The Helmet of Salvation

0:02 the next piece of armor we need to take up is the helmet of salvation just like a football player puts on a helmet to protect his head his brain god has a piece of spiritual armor to protect our minds because after all we all know the mind is a terrible thing to waste whatever controls your mind controls everything else the enemy wants to get into your thinking so that his thoughts become your thoughts so that your life is lived his way rather than the way god has prescribed causing you to have defeat rather than enjoy victory many people do not understand salvation because they limit it only to justification the penalty of sin

0:47 but salvation in scripture is used in three ways justification deliverance from the penalty of sin sanctification deliverance from the power of sin and glorification delivered from the very presence of sin and only when you understand this comprehensive approach to salvation can you experience the full victory that god has achieved for you and wants you to have in your thinking so that as you live your life you live it victoriously the enemy will not have power over you unless he can get to your mind but god has a piece of equipment to protect your thinking so why don't we put on our helmet of salvation

1:42 [Music] so [Music] today we have reached the point in verse 17 where we are told to take the helmet of salvation he declares that one of the things that will give us victory is what we wear on our head the helmet of salvation

2:31 the helmet that somebody wears is placed over the head the reason that the helmet is placed over the head is to protect from brain injury a football player wears a helmet to absorb shock so that the brain is not damaged because the understanding is that if the brain is damaged bodily function is impeded when you have players who over and over again particularly quarterbacks where their head is constantly being pounded

3:18 on the ground concussion after concussion after concussion if that thing is not addressed if the head is not protected the brain gets damaged and if the brain gets damaged function gets impeded he says the brain or the mind must be protected to absorb the shocks of being hit in the spiritual realm by the enemy some of us have relatives who have contracted alzheimer's one of the debilitating diseases of our day

4:05 it is where the brain no longer is able to function and it progressively deteriorates over time and one of the things you will always see as alzheimer's sets in and becomes more and more dominant in a person's life is they become less and less able to control themselves to care for themselves the worse the brain problem gets as alzheimer sets in the less the person can control the less control you and i have in our lives is because spiritual alzheimer's has set in the mind is no longer functioning as it ought to

4:52 impeding the soul from doing what it should influencing the body to be out of control he says that you and i are to have a helmet on in this spiritual battle in the invisible realm if we are to have victory he is dealing with the content of us a context of us being under attack in a football game the quarterback is the is the leader on the field and he's calling the play and setting the agenda and he is always under attack the defense is always trying to get him sack him knock him down block him move him out of

5:38 the pocket running they want to make him ineffective and inefficient so they are after him sitting high above him in a booth is an offensive coordinator the offensive coordinator's job is to is to speak to him about what he ought to be doing in light of what's coming at him in light of the attack that the quarterback is under the coordinator gives him plays and these plays in light in light of technology now can be spoken right into his helmet right into his head so with the helmet that he has on comes

6:26 instruction of how he is to move what play he is to call how he is to function in light of the attack he is under the reason why the coordinator does it is he's sitting high looking low he's up there watching what the enemy is doing down there analyzing the movements of the enemy in order to inform his man through his helmet what the deliverance ought to be for the pressure he's now under he says paul says that in this battle we ought to put on a helmet a helmet spiritually speaking

7:11 to govern the mind the problem of victory or defeat is tied to proper programming if the mind the spiritual expression of the brain is improperly programmed if it has bad information then it will function improperly in other words if you're thinking wrong you're going to be wrong if your perspective is errant if your mindset is flawed then your function will be flawed based

7:57 on flawed thinking that's why the only way you can consistently change your action is changing your thought if the thought is wrong the wrong action will inevitably follow unless you're forced not to do it unless you're being coerced the enemy is attacking us god wants us to pull on a helmet so he can speak some stuff in our minds because he sits high and he looks low he can see the field of life better than we can he can examine it better than we can without proper information proper

8:43 programming the head the helmet there will be errant false faulty life without the right information the emancipation proclamation declared slaves were freed but we all know from history it's one thing to have something on paper saying you are freed when you can legally be freed but not functionally free that's why we can sing songs in church about being free freed by what jesus has accomplished but not living a life of freedom

9:29 because either we didn't get the information or the information we got is not being utilized properly we don't have on our helmet he says if you're going to win the enemy attacks you must stand firm and you must have your helmet on your mind must be covered in the same way a physical helmet covers and absorbs the shocks that hit the brain well what exactly is this helmet that you ought to put over your head your mind your thinking he says

10:14 and take the helmet of salvation so he describes what the helmet is he says the helmet is a helmet called salvation so please let me review salvation can i review salvation here i'll quote it for you i know you know it already but ephesians 2 8 9 by grace you have been saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of god so that no one should boast for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which he hath already created beforehand that we should walk in them ephesians 2

11:00 8 through 10. he says in those verses salvation is by grace through faith on two works all of that makes up a package called salvation it's by grace through faith unto good works let me say that again your salvation your package deal is by grace through faith unto good works it's by grace through faith unto good works you can't okay i don't want you to miss this it's by grace through faith unto good works colossians chapter 2 verse 6 says the same way you got you met christ is the very same way you're to walk with

11:47 christ how did you meet christ by grace through faith unto good works by grace through faith unto good works the very same way you met him is the same way you walk in him in other words the same way you got saved is the same way you operate as saved so let's review the terms first of all it's by grace grace has absolutely nothing to do with you grace is all that god has done for you independent of you you have no participation in grace grace is all that god has done and as we've already said god has already done everything he's

12:32 ever going to do there is nothing god can do for you that he hasn't already done so anything god is ever going to do it's because he's already done it grace is all that god has already supplied not only in forgiveness when you were born again but everything he's ever going to provide for you is already provided every healing he's ever going to give you in your physical body has already been provided every thing he's ever going to do for your well-being is already provided he can't give you anything new because anything new he's already deposited as old because grace has nothing to do with you

13:19 grace is what he provides all right that's grace so he says you're saved by grace you're saved by what god has already done he's already sacrificed jesus for you you're saved by what he's already done in christ any victory you're ever going to get it's because you already got it the joy you're looking for is already got it the peace you're looking for you already got it the power you're looking for you already got it because grace provides that so a lot of us are hunting for stuff we already have because you are saved delivered by grace well you'll say if i already got it how

14:07 come i don't have it if i already got it without my salvation why don't i have it because you'll say by grace through faith the way you access grace is by means of faith there's only one way to access what you already have by faith not by works okay this is a fundamental distinction that's tripping most of us up you do not access grace by works because the moment you try to access grace by works you nullify grace

14:54 because grace has nothing to do with you so if i can access grace by what i do then that means grace has something to do with me and grace has nothing to do with you grace has to do only what god has supplied what religion tries to do is try to get you by works to access grace if you come to church more god will bless you more if you give more god will bless you more if you treat your neighbor nice god will do more for you so they keep adding things onto this list and you get tired of being a christian because you never know if you did enough to make god happy enough for him to give you some more grace because you're trying to earn favor

15:40 it's like your child trying to earn your love if they have to earn your love then that means you don't love them unconditionally because they got to earn it they got to do more to get it you you love them you may not like what they're doing but you love them because they're yours god can't love you more than killing jesus for you that's as much love as he can give you he there is no more love than that one when he killed jesus he gave you all the love he could ever give you for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son there's only one way to access

16:25 grace by grace have you been saved through faith faith is tapping in to the grace god has already provided faith is my positive response to what god has already done the obedience or the work i do is to express my faith not to earn my grace you don't do what you do to earn god's favor god has already given you his favor what you want to do is tap into the favor he's already given

17:12 you and the way you tap into it is by faith it's my response to what god has already done you don't give a tithe to earn a tithe plus interest back you give a tithe because you trust god so i act by my giving as an expression of my faith but faith is my entry point into grace and grace is god's supply back to me religion will kill you because it will keep you trying to earn what's already been given freely

17:58 all of us have electricity in our homes we are connected to the power company the texas utilities we are we are already and all the power you need to run everything in your home you already have you would be foolish to call the electric company and say give me more power give me more juice because all the juice for every outlet you possess you already have by virtue of your relationship with the electric company but let me tell you what you can't do you cannot call the electric company and tell them to come over and flip the switch

18:46 they're not going to do that not because they haven't supplied the power but because you possess the responsibility of connecting it they won't they won't act for you on the connection they won't come and flip the switch on for you they won't come and plug in your toaster for you they're not going to do that but but all the power that you ever need for the toaster and the lights to work you already have that's supplied by virtue of your relationship with your electric company but you access it by action flipping on the switch plugging it in you are saved by grace through faith all the audio and video signals that you

19:33 need for your television and your radio you can't see them but they're already flying all around you you turn on the radio you now bring it down you got on-demand television it simply means when you want it you can get it it's out there you got to call for it so asking god to give you stuff that he's already given you is wasted conversation it is the act of faith that accesses it and no faith there's plenty of grace that's gone unaccessed so our problem with our salvation this helmet is we don't understand grace so we don't

20:19 operate by faith we try to get by works what god doesn't give by works he only gives it by faith but the way you know you have faith is because the good works reflect the fact you believed what god said about grace faith is your admission ticket like going into a movie theater into grace salvation means we relate to god based on grace what jesus did not based on performance what we do let me help you let me help you you do not have to try to get god to like you you that's wasted energy oh if i do this he'll like me more

21:04 if i do this he'll love me more if i do this he'll be nicer to me if i do that no no no no no no no no you don't understand all the liking god is ever going to like you with he already likes you with that's freedom right there sure i don't have to earn god's favor now when you when that thing sinks into your soul and i know most of us have grown up trying to earn people's favor get people to like us we got to perform you know on your job you got to perform for your family you got to perform you got to perform the form so that they'll treat you right and they'll like you and they'll talk nice about you and all that well that's how you operate on earth that's not how god operates in heaven you do not have to and see see when you

21:50 understand that kind of grace you have less problem exercising the right kind of faith now you don't have problem pleasing him you don't have a problem worshiping him you don't have problem giving to him because now you want to express faith in what he's already done you're not trying to manipulate him into doing it the u.s has a the u.s has a witness protection program in plain sight those who don't know what i'm talking about don't worry about it it has a witness protection program you know what they do they change your

22:38 identity the reason they change your identity is because somebody after you somebody trying to get you so they want you to become somebody different without actually changing who you are a new name new social security number new license new place to live new identity for you and your friend because somebody after you so they want to reclassify you and they want you to think in terms of the new you now not the oh you you were raised to be now they tell you up front you're gonna have to get used to this because you used to being called by your old name you used to operate this way you used to move about this way but in this new situation

23:24 because somebody after you we want to deliver you from the person that's after you and the way we're going to deliver you is change who you are but unless you get used to functioning in the new way you're declared to be you're going to make yourself vulnerable to the one trying to get you what god is trying to tell us in spiritual warfare somebody's after you somebody's trying to stop your progress and block your future and keep you from achieving your goal but god has got you in a new program now he's got you in a salvation program where he is now changing how you look at yourself and you ought to look at yourself from

24:10 the perspective of god no longer from the perspective of man and then the hitman can't get to you because he don't know who you are paul says paul says it's a whole summer within itself but paul says he says uh he says i am what i am in first corinthians 15 by the grace of god he says he says i am what i am by the grace of god i used to kill people and now i'm writing 13 books of the new testament and now i'm establishing churches all over and let me explain to you i didn't get this way because of me

24:56 i am what i am by the grace of god but then his next statement is a killer he says i am what i am by the grace of god and because of that grace i labor more wait amen in other words when i understood grace he didn't make me lazy he says when i understood all that god has already done for me i want to access it all so my work is my response to his grace i'm not trying to earn it i'm just so thankful for it i'm going to express faith in it by the work i do because of it [Applause] grace doesn't make you lazy it makes you more committed it makes you more excited it makes you

25:42 more generous it makes you more obedient because when you see everything he's already done and all you got to do is access it not earn it that's free at last free at last thank god almighty i'm free at last [Applause] now what's the result of this grace this helmet i put on this helmet called salvation the word save means to be delivered that's what the word say means but he's not talking about salvation from hell in the future he's talking about salvation from hell in the present

26:28 i only have time to introduce it but let me show you a zinger scripture can i show you a zinger a zinger scripture romans romans chapter 5. romans comes after acts i can hear you struggling chapter five comes out to chapter four romans now watch this now let me start at verse six for while we were still helpless at the right time christ died for the ungodly we were helpless christ died for the

27:14 ungodly for one will hardly die for a righteous man though perhaps for the good man some would dare to die but god demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us in other words he died for us when we were at our worst okay now watch this much more say much more that means on top of all that when we were at our worst he killed his son when we were at our worst much more than having now been justified by his blood okay you got saved born again we shall be saved from the wrath of god

28:01 through him wait a minute now when we were sinners christ died now that we are saints justified by his blood he has another kind of salvation salvation from the wrath of god okay talk to me about that paul verse 10 for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to god through the death of his son much more say much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life watch this now if jesus could save us when we were enemies and sinners by his death he says oh much more not a little bit more whole

28:48 lot more will he not save us by his life if he could die and save us and he rose from the dead don't you think he can live and save you what exactly is he saving us from he's saving us he says from wrath now when you hear that you're going to naturally think of hell uh-uh he's not talking about that wrath man that's eternal wrath he's talking about salvation now you say but he used the word wrath back in the book of romans to chapter 1 verse 18. for the wrath of god is

29:34 revealed not will be is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness because that which is known of god is evident within them for god has made it evident to them now watch this now he now says the wrath of god in verse 18 is already revealed now eternally it will be revealed that's hell but some of us don't have to wait to go to hell to be in hell because some of us are in our own private health our own personal health we are we got fires burning all over the place we're not talking about eternal hell he's talking about the wrath that is revealed happening right now

30:20 now let me explain how this works injected into sin is wrath let me say that again now wrath is injected into sin sin has wrath built in let me put it another way with sin comes consequence consequence is embedded in the sin all right many of us have gone through our going through consequences if we didn't do what we did when we were 18 if we didn't did we do we did we were 25 we didn't do it when we were 30 we wouldn't be where we are today it's not that god is throwing wrath at you it's that wrath is built in as a consequence to the sin he says now with jesus christ died when you are an enemy he saved you but now that he's

31:08 alive he wants to deliver you from the wrath consequence because he's going to deliver you from the power of sin and sin has the consequence already built in it so if he delivers you from the sin he delivers you from the consequence some of us started out with one drink and now the drink is telling us what to do some of us started popping up with one pill and now we're injecting into our arms because in the sin was the consequence well the way you get rid of the consequence is by having the power to deal with the sin i am not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of god unto salvation so when you understand that the power is in the saving and it deals with the sin that brings the wrath

31:54 then what i get is delivered when i put on the helmet of salvation what i'm doing is blocking satan from bringing the consequence because i've denied him the sin where the consequence is built in and says i don't want the consequence i'mma deal with the sin but in the salvation having grace through faith unto good works is the power of the gospel that deals with the sin that overrides the consequence so i'm free at last free at last thank god almighty i'm free at last [Applause] it is in the understanding of your

32:40 salvation what does satan do he doesn't want you put your helmet on he wants you to play in this game with no helmet so he can do a brain injury and keep you from thinking right because then he can keep you flat on your back [Music] you