SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/18/2019 11:49 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Breastplate of Righteousness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:14b
Message of the verse: “and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.”
I want to continue our study with a quote from John
MacArthur: “Paul gloried in his imputed
righteousness, which only God’s saving grace can bestow. But he did not presume on it as many
believers throughout the history of the church have done. Christians who say that it doesn’t really
matter how they think or talk or act, because all sins—past, present, and
future—are covered by Christ’s blood, reflect their presumption and
vulnerability to the enemy. It is this irrational
and unscriptural argument that Paul counters in Romans 6. ‘Are we to continue in sin that grace might
increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in
it?...Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in
your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting
the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present
yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments
of righteousness to God’ (vv. 1-2, 11-13).
Jesus died to save us from every aspect of sin, its presence as well as
its power and penalty.”
Now comes the new part of putting on the armor that is
different to me, and we saw a little bit of this with the belt of truth. Here is how John MacArthur describes we are
to put on the breastplate of righteousness:
“To put on the breastplate of righteousness is to live in daily,
moment-by-moment obedience to our heavenly Father. This part of God’s armor is holy living, for
which God supplies the standard and the power but for which we must supply the
willingness. God Himself puts on our imputed righteousness, but
we must put on our practical righteousness.
“Not to be armored with the breastplate of righteousness will first of all cost the Christian his joy. John’s first epistle contains many warnings and commands to believers, and those are given—along with the other truths of the letter—‘so that our joy may be made complete’ (1 John 1:4). In other words, lack of obedience brings lack of joy. The only joyful Christian is the obedient Christian.”
When believers live a life that is full of emotional and
relational problems it can be seen that they are also living an unholy
lifestyle and are in need of having the Spirit of God search their hearts and
then confess their sins and then they will get right with the Lord. “The successful Christian life is a series of
new beginnings.” When David
lusted after Bathsheba and the lust turned into adultery and then murder, David
was miserable for probably a year, and then once Nathan came to talk to him
about his sinfulness David wrote two Psalms, 32 and 51, and in Psalm 51:12 he
wrote “Restore to me the
joy of Thy salvation.” David wanted
the joyfulness of salvation to return to him, and the only way that could
happen is to confess his sin to the Lord, which David did.
In our next SD, Lord willing, we will look at some of the
problems that are in many churches today as they do not teach people concerning
the armor of God.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I desire to live
a holy life and when I fail I must confess my sins to the Lord in order to have
once again “the joy of my salvation.”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
As I look at the truth that God will
supply everything I need in order to live a holy life, then I can see that I
will certainly have nothing to be proud about, but only humility in trusting
the Lord to cause me to live a holy life.
Today’s Quotation from
“Love in Action comes from Acts 2:44-45.
All who believed were together; and
had all things in common,
and sold their possessions and goods,
and divided them among all,
as anyone had need.
Acts 2:44-45
10/18/2019 12:48 PM
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