Plenary Session 1 - Tim Jordan

January 4, 2010 – 11:58 pm

Tim Jordan, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, opened the conference with a characteristically hard-hitting message from Ephesians 6:10-14. (As with each of the upcoming posts, I’ll attempt to give the essence of the sermon from the perspective of the speaker rather than the hearer.)

Standing is Not Easy

In the menu of life I’m often looking for something that’s not there: “Easy.” There’s a deep craving in my heart to turn the corner on all my troubles, and find a life of ease. And even though I’m 55 years old, I haven’t found it yet. A Christian’s call to stand is not an easy call. All of us have heard many testimonies of soldiers recounting their experiences on the battlefield. Not one time have we heard a soldier say, “It was easy.” Never once.

We Need God’s Strength to Stand

Wherever God calls us in this grand commission of taking the gospel to the world, the challenges will only continue to grow and get harder. Wherever we are we’re always in over our heads. And we never will be smart enough or strong enough to handle the trials. We’re going to need a strength that’s not our own. Unfortunately, we often dismiss the Bible’s warnings (e.g., “the devil prowls around like a lion”) as if they’re almost fictional. We want to be strong soldiers, but we can’t be. And, as soon as we think that we are strong, we’re going to take a bullet. We need a strength that’s not our own. We need God’s strength. If I make it to the end, it will only be because of the power and grace of God.

Yet, we do have responsibility. God tells us that we have the responsibility to put on armor. So God is ultimately responsible, yet He tells me that I should practice spiritual disciplines. Taking on these pieces of armor is absolutely indispensable to standing. The pieces of armor are not multiple choice options—take some and leave some. We need all the armor. My part in standing is practicing these spiritual disciplines, though not depending in my own strength.

If We’re Going to Stand, We Need to Put on Truthfulness

What does it mean to put on truthfulness. First, it means that we must decide to be a men or women who are committed to growing in knowledge of what the Scriptures really say. This is not just for preachers. No matter what our role in the Great Commission, we need to continually grow in our understanding of the truth of God’s Word. We need to grow in personal knowledge of what the Scriptures actually teach. Unfortunately, we often think that knowing the Scriptures is someone else’s job, and we only get it secondarily–passed on to us from those who personally study it. To not study the Scriptures is to say either that we already think we know it well enough, or that we know we don’t know it like we should but don’t really care. Day by day, we should be growing in our understanding of the Bible.

But truthfulness goes deeper than knowing the objective truth of God’s Word; it, secondly, involves living truthfully. Living a life of integrity, honesty, and sincerity. It involves “truth in the inner man” (Psalm 51:6). In contrast to what we’re called to be, we often “fake it.” We often smile on the outside when we’re crying on the inside. But this idea of truthfulness involves not appearing to be something I’m not. God calls us to put off pretending. While God doesn’t call us to glorify our sin, he does call us to be real and not “put on.” Are we honest, sincere, truthful? Too often we’re not. We don’t open up. We’re not transparent. We act as if the past is resolved. We give the impression, “I’m good. Everything’s fine.”

If you’re going to stand, you’re going to have to be committed to learning the Bible no matter where it calls you to change, and you’re going to have to be truthful in the process. Paul is saying, “You won’t make it if you fake it.” We must gird ourselves with the truth and inward truthfulness.

If We’re Going to Stand, We Need to Put on Righteousness

The breastplate is a defensive piece of armor. The “breastplate of righteousness” refers, at least in part, to the righteousness of Christ which is ours by faith. Certainly, if I’m going to stand, I need to be genuinely born again—I’m going to need the righteousness of Christ. But the righteousness Paul has in view is not only the positional righteousness of Christ, but a practical and ethical righteousness that we live out—rightness. We should think about this rightness in relational terms—”to be right with, to be rightly related to.” I must be a person committed to doing that which is right, that which places me in a right relationship with God. Like truthfulness, this is an area in which must be growing. There are things we think are wrong, that are, in fact, right. And there are things we think are right that are, in fact, wrong.

Doing the right thing (though often hard!), is essential to standing. This is our practical breastplate. It will keep us safe—not safe from pain or accusations (consider how often Jesus was crt)—but spiritually safe in our relationship with God, spiritual failure as a result of Satanic attack. The fact that I stand righteous before God by faith in Christ, and then living out that ethical rightness day by day, makes me spiritually bulletproof. Doing the wrong thing, may bring me immediate success, but it will ultimately bring me spiritual harm. Doing the right thing, even though it’s hard and may not end in approval from others, is the only way to spiritually stand. God is always glorified and I am always spiritually safe when I do the right thing.

To be useful and effective in the Great Commission: we’re going to have to be truthful (even if it makes us look foolish) and do the right thing (even if someone else thinks it’s wrong). We must ask ourselves, “Am I willing to grow in truthfulness, and to grow in discernment regarding what’s right?”

While there is the sobering reminder (especially for those of us with deep scars) that “standing” is not an easy task, every true child of God knows that there will be no ultimate failure. The victory has already been accomplished by the Lord Jesus. So we must put the armor on, fight this fight, and stand. But we must also know that this fight has already been won. One day soon, we’ll be standing with Christ in his kingdom. The “easy” that we’ve been searching for will be “on the menu” then. So let’s resolve to stand now.