Remember the Roman Turtles

There are hundreds of different types of turtles, and I'm sure that we've all seen various types of turtles. What I'd like to do is to name some of the turtles for you. There's the pig-nosed turtle, and all of you have seen that one. You've got a nose like a pig, I assume. There's the greasy turtle. This is a family of turtles that's rather large. It can be found in most of the subtropical or tropical areas of the world. And then there's the alligator snapping turtle. This is the biggest freshwater turtle in the continent of North America. This kind of turtle can stay underwater for almost an hour. You do not want to put your finger in front of a snapping turtle. It may take your finger from you. There's the Mesoamerican River turtle. Sometimes this type of turtle is called the hickatee. This turtle is nocturnal, lives in the lakes and rivers of Central America. Then you've got the leatherback turtle. This is a type of turtle that's the largest of them all, who lives out in the seas. You've seen nature films where you see these things swimming along, and you want to get on the back of one of them and just ride along with it. Then you have the red-ear slider turtle. It must have red ears. This is known as a semi-aquatic turtle, and of course, it's very popular, so therefore it's a pet. A lot of people have these as pets. Then you have the common musk turtle. This is also called distinct pot. You may guess it gets its name from releasing a very musky type of odor to dissuade any predator from attacking it. Therefore, it's called distinct pot. Then you've got the big-headed turtle. This turtle is like a lot of us. It's got a big head. It's a type of turtle. It's usually found in South Southern Asia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and China. Its head is extremely large. In fact, its head is so large, it can't get back into the shell. So it's got to look out. Now, when you normally think of a turtle, you think of a hard shell that can be used for protection. I remember growing up, I found a shell once, the turtle shell, and the turtle would die. Long ago, it had been eaten, and all that was left was the turtle shell. I really enjoyed that as a youngster, having that, because you could look at it. It gave you an idea, because you know that whenever something would attack that turtle, it would crawl back up under its shell, and it would hide inside the shell. Now, most turtles have a hard shell, but not all of them do. There are soft-shelled turtles. How many of you have heard of the Roman turtle? This is the one that Bill was referring to. Okay, we've got three or four people who have heard of the Roman turtle. This is a specific turtle that we want to focus on today. We're not going to talk about turtle soup, but we are going to talk about the Roman turtle. I've always been fascinated with the Roman turtle.

I'd like for each one of you right now to picture what does a Roman turtle look like. You picture it in your minds. How many feet does it have? What kind of shape? How big is it? Does it have a big head? Is it a stink pot? Exactly what is the Roman turtle? I also would like for you, while you're thinking about that, think about the Apostle Paul in prison. Let's go over to Acts 28, and we'll read verse 16 to start with. As you will remember, the Apostle Paul had been arrested.

He appealed to Caesar. He was sent to Rome. In verse 16, it says, now when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard. But Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him. So the Apostle Paul wasn't thrown in a dungeon, but he had his own hired house, as we read here in verse 30. Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God.

Now you'll find that he dwelt there for two years, and every day he had at least one, maybe two, soldiers stationed right there next to him. They were there to guard him to make sure that he didn't run off, because if there wasn't any soldier around, who was going to keep Paul there? So he was there. During those two years, he wrote several epistles, and guess what? They're called the prison epistles. One of those letters was the book of Ephesians. So while Paul was in prison, he wrote the book of Ephesians. Let's go over to Ephesians 6, verse 11. And I want you to notice one of the things that the Apostle Paul describes while he wrote this book.

In verse 11, Paul states this, Ephesians 6, verse 11, Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Okay. Daily for two years, Paul was in prison. He had at least one Roman guard standing right next to him. Do you think that when he began to describe putting on the armor of God, that perhaps he had a visual picture of exactly what he was talking about?

Have you ever seen an artist painting, and he'll look over here at the subject he's painting, and he'll sort of size it up, and he'll do a little painting, and he'll look again, and he'll try to see the colors and shadings. He'll do all of that painting. Well, what about Paul in writing about the armor of God?

All of the commentaries that you read about what Paul wrote here say that the description that Paul gave was based upon the armor that was worn by the Roman soldiers, that he was describing how they were dressed. Okay, now that's all interesting, but what does all this have to do with the Roman Turtle?

Well, I hope you've got the Roman Turtle firmly in mind right now, because we're going to describe throughout the rest of this sermon what a Roman Turtle is. The Roman soldiers were trained to fight well and to defend themselves. Now, if the enemy shot arrows at them, and remember in ancient warfare, there could be two or three thousand archers standing over there, and as an army would approach, they would put their bows up, and they would shoot the arrows up into the air, and they would come down.

And before the army ever got there, they could kill half of the people just by knocking them out with arrows. It was as good as using machine guns. You know, just one wave of arrows after another. They could launch thousands of those things. So how was an army going to protect them?

Well, the Romans came up with an ingenious device. If the enemy shot arrows at them, they would use their shields to surround their bodies and protect themselves. This was known as the turtle, or the tortoise, had both names, the Roman tortoise or the Roman turtle. It resembled the hard shell of a turtle or a tortoise, because they would put the shields up in front of them, on the side of them, and over the top of them. And when the arrows came down, they would go, boom, and just bounce off. They could actually march up to a wall of a city that's defended without one person being shot, all of them under the turtle shell.

Now, the Roman army was one of the best in history, as we know. They created an empire all over Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor. They were brilliant tacticians. If they were getting charged by an enemy army, they would break into two lines. You'd see them, you know, they'd sort of line up behind one another, and the front line would throw their spears at the charging army. And the front line's spears were made to snap off. They didn't want to throw a spear or hit something, and they'd pick the spear and throw it back at them.

So, these spears were made that anything it hit, it would snap in two. Now, the enemy then was charging them with broken-off spears, so they're carrying extra weight, and maybe get stuck in the ground as they're trying to charge, and it would disrupt their stride. And then the ones in front would protect the ones behind them, and then the second line would throw their spears. And by the time they got through throwing all these spears, they would scream bloody murder, and they'd run and slaughter the enemies.

They also used a system called the wedge. Now, all of us know what a wedge looks like, but a wedge is like this. It's a wedge. You'd have these wedges next to each other, all up and down. One man at the point of the wedge, two behind him, three behind him, four, five, six, and so on back. And the idea was they would charge into an army, the line of an army in front of them, and they would funnel people in between the wedge. And so, the wedge would drive into the lines, and the soldiers would be caught between these two wedges.

And then the soldiers, the Romans, could strike at them from both sides. And so, you can't protect yourself from both sides. And so, what they would do, they would conquer, they would divide and conquer by driving these wedges into it. Man was killed in front. Next man moved up and took his place, and they just kept going. Now, it was interesting, they also had a system where the most inexperienced men were up front. Put them up front, the green ones.

The next experienced ones, the 25-30 year old, were in the second wave behind them. And the really experienced 30-40 year olds, they were in the back. So, by the time you, if you went through the green, you know, new recruits, and then you got down to the more experienced men, by the time you got to the back, you would think, we've got the battle won. Uh-uh.

These were the real veterans. And then, you know, they would charge you. They all carried a sword, likewise. And unlike most armies, they wore the sword on the right side, not on the left side. And the object was, when they were going to fight a battle, they didn't want to reach across their body, pull the sword out this way.

They just, swoosh, with the sword. And they were ready to fight. And so, they were extremely well trained. As I said, one of the most famous Roman formations was the tortoise, or the turtle. This was where they marched in a rectangular formation. The people at the very front would hold their shields in front of them. Now, these shields were four feet high, two and a half feet wide. So, when they held them up, shield to shield to shield to shield, it was just a barrier. Those in the middle put their shields up like this, and the side that was exposed to the arrows would put their shields over here to the side.

So, in essence, you had a box, or it looked like a turtle shell. And all these soldiers were under it. And then, when the arrows would come, they would bounce off of them.

Now, it was said that this was so strong that those looking at it today said that they could actually carry a caterpillar on the top. If you put a caterpillar up here, if all these men holding these shields up, that they could actually hold a tremendous weight up. They could march in this formation right up to the wall of a city without one person being hit.

Now, even though this was not the best form for attacking, they could still hold these shields up, and any army coming at them, they could jab through the cracks between the shields and jab at them. Now, with that in mind, let's notice verse 16. Ephesians 6 verse 16.

We are told this, above all, here we have all of these different parts and component parts of the armor, but above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. So, they took that shield, and that shield was for their protection.

So, why did they use the shield? Well, it was for protection. Actually, you could squat down behind it, and you would be totally protected. The only thing that they might see if you held it up in front of you would be the bottom part of your legs. What it did, it helped, gave the advantage to the army, because in order to engage this army, to do any damage to this army, you had to come out and fight them face to face. No good throwing spears from a long distance, no good shooting arrows, because those didn't do any good against them. Now, it is interesting that the word for shield occurs only here in the New Testament, the Greek word. And, as Westward's study says, the word shield here is theron. It was designated the shield of the heavy infantry. It was a large oblong one, four by two and a half feet. Sometimes it was curved on the inside, and it was made out of two layers of wood, covered with canvas and with a leather covering on the outside. Now, can you guess why they would put canvas on it? Why they would put leather on it? You'd think they'd put steel in it.

Well, the reason is quite significant. When they thought that the enemy was going to shoot burning arrows at them, or as it says, burning darts here, they would soak the leather and they would soak the canvas in water. And when they would shoot the arrows and they would hit the shield, the water would put the fire out. And it would actually quench the burning darts that were shot at them. It would extinguish them. And so they would carry the shield in their left hand, and they would fight their sword with their right hand. Now, let's notice in verse 16 here, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 16. It says, above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. The word fiery darts there refers to burning arrows. The end of the arrows were dipped in a flammable material, such as towel, and would be dipped in pitch and set afire.

And this type of an arrow would cause great fear among the troops, because normally if it were to hit your shield, it would just keep burning. If it hit your body, you can imagine the flaming arrow hitting your body, and hitting your armor, and the armor catching on fire. And all at once, now, not only are you trying to fight the enemy, but you're burning up. And so what you would have to do is throw everything down, pull your armor off, or you'd burn. And while you're doing that, guess what the enemy is doing? Well, he's taking advantage of you, and he would kill you. This would expose the soldiers to the enemy.

What are the fiery darts that you and I have to fight against? You see, the Roman soldiers had to fight against arrows. Sometimes there were enemies that had actually short spear-like that they would throw at them that we would call more of a dart. There were times when they would actually even light spears, and they would throw at them. Not only would they shoot at the soldiers, but they would shoot at their supplies, and they would shoot at their tents, and they would try to burn everything that the soldier had. Well, what you and I need to realize, brethren, because the analogy is very clear here. This is talking about what the soldiers would do to quench the fiery arrows that were shot at them. And without the shields, they had no protection. If they went out to fight an army without the shields, and thousands, one wave after another, of arrows coming after them, they would be totally decimated unless they had the shields there to protect them. Now, God has given us the shield of faith to protect us against the fiery darts of the devil. Do you know what those fiery darts are? What is it that Satan shoots at us that are like fiery darts or fiery arrows? Well, let me give you very quickly what the Bible has to say on this, because the Bible is very clear at what Satan the devil shoots at God's people. In Matthew 21, verse 21, we read this. Jesus answered and said to them, Assuredly I say to you that if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to this fake tree, but if you say to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, it will be done. Brethren, one of the fiery darts that Satan the devil shoots at us all the time is the word doubt. He wants us to doubt God, to doubt God's promises. He wants us to doubt one another, to be critical of one another. See, the word doubt comes from the Greek word dichryno. And the word means to judge between two, thus divided judgment, a wavering opinion, not being sure, not being certain, not being absolute. You and I need to be absolute in our convictions about God. And if God says it, if it's in His word that we can have absolute faith, absolute confidence in it. The word doubt means to be a variance with oneself, to hesitate.

Are there times that we hesitate to obey or hesitate to do what is right? Or do we obey with gusto? So doubt is one of those fiery darts that Satan is always throwing at us. Now, you have to ask yourself, during this past year, has doubt ever entered into your mind? Do we ever doubt that God would heal us? Do we doubt that God can intervene on our behalf when it comes to our job? Do we doubt that God can do whatever it might be? You know what your circumstances are and what you face. 2 Timothy 1, verse 7. We find another dart that comes our way that Satan tries to throw at us.

2 Timothy 1, verse 7.

We find that God has not given us a spirit or an attitude or an approach of fear. But of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Brethren, fear is another dart that Satan tries to create in the minds of God's people.

What did Israel do when they came to the Red Sea? Did they have a complete faith in God, or did they fear Pharaoh? Did they fear His army? Were they afraid?

What happened to the disciples when they were with Jesus Christ and they were out on the sea in the storm approached? Well, they were afraid, the Bible says. Have you and I ever been afraid to step out or been afraid of something? People today are afraid of authorities, afraid of powers, afraid of demons. You name it. You find that people are afraid of it. Back in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 21, we find where this occurred with ancient Israel, as they were headed toward the Promised Land. Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 21, they came, they could have gone right into the Promised Land, but no, the people were a little skittish. They wanted to send spies in, find out what the land was like, the layout, get some feedback, some logistics on what was going on. And so in verse 21 it says, Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go and possess it. As the Lord, God of your fathers, has spoken to you, do not fear or be discouraged. And every one of you came near to me and said, Let us send men before us and let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way which we should go and of the cities that we shall come to. And the plan pleased me as well, so I took twelve of the men, one from each tribe, they departed, they went up, they came back. Notice verse 26, Nevertheless, you would not go up but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God.

And you complained in your tents. Notice, they weren't necessarily out in the squares, but they were sitting around in their tents complaining, grumbling, and griping.

Because, you said, the Lord hates us. He brought us up out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts. And the people are greater and taller than we are, and the cities are great, and they're fortified up to heaven. And I said to you, do not be terrified nor afraid of them. The Lord your God goes before you. He will fight for you. Brethren, do we have that same attitude that Moses and Aaron had? That it doesn't matter what we're faced with, God will fight our battles for us. That God will take care of us. And yet, verse 32 says, for all that, you did not believe the Lord your God. They were afraid, and they became discouraged. Why? Well, they lacked faith. Now, later on, when they entered into the Promised Land, remember what God did with the city of Jericho? They marched around it seven times, seven days. And finally, the walls came tumbling down. Well, if God needed to, He could have done that to every city in the land. But you see, they didn't have the faith. So fear is one of those darts that Satan tries to throw at us. And he tries to get us to be hesitant and fearful, holding back and not bold as a lion. Now, Satan also discourages us, as it says here. Over in Numbers 21 and verse 4, Numbers chapter 21 and verse 4, you find, as they were journeying again toward the Promised Land, they journeyed from Mount Horeb by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. So they became discouraged on the way, or in other words, by the way, the way God was leading them.

Do we get discouraged? Are there any times that we go through a trial, or we go through tests, or we have sickness, we have difficulties, problems, whatever it might be, and we just simply become discouraged? Have you ever thrown up your hands and said, Lord, it's enough? I've had it. Please give me some relief. Well, they became discouraged. Satan will plant discouragement into our minds, into our thoughts. He wants us to feel hopeless. He wants us to feel like we should just give up and quit. And so he's very good at discouraging people. And guess what? Without the shield of faith, discouragement is very easy to get to us. So is doubt. So is fear. Now, another doubt, or another, let's say, dart or arrow that he shoots at us, is something that maybe doesn't always just involve us, but it involves an attitude, and that is fault finding. Fault finding. Did the religious leaders of Jesus Christ's day find fault with him?

I think they did. They thought he was a sinner. Did they find fault with him on how he kept the Sabbath? Well, they accused him of breaking the Sabbath. They called him a bastard and a wine-biver. Now, that's pretty strong language coming from religious leaders. They faulted him from eating with sinners. They faulted him for healing on the Sabbath day. Now, you stop and think. At one time, God created the angels, and they were all perfect, the Bible says. One of them, by the name of Lucifer, one day found fault with God.

Now, what fault did he find with God? What did God do that was wrong? What sin did God commit? What lull did he break? Well, he did not. And, as the Bible says, God can't be tempted with evil. Neither tempts any man. And yet, Lucifer thought that there was something wrong, and so therefore, he was able to do what? Well, he shared it with others. And he began to get others to agree with him. And pretty soon, you had a major rebellion on your hand. You had one-third of the angels rise up in rebellion against God and have to be cast back down to this earth and chained here. And eventually, they're going to be cast into outer darkness. So, you find even God, being a perfect being, you find that they found fault with him. Now, this ties in with what? Numbers 11, another dark that Satan throws at us. See, Satan is very clever, because, guess what? You and I, being human, have faults. And so, it's easy to find fault with us, right? I mean, we're all human. We all make mistakes. So, you can find fault with anybody. But what you find is, notice how Israel handled some of these things. In verse 1, Numbers 11, not only did they find fault, but then they began to complain. Verse 1, Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, for the Lord heard it, and his anger was aroused, so that the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. And the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched.

Now, in verse 4, the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense cravings. That means, they lusted. I think one version of the Bible says, they lusted a lust, which is really going overboard, excess. So, as it says here, with intense cravings, so that the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who will give us meat to eat? So you can say, well, what's wrong with wanting meat? Well, nothing. But you can come up to Moses and say, Moses, you think maybe you could go talk to God and see if we could have some meat? Yeah, we haven't had meat. We've been eating this other stuff here. We'd like some meat. Maybe God might do something. Would you go inquire of Him? And we'll go back here and sit in our tents and pray about it, and you come tell us. No, they didn't do that. They complained and noticed. It says, we remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlics. And now our whole being has dried up. There's nothing at all except this manna. That's all we have to eat, is manna.

Now, it goes on to describe the manna. Over here in chapter 14 of the book of Numbers. The book of Exodus, the book of Numbers, very interesting books to read, especially some of these chapters, because it describes what happened with the people. In Numbers 14, beginning in verse 2, The children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt, if only we had died in this wilderness, Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives, our children should become victims. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return. We've got Moses here, we've got Aaron, but we don't trust them. Let's select us a leader and let's go back. In verse 9, God was very upset with them. But here you find, This only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their protection is departed from them. The Lord is with us again. Do not fear them. Satan the devil is a master at planting into our minds and our hearts things to complain about. We complain about our mates, we complain about almost anything. The Hebrew word means the grumble, the murmur, or to complain.

Now in verse 11, notice, The Lord said to Moses, How long will these people reject me?

They were complaining, but they were rejecting God. How long will they not believe me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? And then verses 26 and 27, And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against me. And so God was going to destroy them. It's a good thing that Moses and God never got on the same page. When Moses wanted to do away with the people, God said, No, no, no, let's not do that. And then when God says, You get out of the way, I'm going to destroy them, and I'll raise up Israel from you, Moses pleaded on their behalf. So you find that these are darts and arrows that Satan the devil shoots at us. So, brethren, we've got to realize, that Satan the devil is out there. He's very active. And one last point here. I mean, you could think of all kinds of things that could be added to this list. But let's go over to Psalm 78. Psalm 78, which is a summary of what happened to Israel, their attitude and their approach toward God. And what you find is that they lack confidence and trust in God to lead them, and God to direct them. In verse 17, But they sinned even more against him, by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness, and they tested God in their hearts, by asking for the food of their fancy.

See, they put God to the test, and they spoke against God and said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Is God powerful enough? Is God big enough? Is God strong enough to really take care of us out here, or is He going to leave us out here to die? Verse 22, What was their problem? Because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation. See, they did not have the shield of faith. Verse 32, In spite of this, they still sin and do not believe in His wondrous works, after all of the miracles that God performed for them. Verse 41, Yes, again and again, they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. It did not remember His power. Brethren, one of the things that you and I want to do is make sure we never forget what God has done for us. Verse 56, Yet they tested and provoked the Most High and did not keep His testimonies, and turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers, and they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

See, Satan the devil has shattered people's faith and trust in Christ. When the church split in the mid-90s, many people said, I will never again trust a minister. I will never again trust an organization. I will never again, you just put whatever is out there. And their faith in God to lead or in leadership, their faith in God to lead or in leadership, has just been totally undermined. And so what Satan the devil has done, he's just scattered people. They're all over the place. They're sitting there, and they're not going to become a part of anything organized or be a part of a congregation. They're just going to go do their own thing. So what we have to realize is that Satan the devil is the archer. He's firing the fiery darts. And unless you and I have a shield of faith, we won't be able to put those out. Now, the fiery darts or missiles could be very deadly. Let me describe one of them to you. This is taken from Vincent's word study in the New Testament, where he says this, There was used by the Saguntanese, a missile weapon called the Pharlarchic, with the shaft of fur, rounding other parts except toward the point where the iron projected this part, which was square. So the beam running out here was a circle, but you come down here, it was square. This part was square, then bound around with toe, and be smirked with pitch. It had an iron head three feet in length. Now, you imagine a spear coming at you with a head on it three feet in length, so that it could pierce through the body with the armor. It didn't matter what kind of armor you had on, it would come right through the armor. But what caused the greatest fear with this weapon, even though it's stuck in the shield and did not penetrate the body, is when it was discharged with the middle part of the fire, bore alone by a greater flame produced by the mirror motion. Whereas the motion of throwing this thing through the air, that as it's flying through the air, the oxygen feeds on it, and all at once it just becomes a big fireball. And when it hit, it would light the shield, it would light the armor, and as I described to you earlier, you would have to throw that stuff down and rip it off of you, or you would burn. And then you were exposed completely to the enemy.

Now in Ephesians 4, 27, we read this. God tells us, in our struggle with Satan the Devil, in this world, Ephesians 4, 27, do not give place to the Devil. Don't give Satan an opportunity to get at us. The shield was used to help protect the most vulnerable parts of the body. What part of the body, if it were struck, you would be killed? Well, you can whack somebody around the ankles, and that's not going to kill you or hurt you. But if you get into the abdomen, if you get into the heart, the lungs, cut the throat, bash the head, you're in trouble. So you've got a four-foot shield here that covers that area. Two and a half feet sort of wrapping around you. And you could fight from back behind this. And it had leather on it, it had canvas on it, and these were soaked in water. So if an arrow did hit it and it was a flame, the water would put it out.

The shield was there to help to protect and give added protection to the vulnerable parts of the body. Brother, our trust in God's Word and His promises protect us from all kinds of temptations that Satan the Devil hurls at us. You find that Satan the Devil is always putting temptation out there. He's always putting pitfalls. He's always shooting things at us. And temptations are like flaming arrows that come our way.

Now, how did the shield quench the fiery darts? Well, I've already described that to you. Roman soldiers, another author said, were equipped with large rectangular wooden shields four feet high in front that were made of leather. Before battle, in which flaming arrows might be fired, the leather would be wetted to quench any fiery darts and launched against them. After the Roman legions closed ranks, the front roll, holding shields forward and those behind them, holding shields above, they were virtually invulnerable to any attack from flaming arrows. Now, this would help to extinguish the flames. Brethren, what do you and I have? We have a shield of faith. But I want you to notice, this shield, even though it offered protection, in order to put out fiery darts, had to have water on it. Now, what is the water that God gives to us that helps us to extinguish the fiery darts that come our way? Well, John 7, the book of John, in verse 37, you find that the Holy Spirit is compared to water. The Holy Spirit is compared to water. Our minds must be covered with God's Spirit, filled with God's Spirit, in order to protect us. In verse 37, it says, So, brethren, you and I must have the Holy Spirit within us. That Holy Spirit is like the water being poured over the canvas, soaked into the leather. And if God's Spirit soaks into our minds, and it's a part of us, and it's our motivation, when these thoughts come, we have a power dwelling within us. Again, as we read back in Timothy, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind. And so, God gives us the power that we need. Water is also compared to something else in the Bible. Ephesians 5, 26. Ephesians 5. And let's notice here in verse 26, we find this written, Talking about the church, the bride, that he might sanctify, or set us apart, and cleanse her. How are we cleaned up? With the washing of the water by the Word. So, the Word of God washes us up, and cleans us up, brethren. It is the water of God, the Word of God, that helps us to be able to resist Satan. When our minds are focused upon God, filled with the examples in the Bible, see, if you've been studying this Word of God, and you study it daily, and you read it, and you read the examples of faith in the Bible, you read the examples and the promises that God gives us. And the Word of God is there, and it fills your mind when doubts come along, when fears come along, when temptations present themselves. Guess what? You've got ammunition to use against it. You've got something in your mind that you can draw on, and you can say, No, I shouldn't do that. Here's what the Bible says. But guess what? If you haven't been studying, and you haven't been praying the way you should, well, God's Spirit will be weakened instead of a river flowing into us and out of us in good works. We've got a little trickle going through there. And then we don't have these scriptures to fall back on. You and I have to constantly have our minds renewed in that way.

Without the shield, the individual Christian is very vulnerable to the darts of Satan the Devil. If you don't have the shield, and the arrows are flying at you, you might dodge this way, you might dodge that way, you might duck, but one day, one's coming here, and one's coming here, and one's there, and two over here, where are you going to go? One of them is going to get you. And you'll find that Satan knows our weaknesses. He knows where we're vulnerable. He knows that maybe you've taken the belt off, or maybe you don't have this helmet on properly, or you don't have your sword out. And so he knows where you're vulnerable, and he's going to come after you in those areas. Well, the shield is there, the shield of faith, to help protect us. Now, let me quote again what the IVP commentary says about the army collectively. I read this to you earlier, but it's a point I want to get across. The Roman legions would close ranks. The front row, holding the shield forwards, those behind them, holding the shield above, and they were virtually invulnerable to any attack from flaming heralds.

Now, doesn't this illustrate a point for us collectively as a body? That if we don't stand together, we will hang apart. You and I have to stand together. We collectively can be strong. Individually, we have to have that. But if there's just one person out here, individually, yeah, you're protecting yourself. But here we are as a body. We are the army of God. You know, we sing sometimes, onward Christian soldiers. And we're God's army marching along. And collectively, we're strong when we are close to each other. When we have the shields there. And when somebody, perhaps, stumbles, somebody else is there to help him up. And he's got a shield over him to help him. And we encourage one another. We must stand together. Sometimes Israel was united together, but they were united together against God. They were united together against Moses. They discouraged one another. It's not just a matter of being united. We have to be united based upon God's Spirit, based upon God's Word, based upon God's principles. Not our own human perceptions, our own human pet peeves. We either build one another up, or we tear one another down. So, brethren, one of the things that we learned from this illustration is that if we are working together... See, if you know that somebody is sick in the church, you're praying for them. Maybe you call them. You write them. You encourage them. Somebody needs help. You're there to help them. You're there to serve them. And collectively, we're helping one another. We're serving. We're united together. Now, when a person just sort of goes out here and he's on his own, and there's nobody else around, he may have his shield. But one day, he's going to face an enemy that's just going to overwhelm him. One fighting against 50, or one fighting against a centurion with his hundred. You're not going to go very far. And so, we must also be united together. So, it takes God's Spirit, it takes the Word of God, and then it takes us all working collectively together. So, what is the key? Faith is the key. It's called the shield of faith. Is it not? And somehow, this shield quenches the fiery darts. And I've tried to describe to you how it quenches them, because it's soaked in the water. 1 John 5, 4 says this, 1 John 5, 4, Everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

Now, you and I are in a battle for our spiritual lives. The enemy is out to destroy us. Satan the devil wants to destroy every last one of us. He doesn't want to see a one of us in the kingdom, because he knows one day we will be elevated far above him. We'll be a part of the family of God. The Romans were so good at the art of war that they conquered the civilized world at that time. You and I are in a struggle where we're going to have to conquer also. We have to overcome Satan and this world, our own nature, in order to be in the kingdom of God. So we are seeking victory. We must win, ultimately, the battle. We may lose some skirmishes, but we've got to win the battle. In 1 Timothy 1, verse 18, Paul writing to Timothy here, 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 18, reminded him of something.

He said, This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. So Timothy was in a warfare, having faith. So how was he going to wage it? Well, with faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck. So it's very easy for us to be shipwrecked, for the darts to get through. Chapter 6, verse 12, 1 Timothy 6, verse 12, Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life to which you have also been called, having confessed a good confession in the presence of many witnesses. So you and I have to fight the good fight. Brethren, we will not be in the kingdom of God without faith. In Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews 10.37, we read this scripture. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 37, For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. God is going to come back. Satan the devil will want us to doubt the prophecies of God, the second coming of Christ, that all of these things are going to happen and be fulfilled, but they will be. Now it says, the just shall live by faith. So you and I have to live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. What if you're fighting in a battle and everybody up there is fighting, and all at once you start backing up, and you leave them up front to fight, and you try to back up and get out of the fighting? Well, God says, we're not of those who draw back to perdition or destruction, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. So you and I live by faith.

Now chapter 11 goes right on. Remember, originally this was just a letter written. And so in chapter 11, in verse 1, we read this. Now faith is, and we have a definition of faith.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The word substance is the word translated from the Greek word, hupostasis.

And again, we've all heard that word from the past in the Greek, and it literally means to stand under, to support. Faith is the foundation that gives the believer the confidence to stand. If you're going to stand, you stand on faith.

And so faith is the substance of things that we hope for. We hope for God's kingdom. We hope. But we have faith to stand on so that it's not an idle hope. It is a hope based upon a support or on a foundation. This verse could be translated, faith is the confidence of things hoped for. It's the confidence that we have. It means trust and assurance that you and I can trust God. What is faith? It's simply trusting in God. Then notice it says also, faith is the evidence of things not seen. The word evidence means conviction.

The inward conviction that a Christian has that enables us to believe in things not yet seen, that God will perform His promises. You and I have not yet seen the kingdom, but it's coming. In chapter 11, notice over here in verse 13, talking about all the people of faith. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. We're assured of them, embraced them, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Brethren, do we acknowledge that we're pilgrims on the earth? We're strangers here? That we are looking to a country that the Bible, from one end to the other, describes the kingdom of God, the plan of God, salvation that God's offering to us, and that you and I can have that? Well, you and I are to have this utter conviction, total conviction and support. Faith is simply confidence in God. Faith is obeying before we see the results. We obey before the results come. Faith is believing in God's ability to produce and to accomplish what He said He would do. Look at it from God's point of view. If we don't have faith, well, it's a lack of trust in God. If we don't have faith, we doubt His character. We doubt His power. We doubt His ability. Notice what Vincent writes about faith here. The key to faith is verse 27.

Notice verse 27. By faith, talking about Moses, He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for He endured as seeing Him who is invisible.

You don't see God, but yet you have faith in God. Trust God. Faith apprehends as a real fact what is not revealed to the senses. Faith is not discerned by the five senses. You don't smell the kingdom. You don't taste God. You don't feel God. You don't hear. But God is there to rest on the fact, acts upon it, and is upheld by it in the face of all that seems to contradict it. Faith, now I like this expression, is real seeing. Faith is really seeing.

Now, there's a dimension that the five senses cannot see, feel, smell, touch, or taste. But it's more real than the physical world. It's the spiritual world. It is a world inhabited by millions of angels, by God Himself and Jesus Christ. They live on a different plane, in a different realm, a different dimension. They're in the spirit world. They're all around us. And yet, you and I can't see them, but they can see us. And it's only when God opens a person's mind to be able to see that a person can see into that dimension, and God makes it available to a person. Notice verses 4 and 5 here. It says, It says, What we find here in verses 4 and 5 is that faith will affect how you live your daily life, doesn't it? It affects how you live, what you do, how you act. Abel obeyed what God told him to do. Enoch walked with God, literally, and he walked in God's way. It leads to obedience. And so faith is what propels us to obey, to do what God says. In verse 6, we read, So, brethren, you cannot please God without faith. We go through life so often, trying to please people.

And we need to be pleasing God. Make sure that we please God. Verse 7, Faith will help us to prepare for the future. What if Noah had not built an ark 120 years ago by? And God finally comes to know us as well. Tomorrow is going to start raining. And Noah says, okay, let's get the timbers out and the souls, and let's start building the boat. Too late. You and I have been called to be a member of the family of God. Our future is right in front of us. We know the future. We know what the kingdom of God is going to be like. We've had a glimpse of it. And every year we go to the feast to have that focus sharpen, to have our minds and hearts stirred, so that we never forget why God has called us, what our purpose is. And so, we likewise need to be preparing for that. And how do you prepare for it? Well, we're going to be kings and priests. We're going to be rulers. We prepare by getting ourselves ready. The bride gets herself ready.

So, brethren, the Bible shows very clearly, if I could summarize them for you, there are two basic ways you and I have faith. Number one, when you receive God's Holy Spirit, God imparts faith to you. Galatians 5, 22. One of the fruits of the Spirit is faith. Faith is a gift from God. Ephesians 2, 8. You and I need to ask God to increase our faith. Faith is like any spiritual gift that God gives us. It must be nourished. It must continue to grow. We have to continue to stay close to God to pray, to study. So, faith is spiritual in nature. And we must constantly have connection to God through prayer, Bible study, to maintain that faith.

And then Hebrews 10, let's go back there. We'll read this one. Hebrews 10, excuse me, Romans 10, not Hebrews 10. Romans 10, 13 says, Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. And verse 17, we find, So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If you and I want more faith, brethren, we study the Word of God. We talk about the Word of God. We discuss the principles of God's Word. And see, people can't have faith to step out and obey God unless they hear the message. That's one reason why it's important for us to preach the message. And in the world tomorrow, when people finally have their chance at salvation, they're going to hear the Word preached, and they're going to respond to it. And you and I have to hear God's Word. We have to study God's Word. We have to, the principle is, we have to stay in contact with God. Faith comes from staying close to God, contact with God.

So going back to Ephesians again, the book of Ephesians, chapter 6, we find here, beginning in verse 10, Ephesians 6, 10, that our strength comes from God. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, see His power, and put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now, we have to put on everything. I've just talked about one thing, the shield of faith. And the shield of faith is extremely important. It's vital if we're going to overcome and resist Satan, but it takes the whole armor of God to be able to stand against Satan, the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, and against principalities and powers, but against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. When the battle is over, the fighting is done, the casualties are laying all around you. You're standing there, dressed in the armor of God with the shield of faith and the sword of God, and you have stood the battle. You have fought the battle, and the victory becomes yours. You have to be alive. You have to be standing in order to achieve that. And so we find the armor is talked about here, and I won't go through that all again, but just again, verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil, or the evil one, or the wicked one, as it says here. You know, anciently, archers could stand a long way off and shoot their arrows. It wouldn't be anywhere near you. With a long bow, how far can you propel an arrow? Well, you can shoot them a few hundred yards. If you shoot straight up, or you're at a slight angle and let the arrows come down, they could be on the top of the hill, shooting down into the valley, and it carries further. Or they could be hidden behind a small knoll, and the army's coming along, and they're just joking and not really watching, and all at once, a flight of arrows comes over the hill, and they get caught or trapped.

What it indicates is that you and I must constantly have our shield ready, carry it with us at all times, and have it properly soaked in the water, because you never know when a fiery dart is going to come your way. Fiery darts are the temptations we face, the trials we are faced with, the stumbling blocks we stumble over. They can come our way at any moment, and we must always be ready for them. The promise is there that the shield of faith will quench the fiery darts of the wicked. So it will do it, but we have to have the shield of faith. The promise is there. So, brethren, the days of unleavened bread that are fast coming to an end here, picture our overcoming. If we're going to overcome, faith is the foundation on which we have to build, on which our growth will take place. Don't forget the Roman Turtle.