The Alternative

Unidentified Speaker: The joy you're looking for, you already got it. The peace you're looking for, you already got it, 'cause grace provides that.

Announcer: Dr. Tony Evans says there's more to our salvation than just a ticket to heaven.

Unidentified Speaker: You're saved by what God has already done. He's already sacrificed Jesus for you.

Dr. Tony Evans: This is The Alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. If so many of God's blessings became ours when we accepted Christ, why aren't we experiencing more of them? Well, today, Dr. Evans explores that question as he takes a closer look at the armor of God, focusing on the helmet of salvation. Let's join him. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6. Let me read verses 10 through 17. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, verse 10 says. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation.

Today we have reached the point in verse 17 where we're told to take the helmet of salvation. Paul's point is to stand firm in what Christ has already done, as opposed to trying to go out and do something yourself. He says that victory in the visible world is tied to victory in the invisible world. Defeat in the invisible world means defeat in the visible world. So to address the issues of life in the visible physical world without addressing the invisible spiritual root is merely problem management, not problem solutions. He declares that one of the things that will give us victory is what we wear on our head, the helmet of salvation.

The helmet that somebody wears is placed over the head. The reason that the helmet is placed over the head is to protect from brain injury. A football player wears a helmet to absorb shock. So that the brain is not damaged. Because the understanding is that if the brain is damaged, bodily function is impeded. He uses this physical concept of a helmet to drive home a spiritual point of spiritual victory. He says you ought to put on the helmet of salvation. Because what the brain is to the body, the mind is to the soul. So if I want my body to go right, my brain must think that way. If I want my soul to go right so that I tell my body to go right, my mind must think that way.

He says the brain or the mind must be protected to absorb the shocks of being hit in the spiritual realm by the enemy. He says, if you're going to win the enemy attacks, you must stand firm and you must have your helmet on. Your mind must be covered in the same way a physical helmet covers and absorbs the shocks that hit the brain. Well, what exactly is this helmet that you ought to put over your head, your mind, your thinking? He says, and take the helmet of salvation. So he describes what the helmet is. He says the helmet is a helmet called salvation. He's writing to people already saved. He's not writing to sinners.

He's writing to saints. The book of Ephesians are writing to saints, people who have already been blessed in heavenly places with all spiritual blessings. He calls them saints. He calls them brethren. He tells saints, people already born again, to take, pick up your helmet. He's telling saved people how to think saved, because he calls it a helmet. He says it is possible to be a saint but not think saved. At the core of most of our problems, and we all have them to varying degrees and to various levels, is our lack of understanding of salvation. Because most people think saved simply relates to me being born again.

That is the day I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior, that day I was saved, and it does refer to that. But it does not only refer to that. So please let me review salvation. Can I review salvation here? I'll quote it for you. I know you know it already, but Ephesians 2:8 and 9. By grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God so that no one should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he hath already created beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8 through 10. He says in those verses, salvation is by grace, through faith, unto works.

All of that makes up a package called salvation. The way you access grace is by means of faith. There's only one way to access what you already have, by faith, not by works. Faith is tapping in to the grace God has already provided. Faith is my positive response to what God has already done. The obedience or the work I do is to express my faith, not to earn my grace. You give a tithe because you trust God. So I act by my giving as an expression of my faith, but faith is my entry point into grace, and grace is God's supply back to me. Religion will kill you because it will keep you trying to earn what's already been given freely.

All of us have electricity in our homes. We are connected to the power company. All the power you need to run everything in your home, you already have. You would be foolish to call the electric company and say, give me more power. Give me more juice. Because all the juice for every outlet you possess, you already have by virtue of your relationship with the electric company. But let me tell you what you can't do. You cannot call the electric company and tell them to come over and flip the switch. They're not going to do that. Not because they haven't supplied the power, but because you possess the responsibility of connecting it.

They won't act for you on the connection. They won't come and flip the switch on for you. They won't come and plug in your toaster for you. They're not going to do that. But all the power that you ever need for the toaster and the lights to work, you already have. That's supplied by virtue of your relationship with your electric company, but you access it by action, flipping on the switch, plugging it in. You are saved by grace through faith. All the audio and video signals that you need for your television and your radio, you can't see them, but they're already flying all around you. You turn on the radio, you now bring it down.

You got on-demand television. It simply means when you want it, you can get it. It's out there, you got to call for it. So asking God to give you stuff that he's already given you is waste. It is the act of faith that accesses it. And no faith, there's plenty of grace that's gone unaccessed. But once you access it, it flows. Once you hit the gray spot and oil starts flowing, now you got to figure out how to control it. Because now you have discovered God had much more hidden under there than you could ever imagine. God's grace is like the ocean. What you need is like the oil. For eternity, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 7, God will be unveiling his grace.

In other words, you ain't seen nothing yet. So that little flow you gonna get won't even touch what God has in store. So our problem with our salvation, this helmet, is we don't understand grace, so we don't operate by faith. We try to get by works what God doesn't give by works. He only gives it by faith, but the way you know you have faith is because the good works reflect the fact you believed what God said about grace.

Announcer: Dr. Evans will continue that thought when he returns with more of today's message in just a moment. In the meantime, check into getting a copy of our follow-up book for this series, Victory in Spiritual Warfare. In it, Tony teaches you to recognize life's problems as symptoms of the invisible spiritual battle taking place around you and equips you to start winning victories on battlefields like marriage issues, money problems, even depression or addiction. That's why we want to send it to you as our gift. Just visit tonyevans.org, make a contribution to help keep Tony's teaching on the air, and we'll say thanks by sending you the book and Tony's current 8-part audio series, Armor of God.

This special offer ends in a couple of days, so don't wait. Visit tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our resource team members help you. I'll repeat all that information, and Dr. Evans will continue today's teaching right after this.

Guest (Male): How do you share the gospel with confidence? What's God's plan for our communities? Why does the Old Testament matter to your faith today? Those are just a few of the questions you'll get answered when you enroll in the Tony Evans Training Center, an interactive online study experience with Dr. Tony Evans, where you can grow in your knowledge of God's word and learn to advance his kingdom agenda in your life. Visit tonyevanstraining.org to get started today. That's tonyevanstraining.org.

Announcer: Let's return to our message now. Here's Dr. Evans.

Dr. Tony Evans: Salvation means we relate to God based on grace, what Jesus did, not based on performance, what we do. Let me help you, let me help you. You do not have to try to get God to like you. You, you, that's wasted energy. Oh, if I do this, he'll like me more. If I do this, he'll love me more. If I do this, he'll be nicer to me. If I do that, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. All the liking God is ever going to like you with, he already likes you with. That's freedom right there. That I don't have to earn God's favor. Now, when you, when that thing sinks into your soul, and I know most of us have grown up trying to earn people's favor, get people to like us.

We got to perform, you know, on your job, you got to perform. For your family, you got to perform. You got to perform the form so that they'll treat you right and they'll like you and they'll talk nice about you and all that. Well, that's how you operate on earth. That's not how God operates in heaven. Now, you don't have problem pleasing him. You don't have problem worshiping him. You don't have problem giving to him, because now you want to express faith in what he's already done. You're not trying to manipulate him into doing it. The US has a witness protection program. You know what they do?

They change your identity. The reason they change your identity is 'cause somebody after you. So they want you to become somebody different without actually changing who you are. A new name, new social security number, new license, new place to live, new identity for you and your family, 'cause somebody after you. So they want to reclassify you, and they want you to think in terms of the new you now, not the old you you were raised to be. Now they tell you up front, you're going to have to get used to this, because you used to being called by your old name. You used to operate this way. You used to move about this way.

But in this new situation, because somebody after you, we want to deliver you from the person that's after you, and the way we're going to deliver you is change who you are. But unless you get used to functioning in the new way you're declared to be, you're going to make yourself vulnerable to the one trying to get you. What God is trying to tell us in spiritual warfare, somebody's after you. Somebody's trying to stop your progress and block your future and keep you from achieving your goal, but God has got you in a new program now. He's got you in a salvation program where he is now changing how you look at yourself, and you ought to look at yourself from the perspective of God, no longer from the perspective of man, and then the hitman can't get to you because he don't know who you are.

Paul says, he says, I am what I am in 1 Corinthians 15 by the grace of God. I am what I am by the grace of God. I used to kill people, and now I'm writing 13 books of the New Testament, and now I'm establishing churches all over. And let me explain to you, I didn't get this way because of me. I am what I am by the grace of God. But then his next statement is a killer. He says, I am what I am by the grace of God, and because of that grace, I labor more. In other words, when I understood grace, it ain't make me lazy. He says, when I understood all that God has already done for me, I want to access it all, so my work is my response to his grace.

I'm not trying to earn it, I'm just so thankful for it, I'm going to express faith in it by the work I do because of it. Grace doesn't make you lazy, it makes you more committed, it makes you more excited, it makes you more generous, it makes you more obedient. Because when you see everything he's already done, and all you got to do is access it, not earn it, that's free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last. Now, what's the result of this grace? This helmet. I put on this helmet called salvation. The word saved means to be delivered. That's what the word saved means. But he's not talking about salvation from hell in the future.

He's talking about salvation from hell in the present. I only have time to introduce it. But let me show you a zinger scripture. Can I show you a zinger? A zinger scripture. Romans chapter 5. Watch this now. Let me start at verse 6. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. We were helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man some would dare to die. But God demonstrated his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In other words, he died for us when we were at our worst.

Okay? Now watch this. Much more, say much more. Much more. That means on top of all that. When we were at our worst, he killed his son. When we were at our worst. Much more than, having now been justified by his blood, okay, you got saved, born again, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. Wait a minute now. When we were sinners, Christ died. Now that we are saints, justified by his blood, he has another kind of salvation. Salvation from the wrath of God. Okay, talk to me about that, Paul. Verse 10. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more, say much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Watch this now. If Jesus could save us when we were enemies and sinners by his death, he says, oh, much more, not a little bit more, whole lot more. Will he not save us by his life? If he could die and save us, and he rose from the dead, don't you think he can live and save you? What exactly is he saving us from? He's saving us, he says, from wrath. Now, when you hear that, you're going to naturally think of hell. Uh-uh. He not talking about that wrath. Now, that's eternal wrath. He's talking about salvation now. You say, but I, he used the word wrath. Turn back in the book of Romans to chapter 1, verse 18.

For the wrath of God is revealed, not will be, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known of God is evident within them, for God has made it evident to them. Now watch this now. He now says the wrath of God in verse 18 is already revealed. Now eternally it will be revealed. That's hell. But some of us don't have to wait to go to hell to be in hell. Because some of us are in our own private hell, our own personal hell. We got fires burning all over the place. We're not talking about eternal hell.

He's talking about the wrath that is revealed, happening right now. Now, let me explain how this works. Injected into sin is wrath. Let me say that again now. Wrath is injected into sin. Sin has wrath built in. Many of us have gone through, are going through consequences. If we didn't do what we did when we were 18, if we didn't do what we did when we were 25, we didn't do what we did when we were 30, we wouldn't be where we are today. It's not that God is throwing wrath at you, it's that wrath is built in as a consequence to the sin. He says, now when Jesus Christ died, when you were an enemy, he saved you, but now that he's alive, he wants to deliver you from the wrath consequence because he's going to deliver you from the power of sin, and sin has a consequence already built in it.

So if he delivers you from the sin, he delivers you from the consequence. Some of us started out with one drink, and now the drink is telling us what to do. Some of us started popping up with one pill, and now we're injecting into our arms because in the sin was the consequence. Well, the way you get rid of the consequence is by having the power to deal with the sin. I am not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God unto salvation. So when you understand that the power is in the saving and it deals with the sin that brings the wrath, then what I get is delivered. When I put on the helmet of salvation, what I'm doing is blocking Satan from bringing the consequence because I denied him the sin where the consequence is built in.

And since I don't want the consequence, I'm gonna deal with the sin, but in the salvation, having grace through faith unto good works is the power of the gospel that deals with the sin that overrides the consequence. So I'm free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.

Announcer: Dr. Tony Evans talking about one of the key concepts of the Christian faith, one that many of us still have a hard time trying to understand and apply, but that can change for you today, and here's Dr. Evans to explain how. If you want to know for certain that you're on your way to heaven when you die, then I invite you right now to go to Jesus Christ and let him know that you believe he died for you, that you believe he arose for you, and that you want to put your trust in him alone for the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of eternal life. If you really want to go to heaven, He'll give you a free ticket there, but you must go to Him for it and believe Him to give it to you.

If you do that, you'll be saved right now. There's a lot more about how that process works on our website. Just visit tonyevans.org and click on the link that says Jesus. Dr. Evans will lead you in prayer there, and he has some free downloadable resources to help guide you in a new life in Christ. It also might help to review the full-length version of today's lesson, The Helmet of Salvation. It's available as a standalone message, but for the next few days, you can also get it as our gift, along with the other lessons in Tony's eight-message collection on the armor of God. Our way of saying thanks for your contribution to help keep this listener-supported broadcast coming your way.

Along with it, we'll also include the book I told you about earlier, Victory in Spiritual Warfare. You can take advantage of this offer at tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are available around the clock to help you. That's 1 800 800 3 2 2 2, or online at tonyevans.org. God's word isn't just powerful, it's precise. It can cut right to the heart of the problem, even if the problem is our heart. On Monday, Dr. Evans talks about how God uses the sword of the Spirit to perform the spiritual surgery we need. I hope you'll join us.