Many of you have read John Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress. And if you haven't, I would encourage you again to take it up and read it. Do yourself a great service. and read the words that he wrote. I'll stop short of saying it was inspired of the Spirit. I can't go that far. That would be blasphemy. But I do believe the Spirit of God has greatly used it through the years in many people's lives to help them on this journey of faith. Once converted, now on our way to Mount Zion, to the Promised Land, to Heaven. By way of introduction this morning, I want to read a section from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and I'm reading it. from the edition. There are probably as many editions of Pilgrim's Progress as any edition of any book. It's the second best-selling book throughout history, second only to the Scriptures. I'm reading this morning from a Banner of Truth edition, I believe was published in 2017, and it is in Old English. So don't let that trip you up if you were to take it up and read it. There are many updated English versions. There are even children's versions that you can read with illustrations, etc. Let me read to you what John Bunyan wrote concerning his battle, Christian's battle with Apollyon, who is Satan himself. But now having come to the valley of humiliation, poor Christian was hard put to it, for he had gone but a little way before he espied a foul fiend coming over the field to meet him. His name is Apollyon. Then did Christian begin to be afraid, and cast in his mind whether to go back or to stand his ground. But he considered again that he had no armor for his back, and therefore thought that to turn back to him might give him Apollyon the greater advantage, with ease to pierce him with his darts. Therefore he resolved to venture on and stand his ground. For, thought he, had I no more in mind an eye than to save my life, it would be better for me to stand my ground. So he went on, and there Apollyon met him. Now the monster was hideous to behold. He was clothed with scales like a fish, and they were his glory. And he had wings like a dragon, feet like a bear. Out of his belly came fire and smoke, and his mouth was the mouth of a lion. When he was come up to Christian, he beheld him with a disdainful countenance and thus began to question him. He asked him, from where have you come and where are you going? Christian says, I am come from the city of destruction, which is a place of evil, and I am going to Mount Zion. We'll skip over a few pages and pick up in this story or this battle with Christian and Apollyon. At this, Apollyon broke into a grievous rage. And he said, I am an enemy to this prince. I hate his person, his laws, his people. And I am come out on purpose to withstand you to your face. Christian replies, beware what you do, for I am in the King's highway, the way of holiness, therefore take heed to yourself. Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way and said, I am void of fear in this matter, prepare yourself to die, for I swear by my infernal den that you shall go no further, here will I spill your soul. And with that he flung a flaming dart at Christian's breast. But Christian had a shield in his hand, with which he caught it, and so prevented the danger of such dart. Then did Christian draw, for he saw it was time to move on. And Apollyon made fast at him, throwing darts as thick as hail. By the witch, notwithstanding all that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand, his feet. This made Christian give a little ground. Apollyon therefore followed his work, and Christian again took courage and resisted as manfully as he could. This sore combat lasted for above half a day, even till Christian was almost quite spent. For you must know that Christian, by reason of his wounds, grew weaker and weaker. Then Apollyon, the serpent, seizing his opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian and wrestled with him. He gave him a dreadful fall, and with that, Christian's sword flew out of his hand, and Apollyon said, I am sure of thee now. And with that, he almost pressed him to death. So that Christian began to despair of life. But as God would have it, while Apollyon was fetching his last blow, To make a full end of this good man, Christian nimbly reached out his hand for his sword, caught it, saying, Rejoice not against me, O my enemy! When I fall, I shall arise. And with that he gave him a deadly thrust, which made Apollyon give ground, and as one that had received his mortal wound, Christian perceiving that he had made him, that he had made at him again, said, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. And with that Apollyon spread forth his dragon's wings and flew himself away, and Christians saw him no more." It's just a bit of a snapshot of the greatness of the allegory in Bunyan's work. And it's this shield of faith which Bunyan's Christian had in his hand. with which he caught the flaming dart or darts of the serpent Apollyon that we turn to give our attention to this morning in Ephesians chapter 6. So if you'll join me in Ephesians 6. We've been studying and reading concerning the whole armor of God that believers are to put on and to take up. In the 10th verse of Ephesians chapter 6, Paul says, 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 wilds of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up 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 girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God." And we'll stop reading there. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful for the description of these pieces of armor that you have given to us as believers. We're thankful, Lord, for the shield of faith. Help us to understand it rightly. Help us to employ it. In this battle against the world, the flesh and the devil and remaining sin in us as we make our way. By your help and mercy. As we live this Christian life and fight the good fight of the faith, help us to finish our race. With joy. Help us to run all the way to the end. Help us to fight the good fight of faith under your praise. We ask it so that Christ would be magnified and glorified in our lives. And we ask it in His name. Amen. So we're going to take up verse 16. Again, it reads, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Let me deal first with the first phrase of verse 16. I've read it to you in the New King James Version, and it makes it seem like in this version that this is the most important piece. Above all, take this up. But if we were to read it in the New American Standard, as many of you do, it says, in addition to all, take this up, or in the English Standard Version, which many of you have, it says, in all circumstances. So the point here is not that this is the most valuable piece of the armor. I think the point rather is that this is in itself an invaluable piece. We read Bunyan's interpretation of the use of the shield of faith. The same language, the same imagery he employs there as Paul does here. It is this shield of faith with which the Christian will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked serpent, the adversary of Christ and Christ's people. Most Bible commentators agree that this shield referred to here by Paul is not the small handheld shield, but more so it is what some estimate to be as much as four feet tall by almost three feet wide, which if you were to kneel behind it, you would have complete and total body protection from whatever is And you can picture in your own mind, can't you, what it would look like if a whole regiment of soldiers were to kneel behind their shields in this way. It would seem from the other side that you were approaching an impenetrable wall. This is what Paul has in view. I think this is what the Spirit of God has in view. Remember, all of these pieces of armor are depicting for us some aspect of how to employ the truth of God in living the Christian life. There is a place that we've seen already. There is a place for girding yourself with the belt of truth. There is a place for putting on the breastplate of righteousness and preparing your feet with the spreading of the Good News of the Gospel. And this morning we're talking about this shield of faith. Notice that like the rest, verse 16 says, the shield of faith. This piece of the armor of God is to be employed by the Christian. It's to be used. It's not a static or passive piece of armor that is to be left lying in a corner or on the ground. If so, then it does us no good. And Lord willing, a little later I'm going to talk about what does it mean to take up the shield of faith anyway. But for now, just know this is something that is given to our responsibility as Christians to employ it and not to leave it unused because just like depicted in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress by Christian, this is a most useful piece of armor because it is that which stops and then extinguishes the fiery darts of the accuser of Satan himself. Notice it's called the shield of faith. With all scripture being inspired of God, then we conclude that each word is inspired of God and necessary, important in its right place. So this is not the shield of righteousness. This is not the shield of the gospel. This is not the shield of salvation. This is not the shield of the spirit. This is the shield of faith. So I want to take opportunity to speak about faith along two lines. I want to speak concerning faith in a somewhat subjective sense, but then in a more objective sense. If any of you have the Church History Study Bible, which is a new version of a study Bible. I believe it's published in the English Standard Version. I love this Bible because what it does is it takes several, I think a dozen or so, maybe more church history figures and it gives their commentary on a specific passage. So you've got men like Charles Spurgeon, you've got men like Martin Luther, and you've got lesser known people giving their commentary. Charles Simeon is a name you may or may not be familiar with. This is his commentary and note given in the Church History Study Bible on verse 16, the shield of faith. He says, faith is universally applicable to every type or species of temptation. Faith discerns the truth of the gospel and is thereby fitted to preserve the head from error. It discerns also the importance and excellence of the gospel and therefore proper to preserve the heart from sin. John Stott, a name you recognize, most likely he goes on to say, faith lays hold of the promises of God in times of doubt and depression. And faith lays hold of the power of God, especially in times of temptation. Charles Hodge. Says this faith overcomes the world. As is proved by so many examples. In the epistle to the Hebrews. So if you would just very quickly turn over. To the epistle to the Hebrews. And look with me at chapter. 11. Remember, we're referring to the shield of faith. Hebrews 11 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, by faith, the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. And then we begin to read this long list and string of names. By faith, Abel. By faith, Enoch. By faith, Noah. By faith, Abraham. By faith, Sarah. We get down into verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Then again, in verse 17, we pick back up with Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, then Joseph, Moses. All of these are introduced by this phrase, by faith. They did this or that, and you'll notice that the context to each one is specific to their life. For example, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and were not afraid of the king's command. By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. The point to be made there is by faith. The scriptures depict in their specific context how faith served them in their time of trial, in their time of temptation. And you go on to end that chapter. By faith the walls of Jericho fell. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe. And what more shall I say for time would fail to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms. And you can keep reading and you know the rest of that chapter and the point that we're pressing here is much victory and great exploit in the Christian life comes only through the exercise of faith. Trusting God in the face of great adversity, trusting God in the face of somewhat harsh circumstances and then trusting God in the face of severe temptation and trial as related at the end of chapter 11, others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they may obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawn in two, tempted, slain with the sword, wandering about in sheepskins, goatskins, were destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered about in deserts, mountains, dens, and caves of the earth, and all of these obtained a good testimony through faith. Even though they did not receive the promise, God having promised something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. So far, what I've done is spoken of faith in the more subjective sense. But I don't want to give the wrong impression I want to be very pointed and as precise as possible when speaking of the shield of faith. We have to make this distinction. The distinction being, it is not necessarily the strength of our faith that is in view. It's not necessarily how well built your shield is that's in view. What the scriptures are talking about here is not faith in faith itself. That's the subjective sense of faith. What is referred to here, I believe, is the object of our faith. The object of the Christian's faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. The follow-up statement that I'll make to that, which I hope will stick in your mind as it has in mind. Objective faith in Christ, albeit often weak. Objective faith, albeit often weak, in a strong Christ is infinitely greater than the strongest subjective faith in self or faith in faith itself. I realize that's a string of words, but the point that I'm trying to make here is that the weakest faith in Christ is sufficient for you and I to stand in the day of severe trial. It is misleading to think that what is in view here is the strength of our faith. And aren't you glad that's not the case? That what's in view and what is giving ability for us to stand in the severe day of trial and temptation is the strength of my faith. How freeing, how gracious and merciful of God is it to know that my weakest faith in a strong Christ is sufficient for me to stand in the day of trial We can get even more doctrinally precise if we want when we go on to say, now this is one of those from time to time I'll preface something by saying, if you're not going to listen to the whole string of words, just don't listen to any because if you mishear me, you're going to accuse me of being a heretic. So tune out or tune in. When we speak with great doctrinal precision, we can say for a certainty, it is not faith in Christ that saves. Stay with me. It's not faith in Christ that saves, it is Christ received by faith that saves. What's the difference? The latter places emphasis heavily upon the object of our faith, Christ. It is Christ received by faith that saves. Not necessarily And if we were just to stop short with this phrase, it's not my faith, the strength of my faith in Christ that saves. Do you see the distinction? I realize to some we may be splitting a doctrinal hair, but it's one to split. It is not the strength of my faith in Christ that saves me. It is the Christ that is received by my weak faith that saves me. That gives all emphasis, all glory to Christ in my place as my substitute. Some of the words to a song that we just sang, thoughtless I stand with righteous works, not my own. I think the former lends itself to misunderstanding and this is the type of faith that will fail you in the day of temptation and trial if you are looking at faith in a subjective sense and the strength of your faith. Because the strength of your faith will go up and down and sadly it is often dependent upon the circumstances of life that the Lord brings to us, right? But in the objective sense, when we understand that it is Christ received by faith that saves, then the strength of the object does not wax and wane. Christ is not supremely sufficient one hour and just barely sufficient in the next to save us from sin. He is completely and altogether sufficient at all times to save us from sin. And so long as we are attached or united to him through even the weakest faith, then we are secure. And I realized, for the Christian, there are many times in which we pray, Lord, increase my faith. And we're not necessarily wrong in praying and asking that. We're taught to pray and to seek that in scripture so long as our emphasis is not on my faith, but faith in Christ. Here is where we must be careful not to miss the boat. Too often we speak of faith as some kind of nebulous, mystical, cerebral concept. When in actuality, faith is the means by which we are united to a person. Again, it's not my faith that saves, it's Christ received by faith that saves. Faith is the means by which we are united to the person of Jesus Christ. And to take it a step further, if we go back and just remind ourselves of the truth in Ephesians 2, verses 1-10, which we are taught there, it is by grace that we have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. We follow that up by saying receiving Christ through faith is the requirement for righteousness in the sight of a holy God. We can't deny that fact. However, faith is not our contribution. It's the gift of God. It's the requirement. And these are not my words. These are Sinclair Ferguson's words. Faith is the absolute requirement but not our contribution. That's why I believe Paul says it is the gift of God. How gracious is God to give us what he requires. How gracious and merciful of God to work in my heart and in your heart the very thing that he requires. He requires a perfect righteousness that is only received by faith, and yet He gives the ability and the desire to unite us to Christ through faith. This is the only way we can make sense of the commonplace phrases in our day of, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. You realize when you tell an unconverted natural man to put his faith or trust in Jesus Christ, he has no faith to put in Jesus Christ. You're asking him to give something that he doesn't have. But when we understand that this is the gift of God, then we realize That this faith itself has worked in us. I realize there's some mystery involved there, and certainly we have to bow to the omnipotence and infinite wisdom of God. But that faith itself has been given to us by our gracious God who has intervened. In our terrible plight, isn't that the point of Ephesians 2 one through 10? Do you remember months ago when we were there? We have this great description of the natural man in verses 1 through 3, dead in sin and trespasses and held captive by the prince of this world. And then we get to that fourth verse, the great intervention. But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us even while we were dead in trespasses and sins, intervened. He broke in. And worked in us that very thing which he requires of us to be united to Christ. Any wonder why Paul begins this in verse 4 of chapter 2 by saying that he is rich in mercy. Rich in mercy. If you go back to Ephesians 6 and verse 16. We've looked at just a little of what Paul has in mind when he refers to this shield of faith. I think it corresponds to taking every thought captive to Christ because of what comes next. He says, with this shield of faith, notice the language, you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Now let's see just a few implications of the second half of verse 16 before we go on. The implication is that the wicked one, Satan himself, is going to target believers and try to cause them to stumble. A few weeks ago we said that the great aim of Satan as he attacks believers is their apostasy, a complete turning of the back on Christ, on a profession of faith, upon the assembly of saints, upon the body of Christ, a complete denial of anything that has ever been professed and held dear. That is the ultimate end of the adversary, your and my destruction through apostasy. The implication is here that the adversary will make you and the larger body of Christ his target. The second implication is that he will not just fire one fiery dart, but notice Paul says you will be able to quench all the fiery darts. And then the last, on a more positive note, is that we will be able, because the object of our faith is so strong, Christ, we will be able, in Him, trusting in Him, that's the very essence of what faith is, right? In Christ, to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Just as in Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress, the fiery darts here in view are arrows coated with pitch or tar, and then set ablaze and fired at an enemy. This would accomplish two things. It would injure or wound, but it would also set ablaze anything that it struck. And you can consider the fiery darts of the wicked one as the wiles or the schemes of the devil set in motion. That's the two things that are in view here. We see that Paul has already said that we have been given this armor of God that we would be able to stand in the evil day against what he calls in verse 11, the wiles of the devil, the schemes of the devil. So, the wiles or schemes are Satan's overall master plan, if you will, to trip up and stumble the believer that would lead them into apostasy. The fiery darts are the actual events, circumstances, thoughts, deeds that are employed by Satan to carry out his wiles. The wiles are, again, the overall scheme. The darts are the means that he employs. Now, what are we to think of this? First of all, We have to know because of the warning here that he is able to employ certain means against believers through temptation, trying. That certainly has to be allowed of God in my life and in yours. The preeminent example of that would be back in that book of Job. God gave Satan permission to tempt and to try his servant Job. So that in itself is a comforting fact, right? To know that while Satan himself is employing these means represented here by fiery darts, he is not doing so at the overthrow of our Savior. He is doing so with only permission granted him by our Savior. He himself is captive to the use of Christ. And in his wisdom, our Savior allows these types of trials and temptations. We can also think about these fiery darts as well-prepared, well-aimed, powerful, often sudden and unexpected temptations and accusations of Satan. Let me repeat a couple of those words. Well-prepared and well-aimed. He is not haphazard in His trial and temptation. He operates in your life and in my life with great precision. He knows where I am most liable to fall. He knows where you are most liable to succumb to temptation. The fiery dart that he employs in your life may be nothing like the one he employs in mine. But know this, the end goal is the same, and that end goal is destruction. Charles Hodge defines the fiery darts as the symbols of the fierce onsets of Satan. I began by reading you a part of John Bunyan's allegory. I'm going to read you more words of his, but I want to be careful to note to you that these are not allegorical words. These words come from his own spiritual autobiography entitled Grace Abounding. If you have an old version, it's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. So these words are not coming to him as some type of allegory on the scriptures. These are real life words that he lived and that he wrote. He says this, A very great storm came down upon me, which handled me twenty times worse than all I had met with before. It came stealing up on me, now by one piece and then another. First my comfort was taken from me. Then darkness seemed to seize me. Afterwards there were whole floods of blasphemous thoughts against God, Christ, the Scriptures. These seemed to be poured into my spirit to my great confusion and astonishment." I wonder if any of you can relate to Bunyan's accounting of his own life. He prefaces all of this, or actually Ian Hamilton prefaces all of this by relating this writing of Bunyan by saying, I wonder how many of you as Christians ever have this thought, if I'm truly Christian, how do such thoughts completely overtake me at times? Do you ever have thoughts running through your mind that in the end you can say they're only demonic? blasphemies, questionings of the authorities and the goodness of God and of Christ Himself, and you know even while they are running through your mind, or you ask, where, what is the spring of these thoughts in my heart and in my life? I think we can attribute them in great in a great many causes to the fiery darts of the evil one, the wicked one, causing us to allow these thoughts to run through our minds and sometimes they just seem to come out of nowhere. And it leaves us wondering and thinking, how can I, having professed to have a renewed nature, a new heart, to be redeemed of God, to having been born again, how can such things even find entrance into my heart, into my mind? Well, it's because of remaining sin. We're saved from the power and the penalty of sin, but not yet from its presence. Remaining sin is in us, and the adversary is active. That's why these type of thoughts. What do you do when those kind of thoughts come to your mind? Well, you raise the shield of faith. The Scripture says that you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. When those things happen and beset themselves upon you, you plead with Christ to come to your aid, and then you plead in the very face of such doubt and questioning the truth that you know and have professed by faith." And perhaps it would go something like this, when these blasphemous thoughts overtake your mind, you raise the shield of faith and you say, wait a minute, I know that the Scriptures teach me, the Spirit of God has shown to me that this is not necessarily so, and that one day, one glorious day, all of this trial and temptation will be over. Does that not make your heart yearn for the very absence of the presence of sin? We can't even imagine really what that's going to be like because our hearts are so desperately wicked, so tainted by sin, even post-conversion. We have a hard time imagining and fathoming what it will be like to not have to deal with the onslaught of sinful thought Because Christ has then, at that point in time, eradicated it from our very nature and from His very presence. Charles Hodge goes into great detail Along the same line as John Bunyan, listen to what he says. These are not his own personal accounts of things that happened in his life, but here he is speculating on what might be the life of a believer. He says, the adversary showers arrows of fire on the soul of the believer, who if unprotected by the shield of faith would soon perish. It is a common experience of the people of God that at times horrible thoughts, unholy, blasphemous, skeptical, malignant crowd into the mind which cannot be accounted for by any ordinary law of mental action and sometimes are very grievously dislodged. They stick like burning arrows in the mind and fill the soul with agony. They can be quenched only by faith and by calling on Christ for help. He then goes on to say, These, however, are not the only kind of fiery darts employed against the saints by Satan, nor are they the most dangerous. There are others which kindle our passion, inflame our ambition, excite pride, give birth to discontent or vanity, producing a flame which our deceitful heart is not quick to extinguish, and which is often allowed to burn until it produces great injury or even destruction. Against these most dangerous weapons of the evil one, the only protection or recourse of the saint is faith. It is only by looking to Christ and earnestly invoking His interposition on our behalf that we can resist these insidious assaults. Let me revisit one thing he said there in that mouthful of words. He said all of these things, passion, ambition, pride, discontent, etc., produce a flame within us that our deceitful hearts are not quick to extinguish. Why is that so? Why is that true? Because these are the very things the natural heart yearns for. These are the very things that remaining sin in me and in you yearn for. And when these seeds are sown, represented by fiery darts of the wicked one, if we don't immediately take those thoughts captive to Christ, why else would we be told in the Scriptures, do not give Satan even a toehold in your life? The proverbial saying applies, if you give an inch, a mile will be taken. Peter says, resist Him in the faith. He is prowling about like a lion for you. His end goal is to destroy you. Resist Him steadfast in the faith. When these things are excited in your heart, and remaining sin in you latches onto them and begins to feed, what do you do? The only thing that we can do, plead the merits of Jesus Christ, and plead with Him for protection. I'm not saying, as some would, I'm not saying you need to get in a one-on-one mindset in combat with Satan. I'm not saying that. insanity for someone to teach or to say that you and I in our own authority can say to Satan flee that is utter insanity but for us by faith to yield ourselves to Jesus Christ who has all authority in heaven and earth who has already defeated Satan who has already been the strong man that entered his house and bound him when we appeal to him on our behalf and let him deal with Apollyon. Then we're on good ground. Then we are on firm ground. Then the shield of faith has been raised and it is able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. If you and I attempt to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one in our own strength, how utterly miserable will we fall? Do you really suppose in the end it's of any profit at all for me or you or all of us collective to try to bind Satan? You won't find that language in the scriptures anywhere. But yet, how often do we hear, and it's usually the TV preachers, obviously, Satan, I bind you in the name of Jesus Christ. And eradicate you from our very presence. Don't fall prey to that line of thinking. Get on your knees somewhere before God, plead with Christ to come to your aid. Don't trust in the strength of your own faith, nor be overly dejected when you find that your faith is weak. Just make sure that that weak faith has for its object Jesus Christ. And if that be the case, then however weak that faith may be, it is sufficient to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. And if you say you're just repeating yourself, acknowledged, I am repeating myself. What's in view is not the strength of faith itself, but the strength of the object of our faith. Remember, Paul says, in addition to all of these, or in every circumstance, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. There's not one fiery dart of Satan that will overpower or pierce the shield of faith, which has as its object Jesus Christ. That's the strength of our Savior. That's the greatness of Him. For now we are all clothed in weakness, frailty, But thank God we are attached by faith to a strong Christ. And the last time I read my Bible in the book of Hebrews, it says He is leading many sons to glory. Aren't you thankful to be in that train being led by Christ to glory? The scriptures tell us on the way, however, even though we are in His train, Even though He is leading, we'll pass through, He'll lead us through the valley of humiliation, the slew of despond or despair, and at last, the valley of death. But we can fear no evil. Why? Because He's with us right there in all of it. and He will see us through to the end. So believer, above all, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Let me pray and then we'll turn our attention to the supper. Our Father in heaven, we're thankful that you have ordained such a means as this. We're thankful that Our faith is in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you have ordained before the foundation of the world to be the Lamb slain for sinners. He is our ultimate hope, our ultimate joy. He is our Savior, Defender, Protector. He is our greatest friend. Father, I pray that you would help us even more and more as we think about our responsibility to raise the shield of faith in times of the onslaught of the adversary. Help us more and more to cast our eyes of faith upon Jesus Christ. We're thankful now for this ordinance that you have given to your church to remind us of the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus Christ. May it serve us in the capacity for which you have intended. We pray and ask it in Christ's name. Amen.