Shield Of God
When
I was young I had a number of ambitions.
I wanted to eventually get married and have children. I have a beautiful family that I’m very proud
of. I wanted to become an electrical
engineer. I currently work as an
embedded software engineer so I achieved that as well. As an aside, I am convinced that all of our
jobs represent some form of godliness.
If you work as a police officer, you know that God is our guardian. If you work as a firefighter you know that
Jesus rescues us from the fires of hell.
As a man who works as a software engineer I know that God is the
programmer of life. One of my other
ambitions was to be a writer. I always
loved to write and by write I mean type because I have awful handwriting.
Several years ago I wrote a book and sent it to a bunch of publishers. Not one of them requested the full
manuscript. I took a writing class and
am still in the process of writing a second novel. I know that God put this desire to write in
my heart for a reason. It is remotely
possible that He desires me to write the next best selling mind bending science
fiction thriller. It is possible! It is also possible that He put this desire
in my heart so that when the minister of the Bethpage Church of Christ, Brian
Friedktu approached me one Sunday and said, ‘On the fifth Sunday of next month
we’d like to invite two or three brothers to come up and edify what they have
learned in the word. Is there something
you’d like to present to the church?’ I
said sure, I can write something up and that has led me to this moment. It’s funny how you chase certain things and
they elude you and other opportunities simply present themselves directly to
you. Since that time I’ve given several
lessons on the family, anger management and what to do when people question
God. Write what you know.
Today’s
lesson come from Ephesians 6:10 – 18 concerning the armor of God. I need to first talk about Paul’s life so we
can understand where he was coming from at this moment in time. Paul’s life can be broken into four main
parts as far as the bible’s concerned.
First we see that Saul was a high ranking Pharisee, a member of the
Sanhedrin. He was knowledgeable,
passionate and one of the leaders. He
believe as did many in the hierarchy at the time that Christians were
blashpheming God by believing in Christ.
He was persecuting the young church and having it’s members put to
death. There was only One who could stop
him. In the second portion of his life
he is stopped by God, blinded by the light for three days. When Ananais met him the scales fell from his
eyes and he could see and he was instructed into the truth. The third part of his life he spent building
up the churches all over the middle east and even into parts of Asia. He finally became the leading disciple
bringing the gentiles (that’s us) into God’s family. It was an amazing time for the church. His conversion and his deeds eventually
caught up with him and he was assaulted by his own people. The Romans took charge of him and
interrogated him handing him over to several leaders before Paul eventually
appealing to Caesar. The last part of
his life he spent in jail among the guards, writing letters to the churches and
speaking with the soldiers. He gained
their trust during this time.
10 Finally, be strong in
the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put
on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against
the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly realms.
What does paul mean by rulers and dark powers of this world? We are living in a time of unprecedented
evil. If I think about this countries
history, there are many dark spot but from the time it was formed in 1776 until
the time I was born in 1976 the people living in this country experienced more
freedom and prosperity than ever before and all the people living in the world
as well. We still kept the faith and
everyone understood that the country was founded and maintained in Judeo
Christian principles. From the time I
was born until the turn of the century things continued to improve and I think
we were this close to experiencing a harmonious society. However at the same time we lost the faith
and became subject to a very evil teaching known as subjective morality. Our young people today, our millennials, more
than half of them do not even believe in God.
The church and religious people are being persecuted every day.
The first
domino to fall happened just before I was born. There was a little court case
you might have heard about, Roe v. Wade which codified in law that a woman had
the unmitigated right to end the life of her unborn baby. You know who was against Roe v. Wade before
she died? Roe! The woman identified as
Jane Roe became a Christian after realizing she had been duped into serving an
evil cause. Last year alone, 950,000
babies lives were ended largely because they were unplanned and
inconvenient. Abortion is not the
leading cause of death among Americans but it is the leading cause of death in
America. We’ve read about Moses as the
only survivor of the Egyptian culling of all the baby boys. We know what great works he did in rescuing
his people by the power of God out of the hands of Pharaoh. Only God knows if one of those babies was
created to grow up and broker a peace deal between the Israelis and the
Palestinians or discover the cure for cancer or some other seemingly impossible
task like balancing the federal budget.
For
millennials most no longer believe it’s necessary to get married. Get married or don’t, live with someone or
don’t, have a baby or not. Do whatever
makes you happy because it’s all about you.
The significance of marriage has been diminished in every way shape and
form by what we see every day in the name of equality, fairness and
justice. The family has become a bunch
of lego pieces. Add a child remove a
child, add a spouse remove a spouse, form a domestic partnership, dissolve
one.
There’s no
such thing as recreational drugs.
There’s medicine and then there’s drugs.
This domino is in the process of falling, where most of the people have
been convinced that thery’re going to do it anyway why not make it legal. Is this going to lead to a better or worse
society? Do you want everyone high all
the time? My biggest fear is they’ll find
a way to put drugs inside of those vaping machines and you won’t know who’s on
what. If my college friends want to come
and call me a hypocrite they can do so but I know the difference between right
and wrong and I correct my mistakes.
Sometimes
I wonder, what’s next? Every virtue a
vice; every vice a virtue. What evil
scheme can the world foist on us next in the name of good intentions? Will there be a brothel on every corner? It’ll help the tax revenue. No one’s forcing you to go? You will see our
society continue to degrade as they follow the false doctrine of subjective
morality. Consider this, in the times in
which the apostles lived, the Roman army invaded towns; taking men women and
children as slaves. It was perfectly
moral, legal and ethical according to the law of that time to force two men
hack each other in the arena for the crowd’s entertainment. That’s what happened when you follow the
false doctrine. Sometimes, I feel
hopeless, helpless. I write my
congressman, senators and governor. It
doesn’t help, they don’t care, they do what they want anyway.
There is
good news! We have a king!. Our king Jesus is powerful, righteous, loving
and wise.
John 18 36-37
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this
world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish
leaders. But now my kingdom is from
another place.”
37 “You are a
king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I
am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify
to the truth. Everyone on the
side of truth listens to me.
We have a kingdom. Our
kingdom will be defeated. It will last
forever. Daniel prophesied about the
kingdom in Daniel 2:44
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will
set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another
people. It will crush all those
kingdoms and bring them to an
end, but it will itself endure forever
ARMY
What does
a king and a kingdom need? An army of
course. Paul makes it clear that we are
not fighting against flesh and blood but against he authorities and dark power
of this world and of the heavenly realm.
I watch a lot of movies. Have
you ever seen a movie where a poltergeist is threatening someone. First they pull out a gun and the bullets go
right through them. Then maybe later
they take out a bible or a cross or throw some holy water. That doesn’t work either right? I’ve never seen a movie where someone says,
“I have been sealed with the Holy Spirit which is stronger than any other
spirit.” The movie would be over like
two minutes. Not good for ratings. We are part of an army, the army of God. Paul
explains how to be a good soldier.
Ephesians
6:13
13 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. 1
The roman
army was the fiercest army of the time.
Previous armies relied on heroes and overwhelming numbers to win. Heroes were goliath types, giants of men, who
could wield amazing weapons and inspire their troops. Overwhelming numbers of lightly armed men
could overrun any fortified position. Or
an army could have outstanding numbers of unskilled archers who would fire
thousands of arrows at an oncoming army.
Even if you have a shield you were vulnerable. The romans relied on constant training, a standing
army and superior military technology.
They had the best weapons and armor at the time and they evolved their
technology and training as time went along.
The armor at the time of Paul’s writing consisted of pieces of metal
like the breastplate that Paul mentions, with shoulder guards and
protection. This armor was light weight
enough to be worn and offered excellent protection in hand to hand combat but
was not very thick or effective against arrows.
Full plate body armor was not invented until the middle ages. What the romans used to solve two problems at
once was large rectangular shield called a scutum. This shield as depicted here could be used to
wedge into the ground and act as a defensive force multiplier to stop incoming
hordes. It could also be held above the
head as a defense against massive arrow attacks. Working together as a unit they could
withstand overwhelming numbers of oncoming troops and attacks from above. They were almost invincible. Even the shield itself has many aspects to
it, the ball in the center, the curve at the ends. Nothing is left to chance, everything has
specific military application. I don’ t
know if Paul was aware of all this but I do know the soldiers he talked with
were. Paul like most influential people
know that if you want others to take an interest in what you have to say you
need to take an interest in what they are interested in. Paul no doubt could sense the dependence
these soldiers had on their armor, each other and the kingdom which they served
which led him to write the following in comparison to the kingdom of God.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled
around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the
shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows
of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
In order to defeat your enemy you
have to understand his goals and tactics.
The devil wants to discredit God and destroy his people. There are two primary things standing in his
way. The first is the family. You can see here a family with a Mother, Father
and children protected by a bubble, a force field or post modern day
shield. It’s metaphorical because I can
protect my wife againt her weak spots and she can protect me against my weak
spots. We both can protect the children
and even the children can protect the family by using their little shields by
giving us back our own words. One time I
was driving my children somewhere and I was late. I was frustrated and making a lot of negative
comments about the people on the road. We become a different person when we get
inside our cars. Everyone’s a heel
behind the wheel. So, my son says to me,
well first he turns and says “Dad why are you getting so upset, don’t you
remember the lesson you’ve given on anger management?” The devil needs to break up the family.
I learned
about a simple concept when I was a child.
It would be considered very controversial today to teach about the
nuclear family. They told us the family
was like the atomic world in which an atom had a nucleus, the parents, and the
children surrounded the parents. One
family connected with others to form a neighborhood, neighborhoods connected
with others to form communities and eventually the society that we live in. The comparison isn’t completely
analogous. The family is strong and you
need to crack this nut if you’re going to crack society. I understand that not everyone lives in ideal
situations and if you have people who love you to take care of you, you are
blessed. That doesn’t mean that we don’t
preach the ideal does it? If a boy grows
up in a single parent household should he think that marriage is
irrelevant? What do people always say
when they separate, ‘we had irreconcilable differences.’ My wife and I have dozens of irreconcilable
differences. We negotiate, compromise or
just live with them. If the family can
be broken up it’s like this. You see
here a father living with this son and separate a mother living with her
daughter. Their shield is not complete. You see the problem here right? It’s much easier for the arrows to get
in. Now, take this a step further and
the children are alone. They may live
with their parents or guardians but no one’s taking care of them, no one’s
teaching them. It’s said that nature
abhors a vacuum. Someone will always
step in, even if it’s the government.
Big brother can take care of the little children from the time they are
born all the way until the time they permanently retire. Cradle to grave. You know what’s missing here? There’s no church, no God, no bible, only
blue sky above.
The
next big obstacle is the church. You
can’t just break up the church right away.
You need to first push the church out of public life. There’s a popular false theory known as the
separation of church and state. The first amendment to the constitution says,
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.
This is important to note because the intent was the stop a government
from instituting a state religion or giving Catholics ten percent off their
auto insurance. There are many three,
four and five letter groups which will pervert this law to make religious
expression and believe a vice instead of a virtue. There’s how Sacramento elementary in Portland
Oregon allows a satanic club to meet on it’s premises. All religions are equal after all? Right?
If you wish to exercise your religious beliefs the world will force you
into conflict. No one should be denied a
product or service because of the way they look or their own lifestyle choices
but we Christians have a right and an obligation to not be involved in pagan
ceremonies. This is not how the world
sees it and increasingly we face persecution.
I feel like there’s an unseen sign, “Christians need not apply.”
What
are the flaming arrows of the devil and how can we protect against them with
our shield of faith? An arrow is
something that strikes us from the outside and hits our weakpoints. If an arrow hit a Roman soldier even on their
armor they would still take damage and if it was on fire their clothes would
catch on fire which is another problem.
There’s
a certain amount of world wisdom that says if you want something you have to
work for it and if you want nice things you need to work hard, get an education
and advance your career. I don’t think this is a bad thing to take care of
yourself and your family. However, when
you get to the point where the Jones have a new driveway and you need a new
driveway, the Jones have a new car and you need a better newer car, Mrs. Jones
has a Michael Kors handbag and you need a Michael Kors handbag you have been
struck with materialism. You know what
the difference between a thousand dollar purse and a hundred dollar purse
is? Nine hundred dollars, they both do
the same thing. Let’s compare two
objects, a granola bar and a hundred dollar bill. Which has more value? You might be tempted to say a hundred dollar
bill is worth more but it merely represents value. The granola bar actually has value I can eat
it. A hundred dollar bill is nearly
worthless, I can’t eat it, I can’t wear it, I can’t even write on it. It’s literally worth the cloth paper it’s
written on. If we were all stuck on an
island I couldn’t trade this bill for anything but for this granola bar, I
could barter. Here is how we defeat the
flaming arrow of materialism.
Timothy 6
But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and
we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content
with that. 9 Those who want to get richfall into temptation and a
trap and into many foolish and harmful
desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some
people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many
griefs.
Some people have
been struck by the love of money and things.
If this granola bar has more value than this bill and our relationships
have more value than food and our lives are worth more than that and our soul
is worth more than our life then what do we compare our eternal salvation with
this piece of paper? Have faith that God
will provide for your needs and that you can be satisfied with what you
have. Have faith to be generous and give
to the church and to those in need. It
is better to give then to receive.
Division strikes our insecurities,
our anger, our pride. It divides
families as I talked about before, it divides our churches and it pits us
against each other.
1 Peter 3:8
8 Finally,
all of you, be like-minded, be
sympathetic, love one another, be
compassionate and humble.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also bring up what
Jesus said in the book of Matthew 10
34 “Do not suppose
that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace,
but a sword. 35 For I have come
to turn
“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[c]
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[c]
It’s important to understand these two passages. We are to be separate from the world but we
are to be unified in Christ and in our understanding of the truth. The reason that Jesus came to bring a sword
is because we are not unified by submitting to the dark powers of the world but
by being united under God. We must
increase our faith by ignoring gossip and criticism among ourselves and also
humbling ourselves to receive correction (if it is justified). We must stick with our loved ones, the wife
of our youth. Proverbs 5:May 13, 2017
May your fountain
be blessed and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful dear – may her
breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
The bible speaks of passion and love. I try to keep this in mind when I am most
angry. The world tries to tell you, you don’t need to stay together, you can do
better out there but it’s a lie. God has
given you, your husband or your wife for a reason.
You see the husband and wife who are old. They
got into a fight but he still loves her, holding the umbrella for her when it’s
raining. She has a small smile on her
face.
TEMPTATION
There’s
no one single temptation. This strikes
everyone in different ways.
James 1:13-15
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God
is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they
are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it
gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Do you know what
the difference between testing and tempting is?
When you are tested, it’s difficult for a time, you have to struggle but
the person testing you wants you to succeed.
Someone who tempts you wants you to fail. To be tempted is not a sin but to allow yourself
to be dragged away it is. The way to
increase our faith and shield ourselves is in 1 corinthians 10
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!13 No
temptation[c] has
overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he
will not let you be tempted[d] beyond
what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[e] he
will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
It’s unlikely
that we will be brought to a tall mountain and shown all the splendors of the
world and told this can all be ours if we only bow down to Satan. We face much more common temptations. We should have faith that we are not being
tempted beyond what we can bear and that in the end God will provide us a way
out.
The
difference between trials that cause division, strife, depression, fear and
persecution is that persecution is specifically aimed at you because of your
faith in God. Persecution specifically
strikes at you because of your faith in Christ.
As I mentioned before we already face persecution if we preach the word
at work or refuse to engage in pagan rituals.
It can be as harmless as being called a name or as difficult as being
fired from your job and even ridiculed through media. In this country we don’t physically
assassinate them we just destroy them in the court of public opinion. Though there may come a day when like as it
is in North Korea, placing a bible in a hotel room earns you fifteen years of
hard labor for ‘threatening to destabilize the state.’ Paul speaks to us concerning persecution
Corintians 4: 8-9 & 16-18
We are afflicted in every way, but not
crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death
of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our
bodies.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self[a] is
wasting away, our inner self is
being renewed day by day. 17 For this
light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the
things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are
seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Matthew 21
Jesus uses the same phrase when speaking about his kingdom to the chief
priests and the Pharisees.
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given
to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be
broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”[e]
Whoever falls because of Jesus and has to
readjust course will be broken to pieces but those whom Jesus has to eventually
stop will be crushed. Paul says we are
afflicted but not crushed, struck down but not destroyed. We shall overcome.
I
could spend many an entire lesson on false doctrine. It’s important to note several of the major
false doctrines to see how these arrows can strike us and how we can shield
against them. Use these examples to
fight all sorts of false doctrines. The
reason that false doctrine convinces so many people is because there’s some
truth in it.
#1 All religions are the same.
They all teach good things and they are all
from God.”
HOOK: All religions do try to
teach people to be good to one another.
This is an eternal truth that all relitions must pick up on.
LINE: If all religions teach goodness than they
are all from the same source, like spokes out of a wheel.
SINKER: It doesn’t matter whom you follow or you
follow no one at all. Do whatever you
want.
PROBLEM: I
can tell you for sure that the Holy Bible which covers both the Jewish and
Christians religions doesn’t say this anywhere.
In fact it says in Exodus 20:3
“You shall have no other God’s before me.” You can also read how many times God punished
his people for worshiping other God’s.
What little I know of Islam also says there is only one God. Budhism and Hindusims worship a plethora of
gods (with a little g). So, this idea is
not even written in any religious text it is purely a modern day (new age)
ideal created wholy by man. I once asked
a Budhist, “So in your opinion who created the universe?” He told me, “We don’t care.” I don’t know about you but I care. I’m not going to worship some god that has to
sub contract out the creation of the universe.
#2) No one is going to Hell.
HOOK: God is a kind mercifiull, loving god and he
wouldn’t send anyone to hell.
LINE: What
about all those people who have never been brough up Christian. It’s not fair if they never hear the message
or hear it in passing. What about a lost
tribe somewhere in the jungles of…
SINKER: There’s no need to do anything specific
other than try to be a good person. Do
whatever you want.
In the end it kind of sound similar to the
first. I remember, 21 years ago when I
was on Stony Brook campus in the Roth cafeteria with my friend Frank. We were passing by his suite mate who was a
follower and he asked us, “Hey you guys want to study the bible?” We both said yes, I showed up, my friend
didn’t. I studied and in the end I said
I wanted to be baptized. The brother
asked why? I said I don’t want to live
like this which meant I wanted to make sure I lived correctly according to the
bible. I loved God since I was a young
child but it was at that point that I was on the right path. I didn’t join this Church because the saint
was so intelligent or charming or persuasive.
What
if I had said no? What if I were too
busy? Would God have sent saint after
saint to beg me to study? Maybe? Or maybe that was my opportunity. So, if you have your opportunity, take it.
2 Corinthians 5:10
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, so that each one may receive what is
due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil
Can you imagine
going before the throne room of God and making some excuse like you didn’t know
God was really real? If he said to you,
“Did I not give you a believing brother or sister or husband or wife? Was that not proof enough?” That would be a sad day for that individual
which I pray never comes about.
Those wishing to join an army must enlist. So too, if you want to join the kingdom of
heaven you must follow what Jesus told us to do. There are several relevant scriptures that
must be understood in unison.
John 3:3
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they
are born again.[a]”
Acts 16:33
33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their
wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.
Acts 2:38
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And
you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
John 3:16
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the
water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on
him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well
pleased.”
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord
is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is
patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Some, in order to convince you of their way of
doing things might show you one scripture or another but I want to show you
these five (and there are many more) which prove several things. One, Jesus himself was baptized and he was
immersed because he came up out of the water. Two, Jesus said that baptism was
the onlyh way to see the kingdom of God
The apostle Peter also explains that baptism comes after repenting and
you will then receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine how powerful you can be with
the spirit of the living God inside you?
Thirdly, repentence is realizing you haved sinned, feeling sorryh for it
and wanting a change. Only an adult or
perhaps an older child is mature enough to be cognizant of such a thing. Baptizing a baby is not the way. If there’s anyone who is ready to be baptized
today, you can reach out to any brother or sister and it will be done. If you want to know more or have questions,
reach out, do a bible study. When I
first studied, I did all twelve lessons before joining.
Let us all be the Seals, the special forces and
the rangers for the LORD! Amen!
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