Effective Prayers： Because of a Righteous Life - Part 4 — Tim Conway

The Breastplate of Righteousness in Spiritual Warfare

That's where we find ourselves this morning. The spiritual warfare. So you can turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 6. One little word shall fell him. Remember that. Pack that away in the back of your mind.

Because we're going to need that before the message is over. Ephesians 6, finally, in verse 10. Ephesians 6 .10, finally. Paul's wrapping up this epistle. "...Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.". And that's where we're at.

We're still dealing with the breastplate of righteousness. Now, I want you to think with me. Have you ever noticed judgment? Judgment Day. I'm going to give you just a few verses. Judgment Day is real.

It is appointed unto every man to die and then the judgment. Isaiah 3. Don't turn to these. Just listen to them. This is an Old Testament. Isaiah. "...Tell the righteous...". This is Isaiah 3. 10 and 11.

"...Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them. For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.". That's what's going to happen. "...You tell them now that deeds is what comes up at the judgment.

Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.". Now let me give you another. This isn't exactly, typically in our thinking, a picture of judgment.

Many of you know this verse. Just listen. This is Ezekiel 18. And God says this, if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all My statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live.

He shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him for the righteousness that he has done. He shall live. If he does what's just and right... See, we could look at that and say, well, no one does that.

No one keeps his commandments perfectly. Yeah, but you're missing it. That text in Ezekiel is not just a theoretical statement. That's an actual statement. That if somebody is wicked and they turn and they begin to do what is just and right, they're going to live.

None of the transgression he's committed shall be remembered against him for the righteousness that he has done. He shall live. See, we can get a little bit unsettled because we begin to feel like, well, wait, this is giving a pretty prominent place to works, it sounds like.

But just listen. I was just reading. I read a big chunk of Revelation this morning in this verse. Revelation 2 .23. All the churches will know that I am He who searches mind and heart. And listen to what Jesus says to the churches in Asia.

I will give to each of you according to your works. In Matthew 16, Jesus said, for the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father. And you know when you get to the end of your Bibles?

The dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. Is imputed righteousness, imputed the merits of Christ, imputed to us. Is that a reality? Of course that's a reality.

Think about a man who's wicked and he turns and he does what's righteous and his transgressions are not held against him. How does that happen? Something happened. Those sins have to be forgiven. Of course, imputed righteousness is a biblical doctrine.

You can't have a wicked person turn and none of his transgressions be remembered unless there is a truth about the righteousness of God like we find in Romans 3, the righteous who believe. It's as we find in chapter 5 of Romans 17, it's a free gift of righteousness.

That imputed reality, it's foundational. But God doesn't stop at imputed righteousness. And you know what one of the greatest proofs of that is, is judgment day. Have you ever noticed, there's not a verse in our Bibles that say that on judgment day, you're gonna be judged according to your faith.

Not a one. There's not one that says you're gonna be judged according to your imputed righteousness. So where am I going with all this? Just this. We're in a battle with the devil. And Paul says, you wanna do battle with the devil?

You need to have the breastplate of righteousness on. Now, we considered imputed righteousness. It's absolutely essential that we understand that doctrine. It's foundational to the gospel. But what we need to recognize is this.

Even in Ephesians, when Paul's using the term righteous, he's not talking imputed righteousness. When he talks about true holiness, true righteousness, he's talking about putting on the new man, which is created in the image of God.

Put off the old man, put on the new. That's how he talks. He talks about walking in the fruit of light, goodness, righteousness. That's how he talks in Ephesians. And so when he comes to tell us that we need to gird ourselves up, last week, I looked at two aspects of this.

Faith Demonstrated Through Works

Now, just very quickly, just in way of review. I want you to know what James said about Abraham. He said, hey, was Abraham justified simply by faith? Now, you know, our brother Martin Luther didn't so much like James because he felt like there was too much works there.

But James actually says, was Abraham justified just by faith? He said, was he not justified also by works? And even Rahab? You see, the thing he's saying is this. Faith without works is dead. What happens is our works complete our faith.

Why? Because if you truly believe something, it's gonna show in the way you live. That's always the case. And that's basically what he's saying. Listen, true Christianity is always God at work. True Christianity is an action of God.

It is an activity of God. True Christianity is not dead religion. God is at work and God is doing things. The whole thing is the action of God. And any notion that is mainly something that we do and we're trying to do and pull ourselves up by our own efforts.

Listen, here in Ephesians, what Paul says is this. He says, we are his workmanship, God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before him that we should walk in them.

What you need to remember is this, that if God saves us, we are his workmanship. What does that mean? He's the craftsman, we're on his tool bench and he goes to work on us. And what does he go to work to do?

That our lives might spill forth with these good works, which he actually ordained. We heard about this love that God had for us and being blown away. I've been blown away by that. You come to recognize, wow, Christ thought about me on the cross, but even beyond that to blow our minds is we were chosen before the foundation of the world.

That's here in Ephesians two. And the end of God through before the world began, God hadn't only chosen a people, he also was putting together the fruit that would be on the tree. He had ordained the things that he wants us to do.

Now look at, we're not passive in this because remember what it says in the Philippian letter, we're to work on our own salvation with fear and trembling. But why do we work out our salvation with fear and trembling?

All in our own power, all in our own strength? Never. His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. That's what he's doing. And so you know what? When you get to judgment day, there's gonna be good works there.

Why? Because that's what God saves us to do. Or we saw it over in Titus chapter two to be, he gave himself a people of his own possession, zealous of good works. This is what we're up against. We're not passive in this.

So the question is this, how does this help us in our battles with the devil? How does... And I want you to look at a verse. 1 Timothy 5 .14. Now this is only in review because I dealt last week with the glory of God, but I want you to see it again.

The question that we're seeking to answer, how does putting on the righteousness, practical righteousness, me doing good, me doing good deeds, which is what I'm gonna be judged for in the end. And you remember this, I love coming back to this, but I was hungry and you fed me.

Those on his left, I was hungry, you didn't feed me. You see, that's the issue. It's not intention, it's what you actually did. And brethren, we're all headed there. We're all in this room, we're headed towards that day of judgment.

And what we're told is, it's not gonna be intention. It's not gonna be, you know, well, I hope to get it right. If I was in the car accident, I was hoping that I would repent at the end. It's not, well, you know, I wanted to help them, but I just never got around to it.

But what I'm interested in is this, how does it shield us? How does practical righteousness shield us? Oh, it shields us. Obviously it shields us on the day of judgment. How does it shield us in the way of put on the breastplate of righteousness?

I mean, we're at war against cosmic powers. And Paul says, put that on. Okay, look at 1 Timothy 5 .14. So it almost just, you know, a text out of the blue. I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households.

See, this is all good. You know, when you think about fruit, you don't have to simply think about going to a foreign mission field and invest her life in them, manages her household well. But notice this, give the adversary no occasion for slander.

Isn't that interesting? Who is he gonna slander? Who is he talking to? As I said last week, the devil's a talker. And you remember from the book of Revelation that he is an accuser of the brethren. And so he's constantly accusing, constantly slandering.

So do you recognize what's happening here? If you have a woman who doesn't tend her household well, she doesn't remarry, she just goes around being, it gives the devil an occasion to slander. This is what I was talking about before, that by this, our father is glorified.

You remember how Jesus said in John 15, by this, your father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. And so prove to be my disciple. You see, brethren, one of the ways that, we wanna glorify God. And in fact, that's what we're told to do.

Let your light so shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who's in heaven. We wanna give glory. And the devil is very happy to have us have a life full of sin and wretchedness and worldliness.

Why? Because he's a talker and he's just gonna put you down to Christ. Like I said last time, you have to remember what happened in the book of Job. That still happens today. That, you know what? When you don't live up to the light you have, when you don't live in the power of the cross, when you don't live righteously, you give the devil reason to talk.

And one of the ways that we do battle with the devil by righteous lives is we close his mouth. The second thing, testimony. And what we looked at was, we looked at two texts primarily. The one from second Timothy, where you have the master of the house and he goes and he pulls a clean vessel out of the cupboard.

And you know, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver. And then I specifically talked about wives. Again, be subject to your own husband so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.

And so basically what I was showing is this, twofold. If your life is righteous, Christ will take you off the shelf and use you. If your life is dirty, you don't get used. Full testimony to the watching lost husband.

And I would say that of all of us, to the watching lost world, same thing. Now listen, you know what the devil does? The devil is the devil. The devil is the bird that in the parable of the soils is plucking up seed.

In fact, listen to what it says. The seed that gets thrown along the path, that's those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

You see what the devil's doing? He's doing things. He's trying to, there in 2 Corinthians 4, it says he blinds the eyes of unbelievers. You know one of the ways he blinds the eyes? You know one of the ways he plucks the seed?

Just ungodly professing Christians. That is such an easy way for him to pluck the seed out of hearts. Because you know what? Gives no credibility to it. There's no reality. Look, you look at them. They're just as willing to laugh at a crude joke as the rest of the people at work.

They're just as willing to pilfer paper and paper clips and just like the rest of the people. They're just as willing to go long on their breaks as the rest of the people. They're just willing to gossip and you see what happens?

It kills. So there's another thing. Brethren, think with me here. If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

So flee youthful passions. Pursue righteousness. Why? For usefulness. You know what people that are running well and living righteous lives, they're the ones, people sloppy, people whose lives are not a good example, they're not the ones that the Lord is using and they're not the wives that are gonna win the husband.

It's clearly Peter says there's a certain kind of life that wins the lost. And so the devil is trying to snatch seed up. So you know this, the devil is all about us losing our testimony. That was my second point last time.

When you have a righteous life, you not only silence his mouth, you give God glory, but you also, listen, he is the strong man and he is trying to keep his goods safe. And what happens is that if the Lord finds you an acceptable vessel to use, he will begin to use you.

Christ's Authority Over Demons

And what happens is power comes through you. Very well, Satan can lose his precious goods. Okay, now I'm gonna come to a third point. We're talking about righteousness, the breastplate of righteousness and fighting the spiritual forces of evil.

That's what we're talking about. Now I wanna show you something. Turn to Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four. You know this, but I just want us reminded. Luke 4 .33, in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon.

So that's what we're dealing with. I mean, when we're dealing with spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, this is exactly what we're dealing with. These cosmic powers of this present darkness.

Here it is. You have a demonic spirit, a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice. Now think with me. Loud voice, loud. See, I'm raising my, this demon cried out with a loud, this demon is in a person.

And listen, this man, there was a man who had a spirit with this demon. He cried out with a loud voice. Now, let me tell you something. If you have the ESV, the English Standard Version, or the New American Standard, you see an exclamation that just says, H-A, ha.

If you have the King James Version or the New King James, it is untranslated. They didn't translate the word. And when you go look at the ESV here, A-H, as well as H-A, it can be, ah. Listen, look at the context.

This demon is not laughing. Ha, ha, ha. This is a scream. If you've got eyes to see it. I mean, if we look at the original here, this is a cry. This isn't sarcasm like, ha, ha, ha. He says, ah, have you come to destroy us?

You see it there. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. In other words, you are one who is able to destroy us. That's what's happening here. These fallen angels are not mocking. And you know, it's interesting.

You often get an unclean demon, and yet he speaks in a plurality. But what I want you to see is, you know when a demon comes face to face with Christ, you see what's happening here. I mean, you know, go.

I talked about one little word shall fell him. You know where that was. That was the demoniac, the whole legion. Go. And they went to the pigs. But I'll tell you what. They said even in that, don't throw us in the pit.

Don't throw us in the abyss. Have you come to destroy us? You see what's happening. These demons are just trying to survive. The stark reality. You know what they're being stared in the face with? The stark reality of total destruction.

You can see it from the text. And he says, he rebuked it. Said, be silent, come out of him. And you know what? When Jesus has come out, they come out. When Jesus says go, they go. It's the Lord Jesus.

This is what I want you to see. It is the Lord Christ who puts fear in these cosmic powers. The devil himself. It is Christ who shakes the foundations of hell and the devil knows it. Now think about what we're talking about.

We're talking about righteousness and the devil. Satan attacks any of us. What would be really useful is to have Jesus show up just like he did there in Luke chapter four and confront the enemy of our souls.

Wouldn't that be helpful? I mean to have, I think of his disciples. You know what? Think about those guys. I mean, they come up. What's your name? Legion. There's whole bunches. I mean, I've heard demons speak out of people before.

And there's shrieks and it is a terrifying thing. I can imagine that some of the contortions, I mean, you even see here. It threw him down, but it didn't do him any harm. I mean, people that have demons, voices come out of them, screams, hideous screams.

Multiple voices will come out of people. Baritone voices out of women. And you can imagine the disciples, they're watching this all the time, but you know what? They probably got to the place where, well, we got Jesus with us.

I mean, he takes care of it every single time. And you notice that's one of the main things that Jesus did. In fact, when you get over to the book of Acts, that's one of the primary things. It says he went about doing good, casting out demons, healing everybody that had demons.

I mean, he did this a lot. And what would be really useful to us is to have Jesus show up every single time that we're confronted, just like his disciples got used to. And I'll tell you, that's what the devil fears.

He fears when Jesus shows up. What terrifies the devil is God showing up. It's when we can say the power of the Lord was there. I mean, that's... Listen, there's really only one thing the devil fears.

Not three. It's the power of God showing up. That's what brings Satan crashing down and the gates of hell thrown open before us. That's what it is. It's the naked power of God. It is not the things that so often people are after in churches.

You know, you get churches and what happens? Well, they want the worship team. Do you know this? The devil does not shake at worship teams. He doesn't shake at buildings. He's not overly concerned about our Calvinism.

That doesn't really stir him. That doesn't cause him a whole lot of a Arminian church or charismatic church or anything else. It doesn't really bother him. Big crowds don't bother him. Full bank accounts don't bother him.

He doesn't fear those things. Doesn't really fear prayer meetings even when you know everybody's praying for Aunt Margaret, sore knees and toes and back and neck and... Brethren, I'll tell you what. The devil fears that which unleashes the torrents of God's power against him.

That's what concerns him. And this is precisely where righteousness comes in. Now, brethren, I'm going to give you a number of verses right here. And I want you to take this to heart because this is reality.

Righteousness, Prayer, and Spiritual Power

The first one I want you to go to is James 5. And we are talking right now, we dealt with the glory of God, how that by righteousness, we glorify God, we close Satan's mouth, testimony. Righteousness gives us a good testimony, makes us powerful witnesses to the gospel.

When the devil's constantly trying to prove that we're just a bunch of... We're dealing with prayer. Prayer, righteousness and prayer. You see, the thing is, what would really be beneficial to us, really beneficial, is that when we have to go up against the devil, Christ shows up.

That's what would really be really beneficial. But you know what? We have it on good authority that there are people in Scripture who are able to call Christ to the scene, to call God the Father to the scene when he's needed.

Now notice this, James 5, verse 16, the prayer of a righteous person, because that's what we're talking about. We're talking about putting on the breastplate of righteousness. How that enables us to resist the devil.

Here is one of the, this is one of the primary ways. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James is no hyper-Calvinist. He doesn't say, well, God's gonna do what God's gonna do and prayer's gonna get answered if prayer's gonna get answered.

It doesn't matter the righteousness in your life. He's righteous. He has an effectiveness in his prayer life. That's exactly what he's teaching. And you're gonna see this over and over. I'm gonna bring verse after verse.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Don't you love that? Sometimes we get this idea, Moses, Elijah. You can look at these guys and you can think, well, they were superhuman.

Nope, they weren't. They were made of the same stuff you and I are. They were flesh and blood given to sin. They were given to failure. They were given to faults. They were given to weakness. They were made of flesh and blood.

That's what's being emphasized. But he was a righteous man. And in the same way, made of the same stuff we are, we can be righteous people. We can pursue righteousness. We can put on the new man created in the likeness of God, true righteousness and holiness.

We can put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We can put on the armor of light. Notice this. He had a nature like ours. He prayed fervently that it might not rain and for three years and six months, it didn't rain.

He prayed again and heaven gave rain. He was just like us. You know what that's saying? Oh, you know, what do you want to say? I know what you want to say. Well, that was Elijah. You know, if we get talking about, well, you know, there was a man who he prayed and it didn't rain for three and a half years.

Oh yeah, but he was a prophet. He lived back in the Old Testament. He did lots of miracles. You write it off. And you see what James is not wanting us to do is he doesn't want us to write it off because he wants to tell us he was made of the same stuff.

Why would he tell us this? You know what he's telling us? He is telling us that if we not become a prophet, he's not saying you got to become a prophet like Elijah. He's saying you need to live a righteous life like Elijah.

You do see that that's what's being said. And that if you do, the prayer of a righteous person is very effectual. That's what's being said. God shows up. I mean, that's what happened with Elijah. Elijah didn't have the power in himself to make it not rain for three and a half years and then pray again.

And there it is. And he prayed seven times. It was like a man's fist. And then, you know, Ahab, you better get home quick because the rain's coming. And he didn't have the power to do that. God had the power to do that.

And God has the power to defeat the devil. And the devil knows it. And you know what he really fears? Because the devil is not a hyper-communist. The devil doesn't say, well, I just know that God can do what God's going to do and it doesn't matter what people do.

He knows better than that. He has seen the prayers of righteous people have often... You hear what the apostle said to that Roman church. Satan's head is going to be crushed under your feet shortly. Or God's going to crush it under your feet shortly.

But it's under their feet. The Roman Christians. Really? Is that how it works? Yep. God uses means and we need to recognize that. And one of the means that he uses, and James is obviously hitting on, is righteousness.

Righteous people who pray. The devil gets concerned about. That is what causes him concern. People who have a special ability with God to draw down power from on high. Why? Because it defeats him and it advances the kingdom of Christ.

Now, I'm going to take you to another one that I've taken you to various times in the last few months, but I want you to see it again. Isaiah 58. Now go to the Old Testament. Isaiah 58, verse seven. I'll give you just a second to find that.

Isaiah 58, verse seven. Share your bread. Now, what are we looking at? We're looking at righteousness. You see, we're looking at pouring ourselves out for others. We're looking at love. Love is really the fulfillment of righteousness because doing right is doing what God wants.

God's law can be summed up. All the law and the prophets can be summed up in love. Love sums up the commandments. Love sums up righteousness. And you see, a righteous life. Share your bread with the hungry.

Why? I mean, doing this kind of righteousness, what's the benefits of it? Bring the homeless poor into your home. What are the benefits of Matthew 25? I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me.

Over against those who didn't do it. But notice, there's promises attached here. When you say, don't hide yourself from your own flesh. And then shall your light break forth like the dawn. Your healing shall spring up speedily.

Your righteousness shall go before you. You see the righteousness there. It goes before them. They have a reputation. And what happens? That's what it means when something goes before you. It's like, there's a reputation of righteousness among people who pour themselves out for others.

Notice verse nine. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. Then, not anyway, regardless of how you live. No, then, based on living a life like that. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer.

You shall cry and he will say, here I am. I love that verse. I live, my faith clings to that verse. You want powerful prayer meetings. You want a powerful prayer life. You want that kind of righteousness in your life.

Righteousness and Confidence in Prayer

It's righteousness Isaiah connects with answered prayer. Okay, now turn all the way to the other end of your Bible. First John chapter three. Let's see it here. First John chapter three. First John chapter three, verse 22.

You see, these are very conditional promises concerning prayer. And they're connected with righteousness. That's what I want you to see. Brethren, if we're gonna be the kind of people that are able to call God to our aid and call down power from heaven.

If we're able to be like the kind of effectual praying man like Elijah, what has to be true? Not just that we pray. Praying is good. Praying is necessary. You can never be powerful in prayer if you're not praying.

But brethren, I'll tell you what these verses tell us if we can waste a lot of breath, if there's not a real... Whatever we ask, we receive from Him. Because it's conditional. Because what? We keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.

You see, there it is again, what pleases Him? Well, that we love one another. I mean, what is the commandment? You can sum all the commandments up in that. Snowball them all together. And what? They come down to this, love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Love your neighbor as yourself. You can basically sum up all the commandments in love. Keep His commandments, do what pleases Him. And then you ask and you receive from Him. Okay, now go to 1 Peter. Jump back a couple books.

1 Peter. I'm gonna show you three verses from Peter that I know most of you have read them before, but I wonder, have you really read them? Have they caught your attention? Have you really applied them?

Notice what they mean with regards to your prayer life. 1 Peter 3 .12. Notice this, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. What Peter's doing is he's quoting Psalm 34, but notice his ears are open to their prayer.

The righteous. Now you think what John said, whatever we ask, we receive, why? Because we keep His commandments, we do what pleases Him. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. His ears are open to their prayer.

Now, I wanna ask you, when you pray, do you see this reality? I'm asking you, do you have a pattern of answered prayer in your life? Is there a reality? Does God say, here I am when you pray? Have you seen that reality?

You cry out to the Lord for something. He says, here I am. And you know He's saying that because of how fast sometimes, I mean, sometimes maybe He makes you wait a little longer to answering the prayer, but you see just a consistent pattern.

1 Peter, look up just a few verses at 3 .7. Husbands, likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life.

Here's what I want you to see, so that your prayers may not be hindered. If you don't think that as Christians, unrighteousness hinders your prayers, you better read that right there. Men, you wanna hinder your prayer life?

Just don't live in a right way with your wife. Righteousness and prayer are connected. Go down to 1 Peter 4. Go one chapter later to 1 Peter 4 .7. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, here's righteousness in the life.

Be self-controlled, is what we were talking about the other night. Denying self, self-control, buffeting the body. Be self-controlled, sober-minded. Why? For the sake of your prayers. See, brethren, this isn't just me arguing this way.

This is the way Scripture argues, for the sake of your prayers. What is that? You know what that means? It means for the sake of answered prayers. Do any of you pray just because you wanna pray? Do any of you find your great delight in praying, no matter whether there's an answer to it or not?

Do you come to prayer meeting just because, well, that's what you're supposed to do? And prayers, you know, you gotta put a notch on your belt every time you do it, because after all, that's part of just what...