I have some questions
for you this morning and I would like for you to answer yes or no please. Would
you agree that God is all-powerful? All-knowing? All-loving? Would you agree
that Jesus is alive? Is He part of the Trinity? And the Trinity is God, 3 in 1,
Father, Spirit, Son? Would you agree that the Bible is completely true? It is
the Inspired word of God? Its words are powerful and will not come back void?
If all of that is true,
then can you prove it scientifically or mathematically? Would it be fair to say, then, that you
believe all of these things on faith?
Would it be fair to say then that you believe these things because that
is what the Bible teaches and you believe the Bible on faith?
When Roman soldiers were
training to go into combat (actually all soldiers do this but our passage
refers to Roman soldiers) they would prepare for battle by practicing what
might happen if they were attacked. The
leader would line them up and say something like, “If your opponent thrusts his sword at you straight on you should step
aside and then counter with your sword.
If he swings his sword over his head at you then bring up your shield to
defend yourself.” And they would
practice that in slow motion in a safe place all to prepare themselves for the
real thing when the enemy would really be trying to kill them.
That is basically what
we have been doing this morning. We are
told in the Bible that Satan is prowling around looking to see who he can kill
and so all of you have passed the faith training course. Now you just have to be ready for when he
attacks for real. Just like the enemy
of the Roman soldier would not go in slow motion, announcing what he is about
to do and allowing the other to be ready, so, too, does Satan not attack in
slow motion announcing his intentions.
He doesn’t come to you
and say, “Um excuse me but I just wanted
you to believe that God is not all-powerful.” What he does do, though, is to place doubts
in your mind when things happen in your life.
When you get a bad
report from your doctor, Satan is right there to make you question God’s
love. When you check your bank account
and everything has hit at once, Satan is there to say, “Well, you obviously aren’t going to be tithing this week.” When your favorite sin comes tempting, Satan
will say, “Go ahead. It’s not that big of a deal and besides,
nobody will know.”
Turn to our passage this morning in Ephesians 6:10-18 and we will talk more
about how to be ready when Satan attacks. Read.
10Finally, be strong in
the LORD and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you
can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when
the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have
done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled
around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with
your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In
addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can
extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in
the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this
in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the LORD's people.
We will be concentrating
on verse 16 this week. This is our 6th week to be studying the armor
of God and we have seen in previous weeks how we are to put on the belt of
truth, the breastplate of righteousness and the importance of having our feet
shod with peace. This week we will be looking
at the shield of faith.
I’m sure Paul is writing
this at least with the memory of being chained to a Roman soldier. He may even be looking at one as he writes
it, we don’t know. But Paul has had
enough face to face time with soldiers to know well what they wore and how they
dressed. In this verse he talks about
the shield. The shield to which he
alludes here is not the small dress shield used in parades but the big shield
used in real battle. It was almost as
big as a door but had a handle on the inside the soldier could grab easily.
It wasn’t enough for the
soldier to have on the body armor of the day.
For intense battles he needed the protection of the shield. So also should the Christian not only be
wearing truth and righteousness with peace but for the intense Satanic battles,
we need to hold up the shield of faith.
But what does that mean? This is
not necessarily the saving faith that is often talked about but the Greek word
means the faith that is a deeply held belief or conviction.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do
not see.”
I read the story of the
little boy who fell over the side of the cliff and was sitting on a small
outcrop of rock. The firemen came to get
him and dropped a rope over the edge and told him to grab the loop and they
would pull him up. He refused until
finally his father called down to him and told him he would pull him up by the
rope. The little boy immediately grabbed
the rope and was pulled to safety. The
little boy couldn’t see his dad but had faith in him and him alone.
So far, as we have
looked at this armor, I have tried to positively motivate us into putting on
each piece. Today I want to look at 3
things that happen if we don’t pick up the shield of faith. There may be more but for today there are 3
things that suffer from Satan’s flaming arrows that could have been
extinguished had we picked up the shield of faith.
The first thing Satan’s
arrows attack is your peace and joy. Next, they attack your witness and lastly they attack your relationship.
I think I told you last
week that a few years ago I decided I was going to do a Bible study and figure
out the secret to getting and keeping joy and peace. I dug deep, doing word studies and looking at
the original Greek or Hebrew words in a concordance and was surprised by what I
found. I found that peace and joy have
nothing to do with circumstances or stuff but are only found through…wait for
it…that dreaded “O” word…obedience.
You see it in the Old
Testament in the life and writings of David and you see it in the New Testament
in the life and writings of Paul as well as others. Think of Daniel in the lion’s den, Esther
before the king, Peter in prison, Jesus Himself as the boat he was in was about
to sink. What do they all have in
common? Peace and joy through obedience.
Satan attacks us and our society backs him up by telling us that joy and peace
come from doing what you want to do and not having anybody tell you to do
anything. Scripture proves otherwise, as do our lives when we decide that no matter
what, we are going to obey God and let Him deal with the consequences.
The next time you see a
dog sitting in a front yard with no fence, I want you to think about this. That is the perfect picture of peace through
obedience. If that dog was to run off he
would have to stay in the back fence but because he is obedient to stay in the
yard he can go anywhere at any time. So
many think obedience is not getting to do all the fun things we want but with
God it is freedom! It means that God
wants what is best and because we are obedient we can have the joy and peace of
a dog sitting in the sun even when difficult times come.
And that drives Satan
crazy to see you with joy and peace and so he does everything he can to ruin
that. So when difficult times come,
Satan draws back his bow and sends the flaming arrow of doubt, fear and worry
right into your heart and kills your joy and peace. And the extra benefit to Satan is that rarely
does your joy and peace die without taking out someone else’s. And Satan giggles his ever-loving head off.
A.W. Tozer said, “The Bible recognizes no faith that does not
lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring
from faith. The two are opposite sides of the same coin.”
It says right here that
our battle is not against flesh and blood but Satan wants you to think it
is. He wants you to worry all night
about your kids and grandkids. He wants
you to feel guilty about what you did to that person 20 years ago. He wants you to doubt that your spouse is
faithful. He wants you to work those
extra hours and stay away from home and family so you can buy that shiny new stuff
that won’t make you happy. He wants you to hold a grudge or be racist or
critical or worried or overly busy or anything else that will distract you into
putting down your shield of faith.
Satan may not be able to
kill you because God won’t let him but the next best thing to a dead child of
God to Satan is a child who is preoccupied and distracted with his own
circumstances because that child…has no witness
and that is the next thing Satan’s arrows attack. They attack your witness. So, instead of being obedient and picking up
our shield of faith that says, “I don’t
know why I am having to go through this.
I don’t deserve it. I don’t want
it and it hurts…BUT…I trust God to protect and provide and to not put on me
more than He and I can handle.”
Instead of that we suffer with no peace, joy or witness.
I want you to think now
about how Satan’s schemes attack our witness.
Satan would have you to think that because your spouse is not as loving
as they used to be that it is ok to have an affair. He wants you to at least consider the idea
that getting drunk every now and then is not any big deal and that God understands
that you have had a hard week. He wants
you to think that because everybody else at church is gossiping that it must be
ok and besides, who is going to get hurt?
I want you to consider
your own little pet sin or sins. Think
for just a second about where you struggle and about what is going to happen
when the news gets out that you are a gossip or a liar or a drunk or a pervert
or whatever it is that you do. What is
going to happen when word gets out that you do those things? Nobody will ever know, huh? Do you realize that is exactly what every
single person in the news right now was thinking? Nobody ever thinks they will get caught.
“Whew, when my wife finds out
I’m cheating she’s gonna be mad.” “I know I’ll get caught robbing this bank but
I hope they put me in a nice cell.” “When my daddy hears me cussing he’s gonna
tan my hide!”
I think about those
Secret Service agents who were in Colombia a couple of years ago who were supposed
to be there to guard President Obama and were busted with prostitutes after a
night of partying. I guarantee you they
thought there is no way anybody is ever going to find out. I’m 2000 miles away from anybody who even
cares and so I will do whatever I want.
Can you imagine being that man who comes home and has to face his young
daughter who says, “Daddy, I saw you on
the news. What’s a prostitute and why
were you with her?”
Now I don’t know the
spiritual condition of any of those men but I know that is right where Satan
wants us. No peace, no joy, no witness
and no relationship with God.
The Bible teaches us
that once you ask Jesus into your heart you are always a child of God. Jesus says in John 10 that nobody can snatch
you out of His hand (and that is another thing Satan wants you to worry about)
but we can lose our close relationship with Him and we do when we sin. Sin brings a barrier between us and God.
You see it in the very
first sin when Adam and Eve listened to Satan and ate the fruit. What happened? Instead of walking in the cool garden with God,
they ran and hid and were ultimately banished from the garden. I have an idea that as they walked out of the
garden that day they could hear the echo of laughter coming from that snake
Satan.
You also see it the
Bible when King Saul makes bad choices, when the Israelites disobey, when David
goes through Bathsheeba-gate or when Peter denies Jesus before He is
crucified. What do they have in
common? No joy, no peace, no witness and
no relationship with God.
How about in your own
life? When Satan attacks you and says
there is no way God is going to do what He said He is going to do and you
believe him and then you do whatever it is that you do, then what happens? Your prayers bounce off the ceiling, your
wisdom heads south, your security is threatened and you wind up tied up in
knots in the back yard whining like a puppy.
The good news is that
when that happens I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” And our relationship is restored. Our joy and peace ease back in and our
witness…well, sometimes it takes a while for our witness to be restored. With some people it may never come back. Just a little added bonus for the evil one;
the deceiver, the father of lies.
For me, I don’t want to
have to explain myself to y’all. I don’t
want to have to look you in the face and tell you my excuse for not picking up
my shield of faith. I don’t want to hear
Satan laughing at me. I want to hear God
laughing with me, saying, “Well done my
good and faithful servant. I know it was
difficult. I know Satan was sneaky but
you did so well! Come in here to my
rest, my peace, my joy, my relationship.”
I
can’t prove scientifically or mathematically that there is a Heaven or that
there is a Hell but Scripture teaches that and scripture has been proven true
to me in my life and in the lives of friends and family and because you are my
friends and family I want to make sure you are with me in Heaven because there
is only one way. Jesus said in John 14:6 that He is the Way, the Truth and the
Life and no man gets to the Father but through Him.
Do
you believe that? I can’t prove it but you will have to take up that shield of
faith and just believe. It’s not a blind faith. I have seen enough to know that
even what I can’t see and what I can’t prove can still be believed.
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