The Helmet of Salvation

We're all very familiar with helmets. Soldiers wear helmets. Football players wear helmets. Firemen, others. Did you know that Christians have a helmet that they wear? I'd like to ask a question of our brethren here in making, um, what is this helmet exactly? What is it? Are you aware that you, you, you are to have a helmet. And actually it is so important, as we get into the sermon, we'll see verses on this, that without your helmet you will not make it into the kingdom of God. That is just how important your helmet is. Just like a soldier going to war, especially ancient warfare with swords and spears. They had to have that breastplate. That was very vital. But even more vital than that was something that protected their head. So what exactly is the helmet of a Christian?

Righteousness, okay. Helmet of salvation. All right. All right. And what helmet of salvation? We're going to find the verse that describes our helmet as a helmet of salvation. Exactly a little bit more detail on what that means. What is this helmet of salvation? The sword of the Spirit. All right. Well, let's read a few verses on this. And I think that we are going to benefit from this from this sermon this morning on our spiritual helmet. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 17. That's where we will begin. And here the Apostle Paul is describing the armor, the whole armor of God. And then verse 17, we'll skip right into this part of the armor. Verse 17, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, but I'd like a little bit more information about this helmet of salvation. We need to understand this because without it, as we'll see, we are not going to make it into God's kingdom. Let's turn to a verse that makes it very clear exactly what this helmet of salvation is. First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 8. First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 8. Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. That helmet, then, of salvation, it is the hope of salvation that is our helmet. How can that be? Well, our hope is to be in God's kingdom. And we're going to see that's something that drives and motivates every fiber of our being. We want God's kingdom. We want to make it to eternal life. We want to grow and overcome. If that desire ever becomes weak, we become discouraged and give up. We lose hope, in other words. If we lose hope, then we're on the way to spiritual suicide. Did you know in the United States, every day, 132 people commit suicide. That's a large number of people in our country, every day. And during the course of a year, that adds up to 48,000 Americans take their life during the year. They become discouraged. They fall into despair. Well, what does a person who takes his life have to get awfully discouraged, don't they? There's no meaning to them anymore. There's no hope. Maybe marriage problems, maybe job financial problems, other things have come up. You know, worldwide, this even adds up to 800,000 people worldwide commit suicide every year. That's over 2,000 every day. This day, then, over 2,000 people, fellow human beings on the earth, will take their life and commit spiritual or physical suicide. They've lost hope, and they've given up. Well, if we ever lose hope, we're in danger. If we lose spiritual hope, we're in danger of committing spiritual suicide. We don't want that to happen. We want that desire to be in God's kingdom. We want that desire to have eternal life. We want that desire of becoming a son of God to be so strong, it just gets stronger and stronger all the time. It's like a flame that is burning in our hearts and minds. We want the kingdom of God. Let's think about this today.

Let's think about it. By the way, think about this. In the United States, what, 48,000 people every year commit suicide. Almost a million and a half people attempted. I believe it's about only one out of 25 who attempt suicide succeed. So, well, about a million and a half, almost, people attempt suicide and fail. But think about this as well. Homicides in the United States. We've heard a lot about crime in the news. Homicides in the United States per year is at about 19,000. 48,000 commit suicide, far more than homicides. Yet we hear almost nothing. We hear very little. We do hear some things, but not very much about suicide. What can we do about suicide? Of course, there are suicide call lines that are set up to encourage people, but it needs to be a massive program to turn these figures around. 48,000 committing suicide. Just, pardon me, put just in quotes 19,000 homicides each year. Far less than suicides. So this thing of hope, even when we think about it from the standpoint of, from a physical standpoint, it's very important. But from a spiritual standpoint, we want to understand it better today. Do you know that hope is important, very important. It is one of the big three. What are the big three?

Faith, hope, and love. And that you will find in what chapter of the Bible? 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. So, yes, hope is one of the big three. But Paul does write there that love is the greatest. Yeah, love is the greatest. God is love. Faith is important. We can't please God without faith. But hope, why is it there, is one of the big three? Because it's important. It's our helmet, our helmet of salvation. It protects what we are seeking, what we are working for, what we desire. The Greek word for hope is elpis, E-L-P-I-S. It means a favorable and confident expectation. Favorable, confident expectation. Do you have a favorable and confident expectation of entering God's kingdom? That is hope. It has to do with the unseen and the future, the happy anticipation of good. Another Bible says that hope is the desire of some good with the expectation of obtaining it. I think we expect to obtain God's kingdom, don't we? We do not expect to fail. If we ever get to the point where we become discouraged or maybe just feel like we're going to fail, then we've lost hope. It goes on to say here the expectation of obtaining this good as yet only an expectation, not an actuality. So this hope we have is not an actuality yet. It is an attribute looking for something unseen and good in the future, but we don't have it yet. Let's go to Romans chapter 8. I think we can see already this is an important topic for us as we enter 2022, the calendar year. This is an important thing for us to keep in mind. I wonder if some of those maybe that are not attending with us, have they lost hope? Have they committed spiritual suicide? Only God knows. But brethren, we must never lose that helmet. Keep that helmet on. Keep it strapped on with straps. Don't let go of it. Put it on keeping on all the time. That helmet of hope. Let's go to Romans chapter 8 and verse 24. Romans 8 and verse 24. We were saved in this hope. King James says we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope, is it? For why does one still hope for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, oh, there we get right to the heart and core of hope, what hope is. We hope for what we do not see. Then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. So we do wait for it patiently. We're working toward it. We're hoping for it. We're not going to let go of it, in fact. I want you to notice that faith and hope and faith do work together very closely. Go to the faith chapter, Hebrews chapter 11, and verse 1.

Faith is defined here. Faith is the substance, this word substance means the assurance, the absolute assurance or confidence of things hoped for. So faith gives, as one translation says, faith, the New English Bible, faith gives substance to our hopes. We hope for something we don't have yet, something we don't see yet. Faith gives assurance, confidence, substance to that which we seek. According to the Bible, there's only one hope. One, as far as we're looking at this from the stamp on the spiritual hope. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4. There are not two or many hopes. We have one hope, and we need to always keep that one firmly in mind and not let anything, any other hope crowd out this one hope. If any other hope crowds it out, then we're in danger of spiritual suicide again. In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 4, there is one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. So we just have one hope, and that is entry into the kingdom of God. We don't even have any other hope that is in our minds. That's what we want with all of our heart. And this one hope is summed up in the gospel of the kingdom of God, that we may enter God's family. When one hears the true gospel and understands it, he begins to see something he never saw before. I know I did. I began to study and read. I was about 16 years of age when I began to read and study and began to see things about the kingdom of God. Oh, I had gone to church with my parents, I never heard one sermon on the kingdom of God all those years that they took me to church. Not one. But suddenly I began to understand about the kingdom of God when I was about 16 years of age. So I began to see something I'd never seen before. And suddenly, as I began to understand the kingdom of God, I had a future goal and I began to set my mind on it with eager and happy and confident anticipation. In other words, with hope. You know, this enthusiastic response to the gospel is described. A couple of parables. Let's go to Matthew 13. And this is what we experienced as well. At some point, we began to really understand the kingdom of God, and we began to focus on it, to set our minds on it, and it became our hope. In other words, we put on this helmet of salvation. In Matthew 13 and verse 44, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid. And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Isn't that also a description of us? When you begin to really understand about the kingdom of God, did you with joy sell out? You sold out to the kingdom of God. You set your mind on eternal life and God's family. You sold everything else. Verse 45, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. When he had found one pearl, not two, one pearl of great price, he sold everything he had and bought it. So the kingdom of God becomes the one overall goal, producing excitement. Does this goal of God's kingdom still excite you? I think we have to ask ourselves that question. Or have we begun to lose some of that enthusiasm? If so, we've, we don't have our helmet of hope on quite as securely. And if we don't, then we could lose that helmet.

If we lose that helmet, we begin, we begin to lose the very purpose for which we're here, to be in God's kingdom. We can't let that happen.

I want you to also, let's also read Titus chapter 1 and verse 2. This hope that we have, God had in mind a long time ago. He wanted to set this hope before mankind. Titus chapter 1 and verse 2. What we'll read verses 1 and 2. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth, which is according to godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, so there's that helmet, there's that helmet of salvation, the hope of eternal life in God's kingdom, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. And so that goes back even before there was a material creation. God promised this hope. And you know, the hope in a way is more than just eternal life. It is. Other verses showed that man is to inherit all things. And so God is going to share his universe with his sons. Let's go to Romans chapter 8. This hope is indeed sonship. We have a hope that you have that hope firm in your mind of sonship in God's kingdom. That is the helmet, the helmet of salvation. Sonship in the kingdom of God. Romans chapter 8 and verse 14, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. There's our hope to become a son of almighty God. In verse 21, perhaps no other verse better describes our hope and our present plight that we're in right now in the hope we have for the future than verse 21. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. There's our hope to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God. How simple and beautiful this one verse is. It encapsulates the hope of mankind, what our helmet is all about. But as this passage of Scripture here brings out, is there suffering in our quest for eternal life? Well, verse 18 says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. You can see that hope is driving and motivating Paul. We also, don't we, we consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the glory. That's our hope, the glory of sonship in God's kingdom. Verse 23 goes on to say, we who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we groan. There are times that we groan, yes, as we go through this physical life. But no matter what, suffering may come along. No matter what difficulties, what discouragements there might be, we've got to keep on that helmet. Don't ever lose the helmet of hope as we go through things like accidents that do happen, persecution. You might fall and break your shoulder playing a sport. As one of our members here did, no matter what sickness or disease or even or death, we must not lose that helmet of salvation, hope.

But as God's chosen people, we don't let discouragement get us down.

And through the power of God's Holy Spirit, we face whatever challenges come along. God has not promised us a free ride, you might say, without any problems or difficulties. I have mind that I come along and still do. What about you? But there's a living hope that is to motivate us. That helmet of salvation is a living, it's called a living hope. Are you filled with that living hope? Is the joy for which you sold out to the kingdom of God just stronger than ever even? It should be. Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3, beginning in verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope. We were begotten the first time physically, we've been begotten spiritually now, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. We will be grieved by trials along the way, but that living hope is going to see us through. If we keep on our helmet, it will see us through. David was a man after God's own heart. He learned to look to God as he faced his trials and problems in life, and he looked to God with hope. Let's go to two or three of the Psalms. Psalm 31. Psalm 31 and verse 22. I said in my haste, and we sometimes do as well, I am cut off from before your eyes. Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to you, O love the Lord, O you his saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, he has done the best he can to you. O love the Lord, O you his saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, he does, and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage as we face our trials and difficulties in life. Be of good courage, and it will strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord. David had that shield of salvation. Let's go to Psalm 39. Psalm 39 beginning verse 4. Lord, make me to know my end. You know, there's a good prayer here. We need to know our days. What is the measure of my days? That I may know how frail I am.

Indeed, you have made my days as a handbreath, and my age is nothing before you. Certainly, every man at his best state is but vapor. We just are here just a moment of time before we fade away. Every man walks about like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. Sometimes we do. He heaps up riches and does not know who will gather them. And now, Lord, when David thought about all these things, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. David's hope was strong and firm. His helmet was securely fastened, wasn't it? Let's also read Psalm 42, verse 5.

Beginning in verse 5. Why are you cast down, O my soul? We all get cast down too sometimes. Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. So David looked to God with hope, and so can we. Brethren, we need this helmet of hope, don't we? I think we can see that already. We want to have it firmly on our head, protecting the most vital part of our body. The second most vital would have to be the chest area, the breastplate of faith. But the most vital still, the most in the armor, the whole armor of God, the most vital has to be that which protects the head. And that would be hope. That's what protects us spiritually. We need it. We need a constant living hope to keep us moving toward our goal of God's kingdom.

If we become depressed or discouraged, then we... what do we do? How can we grow in this living hope? You know, oddly enough, oddly enough, the very things that sometimes discourage us are the very things that help us to grow in hope. Let's go to Romans chapter 5. You know, some of the very things that discourage us as we go through them can help us to grow in having more hope. It makes our hope stronger.

Let's begin reading in Romans 5 and verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We do rejoice in the hope one day having the full glory of God. And not only that, but we glory in tribulations. I think Paul may still be ahead of me, some on that. Glory in tribulations. How about you? Do we glory in tribulations? Well, if we put it into a spiritual context, we can. Knowing that tribulation trials the suffering we go through, tribulation produces perseverance. That word, King James, has patience. That means endurance. And verse 4 says, and perseverance then produces character. Character is experience, and I guess leading to word maturity. And then, and character produces what? Hope. So you see that it began, though, with suffering, with tribulation. That's how it began. But it leads, in the end, if we go on through the suffering and the trial, in the end it leads to hope. And it goes on to say in verse 5, hope does not disappoint.

What we're talking about having that helmet of salvation will never disappoint.

You know, the Apostle Paul, let's go to 2 Corinthians. He wrote about the sufferings of Christ. So I'm reading a portion of this sermon about sufferings because tribulation sufferings really, in the end, help us to grow in hope. They help us to put on this helmet even more securely. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 5, For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. And skipping on down, well, verse 6, if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer, or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation. And verse 8, For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our troubles that came to us in Asia. We were burdened beyond measure above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Paul did not think they were going to make it. But you know what sustained him? A living hope, his helmet, his helmet of salvation. He knew it was all in God's hands. He was going to either live or he was not going to live. He put it all in God's hands. A living hope sustained him.

Brother, our hope is not in this life. So that shows that the helmet, the hope of salvation, is not a hope in this life. Not at all. In fact, in the resurrection chapter, the apostle wrote that if in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most pitiable. So our hope, you see, our living hope has nothing to do with this physical life except to use this physical life to grow and develop godly character. Because our hope is sonship. It is spiritual in the kingdom of God.

So, you know, we have a lot of hope. We have hope when there's death. Here we lost our pastor a number of months ago to death, very unexpectedly, and we're still recovering from that. And it's not easy. But you know, we sorrow, but we do not sorrow as others in the world. Let's turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and verse 13. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 13. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you, those who have died then, and in our case, it be our pastor, Mr. Martin.

So he says that we saw not as others who have no hope.

See, see, we do not sorrow as others who have no hope. We grieve. Yes, we do. We do grieve. But we grieve with hope. Many scriptures reveal that we don't need to be afraid of the first death. We don't need to try to take care of, you know, in the case of confronting a gunman or somebody, we don't need to be afraid of them. God's going to keep us alive, or He's not going to keep us alive, but we don't have to take up a weapon and shoot somebody. Jesus would never do that. Never would He not want example of anyone in the New Testament doing that either.

So we're not afraid of the first death, actually. We're not afraid of the first death.

We don't have to rush and grab our gun or have a gun at the nightstand or under the car seat.

It's hard to imagine Christ doing that in my mind, considering all the verses in the New Testament on it to make it very clear. A little bit about bearing arms, you know, that we sometimes need to understand as well. Jesus said in John 8, 51, that if we keep God's Word, we will never see death. He meant the second death. We might see the first death, you know, if we live long, if time goes on long enough, we live long enough.

This life is going to come to an end. The first death, though, is just cessation of a physio-chemical existence. That's what we are. Just a physio-chemical existence. In other words, we were wound up. We were wound up in our mother's womb to go about seven decades, maybe eight, maybe nine. But the first death is just cessation of this physical existence. It's described as a sleep. When a Christian dies, the very next second of his awareness, he will be rising in the air to meet Christ, our pastor then. He's not aware of any passage of time.

He's not conscious. The next second after he passed out several months ago from any consciousness, the next second of his consciousness, he will be rising up to meet Christ. Now that is a real living hope. That's my hope. What about you? It's a living hope. It energizes us. It propels us toward real life in God's kingdom. And I tell you, if this hope is strong in us, if we have on this helmet of salvation, we're going to be working hard to get there, to be accounted worthy to get there.

Let's go to 1 John chapter 3. We're going to be working hard to have that breastplate of righteousness and do God's work and do God's will and walk with God to have a heart that is right with God. In 1 John chapter 3 and verse 1, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. For that is a lot of love, isn't it? And God had this in mind before the creation of the universe. What manner of love called the children of God. That's our hope. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, even now.

We're not yet fully born yet, but we are the begotten children of God now. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. That is when our hope will be realized. When we see Him as He is, we will at last realize our hope. Up until that time is just an anticipation. It's an expectation. It's something we work toward. But now I'm looking at verse 3.

It says that everyone who has this hope in Him, everyone that has this helmet of salvation, hope in Him, does what? Purifies Himself just as He, Christ, is pure. In other words, we practice God's laws. We strive to put out sin. Everyone that has this hope, and everyone that has this helmet of salvation is going to be busy striving to live a life that is pure and clean before God.

Let's go to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 26. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 26. You know, it is this righteous character then that if we purify ourselves, that is the ticket into the kingdom of God. That's what's going to allow us entrance in. Colossians 1 and verse 26 says, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now revealed to the saints. To them God will to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery.

It is pretty rich, isn't it? Sonship in God's kingdom. This hope that we have, this helmet of salvation, the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. And what is that mystery when you want to summarize it? It's Christ in us, his character, his nature, his mind. What? The hope of glory. Our ticket into God's kingdom is to have Christ in us, the character of Almighty God.

So, brethren, don't we see that living hope is so positive and optimistic it defeats and drives out discouragement, pessimism, depression, negative thoughts. Many verses exhort us to rejoice in hope. Rejoice that you have that peace of the armor of God given to you. Here's that peace of the armor, the helmet of salvation, hope. Put it on and keep it on. Some of the Hebrews were neglecting to keep on this helmet. They were neglecting such great salvation. Turn to Hebrews 3. The writer of this book had to exhort them to keep that helmet on, a helmet of salvation.

In Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 6, Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if, if, we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. In other words, if we keep on our spiritual helmet of hope. Let's also read Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 11. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 11. We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. So, brethren, we do have to finish our course. We have to complete the program that God has given to us. Chapter 5 and verse, let's see, no chapter 6, I think it is, and verse 18. That by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. I'll tell you what, we have laid hold on it. Let's continue to lay hold of it. Verse 19. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul. Hope does anchor us right to the end of our lives. Our helmet of salvation, then, hope will keep us, if we keep it on, it will keep us focused on the kingdom of God. Just to summarize this, if we have our helmet of salvation, it will keep us focused on the kingdom of God. As we go forward, we will have this living hope, and it will fill our lives with meaning and purpose, and it will keep the right goal and motivate us toward that goal, one that will sustain us in the peaks and valleys of life and provide hope for us and for this evil world. Yes, it gives us hope for the world. We've been given that hope, that helmet of salvation, the hope of eternal life in God's kingdom, reigning with Christ and helping bring about peace and righteousness, joining the hope of all of mankind, joining with us in the kingdom of God. Yes, the helmet of salvation is the most vital piece of our whole armor of God. If anybody were to ever ask you again, what is your help, your spiritual helmet? You would say the helmet of salvation, hope, hope of entering into the kingdom of God. The helmet is a protective covering for the head, the most vital piece of a soldier's armor. The great word for helmet means around, peri, p-e-r-i means around, and kaphali means head, around the head. And we know that a helmet is worn around the head to protect the head. Remember 1 Thessalonians 5.8, we are to put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. The Good Speed New Testament translates this verse, helmeted with the hope of salvation. That's what our helmet is all about. Helmeted with the hope of salvation. It is our spiritual helmet. You know, if those who committed physical suicide, 132 today, on the average, 48,000 in our country in a year, 800,000 worldwide, and one and a half million almost in our country attempt suicide, but only one out of 25 succeed. If somehow someone could have given them some hope, maybe they would not have taken their life. That's a sad thing when someone commits suicide. But even sadder, would they be even sadder if after being given understanding and being given hope, being given a spiritual helmet, if we were to commit spiritual suicide. We must not let that happen. Keep that spiritual helmet firm. Keep your eye focused on the kingdom of God. Keep your eye focused on the eternal life that God is offering. Sonship, inherent in the universe, even. This helmet of hope will guard and protect the goal we eagerly anticipate in the future.