“And take the helmet of salvation,…”
Well, we all know what a helmet is for. They protect the head. There are many reasons to wear a helmet. Work on a construction site, riding a motorcycle, going to war, preparing to tell your wife you just bought a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee on impulse… (No, that is not a personal experience; I just made it up)
There are also many types and styles of helmet, but there is no need to get into that here. They all serve the same purpose without exception, and there is only one reason to wear them. To protect the head. Primarily, and for obvious reasons, the brain.
We discussed the point that Paul has told his readers to be prepared first with truth, then with right standing with God through faith in the shed blood of Christ and His resurrection, then to move out with that message, making peace between God and men.
And we made note that following that he began speaking about these pieces of armor that, rather than being worn at all times, are taken up for battle, and really only have a purpose in times of battle. The shield, and now the helmet, and as we will see, the sword.
I’ve worn helmets. They are not comfortable. You get used to them after a while, like anything that you have to wear for an extended length of time. But when you can finally take them off it is a great feeling.
On the other hand, when they are necessary they are good to have. More than once has a sword blade, or a bullet, or a piece of shrapnel been deflected by a wisely worn helmet. I doubt very much that it has often been said, “Oh, he might have lived if he hadn’t been wearing that helmet!”
So let’s go on to make spiritual application, acknowledging first that Paul’s obvious intent was to encourage us to guard our mind, against error and against the enemy’s direct attack.
HELMET OF SALVATION
I want you to understand that Paul was not talking about that initial experience of being saved, when he said to take the helmet of salvation. This is made clear in several ways.
First of all, he said to ‘take’ the helmet. As we’ve seen in several studies lately, our initial salvation is not something we take, or “take up”. We were entirely dead in sin and unable to play any role in our salvation. It was a gift, and entirely of God’s doing.
So Paul would not tell his reader to ‘take up’ salvation, in reference to the exercise of belief in the gospel and being saved, any more than a doctor would stand at the foot of the bed of a woman in labor and holler at the baby, ‘Come on out!’
Salvation is spiritual birth from above, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit of God.
Secondly, Paul was writing to Christians. He wasn’t writing to anyone he considered a non-believer. We’ve already established several times through the course of our study in this epistle that he is addressing Christians, and even the context of this final section of the letter bears that out. In verse 10 he says to ‘be strong in the Lord’. In verse 18 he admonishes them to pray, and more specifically, to pray for him and for one another. These are all things that would not be said to an unbeliever.
There is absolutely nothing to say of a spiritual nature to an unbeliever, other than the gospel message. Until he is brought to repentance for sin by the Holy Spirit, and then understood and believed the gospel and been born from above, he will not understand spiritual truth, and to exhort him to Godly living or the practice of Christian behavior is absurd. He is dead until given life from above.
Now I know you’ve heard me say these things many times, but it is my solemn duty to repeat them often. I’ve been perusing so many books and reference materials lately that I can’t remember where I read this, and it is not a direct quote, but one writer pointed out that a preacher’s two primary duties are to preach the gospel, and tell sinners that they are dead.
His point was that since a large percentage of church goers are not actually saved, it would be irresponsible to allow them to continue on, fellowshipping with believers, enjoying the tangible and material benefits of being a ‘church member’, perhaps even holding office or teaching a class, and never challenge them with the truth of their actual condition.
To the known unbeliever, the preacher’s duty is to tell them that they are dead in trespasses and sins, and that they must repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. To those whose spiritual condition is not so obvious, his duty is to continually challenge them to examine themselves in the revealing light of the scriptures, and test themselves as to whether there is spiritual growth and fruit in their lives. In short, whether they are actually saved. To those who demonstrate a Christ-likeness and a desire to be conformed to His image and an excitement about the prospect of His imminent return, the preacher’s duty is to take them deeper in the Word and exhort them to holy living and active Kingdom work.
If he approaches his congregation and listening audience always and only as if they are all born again believers bound for heaven, he is neglectfully leaving some in a very dire and dangerous position, and who will help them if he will not?
Ok. So, Paul is not talking about the initial salvation experience when he says to take up the helmet of salvation.
Let’s look at a couple of references for clarification. Always use scripture to verify scripture. Your doctrines should be supported by numerous texts, as the bible will never contradict itself. If your understanding of one passage seems to be contradicted by another passage, then you need to reevaluate your understanding.
Look at I Thessalonians 5:8,9
“But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And another, Romans 13:11,12
“And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
Noteworthy that in both of these places Paul is putting his illustration of the armor to use. But not my main point.
The point is, he is talking about salvation as though future, to believers. And this is also his application in our Ephesians text.
In fact in our text he is really applying the illustration to present and future salvation.
You’ve heard it said, by me and I am sure by others, that we were saved from the penalty of sin; that’s initial salvation. Then we are being saved from the power of sin; that’s progressive sanctification as we are transformed by the renewing of our mind and conformed to the image of Christ. Finally, we will be saved from the presence of sin; that is glorification, when we will be with Him in a place where sin cannot follow.
Well, Paul is talking here, when he says to ‘take up the helmet of salvation’, about sanctification and glorification. We’ll talk about sanctification in a moment.
But here and especially in the verses we read from Thessalonians and Romans, his reference is to our final glorification. We are saved, and our salvation continues to be worked out. But our final salvation will be when we have entered into His glory, never to return to these frail bodies or this trial-filled existence.
In Romans 13:11 he said, “…salvation is nearer to us than when we believed”. Were we saved at the point of believing? Yes. But we eagerly await that final salvation, which is glorification.
And in I Thessalonians 5:8 when he speaks of the ‘…hope of salvation’, he is referring to the anticipated final outcome of our salvation. We’ve recently studied this in our Sunday evening classes, that the word hope does not refer to something we wish for and hope it comes, but to that thing we fully expect and wait for with settled conviction that it awaits us. That is, glorification.
What Paul called in Romans 5, “the hope of glory”.
So in Ephesians 6:17 when Paul tells his reader to ‘take the helmet of salvation’, he means to protect and guard our minds with this conviction, that our final salvation is settled and sure, and just over the horizon.
And this brings me to the next thing we have to be clear on concerning the guarding of our minds.
PROTECTION FROM ATTACK
As I have said repeatedly since we first came to this final portion of Paul’s epistle, the application of primary importance of this analogy of the armor, is sound doctrine. There are various levels of application, but most important to us is that in order to stand, in the sense that Paul is telling us to stand, we have to know well enough to articulate, and well enough to apply to our daily walk, these doctrines of justification, sanctification, our future glorification, and so on.
We should be very confident in what we mean and do not mean when we talk about regeneration. We should be able to give an intelligent and biblical accounting for why we stand firm on the eternal security of the believer. We need to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us when asked. And what is the hope that is in us? It is what we’ve just finished talking about. Future glorification and eternal life in the presence of Almighty God. Our hope is in the final resurrection, of which Christ is the first fruit.
But there is another aspect of the taking and wearing the helmet of salvation, and that is for protection against the direct attacks of the enemy.
I just want you to see as we approach this, that the primary way our minds are guarded against these direct attacks, is to have that foundation, that settled conviction, of the things we’ve been talking about up to this point.
I’ll get back to that briefly before we close, in tying everything together.
The way the enemy attacks us is usually directly aimed at the mind. Doubts, fears, uncertainties, guilt, and so forth.
I know you can see easily that if he can affect the thinking, he can, from there, influence the behavior.
James was addressing this very issue, when he wrote:
“But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
If the devil can influence our thoughts, and he often does, my friends, he can manipulate behavior.
Now in saying that, I’m not letting any one of us off the hook for our sin. “The devil made me do it” might have been a very successful funny line for Flip Wilson, but it is not an excuse in the ears of God.
But God does recognize our weakness and the tendency of the old nature to respond to stimulation. That is why we must have our minds guarded.
I wish I could give credit here, but I don’t know the name of the radio preacher I heard while in the car the other day. He was telling a story of how early in his marriage he and his wife rented a small cabin and went camping.
Being a city boy he had no experience with starting fires, so someone instructed him in the use of the wood burning stove in his cabin, telling him that every couple of days he should shovel out the ashes, place them in a metal bucket, and be sure to set the bucket on concrete or some other non-flammable surface until the contents are cold.
Well, after a couple days of using the stove, because it was cold in the mountains and the cabin was cold at night without the fire, he dutifully shoveled out the ash and placed it in the bucket provided, then built a fresh fire.
About two days later, thinking the ashes in the bucket must surely be cooled by now, he stepped outside and emptied the bucket at the side of the cabin.
Now this was at night. So he had no problem, in the darkness of the woods around them, seeing the red glow of the embers that had been mixed with the ash and were now beginning to ignite the leaves on the ground in various places.
Well, he went on to tell a funny story about his reaction and his panicked attempt to put the little fires out, and then he made his own application.
But I thought about it as I was writing this sermon and wanted to share it with you, because it seemed a good example of how badly our minds need to be guarded.
Because just when we think that some of our lusts and passions of the past have sufficiently ‘cooled’, and we’ve grown in the Lord and don’t have to worry about those things any more, the enemy will bring them back to the surface, wave them in front of our eyes, bring back a familiar scent or sound or sight, and we suddenly find out that they never really died after all.
It can be embarrassing; it can be devastating. It can severely hinder spiritual growth and damage our relationships, when we are caught by surprise by our own sin, because we thought we could stand and were not ready.
Paul said in Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
The way to have our minds guarded against direct attack believer, is first to be settled about salvation and our future certain hope, then to continue to let the Holy Spirit renew our minds. Change our thinking. Transform us according to the Divine Nature imparted to us, into new creatures desiring and doing the will of God.
Another way the enemy will directly attack our minds and thereby manipulate our behavior, is to get us looking at circumstances around us and wondering if we’re really believing the truth.
Am I really a Christian? If so, why do I do this or say that? A true Christian wouldn’t.
I keep praying for the same things and I never seem to get an answer. Is this stuff really true, or am I kidding myself?
And is it really worth it, going without some of the pleasures of life, avoiding some of the comforts, just because supposedly Christians don’t indulge in those things?
The Psalmist was apparently going through this struggle when he penned Psalm 73.
“Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart!
But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling; my steps had almost slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no pains in their death; and their body is fat.
They are not in trouble as other men;
Nor are they plagued like mankind.”
He was seeing the wicked prosper, and it bothered him! Have you ever felt that way? I know I have.
We see it all the time. The good guy gets cancer and the jerk lives to a ripe old age.
This is how the enemy would get his claws into our minds and pervert our thinking.
Paul, writing to Timothy, encouraged him with these words, familiar to most of us, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”
The King James says “power and love and a sound mind”. It means ‘good judgment’.
In this ‘package’ of things that come to the Christian with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is the ability to use sound and Godly judgment.
So believer, when you find yourself struggling to use sound judgment, guess who’s trying to put his two cents in!
The Psalmist saw the problem and recognized it for what it was. He found himself whining about the prosperity of the wicked, and made some rather silly observations.
“There are no pains in their death” “They are not in trouble as other men”
Do the wicked have pain in death? Of course they do! As much as anyone. Do they occasionally have trouble in life? Of course they do!
When we find ourselves feeling sorry for ourselves and thinking things that drag us down emotionally and spiritually, it’s time to take stock of where the thoughts are coming from, and take the helmet of salvation and guard our minds.
GUARDED MINDS
In your devotion time, read Psalm 73 in its entirety. The Psalmist was pretty discouraged about things he saw, and at one point, he even despairs for his own acceptance with God.
“Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence;
For I have been stricken all day long, and chastened every morning.”
But in the end he encourages himself with truth and his thinking does a complete turn around.
And this is what I want us to focus on as we draw this to a close. With what do we guard our minds? With truth! Not just any truth, but the truth of God’s word and His promises; and more than that, with His presence.
The Psalmist said:
“Nevertheless I am continually with Thee;
Thou hast taken hold of my right hand.
With Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me,
And afterward receive me to glory.”
Believer in Christ, the enemy of your soul would desire to sink his dirty claws into your mind and keep your thoughts on anything but God and Heaven. He would keep you thinking about this world and the daily cares of this world. He would keep turning your thoughts back to the vain things that entertained them during the basest period of your life when you were far from God.
But if you remember that you are in a battle and who it is you struggle against, and if you have donned the spiritual armor of God, and daily take up the helmet of salvation and surrender your thinking to the protection and guidance of the Holy Spirit, you will say with the Psalmist:
“But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
That I may tell of all Thy works.”
Now I said I’d get back to an earlier point to draw things together.
On the morning I prepared this sermon I heard Alistair Begg preaching on the resurrection. One statement he made several times during the course of his sermon was this. “There is a direct relationship between what I believe about the future and how I live in the present.”
What we really believe about the future, will affect the way we live and behave in the present.
Believer, I could preach a long sermon, entirely on the second point of this one. And many have. Guard your mind. Be aware of the enemy’s schemes, and recognize when he is manipulating your thinking.
Meditate on the things of God. Let your mind be renewed by the Holy Spirit, according to the Divine Nature imparted to you. This could go on and on, and it is all good and Godly, scriptural admonition.
But I want you to go away from here today with this, if nothing else. What you know and believe about your acceptance with God in Christ, and the spiritual work that has been accomplished in making you a new creature, not fixed up flesh, not emptied, washed and refilled,… but brand new and filled with the Holy Spirit of God as a sure and certain promise of your future glorification, will directly affect your present and day to day behavior and approach to life and ministry.
Guard your minds with this truth; you are His, your hope is sure, and nothing can take you out of His hand. He is conforming you to the image of His Son, and He will continue to perfect that work in you until the day He takes you home.
If this is the settled conviction of your heart and mind, then the enemy won’t be able to penetrate your helmet. What you believe about the future, will directly affect your behavior, and your thinking, in the present.
“With Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me, and afterward receive me to glory”. What greater assurance and peace could we have than to encourage ourselves with that?
