John 8:44

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

John 14:6

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'”

John 8:31-32

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'”

The world we live in is binary. There are the lost and the saved; there are the right and the wrong; there are those who live in darkness and those who live in the light. Sadly, some have lived in darkness for so long that they have difficulty with the light. Also, some have lived so long in the lies that it is hard to accept the truth, and in fact, they can begin to hate the truth and those who speak it. This is the world that we live in more and more. Even many Christians have a hard time with the absolute truth.

I will offer an example: there is a group of ‘evangelicals’ that are planning to vote for Kamala Harris for the job of POTUS. These persons who claim Jesus as Savior, the same Jesus who said not to harm or offend children, will vote for someone who is openly pro-abortion. This one stance alone should be enough to sway any ‘evangelical’ toward any other candidate, but no, abortions it is. It is hard for us to come to the understanding that we have been lied to by the very people we trust way too often. They have told us that “up is down” and that “water is dry,” and for a long time, we believed them.

We trusted that welfare would help the poor and that the things they gave us would help, but now, more and more, we see that there were lies. Maybe at first, they did all with good intentions; but when they found out they were wrong, they had lied for so long that they could not go back and save face, so they kept up the lie.

Our bodies need cholesterol; our brains need cholesterol for good health. Yet, in the 1980s, they began this campaign against cholesterol; they started reducing it in our foods, taking pills to stop its production in our bodies, and with it came an epidemic of brain diseases like dementia and also other things. Cholesterol is essential in regulating our hormones, but they soon added seed oils and made things like lard and tallow (beef lard) and said it is bad for us; they are not.

They told our little girls that they could be just like men; they could work in the workforce, and they told our young people to sleep around and sow their wild oats. Then we had an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases. Children were born out of wedlock, and there was the rise of daycare, where we put strangers in charge of our kids for hours at a time. Sadly, our churches did not do much to stem the flow, and we incorporated this into our systems as well.

Our young people went off to pagan colleges and married pagan people and never came back. We, too, encouraged our kids to go and see the world rather than marry and have kids. Now, there is a serious lack of youth in many of our churches. Why? Because we accepted the lies that kids were a curse rather than a blessing from God. If we truly believed they were a blessing, we would want more and more.

Jesus has told us that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. We may hear these lies from different sources: the government, the classroom, your neighbor, or your best friend. But no matter where you have heard the lie, it is from Satan, and it is meant to trap, trip, and bind you and feed you some schemes that are contrary to Jesus’ teachings. As we get closer and closer to the end, the voice of truth will become more and more singular. Jesus is the voice of truth; His word is truth. Too many of us do not know the truth; we have not read or studied the Bible so that it is as real to us as the lies that have been put upon us.

There is no freedom without the truth. Lies are designed to enslave us and trip us up. Even well-intentioned lies can be dangerous. Only the truth frees us. Make the truth a regular part of your day. But not just Biblical truths, and there are many to learn. But seek truth in as many things as you can; go back and look at what you were told as a kid about many, many things, and it will make the truth of the scripture more and more real, powerful, and precious.

As we surmised as we began, we live in a binary world. There are only people who live in lies and those who seek and are open to truth. There are those so delusional about the lies that they will seek to quiet those who tell the truth, and eventually, they will make the truth illegal.

You may scoff, but there are people in the UK who have been arrested and tried for simply stating that there are two genders only. Just recently, a UK law enforcement person posted an invitation to Elon Musk to come to the UK so they could arrest him and try him for exercising his free speech here in North America. This will be coming to a government near you soon. Once again, the lies, let’s be tolerant, but not to Christians, not to conservative voices, not to truth-tellers. Let’s be tolerant of those that sound like us and shut down all who don’t. Satan’s minions are hard at work; remember, there are only two sides in the fight. Whether they knowingly or ignorantly speak lies, it is from Satan.

If you think we just need to find a hole and crawl into it until Jesus comes or for us all to become undercover Christians until Jesus comes and kills all the bad guys – think again; we can’t do that. We are called to be light in a dark world, we are called to be truth in a world of lies, and we are called to be love to those that hate us and our Lord. The truth will set you free, but freedom comes at a price. The price is that we have to live among the very enemies of our freedoms and try to love them as the Lord says so they can see the truth like we do.

Lastly, speak the truth at home, tell our kids the truth, read the truth, repeat the truth, and fill their ears and minds with the truth so that they can see the truth. The truth is in Jesus, John 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

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

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

Sign Up To Be A Part of Our Bible Study Community: www.mmbchurch.ca/drawclosertogod

 

Romans 3:9-20 & Genesis 6:6

⁹ “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. ¹⁰ As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. ¹² They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.’ ¹³ ‘Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit’; ‘The poison of asps is under their lips’; ¹⁴ ‘Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.’

¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways; ¹⁷ And the way of peace they have not known.’ ¹⁸ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ ¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. ²⁰ Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Genesis 6:6 “And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”

Last week, my family and I and several other pastors attended an associational meeting in the US. During the meeting, we had a workshop on Human Trafficking. This was an eye-opening experience, and we learned that this was a global problem with people from all over the world being bought and sold for their work. We also had a session on sex trafficking, and this was seriously heartbreaking. This dear brother who led the sessions is one of the hands-on people who deal in the trafficking intervention ministries.

They attend hotels where the vast majority of people there are sex workers; they live in dangerous conditions and expose themselves to many hurts and injuries. He often just came and sat in the vehicle to give out hygiene kits, free water, and food as needed. Imagine a hotel with hundreds of rooms rented by the pimps for a weekend, and client after client comes in for 3 or 4 days, and this goes on weekend after weekend. Many of these ladies have kids, and they share childcare duties as the other moms do their business.

Often, as Christians, we tend to live in a bit of a bubble. We forget that there is real evil in the world done by people who use and abuse others for money and power. We forget that there are real women and real children who live through these horrors each day. These are the people that need our prayers! In addition to our prayers, they need actual help, actual hands-on people to give them some hope. Too many of us Christians are not helping; most of us just don’t know where to start, and many don’t want to see the true evils of this world.

This dear brother is also involved in helping kids escape the sex trafficking industry. Yes, he actually rescues kids and helps them get back to some sort of normalcy, whatever that means. We learned that the majority of kids that are taken are boys, that they can earn their captors in the range of $400-500K in a year, and once used up, they are often abandoned after having been physically, emotionally, and mentally scarred for life. Many are never coming home, and we learned that there is an estimate that some 40,000,000 are missing worldwide.

Yes, you read that right – 40,000,000. The task may seem overwhelming and seemingly insurmountable; however, with there being over 1 billion Christians in the world, this brother and many like him are trying to do what they can to make a difference.

In our text of Romans, we see God lay out the evil that is mankind. We are evil to the core. There is nothing good in us, not even a small amount. We don’t think we are that bad, and by doing so, we cheapen the price that Jesus paid for our souls to redeem us from hell. In Genesis 6:6, we are reminded that the evil on the earth became so bad it grieved God that He had made man. In Genesis 1-2, we were the pinnacle of His creation; we were good. But in Genesis 6, God was grieved that He had made us. We know what happened next: the Great Flood of Noah was sent to kill everyone except those that got into the Ark. Sadly, just 8 people made it through that judgment.

Jesus told us in the Bible, but as it was in the days of Noah, so it would be near the end. I cannot imagine how grieved God must be, looking at the state of the earth and the people right now. We are abusing children at an alarming rate; there are people who take these innocent ones and use them up for sex by the millions. The people hurting these kids have no remorse; they are just commodities to be bought, sold, used, and discarded.

By the way, unless we become too arrogant and judgmental, were it not for the grace of God and the salvation we have in Him, we could be one of ‘those’ people. We often forget that we are reprobate sinners who Jesus has saved. Take the time to thank God that Jesus came looking for us and that He has saved us.

The level of evil out there is deep. The level of disregard for God is even deeper, and the simple hatred for mankind, for children, is real. I don’t know what God will do to these men and women who steal and abuse children. By God’s grace, many of these evil persons can still be saved. They are alive and live under the loving, kind, merciful grace of God. But woe to those who die without Jesus.

Hug your kids, hug your grandkids, love on them, be vigilant, and protect them; evil persons are coming for them. I do not see how our world can become any more evil than it is right now. I cannot imagine what that will look like. I don’t want to imagine what that will look like.

By the way, there is nowhere on earth that is safe from human trafficking – nowhere. Rural areas are just as susceptible as cities; these predators are everywhere. We, as dads, usually take more care to protect our daughters, but I learned that 50-60% of the kids trafficked are boys. We need to keep an eye out for all of our kids.

What can we do in the shadow of a very daunting task? We need to open our eyes; men and women are evil. Find out if your church is helping a man, a woman, or a team that may be actively helping to find these kids. Many of the kids taken are in the foster care system. What if more Christian homes opened their doors to foster kids and our churches helped out?

Most churches in North America need more foster parents for kids, and this is a way we could rescue, protect, and preserve some of the children out there. I will admit that the task at hand is overwhelming; frankly, it haunts me.

Not taking action is not an option; we must do all we can. Jesus is coming soon; let Him find us working to share the Gospel, showing God’s love, serving the most vulnerable, and letting our lights shine in a dark and evil world. Jesus is the light that will kill the darkness.

John 1: 1-5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

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