Passage: Ephesians 6:17

The Big Idea

Your mind is like a field, and something is always being sown in it. Satan scatters his seeds through everything we watch, read and dwell on, and then waits for the harvest. God’s answer is the helmet of salvation: the sure hope of a salvation that’s complete in all three tenses. We have been saved from sin’s penalty, we are being saved from sin’s power, and we will be saved from sin’s presence. Putting on the helmet means keeping your mind set on Jesus and experiencing His victory.

Your Amazing Brain

“And take the helmet of salvation” (Ephesians 6:17).

Your brain is amazing:

New connections form every time you make a memory.
Your brain runs on roughly the power of a dim light bulb.
Some research suggests that even a small taste of power can change how a person’s brain works and reduce their empathy.
The pathologist who did Albert Einstein’s autopsy kept his brain, preserved in jars, for decades. (Why is it an insult to call someone “Einstein”?)
Signals can race through your nerves at over two hundred miles per hour.
Your brain contains tens of thousands of miles of nerve fibers.
Countless chemical reactions are happening in it every second.

Your brain is like a field of dirt: an incredibly complex field, but still a field.

God made Adam from the dust of the ground. And it’s no coincidence that dirt is where we plant seeds to grow crops. Almost anything will grow in dirt under the right conditions: whatever you sow.

(By the way, why shouldn’t you tell secrets on a farm? Because the potatoes have eyes and the corn has ears!)

We’re All Farmers

We’re all farmers. Every moment of every day, you’re sowing something, scattering seeds across the field of your mind. Everything you read, watch and meditate on is a seed.

When you plant a seed:

You can’t see it start to grow, hidden in the soil.
You have to wait for the fruit.
Eventually it becomes obvious what was planted.

That’s why advertising works. Companies pay billions of dollars to plant their seeds in our minds during a single sports season, because they know those seeds grow.

We’ve studied how Satan attacks us:

With lies.
Through our emotions.
By trying to scare us off.
Through tough circumstances, tempting us to sin.

Now we see how Satan turns our minds against us. He confuses us. He lulls us into numbness. Then he plants seeds of rebellion and laughs as they grow up and bear their destructive fruit.

He plants evil seeds as thoughts, using billboards, commercials, magazines, shows, movies, songs and screens. His attacks are tailored to each person. He knows what gets you. He studies the field, scatters his seeds, and he’s willing to wait.

Paul warns: don’t be deceived; God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows, that he will also reap. The one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit (Galatians 6:7-8).

The seeds will grow. You can’t fake what your field was sown with. No one looks at a cornfield and says, “Ooh, I can’t wait for the strawberries!” Your life will show what you’ve sown, and there’s no way to hide it.

Some people try:

Some are so ashamed of what their lives look like that they withdraw from relationships and lose themselves in their own worlds to avoid looking at the field.
Some try to drown the plants in alcohol.
Some try the pesticide of drugs.
Some try to keep it all in the shadows.
Some weep without hope.
Some become despondent and defeated.

But God

But God has given His children something amazing and precious: the helmet of salvation.

David Guzik connects this with 1 Thessalonians 5:8, which speaks of putting on “as a helmet the hope of salvation.” The helmet protects us against discouragement and the urge to give up. It gives us hope, not only knowing we’re saved now, but that we will be saved. It’s the assurance that God will win.

God gives His people a sure victory. It’s like a lawn mower for the weeds of the flesh and the devil.

And not just any mower. A thousand-horsepower, turbocharged, dual-exhaust, triple-titanium-blade, air-conditioned mower with an apostle Paul bobblehead on the dash and a license plate that says “SAVED,” ready to cut down every weed of sinful fruit in our minds!

That’s my illustration. Or we can just use Paul’s: a helmet of salvation.

Saved in Three Tenses

The Greek word for salvation (sōtērios, related to sōtēria) gives us the word soteriology, the study of salvation. Scripture describes salvation in three tenses, three ways Jesus saves us, and three ways the helmet protects our minds from Satan’s corruption:

Justification: saved in position. Saved from the penalty of sin. (Past.)
Sanctification: saved in practical, day-to-day reality. Saved from the power of sin. (Present.)
Glorification: saved completely from every effect of sin. Saved from the presence of sin. (Future.)

You may have the most corrupted mind in the world. But when you turn your mind away from the bad seeds and toward Jesus, He offers a fresh new life and a sure victory over sin, in all three areas!

Putting on the helmet is keeping your mind set on Jesus, and then experiencing His salvation, His victory over sin. It’s the hope of a victorious life becoming reality as you fix your eyes on Jesus and nothing else.

People sometimes say, “I tried Jesus, and He didn’t work.” I have to gently help them see that’s not quite right. Jesus promises salvation to everyone who calls on His name in faith. So did He lie? Or did they somehow miss the realities of salvation?

Let’s see how each tense protects our minds from the devil’s seeds.

1. Justification: nothing Satan has sown can keep you from your Father

This is past tense. We have been justified by faith in what Jesus did on the cross.

Paul concludes that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law (Romans 3:28).
Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).

If you believe in what Jesus did on the cross, and that it was your personal sacrifice for all your sin, you have peace with God. You’re blameless. You’re forgiven.

The devil wants to fill your mind with everything you supposedly need to do to have peace with God. But God is already at peace with you! The Father can’t be angry with you when He already poured out His wrath on Jesus for you.

Keep the faith. And you’ll see you’re still believing as your life lines up with what Jesus taught. That’s the natural fruit of a life that keeps remembering, “I’m forgiven. I’m at peace with You. So I draw near to You.”

Nothing keeps you away from your Father. You can burst right into His room, and He wants you to! Hebrews says we have boldness to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way He opened for us through the veil, His flesh. So let’s draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:19-22).

2. Sanctification: nothing Satan has sown can dominate you in this life

Paul says not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so you can discern God’s good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

Time to fire up the mower of salvation and see some sanctification around here!

Satan plants worldly thoughts in our minds, and we’re to renew our minds. To be transformed, not just conformed.

How? Hebrews says to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you won’t grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:2-3).

Get your eyes on Jesus. Get your mind on Jesus! Read the Bible. Listen to worship music. Just sit and think about Him. Never stop!

Did you catch that? “So that you won’t grow weary and lose heart.” Looking at Jesus is the cure for weariness and discouragement.

As we keep our eyes on Jesus, our minds are renewed, literally transformed. Our brains are taught. How?

Paul says the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age, while we look for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-13).

So grace teaches us how to produce good fruit while we wait for our glorification.

We can walk in freedom and victory over the power of sin. We won’t be dominated by it. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14).

Your mind may say, “I have to sin.” But Jesus will break that chain and set you free by His grace. Just keep your eyes fixed on Him.

3. Glorification: nothing Satan has sown will stay with you forever

Now we have confidence! Paul was confident that He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

Satan will try to discourage you. He’ll do anything to keep you from thinking about eternity. He fills our minds with endless distractions, all designed to keep us from thinking about our future life and victory with Jesus. (Psalm 73 is a great place to see how the eternal perspective changes everything.)

You Have Victory

Putting on the helmet means keeping your mind set on Jesus and experiencing His salvation:

Nothing Satan has sown can keep you from your Father. You have victory.
Nothing Satan has sown can dominate you in this life. You have victory.
Nothing Satan has sown will stay with you forever. You have victory.

But you might not see your victory yet. Remember the seed:

You can’t see it growing in the ground.
You have to wait for the fruit.
Eventually it will be clear what was sown.

If you’ve sown to the flesh, the results will be corrupted and mangled. If you tried to accomplish something spiritual in the flesh, by your own strength and resources, the result will be failure. If it isn’t done in the Spirit, glorifying Jesus and His grace, it won’t be a good crop. You might get some behavior modification, but the fruit can’t be hidden forever. That’s going into battle against Satan without your helmet.

Paul says we have been saved by grace through faith, and it isn’t our own doing; it’s the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

This helmet is a gift. You put it on by faith, keeping your mind on Jesus. And you’ll experience His salvation and victory in every area of your life.

Grace Takeaway

Something is always being planted in your mind, and the enemy is patient with his seeds. But God has given you a helmet: a salvation that’s secure in every tense. You’ve been saved from sin’s penalty, you’re being saved from its power, and you’ll be saved from its presence. Keep sowing to the Spirit by fixing your mind on Jesus, and let His grace cut down the weeds and grow a harvest of real, lasting fruit.

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Helmets, Farmers and Mowers