BE GIRDED!
A. C. Craig
Leviticus 8: 13; Luke 12: 34–37; Ephesians 6: 14, 15
The one thought that runs through these three scriptures, beloved brethren, is the idea of a girdle. I want to encourage all of us to have one. The virtuous woman has them; it says, “She maketh body linen and selleth it, and delivereth girdles unto the merchant”, Proverbs 31: 24.
So they are available, and we all should seek to have one. It brings out a very important principle of steadfastness and committal. There was in Mark 14 a young man who did not have one. It says he followed Jesus. That was good so far. Then it says he had a linen cloth; so far, good again. You may follow Jesus; I hope you do; I would encourage you to do so, but I do not think a linen cloth is sufficient by itself. It says he had it “cast about his naked body”.
He did not have a girdle. And so there was disaster; he had to flee naked. I would encourage all of us that we may adopt this principle of having things secure. It is most necessary that we are not a target or a prey to what may be around at any time. And I need not remind you younger brethren of the kind of things that in any and every way may attack you. There is only one end to that, if we are overcome, and that is exposure. So I would encourage you to adopt this principle which I hope to bring out in a brief way. It is not good enough just to have things cast about us. We want to have things bound up, secure; we want to be proof against what may come up; so I would encourage you to maintain self-control; that is the idea; you are under control; you know what you are about; you are not falling over your garments; you have perfect control. You are a young believer going on with the Lord, and therefore you have things in perfect control.
So we have read about priests, and about domestic servants, and about warriors. And in every setting there was a need for a girdle. I say to you younger people, do not be promiscuous; do not experiment with anything. Do not experiment with drugs; do not experiment with your body; have a girdle; have yourself under strict control. You need a girdle for that. As I said, apart from that there is only one end, and that is exposure. You can be sure about that. It is not only government. I want you to listen to this; the government of God runs on, “He that does a wrong shall receive the wrong he has done”, Colossians 3: 25. “Whatever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap”, Galatians 6: 7. That is God’s government. But there is also consequence, the consequence of a thing that you might undertake; it is not exactly government; that will be involved with it in the end; but it is the natural consequence; it is just the result of the thing you might do. There is a plague sweeping this world you will pardon my referring to it at all—and it is not exactly government, it is just a consequence of man’s own activities. Do not experiment with your body. Your body is the Lord’s, and it is a member of the local position here. It is not your own and you cannot do what you like with it. You must hold it under control, and keep it. If you get yourself a girdle there will be no exposure.
So here are Aaron’s sons, and I want you to notice what it says about these three different items. Moses clothed them with the vests; not just that the vests were put on, they were clothed with them; and then he girded them—notice that girded them with the girdles. Then too, he bound the high caps on them. That is my whole point, that there is deliberateness about it. We do not want to be casual; we want to make up our minds to be definite and have a purpose. It is not that you have come into things by accident, but that you have made up your mind as to them. And this principle, involved in these three items, I commend to you. It is like Daniel. He purposed in his heart; he made up his mind not to be defiled. That is the idea involved in “clothed them with the vests”. That is the body garment; it is nearest the body, a most important matter. The girdle is more the outside garment, it holds everything in control. I think it might be seen in the “elect of God, holy and beloved”, Colossians 3: 12. That is like the sons of Aaron, and then, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another”. Then it speaks of making way for love, “which is the bond of perfectness” (Colossians 3: 14). The girdle binds everything together, and this principle is most vital in a young Christian, or any Christian, who wants to make any progress whatever, maintain his place in the testimony, and be pleasing to the Lord. It is vital, because there is ever so much instruction and help for us in the young man of Mark 14. There is much of that nature of things around that would ensnare us, impair us. Let us not be in any sense casual, or indifferent, but wholly committed, purposeful and devoted. I commend this to us.
You want to be a priest? There is nothing like it, and as for this world there is no avenue, industrial, social, religious, or sporting, that could offer you an opening like this, that you might have a part as one of Aaron’s sons in the service of God. What an opening! What a privilege! But you need a girdle; you are disqualified if you do not have a girdle that holds everything in perfect control. The loins of our minds are often referred to. We are to gird up the loins of our mind (1 Peter l: 13). I speak about that because things, more or less, begin in your mind, and you need a girdle for your mind.
There is hardly a greater faculty than our mind. It is where things begin. So Peter says, “Having girded up the loins of your mind”, 1 Peter 1: 13. Now the loins are your strength, so have the strength of your mind under control. Do not let it run loose; do not let your thoughts run loose; bring them back immediately. “Leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ”, 2 Corinthians 10: 5. You are supposed to do that; you have power in the Spirit to control your thoughts; do not let them run amok, but see that they are girded about. For the vest is, as I said, the body garment, close to the body. You keep your body; look after your body; what a possession it is! It is not your own, although in one sense it is credited to you, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice” (Romans 12: 1), for instance. He has given it to you on loan, but it belongs to Him; He is the Owner of your body. Christ has died and He has accomplished redemption for your body. It just waits the moment when the dead will be raised, then changed, because your body is covered by the price He has paid, His precious blood. For the moment He lets you have it that you might sacrifice it to His will.
I would urge you with all the affection of my heart that you preserve your body, that you keep a girdle with this dress; it says that Moses “Girded them with the girdles”. He did not only throw it on like that young man, “cast about his naked body”—cast about! He had a good beginning, but there is this indifference and inattention, contrasting with this girdle. We are told to bind things on, not just have them flowing loose. There are many examples in Scripture of how even young people preserved themselves in a moment of temptation. They had the girdle in their heart. Joseph, for instance, he protected himself immediately in Genesis 39. What power he had! Off he went; “he fled”. In 1 Corinthians 6: 18 Paul says, “Flee fornication”, and in 2 Timothy 2: 22, “youthful lusts flee”. Flee that thing; have the girdle on. That is my word to you. We are living in an awful time, a time of depravity, licentiousness, dissoluteness; it is awful. Let us be examples of those who, with their eye on the Lord, are fully committed to the maintenance of what is proper to heaven.
One word, too, to young men from an older man—“Keep thyself pure” (1 Timothy 5: 23)—three most significant words. Let us write them on our hearts, ‘ Keep thyself pure’. It must be so to be a priest. It must be so to have part under the true Aaron, who Himself is girded. It is wonderful to be alongside Him, the Lord Jesus, in His service when He is clothed with the garments of glory and ornament. If you are to be alongside Him, in relationship to Him, you need these things, all of them, the three of them, the vests, and the girdles, and the high caps.
The high caps pretty much relate to our thoughts, that we do not have wild, impure thoughts; we have power to control these things. We might refer to Abraham in Genesis 15, how he scared the birds away. You cannot stop them from flying over your head, but you can stop them from building nests in your hair! That is the idea, you have power to scare them away. So the high caps are protection for our thoughts. How lovely to be so clothed, so fitted out!
God knows better than we, dear brethren; let us get alongside the Lord Jesus and seek the help of the Spirit; let us ask what is suitable that we might not in any way be defiled, and be disqualified from having part in His blessed service. There is nothing in the whole wide world to equal that. There may be many who would not esteem it thus, but it is so in any case; it is the best thing there is.
Well now, there are the domestic servants, as I might call them, those in the house, and they are waiting their Lord. It says, “Ye like men who await their own lord whenever he may leave the wedding”. It says, “Let your loins be girded about”, Luke 12: 35, 36. That is to say, they are ready for service. What does it mean, “girded about”? One man says, ‘Well, he delays to come’, and he eats and drinks and is drunken (Luke 12: 45). That is the very opposite of having a girdle. But visualise these servants, put yourself amongst them. I would counsel you, put yourself amongst them. Have your loins girded about. How is He going to find you? That is what He brings out here—“Blessed are those bondmen whom the Lord on coming shall find watching”; that is, ready, waiting for Him, loins girt about. It is very important, dear brethren, that we know what it is in all our service, as in the house, looking after His interests, to be thus garbed and vigilant. There are no occasions when we can relax, even for an instant. In this world you cannot let go your girdle, you need to be girded even for this household service. It is a mark in His mind of readiness for service, readiness for His coming. Your lamps burning too; that is a fine thing. You know where to get the oil, do you not? A fine thing that, to have your lamp burning, but the main thing before us is to have your loins girded. There is no more beautiful sight.
If you want an example of how to gird yourself, then look at the Lord Jesus Himself when He laid aside His garments and girded Himself with a linen towel (John 13: 4). What a Servant!
How beautiful His movements as He laid aside His garments and girded Himself with a linen towel. He also has another girdle as well as the linen towel. He does still use a linen towel in His wonderful service to us, but He has another girdle, a golden girdle round about His breasts. His affections are bound, they are restrained, they cannot flow out as He walks amidst the seven golden lamps. He finds all sorts of things there, but He has the right to go there because they profess His name. That gives Him the right to go wherever He wants—and what things He finds! Suppose He came into this room; could He take off His golden girdle? He took it off, you know. John fell down at His feet when he saw the Lord like this and he says, “he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not”, Revelation 1: 17. “Fear not”; He took off the girdle for a moment for John. It is a fine thing to find people who are in keeping with His own mind.
Who of us that belong to the great profession, as all do, are morally entirely apart from it because we know what it is to wear the girdle, and preserve our affections for Christ? He would take off His golden girdle and lay His right hand on us, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last”, Revelation 1: 17. Regarding this world through which we pass, there is not an instant when we can ungird ourselves, but there are the occasions when we have the blessed experience of His right hand and His “Fear not”, and the encouragement that He became dead, but is living for evermore.
There are others with the girdle on, seven angels; they are girded with golden girdles (Revelation 15: 6). That has judgment in view, but it is necessary that in all our service we allow nothing to intrude that would in any way interfere with His rights in His house. He is not a servant in the house; it is His house. He has claims here; His house is here, and these servants are vigilant, they are watchful; that is the idea of the girdle, that nothing is allowed to interfere with His
rights in the house. Just think of the kind of conditions there are in Christendom and they are coming closer and closer. Beloved brethren, there is that which would infringe on the rights of Christ and the disposition of God. We need to have our loins girt about; that is most important; and this scripture runs on to say that when He comes and finds people watching
‘He will gird Himself, and coming up will serve them’. Do you not think that is fine, to get some experience of the Lord Jesus Himself making His own recline at table, and serving them? So beautiful! In this scripture He is leaving the wedding. We are not told where He is going, except that He is coming to His house. They are standing with their hands on the handle of the door. He knocks; they know His knock. Oh to get to know Christ, to get to know His knock and to open to no other than Christ. There they are, and they open to Him immediately.
These are those who are in readiness for His coming. It is in the week too, for leaving the wedding involves the week. Coming to the wedding involves the Supper and nobody lets Him in at the Supper. When He comes on Lord’s day morning nobody lets Him in. Here, we let Him in because we are in a scene of danger, a scene where things would encroach upon His rights; therefore the need for vigilance and the door being shut. But on Lord’s day morning He comes by Himself; He comes without being invited; He comes in without needing any door to be opened. That is when He comes to the wedding, so to speak. But we are talking about the fact that there is nothing that is sympathetic with Christ down here. You young people, get hold of that; everything here is antagonistic to Christ, so you keep the door shut, you wait on Him, you wait on His knock and you open to Him immediately. All that comes up in this matter of service in the house, where His rights are maintained. Now as a few together in a place, maintaining what is due to Christ, they will allow nothing in at all that would interfere with His own rights, so that He may come in and prepare something for His people, gird Himself, and serve them. These are real things—I know myself that they are real because I experience them. I go to the meetings as well as you do. I sit in the meetings; I wait on Him. “He will gird himself”—blessed Master! What a meal He can provide in view of our encouragement, strengthening us to maintain His rights and what is due to Him in His own house. Soon He is coming; that is the point; soon He is coming to take them up Himself, and that will be the time for reward.
Well now, the warrior, the soldier, needs to be girt about as well. Imagine a soldier who is not properly equipped for the battle! So in Ephesians 6 there is warfare, and we have terrible foes. Paul says they are not blood and flesh. They are real enemies behind the blood and flesh. Blood and flesh might be that which comes into immediate contact with you, but we are to be alerted to the fact that the real enemy is the spirits behind the blood and flesh. You understand that, do you not? And it is not a question here of opening up new territory. I commend this to you, you young people; I want to lay it on you, gently I hope, that there is a tremendous range of things that have been secured. I would be here a long time if I started to tell you of all that has been fought for and secured at high cost in view of the saints entering into their inheritance. It has cost lives; maybe it is not martyrdom today, but men have delivered up their lives, and that is not just dying. Men and women that we speak about, men whose initials we quote, have given up their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus, for the sake of the territory, the divine territory, that you and I are in today, and are enjoying, I hope. We have not opened up that territory, it is all opened up, but warfare is still needed, soldiers are still needed, warriors are still needed, for the maintenance of what has been secured for us at such a cost.
So you need a girdle, because, as I said, we have an inveterate enemy and apart from the Spirit we are no match for him, but we have the Spirit. We also need to be girt, “Having girt”—that is your side and my side of it—“Having girt about your loins with truth”. We need that, and all the panoply of God. Then there can be no penetration of the fiery darts and whatever he might level against you. Whether he uses temptation or violence or threats, you are girt about with truth and that meets it. Now you learn that; you get to appreciate that; gird yourself about; protect yourself with truth. The Lord said to the devil, “It is written”, and he had to go. You gird about yourself with truth. Learn the Scriptures. They are not exactly the truth; they are the written word of God, but the truth is what is involved; the Spirit is the truth. Gird about yourself with truth; arm yourself; protect yourself, that what you have in the way of a legacy, what you have that has been handed down to you through the will of God through these men who have fought for it, may be preserved and kept. Do not give way—that is the idea; stand firm, stand fast. I would encourage you. You will admit that all I have said centres round this great matter of being definite. Do not be casual; do not be promiscuous. Be firm; make up your mind for it. I have often said that all this does not come through the post to you, dear brother; this is all learned, and it is a question of your and my entering into it and being firmly established in our own minds that this is what it is going to be. Make up your mind for it; be a Daniel; do not proceed without a girdle because then you will have no part in the service of God, and you will have no power to defend the rights of Christ, nor yet to defend what is so precious to us.
And then the Holy Scriptures; I commend the New Translation to you, and also the ministry that opened up for us the great truths of the house of God, eternal life, sonship, the Holy Spirit, and all that enters into the service of God. These are wonderful things, and we are to defend them and maintain them. We need to be warriors, prepared to sell our lives dearly and not to yield at all. In all we need a girdle. I would encourage you younger brethren not to be casual but to be committed and to give yourselves to these things and be wholly in them, for His name’s sake.
Address in Melbourne
5 April 1987