0:05 Ephesians chapter six beginning in verse 13. 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. 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.
0:53 Father, we come before you together again in prayer. We acknowledge you, and we come with eagerness to examine these things pertaining to our sanctification. Help us, Lord. Give us the mind and the heart to receive it and to obey it. And we pray, Lord, that this word would not be delivered in the power of the flesh, but by the guidance and the convicting work of the Holy Spirit.
1:18 Thank you for this people gathered together. Thank you for bringing us here under one house to receive from you. We give you our worship in obedience this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
1:35 As we continue in the book of Ephesians concerning spiritual warfare, we have now come to the place in verse 13 where the Apostle Paul seems to find great importance in reminding not just the Ephesians, but us believers today of something concerning the armor of God. This is not the first time he mentions the armor of God. This is the second time in a very short span of time in which he gives us instructions inspired by the Holy Spirit of a certain wardrobe for warfare. There's a certain wardrobe for warfare. He repeats it here in verse 13.
2:10 He said it firstly in verse 11. And in verse 11, he he initially brings it in with a motivation in mind that you and I may be able to stand against the schemes of Satan. If you didn't know, Satan has some schemes tailored just for you the same way God has a specific wardrobe tailored just for you. And now he comes to verse 13, and what he has in mind here is to motivate us again with a different ambition and a different warning in mind, but not just to motivate us. Now he's going to unpack the different pieces of armor in order for us to know how to apply them in a practical way.
2:46 And here we see here that the motivation in verse 13, if you look carefully in your Bible, is not that you would necessarily stand against the schemes of Satan, though it is not completely divorced from that idea. We see here that you and I should be motivated to take upon ourselves every piece of this armor so that we can withstand in the evil day. What does the apostle mean by this evil day? Well, we read earlier in Ephesians five sixteen that we are not to be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Why?
3:23 We are to make the best use of time because the days are evil. And we might think that that is speaking of the same thing, but it's not. Ephesians five sixteen is speaking about the spiritual condition of the world that we live in. It speaks about what you and I have to go through and endure concerning everything around us that is Antichrist. And we are to do what we can with our lives to have any hope of influence upon the environment and the generation and the depravity that we are surrounded by.
3:59 So what does he mean by the evil day? I believe that the Apostle Paul is speaking about something in particular concerning spiritual warfare from Satan to us, And it speaks about a specific time in a believer's life when the pressure and fierceness of Satan's onslaughts are intensified. It speaks of a period of time when the bullets of temptation are more persistent, when accusations seem sharper than usual, and when persecutions seem to come like a flood in ambush like fashion. What we are speaking about here in this evil day that Paul is describing is that there are moments in your life and mine in which temptation, accusation, deceit, lies, everything including in that category of warfare is above normal. It's irregular.
5:08 It's unusual, and there are things that you and I need to know about this evil day that Paul is describing. Number one, it is different for every single believer. This wave of warfare that comes, that is intensified with it, this heat and the pressure that is built up is different for every single believer. For Jesus, we know that it was different. In what sense?
5:34 That Satan was offering him a shortcut to an inheritance that he was to receive from the cross. We know that for the church of Smyrna in Revelation that they were to endure ten days of prison, and Satan was behind that scheme. And for us, it can be anything from a great stretch of time in which you were experiencing sexual temptation beyond the daily pressure that you feel already from your flesh. It could be an overwhelming guilt from a past sin that you previously thought and knew that Jesus Christ had forgiven. It could be a sudden outburst, again, of accusation and persecution from friends, family, close ones that seem to go off like a landmine.
6:26 It could be lies concerning your efforts for Christ in an overwhelming sense of discouragement to your soul. It could be a crippling fear that seems to paralyze you, not just in a moment, for days on end, making you question the goodness and faithfulness of God. It is different for every believer, but know this, it has this one thing in common. It is evil in nature. This evil day is different for every single one of us.
7:03 Secondly, it is inevitable. Meaning, this evil day that Paul is describing is certain to happen at one point in your life. It will come to every believer at one point. Paul did not say that you may withstand if this evil day comes. No.
7:23 He says, you will have to do this in order to withstand it, implying it's coming. It is coming at one point. Sooner or later, you will experience what Paul is saying here. And what we have to do in response to that is prepare ourselves. It's to prepare ourselves knowing that this bombardment, this barrage will appear.
7:49 And that is not for you and I to continually live our Christian life looking over our shoulder because Satan is gonna pull a trick on me. No. No. No. It's simply to be aware.
8:00 That's what Peter told his audience. Did he not? In first Peter four twelve, Beloved, do not be surprised. Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. Don't be surprised.
8:17 And this trial can come in one way or another. No matter how it comes, do not act like this was something strange. It's coming to you. So if you think and you have made this idea of your Christian life, being untouchable, being roses, and flowers, and strawberries, and all those sweet things, you've missed it. You've missed it.
8:43 And then when something does come along, you act like you bought into something that you didn't know that was about to happen. That you didn't realize that this was part of the package. Paul said, no. It's coming. It's coming sooner or later.
8:59 And there's something unique about this evil day that Paul's describing. It's it's not only inevitable, it is unpredictable. Wouldn't it be nice for the Holy Spirit to give us a date on the calendar to let us know when this evil day is about to come? Wouldn't it be great if we got a phone call? Wouldn't it be great that the scriptures would kinda hint at when this would happen?
9:21 It doesn't. There is no date to mark. There is no hour to watch for. That's why we must be ready twenty four seven. And if you think about the Israelites in their wilderness journey, you see this over and over again.
9:35 They already had circumstances and their flesh to deal with. And at one point, very early on in their wilderness journey, we know that on more than one occasion, they were experiencing thirst. And what do they do? They complain and murmur. And what do they do?
9:46 Moses hears it, and he takes their complaining, and he turns it into a cry. And he cries out to God, and we see there in Exodus early on 17, where God answers by providing abundance of blessing in water to quench the thirst of millions. And you think, well that's great, and then you think the story moves on. But immediately after that blessing was experienced, Amalek comes out of nowhere to try to wipe him out. Which tells me something interesting about spiritual warfare and the attacks of saying that although it is unpredictable, we do see patterns in the Bible of when the enemy favorably likes to come and to snuff out the saints.
10:31 For the Israelites, many times it was after times of great blessing, of wonderful experiences in God. When revelation of His power, and His faithfulness, and His goodness has been exposed, and they have tasted something of Him that they have not known before. Do Do we just see this with the Israelites? No, we do not. We see this with Elijah when he saw fire come down from heaven, where prophets were taken care of, false prophets were taken care of, and people hit their knees.
11:02 And all for a sudden, a witch named Jezebel sends a messenger to give some threats, and this guy goes with his tail between his legs into the desert. We see David's victory over Goliath, shortly met with his father-in-law being possessed by the spirit of jealousy, haunting him for many years. We even see Jesus at his baptism when he is declared as the beloved son, and shortly after Satan's right there to attack. After times of great blessing, believe Amalek is right around the corner. But it's not just that.
11:41 Even in times of great sorrow, this is the viciousness of the one that is against your soul. You think about Peter, that around the time of Jesus betrayal and his ultimate passion, Satan's like I want him. And Jesus, I prayed for you that your faith may not fail. You think about Job again, who's experienced so much chaos. I mean, beyond belief.
12:04 And on top of that, the cherry on top of the sundae is his wife coming and saying, curse God and die. So in times of great sorrow, which comes to the next point concerning this evil day that it is unpredictable. And because of the nature of its and our failure to see when it will come, it can seem overwhelming when you are experiencing it. It could seem overwhelming. Because what the enemy attempts to do is what he attempted to do with Jesus, to literally vomit as much vileness upon you to the point where you will come to surrender.
12:43 It's a flash flood experience. It's something that does take you by surprise to some degree, though we are called not to allow it to take us by surprise. And and the main ingredient in this evil day that is experienced in your life, believer, Maybe you have experienced it. Maybe you're experiencing it today, or next week, or another point in time. There's a certain ingredient.
13:05 It is this persistence on His part. There is this pressure that he brings about. Do you remember the unnamed prophet that was called by God to go to Jeroboam and to point him out for his idolatry? And once Jeroboam experienced that convicting work, where his hand was paralyzed in the air, and he asked this unnamed prophet to help him, and he calls upon God, and it's loosened. He says, why don't you come back with me?
13:36 Let me reward you, and let me refresh you. And the prophet answers, I was commanded by the word of the Lord not to stay here, to eat bread or drink water, or even return by the way I came. I've been given strict orders. And as tempting as it might have been in that moment to go into the palace to receive reward, to receive a cold glass of water, he says, no. Isn't our obedience so zealous in the beginning?
14:03 Isn't our quest for faithfulness so crisp when we start, when we make up our mind, when we have freshly the the command of the Lord is still ringing in our ears, but that didn't happen with this prophet. Short amount of time, it says there in the same chapter that an older prophet came, heard of this prophet, sees him sitting under an oak, and he comes and he offers him the very same thing, and he answers by saying no. He gives the same answer he gave to Jeroboam. And all that older prophet had to do was change the package and persist a little bit more, and that man gave in to his destruction. What are we trying to say here?
14:46 It's that, you will, in this evil day, experience a persuasion that is unusual to the daily battle that you already face on a consistent basis. Have you been there? Have you experienced this? Is this language familiar? Are you sitting there today saying, I I know exactly what that's like.
15:05 I've been I've been I had a week of that. I've had a weekend of that. I know exactly what you're saying. Or are you sitting there saying, I have no idea what you're talking about. Just give it some time.
15:15 Walk in faithfulness long enough, and you will know what Paul is saying here. And what we have to understand that though this day is inevitable, unpredictable, and unique for every person, please hear this. You and I have nothing to fear. We have nothing to fear because he has granted us everything we need to be able to withstand anything that comes our way. That's the whole point of this.
15:42 So if you're sitting there saying, this this tricky devil, he knows me better than I know me, and I don't No. No. No. No. No.
15:49 No. He's just making you aware so that you can now equip yourself. And this is what he does here. He offers several pieces of armor. And how do we understand these pieces of armor?
16:02 Are they just something that we have to mystically kind of convince ourselves of? Is there a mantra that you and I repeat on a daily basis? I have the helmet of salvation. I have the sword of the spirit. I have the breastplate of righteousness.
16:15 And you say it 10 times over until you're convinced that you're walking with some invisible thing? No. This language of putting on, we've talked about this in Ephesians chapter four verse 22. Did we not? Put off the old self.
16:30 He goes on and says, put on the new self. We went through that. And so what is he saying by put on and put on? What's the implication there? Stop doing this and start doing that.
16:42 Cancel this out of your life and apply this to your life. So it's not just to be understood in theory, there is great practicality in understanding what Paul is describing here. I'm to actually put these things on consciously and with effort, deal with these matters as an individual. And I believe here that every piece of armor offers a special protection for specific attacks. Every piece offers special protection for specific attacks.
17:19 And so he says here, if you wanna withstand this evil day and to stand firm, verse 14, stand therefore seems like the bible really wants us to stand. Stand. Stand. Stand. Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth.
17:37 Number one. Primary thing. First thing on the list is that you are to put on this belt of truth. Now
17:45 in here know the practical element of the belt and what it offers, you and I. Right? And a Roman soldier at this time would have known what a help a belt would have had to his uniform. If we can just simplify it, a belt simply keeps all other articles of your clothing intact and in order. If you did not have a belt, like some of us in here, if they don't have if you don't have your belt on, things are gonna get loose and crazy.
18:07 And that's exactly what he's saying here. In order for any other piece of the armor to work, in order for your breastplate to be intact, in order for that sword of the spirit and its sheath would be there intact, you first need to have this belt of truth. And not just loosely hanging there, fastened tight. And would you believe it that people debate what this belt of truth means, like many other things? And the main debate around what this truth is, this belt of truth boils down to two main understandings.
18:46 One, that this belt of truth is speaking about a believer's sincerity and truthfulness in his attitude before God and man. And secondly, it speaks plainly about your understanding and firm grasp of the doctrines found in this book. And I would say, it's both. It's both. Because even if you do have sincerity, and you wanna live with integrity before God and man, if that belt of truth means that I live honestly before God, and I live free from any blame from those before me, I need truth to guide my sincerity.
19:30 I can't just have sincerity without the guidance for me to go into the right direction. Does that make sense? And I can't have just truth without it trickling into my heart and producing a transparency and humility and honesty before God. So belt of truth, believers, walk in integrity before God, walk in sincerity before Him and man. In other words, what's the opposite of sincerity?
20:00 Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Hypocrites are Satan's hostages. Hypocrites are Satan's hostages.
20:14 What do I mean by that? If Satan can just make you a hypocrite, it doesn't matter what else you apply to your life, or you attempt to approve and apply to your life. It's amazing that if this belt of truth concerning your sincerity before God and before man, if that's loosened, it affects everything. It affects your relationship with God. You read the gospels carefully and you see how Jesus chooses his words carefully of how he addresses specific audiences.
20:42 And yet the sharpest words that he has, the most shocking awe sermons that he's ever recorded by the Holy Spirit are against the most religious people on an outside level. It fractures your relationship with God. When you live in a way in which you fail to confess your sins and you try to cherish it and live in this weird limbo state, you're no threat to Satan. You're no threat to the enemy. He'll let you
21:14 you want, and you can pretend that you have that belt on, though it's hanging loose, and he says, now he's no problem. God will not back up a hypocrite. I'm not talking about perfection. I'm not talking about a person that doesn't stumble. A person that is realizing that he isn't sinning has convinced himself that he does not need to repent of it or come before God in sincerity, in humility, in transparency, in brokenness.
21:37 You don't have any of those things? The devil goes, you're nothing. Because not only does it have a vertical effect, hypocrisy as we know, and I don't wanna go too deep into this, but let's just have a little dosage here of understanding concerning this. Has a horizontal effect. If you wear the badge of Christ and you are at the same time a hypocrite, you might be convincing yourself that it's not harming other people, but you are one of the greatest threats to the well-being of other soldiers of Christ.
22:14 You could be the very reason why a person doesn't want to grow in Christ. You could be the very reason why they have bitterness in their hearts. Depending on your level of influence and Christendom, you can really do damage to the masses. And not only can you hurt and bring grief to the body of Christ, because you have this uniform, but you're confusing other soldiers and they're wondering, what side are you on? I'm confused.
22:37 What side do you represent? Are you gonna turn your back on us? Are you gonna shoot us in the foot? But you have the ability, not knowingly, probably, to influence and recruit other people in your state of hypocrisy. Remember Peter and Barnabas?
22:57 He was in a state of hypocrisy and he led the son of encouragement to be a son of hypocrisy. Oh, I would love to continue on than this, but we won't go into it. Put on the belt of truth. Are you in this thing to live for God? Are you in this thing to live honestly before God and man?
23:16 Are you trying to morph your own type of Christianity and convince yourself and others that this is okay? If so, not only are you not a threat to the enemy, you are probably one of his greatest assets and weapons. The belt of truth is not limited to that. The belt of truth as we know plainly is the believer having a firm and familiar grasp on the divine truths as revealed in the scriptures. I stumbled upon this verse in first John two, and it blessed my heart.
23:56 I just kept reading it and reading it and reading it, first John two fourteen. Look what John says to the young men of the church. I write to you young men because you are strong. I write to you young men. See, he addresses children and fathers and here in the middle is young men.
24:15 I write to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. You're strong. The word of God is in you and because the word of God lives in you, you overcome the evil one. And so as we talked about last last week, the general packages of Satan's schemes and temptation, and lies and deception and accusation, all those things, they have overcome. And I love how he categorizes it to young men.
24:54 To young men, more than anything, young people. What are you going through? What hell are you experiencing? What is Satan belching on your conscience? You can overcome it.
25:06 You can overcome it. And it is dependent the the success of Satan's onslaughts is dependent upon your spiritual diet and intake. It's so plain and clear. You're strong and you've overcome because the word of God lives in you, richly abiding in you. And we see here that it's possible to withstand this evil day by having truth.
25:41 But there's something that we didn't touch on last week. There's something that we did not touch on. We touched on the understanding generally of temptation and how spiritual warfare comes and again, accusation and all these different things. But there's one thing concerning spiritual warfare pertaining to this specific instrument that we are to place upon ourselves, one element that we cannot fail to see that is so obvious in scripture, but we kinda glance over it because we don't necessarily see it as a threat. And it is Satan's warfare as manifested through false teaching through false teachers.
26:25 False teaching through false teachers. Satan's war against truth is manifested in different ways. Is it not? And I believe what we have to understand from false teachers is not the war of truth as culture is trying to figure out. Is truth subjective?
26:46 Is truth objective? Is everybody have their own version of truth? I don't think Satan is fighting that kind of battle, though he is behind that ideology. I believe that the truth that he is fighting against pertain to the believer. Remember, the audience is Christians here.
27:02 The audience are people who have already established that they will frame their lives based upon the word of God. So it's not a matter of convincing you whether this is true or not, necessarily. His warfare is more around twisting that truth. Twisting that truth. Knowing that you believe that these words are to be true and that you govern your life by them, all he needs to do is misinterpret them and distort them, and he has you.
27:39 Turn your Bibles to second Peter two verse one. It's quite amazing to see how much attention is presented in the New Testament warning the people of God about false teachers. And it is in my estimation that this is not really a popular thing to be found behind the pulpit as much. I mean, there is there is a resurgence in this. People are now kind of sick and tired and fed up, and people are now addressing certain false teachings.
28:20 But generally speaking, people are afraid to kind of go that way and touch on those texts and be very specific because it comes off as unloving, and it comes off as judgmental and divisive. And there's even this idea of even within Christendom, those who have I'm not talking about the true church, about those who have the banner of Christianity over their whatever they are. This idea of unity that doc doctrine divides. You love Jesus? Yeah.
28:55 I love Jesus. You like Jesus? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
28:57 Let's all come together. That is dangerous. That is dangerous. And it's becoming very popular even in our generation, especially in our generation, where we've been convinced that if you just have the sentimental love towards Jesus, it doesn't really matter what you believe concerning all the various things that we need to pay attention to in the scriptures. We're all under the banner of Jesus, and we love him, and that's fine, and that is a recipe for disaster.
29:32 Because that that can sound good and look good, but nothing will be sustained under that kind of thinking. There will be no longevity. That's not a vessel that will be able to contain unity, though people try to convince us otherwise. We see here in two Peter two:one, But false prophets also arose among the people. He's speaking about the Old Testament.
29:54 Just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. Do you notice the plurality there? There will be false teachers that will bring destructive heresies Have you ever noticed in your in your journey through the New Testament that there is not just this general warning against false teaching, but almost like every single letter has a unique warning concerning a specific doctrine that's being challenged? And so you have the Galatians where Paul warns about a distortion of justification by faith, and then you have Jude where there are those who are secretly coming in and turning the grace of God into sensuality, and then you have first Timothy four where it says that there will be people that will depart from the faith because they have devoted themselves to what? To the doctrine of demons and deceitful spirits.
31:04 Then you have one Timothy six where it talks about how there will be people who would teach that godliness as a means of gain. And it goes on and on. Then you have second Thessalonians, where people were fearful because some were saying that the second coming already happened and Paul's trying to encourage them. And you have the very book here, Ephesians again, where Paul warned in Ephesians five, hey, there's gonna be some people that will say that the wrath of God is not coming against certain sins. And the list goes on and on and on and on.
31:34 Which tells me something, that false teaching has greater implication than you having a different opinion about a certain subject. False teaching and the warning of it is not just with the ambition that you would be right and you interpret things correctly. No. There are dangers that can come with absorbing and receiving and tolerating false teaching. He said they are destructive heresies, not just heresies.
32:11 And we see here that in Romans sixteen eighteen, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetite. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. Why all the warnings? Why? Why why does the Bible give us so much about being careful about what you understand concerning the word of God?
32:42 What does the twisting of scripture have an effect upon me as a believer in Christ? Well, one, we have to understand that there is a certain group that are a special type of pray for false teaching and false teachers, the naive. Those that are not mature, those that have not experienced something of the faith and longevity in it or judgment, they are prey for false teaching and false teachers. And this can be due to them being new in the faith, which requires those who have been in the faith to watch them and nurture them and protect them and guide them and speak into their lives. But there is a category under the naive that is not just simply because they're newborns.
33:25 No. No. No. No. There are those who are naive simply because of their laziness and their lack of daily putting on the belt of truth themselves.
33:39 The masses fall into that more than anything. And this is why it's dangerous. It has implications on every level. False teaching has a various degrees. And if I had a meter here, I would show you, it'd be like green to red of how we can actually affect you as a believer in every sense of the word.
34:03 Dangers. And it let's just let's not talk about the major things. Let's just talk about the the just the subtle things that can get out of hand or even overemphasis on certain doctors that can turn into something false. So now you have people today that don't wanna pray and don't believe in prayer because they have had an unhealthy understanding of the omniscience of God. Why pray?
34:25 Because God knows all things. Why seek God when he's determined history from before eternity before time rather? Why? And you have people who have been wounded. I personally talked to them.
34:39 Wounded. Because somebody has come up to them and prayed for an illness that they had, and they still have that illness, and they've been told your lack of faith. Your lack of faith is the reason why God is not healing you. And you have others who feel disqualified in their spirituality because they've been convinced because I don't have this spiritual gift or that spiritual gift pertaining more to the supernatural ones. I'm not as spiritual.
35:10 And you know what the Bible says? It puts more emphasis on fruit than gifts. Do you do you see how even the little things, the little things that are just distorted a little bit can affect your Christian experience? It has everything to do how you view God, how you view sin, how you counsel others. It has every influence on every aspect of how you and I walk this walk.
35:35 So Satan loves to come through false teaching because if it is digested, his warfare through false teaching can cause a Christians to be frustrating, Frustrating, confusing, disheartening, divisive, and at worst, sinful, sinful, placing yourself as a candidate for God's chastisement, even as a child of God. This isn't more than just, Oh, that guy just has a different view. No, it's that can change the way you live your Christian life. So it's no wonder that even pastor Timothy in first Timothy four sixteen, the apostle, the same apostle of Pentecost said, listen. Keep a watch on yourself and on the teaching.
36:29 Persist in this. Why? For by this, you will save both yourself and your hearers. It's a matter of life and death, Timothy. And so you need to take this word and you need to watch your life first though, as we talked about.
36:46 Because if your life contradicts what you're preaching, your hearers will be damaged just as we talked about the first point concerning the belt of truth. But secondly, know what you're telling people. They're hearing it and you're shaping their minds. Be so careful, Timothy. Study.
37:05 Study even if you have to stay up all night and get no sleep, study. Even till your brain hurts, study. Do whatever you need to do to make sure that you're presenting something that will bring life and not confusion. So there are practical ways for us to understand this belt of truth and how to put it on. This belt of truth is for protection.
37:33 Here are three things that you and I must do if you wanna put on the belt of truth concerning all things, but I really wanted to focus on false teaching this morning. We cannot pretend that this cannot affect us. Sometimes we can hear this and we go, it's not that big of a deal. Like, I I get it. You have no idea.
37:56 Even those who later on in life, because they have not daily put this on for long stretches of time, they've opened themselves up to weird things. How do I apply this belt of truth? What do I do? How do I fasten it? First thing.
38:18 First thing, determine within yourself that the Word of God is your final authority. Determine within yourself that the written Word of God is your final authority on everything. So we have this group of men as we know of called the Bereans. I love this. Every time I come upon the Bereans, I get convicted.
38:42 Because here's the Apostle Paul. You know the story. He comes on the scene with Silas, and they preach in the synagogue. Now, let me read to you verse 11 and verse 12 and hear the language here. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.
38:56 They received the word with all eagerness. They were hungry. You have truth? You have something to say about God? Yes.
39:03 Let me hear it. What do you have to say? I want to learn more about God. You cannot exhaust the truth of God. Let me hear it.
39:12 As he's preaching, it says that they examine the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Daily. You know what they didn't have? They didn't have Bible Gateway on their iPads and iPhones. I'm not too sure how they examine the Scriptures daily, but I'm sure it took a lot more effort than what you and I have to put into it.
39:31 Get that scroll, and they open up the scroll, and they're going through it. Okay. Where did it say that? Get that scroll, and they open up the scroll. That's the wrong scroll.
39:37 Get the other scroll, and they open up that scroll, and there they are huddling over the and they're studying, and they're studying, and they're reading, and they're reading, and they're examining. And this is what it says about how they came to faith. This is what it says in their belief. Verse 12. Many of them therefore believed.
39:51 So verse 12 didn't come before they examined the scriptures. Their belief upon what Paul was saying was based upon the validation and affirmation found in the written Word of God. Keep your finger on the text. You're what you're saying? Oh, it's there.
40:11 Okay. I'll believe you. If you do this, you will be safe for the rest of your life. And so no matter what popular teaching will come out in the future because history has proven that there will be fads and trends and movements that will come, And the masses will eat it up, and the stadiums will fill, and the people will line up, and it will sound good, and it's flattering, and they're persuasive. But if you just determine within yourself that I base everything I believe on on the revelation of the Word of God, you will be safe.
40:48 Let's get even deeper than that. Whatever you grew up with, because we can all assume that majority of us in here grew up in the church, Different denominations, different cultures. But if you even determine within yourself that as you mature in the Word of God and as you study for yourself, that you will not allow your presuppositions, and you will not allow your pre understandings to dampen what you maybe have misunderstood and you're now seeing as to be true, determined within yourself as hurtful as it might be, I'm gonna believe this book. I've been told otherwise. I grew up in a church that did it differently, but the word of God has shown me something else.
41:29 A lot of people can't do that. A lot of people just because they were comfortable with a certain way they understood something will not change, and they are forfeiting freedom. Why? Because the truth will set you free for pride's sake. Oh, determine within yourself that even if everybody else turns out it turns away from this, you're willing to stand by it even if you're alone.
41:55 Determine within yourself that the word of God is your final authority beyond popularity, beyond emotion, beyond what feels right, beyond what the culture says, stay here. Jesus has not changed. Doesn't matter who else does. Secondly, go beyond the fundamentals. Are we soldiers in here or are we a nursery?
42:22 Do we wanna stay babies? No, we're soldiers. So here's my admonition to you, every single person in here, you don't have to run around to different synagogues, and find out what this thing say in the scrolls, and wait hours No, no, no. You have every access to all the truth that you need, and here's my charge to you, go beyond the fundamentals. Hebrews six:one, Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ, and go on to maturity.
42:55 He's not saying forsake the the basics. He's saying build upon the basics. And so let's look at this practically. Some people, all they're reading and all they're understanding is, I like to just dip my foot in the Psalms a little bit, and sometimes I like to go through the Gospels and the Epistles, and they forfeit everything else. And they don't even touch these other books.
43:17 Go into unfamiliar terrain. Get a grasp of the entirety of the scriptures. Get familiar. Come to a point in your walk with the Lord that even if somebody brings up one verse with a certain truth statement automatically because you've saturated yourself with the word of God, you have five different references popping in your head. Oh, it says it there, and it says it there, and it says it there, and it says it says it there.
43:39 Develop that defense system. Don't limit yourself. Challenge yourself. Get a headache if you need to when you're reading a certain scripture. I know people that purposely glance over things that are difficult because it requires effort and energy, and they're scared to doubt certain things.
43:59 Listen, God is not intimidated by your doubts. He's not intimidated by your questions. Go beyond the basics so that you can protect yourself. Because even those who have the basics, they don't go deeper. Things can get messy.
44:19 Lastly, and this is of so much importance, don't forget that in your pursuit of truth, that truth is a person. Why do I say this? Because I know certain individuals personally, And there are certain camps that we can point at even that have so much emphasis on doctrine, on theology, and crossing every t, and dotting every I, and knowing church history and knowing about this and knowing about that, and they forgot that he's a person. And they become a lot more passionate, and you can hear it in their preaching, in their counseling, in their discussions. They become more passionate about being right than being as a means of being right in a greater relationship.
45:29 Saying, did that happen in the Bible? It did happen in the Bible. The church of Ephesus, God himself commends them for what? Standing and sniffing out false prophets from afar for their purity and their doctrine. Do you know how they got there?
45:47 Do you know how the church of Ephesus became so strong in their understanding of the Word of God? Listen to this. Paul spoke to the elders in Acts chapter 20, and this is what he told the elders in Acts twenty twenty nine. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.
46:14 He tells the elders, I know that once I leave, the wolves are gonna smell you, and they're gonna come. And not just from the outside, even from within, there's gonna be people that are gonna rise up and speak twisted things and deceive and take upon themselves and take away from you people. And you know what the Church of Evanston did? They obeyed. They studied.
46:37 They studied. They studied. They trained. They trained. They trained.
46:43 In a short little time, after many years, Jesus Christ commends them for that, but he also condemns them. Because he said you've forsaken your first love. You've walked away from the person. You've stopped loving me. And so I say this because we all need to understand this.
47:07 Yes. We need to understand this. We need it fastened. We need to protect ourselves by knowing what this word says. But in that pursuit, be motivated even to take that upon yourself by realizing that being right and being found in truth results in experience of the person.
47:30 You realize that people don't see it that way. They just wanna be right, and they just wanna make sure they're not wrong, and they just wanna protect themselves, that's all great. But the same energy you put into that, let it fuel you to go towards him. And so even in my desire to be found in pure doctrine and to protect myself, you know what it is ultimately about? So that I can please him.
48:03 Not so that I can just just show you how much knowledge I have. No. I wanna guard my relationship with God, and I don't wanna believe or absorb or receive or digest or taste or put into me anything that would grieve the heart of God. Please do that. Please.
48:23 Please do that. Lest we become cold and indifferent, and we have orthodoxy, but it's frozen. Put on the belt of truth. Put on the belt of truth. Strengthen yourself, oh young men, oh young ladies, by understanding that it is dependent upon your digestion of this truth.
48:49 Determine that it's your final authority. Go beyond the fundamentals, and in your pursuit of it, remember that it is for a person. It is for a person. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would help us to be people of the word, that we would shape all that we believe and all that we practice based on the scriptures and the prescriptions provided through it.
49:14 Build us up, Lord, as we choose to respond to this. As individuals, we're not gonna leave this to pastors nor are we gonna choose to be people that are spoon fed. Help us go beyond milk. Help us examine everything that we believe based on what is written. Everything that we hear based on what is written.
49:38 And we ask, Lord, that in our pursuit of truth, we would not fail to remember that it's about the person as well. We don't wanna fill in every slot, and we don't wanna be able to explain anything that people ask us about if it does not melt our hearts towards the God of this truth. And so, Lord, we humbly come before you as a church. We do not wanna be indicted like the church of Ephesus. Thank you for a group that loves the word of God.
50:06 Thank you for a group that loves truth. Thank you for a group that really wants to grow in the scriptures, but, Lord, protect us. Protect us from coming to a place where we fail to remember what it's all about. That's to know you and love you through this truth. And so Lord we pray protect this assembly.
50:27 Protect this place from wolves God. And maybe some of us in here might not see why this is relevant because we haven't really heard or experienced wolves to the point of false teaching. But Lord, we don't want to take the chance for the future. Keep us guarded. Keep us focused.
50:44 Let every other piece be intact because we have this truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
