Let's begin in reading in verse
10. Ephesians chapter 6, beginning
in verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having
your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate
of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith
ye shall be able to quench all the fire-darts of the wicked,
and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God. Pray it always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit. and watch him thereunto with
all perseverance and supplication for all saints." You and I have
come to verse 14 in our study of this epistle, and I notice
the Apostle Paul here three times in verse 11, verse 13, and verse
14, he uses this word, stand. And that's the title of our Message
this morning, stand, stand, stand. Stand. Having done all to stand,
stand. This word, stand, I've got in
a habit now of looking these words up. Because if we just
read over them, we think we know the definition, and probably
we do. But it's good to be reminded
of just what this word means. And Webster says to abide. to continue to hold up as opposed
to slipping or stumbling and falling down or being overcome
or overwhelmed and knocked off our feet. Stand, the Apostle
Paul said, stand against the trickeries of the devil, the
wiles of the devil. Stand against these principalities
and powers that come against our mind, our thought, stand
against this world and how it allures us, stand against this
old man, this body of death that we live in, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Here
you and I are tempted, we are tried were persecuted and seemed
like brothers and sisters anymore, it's almost on a daily basis. Do you feel like it's getting
worse? And these fallen, wicked spirits are always around, nearby,
in the shadows to exaggerate our suffering. And sometimes
it seems to me that we make such little advancement We take such
little ground. Most of the time, anymore, it
seems like we're just standing and that's all we're doing. We're
not advancing. I'm reminded of what the Lord
Jesus said to the church at Thyatira. He said, That which you have
already, hold fast till I come. And seemingly, anymore, if you're
like me, you're just holding your ground. You're not making
much advance or progress. But if we can just stand and
hold our ground in this day, I guess we do well. I've been
on this way for 39 years. 39 years I've been in this battle,
and I probably look like it don't. One of my granddaughters told
me the other day, she said, Papa, you're old. I feel old. I feel old. I'm like the fellows
that used to ride the horse and get him all wet and put him up
that way. Rode hard and put up wet. And you know what I found
out in my own experience? It seems like to me that the
pressure is getting deeper. There is more pressure now than
I've ever remembered in my Christian experience. And it's coming from
these powers, these wicked spirits that Paul tells us that's in
the air. The prince of the power of the
air. And the Lord Jesus said they're the fowls of the air.
They're like buzzards. They're all in the air. And they
not only eat on dead carcasses, you know what these buzzards
seek? They seek the precious Word of God that's been sown
in the heart. They want to devour it and take
it away from a man lest he believes the gospel and be saved. So things
seem to me that they're getting worse. So Paul writes to us here
and he says, Brethren, stand, stand, stand. You've got a battle
on your hands. He was writing to the church
at Philippi and he said this, and I love this passage, and
if I had anything to say to you this morning, here is probably
what I would say. My brethren, dearly beloved and
longed for, my joy and my crown stand fast in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. Be strong in the grace that's
in Jesus Christ the Lord. Be strong in the Lord. And how can we stand if we're
not in the Lord? How in the world can we stand
against these enemies if we're not in the Lord Jesus Christ? When Moses asked God to show
him His glory, do you remember what God said, I'll do to you,
Moses? He said, there's a place by me. There's a rock by me. And He said, I'm going to set
you on that rock. And He'll come to pass when my
glory passes by you, that I'll put you in the cleft of that
rock. And when I pass by, I'll put
my hand over you, and you'll see my glory. You know what that rock is? That
rock is Christ. He is the rock. He is a tried
stone. He is a sure foundation. And
the only way that you and I can stand before God and see His
glory is to stand in Christ. To stand on Him. David said,
He brought me up out of the horrible pit and the marvelous clay and
He set my feet upon a rock and He established my goings. What
is that rock? That rock is Christ. And the
wonderful thing about it, you stand on Him and you're in Him. You're on the rock and you're
in the rock. And you know something? You cannot
slip or slide or sink if you're on this rock, Christ Jesus. But here's what the Master, He
said. Here's what the Lord Jesus said. He said, make sure that
you're in Me. Make sure that you're in Me.
For he said, when once the master of the house has risen up and
shut the door, and you begin to stand without and to knock,
saying, Lord, open to us. And he'll say, I don't know you.
If you're without, if you're without Christ, if you're outside
of him, we cannot stand, can we? We can't stand before God
there, and we can't stand before these powers here. How in the
world are we to stand before these wicked spirits in this
terrible battle if we cannot first know that we stand before
God? If our Lord should mark iniquity,
who shall stand? If we are not in Christ, our
iniquities are marked against us. How can we stand if we have
to stand in our sin? Oh, we can only stand if we stand
in Christ and stand by Christ. We have to be like that man that
Peter healed there in Acts chapter 4. And when they asked, how was
this man made whole? We have to give the same answer
that was given of that man. By Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
He stands here before you whole. We have to stand by Christ. We
have to stand in Christ. Or we can't stand. We can't stand. Who may abide the day of His
coming, and who shall stand when He appears? I saw the dead, small
and great, stand before God. But I tell you this, brothers
and sisters, you won't stand long before God if you don't
stand in Christ. I mean, they stood there and
they gave a count, but it wasn't long that they fell. And they
were cast alive into the lake afar. If we're not in Christ,
we cannot stand. The ungodly shall not stand at
the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. So when we talk about standing,
isn't it so important to know the only place that we can stand?
And if we're assured in our hearts and we know and we believe that
we'll be able to stand before God yonder and be accepted of
Him, won't that give us grace and courage here to stand against
the wiles of these evil spirits? But if we can't be convinced
that we'll be able to stand yonder before God, how in the world
can we stand before these wicked spirits here? We cannot. We cannot. I was reading about this this
past week, and I was thinking about some passages that so encouraged
me when I thought about standing. If you're in a battle this morning,
you need to be encouraged. I remember a few weeks ago I
preached the message when we first started on this series
about don't be discouraged. And you know one of the reasons
I preach don't be discouraged, because if you're a soldier and
you get discouraged You're easily defeated. If we go out to fight
a battle and we're discouraged and we're down, it's so easy
for these evil spirits to defeat us. I was reading a book a few
days ago about George Washington when he crossed the Delaware
with his soldiers and went up to Trenton to fight those mercenaries
from Germany. Most of his soldiers were barefooted. They had no shoes to wear. The
writer said you could track them by the blood and say, that's
Washington soldiers, because most of them have no shoes. They
were hoping it would get cold enough for the ground to freeze
so their feet wouldn't sink in the mud. And Washington was always
encouraging those soldiers. He was always trying to keep
their spirits up because he said a discouraged soldier will do
no good for my army. That's why we need things to
encourage our minds when we go to this battle. Washington's
soldiers, they loved him. They loved him. Boy, they had
confidence in his wisdom, his maneuvers. They put themselves
on the line because of that. You know something, brothers
and sisters, we have a captain of our salvation. Don't you love
him? And don't we realize, just like
Washington, he has the best interests of his soldiers? Don't you trust
his maneuvers? He'll never put you on a battlefield
and forsake you. He's gone ahead of us. So these
are some things that encourage me, first of all, as I thought
about this word, stand. Stand. We're in the battle. Therefore,
stand and be encouraged to stand. Let me give you just two or three
things that was encouragement to me as I thought about this
this weekend. I'll quote this to you because
I've got it wrote down, but you want to turn there sometime and
read it. It's in 2 Chronicles 29, verse 11. And if you'll read the context,
Israel had backslidden something terribly. They had closed up
the temple doors. The lamps had gone out. The sacrifices
weren't being offered anymore. They basically used the temple
for a storage shed. And it was a mess. And a man
by the name of Hezekiah, he was the king, a young king, and he
called the Levites together and he said, listen, you've got a
job on your hands. You've got to go in and clean
all the rubbish out, relight the candles, start the sacrifices
again, and lead the people of Judah in worship. And here's
what he said to encourage them. In 2 Chronicles 29, verse 11.
King Hezekiah said to the Levites, My sons, be not negligent, for
the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him. And you know what
they did? They said, wow, we never heard
such an encouraging word. He's chosen us to stand? Then if He's chosen us to stand,
we can stand. And we will stand. So they went
in and they cleaned the mess out of the temple, cleaned it
up, relit the lamps, got the priesthood together, began to
offer sacrifices, and the nation came together and worshipped.
And you know something? We can carry that right over
to the New Testament. And here's what Paul told Timothy
in 2 Timothy 2. Here's what he said. Thou therefore,
my son, be strong in the grace that's in Christ Jesus. And those
things which you have heard of me from many witnesses, commit
thou to faithful men, that they may be able to teach others likewise."
And then he makes this wonderful statement, "...therefore, endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Well, let me ask
you this question. How did Timothy come to be a
soldier of Jesus Christ? Paul goes right on in the next
verse to tell him, no man that wars, no man that's in this war,
entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please
him who has chosen him to be a soldier. What are you doing
in this battle this morning? Are you out in the middle of
the field? You've got your helmet on and your breastplate of righteousness. You've got your loins girt about
with truth and the gospel shoes on your feet. You've got a sword
in your hand. What are you doing out there in the middle of the
field? What are you doing? What are you doing fighting against
such powers? The devil and his fallen spirit.
What are you even doing in this battle? I'll tell you what you're
doing. You didn't call yourself into this battle. You didn't
choose this battle. It was chosen for you, and you
were chosen to it. You're a soldier of Jesus Christ,
and He has chosen you to the battle. Now, brothers and sisters,
that ought to encourage you to stand. You're a chosen soldier. Ain't that wonderful? Chosen
of the Captain of our salvation Himself. That encourages me.
And something else that encourages me is this. When the Lord chooses
His soldier and sends them into the battle, He gives them solid
ground to fight upon. I quoted that verse to you there
a minute ago. David said, I was in this horrible pit. I was in
this mirey clay. I tell you what, you can't fight
in a situation like that, Kent. If you're in a horrible pit and
you're just sinking, how in the world are you going to fight
the enemy? But David said, the Lord brought me up. out of that
horrible pit. And He set my foot upon a rock
and established my going and put a new song in my heart. When He sends you out to this
field, I tell you, He doesn't put you in the mud. He wants you to know the ground
underneath you is solid. It won't shift. You'll never
fall. You'll never sink because you're
standing on a rock. And that rock is the Lord Jesus
Christ. The wicked are overthrown, but
the house of the righteous, it shall stand. Why? Because it's
built upon a rock, a tridestone, the rock of ages. Oh, thou rock
of ages, let me hide myself in you. Let me stand upon you. And
brothers and sisters, I think if you're standing on Jesus Christ
this morning, I don't think you're going to fall. I don't think
you're going to sink unless he sinks. And he's never sunk yet. Neither shall he sink. The Lord
Jesus told us about a man. He said, I'll show you a wise
man. Let me show you a good soldier, a wise soldier. He said, that's
the man who builds his house upon a rock. That's a wise man. And then the rains come and the
The floods descend and the winds blow and it beats upon that house. Have you ever felt like your
house just kept getting beat upon and beat upon and beat upon? Do you feel like your knees are
ready to buckle? The rains beat upon the house. The floods beat, the winds beat
upon the house. But what did the Master say?
It did not fall. It did not fall. Why? It was
founded. upon a rock. The next time you feel discouraged,
the next time you think, I can't make any advances, maybe you
can, but just stand right there then. Just stand there on the
Lord Jesus Christ, the rock, and you'll not sink. You'll not
sink. Don't that encourage you to stay
in the war? to stay in the battle, all that
will give you some strength for your hand to cleave to the sword. And the third thing is this,
and this brings me to my subject, and that's not just an introduction,
that's most of what I had to say, so don't get scared. The
third thing that encourages me was this. When the Lord calls
us to battle, He not only chooses us to it, Not only does He put
us upon solid ground from which to stand and fight, but He provides
for us the armor. He provides for us the armor. And the Apostle Paul kept saying
that here. The armor of God. The whole armor
of God. You see, I've never been to the
military, but I've asked some people. When you get on that
bus, and they set you off out there in San Diego, They didn't
want you to bring your suitcase with you, did they? They stripped you of your clothes,
right down to the underwear, the socks. They provide you with
the uniform they want you to wear. When they send our dear
soldiers over to some foreign country to fight, you don't go
out and buy your own rifle. They provide you with the armor.
God knows what it takes to stand in this war, brothers and sisters,
and He Himself has provided us with the armor we're with to
stand. Put on the whole armor of God. And we looked at this last time.
We looked at this verse 14. I want to look at it right quickly
again. He says here in verse 14, Stand therefore, having your
loins Girt about with truth. Your loins of your mind. We learned
that, didn't we? Girt them about. Strengthen them.
Bind them up. Secure the mind with the truth. Now, there's two words I want
to use right quickly. I've never used these words because these
are seminar words, and I've never been to seminar. You read these
commentators, and they're often using these. Brother Baker, he'll
like these because he likes stuff like this. But I don't know how
else to explain this. And it's two little words, and
don't laugh when I use them. Don't say, oh, you're a big shot
now, aren't you? Don't say that, okay? But I don't
know how else to explain these that you and I can get a hold
of it as to what this truth is. We need to know what this truth
is. Gird up the loins of your mind with the truth. What is
this truth? What's he talking about? How
do we gird up our minds? Strengthen our minds with the
truth? There's two things that seminar preachers are often talking
about. One, they talk about objective. Objective. That simply means
an object. Something totally outside ourselves. Something you can look at. We
often use it as a gold. What's your objective? Ten years
from now, I want to be able to retire with so much money in
the bank. That's my objective. That's something totally out
yonder that you can look at. Objective. The other word is
subjective. That means something that's within
us, beneath, out of sight. Subjective. Subjective is very
important. I said that the last time we
looked at this. Subjective truth is very important. It's what's
within us. David said this, God desires
truth in the inward parts. Truthfulness, sincerity, openness
of heart. How can we be right with God
if we're not sincere? How can we be right with one
another if we're not sincere? If I'm not sincere and I'm just
playing a game, you're going to find me out, and you're going
to lose confidence in me, aren't you? Sincerity, truth in the
inward parts, subjective truth, that's so important. But our
inward parts, listen now, our inward parts, when we look within
us, our will, our intellect, are affections, these things,
these inward parts, must be subdued, they must be ruled, they must
be guided by an external, objective source of truth. source of absolute truth. Is there such a thing? Huh? There was one king, was
his name, governor, was his pilot, that said, what is truth? What
is truth? What is truth? Can you look outside
yourself and say, there it is! There it is! Yes, we can, can't
we? And what is it? Thy word is truth. Isn't that what he said? Sanctify
them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. It's truth. How many of us have
been deceived by our feelings, by looking within. We may be
sincere. God help us to be so. But have
you ever been sincerely wrong? Have you ever misunderstood something? We can't even lean to our own
understanding, can we? Here's the problem with being
subjective. Here's the problem with looking
within. Our inward feelings can deceive
us. Have you ever loved something?
I mean, you set your affections upon it. You really loved it
just to find out that it was an unlawful object. I've done
that. David did that, did he not, with
Bathsheba? Oh, Lot, boy, Abraham said, Lot,
you choose to the right end or the left end, and whichever way
you choose, I'll go the other way. And Lot looked at those
well-watered plains, and he said, man, I love those things. Oh,
look how rich the land is. Look at the fish in those streams.
And he chose that. But what happened to him? Well,
he got out of that place with the skin of his teeth, didn't
he? Here's what I'm saying. We cannot even lean to our own
understanding. In all our ways, we must acknowledge
Him. We can't trust our own affections.
We can't trust anything about us, can we, when we look in our
hearts? That's the trouble with being
subjective, looking within. Where can we go to get hold of
absolute truth? Where can we go to get a hold
of truth that will support our minds? Did you ever have your
thoughts just run wild with you? Did you ever have your imagination
run wild with you? Did you ever get confused? Where
do you go to when you get that way? And the more you look in,
the more you turn your eyes in, the worse it gets. Where do you
go to? That's what Paul is telling us
here. This is what I believe this truth is. It's objective. It takes our eyes from the inside. And Paul says, I'll tell you
something that will strengthen your heart. I'll tell you something
that will support your mind. And it's objective. You'll find
it completely outside yourself. And that's what's so wonderful
about it. You get harder looking within. You get harder trusting
your feelings. I remember when I was a young
Christian, just a few months after the Lord saved me. And
boy, I tell you what, I felt so good. And I was living off
my feelings. And there came a day when I didn't
feel good. And I went to an old deacon friend
of mine and I said, I don't know if I'm saved or not. I'm in a
mess. I just ain't feeling right. And you know what that old wise
deacon did? He opened up the Bible and he read to me from
this Word. Objective truth. That's the only
thing that will support your mind. Let me get off now on one
of my favorite subjects of Catholicism. Catholicism tells us that the
church, the Catholic church, has the truth. And they say,
they used to say, they don't say it so much anymore, they
still believe it, but they can't get by with it anymore. They
used to say that you cannot be saved apart from their church,
because only their church has the truth. Here's the trouble
with their truth. One pope and one council will
establish their truth. And the next pope and the next
council will make void that truth. And here is the problem that
Catholicism has. Where do they get their truth
from? Subjectively. They turn their eyes within. And they say, here is the truth.
And what is it? It is some carnal fault. It's some human logic or human
reason. It's the commandments of men. It's the traditions of men. The
Pharisees and the scribes did this all the time, did they not?
And the Lord Jesus said, you fellows are thrown away in the
Word of God. You have authority behind your
back while you trust to some tradition of men that came out
of the heart, the mind. of some fallen human person. That's the trouble, brothers
and sisters, with Catholicism. But let's be honest, it's not
just in Catholicism, is it? It's with the Baptists, too,
ain't it? It's with the Baptists, too. When we turn away from the
external, objective source of absolute truth, this is when
the devil's deceiving. This is when they overcome us.
This is when they'll devour us. My thoughts are not your thoughts. That's the problem, ain't it?
Well, this is what I think. Well, God's thoughts are not
our thoughts. This is the way we do it. Well, our way is not
His way. If we want our thoughts to correspond
with His thoughts, and our ways to correspond with His ways,
then we must receive His truth. And His truth is found outside
of ourselves. And that's the wonderful thing
about it. Let me show you one or two scriptures. Hold Ephesians
chapter 6 and look over in John's Gospel chapter 20. Look in John's
Gospel chapter 20. Here you see these two things.
Objective and subjective. I want you to see that here in
John chapter 20, in verse 24 through verse 31. Look at this. Let me just tell you, beginning
here at verse 24. Remember Thomas, after the Lord Jesus raised from
the dead? And Thomas wasn't there at the worship service. And the
Lord Jesus suddenly came in and said, Peace be unto you. They
saw the Lord Jesus Christ in His resurrected body. And they
told Thomas, we've seen the Lord. Thomas said, I ain't going to
believe it unless I put my hands into the prints of the nails
and put my hand into his side. I won't believe it. Well, the
Lord Jesus, eight days later, a week later, the Lord Jesus
come and said, Thomas, put your hands into my side. Put your
fingers into the prints of these nails and don't be faithless
but believe. And Thomas saw him. And Thomas
said, my Lord and my God. It's you. It's you. Now look
here in verse 30. Look in verse 30. And many other
signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples which
are not written in His book. Boy, He did great things, didn't
He? He did things that only the God-man can do. But look in verse
31. But these are written. That's what I'm talking about.
Subjective truth. outside of ourselves. These are
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God. And what's the result of believing?
That you might have life through His name. Brothers, I'm not hesitant
anymore to tell you or anybody this. If you believe this this
morning, you have life. The thing you better be concerned
about, do I really believe that? This is objective truth that
you can look at with your eyes that was written almost 2,000
years ago, but I tell you this, these things were written that
those who believe it will have everlasting life. You say, Bruce,
I just don't feel, I just don't feel. I love to feel good. I
love to feel good. What's this got to do with feeling?
See what you just did? You went from the objective to
the subjective. You went from looking outside
yourself to this infallible source of truth that was recorded by
the Holy Spirit almost 2,000 years ago, and you turned your
eyes within. Are you going to trust your feelings?
Let's be honest about it. Is that what we're going to do?
I just don't feel. Now let me tell you what a year
old man said years ago. Villains come, and villains go,
and villains are deceiving. Our warrant is the Word of God. All else is worth believing. And if you're going to stand
against these principalities and powers and not let them overcome
you and your knees buckle, you've got to have a source of truth
that's outside yourself. that you can look at. And you
say, my feelings change. Yes, they're fallible, but here's
something that's infallible. Here's something that's not going
to change. And gird this infallible truth around your mind. Then
it doesn't matter how you feel. Do you believe God's Word? Well, then you're saved. You're
saved. That's what He said right here,
was it not? These things are written that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ. I believe He's the Christ, the
Son of God, and I believe I have life. I ain't going to let these people
that's going down the Roman road talking people into some kind
of decision. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about
getting somebody to mourner's vans and getting them tossed
into the profession. I'm talking about the heart looking
outside of itself and laying hold upon the truth. If you've
done that, brothers and sisters, you're a safe person. I don't
care how you feel. Wouldn't you be hate-trusting
your feelings when you come to your deathbed? I imagine you
won't feel very good there. Where are you going to stand
on that? What's going to gird your mind
up there? Feelings? Oh, God help us if He does. One
man said, I'd rather be in the Word of God than be in heaven.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but thy Word shall not pass away. One of Francis' favorite verses,
and I loved it too, Isaiah 26.3. You remember that, don't you?
And here in this same verse, you see these two concepts that
I've been talking about, objective and subjective. Baal will keep
him in perfect peace. Now, that's subjective, ain't
it? Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight rolls a melody
sweeter than calm, in celestial-like strands it unceasingly rolls,
o'er my soul like an infinite calm. peace in my heart, the
peace of God that passes all understanding, that keeps your
heart in your mind. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace. But do you know how to lose that
peace? Look within. Look within. As soon as you look
within, you will lose it. Spurgeon said, When I looked
to Christ, the dove of peace flew into my heart. When I looked
into my heart, he flew out. That's the thing about looking
in, isn't it? I don't feel, I don't think,
I don't do this, I'm confused, my thoughts, my imagination.
Maybe you should quit looking in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, listen, whose mind is stayed on Thee. How do we stay our mind upon
Christ? Well, He's revealed right here in this Word, is He not?
Here is where we see Him. Here is where we know Him. In
His Word. His mind is stayed on thee. One more scripture. Look in 1
Corinthians chapter 15, right quickly. 1 Corinthians chapter
15. We can get more specific here about
the truth It's not only the truth of God's word, it's not an infallible
word, but it's the truth of the gospel. The gospel. Look what he says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 16, right quickly. And look in verse 1 and verse
2. Look at what the Apostle Paul said. Now concerning, in chapter
15, verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and look
at this, wherein you stand, you stand, by which also you
are saved, if ye keep in mind, keep in memory what I have preached
unto you, unless you have believed in they." You know what will
support your mind when you fight the devils? Stand in this gospel. Don't dare leave the gospel and
try to stand in yourself. We can't stand before God here
except we stand in the gospel. And we can't stand before these
devils except we stand in the gospel. That's where we stand.
Remember the Galatian church? Remember what it did? Paul was
writing to them and he said, I marvel that you are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
and to another gospel. You've left the gospel. You leave
the gospel, you leave Christ. And he wrote to them in chapter
3 and he said, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth. You've left the truth of the
gospel. And what happens when you do that? Just face the devil
without standing in the gospel. He'll twist us every way. He'll
get us down. He'll have us flat of our face.
We can't stand, brethren, except we stand in the gospel. Paul
wrote to him in Galatians 5, verse 7, and he said, You didn't
run well. You were running well. Who hindered
you that you should not obey the truth? Not only, he said,
did you stand and walk, but you ran well. But somebody has hindered
you that you should not obey the truth. What did they do?
They left this external, objective, infallible source of truth. The
gospel is the truth, is it not? It's the truth. Well, they said,
we just feel like we need to be circumcised. We just feel
like we need to keep these holy days. When you start feeling
that way, you know what you need to do. Go to the Word of God
and see what He says about it. When you feel like you need to
add something to Christ, when you feel like He's not enough, go to the Word of God and get
corrected. The Lord Jesus said this. Paul
finally wrote to the Galatians. Here's what he said before he
closed. I love this, he said, you better go back to the gospel.
You've left it, you better go back to it. He said this, stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And the Lord Jesus added to that,
he said, if you continue in my word, if you're not led away
by man's opinions and man's traditions, If the devils don't get you down
and get you out, if you continue in my word, then you are my disciples
indeed. And listen to what he said, you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. What is it, brothers and sisters,
then, that we are to gird our minds with? Is it something subjective? Is there something within it?
No. It's something that's unchangeable,
immutable. It's the Word of our God that
abided forever. Let's pray.