Running To Win

Dave McCallister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith. Christians have a defense to ward off Satan's fiery darts. We can use what the Apostle Paul calls the shield of faith. Today we'll learn how to use this piece of the armor of God and see how a strong faith can block arrows of doubt. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is running to win with Dr. Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, we've all seen medieval movies with men bearing shields.

The one Paul speaks of must be quite strong to withstand incoming fire from the devil.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know, Dave, I love this piece of armor. As a matter of fact, the text says, above all, take the shield of faith. It seems faith is so critical that the Apostle Paul gives it special emphasis. Now, to your point, I'm going to be mentioning in the message that actually the shields in those days were beveled. That is to say they were interlocked. So when armies went into the battle, they did so as a wall against the enemy. And you and I, we need each other in this battle. I'm holding in my hands a book I've written entitled How to Break a Stubborn Habit.

Now, at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info as to how it can be yours. But it's so important for us to recognize that we are indeed in a battle and we need to take every piece of armor into consideration, to understand it and to go into the battle seeking victory. For now, let us listen. We've been learning in this series of messages that there is an invisible enemy that all of us have and who is involved in our lives. You may tune into this message or you may be here today and say that this is a message for Christians.

And in many respects, it is. But the recognition that there are evil spirits belongs to all the other religions of the world as well, even through personal experience. For example, if you're here today listening and you are a Muslim, you know that the Muslims speak about the jinn, I believe it is. They speak about evil spirits. So do the Buddhists, so do the Hindus, so do people who are in the New Age movement. They connect with higher powers. Sometimes they hear voices, sometimes they recognize that in their deception, by the way, they are committing themselves to a power beyond themselves and it is not the power of the living and true God.

So in a sense, we're all in this together, but the only book that really gives us a definitive kind of explanation and description of this invisible war is the Bible because it was revealed by God. Now, when you stop to think about Satan and we are learning that one of the things that he wants us to do is to not fear sin. To believe that we can make our own decisions and in making those own decisions to actually profit and to handle any of the consequences that might come our way. He makes sin attractive to us.

We've also learned that he is very malicious and he is well organized. Take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 6, which is really the passage that we have been using as we talk about the pieces of armor. Ephesians chapter 6 and you'll remember that the Apostle Paul says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers. This now is verse 12. Against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, against the spiritual forces. I think what he is doing is he's talking about different ranks of demonic powers. When you think about good angels, you know that there is of course Gabriel and Michael, the angel that we know about who receive a lot of prominence.

The only two angels that are mentioned by name in the Bible. And then under them, there are ranks. There's Cherubim and Seraphim and they're well organized. The same kind of organization exists in the evil spirit world as Satan gets organized and has a plan to try to destroy the church and to do as much evil as he possibly can. As a matter of fact, it may well be that an evil spirit or two is actually assigned to us to find out our weaknesses, to make sure that any weaknesses can be exploited and to take advantage of us, particularly when we are tempted.

Now, in the Bible, there is no specific formula for what is called exorcism. Though Jesus frequently cast out demons by his word and by his power. But I think that for you and me, it's very important for us to turn to the writings of the New Testament. That is the letters, the epistles. And by the way, if you're new to the Christian faith, the epistles are not the wives of the apostles, all right? We use the term to refer to certain letters written by Paul and other writers of the New Testament like Jude and Peter and John.

We use those words, the word epistles, to refer to those writings such as for example the book of Ephesians. And what we discover there is that the epistles do not emphasize power encounters as much as they do truth encounters. And that's what we are going to do today. We are going to talk about truth, we're going to talk about lies, we're going to talk about deceptions. Now, what is it that Satan is really looking for in your life and mind? I can tell you that what he wants to find is some unclean place in our soul that he can exploit.

You have a background possibly of being sexually molested or involved in some kind of sexuality that has left you with a great deal of emptiness and self-hatred. Satan wants to exploit that. He wants to exploit every opportunity that you and I give him when we begin to invite sin into our lives and make it a welcome home within us. Now, we're going to be talking today about some serious, serious matters because there are some of you who have voices in your head and you know who you are. In fact, I've discovered that there are more people with voices in their heads than perhaps we know about because most people don't tell us.

Some of you have voices that tell you that you should cut yourselves, that you should commit suicide or that you should do evil or voices that are an assault against your self-worth. Satan loves those. You're damaged goods. There's really no hope for you. As a matter of fact, considering the direction that you are traveling, you're never going to amount to anything. And those voices can become very persistent as Satan does his war against us. Now, I hope you've been here to for the past messages as we talked about such things as the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace.

Today we come to a very critical point in our armor. And that is the shield of faith. Notice it is there in verse 16. It is our text for the day. And verse 15, the shoes for your feet, but verse 16 in all circumstances can also be translated above all. We're going to talk about a piece of armor which if you do not have this one, you will be assaulted. And you will be defeated when the assault comes. Above all, even if you should forget those shoes a piece for a moment, above all, take the shield of faith, the Bible says.

And you'll notice with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Three questions are going to be answered in the next 20 or 25 minutes. Critical questions that for many of you can be a transforming moment. The first question is this, what is the shield of faith? What is it? Well, the imagery of course is drawn from Roman soldiers because that's where Paul is. He's writing this in Rome. He is chained to Roman soldiers. So when he speaks about the shield of faith, we learn that there were two different kinds of shields.

One was a very small one, perhaps 2 ft by 2 ft. And you would have that strapped onto your arm so that you would use it to rebuff any attempts of the enemy to get you. It was used often times in one on one combat. So you could have the shield on this arm and be using your sword with your right arm. The other possibility, and it is much more likely, is that there was another kind of shield. It was a bigger shield, perhaps 2 and 1/2 ft wide and 4 to 4 and 1/2 ft long so that when you held it, it in effect covered your entire body.

The other thing about these particular shields is that they were beveled or they had hooks on them so that soldiers could hook them together. So you can imagine 100 soldiers having all of their shields linked together. And as they walked, it was like a wall. And they were walking toward the enemy. They were not the ones who were doing the shooting. Behind them, shooting arrows above their heads were the archers who were being also protected by the shields of those who went in first into battle. And I think that's the kind of shield by the word that Paul uses.

That's the kind of shield that he is talking about. Well, if that was a Roman shield, what is the shield of faith? The shield of faith very clear is the promises that God gives us and the promises by which we must live. You see, if you do not have God's promises, if you disbelieve God, what Satan desires to do is to give you empirical proof that God, if he has the power, simply does not care about you. And what you've done is so evil and so wrong that he's mad at you anyway, you might as well walk away from him.

Those are the lies of the devil and they run counter to the promises of God. You say, well, what promises? For example, in Ephesians 1, if we were to read the last part of Ephesians 1, Paul says, and I'll simply quote it for you, that Jesus has been exalted above every power and every name that is named in this world and in the world to come. Now, there is a promise of the triumph of Jesus over all evil spirits and the victory of Jesus over all the forces of evil that you and I can possibly imagine.

But you see, you come to a promise like that and then you say, well, yes, I know that Jesus has the power, but does God care about me? If you have the shield of faith, you will know that God cares about you. Just this morning, I was thinking of some promises such as in Psalm 103. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. And then he goes on to say that as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

And as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. A word of comfort that is part of the shield of faith. Does God love you? Many of you struggle with the love of God. You say, where was he when I was being hurt as a child? Where was he when I was in a dilemma? And so you see, Satan says, you see, God doesn't love you. The minute you begin to say that, you begin to put down your shield of faith for the Bible says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or persecution or nakedness or sword or we could add or cancer? John Piper preached a message entitled God and Cancer and I'm thinking of preaching a similar one. Can it separate us from the love of God? Nay, in all these things we are super conquerors because of him who loved us. So you see, the question is this, the shield of faith asks us, are you going to believe God's promise or are you going to believe the circumstances and the reality that seems to be around you? That's the test of the shield of faith.

So what is the shield of faith? Shield of faith very simply is the promises of God. Now, another question that we need to ask is why do we need this shield? Why do we need this shield? Well, there it is in the text. In all circumstances taking up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. What the Romans used to do in battle is to take their arrows and dip them in pitch and then light those arrows. And then they would shoot them and when the arrows landed, if they were led to land on your clothing, for example, they could start a fire.

If they landed on your skin, it would not only be the piercing of the arrow, it would be the sharpness of the pain, of the heat and of the fire. And so what Paul is saying is this, he says that what Satan does is to shoot these arrows at you. Now, what the Romans also did in order to quench those fiery darts is to take those shields that were often made of metal with sometimes there was wood and then there was metal on the outside or leather. And they would dip them in water because they wanted to make sure that when those flaming arrows came, then the arrows would be put out and the fire wouldn't get to them, smother them.

So the Apostle Paul says that Satan has these flaming arrows that he shoots. And if you don't have a shield of faith, you are not only his target, but he is a good shot and he will hit you at your most vulnerable place and he 'll get to you without the shield of faith. Let's take some examples. There are people today with huge personality and behavioral issues, huge. Let's take for example eating disorders. Somebody who looks into the mirror and believes that she is actually overweight when in point of fact she may be starving herself to death.

When you begin to analyze that, you discover that a person who believes that has actually believed a whole cluster of lies, a whole cluster. Namely that self-worth is dependent upon the way in which you look and the idea of control and anger and you know that these problems are huge and they're all bundled together. And Satan says, since you no longer have your shield of faith, you're not believing in God's goodness, you're not believing God's word. You're believing the dictates of your own feelings and your own deceptions. He moves in with an arrow and he hits his target.

Let's talk about such things as various sexual perversions, again often times rooted in childhood where there's been molestation and when there has been a misuse and all kinds of different reasons. You see, Satan comes in and says, you know you're that way, God is angry with you. You might as well turn aside, you might as well give in. And your shield of faith, where is it? It's gone. If you don't believe God actually cares about you, God loves you or that God could change you, you don't believe that. And as a result, Satan says, since you don't believe it, I'll suck it to you.

And there comes another arrow. I've talked to people and you have too who tried to commit suicide. And they may cut themselves or they may actually follow through and take pills and try to die. Why? Satan says, oh, you really see yourself as damaged goods, don't you? You really see yourself as worthless. Nobody wants you. And because nobody wants you, look at the mess you've made. People have turned against you, God is against you and you believe his lie. And you follow through when that flaming missile comes, that strong temptation, that burning desire to get out of life and thinking that something may be better on the other side.

The list is long of the things that he will use in our lives to fight against us. You know, I'm told that out in the wild, bull moose will fight over a herd. And once they win the battle, they never fight again. The loser simply submits. It's a major contest and if the loser loses as losers do, he's finished. That's what Satan wants. You fought that problem long enough and look at that. God hasn't helped you, you've prayed about it. Give up. I am going to control your life at this point. Don't fight anymore. And that's what he does as his arrows of doubt, his arrows of self-hatred, his arrows of unforgiveness come against your soul.

You see, that's why we need the shield of faith because Satan says God can't help you and even if he can, he doesn't care. Resign yourself to the fact that God is not on your side. Well, my friend, you certainly are going to have to listen to running to win next time to hear the conclusion of this message. You know, when it comes to temptation, Satan of course wants to bring out that which is the worst in us. God desires that which is the best in us to be able to trust him, to believe him even though there are so many forces that are against us.

I've written a book entitled How to Break a Stubborn Habit. Now, I wrote this book because I'm well aware that temptation comes to us all. As a matter of fact, chapter 1 is why so much temptation? And of course then in the other chapters I discuss how this war is played out. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. Now, I'm going to give you time to get a pencil and to be able to write down this contact info. Meanwhile, thank you so much for supporting this ministry because of people just like you, the ministry of running to win goes around the world.

Well, here's the contact info. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1 888 218 9337. Remember the title of the book, How to Break a Stubborn Habit. Call us at 1 888 218 9337 or right now go to rtwoffer.com.

Dave McCallister: It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Mina listens to running to win and has a question on behalf of a friend who is struggling with her relationship with God. She asks, though she has faith in God, she feels there are certain things in which she keeps failing. How then can she still have faith?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, my friend, uh first of all, I want to say to this woman and to you, join the club. We all have struggles. What this believer needs to understand a couple of things. First of all, that struggles are common to us. In fact, it says in the book of James, it says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. So the fact that we have struggles and the fact that we even fail is part of the Christian experience and she should not think to herself that somehow her life is abnormal because she's experiencing this number one.

Number two, she needs to continue to be in the word and with the people of God. She needs input from the scriptures to assure her of forgiveness and also God's help. How can she continue to have faith? Well, that exactly is the trial of our faith about which the Bible speaks so often that when we're going through life and when it appears as if God isn't on our side, it is then that we must keep believing because he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he rewards those who diligently seek him out.

Encourage your friend. Pray with her, pray for her and help her to know that no matter how difficult the Christian life becomes, you're there to take her by the arm and keep leading her all the way to victory. God bless you.

Dave McCallister: Some wise counsel for Mina and her friend from Dr. Irwin Lutzer. Thank you, Pastor Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can by going to our website at rtwoffer.com and clicking on ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1 888 218 9337. That's 1 888 218 9337. You can write to us at running to win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Sometimes flaming arrows of doubt come our way, challenging our faith, making us question if God is truly good. Next time, why we need the shield of faith to deflect these arrows and how we're to use this piece of spiritual armor.

We'll hear more on why the shield of faith is especially important when we face times of depression. Running to win is all about helping you find God's road map for your race of life. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Irwin Lutzer, this is Dave McCallister. Running to win is sponsored by the Moody Church.