Gary Richmond, a zookeeper at the Los Angeles Zoo, was given master keys to every animal’s cage. He was cautioned sternly to guard them with his life and to pay close attention to which doors he opened and closed.
“Richmond”, the supervisor said, “these keys will let you in to care for millions of dollars worth of animals. Some of them could never be replaced, but you could be, if you catch my drift. Some of the animals would hurt themselves if they gout out, and more significantly, they might hurt and even kill somebody. You wouldn’t want that on your conscience.”
I took him seriously, and performed flawlessly for four months. Then, something happened with the most dangerous animals in the zoo. Ivan was a polar bear who weighed well over nine hundred pounds and had killed two perspective mates. He hated people and never missed an opportunity to attempt to grab anyone passing by his cage.
I let him our of his night quarters into the sparkling morning sunshine by pulling a lever to his guillotine door. No sooner had he passed under it than I realized that, that at the other end of the hall, I had left another door opened. It was the door I would use to go outside if Ivan was locked up inside. Now Ivan could walk to the other end of the outdoor exhibit and come in that door I had left open, and, if he so chose, eat me.
In terror, I looked out the guillotine door. Ivan was still in sight. He was a creature of routine, and he always spent the first hour of his morning pacing. His pattern was L-shaped. He would walk from the door five steps straight out, and then turn right for three steps. He would then rock back and forth and come back to the guillotine door again, which he would bump with his head. He would repeat that cycle for one hour and then rest.
I timed his cycle and determined that I had seventeen seconds to run down the hallway and shut the open door. I staked my life on the fact that he would not vary his routine. He didn’t seem to notice the wide open door, which is unusual. Animals tend to notice the slightest changes in their environment.
I decided that when he made his next turn, I would run down the hallway, hoping upon hope that I would not meet Ivan at the other end. He turned and I ran. With every step my knees weakened. My heart pounded so hard I felt sure it would burst from fear. I made the corner and faced the critical moment. Ivan was still out of sight; I reached for the door handle. As I reached out for the handle, I looked to the right. There was the bear, eight feet away. Our eyes made contact. His eyes were cold and unfeeling and I’m sure I expressed all the terror that filled the moment. I pulled the huge steel door with all my strength. My knees buckled and I fell to the floor racked with the effects of too much adrenaline. I looked up and Ivan was staring at me through the window in the door.
It is this story that Max Anders tells in his book, “What you need to know about spiritual warfare” as he begins to discuss the “breastplate of righteousness”. It is in this story that we see a standard being set for Gary Richmond, “take of these keys and pay close attention to the doors you open and close or else”, Richmond’s boss said to him or else. Did the boss set a standard because he (the boss) was trying to be a jerk? No! He held up a standard for Gary to protect Gary, the animals, and all the visitors in the zoo.
So it is with God. He sets standards for us and exhorts us to adhere to them, not because He is a cosmic kill-joy or a celestial jerk or a heavenly worrywart. He sets these standards because He sees reality clearly. He knows about consequences and cause and effect relationships. He as built into His created order the necessary restrictions to keep us from harming ourselves and others.
See, Satan attacks us by leading us into a life of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is being more concerned about outward appearance and reputation rather than our inner spirituality. Too many of us try to dress up sin every week (and I use week intentionally).
• We wake up on Sunday morning and put on our best dress or suit.
• We spend countless minutes in front of the mirror making sure that our make-up and hair is together.
• We make sure our kids are on their best behavior when we come to church because it won’t look good if they are running up and down the isles of the church.
• We wash down the car because we don’t want drive up into the church parking lot with a dirty car. If we do that it won’t look good.
• And then don’t let the pastor or some of the members come over, because we do spring cleaning in the middle of winter to make sure everything is pretty and nice.
• We hide the videos, tapes, and CDs we know we shouldn’t be watching and/or hearing and put out the one or two Christian videos and tapes we own because it won’t look good if they that we have more worldly items in our house than we do Christian items.
• We turn off our favorite radio station and turn it the local Christian station because it don’t look good if we’re listening to circular music.
• We put away the bottles of liquor the fills our kitchen cabinets because it won’t look good if we’re having wine and it’s not communion Sunday.
• We change the tone of our voice so that it will be more sophisticated and intellectual. We read the latest issue of Christianity Today to stay up on religious current events just in case we’re asked a question about our modern day religious society.
• We try to cram in 10 minutes of personal bible study to come up with questions for the pastor to make him think we’re rooted in bible study. And most of the questions really don’t make sense but the pastor attempts to look past that and give an answer any way.
All of this we do and many more, because we’re concerned about our outward appearance while our inner person is hard on the eyes (meaning something you don’t want to look at). One of the greatest successes of Satan is that of filling the church with believers and unbelievers of which, in some cases, you cannot tell the difference between the two. And I believe Satan enjoys watching how of us who say we’re Christians live on a day to day basis. Not just on Sunday. Sunday morning religion is easy but what about Monday when new trials, tribulations, challenges, and obstacles present themselves to us. And that’s when the battle begins.
But Paul says that in the midst of spiritual warfare we need to be clothed fully with the armor of God. We need not only to gird our waist with the truth but we need likewise to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Now to understand the “breastplate of righteousness”, we need to understand the usage of it in war in biblical times. No Roman soldier would go into battle without his breastplate, a tough, sleeveless piece of armor that covered his full torso. It was often made of leather or heavy linen, onto which were sewn overlapping slices of animal hooves or horns or pieces of metal. Some were made of large pieces of metal molded or hammered to conform to the body. The purpose of this piece of armor is obvious because it protects the heart, lungs, intestines, and other vital organs. See in ancient Jewish thinking, the heart represented the mind and the will and the bowels were considered the seat of emotions and feelings. The mind and the emotions are two areas where Satan most fiercely attacks believers.
- He creates a world system, a sinful environment by which he tempts us to think wrong thoughts and to feel wrong emotions.
- He wants to cloud our minds with false doctrine, false principles, and false information in order to mislead and confuse us.
- He wants to confuse our emotions and thereby pervert our affections, morals, loyalties, goals, motives, and commitments.
- He desires to snatch the Word of God from our minds and replace it with his own perverse ideas.
- He seeks to undermine pure living and replace it with immorality, greed, envy, hate, and every other vice.
- He wants us to laugh at sin rather than mourn over it, and to rationalize it rather than confess it and bring it to the Lord for forgiveness.
- He seduces us to become so used to sin in us and around is that it no longer bothers our conscience.
The protection against these attacks of Satan is the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness is to be taken and wrapped around our body fully to protect us from the attacks on our vital organs.
Sermon Point:
To gain victory over the enemy you need to put on the breastplate of righteousness that is to say you need to live in daily, moment-by-moment obedience to our heavenly Father.
I believe this piece of armor shows us three (3) Dimensions of Right Living:
I. The Reality of Right Living
When studying this text I discovered that the bible talks about two (2) kinds of righteousness. The first is imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness is the perfect righteousness God applies to the account of every Christian the moment he or she believes in Jesus Christ. We see this in Paul’s first use of the word in Romans chapter 1 verse 17 when he says; “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith”. Now one of the biggest issues as it relates to this theological term “righteousness” is that of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is the worst form of sin. It is this sort of thinking of many Christians who dare to believe that their own character, legalistic behavior, and accomplishments please God and will bring His reward. What we need to understand is that our character, legalistic mindset, good deeds, or our accomplishments is good enough to make us righteous individuals. This term righteousness in a nutshell is defined as holy, upright living in accordance with God’s standards. The word righteousness comes from a root word which means straightness. It refers to a state that conforms to an authoritative standard and God’s character is the definition and source of all righteousness. It is the song of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4 where he sings of God’s righteousness when he says, “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice. Righteousness and upright is He”. And it is Paul who says in Romans chapter 9, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? He responds, “Certainly not!” Therefore, the righteousness of human beings is defined in terms of God’s righteousness.
In the Old Testament, righteousness is used to define our relationship with God and with one another. In the context of relationships, righteous action is action that promotes the peace and well being of human beings in their relationship with one another. Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, we have been inherently unrighteous. As the prophet Isaiah has said, “We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6). We cannot be righteous in the sight of God on our own merits. Therefore, people must have God’s righteousness imputed or transferred to them. Paul understood this when he wrote Philippians chapter 3 verses 8-9. It is there where he declares, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith”. And then in verse continues to explain further how he may gain Christ. He says, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to his death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead”. Paul understood that our own goodness is the means and way of being righteous. Because God is the standard and we are unholy people, the cross of Jesus Christ was a public demonstration of God’s righteousness and God’s righteousness is transferred to every person who puts their trust in Jesus Christ. God sees us as righteous because of our identification by faith with His Son. God made Christ, “who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). We cannot put on what god has already clothed us with. We are permanently dressed in t righteousness, throughout all eternity. God’s imputed righteousness is the basis of our Christian life and our Christian living. It protects us from hell, but it does not protect us from the attacks of Satan in this present day.
Therefore, we need to put on the second form of righteousness which is practical righteousness. Righteous living is living right in the sight of God. Righteous people are not just good people. They are people who walk with God. They have a relationship with God. They have accepted the Lord’s gift of right standing with Him and God in their lives is the source of their righteous conduct. See practical righteousness is a life lived in obedience to God’s Word. Well then what are some practical right living things can we do to protect ourselves from the attacks of the enemy? I’m glad you asked because in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 24, put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness”. And I think Paul must have known in chapter 4 before he wrote chapter 6 verses 10-20 that the Satan and his friends would attack us so he says in verse 27, “don’t give place to the devil”. So I asked myself, how do we keep from giving the devil ammunition to attack us? So, I read the book chapters 4-6 once again to see what we could and here’s some practical principles to practice to protect our vital organs from Satan’s attacks:
- verse 25 of chapter 4 – “put away lying, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another”. And here is my definition about lying, lying is the re-arranging of truth to get you out of trouble. And if that is the case then that means all of us struggle with this issue, when we have our children participate by telling them tell whoever calls I’m not home when you’re right next to them.
- Verse 26 of chapter 4 – “Be angry and sin not”. It’s one thing to be angry but to be vindictive is something totally different.
- Verse 28 of chapter 4 – “Let him stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need”. You know what that means? It means get a job.
- Verse 29 of chapter 4 – “Let no corrupt proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearer”.
- Verse 30 of chapter 4 – “Do not grieve to the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption”.
- Verse 31 of chapter 4 – “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice”.
- Verse 32 of chapter 4 – “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you”.
Before moving one let me say that none of these principles mentioned are easy. We sit in church as if we do no wrong. We point the finger at someone else and judge them about the sins they do. And some of us are just down right arrogant to think that we’re perfect. Well, my prayer is Lord, deliver me from people who think they do no wrong and they’re sitting next to God and Jesus. Instead, put people in my life that like Paul acknowledge who they are when he said in Philippians 3: 13-14, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.
The reality of living is simply this; it is imputed righteousness that makes practical righteousness possible. But only obedience to the Lord makes practical righteousness a reality.
II. The Results of Right of Living
I have a book in my study entitled “Simple Faith” by Charles Swindoll. And in his book he discusses how the Christian lifestyle has been infiltrated with organized rules and religious regulations related to right living. He writes this book help people who are captive know how to live the life of Christ taught and modeled. He further says that many believers have become victims of tyranny, not legalism. Tyranny is a very cruel and unjust use of power and authority (to be more simple, it’s a dictatorship or domination). And it’s this tyranny that has brought on the pressure and frustration and disappointment of never-ending demands of organized rules. I wonder how many of us at time another in our Christian walk have become frustrated, discouraged, mad, angry, upset, stressed out, and unhappy with the Christian life becomes of the heavy and weighty demands brought on by church leadership (and not just talking about the pastor either, there some of us Christians who have our own ideas of Christian living and we impose those ideas on others in the faith). Somehow the complications of life have in general have came into the church and messed everything up. Ask the average Christian a simple question like: “What does it mean to be a mature Christian?” and if you are lucky, about fifteen minutes later you’ll get the complete and complicated answer and list of qualifications does not end. Let me see if can give you some of the answers to help you see what it is I’m talking about:
- for starters you need to be in church as often as possible
- witness regularly
- teach a Sunday school class
- pray fervently each day
- make hospital visits
- write uplifting notes to the discouraged
- tithe
- memorize Scripture (preferably an entire chapter a day)
- attend a Christian seminar or two each month
- send your kids to a Christian school
- participate on several boards or committees
- serve in the nursery, church kitchen, neighborhood visitation ministry, choir, summer vacation bible school, missions project
- and if you’re really mature and living right, there is no place for doubt, discouragement, frustration, and stress
- you can’t laugh in church
- you shouldn’t clap your hands in church (here’s the favorite of all favorites: “It don’t take all that!)
And the list goes on and on and on like a Duracell battery bunny. And even has study this text for the day and came to this point I wanted come up with deep and heavy revelation regarding living right. And it frustrated me so that I stopped writing my sermon went home and rested. But has I sitting there I kept writing the sermon in my head and the Lord gave me a new philosophy about ministry and right living. Here it is: K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Saints). And I believe that’s the challenge of the church, for leaders and members, and for every church ministry. Rather than a making a long list of rules and regulations, KEEP IT SIMPLE SAINTS! So rather than listing a bunch of rules that are not biblical I began to ask myself what does it take to live right and please God? What qualities can be seen in the life of a believer that exemplifies who we are in him? I didn’t come up with any deep revelations, but I did come up some practical results of right living. Let me give them to you quickly.
Right living is SUBMITTED living to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to one another.
It’s in James chapter 4 verses 13-15 where James says don’t worry about tomorrow spending all of your time trying to figure out what will happen tomorrow. He says don’t you know that your life is like vapor that vanish away. So he says in verse 15 , “Here’s what you should do and say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that”. But then in verses 16 and 17 he says, “you’re bragging about and proud about your plans and that’s wrong. For, if anyone knows the right thing to do but does not do them to him it is sin”.
Likewise it is Ephesians chapter 6 that says a Spirit-filled life submits to one another in the fear of God.
Right living is SEEKING living of heavenly things
Matthew 6:33 says “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you”.
Right living is SELF-DENIAL living
Matthew 16:24 says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself take up his cross and follow Me”.
Right living is SACRIFICIAL living
Luke 6:35 says, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil”.
Right living is SUFFERING living
Luke 6: 22-23 says, “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! Indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets”.
Right living is SHARING living of time, talents, and gifts
I Timothy 6:18-19 says, “Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life”.
Here’s what we has a church family and people need to practice in our churches: Keeping It Simple Saints.
III. The Reward of Right Living
Now, I tried to show you the REALITY of right living and the RESULTS of right living, but let me say that living right will not be easy. Each day there are new challenges to conquer and new hurdles to jump over. Moreover do you not know that what we do here on earth as eternal consequences. We don’t like to talk about it but it’s true and real. The decisions and choices we make affects our eternal destiny. And when it’s all over you have one of two places to go; heaven or hell. There is no purgatory! Where you go after death and wait for God to decide where he will send you. There is no re-incarnation (or after life) where you get a second chance to come into this life as another person or animal or whatever to try and rectify all of your wrong doings. No, my brother and my sister, when God calls our number that will be it and you will have some where to go. Yes, our choices in life have eternal consequences. But let me likewise say our choices and decisions in life has immediate consequences. There are some decisions and choices we’ve made that we are reaping and probably will continue to reap in time to come. And let me give you another way Satan attacks us. He tempts us to a point that flesh boils on the inside to the point to where you can almost taste the temptation and before you knew it you decided to eat that which Satan presented to you. And then we say the devil made me do it. No the devil did not make you do anything you did that on your own. Let me bring it home. Some young lady in here saw a tall, handsome, fine brother. Shoulders are broad, biceps, and triceps look like a well built Mt. Rushmore. His character (so you think) is one of a kind. He said all the right stuff that made you melt when you heard his voice. I mean he was able to whisper sweet some things in your hear that made you fell like a soft ice cream melting in his hands. He made you feel loved beyond compare. And the ultimate happens, here it comes; you know I love you right? You know I can’t be away from you too long in a day? You know all I do is think about you every day, every moment? When I wake up you’re on my mind. When I got sleep you’re my mind. I think we should take this relationship to the next level and show each other how much we love each other. The room is dim, candles lit, kool-aid chilling on the coffee table, soft music playing in the background, and then you asked him, “If we do this will you call me in morning and still feel the same way for me, you know I’m a virgin?” He says, yes, I’ll call you. Things move to the next level and no call comes the next morning or any other morning for that matter. It was our decision for both man and woman that stripped us of our integrity, character, sexual morals, and dignity that brought on consequences of babies being born out of wedlock or may be a sexual transmitted disease or just the feelings of being played by some young whipper snapper. Let me some single person in this place today the next time a handsome, tall man comes your way whispering sweet nothings in your hear and decides to pop that big question of taking it the next level, make sure you tell them, no I can’t do that! And when asks why? You tell him, I already have a man! And when ask who it is you tell him, JESUS! And brothers when you’re buddies pressure into robbing a young lady of her purity, you tell them, I can’t do that, my manhood does not rest in how many women I put in my little black book.
Now I don’t want to leave you without any hope. You may be asking brother or sister, “What do I do now?” I’ve made some bad decisions that cost me morally, financially, ethically, and socially. The decisions we make have eternal and present consequences which is a negative reward. But, on the other side of those consequences God knows how to bring us present day rewards for making the right decisions. Even if you’ve bad choices in the past, let me offer to the very first reward of trying to get it right.
RESTORATION
I like the restoration story of Peter found in the Gospel of John chapter 21. Now we know who Peter is and for those who don’t let me tell you a little bit about him. See Peter was just like you and I. Peter to the best of ability tried to do what was right. I mean he confession Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God in Matthew 16. It was Peter who got out of the boat in Matthew chapter 14. It was probably Peter who thought he was doing right that cut off the soldiers ear in Luke 22:47-53. It was Peter who while Jesus was on his way to the cross, followed at a distance in Matthew 26:57-68. But then it was Peter who denied Christ 3 times in Matthew 26:69-75. But it was Peter who was restored after the resurrection of Jesus Christ in John chapter 21. It is there when Jesus asked Peter 3 times do you love me and each time Peter responded yes and the Lord sent him to work by saying feed my sheep.
REMOVAL OF THE PAIN
One of the biggest struggles as believer is to not forgive ourselves of our past mistakes. But can I tell God knows how to remove thought of our bad decisions and choices so that when we do think about it doesn’t so bad. It was the Hebrew writer some encouraging words in his letter in chapter 10 verse 22 when says, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water”.
RENEWED JOY OF OUR SALVATION
There are a many denominations in our 21st Century Christendom that teaches that a person lose their salvation because of unconfessed sin, but declare to differ with that teaching. A person does not lose their salvation because of sin. But what we do lose is the joy of our salvation. For instance the story of David; David committed adultery with a women by the name of Bethsheba. And after that sin, he killed her husband Uriah. Now after his David had no peace about what happened and that’s why he penned the Psalm of penitence in Psalms 51. And in that prayer David prayed in verse 12, “restore to me the joy of my salvation”. Here’s the point I want to make; unholy living does not rob us of our salvation but it does rob us of our salvation’s joy.
REWARD FOR RIGHT LIVING
It’s Paul in the book of Philippians chapter 3 where Paul urges the church follow in his example and note those who walk in obedience to God. He tells be watchful of those whose what out for themselves and they’re enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ. Don’t join with them his is exhortation. And he tells them in verse 20, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we wait eagerly for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies into His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things to himself”.
Let me close this message by referring back to the restoration story of Peter. Because in verse 18 he says, “Most assuredly I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish”. And what Jesus is simply saying here is that living this life will pay off.
You may build great cathedrals large and small
You can build skyscrapers grand and tall,
You may conquer all the failures of your past
But only what you do for Christ will last.
You may seek earthly power and fame
The world might be impressed by your great name
Soon the glories of this life will all be past
But only what you do for Christ will last.
Remember only what you do for Christ will last
Only what you do for Him will be counted at the end,
Only what you do for Christ will last.
