In 335 BC, a young man of 21 years of age figured out that the most important piece of equipment in any army is footwear. His name was Alexander. He came to be known as Alexander the Great. Because in the next 12 years, he conquered the entire civilized world without losing a single battle. He won many of his battles by moving his armies quickly and unexpectedly, while the armies that he faced were stationary or moved like glaciers. The Romans learned the lesson from Alexander, and they ensured that their soldiers were equipped with special boot sandals that we'll discuss in a moment, footwear that enabled them to maneuver quickly and confidently. In the American Civil War, Stonewall Jackson was the most feared general fighting for the Confederacy for the same reason. His rapid marches allowed him to outmaneuver and defeat larger Union forces. And his speed was a crucial element in his tactics. If Jackson had not been mistakenly shot by his own pickets while returning to his own lines after dark, the American Civil War may well have ended differently than it did. Other great generals down through history won battles by moving their troops quickly. You know their names. Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, George S. Patton. But troops can't move quickly if they're not well shod. Boots, shoes, sandals may be the most unlikely of weapons, but down through the centuries, they have been the key to victory. in many battles. And the Apostle Paul teaches us here in verses 15 and 16 that if we're to win the cosmic battle against Satan and his fallen angels who follow him, then we must be well shod as well. For the past few weeks, we've been talking about the battle between Satan and the fallen angels who follow him and God and the people of God. And in that battle, we are encouraged by Paul here in Ephesians 6 to be strengthened in the Lord. And the Lord has provided us with spiritual armor. Last Sunday, we talked about the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. This morning we take up the next two pieces of armor, the boots and the shield. They're described for us here in verses 15 and 16. Let me read those two verses for us. 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. So first of all, in verse 15, Paul describes how the feet of the Christian soldier are shod with the boots of the preparation of the gospel of peace. The boots of the preparation of the gospel of peace. That is a mouthful. Now, as I've explained to you in the past, Paul was chained to a Roman soldier, a Roman legionnaire, 24 hours a day when he wrote this letter to the Ephesian church. He was under house arrest in Rome. And perhaps the most unusual... I'm not getting anything, Josh. Want a bet? Wow, I'm way back. Okay, there we go. The most unusual piece of equipment worn by those Roman legionaries were special boot sandals. They're called caliga, the half boot. They were made of strong leather, but left the toes free. They were tied to the ankles and the shins with straps. But most important, they were studded on the bottom with metal spikes or studs, which not only equipped these Roman legionnaires for long marches, but also enabled them to stand solidly in battle and not slip. As I mentioned a moment ago, this piece of equipment prepared the Roman armies to march quickly, to outmaneuver enemy armies. Now Paul strings together three words to explain the meaning of this metaphor, the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now the key word of those three is, without a doubt, Gospel. Many of you know the word gospel comes from a word in the original language, uangelion. U means good, angelion means a message, good message. We normally say it good news. That good news is The truth that Jesus Christ died for your sin and mine, that He rose again on the third day in order to give us a new life, to give us eternal life. And God has called on us as His soldiers to proclaim to every human being this gospel, this good news. For it is the power of God unto salvation. Now Paul emphasizes this gospel brings peace. And it's probable that Paul had this text in mind when he strung these words together. The preparation of the gospel of peace. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. And so Paul emphasizes that this gospel is the key to finding peace. Finding peace with the universe. Finding peace with others. Most importantly, finding peace with ourselves. That's all dependent on, first of all, finding peace with God. The idea is that we once were all enemies of God. That's what we are by nature. We do our own thing. And when we do our own thing, we are rebels against God's law, rebels against the throne of God. We are guilty of treason, if you will, in a spiritual sense. And the penalty for treason is always death. And in this case, eternal death. But Jesus bore that penalty when he died on the cross. And because he bore that penalty when he died, we can be forgiven of that sin of treason, and we can be taken from being enemies of God to being allies of God, to being in His army, in Christ's army, one of His soldiers. There's someone listening to this message who's looking for peace, who's grieved that you don't have peace, well, that peace can be yours only by turning to Jesus Christ. It's the gospel that brings peace. It's the good news. The strangest word in this verse is the word that's translated preparation in our new King James. The new King James follows the old King James in translating this word preparation. But perhaps a better translation would be preparedness, readiness. As Paul looked at that Roman centurion, looked at his armor from head to foot, he knew that he was prepared to go into battle. And Paul is calling each of us, each Christian soldier, to be prepared to use the gospel that brings peace when we face off with Satan in this cosmic battle. Now, I believe that we need to be prepared to use the gospel of peace in two ways. First of all, we need to be prepared to proclaim the gospel to others. I mean, think about it. When we proclaim the gospel to another person, we assail the kingdom of Satan. Whether we share the gospel with a family member, or a neighbor, or a friend, or a complete stranger, or even a child. Whether we support a missionary who proclaims the gospel in a foreign nation. By that means, we directly assault the strongholds of Satan. Think of it this way. Proclaiming the gospel is the only way that we can take those who are in the grip of Satan, who are serving in his army as it were, and turn them from enemies into allies. We overcome darkness with light. We overcome good with evil. The good news of peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we need to be prepared to share the gospel of peace. Each of us needs to be prepared to give our personal testimony. Every one of us needs to have a personal elevator speech. How many of you know what an elevator speech is? An elevator speech is a speech that you can give in the time that it takes an elevator to get from the bottom floor to the top floor of the building. In some buildings that may be shorter than others. But the idea is that you ought to have your personal story honed to about 60 seconds so that you can share your testimony, what God has done in your life to save you and bring you to Jesus Christ. Do you have that testimony ready? You ought to. Even if you have to sit and write it out and memorize it, you need a personal elevator speech. And then every believer needs to memorize a plan of salvation. Let me ask you, if you're on your way home right here in a few minutes, in an hour or There was an accident beside the road and somebody's laying there and you stop and you say, are you alright? I'm dying. Tell me how to get to heaven. Would you be ready for that? Would you share the plan of salvation? You say, that's the pastor's job. Well, you're right. It is the pastor's job. But you know what? It's your job as well. You are to be shod with the preparedness of the gospel of peace. Now, if you don't have a plan like that memorized, if you don't have a plan like that in hand, come and see me. Maybe we'll get up a class, a Sunday school class for a week or two. And I can teach you how to present the plan of salvation. It's not that difficult. Every Christian soldier is to be prepared to share the gospel of peace. And then the second person to whom you ought to be ready to preach the gospel is yourself. We ought to be prepared to preach the gospel to ourselves because preaching the gospel to ourselves at times is the best response to the attacks of Satan. Some years ago, a friend of mine gave me this little book entitled, A Gospel Primer. And I assumed that the book provided instruction in how to present the gospel, like I was just talking about. But that is not the case. This little book drives home the absolute necessity of proclaiming the gospel to yourself at least once a day. The gospel is the power of God. Not just for people who need to be saved, it's the power of God for those of us who have already been saved. You see, our flesh, our sin nature, our human pride and ego is so opposed to the gospel that even for Christians it's easy for us to forget the gospel. to skew the gospel. We need to remind ourselves in the most emphatic way every day of the truth of the gospel. Now, for me, I tend to do it in prayer. Listen, the only way I can even come into God's presence is because of the gospel. See, when you say in Jesus' name at the end of a prayer and just tack that on, you're missing the boat. I can come into God's presence, the presence of a holy God, only because Jesus Christ bore my sin, only because I stand in Christ. You wonder sometimes why I seem to always kind of preach the gospel at the beginning of my prayers here on Sunday morning? I'm just doing what I always do. Every day we ought to be thanking God for where we stand because of the gospel, because of what Jesus Christ did for us. And then let me mention a couple of ways that Satan attacks us for which the gospel of peace is the very equipment that we need to respond to that attack. I've known many Christians down through the years who end up being perfectionists. Because even after they trusted Jesus Christ, for forgiveness and eternal life, they somehow ended up after salvation thinking that the only way that they could get something from God was by being perfect. Satan whispers within our souls, yes, thank God He has saved me. But I need God to bless me today, so I have to be in the place of blessing. And the only way I can be in the place of blessing is if I check off all of the checkbox on my to-do list and all of the checkbox on my to-don't list. And Christians like that end up huffing and puffing on the hamster wheel. of trying to be perfect enough for God to bless them. Listen, if that's you, you need to preach the gospel to yourself. You need to be reminded, you need to remind yourself of what we talked about last Sunday, that the only reason that God blesses me is because I'm clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. When God looks at me, He sees Jesus. I am in Christ. Listen, that's the place of perfect blessing. God doesn't bless me because of what I do. He blesses me because of what Christ has already done. And so if you get on that hamster wheel every day, you need to step off and preach the gospel to yourself. And then Satan, Satan is the accuser. That's what his name means, accuser. And when he accuses us, often the accusations that he whispers in our consciences are actually on target. And he can make us feel lower than the ocean floor. And it's at that moment that we need to take ourselves by the nap of the neck and give ourselves a good shake and say, why art thou cast down, O my soul? I have peace with God! And we need to preach the gospel of peace to ourselves. My sins were nailed to the cross. Jesus bore every bit of God's wrath and displeasure. I will repent and my gracious God will forgive me and welcome me home as if I was His only begotten Son. I'm accepted in the Beloved. When Satan accuses you, you need to stand in the boots of the gospel of peace. preach the gospel to yourself. Well, we need to move on to the second piece of armor that we're going to talk about today, the shield of faith. Now, in ancient times, there were two different kinds of shields. There were the kinds of shields that A soldier wore on his arm a small shield that was used to fend off a sword attack. That's not the kind of shield that Paul is talking about here. The shield that Paul refers to here in verse 16 is a large shield. It was about two feet wide, about four and a half feet long. The word for this shield in the original language is similar to a word in the original language that's translated door. This shield looked a little bit like somebody was just holding up a door. It covered the body completely, particularly if a soldier knelt behind the shield. Now this shield was made of two planks of wood, glued together, covered with canvas, then covered with leather, At the top and bottom of the shield were iron, so that if a blow from a sword came down on top of the shield, it wouldn't split it. The iron would bear the flash of that sword. It's worth noting how the Roman legions used these shields. The Roman soldiers would advance shoulder to shoulder with these shields basically edge to edge. As you see in the illustration before you, the Roman soldiers could even lock these shields together forming a solid wall for their defense. And a column of these shoulder-to-soldier legionnaires was called a phalanx, if you've ever heard that word. And it was a terror to opposing armies, to those who had to oppose these Roman armies. Now Paul equates this door-like shield to the Christian soldier's faith. Now don't misunderstand what Paul means by faith here. The word does not have the article. It's not THE faith. Our shield and protection is not sound doctrine holding to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity as important as that is. Rather, our shield is our faith in Christ, our faith in the true and living God, in His Word, in His promises. That reliance on God, that dependence on God, that is our shield. Now let me explain how this works. If you go back to the Old Testament, who is our shield? Ah, in Genesis 15, God said to Abraham, I am your shield and your everlasting reward. And if you trek through the remainder of the Old Testament 10 more times, you will find statements like the Lord is our sun and our shield. In the Old Testament, God is our shield. Now, here we come to, oh, and by the way, there's a verse that's even the most important of those texts in the Old Testament. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their faith in Him. We'll come back to this thought in just a minute, okay? So, 11 times in the Old Testament, God is our shield. But we come to Ephesians 6 and Paul says that Faith is our shield. Now, which is it? It's both. You see, these two ideas complement each other. See what Proverbs 30 and verse 5 says? He is a shield to those who put their trust or their faith in Him. It is by faith that we lay hold of God who is our shield and our buckler and our protection. Now get a hold of this truth. My faith is only as strong as the object of my faith. You know, sometimes when we face difficulties and trials, People who don't know any better, they'll say something like, just have faith. As if my faith were going to be the thing that takes me through those trials and struggles. Listen, my faith is not worth anything more than the person I put my faith in. Suppose the federal government discovered that your business had grossly miscalculated your income years ago, and you owe back taxes and penalties that will ruin you, bankrupt you. But you say, I'm not worried. When I started this business, Alvin promised that he would fund any loss in my business. I know I can. Trust him. But will your faith in Alvin carry you through that trouble? See, I happen to know that Alvin himself has had financial setbacks, and there's no way he can afford to take care of your tax bill. Your faith is only as strong as the person you put your faith in. And the shield of faith is our faith in the true and living God who has said, I am your shield and your everlasting reward. Now verse 16, describes why we so badly need this shield of faith. It says so that you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Now today, when we think of the most devastating weapon known to man, we automatically think of a nuclear bomb or a nuclear missile. But in ancient times, the most devastating weapon commonly used in ancient warfare was fiery darts. How many of you have ever seen a movie that portrayed a battle in ancient times or medieval times and before the attack, the archers shot flaming arrows toward the opposing army? That's the idea here. A Roman historian explained how the Roman army made these fiery darts. They hollowed out the inside of the dart, drilled holes through them so that flammable material could be impregnated into the dart. And then it was set ablaze. And then it was shot. And if it hit a soldier, that soldier would burst into flames. And in fact, if they tried to put it out with water, the material inside would only spread and the fire would spread. The whole idea was to incapacitate that soldier so that he would not be in the battle. And of course, if you could take out 10% of the opposing army before the battle even began, well, then you had a huge advantage. Now, the Roman shield was specifically designed to be impervious to such fiery darts. That's why it was covered with leather, so that it would not catch fire. That Roman soldier, especially if they grouped themselves, they could kneel down under that shield, they could wait for that attack of fiery darts to conclude, and then they could go into battle. Now verse 16 calls these weapons the fiery darts of the evil one. I don't know if you've ever thought about this, perhaps you've thought about these fiery darts, but there's a lot of flammable material in all of us. See, Satan knows that we all have a sin nature. Even as believers, the Puritans used to call it remaining sin. There's still a sin nature that is in all of us even after we're saved. And so Satan targets that remaining sin in each of us when he fires that fiery dart because he can inflame our souls at times with those fiery darts as it were. So before I close, let me mention four fiery darts of the evil one and how we should use the shield of faith to extinguish them, and then we'll be done. Down through church history, men have held that Satan and his demons are able to put thoughts into our minds unbidden. Just as a fiery dart might be Shot at a soldier when he had no idea that he was being targeted Demons can hurl thoughts into our minds as it were Have you never had the experience of of a thought coming to mind, a lustful thought, a wicked imagination, a vengeful thought against another person, a thought that was not in your flow of thinking the moment before and then suddenly it was there. And you think, where did that come from? It's a fiery dart. Even suicidal thoughts at times. Satan's a murderer from the beginning. And you think, where did that come from? It's a fiery dart. How do you respond? You respond by faith. I read the verse. as I called you to worship this morning from James chapter 4 and verse 7, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Claim that promise. The moment that fiery dart burns in your mind, pray, Lord, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one. I want to resist, Lord, give me grace. I claim your promise, may Satan flee from me. See, verse 16 says we need to take up the shield of faith. This doesn't happen automatically. We have to intentionally take such thoughts to the Lord and depend on Him and on His promises for deliverance. In the second place, as I said a moment ago, Satan is well aware that every believer still has a fallen sinful nature that remains within him ready to catch fire if a fiery dart is targeted into our souls. But Satan not only knows human nature in general, he and his minions know you. They know me. They know the particular sins that I'm liable to. The propensities of my flesh. What we used to call besetting sins. The sins that I so often commit. The sins that I often find myself confessing. And you can be certain that Satan will fire those fiery darts at you. When he knows your Achilles heel, that is where he will be targeting his arrows. And by the way, your besetting sin is different than my besetting sin, different than the person across the aisle, and you understand what I'm saying. We all have our own particular sins that Satan targets in our lives. And these are the sins we end up confessing over and over again. These are the sins that discourage us because they so often defeat us again and again. And Satan will use that repeated defeat to beat us down. He will convince us that God is so disappointed to hear us come and repent all over again. And that is when we need to take up the shield of faith in our good God. Remember, it's faith that connects us to the God who is our shield. And we need to believe that if we confess our sin, our God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's just. This is what's right. Why? Because Jesus has already borne that sin and its punishment. We are already reconciled to God. because we stand in Christ's perfect righteousness. And then another fiery dart that Satan and his minions often launch at our souls. I'm going to call the fiery dart of bitterness. God promises us as his children, God promises us trial and temptation. Nice promise, huh? Let me read James 1, 2 through 4. This is from the God's Word version. I think this makes it very simple and very plain. My brothers and sisters, be very happy. That's amazing. Be very happy when you are tested in different ways. You know that such testing of your faith produces endurance or perseverance. Endure until the testing is over. Then, you will be mature and complete. God is determined that you and I develop endurance. Now, James down here is running cross-country. He ran cross-country this year. James, how do you develop endurance in running? By running, yeah. And running and running and running and running. You see, I think oftentimes trials come to us and we think one and done. Well, that's not always true. See, sometimes trials go on and on and on and on and on. Why? Because God is seeking to develop endurance, perseverance in us. And when God develops that endurance and perseverance, when we endure till the end of that trial, it says we will be what? Mature and complete. That's God's goal for us. But here's the thing. In the middle of that trial, in the middle of that test that goes on and on and on, you can bet that Satan is going to shoot at us the fiery dart of bitterness. That's when we need to take up the shield of faith and extinguish the flames of bitterness that are burning in our hearts. God will never leave me nor forsake me. He loves me for Christ's sake. I'm accepted in the Beloved. And what He does is always for my good, even if it's not pleasant. If my father is chastening me, he chastens me because he loves me. I will endure and learn what my Father is trying to teach me. God, give me grace to endure." We respond to that dart of bitterness with the shield of faith. And then let me make a final application, a fourth, and then we're finished. I told you earlier that The Roman legions could link their shields together and form phalanxes. The shield equipped the Roman legions for corporate defense. I want you to think about this. With the Roman legions, it wasn't just one shield, it was many shields. There's a sense in which our defense as believers is not just our personal faith in God, but our shared faith in God. Our shared faith as a local church. Our shared faith as the universal church, as the people of God of all ages. One of the reasons that Scripture calls us to gather as a local church is because when we sing hymns together, when we sing the great truths of the faith, it increases our faith. Our faith is more when we are together than when we are apart. When we fellowship around these tables here in a few moments, and we talk about trials and tests, And simply by being shoulder to shoulder with others who are of like precious faith, our faith is increased. Our faith is greater together than it is apart. When we simply sit in an auditorium like this and listen to the Word of God proclaimed, and our hearts as a corporate body says, Amen, our faith is increased. So it's not just your shield or my shield or your shield. It's all of our shields together. And that is why Satan and his demons constantly target the unity of the church. try to detach us from the fellowship of our local church. Listen, when you feel the pull away from the fellowship of the local church, then look around, because you've been targeted with a fiery dart. And remember, Satan targets what's already within us. I've met numerous Christians down through the years who have already been burned so badly by such fiery darts that they have determined that they will never join a local church again. They've been hit by Satan's fiery dart and they have been incapacitated in the midst of the battle. We need to use the shield of faith, but we need to make sure that we join our shields with others in the local church. Our faith is stronger when it is a shared faith. Now, as I close, I point out the connection between these two pieces of armor. We have this shield of faith only if we respond to the gospel of peace. And so the question as we end this message is, have you responded by faith to the gospel that brings peace with God, brings peace within you, brings peace ultimately with others? That's why Christ died. He died on the cross because He loved you enough to bear the punishment of your sins. He rose again to give full forgiveness, new life, eternal life. Would you run to Christ? Would you turn your heart, turn away from your sin and turn to Jesus and trust Him? Just call out to Him where you sit right now in the quietness of your heart. without him, you have no defense against Satan. Your sin makes you an enemy of God and puts you in the ranks of his army. I said this a couple of weeks ago. It's a binary thing, black or white, up or down. You're either following Jesus Christ, serving Him, trusting Him, or you're in the ranks of Satan's army. Would you trust Christ today, right now?