“Shield of Faith”
Originally preached by Dr. David Platt at
Secret Church 7 on 11/06/09
Adapted by Rev. Chas. Pendleton
for
Fitchburg Nazarene Church
July 19, 2015
READ:
Ephesians 6:10-17
Where we have been:
The Belt of Truth
 Who Christ is
 Who we are in Christ
The Breastplate of Righteousness
 God sees us as righteous
(because of Christ)
 The Spirit of Christ forms
righteousness within us
Feet Shod with the Preparation of
The Gospel
 Not ashamed of the Gospel
 All Redeemed are Ambassadors
of the Gospel
Today we will look at the shield of faith.
If an adversary were shooting flaming
arrows at you, what would you do?
I absolutely love movies where the
opposing sides use spears and arrows and
swords. Any turkey can fire a gun at you
and end your battle, but it takes courage,
strength, and agility to wield the oldfashioned weapons of war.
In these movies, I love it when the hero of
the story holds up their shield, and the
arrow (flaming, or not) ends up either
bouncing off of the shield, or sticking into it.
Ephesians 6:16 told us,
In addition to all this, take up the shield of
faith, with which you can extinguish all the
flaming arrows of the evil one.
During our series on Spiritual Warfare we
have seen Paul using savage imagery for the
battle which is being waged against our
souls, by the enemy of our souls.
One of those is this passage in Ephesians 6,
with Paul using the image of a soldier at
war.
The other is the passage in 1 Peter 5, where
Peter individually addresses both the elders
within the church, and those who are
“younger in the Lord.”
Then he says to all of them: (1 Pet. 5:8-11)
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour. Resist him,
standing firm in the faith, because you know
that the family of believers throughout the
world is undergoing the same kind of
sufferings.
NOW COMES THE ENCOURGEMENT …
And the God of all grace, who called you to
his eternal glory in Christ, after you have
suffered a little while, will himself restore
you and make you strong, firm and
steadfast. To him be the power for ever and
ever. Amen.
… a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour
Satan wants to “chew you up, and spit out
your bones” after he’s done knawing on
them.
In both 1st Peter and Ephesians, Paul says
that it is faith that wins the victory.
Here in Ephesians, Paul calls it the Shield of
Faith.
While engaged in Spiritual Warfare it is
important for us to realize that no matter
how long we have been Christians – the
battle belongs to the Lord.
We may lose some battles, and have to
repent of some way that we have sinned.
We will win some battles in this spiritual
warfare too, but we must never think that it
is we who have defeated the enemy of our
souls.
READ:
Galatians 2:17-21
I have died!
Christ now lives within me!!
I now live by trusting (faith) in the Son of
God!!!
Dead people don’t win any battles!!! Never
have – never will!
But for those of us who have Christ living
and reigning within us – If we are “In
Christ” like we talked about when we
studied the Belt of Truth; and He is “In Us”,
then we have no need to try to win any
battle – He wins the battles for us.
Turn with me to-------------
READ sections of Hebrews 11:1-40
We are SO caught up with “needing it all
now!”
SO caught up in living lives of ease!!!
Take up your faith in God’s character!
Satan will cause you to doubt, to question
the character and the goodness and the
greatness of God.
How do you fight that?
Do you say demon of doubt be gone?
No!
What you do is, you cling to the truth of
God, in Psalm 84, and you say:
Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than
dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and
shield; the Lord bestows favor
and honor; no good thing does
he withhold from those whose
walk is blameless.
Lord Almighty, blessed is the
one who trusts in you.
You cling to the reality that you have a
Father who gave His One and Only Son for
you, and that He will give you anything you
need.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
You have faith in His character.
You have faith in God’s promises.
When Satan says you are condemned,
you say:
Romans 8:1-3
Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus, because
through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit
who gives life has set you free from the law
of sin and death.
When Satan says you are alone,
you say:
Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be
dismayed, for I am your God. I will
strengthen you and help you; I will uphold
you with my righteous right hand.
When you are afraid, Satan says you need
to be afraid.
And you say:
Isaiah 43:1
But now, this is what the LORD says—
He who created you, Jacob, he who formed
you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have
redeemed you; I have summoned you by
name; you are mine.”
God tells you – I have redeemed you.
(Increased excitement!!!)
If you look further down that chapter you
see God saying that he will be with you
when you pass through the rivers, and they
will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire you will
not be burned because He is the Lord, our
God. We are precious and honored in His
sight. And He loves us. And He takes care of
His own.
You hold up the shield of faith when the
devil brings flaming arrows at you.
Don’t start renouncing him.
Just start loving the Word, and he will flee.
The shield of faith promises faith in God’s
power.
His power!
God’s power!!
In Ephesians 6 Paul is telling us...
There’s no arrow aimed at us from the evil
one that is above or beyond the power of
God. No not one!
Because God loves you, and has sent His
Son to die for you – and because of the
power and promise of the resurrection of
the only begotten of God…
YOU can have a faith that quenches flaming
arrows!
You as what these arrows are:
 his schemes
 his temptations
 his lies
 his deceptions
 his attacks from any and every angle.
Now let me put something out on the table
from personal experience.
It is my experience that when we are taking
significant steps of faith, whenever we
begin to press on in sanctification and make
progress in our walk with the Lord, we are
going to face arrows from the evil one.
Whenever we are invading enemy territory,
brothers and sisters, the more you get
involved in the Great Commission, the more
you will face flaming arrows from the evil
one.
Are you sitting back doing nothing about
the spreading of the gospel in the world?
- then you’re not a problem for the
kingdom of darkness.
But you start proclaiming the gospel; being
bold within your neighborhood; sharing
Christ at work or in the marketplace; you’re
going to face arrows.
When we’re exposing Satan for who he
really is, we are going to be facing arrows.
When we repent of long-held patterns of
sin, or unholy relationships; we are going to
be facing arrows.
What do I mean by repent??
A couple stops living together, moves out
and is honoring God, don’t think, okay, that
means everything’s going to be easier. The
flaming arrows of the evil one will attack
you.
Most often when we pursue righteousness
things are going to get harder, not easier.
And when God is preparing us, individually
or corporately for a great work for His
glory— when God’s about to do something
great in and through your life, just know
that there are likely flaming arrows that are
headed right toward you.
There’s a bull’s-eye on your back.
This is a picture of Elijah right before he
does battle with the prophets of Baal on
Mount Carmel. Soon he will call down fire
from heaven to prove to all of Israel that
God is God. And I love it!!
In 1 Kings 18, right in the middle of the
chapter when Ahab comes up to him and
says you are a troubler of Israel. I love that
he was known for making trouble for the
kingdom of darkness.
Like, don’t you just want your face on a
wanted poster in hell?
Yes, he makes trouble for us. That’s the
picture.
2 Corinthians 10:4
For though we live in the world, we do not
wage war as the world does. The weapons
we fight with are not the weapons of the
world. On the contrary, they have divine
power to demolish strongholds. We
demolish arguments and every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of
God, and we take captive every thought to
make it obedient to Christ.
As we end – let me re-direct us back to
Hebrews 11.
Unless you have the NEW LIVING
TRANSLATION in front of you, these words
might be a little different than what you are
used to – BUT I like how it is expressed in
this translation.
“Faith is the confidence that what we hope
for will actually happen; it gives us
assurance about things we cannot see.”
It’s really easy in the midst of battle to
burrow down in a fox hole and cry,
– Why me? – Woe is me! – I’m doomed!!!
But the Shield of Faith will dowse the
flaming darts of the Evil One in your life and
cause you to remain victorious in Christ as
you do Spiritual battle.
PRAYER