2024 Easter / Armor of God

The year is 1517, Johann Tetzel, an agent of the Archbishop Albert came near the city of Wittenberg pushing the sale of indulgences, 50% of the proceeds would go to the archbishop himself and the other 50% would go to Pope Leo X to fund the building of St. Peter’s Cathedral. At this time a man who would become known as one of the founders of the reformation nailed his 95 thesis to the Wittenberg Castle doors arguing against the sale of indulgences.

Martin Luther, said, “When by the Spirit of God, I understood these words, “The just shall live by faith,” I felt born again like a new man. I entered through the open doors into the very paradise of God! - Martin Luther.

Relationship with God is by faith in Christ and that alone.

So many after him have come to experience the heavenly paradise of the truth that we are righteous not by our works but by faith in Christ alone.

Ephesians 6:10–20 NIV

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Breastplate of Righteousness:

Definition: Righteousness: What is right and pleasing to God, we get the word justice, just. In relation to human subjects, righteousness primarily denotes a legal and social status or a moral state. Are you right with God or not.

2 Sides of One Coin: Involves living righteously (repent and believe) but not by human effort but by the gift of righteousness. We don’t live righteously to become righteous but we live righteously because I am righteous.

Enemies Tactics: Reveals the enemies tactics, attacking our rightness with God. Corrie Ten Boom - “The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy.” And this enables us to recognize the enemies strategies… dealing with righteousness.

Satan - “Adversary” in Hebrew

Reminded of the high priest Joshua in Zechariah 4. He was filled with guilt and shame.

And in Revelation 12:10 - the accuser of the brethren.

What does God do to render his tactics powerless?

What God Did Against the Enemy: And we see why what we are celebrating today, the resurrection, is a celebration.

Colossians 2:13–15“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

The weapons of guilt, shame, and condemnation - The document of our indebtedness to God (we owe him perfect allegiance and obedience to all his decrees) has been cancelled, removed, gone!

By removing our debt to not be held against us any more, forgiving us completely, he has disarmed the enemy.

Romans 4:23–25 NLT “And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded 24 for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.

We have been forgiven

The enemy has been disarmed

And we are in right standing/relationship with God because of Jesus’ resurrection.

Now we preach this, teach this, think on this, read this, because we must always remember that we are in right relationship with God apart from any human endeavor or effort, it is completely and utterly and entirely the work of God and we respond with “I believe.”

Romans 3:24-25 God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood

Righteousness then is not something we have archived but rather received. It is a gift not something earned.

Gifts to my children are more about my character than theirs.

Romans 5:17 “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!”

“To have been justified by his grace through simple faith in Christ crucified, to be clothed with a righteousness which is not one’s own but Christ’s, to stand before God not condemned but accepted—this is an essential defence against an accusing conscience and against the slanderous attacks of the evil one, whose Hebrew name (‘Satan’) means ‘adversary’ and whose Greek title (diabolos, ‘devil’) means ‘slanderer’. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus …” John Stott

3 Points to encourage you and comfort you of what the Gift of Righteousness means for us.

1. God knew everything about us and loved us anyway.

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God is fully aware of what we are and the state of sin we are in and loves us anyway and made the way - the solution for us to be reconciled in relationship.

One of the symptoms of this sin fallen world is that we are locked into a mindset that if people really knew us completely, inside and out - we wouldn’t be loved.

Consequently, we can subconsciously project that perspective on God and because we know He knows everything about us, every sin, every behavior = we experience guilt.

Guilt acts as a powerful influence on our thinking.

It blinds us from the unconditional love of God. “God can’t love me, I don’t deserve it. Or God won’t bless me, I don’t deserve it.”

It transforms the grace of God in the gospel into a performance based, merit based relationship. Many believers live tormented, defeated lives because of the way their guilt has distorted the clarity of the gospel.

Some may try to do something for God to feel like they deserve his good blessing. This is self-centeredness, its a ploy to make self feel better rather than humbly accept the free gift - acknowledging you don’t deserve it.

The things you do for God are then really all about you, all about me. It’s all so I can feel whole again, finding relief from my guilt and shame and doing whatever I can do to please God and get him to like me again.

The truth is, nothing we could ever do could bridge the gap between us and God, nothing we could ever do would merit something from God or sustain our relationship with God.

That’s why the solution was Jesus not you. And he gets all the credit. Which is why he is the one who is honored, he is the one who is praised!

We need to learn to relax, rest in Him, in His finished work of the cross and resurrection. Let his love and acceptance flood our hearts and minds because He knows everything about you and loves you.

And that will produce works by faith, intense labor motivated by love, and endurance because of hope.

Our salvation / our right standing with God does not depend on our own performance.

The content of the gospel is not about what you’ve done, or might do, or need to do. It’s about what someone else did for you and because of what He did you can trust that God is good to you all the time.

When you believe this, you will be a glorifying God machine in all you do, an evangelizing machine, a serving machine and you won’t get burned out because it is done from his love not for his love.

2. We can rest assured.

Insecure/Secure

Angel of death

Revelation 12:10–11“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

Death doesn’t pass over them on the ground on the intensity or the clarity of the faith exercised but on the ground of the blood of the lamb and that is what silences the accuser!

Satan has no grounds anymore to accuse us!

How many times do we writhe in agony after being Christians for 40 years wondering if God could love me.

I have no other argument, I have no other plea, it is Jesus Christ who died for me!

It is not the intensity of our faith but the object of our faith!

The work is finished, we are completely forgiven, Jesus will not shed his blood again. We can live in this assurance.

3. (This leads to practical application) The resurrection & Gift of Righteousness means you are a new person

We didn’t need to just be fixed from sinning to not sinning, we needed a complete death and resurrection, a complete rebuild and structure change within us, exactly what God has done through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Scripture says we are born again, born of his spirit, birthed by God, we are new and different. Changed at the core, this is not a theoretical righteousness or pretend righteousness but real righteousness, really new, really different, really a son and daughter of God - again all because of the resurrection of Christ.

You will prov this new nature, one way or the other:

Sin = you will be miserable, frustrated because it’s against the new you.

Live righteously = that’s who you are. Died with Christ and we live from His resurrection life.

This is practically applied:

When you are tempted, you can recognize that it isn’t you, you can resist.

When you are afraid, you can be comforted knowing that because you are righteous, they greatest source of comfort is God and he will never leave you nor forsake you.

When you go through a trial, you can stand strong because it purifies you, not destroys you.

When you are accused, you can speak Scripture: Romans 8:31–34“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”