HELMET OF SALVATION
Ephesians 6
Intro: Maginot Line (I will draw this up on the board as an opener)
At the beginning of world war II, France believed that they were safe against Germany behind the Maginot line. The Maginot line was a defensive line built in the 1930’s. It stretched for over 200 miles on the NE border of France. It was state-of-the-art, built of thick concrete with heavy guns, living quarters, store houses and underground rail lines. It was designed to hold off any German attack. The Germans however defeated this fortified defense by simply going around it through the Ardennes forest, which the French considered impenetrable. By using superior aircraft and armored tank divisions, something the French were not prepared for, the German army overcame this defensive line simply by avoiding it. In the end, the maginot line was useless and France surrendered to the enemy. France fell in defeat because they underestimated their enemy and relied on the wrong weapons. They did not anticipate the attack their
enemy used.
BIBLE VERSE: Ephesians 6:10-17
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Transition: Tonight we are going to focus on one aspect (yup, only one aspect, imagine us taking only small steps, are you surprised?). And the aspect we are going to take is called the helmet of salvation.
General Definition: The simplest of all applications here, is that you have to have salvation if you are going to battle the enemy. No offense here, but if you are not saved, there is no point in going any further in the study about the armor of God if someone here is not saved.
As for the believer, there is a spiritual power in the knowledge of being saved. The devil should not be allowed to trick a true believer out of their salvation, should not be allowed to make someone doubt their own walk with the Lord (leaders, many young people have the devil questioning their salvation often, when those questions pop up in the mind, I have traditionally taught Christ followers merely to confirm their salvation with a “thank you Jesus for saving me” and those thoughts tend to go away).
So What is the Purpose of a Helmet?
The purpose of a helmet is for protection. When we ride bikes, a helmet protects us when we crash. When we ride motorcycles, a helmet protects us from ending our life. A soldiers’ helmet is worn for even a more obvious reason, though I was joking a bit about the motorcycle rider, wearing a helmet is no joke to a soldier in battle (even more so back in the days when Jesus walked…in the age of swords and daggers, one could expect to have a shot taken to their head in almost every battle).
What About our Mind?
Well, what good is a person once they’ve lost their mind (don’t answer that aloud)? Now I am not trying to be critical of anyone with a mental deficiency caused over the course of time, so please don’t read into it. But I stand before you as a 39 year old that knows of some people who seem to have completely lost all sense of reality when it comes to their own decisions. I just happen to think that some people make awful decisions.
When it comes to the spiritual world, the Devil doesn’t really need to put us in a hospital or hit us with a car. All the Devil really has to do to win over us is to get us to doubt! And that involves a heavy attack on our mind. Cause a destruction in someone’s faith…and they could be done!
A few months ago, I had a fellow believer now overseas with the military ask me if I’d seen a certain movie (for the life of me I can’t remember it now). I told him that I had not, but he said that it had really shaken his faith. He asked me if I would see it and I told him no. Why not he asked, was I afraid of also having my faith shaken? No. Here is my answer and will be my answer for anything like this in the near future. “No my friend, that movie will not shake my faith…because I am not a wienie.” My friend had a good laugh and moved on to bigger things.
The Order:
By the way, winning a battle of the mind is not an option…it is technically an order. “Put on the full armor of God…” is how the verse is read. This means that God is not suggesting us to think we may be saved or think we may not be saved, he is commanding those of us who are saved that we must decide to know that we are indeed belonging to the Lord (hopefully this helps those youth who continue to question…even though questioning whether we are saved to a point can technically be a good thing sometimes).
BIBLE VERSE: 2 Timothy 2:3
3 Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.
Questions:
If we are to be soldiers of Christ, what is one thing all good soldiers join together in?
What does this mean?
How does this contrast with those preachers who teach that Christ just wants us all happy and wealthy?
What does a soldier NOT do?
Who does a soldier suppose to try to please? Who is our commanding officer? Are you pleasing Him?
LEADERS: I have really left this open ended for you, so please take the above questions and run with it. Prior to these questions, I was pretty specific with the general appropriations of a helmet, but please move the discussion into the issue of the mind for we obviously we want our young people to have the knowledge of their salvation. What do you think it means when Christ says don’t deal in “civilian affairs?” Think gossip.
The rest of the information is just gravy, use what you need to use and don’t use what you don’t need to use, thanks for what you do gang.
The Author John MacArthur on the Evidence of Salvation:
“In their zeal to eliminate good works as a requirement for salvation, some have gone to the extreme of arguing that good works are not even a valid evidence of salvation. They teach that a person may be genuinely saved yet never manifest the fruit of salvation—a changed life.
A few have even taken the absurd position that a born-again person may ultimately turn away from Christ into unbelief, deny God, and become an atheist—yet still possess eternal life. One writer invented a term for such people: "unbelieving believers"!
Scripture is clear that a saved person can never be lost. It is equally clear that a genuine Christian will never fall back into total unbelief. That kind of apostasy proves an individual was never really born again (1 John 2:19).
Furthermore, if a person is genuinely saved, his life will change for the better (2 Corinthians 5:17). He is saved "for good works" (Ephesians 2:10), and there is no way he can fail to bring forth at least some of the fruit that characterizes the redeemed (cf. Matthew 7:17). His desires are transformed; he begins to hate sin and love righteousness. He will not be sinless, but the pattern of his life will be decreasing sin and increasing righteousness.”
Two Best Visual Aspects of Salvation:
1) A Changed Life.
2) A Life that Perseveres. (those who persevere to the end shall be saved)
In all I can say in all that I know, those are the best summaries ever explained to me and the most correct description of a saved person that I have ever known.
Sources:
Caruthers, Vernon. The Helmet of Salvation, Campaign Church of God of Prophecy, Campaign, Tennesee.
DeGaw, Ronald. Battle Gear Part Three (Sermons on Discipline), Turk Lake, Greenville, Michigan.
MacArthur, John. What is the Evidence of Salvation? Christianity.com, answer excerpted from Getting the Gospel Right, copyright 2006.
EXTRAS:
The following excerpt is taken directly from bibletruths.org and I feel clearly lays out the perimeters of what should be present in a person’s life if the person is saved. Please do not ever read into a list like a checklist trying to quantify someone’s soul—it doesn’t work that way. But lists such as this one are very good judges on evaluating whether someone really has a “changed life.”
What happens at the moment of true belief?
When a person, from their heart, cries out to God for mercy and forgiveness of sins, a miracle takes place! That person is spiritually "born again" (John 3:3-7). They have now become a child of God (I John 3:1). God Almighty is now their Father (Romans 8:15-16). They become a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17) and are immediately added to the only church the Lord is building (Acts 2:47; I Corinthians 12:13). The Holy Spirit of God now indwells them (Romans 5:5; 8:9) while He spiritually applies the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse away their sins (Colossians 1:14, I Corinthians 6:11). The righteousness of Jesus Christ has been imputed to them (II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 4th chapter). Their life is now hid in Christ in God (Colossians 3:3) and they are assured to be one day in glory with their Saviour (Colossians 3:4; John 5:24)!
These wonderful aspects of being a child of God may be difficult to immediately comprehend, even as a physical baby does not understand the wonders of its new physical birth.
When a baby is born into this world there is positive proof they are alive. They breathe, cry, wriggle, eat and all the things associated with human physical life. As time passes they grow and perceive more and more of their being and respond accordingly. Even so, when a person becomes a child of God, their new spiritual life is manifest in ways that may be identified as unique to a child of God. Following is a list of such evidence.
Hearing God's word
He that is of God heareth God's words... (John 8:47)
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. ... (I John 4:6)
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)
A story is told of a young lady who began reading a novel. After a chapter or two she decided the book was rather boring so placed it on a shelf and in a short time forgot about it.
Sometime later she began an acquaintance with a young man. As their relationship developed and deepened, she learned he was an author. One of the names of his books sounded familiar. During an evening at home she searched her bookshelf and discovered the book she had discarded some months before had been written by her new friend. She immediately sat down and now read the entire book, unable to stop until she had finished it.
What made the difference in this young lady's attitude towards the same book? Obviously she was now fascinated by the book because she had an affection for the author. There is a parallel between this story and the experience of a child of God.
To some the Bible may be fables, to others it is dull or confusing and to yet others it may be a little, if ever, read holy book. But, to the one who personally knows the Author, it is fascinating! It speaks to them, describes them, rebukes them, delights them, convicts them and assures them. Within its pages they find solace for troubles, guidance for problems and hope for the future. This is one of the evidences that a person is indeed a child of God.
To one, who really has received the Lord Jesus Christ as His personal Saviour, the scriptures are a letter from the Father to his child. Just as an obedient child grows in his appreciation for his physical father's words of instruction, warning, and comfort, so a child of God thus grows in his appreciation and understanding of God, his Father's words. The more he reads and applies the wisdom of God's word to his life, the more precious it becomes, for indeed it is true and it works.
Love for God's children
But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. (I Thessalonians 4:9)
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. (I John 3:14)
As the above verses clearly state, there is an automatic love for others who are children of God. In some cases where there may even have been serious animosity between two people, when both are saved there is a marvelous bond of mutual love. It is a miracle performed in the hearts of His children by Almighty God.
There is an immediate bond and heartfelt tie when two children of God become acquainted, even though they may have been complete strangers and from totally different walks of life. Such experience is an evidence of the new spiritual birth of a child of God.
A new outlook or perspective on life
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (II Corinthians 5:17)
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)
When a person becomes a child of God his horizon is changed. He now has an eternal destiny. Life therefore takes on new meaning. He is no longer bound by the cares of this life. It is not that the Christian no longer experiences pain, fears and heartaches, but rather that now he knows it is only for a short time. He now knows he has One who cares for him, and that One is Almighty and able to rescue him according to His will. The Christian now lives for his eternal hope rather than just obtaining all he can here.
Peace
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)
The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all) (Acts 10:36)
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)
This promise of God is just as available today as it was when the Lord Jesus Christ made it some 2,000 years ago. The true child of God can vouch for it. There is an inner peace and calm of the soul that is the property of every babe in Christ. He now has peace with God! Later, as trials of life come to the Christian, he learns that the peace of God is available to him in the face of sometimes otherwise unbearable circumstances. Just as the presence of a worthy human father calms the fears of his trusting child, so does the presence of the Christian’s heavenly Father as he prays and asks for God’s, guidance and interceding according to His will.
The leading of God
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14)
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:3)
Ever since the fall of our great, great, great grandparents in the garden of Eden, God has instilled a conscience to give guidance to every person. To be sure, men have often seared their consciences so they do not hear this still small voice. A child of God, on the other hand, finds that in addition to his conscience he now has the Spirit of God, Himself, indwelling and directing him. It is as though his conscience has been sharpened. Things that were nominally wrong to him in the past, now become repugnant. He now has a heightened desire to want to please God, not because he has to, but because he wants to.
Good works
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:26)
The child of God finds that he now desires to do good for all people. Whereas before he may have grudgingly done things for others or did so to get self recognition, now he does so in pure love for the other person. Again, these things are not done because he has to, but because now he really wants to. It is the love of God shed abroad in his heart!
The chastening of God
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (Hebrews 12:6-8)
Although no child likes to be chastened, it is an evidence of both love and parenthood. As much as the child next door may aggravate us with his disobedience, we do not chasten him. He is not our child. The same holds true with children of God.
Although God has created laws for which there are penalties when broken in the physical and moral realm, He is not at this time chastening the disobedient, unsaved world. He does, however, discipline His children. The severity and form of discipline is Almighty God's prerogative.
In some cases He may simply remove His peace from our hearts causing uneasiness and an awareness of lack of fellowship and communion with Him. In other cases it may be as severe as death (I John 5:6; I Corinthians 5).
As a child of God, His discipline as a loving Father is an evidence of our belonging to Him.
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. (Hebrews 12:8)
Put yourself to the test