Well, it's another Lord's Day. We come together again to meet together around God's Word and look together at this topic we've considered now for the last few Sundays standing in the evil day. So I would encourage you, if you will, open up with me to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Today we're going to discuss the topic of righteousness and peace. I'd like to read the passage here in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 through 18. Listen to what the Word of God says. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you are able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Recently, I heard an author and a pastor make this statement that in the last year, there have been a record 17 million guns purchased. This is in addition to the already 350 to 400 million guns that are known. That doesn't even speak of the ones that we don't know about. It can average out to about 120 guns per 100 Americans. And if you try to find ammo in many stores, like if you go in to try to find nine millimeter ammo, you might find it resembling the shells and what they looked like during the beginning of COVID crisis when you went to find toilet paper. Empty. This is really a reflection of our culture where we are. Uncertainty. A lot of uncertainty. There's a lot of instability, and all of us feel it. We know it's there. We all understand that this country and the values that we hold dear are under attack, much more than just a physical attack. It's much more than just the pulling down of statues. It's more than just the removal of our history. It's more than riots in the streets and the burning down of buildings. It's more than the COVID virus and the misinformation and the information that's being put out. It's more than the Antifa planned and orchestrated events to overturn the Capitol. This is ideological. It's specifically, as I mentioned to you a couple of weeks ago, it is ideological subversion. It is an attempt to radically transform the thinking of Americans and to mold us into an entirely unbiblical worldview. Secretary of State Pompeo recently stated regarding the current situation we find ourselves in the United States these words, and I quote, this isn't a Cold War. This isn't about containment. This is something different. It's about a complex new challenge that we've never faced before. The USSR was closed off to the free world. Communist China is already within our borders. Now, many find what is going on in our country interesting and sometimes a good topic of conversation and maybe speculation. But what is really sad to say is that there are many within the population of America, even evangelical churches, that don't really care about this much at all. In fact, they don't even talk about it much. They have their nice homes and their good jobs and their children are well taken care of. They have a school to go to or either their homeschool. They have their church that they love and maybe some Christian music that they listen to. But regarding the radical transformation of the world and the view that Americans are beginning to be seduced into believing, they just don't care. The apathy and the complacency in our country is absolutely astounding. regarding this. And it will, mark my words, it will lead to the destruction of this country. Just like communist China is already within the borders of the United States, the enemy is already within the church. In fact, the enemy's been inside the church for some time now. He's come in a number of different ways. They've come in overtly, covertly. through a number of different means of media, whether digital or printed. And in some cases, the church has simply opened up the doors willingly and actively invited them in. For many of the churches, their primary focus is budgets, buildings, and bodies. And little time is really spent on educating the people of God in the word of God and equipping the saints so that they can stand in the evil day. And we are at war. I hope you really understand that this is not just a sermon. This is reality. We are at war and too many in the church are asleep. What did Paul say? You remember it in second Corinthians 10 verse three and four. He says, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh for our weapons are not a weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God. The word war that is translated in that text actually is a word strata, which we get a word strategic from, and you could literally render it this way for though we walk in the flesh, we do not strategize according to the flesh. And the word mighty is the word. Dunitas which is a word that has the idea of power the very power of God that he created everything with so We're not in a war that is a fleshly war. We're in an ideological war That is a spiritual war that is attacking the minds and the worldview of people today Sadly whenever the church should be at its strongest it is at its weakest and Whenever we need the church to be filled with men and women who are very well equipped in the word of God, we find sadly that we are more equipped in the culture and the world values and the worldview of the world than we are in the word of God. We will spend endless hours watching nonsensical videos online and spend very little time in the word of God, filling our minds with the scripture so that we can be transformed and have a renewed mind. You will not survive in this battle if you do not do the things that are recorded here in Ephesians chapter six. You will be a fallen soldier for Christ if you do not make sure that you are equipped with the armor that the Lord has given to us here in this text. So we turn our attention back to that text and as we begin looking at it, I just remind you that we began looking at the exhortation found in verse 10. And the exhortation comes in these words, verse 10 of Ephesians six, finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord. And in the power of his might sounds very familiar to what Paul said in second Corinthians 10, the power that he's talking about here and the strength of Christ or the strength of God comes in the application of the believer's armor. This is not some means by which you just kind of get away and get a goose bump feeling and know that God's with you. This much, much deeper than that. And frankly, much more objective than that. This is the adding of the armor of God to us so that we can be equipped in the strength and the power of God. He makes it clear in verse 10 by giving us the command here. He says, finally, my brethren be strong, present tense, continually be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Then you have the next two commands given to us on how that is to be accomplished in verse 11 and 13. We are to put on the whole armor of God and we are to take up the whole armor of God. As mentioned before, you cannot be equipped by taking some of the armor. You must be equipped with all of the armor. Paul did not say just take the sword of the spirit. He did not just say, take the breastplate of righteousness. He did not just say to pray always with all supplication and prayer. He said that we are to have the whole armor of God. And if you are not equipped completely, then you are ill equipped for the war that we are in. The exhortation leads to our explanation given to us in verse 13 and following that this is an evil day. We saw three reasons why we needed the armor was the age, the activity and the adversary. The age is the evil day, which can refer to a day or a time period, which we are in one of those time periods, the perilous times that Paul, the apostle also referred to that would come on the church. It is the evil day that he talked about making sure that we redeem our time because the days are evil and they are, and will continue to get much worse. The activity is found in verse 11, where he tells us that we are to stand against the wiles of the devil or the schemes of the devil or the devices of the devil. But that word method is a very interesting word. It doesn't mean just evil plotting. It has the idea of using truth as a vehicle for error. And that is the way the devil has done it for years and years and years for millennia. He's always incorporated just enough truth to make you swallow it. But with that comes the error. We're not necessarily looking for someone who stands up and says, I'm a false teacher. Or teach teaching blatant heresy of the denial of the deity of Christ or the denial of the sufficient atonement of Christ or something like that, or to say that you get salvation by works. We're not talking about that kind of error. That's very, very clear. But what we're talking about is the kind of area that shows up as an evangelical. The kind of error that shows up as a Protestant pastor. The one who writes blogs or has, you know, other books that are put out or maybe even videos or whatever it may be, whatever form it may come in, they appear to be somewhat evangelical, somewhat orthodox, but there is within that, that error that comes in along with it and it leads the church astray. The adversaries is the other reason why. We need to be prepared with the armor. And that is mentioned in verse 12, where we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Our fight is not with people, humans. Our fight is with the devil and the demons that orchestrate and fuel a lot of this. It's a lot, a lot deeper than what we realize in verse 12. He says, for, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual host of wickedness and the heavenly places. We are currently witnessing what it looks like in a very real way, in a very tangible way in our country whenever we see so much evil activity being done, no doubt clearly orchestrated by years and years of planning, not just by men, but by devils and demons. So the exhortation and the explanation led to the third point and the final point, and that is the equipment. What do we need? How do you stand? What do you do? I remember whenever I was first Uh, when I first became a Christian and I had very little discernment at all, and I was with a pastor who happened to be a Southern Baptist pastor and, and he would go around the room of the building, pleading the blood on the walls in the church, as if somehow that incantation was going to somehow keep the devil out. And I asked him, you know, well, where is that in the Bible? He never could point me to a verse because frankly, folks, there isn't one. That's not the way you deal with the devil and the demons. That's not the way you approach the enemy. The enemy is to be dealt with from a biblical framework, from a mindset that is full of Christ and not some kind of strange, bizarre demon casting incantations that so many people come up with today. And frankly put a lot of these things that you hear today online or in other contexts where these false prophets and false prophetesses are out there binding the devil and casting out the devil. These demons are simply laughing at that because they don't have the authority to do that. If the devil was bound as many times as he has been claimed to be bound, we would have no problem with him at all. He would be locked up for much more longer than eternity. The same is the case with demons. There's such bizarre things going on that has led large portions of the evangelical church astray from what the real issue is and what the real armor is. And it's not hard. It really isn't. It's not hard to understand and it's not hard to apply. It's just simply a matter of looking at the text and obeying what the text says and doing as the Puritans would do, making sure we apply the text to us. So as we began looking at this equipment, we found in verse 14, he begins by the first command of stand, the other uses of the word withstand and stand are not commands, but here he gives the command to stand therefore, having girded ourselves or our waist with truth. In other words, we are to get prepared to stand against the devil with the truth. And no doubt, as you all know, that Martin Luther in the Reformation was one of those who stood against the satanic forces of that day. In fact, he stood at the dine of worms there and had been accused of heresy. And he was not willing to recant the teaching that he had, uh, come to know from the word of God, from Romans and Galatians, that salvation came by faith alone in Christ alone through grace alone. And he stood there saying, my conscious is captive to the word of God. Here I stand. I can do no other. And hence we had the Protestant reformation. You and I are here today in many ways, because he stood and he stood against the forces of evil, the darkness of that day, where in fact, the gospel had been veiled for so many, many years, hidden behind a different language, hidden behind the Roman Catholic heresies, hidden behind works and religion. But he stood. We need Christians to stand today. to stand for the truth of the word of God. And it will come when you will have to make a decision as to whether you will stand or not. So he says in verse 14, we are to stand therefore, the therefore goes back to the rest of the text that we just looked at. The reason why we need to stand is because of the enemy and the evil day in which we are in. He proceeds by giving us four participles that describe for us how we are to be able to stand. And the first one we noted was that we are to have the truth. We understand having our waist girded with truth in Paul is picking up on the Roman armament, what a Roman soldier would have. And that belt was essential. It did offer protection, but it usually was put on first as an undergarment with also the protection of the thighs and the waist area. And Paul is simply simply telling us that we need to, first of all, make sure that we have the truth. And we considered that in detail last time where we, you could summarize it like this. It could simply be that we have the truth, which is objective truth or also subjective truth. And I'm not saying that truth is subjective. I'm just simply trying to help you to understand that there's other truth, like truthfulness or integrity or no hypocrisy or genuineness. But the objective truth is the written revealed, complete word of God that we have in our hands, that objective truth. This is the foundation of all of it. If you don't have this, then you don't have any of the rest of the armor. You cannot have the rest of the armor without this. And frankly, I believe that's where the devil has found his doorway into a lot of the believers lives is the lack of truth. We have some very, very simplistic understanding sometimes of the Bible when, in fact, we should be spending more time in it. It is what will govern you. It will protect you. It will guide you in the evil day in which we live. This is also the beachhead of all attacks, where the devil comes first. This is where he starts. Sadly, too many have compromised in this area and are, in fact, lazy to pursue the truth and to practice the truth. And it makes us very, very vulnerable to the enemy. In our context today, there's a huge amount of misinformation. Would you agree? It's very hard and it takes a great deal of labor to discern between truth and error with what's going on in the context of our own physical world and political world. When it comes to the church, the shores have been overrun by the enemy and he has made tremendous gains and have taken hold of strongholds in strategic places in our seminaries and among leaders in the evangelical churches. We've lost tremendous ground due to our lack of diligence. and our overabundance of cowardice in leadership. But lest I all be pessimistic, I want to tell you that Jesus has promised that he will build his church. And he did not say that he would build his church in the best of times. He would build his church even in the worst of times. In fact, the church has flourished more in times of persecution than it has in prosperity. It has grown much more diligent and knowledgeable of the word of God and practice of scripture in times of persecution than it has ever in times of prosperity. And we may be in America coming out of that time of prosperity, which will put the church to its test. The buildings and the budgets may decrease, but I believe the beep, the people in the church may grow stronger. And we need to understand that it is not all bad. It is good in the sense that God can use this to purge his church and to bring judgment to the house of God first. I'm never going to be one who tells you that I look forward to something like that. I don't. But I do at the same time understand the necessity of it because sometimes it's very hard for the church or even leaders in the church to recognize the good and the bad or the deceived and the ones that really know the truth and those who have penetrated the church through their error. Sometimes it's hard to even pick them out, but persecution and difficulty and trial that may come our way will definitely weed them out. And that's been proven as we have seen over and over again, that whenever the devil seems to strip the church from its beauty and to cause the integrity to wane and to plunge much of the Christianity into darkness, it is then when God raises up men and women of God to stand for the truth. We have example of that, as I just read, with Martin Luther. Then you have George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, the Puritans. And in contemporary times, you have men like Martin Lloyd-Jones, James Montgomery Boyce, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur. There is indeed light after the darkness. But we do need more. We need much more to stand in the evil day in which we are facing today. Now we move to the second piece of armor, and that is found in verse 14 again. And Paul says that we are to stand, therefore, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. So we have the truth, assuming you have the truth. These are aorist verbs, meaning it should have already been done. You have already had and have incorporated and put on the belt of truth. Now you are to have on and make sure you have on the breastplate of righteousness. Probably in Paul's mind, this would have been taken from Isaiah 59, 17, where it talks of Messiah, that he put on a breastplate as righteousness and a helmet of salvation on his head. The wording is the same. The word breastplate is the word Thorax in the Greek. And it should seem to indicate to you should hear that word of our, our body here that is covering up. The Roman soldier would not go into battle without his breastplate. It was absolutely essential that he have that. It was a tough, sleeveless piece of armor that would cover his full torso. It was also made of leather or heavy linen, and sometimes it had overlapping slices of animal hooves or horns and even pieces of metal. In some cases, there were large pieces of metal that had been beaten out by hammers to fit the body of the Roman soldier to cover his whole body. And as is the case we would all know, it covered the vital organs, the heart, the lungs, the intestinal area, the areas that you do not want to find yourself injured in. And whenever you come to that and you understand what it's covering in the imagery that the apostle Paul is giving here, that it is covering the vital areas. You also understand that the two primary areas that the Roman soldier or rather the Jewish mind had in mind here was the, the mind or the heart and the bowels, the Jewish thinking, the heart represented the mind and the bowels represented the seat of emotions or feelings. Like for instance, I just read a few verses to you to show you that in the mind of the Jewish person, they would see the heart as the thinking process. Proverbs 23 seven says for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. And then Matthew 15, 19, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, which refers to the mind. Genesis 6, 5 says, the wickedness of man is greater than the earth and every intent and thought of his heart is evil continually. So in the mind of the Jewish person, they thought of the heart as the mind, the thinking process. So the breastplate is going to cover the mind, the thinking process. The other part it would cover would be what the Jews would refer to as the bowels or the seat of emotion. This is referred to by a Greek word in the New Testament, Splankna. You'll see it often translated compassion or even sometimes tender mercies. But the idea referred to the way you felt whenever you were emotional, you usually felt it in your stomach. So that was the way the Jewish people referred to it. So if you had really good feelings for your wife, you would say, I have a great deal of feelings in my bowel toward you. Don't do that. We have it kind of flipped today. There are verses again that use this word Splint now, like in Colossians chapter three, verse 17, therefore the elect of God, holy and beloved put on tender mercies. There's the word for emotions or compassion, which is the word for bowels. And then also Philippians one eight for God is my witness. How greatly I long for you with all affection. That's the way it's translated there. Affection. And so these two areas, the mind and the emotion are the two areas that we find that are covered by the breastplate. Now, I think all of us realize that what usually gets us into trouble is our mind and our emotions, our mind and our affections, our mind and our passions. They're the, they're the problem area. And so Satan knows that. So he's created a world system, a very simple environment that temps, both the mind and the emotions, the mind and the affections and the passions. He wants to cloud our minds with false doctrine and false principles and false information in order to mislead us and to confuse us. He wants to confuse our emotions by. perverting our affections, our morals and our loyalties and our goals and our commitments. His desires to snatch the word of God from your mind and replace it with perverse and twisted ideas. And by the way, whenever that happens, it usually affects your emotions, how you think can affect your emotions. One author said this, he seeks to undermine pure living and replace it with immorality, greed, envy, hate, and every other vice. He wants us to laugh at sin rather than to mourn over it and to rationalize it rather than to confess it and to bring it and bring it to the Lord for forgiveness. He seduces us to become so used to sin around us that we no longer are bothered by it in our conscience. That's exactly the way the devil's done his work. Another thing to point out before we go any further is this. In many cases, even in this case, you don't have a whole lot mentioned about armor for the back or the hind side. And in some cases, the breastplate may wrap all the way around. In other cases, it did not. But usually, it was for the point of upfront, person-to-person battle. You even have the same idea with the shield of faith, because the shield of faith wouldn't do you too well if you tried to hold it behind you. The point was the attack was coming towards you and so you had the armament in front of you. And also it speaks of this, whenever you turn to run away, there is no protection. And we need to be prepared to stand, not to stand and turn, but to stand and face the enemy. So what is the breastplate? Well, as I told you, what the Roman soldier would have, but we're not talking about a literal breastplate. We're not saying that you go home and get you a leather breastplate or a metal breastplate and put it on. And then you have the armor of God. No, it's described in the text in verse 14 as righteousness. It is a breastplate not of metal, not of bone, not of cloth, not of leather. It is a breastplate of righteousness. Now, this is essential that you understand this. Whenever Paul talks about righteousness, He usually is talking about one of two kinds of righteousness, meaning that the Bible discusses two types of righteousness that the believer has. One is a positional righteousness. The other is a practical righteousness. Now you may have different terms you want to give to those, but those are just good to kind of hang your thought on as we go through this. Now, when we talk about positional righteousness, and by the way, both of them are critical. You must have both of them to fight. And to stand, but one depends on the other practical righteousness depends on positional righteousness and positional righteousness is that which we refer to as imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness means that this is something that God granted to you. He gave to you. You didn't do something to get it. You don't go through a series of commandments and then you are imputed with righteousness. This is something that God in his own sovereign pleasure grants to you at new birth. In 2 Corinthians 5 21, it says, and he made him that as God, the father made Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. In other words, God imputed to us righteousness. It would be like you having a bank account that is in the deficit by millions and millions of dollars. And you are literally bankrupt, but then God grants you and completes and fills up your bank account overflowing with a positive. We once had no righteousness, but now we have righteousness. And again, it doesn't go back to our commandment keeping or our religious activity. It goes back to a sovereign work of God, whereby he grants you righteousness as he pleases. This is essential because this is not our righteousness. This is God's righteousness. This is Christ's righteousness. Romans 5, 19 said it like this, for as by one man's disobedient, many were made sinners, So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. As we've shared before that Jesus's life of obedience to the law was not just something he came to do just, just to give us a moral example. He came to live a perfect life in obedience to the law so that that life could be applied to us. That perfect righteousness where he never disobeyed one law of God perfectly fulfilled all righteousness is now granted to us. So when God looks at us, he doesn't see us. He sees the clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's a beautiful reality. You also find it mentioned in Romans chapter three and verse 20 and following. When it says this, therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified. There's the word made righteous or declared righteous. In other words, by the keeping of the law, doing good deeds, being a religious person, whatever you want to put in that category, by doing anything like that, you cannot be made righteous in God's sight. That is not possible. Job asked that very question. How is it that a man can be made righteous with God? That is the question. In verse 20, he goes on in Romans 3 and says, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law of God was never given to make you righteous. It was to show you that you're not righteous so that you can fall on Christ and him and his righteousness. But then in that same context in verse 21, it says, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law was revealed. It says in the father of the text in verse 22, even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. That's where that comes from. We call it positional righteousness or more specifically theologically imputed righteousness, which is absolutely essential for anyone to be made right with God. You cannot be right with God without it. A lot of evangelicalism believe that as long as I'm forgiven of my sin, everything's fine. But it's more to it than that. It's not just that you need to be forgiven of sin. Yes, that is true. You do need to be forgiven of sin. And whenever Jesus Christ died on the cross, he actually did pay the penalty for our sin. He died there in our place as a substitutionary atonement. But there's more needed than just the forgiveness of sin and the satisfaction of the justice of God. That keeps us out of hell so that we do not experience the full displeasure of God and the wrath of God. But we need a positive righteousness, which we cannot come up with our own to get access to heaven. If you're going to stand before God, you can't just be forgiven of your sin. You have to have positive, pure, 100% righteousness. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 5, 48, to enter into heaven, you must be, you know, the words perfect. And what do we always say about ourselves? No one is perfect. So we acknowledge we're not perfect. We're not going to make it. So we need a perfect righteousness. And the only one that can give us that is God. And it has to be not some other righteousness other than his own. It has to be his righteousness because his is the only one that is perfect. It even says in Hebrews 12, 14 that you will not see God, you will not see the Lord without holiness. There's a passage over in Zechariah chapter three that is a beautiful picture of this whole process. The angel of the Lord is there and he's talking to Joshua, not the Joshua you would think of in Exodus, but this is a Joshua, the high priest during the time of Zechariah. In Zechariah 3, 1 through 7, listen to these words. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. In your Bible, the word Satan may have a little number or letter beside it to say that that could be also understood as adversary or accuser. And what's happening here seems to indicate that it is probably Satan because that's exactly what he does. Nevertheless, let me reread it again. It says, then he showed me Joshua, the high priest standing before the, the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. And the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire, but now listen to these words. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. Now he's a high priest, all right? Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel. And he answered and spoke to those who stood before him saying, take away the filthy garments from him. And to him, he said, see, I have removed your iniquity from you and clothed you with rich robes. Goes on and says, And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head. The turban was the cloth around the top of the head that had holiness to the Lord written on it. And in verse five, it says, so they put a clean turban on his head and they put clothes on him. And the angel of the Lord stood by and he basically declared him righteous, pure. This is clearly a. example, at least in picture of the imputed righteousness of Christ. We are filthy in the presence of God. He removes the filthy clothes and gives us perfect righteousness. It moves and issues in practical holiness. It says in verse six, the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua saying after he had already made him clean, He says to Joshua, if you will walk in my ways and if you will keep my commandments, then you shall also judge my house and likewise have charge of my courts. I will give you places to walk among these who stand here. The point is, is that you have positional righteousness. First, God makes you clean. And then that issues in practical righteousness or holy living. Both are essential. Both are essential. Now, in this text, when we look at Ephesians 6, I don't believe Paul is necessarily talking about imputed righteousness. And I know that in the commentaries I have and some of the study I've done, we have a number of men, qualified men, no doubt, godly men, knowledgeable men, who have differed on this. Some have taken the position that he is indeed talking about that positional, imputed righteousness, where there are probably just as many who believe that he's talking about that practical righteousness of everyday, holy living. But let me share with you what I mean by that. I do agree that imputed righteousness is essential. You've got to have it. There's no doubt, but I believe it is assumed in the text because you remember in chapter six and verse 10, he says, finally, brethren, they're not brethren unless they already have imputed righteousness. And the fact that there are aorist verbs there all throughout the text, assume something has to be done because it's aorist middle verb, which means it's reflective, meaning that we need to do it. We don't make ourselves righteous before God. We don't make imputed righteousness given to ourselves. That's something that God does. We can't do that. If it were to be rendered that way or to be understood that way, then we would have to understand it to mean a passive verb that God's the one doing this, not us. And you also find that throughout scripture, it's very clear that imputed righteousness cannot be overcome. The devil can't change that. He can't attack that. There's nothing he can do about that. That has been something that has been a transaction that occurred, if you will, in heaven between the Trinity, God, the father and God, the son. And there you have it. You are now no longer condemned when you're in Christ. Romans chapter 8 verse 1 says, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no judgment, no condemnation, because you have the righteousness of God. It goes on in that same text in Romans 8, 30 and following. It says, moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. The ones that he called, he justified or made righteous. And the ones that he justified, he also glorified. There's no loss there at all. All the ones that he predestined end up glorified because the devil can't attack imputed righteousness. He can't change it. He can't do anything about it. It's done. It's completed. It even goes on in that same text, that beautiful text in Romans 8, says, what then shall we say to these things? If God is forced, then who can be against us, right? Obviously the devil can't. John reminds us, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Then you find verses in Romans 8 that go on and tell us Things like this, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also freely give us all things? If he's willing to give us his own son, don't you think he'll take care of you? Don't you think he'll preserve you? Then he says in verse 33, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies. In other words, there is no court to appeal to. There's nowhere else to go. There's no other court above God. There's no other judge above God. When God declares you righteous and you're no longer condemned and he grants you that righteousness that is imputed righteousness, it can't be changed. It goes on and says, he asked the question, Paul does. Who is he who condemns who's going to be the judge? Do you know? Bible says Christ will be the one who judges. In fact, it says it clearly in the Gospel of John that the Father has handed all judgment over to the Son. So not only has God the Father declared you righteous and made you righteous, and He's the highest judge, but the one who could judge you and condemn you, He's the one who gave His life for you. That's the text. That's what it's telling us. That's why I can go on and say, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And then Paul says in Romans 8 38, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creative thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So your position in Christ is secure. Once you're in you're in, and there's no way out. not because of us, let me make that very clear, not because of us, but because of him, because of his work, the sufficient and perfect satisfaction of the justice of God in the death of Christ. But when it comes to the practice of righteousness, we can be attacked. Who would agree with that? All of us would, we understand that we can at times be overcome. We can at times fail. We will sin. Even as Christians, we can be tempted and we will and have disobeyed. This is the reason why the commands of scripture are given all over the new Testament. I mean, they're all over the place, right? I mean, just think about the book of Ephesians alone, back up to chapter four for a moment, a list of commands given to Christians who have imputed righteousness. Why would he give all these commands? Why would he have to encourage and exhort and to urge and to admonish the believers to do these things if there wasn't the possibility of failure in this? Ephesians 4, 17 says, this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. Verse 22, Ephesians 4, put off concerning the former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you may put on the new man. which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Look at verse 25, therefore, putting away lying. Let each one of you speak truth to his neighbor for we are members of one another. Verse 26, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole still no longer, but rather let him labor working with his hands. What is good that he may have something to give to those who are in need. Look at verse 29, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Chapter five, verse one, therefore be imitators of God, dear children. Why would he say all of that? Well, because we have the potential to fall. We need that. We need the commands. We need the encouragement. We need the admonition. Sometimes, frankly, we need the discipline. So whenever Paul comes to this text, I believe primarily what he has in mind is not that positional, perfect, unchangeable righteousness that we are given in Christ, but rather he's given to us here the armor that is the practical, personal obedience of the believer to the things of God. Absolutely essential. Notice again in the text, he tells us in Ephesians, if you go back to chapter six again, he tells us that we are to put it on. We're to put it on. You don't put on imputed righteousness. That's something done to you. This is something you and I must actively participate in. We must actively participate in it. I know for some of you who listen to me say this, you may think, well, what about God doing all of that? Well, the Bible does say he does it. You do it, he does it. That's what it says. We are to make sure we work out our own salvation, but it's God who works in us. We're to obey the commandments of God, but it's only God who enables us to do the commandments of God. It's all the Spirit of God's work in us, but we must rely upon and depend upon and trust in and follow the commandments of God through the Spirit's power. So when we think about the righteousness, that's primarily what he has in mind. And also with the idea of putting it on, you have all the other parts of the armor to gird up your waist, to prepare your feet, to take up the shield of faith, to take up the sword of the Spirit. All of these are things that you and I must do. We're commanded to do so. So he's talking about that kind of righteousness. Now it is, listen to this carefully. Okay. You need to follow this. It is practical righteousness and holiness that protects us. Do you understand what I'm saying? It helps us to defend against the attacks and the weapons of the devil. A practical disciplined obedience to Christ is key. To the success in the battle in the evil days in which we live. Let me share with you just a couple of verses quickly. Proverbs 13, five and six, a righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame righteousness. Listen to this righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but wickedness overthrows the center. Proverbs 11.3, the integrity of the upright will guide him, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. The righteous of the upright, the righteousness rather of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught in their lust. The righteous is delivered from trouble and it comes to the wicked instead. You have verses like Psalm 25, 21, let integrity and uprightness preserve me. So you see the protection inherently in righteous living, Holy living. And just to go through a couple of those verses to help us see what we mean by that. First of all, this righteousness that we're talking about, practical obedience to Christ and his word and all the commandments of scripture, that holiness protects the mind. It protects the mind. You have verses like Romans chapter 12, you know so well, verses one and two. Paul says, I beg you therefore, brethren, based upon the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Then in verse two, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. But then the next verse part of the verse says that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The word prove is the word document. So it means to test and to determine the genuineness of something. So if you want to know what God's will is, and if you want to know what goodness is, and if you want to know what it is to be blessed by God, then we are to live righteously and to allow the word of God, to transform our minds. You have the passage I referred to earlier in second Corinthians 10 that tells us all of these strongholds in these casting down of arguments and this evilness that can saturate our minds is taken over and defeated by obedience to Christ. Obedience to Christ. So holiness protects the mind. And I could go into illustration after illustration of that. Because the Bible has so many of them, and even practical life has illustrations of that. That if we allow our minds to be occupied with the evils of the day, you will not be protected from the assaults of the devil. You open the door to it. Secondly, holiness protects our passions. Our passions. In 1 Peter 2.11, it says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims that abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. And I think it's important to reread that one more time because there's two words in there you and I need to remember, especially today. We are sojourners and pilgrims. We're passing through this place. This may, this thing may totally completely collapse and be destroyed, but this is not our home. This is not our home. He says, so, and he reminds us of that, that, you know, you're just moving through here. So don't allow your passions to be overtaken with sin and temptation because they war against your soul. And so holiness protects against our passions, but also holiness protects against the accusations of men. Like also in 1 Peter 2, 12, that we are to have our conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that whenever they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God on the day of visitation. In other words, be honorable, live obedient lives to Christ in such a way that whenever they accuse you falsely, it's a fake news, it's a lie. It's not true, because you have done You have been obedient to Christ and they have nothing to say that's true. Then also, not only that, holiness protects against accusations of men, but it also protects against the authorities of men. And it says the same thing in 1 Peter 2.13. Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether king and supreme or as governors to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God that by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. So it protects us folks. We shouldn't give them ammunition against us. And then also, I think it's important to remind ourselves of this, holiness ensures the protection and the blessing of God. There's a passage over in 1 Corinthians 5, which is a very interesting passage and has been debated for some time as to exactly what's going on there, but there's a man who was involved in some very, very bad sin in the church, and the Corinthian church was not allowing it to be disciplined. And so, as a result, the Apostle Paul comes on the scene and he says, listen, I've already judged this in my absence, And he says, I will deliver that guy over to Satan for the flesh is destruction, that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord. And the point was here, you have a situation where a man no doubt clearly is indicated that he may be a Christian because it says his soul will be saved in the day of the Lord, but he's disobedient to God. Hasn't been brought to a point of discipline in the church so that he can repent and be brought back and restored, but he's left outside of the protection of God because of a sin. You open the door for no protection from God whenever you open your heart and your mind and your life to sin. 1 Peter 3, verse 8 and following says it like this. Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion toward one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. Now listen to these words. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil. That's a universal axiom. That doesn't even have to apply to believers. If you want to have a good day, keep your mouth shut. Just don't let the tongue keep running you and others into the ground. That's just a universal axiom, but it is a biblical principle. And it applies to not only all of life, but also Christians. He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord, listen to this, are on the righteous. The eyes of God's favor. are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. So if you want to be protected by the breastplate, what do we need to do? We need to live practical, holy lives. We need to discipline ourselves to obey the commandments. And frankly, folks, we all know this. Sometimes that's tough because we live in a world that is not very, very nice. And we live with ourselves, and we're not very nice. We have sin in our hearts, and we have flesh that we have to fight. We have passions that are there. We have temptations from within and without. And the devil understands that. The demons know that. They know where your weaknesses are, not because they're omniscient. They don't know because they just have inherent knowledge. But they've been around humanity long enough. They know where they can cause you to stumble. So you need to be aware of that, watch and be alert and make sure that you are prepared to have your breastplate on. Knowing that you are a Christian and assuming that you already know the Lord, you have that perfect righteousness, but you need that practical everyday discipline of living a godly and righteous life in obedience to Christ and his word. Here's the third piece of armor coming up in verse 15. This will come fast. The third piece of armor is given in verse 15. And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. I can remember many years ago reading that for the first time and thinking, what in the world is he talking about? I never have thought about my shoes being shod. Or, you know, thinking about the preparation of my shoes that way. And so whenever you look at that, you may ask yourself a question. What exactly is Paul referring to? Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. There's a number of other versions who translate that a little different, but let me just give you what the text actually says. The word having shot again is an heiress middle verb, meaning that you and I are to do this and it should have been done. All right, let's do it. Make sure it's done. Be prepared, stand, not constantly having to do it. But the point you can make is this, put your shoes on and keep them on. This is where you sleep with your shoes on. You must be prepared all the time. There is no time to relax in this fight. It is constant, and it will not stop until you go home to be with the Lord. So he says, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The word translated here, having shod, hupodeo is the word, it has the idea of binding or tying. Many of you who know this, I mean, whenever you were a child, maybe you didn't tie your shoes too well, and you would run, and before long, you would trip up and fall as a result of your shoes not being tied very well. And also, whenever you are in sports, you need to make sure things are laced up tight. You don't want your shoe to come off in the middle of the event. And by no means do you want to be in battle and have shoes that aren't on your feet well. You want to make sure they're shod, that they're tied up, that they're bound up tightly on your feet. Because without them that way, you're not going to have the protection that you need and you're not going to be able to stand against the evil day and the enemy that comes against you. The word translated in my text, the New King James preparation, is a word that has the idea of having a firm footing or being ready. So when you read the text now, what it has the idea of is basically tie up your shoes on your feet and be ready with the gospel of peace. So we get the shoe thing, right? I think all of us know that. We know that in our culture, there's shoes for everything. We have shoes that we can use for dressing up. We have shoes that we use for athletic events. We have shoes that we use casually at home. If you play football, you have a different kind of shoe than you do whenever you play basketball. different kinds of shoes. Well, frankly put, whenever it comes to being a soldier, you need a shoe that is able to stay on your feet well to protect your feet and to give you a firm standing against the enemy. If you're going to be standing, you don't want to be pushed over. So you need a good foot and a good footing. And that's exactly what Paul has in mind here. We need to have that kind of shoes on our feet prepared and ready. And what is it that he calls it? He calls it the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace. And as is the case with the other armor, the breath, the breastplate, there were two kinds of righteousness here. When he talks about peace, there are two kinds of peace. There's the objective piece that happens between you and God. Whenever there's a cessation of hostility, the war is over and now there's peace between God and man. And then there's the subjective piece, which is the piece that passes understanding the piece you can have in the midst of the storm. The kind of peace that Jesus had in the Gospel of Mark whenever there's a storm in the Sea of Galilee and the disciples are with him and Jesus is asleep in the front of the boat. That's the kind of peace. The peace that only is able to be understood and experienced if you believe in the sovereignty of God. That you know that God's in control of this mess that we see today, that we see around us. To have that kind of peace, you've got to have a belief in the sovereignty of God, which by the way, goes back to the first part of the armor, which is truth. You got to have the truth to experience that peace. So the question remains, what kind of peace is Paul talking about? Is he talking about the objective peace or is he talking about the subjective peace, the objective or the subjective? Well, first of all, let me explain what I mean by objective peace. I think that's something we all need to understand. And I believe that the apostle Paul has that in mind, that he's not talking about subjective peace, because frankly, that kind of comes and goes. Depending on the day, depending on how well you are able to depend upon and trust the word of God in those days, a lot can happen that can take that peace away. But when it comes to the kind of peace you need to stand firm on, this is the objective peace. This is what gives us sure footing in the middle of a war that we're involved in. And you'll notice that in the Bible, it talks about a war that was between sinners and God. In fact, if you remind yourself of Romans 5, 1, it says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that he says peace with God, not the peace of God difference. The peace with God. You say, well, why in the world did we need peace with God? Because the Bible makes it clear that prior to our conversion, prior to our salvation, we were enemies of God. By the way, that's something that is missing in much of our gospel presentations, that we are without Christ enemies of God. It says it specifically in Romans chapter five and verse 10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. It says that again in Colossians chapter one in verse 21, and you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind. Now, most of us probably don't think of ourselves as, as an enemy of God, but the Bible makes it clear that we were. It even says in John chapter three, that we don't come to the light because we hate the light. We hate the light. That's the reason why folks, people won't come to Christ is because they love their sin. They hate the light and their enemies of God. And also not only that, is it from our direction to God, but it's also something most don't understand. It comes from God to man. God is at war with centers. When Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, what he was talking about is that very understanding that we so often miss in contemporary evangelicalism. We all talk about the love of God, and God loves sinners, and God loves sinners, and I'm all in agreement with that. God does love sinners, and that's what motivated him to send Jesus Christ to die on the cross to pay the penalty for them. But we don't need to forget that sinners without Christ are under the wrath of God and are considered enemies of God. Hostile. And so there is no peace between God and man. In fact, as Romans chapter 10 says, he says this, do not fear those who have the ability to kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Those are strong words. Why would God do that? Why would God take someone and throw them into an eternal hell forever and ever with no chance of ever getting out of that, but to be punished forever and ever, because frankly put in scripture, they are the enemies of God. And there is no peace, but the good news is, is that God did bring peace. There's the word gospel of peace. You on Galileo on which is the word good news. The good news of peace is, is that God has actually solved the problem between the enemies. He's reconciled, which is that word we see so often in New Testament. Let me share again just a couple of other passages in the same ones I read that illustrate this. Whenever Paul talks about that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ in Romans 5, he says also in verse 8, but God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through him. It's through Christ that the wrath of God is extinguished. And we no longer have to be under that wrath and peace is brought. It's even talked about in Colossians, as I referred to earlier. It says it this way in Colossians chapter one in verse 19, for it pleased the father that in him, all the fullness should dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. In other words, the cross made the peace. The death of Christ, the satisfaction of the justice of God, by God pouring out his wrath on his own son is what brought the peace. So that's why Paul can say in Colossians 121, and you who were once alienated in enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled. He's brought those two warring parties together and made peace. It's a beautiful reality. And listen, whenever you are against the devil who accuses us day and night, according to the book of Revelation, who wants to cause us to stumble and to give us doubt as to whether or not we are his, we can stand true and firm on the fact that we have peace with God through the gospel of Christ. There will no longer be any condemnation against us. We no longer face the possibility of death or hell because of what Christ has done. No wrath of God will be brought on us because of what Christ has done. You have peace with God. John Newton, as I close, wrote these words. Though many foes beset you round and feeble in your arm, your life is hid with Christ and God beyond the realm of harm. Weak as you are shall not fade, or fainting shall not die. Jesus, the strength of every saint, will aid you from on high. Though unperceived by mortal sense, faith sees him always near, a guide, a glory, a defense. What have you to fear? As surely as he overcame and triumphed once for you, so surely you that love his name shall in him triumph too. Praise the Lord for that, amen. So we have three pieces of the armor. Next week we come back together and we'll look at the rest. Let's pray together.