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All My Boast is In Jesus
Verse 1
Verse 1
What wonder of wonders what love is this
That Christ would die for me
His goodness His merit His righteousness
This sinner’s only plea
O foolish pride be crucified
The work is finished
Chorus 1
Chorus 1
All my boast is in Jesus
All my hope is His love
And I will glory forever
In what the cross has done
Verse 2
Verse 2
Now fully forgiven my life is filled
With graces undeserved
For mercy that flowed down that sacred hill
Let praises now return
Rise up my soul and bless the Lord
Who else is worthy
Bridge 1
Bridge 1
O praise the One forever blessed
Him alone my heart adores
And I will boast in nothing less
Than the love of Christ my Lord
Verse 3
Verse 3
I boast not in riches in strength or might
But in the grace of God
I glory in weakness to live is Christ
In plenty or in want
That I may know that all may see
His pow’r within me
Chorus 2
Chorus 2
Now I stand in His freedom
Ransomed clean in His sight
And I cannot be ashamed for
My boast is Jesus Christ
My boast is Jesus Christ
Forever my boast is Jesus Christ
Before the Throne of God Above
Verse 1
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea
A great High Priest whose name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me
My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
Verse 2
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin
Because the sinless Saviour died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
Verse 3
Behold Him there the risen Lamb
My perfect spotless Righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of glory and of grace
One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Saviour and my God
Holy, Holy, Holy
1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee;
holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
who wert and art and evermore shalt be.
3 Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye made blind by sin thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in power, in love, and purity.
4 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea;
holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Christus Victor
Verse 1
O Most High King of the ages
Great I AM God of wonders
By the blood You have redeemed us
Led us through mighty waters
Our strength our song our sure salvation
Chorus
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah Amen
Verse 2
O Most High dwelling among us
Son of man sent for sinners
By Your blood You have redeemed us
Spotless Lamb mighty Savior
Who lived who died who rose victorious
Chorus
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
With every tribe and every tongue
We join the anthem of the angels
In the triumph of the Son
Hallelujah Amen
Verse 3
O Most High King of the nations
Robed in praise crowned with splendor
On that day who will not tremble
When You stand Christ the Victor
Who was and is and is forever
Chorus
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
With every tribe and every tongue
We join the anthem of the angels
In the triumph of the Son
Hallelujah Amen
Bridge
Amen amen amen
Amen amen amen
Amen amen amen
Chorus
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing honor glory power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
With every tribe and every tongue
We join the anthem of the angels
In the triumph of the Son
Hallelujah Amen
Sing the victory of the Lamb
Hallelujah Amen
Guide Me, O My Great Redeemer
1 Guide me, O my great Redeemer,
pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but you are mighty;
hold me with your powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me now and evermore,
feed me now and evermore.
2 Open now the crystal fountain,
where the healing waters flow.
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
ever be my strength and shield,
ever be my strength and shield.
3 When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside.
Death of death, and hell's Destruction,
land me safe on Canaan's side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises
I will ever sing to you,
I will ever sing to you.
By the Sea of Crystal
“Unto God Almighty, sitting on the throne,
And the Lamb, victorious, be the praise alone.”
God has wrought salvation; he did wondrous things.
Who shall not extol thee, holy King of kings!
Adam Veenstra
Ebenezer CRC
September 20, 2026
SCRIPTURE READING
SERMON INTRO SLIDE I invite you to turn to the bottom of page 1628 of the Bibles in front of you. For our message on the breastplate of righteousness, we are going to be using a parable Jesus told to demonstrate what true righteousness looks like for those who want to follow him.
So I invite you to join me at Luke 18, starting at verse 9:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
MESSAGE
Part One
SLIDE 1 “Righteousness” is another one of these almost-indefinable Christian terms, not unlike faith.
It can have layers of meaning depending on who you talk to, and what context it’s being used in.
A common thread of definition is that a righteous person is a true Christian - someone who embodies Christ.
It’s almost the ideal of who we are meant to be.
To help illustrate that, Jesus himself uses two people who are seemingly far from the ideal: a tax collector, who is far from the ideal for the original audience, and a Pharisee, who is far from the ideal with our modern hindsight.
He uses these two extremes of behaviour- and two immediately recognizable archetypes - in order to prove his point.
That righteousness is not just about being right - it’s not about correct behaviours and knowledge.
SLIDE 2 It’s about being made right - it’s about the humility to recognize the grace of Christ in your life, and being justified by him.
SLIDE 3 The two men in this parable are following the usual pattern of people coming to the temple at set times to pray, usually coinciding with when temple sacrifices are being offered in the morning and the evening.
So those listening to Jesus would have pictured many other people there with them: the Pharisee had an audience for his pronouncement, whereas the tax collector stood at a distance from them.
The Pharisee declares that he is fasting twice a week, even though the custom and Mosaic law only required it on the Day of Atonement; he’s also supposedly tithing based on all get gets, and not just what he earns.
You can imagine him puffing out his chest, all to make himself look righteous.
SLIDE 4 As if he’s wearing an actual breastplate of righteousness.
A breastplate is an immediately noticeable piece of armour.
By nature, it’s going to make a statement about you who you, or even exaggerate it; your strength, and what you stand for.
And by protecting the torso and chest, it covers the heart, where Hebrew tradition believed that the soul and conscience resided.
SLIDE 5 At a distance, this is where the tax collector is beating himself: over the heart, over the soul, unable to look towards heaven, and appealling to God’s mercy.
Here we see two kinds of hearts: a respected religious leader verses someone the people would have seen as traitor.
Listeners of this parable would have assumed the tax collector had a self-inflated sense of righteousness, which people would see right through. It’s part of the reason why tax collectors were so hated.
Tax collectors were people from the Hebrew community who - you guessed it - collected taxes.
But rates were often inflated to line their own pockets, and their position caused difficult community dynamics: imagine your friends, family, and neighbours now working for the empire that is oppressing your people.
Now here, he is exposing his chest and his heart to the world.
This is him at his most raw and vulnerable, as if he has cast off a breastplate altogether.
There’s no golden, gilded falseness to what he’s declaring.
SLIDE 6 This is why Jesus is such a master storyteller: his parable has all these strange layers of perception, self-perception, and reality, that get piled onto a person like layers of armour.
Part Two
Earlier this morning we read a few passages from the book of Revelation.
SLIDE 7 And even just those few verses demonstrate how it can read like a fantasy novel.
The author is given a vision with fantastical imagery of horses and dragons and blazing fire.
Even what we read and sang earlier about thrones and saints and seraphim make it incredible and terrifying…and most likely metaphorical.
Like most things that strain credulity in the Bible, it is entirely possible that it’s true.
God is big and powerful enough that there could literally be scrolls that fall into the sea and bowls of wrath and trumpets.
But it’s more likely that an ancient Hebrew writer is employing ancient writing techniques…that good writers still use today.
Because the armour that we read about in the book of Ephesians follows that similar pattern: a breastplate of righteousness sounds impressive, but it’s meant to be a metaphor.
SLIDE 8 The Pharisee was certainly wearing a breastplate, but it was fashioned himself to look a certain way, and perhaps even exaggerate his strength and what he stands for.
But the warrior that’s dressed up in Ephesians doesn’t have righteousness because of how they look, but because of how they are.
SLIDE 9 We don’t have righteousness because of how we look, but because of how we are.
Righteousness isn’t performative.
You can’t simply do the right things and assume you’ve taken on a mantle of righteousness.
The armour of God doesn’t work that way.
SLIDE 10 The breastplate of righteousness isn’t one you can see, and isn’t one you can achieve.
God gives it through his mercy.
And it won’t give you a defined torso and chest, but will show your heart to the world.
That’s the righteousness that Jesus showed to the world.
SLIDE 11 We’re told that he had no majesty, nothing to attract us to him; nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He never sat on a throne or wore any finery or held any earthly power.
He had no breastplate to give a false sense of strength.
He rejected the pomp and circumstance for something deeper, truer - something raw and authentic.
Righteousness was not about being seen as right, but making things right.
SLIDE 12 We impress no one, and we convert no one, by putting orthodoxy or our own correct behaviours before true righteousness - before humility and fidelity and goodness and love.
The vulnerability of our hearts.
When has arrogance ever helped further the kingdom?
When has bragging ever done the church any good?
My overthinking woke millennial brain has even gone back and forth about the image used for this series, because it can definitely suggest a dark time in Christian history when kingdom growth and crusading and mission work was just thinly-veiled violence and colonization.
We have a long history of not following the Holy Spirit, but thinking that we know best, and using literal armour while leaving hurt in our wake, all in the name of Jesus.
Christianity has often been made up of Pharisees wearing an exaggerated golden breastplate, driving people away in annoyance and disgust, or making them feel ashamed that they can’t measure up.
Many of you have probably seen the recent Netflix docuseries Death of a Pastor’s Wife.
One of the messages - and warnings - is how we still easily fall for for the self-righteousness of a golden breastplate.
The church will overlook shortcomings, and allow unchecked spiritual abuse, so long as the leader looks good enough for Instagram, can quote all the right Bible verses, and is charismatic enough to bring in new members.
Ultimately like the Pharisee who stands and prays for himself.
SLIDE 13 Jesus, however, tells us that those who exact themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted and made right.
SLIDE 14 Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before people, to be seen by them. Your Father sees what is done in secret.
SLIDE 15 When you pray, do not pray in the street to be seen by people, but go to your room and close the door.
SLIDE 16 The tax collector stood at a distance.
The unspoken questions that Jesus poses to the listeners of this parable - to those who thought more highly of themselves back then, and to us hearing it today today - is who do we want to be? And how do we want people to see us?
Whose breastplate will we wear?
Because whether it seems fair or not, how people see us is how they will see other Christians, how they will see the church, and ultimately how they will see Christ himself.
We don’t have to sit apart from everyone at church, refusing to look up, and beating our chest, but we do need to be authentic about who we are.
SLIDE 17 That all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, that he created us to have.
SLIDE 18 But that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.
SLIDE 19 That those who are humbled will be exalted by him.
We need to make it okay to not be okay.
I think that last week we commissioned many leaders here in our Ebenezer family who do that well.
Who model for our kids, for our youth, and for us grownups, the humility needed to follow Jesus, and to know that he is the one who supplies us with what we need.
That our true righteousness comes from him.
SLIDE 20 That breastplate of righteousness offers protection.
Because it’s understandable that the tax collector beats his breast in recognition, and maybe even atonement, for all that he’s done wrong.
But he doesn’t have to anymore.
Because the storyteller his also his saviour - our saviour - whose entire body was beaten, and broken, to give us mercy.
To exalt us and supply us with all that we need.
His bare bruised and scarred chest exposed his true strength: his heart for us.
Conclusion
Later in the New Testament, Paul writes to the church in Corinth about becoming new people, and our best selves - about recognizing that because of Christ’s sacrifice and heart for us, we are forgiven, loved children of God, and get to live in light of that identity.
SLIDE 21 Verse 21 says that we actually become the righteousness of God.
We become the embodiment of all that he has created to be good and holy.
His power at work in us, so that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus!
Wearing the armour that he supplies us with.
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