(2) Heres the second reason why we need it: we need it in order to know that we are saved. We live in an age of no absolutes. Even our best works are full of bad intentionsto be known, exalted, etc. What Is It? 233 likes, 4 comments - Single Girl Meditations (@singlegirlmeditations) on Instagram: "That's the beauty of it all! Handed down. So we have to come to the end of ourselves. He was pursuing this earnestly, with all of his heart. Ephesians 6:14 - BibleGateway.com Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. The garments of vengeance . You put on the breastplate of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ as your defense against Satan's accusations. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Satan stirs up people to criticize and condemn. Let me give you an example here from Romans 6. You are right, Satan. Memory Verse: Ephesians 6:11 (ESV) "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil." Game: Read a series of tricky situations that children might find themselves in. Ephesians 6:10 begins with amazing encouragement for the Ephesian believers (and therefore us). Have you ever experienced that? Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in meput it into practice. When we are living a righteous life, we are protected from Satan. It could represent several things. Thats how he kept his conscience cleansed and washed with the blood of Christ. M'Cheyne was a holy man. Without the belt of truth buckled around us first, the breastplate of righteousness couldn't be securely put on to stay "in place." What Does "I Believe! We need to take seriously the command to be holy, the demands of holiness, to consecrate ourselves fully to God and to pray this prayer: Lord, make me as holy as I can be.. Interpretation Question: What does the belt of truth represent, how do we put it on, and how does it protect us from the enemy? You do that by depending on the Holy Spirit. Are you putting on the belt of truth? Without these practices, you are opening the door to the devil. In this text, Paul focuses on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. Scripture calls us to control our emotions. Uncommitted Christians are fodder for the enemy. In fact, heres something you could do this week. However, we still need to recognize this work in order to stand against the accusations and condemnation of the devil. No. Paul is saying, dont do that anymore; instead, surrender yourself to God and use the members of your body for righteousness, to do what is good. He says, I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Spiritual young men overcome the devil because the Word of God is strong in them. Satan likes to work in the shadowshe wants people to keep their sins in the dark instead of confessing them before God and man. Paul knows that and the biblical writers know that, so they talk about protecting the vital organs because they know that its from the heart, right, its from the inner being, that the issues of life flow. In the parable, a master forgave a servant a great debt, but the servant did not forgive his fellow servant a much lesser debt. The Breastplate Of Righteousness - SermonCentral Again, one of the Puritans famously said, Be killing sin or sin will be killing you, John Owen. ( Ephesians 6:10-18) The breastplate of righteousness is the second piece of armor that Paul talks about in this powerful passage. Sometimes we talk about having a visceral response to something. Do some soul-searching, and then replace the anger with responses of kindness and tenderness to those that you get angry with. But we used to be enslaved, and the old taskmaster used to beat us with whips and yell out these harsh commands. As we come to the holy supper, the sacred supper of our Lord, the Lords table; as we come to it, Lord, we dont come as people who have it all together. How can we put it on if we are already wearing it positionally? This is the only reason we can stand in the presence of God. Essentially, Christ took our sin at the cross and gave us his righteousness. Our clothesrepresenting our character and worksare unclean to God. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God (paraphrase). Know what the Bible teaches on major doctrines so you wont be led astray by all the false teachings circulating in the church. Positional righteousness is objective; it is Christs work for us. Again, Ephesians 4:26-27 indicates this, as it says, In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.. He says, I count it all as loss, and the word there is refuse, its garbage. You might think, for example, of Jesuss parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The "breastplate of righteousness" is mentioned explicitly in Isaiah 59:17 as something the Lord put on in response to the lack of truth and justice among the people of Israel. New Living Translation Amen., Thats the surrendered heart. In fact, the stories go that he was so saintly, he was so holy, people loved him so much, that when he would ascend the steps to the pulpit people would start weeping because of the sense of Gods holiness in that room. As Ive wrestled with this text - and I tell you, Ive looked at commentary after commentary, Ive gone as far back as the church fathers, Chrysostom and Calvin, Ive read these guys - Im pretty much convinced that the righteousness here is not the imputed righteousness, its rather practical righteousness. Look at what he says in verse 11: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The command there, if Im not mistaken, this is the very first imperative verb in the book of Romans. Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library. There he says, Put on the breastplate not of righteousness, but of faith and love. Faith and love are virtues, are graces from the heart. (4) You fasten the breastplate to the belt of truth, you say no to every sin, you surrender yourself to God, and then number four, you replace sin with righteousness. This leads to legalism or self-condemnation ( Romans 8:1 ). So the righteousness he has in mind here, I think, is the practical righteousness. Job 29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. Unless otherwise noted, the primary Scriptures used are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you. Thats the idea here. It is the predominant philosophical thought taught in our education system today. Read full chapter Ephesians 5 Philippians 1 Have you recognized that Christ is your righteousness? Scripture quotations marked KJV or AKJV are from the King James Version or Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. Theres no salvation without a holy life. I think this also fits with 1 Thessalonians 5:8, where Paul uses the armor metaphor in a slightly different way. So thats why we need it. Why is the Heart so Vulnerable? Because of this, the master handed the servant over to torturers. You need doctrine if you want to live a holy life! The breastplate is fastened onto that. 2 Accessed 11/14/2015 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer#Bestiality, 3 Accessed 11/14/2015 from https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-57-protected-truth-and-righteousness-ephesians-614. If we fill our minds with truth and righteousness, then the devil will have less opportunity to tempt us. A visceral response; thats when you have a gag reflex, you smell something thats disgusting and it makes you gag. As Paul has explained (Eph. Tweet. On the other hand, there are some eggheads that can easily become content with doctrine as the end in itself and never apply it, and thats wrong, too. The enemy of our souls constantly assaults the church by twisting or denying Scripturepulling many away from God. Are you putting on the breastplate of righteousness? It was to protect those vital organs, the heart and the lungs and the intestines and so on. What he means there is that you were at one time using your hands and your feet and your eyes and your tongue and your brain - you were using your body to serve sin. ChristianRadio.com features Christian stations from all over the United States. Horizon Church on Instagram: ""What does it mean to put on the Let me just, first of all, before telling you what it is, tell you what its not. The enemy is cunning and keen. Lord, we wish we were more holy than we are; too often were half-hearted in our pursuit of it. Shouldnt you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. It will satisfy your heart, it will make you happy. As mentioned, the Roman soldiers breastplate was used to protect the vital organs such as the heart and intestines. Application Questions: What doors are still open in your life for the enemy? All rights reserved. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. He says, Consider yourselves dead to sin, or other versions might say, Count yourselves dead to sin, or the old King James says, Reckon yourselves dead to sin. Paul was a southerner, right? The devil tells us to sin, we would sin. As we have begun working through this passage of Scripture over the last several weeks, weve already learned that there is a battle for us to fight. Chicago: Moody Press. 9 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1986). Application Question: In what ways does Satan commonly attack your mind and emotions? The Breastplate of Righteousness - Ephesians 6:14b Let me ask you this morning as we close: do you have your breastplate on? In fact, the word instruments here is the word weapons. Paul is saying, yield yourselves to God and yield your members, the members of your body, to God as weapons for righteousness. The breastplate was a central part of the Roman soldier's armor. We need this. So, in answer to our first question, What is it? Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. He struggled with sin. Put On the Breastplate of Righteousness | Redeemer Church Or it might be a word that would describe a knights squire, who hands the sword to the knight. So he says, verse 11, And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.. Even our righteousness is like filthy rags to him (Is 64:6). Hes talking about ethical holiness, hes talking about practical holiness. In becoming aware of the decisions we make, we can determine whether or not they are based in God's Word. Have you done that? Instead of always trying to get something, youre giving of yourself to others. Without truth, our righteousness will be based upon our own attempts to impress God. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. We must put on the belt of truth to stand against Satans attacks. Believers guard their hearts by filling their minds with Scripture. So I just want to ask three simple questions about the breastplate this morning: I. Since buckling or girding is often used to describe preparation, some commentators think the belt of truth refers to serving the Lord wholeheartedly, with total commitment, as a soldier going into battle. One reason, I think, Paul perhaps uses the image here (we have to be careful in how far we press the details), perhaps he calls this the breastplate of righteousness because righteousness is what covers the vital parts of our inner being. Saints, if you do not know the Word of God, you are not prepared to stand in this spiritual war. For example, Colossians 3:12 says, Therefore, as Gods chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. In this passage, compassion, kindness, humility, etc., are symbolized by clothing. When he sees us, he sees the righteousness of Christ. Putting on the Breastplate of Righteousness (Ephesians 6:14b) By Jeremy Myers 1 Comment 00:00 00:00 As we continue to look at the spiritual armor God has given us for our spiritual battle, we look at the breastplate. The belt of truth does not represent just knowing the content of the truth, but also living out the truth practically in our daily lives. Sin opens the door for the devil into our lives. Ephesians 6:17 - King James Bible Online Therefore, you cant know that youre saved if you are not pursuing holiness and wearing the breastplate of righteousness. Weekly Devotional: The Armor of God - Breastplate of Righteousness Put me to what you will. Put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. Its the same for us. (Isaiah 54:5), Dressing for Battle: Gospel Armor for the Fight of Faith. Its not complete; its something that we are in the process of working out. The Breastplate of Righteousness - Southside Church of Christ Are you daily seeking to know the full counsel of Scripture, or are you neglecting Gods Word? What Is It? Were predestined for this, to be conformed to the image of Christ. He tells us to lust, we lust. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Phil 4:4.) For all the saints. Josie Siler Contributing Writer Satan stands by Joshuas side to accuse himand no doubt to declare him unfit to be in Gods presence. You remember the anti-drug campaign in the 1980s? Would you do it in our personal lives? I am no longer mine, but yours. For over a year, King David lied about his sin with Bathsheba, and nothing went right.5 When David repented, he wrote this (Psalm 32:2-5): Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. Ephesians (p. 351). 14 Bible Verses about The Breastplate Of Righteousnesse - OpenBible.info Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, (Ephesians 6:14). I took a girl out to lunch, and I had to leave the table about every ten minutes to go to the restroom and throw up because I was so absolutely nervous. We confess our sins to you this morning. It means to yield. Do you have sins you havent dealt with, sins you havent brought under the blood of Christ, sins you havent put to death? Protection from Pride . Let me have all things or let me have nothing. 2, p. 58). Moving in the Right Direction | R. R. Reno | First Things Are you fully committed to Christ, or are you half-hearted? We need personal revival in our lives. Its surrendering yourself to God. Passage Resources Hebrew/Greek Your Content Ephesians 6:14-15 English Standard Version 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. What is that? All rights reserved. (2). Put on God's complete armour so that you can successfully resist all the devil's methods of attack. You fasten the breastplate to the belt of truth. First Peter 1:13 says, Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind (KJV). The belt of truth represents knowing the content of truth as revealed in Scripture. Wayne Grudems Systematic Theology, for example, addresses the doctrines of Christ, the Holy Spirit, salvation, end times, etc. Now, that does not mean sinless perfection, it doesnt mean you dont struggle; it means, rather, that youre in the struggle, that youre actually in the fight. 6 Foulkes, F. (1989). 18 According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will repay the islands their due. All rights reserved. are they restrained? For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. I dont know of any other way to pursue holiness than this. Many of you have heard me talk about the Scottish pastor Robert Murray M'Cheyne, 1813-1843. I reread it this week. Paul uses the picture of a soldier's armor to describe our spiritual lives. The Breastplate of Righteousness - Destined for Victory by Paul
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