Ephesians chapter 6, we continue
this study on the whole armor of God here
in Ephesians 6. And we now come to this fourth
piece of armor here in verse... Well, let's go ahead and read
it. I never grow tired of reading this. Let's begin with verse
10 and read down to the to the text in verse sixteen. Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his
might. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness, in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day. And having done all to stand,
stand therefore, having your lorns girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of faith. Above all,
take in the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to
quench all the fiery nerves of the wicked or wicked one." Paul
says, above all, the shield of faith. Take the shield of faith. As it is implied here and as
it says in other places, the life of a believer is a warfare,
a battle. Paul said that in another place
to young Timothy, no man that warreth. It's a battle. The life of a believer is a constant
struggle against foes from within and without. Scripture says that it's a battle
which requires us to be constantly watching, watch. The Scripture
talks about it. It's another word for being on
your guard, right? Let's not sleep, let's do others.
You'll be killed, but watch. Watch. A believer is constantly
assaulted on every hand. As I said, within and without. And one of the assaults that
we have to endure, as much or more than anything,
is assault against what we believe. Just for merely believing the
truth, you will be assaulted. And Christ said, you'll be hated.
You'll be hated by all men, for my name's sake. So we, the believer,
is constantly having to defend earnestly, in the words of the
Apostle Paul again, defending earnestly the faith once delivered
to the saints. And as I said, now more than
ever, this is that evil day, I believe, that Paul talks about
there in 2 Timothy 3. There's no doubt in my mind that
these are those perilous times that he refers to, the last days. immediately preceding our Lord's
return. And now, more than ever, is the
faith—one Lord, one faith—now, more than ever, is the faith
under attack. Brother Henry, in jest, said
in a study that he would like to tie people—hog tie was the
words he used—hog tie people and make them have to sit and
listen to the message this morning. Cog ties is what you say when
you come to Henry County or Franklin or wherever. But you know the fact that they
would sit there and gnash their teeth. They wouldn't receive
it, except like you said, God revealed it to them. God made
them willing. Defaith is under attack now as
never before, never before. Now, our souls are want. The captain of our salvation
has fought all the battles for our salvations. Right, John? He said it's finished. I mean,
our captain, who went out before us to meet the giant, Satan,
The giant of God's law, the giant of our sin, by himself, purged. He won. He cut the giant's head
off, didn't he? He bruised his head. He cut his
head off. He defeated our foes. The battles won. John, the battle,
the victorious cry from the cross was, it's finished. It's over. I love that song. Many of you
love that song. Brother Mike Bartram up in Nashville
and sings that it is finished, the battle is over, and Jesus
is Lord. He finished that. That battle
is over. We're bought with a price by
our captain, the price being his life's blood. But there will
be constant little skirmishes, little struggles. You've come
out of the camp now, Jeanette. You come out of the camp to go
to him. You've left the enemy's service, you who were one time
children of wrath even as others. You left that camp by God's grace,
by God's power. You left. He wooed you. He brought you out. He saved
you. He brought you to himself. You went to him by faith. Satan doesn't give up that easily. Now he's going to assault you
on every hand, mostly to get you to desert, be a deserter. Hebrews 12.1 says it though,
doesn't John? He's the author and the finisher.
12.1 and 2, looking unto him, he's
the author and the finisher. Faithful as he that calleth you,
he will also do it. I'm confident, Jeannette, that
he that began a good work in you, he'll finish it. Will you keep on keeping on?
You will if you're kept by the power of God. So, we are going to be under
attack. That's a fact. That's what it
says here. We are not wrestling with flesh
and blood, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty. Mighty to the pulling down of
strongholds. And this is what we're talking
about. These weapons, Terry, these weapons that are mighty
to the pulling down of strongholds, bringing every thought into captivity
to cry, are these things right here, this armor. It's important,
isn't it? It's important. He said, because
having done all, taken this armor, you're going to stand. You're
going to stand, not fall. Who is it that overcometh the
world? Is that what you want? When it's all said and done,
you want to be an overcomer? Hmm? What is it that overcomes
the world, he said in 1 John? Your faith. Who is he to overcome
it? He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. But there will be constant struggles and skirmishes,
and that's why it is important here, and he says, above all,
to take this one piece of armor, the shield of faith. This one
piece of armor. All right, now, what is faith?
We need to examine that, don't we? What is faith? There's much
said about faith. Spoke a little bit about it this
morning. Our brother read Hebrews 11. The whole chapter speaks
of faith, and it concludes there, doesn't it, in Hebrews 12. What
is faith? I'm not trying to impress you
when I use this term, but faith is objective, not subjective. Something that is subjective—I'll
give you a little English lesson—something that is subjective, that means
you subject yourself to close scrutiny, or you look within,
you look to yourself to find Answers are, look at yourself,
is what you do. Subjective. Objective, you look
outside of yourself. You look to something or someone
else. Objective. Faith is objective. Faith has an object. Faith's
object is not doctrine, not a creed. It's a person. The Lord Jesus
Christ. He is, He is faith. He is true faith. That's what
we're going to talk about from here on out. When we talk about
this shield, we're going to talk about Him. Who is our shield? We read that in Psalm 3, didn't
we? Verse 3. Lord, Thou art my shield. He is my faith. The faith of
Christ. Isn't that what it says there
in Romans 3? The faith of Christ. Faith is objective. It's in a
person. Faith is belief, trust, and we
do act. Faith does work, faith does move,
faith does repent, faith does call, faith does this and that
and the other, but it's connected. It's like the hand that takes
the water that meets the thirst. That's
not the hand. The hand did not do it. The hand
didn't do it. The water met my thirst, right?
You say, well, the hand had something to do with it. No, the mind led
the hand to do it. Right? And it's God that makes
us willing to take by faith to lay hold on Christ. Right? Christ's
the one that meets your thirst. He's the water. The hand's just
a tool. Faith is a tool. It's a gift
of God. He gives it to you so you use it. We're going to look
at that a little more in a moment. But faith is belief, trust, dependence
upon a person, one person. Because there's one faith. one
Lord, one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's believing, trusting. How many times do we say this?
You know we're going to have to learn it, aren't we? We know it by rote. like Paul
Peretz. Everybody in here can say this.
Faith is believing, trusting, depending upon the Lord Jesus
Christ for everything. We need to learn it, don't we?
We need to actually do that. Faith without works is dead.
Be a hearer of the Word and not a doer. Doesn't do you any good,
does it? So faith is actually depending,
believing, trusting Jesus Christ for everything. You're all and
in all as your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification, your redemption,
all of these things, your God, your Lord, your judge, your jury,
your lawyer, your savior, your sacrifice, your substitute, your
lamb, your sin offering, your high priest, your great high
priest, your mediator, your intercessor, your daisman, your advocate.
On and on it goes, doesn't it? Faith is to trust Him, look to
Him, believe Him, truly, as being all and in all, all those things
to you, your life, your life. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, Colossians 3 said. Faith does not look to self,
subjective. Faith looks to Christ, objective,
looking unto Jesus, the author, the one that gave you this faith,
and the finisher. the one that will make sure you
are faithful to them. Christ is the faith. Listen,
you remember that verse I quoted a moment ago? That we have to
defend against those who are always
after us. Defending the faith once delivered
to the saints. I didn't write it down. I don't
know where that is. Christ is the faith once delivered. to
the saints. He was delivered for our justification. He is the faith. He is the object
of our faith, delivered to the saints. Christ is the gospel.
Christ is the faith. So, belief, trust, dependence upon
Jesus Christ is to have a shield to protect you. Have a shield. Look over at Proverbs 30, verse
5. Look over at Proverbs 30. In Genesis, when Abraham got down
and depressed because Lot got the good land, and he was stuck
up in the mountains—Rocky Mount. Everywhere he plowed, there were
rocks and red dirt. And Lot got to live in Kentucky,
and it was sorely black. No, just kidding, Stan. Nevertheless, Lot seemed to have
got the better part of the deal, didn't he? No, he didn't either.
No, Lot just about perished in that happy hunting ground. And Abraham was all depressed
and sad about it. maybe moaning, complaining a
little bit, and God came to him and said, Abraham, I am thy shield. Now, why did he say that first?
And then he went on to say, Barbara, and you're exceeding great reward.
Lot got what he wanted. Abraham, you get what you need. And I believe what you want.
Get me. The first thing he said was, I'm your shield. Lot was
defenseless, wasn't he? Lot was without protection. Lot
had no hiding place. Lot was out there in the open,
out there in the midst of Sodom. It looked just like the Sodomites
after a while. He was without God, without hope,
seemingly. We found out later on, though,
that the Lord was his shield. But it didn't appear that way. In the cleft—he was in the cleft
of the rock, wasn't he? Hidden with God. David said it,
too. David said, Thou, Lord, art a
shield for me. Look at Proverbs 30, verse 5. Every word of God is pure. He
is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. He's a shield. So, faith in Christ is compared
to a shield. Now, turn over to Psalm 5, and
I think you'll see where the Apostle Paul got this from. I
believe he got—the Apostle Paul was a scholar of the Old Testament,
but Charles—Apostle could quote more—knew the law more than any
of the Pharisees. He knew the Scriptures. He quoted
Scripture. Scripture, didn't he? Old Testament
Scripture. He was constantly referring to the Scripture. That's
the mark of a good preacher, isn't it? He was constantly referring
to the Scripture. Old Testament Scriptures. He
knew them well. And if you read carefully his writings, you'll
see the analogies he made, the allegories and so forth. He got
them from Scriptures. They weren't original. They came
from the Scriptures. Even the Lord himself quoted
Scripture, didn't he? But they were original. He's
the one who wrote them, old and new. But you don't want some
original fellow. You want some fellow just to
quote Scripture to you. And I believe that's where the
apostle Paul got this allegory here in Ephesians 6 of the shield
of faith. Look at Psalm 5, verse 12. with favor wilt thou compass
him as with a shield." Now, the word shield, the Greek word shield
in the New Testament, means large as a door. That's what it means. In other
words, it's referring to the shield. Stand back and you've
seen the old night movies, haven't you? And you'd see how that Back
in the olden days, these fellas that had the big spears and the
swords—not the archers, but the infantrymen down on the front
lines that were—the swords, the arrows were being shot at them.
Remember that? Remember them? They had these big shields that
they'd get behind and just slowly go at the gates, go at the enemy,
and so forth. These shields were as big as
a door. And as big as a door, it covered the entire man. In other words, the whole man
could hide behind this shield. See what I'm getting at? Or who I'm getting at? Paul,
Psalm 119, verse 114 says, Thou art my hiding place and my shield. See, faith protects us, number
one, about faith compared to a shield. I'll give you four
or five points. And that's it. Faith protects us against attack. And that's talking about Christ. Christ, our shield, protects
us. He covers the entire man. The Lord Jesus Christ protects
the whole man. We've been talking about the
head. I'm aware we will talk about
the head, the helmet of salvation. We'll talk about the girdle.
We'll talk about the breastplate. We'll talk about the feet and
so forth. The faith, he says, above all that, over top of all
of that. And I have to believe that's
what he was saying in verse 10. Be strong in the Lord, behind
the Lord, in the Lord, in faith in the Lord, above all, above
all those things. All of those things are contained
in and found in this thing called faith in Christ. Right? The girdle of truth is nothing
but faith in Christ. The breastplate of righteousness
is nothing but faith in Christ. Being shod with the gospel is
nothing but the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And faith
in Christ protects our head. This big shield, you get behind
it and it protects your head. You're hearing from all false
notions. If you get a right notion of Christ, you won't fall for
all these false notions that are going on today, will you?
Huh? If, John, you believe the doctrine of Christ, do we need to elaborate what
Christ means? We say Christ, and that's the
doctrine, isn't it? He's Christ. God's chosen, God's
anointed, God's elect, my Christ, my Savior, my Messiah, my Redeemer,
my Rescuer, my Savior. Christ, that's what His name
means. If you've got the doctrine, if you abide in the doctrine
of Christ, there's no false notions going to pop into your head.
That'll protect you. That's your protection. Your
heart. What about the love of the world, and the affection
of the world, and temptations of the world, and so forth? Well,
faith in Christ, a love for Christ, will extinguish. I wish I knew
to quote that Latin saying, but it says something to this
effect. One love will cancel out another. One love will cancel out another. And if we truly fall in love
with Christ by God's grace, We won't be head over heels in love
with this head over heels, head over heart in love with this
world, right? Oh, no. Oh, no. We'll esteem Christ like
Moses did, Rick, there in Hebrews 11, greater than all the treasures
of Egypt, right? Get a new truck? Fine, that's
good. You know, like it, drive it, enjoy it, but it's just a
truck. Huh? Well, Christ is everything,
isn't He? He's all—that truck's lovely,
but my, my. He's altogether lovely. And on
and on you could use that, couldn't you? So, true faith in Christ
should protect the heart, the head, the heart, the feet. What
about the feet? And Satan aims his arrows at your feet, and
you might slip up. He wants you to stumble and fall,
doesn't He? Huh? Fall into sin, trip you
up in your way. Well, Bob, if you're walking
by faith in Christ, your foot will not slide in due time. Because
he said, you're going to stand on a rock. The world is on a
shifting sand of a God who tries and can't and so forth. You know,
Armenian religion, that's shifting sands, you know. There's nothing
solid or grounded to be settled on there, is there? God might,
He loves you, but He might not save you. And this and that. Boy, that's shaky ground, isn't
it? Huh? No more standing firm on
Christ, you won't be moved. Come hell or high water, no matter,
you won't be moved. Rains and floods and winds or
whatever can be planted. Secondly, faith. Faith protects
against attack. Faith protects the whole armor. Faith protects, so Christ is
the whole armor. Christ is the essence of all
this thing. He says, above all, above all. We talked about truth,
didn't we? Have your loins girt about with
truth. What is truth? It's a person. We talked about
righteousness, didn't we? Having a breastplate of righteousness.
What is righteousness? He's made unto us righteousness.
He is our righteousness. And the Lord hath our righteousness.
Well, we talked about the gospel, didn't we? Being charged with
the gospel of peace. What is the gospel? What is the good
news? Christ is the gospel. He is the—so doctrine is not
salvation, but a person. A person's salvation. Faith is
not salvation, but a person. A person. And faith is like a shield, because
faith—listen to this. When those fellas stood behind
those big shields, and waded into all those arrows that were
flying, what was it that took all the blows? Now, if those
hit was one, they were gone. Right? What I'm talking about? That was born and raised. If
those was hit, if they were struck by one arrow, Forgive me, everybody
here knew what I was talking about. Maybe not Nancy. She hadn't
been here long enough. Yes, she had. But where was it
that took all the blows? What are you laughing at? That's
where you talk. Where was it that took all the
blows? Hmm? In Shechel. The Scripture says
that Christ was wounded for our transgressions. Scripture says
He was smitten and afflicted. Scripture says by His stripes
we are healed. Scripture says the chastisement
that was supposed to be for us was laid on Him. Right? Christ was smitten for
us by the enemy. He was the one that was assaulted.
He bears all the blows. He's our shield, isn't He? He's
our shield. We couldn't take one of them.
We really couldn't. We couldn't take one. But you
know, we are assaulted, though. We are assaulted, but they're,
you know, consider him. That's what is said there in
that Hebrews 12, they consider him. You haven't yet resisted
unto blood, striving against sin. No, you're not tied to the
stake yet. Have they tied your feet to the
stake yet, Henry? Oh, no. Nobody's held a gun to
your head yet and said, don't believe that or else. No, yet.
Well, we are assaulted, though, and how are these assaults repelled? Same thing. Faith in Christ.
By faith in Christ. You see, these assaults will
take the form of sin. We can't bear our sin. We can't
bear the thought of it. We're going to have to lay our
sins on the head of the scapegoat, aren't we? The trials we go through—Violet,
I don't—how did you get through that? The drugs, the doctors,
all those things? Huh? Christ. Christ, your shield. All the
trials we have to go through, Christ has to be the one we hide
behind. Yeah, he's a crutch to the believer. He sure is. I don't mind saying
that. Temptations will come at us,
and we're no match for them. No match. Just a little spark
will kindle a great fire, won't it, John? No match. We need something
to hide behind. Someone. So only by looking to
Christ can we ward these things off. Only Christ can give you
strength. He said, I'm your shield, and I'm your strength. We have
no strength. Without me, you can do nothing.
You have to hide behind Him about everything. And another thing,
faith is like a shield in that faith needs to be real strong. Faith needs to be real strong.
You know, the Lord said to Thomas, He said, Don't be weak in faith,
believe Him. Remember that? Be not weak, but
believe Him. Scripture says that Abraham was
strong in faith, giving glory to God. We're talking about believing
Christ. Now let me ask you, let me ask
you, how strong is your faith? Ella? You were hoping I wouldn't
call her. How strong is your faith? How strong is your faith? Why
are you all shaking your head? Every one of you did the same
thing. Well, if I asked you, how strong
is your faith, you might say, well, I just don't seem to be
able to believe like ought to. I just don't seem to be able
to. I'm just so weak, and I didn't ask you how strong you were. What did I say faith was? What
is your faith? Huh? Is it how strong you believe? All right, let me ask you again. Polly, how strong is your Christ? Ellen? Now, every one of y'all
be it. Roberta? How strong is your Christ? He said, "'Faith not subjective,
is it?' He said, "'If you had that much, who wouldn't—' Terry,
you don't want to quote it, but it's a grain of a mushroom. He
said, "'What is faith, Terry? Well, grit your teeth and believe.'" It seemed like you could do that. It's a person. It's a resigning—it's so tough,
it's so simple, it's tough. It's so simple, it's tough. It's
hard. It's difficult. It's hard to
just rest because we're so self-righteous, we're so self-dependent, we're
so self-this. Right? Believe Christ. Didn't he say, Jeanette to Mary and Martha,
didn't I tell you if you would believe that you'd see the glory
of God? Now, we've seen it without believing.
Anyway, all our lives we've experienced and seen the glory of God when
we didn't have faith in the grain of a mustard seed, but he revealed
it to us anyway, didn't he? He said, if you'd believe, you'd
see mountains moved. If you just resigned yourself
to who I am, what I've done, where I am, Nothing a movie. Nothing. Nothing. Certainly not the price
of gas. Oh, my. You know, I make fun.
I say these things, but it is, it is, it's downright comical,
isn't it? We're so unbelieving. We're so unbelieving. We're so
weak. How strong is your Christ? If
he's all-powerful, then there's nothing to worry about. Faith
is only as strong as its object, right? Was it Brother Milton
Howard that gave that illustration of sitting in a chair? I think
it was. At any rate, he said, well, that
right there. Now, I just don't have a bit
of problem in sitting there. I'm not going to... Well... Who knows? It might not... I'm not sure. We might check
it out. I don't have a bit of a problem.
I don't even think about it when I come up on this platform. Sit
down. That's the perfect illustration
of faith in Christ in it. Isn't it? Christ is the object
of our faith. He said, I'll hold you up. You
will not be moved. Oh, I tell you. Then I'm willing
or willy not. Is his word true? He promised? No matter what, you go. No matter
what comes, I sent it. And like I said, tell me this
tomorrow morning. But it's true. Nonetheless, whether
we believe it, Didn't he say to Timothy, he said, if we believe
not, yet he abided faithful, he can't deny himself. I love
that passage of Scripture, don't you, John? If we believe not,
well, it's of no consequence except to give us a whole lot
of heartache for a while and make us wring our hands needlessly
and walk the floor when we could have been sleeping. Like that
fellow said, from talking about Psalm 121, he never slumbers
or sleep. The fellow was walking the floor one night, worried
about something. Maybe the price of gas, didn't he, on the service
station. And he was walking the floor, and he said, and he got
the Bible Scriptures out and read that Psalm 21. It says that
he shall neither slumber nor sleep. He that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. You say, wait a minute. If God's keeping me, And he never
sleeps. Why don't I just go to sleep?
He's watching. He's got a—it's his. He's got
me. And he's saying, I'm going to
go to sleep. I'm going to go to sleep. It
seems like a very simple illustration, and they are. They ought to be,
because that's what faith is. It's trusting a person. Trust
me of course I really don't believe my daughter loses sleep at night
because when she feels safe. That is with her now that is
in the house he said I'll never leave. That is going to leave. Right. That really. Some of you ladies have lost
your days. You have lost your head my father. Said I'll never
leave. Huh? Huh? Some of you ladies
have lost your husband. Huh? Scripture says your maker
is your husband. Your maker is your husband. Ah, boy. If we knew him as we've
been known, if we knew him as we've been known, someday we
will. And if we did, if we would chastise
ourselves, we would do that. for being so whiny, you're so
humble. What were you worried about? Right? Weren't we? If we thought that way, we would.
Does that make sense? If we thought like that, we won't.
But if we did, we'd think, why was I worried? Why was I worried? A shield needs to be strong.
A shield needs to be made of metal, but if those fellows went
out there with cardboard shields, it wouldn't last long, would
it? Any and every blow would penetrate that. Faith needs to
be made of a suitable material, and it's not wood, hay, or stubble,
but gold, Precious stones. Think Paul just pulled those
out of the air anywhere, John? Gold is Christ's deity. Silver is his redemption. Precious
stones is his character. That's what our faith needs to
do. That's the person of Christ, isn't it? You know, they like
to talk about a different test being tested in the middle of
the man. Were you a Marine, Henry? Anybody
in here a Marine, John? You weren't a real man anyway. That's what the Marines looking
for a few good men here, made of metal. No, they're not. They're made of flesh. They die
just like Army men, don't they? Just like Air Force. But they
talk about being made of metal. You want to test my metal? I'm
flesh. My Lord's not. He's spirit. Right? My captain is made of
iron. He's my shield. Also, a shield,
y'all, must be forged in a furnace. Metal, wood's not. Cardboard's
not. Hay's not. Stubble's not. Metal
is, though. Iron is forged in a furnace.
God is the blacksmith. May I use this simple illustration?
God is the blacksmith. The law is his hammer. Justice
is the fire furnace, Christ is that perfect shield. That perfect
shield, hammered out by God, molded, made, shaped in the fashion
of a man yet without sin. Perfect man, perfect God, perfect
shield, perfect righteousness. A shield has got to be without
sin, too. If there was any sin, those shields were forged. They
were forged. Shield's got to be without seam.
That's a picture of Christ being without flaw, without spot, without
blemish, without any imperfections. They're perfect. Nothing can
penetrate. Christ is my perfect robe. Christ is my perfect Savior. Christ is perfect God. And lastly, let me bring this
out. A couple more things here. Lastly, faith is like a shield
in that it has to be handled. Right here now, it says, verse
16, look at it. It says, above all, taking the
shield, taking the shield of faith. Now,
these other things We notice how that these other
things says, verse like 14, it says, "...stand therefore, having
your lawns girt." It seems like that's something that's done
to you. "...having on the breastplate of righteousness." That's something
that's applied to you, that Christ's blood is rising. "...feet shod
with the preparation of..." Shod, you know, a horse gets shod,
that's somebody else does it to him. But I hear it says, "...you
take the shield of faith." And I know, I quoted, John quoted
out loud this morning that faith is the gift of God. And by his
gift, though, we receive it. We do. We take it. We receive
it. They, like a shield, must be
handled. We need to lay our hands on the
head of the scapegoat. That's all faith does. It just
lays hands on the head of the scapegoat. Lays hold on Christ.
Lays hold on the horns of the altar. Christ is the altar. He's
the horn of our strength. It lays hold on him. We don't
lay a tool on it now. But we lay hold on Christ. We grab hold of Christ by faith. We, as old Brother Maurice said,
hug that to me. And here's some ways that we
handle faith, okay? Listen to me carefully. This
is good. This will help you out. I need this. Some ways we handle
faith or use faith is, number one, we lay hold on the promises
of God. the promises of God. That's what
this whole book is, just full of promises. Promises, like my
pastor said, we're encompassed about on one side with promises
lest we despair, but warnings lest we presume. But there's
full of promises. This whole book is one big promise
book to God's people, of peace, of pardon, of salvation, of protection,
of being heirs and and inheritance and so forth, right? Acceptance
with God. We lay hold by faith, though,
on the promises of God and use them for our protection, okay?
Satan will say things like this to you. Now, it says the fiery
darts, doesn't it? Doesn't it say that in verse
16? To quench the fiery darts of the wicked, here's some of
those darts he's going to hurl at you. He'll say, you're going
to fail someday. Have you ever thought that way,
Jeanette? Deborah, have you? Sure you have. Everybody in here
has thought like this, I'm going to be the only one to live. I'm
going to be the only apostate one in here. Everybody else is
going to make it but me. Let me ask you, why? Why is everybody going to make
it but you? Because they're better than you? But if anybody in here makes
it, it's going to be because of Christ. Right? Isn't that right? Well, Satan says, you're going
to fail someday. Well, here's the thing to answer
him with. Take the shield of faith, Debra, and say, he never
faileth. Yeah, I fail every day. Answer
him with that. That's the way you answer these charges. He never
fails. Yeah, I fail all the time, and
will. He never fails. But he'll say,
well, you'll quit. You will quit. You'll quit someday. But answering like this, what
God has begun, he never quits. He finishes. Huh? Take the shield. He'll say, well,
yeah, but you're weak. You're mighty weak. You're no
match. Oh, you say that's true. Everything
you've said about me is true, but his strength is made perfect
in my weakness. Well, he'll say, but yeah, but
you're a great sinner. You're a great sinner. You're
one of the worst I've seen. I've been around a long time.
You're one of the worst. You're full of hypocrisy. You're
a great sinner. Great sinner. Answer him with
this, this promise he's able to say to the uttermost. The
uttermost. The truth of sin. Yeah, but I'll
have you someday, he says. I'll have you. You'll be mine.
You'll be mine. I'll get you. Answer him with
this promise. My Lord said he gave unto me
eternal life and I'd never perish. The Lord rebuked thee, Satan.
Use the promises as a shield. Use them. There's another way
to handle them, to handle the shield, to handle the promises,
also by experience. And let's see if this does not
hold true. We handle the shield by experience.
If you've ever used a gun—any of you fellows have a good gun
that you've—Charles Hudson were here. He's a big sprit. Some of you are gun men. If you've
ever used a good gun, you got used to it, and you know it fires
well, and you're confident with it, and you've used it, and it
hits the mark, and so forth, it's a good gun. You know by
experience, by using that gun, don't you, that it's power, and
it's efficacy, don't you? Huh? Well, and maybe that's a
bad illustration, but have you been delivered—how often have
you been delivered by Christ over the years? How many times, John? How old
are you? About 59? Close enough. Over 50. Might as well be 59,
60. Right, Henry? Gonna go like that, and you'll
be 70. But how often has Christ delivered
you over these 55 years, John? Just how often, buddy? Oh, more
than even number, right? You ought to know about spirits
by now, shouldn't you? You ought to be well-experienced
in the faith. See what I'm saying? How often have you been delivered?
We ought to say like David, why art thou weary? Why art thou
cast down, O my soul? I'll yet raise him again. John,
we get down, we get tenfold, we get to feeling bad, feeling
like he's going to leave us. This happened before. Ain't it,
Barbara? We've got just about it down.
You've got down as far as you could possibly go at times. You
think, I can't, I'm lower, as Donnie would say, in a snake's
belly. You've never been any more sinful
than you have at times. You think, I'm never going to
come out of this pit now that I'm here. I'm lost. I'm a goner.
Here you are. Hide behind the promises of sugar. I didn't write it down, but what's
that verse of scripture says? I've seen the righteous shall
fall seven times. Yet it shall be well with the
righteous. They're going to get up every time. Going to get up. Why? The Lord's going to reach
down and pick them up. Pirate thou cast down on me.
I'll yet hope in the Lord. He's my strength and my shield.
His mercy, you think, well, he's mercy, David got that way, didn't
he? Is his mercy clean gone? Well, Stan, later on he wrote,
well, his mercy endures forever. It must, because he has used
a lot on me. There must be a lot of it there,
because he's used a lot of it on this one fellow. Right? Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? In the face of your sins, hope in the Lord. There's mercy
within you. There's yet forgiveness within
you. Oh, I like that. I like that. I like that. And the necessity
of faith above all. He said that in our text. He
said, above all. Now, if I sent you down to the
store. Say I sent Earlene. I said, Earlene, now I want you
to go down to the store. I want you to get milk. I want you to
get eggs. Don't you get bacon, but above all. You know what
I'm going to say, don't you, Jerry? Get the chocolate buyer's
ice cream. That's what I'd say. Get buyer's
chocolate. Not the little. But if I said,
above all. Now you can forget the eggs,
you can forget the bacon, but don't you come back without that
buyer's. You're going to remember this
now that I said that, aren't you? He says, above all. Take
this shield of faith. This covers it all. This covers
it all. Above all, faith, that you may
want, because the darts are headed this way, little poisoners. They're
different darts. You remember those? I used to
like to watch those old cowboy and Indian movies and different
you know Robin Hood and all that and read about him when I was
a boy. They'd use different kinds of arrows back there. When they
used archery, that kind of warfare, John, they'd use different kinds
of arrows. All kinds of arrows they'd use. They'd use little
sharp pointed barbed arrows with poison on the end of them. And they might a little hit you.
They'd shoot and spit them, you know. And they might hit you
and you might not know you've been, except a little sting,
you know. And you'd drop over dead later on. Well, that's the
subtle innuendos and little things that Satan can use to create
within you malice and hatred and envy and lust and so forth.
Little barbs, right? Poisonous arrows. And then he'll
let fly at you. You remember they used to set
one, put something flammable around it and want to burn the
whole house down immediately. Then there's an all-out assault
upon you, meant to burn your house down. Huh? Well, faith
in Christ has said to quench those fiery darks. Quench them. The most fiery assaults. The most fiery assaults. Faith
in Christ. I love to read the stories of
the martyrs. I love to, yet I don't. I have
mixed emotions. You know what I mean? It makes
me feel like a dog after I get through reading them, like such
a worthless person. I am. That's what I am. But reading
a book, you know, like that fella said to Spurgeon one time, I'm
just afraid I don't have dying faith. And he said, Are you dying?
I said, Not yet, not that I know of. He said, We don't need it
yet, do we? Maybe if I came to the States I'd be just as resolute. But what I was getting ready
to say was, and Jeanette and some of you have read those stories
of those martyrs—Fox's Book of Martyrs—it seems like some of
them went to the stake and never felt pain. I'm talking about having their
flesh burnt alive. One fellow, John—this is the
true story—he was pastor of a church, and he'd been preaching what
I'm preaching—faith in Christ. And all of his parishioners were
watching him go to be burned at the stake. True story. I wish
I could remember his name. And as he was walking bound to
that stake, to be bound, all of his people, congregation,
were lined up weeping and wailing. He stopped. He said, Whoa, wait
a minute. Reminds me of my Lord, doesn't
it? Stopping and weeping. But he stopped and said, if I
so much as wince in those flames, don't believe our word I preached
to you all these years. Can you imagine? And the story
has it that he didn't wince. Just hung on that stake, singing
praises to God looking heavenward. And I'm not bragging on that
man. I'm just telling you. Terry said directly, shut in
the boot and go. Didn't wince. Why? Yeah. Somebody in there with
him. Somebody was in there with him.
They came out, didn't even have to smell the smoke on them. You must, through much
tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven. Do you believe Christ?
Do you really? How strong is your shield? How
strong is Christ? We'd better start believing,
hadn't we? We need to. We need to. We sure do. And this is for those who feel
like they don't have a shield, don't have Christ. You know,
a young believer is prone, is most likely to be assaulted. most likely to be assaulted and
prone to let down that shield, and for lack of a better way
to put it, let down that shield. A young man, a young woman, a
young believer, whoever comes to Christ at first, and the devil,
Spurgeon used this illustration. He said it's like that young
man that was coming to Christ, and the devil took him and tore
him and threw him on the ground. And that's what he does to a
young believer, just takes him and makes them feel more rotten
than they've ever felt in their life, more hopeless. Well, faith, the Scripture says,
is the victory that overcometh the world. He that believeth
Jesus is the Christ. Let me look that up for you.
It's in 1 John 3, I'm pretty sure. 1 John 5, isn't it? 1 John 5. Look at it with me. Turn over there. 1 John 5 says
this. John 5, verse 5, "...who is he
that overcometh the world, but he that believeth Jesus is the
Son of God." The Son of God. What does that mean? All authority
is given unto me in heaven and earth. All the forces of of nature, everything is in his
hand. Fire, he's going to be burning at the stake. He's the
one that you can't start a fire unless he sets off. Everything is under his control. Who is he that overcomes it?
He that believes this. Jesus is the Son of God, the
Son of the Most High, in charge of everything. But you may say,
well, I've been trying to have faith and I can't. Can't? Can't believe Christ? Why not? Why not? And like I said, we're
all going to need this at times. We need this said too. Why not?
Well, I just don't, don't, I what? It's He. Faith in Christ. It's not feelings. I just don't
feel, it's not feelings. It's faith in a person. We need
to be like those lepers. We say, well, and this is what
we had the most trouble with, is our sin. Our sin, we get so
down and feeling so sinful, we actually commit sin. Act rotten
and no good and worthless. And that's self-righteousness
is what that is. When you say, when you think,
some of you know what I'm talking about. All that is is a legal
spirit and a self-righteousness thinking that, well, you've got
to get so good in order to come to Him. No. No. Just as I am. In my hands, no price I bring.
Come to Him as you are. But a blind man may say, well,
I need to go home and clean up that. Yeah. No. As you are. Sinful as you are. And our sins
get us so damned at times, though, we think, I've got to be lost. I've got to be. I can't. No true
child of God could do or say or be like me. Can't do it. He's not going to have me. Christ's
not going to have me. Oh, that's the time when you
need to just cast your whole soul on it, and be like those
lepers. You remember those lepers that,
back in the Old Testament, I didn't write it down where it is, that
said this, those lepers, they were going to die. They were
lepers, and they were dying, and they knew it, John, and they
said, well, let us fall into the hands of the Syrians. Let's
just fall into their hands. Remember, the Syrians had taken
the city, and these lepers were inner Jews, I think, and they
said, what are we going to do? Are we going to go out here?
We can't. We're going to go to Syria. Let's just fall into their
hands. If they kill us, we're going
to die. We're going to die anyway. Let's
just fall in and see what happens. And then there's this story.
I did write this down. In 1 Kings 20, where a fellow named Ben-Hadad—Ben-Hadad, an enemy of King Ahab. He was
an enemy. He was a conquered king. He said this. He said this to
all of his fellows, and this is what I'm saying to you bunch
of sinners. You say, I'm Ben-Hadad, and you are my fellows. We're all just enemies by nature. of God and deserve to be hung
by God. Sinners that we are, from here,
from Ben-Habad on down. And here's what he said, though.
Ben-Habad, when he heard that they were vanquished and that
they had no help and no hope and that
the king of Israel was on the throne and he was getting rid
of all of his enemies around the place, going to smite all
his enemies and set up his throne. Listen to this. Listen to this. 1 Kings 20, verse 31 and 32 says
this. Ben-Hadad said this, "'Well,
I have heard that the kings of Israel are merciful kings.'"
They're merciful kings. They're not like the kings of
this world. They're actually merciful. We've
heard that the kings of Israel are actually merciful kings.
Let's do this. Let's put ropes around our heads. Let's put ropes around our heads,
all of us, and go to the king of Israel, Pearl Bencher. He'll save our lives. You like
that? I do. You old rotten, wretched sinner
here. How many years are you going
to keep on sinning, Buffy? It's not funny, really, is it?
It's sad. Let's put a rope around our heads,
y'all. And I've heard that the King of Israel is a merciful
King. And he keeps having mercy on
old bean hay dads. Let's just put a rope around
our head. We're going to perish if we don't. All right? and go
to him per adventure. It's not an adventure, it's a
certainty. Go with a rope around your neck
and you won't be hung. You won't be hung, you'll be
saved. He's mercy, ever-mercy. Okay, stand with me. May the
Lord use these people well. ask that you would use your word.
Your word is so powerful. Our comments on it are so, so
feeble. But your word is so quick and
powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. If we could, if you would
just take your word, that hammer, that two-edged sword, and pierce
our hearts with it, our minds, if you would sear it in our minds,
our hearts, plant it like the incorruptible
seed down within us, make it bring forth the fruit of faith,
we would, Lord, we would believe. Lord, we do believe by your grace,
by your gift. Help our unbelief. Help our unbelief. Why are we so unbelieving, so
faithless? Hope in God. Hope in Christ.
Believe in Christ. We'll see the salvation of the
Lord. See his glory. And one of us need this, I need
this. We're all going to need it, especially need it, in special
times. So may we bring it back up like
a cow chewing its cud and chew on these things. Let them not
flee away, but be planted. In Christ's name we met together
this day and ask your blessing upon your word. Amen.