Let us turn to God's Word and
we continue considering that spiritual armour, the whole armour
of God that the Apostle speaks of at the end of Ephesians chapter
6. Turning then to that portion
in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 6 and I'll read verses 15 and
16. And your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked." We come then to consider what is spoken of here
in verse 16, the shield of faith. I remind you how that last Lord's
Day evening we considered the previous verse where the Apostle
speaks of that provision made for the feet. Your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And I said there is
a sense in which surely here we are being directed to the
ministry of the Word of God and to the preaching of the gospel. Remember how Paul in Romans chapter
10 has much to say concerning a great subject of preaching. He says at verse 13, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then we have the question,
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And they shall they hear without a preacher, and they shall they
preach, except they be sent, as it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things. We read then here in verse 15
of the beautiful feet of them who are preaching the Gospel
of Peace. And back in Ephesians 6.15, it
is the preparation, the feet shod with the preparation of
the Gospel of Peace. But of course, we're not to limit
this particular part of the armor to those who are called to preach
the Word of God. There is a more general application. Surely the words that we have
here in verse 15 are words that really belong to every believer,
to all the people of God. And we think of the words that
Paul writes, therefore, to the Colossians. In chapter 2 and
verse 6 he says as he hath therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him and established
in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with
thanksgiving. He speaks then of believers as
those who having received Christ are to walk in him as they are
rooted and built up in him. And I said last time now that
the word preparation is certainly an interesting word. Because
Dr. Gill, for example, says that
the particular word has also to do with the idea of firm footing. Firm footing. Having the feet
shod with the firm footing of the gospel of peace. And how
necessary this is when we think of the believer's stance. Remember
the previous verses? He says at verse 13, take unto
you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in
the evil day, to stand opposed to all that is sin, all that
is wicked, all that is contrary to God, all that is evil. Having
done all He says to stand, stand therefore, stand therefore, having
your feet shod with the preparation or the firm footing of the gospel
of peace. The psalmist says, when I said,
my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. How God,
in his mercy, keeps the feet of his saints So they are beset
on every side, are they not? There are many dangers. One of
the old Scots ministers, James Ferguson, speaks of the believer
beset with temptations and afflictions, as with so many sharp stones
and piercing briars and thorns. And he goes on to say that this
makes the way impossible for those who are barefooted. how
the feet need to be shod if we're going to make any progress on
this trying terrain which is involved of course in that good
fight of faith. There is that word that is spoken
and we referred to this last time in Deuteronomy 33 we have
Moses there at the end of his life blessing the the twelve
tribes speaking prophetic words concerning the tribes of Israel
and he speaks of Asher in verses 24 and 25, let him dip his foot
in oil thy shoes shall be iron and brass and as thy days so
shall thy strength burn. There is the promise you see
There is the promise, God will see that those who are of Israel
and Asherahs of the tribes of Israel, their feet shall be as
brass and as iron. But what does He say previous
to that promise? Let him dip his foot in oil. All the gracious ministry of
the Holy Spirit surely is to be understood by dipping the
foot in oil. You have the lines of the hymn,
and we've sung it several times, at 207, speaking of the believer's
spiritual armor for his great warfare, shod with gospel preparation
in the path of promised threat. Or the the necessity of the ministry
of the Holy Spirit that we might be those who are truly treading
in the path of the promises by that gracious ministry of the
Holy Ghost the promises of God are strengthening and encouraging
to us we are to walk by faith and not by sight we're to walk
we're to walk on all that difficult terrain It's a walk of faith,
is it not? Your feet shot with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. But it's not only a walking by
faith, there is also that fighting by faith, is there not? Fight the good fight of faith,
says the apostle. They hold on eternal life. And so, here in verse 16, we
have another part of that spiritual armor that God has seen fit to
make provision of for his people, above all, taking the shield
of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked. Now what are we to understand
then by this particular verse and this great provision that
God himself has made? Well, I want us to consider some
three things. First of all, the figure that
is being used. And then secondly, the faith
that is spoken of. And then finally, the use that
is to be made of this part of the armour. First of all, the
figure. And it is the figure of the shield. Above all, we're retaking the
shield. of faith. Now what sort of a
shield is it that's being spoken of? Well it's certainly in the
language that is being used implies that it is a large shield. The word that we have here is
derived from the Greek word for a door. So it's a large door
like shield that is spoken of. And what does this figure set
before us? Well, we read of course that
great promise that God gave unto Abraham. There in the 14th chapter
of Genesis we read of that battle of the four kings against five
kings. And now Abram becomes involved
because his nephew, his brother's son, Lot, had been taken away
captive. He was dwelling there, of course,
In the play, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the kings of
those cities had been overthrown in the battle and Lot had been
taken. We're told now that Abram is the one who raises armed men
from amongst his family, his enlarged family, his various
servants and he goes and he rescues Lot and he slaughters, amongst
others, that king Kedelioma. and the king of Sodom would recompense
him, but he refuses that. He refuses that, he's met by
that strange character, Melchizedek, remarkable figure who appears
there. And of course, we think of the
New Testament and Christ in his priestly office, a priest not
after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek,
as we're told in Hebrews. A strange character, and Abram
gives a tenth of all his possessions to Melchizedek. But he refuses, at the end of
the chapter, he refuses to take anything from the King of Sodom
in the way of recompense. And then I read also into the
opening verse of that next chapter, chapter 15, because what a promise
it is. It's a great promise that God
gives to His servant. After these things, after all
that terrible conflict that he had been involved in, after these
things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying,
Fear not Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. He doesn't need to look to the
King of Sodom for any reward. God is his reward. But God is
not only his exceeding great reward, God is also his shield. There is the promise you see.
What is this figure representative of? It is representative of God
himself. He is the one who shields his
people. He is the one who shields his
people. We sang just now in the psalm the 115th Psalm in the
metrical version and did you observe that three-fold promise
that he said before us there in verses 9 and 10 and 11? O Israel, trust thou in the Lord
for He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust
in the Lord He is their help and their shield. Ye that fear
the Lord Trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. He is the shield of faith, you
see. Trusting in the Lord. The one who is the shield, who watches over his people, who
protects them, who keeps them safe from every harm and every
danger. we have this figure then used
and it's part of that great promise that God is pleased to give to
his people he was Abraham's shield and Abraham's exceeding great
reward and even all those that fear God all that fear him are
bidden to trust in him as the one who is their help and their
shield Again, in another of the Psalms, in Psalm 5 and verse
12, we read this, Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous with
favour, wilt thou compass him as with a shield. God blesses the righteous. Who
is the righteous? Well, there is not a just man
upon the earth who doeth good and sinneth not. Who are the
righteous? Well there in that Psalm, Psalm
5 and verse 12 of course we have those parallel statements so
peculiar to the Psalms. The man who is blessed is the
righteous man and that is the man whom God is favoring because
He has encompassed him with a shield. What is that shield? It's the
righteousness that is imputed to the man. It's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that great doctrine of imputation. The righteousness of another.
The righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who made of a woman
and made under the law, fulfilled all righteousness and is the
end of the law for righteousness. to everyone that believeth. How,
in imputation, that that Christ did by his obedience throughout
his life is put to the accounts of all those whose trust is in
him. It's interesting here, the expression
that we have at the beginning of the text. Above all, literally,
upon all, upon all taking the shield of faith. All the armour that we've considered
thus far is that that is fixed to the body, it is that that
is held. It's upon all, all the other
parts are behind the shield as it were. It's a lovely figure
that we have here then. speaks of the righteousness of
another, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that is
reckoned and imputed to those for whom Christ came to live
and to die. Think of the language of the
Apostle there in that fourth chapter of the Epistle to the
Romans. In Romans chapter 4 verse 3 it says, What saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness. without works." Oh, it's that
righteousness of Christ, you see, that was upon Abraham, who
believed God. God said, I am thy shield and
thy exceeding great reward. The end of that chapter, verse
21, we're told of Abraham being fully persuaded to what God had
promised. He was able also to perform and
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." The promise
of God, or the promise of God, the promise that's centered in
his seed, which was really Christ, was reckoned to his account. Now there is this remarkable
provision that God has made then. This figure speaks to us again
of Christ, and that righteousness of Christ and Paul's desire to
be found in him to be found in Christ not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law but that which is through the faith of
Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith now I know
in a sense we've already seen something of this in what we
considered previously at the end of verse 14 having on the
breastplate of righteousness And we said that there, that
breastplate of righteousness is to be understood in terms
of Christ's righteousness that is imputed to the believer. Righteousness
within thee rooted may appear to take thy part, but let righteousness
impute it. Be the breastplate of thy heart,
says Joseph, heart. the imputation of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a breastplate. And it protects
all the vital organs there in the chest. But now, here we have another
part of that armor. As I've said, the breastplate
is that it is fixed. But here we have that shield.
It is large, yes, but it's movable, it's versatile. It's not fixed to the soldier's
body in any sense. Now God has seen to it that his
people are very well armed, very well armed, but the principal
part of that armour that God has granted to his people is
to be found in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
and how necessary when we consider him who is their great adversary. all that great enemy of souls,
that great enemy of saints, even the devil himself. The language
of John in the Revelation. He says, I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven now is come salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser
of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our
God day and night and they overcame him. by the blood of the Lamb,
and by the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives
unto death, all they overcome by the blood of the Lamb. The
great work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross, all their indebtedness
to Christ, all what is set before us in by this figure of the shield,
It is that that does provide and afford a remarkable protection
for the Christian soul. We sang just now, did we not,
in our opening prize, yes, number 388. And we sang it there in the fourth
verse of that lovely hymn of Newton's. Be thou my shield and
hiding place, that shouted near thy sight, I may my fierce accuser
face, and tell him thou hast died. Oh, he is the accuser of
the brethren, as we read in that twelfth chapter in the Revelation.
But oh, to find Christ to be such a shield and a hiding place.
that when he comes with his accusations, and how he is such a cruel foe
to men. How he comes to this attempt
that he'll draw man aside, draw him into the ways of sin. He
comes at us, does he not? He assaults us. He allures us. He finds much that he can take
advantage of in our sinful nature. No sooner do we fall than he
begins to make accusations. He hates man, you see. And we
feel so ashamed, do we not? And we find it so hard, really,
to come and to acknowledge our sins before God. We realize what
fools we were to fall, to submit to Satan's subtle temptations. But Newton knew something of
it. Be thou my shield and hiding place that sheltered near thy
side. I may my fierce accuser face and tell him thou hast died. The figure then of this shield,
a large shield, a door-like shield, and how the soldier can cower
behind it and find protection, and it speaks to us of Christ,
and it speaks to us of the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
His blood and His righteousness. But let us consider more particularly
the faith that he's spoken of. With the breastplate, it's the
breastplate of righteousness. But here, more particularly,
it is the shield of faith. The shield of faith. What is
his faith? What is his faith? It's an important question, Gilles.
To know something of what real faith is. at the end of Romans
14. We have that very solemn statement
from the Apostle that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. If we're not those who are men
and women of faith we're still in sin. Without faith it is impossible
to please God says Paul in those familiar words of Hebrews 11
6 without faith it is impossible to please God he that cometh
to him must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of
all that diligently seek him how faith is so necessary if
we are going to be those who would come to God how do we come? we come by prayer or it must
be the prayer of faith Prayer of faith shall save the
sick. We read it this morning there at the end of James chapter 5. How important
then, what is this faith that is being spoken of in our text
this evening? There are different types of
faith as you know in the Word of God, There's that faith that
we might say is a natural faith in a sense, an historic faith. We've said it before. Men are
to be theists. They're not to believe in God.
And I say, I would gather or guess that probably even today
most people would say that they do believe in God in some sense
of the word. In other words, they're not atheists.
Most would be theists and recognize that God is. You remember how
twice in the Psalms, in Psalm 14 and again in Psalm 53, the
scripture says, the fool hath said in his heart there is no
God. What folly it is to deny God. When we think of the wonder of
creation. We were talking at the meal table
earlier today about anatomy. Think of the eye. What a remarkable
organ the eye is. And yet, the evolutionist says
it just happened. It evolved. It just evolved,
really, out of nothing at all. What foolishness! Those who deny
the great God who is the creator of all things what design there
is when we consider our own bodies the wonder of creation, the heavens
declaring God's glory the whole firmament of the heavens showing
the handiwork of God who have all of creation as a voice and
men therefore are without any excuse and men should believe
in God men should believe in God the devils believe in God
when the Lord Jesus begins his ministry in Mark chapter 1 we
see him in the synagogue in Capernaum and there's a man with an unclean
spirit and the man cries out or the spirit in the man cries
out who art thou? we know thee who thou art speaking
of the Lord Jesus you say art thou come to trouble us before
our time the devil is recognizing we know who they are James tells
us the devils believe and they tremble and certainly that demon
there in the opening chapter of Mark was trembling at the
presence of Christ in the synagogue in that poor man and the Lord
cast the devil out of him there is a and natural believing. Devils believe, but devils are
not saved. There's no provision of salvation
for the fallen angels. And men should have that belief,
that historic belief, that recognition that God is, but it's not saving
faith. And then very solemnly there is a faith spoken of, and
we can only say that it's a temporary faith, it's not a saving faith,
Those solemn passages, those searching words that we find
in the epistles of the Hebrews. Frightening words sometimes when
we read them because we think, well is this me? Is this the
sort of believer that I am? There in chapter 6 Paul writes
at verse 4, it is impossible for those who were once enlightened
and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers
of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the
powers of the world to come. What remarkable experiences!
What remarkable experiences! Enlightened, tasting the heavenly
gift, partakers of the Holy Ghost, tasting the good word of God
and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away,
to renew them again unto repentance. seeing they crucified to themselves
the Son of God afresh and put into an open shine. They never had saving faith.
They had a faith, but it wasn't the genuine faith of God's elect. Because where there is that saving
faith, why, that person is in Christ. And once in Him, in Him
forever. None can pluck them out of his
hand. That's how. But these fall away. And as if
that's not enough, see how Paul, in a sense, repeats himself later
in chapter 10. He says something very similar.
Verse 26, If we sin willfully after that we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sins but a certain fearful looking forward of judgment and fiery
indignation which shall devour the adversaries." Oh, there are
those, you see, who have a faith that is not genuine. There's
such a thing as a temporary faith. We probably know some who once
ran well. What's hindered them? They no
more have any interest in the things of God. We have to leave
the matter with the Lord. Are they just apostates? Do they
never have any true faith at all? Or is it that they are in
some awful sad condition, their backs slidden? If so, the Lord
will restore them, of course. But how fearful it is, you see,
to think that there are those portions in God's Word, how they
search us. they should make us examine ourselves
and prove ourselves and know ourselves, would they not? And
then also as you know there's a faith that's associated with
miraculous gifts and it's that that the Apostle speaks of when writing to the Corinthians
it was a church blessed with remarkable gifts that at Corinth
this was the apostolic age of course there were still these
gifts, these charismatic gifts as we call them and they came
from the Spirit of God and Paul writes of them there in chapter
12 verse 7 he speaks of the manifestation of the Spirit which is given
to every man to profit with all and then he speaks of the various
gifts that the Spirit gives to one is given by the Spirit the
word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same
Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gift
of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles,
to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another
diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of
tongues. These various gifts. One gift's
given to one, another gift's given to another. They don't
all have the same gift. All these work at that one and
the selfsame spirit dividing to every man severally as he
will. And then he goes on to speak
of the body using an illustration. Now the body is made up of different
parts. The hand and the foot and the
head. Now they're functions and he says so too in the body of
Christ there are these gifts of the spirit. And amongst the
gifts you see There's someone who has a special gift of faith,
verse 9, he says, to another faith. Now, all those who are
Christians have faith. All must have saving faith. All
those who were in the Church of Corinth had saving faith.
But he's speaking of a different sort of a faith there. The faith
that is associated with miracles. Oh, there are these different
faiths, natural faith, temporary faith, the faith of miracles. And then there is that saving
faith, that saving faith. By grace are you saved through
faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Or to be
those who are looking unto Jesus. the author and finisher of our
faith, says the Apostle. Oh, that's faith, that's saving
faith, it's that faith that's looking, looking, looking unto
Jesus. It's spoken of in Colossians
chapter 2 and verse 12 as that faith of the operation of God. It's not duty faith. You see,
there are those who like to speak of men having a duty to exercise
saving faith. Well, that's really to mangle
law and gospel. It's the law who commands do,
do, do. The gospel speaks of all that
is done. All that has been done by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And He speaks of that faith that
is of God's working. It's God's gift, it's God's work.
This is the work of God that you believe on Him, whom He hath
sent. And this is the faith that we
have here, that's associated with the shield, above all taking
the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked. Oh, it is God, you see. It is
God who works this faith. David says, Blessed be the Lord,
my strength which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to
fight. All this faith, you see, that's
associated with the shield. How does the believer take hold
of the shield? It's only by God's working. It's
God teaching his hands to war, teaching his fingers to fight.
It's all of God. It's all of God. Look at verse
10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord, it says, and in the power of His might, putting
on the whole armour of God. It's God's doing. It's God's
work. Above all, all before all other
races. Here is that first line of defense
as it were. All this shield of faith. This
shield of saving faith. And so we have the figure. The
figure of a shield. We have the faith. And then finally
let us consider something of the use. This is provided by God for a
purpose, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked, or of the wicked one. What fiery darts? What fiery darts? We observe
it's a plural, many darts, four of them fiery darts, it's the
devil. And what are these darts? Well,
he comes with his temptations, does he not? he comes with his
accusations as we've said he comes first to tempt us and he
entraps our feet as it were this is why we need to have our feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace when he comes
to entrap our feet and so often he ensnares us and we fall or we tempt and then as I said
he turns accuser That is his name, the accuser of the brethren.
Accusing them day and night before God. But he comes also sometimes
and doesn't he make God's children so fearful? We have our fears. We have our doubts. And they're
all the fiery dart, you see, of the wicked one. Now he comes
to our first parents there in the garden of Eden. Now he comes, you see, with his
questionings. Questionings what God hath said.
What does he say to him? Hath God said? Hath God said? He shall not eat of all the trees? oh God knows in the day you eat
of that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
your eyes will be opened you'll be as God's oh how He comes you
see and He'll undermine faith, confidence in the Word of God oh He's such a subtle firm He
will question the Word of God hath God said how does the Lord
Jesus himself deal with the with the devil in his temptations
we have the record there at the beginning of Matthew chapter
4 and Christ says this, he says it is written it is written and
then he says it is written again now come back to the figure that
we have here shields of faith. And I've spoken of the faith
in terms of the grace of faith, saving faith. But you know, sometimes
in scripture the word faith or the faith is used in reference
to the great body of truth that we believe. That's how we choose,
is it not? In Jude verse 3, we are to earnestly
contend for the faith once and for all delivered unto the saints.
What is the faith delivered unto the saints? It's the body of
truth that God has given to us here in His Word. It's the great
doctrines of the Scripture. That's what we believe. And how we are to make use of
that word that God has given to us. God says, or the psalmist himself
is speaking, really speaking of God in the 138th Psalm, he
says, "...how has magnified thy word above all thy name." Oh,
what a mighty weapon then is the scripture. Now I know it
goes on to say the sword of the spirit which is the word of God
but as I've said there is a remarkable fullness in all the parts of
this armour that God has provided for his people and when we think
of faith we can think of that body of truth that we are to
believe in this word that God has magnified above all his name,
he's given his word He's sworn by himself. And I said that Satan
comes with his fiery darts. There might be temptations or
accusations or doubts or fears. How are we to quench the fiery
darts? Why do we not find, for example, in the book of Isaiah
a multitude of fear nots? Or we are so often afraid But
God says to his people, fear not. And God doesn't speak such words
in vain, does he? He knows how fearful we are.
That's why he utters such words as we find here. Isaiah 41 verse
10, fear thou not. for I am with thee, be not dismayed,
for I am thy God, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee,
yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Verse 13, for I the Lord thy
God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I
will help thee, fear not, thou worm, Jacob, and ye men of Israel,
I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel." Fear not, says God. But not only that, there in verse
10 he says, fear thou not. So emphatic, you see. And he
inserts the singular pronoun. So personal. God comes to the
individual who is so afraid. Because Satan is such an awful
foe. and he says to that poor trembling
believer, fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed
for I am thy God this is how we are to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked one God has given us this shield, this shield
of faith and this faith has to do with the Word of God and we
are to believe the word of God and we are to trust in what God
himself has said here in the holy scriptures and this is how
we overcome or this is a victory that overcometh the world even
our faith I said earlier referring to the hymn 270 we've sung it
many a time It's a great hymn on the believer's armour. And look at what it says there
in verse 4. And I'll close with these words
of Joseph Hart. But when dangers close or threaten,
and thy soul draws near to death, when assaulted, saw by Satan,
then object, the shield of faith, fiery dots of fierce temptations,
intercepted by thy God, there shall lose their force in patience,
sheathed in love and quenched in blood. For here is all our
hope, you see, it is Christ, His person, His work, His blood
and His righteousness. Amen.