Girded with Truth - Pastor David Kanski

And we're going to begin, reading it first time. Finally, be strong in the Lord. And in the strength of his might put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against the powers against the world forces of this Darkness against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the Heavenly places, the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand for. Say, a prayer for having, girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Let's pray.

Heavenly father Jesus, spirit of God, as we come to your precious word this morning. We ask that you would Open the Eyes of our heart. The eyes of our understanding that, we might hear your voice that we might see the things that you have prepared for us today. Spirit of God, be our teacher. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. So several messages have been focused on this passage from God's word in Ephesians 6, which instructs us about the spiritual warfare. Every Christian faces, as redeemed members of a fallen, race living in a fallen world. This teaching begins in first 10. Where we are exhorted to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. We need to be constantly receiving strength. We are called to be strengthening ourselves always recognizing, but the strength we need is always in the Lord. It is in the presence of God that we are made strong. Psalm 105, verse 4. Exhorts us to seek the Lord and his strength seek his presence continually. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence. Continually. It is in the presence of the Lord that we are made strong. We also look at the second exhortation In this. Passage in verse 11 put on the full armor of God. We seen that this exhortation is really telling us that about our need to put on Jesus. There's a parallel passage in Romans 13:12 to put on the armor of light. And then to versus L A 14 to put on the Lord, Jesus Christ to put on the full armor of God to put on the armor of light, is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Since the strength we need is in the Lord. Therefore, we must be closed with Jesus everyday. Every day before we go out into the world. Before we begin, the struggle that we face each day. We must put on the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Like so many other passages in the New Testament, this exhortation to close ourselves with Jesus and to put on our armor. These expectations are meant to teach us our need to live in continual dependence on the Lord. We were never meant to live independently. To try to live independently is to be not truly alive.

In chapter 6 of John's gospel, the Lord Jesus use the metaphor of our daily food and drink to illustrate. This essential reality saying in verse 35, of John said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger. He who believes in me. Will never thirst.

Anna verse 53, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. You have no life in yourself. If we are not daily feeding on Jesus, we have no life.

Aurora Australis seen truth in John chapter 15 in that classic wonderful metaphor of the vine and the branches. I am the vine. You are the branches. Jesus to Claire's in verse 5 of John 15. Alien versus four and six, you must abide in me. You must remain in, you must stay connected to me. And if anyone does not abide in me, he will be like a dried-up branch.

Staying connected to Jesus is not an option. As though, we could choose a Christian Life with abiding or without it.

We should never make the mistake of thinking that abiding in Jesus. The remaining in him, the staying connected to Jesus is some higher level of Christianity. For those who are truly super spiritual. Like if you want the premium version of the Christian life, then choose the abiding in Jesus auction. No, there is no life apart from staying connected to Jesus.

If we're not holding onto the Vine. Then we are just dried up withered branches laying around on the ground.

We must make the continual intentional choice to stay connected to the vine everything. We need flows. From the Vine.

Show in harmony with with this fundamental truth of scripture. We now come to see that putting on the Lord. Jesus is what enables us and equips us for the daily battle. We find ourselves engaged in. In our Study. Last week. We saw another exhortation contained in this section of Ephesians chapter 6, which is repeated four times. 4 *. We are Exodia to stand firm.

Verses 11 and 13 put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. So that you will be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done everything to stand. Anna verse 14. Stand firm. Therefore. Here then is the goal of the battle. The ultimate purpose for putting on the armor that we will be able to stand firm. We're not called on to conquer. We're not the hold on to gain the victory or to take Dominion when I called on to March into the enemy's territory. You're simply called to stand firm to stand our ground because the ground in dispute, in this battle already Belongs to the Lord.

We're not called on to win the battle, which overcome in the Warfare because Jesus has already won. He has already overcome the world. And the father has put all things in subjection under his feet.

The Wharf are we wage with the world and the Flash. And the devil is only to maintain and to hold on to the victory which Christ has already gained. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might put on the full armor of God, put on the Lord, Jesus Christ, so that you can stand.

Verse 11 says our struggle is against the spiritual forces of wickedness. That word struggle in the Gris refers to a contest between two opponents in which each Endeavors to throw the other. That's the literal. Meaning. To throw the other. That's what the devil is trying to do to us. He's trying to throw us down. He can't overthrow Jesus. So he seeks to overthrow us. Those who belong to Jesus? So we are called to stand firm. Stand firm in the Lord, stand firm in the gospel, stand firm in your faith, stand firm in the grace of God.

Galatians 5:1, but claims it was for freedom. Let's pray. Set us free. Therefore cheap standing firm. Do not do not be subject again to the Yoke of slavery. In the King. James version, says stand in the Liberty. Wherewith Christ has made us free.

Adult version put it this way, your feet firmly, therefore, within the freedom that Christ has won for us.

Jesus already made you free. Free from sin, free from every bondage you don't have to fight for your Liberty. He just has to stand firm in the freedom. That Christ has already won for you.

We do not fight for victory. We fight from Christ victory.

We put on the full armor of God. We put on the Lord Jesus Christ, so we can stand firm.

Verses 14 through 17 continue this metaphor of the armor of God and it continues that metaphor by giving a specific instructions, for how we are to go about arming ourselves so that we can stand firm. I was going to begin looking at these instructions, this morning, but then we must keep in mind that each one of these instructions is given to provide deeper insight into what it means to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because remember, that's what this putting on the full armor of God is all about it is about putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. So the first instruction comes, In verse 14, the first-half of verse 14 stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth.

The first instruction for standing firm. The very first thing that we must do is to have our loins girded with truth. This is the foundation for all the rest. Most versions of the Bible, except the NES in the King James version, translate the passage to say something like this. Having fastened on the belt of Truth around your waist. So give the ESV or the NIV or the new living translations going to say something like that. But actually the Naas and the King James version have it right here. The most literal translation from the Greek is having girded your loins with truth.

Does this word means the word. We don't use. Generally speaking. In our everyday, language is another word for the waste and the hip region of the body. In Bible times people, wore loose flowing, robes. It was a necessary there for for them to chop up, the long skirts of their robes for greater greater freedom of movement in order to travel quickly, when there was work to be done or when it was a battle to be fought.

Search of gird up. Your loins means to tuck your loose, garments around your waist, whenever acted exertion is called for. In Exodus chapter 12 gives instructions to the people for eating the first Passover meal on that night. That they were delivered from the land of Egypt and impersonal of Exodus 12. The people now, you shall eat it in this manner, with your loins girded. Your standells on your feet and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. They were to have their loins girded. So that they could move quickly. When the time for departure from Egypt occurred. the same thing in Acts chapter 2, When Herod had Peter arrested and thrown into prison, and the angel of the Lord, an angel of the Lord appeared to Peter, in his cell, in the middle of the night and he won't feed her up. Shut them and said, get up quickly. Gird yourself. And put on your sandals, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. Quickly.

Gird yourself and follow me. John chapter 13 verses 4 and 5 that on the night of the Last Supper. Our Lord God up from supper late aside. His outer garments and taking up a Towhee girded himself. And then he poured water into the Basin, to begin to wash the disciples feet in to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. The Jesus girded himself to prepare for the labor of washing the feet of his disciples. According to the various Bible dictionary to gird up. The loins is also uses not just using scripture for this actual, physical act of talking up your loose garments. It's also used in scripture figuratively as a figure of speech meaning to stand in Readiness for action. To gird up the loins denotes preparation. For battle or four active exertion. So and Luke 12 verses 35 and 36 of Jesus. Admonishes. His disciples to let your loins be graded about and your lights burning. And be like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding that when he cometh and knock it, they may open unto him. Immediately blessed, are those servants whom the Lord, when he come at, finding finds them watching. This idea of their Voyage here is his Readiness, for the Lord's, return always be ready. Always be prepared. In 1st Peter 1:13 were absorbed as Believers to gird up the loins of our minds. Be sober and hope to the end for the grace, that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Again, this idea of Readiness prepared preparedness for the revelation of Jesus Christ, which is another way of talking about the second coming. Show me, Ephesians 6:14, instructs us to stand firm. Having girded your loins. It's telling us, first of all, that we need always to be prepared for the struggle. We need to be always standing in a state of readiness.

But the first goes further. And not only tells us that we must be girded. It also tells us what we are to be guarded with.

In other words, it's telling us what it is that will cause us to be always prepared. What it is that will cause us to be always standing in a state of Readiness for the battle that we must face.

The thing that will cause us to be always prepared and always in a state of Readiness for the battle is truth.

The battle we face is the battle to stand and it is truth. That gets us ready for that battle.

The word to truly understand this foundational instruction that verse 14 is giving us. The question that we have to answer is what fruit is a mint here. What is the truth with, which we are to be girded? Are there been many many different ideas among the various commentaries and Bible teachers about how to answer that question, but it is clear that the truth which is meant here must be of truth that will have the effect of preparing us. It must be a truth that will have the effect of making us ready. For the struggle that we must face. This battle to stand firm. and also, as we've already said, Each of these instructions in Ephesians chapter 6 is given to provide us insight into what it means to put on the Lord. Jesus Christ. So the answer to the question of what truth is meant. Here must be an answer that meets both criteria that satisfies both of these point.

I believe the Apostle. Paul tells us back in chapter 4. What truth he has in mind here in verse 14 of chapter 6. Take a look back in chapter 4.

In chapter 4 verse 7. Beginning and verse 17, Paul, right? So I say and a firm together with the Lord that you live no longer as the Gentiles also live, in the futility of your mind, being darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart. And they haven't become callous have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Bosses, I want you to no longer live that way that way you used to live. Xenoverse 20, you did not learn Christ in this way. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him just as the truth is in Jesus. Truth is in Jesus that in reference to your former manner of life. You lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the less of the sea and put on. And in that, you'd be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and Holiness of the truth.

What color is talking about In this passage is the manner in which we should live. And also how we are to view Our Lives. The Gentiles are darkened in their understanding of life. So they the manner in which they live causes them to be excluded from the life of God. But Paul says, you Christians did not learn Christ in this way. In Christ, you have been taught a different manner of Life, a different view of life. Just as the truth is in Jesus.

So the truth that Paul is talking about in Ephesians 6:14 this truth. With which we should be girded. The truth that will prepare us and make us ready for the battle is the truth about life. That was manifested in Jesus.

The truth about the meaning of Our Lives. The truth about the manor. In which life is to be lived?

That is the truth. Ephesians. 6:14 is referring to. This truth with which we are to be girded the truth about life, the truth as it is in Jesus. How did Jesus view his life? How did Jesus live his life? To be girded with that truth. Is one aspect of what it means to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. 7 weeks ago, I was reading a book by Christian philosopher named James K, Smith book entitled Desiring the kingdom and in his book Smith writes that each one of us carries within us a specific vision of the good life. An unspoken and often unconscious picture. Of what we think. Human flourishing looks like. A picture of what we think it looks like for us to live. Well. Of what constitutes a fulfilled life, what makes life really worth living?

And that vision of the good life, captures our heart. And it governs and shapes and motivates our decisions and actions.

But what is that vision is not true? Is the vision that we carry inside ourselves this vision? Of the good life. This vision of a fulfilling life, a life worth living is not true. And for most of us, I fear. It is not.

I never read those words by Smith. And pondered, where can we, as Christians find? A true vision. About filth life about life, worth living in the world. Is only too happy. To offer us any number of pictures of the good life. Pictures that we as Christians far too often into this is one of the devil's primary methods primary schemes for overthrowing us. And then it suddenly occurred to me for us as Christians, our vision and picture of the good life comes from looking at Jesus.

As we return to the four gospels Matthew Mark, Luke and John were given a clear and beautiful vision. Of the truth about life.

Clear and beautiful picture of the fulfilling, life of the life worth living. The truth as it is in Jesus. In Jesus, we have that vision. Jesus is the way. The truth. And the life. To know the way. We must look at him. To know the truth. We must look at him to know the life. We must look at him and his life. Jesus is not merely. I speak the truth. He says, I am the truth. He is the truth in person. He is the very embodiment. A truth about life. He is the true, man. The revelation of the perfect person Hood. The one in whom we see what human life truly is.

For Jesus, happiness and fulfillment. Were rooted in his relationship with the father. George MacDonald, who wrote The Life of Christ. Is this negatively that he does nothing for nothing for his own sake? Positively that he cares with his whole soul for the will and the pleasure of his father. Loving his father with his whole being giving himself with perfect will to the father. McDonald's says, we can live in no other way, but that in which Jesus lived, that's the perfect image of what life, what human life was. Truly meant to be. For Jesus, the purpose of life was to know the father. And knowing him to love him. And loving him to, please him.

Isaiah 52:7 proclaims. How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him, who brings? Good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness. Who announces salvation and sisters? I am your God?

Who brings good news of Happiness? God wants us to be happy.

Isaiah 52:7 refers to the gospel as good news of happiness.

God wants us to be happy. But if we make our personal Venus the focus and purpose of Our Lives. We will be overthrown by the enemy happiness is the fruit, the byproduct of living to know God as living for the will of God. That is the truth that we see in Jesus. This is the purpose of his life and his to be the purpose of Our Lives as well. It's on 73, verse 28, the psalmist declares. Ask for me. God's presence is my good. That word good there in the Hebrew is the same word. Let's translated as happiness is my happiness.

Why did Jesus save me? Why did Jesus die for me? Why am I safe? John? Jesus says in John 17:3. This is eternal life. This is the life. I came to give you. That you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. He saved me. To give me a true life and that life is knowing god. And knowing the son of God.

Those who are excluded from the life of God will never find fulfillment because Supreme happiness. Cannot be found it anything other than in a relationship with God.

Larry crab roll, the world is too bad, a place and far too uncertain to build a home and to count on enjoying it. But this world is the perfect place. For us to find God.

To know, God. To love him and to, please him. As we prepare each day to go out into the world, into the struggle and into the battle. Let us gird ourselves. With this truth about the meaning and purpose of life, the truth about life that we see in Jesus. Amen.

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