Preached May 2, 1993, morning service First Baptist Church Garrett, Indiana
Dr. Arthur G. Ferry, Jr., Pastor
When was the last time you had a heart examination? A pastor went to visit a heart patient in the hospital and as soon as the pastor walked to the edge of the bed the man began to flail with his hands and to gasp furiously. The pastor said, "Now just be easy, I'm praying for you, your wife is praying for you. We'll take care of your business. Is there anything else I can do for you?" The man said, "Yes, you're standing on my air hose."
Jesus was the Great Physician and He was the first to x-ray the human heart. Jesus was the first to perform the heart transplant. He took the stony heart out and put in a heart of flesh. He is the healer of broken hearts. Heart trouble is the #1 killer in America. Spiritually Jesus recognized heart trouble as the #1 problem. He said in John 14:1, "Let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me."
You see immediately in the verse Jesus says, "you are responsible for the condition of your heart." LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED. It is what you do with your speech, your attitudes. With your thoughts and with the emotions that you allow to fester in your soul, that determine the quality of your heart's condition.
The disease of the heart is common but the remedy is, as Jesus says, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me." This is the remedy for heart trouble. Believe in Jesus as the Son of God. And when you do that, you won't have any heart trouble. You'll have joy unspeakable and full of glory and peace that passeth all understanding.
Paul says in Eph. 6 that everyone on earth is in a supernatural fight for your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being. Your sworn enemy is satan. He is the father of lies. He promises power and pleasure and prosperity and he only gives you shame and sorrow and suffering. He is a roaring lion. He is the angel of light. He is the serpent who's venom kills and destroys everyone he bites. His objective is to rob and to kill and to destroy. Right now satan is searching for a way to destroy you. To destroy your marriage. To destroy your children. To destroy your dreams and to destroy your hopes. He is a powerful advisory and the only way you can stand against him is by putting on the whole armor of God.
God has given us the helmet of salvation, which is hope that protects the mind. And what we will talk about today, the breast plate of righteousness, which protects the heart. And next week we will talk about the sword, the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. This gives you the ability to stand against the powers of satan. Satan is the master of the terrorist attack. He sees you walking down life's road, without the armor of God, and immediately when he sees you, he attacks you with his fiery darts and with it he controls your mind. And he controls your emotions and he controls your thought patterns. And he controls your attitudes and once he has you in this position, you are controlled of satan.
You can take Tylenol and it won't help you. You can stare into a crystal with Shirley McClain and it will not help you. You can snort cocaine until daylight and it won't help you. You can sing peace, peace but you won't have it, until you release the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ into your life. He is the one that can make a difference and no one else.
When we see what Paul revealed to us in Eph. 6, we recognize that it is Jesus' power. He said, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." It is not that your might is wrong, it's just not strong enough. Jesus Christ has the power.
Let's read the text. Eph. 6:10 and following (6:10-14) Turn please to Phil 4:7 "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind thru Christ Jesus."
Look at the phrase, "...will guard your heart..." The word guard is a military term. That is the kind of guarding that will be done thru the peace of Jesus Christ.
Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, let us see in the Scriptures how to guard our hearts, that our lives may be filled with peace that surpasses understanding, in Jesus name we pray and ask it and all of God's children said, praise the Lord.
Paul begins by saying, "Guard your heart with the peace of God". What is the peace of God? We use the phrase "Peace of God so often we no longer know what it means." The search for peace in America has become a major occupation. We have PEACE CORPS, PEACE MARCHES, PEACE PARADES, PEACE CONFERENCES, PEACE TREATIES, PEACENICKS, but there is no peace. The result is that America's streets are filled with young barbarians who will rob, kill with impunity. They do not fear the law. They do not fear being caught.
There is no peace in the home, as 50% of the marriages in America end in divorce. Marriages are made in heaven, so are thunder and lightning. "Arguing with your wife," one man said, "Is as useless as trying to blow out a light bulb."
A woman I know received a card when they were recovering from illness, it said, "As you're recovering, just relax, put your feet up, have people bring you things. You know...pretend you're a man."
Peace. There is no peace at home. Demonstrated by the fact that child abuse has become a national tragedy in America. Just a few weeks ago in Texas a baby was scalded to death in a shower on purpose by parents who no longer wanted it. Children across America are home alone by the tens of thousands.
Murders and rapist roam the streets like packs of wolves, because there are not enough jails to put these people in. They continue to rape and to murder over and over, while the judicial system, while strong enough to give you a traffic ticket, certainly is not strong enough to handle rapist and murders. And if they find him, they will turn him out in a matter of months to let him do it again. It is not right. It is not right when a man can hit you in the head with a pipe and he is out of jail before you are out of the hospital. It is time for the American people to stand up and speak up and change that in this nation.
Peace is the fruit of reconciliation with God. I want you to hear this. The Bible says, "There is no peace sayeth God to the wicked." You cannot be at war with God and have the peace of God. The Bible says, "I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee." There is no peace to the adulterer. There is no peace to the fornicator. There is no peace to the abortionist.
There is no peace to the pornographer. There is no peace to the wife abuser or the child abuser. To the fearful and to the unbelieving. There is no peace to the gossip or the tale bearer. There is no peace to the cold, carnal, compromising Christian. You are numbered in the Word of God with the wicked and God will never give you His peace.
Romans 5:1 says, "being justified by faith we have peace with God." The false prophets of Jeremiah's day said, "Peace, peace" when there was no peace. Too many people today are trying to get adjusted when the really need to get converted. They are hiring counselors to explain their sin instead of going to Calvary and have their sins forgiven.
The Bible says, "Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven." Say that with me (repeat). The Bible says, "Peace on earth good will toward all men." The original text said, "Peace on earth good will toward men who God approves." That last phrase changes the whole meaning. God does not approve of the ungodly.
Peace is the gift of God and begins the moment you reconcile with God.
Secondly, peace is the fruit of responsibility. The result of facing and not fleeing the risk and responsibility of life. Jesus said, "My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives but such as I have, give I yet unto thee." Where was Jesus when He said that? Not in a Ivory Tower of detachment. Not in the presidential suite of the Hilton Hotel. Not at the wedding of Canaan. He said that the night before He was to be Crucified.
The night before He was to carry the sins of the world, He said, "I have peace that surpasses understanding." The night before hell's legends were gathering in Gethsemane to attack the Son of God. The night that He sweat drops of blood. The message He gave thru all of that is, "My peace is greater than the storm." "My peace is greater than the trial." "My peace surpasses understanding." "My peace cannot be stopped by the demons of hell." Try it, you'll really like, says God to the church.
There is a teaching in the church today that if you are going thru a trial you are out of the will of God. That is wrong. Or as we say in Indiana, that is flat wrong. If it were right, than Jesus died out of the will of God. Paul died out of the will of God. The Bible says, "All who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." If you are living a godly life you can believe that you are going to have trouble with the world the flesh and the devil. And if you are having no problems, then there is doubt about the quality of your Christianity.
Sounds a little different when you spit it out that way, doesn't it? And if that rubs your fur the wrong way, turn the cat around, because God doesn't have different strokes for different folks.
The Bible is a Book about trials to face. The Bible is a Book about giants to whip. About battles to fight. About mountains to climb. About seas to go thru. About putting your hand to the plow and not looking back. It's a Book about enduring to the end. About being faithful unto death. That's what this Book is about. So stop running from responsibility, stop running from risk. Stop running from challenge, stop running from life. So take your circumstance and the hand of Jesus and face life. When you put your hand in the hand of God, nothing is impossible. You and God are the majority. So put on the whole armor of God and attack and expect the victory, in Jesus name.
Peace is the fruit of reconciliation. Peace is the fruit of facing the risk and responsibilities of life. And peace is the fruit of righteousness. Recently I made a discovery that in the Old Testament peace is mentioned about 200 times and righteousness is mentioned the same number of times. And generally they are linked together. King David said in Psalm 85 said, "Righteousness and peace have kissed each other."
In the Book of Hebrews, Christ our High Priest is presented as the King of Righteousness and after that He's presented as the Prince of Peace. There's a message here, righteousness comes before peace. The frustration comes when you try to reverse the order. When you want peace without righteousness. It's not possible. Righteousness comes and then peace.
What does righteousness mean. It means "that which is as it ought to be." And God says, "When you live according to My standards, that which is as it ought to be, according to Me, you'll have peace". Therefore if you are a liar, you are not living according to the standard of God and peace is not possible. I-John 3:7 says, "He that does what is right is righteous." Matthew 6, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, then all of these things shall be added unto you.", after you pursue righteousness.
Time, distance, social morays, change in public attitude, new presidential administrations do not create a new moral standard. My moral standard is not established by Bill Clinton, or Hilary Clinton or anybody in the cabinet in Washington D.C. My standard of righteousness is the Lord, Jesus Christ and the Word of God. I'm building on this, not on that.
Quickly in closing. There are 3 dimensions of righteousness in the Scriptures. The first is self-righteousness. Some of you may have that. If you do, I pray you'll get rid of it. The second kind of righteousness is imputed righteousness. Romans 4:22 says, "That which was given to me at the cross." Imputed means, CREDITED TO MY ACCOUNT. When I accepted Christ, He gave me a dazzling white robe of righteousness that covers all my imperfections.
How many of you know that when you were saved your sins were forgiven, but you got up full of imperfections? The critical spirit you knelt down with you can get up with.
The third kind of righteousness is imparted righteousness, that which is done in me. When I was saved, God handed me this book of standards and measurements and said, "make you day to day choices based on what you do out of the Word of God." Imparted righteousness is how I put on the Breastplate. You put on the Breastplate by deciding to live you life by the standards of God, which is as it ought to be.
So, I'm depressed. Should I go out to the Crystal Palace and get drunk? Should I get into the Word of God and find hope for the soul? If you go to the Crystal Palace your armor falls off and you're naked and you're defenseless and Satan sees you walking around without your armor and POW, he's got you.
I'm in financial trouble and Satan says to me, "If you stop tithing you'd have plenty of money." Do I steal from God or do I choose righteousness, by the standards of God. You stop tithing and your armor falls off. Satan is free to attack you. You're totally helpless. Your problems will instantly get worse. Your car will break down. Your refrigerator won't work. Your mother-in-law will move in with you. The IRS will call you and want to check you all the way back to the civil war, to make sure.
The benefits of righteousness. How many of you want God's blessing? The answer is living righteously. Psalm 52 says, "Oh how richly the Lord does bless the righteous." How many of you want God to watch over you and bless you as you live? Than live righteously. Psalm 34 says, "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous." In Job 36, "He does not take His eyes off the righteous." How many of you want God to provide for your children? The Bible says clearly, "I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging bread."
How many of you want God to answer your prayers? The answer is, live righteously. Proverbs 15:29 says, "The Lord HEARS the prayers of the righteous." Psalm 66 says, "If I behold iniquity in your heart, I WILL NOT HEAR YOU." So I plainly telling you, that God does not answer all prayer. When there is iniquity in your heart, God says, "I'm not listening."
I want you to understand, there is a standard of absolute right and absolute wrong. It is the Word of God. This Book says, "The soul that sinneth shall surely die."
Our country is rotting from within with AIDs, addictions, abortions, adultery, pornography, witch craft, satanism, cults, murder, rape, etc. I'm telling you that the eyes of God are on America and when He cannot find sufficient righteous people in this country, by His honor, He will be duty bound to destroy this nation. GUARD YOUR HEART WITH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. And guard this nation with the righteousness of God.
