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Amen. Right, so we're not going to stay in 1 Chronicles 12. I just thought we'd go there just to give Dan a bit of fun there. No, I'm kidding. But that is a tough chapter to read, isn't it? No, keep a finger there, though, because we will be coming back there. It wasn't just a challenge. But turn to Ephesians Chapter 6. So keep a finger in 1 Chronicles 12. Turn to Ephesians 6. We're continuing our series on the whole armour of God. And so far we've looked at the belt, the breastplate and the shoes. Ephesians Chapter 6 is obviously where we've been going to each week. Before I did this series, we also did a memory challenge with Ephesians 6 as well, one of the more recent ones we've done. So after this series as well, if anyone still doesn't know these passages, well, I give up. But we're going to just look at it again. Ephesians Chapter 6 and Verse 10, which reads, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And how can we be strong in the Lord? By putting on the armour that he's given us. But it has to be the whole armour, doesn't it? It's the whole armour. Put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now, at Verse 3, the devil is a tricky customer. He attacks from many angles, doesn't he? There are many different angles. I've started to see more, you know, just in the small life of this church. We need the whole armour. Verse 12 says, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It's a spiritual battle and we need spiritual armour. Verse 13 says, Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand an evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. And we looked at how that's being immersed in truth. That's the reading of the word, the preaching of the word, surrounding ourselves by the truth as much as possible. And having on the breastplate of righteousness. And we saw that the breastplate, the righteousness is God's commandments for all his commandments of righteousness. But it's living right. It's having integrity. It's being upright. It's not just choosing presumptuous sins. It's trying to do what God wants you to do, right? It's trying to be a righteous, upright Christian. And then verse 15 says, And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And how that's being prepared for battle by going out to preach the gospel. OK, without your shoes, you're not going to battle. OK, going out to preach the gospel. And then verse 16 says, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Today, we're going to look at that shield of faith. So the title this evening is The Whole Armour of God, number four, the shield. The Whole Armour of God, number four, the shield. Let's pray before we continue. Father, thank you for the whole armour of God. Thank you for this passage of the Bible and many others which help us just to understand how we can protect ourselves in the spiritual battle through these various ways you've given us and shown us so clearly in Ephesians chapter six here. Please help me to preach about the shield clearly now. Help me to preach it accurately, Lord, as well. Help me to inspire people to want to take that shield of faith, to want to be behind that shield of faith. Help the whole church here, Lord, to want to just have that shield of faith. It's available to us. Help us to want to take it. Help us to understand why. Help me to just make that clear today. In Jesus' name, prolly this. Amen. Right, so there are different ideas of shields around, aren't there? Maybe when someone says, what's a shield? You've probably kind of had a few different things might go into your mind. You've got all shapes and sizes, haven't you? You've got like the little circular thing in your forearm to help you block individual blows and maybe there's different sizes that you picture with that. To some huge piece of strong metal that maybe a SWAT team can hide behind. Yeah, there's many different types of shield. What is it that Paul's picturing? Well, there's no doubt he's picturing the Roman soldier for me, OK? Ephesus, I think at this point, had had about 200 years of Roman control. That's who he's writing to the church, Ephesus. And that whole part of the world had been under Roman control for a long time. The Romans at this point in history were using the curved rectangular, very large, what's known as a scutum, as a shield. OK, why is that? Well, this is from the Roman history site UNRV. I looked at a few different things, I thought this was quite succinct and, again, there's not much debate with most of this. During the early part of the 4th century BC, the Romans changed their military tactics from the hoplite phalanx to the manipular formation. The manipular legion was organised into four lines, started at the front. V-lights, the hastati, the principis and the triarii, and was much more flexible than the typically eight-line deep formation of a phalanx. So they went from the hoplite phalanx, now these seemed to be kind of spears and smaller shields, so they'd have kind of these smaller shields, they'd have spears going out from the middle, but then as you went back, the spears, after a few rows, started to go diagonal, diagonal upright, and they actually were to deflect oncoming missile-type attacks, you know, projectiles, things like that. But they had the shields at the front as well, but they were smaller shields. And then it kind of changed this manipular legion, which was the larger shields and shorter swords, and many here might have seen in movies and depictions the famous defensive formation called the testudo, which is basically, it's Latin for tortoise, and it's basically like a tortoise shell, and what they had is these long, four-foot, sometimes plush, wide rectangular shields, which you could literally go on one knee behind, and then the people behind you would put their shields over the top, and they'd all overlap, and you basically just had this top and in front just shield wall, which was then obviously very hard to break down and hard to kind of pick people off from, and it obviously all worked together. The Roman writer Cassius Dio claimed that the testudo formation was so strong that not only could a man walk across it, but even a horse and chariot could be ridden over the shields on the top. So all the shields were overlapping, they're all holding up, and they'd overlap each other, and this was a strong formation. And it says here, not only did this fighting formation require a tremendous amount of discipline among the individuals of the legion in order to function effectively, but it also necessitated the change to large rectangular shields, which could protect more of the body. The new scooter shields were curved for two reasons. So if anyone's seen them, they're not just like a flat rectangle, they had a curve to them. The first is that the curved design combined with the umbo, which is a shield boss, a little circular piece in the centre of the shield, so they have this kind of metal bit in the middle, helped to deflect blows much more effectively. Unlike a flat surface which would take the full force of an enemy blow, a curved surface would make the weapon slip off to the side and result in far less of an impact to the Roman soldier. So when it's got curving, when people are hitting, it will glance off a little bit more. You can imagine when someone's smashing a very heavy sword, spear or something else at you, look, oh, well, great, I've got a shield. Look, this isn't Captain America stuff. That's going to severely bruise you, hurt you, you're going to take the impact, you're going to be knocked around. The second reason it says here is that the slightly curved edges could overlap with the shields of the legionnaires on either side. This provided almost complete protection against enemy blows for those on the front line. This style of fighting and formation in close-quarter combat, using the gladius sword to thrust forward, became the classic fighting style for legionnaires of the later republican period and for most of the imperial period. Imperial Rome was 31 BC to AD 476, so that's what we're talking about here. Anyway, one of the best ancient descriptions of a scutum shield comes from the Greek historian Polybius, who said of an early second century BC scutum, the Roman panoply consists firstly of a shield scutum, the convex surface of which measures two and a half feet in width. So two and a half feet in width, I don't know, I think you're looking about this sort of width, yeah, that's pretty wide, isn't it, two and a half feet. And then four feet in length, and four feet, 1.2 metres, that's sort of two thirds of my height, somewhere around sort of here, okay, that's a pretty big shield, you can understand why you can kneel behind it, yeah. Four foot, it says here in length, the thickness at the rim being a palm's breadth, so I think it's that thickness there, it is made of two planks glued together, the abseil surface being then covered first with canvas and then with calfskin. Its upper and lower rims are strengthened by an iron edging that protects it from descending blows and from injury when rested on the ground. It also has an iron shield boss, unbow fixed to it, which turns aside the most formidable blows of stones, pikes and heavy missiles in general. Of course it's not just the swords and everything else, you're dealing with all sorts of heavy missiles, you can imagine the sorts of things that have been catapulted and thrown and shot and everything else towards people in warfare. It says here how heavy was the Roman scutum shield, of course one of the major downsides of having a larger shield is that it weighs much more and is less marble. It is estimated that a scutum shield could have weighed as much as 10 kilograms, about 22 pounds, however the creation of the scutum in response to the new fighting style meant that it didn't need to be wielded around and move very much in battle, so its weight was largely irrelevant. Now this isn't something new, so I know obviously we give a lot of credit to the Romans, obviously we see some amazing things that came from Roman civilisation, the Roman Empire, however people are fighting like this, if you think about in the Bible when it talks about the battle being in array, and if you remember like Goliath saying why set you the battle in array, array is in formation, so these formations are very tight and it makes it very hard, it's not like the movies where people are just hacking, sashing, cutting and then some guy is really skilful, just jumps down and starts spinning around with swords and everything else. Being in array is in a tight formation with shields, spears, things like that, where it's very hard to break down, it can be a sort of standoff for a lot of the time. And here with this sort of fighting style, it's saying here that the weight of it is largely irrelevant because a lot of it is to be able to be very defensively tight and overwhelmed with numbers because a lot of the time with the Roman army they'd be marching forward in numbers in a very tight formation until eventually there's nowhere for them to go and maybe it's going to break them up with obviously the missile attacks coming over the top. So it's a highly effective shield and it's one of the key parts of the Roman military success apparently, a lot of people have some interesting writings on this sort of thing. And with this I think there's only one that's really been dug up and I'd imagine being wrapped in timber and leather, these things are going to break down with time as well, so they're going to degrade in the ground and stuff. But there has been one that for whatever reason seemed to be preserved and dug up, I had a look at some pics of it, it was a big pretty strong looking shield. And as with our other items of armour, you'd be pretty mad to go to battle without it. Again, take off your 20th century Hollywood nonsense and think about going to battle where there's just missile in terms of just arrows coming over the top, javelins coming over the top, all sorts of things just raining down on you. I mean, you wouldn't think, well I'm just going to stand there bold as brass, you're going to go into battle with your shield, aren't you? And Paul though, under inspiration, puts his shield as the number one item on the list, didn't he? He said in verse 16 of Ephesians 6, above all, he starts with, above all, take ye the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Above all, above the belt, above the breastplate, above even the shoes. We said, you know, you wouldn't even go to battle without the shoes, above the shoes, above the helmet, above the sword. He's saying, above all, taking the shield, why? Well, think about just on the analogy side here, that testudo tortoise formation, you could survive that without anything round your middle, couldn't you? If you're in the middle of that formation, yeah, you could survive that without the belt whether you want to call it a belt of armour or not, you could survive it without your breastplate on, couldn't you? As long as you're in that formation, you've got a shield either in front of you or above you, without your shoes you could survive maybe if you stayed near the back, you didn't really do anything, you didn't really get involved and maybe be able to battle back, but at least you could stay in formation, at least you could stay safe, yeah? And obviously we know that our shoes are talking about preaching the gospel here. And you could keep your head down, no helmet, as long as you're behind that shield, you've got the shield over the top, and you could even survive without a sword with it. But without that shield, without that shield, what's going to happen? Look, not only are you now, not only are you in this again, looking at the battle analogy, not only are you at risk, you're not going to have either something in front of you or something over the top of you, but you're basically going to put those at risk around you as well, because it all goes together. It's the most important bit of equipment. Like I say, think about arrows, javelins, rocks, all sorts of things being held at you, okay? And in the spiritual battle, we are dealing with spiritual javelins, aren't we? By the way, that's what a dart is, okay? A dart here is a javelin, not a little pointed thing which fat alcoholics throw and call a sport, okay? This is a javelin, it's like a huge, you know, basically like a spear, the sort of thing, you know, you'd imagine when you see, well, the sort of thing that people throw and see how far they can throw them, probably a little bit more spotlight than the little, funny little dart thing that the drunkards throw. Okay, that's why we're seeing it being described as thrust through with a dart. You don't have to turn it in Hebrews 12, okay? You don't get thrust through with something this size, okay? Now, in battle, it seems they were often lit first. So you can imagine arrows being lit, these sort of javelins were being lit, and you think, well, why were they lit? Because isn't the javelin itself enough? Like, that lands through you, it doesn't matter whether you get burnt at the same time, you're going to be thrust through onto the ground. Well, think about when those burning javelins miss their target but land in the middle of maybe a not so tight formation, and suddenly you've got flames in the middle where you're trying to keep tight in a formation and there's things on fire and they're burning around your feet, burning around you. That's going to possibly break up the formation of it, isn't it? You're maybe not so keen on staying tight when down at your feet is a burning spear with a load of, you know, flames licking up at your feet, your legs, or worse, yeah? So, look, now some with this, on this point, they claim that the shields were dipped in water. Has anyone heard this before? Okay, so when people have, I'm sure I've heard someone preach this once before, but they say, oh, well, apparently they dipped it in water, which is why it says quenching the fiery darts, yeah. Oh, we've got to explain how this is quenching the fiery darts. I know, well, it's dipped in water. Now, looking at this, it seems quite hotly debated, this, because some say why on earth, you're already carrying a 10 kilogramme shield, do you really want to then dip it and soak it in water, which would only be worth it if you really dipped it and soaked it, not just gave it a quick splash, to make it apparently quench these fiery darts. Well, look, quenching does usually refer to extinguishing fire, but it's also used about stopping thirst, isn't it? You quench thirst, and in 1 Thessalonians 5.19, it's used in reference to not preventing the spirit, quench not the spirit, yeah. So, look, it doesn't always mean that, it's basically preventing it stopping, but whether or not, you know, whether they are literally putting out fires or preventing them from spearing you or burning you, the shields are of utmost importance, aren't they? Yeah, forget the water, just have that shield above your head or in front of you in battle, and that's massively important. And spiritually, that is what we're up against, okay. We're up against fiery darts, yeah, fiery javelins, fiery kind of attacks, which are meant to either destroy the individual or break and scatter the unit. Okay, look, I've said this many times, yeah, when you're out of church, you're not in church, it's not really the Christian life. Look, yeah, you're a Christian, yeah, you're living life, okay, so don't take me too literally on that, but there's a difference, isn't there? When you're in church life and you're in a church which is going out actively, preaching the gospel, it's a different game, the spiritual battle suddenly comes to life, you're seeing it, you're feeling it, you're dealing with it, and with that, part of the goal with these fiery darts is not just to spear you, not just to spear the people, not just to destroy the Christian's life, somehow destroy you, get you out of church, whatever it is, it's also to scatter the sheep as well. Okay, and a fiery dart does that, okay, when people start to drop, other people a lot of the time start to drop as well. Other people get kind of led away, they see someone else start to stop, or stop coming to church or whatever it is, start to backslide, and then they start to just think a little bit more about backsliding, right? Start to think about, well, do I have to be in church? I start to think, well, maybe there is a problem because so and so's just left. So and so's just started slandering the church or slandering someone in it or whatever else it is, slandering the type of church it is, and these fires start to affect others. Okay, that's part of the goal. Now, notice with this as well, he didn't say darts of the wicked one, did he? Because it's a multitude of wicked that are throwing flaming javelins, yeah? He said the fiery darts of the wicked, that's the opposition army. So in the Christian life, you've got God's army, yeah? They're the believers, they're God's children. You've got the wicked, yeah? That's the devil's children, that's the devil's army, okay? And they're in all sorts of aspects and areas and everything else. And then you've got the middle ground. Then you've got basically the battleground that we're battling for, and that's people's souls. That's the people in the middle, that's the unsaved, okay? And without understanding that, again, half the Bible just doesn't make any sense, does it? All these people that deny the reprobate doctrine, that deny children of the devil, children of Belial, sons of Belial, you know, all these different names for them, they're just denying half the Bible, and they don't understand this point that that's who we're talking about. They're the people doing the bidding of the devil. They're the people that are throwing those fiery darts in one angle or another, or from one angle or another. So you've got false prophets behind pulpits around this country who are throwing fiery darts in one way or another, okay? And who are trying to gain ground on the masses, on those that are unsaved. And ultimately, I suppose, really, at some point, get them hopefully to be given over, at least to be so hard-hearted to the gospel that there's no chance of them. You've got, but false prophets work in many different ways. You've got the infiltrators that we've talked about. And again, I always have to give a caveat that we don't do witch hunts here, okay? But you've got people that come in as false prophets. You've got just haters in general in all areas. You just think of like, you know, the average sodomite is a reprobate. They're not behind a pulpit. They're not trying to infiltrate a church. They just want to hate on you. They just want to, like many of them, will want to find a way to just try and throw a fiery dart in one way or another. And you are at your children. Sometimes there can be some pretty wicked fiery darts. And then you've just got these various stalkers as well, haven't you? Online stalkers, offline stalkers, just weirdos that want to just come in and try and cause trouble, try and destroy, whether it's here or on channels or on social media or whatever. Nowadays, it's obviously the battleground has varied a little bit. So you've got all these different types of enemies, yeah? What is a shield of faith? Well, just like with righteousness, there are two types of faith, okay? So we want this shield of faith to protect us against these types of people. But there are two types of faith that we have to understand first because, again, if you don't understand this, then you find it very hard to understand what the shield of faith is or maybe you're just going to think it's salvation because turn to Romans 3 because we're going to do a quick reminder of that first kind of righteousness along with that first kind of faith. We looked at that a lot two weeks ago. So Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says this. Well, you're turning to Romans 3. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, For by grace are ye saved through faith. Okay? So there's a type of faith which is a saving faith and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So this first kind of faith we're going to look at is a saving faith. There's a faith which gets you saved. Okay? And we're talking about spiritual salvation here. Romans 3 and verse 21 says, But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is how? By faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. So this is the first type of righteousness that's imputed unto us by faith in Jesus Christ. For all have sinned to come short the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. That's that faith. It's faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness. Okay? So it's Jesus Christ's righteousness, this first type of righteousness as well that's imputed unto us, that he might be just and to justify of him which believeth in Jesus. Where it's boasting then is excluded. By what law of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Okay, so it's pretty clear that the only way that we're going to be justified, that we're seen as righteous, is through faith in Jesus Christ. Okay? That's the first kind of faith. Okay? That's faith type number one. Now turn to Acts 6, because the second type of faith can vary amongst those that are saved by the first kind of faith. Okay? So you need that first kind of faith, that trust, that belief on the Lord Jesus Christ to get saved, and then you've got this second type of faith. You turn to Acts 6. Now Stephen in Acts 6 was someone with a large amount of the second kind of faith. Okay, now Stephen has a large amount of this faith. Acts 6 says in verse 1, So there's some teething problems with the first church here. Verse 2 says, So they've just called the multitude of disciples. Now these people aren't just saved, are they? They're continuing in his word, right? Yeah? To be a disciple, yeah? What did Jesus Christ said? Yeah? If, if, if, if you continue on my word, then are you my disciples indeed. Okay? So to be a disciple, you're continuing in his word. To get saved, you've got to believe in his word. Okay? You've got your faith in Jesus Christ as salvation. If you continue in his word, then you then are a disciple. We're talking about disciples here. He said, Stephen gets a special mention for being full of faith. And this has got nothing to do with salvation. Oh, Stephen was just more saved than everyone else. No, obviously not. Okay? You get saved when you put your faith in Jesus Christ. No one can be more saved than anyone else. You're either saved or you're not saved. Stephen was a man full of faith, though. Okay? This is someone who, for me, has faith in many of the other promises of God. Faith that he will answer prayers. Yeah? Faith that things will work out when you do it God's way, for example. Faith in the preservation of God's words. Faith in the word of God. Faith in the promises of eternal rewards. Maybe. Because Stephen, let's be honest, probably had to have some faith in the promises of eternal rewards because he had a bit of a nasty end. Okay? What was the result of being full of faith? Well, look at verse 6. The great company of the priests were obedient to the faith, and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. So this second kind of faith can result in great things being done for God. That's what we're seeing here. But without the shield, you're not going to do much in the battle but hide out, are you? Okay? So without that, without that faith, without that ability to have that faith, to be able to hide behind that shield of faith, you're not really going to do much. What exactly is it that Stephen had faith in? Well, turn to Psalm 91. The simple answer is God. Okay, that's the simple answer. Well, you turn to Psalm 91. I'm going to read Psalm 28 and verse 7, which says this. Psalm 28, 7 says, The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise him. What was it about God that Stephen and David in Psalm 28 trusted? Well, what is it? What is it? So here we see that the Lord is my strength and my shield. What is it that they trusted? Is there a list of things? Well, it's a pretty long list. It is a long list of things. It's every word of God that they trusted. Okay, that's what it is. It's every word of God. Psalm 91 says this in verse 1, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will serve the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress. My God in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowl and from the noise and pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. And Jesus said in John 17, 17, Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. So what is it? It's faith in the word of God. It's faith in the word of God. That's what our shield of faith is. It's faith. It's trust in every word, every promise, every commandment in our Bible. Turn to Proverbs 30, because there are people that think that faith is, I just got so much faith that God exists. Yeah, of course God exists. Okay, that's not what the faith we're talking about here. Oh, he's just got so much faith, this person, because, you know, he just really believes in, you know, the creation account of the Bible. Okay? No, no, no, that's not the sort of faith we're talking about here. It's faith in the word of God. Thy word is truth. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. And it's the same thing, really, though, isn't it? Because if I told you to trust me, the fact that I exist, okay, goes without saying, doesn't it? If I said to you, right, you know, Brother John, you've got to trust me, okay? I'm not going, well, you better trust that I exist, John. No, no, what am I saying? I'm saying trust what I'm about to say. Trust what I'm saying. Put your faith in what I'm saying. That's trusting me, isn't it? Okay, faith in God is having faith or trusting what he says. That's the whole point, isn't it? It's trusting the words that come out of God's mouth. Yeah, that's what the faith is. That's what the shield of faith is. Proverbs 30 and verse 5 says it in a nutshell. It says, every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. You have the pure words of God here, and putting your trust in him is putting your trust in the pure words of God, yeah? There's no accident why that's all there in that one verse. So putting your faith and trust in God is everything that he says, okay? Because every word of God is pure. And by the way, it didn't say every word of God was pure. Every word of God is pure. It is pure because we have it, okay? Every word of God is pure. And when you have faith in every word of God, you're able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. That's what he said, all, didn't he? He didn't just say, well, you can quench some of them. No, when you have faith and trust in the word of God, you can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And they fire them from all angles. And I was just, you know, just ones you can kind of think of that I just think of when I was writing these notes. You know, there's varying different angles that these things come from. Sometimes you think, oh, it's all just going to be attack on, I don't know, just attack on the deity of Christ, or just attack on the gospel. And, yeah, there are ways that people try and attack, yeah? There are ways that the wicked try and attack. But, for example, oh, there's nothing wrong with social drinking. People like that one, don't they? Oh, well, nothing wrong with a bit of social drinking. Does the Bible say there's no social drinking? But my Bible says in Proverbs 21, wine is a mocha, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived, thereby is not wise. You're deceived by this stuff, you're not wise. Yet, that's one angle. Now, if that doesn't wash... So maybe that didn't get you. Maybe you had faith in the Word of God, which said, look not thou upon the wine when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. It said, don't even look at fermented alcohol. Oh, OK, well, let's try another one. Well, the Bible doesn't say anything about cannabis. They try that. Well, I haven't got in with the alcohol, I'll try in with the... Well, it's a natural herb. And this is an angle I heard before. People try and go, well, some of Jesus' healing balms were made from cannabis, and they start trying to... When you go back to the Hebrew, like, complete nonsense, you have these people come out with. First Peter 5-8 says, So we look at... Hopefully, if you have saving faith, you go, what does the Bible say? What does my shield say? My shield says no. My shield says I'm going to defend you from that. But do you have that shield of faith? Do you have faith in God in what he says? And there are a hundred different examples you could give. And are you vigilant too? We're told to be vigilant. Proverbs 6-24 says that that shield of faith in his words is there to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. If you have faith in his word, then you're going to trust him when he says that, rather than dropping your shield at the first sign of a flatterer. And look, the flesh loves flattery. It's one of the fiery darts of the wicked, or at least it's one of the ways to get you to drop your shield to then fire the fiery dart. And it's not just a strange woman if you're thinking about some adulterous type of woman. Many people use flattery to disarm you. But the Bible says, Do you trust your word of God? Because if you do, your alarm bell should go up and people flatter you, and many other ways that they try and disarm you. Or do you drop it? Do you go, oh, there's a charming assassin, down goes the shield? You know, they seem pretty kind. They've got some shiny armor. They're probably not really that aggressive. And the thing with this, it's not just for the individual attack. So do you really have faith in the shield? Do you really trust that God is there for you? Do you? Look, some people say they do, but do they really trust that? Do you trust what he said in Isaiah 41, 10, where he said, Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. He promised it, didn't he? Do you trust him, though? Because that's what part of that shield of faith is. Do you really trust that? Or do you go, oh, yeah, like, probably going to end up, you know, probably going to end up, this is going to go wrong for me. If I do it God's way, who knows, you know? If I live the way God wants, you know, I probably won't even be able to afford food. And you can think of many other ways where people start to doubt. But if you do, if you do trust him, you can do some mighty things. Now, go back to 1 Chronicles 12, where we see some guys that were renowned for their shields. Now, in 1 Chronicles 11, we see a list of the famous mighty men, but there are more to add here in 1 Chronicles 12. It says here in 1 Chronicles 12 and verse 1, it says, Now these are they that came to David to Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish. Where are we? And they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war. They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones, and shooting arrows out of a bow, even of Saul's brethren of Benjamin. The chief was Ahieza, then Joash, the sons of Shemaiah, the Gibiothite, and Jeziel, and Pelet, the sons of Asmaveth, and Berakah, and Jehu, the Antithite, and Ismaiah, the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, you know, the thirty, and Jeremiah, and Jeheziel, and Johanan, and Josabad, and the Gedirathite, Eluzai, and Jerimoth, and Beeliah, and Shemaiah, and Shephatiah, and Hariphite, Elkanah, and Jeziah, and Azarael, and Joeza, and Jashopeam, the Korhites, and Joela, and Zebediah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor. And now look at verse eight. And of the Gadites who separated themselves unto David, unto the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the face of lions, or as swift as the rose upon the mountains. What were their weapons? So we've just looked at the Benjamites. If you're wondering, why is he reading that out? The Benjamites in verse one to seven were ambidextrous. They were hurling stones, shooting arrows, yeah, with both sides. Verse 24, if you jump forward, says the children of Judah that bears shield and spear, with six thousand and eight hundred ready armed to the war. Verse 34 says then of Naphtali, a thousand captains, and with them with shield and spear, thirty and seven thousand. Others we see in that passage have instruments of war. What do these Gadites have? Shield or buckler? Shield or buckler. Now, just a quick heads up on this, because some try and claim that there's some sort of error in here. It's an error in translation. There's no error in translation here, okay? This isn't an accident. They had shield and buckler. And we see what shield and buckler said together, because a buckler's basically, it seems to me, just a larger shield. Okay, so they can handle both of these. They can handle the shield and buckler. Webster's 1828 says of a buckler, a kind of shield or piece of defensive armour, anciently used in war, it was composed of wood or wickers woven together, covered with skin or leather, fortified with plates of brass or other metal, and worn on the left arm. On the middle was an umbo, boss or prominence, very useful in causing stones or darts to glance off. The buckler often was four feet long and covered the whole body. That sounds familiar to you. It does to me. That sounds a lot like a Roman scutum, doesn't it? Okay, so look, there's nothing new under the sun with this. And, you know, many years before, you know, what would you say here, sort of several hundred years before the Roman scutum, they had a long buckler which was very similar. And so I was talking about, you know, being in array. Now these guys that they're talking about here, these Gadites here, could handle either. So they could handle a shield and they could handle a buckler which it seemed to be was a bigger shield, right? Said in verse 8, And of the Gadites they separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle that could handle shield and buckler whose faces were like the faces of lions and were as swift as the rose upon the mountains. So what are the characteristics of these men that could handle the shield and the buckler? Well, they were men of might, men of war fit for the battle. Their faces were like the faces of lions. I don't think it's about their facial hair here. And they were swift as rose or deer upon the mountains. And I reckon that if you can handle the shield of faith, then you're going to share these characteristics with them. Okay, that's what I believe. The whole armour of God is the title today. Number four, the shield. And this is a kind of sub point. These are quick points we're going to make here. Number one, with the shield, you're fit for battle. With the shield, you are fit for the battle. Without the shield, you're more of a hindrance than a help. That's the problem. Think of that formation. That one gap can affect everyone, can't it? That one gap. So, you know, we as a church here, if you lack faith, if you're in a church like this and there are people that are open and sort of loud with their lack of faith, sadly, that can affect others. That can weaken others. That can shake other people's faith. You drop your shield and maybe they start dropping their shield or at least they feel, I need to kind of cover them with my shield and it becomes a problem, doesn't it? We need faith to be in this battle and we need to have a tight formation of faith. Faith in the word of God. Faith in the things of the Bible. Faith in all these things. Faith in what God says he's going to do. When you get speared by a fiery javelin yourself, what happens? The others start getting picked off. So if you don't have the shield, you're not fit for battle. OK, that's the truth. If you're kind of hanging on by a thread in church because you don't really believe most of what we preach here, you don't really believe, you know, the doctrines that we stand upon in this church, well, you're better off not in here because you're not fit for the battle. Yeah, this church needs people that are fit for the battle, that know that, yeah, look, we need to have a tight formation of shields in front of us behind. That means you have faith in what the Bible says about all these things. If you start slipping off and backsliding out of this church, you're going to affect other people. We want people strong in here. We want people who are strong behind that shield of faith. And look, for me, you can have trouble with those shoes, you can have trouble with the breastplate, but with the shield you can at least keep formation. Look, strong faith is contagious, isn't it? If you're here and you're, you know, like I talked about last week, you know, men here are amending to the sermon, you know, amending to the key points, the strong points of the Bible, the key teachings, the key doctrines, the things that we're about in this church. People are getting involved, people are behind the church, behind the leadership, behind our pastor. That's contagious. That's contagious and that's a tight formation. Yeah, that's hard then for them to pick people off. But if you're not, I think you can become a hindrance, can't you? People are constantly murmuring and we had this obviously before, we had people just in the background, just little subtle questionings and, you know, you can question things, but you don't question it to other people in the church. You know, a question, come and ask me. Yeah, but there would be people that would be just a little thing, just a little seed sown in the background, just a little faith shaking a here, just a little fiery dart there. And what happened? We had big issues, didn't we? We had big issues because of that. And obviously these are the worst type, but these people were the ones throwing the fiery javelins. But because of that, because then it started shaking people's faith, you could see that division forming, couldn't you? Division in our church, there wasn't this strong unity there. When you have it, you're fit for the battle. You can turn there if you're quick. 2 Samuel 22 and verse 40. 2 Samuel 22 and verse 40. David said this. 2 Samuel 22, 40. For thou has girded me with strength to battle. Them that rose up against me, thou has subdued under me. And this is his song there that he's singing. That shield gives you strength, doesn't it? The might to go to battle. He says, for thou has girded me with strength to battle. It comes from the Word of God. It comes from God. It comes from the shield of faith. You're strong enough and these guys are strong enough. These were men of war fit for the battle. They had the might to go to battle because they had the shield. Because they had that shield of faith, they were able to get into battle in the first place. You've got to have the shield to go to battle, don't you? Paul said, verse 16, above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Number one, with the shield you're fit for the battle. And number two, with the shield you're bold as a lion. With the shield you're bold as a lion. They had faces like lions. They were bold as brass because they trusted their shields. Because they could handle shield and buckler, their faces were like lions because of the confidence oozing out at them because of their faith in the shield. Because of their faith in the world. When you have faith, if you've noticed, when you go out just confident, positive, full of faith, preaching the Gospel, isn't it different? Is it different when you deal with people? Is it different when you're in front of them and you're full of faith? And those that don't have that, those that are doubting a bit, I don't know, I don't know if I could really get them saved without maybe a three-hour sort of sit-down, then I really need to go through some of the doctrines. Are they really going out to the battle with faces as lions? Are they really able to take people on? No, but when you have faith in the key doctrines of the Bible, you have faith in grace, faith, you have faith in soul within. Then you're different, you have a face bold as a lion when you go out with your Bible to get people saved. And look, they had faces as lions, these guys, and you find someone with strong faith and you'll see someone that isn't quaking in their boots every time a dart is thrown as well. People can be like, again, that is contagious. Yeah, but what about the, you name it, what about the Sodomites? You know, what about the authorities? You know, what about, oh, what's going to happen? Look, that's not a face as a lion, is it? Yeah, faces like lions are people that are like, I've got my shield of faith. Yeah, I'm behind my shield of faith, I'm going to preach what the Word of God says, we're going to be all right. We're going to be all right, yeah? And look, when you have that, every time the enemies attack, every time things are looking rough, you have faith in God's Word, faith in God that will never leave you or forsake you, you're going to be all right, aren't you? You're not going to be just panicking and worrying and, oh, well, I don't know what's going to happen next, you know, what if I lose my job for being associated with a church which preaches the truth? God said he's never going to leave you or forsake you. Yeah, why worry, why are you worrying about that? Oh, you know, what if, you know, my family, you know, I don't want to see me because... God promised you, didn't he? He promised you that he's going to be with you. And he said, look, sometimes that stuff's going to happen, people are going to hate you. We don't have to worry about that, do we? You don't have to turn there, but Psalm 3 and verse 3 says, But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me. I'm trying not to sing it, it's very easy, breaking the song now every time I read Psalm 3. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me, my glory and the lifter up of mine head. And that results in a face like a lion, doesn't it? That results in a face like a lion. You've got the Lord, whom shall you fear? Is there really anyone to fear when you've got the Lord? You're king of the jungle, aren't you? Look, you're a lion. We talked about this before, anyway, I've been lions, yeah? You had a wicked flee when no man pursued, but the righteous are bold as a lion. You're saved, and I would add to that, if you're living how God wants you to live, you're trying to do your best, you're trying to be righteous, you have your breastplate of righteousness, you have your shield of faith, then you could be bold as a lion, can't you? Bold as a lion. And when you're bold as a lion, who are you really going to fear? Who's a lion really fearing? We're not talking about the lion here, I know you get a few of these pesky hyenas, yeah, but we talked about this several months ago, how when that male lion comes along, unless he's injured or lame or something, they all scram. And it's funny because I've seen some of these videos where there's like about 100 of them, and these 100 of them can take on the fever, the fever can take on a whole pride, it seems, until the male turns up. The male turns up and they all start going in all different directions, you think if you'd just stayed together, you could have taken him out, there's a lot of you, but he just kills a few for fun on the way off and everything else. And look, these guys have faces like lions because they had that shield of faith because they were the king of the jungle, they were, they are, and we are, the strongest among beasts when you have your shield of faith, yeah. And that means that you're happy to march into battle against, well, what, the most well-connected false prophets, because sometimes that's going to happen, that has to happen, doesn't it? Sometimes these false prophets, look, they've got some people in high places that they've convinced, sometimes you've got to just march into battle against them anyway. Sometimes you've just got to say, look, I've got my shield of faith, I know things are going to work out. Sometimes it might be the most popular infiltrator, yeah, sometimes it's someone that they've hoodwinked the whole church. But when you have your shield of faith, you're still going to go in and march into battle against them, right? Sometimes when you've got that shield of faith, you can ride out the worst persecution. You can ride it out, you're thinking, this is getting hard, this is getting thick and fast, but I can ride it out because I have my shield of faith because I'm behind this shield. It doesn't matter how many flaming javelins are being thrown at me, how much is raining down on me, I have the shield. I'm going to be all right. You can preach sometimes in the roughest neighbourhoods, can't you? Yeah, there's a difference. Those who have the shield of faith will march straight into some of the roughest neighbourhoods, and I know there's rougher neighbourhoods than there are maybe in this nation. I'm sure there's some rougher ones and there's probably a few more guns and a few more weapons out there. But look, when you have the shield of faith, you can go in there and say, no, look, the Lord is my shield, yeah? I can go in and preach the gospel. I've said this before, some of the places we sometimes go, when I was young, I probably would have thought twice about stepping foot on a lot of those estates that we go preaching the gospel on, right? I mean, I saw it today with my kids. It's just like these horrible little brats everywhere trying to start fights with them while I'm preaching the gospel. But we march in there, what happened? Nothing. God's a shield to us, isn't he? Yeah, he's a shield to us. Number one, with the shield you're fit for the battle, we saw as an example of these Gadites here. With the shield, you're as bold as a lion. And number three, with the shield, you're swift to the fight. You're swift to the fight. You know why they were as swift as rose are even on the mountains? Because they could handle their shields. Hey, wait a second, weren't they carrying around bucklers as well? Didn't they have, like, four-foot-long shields? You know, maybe these shields are 10kg heavy. Well, when you have a firm grip on that shield of faith, the point is it doesn't take you as long to join in with the fight. They were swift to the fight because they knew they could handle their shield of buckler. It didn't matter where they were going, as a group with shields, they were joining straight away. You see a problem, you take it on straight away. When you have the shield of faith, you see a problem, you see an issue, you see something in the spiritual fight and you take it on, right? You see battle ahead. You don't go, oh, we'd better kind of work out. No, you rush in and join it. Yeah, and look, sometimes I learnt you've got to do that from the pulpit sometimes. Sometimes you see something cropping up, you see some wickedness and you've got to go, right, this week I need to preach on this. I need to smash this down. I don't care if it means that half the church is going to be eyeballing me like they hate me because I'm preaching something I'm seeing going on in this church. Sometimes you've got to do that and it's not just preaching either. Sometimes it's persecution for Christ's sake. Sometimes you can see that persecution coming in your life and you've got to go, let's just get on with it. Let's just get on with it. Yeah, it's coming. It's going to come because of my stance on this, because of what I believe. I know they're trying to just see, does he really believe what the Bible says about you name it? And right now the big one's sodomy, isn't it? Does he really believe what the Bible says about cross-dressing? Yes, I do. I might as well just get this out in the open straightaway. Yeah, I believe the Bible. I believe the word of God. Yeah, you want to ask, you want to beat around the bush, let's just get on with it, yeah. And sometimes it means that you're quick to get involved. For example, this could happen in the future. The sods are outside church. What do you do? Those with the shield of faith go, let's get to church early tonight. Yee-haw! Let's get down there. Yeah, we're going to have some fun on the way in today. Yeah, we're going to get some persecution, let's get on with it because we have the shield of faith. But those without that shield of faith, oh, might be a bit, I don't think I'm going to make church today. Maybe try and like rush, is there a back exit in, back entrance rather in, you know, or something else? No. Those with the shield of faith go, no, we're going to be quick to the battle, yeah, quick to the battle. Lockdowns. Let's be honest, I mean, now I've been a can of worms for the last lot and that can of worms has been opened. Probably going to happen again at some point. So lockdown, what do we do? Get out, soul winning. Yeah, that's some receptive soul winning, wasn't it? Lockdown, let's get out. We've got to have a many salvations in the first year of this church. Half of it was in the lockdown. People want to get saved when they're worried about pestilence and everything else, don't they? And what do you do? Do you go, oh, what? We're going to have to think about... No, you go, let's get soul winning. Yeah, let's march to the battle. And with faith as well, you keep going too. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40 because it's not just that these guys were swift on the mountains. It wasn't that they were swift to one point, they were swift over the whole mountains. They kept going, they had endurance because of the fact that they were confident in their shield. They knew that they could turn up a bit weary but they still had that buckler and shield to protect them. They could get a breather behind that buckler and shield because God will sometimes give you a breather. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 31 says this. It says, But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. And look, when you wait upon the Lord, when you have that faith in the Lord, when you're happy to sit behind that shield of faith and wait for things to work out, look, you're not going to tire. It's not going to become too much for you. You can get through it, you can get through the persecution, you can get through the trouble. And that's a big part of it, it's endurance as well, isn't it? The Christian life, as we go through the years in this church, you're going to learn it's more about endurance as well. It's not about just being a quick sprinter. Oh yeah, I've got 50 salvations in a day. Knocking doors for every day of the week for two weeks. And then, where are you? Where are you? But it's about week in, week out. Just keeping going, keeping going. It's not about showing off for a week or two. It's about just keeping going, keeping going, keep preaching the gospel, keep defending against those fiery darts. Are they really getting sick? They haven't come to church. You know, the little fiery darts that start coming to try and weaken your soul winning, weaken your faith in what the Bible says. Then it is just belief, isn't it? So why do so many people get swayed by the, oh, but if they haven't become a disciple and joined one of the most hardcore, or the most hardcore church in the country, and if they've gone online and looked at it and looked at some of the preaching and looked at us encouraging and promoting it, the fact that you even so many knocking on their door makes them think, I'll get involved with that church. You know, I'm going to kind of feel a bit obliged to start getting involved and being part of the army. Look, the fact they're not here makes no difference. Did they put their faith in Christ when you preach the gospel to them? Yes or no? If they did, they're saved. Yeah? Do you believe that, or are we turning into Lordship Salvationists here? And what part of that is a shield of faith? Because those fiery darts come. The fiery darts come in many angles. Oh, they're not up to 500 already there, you know? Must not be, you know, must not be God's will. God does amazing things with a small group of people, doesn't he? Yeah, and this sort of church, look, we're not a rock and roll church here. This isn't feel-good time. Yeah, usually you come away from these, like I said this morning, away from sermons feeling like you've just had your toes, not only trodden on, but sledgehammered to the floor, OK? But it's good for you, yeah? And what's the result? We have a church here going out and preaching the gospel week in, week out, and we've got people getting saved, and we've got people turning around their lives and living righteously and not just part of the Liberal Fun Club. Now, we saw here, number one point was, with the shield you're fit for the battle, and we're taking the example of these Gadites here, with the shield your boulders align, with the shield you're swift to the fight. Verse nine then says this, he said, he gives a list of these people, he says, Esau the first, Obadiah the second, Eliab the first, Mishmanah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, Atai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, Johanan the eighth, Elzabat the ninth, Jeremiah the tenth, Macbainai the eleventh. And you could argue, possibly picturing the 11 disciples, I'm not sure, they'll probably need a bit of study for that. Verse 14 says, these were of the sons of Gad, captains of the host, one of the least was over a hundred, and the greatest over a thousand. And that's what you need in all aspects of leadership, OK? When I'm talking about this sort of stuff, I'm talking about leadership in many areas, OK? You need men with faith, men with faith. Leadership, as this church does grow with time, and we have people in different leadership positions, and we go on to plant churches in the future, you need men with faith, men with strong faith. These guys were of the sons of Gad, captains of the host, one of the least was over a hundred, the greatest over a thousand. Because they were strong, they knew how to handle shield and buckler. They were strong, and the picture there for me, clearly when we're comparing this with Ephesians chapter 6, is being strong in faith, yeah? Being strong in faith. Whether it's, like I said, whether it's the family, yeah? Look, men, you want to lead a godly family, you need to be strong in your faith. Not only is it contagious, OK? Not only is that faith contagious to those around you, but you're going to have to be strong, because if you want to lead a godly family, then you're going to have darts getting thrown at you and your family, OK? You need to be strong in the faith. Whether it's to do God's way despite the opposition, just that. The opposition, the family, the extended family, all trying to criticise what you're doing, all trying to find fault in what you're doing, all trying to find fault in whether it's homeschooling, whether it's you go to church twice a week, you spend the whole Sunday there, you go out and knock people's doors and the rest of it, trying to live righteously, trying to keep your kids away from the filth all over the TV, trying to keep your kids away from the wicked music, trying to get your kids to dress properly. I mean, that's a battle on its own, isn't it? With everyone on the outside trying to criticise, trying to find fault in everything you're doing, you've got to be strong in the faith, don't you? Strong enough to say, no, this, this is what the Bible says and this is how I'm going to lead my family. In the church house. Look, like I said, we have various beliefs, you need people strong in the faith. No good if someone, yeah, well, I'm a fly-by-night Christian. Where's my role, Brother Ian? A fly-by-night Christian. Give me some captaining somewhere, give me a role, give me something to do. Give me a deaconship in the future, give me a church plant in the future, something else. No good. You want to see people with strong faith, don't you? You have faith in the word of God, people that have faith in what the Bible says and to show that over time. We want to see that, don't we? And in various positions in life you need that, don't you? If you're going to live as a godly Christian in a workplace, you need to have some strong faith, don't you? You have strong faith to not join in with the gang, to not end up getting involved with all the smut, all the innuendo, all the oy oy stuff for the men, maybe, and you can think of many, many angles. The dishonesty, the lying for your boss, the lying for this, the lying about that, all of this different stuff, the losing your integrity, the covetousness, all that stuff. Look, you need to have some strong faith, don't you? Okay, and that's what that shield of faith is about, and in leadership it's important. It says in verse 15, These are they that went over Jordan in the first month when it had overflown all his banks and they put to flight all them of the valleys both toward the east and toward the west. So, basically, I think for me the idea here is that they went when it was roughest. It was overflowing its banks, yeah? It was overflowing. This is like the River Jordan, yeah? You can imagine. Let's, for many of us here, picture the River Thames overflowing and in a nice, and I'm not talking about a little trickly area somewhere in southwest London or something, I'm talking about east London, sort of a wide part of the River Thames overflowing. That's going to be pretty rough, yeah? You don't want to be going in that water, really, do you? People sometimes look at rivers and things and think, hey, great, a bit of freshwater swimming, yeah? When it's a big river, you're more likely to get dragged under by the currents, especially when it's overflowing, okay? That's some dangerous stuff out there. These guys, they went, these are they that went over Jordan in the first month when it had overflown all his banks and they put to flight all them of the valleys, both toward the east and toward the west. They went when it was roughest and they got the victory. They went when it was rough. And it makes me think, in a way, like about this church as well and about the fact that, and this is everyone here that's got involved with this church, that is a part of this church, is that, look, you could go, this is a rough time in England to be starting an NIFB church. Yeah, a time in England where liberalism is beyond what it's ever been. Where is the like-minded church? So at least there's lots of different churches all kind of taking some of the battle. But it's not around, is it? I ain't seeing that anywhere. I'm seeing us standing alone like a lighthouse in the middle of that rough waters with the waves beating against us going, no, we're the one church in. That's going to get, look, it's going to increase, it's going to ramp up. However, here they went when it was roughest and what happened, they got the victory, and we're getting the victory here. Okay, we're two years in in this church and we're getting the victory. We're getting salvations every week. We're getting people saved. We're preaching the whole counsel of God and we're going on and we're getting stronger. But what if your faith is weak, though? Okay, so what if, look, admittedly there are those that seem to have a gift for it, okay? We see that in 1 Corinthians 12. You turn there if you like. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about those that actually have a gift of faith, okay, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 8 says, 1 Corinthians 12, 8, For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit. So look, some people maybe have just naturally a bit more faith than others or maybe it's not naturally, maybe it's, you know, whatever you want to call it because of that. And I believe that, you know, there's kind of, there's what we saw the kind of miraculous kind of outworking of the Spirit in the kind of, in the period of the apost when the word of God was being written still and being completed. And then I think from there afterwards, I think that there is a kind of an ongoing manifestation of the Spirit with that in a non-miraculous way. There are just people that we would describe as, well, that person really believes, you know, really believes everything in the word of God, but it's a gift of the Spirit, it's faith, right? People have that gift, but it is available to all. Okay, it's not, oh, well, I just don't have that. I just don't believe most of this, but I believe the salvation part. You know, I don't know, take it with a pinch of salt. Yeah, I don't know, does he really, does he really want to help me or anything else? Well, it is available to all, or Paul wouldn't have said, taking the shield of faith, would he? He wouldn't have said, wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, and he wouldn't have said, above all, take the shield of faith, unless you can take the shield of faith. And we can at least have some measure of it, can't we? And for me, there are two ways of increasing it, okay? So if you're sitting and going, okay, so how do I actually increase my faith? Well, it's only Galatians 5. The obvious one is the word of God, okay? That's obvious, look, it's faith in God, it's faith in the word of God, and guess what increases faith in God and faith in the word of God? Reading it, studying it, learning it, applying it to your life, yeah? You read the word of God, you're going to get more faith in the word of God. Look, you'll have times in your life, everyone will have times in your life, when you're having a bit of a lack of faith in many areas. Is God going to do this? Is God, sometimes people have a bit of lack of faith in maybe even their salvation, okay? And of course, they're not going to go, oh, I'm just not saved, but some people will have those times. But when you read the word of God, doesn't it increase your faith? Look, no one could write, I had some kids today chunk out, don't believe all that, you know, they're trying to like mock it and everything else and scorn it while we're up the road in this estate, but I said to him, no one could write that. No one could write, you read, no one could write this stuff. No one could, just the way it matches up from start to finish alone. Over 1,500 years, 40 authors, and it matches up from start to finish, no one could write that. This is not written by man, the more you read it, the more you just, the more you study it as well. And just going through, for example, our Bible study in Matthew, and just amazing when you start to see things pieced together and see how that works and this works and studying with that and comparing with this, it's amazing, isn't it? The whole word of God is amazing, and the more you read it, the more you study it, the more you listen to it preach, the stronger your faith becomes. Psalm 91, 4 said, and you're turning to Galatians 5, it said, He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. And you need to know for it to be your shield and buckler, don't you? You can't have a shield and buckler if you don't even know where your shield and buckler is. There's no point having a shield and buckler if you don't even know how to pick up your shield and buckler. These guys that we saw, the Gadites, they could handle both shield and buckler. Can you handle the word of God? Do you know where to turn? Do you know where passages are? Do you know when I'm saying turn here? Do you know where to turn? Or are you sitting there just trying to look like you know where to turn? And trying to, and look, you know, it's a learning curve, and for some of you Christians, learn the word of God, yeah? You need to know how to handle your shield, right? And it's faith in it which is our shield. Now, which, by the way, okay, this goes hand in hand with the second way because faith is a byproduct of something else as well, okay? So, Galatians 5, and we're going to finish up here, says this in verse 16. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one to the other, so ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are manifest which are these. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like of the witch I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And this is obviously not talking about believers here. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. It's the fruit of the Spirit. Faith, meekness, temperance against such, there is no law. And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the effect of the lust. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Now, it's not automatic. This is encouragement to do so. Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another. And it's funny that bit, because that can be such a fleshly thing that people do. Instead of walking in the Spirit, they're desirous of vainglory. They're provoking one another, envying one another. But no, we want to put away all of that stuff, walk in the Spirit. And when you walk in the Spirit, you're living in the Spirit, a byproduct of that is faith. And then you have your shield of faith. But how do you get in the Spirit? How do you walk in the Spirit? And one of those is really your Bible, which if the faith is in God and the Word of God is God speaking to us, you better make sure that you read your Bible. Then a byproduct of that is it helps you get in the Spirit. And when you're in the Spirit, a byproduct of that is that you then have the shield of faith. It all goes hand in hand, right? Now, before we finish, remember that Stephen was described as a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Yeah, no coincidence there for me. You want to be full of faith. You want to have that shield of faith, that shield of faith that can protect you so much, that can help you have faces as bold as life, help you be fit and prepared for the battle, fit for the battle, sorry, help you to be able to answer quick, to respond quickly to the battle, to just go, I'm getting involved. I'm in there. Yeah, I'm fighting for God. You want all of that? Well, it looks to me like you need to be full of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, you want to be full of the Holy Spirit. How do you do that? Well, reject all that fleshly stuff, live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, read your Bibles. And for me, that's a great way of being able to take up that shield of faith. So that was the whole armour of God. And number four, the shield. That was the shield. And on that, we're going to pray. Father, thank you for the shield of faith. Thank you that you are a shield for us. It's faith in you. We just have to rely on you as our shield, to have that faith that you will be our shield, that you are our shield, that every word of God is pure and that you are a shield to those that put their trust in you. And Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you that you do protect us, that you do look after us, that we're able to pick up that shield, Lord, that everyone here is able to do that. Help us to all want to do that. Help us to all want to be a strong part of the formation here, to be a part of this, to be living for you, to be fighting for you, to be part of the battle. Lord, help us to all want to be involved, help us to all want to get people saved, have a heart for the lost, have a heart for standing on the principles of the word of God, have a heart for a proper Bible preaching, soul-winning, hell-raising church, Lord. Lord, help us to just want to really fight and be a part of that. And to do that, we need to have that shield, we need to be a part of that. Lord, help us to all be strong with that, help us to be strong with that this week. It's not just when we're in the church house, it's going home into our private lives, our personal lives away from church, that we need to also just be strong behind that shield, have that over our heads in front of us. Help us to all do that this week, Lord, and help us to return on Wednesday for the evening service there, and if not, on Sunday for another day in your house. In Jesus' name, for all of this. Amen.