Amen. Right, so keep a finger in Proverbs 11. We're going to be returning there but turn
over to Ephesians chapter 6 please. So if you turn to Ephesians 6 but keep a finger in Proverbs
chapter 11 or maybe a bulletin or something. We're continuing our Sunday evening series called
The Whole Armour of God and we spent a long time last week in Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 which reads
from verse 10, so Ephesians 6 10 which says, finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and
in the power of his might put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil and we talked about how our enemy along with his army of devils uses wiles and
tricks, traps, snares or other words for that cunning strategies to make us fall but we want
to stand and we do that by putting on the whole armour of God. It's the power of his might that
we're only going to be able to stand in. Verse 12 says for we wrestle not against flesh and blood
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places and for me that's the big guns that we wrestle with,
the elite devils. The lower level ones are kind of down at the psychic fairs at the yoga classes
and all that sort of stuff aren't they? We've got the big bosses to deal with because the
real battle in this nation is for people's souls isn't it and look I appreciate that there is a
lot of propaganda out there okay and I'm not saying that there's no devilry behind that,
there's obviously a lot of wickedness in high ends of kind of influence in this nation as well but
look there's a real spiritual battle going on in our lives everyone here because we're on the front
line. If you're going out and you're preaching the gospel, you're going out and you're going
out in the highways and hedges, you're knocking on the doors, you're out preaching the gospel,
you're on the front line of the spiritual battle. You're actively getting people saved and there's
going to be sort of propaganda out there to try and poison the masses and pull them away from
even seeking the Lord but we're going out and we're knocking on doors, we're preaching the
gospel and that means that you're on the front line. He says in verse 13 wherefore take unto you
the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all
to stand and we need to do all to stand okay it's not just bits and pieces of the armour
because there'll be parts of this kind of list of armour which maybe you think yeah I've got that
bit all right well maybe I'll be able to stand no he said you need to you need to have done all you
need to take under you the whole armour of God having done all to stand it's not just the shiny
bits the coolest bits it's the whole armour of God said in verse 14 stand therefore having your
loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness and last week we
looked at the belt we looked at what we just shortened and simplified it to the belt we looked
at having basically being surrounded immersed in the truth okay and that comes from what we what
what we surround ourselves in that comes from obviously the word of God it comes from being in
the house of God you know today we're going to focus on the breastplate so the title of my
sermon today is the whole armour of God number two the breastplate let's pray father thank you
for your word thank you for well this not just this great chapter so many great chapters in the
word of God that help us with this topic here about what is that breastplate of righteousness
lord help me to to really edify the room here to encourage people to put on that breastplate to
keep it on lord help help me to explain what that is what it isn't lord help everyone to have
attentive ears from with your spirit please help me to preach accurately and boldly help me to
preach exactly what your word says lord help me to preach what you want me to to preach lord in
Jesus name for all of this amen what is a breastplate well it's a piece of armour that
protects your upper body you know so probably unsurprisingly to most of you it's usually
covering your front and back though although some apply it to just the piece covering the breast so
there's different sort of you know if you look if you look at just sort of what the breastplate is
some would apply it to this whole area covering everything and some will apply to literally the
plate over your your breast on both sides usually here as i said last week the soldiers and armor
that paul is using as a picture is is most likely the roman soldier okay this was sort of the common
soldier this is what you would have seen most of in all these occupied nations who had a few
different styles of armor over the years so there was a the lorica squamata and apologies if i
pronounce these wrong which was a sort of scale type armor okay so this was sort of it looked
like little scales little just overlapping bits um and this seemed to be a bit probably
i think more common later in the kind of roman empire you had the lorica hamata which was a
basically chain chainmail type of armor and i think most people probably know what i mean by
chainmail there's just lots of linked chains um and and for me though paul is picturing either
something called the lorica segmentata which um you know i think i'll explain it in a second
actually but or perhaps so between either the lorica segmentata or perhaps the classic bronze
or iron cuirasses worn by the officers you probably know what i mean the one is resembling a torso
so obviously in some of the movies you might have seen they've literally got like chiseled six packs
and stuff and i don't think they were probably as ridiculous as that but they were shaped to the
body and i think officers often wore these sorts of things as well so they were like a one piece
of metal um and they were made often of bronze or iron now these are both more fitting with the
word rest play as opposed to a shirt of chainmail or scale armor okay for me now this is what
wikipedia says about it i've looked at a few different articles i thought this was a good
summary it said not all all troops wore torso armor and by the way with this sort of thing remember
that a lot of this is is based on pictures engravings that they found things that have
been dug up over the time and that's what some of the names come from as well sometimes some of the
names of some of the bits and pieces they found have come from the area it's been dug up okay
so some of this is is quite sort of subjective as well and different people have different opinions
on what was worn in different periods based on the history that they're going to trust on this
okay and i've looked at a few things and and you know i'm no historian but this this for me is is
seems fairly accurate and um and obviously it's not not kind of a deal breaker on this sermon
either way but it says here not not all troops wore torso armor light infantry especially in
the early republic wore little or no armor this was both to allow swift of movement for light
troops but what do you think the real reason was and also as a matter of cost okay it was a matter
of cost sadly that a lot of people a lot of troops a lot of the the light troops didn't even have
armor really because it was cheaper for them not to and it doesn't really say much about the value
they had does it legionary soldiers of the first and second centuries used a variety of armor types
some wore male shirts while others wore scale armor or lorica segmentata also known as laminated
strip curious okay and this is what i'm talking about and basically this was kind of strips of
metal overlapping each other okay and it was usually again on the upper torso and you'd have
strips and and the angle of them would change as you went over the arm and shoulder and then they
go across waves on this part of your body um and this last type this lot this lorica segmentata
was a complete complex piece of armor which in certain circumstances provided superior protection
to the other types of roman armor male armor lorica hamata and scale armor lorica squamata
being the other types of main types the testing of modern replicas so people replicate there some
people are obsessed with this stuff okay they're like dress up as roman soldiers they go and meet
each other and have mock battles and stuff i suppose it could be worse but the testing of
modern replicas has demonstrated that this kind of armor was impenetrable to most direct hits and
missile strikes it sounds pretty good doesn't it it was however uncomfortable without padding
re-enactors have confirmed that wearing a padded undergarment known as a submarilis
relieves the wearer from bruising both from prolonged wear and from shock produced by weapon
blows against the armor so you can imagine just because you've got something that protects you
if it's a heavy bit of weapon hitting you you're going to get a bit of shock in the body from that
aren't you it was also expensive to produce and difficult to maintain so often this is what it
comes down to i remember like a lot of articles has grown up used to be interested in this stuff
with the military where they're just kind of they weren't even providing them with sort of
certain basic equipment really just for cost and it really does say doesn't it a lot about really
how little these people are valued yeah they can give it all the old poppies and you know proud of
the british troops and everything else but the people sending them out don't seem to have much
much real care and consideration for them do they um it says it was also expensive to produce and
difficult to maintain in the third century and obviously we're much earlier than the third
century a.d here the segment tartar appears to have been dropped and troops are depicted wearing
male armor mainly on scale the standard armor of the second century auxilia but we're concerned
with the first century and this lorica segment tartar sounded like some good armor didn't it
there was a part of it that specifically covered the breast but the whole thing sounds pretty good
to me for what we're talking about here so there was a part of that segment because it was in
segments which literally covered just the breast area it said the testing of modern replicas has
demonstrated that this kind of armor was in impenetrable to most direct hits and missile
strikes that's some good armor isn't it yeah if i if i was fighting in you know around the first
century a.d and i and i was involved with the roman army i'd probably quite like some lorica
segment tartar i hope everyone else would as well i'd opt for that above the the more mobile no
armor or or uh sorry cost efficient no armor um and you would think look if you had if you
had access to this you'd be mad to go into battle without it wouldn't you i think you'd probably be
pretty crazy if you had someone had look this lovely shiny bit of lorica segment art that you
could put on you wouldn't really choose not to would you i mean especially if i mean we're not
talking about movie warfare here we're just talking about you know not to be too graphic
we're talking about limbs and all sorts going just just it must have been pretty horrific right
okay and you probably want the best army you could get wouldn't you
and you know what we don't have we don't have a penny pinching boss did you know that you know
when you when you started getting involved with god's army and you said yeah i'm gonna get on the
front line i'm gonna start fighting for you lord you know he's not a penny pincher you know he's
not trying to give you the cheap stuff so well it's a bit bit dear for me that that breastplate
of righteousness no he wants you to have the best stuff okay and he offers us the best stuff
go back to proverbs 11 and our spiritual armor our breast plate is righteousness isn't it but but
there are two different types of righteousness that need explaining okay we need to kind of
cover this quickly there are two types of righteousness in the bible proverbs chapter
11 where we start in verse 4 says this proverbs 11 4 riches profit not in the day of wrath but
righteousness delivereth from death so there's a righteousness that delivers us for me from eternal
death but it's not our own righteousness okay your own righteousness isn't delivering you
from eternal hell turn of romans chapter 3 when it comes to delivering us from hell and we're going
to come back to proverbs 11 so sorry keep a finger there but turn to romans 3 when it comes
to delivering us from hell isiah 64 6 where you're turning to romans 3 says but we are all
as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags we all do fade as a leaf and
our iniquities like the wind have taken us away so our righteousnesses your own righteousnesses
are as filthy rags when it comes to salvation okay you ain't getting yourself saved your own
righteousness ain't getting you nowhere when it comes to saving you from hell romans 3 shows us
whose righteousness delivers us from eternal death romans 3 we can look from verse 20 romans 3 20
says well therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by
the law is a knowledge of sin but now the righteousness of god without the law is manifested
being witnessed by the law and the prophets 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 for all have
sinned and come sure to the glory of god being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in christ jesus whom god has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
his blood to declare his righteousness his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of god okay past here means ended by the way it's not talking
about oh your your old sins past is ended okay that the remission of sins that are ended verse
26 says to declare i say at this time his righteousness that he might be just an adjustifier
of him which believeth in jesus okay there's only one type of righteousness which is getting you
saved and that's jesus christ righteousness which is imputed unto you by faith in jesus christ in
case you're wondering by the way let's just go over to romans 4 while we're there which confirms
that it is all sins and it's the faith which makes us righteous in god's eyes because some will say
oh yeah yeah that was my past sins but now i've got to live a perfect life no one no one lives a
perfect life it's complete nonsense and there is no line to put on it all sins past present and
future are washed away by jesus christ's blood and all it takes is putting your faith in that
to be saved and we'll just look at quickly romans 4 from verse 1 which says what shall we say then
that abraham our father's as pertaining to the flesh is found for if abraham were justified by
works he has whereof to glory but not before god for what saith the scripture abraham believed god
and it that's a belief in god was counted unto him for righteousness now to him that
is a reward not reckoned of grace but of death but to him that worketh not okay this is someone
theoretically that worketh not that does nothing good at all doesn't follow the teachers of god
doesn't follow the commandments is some wicked sinner for all intensive purposes here but
believeth on him that just fought the ungodly who's actually christ his faith is counted for
righteousness okay it's none of this oh well you know if i've saved i wouldn't do this i wouldn't
do that no to him that worketh not does no good works of the law at all but believes on him that
justified the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness even as david also describeth the
blessedness of the man unto whom god imputed righteousness without works saying blessed are
they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man to whom the lord
will not impute sin ah you're just giving everyone a green card to go and sin and do what they want
no because i don't want to get whipped by god in life and it's a funny thing isn't it that when you
look around all these works salvation churches all these churches that are like oh you've got to do
this you've got to do that you've got to at least keep behaving oh you've got to you know oh i
wouldn't do this i wouldn't do that most of them aren't living at all righteously and and then and
look i'm not saying look everyone here everyone here sins okay everyone's a sinner okay all of sin
there's not a just man yeah that doeth good and sinneth not however however look i see a big
difference when i go when i used to especially go into some of these churches and try and find a
good church and so often there's so much wickedness going on yet these are people you knock on their
door and they're going to you oh no i'm going you know i'm such a good person what are you talking
about it's crazy is it so so the the wrong way around go back to psalm seven it's god's
righteousness imputed unto us by faith in christ that delivers from hell isn't it okay it's god's
righteousness and that's imputed unto us by faith in christ now in the bible there's this kind of
righteousness okay with the saved often being called the righteous and then there's also
righteousness that we should try to achieve okay now this is the second type of righteousness that
we should aspire towards in our daily lives yes we should aspire towards righteousness shouldn't we
we should try and be righteous but it ain't getting you to heaven and if you think it is
getting you to heaven then you don't have faith in jesus christ because it's one or the other isn't
it the second type obviously isn't getting you to heaven but it does make a big difference in your
short life here on earth okay so look yeah we preach grace through faith we preach the gospel
clearly that it's not of works there's any mansion both however if you're saved we preach hard in
this church that you need to live a righteous life right psalm seven and verse eight says it
psalm seven and verse eight says the lord shall judge the people judge me oh lord according to
my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me so the psalmist is asked to be
judged by god according to his own righteousness and integrity right and no one everyone can see
that there clearly right he says oh let the wickedness of the of the wicked come to an end
but establish the just for the righteous god trieth the hearts and rain so this isn't just
an exterior righteousness either is it he's talking about the hearts and the rains this
is like the inner feelings yeah my defenses of god which saveth the upright in heart now this
isn't salvation this is a protection that comes from being righteous being upright in heart the
context in verse one is being saved from persecution that's what we're talking about here
we're not talking about salvation verse 11 says god judgeth the righteous and god is angry with
the wicked every day god judges his people no we're not talking about the judge the great
white throne of judgment okay we're talking about a daily thing a daily judgment that comes from our
father in heaven who judges what he even judges the inward heart yeah he judges you but it's this
isn't talking about salvation okay this is talking about your daily walk with the lord
david wants his righteousness judged to then receive protection from god doesn't he
david being the psalmist here and and this is the kind of righteousness that acts as a breastplate
this is the type of righteousness that we're talking about in ephigians chapter six
and of course you need the eternal righteousness to start with okay but paul is talking to the
church of ephesus two believers okay that's who he's talking to when he's saying put on
that breastplate of righteousness ephesians 6 10 said finally my brethren my brethren okay
he's talking to brothers in christ and he's also talking to sisters in christ as well
be strong in the lord and in the power of his might and you're not brethren you're not in the
lord in the first place without being saved okay now just a quick i just want to do a quick um
just go slightly off topic for a second just while we're talking about brethren here and brothers
there's something i've been wanting to kind of mention with the church anyway so we're all
brothers and and sisters here okay if you're saved if you're a believer you're a brother and
sister in christ okay and some people and and for good reason will choose to call each other brother
and sister right okay however it's not a rule of the church okay and i want to get this really
clear because when we started this church there were people that hadn't been in a church like this
and then we had some wicked people as well that came into a church and kind of put this burden
on everyone well the first summer i ever preached had one of these guys come up to me and start
saying you better be careful you call everyone brother and sister because our pastor really
really you know he's really this is a former italian member of ours yeah and and telling us
that you've got to you know you better and i was like whoa and and our pastor doesn't care about
that okay and look you are welcome to call each other by each other's first names because then
there's like almost this fear where everyone like in every message in every way they talk to each
other it's like if i don't say brother i better say like you know brother something or brother
it's like it's not a rule yeah read the bible and you see paul talking constantly talking about
people as timothy as titus you know his tituchus is gaius mine host he doesn't go brother this
brother that look there's nothing wrong with that and and by the way i i i encourage it amongst my
children okay and i've heard preaching on this before and i think that's a good thing to encourage
that respect for each other there's nothing wrong if you want to call each other brother this and
sister that okay i'm not saying don't do that what i'm saying is because i've started if you've
noticed just making a point of not always doing it because it just became this kind of weird like
where no one couldn't and people comes into the church all you hear is like everyone like oh
brother this is that just like this is a bit weird this is a bit cultish we're not america here we
don't have independent baptist churches on every corner people aren't useless you're going to most
baptist churches in this country they they'll never call well they're not brothers and sisters
anyway most of them aren't saved they'll believe in work salvation point being if you want to call
each other brother sister great now there's a slight difference if you're talking to someone
who has an ordained position in the church there's an ordained title for them okay so what was funny
is we had this previous group of people that were so hot and the brother and sister everyone
apart from to me which was bizarre because that like when you're when you're talking to an
evangelist or a deacon yeah the title is brother and by the way it's not bro so then you had other
people who would come in and it was like they would just keep calling you bro and it's like
that's not the point the bro with a dot yeah it's just short for brother yeah like mr short for
miss mr dot it's short for me it's not like just call someone you know that would be rude wouldn't
it you know so we had this we had one of these guys here who were like this big point to everyone
and brother oh brother alex brother brother ian or mate uh can you it's like come on yeah look
i i'm not puffed up i don't really care however it's probably good habit for you to get into
i'm either brother ian or brother taverna because eventually i'm going to be past the taverna here
okay so it's probably a good good thing to get into and that's just that's you know it's getting
used to actually having a term for leadership and getting used to lead you but amongst each other
it's up to you yeah and if you want to encourage your kids to do that i think that's probably a
good idea yeah it shows some respect for adults if you want to call each other by their first name
sometimes it's kind of a maybe a bit less formal as well and it can be quite nice sometimes isn't
it you know and sometimes you might not look it's up to you but because someone did ask me because
then they're thinking oh is there a problem why and you know i'm not having a go at the person
they were like why you're not calling me that because it got to this point where everyone in
the church everything was brother sister brother sister and then it's like whoa hey look i don't
care what kind of weird cults do and everything else i'm not fussed okay and you go to other
church so people will call each other by their names as well especially if you see each other
every day or every you know every week so point being it's up to you okay there's no rule there's
no biblic we're about are we a bible believe in church or not and look we're bible believe in
church yeah yeah we're bible believe in church does the bible say you must call anyone that
that is a brother in christ by brother before their name no now some traditions of men are good
for example the bible doesn't say you have to call an evangelist brother the bible doesn't
actually say you have to call the leader of a church pastor but some of those traditions i
think are good things okay and we follow that as one of the rules in the church you can call that
a rule however with each other you know it's up to you what you want to call each other okay okay
let's keep going right so with that in mind because it became this burden doesn't it becomes
almost this chain about your neck and every message is like you know i better put a brother
it just becomes weird yeah okay so the breastplate of righteousness is the second type of
righteousness okay the righteousness that we can put on or put off you can't put on your
righteousness or sorry you can't put off your righteousness in christ can you once you put it
on it ain't coming off okay that that that eternal righteousness that's done when you put your faith
in jesus christ okay otherwise it's your works if you still have to do something to keep it
however this second type this breastplate of righteousness you can put it on and you can
put it off yeah he told you he told him to put it on now go back to proverbs 11
and verse 4 which we looked at which for me is talking about the first kind of righteousness
okay proverbs 11 4 which says riches profit not in the day of wrath okay what's the day of wrath
by the way well this is referring to the second coming of christ when riches profit not okay
he said but righteousness delivereth from death so it doesn't matter what you have okay it doesn't
matter if you've just rejected all those christians and that annoying you know soul winning anything
else to be able to buy and sell to take that mark you're not interested what that family member said
i need that mark i need my riches and everything else look those riches ain't going to profit you
nothing in a day of wrath okay none of that's going to profit you turn to zephaniah one and
again keep a finger there turn to zephaniah one the only thing that's delivering you is if you
put your faith in christ we just read riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness
deliver from death okay that for me is talking about the eternal salvation eternal death
zephaniah one okay returning to like i said the only thing that's delivering you is faith in
christ okay and and if you have your faith in christ you're not going to be taking any mark
are you to then be able to keep your riches or trade your riches or whatever it is zephaniah
one of verse 14 says the great day of the lord is near it is near and hasteth greatly even the
voice of the day of the lord the mighty man shall cry there bitterly this is zephaniah one
and we're on to verse 15 that day okay this is that great day of the lord that day is a day of
wrath it's a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of waste this and desolation a day
of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness a day of the trumpet and alarm
against the fenced cities and against the high towers and i will bring distress upon men that
they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the lord and their blood
shall be poured out as dust in their flesh as a dung neither their silver nor their gold shall
be able to deliver them in the day of the lord's wrath but the whole land shall be devoured by the
fire of his jealousy for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the
land that's the day of wrath okay the prophecy really being fulfilled in the coming end times
yeah and only faith in christ is delivering you that's the only thing delivering you faith in the
lord jesus christ but in the meantime we're in a spiritual battle and we may have to wait a while
yet for that full air support to come in okay look we're in the battle we're on the front line and
we've got to wait a while for the air support so we need to put on the breastplate of righteousness
to be able to stand strong okay you're on the front line you're in the battle he's not coming
just yet so in the middle he's not coming at any time okay okay look you need you need to have some
some armor on okay you gotta you gotta keep going you gotta survive you gotta stand strong
so what is it what is it then is righteousness just being good just being honest well good is
subjective isn't it and honesty is only a part of it turn to deuteronomy chapter six
how do we define righteousness well well you turn to deuteronomy six i'm going to read psalm 119
and verse 172 119 and verse 172 which says my tongue shall speak of thy word for all thy
commandments are righteousness all all thy commandments are righteousness the commandments
of god that's the righteousness but he said all thy commandments even those ones you don't like
very much yeah all thy commandments are righteousness deuteronomy six says and the
lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the lord our god for our good always
that he might preserve us alive as it is at this day and it shall be our righteousness
if we observe to do some no all these commandments before the lord our god as he have commanded us
and unlike the calvinists we believe that all means all fancy that however certain things are
done away with in the new testament as we know but but god's moral law isn't is it god's morals
haven't changed okay god's morality hasn't shifted with time i think i said this a few weeks ago it
wasn't like oh now god's seen enough you know stephen smilberg movies and harvey wine stein
and the rest of the wicked bunch that now he's kind of shifted his views a little bit on some
things and he realized he was a bit uptight before no no god doesn't change god god's god's morals
have changed have stayed the same from beginning to end yeah he changeth not okay so that hasn't
changed and it said all these statutes it said all these commandments that's why second timothy
316 that says all scripture is given by inspiration of god and is profitable for
doctrine for a proof for a correction for instruction in righteousness all scripture
is given and let's fast forward to the end of the verse for instruction in righteousness okay
that's where the righteousness comes from that's the righteousness we're talking about here we're
talking about the righteousness that you can put on and put off you want to put that breastplate
on or you need the instruction manual and by the way it's quite a big instruction manual
so the breastplate of righteousness has a big instruction manual on how to use it
and that's why let's think about last well two weeks ago so because i wasn't here last week
why you need to be immersed surrounded by it or you're going to forget how to work it look you
need to be immersed in the instruction manual because it's an in-depth instruction manual
okay you need to be immersed surrounded you need to make sure that it's just around you
that you're just in the word of god because it's a it's that's a big instruction manual isn't it
that's bigger than most instruction manuals out there let's probably say all of them right
that's why that's why you need that immersion okay or you're going to forget how to work it
okay loins girt about with truth that's what we talked about last week now i remember there was
an old advert sorry about this carnal example here of how the world tries to say it which was i think
it was forgive me here okay always always remember this yeah mr t a man with pride don't rely on no
guide okay now you've got to disagree with that really haven't you okay that might
stick in your head but pride isn't a good thing is it yeah pride is it that's the world's idea
a man with pride don't rely on no god yeah however i know it's a bad impression but if i had a mohawk
you might like you might think it was a bit better yeah okay however look look we're not the world
are we yeah we don't need we don't need guidance from mr t yeah we need guidance from the word of
god and a man without pride does rely on the guide yeah and we want to be a man without pride don't
we yeah rely on the guide and this is and and the thing is with this guide you know why it's so long
because this breastplate is a complex bit of equipment it is complex it's not just you know
well you just shove it on and then you kind of like the blows will just bounce off no it's got
some it's got some extra use to it it's got well go back to proverbs 11 now if you're thinking where
we ever going to go back there i've had my finger there for ages well go back to proverbs 11 where
we see that this this isn't just some basic piece of iron okay this isn't just a bit of metal
proverbs 11 and we're going to look at verse five now because now we're looking at this type of
righteousness the type you can put off and put on it says the righteousness of the perfect proverbs
11 and verse 5 the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way but the wicked shall fall
by his own wickedness so perfect here means complete and by the way you're not complete
without your full armor on are you could you be described as the perfect man or the perfect woman
that complete person if you didn't have all your armor on no okay part of that armor is
the righteousness once you've got it on that breastplate is also a navigation system did you
know that that's what it says here the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way it will guide
what sort of job you go for won't it there are certain jobs that if you if you've got the
breastplate of righteousness on if you're thinking how you should do and you're living righteously
and trying to there are a lot of jobs that i've gone through before that you just wouldn't be
able to take would you you just avoid would you stop would you start working in a nightclub with
your breastplate of rights is going to guide you into the nightclub all right so don't worry i'll
do some evangelizing in there it ain't doing no evangelizing in there people come out with this
rubbish yeah it you know and you can think of many different jobs it will guide you what sort
of church you could go for wouldn't it that breastplate of righteousness is going to navigate
you into the correct church not it's not going to navigate you into the church where it's like man
but the beep like we're talking about a couple of weeks ago but the drum beats just so cool it
doesn't matter that they preach that you've got to repent your sins at least it sounds good
or at least that church well you know they're short little sermonettes you get in and out
quickly it's only around the corner from house i can even still put on a sunday roast and get
back before it's burned you know the breastplate of righteousness isn't going to navigate you that
way what to do in your spare time what sort of hobbies are okay and what's not what sort of kind
of things that are okay and what and you know like i talked about before what you know because
there's the world's got its own idea and worldly christianity will tell you what is okay and what
isn't but it's the breastplate of righteousness which will really guide you won't it it will guide
you around the pitfalls yeah won't it it'll guide you anyone uh anyone ever use that i know a couple
people do that ways sat nav it's an advertisement for ways here yeah it's gonna be quite cool because
it actually tells you because people are and i think it's a bit dodgy because you're not really
meant to be pressing things it is it's still here and people are quickly pressing the sat nav and
stuff to kind of help guide other other users of it but basically it tells you when there's potholes
it tells you when there's like like broken down vehicles on the side of the road it's like broken
down vehicle 500 meters ahead and you're thinking my google maps doesn't tell me this and then it
will say is this still here and then people click it or click no and hopefully don't get arrested
and stuff for using the sat nav while they're driving but point being that it's an effective
sat nav because it warns you of the pitfalls and the breastplate of righteousness does that as well
doesn't it but again you've got to read the manual to make sure that you use it properly that you
work it properly it's all protection but when you take it off it's the opposite so it's not just oh
well i've got the breastplate of righteousness it'll help at this time when i take it off it's
kind of well we'll see what happens no actually it's the other way around it says in verse 6 here
the righteousness of the right upright shall deliver them will deliver you will protect you
but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness now the breastplate delivers you
it protects you but if you take it off you're you're automatically transgressing aren't you
so if you're not being righteous well you're transgressing and there's kind of no middle ground
there's no well i'm kind of just in between that you either have the armor on or you have it off
um it's protection from the breastplate or basically you're you're standing on the front
line with your top off going pick your target because really that's what you're doing if you're
trying to live for god you're trying to work for god you're on the front line you're trying to do
stuff for god and you take that breastplate off well you you you're kind of a bit of an easy
target and look with that when you go you know what sort of target you're talking about here look
people will attack you for anything they perceive anything they think any chink in there are any
chinks or in your armor that they think they can find they want to go for we're going to talk about
that in a minute how that works okay look you either have it on or you have it off
so we've seen the sort of righteousness that Paul's referring to okay we've seen that all
god's commandments are righteousness okay that's pretty clear there that it guides us that it
protects us that it's breastplate or nothing okay i think you know without it it's transgression
isn't it okay now before we go into more depth about the real breastplate of righteousness i
want i want to warn you about there's this cheap imitation armor out there okay you got to watch
okay you got to watch out for this stuff there's like this sort of like the kind of mass produced
sort of chinese stuff and no offense to any chinese people here just you know that's something
people can attest to it in my day it used to be like the Taiwanese used to be the really cheap
stuff you know and it would just break easy and snappy it was mass produced on the cheap sort of
stuff and and there is this stuff out there now to the untrained eye it can look legitimate and
some of this stuff looks good doesn't it you get some of this mass bolt produced stuff come in
and it looks apart you think that's no differences there yeah it looks good it's it's often that much
more comfortable to wear as well so you put on this sort of armor and look man it feels good
it feels probably don't even need that padding underneath the flesh loves it there is no need
for that undergarment okay your flesh is like this is comfy why on earth am i going to get
that breastplate of righteousness when i can get the imitation stuff but the problem is it's paper
thin does anyone know what i'm talking about here it's called the breastplate of self-righteousness
okay you got to watch out for this cheap imitation armor there the breastplate of self-righteousness
and the breastplate of self-righteousness is is basically when you're trying to promote your own
righteousness it oh it looks shiny oh it's for everyone to see that breastplate of self-righteousness
that'll catch the eye yeah everyone will go wow that stuff looks good yeah that person looks so
righteous but it it doesn't really have any reinforcement to it okay it doesn't really
protect you in fact it's the opposite and you've got to be careful that you're not reaching for
that because many people there's a tendency to reach for the self-righteousness to reach for the
breastplate of self-righteousness the holier than thou type behavior and look that's something that
look all people have to watch out for especially especially because look because there are so few
churches so few christians it seems out there just willing to live for god that are willing to
go out and preach the gospel that are willing to try and live by the word of god that it's easy to
get puffed up about it and it's easy to start promoting yourself as being more righteous than
you actually are that the look at my shiny armor but here's the thing the skilled adversary
knows that it's really just more like tinfoil okay and our adversary is skilled and he knows when
it's self-righteousness he knows when it's just for show he knows when it's just this sort of mock
righteousness and like i said it does look the part to the untrained eye turn a joke 29
it looks good it looks shiny for for many for newer christians or for people that don't have
an eye for this they're like wow that person's so righteous wow they just they must have just
slipped in that comment by mistake they must just it just they must just always be mentioning that
they never do this that they always do that that they would never do this all these little comments
time and time again that that that breastplate of self-righteousness can be deceiving okay but we
want the real breastplate of righteousness without the pride without the boasting without the puffed
up attitude now there are a few areas of righteousness that help ensure it's a proper
reinforced kind and and joe for me is a great example of someone with a breastplate of
righteousness okay joe one one you have to turn to joe one you're turning to joe 29
it says there was a man in the land of us whose name was joe and that man was perfect and upright
and one that feared god and eschewed evil he was complete he was upright he feared god and
avoided even though this was guy wasn't sinless okay there is no there is no sinless man the only
person who's ever been sinless was jesus christ but god said that there was none like him in the
earth okay so at this point this guy was perfect that means complete yeah for me he had the full
armor on he was upright he feared god he eschewed evil and in joe 29 he's sort of reminiscing about
how his life had been before it all came crashing down and he said this in verse 11 when the ear
heard me then it blessed me and when the eye saw me it gave witness to me because i delivered the
poor that cried and the fatherless and him that had none to help him so he helped the needy he
protected them this guy's just being honest here he's talking about how things were okay it's not
that he's puffed up here verse 13 says the blessing of him that was ready to perish came
upon me and i caused the widow's heart to sing for joy so he helped the widows too why
it says in verse 14 i put on righteousness and it clothed me my judgment was as a robe and a diadem
so he was clothed in righteousness yeah and in a way you can say like putting on the breastplate
righteousness i was eyes to the blind and feet was i to the lame i was a father to the poor
and the cause which i knew not i searched out so that righteousness involved helping people in need
and that's something that some people could kind of stay away from sometimes can't they but it's
people in need not people who are drug addicts and things that just want your money and don't
want to work yeah it's helping people in need now did that mean that he was weak did he just let
people walk all over him did it was he oh well i was i supply fixed them i was a father to the poor
and the cause which which which i knew not i searched out so i was basically was joe just
the world's version of what a christian should be who just kind of lets everyone walk all over him
just goes oh well you know i just love all false prophets i just look at verse 17 i love this verse
and i break the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth
he broke the jaws of the wicked and i don't know if anyone knows much about jaw break yeah that's
like a pretty that's a bad injury right you get your jaw broken firstly you're getting knocked
out with that and secondly you're in a bad way i mean you're going to be eating soup for a long
time people often need their jaws wired and things like it it's a really serious injury okay
he broke the jaws of the wicked and then he plucked the spoil out of their teeth
that's a pretty pretty interesting picture there isn't it and um well part of righteousness
involves righteous judgment doesn't it yeah part of what look if you're going to be righteous you
need to watch righteously judge don't you okay and there are some wicked people that need their
jaws making now obviously our our battle here isn't physical so in case anyone misinterprets
me here and says father ian's telling me we're gonna go out and break jaws no but we need to
break some spiritual chores don't we yeah we need to break some spiritual jaws we need to pluck that
food out of their teeth once we break them pluck that spoil out of their teeth you don't have to
turn it john 724 says judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment yeah we
are told to judge righteous judgment and joe judged righteous judgment didn't he because he
was clothed in righteousness because he had the breastplate of righteousness and sometimes the
spiritual jaws do need breaking don't they sometimes you know whether it's someone behind
a pulpit whether when it's out and you're preaching the gospel to someone and they just need
sometimes they they will eventually sometimes get their spiritual jaw broken you're just going to
crush whatever puffed up pride they had in their own works in their continued works in their past
works or something else and sometimes that he's saying sometimes really though here he's talking
about the real wicked isn't he he's talking about the wicked and for me often when it's talking
about the wicked we're talking about the worst types of people talk about the sons of belial
reprobates and he's talking about breaking their jaws and plucking out the spoil with their teeth
sometimes we break false prophets and we pull people out of the jaws of death don't we yeah
some people sometimes that's what we do we we break them and sometimes you know like we talked
about it's happened before obviously in this church of people inside the church where you
spiritually break their jaws and pull people out who are getting swallowed up by them and other
times it's people out there you're breaking the jaws of some wicked false prophet when you preach
the truth on them and you're pulling people out the people that want to listen right
and that's part of righteousness isn't it and righteousness look it's it's not just about
avoiding obvious sins okay and i think sometimes people get a bit confused like right the breast
plate of righteousness i've just got to kind of pick and choose sins that i know i can avoid and
make sure i avoid them and everything else it's a whole mentality okay righteousness putting on the
breastplate of righteousness is a mentality it helps us to judge situations to then make
the correct decisions and then avoid poor ones that lead us open to attack so if you have your
mentality right and you're putting on that breastplate of righteousness and you want to
you want to and you're trying to live righteously then you're going to avoid those situations avoid
those poor decisions which then lead you open to slander to attack you know the so-called christian
but won't even help someone out you know if you've got righteous on then you are going to
help people in need aren't you or you know or the opposite what a bad steward giving money to some
work-shy scrounger that's the opposite one isn't it so-called steward so so-called christian he's
giving money to drug addicts who literally the second you give it to them are just running off
for their local dealer oh but they were sitting on a street corner it's just so bizarre this this
worldly so-called latest you know for you know kind of popular charity isn't it of feeding
drug addicts and alcoholics drugs and alcohol because ultimately a lot of the time it's not
actually giving them any food or anything but our enemy is looking for anything to accuse us of okay
and i kind of hinted at this earlier okay you've got to understand this okay when you're on the
front line when you're living for god the enemy is looking for something to accuse you of okay
he's trying to find something it says in revelation 12 10 you don't have to turn there it says
revelation 12 10 and i heard a loud voice saying in heaven now has come salvation and strength in
the kingdom of our god and the power of his christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which
accused them before our god day and night and you know what he's accusing us of day and night
unrighteousness in one way or another that's what he's accusing you of day and night he's
like well he did this and she did that and he acted like this and she acted like that
his children and a lot i've experienced this yeah and in a fairly big way and you will have
all done to some degree or another his children the devil's children are probing for unrighteousness
they're probing you they're asking you questions they want to try and get something out of you
they're trying to entice you to to show some level of unrighteousness to then attack you with
to then sland you with to take a little half truth and turn it into a big dent turn it into
a big lie they'll do it through your family they'll try and probe your children for information and
stuff and and look the more you live for god the more everyone will be experiencing stuff like
that from time to time people want to find stuff on you they want to probe they want to find stuff
they want to try and get stuff to then try and destroy you with unrighteousness that's what he's
doing he's accusing you day and night and his and and his devils are doing the same so go back to
job 27 we're going to sin okay that's inevitable ecclesiastes 7 20 says for there's not a just man
upon earth that doeth good and sin if not okay there's there isn't however where's your heart
where's your heart are you planning to sin are you are you are you like job who said this in
job 27 and verse 1 it says moreover job continued his parable and said as god liveth who taketh away
my judgment and the almighty who have vexed my soul all the while my breath is in me and the
spirit of god is in my nostrils my lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit okay
he said my lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit where's job perfect no
was job sinless no but he wasn't plotting and planning when it's okay to lie
he wasn't plotting and planning when it's okay to be a bit deceptive well is that okay because you
know at least i could get away with this he wasn't plotting and planning when it's okay to sin when
he can sin when other people maybe from church aren't going to know about it when maybe the kids
ain't going to notice when maybe whoever it is yeah that's not what he was doing he was saying
my lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit he said in verse five god forbid that
i should justify you till i die i will not remove mine integrity from me i love that verse yeah
that's such a strong verse isn't it what a motto imagine if everyone in this room everyone here
everyone in this church had that motto and just said till i die i will not remove my integrity
from me what a great way of living that would be wouldn't it not oh until i die i'll kind of well
i'll only remove it when i when it kind of you know when i need to when no one's looking when
no one's watching i'll only remove it when i think i can get away with it how about how about till i
die i will not remove my integrity from me that'd be a great way of living wouldn't it that should
be that's the way that we should all be planning to live he said my righteousness i hold fast that
means he clings hold he keeps that breastplate on him like this it's not coming off and will not let
it go okay will he let it go sometimes maybe he does maybe he did now and again but he's saying i
will not yeah his goal his aim he's he's saying i'm going to cling hold of it i will not let it go
my heart shall not reproach me so long as i live so he's holding onto that breastplate like his
life depends on it and by the way that was what was left of his life and if anyone knows the story
of joe he didn't really have much of a life he literally just had all his children killed
his everything he had gone he was sitting in sackcloth and ashes covered head to toe in boils
with his friends trying to tell him it must be your fault his wife said curse god and die
and he's sitting there going i will not remove my integrity from me i cling hold of my righteousness
and that's a great example isn't it
and what is it well it's look what comes out of his mouth honesty integrity
that all seemed to be a big part of righteousness didn't it
what what comes out of your mouth is it is what's coming out of your mouth righteousness or is it
what a little lie here just a little bit of deceit there little excuse there to get me out of that
little white lie here and there that's not the breastplate of righteousness is it he said till
i die i will not remove mine integrity from me said my lips shall not speak wickedness nor my
tongue utter deceit and that if everyone just had that goal if everyone went away from this sermon
going right breastplate of righteousness yeah i know some some of this stuff's going to be hard
i know that look i need to immerse myself more than a word of god i don't even know what god
thinks i should do in this situation or that situation but i tell you what i won't lie though
i won't utter deceit i won't i won't try and manipulate people i won't try and sneak around
i won't try and do deceptive little things to people in certain situations i will not
i will not my lips will not speak guile my lips are not going to utter deceit i'm not going to lie
i'm going to live right i'm going to live how god wants me to live i'm going to do my best to live
like that what what difference that can make to everyone's life yeah and that and and you know
what you have to live like that if you're going to live for god you're going to work for god you're
going to fight for god you're going to be on the front line you have a target on you and you need
that breastplate on you need a cling holder you need to keep it tight to you provost 12 17 says
he that speaketh truth showeth forth righteousness but a false witness to see he that speaketh truth
showeth forth righteousness but a false witness deceit and by the way notice how it's his heart
that he's protecting verse 6 says my righteousness i hold fast this is in job 27 and will not let it
go my heart shall not reproach me so long as i live all right you see that breastplate there
can't you he's holding hold of that righteousness he doesn't want his heart to approach you you
think about it's almost like he's he's kind of stopping his heart betraying him his heart
basically deceiving him his heart being the problem and that comes from keeping that
breastplate keeping that righteousness keeping that integrity keeping that honesty
turn to proverbs chapter 4
where's righteousness the commandments the words the sayings it's all in you it's all in your king
james bible it's all there the righteousness is there proverbs 4 20 says this it says
proverbs 4 20 my son attend to my words incline thine ears unto my sayings let them not depart
from thine eyes keep them in the midst of thine heart for they are life unto those that find them
and health to all their flesh keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life
how do you keep your heart or try putting a breastplate over here
hold fast to your righteousness don't let it go and make that your goal look you're gonna you're
gonna make mistakes you're gonna sin down again but you just keep it tight you keep it whole
you hold fast to it you say no i'm not what comes out of my mouth is important and sometimes look
looks the truth is yeah depending on different people have different things they struggle with
there'll be things that come out of your mouth and maybe it'll be like a prideful thing maybe
some people are just inclined to maybe lie to excuse something or maybe to get out something
you know you can't you can't stop and just go no sorry that was wrong
sorry that that actually no that you can stop you can stop you know if you're trying to live right
you're living by the word you're reading the word of god you're trying to cling hold of it
you know when you're when you're messing up don't you when you're immersed in it when you're
surrounded by it you know and you can correct and the more you correct the more you make things
right the more you just got that righteousness wrapped around you and the less attack you're
going to get and the less open you're going to be to that time he said here he said put away
this is verse 24 put away from the afro-ward mouth and perverse lips put far from thee
let look he wouldn't tell you to do that if you couldn't do it you can do it let thine eyes look
right on and let thine eyelids look straight before thee ponder the path of thy feet and let
all thy ways be established turn not to the right hand nor to the left remove thy foot from evil
you say i'm trying brother ian yeah but how hard are you trying people go oh i'm trying but are
you really trying are you really just pleading with god and saying please just i just want to
live right i just want to live out no matter what lie will be done lord i just want to live how you
want not well in this instance i wanted but maybe not in this part of my life maybe not in this
situation this is a bit awkward this bit's a bit embarrassing this bit will be a bit uncomfortable
around the my buddies at work this bit well i don't know because you know my family will take
offense to that bit how about you say look lord i want to live here saying i'm you know i'm going
to put away from me afro-ward mouth perverse lips my eyes are going to look right on my eyelids are
going to look straight before me i'm going to ponder the path of my feet and and i want all
my ways to be established i'm not going to turn to the right hand or to the left i'm going to
remove my foot from evil he said till i die i will not remove my integrity from me are you holding
that breastplate fast and not letting it go matthew five six don't know you don't understand
that says blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be
filled now obviously like there's there's an eternal sort of whatever you want to call that
fulfilling of that verse yeah but do you hunger and thirst after righteousness or do you hunger
and thirst after whatever sin it is that you kind of that you have a little penchant for is it that
you hunger and thirst after certain parts of it but other parts don't know do we just hunger and
thirst after righteousness and when you do that you have it he's given it to you he wants you to
put it on okay for some though for some it can be a bit of an inconvenience kind of that breastplate
can chafe a little bit sometimes it can be a bit uncomfortable at certain times in our life
it can be a bit of a heavy burden especially when it's at that iron that iron uh cuirass they call
it sometimes it doesn't go with your evening outfit does it you know sometimes it goes with
your daytime outfit it doesn't quite go with your evening outfit let's sadly evenings are
a lot of the time when people battle hardest against those easy sins those sins which
the sin which does so easily beset us yeah and so many it's evenings are the hard time isn't it
and you've got to have it on the whole time truth is you you got to go to bed in it you got to sleep
in it and sometimes it will be a bit uncomfortable sometimes it is gonna it's gonna be a bit
restrictive sometimes it's not gonna always feel the best but you know what's funny about it is
with all that you know it does do that that iron cuirass that you cling to it does make you have
a really good night's sleep you know that you can be wrapped up in some iron breastplate and you can
sleep sander than than anyone else you know and it's a funny little anomaly about it with that
but you've got to want it you've got to you've got to want it turn to some 106 you've got to eat
drink and sleep in your armour okay this battle is real okay and and look we're not part-time
soldiers you're not sunday sunday soldiers hey you know they got the old ta yeah anyone heard of the
territorial army yeah and they used to get mocked by like the the full-time army like part-time
soldiers and all this stuff yeah like part-time what they call them part-time warriors and things
like this yeah well you're not a part-time warrior here okay you're full-time it's not just sunday
it's not just wednesday evenings it's not just when you're soul winning it's not just when you're
around other christians okay it's it's full time it's full time psalm 106 and verse 3 says blessed
are they that keep judgment and he that doeth righteousness sometimes a bit of the time no at
all times blessed are they that keep judgment and he that doeth righteousness at all times and and
look for the breastplate of righteous to cling to it to have it to have it around you to have
it just holding tight you've got to want that at all times you've got that has to be your goal
that has to be your mentality the breastplate of righteous it's not a list of rules and i think so
many people get this part wrong they're just like right i've got to you know just read more and do
this but the whole time they're trying to almost puff themselves up and build themselves up no
it's a mentality what's your mentality is your mentality to try and live right to live for god
or is it to put yourself above someone else is it to you know to try and prove something to
someone else is it to to to just show people when you're in front of them or is it look god i want
to i want to live for you i want to live how you want me to live that it's a mentality and and part
of that is integrity isn't it and that's a big part of it um the breastplate of righteousness
that was part number two of the whole armour of god we've had loins go out about which we
had the belt and now we've had the breastplate and um on that we're going to pray
father thank you for your word and thank you for your well your armour lord the the armour that you
you freely give us the armour that that you know we have to choose to put on but you make it clear
what that armour is lord and um i thank you that you make it clear what that righteousness is that
it comes from the word of god that it comes from all your commandments but you know to be able to
do that to be able to do that effectively well we need to get our mentalities right lord we need to
to want to serve you need to want to be right we need to want to have that armour on we need to want
to have it on for the right reasons lord not to lord it over others but so that we can just just
defend ourselves to be able to then serve you more effectively we know that people want to bring us
down we know that that you know we we you know we wrestle against principalities and powers we
wrestle against the rulers of the darkness of this world spiritual wickedness in high places lord we
we know that it's a hard spiritual battle but you give us what we need to be able to stand and having
done all to stand please help us to do that lord help us to do that this week um going going into
the week you know in our place of work you know in our home life in our family life lord and help us
to to also get out there and continue to battle for you whether whether that's our you know our
set soul winning time to at least make it back here on a wednesday evening lord to to worship
and praise you and get built up to to just be sent out and preach your gospel help everyone here with
all their individual problems lord and help everyone to to just just try and be more like
you lord and help us get home safely help us get back here for another day in your house
on wednesday or if not sunday just known for all this