians. There are not the category of Christian who want to put on the breastplate and fight sin and then the category of Christian who they don't care.

No, Christians are the ones mortifying sin, right? The very character of the

Christian is to be killing sin because this is the Spirit's work in us. And when we make light of sin, we fall for Satan's schemes.

Remember verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

That is, the devil is always scheming. And if he can't scheme one way, he'll try another way.

And one of the ways that he'll try is to minimize sin. This is no big deal.

So you look a little bit at this picture on the Internet. Come on, man. That's not that big a deal.

No one needs to know about that. So you steal a little bit of time from your employer. You said you were there at 8, but you really didn't show up till 8 .15.

Come on, man. That's not that big a deal. So you're a little snarky with your husband.

You're a little heavy -handed with your wife. That's no big deal. You disobey your parents a little bit.

You told a little white lie. Come on. Everybody understands that. When you minimize sin, you open yourself up for the trap of the evil one.

And what I'm calling us to do here in this point is to kill sin.

To not excuse sin, but to execute it. R .G.

Lee said famously, sin will take you farther than you want to go. Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.

Sin will cost you more than you want to pay. Believers, be killing sin.

Kill it by identifying it, right? Because sin is a lack of conformity to what God's Word says.

Bathe your heart in the Scriptures. The Scriptures reveal to us what sin is. And so when you see sin in your life, don't coddle it, but kill it.

Confess it. Repent of it. Enlist others. Seek the aid of the Holy Spirit. It's only by the power and grace of God that we conquer sin.

Listen, unbelievers don't do this. I mean, unbelievers can like go through AA and stop being an alcoholic, right?

I'm not saying they can't, like an unbeliever. So we think sometimes because of alcohol programs and drug programs, that if a person makes it through that, that they're a

Christian. No, no, unbelievers can get the willpower to say, I don't want to intoxicate myself anymore, right?

I'm going to stop doing this. They can have that kind of stuff that happens, but they cannot ultimately kill sin.

Because what will replace that one sin that they think that they've got over is a hundred different sins.

Because killing sin is only possible by the grace of God and Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.

This is what it looks like to reflect Christ, manifesting holiness, mortifying sin. Thirdly and finally this morning, the church reflects

Christ by maturing together. So I remind you now in our text, when

Paul says in verse 14, stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, he's saying here this to the entire church.

Absolutely, all that I've said is true. This has application to individual Christians, but it also has application to the church as a whole.

We have to understand the church's role in spiritual warfare.

It is the collective body of Christ here in the local church that helps us to walk in holiness and kill sin together.

Christ designed for his church, for every local church, is that they would be a mature church.

A church maturing in holiness and killing sin together. Two passages come to my mind.

I want you to turn to them both. Well, one at a time. First, Hebrews chapter 3.

As we think about this reality, we reflect Christ by manifesting holiness, by mortifying sin, by maturing together.

In Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12, the author of Hebrews says this,

Hebrews 3 verse 12, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living

God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

When you do evangelism in Perry County, you run into people all the time who say they're a

Christian. All the time. Very rarely have I asked someone if they're a Christian and they said no.

Now, it has happened on a couple of occasions. But almost everyone that you run into, you say, Are you a Christian? They say yes.

And then usually a follow -up question after we've talked about the gospel, Can you explain the gospel? Something like that. Somewhere along the lines, we usually say something like,

Where is it that you go to church? And you know what they say. The vast majority of people in Perry County that we run into, they say, well, maybe they go somewhere, but usually they say something like this.

Oh, we don't go to church right now. They, I don't need the church.

You know, the Bible says I am the church. There is this belief in our area, maybe even some in this room, that the church is a good idea, but it's not a necessary part of a

Christian's walk with God. But consider, friends, what our text says in Hebrews 3 and how that connects here with what we've tried to articulate this morning.

That is, there is left to ourselves, we actually might within us have an unbelieving heart.

That's the reality. Not me. That could never be me. Then you don't understand the power of self -deception.

If someone is self -deceived, they don't know they're deceived. Why? Because if they knew they were deceived, they wouldn't be deceived, right?

That should scare us, and yet there's a remedy for us. It should scare us because left to ourselves, we could think that we're going to heaven.

We're actually going to go to hell. The remedy, though, is what? The local church. That's why it says take care, brothers.

Lest there be in any of you an unbelieving heart, leaving you to fall away from the living God, but exhort what? One another every day.

As long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. God has given us a remedy.

We need one another and not just on Sundays. We need to be involved in each other's lives daily, to speak the gospel into each other's lives, the good news of Christ's work for sinners, of His life and His death and His burial,

His resurrection. We need one another to speak the Bible into each other's lives. We need to be exhorted daily to manifest holiness and kill sin.

Whatever sort of religion that's out there today that one is practicing outside of tangible and real involvement in the local church, you can call it all sorts of things, but you cannot call it

Christianity. Well, I read my Bible. I stay at home. Oh, I know these things are important, but I don't practice.

Whatever you want to call that religion, it's not Christianity because Christianity cannot ultimately be separated from life in the local church.

There's no understanding of biblical Christianity outside of Christ's visible church.

It is the local church that helps us to reflect Christ together, to manifest holiness, to mortify sin, to help us stand against the schemes of the devil.

Verse 14, stand therefore. He is saying that to the entire church.

Now, I said I had two passages. The second one is Matthew 18, so turn there. Just two passages that sort of just came to my mind as trying to teach this concept of the church's involvement in these things.

Matthew 18, 15 through 17, says this.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him beat you as a

Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

The church then has an additional responsibility in the process of mortification of sin.

In the sense that those who refuse to kill sin, those who seek to continue in sin, they must be properly approached and dealt with in the context of church discipline.

The church, follow this analogy if you will. The church has the job to keep the breastplate free of smudges so that we can see

Christ more beautifully reflected here. Does that make sense? I know that analogy breaks down if you try to press it too far.

But it is the church's job to make sure that we are guarding the purity of the church.

It is the church's job, the whole church's job. Now there may be a particular oversight from the elders of course, but it is the whole church's job to make sure that the whole church is reflecting the image of Christ.

That we are living a life that is in step with our justification.

And who is the church? Well the church is those, the local church is made up of those born again, biblically baptized in covenant commitment with one another, under the leadership of qualified elders.

So the point is, it is the entire church's duty to walk together in this endeavor.

Friends, when we see sin in one another's life, your first thought sometimes is about yourself.

Man, if I talk to that person, they're not going to listen. They're going to get mad at me. No, your first thought should be about Christ.

You understand? Your first thought, just like in evangelism, our first thought should be about the glory and honor of Christ.

So too in the church's maturation together, we should think about Christ first, and His honor, and His glory.

And what we're trying to see here is not anything that we can build. This isn't my church, or Pastor Jacob's church, or anyone's church here.

Like if anybody says, y 'all built that church up over there, we want to see Christ reflected here.

We want to see this place shining brightly in this community for the

Lord Jesus Christ. This is what a biblical, healthy New Testament church looks like.

This is what rightly applying the armor of God looks like. Now let me say this, this is hard.

Manifesting holiness, mortifying sin, maturing together, this is hard.

Actually, it's worse than hard. It's impossible. It cannot be done left to ourselves.

Oh, but God. Friends, this is what God is doing in the world today.

I know things come on the television, and you start looking, and you think about the end times. You're like, what's all going on?

What does this mean? And we get out the chart, and we throw everything, and everything's just going crazy. Like, what is

God doing? I want to tell you, though, what God is still doing in the world today. He is building

His church. And His church is full of maturing, holy, serious believers.

That's what we want to see here. Why? Because we say it all the time. Christ is worthy of a healthy church.

He who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, and lived a perfect life, obedient to His parents, and never sinned, fulfilling all righteousness, and every day was seeking to give

His heart to God, and to do good to others. He who sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane, and He who took the nails in His hands, and the nails in His feet, and the crown of thorns on His head, and was spit at, and they pulled

His beard, and they flogged Him, and mocked Him, and held naked and suspended in shame before heaven and earth, and who bore the wrath of God for our sins, and then was buried in the tomb, and rose again.

This man is worthy of a healthy church. That's what we want to see.

The holiness of Christ reflected here. And I do,

I hear things sometimes, and I hate that a church seeking to be biblical sometimes be talked bad about by others, especially those who profess to be

Christians. But I can't help that. All Pastor Jacob and myself can do is lead us down these ancient paths.

This is the way of Christ. To put on the breastplate of righteousness.

And those who wear the breastplate of righteousness reflect Christ by manifesting holiness, mortifying sin, and maturing together.

Really the question that I have is, does this describe you?

Is this who you are? Is Christ reflected in your life?

Won't you embrace this biblical truth this morning for the glory and honor and worth of our

King? Let's pray. Father, I thank You for this text.

I thank You that it's been so rich. Spent three weeks considering this great breastplate of righteousness.

That is a testimony to the richness and vastness and depth of Your Word. Help us to be a church that reflects