THE CHRISTIAN’S ARMOR
Ephesians 6:10-18
Ephesians 6:14a and
Joshua 1:8
#2 - BELTED!
"Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth..."
Illustrations of
hypocrisy abound. You can site some from your illustration resources or from
personal experience.
Hypocrisy: We laugh
about it in others.
We don't like it in others.
We ignore it or tolerate it
in ourselves.
Because we are sinners,
we also tend to be hypocrites. We pretend to be what we are not. We pretend not
to be what we are. The one who is
influencing us towards hypocrisy is Satan.
In Ephesians 6:11-12 we
are warned against the "wiles of the devil" and against the work of
his demons (Vs.12). We are encouraged in
Ephesians 6: 10, 11 and 13 that we have Spiritual armor provided by God which
we should put on.
In our stand against
Satan, we are first told, "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about
with truth..."
Paul is in prison when
he is writing. He is being guarded by a Roman soldier who probably had most or
all of this armor with him.
Paul begins by
discussing the belt!
When a soldier got
dressed, he would put on his belt over his tunic.
The tunic was the
primary piece of outer clothing that covered much of the soldier's body. It was
a square piece of material with holes cut in it for the soldier's head and
arms. It fit very loosely.
As you can imagine,
during battle the tunic could easily be a hindrance, getting in the way. The
tunic was tucked into the heavy leather belt worn by the soldier. The belt also
helped to hold other pieces of armor in place. The belt was an essential piece
of equipment.
Paul tells us to wear
the belt of truth!
It is the truth that
will help us keep all the other pieces of armor and our lives in place.
As the belt surrounds
the person wearing it, the truth should surround us.
And may I add this
thought - If we surround ourselves with truth and actually practice it, we will
be truthful. To truly surround ourselves with truth, we are also surrounding
ourselves with truthfulness. THE BEST ANTIDOTE FOR HYPOCRISY IN OUR LIVES IS
THE TRUTH PRACTICED!
So, what is the truth?
First of all there is
the truth of the Gospel.
A person must come to a
point in his or her life of trusting the one, who died for our sins, was buried
and rose again. A person must believe on the one who is "the way, the
truth and the life."
A person must trust the
Lord Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.
John 14:6 - "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no
man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
Second, there is the
truth of God's Word.
Third, there is the
truth of practicing God's Word. That is called truthfulness.
I feel that the belt we
put on is the truth of God's Word and the truthfulness of practicing it.
For the rest of this
message, I would like to take you to a passage of Scripture that will show us
how to put on that belt of truth so that our lives will be truthful!
Joshua 1:8 - "This
book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest
observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."
MY RESOURCE - "This
book of the law..."
Joshua had the first 5
books of the Bible. We have Genesis to Revelation. We have a great book written
by God. 2 Timothy
MY RETAINMENT
- "... shall not depart out of thy mouth;"
As a 7-year old boy, I
remember asking my mother at World Series time if the
MY REFLECTION -
"...but thou shalt meditate therein day and
night..."
See Psalm 1:2, Jeremiah
MY REASON - "...
that thou mayest observe to do according to all that
is written therein:"
See Psalm 119:9
MY RESULTS - "...
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then
thou shalt have good success."
I believe that the
prosperity mentioned here is primarily Spiritual. See
Psalm 1:3.
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