The Armor Of God 6 Of 8

Why? Because anytime we preach on the armor of God, we need to stress what this passage of Scripture is stressing, that is, we need to put on the WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD, not just a particular piece. The fact is, if we do not put on the whole armor of God, we might as well not put any on.

Why? Because once Satan finds that we have not put one piece on, that is where he will attack us.

Illus: Anyone who knows anything about boxing, knows that once the opponent finds a weak spot, that is where he begins to direct his attack. A boxer may be boxing with a cracked rib but his opponent does not know that until he lands a punch in his rib cage, and then all of a sudden pain becomes visible on the face of his opponent, and he knows that is the weak spot, and every time he gets a chance he will throw a punch at the rib cage.

The reason that some Christians today are suffering defeat after defeat is because the devil has discovered what piece of the armor of God is missing in their life, and he relentlessly attacks them in that area.

But if we have the whole armor of God on, we can wipe up on the devil any day of the week.

Today we want to turn our attention to the HELMET OF SALVATION. This the last piece of the defensive armor mentioned in the Armor of the Believer.

The helmet protected the head, which provided a vital part of the soldiers ability to stand and wage war in the battle. If a soldier was wounded in the head, it could cause disorientation, confusion, unconsciousness or even possibly death.

Paul did not mention the helmet last because it was the least, but because of it’s significance.

It is an important piece of armor because of…

I. THE ROUTE OF THE DEVIL

The devil follows the same route every day.

WHAT IS THE ROUTE? The devil loves to play with our minds.

Have you ever heard about someone who loves to play with people’s minds? There are some folks who are not honest in their dealings with others. They will tell people they come into contact with all kinds of things to twist their minds.

This happens in :

• POLITICS: There are times when politicians will say all kinds of things that they know are not true, but they are trying to twist people’s minds into thinking certain things.

• DATING: There are men and women who tell their dates all kinds of things. Why? They are playing with their mind, and they are trying to make their date think of them in a way that is not true.

• NORMAL RELATIONSHIPS: There are people who go around stating things that are not true, trying to get people to think about them in a way that is not accurate.

These are people who are playing with other people’s minds.

But as good as some folks are at this, and some are good, none are as good as Satan at playing with people’s minds. He has played with people’s minds so much that he has convinced many that if they want the best that life has to offer them they are going to have to serve him.

He does not waste any time playing with people’s minds. From the time a child is born, this is the route he takes. He carries them down this path of playing with their minds until he gets them where he wants them.

The HELMET OF SALVATION is directly related to the SAFETY and SOUNDNESS of the believer’s mind in the spiritual warfare we are in.

The most difficult battle we face each day is the battle within our own minds. It is the warfare which is waged in our thinking, that can leave the best Christians ridden with guilt, defeated and virtually feeling useless to do anything good for God.

We know Satan does this, but we need to find out HOW HE DOES THIS. Let’s look at the

A. THE INTERFERENCE OF SATAN

Satan seeks to interfere with the plan of God by interfering with the lives of the people of God.

HOW DOES HE DO THIS? He knows if he can control the mind, he can control our lives.

This is the ROUTE he takes every day.

• All around us you can see the casualties in the army of God, because Satan has gotten into the minds of believers and defeated them

• They are left with tears of sorrow and a life of defeat

But it does not have to be this way. God has given us a piece of armor, THE HELMET OF SALVATION, to protect our mind from his interference.