Seeking once again the help of
God, I would like us to turn to the chapter that we have been
looking at, Ephesians chapter 6, and moving on to the helmet
of salvation in verse 17. And take the helmet of salvation. Last week we looked at the shield
of faith, the shield which is a vital piece of the armour of
God, that faith which enables us to look into the invisible
world, to see it as a reality, to lay hold of the promises of
the Word of God, although just written words, yet they are truth
and faith, enables us to lay hold of those promises as anchors
for our soul. And as the Roman soldier uses
the shield to deflect the arrows that were fired at him is impossible
to please God. And so faith links us to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Faith brings us into the army
of the true and living God. Faith makes us a soldier of the
Lord Jesus Christ and faith enables us to continue on the road that
leads to heaven. Faith makes heaven a reality
when Satan seeks to cause us to doubt and we look into the
word of God that is truth and encourage ourselves in the word. Not only then do we have this
shield of faith but we are told that we have a helmet of salvation
and take the helmet of salvation. And so as we've read we wrestle
not against flesh and blood but we have the wiles of the devil.
We are in a war with the world system, with our own selves,
with the influence of the world around about us. We're against
the workers of darkness. and we are pressing on in the
light to that ultimate glory which is in heaven. We are to
be equipped and well acquainted with the armour that God has
given us. And so as Satan is spoken of
as firing fiery darts of the wicked and we are to protect ourselves
with the faith, the shield of faith. Those fiery darts are
not aimed at the shield. They are aimed at the person
but they are deflected by the shield. If we look at the armour
all the things that we have looked at so far are defensive things
to protect. And so it's proof that the Christian
is under constant attack and constant opposition because the
armour that God has given to him, the only weapon that he
is given is the sword and prayer. Everything else is to protect
him or her. so as Satan fires these darts
they are protected by or deflected by the shield of faith but the
head must be covered with the helmet of salvation. In war a headshot is fatal. Someone may be able to be hit
in the arm. They may be able to even be hit
in the stomach, in the chest, in the legs and survive. But a headshot is something which
will render the opposition dead or brain damaged or unable to
do anything, paralyzed. And so Satan, his arrows are
aimed at the head. the mind. Our heads are the nerve
centers of our whole body is naturally speaking paralyzed
by fear or brain damaged or even death. If we think of our minds,
our minds have the ability to change the way that we are. How we think is how we are. Your mind controls the whole
body. If someone is sad you can tell
by the way that they are holding themselves. It affects the whole
body, the way that they walk, the way they hold their shoulders,
the way they hold their head. It is affected by what is going
on in the mind. If someone is happy you can see
it by the way that they walk or the way they hold their body.
If someone is ashamed you can see that by what takes place
in the face and what takes place in the body and so our minds
have the ability to affect everything about us. And so the mind is
to be protected by this helmet of salvation. Our thoughts and
our state of mind affect the disposition. Children are unable
really to hide their feelings aren't they and you know if a
child is sad. by the way that they are. They
may go and sulk in a corner or we know if they're happy by the
way that they walk, they skip along, they sing, everything
is out there for all to see and it's the state of the mind. The
mind is filled with joy, the body will display that gladness. If the mind is filled with sadness,
the body will display the tears and it will be evident for all
to see. And so Satan, if he can control
the mind, if he can get into the mind, it will affect the
whole disposition of the Christian. If he can fire an arrow into
the mind, To bring about doubt, to bring about fear, to bring
about anxiety. And that Christian has no ability
to look beyond all that they are passing through. It will
affect everything about them. We're given evidences of this
in the scripture. Psalm 42. Verse 5 it says, Why art thou
cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope
thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his
countenance. In verse 11 again it repeats
itself, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God, I shall yet
praise him who hath the health of my countenance and my God
and so he He's seeking to encourage himself in the Lord. Why art
thou cast down? His mind, his soul has been affected
by what is passing through and he's bowed down, he's cast down
by that weight, by that opposition or by those feelings and thoughts
that are taking place in his mind. And yet he seeks to turn
those thoughts around. by hoping in God. We will see
later the hope, the salvation of the hope, the helmet of salvation
or the hope of salvation it's called. And so he seeks to turn
those thoughts around by thinking and aiming his thoughts to God. Satan is seeking to fire those
darts into his mind to cast him down, to render him useless.
he sees that and so he hopes in God and he says I will yet
praise him who is the health of my countenance that which
is seen and so the internal has an effect to the external. Nehemiah when Nehemiah had that
bad news of the destruction in Jerusalem and as he heard about
the doors being broken down and the gates burned with fire he
was sad at the news and that sadness that affected his mind
and his external disposition, his countenance he was working
for the king as the king's cupbearer and it was noticed the sadness had affected how
he was and the king saw it. Nehemiah chapter 2. And it came
to pass in the month Nisan in the 20th year of Artaxerxes the
king That wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave
it unto the king. Now I had not been before time
sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto
me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This
is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was sore afraid,
and the king, and said unto the king, Let the king live for ever.
Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city and the
place of my father's sepulchres lieth waste, and the gates thereof
are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, What
dost thou make thy request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And so what had taken place as
he received the news had affected his mind and made him sad. And what was going on then in
his mind affected his outward appearance, his countenance.
And he says, and the king notices it says, why is thy countenance
sad, seeing thou art not sick? and Job also. Job we know had all manner of sadness
in his life and the difficulties that were
going on loss of everything, loss of children, loss of all
of his goods, his servants. And so his friends come to meet
him and to comfort him. Job 2 it says and from verse
11. Now when Job's three friends
heard all the evil that was come upon him they came every one
to his own from his own place. Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad
the Shuhite and Zuhar the Nathamite for they had made an appointment
together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when
they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, they lifted
up their voice and wept, and they rent everyone his mantle
and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven. So they
sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights,
and none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was
very great. And so his friends, who had obviously
known him before, when they came to meet him they didn't recognize
him because such was the grief that he was in that it had affected
him completely. He sits in the dust, in the ashes,
he shaves his head, he is externally displaying that he is mourning
a sorrow of heart and that was seen in his countenance and that
is so much so that his friends didn't even recognize him and
so the head and the mind has that ability to affect every
part of the body. The way that what is going on
in the mind is seen in the countenance of a person and the mind center,
the nerve center of the whole body is there in the head. And the helmet then, this helmet
of salvation is given to protect the mind from the fiery darts
of Satan. It doesn't mean that we are emotionally
removed from the experiences in life that we go through. But
it does mean that we are helped by God to go through the experiences
that he puts us through. Satan wants to destroy the Lord's
people and ultimately to destroy the will of God in their lives,
that they may press forward and go forward. So firing darts at
the mind to affect the mind so it enables that person to be
paralyzed by the experiences that they are passing through.
Satan wants to render the Lord's people as it were useless soldiers of the Lord
Jesus Christ, unable to stand, unable to resist, unable to go
forward. My brother-in-law was in the
marines, a soldier fully trained, fit, ready for action but he
injured his shoulder and he was put into what they call it, but
into looking after the weapons and they're working in the kitchen
and things like that. He was rendered unsuitable for
action. That is how Satan wants to deal
with God's people, to make them unsuitable for action, to cripple
them because of what he puts into their mind and to make them ineffective in Thessalonians. It tells us there about this
helmet. On Thessalonians chapter 5. verse 8. He says, Let us who are of the
day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love,
and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. And so this helmet
that is put on is the hope of salvation. Remember that we looked
at in Hebrews 11 that faith and hope are inseparably linked together. They are two links of the same
chain. The gospel graces that are given
to the Lord's people. You cannot have faith without
hope. You cannot have hope without
faith. They are linked together. And
faith is the substance of things hoped for. Remember we said that
faith makes visible the things that are hoped for. And so this
helmet of salvation that is put on is covering a protection for
the mind, to enable the mind to focus on the promises of God
that are found in Christ Jesus, to make visible the invisible
promises and to make visible the invisible God, the God of
salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so faith and this
shield of this hope of this helmet of hope the hope of salvation
are linked together. is put on. We're put on salvation
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved from the consequences
of our sin. We are saved from the power of
sin. We are brought into the army
of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are eternally saved. And so
Satan wants to destroy that hope that we have in Christ to render
us useless. So it is a helmet of salvation. The soldier puts on his helmet
last before he picks up his sword and now he is ready for action. And it's not a wishy-washy hope. Sometimes we say, well, we hope
to do this tomorrow and we hope to do that or we hope somebody
will arrive. But this is not a hope, an ungrounded
hope. This is a fully grounded hope
in the promises of the Word of God, a hope without doubt. Romans 8 tells us there, Verse 24, for we are saved by
hope, but the hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth,
why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. And so we are saved,
though we are saved by faith, but that is saved by hope. It is not seen, and so we, We
hope for it to come, but it's not an ungrounded hope. It is
grounded in the word of God. And what the word of God says
is true. And so the helmet that is put
on is put on in confidence, knowing that victory is guaranteed in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we are waiting for that
victory. And so a healthy mind. It's needed,
a healthy knowledge of the word of God is needed, a healthy understanding
of the promises of God, a healthy understanding of the faithfulness
of God is needed to enable the Christian to go forth into battle
to resist these fiery darts that are fired to the shield and are
fired to their mind. The reason why I read from Samuel
about David is that David needed this helmet of salvation, this
helmet of the hope of salvation. David was given a helmet of brass,
which he took off. He said that he had not proved
it and he didn't need it. But what he did have was a knowledge
of the faithfulness of God. It doesn't mean that he was strong physically, we know
that he wasn't. But it means he overcame his
weaknesses by a strength of mind in the greatness of God. You think of David as a small
boy facing a giant. Of himself, he had no hope. And no doubt Satan fired multitudes
of arrows into his mind to say, you can never do this. You're
too weak, he's too big. You're without strength, he is
really strong. no doubt those things were there
in his mind but he was able to put those arrows out by the hope,
the helmet of the hope of salvation. Thinking upon his God, thinking
upon the past mercies of God he was able to extinguish those
darts and those attacks of Satan. 1 Samuel 17 from verse 34. First of all and he is discouraged
by Saul. You're a youth but he's a man
of war from his youth. That is an arrow fired. No doubt
the mind begins to think maybe it's true. Maybe I won't win. But then immediately he's there
with the greatness of God. This is what has happened to
me before. This is how God helped me before. And God is able to
help me again. And David said unto Saul, thy
servant kept his father's sheep. And there came a lion and a bear
and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him and
smoked him and delivered him out of his mouth. And when he
arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smoked him and
slew him. My servants slew both the lion
and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be of one of
them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. And so there David defeats the
attack of Satan by what he knows about God and what God has already
done in his life. The helmet is securely on his
head. God is able to help me because
he has helped me before. I don't need this external helmet
of brass. I don't need this armor that
Saul has given to me. I haven't proved it but I have
proved the true and the living God and he has remained faithful
to me. So I'm going out. If you look at it, it is foolishness
for a little boy to go and face a soldier who has been fighting
his whole life. But what he sees beyond this
giant is that God is far greater than the giant. He says I've fought with giants
before. And I can just fight with this one, knowing that God
is able to help me and to save me. His mind is filled with the
knowledge of the true and living God. He's able to do far more
than he can ask or think. Satan did not win that battle. Verse 45, and David said unto
the Philistine, thou comest to me with the sword and with the
spear and with the shield but I am come unto thee in the name
of the the lord of hosts the god of the armies of israel and
thou hast defiled whom thou hast defied and this day will the
lord deliver thee into my hand and i will smite thee and take
thine head from thee and i will give the carcasses of the hosts
of the philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and unto
the wild beasts of the earth And all the earth may know that
there is a God in Israel and all the assembly shall know that
the Lord saves not with sword and spear for the battle is the
Lord's and he will give you into our hands. And so he's wearing his helmet
of the hope of salvation that this God whom he serves No matter
what anybody else says, no matter what anybody else does, God does
not save by strength or by power or by sword or by spirit, but
he saves in his own way. The battle is God's and he was
going to give this Philistine into the hand of David and into
the hand of the people of Israel. And David prevailed. He was unmoved
by the comments that were given, the arrows that were fired at
his mind. He remained strong and because
he remained strong in his mind his body also remained strong
because his mind was filled with the promises of the word of God
and so the scripture says take the helmet of salvation, the
helmet of the hope of salvation and put it onto your heads. And so as our hope is so is our comfort. There are
many Christians who claim to love Christ yet they walk with
no hope and it's seen It's seen in their countenance. They're
not able to face the giants of this world. They crumble. and
they walk in sadness and they walk with a sad countenance and
their disposition is bowed down and cast down. Their helmet of
salvation, their hope of salvation is worn loosely and Satan is
able to fire arrow upon arrow upon arrow into their minds and
they're filled with doubt and fear and anxiety and unbelief and questions. I read our thoughts can be stated like this sinking
thinking Our thoughts, our thought processes have the ability to
sink us and to make us downcast but the scripture says take the
helmet of the hope of salvation and put it firmly upon your head
and focus upon the word of God and the greatness of God and
the ability of God and the unmeasurable power of God and go forward. Don't be drawn aside by sinking
thinking but think of the great like just like David.
The God who delivered me out of the mouth of the bear and
the lion is able to deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. Doubts, fears, anxiety and unbelief
are all non-graces. They do not come in the package
of salvation, they are feelings of the flesh and they cause the
Christian to sink and to become useless and downcast and burdened. Philippians tells us, chapter 4, verse 8. Finally brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, Whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue,
if there be any praise, think on these things. And so the scriptures
tell us to take our minds of the lies, of the doubt, of the
fear, anxiety and unbelief that Satan would fire and to focus
upon the truth of the Word of God. The honesty and justice,
pure and the lovely thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ, thoughts
of the greatness of God, thoughts of the Word of God. And it's
only when we wear the helmet of salvation and we try to meditate
upon the greatness of God that we're able to persevere and to
overcome those doubts and those sinking thoughts that are so
rife in our minds. I said on Last Lord's Day about the shield
of faith and on the back of that shield we put the stickers that
have been made encouragements, those scriptural promises that
have been made encouragements to us. And so the Bible says
as we go forward looking at the back of the shield of faith,
with our helmet of salvation upon our heads, meditating upon
the word of God, meditating upon the greatness of God, looking
at the previous promises and blessings that we have been blessed
with, the helps we have been helped with, We're enabled then
to resist and our hope of salvation is encouraged and we're enabled
to go forward. We're not to trust our feelings. It's Martin Luther that said,
feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceitful. We're to trust in the word of
God. Our feelings come from our mind and they affect
our disposition but they're like the sea, up and down all of the
time. The word of God is the same yesterday,
today and forever. It's unchanging. And so we have
this helmet of salvation that we put on our heads to protect
our minds from those arrows of Satan to cause doubt and fear. We're told it's a helmet of the
hope of our salvation, that faith is the substance of things hoped
for. And it's not a wishy-washy hope,
but it's a hope that It's there, it's only a hope because we can't
see it but one day it will be a reality in which we will be
enabled to lay hold of. We will see Christ as he is. We will enter into his presence. That hope will no more need,
will not need to be a hope anymore because it will be a reality.
It would have actually taken place and we would have entered
into that glory which is being provided for the Lord's people. Romans 5. Verse 1 it says, therefore being
justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God and not only
so but we glory in tribulation also knowing that tribulation
work is patience and patience experience and experience hope
and hope make it not ashamed because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us
for when ye were without strength in due time Christ died for the
ungodly and so this hope is We rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. Even in trouble, this hope that
we have that we will be brought through, that we will be strengthened,
that we will gain the victory, that we are more than conquerors
in Christ. We will make it through to the finish line to meet with
the Lord Jesus Christ. In all trouble and experiences
that and the opposition of Satan and the doubts and fears that
he fires at the Lord's people, this helmet of the hope of salvation
must be worn, the confidence of God, the the that he can't lie but what
he says is truth enables us to continue going forward and so
he says and take the helmet of salvation and wear it then upon
our heads and may we go forth then God willing next week looking
at the sword of the spirit which is the word of God well may the
lord add his blessing amen Closing hymn for the service
is hymn number 170 from Hymns of Worship. Soldiers of Christ
arise and put your armour on, strong in the strength which
God supplies through his eternal Son. Hymn number 170 from Hymns
of Worship to the tune number 58. And take care, Lord, with all
her life, Be of her regard. Dear Lord and Almighty God, we
do thank Thee for Thy Word. We pray that we may be enabled
to resist the oppositions of Satan and the doubts and the
fears and the anxieties. We ask that we may be given the
helmet of the hope of salvation and to wear it confidently and
strongly and do Lord increase our our faith to lay hold of
the promises of thy word that we may walk with peace on the
narrow way that leads to life. We pray Lord that thou dismiss
us with thy blessing And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and
communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with us each now and for
evermore. Amen.