The Belt of Truth

Good Morning and welcome to the last Sunday of January…. Did this month go by fast or what???? ….. So last week, we started our new series entitled “Body Armor” and Pastor Jeff talked about the Spiritual Battle that takes place all around us, in the spiritual realm… in the places we cannot yet see, but affects us none the less in every part of our lives. Today we begin to address how Jesus followers can deal with the unseen forces that are at work in our world.

The basis for the series comes from Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 through 20 where the Apostle Paul introduces us to the Whole Armor of God. But the outline for the Series comes from Dr. Rick Stedman’s book Entitled “Praying the Whole Armor of God.”

Something we need to realize, something that some of us might ignore is that we are in a spiritual battle… as believers in Christ Jesus we are soldiers in this battle. We are in a battle…..And the battle has been raging long before you and I arrived on the scene. And the battle affects us personally, and spiritually, and mentally, and physically, and affects those we love. We should know and understand that angels are real, and the devil exists, and demons exists …. And the latter two were once angels in heaven. We know the devil exists because he tempted Eve to eat from the tree causing Adam and Eve to sin against God. And we know the devil was once an angel in heaven and demons exists because in Luke chapter 10 verses 17-18 we read about the 72 disciples upon their return rejoiced because the demons were subject to them in Jesus’ name….. and Jesus said to them in verse 18 “….I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.” And we know the demons were angels in heaven because Jesus’ brother, Jude, said in Jude verse 6 “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—” Their proper dwelling was heaven….. And we see all of it together in Revelation chapter 12 verse 9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

The angels that were thrown down or forcefully removed from heaven are the soldiers in spiritual battle and have been ever since the satan rebelled against God.

Satan and his demons are not on equal footing with God though….. God is all-powerful, Satan is not. The demons are not all-powerful….. and because they are not on equal footing with God…. Satan and the demons seek to hurt humans, all humans, because God loves humans. The evil one and the demons especially goes after Christians because they are God’s children… they seek to divide us and keep us from doing God’s will…to keep us from doing the ministry we are here to do to the glory of God. So everything you have, are, or will go through… the struggles, and trials, and tribulations are a result of the spiritual battle going on in the unseen world.

You should also know this….. Victory has already been achieved ladies and gentlemen! …the war has already been won!!! Amen!!! The war has already been won because of what Jesus did on the Cross and His resurrection!! Amen!!! ….. but the battles still rage. Satan and the demons know they don’t have very much time left and they are working hard to take as many people with them as they can….. to keep them from God.

So, if you don’t accept what’s been said here already, this series won’t help you much. If you accept the truth of what’s been said so far, we’re gonna press on and talk about how you can protect yourself in this spiritual battle.

Let’s open our Bibles, phone apps, or whatever you use to read the Bible - to the new testament book of Ephesians and go to chapter 6 verses 14 to 18… or you can follow along on the screen….. and it reads “14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”

We learn from these verses the Armor of God is:

-the belt of truth

-the breastplate of righteousness

-the shoes of gospel of peace

-the shield of faith

-the helmet of salvation

-the Sword of the Spirit

-and Praying always in the spirit

These are the things we “Put on” as mentioned in verse 14, and use for this spiritual battle – like being clothed and the equipment we put on for battle – like a soldier puts on their battle-rattle for the mission outside the wire. But what we are doing here is putting the things of God….. though we are in a battle against the forces of evil… they – the evil one and the demons - are not the focus…. God is the focus and the things of God are the focus. The Armor of God is made up of God’s truth, God’s righteousness, Gospel of God the Son – Jesus Christ, faith in God, salvation that comes from God, the Word of God, and God the Holy Spirit. God is our focus and we put on the things of God.

We learn more of this concept in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 22 to 24. “22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

The Apostle Paul is stating that Jesus followers must not do life the way they did before - before they knew God.… Jesus followers cannot live in the same way the world lives… People who don’t know God, Paul says, have hard hearts, and have given themselves up to sensuality, and are greedy and practice every kind of impurity. Jesus followers are to put off their old self and put on their new self ….. one focused on God and the things of God. and by putting on your new self, you are essentially putting on the God’s Body Armor.

Now going back to Dr. Stedman’s book, Praying the Armor of God – he lays out a way to put on God’s body armor with a daily focus on the differing parts of the armor through prayer. The first letter of each key word for the daily focus aligns with the first letter for the day of the week…. which aids in memorization.

On Sunday – the focus is to Strap on the Belt of Truth. There you’ll notice the “s” in strap and in Sunday.

and Monday its to Make Fast the Breastplate of Righteousness … here you see the “m” for make and for Monday…..

Tuesday - Tread in the Shoes of Peace

Wednesday - Wield the Shield of Faith

Thursday - Think Within the Helmet of Salvation

Friday - Fight with the Sword of the Spirit

And finally, Saturday - Steadfastly Pray in the Spirit

And this is how our sermon series is layed out for the next 7 weeks or so…..So today we’ll begin with Sunday by spending some time Strapping on the belt of truth. And Monday - which will be our next Sunday service – we’ll Make Fast the Breastplate of Righteousness.

Before we jump in… let’s be reminded of how the battle is waged….. and we find this reminder in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verses 3 to 6…. Let’s open our Bibles, phone apps, or whatever you use to read the Bible - to the new testament book of 2nd Corinthians and go to chapter 10 verses 3 to 6… or you can follow along on the screen….. and it reads. “3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”

You see in verse 4 that these weapons are spiritual weapons…and they have divine power…. and they destroy strongholds. And “strongholds” are the fortresses or thick walls that are built up around you that hold you back…that prevent you from putting off your old self…. that prevent you from getting rid of those bad habits, from getting rid of bad attitudes… that keep you from seeing your true worth to God…. that keep you from seeing and knowing and experiencing the love God has for you…. that keep you from serving God and His people….. from loving the unlovable…. that keep you from following Jesus. And in verse 5 we see that the spiritual weapons of divine power destroy the arguments and opinions that are against God and His Word. Arguments of anything that’s not true – not true about what God says about you, about what God says about Himself…. Things that are twisted by the evil one that the world believes and are against what God says about morality, about spiritual reality, about salvation that is only found in His Son Jesus Christ…..

The battle we are engaged in is spiritual – the weapons are spiritual – and the armor is spiritual. And the Armor is provided so we can stand against the schemes of the devil. The foundational piece of our Armor is the Belt of Truth.

Again, we find the Belt of Truth mentioned in the first part of Ephesians chapter 6 verse 14 – and it reads “Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,…”. In order to fasten the belt of truth we need to know what Truth is…..and Truth is that which corresponds to reality. And the reality is that behind all truth is God…. we can say this because God existed before all things - He created all other things – and as a result He becomes the final reality ….. and He is the final arbiter of truth. God and God along decides what and what is not true.

We also need to know What truth is not! Truth is not simply whatever works. This is the philosophy of prag-ma-tism – an ends-vs.-means-type approach. In reality, lies can appear to “work,” but they are still lies and not the truth.

- Truth is not simply what is coherent or understandable. A group of people can get together and form a conspiracy based on a set of falsehoods where they all agree to tell the same false story, but it does not make their presentation true.

- Truth is not what makes people feel good. Unfortunately, bad news can be true.

- Truth is not what the majority says is true. Fifty-one percent of a group can reach a wrong conclusion as can 99% of a group.

- Truth is not what is comprehensive. A lengthy, detailed presentation can still result in a false conclusion.

- Truth is not defined by what is intended. Good intentions can still be wrong.

- Truth is not how we know; truth is what we know.

- Truth is not simply what is believed. A lie believed is still a lie.

- Truth is not what is publicly proved. A truth can be privately known (for example, the location of buried treasure).

Sometimes people reject notion of absolute truth, replace with notion that is relative An example of relative truth is “that’s true for you but not for me” and another example is “all truth, all religions, are equal.” But if you make these claims of relative truth, you are actually making an absolute statement.

Postmodernism says there is truth, but no truth is to be affirmed…. So how can you affirm the truth when no truth is to be affirmed?

Pluralism says all truth claims are equally valid… that is, of course, except when the claim that some truth is more valid than others…. I can go around saying I’m Abraham Lincoln, and since I believe I am Abraham Lincoln then my belief in that truth is equally valid with someone else who claims to be Abraham Lincoln, or even equal with the the historical record of Abraham Lincoln.

We can’t live by prag-ma-tism, relativism, postmodernism, or plurism in real life…they don’t work. These are the schemes of the evil one…. the evil twists truth…he is the father of lies – he develops lies that the world uses as the basis of truth instead of God’s truth. The evil one uses whatever method he can to keep people from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Truth is that which corresponds to reality. Truth is that which matches its object. Truth is simply telling it like it is. An example of this is found in Acts chapter 4 verses 7 to12 …and it reads “They had Peter and John brought in and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being examined today about a kind service to a man who was lame, to determine how he was healed, then let this be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Here Peter told it like it is…..Peter gave them the truth based in reality… and the truth about Jesus….

Getting back to THE BELT OF TRUTH…. Now Keep in mind the context from which Paul was writing… it was the time of the Romans - so think in those terms – think of the roman solder as we describe the belt. The belt is the starting point for all the weapons and was known as the cingulum (sing gu lum) or balteus (b-al tea ous)—played a crucial role in the effectiveness of a soldier's armor. It was no a simple leather strap like we use today to hold our pants up. It was a thick, heavy leather and metal band that had protective piece or strips of leather to protect the lower body. It also held the sword and other weapons or instruments.

Like I mentioned earlier…. Truth is the foundation of all the other weapons. God’s truth is the foundation of righteousness, of peace, of faith and salvation. And the belt is foundational to the armor. And the belt gets you ready for action. The roman soldier wore a tunic which is a long robe. And wearing a long robe in a battle was a problem. So the soldiers would put pull it up and tuck the fabric into the belt – and then they were ready for action – to move, or fight.

And knowing the Truth helps us from being deceived… getting us ready for action. We talked about it last week and mentioned it earlier…. Satan is the great deceiver …he is the father of lies…. And we read in verse 11

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” The evil ones schemes are cunning, and deceptive, and devious….. and we are unable to stand against them unless we know the truth …. And truth is found in the Bible…. And we need to know and understand God’s Word so we can know truth in order to identify and counter the evil one.

Knowing the Truth helps us from falling into the evil one’s traps of False belief systems. These systems are one way the devil keeps a person from knowing God. We read in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 14 “that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes”

And in 1st Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,”

By not knowing God’s truth - Christians can be carried away by false doctrines – alternate or twisted beliefs about God, and Christ, and the faith. Apostle Paul says False teachings are created by demons. Without putting on the armor of God, the belt of truth, we too can be deceived. So pay attention to who you watch on the so-called Christian tv stations, or who you listen to on the radio, or watch on the internet, and what books you read. Many of those folks are spreading a false doctrine designed to get themselves rich….. and are disguised as biblical truth or self help to free your from strongholds…. But are really just deceitful schemes to imprison you while benefitting themselves…. And keeping you from knowing the truth and genuinely following the Savior. False teachers blind you from the truth.

And those who don’t know God are blinded by the evil one. We know this to be true and can read it in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses 3 and 4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Many of you know this to be true because you’ve been there…its part of you story…… I personally know this to be true because the evil one blinded me for 41 years of my life…. I didn’t need to Bible…I didn’t need Jesus….. I was in control …… I didn’t need anyone …. And I had folks share the truth with me periodically throughout my life….. but I knew better…. Or So I thought….. the evil one had blinded me…. and the first few years after confessing Jesus I watched many of those so called TV pastors….. I genuinely thought I was learning to become a Christ follower …. Learning the truth…. Learning what the bible says….. but that was until I read and studied the Bible and listened to what the Holy Spirit revealed to me as I read and studied His Word….. and began to understand His word….. and began doing what He says to do……. I ended up learning the vast majority of the tv pastors were teaching false doctrines …. And were cunning in their deceit….. what they said did not match God’s Word…. They twisted things for their personal gain….. and the evil ones uses them to keep people from Jesus. They are pawns in the battle.

And I would not have been able to know the difference had I not read and studied the Bible and listened to what the Holy Spirit was revealing to me through His Word……..

We Need the Belt of Truth …its foundational to God’s Body Armor……. Here are some practical things to do as you put on the Belt of Truth……

Number 1….read and study your Bible….. know what it says…. Its God’s truth revealed to the world….

Number 2 ….. Think Truth: We need truth in the sense of how we think. And pray and ask God to help us and our loved ones see and comprehend the truth.

Number 3…… Live in Truth

ASK GOD TO HELP YOU have integrity….. to live by ethical business practices…. do the right thing in every situation…. To be honest in everything so you won’t cheat, or hedge, or lie

And Number 4 ….. Live out the Truth ….. Jesus said “I am the way, the Truth, and the Life”. Truth is ultimately a person and Jesus is that person…. He is the truth – know Jesus and you know truth….. and share that truth with everyone! Amen!