Soldier No.7 Handling the Shield

One of the great chapters of the Bible, a picture gallery of men and women who discovered a great secret, and that was that there were greater things than they themselves, and that to live this life, to make any sense out of it, it had to be by faith in a living God. Verse one, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Verse 17, By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac, and he had that, had received the promises offered up, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. By faith Isaac blessed God, and he saw concerning things to come. By faith Jacob when he was dying blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshiped leaning upon the top of his staff.

By faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

By faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do were drowned.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies with beasts. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson, of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had a trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were thorn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth, and these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds, ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." God will bless the reading of his word.

Let's turn to Paul's letter to the Ephesians, and let's read together from the 13th verse right through to the 17th. Paul's letter to the Ephesians, the 13th verse right through to the 17th, so from verse 13. Therefore put on the full armor of God, join me in reading please, therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand, in addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alert, and always keep on praying for all the same. Well then we come back again to this remarkable description that the Apostle Paul makes of the Christian's armor.

And I'm particularly concerned to bring you back to the use of the shield of faith. And I do so for reasons that I think will become obvious as you concentrate on what I want to share. Let's start with a personality who perhaps you never thought of in terms of a soldier.

Soldiers of God of course are not found only in the New Testament, but the whole idea of being a follower of God is of course inimical to the whole Bible. And so here you get perhaps one who seems to be an unlikely character that I bring to your attention, Eve. Now how do you account for Eve's failure? I mean there she was in the Garden of Eden, this idyllic place that had been made for her and for her husband.

And they make an absolute mess of all that God intended them to be, and all that God intended them to do. Now my question is this, why? Why did Eve fail? And why as a result of her failure did Adam fail? Well the serpent, personifying, demonizing, perhaps a more accurate word, the devil slips alongside Eve does he not? And what do you discover in the opening verses of the first chapter? Well the devil putting a question to Eve, a question which has within it doubt. Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat from the fruit that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.

Now at that point I've no argument with Eve at all. The devil tempts her, so what does she do? Well she reaches for her shield, the shield of faith. The shield of faith is none other than an agreement with and a use of the word of God, and that's precisely what she is employed in doing here.

She takes God's word. What has God said? Well God has said this, you mustn't do that. And so she uses the shield of faith.

Now where does she go wrong? Well my argument is this, she goes wrong as you will discover in the third verse when the devil comes along and he suggests that what she's heard from God is wrong, and later on he makes it into a flat contradiction, and as a result what does Eve do? Well she puts down the shield and she's utterly exposed with the consequences that are still with us to this day. So you see my point, this teaching on the shield of faith is not something that's novel to Paul, it's not just something that's contained within the the Old Testament. By implication it's there in the first three chapters of the book of Genesis.

Let me give you another example, let's go to a man called Abraham. Abraham is a great man, friend of God he's referred to, he's a man of faith, and yet there were times when he also let go of the shield of faith. Here he is in the 20th chapter of Genesis, he's moved into a different area and in control of that particular part of the country, is a king by the name of Abimelech.

Now Sarah is Abraham's wife, she's a beautiful woman, reckoned in Jewish thought to be one of the three most beautiful women in the whole of the world, and Abraham is concerned for what reason? Well that Abimelech may have his sights set on his wife, and in order to obtain Sarah's hand he might kill Abraham. So what does Abraham do when he's in proximity, when he's near King Abimelech? Well he has an agreement with Sarah, and the agreement is this, that Sarah is to be passed off as Abraham's sister. So you read in the first part, or rather the second verse of chapter 20, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, she is my sister.

Then Abimelech king of Gerah sent for Sarah and took her. Now there's another illustration of a man who was a man of faith and yet he puts his shield down. Let me give you a final one, we'll go into the New Testament for this.

Here is Peter, and Peter you recall has made this astonishing pronouncement, and you discover the workings out of all this in Mark's Gospel in chapter 14. He's made the assertion that even though everybody forsakes the Lord Jesus Christ, one thing that the Savior can be sure of is Peter's fidelity, Peter's faithfulness. But when you get to the 66th verse of Mark 14, what do you discover? Well there is a description of Peter whose word is now being tested before certain of the high priests.

You remember what has happened, our Lord has been arrested, it's dark, and Peter has gone into the courtyard of the high priest, and he is being questioned as to his closeness, as to his discipleship with the Lord Jesus. And Peter ultimately denies the Savior, and he said, I never knew the man, I never knew the man. So there are three illustrations, two surprisingly from the Old Testament, Eve and Abraham, one from the New Testament, Peter.

And if you were to put together their failure and draw a line and work out a common denominator, you would say this, they let go the shield of faith. They let go the shield of faith. Now my good friend, my reasoning is this, that if you were to make a common denominator of all the failures that are represented here in Worthing's Tabernacle, amongst this large congregation of people, you could isolate the failure as being this, letting go of the shield of faith.

The devil comes along, and in a variety of ways he tempts you, he tests you. The way he approaches you may be different from the way that he approaches me, but his success is always as a result of people letting go this great shield of faith to which the Apostle makes reference as he's describing the mighty armor that ought to protect the Christians. So what I want to bring to your attention first of all this morning, by way of revision and extension of what I was sharing last week, is the priority of faith.

Look again at verse, I'm sorry my eyes just are not focusing, that verse 16, in addition to this, in addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. The authorized version puts it above all this, as though there is within all that Paul has described so far in terms of the belt and the breastplate and the shoes, something that though they are important, is in extra importance to these things. In addition, take up the shield of faith.

Have you ever realized my Christian friends, that of all the graces that are available to you as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that stands out as the Everest amongst the Himalayas is faith, is faith. I can demonstrate this to you quite easily. Turn will you to Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. Here is the apostle and he is working out what is pivotal, what is fundamental to the Christian as he serves the Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, what is it that our Christianity swings on. Romans 5 verse 1, therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And now there are many graces that God makes available for the Christian.

There's the grace of love. We love the Lord Jesus, do we not? There's the grace of patience. There is the grace of repentance.

But all these graces that I've just listed, though they are important, they are secondary to the grace of faith. Why do I say that? Well you see, how is it that you love the Lord Jesus? Did you always love him? No, you say you didn't. There were times in your life, and you may be moaned those days, when you didn't have any love for the Lord Jesus.

When did you become a lover? When did you first sing, Jesus, you lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly? Well I say you did so when you expressed faith in God through Jesus. It was the faith that was a priority over against the love that followed. Let's work this through in terms of the grace of repentance.

All right, there was a moment in Worthing Tabernacle, or elsewhere, I cannot, when you came to recognize the enormity of your sin. There was a time when you came to realize that you had to make a confession. You repented, but what was the prior work that started you to repent? What do you say? I came to believe in the Lord Jesus.

Indeed you did, and belief in the Lord Jesus is another way of defining faith. You see, faith is always prior, it's always previous, it is always the priority. That's why Paul, when he's describing the Christian's armor and the need for active faith, says, above all, above all take the shield of faith.

You see, faith to the Christian is what Nehemiah was to Artaxerxes. What was Nehemiah? Well he was the cup bearer. So faith is the cup in which all the other graces are found.

I love the Lord because I have faith. I have patience because I have faith. I repented because I have faith.

Faith is always priority. This is why the Apostle Paul, I argue, said, above all, in addition to all this, take up the shield of faith. Do you remember, I gave you just a few moments ago, three examples of people who let the shield go.

The third one was Peter. Now our Lord had said to Peter that all this was going to happen, that there would come a time when Peter would let Jesus down. But if you read about this in Luke's Gospel, you discover that our Lord has something very significant to say to Peter.

He said, though you think I'm wrong, this is our Lord, in effect, speaking to the fishermen, though you think I'm wrong, Peter, you're going to let me down. You're going to deny me. Before the cock crows twice, you will have denied me on three occasions.

But Peter, remember this, I have prayed for you. Prayed for what? That your faith doesn't fail. And whatever Peter let go of on that terrible night when he denied the Lord Jesus, right in the depths of his soul, even though it be just a morsel, there was faith.

To the end that Peter was able to come back and ultimately have an interview with the Lord Jesus on the seashore of Galilee, where Jesus first met Peter three years before. I prayed for you, Peter, that your faith doesn't fail. Jesus didn't say that I pray that your repentance doesn't fail.

I pray for you that your love doesn't fail. He goes right to the prime thing that is necessary for Peter to have a relationship with the Lord. I prayed for you, Peter, that your faith doesn't fail.

And my dear friends, I tell you that the reasoning behind the Apostle Paul, as he speaks of the Christian shield, the reason why he describes it as being the thing par excellence that is necessary for the Christian, is that without faith there is nothing else. Without faith you can't even be a Christian. I wonder if you understand that.

When the devil sees you going towards him with a shield of faith, he has the same reaction in his mind as Goliath came to have when he saw David with a sling and the stones. The overgrown Philistine had no power over against these pieces of unlikely weaponry that David brought down the valley of Elas and used to fell the giant. And so he did for the Christian.

When the devil sees you armed with the shield of faith, he realizes that he is up against a piece of armor which when rightly used, he cannot penetrate. So there you were in your barracks. There's been some battle and you've gone home.

Not that the war is won, but there's a bit of respite. And so you go back into the barracks and you put your shield down and you put your sword down. You've still got your breastplate on.

You've still got your belt on. You've still got your shoes on. And then the bugle is sounded.

There's a fresh attack from the enemy above all, says Paul. Whatever you do, remember man, pick up your shield of faith. Because unless you've got that, you're in awful trouble.

The priority of the shield. Now why is it so necessary? Well come back to verse 16. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith.

Here's the reasoning with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. These are not just ordinary temptations to which Paul is referring. This is Satan at his most hostile.

This is the devil at his most diabolical. He takes his flaming arrows, these insidious, these nasty pieces of weaponry with which he endeavors to rob you of your salvation and your spiritual effectiveness. But the apostle says take up the shield and not only one or two or three or four of those horrific arrows of the evil can be deflected, can be extinguished, but all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Do you realize the potential of what Paul is now reasoning? You see some of you, although bless your hearts, it's generally in a humorous fashion, wonder why I continue for such a long period of time in Ephesians 6. I do so because the majority of us do not understand the potential of this teaching. This is so vital, this is so practical. Fail here in your understanding, you almost fail everywhere.

Do you appreciate my dear younger and older friends that what I am ministering to you on a Sunday morning is the most practical aspect of theology that you can ever be brought face to face with? I'm not saying it's the best quality or it's put across with the greatest articulation. What I am saying however is that if this is not taught and apprehended in some way, then as a result as a Christian soldier, then in the conflict the odds are that you will fall and fall and fall again. Take all, take up the shield of faith so that you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, all of them.

The thought there is titanic, that I can take all those nasty flaming spears and daggers and whatever else might be brought under the general term used here as arrow of the evil one and extinguish it. What sort of arrows does the devil have in his quiver? Oh I could keep you here for a longer period than I normally do, by just going from one to another to another to another. But just before I came down into the pulpit here, or rather while I was at home half an hour ago, I tapped out one or two.

What about evil thought? Do you ever find that he takes that from his quiver and he puts it into his bow and he sends it right through to you? You see one of the hardest things for Christian people to cope with are the thoughts that the devil gets into their mind. If you're immune to this then I congratulate you, you're probably unique. Listen to Dr. Charles Hodge, a Puritan commentator of yesteryear saying this, it is a common experience of the people of God that at times horrible thoughts and holy blasphemous skeptical malignant crowd in upon the mind which cannot be accounted for by any law of mental action and which cannot be dislodged.

They stick like a burning arrow and fill the soul with agony. Do you ever have those yourself? Do you know what to do with them when they come? More of that in a moment. The flaming arrows of evil thoughts.

Would to God I could get immunity myself from those. The flaming arrow, and these things are really interlinked as I've, as I share them with you. The flaming arrow of unrelieved guilt.

The devil is the accuser of the brethren. There you were and you've been a Christian for many a long year. You can remember the time when you were at Sunday school, when you were in the youth fellowship, when you went through the middle years of life.

You were under the best evangelical ministry in the country and here you are in old age. And one would feel that you ought to be given a bachelor or a doctorate in divinity. The amount of theology that you've taken in and absorbed into your system.

And yet suddenly they come. Those terrible flaming arrows and they seem to go right over the defenses and into your personality. You think to yourself, am I really a Christian? Now some of you younger friends you've got these experiences yet in front of you.

And God be gracious and may He distance your deathbed by many, many years from this point in time. But you remember when that occurs decades ahead. That a preacher once told you that even on your deathbed these thoughts can come into your mind.

Seventy odd years I've spent serving the Lord Jesus. I've heard people say all words to that effect to me. And here I am within a hair's breadth of in being in the eternal realm.

And I look at that that I did in my life and that that I didn't do in my life and so on and so forth. Can I then be a Christian? The flaming arrows of the devil. The unrelieved guilt.

He who comes along as the accuser of the brethren and he brings to your mind things that God forgot decades ago. And he placards them in front of you and he says, can you then be a Christian? Can this great holy God whose praises you've sung in worthing tabernacle receive you into his immediate presence? I know all about you. You see the devil is a great theologian.

He can trade on his knowledge of the attributes of God and paralyze you with fear as he reminds you of the grace of God, of the of the purity of God, of the fidelity of God. And over against that he spells out what you look like. And you have to agree that his picture is accurate.

And so he takes the one and he compares with the other and as a result you fall into a morass of unrelieved guilt. And then he goes on because as I say the things are connected. Then there comes unmitigated despair.

It is a tragic picture I tell you to see a Christian who is despairing. There is Elijah and godly man from the Old Testament era. 1 Kings 19 sets up the scene and he has been so victorious, such a great reformer and revivalist.

He has led the movement against Ahab and his wrong alliance with Jezebel and all the importation of heathenism that has come into Israel as a result. He has spoken as John the Baptist did in New Testament times against this unrighteous immorality and paganism. But now look at Elijah.

He's there flopped in the wilderness under a juniper tree. He who is so emotional, who has an emotional high, now has an emotional low as often is the case when you have a very emotional form of nature. And he says, Lord I despair.

My life is not worth living. Take it from me. Unrelieved despair.

His problems are so great they're exaggerated by the devil. He looks this way and that way and all he can see is the painted face of Jezebel and the anger of Ahab and the fact that he is a minority as he wrongly calculates of one. You see what's happened? These great men, the Billy Graham if you like, of the Ahab era is reduced to a man with an unmitigated despair as a result of these arrows that are whipping by into his personality.

And that brings him to the final condition of utter hopelessness. Utter hopelessness. Now this is what the devil angles at getting you to that state.

Spiritually hopeless. You see the story of Job is an illustration of this isn't it? I mean Job had enough to contend with didn't he? His barns were burnt, his crops were ravaged, his servants were killed. He has an outcrop of boils.

If you've had one you'll be sorry for Job. He had them all over his body. And then his wife comes along and that just about puts a lid on it.

Curse God Job. Be done with it. Curse God.

You see the devil can get even the nearest to fire his arrow. That's the diabolical nature of the devil. He can get Peter you see, the one who's in the closest proximity to Jesus.

And when our Lord makes that tremendous assent as to who he is, the son of God. And when he congratulates Peter for having been the spokesman to bring that piece of information to the rest of the of the of the disciples. A few moments later Peter is arguing against Jesus going to the cross.

Now our Lord had no combustible material within him. And so when the firing arrow, when the arrow with a flame comes right through, he's able to stop it immediately. But he spins round on Peter and he rebukes him.

As though at that moment he personifies Satan. I tell you the utter hopelessness that the devil is working at in in your life, is one that you need to recognize and take action against him. So we've considered what? The priority of faith and the utility of the of the shield and the the way in which the devil has many many arrows in his quiver.

But let me finally hasten on to try to show you the dexterity of the shield holder. The way in which you can use your shield so that you can offset these savage attacks of the evil ones. You see the apostle makes it very plain doesn't he? That we've got to take some some contrary action over against the the strategy of the devil.

In addition to all this take up the shield of faith with which you you can extinguish. I stress the verbs take up. You extinguish.

You see here you're on your own. In one sense even though I might in God's grace be able to help you in in some measure or one of the elders or pastoral leaders or some mature Christian friend. In one sense here you are on your own.

There are certain things that no one else can defend you against. It's a question of you. This is applied theology.

This is you stepping into the picture and becoming very very involved in what's going on. You take up the shield of faith whereby you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil ones. How do you do that? Well you you have to discipline yourself.

How do you maintain your health? Let me ask you that. Younger friends particularly. How do you maintain your health? Don't you take certain steps? As far as cleanliness is concerned you you keep yourself in a in a reasonable condition of such.

As far as food is concerned you you eat sufficiently and of the right variety so that you become the good-looking fellow or girl that you think you are. Older friends particularly those of middle years who have to try and cope with middle age spread. Well you spread around your middle.

What do you do? You can't just sit by your typewriter and pound it away can you? Because that one may exercise your fingers but it won't exercise your muscles. The rest of your body. I'm sorry I'm getting uncomfortable I see as far as some of you in the way that you're reacting in a pain fashion is concerned.

But the point is clear. You do something don't you? I don't need to develop the semi-humorous illustration. Well my dear friend that's exactly the same.

In the Christian life in the area of being a Christian soldier there are certain things that you do. Certain disciplines that you latch on to. What are they? Well let me just suggest as time has virtually gone.

Let me suggest a couple. Well realize this that faith is a reasonable thing and not an irrational thing. Faith is reasonable and not irrational.

Now what I'm saying is that when you're over, when you're into a attempting situation you've got to use your mind. You've got to use your reason. Now reason is not all that you need.

Reasons like Zacchaeus. A very little man. But there's good stuff in little men.

My father was a little man. One of the best I knew. When reason is multiplied by faith then you have something to be able to resist.

The insidious attacks of the devil. Reason multiplied by faith. You say what on earth do you mean? Here's arithmetic down on Sunday morning.

What will he be into next? Well I mean simply this. Here you are and you're being tempted by him. Let's take the older friend perhaps approaching toward the end of life.

What about those sins in the past? Do you find it difficult to forget the sins that you've committed? I find it appalling. I sort of have a a field day sometimes with all the ghosts of the past. It's almost like Christmas carol.

Coming back to haunt me. All those things that I did that I shouldn't have done. But God forgave me for them ages ago.

But here the devil comes and and causes them to be like spooks in front of me. And what do I do? Well you see I take my reason and I multiply it by my faith. He will abundantly pardon.

Sort that one out Satan. He will abundantly pardon. I quote the promise from Isaiah.

Like the soldier will melt down lead in old-fashioned military ways and make the bullets. So I will take the word of God the promises and I will melt them down so to speak into bullets that I can fire at him. As far as the east is from the west.

So far has he removed my sins from me. You see there's reason. I have a little bit of reason.

Not much. A little bit of intellect. Not a great deal.

But I have that priceless gift of faith. I'd like more but but what I have is sufficient for me to mix it round with my reason. And reason plus faith equals the ability to resist the devil and extinguish his fiery arrows.

Here is Moses. I referred to him last week. The pleasures of Egypt are offered him.

Sometimes standing in scripture when used by preachers as the pleasures of sin. Now I reminded you Moses was in for a field day in Egypt wasn't he? I mean after all he's the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter and therefore presumably has got his own niche in the palace and probably one of his own palaces. He's been to the university doubtless of Alexandria.

He's a man who's skilled in Egyptian philosophy. I'm not making all this up incidentally. I can demonstrate all that I'm all that I'm asserting.

So let's say this. Moses has got it made for him. I mean if a chariot with five horses is equivalent to a Rolls Royce today then he's got a Rolls Royce.

If Rothschild and the family are able to control a great deal of the wealth of America well Moses has got within him within his position the potential of controlling the majority of wealth in the world in his day. No exaggeration whatsoever. So the pleasures of Egypt are rather large pleasures.

But then he goes through one of the most remarkable pieces of disinheritance that you discover in the whole of history. He rejects them. Moses man you're mad.

Why are you rejecting the pleasures of Egypt? Well he says I'm going with these Hebrews. Oh where they're going? Somewhere fine? Well no not actually they're going into a wilderness. What's a wilderness like? Well it's a raging desert.

There are scorpions and nasty things like that and there's not very much water. And but what about the quality of the fellowship there? Well actually they're rather a troublesome bunch. And Moses you are going to swap that for that? Aye says Moses.

But why bereft of reason? No he's multiplying his reason by faith. He is yet to look for a reward that God has in store for him. To which John made reference when he was reading that great faith chapter in Hebrews.

You see he knew he was on the right side. He was getting the best bargain. And there are times my friend when you will reject the pleasures of sin.

You'll reject Egypt because your mind tells you that even though you were to gain the whole world and trade it for your soul, in the end you would be a bankrupt. You would be a loser. Poverty in the world and riches with Christ means eternal glory.

The other way around it means eternal damnation. And finally faith can grow and not remain static. There you were as a Christian soldier and you've had many a conflict and there's been many a skirmish and many a bruise and many a bloody patch on your body.

Times when you lost. But my friend when you look at the Christian life in terms of the way that I'm trying inadequately to portray it in front of you, appreciate this. That as you use faith, the same way as you use your muscles on a cycle, you develop faith.

The little becomes stronger. The strong becomes much. The much becomes great.

Until you could find yourself, if Hebrews had an extension into the 20th century, Hebrews 11 being listed amongst those great warriors of faith. Who through faith were able to level mountains and subdue kingdoms and quench even the fires of the temptations of the evil ones. This is what I want men and women of the tabernacle to be and our young folk.

Not anemic soldiers who carelessly toss aside the shield. Not chocolate military men, to quote C.T. Studd, who when the sun gets high in the heavens and beams its rays down on them, they melt. There's no muscle, there's no substance.

Rather be a Christian soldier. Having done all, standing with a breastplate of righteousness, with a belt of truth, with the gospel, with the shoes of the gospel upon your feet and most of all above everything else, holding the shield of faith whereby you can extinguish all, all the fiery arrows of the wicked one. May it be for his honor and glory.

Amen.