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Sermon Notes

February 9, 2025

The Unremovable Helmet

Ephesians 6:17

When it comes to all the pieces of God’s armor, we have talked about so far in Ephesians 6, we have seen that we can substitute other things for those pieces of armor as we battle against the enemy and that’s exactly what the enemy wants us to do. Satan wants nothing more than for you to substitute his lies for the truth of God’s Word. Therefore we must make sure we have equipped ourselves with the Belt of Truth. Satan would love for us to try to live the Christian life counting on our own righteousness as we stand against his attacks. We must make sure we are not wearing our own righteousness into battle since it is like filthy rags. Instead we equip ourselves with the Breastplate of Righteousness that only comes through Jesus Christ. When it comes to the Gospel of Peace that is to be equipped on our feet. There is nothing more that Satan would like to do than to get you to forget to stand on the promises of God during the battle. Satan would never want you to be ready with the Gospel message to share it with a lost and dying world. When it comes to the shield of faith, Satan wants you to put in little to no effort to maintain the faith that will protect you against his attacks. He wants to make sure you are not living out your faith in the real world because that is where it grows and is strengthened. He wants you to just let your faith sit on the side and become uselessly weak in your life. However when it comes to the piece of armor, we will be talking about this morning there is nothing Satan would want more than to remove it or have you remove it anyway possible just like he does with the other pieces. The truth is he can do neither.  This piece of armor is the most precious of all of God’s armor because it was bought with an inconceivable price. Of course we are talking about the Helmet of Salvation. It is the Salvation that was purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ. What makes this piece of armor different from all the others? Let’s look at Paul’s command concerning the Helmet of Salvation.

Ephesians 6:17a - 

Put on salvation as your helmet …

Paul starts this verse with a command that we should be very familiar with in this sermon series, because once again he commands us to “put on” a piece of God’s armor. As we have seen each time, he commands us to “put on” the armor of God, each of those commands had a slightly different meaning. We have seen him use the command “put on” to tell us to start putting on the armor of God immediately if we haven’t already. We have seen Paul tell us to “put on” the armor of God but focus on the urgency of the matter because now we are saved the war between the enemy and us begins. We must be prepared to stand against his attacks. However here the command reveals part of the beauty of Salvation. This command literally means “to receive” and with that idea comes the fact that once it is received, no one or nothing can remove it from your head. We see many times in the New Testament that salvation is described as a gift given by God (Romans 6:23, John 4:10, Acts 8:20, etc.) and the idea of a gift is that it is freely given (which salvation is, Ephesians 2:8-9). To partake and enjoy any gift, the gift must be received by the person to whom it is offered. Since we know that salvation is offered to everyone (Romans 10:13, Titus 2:11, John 3:16, etc.), we all can accept this gift.  We can only receive this gift by faith in Jesus Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8, Romans 10:9, Acts 16:31, John 3:16, etc.). When the Helmet of Salvation is placed upon our heads by God, after we trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, it can never be removed.  Romans 11:29 tells us that God’s gifts are irrevocable, which means they cannot be cancelled, removed, or taken back. This is a major problem for our enemy, because through his deceit he can convince us to remove all the other pieces of armor God has given to us. However when it comes to the Helmet of Salvation, he can’t convince us to remove it because no one can do that. Instead he’s just going to attack the truth of the absolute assurance we have of our salvation in Jesus Christ. This is where we can have a problem when it comes to standing against the enemy.  D.L. Moody said that “I think a good many of God’s dear people have no assurance; but it is the privilege of every child of God to have beyond a doubt a knowledge of his own salvation. No man is fit for God’s service who is filled with doubts. If a man is not sure of his own salvation, how can he help anyone else into the kingdom of God? If I seem in danger of drowning and do not know whether I shall ever reach the shore, I cannot assist another.” You see this is exactly what Satan wants. Yes, he might have lost you, but if he can keep you from bringing anyone else with you, that’s the second-best thing. He does so by making you doubt, not just the goodness of God, but he attacks the very assurance we have of our salvation that is founded upon the truth of God’s Word. This morning I want to focus on just that. I want to show you from Scripture beyond a shadow of doubt that the salvation of God cannot be removed from one who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation from their sins.

A Christian Defined

When it comes to understanding salvation, we need to understand how one becomes a Christian obtains salvation in the first place. A Christian is not someone who has been raised in a Christian household. The home you grew up in cannot save you. A Christian is not someone who comes to church. All the churches in the world combined cannot save you. A Christian is not a person who has walked down an aisle during an invitation and talked to a Pastor. No Pastor in the world can save you. A Christian is not a person that has been baptized. No water in the world can save you. A Christian is not a person who has prayed a sinner's prayer. A prayer alone cannot save you. Rather a Christian is someone who has fully trusted in Jesus Christ as their only Lord and Savior (Acts 16:31, Romans 10:9, Ephesians 2:8, etc.). It’s only faith in Jesus that allows us to be saved by His grace and once you are saved that cannot be taken away. Even though this is a wonderful and beautiful truth that is found in God’s Word, when we talk about this truth of our eternal security, there are many objections that tend to come up. For example, “What about the person I know who just kept on sinning once they were saved?” or “I know someone who was a very faithful Christian who left the faith. They had to lose their salvation, right?” Well, Scripture is very clear about that. Those people were not saved to begin with. 1 John tells us about those who proclaim to be Christians but do not have a love for other Christians. John says they were never Christians in the first place. John also tells us that if we continue in sin after we say we are saved, like salvation never occurred, we are not saved either. 1 John 2:19 tells us that those who have left faith were never with us to begin with as well. You might say that’s a copout, but it’s something Jesus addressed specifically when He shared the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24-43. Our enemy not only loves to try to remove the assurance of our salvation from believers, but he also tries to give many others false hope that they are saved through ways other than Jesus Christ. In this parable, Jesus likens these people who are deceived by tares or weeds, and He equates those who are truly saved with wheat. When it comes to tares and wheat, they look a lot like each other as they begin to grow. They continue to look like one another as they mature and get to the point when they should begin producing their fruit. When it comes to bearing the fruit it’s undeniable who is the wheat and who is the weed. (It’s only the wheat or those who are truly saved) that produce fruit in their lives. Jesus says this as well in Matthew 7:15-20 when He says, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” A life that has experienced the true salvation that is only found in Jesus Christ will produce fruit. They will produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and will produce a love that only comes from Christ (1 John 4:7-8). The amount of fruit will vary on several factors, but the fact remains that all Christians will produce fruit in their lives. It is possible for a person to live under the religious umbrella and self-identify as a Christian all they want. They can even go through the religious motions in their lives for a while and fool a lot of people. There will be a day they will see they do not produce the fruit that is present in all Christian lives. It’s at that point their pride will keep them from admitting they are not saved. It will keep them from repenting and truly experiencing salvation through faith. One or two things will happen. They will either continue to play the game of church and religion that they are accustomed to, or they will be disheartened and fall away from that charade and cause many people to assume they have fallen away from the faith.  

Even though the Bible is full of truths that are both plain and clear about salvation and our assurance in it, there are still many people who believe that you can lose your salvation. They use reasons like, “Well it makes sense to me that you could lose it” or they might say “That’s what I was always taught”. When I’ve come upon those who still have a hard time accepting the doctrine of eternal security it’s usually because they have an incorrect view when it comes to what happens at salvation. Many times they see it as a transaction. They want salvation so they ask for it and they are given salvation. When it comes to payment for that salvation, Jesus paid it for them. They have salvation that they need to hold on to and make sure they don’t lose it so they can hand it in for passage into Heaven. That’s not what salvation is at all. When we see what happens when you put your faith into Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will see that it’s not something that would be easily reversed in the life of a believer. As a matter of fact based upon the promises of God’s Word it is something that will never be lost, stolen, or forfeited.  

What happens when we trust in Jesus?

Scripture tells us of many things that happen in the life of a believer when they place their faith in Jesus Christ. It’s these truths of Scripture that help us to understand and accept the fact that we cannot lose or forfeit our salvation. While we do not have enough time to look at all the things that happen in the life and soul of a believer when they are saved by grace. I want to look briefly at 3 things to better understand our security in Jesus Christ.
  • We are made new in Christ.
When we are saved, we are not made a better version of ourselves nor are we just forgiven of our past in our present state so that we can continue to live that sinful life. We are told that once we place our faith in Jesus Christ that our old sinful life died with Christ on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:14). That old life is now dead once and for all and you are given a new life as a gift from God (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). It's a life that is no longer a slave to sin. It's a life that is no longer bound for damnation and it’s a life that is controlled by God through the Holy Spirit. It’s in this new life that we see things in the light of God and no longer in the darkness of our enemy.  This is such a powerful picture of what happens when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. This is the picture that we are commanded to communicate to others through baptism as soon as we are saved. Romans 6:4 is often quoted in some form when someone is baptized because it shows this illustration perfectly, “For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.” This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God”. Being born again means to be spiritually reborn into a new life free of the shackles of sin and its consequences. If we were to lose our salvation, we are going to have to find a way to make this new life and all that comes with it null and void.
  • God makes a commitment to us.
When we surrender our life to Christ (by making Him our Lord) we are trusting our eternal souls into His hands. We trust that He will save us by His grace just like He promised.  We are trusting that the sacrifice of Jesus is an all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins, and we are trusting God’s grace to be enough to save us. When we believe that we can lose our salvation, we are saying more than we mean to. We are saying that God is a liar and will fail in His commitment that He has made to sinners. We are saying that God’s grace is not enough, and we are saying that the sacrifice that Jesus made was not sufficient for me. All of this is a lie straight from Satan. God will never fail in anything and especially in His commitment to us. It didn’t matter where in life Paul found himself, he proclaimed this truth over and over (2 Timothy 1:12, 1 Corinthians 1:8, Philippians 1:6). Each time he would say, “I know who I have trusted, and I know that He will keep my soul which I have trusted to Him until the day He calls me home”, Paul knew it and God’s Word proclaims it. God will not fail in His commitment to us. When it comes to the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Jesus, Hebrews 10 shows us that the sacrifice of Jesus was enough to rebirth us into our new and holy life ONCE AND FOR ALL. His sacrifice was perfect, and no other sacrifice is needed for our sins, unlike the Old Testament sacrificial system that was imperfect and required continual sacrifices. When it comes to God’s grace, Paul tells us in his letter to Titus in Chapter 3 and verse 5, that it was grace that washed us of our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 we are told that God had to remind Paul that His grace is enough. His Grace has always been enough and will always be enough, no matter where we find ourselves in life. Many who believe that they can lose their salvation believe that it is our commitment to God that keeps us saved. It’s God’s commitment to us that keeps us saved. Salvation has nothing to do with our abilities. If it did, not only would we immediately lose it, but if in some way we were able to maintain it ourselves, it would give us a reason to boast about all we did to get into Heaven. It’s just the grace of God that saves us and sustains us. He’s the one we celebrate for all eternity, not in our own abilities.
  • We are held forever in the love of God.
When we are saved, we are brought into a relationship with God that one couldn’t describe or understand adequately outside of experiencing it themselves. The broken relationship we had with God because of our sin, is now healed and perfected because of the blood of Jesus. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit lives in us. From this we experience love that we never had nor could have ever experienced here on Earth because it is a love that only comes from God. Because of the extravagance of this love, we can find ourselves, as we still struggle with sins, doubting that we deserve it. We might think those things that cause us to doubt have disqualified us from that type of love and salvation as well. This is always going to be an undeserved love, but God still gives it and gives it lavishly anyways. Paul addresses this kind of thought as well. In Romans 8:35-39 when he says, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nor our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of Hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul says nothing can separate us from the love of God that only comes through Jesus Christ. This is a great verse to constantly remind ourselves of. The next time we feel like doubting the assurance of our salvation, we need to come back to this verse and see that nothing can remove us from Him or Him from us.

When it comes to Satan’s attacks concerning salvation, it’s not salvation he can attack because it cannot be moved. It’s our assurance of that salvation that he goes after. He does so to make us weak and scared to live the warrior’s life that God has called us to in Jesus Christ. I think that is one of the reasons that Paul mentions this helmet a little differently in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 when it calls us to put on the helmet of HOPE of our salvation or assurance of our salvation. He knows that the helmet is required to protect our minds and if Satan can attack the mind with doubt he will. We must hold firm to the truth that God is holding us firm, He will neither leave us nor forsake us. He will keep that which we have committed to Him until the day our faith ends in sight.
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