The Sword of the Spirit, Part Two...

Chapter Twenty-four:

In this chapter, we will continue looking at the ways Satan tries to overcome us as we have our sword ready for use. The fourth way that Gurnall describes, has to do with one of the most destructive means that Satan uses, with the intended purpose of at best disarming us of our sword entirely, or at least making it so ineffective that it poses little threat to him.  Gurnall has us consider the various religious systems that are in operation within the world, and how they either help reinforce, or minimize how well we know the Holy Bible, the Word of God.

He says, "Is the Word the sword of the Spirit with which the Christian can vanquish his enemies? Then we must charge with cruelty any religious system which disarms people of the only weapon which can defend them against enemies which seek their eternal death. It is true, these leaders have a few fig leaves to hide this shameful tradition, making the world believe they are merciful not to want their parishioners to wound themselves with this weapon." Gurnall is referring to the practice of certain religions of treating the Scriptures as though only a few people are chosen by God to understand them, so if a layperson sitting in the pew were to be unsupervised in their reading of the Bible, that they could do harm to themselves. 

This is the excuse they use to withhold the Scriptures from people, Scriptures that would actually bring light, knowledge and freedom to the reader if they were allowed to have it to study freely, with the help of the Holy Spirit. But, the Holy Bible was not meant to be read by only a few, it was inspired by God to be written by the hands of what we would consider average men (except for Paul, the writers of the Bible were not "seminary-taught", educated men).  Thus, keeping the Scriptures out of the hand of a believer, is to have him armed with a very weak sword, and that is to his detriment.

"How wrong for teachers to want the people to learn this knowledge solely from their preaching, and not from the Bible! How can a congregation be sure they are hearing truth unless they have Scripture, the only touchstone to try the purity of the doctrine? God Himself directs His Word not to any one honored group - not to a select few - but to every man (Romans 1:7, Second Corinthians 1:1)...By the same authority with which the apostle wrote his epistles, he commanded them to be read in the church. Did ministers of the early church hide God's Word from the people instead of encouraging them to hide it in their heart?", asks Gurnall.

We see from reading Acts 17:11 that the Bereans "... were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." They could not have done this if they did not have access to the Scriptures themselves. And if one doesn't have access to Scripture, one can easily become spiritually under-fed and ultimately deceived by erroneous teachings that weaken and potentially destroy his sword, rather than building him up so that his sword reflects the strength he has within him from his knowledge of the Scriptures.   

As Gurnall tells us, "Can there be a greater blasphemy to our God than to imply His Word fails to contain everything necessary for salvation? Would God send His people into battle and put such a dull sword into their hand that it could not defend them and cut their way through their enemies' powers to heaven, whither (wherever) He commands them to march? Why would the Father give arms that are not fit to oppose any enemy that comes, since He knows how to furnish us with the best weapons? Would He give us weak and insufficient weapons for defense and then warn us to use nothing else? He would be sending His unknowing sheep to the slaughter to have their throats cut by the enemy...And does He not forbid us to use any other weapon than that which Scripture supplies? He sees it as renouncing (our) allegiance to Him to go anywhere else for counsel or protection except to His Word. Scripture is sufficient for God's purposes, and is able to furnish every true Christian in the world with wisdom enough to find salvation for his soul."

The fifth way that Satan uses is to have us look for places in Scripture that we believe give us license to commit wickedness and to defend our acts of willful sin.  The enemy loves it when we use our knowledge of the Word of God to ward off much-needed reproofs from another. Many use their knowledge of the Word in order to protect their ungodly lifestyles or attitudes. In an attempt to justify his corrupt ways, a heretic will choose particular parts of God's Word to use to his advantage, in order to do as he pleases. 

Gurnall warns us, "Man's heart is desperately wicked when he steals such sweet portions of Scripture to disguise his lusts. Verses declaring God's free grace, given to melt sinners' hearts and draw them to Christ, are often used as a wedge to keep a hard heart from bowing before the Savior. God gave examples of holy men's downfalls to encourage us to fear and to stand, and to take hope in His mercy. Yet many choose to wallow like animals in their own wasted lives. They insist that everything will be all right because some very important saints had a dreadful fall and yet had their sins forgiven and their souls saved...Satan madly uses the few instances of late repentance in Scripture to beg time of the sinner and make him stay just a little longer in the Sodom of his sin...No sin is small, but the least sin amounts to blasphemy when you commit it on a pretense of Scripture. The devil cannot think of anything he had rather glory in than to wound God's name with His own sweet sword. He coaxes man to sin and then brags that God made him do it. If God ever singles out a man on the face of the earth for His utmost wrath, it will surely be the person who shelters his sin under the wing of holy Scripture."  

Rather than allowing Satan to tear the knowledge of the Scriptures from us by his deceitful, sneaky strategies, we should be excited and thankful to God for this sword He has furnished us out of His grace and love for us! We live in a world where we are not safe unless we are fully armed with the armor He has provided. There is no other way of reaching heaven without going through the enemies' territory, and this has to be uppermost in our minds as we consider how much we need to make sure that our sword is well sharpened, ready for quick grasp and has been used in training to such a degree that it is carried in the hands of a skilled warrior, ready to be used whenever necessary.

It is important to make sure we have our sword at the ready all at times, and we do this by being sure we understand the importance of studying the Scriptures for ourselves. It is easy to allow another to read and interpret the Scriptures for us, but we do ourselves a disservice because not only do we not  get the Word into our hearts, but we also can be tricked or manipulated very easily by someone with impure motives.

As Gurnall said, "God has left only one book to the church, and can we refuse to study it? There is an immense treasure in a nearby mine but too often we remain paupers because we will not put on work clothes to dig it out...What has happened to the hunger of saints to study the Scripture? In years past they gave all they had - even the blood of their veins - to purchase a few pages of it. Either these people were fools to pay so high a price for this knowledge or you are greater fools to refuse it when it is so readily obtainable."

One thing that is very important for us to remember when we study Scripture is that we cannot attain the knowledge found in God's Word without the Holy Spirit's help. There have been, and continues to be, many people who think themselves wise and feel no need for God's help in studying His Word. These people are compared to the Pharisees of Jesus' day because they are full of head knowledge of the Word but have no truth in their hearts. 

Many who would be considered ignorant by this type of person are the actual ones to who God gives knowledge when they study the Scriptures. As Gurnall tells us, "Now the more aware you are of your weakness, the more fit you are for the Spirit to shape you into the likeness of Christ; for a proud student and a humble teacher will never agree... He (God)  has no pleasure in the arrogant person, but He has patience with the humble and diligent." Pray that God finds you a humble student who is teachable and ready to be taught!

In the next chapter, we will begin to look at how we are to use this Sword of the Spirit, which is the Holy Word of God.  Gurnall finishes his book by explaining to us how we are to use our sword to handle the different enemies that will come against us, those without (Satan and the world), and those within (our flesh). At the very end he gives us words of encouragement and wisdom on how to use the sword of the Word against afflictions, trials and struggles.

 

The Sword of the Spirit, Part One...

Chapter Twenty-three:

We are now going to look at the last piece of the Christian's armor, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. While the other parts of our armor are for defending ourselves, the sword is for both defending ourselves and wounding our enemy. God's Word is twofold, it guards us and keeps us safe (defensive),  but it also protects us when it is used as a weapon (offensive). Not only does it help us from giving in to the darts of temptation shot at us from the enemy, but it can also kill those inward lusts that try to rise up within us. Thus, this sword, God's Word, protects us from two enemies, the one without (Satan) and the one within (our flesh), when it is used properly.

In order for our sword to be most effective, we must have no doubts whatsoever in our mind or heart that the Holy Scriptures (both Old and New Testaments) are, indeed, the inspired Word of God, given to man, for man. "This one book of Scripture records all the ways God has directly revealed Himself to man, and we are to receive it as the undoubted Word of God. It contains a perfect way of faith and life. The 'last days' are so called because we are not to expect any other revelation of His mind to us.", says Gurnall.  Hebrews 1:1-2 reads, "In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways,  but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe."

Our faith is built upon the foundation of God's Word, therefore we must be certain that we believe that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, breathed by Him (Second Timothy 3:16). God's Word was not simply thought up in man's mind, "but holy men of God spoke as they were moved, or carried, by the Holy Spirit." (Second Peter 1:21). It is crucial that we believe in the divinity of the Scriptures, that they are truly inspired by God, because as time goes on, God's Word is becoming more and more looked upon with doubt, and questioned as to its validity. 

Many try to disprove it by finding fault and contradiction within its pages. This is why Satan puts so much time and effort into distorting God's Word or getting us to doubt it being divinely inspired, as he knows our trust in God's Word and the strength of our sword are linked to one another. If we have full confidence in God's Word being true, we will find that we will have the boldness and courage we will need when it comes to using our sword as our weapon in times of battle.    

 

Gurnall warns us, "Because Satan is a spirit we must fight him with spiritual arms. And the Word is the spiritual sword...God's hands alone formed and fashioned this weapon; it did not come from any creature's forge."  As Second Corinthians 10:4 reads, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty."

The written Word is the sword by which Christians will overcome their enemies. "The Spirit will do nothing for believers without the Word, and they in turn can do nothing without Him. The Word is the sword and the Spirit of Christ the arm which wields it for the saints. All the great conquests which Christ and His followers achieve in the world are accomplished with this sword", Gurnall reminds us.  

Gurnall goes on to tell us who our enemies will be.  First, Satan has his own children in this world, those who are under his influence, therefore we will often face persecution at their hand. What weapons do God's people have to resist and overcome these men who openly defy our Lord? Just as the sword has been used in ages past, it continues to be the weapon for today's believers to use to defend themselves. "God's army overcomes every enemy by one of two ways - conversion or destruction. The Word of God is the sword which effects both - it has two edges." says Gurnall.  He goes on to tell us that the sword (God's Word) is a two-edged sword, which will cause one to either convert and become a follower of Christ, or it will bring about their destruction as a result of their choosing to disobey God's teachings regarding salvation.

Second, Satan uses heretics, people who believe or teach things that goes against the Word of God. His goal is to have us give up and walk away from our faith. He would be delighted if we were deceived by erroneous teachings so as to not find the truth that leads to freedom and everlasting life with God. His ultimate desire is for us to fall into his snare and be forever outcast from God.

He doesn't want us to be like Paul, who rejoiced that he had escaped Satan's snare as he awaited execution in the prison. Paul said, "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.",  (Second Timothy 4:7-8).  Even though Paul was facing death, he was speaking words of victory and triumph because he had been able to keep the faith, and didn't give in out of cowardice or fear.

Paul warned Timothy to stand in defense against seducers by shutting himself up with the Scriptures (Second Timothy 3:14). "We can load ourselves down with other arms by stumbling over many authors; but whoever has the sword the Spirit (God's Word) has all he needs to encounter the fiercest champion of error the devil can train up and command. Persons in error can no more stand before us holding this sword than a child with a wooden dagger could stand against a giant armed with deadly weapons. All error dreads the light of the Word and is more afraid of being examined by it than a thief dreads a strict judge. To expose the doctrines of heretics is to overcome them. When they come face to face with the Word they must hang their heads like Cain; they are put to shame. This is the only way to test suspicious teachings - if they can walk upon this fiery law unhurt and unreproved, they may safely pass for truths. Paul tells us that some 'will not endure sound doctrine' (Second Timothy 4:3). These want a doctrine which will suit their own preferences, and the Word will not do this.", Gurnall tells us.  

Third, Satan will use two enemies that are very dangerous because they are within us - our own lusts, and the potential for corruption that lurks in our flesh.  Satan will use whatever temptations he can think of to set our lusts on fire.  God's Word is our only weapon against them. In Psalm 110:2 the Word of God is referred to as "the rod of (God's) strength" and is more than enough to help us overcome Satan's attempts to draw us back into sin as he tries diligently to reclaim us, the forgiven sinners. Gurnall points out that while in the wilderness Jesus Christ could have easily laid the devil at his feet with just a touch of the deity that was within Him when Satan tried to tempt Him, but He chose to conquer him using the Word of God. He wanted us to grasp the value of that sword, God's Word, so that we would learn to fight the same enemy, the same way. 

Gurnall tells us the seriousness of the matter, "Thus the devil, the great devourer of souls, sports himself in the sea of this world, as the leviathan does in the ocean - and swallows the majority of mankind with no power to resist. Yet when he confronts an armed saint who knows how to use God's Word he has met his match."

In Part Two, we will look at how Satan uses other areas to try to overcome us.  Then, in the final four chapters of this blog, Gurnall will teach us what he learned about how to use the Sword of the Spirit, God's Holy Word.

How Satan tries to Damage our Helmet of Salvation...

Chapter Twenty-two:

As discussed in the previous chapter, the helmet is designed by God to not only defend our head against temptations from Satan and our own flesh, but to also bring us the hope that comes from our salvation. Just as Satan tries to damage and render ineffective the other pieces of our armor, his hostility towards our helmet is no different. 

He will put all his effort into trying to cause us to sin as he wants us to question whether we have truly received the gift of salvation. He will whisper into our ears that if we are truly God's child, we wouldn't have contemplated his temptations, and certainly wouldn't have succumbed to them, therefore the only conclusion we can reach is that we are still lost, and not a child of God's as we had thought.  He wants nothing more than to have us question our walk with God and to feel such shame and guilt as we conclude we are lost, that there is no remedy for what we have done, and to have us live in despair and hopelessness.

He is certainly delighted when he has been successful in tempting us to sin because it gives him the courage to stand before God, acting as our accuser and judge, demanding that God punish us and turn His back on us as we are not worthy of God's mercy. Job was a man who was righteous in the sight of God, yet Satan tried several times to prove to God that in his heart of hearts Job was only righteous and served God because of how God had blessed him (Job 6:1-12). This is his attitude towards all of God's children, and he is obsessed with seeing us disgraced and rejected by God.

Gurnall tells us, "The devil is delighted if he can cause saints to sin, but he glories most when he can lay them in the dirt in their Sunday clothes and make them defile their garments of salvation. If he succeeds, he tries to insult God by showing Him what a predicament His child is in and holds up the Christian's assurance for the world to laugh at. After Satan has thrown the Christian into some filthy sin he asks God, 'Is this the assurance You gave him of heaven - and this the garment of salvation You put on him? Look where he has laid it - and what a mess he has made of Your grace.'  We tremble at the thought of putting such blasphemy of our living God into the devil's mouth!"

If Satan can't get us to sin, he will go after the sense of hope that we have acquired since becoming God's child. He sets his plans and lays his trap with the intent to destroy our joy and our hope for the future. He would see it as victory indeed if he could have us constantly struggling with feelings of sadness and fear.  However, he is willing to accept only a small victory if he can get us to live with a weak sense of hope and a small degree of anxiety.   

 

Satan aims his arrows straight at your hope. He wants you to spend useless time wondering if your sins have truly been forgiven. Maybe you have issues with lust, jealousy or envy, so in these areas he wants you to believe you'll never get victory over them. If you suffer from affliction, he has you focus on wondering how long you can possibly endure under such a burden.  He loves to get us to worry about issues for which there seems to be no remedy, or those things that seem to have no end in sight. His hatred for us knows no bounds, and he is overjoyed if he can get us to the point where we feel so utterly hopeless that we begin to question if there's any point in praying or spending time with God after all, when there seems to be no hope for us anyhow.

We must not allow the enemy to weaken our hope as it not only allows worry and anxiety to enter into our hearts and minds, but because our hope is the very thing that will help us bear up under temptation and affliction!  Gurnall tells us that our hope will be severely tested, but not just by Satan, but by God Himself.  "God Himself tells us that we have 'need of patience' - and He means stored-up patience (Hebrews 10:36)...And if this is true of patience it is also true of hope, because patience bears everything on hope's back. Now because we never know how much affliction and temptation God intends to lay on us, we must never stop trying to strengthen our hope. There are hard duties to be performed and strong trials to be endured which require a proportionate (equal amount) hope. We are told 'But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are His house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory' (Hebrews 3:6)."

Even though Satan will try whatever means are at his disposal, with the Lord's help and our using our helmet of salvation, we can thwart any of his attempts. Gurnall gives us several ways that we can use to strengthen our hope, which will help deflect Satan's attacks. 

First, by diligently studying God's Word, the Bible. Gurnall tells us, "The Christian is bred by the Word and he must be fed by it or his grace (hope) will shrivel up and die...the Scriptures provide nutrients for the saint's strong and solid hope...The devil knows this so well that he works hard to deprive the Christian of the help stored in the Word."  Gurnall challenges us to consider if we are underutilizing or wrongly applying God's Word. Are we too lazy to read and search the Scriptures for what we need, as this plays into the enemy's hands as we slowly starve ourselves from the very thing that would feed us spiritually.

Then there are those Christians who have accepted Satan's false applications of the Word and thereby have troubled spirits (e.g., the name it/claim it/faith teachings where you are sick or financially in trouble because you lack faith).  Gurnall warns us that we need to make sure that we have not been manipulated by others in such a way that the Word no longer strengthens our hope, but actually deprives us of the rights we have as Children of God to utilize our helmet of salvation and the hope that comes with it.  

Second, we need to live godly lives so as to keep our consciences pure. If we are careless in how we live, it has a direct impact on our hope and we find our hope faltering. "All sin brings fears and shakings of heart to the person who tampers with it. But sins which are deliberately committed are to the Christian's hope as poison to his body, which eventually drinks it up. Sins produce a lifeless Christian and make thoughts of God dreadful to him...Faith and a good conscience are the two wings of hope. If you have wounded your conscience by sin, renew your repentance so that you may act in faith for the forgiveness of it and redeem your hope.", says Gurnall.

Third, being God's children we simply need to ask God to give us more hope. When Paul was in Rome he encouraged the saints there when he said, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13). God is the God of hope.

Fourth, we need to grow in our love for Christ and remember His love for us. The more we love Christ, the stronger our hope becomes as we find our comfort and hope can only come from Him. Since fear cannot tolerate love, Christ's love will not allow any fear to come into its presence as fear tears away at any sense of hope we possess. There can be no room for doubts of God's love for us. "The loving soul asks, 'Can I fear the One who loves me most will ever hurt me? Fear and doubt away with you! There is no room for you in my heart'.", says Gurnall. 

Fifth, we need to exercise our hope. Reminding ourselves of God's promises brings hope to the weary spirit. When Satan comes to rob us of our hope, he often brings doubt along with him because the combination of the two causes the greatest harm. Our soul can feel so overwhelmed by this attack, especially if we are holding out hope for something that we are waiting upon, that we can begin to question if we truly deserve to have the very thing we hope for!

Satan will try to convince us that we are unworthy of hoping for anything but we must cling to the same words that God gave to Abraham when he promised that even in his late years he would have a son.  God added, "I am the Almighty God!" (Genesis 17:1).  God was strongly proclaiming that He is the Powerful, Holy, Omnipotent, Almighty God and if He said it was so, then there was no other power, in heaven or on earth, that could undo or undermine His promise. When we read any promise we need to remember the One who has made it!

Lastly, it is our recalling of past mercies that strongly rekindles our hope. Think on those times that you feared for the future or felt remorse over past sins and the sense of grace that suddenly swept over you and showered you with love and forgiveness. When our hope is at a loss, and we question our very salvation, we simply need to look back and remember what God has already done for us!