Turn back to Ephesians chapter
6. This is the first piece of armor
that Paul calls upon us to put on. Verse 14, stand therefore
having your loins girt about with truth. The first job I had when I got
out of college was that of being a bank teller. With First Security
Bank back in 1981, first job I was ever fired from, too. I couldn't stay in balance. I
remember after I got audited for the first time, the auditor
said, why haven't you been fired? I said, I don't know. The next
day, the manager of the branch came in and said, look, we like
you, but you need to find something else to do. And I agreed. I could
not stay in balance. But I remember in the training,
we were trained as to how to detect counterfeits. And you
know how we were trained to detect counterfeits? to become thoroughly
acquainted with what a true bill looked like. Not by studying
other bills, but by studying what a true U.S. dollar bill
looked like, or a $20 bill, or a $50 bill, or a $100 bill, and
seeing the fiber and the colors and so on, you were to become
thoroughly acquainted with what that looked like. And we spent
some time in describing it. And then when we became acquainted
with that, he brought out some counterfeits. You knew him right
off the bat. And the way that we'll understand
counterfeits is if in our hearts, by the spirit of God, by his
grace, we're thoroughly acquainted with the truth. Now, this is the first piece
of armor mentioned And there is a reason it's mentioned first. I can't put on any of the other
pieces unless this is first put on. This belt or garment of truth,
this girding of the truth. Truth is the belt that holds
all the other pieces of armor together. And if the truth is
not my foundation, my foundation is no good. I've been defeated before I ever
begin. And I cannot get any of these
other pieces of armor on until this belt is put on first, the
truth. If the truth is not my foundation,
my foundation is no good. And let me say this. By the truth,
I don't simply mean accurate propositions. Although in declaring
the truth, there are accurate propositions, but we're going
to see how I mean more than that, I hope, during the course of
this message. Now the first thing that came
to my mind is Pilate's question to the Lord. After he said to
him, I came to bear witness to the truth. Does anybody remember
what Pilate said? What is truth? What is truth? And he could have
meant Is there such a thing? Is there absolute truth? What
is truth? Is there such a thing? Or he
might have meant, well, sure, there's truth, but can we know
it? Are we so proud and presumptuous to think that we've got the truth
and we know the truth? Can we even know the truth? Here's what I think he meant.
Truth. Is this what this is about? You're
getting ready to be nailed to a cross. Truth, is it worth this? The answer is yes, there is absolute
truth. Yes, you can know the truth. The Lord said, you shall know
the truth and the truth shall make you free and yes, It's worth
this, by the Lord being nailed to that cross, he accomplished
the full glory of his father and the complete salvation of
everybody he died for. Yes, the truth, there is truth. Yes, the truth can be known.
And yes, the truth is worth all of this. Now, truth is defined
as being in accord with fact or reality. I think that's a
good definition. Truth is defined as being in
accord, in agreement with fact or reality or fidelity to an
original or a standard. Somebody says, well, is there
an original? Is there a standard? Yes, the
scriptures. The scriptures. The Lord said,
thy word is Truth. Scripture claims inspiration. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. All scripture. It's God breathed. This is God's book. This is God's
revelation of himself. And I've said this so many times.
If we don't have this, all we have is my opinion and your opinion.
What's that worth? Nothing. Thank God for this revelation,
this standard by which we judge whether or not we're hearing
the truth. Now, I need to say this. The
Bible is not trying to be a science book. You know, some people will
always think of objections. Well, what about this scientific
fact that seems to contradict the Bible? It seems to not line
up with the Bible. Well, for one thing, Scientific
fact and scientific theory are two different things. A lot of
things that are nothing more than theories are presented as
facts. For instance, evolution, that's a theory. That's a theory. It's not a fact. It's a theory.
You know, the pope last week declared that the Big Bang theory
is fact and that evolution is fact. Oh, those are theories. They're not fact, they're not
scientifically, by the scientifically method, proven. And as far as
that goes, like I said, I know I'm not a scientist, but people
say, well, how, for instance, the Bible teaches the world was
created in six days, and it's only 6,000 years old, and we
know for sure that it was four and a half billion years old.
Well, for one thing, you don't know that for sure. You don't
know that for sure. All these scientific methods
of dating are not positive. And for another thing, you know,
the Lord could have created the earth old. It wouldn't be hard
for him. You know, we need all these oils
and coal and gas and so on, and the Lord could have created it
that way. And as far as that goes, who knows what those six
days mean? I mean, they may be six literal
days. The Bible also says one day is with the Lord is 1,000
years. And it's 1,000 years, it's a day. The Bible says that.
So if it is six literal days, fine. I believe that. If it means
something else, I believe that too. But here's the point. everything, no matter how it
may be an apparent contradiction, it's going to be found out to
line up with the truth of scripture. Everything will. And let me say
this, if the Bible said Jonah swallowed the whale, I believe
it. All supposed science is going
to have to bow to the truth of the word of God. And it will
in the end. I mean, you think of the things people believed. Well, 500 years ago, people believed
the earth was flat. That was a fact. So they thought. But it wasn't, was it? And look
at the advances. Look what they were doing in
medicine 200 years ago that was thought to be great things to
do. And now we see they're ridiculous.
Now everything is going to come to this touchstone, the word
of God, the scriptures, the Holy Bible. And somebody says, well,
that's ignorant. No, it's not. It's true wisdom.
Well, that's uneducated. No, it's not. It's true wisdom.
The Bible is the word of God and I rejoice in that. And we wouldn't know anything
without the scriptures. Thank God for the scriptures.
The Lord said, thy word is truth. The Bible is the truth. Here's something even more awesome.
Jesus Christ is the truth. Now, what if I said to you, I
am the truth. There would never be a bigger
lie told than that. If I said to you, I am the truth. If you said it, it would be a
lie. Every one of us, every man is
a walking contradiction in so many ways. And that's not something
for me or you to say, I'm the truth. Would just be offensive. that the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I am the truth. He is the rock. His work is perfect. All his ways are judgment, a
God of truth. Without iniquity is he. Now, when he said to Pilate that
he came to bear witness to the truth, I've already quoted that,
and that's when Pilate said, what is truth? But when he said,
I came to bear witness to the truth, he's talking about going
to the cross. And when he went to the cross,
he manifested the true character of God. There's no knowledge
of God apart from the cross. know things about him, but we
can't know him without the cross. And the cross is a manifestation
of every single one of his attributes. Him nailed to the cross tells
the truth about me and you. Now, there's all kinds of things
that we feel bad about, feel guilty about, no doubt. But none of that stuff's near
as bad as what the cross says about us. We're so evil. So evil. that if God left me
to myself, I nailed his son to a tree, wanting to take his place. The cross, oh, how the Lord bear
witness. You know, the word bear witness
is the word that has martyr come from. He bear witness by his
death. The truth of how God saves sinners,
holy by the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me show you a scripture that
was a blessing to me. Turn with me to Psalm 85. This is actually a couple of
verses about the life, death, burial, and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 85. Verse 10. and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other and that's what took place on Calvary's
tree. Mercy and truth meeting together, righteousness and peace
kissing one another, God's absolute righteousness and him being at
peace with Somebody like me, through the gospel, and I look
at this next verse, 11. Truth shall spring out of the
earth. When Christ was raised from the
dead, you know what took place? Truth sprang out of the earth.
And righteousness shall look down from heaven. Christ Jesus,
his person and work, is the truth of God. Now, the Bible's the
truth. Christ is the truth. And then
we read of several times in the New Testament the truth of the
gospel. The truth of the gospel. And as a matter of fact, Paul
spoke of rebuking Peter that the truth of the gospel might
remain. Now what's he talking about? In Galatians chapter 2,
you read that phrase twice, the truth of the gospel. And the
first time is with reference to Titus. The Jews wanted Titus
to be circumcised and Paul said no, that the truth of the gospel
might remain. And then later on in the chapter
when Peter is fellowshipping with the Gentiles and some Jewish
believers come in and he gets nervous and he feels like, I'm
going to be displeasing to them. So without saying a word, he
just gets up from that table and walks down and sits at another
table and Paul publicly rebuked him and called him a hypocrite
in doing that, that the truth of the gospel might remain. Now,
what is the truth of the gospel? Now, if Paul submits Titus to
circumcision, He's saying, Christ is not all, Christ and. If Paul
does not rebuke Peter for getting up and going to that other table,
you see, Peter was saying by that action, not by anything
he said, but by that action, I'm a little bit more pleasing
to God if I'm over here with the Jews. I'm a little bit more
acceptable. I'm saved with those Gentiles,
but I'm a little bit more saved. I'm a little bit more pleasing
by what I do. Now what that is a denial of
is that Jesus Christ is all in salvation. There's nothing you
can do to add to that. There's nothing you can do to
take from it. He is all. He's all the God. He's all that
God is. He's all that God requires. He's
all in the Bible. He's all in my salvation. Everything
God requires of me. Everything. All he looks to his
son for. and I'm not looking anywhere
else. That, my dear friends, is the
truth of the gospel. Now, not only is the word truth,
not only is Christ truth, not only is the gospel the truth,
I like this. Grace. Oh, I love that word. Grace is the truth. We beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the father, full of what? Grace and truth. The law was
given by Moses. Now we know God inspired the
law and he mediated it through Moses. And the law was true,
but the law was not the truth. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth. Those two always go together. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Now, anything that is not 100%
grace is falsehood. Now, I can cut through the chase.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 11. Verse five. Romans 11, verse five. Even so
then at this present time also there is a remnant according
to the election of what? Grace. And if by grace, if what? If elections by grace. Now this
goes through the rest of salvation. If election is by grace, then
it's no more of works. Just write that out of your vocabulary.
It's no more. If election is of grace, then
salvation in no respect is of works. It's just not. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. If you put a work in there anywhere,
it's not grace. You see, it's either all of grace
or all of works. You can't combine the two. It's
one or the other. You can't combine them. Every
aspect of salvation, this is the truth. There is no truth
apart from this. Every aspect of salvation is
by grace. The truth is that salvation is
all of grace. By grace are you saved. Can you say amen to that? By
grace are you saved, through faith. And that faith, it's not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works. Not of works. Lest any man should
boast for his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Now, the Bible's the truth. Christ
is the truth. The gospel is the truth. Grace is the truth. And listen to this, there is
no worship. There is no worship, no worship
of the living God apart from the truth. That's how important
this is. The Lord said in John chapter
four, verse 24, God is spirit. I don't know what all that means.
Neither do you. I mean, that means he's not confined
to time or space the way we are. He's infinite. He's everywhere
at once. He's altogether glorious. God
is spirit. Think how confined you are to
the flesh. God is spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And that means, first of all,
you've got to have the Holy Spirit to worship. You've got to be
given a nature by the Spirit of God that enables you to worship
God. A natural man cannot worship
God. A man who is not saved cannot worship God. He cannot. That's
why, for instance, in our TV program, I never say, come out
and worship with us. I'm not going to say that. That's only
God can call somebody to worship. I say, come out and hear the
gospel. We want you to come. Come hear the gospel. I'm not
going to say, come worship with us, because you have to have the spirit of
God to worship. You will not worship apart from the spirit
of God. They that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. There is no worship of God apart
from the truth of the gospel. Now people can talk about worship
all they want. There is no worship without the
truth of the gospel. God is spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now, in this thing
of worship, you will only worship a sovereign God, a God that you
can't manipulate, a God that you can't control, a God that
you can't move to do this or that. If you have any ability
to manipulate this God and get him to act in response to you,
you'll never worship him. You'll only worship a God in
whose hand you are, and he can do with you whatever he's pleased
to do. There's no worship apart from
that. I think of that leper. That leper came and worshiped
him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. That's
worship. That's worship. Somebody said, we had a worship
service. I doubt it. I doubt it. The sorrowful Phoenician woman
heard the Lord say to her, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. You know what the scripture said
she did? Then came she and worshiped him. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. and have no confidence in the
flesh. Do you have any confidence in
your flesh? I don't. I don't. I don't have any confidence
in mine. I don't have any confidence in yours either. Oh, what confidence
we have in him. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. Turn with me to second Thessalonians
chapter two. I want you to see this because it's such an important
verse of scripture. Have your loins girt about with truth. Verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, people that
God has set his love on, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. But don't stop there. Through. Sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. Now, there are two things that
cannot be separated. Sanctification of the spirit,
that's regeneration. That's the work of God in your
heart, giving you a new heart, the sanctification of the spirit.
What's the evidence of it? Belief of the truth. You can't
have one without the other. Where you have real belief of
the truth, you have sanctification of the spirit. And where you
have the sanctification of the spirit, you have the belief of
the truth. God always uses the truth to
beget life. James 118, of his own will, beget
he us, birth he us through the word of God. There's no begetting
without the word of truth. No truth, no life, no one has
ever been the object of the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God. No
one has ever been born of the Spirit apart from the truth. Now listen to me, God never uses
error. Never. Aren't you putting God
in a box? You're not gonna be putting God
in a box, but God's gonna act according to his nature. He cannot
lie. He cannot lie. Well, couldn't God use air if
he wanted to? No, because it's against his nature. God only
uses the truth to beget life, the truth of the gospel. Now,
think of these words, salvation. That's a big word, isn't it?
Salvation, being saved from your sins. Salvation is defined. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse
4, he'll have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of
the truth. Well, does that mean all men
without exception? Well, look in the context. Pray for all
men, all types of men. Those are in authority. Then
he names several different kinds of men. The all is all who believe,
all who are saved by his grace. They come to a knowledge of the
truth, a saving knowledge of the truth. Not just accurate
doctrine, it's a saving knowledge. Repentance. Repentance is called
in 2 Timothy 2.25, if God per venture would grant them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth. You're not repentant if there's
not a full embracing of the truth. You don't even know what repentance
is until there's an embracing of the truth. Faith, believing
Christ, believing God is called in Titus 1.3, the faith of God's
elect, the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. Now, that doesn't mean it leads
to godliness. It means it comes from godliness. That's where
the acknowledging of the truth comes from when God does something
for you and you believe the truth. There is no salvation. There
is no repentance, there is no faith without the truth. Now, is it any wonder that Paul
mentions the truth as the first piece of armor? And you can't
get any of the rest of the armor on without the truth. Now, you remember that woman
that had an issue of blood 12 years and she spent all she had
on quack physicians. And the scripture says she grew
nothing better but rather grew worse. And then she hears of
the Lord Jesus Christ and she comes in the press on her hands
and knees knowing if I can just touch the hem of his garment.
What a view she had of Christ. That's how high she viewed him.
Truth is how high you view him. That's truth. She said if I can
just touch the hem of his garment I will be whole. And after that she did touch
him and felt she had been healed, the Lord said, who touched me?
He knew exactly who touched him. Who touched me? And the scripture
says that the woman knowing what was done in her came and fell
down before him and told him all the truth. All the truth. Now, the truth is a whole. What's 99% true? A lie. All the
truth. If you know the truth, you will tell all the truth. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians.
You're real close. Well, you're already there. 2 Thessalonians. Verse 9, even him who's coming
is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and
lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and in the
parish because they receive not the truth that they might be
saved. I didn't quote that right, did I? It says they receive not. What? The love of the truth. Now, if you have reasonable intelligence,
you have to have that. You can see that the Bible teaches
that God is sovereign. If you read what the Bible says,
he's the first cause of everything. You can see that men are dead
in sins. You can read and find out that
God has indeed elected a people and Christ died for the elect
and God's grace is irresistible and invincible. God's people
will persevere. You read the Bible and you'll
come up with that. Now you might deny, but if you
read it openly, you'll come up with that. But do you know, that's
not the love of the truth. Somebody says, well, I see the Bible does
teach that. No, it's not just receiving the truth. It's receiving
the love. of the truth. Do you love who
God is? Do you love that God is sovereign
and absolute control of everything and you wouldn't want it to be
any other way? Being taught that you are totally
depraved, do you love that God elected a people and you know
you wouldn't be saved if he didn't? Do you love that Christ is a
complete savior and that he accomplished salvation? He didn't leave anything
undone. We don't sing Jesus paid a half
the other half I owe, we sing Jesus paid it all, all the dead
I owe. Do you love that salvation is
by irresistible, invincible grace? You love the fact that God's
people are preserved so that they persevere. It's not just
saying, yeah, I see the Bible teaches that. I remember one
time, this actually happened in my home. Somebody said, I
see the Bible teaches that, but I didn't mean I like it. Well,
I do. I love it. I love what the Bible
reveals regarding the gospel. What commends a man of speaking
for God? Turn to 2 Corinthians 4, got two more. 2 Corinthians 4. Therefore, verse 1, 2 Corinthians
4. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. What is it that commends a man
in speaking for God? Open manifestation of the truth. Not trying to hide it with wisdom
of words, not trying to make it less offensive, just the manifestation
of the truth of who God is and how he saves sinners by his blessed
son, the truth of the scripture, the truth that Christ is all. One last scripture, turn to John
8. Verse 30. As he spake these words, many
believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him, if you continue in my word, not just
begin, but continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. You don't just begin, you continue
in his word, the word of truth, the word of the gospel, the word
of his grace. You continue in his word. And look what it says in verse
32, and you shall know the truth. Now that answers every objection. How can you know the truth? Well,
the Lord said, you shall know the truth. And your knowledge
of the truth is what will set you free. Not at all. Not at
all. I know the truth. I know I'm
preaching the truth. But it's not my knowledge of
the truth that saves me. It's the truth himself that sets
me free, that makes me free. Not my knowledge of the truth.
I love that passage in Galatians 4.9 where Paul said, now that
you've known God, And he said, scratch that. Rather, are known
of God. That's my hope. His knowledge
of me. That's all my hope. His knowledge
of me. You shall know the truth. And
it's not your knowledge of the truth that makes you free. How
many times do you become settled Then someday, maybe an hour later,
think, what if all this isn't even true? What if none of this
is true? I mean, you've done that. I've
done that. It's not my knowledge of the
truth that makes me free. It's the truth himself who makes
me free. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free. And don't you be entangled in
that yoke of bondage, salvation by works. That's all it is. is
a yoke of bondage, if the Son shall make you free. And that's
what he did on Calvary's tree. When he said it is finished,
all of God's elect were freed. Freed. If the Son shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. Now, there's no putting on of
that breastplate of righteousness, his righteousness, There's no
having your feet shod with the readiness, the preparedness of
the gospel of peace. There is no shield. There is no helmet of salvation.
As a matter of fact, you don't even know what the sword of the
spirit is. You may know what it's defined to be, but you don't
even know what it is until we first have our loins girt with
truth. the truth of the gospel. May the Lord cause us to see
so clearly that Jesus Christ, the Lord, is the truth. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word How we thank you for the truth of your word. How we thank
you that your son is the truth and that your gospel is the truth
and your grace is the truth. Your word is the truth. Lord,
we ask that we might be sanctified by your spirit. in believing
the truth. Lord, enable us to be girt with
the truth, this belt of truth that will cause us to put on
all these other pieces of armor. Bless this message for the Lord's
sake. In his name we pray. Amen. Dwayne, come lead us in
closing again.