Fear Him Who is Able to Destroy Both Body & Soul

Introduction

You might wish to go ahead and turn your Bibles to Matthew, the 10th chapter. Matthew chapter 10 is going to be our text this morning. Matthew 10. We have a good audience here this morning, a good number. So many that my wife and our family and I know, others who we don’t know so well. Maybe we’ve never even had the chance to meet. We’re certainly glad to be here with you this day. Certainly glad for the opportunity we had to spend with the teenagers yesterday and so many good friends engaged in that effort. With our teams, as I mentioned at the 9 o’clock hour, we discussed the matter of faith all weekend. We used as a main text or a beginning text at least, John 3 and verse 16.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. That truly salvation is a matter of faith. And that we need not shy away from that. We need not be embarrassed by that. But it’s also necessary to define what it is the Bible means by faith. And that’s what we endeavored to do this weekend together. We spoke about how faith is our conviction in God. Convinced that He is there, even though we do not see Him, and yet He has left all the evidence behind. Convinced that Jesus is in fact the Son of God, raised from the dead and now seated at the right hand of God, convinced by the evidence, even though we were not there to witness those events.

We spoke about our trust in God, a God who has never failed to keep a promise that he has made. A trust in God because He loves us so much. And we spoke this morning about surrendering, a faith that surrenders to the will of God, because it trusts that God will keep every last one of his promises that he has made to us in our covenant with him if we’ll be faithful to the covenant that we have made with him. So it’s been a very positive, a very wonderful time together, and which might bring the text for our morning discussion a little bit surprising. Matthew 10 and verse 28, our Lord, and it’s interesting, this is not one of the apostles, it’s not Peter, this is not Paul, this is our Lord, who says, Do not fear those who is able to kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

That’s an interesting topic given our religious climate today. A climate when Jesus is not really referred to as our Lord and Savior, Jesus is referred to as our best friend. A climate when God is spoken of, a God of love, but the justice and the wrath of God are rarely mentioned. A God in which we do focus, and rightfully so on passages like John 3.16, or for instance, John 4, or sorry, 1 John 4 in verse 8, that there is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. And we think about this God who loves us so much and our love for him. How is it then, therefore, Jesus says, fear, the one who can kill both body and soul in hell.

In fact, we may even wonder can both be true? I sometimes fear myself that we offer these false dichotomies all the time. That we offer things that has to be either or. I give you a poor example at the Klein’s house on Friday evening. There were about 15 desserts there. Now, you may reason in your mind that there makes a choice that is necessary. I’ll either have this or I’ll have this. I like the philosophy of both and. Yes, there is dessert. Yes, do you want it? Yes, which one? I just want it. And in many ways, our religious relationship with God is the same. When you talk about matters of salvation, there’s a false dichotomy in our world that it is either you appreciate the grace of God and have faith in that, or you surrender yourself to obeying the will of God.

Well, that’s a false dichotomy. God never put it as either or. Either you appreciate my grace and love or you follow me. God didn’t put it that way. It’s both and. You appreciate my grace and my love. You have faith in me, therefore you will follow me. We have worshiped together this morning. And again, that is oftentimes presented as a false dichotomy. You can either do the things that are found in the New Testament as your worship, or you can worship God with your full heart. Well, that’s false. It can be both and.

Therefore, because I love him so much, I worship him by the means that he’s given us in the New Testament. Likewise, it’s not a matter of God is either this God of infinite love or he is a God to be feared.

And you look at even the psalmists. I’m sorry, well, I kind of got ahead of myself. In Psalm 89 and verse 14, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before you.

Clouds and thick darkness around him, righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries round about. You see, you’re talking about the same God in both passages. He has described in both ways. Psalm 89, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Psalm 97, righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. But how God acts towards man, toward those who are his people, toward those who are in a covenant relationship with him, toward those who love him. Then loving kindness and truth go before him as he extends his faithfulness to them. But to mankind that has rejected their God, that despises even his love and his mercy and all that he has done for them.

Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries round about. It’s the same God. Which side we see is determined by our actions. Even in our passage here in Matthew chapter 10, even though we’ve noted verse 28. Yes, you have this matter about fearing God in verse 28. But then you’ll note in verse 29. Are not two sparrows sold for a sin, and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear. You are more valuable than many sparrows. You have both aspects of God right there in that passage. In verse 28, fear God. Fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Verses 29 and 30, trust this God.

Believe that this God is looking out for you. Believe that this God knows the very number of the hairs on your head. Know that this God is looking after you all the while. God is both just and a God who loves like none other.

1. You Want God to Be Just

Look at a couple of facts to begin with. First of all, you want God to be just. We may not think about it that way. But honestly, we want God to be just.

And so we live in terror of the judge. Well, that’s not all judges are for, though, is it? That the Hebrews may have thought about that God is a judge in a little bit different sense sometimes. That this was a matter of civil litigation. They’re bringing their complaints to the judge. And they knew that because the judge is righteous and the judge is just, then when they brought their complaints because there have been great wrongs committed, that they would take this matter to the judge, and the judge would judge in favor of them. God being a just judge is to the benefit of his people. Not just something to be dreaded, but something to hold in terror. Psalm 75 gives this picture of the justice and the judgment of God.

Psalm 75. We give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks. For your name is near. Men declare your wondrous works. When I select an appointed time, it is I who judge with equity. The earth and all who dwell in it melt. It is I who have firmly set its pillars. I said to the boastful, do not boast. And to the wicked, do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high. Do not speak with insolent pride. For not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation. But God is the judge. He puts down one and exalts another. For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, and the wine foams. It is well mixed, and he pours out of this.

Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs. And note how he concludes the Psalm, verse 9. But as for me, I will declare it forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob, and all the horns of the wicked he will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up. Here is this Psalmist praising God, praising God for what? He is a just judge. And the psalmist comes before this just judge, believing that he is righteous and bringing these complaints to God, knowing that the enemies of God are out there, and they have exalted themselves up against God, and he is saying, God judge them. And he praises God for this. We want God to be just.

Two dead in a Pine Hills nightclub shooting just a day or so ago. A man brought up on trials for killing someone in an automobile accident after he had been driving 40 miles per hour over the speed limit. Just this morning. A church, a Coptic church in Egypt, bombed on one of their holiest days of the year, and over 20 dying in that attack. And then there are the things that are not reported. How many murders were committed last night? How many rapes? How many instances of spousal abuse? How many instances of child abuse occurred just last night? That you and I will never hear about. What can you do about it? What can I do about it?

I am pitiless and powerless against the great evils that go on in our world on a daily basis. You are absolutely powerless against the evils that occur in our world and our society on a daily basis. So what do we hope for? That God will be just.

2. We Just Don’t Want God to Be Just With Me

Those who were slain for the word of God. And where are they found? They are under the neath the altar. And why are they crying out? How long, O Lord, holy and true? Will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? But there’s a place for the Christian to commit justice to God, for that’s our only hope. We look at the forces arrayed against God and his people. We look at the evil and the iniquity in our world and we long for justice. That God will offer it. But here’s the problem. Because the second fact is this. We want God to be just. We want God to set right all the wrongs that are going on in our world.

We just don’t want God to be just with me. Because we become guilty of that which we speak of so often about comparing ourselves to all the evil and all the terrible things that are out there. And we look at our trivial sins, our dishonesty, our lack of love, our lack of compassion, our lack of patience, and we think that these are trivial things. And what that means is we do not have a concept at all about who God is. And reading the Exodus a few months ago, something struck me that just had never struck me before. You remember in Exodus chapter 33 and verse 20. Moses had made this request of God. I want to see you, God. And of course, God responds Well, I’m going to put you in the mountain, I’m going to pass by you, and you’ll see me pass by, but my face, no man may see my face and live.

Now, what struck me about that was this. You, of course, remember what happened in Exodus chapter 32, right? Here is God’s holy nation. This nation that God had called to himself from the rest of the world. And you were saying, You are going to be my holy people. You’re going to be my special people. I’m going to love you. And that holy nation in Exodus chapter 32 had just transgressed the very fundamentals of their covenant with God. They had made an idol. They had worshiped it as their God. And they’re rebelling against the very commands and promises of God. We’re going to go back to Egypt, and our gods will lead us there.

Moses was one of the only people who was not there in the camp doing that in Exodus 32. Now think of this. God’s holy nation. And one person and that whole holy nation had not been giving himself, well, Joshua as well, but Moses was not giving himself to all the iniquity that was going on. Of all the people, surely he would have stood as holy and a true servant of God. And God says to this one person, this one person who had honored God throughout all this, you’re still not holy enough to see me. You can’t see me, Moses. That’s the God we’re dealing with. The God who says to us in 1 Peter 1 and verses 15 and 16 that we are to be holy as He is holy in all our behavior.

The one who says in 1 John 1 verses 5 and 6 that God is light. And in him there is no darkness at all. And if we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. And what we fail to understand is that in my life, that there’s a lack of honesty, that I am showing myself to be woefully short of who God is. That God is inherently honest. God is inherently truthful. And so my menial sins that I commit, that I would never think God should be just with me about, I fail to recognize I am well short of the holiness of God. Then when we think about lust in our culture and our society, and lust is so trivial life, we begin to think, well, what is the big deal?

3. A Call to Allegiance

Lust is unfaithfulness. Lust is unfaithfulness either to your spouse now or to your spouse to come. And what is God? If anything but faithful. Inherently faithful. And our God has called us to be like He is. We want God to be just. We just don’t want God to be just with us. Because we’ve deluded ourselves into thinking that we’re okay when we fall far short of His glory and honor. That’s why it’s needed. That we have the fear of God. And we keep Him holy in our lives always. Going back to our passage. Let’s look at exactly why in the context of Matthew chapter 10 that it was necessary that his disciples, his apostles fear God. Going back earlier in our text, we see that Jesus was sending out the 12 in verses 5 through 8.

These 12 Jesus sent out after instructing them. Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons freely, you receive freely gift. He has a mission for them. You’re going to go out, you’re going to heal, but you’re also going to preach my kingdom. Now, what’s going to happen? Skipping down to verse 16. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues.

And you’ll even be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say, for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the spirit of your father who speaks in you. Brother will betray brother to death. And a father his child and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You’ll be hated by all because of my name, but as the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. And whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next, for truly I say to you, you will not finish going to the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.

A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master is enough for the disciple that he became like his teacher and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house beelzebol, how much more will they amalign the members of his household? He says, I’m sending you out. You’re going to go, you’re going to heal the sick, you’re going to preach my kingdom, and you’re going to think that man is going to love you because of what you’re doing. They will not. They’ll betray you. Those who are closest to you, your families, will give you up. They will hate you. And as they have persecuted me and hated me, so they will hate you also. So then they had the question.

Who will we fear? Will we fear man who will hate us so much? Or will we fear our God?

Therefore, do not fear them. For there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light. And what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. The very hairs of your head are all numbered, so do not fear. You’re more valuable than me, sparrows. Yes, you might fear man. You know very well what man is going to do to you now. Don’t fear them. I’ve got a message for you to go out and to proclaim. Don’t fear them. Fear God if you’re to fear anyone. And also know that this God is going to be concerned about you and concerned for you as you go out doing his will. He knows every hair on the top of your head. He knows the birds that drop from the sky.

Therefore, verse 32 Everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Here’s what’s at stake. If you fear man, you’ll deny me. And I will therefore be forced to deny you. But if you fear God, rather, and not man, then you’ll be faithful to me and confess my name. Not a one-time confession which we make before one is baptized, but a confession in life. A confession of Jesus as my Lord and my Savior every day that I live. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother. A daughter in law against her mother in law, and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it. And he who’s lost his life for my sake will find it. What this passage is, is a call to allegiance. Fear God. Have your allegiance wholly and solely devoted to Him. Not to man, not to family, no matter what family may do, no matter what family may spurn you because of your allegiance to me.

Have your allegiance to God. And do not fear what man may do to you. We certainly understand why that was needed of the apostles. When we think about the works that they did, not only in the Gospels, but throughout the book of Acts. We see them going out and proclaiming the message of the kingdom and persecution following them wherever they went. They held true to their allegiance. The call to feared God more than man. They would not turn aside from God, though, is still a reminder of where our allegiance must lie.

4. Your Allegiance Is to God

It was probably about five years ago, Sister Joan Walker and I were having a discussion. And I’d said, I don’t remember if it was in a Bible class, we were just talking in the four year, and we were talking about changes and currents in our society, and I had made the statement that, well, within five years, same-sex marriage will be legal. Well, I was short. No, actually, I went long. I went long by a couple of years. Happened quicker than I thought. Now, we’ve had good discussions in that time. We’ve maybe even thought about our own attitudes toward those who are in sin, even those sins that were beyond the social norms of just a generation or two ago. We’ve thought about our response and how we ought to react and how we ought to respond to a world which is so confused and so lost.

We’ve had good discussions about that. But here’s the thing.

It does not matter. It does not matter how much we profess and wholeheartedly profess our love for our fellow man. It does not matter how much we have whole uh hold out and truthfully, that any sin keeps us from the image and the glory of God. It does not matter how much compassion we hold out in seeking others to repent and even to help them with the struggles that they may have in life. The world sees us as the enemy. We are hated and despised because we are the intolerant ones, even though the world has misdefined intolerance. Because we do not accept and wholeheartedly approve of that which God has said is sinful, we are now the worst of the earth. Most of us in this audience, well, we’re okay.

We came up in a generation, well, these things were defined, and we know where we stand. But it’s your kids and my kids that are going to go through a world now where what was a social norm just a generation ago has been turned upside down. And what will we do? Well, we will teach them about the love of God. We’ll teach them about the love of man. We’ll teach them about how they need to be good and honest and kind to all people, to not judge others based on what they do. We’ll teach them all those things. And they’ll be hated. They’ll be despised. And they do not call that which is evil good. What we’re going to have to do is what we must do.

Who is my allegiance to? I will have to teach my children that your allegiance is to God. And your allegiance will always be to God. And you must remember that it does not matter what this world says or thinks of you. It does not matter how this world misjudges you and accuses you of all kinds of evil things in your heart. Your allegiance is to God.

5. The Partisanship of Our World

The partisanship of our world and our society. Our world is split apart on so many different lines. Politics, race, gender, you name it. There is no meetle. There is no consolation between the two. You’re either on one side or you’re on the other. And you must either be on the one side or the other, and you must despise and you must hate those who differ from you on any viewpoint. And the easy trap is that I must fall in line somewhere. I must fall in line with those like me. I must fall in line in my group, and I must hold to all the things that they hold, and I must look at the others the way they look at them. And what we have done when we’ve done that is we have made man greater than God.

We have made politics greater than God. We have made nationalism greater than God. Passage I’ve been thinking about a good bit lately is in Ephesians chapter 4. It’s a passage we’ve used oftentimes, and for various reasons, and for good purposes.

Being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Now, this passage is a wonderful passage to use about the denominational confusion which exists in our country. And to talk about various religious ideas that go against this passage. This is an important passage for that purpose. But that wasn’t what Paul was talking about when he wrote Ephesians 4, was it? He wasn’t looking at a divide in the Ephesian church about how many lords were there. He wasn’t looking at a divide about how many doctrines were he going to teach.

He certainly had those things in mind about what would come up later. What was Paul’s concern? This was his concern in so many of his letters. That he had a church made up of two groups of people that did not know and understand each other. That’s actually, when you look at Ephesians 1 through 3 and all these great blessings in the church, Ephesians chapter 3 is consumed with the idea that in the church the mystery of God is revealed. And what has God done? He has reconciled Jew and Gentile together in one body. And let me tell you something. If you think we don’t understand each other, Jews and Gentiles did not understand each other at all. Jews thought the Gentiles are the most ungodly, heathen people that there was, and the Gentiles probably looked at their Jewish brother and said, that’s a strange group of people.

And yet God had made two one. And what’s Paul’s point? Everything else is just noise. Everything else is going on around you, and the divide in your world, it’s just noise. Here’s what God has done to you. He’s made you one body. With one spirit. He’s called you in one hope of your calling. And he’s made himself your one Lord, bringing you into one faith and one baptism. But there is truly one God and Father of all. Who is over all and through all and in all. Paul’s saying, here you are, two groups in one body. You’re one body. You’re one. Now, that’s going to take some time to get over those differences. And that’s why the first part of the passage is there. As we had this unity of the Spirit, what are we to keep it in?

In the bond of peace. You’re going to have to have some humility. What you believe to be best for this world may not be what someone else believes to be best. Their experiences may be different than yours. You just be humble to that. You can hold to what you believe to be true. They can hold what they believe to be true. You be humble toward each other. You be gentle with each other. Don’t we wish and pray for a little bit of that in our world in our society? Well, that’s supposed to exist here among us. You be gentle with one another. You don’t have to be in perfect agreement in all things that happen in the world, but you be gentle toward one another. You be patient.

Conclusion

And you show tolerance for one another in love. We’re going to have to teach our kids that too. Because the world’s not becoming more united, it’s becoming more fractured. The world’s not growing in peace and harmony and love. It’s growing in hatred toward each other. And what my kids are going to be tempted to do is to divine myself by one group. And therefore every other group is the enemy. Every other group is to be despised. Every other nation is to be despised. Every other kind of people are to be despised. No. Fear God. Love Him. Be a part of His body. The fear of God is still needed today. God is a just God. We want God to be a just God. And God is going to be just with us.

And thanks be to God that He has made us one body under Him with one spirit. One faith, one baptism. Because that just God has justified us in His Son, cleansed us from every wrong. And you can be a part of that one body this morning as well. To have your sins forgiven, to be found justified in the ways in the eyes of God, committing yourself to live justly after his ways so that we can be with him for all eternity. If you see yourself in need of that, we extend the invitation to you. Won’t you come as we stand and as we sing?