Ephesians 6:17 Part 3

Thank you to our music ministers.

Little video I made.

Chrissy was coming to pick me up.

We were running late to vote.

Really meant what I said.

I'm easily amused.

Little things in life make me very

happy, and so it's always the

great struggle to get the

current book sermon finished, and boy.

I started off with such a good start Monday.

I was like, yeah, man.

And then, life,

hits, and

Friday morning, I was like, I

don't see how this is gonna happen.

And it happened.

And I got it done Saturday evening.

I can't tell you how exhilarating that is for me.

It's just, I know that doesn't mean much to you, but it

does, so, it fires

me up to be able to tell you to turn to Ephesians 6.

And verse 17.

And we're back to

this verse by verse study of Ephesians.

And today, we're coming to the very last piece of

the Christian's armor that

Paul defines here in Ephesians 6, in verse

17,

Paul is giving us the final weapon

that enables us to

have regular victories in

our daily battles and struggles with the world

of flesh and the devil.

Look at verse 17.

After he lists the helmet of salvation,

which we looked at last time, he says.

And the sword of the spirit,

which is the word of God.

One old commentator, Dr.

Guthrie, wrote these words,

the Bible is an armory of heavenly weapons.

A laboratory.

of infallible medicines, a

mine of exhaustless wealth,

it is a guidebook for every road,

a chart for every sea, a medicine for

every malady, and a bomb for every wound.

Rob us of our Bible.

And our sky has

lost its sun.

People don't speak like that anymore.

We're dumber now than they were in those days.

One of my favorite quotes about

the authorship of the Bible goes like this.

And you can check this out.

You can fact check this if you want to.

There are words written,

by kings, by

emperors, by

poets, by sages, by philosophers,

by fishermen, by men

learned in the wisdom of Egypt, educated

in the schools of Babylon, and trained at

the feet of rabbis in Jerusalem.

It was written by men in exile in

the desert, in shepherd's tents, in

green pastures, and beside still waters.

Among its authors, we find a tax gatherer,

a herdsman, a gatherer of sycamore fruit.

We find poor men, rich men,

statesmen, preachers, captains,

legislators, judges, and exiles.

The Bible is a library.

filled with history, genealogy,

law, ethics, prophecy, poetry,

eloquence, sanitary

science, political economy, and

the perfect rules for personal and

social life, and behind every word.

is the divine author of God himself.

There is no book like this book.

Nothing comes cooked.

I am certain that

we do not understand the

fullness of what it means to

have the sword of the Spirit in our hands.

This incredible, matchless,

incomparable book, infinitely

beyond all other books, is the final weapon.

The final piece of armor,

given to the believer, in

the daily battle against Satan.

And the sad reality is, there

are so many professing Christians who

do not know how to use it.

And they get beat down by

our adversary on the regular because

of their incompetence, with

wielding the sword of the spirit.

So, let me

give you a little glimpse of

just what exactly it is that

you hold in your hand this morning,

and giving you some of the things that

the Bible claims for itself,

starting with number one, the Bible claims that

it is infallible.

And that simply means that

it is, without error, in total.

The sum of it all, the

whole Bible makes no mistakes.

It is flawless, and it is without

blemish.

Look at Psalm 197.

The law of the Lord is perfect.

restoring the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is

sure making wise the

symptom, the simple.

So the Bible in its totality.

is infallible.

Number two.

The Bible, in its

specific parts, is inerrant.

And that means it has no era in any of its parts.

Look at Proverbs 30, verse 5.

Every word of God is tested.

And that word tested literally

means tried and found to be

without dross or error.

And just in case you're not clear about this, in

the very next verse, in Proverbs

30 6, do not add to his words,

or he will reprove you,

and you will be proven a liar.

So, God's word is infallible

in total, and it is inerrant

in all of its specific parts.

Thirdly, the Bible is complete.

At the very end of the Bible.

In Revelation 22, 18 to 19,

Look at it.

John writes, I testify, to everyone who

hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if

anyone adds to them, God will add to him,

the plagues which are written in this book.

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of

this prophecy, God will take away his part from

the tree of life, and from the holy city, which

are written in this book.

In other words, you can't add to it.

And you can't take away from it,

and that means it's complete.

Number four.

The Bible is authoritative.

In Isaiah chapter 1, verse 2.

It says, Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth,

for the Lord speaks.

When God speaks.

Everybody had better listen.

That's what it means when we say the Bible is

authoritative.

Number five.

The Bible is sufficient.

It says in 2 Timothy 3, 15

17, and that from childhood, you

have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the

wisdom that leads to salvation, through

faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is inspired

by God, and profitable for teaching,

for reproof, for correction, for training and

righteousness, so that the man of God may be

adequate, equipped for every good work.

This book can bring you to salvation and

bring you to being fully

equipped in your sanctification.

And there is nothing other than that, that

is more necessary for you, Christian.

So the Bible is infallible in total, inerrant

in its parts complete, authoritative, and sufficient.

All those claims the Bible makes for itself, and

number six, the Bible is effective.

When it speaks, things happen.

In Isaiah 5511, so

my word, so will

my word be, which goes forth from my mouth, it

will not return to me, empty without accomplishing what I desire.

And without succeeding in the manner

for which I sent it.

If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't preach it.

Not for a minute.

The Bible changes

things in people's lives.

I'm number one example.

of that.

Lastly, number seven, and I could

give you a bunch more, but we're just going to do seven.

Y'all good with 7, 7, the Bible is divine.

Second Peter, one, 20 to 21.

But know this.

First of all, that no prophecy of scripture

is a matter of one's own interpretation,

for no prophecy was ever made by an act of

human will, but men moved

by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God.

Simply put, It's God's book.

And on top of all that, it's determinative.

We won't count that as a number.

What a person does with the Bible reveals

their relationship to God.

The contents of this Bible is

a determiner of man's eternal destiny

and his relationship to God.

There is no book.

In all of the existence of all

literature that is anywhere like this book.

No other book in existence can

make just these claims I've given you and, at

the same time, substantiate those claims.

And there are many more factors that make the Bible

like no other book, prophesy this come true,

the archaeological, the textual.

You've been through all those, but for time's sake, let's keep going.

And I want to turn our attention to, what

does the Bible offer us?

What resources does it bring to us?

Well, here's just a few.

First of all, it's

the source of truth.

Jesus prayed for his disciples.

Look there in John 17:17, sanctify

them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

Now, I want you to think about that phrase.

I want you to think about how

far reaching that phrase is.

If you can imagine for a minute Jesus saying,

Your word is truth as dropping a

rock in a pond, and then the ripples going out from that statement.

It means it's the truth about life.

It's the truth about death.

It's the truth about time itself.

It's the truth about eternity.

It's the truth about heaven and hell.

It's the truth about right and wrong, no other book comes to that.

It's the truth about men and women.

It's the truth about old people and young people and children.

It's the truth about society itself.

It's the truth about every relationship between

man and man.

Men and women, and between God and man.

It's the truth about all the

most important realities in the human experience.

Secondly, the Bible

is the source of happiness, and

you know this to be the case.

People in our world, especially our nation,

are on a relentless pursuit of

happiness in their life, and they go

through all manner of things trying to reach

it, and they never seem to achieve it, because

they miss the one thing that can give it to them.

And the simplicity of scripture

on this subject is so clear.

For example, we can get it from Jesus himself

in Luke 11:28,

Blessed, and you know what that word means.

What?

Happy, are those who hear

the word of God, and observe it.

Think about it.

You hear it?

You read it, you learn it, you observe

it, you're happy.

The Bible is

the source of truth, and the

source of truth, because no person is happier than

the person who discovers the truth of the word of God,

and then lives by it.

Thirdly, the Bible

is the source of growth.

Look in 1 Peter 22.

Like newborn babies.

Long for the pure milk of

the word, so that by it, you

may grow in respect to salvation.

four.

The Bible is the source of power.

Hebrews 4:12, for

the word of God is living and active and sharper

than any two edged sword, and piercing,

as far as the division of soul and spirit of

both joints and marrow, and able to judge the

thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Fifthly.

The Bible is the source of guidance,

Psalm 119, 105.

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.

Number six, the Bible

is the source of encouragement.

Romans 15, 4.

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our

instruction, so that through perseverance

and the encouragement of the

scriptures we might have hope.

Lastly.

The Bible is the source,

and the only source of victory

over our enemy, our adversary.

And guess what that does?

That brings us back to our text for today.

Ephesians 6:17, look

at it at the end, and the sword of

the spirit, the word of God, that

is the primary weapon that we wield

against our adversary.

That is why I preach it, book

by book, verse by verse.

Now, listen to me.

Topical preaching, done correctly,

does have its place, especially at, like, a conference

where we have topics, as long as it's

expositorily topical, if you get my meaning.

We have a topic, but we're going to take a text about the

topic, and we're going to unpack that text.

But Sunday in and Sunday out,

in season and out of season, rain,

shine, sleet, snow, I am

absolutely committed to verse my verse expositional

preaching of the Word of God till I die,

or I lose my mind, or my ability to preach.

You can count on that.

I'm not interested in giving you my opinion.

I'm not interested in giving you what

this verse means to me.

Okay?

I'm only interested in giving

to you to the best of my ability what the

verse means, period, plumb, end of sentence.

Because all of them only have one meaning, different

applications, but one meaning.

What in the world would

that list about the Bible that I just gave you

earlier do for you?

If you never come here to learn the Bible.

And you need to keep that at the top of your mind here.

that we need, that we must

have this sword of the spirit, because

we are in a war, every day.

Never forget.

What we learned back in Ephesians 6:12,

I want you to look at it again, for our struggle is not

against flesh and blood.

That means human beings, but against the

rulers, against the powers, against the world forces

of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of

wickedness, in the heavenly places.

That means we are at war struggling against Satan

and his demon host.

That's what that means.

He hates our guts!

He wants to make us miserable

in this process of sanctification that God has us going through.

At every turn, every day, he

wants us to be stopped from

living out in practical daily living who

we are in position in Christ.

He wants to stop that at every turn.

And that's why every day we have to

have the armor on the belt of truth,

the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of

the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith,

and if you miss the explanation of any of that, please go back and

watch that, anything you missed, you need to

know about all this armor.

It's critical.

And now we come, lastly, to the sword

of the spirit.

And all of the armor that we've looked at so

far, if you think about it, in terms of a soldier has

been primarily defensive, shield, helmet,

right?

But now we come to a piece of armor that is both offensive

and defensive at the same time.

The Greek word for sword here

is machera.

I't know how to pronounce it, neither do you, so just understand that's the Greek word,

very commonly used in Greek and in the New Testament.

The other word for sword in the Greek is romphaya, and what is that?

That's that big, long, broad

sword that I told you about last time we were talking about this.

The machara was the normal,

common sword that was carried by Roman soldiers all the time.

It could be anywhere from, like, a six inch dagger

to about an 18 inch sword, and

that was put in the sheath at the Roman soldier's side.

Remember, that's the sword that came out in

the hand to hand combat.

This is what Peter used to cut off the ear

of the high priest.

Now, if he had used the broadsword,

He probably would have cut more than his ear off.

You get the picture.

And this machara had to be

used though, and this is what's important in the illustration.

It had to be used in a very precise way

to be effective.

You think about the broadsword.

Well, there was out there in the battle.

Man, they're just slinging that thing around.

I mean, just whatever it hits, right?

We're going to take something out.

Maximum damage is what you were looking for.

But notice in verse 17.

It says the sword of the spirit.

Now, that could also be translated literally by

the spirit, or even in an adjective

sense, spiritual.

So follow this with me.

In that sense, spiritual, it would be

a small S, meaning that what we're talking about

here is this is a spiritual sword.

And it is.

Like in 2 Corinthians 10, where Paul says, the

weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual.

In fact, in this sense, think

of it, all of the armor is spiritual, right?

I mean, we're not talking about literal shields

and breastplates and swords.

So all this armor is spiritual.

But also, this can be translated, as I said,

by the spirit.

In other words, this is referring

to where it comes from.

The sword is given by

the Holy Spirit, and it is.

So if you put those two together, our

sword is a spiritual sword because it

was given to us by the Holy Spirit, are you with me?

Now, when you became a Christian, you

received the sword in

a very different way than just having a

Bible, as an unbeliever.

Everywhere I lived, and

you would not believe how many different places I lived as

a lost unbeliever, the number of apartments and rent

houses that I lived in, I have to go back and count them,

easily closer

to 20 than to 10, maybe more than 20.

But everywhere I went, I

carried with me a little blue NIV

that was about this big, and I think I got it at my confirmation,

as a Roman Catholic, maybe, I think I did.

I carried that thing everywhere with me, and

I have no idea where it is to this day, like so many other things.

There are whole cars I can't remember what happened to them that I had, okay?

But even the very

few, few, few times, I

tried to read my little blue NIV.

I really couldn't grasp, what

I was reading, up to a point, but

I really couldn't get it, because as an unbeliever,

I didn't have what

I have now as a believer.

And so do you have.

Now, as a believer, that

resident truth teacher inside

of you, that illumines the meaning

of scripture to every blood bought saint of God.

Remember that 1 Corinthians

2:14 is so explicitly clear, but

a natural man, that is a lost man, does not

accept the things of the Spirit of God, for

they are foolishness to him.

And look at this.

He cannot understand them because

they are spiritually appraised.

And they are spiritually appraised through the

power of the illumination of the Holy Spirit given

to every Christian during their life on this earth.

So I could have sat there while I was smoking weed

and snorting coke, and read that Bible all night long.

I wasn't gonna understand what in the world was going on.

I didn't have the resident truth teacher illumining the word to me.

So the sword becomes ours,

as believers, in this very

special way, but after it does, it

becomes a most critical matter,

as to how we all

learn to use the sword.

Church, understand this.

The Bible in your life is

very much a weapon.

That's why it's very critical

that you learn how to use it.

What good is it to have a 9

millimeter handgun in your home for self defense if

you don't know how to load it and shoot it?

And learning how to use it,

this Bible, is totally dependent

upon how diligently you get

involved in studying it.

Reading it.

This is not rocket science.

I'm going to put it real, real, plain to where we all live.

Turn off the TV, turn off the phone,

sit your butt in the chair, open the book,

and read it, and study it.

Is that hard?

Huh?

Shouldn't be.

Not if you're a Christian.

Remember, this is a

letter to the church at Ephesus.

Paul spent three years in Ephesus.

You know what he said?

I have not failed to declare unto you the whole council of God.

Why?

Because he wanted to teach them how to

use the sword so that they could wield it effectively

in their life?

As I said, I'm telling you,

we don't really fully grasp

what a divinely, powerful,

effective, amazing weapon this Bible is that we have.

Nothing can overpower the Bible.

A lot of people have tried.

Spurgeon said something like it's

an anvil, and they keep breaking hammers on it.

I love Romans 116, for I

am not ashamed of the gospel for it

is the power of God for salvation to everyone

who believes.

And where does the gospel come from?

Where is the gospel defined in the sword of the Spirit?

You wield this sword properly, and guess what?

People get rescued from eternal damnation when you do.

Souls get torn away from

the kingdom of darkness and transferred into

the kingdom of Christ when you wield this sword properly.

Take a look again in Hebrews 4:12.

For the word of God is living,

and active, and sharper than any

two edged sword, and piercing, as far as

the division of soul and spirit, of both joints

and marrow, and able to judge the

thoughts and intentions of the heart.

That word for judge right there, can

also be translated discerner, a discerner

of the thoughts and intentions of the

heart, which literally means this.

To judge by sifting out the evidence.

The word of God becomes

that which people hate.

judges people.

And rightly so, and perfectly so.

When we preach the word, it brings to

bear on people's lives the judgment

of almighty God.

It sifts.

It weighs their life in the balance of

the authority of the word of God to show them the

reality of their sinfulness,

before a holy God.

That's why in the very next verse,

in Hebrews 4, look what it

says in verse 13.

And there is no creature.

hidden from his sight, but all

things are open and laid bare

to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

God's word comes just like a sword, piercing

into the hearts of people.

splitting them open.

Sifting the evidence and showing

them their own sin and guilt before

a God who is holy.

God's word is so powerful, it

can bring truth into error.

It can bring light into darkness.

It can bring happiness into deep sadness.

It can bring sorrow into joy.

God's word is so powerful.

It can take an infantile human

being and make them mature.

There is no weapon on Earth.

like the sword of the spirit.

Now, as I said, the sword as

a weapon is both offensive and defensive,

I mean, you've seen sword fights in the movies, right?

You know, the sword is used just as much to block

a blow as it is to inflict one, and

using the word of God, defensively,

when Satan comes to attack you,

as we've talked about previously, in his insults,

and his temptations is critical.

And the master example maker with

this, of course, is the master example maker, Jesus.

You remember, back in Matthew 4.

Satan hits Jesus with three temptations.

One, don't trust God, man.

You've been out here, you starving to death.

Just go on and make them stones into bread.

Don't wait for God to supply your knees.

Just go on and do it yourself.

You can do it.

What is the immediate response?

From Jesus.

We'll look in verse four.

What's his first phrase that he says?

It is written.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but

every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Direct quote from Deuteronomy 83.

And then Satan comes a second time.

Do you really trust God?

Well, if you do, dive

off this temple, and surely he'll catch you.

And Jesus comes right back out of him with more scripture

from Deuteronomy, dealing directly with

that temptation, and then Satan comes a third time.

Bow down to me.

And I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world.

Now, that says something interesting about the amount of power that Satan had.

But what does Jesus do?

He comes right back at him in verse 10

of Matthew 4, Go, Satan.

Look what he says next.

For it is written!

You shall worship the Lord, your God,

and serve him only.

All of the scripture that Jesus quoted, dealt

exactly and precisely with each one

of those temptations that were thrown at him.

He didn't just flail the sword

around haphazardly, and just like Jesus,

we, Christians, we have to be able to defend

ourselves with the sword of the spirit from whatever

angle the temptation comes from, but

you have to know the word.

to be able to wield it like that in

a precise fashion.

Now, look back again in our text in verse 17.

It says the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The term for word here is not logos.

It's not.

Logos is a term

meaning word that speaks of a

broad, general way

of looking at the word of God, a general idea,

including, of course, in John 1, where John

uses it to speak of Jesus.

But, nah, here in verse 17 is a different Greek word.

It's the word Rayma.

word.

You know what the word rema means for word in the Greek?

A specific statement.

Here, it's not talking about a broad general

knowledge in the logos.

It's talking about a specific statement.

The sword of the spirit is

the specific statement of God.

And if you don't know what God specifically

says about, for example, temptation, then

you can't wield the sword the way you're supposed to

in order to defend yourself when that happens.

So you have to learn the

total word of God, so

that you can understand the specifics that are contained in it.

You with me?

That's why when I'm up here, and

I'm preaching on Sunday mornings, I

don't just quote a verse and tell

you three stories and then send you to the house.

I've never done that in

my over 25 years of ministry.

On average, what do I do?

Well, you know, I take on average, 45

minutes to an hour, to unpack, and to

teach you what the text means, and

then the principle that we can pull out

of the text, by way of application, because the

principle, listen to me, is the specific statement

that God wants you to understand, so you can put it

in your tool bag to use against Satan when he comes against you.

And this is why, in addition to coming

here, to Providence, to sit under,

expositional preaching, what, sadly, is getting

less and less in the churches of our day, you,

as Paul says, also have

to study to show yourself

approved as a workman unto God.

Now, what about using

the sword of the Spirit offensively, we've

talked about defensively.

Well, I'm doing that right now.

It's my favorite thing to do.

I'm preaching the word offensively right here.

I'm hacking back some of this jungle

down here in Satan's fallen world, right now,

and I'm not just doing it in this building.

Guess what?

I'm doing it every week on the internet.

Now, granted, not many people are watching me.

I'm not making it in the Nielsen ratings.

But you never know, you

never know, who might be scrolling,

who might stop to take a listen.

And any time, for that matter, any

of us give a biblical gospel presentation to anybody,

we are swinging the sword of the spirit

offensively in this dark and fallen world.

That's especially true when I preach at funerals.

I have one funeral message.

for both the lost and

saved, and I am not changing it

one bit all the way to the last funeral that

I'll ever preach on this earth.

because I preach the unadulterated.

Neither horned nor toothed, gospel

of Jesus Christ at every single funeral

I have ever preached, or will ever preach.

Don't ask me to preach a funeral if that's not what you want.

Let me tell you something.

If looks could kill, funerals would have killed me a long time ago.

Amen.

And I'm just going to tell you, I really am kind of crazy.

Because I have no problem at all.

I don't have this gene in my DNA.

I have no problem at all making anyone

uncomfortable, including myself when

I'm preaching the gospel.

I just don't.

You could put me in Tiger Stadium and

I wouldn't preach any differently.

I promise you, I wouldn't.

That's how you offensively swing

the sword of the spirit.

This is a powerful word right here, church.

It's so powerful, the Bible says it

converts the soul.

But you have to know how to wield it.

That's why Peter makes it so clear.

Look at 1 Peter 3:15, but sanctify Christ as Lord in

your heart, always being ready to

make a defense to everyone who asks you to give

an account for the hope that is in you

yet with gentleness and reverence, but you

can't give that account without knowing God's word.

You can't know God's word without reading

it, and studying it, and sitting

under the expositional preaching of it.

Walter Martin is going to heaven now.

He wrote a very important book, I think, way back in

the '80s, maybe the '70s, I can't remember.

It's a book called The Kingdom of the Cults, and

it lists all the cults that were in the world at that time.

You should read it.

It's still a good resource.

He once said this.

The tragedy of Christianity is that a 90 day

wonder out of Jehovah's Witnesses can take apart a Christian in 30 minutes.

That's convicting.

If the Jehovah's Witness this studied

up, come to your house, could you handle him?

Could you handle her?

Think about that.

In so many cases here in the Church of

Monadera America, sadly, that's very true.

A Jehovah's a witness going to take out their Bible,

which is the New World translation, and run circles around many professor and Christians in this country.

In Romans 10:17, it says, So

fate comes by hearing, and

hearing, by the look at that, word of Christ.

You know what the Greek word for word is right there it's Remma.

Remember?

Rema is a specific statement

about Christ.

Faith doesn't come by generality

with some kind of just love Jesus talk.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing

by the word of specific statements

about Jesus Christ, accurate,

biblical, full, complete gospel

presentation, saturated with the word of God.

There has to be specific statements about

the meaning of the person and work of Christ.

People are going to be going to see the

second movie after the passion

of the Christ, the resurrection of the Christ.

When you talk to people about that, you

need to talk specific statements about what that means.

What the cross means?

Why did Jesus have to die?

What does it mean that he rose on the third day?

Not just that he did it.

Specific statements from scripture,

about the cross, about the resurrection, about the sinfulness of

man, the holiness of God.

What we talked about this morning, the necessity of a

perfect righteousness, and an imputed righteousness.

You don't have to say imputed?

Reckoned, reckoned to your

account is the righteousness of Christ.

Put on your account.

However you want to say it, however you need to say it.

All the specific elements of the gospel

are necessary when we are swinging, the

sword of the spirit offensively, because

we're presenting the most important piece of information in the universe.

There's no piece of information more important than

the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel.

If you're a Christian, don't try to tell me you don't understand the Bible, don't bring me that.

Because God not only gave you the

book, but as I said earlier, He gave you the resident

truth teacher within you to help you understand.

And graded, there are some things that are harder to understand

in the Bible than others.

But that's why God wants you to study it.

That's why he wants you to dig in it.

To have that truth teacher illuminate

to you when you're studying.

And I hate to tell you this,

but the judgment seat of Christ, nobody in this church

is going to be able to claim ignorance.

And that's not a prideful statement or a boastful statement.

It's just true.

When you go to any church that's expositionally preaching,

the word of God, rooted and grounded in sound doctrine.

One thing you won't be able to claim is ignorance.

Because I don't tell stories and jokes here.

I preach the word.

When Paul went

out on his missionary journeys, the

first place he would go to in each town was the synagogue.

Why?

Because he wanted to go to his people, the

Jews, and preach Christ out of the Old Testament

to prove to the Jews that Jesus is

the Messiah.

And look what it says when he got to the town of Berea in Acts

chapter 17 and verse number 11.

Now, these, these people in Berea, at the synagogue,

were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica,

for they received the word with great eagerness,

examining the scriptures daily to

see whether these things were so.

That's one of the verses from the

sword of the spirit that God used to save me.

So what am I telling you?

Be noble minded.

Be like a Berean.

Receive this word with eagerness.

Search the scriptures daily.

Learn how to wield the sword

of the spirit, both offensively and

defensively, until the king returns.

Or he calls you home.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the sword of the spirit.

It is our meat and drink, as Christians.

Oh, Lord, we can't think highly enough of your Bible.

We really can't fully grasp

the intensity and power, what we hold in

our hands, but I help you, I pray that after today's

message, that we would more deeply understand

the power and the intensity of

what we hold in our hands, that we can read any

time we want to.

Help us, Lord, all to be convicted

of the necessity to read and study

more, your scripture.

We pray that all we've done today has brought you much glory.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.