Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church First, the Belt of Truth The apostle Paul, as a veteran of many a battle, uses a helpful word picture to encourage his readers to equip themselves to face the enemy of their souls. It’s no accident he begins with the most fundamental piece of equipment. What’s involved with putting on the “belt of truth?”
This is truth as you believe it, and this is so common today. If you believe it, it’s true to you. How far can you go with that? This even comes down to matters of religion. In religion where we would think that matters of faith would be the last bastion of right and wrong, true and false. Still people will think things like, “My god would do this” or “My god would never do the other.” We need to get back to what I call train track truth. (I made that up). If you are walking down the tracks and you don’t believe a train is coming, the 5:03 doesn’t care! It’s coming! In 1889, on Memorial Day, in western Pennsylvania, perhaps you have heard of the Johnstown flood. An earthen dam gave way. A couple thousand people died. As the waters were rising and unprecedented rain was falling, there were people who went to the top of the dam. They were surveying it as the spillway was getting clogged and then overflowing. Things were looking grim. Water, in the town below, was rising as all the creeks and rivers were overflowing their banks. There were those who were saying, “I don’t believe it’s going to flood.” Guess what? It doesn’t matter if you believe it’s not going to flood when it floods. The laws of physics, cause and effect, took over and people died. Even the ones who did not believe the dam would break died. What we believe is secondary to what is true. The trick obviously is believing or embracing that which is true. Ephesians
6 10Finally, be strong in the
Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on, first of all, the belt of truth. What is involved with putting on this belt? Let’s begin with the verse itself. Look at the facts of the matter as the verse describes them. First of all, we have to understand what Paul is up to. Paul the apostle wrote the book of Ephesians from prison in Rome. He points out in the book of Philippians (written from the same place) I’m having quite an impact in this place and I am having interaction even with the Praetorian Guard – soldiers, Roman soldiers, Legionnaires. It is clear that it was easy for the apostle, as a veteran of many spiritual battles himself, confined in the immediate company of all these warriors of his day, to create for us readers a word picture based upon the armor he saw every day on these soldiers and their use of it. He says, first of all, put on the belt. It is foundational equipment. Now I will not argue that the rest of this equipment needs to be put on in precisely the order described but I will say that the belt must be first. It is not decoration – like the professional wrestlers have a belt. Try holding your pants up with that. That’s decoration. That’s trophy. In this particular case, this belt is kind of like, “Why do firemen wear red suspenders?” To keep their pants up! The whole point of the belt is to support other stuff. Truth becomes foundational equipment for the Christian. In the case of the armor of the Roman soldier the belt is something to which the sword was attached and something on which the shield rested because the shield was big and it provided support. The belt is foundational. “Having girded your loins with truth.” There are two ways of looking at that. Some have wondered over the years just which way was the apostle going with this. Are we talking about truth in the objective, abstract, truth as God defines it, or are we talking about truthfulness? The same word could go either way; that is, how you and I handle the truth. I am going to suggest that I believe he had both in mind. Let’s talk first of all about truth as truth, just objective. Having your loins gird about, or putting on the belt of truth as foundational equipment. Let me offer a definition. Truth in this sense is whatever God has determined and declared to be so. True truth, Francis Schaeffer used to call it, not this “What’s true for you isn’t true for me” sort of thing. That’s relative truth. That’s not truth at all. Francis Schaeffer used to say true truth refers to what actually is in accordance with God’s character and God’s will. Truth is what God has determined and declared to be so. Truth is about facts as God has revealed them and as they pertain to His purposes. Truth begins and ends with God. It begins with His character, who He is, and takes us to His will, what He wants. Paul is saying that foundational to the Christian is that we embrace a God who is utterly true. He says what He means. He means what He says. He is the ultimate reality. He is the beginning and the end. He orchestrates everything in between. Are we aligned with that kind of God? That is the question, truth as objective. This would include all of God’s plans based on who He is -- God being holy, God being righteous, God being life, God being love, God being wise, God being sovereign. He lays out a plan. His plan is true. When He acts, He acts truly. He acts in truth, not in deception. It includes God’s goals. It includes God being the pilot of all history from beginning to end. He claims to be the creator. He claims to be the driver of the bus. By the way, the designer, the builder, the mechanic, the tour guide and the stop at the end. It is what God has established, promised, and declared from beginning to end. It’s the realm in which He works, in which He exists and in which He invites us to join Him. That is the truth that is being discussed. We are not dealing here with what I think of it or what you think of it or what it might appear to be. It’s what God has said, based on who God is and where God is going with it. It’s all about Him, His character and His agenda. Gird up your loins, as it were, with truth. Make His will, His character, His agenda foundational. Secondly, the word truthfulness enters, your truthfulness, my truthfulness. How much are our lives, our thinking, our attitudes, our agenda, our priorities, lined up with His? That’s the suggestion here. This is applied truth. Have we taken our personal stand, our personal position in God’s truth? Or have we not? Have we said God, I may not understand everything there is to understand about You and I never will, but You have proven Yourself to be true. Your character is utterly consistent. I believe You are the creator and the sustainer and the redeemer and the judge and I am going to line up that. I am going to follow Your lead and by Your grace I am going to align my life in accordance with Your revealed character. Have we done that? Have we made a commitment to living in the light of God’s truth? Is this where we have planted our feet? Is His agenda becoming our agenda? His eternal point – is it becoming ours? You realize that when Jesus came from heaven to earth, He did not come only to make people’s lives better here. He came to claim people for there. God’s agenda ultimately takes us to heaven and eternity. This is boot camp along the way. This is the training experience. We can only answer this question for ourselves. If, in fact, God’s character and God’s will as it is revealed in the Bible constitutes truth, is that where we have, as individuals decided to plant our feet? Because what Paul is saying is if this foundation is not in place, what about the rest? Your sword is going to fall off, your shield won’t be in place. What does the helmet matter? Your life will be inconsistent. Your will will be hypocritical. We must start here and start with the truth as the apostle points it out. Here is a point of caution. I’ll do my best to make this as clear as I can. Caution: Truthfulness, or applied truth as we are discussing it here, is not the same as being right. Let me try to explain that. A lot of time, as we get along in the faith and as we start to study and understand the Bible, we embark on a course that compels us always to be right. It can become overwhelming. I have to have the right doctrine, the right life. I’m going to do this thing right! Sometimes we can confuse that with embracing the truth of God. They are not the same. It’s good to be right, but it is not as big as living in the light of God’s truth. Living in God’s truth is a much bigger concept. Being right is a natural thing. Everybody goes through life, from beginning to end, seeking to justify his or her existence, priorities, plans, and so forth. We think we are right automatically. Have you ever ridden with me? Why can’t everyone just drive like me? And get out of the way! We are automatically that way. That’s why we are so quick to shift blame. We are so quick to alibi. We are so quick to justify ourselves when we are confronted. I remember many years ago I had sort of a wake-up call when I had a roommate. I wasn’t yet a Christian, but I won’t forget this. The day came when he looked me in the eye and said, “You know what? You’re not the easiest person to live with.” I couldn’t believe it! I had never had a problem living with me. So I’m thinking what’s his problem? We are naturally, to ourselves, right. Sometimes we transfer that over to the Christian world. Now that I am Christian, I need to be Christian right. There’s a little more to it than that. Being right, because it’s natural, can reflect our pride or our self, even as Christians. Here’s an interesting distinction. Living in truth should cultivate humility in us, not pride. Living in truth is a broader thing. Living in truth means that we see this is my Father’s world. It’s His creation, His design, His plan, His end, and I am just blessed to be included as part of it. That’s the overriding arena in which I live in truth. It fosters humility. It involves my perspective on things, my attitude toward people, and trusting God every step of the way. How do you respond when perhaps someone knocks on your door representing a Christian cult. Some people think this is great sport and love to invite this person in because, “I know my stuff and I know I’m right and I know I can counter his point, point for point!” Maybe you are. Maybe you’re right, but that’s called being right. Living in truth, though, takes it further. Realize that this individual is representing in some sense a works-related faith. Somehow that person believes he or she can work their way to heaven and it’s wrong. We know that. We confront that individual, not with a list of things I can prove and somehow get the intellectual upper hand, but we think in terms of this person going off into a Christ-less eternity and we wonder how they came to that point to begin with. And we take an interest in them as a person. And we remember to pray for them when the encounter is finished. We are so good as Christians jumping up and down and standing on our rights and firing off letters and so forth because we are right. That doesn’t mean we are conscious of the truth and of God’s much broader arena because that brings us to Him and ultimately to our dependence upon Him. HistoryLet’s talk about history. I’m going to take it two directions from Jesus. To Jesus, God is everything. We’ll start with Jesus. Jesus is a great place to start because if Jesus is raised from the dead, that absolutely changes everything. Jesus said, “I am the way. I am the truth, and I am the life.” If you beat the cemetery, I’m interested. If you say “I’ll beat the graveyard” and then do it, I’m going to want to know what else you can do and I’m going to want to get in step. We’ll start with Jesus because the risen Savior changes everything. Turn to the gospel of John. We’re going to two places in John’s gospel, first John 8. When the apostle says put on the belt of truth, I want us to touch down here with Jesus to see how critical this notion was to Him and how those with whom He dealt just didn’t yet have a handle on it. In John 8, Jesus is duking it out with the Pharisees. The Pharisees have made some accusations and they have been wrong. Jesus is speaking to these adversaries who claim to have the upper hand. 38"I speak the things which I have seen with My
Father; [by the way, what I have seen is true, it comes from God] therefore you also do
the things which you heard from your father." Abraham wouldn’t do that. a man who has told
you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. They say, “At least we know who our father is,”
because word was out in Nazareth that there was a bit of doubt there as to who the real
father of Jesus was.
Remember, Ephesians 6 is all about victory over the devil. He
is the enemy, the real enemy with whom we have to deal. Jesus is saying you are in
lockstep with him. How do we know this? Because he was a murderer from the beginning and
he does not stand in the truth. The agenda of the devil is not based upon the truth
because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature
for he is a liar and the father of lies. Don’t trust him. Don’t sign on with
him. Don’t go along with him. Don’t believe in him. Don’t embrace him.
Beware of him. 45"But because I speak the truth, you do not
believe Me. 46"Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak
truth, why do you not believe Me? 47"He who is of God hears the words of God; for
this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." He’s drawing a pretty clear distinct line here of the
Father, and of the devil. The devil is of the lie, the Father is of the truth and we can
trace this back through the history of the Scripture, going back as far as the garden to
Adam and Eve. God had told them very clearly what the terms were going to be. As soon as
the devil showed up he said, “Did God really say that?” Then he said, “Oh,
you will not surely die,” directly contradicting the truth that God had laid out for
them. We can trace this throughout the history of the Old
Testament. We don’t have time to do that, but we can well imagine, as all the
thoughts and all the works of all the men were only evil continually (Genesis 6) during
the time of Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was told to build the
ark. We can see for 120 years this building project going on and people coming around just
like in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, saying, “We don’t think there is going to be a
flood!” Noah is a preacher of righteousness and he is building on the boat and saying
you had best get ready. God has spoken. God does not lie. I’m building a boat. You
had best get right with Him. Nobody would. They believed the lie. It will not flood. It
has never even rained. What are you talking about? The children of Israel came out of Egypt and constantly
lapsed into the lie that would have them return there. They became idolaters. They
actually with their own hands got to the point where they built things, crafted things,
that they would then worship as deity. The prophets arose and cried out against it. You
are listening to a lie, they said. You are not following the truth. God has given you the
truth. He has even written it with His own finger in stone. He has given it to you and you
are not embracing it, you are not in line with it. They lapsed into idolatry. They went
into exile for it and while in exile they didn’t keep to the same lie. They simply
swapped it for another one and came back from Babylon believing that if you did everything
just so, you could actually work your way to heaven. That has to be the biggest lie of all. The most all-pervasive
falsehood in all religion is this: that somehow, some way, you or I could be good enough
to deserve heaven. That’s a lie. It is absolutely nowhere in Scripture. It’s why
Jesus came, to point that out and make up the difference between our unworthiness and His
supreme worth. He did that on the cross. In John 18, beginning in verse 36 there are a few verses here
that will take us into the next book of the Bible. Here is Jesus on trial. Those who
opposed Him have done it on the basis of lies. He stood for the truth. Now Jesus is
standing before Pontius Pilate who was the Roman governor assigned to this place and
Pontius Pilate was not religious. He has no religious loyalties whatsoever. He was a Roman
and the Romans had long before this decided there weren’t any gods and goddesses.
They didn’t have a belief system and it shows in these verses. In John 18, beginning in verse 36, Jesus is telling Pilate
the truth saying: 36Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this
world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I
would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not [a]of this realm." 37Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a
king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king For this I have been
born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of
the truth hears My voice." Yes, I m a king! 38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” We have transparent honesty on the part of Pontius Pilate. He
wants to know. “What is truth,” as he finds himself between the devil and the
deep blue sea with Jesus in the dock. What is truth? Go to Acts 17, where the answer to the question is available
through the apostle Paul. He is on his second missionary journey. He is in the city of
Athens, the intellectual capital of the ancient world. Athens would be a perfect place for
Pontius Pilate because here they don’t know truth either and it shows. They are not
ashamed of it and they admit it. It’s kind of interesting. I’m going to walk through Acts 17, beginning in verse
22, and make a comment or two along the way. In the city of Athens, Mars Hill is where all
the pointy headed people, philosophers and so forth showed up to discuss the latest idea. 22So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said,
"Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. You have more statues around here than a guy can possibly
worship at the same time. He said “ I was passing through and examining the objects
of your worship.” He is walking down the lane. You can do this today in Athens. You
can see the pillars where these little statues used to stand. They had one for every
religion and every possible thinking. They covered every possible religious base. They had
one yet beyond them that said this is to the god that we might have forgotten. We don’t
leave any out. We think we have them all, but this to the unknown god. Paul is walking down the street and looking at all this stuff
and saying they can all be wrong but they sure can’t all be right. So meeting them
where they are, he picks up on that unknown god notion in Acts 17. He says, “Therefore
what you worship in ignorance,” let me enlighten you. Let me tell you the truth, and
he does. These are not Jews or Christians. These are not religious
people. These are post-modernists to a tee. Anything goes. No truth you can count on. So
he starts with God, “The God who made the world and all things in it.” He talks
about the truth of the God of creation, the uncaused cause, the God with no beginning. He
starts there, doesn’t apologize for Him, just declares Him. He is Lord of heaven and
earth. He doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. He is way beyond that. Neither is
He served by human hands as though He needed anything. He himself gives to all life and
breath and all things. Not only does God not need anything, He doesn’t need
you, He doesn’t need me. He doesn’t need anything. He is the One who gives what
others need. He is the fountainhead and source of it all. You are worshiping Him in
ignorance, Paul is saying, but I am telling you the truth. He is the creator. He is the
sustainer. He says He made from one person every nation of mankind. He is the orchestrator
of all history. He is in control of the major movements of human affairs. He has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of
their habitation and He stays available to them throughout the process. He is not the god
who wound up the clock, set it on the mantle, and left. He is there, that they should seek
Him, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him though He is not far from each one
of us. He is near! You don’t have to go to Athens to see his statue. 29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought
not to think that the divine nature is like something you can make. No, it made us. We are the reflection, He is not. 30"Therefore having
overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people
everywhere should repent, He is saying all I have told you is true. God has
demonstrated. He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world and it doesn’t
matter if you believe it or not. It is coming. The point is not whether you believe. The
point is that it is coming. You need to line up with truth, not create your own. He has
fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has
appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. It’s true. Let’s start with Jesus. All these people
gathered around him here, listening to him talk. They all had their notion of what is
right and what is true. When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to
sneer. No way! Resurrection? Cannot be! But others said we’d like to hear you again. And some joined him and believed. Isn’t that interesting? Just like the parable of the
sowers. The sower scatters the same seed on different kinds of soil. Jesus said it’s
like this in the kingdom of God. You are going to share the truth and many will reject it
but some will lay hold of the truth. That’s what Paul experienced in Acts, different
reactions, different kinds of people, but the truth remains the standard. Action In the summer of 1980, Mary and I were camp counselors. It
was sixth grade week, somewhere in central Idaho. It was an odd week. For one, we didn’t
know we would be counseling at camp and suddenly found ourselves in separate teepees.
Secondly, the people running the camp were from the city and they thought it was fun to
feed the skunks all the camp garbage and scraps, so this is the summer of skunk. There
were skunks everywhere. They were in the teepees, within the chapel, at the meals. There
were skunks all over the place. It was memorable, but that’s not my point. The camp speaker was a pastor and his messages were “Armor
of God.” Because we both were Bible college students at the time, listening with a
critical ear, because that’s what you are trained to do. He is going through the
armor of God in the chapel times. I could hardly wait for the end when he told us exactly
what to do with it. He did a great job describing it and giving us background and so
forth. You could just envision this Roman soldier in his armor and how it related
spiritually. I’ll never forget the last service at the camp fire. He said, “Young
people, we spent all week talking about the armor of God. Now put it on. Put it on!”
I’m thinking, “How?” I’m going to make a stab at it. It’s been a lot of
years, but I’ve thought about this and I’d like to provide some help in the
putting of it on. How do you put on the belt of truth? It’s a word picture, right? It’s
imagery. How do you apply it? I’m going to suggest that put it on means primarily
re-tool your brain. Re-tool your thinker. That’s key. Here’s how it works. We
must engage and change and train our minds. We cannot divorce from our soul the gray
matter between our ears. Somehow they are connected. New Year’s resolution is a great time. How many of us
approach the new year saying it’s not so much that it’s time I did things
different, it’s time I started thinking differently. That, too, is an act of the will
and God’s people are called to it. Romans 12:2, Be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. “This Christian thing just doesn’t work for me. I still have all
these struggles and all this defeat and I’m not so sure . . .” How are we doing in the renewing? That’s key.
Without it, yes, we will flounder. We have to think, learn to think, train to think,
differently. For this business of putting on the belt of truth, what we
have to come after is no pretense at all, just honest living in truth -- nothing weird,
nothing ethereal, just facing it, dealing with it, playing the ball where it lies. Simple
procedure. First of all, I get up in the morning and I look at the calendar. What day is
it? I think two thoughts. This is the day the Lord has made. God is sovereign in this day. What’s the year? 2007 already? I think this is the year
I get to apply for a moose permit again. I go further. No, 2007 – do the math. What
does that mean? It means A.D. A.D. means Ano Domini, in the year of our Lord. I can
immediately then recall, this is real stuff, because every effect has a cause. That 2007
started with 0000 and that started with the literal, historical, physical, real presence
of Jesus Christ. I like that. That’s the reason you have Daytimers and calendars. It
starts with Him, because He is real, because He is true. Then I enter into a practice of what I would call self-training. Practice telling myself the truth as the Bible reveals it and at the same time expecting there to be some opposition. After all, our struggle is not with flesh and blood. Here are a few self-training exercises that we can engage. First of all, I tell myself it’s all about God. Today, as I enter into this day, it is His day. He is going to give me some breath. He’s going to keep my little heart pumping, probably. It’s His day and I am in His hands and it is about Him. He is the designer. He is the creator. He is the sustainer. He is the redeemer. He is the judge and I will answer to Him for this day. That’s true, whether we believe it or not. Someone will come along. Maybe it will be our flesh, our untrained mind, our old person. Maybe it will be someone in the world. Maybe it will be an agent of the devil who will come along and say, no, God isn’t everything. Anticipate this. It’s coming. The minute we say yes, God is everything and we understand that to be true, we may hear a little voice that says no, He is distant; He is not close. He is not watching. He is not relevant. He is not able. Or He just doesn’t care. Truth says no, He is everything. I need to train my thinker to bear that in mind. Second point after God is everything, is this one, not only is God everything, I desperately need Him. I need Him whether I am thinking of it or not. I need Him to order my steps. I need Him to keep me moving. I need Him to fill my heart. I need Him to give me direction. I need Him for everything! For life here; for life there. He is the vine; I am the branch. Apart of Him I can do nothing. I must have Him. I cannot exist apart from Him. Again, here comes the voice and it’s saying something like, no, you’re OK. As a matter of fact, I’m OK. You’re OK. We’re all OK. No, we are not. We need Him above all others. The third truth – I desperately need Him because He has made the way. God has always taken the initiative beginning in the garden. He went looking for Adam, who was hiding. God has always taken the initiative, always provided the sacrifice, always gone looking, always sent the prophet. As a matter of fact, God actually came Himself in Jesus Christ. He has made the way. Jesus came to the cross and there He paid for your sins and my sins. He bought our ticket to heaven with His blood. He satisfied the wrath of God that we deserve. He made the way. I am not OK. I need Him and He has made the way. That voice, again, “That’s not relevant. Doesn’t apply.” Where would we be without Him? Another piece of that lie: “Yes, but you’ve helped.” Oh really, I’ve helped? I’ve lived long enough to know that is not true. The longer I live, the more acutely I am aware of His unutterable worth and my lack of it. He has done it all, which means all my trust, all of it, in Him alone, only Him. My flesh will say, or the world would say, or the devil would say don’t get too carried away with this religion. Don’t be that kind of Christian. All your trust? Only in Him? That’s what Jesus said. How about just enough trust to get through this situation? How about we just put Him on a shelf until we get in a bind. No, that’s a lie. The truth is, and where we need to take our minds is, all my trust in Him alone. Finally, my choices – and we make dozens of them every day – my choices, your choices, my attitude, reflect His character and His will. It is far more important that I walk in truth than that I be right all the time. When I am in a business situation or in a relational situation, the natural tendency and that of the world and that of the devil is to say get the advantage. What’s in it for you? Stand on your rights. What about yourself? Don’t you matter the most? No, the Bible says actually, truthfully, God matters the most. And that is true. This retooling of the brain thing is a decision that needs to be struck once. It’s helpful, I think, to go through life and come to point where I say I have been wrong. “You are not the easiest person in the world to live with.” Stop, and say I have not walked in truth and by the grace of God, I will. The next day I get up and look at the calendar and I realize I am there again. By the grace of God, put on the belt of truth. Retool the brain. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |