The Sword and All
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Welcome to Gospel and Life. When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit gives us all kinds of resources to face trouble and evil in our lives and in the world. So why does it sometimes feel so hard to stand up against it? Join us today as Tim Keller explores the metaphor of the armor of God and why understanding this idea and applying it to our lives is crucial to the Christian life. Looking at the armor of God and tonight, I really in some ways want to give you

what my mother used to call a rejuvenated supper, which means leftovers. I'd like to finish up our talks about and our expositions of the full armor of God because I want to move on into some new areas. And what I want to do simply is read you for one last time, Ephesians 6, 14 to 18, and look at the very last things that Paul says about what it means to be fully equipped as a Christian to handle the battles of life.

So he says in Ephesians 6, 14, he says, therefore, stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place.

With your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, in addition to all this, take up the shield 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 pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. This is God's word.

Now, really, some of you know I've been pretty sick this week, and my throat feels like it's just about ready to stop working. So I don't feel like I have a great deal of stamina. So in some ways, I'd like to speak a little bit more off the cuff, a little bit more stream of consciousness tonight about the last ideas that Paul mentions. We said...

that the reason Paul uses the whole idea of the whole metaphor of a Christian in armor is he is saying that the Christian life is a fight, just like the non-Christian life. If you thought when you became a Christian, you were leaving the fight to get into peace and tranquility, Paul is trying to say you're wrong. The Christian life is a fight. The Christian is a soldier. The Christian is given armor.

What did you think you were going to get? A jumpsuit? Instead, God gives you armor. What did you think you were going to get? That means the Christian life's a fight. The difference is between your old life and your new life is that now you've got resources and now you've got divine resources. And he goes through and he shows us

The different parts of the armor, and we've looked at them all, and we saw, for example, that he gives us the breastplate of righteousness. What is that? Remember? The essence of the Christian faith, the essence of the message of the faith. Christianity is not you leading a righteous life and offering it to God. It's God's Son leading a righteous life and offering it to you.

And that's about as clear and as concise and as stark and as blunt a way to talk about why Christianity is so radical. It's not you leading a righteous life and giving it to God. It's God's Son coming to earth, living a righteous life, and giving it to you. Now, if you're a Christian, you believe that. You understand that. When you receive Christ as Savior, that means God's righteousness, we've talked about this, was imputed to you, transferred into your account.

And so you're regarded on the basis of that. As one of my friends once says, the determining factor in your relationship with God is not your past, but Christ's past. The determining factor. Now, do you know that? You believe that, right? But maybe as you read about it, as you hear about it, as you hear it preached, it starts to dawn on you. And you begin to say, yes, I really am totally accepted here.

Why am I acting like this? Why am I crying myself to sleep? Why am I worried? Why, why, why? And as soon as you begin to say, if this is true, then why am I living like this? Why don't I live like this? You're beginning to put on the armor. And Paul goes down and shows the different truths that we know, the peace, the righteousness, and so forth. And he says, to put them on means you start to think them out. As soon as you say, if, then, you're beginning to put them on.

That's in a sense, in a sense, Paul is actually saying that all of our problems stem from us unable or unwilling to realize our actual positions in Christ. And so we've been looking at all that all the way along. Now suddenly, or finally, I mean, not suddenly, but now finally he comes and he says, take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now, the reason this is so important and the reason it's the end is because Paul is actually trying to tell us

in a sense, that everything we've actually been doing in putting on the armor is a matter of taking doctrine, biblical doctrine, and applying it and working it out. If you remember, in the very beginning, we said the first part of the armor of God was put on the belt of truth. Buckle yourself in with the belt of truth. Okay?

And now at the end of the armor, he says, take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. At the beginning and at the end of all this talking about what it means to live a practical, victorious, powerful Christian life, he's talking about the Bible. Do you see that? At the beginning and at the end. Why? Because essentially, everything he's been talking about

is essentially taking the scripture and applying it. Taking the scripture and digesting it, reflecting on it, applying it, analyzing it, reasoning it out, praying it in. Or as you know, like the Puritans like to say, taking the truths of this verse and that verse and screwing them down into your heart until they catch fire down there. So there's a sense in which everything Paul has been talking about has been get into the word of God and use it.

That's the reason he starts and he ends all the stuff on the armor with the idea of doctrine. Doctrine is preeminent. Doctrine is supreme. You can't be a Christian without doctrine. You can't be a Christian who wins the battles. You can't be a Christian who doesn't lead a defeated life unless you're a Christian immersed with, saturated in understanding Christian doctrine. Now this word doctrine is such a dirty word. You know, I try very hard to

to present the message of the gospel in a way that's free from jargon and words that have negative connotations. I try very hard to use fresh vocabulary and language. I hate to use the word doctrine, but I've got to use the word doctrine. The word doctrine has got a tremendous PR problem. To be doctrinaire, to be dogmatic is the worst possible thing. Listen, the Bible says everybody's into doctrine. You can't avoid doctrine.

A lot of folks will say, I don't like a church that's always talking about doctrine and always telling you what doctrines you have to believe. I believe in freedom of inquiry. But I want you to know that the Bible says, and I'm pushing it home here, you can't avoid doctrine. Everybody in this room is working on doctrine. For example, the average person I talk to finds it kind of interesting to find a Protestant minister who really believes a lot of the things that I believe. I'm a throwback.

You know, somebody, you know, this is New York, so eventually some of these folks think that somebody's going to build a museum around me and charge $5. They say it's very interesting that somebody, you know, in 1990, whatever it is, 2, see? Who cares what year it is, you know?

It's interesting that in this day and age, somebody believes all these doctrines. You know, people don't believe doctrines anymore. So I ask them, well, what do you believe? And they say, well, I'm not sure. In fact, I don't think you can be so sure either. The one thing I don't like about Christian types like you is you're so sure about things. I don't believe you can be sure about religion at all. Now, that is the main thing that people say. That's the basic way. You can't be sure about religion, but they're sure about that.

You can't be certain about anything in religion. But if you can't be certain about anything in religion, how can you be certain that you can't be certain about anything in religion? Because when you're certain about not being certain about anything in religion, you're being certain about religion. You're being certain about that. How can you be sure? And you see what's happened is underneath it all, there's a doctrine there. You know, yelling at me and saying, you know, you're so doctrinaire. You Christians are so doctrinaire. You can't be sure of anything. If you're sure of anything...

That's a doctrine. And if you're sure you can't be sure of anything, that's a doctrine. I want to know how the heck you can be sure of that. Because you can't doubt anything unless you're standing certain on something else. You can never doubt things. If you doubted everything at once, you couldn't doubt. Because you have to at least believe in your ability to doubt. You've got to at least believe in your own consciousness. You've got to believe that you have the right to be skeptical. You've got to, in a sense, when you're sure that you can't be sure of anything, be sure of yourself.

And the way I put it in the past, somebody may remember this because I remember reading this somewhere. The one thing that people who say, I can't believe, have failed to see, the reason they can't believe is because they have never doubted their doubts. They doubt everything but their doubts. If you would just stop being so sure that you can't be sure, you'll start to believe.

If you would just see that the first step of real faith is to finally see that the reason you're doubting is because you've got too much faith in yourself and you refuse to doubt your doubts. What am I trying to say? The truth is in the beginning of the armor. The truth is at the end of the armor. You can't get away from truth. You can't get away from doctrine. You can't get away from dogma. You can't get away from faith. Even the people who doubt are doubting it from a platform of faith in their own consciousness, their own experience, their own reason. You can't avoid doctrine.

And therefore, Paul comes along and says the essence of Christianity is to recognize what the doctrine is, to recognize what God has said in his word and to use it. Now, one question comes up right away. Why would Paul on the one hand say, put on the belt of truth, which is, of course, the scripture, and then somewhere else say, take the sword of the spirit, which is scripture? And here's my thinking. I don't believe he's being really repetitious.

I think that he has taken this metaphor and he's drawing it out. I don't think he's really being repetitious. I think he's talking about using the Word of God in two complementary but distinct ways. And I'd just like you to see what they are. And I'd like you to see that he is saying that you will live a defeated life unless you use the Word of God in both ways. The first is, remember, the belt of truth. Now, in your old King James Bibles, if any of you still have those...

It says, "Put on the girdle of truth." Now you know why we have modern translations, you see. Because, you know, too many people would read the Scripture and instead of being inspired, they would just start to laugh and your quiet time would be over and you wouldn't have gotten it. So they put on the girdle of truth and right away you think of play text and so forth. But you see, actually the word girdle isn't bad for a belt because we're really talking about a foundation garment. Yes, we are. And we're talking about using the Word of God

in an internal, foundational, private way. And I think almost for sure what he means is there has to first of all be, before you can use it objectively and externally, you have to accept it and trust it subjectively. Now this is an important point, especially in a place like New York.

What Paul is saying, first of all, is you will not be able to actually fight battles. You will not be sure of yourself. You will not be able to be sure about the righteousness of God in you and the peace of God. And you won't have faith and you won't have the things we've been talking about for weeks now unless you have decided to trust the word of God as entirely trustworthy. Until you've decided that the Bible is entirely trustworthy and I can base my life on it, I can make hard decisions on the basis of it.

You know, the reason I say this is important is because I'm beginning to realize something. I talk to a lot of folks. The great thing about Redeemer is that we create, I think, an environment in which people who don't know what they believe or don't believe still enjoy coming, still feel like they're growing, still feel like they're being challenged, feel that this is a place where a lot of their questions are being addressed, and so you come for a good while. And I've seen plenty of people move from skepticism to

into at least a kind of tentative excitement about the possibility that maybe Christianity is true to actual joyful acceptance and embrace. And yet, in many cases, I hear people say, boy, I've found so much at Redeemer and I've enjoyed so much and I really feel that my faith has been strengthened. I think I've found Christ. But do you know, people say, almost apologetically, that Redeemer is a pretty hard-line church on a lot of issues.

I said, "Well, what do you mean?" "Well, you know, you really brandish certain things. You're really a pretty conservative church. We like you very much, but you're awfully conservative." "Well, what do you mean?" "Well, you know, for example, at Redeemer you say, 'No way should you have sex outside of the context of a permanent exclusive commitment.'" "A permanent exclusive legal commitment." People begin to realize, "That's a marriage, isn't it?" "Yes, that's right."

That's the only permanent exclusive legal commitment. And you say, well, you know, people say, well, you know, look, that's really a great ideal. But come on. I mean, you know, you realize you're awfully right wing about that subject. And a lot of us put up with it. Or else you hear us say things like, you know, you must forgive people. You cannot forgive.

harbor grudges. You cannot go unreconciled. You cannot just decide to avoid people the rest of your life. You must go to your brother or sister. You must, when you see somebody has been offended, you must go Matthew 18, Matthew 5, and so on. And a lot of people say, you know, you really ride that pretty hard too.

That's a fairly unrealistic thing. That's a great ideal. Or then you hear us talk about the fact that you ought to give 10% of your income, not necessarily to redeem her, but you ought to be radically generous and you ought to be putting your money into people and into the poor and into the work of the kingdom of God and into the church and so forth. 10% as a good guideline, a good rule of thumb. And people say, oh, man, you...

You know, you're awfully conservative and kind of hardline about that sort of thing. We say, make sure if you're a Christian believer, you only marry another Christian believer. Well, that's a great ideal. I've begun to realize what this really means. It's got nothing to do with Redeemer, I hope you realize. You have not yet put on the belt of truth. You have not yet decided the scripture is entirely trustworthy.

Success, true love, and the life you've always wanted. Many of us have made these good things into ultimate things. We've put our faith in them when deep down we know that they cannot satisfy our longings. The truth is that we've made lesser gods of good things, gods that can't give us what we really need.

In his book, Counterfeit Gods, Dr. Keller shows us how a proper understanding of the Bible reveals the truth about societal ideals and our own hearts, and that there is only one God who can wholly satisfy our desires.

Dr. Keller's book is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the power of the gospel. So request your copy of Counterfeit Gods at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. See, when you've decided that, that means you don't just follow the scripture where it jives with modern culture. You also follow the scripture where it absolutely offends the modern sensibility.

To put on the belt of truth means to say, like Jesus did, that if the Bible says it, then I must do it. If the Bible says avoid it, I must avoid it in spite of the sacrifice, in spite of how it looks. It doesn't matter how I feel. It doesn't really matter what my consciousness is. It doesn't matter whether or not this is fulfilling to me. The scripture says yes, yes. The scripture says no, no.

In other words, the scripture has set down boundaries. I will live my life out inside those boundaries. As the psalmist says, the lines have fallen upon me in goodly places. Your boundaries, you see, actually enlarge the soul. There's a side at which by absolutely taking every part of the word of God is entirely trustworthy. On the one hand, you limit yourself. There's things you won't do anymore. But on the other hand, if you really take it seriously, then all the promises are true too.

And you've got a courage to reach out and to attempt things that no one else in their right minds would do. Have you put the bell of truth on? Until you do that, until you're able to say, the Bible in its entirety is my foundation garment.

You see, that's the thing that's underneath everything else. And so you say that you're going to be defeated in life. You don't think it's hard enough knowing that there's not a single passage of the scripture that you should have to doubt. It's still confusing place to live this world and to try to say, what does the Bible say? How much more confusing is it for you to look and say, well, I see what the Bible says, but I don't know if that's culturally conditioned or not. I don't know if we can believe that anymore.

I don't know whether modern people can really handle that anymore. I'll tell you this: there's not a scholar on the face of the earth that doubts that Jesus Christ, the one that you say is the person you pray to and follow, that Jesus Christ considered every jot and tittle of the Scripture to be the law and word of God that will not pass away. Heaven and earth might pass away, but my word will not pass away. How in the world do you really see yourself as following him and not even taking his advice?

about your attitude toward the Word of God. Redeemer is not really that hard line. As a matter of fact, there's lots and lots of things that Christians disagree about and different denominations disagree about that are in the Scripture that I think that I'm pretty sure are there. But you don't hear me hammering those things. You hammer the things that are clear as anything.

Anybody who is just a fair-minded person who reads the Scripture says, of course that's what Paul says, of course that's what Jesus says. There it is. I don't like it, but there it is. It doesn't fit in with the modern sensibilities, but there it is. Have you put on the belt of truth? You can certainly be a Christian without putting on the belt of truth. You just can't be a successful Christian. You certainly can belong to Jesus Christ without putting on the belt of truth. You just can't be pleasing him. And you certainly are not going to find that your armor stays on.

If you don't have it on your belt, we talked about that. Now, the other side is the sword of the Spirit. Now, is Paul just repeating himself? Is he just trying to say the Bible's important, the Bible's important? No, I don't think so. You see, on the one hand, the belt is an internal foundational garment. And on the other hand, the sword of the Spirit is the only piece of armor that's offensive. You see, the enemy, everything else we've been looking at, the breastplate,

See? And the shield and the helmet. Everything else we've been looking at is defensive. It can turn aside or defend yourself against the blow of the enemies. This is the only piece of armor that can actually inflict pain on the enemy. This is the only piece of equipment that actually can do damage to the enemy. You might say that if you have all the other pieces of the armor, you can avoid being defeated. But without the sword, you could never actually triumph.

You're sort of in purgatory. You're sort of in limbo. Now keep this in mind. The sword of the Spirit means using the Word of God offensively, and I'll just give you very briefly my understanding of that. It means to know the Word of God so well and to understand its practical implications so well that you can use it on the spot. Now let me tell you what those two things were again.

To be able to use the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit means you must have mastered it intellectually. You must know the Scripture so well that you're able to use it on the spot. But on the other hand, it means to understand the wisdom. It's not just knowledge, but it's the wisdom. To understand how the Bible practically applies so you can use it on the spot. This is the only way to rout your enemies. Can I give you some examples? Look, here's Paul in Acts 23.

I love this particular passage. In Acts 23, he's in court. And during the trial, the high priest orders him to be slapped. Slap him. So the officer or whoever slaps him. Now this is one of the things I like so much about this passage. Paul turns to the high priest and says, May God slap you, you whitewashed wall. And I read that, and the reason I enjoyed it is because I say, Finally, Paul the human being...

Paul, somebody I can really relate to. Somebody who's blowing his cork. Someone who's on the verge of losing it. May God slap you, you whitewashed wall. And the person next to him, the person next to Paul says, that's the high priest, you know. And Paul turns to the high priest and says, forgive me for it is written. And he quotes Exodus 28 verse 23b. And he says, for it is written, thou shalt not revile a ruler of thy people.

Now let me tell you something. Paul was on the verge of losing it. His anger and his fears were about to choke him. He was about to lose the whole trial. He was about to lose everything he could have had because he was about to lose control of his emotions. You think when the person turned to him and said, that's the high priest, do you think that unless Paul had known the scripture so well that he was able to apply it on the spot?

That that statement would have turned his anger away? That would have routed his anger? Do you think that Paul could have appealed to anything else? Do you think Paul could have said, get control, get control, you're going to blow it, you're going to lose it. You're going to lose this whole trial, you're going to lose control of the situation. Do you think that would have worked? Of course it doesn't work. We try it all the time and it never works. Get control, get control, get control. That's the best way to lose control I know. Somebody turns and says, don't you know who that is? Oh, thank you, you say. Thank you.

But Paul used the sword of the Spirit and he routed his anger because the Word of God was immediately at his fingertips. He said, what am I doing? Isn't it written? Thou shalt not revile the rule of thy people. Listen, you got fears and they're choking you. The only way to route those fears is with a text of the Scripture or an idea of the Scripture or a phrase of the Scripture or a concept of the Scripture that you're able to use.

I'll never forget, just for a quick example, I'll never forget a friend of mine who was a person, who was a dear friend. He and his wife were members of a church that I pastored for many years. And their youngest son was put in jail, was arrested one night. I went down to see him as he and his wife were sitting there waiting to see their son, really in despair.

I didn't know what to do, but for some reason I had just been reading a particular book, and I pulled out John 13, verse 7, and I said, look, can I just read you one verse, just one verse? And he turned to me, and he and his wife said, yeah. And it's a place where Peter...

is saying, Lord, what are you washing my feet for? I don't understand anything you're doing. You're supposed to be the great and mighty one. What the heck are you doing down on your feet? This is such a topsy-turvy world. I don't understand anything that you're doing. You don't act the way I expect you to act. And Jesus looks at Peter and says, this is one verse, you do not understand now what I'm doing, but later I promise you will understand. All I did was read that verse and all of that man's fears were routed. He says, that's right. That's always true, isn't it?

He'd been a Christian long enough to know it, but the point was it was routed. His fears were routed. His despair was routed. You, dear friends, you go to talk with somebody who's in absolute despair. What are you going to do with the shadows?

The reason that you can't dispel them, I'm not saying you have to pull out a Bible and quote a particular verse. We're not talking about the Bible as a magic book. We're talking about the power of the truth. Do you know the power of the truth? Do you know the phrase? Do you know the concept that applies? Is it at your fingertips? You know it's not. One of the things that bothers me the most about new churches is

It's not the exuberance of the people and not, in some ways, the outreaching fervor of the people. Let me just tell you, in most ways, most of the churches I've ever been at, this church absolutely leaves them all in the dust when it comes to zeal, when it comes to refreshing lack of legalism, when it comes to a refreshing love for the Lord, when it comes to reaching out and bringing people and talking in a very fresh way about the Lord. But when it comes to your understanding of Scripture, there are times in which I despair.

For you, not for me. Because you see, I think in many cases, many, many of you don't even have the belt of truth on. Because you think a Redeemer is maybe a right-wing place. It's not got anything to do with the right or left. It's got to do with the belt of truth. But even many of you with the belt of truth on do not have the sword. That's going to take a lot of thinking. It's going to take a lot of study. It's going to take a saturation in the Word of God. Have you got the sword? Have you got it on? Have you got it at your side? This is not something that you can do tonight.

You can't say, by tomorrow, I want the sword of the Spirit in my hand. Friends, you can't individualize it. We've got to stop here. This is not just simply a matter of you sitting down with the Scripture and saying, well, I better sign up for some course. The way in which you get that kind of mastery of the Word of God, not just intellectually, not just knowledge mastery, but wisdom mastery, is through a variety of

Not only do you have to have formal training in the Scripture under a teacher, you also have to have one-on-one kind of relationships with other Christians in which you talk about what the Scripture is doing in your life. You have to have personal meditation time. You've got to have personal study time. You've got to have group study time. And I'm not saying you have to do it all at once. You need a variety. You need a tremendous variety. You need to say, Oh Lord, teach me. Oh Lord, put the sword of the Spirit in my hand.

And don't you see that the Spirit of God doesn't work in your life apart from the Word? Otherwise, it would never call the sword of the Spirit the Word of God. You don't see Paul or Jesus praying for their people saying, Oh Lord, zap them with more power. They know what to do. They just don't have the power to do it. Boy, that makes you feel pretty passive, doesn't it? Instead, what do you see Jesus praying to his Father for? For you and me. Father, sanctify them in the truth.

Thy word is truth. That's what he wants for you. Cooperate. Let's pray. Father, as we receive the offering, help us to, on the one hand, rejoice that you have given us a tremendous, tremendous tools, tremendous resources. But we also want to confess to you that we live in a culture that's afraid of doctrine. We live in a culture that wants the quick fix. We don't want to saturate ourselves in a book.

We don't want to have to work through knowledge and wisdom to get to the place where we really have mastered it. Many of us are students and we're so tired of studying computer manuals and studying medical texts. We're tired of that. We want you to just do it to us and yet you show us that you have left us one book and you want us to master it. We pray that everybody here

Would know not only how to put on the belt of truth, but take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, please rate and review it so more people can discover this podcast. This month's sermons were recorded in 1992. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.