Sword of the Spirit

We've spent the last 6 weeks doing a series on the Armor of God. It has challenged us to put on the FULL armor of God so that we can fight this spiritual battle. As Christians, Satan is attacking. He's already lost you, but he's certainly doing his part to make you ineffective. To make you stagnant. To make you unattractive to this lost world. And it's time for us to fight back.

Ephesians 6 calls us to equip ourselves with the Armor of God. To protect ourselves with armor only God can offer. And the last element we are called to pick up is the Sword of the Spirit.

So far, the first 5 pieces of armor have been all about defense. And now we finally get a weapon. We finally get some offense to strike back. And what is our sword? The Word of God. The BIBLE.

Wait. So we're called to fight back with the Bible? With a book? YES. That is how powerful God's Word is. Of all things, our Lord is telling us to fight back with His WORD. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells "all scripture is God-breathed." And from what we know in Genesis when God made man, when God breathes into something, it becomes ALIVE. Time to fight back with the living Word of God Himself.

Now this world will claim our Bible is just another book. Just another religious text to be categorized with the Book of Mormon & the Koran. But let's take a look at what separates the Bible from other religious texts, and what gives us the confidence to know it is the living Word of God & our most powerful weapon in spiritual warfare.

The Bible: 40 different authors. Written over a span of 1600 years. On 3 different continents. In 3 different languages. Authors that came from all different walks/occupations in life. Yet, somehow, they ALL agree. They ALL point to the same living God. They ALL point to Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

Which is different than all other religious texts. The Koran & Book of Mormon? Each written by ONE man. So of course it's going to agree with itself. But take 40 authors all over the world, in different cultures, in different languages, over 1600 years & have them all agree? That's pretty clutch evidence.

We can also look at the OT prophecies. There are 48 different OT prophecies about the coming Messiah. Jesus fulfilled ALL of them in the NT. But, playing with odds, for only 8 of them to come true, the chances for that to happen would be 1 in 100 millionbillion.

The Bible has also never been archaeologically disputed. Need some physical & tangible proof? Everything dug up, found & discovered has only supported the claims of the Bible. Not once has history contradicted the Bible.

So now what? We got some good points on the validity of the Bible, but what do we do with it? Well God calls it a sword, and then calls us to pick up that sword & fight back in this dark world to show His light. He is commanding us to read, study & memorize His living Word - and then guess what? LIVE it. James 1:22 tells us to be doers of the Word. To live out & obey Jesus' teachings.

Mahatma Gandhi says this about the Word of God: "You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature."

How are you treating the Bible? Like another book? Another religious text? Something to pull out for church? Or are you LIVING it? Pick up the sword & fight back.

Be DOERS of the Word.

JV