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Let us continue in worship with the reading of the Scripture of the morning, Paul's letter to Timothy, the sixth chapter. I begin at the verse numbered 11. "But as for you men of God, shun all this. Aim at righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the

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eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from

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reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion.

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Amen." And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his Word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. The Apostle Paul is the greatest general the Christian faith has ever known, and

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his counsel to Christian soldiers is therefore of infinite value. In our text for today, Paul says that the Christian warrior is to take up the shield of faith. Now in the Roman army there were two shields, a small shield and a large shield, which was about four and a half feet high and two and a half feet wide.

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Paul uses the word which specifically indicates the large shield. It was made of two pieces of wood and was covered with metal on both sides. Paul uses this shield as a metaphor for something that we need in the living of our lives as we face the tough times which are part of our day and hour. You remember his series

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of metaphors begins with the girdle of truth, that is, we are to be wrapped round with the security which comes to us from knowing and being able to use the Word of God written. And then he tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness, which is not our own righteousness but the righteousness of

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Jesus Christ, so that all of our sins in the past are forgiven and he begins to grow in us so that we become more and more like him. And then Paul speaks of the footwear of the Christian soldier and it is to bring us to the place of solidity and firmness so we know where we stand. It also has protective value

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and it makes us more mobile in carrying the gospel of peace to other people. But after you put these things on, after you have girded yourself and after you put on the breastplate and after you've put on the sandals of faith, Paul says you still need the shield because attack sometimes comes from other directions.

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Well now, what exactly is this shield of faith? Well, it is certainly not that which shields us from hardship. The Apostle Paul carried the shield of faith and yet in his life knew great hardship. He was beaten, he was lashed, he was stoned, he was imprisoned, he was in shipwreck. He knew all kinds of hardship.

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The shield of faith does not save us from that kind of thing. In like manner, the shield of faith does not shield us from illness. The Apostle Paul carried the shield of faith and yet he knew illness all of his life. We do not know what this thorn in the flesh of which he speaks is, but we do know that it is a

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physical ailment. It could have been anything from an eye problem to epilepsy. It sometimes embarrassed him in the presence of other people, but whatever it was, Paul was a sick man. And so the shield of faith does not protect us from illness. The shield of faith does also not make life easy and a constant

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pleasure. The Apostle Paul carried the shield of faith and yet his life was not easy. It was not all pleasure. You will remember that he describes his efforts in serving his churches as being in travail for them. He says it is as hard for him to carry out his ministry as it is for a woman to bring a child into the

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world. His is a kind of living martyrdom. Paul suffered a great deal in his ministry. The shield of faith did not protect him from that. And in like manner, the shield of faith does not prevent failures because the Apostle Paul carried the shield of faith and yet he knew repeated failures in his life. How

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many times he would start a church and then go elsewhere and then learn about the problems there. We read in his writings things like this, "Have you fallen away so quickly? Is it true that you are getting drunk on the communion wine? Is it true that strife has arisen amongst you? Demas has forsaken me,

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having loved this present world too much." The shield of faith did not protect Paul from failure. The shield of faith, you see, is not related to the circumstances of our lives except as those circumstances impact upon our souls. You see, Paul always thought of the soul first. When he measured a woman or a man,

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it was not by the standards of humankind. It was rather by the calipers of eternity. He measured the strength of the soul, for that to him was the primary, the preeminently important thing in any life. When we think of the shield of faith, we think of something that will keep us comfortable, of something that will give

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us victory, of something that will protect us from sorrow and from pain and from loss and defeat. But you see, these things are incidentals. They are not the essentials. These are circumstances. They are not eternal verities. Faith, you see, does not make life easy, but faith does stop that which can destroy or

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grievously wound the soul. We take up the shield of faith to protect us for failure. It won't work, but it will protect us from pessimism. The shield of faith will not keep us from injury, but it will keep us from a vengeful spirit against those who have hurt us. The shield of faith will not keep us from

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disappointment, but it will keep us from bitterness and cynicism. The shield of faith will not protect us from difficulty, but it will keep us from cowardice and disloyalty. The shield of faith will not protect us against success, but it will keep us from pride and an arrogant spirit. The shield of

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faith will not protect us from wealth and abundance, but it will keep us from becoming crass materialists. The shield of faith, you see, is Christian character. And there are three ways in which this kind of character is developed in the spirit. The first is by the cultivation of personal closeness to Christ Jesus.

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One of my friends in the ministry, now retired on the west coast of our country, is Dr. Robert Boyd Munger. Now, Bob Munger is known for many things, but perhaps best known because of a little pamphlet he wrote many years ago now called "My Heart, Christ's Home." And in that pamphlet, he understands that Jesus comes into his

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heart and he visualizes his own heart as a home, and he visualizes Jesus as entering in. And the whole pamphlet talks about what Jesus does when he comes into the drawing room or the dining room or the living room or the rumpus room or what-have-you. For example, when Jesus comes into the library, he says, "Now,

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you're going to have to take all of the books and magazines in this library that are impure, that are not beautiful, that are not of good report. You'll have to remove these things from the library if I'm going to stay here. And you're going to have to put my picture up over the mantle because I want you to see me, your

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Lord, every day of your life. And as you read and study and learn, think of the things you read and study and learn in terms of me." There's a passage in the pamphlet about the fact that gradually, this person turns over his heart to Jesus room by room, just like a house, but he keeps one hall closet upstairs locked

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because he's got some secret things in there that he doesn't think Jesus knows about. And one day, Jesus comes to him and says, "You know, there's a terrible smell coming out of that closet. Smells like something dead in there." And the owner of the heart replies, "Now, listen. I've given you the run of my whole house, but I'm

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not going to give you the key to that closet." Jesus said, "That's alright. Perfectly alright. I'll just sleep on the back porch. You can't expect me to sleep in the midst of all that stink." And because he loves Jesus very much and because he doesn't want to be separated from Jesus anyway, he says, "Lord, here's

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the key to the closet, but you'll have to clean it out for me. I'm too weak to clean it out myself." And so Jesus cleans it out and immediately there's a great freshness in the place. And finally, as room after room and closet after closet is turned over, one day this one who owns the heart says to Jesus, "Lord, you're

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living now in all of my heart home. Why don't you just take the deed? I mean, why don't you just own the place totally, everything, all of it?" And Jesus says, "Why, fine. I'd be very glad to do that. The fact of the matter is you can't be victorious in the Christian life on your own. You're going to need my help to do

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it. Up till now, I've been the guest and you've been the host. But now, I'll be the host and see what a difference it will make." And he becomes the host and the one whose heart it is becomes servant and visitor. He turns over everything that he has, lock, stock, and barrel to the Savior. That is what it is to cultivate

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closeness with Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus has lived life as we are living it. The Scriptures say that he has been tempted at every point as we are tempted. Now he sits in great glory at the right hand of God, and all the power of the blessed Trinity is at his disposal, and he uses that power to help

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us in the fight. What we must do is to believe him and his promises and to trust in him. That is the first step in building Christian character. Now the second step in taking up the shield of faith is to give careful attention and obedience to all of Christ's counsel. Not too long ago, I was talking to a well-

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known surgeon here in Pittsburgh, and in the course of his remarks, he said to me, "Bruce, what is happening to us?" And he was referring to all the things that are going wrong in our society. I don't like to have to remind you of these things, but think of the scope of them, how cheating is the most serious problem on

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our campuses today, and not only our civilian campuses, but in our military academies as well. Think of the crookedness on Wall Street, the insider training and the trading and the churning of stocks. Think about the experts who tell us that white-collar crime in America costs ten times as much

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as what the mafia takes out of this country illegally every year. Think about what's happening to marriages, when more than one-half of them now end in failure. Think of drugs in our elementary schools, in our junior high schools, and our senior high schools, and on our college campuses, and in our professional sports

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teams. Think of colleges cheating one another in trying to get the best athletes for their team. Think of our soldiers and our sailors and our Marines being wooed over to become spies for the Russians on the basis of the promise of sex and money. Think of computer experts who don't think a thing about worming

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their way into military secrets or figuring out the combinations necessary to get into the medical files, the patient files, of great hospitals. Think about how religion has been profaned with what the media calls "pearly gate," the Bakers, Oral Roberts. Think of the cruel and unkind things uttered so

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vigorously by a swagger. Think of the profanation that goes on in the most prominent house in the land, where people like North and Secord and Poindexter are protected, where Porsches are more important than principle, and burglar alarms more important than the law of the land. Quote the Bible nowadays in

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most contexts and people will laugh at you. It wasn't always like that, you know, in this country. Wasn't always like that. Not too long ago I was looking at a book used to teach children penmanship. This book was about 75 years old. They used to teach penmanship in those days by, across the top of the page they would have a

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sentence and then there were 20 blank lines and the youngster was to copy the sentence again and again. It was assumed that by the time he'd gotten through it 20 times he would have learned to have formed those letters. What interested me was the sentences. On the first page the sentence was this, "Religion conduces

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to our present as well as our future happiness." Think of youngsters sitting down and writing that 20 times. "Religion conduces to our present as well as our future happiness." They not only learned how to write, they were given thoughts that were worth writing. We have youngsters today who can do marvelous

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things with computers but don't have an uplifting thought to put into them. The same time I saw that book on penmanship I saw a McGuffey reader. That's the reader from which many of our earlier Americans learned to read. They're collectibles now. They were made up of little stories. Here's one story just on

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the first page that I looked at. Story of Henry Bond. Henry Bond was a little boy. His father was dead. His mother worked very hard to provide for him. She was not able to give him luxuries but she did keep a healthy and a happy home. Henry went to school every day and he was told in school one day that he would need a

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new grammar book and he didn't have the money to buy it and his mother did not have the money to give to him. He went to bed one night very sad and that night while he slept it snowed. When he wakened and saw the snow outside he said to himself, "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good." He got up and he

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went next door and offered to shovel their walk and they paid him. Then he went to another walk and they paid him. He kept on until he had enough money to buy the grammar and then he went to school and he sat there with his grammar in that class and he worked very very hard as a student and he passed in the

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class above and beyond all of the others. And then after this little story, which I've quoted to you almost in precise detail, three questions. One, what did Henry do to get a grammar? Two, what kind of scholar was Henry? And three, what kind of man do you suppose such a boy would make? That's a fourth grade McGuffey

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reader, friends. Nine-year-olds were asking themselves those kinds of questions about that kind of living. This is when the Hebrew Christian tradition was strong in our country but that's no longer so and we know that to be true. That's the reason we're in such tough times. What I'm speaking of today is the

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kind of Christian character which finds its instruction not from the world but from Jesus Christ. An instruction which teaches us that while orthodoxy, right belief, is important, orthopraxis, right action, is just as important. Today people laugh at honesty or sweat or generosity. They ridicule you if you make self

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sacrifice or so some kind of moral zeal but listen to what the Word of God says. "Who shall stand in my holy hill? One who walks blamelessly and does what is right. One who speaks the truth from the heart. One who does not slander with his tongue. One who does no evil to his friends nor makes reproach against his neighbors."

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That's the counsel of the divine and we are to be, if we're going to be carrying that shield of faith and if we're going to be building Christian character, we are to be praying and listening to the voice of conscience as it speaks to us about right living. If Jesus is your friend, then you want to spend time with

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your friend, don't you? And it's your friend's advice you most carefully listen to and it's his character that inspires you and that's what builds up the shield of faith and Christian character in you. And there's a third thing, a last thing. In order to have the shield of faith, we must focus on Christ's

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ultimate victory. There are times in the Christian life when we find our adventures losing. We find ourselves doubting. In such moments it's very important to remember the final victory of our Lord. I'm sure you recall that award-winning film of a few years ago, Chariots of Fire. It's a story of a young

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Scots runner by the name of Eric Little. He went on to become a great missionary to China and died in the service of Christ there. Little was an Olympic runner and represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games in 1924 in some races but the most important race he was to run was to be run on a Sunday and

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Eric Little, coming from a strict Scots covenant or background, refused to run on a Sunday. All kinds of pressures were brought to bear on him, trying to get him to run but he wouldn't and he didn't. And why? Because he understood that that Olympic race was not in ultimate terms nearly so important as the race of faith

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which we are called upon to run. And as we run that race of faith, we gain the final victory, more important than any Olympic crown. We gain that final victory which belongs to Christ and those who belong to Christ. You can lose a lot of yardage and still feel good when you know that the outcome of the game is

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certain and that you will be the winner. You can take a lot of punches when you know that when the final bell rings you will be proclaimed the victor. You can hang in there for a long time with a lot of tenacity and a lot of patience if you know that the victor's crown will inevitably be yours. You know some years

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ago we had in this country a noted historian whose name was Charles Beard. His philosophy of history is not widely respected today and his books are no longer popular. But on one occasion Charles Beard was asked what were the most significant truths he had learned in all of his years as a historian. And

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he wrote on a single page his answer to that question and that page is very well known and it's still honored by some today. Charles Beard wrote that the four most important things he had learned from history were these. First, whom the gods would destroy they first make mad with power. See that says that in the end

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the humble will win. Second, the mills of God grind slow but they grind exceeding fine. That says you see that in the end justice will win. Third, the bee fertilizes the flower it robs and that says that those who are persecuted will in the end know triumph. And fourth, Charles Beard wrote, when it's dark enough you can see

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the stars and that says that for the Christian those caught in the deepest darkest moments of life can still see that Bethlehem star and the promise that came with it and the victory which it guarantees. If we believe this and live this then our Christian character is strengthened and we carry the shield of

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faith as we are. So listen again to what Paul says. He says, "Stand taking the shield of faith and with it you will be able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one." Flaming darts were like metal darts wrapped around with cloth and the cloth was ignited and then they were thrown at soldiers like Molotov

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cocktails are being thrown in the streets of Seoul, Korea today. Those kinds of things would be hurled at armies. They would come in great barrages and they would come from many directions at the same time but you see when you had the shield, that big shield, when you had that faith, that cultivated closeness with

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Christ, that listening to his counsel, that trusting in his final victory, when you had that shield, that character that always told you the truth and led you to condemn a lie that helped your heart even when it was hurting, that enabled you to stand when you thought you couldn't stand anymore, which gave health

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and strength to your soul. When you carry that kind of character, you cannot be defeated. And as you fight your way through life with Jesus fighting at your side, your friend, you come one day to a lull in the battle and Jesus says, "My friend, we have fought so long and so hard together that now we're closer to

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my home than we are to yours. Why not come in and rest a while?" And we say, "Thank you, Lord." And we enter into the house of his father and when we enter into that house, the mansions of eternity, we suddenly discover that the fight is over and the battle is won. And like all the Saints victorious, there will never be

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for us again any tough times. Let us pray. By thy Holy Spirit, our Father, teach us what to believe and teach us how to live in the believing of it. Grant that we might witness a good confession of our

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faith and when this brings us into conflict with the world as it inevitably will, grant to us that closeness to Christ, that certainty of his counsel, and that confidence in his victory which will bring us through. We pray our prayer in his name. Amen.

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