Okay, now we're looking at Matthew
chapter 10, and I'm taking the title or the message from what
is said in verse 16. And we'll start in our study
in Matthew 10, verse 16 down to verse 28. I hope we can get
through these verses. But as I started looking over
this and trying to find a title for the message, I couldn't get
away from what is said in verse 16. And think about this statement. The Lord here has chosen these
men. I mean, these are common, ordinary men. Just like you,
just like me. Some of them were fishers. Some
of them had other occupations. But they were sinners, just like
you and me, saved by the grace of God. And our Lord said, I'm
going to send you on a mission. I'm going to send you as the
sheep of Christ. And I'm going to send you right
into the camp of the enemy, the wolves. Now what can be more
perilous for sheep, just naturally speaking, for sheep to dwell
among wolves? That's not a good place to be.
That's not a good place for a little lamb to be. But our Lord promised
that he would provide for them and take care of them, so sheep
among the wolves. That's the title of the message. Be ye therefore wise as serpents,
harmless as doves. Be sure you understand this warning
from our blessed Lord and Savior. Since it is true that this ungodly
world of rebels, they hate Almighty God that's revealed in the Holy
Word of God. They don't hate the God of their
imagination. But when you confront an unbeliever,
an infidel, or an atheist with a true and living God, they'll
rear up their ugly head against you and try to discredit you
any way they can. And they do so because they're
angry with God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. I noticed, some of you may have
noticed this, but when they elected a new Speaker of the House, and
he dared to take into the podium, did you see what he was carrying?
He's carrying a Bible. That man is known as someone
who reads and believes the Bible. And the infidels and the atheists
have already started to attack him. They said the man's insane. because he carries a Bible? This
world hates God. The world of ungodly rebels,
in their heart, they hate God. And it's manifest just in a political
figure carrying his Bible and laying it down on the pulpit. This man's insane, is what they
said. Expect it in this life. They
will hate those who believe the gospel. They will hate those
that take a firm, bold, and public stand for the gospel of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what we read in verse
22 of Matthew 10? You shall be hated of all men
for my name's sake. you'll be hated for Christ's
name's sake. You take a bold public stand for the Lord Jesus
Christ, and they'll come out of the woodwork against you.
Our Lord, we read earlier in John 15, 19, if you were of the
world, the world would love his own, but because you're not of
the world, I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world,
they hate you. And the reason they hate you
is because they hate God. the carnal-minded enmity against
God. Now, these are the words, the
commands of our Lord, His personal instruction to His apostles,
as He sends them into this hostile world of sinners to preach the
gospel. Remember, we looked at last week,
verse 7 of this same chapter, He said in verse 6, go rather
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and as you go, preach
saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. God is king in all
the earth. So he warns them, gives them
these instructions. These are also valuable reminders
and warning to us or to all those who are sin of God to preach
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will not be a popular
man among this ungodly world. You'll be a subject of jokes
and ridicule and everything else. But these words also apply to
all those who are blessed to hear and believe the gospel of
the sovereign grace of God. Persecution will come for Christ's
name's sake when you take a public Open stand for the gospel of
the sovereign love and sovereign grace of God. You'll have a fight
on your hands. You'll have a fight on your hands.
Our Lord said, these words have I spoken unto you that in me
you might have peace. In this world you shall have
trouble. Trouble. Trouble, persecution.
Ah, he said, but be of good cheer, I will overcome. I will overcome.
The Lord has promised to never leave us or to forsake us. He's promised to always be with
us when He sends us our trial. If you read over in Matthew 28,
and sometime we'll get there, Lord willing. But the risen Lord,
before He ascends to glory, He tells His apostles, I have all
power in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and preach the
gospel. And know this, I'm with you always. even to the end of the world.
The Lord said, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you.
His grace is sufficient for us in each trial that we have. When
the apostle Paul prayed not once, not twice, but three times for
that thorn in the flesh to be removed, that messenger of Satan
to buffet him, well, there's a man who had a lot of trouble,
didn't he? Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, imprisoned, Trouble,
trouble, trouble. And he prayed, Lord, save me
from this trouble. And you know what the Lord said?
My grace is sufficient. My grace is sufficient. The Apostle
Paul was beaten and persecuted so much, and the Lord was so
gracious to him that he provided him with a traveling doctor,
Dr. Luke. travel along with Paul and as
Paul was beaten and shipwrecked, he would minister to him the
best he could to patch him up. From one city he was persecuted
and he'd go to another city and persecuted again. Stoned one
time at Lystra, stoned to death, drug out by the heels as a dead
man. The Lord raised him up and he
went right back into that city and told him the truth again.
Persecution will come for the Gospel's sake. But our Lord said
He'll never leave us. He'll never forsake us. He said
His grace is sufficient for these things. Now, let's look at verse 16 for
a moment. Behold, I send you forth as sheep. Now, who's sending them? Who's
the one who's sending them? The commission they have and
received as apostles is the Lord of glory himself. I send you. I send you on this mission, very
important mission, to preach the gospel, but I send you forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves. That's a dangerous place. That's
a dangerous, perilous, perilous times. Oftentimes, the Lord calls
His covenant children His sheep. Remember? He said, I lay down
my life for the sheep. In John chapter 10, don't turn,
let me just read this to you. You're familiar with this. Our
Lord, as He preached many times publicly to those Jews, they
came round about Him and said, how long do you make us to doubt?
If you be the Christ, tell us plainly. And he said, I told
you, but you believe not. The works that I do in my father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you're
not of my sheep. That's why they didn't believe.
He said, my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither can any man pluck them out of my hand. So the Lord often
refers to his people as sheep. totally dependent upon the shepherd,
the good shepherd, to take care of the sheep. We read in John
15, a moment ago, when the Lord gives his apostles the last instruction,
he said, you didn't choose me, I chose you, and I ordained you
to be an apostle. Now, there's just two kinds of
people in this world, did you know that? There's just two kinds
of people in this world, saved and lost. There's two kinds of
people in this world, there's sheep and there's goats. There's
tares and there's wheat. There's the vile and the precious.
In the end of the world, and I tell you, the end of the world
is coming, the Lord will separate the sheep from the goats and
the tares from the wheat. He said, I'll put the sheep on
my right hand and the goats on the left, And I'll say to my
sheep, enter in to the joy of the Lord, the inheritance that
I have for you. But the Lord is the one who makes
the distinction. It's grace who's made us to differ.
Now he said, be ye therefore wise as serpents, harmless or
simple as doves. That is, we don't use deceiving
means to preach the gospel of Christ, but plainly and simply
With simplicity, we use words pointing center to the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm a simple man. I'm a simple
man. I like simple things. Just tell
me plainly the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm a sinner.
He's the great Savior. He's the only one that can put
away my sin. So we're determined to preach
Christ in Him crucified. And Paul said this, for we are
not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity,
with simplicity, but as of God in the sight of Christ, inside
of God, as of God in the sight of God, we speak of Christ. And
we do it with simplicity, with simplicity. Now, you might not
believe what I'm preaching, but I hope you at least, I use words
that you will at least understand in your head what I'm saying. For we preach not ourselves,
but we preach the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Neither is there
salvation in any other, nor the name under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved. Now, look at verse 17 and 18
in Matthew 10. Beware. Beware. Beware of these wolves. Beware of men. Now, he's talking
about ungodly men. He's talking about religious
ungodly men. For they will deliver you up
to the councils, the religious councils, and they will scourge
you in their synagogues. And ye shall be brought before
governors and kings for my sake, for the gospel's sake, for testimony
against them and the Gentiles as well. Beware of these men. You remember our Lord described
them. Turn back to Matthew 7. Remember
this scripture where he says, Beware, verse 15, Matthew 7,
Beware of false prophets. which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly, what are they? Ravening wolves. So beware, beware, be careful,
be careful. Paul, when he writes in Philippians
3, he calls them dogs. He said beware of dogs. He's
not talking about a four-legged dog. Now, oftentimes you see
that sign in somebody's yard, don't you? Beware of dog. The
dog bites. Paul's talking about two-legged
dogs. Beware of dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Talking
about religious evil workers, beware of those who promote circumcision
for salvation. Who say that salvation depends
upon what you do. This ungodly religious lost world,
religious lost men who hate the truth of the gospel, would rather
embrace a lie and hide in the refuge of lies and beat up on
those who tell the truth. They will beat up on you in their
religious assemblies. They will deliver you up to civil
authorities for punishment. You look back through church
history, Believers died, burned to the stake, or put in a gunny
sack and thrown in a river with a bunch of rocks so you drown,
or have their head removed. Remember John the Baptist? How
did he die? At the hands of religious men
who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. They went out and held
a council how they might destroy him. It was the religious people,
wasn't it? They will beat up on you in their
religious assembly, their synagogue. They will deliver you up to civil
authority for punishment because of the testimony of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That was true in the Apostles'
day, wasn't it? Judas hanged himself. Those other
11 men, including Paul, all died by execution. by execution. It was true in the Apostles'
day. It was true in the early church, wasn't it? Oh, how they
suffered for the Gospel. It was true in the day of the
Reformers. Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Hush, and Swingley
and these other men who gave their lives for the Gospel. So
what the Lord is saying here is true. It came to pass. It
came to pass in their day. In their day, it came to pass.
19 and verse 20. Verse 19 and verse 20. Well,
when they deliver you up. Now, it's not a question of if
they deliver you up. You see that? When. When they
deliver you up, that is before their council and in their synagogue,
don't take a thought. You won't have time to prepare
a sermon. They didn't have time to prepare a sermon. Now, I worked
on this message for four days. Four days I worked on this message.
It may not come out that way, but I work on these messages
to try to get them down to where we can get a hold of what's being
said. But when they were delivered up before the council, before
the religious men, our Lord said, don't take a thought. Don't even
think about what you're going to say. In that very hour that
you stand before that council, I will give you the words to
say. thought on how or what you shall
speak. For it shall be given you in
that same hour what you shall speak." Now, some men who are
in the ministry use this as an excuse not to study and to prepare. That's not what's being taught
here. He's telling these men, when
they're arrested suddenly and taken before the council, you
won't have time to prepare what you're going to say, but he said,
I'm going to give you the words. I'm going to give you the words
to say. What he said, verse 24, it's not you that speaketh, but
the Father, the Spirit of the Father, which speaketh through
you. The Lord has chosen the mean to declare his gospel through
sinners saved by the grace of God. We are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you. We pray you in Christ's stead
be reconciled unto God. God sends forth his ambassadors. The wolves, our Lord said, the
wolves speak of their father, the devil. He said that in John
chapter 8. You are of your father, the devil.
and you promote the devil's lie. The sheep speak of their Father,
our Heavenly Father, don't we? The Lord told Peter to feed the
sheep. Feed the sheep out of love. Peter, do you love me?
Yes, Lord. Well, feed my sheep. Peter, do
you love me? Yes, Lord. Well, feed my lambs. Peter, do you really love me?
Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. Feed my
sheep. And then the Apostle Paul, gave
those last words of instruction to the elders at Ephesus, said,
feed the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. The Lord speaks to His people
through His Word by His servants. Now look at verse 21. And He's
talking about this trouble that will come. And I've experienced
this in my own family. Some of you may have too. And
brother shall deliver up brother to death. This is a matter of
death. And father the child. And the children shall rise up
against their parents and cause them to be put to death. Now that's pretty serious, isn't
it? There will be division among families over the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now we're going to see in a lesson
maybe next week, look at verse 34 and verse 35. Matthew 10,
verse 34. Think not that I am come to send
peace on the earth. I'm not come to send peace on
the earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I'm come
to set a man at variance against his father, and a daughter against
her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and
a man's foe shall be of his own household. Divisions come over
the gospel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ will divide. It will divide brother, sister,
father, son, mother, daughter. It will divide. We have a scriptural
record on that, don't we? Don't we? The first murder recorded
in scripture in Genesis chapter 4 was over how God saved sinners. Abel brought the blood sacrifice
of the lamb, picturing Christ our substitute. Cain, his brother,
he brought the best he had. Some say that he was a turnip
farmer. You can't get blood out of a
turnip. But God had no pleasure in that offering of Cain. offering
of Cain. So what did Cain do? Cain rose
up and killed his brother Abel over how God saved sinners. Abel brought that blood sacrifice
of the lamb pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. The first murder
recorded in human history is over how to approach God. Over
how God can be just and justify the ungodly. Only through the
blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you take a bold public
stand for that. And you will not be a popular
man, not in your family, not in your community. You take an
uncompromising stand on how God saves sinners, and you'll hear
from the enemies of the gospel. This hatred vented out against
believers, verse 22. This hatred vented out against
believers, in verse 22, and you shall be hated of all men for
my name's sake. But he that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. There will be divisions, there
will be hatred vented out against believers, and it will be manifested
for one particular reason. You see what the reason is right
there in verse 22? For my name's sake. His name. They hate his name.
That's why they call him Beelzebub. For my name's sake. because of
the gospel of the sovereign grace of God, freely given to undeserving
sinners by the name which is above every name, his name declares
who he is and what he's accomplished. And when he gives freely salvation
to sinners, undeserving sinners, freely by the sovereign grace
of God, men will hate that message. Now, for my name's sake, who
is the Lord Jesus Christ? He's the Lord. He's Lord of heaven
and earth. He's Lord of all things. He's
not Lord by something we do. God made that same Jesus whom
you crucified. God has made Him both Lord and
Christ. We acknowledge Him as Lord. We
bow to Him as Lord. We receive Him as Lord. But we
don't make Him Lord. God beat us to it. God decreed
that He is Lord. So for His namesake, He'll be
hated because He is the Lord of all. He's the Lord of the
harvest, as we read in chapter 9, verse 38. He's the Lord of
the harvest. He's Lord of salvation. And then
He's the Christ of God. The Christ of God is the anointed
Messiah. The whole Old Testament says
someone is coming. Someone is coming. God's going
to raise up a prophet. God's going to raise up a priest.
God's going to raise up a king. King of kings and Lord of lords.
And the testimony of the gospel is, He's here. He's here. The Lord Jesus Christ, He has
come. He's the anointed Christ of God. When the Lord asked Peter,
whom do you say that I am? Remember what he said? Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Remember why the Lord said,
you're a blessed man. You're a blessed man. Flesh and
blood didn't reveal this to you, but my Father which is in heaven.
For his name's sake, he's the Lord, he's the Christ, and his
name is Jesus. Savior, that's what that means.
Savior. Emmanuel, God with us. God our
Savior. Call His name Jesus. He shall
save His people from their sin. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
came to do what? To save sinners. He came to save
sinners by the sacrifice of Himself. And then it says in that verse
22, He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. Those
sinners who truly are justified by His grace will persevere in
the faith. They will continue in the faith
because they are preserved and kept by the power of God. We
are not of them to draw back, but them who believe through
the saving of the soul. Now here's a scripture that tells
us both about perseverance and preservation. Perseverance and
preservation. He said in Jeremiah 32, 40, I
will make an everlasting covenant with them. I will not turn away
from them to do them good. He preserves, but I put my fear
in their heart and they shall not depart from me. That's perseverance. We persevere in the faith. We
continue in the faith. These all died in faith because
we're preserved by the power of God. Now look at verse 23. But he said, when they persecute
you in this city, flee to another. For verily I say unto you, you
shall not have gone over the cities till the Son of Man be
come. Disciple is not above his master,
nor servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple
that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord. If they
call the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall
they call them of his household Beelzebub." Now that word Beelzebub
was not a nice word. It's a word that the Jews used
to discredit him. and do discredit His ministry. Our most sovereign Lord rules
over all things in this world to His glory and to the good
of His church. Even the persecution of believers serve that purpose. Now, we study in the book of
Acts. You remember when John and Peter were arrested and beaten
in their synagogue because they preached the gospel of God and
they were commanded not to teach and preach anymore in His name? What did they do? They went out
in every city, publicly and privately, in the temple, in every house,
they went preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
found in Acts chapter 5 verse 40. Another example of that is in
Acts chapter 8, when Stephen was stoned in Acts chapter 7,
and a young man by the name of Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee,
held the coat of those who stoned Stephen to death, calling upon
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says in chapter 8,
the church was persecuted And they were scattered everywhere
throughout all that region and they went everywhere preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So even the Lord used
that persecution to preach the gospel all over this world. We see that going on especially
in the ministry of the Apostle Paul. In this city and fleeing
to another city. He preached the gospel into one
particular city. And usually there are two things
that happen, a riot usually, or a revival broke out, sometimes
both at the same time. And when he was persecuted in
this city, he just went and left to another, and went to another
city, shook off the dust of his feet, and went to another place. The early church was faithful
to preach the gospel, until the Lord Jesus Christ came and destroyed
Jerusalem. That's what it means there when
it says, till the Son of Man come. Now in 70 AD, this is some
40 years after the Lord Jesus Christ died for the sin of his
people. In 70 AD, the Romans came and totally destroyed Jerusalem
and Israel as a nation. But that's not the first time
it happened. Remember our study through the book of 1 Kings and
2 Kings, and in the book of Jeremiah, and the book of Lamentations,
and about 600 years before the Lord Jesus Christ came, what
did the Babylonians do? We see that repeated history
going on right now, don't we? Iran, Iraq, Syria. What did the Babylonians do in
600 BC, 600 years before the Lord came? They came to that
city of Jerusalem in that area and totally destroyed the temple,
took all those holy vessels, Nebuchadnezzar and all them,
carried it back to Babylon, including King Zedekiah, king of Israel. You see, it's not the first time
these things have happened. It won't be the last time that
these things happen either. It happened again in the year
70 A.D. The Romans came and destroyed
Jerusalem. And I wrote this down and I thought
about this because it's so prevalent in the news today. What's going
on in Israel today is a picnic compared to what the Lord did
in that day in Babylonian captivity in the year 70 A.D. and what
will happen again when the Lord comes back to destroy this world. What's going on over there today
is nothing new. It's nothing new. And it will
go on and on and on. There will be no peace. He said,
I didn't come to bring peace. He didn't come to bring peace
among men. He came to bring peace with God in Christ through His
blood atonement for His covenant people. That's why He says there,
I didn't come to send peace on earth but a sword. Don't look
for peace among men. Human history, if you study history,
human history is a study of wars. Wars and wars and wars. The Civil
War, the World War. One, World War II. And we're
about to get into World War III. I'm not making any predictions,
but this could be the beginning of the end. The Lord may come
back. He said, in the day you think
not, the Son of Man cometh. He said, look up, for your redemption
draweth nigh. We should look for the Lord Jesus
Christ every day. He's coming again. We're to keep
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now verse 24 and 25, the disciple
is not above his master, nor a servant above his Lord. It
is enough for the disciple that he be as his master. I want to
be a disciple of the Lord. He is my master. And the servant
as his Lord. If they've called the master
of the house by this wicked name, Beelzebub, which means a prince
of devils, how much more shall they call them of his household?
I've been called some ugly names, and that should be expected.
That should be expected. And the Lord is telling these
men, since it is true that this ungodly world hates the Lord
and Master of all things, surely they will hate those who declare
the gospel of the sovereign grace of God. Turn to one page, and
I'll give you an example of this in Matthew 12. When the Lord
healed this blind and dumb man and cast out the devil in Matthew
chapter 12, and the people were amazed and said, is not this
the son of David? Is not this the Messiah? But
when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow does cast
out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. So if they
called the Lord the devil, don't be surprised if people call you
by ugly names. The Jews here used the most vile
name of the god of the dunghill. The Philistines had a god they
called the god of the flies. The Philistines. David, Slew,
Goliath. Who was Goliath? a Philistine,
a Palestinian, children of Ishmael, Isaac, Abraham had two sons,
Isaac and Ishmael. And they'd been at war for thousands
of years. And it will be until the Lord
returned. Verse 26, fear them not. Fear
them not, therefore, for there is nothing covered that shall
not be revealed, and nothing hid that shall not be known.
He said, What I tell you in the darkness, that you speak in the
light, and what you hear in the air, that you preach upon the
housetop. Preach upon the housetop. Fear them not. Beware of false
prophets. false prophets, but don't fear
them. If we would serve God, we must fear and reverence Him.
You see, all things are naked and open before Him with whom
we have to do. The Lord knows the hearts of
all men. The gospel truth will expose and reveal all men for
what they are. And in the final day, wicked
men will be exposed for what they are, and righteous men will
be exposed for what they are in Christ. Wicked men will be
exposed The pointer of the man wants to die after that judgment.
Wicked men will be exposed and righteous men in Christ will
be exposed too. He presents us before the Father
holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight. Verse 27, no
secrets, no secrets. What the Lord has revealed to
us, you speak it out loud. Speak it in the light. Preach
it on the housetop. Now I'm not going to climb up
on the top of this building and conduct a ministry on top of
this building, but the point he's making is this, don't conceal
what's been revealed. Silence is compromise. Silence
is compromise. what God has revealed to your
heart. And that especially applies to
this preacher and every other preacher that's been called of
God. Don't compromise, don't hold back. We don't fear the
frowns of men, the scowl of men. We don't fear men because we
fear God. I'd much rather tell the truth
and offend some man than lie on God and offend him. I don't
want to offend God. I stand before one who must give
an account for what I say. Fear him not, verse 28, which
kill the body, not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now a lot of people try to make
hell less than what it is. Again, the Lord repeats what
He says. Fear not the wrath of man. Fear
them not. Because we fear God, no need
to fear what men can do to us. They can only reach our flesh.
They cannot harm our immortal soul. Man has a body. Man has a body. He is a soul. He is a soul. Body and soul are
two distinct principles of our makeup flesh and spirit. The Lord God formed man out of
the dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and
he became a living soul. Body, spirit, and soul. The apostle
writes about it this way, the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly and I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He redeemed
us body, soul, and spirit. Paul said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Saying Peter right, you have
purified your soul by obeying the truth. That which is born
of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit
is spirit. Wicked men killed the body of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but they could not harm his soul. He gave up his spirit, didn't
he? When Jesus cried with a loud voice, said, it's finished, he
yielded up the ghost. God made His soul an offering
for sin. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him and put Him to grief. God made His soul an offering
for sin. God made Him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made to righteousness of God
in Him. Wicked men killed Stephen. They
stoned him to death. They stoned Stephen, calling
upon the Lord, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. They killed
his body, but they couldn't touch his spirit, his soul. The soul of believers at death
will be separated from our body at death, but our soul shall
never be separated from God. Never. To be absent from this
body, now for a believer, absent from this body is to be present
with the Lord. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. The
Lord told that dying thief, today you're going to be with me in
paradise. That's what happens when a believer dies. He goes
to be with the Lord. Paradise. And one day we shall
have a new resurrected body to be united with our soul and so
shall we ever enjoy the glory of eternal life in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul writes about it this way,
for our conversation is in heaven. For whence we look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus, who shall change our vile body, and fashion it
like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby
He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." We're going
to have a new body, just like His glorious body, in that resurrection
glory. But fear Almighty God, look what
it says there, verse 28 again, "...and fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body, there is
a place of eternal torment known as hell. There is a heaven and
there is a hell. Now people try to make that less
than what it is. What is hell? A place of eternal
confinement and punishment at the hands of the wrath of the
Lamb. That word hell is found seven
times in the book of Matthew, and it's used by the Lord, and
it's a symbol of what is known as Gehenna. Two times that word
hell is used in reference to Hades, the place of the damned,
the place of the dead who were damned. But seven times it's
used as a place of Gehenna. Gehenna was a symbol of the fiery
wrath of God. Now what was Gehenna? Gehenna
was a real place, and if I can describe it this way to you,
a burning, smelly, garbage dump that burned and burned and burned
and they couldn't put the fire out. That's Gehenna. And that's
what our Lord uses that term. to describe the eternal punishment
of those who do not believe. Those who do not believe prayed
in Revelation chapter 6, to the rocks and the mountains to fall
on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne
from the wrath of the Lamb. I thought He was sweet Jesus
who wanted everybody saved. What is this wrath of the Lamb
stuff? He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He
that believeth not the Son, uh-oh, uh-oh, the wrath of God abides
on that person. Now here's a strong warning to
those who continue in rebellion and unbelief. There will be a
resurrection of the just and the unjust. There will be a resurrection
unto life, and there will be a resurrection unto damnation. There will be a bodily resurrection
of unbelievers, too, who will be cast into that lake of fire
that's described in the book of Revelation. Well, I hate to kind of quit on a sour
note, but it's true. It's true. God will destroy.
Now, it doesn't mean the end of our being, but the end of
well-being. Turn to 2 Thessalonians. I preached
too long. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Let's
read this. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse
6. Seeing it is a righteous thing
with God to recompense tribulation to them who trouble you, and
to you who are troubled, rest with us. when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, that obey
not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction. from the presence of the Lord,
from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified
in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, because
our testimony among you was believed in that day. Wherefore also we
pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of
his calling, fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness,
and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to
the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord's
coming back to take his people unto himself and to punish those
who deserve the wrath of God.