Shield of Faith
Notes
Transcript
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
When we attempt to advance along the path that God has called us to, Satan comes with a storm of adversity and intimidate us and try to turn us back.
Old Testament References
In the Old Testament, we find this similar “shield” language for God Himself. There are countless verses.
Genesis 15:1 “After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.””
Proverbs 30:5 ““Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” It is faith in Him and His word that we go to Him for refuge.
Psalm 7:10 “My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart.”
Psalm 144:2 “He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.”
Psalm 119:114 “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.”
Psalm 115:11 “You who fear him, trust in the Lord— he is their help and shield.”
Faith lays hold of the promises of God in times of doubt , fear, depression and lays hold of the power of God in tests and temptations.
Faith is the means by which we run to God for refuge and His shield
The Shield
Thyreos (means door shaped shield, coming from the Greek word thyra, meaning door).
Not made of solid wood or iron for that would be too heavy and burdensome in battle, rather, the shield of faith was large, 1.2 meters by .75, covered the whole person. It consisted of two layers of wood glued together and covered first with linen and then with hide, bound with iron above and below (some research suggests 7 layers of tough leather from the skin of a bull or calf, until the shield was 4-5 inches thick). It would be dipped in a nearby river to saturate it with water so it would quench the fire of an arrow. It was specially designed to put out the arrows dipped in pitch and were lit on fire and shot.
These are shot from the “evil one”
It is imperative to remember where it comes from and that we have been equipped with God’s armor to deal with it.
Shield of faith does not presume attacks will not come, arrows will not fly, rather, they will protect one from being hit and ultimately defeated.
1 John 5:4–5 “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
Fundamentals of Faith
Faith is confessional
2 Corinthians 4:13–14“It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.”
Paul is quoting Psalm 116:10 “I trusted in the Lord when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”;”
Referring to the same spirit of robust, enduring faith that even while afflicted, trusted in God.
His faith inspires bold speech despite the suffering at the hands of the unrighteous it brought him. We will not be silenced. For Paul, the gospel is not some theory reserved for the privacy of mind and hidden away in my heart but rather requires proclamation, and doing so to a hostile word is dangerous yet we do not shrink from speaking boldly, regardless of the consequences.
What does “The Faith Say”
“I believe”
Subjective and objective. “I” being the subject, “believe” being the object.
It is not, “I understand”. I don’t get it, I don’t see it, I don’t understand it, but I believe it.
The Gospel is the life-blood, the creeds are the boundaries.
The early church faced dangers as we do today.
Not only facing dangers from the outside, the Early Church was under much attack from without and within doctrinally. The Creeds were a measured, succinct Confessional response to the heresies flying around all over the place.
The Creeds are essentially a succinct summary of the Gospel.
Confessional is a spirit and an understanding of what makes Christianity Christian. I don’t necessarily understand everything yet I will confess it and believe it.
Confessional Christianity sticks with the Doctrines that the church has continually confessed, regardless of what the current generation has done with Scripture.
Christian carries with it a commitment to cohesion and doctrine. There are things you have to believe because you have inherited 2000 years of historic Christianity.
Chesterton says the creeds are like a key.
They have a form to them and they will unlock the deepest answers of person’s heart. The key cannot change.
The orthodox faith, does not change with the times. Confessing these things is what it means to be a Christian.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and buried; He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and [sits] on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
In our day, we have the opposite challenge: how do we keep up our religious beliefs when the mundane realities of our daily lives make it hard to grasp that God interacts with our world? The Apostles’ Creed answers both challenges. It denies that the Christian story is merely myth, but it also affirms that we have a glimpse into the supernatural world through it. It goes on to show the outworking of the historical Jesus and the supernatural world in our daily lives. The communion of saints and the forgiveness of sins are ways in which we can relate to and experience God, because of Christ, and through the Holy Spirit, in our everyday, mundane lives, proving that the supernatural still breaks through into the world. And it ends by reminding us that, just as Jesus’ time on an ordinary earth ended with his ascension into a very unordinary glory, so too will our everyday experience of the Holy Spirit end with our own resurrection and exaltation.
Faith is active
Faith changes the course of our life. Changes our values. Changes what we do and why we do it.
Abraham, left his land.
Abraham believed God would give him a child and at an old age acted on that faith and was intimate with his wife Sarah.
2 Thessalonians 1:11 “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”
Faith is objective
It is not about the intensity or the size of your faith but simply the object of your faith - Jesus Christ.
The shield: fastened with tough leather from the skin of a bull or calf. A sacrifice.
We have the greatest sacrifice, Christ himself as a spotless lamb stretched upon that wooden cross and it is there the he absorbed all of the fiery arrows of the evil one.
The arrows of guilt - Jesus absorbed. Isaiah 53:6 “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The arrows of sickness and weaknesses - Jesus absorbed. Isaiah 53:4 “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.”
The arrows of lack and poverty, not having enough - Jesus absorbed. 2 Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
The arrows of the curse - Jesus absorbed. Galatians 3:13–14 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”
How do we activate this shield of faith - Jesus Himself? Standing on God’s Word. Know God’s promises, know God’s will revealed in Scripture. Don’t stop at knowing, pray his word and will, speak his word and will, remind yourself of his word and will.
Standing on His word is not something we have done but something we continue to do!
Faith does the impossible
Abraham and Sarah believed when it was impossible to have a child and Isaac was born.
It was impossible for David to defeat the giant Goliath, yet with 5 stones and a sling and faith in the name of the Lord he was victorious.
We see the impossible being done in the life of Jesus
We see the impossible in the lame man at the gate called beautiful and his healing because of faith in the name of Jesus.
We see the the man who was lame listening to Paul, Paul perceiving his faith to be healed and being totally restored.
We see the faith in the small sect of people who followed a crucified man being pressured by the empire and pressured to be destroyed from within.
From the persecutions of the Roman Emperors: Nero, Domitian, Marcus Aurelius, Decius, Valerian, and eventually the terror of Diocletian who ordered the cessation of Christian meetings, destroyed the churches, burned their Scriptures and imprisoned those who confessed Christ. They lost their homes, property, were exiled, imprisoned or executed by the sword or wild beasts.
From the threats of heresy and turning the faith into something pagan by: Arianism, Gnosticism, Manicheanism, Neoplatonism, Montanism, and Monarchianism.
The church faced the medieval threats of the rise and invasion of Islam, the rise of greed and corruption within the church and later the great enlightenment of rationalism that sought to free man from the shackles of religion in pursuit of freedom that science gives us.
And today the church faces the foes of materialism, communism, and Marxism with fancy names they give at what once were prestigious universities.
Yet in spite of the many dangers, enemies, and the impossibility of a small sect of men and women who confessed faith in Jesus. After facing many deaths throughout the 2000 years of history, the church, by the power of God has risen again and again to confound the enemy and his fiery darts and it remains the greatest and largest movement in the world.
The church’s greatest days are not behind but before because we have the Spirit of the risen Lord who cannot be silenced.