Episode 68: Breast plate of Righteousness

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit forever. Amen.

Glory be to the everlasting mercies which sent you to us, O

Christ, the Light of the world and the life of all.

Give us wisdom by your law and enlighten our impulses by your

knowledge. Sanctify our souls by your

truth, and grant that we may be obedient to your words and may

fulfill your commandments at every hour.

O you who enlightens the rationale with the knowledge of

your greatness, do enlight, O my Lord, our thoughts that we may

meditate upon your holy and divine scriptures at all times.

O Lord of all, In this episode we will continue

our discussions on Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 to 18,

Ephesians 6:10–18

which we commenced last episode. Concerning and concentrating on

the armor of God, we are instructed, encouraged, urged by

Saint Paul to put on in their entirety to avoid giving Satan

the foothold and why we read in verse 13 so that we may be able

to meet, confront the evil one, that is when he acts on attempts

to sneak in and being in all respects prepared so that we're

prepared and we may stay, stand firm.

Last episode we focused on girding our loins with the truth

and that is empire empowering ourselves with a true faith and

doctrine. Teachings creeds as far as the

faith is concerned. It is the belief, the obedience,

the life in the one God, the Father of Truth, of whom all

fatherhood in heaven and earth is named.

As we pray in the liturgy of the Holy Qurbana, believe the

obedient and a life in the one everlasting sun, by whose hands

all things were created. Believe, obedience, and life in

the one Spirit of holiness, or the Holy Spirit who sanctifies

all and as far as the teachings and the doctrines are concerned.

Believing and being obedient and having a life in the One Holy

Apostolic Catholic denoting universal complete Church to

whom God promised through His Holy Prophets, hope and life to

all humanity through her that is His Holy Church and only through

her. And that promise of God was

fulfilled, and has been fulfilled through His Beloved

Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, belief, obedience, and life in

the Church and for the salvation of mankind.

He told her that is His holy Church, that her doors.

Now this is a prayer that we pray during the sacrament of

baptism. God told her His holy Church,

that her doors will be open forever, day and night, and

won't be closed, that kings may come to her brilliance, and the

nations may bring forth their sons and daughters to worship at

His footstool. For in her that is His Holy

Church, That is the sacraments of the priesthood, the Church's

priesthood, the faith, the doctrine, the theology, the

liturgy, the sacraments, the traditions.

And only in her in them is her God and all of His provisions

and gracious gifts. This the armor of truth, true

faith in one God and his Son, our beloved Lord Jesus Christ

and His Holy Spirit and His Holy Church.

But wait, there's more grace upon grace, or grace for grace,

Jesus instructs in John chapter one, verse six.

We're then told that we must also gird ourselves or put on

ourselves, put upon ourselves, and to wear the breastplate of

righteousness. Now by righteousness, writes the

Blessed Theophilac. And he comments that by

righteousness the apostle means the virtuous way of life and its

entirety. You know, we speak about these

things, we mention these virtues, good deeds, manners,

ethics. But the world is so distant, you

know, some people may say, well, you know, we know that, yeah, we

need to live a modest life. We need to live a virtuous life.

But, you know, we are so far away from that virtuous life

that God has called us to. So the the blessed Theophila

goes on and says by righteous the apostle means the virtuous

way of life in its entirety. He is telling us in so many

words to embrace and accomplish every righteous deed.

Because we spoke about faith, now we're talking about the

deeds. Just as a breastplate protects a

soldier from deadly wounds, so does righteousness and all other

virtues protect the Christian from evil or every evil.

And hence St. Paul instructs and urges us.

You put on the breastplate of righteousness, put on

righteousness. Very Simply put, righteousness.

If you're asking what is righteousness?

Righteousness is not justification.

Righteousness is being right with God in the eyes of God

according to the measures of God.

Let's give some examples. In Romans chapter 12, verse 2,

Romans 12:2

Saint Paul instructs that we are not to be likened or fashioned

onto this world or do not conform to the patterns of this

world. This is when when I read from

the the version in the English version is the translated from

the Shukla, the Aramaic language.

We are not to be likened or fashioned onto this world, but

be changed by the renewing of your minds that you may discern

what is the will of God, good and acceptable and perfect.

We're using this as an example. Now let's go backwards with this

verse. To be right, to be righteous, to

be deemed righteous by all the measures of God which is one of

the armours of God. To deter Satan form taking a

foothold, we need to discern what is the will of God first.

And if we read verse one of Romans chapter 12, Paul is

Romans 12 · chapter mention

urging us. He's begging us.

I beg you therefore my brethren, by the mercies of God, that you

present your body's living sacrifices holy and acceptable

to God by a logical service. So our bodies being offered as a

holy and pleasing sacrifice to God, acceptable to God, we are

made righteous. That means we've put on the

breastplate, the breastplate of righteousness.

How? That we do not conform or be

likened or fashioned onto this world, but the changing and

renewing of our minds. We need to change our mindset,

beloved. We need to change our outlook on

life. We need to look at life through

the eyes of Jesus Christ. We need to have a mindset on

life, just as Christ mindset. When they came to make him king,

he walked away when they were waiting for a earthly Kingdom

and authority and government, he said.

This is not me. This is not the I'm come for

that the earth is mine. The heavens and the earth

proclaim my glory. I don't need to claim that it's

mine. I'm here to put your minds and

to take your focus of the earthly and put it on the

heavenly, the Israel that is above the new Jerusalem, the

Israel which is the Church of Jesus Christ, the new Jerusalem

which is the Kingdom of heaven. Now let's clarify, Beloved, When

Saint Paul, as a side note, is instructing us to offer our

bodies as a sacrifice, he's not promoting suicide because some

people take the scriptures literally.

You know, some people, when they read that Jesus says unless you

become like children, they go and sit and play in the dirt,

oh, you know, adults. And they think that they need to

start buying match matchbox cars.

Is that what they call and start, you know, booming on the

table and whatever? No, no, that's literal.

What Jesus, what Saint Pauli's telling us is not promoting

suicide. No, but he wants us to think of

how we can offer the body, how we conduct the body, how we, how

we present our bodies in life. That is contrary to the world.

That means I sacrifice what the world claims to be good and

righteous. I don't want that.

I'm sacrificing all of that comfort.

Maybe sometimes, you know, a little bit of temptation.

No, no, no, I don't want that. We're going to give some

examples. I want to sacrifice this body

for God to look at me and say, wow, how beautiful, how adorned,

how precious. And not for the world to give me

wolf whistles. No, no, I don't want that.

Not for the world to call me. Hey, Spunky, hey, you look hot.

No, no, no. I want the Lord to look, look at

me and look upon me in my misery.

That is by the way, but out of His grace and love and mercy and

out of His kindness to look at me and say I am pleased with

that, I am pleased with you. And then obviously you know and

and by the way to to so that we don't take these verses as

literal and you know, promoting suicide.

He says, he adds living sacrifice, so we continue to

live. So suicide is not a way of

sacrifice, just a side note. And then to distinguish that

sacrifice from the sacrifice of the law of the flesh and the

Judaic sacrifice, Paul calls it acceptable to God, meaning that

really there is only one sacrifice, that God was pleased.

God the Father was pleased, and through it he atoned, and

through it he forgave, and through it he reconciled with

man was the sacrifice of his son Al or Jesus Christ.

We don't need to commit suicide. We don't need to crucify

ourselves. We don't need to shed blood.

We don't need to shed the blood of animals.

No, we don't need to do that. It's in vain now.

It has no purpose whatsoever because Christ has done that for

you and I. But what God wants is that

living sacrifice, that sacrifice of obedience, of love, true,

genuine love. You love the Lord, my dear

brother, You love the Lord. You need to please the Lord in

every aspect of life, every aspect, your work, your

marriage, your relationship, when you know you're going in

and coming out. You need to please the Lord with

every aspect of your life. My dear sister, you love the

Lord. Loving the Lord doesn't mean

during Good Friday you post a a, a verse from the scriptures and

and you know with a smart a a tearful face and Jesus died for

me. Of course we know Jesus died for

us. We yes.

I mean how we reflect that that appreciation, that that love,

that obedience, that Jesus died for me, how I express my

appreciation is how I conduct, conduct myself in life, not only

that one day on a Good Friday or the Sunday of the resurrection

or the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

And how is it that the body is to become a sacrifice?

Let's give some examples. And this is how we become

righteous. This is how God claims us,

declares us righteous. Meaning made right.

OK, one more time. Meaning made, right.

You know when you're when you type a document in Word?

And then you have the indentations, right?

You have the the centered indentation, The left.

You're making it right. You want, you wanna you wanna

center it? Make it right.

OK, so we are to be made right, to be indented.

You want to call by God according to how we live and how

how we conduct ourselves. Matthew, chapter 18, verse 9,

Matthew 18:9

some very amazing examples. And you know, again, taken

literally, it's very dangerous. It's it's metaphoric.

But there's a a, a, a great emphasis and a message in there

if your eye, which is the body of your, your a part of your

body. Actually it's a precious part of

the body. If your eye causes you to send

gouge it out, right, Cut it out, one of the fathers writes.

Let the eye look upon no evil thing, and it has become a

sacrifice. Always spoken about this every

now and then. You may be saying, lovely harps

on the same thing. Yeah, because we're not doing

it. Because we hear it.

But we don't do it. We preach it, but we don't live

it. We preach it, but we don't

practice it. We agree to it, but we don't

claim it righteously. If your eye causes you to sin,

what causes you to sin? Your eye?

That means what goes into your eye, what your eye is perceiving

and seeing and has been exposed to.

Cut that out. Cut it out.

Because if you want to be righteous in the eye of God,

this is the breast of the the breastplate of righteousness.

Cut out what is causing you to sin.

If it's your eye, cut out what your eye is seeing.

Now as I said, it's a precious part of the body.

So one of the fathers, I'm sure is Saint John Chrysostom also

comments and says it's not just what you see, what you perceive,

but those beloved friends, family, friends and relatives.

If people are causing you to sin, cut them out.

Now it does not mean that you have no relationship.

You just don't talk to these people.

They're your enemies. No, no, no, have no association.

That's what Saint Paul writes in his epistles.

What relation is there between light and darkness?

You know, when you when sometimes you, you, you know

lack of a better term, you neglect people and you, you sort

of walk away from people that are causing you to sin.

It causes them to start thinking as well.

Well, what happened? Why are you so cold?

Why are you so withdrawn? What's wrong?

And you say, well, you know what, I don't agree with what

you're seeing. I don't agree with what I see

from you. It's causing me to sin, so I

need to cut that out. Why?

Because it's better for me to enter the Kingdom of heaven and

have no relatives, no friends, no BFFS, nothing by myself to

enter the Kingdom of heaven than to be burning in the fire of

hell and having so many friends and best friends and what have

you. What about the hands, beloved in

Psalm 134, Chapter 2? Lift up your hands onto holiness

and bless the Lord God. We need to be working holiness

with our hands. Charity, help, assistance

working with our hands to make an honest living, not thieving,

stealing, murdering, bashing people.

And I'll go As for you know and I, and I've always said as it is

right and not fulfilling our sexual desires with our hands.

You know what I'm talking about, man.

You know what I'm talking about. Don't blush.

Right? And my dear sisters, these are

not what hands were made for. Hands were made for blessing the

Lord God without holiness. Now holiness means not that your

hands have Halos around them. No set apart.

These hands are set apart to glorify God, always extending

the arm of reconciliation and peace.

That's what Israel and Palestine and all the Arab nations and the

United Nations. You know, everyone's coming out

and and giving their their what is it, what they call their

their concerns and their views? It means nothing.

It means nothing. All these people being

interviewed and one will point to the finger at Palestine and

the other will point the finger at at Jews.

While people are dying, innocent people are dying regardless of

what color, what race they're dying, what gender, Male and

female. They're dying, right?

Because let me tell you why. Because the leaders, those who

call the shots and bio what we see before our eyes are not the

ones that call the shots. The ones that really call the

shots, they're hidden. You won't see them.

Oh no, we won't see them, right. But I just want to be a family

on a wall when they see the Lord Jesus Christ return.

Oh, how I'd love to see that day and see their faces, right?

Because they don't have the obedience, the love of Christ.

They may proclaim it and claim it.

They don't have that love. They don't have that

relationship with God, the creator of heaven and on earth

to extend the arm and make peace.

It's simple. It's simple.

Stop, stop. Let's talk, you know, glory to

God in the highs. Praise me to his name says to

Job. I believe it is.

Let us converse. Come, let us talk to one

another. This is God, the creator of

heaven on earth, who sits in heaven and mocks those that are

on earth. Not literally.

That means he looks at us as though, like, look at this.

Look at this person. Look at humankind.

They want to go against me. Extend the arm for peace, for

goodness, and we must do good. We must not be lawless with our

hands. Charitable work, extending help,

assistance, That's how you're offering your hands.

As a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord.

Giving. What about our feet?

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 13. Make straight paths for your

Hebrews 12:13

feet. Your word is a light to my feet.

Where we go beloved. How we go.

Where is you know we have a we have a a tradition where when a

when parents have a child. When the mother has a child

sting, we say bratta akhla. Right now as always just think

why are we blessing only the feet What about the head, the

hands you know? But it dawned on me that when we

say, may his feet be blessed, meaning may his walk in life be

blessed, may his walk in life be a be influenced, be guided, be

protected by the will of God and the righteousness of God.

But you know what? When the child grows and the

child knows nothing about God because the parents have been so

lazy, the parents laugh and and and ridicule the truth and the

the significance of coming to church and bringing their

children to church and to children's ministry so that they

can be taught and groomed and nourished.

You see the child's walk becomes distant from God.

And then when the child, grown up adult falls into some serious

mischief, who do we run to? We run to the church.

Of course, that is absolutely right because the church is

there to always for assistance and help.

What about the tongue? You know, we've spoken about the

F bomb. The F bomb is so now normal.

You know when you when, when you know.

Sometimes you see these news clips and when someone is

cussing you, there's always a blip, blip, blip.

That's not happening anymore now.

So man is now free to use whatever word he want, he or she

wants. Whether it's offensive,

insulting, it doesn't matter. Whether it's a sin, it doesn't

matter. It's my choice.

I will use it. And I remember going back when I

was a young boy, it was about five years ago and when I was a

young boy or a or a or a young child, and even at school, even

our high school day, St. John's Park, St.

John's Park High School, Rey issue, we wouldn't cuss in front

of females. I mean, it was bad to cuss.

We wouldn't, we wouldn't swear we wouldn't cuss in front of the

females. It was always respecting the

females. Right Now, nowadays, the

females, you know, they don't hold back because it's cool.

It's it's expressing your expressing your anger, it's

expressing your frustration. And sometimes it's out of

context. Sometimes you don't need, even

need to say it, right. So it's becoming a norm.

We say it's like a a gum in the mouth, you know?

Yes. And if you're laughing and you

do it, you need to quit. You need to offer your tongue

and your mouth as a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord.

The mouth has been created obviously to eat, to breathe.

When you have a a sinus infection.

Yes you breathe from your mouth to speak, to communicate to

speak truth to speak words that are profitable.

You know Saint Paul writes. You know before you you let go

of the word examine it. Make sure it's like salt that

will season. You know that would that has a a

save it has a flavor to it not bland party right.

The mouth has been, has been created to glorify the Lord.

Our Heavenly Father prays be to his name in James chapter 3,

James 3:10

verse 10. He writes From the mouth

proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought

not so to be done. This is the scriptures.

This you know when we say we want Bible studies, I'll be Why

don't you do podcasts and why don't you preach?

And the church is not preaching. The church should be preaching

gospel. The church should be preaching

the scriptures. I mean, I'm preaching now.

If you are one of those who uses your mouth for anything other

than to live in this world and to praise God, it's a sin.

You need to repent. There's my preaching of the

gospel. Maybe you should be listening to

the Gospels then, you know, And Jesus says the light came into

the world in the Gospel of John. But those who are evil did not

come to the light because they knew that once they come to the

light, their sins would be exposed.

Well, it's good for their sins to be exposed because then they

would repent. What about looks and beauty?

Beloved, You know, I I think, I think I've, I maybe have turned

off a few people because I constantly hammer this message.

Why? Because when you send me a

friend request for those who are listening, when you send me a

friend request on Facebook, or you follow on Instagram and what

have you, and then your profile picture is not of a a Christian.

It's not in a manner that is befitting the Gospels and is not

offering a holy and pleasing sacrifice to the Lord.

What do I do? You put yourself in my position.

What do I do? Do I accept or do I reject and

send a message? And I do sometimes.

And then I don't hear from these people.

They block me. God bless you.

Why do I keep talking about this?

Because we continue, and I see my brothers and sisters continue

in this era. Saint Peter writes in his first

epistles, Chapter 3, verses three to four.

And what Saint Peter is writing, that's you know Allah, God rest

your soul saying, pray you're in paradise.

Pray for us beseech your Lord to have mercy upon us.

I'm content, what with what He is complaining about.

I'm content if that's the only case today.

Do not be adorned with outward ornaments of your hair, braid,

or of gold jewelry or fine clothing, but be adorned, be

adorned in in the secret person of the heart and in a humble

spirit which is uncorrupted. An excellent ornament before

God, so you know gold and silver.

Now, I have no issues with that, but when the outfits are getting

shorter from the from the hems and from the neck, and they're

becoming tighter to reveal, and the clothes are only to reveal,

only to show the the the gift that God has given us, but not

in a way to praise God. What should I preach?

You tell me. You message me.

You tell me. Listen, we're talking about the

breastplate of righteousness. We're talking about

righteousness, meaning being right in the eyes of God.

And we're talking about the the Scriptures telling us that to be

right with God we need to know His will.

And his will is not for you and I to parade ourselves.

That is not His will, is that we are all obedient to him.

And why? You know I always ask the

question and you should ask your question and you should know

this. Just because you're going to be

obedient to God doesn't mean you increase God's glory and

righteousness. God is glorified from the mouths

of babes and sucklings. You made your glory.

I cannot affect God's glory, no. But what I do is when I do

things for the glory of God, it shows my true love and my

obedience to God. So that when he returns I am

seen right in his eyes. So that when Satan wants to come

and take a foothold, he has no place.

Because he sees that you and I are so clinged to the Lord with

the manner of life that we live that he just walks away and

says, you know what? Forget it.

This guy's too difficult. One of the Church Fathers writes

this and I'll conclude. But he who is both the head of

the men and the beauty of the woman, the bridegroom of the

Church, Christ Jesus, what sort of crown did he put on?

For both male and female? It was a crown of thorns,

beloved, a crown of suffering and ridicule.

Gentlemen, when you stand at the altar to be married, to be

blessed. And I pray that you're not

drunk. All right?

I play pray that you're in the right mindset to listen to the

words so that you know what you're saying when the crown is

placed on your head. My dear brothers and sisters,

it's not. They've got nothing to do about

being cute. Nothing.

It's got nothing to do about the pictures coming out, you know,

you know. So you have some nice pictures

and memories. No, no, no.

When you, when you lower your head and receive that crown,

it's a crown of sacrifice. The crown of sacrifice that

Christ received on His head before He was crucified.

And it's the crown of sacrifice that the Church receives, that

we will sacrifice our lives, offered to God a sacrifice that

is holy and pleasing with our lives, our minds, our hearts,

and our souls. And He goes on.

And He offered His body on the crucifix as a sacrifice pleasing

to God for the victory or the power and adornment of his holy

Church. So Christ received a crown, a

crown of ridicule. Christ endured suffering and

persecution and a death, a ridiculed death.

One who was cursed as though he was cursed, he took on the

curse. And he received that.

And today I want to show the world that I have a a beautiful

body. And I want to show the world

that I have a my physique is so amazing and I take pictures to

show the world. What happened to narcissism?

What happened to narcissism? I don't understand why I would

take a picture of myself and then post it so that the world

can see how beautiful I am, or the world can see that I am what

I am. No, beloved.

Because that's when we need to really wake up and really

consider where we stand with God, maybe.

And just maybe, Satan has taken that foothold and it's not the

end. It's not the end of the world.

Yet. There is time.

There is that one last hour that we come back and we repent, and

we ask the Lord to forgive us. And then after we receive the

forgiveness, we do truly offer our bodies as a living

sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, so that we are made right

and then we are rest. We rest assured that we have put

on the breastplate of righteousness, Praise and glory

be to the name of our Heavenly Father, His Son, our Lord Jesus

Christ and the Holy Spirit now, not all times and forever.

We hope you enjoyed this week's message.

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next time. God bless you all.