The Believer's Armor, Part 5: The Helmet of Salvation, Part 1 B

What is the helmet then?

Now listen. The helmet of salvation is confidence in a full, final, total salvation to come. It's confidence that someday the battle will be over. I couldn't fight if I didn't think there was a finish somewhere, could you? Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. William Wilberforce spent much of his life urging the British Parliament to ban the slave trade. Year after year, he gave speeches and proposed laws whenever Parliament met. And thanks largely to his perseverance, Parliament outlawed slavery in the British Empire. And just as Wilberforce wouldn't have toppled slavery without perseverance, you can't win the spiritual battle without endurance.

The enemy's attacks are constant, and you need to be constant in your defense. Today, John MacArthur helps you persevere even when the spiritual battle seems endless. He's continuing his series, The Believer's Armor, here on Grace To You. And now, to see what it means to put on the helmet of salvation, join John for today's lesson. Ephesians 6, 13 through 17. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girded about with truthfulness, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the readiness of the gospel of peace. On top of all that, taking the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now, in that tremendous passage, we have Paul presenting to us the resources for gaining the victory in the Christian life, at least as far as the battle with Satan and his demons is concerned. You want to go on to the fifth piece of armor? Tremendous, tremendous truth, in verse 17. And take the helmet of salvation. That's all it says about it.

You say, what is there in that? The helmet of salvation, that's easy, being saved. No, not that.

That's already happened. I mean, you aren't even in the army unless you're a believer, right? If you're fighting Satan at all, you've got to be on God's side. If you're not with him, you're against him. So if you're in the battle against Satan, you're already saved.

He's not talking about that. The helmet of salvation is not getting saved. He's not saying, by the way, fifth, get saved.

Oh, no. You got saved in chapter 2, right? For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You've already been saved.

This is not getting saved. You wouldn't even be in the army if you weren't a believer. Satan wouldn't be attacking you if you weren't a believer, right? He'd leave you alone.

He's already got you. You'd be fighting God. So if you're in the army and the war is going on, you are already a believer.

That has already taken place. The helmet of salvation is not saying you need to be saved. You say, well, what is it saying? Let me show you, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Verse 8. But let us, 1 Thessalonians 5.8, who are of the day, that is, we're not of the night. That's Satan's dominion. We're of the day. That's sons of light in God's kingdom. Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love.

Now watch. And for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath. We're not just going to be in this thing fighting all the way.

We're not going to wind up in judgment. But to obtain salvation. There is still an element of salvation to obtain. God has appointed us to obtain that finally. And it is the helmet of salvation.

The writer of Hebrews says this hope is the anchor of the soul. What is the helmet then? Now let's sum it up. The helmet of salvation is confidence in a full, final, total salvation to come. It's confidence that some day the battle will be over. I couldn't fight if I didn't think there was a finish somewhere, could you?

There's got to be an end. You say, well, how is this part of our armor? Listen, you know that big broadsword that the Roman soldier would have to face?

You know what Satan's big broadsword is? It's got two sides to it. One side is discouragement, the other side's doubt.

We'll talk about doubt next time. But for this time, discouragement. You know what Satan wants to do? He wants to belt you right in the head with discouragement and doubt.

Gets you discouraged. Oh boy, you're sure giving a lot and not getting much in return. You're living this Christian life, setting yourself apart from the world. Boy, you're living it and what happens?

You just lost your job. Great blessing, huh? You've been reading your Bible every day and your wife is as cranky as she was before you even bought a Bible.

Hadn't had a major effect on her or whatever. What's God doing in your life? You've been going to church for so many years. Look at your kids.

They don't respect you now any more than they ever did. And you begin to get discouraged. I've been teaching a class so long and I wonder whether anybody gets anything out of it, you say. And you get real discouraged.

That's one of the things. The other thing Satan wants to hit you in the head with is doubt. How do you know you're really a Christian? Are you sure you're really saved?

You don't deserve it. Look what you just did. You think that's manifestation of being Christian? And people get to suffer from doubt and discouragement.

And that's what he uses. And the helmet of salvation is a protection. Let's talk about the area of discouragement. Let me illustrate it by having you look in 1 Kings chapter 19. 1 Kings chapter 19. Great story of Elijah. Elijah is kind of the Peter of the Old Testament.

He's up and down a lot. But Elijah at this point has just had a great victory. I mean a victory like no other prophet of God ever had. He just took out a sword and slaughtered 450 priests of Baal.

I'd say that he was really a winner that day. And you remember God sent fire down from heaven, burned up the sacrifice, burned up the altar, even licked up the water that they had poured around it. And Elijah was ruling. Boy, I mean, he was on top. The Lord is God.

The Lord is God. Baal is not. Baal lost. And man, he's got victory. Well, chapter 19.

Doesn't allow much time to go on. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. And now he had slain all the prophets with the sword. And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow at this time. She says, Elijah, for doing that, and by the way, she was a Baal worshiper, for you doing that, I will kill you by tomorrow or die trying. Now, you know, if it were me, I would say, look, Lord, I mean, I just did you a big favor.

450 priests of Baal eliminated. Give me a day off, will you? I mean, you send Jezebel after me the next day? How about a little rest? No time for sitting around to be honored by the Jewish Honor Society. No time to sit around getting laurels and medals.

He's on the road again. Now, if you can handle 450 priests of Baal, you really shouldn't be too shook by one woman. But then history doesn't really hold up that argument because there have been a lot of people shook by one woman who could handle a lot of men. But anyway, Elijah decided there was only one thing to do and that was run. And Elijah's got to be pushing 80 and God never made 80-year-old prophets to be running to Beersheba. But he took off and, I mean, he looked at his foot down the road, churning up a cloud of dust, ran for his life, verse 3 says, came to Beersheba, left his servant there. From there, he went a day's journey into the wilderness. Now, he actually ran, he went to Beersheba's town and from there, he just took off one more day out in the desert.

One day from Beersheba into the desert, he sits under a juniper tree and requests for himself that he might die. He says, it is enough. Now, Lord, take my life. I've had it.

Now, that's what I call discouragement. He wants to die. Lord, just get me out of here, will you?

Just take me out. That's enough. And he lay and slept under a juniper tree and an angel touched him and said, get up and eat. The angel wouldn't even let him sleep. He woke him up and fed him. And he looked and there was a cake on the coals and a cruise of water at his head and he'd eat and drink and lay down again. The angel came and touched him a second time, woke him up again, said, rise and eat. Your journey is too great for you.

You've got to eat. Now, I don't know what angel food is, but whatever it is, it works. In verse 8, he arose and did eat and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights.

So as I say, it works. And the horror of the Mount of God. You know why? God said, Elijah, you have no business being discouraged. Now, you get yourself up here in Mount Horeb. I want a little conversation for you. And so he went up there and the Lord spoke to him in a still small voice. And Elijah gave him some song and dance about, I'm the only one left, Lord.

Oh, it's so distressing and so discouraging. I'm the only one left. I'm the only faithful person you have. And the Lord says in chapter 19 verse 18, yes, I have 7,000 others beside you. It's not just one.

It's 7,001, Elijah. Now get back there and get busy. It's so easy to become discouraged. And you know, I can vouch for that even at the moment of some of your greatest triumphs.

You go back to reality and it's stark and sort of shocking, you know. I can relate to that. It's easy to be discouraged. Over in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 3, or verse 13 rather, Paul says, wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulation.

You know, some of those people could even get discouraged about somebody else's trouble, not necessarily their own. Galatians 6, 9 says, let us not be weary in well-doing, for we reap if we faint not. You know, it's so easy to get tired and weary and oh, Lord, I have to preach another Sunday. I have to preach another sermon, study another day. Oh, Lord, I have to go call on another person. I have to meet with that same person for discipleship. Lord, can I have a few days off from reading my Bible? Lord, I just can't hack that Sunday school class another Sunday.

Lord, you really think I ought to go back and talk to that neighbor another time? Lord, you know, I've been fighting the same old temptation for so long, I'm getting tired. And you know, we get discouraged.

It's so easy. Arthur Clough expressed it in these words, say not the struggle, not availeth. The labor and the words are vain. The enemy faints not nor faileth, and as things have been, they remain. In other words, I just keep fighting and nothing ever happens. I get tired, the enemy doesn't.

Have you noticed? You get real weary and Satan never stops. Matthew Arnold wrote, Matthew Arnold wrote, for now in blood and battle was my youth, and full of blood and battle is my age, and I shall end this life in battle.

Does it ever stop? Well, we fight the foe all our lives. The Apostle Paul came to the end of his life, 2 Timothy 4-7, and said, I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith.

I have finished the course. In Acts chapter 20, they said to him, Paul, if you go to Jerusalem, you're going to be imprisoned and put in chains. He said, that's all right. None of these things move me, neither can I my life, dear unto myself, that I might finish the ministry Christ has given me. He never would faint.

He never would quit. In Revelation chapter 2, the Lord extolled the Ephesian church by saying, you have borne and you have been patient and you have endured and you have not fainted. That's a commendation. In Leviticus chapter 26, God, and he did it again in Deuteronomy 11, God laid out Israel and he said, all right, Israel, if you hang in there and keep my statutes and obey my ordinances and do what I say, I will bless your lives. I will bless your land. I will prosper the seed of your loins. I will give you every blessing. And he goes on through the 26th chapter of Leviticus listing one after another.

Finally, in verse 14, he says, but if you turn from my statutes and turn from my commandments, then I will bring corruption on you and I will bring pain on you and I will bring sorrow on you. So the ultimate end of it is this, hang in there. Be obedient. Be responsive. Maybe you get discouraged because you have an unsaved husband and it never seems to change.

Nothing ever happens. Then you just get so discouraged. Or maybe you have a child that seems so resistant to all of your efforts. Or maybe you have a friend you've tried to witness to.

Or maybe you seem to be doing a ministry and you don't get the thanks you ought to get. Or maybe you even have a physical infirmity, a physical ailment, a handicap of some kind physically and you get so tired of struggling with that thing and it seems to bind you and you lose sight of the fact that salvation has a third dimension, that it's coming. And I love what it says in Romans 13, 11, remember that our salvation is nearer than when we believed.

We're getting close to the finish line. Don't quit now. You know, there were those in the book of Hebrews to whom the writer addresses himself who had come all the way up to believing in Christ.

They'd come all the way up to acknowledging that it was true and now they were going to go back and the writer says, no, don't do that. Don't be of those who turn around and fall back into perdition. He says, let us go on to perfection.

Don't quit. I think about Jeremiah. The Lord says to Jeremiah, you're my prophet Jeremiah. I want you to spend your life preaching for me.

Here's your message Jeremiah. Preach it with all you've got and preach it till you have no breath and P.S. no one will ever listen. No one will hear a word you say. And old Jeremiah preached it all alone.

Listen to it all alone. All alone he said, thy words are found and I did eat them and they were the joy and rejoicing in my heart. Then there was Job and the Lord stripped Job as naked as any man has ever been stripped. He took away everything he possessed, everything he owned, everything he loved and yet he said though he slay me yet while I trust him and he hung in there and when it was all said and done he said, oh God, he said I had heard of thee with the hearing of mine ear but I now see thee with mine eye and I abhor myself and dust and ashes.

In other words, I heard what you were like but in adversity as I was faithful I saw you. Hang in there. Don't let Satan hit you with discouragement. Jesus our Lord said in Luke 18 one, men ought always to pray and not to what? Faint. When you see yourself fainting start praying.

Boy, Satan wants to discourage me all the time. He works like mad at it. I read this week about a little man in England. His name was Reverend William Davey. He decided in the years of his life toward the end of his life, though he didn't know it at the time, he wanted to write a systematic theology encompassing the whole Bible. He spent 12 solid years doing it. When he was done it was 26 volumes. He was an obscure little man.

There are no copies that I know of of his theology. When he got all done he couldn't find anybody to set the type so he set it himself. This is 200 years ago. And then he printed 40 copies of the first 300 pages and 14 copies of the remaining 26 volumes. 14 copies of his 12 years work. He died in poverty and obscurity.

But you know what? I'll bet you he died with a knowledge of God. One little man wrote a 26 volume theology that probably nobody ever heard of or ever read. But he pursued the knowledge of God and the knowledge of God's Word.

He stuck with it. There was a little girl in London. She was standing on the sidewalk when the coal truck came by and the coal truck dumped a ton of coal in front of this of the little girl's house. And she picked up a little shovel in the cellar, opened the cellar door. She was only five. She walked out and she stuck her little shovel in the coal and walked across the sidewalk and down the cellar stairs turned it over in the basement. And the man turned it over and he and the man next door stood and watched her.

After the third little shovel full, he said to her, my dear, you'll never get it all in. To which she brightly replied, oh, I will, sir, if I work long enough. If I work long enough. I guess the test of anybody's character is what it takes to stop them, right? Lots of people hit the first line of defense and bail out.

Lots of people go AWOL the first time they hear a shot. But then there are those who make a difference in the world because they go right through line after line after line after line of opposition. Hey, you can do it if you work long enough. Don't be discouraged. Listen, remember the Lord Jesus? You have not yet suffered under blood.

Nobody crucified you yet. Hang in there. Hang in there.

The problem is not to faint but to stay at it. Satan will discourage you every way he came. Tell you, ah, you're not getting any results for all your labors. Ah, nobody listens to you.

Look, you've been doing this faithfully. Nobody gives you any laurels. Nobody says anything.

It's so behind the scenes. Who will know if you fall to sin? Ah, don't worry about the battle. Give in a little bit.

Relax. The helmet of salvation protects me from fainting, from giving up, from growing weary. Why? Because I have a hope and my hope is that there's a light at the end of that tunnel and someday I'm going to burst into that glorious light in the presence of Jesus Christ. And like that guy who wrote me a letter, I don't want to stand in front of my commanding officer with shame on my face because I quit in the middle of the battle, right? I want to be there and say, hey, Lord, I mean, I may be bruised and bleeding, but I'm here and I fought it all the way to the end. My grandfather, bless his heart, died on his deathbed with cancer, had eaten his body, and he looked up at my father and he said, I just have one request, Jack. Oh, if I could just preach one more sermon.

See? Right down to the wire. So my dad took the sermon that he prepared but never preached, printed it, passed it out to the church. So he preached that one more sermon.

Right down to the wire. Hang in there. Revelation 2 and 3 says, to him that overcomes, to him that overcomes, to him that overcomes, to him that overcomes, will I give, will I give, will I give? In other words, God reserves special things for the overcomer.

Great thing. Remember Timothy? Timothy hit the skids in his life, got discouraged. What discouraged Timothy?

Well, a lot of things. One, he was young and he was tempted by youthful lust and he got tired of it. Another thing, he was young and people were saying, ah, you're too young to know anything, Timothy. They were despising his youth. Another thing, he was getting upset in his stomach and Paul said, you got to take a little wine for your stomach sake. He was shook. And then he was embarrassed about Paul because Paul was forever in jail and he was upset about the fact that people say, ah, yeah, you're one of the disciples of that jailbird.

He was ashamed of me, says Paul. And not only that, there were some false teachers came into Ephesus there teaching error that was really sophisticated and Timothy didn't know if he could handle it. And then there was philosophy and janglings and vain deceit and genealogies and Timothy was drowning in a sea of stuff to discourage him. And the Apostle Paul writes to him in 2 Timothy and he says, Timothy, stir up the gift of God that is in you. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, of love and a sound mind. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Come on, Timothy, get with it again.

Crank it up. Timothy was discouraged. Peter says the same thing to those saints to whom he wrote who were in persecution. He says, oh, listen, hang in there with that well-doing and if you suffer for well-doing, blessed and happy are you. Oh, if you suffer for well-doing, commit your souls to a faithful Creator. Be faithful. You say, but sometimes you get weary. That's right.

Sometimes your legs get rubber like the last lap. When that happens to me, I very often will think of a Scripture that you've thought of a lot of times, I'm sure. It's Isaiah chapter 40, and I'll draw our thoughts to a conclusion with it. Listen to this, Isaiah 40, 29. He giveth power to the faint and to those who have no might he increases strength.

Oh, isn't that great? Just when you get to the place where you're about to faint, he gives you power. Just when you say, Lord, I don't have any strength left, that's when he infuses you with his strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon 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. What a great statement. The eagle that soars so high above most other birds is an illustration of what happens to a believer in his weakness when he's infused with the strength of God.

He soars above the rest. Listen, there's no reason to be discouraged, beloved. The helmet of salvation says there's coming a great day, a great victory day. If you're faithful all the way through, there'll be a marvelous reward there. There's coming a glory day. Salvation is past, yes.

It's present, yes. But oh, it's future. And don't let Satan discourage you. And don't let him rob you of the anticipation of that thrill. Don't let him take away the hope that makes you committed. Listen, John says in 1 John 3, he that hath this hope purifieth himself. When you know Jesus is coming, when you know that great day is ahead, salvation will be ultimately fulfilled.

It has a way of purging, purging and purifying your life because you know you're going to see him face to face. Well, let's pray. Father, we're well aware that Satan and his demons are relentless. They never give up.

They push us all the time. We know too that our salvation is nearer than when we believed. And oh God, we thank you for the hope of victory that we have. We hear the echo of the words of Hebrews 6, 11, and 12. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Oh God help us like those who were faithful, those who were patient, those who were inheritors of the promise, to show the same diligence to the end, to hang on to hope to its very end, to so live to your glory. Father, may we be in the catalog of the faithful of Hebrews 11 because we persevere to the end. Help us not to be discouraged. What is there to be discouraged about when we know that awaiting us is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, an inheritance that couldn't be described in human terms, a wondrous kingdom that's beyond even the revelation to express, a relationship to you throughout eternity that can only be described as to be like Jesus Christ.

Oh God, with that in the future, we cannot be discouraged with the moment no matter what it brings. Help us to be faithful to wear the helmet. For your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University. He's currently making his way through a series that has helped listeners fight sin, perhaps more than any other. It's an in-depth look at the believer's armor. John, you concentrated today on two of the great weapons the enemy uses, namely discouragement and doubt, and that really gets to an important part of the strategy for standing strong in spiritual battle. You need to know how the enemy operates, and that's what this deep dive into Ephesians 6 is helping us understand.

Yeah, again, we're back to what I commented on a few days ago, that we don't want to be ignorant of his devices, and he does use doubt. That's why you have the shield of faith. That's important, and that's why you have the helmet of salvation, to protect yourself from blows that would make you doubt your salvation.

These are all incredibly foundational truths, not only for the spiritual well-being of a believer, but I think for the joy of a believer, because your joy is attached to how well you put on the armor of God and use the sword of the Spirit. So this gives me a good opportunity, again, to remind you that we have a new study guide on this very series that we're doing. Study guide called The Believer's Armor, same title as the series. It's a book.

It's a book. It's volume two in a relaunch of our study guides, which were so popular a few decades back, and we've reintroduced them. The Believer's Armor study guide will give you more detail on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the all-important sword of the Spirit. And I would encourage you to pick up several copies of the study guide to use with your discipleship group, your family, Sunday school class, whatever you choose. But this is a 200-page reasonably priced treatment of the Believer's Armor that will equip you for spiritual victory and joy. By the way, while you're calling or emailing us, you might want to order a MacArthur Study Bible if you haven't done that or any of our other resources that you find on the website.

So contact us today. Order the new Believer's Armor study guide and get on the mailing list so you get those things in the future as a gift. Yes, and friend, if you are struggling with discouragement or nagging sin, it may be because you don't know how to protect yourself with the spiritual defenses God has given you. So I urge you to pick up this brand new, helpful study guide called The Believer's Armor when you contact us today. Call us here at 800-55-GRACE, or you can also order a copy or two at our website, gty.org. The Believer's Armor study guide will help you answer questions like, How can I draw strength from the Lord?

And whom am I fighting against? And what is the role of prayer in spiritual warfare? To place your order, call 800-55-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. And as John said, at the website, gty.org, you can also purchase our flagship resource, the MacArthur Study Bible. It's a helpful all-in-one library that has 25,000 detailed notes written by John MacArthur. You'll find the notes on every page below the text of Scripture. And the notes are what set the MacArthur Study Bible apart. To order your copy of the MacArthur Study Bible, call us at 800-55-GRACE or order online at gty.org.

That's our website, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson with a question for you. Is the saying, Let Go and Let God, biblical? John will answer that tomorrow as he looks at what it means to surrender to the Lord. It's another half-hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.