The Sword Of The Spirit Series

Sermon Notes: July 05, 2009

Sermon Series: Spiritual Warfare

Sermon #07: The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God

Scripture Ref: Ephesians 6:10-18

V#17 ‘& take the helmet of salvation & the sword of the SPIRIT, which is the WORD of GOD.’

Introduction:

A house church in a city of the Soviet Union had received just one copy of the gospel of Luke. It was the only Scripture they had in their hands & so they decided to tear it into small sections & then distribute it among the church. They would memorize the section they had received & then meet on the LORD’S DAY & redistribute the Scriptures & receive another section of Scripture to put to their memory.

On Sunday this group of believers began arriving in small groups throughout the day so as not to arouse the suspicion of the K G B informers. By dusk they had all gathered inside & the windows were closed & the doors shut. They began their service by singing a hymn very quietly but yet with emotion.

Suddenly the door was charged open & in walked 2 soldiers with automatic weapons in their arms. One of the soldiers shouted out, “All right, everyone line up against the wall. If you wish to renounce your faith to JESUS CHRIST then leave now.” Two or three left, then another, & then in a few more seconds two more bowed their head in shame & walked out. The soldier shouted to the small congregation, “This is your last chance. Either renounce your faith in JESUS CHRIST & leave here now or stay & face the consequences.’ Another left & then finally two more sadly slipped out in the night.

No one else moved. Parents with small children trembling beside them looked down on them in silent prayer. They fully expected to be gunned down or at least arrested & put into prison. After a few moments of complete silence one of the soldiers closed the door & looked back at those who were still lined up against the wall. He spoke, “Keep your hands raised, but this time in praise to our LORD JESUS, brothers & sisters. We too are Christians. We were sent to another house church a few weeks ago to arrest a group of Christians but while there we too became believers. The other soldier interrupted, “We have found out by experience that unless someone is willing to die for their faith they cannot be fully trusted so we let the others go.’

Today in our own world, where BIBLES are plentiful & CHURCHES are free from the worry of being arrested we find that FAITH can run pretty shallow can’t it? Real commitment & sincere loyalty can run pretty lukewarm. But TRUE SOLDIERS of the LORD JESUS CHRIST are serious about their FAITH. TRUE SOLDIERS of JESUS CHRIST would have stayed in the room regardless of the consequences when the opportunity was given for them to leave.

We at least for the present do not have to concern ourselves with being put before a firing squad or placed into a prison cell but we do have to face a certain degree of persecutions & tribulations & tests. & when those times of suffering come we are each one given the choice, stand firm regardless of the consequences or turn tail & run. TRUE SOLDIERS will not run. Amen?

Regardless of where we live, CHRISTIANS will face some level of suffering. We are in a REAL WAR & sadly one of the evidences of WARS is they always bring forth SUFFERINGS & we should NEVER be SURPRISED when we face them on a daily basis. We should not be SURPRISED that the DEVIL is DETERMINED to DESTROY the CHURCH of today & EVERYONE & EVERYTHING that is a part of it. SATAN has gathered all of his FORCES & they are filled with RAGE & with FURY & they are working OVERTIME in effort to STOP each of us from going to Heaven.

The DEVIL wants to DESTROY in every person he can, the genuine TESTIMONY of JESUS CHRIST. His MILITARY PLAN is to make it so HARD & so DIFFICULT that every SOLDIER of JESUS CHRIST will either become LUKEWARM & PASSIVE or just simply QUIT ENTIRELY. But yet we have been given the SPIRITUAL EQUIPMENT to DEFEAT the DEVIL & to WIN the SPIRITUAL BATTLES. Thus far we have looked at:

The Belt of Truth:

The Breastplate of God’s Righteousness:

The Shoes of Peace:

The Shield of Faith:

The Helmet of Salvation:

These are all DEFENSIVE WEAPONS which are given to us to help us WARD OFF the DEVIL.

This morning we take a look at another piece of SPIRITUAL ARMOR:

That weapon is found in Ephesians 6:18 & it is the SWORD of the SPIRIT which is the WORD of GOD.