The exciting conclusion of our study this year of The Armor of God series. In our last lesson, we talked about Ephesians 6:17, " and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God." And, we're going to finish that verse in this lesson focusing on the sword of the Spirit.
We've already discussed the pieces that we are to put on.
Outside of all those, at arm's length, is our shield of faith.
Everything that we come in contact with in this life needs to get past that shield of faith and if it's something that is from the devil, then we don't want it to get past that shield, it needs to meet our faith first.
Then we talked about The Helmet of Salvation. There's one more piece that we have to consider, according to verse 17 is the Word of God.
What Do We Know About This Sword?
- Adopted by the Roman Army 216 BC to the 4th Century AD
- Adopted from the Spanish, called a Gladius.
- The average length of the blade is 18”- 24” long.
- The width of the blade is no more than 2” wide.
- Each sword weighed only 2lbs.
- Constructed from Wrought Iron instead of Steel.
It was sharpened and maintained that edge very well. It's not just the weapon, but the design that makes it dangerous. Weapons in and of themselves are rather harmless. It's how it's used that makes it dangerous. It's the way that the Romans trained in the usage of this gladius. They used it as a team. Each soldier carried it on their right side so that they could move as a unit.
The danger of these swords had less to do with their design and more to do with the way the Romans trained their soldiers to use them.
With this particular gladius, each soldier carried one on their right side. This was essential so that they could move effectively together as a unit. Well, what would happen if you were naturally a left-handed soldier? What I read was that they tied your left hand to your leg, and they forced you to use your right hand until you became proficient with using your right hand. They forced everyone to use their sword right-handed. Why? Because all of their movements, and all their defensive techniques hinged on this one idea of everybody being able to do the same thing. And so they forced everyone to be a right-handed soldier.
"They were trained to take every opportunity and attack every exposed target even if that meant cutting the legs of their opponents from underneath their own shields." — Jamie Spry, Sermons.Logos.com.
They prepared themselves for every eventuality when it came to the use of this particular weapon.
Now, as we know anything that is a defensive weapon can also be used as an offensive weapon and vice versa. An offensive weapon can be used as a defensive weapon as well.
Some have said that the sword of the spirit is the only offensive piece of armor given to the soldier. I don't exactly agree with that. Not that it's the only one, but when you speak concerning these pieces of armor as we put them together, it's the only one that technically has offensive capabilities attributed to it. There's one more that we really haven't studied but it really goes along with this idea of the use of the sword and that is the power of prayer.
It could be argued, and maybe even should be argued a little more loudly than it is, that prayer is our first and foremost offensive weapon. And then there's the sword. And then it runs into our shield. But we'll get to that at a later time.
We need to ask the question, though. Whose sword?
Whose Sword?
Whose sword is this? Well, the verse, it says:
"And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." — Ephesians 6:17
Right here in this verse, Paul tells us that the sword does not belong to mankind. It is something that does, however, belong to the Holy Spirit.
- 2 Peter 1:20,21
The Old Testament and New Testament writers didn't have the authority, they didn't have the ability to make up on their own what they were going to write about. They didn't have the ability, they didn't have the authority to figure out on their own which accounts from Jesus' life they were going to write about, specifically the gospel writers. They didn't have that right.
They wrote exactly what they were given to write because they were led in that process by the Holy Spirit.
Description of the Bible!
The sword, as it's described for us, is the Word of God.
- Hebrews 4:12
There the Hebrews writer says that the Word of God, in the King James, says quick, other versions say lively or alive. The Word of God is not a dead letter as some would have us to believe, that really has no meaning or significance for us today. But the Word of God is what revives our spirit. Or, at least is what's supposed to revive our spirit and cause us to be lively soldiers and lively individuals in service to God. It is the Word of God that does that.
It's the Word of God that discerns between the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It can determine between right and wrong actions taken by an individual.
In fact, when you really get down to it. How else do we learn what's right and what's wrong? It's been a highly debated question, a highly debated topic for decades really. Is it nature or nurture? Where did morality come from? Well, if you're one who believes in what the Bible says, then you understand that morals and morality itself came from the Almighty God. And we don't have a problem believing that because that's what the Bible teaches. The Word of God is lively and it is powerful.
We spoke concerning, the swords of the Roman soldiers and how sharp they were on both edges and they were from all indications what we read in history. Notice how sharp the Word of God is. It says it's sharper than any two-edged sword, alluding to these specific swords that we've already depicted thus far.
The Word of God is Sharper Than a Two-edged Sword
The Sword of the Spirit, The Bible, Does Not Belong to Mankind
But the Word is also one that does not belong to mankind. When we're trying to consider whose Bible is this that we should follow? It does not come from mankind. It cannot come from mankind.
- Jesus was sent as “Logos” of God - John 1:1-2
Beginning in verse one, you find the [Greek] word Logos, meaning, Word. Jesus is the Logos of God. He is the actual Word of God. Jesus was sent to this earth by God, to save mankind.
- Sent to Establish all Truth
We've looked at that many times, but according to the New Testament, he was there to establish all truth.
- John 14:6
There is no other truth except what Jesus says there is. No other truth besides Jesus.
- Directed to speak by Jehovah
He was directed to speak by our Heavenly Father.
- John 8:26
At least three times in the Gospel of John, Jesus does not take the authority of what He says for Himself. He says I'm not speaking my words. These are not my thoughts. This is not the doctrine that I'm teaching. I'm teaching only those things that I've received from my father.
- John 12:49
Jesus didn't make up the New Testament doctrine either. He spoke only those things that were given to Him by the Father.
- John 14:24
The gospel is not of man-made origin, as many would have us believe, trying to discredit the gospel. The Bible, as we have it preserved for us from the centuries before, is a direct revelation from God.
- Romans 10:17
Word - Rhēma [in Greek], a different word, translated as a word in our English language, the very voice of God. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
The gospel is not made by man. And, because Jesus came down to this earth to establish all truth.
The Spirit is Another Comforter
And when he got ready to leave, Jesus promised that he was going to send another Comforter. You see, the problem with Jesus remaining on earth is that if Jesus remained on earth, three things weren't going to happen.
- One, we were never going to be fully justified before God if Jesus remained on earth.
- Two, the church was never going to be established whereby, we come into the kingdom of God.
- The Comforter never would have come.
The other Comforter, the first one of those, of course, is Jesus.
- John 14:16
Jesus didn't have the ability to say that. He couldn't stand there with His apostles in the upper room when He was saying these words and promised that He was going to be there with them physically forever because He knew that that night He was going to be betrayed. The next day He was going to be put on the cross.
And there were many other things that Jesus wanted to tell to His apostles but He couldn't because they weren't ready to hear it. And so, He promised to send them another Comforter that would not ever leave them. They would never have to worry about that Comforter being taken away from them. And that was through the sending of the Holy Spirit.
Through the sending of the Holy Spirit, we have the revealed Word, which is what we should be looking to, to guide our lives today. Thereby the Holy Spirit is with us, fulfilling, continuing to fulfill Jesus's promise to His apostles that He would send a Comforter that would be with us forever.
- John 14:26
The Holy Spirit had a specific mission assigned to Him when He came as the next Comforter to the apostles. His mission was to remind the apostles, and put them in remembrance, as Jesus said, of all the things that Jesus had taught them. He was also going to speak of things that Jesus had told Him, the Holy Spirit, to speak of. There was one thing, however, the Holy Spirit was not authorized to do. Jesus said He was not going to come and speak of Himself, but He was only going to speak the things that He received from the Word of God, from Jesus Himself.
You see, the gospel does not belong to man. From beginning to end, it's always been the ownership of God. God has always been the owner and the author of the Word.
That's not to say that you and I, however, don't have a role to play, because we do.
Christians are entrusted to:
- Distribution
- Declaration
- Defense
We have specific commands in New Testament Scripture that tell us that as we're going out into the world that we live on a daily basis, we should be taking the Word of God with us.
- Mark 16:15, 16,
- 2 Timothy 4:2
As we have an opportunity, we should be sharing the Word of God with others. And as we have the opportunity, we should be defending the Word of God to those who would attack it, to those who would try and tear down our faith in the gospel, we should stand up with our armor on and say, no, that's not going to happen.
When those try, when those in the denominational world, try and teach false doctrine, regardless of what the false doctrine is, we should stand firm on the Word of God and say, no, that's not what the Bible says. We need to be willing to do that because that's the mission that we have been entrusted with by the One who authored the Word of God.
What is the Purpose of the Sword?
What's the purpose of this sword? Well, it doesn't take us a whole lot of thinking, I don't believe to come up with a couple of very straightforward answers. First of all, it is to take the fight to the devil.
To Attack the Devil!
It's not fun being on the defensive the entire time, is it? Being constantly on guard, defending everything all the time. Sometimes we need to take the fight to the devil. It's not acceptable for the Christian to have a sword that never comes out of its sheath.
- Ephesians 6:17
These two things are connected under the same word. And that word, take, reminds us that we are not taking them by our own pursuit of taking them, but we are receiving them from someone who has authority. We receive the helmet of salvation, the securing of the promise, if you will, going back to what we talked about this morning. But we receive the word of God. It didn't originate with us.
When we receive the Word, as the Father intended, we receive it as a soldier, in our right hand, it won't go in the sheath as long as there is a battle to be fought.
How often do we talk to individuals, who admit they don't read their Bible? How many times do we talk about the family Bible sitting on someone's coffee table that never gets used? That's a sword in the sheath. How can we take the Sword to the world, if we don't take our Bible with us?
Where's your sword?
The Sword is Used To Prick the Heart
It is to attack the devil, but it is also to prick the hearts of individuals. To prick the hearts of individuals that are the hearts of those that truly want to hear and to learn and to study the Word of God.
- Acts 2:37
The day of Pentecost, the beginning of the church, the very first gospel message as we commonly call it, that Peter is speaking there to those that are assembled, devout Jews going back to chapter 2 and verse 5 from every nation. It goes back and lists all the places where they were from. After accusing them of putting the Messiah to death, confirming for them that there is a resurrection, a bodily resurrection. Remember Peter said, we can go over to David's sepulcher, it's right over here, and his bones are still there. But we can't go to Jesus' sepulcher and find anything. Because He's not there.
It says there in verse 37 that they were pricked in their heart. Remember that.
- Acts 7:54
It's concerning Stephen. Stephen, in a similar fashion to what Peter did, goes through the Jews' entire history, the highlights of the Jews' history, and talks about how the Pharisees and those that were like them in the Old Testament times killed the prophets of God, and how that they were no different than their fathers that killed the prophets of God because they put to death the Messiah.
And the Pharisees said, how dare you lay His blood at our hands. When just, not too long ago, they were the ones standing before Pilate and the people saying let his blood be upon us and upon our children. It's an interesting thing that takes place with this word.
Pricked comes from the Greek word meaning pierced throughout, to nudge. We would think maybe more of a surgeon's scalpel. The skilled use of a surgeon to make a surgical cut. When you look at the word cut, it comes from the Greek word meaning to saw asunder, exasperate, to cut.
This has to do with the hearts of the individuals when they are taught the word. A humble heart, a heart that wants to hear the truth of the matter, a heart that wants to be right with God when faced with the truth. It's like a surgeon's scalpel when they're taught the truth. And that leads someone to say, men and brethren, what must I do to be saved, because I know there's something missing in my life.
But someone whose heart is hardened to the point of not caring what the truth has to say about them anymore. Not caring anymore about right and wrong as far as God's standard. Not caring anymore about being a part of God's kingdom or just living life their own way. When they're faced with the Word of God, it's like somebody takes a chainsaw to them. And they're sawn asunder. They're destroyed by the same gospel that helps a heart come to God.
Our hearts should not be like the Pharisees in Acts chapter 7, but they should be like the 3,000 in Acts chapter 2 that received the word with gladness, verse 41, and they were baptized.
- Acts 2:47
The Sword is Used to Stop False Doctrines!
It also is used to stop false teachers.
- Titus 1:9-11
Now, I recognize that this was written in the context of elders and their responsibilities. There are plenty of other passages that talk about how we ought to be stopping the mouths of those who are speaking things they ought not to say as well, as New Testament Christians. We are to wield the truth of God's Word for it has the power to stop false teaching from taking place.
We are instructed to use the Word of God in many different ways. First of all, we need to, for ourselves, be able to discern what's right and what's wrong. We need to use the word of God to help us rightly divide the word of truth so that we can stand before God unashamed of who we are.
- 2 Timothy 2:15
- Psalm 119:11
- Psalm 119:140
- Psalm 119:160
My friends, as we wrap up this study of the armor of God, I hope it's been an encouragement to you. It's been an encouragement to me every time I've gone back and looked at this material and studied more about it, the way that God wants us to be as soldiers in His kingdom.
But the question again comes to you, and that question is this.
Are You Wielding God’s Sword?
Are you wielding God's Word the way that He would have you to? First of all, have you decided, have you realized that you, first and foremost, are accountable to the Word of God? Each and every one of us is.
There's going to come a day when you and I are going to stand before God in judgment. And as we've talked about before, we are going to give an account of the things that we've done while we were here.
- 2 Corinthians 5:10
Are you ready to stand before the leader of this army? Are you ready to stand before God in judgment having your works laid out? If you are right with God, then you have nothing to worry about because Jesus is going to be standing there with you.
But if you're outside the kingdom, if you're outside the body of Christ, then there's no protection and you will stand before a righteous Judge.
Maybe you're a member of the body of Christ, but your sheath has spent too much time, your sword has spent too much time in its sheath. Bring it out every once in a while. Make sure that it's sharp. Make sure you understand how to use it and how to use it appropriately.
Maybe you're one who's not a member of the body of Christ. Maybe you're one who believes that as a good person, you will be able to receive salvation as your reward for being a good person and not doing the bad things that are available to you in this world. The study of the New Testament will show us, that just because we're not doing certain bad things if we remain outside the kingdom, that's not going to be enough.
God’s Invitation is always prepared for any soul desiring the forgiveness of sins.
Having heard the word, are you willing to believe it? Repenting your sins, confessing your faith in Christ, submitting to the watery grave of baptism, and having the blood applied so you can have the forgiveness of sins.
- Hear the Gospel - John 6:45
- Believe the Gospel - Mark 16:16
- Repent of Sins - Acts 3:19
- Confess the name of Jesus - Matthew 16:16
- Be baptized in Water - Acts 8:36-38
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