Indeed, these are historical events. When we recite the Apostles' Creed, we do so because it commemorates real events that really occurred in time. And we confess these together. This song and a lot of these hymns that we do are done intentionally for this purpose to get you to think about reality. And this is a great truth and great reality put to song and thinking through this. This is 288 about his dying, his saving through the burial and through the resurrection and of course the ascension is implied and specifically stated in one of these verses and then finally that he is coming again and indeed that is a glorious day that's the next thing on the calendar is Christ's return Christ certainly came in time we commemorate it in our culture every December 25th right? Christ came came in flesh he really did come when he came he came in peace He came for salvation, to save his people from their sin, from the consequences of their sin, which is eternal damnation. But Christ is coming again, and this time to bring judgment. It won't be peace, it'll be coming in great judgment. And so, worshipers respond to me at the top here, in this responsive reading as I lead you through it and think through the implications of this next calendar event surely as Christmas happened the second return as we call of Christ coming to judgment will occur when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him Then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Worshippers. We know that when he appears we should be like him. For we should see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. So this is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be. And two men will be in the field. One will be taken, and the other left. Let us pray. Father, we are here to worship you through Christ our Lord. Warm our hearts to be prepared to see the Lord. I pray that none in our presence today will see him coming in judgment. That is to receive the judgment. Spare them of that. They might receive the Lord and see him in his glory. Because they are united with him as sons and daughters. Cause us to see the reality of the world in which we live. And the truth that is in Christ Jesus this day. And the truth of your glorious return. May we be ready, prepared. May the truth guide us to be ready. I pray in Christ's name. Amen. This morning we're going to continue in our series in Ephesians and our focus text will be verse 14 of chapter 6. We're going to go through really the tactics now of spiritual warfare. introduce this, and we'll see if I can get through this introduction of this and complete at least this element here, this tactical item, the belt of truth. We'll spend a lot of time in Ephesians though, and so I invite you to have your scriptures open. We have a place to make notes on the back of your worship folder, and you can use that to jot down a scripture or two that you might want to look at later. In your mind, if you question some of the things that I'm going to say, that's fine. Write down what they are. Examine the scriptures to see if they be so. I will speak in a very authoritative way because I'm doing it from the authority of Christ. And prayerfully, I have it right. But it is your charge to be diligent and search the scriptures yourself. And if they're so, follow them. Follow Christ. Listen to Christ's words. We've been considering, and at this point, over the past few weeks, this closing argument that Paul makes, this admonition to the church, specifically Ephesus, but applied to all churches, when he says in verse 10, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand against the schemes of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places The church is called to be strong. We need to be strong because there is an adversary. There is an adversary who is scheming to undo us. Satan cannot destroy the work of God in the redemption of the believer. That is secure. sealed by the Holy Spirit as we've already read the truth and looked at the truth in Ephesians chapter 1. But he can influence the church to behave in ways which diminish their effectiveness. His desire, that is Satan's desire today, is to have you look like, think like, believe like, and behave like the devil as opposed to Christ. You can defeat the foe. You can overcome. You can stand firm in the strength that God provides. This scheming to undo us, Satan's work, is often ignored even within the church. Perhaps we have the wrong idea of Satan. I spent at least three sermons on him and his tactics and things like that. But just to summarize and refresh your memory, it really isn't about some evil being doing sadistic things to people. That's really not what he's about. Satan comes as an angel of light. He looks good. He sounds good. Philosophically, it seems like it might work. Psychologically, it's the right thing. Intellectually, it's there. Experientially, this is a good person after all. Judas was probably the most externally righteous person among that crowd of disciples. But he was of his father, the devil. They trusted him so much they gave him the money. But he wasn't really a disciple of Christ, though he looked like one and sounded like one. And they couldn't possibly believe out of their midst that that indeed would be the son of the devil. You can see Peter in that role, can't you? but not Judas. No, see, the way Satan works is really much behind the scenes in an unseen world. That's why the text talks about this. We We're not wrestling against flesh and blood, really. I mean, there are rules and different things that you can put into action in a physical way, but it's the ideologies behind it. You can write this text down. I'll just read it for you quickly, but it parallels with this from 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Paul would tell the Church of Corinth in verse 3, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. He's using that same terminology. That Christians are in a spiritual battle. They're in a warfare, but our weapons of warfare are not physical. It isn't a physical war that's going on. It's a spiritual dynamic. It's not according to the flesh, he says here. For the weapons of our warfare then are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful. And what do these weapons do? We're going to talk about those weapons, that tactical gear, if you will, here at Ephesians 6. He's going to enumerate them. There's six of them mentioned we'll talk about, at least the first one today. He says, but I'm here in 2 Corinthians 10, just giving you background. But divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses, we are destroying speculations and every lofted thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And we are ready to punish all disobedience whenever your disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. What is he destroying? What are they fighting against? Speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. In Ephesians, Paul talks about this as being the cosmos. the world system. You see, Satan is behind all of it. Those lofty schemes, those ideologies, those speculations, those philosophical thoughts, thinking that is in opposition to the truth, God's revealed Word. That is satanic. It is of the devil. He is a liar. He is the father of lies. If you're in Ephesians, go back to chapter 2. Paul has said this consistently. He said it to other churches, but he said it right here in Ephesians. And as he gets to this conclusion, this is built on what he's already talked about. And the system that he's railing against is this world system. And the truth is this, chapter two of Ephesians, you are dead in your trespasses and sins in which you firmly walked according to the course of this world. So he uses this analogy that all men were dead in sin. That's the default condition. It began on day one. In the rebellion of Satan, leading men into rebellion, their sin leads to death. And so that's the default condition, dead. And trespasses and sin, and you have a dead man walking. The idea here is living. you're living how according to the course of this world that is the system of the world the world system now who orchestrates the world system the ideology of the world the philosophy of the world the psychology of the world, the intellectual thoughts, directions of the world. Ultimately, who is behind this cosmic world system? It is none other than the prince of the power of the air that is now, prince power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. You get the picture. Satan is behind it all. That's where he's at. It's not as if he's off the side somewhere in a dark alley in some spooky little place. No, he's right out there in the midst of all of it. The path and direction and default direction of the world is under the influence, if you will, of Satan. He says he's now working in the sons of disobedience. Disobedient to who? Disobedient to God. And this is what the gospel does. It confronts that entire system and to those that are rebelling against God and calling them to repentance and faith. It is God who would make you live because we were all in that position. were all heading in that trajectory. Notice verse 3, among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were what? By nature, children of wrath, even as the rest, everyone. enters in as a son of disobedience that is a son of the devil and therefore a subject to the wrath of God and I've talked about the wrath of God it isn't some arbitrary thing about his nature it isn't really even an essential part it's a response to sin a righteous and holy response to sin just as light dispels darkness, God's perfect, righteous holiness is going to dispel sin. It's gone. It can't stand in front of a holy God. By nature then, those who are rebelling against God, the default condition, you who were dead in trespasses and sin like the rest who are children of wrath that's the same thing children of disobedience same thing children of the devil the default position but here's the good news the gospel but God now who is God is he angry at sin yeah absolutely because he's righteous because he's merciful, because he's loving, that's why. And you see it characterized here, those things that are essential to God's nature. Because of his great love with which he loved us, even while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing richness of his grace in the kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Do you want to worship this God who would be so merciful So kind and so loving. This is who God is. The course of this world is a different direction. The prince of this world is a different prince. World in the sense of the culture and the society and the places that you live. Elders and we were talking about this earlier I'm as patriotic as the next guy And I would like good government and so forth But the government's not going to save anybody Ultimately even the good that the government might do and the blessedness of whatever it is you understand ultimately It's The world system is controlled by the prince of the power of the air. We're not about to restructure things. to make some sort of external changes. I appreciate the barriers that are set up that might be consistent with Christianity to God and His grace uses to suppress evil, and He does. And governments do that. This is why Paul would tell the church at Rome, as awful as that government was, certainly not Christian, if you will, to pray. Pray for those leaders. Pray that God will give us a way to be able to proclaim the gospel and lead us in peace, but it won't save us. The system won't save us. And for young people in particular, I'm really concerned in the direction of our culture. I suppose it's always been evil because Satan's always been in charge in that sense, right? Directing the powers, but it seems like Each day that I look at the news, additional barriers of repression of sin continually are removed. I mean, just look at the military even. Why experiment with something like the military? You know, I mean, they just, over this homosexual issue, they wouldn't allow it. And then now they said, well, don't ask, don't tell. That was good for a while. Then, no, do whatever you want. And now, If you want to mutilate your body, the government needs to pay for that. And that's being stopped now. And insane people are saying, oh yeah, let's pay to have somebody mutilate their body and pretend to be somebody that they're not. And guess what? That barrier is going to be removed in time. It's going to topple. Because we live in a fallen world. Satan's in charge. And he may not influence you in your ideology that much. But he will in your children. And he will in your grandchildren. They're going to grow up in a different society and culture. And if you have them put their trust in the governmental system and our culture, they won't be prepared for Christ to come. Put your trust and faith in Christ, in Him alone. and recognize that there is an evil one who would steal away and snatch away sound thought and bring you to absolute insanity in your rebellion against God and what he has called us to do. There is a war going on, friend. And it isn't a cultural war. It's a spiritual war for the souls of men and women. And what can the church do about it? Oh, vote? Yes. Fine. Try to put barriers in place that'll help stem the The tide of depravity, yes. And that's what governments are for. That's fine. But Paul will call the church not to do that in Rome here and Ephesus in particular, that's under the thumb of Rome. He would call the church to do what? To be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. And I think it's just as applicable today as it was 2,000 years ago. Be strong in the Lord. Recognize that there is a spiritual battle going on. And for you to be able to stand, you're going to need all of God's armor. And beloved, this needs to be passed on to the next generations. So you better learn it, so you can disciple others. in the truth so that indeed they will be able to stand in this evil day. The elements of strategy are simply which I talked about. They include being reminded that our protection from all of this is going to come from God and God alone. His armor, His whole armor, verse 13, is necessary To protect us. To protect us from what? The evil one and the evil day. Every day since the fall of man. We need God's power and protective armor. And beloved, it is, however, the positive news, it is sufficient. It is sufficient and strong to be able to stand firm. So the admonition in verse 13 is this, having done all to stand, stand firm church, you have it, you have the resources. You can stand firm against the flow of depravity around you. All others can fall, you can stand firm and proclaim Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sin and see men transferred from death unto life. That's the power of the gospel. And none of Satan's ideology can penetrate that armor. So put it on. Pick up the tactical gear. Six of them are mentioned. Let me read it for you and then we'll see what we can discuss. Verse 14 of chapter 6. Think of this as tactical gear. I'll summarize it for you. But let me read it in the text then. Stand firm, is the charge, like a military soldier, stand firm, not in your own strength, but in God's strength, and get your gear on. What's the armor? What's the gear? Verse 14. stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness and his shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. By the way, let me stop there. How many darts can that faith extinguish? All of them. That's what I'm saying, the power of God. This is not impotent. This is powerful. Omnipotent, right? All the flame darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Let us pray. Father, again we come and pray. May your people be armed to the hilt with the tactical gear that you have provided for us in Christ. I pray this in his name. Amen. If you're taking notes, enumerating there, you can see it in the text summary real quick. You got a belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, sword. The belt itself is described as the belt of truth. So it points to something else. It's just an object lesson, think of it that way. Because truth is immaterial, the belt's material, so we can think in material ways to speak of something that is immaterial. So belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the spirit. Now, this is probably not totally exhaustive, but representative certainly. It is comprehensive, however, and I think that's his point. All this armor that is mentioned, it is God's armor ultimately, so hence the belt here, even though imagery might bring us up from that first century, a Roman soldier's belt, a Roman soldier's breastplate, shoes, sword, shield, all that. But it's pointing to something else, right? The belt of truth. There may be, by the way, some structural order put here. You can see the two groupings that most scholars use, the first three and the last three. Don't know how much significance we should make on that, but it does help you at least remember them perhaps a little easier. The first three are those things for a soldier that would always be strapped about them in times of war. The belt, breastplate, and the shoes. The other three were pulled out and made ready when needed. Helmet and shield and sword. But in any case, we'll focus on these tactical elements here. But be sure to understand this is part of the strategic plan that God has given, and that is to pick up, actively engage in putting on this armor as it's described. Notice verse 14, the command is to stand, And then verse 17, as it closes out, it says take. These are imperative verbs, stand and to take. This spiritual armor, this tactics gear of war is not an option for you as a Christian. This is not something for you to consider today whether you want to do this or not do this. If you're in Christ, this is an absolute command. It's an evil day. You have a foe against you. You are commanded to put this on to take your stand. This is not an optional thing. And the imagery would be, which you could jump to real easy, right? The military. If you're a soldier in the military, you just don't go in there and say, well, I'd like to wear flip-flops, Bermuda shorts, and a t-shirt today. That would not be a good thing to do, even in today's military force. Maybe in the future, That will change. So this illustration's gonna wear out, so you young kids, you won't be able to preach this later. But for now, it does. You wake up when they tell you to wake up, you go to bed when they tell you to go to bed. You wear what they tell you to wear. That's the imagery here. This soldier is not asked to consider what gear he might take to battle. He's commanded, take this, and to do this. That's the idea. These are participles here, though. Having fastened, you can kind of read that, that it is past tense. It isn't that this is some missing armament. When you're mustered in, if you will, brought into this relationship with Christ, this armor is yours. It isn't something that you have to achieve, get some sort of merit badge, and in time you'll have it. No, you have it right now. For the baby Christian, and the Christian has been a Christian a long time, you have this right now. What is this first element? Our text reads, verse 14, a belt. Says it's the belt of truth. Now, if you think about belts, and I think about belts, in our day, really, it's an item of fashion. You say, well, I wear a belt to hold my pants up. OK. If you really wanted to hold your pants up well, you'd actually wear suspenders. They do a much better job. But they're not fashionable. So we wear a belt. It has more about fashion than it does function. It might have some functional value. But if you're in the military, or perhaps a military group like police, or perhaps even a craftsman, then the imagery of a belt takes on a different idea, doesn't it? Because these belts then hold implements, and tools, and gears, and maybe it actually might hold your pants up. But in any case, I digress. The image here, though, of a belt that's mentioned, brings us up to the idea of it's used in military gear of, and particularly, a Roman soldier. The belt in that day that a Roman soldier would wear, it actually normally had another strap that kind of functioned like a suspender, and it would go across the shoulder and strap back down. Now that'll really help hold things up, wouldn't it? And on that strap, perhaps they might have wore some medals, and on the belt itself it might have had some places to hold additional implements, swords or knives and that kind of thing. What's going on here when he says to take up this belt here, the attire that was being worn by a Roman soldier, the best I can describe it would be a flower sack. Now, for those that don't know anything about flower sacks, maybe that doesn't help. So, Just use your imagination, just a bag, and then one end is open that you put stuff in the bag, flip it over, and cut a hole in the top to stick your head out, and two on the sides to put your arms out. You know, a Halloween costume for kids. That'll save you a lot of money come Halloween. In any case. It was a very bulky, flowing garment. It was a tunic, is what they called it, essentially. And you can imagine now if the soldiers wearing this flowing garment is comfortable, particularly on a hot day, you know, just kind of hanging there. If he's going to go to war, if a battle's going on, he needs to tighten things up a bit, to gather it up. And that's the imagery there of a belt, of gathering it up. In fact, I'm told in cultures where men do wear robes and in the east, oftentimes some of them do. One of the ways that they'll be able to go to work if they need to engage in some heavy labor or gain some sort of activity is kind of pull the dress up, if you will, robe, between their legs there and then stuff it through their belt. That's the idea, kind of make a pair of baggy shorts. That's the imagery here. If you look at the text though, it says in the ESV, having fastened on the belt of truth. Or if you have the NIV, some people do, you have, it's often good, but you have the belt of truth buckled around your waist. This helps us because it's given us what we call dynamic equivalence. It's given us an interpretive idea. But quite literally, the NASB, New American Standard, actually does the best job on this in the Greek, because it actually literally translates the Greek words here. And it is, having girded your loins with truth. Now, we don't talk about girding loins here, do you? Anybody talk about, well, I'm going to go gird my loins. What's that? Yeah. So this is one of the reasons why in English translations they'll say, fasten your the buckle on your belt or take the belt and fasten it on. That's the idea. But really, girding lines is actually a good phrase for us to understand because it conveys something slightly different than just fastening your belt buckle on your belt. This idea of girding lines is really an idiom or a figure of speech or a way of talking back then, and the point was it is to be prepared to make ready. That's it. And if that's true, then what he's saying is, with this truth, be ready for spiritual battle. One of the reasons Christians were going to lose the battle in spiritual warfare is simply they're not ready. They're not prepared. Jesus uses this same imagery in a story. You can find it in Luke chapter 12. I can read it for you. You can stay in Ephesians if you want. We'll be there for a while if I ever get finished with this. But Jesus says the same idiom, you can find it in Luke 12, a different context. 1235, let your waist be girded and your lamps burning and you yourselves like men who wait for their master when he will return from the wedding that when he comes and knocks they may be they may open it to him immediately goes on verse 40 therefore you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour that you expect not he uses this as a story to tell the folks to be ready for what we already talked about earlier in the service, the second coming of the Lord. But how he does that in verse 35 of Luke 12, let your waist be girded and your lamps be burning. This is the same idea. You gird your loins. Make sure that your lamps, why is your lamp burning? So that you're ready. And then what are you going to be girded about? Well, the idea is readiness. It's about readiness. It's about preparedness. It's about being fit for battle because the battle is here. And here's the question. Are you ready? That's the first idea being conveyed by this belt of truth. Not that you just got something stuck on you that's true. Are you ready? Are you prepared? You're going to get the assault from Satan. He's not going to hit you with some poker. He's going to poke you in the mind. Oh, if there is some sort of physical ailment or problem or whatever, you're going to think, does God still love me? Does he still have a promise for me? Is Christ still coming? See, that's where it gets to. It's back to a battle for the mind, a battle for the truth of that which is truth. Are you ready? Are you prepared? Here's MacArthur's comment on this. He says, I believe that being girded with the truth primarily has to do with self-discipline of total commitment. It is the committed Christian, just as the committed soldier and the committed athlete who is prepared. Winning in war And winning in sports is often said to be a direct result of the desire that leads to careful preparation and maximum effort. It is the army or the team who wants to win the most, who is the most likely to do so, even against great odds. To be content with mediocrity, Lethargy, indifference, half-heartedness is to fail to be armored with the belt of God's truth and to leave oneself open to Satan's schemes. I think he's right. I think that's the point. The point is simply this, to be prepared. You put this belt on. The idea is then to be prepared for battle. You be prepared for it with what? The truth. The question is, is he talking about the content of truth or the conduct of truth? In other words, truth objectively or truthfulness in your disposition of character? And I'd love to finish that, but I have a meal to eat, so you have to come back next week. Think about it this week, though. In the meantime, I want you to turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. And we'll close with this, because my introduction always goes beyond And we'll walk through that idea of content or conduct in Ephesians. And if you want to prepare ahead of time, I encourage you to read from Ephesians 1 all the way up to chapter 6, where we're at this week, and perhaps prepare yourself to answer that question. In the meantime, here is a Similar idiom being used here that Paul uses in the same context. First Peter chapter 1 and verse 13. Therefore gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober. And rest your hope fully upon the grace that has been to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children. Obedient to who? Obedient to your father, God. As opposed to disobedient, those who love the devil. gird up your loins of your mind as obedient children not conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance but as he who is called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written be holy for i am holy Beloved, you're going to lose this battle if you don't gird up the loins of your mind. When you wake up tomorrow morning, you're going to have a whole day of battle. You can begin by getting your mind right. I just want to tell you something personally. I want to encourage you to consider this. In preparation of your mind, Paul will end chapter 6 here, praying always with supplication, let your requests be made known to God, right? I would recommend, beloved, is simply this. You want to prepare your minds to be sober? You really want to have that kind of hope and faith in the grace that's brought to you and looking forward to that Jesus Christ that could come at any moment. Spend some time in prayer. Pray always. But start the day out with it. Because you're going to get a lot of assaults. We live in a day of thorns and thistles. And although there's great joy and delight in things that goes on, you're gonna also experience great disappointment, great destruction. Things are just going to happen and go bad. We live in a fallen world. Sober up your mind by spending time with God in prayer and supplication. You say, well, what am I going to pray about? You can pray about this, can't you? You can look at His Word, even some of it, and pray, Lord, I want to know about Christ and His return. I want to think more about the grace that has been given to me. I want to think about being a child of yours and not a child of the devil. May I reflect in my life, may I look like Christ more today. And you can praise him and thank him for the forgiveness that is granted to you in Christ Jesus. That he doesn't treat you the way you deserve. He gives you grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy. And you'll overflow in great worship. And maybe you'll sing in your prayers. Maybe you'll meditate on his word and his thoughts. But don't begin any day without first girding up the loins of your mind.