Sword

Eph 6:17 The Sword of the Spirit

Source of the Word of the Spirit The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty’—that is, spiritual, 2 Cor. 10:4. Indeed, Satan being a spirit, must be fought with spiritual arms. And such is the word, a spiritual sword. (Gurnall) Here is a spiritual weapon that is essentially given to us by the Holy Spirit because the Scripture is authored by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). It is a spiritual sword, that is it’s a sword to be wielded in the spiritual dimension. It is a Spirit-given, spiritual sword. Our weapon in that sense is a spiritual weapon. And it is the Word of God. It is the truth (John 17:17). We have a spiritual sword given to us by the Holy Spirit and it is an awesome weapon. Our sword was not forged on human anvils or tempered in earthly fires. It is a weapon of divine origin provided for us by the Spirit of God to give us a powerful and effective instrument to use against everything that is raised up against the truth. Fleshly weapons, frankly, are useless in such a combat. (Mac Arthur) The weapon used by Jesus was the Word of God (Matt 4:1-11) and you and I are to fight the devil and all his powers with the same weapon, the Sword of the Spirit (Jones)

Secure the Word take up Satan is the deceiver (Rev 12:9). He is a liar and the truth is not in him (John 8:44). The Word of God is the truth (John 17:17) Satan knows that the truth of the Word will dispel his lies and enable the believer to defeat the temptations that he hurls at us. His aim is to keep you from reading, studying and knowing the word of God and using this “sword of the Spirit” to defeat Him. The battle really comes down to belief. Will I believe the lie of Satan or will I believe the truth of God’s word (Borgman). What really matters is whether I believe God or not. If I doubt all is lost (Ferguson). Will I believe the lying promises of Satan that always disappoint or the promise of God that never fails. (Borgman). But you cannot fight in the battle when you do not have a sword to use. Going to church where you hear the Word or simply reading the Bible sporadically is good, but it will not forge a very good sword for battle. You must not only hear the word and read it, but you must integrate it into your very being. You must not just let it be in your head, but in your heart. (Ps 119:9-11). You must treasure it and value it more than any other voice that speaks into you. You must study it, memorize it and mediate on it. You must let it dictate the passion of your heart and purpose of your life. If all you do is go to church and occasionally read the Bible, but don’t let it direct your life and actions, you will not be trained for battle and you fail when temptations come and fall into sin in every battle. You must live out what you learn. (James 1:22, Matt 7:21, John 14:15). We are not to bury the Word under other matters; but we are to take it as a sword: Study the Word and work out its meaning. Go deep into the spirit of inspiration. He gets

most gold who digs the deepest in this mine. The deeper you go under the Spirit's guidance the larger is the reward for your toil. Take the sword with the grip of sincere faith; hold it fast by a fuller knowledge, and then exercise yourself daily in its use. (Spurgeon)

This may sound pretty basic, read the Bible. To be a believer, to have a strong desire, to be diligent, to be holy, to be Spirit-filled then you go to the Scripture and you start by reading it...reading it repeatedly. And then, of course, interpreting it. understand what you just read. This is interpreting the Scripture, digging down. Putting on the whole armor of God is nothing more than in the end being able to use the Word of God effectively (MacArthur) Let me put it very direct, here is Jesus- the holy son of the almighty God, the one in whom neither Satan nor man could find any wrong or gain even the tiniest foothold. Jesus, who lived in closest communion with the Father. If this Jesus, your Lord and Savior, had to know Scripture in order to resist Satan and win victory over him, how much more do you and I need if to win a like victory (Boice). You possess the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. You just need to pick it up and use it. The Bible is that sword. But not because you own one, but because you know what’s in it. Being able to wield the sword is being able to use the truth of Scripture at any given point. Your defense is going to be to know the truth. It doesn’t do you any good to own a Bible if you don’t know what is in it. It doesn’t do you any good at all. We go forth into the kingdom of darkness, defending ourselves. And when Satan comes at us, if we are ignorant of a certain area of biblical truth, we are defenseless in that area. If you’re going to go forward into the kingdom of darkness and penetrate that darkness, you better know the truths of the Word of God so that you can defend yourself adequately against the deceptiveness of Satan. Satan doesn’t like a fully taught believer, one that is skilled in the word of God. He doesn’t want you to understand all that Scripture teaches because he doesn’t want you to be able to defend yourself against his deceptions. You must know and live the word of God to overcome the evil one. If you don’t know what Scripture teaches and choose to live according to it, you’re highly vulnerable. (Mac Arthur)

Stand by the Word sword

We must learn to wield, “take up”, the Sword of the Spirit in many areas of our live. We must take up the Sword of the Spirit:

To Stand against sin and temptation Satan is good at making sin look good. He can take sin which is ugly and deformed and make it look beautiful. He is the master of making something which is repulsive to us, something we renounce and avoid and even teach others to avoid and make us to see it differently. We began to see it as not that bad and then he has us sold into sin. No one wakes up one day and says it is a great day to have sex, or be bitter, or slander someone. The devil knows how to deceive us. (Brogman). He seeks over time to slowly and meticulously drag us away from God and his word of God. He makes us see sin as appealing and seem to be what we need and what will make us happy, rather than something that grieves the heart of God and will lead us away from him into despair. He seduces us to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, rather than the eternal pleasures of God. Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God (Piper). We sin because it holds out its promise of happiness, but in the end it enslaves us until we believe God is more to be desired then sin. The power of sins promise is broken only by the power of God’s promise. And what God promises to be for us in Jesus, stands over and against what sin promises without him. We must stand against sin and temptation by taking up the Sword of the Spirit. A sheathed sword is sin’s playground. So, when our grip becomes loose or we let go of the sword, we are defenseless to defeat temptation and avoid sin. A detached sword is the sign of a defeated Christian. Satan hurls temptation at us daily and to stand against his onslaught, we must be diligent every day to read and heed God’s word and strengthen our grip on the sword he provides. When the word of God is absent the way of God is abandoned.

To Strengthen one another. We have been and are wounded warriors. Believers are called to build up and strengthen one another. (1 Thess 5:11, 14) We do not battle alone but as an army of saints. If one struggles we all struggle. We are to strengthen those who are battle weary and who have loosened their grip on their sword or have let go of it all together. Satan is constantly at work tearing us down (Rev 12:10) Satan is always working to drag or draw believers away from God and his word. We must see ourselves as our brother’s keeper. The enemy of their soul is the enemy of our soul. We have moral and spiritual responsibility before God to help our comrades who have failed and fallen in battle (1 Thess 1:6-9, 3:1-2, 5). We must not leave them abandoned on the field of battle. We must seek to bring them back and to build them up, so they can once again stand against the wiles of the devil. We are all weak and weary in our struggle against sin. We need each other to help us to stand. We must watch in the battle for those who are slowly losing their grip on their sword either because the battle is too intense, and they want to give up and give in or because they have already been wounded by sin. We don’t leave them, but like the good shepherd we leave the ninety-nine and seek to rescue them. Fallen saints need faithful friends to speak life into them. Satan doesn’t just grab us a drag us away, but gradually wounds us here and there to weaken our resolve to fight. He puts cracks in our faith. Eventually, it becomes easier to draw that person away from the truth of God’s Word and lay down their sword surrendering to their fleshly desires and follow Satan. So, we must build up each other in the word of God helping to strengthen them to stand. Satan’s word is a lying deceiving word (Gen 3), it is in direct opposition to the word of God. Therefore, we need to be diligent to speak the word of God to each other. We need to give a word of grace to those who are weary of standing for truth or laying helpless wounded in the battle. (Borgman) We are to speak the word of truth in love (Eph 4:15). What we need when we have failed and fallen in battle is a word of grace that will be able to get us back up. While we feel weaken and battered as the enemy tears us down a word spoken at the right time brings healing to the wounds of battle. When we are wounded by our own sinful choices and Satan’s attacks, and we feel defeated and dejected, that is when we must run back to pick up our sword, the word of God, to find the words that can bring restoration and renewal. When the sword is not picked up sin will find no resistance and we will continue in sin. At other times we have friends that will come and speak the words of truth and life to us that bring hope and healing for our battle wounds and revive our heart. When we lose our grip or let go of our sword and find ourselves hopeless and helpless amid our spiritual struggle, we must not despise the trusted faithful friend that comes to our aid but embrace their help. We must choose if we want to lay bleeding on the battle field enslaved to sin or allow the word of God to bring hope and healing. Don’t let the Jesus in you bleed out for the momentary pleasures of sin. We can’t fight the battles alone, we need others. Praise God for saints who don’t let their friends lay wounded in battle but care enough to come to them. Find the hope that God loves you too much to let you lay bleeding out in your wounded sinful condition but sends his people to pick you up and help you be resorted. When we cannot or care not to wield the sword, Praise God that others wield theirs to preserve us and pull us out of the battle.

To Shout forth his Praise

When we worship and sing truth we are wielding the sword of God (Borgman). We are to ambush Satan with songs. Satan slips out to the room when saints lift up praise. When I truly participate in heart felt Spirit led worship, God restores me and delivers me form vexing plagues (Luther). No wonder Satan hates the songs of God’s people. He does his best to keep saints from being worshipful (Piper). Our worship is warfare when we truly sing the word of God (2 Chronicles 20:21). The enemy can’t stand it when we lift up our praise to the Lord.