Greetings MOL Family!

And welcome back to our study! You remember we’ve been studying about who? About Peter. Let us continue on with today’s lesson…

 

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Put Up The Sword

And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear. – Matthew 26:51

Now, if you want to know who this was, you’ll find it in John 18:10. It was Peter. This is the man that took the sword and smote off the servant’s ear. Notice what Jesus says in the next three verses – three things:

Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? – Matthew 26:52-54

Now what did Jesus tell Peter to do with that sword? Put it up again into its place. Then He gives Peter three reasons for not taking the sword. I want to study them with you in this study. The first one is in the 52nd verse:

Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. – Matthew 26:52

Has it been that way down through history? We think of Julius Caesar. He was a military genius. How he marched his legions here, there, and yonder. He conquered, conquered, conquered, but he died by what? Died by the sword. Oh, my dear friends, I wonder if you and I are really non-combatants. Well, I’ll tell you this: Whenever we take up carnal weapons we’re just getting ready to suffer under those weapons. Don’t forget it. We’ll come to that more presently.

All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. – Matthew 26:52

“So Peter, you’d better put up the sword because you’re going to get hurt. You’re going to get hurt if you stick with that sword. You think you’re hurting somebody else, but it’s just a matter of time until it catches up with you.” But now, He has another reason, the 53rd verse:

“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” – Matthew 26:53

A whole company of soldiers for each one of the disciples. “Why,” He says, “Peter, you don’t need to take this sword. I can ask My Father and He’ll have the angels here right now. So, it isn’t necessary.” “In the first place, you’d better put up the sword or you are going to get hurt. In the second place, it isn’t necessary.” And certainly, it’s foolish to do that which is unnecessary when the thing is fatal, isn’t it? Very foolish. But now the 54th verse:

But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? – Matthew 26:54

“Peter, you’re not only getting ready to get hurt yourself, and you are not only doing that which is unnecessary, you are seeking to prevent that which God has ordained.”

Peter was fighting against God, wasn’t he? He didn’t know it. He thought he was fighting for God, didn’t he? But he was really fighting against God. And God had to stop him. God had to interfere. Three great lessons then; three great reasons for not taking the sword: First, they that take the sword will what? Perish by the sword. Second, “My Father can take care of this thing any way. If I ask Him, He would send the angels.” Third, “Peter, you are trying to stop something with your sword that the scriptures have foretold. And it must be.” Is that what it says? That thus, it must be.

 

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Another Type of Sword

Now, I’d like to study with you this expression, “Put up the sword.” And the sword that I would like to study with you is not made of steel. It is made of muscle. Let’s go to Jeremiah 18:18. I want you to see another sword. It has slain more people than all the ones hammered out on the anvils. Look at that verse and tell me what’s the sword spoken of here. You’ll find it in the last part of the verse. They said about Jeremiah:

“Come, and let us smite him with the tongue.” – Jeremiah 18:18

Did they do it? Oh, yes. Take another verse on this, Psalm 57:4. David suffered under this sort of thing. He said:

My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. – Psalms 57:4

Did you ever get hit with this? Did you ever have somebody pierce you with the sword that comes right out here, between the teeth? Now, Jesus said to Peter, “Put up the sword again into its sheath.” Does this sword have a sheath? Yes. Inside. In other words, Jesus would say to the man who is using his tongue as a sword, “Put the sword back in its sheath. Keep still. Don’t wound others. Don’t smite people with the tongue.”

And I’d like to study these three reasons with you that Jesus gave Peter for not using the sword, as they apply to using our tongues as swords to speak about others. The first is:

All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. – Matthew 26:52

If you wound others with your tongue by criticism, fault-finding, telling their mistakes, God will see to it that sooner or later you will suffer the same pain in your heart that you have caused your brother. So, you had better put the sword up. You had better not talk about other people, because it is coming back to you:

All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. – Matthew 26:52

But now, the second reason He gave Peter not to use the sword was that it wasn’t needed. He said, “The angels can take care of this if it’s necessary.” You remember?

Oh, my dear friends, how often men seek to do the surgery that only the great Physician is capable of doing. How often when we see some evil we think, “Oh, I’ve got to do something about this.” And so, we pull the sword out. We start in…

Now the sword is a good surgical instrument, especially if it’s sharp. And we read here, David said:

Their tongue is a sharp sword. – Psalm 57:4

But oh, wouldn’t you hate to have somebody, every time you came near them, getting out an actual, physical sword and start to clip off this and that on you? When you consider the pruning of trees, for example: Pruning is necessary. But, if every time I came near an apple tree I was pruning it, pretty soon what? There wouldn’t be much of a tree.

There is a time for pruning and a place for pruning. But it’s not all the time, and not everyone is fitted to do it, either. So, Jesus says to Peter, “Put up the sword. They that take it will perish by the sword.” And second, “Peter, it isn’t necessary. God has somebody that can do this better than you. If now is the time to do it, and if it needs to be done, the angels can do it.”

But now there’s the third reason. What was that third reason? The scriptures must be fulfilled. “Peter, you think that by using the sword you can stop something. That’s what you want. But the very thing you’re trying to stop is something that God sees has to be done. Let me read from Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing:

The Father’s presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was His source of comfort, and it is for us. He who is imbued with the spirit of Christ abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at Him falls upon the Saviour who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord’s permission, and all things that are permitted work together for good to them that love God. – Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pg. 71

 

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The wonders of redeeming love! The God that we serve is always in control!

Don’t forget to share these blessed promises with someone who may need to be comforted…

-Continue on to the next study-

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* This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.