Gateway Church's Podcast
The Sword of the Spirit
You want to take out your Bibles today and open to two passages of Scripture as you're used to. One will be Genesis chapter 3. You can hold your finger there and then you'll flip over to Ephesians chapter 6. We will begin our time in God's Word together talking a little bit about the armor of God. This is a great series that we're in. Pastor Robert is teaching us about the holy Bible more than words. And he's talked to us about the bread of heaven. He's talked to us about the water of life. These are descriptions of the Word in the Word. And last week he talked to us about the breath of God. Here's the point is that we don't read the Bible just because it's a good book. It is a good book, you know. But I'll tell you, I've got some good books on my shelf that I don't reread because once I've been through it, I got it. This book is different. The reason that we stay in the Word, that we continue in the Word of God is because when we take in the Word of God, we receive the fullness of God and we take God into ourselves, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, John 1 says, is the Word. And so when we read the Word of God, we're literally taking God inside of our bodies. And I'll tell you, if God's in the house, something's going to change. Amen? Amen. Let me give you a gentle warning about the way to read the Bible today. Hebrews chapter 4 beginning in verse 1, don't turn there, it'll be on the screen. Here's what it says, "Therefore since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preach to us just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them because those who heard it did not combine it with faith." Now listen, there's a way to receive the Word of God that is void of faith. And so I want to invite you that when you open God's Word and you begin to read God's Word, that you activate the God stuff on the inside of you. And if you come across something that's funny, laugh and thank God for that. If you come across something that you don't understand, tell God, God, I don't understand that, will you help me to understand that? And then be diligent in the Word of God and as you activate your faith, there's something that will change on the inside of you and the Word of God will begin to come alive. That's my prayer for you today. So I want to invite you today that as we enter together into the Word of God, that you would combine what you hear with faith, it's the Word of God, okay? Feasance chapter 6, begin with me in verse 10, "Finally be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's skeins, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. And in addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. I want to call your attention there to verse 17 because it's the only piece of armor that is defined. All the rest of the armor of God is stated as to its purpose, but when we get to the sword of the Spirit, it says this is that, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Now in scripture, there are two swords that we find there. One sword is a great, big, long sword. It's what we think about when we see a movie about King Arthur. It's one of those great, big swords that it would take most of us two hands to handle. Now in the Bible, only one carries that sword, and his name is Jesus. This sword is a completely different sword. This sword is more of what you and I would refer to as a dagger. It's somewhere between six and 18 inches in length, razor sharp on both sides. And what most people don't know about this little sword is that army, every soldier carried one. And he would put it on his belt in a scabbard, but when he pulled it, what you'd notice about it is that it would have a little hook on the end of it. Some soldiers would fashion what we would describe as a corkscrew on the end of it. Others would put some sort of a fish hook type attachment on the end of it so that it would go in easy and then grab hold. You see what I'm saying? Now listen, if you've got a weak stomach, buckle your seat belt. All right? This is one fearful weapon. In fact, if you got into a fight and you noticed that your enemy had this sword, you know two things right up front. One, the fight's not going to last very long. And number two, it's not going to be pretty. Because the reason they would fashion this tip on it is so that when they put it in, they could completely ruin somebody on the inside before they pulled it back out. This is one fearful weapon. But this is exactly the reason the Holy Spirit chose this word to describe what the word of God is in your hand. As to the enemy of your soul, this is one fearful weapon. No other book in history makes the claims that this book makes to have been written by God to be full and complete and perfect for the intended purpose of its author. The Bible also says that it is effective. Look on the screen with me. Isaiah 55 verse 10 says this, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I send it." Listen, when the Bible is used properly and applied, things begin to happen. In fact, let me be a little more clear about that. God things begin to happen. So let me tell you three things quickly about this sword. Number one, this sword will protect you. This sword will protect you. Now, the very fact that you and I would need to be protected implies that you're going to get some negative attention. All right? In fact, you start living your life by this sword and it's going to be like wearing a cowboy hat in Afghanistan. Listen, you see somebody with a cowboy hat on in Afghanistan and you know that fellas not from around these parts, all right? You start living your life by this word and those in the heavenly realms know this person is a citizen of another place. This person is not from around these parts, but here's what we need to understand that whenever we get negative attention, when we get attacked, that the attack really is against us secondly. The attack of the devil is always first against the word of God. Let me show you that in Scripture. The reason, in fact, the reason the devil attacks us is because he wants to hurt God, but he can't. And so the way to hurt God is to hurt God's children because hurting God's children hurts God a lot. And so he comes against us, but really the point is the word of God. Now, if you've got your Bibles open to Genesis 3, go ahead and turn over there and let me show you before we get there what Jesus said about this. Remember the little story Jesus told about the sower, the parable, the sower and he scatters these seeds and it lands on varying types of soil. And after he tells that story, the disciples say, "What does that mean?" And so then he describes and begins to explain. And here's what he says in Mark 15, Mark 4 verse 15, he said, "Some people are like seeds sewn along the path where the word is sewn. As soon as they hear it, now listen, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sewn in them." So the attack is first against God's word. It's secondly against God's children. Let me show you that again from the very beginnings of the Bible. I want to show you, if you've got Genesis 3 open, I want you to look just to the left across the page to Genesis 2 verse 16. This is the very first word that God sewed into mankind. Genesis 2, 16, "The Lord God commanded the man. You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it, you will surely die." That's the first time that God sewed the seed of His word into a man. Now here comes the attack, chapter 3, verse 1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'" Now is that what God said? South Lake, is that what God said? Look at what God said in chapter 2 verse 16. Read it again. "For free to eat from any tree in the garden." Now it's important, don't forget. This attack is not first against Eve. This attack is first against the word of God and I want you to notice what happens in Eve's response. Genesis 3 verse 2. The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die." Now is that what God said? God never said you couldn't touch it. Play soccer with it. Use it as a table decoration. Touch it all you want, don't eat it. That's all God said. Listen, let me tell you two things quickly before we move on. Number one, to whom did God give that word in chapter 2 verse 16? He gave it to Adam, didn't he? Where was Eve when God gave that word to Adam? She was not even created yet. So where did Eve get that word? She got that word from Adam. Listen friends, if the only place we get the word of God is from other people, we are prone to confuse it. If that's the only place we get it, Pastor Robert has been telling us that for three weeks. If the only place we get the word of God is at church, you are a sitting duck for the enemy. Here's the second thing I want to tell you. I want you to notice that the devil got Eve to establish the idea that God is rigid and hard to please. Notice what she says about him that he never said, and we cannot touch it. God never said that. Listen, here's what God said, you're free to eat, pick a tree. There's just one in the middle I want you to stay away from. Does that sound like God is rigid and hard to please? You're free to eat. Does that sound rigid and hard to please? When I was 16, I got my driver's license. And the day of my birthday landed on a day when I had to go to school. And so my mom picked me up after school in the station wagon for me to go take my driver's test. So I had to parallel park a station wagon. Now listen, you're a good driver if you can do that, my friend. So I get my license and I get back home and our family eats dinner together and after dinner my dad knows he's got me a set of keys to his car and he knows I am out that door as soon as I can. So dad after dinner, he pulls me over, he says sit down so I'm going to talk just for a second. He said you've earned your license and you're a good driver. He said but there's something else I want you to know. He said one thing that remains is this, you need to obey the law. And I said dad I just took the test. I got it. I know to obey the law and he said okay well I understand that you know that but I want to make sure that you understand how important this is. If you get a ticket, I'm going to take your keys away for a month. If you get another ticket after that, I'm going to take your keys away until your next birthday. If you get another ticket after that, the next time you drive will be when you drive your own car. What do you suppose happened on the third day? I got to go home until dad I got a ticket. So I walk in and it's late at night, dad sit down, we need to talk again. Dad I got a ticket, he goes, your mirror keys and I said dad I really thought I could talk him out of this. I really didn't think that. Come on dad my buddies were talking, I was all distracted. Give me your keys, oh dad come on man, everybody speeds there. Give me your keys, dad the speed limit should be 85 there, come on. Give me your keys, three days of driving and I'm back to hitching a ride with my buddies for a month. Listen, here's what I learned about my dad. He meant what he says. Now some of my friends would say man your dad is rigid and hard to please. Listen, he let me drive his car. Does that sound rigid and hard to please to you? I was driving his car. Listen, I've learned this about our father in heaven. He means what he says and that is not first punitive or to punish. That is first to protect us, my father was not punishing me, my father was protecting me. Listen, the word of God is there to protect us and the reason the devil comes against the word of God is because he wants to have us unprotected. This sword, it'll protect you if you'll use it. Here's the second thing I want you to know about this sword, is that this sword is alive. Turn over to Hebrews chapter four and I want to show you what this says. This sword is alive. Here's what Hebrews four verse 12 says. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. Now it's living and active. Let me tell you what that means. This sword has the power to initiate activity. This sword has the ability to begin motion. It's living and active. It has the ability to cut, it's razor sharp, but what does it cut? Let me explain it this way. When God made you and me, he made us in his own image. Here's what that means. God is three in one. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. You and I are spirit, soul and body made completely in his own image and likeness. Adam and Eve's spirit had constant communion with God because they were ruled by their spirit. They didn't need the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because they had God. When they ate that fruit, they fell. And now they're ruled by the soul. They're ruled by their mind, will and emotions. They're ruled by what they think and how they feel. When they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, now they had the knowledge of good without the power to do it and the knowledge of evil without the power to avoid it. And I tell you, it was completely merciful for God to drive them from the garden because if they had eaten of the tree of life in that condition, they would spend all of eternity seeking to satisfy their bodily cravings. It was merciful for God to drive them from the garden, not punitive. That was grace. So now their spirit is no longer in control. Now they're ruled by the soul. And the truth is you and I were born that way, soul and charge. But one day somebody was kind enough to share the Word of God with you and with me. The Romans 10, 17 says, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So we hear the Word of God and faith is given to us as a gift from Him and a person gets saved. But now there's a problem. They've got 20 or 30 or 40 years of being ruled by the soul. And their spirit comes alive on the inside and says, I want God to rule my life. And the soul says, I think not. I don't want to go there. So now we've got this battle raging on the inside of us. And Paul put it this way in Romans 7. He said, I don't do what I want to do and I do the very thing that I don't want to do. And he says, man, I'm troubled by all this. I'm twisted up on the inside. The Word of God comes to cut us free from being controlled by the soul. The Word of God comes to slice off that part of us that would seek domination and authoritative ways and to reestablish the very created order that God desires for us. It's able to cut the Word of God is also able to divide joints from marrow quickly. The joints are the out working. What we can see, the marrow is created on the very inside of the bone. It's the part that we can't see. He says it's also even able to judge the thoughts and attitude. Some of your Bible say the intentions of the heart. You ever done anything that was the right thing to do but you did it with a bad attitude or am I the only one that happens to do it? I tell you, sometimes I do things that on the outside they look like fruit. They look like good fruit. Truth is, in my heart, I'm trying to get my way. The Word of God comes to say, hey, what was that? We need to straighten that out. The truth is, God knows that you want to do the right thing but the Word of God has not yet been given room to do what only it can do. I never forget six years ago, Pastor Robert preached a series on the Gospel of John. Some of you may remember that. When he got to John 3, he preached a sermon on Nicodemus called "Just Born or Born Again." And he explained about Nicodemus that Nicodemus was a leader in his church and never missed. Nicodemus knew the Word of God, Nicodemus gave tithes and offerings. He was the real deal. But listen, Nicodemus was as lost as a goose. And I went and found Pastor Robert after that sermon and I said, you made me doubt my salvation. I was upset and you know what he said? Good. That's exactly what I meant to do. But you see, I was raised to believe that I gained and that I lost and gained my salvation 30 or 40 times a day. That's the way I was raised because I believed that heaven was given to me by virtue of being perfect. Don't sin. And my biggest fear was that I would go stand before God and still have some stuff on the plate. Can I just tell you, you'll still have some stuff on the plate when you get there. All right, that's why we need Jesus. But I was living in such bondage to perfection and performance that I was hard to get along with for a while because I was constantly saying, is there anything I need to repent of now? And if I couldn't think of anything, it was, oh, it's pride again, I've fallen into pride. Oh my goodness. And this was the way, this was the way my religion churned out. And every time I heard an altar call, I wondered, am I in or not? Listen, I've said the sinner's prayer a thousand and one times, I've been baptized in water twice. I don't know what else I can do here. All right? If one of those didn't take, I'm done, you know what I'm saying? And listen, it wasn't until one year ago, it was the encounter service last November that there was an altar call given and all of that wrestling was gone for the first time in my life. And the reason why is because the Word of God had been given the room to cut off that condemnation and the way that I lived with this constant churning that I'm not good enough. Listen, you're not good enough and neither am I. I've got issues, you've got issues, let God deal with those. That's what Jesus came for. Every battle you will ever face will be won between your ears and in your heart before it will ever be won in your circumstances. David defeated Goliath in his ears, between his ears and in his heart before he defeated him with a slingshot. He had activated the Word of God in his heart and it renewed his mind. Here's the third thing, this sword is powerful. Now, I heard a preacher say one time that the more we sweat in the training, the less we bleed during the battle. And I've found that to be true, sadly, in my case, I've noticed that if there's no battle going on, I just don't seek God as diligently as I do when the enemy is breathing down my neck. I try real hard to, but what I've found is that almost every time the Word of God is mentioned in Scripture, it is in the context of a battle. Let me read to you, it'll be on the screen here, 2 Corinthians 10 beginning in verse 3, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ." Now, let me give you a quick definition. The definition of a stronghold is anything you know to be against the will of God that you also believe is unchangeable. So if there's a situation in your life that you believe, "I know that God has not approved of this, but I don't think it'll ever change," listen, you've got yourself a stronghold there. And the Word of God comes to destroy that. I want you to look here at what is demolished. It demolishes arguments. That word, the Greek word there is logos. It's the same word that we get logos, which is the Word of God. The word simply means logic. So the Word of God is the logic of God. But there comes often into our life a logic that is not of God. In fact, in other words, here's the way to say that. Sometimes stuff that we know is against God's will, it has a ring of truth to it, just sort of makes sense. That's why it's so easy to believe. You guys wouldn't believe a crazy lie. Somebody said it once this way, that if you had a 55-gallon barrel drum full of water and you put 10 drops of cyanide in it, listen, you're not going to drink it still. And often the way the enemy comes is, he comes with something that's got a ring of truth to it, but it's got enough of a lie in it. And so it's hard to tell the difference. When the enemy comes, here's what he does. He works by the power of suggestion, and he often does so in the first person. Let me tell you what I mean by that. That often when the enemy begins to speak to us, he'll say something to us in the first person and we think it's us. Here's one. I just don't think my marriage is going to work. My spouse, we've been working this thing for years and we just don't get along very well and I just don't see any future here. That's a lie from the enemy. Here's one that most men have heard and that I've heard numerous times. I'm worth more dead than alive. Well you know what, financially, that's true. So listen, there's a whole lot more to your life than your life insurance policy. All right? And so when we hear those thoughts that we know are not of God, just tap the breaks there for a second. And Paul says, "Arrest it. Take that thought captive and make it obey Christ." Here's what I do. And I do this out loud. Did you know that the Word of God was written to be heard? And so when you read the Bible, if at all possible, read it out loud. There's something physiological that takes place when we hear the Word of God. All right? So here's what I say. When I hear one of these lies from the enemy, I say, "Jesus, do you believe that?" And he goes, "I don't believe it." And I say, "Well then I don't believe it either." And you know, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. The Word of God says this, Jesus says, "It's written, it's written, it's written." We're teaching our children to memorize the Word and to speak it back. And every time there's a life encounter or a life situation of some sort, we recall the Word of God for them. We say, "Hey, what does the Bible say about that?" And then we have a conversation until somebody will start quoting it, somebody else will pick up a part of it and we've got the Word of God that's started to live in the family. About five years ago, it was one evening in May, I was up at the church building teaching a Bible class. And one of those wild spring Texas storms comes blowing in from the West, you know? And so in our neighborhood, our house and killer, my wife is home with, we had four children then, we have five now, and all the sirens begin to go off. There's a tornado, all right? So she turns on the weather channel and the weather channel puts a map on and it's right on top of our neighborhood and there's tornadoes everywhere. And so she gets all the kids and they get their, you know, some of them thought it was fun. They get their blankies and their pillows and all and they go into this, you know, the interior room in the middle of the house on the first floor. And so they've got a radio in there and they're in there and they're praying and then they're in their quoting scripture and they get in there for about 15 minutes. Well, I've got a son named Seth and he's got, he's got a very strong personality. All right? So he feels like we're cowering here under this tornado and about 15 minutes of that is about all I'm going to take. That was his attitude. So he stands up in the middle of that room and he lifts his finger and he says, and God I command you in Jesus' name to move that tornado. Well, listen, everybody else in the room, they sort of looked up like moving away from him. Okay, listen, we need to rearrange his understanding of who's the boss here, okay, without question. But I got to tell you, I rather think God enjoys the spunk. I rather think that God enjoys a person who will stand up and say, you know what? I've had enough of this. Here's what the word of God says. And my situation doesn't make any sense to me. And so I think I'm going to stand on the word of God. That's what the word of God says. That's what the sword of the spirit calls us to. And one of the most charging things you will ever do is take the sword of the spirit and use it offensively. The devil will not have my marriage. He will not have my children. He will not have my faith. He will not have my finances. He will not have my friendships. I will protect the things that God has given to me. Amen? Let's take up the sword of the spirit, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. The reason Jesus came was to destroy the works of the enemy, but he does throw so through you. That's how he does it. Amen, let's bow our heads. God, we thank you today that you have given us such a strong sword as your very word. So God, give us courage today, give us wisdom today. And give us understanding, Lord, of how to bring the word of God into our circumstances. God, we love you. We all agree, Lord, that we need a newfound passion for your word. So Lord, impart that to us, and we receive it by faith. In Jesus' name, amen.