The Helmet And The Sword

Ephesians 6:17-18 And TAKE the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 PRAYING always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and WATCHING thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

The Christian is born into battle. Born again by faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:3), the Christian is a “new creature in Christ. The old things have passed away, and your life has become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Christian is not under the Law of Moses, but is under the Law of the Holy Spirit.

The Old Covenant believer walked according to external laws that he had to obey. The laws – ceremonial, sacrificial, and moral – were often not explained. The Old Covenant believer was told:

“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children can live” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)

The Law of Moses was external to the believer. It specified what you must do or not do, but provided no ability to do it. It was based on absolute free will – and was flawed because of this. People not only need to be saved by God, but they need to be enabled to serve God by God. This is where God promised the NEW Covenant:

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NKJV) Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah– 32 “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 “But this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAW IN THEIR MINDS, and WRITE IT ON THEIR HEARTS; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for THEY SHALL ALL KNOW ME from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.

The key difference between the OLD Covenant of Moses and the NEW Covenant of Christ is the Holy Spirit of God. It requires the Holy Spirit to cause a person to be born again. It requires the Holy Spirit to enable us to follow God. Our Lord Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come to us after His sacrifice on Calvary. The reception of the Spirit is based on your relationship with Christ:

John 14:15-18 (LSB) IF YOU LOVE ME, YOU WILL KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS. 16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, that He may be with you forever; 17 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him. You know Him because HE ABIDES WITH YOU AND WILL BE IN YOU. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I WILL COME TO YOU.

The Holy Spirit would indwell the New Covenant believer, and He would represent Jesus so perfectly it would be like Jesus being with us. The Holy Spirit would mark the believer as a child of God. But the Holy Spirit would not just indwell us to mark us for Heaven. He serves a purpose. Jesus said:

John 16:13-14 (LSB) … when He, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, COMES, He will GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 HE WILL GLORIFY ME, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

The Holy Spirit would guide the believer into “ALL TRUTH”. Not the truth of the world, but the truth of God. The Christian is not under the Law of Moses, but is under the Law of the Spirit:

Galatians 5:18 If you are LED BY THE SPIRIT, you are not under the law.

You do not lead the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads YOU! The Christian is NOT LAWLESS. We are still under God’s Law. But the Law we are under now is not just external, but it is INTERNAL. “The LAW of the SPIRIT of life has set you free from the LAW OF SIN AND DEATH” (Romans 8:2). The relationship you have with Christ at salvation brings the Holy Spirit into your life. The Christian is in a living, breathing, daily relationship with God.

Here’s the thing. Some have said,

“Well, since salvation is by faith, and faith in Jesus frees me from the Law, now I am under no scriptural Law. The moral codes of the Bible have no relationship to how I live my life. Because I am forgiven, BEHAVIOR NO LONGER MATTERS.”

This is a false teaching that has crept into many churches, an ancient heresy called antinomianism (against law). We are warned in Jude 4 about “people who have crept into the Church who are ungodly, who turn the Grace of our God into SENSUALITY, and deny our only MASTER AND LORD, JESUS CHRIST”. Behavior does matter. If you are born again, a Christian by the Grace of God, a New Creature in Christ, you will walk WITH God, not AGAINST God. Your life will reflect RIGHTEOUSNESS, TRUTH, and LIGHT.

The HELMET of Salvation and The SWORD
of the Spirit Go Together

Salvation is called a HELMET, because it protects your head, the place where I hope your brains are. Every believer is targeted by Satan, who whispers lies in our thought process. If the head is damaged, the other parts of the armor are of no use. And the devil loves to attack the head.

Our enemies – sin, the devil and death – no longer have a hold on us. We know this because of what the Bible says. We read:

Romans 6:1-2 (LSB) What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! HOW SHALL WE WHO DIED TO SIN STILL LIVE IN IT?

The Christian became a Christian by DYING. We gave ourselves to Jesus, Who gave Himself to us. When the Holy Spirit entered us, we became His possession, not ours. We no longer follow the devil or the world. We follow Jesus. We model the Christ.

Romans 6:8-11 (LSB) Now if WE DIED WITH CHRIST, we believe that WE SHALL ALSO LIVE WITH HIM, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is NEVER TO DIE AGAIN; DEATH NO LONGER IS MASTER OVER HIM. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 EVEN SO CONSIDER YOURSELVES TO BE DEAD TO SIN, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Christian, you are not what you were. You belong to God now. God did not erase the Law, nor throw away the Bible once you were saved. God put His Spirit inside you so that you can follow His Law. Jesus died on the cross of Calvary so the Holy Spirit could come to us and enable us to live with Him daily.

Romans 8:3-4 (LSB) For what the Law could not do, WEAK AS IT WAS THROUGH THE FLESH, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that THE RIGHTEOUS REQUIREMENT OF THE LAW MIGHT BE FULFILLED IN US, who do not walk according to the flesh BUT ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT.

God did not destroy the Bible the day you got saved. God gave you the Holy Spirit so that you can understand the Word of God and apply it to your daily lives.

The devil will do everything he can do to get you to remove the helmet of salvation. The Apostle said:

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (LSB) though we walk in the flesh, WE DO NOT WAR ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, 4 for the WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT OF THE FLESH, but divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds, 5 as WE TEAR DOWN SPECULATIONS and EVERY LOFTY THING RAISED UP AGAINST the knowledge of God, and TAKE EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST

The devil will tempt. The devil will suggest. The world will mock, and ridicule, and demand your compromise. What defense do we have?

TAKE {dechomai} the HELMET of salvation, and the SWORD of the Spirit, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD

The Bible is not eradicated, thrown away, obsolete, no longer needed because of salvation. This is a lie from the pit of hell. The word translated “TAKE” is the Greek dechomai which means “to take hold of with your hand, to receive that which has been given you”. The helmet and the sword go together. One is put on the head and worn. The other is held in the hand and used.

If you will not pick up and use the Bible, the Sword of the Spirit regularly, your evident salvation will be very weak.

There are times when doubts and hopelessness creep into us all. There are times when I am dismayed, frightened, uncertain as to what I should do. I am overwhelmed! When faced with frightening odds, God tells me:

Romans 12:1-3 (LSB) Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to PRESENT YOUR BODIES AS A SACRIFICE—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD, but be TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect. 3 For through the grace given to me I say to each one among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to THINK SO AS TO HAVE SOUND THINKING, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

I turn to the Scripture. I ask myself, “What has God said about this? What is true to the Word of God?” I open the Book, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide me into all truth. And you know what?

He does.

Illustrate: I heard someone say just the other day (and it’s a favorite saying of the lost world) “Jesus never addressed homosexuality, so we don’t know what He thought about it”. When I heard that, I asked myself “What does the Bible, the Sword of the Spirit, say?” Well here’s the answer. Jesus DID address homosexuality – various times.

Matthew 19:4-6 NKJV – {Jesus} answered and said to them, “Have you not read that HE WHO MADE THEM AT THE BEGINNING MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE 5 “and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore WHAT GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER, LET NOT MAN SEPARATE.”

In that passage Jesus addressed the two genders and the relationship of Biblical marriage. The text is NOT supportive of homosexuality. But Jesus also said this about the Law (which includes the moral codes God gave us):

Matthew 5:17-18 (NKJV) Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I DID NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFILL. 18 “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Jesus Christ is a Orthodox Jew. He was circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2:21-24), He affirmed the Law of Moses (Matthew 5:17), He participated in Synagogue worship (Luke 4:16), He kept the Jewish festivals (John 2:13; 7:10), He told us to obey the Law (Matthew 23:2-3). Jesus righteously kept the Law of Moses – then died on the Cross for we who were unable to keep it of ourselves. But Jesus never came to erase the moral codes established in the Scripture. Murder was wrong in the Old Covenant. Murder is wrong in the New Covenant as well.

Ephesians 6:17-18 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 PRAYING ALWAYS with all prayer and supplication IN THE SPIRIT

Now that we are saved, we are enabled to walk with God. We are in a daily relationship. We should be speaking to God ALWAYS, praying for others and for ourselves. We are to do this “IN THE SPIRIT”.

In Conclusion

The Bible is not a lucky charm that you put on a shelf, or carry in your pocket like a rabbit’s foot. You need to learn to use the Bible in battle with the darkness. Pastor John MacArthur wrote:

“Unlike the shield, however, which gives broad and general protection, the sword can deflect an attack only if it is handled precisely and skillfully. It must parry the enemy weapon exactly where the thrust is made.”

How do we TAKE the Sword of the Spirit. My commentary notes:

“FIRST, we must READ the Word. How can anyone claim to be a Christian who does not read the Bible? Read your Bible daily. Read it repeatedly. Read it consistently. Read it comprehensively. You must, you MUST read the Word daily or Satan will eat your lunch. SECOND, we must MEDITATE on the Word. This means reading slowly, thinking about what it says. When Billy Graham was asked what he would do differently if he had his life to live over again, he said, ‘Spend more time in the Bible.’ Psalm 1:2 speaks of the man who is ‘blessed.’ It says, ‘His delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.’ THIRD, we must STUDY the Word. Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘Be diligent [study] to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15). FOURTH, we must MEMORIZE the Word. Psalm 119:11 says, ‘Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!’ Memorizing the Word is like carrying a concealed weapon against the devil!”

You must open your mind to the Bible, the Word of God, or the devil will eat your lunch! Scottish pastor Thomas Guthrie wrote: “The Bible is an armory of heavenly weapons, a laboratory of infallible medicines, a mine of exhaustless wealth. It is a guidebook for every road, a chart for every sea, a medicine for every malady and a balm for every wound. Rob us of our Bible and our sky has lost it sun”. Christians, TAKE your helmets and your swords. Pick them up. Use them. That is your power – your salvation and the Sword of the Spirit.