Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Ephesians 6:14 | Date: March 13, 2016 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Ephesians Chapter 6

Chapter 6, we will continue our series through Ephesians, now in the section on the armor of God. I’ll begin reading again with verse 10, Ephesians chapter 6.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. And in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, 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 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.”

This morning we will focus on verse 14, the first part of the verse: “Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth.” Let’s bow together for prayer.

Our Father, we are grateful that you have given us your word to instruct us, to equip us for life. We ask that at this time, this morning together, you would give us ears to hear it, give us hearts that are receptive. We pray that you would shape us by your word, build us up in it for your glory. By your Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We come to Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 and following. As you know now, as we’ve tried to remind ourselves the last several weeks, we come to Paul’s dealing with this extended metaphor regarding the armor of God, regarding the enemy that is against us, and regarding the warfare that we enter when we become Christians. And the point—well, part of the point here in those introductory verses, verses 10, 11, 12, and 13 that we’ve looked at already—is to demonstrate for us and to make it very plain that the Christian life is a life that involves struggle. It’s a life that demands attention. It’s a life that cannot be approached naively or mindlessly, or to put it in more theological terms, our growth in godliness will not happen passively. It will not happen mindlessly.

Paul also uses in other places, as you know, the athletic metaphor, all of this to stress that there must be an engagement with our minds, with our hearts, to get involved in this thing, to see our way through it successfully and live to the glory of God. The Christian life cannot be a mindless kind of life. There is no sanctification, as I’ve said, by “zaps,” and there is no growth in godliness by mere passivity, waiting for God to do something, but it demands of us that we engage the enemy and fortify our minds to be ready for the conflict.

And so given the remaining sin that is in all of us, given our creaturely weaknesses, given the power and the strength and the wisdom of our enemy, and given that he is so ready to exploit every situation to his own advantage and to our spiritual harm—whether it is through things like suffering, or bereavement, or doubt, or temptation to sin, through disappointment, through all of these kinds of things—he can rob us of our joy. He can rob us of our usefulness for Christ. And so we must be alert. We must engage this enemy thoughtfully and intentionally, and not with a naive kind of approach that thinks, “Well, whatever will happen will happen.”

And so this passage, first of all, as we’ve seen, is a needed reality check, a sober reminder that our pilgrim’s progress, if we can use Bunyan’s terms, is marked by difficulty and it’s marked by struggle. And we must take sober assessment of the reality and of our weaknesses, and then of the provisions that God has given. Well, that’s verses 10 through 13, which we have seen.

The Armor Of God

But when we look at this passage in its whole, we will misunderstand if we think of all of this merely in terms of caution and warning. The warfare, the enemy—all of that is the backdrop to what Paul is getting at, and the point of this passage is not to warn us merely and to caution us about the enemy. The point of the passage is to tell us about the armor of God. That is to tell us of the provisions of grace for living for Christ successfully and effectively.

Background to this, as I’ve mentioned, is in Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah chapter 49, and Isaiah chapter 59, where that language of the armor of God is used there. And there it’s used in reference to the armor that God himself uses and the weapons that he uses in battle. And Paul now takes that to apply to us—that we have access to divine strength and to divine armor and to divine weapons, as it were. And so he says in verse 10, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power, the strength of his might,” and that is explained for us in verse 11, “Put on the whole armor of God,” that is, use these weapons that God himself has.

Then he extends the metaphor now beginning in verse 14, where he takes up each piece of the armor and gives some spiritual significance of each. So we have, in order, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, we have the shoes of the gospel of peace, we have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and then finally prayer itself, which I think needs to be included in this part of the consideration of this armory.

And so these are divine provisions so that whatever is in view now in the “evil day” that he speaks of—whether it’s temptation, persecution, doubt, suffering of whatever kind—the outlook, he tells us, is not bleak. We do not need simply to resign ourselves to defeat, nor is he simply counseling us to flex our muscles. He’s telling us that there is provision in Christ to participate in the victory that he has won, and availing ourselves then of this armor that has been provided, we can live successfully. So yes, there is a struggle, and you must engage the enemy, but the whole of the Christian life is marked by grace, including this, and that is what God demands of us. He enables us to do and provides for us.

Well, that in general, then, is what we’re looking at through the whole passage. Now let’s get into some matters of interpretation. How do we understand, then, these metaphors—the belt of truth, and so on? These various pieces of armor, of course, are God’s provision for success in Christian living. But the question now, then, is: what do they signify? And in particular, what is this belt of truth?

The Belt Of Truth

Basic to the battle gear of the Roman soldiers was a strong, wide leather strap, a belt, that would be put around the waist, and it served a couple of basic purposes. The first purpose was it gathered together the loose clothing. You don’t want to be in battle and be caught up in loose clothing. So the first thing it would do is bind up the clothing, and you would even tuck in their tunic or whatever; the loose flowing clothing would be tucked into the belt so that you’re agile and prepared and ready for battle. Another purpose served by this belt was that it would be sort of an anchor point for the other weapons. So for example, you don’t want to attach your sword and scabbard to loose flowing clothing. You want something solid to anchor it to. So the belt served for that kind of thing.

So just putting on the belt in this Roman battle gear served the basic purpose of bracing up the soldier, preparing him for action, and general kind of readiness. Everything well arranged in its place, he’s now equipped, ready to perform his best in battle. And that’s Paul’s first picture of the Christian in his spiritual struggle. First of all, put on the belt of truth.

Now popularly, in popular preaching often, this is interpreted—in fact, several of these pieces of armor are interpreted—with reference to the Christian himself. That is, they would understand then this belt to be the belt of truth, that is, our truthfulness. In order to engage the enemy, you must be truthful, you must be faithful, be one who’s marked by truth. Well, I think there are several problems with that. I don’t think that’s what this passage is talking about. For whatever there is right about that approach—that we must be truthful and so on and faithful—I don’t think that’s what Paul is getting at in this metaphor here, “girding your loins with truth.” I don’t think he means to brace ourselves up with our own truthfulness.

And there are several reasons for that. Let me mention a few, because they will apply to the following pieces of armor that we look at as well. One, it’s impossible to understand some of these pieces of armor with regard to anything about us. For example, we might take truth as something, an attribute of ours. We might even take righteousness as an attribute of ours in some ways. We ought to be marked by righteousness. We might also be marked by faith. All those are plausible, but it’s obviously not the sense with the helmet of salvation, and so on, and the sword of the Spirit.

More importantly, I think—and this is just basically—the need that we have against this adversary, what we need is something much stronger than our own virtues. And in fact, that brings me to another criticism of that understanding of these. It’s not talking about our truthfulness, but God’s truthfulness. And that is, our own virtues, like truthfulness and so on, are precisely what we are fighting for in this struggle. It’s not what we’re fighting with. It’s what we’re fighting to maintain: our own faithfulness and truthfulness and so on.

And so when Paul says in verse 10, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might,” and then explains that in terms of these pieces of armor that are provided, I think it’s best to understand these in terms of divine provisions. So going through them again: the belt of truth is divinely revealed truth, Scripture. The breastplate of righteousness—that is Christ’s righteousness, justification. The gospel of peace—that is the gospel of Christ, which brings peace. Objectively, peace with God; subjectively, that peace realized in our own heart. The shield of faith—or if I could press the translation to make the point, “the shield of the faith.” That is, again, this body of revealed truth, the gospel. The helmet of salvation—that is, an understanding of the redemptive work of Christ, which guards our mind.

I think that’s what Paul is getting at. And so here, with the belt of truth, when he exhorts us, first of all, with regard to the armor, “gird your loins with truth,” I think he’s speaking here of the truth of God revealed to us in the Scriptures.

Now, what does that mean then to use that belt of truth? Well, sometimes, of course, Paul speaks broadly and generally with this word “truth.” It’s used in the sense of general truthfulness. Like, for example, when he says, “I’m telling you the truth, I’m not lying,” he’s speaking of truth in a broad sense. But overwhelmingly in Paul, when he uses the word “truth” or “the truth,” either one, overwhelmingly the connotations are of biblical truth, that is, revealed truth, or the gospel itself.

And let me give you just a run of some examples of this, just to press the point so we understand what he’s saying. For example, in Romans 2:8, Paul speaks of those who are unsaved as those who “do not obey the truth.” 2 Corinthians 4:2, Paul’s ministry is characterized by an “open statement of the truth.” In our own Ephesians here, in Ephesians 1:13, he describes the gospel as “the word of truth.” Colossians chapter 1, verse 5 again: “the word of truth, the gospel.”

And then there’s a cluster of them in 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians 2:10, he speaks of the unbelieving as those who “refuse to love the truth.” 2 Thessalonians 2:12, those who are unbelieving are those who “did not believe the truth.” That is, they did not believe the gospel. In verse 13 of 2 Thessalonians 2, we are saved by “sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4, salvation is “coming to a knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15, the church is described as “the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 4:3, Christians are those who “believe and know the truth.” 2 Timothy 2:18, apostates are those who “swerve away from the truth.” 2 Timothy 3:8, the enemies of Christ are described as men who “oppose the truth.”

So certainly, in all of these expressions that Paul gives, there are connotations of the truthfulness of what has been revealed, and in fact, the biblical writers insist on that. But it has come to connote something specific, and that is this body of revealed truth that has been given to us in Christ. In short, it simply means, for us, Scripture. So it stresses the truthfulness of what has been revealed, but the connotations are that of a body of truth that has been given to us. It’s similar then to the expression, “the faith.” For example, in Jude, when he says we must “earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” It’s this body of truth. It’s the idea that Paul speaks of tradition—that is, which has been handed down to us from Christ through the Holy Spirit through the apostles to us—been handed down this tradition, the faith, the truth that has been given to us.

Well, that’s belaboring the point, but I wanted to stress that this, I think, is what Paul has in mind here when he says that we should gird our loins with truth. And it speaks then of our readiness. Our preparedness comes, first of all, through a mind that is bound up with and braced by revealed truth. What is of first importance for you in the “evil day”—again, whatever that evil day is: satanic opposition, temptation, suffering, doubt—what is of first importance for you in that evil day is to have a mind that is fortified with revealed truth. When the truth of Scripture is understood and appreciated and believed, it serves to provide strength and firmness and readiness and steadiness in the evil day.

Paul’s first point then is just very, very basic. It’s one of those elementary truths that you learn coming into the faith in the first place. Ignorance of biblical truth will leave us vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. Or to say the same thing more positively: equipped with biblical truth, we are rendered ready for any circumstance.

Putting The Truth To Use

Now, what kind of use then do we make with this truth that has been given to us? What does it mean to put on the belt of truth, to gird up our loins with truth, or to brace our mind with revealed truth? Well, I think sometimes—I don’t think this is the majority of what Paul has in mind here, but sometimes—this is very important, this might mean putting truth to use against falsehood. That is, putting the truth to use against error, against false teaching. And so we put up the Word of God to clarify, to correct, even to refute. In fact, Paul talks about that in the pastoral epistles extensively, that one of the responsibilities of the man of God, he says, is to take this truth that has been revealed and refute those who gainsay, and to stand faithful with the truth against all that falsely calls itself knowledge.

And this is a very important aspect of using the truth. There’s something wonderfully stabilizing about knowing that what we believe, what we have embraced in the gospel, what we’ve embraced in the Scriptures, is true. It is objectively true and demonstrably true. The uniqueness of the Christian faith is that it is grounded in divine revelation. The way we like to say it is, “What Scripture says, God says.” The biblical writers say that many times over. What Scripture says, God says. And the uniqueness of the Christian faith is that our faith is grounded not in our pursuit upward of God. Our faith is grounded in God making himself known to us. And given that it is God coming to us, God speaking, revealed truth, we can be sure of its truthfulness throughout. And every contradiction that rises against it, we can be sure ahead of time, they are not going to successfully, in the end, they are not going to successfully refute or contradict God. This is part of the pleasure that many of us have in learning from learned apologists, those who have studied to deal with false teachers in particular. And not everyone gives themselves to that, of course, as a profession, but we all tend to enjoy watching once again the Scriptures to be shown one more time: yes, what God has said is true.

But I think more often than not, the application of this—putting this belt of truth on—has to do with putting truth to use in a more personal kind of way. Putting the truth of Scripture to use for our own personal godliness, for our own faithfulness, for our own perseverance, for our growth and continuance in Christ. One of the favorite verses in this regard, of course, is John chapter 17 and verse 17, where Jesus prays to the Father, “Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.” From the beginning of our Christian life and onwards through the Christian life, it is truth that sets us apart to God in service to him.

Now let me give you just a quick feel for how this works in experience. Keep your hand here. We’ll be back. But look at Psalm 119. Psalm 119. As you know, this is a psalm about the Bible. And it’s just a marvelous psalm. It’s, of course, the longest psalm in the book. It’s the longest, if you want to call it, chapter in the whole Bible. And it is all about the Word.

And it’s a fascinating study to read through this carefully and see how the psalmist puts the Bible, puts revealed truth to use for his own godliness, or to see the expressions of the value of Scripture, revealed truth, to his own personal godliness. Let’s just take some samples of it. Psalm 119, verse 9: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” The sanctifying influence of Scripture. He says the same in verse 11: “I’ve stored up your word in my heart,” why? “So that I might not sin against you.” That is the sanctifying value of Scripture.

Let’s jump down to verse 50. You’ll notice, by the way, in Psalm 119, a lot of his references to the value of Scripture are referred to times of suffering. And here we have one: “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.” You ever found that to be true? When I was a kid in Sunday school, we learned a song. I’m pretty sure many of you will know it: “I’m in-right, out-right, up-right, down-right, happy all the time.” Remember that? “In-right, out-right, up-right, down-right, happy all the time since Jesus Christ came in and cleansed my heart from sin. I’m in-right, out-right, up-right, down-right, happy all the time.” And it wasn’t until I was much older that I learned that was a lie. Not happy all the time. And there are circumstances in which I need comfort. Where do you find it? And the psalmist says here, “This is my comfort in my affliction. Your promises give me life.”

Verse 52: “When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort.” Verse 54: “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning.” Verse 92: “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” Notice, here’s the source of joy. A heart and a mind that delights in revealed truth is what preserves him in affliction. Verse 93: “I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.”

Verses 98 and following: “Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.” I love that notion there of the stability of mind that comes from knowing revealed truth. Verse 99: “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.” I remember as a young boy in grade school hearing some things in school that were just “off.” And I had been taught this verse, and I thought it was so delightful to be able to sit there and say, “I have more understanding than my teacher.” Verse 100: “I understand more than the aged.” That’s a verse I enjoyed more when I was young. “I have understanding more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.”

Verse 114: “You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word.” Let’s go back to 104: “Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.” Now that’s a fascinatingly important verse. He speaks here not only of comfort or assurance or something like that, but here he’s speaking of the discernment that is developed from knowing Scripture. “Because I understand your precepts,” it’s developed not just a faithful walk, but a hatred for false ways.

Verse 105: “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Again, the idea of discernment and walking carefully through the difficulties of this world. Verse 130: “The unfolding of your words gives light. It imparts understanding to the simple.” There’s hope for all of us. The Bible makes simple people wise. Verse 143: “Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight.” Your testimonies are righteous forever. “Give me understanding that I may live.”

Verse 165: “Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” Again, the stability that comes from being acquainted with Scriptures. All through these, it speaks from experience. This is not just a theoretical, “I believe what the Bible says.” But here’s a mind and a heart that’s acquainted with what God has revealed. And through it all he has found strength, and because of it he has endured, and he has been encouraged when he needed encouragement. Because of it all he has grown, he has progressed, he has persevered, he has been kept safe.

The Advantage Of The Christian

Well, I think this is what Paul has in mind when he tells us to put on this belt of truth. And this, of course, is the distinct advantage of the Christian. This is one advantage that sets us apart from the world. Through the years, of course, in ministry, on occasion, people from the outside will contact the preacher for help. Marriage falling apart, home troubles, problem child, difficulties of various kinds. And of course they come, and it’s a last resort. Maybe the preacher can help. And I say this without a word of criticism. Without a word of criticism. I say it with just full sympathy.

I’ve often felt frustrated in those situations in facing their just inability. I’ll try to talk in biblical categories, and they look at me with a glazed look. It usually doesn’t last more than one session. They just don’t have the categories. They don’t have the mind for Scripture. And without these biblical categories worked up in their minds, they’re just incapable of handling the problem and dealing with it in a way that will be effective. And of course what you’re asking them to do is put on the belt of truth. And it’s something they’re just not acquainted with. And again, I say it without any criticism. I say it with sympathy. It’s just the nature of the case. It’s the sad reality. It’s what we saw in Ephesians chapter 2: they walk according to the course of this world and the dominance of Satan and so on.

And this is why the world is continually investing in new kinds of solutions, new fad therapies, new group therapies, and so on. And some of them are fine as far as they go—usually not, but they’re fine as far as they go. But they’re unable to deal with root-level issues. And so they keep looking for more fad therapies and more kinds of psychological techniques to deal with emotional problems or whatever, and it seems that no one ever stops to notice: with the rise and the multiplication of new therapies and techniques to deal with these things, there’s the rise of the need for them. Somehow all of this rise of the new therapies and new techniques only gives testimony to their inability to deal with things at a root level.

Well, all of that is what we expect from the world without a mind girded up with truth. What is particularly frustrating—and I suppose there is a note of criticism in this—what is particularly distressing is when Christians are taken in by it and they attempt to fight spiritual battles with carnal weapons of the world. And they jump on the bandwagon for each new fad therapy as though we did not already have all that is necessary to enable us to live successfully before God.

This is not a problem for the lost only. This is a problem for what we might call our lazy minds and our lazy hearts. We ignore the provision that was given to us in Scripture. We don’t give our minds to understanding and shoring up our understanding with Scripture. And at times, Christians can seem as lost and as hopeless as the world.

And if I could push it just a little more deeply, it’s an observation that comes that I read first of all in Martyn Lloyd-Jones many years ago, where he was deploring this sentimental character of modern Christianity. He called it at one point “devotional Christianity,” and here’s where it might make some a little bit nervous. The whole approach to Christian life today, broadly speaking in the evangelical world—the whole approach to Christian life, if it’s taken seriously at all—is understood in a touchy-feely kind of way.

And so one illustration that Lloyd-Jones gave is the book that was entitled Quiet Talks on Power. And he mocked it. Quiet talks. Can you imagine that? Quiet talks. He says, “Quiet talks on power? Can you have such a thing?” But his point was to analyze this devotional approach to Christianity. And he said, “I wonder sometimes if anything has ever been done more to harm the doctrine of sanctification than this flabby, sentimental, devotional approach that’s so widely assumed to be the road to victory.” And so we go to our Bible and we get our daily “warm fuzzy.” We get our daily dose of “feel good.” We read through the chapter and all that jumps out and makes me feel good, and that’s the extent of our acquaintance with the Word. And for whatever that is, I’m glad they’ve done that. There is value in that. But his point is we need to probe more deeply and we need to build up our minds with Scripture; it requires real attention and thought and study. He’s not suggesting that everyone needs to go to seminary, but he is suggesting that each of us needs regularly to be in the Word in a thoughtful way, meditatively, and strengthening our minds with truth.

And the implication, again, is so basic and so obvious, and that is: we must study, we must learn, we must meditate. To put it in the words of the psalmist, we meditate on the Word day and night. There’s nothing then that is so stabilizing as biblical truth. And this simply is what the Apostle Paul is after here.

When it comes, for example, my turn to suffer, I want ahead of time for my mind and my heart already to be built up with an understanding of God’s sovereignty—in all the ways that it’s displayed in the Scriptures—but not just his naked sovereignty. I want my mind to be built up with an understanding of God’s goodness, God’s wisdom, God’s righteousness, God’s justice. I want all of that in place before suffering comes.

If it comes time for bereavement, I want to know ahead of time of God’s justice, of God’s compassion, of God’s wisdom—that the judge of the earth will do what is right. And I want to know all the ways that that’s displayed in Scripture. If it comes time for doubts because of sin, I want to know ahead of time all about the biblical teaching that my acceptance before God is grounded in the righteousness of someone else. I want to know of Christ’s righteousness. I want to know of divine acceptance through him. If it comes time where I’m maligned and criticized falsely, I want to know all about what it means to entrust myself to him who judges righteously. And if the criticisms are well-founded, I want to know all about God’s compassion and his acceptance.

And what I don’t want in the evil day is to find myself needing that fortification late in the game. I want already to know, I want already to have seen the display in the Scriptures, how all of these truths about God and Christ are evidenced and put there for my use in the evil day. This is what Peter has in mind when he says in 1 Peter 1:13, “Therefore prepare your minds for action.” Prepare your minds for action.

And you don’t have to be in ministry long, you don’t have to experience being with other Christians long in any capacity to notice a range of responses to suffering. And again, I say this without any word of criticism whatsoever. With great sympathy for all sides, one of the things that suffering does is it makes you sympathetic with those who suffer on whatever level. But you can’t help but notice that there are, on the one hand and to the one extreme, and then everything in between—but on the one extreme you’ve got people who seem in suffering almost to fall completely apart. “Why is God doing this to me? I can’t understand why this has to happen to us. Here I’ve been praying, I’ve been having my devotions every day and my son’s leg is broken.” Heard that once.

On the other hand, you have people who endure the worst kinds of suffering and they seem to rise above it and thrive. And you have to say, what makes the difference? What makes the difference is a mind that’s bound up tightly with the truth of God. So that a suffering Christian can become what you’ve heard me say before: a real enigma to the world. They so don’t get it—how you can go through all of that and still be, if not happy all the time, joyful.

When my—I remember a good many years ago now when my dad’s mother passed away. He was at her bedside when she died. He was there at her deathbed. And she passed. My dad was a tender soul. He loved his mother. He stood there crying. And I guess when the nurse came in, tears were coming down his face. And she’s trying to be helpful with him and says, “Could I put you in touch with a support group that we have here?” He wipes his face and says, “I’m a Christian. I know God. I have his word that he’s given to me. Beyond that, I have my family, and I have my church. I have a support group. Thanks.”

And that, of course, points up the purpose of the church. It’s to build up the saints in the faith so they can gird their loins with truth, so that they’re ready in the evil day. A marvelous scene in Pilgrim’s Progress—if you haven’t read that, you need to. I’m tempted to say, how many of you have not read Pilgrim? I won’t do that. I’m tempted to say you can’t be a Christian without reading Pilgrim’s Progress. But as you know, it’s a great allegory, and much of it has to do with this struggle through the Christian life. And there’s much use of this armor and warfare imagery. And there’s a scene in Pilgrim’s Progress where Christian was fitted with his armor. And do you remember where it was? In the House of the Palace Beautiful—Bunyan’s allegory of the church.

This is the purpose of the church: to equip the saints with the armor that’s been provided. Help them put on the belt of truth so that they’re ready in the evil day. This is what Paul had to tell us, you might remember, back in Ephesians 4, verses 11 and following, where the church is presented as a training center for the members. And that’s why when you come to RBC, the emphasis is always preaching, teaching, preaching, teaching. Come together, we preach, we teach. Come together again, we preach, we teach, and we preach, and we teach. And what do you do at that church? Oh, we preach and we teach. That’s what we’re about: to take the word of God and bring it to the people of God to build us up in the most holy faith, or to use Paul’s metaphor here, to help us to strap on the belt of truth.

This is so unlike everything on the outside today. You hear it all the time: “If you’re confused, if you’re puzzled, if you don’t know what to do, if you don’t know what decision to make, if you don’t know what is right, look inside you. There it is. Look in your heart and you’ll know what is right. You’ll know what to do.” And our God gives us something so much better than that. “I’ll give you my word. Guide your life by that.”

So again, this is very basic, isn’t it? This is Christianity 101. Read your Bible. Study your Bible. Learn your Bible. Memorize your Bible. Meditate on the Scriptures. Attend when the Word of God is preached and when it is taught. Make it part of you. There is just no shortcut. You must get at it. Put on the belt of truth so that you will be ready to stand strong in the evil day, and braced up with revealed truth, you will find yourself competent to face any circumstance of life. Amen. Let’s pray.

Our Father, by your grace, you have called us to be yours. And in your grace, you have provided for everything you have called us to do and to be. We pray by your Spirit that you would give us increasing attention to your word; build us up by it. For your glory, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.