Armor of God (Part 3) - Breastplate of Righteousness - Pastor Greg Addison - June 16, 2024

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you, praise team, for leading us in worship.

I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6, and we'll continue our study on the armor of God.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

As you are turning, I want to give you a little bit of an update.

As you know, we have a partnership with Pastor Joel and Stone Mountain Baptist Church in London, England.

And we are a part of a network of Arkansas Baptist churches that are partnering with a network, growing network of churches in London, like-minded churches with us, like-minded with Pastor Joel, who are trying to reach that incredibly lost area with the gospel.

And so there are a number of churches that are like Pastor Joel's, and they really want to have a strong evangelistic impact.

There are a number of churches that are being revitalized, as happened at Stone when he came, and as we are working with the church in Ainsford.

And so this week on Friday, I will be flying to London with uh three or four other pastors from here in Arkansas for a couple of things.

Uh number one, it's a vision trip chance for me to go and really see and understand how we can best serve and connect with those churches.

Um, it is also an opportunity where the Arkansas pastors, the group of us, are going to meet with this new network of London pastors, and we're going to invest in them as pastors.

So we're basically going to be doing a pastor's conference for those pastors in London.

And then I will have a chance to preach in a couple of churches and uh and spend that week there.

So, first of all, I'm going to ask you to pray for me.

Uh, you know, they eat weird stuff in London.

Like, I don't even know what Haggis is, and I don't really want to know, right?

He promised me at least one hamburger.

If I can get through one hamburger, I can get through the week, right?

And uh, but pray for me in traveling and just being there, vision for them.

Pray that uh myself and our and the other Arkansas guys who I who I know who are really strong pastors, pray that we can be a blessing to those guys because they really have a passion and a vision for evangelism in a world that's really tougher, much tougher evangelistically than the one that we live in.

And so we want to really be an encouragement to them.

We want to make connections, and then pray that I can really see and understand ways that our church can help them grow in that evangelistic impact.

And so we'll continue our study.

Matt and Jared will be preaching while I'm gone.

And uh we I told one class this morning I was asking them for prayer, and I said, it's a great joy to come back and everybody tell me how great they are, right?

Which is good, which we love that.

And so uh it's great that we have guys that preach as well as our guys do.

So Matt and Jared will continue that study, and I know you'll be excited about that, be praying for uh me as we travel, and uh and so it's an exciting, uh it's gonna be an exciting week, and it's going to be an opportunity to really make some connections that allow us to make, as a church, really project ministry out in an evangelistic and a missions way.

And so um want to let you know that we are working towards that end, we are working on a possible trip, and we'd like to gauge interest from the congregation.

Uh we are planning a trip that would leave on September the 28th.

Uh I'm sorry, let me try again.

September the 22nd, which is a Sunday morning.

You travel over there, you work during the week, we stay on Sunday the 29th in worship with the church that we've served that week, and you fly back on Monday the 30th.

So let me give you those dates again.

September 22nd, and we fly back on September 30th.

Janet and I will be leading that trip, and we'd love to have uh some of you who might be able to go with us on that London trip.

We are estimating right now the cost to be somewhere between 1,700 and 2,000.

And so um we have scholarships available to help people go and all of that.

One of the joys of being in a big church is you don't have to be rich to go on missions, right?

We all participate.

We also have a lot of folks in our church who are very faithful.

Always, every time we have a trip, they come up and say, Here, I'd like to help folks go, and they provide scholarships and they help people go.

So we uh we are working on that time frame, and hopefully uh we'll be able to put together a trip.

Janet and I will be leading that again, the 22nd of September through the 30th, which is a Monday, a Sunday to a Monday.

And if you're interested in going, you don't have to commit, but if you're interested in going, if you will call the church this week or touch base with us, and we'd like to see if we have enough folks who are free to go that we can put together an effective team to go.

And I'll be working on some more details about what we would do when we get there over the course of my trip next week.

So I hope you'll be praying about that.

I hope you'll be praying about either going, becoming a prayer partner for someone going, andor helping uh with a scholarship to help folks go on that trip.

So I hope that you'll do that.

Please be in prayer for us and for our missions team as we are continuing to try to strategize how we can impact it in London.

Well, let's continue our study today on the armor of God from Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

And today, our next piece of armor is the breastplate of righteousness.

So let's be reminded about this illustration of what this armor looks like.

And before I forget, dads, we're going to pray for you at the end of the service.

So I just wanted you to know it's a good day to be a dad and happy Father's Day, amen.

So here we go.

Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics or schemes of the devil.

For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.

This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.

Stand therefore, and then he gives this illustration illustration, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandal with readiness for the gospel of peace in every situation.

Take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God's word.

And so there he gives us that illustration.

We've been talking about the last couple of weeks, as we've set this up, and as we started last week with the belt of truth, we see that this is an illustration that Paul is using to help us understand how important it is to recognize and understand our identity in Christ, what it means to be saved, who Jesus is in our lives as our Lord and Savior.

And so he's illustrating how we learn that identity, how we stand in that identity, and how it helps us stand against the spiritual warfare that happens as a part of living in this world and the work of Satan.

And so he comes to this second piece of armor and he says, Stand therefore with truth like a belt around your waist, and righteousness like armor on your chest.

Now, as we have been studying through this passage of Scripture, trying to unpack it and work through each piece of armor, I'm just going to give you a little insight.

This is sort of the shorthand method of how I have been breaking this down.

Three key questions for each piece of armor.

And I thought today it'd be good just to kind of show kind of how we're studying this, how we're breaking it down.

What is the meaning of that piece of armor?

So each each one we look at, what is its meaning?

What is it illustrating?

Why do we need it?

And how do we put it on?

How do we put it on?

Because it doesn't do any good to have it and talk about how powerful it is and talk about how we need it, and then not talk about how to put it on.

So let's look at that first question.

What is the meaning of this particular piece of armor?

Well, when he talks about this uh breastplate, often from previous other illustrations, we use that word breastplate, the breastplate of armor.

I want you to show, I want to show you what armor looked like in the day of Paul, when a Roman soldier was wearing armor.

This is what it looks like.

And historians have been able to find all kinds of examples, and so we feel really good about kind of the historicity of what was in the mind of Paul as the Holy Spirit was sort of guiding him to use this illustration.

There are two basic types of armor that they wore most of the time.

The one on your right is called uh lorica hamada, and that's like a chain mail.

So if you think a little bit like King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table on all, it's chain mails made of metal loops woven together, and it creates a protective shield, in a sense, against certain types of body blows.

That was actually very common.

You don't always see it in pictures, but it was very common in the Roman army.

And then you have the other kind that is more what you picture or think of when you think of a Roman soldier.

It was called Lorica segmentata, and it uses, you'll recognize in there the word segment.

What happens is they took pieces of metal and they created that overlapping breastplate and they tied it together with leather.

And most of the time it would cover the back and the front, has those shoulder protections, and it has that word segmentata or segments that are put together.

And so you would put it on like a jacket.

It was laced in the back, you would put it on, and then you would lace it down the front.

And then what would happen with the Lorica hamata?

That would the belt obviously would be a key part of that we talked about last week, and it would hold it in place.

Sometimes they would loop it over a little bit, create a little extra protection.

Uh, most of the time, on the segmentata deal, when you put that on, it would either loop into the belt or they would put the belt over the bottom piece, depending on how long it went.

And the belt of truth, that illustration, the belt would hold that armor in place so it wouldn't dislodge as you moved.

It would keep it tight and keep its protection in place.

Why is this such a good illustration for us as Paul is teaching us about our identity in Christ?

Well, it really is powerful.

It's more than just using that picture of the soldier, it has a really key element teaching point for us.

In that day and time, without an understanding of psychology and biology at the extent that we have it today, they felt like the sight of the human soul rested in your torso.

If you think about it, when you feel emotions, your adrenaline flows.

All of that flows from your body and the dynamic part of your vascular system here.

You feel like your heart beats faster.

You feel that adrenaline that grows.

If you feel stress, you feel that in your heart, you feel that in your stomach, as your butterflies, or as your stomach churns, and all of that.

And their understanding of biology and physiology in that day, they felt like that meant the soul, the heart, all of that was encapsulated in the torso part of who we are.

What you felt, how you made decisions, the sight of emotions, all of that flowed out of this central part of our body.

And so what Paul is saying is listen, in the same way that an Roman soldier has designed his armor to protect the most crucial part of who he is, the part of him that is driven in battle, the part of him that overcomes fear of the enemy or fear of injury, the part of him that drives him to be successful and conquer the enemy, all of that happens right here.

Not only is that a mortal wound, if it comes into your torso and pierces a lung or stomach or heart or whatever it is, but it is also what drives us as people.

And so there is a confidence that derives in the soldier from this human driving engine of himself to be protected and strong.

It's a powerful illustration that he's teaching us.

And so what he says is the part of us that makes decisions, our heart that drives us, and all of that should be driven to pursue righteousness.

Because it's what drives us as a soldier.

It what is what focuses us, it's what defeats fear, it's what gives strength, it's what drives us forward in our walk.

And he says it is so important for us that we put on righteousness in the person of who we are, the righteousness of Jesus, because it guards and protects everything that drives us as a Christian and as a follower of Jesus.

It's an incredible illustration when you begin to put that together.

Now he says that this breastplate, this armor that protects the decision-making process of us, the feeling part of us, the human soul part of us, that righteousness that protects that.

Let's talk a minute about what righteousness is, because that's a huge word.

This word righteousness is a major Bible word, and it is used as an overarching term that describes a lot of ways that Jesus makes us righteous.

Now, first of all, just the word righteousness, you have in there the anchor of the word right, and what that means is holy.

It means we are meeting God's standards.

It means that we are living with integrity to the requirements of God.

All of us we know, the Bible teaches, we are all sinners.

We have all chosen to sin.

We have a sin nature.

All of us, the Bible says in the book of Romans, have fallen short of the standards of God.

That's what sin is.

And so righteousness is who Jesus is.

He is right.

He never failed any standard of holiness of Jesus.

But we have.

And because of that, we are no longer righteous.

So how do we become righteous?

And how do we put on righteousness in a way that protects us and cloaks our identity in the person of Jesus?

Well, you have to understand how that sin is forgiven.

And these are three Bible words that are used to really describe this process of what it means for us to become righteous.

Now, I want you to think about this for a minute.

Since I love this lighthouse, we'll use that as an example.

Let's say that that is Jesus, he's the light of the world, right?

And so what happens in my life, in sin, because I am unrighteous, I'm a sinner, I am walking away from Jesus, doing life in my own way.

And what happens is the light of Jesus comes into my life and shows me that I'm a sinner.

And shows me that I've sinned and shows me that my sin needs to be forgiven.

It shows me that I cannot do that on my own.

The light, as I turn and understand that, I see Jesus, the light of the world, and I know that Jesus is the one who died for me, and Jesus is the one who saved me.

Jesus is righteous, and he is the source of righteousness.

And so I repent of my sin.

I turn and I place my faith in Jesus Christ, and he is my Lord and Savior.

I have surrendered my life to him.

It is no longer my life.

I have placed it lock, stock, and barrel, and trust and faith in him and what he did on the cross for me and his being raised from the dead, conquering death and sin, and he is now my Savior.

It is now his life and it is no longer mine.

Now I am saved.

And when God looks down out of heaven and he sees Greg, he sees me through the righteousness of Jesus.

That's justification.

I have been justified, not because of anything I did, but because Jesus, the light of the world, paid the price for my sin on the cross.

Old school preachers used to describe it this way: justification was saved from the penalty of sin.

I will no longer pay the price for my sin.

I will spend an eternity in heaven because now I have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians chapter 1, the Bible says that through the shedding of his blood we have the remission of sins or the payment of our sins.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

We are justified.

But in this condition right here, where I'm a brand new Christian, I still function, think, and act a whole lot like Lost Greg than I do like Jesus.

And but I have now entered into the process where I am becoming more like him.

I am being transformed into the image of Jesus.

And what does that look like?

Man, here I am.

I've been saved by the light of the world.

I am clean before him.

It's awesome.

Jesus did that.

Jesus paid it all.

And all to him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain.

Jesus washed it white as snow.

And I am drawn closer to him.

And so I begin the journey of moving towards him and being closer to him.

And the closer I get to Jesus, I see myself in the light of the world, through the light of the world, in a way I've never seen myself before.

And all of a sudden now I realize, oh my goodness, there's sin in here that I that needs to be dealt with.

I didn't know that.

I didn't know that was sin, or I couldn't deal with it before, but Jesus now wants to deal with it.

And I surrender myself to his transformation.

He begins to work in me.

He takes out some sin.

He puts in some new behaviors, and all of a sudden, I am cleaner than I've ever been.

Like this is this Christian life is awesome.

The work of Jesus is awesome.

Look what he's doing in my life.

This is so great.

I've never been this clean.

I've never been this loved.

I've never been this forgiven.

This is so great.

I want to get closer to Jesus, and I take a step closer to Jesus, but now I've never been this close to the light of the world before.

And the light of the world, I see my life in a way that I haven't before.

And all of a sudden I recognize a whole nother round of things.

Oh my goodness, look at that sin.

Man, Jesus needs to deal with that.

Oh, I'm not doing this that I need to do.

And I take another step in the process of Jesus takes things out that are sin, that are causing problems.

He puts things in that make me like Jesus, and all of a sudden here I am.

I'm clean before him.

I've never been loved like this.

I've never been close to this Jesus, and now I take a step closer.

That's the process of sanctification.

That is becoming more like Jesus.

That is being transformed to his image.

This is literally the process that we're now talking about.

When you put on the whole armor of God, when you put on the righteousness of God, you are not justifying yourself, you are not being saved, you are not creating that righteousness.

You are justified by the work of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection.

And now as I begin this process of walking with him, I still am not the one who is changing or sanctifying my life.

It is still the work of Jesus in me.

That's why in this command, Paul says, You put on the armor of God.

And so he says, You are standing, you have put on righteousness like armor that guards the part of who you are, that is driven, that thinks, that feels, that functions, the human part of who you are.

Now clearly it cannot be that saving righteousness, because only Jesus can do that.

In Ephesians chapter 2, a verse that you know, here in the same letter, Paul says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

It is the free gift of God, not of works, lest anybody would boast.

So that's that justification, that time when we are sinned.

So if he now says, put on righteousness, it can't be that, because he's already described that's not anything we have anything to do with.

Jesus paid it all, and all to him I owe.

He is now talking about an act of obedience.

It is recognizing my identity in Christ and what he's doing in my life and what he wants me to do.

And so I place my faith in him.

What does that mean?

On a daily basis, I walk with Jesus.

What does that mean?

It means you get up in the morning, you recognize this is not my life anymore.

It's Jesus' life.

What work is Jesus doing in my life now?

I surrender to that.

What does he want to take out that's sin?

What does he want to put in that makes me more like him?

And I put on that identity as a matter of faith, and I surrender myself to that sanctifying work of Jesus, and I pursue becoming like him.

I put on his righteousness through the work that he's doing in my life.

It is still his work.

Remember what he says in verse 10 be strengthened by the Lord.

This whole part is the work of Jesus.

By his vast strength.

I can't make myself righteous.

I can't strive to be who Jesus wants me to be.

I don't have the ability to do that.

But Jesus does.

Put on the full armor of God.

So he says, my obedient act is to stand in the person of Jesus, faith in him, and his work in me, and that means pursuing righteousness.

It means obeying this process of him working in my life.

Well, Pastor Greg, how long does that go?

Well, it goes on until we go to heaven.

And then what happens in heaven, you've already been saved from the penalty of sin if you've been saved.

This sanctification process means you get stronger in Jesus, you're better able to fight off temptation and all that.

You're being saved from the power of sin in our life.

But when you go to heaven and you spend with Jesus, there's no more sin.

It's all gone.

We are glorified, lived in our perfect bodies in the presence of Him forever.

That's glorification.

That's when we think about being saved from the presence of sin.

It is only holiness and Jesus for the rest of eternity.

That's what righteousness is.

And so that's what he's telling us to do.

Now, why do I need to do that?

Because Satan is attacking that process.

The first thing he wants us to do is he does not want me to be saved.

And if he can keep me from trusting Jesus, he will.

But when I make a choice of faith to turn to Jesus, I'm saved.

But Satan's work is not done in my life.

If he can't keep me from being saved, he sure wants to make me a weak soldier so my life does not give God glory and I don't lead anybody else to Christ.

He is trying desperately to keep you from being a model of Jesus and a lighthouse that reflects the light of the world, Jesus.

And so here's what he is describing to us.

These are the characteristics of it.

This choice of faith, where I am pursuing the standards of God, I am pursuing righteousness so that it guards how I feel and how I flow and work in life.

First of all, I'm recognizing I am putting on the armor of God.

It is an obedient choice by me, but it is his faith, it is his righteousness, it is his work and strength.

It is a choice that I have to obey to put it on.

And if you get up in the morning and you don't put on your armor, you sinned.

You sinned.

And probably because Satan's telling you you don't need it, and he's lying to you, and you have been attacked and lost a battle that Jesus is trying to keep you from losing.

And so it is a choice that we have to obey to do this.

It is living to Christ's standards.

That's righteousness.

So I am pursuing becoming like Jesus.

This process of growing to be closer to Him is something that I should be driven towards and then I want to do.

And it's something that you have no choice in doing because you gave your life to Jesus when you got saved.

And it is anchored by truth, that belt of truth that holds in place that righteousness.

How do I know what God is doing?

How do I know if that's right or wrong?

I have a major decision this week that I've been trying to pray through, and I've spent so much time in my quiet time trying to pray through that decision, and I know I need, Lord, I need you to guide me from the word and affirm that this is just not what I think, that this is not just what I feel, but this is what you want me to do.

It is anchored by that belt of truth.

You do not know if you're pursuing Jesus' standard if you don't know Jesus, and we know Jesus through the Word.

Now, why is that so important?

Why is it so important?

Well, just two thoughts about that, and then I want to get to the put-on part.

First of all, Satan's accusations.

When you put on that armor of God, and that's that righteousness, I know who I am in Christ.

If Satan is trying to keep you from leading other people to Christ, what he's gonna do is come in your life and you're gonna say, Yeah, you put on that armor this morning, but that's a lie, and you know it's a lie.

You know how you use that language, you know what's in your refrigerator, you know what you looked at on your computer, you know what you say to people, you know how you treat people, you know how you do that deal, and you'll say anything to anybody to make that sale.

You know that.

You know you're a lousy example of Jesus.

He'll step into our lives and mistakes that we've made in the past that are forgiven.

They are justified.

Justification is so important.

Those sins are gone and they are forgiven.

The Bible says that he buries our sins in the deepest part of the ocean, which we still have not discovered, even with modern technology.

He separates us from our sin as far as the East is from the West.

You are forgiven.

And yet we have people that are carrying around burdens of guilt because they've not understood what the forgiveness of Jesus means in our lives.

Doesn't mean we act like our sin is not important or whatever, but it means that when we confess it to Jesus, he has forgiven that sin.

And so when we get up and we're working through that and we're trying to mature in Jesus and we're trying to follow him, we've got to learn what it says in Revelation 12.

Satan is a liar and an accuser of the brethren.

He accuses you, he points his nasty finger at you, and he says, You don't deserve it.

You don't belong, you are not whatever.

And he is lying against what the Word of God says that you are when you have trusted Christ as your Savior.

And so we've got to put on that armor and realize, yeah, I know I messed up, but Jesus knows I messed up, and he paid the price for my sins on the cross.

And I am standing in the forgiveness of Jesus.

You also need to know this: ongoing sin in your life.

The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 2, it says, abstain from fleshly lust, those things that we do in our humanness.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Abstain from them because they war against your soul.

Is that an incredible verse?

I've got to get up and put on the armor of God and the righteousness of Jesus and be in pursuit of that righteousness, because if I'm not pursuing that sin and I'm living in that and I'm playing with that, and I've got one foot in the world and one foot here, then all of that is at war inside.

The human part of me is battling against this sanctification process.

That human part of me is trying to get me to turn around and go back away from Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is trying to push me back to Jesus, and that battle inside will tear you apart.

Unless you get up in the morning and you put on this is who I am in Jesus, and because of that, I do not have a right to go that way.

And the abundant life in Christ is in the sanctification process with him, and I am going to pursue Jesus.

And so that's what he's scheming, that's what the devil's doing, that's what he's throwing at you, that's where temptation comes from, that's where these arguments in the culture about identity and truth and all this other kind of stuff, and it's tugging at this human part of us, and he says, Listen, if you're going to stand, you put on that righteousness of Jesus and you view yourself through the work that Jesus has done in your life and the work that he is doing in your life.

And man, you are then on the road to pursuing the abundant life in Christ.

Pastor, how do we put that on?

Here's four words I want to give you, four concepts.

I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

I'm just going to give you a quick shorthand here.

I've written some other scriptures down.

These are all biblical principles taught throughout Scripture.

I could have put 10 verses on every one of these truths.

But the reason that there are so many truths, the reason that there are so many verses that apply the same thing is because this is the process of engaging in that sanctification, of allowing Jesus to transform you, of pursuing that righteousness in your life.

You'll see there in Romans chapter 6, just a snapshot, verses 11 to 13.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

So you two consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Man, if you are saved, you are saved and you're alive in Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its fleshly desires, and do not offer any parts of yourself to sin as weapons for unrighteousness.

But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God and all the parts of yourself to God as weapons for righteousness.

That's who we want to be, right?

So here's four principles I want to give you.

First of all, you need to love Jesus intentionally and deeply.

Man, we act like that, you know, yeah, I love Jesus and all that, but Jesus said, He it is who loves me, who keeps my commandments.

The pursuit of behaving like Jesus, the pursuit of allowing Jesus to transform you, the pursuit of pursuing righteousness, of allowing God to work in your life, to transform you, to live to that standard, you do that because Jesus is the one who died for you and the one who saved you.

Jesus is the one that works in your life.

Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

As we sang this morning, He is your King.

He is the author and finisher of our faith.

He is the one who rose from the dead to allow this to work in our lives.

I pursue his commandments and I pursue loving him not because of some legalistic do what's right and don't do what's wrong or whatever kind of nonsense.

The first motivation for living a holy life for Jesus is you are doing it because Jesus loved you and died for you and gave his life for you to be alive.

Listen to what Paul says.

You who are alive, offer yourselves to God.

You're alive from the dead because Jesus did that for us.

He it is who loves me who keeps my commandments.

And so every morning you get up and you reaffirm your love for Jesus.

You tell him that you love him.

You read a verse that describes his love.

You respond to him in love.

You surrender your life to him because he died for you.

You sing a worship song to him.

You intentionally focus your heart and mind on the person of Jesus.

You love him intentionally and deeply.

The second step is then you embrace that standard.

He says here in this passage of Scripture, do not let sin reign in your bodies.

Do not offer any parts of yourself to sin.

But that is a word of opposition, a word of change.

But you who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God.

You present yourself, you embrace that standard.

1 Peter chapter 1, verse says this be holy, for I am holy.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

If I love Jesus, I want to be like Jesus.

Jesus is holy, and I want to surrender myself to the process of Jesus doing that in my life.

Then you crucify that sinful desire, that battle and tug of war.

One part wants to turn this way, the other part wants to turn to Jesus.

You take the part that wants to turn away from Jesus, and you say, that part was nailed on the cross, and I am not going to give myself to that behavior.

That is not who Jesus died on the cross for me to be.

I confess that as sin, and I ask you, Lord, will you please take that out of my life?

You have got to take the step of crucifying that.

I am not going to do that because Jesus has called that sin.

I am not going to do that because he died to save me from that.

He died to redeem me from that.

He died to change me from that.

He died because of that.

And I don't want to do what nailed him on the cross.

I do not want to continue to do what required Jesus to shed his blood for me.

And he rose from the dead.

And when I gave my life to him, he resurrected me from the dead.

That's what Paul says.

You who are alive from the dead.

That sin is dead.

And I am not going to go there anymore.

I am a blood-bought son or daughter of the King of Kings and the Lord of the Lords, and that is dead to me.

You cannot run past that step.

You have got to acknowledge that part of it.

I love you.

I embrace this pursuit of the standard.

That is not the standard.

But I'm going to pursue what is the standard.

You and your life.

This process describes in my feeble mind the best way I can describe it.

Jesus has saved me, and I'm drawn to him, and I'm going to step closer to him because I love him, because he died for me.

And I see this stuff in my life, but I see Jesus wants to take it out, and I see what he wants to put in, and I want to submit my life to this, and I want to be dead to that, and I want to commit myself to this so I can be a weapon for Jesus.

And in every Christian's life, this is constantly going on.

There should always be something in your life that Jesus is taking out and putting in.

That's the process of transformation.

It is not an option for us as Christians, it is what happens.

And when he says, you put on this righteousness like armor that guards your heart, this pursuit of righteousness is protecting your mind and heart.

It's calling you to Jesus.

It's saying, I'm not going to do that because I'm dead to that.

It's saying, I'm going to do this because I want to be who Jesus wants me to be so I can be a weapon of righteousness.

Look at what he says.

He says, Do not offer any parts of it to sin.

That's the crucified part.

But then he says, specifically, offer yourselves to God and all the parts of yourself to God as weapons for righteousness.

What part in your life is Jesus working on?

What part is he taking out?

What part is he putting in?

What is he trying to do in there?

What's the transformation act going on?

How is he growing you to make you more like him?

Submit yourself to that.

Pursue head-on that part.

Offer yourself.

That means commit yourself to that process that Jesus is working on.

And then righteousness will guard your heart, mind, emotions, questions, desires like armor.

Is that an incredible picture?

Sanctification begins in the justification process.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, listen, that's the first step.

All of us are sinners.

We have rejected God.

We're doing life our own way and we're going this way.

And the call of the gospel is Jesus loved you.

He stepped out of heaven.

He died on the cross for you.

He paid the price for your sins.

He rose again, conquering death and sin.

And you must turn and repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ and what he did for you.

What does that mean?

It means, first of all, you acknowledge that it actually historically happened.

The Bible says if we'd be saved, it means we would confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead.

I believe that Jesus lived and he died and he rose from me.

Confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord.

It means you begin this journey of I have surrendered my life to his and it's not my life anymore.

You literally take your life, everything you've been, you are, and you ever will be, and you give it all to Jesus.

But the rest of your life you get the opportunity to get up in the morning and walk with Jesus and put on the armor of God and stand in his strength because of what he did when he saved you and what he's doing as he grows you to be like Jesus.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, whether you're at home or here, I want you to take a moment.

I'm going to ask you here in the room to bow your heads.

If you're watching online or at home, bow your heads.

You just talk to Jesus.

There are no magic words in this.

Jesus knows your heart.

Just open up your chest to him.

Tell him you know you're a sinner and need to be forgiven.

List some of them if you need to.

Tell him that you believe he came and he died for you and he rose again.

That you want to be like Paul described, alive from the dead, because we are forgiven and transformed.

And then just give your life to him, lock, stock, and barrel.

Pastor, does that mean every morning I've got to get up and put on the armor of God?

Yes, it does.

But, friend, Jesus will do more with your life than you could ever imagine.

He'll protect you, he'll guide you, he'll make you feel a freedom that you never have.

He'll forgive you, you'll walk in that forgiveness, he'll transform you, he'll use you.

Give your life to Jesus.

I'm gonna pray.

If you're at home, you respond to the Lord.

And there's information on the screen that'll help you respond.

We're here to serve you.

If you're in the room, I'm gonna pray this morning.

And then we're gonna stand, and God's people who've been saved are gonna sing a testimony of the joy of this journey.

And if you need Christ, you come.

Lord, we love you and we thank you.

We ask, Father, that you give a freedom to respond to people today.

If they need to be saved, I pray they'll give their life to you.

And Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ, as we're just walking through this journey of life, I pray that you will use this picture of putting on the armor of God to free them if they're struggling, to protect them if Satan is fighting with them, to restore a joy in their salvation as they are reminded of the joy of you working in their life.

Use this truth for your glory.

We pray these things in the saving name of Jesus and all God's people said.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.