Open in your copies of the scriptures, please, to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6, let me read the portion we've been studying on Christian warfare. Chapter 6, beginning at verse 10. It reads this way. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in 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. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm." Here's our verse for this morning. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert, with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that indeed you would open our hearts, enlighten our minds, illuminate our minds, oh Lord, that we would be able to comprehend the seriousness of this text and give to us an understanding on how we could apply these words to our lives so that indeed we would remain standing. Thank you, Lord, for the beauty and the clarity of your word. Thank you, Lord, for your word speaks to us in this modern day. But we ask, O God, that you would show to us how to apply it. Where in our lives we need to see this be real. Teach us, Lord. We pray in your name, O Christ. Amen. Well, as you know, we've been looking at these verses beginning at verse 10, and we've made our way to verse 14. Last week, we took a look at the very first portion. of verse 14 regarding the belt of truth. This morning we're going to look at simply putting on the breastplate of righteousness. That's the second half of verse 14. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Now, before I get into the text, let me just remind you that what we see here in this list of pieces of equipment for engaging in spiritual warfare We have to be very active. It is not something that passively happens to us. This is something that requires our participation. And you'll notice, verses 11, 14, and 15, it says, put on the armor of God. Verses 13 and 16, take up the armor of God. Verse 14, fasten onto yourself, onto your waist the belt of truth. Verse 17, take, and verse 18, pray at all times. So you see here that it is requiring that we actually participate in this. In other words, it's not going to simply happen because you know it. You will not be shielded by the armor of God simply by knowing that these things are important, but rather you have to, imperatively, take it on to yourself. Look for areas in your life where you are not wearing the armor of God and put it on. in order for you to withstand the wiles of the devil, the schemes of the devil. And he is wily. His schemes never end. They seem to be the same schemes over and over and over again. We looked at a whole list of them last week, but boy, do they work. He does the same thing again and again and with, well, I guess he's more practiced by now. effective the devil is and what we have here then is a description of a soldier in the time of the Apostle Paul and the truth is much of what they were wearing then they wear now but of course we have more modern technology and more contemporary equipment, but basically they are the same. And what we see here is that the Apostle Paul actually lists for us the armor in the fashion, in the frame of how they would actually be put on. They would start with the belt of truth and then they would put on the breastplate of righteousness, or rather, the breastplate and so on. And these Breastplates were often fashioned out of leather, thick, hardened leather. In some cases, they would be made out of bronze. And of course, that would be very heavy. But these soldiers were big guys. And if you had a bronze breastplate, it's because you could carry one. In other cases, they were made out of light linen. However, the linen was covered in animal hooves or or horns from animals, and sometimes metal, and that would work as a protection. And if you were an officer, you actually would get a breastplate made out of chain mail, which was very effective. And of course, it would protect your front torso, but it would also protect your back. So there was a part to that armor that would protect your back as well. And the idea was that your major organs would be protected. whether you're being attacked from the front or from behind, your major organs, your heart, your lungs, your bowels, everything would be protected by this piece of armor. Now, when Paul is writing this, put on the breastplate of righteousness, he is certainly thinking as they did in his time. In Paul's time, the heart was the center of the mind and the will. And the bowels were the center of emotion and feelings. Now today we're slightly different, right? Today we talk about the heart being the center of emotions. In Paul's day, it was the mind, the center of the mind, the will. Whatever the case, whether we think like them or like today, the idea here is that Satan always goes for your heart and for your mind. for your emotions and what you believe. He attacks that. Again and again and again, he causes us to stumble. He flings those fiery arrows. How? Based on feelings. And based on what you believe and don't believe. He makes you question God. And it's very effective, isn't it? I mean, it worked very well with Eve, no question about it. But it works with us as well. Things we know to be true, in times of trial, we wonder, can I really, really believe God? And all of a sudden, we know what Eve felt like. It's not that we ever wanted to associate with Eve at the garden. But suddenly, because of circumstances, because of the arrows of the devil, we begin to see how she did actually get so easily duped. She questioned God. The areas most desirable for Satan to attack are our emotions and our knowledge. And the devil is so able to spoil our affections, to ruin what we find endearing to us. He's also able to pervert our emotions for the first time We are now defining gender based on our feelings, on our emotions, instead of fact, instead of science, instead of biology. You see, this is a perversion of our emotions. He comes along our way, and he begins to twist our commitments, and he confuses our morals, and certainly he starts to chip away at our loyalties. That's what he does. And so here Paul says, put on, therefore, this spiritual breastplate in order to protect your mind, in order to protect your will, in order to protect your loyalties and your convictions. If you do not have this breastplate of righteousness, those areas in your life will begin to collapse, break down. And what you will discover is that you will no longer believe in God, at least not wholly, completely. and your affections for the world will begin to get greater and greater and greater. And you will get more and more alienated from God, and you will try to find your solace, your comfort in the fact that there are so many other people who are just like you, who are looking to find all their solace, all their comfort in whatever the world offers as well. So you certainly won't be alone, but you will be very lonely. It will be like walking on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Masses of people who are all alone, And that's how you'll feel. This breastplate was an essential piece of the soldier's equipment. And it is an essential piece for us as Christians. And so this morning we're going to take a look at the aspect of righteousness. And I'm going to be more complex than I was last week. Last week we spoke about the belt of truth. This morning you're going to have to listen a little more carefully and follow along more deeply in order to follow what I'm having to say. We're going to take a look at four points, okay? And the first one is the divine righteousness, God's divine righteousness. Secondly, we're going to take a look at our own self-righteousness, our self-righteousness. Number three, we're going to look at Christ's human righteousness. And number four, the Christian's practical righteousness. Now, I'm telling you that just so you could follow a little more easily, but again, you're going to have to pay more attention. I'm not deliberately being confusing, all right? If you're having a hard time staying awake, just stand up. I'm told that's what they do in Japan, right? In fact, maybe I should sit down and you stand up. Well, let's begin by looking at God's divine righteousness. Here we're being told to put on the breastplate of righteousness. And when we speak about the breastplate of righteousness, we're not talking about God's divine righteousness. Righteousness is a key aspect of who God is. It's a key aspect of his character. And it refers to his perfect justice. And when we say that God is righteous, we're saying that he is perfectly holy. He is perfectly faithful. And it's not that God follows all the rules, therefore he's righteous. What we're talking about here, when we say that God is divinely righteous, we're talking about who God is. We're talking about the actual makeup of his nature, so that God is innately just. He is intrinsically true and faithful. That is his essence. He is righteous. Now, God is more than just righteous, but certainly that is an element of the nature of God. Just as you are spirit and you are flesh and you are a sinner, well, God is righteous. He is just, he is holy, he is faithful, he is true. But once again, this is not the righteousness that's given to us. However, this divine righteousness of God is important. Why? Because it's who he is, and it's the standard by which God judges the world. In fact, this righteous essence of God, this righteous character of God, is the way God interacts with creation. He is righteous, and he interacts with us based on that righteousness. And when the Bible tells us that God imputes His righteousness to us, a conversion, making us then justified or declared no longer guilty, He is not referring to this divine righteousness. This is not the righteousness He places on us. But it is this divine righteousness that serves as the standard for mankind. God says, I am holy, you therefore be holy. I am righteous and I want you to be righteous. This is why Adam and Eve were initially faultless. At creation, they had not violated this divine standard of righteousness. And so they were righteous until, of course, they disobeyed God and ate from the forbidden tree. their disobedience meant that they fell short of the righteous standard of God. One writer by the name of Wood notes that the Christian's protection is only in what Christ has done for him and in him. That's our only protection we have. So it is not the righteousness of God that protects us. In fact, it is the righteousness of God that inflicts wrath on us. But it is what Christ has done for us, that righteousness, that protects us. We'll talk about that in a few moments. What Christ has done in order to provide for us human righteousness, he imputes it onto the believer. It's what we were singing about earlier. Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are your garments filthy or are they washed like snow? Well, before we talk about the righteousness of Christ, let's talk about our self-righteousness first. Righteousness, my friends, righteousness without God's truth is self-righteousness. If you do not have God's truth, then any righteousness you may claim is simply self-righteousness. Righteousness has to be supported by God's truth, and that's why we started last week with the belt of truth. Listen, you cannot be faithful, you cannot be just, you cannot be holy without God's truth. It's impossible. And so Paul starts, of course, with the belt of truth around your waist and now the breastplate of righteousness. Our homespun truths will never produce righteousness. We live in a society where we have so many people who have their own truth. I think more so now than ever in modern American history. People who simply say, well, what's your truth? What do you believe works for you? What do you believe is true? And some of these people have given it great amounts of thought. But nonetheless, you cannot have God's righteousness if you do not believe God's truth. And honestly, some of these homespun truths work for them. But in God's eyes, it will not hold water in any sense. Why? Because truth is absolute. We cannot make it up ourselves. And God is the source of truth, absolutely. There are some examples in the Bible of self-righteous people. The first one that comes to my mind are the Pharisees. You probably thought along the same lines. The Pharisees were people who kept the law. I mean, they were rigorous about keeping the law of God. Word for word, practice for practice, they went out of their way to keep the law. And what does God Christ call them? He calls them whitewashed graves. Whitewashed graves. Whitewashed because on the outside, they look perfect. Oh, what an ornate grave. We've all gone through cemeteries where you look at some of those monuments, and you're like, wow, that's beautiful. Forget being cremated. I want one of those on me. And yet, he says they are graves because on the inside, there's no righteousness. They are dead, they are spiritually dead. And yet they kept all of the laws, they did all of the things, and beyond by the way. They sought to keep all of God's laws, and yet they were still dead on the inside. Why? Because it was a righteousness of their own, not of God. In Matthew chapter 7, beginning of verse 22, we're told what those people who are self-righteous are going to hear from the very mouth of Jesus Christ. Standing before the throne of God, this is what they're going to hear. Depart from me. I never knew you. Oh, but Lord, I did this and this and this and that in your name. And Christ is going to say, I never knew you. You have to leave now. And this is the direction you have to go. It's not through the gates of heaven. but rather to the flames of hell. I never knew you, but they look so righteous. My friends, self-righteousness will smother spiritual life. It will suffocate any true fellowship with God, and it will keep unbelievers from actually entering the kingdom of God. Look at what the prophet Isaiah said in chapter 64 verse 6, a very familiar and famous verse. Isaiah 64 6, some of you have memorized it. We have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment, literally menstrual rags. All of our righteous deeds have become polluted garments. Now notice here, Isaiah didn't say all of our bad deeds are polluted garments. He says all of our good, righteous deeds are polluted garments. Why? Because we are sinners. And as soon as those good deeds come through our sinful hearts, they become sinful too. They become polluted. And so he says we have all become like one who is unclean, and all of our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. And here's the result. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. We become like that dry leaf in October. The wind just blows it away. That's who we become. Dead, dried up, worthless. Because of our sins. Let me tell you what I mean by self-righteous. I'm not referring to the common use of the term, which people say, oh, he's so self-righteous. She thinks she's so superior than all the rest of us. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about an attitude where you think you are better or more godly than somebody else. That's a different conversation. What I'm talking here about self-righteousness, I'm talking about referring to myself as I am sufficiently good. I am good I am sufficiently good before God, and now God, because I am so good, God now has to accept me and even grant to me a status as a follower of Jesus Christ, because look how good I am. And therefore, because I am now, according to my own standard, accepted by God, God has to give me all the benefits of being his child, of being redeemed. God owes it to me because I am, after all, good enough. That's self-righteous. And it's not based on what God said is righteous or good or right or wrong, but rather it is a righteousness based on what I say is good, what I say is true, what I say is the standard for right and wrong in my own life. So the next time somebody says to you, what's your truth? You could say, I don't have any, but my God does. And this is what I came to. Because your truth will never make you righteous. It'll never win the kingdom of God for you. It'll never promise you eternal life. The world thinks otherwise. But my friends, we put on the armor of God, not the armor of man. And God says what I just said. The truth is that self-righteousness will actually alienate you from God not win you to God. You have no righteousness of your own and neither do I. We are born with iniquity. We are born sinners. That's number two. Here's number three. Let's take a look then at the human righteousness of Jesus Christ. We're talking about the breastplate of righteousness and here we are now at the human righteousness of Christ. As God we know Jesus Christ is God, we know that Christ possesses a divine righteousness. He's God. He too, like the Father, is faithful, holy, and just. But here now, we're not talking about his divine righteousness, we're talking about his human righteousness. The righteousness he earned as a man who walked on this earth for some 33 years. Now, there is a theological myth out there. It's the myth of Mary's trove of righteousness. Mary's trove of righteousness says that Mary, the human mother of Jesus Christ, was so righteous, but so righteous, that now you can receive her righteousness and be blessed with God's grace. And of course, that's rooted in Roman Catholic theology, And again, it teaches that Mary was that righteous, that now she has an overabundance of righteousness, and that you can plead to her and she can bless you. She could give you her righteousness. That you could be cleansed from your sins because of Mary's trove of righteousness. And my friends, that's a theological myth. That is not in the Bible. In fact, that's not even hinted of in the Bible. The Bible does not elevate Mary to any sort of a position, certainly not one as a co-redemptress. What we do see, though, is that Jesus Christ was humanly righteous. He was indeed righteous. What I mean by righteous is that Christ had the quality of being morally upright. Christ was morally upright. And the word here in the original Greek language for righteousness, the breast of righteousness, refers to a breastplate of integrity of character. A breastplate that says, here is my integrity. And of course, it's referring to doing what is right. So Jesus Christ, as a human being, was 100%, 100% perfectly righteous. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, He knew no sin. No, He knew of our sin. He did not know of any personal sin. He never encountered sin in Himself. And yet, He became sin on our behalf. He became our substitute. Thus, Jesus Christ was impeccable, non posse peccare. He was without sin and could not sin. And my friends, this is the righteousness which Christ earned as a human living here from day to day, his feet on the ground, living just as we do, this is the righteousness he earned, which is now imputed onto the believer. So it's not the divine righteousness that's given to the believer, but rather this human righteousness that Christ earned on this life, in this life, as he walked on this earth in obedience to God the Father, a sinless life, this righteousness is what is given to you, Christian, when you place your faith in Christ. And this imputed righteousness can be categorized in two different levels. The first is his active righteousness. His active righteousness refers to Christ's willing and determined obedience from day to day. He was actively obedient and therefore actively earning righteousness. He intentionally kept God's law. You see, that's why Jesus Christ had to grow up and be an adult before he died on the cross. He could not have been three weeks old and crucified on a cross. Why? Because he had to earn, he had to produce, through obedience, this righteousness that would be counted, accredited, imputed, assigned to you. there is his active righteousness, then there is his passive righteousness. And his passive righteousness is that he simply, willingly became a punishment for our sins. He went to the cross. He did not fight it. He did not resist it. He passively said, do to me as you will. And in doing that, he was being obedient. And in doing that, again, we see earned righteousness. And this is what is imputed onto the believer. By imputed, again, I mean this is what is attributed to us or assigned to us when we place our faith in Christ. It's not my own righteousness. That's self-righteousness. But rather, it is the earned human righteousness of Christ. As a human being who lived without sin, that righteousness is put over you. It's not yours, it's his, but now he makes it yours. And so now when God the Father sees you, he does not see you in your filthy rags, but rather he sees you in the righteous deeds of Christ. Imputed righteousness. By the way, your sins are imputed onto him, and his righteousness is imputed onto you, believer. Imputed righteousness refers to the fact that we are in need of appropriating Christ's character or his righteousness. Why? Because our own righteousness is simply corrupt and stained with sin, their filthy rags. You know, there's a great biblical illustration of this in the Old Testament book of Zechariah chapter 3. And here's your homework for the week. Go home this week, read Zechariah chapter 3. And there in chapter 3 at the very beginning we see Joshua the high priest standing before God and Satan at his side. And Satan is accusing Joshua. He's saying, look at him. He's wearing filthy clothes. He is a to be here in the presence of God. He does not deserve your forgiveness. He does not deserve eternal life. Satan is the accuser. And he's accusing this man, Joshua. Take a look at verse 4. Zechariah 3, 4. And the angel, and here is referring to the angel of the Lord, referring to God the Son, Christ himself. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, get this, Remove the filthy garments from him. Behold, I have taken your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments. Are you washed in the blood? Christ takes those filthy garments and instead imputes on us his own righteousness. This is what he's doing with Joshua. And verse 4 says, the angel of the Lord, Christ, replaces his filthy garments with clean clothes. And what we have here, hundreds of years before Christ came to this earth, a prophetic picture of imputed righteousness. His filthy garments, verse 5 tells us, are replaced with clean garments, garments from Jesus Christ. This is what he does for us. He gives to us of His cleanliness, His righteousness. Look at John 14, verse 30, your New Testament. It's an interesting two phrases there that Christ speaks to His disciples. John 14, 30. He warns His disciples. He says, the battle is going to get worse. Satan is on the prowl. He says, the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me. The ruler of this world is coming. He has no hold, no claim on me. That's what Jesus Christ said about himself as he stands before Satan. He says, this devil, the ruler of this world, he's coming in full force, but he can do nothing to me. He has no hold on me. He has no claim on me. And whenever I look at that verse, I'm reminded of a climbing wall. And I've never climbed one myself, never had to. Don't know that I can anymore. But I find it amazing to see how people put their foot on one hold, and then grab another, and they just move their way all the way up to the top of the wall with one hold at a time. If it wasn't for those holds, they would never be able to climb. And Christ is saying, there's no holds on me. Satan can never climb me. There's no way he's going to get over on me because there's nothing for him to hold on to. There's no claims on me. In other words, I'm sinless. In fact, he says, I will not speak much more with you for the ruler of this world is coming. And he says that not out of fear of Satan, but in obedience to the Father. I have nothing more to say, he says. He has no claim on me. You see, there is no hold on Jesus, but the devil has plenty of holds on us. And that's why we need the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Again, 2 Corinthians 5.21, for our sake he made him who knew no sin to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. The imputed righteousness of Christ allows us to possess the righteousness of Christ. Well, that was point number three. We are given the human righteousness of Christ, earned as a human being in this life through obedience to the Father right up to the cross. Here's the last point, number four. Now, the Christian is already clothed with the human righteousness of Christ, right? At conversion, you are given that righteousness. So what does it mean to put on the breastplate of righteousness? Well, to put on the breastplate of righteousness is all about obedience to God. It's about you living a life that is obedient to the Lord. Go back to the passages that Scott read to us earlier in Ephesians chapter four. Remember, Ephesians 6 is now, in light of everything Paul has said, he says, put on the armor of God. Well, let's go back and see what Paul has said, at least in part, beginning in chapter 4, verse 24. I'll read it to you once again. From 24 to 27, he's talking about obedience to God's word. And to put on the new self, Paul writes, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness, verse 25. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Later on, in Philippians chapter 2, Paul summarizes these very words with this idea, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. In other words, live a righteous life. Actively live out your salvation, how? Through obedience and diligence, making practical righteousness the person that you are. Dr. James Boyce writes, we cannot divorce imputed righteousness from personal or actual righteousness. In other words, if you claim to have been made righteous by Christ, then live as Christ would have you, a practical righteousness. John MacArthur notes that imputed righteousness leads to practical righteousness, but only obedience makes practical righteousness a reality. Practical righteousness, my friends. A living out of who God made you to be. He declared you righteous, now live as one who is righteous. Living in accord with what God has declared you to be. That's what we're talking about here when we talk about putting on the breastplate of righteousness. So that how you live is now seeking to match how Christ lived. the breastplate of righteousness. But get this, this is extremely important. How do you live out this righteous living, this righteous life? How do you put on the breastplate of righteousness? Well, it is done through the power of the Holy Spirit in you. So you see, it has more to do with submitting your will to God, to his word, then it does actively seek to do what is right. Now many people say, well then I have to keep thinking, I have to do what is right, I have to do what is right, and then I'm going to be putting on the breastplate of righteousness. No, that's not what we're talking about here. We're actually talking about something quite different. We're talking about allowing the Holy Spirit to so work in you that you are submitting your person, your life to God, and the result is you will do what God would require of you. So it's a reliance on God's grace in you by which you bow your life to God's will. That is to say, you die to yourself. And you take on this attitude that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So you see, it's not about what you do, but about who you are. And then who you are determines what you do. Christ gives you His righteousness, you do not earn it, but now you live in accord with that righteousness. Why? Because God is molding you, God is changing you so that it becomes who you are, not something that you have to say, huh, I should do the right thing. But allowing the Holy Spirit to so work in you that that becomes who you are, this is what you want to do, this is what you strive to do because it's who you are. the breastplate of righteousness. What does practical righteousness look like? Well, let me give you a few passages. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 5, this is what practical righteousness looks like. 1 Corinthians 10.5, it tells us that we are to hold captive all of our thoughts. So that we control our thoughts instead of our thoughts controlling us. Can you think of somebody you don't like? Maybe hate? And how good it feels to hate that person whose heart hurt you? Here the Bible says, well, you control your thoughts instead of letting your thoughts control you. And how do you do that? Through the power of the Holy Spirit working in you so that you learn not to hate those who hate you and learn to love. those who hate you. Hold every thought captive. What's it look like? Take a look at Colossians 3.2. There we're told that we ought to focus on things that are from above and not focus our lives on things that are here on this earth. It's not that we don't live here. It's that we have a higher calling. We have greater expectations. We long for eternal things and we leave the temporal things just there. 1 Peter 2.11 says that we are to abstain from fleshly passions, and Romans 13 tells us that we're to make no provisions for the flesh. And all this has to do with who you are, not what you do. Christ's righteousness should so mold you that your life will begin to reflect who Jesus Christ is. It should reflect Christ in you. So it's not WWJD, what would Jesus do? But rather, it's who I am because of Christ. Who I am because of Christ in me. Don't ever fool yourself in believing that how you live determines who you are. Rule keepers are not necessarily righteous people. They're just rule keepers. But if you are truly living with Christ, in Christ, if the Holy Spirit is truly working in you and molding you, molding your affections, molding your thoughts, molding your heart and your bowels, you will discover that who Christ is and what Christ did will come more and more naturally to you because it's molding you. There's the righteousness of Christ in you. Now there's a great cost for not practicing righteousness. It's a very pricey life. I came across this list by one of the writers I was reading and he notes that number one you will lose your joy. If you live outside of the practice of righteousness, if you are not wearing the breastplate of righteousness, you will not be a joyful person. Are you joyful? If the answer is, not very often, or I don't know, well then consider whether or not you're wearing the breastplate of righteousness. First John 1.4 says that our joy will be made complete when the breastplate of righteousness is being worn. Joy, however, without that breastplate becomes very elusive. Joy will be replaced instead with guilt and maybe even a hardened, insensitive conscience. But no joy. And along with joy will go peace. There will be no peace either. That's what David suffered from. He writes about it in Psalm 51.8. He says, let me hear joy and gladness again. And then he says, let the bones that you have broken, crushed, rejoice. You see, there is no peace in broken bones. And because he was living outside of the righteousness of Christ, he was just broken. He was a crushed man. There is no peace. In fact, it is a tumultuous, painful life filled with anguish, no matter what the circumstances, when we are living outside of obedience to God's Word. You'll also develop a lot of head knowledge, but you will have very little action. You'll be a big-headed theologian, but you won't be a very good Christian. And of course, head knowledge is foundational. We do need to know the Word of God. But knowledge is not transformative. It will not transform you. It will simply give you the basis for transformation. You must put that knowledge into practice. Heartless devotion to God is not devotion at all So don't don't confuse yourself. Don't tell me you read through the Bible in one year If you're not practicing it it was for naught Right might as well read Moby Dick My friends you need devotion with knowledge and There's also then a loss of fruit. There will be no spiritual fruit in you without a life of wearing the breastplate of righteousness. The fruit of the Spirit, of course, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And all these will be absent in your life at varying levels if you're not wearing the breastplate of righteousness. They just won't be seen. You won't see it. People around you won't see it. They're going to suffer because of it. And so will you. And it will produce in you a nagging sense of shame. The spiritual fruit will be a sham. There's also a loss of reward. If we live our lives without the breastplate of righteousness, there's going to be a loss of reward. What we all want to hear coming from the mouth of God is, well done, good, and faithful servant. Without the breastplate of righteousness, you will not hear those words. 1 Corinthians 3 talks about how we build our lives, and we're going to be tested by God. Beginning of verse 12, it says that some people build their lives made out of wood, hay, and straw, or stubble, dry grass. And other people, well, they build their lives based on the foundation of gold, silver, and precious stones. And then God comes, and in eternity, when we are faced with God at the end of our lives, He is going to test to see what we built our lives on. Was it built on wood, hay, and straw? Or was it built on a foundation of gold, silver, and precious stones? And that judgment will be fiery and only those with the foundation of gold, silver, and precious stones will survive the test. Now, 1 Corinthians 3 says you will enter heaven even if you built your life out of wood, hay, and straw because God's grace is sufficient. But you will lose reward. You will suffer for it. How are you building your life? A little gold, a little straw? A little silver, a little wood? My friends, don't be so content with a mixture, but rather pursue Christ so that your life is being identified with gold, silver, and precious stones. God will put you to the test. One last thing you'll lose. You will lose opportunities to give, through your life, glory to God. In fact, you will gain criticism regarding the glory of God. How will anybody see God's glory through you if you are not wearing the breastplate of righteousness? They're not going to see it. If you're not wearing that breastplate of righteousness, people are going to say, so you're a Christian? Well, I've had my share. I heard that once somebody said to me, if that is a Christian, I'll have nothing to do with God whatsoever. And they walked away and they never turned back. What a shame that was. Your sin will reflect poorly on God and even his church. In Titus chapter two, verse 10, we're told that in everything we are to adorn the doctrine of God, our savior. adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. That means you put on the breastplate of righteousness. Well, in closing, let me just say this. The reward for practical righteousness is this, that you would remain standing, that you would not collapse when Satan comes your way with his fiery arrows. You will be protected because your life has been molded by the integrity of God. And your life will reflect the righteousness of Christ that has been assigned to you. And it is that righteousness that will see you through the hard days of life. And they have come already. And some have passed. And then they have come back. And I assure you, for as long as you breathe on this earth, there will be this rotation of trials and temptations, of tests and fiery darts. However, if we are wearing this breastplate of righteousness, you will hear from the throne of God the very words that Job heard. Job was called a blameless and upright man, fearing God and shunning evil. In fact, he was considered the greatest man among all the people of the East. Wear the breastplate of righteousness and that will be you. Wear the breastplate of righteousness and hear the words of Christ, well done, good and faithful servant. You look so much like my son Jesus Christ.