PT-4 "The Sword of the Spirit" (Eph. 6:17b)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/4/2019 10:58 AM

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-4 “The Sword of the Spirit”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 6:17b

            Message of the verse:  “And take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

            I was thinking about putting the rest of the sermon from John MacArthur on this SD, but then I thought that there is a lot to digest here and so I decided to leave the last section in our next SD as there was a really good break where I ended today.  So tomorrow, Lord willing, I will conclude this message.

“It’s amazing to me how many people come to me, write to me, talk to me in the interviews, radio programs, wherever I go and even in the front here on a Sunday morning and ask me questions about certain truths that are crystal clear in the Scripture about which they have absolutely no knowledge and consequently are vulnerable and defenseless at the point of their ignorance. 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. He’s subtle. He’s wily. He has very clever schemes, as they’re called in verse 11. Satan doesn’t like a fully taught congregation. Satan doesn’t want you to know everything you need to know about the Word of God, about what God expects. Satan 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.  But when you do come to know what Scripture teaches, you’re like a spiritual young man who has overcome the evil one because you’re strong in the Word and you’ve overcome the evil one, John says. So if you don’t know what Scripture teaches, you’re highly vulnerable. And it’s a sad thing that there are so many, many people so confused about things that are important, things that are issues of holiness because they haven’t searched the Scriptures and come to know these things that are absolutely necessary.

            By the way, to support this notion of the specificity with which we defend ourselves and the specificity with which we attack, I just would call to your attention that the word here for word, Word of God, is not logos. Logos is a familiar word to all of us; it is kind of a generic term, word, maybe a little broader term. The word here is rhema...rhema. And rhema means a specific utterance, a specific statement. We can only defend ourselves against the attacks of Satan in given areas if we know the specific statement of Scripture that defends us at that point. We can only attack the lies and deception; we can only liberate the captive souls if we know the specific teaching of Scripture that applies to that deception. It’s the specific use of right Scripture, the divine principle that specifically applies.

            Through the years it’s been a commitment of mine, as you obviously know, to principleize texts, to draw out of any given text truth, call it a doctrine, call it a principle that is taught in that text, and then to chase that principle all around the Scriptures and support it. I’ve done that tonight talking to you about the authority and inerrancy of Scripture so that you have this principle in your mind, its part of your arsenal and believe well that if there are areas that you are ignorant, Satan will find those areas and you’ll find yourself defenseless there, or if on the attack, useless to liberate someone from that very error. That’s why we are instructed in 2 Timothy 2:15 to be diligent, to be approved of God, workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. We’re to search the Scriptures to know what is taught there.

How do we do that? Well I think just some practical things maybe to suggest to you. First of all, this may sound pretty basic, read the Bible. How’s that? Read the Bible. John Wesley was up at four o’clock to five o’clock every day and his biographer says he read the Bible in five languages. I’m just telling you that to make you feel really bad! I have enough trouble trying to read it in one language.  This comes from an internal motivation. There are some requirements to really digest Scripture. First of all, you have to be born again because the natural man doesn’t understand t he things of God. Secondly, you have to have a hunger, desire, like a baby desires milk. There has to be diligence like the Bereans in Acts 17, search the Scripture to see if these things are so. There needs to be characteristic purity and holiness in your life. James 1:21, “Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness. In humility receive the Word implanted.” You need to be filled with the Spirit for the only one who knows the things of God is the Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians 2.  So, 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. It’s not like an aspirin tablet, not like...people used to say to me, “What do you do in your daily devotions?” If you mean reading the Bible without understanding it, I don’t do that. Since I was a kid in junior high, reading the Bible and not understanding it was a problem. I never got very far in trying to read long sections of Scripture because I wanted to understand what I just read. This is interpreting the Scripture, digging down. You have to interpret it correctly. And that takes some...I guess 95 percent perspiration, five percent inspiration.

            I think another part of the discipline is to correlate the Scripture. This is so helpful. Compare Scripture with Scripture. The Bible is a symphony and the Holy Spirit is the conductor. Every instrument has been brought to the orchestra to play its notes as the great conductor desired and it all comes together in a magnificent, unified whole. Meditate on the Bible! Meditate on it, sit back and think about it. Expand it in your mind. Give quiet attention to its truth.  And then maybe the most helpful thing you’ll ever do is teach it. You’re going to hold on to what you give away. Find some faithful men and teach them what someone taught you. These are the processes that make it your own. You read it, you interpret it, you correlate it with itself, you meditate on its truths, let then sink deep into your mind and then you teach it. And I will tell you by experience what you give a way, you keep...you retain. This is how you become capable of using the sword effectively.

            Putting on the whole armor of God is nothing more then in the end being able to use the Word of God effectively. In one sense I think the whole armor of God is a picture of Jesus Christ. It really is. It’s a picture of Jesus Christ. He is the truth. He said that, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He is our righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21. He is our peace, Ephesians 2:14. It’s His faith in His Father and His obedience to His Father’s will because He trusted in His
Father that took Him all the way to the cross. And so He, by the shield of faith, quenched all the fiery darts of the wicked one. He is the reason we have the hope of salvation. He is our salvation and He is the incarnate living Word of God.

            In the end then, when you receive Christ, you receive the armor. Paul says, “Put it on.” Romans 13:11 to 14, only he says it this way, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast off sin, put on the armor of light by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.” It’s just that basic. Christ’s likeness then becomes the pattern, the model for us to follow. He used the Word of God, did He not? to defend Himself. Matthew 4...Luke 4, tempted in the wilderness, every time Satan came at Him, what did He answer with? Scripture, the exact precise Scripture to defend Himself against that temptation. It’s worth a look in Matthew 4.  Satan comes to Him in verse 3 and says, “If You’re the Son of God, command these stones become bread.” The temptation was to disobey God, to take authority, disregard what God had planned and grab some satisfaction for Himself. He deserved it. If You’re the Son of God, why should You be hungry? Why should You go 40 days and 40 nights without eating? Grab some satisfaction, You have a right to it.  If He had been listening to some name-it and claim-it preacher and bought into that lie, He might have done that. But rather He answered, quoting from Deuteronomy, “Each time it is written, man shall not live on bread alone but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” I do what God says, nothing else.

“If You’re the Son of God, throw Yourself down,” he says, having taken Him to the pinnacle of the temple. “Don’t You have a promise in the Old Testament that the angels will protect You?” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written...again from Deuteronomy...you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”  Took Him into a high mountain, showed Him the kingdoms of the world in their glory which all would one day belong to Him. He says, “I’ll give them to You now. You can bypass the cross.” “Be gone, Satan. It’s written, you shall worship the Lord your God, serve Him only.” Christ was fully armed against Satan and He wielded the sword of the Spirit and used the precise, exact text against the precise temptation.

            And so, to live the Christian life is simply to become like Jesus Christ as much as that is possible. And it’s a daily appropriation. I remember, I think it’s 2 Samuel 11 where King David took off his armor, returned to his palace and was in greater danger than he was on the battlefield. You know, we’re really never out of reach of Satan’s devices. There’s never really a time when we take off the armor. We leave it on all the time and that armor that we’re not wearing at the moment can be immediately picked up for defense and for offense.”

Our quotation from “Love in Action” comes from David Jeremiah’s comments on Acts 11:26.

“More important to Barnabas than any notoriety (bad name) he might receive was the welfare of the people who were coming to know the Lord in vast numbers.  Realizing that alone he was not adequate to the task of teaching and discipleship, Barnabas brought Paul into ministry with him.  Foremost in Barnabas’s mind was the growth of these new believers.  He wanted them to have the best possible instructor.  That’s the heart of an encourager!  Encouragers care more about people than prominence.”

11/4/2019 11:06 AM