Sermon Title- “Spiritual Warfare- The Helmet of Salvation”
Sermon Subject: “The wisdom of God in Christ protects our
mind.”
Scripture- “Ephesians 6:10-18”
Date- 06 June, 2004, First Sunday after Pente4costPentecost

I hope in the last 5 weeks we have learned at least the following five things:
1. Spiritual warfare is a reality and is fought over our souls or our witness. If we have accepted Jesus and committed our soul to Him so Satan can not take us to hell with him, the battle will be over destroying our witness for Christ.
2. Spiritual warfare is between God and His ancient foe, Satan who is a real being, not a symbol. The angels who followed him when God expelled him from Heaven lead Satan’s army under His direction. Jesus leads God’s army and God expects you and I to be a part of that army.
3. The truth for our belt is from Jesus who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” We need to not only know His truth from God’s Word and from how He lived His life, but we need to make that truth part of our day to day living so our lives reflect that truth.
4. The righteousness for our breastplate is the righteousness of Jesus that God gives to us by Grace when we profess our belief in Jesus. Our sins are forgiven and removed from God’s sight and we are credited with the righteousness of Christ. But like truth, the righteousness of Jesus must be reflected in how we live so our life has wholeness, has integrity. If we are not what we say we are or what we seem to be, we are vulnerable to Satan.
5. Without the Peace of Christ on our feet as our firm foundation we are too easily swayed and distracted and we will be wounded.

Today we will see how our salvation worn as a helmet allows the wisdom of God that is in Jesus to protect our minds. It should be obvious by now that the whole armor of God that we are to put on is none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are to put on and wear as our defense Jesus Christ- His Truth, His Righteousness, His Peace and His Wisdom, all of which God provides to us by Grace through faith. Christ is our armor and we must put on all of Him, not just a part of Him, if He is to protect us from the skillful, forceful and recurring attacks of Satan.

It seems to me that much of the battle is fought in the
minds of men and of women as Satan seeks to deceive and
misdirect us from the mind of Christ, and entangle us in the
mind of the world with all of its false idols and false Gods, with all of its attractions in the flesh and all of its self-centered activities and attitudes. In fact it may well be the mental arena of ideas and reasoning where the battle is won or lost. Ideas have manipulated the minds of men and women throughout history. The idea of religious freedom and a government based on Christian principals led to the overthrow of England and the founding of our nation. An idea allowed Joseph Stalin to seize a whole country and an idea took hold of Germany and led to genocide. In our society today the ideas of sexual perversion and lust are rampant as we are surrounded with them by the media. A huge percentage of our advertising industry is built on sex and eroticism. We must be able to protect our minds.

First, the Helmet of Salvation is much more than just being sure we are saved. It is the place of God’s Holy Spirit to assure us of our salvation. Our helmet is the totality of the mind of Christ and all that that encompasses. 1 Corinthians 1:24 and 30 says, “to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, to Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Notice the threefold progression or the “Trinity of Wisdom” that Paul describes. God imparts His wisdom to Christ who in turn imparts it to us. As Christ is to God’s wisdom, we are to Christ’s wisdom. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5 to, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus..” It is the very wisdom of God that Jesus gives to us to protect our minds.

Second, the helmet is necessary in order to do ministry.
The Spirit led the Apostles to understand this as they sought
the first Deacons in the church to distribute food to widows.
In Acts 6:3 they instruct the Christian community to, “select
from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full
of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to
this task.” We must have the helmet on in order to go into a
hostile world to minister to men and women.

Third, the helmet is necessary because it is not only the wisdom of God; it is the power of God. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 2:4 that, “My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the wisdom and power of God. The fullness of our salvation through Christ brings to us to protect our mind not only the wisdom of God but the power of God.

Four, we get the helmet, the wisdom of God, through the Word of God, God’s enscriptured wisdom to us, His inerrant Word that contains all He wants to say to us. We need to read it, study it, discuss it, understand it, meditate on it and memorize it. Thank God for our teachers who encourage our children to memorize scripture. We can get the wisdom of God in our helmet by knowing the Word of God.

Five, we can also get the wisdom and power of God through prayer. James tells us in verses 5 and 6a of his first chapter, 5If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6But ask in faith, never doubting..” In praying and in the study of God’s Word the Spirit will lead us to the mind of Christ and to the wisdom and power of God that is in the mind of Christ and we can then put on the Helmet of Salvation to protect our minds.

I would like to discuss with you one specific use of this helmet and that brings us to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments 5and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.” The strongholds Paul refers to are the areas of our lives, our hearts and our minds, where the enemy is entrenched. They are areas where we have not let go and asked Jesus to be in control, and if Christ is not in control, you know who is in control. Most of us do not achieve instant holiness when we ask Christ into our lives. For most of us it is a difficult walk of two steps ahead and one step back as we struggle to walk with the Master. But as we learn to turn over the obvious parts of our lives that need the Lord to be in charge, the Spirit begins to remind us of other parts; Clayton, have you given this to the Lord, have you given this to Christ? Paul reassures us that the armor and particularly the wisdom and power of God in our helmet are sufficient to tear down any stronghold Satan may build.

Let me give a few quick examples of strongholds.
Many men and some women today are enmeshed in the lure of pornography. With the advent of the internet the worst and most perverse of the degradation of the beauty of human sexuality as created by God can be brought into any home with a computer and a phone line in full living color and graphic sound. For a price live sex shows can be put up on the screen. Many today spend hours and hours and substantial money struggling with this stronghold. Another stronghold is gambling in all of its forms including the lotteries. A third stronghold is the mindset of “too hard” for many Christians when they consider the tithe of money, time or talents and resources. And finally there is the stronghold that keeps our priorities upside down with self at the top and God somewhere down the list. You and I need to examine our hearts and minds for the strongholds of Satan and demolish them with the armor and weapons God gives to us if we will only pick them up, put them on and use them.

We need to stand in the strength and in the power of God. We need the armor of God so we can stand against the evil, and having done all stand firm in victory


Next 3 weeks: shield, sword and walkie-talkie.