Ep. 062 Ballistic Protection

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

Ephesians 6:10–20

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

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