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Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffers and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program on today's edition of Pathway to Victory. The breastplate of righteousness that Paul is talking about is the breastplate, the protection that comes from choosing to obey God instead of choosing to disobey God. We're going to discover practical ways obedience to God, the breastplate of righteousness, protects you from the consequences of Satan's attacks. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr.
Robert Jeffress. We all know the importance of taking care of our physical health. But what about our spiritual health? How do we protect ourselves from the attacks of the enemy? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr.
Robert Jeffress explains how righteous living creates an environment in our hearts that sends Satan and his demons packing. But first, Let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. On this Tuesday edition of the program, we're addressing an issue that touches every single life, including yours. Defending ourselves against Satan's attacks requires that we leave absolutely no space for him.
In no uncertain terms, he is not welcome on our turf. As a pastor and your Bible teacher, let me say that I'm constantly surprised at how many Christians allow themselves to dabble in temptation. During today's message, I'll use Scripture to expose the folly of flirting with sin. And in my best-selling book, The Divine Defense, I'll equip you with God's promises for complete victory over the enemy's attacks. There's still time to request your copy of this important book.
Again, it's called The Divine Defense, Six Simple Strategies for Winning Your Biggest Battles. This book comes with my thanks when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. And as an added bonus, I'll also send you a resource called Equipped for Battle. It contains six strategies from Ephesians 6, providing biblical instruction on how to defend your life against spiritual attack. You can tuck this resource into your Bible.
or keep it on your desk for daily reference.
Now I'll say more about these resources later, but right now it's time to get started with today's message titled, Putting Out the Not Welcome Mat.
Some time ago, I had an opportunity to visit with the Christian health expert Jordan Rubin, who wrote a number of best-selling books, including The Maker's Diet. We were scheduled to be on the same television program in Atlanta, and so we shared a car to the studio, and I thought this is a great opportunity to get some expert and some free advice.
So I took advantage of the opportunity and I talked to Jordan about this health issue I had every year at flu season. Invariably, every year, every January or February, some well-meaning but mucus-dripping church member. Would feel compelled to share his warm feelings and germs with me via a handshake.
Now this was back before the fist bump. This is when I felt compelled to actually shake hands with people. And so I would grab his hand and then I would go to the restroom as quickly as I could and try to wash it off.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't work. But I asked him what he thought I ought to do, because that cold would turn into bronchial infection, meant I'd lose my voice, which wasn't a good thing. And so he surprised me by his answer. He said, you know, there's really not a lot you can do to keep germs from being attracted to you unless you want to go isolate yourself from everybody and everything. He said, but you can make your body inhospitable to germs.
You can go through a regimen of personal hygiene, diet, exercise that will discourage germs that try to infect you. They feel unwelcome in your life and go jump on somebody else.
Well, I thought, you know, there's a spiritual application to that principle. Have you discovered we can't always keep Satan and his demons from attacking us? But we can create an environment in our life That is inhospitable to Satan and his helpers. We can live in such a way that they don't feel welcome in our life. Remember what James said in James chapter 4, verse 7?
Resist the devil and he will what? He will flee from you. Luke 4, Jesus was tempted by Satan three different times in a short amount of time. And he resisted Satan. And that account in verse 13 closes with these words: And Satan left him.
for a more opportune time. We can. Put out the not welcome mat at the entrance to our hearts that makes Satan feel unwelcome in our life. Paul had a different name for that not welcome mat. It's called the breastplate of righteousness.
And it's what we're going to talk about today. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians chapter 6. For those of you who may have just joined us, we're in a series called The Divine Defense. It's a series on spiritual warfare. It's a series on how to resist Satan's plan to destroy your life.
Do you need me to tell you that we're in a spiritual war right now? It's everywhere around us. What the Bible says is true. We are living not on a playground, but on a battleground. We are in a war.
Our struggle, our death struggle, Paul writes in Ephesians 6. What is the war against? We need to know who our adversary, ladies and gentlemen, our adversary is not other people with different philosophies. Our enemy is not other people of different political parties. Our adversary is not other people who have different sexual choices.
Our enemy is not other people. Paul said our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It's against the unseen powers of wickedness in the heavenly places. That's who our war is against. You know, I've heard people this week.
Good people, members of our church say, I'm just so angry. I don't know what to do. I'm angry. That's fine to be angry. You ought to be angry.
The reason we get angry is because we're made in the image of God. Who gets angry? God hates injustice. He hates murder. God gets angry, but we need to direct that anger toward the right person.
It's not other people that are the problem. Other people are the pawns of our enemy. Our enemy is Satan himself. And if we're going to win in our battle against Satan, we better use the spiritual weapons that God has given us. And they're listed in Ephesians chapter 6.
We talked about those spiritual weapons beginning last time. Remember, the first thing he said was, put on the belt of truth, where he says in Ephesians 6:14, stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth. A Roman soldier would first put on that leather belt. He would tuck in the loose ends of a tunic so he didn't trip up himself or give the enemy another unfair advantage. In the same way, these loose thoughts we have, we need to confront them with the truth of God's Word.
We said that strategy simply means to recognize and replace wrong thoughts with God's thoughts. But the second piece of weaponry is mentioned also in verse 14, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. What is the breastplate of righteousness?
Well, for a Roman soldier, the breastplate was essential. It was a piece of molded metal that covered the torso and protected vital organs like the heart and the lungs and the bowels.
Well, as Christians, we need to put on a breastplate, but it's not of metal, it's a breastplate of righteousness. What is righteousness? That's what we're going to focus on for the few moments we have today. We better know what our breastplate is made of if it's going to be successful in protecting us.
Now, in the Bible, righteousness is used all of the time, but it's used in three distinct ways, and we need to understand the difference. First of all, there is what we call Self-righteousness. The word righteous means to be in a right standing with God, and self-righteousness is our attempt to earn a right standing with God through our own effort. By the way, that's how every other religion in the world is the same. You know, you hear people say there are hundreds or thousands of other religions in the world.
No, other than Christianity, there's only one other religion, the wrong religion. The religion that is made up of self-righteousness. Did you know there's not really a lot of difference between other religions, between the isms? There's not that much difference between Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism. There's not that much difference in them.
In the sense that they all are based on self-righteousness. They say if you want a right standing with God, here's a list of what to do and not do.
Now, different religions have different lists, but it's still do this, do this, do this, don't do that, do this, do this, don't do that. Christianity is the only religion that is spelled D-O-N-E done. It's not what we do, it's what Christ has done for us. But self-righteousness is the attempt to earn a right standing of God. And it never works.
Why? Because our righteousness is, first of all, incapable of earning God's forgiveness. Our righteous efforts are incapable of earning God's forgiveness. Do you remember this a few years ago here in the Metroplex? There was an atheist coalition called the Coalition for Reason.
The Coalition for Reason. And around Christmas time, they put these signs on city buses in Dallas and Fort Worth. You can be good without God. Remember that you can be good without God. And that sounds so appealing to people.
We don't need God to be good. We're good people, basically. We can be good without God. By the way, that was the same philosophy that gripped our nation starting in 1962 when the Supreme Court and the government made a concerted effort to remove any acknowledgement of God from the public schools. We don't need to pray.
We don't need God to be good. We can teach our children to be good without God. We don't need the Bible. We don't need the Ten Commandments to be good. We can be good without God.
As Dr. Phil would say, how's that been working out for you? I mean, is our nation better off 60 years later or worse off? No, you may be able to be good, but the real point is you can't be good enough. You see, the question is not whether we can be good, it's can we be good enough to earn God's forgiveness?
And the answer is no, because Isaiah 64:6 tells us what God thinks of our righteousness, our efforts to please Him. Listen to this: for all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all of our righteous deeds are like filthy garments. And all of us wither like a leaf, our iniquities like the wind take us away. The best you can do is like a dirty garment before God.
Now, that filthy garment in Hebrew actually refers. to rags associated with a woman's menstrual cycle. I don't need to go any further. You get the picture. God says your very best efforts.
God views as that filthy, bloody rag. That's what your goodness is like. Our goodness, our righteousness is incapable of earning our salvation. But we don't realize that. The reason we pronounce ourselves good is we compare ourselves to other people.
And it's usually people worse than we are. We say, I may not be perfect, but I'm certainly no Adolf Hitler. I'm not as bad as Adolf. I'm not as bad as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. I'm not as bad as serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
I'm not like that. The problem is God doesn't judge us according to other people. He judges us according to his Son. Acts 17, 31 says, there's a day coming when God will judge the world by the man he's appointed, Jesus Christ. Jesus is perfect righteousness.
And when God judges us, he doesn't use other people. He uses the standard of his Son. And by that standard, all of us have sinned and all of us have fallen away from God.
Now, some of us have fallen further than others, but it really doesn't matter. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. I like to use this illustration. Think about the distance between the North Pole and the South Pole. The geographic distance between the North and South Poles is considerable.
It's a long way from Santa Claus in the north to the penguins in the south. That difference is considerable, but it's also negligible. Compared to the distance between planet Earth and the farthest planets on the end of our universe, billions and billions of light years away. See what I'm saying? The difference between human beings may seem to be vast, but they're not really that much compared to the distance between us and the perfection of Jesus Christ.
Our self-righteousness is incapable of earning salvation, but there's a second reason God doesn't allow us to earn His forgiveness. If we can earn righteousness, salvation no longer is a gift, but an obligation of God. Let me say it again. If we can earn our righteousness, our right standing with God, then our salvation is not a gift. It is an obligation of God.
Turn in your Bibles over to Romans chapter 4, where Paul explains this so simply we can understand it. He says, What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found? Paul's making the argument that salvation is through faith in God's grace, not in works. He says, Let's look at Abraham.
Now, Abraham. was to the Israelites like George Washington is to us. George Washington is the founder of our country. Abraham was the founder of the nation of Israel. And if anybody could be saved by works, Paul said, it should have been Abraham.
I mean, look at all that he did. He circumcised himself and his servants. He offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice. I mean, he did it all. Was Abraham saved by his works?
That's not what the scripture says. For if Abraham, verse 2, was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and that belief was credited to him as righteousness. Remember early in Abraham's pilgrimage, God said, Abraham.
Wake up, go outside, look at the stars in the sky, see if you can count them. And so he started trying to count the stars in the sky. And God said, So shall your descendants be. And Genesis 15:6 says, At that moment, Abraham believed the promises of God, and his faith was counted as righteousness. Abraham wasn't saved by works.
He was saved by his faith. And then Paul makes this application in verse 4.
Now to the one who works. His wage is not credited as a favor. but as what is due. I should tell you. that tomorrow is a religious holiday for our staff.
Happens twice a month. It's called Pay Day. Every 15th and 30th. And our staff loves to celebrate. But I tell you, we have a wonderful staff.
We really do have a wonderful staff, except for one thing: they are the most ungrateful group of people I've ever met in my life. I mean, it would astound you how ungrateful our staff is. If you don't believe that, Just come sit with me tomorrow. I'm going to be in my office on payday all day, and not one staff member is going to come into my office and say, Oh, thank you, Pastor. I was so surprised by this gift that appeared in my checking account.
You are so gracious. Thank you, Pastor.
Sorry, nobody's going to do that. Just like you don't do it. Why is that? A wage is not a favor. It's not a gift.
It's an obligation. We work and our employer pays us.
So we don't treat it like a favor or a gift. It's an obligation. But notice verse 5, but to the one who does not work. But believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. If salvation is something I earn by works, then God is obligated to save us.
But ladies and gentlemen, God refuses to owe any man or woman. Salvation. It is a gift. Paul said, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
That's why self-righteousness doesn't work. It's incapable of earning salvation, and it turns God's salvation into an obligation.
So that leads to a second kind of righteousness. We call it imputed righteousness. That word impute is an accounting term. It simply means to place to somebody's account. It's the same word.
that is used in Genesis fifteen, six about Abraham. Abraham's faith was imputed, credited to his account as righteousness. This is righteousness that is received as a gift. When you become a Christian, There are two accounting transactions, so to speak, that take place the moment you trust in Christ as your Savior. First of all, God takes all of your sin and He imputes it to Jesus Christ.
When Jesus hung on the cross, he wasn't Hanging there because of his disobedience. But in some inexplicable way, our sin became his sin. Our sin got charged to Jesus' account. But that's not the only thing that happened. the righteousness, the perfection of Jesus got transferred to our account, to those of us who believe in Christ.
Second Corinthians 5 21 explains it this way. God made him Jesus who knew no sin To be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus took our sin. We took his righteousness. It's the great exchange.
Maybe this illustration will help you understand what that means. When our girls were teenagers, they each had checking accounts, and any money they would earn, they would put in a checking account, and I left them alone pretty much to do what they wanted to do. But when they got to a certain age and moved away or moved out of the house, I wanted to give them a little bit of a safety net so if they were accidentally overdrawn, the bank wouldn't refuse payment and they wouldn't have a service performed that they needed, or they'd get an overdraft charge. And so I linked my checking account. to their checking account.
And a strange thing started happening. Every now and then, they were responsible. It didn't happen often, but every now and then I'd look on my statement and I would see a $7.50 charge from Papa John's pizza place. in Waco, Texas. I've never been to Papa John's in Waco, Texas.
I've never had a pizza from Papa John's. I'm sure they're good. But I was being charged for an experience that I didn't have. But that's not all that happened.
Somehow, magically, a bank computer somewhere lifted money out of my account. And placed it into the account of my daughters. They didn't ask for it, they didn't earn it, they had no chance of paying it back, but it got dropped into their account. All because of a decision they made and I made to link our accounts together.
Now, here's what's interesting. When they were 18, No longer, I wasn't capable of making that decision for them. They had to sign a paper that agreed to link their account to my account. Otherwise, they were on their own. When they were 18, they became accountable and they made their decision.
It's the same way in becoming a Christian. God doesn't automatically take our sin debt. God doesn't automatically put His righteousness in our spiritual bank account. It is something that happens only when we agree to that arrangement. Who, in their right mind, wouldn't agree to that arrangement?
Having all of our unrighteousness charged to the account of Jesus Christ and having all of his righteousness put in our account. That's what imputed righteousness is.
Well, what is Paul talking about? The breastplate of righteousness. He's obviously not talking about self-righteousness. Is he talking about imputed righteousness? I don't think so.
No, there's a third kind of righteousness that we have to understand if we're going to put on the breastplate of righteousness, and that is what I call practiced righteousness. That's another phrase for obedience.
Now, before we're saved, our good works, our obedience to God is worthless. But after we're saved, our obedience is invaluable and it's key in protecting us from Satan's attacks. Let me ask you a question. Have you made your life unfriendly to Satan's attacks? You know, after decades of pastoral ministry, I've watched too many Christians lose battles they should have won.
Why? Because they didn't understand the spiritual weapons God has placed at their disposal. That's exactly why I wrote the Divine Defense. This best-selling book takes the six pieces of spiritual armor from Ephesians 6. and shows you how to actually use them in real life.
When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I want to place this game-changing resource in your hands. Here's the best part. Your gift will be leveraged by God to help others understand the liberating power of the divine defense. Let me give you a real-life illustration. Not long ago, I heard from Jodi in North Carolina.
She said, Pastor Jeffress, I struggle almost every day with the attacks of Satan. But God led me to a wonderful church, and I discovered your message series on the radio, The Divine Defense. Each message compelled me to do the work to change my life. That's fantastic, Jodi. And friend, when you financially support Pathway to Victory, you're the one who God is using to reach people like Jodi and countless others.
Thanks so much. Here's David to tell you more. When you give a generous gift to support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory, we'll say thanks by sending you The Divine Defense. That's Dr. Jeffers' best-selling book on demons and spiritual warfare.
You'll get that along with the Equipped for Battle brochure. Just call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. To give by text, simply send PTV to 78800. And when your gift is $100 or more, we'll also send you this month's teaching series on audio and video disc, a companion study guide, plus a book especially for children called Suit Up for Kids.
Now this engaging book equips children with biblical truth and practical lessons on spiritual victory. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Here's that address. P.O.
Box 223-609-Dallas, Texas, 75222. That's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins.
Join us again Wednesday for part two of the message: putting out the not welcome mat, right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Experience a journey that will refresh your spirit and renew your faith on the Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. Sail aboard Holland America's luxurious Coning's Dam through British Columbia's beautiful inside passage.
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