Today we consider the Word of God in Spiritual Warfare.
Spiritual Warfare is that we would be more fully aware that there are battles both inside and outside of us that we cannot fully, so we must trust in our Lord who can fully see, and receive from him the spiritual weapon He gives to us.
He gives us, first, the ultimate weapon in the gift of Jesus’ victory for us.
The battle is the Lords. Jesus wins. Stand in the strength of His might.
Next, we considered the gift of prayer – even if it isn’t easy.
Finally, today we consider the Word of God.
Jesus speaks about this Word today specifically in saying Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.
Jeremiah in our Old Testament Reading speaks about the Word, that it is of God, and not of Jeremiah in saying, The Lord has sent me to prophecy…all the Words that you have heard. Now therefore men your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord, your God.
St. Paul in Ephesians 6, not part of our Readings today, says that we are to Put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil…and take up the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
What battles are happening inside of you?
Maybe some people know some of them, but likely no one knows all of them.
Maybe some people know some of them because the battles that are happening inside of you come outside of you sometimes.
When the thoughts become words and deeds.
I want you to imagine something I think I’ve asked you to imagine before.
Imagine that you are carrying a cup of liquid, kind of full, walking to the dining room table or something, and someone bumps you.
The question is: What spills out and the answer is the point of this, because the answer is – what spills out is whatever was in the cup.
If it was coffee, if it was coke, if it was water, that’s what spills out.
What spills out is whatever was in the cup.
And the point is this: when you get bumped, when someone sins against you, when someone does something to you, when some sort of suffering or trial comes your way, what will spill out is what is inside of you.
What is naturally inside of us is all sorts of sin.
Selfishness, anger, worry, greed, things like this.
Because that is what is naturally inside of us, as Christians, we constantly need to be filled with God and His Word.
Because there are battles happening inside, our Lord’s Word also needs to be inside.
Because when we get bumped, what will spill out is what is inside the cup, we constantly need our Lord to fill our cup with His Spirit and Word, so that when we get bumped,
trust in God comes out inside of despair,
love of neighbor comes out instead of selfishness,
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control comes out instead of….
Well…what otherwise might fill…[He man, you bumped me!]
Psalm 119 says How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding [???] it according to God’s Word…
That word “guard” means also to keep or keep watch.
It in the Hebrew is equivalent to what Jesus says to the woman who came up to Him and said, Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed” And Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!”
By being filled with God’s Word, He fights in us against all of the dangerous things that are inside of us.
The devil influencing our thoughts.
The flesh pulling us toward selfishness.
By hearing the Word of God, God fills us with His Spirit and with faith and love and begins to protect us.
If you want protection against the devil snaking his way into your thoughts, Lord, Lord, deliver us from evil, that is exactly what Jesus does when you hear His Word.
If you want protection against your fleshly temptations, Lord lead us not into temptation, that is exactly what Jesus does when you hear His Word.
If you want a connection with God that intimate and beautiful, even closer than a mom and her baby, that is exactly what Jesus does as you hear His Word.
Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breast at which you nursed. No, Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.
Today, you are filled with the good things He wants to give you.
His Spirit filled Word and all of the fruits that follow:
And what’s further amazing is that His Word creates in you those wants, those good wants and desires.
That you want to fight against your own sinful flesh, and the false world, and the crafty but deadly devil.
God awakens in you constantly the right wants. Without His Word, you wouldn’t have those wants.
The story in our Gospel lesson that captures this is that story of Jesus casting out a demon from a man that was mute. St. Matthew says this man was also blind and deaf, too.
What is inside of us, before God’s Word came inside of us and caused us to belief, was a deafness to His Word, a blindness to His light, a muteness to praying to Him and confessing Him before the world.
But Jesus still casts out demons and still opens our eyes and ears and mouth.
Jesus’ Word is powerful, casts out demons, rebukes unclean spirits –
Psalm 19 is a great Psalm that speaks about what Jesus’ Word does.
God in His Word,
revives the soul (19:7),
makes wise the simple (7),
rejoices the heart (8),
enlightens the eyes (8).
So we should desire it more than gold, even much fine gold,
God’s Word is sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb (19:10).
Jesus fills you with His Word. And His Word is Law and Gospel – and we constantly need both.
It’s spiritual warfare out there and in here.
What God in His Word does is fills you with repentance for all the sinful things that naturally fills you,
and gathers you to the One who died for you to fill you with His acceptance and love and forgiveness..
His Word fills you and calls you away from your sin, calls out the danger of your lack of fully keeping His Word, and warns that ultimate rejection of Him and His Word ends with being completely bound by the devil forever
and then, also preaches a joyful message of consolation that points you to Christ, your constant rescuer.
He is your God, your salvation,
the One whose Word can strengthen your faith that can extinguish the fiery darts of the evil One,
the One who gives you armor when all you realize that all your fleshly armor is going to fail you,
the one One who gives you peace.
Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.