Children, make their way out. Let me ask you to open your Bibles again, please, to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. If you don't have a Bible, there are Bibles under the chair in front of you. If you're not familiar with Scripture, there's a table of contents in the front to let you know exactly where Ephesians is. We're going to be in the last chapter of Ephesians. Anyone not get an outline? I encourage you to use that outline, help you to keep up even if you don't fill it out. We've got one down here. Anyone else? Soldiers in the armed forces of the United States of America are the most well-equipped in the world. Beyond the standard equipment and weapons provided by most armies, American soldiers are provided with ballistic helmets, body armor with biometric sensors, night vision goggles, tactical communication systems, Recently, I read of an effort to equip every infantry soldier in the United States Armed Services with a drone, a military tactical drone. In any engagement, American soldiers have a solid advantage because of their weapons, because of their equipment. And we may make a similar assertion about how Jesus Christ equips his followers. For the last couple of weeks I've made very clear that we are in a battle. This battle has been raging since the Garden of Eden. Satan opposes everything about God and everything about God's people. And Satan is followed by fallen angels that we often call demons. And scripture is very clear that Satan and these fallen angels are real and that as God's people we battle with them. And praise God that Jesus Christ has equipped us in this battle with the whole armor of God. The armor of God himself, all of it, every piece. What better equipment can a soldier of Jesus Christ have? As we learned last Sunday, we need to learn how to use each piece of this armor in this battle with Satan. Now for the next few Sundays, we're going to take up each piece of armor individually, learn what it was, learn how to use it. We're going to take our time. There are eight pieces of armor and I plan to cover two each Sunday for the next few weeks, Lord willing. This morning, we're going to train to use the belt and the breastplate. Paul describes both of them here in Ephesians 6 and verse 14. We'll read verse 13 as well. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand, that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness." Now the first piece of armor isn't really a piece of armor at all. It was a standard piece of clothing for all men in ancient times. Today we call it a belt. In times past, it has been called a girdle. Notice that verse 14 commands us to gird our waists with truth. Gird, girdle. But I won't be using that word this morning since in our modern day that's used in a very different way. So I want you to consider with me the belt of truth. This belt was foundational. We need to cast our minds back to ancient times before the use of pants or trousers was common. Men wore long robes and they weren't really flowing robes. They were fairly tight robes. It was difficult to run. It was difficult to move quickly. in those robes. And that's why we find a phrase often in the old King James Version where men were directed to gird up their loins. When I read the modern translations, they don't really know what to do with this because there's no modern equivalent of girding up your loins. In fact, when I try to imagine girding up my loins, I can't really figure out exactly what I would do. And so, I consulted that great theological dictionary, Google, and I found this instructional guide from 300 B.C. No, not really. They didn't have Google back then, and they didn't have instructional guides like this. But those steps, if you look at them, they kind of make sense, right? All except the last step. I can't see tying it up in front of you when you could put it up under your belt. And I don't know which is right. It's one of those things I'm going to ask somebody about someday when we get to heaven, you know, what was the thing girding up your loins? But here's the point for us in our spiritual warfare. The very first step in getting ready for battle was getting the material tucked up under your belt. It was the foundational step before you could take up and put on any other piece of armor. And it teaches us that truth is foundational. Will you repeat that with me? Truth is foundational. It's foundational to being equipped for this spiritual battle that we're in with Satan. So there's something that we need to get in place before we're ready to face Satan, before we're ready for spiritual battle, and that is truth. Now, if truth is the foundation to the rest of the armor, it's extremely important that we understand what Paul means here by truth. The word in the original language is generic. It doesn't even have the article. It's not the truth. It's just truth. And as we begin to try to figure out what Paul is talking about here, let me point out a couple of interpretations that are not on target, what the belt of truth is not. First of all, it's obvious that whatever Paul means by truth, it's not the same thing as the Word of God. Now, how do I know that? Because in verse 17, Paul calls the sword of the Spirit the Word of God. So this must be something different. Now that's a little bit confusing, because the Word of God, the Bible, we know this contains truth. And so the two of them would be fairly synonymous, but we're going to learn later on how to wield the sword of truth, how to wield the Word of God. Paul must mean something different here when he just talks about truth, generic truth. And then also some expositors understand that Paul here is talking about truth Truthfulness. Our truthfulness. He's talking about our honesty. He's talking about our integrity. That doesn't make sense to me. I mean, when Satan or one of his demons attack me, is the foundational piece of my armor my own truthfulness? I mean, which of us can say, I've never told a little white lie. I've never shaded the truth. I've never told less than the whole truth. See, if the belt of truth is of my own making, then it's going to fail me in this battle with Satan. Remember what verse 10 teaches back here in Ephesians chapter 6. We are to be strong in the Lord. We're to be strong in Christ. This is something that's there because of our union with Christ, not our own truthfulness. Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying that it's okay for followers of Jesus Christ to lie and deceive. We lie and deceive. We open ourselves up all the more to the attacks of Satan. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so if we're following the Lord Jesus, we're going to seek to be truth tellers. We're going to seek out truth. But even after saying all of that, the belt of truth is not my own truth or honesty or integrity. And it's not your own truthfulness or honesty or integrity. So, what do we mean by the belt of truth? What is the belt of truth? Well, we need to start with some basic theology. God is the only source of truth. Let that sink in. God is the only source of truth. Do you believe that? Today, many would vehemently disagree with that statement. They would say, no, no, no, science gives us truth. We can look to science as well. Some would say, we can only look to science. And that idea resonates with many of us. In grade school, in high school, some of us in college, we were taught to depend on science. Science has the answers. But science has limits. Science has limits. I talked about the limits of science just a couple of months ago. Science provides information, useful information, but it does not provide unchanging, universal, objective, absolute truth. And it's very easy to reach this conclusion if you keep up with the latest scientific research. I regularly read a website called Real Clear Science. It has all the latest science news. And new discoveries are constantly being made that correct what science has affirmed as true for decades, sometimes for centuries. I just read an article on Real Clear Science this week entitled, Six Times Einstein Missed the Mark. Science doesn't give us unchanging truth. It gives us useful information. And I'm so glad that it does. It gives us useful information in the form of medicines. It gives us useful information in the form of new medical procedures and new techniques in many different industries and all kinds of different technology. And so we're profited by science. But useful information is very different from truth. Truth never changes. Truth is absolute, universal, and only God gives us unchanging, absolute, universal truth. And that's what this foundational piece of armor is. It's embracing the idea that there's such a thing as unchanging universal objective truth. What Francis Schaeffer used to call true truth. I like that. True truth. It's true all the time. It's true for everybody. It's true in every circumstance. And it's true all the time and true for everybody and true in every case because it is rooted in the nature of God. It's rooted in the character of God. Now, what does scripture teach us about the character of God? In Deuteronomy 32, 4, God is the rock. His work is perfect. All his ways are justice. A God of truth. Numbers 23, God is not a man that he should lie or the son of man that he should repent. Titus 1-2, in hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised before time began. And then I love Paul exclaiming in Romans chapter 4, indeed let God be true, but every man a liar. So there is such a thing as truth, true truth, because God is true. His character is unchanging and universal and objective and absolute. And so would we not expect that His creation, this universe, this world in which we live, that in this universe there would also be unchanging, universal, objective, absolute truth? We live in a world where adultery is always wrong. Lying is always wrong. Murder is always wrong. Stealing is always wrong. Idolatry is always wrong. Always wrong. It's true truth. It never changes. Let me give you a simple example. If I say to one person, I am a male, and I say to another person, I am a female, both statements can't be true. Not in God's world. If A is true, then not A can't also be true. So if I say those two things, either I'm lying, or I'm deluded. Now that sounds so simple, doesn't it? And many of us, we really take that idea for granted. That there is, there's true truth. There's unchanging, absolute, objective truth. But we live in a day when Satan is doing his utmost to take this foundation out of the lives of every human being. Western culture has abandoned the idea of absolute, unchanging, universal, objective truth. Now, most people believe that there are such a thing as facts. I mean, most people would agree with the statement that Don's car is red. What color red? Is the fire engine red? I mean, we'd all agree with that, right? See, the problem is not in that realm. The problem is in the realm of morality. The problem is in the spiritual realm. They would say in that realm, there's no such thing as true truth. Truth in that realm is whatever you decide it has to be. You want to you want to set somebody's hair on fire? Tell them there's true truth in the realm of morality and in spiritual matters. Now, if you don't believe me. The 2020 Barnard Group study. Found that nearly two thirds of American adults. Either believe that moral truth is relative or they've not even thought about it. which leaves about one-third of American adults who believe that moral truth is absolute, would believe what I just said a few moments ago, that lying is always wrong, and adultery is always wrong, and stealing is always wrong, and murder is always wrong. Specifically, the survey found that 58% of Americans agreed with the following statement. Identifying moral truth is up to each individual. There are no moral absolutes that apply to everyone all the time. There is no true truth that applies to everyone all the time in every case. Another Barna research found that 83% of teenagers said that moral truth depends on circumstances. Only 6% of teens said that moral truth is unchanging, universal, absolute. And that's not the worst of it. Here's the worst of it. Those statistics aren't any better for people who claim to be born again. Satan has succeeded in taking this foundation out of the lives of human beings, even human beings who claim to trust in Jesus Christ and follow him. We've become infected with the stuff that we hear on TV. Well, that may be right for you, but it's not right for me. Somebody asked, how will I know what's right? Just follow your heart. You'll be all right. That's our culture. That's what our kids are taught by everything that surrounds them in the atmosphere. It's a big piece of what's led to this transgender debacle. In what universe does it make sense for a child to say one day I'm a girl and to say the next day I'm a boy? not in the universe of unchanging universal absolute truth. Now I've been speaking in very broad terms but let's bring this back to us as believers in a battle with Satan. Why is the belt of truth so important to us as believers in this cosmic battle with Satan? It boils down to this. If we do not believe in unchanging, universal, objective truth, then we cannot lay hold of Christ by faith. Did you get what I'm saying? If there's no such thing as true truth, then Christ is out of reach. And we can't have a relationship with Him. Now some of you are scratching your head. Listen carefully to what 1 Corinthians 15 says. If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty, worthless. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, worthless. And you're still in your sins. And those who have fallen asleep, those who have died in Jesus Christ, have perished. There's no heaven. There's no everlasting life. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the core of our faith. Let's put it this way. If it's not true truth, if it did not happen in human history, if Jesus Christ was not nailed to a wooden cross where you could have raked your finger across it and picked up a sliver, If Jesus Christ did not shed true human blood that fell to this earth on which we stand today, if Jesus Christ did not roll a huge stone, a literal stone away from the grave, if He did not rise bodily in a human body like this that His disciples touched and handled, then Christianity is a sham. And we all ought to just go home. Let me turn it around and say it another way. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is true truth. Unchanging. universal, objective truth. It's not an idea that I make true for me by believing it. It's a historical fact. True truth, whether anybody ever believes it or not. That is the foundation for every other piece of spiritual equipment we have. True truth. So let me go back to where I just started. If there is no true truth, there is no true faith. Because there's nothing to believe in. Now here's the kicker. There are people out there who call themselves Christians, and I'm deliberately using air quotes here, who call themselves Christians, progressive Christians, liberal Christians. who deny that the resurrection is true truth. I read an article in Fox News this week. Let me read part of it. A new crop of children's storybook Bibles aims to reach progressive Christians who are turned off by traditional presentations of scripture, offering messages focused on diversity, inclusion, and social justice. Publishers say the projects are meant to reflect faith values of a changing audience and to fill what they describe as a gap in faith resources for progressive believers, liberal believers. The authors said they also hope to prompt children to ask questions and challenge traditional beliefs about God, Jesus, and the biblical narrative. Did that happen? Lewis, one of the authors, said, describing how the storybook presents Jesus' resurrection. For me, it matters more that children know that love never dies, so that's where I landed. In other words, it doesn't make any difference to her whether the resurrection is true truth. It's okay to actually tell kids from the get-go. Some of these stories are about true people and things that really happen, and some of them are made-up stories. But they're in there because they can still teach us true things about God. What this article calls progressive Christianity embraces the idea that truth, true truth, the truth of God's Word, doesn't really have to be true. It doesn't matter if it really happened according to these authors, as long as it teaches some nice progressive idea like love never dies. Well, hey, that's great to tell children in a storybook. In other words, it's okay if the Bible is a fairy tale. Such Christians have no foundation. In fact, they cannot have a relationship with Jesus Christ. For if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. It's empty. It's worthless. No foundation. You know, Jeanne and I have been watching a television show on the Discovery Channel called Houses with History. It's a couple up in New England along with a skilled carpenter friend, and they try to save old houses that were built in the 1600s and 1700s. And as they save them, they try to make them livable for us as modern people. They especially end up putting in bathrooms and kitchens where there weren't those kinds of things in those old houses. I mean, often they can actually trace the families that owned these houses back to the founding of the country. But more than once, as they began to renovate these houses and get into them, they have found that under one room or another in the home, there was no foundation. We watched an episode this week where in one of the rooms, one of the guys went in and he jumped up and down on the floor like a diving board. Literally, there was no foundation whatsoever under that half of the room. No foundation. Folks, that is what the Christian faith is like if there is no true truth. If our core doctrines, what we believe about God, and what we believe about Jesus, and what we believe about us are not true truth, then there's nothing there. And there's nothing for us to believe. And there's no way for us to have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. There is no heaven. There is no eternal life. There is no forgiveness of sin. There is no God. There is no Jesus. You might as well throw it all in the trash can. Thank God for the belt of true truth because it's the foundation for all of the rest of the armor. But we need to move on quickly to the second piece of armor mentioned here in verse 14. the breastplate of righteousness. Now, the breastplate covered the vital organs. It covered the heart and the lungs and the liver and so forth, both front and back. And we still understand the importance of this piece of armor today because both soldiers and police wear body armor today that basically is a breastplate. It's basically the equivalent of this same thing. And what this breastplate symbolizes is just as important, righteousness. Now again, we need to make sure we don't get the wrong idea from the start here. Some interpreters think that this righteousness meant by Paul here is our own righteous deeds. And they point out that the word righteousness, particularly in the Old Testament, is often used in this sense of our own righteous deeds. And sometimes even in the New Testament. But let me repeat a point that I made earlier. If I am battling Satan or one of his demons and I seek to defend myself against his attack by raising my own righteousness, then often I'm going to fail. Because I know myself only too well that often I am not righteous. I know my own heart. I know my own motives. I know my own thoughts. I know my own words. I know my own deeds. Too well to think that they are a defense against Satan when he attacks me. Too often Satan attacks me precisely because I'm not right. Because I fail to do right. Because I sin. And that's when Satan comes in and smacks me upside the head with a 2x4 and says, how could you call yourself a Christian? So I repeat the point that I made earlier. If I'm battling Satan, one of his demons, Ephesians 6 and verse 10 says that rather than depending on my own strength, I need to be strengthened for battle in the Lord, in Christ. It's only by depending on what is in Christ, the perfect, complete righteousness of Christ, that is the breastplate. That's what protects my heart. You see, Jesus Christ, God, the Son, lived a perfect, sinless life on this earth. Hebrews 4.15 confirms, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are. In all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. First Peter 2.22 says he committed no sin. Nor was deceit found in his mouth. First John 3.5 says and you know that Jesus was manifested to take away our sins and in him there is no sin. And then a verse that so beautifully depicts what happened at the cross for God made Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Let me explain that verse, okay? Many people who read the New Testament for the first time, they come on two words, the word justify and the word justification, and those words are confusing. Very difficult. It's very difficult because those words are so important to understanding the New Testament. Now the word justify means that God declares us right with Him. And God declares us right with Him by means of a great exchange. God takes our sin and our shame And he puts that on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross as our sin bearer, bearing our sin as our substitute to bear the punishment for our sin that God must pour out if he's going to remain a righteous God. But it doesn't stop there. That's only half the exchange. Then God took the perfect sinless righteousness of Jesus Christ, and He put that on our account in heaven. When God looks at me because of my faith in Jesus Christ, do you know what He sees? He sees Jesus Christ. He sees the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. All my sin was taken, put on Jesus as He died on the cross. And Jesus' perfect righteousness has been put on my account because I have trusted in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross and in His resurrection. Not because of anything I have done. Only what Christ has done. That's justification. That is the breastplate of righteousness. Christ's perfect righteousness. There's a passage in the Old Testament book of Zechariah that perfectly illustrates this great exchange. It's found in Zechariah chapter 3. Zechariah is a difficult book. It's a book of visions. that this prophet had that God gave to this Old Testament prophet. But let's read this vision that's found in Zechariah 3. Then he, an angel, showed me. So this is a vision given to this prophet. He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him, to accuse him. You know what this is a picture of? This is a picture of spiritual battle. This is how spiritual battle often goes. Satan attacks us by coming and heaping accusations on us. Beating us down with accusations. And here's the big thing. Often those accusations are true. But here's the wonderful thing. The angel of the Lord is already there. Now who's the angel of the Lord? We see the angel of the Lord often in the Old Testament. And the angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Son of God. The Son of God before He was born to the Virgin Mary, the second member of the Trinity. And here, He's standing beside Joshua. Joshua, the high priest, represented all of God's people. The high priest represented all of God's people. So here you have a representation of each one of us, if you will, being attacked by Satan, opposed by Satan, accused by Satan. And Jesus standing at our right hand. 1 John chapter 2 says He's our advocate. He's there to take our part. He's there to defend us. And that's what we see in the next couple of verses. And the Lord, notice that it doesn't say the angel of the Lord. Here in verse 2, the angel of the Lord is simply called the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. Is this not a bran plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel. So the angel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, pre-incarnate, rebukes Satan, but how could he do that? Here are God's people standing in filthy garments representing their sin and their shame. How can the angel of the Lord rebuke Satan when Satan is right? We are filthy. We are sinful. Fortunately, this division doesn't end here. It's a pretty good depiction of what we look like, isn't it? Then he answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, take away the filthy garments from him. And to him, Joshua, he said, see, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes. And I said, Zachariah, he gets into it here. You ever get into it in your dreams? You know, you get involved? Zachariah said, let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put clothes on him, and the angel of the Lord stood by. That's justification. That's the great exchange. That's the breastplate of righteousness. God takes off our filthy, sinful, shameful rags because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. And then He clothes us in the beautiful, rich robes of Christ's perfect righteousness. That's the breastplate of righteousness. That's our defense against Satan. The next time Satan comes to you and says, I saw what you did there. You're not worthy to be called a child of God. You ought to just quit. Jesus has had enough of you. God didn't want to see you. That's when you say, I stand in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is my only plea. Jesus Christ has borne my sin. Jesus, God looks upon me as if I were his own son. That is the great weapon that protects the heart of a believer when Satan levels his accusations at us. But the vision doesn't end there. And I think it's important that we read the next couple of verses as well. Here's what the angel of the Lord said to Joshua, the high priest, after clothing him in those clean, rich robes of perfect righteousness. Then the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, if you will walk in my ways and if you will keep my command, then you shall also judge my house and likewise have charge of my courts. I will give you places to walk among those who stand here. This is a truth that's being de-emphasized in broader evangelicalism today. And that's the idea that after we have trusted Jesus Christ to bear all of our sin and to give us his perfect righteousness that we then are supposed to seek to live righteous lives. Not in order to earn that standing. We'll never earn that standing. We can only have that standing by trusting in Jesus Christ. It will never be ours by anything that we do before or after we trust Jesus Christ. But we do it because we love Jesus. Because of what he's done. because of hearts of gratitude that we have, because we want to honor Jesus Christ? So as we close, do you possess this important weapon? Does the breastplate of Christ's perfect righteousness protect your heart? Every one of us here this morning can be fully and forever righteous before God today by trusting what Jesus Christ did by his death on the cross and his resurrection. If you are not certain that you have trusted Jesus Christ, then do it now. Just in the quietness of your heart, Call out to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, forgive my sin and give me your perfect righteousness. I trust what you have done alone. Let me ask each of us to close our eyes for just a moment. In the quietness of your heart, you need to call out to Jesus. He died to take all of your sin and shame, to take those filthy garments from you. And he rose again so that you can have his perfect righteousness. Would you say, Jesus, I believe. I want you to take all my sin away. I want that perfect righteousness to be my standing before God. Jesus saved me. Would you say that to him right now? Heavenly Father, I pray for anyone here that's uncertain whether they've trusted Jesus Christ. Oh, I pray that they would turn from their sin and they would run to Jesus right now. They would pray that simple prayer in faith, believing that Jesus alone and what He has done can save them eternally. I pray, Father, that we would see souls saved even today. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.