Why You Must Be Serious about Wearing the Helmet of Salvation

Today’s lesson brings us to the next to last piece of God-ordained armor for the Jesus lover, the Helmet of Salvation. Having the right mindset is essential for the believer. God knew that the battle for the mind would be ferocious at times. What does this helmet of salvation do for the child of God? It keeps us focused on our salvation. For example: Take a look around where you’re sitting and find five things that have blue in them. Go ahead and do it. With a “blue” mindset, you’ll find that blue jumps out at you: a blue book on the table, a blue pillow on the couch, blue in the painting on the wall, and so on … In like fashion, you’ve probably noticed that after you buy a new car, you promptly see that make of car everywhere. That’s because people find what they are looking for. What’s been getting your attention lately?¹ Have you been focusing on the Helmet of Salvation? Why You Must Be Serious about Wearing the Helmet of Salvation, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe in PlayerFM

The Role of the Spirit in the Life of A Believer

[Tweet “One writer said the mind is the great battlefield. This thought is true and right.”]

Read the Notes

You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

Study these individual pieces of armor and maintain the spiritual attitudes that they represent.

Join the Conversation

Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: How has your prayer life changed since you have practiced God’s Word and taken up the Helmet of Salvation? Share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 45 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

Subscribe to the Podcast

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe.

Note: Pocket Casts is available on the App Store or Google Play.

Stitcher Radio Pocket Casts

iTunes PlayerFM

Share the Love

If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

Podcast Notes

The Armor of God

Once again, let’s talk the armor of God.

Ephesians 6:14–17 (ESV) — 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

The Armor of God: The Helmut of Salvation

Here we are we are now down to the last two pieces of armor.
We have already covered the Loin Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Gospel Shoes of Peace, and the Shield of Faith.
Now, we come to the Helmet — What is this Helmut of Salvation all about?
To start out, remember that Paul is sitting in a jail cell as he pens this epistle or letter to the Ephesian brethren.
Is it possible that he was looking right at the Roman soldier who was guarding him as he wrote about these pieces of armor?
Sure it’s possible.
You can readily see that.
So, let’s take a look at this helmet.
And, with that thought, here is the Historical Background of the Day.

The helmet of the ancient warrior was a cap made of thick leather and strengthened with metal plates or bosses. In some cases it was made of brass or iron. The model worn by Roman soldiers was made of bronze and had protecting cheek pieces. [it also protected the jaw] An inside lining of felt or sponge made the weight bearable. It usually had a plume or crest of some kind as an ornament. The function of the helmet was to protect the head from blows by sword, war club, or battle-ax and nothing but an ax or hammer could pierce it ²

Protecting the head is a big deal.
The head houses the brain.
It’s home to the eyes, the ears, and the mouth.
Isn’t the neck also vital in the whole scheme of things?
The neck must be strong to hold up the heavy helmet.
Now, all of these physical pieces of armor are types that translate over to spiritual realities.
Symbology is involved as we discuss the armor.
What else is vital about protecting the head from a spiritual standpoint?
If we are protecting the brain in a physical battle, that would equate on the spiritual side to protecting the mind.
The mind is part of the soul of man.
You know man is spirit, soul, and body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) — 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, we have the soul of man that the helmet protects.
One writer said the mind is the great battlefield.
This thought is true and right.
So, wrestling against levels of devils has to do with wrestling with the thoughts that demons swing against you with their axes.
The mind must be protected against trashy thoughts.
Thoughts of doubt.
Thoughts of pride.
Thoughts of self-worth.
Thoughts that you missed God.
Thoughts that He doesn’t really love you anymore.
Thoughts that you messed up so bad that there is no way back.
Thoughts.
What is the bottom line or the common denominator for all these flaming thoughts?
They are all contrary to the Word of God.
The mind must be protected against junk-pile thinking that’s out of line with the Bible.
If you have a thought which says that you are not going to receive a Bible promise that God clearly states in His Word is yours, you know that thought is a garbage thought from the devil.
God did not send you that thought.
If you have thoughts of contention and self-elevation, that’s pride and you know that didn’t come from God.
He doesn’t traffic in trash.
If you have thoughts of unworthiness, thoughts that say that you’re no good, no way God would ever hear you, you can know for sure that these thoughts have unholy origins.
If you have condemning thoughts because you think missed God, don’t worry about that because everybody has missed God at some point.
Definitely, if something whispers in your ear that God doesn’t love you, man you’ve got to know what a massive lie that is.
You can never mess up so bad that God won’t forgive you.
That’s one reason why you need this Helmet of Salvation to protect your mind.
You see there are other parts to the head.
But, we also have the eyes, the ears, and the mouth.
All of these vital parts are in the head as well.
So, the mind has something to do with salvation.
The eyes have something to do with salvation.
The mouth has something to do with salvation.
The ears have something to do with salvation.
What’s the connection?
What’s this helmet going to do for me?

The Armor of God: The Salvation Part of the Helmet

This piece of armor is called the Helmet of Salvation; salvation being the keyword.
And with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
The word salvation means to deliver, to save, to preserve, or to bring to safety.
The Lexham Theological Wordbook says that salvation is.

The rescue from a state of danger and restoration to wholeness and prosperity. In the Bible people are “saved” from foreign nations, from enemies, and from the penalty of sin. Salvation also entails health, wholeness, and victory.³

So, the word victory is key to this Helmet of Salvation.
This helmet, when set on the head, is a confidence that God will deliver, God will save, God will preserve, or God will keep one safe.
So, this powerful piece of armor is knowing that in my worst moments, when I need God the Most when I need His power to rescue me, He will not forsake me.

Psalm 37:23–25 (ESV) — 23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; 24 though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. 25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.

The righteous are never forsaken, that’s the sense you get when this helmet is functioning.
You see the enemy wants to convince you otherwise.
Satan and his legions want to attack your foundational thinking with sledgehammer blows.
In the natural, these attacks came against Roman soldiers via the ax.
Enemy soldiers would try to cut off the head of their enemy.
The helmet the Roman soldier wore was designed to protect against these ax swings.
It was super heavy and fortified to this end.
In the spiritual sense, your mind needs this kind of protection in these turbulent times.
These sledgehammer blows are designed to chop away all of the salvation benefits Jesus freely provided for us.
Healing is a part of that salvation but, the enemy’s blows come to tell you that’s not so.
Deliverance from demons and their attacks is part of salvation – the ax strikes manifest to tell you differently.
Preservation and safety are part of salvation – right now, I am thinking about an accident that Sharon was involved in that could have been her last day on planet earth.
By the way, God’s salvation was brought here through.
The whistling of the ax comes to tell you that there is no preservation or safety for you.
Mark this down, you’re going to need this Helmet of Salvation – you’re going to need to become versed in all that salvation provides for us in Christ.
The trials of life come to everyone.
You are not going to leave planet earth without having encounters that threaten you in the area of healing, preservation, soundness, wholeness, and deliverance.
That’s why you need this God-awesome piece of armor firmly in play.

More on Salvation

Salvation is related to the idea of deliverance, victory, and safety.⁴
It’s not just about being born again.
There’s way more to this than being saved.
Salvation is a fundamental doctrine of Christ.

Hebrews 6:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

There are six fundamental principles of the Doctrine of Christ.
Do you see the very first doctrine as ‘repentance from dead works?’
Repentance from dead works references salvation.
The salvation you have from God is a free gift, it’s not of works.
So if we really have a grasp of what salvation is and how freely God bestowed it upon us, then we will live in that reality.
Since salvation is not of works, then my deliverance, my victory, my safety, my preservation, and my wholeness is not of works either.
I don’t have to exert effort to acquire what God has freely bestowed.
I just have to reach out and say, ‘Thank you, Lord.’
Salvation does not come from works, it is a free gift from God.
Now, drop down to verse nine of this same Hebrews six, and you will run upon this thought.

Hebrews 6:9 (KJV 1900) — 9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.

Did you hear that? — There are things that accompany salvation.
So, this area is a broader area than just the new birth.
It’s these areas in which we must become spiritually smart.
Get educated about salvation.
The mind is the fulcrum.
It’s the point on which decisions are made whether we yield to the Holy Spirit in our spirit or whether we yield to carnal thinking and the flesh.
So, since salvation, healing, deliverance, preservation, soundness, and wholeness are all parts of what the word salvation means, then it’s essential that we spend time beefing up and studying these areas in God’s Word.
That’s what makes the Helmet of Salvation secure and tight on your head.

The Armor of God: Mind Games of Levels of Devils

2 Corinthians 2:11 (KJV 1900) — 11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

The ESV has this as:

2 Corinthians 2:11 (ESV) — 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

The Greek word ‘outwitted’ means to take advantage of someone, usually as the result of a motivation of greed—‘to take advantage of, to exploit, exploitation.’1 1 Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains
The word outwitted or designs, we are not outwitted or taken advantage of because of Satan’s designs means to be uninformed about (BDAG has it this way), to be ignorant, to not recognize, to be unaware, to not understand.
BDAG also has it as to disregard.
Rick Renner has it as ‘schemes of the mind’ or mind games.
We or not ignorant of Satan’s mind games.
The battle is in the mind – that’s the field of conflict.
That’s the arena where this wrestling takes place – we wrestle not against flesh and blood is what the scripture declares.
The conflict is in you dealing with the thoughts that come against your mind.
Your part of the battle is to examine those thoughts with the Word of God.
Which is the right way to think?
Who are you going to believe?
Do your thoughts sway you away from God’s Word?
Staying on the Word is what the battle is about – and that’s what the Helmet of Salvation is for.

The Armor of God: Helmet of Salvation Material

Physical Salvation

The idea of salvation has in it the idea of physical deliverance from your enemies.

Exodus 14:30 (ESV) — 30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Physical enemies have a broad range of manifestations.
The Lord can save you from lawsuits.
He can save you from physical attacks.
God can rescue you from car accidents.
He can hold back the hand of the enemy.
All of this benefit is freely given in Christ.

Psalm 18:2 (ESV) — 2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Can you hear how deliverance and salvation are in the same company or the same room with one another?

Psalm 20:6 (ESV) — 6 Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.

Knowing that the Lord saves is this Helmet of Salvation in place on the head of the Psalmist.
He knew God would save — He knew God would deliver.
Not could deliver — would deliver, there is a difference.
The Hebrew word ‘know’ means to know, to perceive, to be aware of.
It means to know by experience.
You know with all of these pieces of armor you need some experience in knowing how to use or appropriate them.
Here is this same concept in the New Testament.

Luke 1:67–75 (ESV): — 67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, 68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; 72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

You see the word salvation in this passage along with the word deliverance — throw in a whole lot of mercy and you have the Helmet of Salvation.

Salvation and Healing

Mark 6:56 (ESV) — 56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

Do you see the words ‘made well?’
The root is the Greek word ‘sozo’ which is the New Testament word for salvation.
So literally, you read this as ‘And as many as touched it were saved.’
The healing power of God is a manifestation of salvation.
Healing is being saved, delivered, or preserved from disease.
My God will bring me to a point of safety from sickness that’s the confidence we must have.
That’s all part of salvation and the helmet.

Luke 8:36 (ESV): 36 And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed.

Here is a man who was demon-possessed.
Meaning, he had a demon living in him.
Yet, the scripture says Jesus healed him.
Did you ever think demon possession could be corrected by the healing power of God?
Well, it’s all the same anointing, the same power — it all comes from the same source.
The Greek word for healed here, you might ask?
You guessed it — it’s the same word ‘sozo’ which is the word for salvation.
So, being healed is being saved in a physical sense.

Salvation and Deliverance from Sin

Well, we can’t just leave this discussion about salvation as preservation, deliverance, healing, wholeness, and safety without talking about these attributes with respect to the spirit of a man.
Jesus saved us from sin.
That’s the gospel story and part of the Helmet of Salvation.

Matthew 1:21 (ESV) — 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

The Greek word here is again the one we have been looking at — the word ‘sozo.’
Jesus saved us, He preserved us, He brought us to a place of safety, and he delivered us from the clutches of sin.

Colossians 1:12–14 (ESV) — 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

We were lost.
All of us were on our way to a devil’s hell.
But, God who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which He loved us has set us free from sin and made us alive unto God in Christ.
Sin no longer reigns in our mortal bodies.
We refuse to allow it because part of this great salvation includes the spirit of self-control.

2 Timothy 1:6–7 (ESV) — 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

We can say no to sin and make it stick.
We can say no to bad habits and they have to bow.
God considers us holy in his sight.
He sees us through Christ.
But, not only does He see us this way, but He has also ‘empowered us to live victorious over the sinful nature at work in our bodies.
Our spirits are free from sin.
We are no longer just ‘old sinners’ saved by grace as some like to testify.
No, we are new creation children of the most High God.

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 (ESV) — 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

That’s shouting ground, my brother and sister.
You are saved – you are redeemed — you have all you need in Christ.
Put on your Helmet of Salvation.
Did you get anything out of this podcast this week?

Now, Father God, thank you for your great wisdom in planning out our salvation before the world began. We thank you for your perfect wisdom in sending Jesus to be the focal point of our salvation. We thank you for our deliverance. We thank you for preserving us. We honor you for our redemption from sin and the physical healing of our bodies. What a great salvation you have provided for us. We choose to wear the Helmet of Salvation proudly. Help us to always be mindful of this great salvation you have freely given to us. We thank you for all of this in Jesus Name, Amen.

You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Why Redeemed People Can Walk Free from Fear

__________
References:

Practical Illustrations: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians ↩
Exegetical Summary of Ephesians ↩
Joel T. Hamme, “Salvation,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014). ↩
Ibid ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Why You Must Be Serious about Wearing the Helmet of Salvation

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Thirteen

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe in PlayerFM

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

The Armor of God

The Armor of God: The Helmut of Salvation

The Armor of God: The Salvation Part of the Helmet

More on Salvation

The Armor of God: Mind Games of Levels of Devils

The Armor of God: Helmet of Salvation Material

Physical Salvation

Salvation and Healing

Salvation and Deliverance from Sin

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe in PlayerFM

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

The Armor of God

The Armor of God: The Helmut of Salvation

The Armor of God: The Salvation Part of the Helmet

More on Salvation

The Armor of God: Mind Games of Levels of Devils

The Armor of God: Helmet of Salvation Material

Physical Salvation

Salvation and Healing

Salvation and Deliverance from Sin

Related posts: