Soldiers, Hardened And Free!

Soldiers, Hardened and Free! Capt. Kelly Durant

2 Tim 2:1-4

2:1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Let’s learn about Soldiers, and it is from these verses in Timothy that we get all the symbolisms of the Salvation Army.

How many of you have ever lived through a Military Coup? I have about 3 times in Bolivia! We had to stay inside for a week and eat what we had stored and listen to the news of the next dictator all day! The neighbors would tell you about the ones killed. I have had machine guns pointed at me and been frisked down several times in my life. It was frightening but I felt God’s spirit close!

But I want to tell you that in this country, and in yours, there has already been an evil military coup which happened thousands of years ago! Satan has taken over all the land and corrupted it, and he has filled it with violence & gangs, perversion and porn, poverty and oppression, and disease and death! There are only two armies, God’s and Satan’s!

Eph 6:12-13

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

And soldiers, when you have a hard time standing for your Commanding Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, remember, when you can’t stand, then kneel! Remember also you are not in this war alone! I sincerely believe and hope all of you are praying for each other during the week! If you take one thin stick, you can break it easily, but many sticks bunched together cannot break!

This earth was created to be under the authority of God, but currently it is not! Jesus gave us the command to extend the Kingdom of God and that means giving your friends and family the truth even if they hate you, laugh at you, and persecute you! In verse 3 “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”, is commanding us to be strong when others are against you, and it is sad that there are too many weak Soldiers!

Remember if Satan cannot stop you from being a Christian, he tries to make you a worthless, weak compromised Christian!

We have the command (see verse 4) to not be involved in the world as others, we are to make war on evil by doing good, by doing all that Jesus commanded!

Also, each of us has the responsibility to be overseeing what the other does so we prevent good Soldiers from falling into the enemy’s traps! Soldiers know death is a reality and they should stick together!

The Christian Soldiers of all churches are only a minority group but they have the status of a Soldier because they are willing to march out there in their neighborhoods, as Jesus did to love the unlovely, to heal the wounded, and to preach the truth of the gospel!

It will only be after our final battle with Satan in the end of the world in Armagedon that God will hit with the last Coup to regain what was His from the beginning! All of the souls of men that chose to be on his side! We are God’s soldiers and the only way to fight this war is to be disciplined resisting temptation, and standing for the right cause, the winning cause telling as many as you can about Jesus!

In the Salvation Army in the early years in London in the 1870’s and 80’s there were several dozen Soldiers of the Salvation Army that died due to rocks thrown at them in the streets. At that time there was prostitution of girls age 12, drunkenness by the majority, child labor exploitation, and horrible days.

William Booth, our founder, decided to use the pen instead of the gun to fight his battles and he wrote a book that became a best seller in His day; It was called, “In Darkest England, and the Way Out”. Everyone wanted some relief from the crime and horrible conditions and His solution was to take Jesus to the streets, preaching and helping serve the poor, and that method still works as we do today! If there was ever a church that seemed like an army going out to battle in history, it was the Salvation Army!