Helmet, Swords, and Prayer

Well I am tired but I am excited to be finishing up this series on the armor of God with you. I hope that these past 4 nights have been beneficial for your life, I know that as I studied these verses, they were certainly beneficial for me in my walk with the Lord. Something that I hope you have been able to gather as we have only looked at about 9 verses is that God can say a whole lot with just a little. As we’ve gone through these verses, we have seen how one verse connects to another verse and how whole sections of Scripture can be related to a few words. God can say more in 4 words than we can say in 4 billion is what I’m getting at. We are going to be doing something a little bit different tonight, we are going to look at the final 2 pieces of armor and then we will look at Paul’s words in verse 18 in regards to prayer. One could make a very good argument for including prayer in the armor because prayer is just so crucial for the Christian life. What I want to do tonight is I want to try and make what I say as practical as possible. We are on a bit of a time crunch with the water balloon thing later tonight but I really do not want us to miss out on any of what the Lord has to say to us. What we will do is focus more on what these parts of the armor are for and less on what they were useful for during the time of Paul. You don’t have to have a great imagination to recognize what a helmet and a sword were used for and you don’t need a lot of reasoning as to why they were helpful for battle. If you were to go out onto a football field without a helmet, you probably won’t last for very long in a game. Obviously the same argument can be made on behalf of a Roman soldier. Also what is the point of going to battle if you don’t have a weapon? We’ll take each piece of the armor as we come to it and I’m hoping that you realize that the Christian needs to do more than just play defense, he needs to play some offense too. So, let’s open up in prayer and then we will read for one last time together Ephesians 6:10-18

Ephesians 6:10–18 NASB95

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

The Helmet

At the beginning of verse 17, Paul tells us that we are to take the helmet of salvation. Now if you were a first century Roman soldier, why would a helmet be so important? Keep in mind that most fighting would take place in close quarters. If I were to attack your leg with a sword, I could cause some damage but you could in theory keep fighting. If I attacked your hand and chopped your hand off, that is a serious injury but it is not necessarily a fatal injury. Head injuries are entirely different. If you aren’t wearing a helmet and a broadsword comes down, what do you think is gonna happen? If they swing hard enough you lose your head. You don’t even need to decapitate someone to kill them, you could just stab them and they would die. What does Paul mean when he brings up the helmet then? It means that believers need to guard and protect their minds as well as their hearts. I know that we have talked about this a few different times but when Paul mentions salvation here, what people group are being addressed? Is it believers or non-believers? Well, as we have said pretty much every night this week, Paul is writing to people that are already Christians so what on earth does Paul mean when he talks about salvation? If those that are putting on the armor of God already have salvation, is this a second salvation? What is it that Paul is referring to? What Paul is likely referring to is the ongoing sanctification and the certainty and assurance of one’s salvation and glorification. Satan cannot remove us from the hands of God. One of the most well-known verses in regards to our assurance of salvation is in Romans 8:37-39

Romans 8:37–39 NASB95

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Once we are saved, we are saved for eternity. There is nothing that man or Satan can do to separate us from the hand of God. When Christ saves, He saves to the uttermost. One thing that Satan can do is cause us to question. He cannot force you to sin but he can certainly put you in a position to sin. Satan didn’t put a gun to Eve’s head and force her to eat the fruit and he doesn’t put a gun to your head to force you to do anything. No one can say that the devil made them do it. But he will do all that he can to cause you to doubt and question that which you know to be true. You all understand that there is a huge difference between feeling something and knowing something right? When it comes to our salvation and relationship to Christ, we need to stop feeling and start knowing. Sometimes you feel that God is further away from you than He was before but what we know from Scripture is that the Spirit of God lives inside of every believer and we know this from Romans 8:9. Satan can make us think and feel like God will abandon us but we know that Hebrews 13:5–6 says, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?”” Satan can try to make us feel like our sins are not forgiven but Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:8–9 “But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Satan can do all that he can to make it feel like Heaven is not our home and that our eternal destinies are up in the air but Jesus says in John 14:1–3 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” This is the Word of God! We know that God is true and that Satan is a liar so at some point we need to simply stop feeling and rest in the certainty that God keeps His promises and we can have a living and certain hope. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “Believers are destined to be absolutely perfect, free from sin, free from all vestiges of evil, ‘without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.’ We shall be glorified, we shall be like Christ, we shall see Him as He is and be like Him; our bodies shall be changed, we shall be completely glorified- saved entirely, body, soul, and spirit; with nothing lacking. That is the hope! And putting on the helmet of salvation means realizing that that is coming.” Here’s the thing, if there was no assurance of salvation, if it were not possible for us to truly know that we belong to Christ, than Satan would have a near perfect strategy. How can we know that we can have assurance of salvation. Look at what John says in 1 John 5:12–13 “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Do you see what John says there at the end of verse 13? “So that you may KNOW that you have eternal life. He that believes in the name of the Son of God has life and this is life that cannot be taken away. We as Christians can have absolute certainty that the work that God begins in us, He will see it to completion. John MacArthur puts it simply like this: “The helmet of salvation is that great hope of the final salvation that gives us confidence and assurance that our present struggle with Satan will not last forever and we will be victorious in the end. We know the battle is only for this life, and even a long earthly life is no more than a split second compared to eternity with our Lord in Heaven. We are not in a race we can lose.” Do you see why it is so important for us to protect our heads? Satan is going to attack the things that we know so that we might start to treat the things that we know as if those facts were only feelings. Let’s quickly look at the end of Ephesians 6:17 and look at the sword of the Spirit.

The Sword

I’m assuming that you guys have noticed but if you haven’t, everything that we have read about for the armor of God has been something that is used for defense. Armor is defensive, shields are defensive, now it’s time to play offense. You all know that if you are playing a sport like baseball, you can have the greatest defense in the world but what will that accomplish if you never play offense? Even if you look at a war, you can defend your country all the day long but unless you take the fight to the other side, the odds of you winning that war are relatively small. We know it can’t be all defense and no offense. After several devices used for defense, Paul turns a corner and brings up the sword of the Spirit and this is another example where Paul explains what the actual piece of armor is and what it looks like. What is the Sword of the Spirit? It is the Word of God. This is not the only reference to the Word of God being equated to a sword. Hebrews 4:12–13 says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” As we can see, the Bible is more than just an ancient book. It is the very word of God which is able to pierce the soul and the spirit and it is the greatest offensive tool that we have in our spiritual war. It is not only that by which we cause the devil to flee, it is that which pricks our hearts to know the truth and to know God to a greater degree. I hope that you guys understand that when it comes to the Bible and your life, it is not optional. You 100% need this book in your life. I’m not sure how I could live the Christian life without this book, I don’t think I could. If you are a soldier, it makes absolutely no sense for you to run into the battle without your weapon. The reason that so many Christians struggle with spiritual warfare is because they are using the entirely wrong weapon. They use everything but the Holy Spirit and the Bible. I wish we had more time to just talk about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and maybe we could even do something like that for YC Week next year, because the Spirit is such a greatly neglected topic in Christianity. But are you as a Christian really using the weapon that is at your disposal? Adrian Rogers said this: “Many of us are studying our weapon and defending our weapon, but how many of us are really using it? It’s a sword, and a sword is meant to be used.” The question then is, how do we use it? I think the most beneficial thing that we can do is look to how Jesus used it in Matthew 4 as He was tempted in the wilderness by Satan. Here we see the Incarnate Word of God using the Word of God. Do you remember what happens in that chapter? After Christ’s baptism, Jesus is led out to the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days and while Jesus is there, Satan tempts Him with food because He is hungry, kingdoms, and power. He tries to get Jesus to question His mission, His Father, and His deity but how does Jesus combat Satan’s attack? It’s with Scripture! As accusations and temptations come rushing toward you, combat them with Scripture. A sword does no good if it stays in its sheath! As we live in this world, we are going to see people question Scripture. We are going to hear people say that Scripture has no use for us in the 21st century. Don’t believe a word of it. The Bible is as relevant and needed today as the day that it was first given. There will never be a time when God’s Word is not relevant and needed. You and I cannot just hear this Word, we have to be doers of the Word. There is so much more that could be said about this but with the few minutes that we have left, I want us to look one last time at Ephesians 6:18. Paul says that “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”

The Necessity of Prayer

Just quickly in this verse, Paul tells us quite a bit about what our prayer lives should look like. He also shows what our prayers should contain. As Christians, we cannot neglect the importance of prayer. Prayer is so vital as we navigate through our spiritual battlefield. John Piper said, “Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief.” How then should we pray? Well based off of what Paul says here in these verses, we to pray at all times. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that we are to “pray without ceasing.” And while we may not be able to always be praying, we can always be carrying out an attitude of prayer and strive to have open lines with our Heavenly Father. Not only should we pray without ceasing, our prayers need to be in the Spirit. Our prayers should be focused on the will of God and not our own will. Even Jesus Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane prays, “Not my will but yours be done.” That is the prayers that we should be praying. Our prayers need to be more than just our Christmas wish list to Santa. Martin Bucer said that “Prayer is not just a pious wish but a deep conversation of the mind with God and a serious assessment of those things that glorify God that are lacking in us, which we earnestly pray that He will fill us with.” Our prayers need to be Spirit-led prayers and if you are not sure how to do this, go to the Lord anyway and trust the Holy Spirit to lead you. Romans 8:26–27 says, “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Paul also reminds us in Ephesians 6 that we need to be persistent in prayer. Far too many of us give up after the first knock on the door seems to go unanswered. No, we are to pray and seek the will of the Lord at all times. Jesus say in Luke 11:9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” How else are we to do this but in prayer? Finally, Paul tells us that we need to be in prayer for the saints. We need to be praying for our brothers and sisters in the faith. We need to pray that they would be able to wear their armor faithfully. We need to pray that they would not lose heart. That they would continue to endure to the end and at the same time, we need to crave the prayers of others. I’d love it if you all would be praying for me. Who wouldn’t want someone praying for them? We need to be prepared for the battle and the best way that we can be is through direct communication with our Heavenly Father. Jesus prayed all the time. We’ve seen this as we have gone through Mark together and we will see it in the future. Jesus would constantly interrupt His ministry to seek out time to pray and if Jesus needed to do this, why would we think that we wouldn’t need to do it? Well as we draw the curtain closed on another YC Week, I hope that you have been able to see the importance of putting on the whole armor of God. We can’t just put on part of it and expect to survive the onslaught of the devil. We need the whole thing. Sinclair Ferguson writes, “For obvious reasons, Paul urges us to put on the whole armor of God. Leave nothing to chance, no aspect of your life exposed and vulnerable. What does he mean? Simply this- To be strong in the Lord we need to take the whole of Christ. Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord, friend and master, sovereign and companion- and do so without reservation. Part armor will not adequately protect us; a part Christ will neither save nor keep us.” Something that I would love for us to do now before we leave and respond in worship is to take a few minutes and just pray for each other. Get into groups of 3 or 4 and like Paul told us in verse 18, pray for the saints. Pray for each other that you would not be found without your spiritual armor on. You and I both need it and you and I both need to be reminded of just how important it is that we don’t go out without our armor. Let’s pray together and then we will worship.