Okay, well we come back yet again
to Ephesians chapter 6 and for a second week to verse 17 and
I want to look this week at the sword of the Spirit, all of these
elements of the armor of God, the whole armor of God which
the Word of God encourages us to take and use because as we've
already been thinking believers are under attack in this world. In false religion the very opposite
idea is given. But Jesus warned, you know, don't
let anybody set out on this journey at all unless you're prepared
for difficulties and trials and troubles and conflicts. He said, count the cost beforehand,
don't set out on this journey of faith thinking that you're
in for a rose garden, a smooth ride, everything to be easy.
It won't be. There will be trials and temptations.
The new man that the Spirit of God plants in the soul of a believer,
that new man will come into conflict. He'll come into conflict with
the old man that was there before, the flesh, with all the aspects
of it. You know, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. What
it really means is we don't only wrestle against flesh and blood
because, gosh, we wrestle against flesh and blood all the time.
the sinful nature that is ours. We wrestle, we're told it, Galatians
chapter 5, verse 17, the spirit and the flesh, they're contrary
to one another, they're in conflict constantly. Oh, when you embark
on this road of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ serving Him,
you're not in for an easy ride because there's the flesh and
there's the world. There are the temptations and
at different times of life those temptations come in different
waves of severity. I know for you young people it's
awfully difficult. You have difficulties all around
you that come at you all of the time. Temptations in this world,
strong peer pressure to do things that they want you to do. There
are all of these things that would fight against your immortal
soul and would drag you down. And there's Satan, we wrestle
against these principalities and powers whose objective, their
objective, you see you have as a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ you have faith and hope that you will stand on that final
day because we know there is a God, we know that there is
a God to whom we're all accountable and yet by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ you know As Job said, you'll stand in your flesh
and see God and will be accepted by Him, but Satan wants to say
to you, ah, will you? Will you? Is that really true? Is that going to happen? And
he sows doubts. And he wants to take away all
of your confidence that it will be well with your soul in that
day. And he'll sow fears in your heart
that come the day when we all must stand before the judgment
seat of Christ that he's going to look and see all the faults
of your flesh and condemn you justly to hell. And he wants
to take away that assurance and he wants to take away that salvation
and make you go along with everybody else on that broad, broad way
that leads to destruction. To divert you off that narrow
way that leads to life. For narrow is the way, difficult
is the way. Read Pilgrim's Progress, it's
such a beautiful allegory of it but it's so true. How difficult
and narrow is that way that leads to life. how difficult it is. And he says, and few there be
that find it. Few there be. So we're in a fight
in this world. The devil's seeking to snatch
away. You know, he starts right at
the beginning. You know when the gospel is preached, it's
like the sower going out to sow and he sows seed. And some of
it falls by the wayside, on the rock-hard wayside. And what happens? The birds of the air come down.
And that's like Satan comes and snatches that word away before
it's gone anywhere into the soul. And he seeks always to snatch
away that word of eternal life. Christ has the words of eternal
life. To whom shall we go, said Peter?
You have the words of eternal life. And he wants to snatch
away and have that with which he can accuse because he is the
accuser of the brethren before the bar of divine justice and
he wants to rob the people of God of their peace and assurance. He doesn't want them to lie down
in peace as Psalm 4 verse 8 says and sleep peacefully because
I know that if the Lord comes and takes me tonight in whatever
situation it might be, I will just go straight into the everlasting
arms. He doesn't want you to think
that. He wants you to be robbed of that. He wants to tempt you
to look to yourself and your failings rather than what Paul
encourages here, being strong in the Lord and the power of
his might. And so he says, put on, verse 11, the whole armor
of God. Put it on. And verse 13, take
unto you the whole armor of God. Take it that you may be able
to withstand in the evil day. Because evil days are coming.
As we've read in 2 Timothy, those who will follow a life of faith
will suffer tribulation. You'll have troubles and difficulties.
The evil day is coming, but you'll be able to withstand, and having
done all, still to stand. Because you know, there's no
retirement in this Christian life. It goes on to the end. And always, as long as there's
breath in this mortal flesh, there's the battle between the
flesh and the spirit. And so he says, put it on, take
it, all of it, and be unmoved. Put on that belt of truth. Put
on that breastplate of the righteousness of Christ. Have yourself wrapped
around with the truth of the scriptures of the gospel of grace.
Put those boots of the gospel of peace on your feet and take
them with you wherever you go. Walk in them. Walk this life.
Live this life in the knowledge, in the good. It's not just a
Sunday thing. It's not just a service thing
on a Sunday morning. This is 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week. This is live it, walk it, live
it in the light and the good of it, knowing where you are
and whose you are and whom you serve. And take that shield with
you because fiery darts are coming your way. And use that shield
to fend off those fiery darts and protect your head. your mind,
your brain, the seat of your thoughts and your meditations.
Protect it with the helmet of salvation. With this knowledge,
whatever else happens, the world knows nothing of salvation, but
the child of God knows the salvation of God. I'm saved. I know I'm
saved for all eternity. Helmet of salvation. And all
of those are very much the same. The belt, the breastplate, the
boots, the shield, the helmet, they're all very much the same.
They're just different fighting metaphors, military metaphors
for the same thing. and what is it? It's those things
of which the word of God assures us the things which the word
of God assures us of when Luke started his gospel in Luke chapter
one and verse one writing to most noble Theophilus he said
those things he thought it right to write down to make his own
record of those things which are most surely believed among
us this is the thing these elements of the armor, these defensive
elements of the armor are all metaphors for the things that
the Word of God assures the child of God of. And now we come to
the sword of the Spirit. and the sword of the spirit we
don't need to speculate as to what it is because it tells us
verse 17 take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which
is the word of God the scriptures it is the word of God we take
now the sword of the spirit and in looking at this I just want
to look briefly at three headings what type of weapon is this sword
why is it needed and how should it be used? Just three practical
pegs on which to hang your thoughts this morning. What type of weapon
is this sword? Remember he's using this military
fighting metaphor for the battles that you have spiritually as
a child of God with the flesh and with the devil and the world
and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, all of those
things What things can we use to protect ourselves that we
might walk and be confident and be strong and be defended against
all of these attacks that come? Well, what type of weapon is
the sword? Well, first of all, it's the
sword of the spirit. This sword is the sword of the
spirit. This sword isn't the sword of
William Shakespeare, like the works of William Shakespeare
are, full of lots of entertainment and good moral lessons and, you
know, really profound stuff. Indeed, as a work of human literature,
obviously it stands unique amongst the writings of men, but it's
not the sword of the spirit. It's the writings of a smart,
intelligent person. But it's not the sword of the
spirit, whereas this book is the sword of the spirit. The
reason this is called the Holy Bible is that it's the different
book. That's what it means. the different
book, the altogether different book, the one book that's not
like any other book, the one book that is timeless, outside
of this realm of time and decay and increasing chaos which we
live in. This is the Word of God. Take it, it's the Holy Spirit's
sword. It's the sword of the Spirit,
and it's that which is exalted by God. We read earlier in Psalm
138 and verse 2, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise
thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth, for thou hast
magnified thy word above all thy name. That's significant. God has magnified his word above
all his name he says. It's highly magnified. This word
of God which was written by numerous human authors in different times
of history who could never have got together and had a committee
meeting to collude over what was going to be the message of
this book and yet when you read it with the eye of faith you
see on every page the unveiling of the purposes of the Eternal
God. Yes, Paul wrote with the characteristics of Paul. that's
why I think this is just my personal view that Hebrews was written
by Paul it was either written by Paul or it was written by
Barnabas with Paul looking over his shoulder you know it's just
because it's got those characteristics and likewise the epistles of
Peter have got the mark of Peter on them and John's writings have
got his mark on them and Moses and so on and so forth they've
all got the marks of the human authors but the message is absolutely
consistent it is God's word It's His Word. He, the Sovereign of
the Universe, has declared it and He has magnified it above
all His name. And it is, in fact, Christ the
Word. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And this is Christ, the second
person of the Trinity. The mind of God expressed. You
know, the start of Hebrews, God who in In divers times and different
places, I'm going to get my quotation wrong but please bear with me,
spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken to us by his son, whom he has made heir of all
things, who is the express image of his person, the outshining
of his person. This glorious being is the expression,
it's the mind of God expressed, is our Lord Jesus Christ. And
what Paul sought as an Apostle of Christ was this. What he claimed
to have as an Apostle of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2.16, we have the
mind of Christ. If you have this book, you have
the mind of Christ. You have the Word of God, who
is Christ. So it's the Holy Spirit's sword.
This is a valuable weapon. You know, this is God's weapon.
It's given to His people specifically. You know when the troops go into
battle you know one of the things that they say about the uh...
the libyan rebels in benghazi and in the east of the country
is that they're badly organized they're not a coordinated military
force they're probably fighting a little bit like dad's army
did in in when it was started in the second world war you know
there'd be there'd be somebody who had a gun and there'd be
somebody else who uh... had a crossbow and somebody else
who had bits and pieces with which anything that they could
lay their hands to but organized military situations provide them
with the tools that they need, the weapons that they need to
do the job and this is God's weapon given for us it's the
sword of the Holy Spirit but it's ours and it's given for
our use and it's commanded to be used by believers it's of
heavenly origin but it's ours for the using a weapon that is
of heavenly origin in this fight in this world between the spirit
and the flesh and the spirit and the devil and the spirit
and all of the lusts of the world it's a weapon that's given by
God to his people for our use and it's commanded to be used
take the sword of the spirit which is the word of... take
it and use it it's there for you take it and use it you know
how little I look back on 40 years of Christian experience. I call it Christian experience
in the very broad sense. And I think over all of it, how
little, how little comparatively I've made use of this book. How
little, really. To my shame, how little. When
I've had opportunity, how much the flesh has overruled. When the spirit's been keen but
the flesh has been weak and the flesh has overruled and I've
not picked it up and looked at it. I've been more inclined to
watch a TV program or read something else the number of times I've
done it because I haven't picked it up and used it as I should
it's here for us to use and the other thing about it is it's
an offensive weapon everything else we've looked at so far has
been defensive it's been to protect us now you're not going to get
on very well you're not going to be victorious if all you are
is well shielded You know, you look at some of these creatures
in the countryside, like the tortoise. Tortoise has got no
offensive weapons about it. It's just all defense. It's just
this hard shell. And you think, well, the tortoise
is okay. He needs to be careful that one of these days he's going
to have his head out of his shell chomping a nice tasty lettuce
when somebody comes along and takes him by surprise. He's got
nothing with which to fight. He's just all defensive. He needs
something with which to fight, and we're given. the sword of
the spirit which is the word of God as an offensive weapon
not just defensive not just a belt to tuck our clothes in or shoes
to put on our feet or a breastplate to protect us or a helmet and
a shield but a sword with which to fight offensively and the
other thing about the sword is this you know in in battle you
know you watch the hollywood movies and uh... that the battle
goes through various phases there's two people fighting it out. And
it comes down so often to a hand-to-hand fight with a sword. You know,
they've come down to a blade, they've each got a sword. You
know, the weapons have gone, the bullets have run out, the
big tactical fight has finished, but it comes down to one against
one, hand-to-hand combat with a sword. And that's what it is.
It's for close combat. And it's a sharp sword. And it's
a two-edged sword. And it's a short aggressive sword. Look at Hebrews chapter four,
you know some of these scriptures pretty well but it's worth reminding
ourselves. Hebrews chapter four and verse
twelve where the same metaphor is used
here For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is any creature
that is not manifest in his sight. You see, it cuts wide open, the
word of God. It's two-edged. And what are
the two edges? you could make all sorts of speculations,
but certainly I would say it's this. It's got an edge of the
law, one side of it. One side of it comes and cuts
with the convicting power of the law. For the law of God shows
us our sin. I had not known sin, said Paul,
until I read, I thought I was perfect until I read the law
say thou shalt not covet. And then he knew. It comes with
that convicting cutting power. And then the other side of it,
surely, is the gospel that also comes. And what does it cut?
It cuts away all of our self-reliance. Truly, the gospel of grace cuts
away all self-reliance and leaves us pleading nothing than this,
Lord, remember me. I've got nothing in me but Lord,
remember me. The law and the gospel, two edges
of the one sword, stripping away that armor of self-reliance. You know, we've all got this
chain mail. Have you been to the Tower of
London and seen the suits of armor and the chain mail? Chain
mail was very, very hard for a blade to cut through. That's
why they wore it. It was a very, very strong defensive
weapon. It used to blunt the swords,
blunt the knives, blunt the arrows. It was very hard to get through.
We all have that. It's the stubborn hard heart
of the natural man in the flesh. That stubborn hard heart. But
you know there are ones like the Philippian jailer who had
just as stubborn a hard heart as anybody you would come across.
Who was a hard, rough man. who did his job and lived hard
and obeyed people who were very hard with him and very rough
with him. But you know, the word of God
came somehow in the singing of Paul and Silas in the night,
those who'd been so cruelly beaten, and in that situation, it cut
him. the law convicted him. Somehow,
I don't know how, we're given very little detail of what was
actually said. But we do know this, the law
cut him and the gospel spoke to him and that chain mail of
stubborn resistance that was around that man was stripped
away. It was just sliced through with
something that's much sharper than a real sword. This word
is sharper. That word comes and cuts right
through. Has it cut you? Ask yourself,
has this word cut you? Has it cut away all of your hopes
for eternity when you're faced with the law of God and the justice
of God? Has it cut away all of your self-reliance
and caused you to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ and to him
alone? Oh, it's a sharp two-edged sword.
You need to be careful with it because, you know, many, many,
many do. They cut themselves on it because
it's got two edges. they harm themselves with it
because they don't rightly divide it they don't rightly use it
look at Luke's gospel chapter four the account of the temptation
of Christ at the start of his ministry when he was in the wilderness
and Satan came to him and you know how Jesus beginning at verse
three he comes with temptations to the man this is the God-man
but nevertheless he's a man tempted in all points like as we are
yet without sin he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh
not sinful flesh but in the likeness of sinful flesh and Satan comes
to him as a man here he is you know he's a man he's You know, when Adam was made
in the image of God, in the image of God made he him, you know,
this is what we read in Genesis chapter one. What was the image
that Adam was made in? Was it not the image of the second
Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ? Was it not that image? And here
he is! This man, this God-man! And Satan comes to him to tempt
him. Oh, what a prize this would be! If he could bring this one
down to bow at his feet. Oh, what a coup this would be!
The devil said to him, if thou be, if thou be, has God said? You know, this is his, if thou
be the son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him saying, it is written. This is how, what
did he reply with? Jesus, the son of God said, it
is written. He comes out with the sword of
the spirit, which is the word of God, for he himself is that
word. And he comes back, it is written.
that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God.
And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed
unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
you know this is this is metaphorical language for that which really
happened showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time
and the devil said unto him all this power will I give thee which
of course wasn't the devil's to give in any way and the glory
of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will
give it if thou therefore will worship me and Jesus answered
and said unto him Get thee behind me, for it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only. See, again, it is written. Verse 9, And he brought him to
Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto
him, This is Satan speaking. Now watch this. Satan says to
him, sits him on a pinnacle of the temple and says to him, if
thou be the son of God, cast thyself down from hence, remember,
Satan speaking, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge
over thee to keep thee. And in their hands they shall
bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone. Satan's using this word. He's
using this word. And Jesus answering said unto
him, it is said, It is said, it is written again, word of
God, thou shalt not tempt. You're using it wrongly, Satan.
You're using it, but you're gonna cut yourself on it. You're using
it falsely, you're not rightly dividing it. You shall not tempt
the Lord your God. Because although what Satan said
was indeed the word of God, he was using it in a way which contradicted
the fact that you shall not tempt the Lord your God. You see? No,
it's a two-edged sword. It's a weapon that cuts, but
also with which you can be cut. we must rightly divide it this
is what Paul says to Timothy in what we read earlier 2 Timothy
no we read chapter 3 but 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 we must rightly
divide the word of God he was to be a minister a preacher of
the gospel who would be commended for the fact that he rightly
divided the word of God it's a potent weapon is this sword
of the spirit for close combat in this fight, in this spiritual
conflict that is the lot and the experience of the believer
walking through this life. Now secondly, why is it needed?
Why do we need a sword of the spirit? Why do we need it? We've
looked as to why we need all those other pieces of armor,
but why do we need this one? Well, because of the nature of
the enemy. Because of the nature of the
enemy that we face. You know, if you're facing the
threat of nuclear annihilation by the Soviet Union in the 1980s,
then you probably need, not close combat weapons, you know, a few
rifles and swords for close combat fighting won't do you a great
deal of good. What you needed in that situation was nuclear-armed
submarines constantly on patrol in the North Atlantic Ocean.
That was what you needed then, you know, you needed long-distance
strategic capability. But this, we need close-quarters
weaponry for the close-quarters fight, the nature of the enemy. The child of God is subject to
sudden close-quarter attacks, not long-range, There are bandits
within. There are those within, part
of us, that will come and attack. There are daily attacks from
the lusts of the flesh, from the world around us, that would
come and tempt us to sin, and would tempt us to doubt. And
they come from all around us, the elements and the agents that
Satan uses and from Satan himself. And so, Why is it needed? We always need
it, this sword of the spirit, to be ready for these close quarters
attacks. We need to carry it, always ready
to use it. You know, you go into stately
homes and National Trust premises and these beautiful old places
and you see hanging up on the walls the swords and the muskets
and all of this ancient weaponry. Not a lot of good there. you
know to fend off an attack this book is no good sitting on your
shelf at home oh yes I've got a bible yes very very pretty
volume it's got all sorts of typeface and illustrations and
so on and so forth lovely piece of literature it's not going
to do you much good if that's all it is if it's just sitting
as an ornament at home it needs to be carried with you not as
a book in your pocket because you see the size of my Bible,
Don Faulkner had a smile as to how large the Bible I carry around
is. The reason I've got one as big
as this is because it's got big margins and I can write pencil
notes in the margins to remind me of things. I can't carry this
around for everyday use, not at all. So where do I carry it?
You've got to carry it in your mind, in your memory, in your
thoughts, in your experience. Carry it ready for use. This
is it, you see. You need it for attack. Why is
it needed? You need it for attack. You need
it for attack. This doesn't sound like gentle
gospel language, does it? But it's the words of Scripture.
Tell us to be ready to attack these threats that come, these
close combat, these close quarter attacks suddenly that come from
Satan. And attack is the best form of
defence very often. You know, when you're playing
a game of chess, often you're thinking, gosh, things are getting
difficult for me. The best form of defence is to go out aggressively
and attack. Even if you lose some pieces,
go out because it's the best strategy to win. It's like Spurgeon
said this, he used this example. It's like the Scottish Highlanders
in the wars of the 1700s, where it was said of the English armies
that were coming, they said to them, if you dinner kill them,
they'll kill you. You've got to go out aggressively
to kill these threats that come at you. And kill them with the
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. It's a daily
battle throughout life. The weapons of this warfare,
you see, the weapons of this warfare are not carnal, they're
not fleshly, they're spiritual weapons. We must resist the devil. We must be constantly fighting. You know when Israel came with
Joshua, into the promised land and they crossed the Jordan and
they came into the promised land and the land was divided up and
they were given instructions that they were to be, and you
think gosh this is really quite harsh stuff, you read it and
you think well this is brutal stuff, they were to go in and
they were to utterly destroy the inhabitants of the land and
they didn't. they didn't, they disobediently
kept making pacts and letting them stay there and they let
this group stay there and that group stay there and you know
it's all a picture of the believer's experience. And it's like that
with the believer. The flesh is still there. The
marauding elements, the aggravating elements of the flesh and its
temptations remain with us throughout this life. And just as Israel
didn't destroy those Canaanites and Philistines and Edomites
and Moabites and so on, but made pacts with them and tried to
get along with them, they were forever a thorn in the side to
them. They were forever an aggravation
to them. And it's like that. It goes on
and on and on, a daily battle. There's no retirement for the
Christian. It goes on right to the very
end. You know like the soldier, the Chelsea pensioners, they
retire from the forces and they take their retirement and they're
no longer fighting troops anymore. Not so with the believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well then finally, How should
it be used, this Sword of the Spirit? I've already said, we
shouldn't use it as an ornament. It's of absolutely no use if
all it is to you is an ornament. But we need to be trained in
it. You need to, you know like the, if somebody was to give
me a sword and to say right go and have a fight with that person
over there who's a skilled swordsman I doubt whether it would take
more than one or two thrusts and I'd be thrust clean through,
that would be me finished straight away. Why? Because I've had absolutely
no training in it. I wouldn't even know how to handle
it. I wouldn't know what to do with it apart from clumsy just
flailing around And yet the skillful one would immediately find a
way through. I don't know if any of you saw
the football match last night, but it was absolutely remarkable
when it comes to the skill of one side versus the other. It
was overwhelming, absolutely overwhelming. The skill of one
side versus the other. And so it would be, without training,
without training in the Sword of the Spirit, that's what we're
like when these attacks come. We've got no skill in picking
it up, and close combat fighting. So what do I mean by training?
Daily training. Read it. I know it sounds obvious,
but read it. Systematically read it. please
if I can employ you, I know how busy life can be and I know the
luxury of not a great deal to distract me that I've got at
the moment and so it's all well and good for me to say it. I've
always thought this about pastors that have stood up and berated
their congregations for not doing this and not doing that and finding
it difficult to turn up to any number of meetings that they
arrange and all the rest of it I think you ought to try living
in the real world when you've got immense pressures and your
job requires you to be in the office ten hours a day and you've
got to commute either. It's not easy, so don't please,
you know, I know this, I'm not saying this just from a point
of view of not living in the real world, because I've done
it, but read it systematically, find a method, whatever it is,
that suits you. Find one that works for you,
whereby, over a period of time, I'm not saying one year because
that's a tremendous pressure, make it two years, make it three
years, but make it that you systematically read it. Read it. And you'll
read bits that you think, well I didn't get much from that,
you know, I mean, Wow. Sometimes, you know, you'll read
a big chunk of 2 Samuel and you'll think, wow, there's lots going
on there, but gosh, that was difficult. I don't know whether
I got much from that. Be honest, it happens. But this is the point. Familiarity. You know, you go
for a walk somewhere. and in a strange way you never
quite forget it you go back a few years later and you think this
is familiar to me didn't make much sense at the time but hold
on a minute now I think I know where we are and I think if we
go well that's what it's like, you know, you've been over that
territory, you've walked that path, you didn't see much of
the scenery at the time in 2 Samuel but sometime later something
happens, ah, that's what it was about, you can apply it, it fits
together, it's all building up, you know it says, I know this
is possibly quoting it out of context but Isaiah 28 verse 10
which was when we were looking at this some time ago now it's
almost in the context of a bit of a rebuke to Israel because
he was saying how slow and dull of mind they were and he was
saying the word of God would come to them precept upon precept
line upon line little by little but even if it's like that do
it so that you get it, so that you get it within you. You know,
you're building a house of scriptural knowledge and it's not prefabricated. Build it brick by brick. Experience
down the years. Build it brick by brick. Daily
training. Read it systematically. Study
it as deeply as you can. Again, Spurgeon said, the one
who gets the most gold, they used to say in the Cornish tin
mines, the one who gets the most gold is the one who digs deepest. Dig. Get into it. Because when
those sudden attacks come, there you'll have it in your hand,
ready. You won't have to go, oh, oh, it's up on the wall in
the study, I need to go and get it and search. No, it's there,
in your hand, because you're familiar with it. The sword of
the spirit, which is the word of God. Hear it preached regularly. I'm not just saying here, but
if you can, hear other people preaching it. We've got the means
these days. We've never had better means
to hear Faithful preaching. That which is rightly divided
by faithful men. Read what faithful men have written
on it. You know, never, never exalt
the writings of man above this book. This book is exalted above
the name of God. Never, ever exalt the writings. No creed, no church constitution,
no commentary on the scriptures should ever be exalted above
the doctrine of this book. But read it, use it, build on
it. and have it always ready to hand
for the offensive attack. When those things come, when
those attacks come to you, when those doubts come to you, right?
A doubt comes in. Satan sows a doubt. It's as if
he's ambushed you. You're just walking along through
your daily life and he ambushes you with a doubt. You know, it's
like a gang jumps out from behind a tree and grabs you and seeks
to strangle you. Right? What are you going to
go at him with? He comes with a doubt. Election cannot be true. Ah! Get out the Word of God,
the sword of the Spirit, and thrust, attack that doubt straight
away. No, the Word of God says this,
I am chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world.
Oh, another one comes, a temptation to sin. Ah! Get out the Word
of God, that temptation to sin. Kill it there and then. Kill
it or it'll kill you. Kill it there and then. Errors. An error will come along that
tells you that we need to adopt this method of evangelism if
we want to reach people and have more numbers. No, kill it with
the word of God. Get that sword of the spirit
out and thrust at it and kill it. Because if you don't, it
will kill you. It will get you. All of these
fleshly lusts, all of this fleshly reasoning, kill it with the word
of God. The rising up of self, kill it
with the word of God. Be alert. be alert, this is why
we're told walk circumspectly not as unwise on the lookout
and have that sword of the Spirit in your hand and thrust at these
things with the sword of Spirit aggressively you've got your
armour on all those things that the word of God assures you of
but thrust at these doubts and these temptations and these errors
and these fleshly lusts thrust at them with the sword of the
Spirit thrust at them just as Christ used it with the devil
as Christ used it, you know, put it to this test, if they
speak not according to this word there is no light in them. So
there we are, there we are, we've come to the end of the pieces
of the whole armour of God, we're protected, we're defended, we're
armed for attack, this is the whole armour of God but there's
one element missing. And what do the military say
is one of the most important things that they must have? And
they always run into trouble when they don't have it, communications. They must have good radios, they
must have good communications. And so there's one more piece
and it's in verse 18. Praying, always with all prayer
and supplication in the spirit. And God willing, we'll look at
that next week.