Here are some key ideas our pastor shared in his sermon on Sunday. We know some wanted to see the longer quotes for personal consideration in more detail.
Since Christ has called us to the spiritual army of God, we should take up the Helmet of Salvation.
Why do we need to hear this? –
- Self-salvation – when we can only receive it as a gift
- Cheap Salvation – failing to live in full pursuit of holy obedience to our God
- Insecure Salvation – not secure in the saving love of God so fearful
“We may say that nothing is more important than for us to learn what we may call the tenses of salvation – past, present, and future. The Christian is a man who has been saved. He is justified by faith….He will never come into condemnation…He is delivered also from the dominion of Satan. He is already free…But then the Christian is a man who is being saved. He is not perfect, there is a work going on in him. But then also salvation has a future tense. The Christian has yet to experience final salvation. There is a day coming when he will be absolutely perfect…So you can describe the tenses thus: the past is justification, the present is sanctification, the future is glorification.” Lloyd Jones
SALVATION – PAST – ISAIAH 59
WE can look back on our salvation accomplished by the only perfectly armored one, Jesus Christ
SALVATION – PRESENT – Psalm 73
Referencing the Christians in the book of Hebrews – “they were weary, they were tired, they were persecuted, they were tempted; everything seemed to be against them, and they had got into a condition in which they were tempted by the devil to quit, to give it all up, to back out of the whole campaign, and to return to their former position.” Lloyd Jones
2 Peter 3 – Critics “said in effect: you Christians have said that the Lord is coming back, and that he will conquer his enemies and set up his kingdom, but where is the promise of his coming? Everything remains as it has been since the foundation of the world…You have made a mistake, you have believed a lie, your doctrine is not true. You might as well give it up because it has proved to be false.” Lloyd Jones.
To us today, the enemy says “that evangelist to whom you listened, and who urged you to become a Christian, told you that all your troubles would end, that you would walk down the road with a light step, that you would be in a new world, and that all would go well with you. But has it turned out to be like that? Are you not encompassed by trials and troubles and problems? Are you not finding yourself in a very weary, tiring campaign? Indeed, do things seem to be worse than they were before you became a Christian; is not the fight hotter and are not you being attacked as you have never been attacked before? So much for this Christianity of yours; it offered you so much, what is it really giving you in practice?” Lloyd Jones.
SALVATION – FUTURE – 2 Cor 4:6
Mat 24. Mark 13. Luke 21 – Referring to the end times Jesus speaks…
“But then he tells them about the end, and of how, when they think that everything is hopeless, and they are about to give way to despair, suddenly they shall see the Son of man coming, riding upon the clouds of heaven, King of Kings, Lord of Lord. That is what is meant here by the helmet of salvation. When the enemy tells you to give up and to give in, that you are hopeless, that you are losing, your answer is – the hope! The hope of glory! The hope of his coming!” Lloyd Jones
1 Peter 5:10
Heidelberg Catechism
Q1 – What is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong both body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, he has set me free from all the power of the devil. He preserves me in such a way, that without the will of my heavenly father, not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.
Q2 – What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort? First, how great my sins and misery are; second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance
Q6 – Did God then, create man, so wicked and perverse? No, on the contrary, God created man good and in his image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might rightly know God, his creator, heartily love him, and live with him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify him.
Q7 – From where, then, did man’s depraved nature come? From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise, for there our nature, became so corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin.
Q8 – But are we so corrupted that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil? Yes, unless we are regenerated by the spirit of God.
Q10 – Will God allows such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished? Certainly not. He is terribly displeased with our original sin as well as our actual sins. Therefore, he will punish them by just judgment, both now and eternally, as he has declared: cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law, and do them.
Q12 – Since, according to God’s righteous judgment, we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, how can we escape this punishment and be again received into favor? God demands that His justice be satisfied. Therefore, full payment must be made either by ourselves or by another.
Q13 – Can we ourselves make this payment? Certainly not. On the contrary, we daily increase our debt.
Q15 – What kind of mediator and deliver must we seek? One who is a true and righteous man, and yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is at the same time true God.
Q16 – Why must he be a true and righteous man? He must be a true man because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin. He must be a righteous man because one who himself is a sinner cannot pay for others.
Q17 – Why must he at the same time be true God? He must be true God, so that by the power of his divine nature, he might bear in his human nature, the burden of God’s wrath, and might obtain for us and restore to us righteousness, and life.
Q18 – Who is that mediator who at the same time is true God, and a true and righteous man? Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God made our wisdom our righteousness and justification and redemption.
Q20 – Are all men, then, saved by Christ just as they perish through Adam? No. Only those are saved to buy a true faith or grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits.
