Free Speech :: By Sean Gooding

Matthew 10: 16-26

¹⁶ “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. ¹⁷ But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. ¹⁸ You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; ²⁰ for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

²¹ “Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. ²² And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. ²³ When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

²⁴ “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵ It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! ²⁶ Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.”

If you have been following the events of this past week, you may have seen the speech that Vice President Vance gave to the European Union that caused many to stir, and later, he was made fun of. In that speech, the VP made reference to a man being arrested in England for praying 50 meters from an abortion clinic; he was praying because he and his girlfriend had agreed to an abortion in their past, and he was grieved over it. He was arrested and charged.

In another example, he mentioned that in Scotland, one could be charged for praying in your own home. Persons were encouraged to snitch on people that they knew were praying IN THEIR OWN HOMES if it was too close to an abortion clinic. Here in Canada, parts of our Bible have been deemed as hate speech, and one can be arrested for speaking in public.

This kind of control surprises us in North America, but it is coming as we get closer and closer to the return of our Lord Jesus. It would seem that for now, the new administration in the US will slow down the erosion of our freedoms, especially of speech. But many parts of the world are following the EU model and telling their people what they can think, how they can pray, where they can pray, and asking the very people in their homes to tell on them.

In our text, Jesus warns us that a man’s enemies will be the very people in our homes. We saw this in COVID; homes were divided and still are, for the most part. Even in the homes of ‘saved’ people, it was clear to see those who thought for themselves and those who ‘drank the Kool-Aid,’ so to speak. The same will happen again; it will happen in our homes. Someone will call the government on their son, on their daughter, or on their parents because they heard them praying – something that was not allowed. This kind of evil will also happen in our church homes, and the ‘tares’ will spy out the liberties of the saved and cause us to be arrested, killed, and our families threatened. We are called to be wise by our Lord and to be harmless. We will not win our freedoms with violence and war.

It is okay to vote, to speak up, and to stand up, but it is not for us to kill someone for our freedoms. The truth is, we are free in Jesus. We are to expect to be threatened and, yes, even killed for the cause of the Lord. Sadly, the people who will be there to point fingers and maybe even throw the first stone will be the very people we sat at the table with. Wow, sobering.

They will accuse of not living like Jesus; the world’s view of Jesus is that He never stood up to evil, never talked about sin, never spoke about Hell and the like. But nothing could be further from the truth. They are ignorant about the Bible. Then there are others who call the God of the Old Testament an ogre. He promotes slavery, hates women, and is an unloving tyrant. We know this to be lies and falsehoods, but they hate Him. It is amazing how they hate a God they claim does not exist. Please notice that they do not have the same rage against Islam or other religions. It seems that Christianity is the most evil and dangerous ‘religion’ in the world. We know that they are wrong, but they are enraged by the indignation against the God of the Bible.

We should enjoy the reprieve that is here, and hopefully, it will spread to Canada as well. There Is a window of freedom that gives us the opportunity to speak the truth, share the Gospel, tell others what Jesus has done, pray near the abortion clinics, stop the transgendered attacks on our kids, and be louder than the lies. Soon, the tide will turn; the left will be back in power, and the march toward the loss of free speech will begin or continue again.

Don’t waste this opportunity that we have been given; it may not be afforded to us again. Our kids and grandkids need us to step up and show Jesus to the world around us. Show the real Jesus; the one who had opinions about sin and sex, the one who stood up to tyranny and still loved the slave. The one who had to suffer because sin is so egregious to God that He cannot look the other way. We need to talk about the Jesus who will return as a Judge to call out sin, right the wrongs, and eventually judge those who rejected His free gift of salvation.

No one on the left and, sadly, not too many in our churches can picture this Righteous Jesus presiding over and sending people to their eternal doom in Hell. Yes, this is the real Jesus, and we have a short window to talk about Him. Let us be about the Master’s Business.

God bless you,

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

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