Looking Unto Jesus
A Sermon on Ephesians 6:14
Originally preached April 15, 1962
Scripture
14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Sermon Description
Christians live in a daily battle where the devil is continuously trying to entice them to disobedience and sin. How then do they stand against the enticements that seem to be forever in their path? In this sermon on Ephesians 6:14 titled “Looking Unto Jesus,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones dives into the answer , revealing that the breastplate of righteousness is the only thing that can protect the Christian. Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains how putting on the breastplate of righteousness means looking to Jesus and following His example. It is through taking eyes off of the enticements of the devil and turning them on to Jesus that the Christian can be victorious. A Christian’s job is to follow the example of their Savior, and the breastplate of righteousness is what helps them do this by reminding them that Jesus has imputed and imparted His righteousness to them. During the hardest trials and temptations, the Christian can be comforted by the fact that Jesus also faced the same temptations, and can be encouraged by the example of obedience, humility, and surrender that Jesus gave us to follow.
Sermon Breakdown
- The apostle Paul exhorts believers to put on the breastplate of righteousness in Ephesians 6:14.
- The breastplate protects the seat of emotions, affections, conscience, desires and will. The devil attacks believers here to bring discouragement, accusations, bondage and condemnation.
- Putting on the breastplate of righteousness is the only way to withstand the devil's temptations and attacks. Mere morality and rules cannot help.
- Negatively, believers must realize the old man is dead, they are dead to sin, dead to Satan's dominion and dead to the law. The law cannot save and only aggravates the problem of sin.
- Positively, putting on the breastplate of righteousness means looking to Jesus, considering what He endured and following His example. His righteousness satisfies God's law and delivers believers.
- Jesus humbled Himself, took the form of a servant, endured contradiction from sinners and was tempted in the wilderness and Gethsemane. He resisted sin even to the point of death. Believers must look to Him.
- Believers must consider why Jesus endured all He did. Not just to save from hell but to make believers good, separate them as a people zealous for good works, enable them to deny ungodliness and live righteously.
- The consequences of Jesus' work for believers who look to Him are that they are new men with a new nature, their old man is dead and their life is hidden with Christ in God.
- Believers must walk carefully, resist the devil, strive against sin and live for Christ as He enables them. There are no shortcuts. Believers must work to understand the meaning and message of Jesus' life, death and resurrection.
Sermon Q&A
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Breastplate of Righteousness: Questions and Answers
What does it mean to "put on the breastplate of righteousness" according to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones?
According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, putting on the breastplate of righteousness means taking the great New Testament phrases and expressions of doctrine and discovering what they mean in actual detail in life. It involves both negative and positive aspects. Negatively, it means realizing that our old man is dead, we are dead to sin, dead to Satan's kingdom, and dead to the law. Positively, it means "looking unto Jesus," understanding why He died for us, and actively realizing that we are new creatures in Christ. As Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains, "There are no shortcuts in this spiritual Christian life. Don't think there's some magical formula that you can suddenly get... you've got to look unto Jesus, you've got to consider Him, you've got to follow Him."
Why is the breastplate of righteousness necessary for a Christian?
The breastplate of righteousness is necessary because it covers the most sensitive parts of our being - "the seat of the affections and the emotions, the conscience, the desires and the will." Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that the devil specifically attacks us in these areas through moods, feelings, accusations, temptations to sin, and attempts to bring us back into bondage and condemnation. The breastplate protects us from these attacks. Lloyd-Jones emphasizes, "Nothing else can help us. The world is proving that all the efforts of the world to teach morality and to keep people to the narrow path, clearly and obviously failing round and about us. This is the only way."
How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones explain the Christian's relationship to the law?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones teaches that Christians are "dead to the law" because Christ fulfilled it completely for us. He states, "The law of God, because of our sinful state, actually incites us to sin, stimulates it. The very law of God, because of our condition, not only can't save us, it even aggravates our problem." When the devil tries to put believers back under the law, Dr. Lloyd-Jones urges Christians to resist by saying, "No, I'm not under the law. I'm dead to it, I'm finished with it." He emphasizes that "there is no more liberating thought than just that" - understanding that we are no longer under the law but under grace.
What role does "looking unto Jesus" play in putting on the breastplate of righteousness?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones places great emphasis on "looking unto Jesus" as the primary way to put on the breastplate of righteousness. He explains that by considering what Christ endured - His humiliation, temptations, suffering, and death - we gain strength for our own spiritual battles. "The way to put on the breastplate of righteousness is to realize all that and to watch him and to see what he did," he states. By looking at Christ's example and understanding how He resisted temptation and endured suffering, Christians gain the motivation and power to follow His pattern of righteousness. Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that "the saints of the centuries have always done this" - finding strength through fixing their gaze on Christ.
What does Dr. Lloyd-Jones teach about the purpose of Christ's death?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones teaches that Christ died not merely to save us from hell and punishment (the negative aspect), but positively "to make us good." He explains, "He died that we might be forgiven. He died to make us good." Quoting from Titus 2:11-14, Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that Christ "gave himself for us" to "redeem us from all iniquity and separate and purify unto himself a special, peculiar people, zealous of good works." The purpose was "that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." Lloyd-Jones stresses that Christ's death wasn't so we could be forgiven and continue sinning, but rather that we might be transformed into people who "deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world."
The Book of Ephesians
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.