Stand and Fight: Let’s Get Offensive
Beartown Road Alliance Church
Sunday, August 11th, 2007
This morning we come to the last piece of the armor that God equips us with for the Spiritual battles of life. We’re going to be spending a couple of more weeks wrapping this series up, but as far as the actual pieces of the Armor of God, this is the last one. For many of us, this is the one that we’ve been waiting for. We’ve talked about the belt of Truth. We’ve looked at the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith. Last week we learned about the helmet of salvation that God offers to us. We’ve seen the specific ways that each of these pieces of armor protects us from the different ways that Satan attacks. We’ve seen how each of these pieces reflects the character and nature of Christ and how they are to be practically worn in our life and reflected on our character. But so far, all of the pieces have been defensive. All of them have been to repel attacks, to protect us and to provide cover from the weapons of Satan. These are all good things, but we live in a society that always puts more of an emphasis on the offense.
As a sports fan, I don’t care how good a defense is. I don’t want to see a great defensive effort. I don’t want to see a pitcher’s dual that ends in a 1-0 score. I don’t want to see an NFL game that has 47 punts and ends up 6-3. We want to see offense! That’s why soccer has had such a tough time sticking in America. It’s a beautiful game, there are so many intricacies and subtleties, if you know where to look but to the average American, it’s boring because there are usually only one or two goals scored. We would watch if soccer games ended 18-17! We understand that having a solid defense in any sport is vital, but we are enamored with and captivated by offensive feats. We are an offensive minded people.
So, Paul has spent the majority of the passage teaching us what we can do defensively in this battle, to survive the initial attacks, and now, he turns to the offense. We are given just one offensive weapon but it is all that we will ever need. We are given a sword. The sword of the Roman soldier was short and sharp. It had both edges honed to a razor sharp edge and it was designed specifically for hand-to-hand combat in close quarters. Contrary to many of the movies that show battles from this time period, the soldier did not swing the sword in broad and powerful strokes against the enemy. This would have required too much energy and the soldier would have tired quickly and would have been unable to continue the fight. The Roman soldier was trained to use his sword with a short, quick stabbing motion. His sword was not to deflect or to parry, he had a shield for that, his sword was to pierce and to penetrate, it was to put an end to the battle. The sword was an instrument of death. It was designed to kill and the soldiers were trained to use it in that way.
As Paul moves on to the sword, it would have been with the understanding that once we had put on all of the defensive armor, we could then take the sword in hand and engage the enemy with the sole purpose of ending Satan’s influence and the grip of sin and temptation in our lives. There is no mistake in the wording that Paul uses in another letter, the book of Colossians, where we are commanded to “put to death” whatever belongs to our earthly nature. Whatever it is in our lives that is keeping us from enjoying the life that God intends for us to have, we are to put it to death. Paul doesn’t tell us to set it aside, he doesn’t tell us to just ignore it and hope it goes away, he tells us to kill it. None of the other pieces of armor that we wear allow us to do that. The only way to accomplish this in our lives is to use the sword as it was intended to be used and to kill the old self, the sinful nature, so that the new self, the part of us that walks by the Spirit, can thrive and grow.
Now, it’s important to understand that I am not talking about perfection. So many people get discouraged and frustrated because they think that Christianity calls for an unachievable, impossible sinless perfection in our lives. After trying to hit that mark and failing repeatedly. Many give up. If we could achieve perfection we would have no need for God’s grace and mercy in our lives. Killing the old self does not mean that we become perfect. We’re human and sin is always going to be in the picture on some level. It does mean that we have grown and seen victory over the habitual and voluntary sin in our lives. We are no longer a slave to sin, feeling helpless and powerless to fight the temptations and compulsions of sin. This means consistently making the right choices and learning from and moving on when we make the wrong ones. We will not live lives that are characterized and defined by sin when we begin to use the sword to push the battle and defeat the enemy.
I. The Symbol of the Sword
Let’s start by looking at what this sword is. We’re told in verse 17 to: Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
This sword that we’re given is God’s word. The arsenal of the Christian, the power to overcome our nature and live victoriously is bound up in Scripture. We cannot have victory over Satan and sin unless we know God’s Word. Now, I want to clear up just what Paul is referring to when he talks about this word. He doesn’t use the more common Greek word, Logos. In the majority of instances where the word of God is referenced, Logos is used. In John chapter one, we see this word. We are told:
JN 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. JN 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
This is LOGOS, it refers to nothing less than Jesus Christ, Himself. He is God’s perfect and final “word” to mankind. In Him is wrapped up all of the Truth and Wisdom of God for man to see in action. Have you ever eagerly waited for a movie to come out that was based on a book you loved? You couldn’t wait to see the characters come to life and the storyline played out in living color. God fleshed out His Book, His Word, he displayed all of the Truth and love of Scripture in the person of Jesus Christ. That’s Logos, the living, breathing Word of God.
That is not what Paul is getting at here. He is not saying that the sword is the person of Jesus Christ. Logos encompasses everything, it is the full Word, revelation of God, the word that Paul uses carries less weight. He uses the Greek word Rhema. Rhema refers to a specific portion of the written word of God. John 3:16 is a rhema, Romans 3:23 is a rhema. It is not the word in its entirety but portions of it used in specific circumstances. The distinction is important to understand because what Paul is saying is that our primary weapon against the temptation and attacks of Satan is that portion of Scripture that best speaks to where the attack is coming from. God gives us specific words for specific situations and we are to use those as a sword to cut through the deception of Satan and to put an end to the temptation, to kill our earthly nature that desires what is contrary to God. How do we fight sin and temptation, we use God’s Word.
This can revolutionize the way that you deal with Satan in your life. When we bring the darkness of Satan’s lies into the light of God’s Truth, it changes the way that we see the world and the more we do that, the more of a habit that it becomes to hold everything up to the light, the tougher it becomes for that darkness to find any place in our lives. To do this, you’re going to see, we need to not just know Scripture: We see in several places that even Satan knows the Scriptures, we need to be convinced of the authority and power of God’s Word, both Logos and Rhema, for our lives.
II. The Source of the Sword
Paul says that this isn’t just any sword, it’s the Sword of the Spirit. The source of this Rhema, each portion of Scripture, is the Spirit of God.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
God-Breathed. This is a term that you are not going to find anywhere else in the NT and it’s used to describe Scripture. We can trust the specific words found in this book because we can be assured of where they come from. Each word was literally breathed out of the very mouth of God’s Spirit and into the minds of men.
I was listening to my kids argue a few days ago. They were in Cate’s room and I was standing out in the hall. Ethan was bossing Cate around, he told her that she wasn’t allowed out of her room. Her comeback was, “oh yeah, who says.” When she was sure that it was just Ethan talking, she refused to listen because his words carry no weight in her little world. Later that day, I sent Ethan out to call her off of the trampoline for dinner. I heard him tell her that she had to come in, this time, the answer to “who says?” was Dad. Her response was much different. She climbed off the trampoline and came in the house. You see, my words carry weight and authority with my children, the words of their siblings and peers don’t.
If the Bible is merely written by men, the words carry no weight in our lives. They cannot save us, they cannot heal us, there is no life in them, it is like any other book, there is no power. But when we understand that these men wrote as they were instructed and inspired by the Spirit of God, it changes things. We can trust the source!
2 Peter 1:20-21 Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, 21 or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.
In the same way that God’s Spirit moved the prophets of the OT, He moved the authors of the NT and because of that, each part and portion of Scripture carries with it the full weight and authority of God. Satan simply cannot stand against that.
When we understand the Source of Scripture then, as 2 Timothy tells us, we can:
• Teach it with confidence
• Rebuke with assurance of what is True
• Correct those areas in our life and the lives of others that don’t measure up to God’s word. The word for correct literally means to return to an upright position, just like airplane tray tables. God’s word helps us to keep our lives upright and in line with the Truth.
• Train our children and train others in God’s way and God’s work.
Then, we are told, we will be thoroughly equipped, we will be able to meet all of the demands that this life may throw at us and still stand. But its not going to happen, we can’t teach, rebuke, correct, or train, if we don’t have an intimate knowledge of Scripture and believe that we can trust the source.
III. The Success of the Sword
In Matthew chapter 4, you have the account of an encounter between Christ and Satan. Jesus uses the very principle that Paul is driving at to defeat the repeated attempts of Satan to cause Him to sin.
Jesus has been sent out into the desert to be tested and tempted. He undergoes a period of fasting for 40 days and nights. Satan waited until the conditions were right before he began his onslaught of temptation. Notice in v.1 it says that Jesus was “led up...into the wilderness…” The Judean wilderness stretches between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. It is an area of endless sand, and crumbling rocks. There are moments when the heat is all but unbearable. The conditions of the wilderness made the deprivation of hunger even greater. So after spending 40 days in such a place, it is something of an understatement when Matthew says that Jesus “was hungry.” He was famished. And this hunger became the opportunity for the Satan’s first temptation.
Satan tries to get Jesus to turn a stone into bread. Now, the sin would not have been to create food. We see Jesus turn water into wine and we see him on at least two occasions multiply fish and loaves to feed a hungry crowd. The temptation was for Christ to doubt God’ Word. Just before being sent into the wilderness, Jesus had been baptized and the heavens had opened and God had declared that this was His Son. Satan comes in and opens with, “if you are God’s Son.” He is trying to plant that seed of doubt that He is not who God Himself has declared Him to be. Satan uses this one on us all the time. He tries to convince us that we are not who God says we are. Jesus handles that temptation by using a rhema, a word from God. He quoted from Deuteronomy and basically says, “I will not doubt and test God rather I will trust Him for what I need. And with that Satan moves on. He takes Jesus to the city and to the highest point of the temple and tells him to jump!
We get to see here that Satan is no stranger to Scripture, himself. He rolls out his own knowledge of the Bible for the next temptation and quotes a Messianic prophecy from Psalm 91. Satan misinterprets the prophecy but we get to see that Satan will even misuse Scripture to lead people astray! It’s happening today. There are whole movements and denominations that are founded on a convoluted interpretation of a Scripture that is usually taken completely out of context. The prosperity gospel and some of the signs movements are based on parts that were never intended to make up a whole. The focus of all of these movements is on us and what we can get out of God instead of on God and His glory. You cannot take Scripture as a whole and ever think that its about us, its always about God.
Here, Satan is trying to get Jesus to reject God’s will. The time is not right for His ministry to be fully revealed but if He jumps and angels rush to His rescue, what an incredible miracle that would be and His ministry would start with a bang! Satan was urging the Lord to be presumptuous, not trusting. He was tempting Christ to prove the reality of God’s love and care. Jesus answers again and uses Scripture to interpret Scripture when He tells Satan that His responsibility is to trust God, not to test Him. Satan tries one more thing, he does away with any semblance of subtlety and tells Christ that he will give him power and riches and glory if He will just bow down to him. He is using the temptation of instant gratification that works so well on many today. Jesus again uses a rhema and quotes from Deuteronomy. And with that final thrust of the sword of the spirit, Satan is defeated and leaves and we’re told that God sent angels to comfort Him. God provided what He needed when He needed it and Jesus trusted that the Words of God were stronger than the temptations and lies of Satan. We have such a great example here of the use of this weapon.
But I want you to get this: If Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, the Son of the Living God, the very Creator of life had to know the Scriptures in order to stand, how much more important is it for us. In order to fight with this sword, we’ve got to know God’s Word.
And we’ve got to understand this last part,
IV. The Strength of the Sword
This Sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, is unlike any other book. It is alive and it is the very power of God.
HEB 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
There is nothing else that can accomplish what God’s Word can in our lives and in the lives of others. It has the strength to:
• Compel – it can push us to do things, as we feel God drawing us, that we could never attempt or achieve on our own. It has sent men and women to far off countries with little or no modern comfort to preach the gospel, it has caused men and women to willingly lay down their life so that others could live. That is the work of the living Word of God
• Convict – Hebrews tells us that it penetrates deep within to convict us in those areas where we are falling short.
• Convert - RO 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. In the words of God are found everything that we need to begin and relationship with God and to enjoy that relationship for eternity.
• Console – nothing else can touch our hearts and bring us peace and comfort like the promises of God to us that we find in the Scriptures.
• Combat – As Paul is telling us in Ephesians, God’s Word has the power to stand for us and to combat the attacks of Satan in the spiritual arena.
Friends the Words of God are living and active and they are the sword that God gives to us to stand but as I’ve mentioned several times already, we have to know what it contains in order to use it effectively. Too many of us are waving sticks at Satan hoping to defeat him because our swords are missing. If you want to V. sharpening your sword and begin to experience victory over Satan, here’s what I want you to do.
1) Read It – place to start. So much great stuff. So much that speaks to where we are.
2) Understand It – ask for God’s Spirit to enlighten His Word for you
3) Meditate on it – Think about what it says and what it means
4) Memorize it.
Too many Christians have turned away from the discipline of Bible memorization. I used to do Bible quizzing and there are still times when I am facing problems and trials that those verses that I memorized as a child are what carry me through and deliver me from the temptations of Satan. There is no short cut here. God provides what we need but we have to choose to learn it.
David wrote: PS 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
5) Apply it.
James tells us that its not enough to merely listen to the word, we’ve got to do what it says. This is where the sword is sharpened, this is where we will begin to see changes and become more effective in our growth and walk with God, when we start to obey.
The secret to victory over this life of sin is knowing the Word of God, logos, knowing Christ, and knowing and doing the Word of God, rhema, the words and promises that he gives us for specific times and specific circumstances. Without that, we can stand in our armor and deflect and defend but we will never strike a blow for God’s Kingdom and experience the victory that is ours.
Don’t miss out. Pull out the sword and begin to make it a vital and integral part of all that you do.
