Helmet of Salvation

Well, your true battle is our current series in Ephesians 6. Hello, my name is Mark. I am one of the Twin Lakes pastors here. I should first of all say good morning. Good morning to all you joining us on the live stream as well. And wow, hearing your voices. What a blessing. That was just beautiful. And so thank you church for blessing each other during our worship time today.

And as was mentioned earlier, to the people of Maui, we want you to know that our hearts and our prayers and our support are with you. We know a little bit about how devastating fire can be from our own recent experience, but the loss of lives approaching a hundred people and surely to exceed that, it is being mindful of many more that are suffering and hopefully recovering from their burns. It's just devastating. It's devastating.

And it's events like this that remind us that if your hope is based on your circumstances, you are one tragedy away from having your world crumble. We need a stronger foundation. We need a hope that cannot be shaken no matter what. So let me ask you today, do you have that kind of hope this morning? Hope that will be with you no matter what twist or turn your life takes. We're going to see what that looks like today.

And as you may know, if you've been with us, we've been going through Ephesians 6 where the Apostle Paul gives an illustration about how to protect ourselves spiritually because like it or not, you and I are in a battle. And so Paul invokes this analogy between the armor of a Roman soldier and aspects of our faith that will protect us from the schemes of our enemy, the devil. And so far we've seen the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, having our feet fitted with the gospel of peace.

Last weekend, our friend Valdes did a marvelous job talking about the shield of faith. And today, Paul is going to tell us to put on the helmet of salvation. Okay. What's he talking about? Well, let me hear you. If you ride a motorcycle, you should wear a what? Wear a helmet. And if you're on a construction site, you may be required to what? Wear a helmet. And if you're playing tackle football, you would be crazy not to what? Wear a helmet. That wasn't the question, but yeah, go Niners.

Well, the same is true for a soldier. How foolish would it be to protect your body and neglect your head? So in verse 17, Paul says, "Put on salvation as your helmet." Okay, Paul, we got it. What are you talking about? Well, I was preparing this week, probably at least 50% of the books that I read, the sermons that I looked over. The underlying assumption, the starting point, was that Paul is talking about the need to protect our mind, our thought life, which is a wise and good thing to do.

But as I mentioned a few weeks ago, when Paul was writing these words, people believed that your will was in your heart, your emotions originated in your intestines, and your intellect in your kidneys. In fact, Aristotle, ever inventive with explanations, he thought that the brain was to cool your blood. That's what its function was, like a radiator, okay, on top of your body. I don't know if he was surrounded by a lot of hot-headed people or where he got this idea.

But even as late as the 17th century, a Danish man named Nicholas Steno, he studied anatomy, dissected human brains, and he said this, "The brain, the masterpiece of creation, is almost unknown to us." This is 1,700 years after Paul. And my point is that Paul is writing in his context, not ours, writing to people who just assumed that your thoughts and your intellects originated in your torso, not your head.

And so what is he getting at when he says, "Put on salvation as your helmet"? Well, clearly, they knew just as well as we do that your head is uniquely vulnerable. You might even say fragile. I mean, a soldier that took a shot to the head may never be the same, may never recover, may not even get back up at all. And so while the ancient world, you know, didn't understand what we know about the neurological functions of the brain, they knew just as well as we do that your head is especially vulnerable.

And so how do you protect it? You wear a helmet. And the clearest indication of what Paul is talking about comes from Paul himself. It's somewhat of a parallel passage. 1 Thessalonians 5, chapter 8, he talks about putting on the hope of salvation as a helmet because here's the thing. The hope of salvation keeps you from getting knocked out when life knocks you down.

And so what Paul is essentially saying to us today is, "Live in the hope of your salvation." In fact, that's this message in a nutshell. "Live in the hope of your salvation." And so let me ask you again, church, are you living in this hope? Kind of quiet. Are you living in the hope of your salvation? Good. Because Scripture over and over reminds us to do this.

In fact, in one of the longest letters of the New Testament, the book of Hebrews, you could pretty much sum up the entire book, the message of it, "Live in the hope of your salvation." And why? Because it was directed to some of the first Jewish followers of Jesus, and they're beginning to wonder, you know, "Did we put our hope in the right Messiah?" Because their faith was costing them. It was costing them relationally with some, if not many, of their own people. They were facing persecution.

They no doubt expected Jesus to return sooner than He had or has, and so their hope was wavering. And so the author calls them back to the source of their hope, Hebrews 12, 2 and 3, kind of summarizes much of the book. It says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." In other words, put on the helmet of salvation.

Now, why is this so crucial? It's because the opposite of hope is despair. Despair. And there is perhaps no more lethal blow to your faith or to my faith than to fall into despair, to grow weary and to lose heart. You may be a long-time follower of Jesus. Many of you are. You may be passionate about your faith, passionate about what the Lord is doing in your life and ministry and have a hopeful outlook on things.

But it's quite possible that there could come a day when, in fact, it will come, when you will lose something or someone that you dearly love. Or perhaps your finances or your marriage collapses. Or the relationships with your kids seem to be completely wrecked beyond repair. Or maybe you, someone you love, suffers through a long, cruel illness. And in any of those eventualities, you may find your enemy whispering in your ear, "Where is your God? Where's the joy? Where's the assurance? Where's your hope?"

Because your lived experience as a Christian isn't living up to its billing. And eventually, after battle, after battle, after battle, you may in fact become weary of the war itself to grow weary and to lose heart. Again, I think of people in Lahaina right now who lost homes, lost loved ones, lost their entire town. People in Ukraine, the Middle East, Central Africa, their lives ravaged savagely by war. Or here, close to home. People in our midst with other battles that they are fighting right now, and susceptible to feeling alone, defeated, despairing.

And so God's Word reminds you and me today, wear your helmet, the helmet of salvation. And so in the remaining time, I would like to unpack three aspects of our salvation that are foundational to hope. And as a starting point, I've placed a key verse at the top of your notes. It's from Philippians 1 verse 6 where the apostle Paul says, "And I am certain that God who began the good work within you will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." Now let me ask you, church, do you all believe this? Let me hear you. Do you all believe this? Yeah, because this is actually written, you here is plural. This is y'all, who began a work in all y'all if I'm being correct.

And notice that it's talking about God's good work in His salvation in three tenses. In the past, what He has begun. In the present, what He is continuing to do. And the future, what He will finally finish, past, present, future. And so what is the hope or in the helmet of salvation? It is this, it is my confident hope that as a believer in Christ, number one, I have been saved. You might want to write that down. If you place your faith in Christ, you can say with confident hope, I have been saved.

And not because your parents were Christians, or they brought you to Sunday school, or they paid for you to go to a Christian school, or that you just try to be a good person. But rather because at some point in your life, you came to the realization that your sinful state alienated you from a holy God, but you trusted that Jesus Christ out of love for you bore your sins on the cross. And in doing so, you are completely forgiven. You are declared righteous in the sight of God. And you live in the hope of that. That is the essence of your faith.

As Paul says in Ephesians 1, "And you," y'all, "also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit." Now that word or phrase marked with a seal, it means to secure, to protect, or to mark as one's own. So what that means in terms of our salvation is that the Holy Spirit seals the deal, you might say. That God is sustaining your salvation, not you by your efforts, but by His power.

As the familiar hymn says, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness." It's about what He has done for us. Do you have this hope today? I trust most of us do. But here's the thing. I think in our Christian culture, all too often, this is where it kind of begins and ends for us in a way, because we prayed a prayer, we received Jesus at some point in our life, but then there's no real vision for what follows, you know, for the rest of my life.

It's no wonder that some Christians get distracted or discouraged or kind of stall out on their faith because they don't have a sense of where it's all heading, except for, you know, the vague idea that when they die, they get to go live in the clouds somewhere. It reminds me of the story of a woman named Florence Chadwick. Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. And then in 1952, she waded into the ocean off of Catalina Island, determined to swim 26 miles to our mainland coast.

It was a very foggy and cold day. And she could hardly even see the boats that were accompanying her while she was swimming. She managed to swim for 15 hours until begging to be brought back into one of the boats. Her mother, who was in one of those boats, said, "You're so close. You couldn't make it." And yet she was so physically and emotionally exhausted, she gave up. She quit. And it was only after she was in the boat that she learned that she was less than a half a mile from the coastline. Less than half a mile.

Why her mom didn't tell her that when she was still in the water? Who knows? But that's the way the story goes. At a news conference the next day, Florence Chadwick said this, "All I could see was the fog. I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it." Well, how about you? Do you have a vision of where your salvation is heading or is the fog of life and distraction, and this, that, and the other, is the fog obscuring your view?

Because here's the thing. Jesus says, "Behold, I am making all things new, including you." That's an amazing promise. And so not only can we say with confident hope, "I have been saved," but we can say the second thing with the same confident hope, "I am being saved." I am being saved.

Many years ago, I was probably college age, we had a guest speaker here at Twin Lakes Church. His name was Dr. Earl Rodmacher. At the time, he was the president of Western Seminary, and he was kind of a character. And he gets up on his stage to preach, and before the message, he prays. And this is what he prayed. "Father, I thank You for bringing me to speak to these men and women today, and I pray that as I speak to them, many of them would be saved. And I pray also that You would save me as well. Amen." And the room's like, "What is going on?"

Today's preacher isn't even saved, and he doesn't think most of we are either. It's like, "Wow." But he was kind of messing with us. He was making the point in his prayer and in his sermon about what we're talking about today, the past, present, and future tense to our salvation. And when it comes to what God is doing right now, every day, whether we are aware of it or not, we change imperceptibly. But over the course of days, we are gradually changing.

And as Christians, the Spirit of God is working in our hearts. He is gradually transforming you more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Now it's not like this line like this. It's more like this and this. But like on a long hike into the mountains, you gradually gain altitude. And so perhaps you look back on who you were five years ago or ten years ago, and you go, "I've changed. I've grown in my faith," as we might say. "I've become more like Jesus."

C.S. Lewis writes about this when he says, "The dullest, most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which if you saw now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption, such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare." What Lewis is talking about is that all of us have a trajectory to our existence. And that trajectory is leading towards becoming more and more like Jesus or becoming less and less like Him, further and further from Him.

Now, true confession, there are times when I am horrified by what I see in my own heart. Can any of you relate? Okay, I think so. In fact, imagine if we had the ability to do this. If we could take just, you know, your thoughts for just this past week, and we could project them on the screen for the rest of... Do I have any takers today? No way, no thanks. But here's the good news. The good news is that God, who began a good work in you, is continuing that good work and will continue to do so until it is finished.

And so Paul says, "Man, lean into this. Embrace this." In other words, he says, "Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes." That's what the Spirit is doing. So put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly and righteous. We were created to bear God's image. And you know what? The more we do that, the more truly human we actually become, because Jesus Christ is the perfect human. The alternative is to steadily to become less human. And yet God's call to us calls us upwards.

So as Paul says in Philippians 2, "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence." He's bearing very kind to them, saying that I'm sure. He says, "Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." Wow. God is at work in you right now. And don't let that phrase continue to work out your salvation throw you as if you have to work for your salvation.

Paul's not talking about past tense right now. He's talking about current tense here. And he's saying, "What God is doing in your life right now should humble you, should fill you with awe that He would love you so much that He would bear with, oh, you know, our faults and our flaws. He would just continue to bring us along little by little. That is humbling and even more humbling when you think He's doing that, even in your weakest moments, even when your life just seems completely turned upside down.

Do you believe that God is still at work in your heart, making you more and more like Jesus? Sometimes it's especially in those times. He's continuing His good work. Even when you or I feel like giving up, He never will. And He works to renew us and empower us to become more and more like His Son Jesus. That's wonderful news. Do you believe this? Good. Now keep that helmet on because if you have placed your trust in Jesus, you can say with confident hope, "I have been saved. I am being saved." And third, "I will be saved. I will be saved."

Whether it's on the day you die or the day He returns, you are going to see Jesus face to face. Wow. Wow. You know, people went crazy to see like Taylor Swift. You're going to see Jesus Christ. Oh my goodness. I mean, speaking of this moment, the Apostle John says this, "Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known." It's too glorious. "But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Can I hear you say, "Wow." Wow.

It's amazing. When you live in this hope, and by the way, when you live in the hope of your salvation, you will be able to endure far more than you even imagine. And so forgive me if you've heard me mention this before, but I will never forget. I will never forget almost 22 years, will be 22 years this month, holding for a couple hours our stillborn son Joseph. And you know, when he first came out, he was still pink and warm and just looked like his brother when he was born. And I thought if he just started breathing, this would all be okay. That was not to be.

And in the crucible of that moment, in the depth of that grief, God's Spirit seared the words that the Apostle Paul once wrote about his own suffering. He seared them on my heart and like a thunderclap, I remember thinking, "We are struck down, but we are not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 4, 8, and 9, if you want to look that up. "Were we struck down, you better believe we were." And it wouldn't be the last time. But we have not been destroyed. And I knew this to my core. I could feel it in my bones. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Where God just gives you strength you didn't know you have.

And I want to encourage you, those of you who are going through a season of grief right now, you are struck down, but you will not be destroyed. I know it feels like a two by four has been taken to your head, but when you wear the helmet of salvation, you can be struck down, knocked down, put down, held down, but you will not stay down. Do you believe that church? Amen. Because he who began a good work in you will continue his work until it is finally finished.

And by the way, this isn't just, you know, wishful thinking. Ephesians 1, 14 says, "The Spirit is God's guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him." Paul, to whom Jesus appeared, wrote those words. Peter, who saw Jesus after he resurrected out of the grave, he wrote this. This is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture where he says, "In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." Do you believe this?

Then keep that helmet on. Keep wearing it because whatever troubles you face right now, and I don't mean to to minimize that, but whatever they are, they will be eclipsed in an instant when the glory of your salvation is fully revealed. I mean we're talking about perfection, beauty that we can't even begin to imagine. And Jesus promised us to wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more mourning, crying, pain or death, which means, yes, someday I will hold my son Joseph again. And you, you, I know so many of your stories I think. I'm not like spying on you. I've just been around here for a while.

But some of you, some of you just long with all your heart to see those who've gone before you. Never forget, someday you're going to kiss them and hug them and laugh with them and rejoice in them. And even better than that, you will look into the face of Jesus who created you and saves you and calls you His own. Wow. Wow. So I'm just going to ask you, would you just close your eyes? Just close your eyes. Take a deep breath. And just let that hope soak into your spirit right now, into the depths of your soul.

Because right now, Jesus is on the shore. Don't let the fog obscure your vision. And right now, His Spirit is in our hearts. His Spirit is in this room with us, our guarantee of what awaits us. All right, look back at me please. Earlier I mentioned Florence Chadwick, right? Well, two months after she failed that swim to Catalina Island, she tried again. And wouldn't you know it, it was foggy and cold. It's like she may as well been trying to swim to Aptos or something. I don't know.

But this time Florence was armed with a vision of the shoreline. And even though it was foggy and cold, she not only succeeded making it to the mainland coast. She would go on to do it two more times. So wear your helmet. And maybe it said of all of us that we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all God's people which come from your what, church? Confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. Amen? Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for gathering us here together today. Thank You for the foundation of hope in our lives, those of us who have placed our trust in You. And so first, Lord, I want to pray for those of us here who, man, we know that hope. We rest in that hope. But there are people that we love who either, as far as we can tell, don't know of that hope, may not have an interest in it. Or maybe there was a time when they were active in their faith and yet they seem to have gone dormant or we don't even know, but it's waned. They've grown weary and lost heart.

And so, Lord, we pray for those folks that are dear to us and you may call to mind people in your own heart and life. And, Lord, I thank You for the promise of Scripture that a bruised reed you will not break and a flickering wick you will not snuff out. And so for those that we're thinking of right now, Lord, we pray that You would fan that little ember of faith in their hearts, small as it might be, and that You would fan it into a flame of love and passion for You, Jesus, that over the course of time You would call them to Yourself.

And, Lord, I would be remiss after talking about the hope of our salvation. If I didn't invite any who are in this room or watching on the live stream or hearing this at some point, watching it on our website, I would be remiss if I didn't invite them, if they haven't already, to place their faith and trust in You. And maybe if that's You right now, You sense Jesus calling you. He is knocking on the door of your heart and You can let Him in by simply saying, "Lord, I admit I need You. I need You to do for me what I could never do, which is have my sins forgiven, have my life renewed, restored, transformed in Your power.

And so, Lord, I thank You that You died on the cross for me, that You rose from the dead, and that You are now my living hope." If that's your desire, you can simply say, "Yes, Jesus. Count me in. I receive everything that You are and all that You have for me into my heart and my life. And by grace, allow me now, Lord, to follow You and the journey and the destiny that You have for me. Oh, Lord, we thank You for so great a salvation. And may it be our joy in this that strengthens us and propels us onward until the day we see You face to face. We pray this in the matchless name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and all God's people said, "Amen."