The Shield of Faith

SERMON: 2016-12-11--e0605--the-shield-of-faith SOURCE DURATION: 00:39:51.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with an introduction setting up the sermon topic (Ephesians 6) and concludes with a strong pastoral application/theological exposition regarding trials and strength in Christ. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- I want to share some thoughts with you before we celebrate communion in our ongoing study in Ephesians chapter 6, looking this morning at the shield of faith, Ephesians chapter 6 verse 16. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. That's our text. It's very easy to miss the fact that the opening phrase in this text introduces a transition in Paul's writing here between the first three pieces of armor that he describes in verses 14 and 15 and the last three pieces that he describes in the verses 6 and 17. Let me put the whole passage on the screen for you and maybe let's just read this together if you don't mind. Say it with me. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Now notice the transition is this phrase in verse 16 in addition to all and then he goes into the next three pieces of armor. Take a look at the passage for a moment and I'll help you in a sec but take a look at the passage for a moment and see if you can spot what changes by that phrase. What is the transition that he makes? It has to do with the verbs. I'll give you that clue. So you're thinking I will help you further. It has to do with the tense of the verbs. He goes from a past tense having girded your loins, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace and now he goes into from the passive he goes into the active taking up the shield of faith, taking the helmet of salvation and then of course it's implied taking the sword of the spirit. And what Paul is saying there to us I think is this or let me backtrack and put it this way. The picture here is this of a Roman soldier. He is suited up for battle. He's put on his belt. He's put on his breastplate. He's put on his shoes but he's lounging around. He's lounging around. Then comes the call to action. Get ready for battle. What does he do? Well he grabs his shield. He puts on his helmet and he grabs his sword and now he is out there ready for the battle. And I think the point that Paul is trying to make here is that it's not enough for us to have done the preparatory work for the battle of spiritual warfare by suiting up belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, with shod with the preparation or the equipment of the gospel of peace. But in addition to that we need to be ready actively to spring to action by taking up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. In the time that we have this morning we're going to focus on just the first of these and that is the shield of faith. Listen again to verse 16. In addition to all this take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Now the Roman shield is the largest single piece of armor that the Roman soldier would wear. It changed in size and look throughout the course of history. Sometimes it was round, sometimes it was oblong, but most of the time particularly during the time that Paul was writing it looked like this. It was about four feet by two feet, was made of three layers of wood glued together much like plywood today. It would be covered by hides and by fabric. It would be marked with the insignia of the legion and it also has this metal thing on front which they would use for storming the enemy and trying to knock them down. Its primary function in this context was to protect the soldier particularly for what Paul describes as flaming arrows. This thing weighed 22 pounds, give or take, so you had to be a pretty muscular soldier to be able to wield that. But in some ways it's like an extension of their shoes. Remember if the function of the shoes was to be able to be nimble on your feet so that you could adjust for the battle, well the shield was even more. You'd hold it like this and of course you could turn the shield whatever way the danger was coming at you and one of those dangers was that of flaming arrows. Three things I want to say about this passage. Simply speaking, number one, one of Satan's favorite tactics to wipe out you and me in the Christian life and in the battle of the Christian life is to use flaming arrows. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And as that picture shows you, a flaming arrow is an arrow that has been wrapped with combustible material, probably something like bitumen or pitch so that it wouldn't blow out when you shoot it. And the aim of shooting the burning arrow was to launch it somewhere in the enemy, his clothing or his buildings or his houses and the intent was to set it on fire and if you could launch enough of these then you could win the battle. And Paul here tells us that is one of Satan's strategies. He uses burning flaming arrows. You say what does that look like? Well it comes in a lot of different ways but I believe one of the most common ways in which Satan launches his burning arrows is by planting thoughts and suggestions in our minds that are intended to destroy our faith in God so that we lose our courage and our conviction to continue walking with the Lord. Let me give you just a couple of quick examples. Maybe you've had an experience like this, you're sitting in church or you're reading your Bible or you're listening to some debate on the radio or on television or whatever and all of a sudden this thought hits you. I wonder if any of this stuff is true. Is God really there? Is the Bible really inspired and trustworthy? What about all the people and all the arguments that come forward saying that God is not to be trusted and there you see it. Anybody ever have that experience or am I the only one that's been there? You can be in the most holy of moments and have that thought come at you and like that's a burning arrow and if you don't get rid of that burning arrow real fast your house is going to burn down. In my book Blessings and Curses I tell the story of Charles Templeton. Many of you know this story. He was a contemporary of Billy Graham. In fact Billy Graham has said he's one of the few men that he's ever known that he's truly loved. That's how close those two were. Charles Templeton had a major significant spiritual encounter with God, a Christian conversion, became an evangelist, became a pastor, founded one of the biggest churches in Toronto, was an evangelical light in proclaiming the gospel and then he went to Princeton Seminary to further his education and because he was of a keen mind he was trying to figure out the truths of the gospel and he was trying to figure out the reality of the Christian faith and Satan planted a burning arrow in his heart and in his mind, couldn't square the realities of the gospel with his own intellectual understanding, lost faith, became an agnostic gave up the ministry, lived a life of secular career in pursuit and Lee Strobel makes observation in one of his books. He interviewed him just before he died when he was already suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. They were talking about Jesus and Charles Templeton said through tears in his eyes, "I miss him. I miss him." But he died outside of Christ. That's what happens when the arrows lodge and you don't get rid of them. It doesn't mean you cannot engage doubts. It doesn't mean that Christians can't look at the complexity of life and faith. What it means is that at the end of the day your human intellect unaided by the Holy Spirit is never going to figure it out and if you're trying to figure life out and if you're trying to figure God out simply through your natural understanding you will always end up not knowing God because you only know God by faith and that means humility, that means saying I can figure this out but I trust God and I believe him. Give you another example. You're going through a series of trials. Life's just tough. Car won't start. No money in the bank. Creditors are knocking on your door. You've lost your job. You have struggles in your marriage. Your kids are wandering far away from the faith. Your body is ill and you have prayed like crazy asking God to step in and do something about it and the heavens have remained like brass. Nothing much happens. The songs of Zion have died on your lips. Church has become tedious and boring and dead and the thought occurs to you. Maybe there's no God. Or if he does, maybe he's just mad at me. Maybe he likes everybody else better than me. Why should I serve him when serving him causes me this much pain? Anybody ever been there? If you're a true follower of Jesus and you know the reality of life in a fallen world, you'll have experienced at least touches of that. Well that's a flaming arrow. That's finding offense with God. If you don't get rid of that flaming arrow it'll burn down your house and you will lose your faith and it'll happen before you know it. One more quick example. You're part of Christian community and when you first become part of Christian community everybody's got these lovely shining faces and you think you have arrived in heaven. Once you've been there a little while you discover that heaven and hell are not that far apart and that the Lord, you know that a lot of Christians are like porcupines. They have a lot of fine points. Just don't get too close to them and so you get disillusioned and then you discover flaws in somebody that you really admired or looked up to or you hear gossip or you hear stories about something or somebody or another and you can't square it and now you're looking at their lives through that colored lens of your offense and lo and behold everything begins to line up in ways that that just begin to fit a pattern of these people cannot be trusted and all Christians are hypocrites. Dare I ask if any of you have ever been there? A flaming arrow. Let it lodge in your system and it will poison you and you will think you were right and everybody else is wrong and you will have fallen victim to the devil's wilds because that is his technique. If you don't get rid of the burning arrow it will burn down your house and it will destroy your faith. I cannot tell you and you know this how many people have been through this place. If we could hold on to everybody that's ever come to this church this place would be filled to the gills. Some people have come, some people have left. The greatest pain of my heart is that when people have taken offense an arrow has lodged, they didn't do what they needed to do to get rid of it, their faith died, their love for God died and they're out there somewhere wandering in the world still may be calling themselves Christians but useless in the coming of the kingdom. Not true for everybody, there's multitudes of reasons but the tragedy of the Christian life is that many begin the race but they don't all finish. We have an enemy, he shoots burning arrows. That's the first lesson that I want us to note in this particular passage. The second lesson that I want us to note is that these attacks of Satan, these flaming arrows, they come typically as waves, that is one upon the other. Second Samuel 22.5, "David, the waves of death swirled about me, the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me." If you've ever seen a movie in which flaming arrows were used and the movie Troy if you've ever seen it uses it extensively, created by computer generated graphics interestingly enough, it's amazing what they can do in movies these days, then you will see a single burning arrow is not much of a threat. I mean it can be if you let it go but a single burning arrow is pretty easy to catch and to extinguish. The object is to overwhelm the enemy with so many burning arrows they don't have time to put them all out and the fire starts and once the fire starts it really goes and that's Satan's strategy. Any of us can be hit by a flaming arrow at any time of the day or night but if you're spiritually in tune and spiritually aware you will discover that more often than not there are seasons when all hell seems to have opened and it is free hunting for against God's people and you experience this onslaught of waves that Paul in this passage calls the evil day. He talks about stand firm in the evil day. The evil day is when the abyss opens when Satan for whatever reason receives permission from God to do what he did with Job where he is just allowed to come at an individual or a Christian community one after the other and he threatens to blow you out of the water. They come in waves there are seasons of temptation which is why Jesus says pray that you will not be led into temptation. Now these seasons can happen anytime they can be short they can be long but in my experience those seasons are particularly focused on three areas of vulnerability in your life and in my life. Let me quickly walk you through those. Number one when you are weak or vulnerable think back to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Baptized by the Holy Spirit when he was baptized by John the father says this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. He gets driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. What happens? He fasts for 40 days and 40 nights and guess what? Satan sees his opportunity because you see when we are weak when we are vulnerable our defenses are down and the enemy who is ruthless believe you me he is ruthless he will take advantage of that weakness and so when we are tired we got to be especially on guard because that is when we are likely to look for comfort in all of the wrong places. When we are tired or stressed we have to be especially careful because those are the times when words that people speak that otherwise just run off our backs like the proverbial ducks back they find a lodging and they take root and they start their work of destruction. When we are weak when we are vulnerable we are extremely sensitive which is why Jesus constantly says to the church watch Peter says be sober and alert be careful when you are tired or hungry. Second place is when we come alive to the Lord in new ways. It was the church father said many years ago the glory of God is man fully alive and God's desire and God's purpose in creation was that you and I with every part of our being body soul and spirit would be able to love God above all and love our neighbor as ourselves. Now we all know that Satan hates that and if Satan can get at our lives early to twist the foundation then he knows that our chances of succeeding in loving God and loving our neighbor are incredibly small and that is why and I won't dwell on this but in the past we've talked about this extensively if he can give us a bad background break relationships between mother and child he sends us down this particular path. Then along comes the gospel we come to Jesus and we start trying to break free from that we start trying to trust people again we start trying to live in places where we haven't lived before. I have an incredible admiration for people who are willing to pay the price to push through the pressures that they have to push through in order to start living Satan hates life. That's why he pushes abortion that's why he pushes the destruction of the nuclear family that is why the issues are so much bigger than just well let's all love everybody and let's just all get along. No the issues are if he can break our hearts early on in life then the chances of us breaking free from his control and living freely before the face of God are that much harder so if you're at a place and you're dealing with stuff and you're starting to live don't be surprised the devil parks on your doorstep and he sends volleys of arrows in your direction to tell you who do you think you are you're never going to be anybody you're never going to be able to trust anybody you're never going to be able to walk in relationship with anybody you're just a loser just let me have my way with you and find your comfort in drugs food and sex and God knows whatever else. That's a wave and very closely related to that is whenever we step out in a new area in faith because you see God's not only interested even if we're not part of this downward slide and we're born of healthy families and we have a pretty decent upbringing and we're learning how to live here you could be a perfectly natural normal people let me put it this way you can have a pretty stable life have a good family background and avoid a lot of the brokenness that is a part of a broken world and still have places where you have been shamed or where you have been held back or where the devil has come along and he has convinced you you can't live here and so anytime you step out and you try to do something new that is different from what you have experienced before the enemy will launch his arrows at you to try to convince you you cannot do this and how many of us in the course of growing up haven't been shamed in some place and have made peace with the fact that we can settle far short of God's workmanship in our lives because well we've just bought the lie that I'm not smart enough I'm not good enough I'm not capable enough I'm I just can't isn't that true how many of us when we are confronted by opportunities to serve God don't turn around and say well here I am but St. George I can't do this that's part of the lie and you'll find that when you start challenging that lie and you start trying to step out of that into new places that God has for you you get this barrage coming at you the lie who do you think you are you're a failure you're a loser you're a nobody who do you just settle for am I making any sense here this is the reality that all of us find ourselves in at one point or another because it doesn't matter how smart or gifted or good you are in the natural when it comes to the spiritual all of us need Jesus and without Jesus we cannot do it so Satan sends burning arrows to try to burn us down they need to be plucked out those arrows will intensify at particular seasons in our lives those seasons being times when we're weak or vulnerable times when we're trying to break out of old places of wounding times when we're trying to push into new areas of living they'll come at us like a barrage and they will try to overtake us the third lesson that we learned here and the one that I think is simply most important is that the antidote to all of that is what the shield of faith in addition to all this take up the shield of faith which with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one it was never God's intention that the devil should burn down our houses with his flaming arrows it was never God's intention that Satan should hold the upper hand in the barrage that comes against us the Bible says this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith and the shield of faith is the armor that gone has provided for you and me in the person of Jesus Christ so that we can not only remain standing in the midst of the battle but we can in fact extinguish all his arrows listen to how Peter describes it here in one Peter chapter three one Peter chapter one the verses three four and five he says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ by his great mercy we have born born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and to an inheritance which is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you who by God's power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time the shield of faith what is faith it's the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen it is laying hold of our inheritance in Christ you say what's our inheritance in Christ well we've talked about it before in Ephesians remember in Christ we're chosen to be the children of God before the foundation of the world God's written us down in his book in Christ we are destined to reign with him in life and in the age that is to come we are crowned princes and princesses being prepared for a glory that we can't even begin to comprehend in Christ we have been redeemed from Satan's power he no longer owns us he has no control over us because he has no control over Jesus in Christ we are seated in heavenly places in Christ we have all the resources that we need to fulfill the destiny that God has for each one of us whatever that is in life faith says this is who I am in Christ in Adam I may be a loser in Adam I may have bad genes I may have and I'm not talking about pants in Adam I have a bad background in Adam my life has been miserable I have struggled and there's been nothing but I can't do relationships I can't in Adam I may be nothing Paul says I don't care what I was in Adam he says in Adam I was a whole lot I was the best of the best for those of us who think we're pretty good but he says I counted all his garbage to be found in Christ because to be in Christ I'm a child of God to be in Christ I am a recipient of his love I'm a recipient of his mercy I experienced the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit and God has promised me that nothing but nothing in this life or in the life to come in the future the devil the world the flesh nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord that's my God and that's who I am in him and you know what faith does faith says I choose to believe that what God says about me is true and that what the devil tries to tell me is not true and so when the arrow comes at me and says God's not real doesn't really love you science has explained the Bible creation away and then faith says faith says in Christ God is my father faith says one of the best historically attested facts of history is the resurrection of Jesus Christ he not only lived but he rose from the dead people based their lives on it and I'm basing my life on it because I know it is true and God will not disappoint me the arrows will come and you find yourself in a situation where oh man life is hard God has forgotten me prayers don't work why bother serving God why bother going to church let me just throw in the towel faith says just because I'm going through a tough time doesn't mean that God doesn't love me in fact the Bible says it's evidence that he does love me because he disciplines those whom he loves he's preparing me for glory he is getting rid of the junk in my life I will submit myself to his authority and I will refuse to buy the lie that God doesn't love me and that he's out to do me in because in Christ that's an impossibility in Christ I'm a child of God destined for glory and when you find yourself in a situation where fellow believers disappoint you and you want to close off your heart and you say to yourself who needs this is just way too messy I'll just live in my own little world and faith says that in Christ God is going to unite all things in him in heaven and on earth and just as he is patient with me and allows me to find my way so he is patient with others and so we will forbear each other in love knowing that the good work that God has begun in us he will bring to completion and that gets rid of the burning arrows of the enemy two quick final comments about this number one faith is a function of your inheritance in Christ whatever it is that God has for you in life in union with Christ he will give you the faith and when you find yourself in trouble and in deep waters and you're wondering what in the world is going on God is setting the stage so that you can look beyond yourself get a deeper revelation of who Jesus is who it is that you are in Jesus and what it is that God has prepared for those who love him faith will rise up it's not something that you have to try to stir up all the time it will just be there in the places where it needs to be because it is part of your inheritance in Christ you understand that faith is a gift and if you abide in union with Christ faith will bubble forth at the craziest times and you will have confidence for things in certain places where you cannot believe that you could possibly have confidence you'll be in a situation where everything looks desperate and something inside you says I know this looks impossible but nothing is impossible for God not because you're living in denial not because you're super spiritual and you can't live in the real world but because you know that you know that you know that God's got his hand on this and he's got a hold of you that's faith second thing and with this I'll close in just a moment faith exercised means that when it has run its course the trial is over see the devil is not a fool he is strategic in his military objectives he's shooting arrows at you because he is hoping that he can wipe you out if he discovers that he cannot wipe you out because you're standing firm in faith in Christ guess what he's gonna do he's gonna go look for an easier house to break into an easier life to burn down and he will leave you alone at least for a season I love what the Bible says concerning Jesus at the end of his temptation Luke chapter 4 verse 13 when the devil had finished all this tempting he left him until an opportune time doesn't mean he won't come back doesn't mean he doesn't try your door occasionally to see if you've left it unlocked and if he can get in but the more he discovers that he cannot get in the more he will leave you alone and the stronger you will be in standing up for God and the cause of God in a world that has gone crazy so these questions where are you at in terms of burning arrows it may be that your life has been sailing along smooth as smooth can be and that's a wonderful thing you can bless the Lord for that but remember doesn't mean you don't have an enemy and it doesn't mean you can let down your guard because in a moment you do not expect it trouble can come I'm not saying that to scare you that's the reality the Bible warns us about that all the time so keep on the belt of truth wear the breastplate of righteousness go to bed with your shoes on be ready in season and out of season and then when the call to action comes grab that shield of faith grab that helmet of salvation we'll talk about that Lord willing at some future point grab the sword of the spirit and get out there and be men and women of courage to accomplish the purposes of God in the generation not only that it may be that you're in a season where you just feel overwhelmed Christmas season is tough for a lot of people on a lot of different levels brings back a lot of memories don't let the flaming arrow burn down your house grab hold of the shield of faith because in Christ you have all the resources you need in the context of Christian community that's a whole other car whole other story but in the context of Christian community you've got the shield of faith hold it up and after you have suffered a little while says Peter God himself will restore establish and strengthen you and make you stronger because of the trial for his glory. 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