20260325 Ephesians 6 Belt of Truth Wednesday Bible Study Tim Dickmann

So if he's in six And let's just read these first

few verses here beginning in 10 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 Therefore take up the full

armor of God so that you will be able to resist

in the evil day And having done everything to

stand firm stand firm therefore having girded

your loins with truth And having put on the breastplate

of righteousness and so on there So we've talked

here about being strong in the Lord we've talked

about The reason the need for it because of our

adversary because of all of the forces that seek

to harm us and to cause us to sin, to stray.

And so this evening then we're going to talk

about putting on the full armor of God. So in

verse 11, Paul says, put on the full armor of

God so that you'll be able to stand firm. And

then in verse 13, he says, therefore take up

the full armor of God so that you will be able

to resist in the evil day. This idea of standing

firm or resisting that's he mentions that in

a few things and so we'll deal with that But

that's that's an important issue there that Paul

seems to be stressing for us is the need to stand

and to resist But first here he says to put on

or to take up the full armor of God and so The

idea there of taking up is to take up in order

to use all right, so that's an important thing

We're not just to have this not just to have

this armor Sitting in the closet sitting there

on our our mannequin looking real nice and pretty,

you know a nice Set of whatever kind of armor

you want But it's to be used okay, so that's

important that we keep that in mind we see also

here that it's a command Paul doesn't say it's

a good idea to do this if you have time, but

it's a command, it's some clear instruction to

take up to put on this armor. And of course we

know, right, that the reason is we're in a warfare,

we're in a battle, and we know that our enemy

is fierce, our enemy is ferocious, and the armor

is for protection, right? It's for protection,

but it's also for what? All these things that...

paul is going to mention here it's for our protection

but it's also we could say defense and offensive

offense right there's both aspects here to this

armor so if you think of you know the breastplate

the breastplate of righteousness what's that

for that's so when you're hit there in the in

the chest you don't die the helmet of salvation

the helmet again that's what it's for but what's

that sword for that's to go on the offense right

to go against something to wield the sword in

a way to strike a blow against someone else or

something else right so both aspects there of

of this armor that it's used for it's used in

offense and it's used in defense now he says

to stand What comes to mind why does Paul say

stand? Why does he say resist what comes to our

minds when we hear this? Command to stand to

stand firm to resist Okay active posture in other

words Okay, we're not sitting Okay, we're ready

for something right we're ready to do something

So there's a lot of athletes here in the room,

I know. And so we often talk about having an

athletic stance, right? Why? Because you want

to be ready for something. You want to be ready

to do something. Talk about getting in position,

right? It's the same idea, that's what Paul's

saying. He's saying stand, in other words, be

ready. Be ready to do something. Whatever that

might be. Be ready. So again, what can we say

the opposite of that is I think it's always helpful

to think of okay being ready But what's not being

ready? What does that look like? Completely caught

off guard and you're not in position. You don't

even know what's going on. That kind of stuff.

Right. So that's the opposite, right? That's

what we don't want to be. We don't want to be

those who are surprised at the attack of the

devil or some temptation or whatever it might

be. We don't want to be caught off guard. We

don't want to be sitting down. Again, now if

you think of this in warfare, right? That's what

we're dealing with here. Paul's talking about

a warfare. He's talking about soldiers and their

armor. In a war, it doesn't do you any good to

just be sitting there and not paying attention.

By the time the enemy comes, what happens? You're

dead. It's over, right? There's no real battle

there. You've failed. And so that's what Paul

is trying to get across to us. That's one thing

here that we need to remember. It is imperative

that we are ready and that we're always ready,

okay? I forget who was that said this, but the

Christian warfare here, this battle, it's not

as though we put this armor on, we get it, we

get it, we put it on, and then at some point

during the day, or at night, we're gonna set

it aside and then we're gonna pick it back up

the next morning. That's not the idea here. The

idea is that we're always having, we're always

prepared, we're always ready. When does Satan

attack? When does he strike? I wrote down a few

things here, if I can find them in my notes.

At home, at work, at the store. How about during

the meeting? Here we are sitting at the meeting.

Are there any? Is this the time to let our guard

down? Is this the time when we don't need the

Army? Or are we vulnerable here as well? Right?

We often think this is a safe place, but are

we complacent while we're here? Is our mind wandering?

Are we thinking about things that we shouldn't

be thinking about? While we should be thinking

about what's being preached or what's being sung

or the testimony or the prayers of the saints,

right? I mean, there's something easily, right,

during the time of prayer. How easy is it to

just drift? Let your mind go. And before long,

you're thinking about who knows what. Certainly

nothing to do with the Lord or the prayers of

the saints. What have you done? You've let your

guard down. And the enemy has taken full advantage

of that opportunity. So, there's no safe place.

There's no safe place where we can say, ah, now

I can just set the armor aside. Now I'm free.

Now I'm here, but no it's it's a continual always

ready Driving watching TV sitting on your phone

resting now some of these things are fine. These

are good things to do, right? There's nothing

wrong with sitting at home resting Get home from

work. You're gonna rest. It's night. You've done

whatever and you're gonna rest Maybe you're gonna

watch some TV. There's nothing wrong with those

things in and of themselves But do we let our

guard down at that time? Are we are we mindful

of what we watch? What we talk about while we're

sitting there resting all of those things Guarding

ourselves with this arm It's an always and always

an imperative that we have this armor So be ready

Be on the alert, right? We hear that. That's

another passage there. Be alert, be on guard,

be ready. All right. The other thing Paul says

here is put on the full armor or the whole armor,

depending upon your translation. Again, another

important thing to understand. As we go through

these... Six or if you if you want seven things

that Paul mentions Can you just put on six of

the seven or five of the seven is? That putting

on the is that is that sufficient? Is that sufficient

for us? No, that should be an obvious answer

right Paul doesn't say Put on the full armor

of God and what I mean by that is five out of

the seven things I'm going to mention. That's

silly. The full armor. So the idea there is without

one, you're vulnerable. Without one, you're subject

to die. Again, we think of a soldier and he goes

out to battle with no helmet on. He's pretty

vulnerable. He's looking to get hurt. He goes

out there with everything on but his shoes. Again,

that's a bad place to be. What happens when you

come across the thorns and the thistles, the

rough ground and all these other things? You're

vulnerable. So you cannot go with just part of

it. It's not sufficient to go with most of the

arm. You've got to go with all of it. You've

got to gird yourself with all of it. It's important.

What else is important there that Paul says put

on the full armor of God now I'll get back to

that in a minute, but He doesn't say to put on

the armor of God and some other things Okay,

so you can't not put on the full armor, but you

can't say I've got the armor and some other stuff

Okay, I forget who it was mentions how silly

it is to think that we're going to have armor

on top of armor. No, that's worthless, right?

You got two layers of armor, now you're just

bogged down. So, what do I mean by that? Well,

how about the wisdom of the world? Right? Here

we have the armor of the Lord, the armor of God,

we're armoring ourselves with that, but we're

also going to take just a little bit of this

wisdom of the world to war. This spiritual warfare

that we're engaged in you say what is that? There

are some really bad ones out there that all sorts

of religions take to themselves but We've mentioned

a few of them. How about just thinking of our

self -discipline and all those things that we

said we're good to have and Thinking that's we're

going to add that to our armor that because I'm

disciplined because I'm this, that, or the other.

That's not it. Our trust is not in ourselves.

Our trust is in God and His armor and His strength.

Some other examples here, if you think of the

Catholic Church, right? What are all the things

that they do to protect themselves? Well, they

pray to the saints. They pray to Mary. They pray

to angels. They do all of these other things.

How about those who would seclude themselves

from the world, thinking, well, if I can draw

away from the world, and just live by myself,

now I'm protected. Now I'm on guard against all

of these other things. Well, that's again, contrary

to scripture and that's adding to this armor.

That's not what we're called to do. That's not

gonna help us as we war in this battle. Battle

in this war. So all of those types of things

that we would think are good that really aren't.

These things that we're going to rely upon apart

from God things in our own strength or our own

wisdom and understanding So we must have the

whole armor and nothing else and Then it is God's

armor So this is this is something that God has

supplied for us That should be a great encouragement

to us, right? The Lord has not called us out

of this world and set us in this battle against

a powerful enemy and has not equipped us. He

has equipped us for the battle. He has equipped

us with all that we need. Think about that. Think

about the fact, again this is a fact, that we

have all that we need. Whatever may come. Okay

What are some of these things we have we'll just

put this freedom here So that we're reminded

of and then we'll talk about them. We might get

to one tonight so being girded girding our loins

with truth the breastplate of righteousness Our

feet shod with the preparation of the gospel

of peace the shield of faith The helmet of salvation

and the sword of the spirit and all prayer So

in all those things there and we'll flush some

of those that will flush those things out as

we go on here Do we think that those are sufficient?

Are those sufficient for the warfare? Will those

be enough to win the battle? The daily battle

that we find ourselves in Will those be enough?

It's easy for us to say yes surely we can all

say well obviously it's enough Can we agree on

that? Do we think it's enough? Everybody's looking

at me like they're not sure It is but do we act

in that way So do our actions Are our actions

the same as what we testify to believe okay?

Pain, hurt, depression, disappointment, failure,

thoughts and feelings, all of these things come

against us. Temptations to sin. Is the armor

sufficient that we could overcome all of those

things? Are we able to overcome discouragement,

failure, hurt, and pain that we experience in

this world? from loved ones from from the world

itself is the armor sufficient for that or Does

it cut the blow does it cut us so deep is the

blow so severe that? We're done We're laying

on the ground Debilitated and dying there so

to speak or is this armor when we take it up

and we use it sufficient So often we're looking

for something else. We're looking to other things.

We're not looking to God. We're not looking to

Christ. We're not looking to the one who overcame.

We talked about that. Be strong in the Lord.

Why can we be strong in the Lord? Because Christ

has overcome. Christ has conquered. He is the

conquering King. He is reigning. He is ruling.

He has risen from the grave. We are confident

that we will be with Him and that we will be

in glory. Do we live in that reality or do these

things of this life and the failure? I mean,

we've all failed. Yet, what? Christ has overcome

all of those things. We are free. We have been

forgiven. We have been justified. And so we're

not failures in that sense. We're righteous.

We're pleasing to the Lord. We're loved by God.

Or are we failures? What do we think there? Which

one is it? So often we live, again, maybe temporarily,

maybe it's for a day, maybe it's for a few hours,

as failures. And we allow that to overcome us.

But the armor protects against that. The armor

gives us a right view. It causes us to think,

I'm not a failure. I'm loved by God. I can repent.

I can move on. I can be strong. I can overcome

this. I'm going to get back up by the power of

the Lord and I'm going to move on. I'm going

to press on in my battle, in the warfare. Do

we really believe that this armor is sufficient

for us? We should. We should lay hold of it.

and use it for our good, for our benefit in this

world. So, it's the armor of God. He's given

it to us because it is necessary and because

it is sufficient to wage war in this world, these

spiritual battles that we engage in. Any comments

or questions? Comments are just as welcome as

questions. I was instructed last week to to say

that as well Yes Sure, so give us the right mindset

to set us back on the right path I was thinking

when you said anything, nothing but the hour.

Anything in addition, but I was trying to think,

well, where would that come from? Anything else?

And that would be that would be trying to fight

the devil with the devil. He's the one who wants

us to take, you know, rely on something besides

the Lord. Sure. He's screaming at in all those

places you were talking about. yeah from the

world and the world and the catholic church and

all the rest of the foolishness so that's how

i mean it would be totally goofy to think that

we're going to fight the devil with the devil

and have any success yeah those were all his

schemes and his wisdom that that we would be

engaging in Right no everybody who's not a Christian

is is already fighting with the devil Sure Yeah,

absolutely And it's doubtfully gonna give that

attention and the time to leave more than likely

it's gonna be in preparation to the meeting that's

where he's gonna be stirring up and Yeah, yeah,

I mean I've I've experienced that multiple times

in my own life I Just remember I think I've shared

this before but for years Bob and I used to just

argue all the time No, it was in love. I mean

it was a it was a discussion an argument. Whatever

However, you want to think of it, but there's

doctrinal things there and we were constantly

going back and forth But Bob and I loved each

other, and there was never any doubt of that,

really, except every now and then. I would allow

myself to, whatever, to think these thoughts

that the Satan would bring, that Bob doesn't

really have my good in mind, Bob's just being

stubborn, Bob's just this, Bob's just that, and

I would have to, and then it would be a difficult

thing. And then I'd have to go to the meeting

and meet with Bob. Try to worship with Bob now.

How's that gonna work, right? But then I would

realize this is not the this is not true. These

are lies from Satan And then I would war against

that and next thing, you know I'm able to worship

with Bob and I'm loving Bob in the way that I'm

supposed to be loving him Even though we disagree

on some things. So yeah, and that's Constant,

right? I mean, I hope we all realize that That

it's it's a constant battle to think properly

just of one another of your spouse your brother

of your sister your friend Anybody in the church

meeting Right. I mean how many times have we

done things to one another that you know, maybe

we didn't even think about These small piddly

things that next thing, you know, it's It's just

a weight on our mind. And it's a hindrance to

the worship. And we're angry with somebody. So

it's a constant battle. It's not just out in

the world, so to speak. It's everywhere. It's

everywhere. I mean, that's why Paul says, where

is it? Maintain the unity? That's in Ephesians

here. Where is it? Yeah, being diligent to preserve

the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

Again, the idea there, the truth there is there

is unity and peace. But Satan seeks to destroy

it, and we need to be diligent to preserve it,

to keep it, to maintain this unity that we have.

So yeah, Satan seeks to destroy that at every

opportunity. Okay. So always being armed always

being sober village it alert Peter says I was

reminded of this Christian and his Battle against

the Polly and he comes down into the valley of

humiliation as a hard time down there if you

remember slipping down the hill because he was

a proud man That's the idea that we're told there

and then he wars with a Polly and then what's

his what's his stance the rest of the way through

sword drawn he's ready okay that's the idea of

being in this bat standing and resisting is we're

ready i was i thought also of uh being out in

the wind right if you've ever been in some really

strong wind or like i think of us there's times

we're sheeting a roof and you gotta Sheet of

plywood and the wind is blowing. What are you

doing? You have to be very intentional. You have

to resist the wind You can't just willy -nilly

just walk it up there or else you're gonna just

blow away literally But you have to resist it

takes strength. It takes effort. It takes intention

and it is difficult and The sudden slightest

wrong move and you're down That's the idea here.

One small misstep and you're coming down. So

it's imperative, it's important that we are diligent

in our standing and our resisting. All right.

Okay. So let's think about this next thing here.

This is the first thing that we are to do here

Paul says to Stand firm Having girded your loins

with truth All right So girded loins We are to

gird our loins What does that mean? Anyone know

what that means? Anybody ever thought about it?

Think of it. Think of what Paul's talking about

here. So in all of these things then that he's

going to deal with, he's dealing with the soldiers.

So think back to the day, what are we talking

about? A Roman soldier, right? So it would be

helpful to you if you looked up the Roman armor

from back in the day. You'll see what... All

of these things that Paul mentions are really

talking about here. But the first thing he does

is he says to gird up your loins. And so the

idea there is to prepare yourself for battle.

So back in the day, they wore more of a long

tunic or a robe or something like that. And you

would gird that up. You would pull it up and

you wrap it up so that your legs were free and

it wasn't. floating around to be caught on something

or to hinder your legs from moving. And so that

was the first thing that you had to do was to

gird up your clothing there and be ready. So

gird up your loins, he says. So the girdle it

was a belt or a cord or a sash worn about the

waist. The purpose of girding about the loins

was to fasten the long robes worn in those days.

and to keep them up out of the way so they could

freely move without tripping or stumbling on

them. So that's what he's talking about there

when he says girding up. What are the loins?

Elsewhere it says gird up the loins of your mind.

There's another verse about that, right? What

does that mean? Gird up the loins of your mind.

Does your mind have loins? I heard him says waste.

There's your way. OK. Mine might say it too,

but. I've. Memorized, I think the King no mine

says loans King James says lawns are waste. OK.

All right, so what are our loins? Okay. All right,

those are our loins, but what does Paul mean

when he says gird up your loins? Or when he says

gird up the loins of your mind? What's he talking

about there? The reason that this is put first

is because you have to do it before you do anything

else. Because if you don't gird up story time,

in third grade, we did a providence. We had a

Roman festival near the end of the year because

we started Roman history. And we made cardboard

box chariots. And we raced them by running. And

the guys were wearing togas. I don't know what

the girls were wearing. But I didn't gird up

my loins. And I tripped, and I still have a scar.

So if you don't gird up your loins, you're going

to trip. And if you do all this other stuff,

you put on your breastplate, you put on your

shoes, you get your shield, you get your helmet,

you get your sword. But all that just to fall

right out of the gate, or whatever, it's useless.

And that's what the truth is. Because if you

do all this other stuff and you don't have the

truth, what's the point? You're not getting anywhere.

You're pulling right in your face right off the

get -go. You know, that's kind of what I was

thinking. Okay, yeah, so if you think of the

loins, it has to do with physical strength, right?

And so if you're girding up your loins, it's

just what Jake said. First of all, it is the

first thing that had to be done before you put

your armor on. I think I said that. And then,

yeah, what good is anything else, right? How

do you know what to think, what to do, if you

don't know the truth. Okay? That's imperative

to know the truth. It's the center, the loins,

I wrote it down here, it's the center of physical

strength and genitive power. So if you think

about that, physical strength, genitive power,

that's the truth. That's where it all begins.

That's where it all starts. That's where it's

so central. So he says to gird up your loins

with truth. That's the beginning. That's the

first thing. All of these other things then build

upon that. The breastplate of righteousness.

You've got to know the truth. You've got to know

what is true and what is not. You've got to know

that the Word of God, the Bible, is the Word

of God. And you've got to know what it means,

what it says. And that what it says is truth.

There can be no question in that. Or else we're

just setting ourselves up for failure. We have

no real basis for anything. Your truth, my truth.

It's such nonsense, isn't it? It's amazing that

people talk about my truth and your truth. It's

just so silly. But that's the world that we live

in. So we must have the truth. We must know the

truth. Okay, it's not enough just to say I read

my Bible. It's not enough. We've got to know

the truth Wrote down to a few a few things here

that we have to know I Didn't I didn't mention

these earlier But the whole counsel of God so

this is just a couple you have justification

sanctification glorification all of the prophecy

in Scripture, the history in there. Again, the

history that we're given in Scripture is not

just so that we know some history. There's truth

given to us there through the history of Israel

and the Church and all these other things. Teaching

on marriage, family, children. These are all

parts of the truth. We must know truth. We've

got nothing to stand on. if we don't know the

truth. And so it's the first essential part of

the armor. This girding up, preparing ourselves

for battle is knowing the truth. So girding up

our loins, knowing the truth, girding our loins

with truth. Another way to think of it here is

as a foundation. So again, all those of us who

build, you've got to have a solid foundation.

You've got to have something to build upon. We're

building a house right now. It's a nightmare.

Because I don't have a solid foundation, literally.

I'm missing some peers. And so I've got some

stuff temped up. And I'm like, I can only go

so far with this. Because it's not going to be

solid. It's not going to be sure. It's not going

to be trustworthy. How can I build upon this

if it's not sure and sound and trustworthy? That's

the truth. It's the foundation. It's the bedrock.

It's the beginning of all things. So that's where

we've got the beginning. That's what is essential

for us. I'm not going to get into the breastplate

tonight. So are there any other questions or

comments? What did you say about there being

a verse that says gird up your weight, your mind?

The loins of your mind? Ah, that's in 1 Peter.

1 Peter 1 something. I have it written down.

I think it's 113. Did you say yeah, babe? Yes.

Right, therefore prepare your minds for action.

Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely

on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation

of Jesus Christ. So prepare your minds for action

mine says King James says gird up the loins of

your mind, right? So again the same idea there

prepare yourself for action Prepare your minds

for action. Yes What are you using All right,

well no comments or questions