Calvary Road Baptist Church

(Preached at Bharatpur, Nepal)

“GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH”

Ephesians 6.14a 

Please turn in your Bible to Ephesians 6.14: 

“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.” 

Imagine a grizzled old man sitting on a stool, with a quill in hand, writing a letter. Though his body is bent with age and the scars of beatings and torture, he is a pleasant gentleman of sweet disposition and kind manner. To the left of the stooped old man is a lean and muscled younger man shackled to him at the wrist. In his physical prime, the younger man is a centurion of the Praetorian Guards, the finest regiment of the most powerful army in the world.

Though he is officially assigned to be the old man’s guard, the young Roman officer essentially functions as the old man’s servant. What an amazing turnabout it has been since the day the shackles were hammered into place. How he had once hated the old man. How he had wished him dead. And how cruelly he had initially mistreated the old fellow despite the man’s kindness and soft-spoken demeanor toward him.

Over the passage of weeks, however, he saw that the old guy was so very kind, so very gentle, and so very committed to his God and his Savior. What wisdom he had. What learning. What insight. But it wasn’t him at all. Not really. It was his God. It was his Savior. It was his Scriptures, woven into almost everything he said. How strange the young Roman had felt at first: troubled, guilty, saddened, frightened, hopeless, and the strangest of all for a Roman, helpless. Helpless before the old man’s God, facing a certain eternity in the lake of fire, he had turned his heart toward the old man’s Savior and trusted Him for the forgiveness of his sins.

Since that moment the old man had been teaching him about God and the Savior. He taught him about the past, and then he taught him about the future. Amazingly, the old man told him that there would come a day when the risen-from-the-dead Savior would actually return to earth from heaven. And so many other things the old man taught him, lovingly, patiently, thoroughly.

That’s when he found himself falling in love with the old guy he had slowly begun to trust, thinking of him like a grandfather, but more noble, more wise, more tender, and more compassionate than any grandfather he had ever seen or experienced. This old fellow was, after all, spiritual. Eventually, the old prisoner asked if he could write letters to his friends in the East if the young officer would arrange for him to get writing materials. It had been done.

Before writing one of his letters, he spent hours asking the young soldier to describe his uniform; the girdle, the breastplate, the shield, the short Spanish sword the Romans were so proud of, the gladius, and even his shoes. Then, after a great season of prayer, the old man bent over so his weak eyes could focus and began to write. It was then that the young soldier, eldest son of a Roman senator, a centurion in the Praetorian Guards, officer in the finest army the world had ever seen, discovered for the first time who it was he was assigned to guard. He had heard the name mentioned in the barracks. “A notorious criminal,” someone had said. “A threat to the empire,” he had been told.

But now, in a flash of recognition, he knew all the rumors to be false as he peered over the old man’s shoulder and saw the first words of his crooked hands producing letters penned with the quill: 

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.” 

So busy had the old man been, talking about his God and his Savior, that he had neglected to make any reference to himself, even to the failure of making mention of his own name. Perhaps this was how Paul came to learn about the Roman accouterments of war, by questioning the centurion assigned to him. However it came to be, Paul seems to have seized upon Roman battle dress as a means of illustrating in a physical way the spiritual requirements for achieving success in spiritual conflict. Let us stand, Bibles in hand.

In Ephesians 6.14-20, we have three main considerations: First, the edict is given to the Christian soldier to stand: “Stand therefore.” This was Paul’s admonition to the Christians he addressed to “Hold your ground.” Second, in verses 14-17, there is the equipment of the Christian soldier with which to stand: 

14  ... having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 

And third, there is the expression of the Christian soldier as he stands, verses 18-20: 

18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

19  And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

20  For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 

Considering the edict to stand, it strikes me that there are three kinds of soldiers in the Christian army or in any other kind of army. There is the soldier who stands, whether wounded or not. Then there is the soldier who falls. Third, there is the soldier who flees. What kind of soldier do you plan to be? You will be one of those three kinds of soldiers, there is no getting around it. Be one who stands. Any and every Christian soldier can plan on being wounded. After all, fighting in spiritual warfare is a dangerous business. The question is, what will you do when you are wounded? Will you stand, or not? Since most spiritual behavior is planned, decide now how you will react when.

Next, there are those who fall. Most soldiers stumble and fall. But when a Christian soldier falls in battle, be it in the Church auditorium, at Thanksgiving, when family visits and suggests he stay home instead of attending Church, at work, or in front of his computer monitor, it’s because he was not properly fighting and wielding the weapons of our warfare.

And then there are those who flee. Oh, they will deny that they have fled. They will argue that they have simply relocated, sometimes. Supposedly a tactical retreat. But the ones who flee never do so for Scriptural or spiritual reasons. And by fleeing, they identify themselves as being either very immature, Ephesians 4.14, or as being lost, First John 2.19. 

“Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” 

In verses 14-17 we see listed for us the equipment of the Christian soldier. Notice, if you will, that Paul described our armor in such a way as to compare it to the equipment worn by a Roman soldier. But sometimes a study of the Christian’s armor gets so bogged down in various comparisons with Roman armor that we can forget what our armor really is.

So, let me list for you what we fight with. We, as soldiers of the cross, fight with truth, we fight with the Gospel, we fight with faith, we fight with salvation, and we fight with the Word of God. If, at any time during the conflict, you disarm yourself by failing to properly wear this armor, whether the battle is raging at the moment or not, you have opened yourself to dangerous attacks and you will likely become a casualty, even if you are earnestly engaged in the expressions of a Christian soldier, found in verses 18-20.

And what are the expressions of the Christian soldier? There are two, one vertical and one horizontal. There is praying to God and there is preaching to men. The wearing of the Christian’s equipment is what makes possible the continued Christian expressions of praying and preaching. If you don’t wear the equipment you will not engage in the expressions of praying and preaching for very long.

Let us now take a look at the first piece of armor the Roman soldier wore. It was a girdle, usually made of leather, that was worn about the loins. A girdle was always worn over clothing, but under armor, as a means of protecting the loins. The leather girdle could not prevent penetration by a sword or knife thrust, but it could prevent a slashing cut that might result from a deflected blade thrust. The first thing to be put on by an already clothed soldier, the girdle would then be his last line of defense. It would be the last item of protection before an edge, or a point wounded the soldier’s loins. But what are a soldier’s loins?

The loins are that part of the body between the hip bones and the ribs. So, the loins are a rather narrow region on the sides and a rather broad region in front. Loins are the soft parts of a soldier’s body, that are especially vulnerable, where a wound will make it very hard to continue for long in the fight. If you’re hurt here, you may not go down immediately, but you will go down eventually.

So, what is the Christian’s first armor to put on and our last line of defense for the vulnerable parts? What is it that the Christian soldier is supposed to gird ourselves about with? Truth. Please note that truth here does not mean the Word of God, since that is specifically referred to in verse 17. Neither does it refer to the Gospel, which is mentioned in verse 15. In this context, I am persuaded truth refers to the character trait of truthfulness.

The Christian soldier must, first and foremost, first, last, and always, be someone who traffics only in truth-telling. If you stop telling the truth, always the truth, and only the truth, you will go down quickly, Christian. Imagine how our unseen enemies will use even the slightest and the smallest deviations from truth to discredit the child of God. You may call it exaggeration. Others may call it stretching the truth. Young people refer to it as hypocrisy. But God calls it lying.

If you plan on standing, soldier, you must traffic in truth. The truth and your personal commitment to truthfulness is your last line of defense in the Christian warfare. Perhaps you can ward off most attacks with your shield of faith. Maybe you can thrust and parry much of the time with your sword. But some of the enemy’s thrusts inevitably get through. Sometimes the opponent’s knife edge will cut across your most vulnerable parts. Your own truthfulness had better be there to protect you when that knife edge comes. Oh, Christian, decide now to traffic only in truth. Not the slightest exaggeration. Only the truth.

Most of those who in this world are referred to as Christians, in fact, embrace unbiblical theology. Most of those who are referred to as Christians are, in fact, a strange sort of animal called Arminian, or Charismatic, or Pentecostal. Perhaps some of them are believers in Christ. Only God knows for sure. They disagree with the Apostle Paul’s assertion that while unity is important, truth is more important. They believe unity is the most important thing of all. That’s why they recoil in the face of strong Bible preaching that threatens unity that is based upon error, and they favor soft and mild Bible expositions that threaten no one’s position and offend no one, not even the most vile sinners.

Your congregations are not of that variety. The members of your Churches are Calvinists. The pastors of your Churches are Reformed men. Yours are Reformed Baptist Churches. Your members are Bible Christians. Your pastors embrace the doctrines of grace. What sets you apart from many is your belief that God knows more than you do, that God is smarter than you are, and that God is wiser than you could ever hope to be. What sets you apart from so many is your commitment to historic Reformed and Baptist truths found in God’s Word.

So, when it comes to fighting the Christian fight, you take a different tack than many. Rather than trying to build unity at the expense of truth, as you must do when you try to gather different religious groups together for so-called worship and so-called evangelism who have nothing in common but their unbelief, you choose to stand on the truth. And should other like-minded folks happen along who cling to truth as you do, then unity will result. If not, you will fight alone. Not as individuals, mind you, for Roman soldiers were not equipped to fight alone. Barbarians fought as individuals, which was why they always lost in battle, until they adopted Roman tactics and Romans adopted barbarian tactics.

Barbarians, even in the middle of a battle, fought as individuals, just like many modern day professing Christians like to go it alone, with no loyalty to their Church congregations. When one is alone on the battlefield, you have already lost the battle. Romans “were grouped together in a solid phalanx, elbow to elbow, shield to shield. To the enemy they appeared as a wall of iron, bristling with javelins.” No wonder their success.

In like manner, Christians are not equipped to fight alone. And, like the Roman soldiers who were virtually unbeatable in the Roman phalanx, the Christian soldier properly operates within the context of his spiritual fighting unit, the local Church. There, elbow to elbow with fellow Church members, with our shields of faith held up as an impenetrable wall to our adversaries, we prevail by means of praying and preaching.

Because you agree with the Lord Jesus Christ that it’s the truth that makes men free, you purpose not to fear the truth, you are not upset by the truth, you do not recoil from the truth, as so many others do. Accused of being harsh and unloving for refusing to compromise on the truth, you will take your stand on the Lord’s side on this issue. You will speak the truth in love. But you will speak the truth.

In this message you will find much that will irritate many, much that will raise the ire of others, much that will cause the idolaters and the Muslims to chaff. So be it. Flawed though we all are, what I speak and what you stand on is the truth. Let those who are not afraid of the truth listen carefully.

Four things of importance that we must tell the lost: 

First, LET US TAKE NOTE OF THE DESIRE OF GOD 

They can argue about the things they think are important all the day long. They can fill the air with their opinions and reflections, their surmisings and sentences, but in the end, all that matters is what God wants. They can justify and genuflect, they can posture and persuade, they can associate with all the religious types or they can isolate themselves from what they think are evil religious influences, but in the end all that matters is what God wants.

Some people excuse and some people explain, others reason while some ridicule, but all that matters is what God wants. What does God want, my friend? Do the lost pretend to know? What does God want, my friend? Do they have any idea? Does their system of beliefs, their religion, tell them what God wants?

I have never had an original thought. I have never had a new idea never thought of before. I have no claim to originality or superior intelligence, but I know the desire of God. I know what God wants. I know what He wants for me and I know what he wants for you, because I read the Bible. And so do you. 

Psalm 51.6: 

“Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts.” 

What God desires from you and for them, in their inward parts, is truth! That is the desire, the demand, of Almighty God. 

Second, LET US TAKE NOTE OF THE DESCRIPTION OF MAN 

We know what God wants. Think, as I read these passages, about the disparity that exists between what God wants from us and for them and what exists.

In the heart, God wants truth. But what does God’s Word tell us exists? Jeremiah 17.9 reads, 

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” 

God wants truth in the heart of man, and instead, He finds deceit and wickedness. Instead, He finds lies. He wants truth in their hearts but finds instead lies. They are lost, they are evil and wicked and mean and nasty in their hearts. But they deceive themselves and others into thinking they are so much better than they really are.

In the mind, God wants truth. But what does God’s Word tell us exists? Romans 1.28 reads, 

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” 

If they are lost, this verse describes them. What, particularly, did unsaved people do to merit being turned by God over to a reprobate mind? Looking back to Romans 1.25: 

“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” 

Don’t tell me they don’t cater to themselves more than they bend to the wishes of God for their lives. And why do they do that? Because there is no truth about God in their mind.

In the body. What can be said about the body? Obviously, truth is a concept, an abstraction, and not a physical commodity that can be possessed in a physical body. But this we can say about their bodies: They are corrupt according to First Corinthians 15.50 and personal observation, and it will die. Someday his body will die. Someday her body will die. What will they do then? For Hebrews 9.27 declares, 

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” 

In the soul, God wants truth. But what does Scripture tell us about the soul of a person? Ezekiel 18.4 declares that, 

“The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die.” 

Do they see? It is because the soul is sinful that the body dies. And when the body dies, judgment follows. What a terrible description of them is found in the Bible. 

THE DESIRE OF GOD IS TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS. THE DESCRIPTION OF MAN IS ANYTHING BUT TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS. Thirdly, THE DISOBEDIENCE OF MAN THAT IS PRODUCED BY MAN’S INWARD PARTS 

What can be said about the disobedience of humanity? Let me point out that all disobedience in humanity is disobedience of God, and disobedience, by definition, is transgression, is sin. Three areas in which sinful people are disobedient toward God:

First, they show their disobedience of God toward God. Consider just these examples. What man or woman loves God with all their heart, mind, body, and soul? None. What one hasn’t rebelled against God by failing to attend Church as they ought to and as He has commanded? None. So, it is established that they disobey God by their actions toward God.

Next, they show their disobedience of God toward their family.

So, it is established that they disobey God by their actions toward their family, those who of all other people they ought to love the most.

And, finally, they show their disobedience of God toward their fellow man. Tell me now that they have never lied, never cheated anyone, never stolen anything, never hated in their heart (which is murder according to God). Then I tell you, based upon God’s holy Word, that they showed their disobedience to God when they so sinned. For such disobedience, they stand condemned in the sight of God. Condemned to Hell forever, according to the Bible. 

Finally, THE DELIVERANCE OF MAN 

Because they do not traffic in truth, most professing Christian congregations see very few people genuinely saved, even when their congregations grow in size. Many will attend their religious meetings, but few if any be saved. Why? Because they are so opposed to speaking the truth and preaching the truth about the description of human beings and the disobedience of human beings that few will realize their truly lost condition and truly desire to be truly saved.

But if one believes the Bible, and if one is committed to obeying God, and if one is more concerned about seeing that God’s desire for truth in the inward parts to be fulfilled than for man’s desire for the appearance of unity on the outward parts be fulfilled, then perhaps they will sit under Gospel preaching long enough to be saved.

Allow me to conclude this message by giving you a simple outline of what happens when someone really does come to be saved. It begins with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God, Whose ministry involves exalting Christ and convicting of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come, works in the life of the Christian who witnesses and the pastor who preaches. The Christian witness and a pastor are believers who want to be used by God to see people saved. The Spirit of God leads and somehow guides these evangelists, who have studied and have as their companion the holy Scriptures, which are able to make people wise unto salvation, to make contact with the sinner. When Christian witnesses make contact with sinners, they use Scripture to show sinners that they are sinners. Of course, all of this is superintended by the Holy Spirit, Who creates in sinners an inner conviction about the truthfulness of what the believer is testifying, of what the Scriptures say, and they will come to see their need of a Savior. Since there is only one Savior, should that sinner be saved, he will be saved only by coming to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by faith and trusting Him. Those who trust the Lord Jesus are delivered from bondage to sin by Him and are saved.

 

Perhaps there is someone here today, and you realize that you are devoid of truth in your inward parts. You recognize that you are a sinner in the sight of God and that you need to be saved.

I am here to tell you that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the living God, Who died on Calvary’s cross and was raised from the dead, saves. What must you do to be saved? That is precisely what the Philippian jailor asked Paul and Silas. “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

 

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