"Armed for Battle: Unleash the truth" Ephesians 6:17 Sunday Morning Worship Service

Ephesians six, I want to read verses fourteen through seventeen.

The word of God says, Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

I saw this week a video released by Fairfax County Fire Department about a change in their helmets.

This is big news in the firefighting world.

Most firefighters wear black helmets, but uh some firefighters will wear a white helmet, and that indicates that they're an officer.

They're probably on charge on whatever scene they're in.

So you look at the, you know, when there's a fire, you don't have time to like ask the guy like what's your rank.

So the helmet identifies them.

The guy with the white helmet is in charge, but they are unveiling a new orange helmet.

Ooh.

And this video says that the orange helmet can be worn by a firefighter who wants to be promoted to the white helmet level.

So they put it on, and that invites the other white helmet officers at the scene to give the person with the orange helmet advice.

What could go wrong?

In fact, the video they released on their Facebook page, the Fairfax County Facebook page, describing this as the video came out.

I watched it and the female officer, the female firefighter with the orange helmet, she's holding it and describing how I get to wear this now, and other older firefighters can come and tell me what they think I should be doing in a certain situation.

And like it looked like a hostage video.

Anyway, it reminded me that the function of the helmet is twofold.

One, to protect you, so you know something burning doesn't fall on your head.

But on the other hand, it's also meant to identify you so that in a crowd you stand out.

And such was the case with the Roman soldiers' helmets.

They were for protection, of course, but they uh had uh standards that were up on top of them.

It looks like a brush on their head, a red plume sticking up that made them easily identifiable in a crowd.

And so if a soldier had wandered out into a crowd, soldiers were often on patrol in crowds, for example, uh in the Roman Empire.

And if the crowd turned against the Roman soldiers and they had to summon to help, other soldiers could easily identify where the soldier in distress was.

You would see the red plumes standing up.

You would be able to identify all the other Roman soldiers, even in a crowded plaza, and go to their aid.

That was the function of the helmet.

So here Paul transitions in his description here of the spiritual armor towards the helmet.

This is the second to last.

We'll finish this morning with the two last pieces of armor here.

And he tells you to put on the helmet of salvation, to put it on, to strap it on.

The helmet, of course, uh protects your head.

You understand the analogy here.

You're at war, you're in the world, and the world is turned against you.

There are flaming arrows of the enemy that are coming at you.

The flaming arrows are temptation, it's uh luring you to sin, it's opposition and hostility from the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Uh, the devil is behind all of that, of course, sending those arrows.

The devil was the one who introduced sin into the world to the Garden of Eden.

And so when your flesh tempts you to sin, the devil's behind that, because he's the, in the sense, the source of sin.

When uh the world is against you, the devil is the prince of the power of this world.

He's over the world systems of this world that are operating against you.

And of course, sometimes the devil is directly attacking you through himself or through his demons.

So all of that is aligned against you.

This is your Christian life.

You're minding your own business in the world, and temptation comes from an unexpected place.

That's an arrow from the enemy.

The whole world systems that are behind the things that tempt you, they're all in play.

You know, if you are uh putting too much faith in politics to give an example that you think that uh you attribute everything wrong to this world to politics, and only those people on the other political side would vote a certain way, then our problems would go away.

I mean, that's rank idolatry, but you don't understand there's a whole worldview that's behind the politicalization of everything in our culture.

There's a worldview that's behind that you're kind of born into.

You know, you go on Facebook and you're tempted to slander people or speak wickedly about people.

There's a whole world systems are behind that, behind the whole communication industry and social media and um politics and all that that bring you to the point where you are now fighting the battle in your own heart.

You're tempted to slander and to say wicked things about people.

That's a battle inside of you, in your own heart, that the devil is behind because he's behind the world's systems that have brought you to that point.

Or you're tempted to look at something inappropriate on your phone.

You're tempted to sin in that way.

That battle is very much personal.

It's inside your own heart.

The temptation is in your heart.

That's where the war is at.

Right there, the war is inside of you.

But behind that war is the whole sexualization of our culture and of society, which the devil is certainly behind.

The whole uh self-indulgence thing that feeds you, that you think you have a desire so you can act on it.

The devil is behind that.

Even materialism that led to you having the brand new iPhone that came out 45 seconds ago in your hands, enabling you to sin.

That materialism, the devil is behind that.

So you have massive worldview temptations that are going on, worldviews colliding that are drawing you into sin.

That war is fought in your heart at that moment, but they are de- they are arrows from the devil.

The devil is behind all of it.

So that's the spiritual war.

You're supposed to put on the belt of truth.

You're supposed to fasten yourself, gird yourself with truth.

Remember, the belt of truth is the idea that you're you're fastening your garments around you so that you can move freely in society.

In other words, all of your movement is based upon truth.

You have the breastplate of righteousness, so you have holy living that backs up what you're doing.

The holy living demonstrates that you're on the Lord's side.

It is a protection against accusations.

People can't accuse you of things because of your breastplate of righteousness.

You have your shoes on, you're ready to stand against the devil.

God didn't give you a spirit of timidity, he didn't make you a coward, he didn't make you run from the fight.

He gave you shoes so that you stand against the devil.

He gave you shoes so that you could walk into the world to evangelize and to advance the gospel.

The shoes are not made for running, you know, they're made for standing and fighting.

God gave you those shoes.

On top of that, he gave you the shield, which is your faith.

That behind everything you do is the recognition that you have faith in God.

And that shield is your primary protection.

The devil shoots arrows at you.

The arrows, for the most part, don't hit you because of your faith.

Your faith is impenetrable.

So all the temptation, you're victorious over most of it because of your shields.

And now we move behind the shield and we're to the helmet.

What's behind the shield?

The helmet.

The helmet is your defense against things that might make it around the shield.

There might be a gap in the shield.

Remember, the shield demonstrated the unity of the soldiers?

The shield does the soldier no good if he's by himself, no good at all.

You know, it's not a cocoon, it's one thing.

So a soldier who wanders off by himself gets hit from all sides.

But you're in the line, you're with the church, you're with other believers, the shield protects you.

Nevertheless, there could be a gap in the shields, there could be an arrow that gets through.

Oftentimes in Roman battles, there's rocks, they have catapults, you know.

So you're fighting the arrows of the enemy, and you think you're doing good, you know, your shield's blocking off everything, and you're walking in the faith, and you're walking in the spirit, you're feeling pretty good about yourself, and then wham! You know, so the enemy launches a catapult of granite at you, which you did not see coming, knocks you upside the head.

It feels like it's gonna knock you out.

In the Roman world, they would have these walls that are built up.

Some cities even built outer walls.

The walls didn't, you know, the city wasn't on this side of this wall, the city's on this side of this wall.

They built an outer wall to stop an advancing army.

On top of the outer wall, they put rocks and all kinds of debris.

So when the army comes, they defend the outer wall by launching rocks off of the outer wall.

And so the Roman soldiers are out there trying to storm this hostile city, and the dudes have rocks raining down on their head.

And they can get over the shields.

You know, if you're a soldier that's unlucky enough to get tagged upside the head by a rock, you need your helmet.

Your helmet gives you confidence.

That's the idea behind this.

You're on patrol in the crowd, and you're walking in a crowd, and somebody in the crowd that you don't even see, it's a massive crowd, throws a rock at you.

Your helmet is a significant layer of defense.

It gives you confidence, much like you might say law enforcement today might have a bulletproof vest.

That would be the equivalent of the helmet.

It gives the guy confidence to make a traffic stop.

It gives the guy confidence to approach a bad guy.

That's how the helmet functioned in the Roman Empire.

It gave the soldier confidence that he can go out and do his thing, and if somebody drills him with a rock, it won't kill him.

That's the helmet.

Now I hope you see how this connects to your salvation.

It's called the helmet of salvation.

So some temptations get through the shield, uh, the battle comes home, even you give in to sin at a point, you fall into sin, you recognize it's not going to kill you.

It's not going to take you out of the battle because you are saved.

You have the helmet of salvation.

You're not going to get a mortal wound in this fight.

All right.

The devil might hit you upside the head, the devil might even knock you out, but the devil can't kill you because of your salvation.

Acts 17, verse 31 says that God gives us full assurance of salvation by raising Jesus Christ from the dead.

Acts 17:31

So your salvation is as secure as the resurrection.

That's what Paul means in Acts 17.

You have confidence the devil's not going to kill you.

Now you might die physically, of course, there's martyrs all over the world.

You might cave into sin because people sin all the time.

So those are realities of the world.

You're going to sin and you might even be martyred.

People will oppose you, you'll make mistakes, you might even be put physically to death, but you have your helmet of salvation.

In that sense, nothing really bad is going to happen to you.

All the enemy can do is kill you physically.

He can't harm you spiritually because of your helmet.

So that should give you confidence to live and to move and to operate in society.

Otherwise, you would be frozen.

You would be frozen.

Listen, you understand that God, Ephesians begins with God predestining you.

God knew you before you were born.

He wrote your name in his book of life from the foundation of the world.

So he identified you before your parents were made, before Adam and Eve were made.

If you're a Christian, God knew you, God named you, God designed you, and he chose you for salvation.

And then in time, you're in the burning building and God sends his son to come rescue you.

God sends his son into the world who dies on the cross for your sin.

In light of that, do you think God's gonna forget to save you?

You know, and then he even sends his Holy Spirit.

This is Ephesians 1 verse 14.

Ephesians 1:14

He sends you his Holy Spirit who seals your heart as a guarantee of your salvation.

So God sends his son to rescue you, he sends his spirit to s to save you and to seal you.

Do you think he's gonna let sin take you out of the war?

Do you think he's gonna let sin forfeit your salvation?

No way.

No way.

Imagine a guy who a building is on fire, and imagine a guy who runs into the building to rescue a dog.

There's a dog stuck in the building, the people have all got out, and uh this is a true story.

Uh, somebody told me this between first and second service that that uh there was a building that was on fire, and there was an elderly woman who was there, and she got out, and she's begging this guy, saying, you know, my dog isn't there, he's in a crate, and so the guy, no fire department there, the guy runs into the the burning house, busts open the door, breaks through the door, and gets into the house and walks in.

And do you think he's gonna forget why he went into the house?

He's gonna get in there and be like, Whoa, that's a nice painting over there.

That's kind of cool.

Maybe I'll get the painting.

Maybe I'll rescue the painting.

It's a priceless painting.

Let me rescue the painting.

Oh, there's the photography books.

Let me rescue.

Now, what was I sent here for?

It's on the tip of my tongue.

What was it?

You hear the dog barking over there.

You're like, heck, quiet, I'm trying to think.

What am I here for?

No, he's gonna rescue the dog.

That's why he went into the burning building.

So you understand that God sends his son into the burning building to rescue you.

He's going to rescue.

You're not gonna lose your salvation.

This is 1 John 1, verse 9.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

That's like basic level of Christianity there.

That's Christianity 101.

There's no truth lower than that.

Okay, so that's the bare minimum truth you need to believe to be saved.

And if you don't believe that, you can't be a Christian, right?

If you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you confess your sins to him and put your faith in his death, and he is faithful to forgive you of your sins.

So that's low level right there.

But if you believe even that low level, you recognize you cannot lose your salvation.

Because if you confess your sins, God is faithful to forgive you of your sins.

This is Philippians 1, verse 6.

Philippians 1:6

I'm confident in this that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

God's not gonna forget you.

He's not gonna let you get taken out of the battle.

John 18, verse 9, one of Jesus' last prayers, while he was alive, when he was with his disciples, he prayed and he said, Of those speaking to the Father, of those whom you gave me, I have not lost one of them.

John 18:9

And then he goes on to pray that all those that will come after him because of the preaching of the apostles, meaning us, none of them will be lost.

And so if Jesus' prayers are answered, then your helmet is strapped on tight.

If God is faithful and just to forgive the sins of those who confess their sins, then you will be forgiven of yours.

If Jesus is resurrected from the grave, God is not gonna let you get taken out of this battle.

You're not gonna lose your salvation.

So everything else in life should be framed around that.

Imagine how petrified a soldier would be if he thought one wrong step and he'd be dead.

He'd be paralyzed, immobilized with fear.

He has to have some level of confidence that he can engage.

And that's where we are as believers.

We have to have a level of confidence that, listen, we might step on a landmine, we might mess things up, but our helmet is on.

We're going to heaven when we die.

Everything else gets framed around that.

Yeah, think in pastoral counseling.

Imagine the fear and counseling that I would have if I thought, man, if I say something wrong to someone, it'll wreck their life, it'll wreck my life, it'll cost them their salvation, it'll ruin my witness.

I'd be immobilized.

Imagine a Christian comes to you for help and you would just be paralyzed with fear.

If you thought, man, if I said the wrong thing, it'll wreck them, it'll wreck me, and all this.

That's not true.

You know, if you guys are b all counseling, all discipleship takes place at that basic level.

I'm a Christian, that person's a Christian.

Even if we mess up, even if we get things wrong, our helmets are on.

Our helmets are on.

We're not gonna ruin each other's salvation.

We'll get through this.

You know, I I sinned against someone this week.

I said something I shouldn't have about someone, and it got back to them, and it just I felt like it burned that relationship, and I felt horrible and terrible, and I went and had to go ask his forgiveness, and he had to forgive me, and it's like, I feel terrible about this.

But then I have to remind myself, like, listen, we're both believers, we have our helmets on.

You know, yes, something blows up in front of us because I stepped on it, but ultimately we're not gonna get taken out of the fight.

We're wearing helmets, it's okay.

You know, we'll learn from this in Garon.

You have to have your whole Christian life framed around that attitude.

Everything has to be in light of that.

That it's going to be okay.

We're wearing a helmet.

We have confidence in our salvation.

That's the second to last thing Paul tells you to put on your helmet.

The last thing he tells you to take out is your sword, the sword of the spirit, um, which is the word of God.

Uh, the sword of the spirit, the word for sword, it's a short sword, it's like a foot long.

It's not the broad sword that some Roman soldiers had.

That would be strapped against their back or kept in the locker somewhere.

It's a short sword.

Roman soldiers tucked that thing everywhere.

They'd have it in their belt sometimes.

Taller dudes would strap it on their calf, or some soldiers would strap it on their thigh, some would put it on their side.

It was almost like a firearm for law enforcement today.

You know, you've got it somewhere on your body.

That's the way the Roman swords were.

And it wasn't just soldiers that had these swords.

Uh citizens had these swords.

Most Roman citizens had these kind of swords.

In Mark 14, when Jesus is arrested, the crowds come after him.

And Jesus says, What did you come out here with clubs and swords as if you're arresting a robber?

The crowd had the sword.

And Peter had one of those swords, remember?

He takes out his sword and uses it and chops off the dude's ear.

Peter.

Why did Peter have that sword?

Because in the upper room, Jesus just said, Earlier I sent you out without money bags and without swords, but now they're going to strike the shepherd.

I'm going down.

So you guys, if you got a money bag, bring it.

You got a sword, pack it.

Peter, ever eager to obey, grabbed his off the desk apparently, brought it out there to the Garden of Gethsemane, used it 45 seconds later.

It's incredible when you think about Peter.

And your whole Christian life was lived in that tension, right?

Turn the other cheek, but also have your sword with you.

You know, love your enemy, but also love your family and protect them.

And you've got all kinds of Christian morality played out through that.

It's that it's a side note, but that's all contingent on how common those swords were.

Jesus said, pack it, bring it.

You might need it.

It was a very common weapon in the Roman Empire.

The soldiers definitely had it.

Uh they all had it.

You know soldiers had it when the earthquake came and hit the jail cell.

And uh in Acts uh uh in uh Acts when the earthquake came and the soldier runs over to investigate and he sees the jail door open.

He thinks that Paul is uh freed, and the soldier takes out his sword to kill himself, thinking that Paul got away.

And Paul says, Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm right here.

And the soldier's like, huh?

And Paul says, Yeah, come on inside, sing a hymn with us.

Soldier puts away his sword and gets radically saved.

You know, that's this ever the swords are everywhere.

Here, Paul says, it's the sword of the spirit.

You think, what's the sword of the spirit?

Well, the sword of the spirit, I love it when the Bible does this.

It said the sword of the spirit, verse 17, which is the word of God.

Spent$200 on commentaries to look up what the sword of the spirit is, and the commentaries agree that it's the word of God.

So I want my money back.

The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

I want you to think about how incredible that is.

The sword is the only offensive weapon in the armor.

I mean, you're not gonna hit somebody with your belt.

I mean, you might be able to kick at somebody, but it's not like choice one as the weapon.

You know, I'm gonna throw my shoe at them.

You're gonna hit somebody with your breastplate, you're not gonna throw your helmet at somebody.

The only offensive weapon here, the only weapon designed to do harm to someone in this whole battle here is the sword.

And so it's last on the list.

Paul goes through everything else the belt, the breastplate, the helmet, the shield.

And now he's up to this.

You got all that on?

You're ready to rumble, got your shoes tied?

Then take out the sword and use it.

Don't be paralyzed with fear.

The errors are coming at you.

Don't run and hide in a foxhole.

Use what God gave you and go to war.

Actually use the word of God.

Use the word of God.

Other armies might have catapults, others might have battering rams or siege works, but not you.

You just need one weapon.

You need the word of God.

To be an effective Christian, this is what you need, and that's all you need.

You don't need to get a sociology degree.

I have a sociology degree, so I can tell you it's entirely unnecessary.

To be an effective evangelist, you don't have to be a student of the culture.

You don't have to understand, you know, cultural movies or icons or any of that in order to be an effective evangelist.

The only thing you need to advance the gospel in the world is the word of God.

Not the word of God and cultural knowledge, not the word of God and movie references, not the word of God and common hobbies, not the word of God.

In a nice suit.

You don't need any of that.

You need the word of God and nothing else to be an effective evangelist.

And so this is why Paul ends with take out the sword.

It's the only weapon you have.

And use it.

Now the sword is the word of God.

I want you to appreciate how incredible that is that we have the word of God.

You have to think, what does it mean, the word of God?

So you have God the Father, all the divine attributes, all the divine excellencies, all the divine majesty, everything about God is resident in the Father.

And it comes from the Father to the Son.

And so anything the Father says, he says in its entirety, he says in its completeness.

When the Father says anything, it's from himself.

It is all of him, and it is all resident in the Son.

This is why the Son is called the Word of God.

He is the exact representation of the Father.

Everything that is in the Father is the Son.

That is the Word.

The Son is the Word of God.

He is all of the Father, is in the Son.

The Son is the exact word of the Father.

The Father and the Son relate to one another spiritually, and everything that is in the Father is in the Son.

Everything that's in the Son, He has this overflowing back to the Father.

That's the Holy Spirit.

The love and the communication and the fellowship between the Father and the Son is the Spirit.

So all of God is between the Father and the Son and the Spirit.

Everything the Father would say is in the Son.

The word of God is the Son.

Everything the Son would feel back towards the Father, or the Father would feel towards the Son, is all of God.

It is the Holy Spirit, the three persons, one God, and it is perfect love, fellowship, and perfect communication.

There's no falling words.

Everything the Father wants to say is already in the Son.

Everything the Son would want to say is already in the Holy Spirit.

There is no external thing needed.

Everything God wants to say is resident perfectly in the Son.

And yet God still chooses to create the world and speak into the world.

And how does God create the world?

He speaks it into existence.

And so the beauty of God and the love of God and the energy of God comes into the world through creation.

That's why you can say, I mean, it sounds corny, but you can say, Oh, I see the beauty of God in the sunset or in a baby deer or whatever, in a waterfall.

Great.

You can, because all of creation is the overflow of the beauty of God.

It's marred by sin, of course.

It's not, you know, a perfect representation, but it's still beautiful.

You still see something of the creativity and the beauty of God.

Of course you do.

But that's not the revelation of God's word.

This is the beauty of the incarnation, that Jesus comes to earth.

He's the word of God in human flesh.

So that very word of God, everything from the Father that is spoken, all of the Father's identity, attributes, excellencies, all of that which is resident in the Son, if God were to come to earth himself, that is the Son of God, taking on human nature.

So this is why John 1 begins with in the beginning was the Word.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God, and Jesus is the Word of God, born, the Word made its dwelling among us.

So you want to know what God is like.

What would God say?

What would God do?

What's the word of God?

You look to Jesus, who lived his life on earth.

He is the word of God robed in human flesh.

However, Jesus is not on earth anymore.

He has ascended into heaven.

So how do you have access to the word of God now?

Well, that's the written word of God.

The written word of God is also the word of God, particularly for circumstance.

So you, the wisdom of God is the word of God about wisdom, you have in the in the Bible, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Job.

This is the word of God particularized about wisdom.

What about the kings of history as God directed history towards Jesus Christ?

You have that in the narratives of the Old Testament.

Joshua all the way through 2 Chronicles is the word of God about this world.

The law that God wants the Israelites to live by, that's given in the Word of God.

From God's heart to this world, it is the word of God.

The prophets, I think of Jeremiah chapter 1, God tells Jeremiah, I'm making you a prophet.

Jeremiah 1 · chapter mention

I'm appointing you as a prophet to the nations, so I'm putting, is Jeremiah 1, verse 9.

Jeremiah 1:9

So I'm putting my words in your mouth.

That's why prophets all the time said, Thus saith the Lord.

You recognize when a prophet says, Thus saith the Lord, they're saying, The word from heaven is breaking into this world through my words, which are the very words of God.

This is what the Bible is.

It is the words of God.

And the Bible comes to us through the ministry, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

This is 1 Peter 1, verse 21.

1 Peter 1:21

Remember 2 Peter 1 verse 21.

2 Peter 1:21

No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

This is the doctrine of inspiration.

That the word of God comes to us through the Holy Spirit.

So I want you to see the parallels between the Bible and Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the word of God in human flesh.

The Bible is the word of God in written form.

Jesus is the word from the Father through the Son.

The Bible is the word from the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.

The Bible comes to us as the Holy Spirit carries along its authors.

Not in a trance, not like Islam where Muhammad was in a trance and comes out with the Quran.

No, the Bible carries along the authors to their full awareness and their knowledge and their life experiences.

The Bible empowers the authors to write, but it is every word from God.

And so ask yourself, can the Bible have any errors in it?

Well, can God have any errors in it?

Are there any errors inside the Trinity?

Does the Father misspeak to the Son or misspeak to the Spirit?

Does he say something that's not true, that's not really in him?

Of course not.

Or you can ask the question this way.

Did Jesus ever sin?

Could Jesus have sinned?

Of course Jesus couldn't have sinned because he is the word of God.

And the word of God can't contain error.

And so Jesus could not sin because he can't.

He's incompatible with error.

Can the Bible contain error?

No, because the Holy Spirit can't sin.

Put it in those terms.

The Holy Spirit can't get something wrong.

Jesus couldn't get something wrong.

The Holy Spirit can't get something wrong.

Jesus led a sinless life, and the Bible has no errors in it because they are both the very Word of God.

They're both from the Father to us.

It's the Trinity whose words are coming to life on pages in front of us.

That's the point of Scripture.

That's the sword of the Spirit.

That's what you're supposed to take.

That's what you're supposed to use.

And when you understand that the Word of God is the mystery of the Trinity given to you, and you look at it and you go, this is incredible.

This is sweeter than honey.

That's what David said.

This whole thing is sweeter than honey, which means honey in David's mind, the sweetest thing imaginable.

David didn't have Mike and Ike candy.

So what's the sweetest thing in the whole world for David?

Honey.

And the word of God's sweeter than that.

It's sweeter than anything in creation.

This week I read Psalm 119 and I made a note of every time the phrase the word of God is used in Psalm 119.

It's the longest chapter in the Bible.

And you can do this on your own.

It's a fun exercise.

Every verse in Psalm 119 has, with like one or two exceptions, but almost every verse has some synonym for the Word of God in it.

The testimonies or the statutes or the commandments or the decrees, all kinds of synonyms.

But a phrase that's often used is the Word of God.

And it's fun to chase down and see what the Word of God is doing in Psalm 119.

I'll tell you some of the things it's doing.

Psalm 119, verse 25.

Psalms 119:25

If you're spiritually dead, the word gives you life.

Or verse 28, if you're sorrowing, the word of God gives you comfort.

If you're afflicted, verse 67, the word gives you direction.

You don't know what to do.

You're afflicted with temptations, the word gives you direction.

If you're lonely, verse 81, the word comforts you.

If you're tempted to sin, verse 101 says, the word gives you restraint.

I love that.

Your feet are tempted to wander, the word of God pulls them right back onto the path.

If you're lost, verse 105 says, the word is a lamp to your feet, shows you where to go.

If you're ignorant, verse 169, the word gives you knowledge.

And when you take all of that together, I mean just think of all that together.

Are you lost?

Are you hungry?

Are you afflicted?

Are you lonely?

Are you tempted?

Are you confused?

Are you ignorant?

The word of God is the answer for all those things.

In the New Testament, you take all that together in 2 Timothy 3.16.

All scripture is breathed out by God.

It's profitable for teaching, reproof, correcting, training.

I'm so all these things.

You can do them all with the Word of God.

So that, this is the best part, the man of God may be confident.

And here's the phrase equipped for every good work.

I love that phrase, equipped right there.

It means you got all you need.

There's nothing else you need to check out to do your job.

God gives you all you need through the Word of God.

You have it all through God's word.

That's why Jesus compares the Word of God to a sword.

That's why Paul calls it a sword here in verse 17.

Take out the sword of the Spirit and use it.

You see people caught in sin.

The Word of God is what frees them.

And it's both offensive and defensive, of course.

You know, the arrows come at you and it gets by the shield.

You can deflect the arrows with the word of God.

You can parry those attacks away.

But it's not merely defensive, it's also offensive.

It's what you use in evangelism, it's what you use to rescue people.

It's what the armor kind of climaxes here.

You put on the belt not to stand around and look pretty.

You put on the shoes, not just to stand at the door and guard it, although you need the shoes to do that.

You put on all of this so that you can bring the gospel into the dark world.

That's how you go to war against the devil, you rescue captives.

You take your own thoughts captive, you free other people from the chains of sin as you bring them the good news.

And you do that through using the word of God.

And you think, but I don't know enough about the Bible to be effective that way.

What if I say something wrong?

It's alright.

You're not gonna break anything in here.

You got your helmet on.

You know, you're gonna be okay.

Don't be afraid to use your sword.

All this is building up to that.

And if you understand this, think about how that changes your approach to life.

You know, for you to use the sword, first of all, you gotta actually believe it.

Okay, so the arrows are coming at you.

You can't take the actual Bible and hold it up like a shield.

Remember, all this is spiritual.

This is the whole thing is spiritual.

There's you know, the belt isn't an actual belt, it's just girding your life with truth.

The Bible act acts as a shield, not in some mysterious way, but your faith is what is the shield.

The Bible, you don't throw it at somebody to save them.

You have to read it, study it, believe it, and apply it.

That's how you use it as a sword.

So let me give you an example.

You're going through a trial.

Instead of asking yourself, how does this trial make me feel?

Ask yourself, what does the Bible say about this trial?

Or you hear of news in the world, instead of asking yourself, what do I think about that?

Ask, what does the Bible say I should think about that?

Approach things that way.

And if you start to think like that, if you train your mind to use the Bible as a sword that way, you're gonna find that your sorrow is gonna give way to comfort.

That's how you, that's how you deal with sorrow in your life.

You turn to the Word of God and say, what does the Bible say about the situation that's giving me sorrow?

It will replace your sorrow with comfort.

Your anger will become hope.

You'll go from being angry about everything to having hope in the resurrection.

There'll be a change.

Your doubt will become confidence because instead of saying, I don't know why this is happening, and I don't know, I feel this way about these people who did that to me, that just produces a doubt-filled life.

Instead of saying that, you become confident because you're turning to the word.

Instead of being riddled by anxiety and worried about things you can't control, you take that off and you put on confidence and faith in the future.

That's what it means to use the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

You know, the best example of this, I think, in the Bible, being used is Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

And you don't need to turn there, you can read it on your own sometime, but you remember, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness.

He went into the wilderness to fast before he started his ministry.

He was baptized, the father identified him as the son, the spirit identified him as the son, the father identified him as the son with the word, of course.

The spirit testified to him spiritually, and though it was obvious to everybody, this is the very Son of God.

And he goes from there, not back to Jerusalem, not back to Galilee.

He goes from there to the wilderness, where he prays and fasts and is tempted by the devil.

He is outfitted for the fight.

He has the belt of truth on, he knows the truth.

He has his breastplate on, he has never sinned in his life.

He has his shoes on, he's not going to run and hide from the devil.

He's going to stand against him.

He's got his shield up, but he uses the sword.

The devil comes to him in Matthew 4 and says, If you're the Son of God, command these loaves or command these stones to turn into loaves.

And Jesus doesn't just say no.

He doesn't just say, No, I have self-control.

Jesus says, it is written, and quotes Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Deuteronomy 8:3

Do you see that Jesus parries away the devil's attack with the word of God?

And the devil comes at him again in Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

The devil comes at him again, and this time says, Hey, why don't you go up to the top of the temple and throw yourself down?

For it's written, the angels will catch you.

So now the devil responds, quoting scripture himself.

And Jesus doesn't fall for it.

He doesn't say, Oh, he used the Bible.

Man, I cave.

Jesus said, nice cross-reference.

I got a better one.

Jesus said to him again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

He's quoting Deuteronomy 6, verse 16.

Deuteronomy 6:16

The devil comes back to him.

He says, I'll offer you all the kingdoms of the world if you just partner with me.

And Jesus says, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve, quoting Deuteronomy 6, verse 13.

Deuteronomy 6:13

So Jesus responds to all the attacks of the devil by quoting Scripture.

But he also uses the Bible offensively as well.

I mean, there's too many examples to choose from, really, but my favorite is when the Herodians and the Sadducees try to trap him, and Jesus responds by asking them, How does David call the Savior his Lord if the Savior is also his son?

That's like a lethal kill strike there with the sword right there, right to their hearts.

They have no they're quiet.

The lawyers are quiet from that point forward, if you can imagine.

That's a death blow from the Word of God.

That's an example of using the sword of the Spirit.

You know, you can use the Bible that way.

If you have put your faith in Christ, if the Spirit dwells in you, then you have a heart to believe the Word of God.

You don't need to know all of it.

You don't need to be an expert of it.

You don't need to go to seminary.

You just got to believe what you got in front of you.

You read it, you believe it, you can use it.

You're you're equipped.

You passed basic arms training right there.

And you can use it in the world to advance the gospel.

This is what the armor of salvation is for, to go to war against the devil.

Lord, we're thankful that you've called us to lead a life of holiness and integrity with our breastplate of righteousness.

You called us to lead a life of faith with our shields, of evangelism, with our shoes.

But God, you began and ended the armor with truth.

The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

And so that's where we are, Lord.

We know we can't move in this world without the belt of truth, and we know we are powerless against the enemy without our sword.

So I pray for this congregation.

I pray that we would be a congregation marked by truth and an eagerness to take the sword and use it.

We're grateful for you as our Heavenly Father, all the Word of God resonate in your heart.

We're grateful for you, the eternal Son, the very Word of God.

We're grateful for you, the Holy Spirit, who brings the Word of God to life with love and energy and light to our eyes, who dwells in our hearts to help us uphold wonderful things from your law.

Together, Father, Son, and Spirit, the Word comes from the Father through the Son by the Spirit, and we receive it with joy in our heart.

We're thankful for the Word of God, and we pray that you would give us the courage to use it even this week.

We ask this in the name of Christ.

Amen.

Let me invite you all to stand.

And uh Sean, come forward.

There you are, brother.

Sean will come forward and send us away with the benediction.

Bless the Lord for that word.

Thank you, Pastor Jesse.

1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 13 and 14 reads as follows.

1 Corinthians 16:13

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men.

Other translation says, be courageous, be strong.

But listen, let all that you do be done in love.

Loved ones, as we go out into this world, love God and love your neighbor and love them enough to proclaim the gospel to them.

Amen.

Amen.

Go in peace.

And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to ibc.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.