Ephesians chapter 6. I want to read this passage that
you and I have been studying on for the last few weeks. I
want to begin in verse 10. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
10. Find me, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord, 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. We wrassle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits, spiritual
wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God, that you 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, and above all taken the shield of faith,
wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked. Take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereto
with all perseverance and supplications for all saints." Our study this morning is going
to be on verse 14, having your loins girt about with truth. And let me say this before I
begin, and hopefully this will encourage you. Sometimes when I read the Scriptures,
especially in trying to preach from these passages like this,
going verse by verse, it's very, very difficult. If you would
fill that box back there full of subjects for me to preach on,
that would be very easy for me to do. But when you come here,
like Glenn did this morning, starting on 1 John, And you go
verse by verse by verse by verse. It's very difficult to do that.
Because you have to know how these verses relate one to another. And sometimes to understand them,
it comes down to understanding just one simple little phrase. Or even a simple word. And what
a word means in this particular text here may not mean the same
in another text. So it makes it very, very difficult. So don't be discouraged when
you read. If you run into passage, you
just don't understand. Continue on and read anyway.
That happens to all of us. It happens to all preachers.
This word, truth, here in verse 14, so much hinges on understanding
this passage when he says here, Having your loins girt about
with truth, however you and I are to understand this word truth,
really determines how we understand the passage. And this is what
I've been hung up on now for weeks. What is this word truth? What does that mean? And I think
I've got just a little bit hold of it today when we get to this
particular aspect of this verse. Now, you'll notice here in verse
11 and verse 12, the Apostle Paul is using a language that's
real. I mean, this is reality. He talks
about the conflict, the battle that every child of God is in
with the powers of darkness, with the God of this world, with
Satan. Now, if you're here this morning
and you're a true believer, You know something about this conflict. You know something about the
war that's taking place. And it's an invisible war. The battle is invisible. Sometimes
it may manifest itself outwardly. When the Jews cried, crucify
him, crucify him, that was a battle that was going on unseen. They never knew it. It manifested
itself in their enmity towards the Savior by what they said. They hated him, so they said,
crucify him, crucify him. But it chiefly takes place within. It is a battle that is going
on that is unseen. Everything may appear normal
to you. I look at you this morning and I may think, boy, nothing's
happening in their life. They're just fine. They're healthy
physically. They're healthy mentally. But
inside is the battleground where no one can see what's going on. It's these spirits. These spirits. But you notice when he gets here
now to verse 14 through verse 17, he changes his language altogether. Before, he was just speaking
plain language that you and I could understand. It was the reality. We knew what he was talking about.
But here in verse 14 through verse 17, he begins to speak
in metaphors. The armor that you and I are
to take to fight this battle against these powers, he talks
in metaphors. He says here, having your loins
girt about with truth. That's a metaphor, isn't it?
We use them sometimes. The Bible often uses these metaphors
to teach us. It's not a literal belt that
we put on to gird up the loins with. But this is a metaphor. When the Lord Jesus called Harriet
a fox, He said, you go tell that fox. That's a metaphor. We know what He meant by that.
He's a sneaky man. He's a very wily man. Keep an eye on him because he's
a fox. So what does it mean here when
the Apostle Paul begins to use this language of metaphors? Having your loins girt about
with truth. Putting on the breastplate of
righteousness. These things are difficult to
understand, aren't they? They're difficult to apply and
to understand. They can help us in this battle. Let's look at it then this way.
Let's look at two or three simple things this morning by breaking
this down and see if we can find out what it means to have our
loins girt about with truth. And first of all, let's look
at the scriptures, and we see a picture from the scriptures
of what it means to have the loins girt about. Now, I won't have you to turn
here, but I want to tell you about two or three stories. First
of all, you remember a prophet by the name of Elijah. He was
a great prophet. He was a full mount carnal. That's
when he called the fire of God down from heaven and burned up
the sacrifice. Remember that? Burned up the
stones, the altar was on, all the wood, and licked up the water
and even the dust. The Lord's fire fell from heaven. And then Elijah went out and
prayed there upon Mount Carmel. Ahab and all of his men were
there. Elijah just slew 450 of Baal's
prophets. And Elijah went out and put his
head between his knees and prayed for rain. And his servant said,
I see a cloud about the size of our hand rising up out of
the Mediterranean Sea. And Elijah said, you better tell
Ahab to get in his chariot get home to Jezreel because God sent
in the flood. And here's what the Scripture
says that Elijah did. In 1 Kings 18 and 46, the hand
of the Lord was upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and
ran before Ahab unto the entrance of Jezreel. Now, that was about
16 miles. That's a pretty good marathon
if you're running in front of a with horses. But what did he
do? The Scripture says he girded
up the loins. Back in those days, if you and
I looked at those fellas, back in especially those Old Testament
and New Testament times, we would probably make fun of them. They
would never dress like we dress today. They wore gowns, or they
wore skirts, or sometimes they looked like dresses. And they
had this belt around their loins, a girdle. Remember John the Baptist? He wore a leather girdle. And
what they would do, they would take those long dresses or skirts
and they would pull the end of them up and tuck it underneath
their belts. They'd tighten that belt down
so when they ran or when they worked, or when they went to
battle, they wouldn't get all tangled up in those loose flowing
garments. I've seen some of you ladies
do that. When you're wearing a long dress that's almost dragging
the ground and you have to hurry and do something, I've seen you
pull that dress up towards your knees and run. That's what happened
to Elijah. That's what it meant to gird
up. It means you take those long flowing garments and you tuck
it up because you have a difficult task. You're ready to run. You're ready to do something.
And you don't want those long flowing garments to hinder you. So it means you're ready for
a difficult task. You tucked up those long garments
and now you can run without being hindered. Another place is in
Exodus chapter 12. You remember this. The Passover
night. When the Lord told the children
of Israel, I'm going to pass through about midnight, and I'm
going to destroy all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. And that's
what He did. And boy, about midnight there
was a cry made. All the firstborn of beasts died. The firstborn of every Egyptian
died. Even Pharaoh's firstborn died.
And you hear this awful cry at midnight, and Pharaoh called
for Moses, and Aaron said, Get out of here! Get out of here! I don't want to see you anymore.
Take your people and go through the desert and go to the land
of Canaan. Just get out of here. Do it in
haste. It was still dark when he called
for Aaron and Moses and told them to make haste and get out
of Egypt. Well, that evening, The evening before they were
to depart, they put blood on the doorpost. And the Lord instructed
them to get in your house, He said. You get in your house,
and you stay there. You eat this Passover, this night,
and you eat it with your loins girded. You eat it in haste. You eat it with your staff in
your hands. In other words, You're ready
to go on a journey. I want you watching. I want you
ready. So tuck up the loins of your
garment. And you know if you could have
peeked in those houses that night, and you could have saw those
men and women, they weren't sitting there loose. They weren't just
sitting sleepy. You would have said to yourself,
what is ready to happen? Those people aren't relaxed.
They're anxious. Look at the loins of their garment. They're all tucked up. And what
were they ready to do? They were ready to leave Egypt
and head out through the desert into a new world. And you could
tell it. Their loins were girded. Ready to go. Ready to go. And then in Luke chapter 12,
one more example of this, and I think we'll see what this means
to tuck up the loins of your mind. Let your loins be girded
about with truth. You remember this incident in
Luke chapter 12? The Lord Jesus was speaking,
He was preaching, and this man came and interrupted our Lord
right in the middle of a message. He said, Lord, would you speak
to my brother that he'd abide the inheritance with me? Wouldn't
that awful to interrupt the Son of God over inheritance? Well, he may have been a poor
man. He may have actually been cheated out of it. To interrupt,
though, the Son of God? What state of mind would you
have to be in to interrupt the sermon that Jesus Christ was
preaching? And said, Lord, speak to my brother,
force him, make him just insist that he give me part of the inheritance. I want a few acres there. My
daddy had some money in the bank. He had a nice wagon, a chariot. Speak to my brother that he shared
this with me." And the Lord said, Man, what is the matter with
you? Where is your heart at? And He told him a story about
this rich man who had all these riches. And he had nowhere to
bestow all of his crops, so he said, I know what I'll do. I'll
tear down my barns and build greater barns, and I'll have
a place to bestow my goods. And I'll say to my soul, soul,
sit down now. Retire. Live off your interest. You've got her made. Eat, drink,
and be merry. And the Lord spoke to that man
that night and said, you poor fool. This night your soul is
going to be required of you. And then who shall these things
be?" And he turned around and he told that man, that's the
way it is with everybody that's not rich towards God. And then
he made this statement. He said, don't be over-anxious
about what you eat even, or about what you drink, what you wear.
But he said this, seek the kingdom of God. Seek God first. Seek the Kingdom first, and all
of these things shall be added unto you. Seek you first the
Kingdom of God, and all of these things shall be added unto you."
And then he made this statement, "...let your loins be girded
about, and let your lights be shining, and you yourselves liken
to men who wait for their When He comes, you'll be ready
to open to Him. So as you and I look at just
these three examples, what do we see? We get a picture, don't
we, of what it means to have your loins girded up. It means
you see a picture of this man or this woman with all their
flowing long robes tucked up under their belt. And it means
they're ready for a difficult task. They're ready to leave. They're ready to work. They're
ready to labor. They're watching. They're waiting. Look at them. Look at them. They
have their loins girded up. And they're watching. And they're
waiting. That's the picture we and I get as we think of what
the Apostle Paul said here, having your loins gird about with truth. Having them girded. Be ready.
Be watchful. Be ready to take on every difficult
task. That's the first thing. You get
that picture then? What it means to have the loins
girded? But we have to go one step further.
That's a physical picture, isn't it? That's a physical picture. We can get that in our mind,
but this battle is not physical. This battle is unseen. If all
I had to do is, and you ladies just tuck up your skirts under
your belt and tighten it down, that was it. And I just tighten
my belt down and tuck my shirt in it, boy, we'd be ready then.
But that's not it, is it? It's a spiritual battle. So what
is this? We have to go one step further
there. We get the picture of what it is to tuck up the loins,
but what are these loins? Having your loins girt about. You know the Bible tells us what
it is. If you want to interpret the Bible, you know the best
way to do it. Interpret it by itself. Just
go to the Bible to interpret the Bible. Let me show you what
I mean. Look over here in 1 Peter chapter 1. Look in 1 Peter 1. We get a picture of what it is
for the loins to be girded about. But now let's see what the loins
are. It's not the physical body we're talking about, but it's
something else. And Peter's going to tell us. And you'll notice
here in 1 Peter how he builds up to these loins, what he calls
the loins. He tells us there in chapter
1 verse 3 that God hath begotten us again into a lively hope. We have a lively hope through
Jesus Christ our Lord. And then in verse 4 he tells
us what awaits us, an inheritance that is incorruptible. It is
reserved in heaven for us. But then he goes on in verse
6 and 7 and he tells us of our present circumstances. He says,
you may be in great trials, manifold temptations, in heaviness in
your heart. And then in verse 9, he encourages
them that though we haven't seen the Lord Jesus Christ, yet believing,
we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. But then he
goes down to verse 13. And in the light of all of this,
since you've been begotten, since the Lord has saved you, since
you know what's reserved for you in heaven, and even though
now you have these temptations, temptations from the devil, the
world, the flesh, what are we to do then? Between here and
our inheritance, what are we to do? Well, look here in verse
13. of your mind. Be sober and hope
to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fastening
yourself according to your former lusts in your ignorance, but
as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation, for it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." What
is the loins that were to gird up with truth? Peter tells us
here that it's our mind, doesn't he? It's the mind. Having your mind girt about with
truth. Why does Paul tell us to gird
up, then, our mind with the truth? Because that's where the battle
is taking place. That's where these enemies join with us to
fight. There's where you hear the gunshots.
There's where you hear the rattling of the sabers. There's where
you sometimes see the blood flying and hear the groans in the mind. That's why the Apostle Paul instructed
us in Ephesians 4.23 to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Don't be conformed to this world.
That will weaken your mind. but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind. The mind has to be nourished. It has to be supported. It has
to be strengthened. Why? Because it's in a battle.
We wrestle against principalities and powers and against the rulers
of the darkness of this world. So the Apostle Paul is saying
here, have your minds gird about with truth. The mind. Everything takes place in the
mind. That's the battlefield. That passage that I read to you
a portion of it just a minute ago, and I'll show you how important
the mind is, in Luke chapter 12, where the Lord was telling
His disciples, don't be so anxious about what you eat and what you
drink. The parallel passage says, you
know, watch your wear. Don't be over-anxious about all
of this. But he adds something in Luke's
gospel. He said, neither be you of doubtful
mind. Why does he say that? You know,
sometimes you and I, we talk about our doubts as if they're
nothing. But you know, our doubts, you know what our doubts does?
It gives the enemy an opportunity to advance the battle. It gives
him the advantage in the battle. Because when we doubt, who do
we doubt? We say, oh, I really doubt myself.
Now, let's be honest about it. It's not ourselves. We know our
Father in Heaven will provide the birds of the earth food,
and He clothes the lilies of the field, but are we doubtful
that He'll clothe us, and He'll feed us, and He'll provide for
us? Sometimes we are, and we get so anxious. And why do we
get anxious? The Lord Jesus put His finger
on it. Neither be you of doubtful mind. But what happens? We get anxious, we get weary,
we get fretful, and one thing leads to another, and after a
while, down we go. We're losing the battle. Why? The mind. The mind. We've got to keep the mind girded
up. And boy, doubt. Doubt. It's not only dishonoring to
the Lord, it gives the enemy an advantage, and you'll now
never prosper spiritually if we're in a doubtful mind. Let
me give you an example. You remember this. You remember
when the Lord Jesus was walking on the water, He came by the
boat, and there was a storm raging, and the disciples were fearful,
and they thought that we'd seen a ghost. I don't know what it
was about those fellows, but they had this thing about ghosts.
Every time they saw the Lord after He rose, they thought they'd
seen a ghost. I don't know if it was just something in that
day, something in their culture, but when the Lord came by the
boat, they said, A ghost. And they were scared to death.
And the Lord said, It's Me. I'm not a ghost. It's Me. And
Peter said, Lord, if it's You, let me come down to You on the
water. And the Lord said, Come on. Come
on. We sometimes are pretty rough on old Peter, aren't we? But
how many of us would have stepped down on that water? I mean, look
down in that black water with those waves and the wind whistling.
I don't know if I would have even said, Lord, bid me come
to You. But Peter did, and he got out, and you know something?
Here was a mere man, and he was walking on the water. How impossible
that was, and he knew it. He's a fisherman. He has sailed
those waters all of his life and fished them. Here he was
walking on them. But he looked down, and he looked
around. He got his eye off the Master,
and he became afraid. And you remember what the Lord
Jesus said to him. He began to sink. And the Lord reached out
with His big hand and grabbed him and pulled him up. And he
told him, Why are you sinking? Do you know why you are sinking,
Peter? Look what you did, Peter. You did something only I can
do. Look what you did. And do you
know why you sank? O thou little faith, wherefore
did thou doubt? Doubt. A doubtful mind. Don't we see then why the mind
needs some support? Not only nourishment, but how
the mind needs to be girded up. If the mind is not girded up
with truth, what happens to it? Well, you've got all these loose
garments, don't you? You've got all these waves. Where
were those waves? That's these loose garments.
These thoughts. These imaginations. If Peter
had just girded all of that up and tucked it underneath his
belt of truth and tightened it down right tight, you know what
he'd have done? He'd have walked right on to
the Lord Jesus and walked back to the ship with Him. But he
didn't tuck his mind up. He was of a doubtful mind. That's
where the battle is. In the mind. It's in the mind. Let me see if you can relate
to this. Have you ever had something happen in your life? I mean,
some issue came up. It may be some issue at work.
It may be some issue at home, some family trial, something
with your health. But an issue had arose in your
lifetime, and it was worrying you, it was bothering you. You
tried everything you could to get out of it, but you couldn't.
It was something you could feel, it was something you could see,
and you almost worried yourself sick trying to get out of it.
And then suddenly, something happened. And you were out of
that trial. You were out of that issue. It
ceased to be an issue with you. But it wasn't something that
happened where you could see it. It was something that took
place in your mind. And come to find out that was
an issue with you because it was an issue in your mind. It
wasn't an issue at work. It wasn't an issue about your
health. The whole issue was in your mind. And then when you
got it straight in your mind, the issue was settled. Remember
Asaph in Psalm 73? Boy, an issue arose with him.
He said, My feet had almost slipped. My steps were ready to come out
from under me. I was ready to land on my back. What happened to that dear man?
Well, he said, I was envious of the wicked. I saw the prosperity
of the foolish. Everything they did turned to
gold. They had it made. They were never
sick. They were never afflicted. They were never tried. And he
said, every morning I get up, God chastens me sore. I am sick. I am cast down. And everything
I do just melts like butter. It doesn't prosper. And this
got in his mind, and it was dragging him down, and he said, I'm afraid
that I ain't going to be able to stand much longer. You know
what happens when we get in that state of mind. You know what
happens. We've got these enemies, these powers of darkness. They
come in and boy, they exaggerate that. They start making us imagine
and think even in a way that we poor sinners could never think
and imagine. And Asap said, I got in such
a state of mind over this, in being the wicked. He said, I'd
never tell this to any of God's children. They'd be offended
at me. They'd lose all their confidence in me. And he said,
that's the way I was thinking, and there was nothing I could
do about it. I couldn't get this straight until he said, I went
into the worship service. I went into the sanctuary of
God. And I don't know if somebody got up and read the text. I don't
know if some preacher got up and preached on it. But here's
what happened. That man was delivered in his
mind. He said, Then I understood. Then I understood. What did he understand? I understood
the end, he said, of those men. God has set them in slippery
places. He's given them all their heart's
desire, but it's just like putting a little calf in a stall to feed
it with all it can hold until you've got him fattened up where
you can slaughter him. He said, then I saw that. Then
my mind was opened and all my trouble was gone. That's where
the battle was taking place. In his mind. That's where we
fight. I don't care what we face outwardly. I don't care what it is. If we're thinking rightly, then
we've won the battle. But I don't care if you drop
one of your favorite little teacups. You're going to grieve yourself
to death about it if you're not thinking rightly in your mind. That's where the battle is taking
place. So gird up the loins of your mind. What with? Well, he
tells us here in verse 14. Truth. Truth. But what is this truth? If you've
never studied on this, if you've never looked at all the different
commentaries concerning this, I don't know what your opinion
might be. But when you begin to look at all the different
commentaries on what truth means, you get a variety of opinions.
And after a while you begin to wonder, well, what does it mean?
Let me give you an example. Here's what John Calvin said
about this word truth, having your loins girded up with truth.
He said this, truth, which means sincerity of mind, is compared
to a girdle. Now, a girdle was in ancient
times one of the most important parts of military armor. Our
attention is thus directed to the fountain of sincerity. For the purity of the gospel
ought to remove from our minds all guile, and from our hearts
all hypocrisy." Now, I can agree with everything he said about
sincerity. The Bible has a lot to say about
sincerity. It ought to remove the gospel
ought to remove from our minds and from our hearts all guile
and all hypocrisy." Here's what Paul said. He said, our rejoicing
is this, the simplicity and the rejoicing of our conscience is
this. That in simplicity and godly
sincerity, we have had our conversation in the world, and more importantly,
towards you. In other words, he's saying,
I have had this godlike sincerity towards you. Isn't that important? To be sincere. If we perceive one another to
be insincere, And if the world perceives us to be insincere,
it will kill us dead. It will kill our influence. It
will kill our fellowship one with another. It will kill our
friendship if we perceive insincerity one with another. So I agree
with that. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I don't believe this is what
truth means in this particular place. And why do I say that? And this is so important. The
truth here in verse 14 cannot be our sincerity, though that's
so critical. And here's why I say it. You
and I face an enemy that's far stronger than we are. They're
wiser than we are. They know us probably much better
than we know ourselves. They're not as near as forgetful
as you and I are. And I tell you what, brothers
and sisters, these enemies can poke holes in our sincerity. I want to be sincere. And I hope
I am. And I hope you're sincere. But
I tell you this, You let trials come. You get in the heat of
the battle with these enemies and they'll show us places where
we're not sincere and where we haven't been sincere. How many
times has your pastor come to this pulpit and I went home and
I've wept in my heart because I didn't preach with a heart?
How many times have you prayed How many times have you witnessed,
and yet you weren't doing it in the sincerity of your heart? Your heart was cold. You forced
yourself to do what you did for the Lord. You forced yourself
to pray. And it breaks our hearts, does
it not? Because we lack this sincerity. And you think if we know that,
the devils don't know that. And boy, I tell you what, if
this girdle which girds up our mind and strengthens our mind,
if it's our mere sincerity, then I'm afraid it's not going to
hold much. I just wonder if David could have pleaded sincerity
when Nathan went to him and said, David, you're the man. You've
committed adultery. You've committed murder and you've
lied about it almost a whole year. You think David could have
said, yes, but I'm sincere. Oh, wouldn't that have been a
plea? Peter, when he denied the Lord, Lord, I'm sincere. Here's the problem, brothers
and sisters, that we have. If we're going to look at something
within us, like sincerity, and use that to brace our minds up
with, I'm afraid the enemy is going to get us good. I'm afraid
he's going to poke holes in that belt and strip it from us, and
our minds are going to fall like your long dresses would. What is this truth then? What
is this truth? Well, look in Ephesians chapter
1 right quickly. I'm almost finished. Ephesians
chapter 1. Look in Ephesians chapter 1. I think it's this. I believe it's this. I believe
this truth to be something that the enemies cannot poke holes
in. I believe this truth to be something
that will support your mind in the hottest of battles, in the
most fearful of conflicts. What is this truth? It's the
truth of the gospel. It's the truth of the gospel.
Look here how Paul says in chapter 1, and look in verse 12, that we should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted
after that you heard the word of truth. What is the word of
truth? The gospel of your salvation. The gospel. That's what the truth
is. The gospel of his own will begot
he you with the word of truth. With the gospel. Peter said,
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of the incorruptible. What is that? It's the gospel,
isn't it? It's the word of God. The word
of truth. If we brace our minds up with
the gospel, That will support us in the battle against these
enemies. I was thinking yesterday, I was
thinking about this, about what the gospel was. This is getting
right down to the nitty-gritty when you face this enemy, when
you're up against their black faces. If this truth is the gospel,
then what is the gospel? And you know what I thought the
gospel was yesterday. And I think the scripture proves
this. You know what the gospel is. It's God for us. Isn't that what it is? God for
us. When he talked there in Romans
8 about God's purpose, those that he foreknew, he predestinated
them and he called them and he justified them and he glorified
them. And Paul said, what can we say
to these things if God be for us? If God be for us. Who can be against us? He that
spurred not his own Son, but delivered him up for us, how
shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who can lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Isn't that the gospel? God is
for us. He has come to us when we were
guilty, and He has justified us. He pronounces us clear from
all our sin and all our guilt. That's the gospel. But Paul didn't
stop there, did he? Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ who died. Died for our sins. Was punished
for our iniquities. Atoned for our sins. And put
them away. God is for us. You say, Bruce,
why is that so important? Well, let me remind you what
the prophet said to David when he went and said, David, you're
the man. And David was sitting there and suddenly his countenance
fell. Boy, he felt this sharp sword
go into his mind. And you know what he thought?
I'm a dead man. I have sinned against God. But
remember what the prophet told him. David, you shall not die. Why? The Lord has put away your
sins. I tell you, David couldn't plead
his sincerity, but he could plead this, the gospel, and what is
it? God in Christ has put away. He has put away my sins. Boy, when Peter was ready to
fall, remember the Lord told him, He said, Peter, these two
things are coming together in you. And they're going to be
awful. One, he said, Satan is disarmed
to sift you. You've got an enemy that you
can't see. Peter, you don't know you have. And he's going to try
his best to sift you, to destroy you, to drive you to despair.
Lord, how is he going to do that? The Lord told him in the very
next breath, before this night is over, you're going to deny
me three times. So you've got these two things.
You've got sin that you've committed, and here you've got the devil
coming in to accuse you and exaggerate that sin even worse than it is,
if that's possible, and drive you to despair. He did that to
Judas, didn't he? What are you going to plead?
Sincerity? I don't think that will hold up before this end.
But I'll tell you something you can plead. Peter, I pray for
you. I pray for you. That's the gospel,
isn't it? What is the gospel? God is for
us in atoning for our sins. God is for us in justifying us
freely by His grace. God is for us in that He has
set on His right hand an advocate to plead and maintain our cause. Little children, I would not
that you sin, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with
a Father. Why is that important? Because
Satan drives us to despair. And the only hope we have of
God's mercy and forgiveness and acceptance is seated there at
God's right hand. God is for us. That's the truth,
isn't it? That's what supports this mind
in this awful conflict. The Lord Jesus said, and you
can read this in John chapter, I think it's in John chapter
8, when those Pharisees who came to him and brought this woman,
taking adultery, and the Lord Jesus said, I don't condemn you.
Go and sin no more. And he began to talk to those
fellows about the bondage that they were under. Remember that?
They said, we were never in bondage to anybody. Well, they were in
bondage to two things. They were in bondage to the Roman
government. They were the servants of sin. The Lord says, you're
the servants of sin. And some of them believed on
him, and he said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples
indeed. And you shall know what? The
truth. You shall know the truth. And
what will the truth do? Make you free. It will make you
free. Free from what? The guilt and
power of sin. And he looked at those Pharisees
and he said, you are of your father the devil. He's deceived
you, he's got you in darkness, and he says your only escape
is this, to believe that I am He. That's the way we escape
from the snare of the devil, is it not? Paul said we should
in meekness instruct in those that oppose themselves if God
preadventure would give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil." Truth. Oh, brothers and sisters,
the gospel. Gird up your mind. Gird up the
loins of your mind with the gospel. Don't leave the gospel. Keep
it in remembrance. Believe it. And this is the way
we overcome. by the blood of the Lamb. Gird up the loins of your mind. God grant us grace to do it.
Let us pray.