The Helmet of Salvation
[Read Ephesians 6:10-18]
How many of you are bothered by the demons in Hell this morning? The rest of you need to get saved.
· The moment you turn to Christ, Hell has your name on a bulletin board, and the more you serve your Savior, the bigger your name gets on that bulletin board.
· The more like Christ you become, the harder it becomes to continue. The more help you need.
The truth of the matter is that the devil will bother you and fight you, and oppose everything you do for the rest of your life.
Christians don’t realize that the longer they serve the Lord, the more they need Him:
· The more they need other Christians
· The more they need to pray
· The more they need to read the Bible
· The closer they need to be to the things of Jesus
This happens when Christians grow and are tested with personal trials and sufferings, pass the tests, and then get sent to the next level.
· It takes a thoroughly trained, experienced, and purposefully armored soldier to see the battle all the way through.
I wonder how many combat veterans would be able to tell you stories of comrades they remember who got complacent after they had been around the battle a while, let down their guard, and get killed because they thought that since they had made it this far, the rest of the way would be “as easy as the first part.”
The reason that many Christians fail to live the way they should… the reason so many Christians go back to the way they were… the reason so many Christians end up separating their church lives from their family, friends, and co-workers… the reason many Christians are disappointed with their newly found faith in Christ because they are not expecting a lifelong battle.
When a person becomes a Christian, the last thing they need to be thinking is that the battle is over. The truth of the matter is – when a person gets saved, the battle is NOT over. What has happened, is that you have merely switched sides. The war that the new Christian has just become aware of has been going on for centuries. The reason we don’t realize that we’ve been in a universal war until now is because before we were saved, we were the good guys. In the eyes of the world, we were friends. Now we are enemies. And the forces of darkness do not like that one little bit.
It began when Satan wanted to become like the “most high God.” Isaiah tells us what the Archangel, then called Lucifer (which means “Son of the Morning”), spoke (Isa. 14:13ff) “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assembly on the heights of Zaphon; I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.’”
Immediately following that incident, the Bible tells us that Satan lost his name and his position, then talked a third of the other angels in heaven into following him into the creation that God had made, and they all were banished from their eternal destiny with God, and have been deceiving mankind ever since, trying to get God’s creation to turn against Him. And the rest is history.
Then you were born. One day you realized that you were being deceived, and that you had been living your life apart from your Creator, and without any intentions of living your life for God, or to ask your Creator what you should do to serve him. You were living your life for yourself, and going along with the rest of the world thinking that you were being a good citizen.
But the day you realized that you were a sinner in need of a savior, and on your way to that place prepared for Satan and His angels, you repented – you changed directions – and you became a child of God, saved to serve the living God of all creation. At that moment in space and time; your life’s drive, determination, direction, and destiny changed forever. Permanently. The good news is that there is no going back. Once you are saved, you couldn’t go to hell if you wanted to – and don’t let anybody ever try to tell you that God will go back of His promise to you(John 3:16). The problem we have is there are too many Christians who think that once they get saved that the victory for them has been won the moment they get saved. It is true that you have won an individual victory, and you will never have to worry about going to hell. The bad news is, however, that you have by no means won THE victory.
· It’s not your battle, and it’s not our war.
The battle may be predicated on the fact that God’s loves you and wants to save you; the battle may be about you – but it’s not your war, and it’s not your plan.
The war involves all those who are called by the grace of God. The battle is over the souls of God’s creation. You switched sides, and you must be an active part of the team. You are not an individual in this battle. We must depend on each other. When I fail, you get hurt. When you fail, your family is hurt…
To think individually is to continue to act like a man or woman of the world. You are part of an elite group of people called Saints by God Himself. The seal of the Holy Spirit of God is upon you. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, you are not your own. You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God. You are now a regular in the army of God and there is a battle going on. THE victory will be won when Jesus Christ comes again with His saints when He arrives in person – a day in the future that no one knows. Jesus Christ at the cross made it possible for every one who believes in Him to be a part of that victory when He died for our sins. But that was just the start of your salvation.
Ladies and Gentlemen: don’t ever think that the battle is over. If you have been saved by the blood of Jesus, you are now a soldier in that battle and your job is to take up the full armor of God.
· 1 Timothy 1:18 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight.
· 1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and make the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
· 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.
Paul tells the Philippians from prison, “Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12)
Don’t ever think that your life is going to be easier. That is what the world system wants folks to believe. You get a good education. You behave. You get a good job, you get married, you have kids, you retire, and go fishing.
Baloney!!!
That whole system is set up apart from the Word of God right from the start.
· There is nothing in the world system to tell you to worship and honor your Creator which is the first of the Ten Commandments.
· There is nothing in the system that encourages the people to obey the one true living God, to love God, to love ALL people, and look forward to an eternal promise of eternal life.
· There is nothing in the world’s ideas that show you that there is only one reason that we are here, and there is only one Way to go.
The system encourages you to serve man, and you first. The system tells you that you are nothing but a mass of matter that came together by accident for absolutely no reason at all. The system tells you that in order to have a meaningful life you must find your own personal experience and dream for your life. You are the master of your fate. Your are the captain of your soul.
But now! you got saved from that system, and now it’s like this: You get saved. You serve God. You fight the world system that has lied to you your whole life, you live according to God’s commands, you engage the culture with a holy lifestyle with the Holy Spirit constantly filling you for each and every encounter, you lead people to the same saving knowledge you received, you fight this system tooth and nail every step of the way, and you either die trying, or you get caught up to heaven by Jesus Christ when He comes for His people.
Now some of you just got a real revelation.
Some of you just realized that your not saved. You’ve been living your life for yourself. You have an experiential knowledge of God that gives you meaning and purpose, but you don’t have a personal relationship with the living God that encourages you to live your whole life sacrificially for the cause of Jesus Christ every moment of every day.
Some of you just realized that you thought you had already done everything you needed to do to get saved. What do you mean fight a battle?
Some of you just realized that your guilty of desertion.
Some of you just realized that the closest thing to a battle in your life right now is fighting with your family over which television program your going to watch tonight in the living room.
Some of you need to trade your fishing poles in for that worn out Bible. You know, that Bible you used to read when you were younger. You need to start working out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that at any moment you could be the target of an evil attack on your life that will attempt to render you useless for the kingdom.
Salvation is a process.
· You have been saved from the penalty of sin which is eternal separation from God.
· You are being saved from the power of sin that tries every day to keep you from living a holy life, truthfully, and peacefully in a hostile world.
· You will be saved from the presence of sin that is the reason we are in this mess in the first place.
The final phase of our salvation happens when we are taken to heaven and given perfect bodies with which to spend eternity with Jesus Christ and our fellow saints.
In our verse for today, we must determine from the context which phase of salvation Paul is talking about when he tells us to “take up… the helmet of salvation.”
· The helmet of salvation is not symbolic of initial salvation because Paul is talking to Christians about armor that belongs to God.
· The helmet of salvation is not symbolic of the final aspect of salvation because Paul in the context is referring directly to times of trouble and persecution. Ephesians was written from prison.
· The helmet of salvation applies directly to the present day of “working out our salvation with trembling and fear.”
A helmet protects the head. And like the shield of faith, it must be taken up. Along with the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, these three pieces of armor must be held on to, and great care must be taken to ensure that they aren’t taken away, knocked off, or laid aside by a wrong attitude.
· The Helmet of salvation is protection from deception.
The head is where your brain is. Your brain is what you use to make decisions concerning how the rest of your body is going to operate. Your brain is what you use to think with. Your mind controls your brain. Your mind is what you use to determine your future; its what you use to love people, enjoy things.
Your mind is you. And you make the decisions in your life concerning your drive, determination, direction, and destiny. Without the helmet of salvation taken up and buckled on every day – without a focus on your future that is based on your complete salvation, – you have only the world’s system to fall back on to make important decisions.
Think about this: Every decision you will ever make in your entire life is made upon one of two foundational principles:
God is the most important thing in my world.
God is not the most important thing in my world.
There is no in between. Without the helmet of salvation, without the consistent mindset that God is the most important part in your life, you will choose the second principle. Without a conscious decision to make God the most important fart of your life, without the Helmet of Salvation, you allow the devil to attack your unprotected mind, and you WILL be deceived.
Deceived concerning false teachings:
· Genesis 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
· Deuteronomy 11:16 “Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them.
· Romans 16:17 Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
Deceived concerning moral lifestyles
· 1 Corinthians 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
· 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
Deceived concerning the control of your circumstances
· Galatians 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Deceived concerning our own morality
· 1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Deceived concerning your destiny
· Revelation 20:10ff And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Some of you have already fallen for these deceptions, these attacks on the mind.
You took your helmet of salvation off because you didn’t want to offend your friends and family and loose your reputation.
You took the helmet of salvation off because you fell for the devils line that since you are saved, it won’t hurt to have all the pleasure of the rest of the world.
· Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Some of you took your helmet of salvation off because you’re afraid of what God will ask of you. He may want you to serve Him in the church. Jesus said, the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Why is that?
Is it because God’s people are lazy. No.
Is it because God’s people don’t know what to do? No.
It is because God’s people get convicted of what the rest of the Bible says about salvation: Holy living, sacrificial giving, forgiveness, and standing up for Jesus when standing up for Jesus isn’t cool and they take their helmet of salvation off and thereby allow the devil to deceive them into mixed up priorities.
Jesus may be knocking at the door of your heart and want to use you on the mission trips that are waiting for Christians to be a part of. But because it costs the money that you were saving up for a fishing trip, a cruise, or an entertainment piece or a new car that you don’t really need – and because your helmet of salvation is lying in the dirt outside your back door – the most important things in this life are not based on your salvation.
You took off your helmet of salvation and left it somewhere, because you don’t want to be left out when all your family, and friends are off listening to music that kills the soul, desecrates the Lord our God, and degenerates the value of humanity, or watching movies that show things you would be ashamed of if your helmet of salvation was really on.
You took the helmet of salvation off because you refuse to trust God with your finances – you treat the house of God like a beggars banquet when you give the leftovers from your budget instead of the tithe – that is the first fruits; the first tenth – you steal from the Lord everyday. And just like the rich man did to Lazarus, you allow the crumbs of your stewardship to fall into the offering plate on Sunday morning.
You took the helmet of salvation off because, simply put, living a Christian life suffocates your personal desires, it commands you not to live the way you would prefer, and truth be told, you just don’t like it when you’re held accountable by standards of living that you have no control over.
· You took the helmet of salvation off because is was work. Sacrificial work.
When we take our helmet of Salvation off, we show God, our children, our neighbors, and our fellow man two things:
· We don’t trust God.
· Living the Christian life is no different than any other life.
Saving souls takes a lot of time out of our daily lives. And you see everyone else running around without their helmet, and so the struggle to stay in the battle gets worse.
It costs time talents and treasures to be mission minded and to go forth with the Word of God in a hostile world.
Ben Wofford caught a bass worth $21, 786 on April 11, 1992 at the Texas Bass Championship Tournament on Lake Conroe. His 7.64 pound fish was the fourth largest fish overall but according to Rule Number 6, Ben’s fish didn’t qualify. The fish was fine, but Ben wasn’t Rule 6 clearly stated that all contestants must wear the official tournament hat they were issued at check-in. Ben opted instead to wear his lucky cap and left the tournament headgear in his partner’s truck. Because of Ben’s small error, he was denied any prize money. The Bible is clear, salvation requires identification with Jesus Christ . You must wear His hat. Many people feel more comfortable wearing their own lucky cap, and end up forfeiting the greatest prize of all. (McHenry’s Quips, Quotes & Other Notes, Hendrickson Publishers: Peabody, MA., 1998, pg 220)
What can you do?
· Have an intentional quiet time with God every day and dedicate that day to Him.
· Every time you open your wallet, think about what you’re really spending it on. Have you included God who gave it all from the start.
· Take time to go out of your way to help a lost soul for no reason at all.
· Take time to work with your talents, not for yourself, but for the kingdom – helping the needy. You have to look.
· Take time to be with your church family faithfully every time the doors open. You don’t come to church for yourself only. You come for others.
· Ask yourself, What do my children see in my priorities. Can they see my helmet of salvation working towards the goal with fear and trembling?
· Some of you need to honest with your Creator, and you need to receive the gift of Salvation for the first time…
