You may remember that first message on September 9 in which
we talked about how studying the Scriptures is often like putting the pieces of
a complex puzzle together. That’s what
we have sought to do over these forty messages.
We’ve sought to take the whole counsel of God and set it like an
inverted pyramid on the texts of Scripture we chose to exposit each Sunday.
I hope that you have found the Holy Spirit expanding your
knowledge and appreciation for all God has done for you in Christ, our Victor.
Listen to what Charles Spurgeon says of our Christ,
"Our Redeemer’s
glorious cry of ‘It is finished,’ was the death knell of all the adversaries of
His people, the breaking of the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword,
and the battle (Psalm 76:3). Behold the
hero of Golgotha trampling on every indictment, and destroying every accusation
using His cross as an anvil and His woes as a hammer, dashing to splinters
bundle after bundle of our sins, those poisoned arrows of the bow. What glorious blows the mighty Breaker gives
with a hammer far more ponderous than the fabled weapon of Thor! How the diabolical darts fly to
fragments…Behold, He draws from its sheath of hellish workmanship the dread
sword of Satanic power! He snaps it
across His knee, as a man breaks a dry twig, and casts it into the fire. Beloved, no sin of a believer can now be an
arrow to mortally wound him, no condemnation can now be a sword to kill him;
for the punishment of our sin was born by Christ, a full atonement was made for
all our iniquities by our blessed Substitute and Surety. Who now accuses? Who now condemns? Christ has died, rather, has risen
again. Jesus has emptied the quivers of
hell, has quenched the fiery darts, and broken off the head of every arrow of
wrath; the ground is strewn with the splinters and relics of the weapons of
hell’s warfare, which are only visible to us to remind us of our former danger
and of our great deliverance. Sin has no
more dominion over us. Jesus has made an
end of it, and put it away forever. O
enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end. Talk of all the wondrous works of the Lord,
you who make mention of His name; keep not silence, neither by day, nor where
the sun goes to its rest. Bless the
Lord, O my soul!”
This Sunday we come to verse 17(b) of Ephesians 6 to see the
last of the six pieces of equipment that make up the full armor of God – the sword
of the Spirit. Throughout our forty-week
examination we have been all over this sword, finding truths that characterize
every aspect of Jesus’ victory. Allow me
in bullet form to summarize just a few of them.
·
Lucifer, the bearer of light, in five ways
willed his own will against God’s will.
· Together with a third of the angels Lucifer is
cast down from his heavenly position.
·
What God had created in Genesis 1:1 is plunged
into darkness through divine judgment.
·
In Genesis 1:2, as a result of God’s sovereign
determination, the entire godhead refashions His creation and time begins as a
parenthesis in the midst of eternity.
·
As a crowning act of divine sovereignty, God
breathes into the dust and makes man in His own image and likeness.
·
Man is created in God’s image to walk with God,
will His will, and radiate His glory as Lucifer once did.
·
Fallen Lucifer, Satan, tempts, Adam falls, yet
God promises total victory in the second Adam.
·
God becomes a man to fully display God’s power
over Satan.
·
At every point Satan is defeated, but on the
cross Satan is defeated once and for all.
The resurrection and ascension prove it.
·
Just as each member of the Trinity is engaged in
creating man, every member of the Trinity is engaged in redeeming sinful man,
calling and equipping Him to walk in the Spirit (to will God’s will) rather
than in flesh, willing his own will.
·
God demonstrates His glory to all powers and
principalities as redeemed men and women walk clothed in the full armor of God.
· With our standing with God settled and assured
in the cross, we, His bride, not only walk with Him in this world, discharging
His power, but we are destined to sit with Him in the very place Lucifer sought
to grab.
No wonder the church militant, throughout the ages, has
gloried in Christ Jesus as Victor. They
have known what the church triumphant has always known – JESUS WINS!
In preparation for this Sunday’s message you may wish to
consider the following:
1. What
distinguishes the sword from all other pieces of equipment in the full armor of
God?
2. What
is the difference between the first three pieces and the last three?
3. What
did the Romans do to a sword to make it doubly lethal?
4. Why
does Paul refer to the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit?
5. What
other references can you find to this sword?
6. Why
doesn’t Paul mention a spear in the full armor of God?
7. How
did Jesus wield the sword?
8. How
is Jesus the object of the sword?
9. Why
does God keep us here in the world after giving us eternal life when our true
home is in heaven?
10. What
tangible benefits are there to taking up the sword of the Spirit?
See you Sunday for the finale! I feel like we’ve just scratched the
surface. To study more see:
The
Invisible War by Donald Grey Barnhouse
The
Christian Soldier and The Christian
Warfare by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
A
History of the Work of Redemption by Jonathan Edwards
