Series: Spiritual Warfare
Sermon: Shield of Faith
Bible Passage: Ephesians 6:16
Eph 6:16 In all of this, Stand firm by taking up the shield, namely the faith [genitive of apposition], with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Satan, the Evil One, is trying constantly to inflict hurts on a believer’s life (16b)
1. Enemy: 1 Peter 5:8 Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour
2. Murderer: John 8:44 He [Satan] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies
3. Deceiver: Rev 20:3 The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished
4. Intruder: Eph 4:27: Satan is trying to take a foothold. Do not give the devil an opportunity
5. Schemer: Eph 6:11: Satan is a schemer scheming constantly against believers
6. Paul calls Satan’s (the evil one) weapon the “flaming arrows”
7. Despite believers wearing the armors like the truth, righteousness, and peace, Satan still tries to inflict damage to believers with his flaming arrows
8. When believers come under Satan’s fiery attack, they normally capitulate or compromise because they do not take the appropriate weapon
a. Like Adam and Eve, the attack is on the believers’ following God’s instruction “Is it really true that God said” Gen 3:1
b. Like Aachen, the attack is on God’s mission for His people
i. Distraction with materials
ii. Judges 7:1 “The Israelites disobeyed the command about the city’s riches. Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, stole some of the riches”
c. Like king David, the attack is on God’s provisions for the believers (2 Sam 24:1-17)
d. Like Ananias and Saphira, the attack is on God’s plan for finance (Acts 5:1-11)
e. Satan attacks believers’ emotions, legitimate passions, relationships, etc.,
f. Satan came to Jesus with his flaming arrows (cf. Matt 4:1-10), but Jesus defended with the expression “It is written”
9. The term “faith” is used broadly in two ways:
a. The core collection of doctrines to which the true church unanimously holds—the objective faith
b. When believers act on the objective faith or the collection of doctrines, it becomes the subjective faith
c. Here in verse 16, both are involved!
d. Faith is believing what God has said in the Bible
10. Believers cannot rely on themselves to fight the enemy who shoots fiery weapons
11. A soldier fighting in the battlefield without a shield remains unprotected
12. Knowledge of the truth and acting on them makes believers remain successful in spiritual battlefield
In time of Satan’s fiery attacks, believers must take the shield, namely the faith, that extinguishes the flaming fire (16a)
1. The verb “to take” points to the believers’ initiative
a. It is not always worn like the other armors, but is taken only when needed
b. Knowledge of doctrines as they are taught in the Scripture is important because they come handy
2. The word “shield” comes from the word for door because of its shape
3. The shield Paul has in mind is scutum which is a large rectangular or semi-cylindrical shield
4. For a Christian, the scutum is “the faith”
5. The faith here is one’s acting on the objective truth
6. Believing what God has revealed about Himself and matters of His relationship with us in the Scripture is the faith (faith is not generated within human being)
a. God has changed your status, i.e., from sinner to a saint
b. God has adopted you and He never retracts from this relationship with you
c. God has destined you to be “holy and blameless” which is based Jesus
d. God has redeemed you by the substitutionary death of His Son, Jesus Christ
e. God has given you the Holy Spirit to be by your side and an inheritance in the heavenlies
f. God has transformed you to a masterpiece—you are special
g. The Triune God dwells in you
7. The faith is the content that alters a person’s behavior when he believes it
8. Being attacked or to remain a defeated Christian is because of a believer’s inability to take up the shield, which is the faith
Take Away:
Seek to know the teaching of the Scripture and learn to apply appropriately