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Good Wednesday morning dear “Walking with Jesus” friends;
We are together in that very exciting letter of Paul’s, to the Christians in Ephesus, which we have in our Bibles as Ephesians. Today chapter 6 vs. 14.
Like a platoon of new soldiers, we stand before our Commander in chief, Jesus, as HE gives us instructions about how to arm ourselves for battle against the greatest of all enemies…Satan. “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth firmly buckled around your waist, and the breastplate of righteousness in place.” Yesterday we discussed the first part of this statement, and the importance of the belt of truth.
We saw that Satan is a liar. He always distorts or denies God’s truth. It began in the garden of Eden, when he deceived Eve and Adam, and continues to this day with each of us.
We saw how important it is that we filter everything we hear and read through Gods’ truth, and also that we immerse our lives in God’s Word, so every day we can live in His truth. I wonder if you’ve noticed Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, is all about the significance, importance and power of God’s Truth… every one of the 176 verses! I have found it’s really helpful to read that Psalm often, my friends, since you and I are inundated with so much information everyday!!
Today, let’s understand the next phrase: “…and the breastplate of righteousness in place.”
I have several friends who are police officers, one in particular is with the County Sheriff’s department in Wisconsin. Whenever I’m in the area, this dear friend and I try to get together, even if he’s on duty. He’s a big, strong man with a huge smile and even bigger, tender heart. He has told me many stories about how God has enabled him to help people in danger or even disaster. But to do that, his life is on the line everyday, so he wears a thick, bullet proof vest under his uniform. It makes him look even larger and I can only imagine how uncomfortable and hot it is, but it may save his life in a battle! That is the modern version of the ‘breastplate’ the soldiers in Paul’s day wore, protecting their torso with all their vital organs, arteries and veins.
Jesus wants us to understand “breastplate of righteousness” is something God has made for us and applied to us, when we trusted Jesus Christ and His saving death and resurrection, to purchase our forgiveness from our sin and our deliverance from our sin bondage! Remember Paul’s letter to the Romans talks a great deal about this: “…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1) “Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 4:25; 5:1)
Justification, you remember, is the legal term God uses to pronounce us ‘no longer guilty’ of our sin, because we trusted in Jesus and His full payment of our sin debt price with His death! An easy way to remember what “Justification” means is this: “‘Just as if I never sinned”.
‘Righteousness’ is another word for Holiness, or sinlessness. So the breastplate of Righteousness is the declaration of God that our sins are forgiven by God, as we trust in Jesus and His atonement sacrifice on the cross. Then God declares us “righteous”, “justified”, “holy in His sight”.
Now, my friends, Satan will relentlessly attempt to remind us of our sin, especially those sins which we have committed often. Satan will attack us with emotions of shame, fear, guilt, and doubt that we really are forgiven, as we remember those things we are not proud of. But, God says that we have the ‘breastplate of righteousness’, the declaration of God Himself, that our sins are forgiven, (Eph. 1:7) and we can therefore reject Satan’s accusations and confidently claim we are forgiven, cleansed from our sin, and we are righteous, holy, before God!
Here’s an important verse to memorize: “If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If anybody sins, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins…” (1 John 1:9; 2:1,2) Amen my friends! That means we have an attorney, Jesus Himself, who is permanently at the right hand of God interceding for us, (Rom. 8:34) so anytime we feel the dark kingdom attack of shame or guilt for our sin, if we have confessed it to God and claimed Jesus’ shed blood as our payment, we can tell Satan “you go talk to my lawyer, Jesus. He paid for my sin with His death, and I am forgiven and I’m righteous by God’s declaration.”
But we’ve seen in Eph. 6:12 that this spiritual battle is not against a visible enemy, but rather a spiritual battle, so I have a question: how do we protect against the attacks of the enemy which aim at our heart but are INTERNAL attacks rather than EXTERNAL? Now think about this friends… how does our enemy the devil do his destructive work at our vital organs from the INSIDE?
Have you ever been with someone dying of lung cancer who smoked heavily or worked in a place with lots of second hand smoke? The cancer came from BREATHING in deadly toxins. Or how about someone who has consumed way too much alcohol and their liver is damaged? Or someone who’s brain is damaged through meth or some other drugs? One of the main ways the devil attacks us internally is by what goes in our mouth! We know full well certain things will harm the wonderful body God made for us and calls us to care for, but we take it in anyway!
But, as bad as that is, our most vital organ is our heart, do you agree? And that’s why King Solomon wrote “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Prov. 4:23) The Breastplate of Righteousness is primarily for the protection of our HEART!
So, what tactics and schemes has Satan used to damage your heart? We’ve already discussed guilt, shame, accusation etc. But what about lust, envy, jealousy, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, resentment, hardness of heart, deceitfulness, selfishness, pride, bigotry? All these and many other cancers of the heart can destroy us AND wound everyone we touch, isn’t that right?
Having “the breastplate of righteousness in place” means our hearts are so full of reverence and awe for Holy God, our hearts are overflowing with Worship, our hearts are filled with God’s Truth, our hearts are pursuing and protecting our Holiness... that any attempt of the devil to turn our hearts away from God, or turn them sour or any of those other harmful emotions, will fail! So how do we sustain righteous hearts like that my friends? Here’s some vital Scripture truth to help us…
1. Hebrews 12:1,2 “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
2. Romans 12:1,2 “…in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
3. Psalm. 24:3-6 “Who may ascend the hill of the LORD, who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false…”
4. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 “Flee from sexual immorality… Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
5. Psalm 86:11,12 “Teach me Your way, O LORD, and I’ll walk in Your truth. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear Your name. I will praise You O LORD My God with all my heart, I will glorify Your name forever.”
6. Psalm 89:15,16 “Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim You, who walk in the light of Your Presence, O LORD. They rejoice in Your name all day long, they exult in Your righteousness, for YOU are their glory and strength.”
Ok my friends, those are six powerful statements of God’s truth that will help us stay in lock step with Jesus, help us defend our hearts and our God given holiness from attack of Satan and his dark kingdom. Now there are many more, so I urge you to grow the list of those Scriptures that are especially helpful to you, and your pursuit and protection of your personal holiness.
In closing today, it’s important we understand this: Jesus earned our holiness, our righteousness, as He paid our sin debt and God forgave our sin and declared us Justified. BUT… it’s very important we do the work of carefully protecting our heart, and other vital organs, from ANYTHING the devil could draw us to, or tempt us with, that could bring the cancer of evil INSIDE of us!
So we must guard our eyes… protect our eyes from looking at anything that could harm our hearts, like pornography or anything written that brings evil into our minds.
Guard our ears, from listening to anything that could harm the purity of our hearts.
And FILL our minds, our hearts with those things that draw us to worship God, to celebrate His holiness and majesty. That’s why having worship music playing around your house or in your car is so important! I’m listening right now to a wonderful worship leader I’ve just discovered… Marty Nystrom! Oh my, such great worship that refreshes me and draws my heart into God’s throne room and defeats the schemes of the devil trying to draw me to defile my holiness.
And finally… this all calls us to ask the question: who am I spending time with that I allow to touch my heart? Am I careful to protect the holiness of my heart by being careful about the people I spend time with?
Oh my friends there’s so much to consider regarding the spiritual war and the Breastplate of Righteousness….
Holy Spirit of God, please help us pursue and protect the righteousness God has given to us in Jesus! Please help us see those things the devil uses to attack our hearts and draw us to defile that righteousness…
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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