THE ARMOR OF GOD: HELMET OF SALVATION & SWORD OF SPIRIT - EPHESIANS 6:10-20

♪ Die for me ♪ His goodness, his merit, his righteousness ♪

The sinner's only plea ♪ Oh foolish pride be crucified ♪

The work is finished Sing it out. ♪ All my boast is in Jesus ♪

All my hope is his love ♪ And I will glory forever ♪

In what the cross has done Amen. ♪

Now fully forgiven my life is filled ♪ With graces undeserved ♪

For mercy that flowed down that sacred hill ♪ Let praises now return ♪

Rise up my soul and bless the Lord ♪ Who else is worthy ♪

All my boast is in Jesus ♪ All my hope is his love ♪

And I will glory forever ♪ In what the cross has done ♪

Oh praise the one forever ♪ Forever blessed him alone ♪

My heart adores ♪

And I will boast in nothing less ♪

And the love of Christ my Lord Amen.

Oh praise. ♪ Oh praise the one forever ♪

Blessed him alone ♪ My heart adores ♪

And I will boast in nothing less ♪

And the love of Christ my Lord Amen.

♪ I boast not in riches and strength or might ♪ But in the grace of God ♪

I glory in weakness to live as Christ ♪ In plenty or in want ♪

That I may know that all my sin ♪ Has power within me ♪

All my boast is in Jesus ♪ All my hope is his love ♪

And I will glory forever ♪ In what the cross has done ♪

Now I stand in his freedom ♪ Ransomed clean in his sight ♪

Oh I cannot be ashamed ♪ For my boast is

Jesus Christ ♪ My boast is Jesus Christ ♪

My boast is Jesus Christ Amen. Guys, our public reading of God's holy inspired word is in 2

Corinthians chapter four this morning. Starting in verse seven, Paul says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written,

I believed and so I spoke. We also believed and so we also speak knowing that he who raised the

Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

That's good news, isn't it, Saint? For it is all for your sake so that as by grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

That's the point, right, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart though our outer self is wasting away.

Oh, you feel that, don't you, Saint? I know I feel that. Our inner self is being renewed day by day.

That's why we're gathered here, right? For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comprehension.

As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen, oh, they're eternal.

Oh, what a great truth, guys. You may be seated. I just wanna say welcome.

Welcome to the Lord's Day gathering today where we the saints encourage one another all the more as we await the return of our

Savior where he is going to put that final enemy death under his feet and all of this wasting away and all of the suffering and all of the stuff is over.

But in the meantime, we desperately need encouragement from one another and that's one of the reasons that we gather to worship the

Lord today. So thank you covenant members for being here. But we also wanna say a special thank you to those of you that are visiting.

We seem to have a lot of visitors every single Sunday and that's a great thing. And our desire is for you to feel welcome.

We want you to feel welcome in our midst, but we desire that even the members, the guests, the regular attenders, every single one of us today would grow in the fear and knowledge of the triune

God. Amen. That's our desire. But before the service begins, I would like to encourage all of you parents of small children.

If you were here Wednesday night, I kind of gave you a bit of a taste of kind of an announcement I really wanted to address.

If you can't tell we're a family integrated church, what does that mean? Meaning we don't offer nursery, we don't offer children's classes and childcare on the

Lord's day. We do on Wednesdays. If you come on Wednesdays, we have doctrinal training in here. We've got children's classes in there.

We've got nursery over there. We've got youth over at Shadrach's right down the street. We have that on Wednesdays, but on the

Lord's day gathering, we think it is important for the families to be together. And for the little ones, even the babies in the room to see mom and dad worshiping the one true

God. That is vital. However, here's the thing. We know that's difficult. We know how difficult it can be for parents, especially with young children.

That's why we offer the nursing room in the back, right? So we have this room back there for any parents, particularly mothers.

I know you carry the weight of that a lot, to be able to take small children back there. We have a television back there.

You can see what's going on in here. You can hear what's going on in here. The thing is, is little ones are gonna make noise, right?

Little ones make noise. That's just part of life. And that's a good thing. We have life happening in the midst and we see families coming and that's great.

But we do wanna ask please parents to use discernment. And so when that noise becomes a distraction to those around you, little bits of noise, no big deal.

That's family integrated. We love it. We like children being in here, but sometimes it can get out of control and it can become a distraction.

Mothers and fathers, you know, you're distracted with the child. You're not listening. And everyone around you, it becomes a distraction.

So mothers, we know this season of life is hard for you and watching the sermon on the back

TV in that back room is not the same as being in here. I totally understand. But that is why we as elders, we would like to walk alongside you.

So parents, this is a hard thing. There is actually things that you can do to train and prepare even your smallest, even young toddlers to sit in the room.

There's things that we can do. As a matter of fact, we've worked with a couple of families so far and they're seeing tremendous growth and being able to, for that child to be able to sit through the service more.

And so we wanna walk with you. We're not just telling you, go back there every Sunday. We're telling you, come talk with me, come talk to Pastor Keith.

Pastor Jeremiah's not here this morning, but you can usually talk with him. And we would like to help walk with you, disciple you in child raising and particularly what that looks like in a family integrated church because that's just not normal for our culture.

Most churches, a lot of people are coming and using Sunday morning, the Lord's Day gathering for free childcare, right?

That's typically the way church functions. It's like, get my kids out of here and I get my hour where I can really focus and pay attention.

There's things that can be done, guys. I just wanna encourage you. This is not a jab at anyone in the room for anything.

We love the children. We love your children. We love you and we want what's best for all of you.

So please be encouraged. Come talk with us and we can walk through that with you.

You on the same page? Everybody good? All right. It's a tremendous benefit to have the children in here.

Well, before we go to our call to worship and officially start our service, let's pray for our local church.

Well, this morning we would like to pray for Emmanuel Southern Baptist Church in Salem, Arkansas. And the reason is, is because as you can see,

Pastor Jeremiah's not here. He is filling the pulpit there in Salem. And Pastor Jeremiah, this is actually his grandmother and his aunt's church.

And so it's very near and dear to him. What's that? Used to be your church. Hey, there we go.

We got roots there, okay. And so from what I understand, the pastor that's there is a

Reformed Baptist. And so he and Jeremiah have hit it off real well. And so Pastor Jeremiah's over there preaching.

So let's go to the Lord this morning and pray for that congregation before we start our service. Dear Heavenly Father, we bow before you this morning and we thank you.

God, we thank you for Emmanuel Southern Baptist Church there in Salem. Lord, we pray that you would give their leadership wisdom, peace, comfort.

God, I pray that you would give them discernment as they are under shepherds, under the good shepherd.

They would look to Christ or they would lead well. Lord, we pray that you'd be with the people there, that you would grow them or that you would mature them.

They would grow in the knowledge of you, but then not just a hearing of the word, but doing the word, but obedience to the word.

We thank you for them. Be with Pastor Jeremiah as he proclaims the word this morning to them.

Lord, I pray that you give him boldness and clarity of thought. Lord, I pray that your words would go forth with power.

But we know that anytime we read your word, speak your word, speak your truth, that it cuts through.

And it either sanctifies and molds your children, brings people that are currently in spiritual death to life to see the beauty of Christ, or it furthers them in their condemnation and their enmity with you.

But it will do its work. And we ask that you would do your work in that this morning in Salem.

We thank you in Christ's name, amen. Y 'all ready to start our service? Yes, yes.

Does anybody need some of Chris's coffee right now? Is that what's happening? Okay, are you ready to worship

God this morning? There's an excitement to this, amen. Stand, let's go to the

Lord in a call to worship. Our call to worship comes from Psalm 119, starting in verse 113, where the psalmist says, we hate the double -minded.

That's right. You are our hiding place and our shield. Depart from us, you evildoers.

We will keep the commandments of our God. Uphold us according to your promise that we may live.

Hold us up that we may be safe. You spurn all who go astray from your statutes.

All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross. Our flesh trembles for fear of you.

And all God's people said, amen. We tremble in our flesh because he is altogether separate.

His judgments are perfect. His judgment is right. And if we are in Christ, we stand in no condemnation, right?

But we pray that those that do not know Christ this morning would repent and trust in the work of Christ.

Not their works, not their ability to obey. Not their ability to uphold his statutes. Because that's right, none of us in this room ever, ever, ever were able to uphold his statutes, were we?

Not one of us. Christ did it for you. We trust in his merits and in his perfect work.

And then we stand fearless. We fear him and out of reverence and respect, but we have no condemnation.

He is our father now. That is a beautiful thing. Let's go to our father in a prayer of adoration.

Dear heavenly father, we bow before you once again. God, we come to you asking that you would be honored in our worship.

God, this flesh wars against us. It has the remaining old man in it.

And we do the things that we don't wanna do and we don't do the things that we want to do, Lord, forgive us. But we come into your throne room boldly right now.

For you are the great judge. You are the creator and you will not allow even an ounce of sin in your presence.

You will cast it into eternal judgment with a perfect, perfect judgment, perfect punishment that matches the crime.

Oh Lord, but you are holy. And because of your great goodness and love, you have saved us.

You have made a way through the blood of Christ, through faith.

We thank you for that. We thank you for your graciousness, your grace upon grace this morning for us and undeserving people.

In Christ's name, amen. Are y 'all happy to be here this morning? Amen, yes.

All right, let's be glad this morning, saying we have a reason to rejoice, amen. Let's sing out, let the nations be glad.

I wanna hear everyone singing, amen. Let the glory of the

Lord forever be a joy, amen. Let the glory of the

Lord forever be a joy. For you should be the theme of our song.

For by grace, for by grace we have been saved.

And by grace we shall proclaim to the corners of the earth that Christ has won.

Let the nations be glad. Let the peoples rejoice.

For salvation belongs to our

God, yes. Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the

Lord. For salvation belongs to our

God. Let the nations be glad. Through the ages.

Through the ages gone before. Through the trial and the sword.

Many saints and martyrs conquered, though they died. Still we're holding out the cross.

Crossing oceans, suffering loss. Shall endure all things to win the crown of life.

Let the nations be glad. Let the peoples rejoice.

For salvation belongs to our God, yes.

Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the

Lord. For salvation belongs to our

God. Let the nations be glad. As your holy church goes forth in the

Holy Spirit's power with the glories of the gospel to explain.

Now we pray your kingdom come. And we pray your will be done.

For the honor and the glory of your name.

Let the nations be glad. Let the people rejoice.

For salvation belongs to our God, yes.

Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the

Lord. For salvation belongs to our

God. Let the nations be glad. Amen.

Thank you, Father, so much for your salvation. For salvation belongs to you,

Lord. We are so unworthy this morning, Lord, but we're so grateful. Lord, we praise your name this morning.

We lift you on high. This worship is all about you. Lord, bless this worship this morning.

Father, we love you, we praise you. Ask all these things in Jesus' name, in the power and the powerful name of Jesus, in all of God's people's sin, amen.

Christ is our hope in life and death, amen. What is our hope in life and death?

Christ alone, Christ alone. What is our only confidence?

That our souls to Him belong. Who holds our days within His hand?

What comes apart from His command? And what will keep us to the end?

The love of Christ in which we stand.

Oh, sing it. And oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal.

Oh, sing hallelujah. Now and ever we confess.

Christ our hope in life and death, amen. What truth can calm the troubled soul?

Truth can calm the troubled soul. There it is. God is good, yes.

God is good. Where is His grace and goodness known?

In our great Redeemer's blood. Who holds our faith when fears arise?

Who stands above the stormy trough? Who sends the waves that bring us nigh?

Unto the shore, the rock of Christ. Sing it out.

And oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal.

Oh, sing hallelujah. Now and ever we confess.

Christ our hope in life and death, amen.

Through the grave, what shall we see? Yes, Christ, He lives.

Christ, He lives. And what reward will heaven bring?

Here it is. Everlasting life within. And we will rise to meet the

Lord. And sin and death will be destroyed.

And we will feast in endless joy. And Christ is ours forevermore.

Oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal.

Oh, sing hallelujah. Now and ever we confess.

Christ our hope in life and death. Oh, sing hallelujah.

Our hope springs eternal. Oh, sing hallelujah.

Now and ever we confess. Christ our hope in life and death.

Now and ever we confess. Christ our hope in life and death. We're gonna go to Him now in a prayer of confession and assurance.

Prayer of confession and assurance is our acknowledgement of our sin, as we've already done so far this morning.

But we just want to acknowledge our sin personally. We want to acknowledge our sin corporately. We want to acknowledge sin for that wretched flesh that is in us that continually wars against the spirit.

And then we want to also pray that prayer of assurance. Because it is in Christ alone.

He is our hope in life and death. So bow with me. Let's pray. Great and holy heavenly

Father. We humbly come before you and we ask that you would grant us confession.

Father, we sometimes hide behind our sin. We sometimes wallow in the mud.

In the sin and brokenness of this world and our flesh.

We don't do as we ought to do. Because we just don't seem to have the power to do so.

We harm our brothers and sisters. We respond with hatred instead of love.

We confess before you now that we are weak. And we fail you time and time and time again.

And if it's left to us, we would be all lost.

Lord, disunity. Even in a wonderful church like this, I see little pockets of disunity.

That the evil one just continually throwing those darts, those fiery darts in. And then our flesh,

God, just runs with it. And causes division. We don't want to be with that brother or that sister.

We say, oh, I love them, but I'm just not going to be that close with them. I'm not interested in going and spending time with them or sitting down at a meal with them.

I'm going to avoid that particular person or those particular people, God. Forgive us. What godlessness.

Forgive us, Father. Convict us. Let us see the beauty of your holiness and your righteousness and your perfection.

As we look and gaze upon our Savior, Jesus Christ. And then as we do, Lord, let that be a great abounding confidence and assurance in our hearts.

That it is not me that lives this out. It is Christ that has done it for me. He is my hope.

He is my lasting faith. He is our everything. And so when you look at us, you don't see our brokenness.

You don't see our division and our hatred and our laziness and our indifference. And the things that we think and the things that we do and the things that we say, you don't see those.

You see the perfect righteousness of Christ and Christ alone. Thank you, Father. Oh, help us to rest in that assurance for there is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We thank you in Christ's name. The sin that promised joy in life had led me to the grave.

I had no hope that you would own a rabble to your will.

And if you had not loved me first,

I would refuse you still.

But as I ran my hellbound race, indifferent to the cost, you looked upon my helpless state and led me to the cross.

And I beheld God's love displayed. You suffered in my place.

You bore the wrath reserved for me. Now all

I know is grace. Proclaim it.

Hallelujah. All I have is

Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus is my life.

Now, Lord, I would be yours alone and live so all might see.

The strength to follow your commands could never come from me.

Oh, Father, use my ransom life in every way you choose.

And let my song forever be my only boast.

It is you. Hallelujah.

All I have is

Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus is my life.

Hallelujah. All I have is

Christ. And hallelujah. Jesus is my life.

One more time. And hallelujah. Sing it out, Saint. Yes. All I have is

Christ. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Jesus is my life.

Amen. Who else commands all the host of heaven?

Who else can make every king bow down? Oh, yeah.

And who else can whisper and darkness trembles?

Only a holy God. That's right. Yes. What other beauty demands such praises?

What other splendor outshines the sun?

What other majesty rules with justice? Only a holy

God. And behold

Him, the one and the only.

Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy

God. Come and worship a holy God.

What other glory consumes like fire? What other power can raise the dead?

Yes. What other name remains earthly? Only a holy

God. Behold Him, the one and the only.

Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy

God. Come and worship the holy God.

Who else could rescue me from my family? Who else would offer

His only Son? Who else invites me to call

Him Father? Only a holy

God. Sing it. Yes. Only my holy God.

Sing it out. Come and behold

Him, the one and the only.

Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy

God. Come and worship the holy God.

Behold Him, the one and the only.

Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy

God. Come and worship the holy

God. Amen. Who else commands all the hosts of heaven?

My holy God. Yes, thank You, Jesus, so much, Father Lord. We praise You this morning. Your glory,

Lord, it consumes like fire. What other power can raise the dead?

Only Your power. What other power remains undefeated? Only You, God. You're the only power.

You're the only. You are the one true righteous King, Father Lord, and we love You this morning.

We proclaim Your goodness, Lord. Lord, I praise

You so much for saving me, Lord. Thank You, Jesus, for saving me. Lord, I pray this morning,

Lord, as we prepare, Lord, to take up our offering, Lord, I just pray that You would bless this offering.

Lord, bless each saint that gives back to You what is already

Yours in the first place, Lord. Lord, I pray this morning as Pastor Keith prepares to come and deliver

Your Word, Lord, preach and proclaim Your truths from Your Word, Lord.

Lord, I pray that You would just anoint him right now. Lord, give him the words to speak.

Anoint everyone in this congregation, Lord. Just clear out all of our distractions,

Lord. Any distractions that Satan may throw at us this morning, Lord, I just pray that You would just deflect them,

Lord. Lord, open our hearts and our ears and our minds. Father, we love

You. We praise You. We ask all these things in Jesus Christ, precious and holy name. Amen.

Amen. I got so wrapped up in watching my little grandchildren help

Papa that I forgot. Thank you all. Well, I tell you, it's hard not to get caught up in worship in this church.

I mean, I was just over there just wrapped in the love of God, praising Him. And I want to thank, and I've done this before, but the worship team.

I mean, I don't know if everybody realizes the time that they put in to preparing to lead us in worship every week.

And it's such a sacrifice. And, you know, the Lord says that He blesses those sacrifices. And I think we see this.

We see this in the church. So thank you all. As you can probably tell,

I'm preaching on two of the pieces of the armor of God today. So I've been given a twofer.

So as such, I'm asking for a little mercy and a little grace because,

Mike, the runway is out there somewhere, and I'm going to go looking for it. But I guarantee that I'll find it.

So anyways, today we're in Ephesians 6, 17. If you want to go ahead and turn to Ephesians 6, we're going to read the whole section of Scripture that details the armor of God before we get started.

So if you'd like to go ahead and turn there. And what a trip it's been through the book of Ephesians.

And we're getting close to the end, and it just seems like Pastor Nathan and I was talking the other day that we just started not too long ago.

But I believe it has been so beneficial for the church. And I know for the leadership of the church, for parents, children, for everybody, it's been such a blessing.

But let's get started in Ephesians 6, 10 through 20. It starts off strong saying,

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.

And having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and his shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

And here's our verse, And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me, that words may be given to me, and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

For which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Let's pray. Father, we're just so thankful for the many truths that you've given us, the many promises, the many assurances that you've given us in this book of Ephesians.

And now you're instructing us how we can resist evil. How we can stand in your might and in your strength.

Lord Jesus, please speak to us. Speak to us concerning our responsibility with what you've given us.

I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, as a Christian, I'm sure most of you realize that there's going to be seasons that you go through in your life that's going to require great effort on your part.

These seasons will involve conflict against the powers that we just read about here in Ephesians. And we cannot regard this conflict that we're going to be facing as merely as something between reason and conscience on one side of the battle, and evil on the other side of the battle.

We are told that it's a spiritual battle that we're fighting. And the one thing we cannot rely on in this battle is our own strength.

In fact, the very six words in the section we just read says, Finally, be strong in the

Lord. I think that is one of the major keys to this whole section. To be successful in this fight, we must be able to rely on His strength.

So how do we rely on His strength in our life? How do we have this power that Paul is talking about to us?

Does it just suddenly appear when we become justified, when we receive salvation?

Or does sanctification play a major role in it? Well, in John 15,

I think Jesus gives us a clue. He tells us that He is the true vine.

And He states that apart from Me, you can do nothing.

And if you look up the Greek in nothing, it means zero. We have to be able to rely on Him.

He states, He goes on to state, that to produce much fruit, you must what? Abide in Me.

That is our responsibility. That is our part, what we must do. He gives us the strength, but we still must make this effort to abide in Jesus Christ.

This is what happens after we become in Christ. We then abide in Christ.

Now Jesus uses this word abide as an imperative verb, which literally means to remain, to stay in, to rest in, or to reside in.

This is in reference to living in close fellowship with our Lord and Savior.

It means to be in the Word on a constant basis. It means to not be distracted or lose focus on the main thing, and that is our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It means to trust in Christ for all our needs.

This is how we are strong in the Lord. This is how we are to live in a world that constantly is in conflict with us, by abiding in Him.

So, to get started on the first armor of God, which is going to be the helmet of salvation,

I have several points that I would like to make. The first being the purpose of the helmet of salvation.

In the first century, the Roman soldiers, mainly the line soldiers, the rank and file, wore helmets that were strengthened leather, and they would be covered with metal plates to give it strength.

Now we have this helmet up here that Chris Gross loaned us, and I appreciate that,

Chris, along with a lot of information on it. But this is something similar to it, but it's more of what an officer, maybe a centurion, would wear in the

Roman soldier. But it gives us a really good idea of the protection it involves.

We can see neck guards, ear guards. We see this big plume up on top, and Chris told me that one of the main reasons for that was so that the rank and file could see their leader in front of them.

They could see where he was and which direction he was going. If this big ornament or plume turned one way or the other, they could see it, and then they could follow him in that direction.

But you can see it is well armored, and that's for a good reason. That's a very good reason.

The armies that the Romans were fighting at the time mainly used these long broad swords, spears, pikes, and axes in attempt to maim and to kill the soldiers.

And one thing a Roman soldier would never, ever do is to go into battle without his helmet.

That was one of the main pieces he had to have because a head wound almost ensured death, and often an agonizing death, too.

So it's no surprise that this is one of the places that Satan tries to attack us.

He tries to attack us where he knows we're going to be the most vulnerable, and that is why

Paul is drawing attention to our head. The helmet of salvation goes on our head.

Satan wants to attack our mind. He wants to attack our understanding. He wants us to believe that we are not in Christ.

He wants us to believe things that are not true, and so, therefore, he is attacking our mind.

This helmet of salvation is to deflect the blows from Satan. He wants to attack our security and our assurance in Christ Jesus.

Now, these blessings of security and assurance deal with the promises that are ours when we become in Christ.

They are given to us. But I want to cover two of the means that Satan uses to attack our mind and thoughts to get us to retreat, to give up ground in this battle.

One of those is to cause us to become discouraged in our life.

The second one is to foster doubt about what is taking place in his promises.

The first one is discouragement from circumstances. Satan is clever.

Scripture tells us that he's cunning. If he cannot have you as his own, he will seek to discourage you to the point that you become incapacitated or useless as you walk as a

Christian. Paul tells us this in 2 Corinthians 10 -11. He says, But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived

Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

He's telling us exactly what Satan wants to do, the same thing he did to Eve. He wants us to think on other things that are not true.

He wants to lead them astray. And from where? From the truth of Christ. That's what he wants us to do.

Have you ever been tired? Exhausted? Playing war out in the constant stress and battle of making it through this life?

You've been fighting for a long time, striving to do what's right in this spiritual battle, but you don't ever seem to gain any ground.

This is one of Satan's favorite ways to discourage us through the trials of life.

Or perhaps things have been going great in your life. You've had one success after another.

They're going wonderful, and then all of a sudden you find yourself under constant attack. A string of disappointments that never seem to want to end.

You can't seem to crawl out from underneath the pressure. Oftentimes, that's when we're most vulnerable to discouragement, when we've been experiencing successes.

But there is one arena of discouragement that seems to be

Satan's favorite playground, and that is the church. When he can get members in a church quarreling with one another, then he knows that he can assure the victory that he wants.

Without a doubt, Satan is most happy when he can cause strife within the kingdom of God.

When we're busy quarreling amongst ourselves, our focus is taken away from the main objective of the church, and that's exactly what the evil one wants.

He wants to fertilize these discouragement with our pride, with our gossiping tongue, and with unforgiving hearts, so that they grow into disunity.

That's one of his main things he loves to do, cause disunity in his church.

And through experience, I can give testimony. Nothing discourage the leadership and the members of a church more when they are constantly having to deal with disunity.

You see, Satan's going to use every means possible to try to discourage us. He will set every obstacle in our path that he can to weaken our assurance in Christ.

We see this in the book of Job. The Lord allowed Satan to strip Job of everything that was dear to him.

Yet, what did Job declare? Though he slay me, I will hope in him.

And there's the key word right there, hope. See, the book of Job tells us it's not our career, it's not the car we drive, it's not our benefits, our possessions that a person has that gives us joy or our peace in life.

It's the hope that comes from true saving faith that gives us our true character in this life.

It was Job's helmet of salvation that deflected the blows Satan threw at him.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul's list of beatings, setbacks, persecutions, trials, the dangers he's faced, and the list goes on as legendary.

If there was anybody that could justify giving up ground in this fight, you would think it would be

Paul with everything that he went through. But his answer to all these things, we find in an earlier section of this same letter.

And it's nothing short of amazing. In 2 Corinthians 4 -8, Paul says, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed.

Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.

Struck down, not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

He's speaking of the death of Jesus Christ and what he accomplished on the cross, carrying that in our bodies, our hope in Christ.

One of the things we must understand, and I will repeat this through our life, is that Satan, our adversary, will not stop attacking us.

Paul's life is a perfect example of this. Only when we're ready to step into glory, we can say with Paul, I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race. I have kept faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the

Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

So, Satan wants to discourage us. He wants us to get frustrated with our life and start blaming other people on what is taking place.

But the second means that he loves to do is to cause us doubt. And that is doubt from insecurity.

Often Satan's most troubling assault against God's elect is to get them to believe that they have lost, or they could lose, or never had their salvation.

This assault revolves around Satan's tactic to cause you doubt about God's plan, his sovereignty, his power, his goodness, his purposes, and his promises for your life.

Most importantly, Satan wants you to believe that God may not have the willingness or the ability to keep you saved.

He wants you to think just as easily as God adopted you as his hair.

He can cut you free and set you adrift in a boat of your own. This is another way that Satan wants us to lose hope.

To cast doubt. To worry about God's sovereign love for us.

This is the same way Satan used the scoffers to attack the early Christians. If you've read in 2

Peter, go to chapter 3 verse 4, Peter is talking about these scoffers.

He says, they will say, these scoffers will say, where is the promise of his coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

He's wanting them to think that, oh yeah, Jesus came and he was good, but he accomplished nothing.

Nothing has changed. Everything is still continuing as it has since creation.

And in the case of the Christians that Peter was writing to, they had lost hope in Christ's second coming.

They had thought that they had missed it. They were having a hard time.

Many were persecuted. Some were even being killed. They were discouraged and now

Satan gives them a second blow in getting them to doubt Christ's promises.

They were falling prey to these scoffers, losing hope. But Peter is writing them to give them assurance that God's promises and assurances still stand.

And no power, no power in the heavens or the earth can change them.

Have you ever had doubt about your salvation? Does Satan whisper in your ear at times, you behave like that?

Your thoughts are focused on that? What is wrong with you?

You can't be saved or you've lost your salvation. You see, when Satan does this, he is mocking your

Savior's sovereignty and power with these thoughts. He is telling you, oh, he surely, he surely can't keep you.

This is without a doubt one of Satan's most diabolical attacks against the elect.

He wants you to believe that you've lost or that you've never had it.

Few things are more paralyzing, unproductive or miserable than thinking that you are not secure in Christ.

It is one of Satan's most vilest lies to us. He wants you to ignore the promises of Jesus when he has stated unequivocally, all that the

Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes, I will never cast out.

For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing, nothing of all that he has given me.

And notice that is past tense. He has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

Hallelujah. It is this promise, it is this knowledge, this understanding that prompted

Paul to say in Romans 8, For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

And I want to point out, it says here, nor powers, nor anything else in all creation,

Satan as a created being falls into these two categories. So we've talked about the purpose of the helmet of salvation.

I want to talk about the protection from the helmet of salvation. So in the face of Satan's attacks of discouragement and doubts,

Paul is telling us to take the helmet of salvation and to place it on our heads.

But what does he mean by salvation in this context? What is the connection to the helmet?

Well, in this context, Paul is not referring to becoming saved by taking the helmet of salvation.

What he is addressing is Christians. So they're already saved, so he couldn't be talking about that.

They are already in Christ. But what he is addressing is our present position in Christ Jesus, where we are in our salvation.

And he explains this in his letter to the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 3 .8,

Paul states, Now once again,

Paul is not talking about hoping that we have salvation or hoping that we will have salvation.

He is talking about the hope of our salvation. So let me explain by detailing the three parts of our salvation.

And Jeremiah talked about this, I think it was two or three months ago. So I'm kind of repeating what he said, but I think it's important.

The first part of our salvation is that we have been saved from the effects of sin. That is our justification.

The second part is we are being saved from the power of sin.

That is our sanctification. That is your salvation being worked out in your life.

The third part, we will receive the goal of our salvation. That's when we are saved from the presence of sin.

And that is our glorification. And I think John said it best in his first epistle, chapter 3, verse 2,

And what we have has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see

Him as He is. This is the final part of our salvation that Paul is talking about.

The hope of glory that is in us. This is what gives us strength to our helmet of salvation.

Our hope in the future, that we will be like Him, and that we will be with Him gives us confidence.

It gives us trust. It gives us assurance in our present struggles against the evil one.

We know that through this hope, Satan will be defeated, and we will be victorious with our

Savior in the end. This is not a battle that we lose eventually.

For the war has already been won. I mean, that's what we have to keep in our mind. Christ went to the cross for that.

And Paul claims this promise in God's unbreakable chain of salvation. In Romans 8, 30, he says,

And those whom He predestined before the foundation of the earth, those whom

He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified.

And those whom He justified, He also glorified. There's not a break in there anywhere.

It is a promise from beginning all the way to the end. That is the strength that is inherent in our helmet of salvation.

It's this firm hope that we will be glorified with Christ. It is

God's gift of faith in the completion of our salvation that gives us that mighty hope, our glorification.

And I love the way the old hymn says it. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the Swedish frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

So we've talked about the purpose and the protection of the helmet of salvation. And now for the second part, the sword of the

Spirit, which is the word of God. So in the first century, there was basically two types of swords.

There was the Roman short sword, and then there was the two -handed broad sword, which was ranged from like three to four feet in length and was wielded by two hands.

And if you've ever seen the movie Braveheart, you may have images of Mel Gibson running pell -mell down the hill, screaming at the top of his lungs, hacking people left and right, and leaving a trail of blood and carcasses in his wake.

But unfortunately, that's not the type of sword that Paul is talking about here.

The word that Paul uses for sword here refers to the Roman short sword, and thanksful

Chris has one of those here. My research showed that it was often 6 to 18 inches in length.

It's called a gladius. I hope I said that right, Chris. And it was mainly used in close combat.

You know, they didn't run around in little groups, you know, trying to fight one -on -one. And Pastor Nathan talked about the tortoise last week.

But what they wanted to do was use this sword precisely. And they wanted to pierce the body, often in a major organ, short strokes.

And often they would be hiding behind their armor, I mean their shields, the shield of faith, and they would part just a little bit, and they would take this sword and try to thrust up into somebody's vital organs, trying to kill them.

So, I want to talk about three main points when we talk about the sword of the Spirit.

One is that we are given possession of the sword of the Spirit. And see,

Paul, he informs us exactly what this sword represents. It is the Word of God.

It's His Word. It's the written Word that we have. And he also tells us that this sword, this

Word of God, has an origin. And that is the Holy Spirit. And you can't separate the two.

You can't separate the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the author and the giver of the

Word of God. And He works in and through us using the

Word of God. They can't be separated. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3 .16,

All Scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Let me paraphrase. That the man of God may be complete, wearing the armor of God for every good work.

You see, there's not an item in the armor of God that speaks more loudly than us not trying to fight the devil in our own strength and power than the sword of the

Spirit. Even then, it is part of the whole. It is the sum of the parts that produce results.

If one of them is weak, the others are weak also. And that is why we should never try to fight the devil in our own power, in our own strength, or using our own ideas.

In the case of the sword of the Spirit, we're fighting the devil with the very

Word of God that is inspired by the very Holy Spirit of God that was given to us and created by the grand master swordsmith,

God. Now we have this phrase, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

And I've been practicing how to say this, so I might fumble it, but the Greek word for word in this sentence, the

Word of God, is not logos, as we usually see. Not always, but we usually think of logos, which is the entirety of the whole scripture, the whole

Bible, the whole Word of God. But this is a word, it's rhema, R -H -E -M -A, which is more specific.

It's talking about a truth, or a specific section, or a verse of the written

Word of God. So in essence, what

Paul is saying here is, take the sword, the sword of the Spirit, which the

Holy Spirit gives you, and use it in a very specific and precise way.

Another interesting word in this phrase is take, as in take the helmet of salvation, take the sword of the

Spirit. In the Greek, this means to grasp firmly, to take hold of.

It's an imperative, it's a verb, it's a command. And if you've taken the helmet of salvation, and now you're to take up the sword of the

Spirit, and firmly hold on to it, you do these things, and you have possession of the sword of the

Spirit. So my next point is, we are given the ability to wield the sword of the

Spirit. Any soldier that's gone to combat, and fought in a war, knows that when you go to war, your life depends on your skill and ability with a weapon that you have.

It's all about practicing in a way that creates muscle memory. Now there's a difference between ability and skill.

Ability is the potential to use your weapon. The skill is the precise application of the weapon that you have.

Having the ability to use your weapon with the utmost skill can mean the difference, and often does in you surviving a conflict or not.

If you do not use your ability, and develop your skill, your weapon might as well be a paperweight, or a shelf ornament, for all the good it's going to do you.

So how have we been given the ability to wield the sword? If you would, please, to 1

Corinthians 2 .14. Now if you never have, you might want to underline that verse in your

Bible, because it's amazing how many times many things come back to this. And we even talked about this subject

Wednesday night. Paul is saying, The natural person does not accept the things of the

Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. He is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually concerned.

Nathan, I think you used the term moral inability. Most scholars

I've seen call it total inability, but it's the same thing. And what Paul is telling us here is the natural person does not have the ability to wield the sword of the

Spirit. He can't even understand the Word of God. Now if you'll go up two verses to verse 12,

Paul tells us, Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the

Spirit who is from God. Understanding the things freely given us by God.

And we impart this in words. Not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the

Spirit. Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. So this is when you are saved, this is what you were given, this is the ability that you now have.

You have the ability to understand and to use the Word of God. We have the ability to understand things that are spiritual.

It is at the point of salvation that we have been given the ability to wield the sword of the

Spirit. But that still leaves us with a question. What does it take to develop the skill to wield the sword of the

Spirit properly? Well with any other weapon, it takes knowledge of your weapon and time practicing with it.

You know when I was a young lad, a kid, my grandfather, he was a man's man.

He was a carpenter, hunted, fished, gardened, lived in the country. And I spent a lot of time with him and he taught me how to shoot a rifle.

And got fairly good with it. We practiced a lot. He showed me every little nuance about it, how you hold it, how you breathe, how you pull the trigger.

All these things he taught me. Well about seven or eight years ago, my two sons

Chris and Nick and I decided to get concealed carry license. And so we went and we bought pistols.

Now I'd shot some pistols before. I had a little .22 pistol. So I had the ability to shoot the pistol.

But I didn't have the skill necessary to shoot the pistol. And so luckily

Chris was in the army and he had been taught how to do it. And what he taught us, and I know Austin and Don, you can attest to this.

Every single move you make has reason and purpose behind it.

It has to be something you practice over and over and over again. How you put your hand on your pistol.

You pull it out of the holster. Bring it up. The sight picture. How you hold it with one hand, with two hands.

All these different things you have to practice over and over again until it becomes your second nature.

Because when your adversary is attacking you, you don't have time to think about all these things that you have to do to handle your weapon with skill.

And this is the same with the sword of the spirit. The word of God. You must handle it with skill and precision to be effective.

If you just rely on your experience from salvation to ward off the attacks of the devil, you will have a very high likelihood of falling prey to his schemes, to his false doctrines, to his errant teachings, to his false balance between knowledge and experience.

The devil will find out where you're weak and he will attack you there.

Paul tells us this in 2 Timothy 2 .15 Be diligent to present yourself approved by God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed handling accurately with skill, with precision the word of God.

And church, this is one of the reasons 12 .5 Church places such a premium on knowing and learning

Scripture. I mean, we stress the proper way to study Scripture.

Using the proper hermeneutics. Letting Scripture define Scripture. Putting Scripture into context and on and on and on.

And that's why you hear so much about it because it's so important. God has told us to handle accurately the word of truth.

This is not an option. Bottom line. You want to be a warrior for God?

You desire to do battle for God? You want to wear the armor of God?

You want to be a man or a woman of God? Then you must be a man or a woman that is in the word of God.

Frequently. There are no shortcuts. This is what makes somebody skilled with this weapon, with this sword of the

Spirit. So we have possession of the sword. We also have the ability now to wield the sword.

But what we lack is we need to be given the discernment when to draw the sword of the

Spirit. You know, there are many actually who think that the sword is only an offensive weapon.

They want to grab it with two hands like that big long broad sword and go

Braveheart on some people. And at times you can see this with somebody that's just come to the knowledge of the doctrines of grace.

That's why we call it the cage stage. We have to put them in a cage so they don't go around hacking people with the sword of the

Spirit. But the sword is not just an offensive weapon. It's also a defensive weapon.

You have to be skilled and precise to use it either way. It's not only used to attack the devil but also to repel the attacks of the devil.

So first thing I want to cover in this area is the sword is a defensive weapon. So, you know, using or thinking about the sword as a defensive weapon pictures the enemy advancing against us.

Trying to overrun our position in Christ. And Satan usually tries to accomplish this or one of the main ways he tries to accomplish this is by tempting us.

By tempting us to do something that is wrong that we shouldn't be doing. This is when we need our sword to ward off the enemy and the term when using a sword is the term parry which means to ward off the enemy's attack with a counter move.

In order to accomplish this feat you must use precise counter strokes and deflecting the enemy's blows.

And there's no better picture of this than the temptation of Jesus Christ when he was in the wilderness.

In this encounter the devil assaults Jesus time after time. Tempting him.

Trying to get him to sin and upset or turn away the plan of redemption.

But before we get into the actual battle I want to point out what happened before the battle.

How Jesus was prepared for the battle. Now if you want to go ahead and turn into Matthew chapter 4 that's where I'm going to land for most of this.

But I'm going to start in Luke because I believe he gives us a little bit better picture about what happened before the battle.

He said, And Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the

Spirit into the wilderness for forty days being tempted by the devil.

So if you were to choose one word that would describe what Luke is trying to tell us about Jesus it would be submission.

Jesus was being submissive. He was fully yielding to the leading of the

Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit's control in his life so he could carry out God's plan for redemption.

This prepared him for the battle that he was about to face. Now we don't have time to go through this conflict in depth.

That's a whole sermon and some would probably like Nathan would make it three sermons. But I'm just kidding.

But I mean it would take too long. But the main thing I want us to see is how each of the temptations directed at Jesus is how

Jesus used the sword of the Spirit to ward off the blows of Satan. So we're going to be in Matthew 4 starting in verse 3.

And the tempter came to him and said If you are the Son of God command these stones to become loaves of bread.

So what Satan is tempting Jesus to do here involves the lust of the flesh. He was getting

Satan Satan was wanting Jesus to turn these stones into loaves of bread using his divine power for his own selfish needs.

He wanted this to tempt Jesus to sin against his Father.

But Jesus replies with authority. It is written Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

So notice Jesus here is using specific scripture to parry

Satan's blow when he tries to attack him. Jesus is standing firm on the truth of God as his defense.

The second temptation is Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him

You are the Son of God throw yourself down for it is written. So he tries now to trick

Jesus with scripture himself. He will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.

So here Satan is tempting Jesus to throw himself off the temple. He was trying to get him to fulfill the lust of the eyes.

He wanted Jesus to give an exhibition of his deity to the world through sensationalism.

But Jesus would have no part of Satan's theatrics. He answered strongly

Again it is written You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. He uses the power from the word of God.

And notice again his text that he uses matches perfectly with his temptation.

The third temptation is in Matthew 4 .8 Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said to him All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

So here Satan is tempting Jesus to take all the kingdoms in the world now.

He was tempting him to satisfy the boastful pride of life by yielding to Satan's power and will and not waiting on the father's timing and will.

But Jesus replies in the power of his might Be gone Satan for it is written

You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

So here again Jesus replies precisely with force and with precision.

So we see Jesus drawing the sword of the spirit with skill as he fights off the devil's attacks.

That's why we must know the Bible. That's why we must have knowledge of scripture and understanding of scripture and a memory of scripture.

If you do not have this your sword might be nothing more than a plaything.

One thing I want us to note about Jesus' resounding victory is back in Luke when he says

And when the devil had ended every temptation he departed from him until an opportune time.

And that's something we need to remember. Just because we have victory over the devil does not mean that the battle is over.

Our battle with the devil when we have tasted victory we must understand that it's just one battle that we're having with him.

That he will return at an opportune time. Well so the weapon that we have the sword is a defensive weapon but it is also an offensive weapon.

And again I know this church we have people in here want to go charging forward with that two -handed broad sword as I described at the first of the sermon.

But this is not the weapon that's available to us. See the short sword is supposed to be used when you take the battle to the evil one.

But how are we to advance on his position? How are we to advance on the devil's stronghold?

Well the best offense that we have available is to use the sword of the spirit to transform people from the realm of falsehood and darkness to that of truth and light.

From the realm of sin and death to that of righteousness and light. It alone has the power to chain despair to hope.

Sadness to joy and failure to success. This power that's in the sword of the spirit is why

Satan will do everything within his power to attack the truth of the word of God.

He seeks to twist it. To change it. To make it irrelevant. To cause saints to ignore it.

To distract people from it. And he wants to take your weapon your sword of the spirit and turn it on you.

And if you do not have the proper knowledge and skill he can be successful in doing that.

This sword this gospel of Jesus Christ is the only power that can reach down into the domain of Satan and set a captive free.

It is here we can witness the greatest power known to man put on display as it converts the soul from total depravity to total freedom in Christ Jesus.

We're told in Hebrews for the word of God is living and active sharper than any two -edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Take this sword with you when you go on the offensive and let it do the work.

The victory has already been won. This sword will cut surgically to the heart of stone opening the body so this heart of stone can be removed and replaced with a heart of flesh.

And this is precisely what we're told in Acts chapter 2. It says, Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles what shall we do?

It is the power of God that we rest in that we need so we can stand strong against this fight of the devil.

Well in closing when we look around us at the world we live in today we can see that the devil has taken its toll on churches around us.

Churches out there in the world. And one of the main reasons for this is that in times past and also in times present many churches have taken off their armor of God.

They've laid it aside. They've taken their helmet of salvation they've put it up on a shelf somewhere to look on as a memento.

Every once in a while they'll take it down and dust it off. Trying to remember how it's to be used.

But in most cases it's been long forgotten. The sword of the spirit has suffered the same treatment.

It's become dull and rusty from little use or no use at all. It has become weak because of the steel it is made of has become brittle and ineffective.

And in fact in many cases it doesn't resemble a sword at all. Man has decided that they are actually the grand master swordsmith themselves and they think that the sword that they have created is far better suited for the world and the culture that we live in today.

And they've done the same thing with the other pieces of the armor of God where it's not even fit to be taken up and be worn.

But the main reason that it cannot be worn isn't because of the modifications that they've made to it.

It's because they were never strong in the Lord. They were nothing more than weak natural men.

So how do we keep this from happening to our church, saints? We must put on the helmet of salvation.

Always remembering the joy of our salvation. We must always live in the growing and the presence of our salvation.

And always looking forward to the completion of our salvation. It's critical that each of us grasp the sword of the spirit, the word of God, and hold it high.

It's critical that we know and that we cherish the true word of God and use it skillfully.

It's critical that we love the penetrating word of God and show its compassion.

And it's critical that we use the powerful word of God to show its effectiveness.

That's how we can keep our armor of God worthy of being worn and effective.

Now this brings us to the Lord's Supper. And first I want to give a caution before we come to the table.

I want to read from 1 Corinthians where Paul states, Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the

Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the

Lord. Let a person examine himself. Then and so eat of the bread and drink the cup.

And this caution is if you haven't been saved you shouldn't be coming to the table and taking part in the

Lord's Supper. If you're living in sin and John talks about this walking in sin you have an habitual sin in your life.

You shouldn't be coming to the table. If you have anger or malice in your heart towards somebody you shouldn't be coming to the

Lord's Supper. If you have any questions concerning any of these things come and talk to Pastor Nathan or myself.

We'll be glad to walk you through this. So Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11 23 -26

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the

Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and we had given thanks. He broke it and said this is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the

Lord's death until he comes. Now what we'll do we'll be biding in the middle half will come over to the table here and half here and then come back down the aisles to your seat.

But first let me pray. Father you have prepared this table for us through your grace.

We realize that it is through your son's righteousness that he died on the cross for us.

That that is the merit alone that allows us to partake in this feast. When we look at the emblems of our

Savior's death help us to firmly grasp the length and the depth of the sacrifice that he gave on our behalf.