From His Heart

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You don't want to leave your house half dressed, do you? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve, Paul and his.

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Readers are very familiar with what a Roman soldier looked like. The Apostle Paul plays off of this by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and says his armor is what God gives us in our battle with our ancient foe, the devil and Satan, the serpent of old.

The Bible says you need to take up the full armor of God, put on the full armor of God, because like the old American Express commercial, you don't want to leave home half dressed. You don't want to leave home without the full armor of God.

There is tremendous truth and hope that you always dream of. Love can heal every scar. Real truth, real love, real hope comes from His heart.

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How are you and I supposed to stand toe to toe against the craftiness of the devil? How do we do that? Well, our only hope is in the strength the Lord provides and in the protection of his spiritual armor.

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. And thank you for joining us today as we're going to learn how and why we should guard our hearts and minds with three final pieces of the armor of God: the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. What are those? We'll find out today.

The message today is from Pastor Jeff's seven-lesson series, Soldiers of the Cross. That is also our thank you gift for your support this month, and you can find out more about it when you go to fromisheart.org.

Right now, though, open your Bible to the book of Ephesians. Turn to chapter six. Here's Pastor Jeff to explain how to go from defense to offense.

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Back in the 1500s, Martin Luther, the German pastor and great reformer, a man who wrote many hymns, wrote a particular hymn that is very, very popular still today, sung in churches all over the world. The lyrics of this song that you're familiar with say this: "A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal." I took some time today to just reread all the stanzas of "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." In that hymn, you find that Martin Luther was talking about the battle that rages between the Lord and the Lord's people and our arch enemy, our ancient foe who seeks to work us woe: the devil and Satan.

Now we're in a series called the Lord's Army, and we're learning how to be good soldiers of Christ Jesus. Paul told Timothy, "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." We talked about the discipline of a good soldier, the courage of a good soldier, and we introduced the armor of the good soldier. Because if we're going to stand toe to toe against the ancient foe who seeks to work us woe, whose craft and power are great and is armed with cruel hate, how are we going to do that? Only in the strength the Lord provides. Only in the armor that the Lord provides. This is what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter 6, beginning in verse 10: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For 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, against the devil and his demonic horde. Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day. And having done everything to stand firm, stand firm. Therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."

Now the Apostle Paul is writing Ephesians from his first Roman imprisonment in the early 60s A.D. He's chained to a Roman soldier. Everybody in the first century is very familiar with Roman soldiers. There were tens of thousands of them all over the place. They made up the Roman legion, the most powerful nation in the world at that time, more powerful than any nation before it. So Paul and his readers were very familiar with what a Roman soldier looked like. The Apostle Paul plays off of this by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and says that his armor is what God gives us to battle with our ancient foe, the devil and Satan, the serpent of old. The Bible says you need to take up the full armor of God, put on the full armor of God, because like the old American Express commercial, you don't want to leave home half-dressed. You don't want to leave home without the full armor of God.

Now look, in verse 11, he says this: "Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." The schemes. That word "schemes" is method, which means his methods, his wiles, his tricks, his cunning arts, his deceit. The armor God gives us is directly correlated to the schemes and the strategies and the cunning arts of the devil. So we said the first thing is the belt of truth that you put on that holds everything together because the devil wants to divide you. He wants to divide your loyalties. He wants you to have another God in place of God so that your heart would drift away from the Lord and other things would take first place. The belt of truth is integrity. It holds you together from the devil's devices to divide your heart.

Then he says the breastplate of righteousness. What is that for? That's to guard your heart and to guard your vital organs. You wouldn't go to battle without your breastplate, just like a police officer wouldn't go to a shootout and forget his bulletproof vest. You're going to end up dead, perhaps, in that situation. The breastplate of righteousness protects us against the devil's accusations because the Bible says he's an accuser of the brethren. The word "devil" in Greek, "diabolos," means false accuser. He accuses us day and night before God over the confessed sins in our life. He tries to beat us up with a big billy club of guilt. So we're to put on the breastplate of righteousness. We're to shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Those are the shoes that the soldier wore. They were like cleats, and they had little nails on the bottom to hold them in place. What does the devil try and do? He tries to knock us off our feet and get us to see God in a negative light and get us at war with God instead of walking in peace with God. He wants to keep us from sharing the good news of the gospel with other people so that they can have peace with God.

But then he talks about the shield, the helmet, and the sword. We're going to focus in on those. So what do we learn about the last three pieces of armor? Number one, the shield of faith combats the devil's doubts and fears. Look at it again. In addition to all, verse 16, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the Evil One. When you think of a shield, don't think of Captain America. Don't think of a small shield. You know, we see Roman soldiers from history books and things like that, and they would have a small shield. That's not the shield that the scripture is talking about. When it talks about the shield of faith, the word that is used here is "thurios," and it means a large shield. It's a four-foot by two-and-a-half-foot shield. You could hide behind that shield. When the fiery arrows came, you could be protected because that shield allowed you to get your whole body behind it. When you're with your battalion, you can create a fortress where the arrows can't come in.

If you watch the opening battle scene in "Gladiator," they take their bows and arrows and dip them in some kind of flammable material, some kind of tar or pitch on the end of those arrows, and they put them in the fire. The archers let them go, and they fly toward the enemy. The idea is that if you don't have your shield up, we're going to hit you and pierce your armor. The breastplate of righteousness works well, but if you keep taking shots, I was watching a video of some that just had metal linked together like a coat of mail. The arrows can go through that. You have to have the shield to block those. Even if an arrow goes through you, a flaming arrow, and maybe doesn't hit you, it can light you on fire because it's a flaming arrow. So what would the soldier do? He would hide behind his shield. In our situation, in this Christian life, it's the shield of faith. The Lord says, with the shield of faith, you can extinguish all the flaming missiles of the Evil One.

The devil plays for keeps. If you saw the movie "The Terminator," the original movie with Arnold before gravity set in on him, when Arnold was buff, he was the Terminator. Rhys told Sarah Connor, "You don't understand about the Terminator. He doesn't feel pity. He doesn't take a break. He just keeps coming and coming and coming." That's the devil. He's the original Terminator, and his craft and power are great. He's armed with cruel hate, and he wants to steal, kill, and destroy you. He is going to be shooting the fiery darts of adversity, temptations, snares, and difficult circumstances at you and me. To do what? To get us to doubt, to get us to fear. Another way of putting that shield of faith is keeping your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. The devil works to get your eyes off Jesus. If you get your eyes off Jesus, you know what's going to happen? You're going to start looking around, and you're going to start to become afraid.

Case in point: Simon Peter. In Matthew chapter 14, they're on the Sea of Galilee, which is not a saltwater body of water, but they call it the Sea of Galilee. It's a lake. They're rowing in the middle of the night, and they're not getting very far. It's a stormy sea. Jesus comes walking on the water, and they cry out for fear, thinking it was a ghost. Jesus said, "Don't be afraid. It is I." Peter says, "Lord, if it's really you, bid me come to you on the water." Jesus said, "Come." Peter got out of the boat and began walking on the water toward Jesus. His eyes were fixed on Jesus, and he was walking on the water and doing great. But then it says, "But seeing the wind, he became afraid, and he began to sink." He cried out, "Lord, save me." Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" You see the words in there? You see how it is faith, how it's doubt, how it's fear? He was afraid. He took his eyes off Jesus, got afraid, and began to doubt. Jesus said, "O ye of little faith, why did you doubt?"

The devil wants us to take our eyes off Jesus so that we will doubt and fear. He traffics in fear. You mark it down: the devil wants us to live according to the circumstances and not according to the promises of God. The Bible says that we walk by faith and not by sight. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. In the word of God, we get the promises of God that we stand on, standing on the promises of Christ my King. We stand on those promises. That's what the shield of faith does. When the fiery darts come in, we hold up the shield of faith. We get behind the shield of faith, and those fiery darts hit the shield of faith. The shield is structured in such a way that when a fiery dart hits it, the fire goes out. The scripture says that the shield of faith can extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.

Let me give you an example from scripture that shows how this works and how the devil works. In Numbers chapter 13, God's people are getting ready to go into the promised land. They left Egypt. How did they leave Egypt? By God's mighty hand; he parted the Red Sea. They came out, and he drowned Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. There is no God like our God. They sang, "The horse and the rider thrown into the sea" (Exodus 15). They're so excited. This is the greatest Old Testament miracle of all: the parting of the Red Sea. You have a God that can part the Red Sea. You have a God that can do anything. Where are we going? We're going to the promised land. They're pretty excited. But then they get right to the borderline of the promised land, a place called Kadesh Barnea. Moses sends out 12 spies to spy out the land. Ten faithless spies didn't have the shield of faith, and two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua, lifted high the shield of faith.

They come back and report to the people. Joshua and Caleb say, "It's a great land. God's given it to us. We need to go in and get it." But the ten faithless spies say, "Well, yeah, it's a good land. Here's some of its fruit. You got grapes like coconuts in the land of plenty. But let me tell you something about the land. There are giants in the land. The sons of Anak are in the land. We were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. We can't go get the land." They gave a bad report and turned the hearts of all the people of Israel against the Lord and his promises. They cried out, "Oh, would that we had died in Egypt, or would that we had died in the wilderness. Why is God bringing us into this land? So that we'll be killed and our little ones will become plunder. Oh, let's go back to Egypt and appoint a leader to take us back to Egypt." That's what they were going to do.

Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the Lord. How did this all fall apart? Joshua and Caleb came to the podium, so to speak, and this is what they said: "The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly great land. If the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land, for they shall be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them." That's what the devil shoots at us. He shoots at us all kinds of circumstances to get us to doubt the promises of God, to get us to retreat in fear. Fear is of the devil. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline.

Listen, you don't have to live in fear. Fear about, "Oh, what's going to happen? This terrible thing's going to happen, and that terrible thing is going to happen." You don't have to live that way. We walk by faith and not by sight. Your adversary, 1 Peter 5:8, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. A roaring lion roars to produce fear. The devil's a defeated foe. Our adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith. You hold up the shield of faith and say, "This is what God has said. This is what God has promised. I'm going to believe God." Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The devil says, "No, look at the things that are seen." We say, "No, we're going to keep our eyes on Jesus." Even though I can't see Him, I'm going to set my eyes on him and trust his word. That is the shield of faith. With it, you can extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.

So that is that next piece in the armor of God. Then he talks about the helmet of salvation. What is that for? The helmet of salvation combats the devil's deceptions. The arrows create doubt and fear, and then he works to deceive. He is a liar, Jesus said, and the father of lies. Who would go to battle without his helmet on? No one in the Roman legion would go to battle without his helmet because he knows, hey, in battle, you're liable to get a shot to the head. If you don't have protection, you're in serious trouble. You've seen the Roman helmets. Oftentimes they have this red plume that looks like it could double as a little broom. That was just for decoration, to show who was kind of a big shot in the Roman army. Not everybody had one of those, and it became just decorative for military parades and things like that. But the helmet itself is really, really important. It's called the helmet of salvation.

We put on the helmet of salvation so that we're not deceived concerning salvation, so that we're not deceived, first of all, concerning our own salvation. How many in here have ever struggled with doubting your salvation? My hands up. You have to put on the helmet of salvation so you don't doubt your own salvation.

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Well, doubting is debilitating. It steals our gumption to step up and share that eternal truth with conviction. Listen, if we don't believe in the eternal security that we do have in Christ's grace, then how can we, or will we willingly and eagerly share that with those with whom we meet? We won't. And that's why we pray that today's message called "From Defense to Offense" is encouraging to you to trust in the solid truth of God's word for your forever and ever salvation, not by works so that no one will boast of it, but by the forgiveness of an almighty Heavenly Father who loves us beyond our ability to truly conceive. It's that great.

And this is a great place to pause today as we're just halfway through the fifth message in seven lessons from Pastor Jeff's series "Soldiers of the Cross." He'll be back tomorrow, and after a short review, we'll continue right there. So make plans to be with us again then for the conclusion of the lesson from "Defense to Offense." As a soldier of the Cross, there will be victory, but also there will be suffering. Paul told Timothy, recorded in 2 Timothy 2:3, to suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Now, the moment you become a Christian, it's the moment you become a soldier in the Lord's Army. And God wants us to be good soldiers protected by the full armor of God. In Pastor Jeff's series "Soldiers of the Cross," he provides timely biblical encouragement to help us stand strong for Jesus with boldness and confidence even in an increasingly skeptical world. The seven-message series, along with the companion booklet "The Lord's Army," is our thank you gift for your support from His Heart this month of any amount. We couldn't do it without you.

To get your copy, simply call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org. These two resources will give you the practical and effective tools to be the soldier for the Cross that you were created to be. Be bold and get yours today so that you can be an important influencer in the Lord's Army. Call 866-40-BIBLE or go online to fromhisheart.org to make your secure gift of any amount.

When you're online, we also want to ask you to listen to the Daily Real Hope Minute from Pastor Jeff Shreve. Sign up for the weekly Real Hope email encouragement letter that you'll get every Friday morning in your inbox, or download an MP3 of any broadcast you may have missed, plus so much more, including easily signing up to follow this ministry on our social media channels. Again, go to fromhisheart.org.

Thank you for being with us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, trusting you'll be right back here on Friday for part two of this encouraging lesson on moving from defense to offense in your effort to share your faith. That's next time here on From His Heart.

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There is treasure, there is bless, There is hope that you always dream, love he can heal every scar. We love you all from his heart.

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From his Is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more. Go to promiseheart.org.