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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

Chapter 11 The Helmet of Salvation and The Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6.17).

And then we must ensure that we have on the helmet of salvation. This means that we must be sure that we know that our salvation is guaranteed. That will certainly safeguard us against any attempts by Satan to fill us with doubts. So by our understanding of the truth as found in Scripture, and by our confidence in Christ as our Saviour, we must put on the helmet of salvation. But how can we be sure that it is guaranteed? The answer is because of the faithfulness of our Saviour. Salvation is not our work. We cannot save ourselves. We are indeed totally helpless. But what we can do is commit ourselves into the hands of Someone Who can be fully trusted and Who never fails. Into the hands of our Saviour. What we can do is call on Him to be our Saviour. Then matters pass from our hands into His hands. And then we can be sure that He will save us, in one sense has already saved us, because He is faithful and has promised to do so.

If my car breaks down when I am on a journey I do not lift the bonnet and have a look. I know too little about engines. I simply call a motoring organisation and let them do everything. And that is what ‘being saved’ is all about. It means that we have recognised that we have broken down and have put everything into the hands of a skilled mechanic, and have left it with Him.

Jesus said, ‘him who comes to Me I will in no way whatsoever cast out’ (John 6.37). He also said, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give to them eternal life, and they will never perish, and none shall pluck them from My hand’ (John 10.27-28). Thus if we have heard His voice calling to us through His messengers and have responded to that message, and have asked Him to save us and have begun to follow Him, we can be sure that He will in the future keep us secure from all dangers that can face us, whether of perishing because we wander away and are lost, or because someone seeks to pluck us from his protecting hand. What better security do we need than that? Someone once asked a well taught Christian, ‘do you believe in the perseverance of the saints?’ His quick reply was, ‘No I believe in the perseverance of the Saviour.’ And therein lies our certainty.

So our hope of salvation lies not in our own efforts, but in the efforts of our Saviour. If we go into hospital and put ourselves in the hands of a consultant we stop worrying about how we can make ourselves well. All we do is trust him to ensure that we receive the full treatment that we need. And can we trust our Saviour any less? For the hospital may fail us. But our Saviour will never fail us. Recognise then that once you have truly committed yourself into His hands your salvation does not depend on anything that you do, it depends on His faithfulness to the end (1 Corinthians 1.8-9). And you thus have your personal Physician standing by you at all times. That is why you will be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil when he tries to tell you that you are not really Christ’s at all. For your confidence will not simply be in the fact that you are ‘saved’ but in the fact that Your Saviour is with you at all times constantly at work on your behalf. We will be ‘confident of this very thing that He Who has begun a good work in us will continue to action it until the Day of Jesus Christ’ (Philippians 1.6). We will know that He will ‘confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of Our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 1.8).

And finally we need the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. The word of God is not just the Bible. It is the Bible taken and applied in our hearts so that we know its truth, and then taken by us and applied to others. It is God’s word through the Bible. Then as we have taken it into our hearts (and into our memories) so will we be able to call on it in any conflicts with Satan. We will be able to counter everything he says with, ‘Thus says the Lord’.

And when we find that he has been attacking others, we will be able to go to their defence and by use of His word show them the truth that will deliver them. But if we have failed to learn how to use the sword we will find ourselves helpless.

Being then ‘made strong in the Lord’ by His indwelling within us, and being ‘clothed in the whole armour of God’ by taking into our lives all that He has taught us, we will be able to stand in the evil day that at some time or another comes on every one of us, and having done everything, we will be able to stand.