Ephesians 6:17; The Sword of the Spirit – defined.

Class Outline:

Tuesday June 7, 2022

 

The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God - the skillful use of the word of God under the guidance of the HS, precisely in the manner of God’s will.

 

The sword of the Spirit is the God-given way of accomplishing the purpose of mankind. But there are many other purposes on the market, and the devil markets them heavily and deceptively.

 

In the latest issue of Imprimis (April/May 2022): The leftist dream of a working-class rebellion in America fizzled after the ’60s. By the mid-1970s, radical groups like the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground had faded from prominence. But the leftist dreamers didn’t give up. Abandoning hope of a Russian-style revolution, they settled on a more sophisticated strategy—waging a revolution not of the proletariat, but of the elites, and specifically of the knowledge elites. It would proceed not by taking over the means of production, but by taking control of education and culture—a strategy that German Marxist Rudi Dutschke, a student activist in the 1960s, called “the long march through the institutions.”

This idea is traceable to Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, who wrote in the 1930s of “capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.”

This march through our institutions, begun a half-century ago, has now proved largely successful. Over the past two years, I’ve looked at the federal bureaucracy, the universities, K-12 schools, and big corporations. And what I’ve found is that the revolutionary ideas of the ’60s have been repackaged, repurposed, and injected into American life at the institutional level. [end quote]

 

Some use this radical agenda, this departure from basic morality, to attain and maintain power. They might not believe in it at all, but see it as a means to power. Others believe it is the way of attaining peace and prosperity for mankind. Their stupidity is almost unbelievable. Rid ourselves of goodness to attain the ultimate good. Regardless of individual dreams of the radicals, they are grasping the sword of the world, which will damage other people and our institutions, but is powerless against lies, sin, and evil.

 

The many methods by which mankind, deceived by Satan, attempts to bring about his own purposes, ranging over all his desires, from finding personal love to creating utopias, we can the image the sword of man. In man’s many methods to achieve his wants independent from God, conflict and war are certainly some of them, but only a small percentage. Most uses of the sword of man is in the hands of billions of people who every day chose to pursue their own way and who act and plan and interact without God’s good purpose in mind.

 

As we have recently seen, God’s word is God’s voice. God’s word created all things, man included. God’s voice is everywhere. As God Himself, His voice, His wisdom speaks from every corner of the earth.

 

PRO 1:20-33

Wisdom shouts in the street,

She lifts her voice in the square;

21 At the head of the noisy streets she cries out;

At the entrance of the gates in the city, she utters her sayings:

22 "How long, O naive ones, will you love simplicity?

And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing,

And fools hate knowledge?

23 "Turn to my reproof,

Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you;

I will make my words known to you.

24 "Because I called, and you refused;

I stretched out my hand, and no one paid attention;

25 And you neglected all my counsel,

And did not want my reproof;

26 I will even laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when your dread comes,

27 When your dread comes like a storm,

And your calamity comes on like a whirlwind,

When distress and anguish come on you.

28 "Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me,

29 Because they hated knowledge,

And did not choose the fear of the Lord.

30 "They would not accept my counsel,

They spurned all my reproof.

31 "So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way,

And be satiated with their own devices.

32 "For the waywardness of the naive shall kill them,

And the complacency of fools shall destroy them.

33 "But he who listens to me shall live securely,

And shall be at ease from the dread of evil."

 

One of the more insidious schemes of the devil is to indoctrinate our children with ideas of self-rule (sword of man).

 

PRO 29:15

The rod and reproof give wisdom,

But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.

 

We are all born in Adam and, as he ate, was cursed and died, so we are born in the desire to go our own way. Only the Lord Jesus can break us of it.

 

ISA 53:6

All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all

To fall on Him.

 

ISA 56:11-12

And the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied.

And they are shepherds who have no understanding;

They have all turned to their own way,

Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.

12 "Come," they say, "let us get wine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink;

And tomorrow will be like today, only more so."

 

Last time we saw Peter wield the sword of man in, of all places, the Garden of Gethsemane. Just before he did that, we saw Jesus wield the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God by stepping whole heartedly into the will of the Father. When He asked the multitude who had come out to Him with swords and clubs, “Whom do you seek?” and they answered “Jesus the Nazarene,” by responding, “I am,” He was grabbing hold of the cup of the sins of the world, knowing there was no other way, and fully submitting to the will of the Father. His “I am” caused all of them, a “great multitude,” to draw back and fall to the ground.

 

We don’t have that kind of power with our words, but it reveals the truth about the word of God. Remember, by the word of God the worlds were made (HEB 11:3). Therefore, the word of God is the power, energy, and mass of all things. Used properly, as God wills and as the word itself reveals, we can destroy the things that need to be, which is not people, but lies, speculations, and falsehoods that raise up against the truth. And by destroying lies with truth, we will protect our own souls from the life killing cancer that is the lie, and we can protect and defend others from the lie as well.

 

The sword of the Spirit destroys.

 

2CO 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing [hupsoma = high thing, like a mountain or fortress] raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

 

These speculations are high things (in the minds of cosmic mankind) that lift themselves up in opposition to the knowledge of God, which is knowledge about God and knowledge from God.

 

Paul’s use of the word fortress (stronghold) reveals that cosmic mankind builds his world, his worthless city, out of things raised up against the knowledge of God and from God.

 

In Isa 24, God prophesies that the earth will become a wasteland. The beautiful Garden of Eden, at the start of man’s history, will become completely laid waste. In that chapter, God shows man seeking happiness in wine, but over time, the wine no longer satisfies, it actually becomes bitter to them, they seek something stronger, and they openly complain about it. In the midst of this, God describes their “city” the great achievement of man, his economic, social, and cultural center, as formless or meaningless.

 

ISA 24:10

The city of chaos [tohuv - GEN 1:2 = formless, meaningless] is broken down; Every house is shut up so that none may enter.

 

The use of the sword of man to find order, joy, purpose, fulfillment, good, meaning, etc., has only destroyed their world and themselves. Their only recourse, after destroying the world that God filled with His gifts (most importantly the gospel) is to go into their houses and shut the door and be alone, and in our age, we do this with our media devices.

 

The irony is that they look to the earth to provide their happiness, and by doing so, they are destroying it.