Sunday Morning Worship Service August 23, 2020

Well, good morning, good to see you on this Lord's Day, beautiful day, another beautiful Sunday the

Lord has given to us. And we thank the Lord for that, thank Him for His faithfulness through this week.

He's given you your health and strength, not something we take for granted these days, is it? But He has, and we can thank

Him for that. He's provided what we've needed, He's protected us through whatever we've been doing through this week, in our jobs, in our driving, and so forth.

So we thank the Lord for His faithfulness and for His mercies that are new each day.

A couple of things to call to your attention from the bulletin, years ago, I don't even know if it's still on anymore, but years ago,

I remember when I was a high school kid living in the Chicago suburbs, the

Moody Station in Chicago had a thing, a program every night called

Songs in the Night, and it was late at night, midnight or whatever. And it was just a very calm, mellow program.

Well, we've been doing something kinda like that on Sunday evenings the last few weeks, since we started up the evening services, doing

Psalms in the Night, and the song of the night for this week is

Psalm 19, the song of the enlightened mind. And I encourage you to make it back at six o 'clock, if you can, for that evening service.

On Wednesdays, we've been seeing this video series taking us to different countries in the world and looking for some artifacts of church history.

And this week, we're going to India and see what we can discover there. So I encourage you to join us

Wednesday night for that midweek service. And then you see a couple of weeks from today, on September 6th, first Sunday, that's

Labor Day weekend, and always special stuff going on Labor Day weekend, but we're planning to resume our

Sunday school classes at the 9 .30 hour on September 6th.

And also on that same day after the morning service, after we conclude the morning service, we'll have a special church family business meeting.

So please note that those who are church members, September 6th.

All right, we've come together today to worship the Lord and Psalm 29, verses one and two, and then verse 11, read this way.

Ascribe unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the

Lord the glory due under his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The Lord will give strength unto his people.

The Lord will bless his people with peace. Our opening hymn this morning is going to call upon the

Lord to come and pour out those blessings of which he is the fount.

Jim, please come lead us in number seven. Thank you, pastor.

Number seven in your hymnals, if you would, number seven. Let's stand together, please, and sing all three verses of number seven.

Come, thou fount of every blessing. Let's stand together, please. ♪

Come, thou fount of every blessing ♪ ♪ Tune my heart to sing the grace ♪ ♪

Streams of mercy never ceasing ♪ ♪ Oh, songs of loudest praise ♪ ♪

Teach me song of love of God ♪ ♪ Song of waiting tongues of all ♪ ♪

Praise the fount I'm fixed upon him ♪ ♪ Fount of God safely to conceal him, seal him ♪

Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you, God, for yourself, that you are who you are and who you've declared yourself to be, a mighty

God, the King of creation, and our Heavenly Father who hears us and desires to hear us, who inclines his ear towards us,

O Lord. Help us now, Father, as we come to thee and thy house to worship, to sing praises unto you from our hearts in spirit and in truth.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. For our

Psalm reading this morning, on the back of your bulletin, I wanna read a portion of Psalm 17. I'll read verses eight through 15.

I want you to follow along there as we read. Psalm 17, verses eight through 15.

The psalmist writes, keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies who compass me about.

They are enclosed in their own fat, with their mouth they speak to me, and they speak proudly. They have now compassed us in our steps, they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth.

Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion, lurking in secret places.

Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword, from men which are thy hand,

O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure.

They are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me,

I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when

I awake with thy likeness. Lord, add His blessing to the reading of this psalm. Our missionary of the week this week is

Jim Stroop, and Jim works as a director of Chaplains with Law and Grace Ministries, a jail ministry, and before he comes and leads us in the next song,

I asked him to share a couple of prayer requests that we could remember as we pray in just a few minutes.

Jim? I do want to ask you to pray, if you would, for this ministry.

It's a jail ministry. Of course, we have 10 other jails besides my two in the region, and most of them are locked down still.

A couple of them opened up, and one of the two that opened up is still open, but then the other one closed down because of the resurgence of the virus, which has done a lot to every place, just about in the whole country.

But anyway, we opened up in Whiteside County, so we're up there now with masks on and social distancing, and we ask you to pray for those things, just the obvious to continue, for souls to be saved, that the word of God, now that it is not hindered because of the virus there, would not go hindered to the hearts of those that are reaching out, those that are desiring a new life in Christ.

Appreciate those prayers, that the word of God would go forth in power and strength, and that men and women would turn their lives over to Christ through true repentance from the heart.

Also, the conferences have all been shut down.

The Sheriff's Conference this year was rescheduled and then postponed and now totally canceled.

The Jail Administrator and Chief Deputy Conference was rescheduled twice, and that's been postponed until next year, and that's my main connection to sheriffs and jail administrators to set up our booth at the conferences and as they come by to present the ministry to them and their need to have a

Law and Grace Ministries chaplain in their jail, but now that's been curtailed, so I ask you to pray for other avenues.

Kind of reminds me of deputation when I used to, and those missionaries have been on deputation and all have been.

They know the rigorous telephoning and persistence that's required to gain admission and to churches, and that's what

I'm gonna be doing is being on the phone, contacting. It doesn't take the place of direct contact, but with God directing these areas,

I ask you to keep that in prayer also, that connections might be made and that individuals from their counties, every church has a county and every county has a jail with individuals that might be willing to go, and even if I can take this moment to challenge you, if you're willing to go, there's room in these local jails for those who are willing to give out the gospel to set men and women free.

Thank you, Pastor. Oh, yes. Yeah, it's number 355,

Jesus, I believe, but it is. Oh, excuse me, that's right.

Yeah, it's number 255, not 355, in your hymnals, so make that correction.

Let's all stand once again, please. Oh, maybe we're, well, yeah, let's all stand.

It doesn't hurt to stand. It kind of opens up those lungs a little bit and get that virus kind of spread around a little bit.

No, praise the Lord that we have the opportunity to sing praises unto him, so let's hear your voices and singing verses one through three, one, two, and three of 255.

♪ Jesus, thy blood and righteousness ♪ ♪

My beauty undress this flaming earth ♪ ♪

And thee I stand in my great day ♪ ♪

Jesus, I am from sin and fear from guilt ♪ ♪

And my soul won't walk alone ♪

So as we pray together, we do wanna pray for that ministry, that jail ministry and Jim's leadership there.

Also wanna pray for several folks in the congregation who are recovering from illness or surgery, for Bob Kline, for Harold Smith, for Kathy, and for Maxine.

Also continue to pray for our shut -ins, Sue Cherry, Jeannie Ludwick, Jerry Sailors, Dean Kinnaman, these folks who are continuing to be locked down, unable to receive visitors and so forth, so wanna pray for them.

Also, Alice asked us to pray. She's got a severe, some severe mouth pain, so she said pray that that gets healed, and if she doesn't talk to you today, it's not that she's rude, it's just it's very painful to talk to you today, so asked us to pray for her.

Also wanna pray for unspoken requests that are here in the congregation, to quote a song

I heard one time, there are griefs that can't be spoken, there are pains that can go on and on, and yet are so personal and hurtful that are not able to be shared in a public way.

Know that there are some like that today. And of course, we wanna continue to pray for our nation, its chaos, its conflict, seen in no lesser way than even in the elections coming up here in November.

Pray for our president, our leaders, local, national, state, and pray for the welfare of Christ's bride, the church.

You may be aware of even a lot of, just some antagonism that is being expressed toward churches that are just simply trying to obey the

Lord and worship together, as his word encourages us to do. And not only in our country, but I'm not sure if you're aware, but the communist government of China has increased its persecution of Christians and efforts of shutting churches down and ordering people not to worship

God and so forth, things of that nature. It's becoming pretty intense in some places in communist China.

So we wanna pray for God's people, not only here, but abroad. Let's look to the

Lord in prayer, shall we? And Father, we are grateful today for the blood of Christ, our righteous, the blood that is our righteousness, and that because of his righteousness and his work on the cross, he intercedes even for us right now.

He is our great high priest. And we're grateful, Father, that as we pray to you today, we pray through our

Lord Jesus Christ. We pray on his authority and we pray on his merits.

And because of that, we can come confidently and boldly before you this morning. And so we do.

We certainly cannot rest upon our own confidence and our own righteousness to come before your presence.

Your word makes it clear that all of our righteousness is even ours, filthy rags. There is no perfect soundness in any one of us.

We would have to confess to you this morning, Father, that we are a sinful, needy people.

Even in the last 24 hours, we have sinned. We have sinned in our thoughts.

We have sinned in our perceptions. Sinned with our tongue. Sinned maybe in our actions, our deeds, in our desires.

Father, we confess this to you today. We are a needy people. We need your grace.

We need mercy. We need forgiveness. And as we confess our sins to you, we are so grateful today,

Father, that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And we're thankful that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all our sin.

And so that under the blood, we can come before you and we can bring these requests, these petitions.

We think of these folks who are hurting physically today. For Alice and her need, I pray for healing there for that ailment in her mouth.

We pray also for Bob Klein, continue to strengthen his body and recovering from surgery the other day.

For Harold Smith, as he returns to the doctor this week to get a follow -up report, pray that it would be a good one.

For Kathy, as she continues with rehab, we pray for encouragement this week in that procedure.

For Maxine, continue to strengthen her body, ease her pain. And I pray that she could soon be back with us again, fellowshipping here in our worship service.

We pray for those who never will. For Sue, Cherry, perhaps. For Jeannie Ludwick, for Jerry Sailors, for Dean Kinnaman, these folks who cannot get out, even if they were allowed to get out of the places where they stay.

I pray for your grace in their lives. Comfort and encourage them in their loneliness.

I pray they would sense your presence with them today and our concern for them. We also pray,

Father, for our nation and its turmoil, its problems, its strife. And we pray that by your grace, you would overrule these who are intent on causing strife and conflict.

We pray that you would defeat these enemies of justice and virtue and righteousness.

We pray for our president and for our Congress. We pray for our governor and state leaders.

Lord, in every case, at every level of government, men and women need to turn to you.

They need to submit to your authority. They need to honor your word and your righteousness.

So I pray that you would turn the heart of the king and turn him toward you. Bring revival in the leaders of our land.

Bring them to Christ. Bring them to repentance. Bring them to submission to the word.

And we pray that many in our land, facing the crises that it does, would humble themselves and repent of sin and turn to Christ.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in nations that are far more hostile to Christianity than even our own.

And we think of those, particularly today in China, who are facing increasing hostility and the efforts to shut down Christian churches.

And we pray, Father, that you would bring a toppling of such a godless government and system that would so express such hatred and animosity and hostility toward your people.

Then, Father, we also pray for those in our congregation today who are hurting and in such a way that their hurts are deep and cannot be shared in a public forum.

I pray for their encouragement. I pray especially for the resolution of that which is causing their pain.

Father, we commit these things to you today, and we just pray that by your grace, you would meet these needs.

And we ask it all in Jesus' name. And for his sake, amen. All right, before the message,

Jim will come and lead us in our last hymn. Jim? Pastor, and it's in your song books, that is your blue books.

It's number 28, number 28. You can be seated for this one. Number 28.

And we'll sing verses one through three.

One, two, and three of number 28. ♪

His robes were mine, a wonderful exchange ♪ ♪

Clothed in my sin, I suffered death ♪ ♪

Draped in his righteousness, I'm justified ♪ ♪

In Christ I live, for in my place he died ♪ ♪

Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God ♪ ♪

But by such love, my life is not a mourning for Christ ♪ ♪

His robes were mine, what cause have I for dread ♪ ♪

God's daunting law, Christ mastered in my stead ♪ ♪

Righteous works not mine, saved by my Lord's ♪ ♪

Vicarious death and life, I cling to Christ ♪ ♪

And marvel at the cost, Jesus forsaken,

God estranged from God ♪ ♪ But by such love, my life is not my own, shall be for Christ ♪ ♪

God's justice is appeased, Jesus is crushed ♪ ♪

And thus the Father's pleased, Christ drank God's wrath ♪ ♪

On sin and Christ is done, sin's wages paid, propitiation won ♪ ♪

I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost,

Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God ♪ ♪ But by such love, my life is not my own, my praise, my all, shall be for Christ ♪

The scripture reading today for our message, Ephesians chapter six and verses 13 through 18.

Ephesians chapter six, verses 13 through 18. Encourage you to follow along in your copy of scripture as I read.

Paul is finishing this letter to the church at Ephesus on a very serious note, somber note.

He tells the church beginning in verse 10 to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might and to put on the whole armor of God.

He takes up that same idea in verse 13 where he writes, Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand an 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.

Above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

Brief prayer. Father, I pray today as we take up this passage that encourages us, exhorts us to take up the armor that we would be both blessed by the armor that is ours and we would be encouraged to put it on.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I have a brother -in -law who is a police officer in one of the

Chicago suburbs and so is his son, my nephew. My sister -in -law says that the most reassuring sound is that which she hears oftentimes in the middle of the night when she's fallen asleep.

Her husband comes in from his shift on patrol, comes in late, tiptoes in quietly, but he cannot mask the sound of the

Velcro as he rips the band and takes off that ballistic vest, that bulletproof vest.

It's such a relief to her to hear that sound because it tells her her husband has returned home safely.

That sentiment I've heard shared by spouses of police officers, especially in these last few months from all over the country.

And although the sound of that vest coming off is certainly a comforting sound and terribly a comforting sound,

I'm sure, so also must be the very fact that there is a vest to put on, that when her husband goes out to the streets and goes off on patrol in the morning or in the afternoon, depending on when his shift begins, there is the comfort of knowing that there is that vest that he can put on that serves as a breastplate, that serves as a protection should a bullet make its way toward his torso.

And I read recently of a officer in Phoenix who experienced the benefit just of that vest.

He and his partner were, they were trying to stop a bicyclist who was guilty of a number of moving violations and the guy would not stop.

They finally got him to a place where he had to get off of his bike and run and so the police officers chased after him, but still the guy refused to stop and finally they started to get into a struggle and the bicyclist pulled a gun from his waist and shot the police officer.

Fortunately, he was wearing his ballistic vest. The vest saved his life.

Now with that in mind, Paul uses the imagery of a first century Roman soldier's version of the bulletproof vest in verse 14, where he tells us as we are to take on the full armor of God, one of those pieces that we are to take on is the breastplate of righteousness.

God in his grace has provided for his children this piece of protection, this piece of armor, the breastplate of righteousness.

Now I just want to encourage you to remember that though you may very well be an eternally secure child of God, there's nothing that can take that away from you.

If you have put your faith and trust in Christ and God in his grace has converted you and has made you one of his children by his grace and the work of Christ on the cross, there is nothing that can change that.

Nevertheless, you are in a battle, you're in a warfare, you're in a spiritual warfare, and it's one that involves you personally as well as the whole bride of Christ, the church, locally and universally.

Now just by way of reminder, to soldier effectively in this warfare, let's look at a few ideas that we've looked at already, but we need to have our memory refreshed in these things.

We don't hear them once and get it for good. So just by way of reminder, to soldier effectively, verse 12 tells you that you need to have your eyes open to the threat.

Paul says you need to put on this armor because we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

This warfare is not a physical warfare, it's a spiritual one. We wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

So this is not primarily a physical war that we're engaged in, and therefore it's more dangerous because you can't necessarily see everything that you're having to fight against.

And this battle that we're engaged in is one that involves subtle tactics on the part of our enemy.

Verse 11 talks about the wiles, the methods, the schemes of the devil. And it's a battle, it's a warfare that is all around us.

In verse 12, in these different, shall we say, armies or regiments of Satan's army that are aligned against us, they are all around us.

You need to have your eyes open to that threat and not bury your head in the sand, spiritually speaking, and assume that there is no such threat to your soul.

There is indeed. Secondly, to warrior valiantly, you need to hold your position.

Twice in this passage, Paul tells us to stand. In verse 11, he says that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

At the end of verse 13, he says, having done all that you may, stand. Don't cower in fear, don't run, don't hide, don't retreat, don't give ground, don't give place to the devil.

Hold your position. And then thirdly, to soldier effectively, verse 13 tells us we need to withstand.

That has the idea of resistance. It's not enough just to hold your position.

If you're gonna hold your position, you're gonna have to resist to do so. To fail to resist is to fail to hold the position.

But to do that, you actually have to have a will to fight.

You have to have a will to fight. I'm afraid too many Christians have, it seems, don't have that will.

They just capitulate. They just go with the flow all too easily, and they're not willing to withstand the tactics of the wicked one, of our enemy.

You need the will to fight, but then you actually need to fight. You need to be engaged in this battle every day.

It's not going to let you go. It's not gonna dismiss you from the army.

It's not going to say, oh, well, you know, we've had enough with him. We'll go on to somebody else.

No, it never works that way. Our enemy, our adversary, the devil is a roaring lion, is constantly on the prowl looking to devour.

Whom? Resist steadfast in the faith. Engage in powerful resistance.

And then fourthly, we said before, if you're going to soldier effectively, you must purposefully equip yourself for this battle.

He says in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God. Verse 13, he says, wherefore, having taken unto you, taking unto you the whole armor of God.

Now the blessing in this is that God has provided an armor. He doesn't leave it to ourselves to try to come up with some kind of armor that we think is going to work.

Kind of like the child who wants to play, you know, wants to play the warrior, wants to play the part of the knight.

So he gets an old cardboard box that's hanging around down in the basement.

And he gets that box and he brings it upstairs and he cuts it out into the shape of a shield.

And he takes another piece of that cardboard and he fashions out of that cardboard box, a sword.

And he's going to go now to do battle against all of the evil forces around him.

Off he goes into battle. And the first enemy that he attacks with his sword, which is probably a brother or sister,

I mean, you know, right, he goes to whack him with his sword and he watches that sword go boom, you know, worthless, worthless.

And the cardboard, you know, the brother says, okay, well, you're coming, I'm going to get after you.

The brother doesn't care about some kind of fake weapon. He's just gotten attacked by a cardboard sword.

So he goes back at his brother and he lays into him with a push. And when he pushes the brother, does this sound familiar to some of you parents?

He pushes the brother, he pushes against the shield. And the little guy who made his defensive shield discovers that that defensive shield is absolutely worthless.

It just crumbles. God has not left us to come up with our own weaponry, our own armor.

He has provided the armor. But we have a personal responsibility in the putting of that armor on.

And that is the challenge of this particular passage. So he comes to verse 17,

I'm sorry, in verse 14. He comes to verse 14 after telling us to take on the whole armor of God, in verse 13, that we need to begin to soldier effectively.

We need to begin with adequate preparation. And that adequate preparation, as we discussed this last

Lord's Day, if you were here and could hear that message, we need to prepare ourselves adequately with the truth.

Stand having your loins, having your loins girt about with truth, having fastened on the belt of truth.

You need to begin with the truth and putting on the armor. And what we talked about in that emphasis in verse 14 is by the truth is the,

Paul is talking here about the full scope of God's revelation, of God's telling us what reality is.

And that is critically important for us to have that understanding of reality as God has revealed truth to us.

Why is that so important? Suggested three reasons. We need the truth, I suggested, because in the first place, that attacking the truth is the devil's preeminent scheme.

The very first experience that we see in the Bible of the devil is him coming with an attack upon the truth.

We see that again throughout scripture, but again, most vividly in the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, an undermining, a distorting, a disparaging or in some way diluting the truth.

This is the devil's preeminent scheme, attack the truth. And then secondly,

I suggested we need to begin here because when we dismiss the truth, when we close our eyes to reality, we simply open ourselves up to nothing but failure and heartache and woe.

It may take a while to experience it, but it will come. Used by way of illustration,

David in Psalm 51, his psalm of repentance after his sin with Bathsheba and his part in seeing to the death of Uriah, her husband.

And in his song of repentance, David declares that God desires truth in the inward part.

Why, why did he point that out? Because he had rejected it, David had.

He had closed his eyes to the truth that needed to be in his inward part. And when he did so, he closed his eyes to the reality that adultery hurts, that murder hurts, obviously, and it has all kinds of consequences that you can't yet imagine.

When he closed his eyes to that reality and went after what he wanted, he suffered extreme heartache and misery and woe.

And then thirdly, I said begin here with the truth because with the truth, with the belt of truth, you have a powerful defensive weapon.

And Jesus illustrated that for us again in that temptation in the wilderness.

Every assault of the wicked one, Jesus answered with truth.

He answered with the truth. So you need to begin with that adequate preparation of the belt of truth.

But then we come to the last part of verse 14. And in the last part of verse 14,

Paul exhorts us to be protected with an impenetrable breastplate, to be protected with this impenetrable breastplate.

Now, I think it would be pretty obvious what the breastplate is and what it does. It was a piece of equipment that was put on by the

Roman soldier that covered from his neck down to his thighs, covered the midsection, covered his heart.

And Paul is using that imagery because of the protection of the vital organs.

He's using that imagery because of the figurative understanding of those vital organs representing the vitality of life, the heart, the heart.

The breastplate protects the heart. But what do we mean by the heart?

What does the Bible mean by the heart? In the Sunday School series, we actually started it before the lockdowns back in March.

We had one lesson in this series on the heart, and then the lockdown came.

And so that all got suspended. So in a couple of weeks, when we come back together on September 6th, Lord willing,

I'll repeat that first lesson on the heart, and then we'll go from there. And it's based on a book, that Sunday School series is based on a book by Craig Troxell entitled

With All Your Heart. And in that book, he does a great job of distilling the biblical concept of the heart.

And his definition of the heart is this. He says the heart is the governing center of a person.

It's your governing center, your heart is. He goes on to explain. The word, the term, the idea of the heart can be used in a simple way, and it can be used in a complex way.

So he says, when used simply, the heart reflects the unity of our inner being.

When used comprehensively, it describes the complexity of our inner being, and that inner being is composed of three realms,

I guess we could say, or regions, or aspects. The mind, the desires, and the will.

Your heart is composed of your mind, what you know, what you think about.

It's composed of your desires, what you want, what you love.

Your heart is composed of your will, what you choose, what you opt for, which path you take based on your choice.

All right, so that's what your heart is. And you need this critical protection of your heart.

You need this piece of armor that will protect your mind, your desires, and your choices, your will.

You need the right breastplate to do that. It cannot be one of your own choosing and one of your own design.

Why? Well, because when you try to fashion a breastplate to protect your heart, what you end up doing, what

I end up doing, if I do it on my own, is I end up with a breastplate that will protect what

I think I know. What I think I know. For example, have you ever gotten into a serious discussion with a committed evolutionist and tried to argue, from a biblical standpoint, the creationist position?

Even if you use evidence that is readily available in an argument to try to give credence to or prove a creationist position.

Have you ever done that? I never really have. I've never really had that opportunity. I'm not much good at debating and stuff like that anyway, but I have seen those debates.

Maybe you have as well. And here you've got this brilliant Christian scientist, creationist scientist, who is debating against, and also brilliant, very smart anyway, committed evolutionist.

And the creationist can use all of these arguments and yet what does the evolutionist do?

He has put on the breastplate of scientism that protects his evolutionary dogma from creationism altogether.

And he will not even seriously consider the least proposition. Yours will protect what you think you know.

If you try to put on a breastplate of your own design and your own making, that breastplate will also protect what you love and what you desire that may very well destroy you.

Years ago now, years ago, there was a young woman who, professing believer, church member, who decided she wanted to live with her boyfriend and nobody really knew about that was going on until she got pregnant and not married and then was confronted with that sin of cohabitation, the sin that was engaged in that obviously led to the pregnancy.

And instead of, you know, a bowing the head and a tear of grief for sin committed and testimony shamed before herself and her congregant church, no.

She got angry and defensive. And tried to explain how I need to do that,

I need to live like this because I can't afford to live by myself and on and on and on with all the explanation. And this was her breastplate that was trying to protect what she chose or what she desired, what she loved.

Your breastplate will do that if it's one of your own design. And will also protect what you choose, what you choose, but should indeed reject.

So again, for example, years ago, I sat down with a dad who was seriously contemplating whether or not he should enroll his sixth grade son in a traveling hockey program.

May not sound like a big deal, except that it would require him, the son, as well as the dad and the whole family if they all went, to miss

Sundays at least half of the time for most of the year. And this is a member of the church, sat down with his dad and I said, hey, you know, this is not a good idea.

This is not gonna be helpful to you. This is going to be harmful to you. It's gonna be harmful to your child.

You're gonna set a harmful precedent for him, for his life. And as time went on, of course, you know what he did.

He chose the hockey team and tried to defend the thing. Well, you know, he's a really good hockey player and he could have a pro hockey career, but he's gotta develop those skills and this is the only way to develop those skills.

Hmm, okay. Well, he was never drafted. He's never been on a pro hockey team, never will be.

But he is no use for the church or for God's people or for things of the

Lord whatsoever. The breastplate, you see. It's so critical that you put on the right breastplate, not one of your own making, but the one that God provides and it's actually the one that God himself wears.

The breastplate of righteousness. God wears that. Did you know that? Isaiah 59, 17 says, he, the

Lord, put on righteousness as a breastplate. The Lord put on righteousness as a breastplate.

No wonder he tells you and me, put on the breastplate of righteousness.

This is part of the panoply, the whole armor that he, your

God, provides. So you need this breastplate of righteousness.

Now, when we think of, you wanna know, well, what is that, right? What is this breastplate of righteousness? What's he talking about here?

All right, think with me about the bulletproof vest that I was talking about that my brother -in -law wears every time he goes on duty.

It's a complex composition of materials, but at its very root, it's made up of Kevlar.

And there's different layers. There's a couple of layers of Kevlar and there's stuff in between the Kevlar. But the primary protecting component of that vest is

Kevlar. And Kevlar is, it's a woven material that is stronger than steel.

So you got, it's like a rug that is woven. You got pieces going this way and you got pieces going this way and they're interlaced, it's woven.

So the breastplate of righteousness is like that in the sense that there are two strands of righteousness that are interwoven that will protect you from the schemes of the devil.

The first of those strands is imputed righteousness, imputed righteousness.

I'll explain what that is in a minute, but here's the thing about imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness protects you from ultimate defeat and destruction.

The wicked one cannot ultimately defeat you and destroy you because you have on you the breastplate of imputed righteousness.

One of the strands in that breastplate is imputed righteousness. Now what are we talking about when we're speaking of imputed righteousness?

What we're talking about is the righteousness of Christ imputed to you by faith.

This is Christ's obedience that is imputed to you. Romans 5, 18 and 19 talks about this.

It says, therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, and speaking of Adam's trespass, led to condemnation for all men.

So listen, one act of righteousness, Christ, leads to justification and life for all men.

For as by the one man's disobedience, Adam's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience,

Christ's, the many will be made righteous. It is the obedience of Christ that we're talking about here.

It is his righteousness that is imputed to you. It is credited to your account.

It is as if you were righteous as Christ is righteous.

This is evident in what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, when he says that God, the

Father, made Christ, the Son, to be sin who knew no sin.

When did he do that? We sang about it earlier, his robes for mine, right?

Christ took our sin upon himself. He was made sin for us.

So he, the Father, made Christ, the Son, to be sin who knew no sin.

Jesus didn't know any sin. His obedience was perfect. His righteousness was absolutely perfect.

He knew no sin. Why did he do that? So that in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God.

That we might be the righteousness of God in Christ. So the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you by faith, his obedience, making you righteous.

And he accomplished this on the cross of Calvary. Now, if you are in Christ, if you are in Christ, he,

Christ, becomes your righteousness. Listen to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1 .30. He says, and because of God, the

Father, you are in Christ Jesus. All right, you hear that? Because of the gracious work of God, the

Father, you are in Christ Jesus. Now listen to what he goes on to say.

Who, speaking of Christ, became for us, or became to us, wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

Do you get that? If you are in Christ, Christ becomes your righteousness.

We're talking about this one strand of the Kevlar, of the breastplate of righteousness.

It is the strand of imputed righteousness. It is the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to you.

But listen, it is imputed to you only by faith. So you can never, you can never do anything.

You can never be good enough that God says, okay, now you're good enough, now

I can impute to you the righteousness of Christ. Now listen, listen to what Paul says in Philippians 3.

He says, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, he says, I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain

Christ and be found in him. Now listen, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, like, okay,

I can obey the law good enough, sufficiently enough that God finally says, okay, you're righteous enough to enter into my heaven.

Paul says, absolutely not. I want to gain Christ and be found in Christ. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from keeping the law, but that which comes, listen, that which comes through faith in Christ.

The righteousness from God that depends on faith.

This righteousness that is imputed to you is imputed to you only by faith.

It is, listen, when God so worked in your heart, he opened your blind eyes so that you saw how sinful you were, and how absolutely incapable you were of ever meriting eternal life.

And you cast yourself before God through Christ, and you said, I am a sinner unworthy of you.

I need to be saved. And you, because God opened your eyes to see it, you saw the sinless savior on the cross shedding his blood for your sin.

When you saw that, your eyes saw that, your eyes saw yourself as a sinner unworthy of God, your eyes saw the savior who poured out his blood for your soul's salvation, and you cried out, oh

God, have mercy on me and save me. That, in that faith, in that moment of faith, that God, where God gifted you with eyes to see, and gifted you with faith to believe,

God also gifted you with the imputed righteousness of Christ.

You were made the righteousness of God in Christ by that faith.

And that righteousness, listen, that righteousness secures you forever, forever.

That's what Paul says in Romans 5, 21. He says, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. And in chapter eight, verse one, familiar verse, you probably know it by heart, right?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So if you are in Christ Jesus, you are found in him. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to you, and there is no condemnation.

Now, see application of this. Paul says here, having, literally here, having put on the breastplate of righteousness.

What does that mean in terms of this imputed righteousness? In terms of strand one, it means this.

It means having put on the breastplate of righteousness means that you have come to repentance and saving faith in Christ alone for your soul's eternal salvation.

You have. Well, what then does it mean when he says, put on the whole armor of God?

Take upon you the whole armor of God, as he says in verse 13. What does that mean? How does that apply to this imputed righteousness, strand one of the

Kevlar of this breastplate? To put on and to take unto you the breastplate in the daily battle means that you believe it's yours.

You believe that this is yours, and that it's yours because it is yours by God's gracious gift.

Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones, in his message on this passage and on this very idea of the breastplate, listen to what he says.

Listen to what he says. I thought this was choice. I couldn't say it any better. Who could say anything better than Martin Lloyd -Jones on something like this, right?

He says this. The wearing of the breastplate of righteousness is our one security.

Keep it on. And when the devil comes and says, you have no standing. You are condemned.

You are finished. You must say, no. My position did not depend upon what

I was doing or not doing. It is always dependent upon the righteousness of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to the devil, Lloyd -Jones says. Turn to the devil and tell him, my relationship with God is not a variable one.

The case is not that I am a child of God one day and not a child of God the next day, then a child of God, and then again, not a child of God.

That is not the basis of my standing. That is not the position. When God had mercy on me,

He made me His child and I remain His child. And everyone in this room, this can resonate with you,

I'm sure. He goes on to say a very sinful and a very unworthy one perhaps, but still

His child. And now when I fall into sin, I have not sinned against the law.

I have sinned against love. Like the prodigal, I will go back to my father and I will tell him, father,

I am not worthy to be called thy son, but he will embrace me and he will say, do not talk such nonsense.

You are my child. And he will shower his love upon me. That is the meaning of putting on the breastplate of righteousness.

Strand one, imputed righteousness. But there's another strand.

We could call it imparted righteousness. Imparted righteousness, we can think of imparted righteousness as that which protects us from daily attacks and injury.

When the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you, Christ also imparts righteousness to you.

This is the strand where Christ's righteousness is lived out in your life.

The righteousness of Christ lived out in your life. Ian Hamilton puts it this way.

He says, an unholy Christian is a theological oxymoron. It's a moral monstrosity.

Turn quickly to 1 John 2. Let me show you what this imparted righteousness looks like in the

Christian life. 1 John 2, verses three through six.

1 John 2, verse three. John writes, he says, hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him.

He that saith, he abideth in him himself also, so to walk even as he walked. And what John is not talking,

John is not talking here about sinless perfection. What John is talking about is that the

Christian, the real child of God, the one who really knows God, the one who is truly righteous, has righteousness imparted unto him, imputed to him, is one who also has righteousness imparted to him, in him, so that he then changes the way he lives.

He lives differently. This is Christ's righteousness lived out in your daily life.

Now, this strand grows stronger throughout your life.

The strand of imputed righteousness is solid, it is firm, it is fixed, it is impenetrable.

The strand of imparted righteousness, it's there, it's there from the moment you're born from above, but it is strengthened throughout life.

Put this way, Paul does it in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, he says, and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the

Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

He's talking about the growth of sanctification in the Christian life, that daily living out of Christ's likeness.

And that strand, that strand will manifest itself in and through your life if you are a child of God, even though it'll do so imperfectly.

In 1 John 2, verse 29, John says, if you know that Jesus is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Now, let's apply this, this imparted righteousness strand.

Let's apply this in our battle, our everyday battle in the life of the believer.

Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, Paul says literally in Ephesians 6, 14, having put on the breastplate of righteousness means that as one, as a

Christian, as one who has repented and in saving faith trusted

Christ alone for his soul's eternal salvation, having put on the breastplate of righteousness means you have indeed committed yourself to a

Christ -like life. This is something you want. This is something you've committed yourself to.

I want to be like Jesus. To put on and to take unto you the breastplate in the daily battle means that you actively seek to grow in Christ's likeness.

You actively seek to make godly choices. Or as Paul put it in Romans 13, verse 14, put on the

Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

To put on the breastplate of righteousness in this aspect of it means that you do just that.

Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill, to gratify its desires.

You need the breastplate of righteousness. So let me ask you this morning, have you by the grace of God and by faith alone put on the breastplate of righteousness?

Trusting Christ alone as your soul's eternal savior? If you have, has your commitment to living like Christ waned?

If you haven't, why not? Turn to him today. Has God in his grace opened your eyes to see your need?

Then respond in faith, trusting Christ to save you today and God in his grace will put on that breastplate.

You will have put it on by faith. Our father and our God, I pray this morning that each one in this room will see the importance, the vital, critical importance of this aspect of the armor, this piece that must be put on.

I pray that each one is clothed with that breastplate today. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's take our hymnals and turn to number 575. 575 and let's stand together and sing.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Soldiers of the cross, let's sing the first and the third stanza.

The third stanza says stand in his strength alone, arm of flesh will fail you. Put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer.

Let's sing 575 stanzas one and three. Stand up, stand up for Jesus.

Soldiers of the cross, trust your own.

Put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer.

As the Lord will give you a restful Lord's Day afternoon and if you can be back tonight for Psalm 19, the song of the enlightened mind,

I encourage you to join us this evening. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.

To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, dominion and authority before all time and now and forevermore.