“THE   SWORD”

Luke 22:14-21

Preface: Please note that this message was not an original by Ron Wilcoxson but rather a message preached by the late Dr. Al Lacy. Bro. Ron preached this at a Deaf Men’s Advance at the Silent Bible Baptist Church in 2007

Introduction

• Luke 22:14- 21 it is the night before the cross and Jesus is gathered in the upper room with His first new testament church where He will establish with them the Lord’s supper.
• Verses 22-23 Jesus announces His betrayal.
• Verses 31-34 Jesus announces Peter’s denial.
• Verses 35-38 Jesus has one more thing to tell His men before he goes to the garden to pray. For the past three years Jesus had sent the disciples out alone to preach the gospel. Now He talks to them about those three years…“35) And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, nothing. 36) Then said he unto them, But now, (You can see that things are going to change.) he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.”
• If you are going to tangle with Satan and this world… you better buy a sword!
• You see the disciples had Jesus while he walked this earth and as long as Jesus walked this earth he had better not touch the men of God or else they would have to contend with their big brother, Jesus.
• Verse… “ 37) For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. (Jesus is telling them that His ministry here on earth is coming to an end) 38) And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.” (The disciples were thinking as we would…literally taking two swords. Jesus was not talking about metal swords)
• A little while before this night Jesus told them… “I send you forth as lambs amoungst wolves.” (Now, what happens to a lamb if you throw it among some wolves? Jesus is warning the disciples that things are going to get tough.)
• Jesus used a metaphor. These men are not really lambs, and their enemies were not really wolves. He does the same thing when he told them to… “… buy a sword” in verse 36. What these men were about to face, no metal sword was good enough.
• They needed something to fight with that no earthly workshop could make.
• What kind of sword was He talking about? Ephesians 6:11… “11) Put on the whole armour of God, (When you put on armor you are not going to a picnic, you are going to war) that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13) Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14) Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;                              
• 15) And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16) Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17) And take the helmet of salvation, (Note that all things up to this point are defensive materials. You cannot go to war without any weapons) and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”
• The Devil knows what that sword is. He’s been stabbed with it. You remember back in the wilderness when Satan tempted Jesus. Three times Jesus whipped out the sword and said… “It is written, it is written, it is written.” He did not say it was written in the originals. HE SAID IT IS WRITTEN! Well bless God it still is written!
• If you were the Devil, and you had enemies that you had planned to attack. And knew that they had a weapon that could whip you, cut you, and destroy you wouldn’t you say… I’ve got to get that weapon out of their hand? I’ve got to destroy that weapon! Now I’ve got to take that weapon and exchange it with a fake so that they will not be able to fight so hard.

  A) Jesus said… “Buy a sword”

• Satan doesn’t want you to have a sword. First of all let us preface this reading with some history. You remember that the Philistines were vowed enemies of God’s people. If you are enemies of God’s people you are of the devil. There are only two sides to be on. Jesus’ side or the devil’s side.  Now the Philistines had battled the Israelites again and again and got beat every time. The Philistines got together and said… “Hey we can’t fight these guys because they are too good with their swords. So they come up with a plan on how to beat the Israelites, God’s people.  So they said… “ let’s go to king Saul and raise up the white flag. And tell king Saul that we don’t want to fight him anymore. We want to be your friends. Let’s be brethren. So then we can get them to lay down their swords and exchange them for “garden tools.” Then we’ll talk king Saul into closing all the blacksmith shops so they can’t make any swords and all they will have to fight with are “garden tools.” Then we can attack them. So that is what they did. And Saul swallowed the idea. He believed them.
• I Samuel 13: “17) And the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies: one company turned unto the way that leadeth to Ophrah, unto the land of Shual: 18) And another company turned the way to Bethhoron: and another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness. 19) Now there was no smith (This does not mean that there was no family named Smith, it means no blacksmith, sword maker) found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: 20) But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines,(The only reason they went down to the Philistines was because they thought that they were “brethren”) to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock. 21) Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads. 22) So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan:” Heaven forbid that we should get caught without a sword to fight with.
• What did Jesus tell his disciples… “Buy a Sword” He didn’t tell you to buy a mattock, coulter, nor an axe, He said… BUY A SWORD!
• We are in a battle today folks. You need a sword. Who in their right mind would go to war with a rake and a hoe?

  B) What is our weapon?

• Back in Ephesians 6: 17… “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”
• Note the singular “the.”
• Note also in the bible in I Cor. 14:33… “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” If God is the author of all the books in the world today that are called bibles, Then He would be confused Himself and He would also be the author of confusion. God is not the author of those books.
• God only authored one book!
• The Devil knows which bible is the true word of God (The sword) and which one is a fake. If he didn’t know that the original was available why would he come up with all these different versions of a sword?
• The Devil wants to get you to lay your sword down! You get an enemy to lay down their weapon and you will be able to defeat them.

  C) People today are as dumb as Saul was

• They allow Satan to talk them into buying an axe, a fork, or mattock and think they are ready to fight.
• In 1611, God forged a sword. Only the English speaking people have been evangelizing this world for 400 years. Now if you were God wouldn’t you want to give them your word in the English language? I’ve got that sword!                                                                
• Now then the spoilers have come along and they are out to replace it with their “garden tools”. Satan doesn’t fear garden tools, because he made them. Satan fears “The Sword.”
• Did Jesus know that the time would come when Satan would create some 111 garden tools? What did He tell the disciples to buy? What does God want us to buy? A SWORD!
• You can’t fight with a garden tool!

 

I. I will fight over the King James Bible (the sword)

  A) Some will say that it is a non-issue

• That is a sissy britches way of saying… I don’t want to fight.
• Jesus said that there is a war, there is a battle on, and you can’t fight a war with garden tools.
• It is an issue with me whether I have a sword or not.

II. I will fight for the King James Bible

  A) Garden tools wear out

• The sword does not.
• Today in the average “Christian book store” you can buy about 32 different versions. There have been over 111 versions written since 1611 and now only 32 are available today. What does that tell you about the other 79?
• My King James is almost 400 years old. But this is the sword of the spirit. God keeps it alive. That is why it is called the divinely inspired, living, breathing, Word of God. The others are just “garden tools.”
• There are two garden tool versions that are really the ones that people are being fooled into buying today. The New King James and the New International Version (NIV).

  B) The New King James Version

• It is a Philistine garden tool.
• Just like all garden tools (perversions of God’s word), it is copyrighted.
• The King James is not copyrighted.
• What is the difference? When you copyright something: You are saying… these are my words, and if you print it, I’ll sue your socks off! So when the Thomas Nelson company put out the New King James they copyrighted it and said… these are our words.                                                                 
•  Now some of us see the words copyright in some of these King James Bibles but in an area where it means that the references or notes are copyrighted.
• But they cannot copyright the text. Those are God’s words.
• Look into your real Bible at I Corinthians 15: (We know that this is talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.) Now look into verse 35… “¶ But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” (What is the subject? The body coming out of the grave.) Now look in verse 42… “ So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:” (So when the body is sown in corruption you put it in the grave. When it is raised in incorruption then the body is coming out of the grave.) Now look at verse 55… “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
• Now look at the New King James garden tool. It says… “O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory?” Hades? That is the Greek word for hell. Does this mean that we have got to go to hell after we die? This is the exact translation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They think that hell is the grave. THIS IS A LIE!  Who is the father of a lie? Satan. Who is the author of the New King James?
• The Devil is in the garden tool business and God is in the sword business.
• Look into Mark 1:14 “¶ Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15) And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
• Now look into the New King James garden tool … “Jesus came preaching and saying the time is fulfilled when the kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe in the gospel.”
• The pope believes “in the gospel.” Cults believe “in the gospel.” Satan believes “in the gospel.”
• Back up and notice that they left out the fact that John was put in prison, and that Jesus had come into Galilee and they also forgot to add what he was preaching about.
• Now look into Where they attack the deity of our Savior in Matthew 20:20… “¶ Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshiping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.”
• In Webster’s Dictionary is defines worship; reverence or devotion for a deity 2) to have intense love or admiration, a title of honor.
• Why did this mother and her sons worship Jesus? Because He is God!
• Now listen to what the New King James garden tool says… “  Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from him.”
• “Kneeling down”? That doesn’t mean you are worshiping. I kneel down to put gifts under the Christmas tree. Am I worshiping the Christmas tree? No.
• People kneel down before the queen of England. Are they worshiping her? No. When I’m working in my office and I drop a paper clip on the floor so I kneel down to pick it up. Am I worshiping that paper clip? NO!
• The real bible says she worshiped him, it does not say that she knelt down. I don’t have to kneel down to worship. I can worship driving my car down the street, I can worship standing in an elevator, sitting in the pew of God’s house or singing a special.

  C) Look at the New International Version

• I call it the Non Inspired Version. N-I-V-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E
• The first thing you’ll find out about the NIV bible is that it is copyrighted. So the International Bible Society and the Zondervan people are saying… Those are our words, not God’s words and we’ll sue you if you print them as we have.
• Look at Matthew 18: 11 (Jesus is speaking here telling his disciples “why” he came to this earth.) “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.”
• Look for the same verse in the NIV… It’s not there! They took it out. John wrote in Revelation 22:18) For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19) And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. Would you want to be in their shoes at the great white throne? I wouldn’t.
• Look in Matthew 23: “ 14) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”
• I’d like to read that verse from the NIV but I can’t… it’s not there. Why did they take it out? To cover for themselves. They can take it out of their garden tool but the sword has it in there.
• Look into John 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
• Now look into the NIV…For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son; that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
• What’s wrong with that? If Jesus Christ is God’s one and only son, then you can’t be one. There goes your salvation.
• It’s a direct contradiction of I John 3:1… “ ¶ Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
• “Only begotten” means virgin birth. They took out the deity of our Savior!  God has only one virgin born son, and his name was Jesus. But after we are saved, we all become the sons of God.
• Now turn to Colossians 1: … “12) ¶ Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14) In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:”
• Now look into the NIV… “ giving thanks to the father who has who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13) For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
• What’s missing? “The Blood.” Why is that so important? Because without that blood there is no forgiveness of sins. 

• Look into Revelation 22:  “ 7) Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” 12) And, behold, I come quickly; 20) ¶ He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
• Now look into the NIV garden tool… verse 7 and 12“ Behold I am coming soon.” Verse 20…”Yes, I am coming soon.” Soon? It’s been over 2000 years now… is that soon? Some people say… Well don’t you know that 1000 years to the Lord is as one day to us. Yes, but he wasn’t talking to himself. He was talking to you and I brethren.
• He said… “I come quickly”…this talks about “how” he is coming, not “when” he is coming. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 15: “52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,”
• “A Twinkle” is the moisture on your eyeball that glistens. The General Electric Company has timed the twinkle of an eye and has found out with their sophisticated equipment that it is equal to 1/30^th of a second. So, if they are right then Jesus could come back 30 times in one second. NOW, THAT  IS  QUICKLY !
• Now look into Galatians 5: 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”  There is a crowd out there that believes that you can lose your salvation and they call it “falling from grace.”                    
•  Look at Galatians 3:26… “26) For ye are (Note the present tense of the word here) all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Now back in chapter 5:1¶ Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” “ Us” meant Paul and the believers. Was Paul saved? Of Course.
• “falling from grace” in Galatians 5:4 means that you have accepted a doctrine because you have been bewitched. “You have fallen from the truth of salvation by grace.” Are they still saved? It says, “ye are.” But they are mixed up doctrinally.
• The NIV reads this verse… “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ, ye have fallen away from grace.”
• “Alienated from Christ” that means lost.
• Look into your sword at Ephesians 2:12… “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:”
• Colossians 1:21… “And you, that were (Notice the past tense here which means before we were saved) sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now (Presently, after we are saved) hath he reconciled (To restore a friendship)”
• Now turn to Mark 1: “¶ The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; 2) As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. 3) The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
• Now in the NIV it says this… “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “ I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” a voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”
• Now I dare the NIV people to show me verse 2(Of Mark 1: here) in the book of Isaiah. The NIV is claiming that Isaiah said something that he never said. This is a direct quote from Malachi 3:1.
• Jesus said buy a Sword.

    

III. Will fight with my King James Bible

  A) When I preach the word

• So that I can be instant in season and out of season.
• II Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

  B) When Satan raises his ugly head

• Satan is roaming around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Waiting for me to slip up, waiting for me to trade my sword in for a hoe.

  C) When the world is closing in on me

• My bible tells me to come out from among them and be ye separate.