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A GOOD SOLDIER OF CHRIST

 

TEXT: II TIM. 2:1-3

INTRODUCTION:

  1. We look around us and we see a world full of sorrow and pain. We're living in a time conducive to the suffering of the saints.
  2. Although we are not being murdered and driven from our homes as those early saints, we often feel like Lot dwelling in Sodom

    3. (2 Peter 2:7-8) and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked {8} (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds);
  3. Throughout the history of the church we find people who were discouraged and needed encouragement.
  4. Paul wrote two letters to Timothy to encourage him.
  5. For example:

    6. "Let no man despise thy youth." (I Tim.4:12) was Paul concerned??

    "Neglect not the gift that is in thee." (I Tim. 4:14)

    "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord." (II Tim. 1:3).

    "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." (II Tim. 2:1).
  6. In all of these things, either he was growing weak or was in danger of growing weak.
  7. WHY DID PAUL WRITE THESE WORDS???? To lift him out of a sea of despondency until he could see the peaceful shore.
  8. TEXT A.S.V "Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
  9. Timothy there is work to do and we must join ranks to wage war.
  10. Recently, the Methodists church tried to ban "Onward Christian Soldiers" as being warlike.
  11. However, the idea of Christians being soldiers is not new to the Bible student (Philem. 2; Phil. 2:25).
  12. He knew that we have a fight on our hands (Eph. 6:12).
  13. Every Christian is a soldier, and as such, must put on the whole armor of God and enter into the fray (Eph. 6:11).
  14. TIMOTHY, shape up and be strong!
    1. We think that things will always be comfortable.
    2. The Bible teaches that there will be times when it seems like the very church itself will be overwhelmed (Rev. 20:7-9).
    3. How can we who are soldiers live comfortably while the lost are dying all around us (Jno. 16:33)?
  1. Even in Christ's life there were both joys and trials.
  2. These are the times that try men's souls.
  3. Atheism, eastern mystic religions, violent crime, immorality, materialism, and worst of all the love of many waxes cold.
  4. Many want to wring their hands and cry WHAT SHALL WE DO??
  5. What are the leaders going to do? What are the followers to do?
  6. Perhaps it would help to stop wringing our hands and look to the example of great men who lived in trying times and triumphed.
  7. We have often looked at great men of Biblical times, but today we are going to look at one of the great men of SECULAR HISTORY: WINSTON CHURCHILL.

DISCUSSION:

  1. Churchill's problem
    1. 1938-39 Hitler's blitzkrieg had stormed across Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria. On May 10, 1939, Holland and Belgium fell. The Dutch royal family fled to England.
    2. Nevil Chamberlain who had assured the English people that there was nothing to fear from the fuhrer resigned in disgrace.
    3. When The Parliament called on Churchill to take his place he said,

      4. "I have nothing to offer but blood toil tears and sweat. We have before us many long months of struggling and suffering. you ask what is our policy....I will say it is to wage war. It is to wage war by sea, by land, by air with all of our might with all the strength that God can give us, to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. You ask what is our aim. I can answer in one word. VICTORY... Victory at all cost, victory in spite of all tariff. Victory before long, however long and hard the road may be. For without victory there is no survival. But I will take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all and I say come then let us go forward together in our united strength."
    4. These were words designed to lift and encourage a despondent people.
    5. By June 7, 1940, France had fallen to Hitler's Hordes.
    6. At the fall of Dunkirk June 4, 1940, Churchill addressed the house of commons,

      7. "Even though large tracks of Europe and many old and familiar states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag nor shall we fail. WE shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France we shall fight on the seas, and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. And even if (which I do not for a moment believe) this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas armed and guarded by the British fleet would carry on the struggle until in God's good time the new world with all its power and might steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."
    7. He spoke to a people of despondency and discouragement, a people whose world was falling down around their ears, AND HE LIFTED THEM UP TO MEET THE CHALLENGE!!
  2. How Churchill succeeded?
    1. Churchill lifted his people to victory in five ways:
      1. He awakened them to the task.
      2. Challenged Britain's to take up the cross of their country.
      3. He challenged them to fight in every way at their disposal.
      4. He made them confident of victory.
      5. He united the nation to march forward never to retreat.
    2. Just as Churchill used these 5 principles to conquer the enemy, we can use them to help us face the enemy as good soldiers of the cross and go forward never to retreat
  3. How the church can implement these principles.
    1. The church needs to be awaked to the task.
      1. What is the task? To glorify God (Romans 15:6-9) WE GLORIFY GOD BY KEEPING THE SAVED SAVED AND SEEKING AND SAVING THE LOST. Lk. 19:10; Matt. 28:20; Mk. 16:15-16.
      2. People are dying all around us lost in their sins because in many cases the Lord's people are asleep to the real task of the church.
      3. In many places Christianity has degenerated to the construction of celestial cathedrals and the keeping of times and weeks.
      4. The Lord's church is a sleeping giant.
    2. In still many communities, souls are dying because the Lord's people are aware of the task before them but they have not taken up their cross and carried their fair share of the load.
      1. How strong will the church in this town be in 20 years.?
      2. We are the ones who will determine the answer to that question.
      3. We are soldiers of the cross not the PTA, or the rotarians or the Little league (Lk.9:23; Mt.6:33).
      4. T, Perry spending thousands of dollars to become "Worshipful master (?)" Of the Masonic lodge. He had memorized entire chapters of the manual and brought recruited people into the lodge but couldn't do the same for the church.
      5. A good soldier must show up for roll call and must study to protect himself and his country.
    3. We must learn to fight Satan in every way at our disposal.
      1. We must fight in the pulpit and in the classroom. WE must wage war against Satan in the highways and the byways.
      2. Before we enter the battle we must first learn the use of our weapon, the sword of the spirit (Eph. 6:17).
      3. We fight by our example (Matt. 5:12).
      4. WE FIGHT BY INVITING OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS TO SERVICES.
      5. WE MUST FIGHT BY SHARING THE KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST. (Rom.1:16).
      6. We fight collectively as a congregation in ways that we cannot be as effective individually:
        1. Sending out missionaries.
        2. TV Radio papers meetings etc.
      7. There are 4 billion souls in this world--over 1 million in this county alone, and THE JOB WILL NEVER GET DONE IF WE AREN'T WILLING TO FIGHT IN EVERY WAY AT OUR DISPOSAL.
    4. We can be confident of victory (Phil. 4:13; Mt.23:19ff.)
      1. The ten spies of Numbers (Nu. 13:1-2,30,33).
      2. "We were grasshoppers in our own sight." The lord's church is a mighty people. Lets act like it.
      3. If Jesus could have victory over death, then we can have victory over our daily foes.
    5. We have to be unified if we are to win.
    6. The English nearly lost because of inter-service squabbling.
    7. We need to close ranks against Satan.
    8. CHURCHILL said,

      9. "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire last for a thousand years, man will still say, 'This was their finest hour'."
    9. Nero and Domitian tried their best to destroy the power of Christianity. But, the more Christians were persecuted, the more they persevered. Until Christianity spread into the very house of the Emperor before the death the first generation of Christians.
    10. As historians look back over the centuries of Christianity, inevitably they are lead to conclude that those days of persecution and trial in which the Lord's people ultimately won out through the triumph of the truth and love of the gospel were truly their finest hour.

 

APPLICATION:

  1. What of us????
  2. Are we going to join ranks and go forth to do battle against the forces of darkness???
  3. Will we strive in such a way that men will some day look back at our efforts with disgust (OR WORSE YET WITH PITY)???
  4. Or will our children some day look back and say, TRULY THIS WAS THEIR FINEST HOUR.
  5. It's up to us.

Thanks to Boyd Williams of Vero Beach Florida  for this outline

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