©2005 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

08-28-05

The Breastplate Of Righteousness Pt. 3

8/28/05 Breastplate of Righteousness Pt. 3

We ended our study last week

with an unanswered question

that grew out of some things we’d been looking at

in Paul’s comments to us in Ephesians 6:10-17.

To help us get our minds back into our study once again

I’ll read the passage for us

and then review just a little of what we’ve seen so far.

In his efforts to equip us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling,

Paul writes,

 EPH 6:10-17 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 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 missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The passage is a comparison, of course,

an analogy in which the armor worn by a Roman warrior preparing for battle

is used by Paul to illustrate the kind of armor provided for us by God

in our preparation for the warfare we enter into

when we enter into Christ.

As we’ve moved through this study so far

we’ve seen that our involvement in the warfare is unavoidable.

Because we have chosen to align ourselves with Christ,

and because we live our lives indwelt by His Spirit,

and because each of us have within us

the potential of proclaiming to the world around us

the truth about the grace,

and the love,

and the compassion,

and the kindness,

and the wisdom of God Himself,

we are a threat to Satan

and to his efforts to blind the world

to the truth about our Creator.

And as such

we will be under attack.

It is an attack in which Satan seeks to bring into our lives

wounds of such a nature

as to cause us to question,

to doubt the love of our God for us.

And to the degree he is successful in those attacks,

to that degree we cease to be a threat to him.

It’s strange how it is.

Contrary to popular belief,

Satan is not against religion,

in fact he loves it.

He’s not against our “doing good”.

In fact, religion is and has always been one of his chief weapons against the truth.

It was religion that nailed Christ to the cross.

And so often in our world

it is religion that provides Satan with his most effect tool

with which to convince us

that our God doesn’t really love us

or that His love cannot be trusted.

Satan has so skillfully rewritten God’s message to us through so many religious voices

that, when most people think of the Christian Church,

and by extension, the God whom they believe created it,

they think first of all of condemnation,

and of Divine dictates that make it impossible for our needs to be met,

and of a God who accepts us and “loves” us on the basis of our performance for Him,

a performance so demanding that only a chosen few

can ever hope to find true eternal peace with God.

Both immorality and religion have tremendous power to wound the human spirit,

but in my nearly forty years as a Bible teacher

I have met far more people

who have been far more deeply wounded by religion

than have ever been wounded by immorality.

This is the warfare in which we find ourselves involved each day,

the warfare designed to wound us in ways

that then blinds us to the reality of God’s love for us.

And, as we have moved through our study of Ephesians

we have seen Paul flooding our minds with the truth,

talking with us about how, even before this world was formed,

God designed a way in which each of us could enter into an eternal Father/child love union with Him,

and then reminding us that,

... God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:4-7).

He then goes on to reveal to us

how we have not only been restored to God,

but we have also been reformed into the physical body of Christ here on this earth,

the means through which the manifold wisdom of God is now made known to all of creation.

Then, after exhorting us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling,

and explaining for us what that means,

he concludes the book with the passage we’re studying now,

a passage in which he reveals to us

the protective armor of God that equips us to be what God has called us to be here and now.

We have looked at several pieces of this armor,

and most recently we’ve been learning about what Paul calls our “breastplate of righteousness”.

We’ve seen that this breastplate has two layers to it.

The first is made up of that new heart

that God creates within each of us who come to Him.

He does not just forgive our sins against Him,

but He recreates us in Spirit,

placing a new heart within us,

a heart that loves God,

a heart that longs to please Him in every respect.

This new heart does then have to take over leadership

of a mind, body, and emotions

that have been trained in lies and mistrust of God.

And this tension between what our bodies think and feel

and what our spirits long for

is a constant backdrop for our lives as long as we remain on this earth.

But the crucial, vital first step

in our preparation for life with the King

is our understanding who we really are through Christ.

We are the holy ones of God,

and when Satan flings accusation after accusation against us,

telling us we have no right to stand before God

and no basis for a life lived in peace with Him,

our great defense against those attacks

is knowing the truth about the cross of Christ,

the truth that, along with Christ Himself,

God also nailed our sins to that cross 2000 years ago.

And now our debt is paid in full forever,

and our union with God

and our peace with Him

has nothing whatsoever to do

with our having a right to that peace on the basis of our performance,

it has everything to do with our having been given the right to that peace with God

on the basis of His performance for us

because of His great love for us.

1JO 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are!!!

ROM 3:28, 5:1 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ...

That righteousness,

that true, eternal holiness of spirit

that has been given to us by God in response to our simply believing

and then receiving His offer to us through Christ

is the first layer of that breastplate of righteousness.

And then last week

we looked at the second layer of that breastplate,

the one formed through the true, practical growing moral excellence

that Christ brings into our lives.

You see,

when we come to Christ

He doesn’t just recreate our hearts,

He recreates our lives.

He doesn’t just create within us

a hunger and thirst for a life that honors our King,

He makes that life accessible to us.

If we listen,

if we stay open to Him,

if we do not allow our fears to conquer us,

we will move through that growth process

under the leadership of His Spirit

and find Him creating within us true righteousness

where once there was only sin slavery.

And that is the second layer

of this glorious breastplate of righteousness.

And as this process progresses,

those very areas that were once the great sink-holes and sewers of our lives

become the great platforms upon which we can then proclaim the redemptive power of our God to those around us.

PSA 40:2-3 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear, And will trust in the Lord.

We proclaim His love

through His redemptive recreation of our spirits,

we proclaim His power

through His practical rebuilding of our lives.

And as He recreates our spirits

and then rebuilds our lives ...the manifold wisdom of God is made known through us to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Eph. 3:10)

And then just an observation before we move on in this study -

even with all of the corruption and evil in our world,

because we bare within us the image of God Himself,

there is within each human being

a longing to find righteousness in the lives of others.

Even though on an individual level

what people say they want is the RIGHT to live any way they choose,

and then the guaranteed protection of their privacy

so that no one can find out how they have chosen to live,

what they respond to in others,

and what they truly hope to find in them is righteousness.

And that is certainly true when people bump up against those of us who claim to be Christians.

All too often

what they expect to find

is a grubby little list of “things we don’t do” because we’re Christians

and a judgmental condemnation for all those who don’t keep our rules.

But what they really hope to find

is a true strength of moral character within us.

Faithfulness to our vows,

a love for true justice,

the courage to defend the weak,

the willingness to protect and care for those who cannot protect themselves,

compassion,

and kindness,

and an absolute honesty,

an absence of motives driven by personal gain,

a willingness to give to the needs of others even when it’s not tax deductible,

the ability to be gentle with those who fear

and to speak out against those who abuse their power or prestige of position,

a true moral integrity

that never uses another person for personal pleasure or gain -

these are the things we long for in others

and the things this world hopes to find in the people of God.

When we as a society

removed true moral integrity as our measure of what is good

and replaced it with our great campaign for the right to personal freedom

we created a great void,

a hunger for true good in our world.

And because every one of us bares within us the image of God Himself,

whenever we see His values reflected in another person

our spirits respond to it.

Sandee and I just recently finished watching The Lord of The Rings films once again,

and as I watched them

I saw so clearly

why we were drawn to the heros in that story.

It was because of the depth of moral integrity

that each one of them displayed.

Courage,

loyalty,

faithfulness,

perseverance beyond all measure,

and a determination to fight against evil

no matter what the cost to themselves -

those are the things that stirred us so deeply.

I mention this because

given the world in which we live,

we can so easily loose sight of what it is

that our God is really seeking to do in and through us.

Our world today

desperately needs true heros -

men and women who really are in character

what the appear to be on the surface,

men and women of deep compassion and uncompromising moral integrity.

Not judgmental of others

because we understand the nature of human flesh outside of Christ

and therefore bring no false expectations

in our dealings with those around us,

but men and women

who live with deep compassion and great moral courage.

Are you a Christian?

Do you know what I believe the people in your life want most from you?

It’s not answers,

it’s hope.

They want very much for you to be in action

what you proclaim to be in word

because it gives them hope

that they, too, can change.

In one of Daniel’s visions

the angel who was talking with him

made a fascinating statement to Daniel.

He said,

DAN 12:3 "And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Never has that been more true

than in our world today.

If you are God’s child,

and if you long to have an effective impact on your world,

don’t learn systems,

don’t immerse yourself in religious games,

just ask your God

to show you how to live a life of true righteousness

and you will impact your world

as you have never dreamed possible.

Now listen again to those words of David.

PSA 40:1-3 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear, And will trust in the Lord.

There are countless voices in our society

screaming every conceivable religious doctrine,

and religious experience,

and religious system to the world around us.

But there is one voice that carries far above the rest,

one voice that speaks with an authority

and with a certain promise of hope

far beyond all the others.

It is the voice of true moral integrity,

true righteous living,

a voice that offers hope and the promise of freedom

as nothing else can do.

I received a phone call recently

from a man I’ve never met.

He had a friend who has been involved in this fellowship for a number of years.

When the man called

he said simply, “My friend has changed. He’s a different man than he once was and I want to know what changed him.”

That’s the power of a transformed life -

not perfect in action by any means,

but truly changed and changing

through the transforming work of Christ within.

Which brings me to that unanswered question

that I ended with last week.

If Christ really does bring to us

both the ability and the promise

that He can rebuild our lives,

creating in us true righteous living

where once there was only sin,

then why do there seem to be so many within the Church world

in whose lives this changing process just does not seem to be working?

And I’m not talking here

about those outside of the church world,

those who openly reject the Lordship of Christ in their lives.

We should expect no change in them,

just as we saw no true movement toward righteousness in ourselves

in those years prior to our union with our God.

I’m talking about those within the church world

who either by their words or by their external life style

identify themselves with the church.

And within that group

or within any subgroup within the church as a whole

there are always those

whose lives simply do not move toward righteousness.

We know with certainty

that those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren...(ROM 8:29).

In other words,

from the time we come to Christ

He reveals to us

what His Spirit will be seeking to accomplish within us.

He will be working in us

to conform us more and more to the moral image of Christ,

and in the process bringing us into greater and greater freedom.

So then why doesn’t it happen in

in some of those who claim the name of Christ?

And how should we relate to those

in whom this seems to be the pattern?

Well, the second question is answered for us clearly

in Paul’s second letter to Timothy.

In fact he warns Timothy

to be on guard for these people.

He says,

2TI 3:1-5 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.

Lovers of self,

lovers of money,

boastful,

arrogant,

revilers,

disobedient to parents,

ungrateful,

unholy,

unloving,

malicious gossips...

holding to a form of godliness

even though they have, with their lives, denied the power of the message they preach.

And Paul says simply, avoid such men as these.

In fact repeatedly throughout Scripture

we are told that we should test the quality of a person’s message

on the basis of the moral quality of the person’s life.

And please understand here

that we are not talking about Christians

who are struggling to find solid moral footing in their walk with the King.

There are times in every growing Christian’s life

when he or she will face some moral battle

that, for a time, causes them tremendous turmoil

until their God finally brings them into consistent victory.

That’s common stuff.

That’s all part of the growth process.

But what we’re talking about here

are those who choose to hide their immorality

under a blanket of what they call “grace”,

or under a thick external religious coating

in which they profess Christ with their mouth

while denying Him with their actions.

Well, the short answer to that question

is that they have chosen religious form

rather than daily personal submission to the Person of Jesus Christ.

Are they Christians?

Certainly some of them never were true children of God.

They are simply people

who feel comfortable in the world of religion

and who have learned how to use religion

as a covering for their own corruption.

But I think there are others

who really are children of the King,

but who, at some point in their growth process with Him,

saw Him seeking to address issues in their life

that they simply were not willing to address.

And they said in effect,

“If that’s where you’re taking me, Lord,

I’m not going!!”

And from that time on

they simply cloaked themselves

behind their own “form of godliness”

while their life denied the true transforming power of their God.

It is a hideous,

pathetic,

empty way to go through life.

In that same passage in Second Timothy

Paul tells us that from that point on

they are 2TI 3:7 “...always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

And there certainly is no joy in their Lord,

no delight in Him,

no spirit of praise and gratitude to their God.

It is a truly sad way to go through life,

but I mention it in the context of this study

because it is so common within the church world

that I don’t want it to throw you when you encounter it.

And what’s the solution?

It’s not complicated.

It simply involves the person’s willingness

to say “Yes” to their Lord

at that point where they said “NO!”,

to be willing to allow Him

to lead them into facing honestly

the area of corruption within themselves

that terrified them in the first place.

And with that

I believe we will leave this breastplate of righteousness

and move on to a new piece of our armor next week.