Stand - Helmet Of Salvation Series

Stand: The Helmet of Salvation

Ephesians 6:10-17

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

5-19-2024

Let’s start with a quiz. I’m going to show you a picture and you will tell me who wears it:

Football helmet

Motorcycle helmet. Dog helmet.

Bike helmet

Safety helmet

Space helmet

I have a friend who skateboards. One day he decided to try to jump an entire flight of stairs. As you can guess, he didn’t make it. Wisely, he was wearing a helmet. He loved showing that helmet, that had been nearly split in two instead of his brain.

Review

We are learning that we are all in a spiritual battle that we cannot see. The Christian life is not a playground but a battlefield.

Paul is finishing his letter to the Ephesian church and wants to warn them to be armed and ready for attacks of the evil one.

He was probably chained to a Roman guard and started staring at his armor and thought, “That would make a perfect word picture for what I’m trying to communicate!”

“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Eph 6:14-17)

We’ve studied the belt of truth and learned that truth is the foundation of our Christian journey.

We’ve studied the breastplate of righteousness and learned that God calls us to live our faith with a hunger for holiness shining the light of Jesus into a dark and dying world.

We’ve studied the shoes of peace and learned we can have peace with God, the peace of God, peace with others, and that we can share that peace with others.

I love this lyric from Rich Mullins’ song, “Let Mercy Lead.”

“Let mercy lead / and in every footstep that you leave / there’ll be a drop of grace.”

Last week we studied the shield of faith and learned that we can trust God who is faithful to keep His promises to lead and protect us from the flaming arrows of satan.

If you weren’t here last week, you can always listen to or watch the sermon on our YouTube page, website, or FaceBook.

Turn to Ephesians 6.

Prayer

The Helmet

A Roman soldier’s helmet was made of iron or bronze. It would be lined with felt or spongy material. It had check flaps that could open or close to protect the face and ears. The helmets of leaders had a crest of feathers to show the soldier's rank.

This helmet protected a soldier's head, neck, and shoulders in battle.

It was so strong that it could take a blow from a broad sword or battle axe.

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Isaiah 59

As usual, Paul is using Old Testament imagery. Isaiah says that God Himself fights for us:

“He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.” (Isaiah 59:17)

What do Isaiah and Paul mean by salvation?

Saved from What?

Peter, an uneducated fisherman, stood fearlessly in front of the most important religious leaders of his day and said that salvation is the greatest need of their soul.

It’s no different today. Our greatest need is not more self-esteem or more money or more popularity. Our greatest need is salvation.

Most people think that you get to heaven by being good. But how good is good enough?

Because of our sins, we were separated from God and were hopeless and helpless to save ourselves. No amount of good works could repair the breach in our relationship with God.

God is holy and just and cannot tolerate sin. Because of our sin, we were objects of His wrath.

R.C. Sproul wrote a little book with a question that most people have never asked, “Saved from what?”

We needed to be saved from the impending wrath of God.

We see this plan of action visible back in Genesis.

After Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit and had been cursed,

God makes a very interesting prophecy when cursing the snake:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

Theologically, this is the first mention of the Gospel in the Bible. The word “offspring” (or seed) in some of your Bibles is singular. It is one offspring whose heel will be bitten by the serpent but will crush the snake’s head.

God gave the Israelites the sacrificial system to remind them of this promise. When they sin, an animal would die in their place.