Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast.
We are a Bible -believing church located in beautiful
British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part
of the Christian Fellowship Ministries with 3
,000 churches around the world. We are a church
focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and
church planting. Here we will share recent sermons
from PHSA Church and other sermons from throughout
our fellowship. I'm Pastor David Bickford, and
I will be your host for this podcast. I thank
you for listening today, and we hope these messages
are a blessing to you and bring you closer to
God. Hey, and welcome back to the Potter's House
Seminar Podcast. My name is David Bickford. I'm
the pastor here in town. I've got to apologize.
Apparently, last week's message didn't upload
in time, so we hear... There was a gap in there,
and I only just noticed it this week. So there's
one week gap, and then you're going to hear it,
and then you're going to hear the apologies.
So three weeks in the future. So I apologize
for that. But today I put together a message
that I've entitled Ballistic Protection, and
it's dealing with the flaming darts, because
we know in the Bible it talks about how the devil...
It's shooting these flaming darts at us and they're
meant to hurt us. They're meant to inflict damage.
They're meant to get us to retreat from the battle.
And we need to be able to understand how to fight
against this. And we're going to use Ephesians
6 verses 10 through 20 as our jumping off point
with our scripture. And when I was putting this
together, I was coming up with the thoughts of
early uses of body armor. You know, being a Marine
veteran, U .S. Marine veteran, this is something
that probably takes up way too much of my thought
process and my time, as you can imagine. But
the earliest iterations of body armor in medieval
times were made with a variety of metals that
would include like chain mail, leather, wood,
horn, and other kinds of metal, like plating.
So in battles, officers wore armor primarily
as a symbol of their power and status. The more
ornate the armor, the higher the wearer's rank.
You can see this even in the way that they depict
things in video games today. As you get better
armor, it shows that you're a stronger rank.
And they say, oh, it makes you stronger. And
that's not always the case. What it does, though,
is it really was used as an identification tool
within. feudal militaries and ancient militaries
alike. So as weapons and technology developed
though, so did the body armor. Metal body armor
protected against edge weapons, but it wasn't
strong enough to protect against projectiles
or high velocity weapons. And once gunfire became,
you know, part of the normal warfare style, then
something had to change with that body armor.
Metal body armor was also very rigid. and heavy.
And it added to the fatigue of a soldier or a
military man going into battle weighed down with
all this armor. So that reduced their agility
and their movement, which can make them less
capable of fighting than with a better armor
design. So military planters began researching
alternatives to create lighter weight, yet more
durable body armor for soldiers in the 1900s.
especially during World War II. Many parties,
including criminal gangs and military planners,
helped to invent the bulletproof vest that we
know of today and to create today's body armor
as we know it. And again, going back to my experience
in the military, you have, when I was in... We
didn't really have the best body armor, especially
in my training. I was an aircraft mechanic primarily,
but every Marine is trained in infantry tactics
initially. But we would wear these things called
flak jackets. And a flak jacket was barely a
bulletproof type vest. It wasn't really designed
for projectile weapons as much as it was designed
to protect you against flak that would happen
during the battle. So like explosions coming
off nearby, they would protect the wearer from
stuff of that nature. So even in my time, which
I joined the military in 99, served for five
years. So even then, when you think about it,
I'm using 1960s, 70s technology for body armor.
It's pretty interesting to think about that.
And of course, like the infantrymen, when we
went to Iraq, they had different technologies.
But we'll kind of get into that a little bit
as we go along. So I came across this from Webb
Garrison. He was the former formerly associate
dean of Emory University. And he wrote, if you
find a loophole in a contract or an insurance
policy, it will constitute an escape route for
one of the parties. We're going to look at the
term loopholes and where that came from real
quick. During the Middle Ages, architects and
builders had to deal with the matter of defending
a castle once it was erected. Long bows followed
by crossbows were formidable weapons typically
used by both the attacker and the defender. The
narrow window, often oval at the top and wider
at the inner sides of the thick wall, was found
to offer a difficult target from across a moat.
At the same time, such an opening was big enough
to enable defenders to fire at will. This special
form of loophole saved the hide of many lord
of a manor when firearms made it obsolete. Its
name transferred to any opening that provides
an advantage to one party in a dispute or an
agreement. So likewise, God's word serves as
a loophole for us to take refuge in. By donning
the word of God, we are able to stand firm against
the fiery darts and assaults of the devil. So
we're beginning to start to see. as we get to
our text here shortly, that the idea of... you
know, warfare in this sense, or the idea of ballistic
protection against the fiery darts of the devil,
we have a loophole. We have a way of not only
escape, we have a way of defending ourselves
against these fiery darts. Let's look at the
word of God. In Ephesians 6, 10 through 20, it
says, finally be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of his might, put on the whole armor
of God that you may be able to stand against
the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the cosmic powers
over this present darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in heavenly places. Therefore,
take up the whole armor of God that you may be
able to withstand in the evil day, having done
all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened
on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate
of righteousness. And as for shoes for your feet,
having put on the readiness given by the gospel
of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield
of faith. with which you can extinguish all the
flaming darts of the evil one and take on the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God, praying at all times
in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.
To that end, keep alert with all perseverance,
making supplication for all the saints. And also
for me, that words may be given to me in... opening
my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the
gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains,
and that I may declare it boldly as I ought to
speak. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, I pray that
this message, that this word would impact someone's
heart, that it would impact many people and help
bring them to a relationship with you, Jesus
Christ, as the ultimate loophole into the fallen
man. We give you all the praise and glory that
only through you people can... Come to salvation,
and we thank you for your sacrifice on the cross.
In Jesus' name, amen. So I want to think first
about dealing with the flaming darts. We all
deal with threats, both external and internal.
The internal threats are those of doubt, anxiety,
depression, and all the emotions that we contend
with daily. These are hard enough for us to deal
with on our own, but we are not only dealing
with... These threats, we are also dealing with
external threats that target our weaknesses.
Our enemy, the devil, strives to hit us where
it hurts. Those soft spots that, you know, when
hit can cause a mortal wound. He's aiming for
our soft underbelly, looking to wound us mortally.
A wound in our vital organs that will lead us
to death or infection, or that will at least
be severely debilitating. That's the goal of
the devil is to debilitate you. Now, first off,
if he can't get you to worship yourself as God,
because that's really what he wants is for you
to become your own God, because that's the same
sin that knocked him down. And he'd love for
another creation of God to succumb to that form
of pride. But if he can't do that, he wants to
make you wounded or unable to serve God fully.
So today I want to look at the word of God. and
what the Apostle Paul tells us on how to be prepared
for our daily, weekly skirmishes in the battle
that we call life. Even more than that, I want
to focus on how we can be victorious in this
battle because of the greatness of our Father
in heaven and our Savior, Jesus Christ. As we
walk through history, we will see how armor has
changed over the centuries, but how it is still
a beautiful picture of how God protects us from
these fiery darts from our enemy. So let's look
at pre -modern armor, modern armor, and then
ultimately we're going to look at active protection
systems. So pre -modern armor is leather and
fabric. So when you think about this idea of
leather armor or fabric armor or even the meshing
of both of them together, we use this armor at
the beginning of our history. When primitive
warriors were trying to protect themselves with
leather hides and helmets. In the 11th century
BCE, so before Christ long ago, 11th century,
Chinese warriors wore armor made of five to seven
layers of rhinoceros skin and ox hides were similarly
used by the Mongols in the 13th century, many
years earlier or later, rather. Fabric armor,
too, has a long history with thick, multi -layered
linen carasses. armor covering the body from
the neck down to the waist, worn by Greek heavy
infantry in the 5th century. The quilted linen
coats worn in northern India, they were worn
by the Indian armies up until the 19th century.
So these early pieces of armor were providing
a minimum of protection, but still afforded a
very high mobility. This is not to be overlooked
that the wearer of the armor must be able to
maintain mobility or else they'll fall victim
to a more agile adversary. And we all know that
the devil is very agile. He's going to try to
switch things up. He's going to try to trap us.
And so in 1 Samuel 17, 38 through 39, it says,
Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put
on a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed
him with a coat of mail. And David strapped his
sword on his armor and he tried in vain to go
for he had not tested them. Then David said to
Saul, I cannot go with these for I have not tested
them. So David put them off. David ultimately
placed his trust in God and not in the trapping
of King Saul's armor. But we also must remember
that God's armor is supernatural and provides
us with the greatest protection and the greatest
mobility. There is no cost to the armor of God.
Through obedience. We shed the weight of sin
and take up the yoke of the cross. And Jesus
tells us how his burden is light. So we have
this picture of King David weighed down by the
armor of a grown man, King Saul, who's already
told us to be ahead above those around him. He's
a tall man. He's a strong man. But in this situation,
he's feeble. He's afraid of Goliath. And you
have the young shepherd. who comes to fight against
Goliath. And Saul's like, well, let's load you
up. I'll give you my armor. It's the best around.
And it weighs him down. And so David makes the
very wise and godly decision to say, I will fight
with God on my side as God is my protection.
In Matthew 11, 30, it says, for my yoke is easy,
my burden is light. And this is a picture we
can glean from even this Old Testament illustration
of King David. way before he was a king, just
knowing that even though the lightness in his
youth would not be a detriment to him when he
faces the enemy, Goliath. We come to the next
stage of armor, which was mail armor. So you
have your iron, your steel, and the advantage
of chain mail is that it's quite flexible. It's
relatively impervious to slashing strokes. So
if you're slashing with a knife or a sword, it's
not going to be able to cut through to the flesh.
But even so, thrusting weapons can force apart
these rings in spite of their tight knitness.
So a suitable piercing weapon can get through
the chain mail. So in the form of a simple shirt,
mail was worn throughout the Roman Empire. and
beyond most of its frontiers. Mail formed the
main armor of Western Europe until the 14th century.
So this is something that we've utilized throughout
our history for a long time. It provided adequate
protection in most situations. In Europe, strips
of mail were also worn underneath plate armor
to close any gaps left between the rigid plates.
So even as we moved into more rigid forms of
armor, the mail would be underneath to protect
it. Male shirts were worn in India and Persia
up until the 19th century. And the Japanese used
mail to a limited extent from the 14th century
through the rings in the Japanese mail were arranged
in a variety of ways, producing a more open construction
than found in Europe. Male sleeves, legs, harnesses,
and hoods had also been worn. So it's kind of
an interesting thought here when you think of
Japan. and how they started using mail armor
as Europe started moving away from mail armor.
What's the big distinction here? Well, the samurais
and slashing weapons that were largely used in
Japan, mail was still a suitable alternative.
But as the 14th century and later on came through,
the crossbow and the power of it, and then eventually
the firearms and the power of those, made mail
useless and nothing but an added weight. And
we look at our rigid forms of armor in the early
eras. You have your wood, you have your horn
from an animal, you have metals, you have plastics.
These armors were composed largely of steel or
iron plates that were linked loosely together
by close rivets and by internal leathers that
allowed the wearer maximum freedom of movement.
So again, now they're weighed down. They've got
plate armor, they've got chain mail, they've
got probably some sort of fabric underneath that.
They've got three layers of armor and it's just
weighing them down. But all these forms of protection
have a weakness. In the case of Ahab, we can
see that a well -placed arrow can strike in between
the joints of your armor. And this is why armor
systems are made up of these many, many layers.
1 Kings 22, 34, but a certain man drew his bow.
At random and struck the king of Israel between
the scales of his armor and breastplate. So the
devil is able to launch these arrows at us in
mass. And if we're only using earthly armor,
it leaves gaps. It leaves gaps within our heart,
within our soul. And it allows for the opportunity
for these arrows to come and find flesh. And
when they find flesh, they can leave a mortal
wound. And we have to be aware of that truth.
So then we look at modern armor. Modern warfare
subjects soldiers to a variety of lethal projectiles.
Now we're not just talking about bows and arrows.
We're talking now about bullets fired from rifles
and pistols and machine guns that can penetrate
the flesh and often create terrible wounds as
the bullet breaks up in the body. and tumbles
throughout. When they hit a hard substance such
as bone, they can cause that bone to shatter.
Shell fragments can create jagged pieces of metal
formed by the explosion that comes within these
shells or another idea of a grenade. And these
things come out as an explosive force that can
come through most forms of prehistoric or ancient
armor. In the battlefield today, we have mines,
we have booby traps, improvised explosive devices
that can target soldiers at close range and kill
or wound through the force of an explosion and
the effects of fragmentation. Shape charges are
designed to penetrate vehicle armor. There's
explosives that are designed so that even a vehicle
that's equipped with anti -explosive technology
or protection, they can shoot through the base
of that vehicle. And it'll create a stream of
molten hot metal that will kill everything in
its path. In our world today, we have to be aware
that the devil is laying traps for the people
of God and sinners as well. The Bible tells us
that he's trying to snare us. He's trying to
hook us in. And that's why we remember that grace
that God gave us on Calvary. And we need to strive
for restoration, not only of our own lives through
his grace, but those around us, those important
to us, those that have left behind their faith
so that they can be once again redeemed. In 2
Timothy 2, 26, it says, and the Lord's servant
must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone,
able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting
his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps
grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge
of truth, and they may come to their senses and
escape from the snare of the devil after being
captured by him to do his will. So gunpowder
renders much of the previous armor we discussed
as obsolete. And this brings us back to the idea
of a new kind of body armor. Once gunpowder entered
onto the scene, the day of the night was come
to a quick end. The majestic knight with his
plate armor, his chain mail, and then his padded
armor underneath was now of no use as a bullet
could penetrate straight through all and causing
way more damage than an arrow or a sword could
ever have done. It took the lowliest riflemen
and elevated them to a strength above the grandest
of knights. So what are we going to do about
this? Or how do they overcome this danger? In
the trench warfare that happened in World War
I, the devastating effects of artillery barrages
caused armies once again to outfit their soldiers
with metal combat helmets to protect them against
fragmentation wounds to the head. The German
army even outfitted some soldiers and exposed
positions. Machine gunners, snipers, sentries
with steel breastplates. These steel helmets
were standard issue for foot soldiers in World
War I or World War II as well. In addition, bomber
crews in the conflict wore heavy flak jackets
designed to protect against the fragmentation
from air defense guns. So they were struggling
in this 19th century, or the 20th century rather,
they were struggling how to overcome the massive
power. of these new weapons. Previous to that,
you know, they had to get off nights, but they
found that mobility was able to salvage much
of it because a musket or early rifle didn't
fire at a fast enough cyclical rate where it
became as big of a threat. You could run away
from these types of armaments to some extent
because your ability, your agility or your mobility
would circumvent some of the danger of it. But
now, Now there's just way more firepower. And
so they're like, well, maybe we got to put steel
helmets on, steel breastplates on, flak jackets
on. And then they came around to developing new
materials like Kevlar and ceramics. Modern body
armor systems are called IBAs or interceptor
body armor, consist of an outer tactical vest.
Made from a layered Kevlar, which provides protection
against shell fragments and most handgun bullets
as large as nine millimeter. So that would have
been like my flak jacket. This type of Kevlar
could stop, you know, a small bullet at nine
millimeters, fairly small projectile in the scope
of handguns. And then what do you do in something
bigger? Because rifles that are used by militaries
are much stronger than a small handgun. So then
they would add. two ceramic small arms protective
inserts or as we would call them sappy plates
which could be inserted into your vest and provide
additional protection altogether this full system
weighs 16 pounds but it provides protection against
a 7 .62 millimeter full metal jacket rifle a
level of protection that earlier versions of
body armor couldn't provide now to try to you
know give you a little bit of idea behind this
though This kind of protection would only protect
you from one or two shots. Because as the ceramic
is impacted, it breaks and it starts to lose
its structural integrity. This is still better
than what you'd had available before. But again,
within any human system to protect against this
kind of barrage, there are gaps. These systems
only cover at best from your throat down to your
groin area, your upper thighs. And they would
be way more weighty than the 16 pounds described.
So your mobility is limited. And so now you're
even at more risk because you're not able to
move quickly or agilely to get yourself out of
a threatening situation. And we find that with
our own lives when we're trying to fight our
enemy, the devil, where we think, I need to take
all this protection on. I need to do all this
stuff from the world. But it's not going to save
us. Because the Bible does tell us to flee from
temptation, right? It doesn't say sit and weather
it. It says flee from it. So when we're being
assaulted, when we're being barraged, we have
victory in Jesus, but we're also told to be wise.
So this brings me to my final point, which is
active protection systems. And then we'll loop
this back in to our text. An active protection
system, an APS, is a system designed to actively
prevent certain anti -tank weapons from destroying
a vehicle. Countermeasures that conceal the vehicle
from or disrupt the guidance of an incoming guided
missile threat are designated soft -kill active
protection measures. Countermeasures that physically
strike an incoming threat to damage or destroy
it, thereby limit its ability to penetrate the
armor, or designated hard kill active protection
measures. Soft kill measures are designed to
defeat guided weapons either by concealing or
protecting the vehicle from them, like a smoke
screen, or by disrupting their guidance with
like radiation, which would be like a dazzler.
It shoots up lights like lasers to stop the guidance
of an enemy system. The idea of this, though,
is that these soft kill measures can be divided
into onboard countermeasures such as dazzlers,
which are fixed to the platform, and expendable
countermeasures such as smoke grenades, which
are ejected upon use. Soft kill measures may
be used preemptively, but are more commonly employed
in reaction to detected threats. So here's a
good idea, is if you're coming under assault,
You can try to shoot up all this stuff to distract
yourself from the assault that's coming in. But
a lot of these times, like a smoke screen works
both ways. If you're trying to throw smoke out
there to hide from the attacks of the devil,
just know that he can see through that. And that's
why we have to rely on Jesus for our strength.
And that's why we have to rely on the word of
God. Because we might find ourselves in a situation
where we're just putting up a smoke screen. to
cover up our own sin and that we need to repent
from. A hard kill measure kinetically attacks
a threatening missile or other munitions, usually
at very close range to protect a vehicle. Explosively
formed penetrators, EFPs, or high explosive fragmentation
countermeasures are typically used. The exact
mechanism of these APSs are not available to
us in the public. But these countermeasures may
lead to the disturbance of stability of a kinetic
projectile. So what does this mean? This is simply
to distill this down because I'm probably getting
into the weeds a bit with this military jargon.
Some of these systems that are on tanks and on
armored personnel vehicles now, they can sense
a threat and they can shoot something out to
take the threat out. So imagine a missile coming
in, inbound to a ship. And there's a thing called
the sea whiz, which is a very fancy machine gun
system that can track a missile and they can
just put lead in its path, a bunch of bullets
in its path, and it'll take it out. These are
very powerful tools, but this is what brings
us now back to the word of God and our victory
in Jesus. In our text, we read about the armor
of God. In the letter's final teaching section,
Paul instructs believers to stand against the
evil forces at work in the world. This discussion
has three parts, a description of the nature
of the battle in verses 10 through 13, and then
a call to resist the powers by putting on the
armor of God in verses 14 through 17. Then finally,
our active form of protection is to pray and
be alert. We need to be mindful of what is going
on in our world. We need to be mindful of what
is going on in our own lives, our own spirit,
and we need to pray. Because prayer is that active
protection. The Lord God gave Israelites a similar
charge before they engaged in battle with the
inhabitants of the promised land in Deuteronomy
31, 23, and then Joshua 1, 6. So 31, 23 first,
and the Lord commissioned Joshua, the son of
Nun, and said, be strong and courageous for you
shall bring the people of Israel into the land
that I swore to give them. I will be with you.
And then in Joshua chapter one, verses five through
seven, no man shall be able to stand before you
all the days of your life. Just as I was with
Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave
you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous
for you shall cause this people to inherit the
land I swore to their fathers to give to them.
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful
to do according to all the law that Moses my
servant commanded you. Do not turn from it. to
the right or to the left, that you may have good
success wherever you go. So the full armor of
God in verse 11, you know, we can see this in
the book of Isaiah contains similar imagery to
Paul. In Isaiah 11, 4 through 5, it says, But
with righteousness he shall judge the poor and
decide with equity for the meek of the earth,
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of
his mouth. And with the breath of his lips, he
shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be
the belt of his waist and faithfulness, the belt
of his loins. Later in Isaiah 52, seven, it says,
how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him who bring the good news, who publishes
peace, who brings good news of happiness and
who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your
God reigns. Finally, in... Isaiah 59, 17, it
says, So we have to be able to stand. This is
a military expression that refers to a posture
of opposition towards the enemy. Strategies of
the devil refer to the devil's efforts to disrupt
the church. And Paul uses the Greek word methodia,
to suggest that the devil is cunning and uses
deception to advance his evil purposes. In 2
Corinthians 11, 3, We have to understand that
there are forces of wickedness at work. There's
supernatural powers. that are hostile to the
word of God. Because of Christ's victory over
these evil powers, we as believers need to have
courage in order to resist them. So with this,
I just would like to close. When we think about
the armor of God that's depicted in our text
in Ephesians, We need to put it on, but the benefit
of this armor of God is that it leaves us with
the ability to be agile. It leaves us with the
ability to reside in Christ. Our active force
is the word of God. It comes out like a two -edged
sword, but not only that, our prayer. Everything
else it talks about in regards to this is to
be an agent for peace. Because vengeance is the
Lord's, right? So what we need to focus on is
how we bring people to Christ so they can be
set free and redeemed in Jesus' name so that
they too will put on the armor of God and they
will not be impacted by the flaming darts of
the devil. We don't have to be under barrage
of the devil because as we link together in fellowship
as believers, we have victory in Christ. And
so with that, I'd just like to have about every
eye closed, wherever you are, as long as it's
safe. And I just want to give a quick invitation
that if God is working on you, if you feel like
you're under attack today, you need to put on
the armor of God. But maybe you might say, I'm
not saved. I'm not a Christian. I don't believe
in any of this. Then you need to give your life
to Jesus Christ. You need to repent. You need
to turn your life over to him and pick up your
cross and follow Jesus. And you can do that if
you'd like to signify that, that you want to
make that decision. You can signify that with
an uplifted hand wherever you are. I can't see
it, but God can. And if you do, if you've rivers
in your hand and you mean it, then God sees that.
I just want you to repeat after me. Dear Lord
God, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that
your son Jesus died for me and rose from the
grave. I repent of my sin, which just means I
turn away. And I accept Jesus as my Lord and
my Savior, my King and my Sovereign. In Jesus'
name, amen. That simple prayer, we like to colloquially
call it a sinner's prayer, is the recognition
that Jesus is God and he's very God, incarnate
flesh, who died for your sins and rose from the
grave. And that by believing in him, you are
set free. When he says what Jesus tells the people
that he prays with to repent and sin no more,
that's simply casting off your old life because
you have a new life in Jesus. So I want to thank
you for taking the time to listen to me today.
I pray that this message impacts you and that
it helps you. Don't be worried about all the
conniving and all the new weapons that are being
brought to bear. The internet can be a weapon
against Christianity, but it can also be a tool
for Christ. Music can be a weapon against Christianity,
but can also be a tool for Christ. Put on the
armor of God. Live in the word and pray for guidance,
understanding. And I trust that God is going
to do a mighty work in you. I want to thank you
again for listening. Can't wait for you to come
back next time. God bless. Thank you for listening
to the PHSAA Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast.
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