Matthew 13: 24-30

“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵ but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. ²⁶ But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. ²⁷ So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”

As we get closer and closer to the end of the age and the return of the Lord, this parable will make more and more sense. As I was pondering this today, the person of Judas came to mind. How did he fool the disciples for about 3 years? In fact, not only did he fool them, but that very night when Jesus told them that one of them at the table would betray Him, they all thought it could have been any of them. No one immediately pointed out Judas and knew he was not saved.

There are two things here that come to my mind: one is that all of the apostles understood their human frailty. They understood that they could all fail. Secondly, Judas was face to face with Jesus for 3 years and saw His miracles firsthand, and yet he never believed in Jesus as the Messiah. How was that possible to have been an eyewitness not only to the public Jesus but also to the private Jesus who taught them and showed them His majesty?

Jesus warns us in Matthew 24 not to be deceived. Look at verses 3-4:

“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?’ And Jesus answered and said to them: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you.'”

There is a deception that will happen in these last days that can even fool the Lord’s people if they are not careful. As we get closer and closer to Jesus’ return, there is a serious division happening in the ‘church’ world. We are beginning to see more and more apostasy in ‘churches’ than before. There are serious attacks on the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures and even on the person and deity of Jesus. God loves you just the way you are, and there is no need for you to change has become the mantra of many a ‘church’ in our time. But Romans 12:1-2 tells us that God wants to renew our minds and transform us:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Yes, God loves you and accepts you as you are at salvation, Romans 5:8. But His desire for us is that we become more and more like Jesus, Galatians 4:18-19:

“But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,”

When we survey the churches in Revelation 2-3, we find some that are very good and serving the Lord, we find some that are fighting doctrinal issues and need to get back to the narrow path, and we find some that are dealing with personalities inside the church that are trying to lead them astray. To some degree, most churches have internal struggles; some are sitting churches that are the ‘tares’ from the Devil, planted there to cause descent, division, and disruption. We will need to be more vigilant and ask the Holy Spirit to show us the fruit or lack thereof.

It breaks my heart to know that there are people who sat under my teaching – some have led classes and maybe even filled in for me – but they have never known Jesus as their Messiah. It boggles my mind. It also makes me go back and review the choices I made; do I confess Jesus with my mouth? Do I trust in Him only for my salvation? Do I confess Him as God? Do I confess His resurrection?

Judas never got to see the risen Lord; maybe that would have been the tipping point for him to believe. Do I truly believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead? Would I, like the apostles, die for this doctrine? The truth is that time may be upon us here in North America.

There are little subtleties, even in the area of Christian music. My family and I listen to Christian radio stations, and we know a lot of the songs by heart, but if one is careful to listen, there are some lies in these Christian songs. A lot talk about being ‘washed in water’ for salvation, not the blood. Many still teach the prosperity doctrine that Jesus will make you healthy and wealthy; this is not true. Many teach that Jesus went to hell after His death and preached to those in Hell; He did not. He specifically promised the thief that they would meet in Paradise that day. Many artists refuse to take a stand on homosexuality; some of the men seem to be very effeminate, and wow, there is a lot of money passed around and a lot of awards.

I am not sure why Christian artists need an awards show. Jesus did and still does all the work.

Jesus knows His own; no one is fooling Him. Does Jesus know you? Judas knew Jesus the man, but he did not know Him as Jesus the Messiah.

The division between the wheat and tares will become more prominent as we get closer to Jesus’ return. Keep reading and studying the scriptures and ask God to help you to grow in the image of Jesus. This is His will for you.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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1 Timothy 1:15

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”

I pray you will bear with me a bit today. There will not be any deep ‘doctrine,’ so to speak, but a tribute to my mom. Norma Gooding-Mascoll lived to the ripe old age of 90, 1933-2024. She passed away peacefully after a long battle with Alzheimer’s and the ravages of that disease on her body. What, you may ask, does this have to do with being the ‘chief of sinners’? Come with me and find out.

Most of us know about the Apostle Paul; he wrote about 50% of the New Testament, and many churches teach from his writings week after week. But when we meet Paul, then call Saul of Tarsus, he is overseeing the murder of Stephen in Acts 7:57-60;

“Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not charge them with this sin.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

Saul thought he was more righteous than most other men; he was not just a Pharisee but a Pharisee of the Pharisees. You can get an idea of how Paul saw himself from a story that Jesus told about a Pharisee and a Publican going up to the temple to pray, Luke 18:9-14:

“Also, He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Notice the Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men, and then he listed the sins that other men commit. He also talked of all his ‘good deeds’ just to remind God how good he actually was. Paul was like this; Paul, before he met Jesus, would have spoken this very way. In Philippians 3:2-6, Paul lays out his credentials about his life as a Pharisee:

“Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

Paul said he was blameless in his life as a Pharisee and that he had all these credentials in his life to make him feel superior to all other men. By the way, he would have felt superior to Jesus, for Jesus was not a Pharisee. The Pharisees, in general, hated Jesus; they hated His liberal, loving ways. Paul persecuted the Lord’s churches, and this was one of the things that made him famous as a Pharisee.

Then, one day, not long after Jesus had died and resurrected, he met Jesus, recorded for us in Acts 9. Maybe this was the first time Paul saw Jesus ‘face to face,’ but he sure knew who Jesus was, and he was never the same after meeting Jesus. Paul understood that day that his own righteousness was nothing. In fact, instead of being super righteous like most of the Pharisees saw themselves, he was, in fact, ‘the chief of sinners.’ What a change! This is the definition of repentance; he made a complete 180% turn in his view of himself and his view of Jesus.

My mom was saved in 1957 under the ministry of Billy Graham as he was preaching in Barbados. Sometime in that crusade, my mom realized that she was the ‘chief of sinners,’ and like Paul, she submitted to the risen Jesus and became His own. She served Him willingly until the disease began to take her mind. But even after the ravages began to take root, she could sing with you and quote scripture with you; it had become a part of all that she was even when parts of who she was were fading away.

Last Saturday, my mom’s memory was completely fixed, and she stopped suffering. She went home to be with the Lord, and she did so because one day, a long time ago, she understood that she was the ‘chief of sinners,’ and she humbled herself and trusted in the person of Jesus, including His death, burial, and resurrection. Now she is clothed in Jesus’ righteousness, has entered heaven, and one day I will get to see her again. You see, in 1981, I, too, was at a Billy Graham-style crusade at the National Stadium in Barbados, and I understood that I was the ‘chief of sinners,’ and that night, I asked Jesus to forgive me and be my Savior. My brother Mark followed the next night, along with a cousin of ours.

Have you come to understand that you are ‘the chief of sinners’? Sean, this is a Bible-teaching website; surely you are wasting your breath. I remind you that Paul was religious and thought he was righteous, but he was doing so in his own power. The only people who get to heaven are those who come to understand that they, and not just Paul, are the ‘chief of sinners’ and call on Jesus to save them. When we call on Him, Jesus completely removes our sins and gives us His righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21. When this realization happens, Jesus then completely removes our sins from us, Micah 7:18-19, Isaiah 38:17, 43:25, 44:22.

I encourage you to read these for yourself. One day, you will meet my mom – she is awesome – if you come to understand that you too are the ‘chief of sinners’ and simply put your total faith and trust in all that Jesus did for you on the cross and His resurrection.

Today, we will mourn the loss of Norma – the wife, the mom, the grandma, the great grandma, the friend, the church sister, the sister, the neighbor, and the aunt, BUT we will not mourn as those who have no hope, for she hoped in Jesus as do we, and we shall see her again. Will you?

See you soon, Mom.

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