Romans 9: 14-21

“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.’ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.’ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

^“You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?’ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?'”

This has been a troubling week for the whole world. We have the introduction of mandatory vaccines for many Government employees. We had the Premier of Ontario, the equivalent of a Governor in the US, fire one of the elected Ministers because he and his wife decided not to take the vaccine for personal reasons. The Premier had spoken of personal freedoms just a week or so ago, but it obviously did not apply to this dear man. He still has his job, just not the political part, and he will not be allowed to rejoin the party without a vaccine.

The city of Toronto has mandated that all employees must be vaccinated by October 31st this year. There is great division among us about these vaccines. One side is totally about safety – we must do all we can to be safe. The other is about freedom, and we have seen through the history of mankind that when one trades freedom for safety, you lose both. I saw today that some restaurants in NY will require proof of at least one vaccine shot to be able to eat there or at least eat inside. The irony of this is that one can cross into the US from Mexico without any proof of vaccination even with COVID and still be allowed to stay.

But no event of this past week has had more impact on me like the events in Afghanistan. Why, you ask? I have been following the plight of the many Christians that live there now. They got to experience freedom for a short time, to live out their faith in Jesus, and the churches there grew. In July of this year, many Christians came out from the darkness and stood for Jesus publicly; they registered themselves with the Government as Christians. One man that I read said he did not want his children and grandchildren to live in fear and in the shadows. So, under the freedoms that they had under the US military and government, they stood up for our Lord and declared publicly that they were Christians. Little did they know the betrayal that was coming.

As we now know, the Biden administration abandoned the people in Afghanistan. They have left or are leaving, and the Christians there now find themselves in a dire situation. Some have already been killed; others know that death is imminent still; others are more concerned for their children, especially virgin young girls who will be taken to be Taliban’ wives.’ What a horrible situation! I cannot imagine what I would do if I knew someone was coming for my almost 9-year-old daughter to take her to be a sex slave. It is harrowing.

And, so I have a confession to make. I made this confession to our church folks on Tuesday evening during our Bible study. I began to have some soul-searching questions, the kind that makes you wonder about your own faith. Maybe you have had some of the same questions, maybe not, and your faith is as solid as a rock. Praise the Lord if it is.

Here are a few questions I had: Why would God allow these brothers to come out and be open since He knew the plight that was coming their way. God knew the US would abandon them and that they and their families would die, yet He allowed them to register publicly. Why would God allow the Christians in Afghanistan to suffer as they are? Why allow Christians to suffer at all? I know many faithful brothers and sisters that suffer from various diseases, from cancer to heart issues, from depression to migraines; why let them suffer? He is God and able in one thought to take it all away.

There are many other questions that came to my mind, and maybe you have had some as well. I had some other questions like: When do the crooks start getting arrested and tried? When do we see the treasonous leaders begin to get arrested? Man, they even seem to live longer the eviler they are; it just shook me!

In a recent video by Martyn Iles, he responded to some of the ‘celebrity’ Christians who had abandoned the faith in the past few years. From authors to musicians and even pastors, many of them had the same questions about suffering, and, of course, many no longer believed that a loving God could create and actually use Hell. And so, they left. They turned their backs on God, and I am sure many of their fans left with them. I love how God made sure that I saw that video as I was asking these questions. I had watched countless videos by Martyn Iles, but I had never seen that one.

And then, as I was preparing for Tuesday night’s Bible study, I came across an interview with an Afghani Christian, one of the pastors. And when asked about the situation, he showed no regrets about going public with his faith. Rather, he understood the Sovereignty of God, and he pointed to our passage today from Romans. God is Sovereign, and He has the right to allow His people to suffer if that is what brings Him the glory and what moves the plan further and further to the end that He has told us is coming. This dear brother understood that God had the right as He is the potter, and we are the clay. God can do with us as He pleases; we are bought with a price. We are the redeemed; we are no longer our own.

I do not know if this man and his family are still alive, but if not, he went to the grave faithfully serving the Lord, and he trusted that God was greater than the circumstances he found himself in. Man, what a convicting interview and a harrowing challenge to me as to how I have conducted myself in the past 18 months! These people never stopped assembling, never stopped openly serving the Lord, and died free rather than live in fear. And they were at times afraid, I am sure. I prayed a lot for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. I prayed that God would comfort them, that He would not let them suffer in dying, and that He would let their deaths leave an impression like Stephen’s did in Acts 7, an impression that helped change the life of one Saul of Tarsus.

As I thought about this writing, the words of Asaph, one of David’s chief musicians, came to mind. In Psalm 73, he laments the good fortune of the wicked, and as he observed them, it shook him that they had no fear, no wants. They seemed to have the best lives ever, and it almost caused him to turn his back on the faith until he saw their end:

Psalm 73:16-19 “When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me— Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.”

These people who attack our brothers and sisters will one day face our God. These politicians and others that we know are corrupt, who defy the laws and attempt to change the laws of God, and make themselves to be gods will one day face the true God. Unless they repent like Saul of Tarsus, they will go to Hell. They will suffer for eternity, and they will NOT get away with the evils they have done. God knows all; yes, even the God they deny exists.

But what about you and me? How will our/my time go before the judgment? We who are saved will not be going to Hell; we have that security in Jesus. But we will be answering to the Lord as to how we lived, in fear or for Him. I see our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan living out their faith in the midst of real danger, and I see us cowering in the midst of perceived danger. Yes, some are dying with COVID but not as many as they want you to believe. The CDC in the US makes that clear. The vast majority of those that died had other diseases, and many were in hospice care already and dying. But this has been a tool to challenge our freedoms, and we/I have failed.

Listening to the Afghani Christians made me realize how we/I take freedom for granted. I recently read part of an interview from the documentary on the Hungarian Jews from the Hitler era. They were asked how was it that they didn’t do something? They answered, ‘We didn’t run away; we didn’t hide. Well, things didn’t happen at once. Things happened very slowly. So, each time a new law came out or a new restriction, we said, well, just another thing. It will blow over.’ It did not, and soon… well, we know the end.

The questions have been answered. God is in control, and I am not sure what will happen here in Canada. God is Sovereign, and I pray that should we be called upon to die for His name and glory, I will have His comfort to get through it. But what if, instead of dying, we have to suffer; lose my job, my home, and see my family hurt. I pray that God will grant me the grace to suffer without regrets and still lead my family to honor Him no matter what. While I appreciate the technology that allows us to ‘gather’ virtually – and I can see the need for the very ill, maybe the elderly and the shut-ins – too many have used the excuse not to gather. And we have seen the demise of the faith of many, and worse, their children. Lord forgive us.

It is okay to have questions; many great servants of the Lord did and do. But seek the right answers. Do not use human reasoning and knowledge to find the answers. Seek the Word of God; read Psalm 73, read all of Job, read the life of Joseph in Genesis 37-50, and read the life of Jesus in the Gospels. Suffering is actually a part of the Christian’s walk for the vast part of the history of the New Testament church. When that could not stop us, they used accommodations and comforts. These two are now being taken away, and being a Christian is becoming uncomfortable for many of us. We are asking if it is worth the discomfort. I pray you will seek God’s face and find the answers. But as for me and my house, as God gives me grace and strength, we will serve the Lord. He is the Potter and I/we the clay.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

P.S. I will be away on vacation next week, and there won’t be any Bible study sent out.

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
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Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Matthew 10:16-26

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. ¹⁷ But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. ¹⁸ You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; ²⁰ for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

²¹ Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. ²² And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. ²³ When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. ²⁴ A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵ It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! ²⁶ Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.”

We live in dangerous times. It is becoming more and more dangerous to be a free thinker, and especially if you are a free thinker and a Christian, the dangers are mounting. In the chapter that this text is taken from, Jesus selects his 12 apostles and sends them out to the people of Israel to tell them the Good News, the Gospel, the Messiah has come. But Jesus does not send them out blindly and unprepared. He warns them that the vast majority of the people they are going to are wolves; they normally kill sheep. But in this case, it is the sheep’s job to rescue the wolves from an eternity in Hell. It is the sheep’s job to tell the wolf how to be a sheep. It is the sheep’s job to tell the wolf about the salvation that takes it from being the predator to being the prey.

Wow, what a daunting task! When we get that, it can help us to understand why it takes a work of the Holy Spirit to transform someone. All we do is tell the truth; the Holy Spirit helps them see it. If He does not, then the Gospel sounds like nonsense. What person in their right mind wants to be the sheep when they can be the wolf? Only the Holy Spirit can make this make sense.

We live in a difficult time where truth is very subjective, or at least people say that – ‘What is true for you may not be true for me.’ They are convinced that they have their own truth and that we all have to accept it. This conditioning started a long time ago. The idea of questioning clearly stated truths, as Satan did in the Garden with Eve, has laid the foundation to where we can hear what we know to be a lie, and we say nothing. Maybe that is their truth, even if we know it is a lie, and we base our lives on people’s feelings rather than truth. Then we get mad at the truth-tellers; they are mean, and they don’t really love like Jesus, we say.

Yet Jesus was the bluntest truth-teller to ever walk the planet. He confronted truth over feelings all the time and stated the truth no matter who was offended, even His own disciples. He taught them that truth was more important than life and wealth; it was more important than fame and freedom. Truth is important because God is truth; He is the absolute standard of truth, and if we tolerate lies, we put man’s word ahead of God’s.

Romans 3:4-8 “Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.’ ⁵ But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) ⁶ Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? ⁷ For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? ⁸ And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’? —as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.”

When we get to this in the book of Romans, Paul is a seasoned missionary; he has encountered false religion and false logic everywhere. He has to come to grips with the falsehoods of the Pharisaical life he was living when Jesus met him. When Jesus met him, Paul was a wolf going to kill the sheep, Jesus’ sheep. But when he met Jesus, he stopped being a wolf and became a sheep. He then spent the rest of his life being chased by wolves, his former peers and others. But Paul never regretted being a sheep. Paul was adamant that God’s words were and are true and that any of man’s words that contradict God’s words are lies.

In the past 18 months or so, we have seen how easy it is for lies to take hold of the whole world. Let me deal with a few things. COVID is a real disease; no one in their right mind questions that. We are learning more and more that there is a good chance it was man-made, a sad state of affairs; but as they say, ‘it is what it is.’ We have had very, very conflicting messages about the disease, the treatments, the vaccines, and the effect of these vaccines. We have had conflicting messages about the wearing of masks and even distancing.

I have a dear friend that will not let his son go into another person’s home. Apparently, the disease does not go out; it is a homebody. We have been encouraged, then bribed, and now threatened about the vaccines, and there are serious conflicting reports about the protection that they give. Over the past 18 months, these conflicting reports have caused serious economic issues; our governments have used the COVID mess to spend like a drunken sailor on shore leave. They have amassed debts that our great-grandchildren will be paying. The ruling elite have grown richer and the masses poorer by far. We bankrupted ‘mom and pop’ stores and grew the profits of the mega-stores. This was deliberate and calculated. They need dependent people whose only relief is from the government.

Over the past 18 months, truth has been censored, and anyone who dares asks what or why or how is dangerous and trying to kill everyone. We are not. People are dying both with and without COVID, both with and without the vaccines, and we are not allowed to ask any questions. Let me be clear; if you want to get the vaccine, then do so. I will take you to the place to get one or two, or the booster shot or shots. But no one should be forced to take a vaccine that is highly suspect as to its ability to work. But what I want to really get at is the idea of truth.

Jesus warned the men he sent out that truth would be the dividing factor in their lives. The truth would cause serious division in their lives and, in particular, their families. Their enemies will be right in their own homes.

Matthew 10:21-22 “Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. ²² And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.”

When people have become accustomed to living by lies, and the lies are not allowed to be challenged, like the ‘fact’ checkers and all the trouble people get in for asking logical questions, then people begin to turn on each other. In this pandemic, I have seen families destroyed, neighbors have called the police on their fellow neighbors, and friends have been separated. Churches have split over meeting or not meeting, masks or no mask, singing or no singing.

What a mess! But we can see how easy and how quickly people will turn on each other. People will shame you and call the authorities on you. Your own people, and they do it in the name of safety – ‘We are just trying the keep everyone safe. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, then do it for the children, do it for the elderly, find an excuse, but just follow along and obey. Stop thinking, stop asking questions, and stop making obvious observations.’

Once again, if you want to follow along, I will not bug you. I wear a mask so as not to cause too much panic in the people around me. Most of the people I hang out with do the same. They are not convinced of the validity of the masks; it is just easier to wear one than being confronted by hysterical people, and it has happened to me more than once.

What we have learned is that it does not take much for your loved ones in both your human and spiritual families to turn on you if you don’t follow suit. Now, as we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus, the idea of truth will become more and more fluid, and the idea that Jesus is the Only Way will become hated more and more. Soon, as Jesus said, the most dangerous people in your lives and mine will be in our home and church families.

Sadly, we are seeing an exodus from the truth of God. Many Christian ‘celebrities’ are wishy-washy about the whole transgendered issues, the homosexual issues, and many other areas where the Bible makes clear statements. They are making it harder and harder to state the truth. It is not loving to tell lies. It is hateful. Love requires the truth. But we are being told that love requires us to lie, tolerate lies, and be a party to lies. Jesus would have been hated and killed; oh wait, that is just what happened, and He tells us at the end of our text that we should expect the same treatment if we speak the truth.

Lastly, we can see how they will get the whole world to take the mark of the beast. NO, the COVID vaccine is not the mark, but we can see the framework. People are so desperate to get back to ‘normal,’ they will do anything, including taking a vaccine that has a lot of questions around it. By the time people get to Revelation 13, and they are hungry, thirsty, and desperate, they will gladly take the mark so they can buy and sell. But the truth people, those that know Jesus, will say no, normal is not worth the lie, and there will be a line drawn in the sand. The government will threaten death or take the mark. We are not there yet, but we can see how it can be done.

The world is setting up for the return of Jesus. The framework is in place for the Messiah to return and rule the world from Jerusalem. Are you ready? Are you saved? Have you trusted Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and your only salvation? God will not accept anyone who is not saved by Jesus. That is the truth.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca