And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
15 sermons cite this verse
… to God? It's the Word of God. The Word of God gives us both the desire and the ability to say no to sin and yes to God. Remember in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 17, Paul is talking about the different spiritual armor we put on to fight the Christian fight, the spiritual battle we're all engaged in. In verse 17, he says, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, that is the Word of God. Paul says the Word of God is like a Roman sword. Now, the word here for sword in Greek is not the long Roman broad sword. You see it in the movies sometimes. Roman soldier on horseback, and he's flailing the sword and trying to hit something or somebody with it. Maybe he hits something, maybe he doesn't. That's the long Roman broad sword, but that's not the word that's used here. The word sword here is the word machira, and it literally means dagger. It's a dagger, and for the soldier to use it, he would have to use it not while he's on horseback, but he would have to use it in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. …
… 17a. And take the helmet of salvation. Next. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That's your Bible. That's the word of God. next. Hebrews 4.12, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the division and the soul of the spirit and of the joints and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Now watch this. This reality can only be done by ingesting the Bible, by taking on the Bible. And for the sake of time, I want to give you this one word that here applies where it says, take the sword of the spirit. It is the only offensive weapon we have. Out of everything that God gave the Christian human in this physical world, the ability to fight the spiritual non-human entities in the invisible realm is the word of God, the Bible. Listen, you quote the Bible in a demonic spiritual encounter, and you've got power. …
… all the fiery arrows of the evil one Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains pray that I may declare it boldly as I should in the name of Jesus Amen archived audio our mobile app and much more that's LutheranHour.org in danger all the way. The thought shall never leave me. That Satan who has marked his prey is plotting to deceive me. This foe with hidden snares may seize beyond the west. If I should fail to watch and pray, I walk in danger all the way. I pass through trials all the way With sin and ills contending In patience I must bear each day The cross of God's own sending When in adversity I know not where to flee When storms of woe my soul dismay, I pass through trials all the way. …
… and then it talks about the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God what is the tool now of the enemy it's fiery dart I'd like to suggest to you that the target is the mind the target is thought processes now that are exalted or raised up against what God knows to be true what do we use to quench those fiery darts those suggestions of the enemy. It's the shield of faith. What happens if you get hit by a fiery dart that gets past your faith? You have the sword of the spirit. What you may not realize is this sword was not a long sword to do a sword fight with. This was a small Roman dagger that was used to dig arrows out of himself. so an arrow gets past the shield of faith and gets you what do you do? you take the word of God Did you get it? You take the word of God to minister to yourself. …
… which can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and pray, church, and pray, and pray, church, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind. Be alert, be on guard, be alert. Your spiritual enemy roars around like a lion seeking whom they may devour. When you're standing strong, be careful that you do not fall. Be alert, church, and always keep on praying for the Lord's people. Before the battle, you pray. After the breakthrough, you pray. When things are going well, you pray. When you think you might slip, you pray. Because prayer isn't preparation for the battle. Prayer is the battle. We battle against, not against flesh and blood. And what does prayer do? What does prayer do? Prayer reminds you, you are never in control. And prayer keeps you close to the only one who is. So be careful and be prayerful. …
… with which you are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. I love and I want to center in on verse 16. Above all, above all, taking the shield of faith, the truth is it is essential for us to have faith in God. Faith is the currency that heaven trades in. If you get anything from God, you give God faith, and He, in return to your faith, saves you. And every other promise in the Scripture is unattainable without faith. The Scripture lets us know the importance of having the shield of faith as it is underlined above all. you've got all these weapons to fight and win with. But above all, if you lose the shield of faith, none of the weapons will work. …
… of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And if that's not enough, pray. This is how we fight. and pray. How do you pray? Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. And with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Pray also for me that whenever I speak, now remember, Paul is in a jail when he's writing this. He has been arrested when he's writing this. He's in chains when he's writing this. Pray also for me that whenever I speak in the jail to the prisoners, to the guard, in this dark circumstance, that whenever I speak, words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. …
… given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which would you can distinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation. And, so now we come to this piece of the armor today and the sword of the spirit, which is the what? Word of God. You see it? How do you fight spiritual war? With God's word, which is the sword of God's spirit. This is amazing imagery on a couple of different levels. One, well, the word that's used here for sword is not actually like a long sword like you might have in your mind, but more of a short sword, almost like a dagger that you would use in very precisely in hand-to-hand combat. And two, this is the only offensive weapon in all the armor that's mentioned here, which means it's the only piece of armor that can actually go after the enemy. all the other pieces of armor, you're defending yourself. You're keeping yourself from being defeated. But we all know that's not how you win a battle, with defense alone. At some point, if you're going to win, you have to go on the offense. You don't triumph just by wearing a belt and a breastplate and shoes and a shield and a helmet. …
… all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints and also for me the words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. There is so much here. But what I want to do today is show you just a few foundations in the first few verses of this passage that I believe are critical for us to realize and I'm convinced many, if not most, Christians are completely missing on a daily basis. So if you're taking notes, I want to show you six truths that you need to know in light of the spiritual battle that is raging in and around you right now. And I want to encourage you to write these truths down so you can go back to them and look at them later, discuss them with others, whether it's a family or friends or church group. So here we go. Truth number one. We live in a spiritual world. …
… Today is the final installment, finally, of this series on spiritual warfare. We've gone through Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 20, and we've been looking at these. weapons, this armor that Paul tells the church in Ephesus to have. We have put on, looked at each one of these weapons, each one of these, this armor. Finally, my brethren, verse 10. Verse 10, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole arm of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, verse 14, having girded your waist with truth. Somebody say truth, truth, truth. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness. …
… Above all, somebody say above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Amen. So we're on part seven today and we're going to talk about the sword of the spirit. Say that, the sword of the spirit. We've gone through all these different parts of armor. God's Bible tells us Paul's talking to the church in Ephesus and he's communicating to us how to engage in spiritual warfare. So we've learned that we're not fighting against flesh and blood. It's not another person that we're arguing with or fighting with. It is a spirit behind the person to do the things that they do. What we don't want to be is to be influenced by the enemy to make us behave in ways that are influenced by the devil. Go ahead, tell your neighbor, don't let the devil influence you. …
… with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation. That's where we are today. Somebody say, the helmet of salvation. Look at your neighbor and say, we need to put the helmet of salvation on. No, no, I'm sorry. You need to put the helmet of salvation on for your big head. Go ahead and tell them for your head, your big head. We want to put on the helmet of salvation. We talked about all of these various armor that Paul the apostle talks to the church in Ephesus about. And among them he says, take the helmet of salvation. Go ahead, put that picture up there real quick of what a helmet looks like. It's to protect the head. Somebody says, it's to protect your big old head. There's a picture of what a Roman soldier would wear is this helmet. And it's important to protect your head because your brain makes the determination of what the rest of your body does. …
… In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." This is really Paul's wrap-up on this amazing letter to the Ephesians. After giving us so much information in the opening three chapters about salvation and so much already in chapters 4, 5, and 6 about sanctification, he comes to his final emphasis as he notes in verse 10 saying, finally, to draw our attention to the fact that there is a war and we are in that war by virtue of being a part of the kingdom of light. Because we belong to the Lord, we are at war with the devil and his schemes. Now verse 11 kind of sums up the text. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. …
… That you might be able to stand put on the girdle of truth the breastplate of righteousness Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace have the helmet of salvation the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God that cuts coming and going and he says after having done all when the dust settles he says stand look at your neighbor and tell him stand that that's what Paul does Paul takes the ethereal and revisit to what's real makes it practical he takes what is conceptual and he concretizes it by saying this is all right to know what you believe but you don't learn what you should believe so that you can impress people with what you know you know it so that you can live it the old folks say if you got good religion y'all ain't helping me you ought to show some sign in fact martin luther king says one of the problems of the church in his day was that they suffered from a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds and i i've got issues these days with the white evangelical church my issue is that you say you know the bible and you're steeped in what you call the doctrine but I can't tell by the way you treat people who are not like you I said it I meant it I'm here to represent it Paul says it's one thing to believe but it's another thing to behave in a way Jesus said why do you call me Lord but you …
… now you say it this time, the word of God. All right, Ephesians 6, verse 17. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Colossians 1, 25, Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God. 1 Timothy 4, verse 5, For it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. Hebrews 4, 12, for the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. First Peter 1, verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Second Peter 3, verse 5, for this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. Revelation 20, verse 4, And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them, and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God. …