All that Glitters is Not Gold

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD

THE SHIELD OF GOLD

FOOL’S GOLD

1 Kings 10:16-17

16 And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target.

17 And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

1 Kings 14:25-28

25 And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:

26 And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

27 And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king's house.

28 And it was so, when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard chamber.

THREE HUNDRED SHIELDS OF GOLD

Solomon was one of the richest kings of Israel and under his leadership Israel became a financial powerhouse.  He had at his disposal a vast amount of resources and wealth.  One of his many acts of greatness was to commission making three hundred ceremonial shields of beaten gold. 

These shields represented the strength and glory of Israel under God’s power.  Can you imagine how glorious it was for the best soldiers in Israel to march down the streets bearing these shields?  The sun would shine down upon these highly reflective gold shields as the soldiers marched in unison.  The effect would have been breathtaking!  The pride of the nation must have swelled when they viewed this great spectacle. 

On top of the glory and beauty of the shields was the value.  At all times in human history gold has been one of the most precious and sought after substances on earth.  Because of its rarity, gold was doled out piecemeal.  It must have been a grand statement of the wealth of Israel for these three hundred shields to have been made.  The surrounding nations must have been in awe of a nation that could arm three-hundred of its finest warriors with golden shields.

 

Each shield had three pounds of gold on it.  It is very hard to get an estimate of the worth of these shields today due to the ever changing value of gold, but as of 2011, gold is selling for around $1,400 and ounce.  At this rate the gold alone in one shield would be worth almost $75,000 dollars and that is not factoring in the craftsmanship.  Once you add the craftsmanship into the shield the value of one shield could increase upwards of $200,000 dollars per shield.  This means that the value of all of the shields in this army of three hundred men could well reach over twenty two million dollars!  All just for a martial statement!

So what am I trying to say?  That these shields were of great value.  They were not cheap and worthless, but they were very precious!  Costly!  Valuable!

GOLD SHIELDS

The shield represents our faith.  We read this great fact in the New Testament when the Apostle Paul penned these words:

Ephesians 6:16

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Gold represents purity and glory – it represents the Divine.  At one time the Church was shielded by her purity!  Our Purity was our Glory!  The Pentecostal Church of 100 years ago believed that Holiness was as much an evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost as speaking in tongues was.  Today there is more emphasis on tongue-talking than holy living and look at the condition so-called Pentecostal churches in our world.

The shield was a true shield.  It looked valuable and it was valuable.  It was as valuable as it looked.  Its value was not false and inflated.  It was not a counterfeit but it was true.

THE LOSS OF THE GOLD SHIELDS

Solomon made the Gold Shields, but it was the next generation that lost the Shields.  Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, failed and the shields were lost.  Often the great accomplishments of one generation are lost in the next.

Shishak the King of Egypt came and stole the shields from Rehoboam.  Egypt represents the World.  It was and incursion of Worldliness that resulted in the loss of our valuable faith.  Without True Faith we are defenseless!

1 John 5:4

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

The Shield is defensive weapon.  It protects the bearer.  When our faith is lost then we will be defenseless against this world!  The Shields must be guarded at all costs or we will not be guarded.  When our shield is pure then we will overcome the world but the moment we lose the true shield then we become defenseless. 

Look at the life of Timothy and you will see how the shield of faith was passed on from one generation to the next.  His Grandmother and then his Mother passed the Shield down to Timothy.  Through three generations the shield made a successful transition.

2 Timothy 1:5

When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

The word “Unfeigned” simply means not faked or false.  What was given to Timothy was the True Shield of Faith.  It was not a counterfeit!

THE BRASEN SHIELD

Brass is only worth about $2 per pound.  I said pound not ounce!  This would have made the value of the material in each shield worth about $6 dollars!  Brass is worthless compared to gold.

Rehoboam was embarrassed by the loss of the 300 shields of gold so he commissioned craftsmen to fashion 300 shields of brass.  He did not have the wealth to make new gold shields, nor the power to take them back from Shishak.  Rehoboam knew that they could polish those bras shields to a high gloss and that many people would think that they were the same shields that Solomon had made.  But, they were counterfeit shields!  They were imitations!  They were worthless pieces of brass!  Brass represents judgment.  The glory was traded for judgment!

This is exactly what has happened today.  The first generations of Old-Time Pentecostals had the Shields of Gold, but the Devil broke in and stole them from a subsequent generation.  Now Charismatics have shined up brass shields to make them look like gold.  Most people do not know the difference.  They see the glitter and the shine of brass and are lulled into believing it is gold.  They have been hoodwinked!

Their faith is worthless!  It is valueless!  They are defenseless with this false shield.  As long as worldliness reigns in the Church there will be no victory.

Revelation 3:17-18

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.  

We must recover the gold shields at any cost.  The Laodicean Church rejoiced over what they thought they had but in reality what they had was worthless.  Jesus counseled them to “buy of me gold tried in the fire”.  The shield they were bearing may have glittered but it was not gold.

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD

It may glitter and sparkle but it is not gold.  It may look like a move of God but it is not a move of God.  They may shout, speak in tongues, dance, and worship in a lively manner but it is not the gold shield.  Most of what we see taking place in the modern Pentecostal Church is brass.  Judgment!

Look at a few of these examples of the counterfeit we see today:

1. People in churches roaring like lions, barking like dogs, and    mooing like cows – and then calling it revival.

2.  A “Laughing Revival” sweeping through America.  What are they laughing about?  America teeters on the precipice of eternal destruction, while one million abortions are performed in America each year (42 million world-wide), homosexuals walk openly in our streets, children are molested, and filth pervades every facet of our society.

3.  Personal prophesy has become all the rage and Churches scramble to get the newest, and hottest, prophet to come to their Church and work their “magic”.

4.  Get-Rich-Quick Faith, Name-It-And-Claim-It, and the prosperity movement has taken over the television and radio air-waves preaching their corrupted and perverted message.

5. Televangelist money raising schemes:  Holy Water from the river Jordan.  Holy Anointing oil from Jerusalem.  Red thread like Rahab’s thread.  Meal in bag to bake a cake.  Dream lists.    

6. One fat-cat preacher encouraged his listeners to anoint all of their money with a cross and then anoint their checkbook and write them the largest check they could and send it to him.  He promised that this would make them rich. 

7. Fleshly worship is at an all time high.  The things done as worship in some Churches today would make Nadab and Abihu blush.

8.  Churches claiming that gold dust and angel feathers are falling from Heaven in the services.  I don’t want the feathers – I want the Dove (Holy Ghost)!

It may look real to the fleshly and carnal man, but to those of us that are spiritual we know it is worthless.  It may look like gold to the casual observer but it is really brass.  It may sparkle and may dazzle but that does not mean that it is gold.  Carefully polished shields brass may look good to the untrained eye but at the judgment seat of God their true value will be revealed. 

All that glitters is not gold.  All that shouts is not God.  All that speaks in tongues is not the Holy Ghost.  All that preach loud are not anointed.  The value of the shield not found in the shine but in the purity of the substance.  Cheap things can be made to shine.  Only that which is valuable will ever provide the protection we need from this world.  Only the pure, unadulterated faith of this Bible will keep us in this last closing hour of the age.  We must recover the shields of gold.

Can I tell you this?  No amount of polish will ever turn brass into gold.  No amount of human effort and cleverness is ever going to produce a true revival.  No amount of education will ever transform that which God has rejected into something God will accept.  We must have the anointing of the Holy Ghost – “Because of the anointing the yoke shall be destroyed.”

The only thing that will protect us is the True Shield of Gold.  We must remove the counterfeit shields of brass and come back to the altars of God and weep and cry for God to give us, once again, the Shield of Gold.