We come again to study the Christian armor. Today we’ll be focusing on verse 16, the shield of faith. But I would like to read the entire passage again so we have the full context of it in mind, beginning with verse 10.
“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. 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 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. 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. And 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, 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.”
Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, what a joy it is to be here this morning. What a joy, what a thrill to hear this profession of faith from our young people. Lord, we thank you for your wonderful working of grace in their hearts. We pray that you would make Christ ever real, ever more glorious to them. Deepen their faith and deepen their resolve always to live for him. Bless them in it. Lord, we thank you for it. We’re grateful for this time we have together again. We ask that you would open your word, open our hearts so that we will hear it. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The Struggle For The Mind
I don’t think that it’s oversimplifying the case at all to say that the struggle—there we have a real saint. Thank you. I don’t think it is oversimplifying the case at all to say that the struggle of the Christian life is a struggle for the mind. The struggle of the Christian life is a struggle for the mind. That’s true if you are struggling with greed. It’s true if you are struggling with lust, anxiety, selfishness, rebellion; all of this is a struggle for the mind. Or distraction from the things of God. Or if it’s in suffering, it’s a struggle for the mind. Or if it is discouragement, or if it’s struggle with conscience, or with doubt—all of this is a struggle for the mind.
Even if we talk in terms of adversity, opposition, persecution, and even temptation—specific temptation to sin—this is a struggle for the mind to think as a Christian is called to think in these particular kinds of circumstances. And all of that, of course, all of those various kinds of troubles, such as greed, and lust, and selfishness, and rebellion, and distraction, and suffering, and adversity, and opposition, and discouragement, and all of those things—besides all of those things, there is this infernal enemy that Paul warns us about in this passage that is able to take those things as the great ruler of the darkness of this world, as the prince and power of the air as he’s called in chapter 2.
He’s able to take these occasions and exacerbate them in all kinds of ways and with all kinds of attending tools at his disposal to make this the evil day that Paul speaks of in this passage in which we come under attack. And not just attack generically, but notice that he specifically calls it satanic attack. And in all of these things it is a struggle for the mind. How are we going to think?
And so Paul exhorts us: take up the belt of truth, brace up your mind with thinking according to Christian thinking. The breastplate of righteousness—it is the righteousness of Christ in view—but the point is not only that objective truth of Christ’s righteousness being made ours, but the point is making it a breastplate, learning how to use it in our own defense, thinking of it in the right way that we can remain faithful and stand. Similarly with the gospel shoes that he speaks of in verse 15, there’s a readiness that comes to us by a mind that’s regulated and held up and firmed up by an understanding of the Word of God. The thrust in all of this armor is fortifying our mind and our heart with revealed truth.
Now we come to verse 16, and we have more of the same, where he says, “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.” Now this shield—again, he continues this extended metaphor, this extended analogy with regard to ancient Roman soldiers and the various pieces of equipment that they had. And he draws an analogy to some spiritual application of it that we have. He’s pointing, of course, to those large shields that the ancient soldiers would use in battle. Don’t think of those small round quickly maneuverable shields. The word that’s used here speaks of a large size shield. In fact, the same word is used of a door. It’s like holding up a door or a wall in front of you.
These were two and a half feet wide, generally four and a half feet long, usually oblong shaped shields that were made of wood but then overlaid with some kind of metallic substance and then also coated often with leather and treated leather of various kinds to help against the flaming darts. This is the kind of shield that he has in mind. It’s a huge wall of protection to hide behind is the idea. And then he even gets more graphic with it. It’s the shield of faith with which we can quench or extinguish the flaming darts or the flaming arrows of the evil one, Satan himself.
Now again, this is a graphic kind of analogy that he’s giving. He’s given these arrows—I’m sure you’ve seen them in the movies or something like that, where you see all of these archers, hundreds of archers lined up, another army moving across the battlefield, and you have these archers out on the one side, and at the right signal they lift up their bows. And here the arrows themselves that are made of wood or metal have some flammable substance wrapped around the end of it. It’s dipped into some flammable substance, oil or whatever. They’re lit. They let them go and you see hundreds of arrows coming across to the other army. You don’t want to be on the receiving end of that. They had their incendiary bombs just like we do, just a little bit more primitive.
And what you want at a time like that is a wall, a shield of protection to hide behind. And so these treated shields that were given would protect them against the piercing of the arrow, but they would also then extinguish the arrow. Sometimes, of course, it could have collateral damage when the flame would spread, but this is the idea of these shields: to hold them back. It’s really a graphic scene. I don’t know that Paul had ever seen Hollywood movies to see it like that, and I don’t know that he was ever involved in battle, but for some one way or another, he was acquainted with this method of ancient warfare, and now he draws the analogy for us, that we want this shield as a protective covering to extinguish the flaming darts and the arrows of the evil one.
Understanding Satanic Opposition
Well, this is the allegory. It’s speaking of satanic opposition. Verse 10 and verse 11 introduce that to us, that this is Satan on the attack. Verse 12 is very explicit about it, that our warfare ultimately is not just to be understood on a human level, but we wrestle not against flesh and blood. It would be easy if that were the only case. If all I had to do was fight a guy physically, or if all I had to do was out-reason him. The gospel has that. But you find out very quickly that we’re not wrestling simply against flesh and blood. There’s some spiritual sinister force at work, and Paul is warning us about that in verse 12. And so he calls us to stand in the evil day of attack against Satan.
Satan, after all, in chapter two is called the prince and power of the air. Here he’s called the world ruler of darkness. Graphic kind of terminology to show the world under—in, of course, a limited sense so far as God will give it—but the world under the control of Satan. This is his domain, and he rules, and he comes under attack. He brings the attack against Christians. 1 Peter chapter 5, as we’ve mentioned several times in this series, speaks of it graphically as well, where Peter the Apostle says that, or describes Satan as a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour. Well, this is the true source of our opposition and our struggle. It’s this grand conspiracy, satanically inspired, Satan sending his flaming arrows against Christians. And in all these various ways that we have to struggle, Paul says, we must learn to look behind it to see Satan as the instigator.
Well, now that raises a question. And it’s a question I think that has puzzled many. It certainly has puzzled me. And I will tell you up front that I don’t have a completely definitive answer to it. From what I can find, the Bible doesn’t address this directly, but I think it does indirectly. And the question is just how are we to understand temptation, for example? How are we to understand temptation as satanic opposition? I think it’s worth reflecting on this for a couple of minutes then to finally work our way to what Paul is calling us to do here in this verse.
My point is that the question is that on one level it’s pretty easy to understand the satanic element in, say, opposition. That is when the world comes against the Christian, or the world comes against Christianity, or the world advances notions that are explicitly evil. Things like that. If we could understand a Hitler, a Saddam Hussein rather easily in terms of satanic inspiration. But when it comes to a Christian’s temptation, how do we understand that in terms of satanic attack?
Now it’s common to hear in popular preaching—it’s common to read it in the Puritan preaching as well—to speak of satanic attack in terms of doubts. Satan instilled this doubt in my mind. Or Satan whispered this blasphemous thought in my mind. Or Satan distracting me when I pray. My question is just how does all of that work? Is it right to say it that way, and how does all of that work? And again, I don’t think the Bible addresses that explicitly, but I think it does indirectly. And here we have just a hint at it, and that is that Satan is on the attack, and that we can trace, however the connection is made, we can and we ought to trace these kinds of things back ultimately to Satan.
The question is how does that happen? Well, I think we can help to understand that with some kind of a contrasting analogy to the way God himself directs our minds. And I think there are two major factors involved. One: revelation, scripture, in which he has revealed his word and will to us. And then also, not just revelation, but divine providence in which God is in control of all things, visible and invisible, to bring about his purposes in every detail.
And the reason I’m careful with this is because I want to shy away, as you know, we want to shy away from saying things like, “God told me,” “God led me to,” or “God revealed to me that I should.” We find talk like that that’s really quite common, and I want to be careful with that kind of a thought because there’s a level in which I want to say that God has illumined my mind, God has illumined my eyes, he’s enabled me to see, that God has directed my life, and I want to be able to say those kinds of things, but I want to be careful about this idea of direct and immediate revelation, as though God is still speaking to me as he spoke to the Apostle Paul.
And so we have to recognize that, for example, when I think a thought, it is my thought. God doesn’t think my thoughts for me. It’s my thought. And yet at the same time, that thought is brought about in the context of divine providence, which rules over all things visible and invisible. And then I want to bring in another factor and say that thinking was influenced by my acquaintance or lack of acquaintance with the revealed Word of God that has influenced or not influenced my mind as it should. And of course within the providence of God there are a thousand other factors involved in all that happens in our thinking, Satan at work and all of that.
And so the thought was wholly mine, but at the same time, it’s set within divine providence. It has influencing factors like the word of God or the lack of it and so on. And so I can rightly say that God has opened my eyes, God has illumined my eyes to make me see his word, to help me understand. And yet at the same time, my thoughts are my thoughts. And so I can say God has assured me. God has given me a sense of assurance that I belong to him. But God has not done that apart from means. God has not done that with immediate revelation so much as he has done it through the revelation of scripture and so on and assured my heart. And I have no doubt that there’s a supernatural working of the Spirit personally and immediately, but it’s through means generally that God works.
Well, I think in some sense we can speak of satanic opposition in some kind of a contrasting way to all of that. If I don’t want to say—if I want to be slow to say—”God told me,” well then I certainly want to be slow to say “Satan told me.” I don’t think Satan has given liberty to treat our minds like a computer terminal where you can just download information. But just as when God leads us, it’s not immediate revelation, but it’s mediated, so I think also, in terms of satanic opposition, he works on our minds, sure enough. But he does it through a means of all kinds of influences that come.
We have an example of Satan doing that with unbelievers, for example, in the book of Job, where God gives Satan the freedom to go after Job, and one of the attacks that Satan brings is this rogue gang of thugs to come against them. Well, somehow or other, that was satanic influence that made them decide to come against Job. So we do have some example of that in the scripture with unbelievers, of Satan working in that kind of a way, and so it shouldn’t surprise us.
Our question here is how does that work with Christians? Is it the same kind of way? And I think in the mix of all of this, there’s some of the explanation: that just as the spirit of God illumines and assures our minds and our hearts by means of truth, so also Satan can blind and can confuse and can distract through all kinds of factors, including exposure to false teaching, and wrong motives, and wrong influences, and to make us think in ways that are mistaken and outright wrong. In any case, then Satan can manipulate circumstances as the prince and power of the air to come against us in our own internal struggles as to how to think in a way that glorifies God in any given circumstance.
I think we can take a clue from one passage in Matthew’s gospel, and that’s Matthew chapter 16. You remember, Jesus announces to his disciples, “I will be,” he says, “I will be going into Jerusalem. The Son of Man will go to Jerusalem and will be arrested and will be crucified.” And you remember how Peter responded? “Not on my life are you going to do that.” You remember what it says? Peter actually rebuked Jesus. And you remember how Jesus responded to Peter? “Get behind me, Satan.”
Now how did Jesus make that connection? How did he speak of what Peter had done in terms of satanic opposition? Whatever else is at play, I think we have to say this at least at the bottom of it: and that is that Peter, confident though he was, loyal though he was, had woefully misunderstood the scriptures with regard to the Messiah and his work. And Jesus tells him as much. And in that sense, then at least, Peter was aligning with Satan.
Now, how did that happen? Was there direct influence to the mind? Well, I think two things we have to say—this brings us a little bit closer to it—and one is, whatever is unclear, what is clear is that Satan is involved, even if we don’t know all the details. We can be sure that Satan is at work, perhaps through a thousand different ways as the prince and power of the air, the world ruler of darkness, or whatever title we might give him, the prince of this world as Jesus calls him. We can be sure that Satan was involved. Jesus says as much.
And I think it’s also clear that we can say that Satan took advantage of Peter’s lack of understanding of biblical teaching. Satan takes advantage of our lack of biblical teaching and lack of understanding of the scriptures. And so because we don’t understand scriptures aright, we think accordingly and we start off on trajectories that Satan can manipulate and Satan could take advantage of and exploit in a host of different ways. All that to say, we must see behind all of these kinds of attacks that come, ultimately behind it is satanic influence in all of the ways that he has at his disposal. I don’t think that Satan can actually bring new thoughts into my mind—I don’t see the Bible quite saying that—but he can manipulate things in such a way that those thoughts come mediated through circumstances and so on.
The Shield Of The Faith
And so we should then see Satan behind all of these kinds of attacks, even temptations that come. And because of that, and because we can see with Peter that at least part of the problem, fundamentally the problem is his lack of understanding of what the Bible had to say about the Messiah. Because his fundamental problem was he misunderstood scripture, we can say here is where we start: that our most effective defense against whatever Satan’s advances are is a thorough, practical understanding of what God has revealed in his word.
And so everywhere in the Bible we find this exhortation. As we’ve said it before, I think with reference to the belt of truth, this is just Christianity 101. This is entry-level Christianity: that we must learn to bring our minds under the exposure and the influence of the Word of God, always, always ruminating over the scriptures, if you will, meditating, marinating our minds in revealed truth so that we will be able to stand against the advances of Satan in the evil day when he is on the attack. We must learn to think God’s thoughts after him in order to stand against Satan.
This is taught in so many ways in scriptures. One of the famous ones is Joshua chapter 1. Moses is dead. Joshua has now taken over to lead God’s people. How would you like that job? Talk about set up for failure and disappointment. Well, at least you feel that way. How will I do it? You remember what God tells him in Joshua chapter one in verse eight? “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night.” Reading the word, talking the word, marinating it over in your minds. “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you will meditate therein day and night, and you will be careful to do all that is written therein. And then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
And we have that all through the scriptures, giving us the same. That’s the description of the blessed man in Psalms, Psalm 1. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” The blessed man knows not to bring his mind under the influence of things that would start him thinking in trajectories and ways that are opposed to God. He protects himself from influences that are wrong. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” He’s careful to oppose all of that. “But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates”—there it is again—”day and night. And he meditates on the word day and night, day and night. And he shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season.”
Here is success, here is health, here is stability: the mind that is shaped and framed up with the Word of God. We find this in the book of Proverbs as well, with the famous line, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” It’s the starting point. We have a saying, and we’ve all experienced it as well, “live and learn.” And what we mean by that usually in context is, “Okay, I made that mistake. I’ve learned from that. Live and learn.” That’s the advice the world can give. And you see how the Bible is just the opposite. It doesn’t say live and learn. It says come learn and then go live and live successfully. You get to the epistles. It’s the same thing. Come learn and then go live and live successfully.
We find it famously described in Psalm 119, where we have not just David’s reminiscences on the value of scripture generally, although that overall is the thrust of the psalm, but specifically throughout the psalm, we find this recurring theme of the discernment that is given by a mind that is just marinated in God’s revealed truth. Through thinking and meditating on the Word of God, I come to understand sin as sin, and I’m not taken in by its deceitfulness. The Word is a light, a lamp unto my feet, and a light to my path.
Moral questions that are so puzzling to the world—how do we sort through that? They’re so easy to us, aren’t they? It’s just so clear. In fact, it’s so clear that if you’re not careful, you’ll come across as arrogant to the world. It’s not arrogant at all. It’s just that I’ve been told. The fundamental distinctive of Christianity is that it is grounded in revelation. It is not ultimately what we believe, what we say we ought to practice and think and do. It is not the result of our trying to work our way to God. It is the result of God coming to us and revealing himself to us and telling us his will, telling us what is true. In terms of doctrine, in terms of practice, it comes to us and says, “Here, learn and believe and live accordingly.”
And that is just a long preacher’s way of saying, that’s what the armor is all about. The belt of truth, gospel boots, and now the shield of faith, I think, takes us in the same direction. Very often this—excuse me—this is taken in terms of our subjective faith, our believing, our trusting. That serves as a shield against Satan’s attacks. And I have no doubt that that’s right, but I suspect that it’s inadequate. The wording here, if I can push the original, “the shield of the faith.” The shield of the faith.
Now faith is often used with the definite article, and so I’m not saying that alone describes it, but typically in the scriptures, “the faith,” “the faith”—that expression is given as a sort of summary statement of revealed truth. Doctrine. So for example, Jude can speak of “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” There’s this body of teaching that has come from God through his Son climactically, through the Spirit, to the apostles, and now that body of truth has been delivered to the church. This is what’s also called in scripture the “tradition” that has been delivered to us. This tradition that has come from God, handed down from the Father, through the Son, through the Spirit, to the Apostles, and now to the Church. This body of truth that’s been given.
And so typically in Scripture, that’s the reference of this phrase, “the faith.” Let me give you a couple of samples. Acts chapter 16, verse 5: “the churches were established in the faith.” Well again, you see the ideas of Christian teaching. Romans 14 verse 1 speaks of the weaker brother, describes him as “weak in the faith.” That is, a lack of understanding of Christian teaching is what makes him weak. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 13: “stand fast in the faith.” That is, in this teaching that you’ve been given. Philippians 1:25 speaks of the “joy of the faith.” Colossians 2 verse 7: “rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as you have been taught.” Again, it speaks of this body of teaching that’s been given.
Very famously, 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verse 9 speaks of deacons as one of the qualifications for their office is that they are to be “holding the mystery of the faith in good conscience.” These are men who hold the mystery of the faith in good conscience. That is, they not only have an understanding of Christian teaching, they’re convinced of it, and they hold it without reservation. Or, 2 Timothy 4 and verse 7, Paul says, “I’ve kept the faith.” He doesn’t mean simply “I’ve kept believing,” but “I’ve kept the faith” in terms of this truth that has been revealed in terms of doctrine and practice. Jude verse 20: “building yourselves up in the most holy faith.”
We could go on and on, but it’s a reference then typically to the scriptures, this Christian teaching that has been given to us. And it has been given in this context to shield us against the attacks of Satan. So the shield of faith is the scriptures being used by the Christian to shield against the attacks of Satan. Now, these notions of our believing, our faith, and the faith that’s been revealed, of course, are inseparable, but they are distinct. It is truth that has been believed and embraced, truth that is held, truth that holds us, if you will. The thrust of it is a deepening acquaintance with biblical teaching, the promises of God, objective truth.
Extinguishing The Flaming Darts
Now let’s see how that relates to the various arrows, flaming arrows of Satan that come. Let’s think in big picture. Think in terms of the typical attacks that come from Satan. The ones that are recognizably, at least should be recognizably, satanic in origin. At least some suffering we know from the Book of Job comes from satanic opposition. In fact, it’s a wonderful lesson of the Book of Job to see that the righteous can suffer simply because of their faithfulness, not because of their faithlessness. Satan himself came against Job because of his faithfulness. Paul speaks of the same in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, the “messenger of Satan” who has come to buffet me. Assuming that it’s a physical affliction—that’s not certain—but assuming that it’s a physical affliction that Paul is speaking of there, there he describes it as satanic in origin. So suffering can be satanic attack. As Calvin said, “Satan can drive the saints to madness through despair.” Satan is a roaring lion seeking whom he may eat by means of suffering.
Explicit false teaching we have to recognize as satanic in origin. Paul does that in 1st Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1 when he speaks of some false doctrines that have been taught. Remember how he describes them? “Doctrines of demons,” “teachings of demons.” We have a hint of the same in Revelation chapter 2, Revelation chapter 3: those who call themselves Jews and are not, but they’re the “synagogue of Satan.” That is, it’s a satanically inspired false teaching. And so we have false teaching of everything from the mistaken notions of the nature of God himself to challenges to the reliability of God’s word; we ought to recognize it as specifically satanic in origin.
Becoming a little more personal: open temptation. We see Satan involved in open temptation in Genesis chapter 3, of course. We see it again with Jesus in Matthew chapter 4, the Mount of Temptation. But an interesting insight into that comes in Luke chapter 22 as well, where just before going to the cross, just before his arrest and trial, Jesus, seeing all of this difficulty coming, says to Peter, “Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you like wheat.” That this difficult time coming will be, in effect, a temptation for Peter to lose faith, to mistrust, to distrust, and to become a specific occasion of temptation, and it is satanic in origin.
A little more personal to our context: materialism. The teaching that happiness, the idea that happiness is found in possession and things, or the way Jesus said it: thinking that “life consists in the abundance of things that we possess.” Thinking that happiness comes in terms of the things that we possess. That is everywhere in the mass media today. Don’t think that Satan is not atop all of this. Pressing this, that you’ve got to have it, you’ve got to have more, you’ve got to have more, and each new thing is something you deserve to have and ought to have.
Not just materialism, but hedonism. Now kids, I’m saying “hedonism,” not “heathenism.” Hedonism: the idea that our highest happiness and joy and fulfillment will come in pursuing pleasure. Pursuing pleasure. Fun. Or we might throw into that as well, sensualism. It is everywhere. In our world today, you come across how many influences through advertising every day? How many hundred? Especially those of us who are on the computer or you’re on Facebook. How many hundreds of ads do you see? And how many hundreds of those are sensual in nature? The idea that pleasure comes in scratching every sensual itch. That I deserve it. I deserve immediate gratification. Not just gratification, but I deserve it immediately. And however I want it, I deserve to have it. And this new amusement, this new thing, this new experience with another person—I deserve to have it. It’s everywhere in our culture. Don’t think that Satan is not behind that, coming against us, trying to eat Christians.
Moral relativism is a notion that is just shot through our society today. That there are no absolutes. What is true for you is true for you, but that doesn’t make it true for me. As though truth itself is some fluid kind of notion suited to the individual. What is right for you is right for you; it doesn’t mean it’s right for me. What’s wrong for you doesn’t mean it’s wrong for me. These notions that there’s no standard, no objective revealed truth.
Another we might call it rationalism or pseudo-intellectualism. The idea that we don’t need an external authority. We don’t need revelation. The idea of what we like to call intellectual autonomy: that I can reason my way to what is good and true and beautiful on my own. And we don’t need external revelation to tell us. No notion whatever of God speaking and revealing truth. We know these things. We figure these things. And so because I figure it, and you figure it, and you reason it out the way you do, these things are relative.
This is the real root problem of secular education. Those of you who have children in public schools or going to secular universities, you’ve got to be aware of this, that they begin on every level without the necessary presuppositions to get it right. They will not begin with any notion of God. They will not begin with a notion of revelation. They will not begin with a notion of createdness, that we are created in God’s image. They will not begin with a notion of accountability, that we are responsible to God. They won’t begin with any notion whatever of accountability to God in the afterlife. No recognition of createdness and certainly now no recognition of responsibility in terms of identity, gender identity, gender roles, responsibility. All of this is up for grabs because it’s up to me and it’s up to you.
And with that we come to what I’ll just call our last application of and that is just outright revolt. Outright revolt against righteousness, calling good evil and evil good, and it happens all the time. Unless you are living in a closet somewhere, you have to see that. And everywhere, good is spoken of in terms of evil. Think in terms of abortion. Think in terms of sexual practice, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender roles. In every one of these cases, good is described as evil and evil is described as good.
And in fact, in our society increasingly, Christianity itself is what is being vilified. It is the evil. And people believe deeply that the trouble, the trouble with our society is people like you and me who believe that there’s some external authority that God has spoken. We have witnessed in our generation a massive societal turn. It used to be that when the world sinned, it knew it sinned and it knew that the church, however it might not practice it, the church had the right standards and the standards of right and wrong. And they were respected in that respect.
But now it’s all been inverted. And it’s the church that’s evil. And it’s calling homosexual evil, that is evil. It’s calling abortion evil, that is evil. It’s saying that there is wrong, that is wrong. And if a grown man wants to use the ladies’ room with your little girl, that’s good. And if you think it’s wrong, that’s wrong. You can’t help but think this is going to bring increasing pressures on the church and on individual believers, and with it increasing temptations. You have to see in all of this, Satan on the advance with those flaming arrows coming in a barrage against believers.
And beyond all of these things, just this myriad of ways in which Satan can be at work as a supernatural enemy. He is a roaring lion. He’s like a roaring lion walking about hungry. Satan—and you gotta see it. You’re naive if you don’t recognize it. You’re unsafe if you don’t recognize it. Satan loves to eat Christians. Satan eats faith. Satan eats joy. Satan eats perseverance. Satan eats faithfulness.
And Satan, on the advance to ruin us in every way that he can, and to hold faithful, to stand—to use the terminology Paul has here—to stand firm in the evil day, we have to be able to hold up a shield. And that shield that every Christian may hide behind, he says, with confidence is this revealed teaching from God. And with this revealed truth filtering our minds and marinating our minds, we’re given a real discernment and we can see things as they are. And we’re not taken in by them.
We can see the moral questions of the day that are so unclear to the world. We see them. We get it. When it comes to specific temptations to sin, because our mind is so marinated in the Word of God, we see that sin for what it really is. When it comes to materialism, hedonism, sensualism, in all of these things we’re able to look through it and see better, and see that the delights that the world offers us, as attractive as they may be on one level, we see that they are trite in comparison to the delight that we enjoy in fellowship with God.
When it comes to our sufferings, we’re able to see them in larger perspective and in light of the promises of God. When it comes to life itself, we’re able to see what it’s all about and see life as it’s lived to its fullest before the face of God. When it comes to death and life after, we’re able to see it in terms of the glorious, inexpressible presence of God, the joy that we have with Him.
To protect ourselves from satanic attack, we have to be able to hold up the shield of truth. And what that means is what we’ve been emphasizing all along through this series, is that our mind must always be refreshed and renewed by the scriptures. And like we’ve said all along in this series, a passing acquaintance with Christian teaching won’t do. You know that it doesn’t. Our minds just too easily run off in one direction or another toward fear and mistrust and distrust or legalism or all kinds of mistaken ways that ruin our joy.
So as we’ve seen with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes, the gospel shoes, now with the shield, no passing acquaintance with the gospel will do. In 1 Peter chapter 5, where Peter warns us of Satan being a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, he follows up: “whom resist steadfast in the faith.”
Brothers and sisters, we have been given a marvelous body of truth. It has been revealed to us, it’s been deposited to our care and to our trust. And it is not only our responsibility, it is our great privilege to believe it, to hold it, to refresh our minds with it. God has spoken. And holding up the shield of faith, we’ll be able, whatever the flaming arrows of the devil, to withstand in the evil day. Amen.
Let’s pray. Our Father, we confess that we are typically very naive in the way that we—in our outlook on the Christian life. Too often we live as though there were no enemy. But we thank you for your word to alert us, to remind us, and also to equip us to live faithfully and joyfully for you. Help us in this, Lord, we pray, in Jesus’ name.