Love the Truth

Introduction:

Ephesians 6:14 NASB95

14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

Raise your hand if you’re wearing a belt today? People wear belts for different reasons:

It’s part of the outfit

To hold up your pants

For some it helps them with their job (carpenter, electrician)

And other cases it’s used when someone misbehaves!

But in Biblical times, a belt was often used an important piece of Roman armor.

Roman Soldier

They were everywhere… Tarsus, Israel, Everywhere he traveled

He took note of how they were dressed

Belt / Sash

A Roman wore a tunic (a dress for men)

2 Holes for arms, 1 hole for your head… extended down past the knees

If you were going into battle, you would pull your tunic together with a sash, and pull it as tight as you could

Hand-to-hand combat

You don’t want your dress blowing around in the breeze

Where he would attach his weapons: sword, bow, arrows

So it became, really, the emblem of battle. When you put your sash on, you were going to battle. It marked you for battle.

Paul wants us to understand, that you’re never going to win the spiritual battle unless you really get ready for it.

Ephesians 6:14 NASB95

14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

This is preparedness.

Peter used this language metaphorically in 1 Peter 1:13 to call the Christian to “gird up the loins of the mind”

It’s also the language used in Isaiah 11:5 dealing with the same topic of God’s armor

Paul tells us to put on the belt of truth, and I want us to see why this morning… and it starts with this...

Every child of God must view himself or herself as a soldier.

We have ALL been called to battle.

We have all been drafted by the King of kings 

To fight with enemies that WE CAN’T SEE! Or TOUCH… or OUTWIT!

Last week: STRENGTH to STAND!!

We ALSO need: protection… and wisdom.

“12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” — 1 Cor 10:12 .

Like a soldier who gets up every morning to go to war, you get up every morning to do the same thing… and this morning I want us to consider the FIRST thing that we’re fighting for, and its TRUTH!!… It’s Truth.

So stand firm, having girded your loins with truth. (Fastened on the Belt of Truth)

Truth is simply:

The revealed Word of God.

Jesus said in John 17:17 “17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

Psalm 119:160 “160 The sum of Your word is truth...”

But secondly, Truth is a commitment.

We need to be commited to the truth…

But the “Truth” being spoken of here is more than just the “content.” Or in other words, “THIS, is truth, Or THIS or THIS.” No...

The “Truth” here is different because if you jump a few verses ahead you’ll see ANOTHER piece of armor called “the sword of the Spirit”, which is the Word of God.

So we’re not so much talking about the fact that we go to war wielding the Word of God here… as we are talking about an ATTITUDE

We believe the truth, because we love the truth, we go to war for the truth. We pull in all the loose ends.

We’ve put on the sash that holds our weapons and marks us as soldiers. We have a heart for battle.

We’ve counted the cost. Like Jesus said, you don’t go to war unless you count the cost. The true Christian loves the truth and is ready to fight for the truth.

The book of Jude says: “We will earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints!”

We fight for the Truth… WHY? For Your Spiritual PROTECTION!

We are defending ourselves against SATAN! … And you will NEVER, you will never win the spiritual battles that come day by day unless you are COMMITTED to being victorious over him!

I hope by the end of this lesson you’ll see how important Truth is. And more than this… I pray that you become SATURATED in it. Consumed by it. And come to love it… for three reasons:

Love the Truth… because God is truth

Love the Truth… because Satan is near

Love the Truth… because Truth is powerful

Love the Truth… because God is truth

We live in a time right now that says that there is no such thing as “the truth,” and if there is truth, then it is relative and depends upon circumstances.

The popular way of thinking in our culture is that “you make your own truth.”

But truth is an absolute....

Tongue Twister: How can truth be true? If truth isn’t an absolute thing???

Yet we live in a culture where people create their own reality. “If I want to believe this, I’ll believe this.” “If I want to believe that, I’ll believe that.”

But.... What’s the TRUTH!!!

We parasail through life being drifted away by OPINIONS & MEDIA & HEARSAY & GOSSIP & LIES

But where’s the TRUTH, the ABSOLUTE truth?

Truth… can be found… NOWHERE… apart… from God.

In a very simple illustration, does God not know EVERYTHING?

Does he not know.. what’s right and wrong?

If you look a little deeper, you’ll come to a verse like Isaiah 65:16: “16 “Because he who is blessed in the earth Will be blessed by the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Will swear by the God of truth; ”

Notice that God doesn’t just “have” truth… or “contain” truth… or “know” truth. He IS TRUTH!

Jeremiah describes Him as the “True God” Jeremiah 10:10.

So if God is truth… and we love God!… then by application we should love the truth.

In other words, who do you listen to?

Who do you believe?

Who do you take sides with and defend?

If we’re fighting for the truth, then we’re fighting against the lies & deception of SATAN!

John sums up our faith like this:

1 John 5:19–20 NASB95

19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Have you ever felt spiritually unbalanced?

You question everything? You have questions… about spiritual matters?

You will not find truth apart from God.

In this same letter, Paul says in Eph 4:20-21 “20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,”

Jesus told the Jews in John 8… “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” if you what? “Continue in my word”

There is a standard for what’s true… and it’s found nowhere else but in the eternal words of Christ.

If you Love God with all your heart… then you love truth with all your heart.

And lets look at another reason why that is:

Love the Truth… because Satan is near

The devil was a liar from the beginning…

His whole system is a system of lies.

Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie or a half-truth

So the FIRST line of defense is the truth!

2 Thes 2:9-12 There would be one to come under: “the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved… all will be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.”

Jesus told the Pharisees in:

John 8:44 “44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in 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.”

Could it be clearer why the first piece of armor is the TRUTH

The arch-enemy has power over us, by ONE means: deception

Rev 12:9 Satan is: “the serpent of old, who deceives the whole world;”

If you don’t love the truth… then you will believe every little lie Satan puts in your mind:

You are going to believe that lying is acceptable.

You are going to think that pornography is okay.

You are going to think your anger is justified.

You are going to think that you need to put yourself first.

You are going to think coming to worship is optional. Newsflash its NOT!!!

You are going to believe all kinds of lies, taught by the world, and taught by denominations because the TRUTH isn’t GIRDED around your waist!

You haven’t pulled in the loose ends

You haven’t prepared yourself for war because lack the protection of the truth of God, and without it you will LOSE. EVERY time!!!

Don’t just know the truth… Live the truth… long for truth. Love the truth. Because deception is waiting at our doorstep. or should i say, our phones, our TV, our religious neighbors up and down this road.

If you aren’t prepared for battle you aren’t prepared to win.

What does it mean to win? Paul said he won the race? What does that mean?

It means he kept the faith.

How can you keep the faith, without loving truth?

Faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by reading the word of God… which is truth.

The more love we have for truth… the more defeated Satan must feel. And the more victorious I feel in knowing the truth of God.

Love the Truth… because Truth is powerful

It has the power to change our life.

It is our salvation

Eph 1:13 “13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation...”

Without the truth we are hopeless.

We are left to our human ways and tendencies. We’ll be decieved and led astray.

Thank God for TRUTH!

Oh that we might come to love it.

Conclusion:

Love the Truth… because God is truth

Love the Truth… because Satan is near

Love the Truth… because it’s your only hope

Gird your loins with Truth: Everywhere I see truth I embrace it, I believe it. This is my identity, and I’m putting it on like a uniform… and we go to war.

How badly do you want to win? That’s the question. I’m convinced, actually, that most Christians lose the spiritual battles as they go through life because they really don’t care that much about winning them. Doesn’t matter to them that much.

Illus:

Culpepper didn’t show up for sprints

For some people, life is just like that. “Aw, just didn’t feel like running.”

We don’t really care about winning. So we leave truth behind.

I believe the church today is greatly hindered today by Christians who know the word of God, but their life is not bound with God’s truth! 

Truth isn’t what you make it. Truth is truth. Whether you conform to it or you don’t. Whether you feel like it is or whether you don’t… Truth is truth. We must put on God’s BELT… strap it tightly around us… and carry, and USE that truth to FIGHT deception, and stand firm in the goodness and strength of our God.

Love the truth.

300 Quotations for Preachers Unless We Love the Truth, We Cannot Know It

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

BLAISE PASCAL*