The Belt of Truth

so what Isabel used for the belt is known as the cingulum or ball to us it played a crucial role in the effectiveness of the soldiers armor it was the belt that held the scabbard without which there would be no place to put your sword imagine an overzealous soldier fired up and charging out into battle but without his belt and consequently without a sword or a weapon the Matthew Hendry commentary says this the belt Gerdes on our secures all the other pieces of armor nothing is secure without the belt being in place it is the core of your ability to do battle it holds it holds the breastplate so it doesn't sling around and under your armpit it holds the sword and the scabbard in place it keeps secure that your clothing so you don't get entangled in it everything we fight for hinges on the truth of the gospel it is the core of our being what is truth then John 17:17 sanctify them by your truth your word is truth the Word of God is truth without the knowledge of the Bible we'll never be able to do any more than just spar with the enemy there can be no truth without knowing the Bible a number of years ago I started a discipline of reading the Bible through every year and spending at least an hour a day in studying the Bible studying the Word of God it has changed my life it changed it as it's still changing it even after reading it through a number of times I see something new every time that I never saw before it's incredible how much your faith grows when you know the Bible and how little faith we have when we don't there can be no righteousness without truth there can be no true faithfulness without righteousness all matters of the kingdom and its advancement hinge on the truth of the kingdom and what Jesus did as Christians we are to test all things and to hold only hold only unto that which is good the truth we're discs to discard everything that is not the truth we're to be like the Bereans who searched the scripture daily to find out whether these things that they were being taught or so in acts 17:11 how to put on the belt of truth since the belt of truth involves our hearts and minds we have to make an adjustment in both those places in order to put it on we have to make a daily habit of checking our armor and making sure it's adjusted for truth we have to be sure we are in right standing with God is there any untruth is there any hypocrisy in my heart because if there is untruth that there is lives of there's hypocrisy in my heart I will not be able to utilize the belt of truth to its fullest function because it conflicts with what is inside of me are you justifying any sin that you have what about your relationships with people is there any bitterness or malice that you're entertaining in your mind or you can't seem to get rid of because that defies the belt of truth we must make sure a mind is embracing sound doctrine and if we do this will help strengthen our will to serve God we will persevere with all saints below our seven helpful aids and embracing doctrine first of all be sincere and asking for the truth approach it with a sincere heart not with an agenda it'll make all the difference Paul tells Timothy and first Timothy 1:5 to do that seek Him seek truth don't seek to be right if you're seeking to be right in an argument you'll never find truth receive the Ministry of the word number to receive the Ministry of the word from those who God has equipped to serve you and they serve the kingdom God has given gifts to the body of Christ since their heart sincere heart will aid you in discerning truth if each is for 11 and 12 number three accommodate the whole body of Christ this may shock you well in time in the first church that I planted it was doing well and I was really happy and I was getting a little bit prideful frankly and I I said to the Lord I was talking the Lord's praying to Lord one time and he simply asked me a question he said are you the only other light in this city and I go no no I'm not the only light in this city this church isn't the only light Lord no now there are other lights there they're lesser lights but there are other lights okay I will tell that okay and the Lord didn't chide me I you know I look back now and go boys proves his merciful he said if I was to remove any of those lights would it be our would it be brighter here or darker here I thought it was a trick question and eventually I said he hadn't asked me again and I said it would be it would be darker and here's what he said he said then value every light value every light weaker lesser higher whatever value every light did they believe like you know but it would be darker or brighter if that church was removed if that person was removed that shifted my whole world of thinking so I value every light so we want to accommodate the whole body of Christ don't restrict yourself to the teaching or doctrines of only one particular group or denomination in your quest for the truth God has not given the totality of its truth to any one person or any one particular group no one well one time when I was standing in front of the Lord he simply let me know very very clearly no one is going to stand before him and have him say you had great theology even the most astute among us have serious flaws in our theology we need the whole body to see our flaws help us remove our flaws and work on submitting to one another who know more than we do we must discern the body if we are going to grow be aware of what I call designer theology design the theology is becoming very very rampant today it's basically I can design a theology that justifies whatever I want to embrace I'll take a little of that I'll take a little of that I'll take a little of this and all of a sudden anything that I want to justify I can justify it's not true because I've taken fragments but I can justify my beliefs so on one hand don't listen to just one person on the other hand be weary of justifying your sin by listening to more than one person there are many voices out there many good many bad discern the armor as we're going to see will help you discern all of that I remember when one particular denomination kicked me out they said we don't believe God speaks and dreams anymore and if you're going to continue to dream you better find another place to dream and as a Pentecostal denomination I said I said well I don't think I understand and he said well he said God doesn't speak that way anymore I'm telling you God doesn't speak that way anymore I said well then what does it say in the last days old men are going to dream dreams and young men are going to see visions he said I don't have time to get into it but God doesn't speak that way anymore so I left I left and I realized there was a whole world of Bible out there that I never knew existed at the same time I realized there's a whole lot of quackery that I never knew existed so be very very careful you saw in being very careful be be aware that curiosity can sometimes lead you towards strange and sometimes obviously wrong doctrine 2nd Timothy 4:3 talks about that for the time will come this is in the end when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers in other words they would design a theology that allows them to sin witchcraft new age all kinds of teaching will be repackaged as Christian doctrine don't let curiosity take you beyond the bounds of your hearts warnings and clear biblical doctrine and teaching ground yourself in this Word of God it will secure you from quackery be a humble seeker never assume perfection in any doctrine or teaching watch out for pride pride can make you a stranger to the throne of grace it it removes you from him why Satan was found to have pride it removed him from the presence of God pride in you will do the same don't be offended at different opinions they will only if you're offended it only allows bitterness and malice to fester in your life it you could never be offended it without a stronghold you learn more about than the strongholds teaching next month it's not even out yet so next month but there's never an offense without a stronghold so if you find yourself offended because somebody doesn't agree with you you have a stronghold that needs to be torn down know the value of truth in your heart when you find truth embrace it and keep it let nothing tear you away from that more importantly live it

Channel: Streams Ministries

Views: 39,222

Rating: 4.9200001 out of 5

Keywords: John Paul Jackson, Streams Ministries, doctrine, truth, belt of truth, Christian, armor of God, theology

Id: uaxSNmUM30k

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Fri May 25 2012