The Believer's Armor
The Helmet of Salvation, Pt 1
Ephesians 6:17
We are looking at the resources for gaining the victory in the Christian life as we deal with temptation from Satan.
I had a thought this week about this passage. For those of you who are familiar with your Bible know that the main emphasis of Ephesians is all about the believer's privileges. But isn’t it interesting that it also contains this issue of Christian conflict.
In an Epistle where for 5 chapters we are dealing in the glories of the heavenlies, all of a sudden we wind up dealing with hell in chapter 6.
In chapter 1 we are introduced to the tremendous majesty and power of God as He unfolded His eternal plan and yet in chapter 6 we face the ugliness of the monstrosity of Satan.
So it's a Book of contrast, in fact, the ultimate contrast. So that reminds us that the greater the privilege the greater the conflict. The greater the reality of our belonging to the Kingdom of God the more obvious is going to be Satan's attack, as he tries to dethrone Christ. Spiritual privileges always lead to conflict with the enemy.
And so Paul says, because of that, make sure you have your armor on.
I’m not going to take the time to review; if you’ve missed a study of two, you can either get my notes or go on line and read for yourself.
Tonight, we come to the fifth piece of armor and it’s found in verse 17
“the helmet of salvation”
That's all it says about it, and yet I can't even finish talking about it tonight. I’m going to take two shots at this one.
Now the assumption is that there’s not much here. The helmet of salvation, that's easy, being saved. No, it's not that.
Let's talk about a helmet, a Roman soldier wouldn't go to battle without a helmet, I mean he'd be foolish. A Roman soldier would be very careful to get his helmet on.
Now helmets were made out of basically two things, leather with some patches of metal on it, or they were the molded solid metal kind.
Either way, it had one purpose, and that was to protect the head. And the primary protection it provided was from what was known as a broad sword. A broad sword was from three to four feet long, and it had a huge massive handle that you held with both hands like a baseball bat. And you just lifted it over your head and went around trying to create split personalities with it.
That was the idea, you would be riding along on a horse and you'd be flailing away at some footmen down there.
The broad sword was a tremendous weapon and you wanted to have a helmet to deflect a blow from a broad sword. So the helmet was very necessary.
Now the helmet here is to the helmet of salvation, but the reference is not primarily to being saved. He's not saying now that you're fighting Satan and now that you've got the breastplate of righteousness on and now that you've got your shoes shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace and now that you have the shield of faith, get saved.
No, that's already happened. You aren't even in the army unless you're a believer, right? So I’m fairly confident “the helmet of salvation” is not getting saved. So what’s it saying?
Remember, salvation has three aspects, past, present and future.
That means salvation has happened, is happening and will happen. Has, that's justification, is, that's sanctification, will, that's glorification. Now if it is past it is done. If it is also present then you can't lose it because it's continually going on. And if it is guaranteed in the future then you're absolutely secure.
So which part of salvation is protecting us from the attacks of Satan when we put on the helmet? I think it is the future aspect of it.
Why? 1 Thessalonians 5:1-8
There is still an element of salvation to obtain, God has appointed us to obtain that finally, and it is the helmet of salvation.
What is the helmet then
The helmet of salvation is confidence in a full, final, total salvation to come. It's confidence that someday the battle will be over. I couldn't fight if I didn't think there was a finish somewhere. Could you? There's got to be an end.
So how is that a part of our armor?
Listen, you know that big broad sword that the Roman soldier would have to face? Do you know what Satan's big broad sword is; it's got two sides to it? One side is discouragement and the other side's doubt. We're going to talk about doubt next time. But tonight I want to deal with discouragement.
You know what Satan wants to do? He wants to knock you right in the head with discouragement and doubt.
He’ll tell you it’s not worth it to serve Jesus. You give and never get anything in return. You live the Christian life and lost fol are doing getter than you.
You've been reading your Bible every day and your wife is as cranky as she was before you even bought a Bible. It hasn’t changed things a bit. What's God doing in your life? You've been going to church for so many years, look at your kids, they don't respect you now anymore than they ever did. And you begin to get discouraged.
You teach that Sunday School class and nobody ever even says thank you. And you get real discouraged. That's one of the things.
The other thing Satan wants to hit you in the head with is doubt. How do you know you're really a Christian? Are you sure you're really saved? You don't deserve it look what you just did.
From time to time everybody gets discouraged and doubtful, and the helmet of salvation is a protection against that double-edged sword of attack.
How so? Well, think about it this way: Everybody gets discouraged. For some it seems to never end. And unfortunately, at the time we need the Lord and His church the most is when we isolate ourselves away from them because we are discouraged.
That’s why the Bible has so much to say about “keeping the faith, and running the race and not growing weary and pressing on.
This enemy of discouragement is a constant foe.
But the ultimate counsel of Scripture is, “Hang in there; be obedient.”
Whatever the situation: Maybe you get discouraged because you have an unsaved husband and it never seems to change. Nothing ever happens and you just get so discouraged. Or maybe you have a child that seems so resistant to all of your efforts you just don’t know what to do. It could be you have a friend you've tried to witness and they’re unresponsive. Maybe you never get any recognition down there at the church for everything you do and Satan reminds you of it when other people get recognition.
You might have some kind of physical ailment, a handicap of some kind, and you get so tired of struggling with that thing and it just seems to eat you up.
I want to remind you of the third aspect of salvation. This is not all there is to it. Don’t lose sight of the fact that salvation has a third dimension.
I love what it says in Romans 13:11, "Remember that our salvation is nearer than when we believed." We're getting close to the finish line; don't quit now.
I think about Jeremiah. The Lord says to Jeremiah, you're My prophet Jeremiah I want you to spend your life preaching for Me and here's your message. Jeremiah preach it with all you've got and preach it till you have no breath and P.S. no one will ever listen. No one will hear a word you say.
And old Jeremiah preached it all alone, listened to it all alone, all alone he said, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart."
And then there was Job. The Lord stripped Job as naked as any man has ever been stripped. He took away everything he possessed, everything he owned, everything he loved, and yet he said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." And he hung in there and when it was all said and done he said, Oh God, he said, "I had heard of you with my ears, but now I can see you with my eyes.”
In other words, he says, I knew about you, but it was in the tough times, as I was faithful that I saw You as never before.
Hang in there; don't let Satan hit you with discouragement. Jesus our Lord said in Luke 18:1, "Men ought always to pray, and not to (what?) faint." When you see yourself fainting, start praying.
Put on the helmet of salvation! Don’t let Satan keep you discouraged.
I read this week about a little, a little man in England named Reverend William Davie. He decided toward the end of his life he wanted to write a systematic theology encompassing the whole Bible.
He spent 12 solid years doing it. When he was done it was 26 volumes, but he couldn't find anybody to set the type. This is 200 years ago. So he set it himself, then printed 40 copies of the first three hundred pages and 14 copies of the remaining 26 volumes. Twelve years of work for 14 copies, and as far as we know there are no known copies in existence today.
But you know what? Even though very few people know him, I'll bet you he died with a knowledge of God that very few have ever enjoyed. One little man wrote a 26 volume theology that probably nobody ever heard of or ever read, but he pursued the knowledge of God and the knowledge of God's Word. He stuck with it.
There was a little 5 year-old girl in London standing on the sidewalk in front of her house when the coal truck came by and dumped a ton of coal.
She picked up a little shovel, opened the cellar door, walked out, stuck her little shovel in the coal, walked across the sidewalk and down the cellar stairs and turned it over, dumping the coal in the basement.
A neighbor man, standing next door, watched her repeat that process three times,. After the third shovelful, hhe said to her, “My dear, you'll never get it all in”, to which she brightly replied, “Oh I will sir, if I work long enough.”
“If I work long enough.”
I guess the test of anybody's character is what it takes to stop them. Lots of people hit the first line of defense and bail out. Lots of people go A.W.O.L. the first time they hear a shot. But then there are those who make a difference in the world because they go right on line after line after line after line of opposition. You know what? You can to, if you work long enough. Don't be discouraged.
Listen, remember the Lord Jesus? "You have not yet suffered unto blood." Nobody crucified you yet. Hang in there, hang in there. The problem is not to faint but to stay at it.
Satan will discourage you every way he can. But the helmet of salvation protects me from fainting, from giving up, from growing weary, why?
Because I have a hope and my hope is that there's a light at the end of that tunnel and someday I'm going to burst into that glorious light in the presence of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 2 and 3 says, to him that overcomes, to him that overcomes, to him that overcomes, to him that overcomes, will I give, will I give, will I give.
Peter says the same thing to those saints to whom he wrote who were in persecution he says, oh listen, hang in there with that well doing and if you suffer for well doing blessed and happy are you, oh if you suffer for well doing, commit your souls to a faithful Creator, be faithful. You say, but sometimes you get weary. That's right, sometimes your legs get rubber like the last lap.
Listen, there's no reason to be discouraged. The helmet of salvation says there's coming a great day of victory.
Salvation is past yes, it's present yes, but oh it's future. And don't let Satan discourage you and don't let him rob you of the anticipation of that thrill; don't let him take away the hope that makes you committed.
Let's pray
