Joe Aldrich in his book Unsolved Miracles shares about a village in the mountains of Iran where a number of new believers heard that they could find out more about Jesus if they could get the book Christians called the Bible. One night, a man had a dream that if he went down to the highway, some men would come by who would be able to give him a Bible. The next day, he gathered a little offering of money from among the believers in the village, and made his way down the mountainside to the highway. He sat on a rock and began to wait. Two hours later, two men in a car who had just picked up a shipment of Bibles across the border were driving along the same highway of the man who was sitting on the rock when all of a sudden the steering on their car suddenly locked up. They couldn't move it more than an inch. They finally nudged the steering wheel just enough to get the car over to the side of the road. They got out and put up the hood to figure out what was wrong. A man sitting on a nearby rock called out to them and asked, "Are you the men with the Bibles?"
Stunned that this man should know, they said, "Well, yes, we do have Bibles." The old man gave them all the money he had collected, bought as many Bibles as he could, and made his way back to the village. The men with the Bibles then went back to determine what was wrong with their car but they could find nothing wrong. They shrugged their shoulders, got in, and drove away. That’s a crazy story, isn’t it? Around this place we believe in the supernatural. Just out of curiosity how many of you have had a prayer answered or had a miracle happen in your life or in the life of someone you know.
There are invisible forces at work all around us that are good and that are evil. The Bible says we are in the midst of a spiritual war. We have an enemy, the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. He wants to steal, kill and destroy you so everyday we must put on the full armor of God found in Ephesians 6.
Last week we looked at the first piece of that armor. We looked at the belt of truth. Ephesians 6:14 says,
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.”
A Roman soldier had a belt that was wrapped around his waist. All of his armor was hooked on that belt. His belt was critical. It held the soldier's breastplate in place and his sword. When a Roman soldier went into battle he would tuck his robe into his belt so he could move around freely. If his belt fell off or if it wasn’t properly attached to the other armor he would have no chance of survival on the battlefield.
In the same way we must be people who are honest, people who are promise keepers and when we don’t live like that our belt gets loose and we end up with our pants down.
Now we are going to look at the next piece of armor that we are to put on every day.
Breastplate of Righteousness
"We are to stand firm with the belt of truth and then he says with the breastplate of righteousness in place," Ephesians 6:14
The breastplate in the soldier’s armor covered his heart, his lungs, almost all of his vital organs. If the breastplate wasn’t put on properly then one blow could end the soldier’s life.
Now you are probably wondering what in the world does “righteousness” mean? The word righteousness means “to be made right with God”. To be in right standing with God.
According to the Bible to get to heaven a person must be perfect. We wish that wasn’t the case.
That sounds right to us but it doesn't sound right to God. And he sets the standard. And the standard is high.
Jesus said, "You must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" Matthew 5:48.
This is not good news because if you are like me, you sin all the time. We hurt others, we hurt ourselves. I can’t even go a single hour without sinning.
Now here is what is so amazing. We have been made righteous “made right” before God not because of anything we have done but because of what Jesus did for us when he died for our sins on the cross. There is nothing we can do to earn it, Jesus gives it to us freely.
We were spiritually broke with no way to pay our sin debt to God so Jesus took our empty bank account and he deposited his holiness into our account. The Bible says in,
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
When we asked Jesus to come into our life not only did he forgive us for all the rebellious things we have done but he also clothed us with His holiness so when God looks at us he doesn’t see our sin but God sees the sacrifice Jesus made.
I want you to think of your life like this cup of water. Every day we make choices that are not honoring God. We sin. Some are big and some are small but all in all those sins affect our standing with God. So when God looked at our life before Jesus it was marked by sin. We could never be perfect or clean enough to get into the standard of heaven because the standard is perfection. But like we said the great news is God didn't leave us that way. But He sent His Son Jesus to live a perfect pure life on this earth and then die on the cross for our sins. When Jesus did that he took on the cost of every single one of our sins. So now when we put our faith in Jesus and ask God forgiveness of our sins, Jesus comes in and wipes our slate clean. Now when God looks at your life as a follower of Jesus he doesn’t see all your messy sin, he sees perfection. He sees righteousness, not because you got your life together and figured everything out but because of what Jesus has done in your life.
The Bible says in Revelation 12 that Satan is our accuser. He looks at our life and accuses us. “Look at what you did. How in the world can you call yourself a Christian? You’re not worthy of a relationship with Jesus.” But God says you are.
We stand before God holy and clean not because of anything we have done but because of what Jesus did for us.
Revelation 3:5 says, “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.“
In heaven, followers of Jesus are dressed in white because the blood of Jesus has washed away our sins. Look at how the elders in heaven are dressed.
“Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.” Revelation 4:4
“They are dressed in white. Look at what the angels are wearing. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.” Revelation 19:14
All are dressed in white because we have been made right in the sight of God. Now you would think that of all the people worthy to wear white robe Jesus would be at the top of the list. Jesus is obviously dressed in white right? Not according to the Bible.
“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.” Revelation 19:11-13
His robe is dipped in blood? Why? It is because he took our sin upon himself and changed places with us. We had no hope and because of the precious blood of Jesus we have been made holy. How ridiculous!
There will be times that we will blow it, that’s why we confess our sins to God and then what do we do? We keep going. We need to pray everyday, “Lord, thank you that you have already made me righteous, right before you, so help me today to live up to what I already am.”
The next piece of armor is the:
Shoes of the gospel of peace
A Roman Soldier wore sandals that had cleats coming out of the bottom of them. This gave him the ability to be sure footed regardless of the terrain that he found himself on.
One of the things that Satan will try to do is he will try to take the peace of God away from you.
Satan will whisper in your ear that:
God doesn’t care about you, that God doesn’t love you because if he did he would have spared you of the pain that all of us will have in this life.
But again that just isn’t true. Jesus never told us that he would spare us any pain. In fact Jesus warned us that in this life we would have trouble. Not we could have trouble or we might have trouble but we will have trouble but he tells us to take heart because he has overcome the trouble.
Sometimes God will allow us to go through something that is hard and difficult and you will feel like you are facing an uphill battle. And he does that not to hurt us but to develop us into the person that he needs us to be.
All throughout the Bible we read about people who trusted God in the midst of their suffering.
Sometimes a soldier would find himself in a battle and it was an uphill fight. That is when you dig in your cleats and you keep your eyes on Jesus and you keep fighting knowing that you are not fighting through this alone. God is by your side and we are by your side. What Satan intended for evil God can turn it around into good.
When you find yourself in an uphill battle ask God to give you his peace. And never forget that no matter what you face. No matter what you go through, remember that Jesus has overcome it all. We won in the end. Because of Jesus we are going to heaven, a place where there is no more death, no more sorrow, no more sickness, and no more goodbyes.
Stand firm. When the answer to the “why’s” of life aren’t coming, don't focus on what you don’t know, focus on what you do. What do we know about God?
Screenshot these and remember this when you find yourself in an uphill battle.
©2024 Sagebrush Church
