Battle Gear Pt 2 Series

Battle Gear Pt 2

Last week we talked about the spiritual battle that takes place everyday.

We looked at the soldiers in this battle, the armies of Satan armed with their lies,

temptations, tricks and how they attack us at our weakest moments. How they

attack our desires, thoughts and emotions. And on the other side we have

ourselves. Now we may think of ourselves as the big tough Rambo warrior type,

but the Bible tells us that we are defenseless, helpless sheep. We are about as

prepared to go into a spiritual battle as the lions were prepared to play football

last Sunday. Let’s say it together. “I am a sheep, I have wool for armor”. We

need God’s armor, God’s strength, God’s might to fight this spiritual battle, to

fight off the attacks of Satan

Our lesson today, is the 2nd in a series on that spiritual battle that takes

place every day of our lives, and the armor of God that we need to put on in

order to survive that battle. We continue to look at our scripture from Ephesians

6:10-20 concentrating today on verses 13-15. So lets open our bibles and take a

look at the 1st 3 pieces of armor that Paul tells us we need to put on. I want you

to look at and circle these 3 words in our scripture. Truth, in verse 14,

righteousness also in verse 14, and peace in verse 15. These are the 1st 3

pieces of armor. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness and the boots

of peace. To help you remember, just think of the 3 B’s, belt, breastplate and

boots.

Truth is the first piece of armor, Paul compares it to a soldiers belt. Now

many of us wear a belt to keep our pants up, although as time goes by, my pants

seem to be shrinking around the waist and I don’t seem to need one as much as

I used to. Nowadays belts are decorative as well as functional. My wife is

always ready to point out “You need to wear a belt with those pants”, and

“You’re really not planning on wearing that with those pants and shoes are you?”

But in the days of the Roman soldier, the belt was a part of his armor. The belt,

which was often made of mail or leather, was wrapped around the soldiers

waist and kept his toga or cloak from flying all around during battle. The Roman

soldiers belt held everything in close, keeping him in fighting readiness. It was

also where he would keep his sword and other weapons ready for battle. The

belt tied everything together. In our spiritual battle gear, truth, our belt, wraps

itself around the believer. It is truth which ties together the believer’s armor. In

our warfare against Satan and his demons, our enemy uses deception and

deceit as one of their weapons. It is our belt of truth that illuminates our way and

enables us to be ready to fight. Truth speaks of an authentic lifestyle. This

lifestyle means telling, living and representing truth. There are many people

today who live a double lifestyle, saying one thing and doing another. Living a

truthful life today is getting harder and harder. More and more we see people

who’s conduct reveals their dishonesty. Wearing the belt of truth means that we

live honestly, in integrity, and without hypocrisy. It means applying truth to how

we live our lives. There is also the truth in the words we use. We, as a society,

have twisted our words so that they are no longer meaningful. I heard someone

describe taxes as “revenue assessment enhancements”. Truth says that they’re

taxes. Morale perversion is now called “gay” or alternate lifestyle. Don’t dare

say homosexual or sodomizer, say “gay”. Destruction of unborn life, created by

God is “freedom of choice”. There was an article in the Daily News in the Dear

Prudie section, the one that has replaced Ann Landers, where a woman wrote in

because there was no word to describe the relationship the she and the man

that she had been living with for over 2 years. She says (read article). This is

ridiculous! There is a word for this type of relationship. God calls it sinful. This is

the truth. But Satan has worked at us so much that all our words now have to be

politically correct so as not to offend anyone. When we have the belt of truth

girding us, it keeps us living in truth, it reveals the truth, it teaches us truth so

that when Satan tries to attack us with lies, his little rewording of information, we

have our whole lives tied together with the truth of God. Walking in truth,