The Shield of Faith Eph 6:13
Notes
Transcript
16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
Review the verses.
Discussion Time:
The shield of faith will Extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one
What are the flaming darts of the evil one?
What do flaming darts feel like in your experience of spiritual warfare?
Fear
Doubt of salvation
Temptation - lust of the flesh, lust the eyes, pride of life.
Discouragement
Feelings
Questions about the word of God.
TEACHING TIME
How can we take up the Shield of Faith.
Faith is merely the instrument that connects us to the utterly trustworthy and all-powerful God, who created the heavens and the earth and who made us for a relationship with him.
He is not saying that faith has some remarkable defensive power against Satan, in and of itself. Rather, he is saying that faith protects us from Satan’s attacks because of what faith enables us to take hold of, namely, the power and protection of God himself.
We know from Scripture that our faith is involved in Spiritual Warfare...
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Faith is the Christian’s shield. The devil can do nothing against it. His worst attacks are frustrated. Faith offers complete protection and makes advance possible. Where there is faith, there is nothing to fear. And what is faith? It is believing what God has said, for no other reason than that he has said it. It is taking God at his word. It is accepting his teaching, obeying his commands, heeding his threats and laying hold of his promises. Where there is faith, defeat is unknown. The soldier who has it is never floored by anything. Faith is invincible.
Olyott, S. (1994). Alive in Christ: Ephesians Simply Explained (p. 138). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
So faith in What is our shield?
Your Shield is God Himself
2. Your Faith connects you to the Shield
a. Faith is built on truth
b. Faith points to God’s promises
c. Faith lays hold of God’s power
d. Faith can encounter times of unbelief..
IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE WE FOCUS ON THE SHIELD and makeing sure we are behind it…do peak around at the firey darts.
As you focus on what the shield is made out of your faith with grow.
The power is in the shield not your faith.
God is our shield
Your Shield is God himself.
In the NT the word Shield is only used one time here but in the OT the term Shield is used 23 times.
In most of those cases we see that God is our shield
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
5 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word.
Closest parallel is Psalm 91
The believer himself under attack from warfare, plague, pestilence and arrows of his enemies.
Many have seen a spiritual dimension in the attacks in Psalm 91
The psalmist affirms that in the midst of that all-encompassing assault, he will be safe:
see vs 3-6
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge— 10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. 14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. 15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
God himself is our shield; he is our refuge; he is our hiding place in the day of difficulty; his faithfulness will keep us safe when we are being shot at by arrows, flaming or otherwise.
Psalm 91
The Lord is My Fortress!
I must:
vs 1 Live under his protection
vs 1 Stay in his shadow
Vs 9 Run to HIM for safety
vs 15 Call out to HIM
If war and plague repel, striking fear in the human heart, God allures. The first two verses of the psalm include six divine epithets: Elyon (“Most High”), Shaddai (“Almighty”), YHWH (LORD), “my fortress,” “my refuge,” and “my God” (Elohai), terms that encompass both the awesomeness and intimacy of divinity. And unlike the dangers wreaking havoc on the psalmist’s life, God is safe, offering protection in a “secret space” (seter) and under a protective “shadow,” like the wings of an eagle.
At the height of the Nuremberg plague in 1533, Protestant preacher Andreas Osiander drew on it for a famous sermon. Warning against fear and the instinct for self-preservation, Osiander reminded his listeners that the only way to survive the calamity was to care for each other through acts of loving kindness. And during World War II, Jewish philosopher Max Horkheimer drew from the psalm a response to suffering, and a call to action rooted in faith: “The thought of refuge as it experiences itself in Psalm 91 awakens not merely obedience but the love for that which is other than the world and which gives meaning to life and the suffering in it. Despite everything.”
Now The Shield of Faith
2. Your Faith Connects you to the Shield
Faith is the means by which we flee to God for refuge.
Faith is not just saying “I believe” but “I believe in God that can save me”
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
For faith to be a shield you need to believe that God is sovereign over every detail of the universe.
Here we often struggle. In the midst of the intense pain of life, we find it hard to believe that God is really on our side.
Your belief in God won’t shield you if you don’t believe God is for you.
a. Faith is Built on Truth (WE MUST KNOW THAT HE IS ON OUR SIDE)
It is so important that we build our faith on the truth of God’s word not on our feelings.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
How do we know that God is on our side? Well the first step is to know that initially he is not on our side...
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Some people have a hard time believing that they were once an enemy of God. they think they are good people.
But the gospel is the good news that God died to redeem his enemies and make them his sons and daughters by adoption.
Ephesians 1 is all about this.
He didn't wait for us to start swimming in the right direction; in Christ, God himself swam out to us in order to demonstrate beyond a shadow of doubts that he is on our side.
What counts is not the strength of your faith, let alone the strength of your faithfulness. Your security lies in the fact that Jesus has been faithful for you; his strength, as the One in whom our faith rests, is our sure and certain hope.
Faith Points to God’s Promises
When the darts os Satan are flying faith points our eyes to the promises of God.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
c. Faith lays hold of God’s Power
Faith knows that
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
I can’t take on Satan but God can.
Whenever we pray in faith, we are leaning into the power and wisdom of God.
Prayer is not a trick whereby we get God to do our bidding and command him order the universe according to our wisdom.
When we pray, we know that whatever he does for us is best for us.
d. Faith cries out, “Help my unbelief”
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Faith is a shield as it connects us to the fundamental realities of the promises of God in the gospel.
By faith, grab the shield that God has put before you
I need Thee every hour, stay Thou near by;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.
That is all you can say?
You just desperately cry to Him, ‘Stay near; stand by’—and He will!
I need Thy presence every passing hour,
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
But grace can do so. ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’. So we can say:
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
That is what it means ‘to take up the shield of faith, wherewith you are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one’. It is not trying to work up some kind of feeling called faith. Faith leads straight to the Almighty God who is our Saviour, and who is a ‘very present help in trouble’. ‘Let us therefore come with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.’ ‘Do that, and then none of these darts will ever find a lodging place in you or burn you or damage you. Hold up the shield of faith. ‘Whom resist stedfast in the faith.’
May God enable us to understand this teaching, and to implement it, whenever the enemy comes in his malignity and hurls his fiery darts at us.
Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (1977). The Christian Soldier: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10–20 (p. 308). Edinburgh; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust.
Why is it important that your faith be built on truth?
Where does your faith most struggle: to believe either in God’s power, or his love, or his personal interest in you?
List some Bible verses that help strengthen your faith that God is for you.
How do Jesus’s death and resurrection encourage your faith?