2 Timothy 2:3
As A Soldier
Paul is writing to Timothy. In these verses, he is making a point.
The point is that serving Jesus requires discipline and sacrifice. He
compares the life of a Christian to that of a soldier.
Obedient believers are Christian soldiers.
They have a Commander and Chief like a soldier.
They have marching orders like a soldier.
They discipline themselves like soldiers.
They devote themselves like soldiers.
They gives their very lives like soldiers.
This afternoon, let me briefly challenge you to obey your marching
orders like a soldier.
What are marching orders? In our vernacular, these are the orders
that a soldier receives before he marches off. These would be the
last commands which are given to the warrior, the orders that he is
to obey until they are completed or they receives new orders.
Some years ago, I heard a sermon by Dr. Jack Hyles, now deceased but
was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, for
many years. Dr. Hyles, in his younger days, was a para-trooper. When
he was in boot camp, he squad was being marched in formation. While
marching, the sergeant was called away but before he left, he forgot
to stop the squad. They were left marching in a certain direction and
no order came to stop, so they did not. They marched right out the
gates of the base and continued down the road until a superior
officer realized they were missing and came to issue new orders.
That squad was following their marching orders.
In 1944, Lt. Hiroo Onoda was sent by the Japanese army to the remote
Philippine island of Lubang. His mission was to conduct guerrilla
warfare during World War II. Unfortunately, he was never officially
told the war had ended; so for 29 more years, Onoda continued to live
in the jungle, ready for when his country would again need his
services and information. Eating coconuts and bananas and aptly
evading searching parties that he believed were enemy scouts, Onoda
hid in the jungle until he finally emerged from the dark recesses of
the island on March 19, 1972, almost 29 years after being given
those orders.
Lt. Onoda was following his marching orders.
The Bible gives to Christians marching orders, some final orders
which we are to carry out until we receive new orders. Let me share
some of them with you.
I. We have been ordered to present our bodies to the Lord.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service.
A. Perhaps you are familiar with the military term, "PRESENT
ARMS."
1. It is a command demanding that the soldier offer his
weapon for inspection.
a. This is not a command that a soldier will hear very
often outside of his training.
b. In fact once training is complete, most soldiers are
discouraged from ever giving up their weapons for any
reason.
c. A soldier who forgets his weapon may be required to
carry it with him at all times to help teach him to
never it again.
(1) He have to take it to the mess or to bed.
(2) He may have to learn how to shower while holding
his weapon AND without getting it wet.
(3) He may even have to go to the latrine while
always having at least one hand on his weapon.
d. The point is that IF soldier a solider presents his
weapon to another, that weapon is no longer under his
control.
(1) It is now under the control of whoever he
presented his weapon to.
(2) So, outside of boot camp, the soldier will not
hear the command PRESENT ARMS very often.
2. But notice, the Christians last marching order was to
PRESENT HIS BODY.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye PRESENT YOUR
BODIES….
a. The word PRESENT means he same thing.
b. As a soldier might temporarily present his weapon to
a superior for inspect, the Christian has been
commanded to permanently present his body to Jesus
for service.
c. The last order is to PRESENT YOUR BODY.
(1) There is no additional order to counterman that
order.
(2) The last command for every Christian is to
permanently surrender control of his body to his
Superior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Question: Who is in control of your body?
a. Our Commander-in-Chief, Jesus Christ, has given us a
direct order, i.e. surrender control of our bodies to
Him.
b. Are we in obedience? Are we following our standing
orders?
c. The word LORD is used often in the Bible.
(1) In olden days, the people desired a term to call
their King which meant that he controlled them
completely.
(2) The term they coined was LORD.
(3) Does that title have any meaning for us our is it
just a word we use?
d. An honest person might justly be thinking right now:
"But if I completely surrender control of myself to
Jesus, I won’t be able to decide what I will do?"
(1) And that is true.
(2) If you surrender yourself to Jesus Christ, you
will have to obey the Bible and listen to the
Holy Ghost about everything.
(a) About what you wear.
(b) About what you say.
(c) About what you watch, read, and think.
(d) About who you hang with.
(e) About what you spend your money on.
(f) About how you think.
(g) About how you react.
(h) About who you will love and where you will
live and every other thing.
B. Not only are our lives to be surrendered to the Lord, but they
are to be holy and acceptable to the Lord.
Romans 12:1 …that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service.
1. Holiness is a lost message within the churches today.
2. We hear many sermons about God’s love, His friendship, and
His forgiveness, but not many on God’s holiness.
a. In Isaiah 6:3, the angels that Isaiah saw hovering
about God were not saying "Friendly, friendly,
friendly…."
b. Nor were they saying, "Loving, loving, loving."
c. They were saying, "Holy, holy, holy."
3. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but God is no man’s
buddy.
a. God does not save sinners and call us buddies.
b. He calls us friends—once, but I am afraid this
generation of friends may have become too familiar and
taken liberties which ought not to be taken.
c. It seems to me that it would be better if Christians
left the guesthouse and went back to the servant’s
quarters.
4. Christians, we need to understand:
a. that sin is a reproach.
b. that worldliness is an offense.
c. that purity is a virtue.
d. that holiness is a mandate.
5. If I told you that God commanded Christians to be holy,
would you say you had obeyed the command or avoided it?
1 Peter 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy;
for I am holy.
II. We have been ordered to continue in the faith.
Colossians 1:23 If ye continue in the faith
grounded and settled….
A. The word FAITH can have several different meanings.
1. It can mean trust in someone or something as the command,
"Have faith in God."
2. It can refer to one’s ability to believe, as "His faith is
strong."
3. But it can also be used to refer to the whole of our
Christian beliefs, as in "Keep the faith."
B. The Lord, through Paul, commanded Christians to continue in
the beliefs of Christ, the faith, that had been preached to
them.
1. The writers of the New Testament constantly watched
supposed Christians abandon the faith.
1 Timothy 1:19 Holding faith, and a good
conscience; which some having put away
concerning faith have made shipwreck:
2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also
among the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privily shall bring in
damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that
bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction.
2. Paul told us to continue in the faith. Don’t be moved
away from it. Stick with it.
a. Even as few as a two, maybe three generations ago, it
was a compliment to be a Christian.
b. One who believed and held to the Christian beliefs was
considered a cut above his peers.
c. Now, many consider Christians to be extremist,
militants, narrow minded.
d. I predict that Christians will soon have a harder time
getting jobs, being selected for juries, being asked
to run for public office or receiving appointments by
those in power.
e. But do not let that deter you. Stay in the faith.
Hold to the truth, even if doing so makes you an
outlaw or costs you fame and fortune.
f. They are and will call us bigots, fascists, dangerous,
and eventually criminals.
g. Your marching orders are to continue in the faith.
III. We have been ordered to go on to perfection.
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of
the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto
perfection; not laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
A. Many substitute the word MATURITY for PERFECTION here, but
that is not completely accurate.
1. According to Vines Expository Dictionary, the word used
has an emphasis not on the person making the strides but
on the level to which he is to achieve.
2. The word means complete, fulfilled, having arrived at
the intended destination.
3. God is not calling us to be good Christians or better
Christians or even the best Christians.
4. He is calling us to be perfect Christians.
5. Someone will complain, "We can never reach that goal."
6. I believe God’s rely was, "Exactly, so keep reaching for
it. Never settle for what you are.
B. We all know how we started the Christian life.
1. We were not just ignorant of God and spiritual things, but
we had an abundance of wrong beliefs and habits that had
to be unlearned.
2. That takes time.
a. Like soldiers do not sign up and get shipped out to
the front lines on the same day, so it takes
Christians some time to learn and become Christ-like.
b. But like a soldier does not spend his entire tour of
duty in boot camp, neither should a Christian spend
the remainder of his life growing into a Christ-like
person.
3. However, God does expect us to reach a desired end within
a reasonable amount of time.
a. There is no common schedule, but there should be some
definite growth.
b. Certainly, we should not be doing things that hinder
our spiritual growth.
(1) You can place a rock over a vine and the vine
will find a way around the rock.
(2) But if a Christian buries himself under the rock
of carnality and sin, it could stunt his growth
for life.
There is more to Onoda’s story. There were actually three other
soldiers with Onoda in the beginning. The four were specifically
ordered not to take their lives and that no matter how long it took,
no matter if there was only one left, to stay at their post until new
orders came.
During the 29 years, attempts were made to let the four know the war
was over. Leaflets, newspapers, photographs and letters from family
were left for them to find. Even search parties were send out to
inform the cell that the war was over, but they refused to believe
the news because it was not official. It was not new orders from the
Imperial Army.
After five years, one of the cell left them and eventually
surrendered. After five more years, a second was killed in
fire-fight. After being in hiding for 25 years, more than half his
life, the third was also killed in a skirmish with Filipino troops,
but Onoda continued his hiding.
In 1972, 29 years after receiving his orders, a fellow country man
located Onoda and tried to talk him out of the jungle, but Onoda
refused to cease his duties unless his commander came to personally
tell him the war was over. The man went back and found Onoda’s former
commander, who was then a book salesman, and brought him back to the
island. Still it was hard for Onoda to accept the fact that country
was defeated. He later wrote what he was thinking:
I pulled back the bolt on my rifle and unloaded the bullets…I eased
off the pack that I always carried with me and laid the gun on top of
it. Would I really have no more use for this rifle that I had
polished and cared for like a baby all these years? Or Ko-zu-ka’s
rifle, which I had hidden in a crevice in the rocks? Had the war
really ended thirty years ago? If it had, what had Shim-a-da and
Ko-zu-ka died for? If what was happening was true, wouldn’t it have
been better if I had died with them?
When he arrived in Japan, Onoda received a hero’s welcome. He was
recognized for following his marching orders.
Onoda had the wrong orders. He served in the wrong army and he
followed the wrong king. We do not have the wrong orders. We are
not in the wrong army. We do not have the wrong King, but most of
us lack Onoda’s tenacity to his mission. God help us to follow our
marching orders!
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