Put On the Breastplate of Righteousness

``The Lord put on the armor himself. He came as a warrior. He put on the breastplate of righteousness, which means the breastplate that we wear to protect our heart in a conditional world is first God's armor before it's ours. The righteousness that guards your heart is not your moral record, your good intentions, your sincerity. It's the righteousness of God, the Lord's own rectifying love. And into that world, God comes wearing a breastplate of his own righteousness, his holy refusal to let the powers have the last word over his creation. [00:29:22] (38 seconds)  #BreastplateOfRighteousness

The world's not right. Our systems aren't right. Our relationships aren't right. Our hearts aren't right. And we've caused it. And then Isaiah says, then the Lord saw it. It displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one to intercede. Then his own arm brought salvation. His righteousness upheld them. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. Truth stumbled, justice was absent, righteousness stood far away, and the Lord did not wait for humanity to climb its way back up to fix what he what they had broken. [00:28:41] (41 seconds)  #GodSawTheInjustice

So what does it mean to put on the breastplate of righteousness? First, receive Christ. Do not stand before God in your works. Do not answer the accuser with your works. Answer the accuser with Jesus. Then because you are joined to Christ, put on the new self. Walk as a child of light. Paul says, put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness is holiness. And then in Ephesians five, at one time you were in darkness, but now you are the light of the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. [00:40:11] (31 seconds)  #AnswerWithJesus

Your works cannot be your breastplate. They were never meant to bear the weight. Good works make terrible armor. So Ephesians says, by grace you have been saved through faith, not a result of works so that no one can boast. And then, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Not saved by good works, not works as breastplate, works as fruit. Christ is my righteousness before God, and Christ's righteous life is being formed in me by the spirit. [00:38:44] (33 seconds)  #WorksAreNotArmor

The gospel does not laugh at the cardboard night. It does not mock the tinfoil helmet or the plunger short. It knows why we picked it up. It knows the ache. It knows we're trying to protect something precious. We're trying to save someone. We're trying to make something right. But the gospel also tells the truth. Cardboard will not hold in a cosmic war. So Jesus does not say try harder. He says, put on what is mine, my righteousness, my victory, my life. [00:41:22] (34 seconds)  #GospelNotCardboard

Do any of you find comfort before the Lord in your duties, your promises next time, next time, God. Never again, God. That's just cardboard, tinfoil, and plastic. Brainerd was not saying, I don't care about God. He was saying, I will become worthy of God. He was trying to patch together a righteousness out of prayers, repentance, obedience, sincerity, and religious seriousness. But then he saw that all his struggling to become worthy was an exercise in self worship. He was actually trying to avoid God as the rectifier. [00:36:26] (39 seconds)  #StrugglingWasSelfWorship

This matters because one of the enemy's chief weapons is what? Accusation. The enemy's called an accuser. Where do the devil's accusations, what do they go after? Your heart. It says you're guilty, filthy, a fraud. You don't belong. You haven't really changed. And it's powerful because it contains a partial truth. Maybe you have sinned, You have failed. You have compromised. You've not loved God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. The accuser does not have to make everything up. It just has to tell the truth without Jesus. [00:33:15] (42 seconds)  #EnemyOfAccusation

Dating is hard not only because you're trying to figure out whether you like the other person, but because you're wondering, do they like me? And what does it say about me if they don't? And that doesn't magically disappear in marriage, by the way. We still wonder, do they love me? And what does it say about me if they don't? This is the justifying heart in a conditioned world. So what do we do? We start patching together a righteousness we will hope will cover us, but that righteousness ends up being cardboard breastplates, tinfoil helmets, and plunger swords. [00:20:01] (49 seconds)  #ConditionalDatingWorth