Matthew 25:1-14

“Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. ² And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down.’ ³ Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’

⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows. ⁹ Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. ¹⁰ And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

¹¹ Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. ¹² And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But he who endures to the end shall be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.'”

We live in a world of lies. You cannot trust anything that the mainstream media tells us; you cannot trust advertising; you cannot trust most of the stuff you hear, even in religious services online and in person. In many cases, you cannot trust your doctor and the care that he offers. Many have learned the hard way not to trust many mechanics. I can go on, but you get the picture.

There are some questions that I have in my mind, and they make me think: why is the file for the JFK assassination still sealed? It has been more than 50 years; who can still be alive to face prosecution? Did the government know that the 9/11 hijackers were going to try to steal planes and do something? Why did Building 7 fall when it was never hit? Why were we lied to about the fake Russian files on Trump? Why were we lied to by our health officials about COVID? How did they get the whole world to follow along? I can go on, but I hope that a picture will form.

The whole world system is built on lies. Jesus told us that ‘Satan is the father of all lies’ (John 8:44). In the passage that we are focusing on today, Jesus tells the disciples a few times not to be deceived. Don’t fall for the lies. Then, He gave them a sign to show them the truth as opposed to a lie; He gave them the sign of the destruction of Jerusalem. This is a well-documented event in history showing the fall of Jerusalem in and around 70 AD. They could trust His truth, as He had proven that He knows even the future, not just the now.

Deception is exactly where the world is right now. We are being set up by the world system to accept the lies that will cover up the Rapture and the rise of the Antichrist. It is not a coincidence that there have been hundreds of reports about aliens and UFOs. Apparently, these things have been classified for decades and maybe even longer, but all of a sudden, they are being allowed to be shown. Why? What are they preparing us for?

The next big global catastrophic event will be the Rapture. Millions, maybe even Billions, will disappear, and they need a plausible explanation with which to fool the masses and assay any signs of panic.

In the verses above, Jesus is asked about the end, and the very first thing He says is, “Do not be deceived.” He goes on, and in verse 11, we are told that false prophets will come and deceive many. We have seen that already; the government will put out its ‘experts’ to convince us of what we are being told. Then they set about with the peer pressure that makes us feel like idiots even if we know better. They can make you question the very clear, blatant truth that is right in your face.

How do we build a defense against deception?

We know the truth! Read the Bible cover to cover. Study, keep reading it over and over again, and that truth will begin to settle in our minds and your memory; this is the way that we counter lies. Jesus is the TRUTH. The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is about Him. If you know the Bible, you will know HIM, and if you know Him, you will know the truth. Not only do we have the Bible, but all of us who are saved have the Holy Spirit in us. When we pair the knowledge of the scriptures with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we get this from John 16:13:

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

Notice that the Holy Spirit will guide us into ‘ALL TRUTH’—not just some of it, but all of it. Sadly, too many Christians have become lazy and stopped reading their Bibles and attending actual Bible-teaching churches – the ones that open the Book, teach the doctrines of the Old and New Testament, and seek to equip us to be disciples (followers) of Jesus. Too many churches have descended into entertaining the people of God rather than helping them transform into the image of Jesus.

You and I have no excuse for ignorance; God painstakingly intended the writing of the scriptures; he preserved them and made sure that we got them mass-produced and provided for free. If anyone were to call me or any of the pastors I know and ask for a Bible, we would give them one free of charge. Countless organizations hand out free Bibles all over the world. If you want to know the truth, you can. Most people don’t want to see the truth, as it runs against what they already believe.

Once people become accustomed to being lied to, the people who tell the truth become the enemy. Jesus was the enemy of the Pharisees and the other religious leaders because they had deceived the people into seeing them as holy. They were not, and Jesus called them out on it. They killed Him; they will try to kill us. See verse 9 of the text. True, truthful Christianity will never be popular. Beware of ‘a Christianity,’ that is.

Don’t be deceived; God has provided us with the absolute truth. The closer we get to the Rapture, the more important the truth will be.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How To Connect with Us

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“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: ³ Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, ⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, ⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. ⁷ He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. ⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. ⁹ He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.

¹⁰ He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. ¹¹ For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; ¹² As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. ¹³ As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. ¹⁴ For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”

Last week, my family and I, along with 148 or so other people, went to a church camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We had a wonderful time with 2 saved, a few others surrendering for baptism, and many others planning to commit more of their lives to the Lord. We had a chance to fellowship with missionaries from Ukraine and love on them for a bit.

But in the midst of all that, my wife and I had the opportunity to spend some time teaching the senior teen class. We were met with wonderful young people who used their talents to praise the Lord, had stood for the truth, and had suffered persecution in various degrees, and others were just getting started on their Jesus follower journey.

The number of broken homes that were represented was astonishing, and one particular young man told me he did not know where he would be sleeping or staying from week to week. One young man had been shot by his brother, and there were other young men who had to go home from camp and face fighting moms and dads and maybe even be called to testify against a parent or a sibling.

Wow, it was heartbreaking! It was truly only by the grace of God that these persons were saved and loved. For a brief moment, just a few days, they could get away, laugh, play, have a bit of peace, and know that Jesus loves them. As I pondered these things in the aftermath of camp, these verses came to mind. I shared them with our church this past Sunday, and I will share with you what we spoke about.

1. Bless the Lord, verse 1

There is a chorus associated with this verse. Most of you can sing it in your head. We should have a practice of thanking the Lord and blessing Him for all that He does for us. God’s people should be grateful. It should exude from us in all aspects of our lives. I was challenged this week to be more thankful. I grew up in a solid, male-led, God-fearing home, and I am blessed that none of my siblings ever shot me or even at me.

Our church helps out a missionary in Pakistan, and they tell me of persons who are still sold into slavery; entire families are gone because of debt, and they have to work to pay off the debt. Others, Christians, have no rights. They can have and have had their homes raided by the Muslim communities; they are injured and their stuff taken with no recourse from the law.

Recently, I heard of a man who has begun to use his multi-million fortune to help buy these families out. He has rescued hundreds of families and is trying to raise the money and resources to free others. You and I in North America and even most of the Western hemisphere should see what the rest of the world lives like and be very, very thankful for all that God has blessed us with.

2. Our Sins are Forgiven, verses 3, 9-12

If we had nothing else from the Lord – no food, no shelter, no help at all – the mere fact that our sins are forgiven and forgotten should be enough to drive us to a lifetime and lifestyle of gratitude. God not only forgives our sins, but He forgets them as well. He is not angry with us; verse 8 tells us that He is slow to anger. In Jesus, by His shed blood, you and I can have our sins forgiven and our entire sin debt removed by God forever.

This is a reason to be thankful. Not only that, but God has spoken to us via the scriptures (verse 7). We do not live in a vacuum; rather, we are given the information we need to obey God, serve Him, and honor Him. This is how we live out the life of gratitude.

On top of the forgiveness of our sins, God, we are told in verse 8, treats us with mercy, and not just mercy; we have ‘abounding mercy’ from Him. It is rich, full, never-ending, and certainly undeserved. We deserve His wrath and His disdain, BUT in Jesus, we have His mercy.

In verse 5, we are told that God gives us good things. Even the people in Pakistan have a reason to thank Him, and they do. I see their posts on various platforms, and I speak to them often. They are thankful and have smiles, and yet they live in tough situations. We could learn a lot, I think.

3. We are Frail, at best, verses 13-14

For all of our bravado, we are just a few dollars’ worth of dust. Our bodies begin to die the moment we are born, and for the next 70 or 80 years, the process just keeps speeding up. Why would God have any concerns for us? We brought death on ourselves when our ancestors rebelled against the Highest.

Yet, Jesus came in this frame of dust to die for us; in Hebrews 12:1-2, we are told that He came ‘joyfully’; no one dragged Him to the cross. I challenged our church folks to make August the gratitude month; maybe get a journal and each day find a reason to thank God in a number corresponding to the date.

On August 1st, find one thing to be thankful for; on August 2nd, two things; onto the 31st, with 31 things on our list. How would that change our mindset? How would that change our outlook on life? How would that change our mental pain and our level of complaining?

Bless the Lord; let all of us Bless Him.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook (live broadcast of Sunday’s Message at 11 am): https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Join us on Zoom every Sunday (10:30 am) for Sunday Service AND every Tuesday at 8:00 pm for Bible Study: Meeting ID: 700 794 460 Passcode: 032661; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/700794460?pwd=M3NFRG91ZW5Sa2Z3amVyWkFnYXd6QT09

Online: https://www.mmbchurch.ca
Email: support@mmbchurch.ca

Sign Up To Be A Part of Our Bible Study Community: www.mmbchurch.ca/drawclosertogod