As we continue our consideration of the full armor of God from Ephesians chapter 6, tonight we consider from verse 17, the first part of 17, Paul says, Take the helmet of salvation. Take the helmet of salvation. Turn with me as well to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 as we read that chapter together. Hear now the Word of God. Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as Your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken. With that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence. All this is for your benefit. so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, But what is seen, unseen, is eternal. Take the helmet of salvation. Dear people of God, as Paul pieces together the full armor of God, and as we picture the Christian soldier standing tall by the grace of God, with the belt of the truth of God that prepares him, the breastplate of Christ's righteousness that protects him with confidence, The sandals of God's reconciling peace that gives Him swift assurance and the shield of faith which protects Him with the knowledge and conviction that all of Christ's benefits are His by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we see these pieces going on of armor going on one by one in this order, then it's not surprising to us that the Christian's head is the next focus. For to what do the truth of God, the righteousness of Christ, peace and faith point to salvation. Complete, full, and free salvation. That's the crown, congregation. The crown of victory. And that crown is placed upon the believer's head. That crown which Paul calls the helmet of salvation. In Jesus' name, I bring to you this Word of God tonight. The call to stand firm wearing the cap of victory. As we notice, first of all, the conditions that make the cap necessary. Secondly, the character of the cap. And finally, the comfort of the cap. Now, it's no secret that especially in the last couple of years, maybe more than at any other time, we've become a helmet-conscious society. Of course, football players, hockey players, race car drivers, some construction workers and many motorcycle drivers have for a long time worn helmets, but also helmets even the boys and girls know in some respects Maybe more so in some parts of the country than here, but they're becoming the standard headgear for riding bicycles and skateboards and rollerblading and roller skating and other things. And that's because we know how vulnerable the head is. And we know how dangerous a head injury can be. We know how important it is to protect the computer room of our body, the brain. One blow in this physical life could be severely altered. One below, and a person can be an instant slave to a lifetime of disabilities. And we have all seen and we've all known of those who suffer because of severe head trauma. Yet it's obvious that we today are not the only people who have ever lived that knew the importance of protecting the head. Even more so than just the last hundred years, soldiers of war have worn helmets for thousands of years. When Goliath is described in 1 Samuel, we're told that he wore a bronze helmet on his head. As well, the Roman soldier's armor. Again, our illustration of the Roman soldier. The Roman soldier's armor included a helmet. And this helmet has been described as a kind of cap which was made of leather, but this leather had been strengthened and ornamented with plates of metal to give it protection. As well, it's described as having metal pieces coming down the sides to protect the sides of the face as well as the back of the neck to give full protection. But this helmet also apparently had some sort of an ornamental crest on it which served as a symbol of identification, a badge of identification. Boys and girls, just as we know that a football team has their particular logo on their helmets in order to identify their team, the Romans had a particular kind of helmet with a particular kind of identification to let others know who they were. Now, we can understand all of this with regard to a football player or a soldier, but why do we need this spiritual helmet? Well, before we consider that directly, first we need to be certain that we understand that each of the pieces of spiritual armor, although they are all identified with a particular part of the body, Each characteristic, truth, righteousness, peace, and faith, serves to protect the whole believer. The belt of truth is not just for the waste, but truth is to protect the whole believer. Righteousness does not just protect the chest, but again, righteousness must cover the whole believer. And the same is true with peace and faith. Yet as we've seen so far, there is an order and a significance which connects the spiritual significance to a certain piece of armor. For example, the breastplate we said covers and protects the seat of the emotions, the internal organs where it was believed that one's motives, desires, and intentions originated. Those things which demonstrate one's righteousness or lack of righteousness and therefore it fits that with the spiritual armor the breastplate should be righteousness. But now with the helmet, Paul, of course, is drawing attention to the head, the mind, the brain, the understanding, and the thinking of the Christian. He's dealing with the intellectual part of our whole position as Christians. We've talked about how Satan's deadly schemes include his flaming arrows of distraction trying to get us to focus on his lies instead of on God's truth. On our unrighteousness instead of the confidence of Christ's righteousness imputed to us. On a shaky foundation of discord instead of on a firm foundation of peace with God. And of course, Satan continues to pound on that door of faith, that shield of faith. Faith which is to keep our eyes focused on our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of course, he wants to turn our eyes away from the Savior. He wants to blind us, even as the God of this age, Paul said, had blinded so many in their minds. Satan continues to attack at different points or aspects of doctrine or faith. But you see, congregation, his goal is to wear the Christian down with regard to the whole conflict. Paul is now dealing with the strategy as a whole in this battle. The strategy as it is formed in our mind, as it takes place in our thinking, in a general sense. All of Satan's attacks are directed at producing a sense of weariness. He wants to make you and me tired. He wants to blind us and make us feel like giving up. All of his schemes, all of his flaming arrows are really aimed at overwhelming the Christian to make him think that the overall battle is in vain. The campaign is long. It's tiresome. The soldier is tired, wounded, striving, struggling, wondering what in the world is the point of it all. The soldier is faint and as things have been, they remain. In other words, it seems as if nothing's changed. I don't seem to be having any effect on my neighbors. My co-workers taunt me more than ever because of my faith. And I feel like their sin and their blasphemy is only increasing because they love to make fun of me and my Lord. My friends laugh at me when I invite them to church. The church where she struggles more every day, both from inside her walls and from outside. And it seems like she's losing ground in the world. And as for me, well, I can't say that I feel more holy from one day to the next. Have I gained an inch of ground at all? Have I done anything at all in this battle? Beloved, the Christian often becomes weary in doing good simply through the heat and the burden of the day. The campaign is long and drawn out, and at times the feeling of utter hopelessness is there. Boys and girls and young people, the thing that we all, including you, need to understand at an early age is that this battle is not a short one. it's not a matter of a couple of hours or a couple of days or months or years. It is our whole life long. That is why Paul calls us to be clothed with the full armor of God. Often we are tempted to cry out, is there no end? Is there no light at the end of the tunnel? Satan's schemes include attacking to the point of making one feel that the whole thing, the whole Christian life, The whole antithesis, truth against error, truth against a lie, is useless and in vain. If this describes how you feel or have ever felt, then you must understand and be reminded, as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, there is nothing new under the sun. Paul says to the Galatian church, And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. The Christians in the book of Hebrews face the same difficulty. they had been taught and they believed that Jesus Christ would come back again. He would receive His own to Himself and He would set up His kingdom. But because of heavy persecution by fellow Jews, they were becoming weary. They were losing heart. They were discouraged and some were beginning to look back at their own religion. They considered giving up the whole campaign because everything seemed to be against them and they were in a condition in which they were tempted by the devil to quit, to give it all up, to back out, to return to their former position. What does Paul say in 2 Corinthians 4? We are hard-pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, always carrying around in our body death, always being given over to death. Doesn't sound very glamorous for the Christian life, does it? The congregation, that's how Satan still attacks today when he says, look man, you're a fool. There's nothing in Christianity. Oh, it makes some wonderful offers, but what does it give you? You see, Satan tries to deceive the child of God, making him think that Christianity would make us healthy, wealthy, and wise with no trials and no difficulties. And then when one comes to the faith by the grace of God, After firing all kinds of trials and tribulations and difficulties upon that one, Satan says, look, the truth, the reality of the matter is you're worse off than before you were a Christian. Christianity isn't a very good business deal. Sure, Christian theory sounds good, but the practice is quite different. That was Asaph's struggle as he recorded in Psalm 73, you may remember. He was looking at the grass on the other side of the fence. The heathen, the wicked, they are healthy, wealthy, and wise. They curse God, and it looks like they get by with it. But me, have I been trying to live righteous for nothing? Has it been a waste of time? Sometimes the devil succeeds in persuading us to become so preoccupied and burdened with the individual details of the Christian life that we forget the grand truth covering it all. We become so aware of the burden of the day that we forget who we are and what we are destined for by the grace of God. But Jesus says men ought always to pray and not lose heart. And Paul commands believers to what? Boys and girls. Not to lay down on the battlefield. Not to give up. But he commands the believer to stand firm. Wearing the cap of victory. Take the helmet of salvation. and we don't carry a helmet under our arm, do we? What do we do with it? We put it on our head. But then what is the character of this cap? What is the salvation that makes up this helmet? You may recall from Isaiah 59, which we read in connection with another one of the pieces, that we read, For He, the Lord, put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on His head. First of all, this is the Lord's salvation, which is God Himself. David says in Psalm 3, verse 8, Salvation belongs to the Lord. And he says in Psalm 27, The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord Himself is my cap of victory, my helmet of salvation. He covers my head and protects me under His wings. Yet we must also consider 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8, which says, But 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. There it speaks of the hope of salvation. Now the question and the debate, even among Reformed scholars, is this. Is Paul, in our text, talking about salvation as it is ours today, or salvation as we will have it after this life? Congregation, I submit to you that it's both. It cannot be separated. When the Bible speaks of the hope of salvation, it's not talking about our normal definition of hope which we've considered before. We say, I hope so, about something, without any real assurance, knowing that the possibility of my hope not coming to pass is just as great or greater than the possibility of my hope coming to pass. For example, boys and girls saying, I hope I get this or that gift for my birthday. But the hope of salvation is not like that. It's a confident hope in something that is real and revealed today. But it is called hope because it will be revealed more fully and completely in the future. Paul says that God the Father through Jesus Christ, Peter says that God the Father through Jesus Christ has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is a living hope, not an uncertain hope. It's a hope that is real. The helmet of salvation, I believe, is talking about a present possession as well as an inheritance to come. When it comes to salvation, we talk about the already and the not yet. In Romans 13, Paul points to the not yet, the future aspect of this salvation when he says, and do this, he's talking about love there, and do this, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. And he's talking there about the consummation of salvation when Christ comes again to judge and puts all His enemies under His feet and takes His own to glory. And Jesus Himself makes it clear in chapters like Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21 that this salvation is not yet ours fully in this life. In theory, yes. But in our hands fully, not yet. Why? You see, His followers will be in for tribulations, wars, and rumors of wars, and so on. And Jesus does not tell, He never told His disciples, my teaching is going to make the world better and better. It's going to be a better place for all. He never said my teaching is one of political or social reform which is going to put an end to all war and make everyone equal. He does not say that there will be no troubles and that all nations will get along and embrace one another. Remember, that's what Satan promises that Christianity in this life will be like. But Jesus says no. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. It is not yet. Yet, this salvation is also and already, as we talked a little bit about this morning and in recent weeks. Paul says in Ephesians 2, verse 8, For by grace you have been saved through faith. And again, David says, The Lord is my salvation. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and in which you stand, by which also you are saved. And that chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, is also where Paul talks about the resurrection of Jesus and the believer's final resurrection. And in effect, he is saying that he would not go on with the fight if he didn't know what is coming. If the ultimate victory is not coming, then by all means, Let's eat and drink today, for tomorrow we die anyway. But because of that salvation which he has through faith already today, by the grace of God, he is able to press on for that which is to come. So that he says, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, we read together 2 Corinthians 4, in which Paul also talks about the already and the not yet of salvation. He says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay. And then in verse 14, he says, Because we know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence. Paul is saying that this treasure is real today, and therefore it points us to tomorrow. If it were not for this living hope, we would faint. The fight would get us down. We would give up. We would give in. But notice again what he says in verses 16 through 19. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. I hope that it's obvious that we've already begun to talk about the comfort in the cap. And that should also be clear from the very theme of this sermon. It is the cap of victory. That's what the helmet of salvation is. This victory, this salvation is past, present, and future. Believers have been saved. That's justification with Christ's breastplate of righteousness. No more condemnation. Believers are being saved. That's sanctification. And believers will be saved completely. That's glorification. Absolute perfection. We said at the beginning of this sermon that one blow to the head could severely alter this physical life. Well, beloved, the helmet of salvation also alters life drastically. It's a life-changing piece of armor like the prodigal son who was lost but now is found, who was dead but is now alive. Beloved, when you stand firm, wearing the helmet of salvation, the cap of victory, that's a confirmation of being saved, so that one can fight fatigue. And then when you are attacked and besieged and tried and tempted by the devil's schemes, and when he says there's nothing in it, it's a bad investment, you might as well get out of it. Because Christianity makes false promises which are never fulfilled, therefore give up. Then the Christian soldier in the power of the Holy Spirit says, no, God's promises are true. They have been kept and they will be kept. I have not been led astray. Everything is happening as my Lord said it would. I know that I am saved. I know that I am being saved. And I know that ultimately I shall be completely saved. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will present His bride, the church, including me, to His Father without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless. You see, beloved, He is coming again and He will be riding on a white horse with a sword in His mouth, as the Revelation of John says. And as the battle continues to rage fiercely and the situation sometimes looks grim because outwardly the church looks like she may be losing ground and being defeated. And when you feel like you can go on no more, then don't waste your time looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. Instead, look at your armor that you wear today. Is the helmet there? Is it in place? The helmet identifies one who is a soldier in the Lord's army. If it's not there, then you are an intruder and you will not stand. You will be defeated. But if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, by grace through faith, then as you stand firm wearing this helmet, then the helmet itself tells it all. Victory. Salvation. It identifies one, why one is able to stand. Because by God's grace, beloved, we are already victorious. And as Satan lets everything he has fly at you, then with Paul, we can confess we are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. And how is that possible? Only because the Lord is my helmet of salvation and those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Beloved, what comfort does the helmet of salvation give? Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they know Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. Nothing, as we often say from this pulpit, nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, because Jesus Christ endured the separation for us. And what enabled Him to do so? As the writer of Hebrews 12 says, the joy that was set before Him, the joy of doing His Father's will, the joy of redeeming for Himself a people, the joy of conquering forever Satan and his hosts. You know, we often sing those favorite hymns of the faith mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war. She waits the consummation of peace forevermore till with the vision glorious Her longing eyes are blessed and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest. And also stand up, stand up for Jesus. The strife will not be long. This day the noise of battle, the next the victor's song. To Him that overcometh, a crown of life shall be. He with the King of glory shall reign eternally. In the name of Jesus Christ, may we also sing that joyful song of victory. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, indeed, as we see the pieces of armor going on one by one, and we receive Your instruction about the full armor of God, indeed, it is full. Not one thing is missing. You protect Your people completely. and You cause us to stand with the assurance that victory in Jesus is ours, that we wear the helmet of salvation. And Father, therefore, may we not lose heart. May we not become despaired. May we stand firm in confidence that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Oh Father, if there is anyone here tonight who does not have that confidence, work in their heart powerfully and effectively that they might come to You, repent of their sins, and be clothed in the full armor of God. Hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name, Amen.