GUARDIAN OF YOUR SOUL
DR. JIM DIXON
2 PETER 2:19
MARCH 26, 1995
In 1884, Sigmund Freud published a paper called Über Coca. The paper dealt with a new drug. It was a drug that Sigmund Freud believed to be a magical substance. It was a drug that Sigmund Freud used. He ingested it orally and nasally and intravenously. He gave it to his fiancée. He gave the drug to his friends. He gave the drug to his colleagues. He gave the drug to his patients because Sigmund Freud believed this really was a miracle, a magical substance and that it had great curative qualities. He believed it could cure headaches. He believed it could cure depression. He believed it could cure alcoholism. He believed it could cure almost anything; this miraculous drug.
Of course, the drug was cocaine. Über Coca in German, when translated to the English, means “concerning cocaine.” Indeed, when that paper, what that title was published and the world read it, many people all over the world wanted to try cocaine. Right here in the United States of America, the American pharmaceutical companies began to market cocaine over the counter. They began to sell cocaine. They used advertisements. They said that if you are a coward, it will make you brave. If you’re silent, it will make you eloquent. They began to include cocaine in the ingredients of many of their medicines. There were sniffing parlors that were established in many American cities. Men and women, rich and poor, would go into those parlors and they would sniff cocaine. Salesmen went door to door selling cocaine right here in America. Of course, bartenders put cocaine in their drinks.
In the year 1886, a new drink appeared, non-alcoholic, based on coca, based on cocaine, and it was called Coca Cola. By the year 1909 there were 69 different drinks similar to Coca Cola, all of them containing cocaine. But millions of people all over the world began to be addicted to cocaine. Millions of people began to exhibit, to manifest, symptomology, physiological symptomology, psychological symptomology. There were manifestations of psychotic episodes in many cocaine users. Then finally, in the year 1914, the United States government, through the Harrison Narcotics Act, banned cocaine from this country and nation.
But how amazing. How amazing that Sigmund Freud endorsed cocaine and recommended it to the world. How amazing that this man who was a medical doctor and the very founder of psychoanalysis actually recommended a drug that destroyed people physically and destroyed them inwardly and outwardly. It is true that in Vienna, Austria and in other parts of the world, many, many people entrusted their lives to Sigmund Freud. They trust him body and soul and Sigmund Freud really believed he was working with the human soul. If you read his writings, in German he often uses the word “die seele.” He uses the word “das herz.” These words refer to the human soul. Sigmund Freud believed that he was working with the innermost depths of a human life. He believed he was working with the very core of a man or a woman’s being. He believed he was working with the human soul and he was right. Sigmund Freud was working with the human soul.
Every counselor works with the human soul. Every psychotherapist, every psychologist; they all work with the human soul and that is why it’s a very dangerous thing to become a counselor. That is why it is a very dangerous thing to become a psychotherapist or a psychologist or a psychiatrist. That is why as Christians we are called to take great care in who we allow to be our counselors because counselors work with the soul.
The Bible tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ is “Pele Yoez.” In Hebrew that means “the wonderful counselor.” The Bible tells us that when we entrust our soul to Jesus Christ, we are entrusting our soul to a faithful creator.
In our passage of scripture for today, two titles are given to Jesus Christ and I want us to examine them briefly. First of all, Jesus Christ is called the Shepherd of our souls. He’s called the Shepherd of our souls. The Word for shepherd in the Greek is the word “poimen.” The word “poimen” is oftentimes used literally and it refers to a shepherd with respect to sheep. But oftentimes in the Bible the word “poimen” is used metaphorically and then its primary meaning is “to lead.” It means to guide. It means to direct. It means to be in charge.
If Jesus Christ is the Shepherd of your soul, then He leads your soul, He guides your soul, He directs your soul, He is in charge of your soul. The question that He would ask you today, the question He asks me today is this: “Am I the Shepherd of your soul?” It’s a very important question.
I’m sure many of you have heard of General Ambrose Burnside. His name has become part of the English language. The word “sideburn” comes from General Ambrose Burnside. When people grew hair down the side of their face they used to call them burnsides and then over time it was changed to sideburns. But, of course, this would be little more than a curiosity if we didn’t know more about this man’s life. The truth is that General Ambrose Burnside was one of the worst generals America has ever had. Indeed, one of the worst generals in world history.
During the Civil War, in the year 1862, General Burnside led his troops in the Battle of Antietam. He led his troops across a bridge, a very narrow bridge. He knew the Confederate armies were all around that bridge. He knew that his men, going across that narrow bridge, would be totally out in the open and exposed and helpless and yet he drove them, he commanded them, he mandated that they go across that bridge and they died. They were just slaughtered. They were butchered. It was later discovered after the Battle of Antietam that the water in the river was so shallow, they could have crossed anywhere, absolutely anywhere.
In the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862, in an insane suicide assault, General Ambrose Burnside led his armies and 100,000 of his men died. A hundred thousand Union soldiers died in an insane suicide assault. In 1865, in the Battle of Petersburg, sometimes called the Siege of Petersburg, General Burnside commanded that his soldiers go down into a crater-like valley. Of course, Confederate soldiers were not down in that valley. He just thought they were. He commanded his soldiers to go down into that crater-like valley and the Confederate soldiers remained along the rim. With their rifles, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. The Union army, superior in numbers, lost. Afterwards, President Abraham Lincoln said “only Burnside could have managed such a coup, ringing one last spectacular defeat from the jaws of victory.”
Obviously, it’s very important who’s in charge. It’s very important who’s leading. That’s true when you’re in an army. It’s true when you’re in an airplane. You want to know who’s in charge, who’s at the controls. We need to ask that question with regard to our soul. Who’s in charge? Who’s at the controls? The word for soul in the Bible is the Greek word “psychi.” It transliterated into the English and becomes “psyche.” This word was used by the Greeks to refer to the soul as distinct from the body. It was used to refer to the inward person. It was used to refer to the personality. It was used to refer to the mind. It was used to refer to the will. It was used to refer to all that makes you really you. It was used to refer to that part of you that survives death, the soul.
The Bible indicates, with metaphoric imagery, that at the very center of your soul there is a throne. At the very center of my soul there is a throne. The question is “Who’s on the throne?”
In Eden, at the dawn of time, Adam and Eve, men and women basically removed God from the throne. People said “I’m going to make my own rules. I’m going to run my own life. I’m going to captain my own soul. I’m going to be on the throne.” The gospel of Jesus Christ is an invitation. It’s an invitation to put God back on the throne. “Repent,” the gospel says, “the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent. The King of Heaven is in your midst.” The gospel is an invitation to place Christ on the throne of your soul, that He might truly be the shepherd of your soul.
Now in the year 1901, Queen Victoria died. She had ruled Great Britain for 63 years longer than any other British monarch. She had been the Queen of England, in effect the Queen of Ireland, the Queen of Scotland the Queen of Wales. She was Empress of India. She had the throne of India too. But at her inauguration, and I think many of you know this story, at her inauguration, as Handel’s Messiah was performed…when they came to the Hallelujah chorus and the part where Jesus Christ is proclaimed King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Queen Victoria, a young woman at the time, got down on her knees. After the ceremony, when they asked her why she did that, she said “Jesus Christ is not only King of Kings, He is King of queens.” A wonderful statement.
I think the question that each and every one of us in this room this morning needs to answer is this: is He our king? And we shouldn’t kid ourselves. I mean, if He’s really on the throne, then we’re allowing His word to shape our character. If He’s really on the throne, we’re allowing His word to transform our minds. If He’s really on the throne, then our will, our volition, is in submission to His authority if He is the Shepherd of our souls.
Sigmund Freud did not understand the soul. He believed that the innermost person was divided into what he called the “id”, the “ego” and the “super-ego.” He believed that if these three were working in harmony then a person would have psychic health. If these three, the id, the ego and the super-ego were working in harmony, then a person would have a healthy soul. He didn’t understand. He didn’t understand that the human soul must first be in harmony with God. A human soul must first be in harmony with God and that cannot happen unless we place God’s Son on the throne, the Shepherd of our souls.
There’s a second title given to Christ in this passage of scripture in 1 Peter. He is also called the “guardian of our souls.” The Greek word here is “episkopos” which is sometimes rendered bishop but it’s root meaning is “to guard or to protect.” In Homers Iliad, the guards who guarded the city were given this title of episkopo and Jesus Christ wants to guard the city of your soul.
I think some of you have heard of Tim Brewer. Tim Brewer is a pastor. He’s the Pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. It’s a great church. It’s an Evangelical Presbyterian Church. It’s a sister church to ours. Tim Brewer is a wonderful person. Tim Brewer grew up right here in Denver. He grew up out in Aurora. I think it’s safe to say Tim has not had an easy life. Tim’s brother, by the way, is Mark Brewer who is Pastor of Colorado Community Church, the church that’s purchasing this facility. Tim has not had an easy life. His father, Pete Brewer, was the founding pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church out in Aurora. Pete left that church when he committed adultery. He left that church when he had an affair. He had an affair with the church secretary. Tim and his brothers, I mean that was devastating. I mean, their family was split. I think it’s hard on any son or daughter when mom and dad split up. It’s hard on any son or daughter when one of the parents commits adultery. How much harder when that parent is a pastor, when that parent is a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think for Tim that was really the beginning of a great struggle in terms of his faith and what he believed.
Of course, there was a period of time where I think Tim tried many different things just to cope with life. One of the things he enjoyed doing was mountain climbing. One day, he was mountain climbing up here in the Rockies. Somehow, he fell. He wasn’t tied in and he fell 70 feet through the air. It was a miracle that he survived. When I went to see him at the hospital, almost every bone in his feet had been crushed and yet miraculously God healed his feet to where he was able to walk again.
Tim began to take God seriously. He went through theological training. He felt the call to the gospel ministry. Tim married a wonderful woman and they had three kids. Two of their kids are mentally retarded. One is so severely mentally retarded that, I mean, they don’t live a normal life. Tim and his wife love their kids, love them, but they don’t live a normal life. They cannot. Their home is not normal. Two of their children will never leave home. Life is not easy for Tim.
He just came out here two weeks ago to Colorado to get a break. He just wanted some time to himself. He went up to the mountains to an old cabin that his mother owns. He was just taking a walk. There’s a tunnel there, a train tunnel. Tim had been through that tunnel many times. It’s not that long and you could always hear a train coming but somehow Tim must have been preoccupied. He was only a few yards into the tunnel when it happened. Just a moment of sheer terror. A moment of horror as he realized the train was upon him. He turned around and it was too late. He tried to dive out of the way. That train ran over Tim’s leg. There was not enough room in the tunnel. It ran over his leg right below the knee and then the train dragged him for 90 feet through the tunnel. Tim would have died right there, would have bled to death. He was bleeding not only from where his leg was just crushed and shattered but he was bleeding other places just from being carried 90 feet through the tunnel.
Fortunately, someone on the train saw it. I mean, you don’t even notice an impact like that but somebody on the train saw him and the train stopped. They came back. They saved Tim’s life. They tied a tourniquet around his leg and they put him on the train. They called the Flight for Life helicopter and they took him up to a place where the helicopter could land. Tim was taken to a hospital right here in Denver. He’s going to be okay. He had to have his leg amputated below the knee. He’s going to have to go through a lot of rehabilitation. He’s going to have to learn to wear a prosthesis. It’s going to change his life once again and life is not easy as it is. Tim, just a few days ago, went back to St. Louis, back to his church where he’s going to continue in the ministry. When Tim and his wife got off the plane and they came into the terminal, hundreds of people from Central Presbyterian Church in St. Louis were there. As Tim and his wife came into the airport terminal, all those people were singing Great is Thy Faithfulness, Oh God My Father.
I think that’s very difficult for the world to understand. It’s very difficult for the world to understand because the world says “If God is so faithful then why has he had all these things happen?” Is it not true that most of us, when we think of God’s faithfulness, when we think of Jesus Christ as our guardian, we want Him to guard us physically and materially. We want Him to guard our bodies. We want Him to protect our bodies. We want Him to give us health. We want Him to protect our money, our finances. And certainly, God has power to guard these things. Certainly, God cares about all these things. I think it’s safe to say that given what Tim has been through, he would not have survived any of it. How do you survive a 70-foot fall? How do you survive a train deal like that? I mean, it was the hands of God that protected him through it and brought him through it at all.
But, you see, God wants us to understand, and this is so important, God wants us to understand what He’s most concerned with is not our body. What He’s most concerned with is our soul. He’s most concerned with your soul. He’s called the shepherd and guardian of our souls but you must make Him shepherd. You must make Him shepherd or He’s not your guardian. Of course, when you come to Him and you make Him shepherd, He forgives your sin by His shed blood, washing you whiter than snow and your soul becomes His property.
It is true that in the Middle Ages and during the period of the Middle Ages, when someone sneezed people would say “God bless you.” I think sometimes that’s true today, although today people say it without knowing why. In the Middle Ages when people sneezed, people would say “God bless you” because they actually believed that when a man or woman sneezed their soul, for a brief moment, departed the body and that the devil or Satan could perhaps come and want to snatch the soul as it was vulnerable, removed from the body.
What a naive theology. And yet it is true that Satan wants the soul. Satan wants the soul of everyone in this world. The soul doesn’t have to leave the body for him to access it. You see, if you want your soul to be guarded truly, that could only happen through Jesus Christ as you make Him shepherd and as you receive Him as Lord and Savior. It’s the only way. Even as Christians we need to be careful.
In another place in this same letter the Apostle Peter reminds us to “Beware of the passions of the flesh which wage war against the soul.” Sin is dangerous even for us as Christians. That is why when we sin, the spirit of Jesus Christ calls us to repentance and seeks to bring us back. Sin is dangerous.
Of course, ultimately the promise of Christ for all who believe in Him as Lord and Savior is that He will bring us to the gates of heaven itself. He will save our soul eternally. The Bible’s message is really very simple: when people die, there are two destinies, just two destinies. I think the question each and every one of us needs to ask is what’s going to happen to our soul? Surviving death, what is going to happen to the soul? The Bible tells us it’s either going to go to hell which the Bible describes as exclusion from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might. Every soul that goes to hell is the soul of a person who wants to captain their own soul. If you want to captain your own soul, if you want to sit on the throne of your soul, God will give you that eternal privilege but it’s called hell. But, you see, heaven is for those people who want Jesus Christ to be the shepherd and guardian of their soul. They’ve invited Christ to sit on the throne.
So that’s the invitation that Christ has given to each and every one of you this morning. For those of you who call yourselves Christians and you’ve asked Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior, His challenge to you is to ask yourself whether you’re really letting Him be your shepherd day-by-day, whether you’re really seeking to conform every behavior, every thought, to His will and word. The challenge to those of you who have not asked Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior is what’s going to happen to your soul? Let’s close with a word of prayer.