Stand On It, With The Breastplate of Righteousness

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 6:14 “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,”

Ephesians 4:1 “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,”

Ephesians 4:2 “with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,”

Ephesians 4:3 “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Paul is saying division is old man behavior.

Division is worldly behavior

Mistreatment is worldly behavior

Unity is Godly Behavior

Unity is walking worthy

Paul told them that I know y’all think it is skin problem and or a culture problem between Jew and Gentile Christians, but rather it is a sin problem.

And the war is not physical but rather spiritual.

Our spirit wars against our flesh

God’s Spirit wars against our flesh and the devil.

And the devil and his demons who are the source of sin are at war with God and children.

And the source of that sin is the devil and his demons.

The devil wants us to fail.

He uses his demons to accuse God’s people

Entice God’s people

His goal is to corrupt our thinking so that he can influence our actions.

This is an armor of the spirit and mind.

Every piece is important, and we cannot be without one piece because it all works together.

Every piece deals with our mind. Our thinking and actions.

This armor is the armor of God

Isaiah 59:17 “For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, And was clad with zeal as a cloak.”

Ephesians 6:14 “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,”

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth which means to be ready and prepared for what the devil is going to bring.

Stand On It And Put It On

Ephesians 6:14 “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,”

Ephesians 4:24 “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

To become clothed in apparel

Stand On It And Protect Heart

Ephesians 6:14 “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,”

- what does it cover?

Policemen wear bulletproof vests

To protect their vital organs

The breastplate for the roman soldier covered the vital organs of the torso

The Breastplate of righteousness protects the vital organs of the mind.

The Heart and The Bowels

The Heart - thinking

The Bowels - and emotions

Stand On It And Be Righteous

Ephesians 6:14 “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,”

What is righteousness?

a status of legal rectitude that satisfis the moral requirements of God’s character.

Being right with God

What righteousness is he talking about?

3 Types Of Righteousness

Self Righteousness

Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”

Some focus on being right

Luke 18:9 “Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:”

Luke 18:10 ““Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.”

Luke 18:11 “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.”

Philippians 3:4 “though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:”

Philippians 3:5 “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;”

Philippians 3:5 “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;”

Philippians 3:6 “concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

Philippians 3:7 “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.”

The Focus is being right with God

And as we talk about mercy and forgiveness we must all understand God’s mercy comes with a requirement if we are going to have a relationship with him and each other.

Imputed Righteousness

Philippians 3:8 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”

Philippians 3:9 “and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;”

Philippians 3:10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,”

Philippians 3:11 “if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Philippians 3:12 “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

Practical Righteousness

Philippians 3:13 “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,”

Philippians 3:14 “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

1 Corinthians 15:34 “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

righteousness, being right with God