LESSON
46
The Armor of God
Part 6
Shield of Faith
Eph. 6:10-16 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and
in the power of His might. Put on the
whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. 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]. Wherefore
take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be
able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand
therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Faith is not a natural
life source.
Never do you see faith failing in the
Bible. Whenever there was faith the
supernatural always came to pass.
Eph. 2:8-9 For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the
gift of God: not of works, lest
any man should boast.
Faith is not of yourself; it is the gift of God.
Faith is the commitment
of your will to act on the Word of God despite circumstances, feelings, or
personal beliefs that are contrary to the Word of God.
Rom.
Not everyone has
faith. Faith comes from hearing the Word
of God. In this scripture, word means Rhema (a word that is spoken by God) in the
Greek.
John
Rom.
The Word can be preached
and one person gets saved and another doesn't.
God takes the Word and speaks to an individual a Rhema
word. In other words, they will hear the
Word of God and it will become alive on the inside of them. When this happens, faith is present.
The word hearing in
Romans
Get before God praying
and searching through the scriptures and then God will quicken something in
you. When the Rhema
word comes, faith is present to step out in obedience to that Word to bring it
to pass.
Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Faith is tangible. Faith proves that what you have been hoping
for will come to pass. We can hold up
our shield of faith against the fiery darts, the lies of the devil, because we
have the Rhema word of God. Stand firm on the Word that God has given
you.
When faith is resident
you can fight off doubt. If you don't
have the faith to stand, you must get on your knees and ask the Lord to help
you with your unbelief. Faith arises
when God speaks to your spirit. You can
receive a Rhema word when you worship, come into His
presence, get in prayer, and get in the Word.
The Helmet of Salvation
Eph.
The word salvation here
does not refer to the salvation of when you were saved. It literally means the completed deliverance
that will happen upon Christ's return.
1 Thes. 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The helmet of salvation
is a hope of a final deliverance. The
word hope means “a strong desire with absolute expectation for
fulfillment”. When you are hoping for
something, you are eagerly expecting to receive that to which you are hoping
for. When you are putting on the helmet
of salvation, you are developing a strong hope for the return of Christ. We must be expecting and watching for the
return of Christ.
Eagerly waiting for the
return of Christ is a weapon against the devil.
It is defensive and offensive.
Matt. 24:36-44 But
of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the
angels of heaven, but my Father only.
But as the days of Noe [were], so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be. For as
in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe
entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all
away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall
be taken, and the other left. Two [women
shall be] grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other
left. Watch therefore: for ye know
not what hour your Lord doth come.
But know this, that if the goodman
of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have
watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be
ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man
cometh.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jesus is warning us to
put on the helmet of salvation, watching for the return of Christ.
1 Thes.
5:1-6 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no
need that I write unto you. For
yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the
night. For when they shall say, Peace
and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman
with child; and they shall not escape.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you
as a thief. Ye are all the children of
light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of
darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as
[do] others; but let us watch and be sober.
Mark
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The word watch comes
from the Greek word, agrupneo, and means ‘to
look and expect something to happen; to hope for something.’ Look for and expect the return of Christ.
Titus 2:13-15 Looking
for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our
Savior Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good
works. These things speak, and
exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
1 Pet. 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope
to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ;
Col. 1:4-5 Since we
heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love [which ye have] to all the
saints, for the hope which is laid
up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth
of the gospel;
There is a hope laid up for you.
1 John 3:2-3 Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we
know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as
He is. And every man that hath
this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is
pure.
One of the greatest
tools of the devil is to rob from you of your hope. There are youth around the United States
killing, committing crimes, and engaging in vile sin. Many of them don't believe they will live
past the age of 19. They have no hope
for the future. Whenever hopelessness
enters in, despair and every form of impurity will enter in.
Prov. 29:18 Where [there is]
no vision, the people perish:
but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vision speaks of a
future hope. The word
perish here means “to become unrestrained or undisciplined”.
The devil wants to get
you to stop thinking of the return of Christ, so he can fill you with despair,
discouragement and cause you to become undisciplined. If we would live like Jesus was coming
tomorrow, we would purify ourselves.
There is a force inside of hope, that gives you
the ability to pay a price and to sacrifice, because you are so convinced that
an event or thing is going to come to pass.
People are willing to
throw away money on the lottery with a hope of becoming rich. It's amazing what a slight hope of a great
reward will cause people to do. How much
more so should we have a hope on the sure Word of God, that
says without reservations, “Jesus Christ will come back!”? There's a great reward, that Jesus has paid
for, that we will receive when Christ returns.
Have this hope burning on the inside of you.
So many people in the
church live like the devil because they have no hope. The people that don't have a committed prayer
life have no hope that God will answer their prayers. If you really believed that when you pray God
will answer your prayers, and if you eagerly anticipated the answer to your
prayers, you would have a more disciplined prayer life. When you have no hope, you have no
discipline.
The helmet of salvation
is a defensive weapon against discouragement and complacency. It is also an offensive weapon which causes
you to purify yourself and take assault against the work of the flesh and the
work of the devil upon your life.
When you burn with the
hope of salvation, it will give you the discipline to work harder and sacrifice
more for the sake of the kingdom.
Put on the helmet of
salvation by having a burning desire for the return of Jesus.
In Review:
1. True
or False? Faith is the gift of God?
_________________________________
2.
Define faith. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. How
does faith come?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4.
Explain the helmet of salvation?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5.
Define hope.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6. How
is the helmet of salvation both an offensive and defensive weapon?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7.
Define watch.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8. If you believed Jesus was returning tomorrow, what would you do today? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________