Our text from the Shema Yisrael underlines it all for us. We need, not only, to know the truth objectively; we need to know it subjectively as well. It's got to be our life; it ought to govern every motive; every thought; every action; every word! We find this over and over again ...YESHUA prayed this high priestly prayer:
'Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.'
It is the Word of GOD that is true!
There are other religions. We met a young man when we were on our holidays who said, 'Oh, there's truth in everything.' Yes, but they are all borrowed gleams; they're little reflections, pale reflections, from the Sun of Righteousness. Here is where you'll find all truth, and wherever you find truth in any other religious system, it is a borrowed truth, and you will find that it has been borrowed from here. All truth is GOD's truth. But here, it is unsullied by the words of men, or by the teachings of men.
In Isaiah, Chapter 11; we've been looking at Isaiah today. Here's a description of the Messiah; Isaiah, Chapter 11, verse 1. (This is a description of Messiah): 'There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him; the Spirit of wisdom and understanding; the Spirit of counsel and might; the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.'
And then go down to verse 5: 'Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness, the belt of his waist.'
You
see the Messiah here: 'girded with the word of righteousness;'
and that's what we are looking at here.
'Having girded your waist with truth,'
it necessarily involves the denial or the rejection of what is not true. You eat the sweet; you reject the bitter. You choose the good; you reject the bad. In choosing the one, you are automatically rejecting the other. It's the flip side. So we reject the untrue and false, and in fact, we have already read about this. If you go back to Chapter 4 of this Letter, verses 17 through 19, we see that it has already been said there for us. 'This I say, therefore, and testify in the LORD, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind; having their understanding darkened; being alienated from the life of GOD, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart; who being past feeling, have given themselves over to licentiousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.'
The word 'Gentiles' there meant 'heathens.' And their understanding was darkened. And the reason why, is because their heart was hardened. The result was, they were living in ignorance. So we reject the untrue and the false.
Remember that famous verse in 1st Corinthians, Chapter 15, verse 33: 'Evil communications corrupt good manners.'
That means, if you keep listening to faulty views; if you expose yourself to that which is doubtful in nature; you may think you're impervious, but sooner or later, you'll be affected. I know of one who is an outstanding Christian theologian. But he dabbled too much in the writings of infidel theologians, and now he has muted his testimony. And there are other cases like that.
And I doubt, (I have said this before - I'm riding my hobby horse), I doubt the wisdom of these seminaries in exposing our young people to infidel theologians, or what are called 'liberal' theological books. They are not old enough yet; they are not strong enough yet. If this great Doctor that I had referred to just earlier, could be swayed by them, how much more are young people? What they need in seminaries is the pure Word of GOD, but what we find in the seminaries is, the majority of their time is spent reading books, and many of them are books written by people who are not Believers, and who doubt the truthfulness of the Word of GOD! No wonder many of our young people come out of the seminaires either grieved in spirit, or with their faith ruined.
So we must remember that verse: 'Evil communications corrupt good manners.'
If we are to 'have our waist girded with truth', better not go to the seminary, if the seminary advocates that your required reading includes infidel books. Do without a seminary education! Find your Christian education some other way.
I'm going to be very unpopular, aren't I, with some theologians? But I'm concerned for your greatest blessing. And I'm concerned that we should have nothing but the truth; the truth, the whole truth and nothing but!
So we reject the one. When Saul wrote to the Colossians, he said, 'You're falling victim to this thing too.' Colossians 2, verse 18; he says, 'There are many people who say to you, 'Oh, we know how to improve your Christian life; it's by adding to what you have heard in the Word of GOD; adding this and that and the other.' And this is what the Bible says; Colossians 2, verse 18: 'Let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility, and worship of angels; intruding into those things which he has not seen; vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from Whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase, which is from GOD.'
So he says don't let anybody trick you into saying there's a better way than what you find in the Word of GOD. Stay with the Word.
GOD says in Deuteronomy 4: 'You shall not add to the Word which I command you, neither shall you diminish anything from it, in order that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your GOD.'
