Chapter 13: 7-17

⁷ “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹ Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. ¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. ¹¹ For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.

¹² Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. ¹³ Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. ¹⁴ For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. ¹⁵ Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. ¹⁶ But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. ¹⁷ Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.”

I pray that you are helping and supporting your Pastor. So many of us are tired as we try to serve a lot of people. We worry about failure, and we stress over those that are lukewarm or nominal Christians. We wonder what we can do better; better sermons, more time, more effort, and on and on we go. We live in constant fear of losing our children as they feel like they live in a fishbowl, never allowed to make mistakes and fail like every other kid without fearing that dad will lose his job or be called up to the front to be made a spectacle of. Many pastor’s kids walk away from the faith after they see the way their families are treated by supposed ‘Christians.’ They simply want nothing to do with it. If you have a godly, loving, and servant pastor, then praise God for him and do all to support him.

Over the last decade or so, maybe a bit longer, the idea of ‘progressive Christianity’ has crept into too many of our churches. There is no such thing as progressive Christianity. God’s ways do not change with the times, and He is not swayed by popular trends. We in the Lord’s churches need to be careful not to fall into this false doctrine. There are hundreds of thousands of people in ‘progressive’ churches that have never heard the Gospel in its true ‘naked’ form. They do not understand nor have they been taught about God’s love, even though they talk about love all the time. And they seem entwined in a ‘religion’ that never calls them to change; rather, it validates their sinful lives. So let us explore a bit of what Paul has to say here.

• Jesus has not changed, verse 8

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. When God identified His name to Moses in Exodus, he called himself ‘I AM.’ He is the ever-present. There is no turning with God. God never has to be corrected, and He has never and will never make a mistake. From Genesis 3:15, Jesus was coming to the cross. In fact, before the creation, Jesus was coming to the cross.

Jesus is still the only way, the narrow gate, and the only name whereby we must be saved. People still have to repent of their sinfulness, still need to admit they are sinners, and trust only in Jesus. People need to come to grips with just how sinful and far from God they are. People need to understand that they deserve Hell and all its fury, and only Jesus got in the way, and only He offers salvation. God is not tolerant of other religions, and NO, we do not all worship the same God. Jesus is the same all the time.

• Learn true Doctrine, verse 9

Sadly, too many of us spend way too little time in the Scriptures. We have so many other things that take our focus away, and we find ourselves unable to discern between truths and lies. We chase everything that says Jesus and never stop to see if it is the real Jesus or some fake Jesus that is leading us astray.

There are many ‘professional’ teachers in the churches, and thus too many of us are not forced to study so as to teach a Sunday School class or lead in a discussion. I love our mid-week discussions, and I love hearing the people I pastor talk about encounters with Jesus, and we always seek to align what we feel with what the scriptures say; if not, those feelings need to be challenged.

Islam talks about Jesus, Mormons talk about Jesus, Catholics talk about Jesus, JW talks about Jesus, even Buddhism mentions Jesus, and on and on we can go. Other religions, like Conservative Jews, avoid Jesus altogether, and still others have this Jesus that does not even exist. He is some kind of wishy-washy person that loves everybody and affirms everybody. Hogwash! The Word of Faith’ religion’ led by the likes of TD Jakes, Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, and many of their ilk talk about a Jesus that wants you to be rich, and you get there by making them rich. Fundamentally, if they have been on Oprah, they are often not teaching the truth about Jesus.

You and I are to ‘search’ the scriptures (Acts 17:11), and we are to take responsibility for knowing the truth so that when falsehoods come along, we can see them, acknowledge them, and hopefully move out of their way and take our loved one with us.

Too many churches are dependent upon programs to attract people and not just the plain teaching of the Bible. This is not to say these programs are bad, but in the New Testament, Paul often taught into the wee hours of the morning so that, one night, a fellow slept, fell, and died. Paul healed him and kept preaching.

What we are seeing is a clear division between the false and true churches here in real time. Those that embrace the LGBTQ2 agenda and blaspheme Jesus with their doctrines are not of God. They never were, and unless they repent, they won’t ever be in the future either. The real eye-opener is to see how many ‘churches’ have embraced this doctrinal abomination. It saddens me because I realize that Satan has built a lot of counterfeit churches, and true Christians are a hated and maligned minority.

Too many pastors give pep talks and do not really dig into the scriptures to find the doctrines, the foundations of Jesus our Rock. Jesus’ words brought conviction, Stephen’s words in Acts 7 made them want to kill him, and Paul’s words got him thrown in prison. Sadly, too many of us do not speak these doctrinal truths; we are simply made to feel good, never called to repentance, and never challenged to be more like Jesus.

Let me leave you with these words of God found in Micah 6:8.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

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

Chapter 13: 7-17

⁷ “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹ Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. ¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. ¹¹ For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.

¹² Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. ¹³ Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. ¹⁴ For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. ¹⁵ Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. ¹⁶ But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. ¹⁷ Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.”

Over the past few weeks, we have talked about brotherly love and how important it is to live a moral life before the Lord. We have also looked at the wonder of a godly marriage; God designed marriage to be the backbone, the very foundation of a society. Without strong, godly marriage, a society will fall apart, and we see that today. The attacks on marriage, from the welfare system to the homosexual movement and other movements, have chipped away for 50+ years on marriage.

Over the past few weeks, we have looked at the moral conduct that a child of God should show as we live daily before the Lord’s churches and the world around us. These codes of conduct help us to live lives pleasing to the Lord and open the door for others to see how we live and want to know about the God we serve. But there is another side to how we live n Jesus; it is the side in the Lord’s churches. All too often, we make out the spiritual life to be all fluffy and, frankly, almost impossible to live. On the other hand, some of our churches are filled with division and competition. Some people make it sound like they own the local church and they are there to make sure it runs the way they want it to; this should not be the case.

• Good Pastors offer good Leadership, verses 7, 17

If you are in a church with a good pastor — one who loves the Lord, puts in the work of studying and researching, one who teaches well, one who serves the people and is in love with them, you are blessed. There are many churches in the world without pastors and many more with lazy, undisciplined men who are in it for the money, the fame, and the prestige. Most of them are not truly called by God. They gave themselves the position or got it from dad.

If the Lord has blessed you with a good pastor, follow him as he follows Jesus. Pastors have a hard enough life living in a fish bowl, along with their kids and wives. They do not need to be in a combative situation every time they come to church. This is not to say that he, the pastor, is the head of a local church; Jesus is. This is not to say that he is always right; and when he is wrong, a good pastor will admit it and try to be better. This is not to say that his opinion is all that counts; rather, he should be given the benefit of the doubt. Your pastor spends more time thinking about and planning the things that he feels God is leading him into, along with the church he serves. Give him some leeway; trust him even if it is not something you’ve done before.

• Good Pastors Watch out for you Souls, verse 17

A good pastor can see that you are heading into danger, and he prays for you, seeks the Lord for you, and under much duress, approaches you to tell you that you are doing something wrong. This is all having the pressure of worrying about if you leave because he has done what he was supposed to. Have you ever been in church and the pastor preaches about something you are doing, but you have never told anyone? God knows, but you get mad at the pastor and quit going to church. I have had this happen to me; the person asked me how I knew about something, and I did not even know as they were speaking to me, but God did, and He sent the message.

Good pastors get to know you. They have to let their guards down and let you in, making themselves vulnerable to attacks and opening their families to a lot of hurt. But if one wants to pastor like Jesus, people must be close — and close can be dangerous. If you have a pastor that preaches the truth, speaks lovingly about right and wrong, one who seeks your best even when it might cost him, thank God for him. Thank God for his wife and kids; they are under pressure as well.

• Good Pastors are Judged Harshly, verse 7

Consider the outcome of their conduct; it is often a no-win situation. If you say nothing, you are wrong before God, and if you do speak out, people may hate you. A good pastor needs a thick skin, as do his kids and wife. In James 3:1, we are reminded of this,

“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.”

Those of us who are pastors understand that we will be held to a much more harsh and stricter judgment than the people we pastor. We have to be more disciplined and careful than they are. Once we have spent time with and seen the hand of God as we do, it is imperative that we also be more obedient. In Luke 12:48, this is a dire warning to us who have received much from the Lord,

“But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”

Thank God for a good pastor. Pray for him, love him, take good care of him, and protect him and his family. Help him, serve with him, be his friend and trustworthy co-worker. Always give him the benefit of the doubt; do not entertain gossip about him or his family. And when he fails – and he will – forgive, restore and be kind. His kids and wife are watching how you deal with their husband and dad. God is watching how you deal with one of his called leaders.

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