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Transcript

Good afternoon, brethren.

War. War has been on man’s mind since almost the beginning of time. Now, it’s advanced, it’s developed, it’s changed, it’s morphed over time, but at its fundament, it hasn’t changed at all. War went from throwing stones at one another, to sharpening spears, to ultimately using shields and swords.

Ultimately at that point, they went on to bows and arrows.

After many years, many millennia even, gunpowder was formed, and that transformed warfare in a big way. From being hand-to-hand combat to, in effect, long-range warfare. Then the industrial warfare introduced machine guns, tanks, aerial bombing, and making destruction faster, farther, and more devastating than ever before.

Think about the advancements of warfare, and ultimately, we’ve led to today. It’s led to today where we see people fight not only with long-range missiles, intercontinental missiles, but also drones, cyber attacks, lasers, invisible digital weapons that strike mines and systems and nations, unconventional means of warfare.

Even things that are being talked about called the discombobulator. You’ve maybe heard President Trump talk about that. What is that? It’s part of warfare now, the discombobulator.

Let’s turn over to Ephesians chapter six. The Apostle Paul here in Ephesians six understood that Satan attacks with weapons, but none of the conventional kind of weapons that you and I have been learning about and seeing for the last six years of mankind’s existence. He comes with something a little bit... actually, a lot more dangerous.

Let’s read in Ephesians six and verse ten. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” Very familiar verses here. “Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Now, “wiles” there means a travesty or trickery or cunning arts or deceit or craft laying in wait, the devil has a lot of means by which he can try and attack us.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places,” or wicked spirits in high places.

“Wherefore,” because we’re fighting the spiritual warfare, “...take unto you the whole armor of God.” Why? “That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” We know that there’s an evil day out in prophecy, but frankly, brethren, every day is an evil day when Satan is attacking us.

So we need to be taking the armor now. “Stand therefore...” What is that armor, we might ask? Of course, we’ve read these verses many times, but let’s go back through them again. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness. Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith you’ll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,” or the wicked one, Satan.

Fiery darts are one of the means by which he comes and attacks us. Mr. Pack and others have said, these are like fiery darts of doubt, we could add.

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

Now, we know that warfare has advanced over the years, but fiery darts are a particularly interesting analogy, if I could put it that way, or tool that God had written down in the Bible for our learning. He didn’t use the word sword. He could have. He used “the sword of the Spirit” as an example of a weapon, but he didn’t choose to use the sword as the weapon that Satan can use.

He didn’t choose to use a tank or any other form of weapon, a stone, none of those. He chose a fiery dart. Now, what is that? Think about a bow and arrow. Back in old times, they would take bows and arrows, and they would dip them in pitch or some kind of a flammable substance, light the arrow on fire, and shoot it across a long distance.

So they don’t still need to use hand-to-hand combat back then. They would use bow and arrow in hopes that that arrow would come and hit. Now, a regular arrow is less damaging. Why? Well, if a regular arrow, it has to be very precise. It has to hit a person and hope that it kills them.

But a fiery arrow is much more devastating. Why? Why is that? Well, it’s pretty obvious. Let’s imagine a fiery arrow misses. It doesn’t hit you, but it hit right near you, and it ignited the little shack that you’re sitting next to or this house that you have. And it pulls that whole house up into flames. Now it causes chaos.

No, the arrow didn’t hit you directly, but now you’re worried about this massive fire behind you. And that’s, in effect, what doubt does to all of us. Doubt isn’t likened to an individual arrow. It’s likened to a fiery arrow, one that can grow, something that can ignite fear or unbelief, and ultimately spread to spiritual death.

Now, Satan, think about how he works. When you see people leave the Church or when you see Satan get to certain people, it’s not because they just all of a sudden one day decided to rebel because Satan cast a doubt in their mind at that moment. No. Rebellion happens over a long time, and it starts with an individual dart, fiery dart. Starts with doubt.

Everybody knows that Eve, Adam and Eve, shall not surely die. You won’t surely die. What was that? Satan was casting a fiery dart at the first two human beings that ever lived on this earth. And he got to them. You know what? Maybe I won’t surely die. Maybe I can ignore God, and maybe Satan is right. What if he is right? Maybe I can have all knowledge. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all.

Fiery darts are doubts that attempt to pierce our spiritual armor. We have to have that armor on, brethren, or else those darts will just simply will take us out easily. So understanding how to guard against these doubts begins by understanding what causes doubt. Where does doubt come from?

The majority, all we’re going to talk about today are two things. That’s it. Two causes of doubt. And hopefully, by the end of this message, we’ll be able to quench doubt as we’ve never been able to do so before. Because look at what it says back in verse sixteen of Ephesians six. Take the armor, take up the shield of faith, but really take up all the armor of God, “...wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” All of them.

We shouldn’t allow a single one to penetrate our armor by the end of this message once we understand what we need to do, and it’s not complicated. It’s not.

We’ll just get right into the first of the two points. One of the greatest origins of doubt stems from overthinking it. How many of us have ever overthought something? We just simply took too much time thinking through all the details. What about this? What about that? And at the end of the day, bogged ourselves down and caused more problems for ourselves than had we just simply accepted whatever it was that we were looking into.

We regularly do it in life. It’s a common problem that we have. Because I think God somehow built into us this ability, and almost like a human... part of our human nature, you could say. Maybe God didn’t build it into us, but we’ve just built it into ourselves, this amazing ability to worry about everything.

Don’t we often find ourselves worrying and overthinking everything? Why shouldn’t? I should have done this. Why didn’t I do that? What could I have done better?

Think about if we lost our job. There’s a million things that we can worry about if we lose our job. How am I going to pay the bills? What happens once I actually lose my job? Let’s say I’ve got a couple weeks or a couple months left in my job. What am I going to do once this job is gone?

Oh, no. I have to find a new job. Oh, no. How am I going to be able to pay the bills? How am I going to be able to feed the children? How am I going to be able to take care of my wife or my husband? Where will I begin looking for a new job? Am I even qualified?

I’ve been at this job for a long time. It’s been wonderful. I’ve loved it. Will my new job allow me to take the Sabbath and Holy Days off? Oh, no. What if it’s more difficult? What do I do? How do I get past all of these thoughts?

Naturally, brethren, we’re going to go there in our minds. That’s what we do as human beings, we think about it. But, brethren, I’m telling us here today, one of the greatest reasons we allow doubt in is because we overthink things.

Turn over to Romans chapter four. Pick it up in verse sixteen. Romans four and verse sixteen [fourteen], “For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law works wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be grace; and the end promise might be sure to the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to him, to that also which is of faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.”

So we get the term, “the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” We’ve heard him be called the father of the faithful. This is where that term came from.

“For as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickens the dead and calls those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope,” Abraham, “...believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall your seed be.”

God gave Abraham a tremendous promise called the birthright blessings. We can read about them in Genesis. Now, we don’t need to go back and read them now. We do remember them, but I’ll summarize it. God said that he’s going to bless Abraham by creating these vast numbers of people that will come from him, that will descend from him, Abraham. He’ll become, as it says in verse seventeen, the father of many nations. So Abraham believed him.

But there was a problem. There was a hiccup. “Who against hope, believed in hope,” verse eighteen, “...that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall your seed be. And being not weak in the faith...” Abraham was not weak in faith. Remember he was the father of the faithful. Why? We’re about to read why right now.

“He considered not his own body now dead.” He was an old man, and his wife was an old woman, well past childbearing age. But look what it says. It says that “he considered not,” meaning he observed not at all. He didn’t even think about it.

He knew that he was a hundred years old or however old he was. He knew that his wife was about the same age, but he didn’t even think about it. “He didn’t even consider his body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb,” didn’t even come into his mind. Grasp that.

What are we talking about here? He didn’t doubt at all. Let’s just put that on the table. Clearly, he didn’t doubt. He didn’t have any kind of concern or doubt or worry. But wait a minute, God. What about my age? What about Sarah’s womb? She’s not able to have children. How is this possible? No. Says that “he considered not.”

Verse twenty, “And he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.” Staggered not. He didn’t worry at all. “But was strong in faith, giving glory to God. And being fully persuaded,” completely assured or convinced, “...that what he had promised, God was also able to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.”

He became the father of the faithful because he simply... he had a faith that was, if I could put it in these terms, he had simple faith. He just believed. Abraham didn’t overthink it. He didn’t worry about things, the physical, you could say the physical limitations in life that were around him that he could see with his eyes and feel with his own pain maybe in the body that he had that was a hundred years old. He didn’t think about that.

What did he have instead? He had a simple faith. Just believe God. That was easy. And you know what, brethren? He had that faith for himself, and it showed towards Sarah, too. It was a great example for Sarah, and it was also, brethren, a great example for us.

Let’s keep reading in verse twenty-two. “Therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” He was a righteous man because of his simple faith. Now, it was not for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, “But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus from the dead, who was delivered of our offenses and was raised again for our justification.”

We can have the same faith, God is saying. It was for our... it was an example for us so that we can have the very same faith, the very same simple faith that Abraham had, and we can be deemed righteous as well because of it. Again, he didn’t even consider his or his wife’s age. He didn’t even factor into his thinking.

Now, tests and trials are a matter of perspective and thinking. We can get trapped into thinking about these physical limitations. Abraham did not get trapped by those. He looked past them. He didn’t even see them. He didn’t even see, he said, “God is so powerful, why would I even worry about the physical limitations of my age or Sarah’s age?”

But we can worry too much about the physical things, too. Abraham didn’t stagger or hesitate to cause unbelief. He didn’t stagger. He didn’t worry. He didn’t hesitate. Oh, maybe I believe God. Oh, no. Okay, I’ll believe God. He just simply believed him and was fully persuaded, completely assured that God would fulfill his promise.

So, brethren, should we learn from Abraham today? If we have doubt, if Satan is casting these fiery darts at us, what did Abraham do? Let’s look to his example. What did he do when fiery darts were attacking him? He simply didn’t overthink it. And the dart didn’t even approach him. He didn’t even have the dart coming at him because he just had simple faith.

Matthew fourteen. It might sound like an easy thing to do, but it’s not going to be easy to have simple faith. We’re bent toward overthinking, okay, particularly in an information-rich age. It’s very easy for us to overthink things. So we have to train ourselves. We have to work toward this faith of Abraham, the father of the faithful. We have to work at having this kind of simple faith.

Matthew chapter fourteen and verse nineteen. Let’s read another example of a man who had a certain level of simple faith.

“And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and two fishes.” Christ’s example of here, “...looking to heaven, blessed and broke and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat. They were filled and took up the fragments that remained twelve baskets full of fragments, that they had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. And straight away,” after that account, “...Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him into the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening had come,” so some time had passed, “...when the evening had come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves: for the wind was contrary.”

It was a strong, powerful wind that had caused these waves to really swell. I’ve been on the ocean. I do not like that. I do not like it one bit. And I was on the ocean when it was calm. The ocean is not my thing. The sea is not my thing. Open water, I don’t know what’s going on down there. I don’t want to know. I don’t have any interest in getting in the water.

I like to go to the pool and swim and things like this, but you get me into a body of water where my feet have no chance of touching the bottom, I’m not interested, not really interested in that. There’s a lot of people who are interested in being out on the sea, and that is not me. And partly for these reasons. The sea can be a terrifying place.

Now, when the waves around you on your boat are going five to ten feet high or however tall these waves might have been that they were experiencing out on this boat, that is not an easy thing to endure. But look, we all know this account, but let’s just see what happens. Let’s all just see what happens.

“The ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And the fourth watch of the night,” so it’s in the middle of the night on top of them, early in the morning before sunrise, “...Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it’s a spirit, and they cried out for fear. But straightaway Christ spoke unto them, saying, be a good cheer; it’s I; be not afraid.”

Don’t be afraid. It’s just me. “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it’s you, bid me to come out on the water.” We all know the account. “And he said, come. And when Peter came down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.”

What kind of faith did Peter have initially? He had the same faith Abraham had. He just simply accepted it and didn’t look at his surroundings. He could have easily, before even stepping out on the water, said, are you sure, Christ? Look at the waves. Look at this wind. The waves are taller than I am when I stand out there on the water.

How is that even possible? How could you possibly think that I could do that?

But no, he didn’t question anything. He had simple belief, simple faith, not letting the physical things around him persuade him or change his mind. “And he said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid.”

Once he saw something physical, and remembered, wait a minute, physics should not allow for me to do this, I should not be able to do this right now, he began allowing doubt in. “And he began to sink and cried, saying, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said, oh, you of little faith.”

Remember, Abraham was said to have had strong faith. Peter was called out by Christ as having little faith. “Oh, you of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?” Why would you doubt? You actually were doing it. You had simple belief to begin. You were out there on the water among these waves, and I was with you, but then you allowed doubt to creep in.

“And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. And then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth you are the Son of God.” And the account continues on.

So when Jesus told Peter to step out onto the water, Peter initially had what I would call simple faith. The moment he shifted into fear and doubt, he began to sink. And the first response was simple trust until he started thinking about physical limitations, the brutal wind and the waves that he faced.

The word there for “little faith” meant he lacked confidence. He lacked confidence. And the word doubt... this is Peter’s problem. The word “doubt” means that he duplicated in his mind. He mentally wavered. What does it mean to duplicate in your mind? What do you do when you start to overthink things? You think about it again. You duplicate it in your mind. You have second guessing. You have second thoughts, or you second guess yourself.

He duplicated it in his mind. He started second guessing himself because he saw the physical things around him shouldn’t allow him to be able to walk on the water. But he did initially, because he didn’t second guess himself to begin. He had simple faith. Peter did step out in belief, but second guessed his initial simple faith, doubting whether he could walk on the water.

You’ve been on the interstate at times, and have second guessed yourself whether you should take that exit or not. Sometimes that second guessing can almost cause an accident. It’s so dangerous. Oh, should I take it? Should I take it? No, no, no, I shouldn’t take it. Oh, I’m taking the wrong exit. You’ve all been there. We all know what second guessing is.

We can all second guess our GPS. We can all second guess all kinds of things in life. But Peter second guessed himself as well. And we shouldn’t do that. We shouldn’t do that. If we see that we’re doing something right, if we’re doing what Peter did initially, where he just stepped out in simple faith, believed God, don’t second guess yourself, just keep going. Continue on as Abraham did.

Here’s another term that we could use for this simple faith. Let’s turn over to Matthew chapter eighteen, two chapters later. Matthew eighteen. Excuse me, four chapters later.

Matthew eighteen and verse one says, “At the same time came the disciples to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus called a little child unto him, set him in the midst of them, and said, Truly, truly I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receives me.”

So what’s the lesson here? We could call it simple faith. We could say, God wants us to have the faith of Abraham, which is like simple faith. Or we could call it childlike faith.

I have a daughter who is three and a half or a little older than three and a half years old now. And I know this childlike faith is real and it exists. And I understand better why God says that we should become like children. Because childlike faith is very different from adult faith.

One could argue my daughter has greater faith in certain regards than even I do. Now, I would hope that that’s not the case, but think about this for a second. When I tell my daughter that there is a kingdom coming, that God is going to come to earth, that we’ll get to meet God, that the animals will all change, what does she do? Does she question it? Does she overthink it?

Does she look and say, “Daddy, how is that possible? God lives in the sky. God lives in the clouds. How could he come down to earth? Or how could the animals change? I thought snakes are always going to bite and they’re poisonous and dangerous. How can the animals change?” She doesn’t worry about any of that.

She says, “Daddy, I’m so excited for the kingdom. I can’t wait for the kingdom to come.” “Daddy, I can’t wait to pet animals in the kingdom. And I can cuddle with them. And I can tickle them.” She loves the idea of tickling these animals in the kingdom. I don’t know. I don’t know why, but that’s what she’s focused on.

And you know what? I’m excited for her because she’s got a simple childlike faith. She can’t wait to meet God. She’ll just randomly, in the middle of the day, say, “Daddy, I love God. I’m so excited to see God.” I’m thinking, yes, that’s good. That’s wonderful.

There is a simplicity to her belief because what Daddy and Mommy have told her, she just believes. She doesn’t complicate it. She’s not old enough to allow science and physics and logic and reasoning and all these kinds of physical things to crowd out her simple belief. She just believes it. She has childlike belief.

And, brethren, we’re supposed to be converted and then become like children. And this is a great way that we can become like children, is to grow and develop a childlike belief, a simple belief. She doesn’t complicate things or allow doubt to enter in because she just believes it, and she’s excited about it. So we should do the same thing.

And recall Ephesians six. Let’s actually just go back there quick. So far, we’ve discussed the first great cause of doubt, is that of overthinking it. Well, I’ll tell you the first great way to combat this doubt is laid out right here in Ephesians six. The answer is to have simple faith. So let’s go back to verse sixteen and say we’re supposed to put on the whole armor of God, remember?

Verse sixteen says, “Above all...” One of the most, if you could argue, the most important piece of equipment that we have, that we’re wearing to guard ourselves from the fiery doubts, fiery darts of the wicked, is the shield of faith. “Wherewith you’ll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” Take it up. That’s what this point is.

This is the way to stop overthinking it, is to simply take up the childlike shield of faith, the shield of childlike faith, or the shield of simple faith, you could add. Don’t complicate it in your minds. Take up the shield of simple and childlike faith, and it will help defend you against these darts.

Romans chapter eight. The greatest way we can overcomplicate it in our minds is by seeing the physical things around us. That is the biggest problem that we face. We look around us and say, “It’s just not possible. I don’t see... my circumstances won’t allow me to not worry about it. I have to worry about it. I’ve got to overthink it.” No.

Romans eight says this, verse one. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,” they don’t walk after the physical things that they see around them, “...but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Do we walk after the flesh or do we walk after the Spirit is the question at hand. “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.” Here’s how you know if you walk after the flesh versus after the Spirit. Do you worry too much about the things of the flesh, the physical things around us? Do they stop your childlike faith? “But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”

Abraham was told by God, I’ve got these promises for you. He just said, yes, sir, I’m going to follow you, I’m going to believe what you say. I’m not even going to... I’m going to look at you, God, and the promises that you’ve given me, and I’m going to focus on that alone, and I’m going to ignore the physical limitations of this life. And I’m just going to believe you. He walked after the Spirit.

Verse six, “For to be carnally minded is death.” To worry and think only and focus on the things of this life leads to death. “But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It’s not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Do you want to please God, brethren? Do I want to please God? The way to please God is to stop worrying. Stop thinking and focusing on the physical things. Don’t let them prohibit you from having that simple childlike faith.

“But you’re not in the flesh.” You brethren are not in the flesh. If you have God’s Spirit in you or if you have God’s Spirit working with you, you are walking out... you are to walk after the Spirit. “If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he’s none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

Come on down to verse twelve. “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you’ll die: but if you through the Spirit do mortifier, kill the deeds of the body, you’ll live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

We have to learn how to walk after the Spirit. And the simplest way to do that in the context of what we’re talking about today is to have simple childlike faith.

James chapter one. James one and verse six will begin. We can ask God for all kinds of things in life, but when we do, “Let him ask in faith,” James one: six. “...nothing wavering.” Now what does it mean to have wavering faith? What does it mean? “For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea, tossed, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. Because a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

What does it mean to be double-minded? Let’s break that down. Let’s think about that. We just read about it in Romans eight. To be double-minded means you want to walk after the Spirit, but you also see the things of this world that complicate it and that cause doubt. And that doubt, that double-mindedness, leads us to have our prayers not even be answered if we’re not careful.

So doubt is a very dangerous thing if we allow it in. And it begins, we begin to allow it in when we start to overthink things and look at the physical around us. So let’s not be like this man who is double-minded. Let’s be single-minded in our belief.

Peter had a double mind at a certain point at a certain level. When he first believed, he walked out on the water. But then doubt crept in, and he began to sink. A double-minded man has no solid faith in anything. We need to be different. He vacillates because he’s two-spirited, if you could say. Two-spirited, that’s what double-minded means. Two-spirited.

Let’s go back to Matthew chapter eight. Just a couple other examples before we move on to the second point here. Matthew eight. Let’s just read this one account of the centurion. There are plenty of Bible examples we could go through today of people who showed simple faith.

But let’s just read one to understand, in addition to what we saw with Abraham, in addition to what we saw with Peter initially, let’s read here in Matthew chapter eight and verse five about the centurion.

“And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I’m not worthy that you should come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.”

He had a great amount of simple faith that no matter whether Christ was present with his servant or far away from his servant, that he could be healed by Christ. “For I’m a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. And when Jesus heard it, he marveled.”

Why did he marvel? He said unto him that followed, Truly, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” Why was his faith considered the greatest in Israel? Because he did not doubt. He had no concern. He had no worry. He didn’t let physical limitations of distance, proximity to the individual, stop him. He didn’t concern himself with anything. He simply believed. He had that childlike belief that Abraham had.

So, brethren, when we start to get too focused on the physical things and begin to overthink it like Peter did, there’s something we can do to help put our minds back toward simple faith. And this is the second point, the second of two points. We must educate ourselves.

What do I mean by that? The second great way that doubt can enter in is by not having enough information. Imagine you are a surgeon or you’re a doctor, and you hear from your patient that they have some pain in their stomach. As a doctor, you could look at that, hear those phrases, “I’ve got pain in my stomach, doctor.”

The doctor would hear that and say, “That could be one of a million different things. We need to narrow it down. I can’t tell you what it is until you give me more information or I learn more information. Maybe we do blood work. Maybe we take a scan of your body. Maybe we see what’s going on in there. Maybe we even need to do a biopsy at some point depending on what it is.”

Information needs to be gathered first. We need to educate ourselves. The doctor needs to educate themselves before they can make a decision on what the patient has.

It happens all the time. If we’re forced to make a decision without having enough information, we’ll have doubts about the decision we make. It’s a pretty simple concept. Doubt can come in because we don’t have enough information oftentimes.

If a judge is trying to render a decision, and they don’t have all the facts, they’re not going to be able to render a decision. They’ll have doubt in their mind about the decision that they’re rendering if they render it prematurely.

So the same is true of Bible knowledge. If we lack knowledge of the truth, naturally... and frankly, we should. If we lack knowledge of the truth, we should have doubts. But we don’t want to have doubts. We want to have certainty. We want to have confidence. We want to have faith. We want to have that simple faith that we talked about in the first part of this message.

So let’s turn over to Romans chapter fourteen. To look at the subject, let’s begin into the subject of educating ourselves. We must educate ourselves to build that simple doubt. And later on, we’re going to come to a fascinating conclusion, too, about this armor of God. We’ll come back to that.

Well, let’s read here in Romans fourteen. Pick it up in verse one. “Him that is weak in the faith...” you could say newer, somebody who hasn’t been in God’s way for a very long time, somebody who doesn’t have all the Bible knowledge that somebody who’s been in God’s way for quite a while would have. That’s the context here. We’re talking about somebody who is weaker in the faith.

Weak means lacking in power or strength, disabled, made weak. So think about somebody who’s just not as strong in the truth as somebody who’s been in God’s way for a long time. “Him that’s weak in the faith receive you, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believes that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eats herbs.”

There may be a case here or there of somebody who comes into God’s way, and they’re a vegetarian, and they’re invited to services. And it wasn’t asked in the invite process. By the way, do you happen to eat meat? Are you a vegetarian? Like, nobody would ever ask that question as in the invite process when you’re working with somebody.

You’re focused more on, do you understand the Sabbath? Do you understand the Holy Days? Do you understand the basics of God’s kingdom? And then from there, you work toward them, toward invite. Very rarely would it come up that somebody... unless it’s offered themselves.

So if somebody comes into the Church and they’re a vegetarian and they don’t understand that vegetarianism is not something that the Bible teaches, that abstaining from meats is actually considered a doctrine of demons in Timothy. This is a person who might be weaker in the faith because they’re newer. They don’t have the knowledge or the education through God’s Word of what is right and wrong.

They may believe the Sabbath, they may believe the Holy Days, but they don’t yet understand that you don’t not eat meat. “So for one believes that you may eat all things whatsoever: another, who is weak, eats herbs. Let not him that eats despise him which eats not; and let not him which eats not judge him which eats, for God has received him.”

Learning takes time. It’s not something that just happens overnight by fiat, divine fiat. God works with us and we grow over a long period of time. We learn doctrines over a long period of time. We don’t just all of a sudden come to have perfect knowledge of everything as soon as we’re invited to services or as soon as we’re baptized.

Hopefully, by baptism, we have a much better understanding of what God teaches in his Word. Hopefully, by baptism, we understand we should be eating meat. So we’re talking about somebody who is newer, but somebody who is newer might have doubts. They have doubts of what is right and wrong.

Verse twenty-two, “Have you faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allows. And he that doubts is damned if he eat, because he eats not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

Now, again, newer brethren have not yet proven the doctrines of God and may have doubts or wrong ideas about what is truth. So learning takes time. Educating ourselves is important, and that’s the point here.

If we want to remove doubt, biblically speaking, doctrinally speaking, spiritually speaking, if we want to remove those doubts from our minds, one of the great ways that we can do that is to educate ourselves. Inform ourselves of what is the truth.

Maybe this sermon here will inform somebody out there in the Church today who may have been a vegetarian, who didn’t know that point before. Maybe they’re newly invited to services and they didn’t know that it was wrong to be a vegetarian. Hopefully, this message will help inform, in addition to help you build faith and quench fiery darts of the wicked.

So let’s turn over to first Thessalonians chapter five. We have to educate ourselves. First Thessalonians five: twenty-one says this, “Prove all things and hold fast that which is good.” Prove all things, dig, figure it out. Figure out what is God’s mind on a matter.

If we come to find ourselves having doubt about anything, look to God in his Word. We’re going to come down to a few examples of what we can look to God for in a bit. Approving all things is, of course, where begins with God’s Word. God wants us to look to his Word for guidance in every respect in life.

So if we want to have simple faith, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith comes by... if you go to Hebrews eleven... actually, let’s just quick turn over to Hebrews eleven. What is the definition of faith? If God wants us to have faith, it says here in Hebrews eleven verse one, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”

Faith requires... if you and I want to have faith, it requires knowledge. It requires evidence, proof. God wants us to, first Thessalonians five: twenty-one, “Prove all things.” And by proving all things, we’re strengthening our faith.

Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians four verse eleven. Okay it says here in Ephesians four: eleven, “God gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” Why? Why does God have a government? Why does God give gifts? “For the perfecting,” or the equipping, “...of the saints. For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

To edify means to be a builder or an architect. I went to school for architecture, and I understand what that means. God wants us to be builders of other people. He wants us to build the Body of Christ and that’s why he has his government in place.

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried away by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”

God doesn’t want us to be tossed to and fro in doctrine. This is why God’s government is so important. This is what makes God’s Church so unique. We come into God’s way of life, and we all believe the same thing. There’s no divisions among us. There’s no schism. You can’t get a razor’s edge between the belief that I have versus the belief that anybody else in God’s Church has.

Why is that? Because none of us are tossed to and fro by doctrine. We have all proven all things. That’s our pursuit. That’s our lifelong pursuit is to continue to prove all things. And then what? What’s the second half of the verse say? Hold fast to that which we have. Hold fast to it. Believe it. Don’t forget it.

Because once we prove something and we have that knowledge... let’s say we’ve proven... let’s just take the example of vegetarianism and eating meats versus not eating meats. Once we’ve proven in our minds that vegetarianism is considered to be a doctrine of demons, and we know that there are many benefits, physically speaking, to eating clean meat, not unclean meat, then we can have confidence in that, and believe it.

And we know that we’re doing the right thing because that’s what God says in his Word. And on top of that, God’s Word, again, doesn’t say everything that there is to be known in the fund of mankind’s knowledge. God gives us basic guidelines in life to show us how we ought to live.

But if we go out and we understand through science, through modern science, that there’s a lot of terrible things that are in pigs, for example. Pigs are not something that God has ever intended us to be eating. And we can know that not just because God says it, but because science backs it up that it’s a very unclean animal. Then we can have further confidence and less doubt in what we believe.

That’s the whole point here, brethren. We have to inform ourselves, and that’s not just the case with doctrine. We should. We don’t want to be waving to and fro with doctrine. We want to be stable in doctrine. But we also want to be stable when trials come at us.

Once we’re stable in doctrine, and once we’re stable in God’s way of thinking, then when trials come at us, we’ll be more stable. We’ll be more able to quench those fiery darts of the wicked. And the more we come to believe the true doctrines of the Bible and remove doubt, the more unified we’ll be with one another and with God himself.

So let’s go back to Ephesians six, just one page over. And let’s look at what it is that we’re exactly talking about here. We talked about verse sixteen. “Above all, taking the shield of faith,” or taking the shield of what you could call simple faith, “...wherewith you’ll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”

But let’s keep reading in verse seventeen. “Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” What are we talking about here? What is this second part of this sermon about? Really, what we’re talking about is informing ourselves and educating ourselves using God’s Word. Taking up the sword of the Spirit, that’s what we’re doing.

When we educate ourselves, we’re taking God’s Word. We have to know God’s Word first, but when we educate ourselves, we’re taking up God’s Word as a sword that defends us against any kind of fiery darts.

Now, let’s come to that fascinating point that I mentioned earlier. Romans chapter ten and verse seventeen says this. Let’s go there. Keep your hand in Ephesians six if you would. If you didn’t, that’s fine. We’ll be right back there in a minute.

Romans ten and verse seventeen says this. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” So what have we just done? Let’s go back to Ephesians six. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

When we read God’s Word, take up that sword of the Spirit, when we read God’s Word and we take up God’s Word in our hand as the sword of the Spirit, what does it also do? It strengthens the other weapon or tool that you have in your hand, the shield.

“Faith comes by hearing...” the shield of faith is in fact strengthened when you take up the sword of the Spirit, the sword of God’s Word.

So the more you study God’s Word, you’re not only taking up that sword that is an offensive weapon, by the way, it’s the only offensive weapon in the entire armor of God, but when you take up God’s Word and you study God’s Word, you’re not just taking up the sword of the Spirit, you’re bolstering and strengthening the shield that you have. Because faith comes by faith, the shield of faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. They work one with another. So both of these two tools in each of our hands, we have two hands, and in each hand comes the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, and they work together. They’re strengthened one from another.

So when you have simple faith, imagine taking up that shield of faith, you have simple faith. I’m just going to believe God, you’re already going to be starting to quench those fiery darts that are coming at you. Add to it when you pick up the sword of the Spirit, and you say, I’m going to use God’s Word to help me defend against this as well. You’re not only taking up that offensive weapon, but you’re making your shield bigger and more powerful as well. What an amazing thing to consider that God has given us these analogies, these spiritual pieces of armor, to understand more about how we can get rid of doubt in our lives. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Let’s go to Acts chapter ten now. Let’s put this into practice. Let’s think about this. Acts ten. We’re going to read the story of Cornelius. Acts ten and verse nine. “On the morrow, as they went on their journey, drew near to the city, Peter went up to the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, and he became very hungry and would have eaten. And while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending onto him as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth.”

Famous vision that Peter had.

“Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air,” clean and unclean alike. Okay, verse thirteen. Sorry, I lost my place. In verse thirteen. “And there came unto him a voice, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I’ve never eaten anything that’s common or unclean.” I was raised a Jew. I haven’t eaten any unclean meats. Why would I do that now?

“And the voice spoke unto him again the second time, What God has cleansed, that call you not common. And this was done three times.” And you’ll see why it was done three times in a minute here. “And the vessel was received up into heaven. Now while Peter doubted in himself that this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house and stood before the gate, and called and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.”

“And while Peter thought on the vision...” Now, we’re talking about three people who are Gentiles. “While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek you. Arise therefore, and go you down, and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them.”

God gave that vision to Peter so that Peter could be equipped with the knowledge and the information that he needed, because prior to that, Peter wasn’t working with Gentiles. That wasn’t something that was considered the right thing to do at the time, but God wanted to begin to open Peter’s mind to the idea that all mankind is going to be worked with. And so Peter needed more information than he had in the past, and God gave him that information through the form of a vision.

So when Peter received those three men, he didn’t push them away and say, you’re not of God. I’m not going to work with you. I’m not going to accept what you say. You may be sent by the devil. I’m not going to accept you. Peter didn’t have doubt then. Instead, he didn’t have doubt, because God informed him. Information is key if we want to not have doubt. We have to inform ourselves. We have to know what’s right and what’s wrong. We have to know the truth of the matter in order to make proper decisions in life.

“So then,” verse twenty-one, “Peter went down to them, which he sent unto him from Cornelius, and said, Behold, I am he whom you seek.” He didn’t have any doubts that God had sent them. “What is the cause wherefore you are come? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, a just man, and one that fears God, and of good rapport among all the nations of the Jews, was warned from God by a holy angel to send for you into his house, and hear words of you. Then called he them in, and lodged with them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied them.” And the story continues.

So God didn’t want Peter to doubt in any way that He was working with Gentiles, and that’s why He gave that vision. Again, coming back to this whole point about, I keep bringing up clean and unclean meat, but this, a lot of people in the world would look at this and say, well, this is proof that you can eat unclean meat, and that’s not the case at all. That’s not the point.

The point of this was to show Peter and inform him, equip him with the knowledge and the information that he needed, that God would be working with all mankind, not just the Jews, not just the Israelites. God had to inform Peter so that he wouldn’t have doubt. And look, he didn’t have doubt. He didn’t doubt at all. He accepted them and welcomed them in, and they stayed at his house that night. What an amazing example.

Remember Abraham. He had simple faith. We all know that. We believe that. But it was a well-informed, simple faith. How so? Think about when God told him to offer up his son, Isaac, how he just simply accepted it. He had a simple faith in that regard, too. He just said, Yes, Sir, God, I’ll do what you say. Because he was well-informed. He knew that God had, in advance, promised that through his son, Isaac, he would perform the birthright blessing that God had promised Abraham.

So there was no doubt in Abraham’s mind that Isaac would eventually come to live. Even if he sacrificed him there at that moment, there was no doubt in Abraham’s mind that Isaac would have to therefore be resurrected again, at least, and come right back and still be alive to fulfill the promise that God made. Abraham had simple faith, but it was a well-informed simple faith. He knew God gave up Isaac for a purpose, and the rest is history.

So when we’re going through trials and seeing the physical things in front of us that can cause doubt, what do we do in these situations? We can inform ourselves by remembering God’s promises. Here are just a few examples, just sprint through a few very simple examples of God’s promises. When we’re going through trials, what do we need to do? We don’t just take up the simple shield of faith. We have to pick up God’s Word, the sword of the Spirit.

And here are just a few verses you can pick up, and you can expand this list to be a thousand different verses if you want, but here’s just a few, when you go through trials, that you can remember because they’re promises of God. And if God has given them to us as promises, we can claim them with the same simple faith that Abraham claimed his promise. We can just simply accept them. We don’t have to question them. We just believe them. That’s it. Accept what it is that God is about to tell you through His Word. When you go through trials, accept this and say, I just believe it. Because right now, we’re being informed through God’s Word, and once we’re informed, we can just have simple faith, childlike faith.

First Corinthians chapter ten. We’re just going to turn to a few very simple verses. First Corinthians chapter ten. First Corinthians ten, thirteen says this. “There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.” He’s not only going to give you the ability to bear it, He’s going to make escape paths at times.

And it’s on us, brethren. If we want to focus on the negative things, if we want to focus on the bad things that we’re going through in life, that’s our choice. We can choose to do that, or we can choose to focus on all the ways that God has given us escape paths through life. What has He done for us that has alleviated some of the trials that we’ve been going through? If we focus on the positives, it will help our outlook tremendously. That’s a promise from God. Do you believe it? Do you believe it with childlike faith?

First Peter five, seven. You don’t need to turn to these. You can just write them down. I’ll read them to you. First Peter five, seven. “Cast all your care on God, for he cares for you.”

Do you believe that? If you go to God in prayer and say, Father, take all of this from me, do you believe that God will fulfill that? Do you believe that He gave you that promise?

Philippians four and verse thirteen says this. “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Psalm thirty-seven, verse three. These are a few promises that you and I can claim. Do we believe them with simple childlike faith? Psalm thirty-seven and verse three. “Trust in the Lord and do good, so shall you dwell in the land and truly you shall be fed. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he’ll give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he’ll bring it to pass.”

Do you claim that as a promise that God has now informed you of in His Word? He’s given you the information. Now do you believe it? Maybe we’re going through financial trials. We can claim the promise in Luke twelve, twenty-two to thirty-two, that God takes care of all the sparrows. He takes care of all the animals of this world. Not a single sparrow that dies. I just saw a bird out here, a little golden finch or something. Must have hit the window. I saw it fall on the ground outside and was just laying there next to the garden bed. God took note when that bird died.

Do you not think that any trial that you’re going through, God wouldn’t care for you or make sure that your needs are met, your basic needs are met? Of course, He would. So if we’re going through financial trials, understand that God is there. He’s not going to let you become destitute. It’s not His will. But do you claim that promise with simple belief? And then sit back excitedly and wait and watch what God is going to do, because that’s the most exciting part about it all, brethren.

We can sit back and say, wow, I’ve done that. I’ve cast my cares on God. I’ve released this burden from me and I’ve put it onto God and I’ve asked Him to please help me with it. Now I get the fun part, I get to just sit back and watch what it is that He’s going to do. We have our part to do. We have to do our job, too. But do we see trials from that different perspective? It’s a simple belief, a simple faith.

What if we’re going through health trials? Do we claim promises in the Bible, like First Timothy four, eight, that bodily exercise profits for a little while? Do we actually claim that? That’s a promise. God says that if we exercise, it will profit us, it will benefit us. We have to do it enough, and we have to keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it if we want to keep benefiting from it. But that’s a promise from God. Do you believe it? If we’re having health trials, maybe exercise will help.

Maybe our health trials are not related to that, so we would have to pray for other things. Maybe we’re having marital struggles. Everybody should actually turn over to this one, Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians four, verse thirty-one, if we’re having marital struggles, this might be a verse that we can claim as a promise from God if we are willing to enact it and do it. “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Be you kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” God forgave us. That’s a promise that He’s given to us also, but do we forgive one another as Christ forgave us? God forgave us.

Second John eight. Second John eight, powerful verse if we’re going through marital trials. Maybe we’ve never looked at it like this before. “Look to yourselves, lest we lose not the things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” How many of us have ever had issues in marriage or interpersonal relationship problems and said, oh, you’re the one who’s got all the problems, you’re the one who’s making the mistakes, I wish that he would change, I wish that she would change?

The Bible doesn’t talk about changing other people. The only person you have control over in life is you. So this is a promise. If you look to yourselves, God says that you’ll get a full reward. Look to yourselves to change everything that you can about yourself, not look to other people so that you can help change them. That’s not what marriage is about. That’s not what interpersonal relationships is about. We’re here to help change ourselves. Look to yourself if you’re having marital problems.

Finally, if we lost a job, turn over to Philippians chapter four. If we lost a job, this is a verse that we can claim as a promise, and we can believe with simple faith, Philippians four, nineteen. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Do you believe that He’ll perform and give you all your need? We heard last week, Romans eight, twenty-eight, if we’re going through any trial in life, remember that all things work together for good, good and bad. It ultimately works together for good. So do we believe these, brethren?

Next time, a dart, not just a regular dart, a fiery dart comes attacking you, what will you do? What will I do? How will we handle it? Will we remember the example of Abraham? Will we remember the example of Peter? The simple faith that he had to begin with, and then allowing the physical things to take over, only for him to sink. Will we remember that we’re supposed to become like children in our faith? And do we inform ourselves properly so that we can quench all of these fiery darts that come at us?