Well, good morning. As most of you are aware, if you've been here over the last few weeks, I'm using what Paul writes in Romans 13, 11 through 14, namely with regard to our putting on the armor of light as an opportunity to discuss the whole armor of God that Paul talks about at length. Ephesians chapter 6 so to that end if you'll turn once again to Ephesians chapter 6 and Read with me as I read verses 10 through 18 Ephesians 6 Beginning at verse 10 the Apostle Paul writes finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might and 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, or in light of this present reality, 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. 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 prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Thus far in our study of the armor of God, we've looked at the first three components. We've looked at the belt of truth, which signifies that we need to be encircled about by the truth of God's Word. We've looked at the breastplate of righteousness, which represents our positional standing as those clothed in the righteous robes of Christ. And most recently, we've looked at the importance of having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which, as we discussed at length last Lord's Day, ensures that we have peace with God, that we enjoy the peace of God, that we have the presence of the God of peace, and we have peace with one another. Again, I'm not gonna take any time to go over what we've covered thus far in these messages, but as I always do, I would encourage you to go to Sermon Audio, listen to these messages as the Lord allows. Anyway, our study this morning involves the fourth piece of our spiritual armor, which is the shield of faith. And notice once again very carefully what the Apostle Paul says here regarding the shield of faith. He says that we are to take up the shield of faith. And I realize this may go without saying, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the particular voice of this verb. It's not in the passive voice, and that's really important because it signifies that this is not something that God does to us or for us. God gives us the shield of faith, but He doesn't take it up for us. This is actually in the active voice. It's an active imperative verb in which we're being told or reminded of the necessity of taking up this shield on our own. You've been given the shield. Now you need to raise it up in order to protect yourself. As I thought about this, I was reminded of Proverbs 30 verse 5, which reads, every word of Christ is tested. He is a shield. To those who take refuge in him and notice what's being implied there If you're not taking refuge in him, he can't shield you You have to do this. This is something that's your responsibility, your obligation. God has given you the means whereby you might be protected, but you have to avail yourself of that particular means. And the same thing's true about this shield of faith. If you have a shield of faith that God has given you and it lays by the wayside on the ground, it's going to do you no good when it comes to deflecting the fiery darts of the evil one. We're in possession of the shield, we need to use it. Now, just generally speaking, a soldier's shield was his most effective defensive weapon. A little known fact about the kind of shields being used during Paul's day is that the Roman soldier actually had two different kinds of shields at his disposal. The first of these was smaller, generally a round shield, about the same size as, you remember those old metal garbage cans? Right? They had those lids on them and we would, as kids, use those lids, you know, playing knights and in shining armor, we'd pick up those lids. You ever wonder why most of the garbage cans never had lids? It was because over time, broomsticks rendered them inoperable. And they could no longer be used for their intended purpose. So people would just throw them away, right? We use those as the shield. So that's one type of shield that the Roman soldier had at his disposal. It usually had leather straps on the inside. They would put their forearm through the leather straps and they'd be able to use this shield with their left hand while using their sword with their right hand. It was intended to make them mobile. But this is not the kind of shield that Paul is referring to here. If you look at the Greek, Paul is actually referring to a shield that is known as a thurion. The word derives from another word, thurios, which refers to a door. Why does it refer to a door? Because the thurion was almost the same size as a door. It was about three feet by five feet. length and this actually makes sense when we consider that this is a shield that's to be used when in a stationary position you've seen the movies right where they form a shield wall with these shields which by the way speaks to our collectively using our shields do you realize to the extent that we are faithful in being here every Lord's Day morning we are effectively creating a shield wall that's impervious to the attacks of the devil what happens when one or more people are not here holding their shield up we have breaches in our shield wall oftentimes they would use these shields in a tortoise formation they would put them over their heads and in front of them and all around them and they would move slowly advancing ahead and it looked like a turtle that was going slowly ahead and it protected them from every angle I actually think Paul's choice of words here is really interesting, considering that the emphasis in this entire passage has actually been on the importance of not being on offense, but of standing firm. If you're going to stand firm in the face of your enemy, you better have something in front of you. You know, uh, the breastplate's okay. That was namely for dagger, uh, throats and sword blows and things like that. The breast plate might do you some good. It's not going to protect your legs. It's certainly not going to protect your face. And before you get the idea that back then they had full face armor, no they didn't. Back then you had bare legs, a breastplate, and a little, you know, metal hat on your head. That was about it. And so it was important that you use something like the Thurian to protect you from head to foot, and the more the better, who were standing there together. Here in our text, Paul tells us that just like the Thurian was able to protect the Roman soldier against the arrows of his enemy, he says the same thing is true of the believer's shield, which is made not of wood, not of metal, not of leather. This shield is made of faith. It's a shield made of faith. The devil, Paul says, regularly bombards us, God's children, with flaming arrows. Some translations have darts. It's the same thing. Flaming projectiles. And the emphasis is actually on the flaming. It's not enough that he just shoots arrows at us. These are arrows that are on fire. You know, it's one thing to be standing behind a door-sized shield and have arrows hit the shield. That would be frightening enough, but imagine when they're on fire. These are arrows that are covered in tar and pitch and wherever it hits it Splatters and that catches on fire and before long your shield could be rendered useless This is why a lot of the shields before battle were soaked in water overnight To render them impervious to the flames that they knew would be coming So what are these flaming arrows? Spiritually, well, they can be a lot of things, right? they can be things like the typical attacks that Satan makes against any believer. Immorality, hatred, anger, covetousness, pride, doubt, fear, discontentment, despair, distrust. I mean, we could make a list a mile long of all the ways that Satan is able to attack us. And if we're to put a label on every arrow that comes our way, each one would have a different label. He's very effective at attacking God's children. And there's a reason Paul refers to these darts, again, as being of that flaming variety, because Satan's attacks are just as lethal. And if we're not careful, they can catch fire, and one sin can lead to another sin, which can lead to another sin, which can lead to another, and on and on it goes. It's very important, again, that we understand just the type of danger that we are in at any moment of every day. One historian recalled after the siege of Dyrrhachium in 48 BC, Sceva, one of Caesar's Roman centurions in the 8th legion, after this battle in particular, he counted no less than 220 arrows sticking into his shield. Just after one battle, 220 plus arrows. Multiply this times hundreds, if not thousands of centurions who were on the battlefield at any given time, and you have a better understanding of the type of attack that we're talking about. Again, it's perfectly appropriate that Paul use this analogy for our faith. Spiritually speaking, again, this should make us think even more seriously. about the reality, the intensity of Satan's own attacks on us every day. When Paul says, as he does in verse 12, that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, we need to understand that our foe is formidable and unrelenting. Satan and his minions never sleep. Satan and his minions will not stop what they're doing until they are made to stop by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Until then, it's up to us to take up our shield and hold it and stand firm. Because the attack is coming. And it will be a struggle. So what exactly is it that makes the shield of faith so impervious to Satan's attacks? What I want us to focus on in the remainder of our time together this morning is this concept of the believer's possession and deployment of faith as this shield that's intended to protect us against Satan's attacks. First things first, we need to establish a good working definition of the word faith. We've talked about this several times before, but it's important again this morning. The word translated as faith here is the word pisteos. It's a derivative of the word pistis. And what is pistis? It means to believe. It means belief. Assurance. Fidelity. Faithfulness. In every case where this word is used in scripture, it denotes a settled, contented, or unshakable trust in its object. And who's the object of our faith? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. So to the extent that we're taking up the shield of faith, we are signifying that we are intent to trust Him to fight our battles and to protect us from all of these attacks that are coming our way. The writers of Scripture would have never used this word faith as nonchalantly as we tend to use it today. Have you ever seen how we use the word faith just in rather mundane, nonchalant ways? Well, they wouldn't have done that. In our modern vernacular, faith is really just nothing more than a good hunch, right? In other words, you may say you have faith in the pews that you're sitting in. You may have faith that they're gonna hold you up until the end of the service. By the way, I don't give you that same assurance, right? They're old, right? And sometimes things happen. And I'm not gonna say be paranoid the whole time you're here that you're gonna fall to the floor, but you could. Why? Because the pews you sit in are not perfect. They're not worthy of the faith that you place in them. Every time you get into a, I've said this before, you get into a giant hollow metal tube with wings on it and you allow some guy named Buzz or Biff to take you to 30,000 feet and go many, many miles, you're said to have faith in that person. Is that real faith though? No, that's more of a settled hunch that you're going to make it from A to B. But as we know from history, that's not always the case. So it's not an infallible faith. You're all just hoping that it goes well and you end up where you're supposed to end up. Someone tells us that they'll do something for us. And we say, what? I have faith in you. To others, faith is a blind leap into the unknown. Many non-Christians use that exact terminology to refer to saving faith. You Christians are guilty of just making a blind leap. And I guess there's some merit to that, right? Because faith is defined in Hebrews 11.1 as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. So there is an aspect of that in play when we say that. But we also need to understand that this faith that we possess being given to us by God is not blind at all. God himself is not blind. God himself is not making empty promises. God himself doesn't give us this faith as a reasonable hunch that we will be saved in the end. God gives us this faith to settle us and to assure us that what he ordains is right and what he says he will make good on. This is the kind of faith you and I possess. And it's this definition that brings much needed clarity, I believe, to what is said of Abraham's faith in verse eight. Right? Of Hebrews 11, the great hall of faith. Remember what's said there, Hebrews 11, 8? The writer says, by faith Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. And some of you might be tempted to say, well see, that's blind faith. He went out not knowing where he was going. But that's not blind faith at all. Abraham might not have known where he was going, but he believed in the one who did know where he was going. You see how that works? He knew very well that the God who was leading him, the God that he trusted with every fiber of his being, he knew that he would end up in the hands of Satan. right where he was supposed to be, regardless of whether he knew where he was going or not. That's what faith is all about. It's the settled realization that come what may, God will lead us, God will guide us, God will protect us. He will direct us to that day on which we will stand before him blameless and with great joy on that day when we will be ushered into his eternal kingdom. It's like the quote I often cite from Job. who even in the midst of the most horrible persecution, suffering imaginable, he said in Job 13, 15, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Folks, that's faith. Why? Because as he says in Job 19, 25 through 27, I know that my Redeemer lives. And at the last, he will stand on the earth And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me. Let me just ask you this this morning. Does your faith ever cause you to want to faint? Does this precious gift of God's that grants us the ability to believe the unbelievable, to be rooted and grounded in His promises, does that cause you to swoon with joy and amazement? Probably not. Why? Because we've grown accustomed to taking God's gifts for granted. We have grown so accustomed to just saying, yeah, faith. And it's even made worse when we're led to believe in some circles that many of us grew up in that this faith is something that I secure for myself. Or worse yet, this faith that I have is just common to all men. Everybody has this kind of faith. Well, this brings up the next important point for us to consider. If you were to ask a hundred people, just random people, if you were to ask them how faith works, how would they respond? Well, many would argue, again because of the conditioning that we've received by so much bad teaching in churches all over, many would argue that the faith sufficient to believe in the gospel is something that everyone's born with. Raise your hand if you've ever heard that. Everyone has faith. Right? It's just a matter of whether or not you're going to exercise it in the appropriate direction. We all have faith. We're born with it. And our problem is not that we can't believe, it's just that we don't believe. We don't choose to believe. I can do the right thing with this faith, or I can not do the right thing. It's my choice. Some in the Charismatic Church like to refer to this innate faith as a pilot light. Every man has a, and woman has a pilot light. You know what a pilot light is? It's that little light in your gas stove that when you turn the gas on, that's what ignites the burner, right? But it's always there. It's just this little light that is waiting for you to put it into action, to light the burner. A lot of people see faith that way. Every man and woman, child is born with this little pilot light, but it's up to you to turn on the gas. It's up to you to decide to cause that burner to come forth in flame. Is that true? Here's the real question that needs to be answered correctly if we're to understand this biblical concept of faith. And this is a big sticking point in a lot of churches among a lot of Christians. I remember this becoming a topic, a hot topic in this church years and years ago. The question is, does faith precede or come before regeneration or does regeneration precede faith? Now, this is not a question that is reserved for those theologians in their ivory towers. This is something you would do well to consider. Every one of you would do well to consider because if the exercise of our faith precedes our regeneration, then that means we had the innate ability to do something to bring about our conversion. And if that's possible, who gets the glory? I do. I had this little pilot light. And I decided at a time of my own choosing to turn it on and here I am today. I made a free will decision to follow Christ and I am his and he is mine simply because I allowed him to do that work in me. I permitted him to do that work in me. If everyone born has this innate faith, and all they have to do is exercise it correctly unto salvation, then they have every right to boast about having been intelligent enough to do that. You see, this goes back to that age-old question. People say, I made a decision for Christ. Why? Ask somebody that sometime. You know, you believe in a free will, and you say, well, I am saved today because I decided to follow Christ. Ask them why. What do you mean why? Why did you do that? Does everybody do that? Is that a decision that everybody makes? No, it's not. Why? How do we know? Because people are still lost. Some people in this room this morning are still lost. I'm being stalked. What's going on here? Am I good? Okay. Makes me nervous when people start. Just kidding. Okay. You're just going to listen. Okay. That's a good thing. But there are people who say, you know, I decided to follow Christ. We need to have the boldness to ask them. How do you think that came about? Ask them to fill in the blanks for you. Why did you do that? When so many don't choose to do the same, ah, you must be smarter than everybody else. You want to make somebody run away? Oh, no, no. You know, whether it's feigned humility or real humility, they'll deny that. Well, no, it's not that I'm smarter. Then what is it? I've asked people that over the years. Why did you choose and the person next to you didn't? It must be that you're smarter. No, it's not that. Then what is it? And in every case, When we continue talking about it, they arrive at the same biblical conclusion that we all arrive at at one point or another, I did that because I was being worked on by God. I did that not in order to be saved, I did that in response to the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit. If you're a believer here this morning, you did not do that. If you're a believer here this morning, it's only because God has been pleased to draw you to himself through Jesus Christ. And I was talking with somebody before the service this morning, and we together simply could not fathom, why is it that so many people want power over God? If you want the surest indication that someone is still of their father, the devil, It will be seen in their attempts to do exactly what the devil did that got him expelled from heaven. What did he do? He said, I will be like the most high God. What was his temptation for Eve? Oh, Eve, no, no, the Lord doesn't want you eating of this particular fruit from this particular tree because he knows the day that you eat of it, you'll be just like him. You see the allure of that? The same thing happens when people pray on this alleged free will. Stephen Furtick again, God can't save you until and unless you give him permission to do so. God will never violate your own free will. Again, as I said in the first hour this morning, I stand before you this morning as one who has been violated. Hallelujah. God took me, he broke me, he led me from the miry clay, placed me on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ and it's all him. And he did that beginning with regeneration. Regeneration is the power of the Holy Spirit whereby we are awakened from our death and trespasses and sins and given the faculties for the first time ever, given the faculties to hear the truth, to see the truth. and to respond appropriately. The regenerative power of the Holy Spirit is what takes our heart of stone and replaces it with the heart of flesh, enabling us to believe and causing us to love it. To those who insist that faith comes before regeneration, you need to know that you're denying one of the most crucial truths in all of scripture, the doctrine of justification. Faith is not the ground, the reason, the basis or cause of our justification. It's a byproduct. Faith is God's gift. And we act accordingly only by His grace. Consider the following from Scripture. Romans 5. Romans 5. And again, it's astounding to me why this is not clearer in the minds of so many. But here it is. Romans 5, verse 8. But God shows His love for us in that we were smart enough to make the right choice. No. In that while we just were able to connect the dots better than some, no. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, while we were lost, dead in trespasses and sins, Christ died for us. Since therefore, we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God for if which is a first-class condition better translated as sense since while we were enemies were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled passive now that we have been reconciled by him not by us shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Salvation is all of grace and it's all of God. It was while we were God's enemies that God reconciled us to himself. On what basis? That's simple. It was on the basis of his having elected us from before the foundation of the world. Now, you probably knew this was coming, but once again, I'm gonna have you go to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. I'm gonna read the passage again. People are like, you keep reading that passage. You must love that passage. Well, I love the whole word of God, right? And forgive me for being repetitive. Memorize it and you won't have to turn there every week, right? Just saying, just saying. Paul says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience, 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 the children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind." There's really no simpler statement in all of Scripture concerning our condition prior to salvation. While we were yet dead in our trespasses and sins, there was nothing in and of ourselves that could ever commend us to God. Right? We had no innate faith that just needed to be acted upon. We had no little pilot light that we just needed to fan into full flame. To the contrary, what we needed in order to be saved had to be initiated by God alone. This is why Paul continues, but you, but God, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he had for us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive. He made you alive. together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus notice again those two operative words grace and mercy I've pointed this out. We get the best of all possible scenarios, don't we? In God's mercy, God withholds from us that which we are due, his wrath. In grace, God gives us that which we do not deserve, which is salvation and his son. Never underestimate the importance of mercy and grace as God-given. Not as something you just reached out and took for your own. See, the modern gospel has this idea that salvation is just there for the taking. And if you're smart enough, if you're witty enough, if you're prepared enough, if you're old enough, if you're tired enough of living your present life in sin, then you'll just, you'll reach up and take that, much as you would something from the shelf in the grocery store. That's not a biblical representation of salvation. Salvation involves our being dead and God saying, be alive in Christ. And guess what? We call this the effectual call. This is that irresistible grace that those who disagree with the doctrines of grace seem to have a problem with. God's grace is irresistible. It's as irresistible as when the Lord Jesus Christ called Lazarus forth from the tomb. He said, Lazarus, come forth. And here's what happened in the tomb. Huh? What? No, that's, well, maybe. Maybe it'd be in my best interest. You know, being dead, I do almost stinketh. I've been here a long time, you know. I miss my family, I miss my friends. Just a second, Lord. I'm thinking about this. Is that how it happened? No. Lazarus, come forth! And here he comes, still dressed in his nasty grave clothes, as a new creation in Christ. As a picture of your salvation and mine. We were just as dead as Lazarus. We stunk like Lazarus. God called us forth from the grave just like Lazarus. And aren't you grateful? And what part in that must you have? Aside from being something that feeds your pride? Aside from something that continues to keep you arrogant. I'm glad that my salvation is all of God and all of grace because it means it's none of me. And that means He gets all the glory and I don't get any. Who would want to not believe that? Only the one who's insistent that they play a part for whatever reason that is. Again, it boggles my mind. I don't know why people are so enamored with the idea of a free will. And guess what? Once I was saved, I was taken from being a slave of unrighteousness. Now I'm a slave to Christ. Oh, such negative language. No, it's not. Paul continues there in verse 10 of the text we just read, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God prepared beforehand? What does that mean? Even before I ever heard the gospel, it was God's intent to save me? Yes. And why is that important? Well, just read what goes before. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." God gave us this gift, and before He gave us this gift, He had to first regenerate our hearts. Regeneration must then precede faith. It must come before faith. Harcey Sproul said it best, commenting on Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. He said, with one thunderbolt of apostolic revelation, all attempts to give the initiative and regeneration to man are smashed. Again, dead men do not cooperate with grace. Unless regeneration takes place first, there is no possibility of faith. Isn't this what Jesus was attempting to explain to Nicodemus in John chapter 3? Remember what he told Nicodemus? I mean, Nicodemus comes to the place where they were in the middle of the night, and probably so as to not get in trouble with his fellow Pharisees, and he comes, and he, being a teacher of all Israel, he should know these things Jesus says, but he comes, and he starts offering flowery comments. He's like, you know, no one can say the things that you're saying unless they be from God. You know, bravo, you're a pretty smart cookie there, Jesus. And Jesus, instead of responding to that, what does Jesus do? Truly I say to you, you must be born anathen. It's not again. That's an aspect of it, and that's why they kind of latched onto that. People ask me all the time, why did the King James translators use the word again when they should have used from above, which is what anathen means primarily? Well they said that because you got to understand in the 17th century people were theologically much more astute than they are today. Anybody back then reading you must be born again they would have understood immediately if for no other reason than the overall context of what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus they would have understood that what Jesus is referring to is the birth from above. They would have understood that. Now how would they understand that? Because Jesus goes on to talk about the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit. Remember what he says about the Spirit? Just as the wind blows and you can see its effects in the trees and in things like that, so is the Holy Spirit. He moves in mysterious ways. Doing what? Saving whomever He will. causing the truth of the gospel to fall on hearts that have been prepared to hear it by way of His regenerative power. So what does this have to do with our text this morning? Well, think about it. Paul says that we're to use our God-given faith as a shield. And what else but a shield that's been manufactured by God Himself and given to us as a gift of His grace What else would be sufficient to fend off or deflect the arrows of Satan? We dare not attempt to protect ourselves, right? No, don't go into the battle that rages around us unarmed. Don't go into the battle without your armor. There's a reason we've been given this armor, and that's because if we are to be victorious over the foe that seeks to assail us, it will be the victory gained by Christ himself. And we'll enjoy that victory only to the extent that we are clothed in His righteous robes. And yet there are so many attempting to fight the battle themselves because they misunderstand the nature and origin of their faith. Let me think about it this way. If you had the wherewithal to choose to be saved, you also have the wherewithal to choose your own means of defense. You also have the wherewithal to either accept what God says or reject what God says. You also have it within yourself to completely ignore what God says, because after all, it's you who made the decision to be saved and not him who gave you the gift of salvation. With the gift of salvation that he gives comes the full set of armor. The salvation you give to yourself, or you secure for yourself, has no such promises, no such assurances. Just as we have God's peace by having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, our faith is also from God, and it's able to protect us like nothing else can. Your God-given faith, again, is your most effective, defensive piece of armor. If you're a believer, you have something in your possession that will enable you to live in such a way as to be impervious to the attacks of the devil. Isn't that something to crow about? Isn't that something to rejoice in? You've been given the shield and here's the really strange thing about it. You know what your responsibility is? Just stand behind it. Again, this is all about standing firm. This is all about being protected from the onslaught of the enemy. All you have to do by God's grace is just stand there. Make sure it's in front of you and just stand there. You might have 220 plus arrows in your shield at the end of the battle. But guess what? Those arrows won't be in your body. You won't be unalive because of them. Now let me just touch on something I touched on in the first hour this morning. What is the most practical aspect of this teaching as it concerns the shield of faith that we've been given? One of the most visible, one of the most beautiful things about the gift of faith is that the gift of faith will make us faithful. You understand that? The gift of faith is what makes us faithful. As I was talking about in the first hour, again, one of the most tangible demonstrations of our faithfulness to the Lord is what? It's what we're doing right now. I would say arguably this is the most tangible demonstration that you in fact are taking up the shield of faith, that you are one in whom God has placed this faith. In case you missed my first message this morning from Exodus 35. We're at that point where Moses has come down from Mount Sinai. He's just received for the second time God's instructions concerning his law and what he expected from the Israelites by way of obedience. And interestingly enough, the first thing that Moses decides to share with the Israelites is God's reminder to keep the Sabbath holy. Right? And how seriously did the Lord take Sabbath observance back then? Well, it was a matter of life and death. He says, if any man's caught working on the Sabbath, death, you're dead. As I pointed out, although the Lord no longer puts people to death for failing to honor and observe the Sabbath, he still takes willful violations of it seriously. How seriously? life and death. I'm not going to go over all that again in this hour, but I would encourage you to read Hebrews 10, 23 through 31. One of my things this morning was that a lot of us are all too willing to read Hebrews 10, 23 through 25. Right where we're told among other things do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is the habit of some but as you see the day drawing nearer whether that's the Sabbath itself this one day in seven that God has given us to worship collectively whether it's referring to that day or the ultimate day of the Lord the day of judgment We're not sure what day is being spoken of there, but it doesn't matter. We should be encouraging one another, stirring one another up to good works, all the more as we see the end coming. And guess what? Once again, the end is closer today than it was yesterday. And tomorrow it will be closer still than it was today. And so the exhortation there is not to be guilty of forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as had become the habit of some, but we're to be even more fervent in our faithfulness to the body of Christ as the day draws nearer. Again, we understand according to our confession, according to the scriptures themselves, that the fourth commandment was never abrogated. The fourth commandment was never done away with. The fourth commandment is an integral part of God's moral law, and it goes on in perpetuity. God still expects his people who are called by his name to gather together as the ecclesia, the called out assembly of his saints. He expects us on this one day in seven. He has commanded us on this one day in seven to come together for worship. You read from Hebrews 10, 26 to 31, and you learn why that's so important. And again, as I said this morning, your Bibles will put another heading before verse 26, implying that there's a change of thought or a change of subject. That's not true. The Greek being written all in unseal or capital letters and with no punctuation, no breaks, no chapter divisions, no verse divisions. It was all intended to establish one thought. And if you keep reading there, then you're forced to admit that this forsaking of the assembling of ourselves together, the failure to do that, The failure to join with us as the Ekklesia will have consequences. What consequences? Hebrews 10, 26. For the one who goes on sinning willfully, in what way? In the way that I've just described, and it can apply again to all kinds of willful sins, nobody's denying that. But in the context, for him who goes on sinning willfully, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment. In the context, the writer to the Hebrews, who again, he's speaking of the fealty, the loyalty to the fourth commandment, even long after Christ has risen, he could have very well said, no, all that's done away with. Christ himself didn't even do that. He said, not one jot or one tittle of my law will pass away until all is accomplished. That hasn't happened yet. So we're reminded there that there will be a price to pay for a lack of faithfulness in this most simple demonstration of our faithfulness. You understand that? Now here's the thing, and I know this is going to sting, but I would be remiss if I didn't remind all of us. that if your experience on the Lord's Day begins a few minutes before the 11 o'clock service, you've not only shortchanged yourself and your brothers and sisters, but more than that, you're guilty of only being partially obedient to God's command. When do we assemble? Every Lord's Day morning at 9.45, not at 11. we assemble at 945. And if you're only here for this 11 o'clock service, I use this analogy. You know, we talk all the time about this 11 o'clock preaching hour being the pinnacle of our experience together on the Lord's day, and it is. This is where everything coalesces from the week before, and finally we get to hear, thus saith the Lord. Now granted, I am a mere mortal, and I am feeble and frail and fallible, and I'm not saying that I am God's mouthpiece to mankind. But God has placed me and other pastors in the position of rightly dividing the word of truth and caring for the flock given to our care. And I would be remiss if I didn't remind you that if you're showing up for the 11 o'clock only, what you're doing is you're taking a helicopter to the pinnacle. Why are you special? No, I'm just kidding. You're taking a helicopter and you're being dropped on the pinnacle, which I guess is good in some sense. You're here. But the climb up the mountain starts at 9.45 or before. When some of us gather at 9.30, some people come in and pray, others come in and fellowship, others come in and just think contemplatively about the day to come, the day of the Lord. We start climbing that mountain together until at 11 we all reach the summit. Why are you bringing a helicopter? Now, I thought about this and I was thinking, what are some of the reasons people might have for not coming to the 945 worship service? Well, some don't come because they, and I've had people tell me this, I don't want to hear the same message twice. Newsflash, it's a completely different message. We're going through the Old Testament. chapter by chapter, verse by verse in the 945 hour, right? So if that's your excuse, you're not gonna hear the same message twice. It's a completely different message, right? And even if it were the same message, where's your desire to be with the people of God? The second thing I came up with, it's just Sunday school. No. It's the beginning of the Lord's Day. That's where the ecclesia starts. We all gather together on this stated meeting on the Lord's Day, the day that God has prescribed for us. We all come together to begin our journey together up the summit. Third thing, I can't get here by 9.45. I assure you that you can. Anybody here have a job that you're required to be at at 0800, eight o'clock in the morning or earlier? Would you dare go into your boss and say, I know my time to report is eight o'clock in the morning, but boss, I just can't get here till 11. What would happen? You'd be fired. Well, here's the here's the most bewildering thing. You would never do that. Because that's your boss. But you'll forsake the assembling of yourselves together with your brothers and sisters. Even if it means being an offense to the boss of bosses. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The only option besides those three that I can think of is number four, I don't want to be here. And if that's your attitude, you've got way bigger problems. You should want nothing more than to be here as part of Iron Sharpening Iron, demonstrating and sharing your gifts with all of your brothers and sisters in this place. We should be so anxious for every Lord's Day that when somebody gets here at nine in the morning, that parking lot should be full of people just clamoring to be together. Oh, but again, pastor, you're just being legalistic. I'll ask the same question I asked in the first hour this morning. Since when is it legalistic to say, thus saith the Lord? Legalism is if we all had different opinions about things, and my convictions should be your convictions, and you're going to hell if you don't follow my pattern of living every step of the way. That's legalism. Legalism is never defined as reminding the children of God what God Himself says is His requirement. This is the Lord's day. This is not the Lord's couple of hours. And again, let me just make the disclaimer, I shouldn't have to do this, but there will be times when you can't be here. We had a dear brother out last week, he's studying for a test that, you fail that test and your whole life's done, right? I get that. Stay home and study. God's grace affords you that periodically, right? Others have to work. Our own Pastor John has to work every other, well, no, he comes in, here's the convicting thing. He works until, what time? Three in the morning. Last night? Oh, okay. John, that was gonna be the perfect illustration. But most, you know, every other week, he gets off at three and he comes into this place and he stays sometimes till three in the afternoon. Why? Why do you do it, brother? Because God's worthy. He's worthy. Oh, but he's not worthy enough to be here at 945. Man, that's early. It's a good thing we don't believe in the rapture here, because if that happened before 11 o'clock on Sunday... I'm just kidding. But in all seriousness, this is why Paul exhorts us to take up this shield. I'll say this as well. You want to know how big your shield is? The size of your shield is directly correspondent to the size of your faithfulness. And if you can't manage to be here an hour and a half earlier than normal, I don't know what to make of your faith because that's a demonstration of little faithfulness. I shouldn't have to stand up in the pulpit and harangue people about not being here at the 945 hour. I shouldn't. It should be common sense, right? It should be something we long to do, something we yearn to be a part of. And if that's not the case, I'm not thinking of any people, I'm not thinking of faces. If that's the case, then you need to take that up with the Lord. You go to the Lord and explain to him why he's not worth coming here early. and staying light if you're able. And it's not legalism. This is Bible 101. There are places in this world where Christians are still being put to death for having church in private, for being found out, for having even one page of the Word of God, you can be put to death. Those same people, if I were to tell them, oh yeah, we start church at 9.45 on Sunday, but only half the people show up, those people would lose their minds in disbelief. What, what? You can do that legally? And freely? And people still won't come? Let me just say this, please, if you're a guilty party, don't come to me afterwards and offer me excuses. I'll leave it between you and the Lord. I don't really want that sort of thing between us, because again, I'm not thinking of names or faces or anything of that sort. God graciously inoculates me from things like that, by and large. And if you have a legit reason for not being here, even for the whole Lord's sake, that's fine. People travel, people get sick, people have tests to study for, people, I get that. Nobody's being overly legalistic or judgmental of you, but I want the wonder to start within yourself. Why can't I seem to get it together and do what I know should be done? I hope the Lord enables you to answer that. After all, is he not worthy? If we declared that every Sunday from henceforth, we're gonna meet at six o'clock in the morning, is he not worthy? He is, he is. Given our possession of these precious gifts, if we're using them properly, what do we have to fear? Nothing. In fact, it was no doubt with this in mind, at least in part, that Paul wrote in Romans 8, 31 through 39, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things, including our armor? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, is He who died? Yes, rather who was raised and who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Are you availing yourself of the protection afforded by the shield of faith? Do you sometimes wonder why you're not more faithful? Could it be because your shield is laying over there covered with dust? You've sought so long to go it on your own. Avail yourself of that gift that's been given to you. Lord willing, might we all Be diligent to do that.