The Shield of Faith (Part 2)
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Welcome to Gospel and Life. If you're a Christian, God has given you everything necessary to face the storms in your life with peace and fortitude, but many times it can feel difficult to access. Today, Tim Keller shows how the idea of the armor of God can allow us to stand in the battles of life. Stand firm then, with a belt of truth buckled around your waist, with a breastplate of righteousness in place.

with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That's the end of that reading of God's word. We're looking at this. We said the armor of God are the various benefits and resources and privileges of the gospel that we don't use.

We've been saying all along that the armor of God illustration that Paul is using is actually his way of saying to you and to me, you have everything, if you're a Christian, you have everything necessary to meet all the battles of life.

And if you're not meeting all the battles of life, it's because you're not making use of what you have. That's the whole idea behind the metaphor. And last night we began to talk, and tonight I think we can finish up this particular part of the armor that says, in addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Now, three principles here.

Started in on a few of them. As usual, I got a lot of questions about them. And let me lay out the three things that this teaches. First of all, it teaches that God lets Satan, that's the evil one, God lets Satan send us fiery trials, troubles, and suffering. The second thing, he lets this happen, and then we have to deal with that. That's clearly the teaching here. Why does God let that happen?

Then secondly, the other thing that we learn here, and I'll get to it in a sec, is that trials ordinarily come, let me see if I can read it better, that we should expect fiery trials especially when we're about to do something great for God.

In other words, as we said before, these fiery arrows do not come all during the battle. When do the fiery arrows come? Right when you've decided to storm the stronghold of the enemy. And therefore, the things that are being spoken of here, which we're going to get to, the principle is the more you try to get your life together,

The more you decide to deal with a bad habit, the more firm you are, the more ready you are to do something for God and get your life together, the more likely you are to find fiery arrows coming at you. And that's the reason that Paul says in Romans 7, when I most want to do right, evil lies close at hand. He says that in Romans 7. You want to have trouble? Try to obey God.

That's the second principle. The third principle is actually that faith is not a passive thing, that faith is something that you use. It's not a passive trait. It's not something that happens to you. It's not something that some people have and some people don't. But rather, it's something you can pick up and use. It's an active thing. So those are the three principles. And you get them all from this verse. I'll show you. First, don't forget, we said God allows Satan to throw fiery trials at us.

We said that Paul is talking about the shield, and a Roman soldier's shield was not the little shield for hand-to-hand combat that you've probably seen in the cartoons or on TV or something like that. Instead, the Roman soldier's shield was a door, basically. It was almost the size of the soldier himself, and it was used only for the time in the battle in which the Roman legion was actually storming the city.

the enemy that was the place where the battle hung in the balance and as you you do probably realize that that even though there's been a lot of battling going on that's when the battle gets fiercest and the reason they have to have this shield over their head is because You're much more vulnerable when you're trying to scale a wall Why because not only are flaming arrows thrown down but in some cases, you know just whole huge buckets of molten lead were poured on you and

I mean, no matter how great you are, no matter how strong you are, no matter how good you are with a sword at a time like that, that's a very, very difficult thing to deal with. It doesn't matter how fast you are, and it really doesn't matter. My wife, for example, is able to pick up hot things in a way that I cannot. I'm not sure if that's a gender difference or not. I can't figure that out. She walks over with a cup of tea like this. Here, dear. You know, she's holding it, you know?

You know? So I'm completely misled and I pick it up and I drop it. How did you do that? This is different. Molten lead? It doesn't matter how fast you are, it doesn't matter how tough you are, you've got to have a shield at that time. You're in your most vulnerable position. And the reason that you have molten lead being poured on you and fiery arrows is to try to get you in such alarm, in such confusion, in such pain and agony that you forget what you're doing. And you forget direction and you run in the other way.

Now, the first teaching here is clearly that it is at those times, those times of crisis, there are times in which the evil one is allowed to throw fiery trials at us. We said last week that this word fire is usually used in the New Testament to refer to trial, suffering. You know, what is a fiery trial? What is a flaming arrow? You're going along fine and suddenly somebody says, I think it's malignant.

And suddenly, a fiery trial. Or there's a divorce. Or you lose your job. Or there's some kind of economic problem or something like that. Or a loved one dies. Or you break up with somebody that means everything to you. A fiery trial. A fiery trial is something not just sort of the regular anxieties and the run-of-the-mill sort of troubles and knocks and aches and pains and all that. We're talking about when the battle is fiercest.

These fiery trials bursting upon you, confusing you, alarming you, getting you to retreat, making it disorienting you so you don't even know what you were doing and which direction to go in. Why does God let that happen? The Bible very clearly says he does. In Job, we have, and we mentioned this last week, God, you know, Job is allowed to be tempted by Satan. God lets Satan...

bring all sorts of disasters and tragedies, social and economic and physical, on Job. That's the first principle. God lets it happen, and that's the teaching of the Scripture. You know, Dorothy Sayers, one place, says, "Who in the world ever said that the Bible was unrealistic? It's tremendously realistic."

Nobody's gonna doubt this. Nobody doubts it. You know, the Bible teaches this, and one of the great differences between true Christianity and cultic versions of it, cults almost always talk about how if you handle, if you take the principles of our religion, if you take the principles of our teacher and you put them into practice, you will be completely adjusted. You will have complete peace of mind and happiness. You will overcome these things.

The Bible never makes such a statement as that, that you have perfect peace and happiness and you will never, ever, ever have trials or troubles. You never will be cast down. Just look at Jesus. Jesus was perfect and he was always crying. See, if you don't have an understanding of perfection that enables you to also recognize that you can be full of trials and to be crying and crying out to God,

in sadness, you still don't really, well, you know, maybe you would rather have a cult because that's the kind of religion that they give you. That's not biblical religion. Now, the Bible says it clearly can happen. A Christian goes through suffering.

And we said last week that the reason that very often the Bible calls a trial or a suffering fire is because fire is something that can actually either burn the meat or make it great. It can burn and consume the ore or it can refine the metal. When a trial comes, somebody sees this and says, oh my gosh, you mean God allows Satan to do that? But if you read the book of Job,

You'll see that whenever God allows Satan to do something like that, he always says to Satan, you can do this, but not this. You can do this, but not this. He puts Satan on a chain. Now, what that means, for example, is if you think of the trial as heat, right, as heat, if you're consumed, it's never because the heat's too great. Because even though Satan has his purpose for the fire, God has his purpose for the fire.

You can't say, well, this thing happened to me and Satan did it to me and God didn't want it to happen. As we're going to see in a minute, the Bible says God does not willingly afflict you. But if God allows Satan to do something, Satan and God have two different purposes for it. Satan wants you in the furnace to cook your goose. God wants you in the furnace in order to refine you and make you beautiful.

and therefore God will never let Satan turn the heat up so much. See, here's a master baker, and the master baker is trying to train the student. So the master baker puts the...

the oven on 200 degrees and tells the student to put the meat in there for 20 minutes and the student puts it in there for two hours, it can be burned but it's not the baker's fault. It's the application. It's the way the student handled it. If the baker turned the oven up to 2000 degrees and the student put the meat in there, it would be immediately consumed. It would be the baker's fault.

The Bible says that when fiery trials come upon you, if Satan has thrown it, he's been allowed, but God will not let him turn the heat up past where you have to be cooked. He won't do that. There's always two different purposes at work in the fire, God's purpose and Satan's purpose. Which purpose will be realized depends a great deal, the Bible says, on you.

Now, somebody says, in other words, what you do, and we'll get to that in a minute, whether you use the shield of faith or not, okay? You know, the shield of faith is there so it'll keep the heat just right, just enough to cook, just enough to refine, not enough to consume. Now, somebody says, but why would God let that happen? Why would God let the fire happen at all? And the answer is, basically, the Bible in the New Testament gives you three different images or illustrations of

In order to understand suffering, there's the illustration of the vine dresser, there's the illustration of the refiner, and there's the illustration of the Father. If you want the illustration of the refiner, you can go to, well, you can go to first, well, you can go right here, you know, and you can also go to Malachi 3, where it talks about Jesus being a refiner and so forth. If you want the illustration of the vine dresser, where do you go? John 15, right?

See, the vine dresser, in order to make the vine grow, cuts it. In fact, as we all know, if you've ever seen somebody really prune a tree or a bush, a real master pruner cuts that bush back so far you think, you must have killed it. Right? Not only that, he's cut off all these beautiful leaves and all these beautiful branches. You must have killed it. And the vine dresser turns around and says, you don't understand. I would kill it if I hadn't cut it.

Because the thing would stop really pulling out of the ground the kind of vitality and the minerals that it needs in order for it to really grow. I've got to cut it like that, but I did not cut it back one inch too far. It feels like that to you because you don't understand vine dressing, but I do.

You come to the refiner and you say, you know, realize the refiner says, "Here's the ore," and you can't get it through. The ore is unuseful. It's not usable unless it goes through the furnace. A third illustration is the Father. Now think of this for a minute. In Hebrews 12, it talks about the Father disciplines us as sons. That's where suffering is coming from.

So a lot of you are new parents, so this might be an interesting thing to do, to tell you about. The first thing you do in order to get the child to behave is positive measures. Always the first thing. Positive measures are things like reward. Reward the child for the right behavior. Clap, laugh, you know, show him that it was a good idea. Do all those sorts of things.

Another way, another positive measure is what's called guided obedience. Guided obedience means instead of saying no, the best thing to do with a little kid very often is to pick him up and help him do it right. Just guide him. Just say, no, no, no, this is how we do it. You move him along. Another positive approach is to appeal to the child and talk to the child. But there has never been an adult in the history of the world that's been able to bring a child to maturity with only positive measures. No way.

Sometimes they've got to be negative. And the thing you must remember is from the child's perspective, the child cannot possibly, well, I should say it this way, the child can't possibly, possibly understand your negative measures in the proper perspective. I mean, this is a perfect example. You see this actually happening where we live all the time. Here's a child. He's seven years old, and he has made the best friend of his life, and he absolutely loves this playmate, absolutely loves this playmate.

But one of his parents has just gotten a career promotion that is so incredibly good for the family and for the parent, not only financially but personally and socially and professionally in every way. And they have to move to another city. What do they do? Are there any parents in their right minds who would say, "My child loves this playmate so much we can't move"?

Now, you know, if you love your child and you know what's going on, you're going to dread the day you tell him. And you're going to dread the day you leave. And you, you know, a good parent does not willingly afflict his child. There is nothing like watching the child cry and say, I don't believe you've done this to me. This is the greatest friend I've ever had. This is my whole life. How could, and you see, do you think a seven-year-old is going to ever be able to understand a career move?

Ever understand the difference between making $30,000 a year and making $100,000? He doesn't give a rip. He has no idea. Oh gosh, a few more ice cream cones, big deal. What's going on with my friend here? Now, that is the way a child has to understand. And a parent can't possibly, can't possibly explain that to the child. And the Bible says, we submitted to our earthly fathers and they were imperfect parents.

Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of our spirits and live? Now, you see, you might say, well, that's, you know, ripping a kid away from a playmate. That's what I'm talking about. I want to know why God lets my little baby die of leukemia. I want to know why God lets this or that person, you know, why a father of five dies at the age of 30. I want to know why this and that and this. We're not talking about a playmate dying.

But don't you understand? A child, from a child's perspective, it always looks like that. Always. Just because the father's love and wisdom is completely obscure to that child does not mean it's not there. Think about your relationship. If there is a God in heaven, if there is a God, if he is wise and loving, do you think he'd be able to explain it to you? Do you think it would look any different? In a sense, I should say, be reasonable. Or let's put it another way.

you know obviously taking at moving a child away from his greatest playmate in the world is a tremendous tragedy surely in that child's mind in perspective definitely

At the same level, as inexplicable, as horrible, as terrible as losing a loved one to some sort of untimely death. Just as inexplicable, just as difficult. But in a way, that's not discipline when you move the child away because of a career move. Think of this for a minute. Discipline is always a controlled form of suffering. When I say to my child, you can't go out and play because of what you've done.

Whenever I discipline my child, when I punish my child, what I'm actually doing is I'm giving that child a controlled amount of suffering now to try to teach that child a lesson without which that child will experience much more destructive suffering later, right?

If you see a child lie, you punish the child. The child says, "Oh, I knew it was wrong. I'm never going to lie again. Why are you punishing me?" Because I say, "There's got to be some suffering now because you have no idea what devastation will happen to you if when you're 30 years old, you're still a liar. You have no idea." So I bring in some small suffering now to avoid greater suffering later. Now, let me ask you a question.

If God knows that the greatest suffering that you can know is to be cut off from him for all eternity, what kind of smaller suffering might he have every right to bring into your life in order for you to avoid that? And the answer is actually anything is smaller than that. Anything to get you to run into his arms is worth it.

From whose perspective? From the perspective of a cosmic adult, not from the perspective of a spiritual child. Success, true love, and the life you've always wanted. Many of us have made these good things into ultimate things. We've put our faith in them when deep down we know that they cannot satisfy our longings. The truth is that we've made lesser gods of good things, gods that can't give us what we really need.

In his book, "Counterfeit Gods," Dr. Keller shows us how a proper understanding of the Bible reveals the truth about societal ideals and our own hearts, and that there is only one God who can wholly satisfy our desires.

Dr. Keller's book is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the power of the gospel. So request your copy of Counterfeit Gods at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. That's the reason why he lets the flaming arrows come in. That's the reason why he cuts the back divine. That's the reason why he refines. That's the reason why he disciplines. And therefore, oh,

You know, Jim Elliott, the martyred missionary to Ecuador, said he is no fool to lose what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Remember that? Have you ever heard that? He is no fool to lose what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. He's a missionary. You know, missionaries talk like that.

Parents come to the missionary and say, "Oh, you want to be a missionary in Ecuador? You know, you're 25 years old, you're very bright. Think of all the money you could make. Think of the status. You're going off to what? To translate the Bible so the group of naked Indians in Ecuador can read the Bible? You're throwing your whole life away. You know, you're throwing away your career, your status. Well, what does the missionary say? If that missionary has any real perspective, if that missionary is thinking like an adult, not like a child, what's the missionary say? He says, "I'm going to lose that all anyway, Mom."

I'm going to die anyway. I'm going to lose all the money anyhow. All the status is going to go anyway. He is no fool to lose what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. A crown, changing people's lives forever, pleasing my Lord. Hey, that's just common sense, isn't it? If Christianity is true, it's common sense. He is no fool.

who loses what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. You know what though? Why does God do discipline? Why does God allow suffering? Because we are fools. Because we're fools. Because we're not going to lose the things that we cannot keep. And therefore he forcibly takes things away from us which seem like terrible tragedies and yet every one of those things, what, your health? What, your fame? What, your popularity? Are things you're going to lose anyway so that you can gain what you cannot lose? Him.

Anything is worth it. Do you think he likes that? Do you think you like it when your child says, "You've ruined my life, you can't move like this?" For a minute, does the parent say, "Well, I guess I better not do the career move, I mean, after all." You know, what does every parent worth his or her salt say? You say, "I hate to say this." You don't say it in front of the child, you'll get over it. You're seven years old. You won't even remember the kid in a year.

See, the point is parents know what it's like to be children, but children don't know what it's like to be parents. God knows what it's like to be a man. You don't know yet what it's like to be God. If you read the Bible, you get a hint. So read it. He does not willingly afflict the sons of men. No parent does. I don't think any vine dresser likes to take his prized tree, knowing that if he cuts it back one inch too much, it's going to be gone. He doesn't like cutting off all the blossoms, all the leaves, all the branches, all the

And yet he does it knowing that they're going to come in doubly beautiful. Do you think a vine dresser likes it? Do you think a parent likes it? No. Okay, now the second principle, and it might be all we do here. The second principle is, this is very important. We should expect fiery trials, especially when we're doing something good for God. Now, how do you get that out of the verse? Don't forget when the shield is used. The Roman soldier did not use the shield intentionally.

When he was just out doing, you know, normal sorts of sorties and that sort of thing, he only used the shield when he was actually going right down the enemy's throat. When he had put his foot, you see, you can't really get that fire poured down on you until you're actually at the wall. You've got to dare to touch the wall.

Now, what this means is, this text is actually saying that we do not expect fiery trials when we're being disobedient to God. We don't expect a fiery trial so much when we're being torpid about the things of God. When you decide, I'm going to really minister, I'm going to start a new ministry, I'm going to get more active, I'm going to change my ways, I'm going to obey him, I'm going to start church, I'm going to give myself to Christ, when you decide to put your foot on the wall,

of the enemy, that's when you can expect a fiery trial. Now, you see, that makes sense when you think about the battle, right? It's much, much more likely that the enemy is going to leave you alone until he sees you charging the wall. And you're not really in a vulnerable position until you put your foot on that wall, right? And yet, it doesn't make much sense emotionally. And I've talked to people over the years pastorally about this again and again. They say, I don't understand it. I finally decided to do the right thing, and now my life is falling apart.

It makes no sense, does it? If you think about it along the lines that Paul is talking about, it makes perfect sense. Why wasn't I attacked before? Where was the fiery trials before? Why? Because you weren't doing the enemy any harm. You were a pawn. You were playing right along. Why should he bother you? Why should the forces of darkness bother you? So, for example, Mark chapter 1, verse 9 to 11, we're told that Jesus Christ was

began his ministry. He came out. He was publicly baptized. He was commissioned to be a minister. And at that moment, we're told the Holy Spirit descended like a dove on him, and he heard a voice out of heaven from the Father saying, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Now, we know that Jesus already had the Holy Spirit, and therefore, what could this mean? The only thing it could mean, it was God giving him an especially high, powerful experience of his love.

and of power. Immediately after this high point of his life, he decides to be a minister. He's moving out into public ministry, and he's just had this incredible experience of God's love. Immediately after that, we're told what? Verse 12, 13, and 14, and the Spirit sent him into the desert. And he was there 40 days, tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts and

But the angels attended him. Now here what we have is Jesus Christ has the highest experience of his life and immediately he's assaulted with fiery trials. He's tempted. He's assailed with doubts. He's assailed with all sorts of temptations. His mind is clouded. And not only that, one of the most interesting things is Mark, you know, Mark and Matthew, Mark and Luke all talk about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness right after this high experience. This is typical, I tell you.

We should expect it. But, you know, Mark is the only one that says he was with the wild beasts. You don't see that in Matthew. You don't see that in Luke. And you know why, probably? Mark was written to Roman Christians who were being persecuted, who were being sent to the lions all the time. And this was Mark's way of saying, because you dared to put your foot on the wall of the enemy...

You're with the wild beasts. You're walking in there and you're being torn up. There is not a single fiery trial that can come upon you that Jesus Christ himself has not had. None of these things are alien to him. He was with the wild beasts too. He was misrepresented like you. He has been betrayed like you. He knows all of it because, you see, as soon as he had his highest experience of God's power and love, he was immediately assaulted. It's normal.

Now, there are two kinds of people that need to realize this. First of all, new Christians need to hear this. It is natural and it's normal when you first give yourself to Christ to experience exactly what Jesus experienced, and then it's also just as normal to have a post-conversion letdown, to have some kind of trial come upon you, and you're really amazed because not only do you find that very often you feel very far away from God because you're

There has actually been, you've been so, well, whatever the trouble or trial has come into your life, it's disrupted your prayer life, it's disrupted your routines, and as a result, you're not walking with them. But not only that, you say, the logic escapes me. Why, when I've just finally decided to get my life together and give my life to him, would this happen? This is, I've never had a problem like this before. What's happening? It makes sense, does it not? It's a fiery trial. It's a compliment.

I know it doesn't feel like a compliment. It's a compliment. It's an honor. God has said, because you're moving in like this, I'm putting you in the front lines. And of course, what always happens, people in the front lines are the first ones to get bullets, first ones to get the fiery arrows, first ones to get scalded. It's only natural. You put your foot on that

And not only do people need to know that who are new Christians and should expect times like that, but God is going to use this. He's going to refine you. He's going to make you greater and useful because you're going through the fire. But not only you need to know it, but anybody in this... There's a lot of people at Redeemer who Redeemer has been a kind of renewal agent in their lives. And they say, I'm going to finally get serious. I'm going to do something. I'm going to get involved in a new ministry. I'm going to begin a new ministry. Watch out. First foot on the wall, look out.

It's a principle that if you're first, if you're in the front line, you're most likely to get hit. By the way, be understanding about ministry leaders that seem like they're having a hard time. You try it. It's hard to be out in front in a battle. It's very hard. Now, the most important, and here's the last thing I want you to know, and this is a relatively, it's pretty important. There is such a thing

as Satan bringing in fiery doubts and assaults from the outside. Now, here's what I mean by that. Most of your doubts, most of your lusts, most of your temptations have been nurtured along in your heart. See, for example, most people bring their doubts along

One of the reasons that people doubt is because something has gone wrong in their life and they don't like it. And they say, "If God is a good God, why did this happen to me?" So then, because you've got this anger, in a sense, toward God, as soon as you read a good book that tries to undermine Christianity, as soon as you find an intellectual framework to give some punch to your doubts,

Because you really don't like the way God has been dealing with you, you're able to, you read that book and you have even more doubts about the Bible, even more doubts about Christianity. You've nurtured them along and they finally get to be very strong. But you've been bringing them along. They're rising out of your own heart, you see. You're watering them and fertilizing them.

Same thing with temptations. You read the literature, you let your mind wander, you fantasize. They could be sexual temptations, they could be violent temptations. You get bitter towards somebody, you begin to think and fantasize what you would do if you could get your hands on that person and so forth. Next thing you know, they're very, very, very strong. The doubts, the lusts, the temptations, the guilt feelings because you've been bringing them along. But sometimes...

And some of you might be suffering with this now, and some of you probably will. Sometimes you may be walking with the Lord, you might be doing, using the means of grace, disciplining yourself in all these ways, and all of... You haven't been nurturing these kinds of thoughts. You haven't been nurturing temptations. You haven't been nurturing doubts. Yet one day...

Suddenly, you're assaulted with some of the most vile and blasphemous thoughts, doubts about God, accusations about yourself, violent thoughts, sexual thoughts, tremendous doubts. They burst on you like fiery bombs, and you have no idea where they're coming from. They can happen in the middle of the Lord's Supper. If you're a preacher, they can happen while you're preaching. They're inexplicable. They're tremendously disconcerting.

You start to say, "What kind of creature must I be to have thoughts like this at this stage too in my life?" Now the point is that's exactly what happened to Jesus in the wilderness. How do I know that? Jesus did not have any sins, so how could there have been temptation? He didn't have a sinful heart. His temptations could not have arisen out of a sinful heart. They had to have come from the outside. They were thoughts hurled in. And you will find very often if you've just started to get your life together and if you're overtired,

Those two things. If you're overextended and you're physically tired and you've just begun to get your life together and start a new ministry, it's not unusual for you to suddenly get assaulted with these thoughts and get cast down and almost destroyed. Why? Because you say, I can't be a leader. I can't be a Christian. Why would I think like that? Well, what do you have to do? You have to realize they're from the outside.

They're his fiery darts. They're his flaming arrows. And you have to go to God like this and you have to say, Lord, you know something? These thoughts, I know I'm capable of them. I know that. I know my heart can manufacture them. But when my heart does manufacture them, I've usually brought them along. They've arisen out of my heart, but these have not. When I bring along my temptations and my doubts, you know, they're sweet to me. I like them. They're poison, but they're sweet poison. But I hate these things. They're repulsive to me. They're from the outside.

I eschew them, I reject them, and I ask you to protect me from them. And I take this opportunity to remind myself that I'm not saved by the purity of my heart but by the righteousness of Jesus Christ." That's how you resist those things. One of the old Puritans put it this way, "The fiery darts, Satan putting a stream of blasphemous thoughts in the mind and heart, which can especially happen to overtired Christian workers."

One Puritan put it this way. He said, one of Satan's devices is to leave his brats at the door and try to get you to believe that you fathered them. You have to look at those thoughts and say, you know, I'm capable of these thoughts, but they're not from me. They're from the evil one. And I turn away from it.

The second principle is expect when you've decided to do things for God. Expect. Don't be upset. Don't be mad. Don't think it's illogical to find fiery trials coming. And the last thing, which we have to stop now, but the last thing maybe we can get back to later. You know what the shield of faith is? Faith is looking. Faith is looking.

The Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight. That means we see him who is unseen. Faith is looking at God instead of at the trial. Faith is remembering God. And we really don't have much time to go into it beyond that. But see, for example, do you remember there's two things that happened in Dothan? And I don't mean Dothan, Alabama, but Dothan in the Bible. Years ago,

There was a place, when Dothan was a city, and Elisha and his servant, Elisha the prophet and his servant, were in the city, and it was surrounded by the Assyrians. And Elisha and the servants, and the servant was scared to death, and he comes to Elisha and says, Elisha, I think we're goners. I think, you know, we're outnumbered 15 to 1. We're going to be killed by the Assyrians. And Elisha said, oh, if only your eyes could be open to the truth.

And he prayed that the servant's eyes would be opened, and he saw, the servant's eyes were opened, and he saw around the Assyrians millions and zillions of chariots of fire, angels, God's hosts, the Lord of hosts, ready to come and smite the Assyrians. See, Elisha said, you're not seeing the power of God. Do you know that years before that in Dothan, years before that, when there wasn't a city there, Joseph was put into a pit by his brothers,

to be sold into slavery. And down at the bottom of that pit, Joseph probably prayed and prayed and prayed and said, "Oh Lord, oh Lord, you've got to deliver me. You've got to get me out of here." And what happened? He was sold into slavery. But he was sold into slavery in order to become the prime minister of Egypt and to save his parents and to save his people and to save Egypt. The point is that God was just as present. The chariots of fire were there, only they didn't operate as quickly as we wanted.

God was just as real to him. He was just as present to him. See, the point is faith is being able to see the God of power, the God of wisdom. See God as a vinedresser. See God as a father. See God as a refiner. Faith is seeing what may not be apparent.

Oh, may God, by his spirit, especially those of you who right now are going through fiery trials, may he open your eyes to see the chariots of fire around you. Faith is bringing to bear the reality of who God is on your situation. Looking at God, not looking at yourself, looking at him and reminding yourself of who he is. That's the shield of faith. May God show you what surrounds you.

It's his chariots. It's his love. It's his vine dressing skill. It's his fatherly care. Let's pray. Now, Father, all we ask is we close is that you would enable us to handle the fiery trials that come upon us with the shield of faith. All of us have need of that. We either need it tonight. We'll need it next week. Maybe we will need it soon. And we pray that you'd help us to apply this truth to our hearts through the work of your spirit. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the truth of God's Word and the hope of the gospel. Just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner to learn more.

This month's sermons were recorded in 1992. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.