Child of God, don’t forget, when you read “The Armour of God; that is the same as saying “God IS your Armour”! The Armour of God is designed for the protection of your soul from the enemy of your soul! Your adversary is too strong for you to resist in your own strength, your strength to resist him must come from God! God MUST BE your Shield, your Buckler, your High Tower, your Refuge, and your Strength! The effectiveness of your resistance against your adversary is going to be according to your faith and obedience to Christ! The Armour of God is “spiritual armour”; designed for you to spiritually resist your spiritual adversary (The Devil) who wants to ruin your soul. Last week: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth” TRUTH: But not truth in and of itself, (not static, unused and unpracticed) but truth revealed, believed, obeyed, and practiced. Active/Operational Biblical Truth IS VERY important if you would “stand against the wiles of the devil”. But, truth does you no good in resisting your adversary, the devil, if you do nothing with it! Remember the Lord Jesus, who Masterfully used the truth of God’s Word against the wicked one when He was tempted for 40 days. The first line of defense against Satan’s attacks is TRUTH! From the girdle of truth; “And having on the breastplate of righteousness” The “breastplate” of a soldier’s armour covered the heart, lungs, and vital organs of the body. Breastplate, Greek – Thorax or chest and abdomen area of the body. But the breastplate of righteousness does you no good unless you (by faith) put it on! (Like the girdle of truth) Paul described the Armour of God in the imagery of a Roman Soldier, fully equipped with all of his armour on for battle. Consider the importance of the “breastplate”; a soldier might be injured in one of his legs or arms and fight on, but to be wounded in the heart or vital organs of the body would be fatal. Physically, the soldier’s heart and lungs and vital organs must be protected from the enemy’s fire! Child of God, make no mistake about it; Satan is going to fire at your heart (your soul), he wants you to lose heart; he wants your will to be turned back to him and the world; he wants to expunge the life of God from within you. He wants to draw back unto perdition; that is why the breastplate of righteousness is so important. Keep in mind that this piece of the armour IS righteousness; but what is this righteousness? 1st: Understand that your own righteousness is faulty/full of sin, not even on Satan’s radar. Adam, the first man created in the image and likeness of God, he possessed innocence/righteousness that was natural, but his righteousness was lost when he sinned against God. Now, every human is born “naturally sinful and completely unrighteous”. Romans 3:10-20, Romans 5:12, Psalm 14:1-3 2nd: I don’t believe this to be the imputed righteousness of Christ in the believer, even though we know that IF ANY righteousness/goodness comes forth from our lives (that God is pleased with) it is MOST certainly of God, and comes forth from us because of His imputed righteousness! AND, when we received the gift of righteousness from Christ at salvation, we did not PUT IT ON, God imputed it to us by faith. God put our sins on Christ’s account at the cross; and when we believed Christ, God’s put His righteousness on our account. God counts us righteous because of the work of Christ. Romans 3:21-26, 5:17-19 The Breastplate of Righteousness is NOT your own faulty righteousness and not your imputed righteousness received when you were saved. But let me qualify this: If you would “PUT ON” the breastplate of righteousness, you MUST first possess “Righteousness from God” in the salvation of your soul. THAT BEING SAID, I believe the “Righteousness of the Breastplate” to be “practical righteousness and holiness of life”! I would like to prove this by looking at Job:1-2. NOTE that God gave Satan permission to take all that Job had: His children were killed, Satan turned his wife against him, all of what he owned was stolen, taken, or lost; and God allowed Satan to afflict his body. NOTE ALSO that God took away His hedge of protection from Job. Understand that God NEVER LEFT JOB, but God DID allow Satan to fiercely attack Job’s faith, his integrity, and his righteousness. Satan’s challenge to God was that Job would curse God to His face, and that he would NOT retain his integrity. When God loosed Satan: Job endured some of Satan’s greatest artillery; BUT Job held his ground! YES, God was Job’s strength, his faith and his trust was in God, but STILL, Job held his ground and DID STAND in the evil day! Job 1:20-22, 2:7-10 You can see the frustration of Satan, even after God allowed him to attack Job? Job 2:3: God fired back at Satan: After all that you’ve done to him, and STILL, he holdeth fast HIS INTEGRITY, although you move me against Him, to destroy him without cause! That’s the breastplate of righteousness! In Christ, we are called to obedience to Word; the result is sanctification and holiness of life, “spiritual integrity” to hold your ground for Christ! The more we obey/submit to Christ and His Word, use it, and walk in it; THAT is what putting on the breastplate of righteousness IS! When we DO SO, we take away Satan’s shot at our hearts. Your heart is your life, your soul, your devotion to Christ, your will, your affections, and your desires. This is practical righteousness. You are to be a DOER of righteousness, and when you are, Satan cannot accuse you. 2 Corinthians 7:1, Romans 13:11-14, 1 John 2:29, 3:7, 10 Ephesians 4:22-5:2: Give Satan no shot at your heart! God is going to allow Satan to prove “the righteousness of your breastplate” and the metal of your resolve and devotion to Christ! Do you still “hold fast your integrity”? |
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