But let me preface it with this. If you have any inkling of a message you want to hear from the pulpit at Calvary Baptist Church, today's the day that you really want to hear this message. This is a message upon my heart and that I'm still learning. and applying. And if you ever thought that he doesn't give enough application, he just shows us Christ, shows us Christ, shows us Christ. Now this is where it comes together, where we see Christ and apply it. This is really a part two from last week. Last week's message was called The Wisdom of Godly Fear from Job 28 and verse 28. And today, I'm not gonna give much of an introduction other than to say this, that in these last three chapters, Job is, in one sense, as an historical person, he feels like he's getting in the last word. But from chapter 32 on, Elihu, a representative of God, and then God himself will get the last word. Jesus and Yehovah God will always have the last word. So if you wanted this in a Job in a nutshell, that was it. But so Job 29, one of the things that we'll look at as far as the chapter, the only introduction I'll give for the chapter is that in chapter 29, Job here acknowledges the life he had prior to his suffering. He is His old life had honor. His old life had prosperity. And in fact, if you will, his life almost exemplified a type of Christ to the believer. Because young men think that they know everything, yet they don't. But the old and wiser men, they see Christ and then they bow down before him. And Job was, you know, painting that wonderful picture through the entire chapter. And that's really all that it is. The presumptions of his friends, in one sense, are being put to rest. He says, look at my history. And so therein is the introduction. Because in picking it up with this title, Empowered by Imputed Righteousness, I mentioned it last week. And we're taking the text itself from verse 14, which I'll read in the English Standard Version, as Brother Mike read it in the King James Version. It's very similar. He says, verse 14, I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. Well, this is the word of the Lord, and he'll most certainly add his abundant, gracious, and magnified blessing to the reading of his holy truth. And let us pray. Our Father in God, in Jesus' name and for his sake, we thank you for the cross of Christ. We thank you for the wrath that the Lord Jesus had suffered, the death that he had died, and the blood that he had shed, paying a debt he did not owe for a debt that we owe and cannot possibly pay. Heavenly Father, help us to surrender our souls to the truth of your word. Even me, Lord, I kind of know what I'm going to preach, but I ask Father that you'll minister unto me too that I may grasp this truth. That it would be a truth that we could really apply and set our lives to. That we may love Christ. That we may fear Christ. And that love bringing about a great truth, that godly fear bringing about a great truth that we may see why Christ lived the righteous life and how we can grab onto that miracle so that we might live a life that's honorable to you and obedient to you. We love you and thank you and we give ourselves over to you to worship you from the word in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. I want to read it again from last week, verse 28 of chapter 28 that says, and he said to man, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to turn away from evil is understanding. And last week, and I don't have to cover it this week, that we understood that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom under those who must fear the Lord in order to receive the wisdom to say yes to Christ in the first place. However, that we who are saved have this wonderful opportunity to see wisdom continue to grow. And it is in godly fear. That godly fear, the fear of Jesus, as we saw last week, it says the fear of the Lord, Adonai. So it's referring to Jesus. And so that godly fear is that holy, loving, reverence for Christ, recognizing that the best of what we do fails and falls short of the glory of God. And in falling short, we seek God's love in Christ. We see Christ's love is the everlasting love of the Father. And in fulfilling that, that love is the miraculous outpouring of heaven for us to respond in love, for us to respond in godly fear. And you've heard me preach time and again, fear, godly fear and love, or love and godly fear. But really that's just the breakdown of it is so it can be emphasized because love without godly fear is not love. And godly fear without love is not godly fear. And so the understanding of this is in our response to Christ's love, in our response to His mercy, in response to His grace poured out to us, we fear we will break the heart of God. We fear that I tremble that this God who deserves all worship is going to be dishonored or receive disobedience from one, not only that he created, but when he recreated, who's made me a new creature in Christ, made you a new creation in Christ. And that this God who, laid everything aside in order to walk that righteous life and then go to the cross, who is deserving of all worship, that we're going to let him down. And in one sense, we can't, because he's all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present, and in his multitude of attributes that are given to us in his word, and only seasoned by his name. This is why when Brother Mike was looking at that, that is in the Psalms where it says that he has magnified his word above all his name. His name only seasons who he is because it gives us a glimpse of who he is and what he does. But his word expands all those things for his name. And so by doing that, he exalts his word above his name. And so Jesus, though, gives us the solution because he is the solution. I'll say it again. Jesus gives us the solution because he is the solution. And you've heard it to where it's become almost cliche. Jesus is the answer. But Jesus is the answer. And in the answer of who Jesus is and what he has done, that's where we secure a miracle that takes place. For every word that you speak, every thought that you think, and every action that you perform in Christ, the Lord brings us this open secret in his word. And this verse just touches on, and it's everywhere if you really follow it around, but I don't have enough time to do that. And I do want you to have lunch sometime this month. And so I'm only gonna touch on certain aspects of it. And so I spent more time on the introduction to the verse and in godly fear and in wisdom. So here's the wise thing, this bountiful beauty from our verse, and we'll tackle it in three points. The eternal establishment for imputed righteousness. The effects of living by imputed righteousness. This will take place in your life as Job actually covers it. And then how you can take it, how you can, as a Christian, in this response, what is it that I do? Because that's really, what can I do to be a Christian, to worship God, to walk according to God's word? How can I do that? And that's usually the rubber meets the road for all Christians. However, many will want to do that while forsaking seeing Christ first. But seeing Christ is the key. It really is. And so let's look at the first thing. I'm going to actually ask you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We're going to look at verses 17 and verse 21. What imputed righteousness is as you are saved? The essence of Christ's gospel stands on the truth of imputation. Christ's righteousness applied to your account. The necessity of Christ being God who became man was the plan from before the world was because it's on that truth of Christ walking a righteous life that you and I could actually live a life for Christ. Apart from that, there is no gospel. It's just a feel-good assent to the knowledge that Jesus Christ died and if I believe on him. And many people end it with that. And here's the miracle of that. Many of them are actually saved by just believing because that's all you have to do is believe on Christ. However, if Christ has gripped your life, if he's captured your soul, then this power will cause us in the power of Christ to take captive those things that keep us from honoring him. and first, but we have to understand what imputation is, what it means for his righteousness to be applied to our account. First, it's the power of change in 2 Corinthians 5, in verse 17, that Christ walked the righteous life that you and I can't. Verse 17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. And sometimes that seems just too poetic. Because you've been saved, you believe, I trust in Christ, but there's a reality that my body says, I'm not new. I'm getting old. I'm failing. I have thoughts that don't please God. And I even entertain them time and again. And then I weep crying and say, Lord, forgive me. And then I do it again, but with a different thought. Maybe some of you haven't experienced that, but the Bible tells me otherwise. The Bible says that you have. So it's nothing new with me. So there is this truth that is more than poetic. You are a new creation because every time you're grieved, that tells you the Holy Spirit is in you. That when you do sin and you recognize it for what it is, well, why the Satan will convince you that you've let God down. But God is telling you that when that happens, you are saved and there's a solution, the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, in chapter five, he goes on to say in verse 21, here's the thing, which we'll sing a little bit later, his robes for mine, that glorious exchange. Verse 21 says in the English Standard Version, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. For our sake, he, that is God, made him, that is Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin. He knew what sin was, but he wasn't intimately acquainted with sin. He wasn't married to sin. Sin was a foreign and alien truth that didn't apply to Jesus in the sense that he ever entertained it whatsoever. So that in him, that's in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God. Now that should blow your minds. Because if we're honest with ourselves, the best of my righteousness, as Isaiah says, is but filthy rags. If I compare myself with Christ, I never live up, up to the truth. And there's the essence of the gospel that Christ not only sacrificed his life for us, but before that he lived the perfect life for us as well on our behalf. Everything that he did was because we'll fail in the best that we do. And that's applied to our lives. Paul says it in this way. I only put verse nine, which is the key verse, but get a running start. If you turn to the right to Philippians, chapter 3, Paul says it a different way. He applies it personally to himself in Philippians chapter 3, right? Whereas to the Corinthians he's speaking it as just a if you will, a doctrinal truth that we can all embrace. But here he personifies it in Philippians chapter 3. He presents it in a personal way. He's saying, yes, he's the apostle who is on his fourth missionary journey, imprisoned in Rome, and this happens to him. And so we could take a courage in that, that this man who has seen the risen Savior, personally experienced Christ on the road to Damascus, and is ministering the word to the church of the first century. And he says in Philippians chapter three and verse eight, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Being a Pharisee, though as a Pharisee, he studied the scriptures and knew the Old Testament forwards and backwards, knew it in Hebrew and in Greek, and yet loss. That meant nothing except for to know Christ. His Word is exalted above all His name. But knowing Christ, the one with that name above all names, the Word, if it doesn't bring me to know Christ, then the Word that I learned was nothing. Doesn't mean the Word is nothing by itself, but you know, it's God's Word. It's exalted all by itself. But it's not exalted in my life. It means nothing to me, is what Paul says. And then in verse nine he says, In verse eight he says, in order that I may gain Christ, verse nine, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. It's not because of what I've done in keeping the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. In other words, even though I do something good, Christ's righteousness supersedes it because that's better. Even though I fail, Christ's righteousness covers it. because even the best of what I do is failure. And so Paul says it in that way, but he personifies it so that we can grab onto it and relate to it. The apostle did this, therefore me, ordinary citizen of heaven living in the Nulchik, then this is me too. Paul's not saying something that's just foreign to us all. He's saying something that is very common to every one of us. Moreover, Christ's faith and godly fear is applied to us because we see how this truth is applied to us in our portion in Job 29. In verses 15 to 17 we see, I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. Remember that I've told you that when Jesus walked the earth, that when he performed miracles, it established his ministry, because no one else could do that. I mean, some of them, some of the prophets could do some of the things, but Jesus did it all. However, everything that Jesus did as a miracle was a form of a picture of the gospel. When he healed blind eyes, it's because we're blind and cannot see the truth of the spiritual things. When he opened up the ears of the deaf, it's because we could not hear from God. When he healed the one with the withered hand, it's because we cannot apply our hands to the work of God in our sinful state. When he healed the lame man that could walk now, because we're crippled apart from the grace of God and Jesus Christ. Verse 16, I was a father to the needy and I searched out the cause of Him whom I did not know." Again, Christ was that Father. He's the Everlasting Father from our last week's memory verse, Isaiah 9 and verse 6. He shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And as the Everlasting Father, He lived to be the Fatherly Prince of Peace that we needed because none of us can father. Isn't that right, men? We can't father a grandfather. In fact, as a grandfather, we're better fathers than we were when we were fathers, as grandfathers. We can't live up to it, but Christ did for us. Verse 17, I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth. Can you say that you did like Jesus to walk so righteously that the unrighteous fled? Remember the, the Gadarene demoniac and even the demons in him. Who are you? We know who you are, son of David. Have you come to torment us before the time? Causing demons, even demons, the unrighteousness of the unholy to flee. Breaking their fangs, everything that they consumed with their toothy evil was blunted in the presence of Christ. Those are just some of the things that Christ's righteousness has applied unto us that we can see. Our flesh would covet us many times. Our flesh would covet us many times, not sometimes. Many times that would cause us not to see and blind us to the truths that the Lord Jesus would reveal to us. Christ's faith. Even his faith. Remember that when he set aside his robes of glory, that the Lord Jesus walked as the faithful man. That it says of God in the New Testament, that though all men are unfaithful, or all men that fail, Though we sin, God is faithful, but that's applied to the Lord Jesus. That though we're unfaithful often, Christ was always faithful to the heavenly Father, always faithful to the scriptures, always faithful to uprightness and astute evil more than Job ever could. But the effects of living the imputed righteous life, we see again in verse 14 where it says, I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. These are the things that will be applied to our lives when we walk a life that is trusting in Christ's imputed righteousness. And we'll get to how to do that in a moment. But first we need to see how it affects us. When we walk in this life that's based on the truth that Christ is everything. That his righteousness was impeccable. Young people impeccable means that it can't, there's no way that it could sin. Christ's righteousness was without flaw is what impeccable means. And so when Christ walked that way, when he saved us, it's applied to our lives so that when we see verse 14, we can fight now spiritual battles. Verse 14, I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. I'm going to turn to Ephesians 6 because there's just too many verses there, but many of you know them where it starts off. Job says he puts on righteousness. In one sense, Jesus put on righteousness because he was the eternally righteous God, but by becoming a man, he clothed himself with humanity. But when he clothed himself with humanity, he didn't put on the clothing of sinful men. He didn't put on the rags of Isaiah chapter 64 verse six. He put on righteousness. as a man. And in verse 10 it says, finally be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Verse 12, 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. Verse 13, 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, what is the armor of God? Verse 14 says, stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth. Well, what does that mean? It says that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. So we put Jesus on around our waist so that we're centered in the truth of who Jesus was. Not that I just believe something that's true, but I take Jesus himself in a spiritual sense and put him at the center of my being, right around my waist so that I could live a balanced life, a balanced life of truth. See, Satan's full of half-truths, is he not? Still lies because it's a half-truth. And the next part of verse 14, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, that's Jesus. There's no one that walked more righteously than him. That's Jesus. Verse 15, and his shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, it says in the King James Version. Stand upon the truth that you're walking in Christ. He is the perfect preacher. You have to put up with the pathetic preacher every single week, but the Holy Spirit will convert even the stupid things I say and minister unto you blessings. Verse 15 also continues, and having put on the readiness, excuse me, verse 16, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith. That's Jesus too. He lived the faithful life unto God the Father and unto the Word, which will extinguish all flaming darts of the evil one. In verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation. Jesus is salvation. It says salvation in Jodah chapter two. Salvation is of the Lord because salvation is the Lord. Take the helmet of salvation, and then the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. John chapter one, verses one through three and 12. Excuse me, one through three and 14. That Jesus is the word of God, the sword of the Spirit. In verse 18, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert with all perseverance and making supplication for all saints. And I won't read verses 19 to 20. We'll move on, but there's the fighting of the spiritual battles. The second part we see in Job chapter 29, verse 15, the first part of it, faithful eyes to see. It says, I was eyes to the blind. Jesus has given us now because he saw everything truthfully. He was never blinded. He knew all men, in fact, John chapter two says. But now being in Christ who having saved us, he saw where we sometimes don't see. He sees where sometimes we don't see, and by trusting in his being able to have seen through faithful eyes, you can take comfort in that. I can take comfort in that Jesus sees what I don't. But what he does show me, oh, that is a miracle and a wonder and a wonderful thing. We know that in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7, it says, for we walk by faith, and not by sight, not by our physical eyes. That's because we trust in what Jesus can see and not in what our physical eyes can see. Job 29, the second part of verse 15 says that he made Jesus' feet to the lame. We often stumble, we often sin. And 1 John 2, verse six says, whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. And in fact, this term walk means behavior that is Christ-like. It's applied all the way back to the father of faith, Abraham, that if you remember that in Genesis chapter 17 and verse one, when Yehovah God, or when El Shaddai, God Almighty, appeared before Abraham, it says when Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. And in Hebrew, really, be blameless explains what walking before him means. When we walk before God to be blameless. In other words, all the way back to Genesis 17, God was telling Abraham that Christ's righteousness, though he wouldn't come for another 2,000 years from Abraham, that Christ's righteousness was applied to his life. Walk before me upright. Job chapter 29, verse 16 says this. I was a father to the needy and I searched out the cause of him who I did not know. James chapter one verse 27, the very last verse of James chapter one says that pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted by the world in the King James version. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the father is this, to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained with the world. That's the English standard version. Both of them basically say the same thing, but that's what Job is saying, being the fatherless, that those who have not Christ as the everlasting father, they're without salvation. But that's who we were, and Christ was salvation for us. He was our father. Likewise, he was our uprightness, fangs broken in the uprightness. It says in verse 17, I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth. We see this in last week's verse in chapter 28, the second part of verse 28, that when you have the fear of the Lord, it causes you to turn away from evil. And that's understanding. And so what happens here is that we don't always turn away from evil. We entertain it. We set out coffee and biscuits for it and cookies and say, come on in. We invite it in and say, take the best place on the couch. That's what I do with evil. We don't do that. But when Christ's righteousness is applied to us, evil can't even wipe its feet at our doorstep. Forget about feeding it. Well, we have two more of these seven things. Fortitude, verses 18 to 20, where it says, then I thought I shall die in my nest and I shall multiply my days as the sand. My roots, it says in verse 19, spread out to the waters with the dew all night on my branches, my glory fresh with me and my bow ever new in my hand. What does that say, Brother John? It says that we'll have fortitude, strength, refuge in denying self and taking up our cross. Then I thought, I shall die in my nest. In other words, Christ has made us a home, the nest. And that we'll die in that truth because we must. This is what we learned with Smyrna in Sunday school today with Revelation 2, verses 8 through 11. The suffering that takes place that we can do so willingly and blessedly and pleasantly in the sense that when Christ lived that life for us, this will be the effect. Luke 9, verses 23, this says, if any man, Jesus said, and he said it to all, not just To his disciples remember in Luke 9 verse 23, if any man come after me let him deny self, take up his cross daily and follow me. I can be strengthened. Christ lived that life on our behalf. And then when I have taken this truth captive and embrace this truth, I will have this too. I can bravely embrace Luke chapter 9 verse 23 and so can you. And like I said, I'm putting it in first person because as long as I've known this truth and attempted to walk in this truth, I'm preaching it as if I'm hearing it the very first time. Because it's so important. This is where the rubber beats the road in our Christianity. Hopefully, I can move along so that I don't put you to sleep before it's time. Next, the fear of the Lord to give godly counsel. When we are walking in the truth of imputed righteousness, which is founded upon the godly fear that is wisdom. Verses 21 to 25, Ben listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel. I'll just go with that one right there. Because of the fear of the Lord. We saw it exemplified in one place in particular that I can recall right now. There's several places, but even as Jesus walked the earth and when he was among his disciples that misunderstood. And so remember that he said to them, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And they started questioning one another. It's because we took no bread. He says, no, no, you misunderstand. It's not because of that. But did you notice that they just talked among themselves and they did this often. They didn't want to go to him. They were His. And that's what it's talking about. Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel. Because often we'll look at a verse like this and say, well, the people that knew the Word didn't do that. No, certainly they didn't. They weren't His. But even His disciples, they called, they listened and they heard what He said, even though they misunderstood. And they didn't go to Him. Lord, what did that mean? Oh, we forgot to take bread. And they, but the Lord knows all, and he walks that righteous life on our behalf. And when it happens that way, when you speak, when you're walking in godly fear, and when you're walking with the truth of Christ's imputed righteousness at the ready in your life, the brothers and sisters will see that you have something to say. This is what I was talking about, that when we see Christ first, then we start in Scripture. Then when it's applied to our life, we see Christ in one another. Why wouldn't I want to listen to you, brothers and sisters? If you have the living God within you, you then therefore have something to say. It's important. Christ has placed you in my life, in the lives of others, because Christ lives in you and his righteousness is upon you and moving through you. And therefore men will listen. Men will say, men will understand, women will understand, your children. They might not do what you say, they're sinners too, but they will at least hear you out. Apparently, I haven't been doing so well in that area because people have been trying to tell me stuff, I guess, about things that are going on. And I'm just praying the same old prayer from before. That's why this message is for me too. Now, where the rubber meets the road. Brother John, how can I be clothed with Christ? What does that mean? I mean, you know, we can't put on the nice Hawaiian shirts that you put on or even the coy shirts. No one can wear them except you. In fact, no one's brave enough to wear them but you. Turn with me to Romans 13. Romans 13 verse 14. Romans 13, verse 14. You see, in our verse today, in the Hebrew, it says, tzedek lavashdi vayil bashini. And it doesn't mean anything to you, it means the world to me. Tzedek means righteousness. And lavashdi, it comes from a Hebrew root word lavash. Lavashdi means I will clothe myself, I will dress myself. And so tzedek levashti, I will dress myself in righteousness. And then it says, vayobashini. And that means, and then it will clothe me. I don't put it, just put it on, but then I'm dressed. In other words, that's what it's saying. Righteousness that I put on dresses me. I am dressed now. But see, this is the thing. Some of us attempt to put on righteousness and then walk around as naked people. That's, unfortunately, sadly, that is the way of much of Christianity in America today. I will do all that I can to put on Christ's righteousness, and so it's all about me doing, rather than just walking in the truth, and this is the key, this is the open secret, that Christ lived the righteous life, and I'm walking in his righteousness, and since I'm not thinking about having to put it on, I just feel I'm already dressed. but we walk around as if we're naked. Romans says the same thing. Instead of using the Hebrew word lavash, lavashti, tzedek lavashti, I am dressed and I put on righteousness. Paul says the same thing in verse 14. He says, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. And there Paul uses this Greek term enduo. And it means the same thing. It means to be clothed, to be arrayed, to put on clothing as if you're dressing. And Paul says that when you put that on, then those desires won't be fulfilled. When you put on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's really saying the same thing as Job. He's actually said the same thing as Jeremiah and Isaiah. He's really quoting the prophets because they say the same thing. It's the same word, to be clothed. There are other places that have this as well, and you could search them out. But I want to move you on to where the rubber meets the road. So I ask you to turn with me to one final place. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And even if you hadn't heard, because I go, I have a tendency to go on long, and I'm going on Actually, this message is shorter than most of my messages. However, this is the place that even if you didn't hear anything I said before, this is the place that you can apply the truth of Christ's imputed righteousness. And sadly, The English Standard Version coming second has, it's a correct interpretation of verse six, I believe it is. No, verse five. It's a correct interpretation of verse five, but the King James Version is actually better in the sense that since it was translated in 1611, we should take that one first before we take the English Standard Version, which was translated later. Both of them apply, but you gotta, Here, hey, let's just look at it first. This is what it means to be captive to Christ's obedience so that you can apply obedience to your life. We take captive Christ's obedience in order to apply obedience to our lives. The problem is, is that we want to be obedient to Christ without taking captive being taken captive to the truth of Christ's obedience. And this is what it means to apply His righteousness to our lives. 2 Corinthians 10. I trust that you're all there. If you're there, say amen. If you're not, say amen. because this is so important. Verse three says, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. Right there it tells you that it's not about what you do. And we know that. You've heard me preach this time and time again. But that verse says that though we walk according to the flesh, we do not wage warfare by the flesh. By doing the thing, we're already out of order. Paul is giving us the most logical order of it. I need to be a spiritual man first before I could even have my physical man follow. And verse four says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but of divine power to destroy strongholds. No matter what you do as obedience, can't destroy strongholds that are spiritual. because you know that the best of what you do cannot match what Christ has done. So obviously our works will never rectify the situation. It doesn't mean we can't do good works. So bear with me. In verse 5, it says, we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Now, that's a good translation. But the newer translation will cause confusion in the order of things because it actually opposes it. Well, okay, if it's spiritual, then all I got to do is just obey. But the power of obedience comes from this miracle. The King James Version, for those of you that have the King James Version, you'll follow along very easily with me. It says, In verse five, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Did you get that? We bring the thought captive with, you know, before we even do any kind of sin or even before we do any kind of good work, we need to take that thought captive take a prisoner to the truth of the obedience of Christ. So matter what you do, I'm attempting to do good works for Christ, it must spring from the truth that Christ went before us. He's the first and the last, and there's the first part. Christ lived the righteous life for you and me. And if I don't see Christ's righteousness, whatever I do hasn't been taken captive to his obedience. Because everything that you do, everything that I do, everything that we do must be hinged upon the premise, and other young people, it must be grounded on the foundation that Christ lived the righteous life that you and I can't. And so when we take it to His obedience and that thought is conscious to us, eventually, sometimes it'll come, it will be unconscious. You just see Christ so much that there's some things that you do and they're done to honor Him because we've been doing it. But the practice is that you consciously understand that Jesus did it better than I'll ever do it. And when that comes, Taking that thought captive, then you can go to verse 6, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. That's in the English Standard Version. In the King James Version, it says, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. In other words, that verse 6 takes the English Standard Version of verse 5 that says, We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. It's a two-fold activity spiritually. It's a, if you will, it's spiritually a one-two punch, a combination in the ring against the devil, against your flesh, and against the world. What it does is when I see Christ, and I see his obedience, and I put that into practice day after day, and know that whatever I do for Him doesn't amount to what He's done for you, for me, for us. Then when that takes place, then our obedience kicks in miraculously and we can obey. And so then it becomes almost an effortless, in one sense, an effortless endeavor. What you're doing, what I'm doing, what we're doing, even as a church, It becomes almost somewhat effortless because our eyes of faith are not on the result. They're on Christ. He's the first and the last. So we see Christ in the beginning. And then when we take it captive that he was the one who was obedient, he was the one that was faithful. You start not only, you start not only actively, almost automatically, you start not thinking about, was I faithful or not? Or was I faithless? You don't even think about that because now taking every thought captive is seeing Christ. And so it's not result oriented in one sense. In another sense, the only result that is needed is what Paul said in Philippians chapter three, that I may gain Christ. And so when Christ ends up being the beginning, And then he ends up being the ending. He's the first and the last. The thing that's in the middle is keeping him in the forefront so that my obedience to him is a work of joy. It's the first work. It's because I love him. Because he's the one who loved us. Are you getting that? This is the application. And maybe some of you, even maybe some of you young people, maybe some of you young people are getting it and you got to tell us older guys, us older folks. Sometimes you've got some things going on. But if you don't talk to somebody else, did you get what Brother John said? I'm kind of confused about it. You might not even want to come to me. You might come to somebody that says, you know, I think I get it. And this is what we got to do. When we see Christ so much, that Christ becomes everything. That's what Brother John has been preaching all these 25 years. That's what Brother Paul Washer talks about when he says, Christ is everything. At least I think that's what Brother Paul is talking about. All those preachers, when they say Christ is everything, I think, because that's what I believe, I know that that's what, I know what they're talking about, or at least I think I know what they're talking about, because that's what I'm talking about by it. Christ being everything is so that our focus on Him never ends. There's not a gap in it. And so when I see his obedience, I'm not trying to compare myself with him. I'm not trying to see how faithful I am. And I'm not, as it does say in Corinthians, that we don't compare ourselves with ourselves. That never enters in because you're so focused on Christ and seeing his obedience that whatever you do is based on what Christ has done. And that's an obedience all by itself. So trust me, believe me, when I say you will fail. It's a given. And you'll never do it as well as Jesus did. But oh, the righteousness that's imputed on you, every failure is covered in Christ's righteousness and precious blood. The going through forgiveness through His precious blood is an exercise as well so that our focus stays on Christ and Him crucified, you see. It's not because the blood is trickling down from Calvary these 2,000 years and I got to go down to the, quote unquote, wash basin of the church in order to confess my sins. It's because the truth of the power of his precious blood is that truth that by the truth, by the scriptures of God's word, it's an exercise to keep us focused on Christ. This is what he did to forgive my sins. This is the righteous life he lived so that you don't get puffed up. like Satan in Isaiah 14, which we just read last week. That pride to show that you're something when we're warned in scripture to beware of thinking that you're something when you're not. What is that, Galatians chapter six, verse three? That's what it is. I hope, I'm praying this week so much that I get it, that I really am able to put it together and take every thought captive. I've tried to teach it, I've tried to preach it these last 25 years here and there, and I'm still not there to be able to express it the way that it probably should be expressed, but I thank God for the Holy Spirit who will minister unto each and every one of you And if you want to show your love to Christ, that you don't want to break his heart or grieve the Holy Spirit, you want to honor the Father, that's what you gotta do. You gotta just keep Christ as frontlets for your eyes and bound to your hand and up on your, as far as being up on your forehead, that's the frontlets for your eyes that you see nothing else but Christ. and therein is the glory. When I look out on you, I pray that more and more every day I'm seeing Christ in you, Christ in others. And then eventually, when we even put it into more motion, that when we go out these doors and are missionaries unto the world, that we see the potential of Christ in them. But these are the first steps. See Christ in scripture, see Christ in one another, because we see Christ always and always. Let's pray. Our most blessed and gracious God and Father, in Jesus' name, help us to know the truth of His robes for mine. and He took our sin, the wonderful exchange in that hymn that we're gonna sing in just a moment, but let us see that truth so that as much as is possible that we sinners saved by grace will not have our eyes of faith anywhere but on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the open secret. We love you and thank you in Jesus' name, amen.