Well, we've had a break of two
weeks, and we're drawing towards the close of this look at Ephesians,
which we started at the start of the year. And really, to set
it in its context, a brief recap. In the epistle to the Ephesians,
Paul has effectively been answering Job's question, you know that
well-known question of Job, how can a man be just with God? And
he's answered that question, writing to believers at Ephesus,
that it is in the gospel of sovereign grace and the gospel of particular
redemption the gospel which says that god is sovereign and that
god chooses whom he will save in a particular way in a special
way it's the gospel of particular redemption the old five points
of calvinism call it limited atonement that it was limited
to the elect of god that the death of christ was not of an
infinite provision, but it was specific for the people of His
choice. It's limited atonement, it's
particular redemption. This is absolutely clear in the
words that we've been looking at. If words mean anything, we've
seen it as plain as the nose on your face. People talk, they
quote the epistle to the Ephesians to to maintain their points of
view, but you read it honestly with the spirit of God guiding
you. This is about the gospel of sovereign grace and particular
redemption. It's about eternal justification. Yes, that causes all sorts of
hackles to rise in certain quarters. It's about eternal justification,
that God justified his people in the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, Revelation 13.8. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, he justified his people, and of course that lamb
came. in time, when he laid his glory aside, and took upon him
flesh in the likeness of sinful flesh, that he might die in the
place of his people, and bear the sins of his people, and pay
the sin debt of his people, so that he might effectually, perfectly
establish righteousness, and cancel the sin debt for his people. all for his elect in the person
of his son and his son is that sinless substitute of which we
read in the prophets throughout the Old Testament he is that
federal head of his people for as in Adam all die because Adam
sinned even so in Christ shall all be made alive the words that
I'm speaking to you now I know that you know but I also know
that these words are anathema to human reason. I don't know
if you ever listened to it, but now, not working at the moment,
I get time to listen to the radio a bit more. And I was listening
to Melvin Bragg having one of his discussion programs the other
morning, I can't remember which one it was, but they were discussing
this very point and he had two or three guests in the studio
and they were discussing what Augustine believed and what Pelagius
believed and they were comparing them and of course their human
reason drew them to the conclusion that there are these people who
believe this bizarre notion of the election of God, of the sovereign
grace of God, and how grossly unfair and how utterly incomprehensible
that is to human beings, that anybody could possibly... but
Augustine believed that, and people still believe it. That's
what the world, and especially worldly religion, thinks. It
finds this an obnoxious doctrine, but it's the doctrine that saves.
That's the point. None of the other doctrines save.
You know, if you have a great debt down at the bank, that will
cause you forever to be you know locked away in debtors prison
if we still had such things you don't want to know that there's
some airy-fairy possible provision you want to know that a rich
man has been and cleared your debt to the very last ha'penny
if we still had ha'penny's but you know absolutely and that's
this gospel of sovereign grace and particular redemption that
the God-man has been and paid the debts of his people. This
is what this epistle is about. And it's then about that salvation
which God has wrought, that salvation which God planned and purposed
in eternity, being experienced in time by those who were the
children of wrath, even as others, because you can't tell the difference.
until somebody is given faith to believe it, because this is
what God in the gospel of his son does, sends his Holy Spirit
to give faith, spiritual sight, to his people, to those who were
justified by Christ, that they might believe the gospel. He
gives the gift of faith, and it is the gift of God, for it's
not of yourselves, lest anyone should boast. He gives this revelation
of the Holy Spirit. He gives this enlightening, and
Ephesians talks about it, through the Word, the Scriptures, the
written Word, the mystery of the Gospel which was hidden.
He gives, he comes and reveals it to his saints. He opens eyes
which were closed. He gives understanding where
there was nothing other than darkness. And there's a transformation
from a realm of spiritual death to a realm of life, from darkness. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light, said the prophet, speaking of this
enlightenment that comes through the gospel of grace. And therefore,
he says in chapter four, right at the start
of chapter four, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, because
of this salvation, this transformation that has been wrought, He then
brings out this plea, this exhortation, that though we're still in sinful
flesh as human beings, with all of our faults and all of our
flaws and imperfections, that we'll always be with us, for
if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us. Though we're still in the sinful flesh, he exhorts
that we walk worthy. of the Gospel's call. We walk
worthy of that salvation, of that life, of that gift of eternal
life, that we use the spiritual ministry gifts which he's told
us in chapter 4, that he has given to his church, apostles,
prophets, pastors, teachers, and so on. evangelists. And he exhorts that we put off,
like a change of clothing, put off the old fleshly man, with
his deeds and with his attitude, and put on the new spiritual
man. And the key to it, we saw last
time, was submission one to another. Denial of self. Doing all things,
you know, he says, you who are workers, obey your masters. How? Do you know the person I
work for? You can't know him. He's horrible,
he's nasty, he's unreasonable. He won't do the things that are
reasonable to me. No, Paul says, do it as if it
was the Lord asking you to do those things. Wives, you know,
there's this debate because of William and Catherine, I'll call
her Catherine, getting married this coming Friday. And is she
going to say that she will obey her husband? Well, the scriptures
say that wives should obey their husbands, but, but hold on men,
hold on men. Wives, obey your husbands in
the Lord and husbands, love your wives. How? How should I love
my wife? As Christ loved the church and
gave himself for it, that he might redeem it to himself. You
know, these are high ideals. Do you know the wife who promises
to obey her husband, if he's a husband who will love her as
Christ loved the church, she won't have the slightest problem.
obeying her husband. Not the slightest. It's all done
in submission, as unto the Lord. Denial of self, for self is the
root of all sin. What I want, what I must get.
And in amongst all of this, there's a warning. And Paul says, be
warned. Be warned. Chapter 5 and verse
5. You must bear the characteristics
of the new man. Because if you don't, you have
no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Don't go kind of blithely
assuming that you have a part in the kingdom of God when you
live as a covetous man who is an idolater, when you live as
a whoremonger or an unclean person, not just in outward actions but
in your heart and in your thoughts. Don't think that you have any
part in the kingdom of God. And this is a very high calling.
And this is a very tall order. Are you good enough? Do you match
up to the standard? So that it can be said of you,
you have a part in the kingdom of God. It's a very high calling,
a very tall order. Some would say, some would measure
it like this, are you sufficiently sanctified? by which they mean,
are you sufficiently good at obeying the law of God, because
the moral law of God is the believer's rule of life, and therefore we
measure how good you are at obeying that to see whether you bear
these characteristics. Of course, I've told you before
that that sort of thinking leads to one of two conclusions. It
either leads to the hypocrisy of those who think that they
do tick the boxes against the law of God, or it leads to the
despair of those who know that truly in and of their flesh,
the best that they do, all of their righteousnesses are as
filthy rags in his sight. hypocrisy or despair. But no,
Paul tells them, although he's told them that they must bear
these characteristics, where do you get the strength from?
And he's told them in chapter 6 and verse 10, as we saw last
time, be strong in the Lord. There's no strength outside of
the Lord for the believer. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of his might. Be strong in the Lord. And how
can we be strong in the Lord? Well, last time we saw three
aspects of it, and we only touched on the third one, and that's
what we're going to start to open up as I intend this morning,
this time. Firstly, there's Christ's promise
to keep his people. How am I going to cling on to
him? Ah, there's his promise that
he will not let you go. This is the will of his father
who sent him, that of all that the father gave to the son, he
should lose nothing, not a solitary one of them will be lost. Their
names are written on his hands, they won't be unwritten. Every
single one of them he will keep, and he will preserve, and he
will take to be with him. They will stand on their feet
like the Valley of Dry Bones, standing on their feet as an
army, all in their ranks, and there will not be one missing,
because you can see when one's missing from ranks of soldiers.
You can see when one's missing. There will not be one missing.
He will keep his people. and nobody will be able to pluck
them out of his father's hands. Why not? Jesus says, because
my father is greater than all. Don't be frightened. Don't be
afraid. Don't think that you'll be lost.
My Father is greater than all. Nobody. Satan wants to pluck
you from the Father's hands, but he's not as strong as the
Father. He can't do that. The Father will keep you. For
this is the will of him that sent Christ, that of all that
he gave him, he should lose nothing. He will keep his sheep. He will
keep and preserve everyone. And then, Another reason, here's
the second reason that we saw as to why we can be strong in
the Lord, not in our own strength. Strong in the Lord. Who is it
that would rob you of your assurance? It's Satan would come and rob
you of your assurance. Would say to you, you're not
good enough to be a Christian. You cannot possibly be amongst
the elect of God. He would seek to rob you of that.
But Christ has defeated Satan. He came and bound the strong
man of the house, this world. He bound him. He took his power
away from him. Just when Satan, the accuser
of the brethren, had all of the arguments lined up to condemn
you and you and me to an eternal hell. Christ came, and died for
those sins, and disarmed him. And now, who shall bring any
charge to God's elect? There's not one charge that will
stick. In the court of divine justice, there isn't one charge
that will stick. Why? Because Christ has died
for those sins. Satan will come, what about these
sins? What about these debts? Paid
for. Look at the ledger. Paid for. I have blotted them
out of the book of the records of God. They're blotted out.
How far are they taken away? As far as the East is from the
West. You can't get further away than that. As far as the East
is from the West. He's overcome Satan. So be strong
in the Lord. Yes, you see, I'm never good
enough. Am I amongst these who have no part, no inheritance
in the kingdom of God? Ah, be strong in the Lord. Where's
your faith? Where's your trust? Where's your
hope of eternity? It's in the Lord. Be strong in
Him. We live in this flesh. We live
in this life now. Until we die, until we're taken
from this world, we live in this sinful flesh. And we're subject
to the realm where Satan is allowed to operate. Allowed to operate. He's God's devil. He's God's devil. Don't forget
that. I remember Stephen pointing out
to me years ago that in Job, it was God who said to Satan,
have you considered my servant Job? Wasn't the other way around.
Satan didn't come saying, all right, let me have a go at him.
You know, he, he, he follows you, but let me have a go at
him. No, God said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job?
It's all of God's doing, but we do live in a realm where Satan
comes with attacks. We do live in a realm where we're
not in heaven. Look at verse 13. Wherefore,
take unto you the whole armour of God. You see, because there
are principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world,
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto
you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day. And having done all, to stand. There is an evil day. We live
in an evil day. This is what the scriptures teach
us, and it's true. We live in a day that tries your
belief in God, your trust in Christ, your reliance on the
gospel of his grace, that challenges your soul peace, that soul peace
that you have in Christ and his gospel. In this life, as we read
in the book of Ecclesiastes and elsewhere in the Proverbs, the
best of days are but vanity. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity
says the preacher. The best of days in this life
are all vanity. You build a career, you build
all of these things and at the end, do you remember a story
I told you some time ago about a young man who was going to
be a lawyer and he was the friend of an old man who had been a
lawyer but was also a preacher of the gospel. And he came to
him and said how well he was doing at school and he got all
the right results to get into the right law school, to do the
right... And the old man was asking him, and then what will
you do? Oh well I'll pass these exams and then I'll get taken
into this firm of lawyers and I'll do this, this, this and
this. he got all of his career path mapped out before him with
all of its uh... you know just just this is exactly
the right way to go these are the right connections to do no
doubt he got all of his internships lined up through family connections
and all the rest of it because that's in the news topical at
the moment and the old man says to him and so when you've joined
that firm what will you do well he polished the handle on the
big front door and they'd make him the next layer up and so
it would go on and then he would become uh... you know that the
the chancellor of uh... the lord chancellor or whatever
they're called these days in our system of government and
the old man kept going on and saying and then what and then
what and then what and then I'll take my retirement and I'll enjoy
the fruits of all of my labours and then what and then I'll die. I'll die. Because it's appointed
to man to die once. And the best of us, whatever
we do, we live in this world of problems and of vanity. We
live in days that are, and we love them, I know we love them,
that are happy days. We live in days that are peaceful
days. We live in plentiful days. In
safe days. In days where we've got our health
and strength. Where we're prosperous. where
we've got days of spiritual blessing, and it's as if heaven's open,
and you read the word, and you're in communion with God, and we
live in blessed times, but also we experience sorrowful days.
Is this not the experience of the child of God? As well as
all of the good days, the prosperous days, the happy days, the days
of plenty, the days of spiritual delight, all so sorrowful days,
and stressful days, and days of sickness, and days of bereavement
even, and loss of security, and loss of friends and family, and
spiritual battles, and all of these things. Days like Job experienced
aplenty, he had many of these days. Oh, that he'd never been
born, he said, Even though he knew that his redeemer lived,
oh, that he'd never been born because he was in such anguish.
It's in the lifetime of some of us that you think what some
must have lived through just 70 years ago in the second world
war and what, what terrible, even in these days in places
of war and conflict and, and natural disaster, the sufferings
that people go through the evil day that you'll be able to withstand.
in the evil day, and having done all to stand. We live in a sin-cursed
world. We are not yet in heaven. You
read about the account of heaven in Revelation 21, but now there
are tears, and sorrow, and trials, and burdens, and pain, and anguish. Were it not so, The news channels
would not really have a lot to tell us, because it's all based
on the sorrows and trials of this life. We live in an evil
day. But verse 16, look at that. Above
all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. There's an evil day,
but also particularly to believers, Paul says this, Satan comes with
fiery darts. Obviously, the military language
and the armor is set in days of old, where military hardware
was not as it is today. But you know, the fiery dart
was a very, very powerful weapon. a cloth was soaked in an inflammable
substance and wrapped around the end of an arrow and set fire
to and then that would be shot into the place that they were
trying to storm and it would get stuck in the roof of a wooden
house and straw and it would set the place on fire and that
would cause panic and it would lead to the whole thing being
breached and this is the picture language that Paul uses. The
fiery darts of the wicked, the arrows, flame-tipped arrows coming.
Satan comes at believers with flame-tipped arrows But they're
very subtle. They're very deceptive. They're
very plausible. Remember how he appears. He appears as an angel of light. Don't be surprised. He appears
as an angel of light. Paul was warning about false
apostles in 2 Corinthians, and he says, don't be surprised because
Satan comes as an angel of light. He comes with these flame-tipped
arrows, but very plausibly. They're designed to set a fire
of unbelief going in your soul. That's what they're designed
for. His objective is to rob you of your security. His objective
is to prove that you were never among those whom Christ has saved. But be strong in the Lord. Christ
won't leave you. None can pluck you from his Father's
hand. He is stronger than all. Look
what Christ has done. He's disarmed Satan. Who can
bring any charge to God's elect? Christ has died. Christ is risen. We rejoice in that every Sunday,
not just at Easter. Christ is risen from the dead.
We know that he's risen. We know that he was raised to
vindicate, to show that the sacrifice was accepted. And you might say,
yes, I know these things, but is there anything else? Is there
anything more tangible, something I can get hold of? Is there anything
else for me? And the answer is yes, there
is. There's the third thing, which is the whole armour of
God. Take unto you the whole armour
of God, the spiritual armour. You see, you're going to come
under attack in the evil day, you're going to come under attack
from the fiery darts of Satan, for we wrestle not against flesh
and blood. We do wrestle against flesh and
blood, but we wrestle not only against flesh and blood, but
much more seriously against principalities and powers and the rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places so yes I'm strong in the Lord in what he's done and he's
promised to keep his people but is there anything else yes there
is there's the spiritual armor that he has provided think back
to how it would have been in these warm Mediterranean climates
with the style of clothing loose fitting robes and I know I'm
probably not telling you anything new but it's worth getting the
picture in your mind again. Imagine somebody relaxing in
loose, cool, flowing robes. They're not ready for much other
than perhaps eating or sleeping. They're relaxing in the loose,
cool, flowing robes. But what Paul is saying is get
ready for battle. Get ready. Get ready for it.
Get ready for exertion. Get ready to do something. When
you're lying there in these loose flowing robes, you're not really
ready to do anything, because as soon as you do, you ladies
will know perhaps, if ever you wear a long dress, you've got
to be careful that you don't trip over the hem of it, because it
might get in the way and you'll stand on the hem. get ready for
battle, get ready for exertion. And so he gives these elements. He said, he talks about a belt.
Why do you need a belt? Well, they would need a belt
to draw up these loose fitting clothes and tuck them in so that
they could run and move and fight easily. He says, put on a breastplate,
something that's strong to defend the vital organs of the body.
Put on not the loose sandals, which were just a sole with a
strap, the sort of thing we wear in this nice weather, But strong
footwear, something that is going to really protect your feet.
You know when you go walking in the mountains, you don't go
walking in sandals, not if you don't want to end up with a broken
ankle. You wear strong boots with good heel support and ankle
support. He says, a shield, take a shield,
have a shield. So that when those things come
at you, you can, you can move the shield around to protect
you. And a helmet, you need, you know, for most things, skiing,
cycling these days, you wear a helmet to protect your head. Vital organs are in there. It's
easy to damage very easily. So wear a helmet and don't just
be defensive, but take a sword in your hand. He says, take a
sword with you. We know that our king is triumphant,
but in this life, there will be guerrilla warfare from Satan. There'll be guerrilla warfare.
Be ready for it. The armor is there for the taking.
Look at it in verse 13. See what he says? Wherefore take
unto you the whole armor of God. He doesn't say make unto you
the whole armor of God. He says, take it. It's there.
Take that armor onto you. Get ready and use it. Take it. Be ready for action. Be ready
for it. Walk circumspectly, he's already
told them in verse 15 of chapter 5. See then that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise. On the lookout, aware, alert. Beware of Satan's subtlety. Because
Peter tells his readers that Satan is as a prowling lion.
who's going about to seek whom he can find and whom he can devour.
So be ready, be alert, be circumspect. But take what is already there
provided to defend you. And the first of those things
is the belt of truth. Having your loins girt about
with truth. It's talking about a belt that
goes around the waist that can be used to tuck all of these
loose flowing robes into to be ready for action. And it's the
belt of truth. The armour, the first piece of
armour that you pick up, you, child of God, who are under attack
from the evil day and the fiery darts of Satan, who want to rob
you of your assurance that you're amongst those whom Christ has
saved. He says, take this belt and put it on. And what is it?
It's the belt of truth. The belt of truth. Because there
is truth. The question was asked, Pilate
asked, what is truth? What is truth? Christ said in
John 17 that God's word is truth. Sanctify them with your truth.
Thy word is truth. The word of God is truth. The
truth of the gospel of his grace. It's the truth that natural worldly
wisdom hates. It's the truth that we seek to
proclaim in the gospel that natural worldly wisdom, that natural
religion hates, can't understand it, thinks it's unfair. It's
a salvation that seems so unfair to human reasoning, but it's
the salvation that is effectual, that works, that accomplishes
its purpose, that redeems to the uttermost, that justifies,
that sanctifies, that saves, as the writer to the Hebrews
says, Hebrews 7.25, saves to the uttermost, saves to the uttermost,
absolutely, completely, with no mixing of error, in with it. No mixing of rotten, erroneous
threads in the belt of truth. The belt of truth. People use
the scriptures and twist and distort them for their own purposes
and they mix the rotten threads of error in amongst it. And its
strength, the strength of the belt, will always degenerate
to the strength of the weakest component. That's always the
case. You know the idea of a chain
is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. Hence we have
the quiz program and things like that. It's only as strong as
the weakest link. You can have a chain that's incredibly
strong, that can support tons and tons in weight, but if there's
one link in there that can only support a few pounds in weight,
it's going to break at that point. Only as strong as the weakest
link. And so it is with the truth of God. If you mix in any of
the rotten threads of error, then the belt will be fit for
nothing. It will degenerate to the strength
of the weakest component. Beware of the rotten threads,
the errors that are rampant in the evangelical world in our
day. In institutions that in the last 30 years seem to have
completely thrown out the solid, truthful basis on which they
were established 50 or more years ago. and have intermingled the
error of human reasoning into the gospel to make, to make,
I know he wrote it 200 years ago, Andrew Fuller wrote his
gospel worthy of all acceptation. I was, I was talking to a lady
by email two or three years ago and she was telling me the trials
that she'd had because she had to leave her church and she was
one who listened to our messages. I can't remember her name now,
but um, She said that the pastor of the church she'd been going
to had given her the book, Andrew Fuller's book, The Gospel Worthy
of All Acceptation, to read because that would put her right on everything
that she was having problems with. And she said she read it
and how, praise God, she had the wisdom, the divinely given
wisdom to see it for what it was, that it was absolutely riddled
with the flawed thinking of human reasoning. It's what some in
our day that once stood as pillars of the truth in the reformed
evangelical world, they call it Calvinism for the 21st century. It's man-made thinking brought
into the gospel of grace. Look at Isaiah chapter 3. In Isaiah chapter 3 and verse
24, where Isaiah is opening up the
case that God has against his nominal people, the Jews of Judah. And it says they've got all of
these good things that they thought were the basis of their standing
with God. And in verse 24, and it shall
come to pass that instead of sweet smell, there shall be stink. the good old King James doesn't
mince its words, does it? It calls a stink a stink. It
shall come to pass that instead of a sweet smell there shall
be stink. And instead of a girdle, instead of a belt, a rent, a
tear. Because, why? It will only be
as strong as the weakest link, and there's some rotten thread
of error in this belt. Instead of a girdle, a rent,
instead of well-set hair, baldness, and so on. Now turn to Jeremiah
13, which we read earlier, which is a parable of a belt, the bit
that we read. It's the parable of the marred
girdle, and it's exactly the same concept. The belt is the
belt of truth, the belt of the truth of the gospel of God's
grace. And there in chapter 13, Jeremiah, in this parable, is
told to put on a girdle, a belt, a belt of truth round his loins.
And then he's told to go to Euphrates, which is the river that ran through
Babylon. And he's there to hide it by
Euphrates, and then to go and look at it. And verse seven,
I digged and took the girdle from the place that I had hid
it. And behold, the girdle was marred and it was profitable
for nothing. So is that which claims to be
the gospel of grace that is filled with faulty, erroneous threads
of human reasoning. It's profitable for nothing.
It's marred and useless. So shall our doctrine be if we
mix it with the rotten threads of human religious reasoning
and wisdom. Christ is the truth. God's word
is the truth. He said, sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. Christ is
the word and the word is Christ. And that is truth. And that's
the girdle, the truth of Christ, the truth of being in him, the
truth of his righteousness. The next one's the breastplate
of his righteousness. That's the basis. Do you remember
the story of Happy Jack? Years ago, I think I told you
this, you know, it was in somebody's bulletin. There was the man who
heard the gospel one day, elderly man, heard the gospel and believed
the gospel of grace. And he had quite a reputation
of being a bit of a rogue. before he heard the Gospel of
Grace. And so the church was very cautious about accepting
him into membership. And you know they said, well,
what can you tell us about your quality of life? Because surely
you need a certain quality of life before we can admit you
to membership. And do you remember what Happy
Jack said? I'm just a poor sinner and nothing at all. What qualifications
have I got? None. I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. But he could have said, I'm girt
about by the belt of truth in Christ because Jesus Christ,
he is my all in all. Oh well, what about this? And
all he would ever answer was, I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ. He is my all in all. That's the
truth. That's the belt of truth to have
Gert about. That's how to stand strong in
the Lord and take the whole arm. What's the whole armor of God?
It's this truth. The world hates it. Human reasoning,
worldly religion, hates it, doesn't, can't understand it, fights against
it, but that's the truth, it's the truth that is in Christ.
Well what about your goodness in deciding to accept such a
reasonable gospel? Happy Jack, I'm just a poor sinner,
that's all he could ever say. My natural ability, all of those
things, they count for nothing. It's just Christ. The belt of
the truth of Christ and the gospel of His grace. The trusting in
Him. You know, I just, I still, it
staggers me. The amount of preparation and
preaching that goes on that is man-based and not Christ-based,
Christ-centered. that you desire to pursue a Christ-centered
ministry. And they glaze over and look
at you and wonder, what on earth are you talking about, a Christ-centered
ministry? Never heard of such a thing.
Surely we have to teach people about the judgments of God and
the believer's rule of life and all. No. Christ, the belt of
the truth of Christ. He is the truth. He is the way,
the truth, and the life. Oh, if you want to succeed as
a church, you need to interact with other Christians more. You
need to have much more to do with them. Go along to the minister's
fraternal, I've been told. Have more ecumenical associations,
we've been told. Interact with other so-called
Bible-believing churches. I'm sorry, it's all intermingled
with the rotten threads of error. and particularly this error of
the doctrine of Andrew Fuller. No, this is the first piece of
armour and this is where we're going to stop for this week and
we'll come back and look at more of these elements of the armour
which is there for the taking. The first piece of armour is
this. the belt of the truth of the gospel of Christ. Stand up,
get ready for action, put it on and tuck those loose flowing
robes in. Stand strong in the Lord and
in the power of his might.