The Shield of Faith — Erlo Stegen

Lord, we are people who have come from different places. We ask you, we invite you Lord to be in our midst and to speak to us. Amen. I'd like to read from Ephesians 6, 16. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery dots of the wicked one.

The Christian’s Spiritual Battle

Above all, take the shield of faith.

With which you will be able to quench all the fiery dots of the wicked one. In this chapter, Paul is addressing the Christians, telling them about the battle that they are in. And how they ought to arm themselves.

And he takes a Roman soldier in his armed dressing, the way that he has prepared for war, and he says, in that way we ought to arm ourselves. Christians ought to know full well how they ought to arm. If Paul was among us Zulus, he could have contextualized it by using the Zulu armor.

He would have said, take up that shield, take that defensive stick, the spear, the knob-carry, and you prepare for battle. But remember that what is being spoken here is spiritual armory. The Bible says, fight the good fight of faith.

We are at war. These days I thought about Christians, about how many of them start and yet many die in battle. I thought about the young people, why is it that so many of them become food for the birds and die on the mountains and in the valleys.

Dying in the cities. Where are your young people today? They have finished off. I thought about it in this way, many do go to battle unaware that it is war. Secondly, many of them go without being armed.

What would you think of a soldier who goes to battle and he is completely unarmed? So to the Christian, you go to battle unarmed, the devil just overcomes you immediately. You become just like a girl who is immoral, her life is finished off very quickly.

Strengthened in the Lord and Clothed With the Armor of God

It is in verse 12 that he starts by explaining about the weapons. He is also referring to verses back in verse 10 that the brethren are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Christians have to be full of God's strength.

One who is in the faith ought to be like this. One Christian man explained that the Christian life, the life of faith, and for the Christian it is like this illustration. A muscle in the body is to be exercised and used, it only strengthens and enhances the strength of that muscle.

But some people are made not of muscles, this person said, but of rubber. And the more you use the rubber, the more floppy it gets. It just expands and just becomes slack. A Christian is not to be like that.

When you meet him, he is to be full of God's strength and blessing, that you are blessed in their presence. Not that they are just full of being religious and church formality. And then he says, put on the whole armor of God, let there be not one weapon which you leave.

The Roman soldier had a special metal helmet. It would come down on the sides of his face and be a protection around his head and his face. On his chest he also had some protection, a breastplate. And if you hit him on the head, you would hit metal, he wouldn't be hurt.

If you hit him even straight at the heart, he wouldn't feel anything because of the breastplate. And so from head to toe he was armed, even his shoes. And if you looked at him, you realize there isn't a gap, there is nowhere where you can get through to him.

David’s Faith Before Goliath

Remember David, the illustration of Christians. Even though he was a young person, and he wasn't then just a washout like you find young people are today. He went up against Goliath, while the whole army of Israel was trembling with fear.

He said, I will go.

He said, I will go. He said, I will go.

Everybody told David, don't you dare. The message got to the king and the king said, well if you are going then here is my armor. David said, no I don't need that, I am prepared, I have the strength of the Lord.

And he went out to meet Goliath. And David noticed that there was a gap, a chink in his armor, a place where he could get through. And that was his forehead. And he threw that stone, it hit him in the forehead, he then cut off his head, he decapitated him.

He decapitated Goliath. Today you find the world cutting off the heads of Christians.

What a disgrace that is.

You find the torso of a Christian just lying there, no head. And there is dancing and rejoicing in hell because of it. Then it says, you Christians be strong, be full of the power of his might. And then taking up the full armor of God, that you are enabled to stand strong on the evil day.

The Belt of Truth

For days are not the same. It says, put firstly the girdle around you, around your waist. Now we say it in our context of men wearing trousers. If you don't have a belt on, your trousers can fall down.

And a person is embarrassed. But in those days when this was written, the men used to wear long garments, long you could compare it to the Islamic dress today.

Today, men wear long garments, long trousers. Today, men wear long garments, long trousers.

And so, with these long garments, they used a girdle to hold up the garment when they would be ready for war, that they would be able to run and be active and ready. You wouldn't find a person lazily, if the trumpet, the battle trumpet, sounded lazily getting up like an old cow.

Instead, he's ready, he's girdled, he is ready, and he's there for action immediately. And it says that girdle, that belt, is the belt of truth.

How safe a manka, no guzenzi sanokfarifa.

Are you a person of truth? Are you Christian in the truth? Or are you living a lie? Maybe it's in your words. It could be that your actions speak a lie. Oh, we are tired of this hypocrisy, Pharisee-ism, where a person is living in lies.

You need to confess those lies, live in the truth. And when you confess your sins, don't do it in a way that is a mixture of truth and untruth. It's just a stew where you've put in lies into it. You'll never...

You'll never get anywhere like that. You stand before people, you're just standing before people. Whereas the Bible says we do not stand before people, but before God. Then you can stand up and defend the truth.

Wonderful is a person who is honest and true. He's not like those who say, how can I really admit this because we made a deal with this person. It would embarrass him too much if the truth is spoken. I remember years ago, a certain girl came here to Kwasisabantu.

Purity, Holiness, and Separation From Sin

We had an engagement service, and she asked, what is an engagement? Many don't even know. They just grow up with affairs between girls and boys. They grow up being sexual all the time. And they explained to her, that engagement symbolizes purity, holiness.

She said, She said, But she said that is what I need. That's what I want immediately. And she cut off her relationship, her love affair with her boyfriend, that was the end of it. You do get people who are gold, but you are a person of hell if you are messing around with the opposite sex.

You have no courage to stand for the Lord Jesus in purity and in holiness. Being in the strength of the Lord and associating with those in whom is the strength of the Lord, not with the gossipers, the slanderers, those who are busy with lies, those who are trying to draw you away from the Lord.

They are those who get drawn and are like flies drawn to dung. Being girdled with the truth, that waistband of truth. Are you ready to be exposed for what you are, that the true you gets known? Would you be ashamed and embarrassed if it was known here?

Well, one day God will expose you from head to toe, all about you. There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed. Nothing that is secretive that will not be exposed. What you have hidden and spoken whispering in the bedrooms will be shouted from the rooftops.

The Breastplate of Righteousness and the Gospel of Peace

And then The breastplate of righteousness, that protection around your heart, otherwise the sword comes, the arrow comes and you will be pierced right through. You need that protection that you will be delivered from evil and from wicked thoughts.

In this translation I am reading it says, With your feet shod with the shoes, being prepared to preach the gospel. Of peace. It is a wonderful thing if a person is zealous and wants to spread the gospel.

But in the Greek it refers more to the preparation of the gospel of peace being your shoes. As protection around your shoes so that whatever slander, whatever evil, whatever dirt may be said about you, but you are protected and defended.

The Shield of Faith Against Fiery Darts

But then. But then it says and it continues to say and that is our theme text for today. Above all, above all the other arms and there are still others to follow that will be mentioned. Take the shield of faith.

With which you will be able to quench all the fiery dots of the evil one. You see Satan does have his fiery dots. In modern warfare we speak of missiles. But here is the fiery dot and there would be a metal head on the arrow.

Not even three feet in the middle. Sometimes.

They would have an arrow maybe three feet long and at the end of the arrow at the tip they would wrap some cloth around or some leather and then they would dip it into tar or bitumen. And then they would light it.

Then these arrows would be shot. They would be fiery dots aimed at the enemy. And just as the dots, the fiery dots of hell are aimed at you. This arrow would be on fire, not with the fire of the Holy Spirit or of heaven, but another fire, the fire of hell.

And if it hits you, if you are not defended, it will hit you and you will burn with the same fire.

If you.

Were sitting in your tent as a soldier, your tent would be set alight. Or if it hits you as a soldier, your clothing would be alight. And so this thing hits you and is aimed at you so that it would destroy you and burn you up.

The Dangers of Fiery Tongues

Some Christians, so-called Christians, or they call themselves Christians, are aflame. But with a strange fire, their own fire, the tongue that is kindled by the fire of hell.

And their tongues are aflame with hell. You need to rather pack up and leave. If you don't want to repent and you hear this and you have been preached by me and you know this truth and you still want to continue with this and associating with those who have fiery tongues, rather go and be with them.

If you don't want to repent and you don't want to associate with those who have fiery tongues, rather go and be with them. If you don't want to repent and you don't want to associate with those who have fiery tongues, rather go and be with them.

If you don't want to repent and you don't want to associate with those who have fiery tongues, rather go and be with them.

Faith That Conquers the World

The shield was long and broad, although the people of that day were shorter than we are, they made the shield to be as long as possible and broad, about over a meter and also about two and a half feet wide, but it was long and was able to stop the fiery dart.

If it was aimed at the head or at the chest, it would stop it. Sometimes though, the fiery dart was so powerful, it would go through it and it would burn the shield, often made of wood, and they would leave the burning shield there.

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