Just one verse, Ephesians chapter
6 and verse 16. You and I have been studying on the
armor of God that we're instructed here to put on, and we're instructed
to put it on because of our enemies. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness
in high places. And he says here in chapter 6
and verse 16, above all, he's told us to have our loins girded
about with truth and breastplate of righteousness, our feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and above all, taken
the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked or the wicked one. The Wicked
One, fire darts of the Wicked One, the shield of faith. Now, there's no doubt in my mind,
according to what I know about the Word of God, that every child of God, every elect
soul, Every blood-bought, blood-worshipped son of Adam will make heaven
his home at last. If I didn't believe that, to
me, I would dishonor God. I'd dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ
who bore his sins and put his sins away. To me, I'd be twisting
the Scriptures not to believe that. But we also believe this,
that between every blood-bought soul and heaven, there is a force
of wickedness that is opposed to him to do everything he can
within his power and God's permission to stop that child of God from
entering glory. The land between heaven and earth
is a battlefield, and we must, through much tribulation, cross
that land. Fight the good fight of faith
in dear hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. These enemies
that you and I have looked at in the past weeks are the enemies
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are our enemies. But through
Him we defeat these enemies. Through grace we shall conquer
and defeat all our foes as God leads us along. And here Paul
talks to us about a defensive piece of our armor, the shield,
the shield of faith. And you've probably seen shields,
the old shields. They've varied through the centuries.
But most of them, the older shields, back in the Bible days and the
Old Testament times, usually reach from about the neck down
to the waist, some were even longer, and wide as the body.
you could move the shield. Two pieces of this armor that
was not attached to the body was the shield and the sword.
Best of it was the helmet was attached, the band about the
waist was attached, the girdle and the shoes were attached,
the breastplate was attached, but the shield was movable. And the reason it's movable was
because when the arrows was coming in, or the sword, you could defend
yourself. The shield is a defensive weapon. It defends the head, it defends
the breast, it defends the loins, and it even defends the feet. So this breastplate, this shield
of faith here is a defensive weapon. And the Apostle Paul
tells us here to above everything else. Above all, take the shield
of faith. Now, he means one, or maybe he
means two things by that. Take the shield of faith because
it covers all these other pieces of armor. Take the shield of
faith. It's important because it covers
the head. It covers the waist, the breast,
and the feet, where others, this covers one portion of the body.
let this shield cover all of the rest of this armor, above
all, or overall. But I think probably what he
means here is that faith, this shield of faith, is the most
important of all the graces that is in our hearts. There is a
definite sense in which grace is much more important than love. love, as critical as it is, it
will not quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Goodness and
patience and long-suffering and kindness, none of these things
will quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Only faith will
do that. So the Apostle Paul is saying
here, faith, the shield of faith above all other pieces of armor
or all other Graces of the Holy Spirit is the most important
thing. When you and I talk about love,
that's most important as far as our relationship one to another.
And when we talk about kindness and long-suffering, that's more
important than faith as far as our relationship one to another.
But when we talk about faith, that's essential for our relationship
with God. By faith, Enoch walked with God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please Him. This is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. So Paul is saying, above everything
else, faith is most important. But you know, it's not just any
kind of faith. It's not just any kind of faith. Paul didn't
say put on or take to yourself the shield of faith. He first
told us whose shield it was. Do you remember that? Put on
the whole armor of God. We didn't design this shield.
We didn't manufacture this shield. This is God's shield. Faith is
what God provides for us. It's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any of us should boast. It's God's armor. It's
God's armor. There's different kinds of faith
that we study about in the Word of God. Let me give you some
of them. And he's not talking about this
faith. If we take to ourselves the shield
of faith, it must be that shield which God has provided. It must
be the faith which he provides. There's the faith which devils
have. Don't we read about that? Devils believe and tremble. I
don't want that kind of faith. Do you? There's a faith that
we read in the scriptures that's temporary faith. Those who bleed
for a while, but in time of temptation, in the time of afflictions and
trouble, they quit bleeding. They fall away. I call that fair
weather faith. It's good in fair weather when
the sun's shining, but let the storm come and faith is gone. Temporary faith. There's a faith
that the Scripture tells us that can be overthrown even by the
arguments of men. Hymenaeus and Philetus, they
taught that the resurrection had passed already and overthrew
the faith of son. Have you not seen men? I've seen
men in my 35 years now. that they went from one false
religion to another. And it just depended on who they
talked to last that had a strong argument. I've seen them go from
the Baptists to Pentecostals to Jehovah's Witnesses. It just
depended on who had the best argument at the time. You and
I don't want a faith that depends upon the wisdom of men. We don't want that. and a faith
that cannot stand and be settled in the faith of the wisdom of
men, how's he going to stand before these devils? If men can
argue me out of the faith that I have, what's devils going to
do to me when we stand before them? We don't want a faith that's
dependent upon the arguments of men. Our faith does not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And then, fourthly,
there's a faith that we sometimes call a miraculous faith, faith
that can do miracles. Though I have faith to remove
mountains, Paul said, that's a miraculous faith, isn't it? That's sort of like the faith
probably that Judas did. Judas went out and healed people,
cast out devils, and he was one himself. Don't want a miraculous faith.
There's that historical faith. Most of our families and our
friends, our co-workers, they have this historical faith. They
believe that Jesus Christ is a figure in history. Well, I
do too, and you do too. But saving faith is more than
that, isn't it? It's much more than that. What
is real faith in? I think we have to settle this
before we talk about the shield of faith, because it's the armor
that God as provided. And that's the first thing about
faith. It's that which God gives. And I don't know, brothers and
sisters, a better way to define what real faith is than just
simply tell you what the Scripture says about it. There's a lot
of things that I don't know about faith. And when I attempt to
describe it, I get myself confused and everybody else. But I can
describe it from the Scriptures. And here, listen to these few
things about saving faith. This shield, and the first thing
about this faith is, it's what God gives. Philippians 1, it's
given to you in the behalf of Christ to believe on Him. And another scripture, he said,
this is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He hath
sent. By grace, or you say through
faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. True faith is a gift of God. It's not only a gift of God,
but it's a work of God that begins in our hearts. I never saw this
when I first believed, and you probably didn't either. But this
is the fact. that no man ever believes but
as God gives him grace and works faith in him. This is the work
of God. And the scripture says, being
confident of this, that he which hath begun a good work in you. What is that good work? To believe.
To believe. This is God's armor. And here
lies a sinner dead who trusts Christ in sin, and none of them
will ever believe until God gives faith. Now that's a fact, ain't
it? That's a fact. And now, you can look back on
that and you can say, I believe that. I didn't understand that
when the Lord first saved me. I didn't know hardly anything.
But I know it now. And I agree with it now. Faith
is a gift of God. And secondly, faith has Jesus
Christ and Him crucified as its object. Not Christ as a great
prophet. That's true. He was a great prophet.
And we believe he was. But saving faith is not in Christ
as a great prophet. Neither is a great man. He was
that. A great example. He was that.
But saving faith is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He's the object of saving faith.
The life I now live, I live by the faith of Him who loved me and gave himself for me." Faith,
if it's saving, is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. One of the
most blessed good news that Philippians ever heard when he comes trembling
out to Paul and Silas, what must I do to be saved? What did he
tell them? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in the
Lamb of God crucified and you shall be saved. That's why Jehovah's Witnesses
aren't saved. That's why the Mormons aren't
saved. The object of their faith is not Christ and Him crucified.
He's a creature. Faith. Saving faith has the testimony
of God's Word for its foundation. How does faith come? How do we
get it? By hearing the Word of God. How shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard? Faith is believing the testimony,
the message of this Bible. That's where we get faith at.
That's the very foundation of our faith. This is only what
I learned of you, Paul, said to the Galatians. Receive you
the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. You have to hear and hear the
word of God. That's the way faith comes. Saving
faith will never be completely lost. This is so important. It's a grace, it's a gift, and
the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. If he
gave it away and it was lost, then God's grace is lost. Faith,
if it's saving, will never be completely lost. It may grow
weak. It may grow dark in the soul
to the place where you don't even know if you've got it left
in your heart. But you know something? Faith will never completely be
distinguished from the soul. Not when God begins the work.
We're not of them who draw back unto destruction, but we're of
them who believe and believe and believe and believe to the
saving of yourselves. I used to believe, and you still
believe, if it's the faith of God's elect, if it's the faith
that God's given you. And saving faith works by love. In Jesus Christ, neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. And to me, that simply means
you not only believe the truth, you love it. You love it. Faith works by love. And one
of the reasons people don't believe the truth, they don't love it.
But if you believe it, you love it. They receive not the love
of the truth that they might be saved. Truth matters, doesn't
it? It matters to you. It matters
to you who believe because you love it. Albert Barnes had this
to say about faith. He talked about the nature of
faith, what it was to believe God, and he said this is the
whole of faith, is to receive God's testimony,
to credit God to be true and act as if he were true. And he has this to say, man is
a sinner. He should act on the belief of
this truth. and repent. How does he know
he's a sinner? The Word of God tells him so.
He should act on that and repent. There is a God. Man should believe
it and fear and love Him and seek His favor. The Lord Jesus
Christ died to save sinners. To have faith in Him is to believe
that this is true and to act accordingly. That is to trust
Him. to rely upon Him, to love Him,
to feel that we have no merit in ourselves, and to cast our
all upon Him. There is a heaven and a hell.
To believe this is to accredit the account and act as if it
were true. That is to seek one and avoid
the other. We are to die. To believe this
is to act as if it were true. to be in readiness for it, to
expect it daily and hourly. In one word, faith is feeling
and acting as if there were a God, a Savior, a Heaven, a Hell, as
if we were sinners and must die, as if we deserved eternal death
and were in danger of it, and in view of all, casting our eternal
interest on the mercy of God in Christ. To do this is to be
a Christian. Not to do this is to be an infidel. That's the nature of toupee.
It receives God's testimony of His Word, and it acts as if this
is absolutely true. To do that is to believe. Not to do it is not to believe. faith, the shield of faith. Fiery darts, taking unto you
the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked one. What is the intention of these
fiery darts? What does the devil and his fallen
angels intend by these fiery darts? Do you know one of the
things he intends by? to kill us if he can, to drop
us right where we stand in our tracks. That's his intention. The devil as a roaring lion going
about seeking who he may devour. That's his intention. I don't
know if the devil believes in the eternal security of the saints,
but he don't fight like it. He fights like he's going to
win the battle. He fought with all the confidence in the world.
This dart is headed for his heart, and he puts all his might behind
it to drop us in our tracks. That's what these fire darts
first. First and foremost is to devour those whom he shoots
at. He's done it to a lot, hasn't
he? He's done it to a lot. Look what's going on in our day.
Most of this drug possession and all that stuff, You know
that's devil, that's demon possession. Did you see the other day, I
don't know if you saw this or not, this one man was down on
top of another man eating his face off. Did you see that? He's biting him, he bit his nose
and spit it out, bit his cheeks and spit it out. He'd gone on
some of these bath salts. Two police officers came up and
screamed at him to stop. He turned and growled at them.
And he said, when he growled at him, the one emptied his revolver
in him, still didn't stop him, another emptied his revolver
to stop that fellow. Fiery darts. How many has the
devil devoured by his fiery darts? That's his intentions on you. Fiery darts is to stop you, is
to devour you. That's why Peter said, be careful.
He has these fiery darts. But if he can't kill you, his
next purpose is to wound us. to wound us, to so wound us that
he gets us down on our backs, lays us on our bed, puts us out
of commission, lay there infected, having to be cured for it. If
he cannot kill us, he'll do the next best thing. He'll lay us
up somewhere on a bed. That's his intention. He has
no good behind his father. You remember in Psalms chapter
73 what he done to this dear man by the name of Asap? You
talk about fire and dark. You may have never run into this,
but your pastor has. He said this. He said, I was
envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They're not in trouble like other
men are. They've got more than their heart
could wish. And he said, here I am. I'm seeking
the Lord. seeking His blessings, seeking
His glory, and he says, I am plagued all the day long and
I'm chastened every morning. And he said, I'm beginning to
think I'd rather be like them. Oh, my goodness. Where would
a thought like that come from? And he said, almost my feet slipped
and almost my foot did slide. Almost these fiery darts was
coming around the shield and hitting me here and hitting me
there. And they almost got my feet up and under me. Did you
ever have any trouble in being the wicked? I've got a neighbor,
boy, I see him go out. When I go to my study, sometimes
my back's killing me. I can't get a straight thought.
And I've been chastened all night upon my bed and repenting and
the tears flowing. Oh God, forgive me of this. And
I see my neighbor leaving and going to the lake fishing. He's
got a big, nice lathe and a big, nice truck, and I'm sitting there,
man, I'm not aware of the world. I wish I was like that. You know
what that is? That's the fiery darts of the
wicked. Ain't it bad to envy the wicked? That's awful. Finally, Asap woke up and he
went into the sanctuary of the Lord, and he heard the preacher
preach about the end of the wicked. Oh, yes, he's got all this stuff.
He don't have any trouble now, but he will have. God set him
in slippery places. His destruction was going to
come suddenly. And Asaph said, Oh, I was like
a beast. I was so ignorant. But he said, I'm still with you.
And you've upholded me by your right hand. That's why I didn't
slip. Boy, his shield went up. His shield went up. He finally
quenched those fiery darts and quit ending the wicked. There
ain't but one thing that will turn those fiery darts. And boy,
if he'd have gone on his back, if his feet ever slipped, You
know you can fight much better on your feet than you can on
your back, can't you? And he said, that man, he said, almost
my feet was gone. That's the devil's fiery darts.
That's his intention, to get us off our feet and out of our
back. And boy, when he does that, he's
got the advantage. Fiery darts. But if he can't
kill us, if he can't get us on our backs, the next thing these
fiery darts will do is to hinder our progress. Hinder your progress. Try his best to make sure the
blessings are denied. You remember Israel out in the
wilderness? The Lord gave them instructions to go into the land
of Canaan. They sent spies, twelve spies,
into the land of Canaan. And ten of them came back with
an evil report. They said, Boy, there is some
more place over there. But I tell you, those walls are
walled up to heaven. We can't get over them. They're
greater than we are. They're more than we are. There's
giants over there in that land. We cannot take that land. And Moses said this to them.
He stilled the people and said, Dread not, neither be afraid
of them. The Lord your God goeth before
you, and He shall fight for you. And Caleb and Joshua, they said,
Don't be afraid. Don't fear. The Lord has given
us the land. He'll go ahead of us and He'll
fight for us. But you know something? The devil
got his fiery darts in those people's hearts and they couldn't
go into the land. They wandered in that wilderness
for 40 years. Only two men, only two men, that
were alive at that day, Joshua and Caleb, got to go into the
land of Canaan. They were the ones that had that
shield up and said, don't fear, don't be afraid. They turned
the fiery darts of the wicked one. Where did this fear and this
dread come from? The devil. The devil. One of the things
he does with these fiery darts is to make us afraid. If He can't
hit you, He'll scare you so bad you won't advance. Remember poor
Peter? The Lord told Peter, says, Satan
has desired to sift you as wheat. And you know one of the ways
He did that to Peter? I prayed for you that your faith
fell not. Isn't that what this text is
talking about? Faith, the shield of faith. Satan,
your enemy, has desired to sift you, devour you, But I pray for
you that that shield of faith, you grab hold of it, and it won't
fail you. It'll turn your darts. It'll
turn those darts. But that little maid looked at Peter and said,
you're one of them, aren't you? You're one of his. And you know
when he looked into the face of that little maid, it looked
like a roaring lion. Don't you think it did? And that
fiery dart got around that shield and hit Peter right there, boy.
And down he went. I don't know him. I don't know
him. I don't know the man, I'm telling
you. And boy, down he went. And you know something? If he
had had a mediator, if he had had someone praying for him,
interceding for him that his faith fell not, you know he'd
have never got up with him. He'd have never got up. These
fiery darts. These fiery darts. Fear. Fear. The fear of man brings
a snare. And there is only one thing that
will quench that dart, and that's this shield of faith. The Lord
is my heifer. Ain't that it? The Lord is my
heifer. Where's that fiery dart coming
from? The Lord's my heifer. The Lord's my heifer. I will
not fear what man shall do unto me. By faith, Moses forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king." He feared him at first.
Did he? Moses killed that Egyptian and
got back to the king. Moses said, man, I'm out of here.
He's found out about it. He fled. But boy, when the Lord
sent him back, when the Lord sent him back, he had that shield
of faith in his hand. And by faith he forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of that king. One thing will quench this
fiery darts of fear, and that is faith. You can face some little
old temptation in your life, and it will be like Bunyan's
two big lines tied to the pathway, and you just can't get through
the pathway. Those lines are going to eat me up. And the man
told Bunyan, just look, if you'll look a little closer, you'll
see they're chained. They've got chains on them. That's what
faith does, it lets you see the chains, that you don't have to
be afraid. The church told us about this
a while back, Genesis 15, about Abraham, when he went and made
war on those four kings and defeated them and brought back Lot and
all the goods. And he came back to Sodom, and
the king of Sodom said, you take all the things, you take all
the goods, and you give me the souls, you give me the people.
And boy, Abraham didn't like that king of Sodom. He said,
I don't know if he's almost sexual. He probably was. Most of those
down in Sodom was. But Abraham looked at him with
a disgust on his face and said, I ain't taking nothing from you.
I don't even want one of your shoelatches. Don't give me a
little thread off your coat. I've lifted up my hands to the
Lord God, the possessor of heaven and earth. And if I take a thing
from you, you're going to go saying, I've made Abraham rich.
I don't want a thing of God. Abraham went back home, and the
devil come to his heart and said, boy, you're in trouble now. You
was awful bold, wasn't you, Abraham? You really told them, boy, you
stood strong for the Lord. But you know what those kings
are doing right now. You know what Sodom is doing
and Gomorrah and some of the cities of the plain. They're
plotting to come over here and they're going to rape your women.
They're going to take your goods and they're going to kill you.
And then the Lord came to Abraham and He said, Abraham, don't fear
these fire guards. Don't you be afraid. I am your
shield, and your exceeding great reward. The shield of faith. It will turn these fiery darts
of fear. Do you ever get afraid? Do you know what the Scripture says?
That in the last days, men's hearts would be felling for fear
of what's coming on this earth. Are you afraid? Anybody here
get afraid of tomorrow? Maybe one thing that quenched
that fear, that's the shield of faith. It'll quench it. The devil's very happy when he
can get in our mind and make us so anxious and so worried
about what's going to happen tomorrow. What's going to happen with your
business tomorrow? What's going to happen with your
health tomorrow? What's going to happen with the
house tomorrow? What's going to happen with the family tomorrow?
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. And the Lord Jesus
said that's what the nations of the Gentiles are seeking after.
How to secure their temporal life in this world. But you,
He said, you seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness
And all of these other things will be added unto you. They'll
be added. You won't even have to seek them.
You won't have to be concerned. You won't have to fear about
it. There's the shield, then. There's the shield. What about
tomorrow? That fiery dark. What about tomorrow?
Tomorrow's the Lord's. Tomorrow's the Lord's. My Father
feeds the fowls of the air, He clothes the lilies, Tomorrowless
He is. And He's mine to shield the faith. These starry darks of fear and
anxiety dishonor our God, they pain our hearts, and they put
us up on working for some kind of temporal security in this
world. Wouldn't you love to have known
some of those people in Hebrews chapter 11, some of our dear
brothers and sisters who wandered about in goat skins and sheep
skins. They lived in caves and dens
of the earth. They were tormented, falsely
accused. Wouldn't you love to have known
them people? And you know how they managed to do all of that?
By faith. By faith. Some of them had opportunity
to accept deliverance. They could have accepted deliverance
in certain circumstances, but they said, no, no. We're looking
for a better city. We're waiting for a better place,
a better resurrection. The shield of faith. The shield
of faith. Do you and I fear afflictions?
We fear afflictions, don't we? Job even did that. That which
I fear has come upon me. Sometimes these fiery darts can
make us fear affliction so badly that we'll sin to avoid them.
We'll sin to avoid affliction. Listen to what Peter said in
1 Peter 5. Be sober, be vigilant, your adversary
the devil has a roaring lion, going about seeking him he may
devour. And listen. Whom resist, stud fastly in the
faith. Paul's shield of faith is Peter's
resisting steadfastly. That's what that shield is. It's
knocking those fiery darts away so they won't hit you. Resisting
steadfastly in the faith. Listen to this. Knowing that
the same afflictions are accomplished in your brother that are out
here in the world. You have an affliction? All your
brothers and sisters have an affliction. Every one of them
that lives in this world. Do you know a Christian, do you
know a dear child of God that's not having an affliction? I don't. Peter said, you're so worried
and you're so concerned about your afflictions and trying to
get out of them and avoid them. Look at your brothers and sisters.
They're having them. You've got plenty of company.
And he said also, he said also, if they've endured them, you
can. And some of them thought, well,
maybe the Lord's so angry with me. Maybe that's why I'm so afflicted.
Is He angry with all of His children? Because all of them are suffering
affliction. It's these fiery darts the devil will shoot into
our hearts. In fact, there ain't nobody suffering
like this. Nobody's suffering like this.
But there is. There is. All God's children
are suffering. Fiery darts. Are you fearful about how things
are going to turn out with you at last, dear child of God? I've heard people say, if you
doubt, you're not saved. I'm glad that's not so. That's
not my experience. Bless their heart. I hope that's
their experience. I never had any doubts that the Lord saved
me. Boy, I think I've had them since. I get afraid sometimes
just whether or not I'm going to make it. You call that whatever
you want to call it. I don't justify it. I know what
the Bible says, but I'm telling you this. There is such a thing
as fiery darts being shot into the heart. Boy, that will create
doubt and fear and dread of tomorrow, of death and of eternity from
a true child of God. Here's a good shield. Fear not,
little flock. It's the Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. That'll turn those fiery darts.
That'll remove the fear of tomorrow and death and the judgment to
come. What's going to happen? Who knows? Who knows? Isn't this enough,
though? It's your Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. And whatsoever He pleased, that
did He. Whatever He pleases to do, that's
what God's going to do. We know that. Well, if He's pleased
to give you the kingdom, then the kingdom's yours. What a shield! When the storms of fiery darks
come flying, we've all seen these movies, and there's some interesting
tales you can read in the history about these Soldiers used to
put big balls of tar and some other flammable material on the
end of the spears, on the head of the spear. A thousand of them
would stand. And they'd draw back their swords
and light those things and shoot them. And, I mean, it was a fireball
coming. That's one of the reasons they
didn't fight in the towns, the communities. They set their houses
on fire-burned towns down. They always fought out in the
field because these fiery darts were flying. And when one hits
you, if it didn't kill you, a lot of times you'd burn up. There
were literally bodies in the battlefield burning, their clothes
was burning, their bodies were burning where these fire darts
hit them. When you see these things coming,
I mean they're everywhere. Your conscience is in a warfare,
it's in a battle. Raise your shield of faith. That
will quench them. That will quench them. We're facing a battle today.
We're facing a barrage of Satan's thorny darts. And it's aimed
at our heads, our intellect. I remember when I was a young
Christian, I read that the Lord Jesus was in the grave for three
days and three nights. And that he was put in there
on a Friday. And I thought if he was put in
there on a Friday, that means he was in there two days. Friday
evening, Saturday, race Sunday. He was in there hardly two days.
And I tell you what, that was a dart in my mind I could not
figure out. How in the world? The Bible says
he was in there three days and three nights. And that tormented
me. That tormented me. until I finally
figured out it was three days and three nights, according to
the Jewish way of reckoning time. The devil loves to shoot these
fiery darts into our intellect. Evolution. All he's doing today
is evolution. Evolution. Trying some way to
make us think. God did not create this world.
There's evidence all around us. They tell us that God didn't
create the universe, that it exploded, that it's still expanding. What are you guys going to do
about that? You know what I'm going to do about that? I'm just
going to believe that in six days and six nights He created
the heavens and the earth. That's the only thing I've got
to get my intellect around, a shield of faith. How can a virgin have a child?
Explain that. Ask some doctor. He can't explain
it. I can't explain it. It just did
not happen, did it? No, there's no way it could happen.
Boy, what a fire dart. That came into the Corinthian
church. Some of these false teachers did the ministries of Satan.
And they said, it's a dumb thing to believe in the resurrection
of the body. The body's decayed. It's gone back to the dust. Ain't
even no evidence of it anyway. Can't even find any hair left.
And you're telling me that body's going to raise? How in the world? That doesn't mean what it says. The body will really raise. And
Paul said they've overthrew the faith of some. How are the dead
raised? That's what the intellectuals
were saying. How can this happen? Well, I can't argue a lot about
intellectual things, can you? I'm just not that intellectual.
But boy, there's a shield of faith. And one little verse of
Scripture will turn the fire dark to the devil. Why don't
you believe in the resurrection, you Sadducees? Because you don't
know the Scriptures nor the power of God. That changes everything,
doesn't it? How can a virgin conceive the
power of God? How can a man be born again?
The power of God. How can the dead raise the power
of God? That's a shield. Boy, when the fire of the arch
comes into your conscience, the guilt and the blasphemies and
despair, can you imagine how that poor Philippian jailer must
have felt? He was ready to kill himself, wasn't he? He had had
his sword ready to stab himself. He was being driven to despair.
I wonder who was behind that. I wonder who suggested that to
him? The devils of murder are from
the beginning. What was it that turned that
man's despair into exceeding great joy? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. I have to tell myself that all
the time, don't you? Well, I do. Believe. Bruce, you're not even
believing on Him. You're not even believing. Where's
your faith? That's what the Lord Jesus asked me so often. Bruce,
where is your faith? Where is your shield? Paul and his companions were
in a storm in the Mediterranean Sea. I think it was like 14 days. He said, we didn't see the sun
or the stars. At an age they probably couldn't
eat. They were probably all sick and vomiting. Paul went down below. The angel
of the Lord appeared to him. And said, Paul, you're not going
to drown on this wreck. I'm going to get you off of here
and all the men with you. And you're going on into Rome
and stand before Caesar. Paul came back up on the deck
and said, Cheer up, fellas. Cheer up. I've got some good
news. And he told them what it was.
And he said, brethren, I believe God. It will be just like it
was told to me. But how? I don't know. It don't matter. It doesn't matter,
does it? That's the wonder of this all.
It doesn't matter. He's going to do it. And all
we do is stand still. and see the salvation of the
world. Above all, take in the shield of faith.