Spiritual Warfare - The Shield That Never Fails

God Centered Theology

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Now, as I said, we are halfway through the pieces of armor, and as we look at the shield of faith this morning, we look at the shield that never fails, there's a transition that occurs that I want to bring to your attention before we get into the meat of the sermon this morning.

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The first three pieces of armor we covered, okay? Gird up the loins of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and shodding your feet with the gospel of peace, all three consistently had something about them.

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Having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, all three of these things, they are for preparation, they are to make us ready, and they are there for ongoing protection.

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They're meant to be worn at all times during battle. Now, you could say about the full armor of God that it's meant to be put on, never taken off, we casually and very commonly say that.

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You can also say that the full armor of God is meant to be with you at all times, you're never supposed to not have a piece of it with you and all that's true, but when you start digging down into the individual pieces, there is a difference between the first three and the last three.

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These first three, it's assumed that you're going to put them on and have them on at all times.

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Every single soldier out in battle, whether they necessarily have their shield up at the moment or not, whether or not they have their sword in an attacking position or not at the moment, varies based on the battle.

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But having their belt cinched up and prepared for battle, girding their loins with truth, having on their breastplate, no soldier would go out into battle without it.

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No soldier would go out into battle without something on their feet. Those three things are supposed to be permanently on.

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Now as we move into the last three, it's going to have a slight change here. Today, taking up the shield of faith.

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Then we will take the helmet of salvation. And finally, when we get to it, it will be taking the sword of the

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Spirit. These final, if you'll notice in the first three, it was having, having, having.

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These last three, it's taking up. Take the, take the. The final three pieces of armor, they're kept with you and they're taken with the soldier into battle.

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And they're kept ready when needed, when an actual battle would break out.

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So in a very literal way, you wouldn't just, you know, walk around necessarily with your shield up at all times, with your sword out at all times, although you'd have them with you.

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And I know not everybody's a Star Wars fan, so just bear with me. The Jedi would never go around with their lightsaber out and ready at all times.

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No, you'd wait for the Sith or the First Order to light up their red kyber crystal, if you will.

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Did I get that right, John? Kyber crystal. Kyber crystal. And then they'd be, it'd be on, right?

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Then it'd be a good fight. If you walked around with that thing lit all the time, you'd be chopping through wood and killing people accidentally.

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You can't just walk around flipping your sword around. You have it with you, but when you're ready and you're ready to fight, you pull it out.

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You take it. You have it ready. So these last three pieces of armor we're going to look at, while we have the same amount of preparation and same amount of readiness as needed, you pull these out and use them as they're needed.

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Now, the shield that the Roman soldiers used was two and a half feet wide by four and a half feet high.

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Now I tried to find a, I just liked this picture, so that's ultimately why I went with it.

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But there's better pictures than this one online of what an actual shield the

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Roman soldier would have used actually looked like. Probably should have gotten one, but I just really liked this one.

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It's really cool. It's got the fiery arrows coming out of them and the shields defending it. So you know, let's just, you know, work with me people.

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But the shield now, and also too, you know, I don't know what the average height is for a man nowadays, but it's a lot taller and bigger than it was then.

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So you know, roughly two and a half feet wide and you know, four and a half or so feet tall would be plenty to defend the whole person.

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And that was its point and purpose. And another key thing is the soldiers who carried these shields were on the front lines of battle and they would stand side by side with their shields together.

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So it almost formed a wall of shields. Now this is a sermon for a whole nother day. We're not going to get into this this morning, but if you think about it, is that not textbook definition of why

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Christians need each other? Imagine spiritually, my friends, all of us with our shield of faith, yes, you can win individual battles against Satan.

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There's individual temptations you'll face daily, so on and so forth, and your shield is perfectly strong enough to defend you.

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But how much stronger will you be if my shield is right next to Daniel's shield, next to Mr.

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Billy's shield, David Clark's shield, John's shield, all of our shields combine strength.

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Imagine how much stronger we are. That's why discipleship, that's why being, yes, man,

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I know before I even say this, you're going to think, no, no, no, no. But yes, being vulnerable, being open as much as you can be about your own struggles with your sin, your own struggle with temptation.

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And you mentioned the announcement about the men's dinner and event in November.

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This is all part and parcel with the resurrection of the brotherhood. This is our goal to see this restored and ongoing and working, and we've got a lot of good men in our church that are on board with this.

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Why? Because we need each other. I can't speak for women in the audience, I'm not one.

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Although when I was 10, my dad said he threw the football at me one time and I shrieked like a girl and ran from it.

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I can neither confirm nor deny that happened. But man, one of the things

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I had at home that I would love to see here is that brotherhood where we can trust each other.

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Now, say, John and I may talk in a certain way that, say, Donnie and I may not, or Randy Gillum and I may have a different relationship than, say, me and Daniel.

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The relationships are all different. But whether it's a Randy and a John, or maybe a

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Kenneth Key and a Randy, you plug in different people, at some point you're going to find two men that get along in such a way that they fully trust each other and are able to be more open with that man than they are, say, this one over here.

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And it's about finding that right slot to fill. And when you have that type of friendship and that type of devotion, man to man,

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Christian brother to Christian brother, those two shields come to be one. And so I'm working on in the background some sermons related to this specific topic of how we need each other for another day in time, but I just wanted to touch on that briefly.

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But notice for this morning that our title says that the shield of faith is the shield that never fails.

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We're going to ask two questions this morning about the shield of faith. Number one, we're going to ask, why does this shield never fail?

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Why does this shield never fail? Well, the reason it never fails is not because of the one wielding it, but because of the one who crafted it.

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Now keep in mind we're talking about a spiritual shield here, but nonetheless, it's still a very real shield of faith.

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The faith of the shield of faith is our trust and faith in God and his son,

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Jesus Christ. It is a faith in him alone.

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When we speak of salvation, you'll hear me say this very often. We're talking about repentance, which is a turning from our sin, but it is putting our total 100 % faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the one who was crucified, who was buried, rose again from the grave, and has ascended back into heaven.

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John MacArthur has said that Christian faith never fails because the one in whom our faith is placed never fails.

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Christian faith, if reliant upon us fully, wouldn't be much there to really put our faith in.

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If I have to rely on Andy, as much as I'm going to pick on you again, my good brother

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Daniel down here, if I had to rely on you, it'd be a faith that would fail. Doesn't mean he's a horrible person, doesn't mean

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I'm a horrible person, doesn't mean we're any less Christian. I can't even rely on my wife for this type of faith.

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If my wife were to make a shield of faith for me, as much as I may appreciate it, as much as, just in case you don't know this man, but if your wife makes you something, that's the best thing you've ever gotten, you put that thing on the wall.

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But if she were to make one for me, or Daniel, or anybody in this room were to make a shield of faith for me, as much as I may appreciate it, it would fail me.

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Why? You're not Christ. I'm not Christ. The only shield of faith that will never fail is the shield of faith that's crafter is

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Jesus Christ. I want you to notice with me some information, and you may not have ever noticed this,

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I know I had not previously to preparing this sermon, but four of the six elements of the armor of God are

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Old Testament quotations. Let's notice something about them together.

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Our first one that we covered, girding your loins with truth, if you want to turn with me to the book of Isaiah chapter 11, the book of Isaiah chapter 11.

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Chapter 11 is covering the righteous reign of the branch, the righteous reign of Jesus Christ.

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All right, so Jesus Christ is in view here, and in context. And notice with me chapter 11 verse 5 of the book of Isaiah.

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It's talking about the shoot that will spring up from the stem of Jesse. The branch from his roots will bear fruit.

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Verse 2, the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, so on and so forth. And then you get to verse 5, and it says, also righteousness will be the belt about his loins.

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Sound familiar? Sounds like Ephesians 6, 13 or 14, right?

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13, 14. The belt about his loins, and faithfulness the belt about his waist.

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Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah chapter 59.

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Now I'm going to start reading in the latter half of verse 11, if you're turning with me. Isaiah 59, 11b, we hope for justice, but there is none.

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For salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us.

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For our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities. As much as man wants to deny that he's a sinner, and pretend and fool himself that he's, you

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No, we're denying. Transgressing, denying the Lord, turning away from our

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God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and uttering from the heart, from the heart, lying words.

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Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away, for truth has stumbled in the street.

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Sound like today? They want to say the Bible isn't current? I feel like I'm reading headlines about today's sinful nature.

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Verse 15, yes, truth is lacking, and he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. Now the

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Lord saw, and it was displeasing in his sight that there was no justice. And he saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede.

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And then notice this. Then his own arm brought salvation to him.

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And his righteousness upheld him. And watch verse 17.

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He put on a righteousness like a breastplate.

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Sound familiar? Righteousness like a breastplate.

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And a helmet of salvation on his head. Isaiah 52, verse 7.

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It says, how lovely on the mountains are the feet, the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace.

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Shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace?

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How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, your

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God reigns. You can see, my friends, that all these pieces of armor, and specifically the four of them that are quoted in the

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Old Testament, the reason they work, the reason they can defend us, and help us attack and be on offense in the spiritual war, and have a firm defense to stand firm, is because not only is the crafter of the spiritual armor

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Jesus Christ, but the very essence of the armor that we are to wear in the spiritual battle is

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Jesus Christ himself. We can trust the armor not because of the one wielding it, but because of the one that crafted it.

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It is Jesus Christ who is said to have faithfulness and righteousness as his belt.

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It is Jesus Christ that puts on righteousness like a breastplate. It is

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Jesus Christ who brings the good news of peace with God. And he not only brings the message of peace with God, he ensures it, he purchases it at the cross of Calvary.

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More than anything else, the message of the cross is that man can have peace with God. That's why it never fails.

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Notice what it said. Verse 16 of Isaiah chapter 59. I'm sorry, excuse me, verse 16 of Isaiah 59.

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It says in the latter half of the verse, then his, meaning God, Jesus Christ, his own arm brought salvation to him.

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He put on righteousness like a breastplate. Excuse me, before that it says, and his righteousness upheld him.

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So take that phrase there at the end of verse 16. His righteousness, Jesus Christ's righteousness upheld him.

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So fast forward to the New Testament. Ephesians chapter 6. We're commanded to put on the full armor of God and having done all to stand firm.

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We're not the ones with the power to stand firm there. It is Jesus Christ's righteousness that is upholding us.

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It is Jesus Christ that is standing firm. It's not Andy. It's not

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Joanne. It's not anybody in here that's standing firm. It's Jesus Christ that is standing firm.

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We stand firm in the battle despite ourselves. It is his power, his righteousness, his faithfulness, his shield, his breastplate, his loins that are girded up, his spirit, the sword of spirit.

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It's his helmet of salvation. It all works and it all defends us against Satan and helps us win the battle in the spiritual war because it's

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Christ himself. That's why it never fails. Don't settle for any substitute.

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Don't settle for anything weaker. Why would you? We have everything we need.

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I smile because I just love the beauty and the consistency and the harmony of Scripture.

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Remember, and we're going to eventually get back to it. Remember when we were going through Colossians? Colossians 2a, we spent like three weeks on that one verse.

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It says, Do not be taken captive. You remember? Don't be taken captive by the traditions of men, by the elementary principles of the world.

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Why? It does nothing for you. You've already got

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Christ. Why do you need anything else? That's why it never fails.

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It's why you can trust it. We trust things that are proven, right? Any bridge that you would walk over or drive over, you're not going to drive over that thing if you think it's going to fall.

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Unless you just got a death wish. I go and eat at the places that I trust, like Bojangles, of which

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I have many gift cards there because y 'all are so gracious. Oh, and not even to mention the Dairy Queen gift cards. Oh, man, my doctor's going to be so mad at me if I get done with all those.

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I told Gina, I was like, just keep them in your purse. If I don't have them on me, I can't spend them. So it's just better that way.

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That's a very simplistic thing. But think about companies. Whatever car you buy, whatever house you would buy, you put your money where your mouth is, right?

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The old expression. You're not going to put money into something you don't trust, will you? You're not going to put stock in anybody's word.

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Somebody, you know, let's say one person over here says one thing. Somebody over here says the same exact thing.

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But you believe this person over this person because you know this person better. Right? Now take all that, and multiply it by the infinite degree, and you've got

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Jesus Christ's trustworthiness. Jesus Christ is trustworthy, and is faithful, and is righteous in a way that our frail, finite human minds can't even begin to understand.

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That's why any preacher that will ever stand before you and say, Boy, I've got it all figured out. I know everything.

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I've got this Christianity licked. There's nothing else for me to learn. They're lying to you.

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They're deceiving themselves. My goodness, just try to wrap your minds around the sovereignty of God.

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Wrap your minds about what there was before He created anything. Wrap your minds around the fact that it is

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God that draws all men to Himself, but man is still fully responsible to repent, turn from his sin, and place faith in Christ.

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How that works together, that tension, I don't know. But I know the

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Bible teaches both. We so desperately need to seek

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Christ's face as people and as a church. Just because we have the armor available to us doesn't mean we know how to use it.

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Doesn't mean we will faithfully use it. But I can guarantee you on the authority of the

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Word of God that the shield of faith in particular is a shield that never and will never fail you.

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Why? Because it's Jesus Christ Himself that is defending you. So number one, why the shield never fails.

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Number two, what is the shield used for? We understand why it never fails, but what is the shield used for?

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The shield of the Roman soldier would have some type of covering that they would soak in water so that as they launched, the enemy would launch flaming arrows at them.

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It would hopefully hit the shield and be extinguished upon impact. Now the spiritual arrows, as viewed in this lovely picture that I provided for you today, with the flaming arrows coming at the shield, these spiritual arrows that are launched in our direction by Satan are temptations to sin.

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All sin, all of it, all sin at its core is a distrust of God and what

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God has said. Now I've covered this. I'm not going to rehash it. But if you want to go back and relook at it, you can look at Genesis 3 when the serpent said, you know, has

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God said? You can look at Matthew 4 which we did a whole sermon on about what the devil said to Jesus and what

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Jesus quoted back to him. It's all there for you. But at its core, it's all distrust of God and what

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God has said. MacArthur went on to say, whenever and however we try to justify any sin, we actually degrade

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God's character and elevate Satan's. So you see, to sin is to believe

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Satan. And to follow righteousness is to believe God. Therefore, MacArthur says, all sin results from failure to act in faith in who

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God is and in what He is. Faith, then, is the shield.

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Sin should never be justified or have excuses made for it by any

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Christian or any church for that matter. One area that churches in America at large, specifically, need help desperately in in 2018 is to pay attention to is a need to call sin what it is and then do something about it.

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If you watch media, if you look at what is put out there in front of all of our eyes as quote -unquote

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Christian, so much of it fails to call sin what it is. It makes excuses.

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It justifies it. It rationalizes it. Oh, you know, it's not that bad. No! God is the life giver.

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God is the one that gives commandment. God is the one that says what is right and what is wrong. That's all we need.

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What is sad is when we justify and excuse sin, whether it be for political reasons, social reasons, whatever.

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We all do it. I've done it. We all have done it. We need to stop it. I need to stop it.

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We just need to seek Christ, turn from that sin, repent of that sin. Justifying sin never produces health in the life of a

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Christian. It just doesn't. I sat in Sunday school this morning.

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We were discussing some statistics and some different results to some polls that had been taken.

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And we were talking about our response to it. I said, you know, some of the most healthy and meaningful

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Christian lives that we see that we can have is the Christian that is so aware of just how desperate he needed a

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Savior. How desperately he needs the Word of God in his or her life. How desperately we need to be changed from the inside out.

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How desperately we need more submission to God's Word in our life. It is the unhealthy

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Christian, it is the unhealthy church that seeks to justify sin, sweep it under a rug, or say, well, we can't stand to ruffle feathers or lose that person or lose that money or lose whatever, so we're just going to pretend like this isn't that bad.

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My friends, the Bible is clear. We must always stand for righteousness and stand against sin.

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We are called to repent and turn from it. So I want to end and look at this, and we won't cover this in exhaustion because there's just simply not enough time.

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So I picked out two that I think are very pertinent to our situation and to what we see today.

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But two of the actual arrows that Satan will launch our way. You know, Satan is going to launch all kinds of arrows at your direction.

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And Satan's been viewing and looking at human history since this, well, since Adam and Eve came on the scene.

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So he knows what makes us tick. He knows how to just push the right button, how to tempt you, how to get you to give in just that one time, that one, if I just get you to do it one time, next time's easier and easier.

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So these flaming arrows he's going to send your way will be unique for you because Satan wants to get you to sin in a way he knows you're susceptible.

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But I want to focus on two arrows that Satan launches our way as we wrap up this morning.

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The first one we'll look at is the arrow of tolerance. The arrow of tolerance. One of the biggest flaming arrows that he sends our way is the flaming arrow of tolerance.

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Why? Because the flaming arrow of tolerance basically says, well, it's not really that bad. What are we to say?

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Has God really said? Is it worth losing people over? Is it worth causing division?

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The arrow of tolerance, political correctness, whatever you want to call it, sweeping it under the rug, insert whatever cliche you want to, is one of the most dangerous things in the life of a

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Christian or in the life of any church. God is going to bless obedience, not tolerance.

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Now look, I'm not going to rehash a lot of this. I'm not going to get into it, but you've heard me say it before.

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It doesn't mean you go finding that person that, I commonly say this, you're in church one day and you smash your thumb with a hammer and say a bad word.

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You don't go kicking that person out for something like that, okay? People make mistakes. People sin.

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We're looking at habitual, unrepentant, purposeful, spitting in the face of God kind of sin.

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Everybody's going to fall, and we're there. And the whole thing with church discipline is not about punishing and putting down somebody.

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It's about restoration. It's about redeeming someone. If your goal in confronting whether it's a fellow brother or sister in Christ individually and privately, or even if your goal as a church going to seek to confront a certain sin, if your goal is not first, middle, and last, restoration and redeeming that brother, don't even go talk to them.

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Because the book of Matthew says the goal is to see them restored, see them redeemed, see them repent of that sin and come back into a right fellowship with each other and with God.

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But that doesn't excuse and it doesn't mean that you should tolerate sin and act like sin, oh, it's not that bad, or we shouldn't deal with it or shouldn't talk about it.

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One of the best things you can do for a sinning brother or sister that's in some sort of pattern or habit of sin is to go to them and hopefully, this is what

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I was talking about earlier, if you've got that brother or sister that has that relationship with you where you'll listen to them, they'll be perfectly qualified to take you to the side, put the arm around you and say, hey, look, let's talk about this.

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Let's have this conversation. What's going on here? Because we may see the behavior, the sinful behavior on the surface, and while we should never tolerate it and we should confront it, at the same time there's something underneath.

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There's something at the root of it that may not be sinful. They may be hurting. They may have lost a job.

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They may be having marital issues. They may be having financial issues. See, Satan will take real things of life, things that are not sinful, things that everybody encounters, but it gets you in a weak and vulnerable point and he'll come at you when you're weak.

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He's not going to come at you when you're strong and you've got the full armor and you're like, come on, Satan, I'm ready.

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He's not going to mess with you then. He's going to wait until you're weak and you're beat down and you're hurting.

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You feel isolated and rejected and alone, and that's when he's going to come after you.

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That's why we need each other, because I'm not always going to be the strong one.

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You're not always going to be the strong one. I'm going to need you. You're going to need me.

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You're going to need each other. The shield never fails, but we do.

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You see? I should have just preached this whole sermon on the arrow of tolerance.

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I'm enjoying it. The last arrow I want to cover this morning, the arrow of hopelessness.

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The arrow of hopelessness. Satan wants you to think that your sin situation is hopeless and that you are a lost cause.

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It's one of the biggest lies Satan has ever uttered in his existence. He wants to fire that flaming arrow of hopelessness at you.

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He wants you to think you've sinned too much. You're too far gone. You're a lost cause.

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None of your Christian friends at church will ever love you again. They'll never accept you again. You'll never be able to be used of God again.

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Lies. All of them. Lies. It's not true. First John 1 -9, if we are faithful to confess our sins,

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He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse, present tense, ongoing action, cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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It's never hopeless. Proverbs 28 -13 says,

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He who conceals his transgressions will not prospect, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

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The love of God is never stronger than when he has a repentant heart.

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God desires the repentance of His people. He desires a repentant heart. He desires one that wants to confess their sin.

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You don't have to be fearful of God. You don't have to be scared. You can walk in Christ because you can walk in Him in righteousness.

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Lastly, this is more in Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 15. For thus the

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Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said, In repentance, and this word repentance can also mean returning.

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So in returning to the Lord or in repentance and returning and rest, you will be saved.

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In quietness and trust is your strength.

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Quietness and trust. We have a shield that never fails.

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The more you trust it, my friends, the better it defends you and it will never fail you.

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God always can put it back together again.

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There is nothing that God can't repair, restore, or refresh.

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But you first have to have a repentant heart. It is never hopeless.

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Never hopeless when you have the shield of faith. He can repair your marriage.

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He can repair your life on the job at work. He can repair your finances. He can repair your spiritual life.

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He can repair your friendships. He can repair all your relationships. Nothing's hopeless.

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But we've got to return to God. We've got to repent. And my friends, there's a whole world of people.

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Now Karen's going to talk to us a lot about outside of Emporia. She'll probably mention Emporia to a degree as well.

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But she's going to talk a lot about outside of Emporia. But my friends, forget about the whole world just for a second.

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There's a whole bunch of people in Emporia, Virginia that need to know it's not hopeless.

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And we have the message to tell them it's not hopeless. So many people that come and want to talk to me or bring me in on their situation.

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I see hopelessness in their faces. And my first duty as pastor is to restore the hope.

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Not because of what I do or what I say, but because of the Savior they have. If you carry the shield of faith, then that shield, based on the faith you have in Jesus Christ, will never, ever fail.