Who do you think of when you hear soldier? You might think of someone in you family that
is in the Army, Air Force, Navy, or Marines.
You might think of John Wayne in some war movie or if you are like me
you would think of Rambo fighting the entire Soviet army.
Who do you think of when you hear Christian Soldier? You might think of men of the Old Testament
like Joshua, Samson, or David. You might
consider the first martyr of the New Testament, Stephen. You could even be thinking of people like
Mother Teresa or Billy Graham. All of
these answers would be correct. Another
answer is You. If you have accepted
Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then you are an enlisted Christian Soldier.
In 1 Chronicles we are given examples of some soldiers. These soldiers had left King Saul and join
David in the wilderness where he was hiding.
They were some of the best and most well train in the land.
All of them were expert archers, and they could shoot arrows
or sling stones with their left hand as well as their right. (1 Chronicles 12:2; NLT)
Some brave and experienced warriors from the tribe of Gad
also defected to David while he was at the stronghold in the wilderness. They were expert with both shield and spear,
as fierce as lions and as swift as deer on the mountains. (1 Chronicles 12:8; NLT)
These warriors from Gad were army commanders. The weakest among them could take on a
hundred troops, and the strongest could take on a thousand! (1 Chronicles 12:14; NLT)
As you can read David had the best and greatest warriors in
the area. They had practiced to perfect
their skills and were physically, mentally, and spiritually tough. They were dedicated to serving God and David.
A Christian Soldier is not going to be someone who is going
to fight other people, but as Christian Soldiers we must be ready to face down
Satan and his demons.
For our struggle is not against flesh and bone, but against
the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12, NIV)
To be able to fight this fight, I go back to Ephesians
6:13-18 and the armor of God. It is with
the armor of God that we are able to stand against the forces of evil.
First is the belt of truth around you waist. I ask that you think of this like the old
phrase, “being caught with your pants down.”
When we are not being truthful is when many times we find ourselves in
situations that are embarrassing. If we
are going to fight against Satan’s army; if we are going to be believed when
telling the world about the gospel, then we must be a person that is
trustworthy. “The best evidence of our
having the truth is our walking in the truth,”
Matthew Henry.
A truthful witness gives honest testimony, but a false
witness tells lies. (Proverbs 12:17;
NIV)
When soldiers go into battle they must trust that their
leaders are doing the right things. A
soldier that doesn’t trust his leader will not follow him into battle. On the football field the quarterback is
trusting many times that his blocker on his blindside is protected him against
the oncoming attack. If he doesn’t trust
him, he will leave the pocket too soon and the play will fall apart. Our children should be able to look to their
parents as role models of truth. If you
cheat on your taxes, steal your cable, commit adultery, or don’t keep your word
to your children, then they will not know the meaning of truth. How can we teach our children or the world
about God if they don’t trust us?
Remember the old proverb, “The truth will set you free.”
Second is the breastplate of righteousness. A breastplate is the armor that would protect
your heart. Righteousness is defined as,
“acting or being in accordance with what is just, honorable, and free from
guilt or wrong: upright, virtuous,
noble, moral, ethical,” (Webster’s New
Dictionary of the English Language, 453).
Righteous behavior is moral, ethical, and honorable. A righteous life will keep us free from guilt. That breastplate is so important. How many times in your life have you done
something that was wrong and your heart ached?
Did it not feel that a knife going through your chest? This is what happens when our breastplate is
off. This is what happens when we allow
the Evil One to get at our heart, but when we wear the breastplate and act in
accordance with what is just we are more alive and the knife is removed. C.H. Spurgeon puts it this way, “He that has
a clean heart will necessarily have clean hands.”
The Lords opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts the burdens of those bent
beneath their loads. The Lord loves the
righteous. (Psalm 146:8; NLT)
A soldier is expected to fight by the rules of the Geneva
Convention. An athlete is expected to
play fair and not on steroids. A
government official is expected to do what is right for the public and not take
advantages for their own gain. A
Christian is expected to be Christ-like, and to do this we must be righteous.
Third is to have your feet fitted with the readiness of the
gospel. Another way to put it is the
Shoes of the Good News. When the
legendary basketball coach, John Wooden was winning all his NCAA basketball
championships, one of the things he taught all his players was the importance
of their feet. He would show each of his
players how to put on their socks and their shoes. It had to be done in a way that the socks fit
perfectly snug with no creases. The
shoes had to be on properly and tied correctly.
The idea was that you will play better at the end of the game, if your
feet were properly fitted.
But the believers who had fled Jerusalem went everywhere
preaching the Good News about Jesus.
(Acts 8:4; NLT)
A Christian’s shoes is the knowledge of the Gospel. As a soldier must go out into the battle
field before there can be victory, we must go everywhere preaching the Gospel
of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I find
it interesting that the scripture talks about feet, because the Gospel is meant
to be taken to the world and not for the world to come to it. We must get off our sits and go. Also we must be ready at a moments notice to
be able to preach the Good News. We
never know when the opportunity will come that we can reach out to someone with
Jesus. Christianity is about moving
forward, or as Andrew Murray puts it, “Every believer may be brought to
understand that the only object of his life is to help to make Christ King on
the earth.”
Fourth is the shield of faith. Faith as a shield seems perfect to me. How many times have you been questioned for
your beliefs or had your beliefs tested?
How many times have you relied on just faith? How many times have things been so tough and
you can’t see where God wants you, you still hang on, knowing God is in
control? Joni Eareckson Tada says this
on faith, “Faith means believing in realities that go beyond sense and
sight. It is the awareness of unseen divine
realities all around you.”
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1; KJV)
A soldier that goes into battle hopes, prays, and has faith
that the substance of the shield he carries will stand up against attacks. Satan is firing all he has at you and at all
Christians. Some people like to think we
Christians are in a battle with Satan to win souls, but that is not exactly
true. Everyone that is not a Christian
already belongs to Satan, what he wants is to take us Christians away from
God. We must have faith in Christ to
overcome the Evil One.
Fifth is the helmet of salvation. God saves us through His son Jesus. It is by accepting to put on His helmet of
salvation that we are protected from Satan.
The helmet of salvation saves us from the certain death of sin.
The Lord is my light and my salvation, so why should I be
afraid? The Lord protects me from
danger, so why should I tremble? When
evil people come to destroy me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will
stumble and fall. Though a mighty army
surrounds me, my heart will know no fear.
Even if they attack me, I remain confident. (Psalm 27:1-3; NLT)
I have heard some amazing stories of where soldiers had been
in fire fights and afterwards they took off their helmets to see all the places
where bullets had hit it. If they had
not been wearing their helmets they would have perished. How many people have been saved everyday on a
construction site, because they wore their helmet? I remember when I was in Little League
Baseball. It was my first time at bat
and the first pitch came in and hit me right on the head. I didn’t have enough sense at the time to
duck, but the helmet protected me from harm.
This is what God does when you accept Jesus as you
Savior. He protects you from the Evil
One and the armies of darkness. Jesus
has already overcome the armies of darkness, and so will we with his help. Max Lucado says it like this, “Let us see the
victorious Jesus, the conqueror of the tomb, the one who defied death. And let us be reminded that we, too, will be
granted the same victory.”
Lastly we come to the sword of the Spirit, the Word of
God. How do we defeat Satan? We do it the same way as Jesus did with the
Word of God. When Jesus was tempted, he
drove away Satan with scripture.
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this
stone to become bread.” Jesus answered,
“It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’” The devil led him up to a high place and
showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all
their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to
anyone I want to. So if you worship me,
it will all be yours.” Jesus answered,
“It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your
God and serve him only.’” The devil led
him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw
yourself down from here. For it is
written: ‘He will command his angels
concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so
that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the
test.’” (Luke 4:3-12; NIV)
Jesus used the sword to fight off Satan, just as a soldier
uses his weapons to fight off the enemey.
We as Christian soldiers must keep the Word of God close to our heart,
so that when the day the Evil One comes to tempt us we will be able to send him
away.
When we put on the armor of God we stand as his soldiers in
the battle for saving souls. Our mission
is clear and our purpose is well defined.
We know the plan for victory lies in the faith, hope, and love of Jesus
Christ. He is our Commander, the
question is will you enlist in His Army.
