So, did you hear that Bill Cosby was released from prison this past week? Like most of you, I grew up watching and listening to Bill Cosby and I always thought he was pretty funny but I haven’t really kept up with all of his legal proceedings. I understand he was charged with some sort of sex crime and was found guilty and served a couple of years in prison for it. But this past week, his attorneys found a legal loophole – a technicality – that got him out of jail early. So, does that mean he is innocent now? No. That’s not what that means. I don’t know if he is innocent or guilty but just because he was released doesn’t mean he is innocent. There is a difference between not being found guilty and being found innocent. Not being found guilty just means they couldn’t prove it in a court of law. But I am not here to say that he is guilty or innocent of the crime he was accused of but I am here to say that he is guilty of something. Do you know how I know?
Romans 3:23 tells me that. Romans 3:23 says, “For ALL
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Now, I’m not picking on
Cosby. I don’t know anything about him. I’m just using him as an example. I
don’t know and really don’t care what he has done or not done. But I do know he
is a sinner because scripture tells us that we are all sinners. And that’s bad
news. That’s bad news because Romans 6:23 says that what we deserve for
our sin is eternal death in Hell. That’s really bad news.
Not only that, but did you know that until you are a born-again
saved Christian that you are actually an enemy of God? Colossians 1:21
says, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your
minds because of your evil behavior” and Romans 5:10 says, “For
since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we
were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his
Son.”
That’s a scary place to be. I hate to think I was ever an enemy of
the All-powerful, All-knowing God. Nahum 1:2 says, “the LORD
takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.” And
for you that think God was mean in the Old Testament but mellowed out in His
old age in the New Testament, John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in
the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but
the wrath of God remains on him.”
What a horrible and scary place to be – an enemy of
Almighty God! Thank you, Lord, for your grace and mercy and forgiveness that
through your Son, Jesus, we can be right with You! That’s the
Good News! “Right with God.” Do you ever think about it? Another word we use
sometimes is “righteous.” I hope you think about it every day as you put on
your breastplate of righteousness. This morning we are going to be
talking about what the Bible says about righteousness; what it is, what it
means, how to get it and the difference in righteousness and self-righteousness
but I also want to discover if there is any room for our own righteousness in
our lives.
When I say “righteousness” many of you think about
self-righteousness; the kind of righteousness that Isaiah 64:6 says
is like filthy rags and deserves to be thought of poorly. Why, then,
would Paul tell us to put on righteousness in our passage this morning? Turn
to Ephesians 6:10-18 and let’s take a look. Paul tells us to
put on the breastplate of righteousness in verse 14 and that
is what I want to concentrate on today. Last week we saw the importance of
putting on the belt of truth and how, without believing and taking hold of
absolute truth, we might as well not have any defense against the
enemy. We put on the belt of truth first and everything else hangs
on that belt. This week we will put on the breastplate of
righteousness and attach it to the belt just like the Roman soldiers of Paul’s
day.
Ephesians 6:10-18 says, “10 Finally,
be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full
armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s
schemes. 12 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. 13 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. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth
buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in
place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes
from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the
shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the
evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 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.”
I tried to find a good way to illustrate what a Roman breastplate
would look like but I couldn’t find a decent prop so I’ll just try to describe
it. It may be a little different than the ones Hollywood would show
us in the movies. Imagine that. A modern-day example of
this would be the bullet-proof vest that military and law enforcement wear
every day. But in the days when Paul wrote Ephesians the Roman guard that was
probably guarding him as he wrote this was probably wearing something made out
of leather and metal.
It was made up of small metal plates that were tied together in a
similar fashion to the way roof tiles are placed on a roof. The armor was then
placed over the shoulders to protect both the front and back of the soldier. I
know you’ve heard that God’s armor doesn’t protect your back so don’t run away
but that’s probably not the kind of armor Paul was looking at for inspiration
here. The bottom of the armor was tied to the belt. On a Roman soldier’s armor,
the breastplate was custom made to fit that soldier. It was specifically
designed for him to protect him from attacks. This breastplate protected the
soldier’s heart and major organs from a potentially devastating wound by
protecting their area of weakness. Paul refers to this part of the armor as the
breastplate of righteousness.
Some of you may be thinking about now that all of this “putting
on the armor” stuff is a whole lot of work. All you want to do
is go to work and come home, minding your own business and here I am telling
you that you have to put on belts, breastplates, shoes, helmets,
etc. You’re thinking, “Do I really have to do all of that?” The
answer, actually, is no. You don’t have to do all of
that. You don’t have to do any of that. But the Bible says that the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion trying to kill you dead. It
says that he is the Accuser and that he stands before God constantly pointing
out your every flaw to God. In Job, Zechariah and Revelation it
shows Satan standing before God saying something like, “Have you seen
that Pastor Todd? How can you call him your child? He
never does this and he’s always doing that and just the other day I heard him
say such and such.”
And when he is not accusing you before God he is trying to steal
your joy, your peace and your witness, not to mention your very
life. 24/7, 365 he is constantly trying to do you in, one way or the
other. Do you really want to spend one minute without all your armor
on? As we will see, this breastplate of righteousness will protect your
very heart.
As we talk about righteousness I want us to see that there is more
than one kind of righteousness. There is self- righteousness, which
as we have seen is as good for protecting you against the accusations of Satan
as a filthy rag. But there is also imputed righteousness and imparted
righteousness. Seeing the difference in these is critical but
only if you want to stay alive spiritually and even physically.
I’m going to ask you a couple questions but don’t raise your hand. Just
think about it. Do you know anyone who you would describe as
self-righteous? Probably. There might even be some in
this church. Now, would you consider yourself to be
self-righteous? Probably not. It’s a rare person that can
consider his own life with such discernment that he can see his own self-
righteousness.
It has been said that self-righteousness is the only disease that
makes everyone sick except the person who has it. None of us wants
to see our own self-righteousness. I looked up the word in the
dictionary and it basically means to feel that you or your situation is better
than the average person. It was interesting that in the dictionary
the word “sententiousness” is used as a
synonym. I’m thinking if you use the word “sententiousness” it
may put you in the category of self-righteous. That’s just a
freebie.
What makes a person self-righteous? Is it what he does
or how much he does? Actually, it has everything to do with
motive. What is your motive for doing what you do? Motive
is the difference between a filthy rag and a breastplate. In Acts
chapter 5 we see the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They
had seen others bring gifts of money to the church and they wanted that
recognition so they sold a piece of property and turned the money over to the
apostles but kept some back for themselves which would have been fine but they
led the church to think they were giving all the money. In Acts chapter
5 verse 3, Peter says, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so
filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for
yourself some of the money you received for the land?” You know
what happens after that. Satan gets his wish as their witness and
their very lives are lost immediately thereafter. Did you catch that
part where Peter says that Satan has filled your
heart? Self-righteousness is no breastplate that protects the
heart. It is a bull’s-eye. Be aware of your
motive. It could make all the difference.
If you remember I said regarding Paul’s illustration of a
breastplate, that a breastplate would be usually made of 2
things: leather and metal. So too is our breastplate of righteousness
made up of 2 things. The original Greek word that Paul used here is
“dikaiosune” (dik-ah-yos-oo-nay) and it basically means to be right with God or
to be declared not guilty. It’s more than just not being able to prove it in a
court of law. The problem is, we are guilty but God has changed the verdict to
not guilty because the price for a guilty verdict has been paid and paid by His
Son, Jesus.
But that kind of righteousness includes the imputed
righteousness that God gives us through our belief in His Son Jesus
and it includes the imparted righteousness that is done
through us by Christ living in us.
When I start talking about imputed and imparted righteousness, it
may sound like I’m trying to be a little self-righteous myself since I don’t normally
use those words. At the very least it sounds sententious,
right? But hear me out because this is actually vital to our
understanding of this passage.
Let’s look at imputed righteousness first. When
a person puts his faith in Jesus Christ, we are given a status of being
righteous. This righteousness is God’s gift to us based on what Christ did for
us on the cross. If you look through a red piece of glass you will
see things all red. If you look through a blue piece of glass
everything will be blue. When God looks at us, He sees us, as
Christians, through Christ-colored lenses.
So, when Satan says to God, “Look at what she has
done. She can’t be your child!”, you know what
happens? I John 2:1 says we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. So, when Satan attacks our
character to the Great Judge, Jesus is our Lawyer and He says to the
Father, “That debt has been paid in full by
Me”. That is imputed righteousness. We don’t
deserve it. We didn’t earn it. All we can do is accept it
when we accept Jesus into our lives to save us and forgive us.
I have 3 verses to go along with our imputed
righteousness. "For as by one man’s (Adam) disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Jesus) shall many be made
righteous." (Romans 5:19) "For he hath made
him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21) "Even the
righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them
that believe: for there is no difference.” (Romans 3:22)
Imputed righteousness is one part of the breastplate
of righteousness. The other part is imparted righteousness. If
we are imputed with righteousness, then as a result Christ’ righteousness should
flow out of us in righteous living! Matthew 6:33 says, “But
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well.”
We all have good intentions, right? We all want good
things for ourselves. We want good things for other
people. We want to do good things. But you remember what
makes something self-righteous? Motive. What Matthew
6:33 is saying is that we need to go to God and say, “I can’t
do this. I want to do good but I’m afraid I’m going to make it about
me. I want your righteousness.” When we seek first
His righteousness all those good things will be given to you. Maybe
it is because God gives you what you want and maybe it happens when He changes
what you want.
Either way, when we allow God to work through us, He does it right
and He gets the glory and we get a blessing, maybe now, maybe
later. The temptation one may have is to say that since I have
imputed righteousness and no matter what Satan says Jesus has me covered that I
will just not do anything and it doesn’t matter if I sin.
It is very similar to when Paul says in Philippians 2:13 that
we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We don’t
do anything to deserve our salvation but once we are saved we let God work in
our lives to prove our salvation. It’s the same with His
righteousness. We don’t deserve His imputed righteousness but
because we are righteous in His eyes we allow Him to prove that through our
imparted righteousness.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a powerful Baptist preacher in
the late 1800’s. Blackmailers once sent him a letter saying that if
he did not place a certain amount of money at a certain place at a certain time
then they would publish some things in the newspaper that would defame and
embarrass him, ruining his ministry. Spurgeon left a note at the
certain place that said, “You and your like are requested to publish
all you know about me across the heavens.” He knew his character
was blameless before men and so they could not harm him.
Our heart is representative of our character, our drive, all our
wants and needs. When somebody says, “He put his heart into
it” or “He has a lot of heart”; “she wanted it with all
her heart” it says a lot about that person. It tells you
who they are and what their motives are. That’s why Paul tells us to
put on the breastplate of righteousness because it protects all of that. Matthew
5:6 says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness.” Have you ever been really hungry and
thirsty? Some of you right about now are thinking how good it will
be to eat pizza after church today because you didn’t eat much for breakfast. But
most of us have never really been hungry or thirsty. When you hear
about stories of people who are really hungry – maybe they are trapped in a
small boat at sea or trapped on a mountain with no food – they tell stories
about how hungry they were and how all they could think about was
food. They shared recipes and talked about their favorite foods and
what their mamas cooked best. There was rarely any other topic of
conversation.
That’s how the Bible says we are to be about
righteousness. We have imputed righteousness that comes as a gift
from God and imparted righteousness that flows out of us as a
result. So, everything we do should reflect those. Is this TV show
I’m about to watch going to reflect God’s imputed righteousness in me or
reflect the imparted righteousness coming out of me? Is this
relationship I’m in reflecting my righteousness or hindering it? Does
what I’m putting in my mouth or what is coming out of my
mouth reflect righteousness…or something much worse? Everything
we do should go through that filter.
Your favorite website, that joke you are about to tell, what you
are wearing and what you are saying should all reflect your hunger and thirst
for more and more righteousness, either imputed or imparted. We
should want righteousness with all our heart. Our imputed and
imparted righteousness protects who we are and even what we want to
be. Don’t put on just part of the armor. For your sake
and for the sake of furthering the Kingdom, put on all of God’s armor and
then…stand.
There is going to be a time, at the end of your life when it is
going to be too late. The decisions we make in this life are the
decisions that we are going to have to live with for eternity and the Bible is
clear that there really is a Heaven and there really is a Hell. I believe
there is going to be a lot of people who are mistaken about their eternities
and about other people’s eternities as well. Let’s make sure right
now that you know where you will go. We are not guaranteed another
breath.
Romans 3:23 says we are all sinners and Romans 6:23
says what we deserve for that sin is eternal death in Hell. That’s
the bad news. The Good News is that John 3:16 says that God
loves you so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross to pay the
price that we deserve to pay and all we have to do is believe. That
belief is more than just a head knowledge, though. It will show up
in our lives as change. Our lives WILL be changed.
When we ask God for forgiveness of our sins, we then repent – turn
away from – those sins. It doesn’t mean that our lives are perfect
or that everything is going to be easy from now on. Not at
all. It just means that we can have peace and even joy through those
difficult times because we know that God is in control and that He loves us and
is no longer our enemy but our friend! Ask Him to be Lord of your life
today. Do it right now as the music plays.
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