Month: September 2010

After sixteen months of preaching, we have reached the end of our study of the Sermon on the Mount. I have preached many series of messages at Berean in the past eight years. We have been through many books of the Bible, but no series I have preached has affected me in such a deep personal way as this study. The requirements for life in Christ’s kingdom are so demanding and so overwhelming that we must be struck with the terrible truth of our helplessness to be righteous with God. The profundity of Christ’s words, the sternness of His rebukes, the irrefutable logic of His arguments, the insight of His wisdom, the authority with which He spoke—all of this left the people stunned, amazed, astonished at His teachings.

I must say that all of these months exploring the depths of this sermon have left me no less amazed than those who first heard Him. If the sermon was intended to shock my human intellect into recognition of my abject sinfulness, it surely accomplished its intent. If it was intended to bring me to my knees to cry out for God’s mercy because of my unworthiness, I am there, too broken to look up. If it was intended to make me search the recesses of my heart to evaluate my motives, my declarative claim to be one of God’s children, to search for proof of my salvation—again the sermon has accomplished its purpose.

After this intense introspection, I am happily content that my faith has been well placed. I have found the Rock on which my faith is built. The law of God has brought me to this recognition. Paul said the law is our schoolmaster to bring us Christ, that we might be justified by faith (Gal. 3:24). Christ’s exposition of the law leaves no other hope but Him. He is “the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth” (Rom. 10:4). I am amazed at His teachings and I am ever more thankful that He opened my eyes to see me as I am and Him as He is. I am unrighteous with nothing to offer. He is holy, perfect, and just; He is all righteousness with everything to offer, and so He has become my righteousness.

Have you seen the same after these many months? The tragic truth of the crowd’s response is that they were amazed for awhile. While the sermon was hot off the press, they marveled and continued to follow Him from place to place. They continually sought after His miracles; but those cutting, biting words kept coming back. They tried to suppress them, but each time He taught He reinforced them. Finally, the strain was too much to bear. They were not converted by His teachings; they only became more hardened in their unbelief.

I sincerely hope the same has not happened to you. I hope that you are not only a “hearer” of His words but also a “doer” (Matt. 7:21). I pray these truths have transformed you so that you are not only astonished at his doctrine, but that you are also confirmed in His doctrine. Time will tell for you as it did for them.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

In the next few weeks, the subject of our Wednesday evening services will be growth in the Christian life. Last week’s article concerned sanctification which is the name for this doctrine. Every Christian no matter his physical age begins his new life in Christ as a baby. We are born again through the operation of the Holy Spirit, and at that moment we are new to the faith, new to the kingdom, and new in understanding. Paul said we are a new creation in Christ. Our former lives have passed away, and the born again baby wakes up to a new world (2 Cor. 5:17). His desires are changed, his friends will change; his view of self and of the world has changed. The new Christian immediately begins to wrestle with all these differences while at the same time he is under attack by Satan to compromise and mitigate the effects of those differences.

It is at this point the new Christian is most vulnerable. Since his understanding of the new life is minimal, he is easily susceptible to false doctrine. Like a young child, he is impressionable and trusting of anyone that carries a Bible and purports to speak for God. This is the earliest stage of his sanctification. The foundation of faith that he receives at this point may indeed shape him for the rest of his Christian life. If he is bound by false teachings or even lack of teaching in this early stage, his growth will be seriously stunted. This is truly a problem since it is very hard to find churches that care much at all about doctrine. Some do preach truth but the scope of truth is limited.

Some years ago I had two men from a local Baptist church come to my door to invite me to church. One of the men was a deacon and I was thrilled these two had come to see me. They were vocal and unintimidated in their faith, which I found to be very refreshing. I looked forward to sitting with them for a few minutes to discuss the Bible. While I commended these men for their zeal, I soon learned discussing the Bible with them was not much of an option. They knew very little about scripture. This was understandable if they were novices and new to the faith. However, as I stated, one of these men was a deacon and had been approved by the church for his position.

It is easy to think we are mature if the standard we measure by is less than what it should be. According to Paul, the first step of maturity in the faith is a doctrinal one (Eph. 4:14-15). We must be grounded and settled in the Word of God in order to grow. We begin with the simpler doctrines of the Word; we feed on these, and when they are mastered we add more substantial doctrine course by course. In this way, we move on from infancy to adulthood.

The responsibility of feeding the children of God rests with ministers (Acts 20:28; Eph. 4:11-12). The responsibility of eating is yours. The pastor prepares the spiritual food for you each week, but you must be present to partake. If you absent yourself from the teaching of the Word, the sanctifying process is slowed to a crawl. For this reason, many Christians that should have grown up long ago are still spiritual babies.

Our Wednesday night series will deal with these issues. I hope you will make an effort to attend. Your growth depends on it!

Pastor V. Mark Smith

This week while I was studying for our Wednesday night services, it occurred to me how that many of our church members have fallen off in their Wednesday night attendance. There are some that have been faithful for many years to attend all services of the church but have now found something more important to do during this time. I realize that the demands of work schedules put a strain on our busy lives, but I also realize there are many that could attend but have decided they would rather spend their time elsewhere.

Recently, I spoke with one of the newer members of our church, one who has not been saved for very long, who was simply incredulous to learn there are seasoned (?) Christians that have opportunity to learn more from God’s Word, but have reached a plateau in their lives and are not much interested in moving beyond it. This person has a true hunger to grab every morsel of understanding to feed his soul, and could not understand why those who have known the Lord for a longer time do not have an even greater desire to fellowship with God’s people around the Word. Well this person should wonder about such things because this is the opposite of what God has designed in our sanctification.

This part of the sanctifying process, which we call progressive sanctification, is to mold our lives daily into the image of Christ. Paul called this being “conformed” to Christ’s image (Rom. 8:29). This is an upward movement in which we become in character like Christ. A very good question to ask is, “How is this conformity achieved?” We have the answer from the lips of the Saviour in John 17:17. In His high priestly prayer, He said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” The Bible is the means of this sanctification. We have the same thought from Paul as he wrote concerning the church, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:26-27).

It should be clear from these statements that a Christian who has a desire to be like Christ would avail himself of all opportunities to learn from the Word. I find it very hard to believe that those who absent themselves from the preaching of the Word are spending their time on Wednesday nights combing through the Bible in personal study seeking enrichment from its treasure.

What remains then is to ascertain the reason why those who have opportunity to grow in Christ would satisfy themselves in some other pursuit. As usual the Bible has the answer for this as well. In fact, nearly every epistle in the New Testament addresses this in some form or another. The letters of Paul, John, James, Peter, and Jude were written to Christians that were struggling over issues of sin in their lives and the consequent wavering in their faith.

Every member of Berean Baptist should closely examine himself on this issue. Many churches have decided to give up Wednesday night services, and closely behind this decision will follow another which is to abandon Sunday night services. The deplorable state of our churches today can be pinned directly on God’s people who have thwarted God’s progressive sanctification. When the Word becomes uninteresting to God’s people, perhaps there should be Sermon on the Mount examination whether such are really God’s people (Matt. 7:21-27).

Pastor V. Mark Smith

One of the striking aspects of the closing words of the Sermon on the Mount is the way Jesus categorizes people. The Bible does not tend to deal with grey areas. In scripture, there is always a way set before us that is either right or wrong. With God, issues are black or white, or as John puts it, it is either darkness or light (1 John 1:5). The closing words of the Sermon on the Mount are structured in the same way. People are either on their way to heaven or hell. This follows from Matthew 7:13-14 where Jesus speaks of the broad way that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to life.

It is no wonder then that in His last illustration Jesus uses only two builders. One builds his house on a sure foundation of solid rock while the other shortcuts the process. He does not dig deep and therefore his house sits on unstable shifting sands. When the storm comes and the flood waters rise, the house on the sand will be swept away while the house on the rock withstands the torrents of rain.

There are many that disagree about what is meant by building the house on the rock. The most popular interpretation makes Jesus the Rock, on which the house is built, meaning the person of Christ. This does not seem to be the direct meaning although it is certainly an indirect implication. Rather, the passage indicates the rock to be the sayings of Jesus, or in other words, the teachings that He gave during the preceding discourse. This means that all other teaching of any sort amounts to nothing more than shifting sands.

This is where Christianity must of necessity be in conflict with any other religious system. This is as black and white as it can be. Pluralism is unacceptable because it scatters people across a broad spectrum of categories. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and any others without Christ are in those categories. Jesus rejects this; according to Him there are only two categories. This means all who reject Him as the one and only Saviour, the one and only way of eternal life, the one and only Lord and King are lumped into the category of those who have built their lives on shifting sands. When the storm of God’s judgment comes, they will be swept away into the awful destruction of hell. This is the consistent teaching of scripture.

False Christianity has supposed a completely different picture of Jesus. Their Jesus is inclusive. Surprisingly, I agree that Jesus is inclusive; only He is inclusive in a much different way than they suppose. He invites Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and others inclusively to reject their false systems and come to Him for salvation. He clearly said that He is the only way to the Father (John 14:6) which reduces all people once again to one of two categories. Either you are with Him or you are against Him. There is no middle ground.

You may have imagined this to be much different. You may have never thought that you are against Jesus even though you have not repented of your sins and trusted Him as Saviour. You may imagine yourself to be in the grey area, neither for nor against. Grey is not an option with Jesus. It is either darkness or light. Remember His words: “He that is not with me is against me” (Matt. 12:30). The Rock or the sand—which will you choose?

Pastor V. Mark Smith

…depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:23b)

I realize I may be taking a risk by starting a Sunday morning with a subject most preachers dare not discuss. I promise, though, by the time I reach the end of this article you will be glad I did. The scripture quoted above is from the Sermon on the Mount and was spoken by Jesus as part of the conclusion of His greatest discourse. It is a warning against false professors who claim to speak in His name and do many wonderful works for His kingdom. In this short article, I do not have space to develop the entire theme therefore I have to get straight to the point. This is a warning about hell. Jesus, the great righteous and holy Judge of the universe announced the final sentence that will be declared upon those who profess to know Him but have never truly received Him as Saviour.

The awful terror of hell is a subject that Jesus often expounded. He did not leave us to speculate what it may be like. He described it clearly in Matthew 25:41 as a place of everlasting fire. Lest anyone should misunderstand, He illustrated by speaking the parable of the tares in the 13th chapter (vv. 24-30). He explained the tares represent false professors that will be burned in a furnace of fire at the end of the world (vv. 37-42). This is the bad news that most preachers today are unwilling to tell. It is not a popular theme; and amongst a feel-good, self-assured congregation it will not be awarded favorable stylistic points.

Set over against this, however, is the good news. The good news is the gospel of Christ which never shines as brightly as it should unless it is contrasted with the stark reality of its opposite. The gospel is that Christ died for iniquity, was buried in a tomb, and then arose again for our justification. On the cross, He suffered hell for those who believe so that one day He would not have to say to them “Depart from me.” The full fury of God’s wrath against sin was poured out upon Jesus while He hung on the cross. God’s wrath was expended, exhausted upon Christ as He took the punishment that sinners deserve. This was the supreme demonstration of Christ’s love in that He willingly offered to take this punishment in our place. There is no conceivable way His love can be understood without the backdrop of the eternal punishment of hell. A message that begins and ends with “Smile, God loves you,” with no intervening information about the depravity of man and the consequences of his depravity is virtually meaningless. No wonder the false professor does not “do the will of the Father” (Matt. 7:21). He has no sensibility of what God did for real believers to secure their obedience.

Be thankful that you read and hear this message in Berean Baptist Church this Sunday morning. Come to church with joy in your heart that God has delivered you from such an awful place! Worship Him for He is great and worthy to be praised!

Pastor V. Mark Smith