The Faith of the Gospel
A Sermon on Ephesians 6:14
Scripture
14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Sermon Description
The modern church believes that the Bible has value, but is not relevant to this scientific age. In this sermon on Ephesians 6:14 titled “The Faith of the Gospel,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that this is foolish. The moment one sits in judgment of it, they pridefully place their own reason above the word of God. Modern teachers say there is no such thing as propositional truth. They say that the Bible is just the record of men’s mystical experiences of God. This is existentialism: nothing matters except the moment of truth where I encounter and accept God. To modern teachers, there is no objective standard to use in forming beliefs. However, the Bible teaches that truth can be known and reduced to actual definitions and statements. Christians have something outside themselves to check their own feelings and opinions of others. When the Bible speaks of mystery, it means truth that is inaccessible to the minds of humanity until revealed by God. Apostolic Christianity is propositional — “this” is the gospel, “that” is not. There is a definite message to measure and test teaching and that message can be found in the Bible alone.
Sermon Breakdown
- The sermon text is Ephesians 6:14 - "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth".
- The sermon examines what it means to have our "loins girt about with truth". What is "truth" and how do we put it on?
- We must first establish the authority and source of truth. The only ultimate authority is the Bible. We cannot rely on the church, reason, philosophy, or experience alone.
- We should rejoice that the Bible is our authority because it means truth is accessible to all, not just an intellectual elite. The early church was made up of common people.
- However, it is not enough to just say the Bible is our authority. We must be able to define truth and know what it is. This is a key issue today with many rejecting propositional truth.
- Many today say truth cannot be defined or known with certainty. They say Christianity is about experience, not doctrine. This view makes the Bible almost useless.
- Examples are given of preachers who say parts of the Bible do not fit with their view of Jesus so they reject them. This shows how this view leads to subjectivity.
- In contrast, the Bible itself claims that truth can be known and defined. Jesus spoke of "the truth" and said God's word is truth. Paul spoke of "the faith" and "sound doctrine".
- More examples are given of Paul speaking of truth that can be known, learned, and contended for. He warned against false gospels and false doctrine.
- Peter and Jude also spoke of "the faith" and "the truth" as something objective that was delivered to the saints.
- We should be thankful we have an objective standard of truth in the Bible and are not left to our own subjective experiences and feelings.
- Next week, the sermon will look at the essence of the truth, or the "deposit" of truth, found in the Bible.
The Book of Ephesians
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.