'_Taking_ the shield,' then, there is something to be done in order to
get the benefit of that defence. Now, there are a great many very good
people at present who tell Christian men that they ought to exercise
faith for sanctifying, as they exercise it for justifying and
acceptance. And some of them--I do not say all--forget that there is
effort needed to exercise faith for sanctifying; and that our energy has
to be put forth in order that a man may, in spite of all resistance,
keep himself in the attitude of dependence. So my text, whilst it
proclaims that we are to trust for defence against, and victory over,
recurring temptations, just as we trusted for forgiveness and
acceptance at the beginning, proclaims also that there must be effort to
grasp the shield, and to realise the defence which the shield gives to
us.
For to trust is an act of the heart and will far more than of the head,
and there are a great many hindrances that rise in the way of it; and to
keep behind the shield, and not depend at all upon our own wit, our
wisdom, or our strength, but wholly upon the Christ who gives us wit and
wisdom, and strengthens our fingers to fight--that will take work! To
occupy heart and mind with the object of faith is not an easy thing.
So, brethren, effort to compel the will and the heart to trust; effort
to keep the mind in touch with the verities and the Person who are the
objects of our faith; and effort to keep ourselves utterly and wholly
ensconced behind the Shield, and never to venture out into the open,
where our own arm has to keep our own heads, but to hang wholly upon
Him--these things go to 'taking' the shield of faith. And it is because
we fail in these, and not because there are any holes or weak places in
the shield, that so many of the fiery darts find their way through, and
set on fire and wound us. The Shield is impregnable, beaten as we have
often been. 'This is the victory that overcometh the world'--and the
devil and his darts--'even our faith.'
'THE HELMET OF SALVATION'
'Take the helmet of salvation.'--Eph. vi. 17.
We may, perhaps, trace a certain progress in the enumeration of the
various pieces of the Christian armour in this context. Roughly
speaking, they are in three divisions. There are first our graces of
truth, righteousness, preparedness, which, though they are all conceived
as given by God, are yet the exercises of our own powers. There is next,
standing alone, as befits its all-comprehensive character, faith which
is able to ward against and overcome not merely this and that
temptation, but all forms of evil. That faith is the root of the three
preceding graces, and makes the transition to the two which follow,
because it is the hand by which we lay hold of God's gifts. The two
final parts of the Christian armour are God's gifts, pure and
simple--salvation and the word of God. So the progress is from
circumference to centre, from man to God. From the central faith we have
on the one hand that which it produces in us; on the other, that which
it lays hold of from God. And these two last pieces of armour, being
wholly God's gift, we are bidden with especial emphasis which is shown
by a change in construction, to take or receive these.