Ephesians 6:14

The Breastplate of Righteousness

Ephesians 6:14

1956

May 13, 1979

Sermon Summary

Context: The Believer’s War and the Necessity of Full Armor (Ephesians 6:10–17)

Now, in this passage as we have seen for the last several weeks, the apostle Paul outlines for us the strategy, the plan, the enemy, the whole area of the believer’s warfare, and the sum of it all is that we must, as it says in verse 11, “put on the whole armour,” repeats in verse 13, “take unto us the whole armour,” if we are to be victorious. 

This, then, is a passage of critical nature in the life of a Christian.  No matter how adept your theology is, no matter how solid the foundation of your comprehension, no matter how much you know about the Scripture, how much you have of information regarding God’s truth, you are still potentially a loser because this is a war that is won and fought really on a day-to-day basis. 

So, all of the resources that you have intellectually, in addition all of the resources that you have spiritually, in the power and presence of the Spirit of God, can be set aside even by a believer to the point where we begin to lose the battle.  And so does Paul remind us that we must be very much aware that the Christian life is war, and the sooner we learn it, the sooner we will experience the victory that God has for us.

Paul has spent the letter of Ephesians unfolding the believer’s immense resources in Christ—spiritual blessings, Spirit-empowerment, and God’s sovereign purpose to produce good works. But the presence of divine resources must never create overconfidence or the illusion that Christian living is “easy.” The Christian life is not a stroll; it is a war.

Paul therefore pivots to a final, urgent command: be strong in the Lord and put on the full armor of God, because the real enemy is not human opposition but the organized, supernatural powers of darkness. The repeated emphasis is total: not partial armor, not occasional seriousness, but the whole armor—so the believer can stand firm, withstand, and stand again.

The War Requires Strategy, Not Naiveté (Luke 14:31)

In Luke, I’m reminded of a verse that is related in another context, but perhaps will give us some food for thought.  Luke 14:31 says, “What king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?”  Now, just that thought, what king ever entered into a battle without a careful examination of his resources and a development of his strategy?  And in essence, that is exactly what we’re doing in Ephesians chapter 6.  Having the given that we are in war, we must also add to the knowledge that this is war a careful evaluation of the strategy, the plan, the enemy, and the resources available to us to win the war, and nothing short of total commitment will do it.

The sermon reinforces that no king goes to war without first assessing resources and strategy. The point is not self-confidence but sober realism: since we are in a spiritual conflict, we must think clearly about: — the enemy’s methods — the points of attack — the believer’s defenses — the daily nature of victory and loss

A believer can possess strong theology and abundant knowledge and still live as a “loser” in day-to-day battle if he neglects the practical demands of warfare.

The Belt: “Girded…With Truth” as Readiness and Commitment (Ephesians 6:14)

Now, we saw last time, if you’ll look back at verse 14, the first piece of armor.  Paul says as he envisions a Roman soldier in his full battle regalia, “Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with alētheia.”  And primarily we said he has in mind here truthfulness or an attitude of readiness, commitment without hypocrisy. 

The term here, “having your loins girded,” is associated in Hebrew thinking with the idea of readiness or preparedness.  A Jewish people for literally centuries have indicated a readiness to move out with the phrase “gird up your loins.”  When they left the land of Egypt at the time of the Passover, they were instructed to gird up their loins.  This is a very common phrase in Jewish thought.  The apostle Paul is calling for the very same thing in a spiritual sense. 

Peter says for example in 1 Peter 1:13, “Gird up the loins of your mind.”  In other words, get your mind ready for the things of God, that’s what Paul is saying.  A Jewish person preparing for a trip wouldn’t go on the trip with his garments flowing in the breeze.  He would gird his loins with a belt, pull his garments through that, so that he was pulled together ready for motion, for movement.  The same thing was true of a Roman soldier.  He would take his tunic, pull it up through this belt that was tied tightly so that his garment wouldn’t get in his way as he was in the battle.  And so, what our apostle Paul is telling us is that we must have a readiness for the battle.  We must be prepared and committed for it.  So, we suggest to you the idea here is commitment. 

Meaning of “Gird Up Your Loins” (a.k.a. roll up your sleeves)

The imagery comes from everyday readiness and from battle preparation: long garments must be pulled up and secured to move freely. In Jewish thought the phrase becomes a proverbial call to preparedness (including Passover readiness), and Peter applies it explicitly to the inner life: “gird up the loins of your mind.”

So the sermon frames the belt not merely as information (“truth”) but as a truthful, ready, unhypocritical posture—a life pulled together for obedience. The controlling idea is: commitment.

Church Life Warning: Growth Can Produce Spectators

As churches grow, people can drift to the periphery and become watchers rather than engaged soldiers. The greater the potential impact, the greater the enemy’s resistance, and therefore the greater the need for genuine commitment.

Illustration: The Israeli Paratrooper Mindset

The sermon’s point is sharply illustrated by the story of the young man who refused ease, asked for the hardest unit, endured punishing training, and finished physically destroyed—but victorious. The application is direct: spiritual victory does not come from imagining we are “super-people,” but from seriousness and resolve.

The Breastplate: Why Righteousness Protects the Vital Core (Ephesians 6:14)

What the Breastplate Protects

You’ll notice again in verse 14 that he says a Roman soldier will also have on a breastplate, and Paul calls it the “breastplate of righteousness.”  No Roman soldier in his right mind would ever go into a battle without his breastplate.  Even if he could fight off the personal foe that he was fighting with, he might get shot through with an arrow coming from the other forces and hit him in a vulnerable area.  So he would always wear a breastplate.  And surely in a hand-to-hand combat anyway he’d be vulnerable here, and there would be some blows that would be parried if he were protected.

And so, Paul looks at a Roman soldier going into battle and he says not only is he committed and has his loins girded up, his belt is on, and he’s serious about movement, he’s going to get in this thing to win it.  But he also has his vital area protected.  Now, Roman soldiers had different kinds of breastplates.  Some of them were made out of linen, a very heavy linen that hung down very low, and it would be covered with – it would take the hooves of an animal, and they would slice them into slices rather thinly, and then they would hang them, hooking them together, so that it was almost like a horn, using an animal’s horn kind of material, either from the hoof or from the horn. 

Additionally, they sometimes used a chain mail kind of thing.  Sometimes they would use the linen, and they would hang little pieces of metal on it.  And then, of course, the most familiar one that we know about is the great molded metal, almost chest plate that goes all the way from the base of the neck to the top of the thighs, covering all that vital area, the one you see with the eagle on it or “SPQR” or whatever, and we associate it with the Roman soldier.  This was, of course, to protect this very vital area. 

Now frankly, I’ve tried through the years as I’ve examined the armor of the Christian to see if there’s any hierarchy of priority, if there are any more important than others, and that’s very difficult to do, well-nigh impossible, because you have to put on the whole armor, right?  The whole armor.  Each piece is specifically geared to accomplish some certain and absolutely essential factor.  So, we cannot say that one is specifically ranking first, another second, and another third.  And yet, it seems to me that the key to all of this is the breastplate of righteousness. 

If there is not righteousness in your life, the chances are you’re not going to have commitment.  If there is not a genuine righteousness in your life, you’re not going to have the shield of faith, the shoes of peace.  You’re not going to have the helmet of salvation, and you’re not going to wield the sword unless you are committed to righteousness in your life.  And righteousness is just a way of saying “a right relationship to God.”  Unless things are right between you and God, that seems to me to be bottom line.  Commitment actually is born out of that. It’s when you get right with God that the commitment takes place.

Now let me just talk about this concept of the breastplate of righteousness for a minute.  Obviously, you know that in a battle, the area you’ve got to protect is right in here.  The helmet would protect the head area, and in the kind of battle that they would fight – hand-to-hand - they were using a short sword, and it wouldn’t be the kind that you could cut somebody’s head off with, so this was the vital area here.  What they were endeavoring to protect was the heart area up here, and then the lower area, which the Jewish people used call the “bowels.”  It meant the midsection where all the other organs are, the functional organs of the body.  So, a breastplate covered two vital areas:  the heart and the bowel area. 

A soldier may win a hand-to-hand exchange and still die from a distant arrow if his vital organs are exposed. So the breastplate guards what is essential for survival. The sermon argues that, in spiritual terms, the vital area is: — the mind (often symbolized by “heart” in Hebrew thought) — the affections/emotions (often associated with “bowels” as the seat of deep feelings)

Satan’s Two Primary Angles of Attack

Now, to the Jew this had a great significance.  Symbolically, the heart represented the mind; the Bible says, “As a man thinketh in his” - What? – “heart, so is he.”  Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.  The heart is the thinking aspect of life.  The heart in Hebrew terms or symbols means the mind.  “The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”  Thinking is associated with the heart. 

The bowels are associated with feelings and emotions.  It talks about the bowels of compassion, or shutting up the bowels of love and not loving someone properly.  And this is because emotions give us feelings in our stomach, don’t they?  Emotions hit us in the stomach.  We ache in our stomach when certain emotions are felt.  And so, to the Hebrew, this is a good way to demonstrate it.  The heart then means the thinking process, and the bowels refers to the emotions. 

And if we can draw that across to our imagery in terms of the armor, this is what we’re saying.  Satan wants to attack a believer in two areas, primarily.  One, in his thinking; two, in his emotions.  One in the way he thinks and feels, another in the way he responds emotionally.  And the believer must be protected, because this is where Satan makes his attack.  He feeds your thinking processes with false information.  He feeds your emotions with false information.  He wants to cloud your mind with false doctrine, lies, religious untruth, anything he can, and he wants to appeal to the wrong parts of your emotions.  He wants to illicit evil emotional responses.  He wants to twist and pervert your affections.

And so the sum of it is this, people.  Listen.  If you protect your thinking and your feeling from the attacks of Satan, you’re impregnable.  He’ll try to confuse your mind with false doctrine, or he’ll try to confuse your emotions that make you long for, lust for, feel after, and have affection for the wrong things.

Now, if you just take the mind and emotions together, they encompass everything that causes us to act.  They encompass the concept of knowledge.  That’s the first key to responding.  You’ve got to have a certain amount of knowledge.  Understanding, conscious, will, desires, drives, affections, feelings, emotions, all those things that cause us to act are protected by the breastplate of righteousness. 

Satan moves into your life, and he has some things he wants to do.  He wants to snatch away the Word of God from your mind and fill it with lies, right?  Fill it with perversion, fill up your mind with garbage, fill up your mind with a morality that isn’t God’s, fill up your mind with a theology that isn’t God’s, fill up your mind with all kinds of untruth and half-truth.  So he attacks the mind.  He wants you to wrongly understand things.  He doesn’t want you to interpret things rightly.  He wants you to say about sin, “Oh, it’s not so bad,” so he literally drowns you in a sea of it, so you become very tolerant of it, and he entertains you with it, so that you don’t think it’s as evil as it really is.

So he has you laughing at sin on your television or in the movies.  He has you hearing it put to beautiful tunes and music, so that it clouds and confuses the clear thinking of your mind.  From there he moves to destroy your conscience, to get you to do things that you shouldn’t do to sear a conscience that once warned you that soon will not warn you any longer.  He wants to debilitate your will, breaking down your will.  He wants to confuse your emotions by causing you to feel wrongfully toward things.  He wants to corrupt your desires.  He wants to draw your affections to the wrong things.  And all this attack comes by Satan in that vital area, and simply does the apostle Paul say it’s protected by righteousness, by righteousness. 

The sermon identifies the devil’s strategy as an assault on: — thinking: false doctrine, moral distortion, rationalizations about sin, cloudy judgment — feelings: twisted desires, misdirected loves, emotional corruption, illicit cravings

If mind and affections are protected, the believer is “impregnable” because these two together drive behavior—understanding, conscience, will, desires, affections, and choices.

What “Righteousness” Means Here: Three Options, One Intended

Now, what is the righteousness of which Paul speaks?  What is he really talking about?  There are only three possible things to consider.  One would be self righteousness, two would be imputed righteousness, and three would be practical righteousness.  Either he’s talking about our own self-righteousness, he’s talking about the righteousness of Christ given to us, or he’s talking about living out the righteousness of Christ given to us.  We’ll look and see which is the case. 

The sermon tests three possible meanings of “breastplate of righteousness”:

1) Self-Righteousness (Rejected)

But there are some people who say, “Well, my own righteousness will be sufficient to prevent that.”  Satan wants to mess up your life all along the way, and there’s some people who think they’re good enough to handle it.  In the time of the Bible, the Pharisees were that way.  They thought they were good enough.  They thought they could make it, and that’s why in Matthew 5:20, Jesus says, “Except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes of Pharisees, you’ll never enter the kingdom.” They were wrong.  They weren’t good enough.  “For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves.  It is a gift of God, not of” - What? – “works.”  You can’t do it.  And yet they thought they could. 

In Luke chapter 18 we find the typical attitude of a Pharisee, a legalist, somebody who thinks he can make it by his own goodness.  We have people like that today.  In fact, every religious system in the world, apart from Christianity, is based on the fact that man can do it himself, that he can be good enough on his own.  So in Luke 18:9, a certain parable the Lord tells, “Two men went into the temple to pray; one is a Pharisee, and the other is a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.”  In other words, “I’m so glad I’m so good.  I’m so happy about me, aren’t you?  I’ve done it on my own.  I’ve arrived.  I’m self-righteous.” 

Another word for “justified” is “made righteous.”  Who was really righteous?  The man who thought he could do it on his own, or the man who knew he couldn’t?  Jesus said the man who knew he couldn’t.  You could call the story “A good man that went to hell, and a bad man that went to heaven.” 

Self-righteousness is not the breastplate of righteousness.  You will be a victim of the forces of hell for sure if you’re trying to cover yourself in your own righteousness.  I think maybe the best illustration of this is to have you turn to Philippians chapter 3 and verse 4, and I want you to see how Paul deals with this. 

Paul starts out looking at the view of self righteousness, and he says in verse 4, “Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.”  Now, in other words, if self-righteousness were possible, if I could get into God’s kingdom by being good enough, if I could do it, then I of all people would have a right to give it a good shot.  I could have confidence in the flesh.  I could say, “I’ve been a pretty good guy.”  “If any other man,” he says, “thinks he has reason for which he might trust in the flesh, I have more.” 

In other words, if you’re going to look at it in terms of human righteousness, I can probably outstrip most other people.  I’m probably better than the good ones.  Why?  Verse 5.  “I was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel” - in other words, I was a real Israelite, and boy, even from circumcision on, everything happened right, starting with the right day, the eighth day.  “I am of the tribe of Benjamin” - and by the way there was no more Jewish tribe than the tribe of Benjamin.  You study Benjamin in the Old Testament, you will see how they figure all through the plan of God and dealing with that nation as a very special tribe. 

Benjamin, for example, according to Genesis 35, was not only a son of Israel, but the son of Israel’s most beloved wife, Rachel.  Of the two favorite sons, Benjamin and Joseph, it was Benjamin alone who with Judah formed the reconstituted Israel in 1 Kings chapter 12.  It was Benjamin who restored Israel after captivity, Ezra 4:1.  It was Benjamin that was God’s chief agent in the deliverance of Israel in the time of Esther from the wickedness of Haman.  Now Benjamin is a very special tribe, very special tribe.  So he said, “I have a real pedigree.  I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews.  If you’ve ever seen a Jew, I’m one.  I’m one.”  He says this: “As touching the law, I’m a Pharisee.  Not only am I a Hebrew, and a real Hebrew, and one out of the tribe of Benjamin, but I belong to the strictest, most religious, legalistic sect in the whole system.  I’m a Pharisee.  Concerning zeal, you never met a more zealous Jew.  I persecuted the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” 

That is amazing.  He says, “If you’re going to count on self-righteousness, look at the guy who’s got more going for him than anybody else.  If self-righteousness was the way in, I would really lay claim to it.”  Verse 7 begins with a key word, Philippians 3:7.  What is it?  “But.”  “But…what things were gain to me humanly” - on my own – “I counted loss for Christ.  Yea doubtless, and I count all things loss” - all of that stuff means nothing, it’s useless – “in the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but manure, that I may win Christ.” Now here’s the key in verse 9, “and be found in Him, not having of mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

Self-righteousness is exposed as spiritually fatal because it leaves a person without real protection—still vulnerable to hell’s deception. The Pharisee in Luke 18 illustrates the delusion: confidence in personal goodness rather than mercy. Scripture declares the universality of sin and the absence of true human righteousness.

2) Imputed Righteousness (Affirmed as Foundation)

In other words, Paul says, “My own righteousness is useless.  I must have the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Christ.”  And when you become a believer, when you become a Christian, you reach out your hand of faith, take hold of the hand of God through Jesus Christ.  At that moment, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you.  God clothes you in the righteousness of Christ.  God puts over you, as it were, a canopy of the absolute holiness of Jesus Christ. 

And from that moment to the eons of eternity when God looks at you, he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  “He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  God puts a veil over you, and every time he sees you, he sees you as righteous in Christ.  That’s “imputed righteousness,” the theologians called it.  Your own is useless. Paul says, “I count it all but manure.” 

Augustus Toplady wrote, “A debtor to mercy alone of covenant mercy I sing, nor fear with thy righteousness on my person and offering to bring, the terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do, my Savior’s obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view.”  God doesn’t see them as we stand clothed in the righteousness of Christ. 

But there’s even another step.  You know something? You can’t be covered and protected by the righteousness of your own life.  And you want to hear this?  Even the righteousness of God granted to you in salvation is only the basis of your breastplate.  You must take it a step further.  We’re in Philippians 3.  Look at verse 10.  Paul recognizes that he has imputed righteousness, that the righteousness of God in Christ is his, but it doesn’t end there. 

He then says, “That I may know him,” - it’s a purpose clause, in order that I may know him – “the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”  Verse 12, “Not as though I have already attained, either were already perfect:  I follow after.”  Verse 13, “I count not myself to have apprehended:…I press,” verse 14, “toward the mark.”  What I’m saying, in summary, is this.  He says, “I have the imputed righteousness of Christ, but I still press.  I still learn.  I still move ahead.  I still hunger after something.” 

And what he is really saying is this: imputed righteousness is only that which makes practical righteousness possible, not necessarily a reality.  Now we’re getting to it, folks.  I hope you’re hanging in there.

Listen.  When you were saved you were given the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  That righteousness will cover you for all eternity.  But in order for you to live the kind of life that wins the battle over Satan, you must apply righteous principles available to you in his righteousness to the matter of your daily living.  There are Christians, you know, who think that because they have the imputed righteousness of Christ, it doesn’t matter what they do. 

The sermon strongly affirms justification: when a sinner believes, God credits the righteousness of Christ to him. God sees the believer clothed in Christ’s righteousness (a positional reality that secures the believer forever). This is essential and non-negotiable.

3) Practical (Imparted) Righteousness (Identified as the Breastplate in Battle)

I’ll never forget hearing my father tell a story about a man who was in the ministry, and he was with him one time, and he swore a string of curse words.  And he said to him in shock, “Whatever possessed you to say that?”  He said, “Oh, it doesn’t matter.  I’m covered by the righteousness of Christ.  That’s just my old nature.  What are you going to do with your old nature anyway?” 

On another occasion, the man said that he decided he’d like to visit a nude bar, to which someone in his company replied, “What do you mean?  What do you mean you want to do that?”  “Well,” he said, “It doesn’t really matter.  You see, I’m covered in by righteousness of Christ.  That’s just my old nature.” 

You can’t dichotomize that.  You can’t separate that out.  Because we’re covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ doesn’t guarantee that we live every moment as we ought to.  It only guarantees that we can, right?  That we can.  It’s a difference between position and practice.  Your position is secure forever, but your practice doesn’t always match up.  That’s the real issue.  And so Paul says, “Sure.  I’ve been given the righteousness of God, but that doesn’t mean I’ve attained.  That doesn’t mean I’ve apprehended.  That doesn’t mean I’ve arrived.  I now must,” “as he says in chapter 2, “work out that salvation so that I can accomplish what God wills to do in my life.”

Now, folks, that’s when you get the breastplate.  The breastplate is on when we are living a righteousness and holy life.  Sure, the foundation is from Christ; absolutely.  Count Zinzendorf wrote that great hymn translated by John Wesley.  I love to sing it, and you’ve sung it too.  It goes like this, “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress; ’Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head.  Bold shall I stand in that great day.  For who aught to my charge shall lay?  Fully through Thee absolved I am from sin and fear, From guilt and shame.  O, let the dead now hear Thy voice.  Now bid Thy banished ones rejoice; Their beauty this, their glorious dress. Jesus Thy blood and righteousness.”

This is the sermon’s central point: imputed righteousness makes practical righteousness possible, but it does not automatically make it actual. The breastplate is “on” when the believer actively lives in holiness—daily obedience, repentance, confession, and a pattern of righteousness that increasingly characterizes life.

The sermon confronts a common corruption: “Because I’m covered by Christ’s righteousness, it doesn’t matter what I do.” That thinking is treated as a dangerous lie. The issue is the classic distinction: — position: secure in Christ — practice: must be pursued, fought for, and lived

The Forgotten Commodity: Holiness as the Bottom-Line Issue

We can never attain God’s standard of righteousness on our own, and so it comes as a gift from Jesus Christ.  O, what a fantastic thought it is.  But it’s not imputed righteousness that Paul is majoring on here.  That’s not the major thought here.  It’s what the old Puritans used to call “imparted righteousness.”  You’ve got to put it to use. 

You can live a righteousness life.  It’s a matter of daily, moment-by-moment choices.  Practical righteousness puts the armor on.  Paul is saying, “O, how much I want that,” Philippians 3:10, “O, I want to see that.  I want to reach the prize.”  And the prize is Christlikeness.  “I want my” - watch this one – “practical righteousness to match my positional righteousness.” 

Holy living is the breastplate, beloved.  You know what I believe?  I believe that somewhere along the line this is a forgotten commodity in the church.  You know, this is the bottom-line problem.  If you don’t live a holy life, you lose.  You say, “Well, what do you lose?”  Number one, you’re going to lose your joy.  I’ll promise you that.  If you do not live a righteousness life, God withholds from you His blessing.  First John says, “These things are written that your joy maybe full.”  But the idea is they’re written so that in obeying them your joy will be full.  No obedience, no joy.

I’ll tell you, the reason Christians are sad so often, and the reason they have sorrow in their lives is not because they need psychological counseling because they’ve got some kind of relational problem; it’s just a lack of personal holiness.  I really think this is the bottom line.  And the church today has pretty well ignored this, and we’ve substituted programs, seminars, counseling.  Listen, if you’ve got problems in your life, the first place to look is at your own holiness.  If you’ve got problems in your marriage, that’s the first place to look.  And I’ll guarantee you right now if you’re not living a holy life, you’ll have problems, because God withholds His blessing.

Paper Armor vs. True Armor

The sermon criticizes substituting programs, methods, seminars, and counseling as if they were the solution to spiritual defeat. Those can become “paper armor”—externals that bypass the core issue. The foundational diagnostic is intensely personal: If life is collapsing, first examine holiness.

The call is not sinless perfection, but: — decreasing patterns of sin — quick repentance — honest self-examination — obedient alignment with Scripture

What We Lose When We Refuse Holiness

David knew it.  When David was in sin and he said to the Lord, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.”  I’ve got my salvation, I just lost the joy.  I just lost the joy.  And it is a matter of righteous life.  As I see it in Christianity, we’re running around tying on paper armor.  You know, when you go to the restaurant and you’ve got your little kids, and they come, and they put that thing around their neck?  I see that as the typical modern Christian breastplate.  Absolutely useless.  It’s made up of a system, or a method, or a program.  Oh you know, my life is having problems, our family is having problems.  Well, what you need are about 10 or 12 sessions with a counselor.  And so they put on the paper breastplate.  That’s not what you need.  What you need is about 10 or 12 hours in the presence of God until you sort out the unholy characteristics in your life and get right with him.  That’s what you need. 

Look at your own life.  You’ve got problems in your family?  Check your own holiness.  Are you faithful in reading the Word of God?  Is your prayer life what it ought to be?  Are you loving your family the way you should?  Are you speaking for Jesus Christ unashamed in your society and your culture, wherever you are?  Are you giving to the Lord what you ought to give sacrificially and taking care of the stewardship of all the rest of it that you keep?  Are you living a righteous life in categories of your life as you’ve outlined them, and as God has in his Word? 

Because if you’re not, why would you expect your life to go well?  If it did, then God would defeat His own purposes, right?  That’s where we need to go.  But, you know, people want to find an answer at the extreme.  They’d rather wear a paper breastplate than deal with the real issues.  If there’s disobedience in your life, if there’s sin in your life, and it’s unconfessed and unrepented of, and you just keep doing it, if you have wrong attitudes, you harbor resentments, and there are problems, and you never get them straightened out, if you have wrong thoughts that you cultivate, if what you say isn’t what it ought to be, if your deeds aren’t what they ought to be, and you just keep living like this, I’ll promise you, gilt-edged guaranteed, you’re going to have trouble.  You’re going to lose your joy. 

Another thing that’s going to happen is you’re to lose your fruitfulness.  You’re going to become nonproductive.  You’re going to shrivel, as it were, as a branch on the vine.  And I’ll give you a third thing.  You’re going to lose your reward, too.  John says, “Look to yourselves that you lose not the things that you’ve wrought, but that you receive your full reward.”  Some of you are going to diminish to capacity for service to God throughout eternity in heaven.

And I’ll add one other thing.  You’ll bring reproach on God’s glory.  Why would you want to live like that?  Are you so ungrateful to God that you would, number one, live a sinful life, an unrighteous life, and forfeit the joy that He wants to give?  Would you say “no” to His gifts?  Are you so ungrateful to God’s potential in you that you would live an unrighteous life and say “no” to the thing He wants to produce through your life?  Would you say “no” to God in terms of what He wants for you to enjoy throughout all eternity in His heavenly kingdom by restricting yourself?  Would you say “no” to God, who seeks glory in the midst of men, by living an unrighteous life that brings down His name?

See how foolish it is?  And it’s all an affront to Him.  God, as it were, stands on the end of heaven, the edge of heaven.  His hands are filled with blessing.  Those blessings include joy, fruitfulness, ultimate rewards, and glory for Himself.  And would you turn your back and chase your own sinfulness?  Listen, people.  As I intimated earlier, we have never even begun to see what God could do with this church, in this place, in this country, and around the world, if we begin to really get our lives in harmony with the righteous principles of the Word of God.  And I’m talking to me as much as anybody else. 

That’s the bottom line.  If you’ve got problems, they are problems directly related to that area of your life.  I’ll tell you, if things are right in your life, and you’re righteous before God, you probably won’t even have too many trials, because there’s not a whole lot to refine.  So God has laid out for us simplicity in His Word.  It’s amazing to me how Christians always want to ignore the bottom-line simplicity and substitute a superficial answer for what is a very clear biblical solution.

Well, what I’m trying to say is get your armor on, folks.  This is war, and I’ll never be contented.  I’ll go down breathing my last breath saying, “Lord, I want to win this last battle.”  I believe that God wants us to accomplish all we can with the potential He’s given us, and I think that involves every one of us making this commitment. 

Listen, I want to have you just think with me for another minute or two.  In 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11 Peter says this: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you” - now he’s on his knees begging them – “as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”

Now Peter is saying, “This is war, and unless you get yourself committed to righteousness” - and by that I don’t mean you never sin.  I mean there is a decreasing frequency of it, and when you do, you confess it, you repent of it, and you turn from it.  You deal with it before God.  You are honest enough to evaluate your life.  He is saying, “I beseech you, abstain from fleshly lusts, for they are warring against your soul.”  When you fall to them you lose, and there goes joy, and there goes fruitfulness, and there goes reward, and there goes ultimately God’s honor in the face of the world.

That’s the negative.  “Abstain from fleshly lusts.”  The positive is in verse 12.  “Having your behavior honest among the Gentiles.”  Be committed.  Live a righteousness life.  Live a life above reproach.  Listen, in Hebrews 11:13 it says they “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”  Hey, we are.  We’re strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and we don’t understand that enough.  You know, we have got ourselves so locked into this earth, we are locked in concrete here.  We get into the whims of the earth and the world’s things, and we get all involved in loving the world and the things of the world, as John said.  Instead, the people in the book of Hebrews, it says that they, “looked for a city whose builder and maker was God.”  That Paul says to the Philippians that “our citizenship is in heaven.”  Jesus says, “The world isn’t where we belong.  The world hates us.  We’re not of the world.  We have no part in the world.”  And yet we get entrenched, and we lose our perspective.  We don’t see ourselves living in the heavenlies, fighting a spiritual warfare, pursuing a righteous life with all of our energy dependent upon his resources.

Listen, absolute end of stupidity for a Christian is to become engulfed in the world system.  In 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 3 Paul says, “As a good soldier endure hardness” - take it when it’s tough.  Verse 4 then says, listen to this, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.”  What he’s saying is this: you can’t be in the army and be a civilian.  You can’t be both, and if you’ve come to fight for the commander and to serve the Lord, then get out of the system. 

There are enough resources in this church spiritually, intellectually, in terms of spiritual gifts, in terms of acts of fellowship and ministry, in terms of finances to do beyond what we could even conceive – beyond what we could even conceive - if we had the commitment and if we were righteous.  I don’t want you to do things because you feel pressured to do them.  I want you to do them because they flow out of a holy life, you see?  You know what I say?  If the believers, number one, have the belt on and are committed at all cost, and, number two, are living a holy life, you don’t have to say much of anything because out of that holiness will come all the responses that are prompted by the Spirit of God.  That’s why I resist all the high-pressure tactics used in Christianity.  They’re bypassing the real issue, which is genuine commitment and true holiness. 

So, we should present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God.  Holy.  We should, as Paul said in Colossians 3, set our “affections on things above and not on things on the earth.”  We’ve got to have the breastplate on, people.  We’ve got to do what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:34.  He says, “Awake to righteousness, and stop sinning.”  “Awake to righteousness, and stop sinning.”

The sermon warns that ongoing disobedience produces tangible spiritual loss: — joy diminishes (David’s plea: restore joy) — fruitfulness shrivels (nonproductive spiritual life) — reward is reduced (eternal consequence for service capacity) — God’s reputation is harmed (reproach on His glory)

The argument is straightforward: God stands ready to pour blessing—joy, fruitfulness, reward, and His own glory—but the believer turns away from those gifts when embracing sin.

Exhortations to Live as Soldiers and Strangers

The sermon ends with the biblical identity of believers as pilgrims and soldiers: — abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul — maintain excellent conduct among unbelievers — don’t entangle yourself in civilian life if you are a soldier of Christ — set affections on things above — “awake to righteousness and stop sinning”

The closing tone is both confident and urgent: ultimate victory is certain in Christ, but present-day defeat is real where holiness is neglected.

Greek Words Used in the Sermon

ἀλήθεια (alētheia) — “truth,” “truthfulness,” “reality”

Used in connection with Ephesians 6:14 (“having girded your loins with truth”). The sermon’s emphasis is not merely truth as data, but truth as an inner integrity and readiness—commitment without hypocrisy. Bible Hub+1

Important Sections at a Glance

— The Christian life is war; resources do not eliminate conflict. — The command is to put on the whole armor to stand firm. — The belt pictures readiness: truthful, committed, prepared living. — The breastplate pictures protection of the vital core: mind and affections. — Satan attacks thinking and feelings to control choices. — Self-righteousness cannot save or protect; it damns and deceives. — Imputed righteousness secures the believer; practical righteousness equips the believer. — Holiness is the neglected “bottom line” behind joy, fruitfulness, reward, and witness. — Soldiers must not entangle themselves in the world-system.

Verses Quoted in This Sermon Section (NASB)

Ephesians 6:10–17 Bible Gateway — 6:10 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” — 6:11 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” — 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood…” — 6:13 “Therefore, take up the full armor of God…” — 6:14 “Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth…” Bible Gateway — 6:15 “and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;” — 6:16 “In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith…” — 6:17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Luke 14:31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider…” Bible Gateway

1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit…” YouVersion | The Bible App | Bible.com

Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Bible Gateway

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith… not as a result of works…” Bible Hub

Luke 18:13–14 “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” … “this man went to his house justified…” Bible Gateway

Isaiah 64:6 “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment…” YouVersion | The Bible App | Bible.com

Romans 3:10–12, 23 “There is none righteous, not even one…” … “for all have sinned…” YouVersion | The Bible App | Bible.com

Philippians 3:9–14 “…not having a righteousness of my own…” … “I press on toward the goal…” Bible Gateway

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf…” Bible Gateway

1 John 1:4 “These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.” Bible Gateway

Psalm 51:12 “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation…” Bible Gateway

2 John 1:8 “Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished…” YouVersion | The Bible App | Bible.com

1 Peter 2:11–12 “…abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul… Keep your behavior excellent…” Bible Gateway

Hebrews 11:13 “…having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” Bible Gateway

Philippians 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven…” Bible Gateway

2 Timothy 2:3–4 “Suffer hardship… No soldier in active service entangles himself…” Bible Gateway

Romans 12:1 “…present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice…” Bible Gateway

Colossians 3:2–3 “Set your mind on the things above…” … “your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Bible Gateway

1 Corinthians 15:34 “Become sober-minded… and stop sinning…” YouVersion | The Bible App | Bible.com

Philippians 2:15 “…blameless and innocent… in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation…” Bible Gateway

Song of Solomon 2:15 “Catch the foxes… the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards…” Bible Gateway

Application Points

— Treat the Christian life as war, not weekend religion; daily victories require daily armor. — Audit your mind: identify where doctrine is thin, where entertainment normalizes sin, where rationalizations have dulled conscience. — Audit your affections: what are you loving that competes with Christ, and what desires are training your emotions to disobey? — Refuse “paper armor”: don’t substitute techniques for repentance; don’t replace holiness with religious activity. — When you sin: confess quickly, repent honestly, and cut off the “little foxes” before they become a breach. — Pursue practical righteousness as the normal expression of positional righteousness—so your practice increasingly matches your profession.

Memory Verses

— Ephesians 6:14 Bible Gateway — 1 Peter 2:11–12 Bible Gateway — Colossians 3:2–3 Bible Gateway — Romans 12:1 Bible Gateway — 1 Corinthians 15:34 YouVersion | The Bible App | Bible.com

Cross-References

— The schemes of Satan and resisting him: James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8–9 — Mind renewed for warfare: Romans 12:2 — Holiness required of God’s people: 1 Peter 1:15–16; Hebrews 12:14 — Confession and restored fellowship: 1 John 1:9 — The deceitfulness of sin: Hebrews 3:13 — Worldliness opposed to God: James 4:4; 1 John 2:15–17 Bible Gateway — Persevering pursuit of Christlikeness: Philippians 3:12–14 Bible Gateway

Historical and Theological Context

Roman Armor as a Teaching Frame

Paul’s armor imagery leverages common first-century knowledge of Roman military equipment to communicate spiritual realities: readiness, protection of vital organs, stability, and offensive capability. The repeated “stand” language underscores that the believer’s calling is not panic or retreat but steadfastness under assault.

Justification and Sanctification in the Sermon’s Logic

The sermon distinguishes: — Justification (imputed righteousness): the believer’s legal standing in Christ (secure). — Sanctification (practical righteousness): the believer’s lived holiness (essential for warfare and joy). The breastplate, in the sermon’s argument, is primarily sanctification in action—holiness guarding mind and affections.

Addendum

Teaching Outline

I. The Reality of War and the Necessity of Full Armor

— Resources in Christ do not remove conflict — The command: strength in the Lord; full armor; firm standing

II. The Belt of Truth: Readiness and Unhypocritical Commitment

— “Gird up” as preparedness — Truthfulness as integrity and seriousness — The danger of becoming a spectator Christian

III. The Breastplate of Righteousness: Protection of Mind and Affections

— The vital core must be guarded — Satan’s twin assault: thinking and feelings

IV. What Righteousness Is—and Is Not

— Self-righteousness cannot save or protect — Imputed righteousness is the foundation — Practical righteousness is the lived breastplate

V. The Call to Holiness and the Cost of Neglect

— Paper armor vs real holiness — Losses: joy, fruitfulness, reward, witness

VI. Final Exhortation and Prayer

— Live as soldiers, not civilians — Pursue holiness as the pathway of present victory

Discussion Guide

— Where have you been tempted to assume that spiritual resources guarantee spiritual ease? — In what specific ways does Satan most effectively attack your thinking (beliefs, rationalizations, doctrine gaps)? — In what specific ways does Satan most effectively attack your affections (desires, loves, emotional triggers)? — How do you personally distinguish between positional righteousness and practical righteousness without separating them? — What “paper armor” substitutes are most common in your life (busyness, religious activity, technique-based fixes)? — Identify one “little fox” (small compromise) that could become a breach. What concrete step will you take this week to remove it?

Reference

John MacArtur. https://www.gty.org/sermons/1956/the-breastplate-of-righteousness