Grace for Your Day June 7

The story is told of a Zimbabwean pastor who reportedly told his congregants that he had a set of holy pens that could help university students pass their exams. According to the local newspaper that reported on the story, all the young people needed was $10 and a little bit of faith and it would enable them to pass any test in flying colours. As one parishioner testified, "My son is not very bright and I think this will help him. With the knowledge he has acquired and this pen from the man of God, I think it is going to work."

The point of the story is that false teaching is everywhere. Heresy abounds in the church. Unfortunately, you cannot get away from it which is why Paul says in Ephesians 6:14-17:
"Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation . . ."

As Paul describes the armour of God, he now comes to the fifth item in the list. He comes to the part that covers the head which is the helmet of salvation.

To explain that, Roman helmets were round skullcaps made out of leather with metal plating placed on the outside for protection. They were covered in iron from the front to the back. They also had cheek plates on the sides to protect the soldier from a surprise attack. It guarded them from a horizontal assault and the helmet had a red plume coming out of the top for decoration which made it very noticeable. It could be easily spotted on a battlefield but, unfortunately, it was cumbersome. It was very heavy so it was the last item to be put on. A soldier donned his helmet after he had strapped on every other piece of armour.

However, no soldier went into battle without one. Everyone knew the important of protecting their head and, in a similar, way, Paul says that a Christian should do the same thing. We should protect our heads as well with “salvation.” This word is soterion in Greek which describes all that our salvation entails. It describes all that our eternal life encompasses because this is what guards our mind in the battle. This is what keeps us from being tricked or deceived by the enemy.

In other words, this is what protects us from false teaching. It is what keep us from being swept away with all of the bad doctrine that is ever present in our culture. We need to have our minds focused on the truth. We need to have them covered in the Word of God so that the enemy cannot touch us there because sin always begins in the mind. It always begins in our head which means that the best way to prepare for the assault is to start there. We need to guard our minds against error. We need to protect them against false doctrine by filling them with the truth which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This week, we are going to study the helmet of salvation. We are going to look at the piece of armour that protects the mind from attack. The sermon will be preached at our 8:15, 9:45, and 11:15 services. It will also be available Sunday morning on our You Tube Channel and website for all who cannot be with us in person. Please join us as we take a look at this wonderful topic. Join us as we learn how to guard our minds from Satan’s attacks with the Word of God. – Jeremy Cagle