2 Timothy 2:3-4
Choosing Sides
INTRODUCTION
Over the course of the next three messages that I’ll be preaching, there’s an image I want you to get fixed in your minds – and that is the image of our supreme Commander-in-Chief, Jesus Christ, who wants to use our time together to speak to your hearts and your minds to call you to make some clear and serious choices about who it is that you will honor and serve with the remainder of your lives. If Jesus were here among us, what might He say? What is it that He would want you to know? Today’s message is really a very simple one in which I want to share two essential truths with you that I believe Jesus wants you to know. Let’s look at our text in 2 Timothy 2:3-4 and discover what these two truths are.
"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 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."
In other words,
"You endure, persevere and hang in there in trial and affliction like a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that performs military duty bogs himself down in this life’s business and affairs, so he might please God, who has chosen him to be a soldier." (my paraphrase)
THERE IS A WAR BEING WAGED THAT IS MUCH BIGGER THAN YOU ARE
It’s a war for your heart, for your mind, for your very soul. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 6:12,
"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."
There seem to be a lot of people who think that other people are the enemies in life: young people might think it’s their parents, their teachers, or their pastors. Adults might see any number of people this way. Some might identify drugs or alcohol or government or employers as the enemy. Still yet, there are the enemies like depression and suicide and abusive homes and the immorality that is all around us and it is easy to narrow our thinking so that we see those things and others like them as the enemies we face in life, but none of those things are it. Those are the inevitable effects of the war in which you are engaged.
The real war is spiritual, it is aimed much deeper than at your finances or health or even your relationships. It is a war for your heart and mind – a war for your soul. At the head of the evil spiritual army we face is a commander-in-chief who hates you, and he would like nothing more than to destroy you. Jesus Himself said in John 10:10,
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
And Peter said in 1 Peter 5:8,
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
Listen, I know you’ve heard it a thousand times, but Satan is your enemy and he hates you with all his being. It makes no difference whether you’re lost or saved – he hates you and he wants to destroy your life and keep you from being what God has created you to be. He wants to keep those who have never been saved, who have never placed their faith in Christ from being saved. He wants to keep those who are saved, who are children of God from living for Him.
Satan roams the earth, looking to destroy the lives of people like you and me. Make no mistake about it – he is working harder than you’ll ever know to destroy your life, to destroy your testimony, to kill any desire you have to seek God and live a life that is honoring and pleasing to Him. Think about the many people who have come through the doors of this church, men and women who were once active and excited about the Lord and His work, but are now sitting at home cold and bitter and uncaring. That’s no accident! They’re the casualties of this spiritual war that is being waged for the hearts and minds of God’s people.
Ezekiel 28:12 and Isaiah 14 give us some insight as to why the war is raging. Ezekiel recorded,
“Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”
You see, before he sinned, Lucifer was a beautiful angel of God who was given great wisdom and talent. He was a leader of angels and was one of God’s masterpieces in the angelic realm. To behold Lucifer was to behold a great sight, but the problem was that he knew it. In Isaiah 14:12 we read,
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”
As the result of his pride and rebellion against God, Lucifer was judged. He was cast out of heaven to the earth, and he stands condemned to spend eternity in hell. The Bible tells us that there will come a day in the future when Jesus will cast Satan and all of his wicked angels into the pits of hell never to be loosed again, but in the meantime, he is waging a war that you and I are caught up in whether we like it or not.
You’ll see the great conflict all through the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation it is the conflict between light and darkness, between good and evil, between holiness and wickedness. Think about how Satan has worked through the Bible times to today. He led mankind into rebellion against God in the garden. He was working behind the scenes when Cain murdered Abel. He was there when the wickedness of man was so great that God destroyed the earth with a flood. Satan was there when Abraham and Sarah chose to have a son through Hagar – the son who would be, has always been and will continue to be a thorn in the side of Israel.
The conflict is pictured between Pharaoh and Moses, darkness and light. On and on we could go trying to convince every one of you that there is a war being waged that is so much bigger than you, so much broader than you realize, and it is high time that God’s people wake up and realize what’s at stake! Paul told the Ephesian believers that it was time they woke up, time to quit living foolishly and make the most of the days they had for the Lord because the days we live in are evil!
Satan hates God, he hates Jesus Christ, he hates the work of the Holy Spirit, and because he hates them with all his being, you have become the prize, the spoils of the war. Let me ask you some questions here:
· What did God create man to do? He was created to lead, to be alive with adventure and risk and labor. Man was created to know God and dare to live for Him! But you walk into most churches today and you’ll find something different. Consider what one writer said,
"Walk into most churches in America, have a look around, and ask yourself this question: What is a Christian man? Don’t listen to what is said, look at what is there. There is no doubt about it. You’d have to admit a Christian man is…bored."1
Now before you discredit what he says, I want to ask every man here a question. Think back over your life and consider the books you’ve read, the movies you’ve seen, the people you’ve known. Who have your heroes been? Before you answer, let me further define this: which heroes have stirred your heart? Who are the heroes who have made your heart leap, who have left you feeling something in your chest that makes you say, "that’s who I want to be."
Now in my generation, it has been movie characters like Bruce Willis in Die Hard, or Tom Cruise in Top Gun. More recently Mel Gibson in Braveheart or Maximus in Gladiator have captured my attention. I watch those movies, and my chest pounds and my heart hurts because there is something in those men I long to be – not the blood shedding gruesome parts, but something else.
You see, when God made the masculine heart, he set within every man a wildness, a part of him that longs to be dangerous, but dangerous in a good way.2 That’s why the men of the Bible can be so intriguing, because many of them were those kind of men. If you’ll listen to my wife, you’ll hear her talk about how she likes me best. Some of you have heard it already, and it has taken me too long to learn what she has been saying. Here’s how Kathy likes me – with long hair, unshaven, rugged. There is a whole image there – it says "my man is wild and adventurous. He is dangerous, but in a good way. That’s who Jesus is: not the Mr. Rogers dufus that we’ve turned Him into to make Him more manageable.
Now maybe you’re asking what all this has to do with the war, and the answer is this: Satan has been working to remove all of that from the man.
"Society at large can’t make up its mind about men. Having spent the last thirty years redefining masculinity into something more sensitive, safe, manageable and, well, feminine, it now berates men for not being men. Boys will be boys they sigh…"Where are all the real men?" is regular fare for talk shows and new books."3
What is the answer to the question? We have asked our men to be women. Men were created to be men. I don’t mean jerks. I don’t mean chauvinists. I don’t mean work-a-holic men or men who are so caught up in adventure and risk that they are just overgrown kids. I mean that God created men to be men and never loose sight of the fact that God offers an invitation to you to come and live out what He meant for you to be.
· What did God create woman to do? If Christian men today are bored, then Christian women are tired. We teach our women that all they have to offer is being a good servant. Author John Eldgredge has suggested that every woman has three essential desires that have to be met.
o She yearns to be fought for. She wants to be more than noticed, she wants to be wanted. She wants to be pursued. Why does the childhood image of the knight in shining armor fighting off dragons and bad men so appeal to the little girl’s heart? Because she wants to be wanted.
o She wants an adventure to share. So many of us men think that the woman is the adventure, but that’s not it at all – she wants to be caught up in something greater than herself.
o She wants to have a beauty to unveil. Now I’m not talking about the beauty that society tries to pressure the woman into. There is also a deep desire to simply and truly be the beauty, and be delighted in. Men, think about it and you’ll see it – women, you know it in your heart, the question you ask is "Do you see me?" "Are you captivated by what you see?"4
The world is killing a woman’s heart when it tells her to be tough, efficient and independent. Men, we are killing our woman’s heart when we fail to recognize and strive to meet their desires. And we are naive if we fail to realize Satan is behind it all.
You see, since the Garden, Satan has been working to undermine what God’s design for men and women has been. In the garden, Satan subverted Adam’s authority and went to the woman, and from that time women have wrestled with the sinful desire to take over them man’s God-given role and responsibility to lead. It has also been Satan’s work to convince man that it is all right to let a woman do it. Now we have major role reversal in America, and I believe Satan is smiling quite smugly over his accomplishments.
He’s been working to undermine men and women. He’s been working to undermine families. He’s been working to destroy godly values and principles and truth and faith in God. While he fights Satan uses weapons like doubt and fear and anger and temptation and many many more, all intended to take you down.
Fast-forward yourself from the Garden to the Lord’s churches today and what do you find? You find a body of believers that God has chosen to carry out His redemptive work found in the Great Commission and women are carrying too much of the load and men are sitting passively by, refusing to be leaders, refusing to be God-honoring husbands and fathers. Why are churches sitting idly by while the world is racing to hell? Because men are afraid to take risks, afraid to fight, afraid to get on the front lines and believe in something that is greater than themselves – because we have become too sleepy to know we’re in a war.
Here’s the picture you ought to get. Remember from the old wars how armies would line up on opposite sides of a field like they did in the Civil War or in the Revolutionary War? You’d see all these soldiers lined up with the generals in the back and the kings commanding from a castle somewhere. Imagine yourself on one of those two sides. Those kings and generals aren’t fighting over you, they’re fighting over something much bigger than you, and you, the soldier are just caught up in what’s going on and what will continue to go on until the Lord comes back.
I’d love to go on and on about the war, but there is a second truth I want to mention. Not only are you in a war that is much bigger than you are, but…
YOU’RE A SOLDIER TODAY WHETHER YOU WANTED TO BE OR NOT
Here’s the reality – there are only two sides. There is God’s side, those who are numbered among the saved, the children of God, and there is the side of the enemy, the devil, and those who are lost are among his people. There are no other sides. There are no other options.
Well how do you get in Satan’s army? How do you become a soldier of the devil? I want to give you two ways, the first we’ll talk about this morning and the second we’ll save for next Sunday.
By refusing to be saved.
It’s just that simple. Paul told us in Ephesians 1 that those who are lost…
"[are] dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
One day Jesus was having a conversation that I have mentioned a number of times to you. He was telling the Pharisees that they could be set free from the bondage they were in to sin and death. They responded to Him that they weren’t in bondage to anyone, which is one of the great lies of the devil. You see, I hear people, especially young people say that they want to be free and all this Jesus stuff, Christianity or the Bible is too restrictive. Well that’s exactly opposite of the truth – the lost person is in bondage and can’t possibly know freedom outside of Christ! Jesus told these guys that they were trying to kill Him because they were of their father the devil. You see, whether they wanted to admit it or not, they were soldiers for Satan, instruments in his hands to work against the Christ, and that’s exactly what every lost person is.
When a person refuses to be saved, he willingly and knowingly draws a line in the sand and by his decision chooses to remain on the side of Satan and not on the side of Christ.
Well how does a person get into the Lord’s army How do you become a soldier for Christ? It is simply by being saved. You see, being saved is not like being an American citizen. Here you have the freedom to choose whether you want to enlist and be a soldier or not. If you don’t want to serve, then you can sit at home and not get involved. But with Christ, the moment you trust Him as your Savior, you are enlisted. So the question now becomes this: how does a person get saved? How do you who are lost get out of Satan’s grasp and become one of the Lord’s children?
You have to recognize that God is perfect and you are not. In fact, the Bible calls each of us a sinner. We are told that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The result of that imperfection, or that sinfulness is death. "The wages of sin is death…" But listen, "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
You can be saved today if you first recognize these things and then place your faith in Christ alone to save you, or deliver you from that sin and its consequences. It’s like this: Lord, I know that I am a sinner. Because I am a sinner I am condemned to die and go to hell, but that’s not what I want. Lord, I am sorry that my sin is offensive to you and I repent of it. Please forgive me and save me from my sin.
And here’s the good news, He will!
CONCLUSION
Remember that Jesus said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." As Jesus was talking to Nicodemus in John 3, remember that He said,
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."
Jesus said that many would refuse to be saved because they loved darkness more than light. Now listen to what Paul said concerning the light in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4:
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
In Luke 8:12 Jesus said,
"Those by the wayside are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved."
Tonight the war that has been waged through the ages is still being waged, and it is going on right here in this room. It is your heart and soul that is being fought for, and now I wonder – to whom will the victory go? Will you refuse to be saved and allow Satan to continue to blind you and deceive you and convince you that you don’t need Christ? Or will you give in and recognize that Christ didn’t just roll over to pay for your salvation, but has gone the extra mile, has fought the fight and won the victory so that you too might be set free? To whom will your soul belong when you leave this room tonight? The choice is yours.
Many of you in this room tonight are saved and you are confident that Christ is your Savior, but you are with friends who are not. I want to ask you to begin praying for them right now. Bow your heads and ask the Lord to save them right where they stand and that He will use you as an instrument in His hands to lead them to Him.
Works Cited
1. Eldredge, John. Wild at Heart (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN) 2001. p. 7
2. ibid. p. 8
3. ibid. p. 6
4. ibid. p. 16
