Matthew 12:34-37

³⁴ “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. ³⁵ A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. ³⁶ But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. ³⁷ For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Please do not stop reading; this title is just a bit of sarcasm. There is no such thing as a politically correct Jesus. That Jesus only exists in the minds of many modern Christians. There are a lot of churches that have stopped using words or phrases like ‘washed in the blood,’ ‘crucifixion,’ ‘hell,’ ‘hell fire,’ and many other kinds of ‘offensive’ phrases. In our mid-week Bible study this week, I pointed out that all too often, we do not mention Hell a lot in our services and our teaching, but that Jesus spoke about Hell a lot. He described Hell, both the physical and mental pain of it.

In Luke 16, when He tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16:24, we see the rich man’s physical pain.

“Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

But in verses 27-28, he is mentally tormented that his brother may come to this place as well

“Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’

Hell, we are told, is a place of pain, torment, mental anguish, separation from God, and many other painful things. Jesus came to die for my sins and yours so that we do not have to go to Hell. We can choose eternal life with Him. When we make Hell less horrible, we make His loving act on the cross less gracious and less powerful.

A little earlier in our text (verses 22-24), we see Jesus calling out the hypocrisy of the ‘spiritual’ leaders. They saw Jesus casting out demons, and they accused Him of operating by the power of Beelzebub or Satan. They accuse Jesus of working with Satan! Jesus tells them they are idiots, as they know full well that a divided house cannot stand. But these folks know that; thus, Jesus calls them vipers, snakes, deceivers, and dangerous. They look sleek like a snake, and they are just as deadly.

In verse 35, Jesus makes a comparison to show that these men are evil from the inside. They are dangerous. They looked safe, and they were revered by all around them, but Jesus hated their hypocrisy. He could see what they were truly like inside. He had no respect for them, and He had no issue calling them out.

Sadly, we do not do that anymore. We are more concerned with hurting people’s feelings than being right with God. In doing so, we have watered down the Gospel and cheapened the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

Salvation was that gruesome; God chose crucifixion for a reason; no other execution was this gruesome and this bloody. This took a long, painful time, and it subjected both the one being crucified and the loved one observing it to a lot of pain. We often forget that Jesus hung on the cross for the better part of 6 hours. The Romans knew how to milk death for the maximum amount of intimidation. This is the route God chose to sacrifice Jesus. They had 6,000 years of human history to choose, and they chose this time and this way.

But in our time, evil men, some looking like ‘preachers’ – in nice suits, in lovely buildings, and many leading very large churches – have stopped preaching about the blood, about Hell, about the tribulation and the pain that is coming on the earth. They no longer talk about the holiness and the wrath of God. We forget too often that the same God that knows the number of hairs on your head also rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. The same God that parted the Red Sea also sent venomous snakes that killed thousands and thousands. The same God that sent Jesus to rescue us made Hell for Satan and his angels.

So, let us get back to hell-fire preaching. Hell is still hot. There is a Heaven to gain but also a Hell to shun. The more we appreciate and understand the pain and suffering Jesus went through, the more precious His grace and the more wonderful His offer of salvation.

Sadly, there is still a generation of vipers around who prey on God’s people for their money and use God’s people for their own promotion, to sell their books and conferences. They speak just enough truth to deceive the masses, but they have not fooled God. Too many, looking for hope, have fallen into their spell of ‘good feelings over true repentance.’ They have fallen for ‘get better’ rather than ‘get saved.’ They have been told they are not that bad; they just need a little bit of Jesus, and all will be well.

Hell will be filled with people who went to church and yet missed Jesus. May God help me and others like me to put away the politically correct talk if we do it. People need to know the real Jesus. The one who came as a man, the one who really suffered and really died, was really buried, really resurrected, and is really coming back to JUDGE the whole world. And, yes, there are people who will be going to Hell forever, including the rich man of Luke 16, who is still there and will never get out, never.

Stop watering down or softening the message of the Gospel. We are not good; we are evil to the core, and there is not one shred of goodness in us. Thus, Jesus came to be good for us, to be righteousness for us, and to offer us a way out of Hell. I pray that you have chosen to get out of Hell. I did back in 1981. I was a lost, hell-bound teenager, and I asked Jesus to forgive me and save me. He did! Thank God for hell-fire preachers; run from those who are not.

2 Timothy 3:5-7, “having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How To Connect with Us

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Titus 2: 1-8

¹ “But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: ² that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; ³ the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things– ⁴ that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, ⁵ to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. ⁶ Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded, ⁷ in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, ⁸ sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.”

So often today, we hear that people want to make an ‘impact.’ Some genuinely do; others want to make an impact for themselves. Sadly, too many of the Lord’s churches are looking more and more like the world in practice, and they do a dis-service to our Lord and King. A lot of people, yes, even the Lord’s people, are looking for the emotional rollercoaster of life. They want the next thrill, and as such, they tend to move from church to church searching for the next high.

This is seen even in the work situation; very few young people choose a career and stick with it for a very long time. It is not weird to see resumes for many 30-year-olds; they have had several jobs, all lasting about 2 or 3 years, and then they move on. Now, to be fair, in some cases, they realize they could not do the job, but in many cases, the job loses its shine, and on to the next new shiny object they go.

In the book of Titus, we meet a young pastor who is being mentored by the apostle Paul. When we open the book, Paul is encouraging the young man to stay in Crete and help set things in order in the local church there. In this particular passage, Titus is instructed by Paul to lay out clear roles for the genders and clear roles for men and women based on their ages as well. The whole purpose of this ordering is so that “one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.”

We are surrounded by an evil culture that is defying God. This month in North America is pride month; this is when the sexual deviants of the world try to tell us in every way possible that sex between same-sex persons is normal. That a man who identifies as a woman and the reverse is a normal thing. Increasingly, they want us to accept that sex between adults and minor children is normal. It is in this atmosphere that we are called to live radical lives for the Lord.

What we are about to explore will seem normal, but in our climate, normal is revolutionary. God calls us to seemingly mundane lives at times. There is no rush to the next high, just consistent and obedient living in submission to God’s clearly stated will. What revolutionary instruction did Paul leave with the young Titus that will turn us into radical Christians? Notice also, in Titus 2:1, that what we are about to explore is ‘sound doctrine.’ As we approach with some haste, the last days will require that the Lord’s churches be more and more radical. What God considers radical is not what we think; come and see with me.

• Radical Older Men in Our Churches, verses 1-2

Older men are to be sober and right-minded; this is not just about alcohol and other things that may alter the way we think. But in a phrase a few words down, older men are called to be ‘sound in the faith’; this means that one reads, studies, and is able to teach the scriptures. Older men are to be physically sober and spiritually sober, to think right about life. They are also called to be reverent, to hold the Lord in high regard; temperate, to be self-controlled, and this naturally leads to patience. These are radical traits in our men today. Godly men should have or at least be cultivating these traits under the power and leadership of the Holy Spirit.

• Radial Older Women, verse 3

These older women are called to be reverent like the men, and sober as well. There is a word here as well: not to be ‘slanderers’; don’t be gossiping about other women to each other. This kind of character assassination has sadly been the downfall of many churches over the years. All too often, people do not know the whole story, do not know what is truly going on, or what people are truly enduring behind closed doors. Too many are afraid to talk about the hurt and pain for fear that they will be even more downtrodden by their church family rather than be lifted up and loved. These older women are to be teachers to the young women in the Lord’s churches as well. That means young women need to be teachable; there are some things Google does not know.

• Radical Young Women, verses 4-5

Young women should love their husbands. This is a radical move today that young women, and young men for that matter, should be married. Don’t just sleep around and engage in sex outside of marriage. Get married and have a lot of fun exploring your sexuality with your spouse. To love children, thus to have them young. They should be homemakers (this is almost a swear word to many young Christian women, but it is a command of God for sound doctrine in the Lord’s churches). Young ladies, be chaste (keep sex for marriage and with your husband) and discreet; stop trying to draw attention to yourself. That is the complete opposite of many people, young and older, even in the Lord’s churches today.

Do you want to be famous? Be famous with God; love your husband, have kids, teach them about Jesus, serve your husband, and you will be famous with God. One of the commands is very radical, and we tend to shy away from this in our churches today. Young women, the Bible teaches you to be ‘obedient’ to your husbands. This is almost like blasphemy to a lot of young women, but I will remind you that God is not a feminist. Men and women are different, have different roles and responsibilities, and will face different judgments before the Lord. Find a godly man who loves God first, and obedience will not be an issue.

• Radical Young Men, verses 6-8

Sober-minded: we explained this earlier. To do good work, don’t waste your youth on frivolous living. Too many young men use their youth as an excuse to live ungodly; that should not happen in the Lord’s churches. Live with integrity (how you live when you think no one is watching), be incorruptible (not easily bought with fame or fortune), and have proper speech. Is your language colorful, and when you speak, is it the truth?

This kind of radical living is completely opposite to the culture around us. But the Lord’s churches have been called to be living like this from the very first century. There is nothing new; rather, we need to obey the Lord and, by doing so, glorify His name.

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