Soldier — B.H. Clendennen

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Soldiers of Christ Under Orders

I want to talk about a soldier. I'm going to read from 2 Timothy 2, verse 3 and 4. Father, bless the reading of the word tonight. If you ever help a human preach, help me. Help us to hear. Help us to respond.

Let the word of God have free course. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warth entangled himself with affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.

You know, the first thing that has to be relearned, I think in our time, is that the church is not a democracy. We've reduced it down. In a democracy, a man can have a choice and be right. But in this military government of the church, this theocracy, there is no suggestions and no possibility of a man having a choice.

We're under orders. That somehow has got lost in the shuffle. And the church, we've arrived at the lay of the sea in time, the laity rules. It's a political system and not a people under orders. But the church must come back to understand.

We must learn. If we are to be such a people as described here, soldiers of Christ, in this final day, we must come to recognize this is not a democracy. The church is more of a military government. Mr. Montgomery, the field marshal of England, he was second in command under Mr. Eisenhower during World War II, but was a born again Christian.

Somebody asked the field marshal, sir, how do you interpret the Great Commission? And he answered very strongly, he said, you don't interpret that, you do it. Not a matter of interpretation. I believe this is the way with most of the gospel.

It doesn't so much need interpretation as it does need as a people that recognize they're under orders. There are no suggestions in the Bible. God commands and we do and the result is his presence from our obedience.

But there is no suggestion. You're not your own, said Paul, we have been bought with a price. Now that has to be recognized again. I think it's a sad thing of our time. You know, I was making a study of the tabernacle that Moses built.

Entering the Presence of God

There were two compartments to that tabernacle. One was a holy place and the other, we sing something about it tonight, the holiest of all. Jesus is a minister of that sanctuary, the very presence of God.

But it's so sad. You know, the priest was in the holy place once a year. The high priest went in to that holiest of all with the blood only for a little while to come back out after he had done what he had to do.

But Paul said, or the writer of the book of Hebrews said, that as long as that veil was there, meant that the way into that holiest of all had not been opened up. But when Christ died, when he gave up the ghost, that veil was ramped from top to bottom and the way into the presence of God was made open to us.

But I recognize as preaching around this world, most of Christian never goes in there. They came into the holy place, they found an altar, they found forgiveness, but never went back into that holy place, into the presence of God.

Now I know that because the Bible said, In his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand there's pleasure forevermore. Well, most of the church I know has to be entertained. Ninety percent of the day they've got to have some kind of an entertainment and things are their pleasure.

They've never come into that place with God where God's Son actually becomes their life. Nothing else is needed. There is a place in God, if we'll give ourselves to Him, where Christ is all and in all and nothing else is needed once that's happened.

You know, in a democracy there's a choice, in the military there's not so. I spent four years in the Marine Corps during World War II. I joined right after Pearl Harbor. I never had a time that they asked me would I like to take a hike or was breakfast served too early.

No, never, never one time did they think this hit me too hard with it. They just said, they appointed time and place. We'll be here, you will be there, and you'll do what we tell you to do. It all was a matter of order.

The Church as a Spiritual Army

All Scriptures taken together show us to be part of such an organization. The Bible said the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're spiritual. He says we are to put on the whole armor of God.

Talks about the church being as terrible as an army with banners. Talking about you and I and our place on this planet. Now if you look at most of it today, the dainty fingers that we have, we're so afraid that we're going to somehow or another disturb or tear, upset somebody, that we preach like we're walking on eggshells.

But we live in a time when the church must be the church. One more time, just let Christ live again. That's the answer to everything. That there's nothing so exciting as being a part of the church of the living God.

We are in a warfare. We're not a party. We're in a battle. This is not a debating society. It's a matter of life and death. All of it hinges there. The whole of the church, it's a matter of life and death.

There's a real enemy out there tonight, walking these streets, determined to destroy everything that's right and good. He has no respect for your children, your wife, nothing. Everything is up for grabs.

And the purpose of hell is to destroy it all. One of the great preachers, I never met him, was here in New York, named Bishop, his name was, I've got his name, Bishop Washington. Some of you may have heard him.

He used to come on late at night. I picked him up one night. I was driving to see my father. He was very ill, and he was doing the Vietnam War. And the bishop was preaching, and he was called Lyndon Johnson by name.

Mr. President, he said, it isn't bigger bombs, it isn't bigger planes and artillery that America needs, Mr. President. America just needs militant preachers, men that are willing and not afraid to talk the things as they are.

And he cataloged things. He said, Mr. Johnson, when Nineveh was so rotten that a turkey buzzard had to hold its nose to fly over it, all God needed was a man. Once God got a man there, he said, with three million slaves in Egypt, when God got Moses back to Egypt, it's over with the Pharaoh.

He'll flop around a little, but it's over with. All God needs is a preacher. When the bones were so dry that God asked the question, can they live? And Ezekiel, being a wise man he was, said, you know, God, God said, if I can find a man with enough faith to preach to the bones, they can live.

I believe America can live tonight. I believe a revival can come to this land again. I believe New York can feel again what it did in the 1850s when businessmen by the thousands walked these streets with Bibles.

I believe that can happen if the church, if the church will rise up to the challenge of this hour. One of the greatest needs is simply that. When the church stands up as God intended to be, the world will listen.

The world will listen to what it cannot control. It's afraid of what it cannot control. And when the church by the Holy Spirit becomes the church, there's nothing can stop her. Men will die, but nothing can stop that church.

That no devil we can't cast out, no sickness we can't heal, no river we can't cross, and no country we can't preach to. The church is here as a victor, not a victim. We need to rise up to that occasion tonight.

The church is a military organization, and we must understand we're in this world under orders tonight. We're not trying to find out what to do, or to draw a blueprint rather for God. We must know our purpose in this earth and begin to walk in it.

We're soldiers in the army, not drafted, but we've come under orders. And we must, as our commander said, come to do thy will, O God. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, I just got out of high school in May.

And it was December, I was working the oil field, going to get in the university at the first of the year. On the way from work, I heard that we're in a war. I told my mother, I'm joining the Marine Corps.

Well, she said, why would you join that? Understand, they're a very mean organization. But I don't know why I just joined it. But at that time, I knew I went to the post office. I joined. Everything was beautiful.

But about 5 o 'clock, I took that oath, and everything changed. He let me know from that moment. He said, your father sired you, your mother birthed you, but we bought you $21 a month. You're ours now.

You'll do what we tell you from here on. There was nothing else. I thought they were the nicest people before that, but everything changed. Let the church be the church, as you'll get the attention of the world.

Because men listen to what they're afraid of. The church is in the earth under orders. We're not of the world, but we're here to establish a beachhead. We will not usher in the millennium. Christ will do that when we come back with Him.

But we are to establish a beachhead of the kingdom of God. And this poor sick world needs to see a kingdom citizen. It's a world of sickness. It needs men that are well. It's a world of evil. It needs to see holy people.

It's a world of hate. It needs to see the love of God shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit. It's a time, never been a greater opportunity for the church as the hour in which we live. The kingdom of God, Jesus said, doesn't come with observation, but is within us.

Wherever the boundaries, our churches planted rather, the boundaries of that kingdom have been set. At that point in time, wherever a real church has been planted, this church planted here in the midst of this great city declared this to be the kingdom of God.

And declared when Mr. Wilkerson came, he said to the devil, I've come to take back what Adam gave away. And God's going to give it back in the same way that he lost it. He could have slapped the devil, put him in hell, whatever he wanted, but he's going to take it back to a man.

If that man died, then it all might happen. But it all, you understand what I'm telling you. We are here. This earth is still the Lord's and the fullness thereof. We're not the squatters. They're sitting on our property.

If we'll just keep walking with God, we'll rule this place. I said we'll rule this place. The reason the governments of this world hate us, are going to fear us, they fear us more than the new Osama Bin Laden, is because they know, or at least their boss knows, that we're going to supplant them.

We will be, we'll take the place of the rulers of this world's darkness. There will come a time when we'll sit on the throne with Christ and we'll rule this universe with Christ. If we'll walk with Him and be faithful, prove ourselves to be the kind of a soldier that that requires.

Wherever the church is planted, where Mexico and Canada to invade this land, cross those borders, they'd be in trouble. They are our friends now. But if they came across that border with any hostility, then there'd be trouble.

Amen. When they set up, when Mr. Wilkerson came and set this church in the middle of this city, and now under the pastors it moves on, people are coming to Christ more and more, as you feel out across this land, you're declaring that this is kingdom territory.

Hell is still out there. Jesus said, as my Father gave me a kingdom, so give I you a kingdom. Not another kingdom, the same kingdom, but you're going to have to take it. What's yours, you're going to have to take.

Jesus came and set the boundaries, said no devils, no fear, no sickness is allowed in here, no sin. He set the boundaries of that kingdom. One day righteousness will cover this earth like the waters cover the sea.

But right now we're a testimony that that's going to happen. You and I are a testimony that what He said is going to come to pass. We are God's people, we are here under orders, and we must recognize that, and stand up to be that in this awful time.

Jesus said, as my Father gave me a kingdom, I give you. When we declare territory by planting the church to become the kingdom of God, all hell breaks loose. They tried to kill Paul, they killed James, Paul was at death.

Often Stephen died. They said by their presence, this is no longer the devil's territory. We have come and set up a beachhead, and from here it's all going to become again under the rule of God. That's a testimony of the church.

Hardship and Spiritual Warfare

Now the cheap grace being sold in the marketplace of religion is a disgrace to God and His kingdom. Men are being told, if you're having problems, you've missed the will of God. If that's so, Paul never was in his Christian life in the will of God.

It was trouble from the moment he met this Christ, till he cut his head off in Rome. He was in a warfare, and he knew it all of the time. The devil's shooting at you, it means you're a threat to it. Let the church step up and say, the devil, we've come to take back what Adam gave away, and I can tell you, hell is going to visit that place.

There is going to be trouble. Long as it's a congregation, where people come to hear a sermon, he's not going to bother that. But when you begin to feel out across Brazil, and around the world, and send teams across this earth, to disturb the devil, therefore something you can believe, the darkness is going to try to engulf it.

If we stand with our loins girt about with truth, I believe one more time, we can see a revival come to this land. Abraham didn't have to save a sodomite, just find ten righteous people there. Well, I can tell you, there's more than ten righteous people in New York.

God has a people here. And if we'll stand up and be that people, I sense, listen, I sense in my heart, around this world, it just came from Poland, where for three weeks, I put the school in the Polish language.

I felt such a stir, deep down in the soul of that place. There's something going on in our world. Now, the only man that saw that cloud, that looked like a man's hand, and the only man that heard the sound, in that mulberry tree, was the man looking, and the man listening.

I've been looking, I've been listening, I can tell you folks, there's a sound in that tree tonight. God is on the march. God is about to invade one more time. There's millions of people that will be saved, if we'll believe Him.

David said, the nation that forgets God, will be turned into hell. That word, that word turned into, is the same word used when Samuel said to Saul, you're going to meet with three men that prophesy, and you're going to be turned in to another man.

That simply meant, his nature was going to be changed. And God said, the nation that forgets God, then the nature of that nation will become hell. Well, our streets are hell tonight. Our schools are hell.

There's drugs, there's abortions, there's a thousand things out there, that say the nature is hell. That doesn't mean you're turned in to a lake of fire, but the very nature of the nation has been changed.

God is looking for a few good folk, that's all. A people that live what they believe. As our pastor said, when we took that communion, and eat that bread, may God help us to know, and if we're not going to live what we're eating, then we ought to leave the eating off.

Andrew Murray, when he's prayed, he read the script, you're going to speak from it, that our body is a temple of God. And he prayed this prayer, just before he began to speak. He said, God help me, God help me, not to say it, and not live it.

God help me, not to talk about Him, living within me, and not live where He's seen. The greatest crime committed, in New York City last night, was somebody walked the streets, with Christ living in them, and the poor world never saw Him but them.

That's the greatest crime. That we live in a world, Christ within us, and men never come to know that Christ. Jesus said, let your light shine. Now there's three things, I want to suggest to you tonight, that it takes to make a soldier.

Faithfulness as the First Mark of a Soldier

I pray that God will help us to hear. Faithfulness, courage, and discipline. Those three, those three things, have to be a part of a life. If it's going to be a soldier, well that's in Uncle Sam's army, or an army of the living God.

It must be these three things, faithfulness, courage, and discipline. We look at them for a moment. First, you must be found faithful. According to Paul, in 1 Corinthians 4 and 2, faithfulness is the key.

God demands, and God looks for, faithfulness. Faith, it is bottom line, means to be made faithful to God in every part of our life, every circumstance of life. Whatever comes, whatever goes, that we remain faithful to God.

No matter how much comes against us, how difficult the thing may be, that we be Christians. We be faithful to God. In World War II, if I'd been caught in the camp of the Japanese, I'd have been shot for collaborating with the enemy.

Yet, modern Christianity, for the most part, no longer looks upon the world as an enemy, but rather as a misunderstood friend. That's been our greatest curse. You see, worldliness is not a look. Religion says it is, but worldliness is not a look.

Worldliness is to be influenced by the wrong system. And most of the church is in that place today. It's a sad thing. All the devil has to do to keep us off the front line, it's to send grandmother to visit us on a Sunday.

That's all. Let grandmother come to visit us on Sunday, and the whole household stays out. Well, if grandmother doesn't want to go to church, then let grandmother cook the dinner. We belong in the house of God.

We belong at the post of duty. If we're going to be soldiers, there's no excuse for us ever, ever, not being where we belong. And no matter what it is, wherever that world influences us, we have become worldly.

We've allowed the wrong system to dictate to our lives. In Vietnam, I met young men. My wife and I spent seven years in Vietnam. We left the church in hands of others, and from 1968 to 1975, we were there.

Saw Pentecost come to that world for the first time in 4 ,000 years of history. The best that we could see. We saw. But I saw there as we went. I saw young men who had grown up on a Pentecostal pallet.

Yet in 30 days, the devil shot them down morally. I saw that. Their problem was they grew up in a church, but by its action, made the world not an enemy, but a friend. It never knew they were cross-eyed.

They didn't know where the world stopped, and the church started. It all fell. Nashville, Hollywood, Las Vegas have invaded the church. They sing in the church on Sunday, and in Vegas on Monday. Is it any wonder that the young people fail?

They don't know the difference between walking for God and a mixed-up something with the world. To be a friend of the world means that you and I are an enemy of God. Faithfulness is a commitment to a cause.

There is nothing else. The soldier must believe the cause to which he is in is bigger than himself. That there has to be that belief. We commit to what we believe. There is no other. No matter what the 21st century witch doctor says, we commit to what we believe.

The psychiatrist says we're a product of the advance of some traumatic something. Your mother stomped your head on the floor when you was born. Something else. That's when you act like you do, but that's not so.

Amen. The epistle of John said, Jesus would not commit himself to certain people because he knew what was in man. We as Christians are not a product of our past. Our past is dead. Where is the future with us?

We're born again. We're new creatures. Hallelujah. If that past is still what's influencing your life, then you haven't found your way to God yet. Paul said to the Hebrews, if you're mindful of where you come from, you're going to go back there.

But now, we're not products of the past. We're a product of our will. And our will is governed by one of two things. Our love or lack of love. Entirely. If we're God's children, then that will is governed by our love or lack of love.

We're a product. Amen. Those early Christians, the Bible said, love not their lives unto death. They were committed to something they believed were bigger than they were. Their life inside that church was more important than their life outside of that church.

Because Christ was their life. A man stopped me in church one night years ago. He said, Pastor, there's a sin in my life which I cannot quit. I said, I don't know what your trouble is. If it's smoking cigarettes, then that cigarette didn't jump out of your pocket and light itself.

You willfully put it in that mouth and lit it. And it's a product of your will. Don't come whining to me that you can't. God will if you will. But it isn't a matter of whether you can or can't. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.

Not a matter of can or can't. I joined the Marine Corps right after Pearl Harbor. Eighteen years old. Just out of high school. But I reckon the freedom of this land was worth my life. In fact, what it would have cost, I believe that.

As I told you, I joined the Marine Corps. My mother said to me, I understand those are mean people. Why don't you join something else? Well, I never met nicer people. They treated me with royalty. Gave me a voucher.

Allowed me to go eat in a restaurant. As far as I know, first restaurant was every end of my life. I mean, poor people called us poor. They just, you know, we had nothing. We didn't know it, though. That's the wonderful part about it.

We didn't know it was poor. But that's probably the first restaurant I ever ate in. Amen. But that afternoon, five o 'clock, everything done. We raised our hands and swore in everything changed. It's all over now.

He said, I've put up this slouching around this place all day. Now, that's enough of that. Amen. Now, you straighten up. Here's ideas. He read the law. Just ideas from here on. You'll do what I tell you.

You won't run in now this place. Amen. That was all it was to it. It's over with once it took that oath. I got the boot cap. Sergeant met me. Had a world globe and an anchor on his cap and collar. Written on it was Seamper Fidelis.

And I said to him, Sergeant, what does that mean? He said, it means always faithful. And don't you forget it. You become one of the part of one of the greatest fighting forces on this earth. You become a part of the world's greatest force.

Even the gates of heaven, he said, are guarded by Marines. That's one of the verses of the hymn. One of the verses says, you'll find the streets of heaven guarded by United States Marines. Y 'all didn't know that, but you know now.

I've let you in on that secret. He said, when you go outside that gate, whenever you get a liberty, I want that cap straight, that tie on, shoes shine, everything about you. You're a part of something.

Keep your shoulders squared. You're a part of something. You and I belong to God. You hear me? I said, we belong to God. We need to keep our shoes shining. We need to walk and talk like a Christian. We must be faithful to God.

I said, we must be faithful wherever we are. Wherever we are, under every circumstance. Riding that airplane, amen, wherever. We represent somebody. A stewardess said to me, why do you ride here with your coat and necktie?

You take the coat and give it to them. I said, I represent the king. What country? I said, heaven. She walked away. She walked away, but reckoned she'd come back. Said, tell me a little more about this.

I said, I'm glad to. Amen. I represent somebody. I said, I represent somebody. Hallelujah. We must always, at all times, be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us. You and I belong to God.

When done all to stand, the Bible said stand. You know, I joined that outfit. I believe I was the only heathen in the Marine Corps. Everybody else had religion. Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Pentecostal here and there.

I was the only man that didn't have any kind of religion. When I first joined, when I joined, the man signed me up. He said, are you a Catholic or a Protestant? I said, I don't know. I didn't know what we were.

Well, he said, if you was a Catholic, you'd know it. Made me a Protestant. I went, that's all the religion I had until I was born again. 1949. I went through the war of Protestant. I didn't know what I was protesting, except the Japanese.

I went through that whole war of Protestant. Finally, one day, found out what it was. I surrounded by people that claimed to be Christians. Every time they had a little church service, they were there, always wanting me to go.

I said, you know, why would I want to go with you to your church service? I'd rather nurse this headache here. You got the same one. You're chasing the same women I was last night. You're as drunk as I was last night.

Why would I want anything to do with you? I didn't know anything about God. But I knew if there was a God, He would have nothing to do with that. I said, there was nothing, absolutely nothing, amen, to do with that.

If He don't change your life, if a changed life isn't the evidence of being born again, then nobody is ever going to be born again, again. Nobody. If a changed life isn't the evidence of that. Amen. I surrounded by them, all of them wanted to get me to be a religious man.

We'd been on the island of Peleliu, and a great part of my battalion had died there. Out of 1 ,100, there were only a few of us able to walk back aboard that ship. But when we came back to the island where we regrouped, they gave us replacements.

And they gave me a young man, about 18 years of age. I was a sergeant at that time. I was all of 22 myself. And he was 18 years. I signed him to a tent, took him in, introduced him to the boys. And then they come in with the free beer.

You know, they had free beer. And he said he didn't want it. He didn't want it. I said, well, I'll hold his for him. He'll probably come after that while. But he had a little Bible in his pocket. I took him in the tent, introduced him to him.

Went back to my tent. Wasn't long when them boys come over and said, what are we going to do with that young man, that new recruit in the tent? I said, what do you mean? They said, well, come out here.

You'll hear him. Said, when you left, he opened that little Bible, had a New Testament. He read it a while. Read it to himself. But now listen at him. He's kneeling by that cot. And you can hear him two or three tenths down.

Amen. He's praying. I said, well, we don't, then we didn't have no rules against prayer. Amen. You couldn't stop a man praying. I said to him, there's nothing I can do about it. But the next day, I was in a crap game in the country street and lost $100.

Now, when you make $40 a month, that's a lot of money. Especially when you make it in a war. And I was very angry. And I walked along. He was sitting under a coconut tree reading that Bible. I said to him, you're some kind of religious crazy, ain't you?

I said, you'll get over it. I said, you'll get over it. He stood up, all six foot of him. Put that little ribbon in place. Closed that Bible. Put it in his pocket. Buttoned it. Then put his finger on my nose.

And he said, Sergeant, not you nor this Marine Corps will separate me from the love of God. I met a Christian. I knew I'd met somebody different. I met him. Last time I saw him, he had been hit in the head.

They brought him by me. He was bleeding terribly. They carried him back. I never saw him again whether he lived or died. I don't know. If he lived, he's walking with God. If he's dead, he's in heaven.

But I do know I'd met somebody that day. I met somebody that I never forgot. Years later, when I got saved, I remembered that young man. A soldier must be faithful. That's the key. You can't serve Christ without being faithful.

Courage Born of Conviction

Second, a soldier must be faithful. Second, must be of courage. Courage is born out of conviction. A man asked me, he said, Why don't the church have any convictions? I said, Because they don't have any.

That's all just nothing wrong anymore. There's absolutely no link between believing and behavior in most churches anymore. It's just got all out of bounds. But there must be a courage born of conviction.

I've never seen a man that when he really thought he was going to die, that didn't want to die. I mean, there's suicides I'm not talking about. But a man, when he comes to that point, it looks like it's over with.

Then there's a fear that takes a hold of him. I saw a lot of men, because they had conviction, could face death and hell no matter what was against them. Because there was a conviction about their life.

They could face, they never ran. Amen. There was a fear come, but they never ran. Young people, you're in a high school. You're in a jungle. Please, have to continue to be on the presence. Amen. Drugs are pushed.

Sex education. All of it defined to destroy your life. It takes more courage to be a Christian on that campus than it ever took to fight a war. Yes, sir. For a young person to live for God in this time, on the campuses of America, takes more courage than it took for me to spend four years in a war.

To stand up in this crooked and perverse generation and be a part of what Christ is. There's a difference between being afraid and being a coward. Cowards never make soldiers. Never. It takes more courage to be right than to fight a war.

I did not know what I'd do when I faced that enemy. I just didn't have any idea. I could shoot a rifle. I had a little .22 rifle. I could hit a squirrel, jump it from one tree to another. So I thought I'm ready for war.

I'm just ready. I'm ready to go. Just get out there and get a uniform. But it didn't work out that way. I grew up in a small community. My greatest fear was that the headlines of that little community would be, Clinton didn't run when he looked down the wrong end of that gun barrel.

I didn't know what I was going to do. I never looked this way. It's always this way. I didn't know what I'm going to do whenever that happens. Amen. On the way over to that canal, the first place we hit was Guadalcanal.

On the way over, there's a young man went through boot camp with me. He had a big tattoo on his shoulder. It was skull and crossbones. Under that had written, death before dishonor. I remember I used to think I'd see him walking around on that ship without his shirt on.

Oh, I wish I had that courage. The last time I saw him, they read him 20 years in Leavensworth for deserting under fire. Takes more than a tattoo to be courage. Courage is born of conviction. That what I'm in is right.

What I'm doing is right. It doesn't matter. My daughter, Brenda, you all met her. She's the love of this preacher's life. Amen. But as a little girl, she's always afraid. Had to have a little night light.

Always in her room. Had to have a night light. Amen. Because she's afraid of the dark. But then she got married and my granddaughter came. Of course, all daughters want to get home with mama when the baby comes.