(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Okay, just look at Hebrews chapter 5 verse 13. I'm not going to expound on it right now. We are going to come back to this verse right at the end of the sermon. But it says in verse number 13, For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So we're going to come back to that verse right at the end of the sermon, but we're continuing our series on the armor of God, and the title for the sermon this afternoon, or it's still morning isn't it, this morning is Sword of the Spirit. Okay, Sword of the Spirit. Now in Ephesians 6 17, it says, And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Alright, now it seems quite unusual, I don't know about you, to think of the word of God as a sword. I remember as a child when I would read through my Bible, and I'd see that the Bible is referred to, the word of God is referred to as a sword, it didn't make a lot of sense to me. As I've gotten older, and as I've seen that the word of God causes great division, causes great conflict, ah, that's the way it's a sword. Okay, it is a great sword. Not only does it cause division to other people, but it's a great sword toward me. When I'm reading the word of God, it cuts through, it really shows me for my wicked, you know, the wicked sinful nature that I do have. You know, in your mind you may think, man, I'm such a great person, I'm not that bad of a person, but when you compare yourself to the word of God, wow, then you realize you really come short of the glory of God. And so, you're in Hebrews, go to Hebrews chapter 4, go to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse number 12, Hebrews chapter 4 and verse number 12, it says, For the word of God is quick. Now, that quick there means alive. It's an old English word of saying alive, okay. This is something else that I didn't process in my mind when I was a child. It's a living book, okay, it's a living book. This is why it can touch your heart. This is why it can lead people to salvation, because the words are alive. They actually have an effect inside of you, in your soul and spirit. Let's keep going. Quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So, it says it's sharper than any two-edged sword. In other words, the Bible is a two-edged sword. Do you know what a two-edged sword is? A lot of swords are one-edged. A lot of swords in battle has one side that's extremely sharp, and the other side is more blunt, okay. And one thing I learnt in sword battles, you know, if you were skilful to use one side, the other side of the sword could be used kind of like a defence, kind of like a shield. So, if someone's striking with their sword, you can use the other side of your sword, which is broader, which is more blunt, as a way of defence, and then when you were to attack, you would cut with the other side, okay. But the Bible's not that way. The Bible is a double-edged sword, meaning that both sides of the sword are sharp, okay. Both sides of the sword are sharp. And so, if you're using a two-edged sword, no matter which way you use it, it's going to cut. You can go left, it's going to cut. You can go right, it's going to cut, all right. And how far does it cut? Of course, if you were to be stabbed by a sword, it would go through your body, it would go through your flesh, but the sword of the Word of God is much sharper than any two-edged sword. Not only does it go through physically, but it goes as far as your soul and spirit, okay. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intense of the heart. It reveals your thoughts, it reveals your heart. It touches your soul, it touches your spirit. It goes much deeper than even the physical body. You know, a sword can go through a physical body. It goes much deeper as the Word of God. Look at verse number 13. It says, Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him, with whom we have to do. Okay. So what this is saying is because of the Word of God, because he has the power to see through, you know, your soul and spirit, that nothing escapes God. Nothing, you know, there's no thought you can hide from God. There's nothing, no vain imagination that escapes God. And if you know the context of this chapter, this is in comparison to faith. And so when you lack in faith, okay, God can see that. When you're not walking faithfully for God, or if you're walking in general disobedience, this will not go unnoticed by God. Okay. And what helps you understand your disobedience and your lack of faith is when you can compare your life with the Word of God. All right. So preaching with the Bible is important. Okay. Because it is a two-edged sword. It goes as deep as your soul and spirit, the thoughts of your mind. It goes that deep. This is why preaching must be with the Word of God. You're going to church and the pastor preaching one verse or no verse and reading other materials, making up other stories, it's just not going to have an effect. You may have a bit of a laugh. You may be entertained. You may come along, wow, that was great. But it's only surface level. It doesn't cut through. And listen, preaching, good preaching must use a lot of Bible. Okay. Use that sword and cut every way possible. All right. And I'm not, I will never ask, sometimes maybe I have. Maybe I have said sorry sometimes when I've preached. But I don't intend to say sorry. All right. If I'm preaching God's Word and it upsets you, if it cuts you, if it cuts deep, if you're embarrassed, if you feel like, boy, does my pastor, does the preacher know my sins? I probably don't. It's just the Word of God. And I'm not going to apologize for that. Okay. My expectation is when you come to church, it's because you want to be cut by that sword. That's what I expect. That's why you come to church. If people don't get offended, then I'm not really doing my job very well. If you don't come away thinking, boy, man, that hit me straight in the face, I need to change that, then I'm not doing a great job as a preacher. Okay. Good preachers will use the Word of God and cut with the Word of God. All right. Now, I don't know your secret sins. Okay. I'm not a discerner of your heart. I have no idea. But my hope, my expectation is that sometimes something's going to get preached and it's going to slap you in the face. Okay. And it's not because I know your secret sins. It's because God knows. Okay. And God is using His Word to touch you in those right places. Now, if you can please go to the book of Revelation. Go to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. Now, when I started to preach on the whole armor of God, I told you that the reason it's called the armor of God is because it's God's armor. Okay. We saw, you know, I already read this in Isaiah 59. We saw that God Himself puts on this armor to defend Israel against her enemies. Okay. And so this is an armor that God wears. And so if God is asking us to use the sword, the double-edged sword, guess what? We're going to find places in the Bible that God, Jesus Christ Himself, is using the two-edged sword. Okay. Now, look at Revelation chapter 1 and verse number 12. Revelation chapter 1 and verse number 12. This is John speaking about a voice that he hears. And he says, And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. Drop down to verse number 16. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ speaks, it is a two-edged sword. What is the word of God described as? A two-edged sword. Listen, if God speaks, if Jesus speaks, that's the word of God. And so it makes sense that it's a two-edged sword. Okay. So the words that Christ speaks are the same words that you hold in your hands today. It cuts both ways. Go to the next chapter. Go to Revelation chapter 2, verse number 12. Revelation chapter 2 and verse number 12. And if you know your book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 2 goes on and starts teaching on the seven churches of the book of Revelation. Okay. And this is what Jesus Christ says to the church in Pergamos. Look at Revelation chapter 2 and verse number 12. It says, And to the angel of the church in Pergamos writes, These things save he which have the sharp sword with two edges. All right. So this is what Jesus has to say for this church. Drop down to verse number 15. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate, repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. So what do we learn there? The church of Pergamos had bad doctrine. Okay. These Nicolaitans, I don't know exactly what they've taught. What we know for sure, it was false doctrine. It was so false, not just a mistake, not just an error, not just another interpretation. It was so bad that God says, I hate that doctrine that is being taught in the church in Pergamos. So what's the solution? He says, Look, listen, either you repent, either you get rid of that, or I'm going to come with a sharp two-edged sword that comes out of my mouth. I'm going to come and fix that. And so Brethren, what do we learn from that teaching? That the way we get false doctrine out of our church, the way we get false doctrine out of our lives is through the two-edged sword. Okay. And this is why Bible preaching must be with the two-edged sword. This is why we must use verses. This is why we must back up everything we say with the Word of God. And preachers, whatever you say, whatever opinion you have, whatever you say, in the back of your mind, as you're preparing to preach, say what verse do I have that reinforces this? You know? Now, am I going to always quote it? No. Hey, but if someone comes and asks me a question later and says, Hey, can you show me that in the Bible? I'll at least have a verse, you know, that gives me the reason why I said that in the first place. You don't have to quote every verse. Okay. But at least have your verses in the back of your mind or on paper that, you know, supports what you have to say. Okay. This is how we get false doctrine out of our lives. This is how we get false doctrine out of our church. Are we always, are we going to be able to always get rid of, like, are we never going to have false doctrine? Listen, as long as we're made of flesh and blood, as long as we have the old man there, you know, and the pride of man, you know, it's always going to creep in. It's always going to be there. I'm always going to be affected somehow. I hope not. My desire is to preach with the fullness of the power of the Spirit of God. But as long as we are flesh and blood, we are going to make some mistakes from time to time. But I would hate for Jesus to say, Hey, you've got a doctrine in your church that I hate. That would be pretty bad. Okay. But listen, if we just make sure we preach, we have our supporting verses, we have the Word of God, that's going to help keep our church clean. Okay. So the two-edged sword, what we see here, can be used in the local church. All right. Makes sense, right? Jesus Christ wants to give that two-edged sword for us to use. Now drop down to verse, or actually go to chapter 19. Go to Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. So we use the two-edged sword of the Word of God to teach good doctrine, but also to tear down false doctrine. Okay. To tear down false doctrine, but also teach good doctrine. Now, you know, I don't, as a pastor, I don't spend a lot of time tearing down false doctrine. From time to time I do. Like the one I remember the most clearly, most recent was when I was going through the end time series, and I was preaching on the post-treat pre-raft rapture. At the same time, I was tearing down the pre-treat rapture. Okay. So we're using the Word of God for two things. But I think like what you see here, the reason, you know, Jesus wants them to use the sword, or he's going to use the sword himself, is because there was false doctrine in the church. Okay. So it's not like I'm on this, as your pastor, I'm not on this, you know, I'm not trying to find like every false doctrine that's out there in Christendom and trying to take them down. Obviously, if they start to come into our church, I'm going to start caring a lot more about that. In fact, a lot of false doctrines I don't even know. Because like most of my life I went to decent churches. It's just sometimes I'm talking to you guys, and you're like, yeah, my church taught this. It's crazy. So usually I learn it from you guys. But, you know, obviously, I probably, you know, when I look at other preachers online where they preach a lot against false doctrine, I'm not saying that's bad. I'm just saying like for now, I don't really see any really major issues within our personal church. But if there was, I would definitely, you know, tear that down with the Word of God. Okay. So we see the effect there of the Bible. Now Revelation chapter 19 verse 11. Revelation 19 verse 11. And this one kind of boggles my mind a little bit, you know, and it kind of makes me reflect on the sword that we do have, how powerful it is. Revelation 19, sorry, verse 11. It says, That's speaking about Jesus Christ coming, right? The second coming. Drop down to verse number 15. Verse 15, it says, Listen, God, Jesus wants to use that sharp sword in our church. Does it come into time? Without sword, in the fullness of its power, in the mouth of God, it can actually tear down nations. Physically, I'm talking about now, right? I mean, we're talking about the sharp two-edged sword going to the soul and spirit. We're talking about spiritual application there. Well, that same sword somehow is going to destroy the enemies of God. I mean, I don't know what that looks like. I don't know. Is Jesus just going to speak and people just going to be torn apart? I think that's likely, okay? He's just going to speak the word of God, the sharp two-edged sword. And it says here, Drop down to verse number 20. The beast was taken. Of course, the beast there is the Antichrist. Was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and then that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Look at verse 21. And the remnant was slain with the sword of him that sat upon the sword which sword proceedeth out of his mouth whose fowls were filled with their flesh. These are birds filled with the flesh of these armies that set themselves up against Jesus Christ. He destroys them just by the voice of his mouth, the sharp two-edged sword that comes out of his mouth. Brethren, this is no different and I don't fully understand this. It's no different to the book you hold in your hands. That Jesus can take down his enemy with that two-edged sword with you holding your hands. The power of the words in that book is the same power that Jesus Christ uses to destroy these wicked nations, to destroy the Antichrist, these armies of the Antichrist. Now if that doesn't boggle your mind, I don't know. This is where something very spiritual becomes very physical in the hands of Jesus Christ. So look, that same weapon that Jesus Christ uses to destroy his enemies is the same weapon we have. This is why it's called the sword of the spirit. It's a powerful weapon. It's an attacking weapon, the Bible. And so I'm going to read to you. If you guys can please go to Isaiah now. Go to Isaiah chapter 11. Go to Isaiah chapter 11. Now just for confirmation of this, I'm going to read to you in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, confirmation of Christ and the sword coming out of his mouth. You're going to Isaiah 11. I'm going to read to you from 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse number 7, which reads, For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. Now if you know your Bible, it's just talking about the Antichrist being ascended, because then in verse number 8 it says, And then shall the wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Is that consistent with the book of Revelation? Absolutely. Through the spirit of his mouth. What is the word of God called? The sword of the spirit. The two-edged sword, which we saw that Jesus Christ will use to destroy the Antichrist. Now, when he talks about the spirit of his mouth, and we talk about the Bible, what does the Bible say about itself? In 2 Timothy 3.16, it says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So all scripture, the Bible, is given by inspiration of God. Now, what does the word inspiration mean? Well, it means basically the word inspire. You know, the word inspire, normally when you use the word inspire, you're talking about, you know, what is it? I'm trying to think. To inspire is kind of like influence, all right? You say, oh man, you're an inspiration to me. You're kind of saying, hey, you've influenced me to do something, all right? I want to be a little bit more like you. I want to accomplish what you've been able to accomplish. You've really helped me along, and you've inspired me. So we understand that in context of today, but actually what it means in the Bible to inspire, and this is also a dictionary definition, is to breathe in, okay? To expire is to breathe out. You know, today we would use the words inhale and exhale, okay? And so when the Bible says that it's given by inspiration of God, it means that it's breathed by God. It's God breathed, okay? Now the Bible is again called the word of God. Now listen, in order for you to speak, in order for you to say words, you have to breathe. I mean, this is an activity for the kids later on. This is what I want you to try doing. I want you to try to get all the air out of your lungs. Don't breathe in and try to talk and see how long you go, okay? Time yourselves. See who can talk the longest. Take all the air out of your mouth. Don't breathe in and just try to talk out. Let's see how long you go, okay? And so when it says inspiration of God, it's because God is speaking. It's his word, and as he speaks, he's breathing. It's inspired by God. It's God breathed. It's a spirit that comes out of his mouth, okay? And we can hold it in our hands. How precious then should the Bible be in our hands when we know Jesus Christ will defeat the Antichrist with the same words that I can read every day in my life? And listen, just like it destroys the Antichrist, it's going to hurt you a little bit as well, like I said, right? It's gonna, it's like it can be used in church. It could be used in your own personal reading. You read it, it cuts through. Jesus, I come short of what you want. I need to change this. Help me change this. That's the work of the word of God. You're in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse number 1. Isaiah chapter 11 and verse number 1. And I love this portion of Isaiah because it's a prophecy of Jesus Christ, okay? But he covers his first coming and his second coming. He kind of puts it all together for us, okay? And I just want to show you just the consistency of the Bible, okay? It says here in verse number 1, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Okay, so that's Jesus Christ, okay? Verse number 2, And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of God, and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of God, and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. And look at verse number 4, But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. All right? So the first three verses are about Christ coming into the earth, right? Being born, coming that first time, but then when we get to verse number 4, and it's talking about him smiting the earth with the rod of his mouth, that's his second coming, okay? That's again the picture of him with a sword, the Spirit coming through his mouth, destroying his enemies through the breath of his lips, okay? The breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. That's the inspiration of God, the breath of his lips, the Word of God, the two-edged sword. You can see how all these things are very consistent for us in the Bible. Now you're in Isaiah. Go to Isaiah 49. Go to Isaiah 49, okay? Because we see, yes, Jesus Christ uses this sword, okay? He's ready to use it. He's ready for battle, okay? Isaiah 49. Because not only does Jesus use this sword, he wants his preachers to use it. He wants his people to have the same sword in their own mouths, okay? Isaiah 49 and verse number 1. Isaiah 49 and verse number 1 says, Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far. The Lord hath called me from the womb. From the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. Look at verse number 2. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword. All right? So Isaiah's going to be used by God as a great preacher, as a great prophet, and he says, God has made my mouth like a sword. Okay, so what does this mean? It means that what he's going to preach is the Word of God. Hey, we don't have any power in ourselves. I don't have great wisdom, brethren. You know, I was telling Christina last night, I said, you know, I don't think I'm that great of a pastor. I don't think I'm that great. I think I'm just a regular guy, but thank God for his Word. It makes me look better than I am. So much better. All right, so much more wisdom because it's not my wisdom. As long as I'm preaching and teaching God's Word, he can use my mouth as a sharp sword. Hey, he can use your mouth as a sharp sword, all of our mouths as a sharp sword. That's his desire. It says here, In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft. In his quiver hath he hid me, and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have laboured in vain, and have spent my strength for naught and in vain, yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. Verse number five, And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. So what we see here is that God is using Isaiah to preach to the people of Israel, okay? And yet, you know, they're not always going to hear, right? So the first thing you want to notice there with the preacher, he uses the sword of his mouth, which comes from God, God gave him that sword, to preach to the people of God. And of course when we talk about Israel in these days, they were known in the Old Testament as the people of God. Okay, so that's point number one, right? We're preaching to the people. Just like we saw in the book of Revelation. We're using that sharp two-edged sword in the church. It's good. That's the right place to use it. But look at verse number six. It says, And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. Then look at this, I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. And of course that light to the Gentiles ultimately is Jesus Christ. That he would come and not just be a light to Israel, but a light to the surrounding nations. And of course the Gentiles did not know God at this point in time. What am I saying? I'm saying the sword is to be used, yes, for the people of God in church, that sharp sword, but then we need to go to the Gentiles. We need to go to the non-believers. And guess what we take with us? The same sword. The same sword to preach to the unbelieving world, the Gentiles. So when you go door to door soul winning or you're preaching the gospel to somebody, listen, you need to use the right sword. Your intellect, your ability to reason and argue is not going to get anybody saved. It's not going to get anybody saved. It's only the sword of the word of God. Don't just think it's only for church. No, it's when you talk to the unbelieving world, you want them to receive the light of the Gentiles, you want them to receive the light of Jesus Christ, you must use the weapon of the sword from your mouth, okay? What I like about the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is how many times the prophets say, Thus saith the Lord. You know why they do that? Thus saith the Lord. They're saying, look, I'm not saying this. I've got no strength for my own. I've got nothing that I can say that's going to change you. He says, but I'm saying what the Lord has said. Thus saith the Lord. It appears 413 times in the Bible, okay? Jeremiah, 147 times in Jeremiah alone. In Ezekiel, 126 times. In Isaiah, 35 times. Those are the three books that have this mentioned the most. But you'll find it throughout. You'll find even Moses saying, Thus saith the Lord, okay? And again, preachers, when you get up to preach, it's Thus saith the Lord, okay? You may not say that phrase, but you're reading from the Word of God. You're telling people this is what God says. It's not necessarily what I may personally agree or not. It doesn't matter. This is what God says. This must be right. And if I don't agree with it, if you don't agree with it, we're wrong. And let it do the job. Let it cut through and fix you up so you can be aligned with what God has to say. In Ezekiel 11, verse 5, it says this, And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak. Thus saith the Lord, Thus have you said, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. Say, God, how do you know the things that come into my mind? Because the Word of God, you know, pierces through, right? We saw, right? The discernible thoughts, right? The heart, the soul, and the spirit, it has that effect in our lives. So, you know, preachers, once again, we preach using the Word of God. Next thing that I want to quote here, I thought this was quite interesting. I was looking up references to two-edged sword. And in Psalm, you don't need to turn there, but Psalm 149, verse 6, it says this, Let the high praises of God be in their mouth. Okay, we know that, that in our mouth, we ought to praise God. But then it says this, and a two-edged sword in their hand. You know what? I've heard preachers mock this verse. And say what? Does God expect us to go to church and hold a sword in our hands? Is that what he's teaching? No, what's the two-edged sword? What do we learn? The Bible. Listen, when you come to church, get into the habit, if you don't do it already, bring your Bible. You know, not just sing praises to God out of your mouth, but have that two-edged sword in your hand. And look, I'm not sure if a smartphone really counts. All right? It's like, Amen preacher, smartphone in the air. I don't think it has the same effects, right? But you got that physical copy of the word of God in paper form, you know, you put that up, Amen. Okay, the two-edged sword in your hand. Please, you know, come to church with your Bible. Now, please go to Hebrews chapter 5 once again. So we started the reading from Hebrews chapter 5. So we'll go back there. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 13. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 13. Now, where's Emilia? Emilia's here. How old is Emilia? Four? All right. What if I had a two-edged sword, like a physical one right now? All right. It's sharp. Two wedges are sharp. You can cut and I go, Emi, here's a sword for you, for you to play with. Would that be responsible of me as a parent? I mean, she'd do a lot of damage, right? I mean, she'd either chop up her siblings or cut herself up, okay? Because she's unskillful. She's unskillful with the word. Look at Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 13. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 13. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is our babe. Okay, Emi would be a babe with a two-edged sword, okay? Now, this is what you need to understand about the Bible. You need to become skillful, all right? Now, the two-edged sword was used for battle. It was used for going to war. Would you just give that sword to a little child to take on Goliath? All right, you'd want somebody who has some skill. You'd want somebody who has some training, someone that's used that sword before, someone that can be effective at that sword. Because, brethren, if I just had that two-edged sword right now and I just started, hey, guys, and I started flying, hey, catch. You'd be caught up. It caused some serious damage. And you know what's going on in many churches today? A lot of serious damage. A lot of people that are untrained using the word of God that cuts two ways and they're coming, and these are false teachers, these are false prophets bringing another gospel, another Jesus, another spirit, preaching all kinds of weird doctrine. And I remember my friend used to say to me, how is it, you know, that we have all these churches, we all read from the same Bible, and we all come with these different ideas? Yeah, because they're babes, or maybe not even babes. Maybe they're probably not even saved. That's not there, right? I mean, you've got to be saved to begin with. You've got to be a soldier of God to begin with to be able to even use that weapon, okay? But if you're a new Christian, or if you're someone that's not read the Bible cover to cover, if you're not really familiar with the Bible, you know, your place is to just be a babe. There's nothing wrong with being a babe, okay? Grow, learn to become skillful, learn to use the sword slowly, okay? But be somebody that's willing to say, hey, I need some time, I need to just get under some good preaching, under some good men of God, listen to the Bible, okay? And as time progresses, hey, you can get a sermon out once in a while, as you get familiar with certain things, you start to grow, you become more skillful, and as you grow, you'll become more and more attention. Now I'm not talking about necessarily the guy that stands behind the pulpit and preaches behind the pulpit, I'm saying mothers, you need to learn how to be skillful to teach your children. And children, you have an opportunity to become even more skillful than many of us adults, because we've started to learn the Bible later in life. You guys have the opportunity, young in life, to become extremely skillful, extremely smart with how to use that two-edged sword, all right? I want you to cause some damage to the kingdom of Satan as you grow up, okay? Now Hebrews chapter five, verse number 14, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age. The full age is an adult there. Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So notice there's an exercise that takes place. There's training, you've got to exercise in the word of God, you need to train in the word of God to help you discern between what is good and evil. Now babes are not in that place to discern between good and evil, they just need to get under the word of God, listen to good men preaching. And so what I want to cover now for the rest of this sermon are just some thoughts and ideas to help you become skillful in the word of God, okay? Because again, we're instructed to put on the whole armour, we're instructed to get that sword, the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, all right? Now you want to use that sword, you want to go to battle and you don't want to hurt yourself with that sword, you want to go hurt the enemy, okay? You want to cause some damage to the kingdom of the devil, so first point that I have here is read it every day, every day. Listen, if you want to get good at anything, you need to do it every day. When I was learning piano, I wish I... I already told you guys last sermon I was a bad student, okay? But when I was learning piano, we had to practice a minimum of half an hour every day. And look, I skipped many days, I never really progressed very far, okay? I'm glad I can read music but I just didn't progress very far. But the instruction was you got to practice at minimum every day. And I don't remember the exact hours, but professional pianists that play like in orchestras and stuff, they practice like four or five hours every day. You think, man, they're already so good, they don't need to practice yet, they still practice every day. They still refine their skills every day. You know, you want to be a professional athlete, you need to practice every day. Every day if you want to be a soccer star or something, you go and you got to train. I'm not saying you should do that. It's a waste of your life. But I'm just saying to be a professional, you need to spend every day of your life working at it. If you want to be skillful at the word of God, how often do you think you need to read it? Every day, okay? If you want to be good at anything. Number two, ask the Holy Spirit for understanding. You can only understand it with the Holy Spirit. You can only understand it in the new man. One of the things you want to do when you wake up in the morning, you're back in that old flesh and you're like, do I get out of bed? I don't really want to read my Bible right now. And you need to shake off that old man. You need to walk in that new man, okay? If you pick up the Bible in the old man, you're not going to get very far, okay? You're going to be able to read it and you're like, I probably forgot what I just read in the old man. And so you need to really get into that new man. You need to ask the Holy Spirit to help you, to guide you in what you're about to read. Don't panic if you don't understand it. Just put it aside. Maybe God doesn't want you to learn that right now. Maybe later in your life that's the truth of what you just read is going to come to you, all right? But you need to ask the Holy Spirit for understanding. You cannot understand the Bible in your natural flesh. The Bible says the natural man receives not the things of God, okay? Number three, I've already covered this, but listen to preaching from men of God, okay? Listen to preaching from men of God. Now listen, guys, and look, I'm not criticizing anybody here, you know, but sometimes I'm preaching and I know people are tuning out, okay? Sometimes I see the kids start to doze off, all right? It's easy to tune out, okay? I've tuned out. How many times I've gone to church and I've just sat there and I'm like, church services, I'm like, what was that about? I don't know. My brain went somewhere else. But listen, if you're already making the effort to come to church, you know, for me it takes a long time to get the family ready. You're putting all this effort in. You're driving a certain distance. Listen, make the most of the opportunity you have to listen to preaching. Listen to preaching, okay? You can doze off after church. You can relax after church. This is your opportunity to learn to listen to preaching and make sure you listen to preaching from men of God, okay? You have church, which gives you the benefit of fellowship, gives you the benefit of singing his praises, but then you can go home and you can listen to some great preachers online. You know, I'm not envious of great preachers online. I think they're great. I think they can be a great help to you, okay? But primarily you want to find yourself a good local church to be part of and listen to the preaching from there. The next thing is when you're listening to preaching from men of God, number four, follow along in the Bible. Please take your Bibles, as I already mentioned, follow along. Now, I usually use a lot of verses. I'm not going to tell you to turn to every verse, but there are going to be some verses that I tell you to turn to. And listen, brethren, I really encourage you to turn to those verses. You might say, I already know that verse, or I can hear you say it so I can hear what you're saying. You're missing something very special. You're missing something very special. I can't tell you how many times I've been in church, pastor has said, turn to whatever. You know, so I've turned there, and we read it together, and I'm reading that passage, and I go, oh, yeah, I see what he's saying. I know exactly where he's going. Yeah, that's a good point, pastor. And then he preaches it, and his point has nothing to do with what I just said. I say, why is that? Because God just gave me a special sermon. Not a sermon at a church level, just a little sermon at an individual level. I can't tell you how many times that has happened. It's not that what he said is contradictive. It's just another view of that passage. I've got, man, that's exactly where you're going. It's like, pastor's going somewhere else. Why? Oh, God's telling me. And the only reason I saw that is because I opened my Bible, and I read along, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me through his word. I'm going to tell you how many mini sermons you can receive in one proper sermon, sermons that are directly to you at an individual level with the word of God. And you're not going to have that if you're not taking your Bibles to church, if you're not following along with what you read. That's important. Number five, ask questions. Don't be embarrassed. Please feel free to ask me questions after the service. I'm not, you know, you want to offend me. And here's the thing. I can potentially get things wrong. So maybe your question will help me get it right if I got something wrong. So there's no embarrassment to that. To me, it's a win-win. I can help you learn something. And hey, maybe I didn't think something through very well, and that can help me understand that better. So please feel free to ask questions. That's fine. But at the same time, be willing to answer my question. So if you ask a question and you come from a certain perspective, I will give you my answer, but then I'll probably ask you, why do you have that position? Why do you believe that? You know, it goes two ways. You know, it's iron sharpener fine, right? It goes two ways. So I'm happy to answer your questions, but you also need to be able to answer your question, the questions that I ask in return. Because by you answering that question might help you understand my answer in the first place, okay, when you're able to compare those two things. So ask questions. That's important. The next thing, and I say this, and maybe I say this too much, but I really mean it. Look for two or three witnesses to establish your doctrine, okay? Don't look for some cryptic verse that may or may not say that. Look for black and white. Anybody can read that passage, and that's what it says. Salvation by grace through faith and not of works. That's clear, okay? And the doctrine you stand on that you preach, especially doctrine that's going to cause division, doctrine that's going to get you in trouble, hey, have at least two or three verses that support that. Not support it. Teach that plainly. There are verses that we can use that support or prop up a doctrine, okay? We can use many verses, but there are not so many verses that will necessarily clearly state what you believe, okay? So find those verses. Find those passages. Use them as part of your defence or part of your weapon, a sort of spirit. The next one is understand, and I can't tell you how many times I've seen cults or just bad preachers mess this up, okay? Understand the difference between God's commandments and a Bible story, okay? I can't tell you how many people make this mistake. Oh, there's nothing wrong with having multiple wives. Yes, there is. So many times. How many times does Jesus say that they twain? Two shall be one flesh, okay? Two shall be one flesh. One man, one woman, that's marriage. Just because good men of God in the Bible stuffed up doesn't mean it's your ticket to just go, oh, God doesn't mind. God's fine with you having multiple wives. Just because men in the Bible divorce their wives for wrong reasons doesn't mean it's fine for you to divorce your wife for wrong reasons, okay? There are commandments. That's what we're trying to follow. That's what we're trying to live by. There are stories to help us understand that people make mistakes. You know, we need to learn from this. We see men that are faithful to encourage us to be faithful to God, okay? We must understand the difference between God's commandments and a Bible story. The next one, and I've said this many times, I'm going to keep saying this because these are the errors that I see, okay? And even errors amongst my friends that I talk to, right, do not build doctrine from a parable or an illustration, okay? A parable or an illustration is to support an already established doctrine, okay? It's to just flesh out another doctrine to help you understand it from a visual perspective. But that visual, that story, that parable, you know, if you take that alone and you build your doctrine on that alone, you're going to get into really bad places. You're going to get into really bad doctrine by doing that, okay? The next one is memorize scripture. Memorize scripture. You want to be skillful at the Word of God? Hey, you don't always need to be carrying that Bible around with you. If you can memorize it, if you can quote passages, listen, especially as a soul winner, sometimes the guy at the door won't allow you, won't give you the chance to open the Word of God. In fact, as soon as you open it, they might just close the door on you. But if you've got them memorized, hey, you turn your mouth into that sharp sword, you quote the scripture, hey, you can get someone saved just by quoting them. The verses that you use out soul winning, okay? It's a powerful tool to memorize scripture. The next one I've got here is read the surrounding passages. Please read the surrounding passages. Build context. Now, as a pastor, I've had to learn this because there are a lot of things that, you know, when I came to being a pastor, that I believed certain verses said certain things, all right? But then I have, you know, I've got the time, I've got the hours, it's my job now to just sit there and read the passage, read it again, read it again, read the whole chapter, read the surrounding chapter, read the whole book, and then I'm like, man, that verse says nothing like what I thought it said. Like, I'm glad I spent the hours just studying this because I realize now the perception that I had of that verse is actually not teaching what it said, okay? And so you need to establish context. You need to read the surrounding passages. And, you know, this is important because I just said to you, you know, when you build doctrine, build it on two or three witnesses, okay? But again, get the context. You don't want to have this black and white verse that you think is black and white but then when someone else reads it around you, they realize this has nothing to do with what you just said, okay? So that can be pretty bad. Read the surrounding passages. And finally, Brevin, the last point that I have here is teach others. Teach others. And I said, this isn't just the job of men. Hey, when you go soloing in your teaching others, you're teaching people the gospel, that's a job for man, woman and child, okay? The Bible says in Romans 2.21, Thou therefore which teacheth another, teacheth thou not thyself. Thou that preacheth a man should not still, dost thou still. So what the Bible is saying here is when you teach another, you're actually teaching yourself, okay? And a lot of my sermons that I preach to you guys, I'm actually preaching to myself, okay? I'm actually, you know, preparing it. I've learned to, I've gained some wisdom, I've gained some knowledge, and I need to hear that. And so I preach it like I'm preaching to myself, but also preaching to you guys, okay? Teaching other people is a great way to gain more knowledge, to gain more understanding, okay? And again, mothers, your children, that's a great opportunity for you to teach, okay? You know, preachers behind the pulpit, you're teaching other people. It's going to help you learn, it's going to help you grow. You may say, look, I don't know if I'm prepared, I'm ready to preach behind the pulpit, I would always encourage you, if you're faithful to God, if you're faithful to church, if you're a soul winner, I would just encourage you, hey, find those opportunities, I'm open for you to preach behind the pulpit because I know if you preach, you're actually going to be teaching yourself as well. You're going to be gaining in knowledge, you're going to be gaining in wisdom, okay? So brethren, the whole armor of God, the sword of the Spirit, I hope you love your Bibles. You know, I hope it doesn't just sit on the bookshelf gathering dust because that's the same weapon that Jesus is going to use to destroy his enemies, okay? What a powerful weapon you have and if you just leave it on your bedside table and never use it, you know, you're missing out on fighting that spiritual war, okay? So please don't forget to read your Bibles. Let's pray.