You'll turn with me to the reading of God's law, which will come to us from Ephesians chapter six, again, as we continue to study together the armor of God from Ephesians chapter six, verses 10 through 20. This morning, we will particularly be focusing in upon verse 17. But again, I will read the entire passage for the sake of context. So we'll begin reading then at verse 10. This is the word of our God. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the authorities and against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand firm, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert, with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me. that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. This is the word of our God. You may be seated. Let us pray once again. Father, this morning as we come to your word yet again, we pray that you would speak to us powerfully through it. We ask, O Lord, that you would bless the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts, that you would cause us to take heart, to cultivate stout-hearted courage in the face of the dangers of this present darkness, that we might be able to stand in the day of darkness. We pray, Lord, that you would bless us in these ways and that you would cultivate within us a spirit of dependence and of love for you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, one sad thing about us, human beings, that is, is that we have an incredible propensity to take for granted some of the greatest blessings which God has given to us. How often do we take for granted things which are absolutely essential to our life, essential even to our spiritual lives? I think too often it can be the case that we don't know what we've had until it's gone. And even that little phrase reminds us of how bad we are at realizing the blessings and the grace that God has given to us. And whenever I contemplate this, I often think about when I first realized that I had grown up in a home of privilege. And I don't use privilege in a weird way here. I'm appreciative for the privilege that I had. But I remember being in the United States Army, I was a team leader at the time in the infantry, and I got a new soldier. And this soldier, as soon as he got to our unit, immediately began to complain about how bad his credit was, which is not unusual for men in this circumstance. But eventually it became obvious that someone had stole this guy's identity. So we went down to the CID, which is like the Army's investigative wing, and they started looking into this matter. And eventually we find out that lo and behold, the person who stole his identity is his dad. And he begins to tell me about his upbringing and about the abuse that he suffered at the hands of his father. And the difficulty which this man had experienced from an early age until that day was really uncomprehendable to me. I had never experienced anything like it. But it pressed upon me the blessings which I had experienced. I didn't know what it was like to have a father who was so addicted to substances and so careless with regards to his own family that he was willing to ruin his own child's financial well-being just to get cable for a short amount of time or to pay down a car loan. I never experienced that kind of abuse. Because I had grown up in a home where I had many blessings. A godly home. But I really hadn't realized it. I think, until maybe that day. And it illustrates, doesn't it, how bad we are at seeing the blessings which are right in front of us. And I think that's important for us to realize. And the reason that I bring this up this morning is because as we come here to Ephesians chapter six and we begin to zero in upon that first half of verse 17, we hear Paul speaking to us this morning about the topic of salvation. Now you notice, remember, all of these pieces of armor which he has brought forth, whether it be the breastplate, I can say that word, or the belt or the shoes, all of these are merely ways to illustrate blessings which God has given to his people. Well, this morning he picks up the helmet and he uses it as an illustration to speak to us in a very general sense, really, about our salvation. If you think about it for a moment, in many ways this is the most general of all of the topics that the Apostle Paul has spoken about up to this point. He spoke first to us about God's truth. That's pretty broad, of course, but particularly he has in mind the gospel of Jesus Christ when he speaks about that truth. He spoke to us, of course, about righteousness, but particularly he has the righteousness of Jesus Christ in mind when he speaks about that. He spoke to us about the gospel of peace, of course, again, a more narrow blessing which God has bestowed upon us. And then he talked to us about the shield of faith, again, more narrow, but now he comes and he speaks to us as he uses this element of the helmet to illustrate it, about our salvation. And as I was thinking about how to preach on the topic of salvation, I was confronted, I think, with the reality afresh, that this is a topic which often, perhaps, doesn't pique our interest the way some of these other topics do. And the reason I think it doesn't pique our interest is because we so often simply take advantage, take for granted all that is involved in our salvation, which God has given unto us. And so this morning, as we consider together, as we contemplate, as we meditate upon this last primarily defensive, you notice that, the last primarily defensive piece of armor, which Paul highlights for us here in verse 17, this helmet of salvation, what I want us to do is I want us to take a step back and I want us to consider perhaps three perspectives on our salvation this morning. The first of those perspectives is I simply want us to take a step back and look, as it were, backwards. I want us to look to the past and I want us to consider, those of us who are here this morning who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the peril that we were in apart from our salvation. I want us to seriously consider, seriously think about what it would be like to be exposed on the battlefield, which Paul is describing here in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 20 this morning. I want us to consider what it would be like to be without salvation. Look back, look back to our perilous past, if you will. and consider the danger that was present to us back there. I want us to look backwards, but I also want us to consider our present condition. I want us to contemplate how our salvation now is indeed a protective cover over us. I want us to consider our present protection, which salvation has brought to us. And then last of all, I want us to look forward. And in many ways, I'll argue that that's really what this text is calling us to do. I want us to look forward. at the promising future which salvation has purchased for us. And so as we do so, our goal this morning is very simply to be able to gain a fresh appreciation for what God has done for us in our salvation. We wanna gain a fresh appreciation for the blessings of salvation which we have this morning. And so to facilitate that, again, let's turn first to our perilous past and look backwards at what it was like to be apart from the protection of our salvation. To be, in the words of Paul here, we could say, helmetless on the field of battle. As we come to consider our perilous past, I think there are really three perils that deserve to be highlighted for us as we think about what it's like to be without salvation. On the one hand, there's the peril which is apparent from the context in which we find ourselves here in Ephesians chapter six. And that is the peril that is posed to us by the devil. Now, You may think to yourself, well, the reason that the devil poses a problem for the believer is that they are a believer. And there is a sense in which that is true. There is a sense in which when we believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that gospel of peace, as we talked about earlier in our series, we immediately, having made peace with God, enter into an enheightened, if you will, level of conflict with Satan. But that does not mean that Satan was a kind master before. Now I think that's very important for us to understand. Those of you who have been reading the Heaven and Hell book by Ted Donnelly will remember a few weeks ago we discussed how oftentimes our culture likes to romanticize the devil. He describes it this way, he says that sometimes we have a, how does he call it, a James Dean-like view of the devil. We see the devil as a slick, tragic, rebellious hero of sorts. Someone who, really, you can sympathize with in many ways. In some ways, you might even think he's someone who has, although he's confused about it, your best intentions in mind. But what Donnelly warns us against, and I think he's correct to do so, is thinking just that way. You see, it's very dangerous to conceive of Satan as some sort of sympathetic, rebellious, tragic hero. He's not that at all. And if you really understand the character of Satan, you understand that to be under the dominion of Satan, which everyone is before they are a believer, is to live in a kingdom of malicious tyranny. It is to be under a ruler. It is to be subjected to the kingdom of darkness, a kingdom which does not have your best interest in mind. Now we see that, don't we? We see that illustrated time after time in the Gospel of Mark as we've been studying. Every time we encounter someone who is possessed by a demon, we don't see someone who is flourishing. We don't see someone who is enjoying life. We see someone who is consumed with pain, who is being oppressed by the power of Satan. And certainly here as we come to consider the helmet of salvation here in verse 17, we have to remember that what Paul is telling us is that if we had not been equipped with this helmet of salvation, we would be exposed to all the attacks of Satan and we would be exposed to them with no defense at all. We would simply be under his tyrannical rule. And that is not a good thing. There's the peril that is posed to us from being under the dominion of the devil, but then there's the peril of being enslaved to sin. And that's something we talked about actually last Sunday evening. You'll remember Pastor Holz very helpfully preached to us from Romans chapter six, and he spoke about how in Christ Jesus, we have made a definitive break with sin. In particular, we could say it this way, we have been freed from the slavery of sin. But that only happens in Jesus Christ. It only happens after we have experienced salvation. And that means that to not have experienced salvation is to be one who currently is living in a state of slavery to sin. And again, we might think to ourselves, well, We know that's bad in one sense, but perhaps it's not all that bad. Sin can be enjoyable, right? Of course, ultimately that's not the case, is it? We know that sin, while it looks appealing initially, it leads to death, not just spiritual death, but sometimes physical death. It leads people to destroy their lives. It leads people to destroy their health. It leads people to destroy their souls. It's a perilous condition to be in, to be enslaved to sin. But it's not the only peril. The worst peril, the worst danger, if you will, which we suffer under as those who are apart from salvation is the peril of the judgment of God. That's the third and final peril I want us to consider. Because of our sin, we find ourselves under the wrath and the curse of God. Now, we've been considering that on Wednesday evenings, perhaps in a way that's more directed and more acute than many of us have considered that in many years. But it's been a helpful study because of that, because it's drawn our attention to the great danger that we face. The danger that we face is those who are under the wrath and curse of God. We think about the dangers of sin, we think about the dangers of Satan, but perhaps we don't think as much about what it would be like to suffer at the hands of an almighty, all-powerful, all-just, and holy God for all of eternity. But when we do, it ought to fill us with terror. It ought to make us uncomfortable. And we've talked about that some, haven't we? We've talked about how hard it is to contemplate the reality of the wrath of God. It's not just hard for you to contemplate, it's hard for me to preach about. Because it's horrific when you really come to terms with the fact that hell is a place not merely of distance from God, but of eternal conscious torment, a place with weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place with fire and with judgment that never ceases. The peril of the wrath and the judgment of God eternally That is the most dangerous aspect of being apart from salvation. But as believers, as we consider these things, and the reason I want us to consider these things is to press us, not to depress us, but to press us into thinking about the grace of God towards us. What I want you to do this morning is I want you to ask the question, do you consider the greatness of God's grace which has been given to you? Do you think about that on a regular basis or do you take it for granted? Do you feel even in your heart as you meditate upon the dangers of hell, the dangers of Satan, the dangers of sin, do you consider how gracious God has been to you to provide for your head a covering such as the helmet of salvation? Or would you just say, yeah, of course I have salvation. And you move on. Friend, if we can dismiss easily the salvation which we've received from our God, then we have lost sight. We have lost sight, not only of the greatness of his grace, but of the greatness of his wrath and the danger that was posed to us apart from his grace. We've looked backwards. But we also want to look to our present age. We want to consider how salvation presently protects us. First, of course, we can immediately think of what we've been speaking about. Salvation protects us from the wrath of God. Now that's a great thing to consider, isn't it? We see that truth laid out to us in a number of places in scripture. We can see it, for instance, in 1 Timothy 1, verse 10, or rather 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 10, where we hear that Jesus is the one who has died to deliver us and been raised to deliver us from the wrath that is to come. We have been protected in our salvation from judgment, from the judgment of God, but we've also been protected by being liberated from sin. Remember, we were enslaved to sin apart from our salvation, but now God has come and he has visited us with salvation, and when doing so, he has freed us from the tyranny which we once experienced. Again, that's what Pastor Holtz was talking about last week. No longer are we under the dominion of sin. No longer are we enslaved to it such that we have to bow to its demands. Rather now we have the power in Christ Jesus to resist it and to put it to death. We have been liberated from sin. In a very real sense, I think this is probably the image that the Apostle Paul has in the back of his mind when he drew the illustration he does out of the book of Isaiah. If you think about Isaiah, what does it picture when we read it in our Old Testament reading? It pictures the Lord, the God of Israel, coming to rescue his people from their bondage, from their slavery to their captors. We know from the book of Micah, don't we, at the very end of the book, how all of those physical captors, those physical enemies of Israel who had enslaved the nation, they were really illustrations, in an ultimate sense, of the power of our chief enemy, which is, of course, sin. And God, as He comes in the book of Isaiah to liberate the people of Israel from their bondage, is a picture of what Jesus Christ, in many ways, has done in a greater sense as He's come into this world to liberate us from our slavery to sin. And by putting on this helmet of salvation, we have severed the bonds of our sin. We have found freedom in Jesus Christ to live for the glory of God. We've been protected from judgment. We've been liberated from slavery and sin. But we've also, of course, returning to the context of Ephesians chapter six, found protection from the conquest of the devil. You see, as Christ has come into this world, one of the things that he has done is he has defeated the forces of darkness. Of course, that's a point we've made again, time and time again, as we've been studying together the Gospel of Mark. Over and over again, we see Jesus conducting, if you will, battles against the forces of darkness. Most pronounced when he cast out that legion, remember that's a military word, of demons. I think about that for a moment. What is he doing here in this world? He is at war with Satan and ultimately, of course, why his death and resurrection? What has he done? He has defeated permanently, finally, the forces of darkness. Now, if you think to yourself, well, that's your opinion. No, it's the opinion of the Apostle Paul. He says it in Colossians 3, verses 14 and 15. God in Christ has disarmed the rulers and authorities, and He has put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. Who are the rulers and authorities? Well, they're the same ones who were mentioned earlier in this passage. When we find that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the authorities and against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. When we look out and we see these massive, scary really, enemies who face us, these spiritual enemies who are seeking to attack us according to Paul, We can be assured that in Jesus Christ and in the salvation which he has purchased for us, we have the ultimate victory over them. Christ has defeated them. He has disarmed them. He has put them to open shame. And therefore, as we go out to battle and we put this helmet of salvation on as we face the minions of the evil one, we are assured of our victory over them. Now, as we think about what salvation has done for us here and now, we can of course make a number of important applications to ourselves. On the one hand, being freed from the judgment and the wrath of God brings us obviously a great deal of comfort and assurance. I think that's obvious. When we consider the peril that was pressing upon us, the danger of facing the wrath and the curse of God for eternity, and then we consider the blessing of salvation which which solves that greatest problem that we have, we are full. We are full of comfort and assurance. When we consider how salvation has brought an end to our slavery to sin, we are reminded of the power that we have to mortify our indwelling sin, to kill our sin. because God in Christ Jesus has granted us victory over us. When we think about the salvation that we have over the devil, we can live in this world with courage, knowing that the Lord has prevailed over our enemies. But it's also important to say that even while we consider the present protection that we have by way of this helmet of salvation this morning, if you are here today and you're an unbeliever, as we consider the salvation that has been brought to the believer and the blessings that flow from that, it's also important that you consider your state apart from the salvation. apart from Christ. Because apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't have the privilege and protection of the comfort and assurance that's been brought to you by the gospel. You don't have the power to mortify indwelling sin. You're still enslaved to it. You don't have victory over Satan. You're still a member of his tyrannical kingdom. And friend, that ought to really concern you. To understand the peril of our position and then to understand that the protection that is available is only available in Jesus Christ, it ought to send a shiver down the spine of anyone who does not possess this helmet of salvation by way of faith in Jesus Christ. And if that's you today, tell you, I would encourage you to take up that helmet for the first time, to come to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and to find in Him the provision, the protection, the salvation which we've been speaking about and considering. We've talked about our peril. We've talked about the present. protection, but we still need to talk about our promising future. In many ways, this may actually be the emphasis of the passage here before us in verse 17. If you, for instance, were to flip over in your Bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 8, you would read about the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation once again. But you would read this modification about the helmets of salvation. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul speaks about it this way. The helmets of the hope of salvation, he calls it. The helmet of the hope of salvation. Now, if you read older commentaries on this passage, they interpret Ephesians 6 almost completely in light. of 1 Thessalonians 5, which I think is fine. I think that's really probably a good thing to do, but we didn't do that for the sake of seeing the robustness and the scope of the topic that is before us this morning. But if you do come with a slightly sharper eye to this topic of salvation and you read it through the lens of 1 Thessalonians 5, what you begin to see is that the salvation which Paul is speaking about most likely here in verse 17 is not the salvation that we presently Enjoy. What he's actually probably speaking about here is a salvation which is yet to be fully realized. And so what does he mean then if he says for us to take up the helmet of salvation, if we read it the way 1 Thessalonians puts it, the hope of salvation, the helmet of hope of salvation. What is he trying to call us to do? Well, he's calling us really here in verse 17 to live not only in light of the present protection that we have by way of the salvation that we possess in Jesus Christ, but to live in light of the coming liberation that Christ is going to bring to His people when He brings that final and full salvation. You see, what He's probably calling us to do here is to look forward, actually, not just to the first coming of Christ, looking backwards, but to look forward to the second coming of Christ. and to realize that there is our ultimate hope. Our ultimate hope is not merely that we live in this world in this imperfect state, but our ultimate hope is that Christ is coming, and He is coming to bring an end to all of the terrible things that we see around us, an end to the conflict that we experience when we face off against these spiritual enemies that are against us in this world, to that remaining, indwelling sin which we so struggle against in Christ Jesus, and into all of the suffering, to all of the misery, to all of the tears. What He's calling us to do here is not only to see how we now enjoy the blessings of Christ, but He's calling us to look forward to what we will enjoy, and to live our lives in hope, in light of that ultimate salvation. Now friends, that's encouraging. That's encouraging, I think, in two important ways. First, it's encouraging because this promising future that we have, this hope which we have, it animates our entire lives in this world. It encourages us. to take heart, to be courageous, to continue on with the combat which we engage in in this present evil age. It encourages us to resist the devil. It encourages us to put our sin to death. It encourages us to suffer for righteousness' sake. Why? Because there is coming a day when all of those things will be rewarded and will be shown to be the wise and right way to act and to live. It encourages us to cultivate in our lives two particular characteristics as well. And those two characteristics are these, joy and patience. It encourages joy in our lives because it calls us to remember and to delight in knowing that our future will bring a full end to all of the struggles that we face in this earth. Now let me say, many of you know our family has been going through a very trying time over the last two weeks. It's been a hard season of life, particularly for my wife and for her family. But as we speak about the difficulties and sometimes the pain of just simply putting one foot in front of another and doing the next thing, which seems incredibly difficult at times, we've been encouraging one another to look forward and to remember that while we're struggling in the here and the now, and while we are weighed down with the cares and the concerns and the misery that we face in this world. We are weighed down with those things knowing that we can be joyful because of what awaits us. We know that even though there are difficulties and there are trials, ultimately the weight of glory is incomparable to these light and momentary afflictions. It's not easy to do, but when we meditate on these truths, it calls us to try consciously to cultivate that joy in our own lives, not to become depressed and discouraged and despondent all the time, but to become those who can rejoice even in the pains and in the difficulties that we face. Our hope produces joy, but it also, of course, produces patience. I think that's easier to understand, isn't it? It's a lot easier to face the difficulties of this life knowing in full confidence that what we're going through here and now, although it seems meaningless, it's not. God's using it. God's using it to produce in us steadfastness, to produce in us godly character, to produce in us Christlikeness, to produce in us a heavenly mindedness that patiently endures the trials of this life with the full confidence that everything that we undergo here and now is for God's glory and for our wellbeing. And in this way, our hope of a promising future that we have in salvation, it animates our actions in this world. And it also, of course, orients us to the world to come. It causes us to long for that full and final salvation which we will experience. It causes us to fall less often into love the things of this world, and to become more and more excited about heaven. It orients us to the world to come. I wonder if you're doing that. I wonder if you are able, Christian, to walk with confidence in God's promise of coming liberation. I wonder if you're able to face the trials that you encounter with boldness. I wonder if you can put on the stout-hearted courage, in the words of Matthew Henry, that this passage calls us to put on. As we consider our future, the hope that we have in our salvation, as we put on this helmet. I wonder if you're able to do that. or if you're distracted, do you take for granted the blessings that you have? It's easy to do so. And yet this morning, our call is simply this. Take up this helmet of salvation. Put it on. Remember what you have in it. Let it give you the confidence that you need. Let it remind you of the glorious grace of God as you consider your perilous past apart from our salvation. Be reminded of the protection that it brings to you in the here and now and let it cast your gaze to the future where we will be blessed to be in the presence of our God in glory, in which we will enjoy His presence in a way that we cannot even comprehend now. So this morning, let us afresh, take heart, stand firm, and put on this helmet of salvation. Amen, let us pray. Father, we thank you and we praise you for your goodness towards us in Christ Jesus. How thankful we are that you have equipped us in such a wonderful way to do battle with the spiritual enemies that we face in this present darkness. Father, we plead with you now that you would encourage our hearts in Christ Jesus. We pray, Father, that you would remind us of the victory that we have in him over all of our enemies. We pray that you would direct our eyes towards his return. That we would be those who often cry out, come Lord Jesus, come. We pray all these things in His name, Amen.