General Articles

Hebrews Less. 51: Moral Conduct as God’s Children Pt.2 :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10

Chapter 13: 1-6

“Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. 3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also. 4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. 5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ 6 So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?'”

Last week we looked at a part of the moral conduct that Paul lays out for us here in Hebrews. One of the most amazing things that you can glean from this is the absolute transformation of Paul.

When we first meet Paul (then called Saul) in Acts 7, he is presiding over the execution of Stephen, the church’s first martyr. Paul was a Pharisee, one who grew up on strict rituals and the overperformance of the law. So much was their commitment to the ‘Law’ or their version of the ‘Law’ that there was no room for compassion and love. No room for grace and mercy, no room for kindness and perceived weakness. They really had the idea that they were better than everyone else, including Jesus, by the way.

When Paul got saved when he experienced grace and kindness for the first time, it really transformed him. The man who wrote about the grace of God to the ‘chief of sinners’ was truly a transformed man.

As we explore these moral modes of conduct, we see some crazy ideas that are promoted by this former Pharisee; his pharisaical brethren would have been ashamed of how weak and soft he had become. But these perceived weaknesses are the very strengths that help others to see the wonders, the grace, the kindness, and the love of God.

Last week we explored ‘brotherly love.’ This intentional kindness and service to each other that is driven by the love of Christ in us is a far greater testimony than any man-made rule of conduct. And when love is the driving force and the motive of what we do, then adherence to the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes becomes a natural outflow. We are loving, kind, generous, humble, patient, and on and on we can go. But all of these flow from brotherly love.

Today we will look at marriage.

  • Marriage is honorable, verse 4

For the last 50 years, the governments of the world have attacked the family. They have encouraged men and women to be sexually active in their youth and then settle down as they get older. Governments have invented new ways to ‘recognize’ marriages as civil unions and partnerships more than true, solely committed marriages where one pledges love and service for life.

For the very first time in the history of the USA, more babies were born out of wedlock than in wedlock than ever before. This is the first time since 1845 when they began keeping records that more than 51% of all babies born were born out of wedlock.

Marriage is honorable. God says that — not me, not a church, not a country. God says it, and all other opinions are no longer valid. Marriage, we are told in Ephesians 5, should mirror how Jesus loves the local church. It should mirror how the local church serves and honors the Lord. Marriage is the pinnacle of human interaction. In it, we see the true understanding of grace and kindness, of eternal and immediate forgiveness; we see the power of sacrificial love, and through godly marriage, we see the expansion of the kingdom through childbirth.

As a Missionary Baptist pastor, you can see the importance of missions. As a church, we have and do support missions in Ukraine, Pakistan, Kenya, in the USA, and we support missions to our prisons here in Ontario, Canada, and on and on we can go. But what we do know for sure about the family is that it is the fastest and surest way of building a church. When godly families have kids, and the men lead those families as the spiritual servants, then we know that 93% of those kids will follow the Lord. Godly marriages are the best and fastest way to build the Lord’s churches. This is why the devil and his minions are so focused on destroying traditional marriage. The Lord’s churches and His people do all in their power to promote and preserve marriage. Get married young, have lots of kids, and lead them to serve the Lord.

  • Enjoy Sex in your marriage, verse 4

The ‘bed is undefiled’; this is God telling married people to have fun. Enjoy your sexual life, and have fun doing it. A man and his wife can explore any manner of sex between them without shame and fear. The most important thing is that the sexual experiences are between that man and his wife ONLY. God calls on men to be enraptured with their wives. The following passages are to be taken as plainly as they are read.

Proverbs 5:18-19, (NASB) “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; Be exhilarated always with her love.”

Proverbs 5:15, (NASB), “Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well.”

The Song of Solomon, we have learned, was only to read as one neared marriage. Many have tried to make it about the church and Jesus, but it is about a man and his wife; it explores their intimate lovemaking and interactions in many scenarios. God allows us to explore and enjoy each other, and no one is allowed to attach any shame or limits on it. A man and his wife are free to explore their sexual needs. Sex is not about making babies; it is, first and foremost, about pleasure and the intimacy that can only be had between a man and his wife.

God designed your sex organs and your brain, and He instilled the desire for sexual intimacy. God wants you to have a wonderful sex life with your spouse. Get married and have fun. God wants you to.

Proverbs 18:22, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favour from the LORD.”

A good, loving, and sexually fulfilling marriage is a part of good moral Christian conduct that bolsters the Kingdom of God.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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Gog Loosed from the Abyss :: By Terry James

Published on: by RR10

Much angst was generated from the matter of the Wagner Group’s movement toward Moscow. Everyone within the media and diplomatic circles was thoroughly exercised. But, strangely, the populous–here in America at least—seemed to pay minimum attention.

Nuclear war was almost a certainty, according to some sources, if the assaulting force leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had knocked Dictator Vladimir Putin off his throne. It was one big rumor of war, in the vernacular of Bible prophecy. But all seems to have fizzled, with Prigozhin, Putin’s former “best friend,” as some would have it, stopped the assault and was” exiled” to Belarus.

The experts at every level are still trying to do the calculus on the things involved. And I certainly have no idea of what the strange turn of events meant –or means even yet.

I do believe, however, that it is not just political maneuvering and/or diplomatic high jinks at the heart of it all.

We are, by every metric that prophecy watchers can employ, getting near the very last moments of the final days of the age. Of this, I am confident with all that is within the spiritual prompts that continue to insinuate into my deep desire to comprehend exactly where things stand on God’s Prophetic Timeline.

Next to all of the many stage-setting machinations taking place surrounding the prophetic nation of Israel, those involving the forming of the Gog-Magog force of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 are currently front and center.

Of course, the two prophetic issues are inextricably intertwined. Dynamics stirring the volatility of the Middle East are powerfully in agitation at present. That turbulence surrounding Israel and Russia –and all other entities— makes the student of Bible prophecy from the preTrib view strongly suspect the source from whence comes the burgeoning tempest.

The tumult taking place in the geographical area that Ezekiel foretold will bring about one of mankind’s final and most horrific battles. We know that, at this late hour of the age, this present stage-setting for that future war is demonically driven. While we can’t slice and dice into precise details how the dynamics are shaping –are stage-setting— for the Gog-Magog war, we can be assured the devil is in the details, as it is said.

Author Jonathan Cahn has taken considerable flak in criticism of his latest book, Return of the gods. He gets no such criticism from this quarter. Anyone who is observing these insane times, whether they acknowledge it or not, must sense something akin to invasion from a culturally-darkening force taking place.

Cahn questions in an article: “Is it possible that behind what is happening to America and the world lies a mystery hidden in inscriptions of ancient Mesopotamia?

Could the ancient entities known to the nations as the “gods” be more than just fiction and myth – but actually possess an independent reality?

“Is it possible that they have returned to our world? Could these entities lie behind what we see on our television screens and computer monitors, what our children are being taught in their classrooms, current events, news, and the movements of our times – behind what is even now influencing our lives without our realizing it? Could this mystery be the explanation behind all the strange transformations happening to our culture in our own day?

I believe that the answer is yes. And I believe that one such entity termed Gog in God’s prophetic Word is one who has been loosed to enter into the world at this time. The entity is from the abyss and will, at some point, indwell the leader of the Gog-Magog force. From this demon from the abyss will come the evil thought, which God will use to put hooks in the jaws of this demonically-inspired leader of the Israel-hating military juggernaut.

It seems to me that all the things we see stirring within the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and all we have witnessed develop with regard to the conflict between Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin involves the possibility of that entity called Gog now being freed to do his devilish worst. Even though things are stirring in ways that create that angst I mention in the beginning of this commentary, it is obvious that God’s Restraining Hand is Firmly in Control.

Just as it looked as if Putin might do something unthinkable, like unleash a nuke or two on the force threatening to dethrone him, there was a simmering down. Diplomats and media pundits will say almost in unison that cooler heads prevailed and the situation was chilled by internal negotiations, etc. But we who hold to the belief in that Restrainer of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 know better.

There can, at this moment in time, be no nuclear war –in the sense of a world-rendering holocaust—because it just doesn’t fit the Bible’s prophetic scenario.

Gog’s defeat is yet future, and that defeat is now in the stage-setting phase, as we have been witnessing. That demonic entity could well have been loosed as part of the Return of the gods, as our friend Jonathan Cahn proposes.

This all means that stage-setting for the wrap-up of this Age of Grace (Church Age) is almost complete. The next Event on God’s Prophetic Timeline, as we of the preTrib viewpoint believe, is the Rapture.

You don’t want to remain on this planet when the Gog spirit and all other evil from the abyss take over when the Restrainer removes His Heavenly Handcuffs for the 7 years of Tribulation.

Here again is what you must do to make sure you go to be with the Lord Jesus and to safety during that terrible time to come.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

*Note: Some years ago, my late friend Dr. Tim LaHaye wrote a chapter for one of my books. The subject involved the Gog-Magog War of Ezekiel, chapters 38-39. The chapter particularly dealt with the nation Russia.

Dr. LaHaye’s in-depth work in this chapter remains one of the very best and most thorough I’ve read. I recommend you read it for your study regarding the fate of end times Russia and all attendant to that nation. The chapter was called: “Will God Destroy Russia?”

Here is the link to “Will God Destroy Russia” by Tim LaHaye on the Rapture Ready website:

https://www.raptureready.com/2023/07/01/will-god-destroy-russia-by-tim-lahaye/