The Sword of the Spirit
...
The motivate you need in order to take up the Scriptures.
"And take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
Ephesians 6:17b
As many of you are aware, my wife likes to get the sermon preview each week. She likes to know what we are covering. So she will often ask me how many verses I plan to speak on and what the general thrust of the message will be.
This week she said, “It’s the Sword of the Spirit this week, right?” And then she said, “That’s got to be a little hard. I mean we’ve already covered the belt of truth. That’s kind of all about the word.” And then she said, “And then you had the helmet of salvation and the shield of faith. Those were all about the importance of the Bible too. Are you finding it a little hard to come up with new stuff?”
We both kind of chuckled because she’s right. While we’ve seen some different things each time, this has basically been a series on the word of God and the role it plays in our lives.
But I can honestly say that I am not finding it hard to find new material. That’s because the text always gives birth to the message. And as long as you follow the text, there’s going to be some new material.
It’s true that we are going to be talking about the word, but there’s a lot of good stuff here. And it’s kind of interesting that the Bible compares the Word of God to a sword. And not just any sword, but it is the sword of the Spirit.
Now, before we get into things, let’s just check out the imagery that Paul is drawing on.
The Roman sword would have been rather short instrument. They are nothing like the long samurai’s katana. Neither is it like the long sword which you often find in the Medieval times, which would have had a long handle so that you could grip it with two hands because the blade was so massive. It is not like the 3 foot long light saber that you find in star wars either.
Those kinds of swords are for slashing and thrashing.
By contrast, the Roman sword would have been rather petite. And so it was used more for stabbing and thrusting. The blade would only be around two feet long (approximately the length of my arm). With the handle and hilt, the whole thing measured about 30 inches. And because it had a doubled edged blade, it would be quite deadly.
The Romans started using it in the third century BC and it proved very effective against the longer swords that their enemies typically yielded. Because it was more compact, they could carry their shield and they could maneuver much faster. The longer the sword, the more bulkier it gets. And, as a result, the more time it takes to lift and swing. Because these swords were much more portable, they were much more deadly. Your attack would be quicker and your movements less cumbersome.
Now Paul uses this image to speak about the word. Now, of course, we are talking about the Bible. The Bible is the word. And our goal today is to understand what God says here about the Bible. But what exactly are we to learn about the Word? I’d like to submit to you that there are at least 3 very important points that are made here in regard to the word. We are going to learn about its nature, its engineer, and its power.
Now, the first point is what I believe to be the most important point of this whole message. The Apostle Paul helps us to understand something of the uniqueness of the Bible. That’s because he tells us about its nature.
I. Its nature
What should we understand about this word? What is special about this book? The thing that makes it unique is that it is the Word of God. Paul says, “Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Paul’s telling us that this book is no ordinary book. It is God’s book. It is God’s word. It is something that comes from God and belongs to God. As such, it has a divine authority.
It’s main attribute is that it is not primarily of human production. God used men to write it, that’s certainly true. There were holy men who were instrumental in the process of producing it. But it is not primarily a product of men’s creativity or thought. It is a supernatural revelation of the truth of God.
I say this because the way you view this book is going to affect the way you use this book.
Some have said that it is simply a record of men’s reflections on God or a book that details their religious experiences. But that’s not what Paul says here. That would be man’s word. Paul says that it is the complete opposite. It is God’s Word.
Others have said that the Bible a book that merely contains the word of God. There’s a theologian named Karl Barth who popularized this idea. He said that the Bible is not the word of God, but it contains the word. And if you read it, it might become the word of God at some point. Somehow, magically, and maybe (not always, but maybe) it will do some presto change-o and you will have an experience where you will encounter God’s word.
That’s bunk! All that is a huge error. Because it still would be a word of man that could possibly become God’s word. At best, somewhere in here you might find God’s word.
Paul is very clear. He’s not saying that you need to dig around for the word of God. He says that this is the word of God (all of it). You take up the sword of the Spirit, which is (not could be) the word of God.
So you have to understand that this book is unlike any other book on earth. It is not like one of your college textbooks. It is not like a novel or a biography that someone wrote. It may look a lot like any other book, but you should not be mistaken: This is God’s Word. It belongs to him and has come from him.
I emphasize this because, if you get this wrong, you’ll never take it up. You are to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. You are commanded to read the Scriptures and live your life by them. But this is the crux of the matter, if you do not really believe that this is God’s Very Word, then you will treat it like any other book. If you do not understand this to be a revelation of Almighty God, it will mean nothing to you.
The moment you deem it as anything less than truth that has been sent from heaven on high, this book becomes unattractive. The moment you strip the Bible of its divinity it becomes expendable.
It then becomes an instant replay of the Garden of Eden and what happened to Adam and Eve. The serpent came to them and said, “Did God really say?” Is what you heard really true? Surely, it cannot be trusted. You don’t really think that God spoke thusly, do you? Obviously you need to discount that word and look somewhere else for guidance.”
I will tell you this: The only reason I started having daily Bible reading in my early Christian years is because I believed that this book was God’s book. I came to understand that God spoke here. This was his message to me. He had given this book to his people so that they would have life, salvation, and wisdom. That’s the only reason I started reading it.
And that’s really true for everyone. You will dedicate your life to this book only if you understand its true nature. Only if you understand that God has spoken in it and continues to speaks through it.
There’s so much more I want to say about that. We could really spend a huge amount of time developing this idea. We could talk about how it, as God’s word, is trustworthy. How it will never fail you. How, it is without error. It is pure even as God himself is pure. We could talk about all kinds of things. Since it is God’s word, it is going to have certain qualities that we could develop But right now, we just need to get the one single most important thing in our minds: Its nature is heavenly because it is God’s own word.
The next thing I’d like to point you to is its engineer.
II. Its engineer
Now, think here of a train. A train is a incredible invention. It is a massive piece of steel that has the capability to pull phenomenal amounts of cargo. You have all these railway cars filled to the brim with coal; hundreds of cars are loaded down. And they move along this track because of the locomotive at the front.
But you know what, that train isn’t going anywhere without an engineer. The locomotive is impressive, but its really nothing without the engineer. The engineer is the thing that gets the whole thing moving. The train really doesn’t do anything without the engineer driving the thing forward.
When we look at our passage, we see something similar. Paul puts two ideas in parallel. He links the word of God and the Spirit of God. He says take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He defines exactly what the sword of the Spirit is, it is the word of God.
We recognize that this word is unique. It is God’s word. But we also are to understand that the word is specially connected to and is driven by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the operative force behind the Word. The word is the vehicle by which the Spirit works.
Paul is once again pointing out that the two go hand in hand. The Spirit operates in conjunction with his Word. The word is the means by which the Spirit works.
We saw this earlier in our study when we compared Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. There’s that passage that talks about singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In Ephesians 5 it is preceded by saying, “be filled with the Spirit.” In Colossians 3 it says the same thing, except it starts off by saying Let the word of God dwell in your richly.
And here again Paul connect the two same ideas. The Spirit and the Word. The word and the Spirit.
Understanding this, helps us understand the work of the Spirit. The Spirit is forever linked to his word. He has chosen this as the primary and ordinary means by which he works.
This is one of the reasons why I, personally, am a cessationist. Cessationism is the belief that there were some miraculous gifts that God gave to the church for a limited time. Things like prophesy and speaking in tongues and the like. These were gifts that were real and valuable, but only for a time. After a while, they ceased to exist. The Lord didn’t plan on them being part of the church for its duration.
Now, there are many more reasons why I believe this, but this is one reason here. The Spirit’s normal way of working is in connection with the word. And you see that here. Paul is telling us to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He is not telling us to take up the Spirit, which is somehow divorced from his word. The Spirit and the word are to, according to Paul, go together.
So, we are to make use of the Spirit and live in the power of the Spirit. Well, what exactly does that mean? It means living and abiding by the truth of God’s word. Where God’s word is read, there the Spirit is active. Where the word is being heeded, there the Spirit is working.
I think this is a helpful thing to understand because it helps you understand the way the Spirit works. So, if you have something come into your head, and you are wondering if the Spirit of God put it there. This is how you know. Did that come from the Word of God? Is this thought that you have based in the Scripture? Did you deduce it from something that was written in the Bible? Can these thoughts be linked to a passage of Scripture? If they are, then you know that the Spirit has spoken.
Some people will say, “I think the Spirit spoke to me and told me to do ___.” And you can say, “Well, how do you know that?” And they may respond by saying, “I’m not really sure. I just think the Spirit is telling me to do it.”
Now, what we learn here is really helpful, isn’t it? It shows us that the Spirit’s voice isn’t hard to discern. And he doesn’t speak in a way that other solid Christian people cannot easily discern. The Spirit does not speak in vague ways or ways that cannot be easily confirmed by others. That’s because the Spirit speaks in his Word. And he works by means of his word.
He is the engineer who is active in and with that word. He makes the word to be effective and work the purpose for which it was designed.
Which brings us to our third point, which has to do with the word’s power. We’ve talked about the nature of the word and we’ve made a comment or two about its engineer (the Spirit). We should not miss what our text says about the power of the Word.
III. Its power
It is powerful because it is a sword. Again, every item in the armor of God has had a particular correspondence to the real life armor. Paul has been using the varies parts of the Roman soldier’s outfit to communicate a specific truth.
And when we come to our text we see that Paul likens the word to a sword. And we all know that a sword is a powerful weapon.
It should be noted that this is the only piece of equipment that Paul mentions that is used offensively. Every piece of armor, except this one, serves a defensive purpose. But with a sword you can go on the attack.
And you should understand the power it exerts in that regard. This is our tool of attack. This is how we take on the enemy.
The Book of Hebrews tells us that “the Word of God is sharper than a two edged sword;” it is able to pierce down to the division of bone and marrow. That’s recognizing the power of the word to convict and convert sinners. The word of God, when it is read and preached, has the power to go deep into one’s being. It goes down to the innermost depths of the person. It strikes at the soul of the man and pierces the heart.
Another way to say it is that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The word of God, when spoken, has power to kill unbelief. As the Spirit of God drives that word forward, it causes people’s hearts to change and they become born again.
Paul says in Romans 10, “How shall they believe if they do not hear?” You notice there: The hearing is the key to the believing. How is it that someone who is opposed to God will be converted? It is not by means of your apologetics. Apologetics does not convert people. The only thing that can convert someone is the Word of God.
And I hope this makes you all that much bolder with the word of God. Whether it is a tract that you hand out, a bible that you place in someone’s hand, or a word that you share. The word of God has immense power. And we should not be ashamed of it for that very reason. It is the power of God.
One of my favorite stories in this regard comes from Joe Morecraft. Morecraft tells the story of Ronald Wallace, who used to be a professor of Biblical Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary.
When Ronald Wallace was a young man growing up in Scotland he was an atheist. He thought Christianity was stupid and he loved atheism. As a matter of fact, he would go to all the conferences on atheism. And one time there was a big atheist speaker coming to his area to speak. Wallace could hardly wait for this conference to get some more ammunition to rip apart Christianity.
When the time came for the conference, Wallace took his seat in the auditorium. And the conference was doing everything Wallace wanted it to, it was ripping apart Christianity. In the middle of the lecture the speaker said, “To show you how absurd Christianity is, I want to read to you this section of the New Testament.” So with a tone of mockery he reads this section out of of Scripture about the death and resurrection of Jesus. As soon as that passage was read Dr. Wallace was converted.
Funny, isn’t it? He hadn’t come to be converted. He didn’t want to be converted when he entered. But right there in the midst of all the mockery, God’s Spirit persuaded him that he needed Christ. [Related by Joe Morecraft, “The Reality of Divine Revelation, Pt 7 WS058.”]
No evidences were given. As a matter of fact, you can pretty much guarantee that they pulled out all the stops to try and show that Christianity wasn’t true and that the Bible was nothing but a bunch of rubbish.
But at that moment, when it was read, Wallace came to believe.
That’s the power of God’s Word. Like a sword, it pierces and brings people to repentance and faith.
But there’s something else I want you to see. The Bible isn’t just an offensive tool. Swords were used to go on the attack, but they were also defensive weapons. They would be used to block attacks and protect yourself.
And you should recognize that the word of God is a defensive weapon, just as much as it is an offensive weapon.
And again, when you understand this, you will be more apt to take up the Word of God and fill your life with it.
Think of Psalm 119, “How can a young man keep his way pure?” Another way to phrase that would be to say, “How can a young man protect himself from impurity? How can a person protect himself from sin and temptation?”
Psalm 119 answers that question by saying, “by taking heed to God’s Word.” What is David saying there? He’s saying that the word of God can protect you. You can keep pure and not fall to temptation because you’ve given attention to the Word.
Let me give you an example. Let’s think once again about sexual temptation. Lately I’ve been reading Wayne Mack’s book “Sweethearts for Life.” He had a statistic that 66% of men and over a third of women (perhaps up to 50%) have had an extramarital affair. Those statistics are shocking, are they not?
I talked with my friend Ralph this past week. Each week he goes into the county jail to lead Bible studies with those who have been incarcerated. He mentioned to me that there is an increasing number of people who are sex offenders. He talked about the availability of pornography and how people begin to take steps to act upon that perversion.
Now, how does the Word of God protect in these situations? How does the word act as a powerful sword to defend in these cases? Well, you go to the book of Proverbs and you read what sexual deviancy does to a person. When you read Proverbs 5 you hear of the incredible damage that infidelity and the fantasy world inflicts upon a person.
“The lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood… Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; she does not ponder the path of life… Do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!”
When you read that, you understand how dreadful sexual sin can be, don’t you? And you start to think, “I’m not going there. I’m not even going to entertain the thought.” And you put protections in your life that will keep you from those kinds of things.
So, what happens is that, when the temptation comes, whether it is by means of a key board or a come on, you’re already prepared. You think to yourself, “that’s death. That’s nothing but death and destruction. I’m not going there. We are getting as far away from this as possible.”
Now, that’s exactly what happened when Jesus was tempted. Some people make a big deal about temptation and say, “Well, when Jesus was tempted he recited Scripture. And we can repel temptation when we recite scripture too.” Well, that’s not exactly what happened. What that passage shows is that Jesus was already very much steeped in the Scriptures. He had already built the necessary defenses. His reciting it was simply showing that he had already had the Scriptures in place.
Now, that’s just all that much more reason why you need to be in the Scriptures regularly. You might not think that you got anything out of your reading that day. You might feel like it wasn’t worth the time. But I guarantee you that the discipline of taking up the Sword on a regular basis is doing great things.
Every time you drink in the Scriptures, you are getting yourself prepared for the fight. You are creating stronger defenses. You are making it possible to wield the sword when temptation comes.
And so you understand that the word of god has power - power to defend, power to destroy.
Conclusion
And that is why you are to take up the sword of the Spirit. I could throw another point on here and talk about its application, but there’s really only one application. You need to take up the sword. You need to read it, you need to listen to it. You need to surround yourself with it.
Really, this shows you that your life needs to be oriented around the Word. The word needs to be the primary thing in your life. For when God’s Word is primary, God is primary.
But it all comes back to what I said earlier. This is no ordinary book. It is God’s Word. It is the Spirit that is operative in it. And because of that, it has incredible power. Power that no other book can match.
This week she said, “It’s the Sword of the Spirit this week, right?” And then she said, “That’s got to be a little hard. I mean we’ve already covered the belt of truth. That’s kind of all about the word.” And then she said, “And then you had the helmet of salvation and the shield of faith. Those were all about the importance of the Bible too. Are you finding it a little hard to come up with new stuff?”
We both kind of chuckled because she’s right. While we’ve seen some different things each time, this has basically been a series on the word of God and the role it plays in our lives.
But I can honestly say that I am not finding it hard to find new material. That’s because the text always gives birth to the message. And as long as you follow the text, there’s going to be some new material.
It’s true that we are going to be talking about the word, but there’s a lot of good stuff here. And it’s kind of interesting that the Bible compares the Word of God to a sword. And not just any sword, but it is the sword of the Spirit.
Now, before we get into things, let’s just check out the imagery that Paul is drawing on.
The Roman sword would have been rather short instrument. They are nothing like the long samurai’s katana. Neither is it like the long sword which you often find in the Medieval times, which would have had a long handle so that you could grip it with two hands because the blade was so massive. It is not like the 3 foot long light saber that you find in star wars either.
Those kinds of swords are for slashing and thrashing.
By contrast, the Roman sword would have been rather petite. And so it was used more for stabbing and thrusting. The blade would only be around two feet long (approximately the length of my arm). With the handle and hilt, the whole thing measured about 30 inches. And because it had a doubled edged blade, it would be quite deadly.
The Romans started using it in the third century BC and it proved very effective against the longer swords that their enemies typically yielded. Because it was more compact, they could carry their shield and they could maneuver much faster. The longer the sword, the more bulkier it gets. And, as a result, the more time it takes to lift and swing. Because these swords were much more portable, they were much more deadly. Your attack would be quicker and your movements less cumbersome.
Now Paul uses this image to speak about the word. Now, of course, we are talking about the Bible. The Bible is the word. And our goal today is to understand what God says here about the Bible. But what exactly are we to learn about the Word? I’d like to submit to you that there are at least 3 very important points that are made here in regard to the word. We are going to learn about its nature, its engineer, and its power.
Now, the first point is what I believe to be the most important point of this whole message. The Apostle Paul helps us to understand something of the uniqueness of the Bible. That’s because he tells us about its nature.
I. Its nature
What should we understand about this word? What is special about this book? The thing that makes it unique is that it is the Word of God. Paul says, “Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Paul’s telling us that this book is no ordinary book. It is God’s book. It is God’s word. It is something that comes from God and belongs to God. As such, it has a divine authority.
It’s main attribute is that it is not primarily of human production. God used men to write it, that’s certainly true. There were holy men who were instrumental in the process of producing it. But it is not primarily a product of men’s creativity or thought. It is a supernatural revelation of the truth of God.
I say this because the way you view this book is going to affect the way you use this book.
Some have said that it is simply a record of men’s reflections on God or a book that details their religious experiences. But that’s not what Paul says here. That would be man’s word. Paul says that it is the complete opposite. It is God’s Word.
Others have said that the Bible a book that merely contains the word of God. There’s a theologian named Karl Barth who popularized this idea. He said that the Bible is not the word of God, but it contains the word. And if you read it, it might become the word of God at some point. Somehow, magically, and maybe (not always, but maybe) it will do some presto change-o and you will have an experience where you will encounter God’s word.
That’s bunk! All that is a huge error. Because it still would be a word of man that could possibly become God’s word. At best, somewhere in here you might find God’s word.
Paul is very clear. He’s not saying that you need to dig around for the word of God. He says that this is the word of God (all of it). You take up the sword of the Spirit, which is (not could be) the word of God.
So you have to understand that this book is unlike any other book on earth. It is not like one of your college textbooks. It is not like a novel or a biography that someone wrote. It may look a lot like any other book, but you should not be mistaken: This is God’s Word. It belongs to him and has come from him.
I emphasize this because, if you get this wrong, you’ll never take it up. You are to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. You are commanded to read the Scriptures and live your life by them. But this is the crux of the matter, if you do not really believe that this is God’s Very Word, then you will treat it like any other book. If you do not understand this to be a revelation of Almighty God, it will mean nothing to you.
The moment you deem it as anything less than truth that has been sent from heaven on high, this book becomes unattractive. The moment you strip the Bible of its divinity it becomes expendable.
It then becomes an instant replay of the Garden of Eden and what happened to Adam and Eve. The serpent came to them and said, “Did God really say?” Is what you heard really true? Surely, it cannot be trusted. You don’t really think that God spoke thusly, do you? Obviously you need to discount that word and look somewhere else for guidance.”
I will tell you this: The only reason I started having daily Bible reading in my early Christian years is because I believed that this book was God’s book. I came to understand that God spoke here. This was his message to me. He had given this book to his people so that they would have life, salvation, and wisdom. That’s the only reason I started reading it.
And that’s really true for everyone. You will dedicate your life to this book only if you understand its true nature. Only if you understand that God has spoken in it and continues to speaks through it.
There’s so much more I want to say about that. We could really spend a huge amount of time developing this idea. We could talk about how it, as God’s word, is trustworthy. How it will never fail you. How, it is without error. It is pure even as God himself is pure. We could talk about all kinds of things. Since it is God’s word, it is going to have certain qualities that we could develop But right now, we just need to get the one single most important thing in our minds: Its nature is heavenly because it is God’s own word.
The next thing I’d like to point you to is its engineer.
II. Its engineer
Now, think here of a train. A train is a incredible invention. It is a massive piece of steel that has the capability to pull phenomenal amounts of cargo. You have all these railway cars filled to the brim with coal; hundreds of cars are loaded down. And they move along this track because of the locomotive at the front.
But you know what, that train isn’t going anywhere without an engineer. The locomotive is impressive, but its really nothing without the engineer. The engineer is the thing that gets the whole thing moving. The train really doesn’t do anything without the engineer driving the thing forward.
When we look at our passage, we see something similar. Paul puts two ideas in parallel. He links the word of God and the Spirit of God. He says take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He defines exactly what the sword of the Spirit is, it is the word of God.
We recognize that this word is unique. It is God’s word. But we also are to understand that the word is specially connected to and is driven by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the operative force behind the Word. The word is the vehicle by which the Spirit works.
Paul is once again pointing out that the two go hand in hand. The Spirit operates in conjunction with his Word. The word is the means by which the Spirit works.
We saw this earlier in our study when we compared Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. There’s that passage that talks about singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In Ephesians 5 it is preceded by saying, “be filled with the Spirit.” In Colossians 3 it says the same thing, except it starts off by saying Let the word of God dwell in your richly.
And here again Paul connect the two same ideas. The Spirit and the Word. The word and the Spirit.
Understanding this, helps us understand the work of the Spirit. The Spirit is forever linked to his word. He has chosen this as the primary and ordinary means by which he works.
This is one of the reasons why I, personally, am a cessationist. Cessationism is the belief that there were some miraculous gifts that God gave to the church for a limited time. Things like prophesy and speaking in tongues and the like. These were gifts that were real and valuable, but only for a time. After a while, they ceased to exist. The Lord didn’t plan on them being part of the church for its duration.
Now, there are many more reasons why I believe this, but this is one reason here. The Spirit’s normal way of working is in connection with the word. And you see that here. Paul is telling us to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He is not telling us to take up the Spirit, which is somehow divorced from his word. The Spirit and the word are to, according to Paul, go together.
So, we are to make use of the Spirit and live in the power of the Spirit. Well, what exactly does that mean? It means living and abiding by the truth of God’s word. Where God’s word is read, there the Spirit is active. Where the word is being heeded, there the Spirit is working.
I think this is a helpful thing to understand because it helps you understand the way the Spirit works. So, if you have something come into your head, and you are wondering if the Spirit of God put it there. This is how you know. Did that come from the Word of God? Is this thought that you have based in the Scripture? Did you deduce it from something that was written in the Bible? Can these thoughts be linked to a passage of Scripture? If they are, then you know that the Spirit has spoken.
Some people will say, “I think the Spirit spoke to me and told me to do ___.” And you can say, “Well, how do you know that?” And they may respond by saying, “I’m not really sure. I just think the Spirit is telling me to do it.”
Now, what we learn here is really helpful, isn’t it? It shows us that the Spirit’s voice isn’t hard to discern. And he doesn’t speak in a way that other solid Christian people cannot easily discern. The Spirit does not speak in vague ways or ways that cannot be easily confirmed by others. That’s because the Spirit speaks in his Word. And he works by means of his word.
He is the engineer who is active in and with that word. He makes the word to be effective and work the purpose for which it was designed.
Which brings us to our third point, which has to do with the word’s power. We’ve talked about the nature of the word and we’ve made a comment or two about its engineer (the Spirit). We should not miss what our text says about the power of the Word.
III. Its power
It is powerful because it is a sword. Again, every item in the armor of God has had a particular correspondence to the real life armor. Paul has been using the varies parts of the Roman soldier’s outfit to communicate a specific truth.
And when we come to our text we see that Paul likens the word to a sword. And we all know that a sword is a powerful weapon.
It should be noted that this is the only piece of equipment that Paul mentions that is used offensively. Every piece of armor, except this one, serves a defensive purpose. But with a sword you can go on the attack.
And you should understand the power it exerts in that regard. This is our tool of attack. This is how we take on the enemy.
The Book of Hebrews tells us that “the Word of God is sharper than a two edged sword;” it is able to pierce down to the division of bone and marrow. That’s recognizing the power of the word to convict and convert sinners. The word of God, when it is read and preached, has the power to go deep into one’s being. It goes down to the innermost depths of the person. It strikes at the soul of the man and pierces the heart.
Another way to say it is that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The word of God, when spoken, has power to kill unbelief. As the Spirit of God drives that word forward, it causes people’s hearts to change and they become born again.
Paul says in Romans 10, “How shall they believe if they do not hear?” You notice there: The hearing is the key to the believing. How is it that someone who is opposed to God will be converted? It is not by means of your apologetics. Apologetics does not convert people. The only thing that can convert someone is the Word of God.
And I hope this makes you all that much bolder with the word of God. Whether it is a tract that you hand out, a bible that you place in someone’s hand, or a word that you share. The word of God has immense power. And we should not be ashamed of it for that very reason. It is the power of God.
One of my favorite stories in this regard comes from Joe Morecraft. Morecraft tells the story of Ronald Wallace, who used to be a professor of Biblical Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary.
When Ronald Wallace was a young man growing up in Scotland he was an atheist. He thought Christianity was stupid and he loved atheism. As a matter of fact, he would go to all the conferences on atheism. And one time there was a big atheist speaker coming to his area to speak. Wallace could hardly wait for this conference to get some more ammunition to rip apart Christianity.
When the time came for the conference, Wallace took his seat in the auditorium. And the conference was doing everything Wallace wanted it to, it was ripping apart Christianity. In the middle of the lecture the speaker said, “To show you how absurd Christianity is, I want to read to you this section of the New Testament.” So with a tone of mockery he reads this section out of of Scripture about the death and resurrection of Jesus. As soon as that passage was read Dr. Wallace was converted.
Funny, isn’t it? He hadn’t come to be converted. He didn’t want to be converted when he entered. But right there in the midst of all the mockery, God’s Spirit persuaded him that he needed Christ. [Related by Joe Morecraft, “The Reality of Divine Revelation, Pt 7 WS058.”]
No evidences were given. As a matter of fact, you can pretty much guarantee that they pulled out all the stops to try and show that Christianity wasn’t true and that the Bible was nothing but a bunch of rubbish.
But at that moment, when it was read, Wallace came to believe.
That’s the power of God’s Word. Like a sword, it pierces and brings people to repentance and faith.
But there’s something else I want you to see. The Bible isn’t just an offensive tool. Swords were used to go on the attack, but they were also defensive weapons. They would be used to block attacks and protect yourself.
And you should recognize that the word of God is a defensive weapon, just as much as it is an offensive weapon.
And again, when you understand this, you will be more apt to take up the Word of God and fill your life with it.
Think of Psalm 119, “How can a young man keep his way pure?” Another way to phrase that would be to say, “How can a young man protect himself from impurity? How can a person protect himself from sin and temptation?”
Psalm 119 answers that question by saying, “by taking heed to God’s Word.” What is David saying there? He’s saying that the word of God can protect you. You can keep pure and not fall to temptation because you’ve given attention to the Word.
Let me give you an example. Let’s think once again about sexual temptation. Lately I’ve been reading Wayne Mack’s book “Sweethearts for Life.” He had a statistic that 66% of men and over a third of women (perhaps up to 50%) have had an extramarital affair. Those statistics are shocking, are they not?
I talked with my friend Ralph this past week. Each week he goes into the county jail to lead Bible studies with those who have been incarcerated. He mentioned to me that there is an increasing number of people who are sex offenders. He talked about the availability of pornography and how people begin to take steps to act upon that perversion.
Now, how does the Word of God protect in these situations? How does the word act as a powerful sword to defend in these cases? Well, you go to the book of Proverbs and you read what sexual deviancy does to a person. When you read Proverbs 5 you hear of the incredible damage that infidelity and the fantasy world inflicts upon a person.
“The lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood… Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; she does not ponder the path of life… Do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!”
When you read that, you understand how dreadful sexual sin can be, don’t you? And you start to think, “I’m not going there. I’m not even going to entertain the thought.” And you put protections in your life that will keep you from those kinds of things.
So, what happens is that, when the temptation comes, whether it is by means of a key board or a come on, you’re already prepared. You think to yourself, “that’s death. That’s nothing but death and destruction. I’m not going there. We are getting as far away from this as possible.”
Now, that’s exactly what happened when Jesus was tempted. Some people make a big deal about temptation and say, “Well, when Jesus was tempted he recited Scripture. And we can repel temptation when we recite scripture too.” Well, that’s not exactly what happened. What that passage shows is that Jesus was already very much steeped in the Scriptures. He had already built the necessary defenses. His reciting it was simply showing that he had already had the Scriptures in place.
Now, that’s just all that much more reason why you need to be in the Scriptures regularly. You might not think that you got anything out of your reading that day. You might feel like it wasn’t worth the time. But I guarantee you that the discipline of taking up the Sword on a regular basis is doing great things.
Every time you drink in the Scriptures, you are getting yourself prepared for the fight. You are creating stronger defenses. You are making it possible to wield the sword when temptation comes.
And so you understand that the word of god has power - power to defend, power to destroy.
Conclusion
And that is why you are to take up the sword of the Spirit. I could throw another point on here and talk about its application, but there’s really only one application. You need to take up the sword. You need to read it, you need to listen to it. You need to surround yourself with it.
Really, this shows you that your life needs to be oriented around the Word. The word needs to be the primary thing in your life. For when God’s Word is primary, God is primary.
But it all comes back to what I said earlier. This is no ordinary book. It is God’s Word. It is the Spirit that is operative in it. And because of that, it has incredible power. Power that no other book can match.