Comfortable and Complacent :: By Sean Gooding

2 Timothy 3: 1-5

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,  Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

Jesus is coming soon. We can all agree with that, I am sure. Sadly, there are people in our churches who do not feel the same way. They are comfortable here and may even feel at home. Those of us who are uncomfortable here, those of us who feel an unease and that there is a shoe about to drop cannot feel comfortable here. The successes we have seen here in the political realm in the USA and maybe in other countries like Canada soon – where the Liberal Government has very low ratings to the apparent surge in South America and other places – can lead to a comfort that leads to complacency.

One of the most important things that happened in the last five years since COVID was that we saw the true churches versus the false churches. We saw the separation between the people who are led by the world system and those who are led by the Lord.

I had a conversation with a brother the other day about how their church lost half the members over COVID and whether they obeyed the ‘rules’ or not. We saw that even in the Lord’s churches there were people who worshipped the laws of man and not the laws of God. They subverted those who wanted to worship, those who wanted to assemble, and those who wanted to submit to the Lord. In our churches were people who would ‘snitch’ on their neighbors and simply be nasty.

There are still clearly ‘woke’ churches that defy God and His word. They preach a Gospel and a Jesus that is not in the Bible – a Jesus that affirms the sin and the sinner; a Jesus that encourages one to disobey God; a Jesus that ‘accepts’ all people even if they do not trust in His death, burial and resurrection. They preach a Jesus that is in rebellion to the clearly written word of God. These folks are always asking ‘did God really say?’ They are always making it out that God could not have addressed things today, as if the things we see are new.

In Jesus’ day and the days before that, back to the very beginning, there have been cross-dressers (men especially wearing women’s clothing), effeminate men, and there are many verses about that. Homosexuality was a prevalent thing even in Israel and in many other places. There has always been idolatry since the fall of man; there has been polygamy, incest and all manner of sin. There is nothing that we invented. But there are churches and some ‘Christians’ among us that want us to accept these things and not call them out.

As I said, in a big way, there has been a clear separation between the ‘woke,’ sin-promoting churches and the non-woke churches. But we should not get comfortable; we should not get complacent. There are others that have ‘clothed’ themselves in apparent conservativism; they sneak in and among us, and they are still causing havoc. We need to ask the Lord to point these folks out and be separated from them. If they are in leadership or teaching positions, they need to be removed and any powers they have stripped. There should be no safe place for these folks.

I am not judging whether or not they are saved. But anyone who is NOT teaching the clearly portrayed person of Jesus – One who came to fulfill the law and not abolish it – is not following Christ. If they are not following Christ, they should not be in a leadership role.

Just take a look at what the Trump administration did with the DEI doctrine in the Federal Government; they weeded it out, and especially they went after those who would pose as ‘obedient’ but were using their ‘obedience’ as a cloak for pushing the DEI agenda. Be weary of those in our churches who seem to be obedient but use that as a way to undermine the truths that we know.

One of the very clear ways that one is able to identify these ‘tares’ among the wheat is that they have an unhealthy focus on the love of Jesus – Jesus is love, and that means He will always accept people the way they are and have no plans to change them into obedient disciples. But the Bible tells us that if a person wants to be a follower of Jesus, they need to ‘deny themselves.’

Matthew 16:24, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

But these persons in and among us do not want one to deny themselves; they want to promote same- sex marriages, promote gender fluidity, and use that God made them that way. It is heresy. It needs to be weeded out to the nth degree.

The passage we are considering tells that in the last days, our day, men will not love God but pleasure; they will not love God but themselves; they will not love anything more than themselves. They will be hateful and unstable, unreliable and filled with anger (fierce), and they will hate those who want to do good. They will hate those who want to stand up and obey God’s clearly written word.

Yes, these are folks in our churches, and they need to go; they need to be exposed, and we need to separate from them. Our churches need to focus less on our numbers and more on our OBEDIENCE to the Lord. What is the point of having a big disobedient church? What is the point of having a disobedient church at all, no matter what the size?

We should, in our churches and as leaders, ask God to show us the persons who are these folks from 2 Timothy 3:1-5, whether it be the Pastor or the parking lot coordinator, and weed them out. Yes, Jesus loves everyone, and yes, God is love. But God is at the same time HOLY, PERFECT; He ABHORS sins and demands OBEDIENCE. God hates a two-faced people. To the church at Laodicea, He asked of them to either be hot or cold; make up your minds.

God may not agree with your decision, but He can respect it, as He gave us free will. Now is not the time to get comfortable, nor is it the time to be complacent. Each day that comes to an end is bringing us one more day closer to the judgment seat of Jesus and one more day closer to the end.

But Brother Sean, we are supposed to love these folks; yes, we are, but we are not to compromise the Lord’s churches and use ‘love’ as an excuse for disobedience. We can love them by biblically stating the truth, encouraging them to obey and submit to God’s word. And if they refuse, removing them from leadership roles. They are free to stay as members and learn, grow and submit to God, but we know most will not. They want the power to infect our churches, corrupt our youth, and kill off the Gospel.

We must be diligent in seeking God’s wisdom and clarity to weed out wokeism and heresy amongst us. Jesus is coming soon!

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario

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