The fear of the Lord is such a pervasive theme in the bible. From beginning to end, fearing God is highlighted as a good thing. Someone once said that “the fear of God is the soul of godliness”. Without the fear of the Lord, worldliness, rather than godliness will prevail. Two weeks ago, we looked at four ingredients or elements of the fear of the Lord. It all starts with a correct and true knowledge of God. Without this, we will invariably have a skewed or small God complex. Problems will be big. God will be small. Or we will have a very domesticated view of God. 

We studied John 2 on Thursday night which shows Jesus going through the temple with a whip, angrily chasing out the money changers and animals. This is our Lord. So we need a true knowledge of God. Second, we need to become more aware that all our lives are lived before the face of God. He is present. Where can we go from God’s presence? The answer is nowhere. And it would be good to cultivate an awareness of that fact. The third ingredient is a growing gratitude for what God has done for us in Christ. God’s redeeming work doesn’t reduce the fear of God, it deepens it (Psalm 130:3-4). And the fourth ingredient we looked at was a strong sense of duty or responsibility to God. If we fear God, we will want to know, what does He  require of us? Love, obedience, trust. 

Now some might want to know, what’s the payoff? Is there any kind of reward for fearing God? Yes, the blessings are enormous as they are countless. Here is just a small sample from Psalm and Proverbs:

7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! (Psalm 34:7-9)

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. (Psalm 103:11)

The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him…(Psalm 147:11)

The fear of the Lord prolongs life. (Proverbs 10:27)

In the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence (Proverbs 14:26)

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. (Proverbs 14:27)

All this sounds great. It is great to know the ingredients of the fear of the Lord. It is good to be reminded and meditate on the incredible blessings of fearing the Lord. Amen. But I want to talk today about a peculiar matter that I think each one of us faces… and this is really where the rubber meets the road. The fear of man. It is so insidious, so sneaky! We can fall prey to the fear of man and think that we are being holy and winsome and nice Christians. But just as the bible speaks of the blessings of the fear of God, it speaks to the deadly danger of the fear of man. There may be no more descriptive place than Proverbs 29:25 where it says,

The fear of man lays a snare… 

The fear of man is a trap. But there is something in the trap that looks enticing. That’s the bait! O, if I give a little here, I will be seen as wise or smart or cool… I’ll fit in. That’s the fear of man… the fear of not fitting in… the craving to want to be liked… the lust for approval… the felt need to receive praise from people. You hear people today talk about being on the right or wrong side of history and hold that out as a sort of threat to get in line. I am convinced that THE most common reason for the rampant compromise on truth is the fear of man. 

I remember back in (probably) 2016. It was shortly after the Obergefell decision on so called gay marriage. A podcast I listened to - James White, an apologist, said, we are going to see a tsunami of apostasy. And we have. People want to fit in and be seen as loving and be winsome and don’t want to be associated with a kind of Christianity with sharp edges. The problem is if the world is going to call the shots on what truths need to be abandoned, there won’t be any truth left; except maybe God is love… but then the God you are talking about is a mere idol. 

We need to fear the Lord - that’s the remedy for the fear of man! So let’s look at Matthew 10. The broader context is Jesus sending his disciples out to proclaim the message of the Kingdom. And he forewarns them that they will experience resistance; they will be persecuted; they will be mistreated and maligned. Jesus doesn’t mince words. In Matthew 10:16, Jesus says, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.” What do wolves do to sheep? They try to eat them.

To comfort and encourage them, Jesus says, “Don’t fear men. Instead fear God!” And this is the most needed thing in the evil day in which we live. To fear God, not man. Here’s the BIG IDEA:

Jesus says that the fear of God frees you from the fear of man and produces faithful, enduring, bold living and speaking for Him and His Kingdom in the world. 

Without the fear of God, we will always succumb in some form to the fear of man. And with our words and/or actions deny Christ. We will be silent when we should speak. We will be passive when we should act. JC Ryle, in a great book called Thoughts For Young Men said the following (and this is good for young men and women, as well as old):

Young men, I want you all to be free from this bondage. I want each of you to care nothing about man's opinion, when the path of duty is clear. 

When the path of duty is clear, we should care nothing about man’s opinions. The remedy is to fear God. Let’s unpack our text. Jesus gives us three exhortations to “fear not” which are arguments to support the one positive, overarching command to “Fear God”. Let’s look at each in turn. 

Argument One: When you are maligned for speaking truth or acting righteously, you are in good company. (v. 26-27)

So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 

This might sound a little cryptic… So to decipher it, we need to look at the preceding verses. Look at verses 24-25 (READ). Jesus went around doing good, healing the sick, speaking the truth, casting out demons, cleansing lepers, and bringing the Kingdom. And what did the religious class say about him? He’s Beelzebul - the prince of demons. What spiritual blindness! But then Jesus says, “If this is how they treated me, how much more will they malign you.”

In other words, there should be an expectation that we as Christians will be maligned by the world if we are faithful to Jesus. And I don’t mean because we are jerks! We shouldn't make the news for public intoxication or scandalous immorality or brawling. But if you follow in the Master’s footsteps, you will be slandered. You will be spoken of as evil. If you speak the truth straight… no matter how loving, some will hear it as hate and malign you. But this is where Jesus says, “have no fear of them”. 

One of the evidences that we are following in the footsteps of the Lord is when we speak in public what he has given us in private and are slandered for it. Or when you live righteously and are hated for it. The truth is not to be held privately in our hearts and on our minds merely, but published publicly. And when that happens and Christ’s ambassadors are maligned for it, they ought to count it a privilege to be so treated as their Master was. Isn’t that what he is saying? What he says to us in the dark is to be spoken in the light. What he reveals in secret is to be proclaimed in the housetops. Our Master was slandered and treated as a blasphemer for speaking the truth. And so what does Jesus do? He gives us his truth to speak publicly. And a servant should not expect to be treated better than his Master. In the part of the Sermon on the Mount called the beatitudes, Jesus says the following:

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Do you see this? When you are slandered… when people utter evil against you because you are living right and speaking truth, they are doing it “on His account” and this is how the prophets were treated before you. In other words, you are in good company. Now, we should not get a martyr complex, okay. It is important that if people speak against you, they do so falsely. When they say you are a hater, it must be false. When are accused of being anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-woman, or any other thing, it should be utterly false. BUT, if we are faithful to Christ and his truth, those things may be said. Think about it. The most holy, righteous Person… the only sinless Person was vilified in this way. How much more will we be vilified? So fear God and not man because when you are slandered for speaking truth and living right, you are following in the footsteps of the prophets… in the footsteps of Christ himself. 

Argument Two: The Worst They Can Do Is Kill You (v. 28, 32-33)

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Don’t fear man because all evil man can do is kill your body. Now this may not seem very helpful on the surface, but sometimes it is good to know what’s the worst that can happen and put it in perspective. Now Jesus does not say, “hey dying is no big deal”. He says there is a bigger concern (house infested with mice v. house surrounded by hungry Grizzly bears). He wants us to replace the fear of what people can do to us - make fun of us, ostracize us, or kill us - with what God can do to us - destroy both body and soul in hell. Being rejected, ostracized, cast away by men is nothing compared to being rejected and cast away by God. 

If your life is about pleasing the Lord above all other things, the worst thing that can happen is temporary loss - loss of reputation, property, or even life. But even then, it is not loss. What does Paul say? For me to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). Paul said everything in this life is like dung compared with knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8). So if you live in the fear of the Lord, you may lose out in this life… but it is not loss!

On the other hand, if your life is fundamentally lived before others - for their praise or approval - or in the fear of man - the loss is eternal. You might say, “Is it that bad?” Yes it is! Jesus makes a connection between the fear of man and unbelief… 

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:44)

Wanting the approval and glory from man strangles faith. The two cannot co-exist. I suggest verses 32-33 show us what is really at stake. Remember the context. Jesus is sending his disciples out with his message to do his work. That is what we are called to as well. What will govern our lives? The lust to be liked and viewed a particular way by the world or a consuming desire to please God? It will be one or the other. And the stakes could not be higher! Listen to the words of our Lord in verses 32-33:

32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

The word “acknowledges” is key. In some translations it’s “confesses”. Whoever confesses me, I will confess him before my Father. But whoever denies me, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven. To confess or acknowledge means to go beyond privately held beliefs that we have in our minds and hearts. The world is fine with that. Just keep it to yourself. It is when you say with your lips and show with your life that Jesus is Lord. It is when your mouth and life bear witness to your fear of God - that’s when there will be trouble. But what do you want? To be acknowledged by the world as a nice guy, a sweet girl? Or to be acknowledged by Jesus before the Father in heaven?

So fear God and not man, because though you may lose temporary reward in this world, you gain eternally in Christ. Finally… 

Argument Three: God Is In Every Detail (v. 29-31)

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

This brings everything together. He draws out two seemingly insignificant things - a sparrow that falls to the ground and the number of hairs on your head. 

What are the implications of this? I hope it's obvious. If the moment of death for a little bird in a remote forest is of concern to God and determined by Him, how much more are your days numbered? How much more does God watch over your life with care and wisdom? Nothing in the whole universe is random ultimately. Your life and all the details of your life are in God’s hands. Nothing escapes his notice. This is supposed to give you the kind of right fear of him. A knowledge of who he is - Sovereign Governor, pervasive sense of his presence, gratitude for his redeeming work in Christ - He is YOUR Father and he loves you, and your duty - speak and live faithfully for Christ. 

So if you are maligned and slandered… if you die… even if you die at the hands of another, it will not happen apart from your Father. And the point of all this is to produce the right kind of fear; fear that sets you free - the fear of God! Henry Martyn was a missionary to Turkey in the early 1800s. He died a young man, but not before doing a great work in an unknown land, among a people who were almost completely ignorant of the gospel. He understood this truth. He knew that God was in the details. He understood that not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father - and he was confident that he was more valuable than many sparrows. Which is why he could say:

I am immortal until God’s work for me to do is done. The Lord reigns.

A passage that brings a lot of clarity for me

12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. (Isaiah 8:12-13)

So do not fear man… and do not fear what they fear. Fear God.  Let’s pray.