Well once again may it please
God to bless us together as we turn to the Epistle of Paul to
the Ephesians and chapter 6 and this evening we'll read verse
17. The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians
chapter 6 and reading verse 17. And take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. So here we have in this verse
two more items of the whole armour of God, which the Lord has very
graciously supplied. This helmet of salvation and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Well we should be thankful for
both of these items which the Lord sets before us and of The
helmet of salvation, what do we think that refers to? Well,
a helmet of course covers our head, covers our head and it
is of course from our head, which our mind is, and from our head
that we have thought and all these emanate from our mind.
And so we have this helmet here provided for us, and we may perhaps
refer to it as a helmet of hope, because those things which the
Lord sets before the Church of God, they do, by His grace, hope
in. And in the first epistle of Thessalonians
in the 5th chapter and the 8th verse, I think we referred to
it already, with regard to the breastplate of faith. But he
tells us, let us throughout the day be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love and helmet the hope of salvation. Well what a good thing it is
if you and I have a good hope of our salvation. Because if
we do, it's that which God has granted to us. It's not something
that you and I have produced ourselves. God gives us a good
hope, a good hope of eternal life. And that good hope of eternal
life is really based upon his good and gracious work that work
which he had accomplished upon that cross of Christ so many
years ago at Calvary. And it would be a good thing
tonight if our hope is based upon that which the Lord Jesus
Christ completed on that occasion when he was able to declare,
it is finished. And so tonight, may it be that
we have this good hope in the grace of God, the good hope in
his mercy, the good hope in his favour, and therefore we can
be thankful and we can rejoice in it. And indeed, bless God
for it. Also the Apostle Paul when he
wrote to the Hebrews again speaks of this hope and so we should
again bless God for it and in the 6th chapter of the Hebrews
we read the 4th which we will refer to in a moment but in the
6th chapter verses 18 and 19 this is what the Apostle writes
that by two immutable things that means unchangeable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the
hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within
the veil. And so here we have this hope
referred to as an anchor of the soul. And it's that which the
Lord gives to us, this good hope, through his grace. It is indeed
a strong consolation if we fled for refuge to lay hold upon this
hope. Well we don't want to let go
of it. God has given us a hope, we want
to hold on to it. And therefore the Lord gives
us this helmet to place on our head and therefore to keep before
us this good and this wonderful hope. Then we also have a reference
to this In the Old Testament, in the book of Isaiah, in chapter
59 verse 17, and again the prophet here links the breastplate of
righteousness with a helmet of salvation. And he says, For he
put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon
his head, and he put on the garment of vengeance for clothing and
was clad with zeal as a cloak. So it's a great blessing therefore
for us if God does give us this hope in his salvation. And he gives us that hope when
he reveals to us that he has a love toward us, that he has
called us out of the darkness of nature into the glorious light
of the everlasting gospel. It is indeed something which
is founded and well built. So mercy then tonight as we consider
this word and take the helmet of salvation. Let us not leave
it as it were to one side, but let us rest in the hope that
God sets before us and to thank God for this hope of salvation. It might be on our head, may
it concentrate our minds, that we may ever think about it, and
praise God for it, and rejoice in it, for all that the Lord
has done for us, and may it be a support and a strength. And
then the Apostle moves on to the thought of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God. We have the Word of God, don't
we? What a blessing it is to think that this is the sword
of the Spirit. And we read together in that
fourth chapter in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the words of
the Apostle when he tells us, For the Word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of a
joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thought and intent of
the heart." So therefore the Lord grants that His Word, which
is the sword of the Spirit, is that which pierces. It's really,
we can consider, it's a two-edged sword. One side, we might think,
is the law of God, The other side we
might think is the Gospel. And both of those things are
piercing, piercing to our very soul. And what a mercy therefore
if this Word of God enters into our heart. It does truly speak
to us. It is not something which is
silent. It is something which we are
privileged to be able to read and a blessing it is when God
therefore uses it. It is the sword of the Spirit. It's not a natural sword, it's
a spiritual sword. It speaks to our heart, it speaks
to our soul. And may we bless God in our spiritual
life, if we can remember times when God's word has spoken to
our very soul. Perhaps we've been arrested by
God's word. It's pierced our heart. It hasn't
been, as it were, of no effect. It's done a blessed work. And so tonight, may we thank
God for this, the sword of the Spirit, as this blessed piece
of armour And let us not forget to take it up. Let us not forget
to read the Word of God. Let us not forget to pray over
the Word of God. The Bible may be blessed to our
souls. It may not be a dry book, but
it may be a book of life to our souls. May it be that which we
are thankful for, and as this sword does have an effect, as
it pierces our very heart, we should be very thankful for it. And praise Him for the conviction
sometimes it brings to us. It convicts of our sin. And when God works, which He
does, through His Word, When He shows us what a sinner we
are, when we stand convicted of our sin, what a mercy it is
then, when the Word of God then, this thornless spirit, directs
us to the suffering Saviour. And there we see all our hope. Our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. So really the two things are
linked together, this hope and the sword. And we should bless
God tonight if in our spiritual life the Word of God has convicted
us as the law, the Word of God has blessed us as the Gospel
and directed us to the Lord Jesus Christ in his sin atoning sacrifice. What if the Lord has been fit
to enable us therefore to take these two elements of the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the Spirit and find what a blessing
they have been to us and let's pray they will continue to be
a blessing to us. We don't want to forget the thorn
of the spirit, the word of God. We want to constantly be aware
of it, constantly take it up, constantly wield it, because
it is that which turns the devil away. He can't face the word
of God. You remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ, after he was baptised, he was led into the wilderness.
and there he was tempted by the devil for all those forty nights
and days. But you see, what did the Lord
do? He spoke to the devil the word of God, the sword of the
Spirit. And so when we come under times
of darkness, times of perhaps trial, times of temptation, May
we, by the grace of God, pick up the Word of God, the soul
of the Spirit, and find there a blessed consolation, find there
a wonderful support whereby we are able to thrust at the devil. Remember the occasion in the
Pilgrim's Progress, when a Christian was walking along and he was
attacked by a polyan, the devil, And he slipped and his sword
fell out of his hand and the devil said, now would I destroy
you, destroy your sword, forget the exact words, but that was
the essence of it. But Christian, he knew the value
of his sword and he stretched out his arm and managed to grasp
his sword and thrust at the devil and the devil fled. in a spiritual
way, what a mercy when the Lord enables us to take the Word of
God and to use it to thrust at the devil so that he may flee
from us. Well, bless God tonight for this
little verse, these two items of armour, take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God.