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[0:00] All right, Brother Russ is going to come ahead. I told somebody today at work, I said, man, we got a guest speaker at church tonight.

[0:11] He goes, oh, really? And I said, yeah, he's not very good. So bear with me. But I'll tell you what is good, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

[0:22] And believe it or not, that's what I'm here to do, is tell you a little about him and about things he likes and things he's done for us.

[0:34] And so if we open our Bibles this evening, if you'll turn to Revelation. That's where we're going to start, and it's going to be Revelation 116.

[0:52] But before we get there, this evening, like I said, Brother Rich stole my message. But it was good, Brother. It was better than I could have preached, so I'm grateful.

[1:05] Amen. But it's amazing that we had the same thoughts. Right? I hadn't talked to him. He hadn't talked to me. And it was about the heart. About the heart.

[1:15] And you have to have a fixed heart, as he taught. Amen. And so I was thinking about that, and I thought, you know, what fixes the heart?

[1:30] And because last Sunday I taught about the bow and the arrow, and I thought, well, let's continue with some more weapons of the faith.

[1:43] Amen. Some more weapons. And I like weapons. Weapons are good. Like I said, as a little boy, I loved them. And so this evening, I want to give you a little bit about the history of the sword and its application in the Bible.

[2:00] And we're going to look at a couple of things, biblical parallels and practical applications. So just to get started this evening, swords were made out of metal.

[2:12] Amen. There were no swords before metal. You could not find a piece of rock big enough to create a sword out of, I just forgot, obsidian.

[2:26] Out of obsidian. So, you know, in the beginning, one day you chipped rock and made sharp things out of the city in which is like glass that was formed from volcanic eruptions and cooled quickly.

[2:41] You were lucky if you could get something this long. So swords are new in the face of that aspect. Amen. Because just metal has always been around, but we just didn't know how to get to it.

[2:54] At first, the swords were more like daggers. Okay. And you asked me, well, what's the difference between a sword and a dagger?

[3:05] Basically, the length. Okay. Swords are generally over 18 inches long in blade length, typically 24. And in the later days, they got to be almost 36 inches long.

[3:17] And daggers, like swords, are double-edged most of the time. That's the difference between a knife and a dagger. A knife is generally considered to be a tool to work with, to cut things with.

[3:32] And when you have a knife, I mean, think of the simplest knife we have, a butter knife. It is designed and built for one purpose, to spread things, not to cut little kids' fingers off, not to be overly sharp.

[3:45] And it's a tool. And then as we got further along with these tools, they became, you know, they morphed over time.

[3:56] And in the beginning, swords were made out of copper. And copper is a naturally occurring mineral, first mined and smelted in Mesopotamia. And the Romans acquired their copper a little later on from Cyprus.

[4:12] And copper has a melting point of 1984 degrees. The problem with copper is that it's soft, and it doesn't hold an edge well.

[4:23] And it tarnishes very, very quickly. So you say, well, what's the deal with 1984 degrees? Why is that important? Well, I'm glad you asked. Thanks for the hand back there.

[4:35] Oh, that was three doors down, wasn't it? Anyway, the reason I brought that up is because your standard campfire only burns at 1,100 degrees.

[4:49] So when you had a forest fire and things were happening and you wanted to get fire, you went and got it. And you only get to 1,100 degrees.

[5:00] And it wasn't until somebody probably by accident figured out that if you take charcoal, which is basically wood that is burned incompletely by a lack of oxygen.

[5:14] So I don't know if you know that. That's how charcoal is. So if you want to make charcoal, you take a bunch of logs, you build a pit, and you start it on fire, and then you cover it up.

[5:26] And you just leave a couple little vent holes, and that smolders and smolders, and eventually it goes out, and that's what's left, charcoal. And you can buy charcoal, you know, in bags.

[5:38] And the deal with charcoal is if you use billows or forced air. So here's what happened probably. One day a forest fire caught on fire, caught the forest on fire.

[5:51] Tree fell down. The rain came. Mud slide came, covered up the tree, and the tree kept smoldering. And then someone came along and said, man, there's steam coming out of the ground.

[6:01] So they dig it, and lo and behold, it starts getting some embers, and coals burning back up, and the wind's blowing. And when the wind hits that, because of that added oxygen, now that wood really starts to burn, and it can get up to temperatures of 2,500 degrees plus.

[6:20] You can actually push it almost to 3,000. So without that, you couldn't have metallurgy, right? If you just had a campfire or a wood fire, you're not going to get metallurgy unless you go to coal or charcoal, right?

[6:35] And coal is mined out of the ground. That's naturally occurring charcoal, basically. All right. So with metallurgists in Mesopotamia, the metallurgists in Mesopotamia found that if you mixed a little tin to the copper, you came out with a metal they called bronze.

[6:53] And you guys have probably heard of the Bronze Age. And when this happened, when they added this tin to it, this bronze could be smelted, melted at a temperature under 2,500 degrees, more like 2,200.

[7:08] And they were able to melt it, form cast, pour it into it, and create things with it. So by that advent now, you could get those minerals together, build this thing, and start creating things longer and longer and making things harder and harder.

[7:26] Then the metallurgists in the Hittites, we've all heard of them. The Hittites were credited with the decline of the Bronze Age.

[7:42] And you say, well, what's up with that? Well, you know, we had sticks and stones and rocks. Then we came into this area of smelting and getting copper and then the bronze.

[7:55] Well, the Hittites found out that if you melted iron, you could create something that was harder. And that was what we generally call today the Iron Age, the age that came after.

[8:12] And that's where you started making daggers, swords. And through their advancements in smelting or iron ore, the fourth most common element in the earth's crust, they were able to create a metal that would be cast and worked into a much stronger tool.

[8:28] And the biggest thing, it could hold a sharper edge. So bronze was because it was soft, the edge would get dulled easily. But iron, they found out, wow, we can put a pretty sharp edge on this and then make it better.

[8:46] So another quick aside, later it was found that if you mix zinc with the copper, you get brass. Okay, and we read about that in the Bible all the time. Brass could be polished to achieve a luster almost like gold.

[8:58] And it did not corrode as fast as copper. Brass was used mainly for decorative applications because it was soft as well and didn't hold an edge.

[9:09] But it'd polish up just like gold. And so a lot of times when you didn't have enough money for the gold, then you would use the brass. And like I said, it's a false gold, if you will, because it tarnishes badly and it will actually eat itself alive.

[9:29] The tarnish it creates just keeps going further and further in and wrecks it. So the Roman sword, getting back to swords, the Roman sword or gladius was crafted of iron and was about 24 inches long.

[9:44] Blacksmiths hardened the iron by coating the red hot sword blade with coal dust. This formed a hard carbon coating on the blade. This made it even more resistant to nicks and able to hold even a sharper edge.

[9:59] This is what we would now call steel because steel is iron and carbon. And when you mix those, you get different degrees of steel.

[10:10] And the best knives and swords today are still made out of hard carbon steel just for it. So here back in the Roman days, who figured out that you could rub on a red hot sword and make it harder?

[10:25] And that's exactly what happened. So the Romans used their swords both offensively and defensively. Used that in a defensive manner.

[10:36] The sword along with other armor pieces like the shield enabled the shoulder to deflect. So you had a shield and you had a sword. And if someone swung their sword at you, you could take your shield and block it and then stack with your sword.

[10:52] And pull back. And that's what would happen. Someone would swing, block, stab, or swing, block, stab. Well, the Romans got pretty crappy. So what they decided that if you took your shield and you line up a bunch of men and everybody, they say a command, ho!

[11:11] And the guys take a step forward and put up their shield. And as they do that, the other people swing their sword and they stack. And as they do that, they move up.

[11:23] Ho! And that's how they would advance with this line. And then, of course, they have the archers behind that were shooting the people in the back. So that's basic warfare.

[11:33] And the sword also can be used defensively. And you see that with Zorro, right? When they're sword fighting, the guy swings, he blocks it with the sword.

[11:44] And then he swings and blocks it with the sword. So it's not only an offensive weapon. But if somebody's swinging their shield at you to knock you upside to hit, you can use your sword to beat them back, if that makes any sense.

[11:59] All right? So that's the basic history about the sword. And now let's get into the biblical parallels and practical applications. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to be up here this evening.

[12:14] And, again, I know I say it all the time, but, Lord, we are so blessed to live in this great nation. And as Gary pointed out last week, Father, it is still a great nation.

[12:26] We're free. We're able to gather together. We don't have people knocking at the doors. We don't have to do it in secret. And I pray, Lord, that you'd enable us to continue to be able to do that.

[12:39] We thank you for the word of God. We thank you for Jesus Christ. And we thank you, Lord, for your deity, Lord, being the creator of all. And, Lord, we just pray now that as we look at these few parallels and principles, that it might be a blessing to your people as much as it has been to me preparing this.

[13:00] For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. So Revelation 116. 116. And he hath in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.

[13:17] And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not.

[13:29] I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death.

[13:42] Amen. In these verses, the Apostle Paul had a vision of Jesus while he was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos. And just John described the Lord as having a sharp two-edged sword.

[13:55] Amen. Coming out of his mouth. Later, turn back to Revelation 1911. Later, John wrote in Revelation 1911 through 16, And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse.

[14:08] And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness, he's just Judge and Make War. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.

[14:19] And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with the vesture dipped in blood. And his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

[14:36] And then in 15, And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he shall treadeth the winepresses of the fierceness and wrath of the Almighty God.

[14:52] The mighty warrior described here. King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen. Amen. And we should take note that he is a living God.

[15:07] Amen. Thank God he's living. He wasn't buried somewhere and never seen again. Amen. Like so many of the other religions hold to their people. They're gone.

[15:18] They don't know where they went. Some of them say we have the body here and others there. But not our God. They don't have his body. Amen. Because he's a living God. Jesus, who is the Word, John 11, 1, has graciously given us his written word, the Bible.

[15:38] The written word was given to men by inspiration of God. And it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.

[15:49] The word is made alive by the Holy Spirit of God, causing it to be filled with divine energy and ability. And that energy and ability is ours if we practice with it.

[16:03] Amen. And that's what we're going to go into a little bit. Isaiah 55, 11 says, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.

[16:17] And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Jesus said in John 6, 63, The words that I speak unto you are the Spirit, and they are life.

[16:30] Amen. The Word of God, the sword. God's Word, our sword of the Spirit, is able to cut down the stronghold of Satan. Tragically, however, many Christians feel to wield their sword.

[16:46] Actually, take it out and use it. They display it on a rack in the hall, the family Bible, where they have to dust it every other month so it looks like it was used.

[16:59] Or up on the wall, I've seen some beautiful decorative swords hanging up on people's walls. But let me tell you, up on the wall, it doesn't do any good.

[17:10] And if that sword is made out of brass, it might look good all polished up, but it's not a usable weapon. Amen. The first swing, and it's going to crack, bend, or shatter.

[17:24] This passive approach merely gives the enemy a greater advantage. Amen. And that's what we need to think about. The Lord said to Israel leaders Joshua in Joshua 1, 8 and 9, By actively using the sword, the sword of the Scripture, Joshua would have a huge advantage over his enemies.

[17:58] Because as we found out, when Moses had his hands up, Joshua was swinging away. He won the battle. And why did Moses have his hands in the air?

[18:11] Because he said, If I have my hands in the air, we're going to win. That wasn't God. Right? But he knew enough about God. He had read enough about God.

[18:22] He had communed enough with God to go ahead and do that. Psalm 149, 6 declares to the people of God, Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand.

[18:36] That double-edged sword is the Word of God. And I'm telling you, it's a powerful spiritual weapon. And we need to realize that.

[18:47] We need to understand that it's perfectly suited for spiritual battles. Okay? That sword. Spiritual battles. We have to be aware of that.

[19:00] For the word of Hebrews 4, 12, We all know, For the Word of God is 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.

[19:16] Whoa, wait a minute. This ties to the heart? It does. Amen? This sword ties to the heart. And you're going to wield your sword as you have kept your heart.

[19:31] Amen? So if you keep it right, you're going to yield it and swing it better. It's important to realize also that when we take up the sword of God's Word and live by it, Sometimes it can affect our family and friends.

[19:47] And they may become offended at us and of us. Amen? Matthew 10, 34 says, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.

[19:58] I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, And a daughter against her mother, And a daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law, And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

[20:12] It's not always going to be skipping stones and, I don't know, just good times.

[20:27] It's just sometimes it's going to be tough. Amen? And I'm telling you that no matter what hobby, no matter what, yeah, we'll call it hobby you take up, Sometimes it can be difficult.

[20:47] Because sometimes you're going to say, Sorry, I can't go because I have to put my three hours of practice in. I think you've heard messages where it says 10,000 hours to become a master of practice.

[21:02] Amen? And sometimes you just have to say, Sorry, I can't do that. Sorry, I can't go there because I have to practice. And that's what splits things up. The wife says, Let's go do this and do that.

[21:14] And I says, Sorry, I've got to practice. I've got to practice with my sword. I've got to get in God's word. Amen? And do what I need to do then. Jesus continued by saying that those who love their father, mother, son, or daughter more than him, are not worthy of him.

[21:35] You see, our devotion must be first towards God. And that's a tough one. I mean, I love my kids. I love my wife. But God first.

[21:48] Otherwise, I'm going to get the order fouled up. Amen? And we've got to realize that. We have to sometimes make difficult choices to stand alone against the actions or opinions of those close to us.

[22:01] Do right. If you get up in the morning, do right. And things will go okay. Amen? Jesus promised in Matthew 15, 11, and 12, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

[22:24] Rejoice and be exceeding glad. For great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. You have to remember you're not the only one out there.

[22:36] You're not the first and you're not going to be the last. And because of that, you can look and see that it's the proper action to take.

[22:48] You get results. If you practice, if you become a master with that sword, it's going to be usable for a defense and an offense.

[23:02] Using the sword of God's word requires many hours of practice. Don't wait until the heat of the battle. Don't wait until the burglar is inside the house and you're going to run over and get that sword of brass off the fireplace mantel because it's not going to work.

[23:20] Rather, store up scripture in your mind and heart on a regular basis through memorization and meditation. Memorization and meditation. 2 Timothy 2, Study to show thyself to prove unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

[23:41] The more you memorize and meditate upon God's word, the more natural it will become to wield your sword. You know, memorization, what does that mean?

[23:52] It means to commit a passage to memory. Commit it to memory. Just like we were doing tonight. Amen. You committed that passage to memory.

[24:04] While meditation means to thoroughly process, ponder, think about, and apply a message of scripture. Those are the two things you need to do.

[24:18] Many Christians neglect the word of God because they don't have time. But we all have the same amount of time. Amen. There's only 24 hours in a day. 60 minutes in an hour.

[24:31] That's it. 52 weeks in a year. 12 months. That's it. There is no more. David said to the Lord in Psalm 119, 148, Mine eyes prevent the night watches that I might meditate in thy word.

[24:48] You know, certain activities may not be wrong of them of themselves, but putting them first at the expense of God's word is.

[24:59] Even reading books about the Bible and commentaries about the Bible. That's all good and well done. But if you only got an hour, don't spend 45 minutes in the commentaries or the books.

[25:13] Spend it in the word. Amen. Because that's where you're going to get the proven result. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5, 15 and 17, See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

[25:34] Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Amen. Time can be evil. I mean, it gets away from me.

[25:45] I get to work early so I can have some time in the book and stuff. And pretty soon I say, Man, was that just a ding? And I open an email. And pretty soon I'm looking at that.

[25:58] And the kids, they look at one TikTok. Then they look at a Facebook. Then they look at an Instagram. And all of a sudden, an hour and a half has gone by.

[26:09] You have to redeem that time. And that time, you can't get back. So you have to redeem the time that you have now. Amen.

[26:21] Remember, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. In trying to disarm us, the enemy will often try to convince us that a particular portion of the scripture is not true or relevant for today.

[26:37] Something like, Well, it looks like God's forsaken you this time and left you in a real mess. You ever got that? You ever been sitting there and all of a sudden, Man, Lord, where are you?

[26:48] What happened here? What's going on? The Bible may sound good when things are going well, but right now you need something a little more practical. You ever heard that?

[26:59] Well, Lord, it'd be good to get in your book, but I need to take care of this. This is weighing me down. This is taking over. Right now, the thing you need to learn is that there's a way out for you.

[27:15] Notice the slander against God's integrity and the questioning of God's word and the contradiction of God's promises. In Philippians 4.19, God promised, Hebrews 13.5, Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have.

[27:46] For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. In a situation where the devil's after you, don't defend the Bible to Satan.

[27:58] You don't need to defend it. Just use it against him. Amen? When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus didn't try to reason the devil to prove him, or to prove his identity to the devil.

[28:13] Jesus simply responded, It is written. Well, I'm telling you, most times when the devil's affecting me, it's not when I'm like this.

[28:29] Oh, Lord, and then I can look right down and pull a verse out. No. You have to memorize it. You have to have practiced with that sword. You have to be able to utilize it.

[28:40] It has to become rote memory. You have to memorize that scripture. Remember that the sword is both an offensive and a defensive weapon. Used defensively, you hide God's word in your heart, root out sin, strengthen your inner man with God promises before the enemy attacks.

[29:00] But used defensively, you deflect the devil's lies, doubts, and temptations with the truth of the word. As you learn to effectively use your sword against the wiles of the enemy, remember these words of the Lord's to use.

[29:19] Let's all turn to Isaiah 41.10, please. Isaiah 41.10 says, Fear thou not, for I am with thee.

[29:32] Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will upload thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

[29:49] Practice with your sword. Amen. Get to know it. Get to use it. Realize where this comes from.

[30:00] This comes out of the Lord's mouth. His word as a two-edged sword. Amen. So I hope these things helped you a little bit this evening and a little bit about the sword and how we can use it and apply it.

[30:19]  Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord, for the opportunity again to be in thy house. I pray, Lord, that as we look at these things out of your book, God, that we realize we know Jesus has He will 캐�TERS Father,