Alba 8-13-2023
THE ARMOR OF GOD: THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT
Ephesians 6:17
When our son, Kevin, was just a little boy, we had some videos and he loved watching the Disney animated movie, Robin Hood. He also liked the movie Ivanhoe, which was another swashbuckling film. As a result Kevin liked swords, and we bought several plastic swords for him.
I even made one that he still has today. It was made out of pressed wood (Here it is). It wouldn't cut much, but it would hurt if it hit you. In spite of that I don't think that he hit anyone with this sword.
The only swords in today’s military are ceremonial; they function as a symbol of command. It is common to see a saber on the wall of a commander’s office. Today’s military bayonet is a multi-purpose knife affixed to the muzzle of one’s rifle, a last-resort weapon in close quarter combat.
That best describes the sword that a Roman soldier would carry. The Roman Legion’s offensive weapon of choice for foot soldiers was a short, double-edged, straight sword for close combat, no more than 12 to 20 inches long.
Soldiers would lead with their shields and thrust with their swords. It was also the preferred weapon of gladiators. Using it effectively was a matter of life or death.
Ephesians 6:17 says that in addition to the shield of faith, we are also to take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” In our battle with the devil, we see a need to be armed.
If we were to have every piece of armor we have talked about up to this point, we would be capable of withstanding the devil's attacks in our life. But God gives us more! He wants us to be able to send the devil running, not simply be able to withstand his attacks!
The Bible is our sword. It is a book unlike any other. What we have written in the pages of this Book are the very words of God. That is the reason it has power and is a weapon against evil. God literally wrote the whole thing. II Timothy 3:16 tells us that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” The NIV says it is, “God-breathed”.
Or as Jeff Strite says, actually you could say, God ghost wrote the thing. Do you know what ghost writing is? That’s when a celebrity pays a good writer to write a book in their name. The book is named for the celebrity, but the book was actually written by the ghost writer.
Jesus had said to His apostles in John 16:13 “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.”
And Peter 1:21 tells us that, “prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
Did you get that? The Holy Ghost (Spirit) was the “ghost writer” of the Scriptures. Isaiah may have had his name on his book, but it was the Spirit that carried him along.
Matthew may have written the Gospel, but it was the Spirit that ghost-wrote his book. Paul may have written letters to the churches, but it was the Spirit that dictated the words.
The sword of the Spirit, the Bible, has the power to transform us and remake us even better than before. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that “the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
The sword of the Spirit will cut straight to the core of the matter and expose the truth. Like a sword that cuts and thrusts, the Bible is able to penetrate to the depths of our souls.
So the Bible is not a mere letter-opener. It is a soul opener. The Bible is intended to change our lives. It is unlike any other book, and our eternal destiny depends on it.
We need that sword because our enemy is real and powerful, and we need to be able to fight back when he attacks. However, we are not fully armed if we lack a basic knowledge of the Bible. A believer who is biblically illiterate is virtually unarmed.
Hebrews 5:12-13 says, “12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.” I hope that does not describe you!
Then verse 14 says, “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
If you want to become expert in the use of the "sword" as the Lord Jesus wants us to be, we are commanded in Colossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly."
In order to give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to guide us in applying God’s Word, we have to saturate our life with God’s Word. It’s actually pretty simple.
If we want the Holy Spirit to have the role of applying God’s Word in our lives, then we need to spend as much time as possible in His word. We need to give Him something to work with.
You know, you can listen to sermons, you can read religious pamphlets, tracts, books and devotionals every day and all day long. These may, indeed, bless you. But, let me say that they will not bless you half as much as picking up the Bible and reading it and studying it yourself.
Only by reading and studying the Scriptures ourselves do we get the ‘big picture’. Many get led astray because they fail to grasp the overall plan of God. Only by reading and studying the Bible ourselves do we learn how to use our Bible which is our sword.
We need to know what is in the Bible, where it is in the Bible, and how to access it. This skill comes only by personally reading and studying.
We need to be able to refute the demonic-inspired beliefs that prevail in our culture today. We need to contest the worldly philosophies that shape our society - Evolution, Materialism, Narcissism, Moral Relativism, and the like.
We need to expose the fallacies of the false religions that entrap the souls of so many people - Buddhism, Hinduism, Bahaism, Islam, and Neo-Paganism. This can be done with the "sword of the Spirit, the Word of God."
The Roman soldier would never have thought about going into battle without spending many hours practicing with his sword.
The very best soldiers would try all different types of thrusts from different positions in order to determine what would work best in various situations. Even today, soldiers and police officers and others who depend on their weapons practice with them over and over.
The idea is that when they get in the heat of the battle, they will not have to think about how to use their weapons. They can just react based on all their training and practice. The same thing is true with the sword of the Spirit.
Paul tells Timothy in II Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” The NIV has that verse, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, and who accurately handles the word of truth”.
We have God’s Word and we should read it, study it, meditate on it, and live by it. The psalmist realized that saying, “Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.” (Psalm 119:73)
In fact, Psalm 119 with its 176 verses continually speaks of the need to use God's word for help and protection. Verses 4-6 tell of a desire to be faithful saying, “You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed.”
Verse 9 asks, “How can a young man cleanse his way?” And then answers the question saying, “By taking heed according to Your word.”
And verses 15-16 promise, “I will meditate on Your precepts,
And contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.”
Verses 97-98 say, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.”
When the enemy attacks we should have God’s word ready to fight off those attacks. A Roman soldier would keep his sword in a sheath attached to the belt where he could be ready to quickly retrieve it whenever needed.
Where can we Christians keep our sword so it is ready whenever we need it? Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.” When God's word is in our hearts, we have it ready and it gives us the most protection.
So when the devil comes with his temptations, which he will, we will be ready for him. The best example that we have of the use of Scripture to beat back temptation is Satan’s attack on Jesus, recorded in Matthew 4:1-11 where is says, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Note this; every time Satan tempted Jesus to satisfy fleshly desires, fleshly pride, and fleshly ego, Jesus countered the enticement with a "It is written…" Jesus brought to the battle a specific passage of Scripture that dealt with the specific nature of the temptation. With the chosen Scripture occupying His mind, Satan and the temptation were unable to gain a foothold with Him.
But also notice that Satan himself quoted Scripture in one of his attacks on Jesus. The old devil used a portion of the Bible to encourage and provide a justification for Jesus to do what the devil wanted Him to do. Satan also pulled an "it is written".
Beware, the devil knows the Scriptures very well. He has and will use the Scriptures to entice us to sin against God. He loves to twist Scripture or take it out of context to get us to believe an idea or teaching that is contrary to the true will of God.
Remember that II Corinthians 11:13-14 warns us that Satan’s workers disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Sadly there are those today who would seem to be servants of Jesus Christ, but are actually servants of Satan.
That's because they preach and teach lies and heresies twisting and distorting the Scriptures. Lifestyles that the Bible clearly calls evil are said to be acceptable. And they try to use the Bible to prove it.
Words of scripture that are plain are made to say the opposite of the true meaning. The only way we will be able to defend ourselves from lies is with the truth.
The only way we are going to protect ourselves from false doctrine is with sound doctrine. When they pull a ‘It is written…’, we need to counter as Jesus did with a ‘on the other hand, it is written….’. Remember what the psalmist said, "Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies.”
There are churches becoming wise to what is going on, so there are denominational churches that are pulling away from their denomination to form new alliances that stay closer to what the Word of God says.
In Ephesians 5:11, we are told “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” There are people all around us who do, or condone, evil things because they do not know that they are evil.
We are commanded to bring understanding to them; that is, "expose" evil for what it is. Ephesians 5:13 states that the dark or evil deeds must be made manifest (exposed) by the light. Okay, what is the light? It is that sword of the Spirit.
Psalm 119:105 tells us that God's “Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” And verse 130 says, “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.” The words of scripture cut through the darkness so that we can see our real need.
The sword of the Spirit needs to be used like a surgeons scalpel to expose the disease and sin that keeps us from fellowship with God. The scripture makes clear that only Jesus, by His death on the cross can rescue us from the evil around us and within us.
We are to put on the whole armor of God to enable us to stand against the wiles of the devil. In one sense, the “whole armor of God” is a picture of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6), and He is our righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21) and our peace (Eph. 2:14). His faithfulness makes possible our faith (Gal. 2:20); He is our salvation (Luke 2:30); and He is the Word of God (John 1:1, 14). This means that when we yield to Christ Jesus in obedient faith, we are fitted with all the armor we need.
The Discovery channel has a show called "Future Weapons" where Mack Machowicz reviews the latest and greatest in military defense. The show tells how countries are spending billions, trillions of dollars trying to build the ultimate weapon where the enemy will have no defense.
The truth of the matter is we have the greatest weapon ever made – "The Bible", the “Sword of the Spirit”, it is the very “Word of God.”
CLOSE:
There is tremendous power in the Word of God. This truth is illustrated in a story told by C. H. Spurgeon.
Out of curiosity, an agnostic who belonged to what was known as the "Hell-fire Club" attended a service where George Whitefield was preaching.
At the next meeting of the club, the young man began to ridicule the evangelist before the other members, repeating Whitefield’s words and mimicking his inflections and gestures.
About halfway through the speech, however, he stopped abruptly as the Holy Spirit began to convict him.
Responding to the message he had been repeating so flippantly, he confessed his sin and opened his heart to Christ right then and there.
Needless to say, the meeting was quickly adjourned. That young man became a zealous witness who led many others to Christ.
