Belt of Truth
Notes
Transcript
Paul in this grand passage of scripture is telling us to be prepared, to get dressed and be ready for whatever is going to be coming our way.
Back in the 14th century there was a priest by the name of John Huss. He was born in raised in a town in what is modern day Czech Republic. The town that he was from Husinec. Husinec was John’s birth last name but in his early 20’s he changed it to Huss. Huss when translated means Goose. Husinec translated is Goosetown.
Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “his goose has been cooked.” The great reformer Martin Luther used that phrase to talk about John Huss because John was eventually burned at the stake for his teachings against the Catholic Church.
We are told that when John Huss was arrested and informed that he would be burned to death for his faith, he purposely practiced holding his hand over fire to prepare for his final test. He burned himself in preparation. He wanted to be faithful to the end. 1
One thing that I did not realize from Church history is that after he died for his faith, his followers would lay the foundation for the Moravians who were influential in the conversion of John Wesley.
John felt that the Catholic church had gotten off track especially when it came to the paying of indulgences. Indulgences was the money that was paid to the church to help get a person out of purgatory quicker.
The Pope at the time was using the money to build massive cathedrals and fund military action against his rivals.
John was pointing out the error and pointing people to the truth.
Truth has been something that has been in the news alot in recent years. It hasn’t been called truth rather we have heard a lot about “fake news.” Fake news is nothing new, it has existed since nearly the beginning.
The story is told of Mark Antony hearing that Cleopatra had committed suicide so he stabbed himself in the stomach. He later died in her arms. That was a fake news story and it happened in 31 BC.
It is really hard to know what the truth is from the news.
A person could be lying. When you lie you have to know what the truth is so that you can tell a story that is not the truth.
A person could be just feeding a line of crap or BS. That type of person does not even care about the truth, they just make up something and they keep feeding it to whoever will listen to them.
Politicians are really good at doing that. The sad thing is that if a person keeps telling a line of crap is that they eventually come to believe it as the truth.
Look at how cultic groups begin. A person starts to tell a story and eventually people begin to believe it. The Mormon church for example had its beginnings in that situation.
Paul in this section of Scripture is telling us to be prepared, to take a stand in the power and strength of God. He is telling us to get dressed. He has told us who the enemy is. The first piece of this armor that we are to put on is a belt.
Ephesians 6:14 (CEB)
14 So stand with the belt of truth around your waist
What do you picture when you hear that?
Here is a picture of what a Roman Soldier in Paul’s time would have worn.
This belt held everything together. I think that is a very important point about truth. It holds everything together.
What is truth? That is a question that has perplexed humanity since the beginning. It was part of the lie of the serpent to Adam and Eve.
There is an idea in the Church today that if I just say that I know Jesus and attend church once in a while that all is good.
That idea existed in Jesus time with the Jews. They talked about Abraham and Moses. They discussed the importance of knowing their teaching. Jesus confronted them and in John chapter 8 he said to them:
31 Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teaching.
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Truth is oh so important to our daily walk with Christ. Truth is what holds our faith together. Jesus says that it will set us free.
What is it going to set us free from? It is going to set us free from the lies that we can be so easily sucked into believing.
Dr Neel Burton in an article that he wrote about truth in Psychology Today had this to say about truth:
Finally, truth is constructive and adaptive, while lies are destructive and self-defeating. So how useful is a self-deceptive thought or reaction going to be for you? Are you just covering up an irrational fear, or helping to create a solid foundation for the future? Are you empowering yourself to fulfill your highest potential, or depriving yourself of opportunities for growth and creating further problems down the line? Is the cycle simply going to repeat itself, or will the truth, at last, make you free? 2
Now I don’t know anything about Dr Burton, but what he had to say is important. We can believe a lie and allow it to become a cycle and repeat and repeat and repeat over and over again in our life or we can be set free.
Jesus said that we are truly his disciple if we remain faithful to his teaching.
A lot of people know about Jesus. A lot of people in the church know about Jesus.
That’s great, but it is not enough. We cannot just know about Jesus, we need to know Jesus. I do not want to just know about Jesus. I want to know him in a real and person way.
How are we going to know him? By remaining faithful to his teachings.
I would say that everyone here this morning knows about me. I’ve been your pastor long enough so that you have ideas about who I am. But, do you really know me? Do you know the burdens that I carry? Do you know the things that I struggle with?
There is a vast difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone.
I want to know Jesus.
Jesus said that when we are faithful to his teachings:
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The Jews were all hung up on their ancestry and were concerned with knowing about God through the Law. Jesus was confronting them and telling them that they needed to know God. He went on and told them:
36 Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you really will be free.
One commentator on this letter to the Ephesians that by starting with the belt of truth that Paul was talking about our initial acceptance of the Gospel.
I think I can agree with him because is that not what Jesus was talking about knowing the truth and being free?
At the beginning of this great letter Paul wrote:
13 You too heard the word of truth in Christ, which is the good news of your salvation. You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit because you believed in Christ.
Paul says that the word of truth is the good news of our salvation.
How many of our family and friends have heard the word of truth?
In this spiritual battle that we are engaged in, people need to hear the word of truth. Don’t be selfish with the truth, tell it to others. Share it freely. The truth is not meant to be horded, it is meant to be shared freely.
In this spiritual battle we are engaged in, the truth holds it all together.
We have to know the truth, we have to know Jesus, not just know about him.
I did some searching about the belt as it is used in the Bible. The first reference that I found about it was in regards to the clothing that the priests wore. God is the one who gave the directions to Moses on what the items of clothing were to be and what they were to be made from.
There is an entire chapter in Exodus that describes the clothing of priests. God told Moses:
Exodus 28:2 (CEB)
2 Make holy clothing that will give honor and dignity
This wasn’t just everyday ordinary clothing that the priests were to wear. This was clothing that was holy, it was to give honor and dignity.
There was a belt that the priest wore that held everything together.
The belt for the Roman soldier held all the pieces of his uniform together so that he was prepared.
This belt that we are putting on is not just some ordinary belt. It is a part of God’s armor. If it is part of God’s armor, then it must in itself be holy. This holy belt that we put on holds our faith together.
How do we find this belt of truth?
Do you recall when Jesus was talking with the disciples about leaving them and going back to the Father to prepare a place for them?
Thomas, the doubter said in a very open and honest manner:
John 14:5 (CEB)
Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?
Very honest wouldn’t you agree. We don’t know where you are going. No one had ever gone to heaven and come back to tell about it.
If no one had gone there then how could they know the way?
Jesus said to him:
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus, he is the way, he is the truth, and he is the life. We cannot make it heaven, to the Father without going through Jesus, by embracing him and being faithful to his teaching.
Is it any wonder that truth is the first article that Paul writes about?
Without the truth, there is no getting to the Father.
Isaiah in his grand prophecy wrote about he Messiah.
5 Righteousness will be the belt around his hips, and faithfulness the belt around his waist.
Jesus, the Messiah came and he brought righteousness and made it available to all when he died on the cross. Jesus lived faithfully to the will of God.
Jesus calls us to live faithful to his teaching. When we live faithful then we are proving that we are truly one of his disciples.
This truth that Jesus has talked about and that Paul is referencing is this:
Ephesians: A New Covenant Commentary Put on the Full Armor of God (6:10–20)
This truth is the reality of God’s work in Christ that condemns sin and death, and brings new life and the Spirit.
Oh how we need to grasp this. God’s work in Christ condemns sin and death.
We do not need the legalism of the past that gave us lists of things that we can and can not do. That is not what this is about.
Truth is that sin is anything that misses the mark that God has set for us. When God tells us not to steal He means it. When God says to not covet our neighbors new car, he means it. When God says to keep the Sabbath day holy, he means it.
God is not going to wink at sin. Jesus came to set us free from sin and death. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans:
1 So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One.
2 For the “law” of the Spirit of life flowing through the anointing of Jesus has liberated us from the “law” of sin and death.
The case is closed, we have been set free from the law of sin and death by the truth that is found in Jesus.
We have new life in Christ, and we have the Holy Spirit of God living within us.
That is the truth that we live by. We have been set free by the truth.
Go back to that conversation Jesus had in John’s gospel. He was speaking about the truth and the freedom that is ours and he confronts the Jews head on and says to them:
44 Your father is the devil. You are his children, and you want to do what your father wants. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has never stood for the truth, because there’s no truth in him. Whenever that liar speaks, he speaks according to his own nature, because he’s a liar and the father of liars.
45 Because I speak the truth, you don’t believe me.
Satan is a liar, he is the father of lies. He wants to defeat you. If you give him an inch he will take a mile. Do you know what that saying means? The Cambridge Dictionary defines it this way:
said about someone who has been given a small amount of power or freedom to do something, and then has tried to get a lot more 3
If you give Satan a small amount of power or freedom in your life then he is going to try and take more and more.
Paul addressed this with the Corinthian church in his second letter when he wrote
3 And now I’m afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth patter, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ.
That is how he works. He lies, he seduces and pretty soon you are lured away.
The Bible has a lot to say about this. James wrote in his letter
14 Instead it is each person’s own desires and thoughts that drag them into evil and lure them away into darkness.
15 Evil desires give birth to evil actions. And when sin is fully mature it can murder you!
Hold on to the truth of Christ and do not even for a second consider a lie from Satan.
A thought struck me yesterday as I was finishing up for this morning. That was, why does it seem like the culture seem to constantly attack the Christian faith but leave other religions alone?
When was the last time you heard a critical news story about Hindus? When was the last time you heard a critical story about Muslims? Oh, you might hear about a terrorist who is a Muslim but the story will always separate the terrorist from a the Islamic faith. When was the last time you hear a negative story about followers of Confucius? When was the last time you heard a negative news story about Communist China?
You can’t remember any can you?
Why is Christianity fair game? Could it be that the father of lies wants it that way? He does you know.
Why would he concern himself with communism or Hinduism or Islam? He knows that those religions and yes communism is a religion, he knows that they are false, he gave birth to them.
Why would he want anyone to criticize a lie? It would be a waste of time from his perspective because he already has them deceived.
Paul uses the word stand four times in this short section of his letter. Stand can be a verb or a noun and there are at least 17 definitions for the word.
The definition that seems to fit here is this:
withstand without being damaged
This is God’s armor and the first piece of it that we are to put on is the belt of truth. With God’s armor we can withstand the onslaught of Satan and not be damaged.
So Stand, stand against the tricks of the devil, stand your ground on the evil day, after you have done everything, stand, stand with the belt of truth around your waist.
12 Be happy in your hope, stand your ground when you’re in trouble, and devote yourselves to prayer.
Stand your ground. There are numerous references to standing your ground or standing firm in your faith in the Bible.
Peter wrote:
8 Be well balanced and always alert, because your enemy, the devil, roams around incessantly, like a roaring lion looking for its prey to devour.
9 Take a decisive stand against him and resist his every attack with strong, vigorous faith. For you know that your believing brothers and sisters around the world are experiencing the same kinds of troubles you endure.
10 And then, after your brief suffering, the God of all loving grace, who has called you to share in his eternal glory in Christ, will personally and powerfully restore you and make you stronger than ever. Yes, he will set you firmly in place and build you up.
Take a decisive stand. A decisive stand means to settle the issue.
Have you settled the issue?
I don’t know about you, but I settled that issue years ago. I made the decision to stand with Jesus. Remember the words of the second verse to that old chorus “I have decided to follow Jesus?
Tho' none go with me, I still will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.
There is a spiritual war going on all around us. The enemy wants to defeat you. How are you going to withstand the onslaught of evil?
It is by taking a stand and putting on God’s armor. That armor begins with the belt of truth.
Have you put on the belt of truth?
Have you accepted the truth of Jesus? He is the truth. He said that the truth will set you free.
Are you living in this freedom today?
1 - Moody Monthly, April, 1990, p. 76.
2 - Burton, N. (2018, August 23). What is Truth? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201808/what-is-truth
3 - Cambridge Dictionary. (2021, June 23). give someone an inch and they’ll take a mile meaning. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/give-someone-an-inch-and-they-ll-take-a-mile