Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Romans 14:11-12 “It is written: ‘As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

I pray that you are all well. As I get older and older, the thought of meeting Jesus plays in my mind. How will that meeting go? Over the past few years, I have had a few close friends, a mom, and church people die, and all of them, as far as I know, knew Jesus. How did those first few minutes in heaven go? How did the judgment go for them as they entered the presence of our Lord? In 1 Corinthians 11: 31-32, the apostle Paul tells us to judge ourselves:

“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

Paul tells us to judge ourselves; we should always be making an assessment of our living in Jesus. Are we maturing? Are we becoming more like Jesus? Are we like Galatians 5:22-23?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Do we see this fruit in our lives? Are these evident in our lives? The goal here is not to become a ‘holier than thou’ group but to be humbled by either the distance we have come or the distance we have to go. Those of us who truly believe that Jesus is real, that He will come to get us soon, and that we will have to give an account of our lives to Him should be constantly assessing ourselves, constantly judging ourselves, and repenting as we get closer and closer to meeting Him.

Would you say that your life has this ‘fruit’ clearly showing in it? Many of us are better at some than others, but these attributes are described as ‘fruit,’ singular. They should all be developing in our lives and showing to those around us. I take a look at my life, and some of these are growing, others are not as prominent. I don’t always have good self-control, I am not always long-suffering, I am not always kind, and on I can go. How about you? Jesus has given us all of these benchmarks to check ourselves and with which to make an assessment of our growth in the Lord.

In 2 Corinthians 5:10, we are reminded by Paul that we will give an account to Jesus of the things ‘done in the body’ as we worked and waited to meet Jesus. In Romans, Paul tells us that we are to be sure that we will give an account to Jesus, and again, in Hebrews, Paul tells us that judgment comes after death. There is no escape here, no way out, no avoidance. You and I, as children of God, will be judged according to the scriptures about how we lived for the Lord once we were saved. This is not about Heaven and Hell. If you are at this judgment, you are saved, and the assessment is about how you lived out the salvation that Jesus purchased for you. In                1Corinthians 3:13-15, we have this warning from Paul:

“His workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.”

We can see here that there is reward and there is loss at this judgment, but one is saved even if he suffers loss. I cannot imagine what this judgment will be like for me; I wonder. What will it be like to have Jesus judge my life? What will stay, and what will burn up? I think about these things. I have not always lived for the Lord, have you? What if you and I took this judgment seriously? According to the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, we have all been gifted within our abilities, and we will be judged on what we did with those ‘talents.’ There is no escape here, no way out, no bargaining; all of us will stand to be judged by the Judge of the Universe.

If you, by having put your faith and trust in Jesus as the Messiah, are at this judgment, you are far ahead of the billions who denied Him. Rejoice in this. But even more so, let us live out with diligence the life that Jesus bought for us, and let us serve Him willfully and honestly, knowing that we must all stand before Him and be judged for how we lived out our saved lives.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/

Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca

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

You can support our Ministry at https://tithe.ly/give?c=6452630 OR eTransfer at mmbchurch9@gmail.com (if you are in Canada)

Luke 12: 49-53

⁴⁹ “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! ⁵¹ Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. ⁵² For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. ⁵³ Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

One of the hardest things to come to grips with as a Christian is that our love, devotion and worship of Jesus will often cause us to lose some of the people that we hold close. Often, it is not us leaving them, but them leaving us.

Being saved is the act of believing in Jesus as the Messiah, the sole person and power of salvation. Then, as we mature and grow in Jesus, we want to become followers of Jesus, not just redeemed, but begin to look, think, and talk like Jesus. We want to stand for the people and the things that He stood for. When we get to this point, then the resistance will come. It is okay to say I am a Christian, and I believe in Jesus. Some will scoff, some will laugh, and others will just ignore you. But once you begin to follow Jesus, once you begin to deny yourself and want to obey Jesus, this is where the rub comes. In Matthew 16:24, Jesus says this,

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'”

One needs to deny self; even here, there is division. The natural thinking of our humanity is to affirm self, to love ourselves more than anyone or anything else. So, to be a true follower of Jesus, one must separate one’s identity from self and identify in and with Jesus. Thus, we need to look to Jesus and Him alone for our validation. When we do this, we begin the very difficult understanding of ‘unity through division.’ To be in unity with Jesus often requires division between self and others. Once we can deny self, and if I understand this, it is a daily thing, then we will begin to act, think and behave differently, and a lot of our acquaintances will no longer want to ‘hang’ with us. Jesus once had a multitude of followers, but when He began to teach hard things about living for God, many left. See John 6: 66-68,

“From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus asked the Twelve, ‘Do you want to leave too’? Simon Peter replied, ‘Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.'”

Once you and I are denying ourselves and we come to the realization that Jesus and He alone has the words of life, then the division becomes easier. It never becomes easy but a bit easier, and the loss of people we love because of Jesus is hard. The ones mentioned in the text verse refer to family members. Our homes will be divided about Jesus, divided about His Lordship, about His person, about His call to obedience, and maybe even if He is real or not.

Sadly, there is division over doctrine that adds to or takes away from the Gospel. There are persons who add works to the Gospel, and there are those who take the Gospel away from many, saying that Jesus only died for some. Others offer the Gospel of faith and grace, but lately, there has been a surge of those, even amongst conservatives, who think one can be unsaved if they do not work to keep being saved. These divisions rock churches and split churches. There are arguments, hurt feelings and all kinds of pain. But the truth is worth the pain.

This morning, I was reading Galatians, and even back in the first-century churches, there were people adding the law to grace; they could not just accept the beauty of salvation by grace and grace alone. No, surely, we have to do something to earn it. Paul fought that and spoke loudly against it.

The same truth that sets us free will enslave many others. They hate the freedoms we have in Jesus; they hate the simplicity of the Gospel, ‘believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved.’ This is offensive to many; this is divisive to many, and it is a stumbling block to others. But to those of us who have received eternal life by trusting in the simplicity of the Gospel, we are united; we can meet people from all across the world, maybe not even speak the same language or look the same, but there is a unity in Jesus that transcends every other division.

If you are living in division, I am sure it can be painful to be divided from those that you love. Maybe you can feel the tension when you speak, or maybe just in the same room. Make sure that the division is because you and I are seeking to be true and honest followers of Jesus. Make sure that the division is based on adherence to Biblical truths that you know and can cite. Make sure that the division is one-sided – them from you and not you from them. Make sure that our lives are not filled with pride and self-righteousness but rather a humble appreciation for Jesus’ saving grace and loving-kindness.

Only Jesus has the words of life. Only Jesus is the Way! Only Jesus can save. Only Jesus can transform us into His image. Only Jesus is coming to rescue this fallen and broken world, and only Jesus has the power to get us from this life to the next. If these stances cause division in our homes and with our families, so be it. But, if you ask God, He will put you into a community of believers that will offer unity around these very beliefs. And, as we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus, these divisions will become more and more pronounced. It will become more and more important to have a secure and safe place to be unified around Jesus. Paul tells us this very thing in Hebrews 10:25,

“not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

The Bible does not call us to division for the sake of division; rather, it calls us to trust in the person and finished work of Jesus; it calls us to surrender ourselves to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and to live in obedience to the clearly stated commands of God. We know, even just from reading about Jesus’ life, that these things will bring division.

May the Lord give us the grace to accept the division and the loss graciously and that we would resist the temptation to sacrifice following Jesus in order to maintain a temporary relationship here on earth. Lord, please help us, help me, increase our faith.

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