Sermon republished here by kind permission of Pastor JJ Lim of Pilgrim Covenant Church, Singapore.
Listen to the sermon at SermonAudio.com website:
Part 4 of The Christian Armor or The Full Armor of God
Christian in the Complete Armour
SHIELD OF FAITH
Text: Ephesians 6:16
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Introduction
We are standing inside the armoury of the army of Christ last Friday.
Earlier on, we have been reminded to be brave; to take courage and to draw equipment and strength from the Lord as we enter into the fight.
We have also been briefed on what kind of war we are fighting and the strategy that we must adopt in the battle. It is a spiritual war. The enemies are unseen but real. We must fight a defensive battle. Christ our King has already conquered. We must stand and withstand as Satan the Prince of the enemy army schemes and plots to regain lost ground.
In order to fight this battle effectively, we must put on the full armour that God has provided for us.
We have considered the belt or girdle of truth. We saw that this belt symbolises everything to do with the truth.
Objectively it refers to the truth of the Gospel which we must hold on tenaciously. Subjectively, we must gird ourselves with honesty, faithfulness, and integrity. Unless we know the truth and are truthful, we shall easily fall prey to the temptation of the devil to fight on his side. For Satan is the father of lies.
So we must put on the belt of truth. We must girt our loins with truth.
We have also considered the breastplate of righteousness. We saw that the breastplate of righteousness has two parts. One part of it refers to Christ’s imputed righteousness, and the other part refers to Christ’s imparted righteousness. We must make sure that we are assured of our justification in Christ and we must live holy lives in response to the work of sanctification of the Spirit of Christ.
We considered how we must put on the shoes of the preparation or readiness of the Gospel of peace. Though the war that we fight is a defensive war, we must be ever ready to move out not only to answer the queries of anyone who ask us of a reason for our faith, but also to present the Gospel to the lost.
The Lord helping us, we must now consider the shield of faith, through these 6 brief points:
1. Shields provide the first level of defence for soldiers
2. Having saving faith is having a spiritual shield
3. In the Spiritual war, all wicked suggestions to sin are fiery darts.
4. Extent of Biblical Knowledge is the Size of Shield
5. Lift up your shield by countering every sinful suggestion with the Word.
6. Deal with the weakness of your shield by prayer.
1. Shields provide the first level of defence for soldiers
Most of us are familiar with what is a military shield. Though some of us may not have actually seen one in person, we would probably have seen in books, photographs and on TV.
Almost every ancient army made use of shields to protect against enemy sword, spears and arrows. Whether they were Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Chinese or Romans, the shield was essential equipment for every soldier.
Shields came in different shapes and sizes depending what is the perceived capability of the enemies. Some were round, others were rectangular and even triangular. Shields were made of different material. Some were made of metal, which offered a lot of protection but were very heavy and difficult to use. Others had wooden frame covered with leather. In some cases the shields were carried by an armour bearer such as during the time of King Saul and Goliath. But in most cases, the fighter held the shield himself.
The shield of the Roman soldier, that the apostle Paul as familiar with was huge but light enough for the soldier to carry into battle. The Greek word that Paul use to describe the shield in our text (thureos, qureov") is derived from the Greek word for door (thura, quvra), which suggests that it looks like a door.
It was about 2 and half feet wide by 4 feet tall. It had a wooden frame overlaid with linen and leather which was treated not only to repel the blunt force of enemy swords, spears and arrows, but to absorb and quench the fiery arrows or arrows whose head has been set on fire.
Shields, you see are always designed based on what is the perceived capability of the enemy. If your enemy is expected to come with sticks and stones, then a dustbin cover would be enough as a shield. But if your enemies are coming with arrows set on fire, you better have a shield that would not only block the arrows, but douse the fire!
This shield afforded the soldier a first level defence against the enemy. Though the soldier would wear helmet and breastplate, this shield was nevertheless very important, for without it, the other levels of protection would often be useless. Think of what happens if the shield does not stop a fiery arrow. Even if the breastplate prevents the soldier from being killed, he will be badly hurt.
This is why the apostle says, “Above all, taking the shield…” or “In addition to all these protection, take the shield…”
But what does this shield represent?
2. Having Saving Faith is having a Spiritual Shield
Paul says, “Above all, take the shield of faith.” The shield represents saving faith. Our shield is our faith. Our faith is our first level of defence against the assaults of the Wicked One.
What is faith? Faith is belief or believing. But it is not just a matter of believing that things will turn out well. An unbeliever may say: “I have faith. I believe that everything will work out well for me.” But this is an empty wish. The scripture does not speak of faith in such uncertain terms.
Biblical Faith or saving faith is a gift of God by which we are enabled to believe everything that God says in His word, especially what He says about Christ our Saviour. So saving faith is receiving and believing in everything that the Word of God reveals, especially what it reveals about the Lord Jesus Christ—that he is the eternal son of God, who took on human flesh, to live and suffer to die as the God-Man, to pay for the penalty due to the sin of his people.
Faith believes that he died for me and rose again from the dead.
Faith sees Christ to be altogether lovely and desirable.
Faith believes that the blood of Christ cleanses me from all my sin and the righteousness of Christ clothes me so that I am acceptable before the thrice-holy God.
By faith in Christ I know that I will no longer be condemned and that Satan and sin has no claim over me.
By faith I receive and use all the benefit of salvation that Christ has purchased for me.
Those who have this faith, have a shield which they can use against the fiery darts of the wicked one.
But what are fiery darts of the wicked one? For this consider our third point…
3. In the Spiritual War, all Wicked Suggestions are Fiery Darts.
Satan, the wicked one, may shoot all his fiery darts of temptation to try to slay us. His temptations are called darts, or arrows because they are very swift and they fly to us from the most unexpected direction. And is they hit us, they cause deep wounds and terrible injury to our soul, for they are not just darts, but fiery darts—not just arrows, but flaming arrows. By these violent temptations of Satan, the soul of his victims are set on fire of hell. These are the kind of arrows, Satan and his cohorts shoot at us.
But how does Satan do that? Well, in the first place, let us understand that Satan’s fiery darts are essentially wicked suggestions to sin against the Lord.
But how does Satan give us the suggestions? After all, he is a spiritual being. He does not speak to us with an audible voice. This prompts a question of whether Satan can actually plant or inject thoughts in our mind. This is a difficult question; and if you read our bulletin, you will realise that I answered this question twice over a span of a few years in a different way. Once I had said, no, and another time when I had forgotten about my first answer, I had said yes. Why this inconsistency? Well, if you read carefully what I had written, you will realise that it is not really an inconsistency. What it is, is that there a sense that Satan can plant thoughts and there is a sense in which Satan cannot inject thoughts into our minds. I was in the two articles emphasising on each of the two senses.
Well, without going into details, let me suggest that Satan cannot invade our minds to plant a thought that is foreign to us for which we can claim to be not our thought. However, it is possible for Satan to influence or somehow make a man do his bidding. We see, for example, that Satan was able to make the Chaldeans fall on the camel-herd of Job and to slay his servants (Job 1:17). How this was done, we are not told. But he could do it in one if three way.
First, since he can manipulate things in physical space, it is easy for him to so manipulate circumstances that he can achieve his objective. For example, what Satan was trying to do to Job was to manipulate the circumstance surrounding his life as well as his health in order to tempt him to blaspheme God. If Job were a lesser man, he could easily have succumbed under the intense pressure.
Secondly, Satan can influence or even control man by way of demon-possession. When the Lord asked the demoniac what was he name, his reply was: “My name is Legion: for we are many” (Mk 5:9). It is clear that the man was not in control of his faculties. The demons have taken control of him.
But thirdly, it seems that Satan can actually directly influence the thoughts and actions of man without taking full-control of his faculties by possession. Again examples of this abounds. We are told, for example, of how God granted permission to a demon or the devil himself to be a lying spirit in the mouths of the false prophets of Ahab in order to persuade him to go up to battle against the Syrians at Ramoth Gilead (1 Kgs 22:20-22). It is possible that the demons actually possessed the false prophets in this case.
But what about the cases involving believers? It is clear that the devil or his demons cannot possess believers for the Holy Spirit who indwells believers is greater than he who is of the word (1Jn 4:4).
Yet, we are told of how Satan was able to incite David to number Israel (1 Chr 21:1) and how Peter at one point became a mouth piece of Satan and was addressed as such, for the Lord said to Peter:
“Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Mt 16:23).
And so if we ask the question: Can Satan plant thoughts in our mind, our answer has to be, yes and no. No, he cannot put a thought into our mind that is not our own. He cannot inject a thought into our mind like the way a computer hacker may plant a virus program into our computer.
However, when He is given permission by the LORD, he can manipulate circumstance around us to make us think in a particular way and to tempt us to sin against the Lord. This was the case when Satan wanted to tempt Job. This was also the case when Satan tempted David to number the troops (cf. 2 Sam 24:1).
Now, it is clear also that Satan does seek permission to sieve God’s children as wheat (Lk 22:31); and that Christ our Lord does have the prerogative intervene to prevent that from happening when He chooses to (Lk 22:32).
But the fact is that the Lord does sometimes allow Satan to tempt us. And Satan’s temptation will come like fiery darts, out of nowhere. This is why we need a spiritual shield.
When we are tempted to sin against the Lord, we must know that the devil and his cohorts are probably involved in trying to draw us away from the Lord.
Our faith is our shield against such arrows of Satan. “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” says the apostle John (1 Jn 5:4). Our faith can stop and extinguish every flaming arrows of Satan that are, as it were, shot at our direction.
But remember, as the shields of ancient soldiers differ in size and effectiveness, so our spiritual shield will differ in size and effectiveness.
So consider our 4th point, namely,…
4. Extent of Biblical Knowledge is the Size of Shield
Faith we must remember is not some esoteric energy or force-field. Neither is faith an emotion or an emotional state. Faith is essentially assensus. Saving faith is assenting to all that is known in Scripture to be the word of God. This faith is not natural.
Someone who does not have saving faith may agree to various parts of the Scripture, but will never agree to everything in the Bible because spiritual things are spiritually discerned.
But those who have saving faith have been born again. They have their hearts changed, eyes open, ears unstop. They are enabled by the Holy Spirit to understand and to agree with everything that is revealed in the Bible. And by their new nature, they are enabled to live according to the truth of God’s word.
However, there is such a thing as great faith and small faith; and strong faith and weak faith. And this is not just about strength of belief, it is also about the content of belief.
Think of a person who does not know much of the Bible. He heard Christ preached and he was converted. But he had not read through the Bible. He knows and believes that he is a sinner in need of salvation. He knows and believes that Christ Jesus is the Son of God who came to die for sinner. He knows and believes that it is by grace through faith that he is justified before God. He knows and believe that he must walk in the way of the Lord and make use of the means of grace for his growth.
But that is about all he knows.
Now, will his shield of faith be very large? Probably not!
You see, the way that Satan tempts us to sin is by contradicting God’s Word. He told Eve, “Hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” God did not say that, but you see Satan is very cunning. He crafted his question in such a way as to cast doubt in the mind of Eve. And then when he had an opening, he went on a frontal assault: “Ye shall not surely die!” he said.
Now, that is how Satan tempts us. He insinuates suggestions in our mind, or he steers us to think of certain ideas by so orchestrating circumstances around us. With his limited power, he and his demons can easily discover what we don’t know and so tempt us to sin.
So you can imagine: If you don’t know much about, say, the character the God, His laws and His promises, then Satan and his cohorts would have a field day.
For example, if you don’t know that you should not bow down to any idol, the devil can easily tempt you into doing that and so cause you to sin against the Lord. Ignorance does not exonerate sin.
Likewise, if you do not know that God requires that all man and especially believers keep the Sabbath holy, the devil and his minions can easily make you a sabbath-breaker. And again, ignorance does not exonerate sin.
Again if you do not know that God is displeased with unequally yoked relationships, the devil can easily tempt you into entering one to your sorrow and pain. Even if you know, the Devil can tempt you to enter into such a relationship. What more if you are ignorant?
Again, if you don’t know that the Lord will not punish his saints for sin, because He has already punished His son, then the devil can easily make you despondent in your trials thinking that God is punishing you in his wrath.
Can you see how the extent of your biblical knowledge, or knowledge of the character, law and promise, is essentially the size of shield.
Therefore, beloved brethren, youths and children; build your shield by taking effort to hear the word of God, to learn doctrine and theology by reading, personal study and classes. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” says the Psalmist (Ps 119:11).
Do not be contented with a small shield to protect yourself against the fiery darts of the wicked one. Remember that ignorance is not bliss in the spiritual realm.
But now remember the shield, does not automatically protect you. You must take the shield. “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”
You must lift up your shield and hold it against the assaults of the wicked one.
How do you lift up your shield?
Consider our fifth point.…
5. Lift up your Shield by Countering Every Sinful Suggestion with the Word.
Your faith, which is founded upon proper knowledge, is your shield against the attacks of the wicked one.
You must lift up your shield to ward off the attacks of the wicked one. But faith is your shield, and faith cannot be lifted up like an object. In fact, faith is part of you. It is a quality and an exercise of your soul. So how does faith actually protect you in the spiritual battle?
Well, actually, your faith is a shield in that it enables you to see the attacks of your enemy and also to repel his attacks by neutralising his suggestions.
Faith is your spiritual eyes. It is the eyes of your soul. By faith you see through the temptation of the devil. Satan always have a good reason for you to do his bidding. By faith you are enabled to see that his arguments are spurious. By faith you are made to understand that the way of God is always best for you.
Satan may offer me a part time job that requires me to work at night and on the Lord’s Day. Faith gives me a ready reply to the temptation and enables me to see it as wrong for me to take it up and reminds me that if I seek first God’s kingdom he will see to it that what is right for me will be provided.
Satan offers me the world. By faith I see, not only that he cannot give; but even if he can give, what does it profit me, if I gain the whole world, but loose my soul?
Satan offers me pleasure, but he does not tell me the pain that follows. He will suggest to you, you people, that it is no harm indulging in a little sensual activity with a member of the opposition gender. By faith you are enabled to respond to the devil’s wicked suggestion with the 7th commandment of God.
Satan tries to persuade me that what he wants me to do is not really that sinful. Faith reminds me that God is holy.
Satan suggests to me to tell a lie to protect myself. Faith reminds me that God hates lies and that God will be pleased if tell the truth thought it is painful to do so.
Satan tells me that I have a right to be angry and to react angrily against my brother. Faith reminds me that I see the mote in my brother’s eye more clearly than I see the beam in my own eye.
Satan tells me that I have a good reason to do what he is suggesting; but he wants me to forget that God requires us to walk not in expediency but in obedience. He wants me to forget that God’s laws are absolute and applicable in all situations.
Faith enables me to see that the way of the Lord is the right way. Faith is the eyes of my soul.
Faith is also the hand of my soul by which I draw strength from Christ to fight the temptation to follow the way of Satan.
By faith I am assured that Christ is on my side, and I cannot go wrong if I refuse to listen to Satan but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Faith is the shield with which we must quench the fiery darts of the devil.
Faith makes the arrows of the devil ineffectual. It prevents the arrows from hitting us, or at least from hurting us.
Beloved brethren and children, unless you take up the shield of faith you cannot fight against the wicked one. Without exercising faith you will be badly injured spiritually.
Therefore, Lift up the shield of faith with which you may quench the fiery darts of the devil. Lift it up by bringing to mind all that the Lord has taught you from His Word. When Satan tempts you sore, then cry out ‘I belong to the Lord’ and “We walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7).
But remember finally, Satan will take advantage of your doubts to hurt you. And doubt are weak parts of your shield. You can enlarge your shield and fill up the holes in your shield by diligent study of the Word. But how do you deal with the weakness of your shield that is due to doubt.
For that consider our final point, namely…
6. Deal with the Weakness of your Shield by Prayer.
As we mentioned: In some ways the size of our shield is determined by our knowledge of God’s Word especially as it pertains to the character and work of God, as well as the laws and promises of God.
However, our shield will only be as strong as our faith; and there is such a things strong faith and weak faith. But do we deal with weak faith?
We must, beloved brethren and children, deal with weak faith by prayer.
Remember the man whose son was possessed by a demon who met the Lord after he came down from the mount of transfiguration? This man had pleaded with the Lord to heal his son, and the Lord replied: “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mk 9:23).
How did the man reply: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” he said with tears in his eyes (Mk 9:24). What a wonderful prayer. The Lord heard his prayer; and the Lord answered his plea on behalf of his son.
Again, consider the words of the Lord to Peter when he knew he knew that Peter would be tempted sore by the devil, Luke 22:31-32—
“31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Lk 22:31-32)
Can you see the necessity of prayer when dealing with the weakness of our faith? Beloved brethren, if you would have a strong shield to defend against the fiery darts of the wicked one, you must pray. Let us not forget to pray that the Lord will strengthen us in the inner man, and let us pray for one another that our faith fail not. Let us pray for our children too that the Lord will not only grant them increase in knowledge, but increase in faith.
Conclusion
Beloved brethren, teens and children, take up the shield of faith. Satan will continue to shoot his fiery darts at you. But you must believe that you are Christ’s and that the way of Christ is the best way.
Do not allow Satan to tempt you to sin against God. Let your shield of faith extinguish the flames of Satan’s arrows. Remember:
1. Shields provide the first level of defence for soldiers. Without a shield you will be easily be injured even if you are wearing other parts of your armour.
2. Having saving faith is having a spiritual shield. Your God-given faith is your shield against the attacks of the wicked one. Do not neglect the importance of your faith.
3. In the Spiritual war, all wicked suggestions to sin are fiery darts. The devil may not be able inject foreign thoughts into your mind, but he and his minions are perfectly capable of steering your thought by external circumstances and so making wicked suggestions to you to sin.
4. Extent of Biblical Knowledge is the Size of Shield. Faith is not a feeling or an esoteric force field. The content of faith is knowledge of the world of God assented to. The more you know of the truth of God’s word, the bigger will be your shield. Therefore put effort to listening and studying the word of God.
5. Lift up your shield by countering every sinful suggestion with the Word. When you encounter temptation, remember to bring to mind the Scriptures to fight against the temptations.
6. Deal with the weakness of your shield by prayer. Remember to pray that your faith and the faith of your brethren may be strengthened.
Our faith may be of different shape and sizes, as shields can be of different shape and sizes. But let us remember make use of constantly.
[Take] the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Amen.
Sermon by Pastor JJ Lim of Pilgrim Covenant Church, Singapore.
Sermon republished here by kind permission of Pastor JJ Lim of Pilgrim Covenant Church, Singapore.
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