🛡️ The Last Defensive Weapon: The Helmet

I’m grateful that you’re hanging in with me and looking at these defensive weapons.

In this lecture, we’re going to look at the last of the defensive weapons, and then we’re going to turn to the offensive weapons that we’re given, and the ways we can tear down strongholds.

  • We’re going to be looking at all that.

But today, we look at the last piece of defensive weapon—which is the helmet, the soldier’s helmet.

🚴 The Importance of a Helmet

Now, this is a picture of my bike helmet, and it’s a very important thing.

  • It’s a Schwinn.

  • And you know, I love to bike, and so I put on this helmet.

In fact, I would consider it a law now to put on a helmet, because there are certain facts about wearing this kind of helmet when you’re biking, and here are some of them:

  • Reduces the risk of head injury by 45 to 85%

  • Reduces the risk of a serious head injury by 69%

  • Reduces the risk of severe traumatic brain injury by 74%

  • 62% of cyclists killed in 2019 were not wearing helmets.

Wow. That means… and even though there’s no significant quality difference between expensive and cheap helmets…

  • In 2019, 843 bike riders were killed in crashes with motor vehicles.

In other words, if you don’t have something protecting your head, it’s going to affect your ability to live—because the head’s a rather important place, right where the brain is.

⚔️ The Helmet of Salvation

Well, let’s look at the helmet.
This is the Scripture passage again—you can read that first part.

  • But he says, “In addition to all these other defensive weapons that we’ve been looking at…”

  • Then he says, “Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation.”

A Roman Helmet

Now, here’s a picture of a Roman helmet.

  • It’s one that’s been recovered—it’s been dug up.

  • Obviously, it’s a little tarnished here and there, but that’s okay.

The helmet obviously covered the head.

  • Now, with the shield, you’ve got your body almost all covered—except for, you know, a little portion up here.

  • So, the helmet had these parts to it:

    • Covering of the top

    • This thing that went back down to cover the back of your neck

    • Protection for the neck and sides of your face

The whole purpose of the helmet was to protect you against a blow of a sword.

⚔️ The Broadsword

Now, the helmet was designed not just to deal with the short sword—we’re going to talk about differences in swords eventually, when we get to that.

  • What does it mean to take up that sword?

But there’s a particular kind of sword that this was designed to protect against—and it was called the Broadsword.

Here’s one that’s from the Berlin Museum, was found in 2013 and placed there.

  • You’ll notice the Broadsword is not the little Roman sword (which, as we’re going to see, was about two feet long).

  • This is a huge, long thing—it was heavy.

And the way you wielded the sword was to pick it up and then crash it down onto the head of your enemy.

  • The whole idea is, if you could disable the enemy’s head, you’d win.

And so, there is a helmet that’s necessary, and these helmets were designed so that they were rounded, so that there would be a glancing blow if somebody came at you with this kind of sword.

🤔 The Big Question

Now, the big question when we’re looking at this shield…

  • This is the helmet of salvation and the shield of faith…

  • But the helmet is:

How in the world do we put on this helmet?

The Helmet of Salvation: Guarding the Mind

Now, for the Roman soldier, this would be the last piece of armor that you'd put on.

  • You'd put on the belt of truth.

  • You'd put on the breastplate of righteousness.

  • You'd make sure your boots were in place and tied tightly.

  • You'd pick up your loins and put them into the belt, and you would gird up your loins.

  • You'd have the shield there, and you'd take up your shield.

And finally, you'd have a servant come bring you your helmet. That helmet would be put on you. It’d be tied tightly, and then it would be adjusted so that you are protected.

It would be the last thing you put on, because this is important. It protects your head.

Now, that, of course, is a metaphor, as Paul is looking at the Roman soldiers. He’s not saying, “Go get yourself a brass helmet.” What he’s saying is that the helmet, the helmet protects your brain, and it’s the helmet of salvation.

It protects the way you think. The enemy is going to come at the way you think—he’s going to come at you with a sense of what he wants to accomplish in your life, to twist your thinking. And so we’ve got to consider how we think.

📖 Romans 12: Renewing the Mind

Here’s from Romans, chapter 12. Paul says:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

🧠 Patterns in the World

Now, a couple of images in there that I wanted to look at with you when it comes to our mind—the way we think.

The first is that idea of, don’t be pressed into the pattern of this world.

When I lived in California, I had a section in my yard that just couldn’t grow grass in. So, I was considering putting in a patio, and I went to Home Depot, which is a home improvement store popular in the United States.

I found you could get these molds. The whole idea is:

  • You mix loose concrete.

  • You put it in the mold.

  • You press it in, trowel it out, and wait for it to dry.

  • Then you can take off the form and move on to another.

The whole idea is of being pressed into something.

You know, my kids used to play with Play-Doh, and they used to have these forms that you could make—if you wanted to make a truck, here it is. You just press it into a form.

The whole idea of this passage that Paul is saying is that there is a pattern in this world, and the enemy is the prince of this world, as you’ve seen.

He’s the prince of the power of the air. He’s got power, and in this world, he’s trying to get us to conform to the pattern of this world in our thinking.

❓ What Is the Pattern of This World?

Now that brings up a question, of course—what is the pattern of this world?

Most of us have a tendency to go to behaviors right away, you know?

“Well, this is the pattern of the world. When I was in high school, somebody came up with this little jingle for girls:

  • I don’t smoke and I don’t chew and I don’t go with boys who do.”

In other words, I’m going to look at the behavior and say, “Is this behavior the right kind of behavior?”

But Paul is not talking about just going to movies, playing cards. We used to think those were the really bad things.

That’s not what he’s talking about.

He’s talking about a way of thinking that is predominant in the world.


🧠 The Battle of Worldly Thinking

Now, I've been thinking about this, and I want to suggest four ways that the world thinks—ways that are part of what we battle and why we need to put on the helmet of salvation, which helps us hold to the truth of the Gospel.

🌎 Secularism: The Here and Now

The first one is secularism. It says:

"The only thing that matters is the here and now."

In other words, if you wanted to believe there was a heaven coming, and you're living because you know you're "saving up crowns in heaven" or whatever it is—secularism says:

"There's nothing beyond the here and now."

Carl Sagan, for example, had a series on public television here in the United States, and he would begin this way:

"The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be."

That’s secularism—the belief that the physical world is all there is.
It’s the belief that “I’m trying to be good.” But why?
Where do these values come from?
As Christians, we would say:

"They come from the Judeo-Christian heritage—there’s an understanding of what’s right and wrong."

In fact, if we could (though we’re not going to discuss it in detail here), we’d talk about the moral law implanted in the human heart.
But secularism says:

"No, that’s not true."

Interestingly, I just finished a book by a scientist who was an atheist but became a Christian.
Why? Because as he looked at the world, he realized:

"It can’t have happened by accident. There are too many little, tiny variables that make human life possible. If one little thing was off, human beings couldn’t exist."

So, he became a Christian because of that realization.

🌍 The Patterns of This World

And that led him to believe that there is a God who exists before the world was created—a God who loves him and speaks to him. This man is brilliant, brilliant. He’s older, holds multiple degrees—in medicine, biology, and chemistry—and he’s been a speaker and has led major organizations.
But none of that would’ve happened if he stayed a secularist.
He wouldn’t have experienced faith to the degree he did if he’d stuck with that.
He started as an atheist.

He believed, "The cosmos is all there is or ever will be."
That’s part of the pattern of this world.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Humanism: Looking Only to Ourselves

Another part of the pattern of this world is humanism.
In other words:

"Don’t look for meaning outside of yourself."

Here’s a graphic I saw about what a humanist thinks:

"Our lives and the world are ours and ours alone."
"Departure from tradition is a product of critical intelligence."
"Values and ideals can change as knowledge changes."
"Happiness comes from working to benefit society."

In other words, humanists believe we try to be good, but not because of some God we’re trying to serve.
They believe that human beings are at the top of the order in the world—we weren’t created that way, it just happened.
And that’s the way the world thinks.

⚖️ Moral Relativism: No Absolute Truths

Here’s a big one in the world’s thinking: moral relativism.
In other words, the belief that:

"There are no absolute truths."

Here’s what it means:

  • All points of view are equally valid.

  • All truth is relative to the individual and their environment.

  • All ethical, religious, political, and aesthetic beliefs are truths relative to one’s cultural identity.

  • Ethics become relative to social constructs.

  • Situational relativism means right and wrong depend on the situation.

  • Cognitive relativism says truth is relative and has no objective standard.

This is huge in the pattern of the world.

I was reading one man’s account while preparing for this class.
He described being on a plane and engaging in conversation with a woman sitting next to him.
Over time, he began to talk about what he believed—especially about marriage.
The conversation quickly turned to this topic, as the woman was preparing to get married.

He shared his belief that:

"God created man and woman, they come together, and commit to each other for life, etc."

Her response was:

"Well, that’s your opinion."

He described something else, and she replied:

"That’s your opinion."

He came back and said:

"No, but is it the truth? Is it true? It’s not just my opinion. If it’s true, then it matters."

Moral relativism says:

"Everything is your opinion, and society just puts some constructs and barriers on that. But otherwise, there’s no right and wrong—no ultimate truth—just whatever you and the people around you believe."

🏺 Moral Relativism & Materialism: The World’s Molds

And so moral relativism is one of the molds that the world tries to press us into.
And then finally, there’s materialism—the idea that:

"The more you have, the happier you’ll be."
That’s a huge, huge, huge one.

📖 A Scriptural Perspective

Let’s look at this from a scriptural point of view. Romans says:

"I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will."

🦋 Transformed: Metamorphosis of the Mind

A couple of words there to be aware of:

  • Transformed means metamorphosis.
    In other words, as our minds are engaged correctly, we’re going to change.

Paul is saying:

You can get a renewal. You can be transformed. Your life can be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
That’s a powerful, powerful concept, isn’t it?

This is like the transformation of a monarch butterfly in the chrysalis about to emerge.
Scientists have studied this—it’s a marvel. The very nature of the material that makes up the creature changes.

💭 What Are You Putting Into Your Mind?

You know, there’s a saying from the computer world—it’s a bit dated now but still applies:

"Junk in, junk out."
Or in other words:
"You only get out what you put in."

This applies to everything—exercise, for instance.
If you want to be in good health and in good shape, you have to put in the time with some form of exercise.
If you don’t, you’re not going to get the good health or energy you hope for.

Junk in, junk out. Right stuff in, right stuff out.

So what goes into your mind?

  • How many hours of television do you watch?
    One study I read said the average American spends 44 hours per week in front of the TV.
    Can you imagine? 44 hours a week!

  • What do you watch when you watch it?

  • What are you putting into your mind?

Junk in, junk out.

  • What do you read?

  • What kind of books do you read?

  • What magazines?

  • What kind of movies do you watch?

  • Do you spend time in the Word of God?

  • Time in worship?

  • Time in fellowship with other believers?

What are you putting into your life?
What are you putting into your mind?

🧠 The Helmet of Salvation and Our Thoughts

Many years ago, in fact, it was 1933, a man named Ellis came up with this idea of what he calls cognitive behavioral therapy. The big question is: Can anybody change? You know, you say you're trying to change your kids. You can't change your kids, but he found that people could change their behavior and have different emotions—if he could start with their heads put in the right thoughts.

👉 What we think affects how we feel and act, and then what we feel affects how we act. That's what our behaviors can affect our thoughts.

One simple example: A little kid sitting by himself, lonely in school, and he says, “I'm sitting here and nobody's looking at me. Something must be wrong with me.” And so he gets into a deep depression. Ellis begins working with him and helps him think a different way: “Maybe there's a different reason—they’re just on their phones.” So, he helps this boy think differently, and instead of staying in depression, he suggests trying some different behaviors. The boy tries going up to people and sitting with them during lunchtime, and he finds he's making friends.

💡 The idea is: What we think affects our behaviors and our emotions, and it's a circle like that.

🧩 What Are You Putting Into Your Mind?

Now the sad thing is, we don't spend enough time in prayer, we don't spend enough time in reading God's Word—putting that into our lives. In our society today, where I am—maybe it’s that way where you are too, maybe it's you—the question is:

🌿 What are you putting in?

Because what you put in is what you'll get out. If you're putting in the pattern of this world, that's what you're going to get out.

📚 C.S. Lewis’s Journey of the Mind

One example for me is C.S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis). He was a brilliant man, in England, back in the 1930s-50s. He’s written so many wonderful things—great books for you to read. But he talked about how he came to Christ. He was an atheist, a communist, and he came to Christ because he started reading some Christian authors.

One of them was G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man, an explanation of the Christian view of history, and Lewis was impressed. It made sense. But he couldn't stand the thought of becoming a Christian, so he tried hard not to think about it. Still, he kept reading, kept putting that stuff in his mind.

This is what he said as he came to conversion:

📝 “You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalene, night after night, feeling whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet.”
(From his autobiography, Surprised by Joy)

🛡️ The Helmet of Salvation

We put on the helmet of salvation, protecting our mind, because we know that that's how the enemy is going to get in—with temptation, doubts, and fears. And so we remind ourselves often:

💖 This God of salvation saved us, owns us, loves us.

📖 Next Time

We'll turn to some of the offensive weapons and how we go on the attack.
See you then!

最后修改: 2025年05月29日 星期四 09:39