Standing On Truth

[00:00:01] Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Now. Enjoy the message. Well, good morning again. We are in a new series called Indivisible War. [00:00:29] And the series is really about spiritual warfare. And it's one of the things that most Christians are ill equipped and ill prepared to face. And it's a reality that every Christ follower has to face. And that is we have an opposition, we have an oppression that is a reality in our lives. And there is an evil force in the world today in the presence of the devil. The devil has many demonic spirits. [00:00:55] And if you believe in a holy Spirit, you have to believe in an unholy spirit. And as powerful as God is in all things, the second most powerful being in the world is that enemy that we all have. I talked about it last week, our common enemy, the devil. And to be equipped and to be informed is the smartest thing for a Christ follower to do. And the Bible gives us great instruction about how to deal with this enemy. I heard about one of my favorite stories about this, a little country church, and this pastor was preaching on the devil, the reality of the devil. And man, he just preached it so clearly, so plainly, and all of a sudden there was this incredible supernatural manifestation on the platform where the devil himself appeared in front of that little country church. And all the people ran in fear, screaming out of the building. Everybody except one little old man sitting on the front row, he just folded his arms, he stared a hole through the devil. The devil looked at him and he said, are you afraid of me? He goes, I'm not afraid of you. He said, you know who I am. He said, I know who you are. He said, then if you know who I am and you're, why would you not be afraid of me? He said, cause I was married to your sister for 50 years. [00:02:10] Well, it kind of softens it a little bit when you've dealt with him before. [00:02:14] So last week I talked about the reality of the devil. He is our common enemy. And one of the tactics he uses, he's using it in our country, he uses it in churches, he uses it in families, is to divide and to conquer. There was a prophecy I talked about last week in Matthew 10, Mark 13 where he says he sets brother against brother, sister against sister, family against family, and he turns people against one another. [00:02:41] And in Ephesians 6, he comes back to remind us, your fight, your fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers. There is an evil force in the world, and the reason it is difficult to deal with some people is because the enemy works in and through people. [00:02:58] He cannot legally appear. As the little story I told you, he cannot legally appear. He has to appear in bodily form. [00:03:07] His demonic spirits have to appear in bodily form. In the Bible, they invaded a bunch of pigs, and when Jesus cast them out of some people, they went into the hogs and went off the side of the mountain. And so a spirit, a disembodied spirit, has to have a body. And so you have this idea of demonic possession. You say, bill, do you believe that can happen? I do believe that can happen. I believe there is such a thing. The Bible speaks of it as demonic possession. Now, look, I don't believe a Christian, a Christ follower, can be possessed by a demonic spirit. The Bible teaches in First Corinthians 10, what agreement does Christ have with Belial or Light have with darkness? Meaning that if the spirit of God is living within you, the unholy spirit cannot live in that same body. So while Christians cannot be possessed by a demonic spirit, listen to this. They can be obsessed with a demonic spirit, meaning he may not possess you, he may obsess you, meaning he's around you, he's tempting you, they are after you. They are trying to violently fight against you. And the devil is a relentless adversary. He never gives in, he never gives out. He never gives up. And he tries so hard to attack people who know and love Jesus Christ because his main objective is to keep people out of heaven. [00:04:25] The main objective as a church and Christ followers is to get people into heaven. [00:04:30] And so what he tries to do is he tries to fight against that. He'll try to discredit you, he'll try to discourage you. He'll try to disappoint you, to keep you from being the witness that God has called you to be. So I'm just saying, as we talked last weekend, as we go into this series about an indivisible war, I want you to be aware that there is a real living being called the devil. He is a decided fact. He is a destructive force, but he is also a defeated foe. But until Jesus one day banishes him into hell for the rest of existence and all of eternity, he's gonna be a problem to all of us. And he is a problem to us even today. And if he has not given us grief, he has demonic spirits sometimes working in and through people and other things to give us some grief. And you have to recognize not just the person, but the power behind the person that is responsible for all that destruction. And that's the devil. [00:05:22] And so this morning, I wanna talk to you about the armor that God has given us to protect ourselves against that onslaught and against that attack. He has not left his kids defenseless in this world. He hasn't just sent us out into the world to face his enemy and all of his demonic host without defenses. In fact, that's the very thing the Apostle Paul was talking about in Ephesians chapter 6 when he is talking about the fact that Christ's followers, you and I, we have armor that we can wear. We have things that we can actually do that will help us to do two things. Stand against the devil and to withstand his attack. In fact, look with me in Ephesians 6 for those two verses and look at verses 13 and 14. [00:06:06] Therefore. [00:06:08] Now remember, when you see the word therefore, always look and see what it's there for. He's about to connect what he just said with what he's about to say. He just said, you have a devil. Your fight is against spiritual powers and principalities. Your fight is against the evil one. There is a real living entity called the devil, because that's true. Therefore, because there is an enemy. Therefore, he says, take up the whole armor of God now. Notice the responsibility he puts on us as Christians. This is something God's not gonna do for me. He's not gonna do this for you. As much as he loves me, he's not gonna dress me. He's not gonna do like mom dad did when we were little and say, okay, let's get our shoes on now, let's get our jacket on. Let's get our little coat on. Now. He's not gonna do that. And I point that out simply because a lot of Christians are living defeated lives because they're not doing what this text says to do. They're going out ill prepared, they're going out unaware. They're going out not ready to face this enemy. So he says, you and I have an opportunity, but we have an obligation to put on some armor that will help us deal with this adversary. So take up the armor of God. Why? [00:07:18] That you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all, to stand. Think about those two words, withstand, stand, Withstand. Stand. To withstand means to oppose. [00:07:31] It means sometimes to violently oppose. To withstand means I have dealt with this and I'm now coming against this. [00:07:39] To stand means to endure. [00:07:41] I'm going to tolerate this. I'm gonna stand strong. I'm gonna stand firm in my faith. I'm standing. Nothing's going to get me to waver. Those are strong words, to stand and to withstand. And he's saying, when you are wearing the armor of God and the enemy is attacking you, then you're going to successfully do two things. You're going to withstand and you're going to stand. [00:08:02] Now what that means is if you don't withstand and you don't stand, you're to going, you're lacking somewhere in the armor. You're missing a piece of the armor. And so here he's talking about it, saying that stand, therefore look down. Verse 14. Having your waist girded about with truth. Now, he starts with the first piece of the armor. And I won't read beyond there for now because I wanna talk about the first piece of the armor is truth. [00:08:28] Now, when Paul had this image in mind of the Roman soldier, the centurion, he looked at the belt that that Roman soldier wore. And what he noticed about that wide belt that went around his waist is it would do a couple of things. One, it would give his core support. [00:08:44] And if you're gonna be in a fight, you need your core supported, you need your back supported, you need to. And so not only did it support the core of a warrior, but it also held all the other armor together. [00:08:56] It kept his robe from kind of flailing and flapping in the wind. [00:09:00] That's why football players, man, they wear those tight jerseys. Cause they're running down the field and it's hard to get ahold of them. If that jersey's flapping in the wind, they're gonna grab that thing and pull them down so that they want that uniform tight. They want it tight. Well, what would the belt do for this soldier? It pulled everything in tight. It held it together, it supported the core. It gave a place for the sword of the spirit that we'll get into in a few weeks. The word of God, the sword, it gave it a place for that to fit. [00:09:30] So the first thing Paul talks about when he's saying, arm yourself against the enemy so you can stand and withstand, he said, you need the belt. And what is the belt? It's truth. [00:09:41] It is truth. I submit this morning that the number one thing the enemy is attacking today is truth. [00:09:48] People have become cynical. In fact, I read a troubling statistic that said 67% of people when surveyed in America, say they do not believe in absolute truth. [00:09:59] 67%. [00:10:01] Now let me give you the other part of that statistic that's gonna blow your hat in the Creek. He said 52% of Christians do not believe in absolute truth. That is shocking to me. [00:10:13] 52%. So what's the strategy of the devil? The strategy of the devil, first and foremost, primarily, is to undermine truth. To get us cynically to say who can know what's true and what's false? [00:10:26] Who really knows? There was a. After World War I, there was a shift in theological circles that started in Germany with German rationalism. And it was a shift called neo orthodoxy. Neo orthodoxy. [00:10:43] Now, orthodoxy is the basic, traditional view of Scripture. It's my orthodoxy. For example, I would say my orthodoxy is to believe the Bible doesn't just contain the word of God, the Bible is the word of God. That's my orthodoxy. That's traditionally been the view of the church is the Bible is reliable and there's no. Well, when neo orthodoxy, a new way, a new orthodoxy came along, it said this. It says the Bible contains the Word of God, but it's not actually the word of God. [00:11:18] There are parts of the Bible that are reliable, and there are parts that are not reliable. And it left it up to the person to pick and choose which parts are reliable and which parts aren't. [00:11:30] That opened the door to existentialism, where you would read the Bible and say, well, if it's reasonable and if I agree with it, then I'll apply it and I'll do it. So instead of placing God as the final authority over his own word, we become the final authority on God's word. [00:11:48] Let me tell you where that leads you. It's a slippery slope. Ultimately, that leads you into moral relativism. See, if this sounds familiar, what's true to you may not be true to me. You have a truth, I have a truth. My truth may not square with your truth. And that's okay. Cause we all have our truth. Cause if there's no foundation, if there's no basis for truth, then that is true. You have a truth and I have a truth. And so that's where neo orthodoxy, how it's affected the church and influenced so many people, it's undermined it to the point of view that 52% of Christians when surveyed, say, I don't think there is absolute truth. [00:12:24] I don't think you can have an Absolute standard for morality, for right and wrong. I don't think you actually can know. [00:12:30] Now, let me give you a practical way that underscores how ridiculous that argument actually is. [00:12:37] In our government, there is a department called the Department of Weights and Measures. Have you ever heard of that? Department of Weights and Measurements. You know what they're designed to do? They're designed to make certain that there is a standard of truth across all lines that governs how we weigh things and how we measure things. [00:12:56] You go to the grocery store today, and when you go back there to buy vegetables, if you weigh your vegetables, if you'll notice on the scale there's a little green sticker. And it will say, US Department of Weights and Measures. And on that little sticker it will be a day whereby that was inspected. [00:13:13] Meaning that when you get a pound of potatoes, you're gonna make sure you got a pound of potatoes. Otherwise, if there's no standard by which to measure your vegetables, you're gonna go to the cash register and say, this is a quarter of a pound. [00:13:27] And the cashier may say, that feels more like a pound. And you say, but that's your truth. [00:13:36] My truth is that's more like a quarter of a pound. [00:13:39] So who decides whose truth is true? The Department of Weights and Measures. [00:13:44] We go back to say, well, on the scale there is a seal, and that says that this is a pound or this is a quarter of a pound. And we agree, and we pay based upon that. We all agree to that. An atheist will agree to that. An atheist will do that. [00:13:59] Go to the gas station. If you'll notice on the pump somewhere there's gonna be a seal, United States Department of Weights and Measures. And it's gonna be there to determine when you pay for a gallon of gas. You get a gallon of gas. [00:14:13] Otherwise, you say, I just filled my truck up for four bucks. [00:14:17] That's my truth. [00:14:19] And the person behind there that owns the gas station saying, you, truth's gonna break me. My truth says, you owe me about 90 bucks. [00:14:26] And you say, I'm sorry, man, that's your truth. [00:14:29] I got my own truth. [00:14:31] You see how convoluted that argument can become when you just apply it into everyday. Apply it to science. [00:14:38] You go to your doctor and your doctor says, I know something's wrong with you. It could be neurological. [00:14:44] It may be something in your feet. [00:14:46] So I'll hit the middle. Let's just operate on your stomach and see how it goes. [00:14:50] You'd say, you're a quack. You're crazy. [00:14:54] Why? Because a doctor is relying on science, the doctor is relying on facts. There is a standard by which that treatment is measured and determined. [00:15:04] Apply that to your bank. [00:15:07] You make a deposit tomorrow, I promise you. You're gonna wanna know if Your banker believes two plus two equals four, not two plus two is three. [00:15:16] I put 1,000 bucks in here. The banker says, that feels more like 500 to me. Why don't we split the difference? You're gonna say, no, I want a standard. I want a measurement. You're getting my point. [00:15:26] My point is, if you can undermine the standard of morality, if you can understand the standard for right and wrong, if there's no standards, if we can't agree that truth can be measured and that there is something called absolute truth, then where that takes you is down the path of existentialism, moral relativism. Whereas where we are in our country today to a point where you have a truth, they have a truth, all God's children have truth, everybody has a truth. And you wind up 52% saying you. I don't think there is any absolute truth. It's convoluted, it's confusing. [00:16:00] And I'm just simply suggesting to you that just as it doesn't work at Kroger or Quickstop or at the physician or at the bank, it doesn't work in your life either. You have to make a decision over how true truth is. [00:16:16] And historically, our country has embraced truth. [00:16:20] Truth that is found in God's word. When you study our history, you find that a lot of our laws are Founding fathers. They embraced the Judeo Christian ethic. They embraced the truth of God's word. A lot of our laws were established based upon the commandments of God. [00:16:36] We have now, thanks to, by the way, two families in our church that remain anonymous, but they purchased the monument that is now downtown Fort Worth of the Ten Commandments. Two families in our church purchased that monument and. And put that there with the Ten Commandments. And one of our ladies who's in the room this morning, she championed that cause. Ruth Ray, sitting right over there to get the Ten Commandments. Ruth, would you stand? Let's. Thank you for that good work that you did. [00:17:03] Thank you, Ruth. [00:17:07] I'm just saying, you can't separate the truth of God's Word from moral absolutes, from law, from reason, from. From right and wrong. And I just. I want you to understand this. There has been an effort since the Garden of Eden, of the devil, to undermine what is truth. [00:17:25] Go with me to Genesis 3. I'll underscore this in Genesis chapter 3, you have the original temptation. Now, let me give you context. When God set everything up and he created the world, he created in perfection. By the way, he created the devil in perfection. [00:17:42] Read Ezekiel 28. The Bible says when God created the devil, when he created, he was the son of the morning, and he created him. The Scripture says imperfection. He placed within the devil the ability to choose, just as he placed within mankind the ability to choose. [00:17:57] Some people have this little syllogism that says, well, if God had never placed the devil, or if he had never placed the tree in the garden, then evil would never existed. And because he did that, then this all goes back to God. Why did he put a tree in the garden? And why did he give the devil to us? And wouldn't it have been better if none of that had ever happened? And so they go back and put it all on God and say, well, this is evil in the world, and the devil's really God's fault. He created all that. [00:18:23] Well, it's missing the point. The point is, when God created everything, he created everything in perfection. [00:18:29] You say, well, what about the tree in the garden? It's a great question. God placed the tree in the garden and said, don't eat of the tree of the garden. The not so that they would choose to eat of the tree in the garden, but so that they would have a choice. [00:18:41] Let me tell you something. If you're not free to choose not to love someone, you're not truly free to love someone. [00:18:51] God didn't place a tree in the garden so that man would choose to break his law and to bring sin into the world. He placed the tree in the garden so man would choose to love him and not love him because he had no other choice. [00:19:04] But did it shock God? No. [00:19:06] He knew. Look, if we create the devil, we create man, and we give them a will, they're gonna choose against us. They're going to rebel. That's just the nature of the thing. So we have to plan a way back. And what is a way back? Jesus will have to go to the cross. [00:19:19] That's why you read in Revelation where the Bible says concerning Jesus, he was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. [00:19:27] The cross wasn't an afterthought on the part of Jesus. [00:19:30] We received communion this morning, and I'm telling you, Jesus knew before he ever stepped from nowhere and before he came into our existence, he knew. He knew from eternity that he would be the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. [00:19:44] So I'm just suggesting to your heart that the tree was in the garden so man would choose to love him. God created the devil imperfection, but the devil chose against God. And the root reason, as I talked about last weekend, was pride. [00:19:57] Read Isaiah 14:5 times. The devil says, I will be like God. I will ascend into heaven. I will create my throne above the throne of God. I will, I will, I will, I will. All sin is rooted in simply me saying I will above God's will. [00:20:12] Remember in the garden when Jesus prayed before going to the cross, how did he pray? Not my will be done, but thine be done. [00:20:20] That's why he said in the model prayer, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. That's why he says, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So I'm just suggesting to your heart that the train jumped the track because man chose against God. Man chose to sin. So here in the garden, God tells Adam and Eve, you can have all the greatness of the garden, you can enjoy everything. Just don't touch, don't eat of that tree. That's the only thing that's off limits. And the day you do that, there's some terrible things that are going to happen. [00:20:51] So that's the context. Look at verse 1, Genesis 3. The serpent was more subtle verse than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, did God really say that? Now I don't know what type of serpent that was. I don't know. Obviously it was a form that the devil could enter into and speak through. As I said a moment ago that the demons don't have the authority to appear. They have to come in the form of a body. That's the way God set everything up. And so the devil didn't have the freedom to just appear. He had to appear in the form of some kind of entity. And so in this case he appears in the form of this serpent. And so it must have been common cause it didn't freak her out. It's not common today. A snake starts talking to me, I'm totally freaked out. How about you? I don't like em when they don't talk. That's just me. But he just said, has God said, Are you sure you heard what God said? Now before I go any further, do you see what just happened there? The first temptation was was to put a question mark on God's word. You see how this whole thing kind of ties back together? I mean, is that really? Do you really believe in absolute truth? You believe in moral truth? Do you believe anybody? Can anybody decide what's right or what's wrong? Really? Is that really possible? [00:22:06] And the original temptation, the devil kind of said, I don't think that's possible. Are you really understood God that way? And he goes on to say, you'll not eat of the tree of the garden. That what he said. [00:22:15] And the woman said, well, we can eat of the trees of the garden. There's just one tree that you'll not eat of. Neither will you touch it, lest you die. Of course, she added to that. Cause he didn't say not to touch it, but she wouldn't listen. Very good. [00:22:28] And then the serpent said to the woman, you're not gonna die. Are you kidding me? Are you sure you're interpreting that right? You're not going to die. God knows. And the day your eyes will be open, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. So the woman saw it was good for food, pleasant for the eyes, desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate her husband with her, and he ate. And then you have the fall of all mankind. That's found in that simple interaction. [00:22:53] But what I wanna focus on in just a few moments that you and I have left together is I wanna look at the temptation and how he attacked truth. [00:23:01] And the first thing I don't want you to miss is I don't want you to miss how it was, first and foremost, a subtle disguise. [00:23:08] A subtle. It didn't, on its surface appear to be evil. It was subtle. You know what the Bible says about the devil. It teaches us in, what is it, 2 Corinthians 11:14. [00:23:20] It simply says, he can come as a angel of light. [00:23:25] In other words, he can appear as something pleasing and something good. Most temptations, let's face it, most temptations wouldn't be a temptation if it isn't appealing to something that we want to do right. Or there's no temptation. You're not tempted to do something that on its surface looks horrible or on its surface doesn't look like it would be fulfilling or fun. [00:23:49] The Bible says in Hebrews, the pleasures of sin are joyful for a season. [00:23:53] There is. Anybody tells you there's no fun in sin, they're just not doing it right. [00:23:59] There is pleasure in sin. Or so it wouldn't be people doing it. It wouldn't be a tempt. Why would it be a temptation if it's not enjoyable? Yeah, there's a pleasure in sin. [00:24:09] It's trying to take something God intended for good and it's distorting it and perverting it into something he never intended it to be. [00:24:17] So I'm just saying, and don't miss this point, that when the devil approaches her to question truth, it's a subtle. It's a subtle approach. [00:24:25] He doesn't appear to her and he doesn't say, don't you want to be like me? [00:24:29] He says, don't you want to be like God? [00:24:32] So the temptation wasn't to fall down. The temptation was to fall up. [00:24:36] And she's weighing that out. And she's trying to rationalize what he's telling her to do. And he says it sounds reasonable. [00:24:43] You know what happen when you try to rationalize? You tell yourself rational lies. [00:24:49] And so in her mind, she's trying to rationalize what she's doing. She's telling herself some rational lies to justify the question mark where God had placed the period. So you have this subtle. Notice the second thing about it. Not only was it a subtle disguise, it was a sinister deception. [00:25:07] Notice what he says to her. You're not gonna die. [00:25:11] God said, you'll die. You're not gonna. What are you talking about? [00:25:14] I mean, that's ridiculous, the fact that you're gonna die. God breathed in the nostrils of the breath of life. You're a living eternal, so you're not gonna die. What are you talking. Well, God was speaking to her on two levels. He was talking about, you'll die spiritually and you'll begin to die physically and before sin into the picture. Neither one of those are realities. [00:25:32] Physical death, what didn't happen until sin. [00:25:36] Spiritual death is just separation from God. And that didn't happen till sin. So do you see how he's deceiving her? He's telling her, no, that's not right. [00:25:44] You're not going to die. [00:25:46] That's crazy. Then he said, your eyes will be open. [00:25:49] You're gonna see things that you never saw about yourself. The truth. You hear this. Sometimes the truth is within you. Just look within yourself and find the truth. You don't need to look and see what God says about you. What do you say about you? [00:26:01] What do you say about you? That's the most important truth is what is the truth that you say about you? And he takes and distorts the reality, sometimes even of good psychology and uses it against you. What does the Bible say about us? The Bible says, without God, apart from God, we're lost. [00:26:18] Without. Apart from God, we're sinful. [00:26:20] Apart from God, we're on our road to hell. That's what the Bible says. The Bible says there's none good. No, not one. [00:26:28] And so the devil comes along and says, oh man, really, just look within yourself. That's where all the truth. You don't need to look at God. You can't rely on that. Anyway, what do you say about you? That's the most important thing, man. Read Matthew 23. In the last days, there'll be people that'll stand before God who said, didn't we do many wonderful things? And in your name, didn't we even take up great causes? And then he'll say, depart from me. I never knew you. [00:26:51] You worked deceit in wickedness because you deceived yourself. [00:26:56] So what he's doing is he's leading her down the path of self deception. He's saying, God's lied to you. You're not going to die. Your eyes will be open. And then he said the third part of that in verse five again, you're gonna be like God. Remember what I said a moment ago? A temptation to fall up, not fall down. [00:27:10] And then he said this to her. You'll know good and evil. [00:27:14] You're gonna know things that God's keeping from you. [00:27:17] If you'll just simply question what God has said. If you'll just stand on your own understanding, what then? Everything else will be made crystal clear. [00:27:27] So folks, when you look at the attack on the truth of God's word, it was subtle, it was sinister. Here's the third one. It was self centered. [00:27:34] It was self centered. Notice the time he appeals to her. It was a tree, good for food. Number one. It was a tree, pleasant to the eyes. Number two. Here's the third one. It was a tree, desirable to make one wise. Now where have we heard that before? [00:27:48] When you go to 1 John 2:15, you'll see this first, John 2:15, here's what he says. Don't love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. Now let me stop and explain that. What does that mean? What does it mean to not love the world? Well, here's what it doesn't mean. [00:28:07] It doesn't mean you're not to love the created world. It doesn't mean you're not to love mountains and oceans and rivers and streams and the beauty of all of God's creation. The Bible says he's given us everything richly to enjoy. So when he says not to love the world, he's not speaking to of the created world, number two. Neither is he speaking of people. [00:28:27] He's not saying you're not to love people. [00:28:29] John 3:16. For God, so love. Here's the word, the world. [00:28:33] What world? The world of people that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So when he says don't love the world, he's not talking about the created world, nor is he talking about the world of people. Here's the third usage of the word world, word world in the Bible. And that is a system. [00:28:51] Don't love the system of the world. Now, the system of the world. Today, the best word I can give you to describe it is secularism. [00:28:59] Secularism is a form of belief that does not include God in its thinking. We're in a secular society, meaning that we're in a world that does not include or consider what God's word has to say. [00:29:13] Now, that should not listen, that should not govern the thoughts of Christ followers. [00:29:18] Christ followers. We should care more about what God's word says than what the world has to say. [00:29:26] One is a system that you buy into secularism that causes you to say, well, part of the Bible is true, part of it isn't. I like the parts that I agree with and the parts that I don't. I don't. I just buy. Well, then you're gonna end up having part of the armor, not all of the armor. You're certainly not gonna have the belt. [00:29:41] And so you're gonna go through your life getting shot at by the enemy and shot full of hoes and living a defeated life. Cause you weren't prepared to go out against this adversary. [00:29:49] So when he says love not the world, he's saying the system of the world. Don't buy into that. Don't buy into a system that says you're all you need. You don't need God. Don't buy into a system that says, don't pray about that. Just come to your own decision before you decide whatever you wanna do. No, you bring God into every element of your life. Into your family, into your prayer life, into your business, into your money. Anything that touch God ought to be a part of it. He's a part of your world. Otherwise it is secularism. So he's saying, don't do that. Because when you're living that way, you're not demonstrating the love of the Father. Okay, here. I said all that to get to these three things. I'm Hurrying now he said, you have the lust of the flesh. 1. You have the lust of the eyes. 2, you have the pride of life. 3. All right, let's compare that back to the garden. What was it? A tree good for food. That's lust of the flesh. He was appealing to her flesh. That's good. This is good for food. Now food isn't bad. It was just the way in which he was using it against what God had said. Lust of the eyes. It's a pleasant to the eyes. It looks appealing. Pride of life, a tree desirable to make one wise. You see how the devil used that? He took those elements that he said this is the bait that God uses. And any good fisherman will tell you that you gotta have bait to catch the fish. And the fish will tell you that what got him in trouble wasn't. But the bait was the bite. [00:31:14] And so I'm just suggesting that we're always going to be tempted. It's not the bait, it's the bite. It's what you do with the temptation when it comes. And in their case they yielded and they simply said we're gonna try this on our own. And they went against what God said. You had a subtle disguise, a sinister deception, a self centered desire. And it led to the fourth thing, a serious decision. [00:31:37] They made a decision that would impact not just them, but for generations to come. Think about what happened man. They're separated from God. Spiritual death. They begin to die physically. There's physical death. [00:31:50] Disease entered the world. [00:31:52] Our world began to age. [00:31:54] You have an aging world of depletion, of the no zone. All that begins to happen, all that was set in motion, all that went back to the garden where God created a perfect world. He said, just trust me, believe me, lean on me, rely on me. And when they didn't do it, you have this cascade of terrible things that came about as a result of that bad decision. [00:32:16] Can I tell you this morning, as simply as I know how, as I close this morning, the best, safest place to be when it comes to the truth is just say I may not understand all this. I don't. I'm telling you, I've been doing this a long time and I don't understand all, but I rely on it, I stand on it, I place my faith in it. [00:32:35] I believe it, I trust it. I know God said concerning himself, he cannot lie. [00:32:41] And so man, when I prone to question myself, I look, what has God said? [00:32:47] What do I feel that God is leading me to do based upon what he said? And if God has said it. I try to have a conviction in my own life with this belt of truth that I wear. That settles it. [00:32:57] I'm sorry. That just settles it. I love what Solomon, the wisest man that lived other than Christ. I love what he said in Proverbs 3, 5, 6. Trust. That's it. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. [00:33:10] Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. He'll make your paths straight. Just trust the Lord. Just say, God, you've given us your Word. I believe it. I'm gonna teach my kids, I'm gonna base my values and my principles and my morals on your Word. [00:33:29] I'm gonna live my life according to the dictates of your word. The truth of your word. That's the safest place to be. It'll guide you, it'll guard you. It'll give you peace, it'll give you strength. This morning, I'm telling you and challenge you, put on the belt of truth. Walk out of this room saying, I'm gonna start getting into God's word. I'm gonna start reading it. How did guys say, well, I try to read God's Word until I feel like he's spoken to my heart. That's a pretty good way to look at that. [00:34:00] Have you ever read God's Word and you just didn't get anything out of it in the moment? I don't wanna sound unspiritual, but that's happened to me before. [00:34:06] Right. No cacophony of angels know. Oh, Bill. That's what you need to read. You know, none of that happened. I just read it and I thought, well, it's like vitamins, right? I took my medicine. It didn't really hit me in any particular way, but I took his medicine. And I found almost without exclusion, before the day is over, something that I've read will come to mind in my heart and spirit. And I'm going, oh, thanks for. I read that this morning. That's interesting how God helped me flesh that out some point in my life. That's why I said, hide the word of God in your heart that you might not sin against him. [00:34:42] Become a student of his word. I'm telling you what I do here on Sunday morning. If this is the only word you get, you're going to be spiritually malnourished. It's just not enough. It's like eating one meal a week and think you're gonna be strong physically. It's not gonna work. You gotta get in his word. And what's beautiful, you say. Well, I don't understand a lot. That's okay. Did you know the Bible's the only book whose author accompanies every copy? [00:35:05] Before you read it, say, holy Spirit, guide me into your truth. Show me what you would have me to read. Show me where you would have me to. And then find something in that Bible you can apply to your family life, to your married life, to your personal life, and begin to live it out. And you'll begin to see how God's Word is changing and transforming your life. [00:35:24] I highly recommend his Word if you hadn't gotten into it and you're not studying it and you're reading it. Start today, put on the Belt of Truth. Well, that's all I'm gonna say about that. Let's pray together. [00:35:36] Father, thank you for your word. [00:35:38] Thank you. That it is reliable. We can count on it. Thank you, Father, that you have shown us from your word how that we can know you, how we can have the forgiveness of sin, how we have the assurance that heaven will one day be our home. [00:35:54] And Lord, I pray for my friends here this morning that may be confused about all this. [00:35:59] I pray that you'll give them clarity on this most important thing, and that is to trust you to bring all of their confusion and to bring all of their care to bring it to you. And just simply pray a simple prayer. Say, lord Jesus, I don't understand all that's happening in my life. I certainly don't understand all that's in your word. But I know this. [00:36:19] I know one day you went to a cross and you died for my sin. [00:36:24] I know one day we call it Easter, one day you stepped out of that grave. And I know if I invite you into my heart, you'll hear me and you'll receive me. [00:36:33] So in this service, as I sit here, as I watch online with all that I know about me, Father, right now, in this moment, I trust all that I know about you come into my heart. [00:36:45] Forgive my sin. I place my trust in you. In Jesus name I pray. [00:36:51] Amen. [00:36:53] Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week, Sam.