For the last few studies, we have been going through the “armour of God” found in Ephesians 6. It seems like every time we look at one of these pieces of “armour,” so-to-speak, we see the Lord Jesus Christ—each and every time, we see Him. It is no wonder because the whole book is written of Him. So it does not really surprise us that we do see these things.
We have gone through most of the verses here and now we are down to verse 17. In Ephesians 6:17, it says:
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Here God is telling us to “take the helmet of salvation.” He is putting this in a scenario of “armour” and He uses this word “helmet,” like, if you were in the battlefield, you would have your helmet on. But if we put it down to spiritual or Christian terms, this world is our battlefield. We are in God’s “armour,” so we should not be out there without our “helmet.”
The “helmet” is the salvation that God gives us. We cannot buy it; we cannot barter for it. It is a gift that God gives us. It is not because we are so good. It is not because we have done something. It does not have anything to do with that. The Lord has written our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life “before the foundation of the world.”
We have to establish this in order to move on in our understanding of salvation, because there are so many churches that do not have it right—they cannot see it. They will not see it unless God opens their spiritual eyes. So we cannot really look down on them or anything like that. We can only just praise the Lord that He had mercy on us, those of us that do see these particular things, not everything, but this is a very important part of salvation, that you know that it is all of God, that we have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
First we are going to look at this word “helmet.” As a matter of fact, it is only found twice in the New Testament: here in Ephesians 6 and also in 1 Thessalonians 5:8.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 is an excellent verse, and it says:
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
“The hope of salvation.” You see, we plead with the Lord for His mercy, and we hope that God will save us. You see, salvation, first of all, is of the Lord. The entire salvation program is of the Lord, and we cannot bargain with Him.
In other words, if we were to say, “Well, Lord, if You do this for me, then I will do that for You,” we cannot do this. That is the wrong kind of thinking altogether. We cannot make a deal with God; we cannot make salvation a cause.
In other words, because I speak in tongues or because I was baptized, therefore I am saved. Salvation does not work like that. There are going to be many, many in that day who will say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name…and in Thy name done many wonderful works?,” and He will say, “I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”
So these are very important things that we have to know about salvation. We cannot barter; we cannot make a deal. The only thing that we can do is hope that God will save us, and we can plead with Him for mercy.
As a matter of fact, let us turn to Luke 18, the verse where it speaks of when the publican and the Pharisee had gotten up to pray. They had gotten up to pray and the Pharisee said, “I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are…even as this publican.” The Pharisee, in his self-righteousness, he was making himself better than the next person, which was this publican. He was making himself better than this publican. No one liked the publican because he was collecting taxes for the Romans; no one liked him. So in Luke 18:10-14, the Lord says:
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Take a look at what the publican did in Luke 18:13:
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying,…
Here it is right here:
…God be merciful to me a sinner.
This should be our prayer, or anyone’s prayer who is unsaved. But God is going to put this in that individual’s heart, and then it is up to Him to answer that prayer. You see? Just because you say this, it does not mean that you are saved.
Some will tell you, “Read this verse and read that verse and you are saved. Everything is okay. You are on your way to Heaven. Come on in. Do not worry about a thing. Everything is okay.”
This is what is going on today. This is what is going on today and this is a salvation that will lead someone straight to hell. It gives someone a false sense of security, that they are secure in the Lord. And this is so awful!
No wonder God tells us in Matthew 7, “Many will say…in that day,” because the salvation plan that man has concocted is not the salvation plan of the Bible, and it is so very, very important that we follow the salvation plan of the Bible—God’s salvation plan. It has to be that. It cannot be part of that and then something else, because if you look at it real closely, you have to do something. It may just be this one tiny, little thing, but this one tiny, little thing is work on your part.
Salvation is all of grace, all of grace, and we have to realize that salvation is by grace alone, nothing else, not one thing. We cannot taint it with something that we have done. We cannot do this. It is so very important to know this, that your salvation is based solely on God’s grace alone. And it is even Christ’s faith. We went over this before.
So it is Christ’s faith. It is His salvation plan. He did all the work. He chose us; we did not choose Him. He chose us. We are passive in this thing that is called salvation; we are passive.
If we had a choice, we would make the wrong choice. We would make the wrong choice. We can choose what color shoes we want to put on and the color shirt we want to put on and different things like that. But when it comes to salvation, this is all of God’s work and we have to get this squarely fixed in our heads. He did all the work.
So, therefore, if He did all the work, then He gets all, all, of the glory, all of the glory, every last bit of it. We have nothing to do with God’s salvation. We can only praise Him once we realize that He chose us “before the foundation of the world,” before we were even born. We did not do anything. We were not even here yet, and He chose us.
When we get hold of that, when we just get hold of that piece of truth, then we will praise Him. If you cannot find anything else to praise Him about, that right there, alone, is enough to praise Him for eternity, because I did not do anything. As a matter of fact, I cannot speak for everyone, but I could say for myself, a wretch like me, that He would do something like that for a wretch like me! You look back over your life and see all the things, but He did the things that needed to be done. He did them.
We were not with Him at the Cross. We were probably thought of. He had us in mind when He went to the Cross, but 2,000 years ago, none of us were here. We were not there, but He did this work, even before He said, “Let there be light.” We need to understand this. We need to understand this. So this salvation that God has planned and carried out, when He said on the Cross, “It is finished,” the work that needed to be done, He did, and He did it at the Cross.
Now let us go back to Ephesians 6:17:
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit,…
And then He defines what the sword of the Spirit is:
…which is the word of God:
That is how we study the Bible. When God puts a statement like this in His Word, then He is telling us that the “sword of the Spirit” is the Word of God. Now we want to take this and follow it in Scripture, with this in mind, spiritually.
I have many Scriptures about salvation, but I wanted to get that part out because it is very, very important that we understand this. I just want to say this. Let us look at one more Scripture, one Scripture concerning salvation. It is in the book of Jonah, Jonah 2, where God makes it very plain about what salvation is and Who it is that is in control of it and Who does it. In Jonah 2:9 it says:
But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed…
Now this is the statement:
…Salvation is of the LORD.
A statement like this, you cannot touch it. You cannot do anything else to it. You cannot put anything to it. You cannot add anything to it. It is there. It is a statement, and it is God’s statement in His Word and He means what He says.
So let us move on to the “sword of the Spirit.” Let us take a look at Matthew 10:34-36. He says:
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
We are going to stop right there. This is a statement—this is a very important statement. God is telling us, He is talking about the Word because He says in Matthew 10:34 that He came “not to send peace, but a sword.” We already know that the “sword” is the Word of God.
So He is saying that just because you have the Word of God in your household, if He does not open the eyes of someone else the same way He has opened your eyes, now there will not be any peace there because you are not going to be able to explain anything to your loved one because they cannot see what you see. Therefore, now it is like he is out in left field, but you know that God is the One who has to open his or her eyes. You know that, but they do not know that. So now there is turmoil in the house, turmoil. It would seem that since we both have the Bible, we both, supposedly, know who the Lord is, or everyone in the household.
Maybe this is new—I do not know—but I am sure that these kinds of things are going on in a lot of households today. It is not a pretty thing, but this is what the Word of God does. This is what it does and it is unhappy because there are a lot of things in Scripture that are unhappy. But as a child of God, we do not care. We want it. We want to know about it because it is God’s Word. It is His Word and we love His Word. Whether we like it or do not like it, we do not care. We do not care; we love it. But this statement right here, He says in Matthew 10:37-39:
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
The Word of God brings dissension in the family; it is going to do that. The Lord will take His Word. He will save this individual; He will save that individual. If it is His will, He will do that. We cannot make God save someone, especially when we want them to be saved. Right now, I want this person to be saved; I am tired of this or I am tired of that! We have no control over that. God is the only One who has control over this, and it is His business. This is His area. All we can do is just plead with Him for mercy, like the publican. We pray for one another, we pray for our loved ones, this is what the Word of God does.
Let us take a look at what else it does. Let us take a look in Hebrews 4. Again, we are talking about God’s Word that He uses as the “sword of the Spirit.” In Hebrews 4:12, it says:
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
What He is saying here is that this Word of God, what it does is it will discern what your intents, what your “thoughts and intents” are. The person sitting next to you, they do not know your thoughts or maybe your intents. They do not know. If you are just sitting there and you are planning this and you are planning that, the person next to you does not know that. None of us knows that. But this verse right here is telling us that the Word of God pierces “even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.” You see, you cannot really divide the soul and spirit, but it pierces it.
You see, the Word of God, first of all, is a two-edged sword. It has two edges on it. Therefore, going back to the armour, and God is using His sword as part of the armour but it is a spiritual battle, so this is a spiritual sword, which is the Word of God. It has two edges on the sword. It has two edges, which means that it can cut going and coming. This is just using it as a physical weapon, but, spiritually, it has another meaning.
Let us look at 2 Corinthians 2. We are going to find out how it cuts more than one way. How does it cut? In 2 Corinthians 2:16, this is talking about the Word of God, the “sword of the Spirit,” and it says:
To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
The Word of God is telling us that this “sword of the Spirit” is going to cut in two directions. It is either going to do one or the other. In other words, this Word of God is going to condemn that individual to death or it is going to bring that individual to life, eternal life or eternal death, one or the other.
This is what His Word does. This Word is powerful. When we think about what it can do! I mean, we are talking about eternity. Incidentally, this Word will be in eternity. It will go on into eternity, because it is eternal; it is the Word of God.
John 1:1:
In the beginning was the Word,…
The same Word that we are reading.
…and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Later, in John 1:14, it says:
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,…
So this Word is living. This Word is more than just words on a page. It is more than just that! Some people may view it like that, but it is much, much more.
Speaking about discerning, that it is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” I remember when I was about 7 or 8 years old. When I wanted to get some candy or something, I would knock on this lady’s door. She was an elderly lady and I would try to get her to let me go to the store for her because she would give me some money and then I could go get some candy. But someone looking at what I was doing would think, on the outside, “Hey, this is a nice little boy. Look at what he is doing for this elderly lady.” But on the inside, I wanted to get some candy if she would let me go to the store for her. Most of the time, she would let me go to the store for her and everyone would see me bringing the bread or whatever it was back to her house where she would reach down…she would not give me a dollar…it would be two pennies, two pennies, but I could get a piece of candy with that.
But the Word of God sees what you are really up to, what is really in your heart. I just wanted to get that candy. So what is really in your heart? What do you really want to get? Do you really love God’s Word? Do you really love Him? If you do, you have to love His Word. You can fool everyone around you, at any time, just about, but the Word of God says that it is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
We cannot do it. We can only believe what others say. You can only believe me; I can only believe you. That is as far as it goes. It cannot go any further. We cannot read minds or hearts, but this is letting us know that God knows. Whatever it is that we are up to, God knows all about it.
But, you see, He uses His Word to bring life, to bring those whom He has named from “before the foundation of the world.” He uses His Word to bring us to spiritual life. But then it also cuts the other way. It cuts to condemn an individual, further condemn them, and this same Word will condemn that individual to eternal damnation, and that is an awful, awful, awful sound.
Alright, let us see if we can look at an incident in God’s Word. Let us turn to Revelation 13. In Revelation 13:13-14, it reads:
And he doeth great wonders,…
This is talking about the “beast.”
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
This beast is Satan and the wound that he had was given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ when He went to the Cross. He is the Word of God, so He wounded him. He gave him a deathblow at the Cross. He did not kill him, but He gave him a deathblow at the Cross.
How does this tie in? In Revelation 13:14, He says:
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast;…
What are these “miracles” that this “beast” is doing? What is this? This is Satan. We know it is him, but can he really do a miracle? Can he do that? He is wounded by this “sword.”
In order to explain this, we have to go to John 18. I will begin reading in verse 2. It says in John 18:2-8:
And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way:
This is an incident that happened to the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember that just before this, Satan had entered into Judas and Judas went and betrayed the Lord Jesus for the thirty pieces of silver. Then he was right there leading the men to capture or take in captivity or bind Him; he was right there amongst them.
This is an incident that happened, but we want to see how it ties in to what we read back here in Revelation 13. The Lord Jesus was being taken into captivity. With this thought in mind, we have to go back to 2 Kings 1. I will start reading from verse 1, so that we can get the context. It says in 2 Kings 1:1-15:
Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease. But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back? And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words? And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite. Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly. And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight. Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.
They were going to take Elijah captive, just like they were going to take the Lord Jesus captive in the garden of Gethsemane. Elijah called down “fire from heaven” to destroy these men that were taking him into captivity. But the Lord Jesus could not do this because He had to be on the Cross the next day; He had a date with the Cross. He had to be there, so what He did was the equivalent of what Elijah had done, but instead of calling “fire down from heaven,” He made them fall backwards. So falling over backwards is the equivalent to calling down “fire from heaven.”
In Revelation 13, we see this “dragon,” and it says, “he maketh fire come down from heaven…in the sight of men.” This is a spiritual statement because Satan cannot make “fire come down from heaven.” If he could, he would have done this on Mount Carmel when they had that contest. He could not do this, but since he is right there and he knows Scripture, he knows that the Lord Jesus could have done that, but He did the opposite, which is the equivalent.
Satan can do this. He can make people fall over backwards, and this is going on today, right now, today. Churches that feature signs and wonders, they have a phenomena that happens in their church where people fall over backwards. They cannot really explain how it happens, but these things happen. Churches that feature tongues, God speaking in prophecies, and different things like that, they still believe that He is speaking today, and it is one big package, one big ball, one type of package.
Maybe some of us have come out of churches with backgrounds like this—I do not know—but these kinds of things are happening today, today, and this is a warning. God is telling us, through His Word, through His Word, that Satan is doing this right now. If you are affiliated or you are mixed up in this kind of a thing, this is a warning to watch out because it is not of God. It is not of God!
This is only one aspect, but this is what he does. In Revelation 13:14, God says:
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast;…
You see, it is a deception, and Satan works in the realm of deception. These people call this “being slain in the Spirit,” but you cannot even find this in the Bible! And this is not a good thing, because they were coming to take Jesus into captivity when this happened! How can you make that be something good? How can you get good out of that, something to where you say, “Oh, I want to do that”? And if you do, you basically become part of the ones who took Him into captivity! So fire coming down is like being under the judgment of God, just like those fifty in Elijah’s day. Personally, I would not want that.
But Satan is the master of deception. But once you realize that you have been deceived, you have not been deceived by a master. You see, a master of deception will keep you being deceived; you never catch him. The only way you can catch him is when God opens your eyes to this. You can talk to someone until they are blue in the face, and they might say, “Yes, yes, I understand, but…” and go right back to the same thing.
It is awful, this deception, and only God can get you away from this. He is the only One who can get you out of this. We pray that the Lord will take our loved ones, if they are in this, out of it, take them out of it because they do not know. They think that it is a totally different thing.
But you know what? We have God’s Word and God told us. He told us. He is telling us already. He has told us, and so we want to warn others. We want to warn our loved ones. We want to warn people that judgment day is coming; it is coming. It is very, very close. It is coming and the only thing that we have is God’s Word. We can take His Word, not only just carry it around, but also believe it; believe it.
You could show someone something like this in God’s Word, but they do not believe it. They will find every excuse, one way or the other, and say that it is not what it is. And you do not have to be right all the time. Do you understand? Because the Bible is right all the time—that is the thing. The Bible is right all the time.
So what are we going to do? What are we really going to do? Are we going to just carry this around, or are we going to believe it? The Bible says in Isaiah 53, “Who hath believed our report?” This is God’s report right here. Do you believe it? If you do, it is only by God’s grace.