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

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, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with the truth, having 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. 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, right? We're going through the armor of God, and here's all the pieces.

First is the belt of truth. This is the defensive weapon, right? This is the truth of the cross, where your sins are paid for.

It covers your sin and shame. Jesus says, paid in full. You no longer have to worry about walking around without a loin cloth, all right?

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. 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. 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? 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 a hundred and fifty miles away.

So before our troops ever got there, they had a map of where everything was, a hundred and fifty 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.

We're gonna 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.

Okay, 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 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, okay, 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 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, right?

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 gonna 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.

His do gets charged. 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 and the Spirit's presence, sometimes He's there to cut your heart. Again, we're gonna 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, okay, 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 and then 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 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, and 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.

Yous 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 got to look it up.

So here's what we do. First you go look, 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 Koekel. 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, 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 seek. 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 gonna punish you for your iniquity, so I'm gonna get... 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.

Alright, 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, you know, 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 varmint, 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.

Okay? Just cause would be self defense. Okay? 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 gonna use social media to drive us to the

Word of God to answer these questions? What are you gonna say? All right.

False. The heart is deceitful above all things. Follow Jesus. You're not gonna 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. Hmm, 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, Mr. 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.

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 a hundred years, that's a blessing. That's probably a long life in most people's minds.

Those hundred 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

Hebrew 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 that 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 washed 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 when 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 could 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. Make good application of what the Spirit does in your mind and heart.

As we read the Bible and expose ourselves to it, it cuts us. It convicts us of sin.

It points us to duties we'd rather not know about. It challenges us in areas where we're far too comfortable.

It digs down into the hidden areas of our soul and lays them bare to God's scrutiny. As it does, it cleanses and purifies us.

In the presence of the Word of God, everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of the one to whom we must give an account.

This is surely one of the most powerful defenses against sin, right? Paul says,

I would not have known what sin was unless we've given the Word of God, right?

The Word of God tells us what sin is and it cuts us. It convicts us. This is also a powerful defense against self -righteousness.

Many of us compare our outward behavior with those around us. We compare ourselves by ourselves, Paul says, right?

Not a good idea. Compare yourself with Jesus. Stop looking at other people. Stop looking horizontally.

Look vertically. Compare yourself to him. How you doing, right? At least I'm better than him. At least

I don't do the terrible things that they do. But the scalpel of the Spirit tears away our self -righteousness, first by uncovering the rottenness that exists deep in the heart of each of us, and then by exposing that rottenness to the searching light of God's standard, which is perfection.

When we stand before God as our judge, we are left without excuse, right?

None of us can stand before God and say, hey, I did it. All you did was ruin it.

But the surgeon's knife doesn't just cut for the sake of making a wound. If you're a child of God, it cuts to save the whole body by taking out the diseased part.

The Word of God acts as a scalpel, cutting out the cancer of sin in your life. So also the scalpel of the

Holy Spirit doesn't just cut us so that God can watch us bleed. The Holy Spirit comes to convict the world, not just about sin, but about righteousness as well.

God wants to give us a righteousness transplant. In order to do that, of course, he needs first to remove our failing self -righteousness so that we can receive in its place the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

There is no room in our heart for both, okay? So as we read the

Word of God, we're reminded of our sins, we turn from them in repentance, we recognize that Jesus' perfect righteousness is what we need, and we aim for perfection.

We don't aim for 98%. We aim for 100%. God never said, listen, you know what?

My law is perfect. Just keep 98 % of it. No, we're responsible for 100 % of it.

But thankfully, he loves us enough to send his Son in our place, right? So don't lower the standard.

Don't lower the bar. Keep it at perfection. Now we know on this side of our lives we're not going to hit perfection, but that's our aim, to magnify and glorify

God in our obedience and acknowledging our weakness, because in our weakness, he's made strong.

You were created to be dependent on God for everything. The moment you think, oh,

I could do this, you're gonna get caught. Jesus and the sword of the

Spirit. The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is another part of God's armor that Jesus has first worn for us, just like all of the other armor.

Once again, the Old Testament provides us with this background, Isaiah 49, too. The promised servant of the

Lord says, the Lord made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand, he hid me. In other words, the

Lord was preparing his servant, Jesus, to come as a warrior with sharp words of judgment.

In the original context, the servant was Israel. Now, Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel.

He is true Israel. They were supposed to be God's faithful servant, equipped by him to bring the light to the

Gentiles, yet in Isaiah's time, there was much that needed to be judged and condemned in Israel and in Judah.

They were not being a light to the Gentiles. They were not fit to be the Lord's servant, so he had to send his servant, his son, to bring light to them as well as to us, the

Gentiles. The promised servant, the new Israel, with the mission to historic Israel, is

Jesus himself. Jesus could have entered this world with sharp words of judgment, condemning all those who fall short of perfect righteousness.

When they brought him a woman taken in the act of adultery, as one without sin, Jesus could himself have cast the first stone.

He could have wielded the Word of God as an offensive weapon against us, killing us with it by exposing our failure, brokenness, and sin.

But he didn't do that. He forgave her and said, he who is out sin cast the first stone.

So again, recognizing our condition as sinful humanity, we can't go to them and condemn them for what they've done.

We go to them and we point them to the hope of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness in Christ.

Now, we don't condone what they've done, but we're not the condemning ones. Jesus didn't come into the world to condemn the world, right?

When you want somebody to escape condemnation, where is there no condemnation? In Christ Jesus.

You give them the gospel and you are on a rescue mission. You are not here to beat people into oblivion with the

Word of God, like you're some wonderful soldier who did it all. No. You are to act with compassion and mercy, hoping to see

God's salvation move in that person's life. In the second coming, though, Jesus will return as a warrior, riding out on a white horse with a sharp sword coming from his mouth with which to judge the nations.

He's the judge and he's coming at a later date. Revelation 19 .15, from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

Your job right now is not to strike down the nations. Your job is give them the gospel and hope and pray that they come to a knowledge of the truth.

In his first coming, Jesus came to wield the Word of God as a scalpel, not as a sword. He came to seek and save that which is lost, not yet to destroy all his enemies.

That's coming. We're praying that we would see his enemies become his children, just like we were.

That's the point. He came to be a light to the Gentiles and bring salvation to the ends of the earth, not merely to judge the world.

We too want to see salvation come to the Gentiles, to the Jews, to every person on earth.

Jesus not only wields the Word of God, he himself is the Word of God. As the Word of God, he spoke the world into existence.

Incredible. As the Word of God, he uniquely reveals the Father to us. No one has ever seen

God. The only God who is at the Father's side has revealed him to us. The only reason we know God is because it was revealed to us.

How arrogant, how pompous to think, oh I came to know God all on my own. Paul says in the wisdom of God, man does not know

God through wisdom. It's through revelation. It's not information, it's revelation.

As the Word of God, he is God's final communication to this broken and now redeemed world.

Come to heal the sick, rescue the lost, restore the broken, and lift up the downcast. Hebrews 1.

Long ago and at many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his

Son. Praise God. Have you received the transplant of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ?

It is our only hope for eternal life. Don't think you're going to stand before God and say, look what

I did, because you will have a videotape, maybe not a tape, an mp4, right, of your whole life flash before you and all the witnesses.

And they're gonna, and God's gonna say, so what do you guys think? You think that was a good story? How'd he do?

You're gonna be appalled. I would never want my life to be put up on a video in front of anyone. I want my life hidden in Christ.

It's our only hope. The Word of God in its cleaning work serves as a set of shears to help us on the outside, a scalpel and a sword.

It's our offensive weapon when we're going up against the enemy, and it's also our offensive weapon when we're going against our greatest enemy, ourselves.

You and the sword of the Spirit. With the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 10 4, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

You realize God's Word has divine power. Nothing else in this world has divine power like the

Word of God. We destroy arguments. Where are arguments held? Where do people hold arguments?

In their minds, right? So we destroy arguments, mindsets, and every lofty opinion.

Where are our opinions? In your mind. We destroy arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey

Christ. We bring all of our thoughts under Christ, and we point the other person to those thoughts, to God's Word, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

Once you bring your thoughts under the Word of God, now you can bring those to someone else and say, look, this is how

God's changed me. This is what he says. This is what you need to know. Proverbs 2 6, for the Lord gives wisdom from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Colossians 2 8, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy, the love of wisdom, the study of wisdom, and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of this world, and not according to Christ.

Everything we do has to be in accordance with Christ. He's our Lord. We set our hearts apart and recognize

Jesus as Lord. First Corinthians 1 21, for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know

God through wisdom. We're getting close. Okay, Hebrews.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, surely

I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of His promise, who are the heirs of His promise?

His children. So God did this to show more convincingly to us, the children of God, the unchangeable character of His purpose.

He guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge in Christ might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor for our soul. Read your church Burlington, that's the scripture we use.

A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on your behalf.

So what do you have as God's child? You have God who's unchangeable in His purpose.

Guaranteed it. Who else is better to guarantee something than God? If I came to you and I guaranteed something to you, there's a chance it'll happen.

There's also a chance it won't happen. When God guarantees it, there's not a chance that it won't happen.

It will happen. It's guaranteed. Why? It's impossible for God to lie.

So He can't change and He can't lie. You got to get this like sunk deep into your soul.

Like if you're a child of God, this is not going to change. He knew what He was getting when

He got you. He has promised that He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. Your inheritance is guaranteed and He's swearing to it because He can't change or lie.

For the hope, what did we define hope as last week? Confident expectation.

The world thinks hope is wishful thinking. Oh, I hope that happens. Oh, I hope that the Jets win.

They actually did. Prayers were answered, I guess, right? Hope is not wishful thinking in Christianity.

Hope is confident expectation that what God said is true and it applies to me.

Praise God. It's guaranteed. It's impossible for Him to lie. What are we afraid of?

It's sure and steadfast anchor for our soul. Understand, this is an anchor for our soul, not our body.

We may have to sacrifice our body here and now, but our soul is the only thing that's going to live on.

So as our country continues to implode, it may come to war. But guess what?

Our soul is going to be in the presence of God forever. Everybody's going to die. What would you rather die doing?

This or preaching the Word of God, sharing your faith with somebody, talking about how

God has transformed your life. I pray if I die, I pray that it's at the pulpit. I shouldn't say that.

I shouldn't say that. But if I had a choice, I'd rather die doing that than some of the frivolous things that I do.

He went behind the curtain. He went into the Holy of Holies where you're not allowed to go, where only one priest per year was allowed behind.

He went behind that curtain for you. Why? On our behalf.

He went where we couldn't go to plead our case for us.

So in Hebrews 6 .13, God swears by Himself to bless, nothing greater to swear by.

God's the ultimate authority. God's character is unchangeable. He cannot lie and will not change.

God personally guarantees the promise for those who flee to Him. If you haven't, flee to Him now. God's desire was to make it more convincingly.

To who? His heirs, the people whose faith and trust is in Jesus and who have been born of God's Spirit, so that we might be strongly encouraged and hope, confident expectation in what

God has said. God's promise is sure and steadfast, anchoring, binding our souls to His promises.

God, the Son, went behind the curtain. He got close so that we could become close to God.

We couldn't go close to God because our sin would be, God's wrath would be poured out on our sin.

We'd be extinguished. God, the Son, went in on our behalf. He said, yes,

I'll go in and I'm willing to die for them. I'm willing to take on their sin. Since the battle is not a long -range one and the enemy gets very close,

Jesus is not a long -range God and He gets very close. He gets close to the Father and He gets close to us.

He's the God above, the God beside, and the God within. Romans 10 9, the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Cast yourself on the mercy of God.

Believe in the promises that He's giving you as His child. Quick review, the

Word of God. It's our offensive weapon, okay? It's designed to attack the enemy and it's also designed to attack the sin in your own heart.

We need a skillful use of the sword. We need to know the Word of God in order to use it for the people around us.

Sword drills, memorize, memorize Scripture, immerse yourself in Scripture, get into the

Word and get the Word into you. Garden shearers of the Spirit, let the Word of God read you.

Expose your sin so that you're aware of it, repent of it, ask God's help to conquer it as you live out your life and be a good ambassador of the

Lord, being a good reflection of Jesus to the people around you. The scalpel of the

Spirit, let it pierce you. Don't squash that feeling, let it pierce you.

Embrace it because it's going to help you. Jesus and the sword of the Spirit, He's the one who wielded that Spirit for us.

You and the sword of the Spirit, you need to do that as well, knowing that Jesus was the only one who did it perfectly.