Well, Paul concludes his letter to the Ephesians in verse 10 of chapter six with the words, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And the reason we need to be strong in the Lord, because we have enemies, very fierce enemies, and most notably, we have Satan as an enemy and the whole demonic realm which is under him. And we need strength to stand against the wiles of the devil. We need strength not to cower or buckle under temptations. We need strength to fight against the leanings of our own flesh and Satan who fans those flames that we would indeed give in to them. And we don't have this kind of strength in and of ourselves. So we need the Lord's strength to fight these battles. And not only do we need his strength, but we're told we need his armor. Because we don't fight against flesh and blood, but against the supernatural, right? Again, Satan and his wicked forces. So we need supernatural armor, and that is exactly what the Lord gives us. And although he gives us his armor, we're told we gotta put it on. And in fact, the command to put it on is to do it now. Put it on now. So it's not our armor, it's the Lord's armor, but we are responsible for dressing in it. And again, the reason we need to be armed is because without it, we are no match. We are no match for the devil. And in verses 14 to 17, Paul names these six pieces of the armor of God, and they are the soldier's armor. And he says that they're the belt of truth, which we'll look at today, and the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit. And these pieces stand for the graces that God gives us to withstand the devil's attacks. And they picture truth and righteousness and the gospel and faith and salvation and the word of God. Well, Paul starts in verse 14 with the words, stand therefore, stand therefore. And this is the third time in four verses that Paul uses the word stand. And this is to emphasize the need for an immovable steadfastness in the face of a relentless, vicious foe. And as I said in my last sermon, stand means don't give in, don't budge one inch. In military terms, it means to hold your post, to hold a critical position, to hold a position in the battlefield that you've been given while under attack. So stand firm against the temptations and accusations of Satan. Don't let him take your ground. Don't let him take the ground that the Lord has given you. And the way you do that is with the Lord's strength and with his armor. And the first piece of armor Paul names is the belt, the belt. And he says, gird your waist with truth. And the word gird means to fasten, right? Like it has with a belt. You fasten your belt or with a girdle or something. And we see in Isaiah 11 verse 5 that the Messiah would be armed with a belt. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins and faithfulness the belt of his waist. So righteousness and faithfulness would be tightly connected to him. Well the belt one around the waist or the loins. And Jews, the Jews considered this, the loins, as the place of strength, right? The place of the reproductive organs. Which is why you read often in the Bible that so-and-so came from the loins of this man or that man. We see in Genesis 35, 11 when God says to Jacob, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. Kings shall come out of thy loins. So loins, or the waist, was also a figure of speech for power. We read how the Levites would serve as priests, and then they would teach the law, law to Israel. God says in Deuteronomy 33, 11, that he would strike the loins, strike the loins of those who rise against him, and of those who hate him, that they not rise again. Now, in the first century, men did not dress the way we do. They didn't wear pants, they didn't have shirts, they didn't wear socks, they didn't have shoes like we do. Instead, they wore cloaks, or tunics. And they were loose, right? They were loose, and they went all the way down to the ground, to their feet. And when they wanted to work, or when they had to move quickly, what they would do is they would lift up the cloak. And what they would do is they would be wearing this belt around their waist, and they would talk what they picked up under this belt or around this belt, so that they would have easy maneuverability. And we see this in Exodus 12, 11, when God is gonna bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, and he gives them instructions, right, the night of the Passover, and he says this, right, saying, and thus you shall eat, thus you shall eat it with a belt around your waist, belt around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, you shall eat it in haste. In other words, you gotta eat and run. You gotta eat and run. Therefore pick up the cloak and get out of there. Fasten your feet and go. Fasten your things and go. We see it in Acts 12 when the angel tells Peter, remember Peter's in prison. And the angel says to him in prison, comes at night time, he says, gird yourself and tie on your sandals, put on your garment and follow me. Gird yourself, get on your stuff, put your belt on, put your cloak under it and get out of here. So in our context, New York City, 2019, it would be like saying to some kid who's got his pants like down to here, as he's walking around, right? We would say, listen, pull up your pants and let's get going. So men in Paul's day, they wore tunics or cloaks, but Roman soldiers wore armor. They wore armor. And Paul knew a thing or two about how a Roman soldier dressed because he was chained to one 24 hours a day, seven days a week for about two years when he was under house arrest in Rome. And the belt was a critical piece for a Roman soldier and his armor. Because they wore these skirts, kind of like the Scottish kilts, if you will, and over them they wore a cloak or a tunic. That went all the way down to the ground and was secured at the waist. And when they went into battle, they would pick up the tunic again and tuck it under the belt so as to leave their legs free, so they could go this way, that way quickly. And because most of the battles they would fight were hand-to-hand combat, And if you lose your footing, or have loose and long clothing, and it's hard to move around, and also, it would be easy for someone to grab and take advantage of you. It would be like someone having a fight today, and they got very long hair, and it is easy in a fight with someone with long hair to grab the hair and take them down. They would be at a disadvantage. So a soldier would gird up their waist so that their movement was not inhibited. Now the belt the soldier would wear was not only for wrapping up the tunic, but also for the scapard, which was connected to it. And the scapard was where the sword went. It was like the place that he put the sword in, his knife. And also the breastplate, which he wore over his chest and up to his stomach, was also attached to the belt, was fastened to it. So the soldier's belt was important to him. It was kind of like, I guess today, like a policeman's belt. It's going to hold his gun, it's going to hold the handcuffs, it's going to have a radio and a baton, and a bunch of other things. I think there's like eight things that are on a policeman's belt. It's got all that stuff. Now, what the belt symbolizes is preparedness. It's being ready to battle. He's ready to go. He's ready to battle. A soldier without his belt, he was not ready to go into battle. It would be like a boxer going into the ring without his gloves. or like a hockey player going out on the ice without his skates. He's just not ready to play. The boxer's not ready to fight. And the reason that the belt is the first piece in the list of armor that Paul mentions is because it holds the rest of the body armor together. Without it, the breastplate would hang off him loosely, would not be adhering to him well, and there would be no place for his sword. And his mobility would be greatly hampered. Now the breastplate is for the heart, the helmet is for the head, and the belt is for the waist. And what the belt signifies is the center or the mainspring of all of one's activity. And listen to what 1 Peter says in 1 Peter 1.13. He tells us that, he tells the saints, gird up your mind, or the loins of your mind. Gird up the loins of your mind. So the mind, the mind is the center or the core of where the action is. It's the action center for us. First comes the thoughts. and then we carry them out. Thoughts, action. So a mind that is girded up means a mind that is disciplined in thoughts and doesn't allow them to run wild. It's a mind that is anchored on truth and determined to follow it. And so Paul says, stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth. All right, so this is what we're to wrap around us. And this is what we're to pick up to fight against the devil and wicked spirits. We need to pick it up. And the reason Paul names truth first is because if you don't have it, the rest of the graces will not follow. The truth is wrong. If you're not living in truthfulness, then the rest of it is not going to make much of a difference. And so what I'd like to consider now are two things concerning this, and that is the content of truth and the character of truthfulness. The content of truth and the character of truthfulness. Well, before we can examine the content of truth, men need to know that there is a truth and that there is an absolute truth, because we live in a day when men think that truth is relative, meaning truth is whatever you think it is. So your truth is to you whatever you want it to be, and my truth is to me whatever I want it to be, even though they may be absolutely contradictory. So if I say the sky is blue, and you say the sky is green, then blue is true for me, and green is true for you. So then truth is relative, it is not absolute in the day we live. But truth is absolute, and the truth doesn't change because we don't believe it, or because of the passage of time, or because someone said it's not true. When it comes to the things of God, there are not many truths. There is one truth. And if you were in a Bible study today, this is kind of where we're going here. When Jesus was standing before Pontius Pilate, he said in John 18, 37, after Pilate had asked him, he said, are you a king? I'm hearing all this banter that you're a king. Are you a king? And here's what he said. You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born. And for this cause I have come into the world. Here it is. That I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. He came to bear witness to the truth. and his people were of it. And then Pilate asks the $6 million question. He asked the question that all men should ask. He says, what is truth? The problem for Pilate was he didn't stick around for the answer, because he really didn't want to know it. Well, the scriptures tell us that God is truth, and that Christ is truth, and the Holy Spirit is truth, and the word of God is truth. And that makes sense because the Father and the Son and the Spirit are one. And if one is truth, then they're all truth. And the reason that there is truth is because there is a triune God. And if they are truth, then the Word of God is truth as well. Deuteronomy 34, 32, four says God is a God of truth. God is a God of truth and without injustice. Righteous and upright is He. Psalm 119 says that all of God's judgments are true and righteous altogether. Psalm 15, 10 says all the paths of the Lord are truth. And Psalm 31 says that He is the God of truth. And in John 17, three, Jesus said that He is the only true God. He is the only eternal, self-existent being, therefore He is truth and is always truth. Because He is the only unchanging reality in the universe. So God is a God of truth and He is truth. And He is the standard for all truth. And that is the reason that we read in Hebrews 6.18, it is impossible for Him to lie. He can't lie, it goes against His very nature to lie. And Jesus is the truth. And he said, in no uncertain terms, in John 14, 6, maybe the most narrow-minded statement ever made, and the world hates this statement, but he said emphatically, I am the way. The, right? Definite article, I am the way, not a lot of ways me. The truth, that's it, I'm the truth. Everything else you've ever heard apart from me is not the truth. And the life, no one comes to the Father but through me. In John 1.14, it says that he is the embodiment of God's truth. He was full of grace and truth. And in John 8.45, he said he came to tell us the truth. A.W. Pink said, Christ is the key which unlocks the golden door into the temple of divine truth. The Holy Spirit is truth as well. Jesus said in John 14, 17, that the Father was going to send the Spirit of truth. In John 16, 13, it tells us that it is the Spirit who guides us into all truth. The Puritan William Cowper said this. He said, the Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings truth to sight. And because the triune God is truth, His Word is true. The Word of God is where truth is found. If you wanna know the truth, you must go to the Word of God. You must go to the Word of God. Jesus prayed in John 17, 17, he said, this is the high priestly prayer, right, the night before, this is the night before his crucifixion. He said, sanctify them, those are his disciples and those who would believe, sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth. In Psalm 119, 151, it says, he says, all of his commandments are true. And then verse 160, which we read, the entirety of your word is truth. So God's word is his revelation of truth. And therefore, any deviation from his word is error and is falsehood. And the truth is contained in his word. It has everything we need to know God and to live lives pleasing to him. You wanna know how to live a godly life? The word of God will tell you. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. You wanna know how to live godly, and you should. For a Christian, we wanna be godly because God has saved us and God is in us, right? So God's word is revelation of truth. And the truth that is contained in his word is everything we need to know how to live for him and how to please him. And it's his word that tells us the truth about ourselves. You wanna know about us? You wanna know? Well, here, the word is gonna tell us, and it tells us a lot about us. It's gonna tell us about us. We're sinners, it tells us, because we're in Adam. We have sin natures. We're born in sin. We're born with a sin nature. And we act it out as soon as we are born. We're told in Psalm 58, as soon as we're born, we go speaking lies. And it tells us the penalty of our sin, which is rebellion against God and His law, is eternal death. The wages of sin is death. And that all men have sinned. Listen, no one gets a pass here. All men have sinned. And Genesis 6, 5 says the intents and the thoughts of men and their hearts are evil continually. It's us. It's not a pretty picture. And Romans 8, 7 says that our sin puts us at enmity with God, that we're actually enemies of God. That we're battling against God. And His Word not only teaches us about our fallen condition, but it also teaches us about God's great plan of redemption of sinners through His Son. If He just told us the bad and the ugly and didn't give us the good, we quite honestly would be just a helpless people, would we not? But He tells us of His plan, and He tells us from the get-go of His plan, that the Son of God would take on our nature. And he would perfect the law of God as a man and then die for sinners as their substitute. Fully, fully satisfying the wrath of God for our sins. Evidence by God raising him from the dead on the third day. So the word of God teaches us the truth about the gospel and all of its implications. You know, Paul mentions the word truth seven times in the book of Ephesians. Seven times he says it. He called the word of God the word of truth. which is, he says, the gospel of our salvation. He tells us to speak the truth in love, and that the truth is in Jesus, and that it is the truth that enables them to walk as children of light. So objectively speaking, then truth is, it is the doctrines of the Bible. And why we need truth is because it is by the truth that we are saved. We need to know the truth. In 1 Peter 1, verse 23, it says that we have been born again, or born from above, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, how? Through the word of God. Through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. That's why we preach the gospel to people. They need to hear the word of God. James 1.18 says, of his own will, that's God's own will, he brought us forth, how? By the word of truth, by the word of truth. You see how important it is to preach the gospel, to preach the truth? Not to get your ears tickled and tell you nice things and feel good stuff and emotional stuff. Listen, it is not pretty sometimes and sometimes it hurts us because the truth is like a double-edged sword, is it not? And it slices this way and it slices that way. It goes all the way into the marrow, so to speak. It rips the bone apart. Brothers and sisters, is that what we need? That's what we need. And if you're unsaved today, as hard as it is, you need to get stabbed in and out with the word of God. Because that's what brings men and women to Christ, is the word of God. Truth is also important because it is by the truth that we're sanctified or that we grow in our faith. Jesus prayed in John 17, 17 again. Sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth. How are we going to be sanctified? How are we going to grow? How are we going to look more Christ-like? Through the word of God. In Ephesians 4, 11 and 12, Paul says that God gives men, certain men who are gifted in the word, gifted in the truth, to equip the saints and build up the body of Christ. We need men who can preach and teach the word of God. That's how we grow. Also, The truth is the means by which our minds are renewed and transformed. It's how we start having a biblical worldview. Listen, when we are unsaved, we have a worldly, secular worldview. We think like the world does in everything because that's what we're in. We don't know any better. But when God saves us, He takes us out of the world and its systems and its thinking, and He makes us a new creation in Christ. And now, as we start growing in our Christianity, as we're growing, knowing Christ, the Word is transforming our minds, right? And we start thinking God's thoughts and having His point of view on the world we live in. And we must. You can't still be thinking the same way that you did before you were saved. There's gotta be a change because God is in you. Paul said in Romans 12 too, do not be conformed, and the word conformed means like to be molded. Do not be conformed. to this world, but be transformed, which means miraculously go from here to there. I like what someone once said, transform, thinking of, remember the old Star Trek shows where Scotty would beam them from this place to that place? Well, that's transformed. You just go from here to here automatically, boom. Transformed how? By the renewing of your mind, and you renew your mind through the word of God. You start thinking different. You start siding with God in everything you disagreed with him before. Also, truth is essential for us to worship God. Jesus said in John 4 24, God is a spirit, and those who worship him must, must worship in spirit and truth. Spirit here, not being the Holy Spirit, but your inner man. There's gotta be this delight, this joy, this passion, this love for Christ. No one comes cold and hard, singing the songs, praying, thinking, right? It's this desire, a spirit, the inner man. Governed by the truth. Lots of people have the spirit, so to speak, but they're all whacked out on the truth. They got crazy stuff going on. That's not worshiping God. Just like knowing the truth, but being like a dead fish, almighty, fortunate, you know, no. This passion for Christ is governed by the truth. You need them both. That's how we worship Him. Listen, if we don't know the truth about God's character and His works and His words, we can't correctly worship Him. We have to know some truth in order to worship the God of truth. Now by nature, by nature, man in his nature is opposed to God's truth. In fact, everything that God says is true, man says the opposite. It just does. So men will say that man's problem, and they know that men have problems, they say, listen, man's problem is his environment. Or it's his upbringing. Or it's his parents. You're the fault. Or he's a victim. Everybody's a victim. Everybody's the oppressed. And his problem is that he has an addiction to this thing. He has an addiction to drugs, or sex, or video games, or pornography, or a food addiction, or a shopping addiction. But everything's an addiction, so you're not really to blame. You just need counseling to get rid of that addiction. But the truth of the word of God says man's problem is that he's a sinner. It's not that there are other problems out there. His problem is him. It's what's in him. Romans 3 10 and 11 says there's none righteous. There's no one who is righteous before God. No one meets the standard. No one has the qualification before God to ever stand before God on God's terms. There's none who understands. We don't understand it. No one seeks after God. Well, I'm seeking. No, you're not. Because the one who truly seeks Him finds Him. No one says, I want Christ, and then runs hard after Him, and nothing else means anything. The most important thing in the world is to find Christ. Listen, the one that God saves is the one that wants Him desperately. You want Christ desperately, you'll find Him. You just think, ah, fix my life a little, get a little religion, get a little Jesus, hang out with the Jesus crowd. You're far from the kingdom. You're far from the kingdom. Men say life is random, things just happen. There's no rhyme or reason to things. No one can tell why things happen. But the truth of the Word of God says that God is in control of absolutely everything. Proverbs 16.33 says, the lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is of the Lord. You could be rolling dice and how they come out, that's God's prerogative and His choice. Isaiah 46.10, declaring the end from the beginning. Declaring the end from the beginning means what will happen and what started happening, whatever it is. times things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. I will do all my pleasure. Things are not running haphazard here. The universe is not spiraling out of control. The depth of wickedness which we live around and in is not like thwarting God's plans here. Jeremiah 10.33, oh Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. You can't determine that you're gonna go to God. God's gotta draw you. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me drags him to me. Men will tell us that people are basically good. I certainly thought that. And I just thought I was better than everybody else because I didn't do what everybody else did. But they'll tell us people are basically good, but the truth of the word of God tells us that nobody is good from God's perspective, and quite honestly, it's the only perspective that matters here, right? We read in Romans 3, no one, no one is good, not even one of us. Remember when the rich young ruler comes to Jesus and he says to him, good teacher, and Jesus stops him in his tracks and whoa, why do you call me good? No one is good but one, and that is God. Don't be throwing good around. Men say we should live to satisfy ourselves, right? Do what pleases us. But the truth of the word of God says we live to glorify God. Here's our purpose right here in 1 Corinthians 10, 31. Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That's it. That's it. Sit here to the glory of God. Go home and eat lunch to the glory of God. Share the gospel to the glory of God. Do your job tomorrow to the glory of God. Love your wife, love your husband, love your children, love your parents to the glory of God. Men say, if there is a hell, and there's a big question mark there, only the worst of the worst will go. Only the worst of the worst. Yet the Word of God says, the truth of the Word of God says that a great multitude will end up there for rejecting Jesus Christ. They reject them as Lord and Savior. And let me tell you, this includes a ton of religious people, and it includes quilt-making grandmothers, who are just these sweet old ladies that we all love, and all around nice people. Listen, the nicest person you know, the very nicest person you know, and we all know nice people, right? And I have been one to say, humanly speaking, that's a nice person. The nicest person you know who rejects Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, We'll spend eternity in the lake of fire. That's so hard, pastor. Well, you bet it is. But it's the truth. Men will say all roads lead to God. Allah, Buddha, Confucius, meditation, new age stuff, whatever it is, right? All roads get you there. But the word of truth says that Jesus is the only way. And we read it in John 14, six. And men are telling you, do what makes you happy. You only have one life to live. Go for the gusto. But the word of God says, do what makes you holy. That makes you happy. That's the gusto. Live life to the fullest. The word of God says, no, live low. Have a humble heart. Be poor in spirit. Esteem others better than yourself. Men say have sex with anyone you want, whenever you want. Go for it. Just enjoy yourself. But the word of truth says that any sex outside of marriage between one man and one woman will condemn you forever. No adulterer or fornicator will enter the kingdom of heaven. So then we're not gonna listen to the world. We're not gonna listen to the world when it tells us how marriage should work, or it tells us how to raise kids, or what to do with our money, or how to vote, or how to think about social issues. We're bombarded right there right now. How to think about social issues. Because we know, we know that Romans 1.25 says that men have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And we know that Romans 2.8 says that they do not obey the truth. And we know that 2 Thessalonians 2.12 says they do not believe the truth. And we know that 2 Timothy 3.8 says that they resist the truth. So why would we listen to the world anymore? Why would we listen to them and buy into their lies when they are dead in trespasses and sins and we are no longer? Why would we go back that way? Why would we want to go back to when we were blinded? Blinded by the God of this world, which we were. We were blinded by the God of this world. But the light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God, has lit up our hearts. And now we are alive in Christ, who is the truth, and we're gonna listen and follow him, amen? And so we see the content of truth. And secondly, the character of truthfulness. Now we need to know the truth of God's word, and his character, and correct doctrine, and all of that does matter a lot. Because without it, we will be in error. And we'd be led astray, and we would fall into sin, and suffer the consequences of those sins. But knowing the truth is not enough. It is essential. But it's not enough. We need to live the truth. We need to live the truth. It needs to own us. We need to be owned by the truth, so to speak. One commentator said this, Christians must be faithful in holding the truth of God's word, but it is also necessary for the truth to hold us. The truth to hold us. So we must be clothed or gird with truth, which means we must be sincerely committed to the truth. We must be totally sold out to who God is and to his word. He is truth, and his word is truth, and we must be fully yielded to both. You see, truth must govern the way we think. We must use his word as a measuring stick for everything in life. who we're gonna marry, what kind of job we'll work, who our friends are, how we will spend money, how we view social issues of our day, who and what we will allow into our lives, and what we will object, and so on. We need the word of truth. So the truth of God's word should become ingrained in us, and it should govern our very lives. And we don't abandon it when things don't go our way, or when things are hard, or the going gets tough. We don't waver from it because we go to a liberal school, or our coworkers constantly mock the Bible and us, or when all those around us champion as good what God calls evil. So it's not only what we believe, but it is the very pattern of our lives. It is the very pattern of how we live. As Philippians 4.8 says, we think on things that are true. Think on things that are true. And we not only think on them, but we talk, and we walk the truth, and we defend the truth. And our lives are not shaped by philosophy, or higher learning, or the culture, or musicians, or politicians, or the Hollywood crowd, or by CNN, or MSNBC, or Fox News. It's not. Our lives are shaped by the word of God. Because you can't protect yourself from Slatan's onslaught with philosophy or education or news channels. You just can't. You can only protect yourself from the wiles of the devil and those fiery darts if you have an attitude of truthfulness. And because we have that attitude, 1 Corinthians 13, six says, we rejoice in the truth. So to gird up your waist with truth speaks of this attitude of commitment and preparedness. It's an attitude of commitment and preparedness. And this is the person who serves God out of sincerity and not out of hypocrisy. You see, for this believer, this believer, sloppy service to Christ is unacceptable, not acceptable. So they gather up the loose-fitting clothing of their lives and they bind it, they bind it with total abandon to the will of God. They bind it up with total abandon to the will of God. Thus, their lives are marked by truth. As Psalm 86 says, they walk in truth. As we read today, the apostle John, and I love this because he says he has no greater joy than this, no greater joy. John, the apostle, what's your greatest joy? seeing people saved, doing miracles. What's your greatest joy? I have no greater joy than to hear that my children, believers, walk in truth. That should be our joy too, right? So then the truth is worked into their hearts and it produces a sincerity of mind and of heart. And again, as Peter says in 1 Peter 1, 13, gird up the loins of your minds. So let the word of God be your mindset. And if it is, you will be prepared, you'll be prepared to walk in the spirit of truth. And you'll be ready to battle against error and temptations. And put out of your mind all that will deter you from walking closely to Christ. Put out of your mind fear. Listen, fear, we have no reason to fear, right? But we do. Why? Because we don't trust. Because we're really not trusting. We have no reason to worry. But we do, why? Because we don't trust. We don't really believe the word of God when we have fear and anxiety. We just don't believe it. How about jealousy, hatred, greed, and anything else the devil tries to throw and weigh us down with? And let me tell you, he absolutely knows where we are weak. And we'll get to this when we look at the breastplate and we look at the helmet and the rest of the armor, but I'm telling you, it's an onslaught against us because he's trying to take us down. Can't take our salvation away, but he could cripple us. We have to put those things out of our minds and tighten the belt of God's truth which holds everything together in our lives. which gives us the attitude that God and his word is true and anything or anyone that disagrees with that is a lie and it shouldn't be able to sway us. Therefore, if that being the case, evolution can't sway us. It should not sway us. Feminism should not sway us. Liberalism should not sway us. Legalism, I'm doing the isms here. Legalism should not sway us. and riches and power and fame, they cannot sway us. And the whole social justice movement that's going on in the church today, it should not and cannot sway us. We are convinced through and through by the truth, and we cannot be moved. People say to me, do you really believe in a six-day creation? I say, absolutely. God said so. The Bible is crystal clear. Jesus believed it. That's good enough for me. They say to me, You believe those miracles in the Old Testament? I said, absolutely. Absolutely, not a question in my mind. One guy once said to me, are you saying to me, you believe every single thing in the Bible is true? Are you so arrogant to say, I said, yes, not that I'm arrogant, yes I do, and I'm not alone. Because millions of people behind me, and many great men and women today, and I believe every Christian is a great person because God is in them, they believe it too. I don't have any doubts. I don't understand everything. Don't ask me to give you a treatise on the Trinity and make it make sense to me. I just believe it. Once God said to me, how could you believe an election that God would choose? I said, because he said so. Romans nine, Ephesians one. I mean, it's all over the place. I gotta believe it, he says so. How do you believe the two natures of Christ? He says so. It's not simplistic, it's faith. Listen, we desperately need this mindset because we live in a world of darkness. When the Jews came to arrest Jesus, listen to what he said. He said, this is your hour and the power of darkness. We just saw in Ephesians 6.12 that we wrestle against rulers of darkness. And we remember, as Colossians 1.13 says, that we were delivered from the power of darkness. Remember we said, it's not that we were just in darkness, he said we were darkness. We were darkness. And now we're light because we're in Christ. In 1 Peter 2.9 he says, you were called out of darkness into his marvelous light. So we live in a world that is in darkness and it is deceived and we are constantly bombarded by the darkness trying to sway us back in. To embrace its ways again and to follow its lead. And at times it is very enticing. And at times it really does look harmless. I mean it does. And if truth is not top of mind, we could get sucked back in. Go back to the old ways. The very things God saved us from. If truth is not deeply seated in us, we may budge. We may take the bait instead of standing and holding our ground. So then we need to remember that God desires truth in the inward parts. Psalm 51. and we should immerse ourselves in truth, so that it would saturate our minds and our hearts, and that we would live with an attitude of truthfulness. Listen, brothers and sisters, if we're not in the word of God, if we're not studying the word of God, if we're not learning the doctrines of the Bible, then we're gonna be weak in this area. Oh, whatever the pastor preaches, that's what I listen to. That's not enough. Listen, we need to be people of the book. God has given us his manual for holy living. It is woe to us if we don't open it up and start digging in. We need to live with an attitude of truthfulness, besides knowing the truth, so that we would be a people who love truth. So that as Joshua 24, 14 says, that we would serve him in sincerity and in truth. And as Psalm 91, 4 says, that his truth would be our shield and our buckler. Satan is going to try to move us. He's going to try to move us off a wholehearted trust in Christ. That's his desire He wants you to stop worshipping Christ and start worshipping him once again like you did before he saved you That's God saved you and he'll try to get us to concentrate on peripheral things right material things he'll try to get us to shift our focus off of Christ and on to the cares of this world and He'll try to get us off an attitude of truthfulness and focus on feelings. Here's a big one, guys. Focus on our feelings. I don't feel like it. This doesn't feel good to me. I got a bad feeling about this. I don't feel what you feel. Right? That's what he wants to do. You hurt my feelings. You can hurt them all day long, but the truth is the truth. and they'll try to get us to murmur and complain, especially about the church, especially about the church. Look at how so few people come out to evangelize. Why aren't they here at the prayer meeting? How come they never give anyone a ride home? They're takers, but they're not givers. All right, so I complain, a little rift right there. And if we're not girded with truth, we can sour on the saints. Wow, look at her, doesn't do anything for the church. All right, don't worry about her, worry about you. But if we gird it with the truth, we can hold these thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. Second Corinthians 10 five. In other words, you get those wandering thoughts, you get those divisive thoughts, you get those lustful thoughts, you get those anger kind of thoughts going on in your head, right? Something just all of a sudden you start, you know, critical thoughts, judgmental thoughts. Put it in prison, he says. Put it in prison. Let it get locked and keyed. Throw that key away, don't let it go. Because we know that God is good. We know that, and we know that Christ is building his church, and we know that even Satan cannot hinder that. And we know that God is sovereign over all, so we can stand firm in the evil day. You see, there should be no question in our minds who is in control. And there should be no question that God is faithful and all-powerful and is able to fulfill every single promise that He has given us. And there is no question in our minds that Christ right now is seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places and as Ephesians 121 says, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, And every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. He has total rulership and kingship over everything and everyone, including the whole demonic realm. So we understand man's condition. We know why he says what he says and why he does what he does. We know the reason why we read what we read in newspapers or on the internet. We know he's spiritually dead, and he is doing what spiritually dead people do. And we understand that Satan is behind the forces of this world, and he has manipulated them and duped them into doing his bidding. Which is why there is so much lying, and corruption, and evil in the world we live in. Which is why people take advantage of people, and of the young, and of the weak, and of the elderly. Which is why every arena in life has a problem with God and His Word. They have a problem with it. Which is why the wicked seem to prosper at times, and they seem to fare well. And as Christians, we seem to struggle. But we also know that God allows and ordains whatever comes to pass for his own purposes. And all we have to do to understand that is just look at the cross. Look at the cross, right? Look at the cross and look at all the sin of man, the brutality against the Son of Man, the perfect and holy one, nailing him to a tree, i.e. the cross. And yet God ordained that, that He would save sinners like you and me. So we can't get caught up in any of these things, because if we do, we will not stand. If we're not girded with truth, we will not stand, and our feet will slip. But by God's grace, we can be strong in the Lord and the power of His might, and we have His armor always ready to put on. And I think I said it last time. We're gonna wear this armor for as long as we live in this life as Christians. But the day that God takes us home, the armor goes down, and guess what we get? The robe of righteousness. We get cleansing and glorification in Christ. Let me close by asking two questions, and the first is this. Do you really, do you really want to fight Satan and his band of demons? You know, when I was in junior high school, And I was terrified of this. If somebody were to call you out to a fight, you had to go and fight. It was after school and in the parking lot. And the whole school would go out there. And everybody would be in a big circle around the cars where two boys usually duped it out. And you couldn't say no. It was like, because you were shamed. And I thankfully never got called out. No, but I do call anybody out. I'm no fool, right? But it was this fear I had that somebody would say, I'll see you outside. But here's the thing. If you're in the kingdom of God, you're called out. You have no option here. You have no option. Satan and his demons are gunning for you. And although you may not like it, and I don't think we do, but for the glory of God and for the good of our own souls, we need to fight. We need to fight. And you need to be persuaded in your inner man that you're not going to live life on cruise control. You're not going to be oblivious or ignorant to the battle that takes place all around you. and that you want to be a good soldier, right? Paul says, I have fought the fight. I have fought the good fight. You want to be a good soldier in the Lord's army. Therefore, you must be diligent to gird up your waist with truth. You need the truth. If you're not growing in the truth and understanding the truth and applying truth and have an attitude of truthfulness, we're sitting ducks. We're sitting ducks. My second question comes off the first. And that is, are there any things in your life that need to be tucked up, tucked up under the belt of truth? Are there areas in your life that are hindering you from quickly defending yourself from the wiles of the devil? I'll give you some examples. Laziness, apathy, overload of worldly entertainment, busyness, I'm so busy. Right, I've heard people tell me, you know, when I retire, I'm gonna do this, this, and this. You know what, do it now. Don't give God second best. Serve him now, live from now. I don't have time. Look at my schedule. You don't have time for the things of God now? It may well be that God doesn't have time for you on the last day. Depart from me, you who work iniquity. It ought to be a heart, like why would you not want to serve God? If He's in you, why would you not want to? The Spirit of God is pouring out of us, and we can't help it, we're a new creation. And a new creation acts according to that new creation, right? Therefore, we must be diligent to gird up. So I would ask questions like, have you been listening to the lies of the devil telling you, you deserve to be treated better? Have you ever thought that to yourself? They don't treat me nice. They don't say nice things. Or that you're no good. You're a screw-up. Your sin has pushed you way beyond the point. And God can't use you anymore because your sin has made you unfit for him. Look at the mess you've made. Look at the mess in your marriage. Look at the mess with your kids. Look at your mess in your finances. You're no good. It disqualifies you from blessings and joy and fruitfulness in Christ, right? And you're a failure. Most of all, you're a hypocrite. And here's what we have to say if we have the belt of truth on. We have to say, you say, listen, listen Satan, it is true. It is true. I am a mess. And I am a failure. And I am a hypocrite. And I'm all of those things. But I'm in Christ, and God loves me, and he tells me in Romans 8, 39, that nothing in the universe, and not even you, can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. Yeah, I'm a mess, but I'm God's mess, and he has saved me, and he's working on me. And the truth is, our sins were nailed to the cross, therefore God remembers them no more. And Psalm 103.12 says, as far as the east is from the west, therefore God remembers them no more as we move them, our transgressions, from us. And the truth is, in 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the truth is, we are Christ, and he has purchased us with his very blood, and we are his bride, as we looked at in the end of Ephesians 5. And what does he do for his bride? He nourishes her, and he cherishes her, and he is preparing her for the day that he would come back and bring her to that great wedding feast. That's the truth. So we need to think on things that are true. That's how we stand. That's how we stand. Now, if you're not a Christian this day, the truth is, your sins will not go unpunished. God will judge you for every one of the sins you've ever committed and will ever commit, and you will be found guilty as a breaker of his law, and the punishment for breaking his law will be an eternal damnation. And the only armor you can wear, if you will, that can protect you from the very wrath of God is to put on Christ. Put on Christ, who is the way, who is the truth, who is the life. the one who in truth took the sins of all who would believe on him when he went to the cross and he wiped out the sin debt. Listen, somebody is paying for your sins. That's it. God does not get mocked. We sin against him and he requires, because he is holy and just as a lawgiver and judge, he requires a payment for that sin. And so either Christ paid for it 2,000 years ago, and your sins, every one of them, were nailed upon that cross, and when he was up there, your name and your sins were up there with him, and he was dying for you. And he was paying your debt. And when he said it was finished, your debt was paid in full. And when he was raised from the grave, that was the guarantee and the proof that God was good with him paying for your sins. But now, if you don't trust in Christ now, if you will not surrender to Christ now, if you will not repent of your sins and come to Christ humbly, surrendering all and following Him, then you're on your own. Then you will be, at the day of judgment, cast into an eternal lake of fire. And you'll have all eternity to remember that you even heard this now and said, I'm not having it. I'm not having it. Therefore, Out of love, I would urge you to confess your sins before God. Cry out for forgiveness. Cling to the truth. And as Jesus said in John 8, 32, the truth will set you free. Amen. If you wanna know more about this gospel, you wanna know more about this truth, you have questions, you don't understand, it's foggy or whatever, that's great, no problem. Come and see myself, see Pastor Phil or any one of the other men or women who are well-versed in the things of God and ask. We want nothing more than for God to save your soul if you're not saved. We're not looking for people to fill seats or to add money to the collection, but we're looking for souls to worship God, amen? Let us pray as the ushers come forward. Father, thank you for the truth. Lord, thank you that you've given us the truth. We pray, Lord, that the truth would saturate our minds and our hearts and would be, Lord, the very protector of our own souls and protector of our lives here and, Lord, cause us to live in a way that would not allow the wiles of the devil to take us down, but, Lord, to live holy. and lives that glorify you. So Lord, help us please to live that way. Help us to put on what you've given us already. Help us to do battle well. For Lord, it's only a short time until Christ calls us home. And Father, for the souls here that are not born again, they're not Christians at this point, Lord, would you save their souls? Thank you they're here. Thank you they're hearing. Would you take the word and drive it deep into their souls, and would it bear much fruit, Lord, 30, 60, and even 100 fold? Please have mercy. Please do a work of amazing grace, and do it for your own glory. Father, now as we take this offering, Lord, we know that you don't need money. But Lord, we know you want us to trust you, and I pray we would do that. I pray that we would give to you with a generous and sacrificial heart, because you have given us the life and the death and the resurrection of your son, and you've put your spirit in us. And so, Lord, I pray that we would be joyful and faithful in giving back to you for the sake of the proclamation of your gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.