Daniel: Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Honest, we sound very energetic today. I I am not I'm not energetic today. I'm excited to preach, but, I'm pretty tired.
We've had a pretty crazy, past couple of weeks. Many of you know that Ashley had to have an emergency surgery to help, prevent premature delivery for our second baby. So, it went really well. She's recovered. We're very hopeful that everything will go completely normally, full term.
So, I'm super thankful to everyone who's been praying and please continue to pray. She's due June 23rd. So, if you could pray that God would have her deliver as scheduled on June 23rd, that would be really amazing. And then if you could keep praying until, until that happens, we really appreciate it. What else has been going on with me?
So it was like, Wednesday, a few weeks ago, we learned that she had to have a surgery. Friday, she had a surgery. The recovery was difficult, but it's been good. And then, Tuesday, we had follow-up. Everything's good.
And then all all kinds of other crazy stuff happened. We had plumbing issues. Toby had head lice, all at the same time. And then this was all before I was speaking at another retreat, my, CCIC Cupertino in Sunnyvale, like one of our our sister churches, I was speaking at their youth retreat. And so I was, like, going into retreat speaking and it was at Camp Maymac where, the youth group is right now and I was just like driving over there and I'm just like, oh, like, I'm so tired.
And then I spoke at the retreat and then we a bunch of stuff happened this week. Yesterday, Is that fair? Is that fair? Or maybe some of you kids, you you you have an equal right to be tired. Right?
But, so there's been a lot going on with us and, what's been so cool is, this whole series that we're going through, the church theme is trust in God. And we did not know any of this was gonna happen when we came up with Uncle Rupert came with this church theme. And so immediately, like, in the 2nd month of the year, immediately, Ashley and I have had to put this into practice in a wide variety of ways. And so, the other thing I really appreciate is that, Dan felt a sense that we should preach through, kind of a mini series on spiritual warfare. And so what's really crazy is the Sunday before the surgery or sorry.
The Sunday before the Wednesday where we learned Ashley had to have surgery, Dan preached a passage on spiritual warfare, saying that, the world is a more dangerous place that than we expect, but that God, through his word, through his spirit, through his power, gives us resources to deal with life when stuff hits the fan. That was so lifesaving for me and us going through this crazy, crazy stuff because it literally feels like the devil is directly attacking us. And I'm I'm sure you all have been through situations where everything happens at the same time and it feels so incredibly overwhelming. The timing of everything conspires against you where every single wrong thing happens at the same time. That's a special thing that can happen and the devil wants to use that to discourage us, to basically make us question God and doubt his goodness.
And so I'm so thankful that Dan has been preaching through, especially, the armor of God passage, and we're gonna continue to do that. So, we're talking about the breastplate of righteousness today. And so there are in the armor of god, Paul writes that we should put on the whole armor of god that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. And then he says, having put on the belt of truth, which Dan talks about last week. And today, we're gonna be talking about putting on the breastplate of righteousness.
So Paul the the assumptions that Paul is working with when he goes into the armor of God passage, we have to look at them. Okay? So let me look at some of the assumptions that the the all the biblical authors have about the world we live in. So spiritual warfare, this is a weird kind of spooky subject. And when Dan first was preaching about this, the the church power was out, so there's some nice mood lighting, spooky church mood lighting.
But these are the assumptions that the biblical authors worked with, and these are very different than the assumptions that many of us have about what's going on in the world. So Paul assumes that the world is a war zone. The in first John, a different author says the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. In many cases, Paul says the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. So there is a personal supernatural force at work in the world who is an active agent, who is planning and strategizing and seeking to do different things to discourage, especially, Christians.
He affects everyone. He creates the systems that lead to oppression and ignorance and a bunch of different things. But when it comes to Christians, his strategy is very specific. Dan said, the devil is like a roaring lion prowling around seeking someone to devour. And what does it mean that the devil devours Christians?
It means it could mean many things. But, generally, I would say, in our area, the devil doesn't like demon possessed people in a very obvious, tangible, visible way. More often, what I think is he creates a sense of discouragement and what, my favorite preacher, D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, wrote an amazing series of sermons called Spiritual Depression, where he says, if he can discourage Christians to the point where when people look at them, they're like, why would I ever wanna be a Christian? Christians are so miserable.
They just kind of, like, sit there and mope about. They're they're they have they sell like, it's all about self pity and, like, oh, I feel so bad, and they don't enjoy life and they don't. They're just like, that's what the devil wants to create. A bunch of Christians who don't have the joy of our salvation, a bunch of Christians who don't really trust God that he's loving and good in the midst of circumstances that are extremely difficult. But then on the flip side, what God creates in Christians is Christians who are facing extraordinarily difficult, back breaking circumstances, and they stand up under it.
And not only that, they are joyful in those circumstances. And so if the devil can create Christians who are so he's made your life so miserable that you don't like it. But then what God promises and what's really cool is we have a lot of examples like this in our church. At at the last baptism we had, there is, Sister Lucia, who shared this incredible testimony about going through extremely, terrible cancer diagnosis. And she, like, she basically was going through, like, meeting all these hospital workers.
And all of the hospital workers were trying to console her over the diagnosis, because she was crying. And they were like, oh, don't cry. Like, you have to accept it. You have to accept this circumstance that you're going through. And then she said to them, you know why I'm crying?
Because I feel the presence of God comforting me in this moment, and I'm so happy. Isn't that different? That is victory. That's standing firm when you're going through the attacks of the enemy. So the world is a war zone, and if you don't realize this, you're already defeated.
So we are reading a passage in Bible study today that talks about this. If you just go through life not realizing you're fighting a battle, then you've already lost, and you won't you won't contribute at all to the battle. Because you're just, like, kind of walking around like it's like you're bird watching and bullets are whizzing around. You're not contributing anything but also you are in danger, like and so the the way the devil works is he creates discouraged Christians, but he also creates distracted Christians. And so when Jesus talks about the parable of the sowers, he talks about a lot of different things.
If your mind is not aware of the battle that's taking place, you won't be able to fight it. If you don't realize this, the world is a war zone. You've already you're already defeated. And then you have to know who you're fighting against. So Dan, talked about this where he said, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities.
And so, what is the Christian life like? Is it all victory? Is it all singing and joy and happy, happy, happy? Often, but it's also wrestling. And so the wrestling is as close and intimate and as much of a struggle as you can possibly imagine.
Right? It's not it's not a gun battle. You're literally, like, wrestling in the mud with these spiritual forces, and that is how difficult it is. That's how grimy and sweaty and, like, diff the effort like, have any of you actually done some sort of grappling sport, like jujitsu or any of you guys know? Anyone?
Oh, Jeremiah has. So if you, if you want a really good workout, go try to spar with someone for 30 seconds. When they are exerting all of their strength to try to pin you to the mat and you're exerting all of your strength to try to get them off of you, you will get start sweating and get totally exhausted in a matter of seconds. And then, you know, different rounds in UFC or whatever it can be can be really long, like, in multiple rounds and so physically exhausting. And so you have to know we are wrestling.
And who are we we wrestling against? This is where Dan's sermon was really amazing. Not against flesh and blood, which means people are not the enemy. Right? Flesh and blood just means humans.
People are not the enemy. They're evil spiritual forces who can use humans to do terrible things. But even in the midst of people doing terrible things, they are still not the enemy. Instead, what the scripture says, they are carried along by the devil to do his will. Right?
And so this is so crazy. Even when humans are wronging you, they might be doing what the devil wants, but they're still not the enemy. And so you have to know who you're fighting against. You're fighting against the devil. You're fighting against spiritual forces of evil.
And then the next thing is you have to prepare for the fight by putting on the armor before the battle is the thickest. So, there are different times in your life where the fighting is more and less intense. Right? May like, maybe you're kind of, like, on reprieve or, like, whatever it is. You're like, things are going kind of normally and well, and and the devil is still fighting you.
But at different points, Paul talks about the evil day where it's like, I feel like we're going through, like, an evil day where there's so much difficult stuff going on at the same time. Everything is frustrating. Everything is difficult, and our tendency is to become discouraged or to be so exhausted that we can't move on. But you have to prepare for the fight by putting on the armor before the battle is thickest. And so when Dan was talking about the belt of truth or even just the armor in general, he was saying, when you put it on matters more than what you're putting on.
And I would say, I slightly diss I I would just say, you have to put on the armor before the fight. Right? Because again, if you don't know there's a battle, you've already lost. If you're not equipped for the battle, what use are you gonna be? You're walking around in a war zone.
You don't have your helmet. You don't have your body armor. You don't have anything. You're just in your pj's. Like, are you gonna be able to survive?
No. Absolutely not. So then this is this is something that's so important to me. I believe that the totally regular mundane acts that we take in in our Christian community, that is all spiritual warfare. What I mean by that is those are the practices that you need to prepare yourself for the fighting, and so that actually changes everything.
So for youth group, you're tired, you had a long week, you go to youth group, you're like, blah blah, not Dan talking again. I can't can't handle this. But what if you realized you are in a war, and perhaps God wants to give you the very piece of, like, truth that you need to go through a very difficult season that could be coming up. Right? Doesn't that change the way you see youth group?
Now, I'm not saying everything has to always be that intense. Instead, I would kind of say the whole practice of trying to understand the Bible is like a preparation process and training by which you will be equipped to wage the war. And so if you if you kind of are unprepared and you're not willing to go through the process, then when the arrows start flying, you're toast. You're not gonna make it. In the same way, Sunday school or listening to preaching, prayer, these are all ways that we absolutely need to prepare for the evil day so that we can withstand in the evil day.
So if you look at verse 13, where it says, so that you may be be able to withstand, the there's a difference between withstanding and standing. Right? Standing, you're just like this. Right? Withstanding is someone is, like, about to punch you or they punch you and you still stand firm.
You you're able to absorb or parry the blow of the person. And so the devil is saying, I'm going to get you real good. I'm gonna hit you real hard. And if you have this armor and you put on the whole armor, you can withstand his blows. And then after that, it says, having done all to stand or having done all.
So after the big punch, after the big blow, the big offensive the devil is gonna send at you, you withstand the blow and then you continue to stand firm, which means you you you're not so exhausted and defeated by the first blow that you fall over. You're no no longer able to fight. And so sometimes, simply standing after the big blow is very, very difficult. So these are the assumptions that we need to realize. You have to prepare for the fight, and you have to put on the armor.
So everything we do, this is why it's so important. Now as I'm saying all this stuff, I know the assumptions and the way we view the world, typically. All of this sounds spooky and weird, and, like, does any of this happen or you're just making this all up? If you think I'm making it all up, then you are make then you believe Jesus was making it all up when he talked about spiritual forces. You believe a lot of Christians who have talked about real, like, demonic possession and spiritual warfare are making it all up.
In fact, you're you're basically saying that probably half of the known world who believes in spiritual forces, actually, is far more than that. But, in other hemispheres, the like, supernatural beings are just par for the course. And throughout most of human history, the vast majority of humans have believed that there's some kind of spiritual beings. Do are humans just dumb? Do they just believe in things they have no reason to believe in?
Or are they actually on to something? Is there actually something true about the sense that people have that there are spiritual forces outside of their ability to perceive things? And so I would just try to get you to, like, think through that, and then if you become a Christian, you believe in supernatural stuff. So I'm I'm saying your views might be at odds with Christianity, and that's fine. But we believe in supernatural beings, like a god, and then we believe in supernatural evil beings too.
Okay? Let's keep going. I gotta go faster. So, 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. So the order of the armor is extremely important.
And so I wanna I wanna draw out the fact that the first piece of armor Paul says to put on is the belt of truth. He's saying, as you're going into battle, if you don't know the truth, you're walking around in your underwear. The truth is the very piece of armor that you need to even begin to get ready and put on all the other pieces. And so, they would actually tuck their tunics into the the belt. So imagine you have, like, a big dress and then you can't move around and this dress is dragging all over the place.
So, like, these are, like, Roman soldiers and stuff. They'd have to bunch it up and tuck it into their belt so they could move around. So they could put on their armor, so they could put on their leg guards and all these other their sandals and their, you know, their helmets and all these other things. And so if you don't know the truth, you have not even begun to prepare. And so this is something that I feel really passionately about.
Very many Christians have absolutely no understanding of basic doctrine and truth. And as a result of that, when the fighting gets really fierce, they have no weapons. They have no equipment. They're not prepared. They can't handle it.
And so, honestly, one of my roles that I feel like God has called me to is to communicate true doctrine from scripture. Because I believe this is the difference between withstanding and falling when the fight is the fiercest. And I'm hopefully, I can show you what that looks like. Okay. So you can't put on any of the other pieces without the belt.
You it shows the primacy and the order of the armor, where in preparing, there has to be some sort of interaction with the truth. Do you know what I mean? You have to know the truth. And this means it's in the realm of ideas, it's in the realm of having clarity of thinking, and you have to try to comprehend and understand the truth of scripture and the truth of doctrine, or else there's no chance. And then so you have to understand the truth to wage the war.
So what kind of truths does Paul talk about in the book of Ephesians? So I'm I'm just gonna give, like, a really quick overview. Spiritual blessings you have in Christ. He says, oh, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, that you would know the hope of your calling, the the the power the riches of his inheritance in the saints, the power, that's working, on your behalf. And so there are truths about Christ and about God and what's true of you as a Christian that you need to become aware of tangibly and experientially.
And and so it's kind of like this, a lot of us as Christians, may like okay. I'll use one example. Imagine for a second that, you have an enormous bank account, okay? How much money do you want in your bank account? How much?
Give me a number. Is that putting you on the spot too much? $100,000,000 okay? Pretend you have a huge bank account but you live like you're homeless, you beg for food, You don't access that bank account at all. That is the life that many of us live as Christians, where we have all of these riches in Christ.
And the money, the riches, is the truth we have about God and Jesus and ourselves and sin and everything, and we don't access it. We never use it. It would never occur to us to think to ourselves, oh, I'm feeling really bad right now. Maybe I should get out some of that money and do something with it. Maybe I need the truth right now to remind me of the goodness of God, and maybe I can use this truth to change how I feel, to change how I'm approaching these difficult circumstances.
So spiritual blessings in Christ, the wonder and treasure we have in Christ, Paul wants them to know the truth and experience it. We learn about the character of God, where in love God predestined us. What I want you to pay attention to is in love, God acted. In love, God sent Jesus to the world, to save us, to reconcile us to God, reconcile us with each other. Justification by faith, by grace you have been saved, ecclesiology, you are fellow citizens with the saints, all of these truths would have hit them like a thunderbolt where it would have completely transformed the way that they saw God and each other and their lives, and it would have had a real impact on what they did and how they experienced life.
And as Christians, because we don't understand the truth, because we have no interest in the truth, because we're too distracted by the devil, We're doing our own thing. We don't make use of these resources he's giving us he's given us to fight the fight. So we get into, our passage, Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. So what we're what we're gonna look at is we're gonna see what the breastplate covers, we're gonna see when the breastplate is needed, we're gonna see how to put on the breastplate, and then we're gonna see how Christ is our body armor. Okay?
So, the first thing I want you to notice is what is the significance of the breastplate? What is the function of the breastplate as a piece of armor? What do you think? What does it do? It covers the most surface area and not only that, it covers vital organs.
Right? If you get hit in the stomach, if you get hit in the in the lungs, if you get hit in the heart, that's that's a big deal. Right? That's a really bad thing. And so, if you get hit there, you could almost say, if you get hit there, you're dead And while the people at that time didn't have our modern understanding of anatomy, like, these are all the parts of the body, this is how they work together, They know which parts are really important because they're in war.
This guy gets hit here, and he's dead. This guy gets hit here. He survives. They're like, maybe there's something really important on the left side of your chest that you should protect. It's obvious.
They're they're smart. They can figure stuff like that out. So your heart's there, your lungs there. It's important to protect them. So what does the breastplate protect?
Your vital organs. But this is where it gets really interesting. The breastplate actually protects your feelings. Now where do I get that? In the Old Testament, there's a word called bowels.
So your bowels are kind of like the place of your deepest feelings and emotions. Okay? And so, it's related to kind of compassion or pity. And so this is the area, and that word for bowels can either mean figuratively your innermost passionate feelings or literally your intestines, the organs in your stomach. Right?
And so as a as someone who is very fluent in, in the Old Testament, when Paul talks about the breastplate, he realizes that the breastplate covers your midsection. And so without the breastplate, your feelings are open to attack. Okay? I don't think this is a stretch. I think this is actually true, because especially when we get into the doctrine of righteousness, righteousness is very connected to how you feel about everything.
So, my argument is the breastplate of righteousness protects your vital organs. It is absolutely foundational. You can't survive without this breastplate of righteousness, but also it very much affects your felt experience of being a Christian, and I'm gonna show you how that how that works. So what is the breastplate of? It's the breastplate of righteousness.
So righteousness is a foundational truth that if you don't understand, you will never be able to wage battle. You'll never be able to withstand the attacks of the enemy. And what I would say is, if you don't understand righteousness, your life, even if you are a Christian, will be characterized by huge mood swings all over the place. And so I've seen this in myself. I've seen this in the youth group.
I've seen this in plenty of adults. They're all over the place. One day, they're feeling so happy and good and they raise their hands while singing. The next day, literally the next day, they're like, oh my gosh. Why doesn't God love me?
Like, what's wrong? Like, and you know why? It's because they don't understand this truth. They're so, tossed around by their feelings that they don't understand this doctrine of righteousness. And I'll get to it more, but what I would say is the doctrine of righteousness is that there is an objective reality that is apart from your feelings that completely impacts your subjective experience and feelings.
Okay? And we'll get to what that is. So how you understand righteousness deeply, deeply impacts your feelings regarding your relationship with God. It can affect it negatively in a sense that because you can have an overinflated view of yourself based on doing certain religious duties, and that can actually also make you vulnerable to, the ebbs and flows and, like, mood swings. But it also can make you have a settled sense of pride and boasting that makes you judgmental and condescending towards other people.
So that's another way that misunderstanding righteousness can impact your feelings, where you basically say, God, I'm so great. I don't really need you. I don't really have to be grateful to you about anything because I basically did it all my by myself. And so you've probably run into some Christians who are like that. Maybe they even speak from the pulpit of Chinese Church in Christ South Valley.
Okay. So when is the breastplate needed? Let me give you some examples. So these are real life the where you have these powerful feelings towards God, that is the very moment where you need the breastplate of righteousness. When you're spiritually depressed, when you're fear feeling very low and ashamed, that is when you need the breastplate of righteousness.
When you're going through special trials or difficulties like me and Ashley are, that's when we need the breastplate of righteousness. In the moment when you sin, you need the breastplate of righteousness. The moment when you begin to earnestly seek God, you need the breastplate of righteousness. And, again, this is all based on my experience, based on talking to you all. I have seen people go through all of these situations, and because they don't have this core, deep, fundamental understanding of righteousness truly, they will go all over the place.
They'll struggle so much. And they and so in many ways, I'm trying to help you guys. I'm trying to help myself, like, protect myself in these moments where I'm very vulnerable. All of these moments are opportunities that the devil sees where he's like, I'm gonna use this to get you. But if you have this breastplate, this can help.
So how do you put on the breastplate? There are 3 things you need to put on the breastplate. This is kind of me making it up, in in the sense that I'm not getting this directly from the text, but I based on my experience and based on what the Bible says overall, I think this is true. You have to have a knowledge of the truth. That one is very clear.
So you have to know what righteousness is and what it means. But secondly, you have to have knowledge of life where you have to recognize the what it feels like when you're under attack when it comes to your righteousness. Okay? And we'll talk more about what that looks like. You have to know the right situation where the breastplate is the thing the piece of armor that's most relevant.
Do you know what I mean? Like, if someone is, if someone is trying to, like, like poke you in the foot, your breastplate is not relevant, right? If they're poking you in the foot they want to like kind of cripple you so you can't move around. But in that case, you need a different piece of armor, not the breastplate. But if someone is trying to poke you with a spear in your chest, you're like, that's when I need the breastplate.
Right? So you have to have a knowledge of life and there in real life, you go through certain experiences, you go through certain spiritual attacks and as you experience more of what the devil does, as you read scripture, as you talk to other Christians, you start to realize what the devil is about when he's attacking you. Okay? And so all of the stuff I'm saying, I I'm not sure how you guys are relating. Like, I'm not sure if you've had these experiences before, but, hopefully, I can try to make this, understandable.
And then hopefully, you can remember this in those situations as they arise because they definitely will arise. And then finally, you have to have knowledge of yourself. And what I what I mean by that is, we are all very different. And when Paul says put on the whole armor, what I think he means is use the truth in the way that it becomes experientially real to you. Do you know what I mean?
Do you know how to take truth about God and apply it to yourself in a way that is convincing and powerful to you. So let me let me give some examples. You guys don't read D. Martyn Lloyd Jones. Does anyone?
Probably not. Okay. I do. I have found, knowing myself the way God made me, D Martin Lloyd Jones, when I read him, he gives me a sense of God's love and grandeur and glory in a way that personally encourages me. And when I feel cold towards God, he brings me into the presence of God in a way that changes how I feel.
Now that is a very reliable way because I love his mind and the way he communicates scripture, a very reliable way for me to experience the truth tangibly. Do you know your D. Martin Lloyd Jones? Like, it could be singing, honestly. For many of you who are musical, singing certain songs communicates the truth to your heart in a way that you need to change how you feel.
And for other for others of you, it might be something else like taking a walk in nature or there's so many different thing, like journaling or whatever it might be. But what I would say to yourself what I would say to you is you need all three of these things. The way you communicate the you you need to know the truth, you need to know the situation where you're under attack, and then you need to know the best way to apply this truth to yourself. And so, what I would say is in the moments you're under attack, you can try to do it on your own where you're like, I I I need to read D. Monley Jones.
Another thing I would say is, like, don't do it by yourself. Like, go find other people who can help you in that situation and who can speak the truth to you in the way that actually communicates. And so, I really appreciate Dan and other people who have been able to do that for me. So you need in all of knowledge of the truth. What is the truth of righteousness?
So that's my that's my kind of, like, how to, and then I'm going to use the breastplate of righteousness to show you what it looks like to apply a specific truth, to understand how it applies to specific scenarios in your life, and then how I can kind of like like how it how I help preach to myself in a sense. So what is the knowledge of the truth? What is righteousness? This is where Christianity is very different from other religions. Righteousness in the way that Paul talks about it, sounds something like this.
This from Ephesians chapter 2. 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 let me unpack that for a second. Where does our salvation come from?
We are saved not by what we do, but through faith. And then the whole next section Paul says over and over again this is not your doing it is not a result of works that you do You cannot boast of any works that you did. Why? Because it is a gift of God. It is a gift from God.
Your salvation, your righteousness does not come from how well you're acting as a Christian. Okay? That is the knowledge of the truth. Now this is such a beautiful, incredible truth, and so some situations that we really need this. When you, some as you live more, you start to hear what your thoughts feel like.
Oh oh, my gosh. Did that make any sense, what I just said? You you begin to recognize your thought patterns. And when your feelings and thoughts start arising, certain like, I was I've been depressed for, like, a like, like, I struggle depression for a long time. And so I know what depressed Daniel sounds like.
And so I can this is, like, here. I can actually say write dialogue for depressed Daniel and this is what it sounds like. But I've also talked to many of you and this is what you sound like. I feel unworthy all the time. I don't have worth because I can't meet other people's expectations or my own ex expectations.
Part of me wants to be a Christian or thinks I'm a Christian, but I can never do enough for God. I try so hard, but it's never enough for him. He's so demanding. He's so pressuring. Do you ever feel like that?
Do you feel like the first one? Do you feel like the second one? How about the third one? I can never be good enough. Let me unpack the assumptions in each one of these statements.
When you say I feel unworthy all the time, what makes you have worth? What do you think would make you feel worthy? If I was beautiful enough, I would be worthy. If I was strong enough, I would be worthy. If I was rich enough, if I was successful enough, if I was smart enough, I would be worthy.
Is that the gospel? Is that righteousness by faith? No. That's righteousness by achievement and by earning and by what you do, But Christianity is not that. Part of me wants to be Christian, but I feel like I can never do do enough.
You know what? You're right. You can never do enough because righteousness is not by what you do. It's based on what Jesus did and it's based on his perfection and his life. 3rd one, I can never be good enough.
Yeah. You can never be good enough. You're right. But why are you staying there where you say, because I can never be good enough, I don't have a good relationship with God. God doesn't love me.
God, like, I'm not I'm not a Christian. You're misunderstanding the doctrine of righteousness, and this means you go up and down. So what this looks like, the more committed of a Christian you are, the more you try really, really hard to not do bad stuff and the more when you sin, you're devastated. Okay? If you go to seminary, if you try to be a pastor, if you ever try preaching or you try to do some kind of ministry, when you start out, if you do a sin like, for me, it was like, oh, I looked at porn.
I'm devastated. I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, this is terrible, like, I I gotta stop everything. I'm, like, I'm such a terrible Christian. How could I ever speak?
And I'm right in one sense, but the other sense is in this very moment, that is an accusation by the devil at me where rather than saying, Jesus is my righteousness. He's my breastplate. He's my shield. I let the devil discourage me. Now did did was what I did a sin?
Yes. Does it have real consequences? Yes. Was I in the wrong when I did that? Yes.
Absolutely. But in that moment, the fighting changes. I have already fallen into the temptation. So now how does God view me and what does he want to say to me? He wants to say to me, you are so terrible and ugly and disgusting and miserable.
Is that what God sounds like in that moment? No. He says to me, I knew you were gonna do that, and I died on a Roman cross, objectively, in history, so that in this very moment, you could experience the free forgiveness and grace of God for you so you don't have to be shackled by guilt and shame. Now as a result of that, I can fight temptation and not give up when I fail. I'm serious.
If you think that if everything has become such a big deal like that, you'll never be able to win because it'll feel overwhelming. But when you realize, like, you will fail, you will sin, the Bible says you will sin, first John. If you don't give up, if you realize in this moment, Jesus is saying to you, I died for that very thing so that you would be forgiven and so you could be reconciled to God in that moment, that is so good. And it is a righteousness that doesn't come from what you do, from how well you keep the rules. You're in a completely different realm of grace.
Do you have knowledge of yourself? How can you internalize, personalize, bring out the truth at the moment when you're struggling? One practical thing, I was thinking a lot there are a lot of different options. This is the one I came up with. There's a psalm, Psalm 119 says, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
What this means is use the word of God, internalize it, memorize it, and that is one of the ways at which you can avoid falling into temptation. Okay? But, also, even in the moment after you fail, the word of God is like an is like a remedy for your sickness, like it's an antidote When you feel overcome by guilt and shame about sinning, that is not where God wants to leave you. He actually says in 1st John 19, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of all our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, which is saying, in the moment, what is obedient to God when you sin is not to guilt trip yourself and feel shame. It is to believe again the gospel which is that when we confess our sin, God is just.
God is right and fair. He is a right judge in saying, when I look at Thomas and he sinned, he is not guilty, not based on the fact that Thomas does anything, but based on the fact that Jesus did it for him. And so there's this weird substitution thing in Christianity. I am loved by God. I'm reconciled to God completely apart from anything I do, and that's an incredible, incredible armor when you're accusing yourself.
When you when you're if you're perfectionistic and you're trying to be a Christian it'll be agony it'll be agonizing because you can never be perfect And so this antidote, the gospel is so good for you where you can say, look, God, I'm not perfect, but Jesus is. Jesus was perfect. And not only that, Jesus is at the right hand of God. He is my high priest who's interceding for me. He's saying to God, my advocate, he's saying, God, you have nothing against them because of what I did.
And God is like, you're right. That's why I sent you. I sent you to save them and reconcile you. So, finally, Christ is your body armor. Do you know how to put on this breastplate of righteousness?
And then do you realize how good this body armor is? So, there is a YouTube channel that got recommended to me. I have honestly no idea how this happened but there are lot the world of gun YouTubers is very, very big and very, very popular. So, there's a guy who basically, like, has these, these dummies that are like zombies or whatever and there's like this kind of green goo inside of them. And so the idea is you can actually see the destructive force of the gun by shooting the dummy and then it, like, explodes or there's, like, a big hole in it or whatever.
And so what the guy would do is he would put on these, like like, art body armor and then he would test it by shooting different guns at the body armor. If you're a boy, you're like, that's so cool. Right? I Anne is like, what is wrong with people? If you're a boy, that's so cool.
So, and then the other thing is extremely, extremely expensive photography equipment, super duper high definition slow motion footage of the bullet like like the bullet like pushes into the body armor and it kind of like folds back against itself and then you see it like like a hole and all this particles coming out. It's really really crazy. And so what he would do is he would get like an elephant gun which is like the biggest gun and he would watch to see what it would do to that zombie. And what's so crazy is a lot of the times for the really heavy guns, the the bullet would basically, like, push the entire body armor, and so it, like, caves into the thing's chest, and then it, like, creates a big hole. But body armor is so amazing because a lot of the times, it would completely block the bullet.
It would completely block the bullet, but then, when you take off the body armor, there would be this huge like wound where it's like just the force from the bullet destroyed the torso. Right? Now, the function of body armor is to protect you from bullets, danger, force, all of that stuff. Right? Now what kind of body armor is the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the perfection of Jesus Christ's life?
He is the most powerful body armor. He is way more powerful than all those other body armors. And his righteousness can stop an elephant gun when it you know, like, the devil is shooting you with an elephant gun, and Christ's righteousness, it just bounces off. It's like Superman. Right?
He he is so much stronger, like his like, no matter what the devil could say, the devil could say, oh, Daniel, you're not worthy to be a pastor. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. But look at what Jesus did. Because of Jesus, because I'm in Christ, I'm in the body armor. You can't touch me because my righteousness comes from him, from how perfect of a life he lived, not based on what I've done.
That's incredibly powerful body armor. And so look at this verse. If you can just do one thing, memorize this verse and think about it for 30 minutes. No, just think about it. Memorize it, think about it.
There is there there is therefore now so I'll stop right there. The whole argument of Romans 1 through 7 is that righteousness comes by faith in Jesus and it's what he's given us, not based on anything we do. Therefore, there is now no condemnation. Because we are in Christ, there is no condemnation. What is condemnation?
Condemnation is a sentence. It is a judge saying you are condemned to go to prison. There is there for now, because you are in Christ, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And what this means is, as a Christian, no matter how many times you sin, you are not condemned. You're not going to go to prison.
You're not going to die because of what Jesus did. That is so incredibly crazy. Now, okay, and you might be thinking, oh, does that mean you get a free pass to do all the sins you ever want? A number of answers to that. I'll give a few.
Number 1, are you really happy when you sin? Like, how does it turn out for you when you do these things? Is it good for you or is it bad for you in the long term? And I would say, it's absolutely negative and damaging. It really is.
And if you wait long enough, people will say that. And so, if, one image that the Bible uses is that sin is slavery or addiction. The crazy thing about addiction, and this could be in any field, not drugs, alcohol, video games, whatever it might be, addiction feels really, really good at the beginning. Right? Those substances or that video game, whatever it is, it feels so good.
Does that mean it's not devastating? Does that mean it's not damaging? Of course not. And so in the short term, maybe the sin feels good, the devil uses this and baits and switches you, but at the end, it's the hook. Then you become enslaved, then you become addicted and trapped.
But there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, which means, when you learn the justification by faith, you realize how sin sin is like sin is like the illusion of sin being something that's good is dispelled and then not only that, another reason why you shouldn't sin is because you don't wanna grieve the one you love who died for your sins. So when you love someone, it's not in the realm of they're gonna punish you when you do something bad. You hope they're gonna forgive you. And if they're very forgiving, they're gonna forgive you, but you don't wanna sin because you don't wanna displease them or grieve them. That's another reason.
The third reason, this might get real real, is, God is a jealous God, which means he wants fidelity, and this is a perfectly good thing. He is so committed to you that he won't leave you in a place where you are able to destroy yourself and destroy other people. And so he will confront you and oppose you, to bring you back into a place of grace, which means turning away from the behavior that's self destructive and other destructive. And so people call this the Lord's discipline. And there's a passage in Hebrews where it says, do not despise the Lord's discipline for the Lord disciplines those who He loves.
So these are some reasons why we want to avoid sin but it's not because we're going to get punished or condemned. And that's really, really crazy. So, final illustration. Let's see. Oh, sorry.
2 more 2 more illustrations. In 1989, a movie came out, a sequel called, Lethal Weapon 2. And in Lethal Weapon 2, this is so I'm so old and irrelevant. I was born in 1989. So, this movie came out, I think, literally before I was born.
Lethal Weapon 2. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are 2 cops and there is a council member from apartheid South Africa who comes to the United States to make a bunch of money selling drugs. And whenever they do something bad, the council member busts out his ambassador card and he says, I I can't do a South African accent. Can you can you, Thomas? No.
Like, diplomatic immunity or something like that. Right? He says diplomatic immunity, which means he is not punishable under US law because he has this badge that makes him totally immune. And so at the end of the movie, he's just like he's killed a bunch of people, done a bunch of bad stuff and, Danny Glover thinks that Mel Gibson, his partner has just been shot to death but he survives. It's fine.
And the the the guy he's Danny Glover is pointing the gun at him and he pulls out his badge and he says, diplomatic immunity and then Danny Glover says, bang, shoots him in the head and he says, it's just been revoked. You like it? Yeah. So, what I wanted to say, the whole point of the demonstration is, as Christians, we literally have diplomatic immunity. We pull out the badge when we're under accusation by the devil and and we say, you can't touch us.
And do you know what that badge is? It's the body armor of Jesus Christ's righteousness. You you have nothing to say to me. Time. I want to thank you for your time.
I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank you for your time.
And so I want you to think whenever you sin, diplomatic diplomatic immunity. Okay. So the last one, I hope you can see how this truth can become experientially powerful and real, but you have to think about it clearly. You have to know when you're under accusation, when the devil wants you to feel so terrible and ashamed and guilty. This honestly, here, let me give you one very specific one.
When if you ever sin on Saturday night, where's the one place you don't wanna go? Church. And you know what? That's the devil's trick because the devil is saying, if you come here, you are going to be awash with a wave of condemnation and judgmental eyes and the preacher's gonna look at you and be like, I know what you did. But what's so amazing is when you learn who Jesus is, like, you did something wrong, Jesus is like, that's why I died.
So you don't have to be separated from God, so you don't have to be separated from community, so we can minister the gospel to you where we say you are free from guilt and shame because of what Jesus did. Do you see how this truth is so relevant and we need this over and over and over again? As a pastor, I need this over and over and over again, this truth, the righteousness, the breastplate of God, of Jesus Christ's righteousness. So last illustration. My one of my favorite hymns, this hymn encapsulates exactly what this whole passage is about.
This is one of the verses. Because a sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. Because of what he did, I am free. I'm pardoned. Jesus went to prison and died so that I don't have to go to prison.
The substitution, it's so incredible. And then this next verse is so cool. Oh, sorry. I I I did the second one first. Okay.
The first one is this. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there who made an end to all my sin. This is the situation where you need the breastplate. When you feel guilty and ashamed, that is the devil shooting you with an elephant gun and you need this truth. Upward, I look and see him there who made an end to all my sin.
My sin now, my sin in the past, my sin in the future, it's all gone because of what Jesus did. Because a sinful sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. God the just, God the judge is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. This is what it means to put on the breastplate. Do you understand the truth?
And now that's just one piece of armor. Okay? You're gonna spend your lifetime understanding how to put on the breastplate of righteousness, and there are other pieces of armor, there are other pieces of truth in scripture that are so important for you to know and to experience. And so are you looking for that armor? Are you using the resources that God has given you to withstand the blows of the enemy?
I pray that you would understand the truth of Christ's righteousness and that would cover you and protect you in the war. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I praise you that your righteousness is strange to us. It doesn't make sense to us in many ways, and yet it is the truth that is so much better than we could possibly imagine. And it is an objective reality that you accomplished on the cross.
And so I pray, Lord, as we go through all of our feelings, all of our ups and downs, we would be able to see the reality and we would become more in touch with the reality. Though I feel condemned and guilty, though the devil attacks me and accuses me, the objective reality is Jesus Christ died for my sins, and he rose again so that I could have new life. And I pray that truth would penetrate into our hearts. We would keep it there, and it would keep us from sin, but it also would be ministering to us in the times when we do sin and that we'd be restored to joy and love and experience your hug as we return to you. We really need you.
I pray you would minister to each person here by your spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen.