Take a Stand Part 4
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Gathering
Preparation
Speak on the Idea of corporate engagement - Worship music isn’t for us to make us feel a certain way. It is for us to express our feelings, commitment, love and devotion, praise, and thankfulness to God.
Call to Worship
Pastor: As we are called into worship today, it is sobering to remember that when God appeared on earth in the person of Jesus, most of the world did not recognize him and therefore did not worship him. Today we ask for the faith that will open our eyes to see Jesus for who he is, that we might worship him in truth. People of God, behold and see your God!
Congregational Response: We open our eyes to see his glory. We open our ears to hear his wisdom. We open our hands to offer him gifts. We open our mouths to sing his praise. We open our hearts to offer him our love. He is Lord!
Corporate Prayer (Adoration-Praise/Confession-Lament/Thanksgiving/Supplication
Worship through Song
Scripture Reading Ps 145:1-7
Worship through Song
Worship through Song
Proclamation
Prayer for illumination
9 God of Jesus Christ, give us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Christ, so that the eyes of our hearts might be enlightened. Help us to know the hope to which you have called us, the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of your power at work in us. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Sermon
Introduction
Introduction
Today we will be continuing the armor of God. We are going to examine one more of the parts of the armor. Open your bibles to Ephesians 6.
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. 13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. 14 Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, 15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God.
The last couple of weeks we have looked how important it is for each believer to put on and to take up the different parts of the armor. To be strengthened so that we may stand against the attacks of the evil one. The schemes of the devil.
The first item was the belt of truth. We are to live in truth and to be wrapped in the truth of God’s. We are to be people of integrity and by having the truth belted on we will be able to discern what is right and what is evil. Without truth we walk through this world listening to all of the voices that are constantly bombarding us each and every day. This brings confidence in what to trust.
The second is the breast plate of righteousness. This was to live in a righteous way. To live obeying the commands of God and separating ourselves from the ways of the world. When believers live in worldly ways. When speak like the world, act like the world, and think like to world it, then the Christians will find they do not have the strength to resist the world around them when they need it.This brings confidence to our actions.
Next was the sandals of the gospel of peace. The Gospel of peace is the reality that a believer is no longer an enemy of God. That through the victory that has already been accomplished, that all believers are at peace with God. This bring confidence in our standing with God.
The came the shield of faith. It is faith that allows the christian to stand against the fiery arrows. Against the assault of temptations that the enemy constantly shoots at us. With faith we are able to watch the arrows come and be put out before they would and hard the believer. We saw how much faith is a part of a person’s life. This gives confidence against temptation.
Today we come to the last two the helmet.
The Helmet of Salvation
The Helmet of Salvation
17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God.
The helmet
Helmets were worn by all soldiers and evolved over time. But they were made of leather and metal. Some were plane and some were fancy. Here is a picture of a couple of types.
Helmets serve a really important role. It was primarily there to deflect sword blows to the head. The Calvary would carry 3-4 foot long double edged broadswords. They would swing these from their horses with the intent of harming the enemy by wounding the head. They would also deflect in hand to hand combat.
Paul calls the Christian’s helmet the helmet of salvation. The christian is to take up salvation. There are different parts of salvation. The first is:
Regeneration:
The moment a person who has been called by God, finds in themselves, through the work of God, the understanding, belief, and confession, that the gospel of Jesus it true. They are saved by grace through faith.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
It is a gift from God. Not based on works or deeds or actions, moral status. At the same moment. We were:
Justification
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
It is only through one man through one savior that salvation and redemption can be found can be had
17 If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone. 19 For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Salvation is not earned it is given and it though faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that we are saved.
9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Justification happens once for the saved. The condemnation that each person was due was put on Christ and his righteousness was put on the believer and because of this God’s justice is satisfied by the justifier, Jesus. Therefore we stand pure and clean before God. Not in our good deeds but in Christ’s perfect sinless life.
The second part of salvation is:
Sanctification
This is the continual refining of the believe. Though saved and secured, the Christian still maintains the ability and desires to sin. As the Word permeates the person through the work of the Holy Spirit, as the person has sin reveled to them through the word and their darkness has light shown upon it. They repent and confess these to the Lord and turn from them. Thus being transfored by the renewing of their minds and growing each day, week, and year more and more into the likeness of Jesus.
We still have a struggle that will continue in each and every person. In me and in you.
23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.
11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.
But through the work of God’s spirit we are blessed with lives that are constantly changing and growing.
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which leaves the third aspect of salvation that is:
Glorification
This is the future state of the redeemed. This is after our mortal bodies have perished that we will be united with the Lord and we will be glorified in newness.
21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.
Sanctification is in the future for the not believer but in the past for the believer. Sanctification is the on going growth and refining that happens throughout today. But we wait for the day that we will be glorified. That sin will be no more. That the struggle inside our heart to seek after our on selfish desires and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to resist the same things and to turn to God. This is a hope that we have in the future.
When he wrote to the Thessalonians he wrote.
8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.
He calls it a helmet of hope of salvation. We hope in what is yet to come.
23 Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?
We put out hope in the thins to come. This is most likely what Paul is referring to with the helmet of salvation. There is strength that comes as we look to what is to come. When ever we hear about stories of war and other hardships we hear about the hope that people had in seeing their loved ones or coming home. Hope is a powerful emotion and here we have the greatest hope of all time. The hope that this world isn’t all there is that there is an eternity of peace, love, and joy to those who are adopted as children of God. As we are being protected and guarded until this day comes.
30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
This will be an instrumental tool in the fight with the devil.
See the devil likes to play head games, he is sly and wicked and will temp with creative truth that will lead you astray. He will try to attack the mind like he did with Eve, and like he attempted to do with Jesus he will make promises he cannot keep. There will be shiny things dangled in front of us that will sound great on paper if you ignore that there is sin in the world.
If we start to loose hope in that God’s promises are true, we may find yourself in very dark and hopeless places.
Teen suicide is the second leading cause of death after accidents.
For the majority of adolescents who struggle with self harm, the main purpose of the behavior is not actually to harm themselves. Rather, it is often used as a coping mechanism to deal with intense, negative feelings such as self-hatred, despair, emptiness, or guilt.
According to CDC data, 30% of teenage girls and 10% of teenage boys admit to intentionally hurting themselves each year. Since 2015, self injury rates have increased 166% for girls aged 10 to 14, and 62% for girls aged 15 to 19.
We should be standing strong in the armor of God. In Confidence knowing that God does not lie and that we are assured of our salvation.
13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.
But we live in a broken and corrupted world. One that shows no mercy and takes life, health, happiness and everything else from us in the end. But the world has seen this before and will see it again.
The Redeemer
The Redeemer
In Isaiah 59 the prophet gives a scathing account of the sinful state of God’s chosen people
1 Indeed, the Lord’s arm is not too weak to save, and his ear is not too deaf to hear. 2 But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.
He continues with
3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers, with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongues mutter injustice. 4 No one makes claims justly; no one pleads honestly. They trust in empty and worthless words; they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity.
He will continue for 5 more verses describing the sins that are so rampant in this time. And then he comes to the results of the community of God living this way.
9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we live in the night. 10 We grope along a wall like the blind; we grope like those without eyes. We stumble at noon as though it were twilight; we are like the dead among those who are healthy. 11 We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
Even though there may be recognition of what they are doing
12 For our transgressions have multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: 13 transgression and deception against the Lord, turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart. 14 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far off. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter. 15 Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil is plundered. The Lord saw that there was no justice, and he was offended.
The Lord comes to this conclusion:
16 He saw that there was no man— he was amazed that there was no one interceding; so his own arm brought salvation, and his own righteousness supported him.
Since there is no man. No one was interceding for the people. And he tells of how he will will save the people.
17 He put on righteousness as body armor, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. 18 So he will repay according to their deeds: fury to his enemies, retribution to his foes, and he will repay the coasts and islands. 19 They will fear the name of the Lord in the west and his glory in the east; for he will come like a rushing stream driven by the wind of the Lord. 20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression.” This is the Lord’s declaration. 21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children’s children, from now on and forever,” says the Lord.
The helmet of salvation is the Lords. He will come and not like the warrior king that they were looking for but he would still come in a mighty way. They were looking forward to the coming messiah. We get the blessing to look back on him. We get to see his redemptive work. We get to have the complete story of his loving redemption. OF his fulfilment of his justice.
Do we sit and thank God for that. Do we even appreciate it anymore. Do we reflect on who he is and what he has done.
Do we look out in the world and say “thank God I am not like them”. Thank you Jesus for for everything I have. I wish they would get there act together. Why can’t they figure things out? They are getting what they deserve.
Well guess what Jesus got what you deserved and what I deserved. Does your feel compassion for the lost who are bound by the flesh. incapable of doing anything else. It is foolishness to believe for a minute that an unbeliever can behave in a moral way.
What they need it to hear about the reedemer. The one who gave us hope. I am reminded of many that interacted with Jesus. They were healed, cured of blindness, raised from the dead and many other things. Many would not have had the foggiest idea of the prophesies of the coming Messiah. Some were gentiles some were jews. But they went away with the good news of Jesus. I have met this man, he has saved, healed, cured me come and meet him so that you can also be saved, healed, cured.
I want to give a moment for each of us to sit before our Lord this morning. And seek for the Holy Spirit to show us areas of our lives that still need sanctifying. Seek him in a time of responsive prayer. Thank him for his free gift to you. Seek him for confession of sin if our hearts have failed to love the world around us. Spend a moment with Jesus this morning in open wonder of his greatness and what does his saving grace mean to you this morning.
Conclusion
Conclusion
What is your commitment to his Word?
What is the primary motivation of your lives work?
Where is your confidence put?
How has this challenged the way you think?
How has this challenged your affections?
How is this challenging you to live differently?
Response to the Word
Profession of the Churches’ Faith - Creed - Ect
Prayers of the People - Intercessory prayer
Alan
Family with child
Our city
The Lord’s Supper
Declaration of God’s Promises and Invitation
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Breaking of Bread and Communion
Response of Thanksgiving
Worship through Song
Sending
Call to Service or Discipleship
As you prepare to leave this place, hear now God’s invitation to a life of Christian discipleship.
1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
Blessing/Benediction
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Doxology