The Church of Eleven22 - The Breastplate of Righteousness: Stand Firm - Wk 3

Episode Date: July 28, 2024

In this series, we’ve learned who our enemy is. This week, Pastor Joby walks us through understanding who we are in Christ. The Breastplate of Righteousness is a reminder that righteousness comes by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. On the cross, Christ took our unrighteousness upon Himself and gave us His righteousness. There’s more grace in Christ than the sin in us.   Pastor Joby references two teachings— Pastor Ray Cortese’s 2016 Saturated teaching: Saturated 2016 - Thursday: Pastor Ray Cortese Alistair Begg: The Power and Message of the Cross   - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen and amen. If you got your Bibles, grab them, we're going to be in, I mean, Philippians Chapter 3. In just a couple of minutes, we are in week three of this series called Stand Firm. And the reason that we're doing this is because we are at war. I mean, we are absolutely at war. My job is to help you prepare for battle because we are in an actual, literal, spiritual warfare. My intention this week is this week is just going to be fun, talking about the righteousness of Christ. Everybody's going to feel good. And then Friday, Gretz and I are on a date like we try to do. We're just chilling watching the opening of the Olympics.

So, oh, this will be good. Wasn't good. Wasn't good. That Jesus and his last supper was openly mocked by whoever makes these kind of decisions in France in the opening of the Olympics. And some people ask, how come Christianity is the only one to be mocked openly? Here's why. Because Jesus is the only threat to the enemy.

Jesus is the only threat to the enemy. And that's why he is mocked. Because not only does the demonic realm through people know that Jesus is a threat, he is their end. He will defeat them and throw him to the lake of fire forever and ever and ever. So how do we as Christians respond? Here's how we respond. You pray for those people.

For those grown men, dress is women. You know it's demonic for multiple reasons. One day had a child up there with him. demons always try to take out the upcoming generation too that's how it always goes especially by sexualizing them and crazy things like this and you pray that either the grace of god overwhelms them overflows them opens up their eyes so they can see jesus for who he is he died on the cross for them that they may be saved or one day they will stand in judgment before god and my bible says god will not be mocked you reap what you so we are at war

I don't read this, a lot of people have said a lot of things, okay? Some good, some not as good. Pastor Andy Stanley, a pastor in Atlanta, Georgia, I haven't quoted him recently. He said this on his Instagram. It's pretty great. He says this, Dear France, the Normandy American Cemetery is the final resting place of 9,238 Americans, whose graves are marked by 9,238 crosses. American soldiers who in most cases volunteered to come to your shores in your time of need.

Their final prayers were to the God whose son you mocked in front of the entire world. It was during the very meal you went to such creative pains to denigrate that Jesus instructed his followers to love one another and then defined what he meant. Greater love has no one that this, that one lay down his life for his friends. you host the Olympic Games, remember your nation hosts a 172.5 acre reminder of what love looks like. You don't just owe Christians an apology. You owe the West an apology. Well said, Pastor Andy Stanley. Amen? Yeah. So, I hope you'd realize at this point that we are at war, that we're in actual spiritual warfare. Week one, we talked about the idea that we've got to know our enemy. He's beatable because he's predictable.

we've got to know that we have an actual enemy but we also have to know that the victory has been won the victory has already been won in the beginning when God out of an overflow of God's love for God's self created image bearers people and he breathes the breath of life into the very first man and that man opens his eyes and he is face to face in a relationship with his creator his heavenly father

that's what every single one of us were created for and then the enemy Lucifer Satan the devil the serpent whatever you want to call him the dragon He slithers his way into Eden and he tricks Eve and Adam He got him with all three Lus of the eyes, less of the flesh and the pride of life When she saw that the apple was good for the eye

And that it would be pleasing to eat And that it would make her wise She ate it and he did likewise Because he was standing right there with her And when sin entered our world It held the door open for all the pain And all the humility and all the shame and everything that you've ever regretted

came into the world in that very moment. But that's not the end of the story. In that moment, God says, as God walks down Adam and Eve, he says to them, I'm going to kick you out of the garden because of his justice. Sin must be judged. But he made a covering suitable for them.

He covered them with shed blood of an animal he made clothing for them. And then he gave this promise. I'm going to put enmity between your offspring and this enemy, this serpent, this devil. and there will come a day, and he thinks he's going to bruise his heel. That's called the crucifixion. And in so doing, he's going to get his head crush.

That's the resurrection. And Jesus lived this perfect life, died in our place, went to the grave in a borrowed tomb. You know, as a borrowed tomb, he only needed it for the weekend. Because at the end of the weekend, he rolled the stone away, and he came out of the grave alive. Why? Because the wages of sin is death, and he had no death, so death couldn't hold him. So he puts death to death, and he is the firstborn from among the dead. and whoever would believe in him, we like him, will be resurrected with him, and one day he's coming to make all things new.

It's a war, and we fight from victory. And so we've girded up our loins. That's last week we should be ready to fight. We've wrapped the belt of truth around us. That means we've wrapped Jesus around us. And actually, I want you to celebrate with me last week. 110 people through the ministry of 1122 surrendered their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Amen.

And every single one of those matter to Jesus, but this one matters to me a little bit more. of those was one of our brothers in Union Correctional. Welcome home, brother. Now, the last two weeks are about knowing who the enemy is. This week's about knowing who you are. Most Christians don't know who they are. And so you got to know the enemy and these evil schemes, but you also got to know you. It's good to know who you are if you're going to get in a fight. Like, do you watch the UFC? I hope so. It'll help you be a better disciple, okay? And so you got to know what kind of fight you bring. Like if you're a BJJ guy, if you're a black belt and jiu, you want to get that thing to the ground so you can end it. If you're going to do it. If you're going to

good on your feet, you want to stay up top, okay? So what this sermon is about is you don't know who you are. Most Christians believe like half of the gospel. Ephesus chapter 6, I'm going to read it to you every, hopefully I'm reading it to you every day. I hope you're doing the allurentone thing to get you going. Ephesus chapter 6 beginning of verse 10 says this, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, again, not your might.

Put on the whole arm of God, can't put on just a little bit, can't go to war, but just like a helmet and some socks who gets your buck kicked. You got to put on the whole arm. whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand. Remember that word stand means fight, to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle. This ain't wrestling. This ain't fake. This is real. This is a fight to the death. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up

the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand, fighting word, in the evil day, having done all to stand firm fighting again stand therefore having fastened all the belt of truth that's last week gird up your loins get ready to fight and having put on the breastplate of righteousness that's where we are today now again it doesn't say put it on every day it says having put on the breastplate of righteousness the reality is that the moment you put your faith in jesus christ the breastplate of righteousness has been put on you i just need us to act like it in your newspaper we put a picture of a breastplate, first century breastplate. The key here is that it covers the vital organs. It covers the heart and the important stuff. I don't care how smart you are, how fast you are,

how strong you are. If you're in a fight, you get your heart stabbed, it's over. Proverbs 423 says, above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. And then Paul puts together breastplate and righteousness. Righteousness is a very misunderstood term in church. Second Corinthians 521. I quote this as much as any verse in the Bible. It's like the whole Bible in one verse. It says this, for our sake, he, that's God the Father, made Him, that's God the Son, to be sin who knew no sin,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. So why does he talk about a breastplate for righteousness? Here's the misunderstanding. Ready? In the Bible, righteousness does not mean right activity. It means a right standing before God. If you think that righteousness is a thing that you produce as a gift to God, you're going to be in the bondage of the enemy forever and ever, never, never.

Righteousness is a gift from God to you. Righteousness is not what you do for him. Righteousness is what God has done for you. And you will try to cover you with something. You will try to cover you with something. The reality is, you will either cover yourself with the gospel, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

that because of what Christ has done, you already have his approval, or you'll be like Adam and Eve in the garden, and you'll try to make your own covering with fig leaves, and they just don't cut it. I mean, think about it. Righteousness is a right standing before God, and in the beginning, when God creates Adam and Eve,

they have a right standing before him. A perfect, unadulterated relationship with the God of the Him. universe. And the Bible says, and they were naked and unashamed. And I've told you, the older I am, the more miraculous that verse is in my life. I mean, come on. And I know some of you 20-year-olds are like, what? Oh, you're going to see. You're going to see. And it doesn't just mean physically. It's not just like, hey, we're the only two humans here, so we're the hottest. That's not what it is, man. Think about this. They could stand before one another. They could be completely vulnerable

hiding nothing before God and have no shame, no guilt, no condemnation, no regret. And then when sin enters the world, all of that is fractured. And you know what they decide to do? They actually create the very first religion. Instead of running to God and say, we're sorry, they run from God. And they run and they hide. That's the difference between conviction. Conviction of the Holy Spirit will say, yes, you didn't.

sin, now let's run to the father because he's already paid for this by the blood of his son. The enemy will say, no, no, no, no, you run from him and you better do something about it. And so that's what they do. They run from him. And the Bible says they sow fig leaves for themselves. The first religion is born. By the works of our own hands, we don't need you to cover our sin and shame. We'll do it ourselves.

You see, every single one of us are going to cover ourselves in something. It'll either be the breastplate of righteousness or it will be fig leaves that will never be enough. I mean, some of us try to cover ourselves with success or the success of our kids or our online profile or whatever our status is because that's what we want people to see. See, there's so many people, and I'm talking about people to go to church, that believe that right activity leads to a right standing before God. That is not the case. That's called morality. Morality will keep you out of prison. It will not keep you out of hell. There was a sermon. There's a few sermons I go back to over and over and over.

2015, there's a Presbyterian dude here. Looks like he works at Blockbuster. And he's like a blue shirt and a khakis. Awesome. His name's Ray Cortiz. 2015, it saturated. He preached a sermon on the righteousness of Christ right here. It's one of the best sermons I've ever heard in my life.

If you want to hear a better version of this sermon, you go back and listen to that. I highly encourage you to. And a part of what he said is most Christians only believe half the gospel. And because you only believe half the gospel, you're not walking in the power that you get from the gospel. And what I mean by is this, is he says that his church, if you're going to become a member, he asked this question, how do you get into heaven? Some people give an unchristian answer. My goodness, we'll talk about that in a second. That will not get you in that. And then a lot of people give like the Christian answer. It's just not the complete gospel. It'll say, because Jesus died

on the cross for my sin. Is that true? It's absolutely true. It's just not complete. Not only did Jesus died for your sin, but he also lived in your place and produced a righteousness that you get credit for when you believe in Jesus. The way it says it in Romans is this, Romans 1, 16, and 17, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. How many of you need the power of God in your life when you're fighting against the enemy? The gospel provides it to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.

from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Here's what I mean. There is no power in thinking that righteousness is up to your performance. If that's what you think it is, if you think right activity earns a right standing, you'll either be arrogant because you think you're better than everybody else and prize the granddaddy of all sin, or you'll be exhausted because you know you can't pull it off. Those are your two options. But there's also no power in thinking that you're nothing more than a forgiven sinner. You are a forgiven sinner, and yet when you put on the breastplate of righteousness, you're also more than a conqueror.

Like God's not in love with some future version of you once you can start acting better. He knows exactly what he gets when he bought you. And to put on the breastplate of righteousness means that you put on God's approval, because his approval is not based on your performance. It's based on Christ's performance on the cross. And the reality is that all religions are, on a pursuit of righteousness. Everybody agrees with this.

God, whatever you call him, is somewhere out there different than us, and we are down here, and we've got to do some things to get from here to there. It's what every major world religion and every cult teaches that. And the uniqueness of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that God became a man and came on a rescue mission to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. That righteousness is not a thing that we produce as a gift from God. it's the thing that he did on our behalf and gives it to us as a gift. You see, the enemy wants to kill, steal, and destroy your heart.

He doesn't really care about your finances or your marriage. He's trying to destroy those things so that he can put a dagger in your heart. When you put on the gospel, when you put on the breastplate of righteousness, those daggers can't pierce your heart because he covers your heart. Philippians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul explains this very, very clearly. And again, what he's explaining here is that, our right activity does not earn a right standing with God, but a right standing with God is given to us as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ. That's the spoiler alert. That's what he's

going to use a lot of words to say. Philippians chapter 3 verse 1, he says, finally my brother. Here's how you know Paul's a good preacher because he says, finally and he's only halfway done with the whole book. So if I'm ever like, in conclusion, we're about an hour out, okay? So we've still got two full chapters. He says, finally my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. Now remember, he writes this from prison. So he's saying, I'm not putting my faith in my circumstances. That's what happiness is. Happiness is based on happenings.

He's saying, I'm going to rejoice because my joy is in Jesus. And to rejoice is just the verb for the noun that is joy, and I can find my joy in Jesus because he never changes. So he says, finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. I love this line. Why? because it is my pleasure to preach the same thing to you over and over and over.

I got one message. We're just going to preach the gospel. You know why? Because you forget. Me too. I'll be all filled up with the gospel, got my breastplate of righteousness on. I know that I have the approval of God because of the work, the finished work of Christ on the cross. And I lay down on my pillow and the gospel leaks out my ear.

And I wake up the next day trying to prove that I'm somebody. You ever do that? Of course you do. That's why you're back here. And he says, there's no trouble to me and it's safe for you. Listen, the gospel is the most. most eternally safe thing that you'll ever hear, and it's the most dangerous thing to the way you live in this world right now. It'll cost you everything. And then one of my favorite verses in the

whole Bible, y'all should memorize this one. Look at that. Look out for the dogs. Let's go. That's what I'm talking about. Look out for the dogs. Now, I wish it was talking about the red and black, but it's not. This is an incredibly derogatory statement from Paul. You don't even know how, like these are fighting words. What was happening, if you were here during our series, series on Galatians, be free. The same thing that was happening in Philippi was happening in Galatia. There were some Judaizers, some religious people that said what Jesus did on the cross is not enough. It's what Christ did on the cross. That was cool. But plus, you've got to add some of your own works, particularly circumcision and obedience to the law in order to make you

clean. Now, when the reason that Paul calls them dogs is he's flipping the phrase around. Because religious Jews would call dirty Gentiles dogs because they were nasty and they were Don't think like your dogs. Like if you have a sweater for your dog, you're off the farm, man. Okay? I mean, we're there, man. Gretchen keeps our dog food in the refrigerator.

What in the world is happening? Anywho. So don't think like cute little fluff that you get them. No, no, man. A dog, nobody had pet dogs in the first century. They were like half mangy, wild park coyote would eat trash in the road and maybe your children if you didn't pay attention.

You know what I mean? These are awful. and the religious Jews would say to the Gentiles, you're like those dirty dolls. And what Paul is saying is if you think that it's Christ, death on the cross plus your good works, and you're trying to make Gentiles clean by telling them to do good works,

then you're the dirty mangy mutt. That's like walking up to Jesus on the cross going, good try, you almost did it. Now let me help, as if you're going to get to heaven and go, we did it. We didn't do anything. The only thing you bring to the equation of your salvation, is the sin that required Jesus to go to the cross.

That's it. And so he's calling them dogs. I mean, this is fighting words. So he says, look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. You see, because what they were teaching, they were teaching is Jesus plus circumcision.

And again, we talked about this several weeks ago. I know you don't think about circumcision in your life. I feel like we talk about it every week around here. I don't know what's going on. Circumcision was a covenant that pointed to, it was a symbol of a covenant that pointed to God's relationship with his people. And remember Dr. Matt Carter unpacked this

and the best way I've ever heard it unpacked. The reason circumcision was a thing is because the thing that transfers the sin of Adam to the next generation would be covered in blood as a picture of what Christ was going to do on the cross. That Jesus would shed his blood for the covering of sin

that would not just cover sin, but would take it away. And so today we don't really think about that or talk about that that that much. But what we do is any time, if you say it's Jesus plus any work, so what some people will say is Jesus plus First Communion or confirmation or baptism or speaking in tongues, it's not. Jesus plus anything in regards to your salvation ruins everything. It's salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. That we are saved by works, just Jesus' work on the cross,

and no work that we can do. We are saved by grace through faith and not by works. And even the faith that we have is a gift from God. Verse three, for we are the circumcision. In other words, if you, like Abraham, put your faith in God, then you now have the mark of the covenant

between God's people and God based on your faith in Jesus Christ. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Verse four, though, I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Here's what he is saying. If you think right activity earns a right relationship with God, Paul is saying, my resume is better than your resume. If this is a race to heaven and the best people get there, he's saying, I'm in first place, I have the poll position. He's going to list seven things on his religious resume. four of them are inherited.

They're about his pedigree, and three of them are about his achievements, his performance. And he's about to list them all. And here he goes. First one, circumcised on the eighth day. He's saying, Ritually, I'm better than you.

I wasn't converted late. When I was eight days old, I was in line with the Mosaic law. He says, of the people of Israel, racially, he's saying I'm better than you. That I was a part of God's chosen people. My parents were converted. I was pure-blooded of the tribe of Benjamin.

So not only am I of the right nation, but as it goes to respect, I was born in the best of the best of the best of all the tribes. Benjamin was like the most respected of all the tribes. A Hebrew of Hebrews. He said, I had the right upbringing. I was born on the right side of the tracks. A bunch of you people don't even know Aramaic.

You speak Greek, a bunch of dirty dogs. He's like, I grew up studying the scriptures in its original language in Hebrew. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. And then he gets to his achievement. and as to the law, a Pharisee. He's saying, I'm more religious than you. You see, a Pharisee, listen, a Pharisee is legit. A Pharisee, you had like a Ph.D. in the Bible.

That they would memorize, check this out. They would memorize every verse from Genesis to the Italian prophet Malachi. There's like four people right now that realize there's not an Italian prophet named Malachi. It's called Malachi. See, you don't know your Bible. He memorized every verse. And let's be honest, man. you couldn't finish your crossword.

You couldn't. You had to Google it because one of them comes from Peter. It doesn't come from Galette. You were all messed up. This guy's saying, listen, a Pharisee's job. Here's what they do. It means separated one. And they were like, God, we appreciate your 613 laws.

We're going to add a bunch to them just to make sure not only, we're not even going to cross out that line. We're going to back this thing so far up that we're separated from this dirty, nasty world that when Messiah comes, we're going to be the first ones to recognize him. And they got so legalistic, they got so religious that they were too. two feet away from God in the flesh. They could smell his breath and they didn't know him. But he was like, hey, as far as, I'm more religious than you.

As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church, he's like, I was more radical than you. You like went to Sunday school. I began to put teams together to keep Judaism pure, and I was going to take out this way. And then, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. He's saying, I was self-righteous.

He didn't say it was perfect. He said, when I broke one of the 613 laws, I knew the exact sacrifice that had to be made, and I did it on the right day, so that I could stand before God blameless. So he's saying, ritually, racially, respectfully, in regards to his right upbringing, religiously, radically, and according to his own righteousness,

he's saying I was the best. Verse 7. But whatever gain I had, which was immense, He had status, he had money, he had power. He had everything the first century Jewish world had to offer. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Why? Because none of those things had any eternal value at all.

He's saying all this world has to offer compared to Christ is nothing but loss compared to knowing him. See, we say this all the time. We don't follow Jesus because he makes our God. our life better, we follow Jesus because he is better than life. Now, as far as this weekend goes, it could change any weekend, as crazy as our world's getting. If you do life, the way Jesus says to do life, it'll probably go better for you. It just will, okay? Husbands, if you love your wife, like how I said to love the church and give yourself up for her, it tends to go better at home.

If you don't lie, if you don't steal, if you don't cheat, if you only sleep with your spouse, things tend to go better. But God is not a means to our end. He is the ultimate end. and we don't follow him because of the cash and prizes. We follow him because he is the prize. This is what he's saying. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Verse 8. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ,

Jesus, my Lord. That's a great verse. Few people live it. It's a great verse. I mean, can you say that? Can I say that? I count everything as lost because of the surpassing world. earth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. You see, Martin Luther said the life of the Christian

is that of daily repentance. Repent means to change the way you think. Repent means to change direction. And so this means that we repent of our wretchedness. Honestly, we all get that. Nobody would argue with that. Regardless of what you believe, everybody understands if you do something that you think is wrong, you don't want to do those things anymore. That's what it means to repent of sin or repent of righteousness. Everybody agrees with that. The crazy thing about the gospel is not only do we repent of wretchedness, we repent of our own resume. If you bring your resume to God to be like, aren't you proud of me? Then we need to repent of that. And what's crazy is that an act of a person can either discuss God or glorify God. This is why Isaiah says,

even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. Here's what this means. If you think your right activity puts God in your debt, God ain't into that. Like you could write a big check today. You could write the biggest check in the history of Christendom today and drop it in the box. And as God pleased, it depends on your heart. If you're trying to put him in your debt because you've got a big interview this week and you want his blessing, that ain't how it works. Because he is first. You're not first. He doesn't respond to you. And yet you could be in a place in your life where you know that God is first and God loves first and God went first and sent his son Jesus and die on the cross, and you're just trying to bring your first and best, and then you put,

you put a check in the box, and he is pleased by that because God loves a cheerful giver. You see how when we try to use our resume to put God in our debt, then we have to repent of that. We have to repent of our religion. That we can be like Adam and Eve, sewing fig leaves to cover our sin, and it doesn't work. Here's what's crazy about the gospel. Some of you need to be saved from sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And some of you need to be saved from Sunday school. You're like, what?

Yeah. Bethmore Bible studies. What? Right. Because you think your knowledge of that book saves you instead of your knowledge of Jesus Christ. That every single one of us is a sinner in need of a Savior. Man, we've got to repent from our wretchedness and our resume and our religion

and repent of our self-righteousness. When we try to declare our self-righteous by our good works, we have to repent of that. Now listen. The moment you put your faith in Jesus, you are imputed with his righteousness, and that should drive us to right living. But if you get those things out of order, then you are not in accordance with the gospel. He says, indeed, I count everything I's lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things. And he had a lot

to lose. He had political power. He was a part of the Sanhedron. He had social power. He was a Roman citizen. He had religious power. He was a Pharisee. He had financial power. He was loaded. He had educational power. He got a degree from Tarsus. And he studied under Gamalio. And he had family power. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. And he was willing to lay it all down to follow Jesus. Listen, when I went to ministry, I was 19. I was a junior in college. I felt this overwhelming call to do what I'm doing right now, not like this, but just to teach the Bible to whoever would pay attention. And I go to my pastor and I said, Pastor, I'm willing to lay it all down for the sake of Christ. And he says, son, you don't have anything. I was a junior in college.

I'm going to lay down my bean bag and my ramen and I have nothing. It's easy to give it all up, but you ain't got nothing. Paul was like on top of his game. And then he met Christ. And he says, I'm willing to lay it all down. He says this, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Rubbish. Say, rubbish. Bad translation, man. Yeah, the Bible translators are more PC than the Bible. This word is scubilon. Say scubilon. Anybody badness? You said a bad word in church. You did. Scoobelon. Like, when you were growing up in the first century, if you said scubilion, your grandma would wash your mouth out with soap. You know what it means? It's slang for animal dung or animal

excrement. Slang for animal dung. What do you call that? I don't know. A person calls it rubbish, unless you're British, you know, like, oh, I've got some rubbish. No, no, no, no. No, I know what our people call it in Palacca. That's called bold scuba long. That's what that's called, bold scuba lon. Now, listen, seriously, the way in English we use the word BS, I'm not going to say it because that'll mess up some of you. Bull crap. I'll say bull crap. And if you don't like it, read your Bible. Listen, the way we use BS is what this word means. Like if something's not real, if something's fake, if something doesn't live up to the truth, you're like, that's BS, that's bull scrimble on right there right that's what he's saying your own righteous religious resume to try to

earn a right standing before god is like bull crap compared to knowing jesus who loved you and gave himself for you that's what he's saying that's what it means you see every single one of us will be covered by something you'll either be covered by the breastplate of righteousness the imputed righteousness of christ or you'll try to cover yourself with some fig leaves that you make here's something to think about when you read the writings of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. I think it's a big reason that God chose him

and used him to be an apostle. Because Paul simultaneously is both better than you and worse than you. Like religiously, man, he's better than you. He literally knew the whole Old Testament cover to cover. You went to like two years of VBS and you can't even keep up with your Bible reading plan.

Let's be honest. and yet, and yet, he kept every law, and if he broke him, he kept the sacrifices that corresponded, and he lived for this, and yet he was not good enough to earn his own right standing with God. He needed a savior. And, no matter how bad you think you are, he's the worst than you.

He's worse than you. I mean, I don't know what you struggle with. I don't know what your sin is. I don't know what that thing your last church told you that you were too far gone. was a lie. There is more grace than Jesus than sin in you. That's just a fact. Saul was a religious terrorist, and he wasn't just like killing one Christian at a time. He was trying to systematically wipe out all of Christianity. That's what he did. And yet God decided to put his love on Saul,

change his name, and save him. So none of us are too far gone. None of us are good enough to make it on our own, and none of us are too far gone. You see, Jesus is the only one that when you find him, he'll never forsake you, and when you fail him, he'll forgive you. That you and I are simultaneously more sinful than we realize and more love than we could ever possibly imagine. Then you get to verse 9. It's one of the most important verses in the whole New Testament. Paul says, that I may gain Christ, that's the end of eight.

And then he says, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. That's the gospel. How do you get a right standing before God? Faith in Jesus Christ. That we are imputed, credited. That's what that means. With his righteousness. And he takes all of our sin. Martin Luther used to call it the great exchange that when you put your faith in Jesus, the righteousness of Christ is counted or credited to you and your sin is counted or credited to Jesus. It's the great exchange ever. Now listen. A bunch of you grew up Catholic.

I know the math doesn't work, but half our church is Catholic, half our church is Southern Baptist, and half of y'all never went to church. That's how 1122 is. Now listen, if you grew up Catholic, man, I'm not trying to beat up on, we've partnered with Catholics to do a bunch of stuff, but you were taught a false gospel in regard to righteousness.

The Bible teaches imputed righteousness. When I believe his right standing is credited to me, you were taught imparted righteousness which is not the gospel imparted righteousness says when i do my part he does his part so you if you don't stay in right standing with the religious activity like communion and mass and confession then his grace is not imparted to you that is not that is that is a works based righteousness and is not true now imputed righteousness or positional righteousness will produce or lead to practical righteousness. Like in other words, when I know I have the approval of God,

then I will be compelled to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if you get those things out of order, then you will not be walking in the gospel. You will be walking in your own works, and your works will never save you. Righteousness is not a thing we produce for God. It's a thing that he produces and gives to us as a gift if we will receive it through faith in Christ.

He says, I want to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. That I may know him. Church, do you know him? I don't mean, know about him. I mean, do you know him?

You know, years ago, man, we had a guy that was a fundamentalist Baptist pastor. I don't know if you met fundamentalists. Not a lot of fun, a lot of mental. I don't know if you know that. That's where fundamental comes from. He passed her for a long, long time, retired, came here and got saved. He said, I preached this Bible my whole life about what we should do.

And for the first time, have come to the reality that I didn't know the grace of Jesus. Do you know him? Not know about it, not just go to church and do good things. Do you know him? He says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. I want you to know the power of his resurrection. This is how we walk in victory against the enemy. That the Bible says the wages of sin is death.

didn't have any sin so the death, death can't hold him down. So when he walked out of the grave, he's the proto-toko, the prototype from the dead, which means if you put your faith in him, he went first and he's going to take us with him, and then one day he's going to come and make all things new, and we will be saved from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and one day to the presence of sin, and that is the power of the resurrection. That's different than just attending church every once in a while. Now, if I was, if Paul would ask me for my input on this verse,

I would say, dude, what you want to do is just put a period or maybe an exclamation point right after the power of his resurrection. Everybody clap. It would be awesome. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection. But he don't stop. I know. You ain't going to clap at this next part and may share his sufferings. Wait, what? You ever play follow the leader? There ain't rocket signs, man. You go where the leader goes. He went to the cross.

The path of the gospel leads every single one of us to the cross. For some people around the world literally, like they get martyred for Jesus. But for every single one of us that we would crucify our flesh, you want to live, you got to die. That you can be able to say, I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In this life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the power of the Son of God. Do you know him? Do you know him?

It says, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I am. may attain the resurrection from the dead. There is only one way to attain the resurrection from the dead. That is to put your faith in Jesus Christ. And when you do, he puts on you the breastplate of righteousness, that you have a right standing before God. There's a couple of sermons I listen to about, I mean, I just listen to them over and over and over.

One of them, Amen and Frank sent me. It's by Alistair Begg. I go back and listen to it all the time. I've pointed it out to you before. It's called the man on the middle cross. And by the way, every time I say it, I've got to, because of my accent, you hear, somebody text me one time and be like, I didn't know the Jeopardy guy was a preacher. No, not Alex Trebek, Alistair Begg.

It's a Scottish guy. He sounds awesome. It's like Braveheart's preached to you. And he's got this sermon called the Man on the Middle Cross. It's some Presbyterian conference because he's preaching fire, man. And then presbyes are just the frozen chosen. They're just like, and he says, if you ever heard of like the spring break question that college missionaries, will ask people if you were to die tonight and you were standing before God and he said why should

I let you in my heaven what would you say it's a legitimate question you should deal with it my own personal preference is if you're talking to strangers you might know want to talk about their death sounds like you're a murder but just whatever and then he goes on to say if you begin to answer with the first person you've already messed up like why should I get to go on your hair because I because I believe because I have faith no no no no no no no no you have to start to the second person, because he, because of what he has done for me. And then he goes to talk about the guy on the cross that puts his faith in Jesus. The man never did anything to earn a right standing before God.

He's on the cross and somehow he recognizes and realizes that what Jesus is doing on the middle cross somehow counts for him. And so he asked for a favor. Jesus, will you remember me when you go before your father this day in heaven? And if anybody in the whole Bible makes it to heaven, we know this brother does. Because Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. And then Alastabagic says, I wonder what it was like, you know, he's standing in line, registering for heaven, and people are asking him questions.

Do you know all these theological terms? He's like, I don't know what you're talking about. And they say, and Alastrabeg's just making this up. He says, by what means do you propose? to enter. And his simple answer said, the man on the middle cross said I could come. That's the gospel. Do you realize that? It was not about his right activity. He couldn't do anything for the Lord. You see, imputed righteousness covers our sinfulness. You ever wonder why Paul puts together the breastplate of righteousness? I looked up other breastplates. If I was going to wear a breastplate,

here's the one I'd put on. Look at this breastplate right here. Boom, look at that jack. What even is that, man? Look at that. Holy canoli. Like, think about this. You ever seen a chubby breastplate? You ever seen one in the movies? And it's like, he-h-hoo, that guy?

No, man. Because even if all that's going on underneath, when you put on the breastplate, what do you see? Listen, man, if I put on, I don't look nothing like that. But if I put on that breastplate, you would not see all the jiggle situation that I got going on. Why? I'm 50 years old, man.

you'll give you an over 50 fitness tip tan fat equals muscle that's all i got for you okay and i know there's various levels of fitness here but guess what folks i don't care how fit you are time and gravity ain't your friend and you can nip it and tuck it and stretch it and clip it and color it and no zimping it you can do whatever you want all right but eventually it's going to catch up with you and you're going to look like a trash bag full of water that's just what happens you can't outrun it and yet regardless of what's going on up under here When you put on the breastplate of righteousness, if we were to see you, all we would see is perfect pecks and abs. And when you put on faith in Jesus Christ, when God the Father looks at you, he doesn't see your sin, he doesn't see your shame, he doesn't see your regret, he doesn't see the addiction, he doesn't see the condemnation.

He sees the blood of his son, Jesus Christ, and he says, behold, that's my son in whom I am well pleased. That's why it matters. Put on the breastplate of his righteousness. now with all that in mind now hear this for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin that in him we might become the righteousness of god in ray cortes the sermon that he preached here he used this illustration this incredible he said imagine you were like a trillion dollars in debt and you went to the bank and you're like man i can't pay this back and the bank president came out and said you know what because i'm gracious i'm going to

cancel your debt. Would you be grateful? For sure. Would it be gracious? For sure. And what would your status be? You would walk out of that bank broke and you'd have to get to work to earn a living. So many people think that's the gospel. That's not the total gospel. When we bring our sinfulness to the Lord and say, I can't pay this back and he forgives us at the cross, is it true? It is true. It just doesn't stop there. Back at the bank, it would be like the president of the bank comes to you and says, hey not only am I going to forgive you your debt I'm going to adopt you as my son here are the keys to the bank here are the keys to the vault here's a bank card and all that I have is yours that's what imputed righteousness is and that does not drive you to take

advantage of it that drives you to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ and so let me ask you do you know him There's two groups of lost people here today, and it ain't church and unchurched. There's a bunch of church people that fall into one of these two groups, too. There are some people, and you think Jesus is unnecessary. Because you think you're pretty good. Pretty good. And compare to the people you compare yourself to, you are, because you compare yourself

to the nightly news in your college roommate. Cool, you're crushing it. That's not, God doesn't compare like that. Jesus says, be holy, for I am holy. He says, be perfect for I am perfect. And all have sin and fall. is short of the glory of God. And us compared to the righteous king of the universe

are unrighteous. And so if you think, you know, I'm a pretty good person, he's a good God, he's going to let me in heaven because, you know, I've done good. That is not the gospel. That you need to repent of your own self-righteousness. And you also need a Savior. And there are some of you,

and you think Jesus is unreachable. Some people think he's unnecessary and some people think he's unreachable. And you say, pastor, you don't know what I've done. I don't need to know what you've done. I would lovelingly say, who the heck do you think you are? Because the grace in Jesus poured out of the cross is infinitely greater than whatever sin you bring to the equation. Listen, man, the Bible says, there's a verse that says, the arms of God are not too short to save.

And every time I read that, some of you guys think God's got these little T-Rex arms like this. And he's got a big old mouth of judgment. and he like can't get to you and he's like god just gets mad high bite your head off that ain't the gospel man the arms of god are so extended they stretched out as far as they could on a cross to say for all who call on the name of the lord will be saved that he's not unreachable he's actually as close as your next breath so when Satan's schemes of shame and condemnation try to pierce your heart they cannot when you put your faith in Jesus and you put on God's approval, that's what that means. And when you begin to live life, having put on the righteousness of Christ, purchased for you,

then you are walking in the reality that you have God's approval because of what he has done. And so when he lies to you, you know, 1 John 410, this is love. not that we love him, but he first loved us and sent his son as the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies, which means this. If you are in Christ, God is not dissatisfied in you. That God loves you, he's for you, and he's calling you to come home right now. Let me ask you, do you know him? Do you know him?

Paul says, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. the righteousness from God that depends on faith. There's a guy of our church named Jack Johnson, not banana pancakes guy, but another guy with the same name. Years ago, he sent me this text after I was preaching on the imputed righteousness of Christ. It's credible. He said this,

the only paperwork that matters on the day of judgment is not your resume, but Christ's invitation. The only paperwork that matters on the day of judgment is not what you've done, but have you said yes to his invitation? Maybe my favorite picture of imputed righteousness in the whole Bible. I'm going to preach a whole sermon on it in September.

But in Luke 15 in the prodigal, the story of the prodigal son, where the boy comes home, and he's just living in the conditions that are a result of his own sinfulness. And he's in a pigstyne. He's nasty. And he's outcast.

from his family, from community, from the temple. And the Bible says, eventually he comes to his senses, and he decides to come home. And his father is seeing him from a long ways off when he sees him, he runs to him. And he doesn't give him a bath, doesn't tell him to clean himself up, doesn't give him a lecture. He just wraps his arms around him. The Bible says he covers his face and kisses. And the first thing that he tells the service, he says, go get my robe of righteousness. It's the perfect spotless robe of the dad.

So when everybody's looking at the boy, they don't see his filth that he got himself into. The dad wraps his perfect, clean robe around him and says, my boy was dead and now he's alive. That's what it means to put on the breastplate of righteousness. How the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that you just believe when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for. me. The Bible is explicitly clear in Romans 1013 for all who call on the name of the Lord. You will be saved. Have you ever done that? You want to be covered in God's approval? You want your sin wiped away? You want Christ's righteous, perfect life counted to you. You want to be adopted into his family? Then just give up to say, all right, I admit it. I can't do this on my own.

I've tried. It ain't working. Jesus, I believe. I believe. that somehow when you died on the cross, that counted for me. And just like that man that was crucified next to Jesus. The only paperwork that matters when you get to the day of judgment is not your resume. But you're saying yes, to his invitation. I want to give you the opportunity to say yes to his invitation right now. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes?

And if you are ready to receive Christ's finished work on the cross on your behalf, to have your sins washed away, to his righteousness placed on you, to be adopted into the family of God, to have God's approval for all eternity. Then the Bible says all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you're ready to call on the name of the Lord for your salvation for the very first time, I invite you to raise your hand as high as you can. I don't care how far you've been running, how good you think you've been.

You raise it as high as you can. You say, Father, here I am, save me. And that's a prayer. He answers 100% of the time. Our good and gracious heavenly, Father God, I thank you, and I praise you that you did not come to just teach us how to live better. You came to live in our place and die in our place. And for anyone who would believe that we would receive the right to be called children of God.

And God, I thank you that you clothe us in your robe, perfect spotless robe of righteousness. And when you see us, you see that perfect breastplate, not our sin and our shame and our guilt and our regrets, but you see your son, Jesus Christ. And over us, you say, behold my son in whom I am well pleased. Now by the power of the Holy Spirit standing on the authority of the Word of God God for those of us who have been clothed in your righteousness would you give us

that spirit power to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ God we thank you we thank you for saving people even this day we pray this in Jesus' name amen church would you please stand as we close we close on purpose this way. There's a lot of places just be like, all right, we're done. We ain't done. Because this part of our service is war. When we sing, we go to war. Worship is war. Remember, the enemy

got kicked out of heaven because he wanted to sit on the throne. Every time we worship God, we say, we ain't worshipping you, we're worshipping you. And this song we're singing, it's a lot of words. It's very theologically technical. Stay in it. Because it's the whole sermon in a song about his merit, not the merit we bring. And we bring our ties and offerings. It's about tipping God. One of the ways you can go to war is fuel the advancement of God's kingdom in this crooked and depraved generation. So we bring our first and best. And we pray because it is the lifeline to our heavenly father who is the king of the universe.

So maybe the enemy's been whispering condemnation in your life. You run down here having put on the breastplate of righteousness and you experience his approval. Let's sing, let's bring, let's pray, let's go to war.