Continuing this morning with our study of The Armor of God. We're down to our last two pieces, so this morning we will discuss the helmet of salvation, and tonight the sword of the Spirit.
By way of reminder to help us remember where we have been so far in this journey of the Armor of God, then it would be prudent for us to just look at a couple of things real quickly. We've talked about from the very beginning that it's our responsibility as Christians to seek out and adorn ourselves with the armor of God that he has prepared for our protection.
Pieces of Armor We Control!
- Loins Girt with Truth
- The Breastplate of Righteousness
- Feet Shod with the Preparation of the Gospel
- Shield of Faith
If we properly maintain our shields like we're supposed to, then the guarantees of success on the battlefield are going to be ours.
We're going to continue with that vein of thinking concerning guarantees receiving favor from God. That's what we want to talk about with relating to the helmet of salvation.
- Ephesians 6:17
The Helmet of Salvation
" And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; " — Ephesians 6:17-18
These three really go together, the helmet of salvation, sword of the spirit, then prayer.
The Uses of a Helmet
Let's talk about the helmet for a moment. First century helmets would have been made mostly of animal skin with some brass in there for some strength, and so on.
You might ask what they're used for. Well, it's pretty self explanatory for the most part. You wear a helmet to protect what's underneath the helmet, right? You know, it could be a club, it could be a lance, a spear, anything that would get past the shield. Anything that you pop your head up over the shield and somebody's waiting to knock it off. So you wear a helmet. And you wear a helmet because it's important that you keep your head, for more reasons than one.
Protection from:
- Clubs
- Arrows
- Lances
- Rocks
- Swords
Well, that's not really the focus of oour study but, it is for the protection of the one who is wearing it. I think we, understand that, in a physical sense. But it helps provide confidence to the one who's wearing it that they're going to make it through that particular battle alive on the other side. And that's something that we should be wanting for ourselves as we go through this Christian walk.
Defining the Helmet of Salvation
Now the word salvation as it appears there in Ephesians chapter six and in verse seventeen is an adjective. It's an adjective that, in that particular form, only appears five times in the New Testament.
The Word: Salvation
Adjective: Sōtērion
Appears 5 times in the New Testament.
- Luke 2:30
- Luke 3:6
- Acts 28:28
- Ephesians 6:17
- Titus 2:11
Noun: Sōtērion - Acts 4:12
The root however is a verb.
The root is “Sōzō”: “to save”, “to deliver”, or “to preserve”.
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." — Acts 4:12
Luke records for us, Acts 4:12, there's no other way to deliver us from sin than by the name of Jesus. There's no other name given among men whereby we must be saved that has the power, that has the ability, to deliver us from sin in the name of Jesus.
Well that right there tells us some very interesting things about religions that don't honor and use the name of Jesus. In and of themselves, they are wrong. No one who is in a religion that doesn't recognize Jesus as the Son of God can ever be right with God because there is no name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved outside of Him. The power to deliver us from sin rests with Jesus alone.
So salvation is describing something for us.
The Word: Take
But notice also this word take.
“The word “take,” in the original, differs from the “taking up” of Ephesians 6:13 and Ephesians 6:16. It signifies the accepting of something offered by the hand of another.” — The Expositor’s Bible Commentary
Verses 13 and verse 16, we're told to take up the armor of God, put it on, wear it, prepare yourself for its use. It's a command, to take up the armor of God.
In verse 17, we're told to receive the helmet of salvation. We as New Testament Christians have been given this protective piece for our head. This promise, this security, given to us by someone who has Authority to give it to us, may be the One in whose name saves us. And we are encouraged to wear it, to receive it in the way that it was designed for it to be received.
- Ephesians 2:8
Salvation, the deliverance from sin, our deliverance out of the world, is a gift from God. He didnt' have to do it. He did it, because of His love for us. Not wanting us to live in sin and suffer the wages of sin, Romans 6:23.
We're encouraged to take this helmet of salvation, place it on our heads, and it goes where we go. Much like the rest of the armor. We haven't talked yet about an opportunity where we should be removing pieces of armor because there aren't any. Even when we're at home, even when we're among close friends, even at times when we're among those that are in the kingdom of God right next to us. We keep our armor on to protect ourselves and then hopefully be able to, in some way, help defend others along the way.
So we take the helmet of salvation and we wear it understanding that we are already in a state of righteousness. Remember, He's not writing to individuals on how they are to become children of God. He's not writing to these Ephesians on how they can have their sins forgiven and be a part of the church. He's writing to individuals who are already members of the church and encouraging them to live a certain way so they can be pleasing to God.
The Word: Take = Receive
We mentioned that this word is not a command. The previous word in verses 13 and 16 was the command to take up the armor of God. This is not a command. It's written in the middle voice, second person plural, in the aorist tense. What does that mean? It is a sense of receiving or accepting something for one's self rather than actively taking it up by one's own effort. I thought that was interesting to find that particular definition of that particular word, the way that it's written for us.
It's not our effort that is going to guarantee necessarily that it's going to be the preserving characteristic of us making it through this life unscathed by Satan's darts, or at least not falling down on the field of battle. But since you and I are children of God, since you and I have decided that we're going to live our lives as a disciple of Jesus, for the rest of our lives, then His guarantee to us is a helmet of salvation.
And it should help us when those doubts come, when those fears come, when the distractions come our way. We're going to talk about those a little bit later. How do we know that we're going to be able to get through those? With a helmet of salvation. With a helmet that says, you're on the right track. Just keep on being the disciple that I want you to be, and your reward is going to be secured.
How to Apply the Helmet of Salvation
How do we apply what we've learned? This idea of the helmet of salvation.
Protection For the Head:
Guarding of the Mind!
First of all, as we made mention, it is the perfect symbol of how salvation can guard our thoughts against doubts and fears and deception. Because the world out there wants us to doubt. Satan, through his influence in the world, wants us to fear whether or not our sins are forgiven or not.
Protection from:
- Doubts
- Fear
- Deception
Wants us to not be secure in that particular idea and wants to deceive us in who is going to bring about our salvation. The devil would like nothing more than for us to believe as, as those we read about in second Peter chapter two, that, that Jesus being the son of God is not a preserver of our salvation, that he is not the son of God, which makes them false teachers in and of themselves by definition.
Well, that's what he wants, but we're encouraged not to be that way.
- Romans 12:2
The saving of your mind, the recovering of your mind, the renewing of your mind, each day focused on what God wants you to focus on. Through study and knowledge and practice of His will. That's how we're going to be able to use the helmet of salvation to our advantage as a soldier of God. It is to help us renew our mind.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:8
The hope of salvation. We may look at that word and we may look at the idea of hope as a term of wishful thinking. Well this is what I would desire if I had the ability to desire for myself. I would hope that I would gain eternal life as my reward.
That's not how it was used in the New Testament. Hope, in the New Testament was used as an expectation of what's to come. You haven't necessarily received the reality of the thing yet, but you have confidence that the thing exists.
- Hebrews 11:1
We have confidence. We can have confidence that the expectation or the hope of eternal life is real.
The Helmet is Associated With the Promises of God
So in application, the helmet of salvation is associated with, and we should look at it and consider it in this way, the promises of God, certainly in matters of hope, as we talked about just a moment ago from 1st Thessalonians five and in verse eight.
- Titus 3:7
We go out into the field of battle and we're fully wearing the armor that God says we're supposed to have on. We have our personal protection on, which is the the loins girt about with truth of reality. We have the breastplate of righteousness, our actions are in the right place. Our feet are shod, they are prepared with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We're going out into the world and we're prepared to make a defense on behalf of God for His Word. We have our faith that acts as a door shield, that protects us, that we can stand behind.
And then for comfort, we have the helmet of salvation. And that helps us understand that eternal life in Heaven with God is a reality, will be our reality, when our fight on this earth is over. When we close our eyes in death as a faithful child of God, then there's nothing greater.
- 2 Timothy 4:8
When you're walking the Christian walk, living the way a Christian is supposed to live today, you carry a helmet of salvation that's on your head. And when you leave this life, you take off the helmet of salvation and you receive a crown of victory. You receive a crown of victory because you were faithful in this life. That's what the shield and the helmet and all of these pieces of armor are getting us to think about.
That way we can put these concepts into practice in our daily lives. We don't walk around in our physical lives dressed in armor, dressed in AR 500 steel, if you will, that we're going to hold off a sniper's bullet from a mile away. We don't walk around in that particular armor on a daily basis. We have to think about these things in a spiritual sense and then apply them to our physical lives.
- Hebrews 3:6
I made the emphasis on both of those passages there for, for us to consider them in these contexts. Confidence and hope, expectation of what is to come with the helmet of salvation is firmly planted.
Confidence Comes from Christ: “I will never leave thee”
“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” — Hebrews 13:5
How about you take that into your battle with you. That's part of this helmet of salvation. We go out of these doors and above the door over here it says "You're entering the greatest mission field". That's true. When you leave your home, you go to work, you leave your home, you go to school, your armor's on, your helmet of salvation is on, and part of that helmet is God's promise that He will never leave you nor forsake you.
A part of these helmets was normally a symbol of the particular army or regiment that that soldier belonged to. It had an insignia. It was identified. You were identifiable wearing a particular helmet that you belonged to a particular regiment in the Roman Army.
We should have the understanding that there's a symbol on our helmets of salvation that identifies us as being a child of God. That we are in the army of God.
- Philippians 1:6
God is going to see you through to the end if you start in faithfulness to Him and if you end in faithfulness to Him. God will be there to make sure that you see it through to completion. The end of the verse there says, until the coming of Jesus Christ.
The point there that He's making is preservation until the time that Jesus returns, for those who are faithful. The promise that He is going to be with us. Notice also, that this is for those that are faithful. I think I mentioned it earlier that this helmet of salvation is not given to those who are wanting to become soldiers in God's army. It's not to get us out of sin necessarily.
It's to remind us. First of all, that we're already out of sin. We're not living to sin anymore. We don't walk in that way.
- Romans 6:1-4
It's not given as the purpose of receiving salvation, but given to those who have already received salvation.
You don't walk in the ways of sin anymore. Why? Because you've been immersed in water. You've been buried like Christ was buried in a grave. You're buried in a watery grave of baptism. And you came out of that water a babe in Christ, verses 3 and 4.
The helmet of salvation is not given for the purpose of one receiving salvation. We are already rescued, as it were, from our sins, but salvation in this case would refer to God's assurance that He will keep His promise of eternal security for those who are faithful.
“God With Us”
There's a couple of quotes that I'm going to leave us with along with this idea of the helmet representing God. Paul is reminding Christians of God's enduring presence.
“The apostle does not call it "the hope of salvation," as he does in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, thinking of the believer’s assurance of victory in the last struggle. Nor is it the sense and assurance of past salvation that here guards the Christian soldier. The presence of his Savior and God in itself constitutes his highest safeguard.” — The Expositor’s Bible Commentary
Thinking right about God, thinking right about our responsibility to God, thinking right about how God thinks about us is going to help us understand that when we have God in that right place in our mind, it should help bring us all the confidence in the world.
It should help bring us all of the hope that we, that we ever need, the expectation that God is going to be faithful to His promises because never once has God failed to deliver on a promise that He said He was going to make or that He did make.
“The hope of continual safety and protection, built on the promises of God, to which the upright follower of Christ feels he has a Divine right, protects the understanding from being darkened, and the judgment from being confused by any temptations of Satan, or subtle arguments of the sophistical ungodly.” — Adam Clarke
The helmet of salvation. The last, if you will, in a string of pieces of armor given not only to protect us from harm, but to help assure us of the victory that is in Jesus.
The victory is absolutely in Jesus, as we've talked about before. And if we want to have that victory for ourselves, then we need to be in a state like these Ephesian Christians were when Paul wrote this particular epistle. They were in the kingdom.
There's no helmet of salvation for anyone outside the body of Christ. There's no shield of faith for anyone outside the body of Christ. You are not walking around with the preparation of the gospel of peace outside the body of Christ. The good works that you do, do not count as works of righteousness. You are not protecting yourself with the breastplate of righteousness outside the body of Christ. And if you're outside the body of Christ, then you do not have on the girdle of truth, Your loins are not girt about with reality.
Do You Accept the Helmet of Salvation?
What's the reality? Victories in Jesus. The battle is fought by God. The battle is won by God. We're fighting it now. The battle is won by God.
So the question comes to you this morning. Where's your helmet? Are you wearing your helmet? Have you accepted the helmet of salvation for yourself as a New Testament Christian understanding that it's part of the promises of God to help keep us from falling to the temptations of the devil?
When the battle gets hard and, and we don't understand why things are happening the way that we are, where's your helmet? When things aren't going our way, who do we turn to? Whose name's on the helmet? Where'd it come from? The helmet of salvation is given to us by God, who wants us to understand that He's going to be with us every step of the way in this life so we can be with Him in the next life.
Maybe you're one who's already a member of the body of Christ, but your helmet is not firmly placed on your head. Your helmet has been, maybe loosened, or knocked off a time or two because of the cares and trials and struggles of this world, the darts that Satan's throwing your way. Maybe a few of them have gotten through a shield of faith that hasn't been well maintained. If that's you, then there's hope still for you in God's kingdom. We can remove, through the power of prayer, the stain of sin and guilt — God does that. It's not us that does that It's God t.hat does that when we come to Him faithfully.
Maybe you're one who's not a member of the body of Christ. We've talked about how much this armor will protect you, but only if you're a child of God. Where do you stand in relation to the army of God? Are you standing on the field of battle, but on the sidelines? You're not engaged because you're not a part of the kingdom?
Or, maybe you're one who's been told they're part of the kingdom, but you haven't followed what the New Testament says that you ought to do in order to become a child of God. We would encourage you to look and study, and discern those things for yourself. And if we can help you in any way in understanding those, if we can assist you in any way, we encourage you to contact us.
