Christian Resources, Part 1: Truth and Righteousness

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Christian Resources, Part 1Truth and
Righteousness

• Ephesians 613-14

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Christian Resources Introduction

• war
• Our Scripture text before us today has a focus on
  some kind of war.
• It is a cosmic spiritual battle.
• It is a deeply personal struggle that takes place
  in the heart and mind of everyone who believes in
  Jesus Christ.
• Eph.612 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.

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Christian Resources Introduction

• One of the reasons Paul was a mature, victorious
  Christian was that he was aware of this ongoing
  cosmic spiritual struggle.
• Paul wrote this letter from a Roman prison.
• The sight of a military guard sitting chained
  next to him probably kindled Pauls imagination.
• A Roman soldiers armor became a tool for Paul to
  teach about our Christian faith.
• One of the reasons the early church had many
  military personnel in it was that people like
  Paul evangelized them.

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Christian Resources Introduction

• While being a captive, Paul himself had a captive
  audiencethe guards.
• Perhaps Paul was the first military chaplain!
• So he uses the idea of military gear worn by
  Roman soldiers as a tool to help us move toward
  Christian maturity.
• In Eph.613-17 Paul lists six items of battle
  clothing belt, breastplate, sandals, shield,
  helmet, and sword.
• This list of Christian resources is so important
  that in my next few sermons I am only going to
  deal with them two at a time.

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Christian Resources Introduction

• Today, we will look at the first two of these
  items in Pauls list the belt and the
  breastplate.
• R. Kent Hughes, Ephesians The Mystery of the
  Body of Christ (1990)
• John Stott, The Message of Ephesians (originally
  Gods New Society) (1986)

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1) Belt of Truth

• Eph. 614 Stand firm then, with the belt of
  truth buckled around your waist...
• The soldiers belt held everything together.
• Truth holds things together for Christians.
• 1.1) Knowing the truth
• the truth of Scripture
• Eph421 the truth that is in Jesus
• In the Bible and in Jesus, we find objective
  truth about God and about ourselves, about our
  sin and Gods salvation in Jesus, about history
  and about the future.

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1) Belt of Truth

• When we buckle ourselves up tightly to the truth
  of Scripture and Jesus, we avail ourselves of one
  of the primary resources we need for spiritual
  victory and maturity.
• 1.2) Living out the truth
• But this truth is not just head knowledge.
• It is also truthful character that leads us along
  the path toward spiritual victory.
• Christian truth becomes the framework for their
  lives.

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1) Belt of Truth

• 1.2) Truth (or lack of it) in our world
• Our world downplays the value of truth.
• In our culture words lose all all meaning or,
  they are manipulated to obscure meaning.
• Thus taxes become revenue assessment
  enhancements sexual perversion becomes gay
  murder of unborn children becomes freedom of
  choice. In the Nazi era, the final solution
  meant killing the Jews.
• These all seem like good words, and everyone just
  nods unquestionably.

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1) Belt of Truth

• But when words lose their meaning, it is nearly
  impossible for the Word of God to be received.
  If sin and repentance mean nothing, then Gods
  grace is irrelevant. Our preaching falls on deaf
  ears. (Charles Colson, Who Speaks for God?)
• When words are manipulated so as to obscure the
  truth as taught in Scriptures, then our
  discernment about truth weakens.
• We allow our values to be determined by the
  society, media, and culture around us, rather
  than letting the truth of Scripture shape our
  thinking.

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1) Belt of Truth

• This devaluation of objective truth in our
  postmodern world tends to make us spiritually
  impotent.
• By contrast, Christians who closely bind
  themselves to Scripture become spiritually strong
  and stable.
• 1Tim118-19 ...fight the good fight, holding on
  to faith and a good conscience.
• This clear conscience comes from knowing and then
  living out Gods truth.
• A person of integrity, someone with a clear
  conscience before God, can face the enemy without
  fear.

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2) Breastplate of Righteousness

• Eph. 614 Stand firm then... with the
  breastplate of righteousness in place...
• The purpose of the breastplate was to protect the
  vital organs of the soldier, especially the
  heart.
• The breastplate is used by Paul to describe the
  righteousness we are given by God when we believe
  in Jesus Christ.
• Isa.646 All of us have become like one who is
  unclean, and all our righteous acts are like
  filthy rags...

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2) Breastplate of Righteousness

• Phil.37-9 (7) But whatever was to my profit I
  now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
• (8) What is more, I consider everything a loss
  compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing
  Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost
  all things.
• I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
  (9) and be found in him, not having a
  righteousness of my own that comes from the law,
  but that which is through faith in Christ the
  righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

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2) Breastplate of Righteousness

• The reason that all Pauls righteous acts
  amounted to a pile of rubbish was that all those
  good things he did were useless in attaining
  salvation.
• Eph.28-9 For it is by grace you have been
  saved, through faith and this not from
  yourselves, it is the gift of God not by
  works, so that no one can boast.
• The soldier was given armor to wear.
• The breastplate was not something he could put on
  by himself.

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2) Breastplate of Righteousness

• Similarly, the righteousness we receive from God
  is not ours. It is Gods.
• Jesus Christ puts his righteousness on us when we
  believe in him.
• Once we have put on this righteousness that is
  not originally ours, it increasingly becomes a
  part of us so that we begin to display a new
  righteous character and lifestyle.

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2) Breastplate of Righteousness

• 2 Cor. 521 God (the Father) made him (God the
  SonJesus Christ) who had no sin to be sin for
  us, so that in him we might become the
  righteousness of God.
• The righteousness of God guards our hearts.
• The Evil One can no longer accuse us because God
  has forgiven our sin in Jesus and has given us
  his very own righteousness.

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Application

• Truth and righteousness are two of the resources
  God gives us to lead us toward Christian
  maturity.
• Gods truth is the framework in which we live our
  faith.
• Once we objectively know about the truth we begin
  to live out that truth in our lives.
• Gods righteousness we have in Jesus is not our
  own.
• We grow into it as we display to others our
  righteous lifestyle.

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Application

• Regarding truth...
• Do you show that you value the truth of
  Scripture?
• Do you make the Bible an important part of your
  personal life?
• Is the teaching of the Bible the criterion by
  which you determine what is right and wrong in
  life?

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Application

• Regarding righteousness...
• Do you have the righteousness of God?
• Have you recognized that your own good works
  cannot contribute to your salvation?
• Does your lifestyle and your values reflect the
  righteousness of God?
• The righteous life of a believer is not only
  protected from the attacks of the Devil.
• The righteous life can also be powerfully used by
  God to bring glory to himself.

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Christian Resources, Part 1Truth and
Righteousness

• May we learn to live out the truth and
  righteousness of God in our lives in Tokyo this
  week.