Address—Bill Prost
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Together #288.
288.
O thou whose mercies far exceed all we can do or say.
As in thy people, thou indeed dost daily more display.
288.
Saturday morning against my hand.
10-4 Our hearts are on our hearts and you're going to go out for a long time. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I can't. Oh, I like to get you everything. Oh my God, you fall from your desire for our bloody falling, just lasting falling.
Nsnoise.
South Carolina.
What I have before me this afternoon is rather an unusual subject.
And at least in my memory, I can't remember anyone's having spoken on it before. But the Lord seems to have laid it on my heart, and so I trust it'll be from Him.
What I want to talk about this afternoon is a number of places where, in Scripture we are told to have our loins girded.
Loins girded.
If you have a Bible program on your computer, or you want to go to a concordance and look up the number of times that that word loins occurs in the Word of God, you'll find it there many times.
And the loins, I suppose, speak of this part of our body right here, the part where.
Our strength is in many ways, and Scripture applies it that way.
I suggest there are two meanings to the word in Scripture. The loins speak of strength.
And a number of times in the word of God it has that connotation.
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If we read in the book of Job, we find a creature designated as a behemoth.
And it says his strength is in his loins. We won't speculate this afternoon on what that creature may represent, but his strength is in his loins. And I believe that that has that meaning when it speaks about you and me.
But then a number of times in Scripture it speaks of girding up the loins.
Twice over in that same book of job, the Lord himself says to Job, Gird up thy loins like a man.
And answer me.
You'll remember that after Elijah had won the great victory over the prophets of Vale on Mount Carmel.
And the rain came on the earth.
And it tells us that.
Elijah girded up his loins and ran before Ahab's chariot to Jezreel.
And a number of times in scripture we are told to gird up our loins.
And I suggest that it has another meaning, which we will, with the Lord's help, develop a little as time goes on.
But it has also the thought of that place where our strength is.
Being held in and braced up.
In a right way.
Girding up the loins. We don't use that term, as I said a few moments ago, in North America or even in most English speaking countries, but I've been to some places in the world where they do that.
In India, and some here will recognize this, having been there very often, the men who work in the fields wear a garment that.
Is called either a Doughty or a lungy, depending on the appropriate language which is being used. And it's a piece of piece of cloth about maybe 8 feet long and maybe 3 feet in width that's wrapped round and round about the waist and cinched up. And when people are relaxing, they just let it all hang loose, so to speak. And they shuffle around the house or sit in an easy chair, they're relaxed.
But when they go out in the field to work.
They take one end of it, bring it up between their legs, tuck it in, snug it up good and tight. Now they're ready to go up, or to go out and work. The loins are girded up, everything is tight, held in place so that hopefully that doty or lunge doesn't come off in the course of work and they find they can work better.
The Lord uses it as a spiritual application.
And this, if I may say, I hope, will tend to be practical for our souls.
I hope it's OK to mention this, but sometimes we hear a few rumblings and complaints that sometimes the meetings aren't practical enough, and I trust we'll get down to some practical things in talking about what it means to have our loins girded up.
There are a number of scriptures in the Word of God where we read about this, and I'd like to turn to four of them.
One in the Old Testament and three in the New, each I believe, having a particular emphasis and a particular message for our souls. Let's turn first of all, to the book of Exodus, chapter 12.
Exodus chapter 12.
I think everyone here, except perhaps the very youngest, will probably recognize this as the Passover chapter, the institution of the Passover way back 3500 years ago, approximately that when God was going to deliver his people from Egypt.
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Plague had followed, plague bringing before Pharaoh the glory and majesty and power of God. And over and over again Pharaoh had promised to let the people go, and then went back on his word.
Finally, the Lord is going to do something very serious. He is going to smite the first born of every household where there was not blood on the door.
We're not going to go into detail about that. I know the majority, if not all here are familiar with it, but we want to notice the way in which that Passover was to be eaten. So let's go down here to verse 11 of Exodus 12.
Verse 11 And thus shall ye eat it.
With your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.
Is this the way you like to eat?
Do you like to eat in haste?
Sometimes, when we're young, we do.
And I don't want to introduce levity, but it brings before me what my mother used to say at our meal table when sometimes hungry boys used to go out their food a little less than in a civilized way, and my mother would make their remarks. Slow down. You're not filling a silo.
Sometimes we thought that it was just about that bad the the cavity was almost that big in our eyes.
Most of the time when we eat, it's nice to relax, isn't it? It's nice to sit down and take your time, enjoy the conversation at the table, eat in a leisurely fashion.
But here was a meal where the Lord tells them that they weren't to do that.
They weren't to have their garments just all in that relaxed mode, as if they were just going to stretch out. Take it easy, relax over the meal. Their loins were to be girded.
They were to have their shoes on their feet.
Sometimes in North America we don't pay too much attention to that. But in the East, in most countries, it is considered a mark of normal respect that you kick your sandals or shoes off at the door and you would not dare to walk into someone's house and just shuffle around and the sandals or shoes with which you had walked around on the street. But here they were to eat with their shoes on their feet, staff in their hand.
That meant they had to have one hand with that staff and the other to eat their food. They couldn't use two hands.
Of course, once again, in the East, very often they eat with their fingers so that they can generally manage quite well with one hand. In fact, you better manage with one hand because the left hand is used for other purposes and you wouldn't dare eat with it. But anyway, the point is, it says you shall eat it in haste.
Why was that? Why did they have to do all this in such a hurry?
Oh, because they were going to be leaving Egypt momentarily. They were going not only to be to be departing from Egypt. Pharaoh was going to thrust them out. He was going to say to Moses be gone.
Because the power of God in the killing of that first born was manifested so that there was a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt. And we won't delve into that today. But the point is they were to be ready to go as soon as the word came. And it did come right in the middle of the night.
You and I are in an Egypt today, which, as most of us know, speaks of this world.
Egypt is a picture of the world from which the Christian is called out.
And they were to be ready to leave, and so are we. And I say to your heart and mind, God does not give you and me, shall we say, the luxury as Christians of relaxing in this world.
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Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that you should always eat your food in haste. I'm not saying that you should always have, as it were, a stick in your hand and shoes on your feet as if you were ready to run for it.
That's not the point. We do have relaxing times down here and we thank God for them, but the point is that in a general way, our lifestyle is not to be such as if we are at home in this world.
And we like to be at home here, don't we? And so did the children of Israel.
You know and I know how difficult it was for them to leave Egypt in heart, even though they left it in body.
And over and over in the wilderness, their hearts went back to Egypt. They complained that they didn't have the right food to eat. And their heart went back to the fish and the leeks and the onions and the garlic and all those things that they enjoyed in Egypt.
It wasn't very long after they had been in the wilderness before they made themselves a golden calf. And where did they learn how to do that? In Egypt? Because Egypt worshipped the cow.
And later on, when the spies came back from spying out the land of Canaan, and 10 of them brought back that evil report saying there's no way. The people are too big, the cities are too walled up. We can't conquer that land. They were ready, as the word of God tells us, to make a captain.
Instead of Moses, make a captain and to return in to Egypt.
And you might say that those two things, and they both happen to begin with the same letter in the English language, the calf and the captain were the two things that were a snare to them on the one hand.
They never really got over until they got into the land of Canaan, the religion of Egypt. They wanted to go back there and the captain would speak of putting a man between themselves and the Lord.
And it was all part of the same thing, because when they told Aaron to make the golden calf, you'll remember what they said. They said. As for this Moses we what not, what has become of them?
And supposing something had happened to Moses, was the Lord not the same? Was the Lord not able to work things out for them? Even if something had happened to Moses, they were prepared to make their own captain and put something between themselves and the Lord.
And it wasn't until they had, at the end of those 40 years in the wilderness, crossed over the River Jordan.
And once again circumcision was renewed. That the Lord could say, this day, have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you?
I suggest that the picture here is for our own souls and God is in the picture and type here telling you and me that our lives are to be with our loins, girded with our staff in our hand, with our shoes on our feet. We are to be ready to go. And I would suggest, and I speak very much to my own heart, please understand this.
That probably one of the biggest snares of believers today, at least in North America.
Is the snare of worldliness. And I know I've made this remark before, and pardon its repetition, but I feel the need of it, that worldliness is in some ways more of a snare even than things like bad doctrine and things like that. Not that bad doctrine isn't serious, it is, but it can be more easily identified and dealt with. But worldliness is subtle. It's insidious, isn't it?
It creeps in and gets hold of us because we have to live and move in this world.
And we are in the world. But, as we find out in the 17th chapter of John, we are not.
Of the world.
And those Israelites had to be separated from Egypt, not merely in body but also in heart.
And God was showing them here that this was the way they were to be.
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Waiting for the immediate call to leave.
Well, our time is going. Let's go on now to the New Testament.
Turn with me, please, to Luke's Gospel Chapter 12.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 12.
Again, there is so much in this chapter.
And we don't have time to go into it all this afternoon.
A wonderful chapter.
But here particularly we want to notice several verses and then eventually the one on which our eyes will be focused. Verse 35. But read from verse 31, please.
But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure.
To give you the Kingdom.
Cell that you have, and give alms, provide yourselves bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens, that faileth not where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And here's the verse, Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.
When he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
The disciples here were of a Jewish background.
And they were no doubt very accustomed to seeing earthly blessings and earthly prosperity as a reward for faithfulness to the Lord. But it was a transitional time for them here.
As the Lord gradually but firmly and surely directed their hearts away from things in this world.
To heavenly things they didn't yet know the full extent of it, the full appreciation of it all.
And I suppose that that did not come about really until the apostle Paul's ministry, when he was given those precious revelations from a risen Christ in glory as to the truth concerning the heavenly calling of the church. But the Lord is gradually drawing the hearts of his disciples away from things in this world, and so he tells them here to seek the Kingdom of God. And he says all these things. That is the necessities of life down here.
Will be added unto you. If I may be so bold, may I say that to each one of the young people here today?
It's wonderful when you see bright prospects before you in this world. And let me say that I thank God for the opportunities that you have. Because I have met with many young people in countries in this world who had ability, who had ambition, and yet who were locked into circumstances where unless someone came along with a fair amount of money to help them out, there was no way that they could even dream.
Of the kind of opportunities in education that many of us in North America accept as a matter of course. And I say that I thank God for what is available to you. But I do say, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Give the Lord the 1St place and you will find that the Lord will work everything out for you, maybe not everything that you might otherwise have had.
But you will have the Lord's blessing in your life.
Which is worth far more than anything this world can offer you. And so here the Lord says, fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. What Kingdom?
Oh, there was an earthly Kingdom that they knew that the Lord had given Israel in the Old Testament, but I would suggest here the thought is not so much for an earthly Kingdom.
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But rather, a different Kingdom. You know, you and I are going to inherit the Kingdom on its heavenly side. You and I are going to inherit the Kingdom of the Father. We are going to live and reign with Christ over this world, but from a heavenly vantage point, far, far more than any earthly Kingdom. And so later on in his life, when the Lord stood before Pilate, he could say my Kingdom is not of this world.
And so the Lord was directing the hearts of his disciples to that which is heavenly.
And he was, I would suggest saying to them, don't worry if you seem to be having to turn away from what you expected down here. They expected the Lord Jesus as the true Messiah to drive out their enemies and bring that glorious Kingdom into place. He says, as it were, don't worry, you are going to receive the Kingdom.
But then what does he say? He says.
Don't worry so much about things down here. Use what you've got for the Lord's blessing and for the blessing of others. And what are you going to have?
A treasure in the heavens that faileth not.
You know, you and I hear a lot of hype today about providing for ourselves.
In retirement.
We hear a lot today about the baby boomers. I just missed out on being one. I was born just a wee bit too soon to qualify. But they talk about the baby boomers coming into their retirement years. And are you going to have enough for your retirement? Because after all, you're going to live longer than your parents and your grandparents did. Was that a medical convention several years ago? And they said we now consider middle age to go up to 85.
Quite a mouthful to say, but that's what they said because it's a known fact that most people that live to be 70 or more will probably manage to live on their own until they're well into their 80s or mid 80s. And we hear a lot of talk about that. Well, there's nothing wrong with preparing for the future. And the Word of God emphasizes that in a natural way. It tells us to look at the ants who prepare their meat in the summer and so on.
But the point is here, there is an investment that you and I can make an eternity that is far, far better than any investment down here.
And if you and I really want to have a treasure that's worthwhile, the Lord says you use what you have down here.
But what's the point where your treasure is there? Will your heart be also? Why was the hearts, or were the hearts, I should say, of the children of Israel back in Egypt so much? Why did their thoughts and hearts go back to Egypt so continually?
Because ultimately, if they had been willing to admit it, their treasure was really there. It was not in that land of Canaan to which they were going.
They had heard about that land, but then when the spies came back, ten of them with a bad report, they decided Egypt was better. And somehow the awful work of making bricks and being.
Sat over with task masters who it seems used whips and other things on them. Somehow they got over all of that and forgot how bad it had been and their hearts were really in Egypt.
And I say to my own heart, is my heart somehow in Egypt, even though I don't say so with my lips?
An old brother long since with the Lord, whom some of us remember used to say.
As believers, we can have as much of Christ as we want.
And our live show how much we want. Am I using my substance as it says here in verse 33 to lay up treasure in heaven?
Verse 35 The verse we want to focus on let your.
Loins be girded about and your lights burning. Same thought as we had in type in Exodus 12. Loins girded about, not as it were, letting the garment flow out all over the place, and more than this, not using our strength in the wrong way.
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I've often and still do enjoy, I've often enjoyed and still enjoy being around young people. They kind of keep you young in your thinking and their energy and ambition.
Their ability to look at things in a simple way without seeing all of the difficulties that some of us look at.
You know, it says in Ecclesiastes 12 That when you get older says the grasshopper shall be a burden. Well, I used to think about that when I was young and thought that's kind of a bit far fetched. But you know, it doesn't sound so far fetched anymore because sometimes things that you used to think nothing of doing.
Are now, well, they look a little more challenging. And yet to young people, it's no big problem.
Speaking to a young man the other day and we were talking about doing this and going that and getting on a plane and going here and then getting on a train and.
Coming this way and that way. And I said, well, that's quite a bit of a job to pull all that off. And at the age of 19, he said, ah, he said I'm young. That won't be any problem and probably it won't either.
I wouldn't want to do it because I'd be tuckered out, as the saying goes. But the point is, where is your strength channeled when you're younger? Where's my strength, such as it is, channeled? Is it in the right direction? Are my loins girded so that my strength is being used in the right way?
What does it mean to have our loins girded? We've talked about it, but in a spiritual sense, if we could define it this way.
It means that everything that is inward in you and me that has to do with our spiritual affections, our strength, and everything that is within us is under the power of the Spirit of God and according to the Word of God. And we'll touch on that a little more in a few minutes. And so our loins are to be girded about because once again here the thought is to have our strength in the right direction. But the supreme thought here is.
To be ready to go. To be ready to go.
And your lights burning.
We're never told in scripture, to my knowledge, explicitly. I want you to go and be a testimony.
Because if the focus is on our being a testimony, then the focus ends up being on self.
But if we are occupied with Christ, we will be a testimony. That's the way Scripture puts it.
But the point is, we, our lights, are to be burning in this world. Do my friends, my acquaintances, realize that I'm ready to go? Do they realize that I hold on to things lightly here? And it's not a question of how much or how little I have, It's how I hold it.
You'll find this a little bit funny, but I remember talking to a rickshaw driver in Calcutta in India, and he was a young man and he was fairly healthy and fairly strong. And he pulled a rickshaw, just held the shafts in his two hands and pair of sandals on his feet. And you climbed up in the back and he'd run down the street to take you from A to B. And the government over there eventually decided that this was too demeaning to have.
A man pulling a rickshaw like a horse or a mule or something like that, and they were going to ban them.
And there was such a public outcry by the rickshaw pullers. They said no way, this is our livelihood, don't you dare ban these things. We want to keep going. And the government had to give in. And they do rather well, especially when they get tourists on the back. And the tourists usually pay rather handsomely and they charge accordingly about five times what they charge the locals and a tip to boot and so on. So they do rather well.
And this man was all enamored with his prospects and how he was going ahead in the world and he was going to make money and all the rest of it.
And you and I, from the vantage point of North America, we would perhaps shake our heads and say, poor fellow, he doesn't know what he's missing. And he thinks he's got the world by the tail. And all the prospects he has are to be a rickshaw puller. And when he gets to a certain age, his body will give out. He won't be able to do it anymore. And then where is he going to be?
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For he was all excited because he was young and strong and life looked good and he was going ahead.
It's not a question of how much you have, it's a question of how we hold it.
Loins girded about in lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.
Now, this isn't really meant to be.
As if the Lord Jesus is going to a wedding before he comes to get us. It's Eastern imagery. And there would be a young man, a wealthy bridegroom who would be going into the wedding and his servants would be waiting outside. And the bridegroom and the bride and the wedding party would be inside partying. But you know, the servants would be faithful to their Lord even though they weren't part of the wedding ceremony.
And part of the festivities, they'd be waiting outside, but they would be all ready so that as soon as the bridegroom came out and said, let's go, they wouldn't have to say, oh, boy, well, just a minute, Sir, till I get hitched up here and get my shoes on and get everything ready to go and get the horses ready and all the rest of it. They would be right ready. And the bridegroom would appreciate that very, very much.
Now I know we're living in a world where servants as such are not the norm in North America.
But such is still the case in many parts of the world, and it has been the case for by far the greater part of the world's history. And the Lord, by His Spirit, uses his imagery to show that that's the way you and I are to be.
Loins girded, lights burning, and like men that wait for their Lord.
Well, let's go on. We have two more verses. Turn with me now to Ephesians chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter 6.
In the book of Ephesians, as many of us know, we have probably the highest truth as to the blessings of the believer in this dispensation.
And Paul has been bringing before them.
What it means to be part of that precious body of Christ.
The uniting of Jew and Gentile in one body by the Cross.
And to be not only redeemed, but already to be risen and seated in heavenly places in Christ.
And it's interesting that in the book of Ephesians you do not get in the same sense the Lord's coming presented. In fact, I don't believe there is a mention of the Lords coming for us in Ephesians.
Because while it was their present hope, I'm sure it was, yet it would have been out of place to talk to those who were already risen and seated in heavenly places about the Lord's coming to call them home.
Rather, what is emphasized here is the need for that which will maintain us in the enjoyment of those heavenly places here and now. And that is the emphasis here in the end of chapter 6, where, as we know, we get the armor of God if you and I are going to enjoy those heavenly places.
We need to have not just part of the armor, but the whole armor of God.
And I want to take a minute to talk about this because the heavenly calling of the Church is under severe attack today. And you know this as well as I.
A brother wrote many, many years ago, and some will recognize the source of the quotation.
That when the Church loses the sense of its heavenly calling.
Humanly speaking, it loses everything.
And that is true, and that is why the devil was so careful and so energetic to bring the Church down very early in its history.
From the sense of its heavenly calling down to an earthly level.
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And for many, many hundreds of years, the Church was in the Dark ages.
Having lost the sense of their heavenly calling, lost the sense of the Lord's coming for them.
And lost many other precious truths.
Thank God for a work about 180 years ago or so, when God raised up those who were led by His Spirit to restore to us those precious truths that had been lost for centuries.
Among them, the heavenly calling of the Church and the fact that we are here.
To wait for the Lord to come for us at any moment.
It's under attack today, and it always has been, but more so today, perhaps, than ever.
Some of us were talking about this yesterday, and it bears repeating.
Some were talking about preaching the precious truth that Paul preached.
The precious truth of the one by the truth of the.
Holy Spirit's presence here in this world, indwelling every true believer individually and dwelling among believers collectively as the House of God and other precious truths that the Lord gave to the apostle Paul, such as the believer being in Christ and so on. The truth of the Lord's coming for His Saints before the tribulation period and so on, and the emphasis on the heavenly calling of the Church.
Although that was not exclusively given to the apostle Paul. But the point is all that is coming under attack. And someone was asking in a reading meeting once again many, many years ago, about preaching that precious truth. And he was exhorting people, the brother in question, exhorting believers who knew and understood those truths to go ahead and preach them to other believers.
Someone raised the question. What if they don't want to hear it?
And the brothers response, I believe, was very perceptive, he said. They will listen to you in many cases until you try to take them to heaven.
And at first glance you say, what do you mean? Isn't every believer going to spend eternity with Christ in heaven? Thank God that's true. But he was not talking about that. The brother was speaking about we have what we have in this book of Ephesians. That is the heavenly calling of the church, the living and enjoying, living in and enjoying of those heavenly places while we are down here.
That is not popular and it has never been popular, and that's why may I say that the efforts of the devil to bring the Church down to the level of this world has been so successful.
And it's a problem today. And what are we told here? And we don't have time to go into the armor in detail, but look at verse 14.
And it's the first part of the armor. Notice this stand. Therefore having your loins girt about with truth.
What does that mean?
It can mean perhaps a broad spectrum of things. It can refer to our affections, perhaps. But I want to make a practical application of it for your heart and mind this afternoon. I suggest to us that in what we need today, it brings before us that the precious truth that we have in this word that has been revealed to our souls.
Needs to have such a grip on our souls that I would not dare to take a step that is contrary to the Word of God. I would not dare. And let me be practical.
To go where the word of God is not honored.
There is much being said today about the blessing that God is giving in this world among those perhaps who do not adhere to the precious truth that many here this afternoon are familiar with.
There is a lot being said about the blessing that God is giving among those who are not gathered on the ground of the One Body to the precious Name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
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Where perhaps the Spirit of God is not given his true liberty to lead and guide and so on.
There is a lot of blessing that the Lord is giving, and sometimes there are those.
Who come forward and say, well, I want to be part of that blessing, I want to get involved in it, I want to enjoy all those other dear believers seem to be enjoying those lovely Christians. And they are in many cases lovely Christians.
My heart goes out to everyone of them, and I trust that your heart, as I trust mine, is.
Seeks to be as broad as the heart of Christ, and that my love flows out to every true member of the body of Christ.
Without any hindrance.
But if my loins are girt about with truth.
I cannot. I cannot go.
Where the truth of God would not be honored.
It is one thing to have individual fellowship with a believer, it's another thing for me to be connected with a system of things.
That is man made and not according to what God has given to me.
Now God blesses wherever there is anything of himself, and God bless us according to the degree of light that believers may have. And I say I thank God for every true believer who is living up to the light that God has given to him or her.
But I say to your heart and mind, if my loins are going to be girt about with truth, it means I trust and I believe this with all my heart from my own soul, that that girding about of my loins with truth will not allow me to go beyond that precious truth that God has revealed to me. You and I are responsible for what God has revealed to us.
We are responsible to live in the good of it.
We read way back in Luke, I believe.
I'll read it because I don't want to have the wrong chapter. Uh, turn back with me to.
That same chapter of Luke, chapter 12.
And this is a general principle.
Verse 48 of Luke 12.
Middle of the verse. For unto whomsoever much is given of Him shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much of Him will they ask the more?
God holds you and me responsible for what He has given us.
And he wants to see those loins gird about with truth. And I say to your heart and mine, and I trust I say it as much to my own heart. And this is very solemn. This is the first piece of the armor, and I cannot pretend to take some of the armor without the rest of it. We don't have time to consider all the other things. But if I do not have my loins girt about with truth, that is I if I am not willing to live up to that which the Lord has given me.
And revealed to me I am missing a part of the armor and I am open to the devil's attack.
And sometimes we wonder why the devil attacks.
It may well be because I have not been careful to have my loins girt about with truth.
Well, we'll leave that for now. There is plenty more here in Ephesians 6 and particularly in the armor of God that we could spend time on. But I say to your heart and mind one, and to my heart once more when it comes to the precious truth of God. Excuse me.
I can't afford not to have my loins girded up.
I can't afford just to say, well, it doesn't matter, I know.
That group of believers?
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Doesn't follow the word of God.
The excuse me?
Another infirmity of old age.
I know those dear believers.
Don't follow the word of God, but they're such lovely Christians. Oh, I say, beloved brethren.
May our hearts go out in the greatest of love to each one, and may we show that love.
But may we not compromise what the Lord has given us.
May what is due to him?
Be paramount, He is worthy.
One more verse first. Peter won.
First Peter chapter one.
And I'm going to read a few verses beforehand. The verse we have in mind is verse 13.
But let's read from verse 9. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
That is the present enjoyment of it, of which salvation the prophets.
Have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.
Now remember, Peter was the apostle to the Jews, so he's writing to the Jews from a Jewish perspective, although it's good for us too. Verse 11 searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.
When it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, and to whom, it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
Which things the angels desire to look into? That is all those Old Testament writers who penned those Old Testament scriptures by a Spirit of God.
In many cases wrote things that they themselves didn't understand.
They wrote about Christ, they wrote about his sufferings, and when they asked the Lord to give them a little more light as to what they were writing.
The only answer they got was.
You're writing for people in a future day and they had to be content with that.
Even Daniel, who says he says I heard but I understood not.
And what does the Lord say to Daniel? He said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the book is sealed until the time of the end.
That's all the answer he got. He had to be content to know that down the road there were a people, there was a people coming who were going to understand.
Peter, as it were, says now you Jewish believers, you're there, you're there, you're able to understand. And I say to your heart and mind, we're there in an even more real way because we're right at the time of the end and we are seeing events develop in this world that point to the very imminence of the Lord's return.
Now I know you may say I've heard that before.
Few days before I came down here, I was reading some very old notes of a conference up in Ontario, Canada in 1915, almost 100 years ago, and there a brother was making the remark the Lord's coming is very near.
And here we are, almost 100 years later.
I don't believe we're going to see anywhere near another hundred years or even another 10 or 20 years.
You and I are seeing what all those Old Testaments Saints looked on to.
What Peter was talking about here and now he says in verse 13, Wherefore, in other words, based on what I've been telling you?
Gird up the loins of your mind.
00:55:02
Be sober, or as we would say in modern language, be serious.
And hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be holy.
For I am holy, if our loins in Ephesians were to be gird about with truth, here it talks about.
Girding up the loins of your mind.
We're never told to gird up the loins of our heart.
Because the heart goes to where something is important to you.
I once tried to talk to a young man about something that I knew he was interested in, and I had a hard time getting his attention.
I wasn't paying too much of attention until I noticed the pretty girl that was taking precedence over anything I had to say.
I didn't have to tell him to gird up the loins of his of his affections. He didn't need that. No, they went there without any problem.
I was at a wedding a couple of days ago and I don't think anyone had to tell either one of the bride or the bride or the groom to gird up the loins of their affections. There are those here that were at that wedding and can relate to that. They didn't have to be told that, did they?
But we have to gird up the loins of our mind, because the mind can go in all directions and the devil knows how to stimulate your mind and mind.
In many different ways, and the loins of our mind need to be girded today as never before.
Provide pro sorry, pardon. A rather practical and maybe a shocking reference. I was talking to a brother my own age who was once gathered to the Lord's name. I still keep in contact with him. He's involved in various types of Christian work which I wouldn't feel free to join up with him in, but I thank God for what he is doing.
And he told me that he was involved, among other things, in trying to help men.
Christian men.
Who have serious problems?
And he said, Bill, this is no exaggeration. He said, in my experience, 80% of Christian men, and not just nominal believers, those who are real believers are hooked on ***********.
I could hardly believe it. He assured me that that was not in the slightest exaggerated. And I say that right in an address to those gathered to the Lord's name, because it can be a problem among.
Any believer and you and I could go on and on in the things of this world, how the mind is bombarded from all directions.
With things, we need the loins of our mind girded up.
Y.
Because it says here.
B Holy, for I am holy.
And that isn't an expression that's meant to be taken lightly. And I speak most of all to my own heart because what my thoughts go to, if I don't judge them, will eventually translate, as you well know, into action. Because it's a well known proverb that as men think, so ultimately they act. And thoughts are the precursor to the action. And when you and I see, and I'm not going to point the finger anywhere but back here, but when you and I see a believer.
Fall into sin.
We can be very sure that the thoughts preceded the action, and if we would judge those thoughts that our brethren cannot see.
We would not have to be subject to the discipline of our brethren for the things that they can see. Well, our time is gone.
We leave those thoughts with each one here, both for the heart and for the conscience, that we might have those loins girded up in a spiritual way, our strength directed in the right way.
And things within held in in the right way, girded up, not just left to go anywhere we want in order that we might live for the Lord's glory.
01:00:11
Until he calls us home, I know our time is gone, but let's sing just part of one more hymn.
#173.
173.
And.
Versus.
Two and four, two and four of 173.