Open your Bibles with me to the
sixth chapter of the gospel of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter
six, verse 14 will be my text. In this passage of scripture,
the Apostle Paul is showing us how to make use of the armor
of God that God has so graciously provided for us and given to
us as believers in the Lord Jesus. He's issued a rousing call to
battle. He gives us reasons to have courage
as we face the foes before whom we must do battle continually.
And though foes have been identified by him, speaking plainly of principalities
and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places, the foes of the
world, the flesh, and the devil. And we have been assured of victory
in Jesus Christ the Lord. Victory is certain for all who
are gods. Christ shall prevail over all
his enemies, and we shall prevail with him, in him, and by him. For greater is he that is in
you than he that is in the world. And we've been given our marching
orders. Wherefore, take heed unto you, or take unto you the
whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all, to stand. Then in verse 14, God
the Holy Ghost tells us exactly how we must stand. Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness. Stand. in the confidence and
courage of God-given faith in Christ, having taken the field,
rely on the strength of the Almighty, having your loins girt about
with truth. There we're set in array against
the very gates of hell as the servants of Christ Jesus the
Lord, and all of his being his servants are soldiers under his
banner. The next word of instruction
is our text. Stand having on the breastplate of righteousness. I want to talk to you as God
will enable me about the breastplate of righteousness as the apostle
speaks of it here in Ephesians 6.14. The breastplate was for
the ancient Roman soldier, a vital piece of armor. It extended from
the base of the neck to the upper part of his thighs, covering
all the vital organs of his body. He could be wounded in arm or
wounded in leg and take many wounds and no vital injury be
done. But the breastplate covers him
from the base of his neck to the upper part of his thigh. And so you can see how vital
that piece of armor is. It's not at all strange that
Paul should use a soldier's breastplate to represent the righteousness
of Christ. The righteousness of Christ is
a breastplate to cover our souls, to protect our hearts. Like the
girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness is essential. And these two pieces of armor
in the ancient armies of Rome were joined together on the soldiers.
The girdle buckled to the breastplate. They must be together to get
protection to the soldier. The girdle buckled to the breastplate
gave the man both the agility and strength of battle and gave
him protection for battle. Truth is a girdle, a girdle for
our loins, a girdle of truth to hold us in place, to give
us strength and courage as we go to battle and to protect us.
The girdle of truth gives us freedom to carry on the warfare
committed to our hands. There's very little danger of
men and women being overtaken with error who are girt about
with truth, It's the responsibility of every pastor to instruct God's
people in the gospel of Christ, in the doctrine of Christ, in
the truth of God. We don't need to chase all the
errors that men bring up. Those things are not worth the
bother. But if you understand truth,
if God writes truth on your heart, errors easily identified. Brother
Henry Mahan used to often illustrate this fact by calling attention
to the fact that when men and women are trained to spot counterfeit
money, they don't spend their time looking at the counterfeit.
They're trained to identify true money by looking at the true
issue. And when they know the true issue,
they can immediately spot the error. God's people are to be
instructed in truth. And if you know the truth, you
spot error in a hurry. You're not likely to be turned
aside by error. By all means, our hearts must
be established with real, solid, substantial gospel truth. But
that's not enough. We must also have the breastplate
of righteousness. The righteousness of Christ is
our security, the security of our souls and the rule of our
lives. This is what it is to have on
the breastplate of righteousness. He is truly a holy man. who has the righteousness of
Christ imputed to him in free justification and infused in
him in the marvelous work of God's grace in sanctification,
in regeneration, in the new birth. The Lord God Almighty accounts
the righteousness of Christ ours in free justification. In the
new birth, he gives us the righteous nature of Christ, so that that
which is born of God is righteous, even as he is righteous. The
believers were called Christians at Antioch, first we're told
in Acts 11.26, because they were men and women who lived like
Christ. Believers, Christians, are men
and women who, having the nature of Christ imparted to them in
the new birth, live in this world as the disciples of Christ, the
followers of Christ. I had a man in my office recently,
a young man who was conducting campus ministry, and I asked
him what he was doing. He said, we're discipling folks.
Of course, what he meant by that is we presume they're Christians,
so we're teaching them how to act like it. Most every church
has discipleship classes. You make a profession of faith,
and then if you get real serious, we'll teach you how to act like
a disciple. No, no, no. Believers are disciples. Believers
are followers of Christ. There are many women who are
made in the image of God in the new birth by Christ being put
in us. We all know that God's people
are righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ is made
of God unto us righteous. Righteous both judicially and
righteous in the blessed experience of grace, having that holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord, which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory. Yet this righteousness is something
that Paul tells us we must put on. It is something to be pursued
by us. We are here called by the Spirit
of God, having on the breastplate of righteousness, to put it on
as we put on the whole armor of God. The righteousness of
Christ is the believer's breastplate, that by which we are guarded
by God from the assaults of Satan, secured from all wrath and condemnation,
and given confidence and courage and boldness as we walk with
God in this world. Let me remind you that when Paul
admonishes us to put on the whole armor of God, he's simply telling
us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ in his person, in his
offices, in his work, is the entire armor of God. In these
verses here in Ephesians 6, Paul uses various pieces of armor,
which were common to folks in his day as they saw Roman soldiers
walking around them or saw them going into the field of battle.
These things are spiritual representations of the different branches of
Christ's work for us as our Redeemer. The girdle of truth is the revelation
of Christ, our prophet, who teaches us. The breastplate of righteousness
is the righteousness of Christ, our representative. The gospel
of peace is the good news of Christ, our high priest. The
shield of faith is the gift of Christ, our ascended Lord. The
heaven of salvation is the deliverance of Christ, our mighty Savior.
And the sword of the Spirit is the word of God given to us by
Christ, our mediator. Let me approach my message tonight
in three points. And the bulk of my time I'll
spend deliberately on the first and most important part. First,
this question must be answered. What is represented by the Spirit
of God here when he speaks of the breastplate of righteousness? What exactly is he talking about? Can we look in the scripture
and find exactly what this breastplate of righteousness is? Now remember,
this is an allegory. That is, Paul wants us to grasp
the spiritual significance of his words. A mere mechanical
interpretation of scripture is always wrong. Please understand
that. A mere mechanical interpretation
of scripture is always wrong. But don't we believe the Bible
is literally true? Of course we do. But words are
not always intended to be taken in the literal sense in which
they're given. Let me give you an example. Turn
back to a passage that Brother Red Force, back in Psalm 98. Brother Bobby Estes read it for
us just a little bit ago. I want you to look at it. Psalm
98. People get a word and they get
a concordance or a dictionary and they say, this is what the
word means. It must mean this all the way through the scripture.
Look at Psalm 98. This one is almost at the point
of absurdity, but let's look at it. The psalmist says in verse
seven, let the sea roar. and the fullness thereof, the
world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands."
Do what? Which floods have hands? And
how do they clap? It's obviously a figure of speech. And when the Apostle Paul speaks
here of a breastplate of righteousness, he doesn't intend for us to just
understand the figure of a piece of armory. He's talking about
something very specific. Be sure you understand this.
Paul is not here talking about moral integrity or legal righteousness
of any kind. Moral integrity is something
certainly to be maintained by all means. And it's perfectly
right for men and women, when falsely accused, to defend their
uprightness. Samuel, you'll recall, was looked
upon by some men as assuming things to himself. He said, which
of you can point to a calf or a lamb or an ass that I took
from you? I didn't take anything from you. Job, when he was accused
by his friends, maintained his integrity and his uprightness,
and rightly so. If a man's accused of a crime
in the court of law, it's perfectly right for him to defend himself
as being right in his actions. There's nothing wrong with that.
But this righteousness, which is our breastplate, is not our
moral integrity. It is not in any way a legal
form of righteousness. Sadly, the New English Bible
translates this word righteousness, integrity, but that's no breastplate
for any man. Paul's not talking about that
or righteousness by the obedience to the law of Moses. Those things
simply cannot repel Satan's fiery darts. Those things religious
infidels call personal righteousness and personal holiness. can't
resist the accusations of a guilty conscience. They can't resist
the whispers of despondency. They can do nothing to turn away
the power of temptation, much less the severity of God's law
or the assaults of Satan. Legal righteousness is that which
God requires of a man by the law. legal righteousness, perfect
righteousness with God. Now I keep stressing this because
this is the issue at which most people go horribly astray. They
think we must have the righteousness of Christ and that's how we're
justified, but you know it just stands for reason. We've got
to do good and our righteousness will give us peace as we walk
with God. If you look to your righteousness for peace, you're
deceiving yourself. If you think you can find some
measure of peace in something good in you or done by you, you're
deceiving yourself. If you look at something good
done by you as an evidence of grace and of life and faith,
you're deceiving yourself. You've never done anything good
enough in any way to be a representation of God and godliness, and neither
have I. Listen to the scriptures. Moses
described that the righteousness, which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. Now, this
is what that means. If you would attain righteousness,
any kind of righteousness, by your obedience to God's law,
if you would make yourself righteous, these things are necessary. Number
one, you must render to God an absolute, flawless, perfect obedience
to the whole of His law, the whole of it, in word, in deed,
and in thought. Any breach of God's law in thought,
word, or deed is a complete violation of the law. Listen to the scriptures.
It is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. Not only
must your obedience to the law be perfect, it must be perfectly
performed by you personally, so that you yourself live flawlessly
before God. and it must be perpetual. That
is, it must be perfect obedience from birth to the grave, with
never any violation, for one breach of the law is damning.
But the book of God declares and declares plainly, by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified. Turn back to Galatians for a
moment, Galatians chapter two, Galatians two, verse 16. Now this is a serious matter.
When Peter was at Antioch, he caused a horrible dissimulation.
When some Jews came up, Peter saw him coming, and he'd been
sitting down to a barbecue dinner, good ribs and pork chops, and
he thought, I better get up from here. Those fellows will think
I'm evil, because they might see me eating this pork. And
so he just got up and walked away from the table. All he did
was walk away from his Gentile brethren. And Paul said, Peter,
by your actions, you've denied the gospel. And he rebuked him
to his face. Now look what it says here in
Galatians 2.16. We know that a man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's
not by our faith in Christ. Your faith in Christ does not
justify you. God does not accept your faith,
but rather by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, we're justified
and we receive that justification by God-given faith. Even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the
faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the
works of the law shall no flesh be justified. No man living can
be accepted of God on the grounds of legal obedience, because everything
we do is tainted and corrupted by sin. All are under sin. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. We try to behave uprightly. We train our children to behave
uprightly. But don't ever, don't ever, don't
ever, don't ever imagine that outward behavior is righteousness. Don't ever imagine that outward
conduct is righteousness or holiness. It is not. Everything we do in
our most noble, most aspiring, most spiritual activity is marred
and corrupted by the sin of our nature, corrupted by what we
are by nature. Most self-righteous Pharisee
is nothing but a mass of sin. The most boastful Gentile is
nothing but a mass of corruption. Our politicians and preachers
and religious folks like to brag on folks and make them feel good. as God will enable me every time
I stand before a congregation like this to knock out from under
you every possible prop on which you might lean and force you
to trust the Son of God alone. You and I have no righteousness
and can do no righteousness by nature. In fact, the prophet
says, speaking for the whole church of God, our righteousnesses
are but filthy rags. Loathsome, dirty, stinking mistress
cloth, that's the word. Just filthy rags. But Brother
Don, that offends me. You ought to be offended by you.
You ought to be offended by what you are. Just filthy rags. That's our righteousness. Even
David, the man after God's own heart, made this statement to
the Lord. He said, Enter not into judgment
with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be
justified. Well, you make the law useless.
Oh, no, no. The law of God was never intended
to be a means of grace. The law of God was never intended
to be a rule of life. The law of God was never intended
for that purpose at all. The law of God was designed and
intended of God to expose our sin. to graciously force us to
Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and designed by God with its
threats of judgment to restrain the evil that's in man. Imagine
what this society would be if every man thought he could do
exactly what he aspires to do in any heat of passion with no
consequence. The righteousness Paul calls
our breastplate is the righteousness of Christ. It is that righteousness
to which no man by nature can or will submit. It is that righteousness
that all men by nature constantly reject. Being ignorant of God's
righteousness, every man, like the Jews Paul describes in Romans
10, go about to establish their own righteousness. And they have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God, for
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. He accomplished and brought in
everlasting righteousness for us while he walked on this earth.
He died to satisfy the law and justice of God in our stead,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And everywhere
in scripture, the gospel doctrine is described as the gospel doctrine
of substitution. Christ did this in our room,
in our stead, as our representative and as one with us, so that we,
in union with him, have obeyed God and satisfied His justice
by His sacrifice. Turn back to the book of Isaiah.
There are many, many places we could go. Turn back to Isaiah
53. Let's read one more time this
description of our Savior's obedience as our substitute. Isaiah 53. Having fulfilled all righteousness
for us, our Lord Jesus bear our sin in his own body on the tree
and suffered the wrath of God, effectually redeeming us with
his blood. Look at verse four. Surely he
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and deflicted. until God was pleased to give
us faith in Christ, we had no esteem for Him at all. We gave no consideration to Him
so that we looked upon Him as a man put to death like any other
for crimes He had done. Oh, most wouldn't say it. We
might not form the words, but we looked upon Him as one justly
slain. but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth, He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord. It satisfied God's holiness,
righteousness, justice, and truth to bruise him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Now the Apostle Paul
in 2 Corinthians 5.21 translates it this way, speaking specifically
of Isaiah 53.10. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no
sin. A friend just told me last week
about some preacher spent three days, and he listened to the
sermons. I didn't. He said, you ought
to hear that. I said, I don't listen to garbage. But this preacher
spent three days trying to tell folks in 2 Corinthians 5, 21,
when it says he was made sin, meant he was made a sin offering.
It means exactly the opposite. When it says he was made a sin
offering in the prophets, it means he was made sin for us. God could not, in justice, punish
his son for sin, except he be made sin. When he made sin for
us, this is the result. He shall see his sin. He shall
prolong his days, that he's gonna rise from the dead, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. And here it is. He
shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge, the knowledge
of this crucified, risen, accepted, ascended Redeemer, shall my righteous
servant justify many, because for he shall bear their iniquities. The substitutionary work of Christ
is so perfect that God made his son to be our sin. and made us
to be Christ's righteousness. Oh, glorious gospel! God made
his Son to be everything that I am, and God makes me to be
everything that his Son, as my God-man mediator, is. Is he the righteousness of God?
So am I. Is he holiness? So am I. Is he accepted? So am I. Is he safe? So am I. He made him to be sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And then in the
new birth, he comes by his almighty grace and forms a new man in
us, a new man that's called righteousness, that which is born of God, a
new man that's called Christ in you, the hope of glory, a
new man which is that holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. The Puritan William Gurnall rightly describes this
righteousness that's imparted to us in the new birth as a supernatural
principle of life, planted in the heart of every child of God
by the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit. This is what
God promised in the covenant back in Ezekiel 36. He said,
a new heart and a new spirit will I give you. And giving you
this new heart and new spirit, I'll call you to walk in my statutes
and keep my judgments and do them. This principle of life
is what's given us when Paul said, we're his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. This is that seed
John describes, that new man that's born of God and cannot
sin. In the new birth, righteousness
becomes the principle by which the believer's life is constantly
governed. I turn back to Isaiah again,
this time look at chapter 59. Isaiah 59, I want you to see
this. This breastplate of righteousness,
the righteousness by which we stand accepted before God. Are
you listening to me? Is the very righteousness by
which the God-man mediator, our Lord Jesus, stands accepted before
God. Our Lord Jesus is accepted as
our God-man mediator, as Jehovah's righteous servant, because of
his perfect righteousness. That righteousness, Mark Daniel,
in which you stand now, is that righteousness in which Christ
stands now. That righteousness, babiestis,
that makes you accepted with God now is the righteousness
that makes Christ accepted with God now. Let's see if I can make
good on it. Isaiah 59 verse 16. He saw that there was no man
and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm
brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness it sustained
him. For he, watch this, put on righteousness
as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head. And
he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with
the zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly,
he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. To
the islands, he will repay recompense. So they shall fear the name of
the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the
sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of
the Lord shall lift up a standard against him, and the Redeemer
shall come to Zion. And unto them that turn from
transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord, as for me, this is
my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My Spirit that is upon
thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart
out of thy mouth. nor out of the mouth of thy seed,
nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord from henceforth
and forever." In chapter 11 of Isaiah, the prophet says, righteousness
shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of
his reins. Now why? Here's the second thing.
Why is righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, compared to a breastplate? Let me give you just three points
of similarity. First, the breastplate was designed
to preserve the life of the soldier. And Christ's righteousness is
designed by God to preserve God's saints saving us from the Adam
fall and preserving us in Christ to everlasting glory. His righteousness
preserves us from Satan's fury. Satan cannot touch one made righteous
by Christ. His righteousness preserves us
from divine judgment. And the breastplate, secondly,
was prepared for the soldier long before he put it on. And
this righteousness was formed and molded by God in his eternal
counsels long before we put it on. It was made for God's elect
at Calvary, and it was put on us by his spirit in the new birth.
And third, the breastplate gave the soldier confidence, boldness
to stand in the heat of battle. The breastplate gave the soldier
confidence, boldness to stand in the heat of the battle. Well,
Brother Don, you misrepresent that. How can a breastplate give
a man confidence and boldness and courage? Put him out there
without any. The man standing in the heat
of the battle with the armor of God upon him, with the heaven
of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and the girdle
of truth is assured that nothing will touch him that's vital to
his life. Now, tell me what I need to fear.
Christ is mine. Let us therefore be confident,
courageous, bold in the calls of God, bold before God's enemies
and ours. The wise men said, the wicked
flee when no man pursueth. See it a lot. The wicked flee
when no man pursueth, but the righteous The righteous are as
bold as a lion. The righteous are as bold as
a lion. Now, our text speaks of us having
owned the breastplate of righteousness. But it also here speaks of us
putting it on as part of the whole armor of God. How can that
be? You cannot put it on until you
have it on. Until God robes you in the righteousness
of Christ, you will never put him on by faith. But having been
clothed in his righteousness, believers are admonished again
and again and again to put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. That
is, we are admonished day by day, hour by hour, moment by
moment, while we make our pilgrimage through this world to put on
Christ. Paul gives us a description of
this in Philippians chapter three. If you want to look at it, very
familiar passage of scripture. Philippians chapter three, verse
eight. He said in verse seven, what
things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Verse
eight, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may
win Christ and be found in him. Well, wasn't he already Christ?
Didn't he already have Christ? Yes, but he wanted Christ more
than anything. Wasn't he already in here? Yes,
but he wanted to be found in him more than anything. Not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, that righteousness that Christ
is, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know
him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death. Well, how do we put him on? How
do we put him on? We renounce self-righteousness
continually. It raises up its ugly head. No matter where you cut the serpent's
head off, it'll grow 12 more immediately. And we must forever
be renouncing all personal worth and righteousness every time
you think yourself good. Every time you're inclined to
be proud of something you've done, push it down, cut that
head off, and ask God to cause you to lean on Christ the Lord,
your righteousness. Jehovah said, can you? Stand
therefore, having on the breastplate of righteousness. What's that
mean? Live by faith in Jesus Christ,
taking your position always as Joshua is portrayed for us in
Zechariah 3, before the Lord, who comes and takes away your
filthy garments and puts clean garments on you. Oh, how good to be freshly washed
in the Savior's blood, freshly robed in his righteousness. Jerome
once described Christians this way. He said, they lived as men
in whose veins the blood of Christ was still warm. Oh God, give me grace so to live
in this world. Last Saturday morning, after
the services, Brother Chris Cunningham stood in the pulpit down there
and said, I almost feel like I've been saved all over today.
Oh, how good, how good. Put on his righteousness. Bathe your soul in his precious
blood day by day. Moment by moment, hour by hour,
God teach me so to put on Christ. And soon, soon, we will stand before the bar
of God. And bold shall I stand in that
great day, for who ought to my charge shall lay while through
thy blood absolved I am from sin's tremendous guilt and blame. Jesus Christ is made of God unto
you righteousness. Put him on as the breastplate
of righteousness and stand until God comes to take you to glory.
Amen.