The Truth of God (Remastered)
The sermon of this post is from the YouTube site, MLJTrust, linked below:
Feb 7, 2025
A sermon by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Ephesians 6.14 https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/book…
“Armor of God” playlist: • Introduction ― A Sermon on Ephesians …
“You and I today are as dependent upon the Holy Spirit as the first christians were. This foolish notion that the church today knows more about God and about the Lord Jesus Christ than the apostle Paul did is the final heresy. It’s blasphemy. It’s a denial of the Holy Spirit.” ―Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Ephesians 6.14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness…
Sermon Description [by MLJTrust]:
There is only one gospel.
According to Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, other gospels are lies. In a day of misinformation, counterfeits, and charlatans, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones brings a voice of Biblical discernment.
In this sermon on Ephesians 6.14 titled “The Truth of God,” Dr. Lloyd-Jones demonstrates how Paul’s authority to declare these truths came from the Lord Jesus Himself. Paul neither received or learned it by human teaching, but from God. John, Peter, and the other apostles wrote in an equally authoritative manner. They were men to whom the mystery of the gospel was directly and personally revealed by the Lord Himself.
The canon of the New Testament is the revealed truth of God.
The apostolic teachings are not men trying to understand life and reality — that is philosophy. Rather, these men told with confidence God’s revealed truth. All that is necessary to life and wellbeing, for death, and after is found within God’s truth.
The fundamental position of the Bible is that humanity cannot attain knowledge of God apart from the revelation and work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus affirmed there is no way to know the truth of God apart from revelation, for God hides it from the world and reveals it as He chooses. The truth is hidden from the prideful who are confident of their own knowledge. All must become like little children toward God’s revealed truth to have their “loins girt about with truth.”
Sermon Breakdown [by MLJTrust]:
- The apostle Paul instructs Christians to stand firm in truth. This is the first piece of the armor of God.
- Truth is essential for standing firm against spiritual enemies. Without truth, there is no hope.
- There is confusion in the church today about truth. Many say you can’t know truth or that it doesn’t matter what you believe. But Paul says we must have our “loins girt about with truth.”
- The question is: what is truth? It is not reason, feelings, or tradition. The only authority is Scripture.
- Jesus and the apostles viewed the Old Testament as the Word of God. The New Testament writers also claim to speak the Word of God.
- Jesus gave His authority to the apostles through the Holy Spirit to teach truth. The book of Acts and the epistles demonstrate the fulfillment of this.
- Paul’s authority and message came through revelation from Jesus Christ, not human wisdom. This is clear through many of Paul’s statements about the source of his teaching.
- Peter confirms Paul’s writings as Scripture, just like the Old Testament.
- The early church recognized the authority of the apostles’ teaching. The test for canonicity was apostolicity.
- We must submit fully to the authority of Scripture. We cannot rely on human reason or wisdom.
- Truth in Scripture is complete and sufficient. It contains all we need for life and godliness. We need no supplements.
- Scripture’s primary subject is God, who does not change. Man’s fundamental needs do not change. And Jesus Christ, the truth, does not change.
- Spiritual understanding of the Bible comes only through the Holy Spirit. Natural man cannot understand spiritual things. We are as dependent on the Spirit today as the first Christians were.
- The notion that the church today has more knowledge of God than the apostles is blasphemous and denies the Holy Spirit. We need the Spirit to understand the apostles’ teaching.
Related points from MLJ comments that were not highlighted above:
The following portion of scripture from Ephesians speaks of the FOUNDATION, of the HOUSEHOLD of GOD. As you read it, consider the words of John MacArthur, “the foundation of a house is not on top of the rafters”, as if there were apostles today, that is where it would literally be. In other words, the NAR, a late 20th century phenomenon, is a false movement, based on the following passage:
Ephesians 2:18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. 19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
Eph 2:21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.]
One other thing, about 25 minutes into the sermon, MLJ brings up war and bombs, as things that could derail men in their considerations of God’s word. In the process, he noted the verse 20 above. I only mentioned that because war could be one of our fears these days with the delicate situation around Ukraine.
Lastly, MLJ returned to the statement of verse 20 above and added a remark from Jude, verse 3, about the revelation given ONCE to the apostles:
From Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, free commentary on E-Sword Bible software for PC:
[Jude 1:3] Once delivered unto the saints – The word here used (ἅπαξ hapax) may mean either “once for all,” in the sense that it was then complete, and would not be repeated; or “formerly,” to wit, by the author of the system. Doddridge, Estius, and Beza, understand it in the former way; Macknight and others in the latter; Benson improperly supposes that it means “fully or perfectly.”
Perhaps the more usual sense of the word would be, that it was done once in the sense that it is not to be done again, and, therefore, in the sense that it was then complete, and that nothing was to be added to it. There is indeed the idea that it was formerly done, but with this additional thought, that it was then complete.
Compare, for this use of the Greek word rendered “once,” Heb_9:26-28; Heb_10:2; 1Pe_3:18. The “delivering” of this faith to the saints here referred to is evidently that made by revelation, or the system of truth which God has made known in his word.
Everything which He has revealed, we are to defend as true. We are to surrender no part of it whatever, for every part of that system “is” of value to mankind. By a careful study of the Bible we are to ascertain what that system is, and then in all places, at all times, in all circumstances, and at every sacrifice, we are to maintain it. [MLJ also emphasized that in his sermon.]
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