SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/4/2019 10:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-5 “The Sword of the Spirit”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:17b
Message of the
verse: “And take the Sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
I was thinking about putting the rest of the sermon from
John MacArthur on this SD, but then I thought that there is a lot to digest
here and so I decided to leave the last section in our next SD as there was a
really good break where I ended today.
So tomorrow, Lord willing, I will conclude this message.
“It’s
amazing to me how many people come to me, write to me, talk to me in the
interviews, radio programs, wherever I go and even in the front here on a
Sunday morning and ask me questions about certain truths that are crystal clear
in the Scripture about which they have absolutely no knowledge and consequently are vulnerable
and defenseless at the point of their ignorance. If you’re going to go
forward into the kingdom of darkness and penetrate that darkness, you better
know the truths of the Word of God so that you can defend yourself adequately
against the deceptiveness of Satan. He’s subtle. He’s wily. He has very clever
schemes, as they’re called in verse 11. Satan doesn’t like a fully taught congregation. Satan
doesn’t want you to know everything you need to know about the Word of God,
about what God expects. Satan doesn’t want you to understand all that Scripture
teaches because he doesn’t want you to be able to defend yourself against his
deceptions. But when you do come
to know what Scripture teaches, you’re like a spiritual young man who has
overcome the evil one because you’re strong in the Word and you’ve overcome the
evil one, John says. So if you don’t know what Scripture teaches, you’re highly
vulnerable. And it’s a sad thing that there are so many, many people so
confused about things that are important, things that are issues of holiness
because they haven’t searched the Scriptures and come to know these things that
are absolutely necessary.
By the way, to support this notion of the specificity
with which we defend ourselves and the specificity with which we attack, I just
would call to your attention that the word here for word, Word of God, is not logos. Logos is a
familiar word to all of us; it is kind of a generic term, word, maybe a little
broader term. The word here is rhema...rhema.
And rhema means a specific utterance, a specific statement. We can
only defend ourselves against the attacks of Satan in given areas if we know
the specific statement of Scripture that defends us at that point. We
can only attack the lies and deception; we can only liberate the captive souls
if we know the specific teaching of Scripture that applies to that deception. It’s the specific use of right
Scripture, the divine principle that specifically applies.
Through the years it’s been a commitment of mine, as you
obviously know, to principleize texts, to draw out of any given text truth,
call it a doctrine, call it a principle that is taught in that text, and then
to chase that principle all around the Scriptures and support it. I’ve done
that tonight talking to you about the authority and inerrancy of Scripture so
that you have this principle in your mind, it’s part of your arsenal and believe well that if there
are areas that you are ignorant, Satan will find those areas and you’ll find
yourself defenseless there, or if on the attack, useless to liberate
someone from that very error. That’s why we are instructed in 2
Timothy 2:15 to be diligent, to be approved of God, workmen
that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. We’re to search
the Scriptures to know what is taught there.
How do we do that?
Well I think just some practical things maybe to suggest to you. First of all,
this may sound pretty basic, read the Bible. How’s that? Read the Bible. John
Wesley was up at four o’clock to five o’clock every day and his biographer says
he read the Bible in five languages. I’m just telling you that to make you feel really bad! I have
enough trouble trying to read it in one language. This comes from an internal motivation. There
are some requirements to really digest Scripture. First of all, you have to be born again because the
natural man doesn’t understand t he things of God. Secondly, you have to have a
hunger, desire, like a baby desires milk. There has to be diligence like the
Bereans in Acts 17, search the Scripture to see if these things are so. There
needs to be characteristic purity and holiness in your life. James 1:21,
“Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness. In humility
receive the Word implanted.” You
need to be filled with the Spirit for the only one who knows the things
of God is the Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians 2. So, to be a believer, to have a strong
desire, to be diligent, to be holy, to be Spirit-filled then you go to the
Scripture and you start by reading it...reading it repeatedly and then, of
course, interpreting it. It’s not like an aspirin tablet, not like...people
used to say to me, “What do you do in your daily devotions?” If you mean
reading the Bible without understanding it, I don’t do that. Since I was a kid
in junior high, reading the Bible and not understanding it was a problem. I
never got very far in trying to read long sections of Scripture because I
wanted to understand what I just read. This is interpreting the Scripture,
digging down. You have to interpret it correctly. And that takes some...I guess
95 percent perspiration, five percent inspiration.
I think another part of the discipline is to correlate
the Scripture. This is so helpful. Compare Scripture with Scripture. The Bible is a symphony and the
Holy Spirit is the conductor. Every instrument has been brought to the
orchestra to play its notes as the great conductor desired and it all comes
together in a magnificent, unified whole. Meditate on the Bible! Meditate on it, sit back
and think about it. Expand it in your mind. Give quiet attention to its
truth. And then maybe the most helpful
thing you’ll ever do is teach it. You’re going to hold on to what you give
away. Find some faithful men and teach them what someone taught you. These are the processes that
make it your own. You read it, you interpret it, you correlate it with itself,
you meditate on its truths, let then sink deep into your mind and then you
teach it. And I will tell you by experience what you give a way, you keep...you
retain. This is how you become capable of using the sword effectively.
Putting
on the whole armor of God is nothing more than in the end being able to use the
Word of God effectively. In one sense I think the whole armor of God is a
picture of Jesus Christ. It really is. It’s a picture of Jesus Christ.
He is the truth. He said that, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He is
our righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21. He is our peace, Ephesians 2:14.
It’s His faith in His Father and His obedience to His Father’s will because He
trusted in His
Father that took Him all the way to the cross. And so He, by the shield of
faith, quenched all the fiery darts of the wicked one. He is the reason we have
the hope of salvation. He is our salvation and He is the incarnate living Word
of God.
In the end then, when you receive Christ, you receive the
armor. Paul says, “Put it
on.” Romans 13:11 to 14, only he says it this way,
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast off sin, put on the armor of light
by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.” It’s just that basic. Christ’s likeness
then becomes the pattern, the model for us to follow. He used the Word of God,
did He not? to defend Himself. Matthew 4...Luke 4, tempted in the
wilderness, every time Satan came at Him, what did He answer with? Scripture,
the exact precise Scripture to defend Himself against that temptation. It’s
worth a look in Matthew 4. Satan
comes to Him in verse 3 and says, “If You’re the Son of God, command these
stones become bread.” The temptation was to disobey God, to take authority,
disregard what God had planned and grab some satisfaction for Himself. He
deserved it. If You’re the Son of God, why should You be hungry? Why should You
go 40 days and 40 nights without eating? Grab some satisfaction; You have a
right to it. If He had been listening to
some name-it and claim-it preacher and bought into that lie, He might have done
that. But rather He answered, quoting from Deuteronomy, “Each time it is
written, man shall not live on bread alone but every word that proceeds out of
the mouth of God.” I do what God says, nothing else. “If You’re the Son of God, throw Yourself
down,” he says, having taken Him to the pinnacle of the temple. “Don’t You have
a promise in the Old Testament that the angels will protect You?” Jesus said to
him, “On the other hand, it is written...again from Deuteronomy...you shall not
put the Lord your God to the test.” Took
Him into a high mountain, showed Him the kingdoms of the world in their glory
which all would one day belong to Him. He says, “I’ll give them to You now. You
can bypass the cross.” “Be gone, Satan. It’s written, you shall worship the
Lord your God, serve Him only.” Christ was fully armed against Satan and He
wielded the sword of the Spirit and used the precise, exact text against the
precise temptation.
And
so, to live the Christian life is simply to become like Jesus Christ as much as
that is possible. And it’s a daily appropriation. I remember, I think its
2 Samuel 11 where King David took off his armor, returned to his palace
and was in greater danger than he was on the battlefield. You know, we’re really never out
of reach of Satan’s devices. There’s never really a time when we take off the
armor. We leave it on all the time and that armor that we’re not wearing
at the moment can be immediately picked up for defense and for offense.”
Our quotation from “Love in
Action” comes from David Jeremiah’s comments on Acts 11:26.
“More important to Barnabas
than any notoriety (bad name) he might receive was the welfare of the people
who were coming to know the Lord in vast numbers. Realizing that alone he was not adequate to
the task of teaching and discipleship, Barnabas brought Paul into ministry with
him. Foremost in Barnabas’s mind was the
growth of these new believers. He wanted
them to have the best possible instructor.
That’s the heart of an encourager!
Encouragers care more about people
than prominence.”
11/4/2019 11:06 AM
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