Drip 2
Drip • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro
Intro
Last week we introed the series Drip by talking about how everyone of us is in a war
We are looking at Ephesians 6:12-13
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.13 For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand.
This is where Paul is telling us that we are in a battle and therefore must put on our kingdom uniform
Our enemy is Satan
Satan is crouching at the door seeking to attack us and take us out
This war I believe is best summed up by 1 Peter 5:8-9
8 Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, strong in your faith, because you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering.
Our enemy is sitting, waiting, and watching. Waiting for us to slip up so he can pounce
That’s why Paul tells us to put on the armor of God
And last week we looked at how we are to put on the belt of truth
How truth opposes Satan
How truth strengthens our witness
Today we are looking at the next piece of armor
Breastplate of Righteousness
Breastplate of Righteousness
14 Stand firm therefore, by fastening the belt of truth around your waist, by putting on the breastplate of righteousness,
Paul tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness
Tonight I want to answer three simple questions for you about the breastplate:
What is it?
Why do we need it?
How do we put it on?
What is it?
What is it?
Before I can tell you what righteousness is, I want to make sure we understand what it is not
It is not self-righteousness
The breastplate Paul is telling us to put on is not a “holier-than-thou” attitude that Christians tend to adopt
I think about the example of Jesus telling the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector
9 Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ 13 The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’14 I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Jesus looks at the religious who believe they are doing all they can for God, and gives a chilling message - everyone who exalts himself will be humbled
When we are told to put on the breastplate we are not called to believe we are better
Instead we are called to be humble, so it’s not self-righteous
People that are self-righteous are obnoxious, prideful, and just simply terrible to be around
Self-righteousness is sinful
Instead when Paul is telling us to put on the breastplate of righteousness he is telling us to put on Gospel righteousness
Gospel righteousness
Gospel righteousness
Now Gospel righteousness has two parts to it
It has positional righteousness, and practical righteousness
Positional righteousness is your standing with God
It’s what Jesus did for you on the cross
When Jesus died and you put your faith in Him positionally you are declared righteous - you are saved from your sins with it being no work of your own, but God’s work
8 More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.
Positional righteousness is the work Jesus did for us.
So when Paul tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness he can’t be talking about the positional aspect, because that is Jesus’ work, not ours
So instead he is talking about practical righteousness
Practical righteousness is the process of us becoming more like Jesus
In countless passages we are told to “fight the good fight” “finish the race”
Paul in Philippians 2 even tells us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”
It’s the idea of becoming more like Christ in speech, and in action
So when it comes to the Breastplate of righteousness, the righteousness we are called to put on is the practical righteousness, or the process of sanctification
You must have positional righteousness in order to put on practical righteousness - the two goes hand in hand
Why do we need it?
Why do we need it?
So if the Breastplate is our process of sanctification or practical righteousness
The second question then is why do we need it?
It protects your heart
Putting on the breastplate of righteousness, aka holy living, protects our heart
Think about where the breastplate is on the armor of a roman soldier - it covered the heart, lungs, all the vital organs
It protected the soldier from all types of attacks that would kill him
Now think about what holy living does - it protects us from all sins that would take us out
It keeps us moving closer to Jesus
It keeps our heart clean and undefiled
Listen to what Paul says happens when our heart is darkened
18 They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
When our heart is unprotected we are vulnerable to every kind of sin
He says we become calloused and think anything and everything is okay
Like we mentioned we are in a spiritual war, and Satan is crouching at the door - waiting for us to slip up
So becoming more like Christ is what allows us to block the blows that are coming for our heart
It is what allows us to protect our vital organs
It assures our salvation
The breastplate of righteousness also allows us to know we are saved
When you are actively living for Jesus it allows you to know that you are saved
No person that is unsaved will willingly flee sin, read a Bible, pray
It is the marker that allows us to know we actually have faith, and not just head knowledge
Become more like Christ is the hallmark of salvation
If you actually believe in Jesus, there will be a change in your life.
You can’t truly believe in Jesus and not have your life changed
How do we put it on?
How do we put it on?
So we know what the breastplate of righteousness is - it’s living for Christ, becoming more like Him
We know why it is important - it protects our heart and allows us to know we are saved
So how do we put it on?
Fasten the belt of truth
The first way you put it on is by putting on the belt of truth
We mentioned this last week, but the belt of a roman soldiers armor had a section where the breastplate would connect to the armor
If you want to put on righteousness you must know and believe the truth
We must live in truth, not in lies
We need to know Jesus, as he is truth
You must be truthful
You must do all that we said and talked about last week
You can’t have positional or practical righteousness without having and believing the truth of God
Say no to sin
The second way you put on the breastplate is by saying no to sin
That means fighting our worldly flesh
You are going to be tempted all the time, but we must learn to say no
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,
We cannot let sin reign in our bodies, we must say no to the temptation and sinful desires
We are wicked people who want nothing more than to do evil
So to put on righteous living we must fight our sin - every sin
That means the things we struggle with that everyone knows, but that also means the secret sins that we try to hide from people
To follow Jesus we must put on practical righteousness and say no to sin
Surrender yourself to God
The third way we put on the breastplate is by surrendering yourself to God
Listen to Romans 6:13
13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness.
The key word here is present
We are not to present - or give ourselves - to sin
Instead we are to present - or give ourselves - to God
Here’s the reality - I believe that there is some of us in the room that trusted Jesus to forgive us of our sins, but we haven’t surrendered our entire self to Him
We are okay with Jesus taking up our Wednesday night, our Sunday morning
But we aren’t okay with allowing Jesus to control our lives, our actions, the music we listen to, the things we do
To put on the breastplate of righteousness we must surrender to Jesus
Listen to this prayer by John Wesley - a famous missionary
I am no longer mine, but yours. Put me to what you will. Rank me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you. Let me be full or let me be empty. Let me have all things or let me have nothing. I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. Amen.
John Wesley
This is the attitude we must have
Do with me God what you want
I think some of us are saying - do with us what we want God
Conclusion
Conclusion
The breastplate of righteousness is important because it’s what protects the heart - our very being
It’s what allows us to know that we are saved
The breastplate is living for Jesus - walking daily with Him and becoming more like Him
We must start doing this if we are ever going to be able to stand against Satan
We must start by putting on the belt of truth, without truth, we can do nothing else
We do this by saying no to sin - you cannot follow God and continue to sin
We do this by surrendering to God - not my will, but yours