How to Slay Dragons

Hey man, I gave you a challenge a few weeks ago about reading a biography this year, and I hope that you're able to do that challenge, or maybe you've already started that challenge, a

Christian biography. But if you haven't, well, now I have another challenge for you.

And that is reading, if you haven't read it before, or even if it's been a while, reading the

Pilgrim's Progress. We actually have some copies that we could give to you if you're interested in that.

But the Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the Christian life. It was written by John Bunyan in the 1670s, actually when he was in jail for preaching the gospel.

And they told him, we'll let you out if you just quit preaching. And he said, if you let me out this morning,

I'll be preaching by this evening. So he had to stay. But in that, he writes this great book, The Pilgrim's Progress.

And he, like I said, allegorizes the Christian life. But there's a scene

I want to read to you from this story, and I think it will highlight what we're getting into today.

In this scene, we are going to see Christian versus Apollyon. Apollyon, in Greek, means destroyer.

So, Apollyon, we see Christian versus the devil. And so here's what Bunyan writes.

Then did Christian draw back, and Apollyon, as fast, made at him, throwing darts as thick as hail.

By the which, notwithstanding, all that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand, and foot.

This made Christian give a little. Apollyon, therefore, followed his work. But Christian, again, took courage and resisted as manfully as he could.

This sore combat lasted for above half a day, even till Christian was almost quite spent.

For you must know that Christian, by reason of his wounds, must needs grow weaker and weaker.

Then Apollyon, espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian, and wrestling with him, gave him a dreadful fall.

And with that, Christian's sword flew out of his hand. Then said Apollyon, I am sure of thee now.

And with that, he had almost pressed him to death, so that Christian began to despair of life, but as God would have it.

While Apollyon was fetching of his last blow, thereby to make a full end of this good man,

Christian, nimbly, stretched out his hand for his sword, and caught it, saying,

Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise.

Micah 7, 8. And with that, gave him a deadly thrust, which made him give back as one that had received his mortal wound.

Christian, perceiving that, made at him again, saying, Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us.

Romans 8, 37. And with that, Apollyon spread forth his dragon's wings and sped away.

That Christian, for a season, saw him no more. Then Bunyan says this,

In this combat, no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard, as I did, what yelling and hideous roaring

Apollyon made all the time of the fight. He spake like a dragon, and on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from Christian's heart.

I never saw him all the while give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he had wounded

Apollyon with his two -edged sword. Then indeed, he did smile and look upward.

We turn in your Bibles this morning to Ephesians chapter 6. Bunyan recounts for us there exactly what we have been walking through in Ephesians 6 as we've been talking about the

Christian's armor. And we've walked through each piece of the armor, and we've seen that each piece of the armor points us to Christ.

That each piece of the armor is like the Christian putting on Christ. And then we see now today the last piece, the final piece of armor, the sword of the

Spirit. We must not neglect this piece of armor. We must not neglect, beloved, our

Bibles. So let's read Ephesians 6 .17 and consider this mighty weapon.

Ephesians 6 .17, would you stand as we read God's Word. And Paul says to the church at Ephesus, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the

Spirit, which is the Word of God. Father, help us to be people of the

Book. Help us to not neglect this two -edged sword. Help us to understand what a priceless and beautiful and precious and wonderful weapon we have in our

Bibles. I pray for every home represented here in this building this morning, that each home would gather regularly around this precious weapon.

That each of us would seek to take this precious weapon into our workplaces, into our family gatherings, into the streets, into the highways and byways, as it were, proclaiming

Christ. Let us use this weapon to fend off the evil one and to further the boundaries of your kingdom.

We pray that Christ would be exalted in what we do here today. We pray that the Spirit of God would speak to us in the

Word. We pray that we wouldn't leave here the same way we came in. We pray it in Jesus' name,

Amen. You may be seated. This morning, simply the title is The Sovereign Sword and the

Church that Wields It. So what we're going to do is we're going to get through this piece of armor,

Lord willing, we're going to get through this piece of armor in one sermon. Now, you guys know, it's going to be hard because I could preach for weeks right here.

It's so relevant to our day. In fact, you know the problem with too many professing believers and churches is really disobedience to this text, the second half, where Paul commands us that we're to take up the sword of the

Spirit, which is the Word of God. We are disobedient to this text in our day.

It's not that we've sheathed the sword. So listen, that's what we did 20 years ago.

We still had the sword by our side, but we didn't really know it, we didn't really use it. Rather, today, the sword is literally kicked around.

There's a clip you can see, but a few weeks ago, a church, they did a Super Bowl -themed service, and literally,

I'm not making this up, a lady went and kicked the Bible, and it flew off the stage.

And I thought to myself, what a parable for the modern -day church. We are ashamed of the

Bible. We're ashamed at how old the Bible says the earth is.

We're ashamed at what the Bible says about the roles of men and women. We are ashamed at what the

Bible teaches about the glory and exclusivity of Christ. We are ashamed at what the

Bible has to say about repentance and holiness, and we are ashamed at really the

Bible's definition of what a Christian is. You want to know what one issue is in many places today?

We don't really know what a definition of a Christian is. And so I say as we begin this sermon, where are the churches that will refuse to be ignorant, that will be ignorant no longer of both the

Bible's content and its power? Where are the men? Where are the prophets of old who will stand up and say, thus saith the

Lord with an uncompromising faith? Where are the dads who will gather around their families and say, come little children, come and hear what

God has to say? Where are the ladies who will quit listening to the culture's definition of what a woman is and say,

I care about what God says about me, and my value, and my purpose?

Where are the churches who will say, we will order our services by what it says.

I'm afraid, my friends, that we have taken up hobbies, politics, work, pragmatism, and we've forgotten where we've laid the sword of the

Spirit. We treat it like a prop and not the magnificent sword that it is.

So as we begin this sermon this morning, church, I am calling us, will we return to the book?

Will we heed Paul's command here, knowing that it's not just Paul's command, this is God's command, friends, this is

God's command to you, dear Christian, take up the sword of the

Spirit, which is the Word of God. Don't be scared, I have seven points.

And the last point has four sub -points, but we're going to do it today. I think that we need to take them all together.

I really could have spread this into like 15 sermons probably, but I think it'll help us today to take all this together.

Okay, so number one, let me mention, and it makes each point a little shorter,

I think, but let me mention number one, the sword's singularity. Number one, the sword's singularity.

So Paul says, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Now, notice that this sword, the sword's singularity, the sword is the only offensive weapon in the

Christian army. The Bible is both offensive and offensive, right?

It's also a defensive weapon as well, but there is no other weapon given to us by which we are to attack the spiritual forces than this blessed sword, right?

You're not supposed to take your helmet of salvation and like throw it, right? We have the sword, we have the

Word of God. Now, we'll tackle that more later, but as we consider the sword's singularity, let me highlight its uniqueness.

So in 1 Samuel 21, you'll remember this story as I start telling it, but David is on the run from Saul, and on his journey, he comes upon the priest

Ahimelech, and he asked for food, and Ahimelech gives him food, but then he asked for a weapon.

You got any weapons here? He knows that in the days ahead, he needs a weapon. You got a spear, a sword, anything like that?

And Ahimelech answers that all he has on hand is the sword of Goliath, and whom

David had killed years ago. David responds this way in 1 Samuel 21 9 about the sword of Goliath.

There is none like that. Give it to me. So David, a battle -tested warrior, knew what a good sword was.

There is none like that. Give it to me. And I'm saying to us this morning, how much greater is the sword of the

Spirit for God's people in our current warfare? We ought to be like David with that sword, except even greater.

There is none like that. Give it to me. There's nothing

I'm saying to you this morning like this book. This book.

Now, if you look at my Bible, you probably can't see it from the congregation there. But if you look at this

Bible, it's written in, notes are written in. It's kind of crinkled up. It just seems if you just throw it open, it falls open to Ephesians.

I wonder why. It's got some tape on it. But it's kind of emblematic of what the Bible has endured over the years.

It has been burned. It has been banned. It has been stolen. It has been twisted.

Men have tried to corrupt it. They've tried to abuse it. Men have tried to ignore it.

Men have tried to banish it and outlaw it. They have tried to hide it. They've tried to keep it from the common man.

And yet, here we have the Word of God and it has not been stopped.

It continues despite all the efforts of the world today. The Word of God continues to accomplish that for which it was intended.

The Word of God did not create the church. Or the church did not create the Word of God. The Word of God created the church.

You understand what I'm saying today? You say, well, the Bible is only here because the church made it up. No, it didn't.

The Bible made up the church. The church didn't make up the Bible. The Bible has called God's people from time past.

And so it continues to work in the world today. Toppling kingdoms. Bringing hearts from death to life.

You know, you talk about closed countries. Today there are closed countries. What is meant by that is there are countries where it's illegal to get the

Word of God into. But you know what's funny is when it comes to the Word of God, there are no closed countries.

The Word of God goes where it will. The Word of God cannot be stopped by man.

This is a supernatural weapon. It hardens the hearts of others as they reject

God's kindness to them. But it never returns void. There is no book I'm telling you this morning like this book.

There's no sword like this sword. We must store this Word in our mind. Gunnar exhorted us to that this morning.

We must stir this Word in our heart. It must ever be on our lips. It must be consulted for wisdom in every circumstance.

I'm telling you before we move on, Christian, immerse yourself in this book. Your mind, the things

I'm about to say, they're not wrong in and of themselves. Netflix or sports or games or whatever the case may be, work, hunting.

It's not that these things are wrong in and of themselves. The problem is with the average conservative so -called

Bible -believing Christian is we immerse ourselves in these things. We know how to hunt a turkey.

We know how to hit a baseball. We know how to scroll to the best Nate Bargatze video on Netflix, whatever the case may be.

We know how to do all of these things, but we don't know our Bibles. Church, immerse yourself in the book.

We must know the Word of God. I've got to move on. Secondly, this is the singularity or the uniqueness of the sword.

Secondly, the sword's source. So number one, it's singularity. Secondly, it's source.

So the text says, let's just read the text. What does it say? And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the

Spirit, which is the Word of God. The sword is unique because it's the

Holy Spirit's sword. Its source is spiritual and supernatural.

It is the Word of God. Men spoke as they were carried along by the

Holy Spirit of God. We have a supernatural enemy in the evil one, but we have a supernatural weapon with which to fight

Him. The sword of the Spirit, the eternal truth of God, the Word of God preserved for us and passed down to us from ages past.

That is the 66 books of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. God used kings.

He used prophets. He used priests. He used learned men. He used unlearned men.

He used rich men, poor men, men from three different continents, men in three different languages, over 1 ,500 years to give us the sword.

And it is the Spirit's sword because every jot and every tittle, every verb, noun, adjective, gerund, participle, all of these great grammar words, every syllable, every dot is breathed out by the

Spirit of God. This is the Spirit's sword. Further, in Isaiah 49 too, it says this of Christ.

Jesus is speaking in this prophetic text. He made my mouth like a sharp sword.

In the shadow of His hand He hid me. He made me a polished arrow. In His quiver He hid me away.

You need to consider something this morning that the Bible is a mighty sword only insofar as it is interpreted through Christ.

Do you understand? You can wield this sword in many silly ways.

And people have done it. But it's only mighty in our hands as we are reading the

Bible through the proper lens of Christ. Christ is the

Word of God. He Himself is a mighty weapon. But the church is equipped with this mighty weapon as we utter forth the very

Christ -centered Word of God that we've been given in the Scriptures. The Scriptures are the

Christ -centered Word of God. The book is the Word of God. It is infallible, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient, necessary, clear revelation of God to man.

Further note this. Charles Simeon says it's not merely as being inspired by God, but also as being a revelation of His mind and will to man.

So listen to me. We would say we'd pick a book, all right? We went nerdy in Sunday school and talked about Star Wars.

So let's go nerdy here and talk about the Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings. I know Kermit likes that book.

So the Lord of the Rings was written by J .R .R. Tolkien. Okay, but the

Lord of the Rings is not to J .R .R. Tolkien as the

Bible is to God. You understand? So yes, J .R .R. Tolkien is the author of the

Lord of the Rings. But the Bible is different in that it's not merely that God is the author of the

Bible, though that's true. It's also that the Bible is a revelation of God's mind and will to man.

It's not merely a great book, but it is the book and the only book that infallibly and sufficiently gives us who

God is and His purpose for mankind. Everything you're listening to this this morning, everything that God wants

His church to know in this life, everything that God has wanted to say to the church,

He has said in His Word. So we have this sufficient revelation of God.

Thirdly, the source of the sword is God. Thirdly, the singularity, the source, the substance.

This is simple. This is the sword of the Spirit. It is the Word of God. Therefore, the substance of the sword is truth.

Jesus prays things like John 17, 17. Sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth.

Romans 3, 4 says, Let God be true, though everyone were a liar. Force -fed, force -fed, force -fed, force -fed, force -fed, until you wake up one day and you're like, well, maybe there are more than two genders.

Like, no, that's a lie. That's like you turn on the television. They're saying the sky's red, the sky's red, the sky's red, the sky's red.

You're like, no, but I know it's blue. And then one day you look up and you're like, well, maybe it is red because of lies, lies, lies, lies, lies.

Well, the antidote for the lie is God's Word. It is the truth. But there's other subtle things out there, right?

Like a young man learning calculus in school, as if that can be separated from God.

I'll put it to you more plainly. Neutrality is a lie.

And you've probably believed the myth of neutrality in your life before. I have. I've been guilty here. As if I can speak about science, or politics, or history, or family, or math, or sports, or business, or work, or money, or whatever the case may be from a neutral position.

Let's set aside, this is what our culture says, set aside God for a moment and let's talk about this from a neutral position.

But that is impossible. You can't do that. So the church has bought into this lie.

Education is not neutral, by the way. Or we'll talk about religion on Sundays.

But we need to leave it out of school. We need a neutral education. We need religion out of politics.

We need Christianity out of the state. I can't bring my Christian beliefs to my workplace.

This is all a lie. And we have bought into this lie. And we have allowed ourselves to be good little obedient sheep and say,

OK, we'll just bring our Christianity in here on Sundays, and we'll shout, and we'll wave our hands, and we'll pray, and it'll be great.

And then when we go out into the world, that's the lie of neutrality.

And I'm saying the antidote to this lie, church, is the truth that is

God's Word. What a powerful weapon truth is. And this is the sword that the church possesses.

So don't set it aside. Use it. Fourthly, the sword style.

Now, this will be very simple here. But we're to take up the sword of the Spirit. And I want to just mention this morning that this is a beautiful sword.

It is a well -constructed sword. The Scriptures are made up of history, and poetry, and prophecy, and letters, and various styles of literature.

And they're all telling one great story. So let's move on to the fifth point. Fifthly, the sword's subject.

We take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Now, every good sword has a point. So too does our

Bible. It is written with a focused point. Have you considered this this morning?

That the Bible is not just a disconnected book of 66 individual and separated books.

It rather is one book with one focused point. 66 books, 1500 years, 40 different authors, various backgrounds, various genres, and yet the

Bible has a single story. What is that story? Preacher, I'm glad you asked.

The Lord Jesus Christ. In the beginning, the

Bible tells us, was Christ, was the Word. All things were created by Him, and for Him, and through Him.

He is the promised seed of Eve to crush the serpent's head. He is the reason for the rainbow.

God promises not to destroy the world again by flood so that Christ would come. He is the ark, a refuge from God's wrath.

He is the promised offspring of Abraham who will bless all the families of the earth. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah.

He is Jacob's ladder. He is the greater prophet that Moses spoke of.

He is the one that all the feasts and sacrifices point us to under the Mosaic covenant.

He is the Passover lamb. He is a better priest than Aaron. He is the promised son of David.

All the wisdom of Proverbs points us to Him. He is the bridegroom of the song of Solomon.

He gives music to every psalm. He is Isaiah's vision. He is Jeremiah's branch.

He is greater than Jonah. Zechariah spoke of Him. Zephaniah spoke of Him.

He is greater than Zerubbabel's temple. He is the Son of God. He is the

Son of Man. He is the last Adam, the true and better Adam. Gabriel announces his birth.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He grew up, the Bible says, like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him and no beauty that we should desire Him. He is truly

God and truly man. He fulfilled the law. He obtained righteousness for His people by His righteous life.

His life merits access to the tree of life. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. He completed the covenant of works.

Yet, the Bible says He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Yet, the

Bible says He is the way, the truth, and the life. He went to the cross as Scripture required and as Scripture predicted.

Nails were driven into His hands and one into both of His feet and a crown of thorns was placed upon His head.

And He quotes from the cross, Psalm 22, verse 1, My God, my

God, why have You forsaken Me? Naked, alone, derided, a sin offering between heaven and earth on God's altar, bearing the wrath of God for sinners, crying out in His last breath,

It is finished. He drank the cup. We are the lawbreakers and He is the one who upheld the law and yet He dies in our place.

Are you hearing what the Bible is about? A spear pierced His side. He was laid in a borrowed tooth.

Samson, in his death, brought more death. Jesus, in His death, secured life.

On the third day, up from the grave, He arose. He spent 40 days teaching

His disciples and then He ascended into heaven and He is seated now at the right hand of God the

Father Almighty and all things are under His feet. All principalities and powers and governments and every president and every world leader, they're under His feet.

He rules over all and He is head of the church and by His Holy Spirit, through the

Word of God, He is building this church because God will have Him for Himself a people spread over all the earth who will glorify

Him and enjoy Him and serve Him and honor Him. And He is doing this through the gospel that you're hearing.

All things happening in the world today are for the glory of Christ and for the good of His people.

And He's coming physically again to judge the living and the dead. What are you saying, preacher?

I'm saying this, no Jew, no Muslim, no Hindu, no liberal, no conservative, no southerner, no

Yankee, no Canadian. No one will receive pardon.

No nationality, no ethnicity, no gender, male or female, no age will receive pardon or forgiveness of sins except in Christ alone.

This, my friends, is the subject of the scriptures. He is

Christ. Jesus is the treasure in the field.

He is the pearl of great price. He is the One in Whom, the only

One in Whom our restless hearts may find rest. He is the only

One to Whom we may go to for forgiveness of sins. He is the only

One that we may go to for sweet and blessed reconciliation with our

God, for justification for a new life, for eternal life. God saves sinners, but only one way.

Christ, friends, it's all about Christ. I'm telling you this morning, this book is not your little blessing box.

It's not for cute sayings on a couch pillow. It's not for men to build their own kingdoms or a way to manipulate

God or to make you just feel better about yourself or to manipulate others. This book is about Christ.

This book points us to our good and gracious King. Listen to the book.

This gospel calls out to all men, all women, all boys, all girls.

Listen to me now this morning if you're in this room. The sexually immoral, the legalists, the hypocrites, the addicts, the self -righteous, the self -loathing, the self -infatuated, the lazy, the gluttons, the liars, the thieves.

The gospel calls out to all and says, come, repent, and believe the gospel.

I mean, slain with the sword. Hear me. The sword cuts deep.

Oh, it's such a deep cut. And yet it heals so beautifully.

The point of the Bible is... Do you know this man?

Is he your joy, your solace, your master?

Hey, why are you calling Jesus Lord of your life if you don't do what he says? Well, preacher, that's offensive to me.

No, that's what the Bible says. Why do you call him

Lord, Lord, if you don't want to follow his commandments? If you love him, do what he says.

And under the providential, sovereign hand of God, you're hearing this this morning again in his grace.

Will you come know him today? Believe in the one today whom the whole

Bible points us to? Will you trust Jesus? So what if you can defend?

So what if you can defend the doctrines of grace if you don't know

Christ? So what? So what if you're going to vote for the right person for president this fall if you don't know

Christ? So what if your children are successful in academics or in sports if you don't know

Christ? He is the one whom we were made for. And he is the one whom the

Bible points to. Sixthly, the sword structure.

Let me just mention this briefly. We are to take up the sword of the Spirit, and I'm letting you know this morning that this is a double -edged sword,

Bunyan referenced to it, but I'll just make it more plain. One edge of the sword is law. The other edge of the sword is gospel.

The Bible is composed of 66 books. We divide that into two testaments, old and new. Yet what you need to understand is law and gospel actually run through both testaments.

One edge of the sword, the law, kills and slays sinners. The other edge, the gospel, brings to life.

The law says you have failed and you deserve just retribution. The gospel says Christ has succeeded.

By grace, you may receive redemption. But we never display just one edge of the sword.

We need both. We need law, we need gospel, and this is the weapon that God has given us.

And then seventhly, now remember I said I have sub -points under this one.

The sword's scope. So again, our text, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the

Spirit, which is the Word of God. The sword's scope. That is, all this sounds great, preacher, but what really do we use the sword for?

Can you give me something practical? What is its purpose? Well, first I want you to remember this. Remember this morning that this is the

Holy Spirit's sword. And what we believe here, what I believe is biblical, what I believe we need to teach is how the

Holy Spirit works in the world today is in, by, through, with, alongside the

Scriptures. So what we believe about the Bible is this isn't just a book, we're not just tossing it out there and beating people over the head with it.

What we actually believe is this is a living book. And the reason this is a living book is because we serve a living

God. And the Holy Spirit is actually using the Word of God to work in the world today and to work in the lives of His people today.

So why has God given the church this mighty weapon? Four points. And remember, it's the

Holy Spirit working in each one of these. They're not necessarily in order. We need to take them all together. They're not prioritized.

I mean, so number one, what is the scope of the sword? What all do we use it for? Number one, for overcoming sin.

This is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness.

How did Christ overcome that temptation? The Word of God, right? You remember in the garden,

Satan comes and he comes to Eve and when he comes to Eve and he tries to twist the Scripture, Adam should have stepped in, stepped on his head and said, no, this is what

God's Word has to say. But he didn't do it. But in the wilderness,

Satan tries to tempt the last Adam. He says, if you are the Son of God, turn this stone into bread.

And what does Jesus do? He uses the sword.

He says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, quoting from Deuteronomy 8, 3.

He overcomes sin with Scripture. We must hide the

Scriptures in our heart that we might not sin against God. We use the sword to slay temptation and doubt.

We use the Scriptures intentionally to battle sin. We must be, I'm telling you, men, you must be more serious here.

Ladies, you must be more serious here. We must be ready to use the sword to kill sin.

We must know the Bible. It should be on our lips and in our hearts. It must be spoken to one another. We need its promises.

We need its warnings. We need it all. Wield the sword, friends. As John Owen said, be killing sin or it'll be killing you.

Secondly, the sword is for overcoming sin. Secondly, it's for overthrowing strongholds.

For overthrowing strongholds. Just flip over to 2 Corinthians for a moment with me, please. 2

Corinthians 10. I want you to see it. It's beautiful. 2 Corinthians 10. So relevant to our world today.

2 Corinthians 10, verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey

Christ. We use the sword for overcoming sin and we use the sword for overthrowing strongholds.

So say this. Do we have any answer to the world's questions today?

The problems of the world today. The false religion of evolution.

The wicked ideologies of homosexuality and transgenderism. The cancer that is wokeness.

Do we have any answers to those problems? Answer, yes. Because behind each one of these falsehoods is the serpent's hiss.

The degradation of marriage. The destruction of pre -born children. The dismantling today of society.

These all have satanic influence in and behind them. And our battle is spiritual.

So again, back to Ephesians 6 verse 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

If you get nothing else from all of this, one of the things I really, really, really, really need you to get in the spiritual warfare aspect is this.

All the things that you see happening in the world today, the spiritual forces of evil stand behind them.

It's not by accident that we're murdering children in the womb.

That's not accidental. It's not by accident. This sounds funny, but it's not funny anymore.

It's sad. We don't know what bathroom to use. We got stores scrambling around.

They're like, well, I don't know how many bathrooms. You know what? We're just going to put on all bathrooms. Men and women can use it, which is still kind of funny because it's still pointing to two genders, right?

Like we've lost our minds. Satan stands behind these things.

And what I'm saying is, because this is a spiritual battle, we need a spiritual weapon.

I'm just going to tell you, if you think voting for Donald Trump is going to fix our country, you're misunderstanding the problem, right?

You obviously cannot vote as a Christian for a party, the Democratic Party that hates

God and is slaying children. So that's obvious. It's obvious who

I'm voting for. But if you think that that is in and of itself is going to fix

America, you're wrong because we have a spiritual problem. And what

I'm saying to us this morning is we have a spiritual weapon. We have the word of God.

We overthrow strongholds with this sword. We take every thought captive with this sword.

We destroy lofty arguments against God. We shine forth the truth. We are storming the castle and we're cutting down falsehoods.

Gideon tore down the altar of Baal and God has commissioned the church today to tear down godless ideologies and philosophies of men.

Second, wield the sword. Do not succumb to the devil's lies.

Thirdly, overcoming sin, overthrowing strongholds. Thirdly, the sword is for opposing sorrow.

Opposing sorrow. I need to mention this because after Elijah won that great victory against the prophets of Baal, he goes and he almost gives up because of his own self -pity.

And I'm telling us this morning that God's word guards us. We can both overthrow strongholds and oppose sorrow in our hearts with the word of God.

We can find comfort in the word of God. Let me give you just a couple verses. Romans 15 verse 4 says, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

Any fool telling you to unhitch from the Old Testament is telling you to unhitch from the hope of the scriptures.

We have hope in the Bible, Old and New Testament. It helps us to oppose sorrow.

Psalm 42, 11. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my

God. Listen to me, moms. You need to read the Bible daily.

You got kids crawling all over you. You got laundry. You got other responsibilities.

You need the word of God. Because the devil is going to tempt you to be anxious.

He's going to tempt you to be perhaps lazy. He's going to tempt you to despair, to be sorrowful.

I look on Facebook and Susie on Facebook. That's not a real person. I'm just making it up. Susie on Facebook, everything looks great in her life, right?

She's made so many loaves of sourdough bread and all her children always have matching shoes and their minivan has no dents in it.

Listen, that actually is a truth. There's some truth with the minivan.

But the point is you need the scriptures to encourage your heart, to oppose sorrow and despair.

And dad, same with you. You wake up every morning. Is anybody appreciating me? Here I come, we're not getting the supper

I wanted or supper's late or whatever the case may be. And here I am, I'm working, I'm working, I'm working. I feel underappreciated.

Is it even worth it? Am I doing right? I'm trying to do family worship. Here I am trying to lead my family in family worship.

And these two kids over here, they're just fighting. This one's eating a booger. This one's got a question. Oh yes, honey, what's your question?

Do you want to know the things of Christ and the glory of the gospel?

What is it, honey? Hey, why did the dog poop on your...

Right, what? You need the encouragement of the scriptures. Scriptures help us to oppose sorrow.

Read the Bible. I'm telling you, read it every day. You need fed daily. You need nourishment daily.

You need the sword daily to keep you from looking at this cruel, dark, depraved world and just giving up.

Quit neglecting this great weapon. Will the sword. Hope in God. Fourthly, the sword is for overcoming sin, overthrowing strongholds, opposing sorrow, and finally obtaining souls.

The text says that we're to take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

I remind you, church, the sword is an offensive weapon.

We don't merely use it to fend off the attacks of the evil one. Rather, we use it to march forward and to knock back the kingdom of darkness and to institute the kingdom of light.

Look at verse 19 in our text. Paul says that we should pray for him, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to do what,

Paul? To proclaim the mystery of the gospel. That is, Paul wants the church to pray for him that he could preach the gospel.

Why? Because souls are going to be won to Christ. Romans 10, 17 says it this way. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the

Word of Christ. A man once put it to us like this. The sword of the Spirit is the only sword that can pierce a dead man's heart and make him alive.

This is why we preach the scriptures. This is why we pass out tracts with the scriptures.

This is why we have coffee with a friend and discuss the scriptures. This is why we call our wayward child and we share with them scriptures.

Why we text scriptures? Because the scriptures are the life -giving sword.

We have hope in this book. The Holy Spirit, listen, I can't explain all the mystery of it, but the

Holy Spirit actually uses the words of this book to reach inside dead, depraved, defiled sinners and to make them alive and to come to Christ willingly and freely, repenting of their sins and putting their faith in the finished work of Christ.

That's what God does with the Bible. We're so dumb and foolish and frankly wicked to try to dull this weapon.

If I say that to this person, they're going to get mad at me.

They're going to get offended. I might lose friends. Our church may be ridiculed.

So I can't share everything and maybe I don't want to share the Bible at all.

What are we doing? Because this is the marvelous weapon that God has given us and this is the weapon, the only weapon, that brings hearts from death to life.

Wield the sword. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to savingly and everlastingly convert sinners to Christ.

Never be ashamed of your Bible, Christian. Never. You're right, it will put you on the wrong side of the present culture.

But I promise you, on the great day of judgment, that's the side you want to be on.

You don't want to be standing on the same side as today's godlessness. And the sword of God is the sword that He uses to build

His church. Christians, we must be sharpening one another regularly with this sword, encouraging one another, watching over one another, loving one another, being present in one another's lives outside of just Sunday and pointing one another to Christ from this book, speaking the truth to one another in love.

And this must be a cultivated and regular habit. And of course, in this point, we must be an evangelistic church.

It is by the Spirit's sword that we obtain souls for the kingdom. Now, listen to me, these souls have been set apart and chosen before the foundation of the world, elected by a sovereign

God. And yet, the church is commissioned now to go and win them.

What a powerful weapon we have in the Word of the living God. May we be a church that knows its power.

Wield the sword, friends. We have an enemy to slay and a world to win.

And let me just make this comment, what glorious armor God has given us. Think through these pieces, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace for our shoes, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and now, friends, the sword of the

Spirit. And though this world could devil's field should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God has willed

His truth to triumph through us. Stand firm, beloved.

It is what the Scriptures are calling us to. Verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Verse 13, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm.

Stand firm, church. Stand firm in the grace of God. But here's the exhortation today as we close.

Don't just stand there. Father, I pray that You would help us to not just stand, but to march forward by God's grace, using the sword of the

Spirit to further the kingdom of Christ. Lord, only You can speak to us in a way that is effectual and everlasting.

We pray this morning that You would draw sinners to Christ. So many silly things that we think about and put our life into, whether it's the weekend party or the allurements of this world.

God, rescue us from these things and turn us to Christ and let us be a people dutifully and beautifully arrayed in this sweet and precious armor for the glory of our