8. The Armor of God: The Sword of the Spirit

Ephesians 6 and the Armor of God

We're on the Sword of the Spirit. We're quickly approaching the end of our series. Next week will be the last one. So, what is the armor of God? Where is that charge in the Scriptures? Ephesians. What verse?

Ephesians 6. All right, good. Chapter 6. You got that? And it's actually 10 through 20. The first slide will be 10 through 15. All right, let's start reading.

Finally,.

Then put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

That's such a powerful passage. So, quick review. We're going through the armor of God, and here's all the pieces. First is the belt of truth. This is a defensive weapon. This is the truth of the cross, where your sins are paid for.

It covers your sin and shame. Jesus says, tetelestai, paid in full. You no longer have to worry about walking around without a loin cloth. Jesus has covered your sin and shame. The breastplate of righteousness, offensive or defensive?

Defensive. You've received the righteousness of Christ. In other words, the perfection that you need to get into heaven was given to you because Jesus lived the perfect life on your behalf. You are now in right relationship with God because your sins have been paid for and the perfection that you need to enter into heaven is given to you by Jesus.

Shoes of peace, offensive or defensive?

Defensive.

Defensive, good. You've been enabled to stand. You're going to stand in the evil day. You're going to fight and carry the message of hope that will change the world. The message of hope, the gospel, which has changed your minds and your hearts, you are going to bring that message to the people who need to hear it so that they too will be able to stand on the day of judgment, acknowledging Jesus as Lord and receiving the gift of eternal life.

Shield of faith, offensive or defensive? Defensive. Faith connects you to the power and the promises of God to quell your doubts and fears. God is your shield, right? So we're not holding up an actual shield.

We're standing behind the shield of God. He's the one who's going to extinguish the darts of the evil one when you place your faith in His promises and His power. Recognizing your own weakness but the power and the promises of God is what faith is about.

Helmet of salvation, offensive or defensive?

Defensive.

Defensive. Protects you from the lies that the enemy tries to get you to believe. Remember, Jesus' sheep hear His voice. Don't believe the lies. You're not good enough. Say, I'm not, that's why I have Jesus.

You've sinned. I know, that's why I need Jesus. You just keep combating the attacks of the enemy with the Word of God. Sword of the Spirit, offensive or defensive?

Offensive.

It's our offensive weapon, right? We're going to go on the offense with the Word of God, right? This is the first time we are now picking up the sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the offensive.

Okay, the first three of this armor is fastened to the body. The last three are easily picked up or put down, right? So you have to remember, you could pick up the sword of the Spirit or you can go out of the house without it.

You don't want to be in that position. So listen to this quote. It's true, the helmet, belt, breastplate, and shield are defensive armor, but that does not mean the soldier is necessarily in defensive mode.

A soldier wears protective gear when waging an offensive strike. That's Doug Newton, okay? So in other words, as Christians, as children of God, we are always on the offense. Now we wear the protective armor because we know that we're going to get attacked, but we are constantly on the offense trying to share the Word of God, share the Gospel, share the truth that God has revealed to us, to the people around us, to teach them that men are men, women are women, life begins in the womb, marriage is between a man and a woman.

All the things that society is trying to redefine, God has defined infallibly in His Word, and those truths are never going to change. So think about this. You can choose to live your life on the changing whims and tastes of society, or you can build your life on the unchanging truth of the Word of God, things that are going to be true forever.

That's stability. So here's Ian Dugan's intro, and I love how he did this. Warfare has changed a great deal over the past 2 ,000 years. Nowadays, much of it is done with clinical efficiency and at a safe distance.

There are laser-guided smart bombs, cruise missiles, and drones. In some ways, the modern soldier can simply light the fuse and stand well back. War wasn't always that way. It used to be face to face, eyeball to eyeball.

There may have been archers, sling throwers, and people with javelins who could kill us from as far as 50 yards away, but most of the fighting was done with swords or clubs at close range. It was fierce, it was messy, and most of all, it was a very personal affair.

You or him, one-to-one, face to face. So in the day and age that we live in, in fact, when I worked at Grumman 35 years ago, I was made aware of something called the JSTARS program. JSTARS stands for Joint Surveillant Target Attack and Radar Systems, and it would track ground forces, vehicles, aircraft, and take pictures of those things from 150 miles away.

So before our troops ever got there, they had a map of where everything was 150 yards away from where it was actually happening. Now the technology has increased so much more, they probably know it from here.

But when we're waging war as children of God, it's always face to face. When we're talking to another human being, we're talking to image bearers of God. This is done face to face. It's very important that we recognize that this is not— now we can pray, and that's a long range, you know, like missile, like we use God's—we use prayer to effect change in the heart, but how can they hear unless one is sent?

We have to bring the message to them personally. Most of us would prefer our spiritual warfare to be of the modern kind. We would like God to equip us with the intercontinental ballistic missile of the spirit, right, or the javelin of the spirit.

We want quick and comfortable fixes for our spiritual problems. We wish that we could sit back in our armchairs and zap our sins as easily as we change the channels on our televisions. Unfortunately, we live in a microwave society.

We want everything done instantly. We just want to push a button. That's not the way evangelism is done. Evangelism and arguing with people about the kingdom, discussing things with people about the kingdom of God, is something that happens personally.

Okay.

Unfortunately, the Christian life doesn't work that way. The final part of the armor of God is not a high-tech, long-range weapon, but an old-fashioned, down-and-dirty, short sword. This means that if we're going to defeat our temptations and seek to live fruitful, holy lives, then we will need to get up and close and personal and set to work with the sword of the spirit.

Like ancient warfare, the struggle for sanctification is a fierce, messy, and intensely personal affair. The sword of the spirit, you know, is the Word of God, the Bible, the place where God speaks to us uniquely, authoritatively, and decisively.

As Paul reminded Timothy, all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, adequate, complete, equipped for every good work.

So the Scriptures, and this is mainly talking about the Old Testament because the New Testament wasn't written at this time. The letter that Paul was writing would be included as part of the New Testament.

But he's saying, reflect on the Old Testament. Again, I've told you this many times before. Do not unhitch yourself from the Old Testament. That's God's Word. You don't unhitch yourself from that. You can't live apart from every word out of the mouth of God.

You throwing that away is throwing away God's words. Ridiculous. So we need to be rooted and grounded in the Word of God. We need to be proficient. We need to know what it says, when it says, who to say it to, and how to apply it to our lives.

Paul was primarily speaking about the Old Testament, which was the written Word of God that was available in his day. However, the same is true of the New Testament. To stand firm in the Christian life, we need to know, understand, and apply God's Word to our lives.

Paul starts with the belt of truth, and he ends with the sword of the Spirit. We start with the truth of the Gospel. Our sin has been paid for. Then we get to the sword of the Spirit, which is our offensive weapon, and we cut people with it, in love, not in a mean way.

And we're going to get into that. So he starts with the foundational garment, which underlies all of the rest. And ends with the Word of God, our only offensive weapon. So as we're going on offense, we have protection for our loins, for our heart, for our head.

And we have a shield to extinguish the darts from the enemy. And then in our other hand, we have the sword. The knowledge and application of the truth, as it is found in the Word of God, are quite literally the beginning and the end of the story in our struggle.

To stand firm in the battle for obedience. Obviously, we recognize when the Scripture is speaking to us, we need to obey it. We need to set apart Christ as Lord and bring everything under the Lordship of Jesus.

The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is God's truth, given to enable us to stand against the evil one. Indeed, the sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon we have been given with which to deal the devil a decisive blow.

All the rest of the Christian's armor is defensive in nature. The belt, the breastplate, the boots, the shield, and the helmet can ward off Satan's blows and defend you against his attacks. But only one thing can really puncture or wound him.

That is the Word of God. And you guys have read this passage before. Matthew 4, Satan said to Jesus, If you're the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread, mirroring Israel's complaining over their lack of food.

So when Jesus goes into the wilderness, on a second note, He's recapitulating what Israel did when they were in the wilderness. So the sins that Israel committed while they went into the wilderness, wandering before they got to the promised land, Jesus is now going into the wilderness, not to sin, but to fulfill the things that, to rectify the sins that Israel committed.

He's not going to commit those sins. So how does Jesus answer him here? Jesus answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Next, Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple.

If you're the Son of God, throw yourself down, likened to the temptation of Israel, who put the Lord God to the test. What does Jesus say to him? Again, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

Jesus is combating him with the word of God. Finally, Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of this world and said, All these I will give you if you fall down and worship me. Again, mirroring Israel's temptation to false worship.

What does Jesus say? Be gone, Satan. This is what Adam should have said to Satan when he came in and started tempting his bride. Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

Okay, the skillful use of the sword. These situations presented three powerful temptations for Jesus to achieve good ends by the wrong means. Anytime someone comes to you offering, Oh, look what you have.

Look what I'll give you if you do this.

Be very wary.

That's a sign that something is going to go awry. Your loyalty, your trust is to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. If it's something that's good that lines up with his word, fine. If it's something that's going to cause you to compromise, run, run.

There's nothing wrong with wanting food to eat or desiring divine protection. And Jesus had come into the world to rule the nations. But the significant point to notice is how Jesus answered these temptations.

Each time he got out his sword. Three times he quoted the Bible to the devil. Turn these stones into bread. Man doesn't live by bread alone. Throw myself down from the temple. You shall not put your Lord God to the test.

Worship you. The Bible says it is the Lord God you shall fear and worship him and serve him only.

What did he do?

Stab, stab, stab. And after that we're told the devil left him for a season. That was the sword of the spirit at work. Effectively countering temptation, countering temptation. And the devil had no answer for that.

So we have to use the word of God. If we're not equipped with the word of God, how are we going to combat the lies of the people who are coming to give us, to try to tempt us, to try to sway us from the truth?

That's why it's so important that you read the scriptures each day. We're going to get to that too. Sword drill. You've heard of these, right? A sword in the scabbard or the sheath, right? You pull your sword out of a sheath, is no defense if it's stuck in the sheath.

Just like a belt of truth hanging in your closet won't keep your trousers up. So also we need to take out the sword of the spirit, God's word, and put it into use. We need to read God's word. We need to study it, memorize it, immerse ourselves in it, understand what it says and what it means, and believe those things.

Otherwise, it will do us no good at all. Having your Bible on your nightstand or a table in your house and not opening it and reading it doesn't protect you. At that point, it's at best a good luck charm.

If you're not using it, you might as well put a rabbit's foot on your belt. Here's Dugan's charge. Get into God's word daily. Commit to reading three, four, five chapters a day. I like to read a couple of psalms, one or two psalms, a couple of proverbs, and three or four chapters of the Bible and get my way through.

And once I get to the end, you know what I do? I go back to the beginning and we start again.

We don't stop.

It's just continual. You can't get enough of the word of God. Remember whose sword it is. The Holy Spirit inspired its authors. Ask for his help. If you don't understand the things you read, you can call on the Spirit to quicken your mind, to enable you to understand what's being said to you.

Now listen, sometimes you read the scriptures. Other times, the scriptures read you. You need to be open to the fact that when you're reading the scriptures in the Spirit's presence, sometimes he's there to cut your heart.

Again, we're going to see that in a minute. He's the Spirit of truth. Remember, it's the sword of the Spirit. The Spirit inspired these words. He will quicken them to your heart and your mind if you read them.

Learn from others and share what you learn with someone else. Share it with your kids and your friends. A lot of times, people will remember things if you repeat them a couple of times. The standard is three.

When you read something in the scriptures and it impacts you, you want to tell three different people about it. What better way to read the scriptures than to talk to your kids, your co-workers, someone in your family about what you read?

You repeat it three times, and it gets embedded in your mind. Romans 12 .2, do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

The world has a pattern, a mold, that it's trying to shape you and push you into. You need to resist that, place yourself in the Word of God, and let that mold and shape you. So my charge, my challenge, because so many people are enamored with social media, and I get it, I use social media to get the word out, to put the videos up, to put this particular video of teaching about God, stuff about the conferences that we hold, I use it as a ministry tool.

But some people can't get enough of social media. When the world is telling you something, counter it with the Word of God. Because on social media, I guarantee you, people are going to be putting up things that are going to be in your face, about your faith, and women's choice, and all this kind of stuff.

So I was on social media, and guess what I found? Okay, you get memes like this. When you realize that God commands serial killing, then you read Ezekiel 9 -6. Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark.

Begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple. Now let me ask you something. Are these all Christians in here? How would you answer that? Not rhetorical. Raise your hand if you want to take a stab.

Pun intended.

All right.

Let that sink in for a second. Nobody wants to raise their hand to tell me how to answer that. So if that's what's getting put up on your social media feed, okay, and it goes into your head, what do you do?

I want to tell you that this can actually help you. So when you come in contact with a meme that says something like this, what do you need to do? You need to say, how would I answer that? And if I don't know the answer myself, I've got to look it up.

So here's what we do.

First, you go look up the verse and read the whole verse. Read five verses before and five verses after. Never read a Bible verse. Did Pastor Anthony just tell me never read a Bible verse? Yes. Actually, I learned that from Greg Kokel.

He has a principle, never read a Bible verse. And what he's saying is if you read the verse isolated from its context, from what's before it and what comes after it, good chance you're going to misinterpret it.

So you need to know what comes before and after. So I helped you a little bit. This is the end of the verse. I don't want to put the whole thing up, just take too much time. Ezekiel 9 -10,. Then he said to me, this is God, the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with the blood and the city is full of perversion.

For they say the Lord has forsaken the land and the Lord does not see. But as for me, God, my eye will have no pity nor will I spare, but I will bring their conduct upon their heads. So this is the Israelites specifically rebelling, disobeying the word of God, sacrificing their children, worshiping false gods, the God who gave them life, that protected them, that brought Israel together as a nation.

They're turning his back on them. And he swore to them, you turn your back on me and I will get rid of you. Now, is that serial killing? Like, is that what a serial killer does? I'm going to punish you for your iniquity.

So I'm going to kill. No, he's randomly picking people that he and his, oh, I like women with blonde hair and this, and he's going out and killing those specific. This is not serial killing. So right off the bat, he's wrong, whoever put this up.

And that little A there stands for atheism. That's their little logo. All right, that's number one. Number two, what's wrong with serial killing on your atheistic worldview? What objective standard are you using to determine serial killing is wrong?

Why is serial killing wrong if there is no God? Tell me. I mean, on atheism, all we are is cosmic vomit. The universe, and out you came. So you were created by the universe. What sets you apart from a bug, a bird, a bonsai tree, or bacteria?

Tell me, Mr. Atheist. You have no standard. Why are humans valuable on atheism? You just assume that humans are more valuable than trees or dogs or bacteria? How so?

Why?

What makes a human being different that serial killing should be done away with? On evolution, only the strong survive. So really, on your worldview, the serial killer is doing us a justice. He's getting rid of the weak people because you must be stronger than them in order to overtake them.

Why is that wrong on your worldview, Mr. Atheist? My Bible tells me mankind was created in the image of God, and thou shall not murder. What does your book tell you? Oh, we don't have a book.

Oh.

Where is this coming from then? Your own imagination? Your own preference?

Why is that wrong?

Well, it's what the majority of people believe. Yeah, that's what they said in Nazi Germany when the Nazis said all Jews were varmin, lower than dogs. They're not human. Is that okay? On all worldview, every human being is created in the image of God, has infinite worth and value, and you cannot murder somebody.

All right.

And I define murder as the unjust taking of human life without just cause. Just cause would be self-defense. You can take the life of someone if they have a knife to your wife or your kid's throat.

You shoot them.

Easy.

Okay. Next one. Just follow your heart. This is an easy one. How would you respond? See how we're going to use social media to drive us to the Word of God to answer these questions? What are you going to say?

All right.

False.

The heart is deceitful above all things.

Follow Jesus. You're not going to follow your own heart.

Proverbs 28. Whoever trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. The wisdom that you find in Proverbs are eternal truths that you build your life on that are never going to change, and you will be blessed by them.

Jeremiah 17. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord, not in his own heart, because his heart is deceitful above all things, desperately sick. Who can understand it?

Okay.

Next one. If Christians are not engaged with politics, decisions will be made by people who think God is irrelevant and the truth of God's Word does not exist. Now, if you think this meme is true, raise your right hand.

If you think this meme is false, raise your left hand. Raise your middle hand if you can't tell the difference between your left and your right. Nobody's hands are up. This is horrible. What do you think?

Come on.

Start to think this morning. Is this true? If Christians are not engaged with politics, decisions will be made by people who think God is irrelevant and truth of God's Word doesn't exist.

True?

Yes, that's true. God commands us to love our neighbors, and what does that look like? It's difficult to say you love your neighbors if you don't stand up for righteous laws and civil government. When people are petitioning for the death of the unborn and guise it as woman's choice, that's wrong.

They're killing children in the mother's womb. What should be the safest place for a baby to be has now become the most dangerous place for a baby to be.

Right?

And then, my body, my choice. Sounds good, right? Until it comes to vaccines, or cookies, I should say.

Right?

My body, my choice goes out the window. Their worldview is inconsistent, and that's why we break out the Word of God and say no. Human beings, life begins at conception. Those are human beings. Their body is in the womb.

It's two persons. Unless, Ms. So-and-so, when the baby that is growing, oh, well, it's not a baby, it's a clump of cells. Okay, when the clump of cells is growing inside of you, do you have four hands?

Do you have four legs? Do you have four eyes?

No.

Well, that's right, you don't. You have two eyes, two legs, two arms. Same as the baby that's in your womb. It's a person. You can't kill it. Leviticus 19, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. God commands us to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with our God.

You can't advocate or perform justice without getting involved in supporting just policies of civil government. It's going to affect the way we live. You might say, whoa, God doesn't command us to go into politics.

He doesn't command it, but he ordains it. Look at Daniel. The king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole providence of Babylon, and the chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.

None of the wise men, none of the governors were as good as Daniel. God ordained that he run that nation, and look what happened. It prospered under him. Look what happened when God raised up Joseph to lead Egypt.

We can be used by God to lead the nation in a better direction, one built on eternal truths, not the whims and preferences of people that come and go like style. The garden shears of the spirit, this is going to be important as well.

The word of God is not only a sword with which we may take on our enemies, it is also a set of garden shears with which God prunes us. If the sword helps us to deal with external challenges, the shears deal with our own superfluous branches.

In other words, God often does this by means of trials. He's going to prune us inwardly. When life is going smoothly, we easily become enamored with the things of this world. We take our eyes off the giver and place them on the gifts and we forget who gave them to us, right?

However, God loves us too much to allow us to continue in our blindness. In the midst of our difficulties, we often turn to the word with a greater hunger and it confronts us with a vision of the really important things in life.

Now, I want to tell you, don't wait until you are totally desperate to turn to the word of God. If we as a congregation in the nation continue to wait and keep our eyes on the gifts, not the giver, God's going to put us in a really, really, really desperate situation.

And my exhortation to you is don't wait. Come out on Wednesday night and pray. Come out Sunday, whenever it is, come out and pray. There's power in prayer. It's one of our most important weapons. Are you distracted by fears?

The Bible says, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink? What shall we wear?

Why?

Because your heavenly father knows that you need all those things. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you. So ask yourself, what do you think about most?

U .S. politics or kingdom of God and Jesus ruling and reigning? Christ is king. Wherever you set your mind, that's going to cause you to live a certain way. If you set your mind on the fact that Christ is king, all things work together for good for those who love God, he's ruling and reigning until he makes his enemies a footstool for his feet, that's going to encourage you.

You're going to recognize, yeah, my life, even if you live 100 years, that's a blessing. That's probably a long life in most people's minds. Those 100 years divided by eternity is nothing. Your life is a vapor.

Gone.

Use your life now while it makes a difference.

Now.

Leave it all out on the field for your king. Go serve your king.

Now.

As the mound of prune branches grows around our feet, we are pointed back to what really matters. Living our lives in the light of God's presence with us and the glorious inheritance that is stored up for us in Christ.

Remember, the book of Ephesians is all about orphans being adopted into God's family and are heirs of everything he has. Your salvation is guaranteed. Your inheritance is guaranteed. What are you worried about?

Don't worry. Be anxious for nothing. The scalpel of the Spirit. The Word of God is also a scalpel with which to take on the flesh. The writer of the Hebrews says, The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

No creature is hidden from God's sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Thankfully, thankfully, Jesus has taken on the consequences for our sins at the cross.

Raised from the dead so that his life is our life. He's conquered death. A sword takes on outside enemies. Shears prune back extraneous branches and a scalpel attacks the disease and the sickness inside of us.

It is used to perform surgery on our own hearts. So as much as the sword of the Spirit is an offensive weapon by which you can help other human beings come to know the truth, it's also something that cuts you to the heart.

When we go into worship and pastor preaches the Word, that is the Word of God coming to you, it should cut your heart open. Basically the same way the priests, when they cut open the sacrifices and wash the internals.

The priest would cut you open, not you, the animal, wash the insides, then put you back together on the altar to be sacrificed. This is exactly what happens in our worship service. The pastor preaches the message, it cuts you to the heart.

He gives you the gospel, he cleans off all the inside, puts it back together and puts it on the table to worship so that we come into communion with Jesus. We're reminded of the gospel and his death, burial and resurrection rather than our death and burial and no resurrection.

Sometimes we're quick to bring the Bible to bear on other people's problems, other people's sins. We can quote chapter and verse to show why everyone else is wrong. Listen, pointing out other people's sin doesn't make you holy.

You need to be holy. Saying, oh look what he did, look what she did, look what that one did. That doesn't make you better. Because you can look at yourself and see the same things. You need to work on yourself and in love help the people around you.

But the Word of God is not just for taking on our opponents. It is for cleansing our own hearts. God's Word penetrates to the deepest recesses of who we are. Again, don't just read the Word, let the Word read you.