Battle Drill #1:

Resist the Enemy!

Proverbs 1:8-19 (NAS95)

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is Proverbs 1:15: “My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path.”

The first battle drill is to resist the enemy! The context of today’s battle drill comes from Proverb 1:8-19:

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching; indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause; let us swallow them alive like Sheol, even whole, as those who go down to the pit; we will find all kinds of precious wealth, we will fill our houses with spoil; throw in your lot with us, we shall all have one purse,” my son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, for their feet run to evil and they hasten to shed blood. Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net in the sight of any bird; but they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; it takes away the life of its possessors.

Every good soldier of Jesus Christ must learn that if you want to maintain your life, then you must follow this first battle drill! Just as we see in Proverbs 1:8-19, there are forces of evil who seek to entice you away from the wisdom of God and His ways for your life. As Proverbs 1:10 directs, “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.” It’s that simple!

There are thieves who seek to rob you of your life by getting you to throw in your lot with them and believe their counterfeit promises about how to have a happier and more fulfilling life, seducing you with the promise of pleasures to walk away from the fundamentals of your faith and God’s reward for your faithfulness. That is the warning of Proverbs 1:19, “So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; it takes away the life of its possessors.” Jesus Christ affirmed this by teaching His followers in John 10:10-12:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

Just like sheep cannot be left alone because they are dumb animals that will follow their animal instincts to their own destruction, God, the Good Shepherd, gathers us, together, as His one people under His rightful rule, so that we can train to live on mission today.

As a cadet, in both Cadet Basic Training (CBT) and Cadet Field Training (CFT) at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, NY, I was taught the fundamentals of being a soldier, what we call battle drills. As a brand-new Second Lieutenant, attending the US Army’s Infantry Officer Basic Course (IOBC) at Fort Benning, GA, I was taught how to train soldiers to work as a unit and execute the fundamentals without a deliberate decision-making process. Both the soldier skills and leadership training were further drilled into me through the arduous training regimen of the US Army’s Ranger School. The goal is to make the training instinctual, habitual, and reflexive, regardless of personal or situational stress. Today, we are going to look at one of the most basic battle drills every soldier must learn, and every unit must master as one collective body; it is how to “react to contact.”

The soldiers of Jesus Christ have an enemy – the devil! The battle drill we are to learn, and master is simple, but not easy. Army doctrine teaches us that when a soldier reacts to contact, she is to immediately take cover and return fire in the direction of enemy contact. Not surprisingly, the following New Testament Scriptures make the point clear of what we are to do when we come under enemy attack:

1) James 4:7. “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

2) 1 Peter 5:8-9. “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”

3) Ephesians 6:11-12. “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Good soldiers of Christ Jesus don’t just remain hunkered down returning fire, they are to seek the Commander’s approval by carrying on with the mission. It’s great to not be taken out of the battle, but staying alive is not the mission, pleasing the Father and doing His will is the point! Just like in the 82^nd Airborne Division, jumping out of airplanes was how we got to work, so we needed to train how to execute a variety of airborne operations, under different circumstances, so that we could get to work safely and do the job we were delivered to execute. Our job was to arrive safely to fulfill the Commander’s plan for sending us behind enemy lines in the first place. The same is true with surviving an enemy attack! Resisting the enemy allows you to continue the mission, it’s not the mission itself, but you must train this into your mind and heart so that it is reflexive, instinctual, and habitual! That takes us to action step #3.

An interesting detail about the wisdom literature is that a bulk of it was written by a father and son team – King David wrote much of the Psalms and King Solomon, his son, wrote much of the rest, to include Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.[1] With that understanding, both David and Solomon, began their works, Psalms and Proverbs, respectively, with a similar understanding of wisdom. Just as Proverbs 1:15, today’s battle drill, stresses the fear of the Lord as a fidelity to God’s commands as contrasted with the ways of the wicked, “my son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path,” so Psalm 1 makes a similar comparison:

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

When each individual soldier responds to the enemy’s attacks in this way – reflexively, instinctually, and habitually submitting to God and His ways when under stress to live life differently, then we can have the courageous confidence to carry on the mission of God, as a unit. That takes us to action step #4.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

We learn this from the example of Jesus Christ in how He conducted today’s battle drill against the temptations of the devil in His forty days in the wilderness from Matthew 4:1-11:

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning you’; and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

As we conclude today’s message, I want you to learn two things from how Jesus reacted to enemy contact:

1) Jesus took cover in the will of His Father for his forty days in the wilderness. The Holy Spirit led Him there to be tempted by the devil, according to Scripture, so Jesus faced the will of God through forty days and nights of fasting in preparation for God’s will to be done. In His ministry, Jesus never evaded the will of His Father, even unto death on the Cross. That’s because Jesus’ purpose of coming was His Father’s glory – His good pleasure!

2) Jesus not only took cover in His Father’s will, but He returned fire on the enemy’s attack against Him. Three times Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy to thwart the enemy. When Jesus came under direct attack, He was ready to return fire with the Word of God.

This is the battle drill, and this is how you “react to contact” – the battle drill of resist the enemy! Jesus conducted the battle drill so that He could carry on the mission of God. Jesus submitted Himself to His Father’s will through His baptism in Matthew 3:13-17, then He resisted the enemy in Matthew 4:1-11, then He lived on mission Matthew 4:12 – 28:20!

In the same way, you are commanded to demonstrate your allegiance to the Commander by being baptized in the name of the One who enlisted you – the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. As a good soldier of Christ Jesus, you will come under attack, do not be naïve that there is an enemy seeking to destroy you, but train your battle drill – resist the enemy! Make this a reflexive, instinctual, and habitual part of your Christian life so that you can CM – Continue the Mission! Persevere unto the end and you will receive the reward from the One who enlisted you for this very purpose. Therefore, live on mission today and train the battle drill of the week for the glory of God.

You can listen to Pastor Jerry’s message here:

You can watch the video by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTE:

The Battle Drills of a Christian Soldier!

2 Timothy 2:1-4 & Proverbs 1:1-7 (NAS95)

The Scripture lesson for today and the theme verse for the 2022 sermon series is found in 2 Timothy 2:1-4:

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

In the first three weeks, I covered the first three verses of this passage to learn how we are called to grow strong in the grace of God, live with a missional focus, and commit ourselves to the training routine of a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Today, I finish the framework for our study of the book of Proverbs by examining the fourth and final verse of our theme passage: “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” Let’s look at the first half of this verse.

“NO SOLDIER IN ACTIVE SERVICE ENTANGLES HIMSELF IN THE AFFAIRS OF EVERYDAY LIFE”

As we learned from out study of 2 Timothy 2:3, the soldier imagery was a favorite of the Apostle Paul. Here are three other usages of it from Paul’s writings in the New Testament:

1) 1 Corinthians 9:7. “Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?”

2) Philippians 2:25. “But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need.”

3) Philemon 1b-2. “To Philemon our beloved brother and fellow worker, and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house.”

As a follower of Jesus Christ, you are not a part-time employee; rather, you are an active-duty soldier. You are not a National Guard soldier, who works a civilian job during the week and trains as a soldier one weekend per month and two weeks out of the year just in case you are called up to serve in a time of need. You are on “active service” to Jesus Christ, meaning, this is your priority, and nothing can be allowed to compete against it as your top priority. Therefore, I am called to train you as a member of an elite rapid-deployment unit who must be ready in season and out of season to go on mission for God. This is exactly what Paul had in mind as you hear his exhortation to his protégé in 2 Timothy 4:1-8:

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Those days have arrived, the return of the Lord is imminent. Are you trained and ready to be deployed as a good soldier of Christ Jesus to fulfill your ministry, or are you entangled in the affairs of everyday life, distracted, and discouraged by the circumstances of these last days? God has enlisted you to be His hope-bearer in the despair, His light in the darkness, and His peace in times of division! This is the mission of God for His Church, for such a time as this!

A good soldier of Christ Jesus does not allow himself to get entangled with anything that would distract him from pleasing the Commander, the One who enlisted him, and the accomplishment of the mission. Hebrews 12:1-3 is a clarion call to such a focused life:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

The way to remain unencumbered and disentangled from that which would distract you from your active service as a soldier, is to remain focused on your allegiance to the commander. Let us now look at the second half of 2 Timothy 2:4.

“SO THAT HE MAY PLEASE THE ONE WHO ENLISTED HIM AS A SOLDIER.”

Jesus modeled the life of a good soldier of God by submitting His life, and His death, to His Father’s will. Jesus came from Heaven to Earth to show us the way of a life of full submission and complete allegiance to God! As Paul’s Christ Hymn of Philippians 2:5-11 proclaims:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

From Matthew 26:38-42, we see that Jesus knew what it meant to be a good soldier, which is why we highlight and exemplify His faithful prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night Jesus sweat blood as He knowingly anticipated the plan of His Father to be the propitiation of sin, which required of Him to follow the prescribed path of suffering – His betrayal leading unto death, even death on a cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world:

Then [Jesus] said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

Do you have this same attitude of Christ Jesus? Are you motivated to glorify God with every area of your life? Are you confident that you will be able to say that you have accomplished the good works that God enlisted you to walk in with your life? How are you actively and intentionally training yourself to live on mission today to the glory of God?

We must train this same attitude of Christ Jesus into our own lives! To do this training routine effectively and to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, we must know what it is we are to put into practice. I am calling these the battle drills of a Christian soldier. Last week, I taught you that Army doctrine defines battle drills as “the ‘fundamentals’ that must be constantly rehearsed until they are second nature for all Soldiers. … [They are] a collective action executed by a platoon or smaller element without the application of a deliberate decision-making process.”[1] In other words, the action of both the individual soldier, and his or her fellow soldiers, must be vigorously trained into every soldier as a collective unit until the unit functions as one mature body; it’s reflexive, instinctual, and habitual behavior for this one purpose – God’s glory! Every soldier in the unity must commit to these four action steps of the training routine:

1) Know the manual – the Bible.

2) Train together as one unit – the Church.

3) Seek the Commander’s approval – Jesus Christ, the head of the His Church.

4) Live on mission – the Great Commission.

Hence, next week we embark upon our year-long study of the book of Proverbs. We will learn how to apply God’s wisdom as the battle drills of a good soldier of Christ Jesus, according to these four action steps of the training routine. Listen to Proverbs 1:1-7 as King Solomon gives us the purpose of Proverbs as God’s book of wisdom, and, in doing so, gives us the overarching motive of every soldier’s training routine and mission success:

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion, a wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The overarching motive of a good soldier is the fear of God! Apart from this respect, reverence, and awe of God as the Sovereign King, the Ruler of all creation, the Supreme Commander of Heaven’s armies, then there can be no training of wisdom, or instruction in righteousness, for us as the good soldiers of Christ Jesus. We must know who it is we are seeking to please with our lives; therefore, we must train into our minds and hearts a complete submission to the one who saved us, called us to be His, and chose us to be a part of His plans.

Being a soldier in active service means that everything you do is submitted to the Commander – “the Lord Christ whom you serve” (Colossians 3:24). It is Christ you seek to please, not a job description, or a volunteer’s expectations, or prescribed hours, or a designated amount of money. Those are misleading goals and heavy burdens, but in your wholehearted allegiance to Jesus, you learn how to seize the moment for God by living out what Paul prescribed as a right response to the gospel of Jesus Christ in Romans 12:1-5:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

For example, in my pastoral ministry, the day after my dear sister Carole Hiatt passed away, Beorn, my fifteen-year-old son, and I spent all day, from breakfast straight through to dinner, moving all her possessions out of the local senior living facility to over an hour away in Ohio. As we were driving, my son asked me if this was considered a workday for me. I told him that everything I did was part of my calling and that while technically this day of service was not a “workday,” as defined by our culture, it was an integral part of my calling. Together, Beorn and I were learning how to live and love like Jesus modeled for us and commands us to train to live on mission today, it just so happened to look like us being “Two Men and a Truck” on that day.

You can listen to Pastor Jerry’s message here:

You can watch the video by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] “The Importance of Battle Drills” by Risk Management Magazine on January 25, 2019. https://www.army.mil/article/216557/the_importance_of_battle_drills (accessed December 16, 2021).