Pastor Allan Kircher
Shell Point Baptist Church
Ephesians 6:13-18
May 11, 2014
The Breastplate of Righteousness
Intro:
• Studying pieces “the whole armor of God.”
• “armor or God” necessary tool/our fight against the devil
• W/o every piece/armor/place, we/easy prey /enemy.
• pieces/armor/missing, Satan/little trouble defeating us’
• little trouble damaging our testimonies
• infiltrating/devastating our churches
• When the armor is missing, we are easily defeated.
Yet/when/saint/God dressed “the whole armor of God,” enemy has a hard time dealing with them
• When/armor is in place, he cannot penetrate their defenses
• He must watch helplessly/they “stand” for God’s glory
• As they stand victoriously and powerful.
I want that to be my testimony, how about you?
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Let’s continue examine/pieces “the whole armor of God.”
Knowing what they are/how to use them will help us to “stand” for the Lord in victory
• First pieces of armor/14a/“belt of truth.”
• Refers/life of total commitment/Lord
• Life/built upon faithfulness/Word of God
• Speaks/truth in testimony and truth in living
• “belt of truth” will provide/Christian soldier stability
W/o the “belt of truth” the soldier/God will find the other pieces of the armor useless.
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II. V. 14b THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
“Breastplate” sleeveless piece/armor covered/full torso/soldier.
No Roman soldier would dare go/battle w/o “breastplate” in place
• Several ways to make “breastplates” in that day.
1. Some/heavy pieces of leather---shaped to fit/upper body.
“breastplate” then covered/overlapping slices of animal hooves, horns, or pieces of metal.
2. Some/made/very think pieces of linen cloth
kind “breastplate” also covered/strips of hooves, horns, or metal.
3. third kind/I would/preferred since I am allergic to pain
Made/large pieces/metal were hammered to fit the body.
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Regardless/kind of “breastplate” the soldier wore, intent/same
• “breastplate”/designed/protect/ vital organs/housed/torso
• “breastplate” protected/heart/lungs/liver/stomach
• age before antibiotics/advanced surgery techniques
• wound/part/body would not only be very painful
• it would have likely been fatal too
• Soldier depended “breastplate” protect him/injury/death.
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Spiritual significance/piece of armor becomes clear when you stop to remember/ancient world believed
• “heart” represented “the will and the mind” of a person
• also believed “bowels,” we call “internal organs,” the “guts”,
• Represented “the seat of emotion or feelings.”
• Several verses in the New Testament bear this out.
Phil. 1:8, “For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.”
Col. 3:12, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.”
Also, Philemon 1:7,For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother
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We still use the same terminology regarding the “heart.”
• We say “I love you with all my heart.” “I feel it in my heart.”
• What we mean is we “have a feeling about something.”
• So, we understand the terminology.
Reason I mention all this is
• Just as “breastplate” ancient Roman soldier would protect his “heart” and “bowels”
• “Breastplate” Paul mentions here is designed to do the very same thing for the child of God.
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Two areas life/Satan most frequently attacks people of God are in the “mind and emotions.”
Satan
• fill our mind false doctrines/false emotions
• Use wicked world around us to tempt us to think wrong thoughts ………..follow wrong emotions.
• Use confusion/warp our thinking/feelings/love/wrong things
• follow the wrong priorities
• have the wrong goals in life
• dedicate ourselves to the wrong loyalties
• Commit ourselves to the wrong things.
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Satan
• wants/strip/truth/our minds while filling it/with his own perverted ideas
• wants to stop us from living holy, pure lives
• Will lure us toward envy, hatred, greed, jealousy, immorality, and every other human vice.
• Wants us to make light of our sins
• doesn’t want us to confess it and deal with it God’s way
• Wants us to get desensitized to it, so we come to look at wickedness as a way of life for us.
• Wants us/rationalize our sin/not seek/Lord for forgiveness
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To accomplish these and other goals
• Satan attacks us in the way we think and the way we feel
If he can cause us to think about things the wrong way
• follow feelings not pleasing to the Lord
• He can defeat us and drag us away from the Lord.
• He can get us out/fight, all by changing how we think/feel
“Breastplate of righteousness” offers protection against these attacks/devil.
• When this piece of armor is in place
• Satan will be unable to attack us in those realms.
• “Breastplate” sounds very important to me.
• So, let’s find out what it is.
• But, before I tell you what it is, let me tell you what it isn’t.
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It Isn’t Self-Righteousness
• Self-righteousness is not true righteousness at all.
• It is the worst form of sin imaginable
Self-righteous person believes their character/legalistic behavior earns them favor with the Lord.
• believe it is up to them to please/Lord
Self-righteous person:
• Comes to believe they are better than others
• Believe they possess standards for living/higher others.
• Lives not to please the Lord their own needs
• Believe that if they can stop enough sin;
If they can avoid enough evil; if they can do enough good
God will be pleased with them and reward them accordingly.
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What they fail/realize/their self-righteousness provides/enemy powerful weapon he can use to strangle/life out/service for/Lord
They:
• Lose their joy in the Lord.
• Have no real peace/they can never do or be enough.
• Become judgmental/others/always failing/live up to their standards.
• Wreck churches because they are slaves to a law of their own making
• Know nothing of love, forgiveness, and grace.
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Self-righteous person cannot grasp/their righteousness is nothing more than “filthy rags,” Isa. 64:4.
• Closes/door to God’s blessings if they are saved
• Closes to His salvation if they are lost, Matt. 5:20.
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It Isn’t the Imputed Righteousness Of Christ
When/trusted Jesus/Lord and Savior, His righteousness was “imputed” to us, Rom. 4:6.
God “hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of Christ in Him,” 2 Cor. 5:21.
• Impossible/us “put on”/kind of righteousness
• it has already been given/us in/fullness/it is ours foreve
• “Imputed righteousness” very foundation/Christian life.
• This righteousness allows us access to God.
• Opens the door of Heaven to us.
• Protects us against the eternal fires of Hell
• does not protect us from the attacks/enemy
On the contrary, since the devil knows he can’t have us because we belong to Christ, he redoubles his efforts to defeat us in an attempt to discredit the Savior, the church, and the God of glory.
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It Is Practical Righteousness
• “Breastplate of righteousness” Paul speaks about
• Practical righteousness/life lived/simple obedience/Word/God.
• Child/God is to walk in obedience to God’s Word every day.
In line/new identity we received when we came/Jesus/2 Cor. 5:17
• When we walk in the newness of our life in Jesus
• Satan will lack an opportunity to attack us
• we are/robe ourselves/righteous works for the glory of God
Paul showcases/difference between human self-righteousness and practical righteousness in Phil 3:7-12.
• Wants us know salvation/not based what we have done
• But on what we have been given in Jesus.
• When/Lord saves us/brings us out of sin
• into a new life in Jesus
• imputed righteousness of Christ within
• Is lived out/practical righteousness/or obedience to/Lord.
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When we live in obedience/Lord/His Word, He is glorified
• Satan has/difficult time/believer who understands who he is in Jesus Christ.
• On the other hand
• a believer who takes sin lightly/plays around/edges/evil
• Will find lacking “breastplate of righteousness” will result in some devastating consequences.
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Lacking “breastplate of righteousness” will rob you of your Spiritual Joy
Most/relationship/emotional problems we have/life/not/fault of other people
• But/direct result/unconfessed/un-forsaken sin/our own lives
• Doubts/fears/grief’s we carry around with us/not related to what others do or don’t do.
• related/failure/our own lives to live holy/clean before/Lord
When Satan finds a chinch/our armor/this area, he exploits it to its fullest
• When he does, our joy/peace/sense of spiritual wellbeing are the first casualties.
When David committed adultery with Bathsheba, killed Uriah, and covered it up with a mountain of lies, he lost his joy in the process, Psa. 51:12. Nothing takes the place of holiness!
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Lacking “breastplate of righteousness” rob your Spiritual Fruit
• If you are disobedient/Word of God
• You will be unfruitful in your work/Lord.
Here is the recipe for fruitfulness: John 15:5…..
• When we serve out/disobedient spirit
• Any achievements nothing but empty/no fruit within.
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Lacking the “breastplate of righteousness” will rob you of your Spiritual Rewards –
• W/o holiness and righteous obedience/Word of God
• Nothing we do is pleasing to the Lord.
• Everything we do while not wearing “the breastplate of righteousness” will burn up on the day of judgment
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Lacking the “breastplate of righteousness” dishonors God, and brings reproach upon His name and His glory
• Worst part/our sin/bring dishonor/name/our Father/Heaven
• Our sin hinders the spread of the Gospel.
• Our sin tells world we are no different than them.
When we sin, we open the door for Satan to attack us and hinder our effectiveness for the Lord.
• That/why we must “take up”/“put on” “breastplate of righteousness.”
• When we do, our thought/emotional life/protected from the attacks of the enemy.
• 2 Cor. 10:5…..
Conc: When we have on “the breastplate of righteousness” we will live lives that are clean, pure, and that bring glory to the Lord.
When we live out practical righteousness day by day, the enemy will find that his temptations will hold have no power over us.
The “belt of truth” and “the breastplate of righteousness” are essential pieces of “the whole armor of God.”
When they are in place, we are on our way to becoming a believer who is “able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.”
Here the word of Paul: Rom. 13:11-14….
If you have been kicked around by the devil, do what you have to do to get clean, so the Lord can use your life for His glory.
If you are lost, come to Him now for salvation. He will not turn you away
