Saturday, October 26, 2019

PT-4 "The Shield of Faith" (Eph. 6:16)


SPIRIITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2019 9:22 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-4 “The Shield of Faith”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 6:16

            Message of the verse:  in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

            We have been talking about the flaming missiles that Satan shoots at us for some time in these Spiritual Diaries, and the question arises as to how we as believers can extinguish these flaming missiles that Satan shoots at us.  He shoots missiles of temptation at us and the only way that we can defeat these missiles is to believe God as we take up the “shield of faith.”  Let us take a look at Proverbs 30:5-6 “5 Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. 6 Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.”  We want to now look at what David says in Psalm 18:30 “As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the LORD is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.”  One more and that comes from 1 John 5:4 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.”

            John MacArthur writes “The evil one’ (or ‘vile, wretched one,’ poneros) refers to the devil, whose supernaturally evil schemes are to stand firm against and ‘to resist in the evil day’ with the armor God supplies (vv. 11-13).  Paul here again emphasizes that our struggle is against personal forces of evil—not simply against bad philosophies or wrong ideas, as liberal theologians and preachers have long maintained.  Our battle is not against abstract evil influences but the personal ‘evil one’ and his hordes of personal demons.”

            I for one cannot really understand why people who say that they believe in God will also say that they do not believe that there is a devil.  All you have to do is take a look at history and some of the terrible things that have happened and you can see that there has to be a devil.  All you have to do is read from the Word of God, from the very first book and see that there is a devil.  Look at who tempted our Lord in the wilderness from Matthew chapter four and you will see that He was tempted by the devil because that is exactly what the text tells us:  “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).  Another way one can see that there is a devil is taking a look at the nation of Israel and you will find out that Satan hates the nation of Israel and has always hated that nation.  Once you see all of the terrible things that have happened to Israel and compare it with Scripture you know that Satan is behind Israel’s troubles. 

            In our SD for tomorrow we will begin to look at the “Helmet of Salvation” from Ephesians 6:17, Lord willing.

Our quotation from “Love in Action” comes from Acts 9:1-2:

As for Saul,
he made havoc of the church,
entering every house, and dragging off
men and women, committing them to prison
(Acts 8:3).  Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder
against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and
asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so
that if he found any who were of the Way [Christians]
whether men or women, he might bring
them bound to Jerusalem.

10/26/2019 9:47 AM

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