Pastor Jeff on the Radio

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub with Pastor Jeff Ministries. On today's program, Pastor Jeff begins his message, Dress for the Fight, from the series Waging War, and shows you how you can wield truth, righteousness, faith, and God's word to stand firm in Christ.

We're committed to equipping you with solid biblical truth so you can live boldly for Jesus. Visit PastorJeff.com for more resources to help strengthen your walk. And be sure to sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly email devotionals for encouragement sent straight to your inbox every week. And now, here's Pastor Jeff with today's message.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: Specific occasions call for specific attire. There are different ways that we dress based upon what we're doing or where we're going to go. In the military, the infantry wear different garments than you would wear to your job on a Monday through Friday. When the Denver Broncos suit up for a game, they wear different attire than you would wear if you were just going to a park.

It's interesting because when you watch people suit up, there's this part of us that wants to identify with who we like. So even at a Broncos game, it's the players that need to wear all of the garb and all of the uniform. And yet what we find so often is people in the stands are doing the same thing, even though they're never going to get called on to go down on the field. They're wearing and identifying with that outfit.

Specific occasions call for specific attire. No more is this true than a wedding. When it comes to a wedding, no matter who it is, usually there's a type of attire that happens. The groom usually wears a tuxedo and all of his groomsmen are dressed the same. He might have a nuance to his tuxedo because he's the head of it.

But there's nothing quite like the bride. She picks out bridesmaids' dresses that she's apparently thought about for her entire life as to what the color needs to be and how it needs to look. And then she wears a special type of outfit. And it's white. What I learned when I got married was that this was a really big deal to pick the exact right dress.

I got engaged to my wife in November, and we weren't getting married until May. After we got engaged, I went off to India to preach for a couple of weeks, and all we had communication-wise was internet back and forth. I was texting her, "How excited are you? I'm excited. How's it going? How's the planning?" She said, "It's great. I just can't find a dress." And I'm thinking, "How long does it take to do that?"

I started talking to my friends, and every time I would talk to her, she'd say, "I can't do it." Even after I got home, she would tell me, "I'm going to look for a dress today." My task-oriented, problem-solving nature was like, "I'm praying for this. She's going to get it done today." And routinely she would call me in the evening, and I'd say, "Did you find the dress?" She would say, "No, I didn't find it, but I had a lot of fun."

I was getting concerned because the date was approaching and I thought, foolishly, she might need my help. So I asked, "Do you want me to come with? I'll go to Walmart and get a white dress. We can get this thing done fast." She said, "No, I don't need your help."

She would be out with her friends and I would even call her. "How's it going today?" "It's not going so well." Well, I remember the night after she had looked at dresses that she found the one. I remember talking to her on the phone, and the conversation went like this: "How'd it go? You didn't find it, did you?" She was really sad. She said, "No, I actually did." I said, "You did? That's awesome. Why are you so sad?" She said, "Because I know I'm never ever going to get to shop for a wedding dress ever again in my life."

To which I said, "You mean you enjoyed this?" And she said, "Yes, except for you bugging me all the time." I had no clue what a big deal it was, but I still remember what she looked like coming down the aisle, and I'm still in love with that girl today.

Specific occasions call for specific attire. When it comes to our Christian walk, God has given us some garments that we're called to wear, that we're called to put on, that He wants us to robe ourselves in, so to speak. And yet so few people understand what those garments are or how to put them on. As we've been talking about waging war, this is how you dress for the fight.

If you ever want to know how to dress for the Lord, here's what you can do. Open your Bible up to Ephesians chapter six this morning. Ephesians chapter six, verses 14 through 17. To bring you up to speed, if you weren't here last week, we talked about the fact that in this spiritual battle that we face, we're not against other people. It's not flesh and blood that's our enemy.

It's the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms that we can't see that oftentimes manifest themselves through people. We need to fight the source of the problem, not the people that have those problems. In verse 13, he says, "Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and, having done everything, to stand firm."

We talked about how when it comes to evil, we as Christians are called to choose righteousness and to choose good and to make a decision to oppose that which is wrong and stand firm on the Word of God as we continue to take steps for His kingdom. And then He's going to tell us how to dress.

Now, for many people, if you grew up in a traditional church, you would think it would say wear a coat and tie or wear a dress and something over your head. But that's not what He tells us. Listen to the Word of the Lord. Here's how you dress for the Lord. He says in verse 14 of Ephesians chapter six, "Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God."

Now, just by show of hands, how many have heard this before? I'm just curious. What I feel is in church, this has been taught so much that it becomes white noise to us. We think back to some pastor or Bible teacher or some quiet time we've had with the Lord where we've really owned this and learned this. As I teach this today, I don't want this to be white noise. I'm actually going to teach the same garment from three different perspectives.

We're going to go through these pieces of armor three different times. The first group I want to talk to are those of you who do not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ yet. Maybe you're new to church or new to the things of God. Maybe you got dragged here by a friend. Maybe you don't even understand what it means and all this language about being saved. It doesn't even make sense to you. I want to talk about why it's important for you to be clothed in the things of Christ.

In case you didn't know, God has a way He wants you to dress. Then I want to talk to some of you who are Christians who have come to know the Lord through repentance and faith, who believe in who He is, whom God wants to strengthen. God wants you to grow. You're saved, but you're stagnant. You wonder why other Christians are growing at a rate that you don't consider yourself able to grow. I'm going to show you how these pieces of armor will help you.

Third, I want to talk to a group of you who are strengthened in the Lord. You've been saved, you're strengthened, but we have to realize that Jesus Christ put us on mission. We need to know what it looks like to wear that armor when we're sent out into the mission field. How we can put that armor on and use it for our benefit when God calls us to share the gospel with other people.

My hope is that as we do this, not that you remember every little thing I said, but from your perspective, maybe there's one point or one illustration or one thing that the Lord shows you this morning through His Holy Spirit that makes you say, "That's what I needed." When that's it, you write that down and you put that into practice.

The first group I want to talk to is those who do not know the Lord. I want to give you the reason that you need to put on Christ. You go through the book of Ephesians chapter four and the book of Colossians chapter three, and here's what the gospel's all about. In the way of your former way of thinking, put off the old and put on that which is new.

The Bible says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have been made new." That's what this whole message is about for the non-believer. So let me give you the first reason, to those of you who do not know the Lord, why you need to put on all these garments. It's because of this: Christ saves and satisfies.

If you haven't put on these elements, you need to know something. Christ not only saves, but He satisfies. Hear the word of the Lord. He says, "Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness." Now, when it says "gird your loins with truth," that may sound kind of funny to us, but a Roman soldier would have had a tunic underneath. In order to run, he would have had to pull it up or he would have been running in a dress.

The belt is what fastened all the pieces of armor together and gave him the freedom to move and do what he did. Truth is central to everything that God is. What you are looking for, whether you realize it or not, is truth. Some of you think, "I'm looking for a new job. I'm looking for a new girlfriend. I'm looking for a new boyfriend. I'm looking for my marriage to work. I'm looking for somebody to heal."

That is not essentially what you're looking for. What you're looking for first is truth. The question you're asking yourself is why in this world that's spinning out of control you can't seem to find any bedrock, any ground. Who can I trust? What can I trust? Here's your answer: Jesus. He's the embodiment of truth.

That's why He said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me." The only way you can be satisfied in your life is with the truth of Jesus Christ. What you are looking for, even if you don't realize it, is a personal relationship with Jesus because He embodies truth.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his message, Dress for the Fight, from the series Waging War, showing you how you can wield truth, righteousness, faith, and God's word to stand firm in Christ. We'll return to Pastor Jeff shortly, but first, when you place your faith in Jesus, you get more than a fresh start. You get a brand new life.

As scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, you become a new creation. To help you grow deeper in that truth, Pastor Jeff's written a powerful booklet called Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission. This encouraging resource will help you understand who you are in Christ and how God calls you to live boldly for Him in a world that desperately needs the gospel.

We'd love to send it to you as a thank you for your gift to help share God's word through Pastor Jeff Ministries. Just visit PastorJeff.com to request your copy today. Now, let's return to Pastor Jeff for the conclusion of today's teaching.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: John 17:3 says, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." He said in John 17:17, "Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth." To know Jesus is to know truth. He will tell you the truth because He is the truth. What you are looking for in this world is truth. That fastens everything together.

When you're around a bunch of people or media or schools that are lying to you and they say this and they do that, Jesus will never lie. Our God cannot lie. He tells the truth.

But what about the next piece, this breastplate of righteousness? This breastplate is what covers all of your vitals, all your vital organs. It just covers you. Your heart, your lungs, your liver, your kidney. If you were in a battle, you're moving forward, you're covered with this. What does He want us to be covered with? Righteousness.

Now, I'm going to read a verse I read last week in 1 Corinthians chapter six, verses nine through 11. It's a verse that is an equal opportunity offender. He says, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" Unrighteous people don't get in. If you're unrighteous, you can't make it into heaven. If you're unrighteous, you can't have a relationship with God. It's impossible.

Notice what he says. "Do not be deceived." Don't think, "Well, I think I'm good enough and I think I've done a good enough job and if God doesn't want me..." Do not be deceived. Don't lie to yourself. You're not righteous. You're not getting in. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexual, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Not entering.

That should bother us because all of us fit in that definition somewhere. The Bible says before you trust Christ, you are unrighteous. You are dead in your sins. You are blind to your sins. You are held captive by your sins. You're going in the direction of your sins. You're heading away from Jesus, and everything about you is dead and unrighteous.

So what you need is righteousness. Where are you going to get that? Jesus Christ is the righteous one. Jesus Christ wants to clothe you in His righteousness. If you're unrighteous and you say, "I just want to find the right religion. I just want to find the right spirituality. I want to find the right diet. I want to find the right exercise program."

You can do all that and find some success in life, but what you won't find is righteousness because Jesus Christ, the righteous one, is the only one who offers it. When Jesus Christ came as the righteous one, He was born of the Virgin Mary. He's fully God. He's fully man. He never sinned. He fulfilled the law.

And then when He went to the cross, He died in your place for all your sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. So not only are you looking for truth this morning, if you're not a believer, you're looking for righteousness. And I'm telling you, the only place you're going to get it is Jesus. There is no other place.

That's why I can say with authority when Jesus said, "I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Muhammad won't give it to you. Confucius won't give it to you. Buddha won't give it to you. Any other made-up religion won't give it to you. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can make you righteous. And when you turn—let's give God praise for that.

The gospel is not about trying to be righteous or trying to get better. It's by admitting I'm not, and I'm in need of His righteousness. I want to put on His garment, that breastplate. I want to be covered in His righteousness so that when He sees me, He sees me as righteous, not because of my behavior, but because I'm clothed in Him. That's what we see.

Let's keep reading. Not only do you need the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness, but what does the word tell us? It says, "and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."

For those of you who don't know the gospel, here's what being ready with the gospel means: Have an open heart to what you're hearing. It's interesting to me that when I talk to different people who don't believe in Jesus, there's a different level of readiness for the gospel. Some people say things like, "I'm open. If it's true, if I can see it, if I can believe it, I'll place my faith in it."

And yet there are others who would say something like, "You can't tell me what to do. I know that's wrong. There's no way I'm listening." They're shut off. They don't have an open heart. If you're here today, here's what I would say. Just have an open heart. If you're hostile towards Jesus, here's my question: Why? Where do you think all that hostility comes from? Who are you mad at?

The God of the universe loved you so much, He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for you so that He could be in relationship with you. Why is it you don't mind people talking about religion or morality or country? That doesn't bother you. But when we talk about the Lord Jesus Christ being the only way to heaven, something goes off in your heart and you're angry.

Why do you think that is? Because there's a spiritual attack on your soul and the enemy doesn't want you to know that Jesus Christ is Lord. Here's the good news. The good news of the gospel is Jesus does not ask you to get religion. Jesus just wants you to be in relationship with Him.

There's a lot of people who say they're rejecting Jesus. They're not really rejecting Jesus. They're rejecting other people who claim they knew Jesus, or they saw something bad happen. "I'm rejecting all that." If you saw the beauty and the fullness of Christ on this platform right now, you would fall to your face and worship Him. Because the Bible says that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You will do that whether you believe it or not. But you get one chance on this side of heaven to be clothed with the gospel. Are you ready to hear it?

Even if you're here today and you're brand new, open your heart to the truth. Open your heart to His righteousness. Be willing to experience that God genuinely loves you. He loves you.

What's the shield of faith? Notice what He says. He says the shield of faith for a non-believer is the readiness to believe and surrender. When you come to Christ, here's what the gospel is: It's not about good works. It's not about keeping the law. It's not about trying to please God. It's not about "I got spiritual" or "I got religion."

It's about this: I can't do anything to make God pleased other than believe that He's the one who's worthy, and I want Him. I want Him. Here's what those of us would say. Praise God if you believe this. Jesus not only saves, He satisfies. Can we praise God for that?

There's nothing I would want. If you took everything out of my life, as long as I had Jesus, I have everything I need. Everything's going to work. He satisfies. In other words, when I place my faith in Him, His fullness comes to live in me. His joy, His hope, His peace. The fact He's in control of the world and that with all the chaos going on, He thinks about me and He loves me.

He thinks about our church and He loves our church. He's got good things planned. But it comes through faith in Him. Faith in Him means I'm going to turn from living my life my own way and doing my own thing, and I'm going to go all in with Jesus. I'm going to take a step of faith with Him.

As we say all the time, the hardest step of faith you'll ever take is the next one. If you're a non-believer, the hardest step of faith you will ever take is to turn from your sin and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Then notice what He says. What other garments does He have? He says, "and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God."

The helmet of salvation is something you need to put on. Much like a football player is no good holding his helmet in his hand, salvation is no good with you just messing around with it, hearing about it. You gotta put this salvation on. You need to put on this new identity. It's not automatic. You weren't born wearing the helmet of salvation.

Now, here's why we think we were: Because some of us grew up in religious traditions. And we had helmets that we wore. Here's what they said on the side of those helmets: Methodist, Independent Fundamentalist Baptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Non-denominational, Evangelical Free. We have all the different headgear that we wear.

Friends, that headgear doesn't do anything for you. Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ is everything. And you gotta put it on. So the question comes, when did you put on the helmet of salvation? When was the moment in your life that you said, "I'm done wearing this headgear. I'm done living for this. I'm done protecting my mind with those things. I want the fullness of Jesus, and I don't care who sees. I want the world to know I belong to Him"?

When did that happen? Now, you may not remember the exact moment or day or time. You may not know all that. But there's a chance, and for sure you would know if you were living unrighteously and all of a sudden you got clothed in the righteousness of God by faith in Christ. What would you do? You would be totally different.

Here's my question: When did that happen for you? I'm asking all of you who attend Brave on a regular basis. When did that happen for you? October 1993? Amen. We know. I did some research to find out when I got saved in my young life. I actually got saved on July 8th, 1989, which happens to be my dad's birthday.

Now I'll never forget it. You may not know the exact day. That's okay. But you would know a time frame that I went from there to there. I was dead, now I'm alive. I was lost, now I'm found. I was an enemy, now I'm a friend. And I'm never going back. You would know that. And if you don't know that, you don't know the Jesus I'm preaching to you about. He's saying this: Come today. Surrender to me today. It's by grace through faith. It's not your own doing. It's a gift. Receive the gift.

Then there's this final piece called the sword of the spirit. Romans 10:17 says faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. It's the spoken Word of God. When the Word of God is spoken, it has the ability to convict your heart, piercing and dividing both soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the attitudes and the intentions of the heart.

That's why when you hear the Word of God, it can be comfortable, it can be offensive, it can be any number of things because it's God speaking directly to you. I believe every time this book is preached that God is speaking to you in some way. It's Him who's talking to you. It's Him letting you know how much He loves you.

That's the sword of the spirit. Are you open to that? Because some people get offended by the Bible. You're not offended by the Bible. You're offended at the power of God's Word. I've been preaching for 20-some years. I've been pastoring this church for 13. There's been rare a message where somebody doesn't get up and leave while I'm preaching.

I know sometimes people have to go to the bathroom and I get it. Sometimes you gotta leave early for a game. But I know there's other times when I say something and three people are like, "Boom, we out." You're not mad at me. You're mad that the spoken Word of God and the sword of the spirit cut you in a place that you weren't willing to be cut.

If you're here today and you just want to hear some word, let me tell you something. Let me just give you a couple of scriptures about Christ's righteousness and the gospel. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

1 John 4:10 says, "This is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins." John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but would have eternal life."

This is God saying to you, "I love you. I care about you. I want a relationship with you. Will you come to me? What's keeping you? What's in your way? Come clothed in the righteousness of God. God's willing to give you a garment so that you're prepared to meet Him."

There's a parable in the New Testament in the Gospel of Matthew where there's a wedding banquet and different groups of people come in. Some of the people are dressed for the wedding and some of the people aren't. And when the Master of the house, who's representing God, sees that some people aren't dressed properly, He says, "Who let these people in? They don't belong to the wedding party. Kick them out!"

Friends, the only way you're going to experience eternity with Christ is to put on the fullness of Christ through His truth, through His righteousness, through His gospel, by faith. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his message, Dress for the Fight, from the series Waging War, showing you how you can wield truth, righteousness, faith, and God's word to stand firm in Christ. We're glad you joined us for today's message.

Before you head out, here's a quick reminder that when you give to help share the gospel through Pastor Jeff Ministries, we'll send you Pastor Jeff's booklet, Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission as our thanks. It's a powerful guide to help you understand your new identity in Christ and your calling to live boldly and advance God's kingdom.

And that's the same powerful truth you can help more people discover through your support. So request your copy today at PastorJeff.com and join us next time for more bold, biblical teaching from Pastor Jeff.