Scripture
We are currently in a sermon series in Ephesians 6:10-24 that I am calling, “The Whole Armor of God.”
So far we have examined our spiritual warfare, our terrible enemy, our only strength, and our shining armor. Today, I want to examine our mighty weapon in this spiritual warfare.
So, let’s read about our mighty weapon in Ephesians 6:17b, although for the sake of context, I shall read verses 10-17b:
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17b)
Introduction
In his commentary on Ephesians, James Montgomery Boice refers to a book titled Add to Your Faith by Sinclair Ferguson, in which he discusses our spiritual warfare against Satan. According to Dr. Ferguson, each piece of our armor is directed to one of the ways in which Satan attacks Christians. Here is how he puts it:
Our breastplate arms us against Satan as accuser. We have seen…how Satan is present to point an accusing finger at the believer and gloat over his manifold sins. “Look at that sin,” he sneers. “No one as wicked as that can serve God.” We saw that the righteousness that protects us against these accusations is of two types. First there is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us in justification….Then there are also those practical deeds of righteousness that are the result of the presence of Christ in our lives….
The next piece of the soldier’s equipment is his boots or marching sandals. Ferguson thinks of these as protection against Satan as a serpent (Revelation 12:9). A serpent strikes out at the feet or legs of his victims.
Our shield of faith arms us against Satan as tempter. He tells us that we cannot trust God, particularly to deliver us from evil and enable us to live a pure life. Faith in God overcomes these temptations.
The helmet protects us against Satan as deceiver. He would confuse us, if he could. Satan would crush our heads, if it were possible. Actually, it is Satan who is to have his head crushed by Jesus, though Satan was given power to strike his heel, as he did at the cross.
This brings us to the Christian’s final piece of armor, the only offensive part: his sword. These other pieces of armor have been defensive. This alone is offensive. It is our means of resisting Satan as liar, according to Ferguson. Jesus said that Satan is “a liar and the father of lies” and “there is no truth in him” (John 8:44). What is sufficient and effective against Satan’s untruths? There is only one weapon, and that is the truths of God embodied in the Bible which is God’s Word.
Lesson
In today’s text, Ephesians 6:17b, we learn that our mighty weapon is the sword of the Spirit.
Let’s use the following outline:?
1. What Is the Sword of the Spirit?
2. How Do We Use the Word of God?
I. What Is the Sword of the Spirit?
First, what is the sword of the Spirit?
Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:17b, “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” John MacArthur describes the soldier’s sword:
The sword to which Paul refers here is the machaira, which varied in length from six to eighteen inches. It was the common sword carried by Roman foot soldiers and was the principal weapon in hand-to-hand combat. Carried in a sheath or scabbard attached to their belts, it was always at hand and ready for use. It was the sword carried by the soldiers who came to arrest Jesus in the Garden (Matthew 26:47), wielded by Peter when he cut off the ear of the high priest’s slave (v. 51), and used by Herod’s executioners to put James to death (Acts 12:2).
According to Paul, the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. “The Spirit” could be translated as “spiritual” or “by the Spirit.” This would then refer to the nature of the sword. However, it is more likely that the Greek is a genitive of origin, so that our translation is the preferred translation: it is “the sword of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit, who is the author of Scripture, is the one who enables us to use the word of God.
I need to explain one more word, and it is the word “word” in the phrase, “the word of God.” Many of you may know that one of the Greek words for “word” is logos. Boice writes that logos is an exalted word, even in the secular Greek world. Centuries earlier a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus wrestled with the question about how there could be order in a universe in which everything seemed to be changing. For example, he said, “You can’t step into the same river twice.” He meant that because the water in a river is always moving so that when you step into the river the second time, you are not stepping into the same body of water. It had changed. Heraclitus argued that everything in life was like that. Nothing was stable. Everything was constantly changing. But if that is so, he asked, how is it that all things remain the same? Why is the experience of one generation so similar to the one before? Heraclitus concluded that the Word of God (which he called the logos of God) stood behind everything we see and governed it. God’s logos was the ordering principle of the world.
You may recall that the Apostle John used this same term in the opening chapter of The Gospel of John. He used the Greek word logos when referring to the “Word.” He wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). For John, the Word (that is, the logos) referred to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God’s full and final “word” to humanity. The Scriptures, then, which are also the “word of God,” are the written word to us about Jesus.
Now, back to our text. Paul used the Greek word rhema and not logos for “word” in Ephesians 6:17b. Rhema really means “saying, speech, or discourse.” In other words, it is a specific portion of the Bible, such as John 3:16 or Romans 3:23 or Psalm 23. And as Boice rightly says, “It is important to see this…because according to Paul’s teaching we are to overcome Satan by the particular words or portions of Scripture.”
John MacArthur notes that Scottish pastor and author Thomas Guthrie writes, “The Bible is an armory of heavenly weapons, a laboratory of infallible medicines, a mine of exhaustless wealth. It is a guidebook for every road, a chart for every sea, a medicine for every malady, and a balm for every wound. Rob us of our Bible and our sky has lost its sun.”
MacArthur also quotes a tribute to the word of God from an unknown source:
There are words written by kings, by emperors, by princes, by poets, by sages, by philosophers, by fishermen, by statesmen, by men learned in the wisdom of Egypt, educated in the schools of Babylon, and trained at the feet of rabbis in Jerusalem. It was written by men in exile, in the desert, in shepherd’s tents, in green pastures, and beside still waters. Among its authors we find a tax-gatherer, a herdsman, a gatherer of sycamore fruit. We find poor men, rich men, statesmen, preachers, captains, legislators, judges, and exiles. The Bible is a library full of history, genealogy, ethnology, law, ethics, prophecy, poetry, eloquence, medicine, sanitary science, political economy, and the perfect rules for personal and social life. And behind every word is the divine author, God Himself.
Regarding the divine authorship of the word of God MacArthur quotes John Wesley, who said, “The Bible must have been written by God or good men or bad men or good angels or bad angels. But bad men and bad angels would not write it because it condemns bad men and bad angels. And good men and good angels would not deceive by lying about its authority and claiming that God wrote it. And so the Bible must have been written as it claims to have been written—by God who by His Holy Spirit inspired men to record His words using the human instrument to communicate His truth.”
II. How Do We Use the Word of God?
And second, how do we use the word of God?
There is no clearer illustration of the use of the sword of the Spirit than Jesus’ use of the word of God against Satan in the wilderness. Jesus had just been baptized by his cousin John in the Jordan River. The Spirit of God had descended upon Jesus like a dove, and the Father had said of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Immediately following that dramatic inauguration of his ministry, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (4:1). After fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus was understandably hungry. Then the devil approached Jesus and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” (4:3). Satan was tempting Jesus to doubt the Father’s truthfulness. Now remember, in the immediately previous pericope the Father had said of his Son, Jesus, “This is my beloved Son” (3:17a). Now, Satan was directly attacking the Father’s truthfulness by trying to get Jesus to prove that he was indeed the Son of God.
How did Jesus respond? Did he provide Satan with the proof he requested? No. He answered Satan by using the word of God from Deuteronomy 8:3, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ ” (4:4). It was as though Jesus was saying, “Satan, it does not really matter much whether I have physical bread to eat. God will preserve my life for as long as he wants, to do with it what he wants. What really matters is whether I believe God or not. If I doubt his word, all is lost.”
Boice says that at this point Satan got into the act, saying, “Well, I see that you are a student of Scripture, having memorized that verse from Deuteronomy. But, of course, I am something of a Bible student myself. When I’m not wandering up and down the earth tempting Job or someone, I have my own periods of Bible study, and not long ago, when I was reading in the Psalms, I came across some interesting verses. Psalm 91:11–12 says, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone’ [Matthew 4:6]. Do you believe that? I believe it. In fact, I believe it so much that I am going to make this suggestion. Let’s go up to the highest point of the temple, you and me. You jump off. God will ‘bear you up,’ and the people who see the miracle will follow you immediately. It will get your ministry off to a rip-roaring start.”
Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy a second time. “It is also written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’ ” (Matthew 4:7; cf. Deuteronomy 6:16). Here Jesus used Scripture to interpret Scripture—an important hermeneutical principle—and said, in effect, “Satan, you want me to put God to the test. But you have to understand that it is not God who is to be tested. I am the one being tested. My responsibility is not to test but to trust him.”
In the third temptation Satan threw off all subtlety and sued for Christ’s worship. He showed him the kingdoms of the world and their glory and promised, “All this I will give you…if you will bow down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9).
Jesus replied, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’ ” (Matthew 4:10; cf. Deuteronomy 6:13). It was another quotation from Deuteronomy. And then Boice concludes:
In all Scripture there is no better example of the power of specific sayings of the Word of God to turn Satan aside and preserve the one tempted.
Let me put it very directly. Here is Jesus Christ—the holy Son of the almighty God, the one in whom neither Satan nor man could find any wrong or gain even the tiniest foothold, Jesus, whose eyes were always on the glory of God the Father and who always lived in the closest possible communion with him. If this Jesus, your Lord and Savior, had to know Scripture in order to resist Satan and win a victory over him, how much more do you and I need it to win a like victory! You say, “Well, I have a general idea what the Bible is about. I believe that the Bible is God’s Word.” That is good. I do not want to discount that in the slightest. But it is not enough. According to Ephesians 6:17, you must know the specific sayings of Scripture—you must have them memorized—if you are to resist and overcome Satan successfully.
In our mighty battle against our terrible enemy God has given us the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Unlike the “belt of truth,” which refers to biblical doctrine, here the word of God refers to knowing Scripture itself. Bible study is important because it helps us understand doctrine. But, Bible memory is important too, perhaps more so because it helps us apply God’s word in our battle against temptation. As Boice says, “Satan will not flee from us simply because we tell him to. He will retreat only before the power of God as he himself speaks his words into the midst of the temptation.”
John MacArthur reminds us that as the sword of the Spirit, the word of God offers limitless resources and blessings to the believer.
First of all, the word of God is the source of truth. “Your Word is truth,” Jesus said to his Father (John 17:17). We live in a day and age where truth is no longer objective and standard. Many people think that they themselves are the source of truth. However, the source of all truth about God and man, life and death, time and eternity, men and women, right and wrong, heaven and hell, damnation and salvation, is God’s own word.
The word of God is also a source of happiness. Speaking of God’s wisdom, the writer of Proverbs said, “Blessed [or happy] is the man who listens to me” (Proverbs 8:34). Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28). No person can be happier than when he discovers, accepts, and obeys God’s word.
The word of God is the source of spiritual growth. “Like newborn babes,” Peter admonished, “long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).
The word of God is the source of power. The Bible is “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit” (Hebrews 4:12); the source of guidance, “a lamp to [our] feet, and a light to [our] path” (Psalm 119:105); the source of comfort (Romans 15:4); and the source of perfection (2 Timothy 3:16).
And, finally, the word of God is the source of victory. It is the source of victory over our great spiritual enemy, our most powerful weapon against Satan.
Conclusion
Therefore, having analyzed the concept of our mighty weapon in Ephesians 6:17b, let us use the word of God in our spiritual warfare against the schemes of the devil.
If you are not a Christian, you are not able to battle against the schemes of the devil. In fact, you are on the devil’s side. You need to convert from Satan’s army to Jesus’ army. You do so by repenting of your sin and trusting in Jesus to pay the penalty for your sin.
But, if you are a Christian, you are able to battle against the schemes of the devil. Put on the whole armor of God so that you may stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God so that you may be victorious in your battle against the devil. Amen.
