The Armor of God – Truth - Teaching
Last week we looked at what the armor is and what is not. Today we are taking a close look at truth, as you may have not thought of it before. Let’s jump right in!
Ephesians 6:14 NKJV
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Truth. The Roman soldier’s belt functioned as a piece to hold the soldier’s tunic in place and also held small weapons. The belt was made of soft leather strips decorated with metal; this was also a symbol of status.
What truth might Paul be referring to that can hold small weapons and be a symbol of status in the spiritual realm? Biblical truth. The greater measure of truth we obtain, the greater our ability to hold weapons and have a higher status in the spiritual realm.
I don’t think this piece should be skipped over lightly. Most often we think, “Yea, I know the truth.” Sometimes what we think is truth, is not truth. (Give an example of what you thought was truth but wasn’t. Mine is below written in 3rd person if you need a story)
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Example: For example, some parents would always quote, “Spare the rod spoil the child.” There were people who actually believed this was scripture. A minister once shared this story, “When I was 12 years old, after searching the lexicon and combing over the Bible, I couldn’t find that scripture anywhere. I cannot explain the joy that filled my heart as I raced to my father, with Bible in hand, to inform him of the real truth of the gospel. He looked at me with shock all over his face, and then said, ‘Well, I’m still gonna hit you when I need to.’ Epic fail.”
Has anyone else been quoted, “Spare the rod spoil the child,” growing up?
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Another popular old wives’ tale that people used to quote as scripture, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” Anyone know someone that thought this was in the Bible?
While those are silly examples, not knowing what’s in the Bible can actually ruin our belt of truth. Let’s quickly go through some more serious examples. I’ll read a statement people think is Biblical, and you tell me why it’s not true.
Non-Biblical Sayings:
-Money is the root of all evil
(Answer: The love of money is the root of all evil - 1 Timothy 6:10)
-And this too shall pass
(Answer: September 30, 1859: Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lincoln speaking at the Wisconsin State Fair about America’s future, “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentiment to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride; how consoling in the depths of affliction! ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral worlds within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.”
-Pride comes before a fall
(Answer: Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. -Proverbs 16:18
Anyone know what haughty means? Hebrew gives the idea of grand and lifted up)
-God helps those who help themselves
(Answer: It helps you to help yourself. God loves you and will help you best He can even when you don’t know how to help yourself, or you’re in the middle of trying to destroy yourself. How many countless testimonies have we heard of people running from God, and God saved them when they should have gotten in a lot of trouble or even died? God also answers the prayers of saints over people that refuse to help themselves. God is love!)
-All good things come to those that wait
(Answer: Isaiah 40:31 “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Waiting on the Lord is good, but this doesn’t indicate a looooong length of time. When I hear this statement, it’s normally used in conjunction with people making excuses for not receiving answered prayer from the Lord. It’s just not a Biblical statement. “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” 2 Corinthians 1:20 –As for unanswered prayer, this series should answer some of those questions. We don’t have any scriptures where God said, “Wait, just wait, just because..")
- Like Job, God might be testing you
(Answer: This is a deep study for another day!!! Basically Job said that his fears came upon him and what he dreaded happened {Job 3:25}. He thought about death and destruction constantly. That’s not the characteristic of someone walking with God. The Bible says in James 1:13, Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. Tempt in Greek is tempt, try, or test. The reason is because if you sin, then your sin would be a result of God’s hand. Now, I do believe God sends us SELF TESTS so we can check ourselves. {Give your own example, my true story follows if you need one}
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I’ll use a story from a minister that represents this point in a great way! She was praying, “God use me. I want to minister to people again. I’m Your servant. I belong serving and telling people about Jesus.” Later that night she was walking her dog and talking on the phone. What she described as “a young gay and seemingly annoying man” tried to speak to her about her dog and walk with her. She sort of ignored him to which he replied, “I don’t bite” and walked off with attitude. She said that in her heart her prayers from earlier that day came back to mind. She hung up from her friend and chased after the young man to walk with him. “It turns out he was annoying,” she said, “just out of jail for stabbing his narcistic mother in the breast, refused to accept responsibility for his actions, and he was dealing with some depression.” She started to minister to him, but he found a “hot guy” and took off. The Lord didn’t tell her to minister, because God knew he would run off to another man anyway. It was a self-test to show where she needed to grow, and how she should have been ready and looking at everyone as the mission field. On the positive side, the Lord reminded her how she’s not afraid to minister to people that stab and murder. Sometimes we need a wakeup call that we’re asking for something we’re not ready to do.)
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You cannot fail or sin as a result of a self-test that comes from God.
-Lucifer was the praise and worship leader of Heaven
(Answer: There is no scripture giving any human or angel this position in Heaven. This position may or may not exist, but it’s more likely we won’t need one because of the constant praise. What scripture does say about Lucifer in Greek is that he was Jesus’ personal angel. Isaiah 14:12 says, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” Angels were referred to as sons of God. Then we flip over to Revelations 2:16, and Jesus says to John, “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” I will be honest; the original Hebrew scroll of Revelations doesn’t have “the Bright and Morning Star.” It could be a copy error on behalf of the Hebrew writer, or later added by the Greeks. Whatever the case, we have no evidence Lucifer was praise and worship leader. It does say he walked in the stones of fire. The music leader title most-likely came from the Hebrew word for jewelry setting being the same word as the percussions on a tambourine that described the jewelry setting in Lucifer’s chest. It’s either revealing or confusing.)
-God is in control
(Answer: This is not in the Bible; however, there are people that swear it is… somewhere… in the Old Testament… the section that few people read, a hidden gem. This statement is just not there. The Bible does say Satan is the god of this world/age in 2 Corinthians 4:4. A good example of God not being in full control is when Israel wanted a king. God told them no, but they didn’t listen. God wasn’t in control. To make this statement more Biblical you’d have to say, “God is in control of what I place in His hands.“ Another good one is, “God is in control when I do things His way.”
- God is sovereign
(Answer: Surprise! How many people thought it was there? The NIV uses it as a title of a section in Romans 9, but it’s not in scripture. Dictionary.com defines it as a supreme ruler, especially a monarch. It’s nowhere in the Bible, because this term didn’t come about in English until the late 13th century, and the definition was, “a king or queen, one who exercises dominion over people, a recognized supreme ruler of a realm." People say, “God is sovereign,” and then proceed to add whatever they think of God, because it’s not in scripture. Some people use this to simply relate God to an Earthly king, and some take this as far to prove, “God is in control….. of everything, even your sin.” When you hear this statement, just know it’s not scripture, and what follows must be checked by the Word. You might think, “But the Bible calls God a King!” Yes, but there is a very different view of sovereign government and our God. Sovereign Earthly kings have said, if you worship any other way than through the Catholic church, you’ll be put to death. If they caught you having a Bible study, they put you to death. Then we see in the Bible where God says not to have any other gods, and they did it anyway. What happened was different. God didn’t kill them; He just simply couldn’t protect them from their enemies. The Earthly king demanded it or your life. Our Father, the King, says it like stay with Me, I’ll protect you. Forgiveness has always been and will be easily obtained with God while forgiveness with sovereign kings and queens isn’t easily obtained. We have to remember King Henry 8th was a monarch type of government, it was sovereign. He beheaded two of his wives. His son then daughter ruled after him. His daughter was Queen Mary and got the nickname Bloody Mary for burning about 300 non-Catholic Christians alive in an attempt to restore the Catholic faith. It’s said they named the popular tomato-based vodka drink, Bloody Mary, after her. While King Henry the 8th, who also killed Christians that didn’t recognize him as head of the church, and his daughter Bloody Mary were not fully sovereign, but their government was sovereign. The real question is should we insist on classifying God’s kingdom as sovereign? Absolutely not! I’m not saying we should never use it, but we must be mindful when using it or listening to it being taught. The context it’s being used in is important. Whatever anyone thinks about God and sovereignty, it’s just not in the Bible! That’s why we must pay close attention to the comments that follow, because that is where you’ll need to check the information before accepting it as truth.)
God’s cool, right? For gen-Z, God’s gas, right? It’s not against the Word of God, it’s just not in there. It depends on your definition of cool or gas, and the context in which it’s being used. God’s cool, like I can sin and say sorry; or is God cool like, He gets me and has my back? Everyone with me? Context is everything!
How did YOUR spiritual truth do for this self-test?
The way to keep your belt of truth strong, and this goes for every Christian, is to learn to lean on the Holy Spirit.
John 16:12-13
12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;
The Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit is living inside of you. He is the only one that can shed light where we need it. Often times things are sitting inside of us, and we don’t even think about questioning it. For example, this might be sitting inside of your spirit…
Mark 14:51-52
50Then they all forsook Him and fled. 51Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, 52and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.
We all know the story how Jesus was praying in the garden, the disciples were sleeping, and Judas came with the soldiers to arrest Him. There is a very popular teaching out there saying that this “certain young man” stripped naked after Jesus’ arrest was actually John. The Greek word used for linen cloth, sindón, means costly bleached white linen. The only other time this word was used in Greek was to describe the linen Jesus was buried in. But this “It was John” teaching claims it was “night clothes.” The teaching goes on to say that John was young, so he put his pajamas on after dinner, and that’s what the soldiers pulled off. It’s in many commentaries! The Bible says, “all forsook Him.” All means all, but somehow it became popular to teach John ran away, promptly did a U-turn, came back, and then was stripped naked of his PJs. I really dislike this teaching, because saying a young man in his PJs was laying on Jesus is just horribly wrong! Let’s look at the Complete Jewish Translation:
51There was one young man who did try to follow him; but he was wearing only a nightshirt; and when they tried to seize him, 52he slipped out of the nightshirt and ran away naked.
The translators of this Bible took the weird teaching and incorporated it into scripture. There is a way to solve this, thankfully, if someone doesn’t believe that all means all. The original Hebrew manuscript has been found and translated to English. Let’s look at that:
50And then all the talmidim (disciples) fled and left him. 51And there was a certain young man, Malbishan, who was clothed with one white [linen sheet], and they seized him; 52but he let go of the [linen sheet] and fled from them totally naked.
The note about the name Malbishan: Probably his nickname meaning something like ‘clother’
While this is not an Earth-shaking Heaven-or-Hell matter about John doing weird things in his PJs verses Malbishan the clothes maker (tailor), there is a very important question that we don’t know the answer! Is there any wrong belief hanging around in us that’s preventing our truth belt from staying on properly? Only the Lord can answer this question. This is something we should periodically be praying about.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Part of having a stronger and more secure truth belt is having a teachable spirit about yourself. When someone thinks they know everything, that’s when they’re done learning. That’s getting into pride or religious spirits.
Matthew 7:1-2
1“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
This doesn’t just mean with people. This is a spiritual law! We see the same concept with killing people in Revelations.
Revelations 13:10
He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.
This is the law of sowing and reaping, a theme we see throughout the Bible.
Galatians 6:7-8
7Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
If you want to go far into the things of God, you must have a teachable spirit. If you use the measure of, “I know all there is to know,” or “I have the answers to everything” you’re done learning! You measured yourself as the top, the best, the gold standard, and what everyone should measure themselves to. We don’t think of it that way when the enemy temps us, but pride is definitely there and most of us have been tempted this way. Then the Lord will look down and say, “Ok, you know everything. I’ll stop teaching you. Go on ahead without Me.” Why? Because you measured yourself at the top, sowed into the flesh and then will reap of the flesh. What can people reap of the flesh? Weird religious ideas that stops their prayer life. It happens all the time. It’s not that God wants to punish, sends a delusion, or wants bad things to happen. It’s just that the law of sowing and reaping was activated with words and an attitude of the heart. Keeping yourself moldable in His hands will not only smooth out the rough edges, but He will teach you His truth and give you the ability to discern. This way you can earn a bigger stronger belt with small weapons attached to it and earn prestige in the spiritual realm. While the Bible doesn’t say prestige in the spiritual realm, the Roman soldiers did use their belt for prestige! If you think about it, those that know the Bible in depth with revelational wisdom and revelational knowledge are sought out for information.
Discernment of truth: it’s more important now than ever to have your truth belt strong and in good shape. In today’s day and age we have so many pastors, teachers, book writers, bloggers, influencers, and radio personalities that are NOT anointed to preach and/or teach. With platforms being so easily accessible and money available, these people are out there putting out content. Some have good intentions that are misguided, while others are way out of the love walk and need to rededicate their life to the Lord, and then we have everything in between. How do we know if we should listen or run? The best way is to use the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, but we’ll quickly go over some red flags that should make you absolutely focus on getting discernment from the Holy Spirit! This list isn’t necessarily for us, because we’re here in church, but more for loved ones that we want to protect.
Insults, Judgements, Corrections
If someone is calling pastors, teachers, or influencers out by name, best to not involve yourself! Influencers have entire channels based on correcting various ministers. We need to remember a couple things. There is no ministry of corrections, and there is no gift of correction. There is no ministry of exposing, and there is no gift of exposing. The Bible calls Satan the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). People are trying to disqualify themselves from acting like Satan by saying, “This person is a false teacher. That person is a false prophet.” If someone claims salvation only in Jesus’ name, do not be unwise and listen to anyone call that minister false! People are saying false teacher, false preacher, false prophet so much that it just means, “I don’t agree with you. I don’t want anyone to listen to you. I want you to shut up and go away.” David is our example of where the standard should be set. Saul was trying to kill David, he lost God’s anointing, but yet David still honored him. Another way people are trying to get around the Bible, being free to say whatever they want, is to claim the person is “not called by God.” We just read this scripture “Judge not, that you be not judged.” The insulting influencer doesn’t know if the minister isn’t called, didn’t go through the process the Lord had asked them to, or if the minister has gotten off track. In any case, it’s still not our business. We’re called to love everyone! (Share a story to give people a revelation of true love when it comes to correction. My true story is below.)
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I’m going to share a true story about a minister that was trying to “correct people” on the internet “in love.” She really thought she was helping by telling everyone the truth in a nice way. One day, she accidentally found herself in a heated discussion over truth.
Holy Spirit: Would you lend them $20?
Minister: No
Holy Spirit: Would you drive them to the other side of town if they had an appointment and needed a ride?
Minster: Nooo!
Holy Spirit: Would you give your life for them?
Minister: NOOOO!!! No way, never!
Holy Spirit: THEN I DIDN’T CALL YOU TO CORRECT THEM!!!
Minister: *gasp*
That’s a good check list for us all to know if we’re to privately and especially publicly correct someone or not, even if it’s just a couple words in the comment section. Jesus did publicly correct, but He was going to die for those that He was correcting. God truly knows our heart, if we’re willing to give them $20, a ride, or to die for that person.
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Yammering on and on
There is nothing wrong with talking a lot, but yammering on and on with repetitive chatter means they have a lack of revelational knowledge. They may be using someone else’s information and don’t quite understand it. Often times they’ll say something repeatedly like, “you know what I mean,” and continue to yammer. They’re passing out milk and not meat. They’re just giving surface information, Captain Obvious. In this situation, I’m not talking about kids, teens, or very young adults. With age comes wisdom, and we should be supportive if they’re getting the Word out there to their generation!
Sometimes yammering could also mean that a person doesn’t have peace. Now I’m not suggesting you judge them. But there are times when someone is teaching and not called to do so, the Holy Spirit is tapping on them asking them to stop. They refuse to stop and have no peace in what they are saying and doing, so they’re overtalking. These people hand out some meat with milk and water.
“It’s not in the Bible, but it’s a spiritual truth.”
This statement is surprisingly taught in churches! In order for it to be truth, it has to be in the Bible! If that “truth” is not in the Bible, it’s garbage. Wisdom can help you elaborate on certain points that aren’t directly written in the Bible, but never allow unbiblical words to get inside of your heart.
For example, if you have a gift and you place yourself under someone that is already using that gift, they can teach you how to accelerate that gift. No one can say, “Turn to 2 Acts 4 where we learn that sitting on your butt on your couch waiting on God to activate your evangelism gift won’t work. Your gift will only start working when you step out in faith and use it.” Once we understand these points, we can see it’s inferred in scripture. That’s what gifts, teachings, and mentorships are meant to do! They aren’t meant to draw you outside the Word or rewrite the meaning of the Bible, but bring out wisdom and revelation. If an influencer is adding if, ands, or buts heavily based on experience it means it’s time to ask the Holy Spirit if you should be feeding your spirit on what they’re saying.
Lost Books of the Bible… It’s in the Book of Enoch…
The Holy Spirit put all the books into the Bible that He wanted. There are no lost books waiting to be discovered. The reason they’re not accepted, hidden, and not discovered is because they weren’t meant to be in the Bible. If He wanted us to read them, He would have included them. Yes, the Book of Jasher is referenced in the Bible. The Dead Sea scrolls, the oldest and largest collection of manuscripts of the Old Testament we have, doesn’t contain the Book of Jasher. The Book of Jasher was NOT well preserved by Jews. That should tell us something. As for my readings, there was only one copy of this scroll found and in poor condition. If the Jews didn’t see fit to preserve it, neither should we. The Book of Enoch was in the Dead Sea Scrolls. That doesn’t mean that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. There were other writings found with the Dead Sea scrolls that weren’t considered as sacred by the Jews either. It’s been suggested by scholars, who worked on reading the scrolls, that the Dead Sea scroll location is where old scrolls went to retire. They didn’t want to burn them or bury them, so they moved them into a cave and guarded them.
This is important to know: The Book of Enoch was not written by Enoch! The author used his name as a means to make himself credible, and that’s just lie number one. There is no credible evidence that Enoch wrote the book. It contradicts the Bible, which tells us it’s best to just leave it alone. Because I don’t want to encourage anyone digging in it, we’ll go through a couple contradictions. Chapter 2 verse 3 talks about rain before the flood with Noah’s ark. Clouds make rain, right? No rain, no clouds! Deep studies done by creationists reveal the pre-flood Earth was drastically different. So, back to Enoch Chapter 2 verse 3.
Behold the summer and the winter, how the whole earth is filled with water, and clouds and dew and rain lie upon it.
The Bible says in Genesis 2:5-6
“5…For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.”
Before Noah’s ark, there was an entirely different watering system. The Book of Enoch is ignorant of that fact. They didn’t know what rain was. There were no clouds and storms, because the Earth had a canopy that was broken up that caused the initial rain.
Chapter 6 of Enoch talks about demons and humans having babies, so Chapter 2 verse 3 was still pre-flood condition.
Book of Enoch says in chapter 67 verses 1-2
1. … ‘Noah, thy lot has come Up before Me, a lot without blame, a lot of love and uprightness.
2. And now the angels are making a wooden (building), and when they have completed that task I will place My hand upon it and preserve it…..
We all know the Bible says in Gensis 6 that God told Noah
14Make yourself an ark of gopherwood
22Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
There are many contradictions in the book of Enoch. We shouldn’t even open this book up as “history,” because we don’t have the ability to discern how much is fable and if anything is real at all. It’s quite possible someone was in contact with demons to receive the vast amount of demon names and demon information written in this book, which is a greater reason for me to say, “It’s best to leave it alone.” There is even a part where it claims God’s light it yellow, and in the Bible it’s always white light.
Today we had an in-depth look at truth. I hope you feel inspired to speak to the Holy Spirit this week and ask Him to show you if you need to make some adjustments on what you believe is truth. There is a scripture that I like to turn into a prayer that helped me grow in truth of the spirit, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV.
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
“Lord, teach me, rebuke me, correct me
and train me in righteousness,
so that I may be thoroughly equipped.”
We already went over John 16:13, Holy Spirit, “He will guide you into all truth.” I want to encourage you, the more you look towards Him for truth, the more He will teach you. But always remember, the best way to spot a fake is to study the original. The same holds true with the Word, study the Word and you’ll be able to spot any veering off immediately.
And that brings us to the piece for next week, breastplate of righteousness. You don’t want to miss that study, because we will talk about the two types of righteousness.
Homework this week!
1. Turn 2 Timothy 3:16-17 into your own personal prayer
2. Ask the Holy Spirit if there are any truth adjustments you must make
(Prayer points:
- Holy Spirit shine light in our heart this week and show us if there are any truth adjustments
- Give us wisdom and discernment about the ministries that we follow
- Lord, teach us, rebuke us, correct us, and train us in righteousness so that we may be thoroughly equipped
- Remind us to write our growth progress and bring them in as testimonies
In Jesus’ name, Amen)
