Thank you, music ministers, if you have your Bibles.
Turn with me to Ephesians.
Chapter 6.
It's been a while, since we've been
here in Ephesians.
And since verse 10, we've
been working our way through studying the
armor of God.
And today, we come to verse 17.
And now we only have two pieces of
God's armor left to ghost.
But I want to get our thinking back within
the context of this whole passage.
So let's begin just by reading, once again, versus
10 through 17.
Apostle Paul writes, Finally, Be
strong in the Lord.
And in the strength of his might.
Put on the full armor of God.
So that you will be able to stand firm
against the schemes of the devil.
Our struggle is not against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against
the powers, against the world forces
of this darkness, against the spiritual forces
of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore, take up
the full armor of God, so that
you will be able to resist in the evil
day, and having done everything to
stand firm.
Stand firm,
therefore, having girded your loins
with truth, and having put on the breastplate
of righteousness, and having shod
your feet with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, in addition
to all, taking up the shield
of faith, with which you will be able
to extinguish all the flaming
arrows of the evil one, and take
the helmet of salvation, and
the sword of the spirit, which is
the word of God.
Now, we've been learning all about the serious reality
for quite a little while now, that
all Christians are involved as
they live and breathe on this earth in warfare.
And this war that we are in.
consist of daily
inner battles that
we have with our own flesh, and which dwells
no good thing, as the Apostle Paul says.
And that flesh that we
are encased in is assailed from
the outside by our admissary,
the devil, using this present
world system to continuously
fire those flaming arrows from
verse 16 at us.
So this
warfare is being played out,
in real time, on two fronts.
our daily inner battle with our own flesh,
as we, at the
same time, live in
an evil world system where the whole world
system itself is engulfed
in spiritual warfare.
For example, when
you see godless ideologies
and philosophies, like Marxism,
and communism, and movements,
like transgender rites,
and the whole alphabet mafia movement,
LGBT, all of that, all of those things
are like tanks being driven
across the battlefield by the demon host.
And this massive warfare
being engaged on
our whole culture, not only
here in America, but also in every
culture, across the whole globe.
This same reality.
is behind all false religions.
Every religion is false, except biblical Christianity.
And we have this relentless
daily warfare, that
sees Satan, roaming
to and fro as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour, as the Bible says,
every single day.
And so as Christians, we have
daily inner battles.
As we live in a fallen world that
itself is totally engaged in intense spiritual
warfare all around us, just turn on your television.
That's all the example that you need.
And this text is giving us, as
I've told you before, all the resources
that we need, for us to gain
victories in the daily battles that
we grind in.
And so I want to get just a little more nuanced.
In totality, the
conflict of the Christian can be understood to
be taking place in three dimensions.
In our personal lives, as I said, there's
a conflict between flesh and spirit.
But then, also, there is a conflict,
as I said, with every Christian and the world,
and then, thirdly, there is a conflict between
every believer and the demon host themselves,
and listen to me.
You can't remove the demons from the other
two because they work through the
world and the flesh and the daily battles that we fight.
Are you with me?
You understand.
That's three different spheres there.
And it's this third dimension.
that Paul is focusing in to
help us understand here in our text.
How?
Does a daily, less
struggling Christian believer, live
this life in this situation, gaining
daily victories, with all of this tremendous opposition
that we get, look at the end of verse 11,
this opposition that
he calls the schemes of the...
Now, if you remember, here
in our text, Paul gets, before he gets to
the armor, he gives us, look at this exhortation in verse 10,
And I always, fail
to review well, I think, because I always want to say more,
and I just, again, I
say this every time.
If you haven't heard if you missed any of these messages on
the armor, go back on the Facebook page and
watch, because my reviews are just real general.
You got it?
My reviews are very general.
I'm not telling you everything that we went through.
I'm just giving you general review, but let's go back to verse 10.
Remember, this is the 1st point and it's very important.
Before you get to the armor, verse 10.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Before you start looking at the armor, You
have to start off with this that you realize you
cannot fight this battle in your own power and strength.
It cannot be done.
We all, all of us have to totally,
completely depend on the power and strength of the Lord.
We're going to get beat down by the enemy.
But then, next, look in verse 11.
Paul then says, put on the full
armor of God so that you will be able to
stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
And then what happens is he begins to start defining the armor.
Look and starting in verse 14.
Stand firm, having girded your loins with truth.
And if you can think back, if you heard that sermon,
It's not so much about content of the truth.
That comes later, what sort of spirit we're going to look at next time.
But this is more of the sense
of readiness in the truth.
In all of this, remember, Paul is
picturing the Roman soldier of his day.
Keep that in mind.
The idea of girding
up your loins is a Jewish Old Testament expression
of anticipation, and readiness, what
you picture here is a soldier.
He's ready for battle.
He's made his commitment.
He's got the belt of truth strapped on,
and he's ready for action, and then next in verse
14, having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
And what do we learn there?
That's the daily practical righteousness that
we strive to live in as Christians in obedience to
the Word of God.
And then, thirdly, we saw in verse 15, look at it, and
having shod your feet with the preparation of
the gospel of peace.
And the idea here, the gospel of peace, is the good news
that we are at peace with God.
We were formerly enemies of God.
We fought against God.
But by saving faith in the gospel, we
now have peace with God.
And when we have our feet shod
with that kind of preparation, we can stand
firm against the adversary, because now we
have God on our side.
We didn't before.
And if you remember, all of those pieces
of armor are long range.
You keep those pieces on all the time, but
when the battle gets hot, you pick up
these next pieces of armor.
And we see the verb change.
Look at the verb change first in verse 16.
In addition to all, look what it says, that phrase.
Taking up the shield of faith.
That's action.
Then verse 17, and take the helmet
of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.
If you remember, If the soldier
was in battle and say there was a lull in the battle.
And he wanted to get some water or something.
What would he do?
Well, he would put down his sword,
he put down his shield, take his helmet off,
but the rest of the armor wouldn't come off, right?
I mean, he wouldn't take off the breast braid.
He wouldn't take off the shoes.
He wouldn't take off the belt.
But then when things got cooking again.
And the battle got stirred back up.
What did he have to do?
Well, he went over, had to go back over there and pick that armor up that he had put down.
He had to go pick the sword up and the shield up.
And this is when the arrows really begin
to fly, and that's the rest of verse 16 that we
looked at, taking up the shield of faith with
which you will be able to extinguish all the
arrows of the evil one.
And we talked about that.
All the constant shooting
of the flaming arrows of temptation that
the adversary sends our way, endless,
endless amount of ways.
Go back and listen to that.
We went thoroughly through that.
The only way that
we can extinguish those flaming arrows.
Do you remember is faith.
And what do I mean by that?
Well, remember, whenever we sin, we
are believing the lie of the enemy.
Ooh, it's okay.
Just go ahead.
It's all right.
We believe the lie of the enemy.
But as long as we believe the word of God,
when we're doing that, we won't be believing the
lies of the enemy.
And so the shield, against the flaming arrows
of temptation, is faith.
is believing God.
So now, let's move
to the next and the fifth piece of armor, for
today, we're going to look at verse 17.
Look at it.
And take, again, there's
the verb, the helmet of salvation.
And that's all it says.
Now, is
that because it's simply just talking about being saved?
Well, you know Paul better than that by now, right?
So that means we got to dig into,
with our shovel, what this means.
And let's go back to the imagery of the soldier for a minute.
A Roman soldier would absolutely never
go into battle without his helmet.
And their helmets were
generally made out of one or two things.
Leather, with pieces of metal attached
to the leather, or they had these
molded solid cast metal helmets.
You've seen these in the movies, I'm sure all of us have, and
whatever you were doing, depending on what kind of helmet that you would have on.
But the helmet?
Helmet was critical.
in battle.
I mean, as you were fighting, and an
arrow come flying through, and hit you in the head, it could protect you from
that arrow, just as much as a blow from
one of the short swords, when you be up close, or
even one of the broadswords.
It could protect you.
The helmet was absolutely necessary in battle.
And there's no doubt.
Over the years that Rome existed
in the Roman army existed, that countless lives
were saved by the soldier having his helmet on.
And now here in our text, we're dealing, though,
with the helmet of salvation.
And let me tell you why I
said that this does not refer to salvation.
He's not saying, now
that you're in the army, now that you're fighting
the enemy, now that you've got the breast spray of
righteousness on the belt of truth, the shoes of the preparation of the gospel
of peace, and you've got the shield of faith, now get saved.
He's not saying that.
Now, in context here,
that's already happened.
I mean, you're not even in the army unless you're a believer first.
You understand?
Jesus said, if you're not with him, what?
You're against him.
Right?
So if you're on God's side and you're in the battle against
Satan, you're already saved.
So he's not talking about that here.
What he is talking about requires
us to get theological.
Or just a moment.
So hang in there with me, okay?
Ever since I became a Christian.
Almost immediately, I have found many people
to be confused about
the subject of eternal security of salvation.
A lot of people, even Baptist.
I mean, sometimes, especially Baptists, do
not really have a proper understanding of
what has also been come
to be named as once saved, always saved.
And I'm almost certain a Baptist came up with that phrase.
And then what's the reason for that?
The reason is because they
do not understand the basic,
fundamental doctrines of the Christian
faith, and primarily they do not understand the
doctrine of salvation.
The subject of eternal security is
extremely clear.
I don't even think, in my opinion, it's even debatable
when you understand the doctrine of salvation
properly.
And let me give you something simple, and
something profound at the same time, to understand.
Now, some of you have heard this breakdown before, from
me, or maybe others, but it's good to get a refresher
course on what I'm fixing to tell you, because
it's so important for you to understand this
down in your bloodstream.
There are three primary
aspects to the doctrine of salvation.
Past, present,
and future, and
they have been defined theologically this way.
First, the past
aspect frees us from
the penalty of sin, in
other words, if you say to me, are you a Christian?
Have you been saved,
I would say, yes?
Well, Brother Philip, when did it happen?
Well, it happened when I believed the gospel.
And when I did, all
of my sins were placed upon Christ, all of
my sins were imputed to Christ on the cross as my
substitute, he paid the penalty for all of my sins,
that is in the past.
The penalty is paid.
I died.
I was crucified with
Christ, and nevertheless, right now I live.
The penalty for my sin was paid,
it was totally dealt with.
There is never, ever, ever,
ever going to be any more penalty to
pay from anyone,
because Jesus paid it all.
Romans 81 makes
this very clear.
Therefore, there
is now no condemnation
for those who are
in Christ Jesus.
Doesn't say there's some, said there's no.
But also, secondly, there
is a present aspect
to salvation.
A continual working in
our lives of freedom from the power
of sin.
Look at what Paul says in Romans 6:14.
For sin, shall
not be master over you.
For you are not under law,
but under grace.
The reality for every genuine believer is
that sin no longer has
total dominion over you as
it did before you came to Christ.
This doesn't mean that you do not sin at all.
This means that sin no
longer has the reigning power
and dominance over your life, like
it did, before salvation.
Why?
Well, in addition to Jesus having totally
paid the penalty that we deserve for all our sins, look at
what we also learn in 1 John 19.
If we confess our sin.
He is faithful and righteous,
to forgive us our sins, and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Though all of our sins have
been forgiven in the past,
we are still, right now, in time,
down here in responsibility land, struggling
with sin every day, as
you've heard me, Luther, many, many times, we
are sinners, saved by grace, but sinners, still.
And that's why, every day,
we need to be acknowledging that reality and
confessing our sins before the Lord.
John MacArthur writes this in his study Bible about 1 John 19.
Rather than focusing on confession for
every single sin is necessary, John
has, especially in mind here, a settled recognition
and acknowledgement that one is a sinner
in need of cleansing.
And understand what he means there.
Listen carefully to what he's saying.
He's not saying, don't worry about confessing
individual sins.
That's not his point.
We should be doing that.
But what he is pointing out is
the broader thrust of what John is getting at
in that verse, and that is a daily
acknowledgment to God of our current condition and
sanctification, daily.
Continual confession of sin,
both individual sins and general, is
a strong evidence of salvation in a believer's lie.
This really does demonstrate, when
you do this, when this is your practice, how sin no
longer does have dominion over us anymore.
If you're confessing and acknowledging that, every day.
And here in 1 John 1, 9, the idea of our confessing
sin and God being faithful to forgive us,
the verbiage there, the wording there is this idea of
continuous.
Continual, Confessing,
and continual, cleansing, and forgiving
all of our life by God.
That is a major aspect of our sanctification.
And that's why, again, always, we
should daily be
confessing our sins in order, you've heard me
say this many times, in order to get that daily temporal
forgiveness that is rooted and grounded in the
judicial, positional forgiveness of Christ, our king,
where all our sins have been forgiven.
Are you getting this?
I mean, this is important for you to understand.
The absolute gospel greatness
of this reality, when understood properly,
is that for Christians, we can never have
not even one sin charged to our account.
Look at Romans 8:33.
Who will bring a charge against
God's elect?
Answer, nobody, ever.
I just read it to you earlier.
There's now no condemnation.
for those who are in Christ Jesus.
The substitutionary atonement of Christ on
the cross for all the sins of all believers, for all time, was
absolutely, totally, infinitely sufficient.
No other payments are actions of
any kind need to be made again.
Jesus paid it all.
There's no amount of works.
There's no amount of suffering, there's no amount of
some imaginary place where you go to be purged for your sin.
No amount of nothing adds to the perfect, sufficient
work of Christ.
His work alone is sufficient.
But during our life.
In this process of sanctification, where
God is conforming us to the image of Christ, he has
ordained this battle for us with
sin every day.
There is this constant daily,
purging, and struggle, and confessing,
and forgiving.
That's the Christian life.
Again, John MacArthur writes this.
It's like Jesus said to Peter, You have a bath one
time, and then the rest of your life you just get your feet washed.
The Lord bathes you, he says, as
it were, at salvation, and dust off your feet with his cleansing
day by day by day.
by day, by day.
So, must get
our bearing straight.
We have the past aspect.
Okay?
We have been, say.
Right now we're living in the present aspect.
We are being saved.
I have been saved from the penalty of sin.
Right now, I am being saved from
the dominating power of sin, and don't forget what
the end of Hebrew 7.25.
speaking of Jesus, what he's doing right now for all believers,
since he always lives to
make intercession for them.
We are being saved right now
in this constant continual cleansing and
intercession that Jesus makes for us.
Look at Romans 5.10.
For if, while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God through the death of
his son, much more having
been reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life.
Now that we have been saved, Jesus can
keep us saved by his continuous,
living, intercessing power.
So, we have been saying,
We are being saved, oh, but
lastly, there's a future aspect here.
The penalty of sin has been dealt with.
The power of sin no longer has total
dominion over us, and is being dealt with, right
now, in the process of sanctification by
our faithful redeemer and the work of the Holy Spirit, but the best part.
Now, these three aspects of salvation is
what we're going to look at today.
The biblical reality that one day, we
will be completely saved from the very
presence of sin.
Look at 1 John, 3 2.
Beloved, now we are children of God.
And it has not appeared as yet
what we will be.
We know that when
he appears, we will be
Him.
Because we will see him.
Just as he is.
And he is sinless,
spotless, without flaw, or
blemish, and incredibly, John says
right here, we will be like him.
Church, this will be the highest
plane of existence that a human being can
exist in.
Not only will you not have the presence of sin,
you will not even have an inclination to sin ever, but...
I mean, I
can't take words to describe how you
and I can't even wrap our minds around that.
The totality of it.
So, salvation has happened.
Salvation is happening.
Salvation will happen.
This is why understanding the
fundamental doctrines, and that's all this is.
The fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith is so important.
For example, has happened.
That's the doctrine of justification, is happening.
That's the doctrine of sanctification.
will happen, that's the doctrine of glorification.
Every Christian should understand that.
Those three aspects are the heart and
soul of the meaning of salvation past, present, and future.
And it is that future
aspect, that can help us tremendously.
To be able to handle whatever God
has ordained for our lives for our spiritual growth.
We can handle the
pain and the adversity, if
that's what God has for us, when we know
there is a finish line.
And a finish line that
is infinitely greater than any thing
we can possibly imagine.
And I don't know about you.
But
the closer I get to the finish line, the more I
want to fight in the war.
The more I want to be diligent,
to focus on
finishing well, because the
finishing line is getting closer and closer, with
every single year, that goes by.
Look at Romans 8:24.
Or, in hope,
we have been saying, biblical hope.
What is that?
steadfast certainty of this
fantastic future reality is biblical hope.
It's not wishful thinking.
Imagine.
Just imagine.
If you had to go on struggling
with the world and the flesh and the devil forever.
Just imagine that.
There'd be no hope in that.
That would be nothing but eternal
despair, right?
That's why having a firm grasp
on this future aspect
of salvation is so important for every Christian.
There is a goal.
There is an end to this warfare.
There is a finish line for us,
and that is exactly what
Ephesians chapter 6 here, verse 17,
is saying that the helmet of salvation is.
And let me show you, a
comparative verse to prove that to you, in 1 Thessalonians 5.8.
It says, But
since we are of the day, meaning we're not of the night, that's
the enemy's dominion is the light.
We're sons of the day, sons of light, sons of God's kingdom.
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, verse 9.
For God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining
salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
There's still an element of salvation for us to obtain
as the future element.
That's the helmet.
The certain hope of the final full
completion of salvation in glorification.
That's the helmet, the writer of Hebrew says, this hope,
is the anchor of the soul.
So what is the helmet of salvation here
in our text for today?
It is complete confidence in
a full, final, total salvation
to come, absolutely no presence of sin for any of us.
It's this great confidence that we are
to have, empowered by the Holy Spirit, taught to us in
the Word of God, that someday this battle will
be done.
It'll be over.
So now let's go further into
how this is part of the armor.
You remember back, I told you, there
were two different swords, the short sword, and the big, broad sword,
that the Roman soldier had, and he also
had to deal with in battle, that's big, long, broad sword.
Well, Satan's big broad sword, like
the soldiers, has two sides to it.
So double edged blade.
One side is discouragement
of that blade.
The other side is doubt.
And boy, is he good at discouragement?
Like, think about it.
Man, you sure are given a lot.
I mean, you really are pouring it in this Christian
life and you sure aren't getting much in return.
Hmm?
You're striving to live the Christian life.
You're really making strides and serving,
and studying your Bible, and trying to
live a godly life, and... you just lost your job.
Hmm.
Some blessing that is for you.
What's what's he doing in your life?
You've been reading your Bible every day, and your
wife is just as ornery as she ever was when you picked up
the first page and read it.
What's God up to?
With you?
You've been going to church all these years.
Look at your kids.
They don't respect you now any more than they ever did.
I mean, I could go on, and
on, and on, with
this side of the blade that Satan cast that broad
sword of discouragement in them, and you start to get discouraged.
And striving to live the Christian life
as it's laid out and defined for us in the Bible.
And then, you know what Satan does?
He flips that sword over to the other blades, other side of the blade, the doubt side.
You really think you're a Christian?
Look at what you just did.
Listen to what you just said.
Listen to what just came out of your mouth.
Do you really think that's the manifestation?
of being a Christian?
So discouragement, doubt,
assails us.
all the time, and they're tough to
deal with on this mortal coil,
as we are battling every day, the world of flesh, and the devil.
And the helmet of salvation is
just what we need for protection
against the enemy's broadsword blows.
Discouragement and doubt can definitely have a major
effect on us when we are serving the Lord.
No doubt.
But we have to remember verses like Galatians chapter
6, and verse number 9, let us not
lose heart in doing good, for in due
time, we will reap if we do
not grow weary.
Let me tell you.
Satan never gets weary.
He never gets tired.
Ever.
I don't know about you, but that reality motivates
me to work harder for my king.
Matthew Arnold wrote, For now, in
blood and battle was my youth, and full of
blood and battle is my age, and I shall end this
life in battle.
Listen to me, Christian.
It never stops.
Not in this life.
You better understand.
We will fight this foe all of our life.
And I refuse to be a punk in this battle.
As John Piper once said, I refuse to
be irrelevant in the kingdom.
Some preacher once said, when I die, I
want all of hell to throw a party.
and say we sure are glad he's gone.
That's what I want to have happen.
When Paul came to the end of his life,
Look what he said in 2 Timothy 4:7, I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the course.
I have kept the faith.
I pray all the time.
God, please, please, grant me the grace to finish well.
Please.
Please grant me the grace to finish strong.
Like Huey Moch, ate up with cancer, 80
years old, while taking chemo, still preaching.
Never complaining.
Never!
Even when he had to sit in a chair to get it done.
All the way to the end.
Serving the king, folks, is never gonna be easy.
Living the Christian life is never gonna be easy.
Get used to it.
You're going to have close family members.
You're going to have kids.
You're going to have grandkids who refuse to
bow the need to King Jesus, every day.
You got to keep praying.
That's what Brother Ed taught us this morning.
You can't give up.
You may have physical ailments that just
grind you down to powder right now.
All manner of adversity.
Guess what?
That is what God is using to
conform us to the image of Christ.
And that's why it's so important.
You've got to keep this helmet of salvation
on strapped down tight.
This great 3rd aspect of salvation,
that glorification that is coming.
It's guaranteed by God himself in his word.
It's promised to us by Jesus himself.
Look what he said in John 14, one through three.
Do not let your heart be troubled.
Believe in God.
Believe also in me.
In my father's house are many dwelling places.
If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go
to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again and receive you to myself, where
I am, there you may be also.
That is an absolutely unbreakable promise.
Speaking of Jesus.
Luke 181.
says.
Now, he was telling them a parable.
to show that at all times,
we ought to pray, not
to lose heart.
When you start losing heart, pray!
And then get back in the game.
Get back on the battlefield.
Turn on that helmet of salvation, and
think about what's in store for you right around the corner.
Hebrews 12/4 says, You
have not yet resisted to the point of shedding
blood and you're striving against sin.
Hang in there.
Put your armor on, and fight.
That's what that means.
Just get used to the fact that the
enemy will always, always, every
day be swinging that broadsword of discouragement, and doubt.
On the regular.
He's slick.
He whispers things like, oh, nobody listen to you.
Look all this work you're doing.
Look how pitiful these results are.
What's wrong with you, dude?
Again, the helmet
of salvation, protects us from giving
up, protects
us from growing weary.
Why?
Because we have a guaranteed hope
and our hope is that there is a light at the
end of this tunnel we're in.
And one day.
Very soon.
Sooner than we think.
Each of us is going to break through the veil one at a time.
We are going to swim across the
chilly waters, of the Jordan River in death,
and immediately break into the glorious
light of the very presence of
the King of Kings.
That's the helmet of salvation.
And I don't know about you, but I absolutely
do not want to have my
first appearance in front of my commanding
officer in this army, having quit in the middle of the battle.
I prefer for my first audience
with the king to be bruised and bleeding,
having fought the good fight all the way
to the very last breath.
That's what I prefer.
Isaiah 40, verse 29
gives us some tremendous promise.
He gives strength to the weary.
And to him who lacks might, he
increases power.
Just when you get to the place where you are about to give out.
He gives you strength, if you're faithful.
He gives you power.
It's a promise.
Look at Isaiah 40, verse 31,
Yet those who wait for the Lord, will
gain new strength, and will mount up with
wings like eagles.
They will run and not get tired.
They will walk and not become weary.
Don't be discouraged.
You, Christian, have the helmet of salvation.
And guess what's great?
You can put it on any time you want.
Daytime, nighttime, in the night watch.
You can put it on.
So salvation is passed.
in our justification.
Salvation is present, and our sanctification.
Thank God almighty,
salvation is future one day.
Our glorification.
Let's pray.
By the way, thank you.
Words are not enough to thank you.
For this great reality of salvation.
So, I pray that your people
would, would soak in the
Word preach today, and
be motivated to not
only say thank you for salvation, but to be
motivated, to live a life
expressing Thanksgiving for
salvation, by keeping this helmet on.
and looking to our great future hope, which
is guaranteed, and how we thank
you for Jesus, who is
the only way it could have possibly been made possible through
his substitutionary atonement on the tree.
We pray that all we've done here today has brought you glory.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.