Turn with me in your Bibles to
Ephesians chapter six. We are moving right along in
this letter, and in a few short weeks we will be finished, having
completed nearly sixty-six sermons in this letter. I'm not saying
it couldn't have been less, but it surely could have been more. A listing here that Paul is beginning
to show us. If you look there in chapter
six, starting in verse 14. Let's start in verse 10 and read
through the end of verse 20. To get our minds back around
it. 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 withstand in the evil egg and having done all stand
firm. Stand therefore. having fastened
on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of black
righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the
readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances,
take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all
the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation
and take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God praying
at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.
To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication
for all the saints and also for me, that words may be given to
me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the
gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare
it boldly as I ought to speak. I think we need to understand
a few things as we close this letter. I could go back and reevaluate
all of the letter to the Ephesians, I can remind us of everything
that we've learned. But I believe what Paul now is going to do
as he begins to talk about this quote, armor of God, is he's
going to do a review of all that he's taught the people of Ephesus.
He's going to show them who they are. He's going to show them
the power that God has given them in Christ Jesus. He's going
to teach them the discipline of taking and standing and putting
on that which is given them already by God through Christ. So, friends,
there's much mistake that has taken place through the years
in teaching such things as spiritual warfare. I want to remind us
of that, not claiming to have it all correct, but understanding
that the text itself, especially here in Ephesians six, speaks
for itself. We don't have to have this alternative
interpretation. Let the Bible say what the Bible
says. That's why it's important that
we study the Word of God without the Word of God being studied
and read. We are powerless to stand against
the schemes of the devil. We know that in this Paul is
showing something as Pastor Lucas shared with us two weeks ago
that God has granted and given and therefore equips every Christian
with. This is not something we are
going to try to find something that we're trying to manifest,
but rather has already been manifest in Christ Jesus for the church.
Well, I can promise you this, that if everyone were to think
just a few minutes about their life presently in the last few
days, the last few weeks and what they may expect tomorrow
as they wake up, I promise you that most of us, if not all of
us in the room, would say we are dealing with a battle. We
are dealing with a war, whether it be understanding what our
future might be, whether it be understanding how to deal with
a relational problem. Maybe it's we're stressful and
we don't understand why we cannot overcome the anxiety of life.
Maybe we are dealing with marital issues, financial issues, physical
issues. Maybe we're being persecuted
by those who claim to be brothers and sisters in Christ. Maybe
we're just apathetic. Maybe we just find ourselves
not interested in spiritual things and we're fearful of that and
frustrated by that. Maybe we don't know how to understand
the will of God. Maybe we read the Bible and we
find ourselves disinterested or not quite comprehending what
it is that God is commanding us to do. Whatever be your case,
I can promise that you are in the war. You are not not fighting. And as we'll see today, sometimes
the fight is for the devil to make you think that you're not
fighting. Friends, I believe that is one of the biggest fights.
That is why I believe Paul, then in this metaphor, begins to talk
about taking up the armor of God so that we might stand firm,
having put it on. So what in the world is this
armor? Well, if you look at this text, you see the sentence. It
just tells you it says that Fasten on the belt of truth, having
fastened the past tense, we cannot engage in war until we're prepared
to be engaging in war. So we don't dare stand without
being prepared, as we'll see. Though we fasten on the belt
of truth, a breastplate of righteousness, the gospel as our shoes. the shield of faith, the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God. Then the action, therefore, as
we are dressed for battle is praying at all times in the Spirit
of God. Reminds me a lot of Romans 8,
where Paul does tell the church in Rome to pray. And when you
cannot pray, when we are weak, the Spirit of God prays for us.
and intercedes with words and moments that cannot be understood.
And so the spirit of God knows the mind of God. So therefore,
the spirit prays the will of God for us and our weaknesses. So, friends, before we get there,
we need to understand the elements of that. Oftentimes, what I think
happens is that Christians pray and they're desperately seeking
to understand prayer and understand the will of God. But they first
have not established the foundation of effective prayer, which is
true. The belt of truth, the girdle
of truth. Friends, if you think about it
for a moment, think about a belt. What does a belt do? A belt holds
up our pants today. Brother Dave is now a law enforcement
officer and he has a belt that holds up his pants and he has
a belt that holds everything else he needs. And then he needs
a belt to hold the belt that holds the belt. And so belts
are important for preparation. If you're an electrician or you're
a painter, you have a belt that holds the tools that you need
when you're up a scaffold that you don't have to. I need a screwdriver.
I climb down five floors and I go back up. Oh, I need a hammer.
I climb down. You have it with you. We have
a belt. that prepares us to have the
tools that we need. And I would suggest to you, as
we start to look in the next few weeks about the armor of
God, that the belt metaphorically is speaking specifically about
everything that ties all the tools needed together. The breastplate
of armor tucks into the belt. Otherwise, when we're running,
it flops up into our face. If you think about the tunic
of Rome, you think about the tunic of the days of the first
century, that was a flowing robe. It looked like a house dress
or a long nightshirt. And just sort of had a hole in
the bottom and a hole in the top and a hole in the sides for your
arms. You can't walk around like that. You can't fight like that.
You can't run like that. Even we see in Luke 15 where
the father saw the son at a great distance and he girded up his
loins and ran to meet the son. Why did he do that? Because if
he hadn't done that, this text would have read, he fell on his
face advancing toward the son and scuffed his teeth out of
his mouth. That's what he would have said. Now, that's not what
we want to do. We want to stand firm, having
fastened the belt of truth around our waist, the belt of truth
that prepares us foundationally to hold all that which God has
given us. So let's think about it for a
moment. Standing firm four times, Paul says to stand, stand, stand,
stand. Now he says, stand therefore,
having fastened, having doing something, having received something,
having utilized and applied something to our lives. We stand firm in
order that we might stand firm against the schemes of the enemy
of God, the devil himself and his minions. And so what that
teaches us is that Standing is the position in which we should
be as believers. Standing is the position of readiness,
even in our institutions across the world, whether it be a prison
or a school. What we do when we have mass,
large groups of people, we want to move them from one place to
another. We first say, please be quiet. And then we say, please
quietly stand to your feet and turn to the right, because you
can't just say, OK, everybody go out that door. Some people
might run, some people might chase one another, some people
might decide I'll stay here. It's sort of like being in the
theater. Have you ever decided you wanted to leave just before
the end or the credits and all of a sudden there's people that
have already had that idea and they just massively try to get
everybody out of that one little door in the trash can right in
the middle full of food and drink. When you just feel like you're
trampled. You didn't get up out of your seat fast enough. You
didn't stand up quick enough. And so everybody's got their
butts in your face. You turn around, there's a butt to the
left and a butt to the right and a butt behind you. And their rear end's
all over the place and you can't get up. And they're saying, excuse
me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. And it's just, it's a very
uncomfortable position. I envision that when I think
of not being prepared to fight spiritually. Is that we're in
the midst of a lot of people standing and it's an uncomfortable
position. in which we are very unprepared
and not only are we unprepared, because we're unprepared, we're
vulnerable. If we aren't standing to face the enemy, if we aren't
standing to face the challenges of the day, we don't understand
what it means when Paul tells Timothy to endure the suffering
as a soldier. You know what that means? That
means here comes the suffering. It's sort of like the old Godzilla
movies. You know, the Godzilla movies
back in the day, and I remember watching them as a kid, and it
was so amazing that there's this gigantic lizard, a gigantic lizard. What in the world? Lizard stomping
all over Tokyo, Japan. And everybody's going, Godzilla,
Godzilla. And they're scared to death. What they don't do
is run toward Godzilla. But the brave soldiers get in
their jets and get in their machine gun back jeeps, and they bop,
bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop,
bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop,
bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop,
bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop,
bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, They run away from Godzilla.
They are standing firm, facing their enemy. They're not enduring
the suffering. They're going, I don't know about
you, but I'm out of here. You want to be stupid? Go ahead.
That's what we do when fear comes. We run from fear, which is sort
of a review of what we've already learned. But the Christian cannot
run from the wiles of Satan. The Christian cannot defeat Satan. But God has. And Christ has,
and Christ will. We are to stand knowing. Young
Timothy, Paul says, endure the suffering like a good soldier.
What that means to endure is when we see suffering, we do
not run. We do not step out of the way.
We do not dodge it to keep it from tackling us. We stand firm
underneath the suffering because God has ordained it and God has
succeeded already in it. The wrong prayer is for God to
take our burdens from us. without thanking Him for them
first. It's often like the rain. Last
year we were in a drought. Oh, God, please rain. Please
let it rain. Please let it rain. We pray for rain for nine months
and it rains for nine months. Oh, God, please stop the rain.
Please stop the rain. But yet, have I ever heard anyone
praise God for the drought and praise God for the flood? We
don't know how to pray because we don't have truth. We don't
know how to stand because we don't have truth. We don't know
how to react and respond and learn and live and love and be
engaged in spiritual battle because we don't have truth. That's why
Paul says in this metaphor, fastening the belt of truth. This is what
prepares us to face the enemy. The idea of standing is the position
of readiness, the position of engagement, the absolute resolve
to face the enemy with no fear. Of failure. So see that list
that I sort of came up with just then off the top of my head about
how we all are in a battle and probably apply to most everybody
in the room in some way. Some of us are in the battle
of having this spiritual battle not be effective. We don't feel
like we're ever going to be effective. And friends, you're right. We
aren't effective, but the power of God is effective. As Paul
prays at the end of chapter three of Ephesians, now to him who
is able to do far more than anything we could ever think or ask. Be
the glory forever and ever in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations. And we don't have. What it takes,
because we're not standing prepared, so let's think about the preparation
for readiness to battle ensues against the people of God, just
to review. And the reason battles ensue, according to James, Chapter
one, is because we are tempted by the very things we desire.
Oftentimes we think of spiritual battles, we think of temptation
to sin, and that's part of it. But that's such a small amount
of it, because I believe that most Christians who are disciplined
in the attitude of prayer and study scripture and togetherness
and worship in the church, they don't struggle with active participant
sin. They don't struggle with so much
sinfulness. That's why the Bible says that
if you're not in covenant with the church and you're out of
church, that you're in disobedience to God. Because you can't do
it. That's why the scripture tells
us to bear one another's burdens, to encourage one another as long
as it is called today. How are we to do that? What are
we to do? Stir, consider. See the battle there in the mind
of Hebrews. Consider how we might stir one
another up to good deeds and to love. How do we do that if
we're not together? The battle is there and the battle
primarily is in our hearts and minds. because of that which
our flesh desires that the Spirit of God within us fights against.
There's no problem when there's no struggle. But for the Christian,
there's a struggle. And because our hearts once were
dead and now alive, the flesh that is compromised by the fall
desires the things that our new heart doesn't. And so there's
a war. This is why the rebirth is imperative. This is why salvation
by grace and faith alone is absolutely divinely orchestrated before
the world began by the power of God. So that in an attempt
to not an attempt, such a weak word and a certainty, God established
the world and everything in it to proclaim his salvation and
redemption of his people. God did not create Adam and Eve
to live perfectly. He created Adam and Eve so that
he would redeem them. Well, preparation for readiness,
the battle ensues against the people of God because of our
hearts and desires of our flesh. But understand this, the preparation
began in Jesus Christ. Preparation began in Christ Jesus
through the decrees of the will of God, the decorative will of
God, that that that will that God has said, this is it. God
said, let there be light. And it was like that is not the
light of anything made. That is not the light of anything
that God created to shine. That is the light shining on
that which God created. He is like Christ is the light
God does not create the sun and the stars and the angelic beings
and night and day until after that, the light of God and creation
is that God created light. But he said, let there be light.
In other words, he created something to reflect that light and created
all that he made as Paul says in Romans one, so that it is
clear and the people are without excuse for they know that God
is and they suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. And
because of that, God gives them over to a reprobate mind to do
that which is unnatural, to do that which is wicked and to follow
the desires of the flesh and stay dead. These are the words
of Paul, not just there, but everywhere. Jesus himself spoke
these things. So preparation began in Jesus
Christ through the decrees and the will of God, the secret things,
Deuteronomy 29 says the secret things belong to God, but there
are unsecret things. The mystery that was hidden for
so long is revealed in Jesus Christ and is given to the church.
We no longer have to consider how we're supposed to be at war.
We're no longer sitting here trying to worry about what's
going to happen to us tomorrow, for God holds tomorrow. The decree
of God is that all things will be put under the feet of Jesus
Christ, Ephesians 110, and that the church has been established
for his glory, by his grace, by the power of Jesus, that the
manifold wisdom of God is displayed to the devil and all the angels
of hell. And I say of hell, because that's
where they're going. They're not there yet. And so preparation began because
the decrees of God, the preparation began in Jesus Christ, also because
of the sovereignty of God's will. God's will is not thwarted. It
cannot change. It does not change. He has not
been, although we see this and it's a whole nother idea, a whole
nother topic. It's more of a teaching thing,
systematically looking at the will of God and knowledge of
God and the understanding of God and the precepts of God and
the immutability of God. And so we see where God changes
his mind or changes the direction of something. And all of a sudden
we say God can be manipulated. That's called open theism. That's
saying that God does what he wants to do, but he has to count
on the open choices of men in order to accomplish that. And
hopefully they'll make it happen for him. That's wickedness. That's
garbage. It's open theism. And it is rampant,
not by that name, but it's rampant by practice. It's rampant because
people believe that God is sort of bound by the creature. That if I don't do what I have
to do, that God's will can't be done. Fool! That's garbage. That's exactly what Satan said
to me. Did God say you would surely die? See, he doesn't want
you to be like him. So just don't you want to be
like God? God's hiding something from you.
And if you go against him, then you'll be like him. See, that's
what Satan does. Preparation began in Jesus Christ
to the perceptive will of God, the things that are known that
is ours in Christ. So preparation for readiness,
the battle ensues against the people of God, and we are prepared.
And that preparation began in Christ Jesus. And thirdly, preparation
is begat. I use that word because it started
with B and I don't know why, but it begat, it begat, it came from,
it was given in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 1. Blessed be the God
and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. As he what? predestined us. She predestined us to walk in
holiness in Christ Jesus as he adopted us in love to be holy
and blameless before him. This is the reality of what God
has done. He gave preparedness in Christ
because we have all spiritual blessings. And if you you weren't
here during that time, that was in the very beginning days of
us meeting in my home. And we spent about seven weeks
just talking about Ephesians. And I said, look, we want to
learn more. Let's just let's just do it. So there's just four
things that I'll summarize the first chapter of Ephesians with.
God has given us everything possibly available in Christ Jesus. There
is nothing, Christian, that you can get now from God that He's
not already given you. Nothing! There's not a riches. There's not a will. There's not
a call. There's not a power. There is
nothing that you don't already have in Christ already. And I'm
not going to say that you don't have to see it and understand
it, but I am going to tell you that you don't have to call it
into being. You don't have to claim it. You don't have to name
it. You don't have to blab it. You ain't got to grab it. You
just say it. God has given it all to me. And cause God said
that it's done already. God's power doesn't move because
we believe it. God's power moves it, whether
we believe it or not. That's called truth. It's called
sovereignty. It's called divine authority.
And God is the ruler of all things. So you're missing something in
your life, it's cause you ain't worshiping the true Jesus. Period. Oh, I wish I had this. I wish
I had that. I wish I could overcome this. I wish I quit wishing and
do it. Quit seeking the world, lusting
after the materialism of the world and the power of the world
and the pleasure of the Lord world and know that your flesh
is dead. Take the rotting corpse off,
throw it away and the power of the gospel and put on the righteousness
of God in Christ that's already on you. Church. And you say,
well, it's not there. Then repent, believe the gospel,
be saved today, because today is the day of salvation, not
tomorrow and not yesterday. You did not get saved yesterday
if you aren't saved now. You see that? There's a lot of,
wow, there's a lot of extra Jesus there in that statement. and
a lot of improper, isogenical ideals and a lot of selfish,
devilish, wicked interpretation that goes in to understanding
the power of God. And friends, I'm here to tell
you now that we are all that we we have all that we've been
promised in Christ. So much so that Paul in Romans
8 says everything, even the future glory as a past tense. It is
done. It is done. One of the spiritual
blessings, remember, church truth, the belt of truth, the spiritual
blessings, just break them into four things. We have been adopted
as the beloved. We are the beloved of God, the
loving of God who loved before the world began. God does not
hate and then start to love. God has either always loved or
always hated. If not, then there's something
in me or about me or by me that caused God to change his affection
for me. And if that's the truth, then,
buddy, I pull the strings of God's hands. And that's not the
truth. God loves and he's adopted his
people in Christ before the world began, not because of his middle
knowledge, not because of his of his of his looking into who
what will do what? Because of his sovereign decree.
How does that work? It's not given to us. So what
am I supposed to do with it? Repent of your sin and trust
fully in the person, the work and the power of Jesus Christ.
And if you can't do that because you don't think God's empowered
you to, that's a rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And
you can take it and you can blame God for it. But you're without
excuse for he will cast you into hell because you refuse to believe
on the side. We've been adopted as the beloved.
We have been given forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. We have been forgiven. We've
been given knowledge and wisdom and understanding the mystery
hidden for ages now revealed to the church and through the
church. We are indeed alive and empowered. And not only have
we been adopted and forgiven and given all understanding and
wisdom and knowledge. But we've been given the Holy
Spirit as a seal of our redemption, that nothing can change it. Just
like the kings of old, as they put their seal on a letter, it
could not be changed. Just as a judge puts his seal
on an order, it cannot be changed. Except a higher authority come
and overwrite that, where there's no higher authority than the
authority of God Almighty. And so the seal of God for permanence
in his kingdom as his children, he gives us the seal of his Holy
Spirit. Romans 8, 16, for God, what testifies to our spirit
that we are as children and children heirs. Been sealed in the power of the
Holy Spirit, there is no going back. The writer of Hebrews says
that those who go back never were. You want to know if you're
saved and hold on to the confession of your hope, that's what Hebrews
says. That's what perseverance of the Saints is all about. It's
not some Calvinistic ideal or reformed or evangelical or Protestant
thing that we just sort of like to make up. Oh, look at all that
doctrine of men or doctrine of men is the doctrine of God. He
says it even better than we do. We don't need to put words in
the mouth of God. Just read the Bible and it says that he sealed
us with the promised Holy Spirit and what he has begun, he will
finish. Is God a liar? No. So it's done.
It's done. So if you're in Christ, you hold
on. If you find yourself just mauled in sin and bogged down
in iniquity and bogged down in selfishness and unrighteousness
and you repent, come out, praise God, the power of God at work.
And it's not because you came out that you're saved, it's because
you saved and came out. This is the power of God. This
is the gospel of Jesus Christ that God saves absolutely. perfectly and eternally, those
who believe in Christ, the son and those who believe in Christ,
the son, live out the works which were prepared before him beforehand
for them to walk in so that Jesus in John three, talking to Nicodemus,
so that it is clearly seen that their works have been carried
out in God. What must we do, John 6, to be
doing the works of God? This is the work of God. Believe
on the one who he has sent. Believe on the Son. It's ours
in Christ Jesus. The preparation includes then,
the fourth thing I want you to see today, the schemes of the
enemy. are stood up against. We stand
firm, therefore, against the schemes of the enemy. What are
the schemes of the enemy? I've talked about many of them, and
I've tried to look and consider what they might be like in a
whole. And we've talked about Genesis 3. We've looked at how
the devil tempted Jesus Christ. We've seen what happens when
the enemy works. But I've thought a little bit
further, so let me repeat some of those and let me add some
to you, and then we'll close out with looking at exactly how
the belt of truth applies. In this understanding, the schemes,
the devil, I believe there's many ways, but five with some
subheadings with some sub bullets of how the devil schemes. First,
the devil schemes by causing us to doubt God's character.
The devil schemes by asking us questions about God. To put the
house in our mind, did God really say that? Does God really love
you? Is God really good? If God's
really good, then why does he do this? If God really loves
you, then why are you going through this? If God really said this,
then why is that? If God was good, how does God
not understand the culture we live in? Does God not understand
the temptation that I have? Does God not understand the situation
that I'm in? What does it say in Hebrews? That in every way, Christ has
been tempted, but he sins not. And we are to take heart of that.
So here's the belt of truth. There's a truth there. We ought
to take heart of that and that none of us have been tempted
to the point of shedding blood. What's it talking about? Jesus
died on the cross. No, before the cross. What was happening in the Garden
of Gethsemane? Jesus Christ, the living human
being, with the purest of hearts and the holiest of natures, desired
so fully to obey the father and to do that which he's been created
to do. And I say that loosely. I mean,
sent to do better word. And Jesus being sent to glorify
the father through his willful, passive obedience on the cross
to be propitiation for sin as a sinless person. He who knew
no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God.
So so then Jesus did that. But then Jesus, with his most
close confidants, Peter, James and John, the one whom he loved
to watch him pray, and they fell asleep. Spirit is willing, the
flesh is weak. And oh, what a contrast inside
the garden. The spirit is willing, the flesh
is able. And Jesus sits there and he prays and he prays so
hard, he's in such anguish, physical death, physical torture, then
death, public humiliation. social humiliation, to be eradicated
as a thief, a crime against Rome when he was clearly exonerated
by Pilate. He said, I'll find no guilt in
this man. I'll wash my hands of him. You go. You do what you
have to with him. But somebody's got to... I can't
just punish an innocent man. So what do I do? Do I crucify
Jesus? If I crucify Jesus, I've got
to let somebody go because I can't just... The judicial system doesn't
allow me just to kill people. So somebody's got to be let go.
Give us the murder of Barabbas. How prophetic that Jesus took
the murderer's place and Barabbas was set free by the wickedness
of man, but it's the sovereignty of God. What a picture of redemption. And in Jesus, knowing all this
was going to take place in his sovereign omniscience, he understands
the fullness of his affection for God, but his flesh then also
not wanting to face the suffering and not wanting to be rejected
because it wasn't just death on a cross. It was death on a
cross at the will of the Father for the cause of judgment. When
people are electrocuted or hung or shot or put to death by lethal
injection, They're not facing the judgment of God there, but
they're facing the nature or the picture of a small judgment
of God through the sword given to the government by God. And
then that is the ultimate thing that man can do. But then when
you face God, there is no comparison. And Jesus was about to face the
judgment of God. The holy, righteous wrath of
God. He took the full cup of the fury
of God's wrath. He didn't just taste it, he didn't
just smell it. He drank the whole thing. That's hard to get around. And he knew it. So he was tempted
to do what? Walk away. Take this cup from me. So much so that his physiological
being, his biological body, the capillaries in his skin burst
and blood popped out of his pores. Not just a little drop. He bled. His skin bled from the anguish
of the threat of wrath. He was tempted to say, not going
to do it. But not your will, but not my
will, but yours, God. And then God sent angels to minister
to him. And then he went. You and I have never been tempted
like that. We cannot understand what it
means to face the wrath of God because we've been forgiven in
Jesus who did. And that's how the devil works,
the devil wants you to doubt that the devil wants you to doubt
the character of God. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only son. And whoever believes in him should
not perish, but have eternal life. Don't doubt that. God's love for you is an everlasting
love proven through the giving of the sun to pay your debt to
him. Hey. That's the gospel. So our haters
can say that we don't believe the gospel, then take that and
preach something else, and according to Galatians one, that's anathema,
should be cut off. Don't doubt the goodness of God,
and when you do look at the cross of Jesus. Gospel, the evangel means good
news. It's the story of how God wrote
himself in the history of man so that as Paul says in 2 Corinthians
4. For God has said, look like shaman of darkness is shown in
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We can't know God without Christ. Another way that the enemy schemes
against us is he schemes and causes us to doubt the ability
of God. So we say we know the truth of God is there. But the
truth also means the gospel is there, but the truth also means
that the power is there. God's power, God's power is able
to sustain. Don't doubt the power of God.
Not just to believe, but to walk and believe, to walk in holiness.
What what fights against that church persecution fights against
that? hating people that hate you.
Doubt fights against that. Temptation fights against that.
And then when we yield to temptation, guilt fights against that. The
American dream fights against that. The easy believism of the
world fights against that. The resting in the faith of our
faith fights against that. The resting in the point of salvation
fights against that. People say, oh, I know I'm saved
because then I did and I said and I went. Then, there, that's
what I did and now I know I'm saved because I did that. So
what? Richard M. Ruler did it. Nicodemus
did it. Judas did it. Not everyone who says, Lord,
Lord, we enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will
of my father who's in heaven. The devil causes us to believe
in ourselves, doubt the ability of God, we can do it, we can
handle it. The devil sometimes causes us
to doubt the ability of God by making life so easy that belief
in Christian walk is so easy. Oh, I've got no problems. People
who tell me they have no burdens, I fear for their soul. I'm really fearful. And I've
had pastors sit in front of me and say, I have not a care in
the world. I have no fear. I have no doubt.
My life is awesome. I love it. I love everything
I do. I love everything about every person in my church. I
love everything that's going on. And not metaphorically, but
realistically. So there's not one thing that
you wish God would change. I wish God would bring more of
them. I want more perfect people for
my perfect life, my perfect pulpit, my perfect church. And there's
no problems. I say that church belongs to
the devil. I honestly say that. Because there's no example of
that found in the New Testament. And of course, that can be debated,
and that is a statement of my opinion. But I think the evidence
speaks for itself, just historically, that the people of God are going
to suffer with joy. The devil schemes to divide the
body. Well, we can't get along because you don't wear flip-flops
like I do, or you don't brush your hair like I do, or you don't
believe exactly how to spell justification like I do. You
use the Geneva Bible, and I use the NIV, and you don't use the
1611. You don't paint your left toenail, and you don't cover
your eyes, and you don't cover your head. You play games, and
you don't use dice, or you drink too much, or you don't drink
enough. Your makeup's too thick, your
hair's too black, your skirt's too long, your skirt's too short.
It's just stupid stuff. We divide over the dumbest things.
And we think it's so essential. You teach your children Greek,
that you have prayer time every morning at 5.15. If I did, it'd
be somebody else in my house doing it. With some other family,
because my family and I get up that early. We'd sleep through that. Well,
you just must not live. We're going to divide. We're
going to divide over the color of the carpet, the sound of the
music, the lack of music, the lack of drums, that we have drums. Preacher preaches an hour. It's
too hot, it's too cold. I would like to be like the Chinese
who are being persecuted right now. I wonder if you'd get up at 515
yesterday to make it to a church service today. Knowing that if
you were caught, your head would be chopped off. It's too far to drive. I talked
to Hanson about that in a couple of weeks. Another way he schemes is he
brings doctrinal errors and attacks on those who believe truth. I
don't have to talk about that, but you know what it is. The devil schemes by causing
us to doubt our usefulness for the kingdom of God. And I believe
he does that, as John says in 1 John 2. I believe he does that
through the temptation of the things of the world. And I believe he does that through
disobedience to the word of God. Because we think that what we
want is better for our lives and that God, because he's loving,
will understand. How silly are we? Well, the final thing that we
see here is what Paul says, having therefore fastened on the belt
of truth. What specifically is he talking
about? He's talking about truth. It's not a belt. It's not a belt
with things written on it. It's not it's not a piece of
clothing, some metaphor. It's showing you an image of
something that's real. That stands for something else that's more
real. And the belt is not built at
all, but it's the reality and the purpose and the power, the
truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the truth of who God
is, it's doctrine. It's learning through teaching,
doctrine means teaching, doctrinal studies means teaching the truth. And studying it. Indoctrination is to be taught
in something. We ought to be indoctrinated
in the truth of Jesus Christ. And here's an interesting thing
about truth. Truth is always truth. A friend of ours in California,
Brother Tim Oliver, he likes to always say when we're talking
about things just to be funny, he goes, well, that's not true
for me. And then he'll do something like
this. There's an explosion in the lab. He's nearly a senior adult, he
needs to grow up some. He's got joy in Christ. Truth is always the truth, even
when it's under attack, the truth remains. What makes it, what
makes a counterfeit hundred dollar bill so valuable? And we could
open up some discussions on economics and is it even valuable? Is it
even true value? Is it even worth? We're not going
there. If you saw a stack of them, somebody says you can have
them, you take them, whether you believe they were valuable or not, but
you could use them for something. So they have some value. Why is
a counterfeit valuable? Because the real has value. Why
is counterfeit truth valuable? Because the real has value. So
truth is truth, even when truth is under attack, even when truth
is falsely taught, the truth still remains. Even when truth
is ignored or rejected or hidden by God's mercy, we don't hide
the truth from the world. Truth does not change by definition. It is constant. It is empirical. It cannot change. If it does
change, it is not truth. It was a lie or a mistake or
an error. And the church needs to be unified
in the truth of God, who he is, how he works, what he does, why
he does it. We need to understand the truth
of the gospel. The gospel is good news. That
is truth. That's what it means. Good news. The church needs to be unified
in this. It needs to be unified in the
reality of who, what, how and why God is and does all that
he does and what he requires. The church needs to put on the
belt of truth to hold ourselves together. You, Christian, need
to know what it means to know God. In John 17, Jesus says these
words, this is eternal life, that they know you. He's praying
to the Father, the one true God, and the Son, Jesus, whom you
have sent. This is eternal life. That's doctrine. That's teaching
what Jesus says about what eternal life is. So if everybody else
says, well, I don't believe that, that's fine. Let them believe
what they want to believe. Don't debate against God. It's
a lost cause. The truth holds up the remaining
efforts to stand firm in the war against the enemies of God.
The teaching of truth. Friends, truth
is the foundation of being dressed for battle so that when we're
ready for war, it means we're fitted with the truth and the
truth is not just the facts. It's not just the facts. It's
being fitted with the facts in our heads. It's being fitted
with the facts in our attitude. It's being fitted with our facts
in the soul. It's being fitted with our facts
in our vision, where we're going and what we're looking at. It's
being fitted with the facts, with the truth, with the reality
of the gospel in our very body. You might say, well, what? I
don't have a full understanding of all theology and doctrine.
That's OK. Me either. So many people tell
me, well, you're just so smart, you're just able to, but I'm
not smart. There's nothing to do with intelligence,
there's nothing to do with with laboring over. I mean, I can
read something and never understand it, and then I can read something
and God can give me clarity. What are you looking for? Used
to always ask one of my mentors who had memorized four full New
Testament books, Colossians, Philippians, the first seven
chapters of Romans from memory. I'm like, man, I should be like
that. Ask him his phone number, his
birthday, he goes, uh, where are your shoes? Do I have no
pants? I mean, God gives grace. To understand the truth. But sometimes we go to truth,
church, and the reason we fight so hard to try to see it and
we don't is because we go to the truth to try to get the stuff
to be something. Oh, how do you know that you're
peeking into my because I'm just like you. I remember being younger. And
wanting to know all the cool stuff. about the Bible and all
the cool stuff about God and all the cool doctrines that are
listed in all these big books. And I'd make these charts and
these sheets and I'd memorize it all and I could spit it out.
And one day somebody says, well, how do you know that? Prove it. It just is. Run away real fast. Don't ask me that. Oh, headache.
Whatever. Faint. Pass out. Get away from the topic. How do you know that Christ is
God? Word of God teaches it. Where?
Everywhere. But that's not the right answer.
Where? Do you know where? Do you know how? Do you know
how to share that with someone else? That's what the church
is for. When you come here, engage in
what you hear. Don't just get there and wonder when it's going
to be over. Engage. Because if we don't have
the truth, I believe some things happen. I've come up with seven
because I just sort of ran out of paper. But in my head, there's
probably more. The seven things happen when
we don't have the belt of truth. One is we live obviously. Oh, this is real. This is real
wise stuff here. We don't have the belt of truth.
We live as ignorant people. A friend often says, and he didn't
come up with it, but he often says, he says, knowledge of truth
is knowing that a tomato is a fruit and wisdom is knowing not to
put it in a fruit salad. And I don't really agree with
that fully, but you see the point. If we live a life of ignorance
as a Christian, we're living a life of disobedience. Because
more than one place where to learn Christ, that is not the
way you learn Christ. We're to renew our minds. We
are to be focused on growing into the maturity of him to him
who is the head to the full stature of Christ, who is the head we
are to teach one another. What's the Great Commission for
crying out loud? Some people think the Great Commission is
sharing a process of salvation. God says you're going to hell,
but if you say this and do this, you won't. That's not the gospel. It could be just like this. God
said you're going to hell, but if you do the Charleston, you'll
go to heaven if you really mean it. No, you must believe in Christ
and repent of your sins. You must be born again, Nicodemus.
You must be the imperative there. No one can see the kingdom unless
he's born again. No one can enter the kingdom unless he's born
again. And then Jesus says later, you must be born again. How in the world do not marvel. And what was Nicodemus? He said,
are you not the teacher of all Israel? And yet you do not understand
these things. As Moses lifted the serpent in
the desert, so must I, the Son of Man, be lifted up, that I,
what? I'm drawn. Whoever looks and believes will
not die. But whoever does not believe
is dead already, for he has failed to believe in the only Son of
God. And this is the judgment. Jesus says that. Two different
places. This is the judgment. People
love that light, light. He says in Mark's gospel. That
for judgment, I've come in the world to open the eyes of people
born blind. And he says in John three, this
is the judgment that light has come into the world, but people
love the darkness rather than the light because. Why do they
love the darkness? Because their works are evil. But all who come to the light,
love the light, they come to the light, they do so so that
it may be clearly seen that their works may be carried out in God.
So we live a life of ignorance if we aren't learning truth forever. It's often a misnomer. When we
get to heaven, we'll know all things. No, we won't. You can't know
all things, though we will be eternal and immutable in the
context of our life. We will forever be learning God
because God is eternal. His mercies are new every day.
That's why there's power in John 3, 16, 17 and 18, no matter how
many times you've read it. That's why when you read it today,
you just flip out. It's not like a child who you
put a puppet in front of when it's 10 months old. You take
it away and it forgets about it and you put it back on. It's
new. The Word of God is new. It's
not foreign new. It's newer today than it was
yesterday. It's not stale. That's why I'm
worried about Christians who go, man, I just wish we'd get
over that. And I've said that. I've sat
in teaching going, OK, I got it. Got it. Go. Move on. That's
OK. God convicts me of that. It helps
me rest a little bit, slow down a little bit. So we have the
truth. We live a life of ignorance.
Secondly, we live a life of hypocrisy. Because we say we worship God,
we say we walk in the spirit of God, we say we are disciplined
in the things of God, but we're not disciplined in learning God.
That makes no sense. If we don't have the belt of
truth, it means we live a life of apathy. It's OK. I'm not concerned with it. I'm
OK. They're OK. You're OK. We're
all OK. We're not OK. We don't have truth. Is it that
everybody in the church all over the country is lost or are they
just ignorant? Both. But I think there are a
lot of brothers and sisters in Christ who are well and aged
in their faith, but they are apathetic because they've never
been taught the truth. Not having the truth means we really live
in a life of laziness. We're laziness. What does what
does Jesus say about that through his parables? You wicked, lazy
servant. I take what you have and I give
it to somebody else. I said, well, yeah, it's lazy. I dug a hole and hid something. That was common practice. That
was good stewardship. Because when you were a servant
and the master left in order to protect what was his, you
buried it. That makes sense when we start
thinking about what Jesus said, that the kingdom of heaven is
like a treasure hidden in the field. How did it get there? Because
the master of the property buried it there so that the bandits
wouldn't raid his house. They didn't have ADT then. We always think that he did something
wrong, he did something right, but he wasted it. He was lazy. He didn't want to work with it.
He wanted just to keep it safe. And Jesus calls him wicked. So
Christian, that's not learning truth is wicked and lazy. And I believe not having the
truth means we live a life of worldliness. Why would you say that? Because
if the word of God is an act of living in your life, the world
will suck you out. It will just straight out of
the disciplines of the faith. I believe, number six, not having
the truth means that we live a life of unpreparedness as we
are undressed for spiritual success. And then seven, we actually live
a life as a failure in all things spiritual. What I mean by that?
Without truth, we can't worship because we don't know who we're
worshiping. Why do you think Jesus in John 4 couples that?
The Father is seeking such worshipers. What kind? Worshippers who worship
in spirit and in truth. Not practice and purpose, spirit
and in truth. Service, study, ministry, teaching,
parenting, marriage, life, holiness. Without it, we can't know it. So I close by reminding you what
I've already said in the beginning, is that the belt of truth is
foundational. This is an imperative. You cannot stand without truth
first. You cannot hold the breastplate
of righteousness without truth. You cannot yield the sword because
there's nowhere to hang it. So girdle the belt. Put on the
belt of truth, the foundation of our thoughts and our minds,
as Paul says in Romans 12 to do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that what by
testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good
and acceptable and perfect. It didn't say anything about
what you do instead about what you think. Because what you think on and
what you place and what you meditate on and what you feed yourself
in your mind will indeed produce the power of God in you if it
is the power of God in you. The first terms that I remember
as a as a kid learning programming. Cobalt. Cobalt language. And I remember basic and there
was A specific term, G I G O, GIGO. And it stands for garbage
in, garbage out. And still to this day, I haven't
done any kind of coding since I was probably 12. And then it
was just a big fat TV with a keyboard on it. You didn't really have
much computers then. But I can promise you, if you
put garbage in your code, your software's not going to If you
put garbage in your recipe, your food's going to taste nasty.
If you put garbage in your living room, rats are going to come
eat it. If you put garbage in your mind, garbage is going to
come out of your mind. From the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. From the abundance of the mind,
the body walks. You want to know the will of
God? Just read your Bible. Put the
truth of the gospel there. Fight the fight of faith, foundations
in the truth. Let's pray. Lord, it is that truth that so
sustains us. We worship You. You love us. We thank You. You provide for
us the reality of Jesus, not just as a story, but as a powerful
truth. Historically, God, You came to
earth in the person of Jesus Christ. And the son that you sent, Father,
died for the sins of your people. Lord, through that truth, empower
us to walk with joy in the midst of darkness. Help us. Lead us. to truth, help us to
fight and stand for truth, help us to understand that is the
power of God. The gospel is your power unto
salvation. If we want to see power in our
lives as a people, we must hold fast to the truth, to the confession
of our hope in the gospel, the truth of Jesus, who said, I am
the way and the truth and the life. Lord, would you take that
truth that's in us and build us ever so deeply in it and take
us out ever so quickly to teach others the truth? And Father,
would you help us to be truthful in our actions and our pursuits
as we seek after You, as we live for You, as we live with joy
before Your eyes, holy and blameless in Christ Jesus? And it's in
His name we pray. Amen.