Please open in your copy of the scriptures to Ephesians chapter 6. Let me just remind you of what we've been discussing in the last few weeks by simply reading the text to you. Let's look at chapter 6 verse 10. It reads this way. Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil 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 firm. Verse 14. Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. praying at all times in the spirit with all prayers and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. I always find it amazing that of all people, the apostle Paul would ask for prayer that he would be bold. Of all people to pray for boldness, you think, you think Paul would not need that prayer, right? Well, he did. He did. And I'm sure they prayed for him. Let's pray ourselves. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank you once again, as we approach your word, we pray that we would have understanding of the realities, the truths that are listed here in your word for us. We pray, O God, that indeed we would comprehend what your shield of faith is and that we would be ready with your shield on and on from day to day in all circumstances. We pray these things in your name, O Christ. Amen. I suppose that by now you have heard of what has happened in I ran, as most of us were asleep, I would assume, in those hours where we were sleeping and the military, the American military was doing what the military does best. I want you to notice here the power of deception, even in what happened yesterday. I'm told that there were seven planes carrying 14 bombs that headed towards Iran. Meanwhile, the military very deceptively, very strategically sent some planes westward. while some others very secretly went eastward to Iran. And of course, the president himself had been saying for a few days now that it would be any time within the next two weeks he would make up his mind. And of course, we were all expecting, at least I was, I assume you were too, expecting for these bombs to come down no sooner than maybe a week and a half, two weeks. And instead, it was just two days. That's the power of deception. And of course, what these 30,000 pound bombs did was devastating to the Iranian nuclear refining facilities. And no matter where you stand on the matter, it is obvious that it was a very effective, a very effective mission. These pilots flew, I think it was 37 hours altogether in order to accomplish this mission. That's a resolute pilot, two pilots per plane, very resolute. Sitting on those rather hard ejection seats, they are not comfortable seats like you would have on your 747 on your way to vacation. Deception, it worked. Deception is one of the devil's primary means by which he is able to take us down, able to fling his arrows at us, able to make us falter. As we read here, the goal of the Christian is to stand and remain standing, correct? And the devil wants to make sure that you are not standing, that he is able to take you down. And he'll use any means, and we made a list last week of what is very common practices of the devil in order to make us falter, make us walk away from Christ and certainly not be effective as Christians. And in that list was, of course, the ability of his deception to convince us of things that are not true. His ability to tell us one thing and make us believe it. Well, here in chapter 11 of Hebrews that was read to us, at least in part, and of course that video had to do with Hebrews 11 as well, Here in Chapter 11, we have a chapter in the Bible that focuses on the concept of faith and how powerful the impact on the lives of everyday people faith can be. These everyday people, if you take a look there more specifically at the entirety of the chapter, you see that these people are everyday common people, and yet they become biblical heroes. In fact, that chapter is often called the Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11, or the faith chapter, because it highlights individuals from the Old Testament who demonstrated exceptional faith in God and in his promises. The chapter emphasizes that faith is not just a belief system, but rather faith is a confident trust in the reality of God through, though he is unseen, a confident reality in the fact that God is. And that we would also see not only that God is, but that he is faithful to us. Faith means that I see that God is and that God not only exists but he is also faithful just as he said he would be. He keeps his word. And so in Hebrews 11 there are some 16 different examples of individuals who because of their faith their lives are changed as they lived out their faith from day to day and they were not all simple circumstances. In fact they were all complex circumstances. And yet all these people lived out their faith. The names include Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses and several others. And these examples do demonstrate how faith enabled them to overcome challenges. How were these people able to overcome their challenges? By faith. Because they had this confidence in God. Not only the confidence that God exists, but the confidence that God would keep his word. Confidence that what God said is true. Their lives were radically changed and that's why they're recorded in chapter 11. As a result, they obeyed God's commands and they received God's blessings because of their faith. And so Hebrews 11 underscores that faith is essential for pleasing God, and faith is also essential in order to survive the blows of the devil. And they can be rather frequent. It highlights, this chapter here highlights, that faith is not merely a mental assent to some religious doctrines. but a deep seated trust in God that leads to actions and also then of course specifically to obedience, faith. And so what I want to do this morning is look at just one verse here in chapter six of Ephesians verse 16. And I want you to see three things about faith here. I want you to see first the importance of faith. Then I want you to see the analogy of the soldier's shield and then finally third what faith accomplishes. And there's much to be said, I won't say it all for sure, but let's begin there with the importance of faith. How important is faith? Well, notice that verse 16 begins this way. It says, in all circumstances, at least that's how the ESV renders it, in all circumstances. That is to say that there is no circumstance in the Christian's life that does not require the exercise of faith. There's no circumstance in your life that does not require for you to believe and trust in God. In all circumstances. I like the way Barclay translates these two Greek words, which says, in all circumstances in English, he puts it this way, through thick and thin, put on the shield of faith. Take up the shield of faith. through thick and thin, no matter what. In other words, faith is simply indispensable. And of course, it requires that we ask ourselves, to what degree do we exercise faith? To what degree do I trust in the Lord? The phrase, the righteous shall live by faith, is first seen in the Old Testament book of Habakkuk 2. The righteous shall live by faith. And then it's repeated in the New Testament three times. The first time is in Romans chapter one, verse 17. And of course, this is the verse that famously Martin Luther was translating from Greek to his German when he realized that salvation comes not by works, but by faith. And this is what began in his mind, the Reformation. Romans chapter 1 verse 17, the righteous shall live by faith. Here he was convicted and then converted. The same phrase is repeated in Galatians chapter 3 verse 11 and then again in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 38. Now depending on the grammar and the context, what you see is that this phrase here, the righteous shall live by faith, has two different but similar meanings. The first one is this. The righteous shall live by faith, meaning that the righteous are those people who receive salvation, not by works, but by faith. And this is what we see in Romans 117. This is why Martin Luther was convicted and then converted by Romans 117. Salvation comes to those who believe and therefore are granted by grace salvation. It's similar to what we see in John chapter 1 verse 12. So all who receive Christ, who believe in his name, receive, believe, receive, believe. So all who receive Christ, who believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God. Salvation comes by faith, not by works. Now there's another way of understanding this text, depending again on the grammar and the context, which would make us understand the phrase, the righteous shall live by faith, to be this, that those who are right with God will live then daily in a continuous trust relationship with God. If you are righteous, if you are in a right relationship with God, if you are saved, you will then live, you will seek to live a life that is dependent on God, you will continuously trust him. Faith. And that's what we see here in Ephesians chapter six. Now, obviously, in both cases, no matter how it's translated, faith is an imperative. But the significance here in verse 16 is that faith is your shield in life. It's not here talking about a body of doctrinal truths you must believe in and those truths are your shield, but rather it's about a general confidence, a trust in God in your daily circumstances. It begins with trusting the Lord for your salvation, but now it continues in a daily confidence that God is at your side, that God is with you, that God will see you through, that God is true, that God will defend you in all circumstances, whether adverse or favorable, whether your circumstances are pleasant or ghastly, even repugnant, whether you're talking about life or death. And of course it is easy to trust in the Lord when there is new life, but it's difficult to trust in the Lord when there is death, because death is final. But let me say this, that it is especially important that we exercise faith when we confront death. That we place our faith then in Christ and confess that he is in control and that he knows what he is doing even though it does not seem like he does. How often we, my own family, has faced the probability of death, the threat of death, twice now. I was climbing the stairs to go see my wife who was in the hospital and she coded. I did not know it was her, I just heard, Code red, room such and such, and I'm just making my way up the stairs, and I get out of the way, because I know all the interns and residents are going to come rushing out to come say, they all love doing it because it's good practice, right? And they want to save somebody's life. And they're running up, and they have the crash cart, and they're taking everything they can with them. And then it dawns on me, hey, that's my wife's room. And then I'm running right behind them. And twice now, she coded, and they had to resuscitate her. One time she was in her early 30s. And yet my task as a follower of Christ is to say, Lord, I'm not sure what's going on here. I certainly do not like this, but I do know this, that you are in control, that you are good, and that you know exactly what you're doing. And he proved himself to be right. Even in those cases in which God did not rescue and death was not only imminent, it was actual. God proved again and again that he knew exactly what he was doing. You know, I find that I was just sharing this with a brother here a couple of days ago. How important it is that when we don't understand what God is doing, we don't ask the question, why God? That's the first question that comes to mind, isn't it? Why God? Why? The best question to ask is this, what God? What would you have of me now? Now the why question you may get an answer for in eternity. I wonder if even if it will be important to you in eternity. But usually you do not get an answer to the why question. But the what question you will. What God would you have of me in this situation? And accept that God knows what he's doing. I'm not suggesting it's easy. It has never been easy for me. I don't think it'll be easy for you. But how important it is that we learn to trust the Lord, even when we don't understand why or what. Now, we all live by faith in something, you know that. Right now, all of you are exercising faith in that chair. You are believing that that chair is holding you up. You're exercising Faith in the laws of physics. That chair is not going to collapse. You exercise faith in the strength of that metal. If that chair was made of paper, you would not be sitting so comfortably, would you? You would be a little nervous. Is it going to hold me up? But no, it's made out of metal. And because you believe in the strength of that metal, you're sitting there very casually. I often think that we should reverse it. I should sit and you should stand. I've been outvoted. In fact, you're exercising faith in the manufacturer of this chair, even though you have no idea who made it, where it came from. Florida, in case you're wondering. We all exercise faith in something. Whenever you cross a bridge, you place faith in that it's not going to collapse under you, correct? Whenever you stop at a red light, you understand the opposite direction is going to move. But when you have the green light, you have faith that the people on your right and on your left are going to stop. You have faith in them, but you don't even know them. But you have this general understanding that if for no other reason, self-preservation, they're going to stop. And you go. That's faith. Well here we're not just talking about faith in general, we're talking about faith in God. And going back to what we see in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6, it says this about faith. It says, and without faith it is impossible to please God. Without faith it's impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Did you get that? With faith, God rewards those who seek him. Seeking in the sense that I believe, I trust in him. And if you go backwards to verse one, it says, a definition here of faith, it says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And that's what makes faith so difficult. It's being certain of something you cannot see. And that's what makes faith so important. It's conviction that I can trust in God. Faith is essential. Take up the shield of faith, we're told here verse 16, meaning that we are to live in a general confidence with a trust in God for all our daily circumstances. Shield of faith. Pick it up. It's been provided for you. We are either to put on the armor of God or take up the armor of God. You need to appropriate what God has provided. Now, let's move on to the second point. I want you to see the soldier's shield. And by now, I think we've all seen the footage of the elbow-to-elbow riot police in Los Angeles or the National Guard who are standing there with their shields in front of them, and that's the kind of shield we're talking about this morning, not in terms of the construction, they did not have plexiglass back in the days of Paul, but the size and the shape of the shield. The Roman shield was called a scutum, and it was a door-shaped shield rectangular shield made of layered wood glued together and then covered in leather. And that leather in battle would be soaked in water. And I imagine that this piece of equipment must have been pretty heavy. It was also clad all around with iron. And often in the center there was a metal dome designed to push enemy back as they pressed on the soldiers. It was approximately four and a half feet high and two and a half feet wide. And I would be able to hide behind that shield rather well. And some of you would not. And I'm not just talking about the height. And of course, in those days, the average man was much smaller than the average American. In a Roman battle that lasted three months in what is now Albania, one Roman soldier named Siva counted no less than 220 arrows on his shield. Imagine that. That's how many times his shield protected him from being struck by an arrow. How many times he could have died. 220 arrows on his shield. And so the soldier was to be prepared at all times with his shield. knowing that the enemy could attack from a long distance with a bow and arrow even unseen those arrows could come and so the shield had always to be ready not only in battle but handy at all times because of the near and present danger they were to be able to take up that shield quickly And this is exactly what Satan wants to do to us. He wants to attack surprisingly. He wants to be able to come at us when we least expect it. So Paul writes, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith. Satan does not say we're coming. He does not announce that there's going to be some arrows being flung your way tomorrow at three o'clock. No, he's going to come secretly. And he's going to surprise you. And boy, do those arrows hurt. He flings his arrows at us when our guard is down. So in all circumstances, whether good or bad, be ready with the shield of faith. And the shield of faith will cover the entire person in spiritual warfare. It certainly will. The shield, by the way, was soaked in water in order to extinguish the fiery arrows that were dipped in pitch and then lit on fire and then shot across the air. And the idea was that that wet leather would help to extinguish that fire. And of course, that would protect not only that one particular soldier, but it would also keep the fire from spreading to the soldier right next to him whose shield was but it next to his own. So you see there was great value, there was great value in that shield. Well let's take a look at the last point here, what faith accomplishes. The Roman soldiers lined up elbow to elbow in rows bearing shields and that was called a phalanx. And it's reported that at times this line of soldiers was a mile wide. Can you imagine that? How intimidating that would have been. A mile wide. And here, verse 16, it says, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Take up the shield of faith. Well, that means two things. First of all, notice it means this. Your faith is in Jesus Christ the Lord, not in your faith. We don't place our faith in our faith. How faithful or how much faith do you have or how hard do you believe? No, no. The question is not whether we believe in our faith, but rather our faith means how much do we believe in Christ. Our faith is in Christ. God is our shield. In fact in Psalm 28.7 we read, the Lord is my strength and my shield. In him my heart trusts and I am helped. The Lord is my shield. So my faith is not in faith, my faith is in Christ. And secondly, to take up the shield of faith means that you understand that the Word of God needs to be birthed in you. The Word of God needs to be birthed in you. What do I mean by birthed in you? Well I mean that God's Word needs to be living and breathing in your soul. The Word of God needs to be alive in you. And not because you have seen God with your own eyes, no. Not because God's been good to you and has proven himself to you in the past, which is great, but that's not why you need to believe in God, only because he's been faithful in the past. And not even because you simply, well, resign yourself, say, well, who am I to fight against God? I guess I might as well just believe in him. No, that's not what we're saying here. We're saying that Word of God living in you, being birthed in you, means that you believe God's word about himself, what he has said. You simply trust God because he is God, because he said so. Faith. And with that faith you can extinguish the fiery arrows Satan flings your way. And boy is he able to fling those arrows. I can't tell you how often I'm surprised when that arrow comes and I've been warned. Sometimes I see the possibility and I'm still surprised. Sometimes I expose myself to those arrows. Here again it says, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, all circumstances with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And here, my friends, all means all. Faith conquers without exception. If you have true faith, If the Word of God is living and breathing in you, your faith will conquer the arrows of the devil. It will. It will cover you entirely. It will link you with others. It will extinguish any arrow that comes your way. And here in ESV it's referred to as fiery darts. And that Greek word also means arrows or javelin or missiles. At one time it's even translated as a needle. The point here being is that they are dangerous. They are sharp and they are flaming, meaning they are painful and they are destructive. And the devil likes shooting those arrows at us. But faith in Jesus Christ will put out, will extinguish those burning arrows. Isn't that wonderful? Nothing else will, by the way, only faith. This is the only time maybe you've noticed that in this series of pieces of equipment, this is the only time that Paul explains the effect of the armor. He says it will extinguish those arrows. Faith not only protects us, It eliminates, it eliminates doubt. It suffocates skepticism, faith. Faith is our fire extinguisher. So keep in mind that we're not just talking here about battling evil in general. Notice here that it says that we are battling against the evil one, the devil himself, the impact of his schemes, of the devil's schemes. Our faith will be a shield against the very schemes of the devil. And of course faith begins by hearing the Word of God. Romans chapter 10 verse 17 says so, that faith comes by hearing. hearing the gospel message. But now faith goes into practice when you have a daily ongoing confidence in God. Now, of great importance is that you understand that faith is only as valuable as the object you place your faith in. How valuable is your faith? Well, it's only as valuable as the object you place your faith in. For example, you can believe that paper chairs are going to hold you up, but you're going to find out soon enough that it doesn't, right? But the Christian faith never fails. And that's because Jesus Christ never fails. Our faith is in Christ. He does not fail, therefore your faith in Christ will never fail. Faith in Christ never fails because of the object of our faith. Christ himself, he is infinitely potent and able to do all that he promises. One of Satan's deadliest arrows is that arrow of doubt. He often tempts us with doubt. This was the first temptation to Eve. He said to her, well, did he really say that? Well, he knows that if you eat from this tree, you're gonna be just like him. I don't think you should trust him so much, Eve. I think he's pulling a wool over your, I think he's lying to you. The first thing the devil does is try to hit you with the arrow of doubt. Disbelieve what he has said. Do not trust him. God is deceiving you. He's holding you back from being all that you can be. Don't trust him. Don't trust him. Distrust his provision for you, Eve. Distrust his protection of you. Distrust his plan for you. Distrust his purpose for what he is doing here in your life through these circumstances. Do not trust him. And you'll notice that this was the very same way in which Satan tempted Jesus Christ. It was the same arrow, the arrow of doubt recorded for us in Matthew chapter four. First, he said to Jesus Christ, question, doubt God's provision of food for you. And then he said, doubt God's protection of you if you were to jump off this wall. And then he says, You ought to doubt God's plan in humbling you and making you a man. After all, doesn't all this, you know, all this can be yours. Hoping that Christ would say, you know what, this idea of coming as a man and dying on a cross, I don't like it. I'm going to follow Satan instead. You see, Satan wants to make you doubt, just as he did with Eve, just as he did with Christ. And boy, does that arrow burn. Satan wanted for Christ to deny his very purpose for coming here to earth. But it didn't work with Christ, did it? It worked very well with Eve. Somehow she was able to convince Adam likewise. Adam then plunged us into a world of sin by nature, not just by action. We all suffer now from that original sin. Unless it's very easy and even normal for us to sin, isn't it? It's funny how we have to think about doing the right thing. And we so easily are willing to do the wrong thing. We don't need to be convinced to do the wrong thing. We need to be convinced not to do the wrong thing. Thank you, Adam. But it was that arrow that plunged in Eve's heart that began the whole episode. One writer put it this way, all sin results in the failure to act in faith in who God is and in what he is. Did you get that? All sin results in the failure to act in faith in who God is and what he is. So whenever we question God, Whenever we question what God says, we lack faith, and the result is we sin. I'll give you a couple examples. If we were to say that fornication is wrong, and some people today, it's very common to say, oh, it's not wrong, that's so old school. It's so old school, that's not wrong anymore. And yet the Bible says, well, yes it is. In fact, people have said to me, well, you know, you do have to take the car out for a drive before you buy it. Well, if you don't believe what God has said on the subject of sex, then you lack faith and you sin. If you say, God, why have you abandoned me? and many of us have been there, circumstances have been so overwhelming, we feel like God is no longer there. And it's more than a feeling, sometimes we're convinced God is not there. Well, God said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. And when we say, Lord, you have abandoned me, then we are denying what God has said, we have no faith in what God has said, and thus we sin. when we say love is love. Love is love, and it makes so much human sense, doesn't it? Of course, when I read about the guy who married his rollercoaster in his backyard, that didn't make too much sense. But when it comes to man to man, woman to woman, love is love. It seems to make so much sense, and yet God said otherwise. God said otherwise. He said no, love is not love. Marriage is designed and created by him and he defines what is marital love. And when we say love is love, we question what God says, therefore we lack faith in what God has said and the result is we sin. We are willing to live with all kinds of fallacies. We're willing to believe all sorts of fallacies. And when we do, we are not holding the shield of faith. It's quite the opposite. We're putting the shield of faith down. And that's when we are struck by Satan's painful burning arrows. You put down the shield of faith because you do not believe what God has said. and you will get struck, and you will be injured. This is a do or die situation. A lack of faith will defeat your Christian life, my friends. And you will be hammered into this faithless soul with no hope whatsoever. And you will abandon your Christian walk. Some people do abandon their Christian life completely. And your painful circumstances will be your daily song. It will be how you see your life. Just pain. My friends, let me close with saying this. In all your struggles, your faith must rest in who Christ is and what he has said. your faith needs to rest, and who Christ is and what he has said. Belief in God is essential. Belief in his words are your only remedy, your only protection. Tragedy does strike, and when it does, don't shut away in your feelings and in your fears. As easy as that is to do, Instead, run to what God has said, pick up the shield of faith, and trust him for what he is doing. Even though it may not look good at the time. Let me close with one last verse. Psalm 1830. This is a good verse for you to underline in your Bible. Psalm 1830. It reads this way. This God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. The shield of faith. Let me pray. Our Lord, our God, we thank you for you are indeed that shield. Your word stands. We can trust you. We can trust what you have said. And we pray, O Lord, that we will be quick to pick up the shield of faith in all circumstances, living with it as our guard against the deception and those arrows that the devil sends our way. In your name we pray. Amen.