The sermon 'Wise as Serpents and Harmless as Doves' by Scott Brown, based on Matthew 10:16-34, emphasizes the complex roles Christians must adopt in spreading the gospel, represented by the metaphors of sheep, serpents, and doves. Christians are called to be wise, gentle, and innocent, while navigating the dangers of evangelism, which include persecution from religious institutions, government, family, and society. The sermon highlights the necessity of relying on the Holy Spirit for guidance and speech, especially in hostile environments. It underscores the importance of holy guile, or strategic wisdom, in evangelism, drawing on historical examples like George Whitefield. Brown urges believers to confront their fears, trust in divine protection, and allow the gospel to transform their lives, emphasizing that God values and knows every detail of their existence. The sermon concludes with an appeal to embrace a life of holy guile and allow the teachings of Matthew 10 to reshape priorities and actions.

Good morning. The reading this morning is from Matthew 10, 16 through 34. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to counsels and scourge.

You in their synagogues, You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you, do not worry about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak. For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father who speaks in you. Now brother will deliver you up, brother, to death, and the father his child. And children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.

And you will be hated by all for My name's sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in the city, flee to another. For assuredly I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master.

If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household. Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body, what cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin, and not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father's will?

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore you are on more value than many sparrows. Therefore whoever confesses me before man, Him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.

I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for today, Lord. We thank you for these words that you gave us. We do pray, Lord, for Mr.

Brown as he brings forth the word of life for us and help us, Lord, to hide it in our hearts so we may not sin against you. In Jesus name we pray, amen. In introducing this wonderful text here this morning, I'd like to try to remind us of what we're actually doing here as we open up the Word of God. I want to remind us really of the holiness of the moment, of the opening and the reading of the Word of God. And here we find ourselves in the Gospel of Matthew.

And to try to illustrate the importance of this, I want to tell you a story. The story is of a pastor who lived in Geneva about 300 years after John Calvin. And after all of those years, things began to change in Geneva, and the pastors in the city were embracing rationalism. And as they were embracing rationalism and the theology of the German critics and others, the waves swept through Academia and eventually to the churches. And There was a man there by the name of Louis Gowson, who was a pastor in Geneva.

It was proposed by the pastors in Geneva to jettison John Calvin's catechism for the raising of children. And Lewis Gowson observed that this new catechism that they were going to replace it with was full of rationalism and enlightenment philosophy. And he said, over my dead body. This is in the early 1800s. Gowson was born in 1790.

He died in 1863. And he was thrown out of his post as a pastor and he wrote a book called God Breathed in order to make the argument that every word of scripture is breathed from God. And it's a book that I learned of many, many years ago, and then I read it about three or four years ago. And it is such a stunningly beautiful book about the inspiration of Scripture. And I want to read to you a section from the book just to help us understand what we are doing here this morning by reading the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew the tax collector, now a disciple of Jesus Christ, with a certain background, a certain vocabulary, a certain culture, God chooses to declare His glory. He takes the language, the mind, his whole understanding of life, and uses him to declare his glory. Let me read this to you by Gowson. The Bible, in fact, has lessons for all conditions. It brings upon the scene both the lowly and the great.

It reveals equally to both the lover of God and unveils in both the same miseries. It addresses itself to children. It is often children that show us there the way to heaven and the great things of Jehovah. It addresses itself to shepherds, herdsmen, and it is often shepherds and herdsmen who lift up their voices there to reveal to us the character of God. It speaks to kings and to scribes, and it is often kings and scribes that teach us their man's wretchedness and humiliation, confession and prayer.

Domestic scenes, Confessions of conscience, pourings forth of prayer in secret, travels, proverbs, revelations of the depths of the heart, the holy courses perused by a child of God, weaknesses unveiled, falls, recoveries, inward experiences, parables, familiar letters, theological treatises, sacred commentaries on some ancient scripture, national chronicles, military annals, political statistics, descriptions of God, portraits of angels, celestial visions, practical councils, rules of life, solutions of cares and conscience, judgments of the Lord, sacred hymns, predictions of future events, narratives of what passed during the days preceding our creation, sublime odes, inimitable pieces of poetry, all this found there by turns, and all that meets our view in a most delightful variety and presenting a whole whose majesty like that of a temple is overpowering. Thus it is that from its first to its last page, the Bible necessarily combined with its majestic unity, an indefinable charm of human-like instruction, familiar, sympathetic, personal, and the charm of a drama extending over 40 centuries. In the Bible of De Marais, it is said, There are fords here for lambs, and there are deep waters where elephants swim. Is it possible that a book at once so sublime and so simple can be the work of man?

No, it is impossible, for everywhere traversing so many ages, and whichever is of the God-employed writers that holds the pen, king or shepherd, scribe or fisherman, priest or publican, you everywhere perceive that one same author at a thousand years interval and that same eternal spirit has conceived and dictated all everywhere at Babylon and at Horeb, at Jerusalem or at Athens, at Rome or at Patmos, you will find, describe the same God, the same world, the same men, the same angels, the same future, the same heaven, everywhere, whether it be a poet or a historian that addresses you, whether it be in the plains of the desert, in the age of Pharaoh, or in the prisons of the capital in the days of the Caesars, everywhere in the world, the same ruin in man, the same impotency in the angels, the same elevation, the same innocence, the same charity in heaven, the same purity, the same happiness, the same meeting together of truth and mercy, the same mutual embracing of righteousness and peace, the same counsels of God who blots out iniquity and who nevertheless does not clear the guilty. We conclude, therefore, that the abundance of humanity to be found in the Scriptures, far from compromising their divine inspiration, is only one further mark of their divinity." I read that just to help us remember what we are doing this morning.

We are reading the Word of God. We are mining treasures that can be found throughout history in all ages through various personalities. God is doing that here for us now. He is showing us His wisdom through Matthew, the tax collector, the author of this book. So, it is always holy ground when we open up the Word of God.

It's unfortunate that unholy men deliver it. Such a holy word. Now, as we turn to this text, Matthew chapter 10, I want to just bear my soul with you a little bit about this passage and what I think is happening to us as a church as we're going through Matthew chapter 10. This chapter is about the spreading of the gospel and various issues that surround the spreading of that gospel. And my view is that the Lord is preparing Hope Baptist Church.

He has us in a time of preparation. He is preparing us for a greater work than what we've been doing. He's instructing us in a new way of living. The Word of God is always meant to change people. It's always meant to redirect their course, and if anyone can listen to it and not be directed, then they should be terrified.

And how often do we read it and we don't respond to it? But I just want us to recognize that now in this chapter, Matthew chapter 10, we are in a text that would tell us so many things about the work of evangelism that we have to do. It's meant to change us. It's meant to mess with your life. It's meant to deal with your pocketbook.

It's meant to deal with your schedule and your house and your car and everything you do in life. It's meant to level so many things that have become comfortable to you. It's meant to unseat many things, to reestablish, to replant, to sprout something new, more beautiful, better, and to make it to be shared. And so Here, as we're in this chapter, we are being washed by the water of the Word. We're being sanctified and cleansed.

We are being turned over in many ways, I hope, Because God desires to change us by that washing of water. By the word, the entire chapter here, it focuses on the training that Jesus gave His disciples to prepare them to spread the gospel. Do you remember how it began? He sent them out two by two with a very specific mission. And then now in this section there are much broader commands for his disciples.

But he explains so many of the practical effects on relationships, of the spreading of the gospel. He discloses the hostility that will come. And he also, at the very end of the passage we're in today, he affirms his presence with us and His fatherly care toward us. In order to understand what's happening in chapter 10, you have to go to chapter 11, verse 1. Go ahead and look there.

In chapter 11.1 it says, Now it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to preach and teach in their cities. So this is a time when Jesus is commanding his disciples regarding the fulfilling of their evangelistic mandate. So we have to understand that chapter 10 has that purpose. He is commanding them about the way that they should be operating and spreading the gospel. And this is the discipleship of the Twelve.

And we see that Jesus first teaches, as He did in the Sermon on the Mount, And then he sends. It's not enough just to teach, it's not enough just to know, it's not enough just to read your Bible, it's not enough to just hear preaching and saturate your mind with the Word of God. It must somehow end up on the street. It must somehow be applied in the world. And that's what Jesus is teaching His disciples to do.

He teaches them and then He sends them. And so we find ourselves in verse 16, and you can see the outline that I've supplied here. Verses 16 to 23 identify the dangers of discipleship and the spreading of the gospel. And then verses 24 and 25 speak of our example in our spreading of the gospel and particularly the persecution that we experience. And then finally, how do we handle fear, the fear of man, the fear of reprisal, even the very fear of our own bodies being harmed.

So Jesus gives really a full range of counsel to his disciples. And so the first thing that he does in verse 16 is he shows us who we are in the world. And we are sheep, we are serpents, and we are doves. He gives these three animals to show us who we are. The first thing he does is he warns.

He issues a warning. He says, behold. This is what God does. He prepares by warning. This is part of his preparation.

By saying, look, check this out. See what this is all about. And then he sends, Behold, I send you. So he warns and then he sends. He's actually commissioning his disciples.

And these are the sent ones, the apostles. And then the third thing that we see that is he sends out into danger. He says, behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. This is hazardous work. Some of you have thought about taking a hazardous journey.

Now this is the hazardous journey right here. It's the spreading of the gospel. If you want to take one, take this one. This is the very best kind that you can possibly take. And these apostles would meet with enemies, with savage wolves.

Paul says, I fought with beasts in Ephesus. Peter was crucified upside down. Luke was executed on an olive tree, quite likely. Most people believe that all but one of these men died at the hands of enemies. But these three images are given for how one ought to be in the midst of those enemies.

And this is really important. Sheep, serpents, and doves. And each one of them instruct us on a particular aspect of the way that we engage the work of evangelism in the world. There's not just one way. There are actually various dispositions and ways that need to be harmonized and melded together in these three images that are there.

And it's interesting that one of these flies in the air, the other one slithers on the ground, and the other one just seems to stand there and eat. And Christian people are not meant to be really very simple individuals. There's a complexity of the way that we engage the world. It's not enough to give someone a tract and send them. It's not enough to have a speech and give it.

There's more to consider. There's a whole range of understanding and method that should fill our minds when we consider the spreading of the gospel. Because we face various kinds of challenges and temptations, and so we have to understand that there are ways that we operate in those kinds of situations. But this is one mark of maturity when Christians see themselves as people who are discerning their drawing on the wisdom of the Lord for everything. They're not just giving a canned speech.

They are actually operating under the power of the Spirit of God, operating by principles. And this is just a mark of maturity that you recognize how to respond one way in this situation, another way in that situation, and another way in that situation, but all for the same purpose. And so, I mean, when you think about the ministry of the Lord Jesus, you see how, like a serpent, he slipped through the crowd. Like a sheep, he was led to slaughter. Like a sparrow, he ascended to his father's throne.

And he says, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. And what he's doing is he's using language, Matthew is, this one who is appointed with particular language and experiences. He's using this to help us to understand what this is like. We are not in the general vicinity of wolves, but we are in the middle of wolves. We always have to ask ourselves that question.

Are we standoffish from the wolves or we are in the middle of them? Here, Jesus sends His disciples into the pack of wolves. And that's important. And that makes them vulnerable. The second illustration is that of a reptile, a snake, as serpents in the midst of wolves.

Be wise a serpent so he qualifies it. It's not just any kind of serpent. I don't think you want to take every single quality of a serpent and lay it on here. You want to understand that this is an illustration to help us know how we ought to operate in the world. And we're to be as wise as serpents.

So to operate in the field of reason, to be clever rather than impulsive. This kind of wisdom is from God. His ways are unsearchable. And the wise are like serpents in their evangelism. You notice how serpents operate.

Now, I don't know about your interactions with serpents. I've had a number of them. I found serpents to be very self-serving in the sense they want to get away from you. They will freeze up. Just maybe three weeks ago, one of our little dogs discovered a copperhead right next to the road that I was walking on.

And our little dog was like just inches away from this copperhead's head, raised up like this. Yapping, yapping, yapping, yapping. I'm thinking, I'm trying to get this dog away from this snake. The snake will not strike this dog, because this is what snakes do. They're protecting their head.

They're very conservative creatures. They want to slither away. They want to get away. But they're crafty in that sense. They know when to strike and they know when to run.

Typically they want to run. Not to say that this is, that Christians are runners away, but they're wise. The idea is that they're wise as serpents. It's this one thing about serpenthood that we need to understand. It's the wisdom that we want to extract from them, not every quality.

We learn in Genesis chapter 3 that they were the most cunning or crafty of all the animals. That they understand their enemy. They avoid the danger. They hide in the rocks and the holes in the ground. They protect their heads.

And they only rise up when there's a very, very severe threat. You almost have to step on them to get them to strike you. And they defend themselves rather than attack. And a snake will actually give up his body, he'll give up half of his body to get away from you. He'll sacrifice that in order to keep his head about him.

And so this indicates a certain manner of wisdom in our evangelism, that we are not contentious, we are not provoking, but we speak the truth in love. And we are as wise as serpents. And then innocent as doves. Again, not just any kind of dove, but an innocent dove. Gentle, pure, emotive, These are the things that doves signify without the ability to inflict harm.

A dove portrays the spirit of peace. It's not easily provoked. It's often one of the last birds to flee from a human being. I don't know if you've noticed that, but they're innocent, they're fearless in many ways. However though, a dove without the craftiness of a serpent is gullible.

Or a sheep without the gentleness and the craftiness of a serpent is also not exactly the kind of sheep that you want to have. One commentator said that they must be tough-minded but tender-hearted. Thomas Watson said, the union of the dove and the serpent is hard to find. Who then is a wise and faithful servant? On which place, said Christ Sostom, is a hard matter to find one that is both faithful and wise.

Faithful there is the dove, wise there is the serpent. And it's hard to find both. He says that Moses was a learned man in the wisdom of all the Egyptians, but he was also the meekest man in the world. Daniel was the same way. He was excellent in wisdom, as we read in Daniel 6, 4, but also he was such that no one could find anything to criticize him for.

He was as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove. So when we think about this work of sharing the gospel, there is a cunning aspect of it, which includes the wisdom. And then there is this purity and gentleness and harmlessness of a dove. James chapter 3 verse 13 says, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." Okay, Here's what we learn about these three, the sheep, the serpent, and the dove.

They are not normal sheep because they are serpent-like and they are dove-like. They are not normal serpents because they are also sheep-like and They are not normal doves at all because they are also serpent-like and sheep-like. So there's this complexity about the way that we should be engaging the spreading of the gospel. And why would it be that way? Because they're not there to kill the wolves, but to transform them.

I stole that line from Spurgeon. This whole idea of being cunning, of being filled with a holy guile, this spirit of wisdom in the spreading of the gospel, to think of the various ways to do it, to be creative in it, to think of different approaches and aspects of it, to go into the midst of the wolves, and then to be in many ways complex in that sense is what Jesus is teaching his disciples to do. There's a great story that comes out of the life of George Whitefield. He mounted a ship to go to Georgia and it was a troop ship that was transporting soldiers And there were three ships in the flotilla. And the first morning, Whitefield got up on the deck and he gave public prayers.

And he declared to everyone on that ship his intention to know of nothing except Jesus Christ in Him crucified. The captain was livid and was scorned by that captain. The Lord's Day came around And as he walked about the ship that he was on in this three-ship flotilla, you know, people were, you know, raucously playing cards and all kinds of things like that. And he says, he says this in his journal, Oh, that I might catch them with a holy guile." That's what it means to be as wise as a serpent, and innocent as a dove, and like a lamb. Oh, that I might catch them with holy guile.

Brothers and sisters, this is what we should do. We should be as beguiling and wise and strategic about all the things that God has laid upon us. All the relationships that we have in our neighborhoods where when we walk the streets in our businesses, a holy guile is the appropriate approach. Then even though he was scorned by the Catholic and many of the people on the crew, he began to visit the sick. People were becoming ill in droves on his ship, and the wretched conditions just continued to increase.

He would go about, because he wasn't able to be as free with his tongue, because of the limitations of the captain, he would take them sage tea and sugar and broth, going to the sick people, carrying nothing for his own health. And then he would continue his morning and evening prayers on the deck and almost no one came. And then he announced to some of the soldiers that he would have a catechism class for them and only six showed up the first day. But then it began to increase. Then he started, because of the interest, a catechism class for the women that were on that ship who were, as everyone else, held captive until they could finally arrive at their destination and get away from this man.

And Then it happened that the captain invited him to have breakfast with him and he began to teach him privately. And then surprisingly the captain suggested that he not only keep on with the prayers but also if he would just honor him by preaching a sermon on the deck. And so he did. And then the captain ordered the chairs be brought out on the deck. And then a great storm broke out and things were trembling.

The ship was rocking. Everyone thought it was going to come apart. And people were falling down, unable to stand because of the rolling of the ship. Whitfield says, I was never more cheerful in all of my life. And he says this, what started as a cursing, scornful company became like little children saying their catechisms and reading their Bibles.

This man of holy guile, he would carry books around with him, and he would find the books that people would read, and he would trade them, their crummy books, for his good books. This was Holy Guile. He was there on a ship trying to find ways to spread the gospel, to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. And then in time, the captains would bring the ships together, and then two of the captains would stand, each on his side, while he preached, standing in support of him. And then it happened that one day, before he was to preach, the captain called out for a drum roll before he began to preach.

And then at one point, Woodfield himself became very, very sick, and he thought that he would die. But Whitfield possessed the holy guile of a serpent, the gentle peaceableness of a dove and the vulnerability of a sheep. And that's what we should do as well. So here's the question. What holy guile could be spun here in this place?

There are a lot of people here this morning. How much holy guile could be generated here? Let's make it a matter of prayer. Let's consider what kind of innocence is a dove and wisdom of a serpent and vulnerability of a lamb that we might somehow display out in that world that God has placed us in. So now that he has identified the wolves and the way that you should operate in the midst of the wolves, and you should be in the midst of the wolves, It's not appropriate for Christians to be in a holy hut.

But now that he's done that, after identifying the wolves and what you do among them, he now identifies the wolves as men in verse 17. But beware of men. For they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. So, they should beware of men.

Jesus said that he did not entrust himself to man because he knew what was in man. And so you should always beware of men at the same time. It's not enough to be as a lamb, you must be aware of men. Because of the betrayal, for they will deliver you. It means to the word that Matthew used, that Jesus uses, is a word that means to be betrayed.

They might act one way to your face, but they will betray you. And then he itemizes various kinds of persecutions and dangers that are there. First there's religious persecution, and then there's persecution by the government, and then there's persecution by the family, And then there's just a general social persecution by all men. But it's interesting that the first thing that he mentions is religious persecution, that they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. Councils took place in the synagogues.

So these are one category here. This is organized religion. In the synagogues there was a civil triumvirate. There were three magistrates in every synagogue that would prosecute cases. This is why in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, you read about Paul's being scourged in the synagogue.

You know, The Lord Jesus preached in the synagogue, Paul was flogged in the synagogue, and he also preached there as well. Paul was beaten with rods three times. You can read it in Acts 16. But the wolves will also be in the congregation, And this is nothing new for New Testament times. David spoke of it himself.

He writes really very dolefully about those he walked with into the household of God, who betrayed him. In Psalm 55 he says, For it was not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me, who has exalted himself against me. Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion, and my acquaintance.

We took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in the throng. David understood this, how betrayal will happen in the organized church. And that's what he's speaking of here. Then he turns to government persecution where you will be brought before governors and kings. These are civil authorities that rise up against those who spread the gospel.

And the reason for this is ordained by God. These are not surprises to God. These are not strange things, interruptions. These aren't even bad things that happen to God's people. Because the purpose is stated here in this verse, for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

So the persecutions of the government are actually good. They are for the sake of Jesus Christ Himself. And then Jesus teaches his disciples how to think about the dangers in verses 19 and 20. But when they deliver you up, do not worry." So now he's dealing with the whole way that you think about it. He's talked about the different things that will happen and how you operate.

Now it's the way that you respond to it in your own soul. How do you talk to yourself about this? And he begins by saying, do not worry. Don't worry. So this is something.

Do not worry about what you should speak, for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." So he's addressing this basic disposition of the heart that releases the tongue to speak freely for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Lord is preparing His disciples to face the worries about what they should possibly say in the time of their persecution. But really, in the same way, I believe that this ought to be taken up by us as well. That it should be to prepare us not to worry, but to be worked and prepared for the battle, and to speak the things of God. It's always the tendency of people to say, well, I need more training before I can spread the gospel.

Well, You really may need to know your Bible much better. That's true. But let's don't pretend that we need another training class before we speak of the glory of Jesus Christ. After all, we can read this. I'm not confident that anybody in this room needs more training.

I think they just need more activity. And they should continue their being washed by the water of the word so that they have something to say, so that they can go to Scripture to deal with the problems and the issues that come up. Now what Jesus says is that Don't worry what you should speak for, it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak. Now, there have been various traditions that have interpreted this that you don't need to study before you teach the Word of God. That's a wrong application.

Standing before governors is not the same as feeding the flock of God. These are two completely different categories. Shepherds should study, shepherds should labor hard in the Word, but that's not the same thing as standing before a civil magistrate to preach the gospel to them. We should not worry about that. So the principle is not for the feeding of the flock, but it's rather for a court of law.

And notice it's the Spirit of God. This figures into the whole doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God illuminates, the Spirit of God guides, And also the Spirit of God speaks through people. You know, when you think about the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you know, it's important to think straight about that. The Father loves the Son and sends His Son on a mission.

The Son is obedient to the Father and obeys Him in all things. The Spirit glorifies the Son and does the work of the Father. The Spirit takes sort of a second position. It takes sort of a, not the front position in order to advance the glory of the Son. And so here we find the work of the Spirit glorifying the Son through the extemporaneous speech of a saint that's standing before a civil government.

You know, you should go and read about Martin Luther and what came out of his mouth. You know, there are so many amazing extemporaneous speeches that have been written down because they were so astonishing. But they were words from the Spirit of God spoken in a moment because the Spirit of God was glorifying Jesus Christ the Son. And as we're involved in our evangelism, this is the exact same thing that should be in operation. Our awareness of our dependency upon the Spirit, of His desire to glorify Jesus Christ, to be prayerful and submissive and aware of the Spirit's work.

We so often think that this is just an intellectual exercise. I'm just going to deal with the arguments. I'm going to lay out the words. But it's far more than that. It's a work of the Spirit that's necessary for the spread of the Gospel.

And so we should be humble and dependent and ready to speak by the Spirit of God, in that sense. The Spirit of God, as Bruce Ware has said in his book, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, he willingly accepts the role of supporter, helper, sustainer, and equipper. And in all these respects, he forsakes the spotlight. Such is the role of the Spirit within the Trinity, broadly conceived." So right here we get one sort of light regarding the whole doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And then, after this government persecution, Jesus explains family persecution in verse 21.

So those who spread the gospel will often, thankfully not always, be hated by family. Now brother will deliver brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. So this is about how the Gospel divides the family, even the closest family relationships. Jesus is not finished talking about this. In the next section at the end of chapter 10, He addresses this again as another critical component of the spreading of the Gospel.

In Micah 7-5 we read, Do not trust in a friend, do not put your confidence in a companion, Guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom. Did you get that? Guard the doors of your mouth from your wife, from she who lies in your bosom. For son dishonors father, daughter rises against her mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are those of his own household.

Therefore, " says Micah, "'I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me." That's from Micah, writing many, many centuries before. Jesus is actually quoting Micah. Again, Jesus is doing what he's been doing all along.

This is that. Here is the shadow. This is the fulfillment. This is the reality of the spreading of the message of the kingdom of God, that it divides family. Now, you notice the extreme nature of this family division, that children will cause them to be put to death.

And the language that Jesus uses is so striking. He uses the word fanatos, you know, death, you know, the discipline, fanatology, the study of death, that this cutting off of life, this separation, this exit, departure from this world, the gospel would actually, in some cases, cause for the departure from the world of a family member. And God's people will be transported out of their world of family and church life and into a heavenly world. The hatred of God is so strong in the world that it destroys family love. Things that you would think would be so strongly tied together are broken.

You think of a happy family at Thanksgiving and how it's destroyed by evil that runs in families. You might think that family ties would be stronger. You know, people say blood is thicker than water. That's actually not true. In fact, water, or the bonds of believers is thicker than blood.

Proverbs 18, 19 says, a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city. The whole structure of brotherhood and of fatherhood and of childhood is completely undone by the gospel. It's interesting too, you see this escalation. It starts with a brother, and then it begins, and it continues with a parent, and then a child, but it ends with death. It begins with simpler kinds of persecution, but it ends with the harshest of them all.

In Mark chapter 10, Jesus comforts his disciples who have probably lost their families, and he says that you'll receive a hundred times more in this age and the age to come, in homes and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions, if you love me more than your father and your mother." And then the final kind of persecution is persecution by society at large in verse 22. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. So now it's not just these other categories, but you'll be hated by all. This is a general loathing of culture against Christianity. This is an explanation, kind of a commentary on what the Apostle John said when he said the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

The spirit of evil that rules the world is spoken of here, you will be hated by all for my name's sake." And I mean, this is, it's always been this way. Christians have always been hated, they've been marginalized. Sometimes they've been, you know, strapped on racks and thrown in dungeons and burned with fire, put in galleys and tortured. I have a copy of Fox's Book of Martyrs. It's a 3, 000-page volume that was compiled in 1684.

And it has a very large woodcut, and I mean it's this big, of the various ways that the Roman Church persecuted the believers. Very graphic descriptions, very graphic pictorials of probably three dozen different ways that the church was despised and people were killed. Because the whole world lies in the power of the evil and you have to understand that to be a Christian sets you against the world. But how do you act? Well, you act like a sheep, you act like a serpent, you act like a dove.

And then in verse 23, part of this life of persecution, at least for the apostles here, included fleeing from city to city. Verse 23, when they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." Now, the primary thrust of this is urgency. There's a sword sweeping down on Israel, on apostate Israel. Israel is going to be judged, and the watchman is issuing a warning so that the disciples will move with urgency in their calling.

It's not, I don't believe it's about self-preservation. It's about perseverance. It's about continuing on the ministry and spreading the gospel. You're to go from one city to another because a city just rejected. And you must keep on, even if you're unwelcome.

At the same time, you should not necessarily risk your life, because you want to keep on. It's better to keep your head and keep on, if you can do it with spiritual integrity. And then there's this phrase in verse 23, it's very difficult to understand. There are seven views of this, and actually a member of my family came up with an eighth. And it's a very difficult verse to understand.

You will not have gone through all the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. The operative statement is before the Son of Man comes. What does that mean? Now It's a very difficult phrase. This is a phrase that is an eschatological phrase.

Eschatology is a subset of systematic theology. There are various categories. There's pneumatology, theology of the spirit. There's homarchiology, the study of sin. There's theology, the study of God.

And there is eschatology, the study of last things. So in this subset of theology is this very difficult statement. And the most difficult, the most confusing of all the categories of doctrine is eschatology. Because of the language, because of the telescopic nature of it, because of trying to grapple with history, because of parabolic language. There are all kinds of things that just make it very, very difficult to understand.

John Gill says, when is the Son of Man coming? What is this? He says, well, it's either at his resurrection from the dead, or it's from the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, or it's at the time of His coming in vengeance on His enemies and the destruction of Jerusalem. It's one of those three things. As you work through this, just understand, don't build your entire eschatology on this phrase.

It's not clear enough. It's really not clear enough. You might be able to connect it with Daniel 7. I'm not confident in that. It's possible.

If you read Luke 21, you'll get an idea of that quite possibly in a different situation in the ministry of Jesus that reflects on this same timeline that's here. And then in verses 24 and 25, there's this beautiful, I just think it's kind of an interlude, in where Jesus speaks of himself as the example for handling all persecution. He says, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. Jesus is saying, you won't be treated any better than I am being treated. I'm your master, but my servants will not be treated any differently.

So how they treat me, they will treat you. That's what Jesus is saying. It's really very simple what he's communicating. A disciple is not above his teacher. And this brings us into the doctrine of the imitation of Christ.

When we think about spreading the gospel, it's appropriate for us to imitate Christ. In His manner, in His message, He is our master. He is our master teacher. And we learn from him. And he's saying that, he says that if they call the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household?

They call Jesus Lord of the Flies or Lord of the Dung, okay? That's what they were calling Jesus. Jesus is saying, don't expect anything better. If they call you dung, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." This is just the normal way it ought to be.

One of the concerns that I have for our church and me and myself is the complete lack of this kind of persecution. The heaviest kind of persecution most of us ever see happens on some internet site or somebody who just gossips about us or says something slightly mean about us. But there's no one trying to kill us. Someone once said that the biggest problem with Christians today is that no one wants to kill them. Is the reason that no one wants to kill us is that we're not like our Master?

I think that's a question we should ask ourselves as a church. If our hearts were so broken for the loss of this world that we could not keep still. If we were like, more like George Whitefield, who is constantly filling his mind with holy guile and plans, never ceasing going from one place to another, whereas the Lord Jesus from city to city. I don't believe you have to go from city to city. There's enough work to do within a one-mile radius of your body.

And then the Lord Jesus instructs the disciples about handling their fears in verses 26 through 31. There are three prohibitions against fear. Now it's obvious, it should be obvious to all of us why he was talking about fear. Because whenever you talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, dust gets raised. There's smoke and fire.

And people turn a hard face to you and they argue with you and they think you're a buffoon they think you've lost your mind they think you're an enemy of society and so he's instructing his disciples about fear in verse 26 and verse 28 and 31 he issues three prohibitions against fear, the fear of man. And then he gives reasons not to fear. The first reason not to fear is that truth will reign, verse 26. Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known. The Damage to your reputation will only be momentary.

The truth will be made known. On that great day, everything will be made known. You do not need to fear your reputation. It will be straightened out on that day. And then, and this is like what the Apostle Paul was referring to in Romans 2-16 when he said, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel, That day is coming.

So there's no need to fear because the truth will be revealed. And then, and then he is instructing his disciples to speak without fear. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. So, Jesus is saying, preach it! Whatever I say, go and repeat it in the world.

It's all worthy to be repeated. And we've been given enough to speak of here in this book. Whatever I have, what I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. Preach on the housetops. In Zephaniah we learn of those who preached about the great pagan deities on their housetops.

And Jesus now saying, no, there's something different you should talk about from your housetop. And he says, do not fear about your body, in verse 28. Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. You know, do not fear, do not fear. Those three words.

These are some of the most common words in all of scripture. Do not fear, do not fear, do not fear. Whatever hazards are out there, Whatever hazards are out there, we need to continue the work of publishing the Gospel, even if they destroy our bodies. I love what the Heidelberg Catechism says, question one, what is thy only comfort in life and death? That I with body and soul in both life and death am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me, that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head, yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation.

And therefore by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live unto him." And that's why Jesus says, do not fear him who is able to destroy your body, but fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Verse 28. And then in verse 29-31, the Lord Jesus speaks of His protection of His people. You know, He's described all these dangers, and Now he concludes with these words here, Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? This coin was the smallest in the Roman world.

It was almost worthless in value. And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are numbered. Do not fear, therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows." So we learn here that it's the will of the Father.

It is His will that upholds everything, because not one of them falls to the ground except by the will of the Father and the knowledge that He has of everything that happens in the world. He even ordains the death of a sparrow. He will ordain your death as well. And you're far more valuable than a sparrow. And then he says that even the smallest part of your outward body is understood and it's governed by the Lord.

Verse 30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. They're counted. They're numbered. The word that Jesus uses is the word arithmeo.

It's where we get our word arithmetic. God, your Father, is a mathematician. He is the supreme mathematician, and He counts, He keeps track of all things. He not only knows your goings out and your comings in, He knows your thoughts before you have them. Job says that God counts all of his steps.

I don't know how many steps you've taken. God knows. He knows how many steps you've taken. And look, I've just taken one more step. The Father has counted my steps.

David says he puts your tears in a bottle. David says he numbers your wanderings. He says, are they not all in your book? He actually writes them down in the book. He keeps a ledger.

He keeps a ledger of everything. Even the hairs on your head. John says that he counts the number of the martyrs. And there in Revelation chapter 6 under the throne of God, the martyrs are crying out and they're saying, Oh God, when will you avenge our blood?" And God says, not until the number of the martyrs is complete, because God is numbering the martyrs. Every one that dies is on his ledger, And he's carefully counting them.

Isaiah 40 tells us that he counts the stars and he knows them by name. Genesis says that he counts the sands of the seashore. Isaiah says he measures the waters in his hand. In Revelation 7 verse 9 we learn he counts numbers that are so large that no man can count. And here in Matthew he even counts the sparrows and he counts the hairs that are on your head.

I've been told that there are a hundred thousand to five hundred thousand hairs on your head. Well, for some of you, It's less. Some of you who look like you don't have your hairs on your head, you do. God knows how many you have, whether you skin that head or whether you let it grow like Nebuchadnezzar out in the field. God knows the numbers of your hairs.

Something so small, He watches over every detail of your life. Every single detail. You know, Maybe some of your mothers are frustrated with your children because they do not like arithmetic. Here's your chance right now to encourage your children to be like God, to be a mathematician, to count, to name things and to enumerate them, to be a mathematician. God is the supreme mathematician.

Do you think God knows how much money you'll need next year? Do you think God knows how many children you'll have in ten years? Do you think He's counted? Do you think He goes to that level of detail? Does he know how many women are going to become pregnant in this church in the next five years?

Absolutely. He counts everything. Do you think he knows How far the money you have will stretch, how long it will last. Do you think he knows who will be married in the next five years? Do you think he's big enough to put two people together to be married?

Do you think he's big enough for that? And so the Lord Jesus places this in this whole argument that he's making, this whole instruction of his disciples, that they would trust him in the spread of the gospel, because he holds all things in his hands. Everything is counted, everything is under his divine care, And he regards his children as having worth. And so here the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching his disciples how they might spread the gospel, how they might conduct themselves as sheep, as doves, as serpents, how they might respond to the various trials and tribulations. He actually foretells their tribulations and tells them that they're going to have trouble in these different categories by religious bodies, by governmental bodies and families and in society at large.

He's laying everything out on the table so that nothing would be hidden from us. He's such a good shepherd. And so, As we depart from this text, let's affirm together how important it is to live a life of holy guile, to find one way after another to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ into this world. That we would allow what we're reading here to actually change us. That we would allow it to upset our schedule, our finances, our thinking, our priorities.

That we would be instructed that God would change our lives, that we would be more like this and less like what we are now today. Who is sufficient for such a thing? Only God is, only God is able by His Spirit to move us, and I know that. And I'm grateful that it's Him that is able and who has all of His plans laid out perfectly, even down to the finest hair on your head. Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord, we thank you for these wonderful words you've spoken to your disciples and now also to us, to shepherd us, to mature us, to teach us the way in which we should go. Amen.