Month: May 2023

            Now that we are past most of the terrible effects of COVID, most of us think little about it and have gone back to our same habits of the pre-COVID days. Occasionally, I still see people riding alone in their cars wearing a mask. They may have a special reason for it due to some other illness, but I believe many of them are people still living in fear. There are strong differences of opinion about whether COVID is a “thing” any longer to be concerned with. I mention it today not for the talking points of illnesses, vaccines, or mandates. My concern is the excuse it offers many Christians not to gather with God’s people. Of course, I am speaking of those who are not sick, have not much fear of getting sick, but need an easy way out when confronted by the pastor. I also mention this problem in its connection with Lordship salvation. These may seem to be an unusual pairing, so read on to follow my thought processes.

            When Christians look for excuses to miss the assembly, it is troubling to the pastor as it signals a much deeper spiritual problem. Commenting on 1 Cornithians 6:9 which begins, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?”, Alistair Begg wrote: “We must take note that Paul is not referring to isolated acts of unrighteousness. No member of Christ’s Kingdom lives a sinless life this side of eternal glory. Rather, Paul is referring to someone who persistently pursues or tolerates sin. He has the mindset the kind of life that declares, ‘I don’t want God to interfere in my choices, but I do want to live with the notion that I actually belong in His Kingdom, and I do want all the benefits of that.’”

            Begg continues, “God sets the kingdom borders. It is simply not the case that everybody is in, no matter what they are, what they believe, or what they want! That notion my sound palatable, but it is simply not what God’s word teaches—God, and no one else, decides who is in the Kingdom.”

            Reading the rest of 1 Corinthians 6:9 and verse 10, you will see various sins mentioned—fornication, idolatry, sodomy, thievery, drunkenness, etc. This is quite a list of depravity and are what we consider the worst sins we can commit. In the context of Paul’s statement about the Kingdom of God, he chooses these heinous sins as examples from which many of the Corinthians were delivered.

            We ought not to think that sins we consider lesser do not figure into the apostle Paul’s or Alistair Begg’s point. If you met someone who claims to be a Christian and each time you talked with them, they spoke bitterly and filled their language with cursing and gossip, I dare to observe that on the third day of the same, you would be convinced they are not Christians at all and thus not in the Kingdom of Christ.

            Transfer the same logic to the pastor who sees members of the church constantly, persistently absent themselves from the assembly. I would give the latitude of more than the third consecutive time, but I am highly suspicious of the third month. If you do not want Christ to rule your life, to interfere with your life, and understand that you are accountable to Him, it is highly doubtful that you belong to the Kingdom and that the benefits of it are yours.

            In 1 Corinthians 6:9, Paul did not accuse the Corinthians of living in the sins he mentioned. Rather, he says they were cleansed from these “worse sins” and his subject is that they did not treat brothers and sisters in Christ as they should be treated. This is likewise unrighteousness and the unrighteous do not inherit the Kingdom of God. Salvation brings us into the family of God with new attitudes towards those who are believers. My point is we must reason about sin as Paul reasons. Disregarding Christian fellowship is a sin on par with the worst you can do. You may not think this way. However, remember this quote: “God, and no one else, decides who is in His Kingdom.”

Pastor V. Mark Smith

            On the last Sunday of January, the sermon was interrupted by a catchy ringtone from a congregant’s cellphone. On many Sundays, we remind everyone to turn off cellphones or put them in silent mode. My purpose today is not to chastise anyone for forgetting to turn theirs off, but rather to discuss the use of them in our services.

            I have not thought of this subject nor discussed it in many months since we rarely experience a ringtone. However, this incident was immediately followed upon by an article that reached my inbox and thus the issue was before me again. This article emphasized the distraction of phones and the need to abandon the screen to focus our attention on God. I thought this quote staked the ground on this issue very well:

            “…the transcendence of a Christian worship service is not an escape from the real world, but the entry into a realer world than what we’ve seen all week. It’s here that we brush up against heavenly realities. It’s here we’re confronted with time-tested truth. As we hear the Word of God preached and as we approach the Lord’s Table, we’re ushered toward a thin space where we encounter the One who summons us to worship and promises his presence.

“What role does the phone play in this environment? Yes, you can read your Bible on your phone as the pastor begins the sermon. You can send a text of encouragement to a fellow believer. You can take notes on your phone for reference later. But the pull of the phone toward multitasking—that urge to check Twitter or Instagram, or scroll past the incessant notifications that still arrive even when your phone is silenced—makes it nearly impossible to give undivided attention to God.”

            I do not write this article or cite this quote as one who is innocent. I have had my share of distractions in church services. Since I usually preach instead of listen, this does not happen often. Although I use an iPad for my notes, one of the critical preparations for preaching is to turn off the internet connection and the volume for reminders, so that I see nothing and hear nothing as I preach. I have forgotten to do this on a few occasions, and you might be surprised to learn that an email header would appear obscuring my notes and I must get rid of it while at the same time maintaining my composure and leaving you unaware of my anxious dilemma.

            The cellphone left on is a distraction which none can deny. In a room full of 3000 preachers at the Shepherd’s Conference, you would be shocked at how many have one eye (or neither) on the speaker and the other on the phone reading texts, checking scores, or researching something they just heard. This is surely a problem in our church too. My major concern, however, is that people never handle the book to find their place in the congregational scripture readings or the texts used for the sermon. Because you use the cellphone Bible at church and at home, I wonder how many touch the book at all.

            I know most Christians do not regularly read the Bible. I hope our statistics are higher than average, but I am sure if we required everyone to fill out a form each week reporting how much of the Bible you read, the result would be too dismal and depressing for me to give the account to the congregation. If we are not touching the book at home or at church and the cellphone is our only connection to it, who could find their place in the Bible if we required phones to be checked at the door?

            I am not a fan of the cellphone Bible. Though I use the computer with a screen and an electronic Bible for preparing sermons, I rarely use the cellphone or tablet for my daily reading. You can argue with me until the rapture that reading the cellphone does not diminish retention. I will never believe it because of experience and by observing what digital learning has done to our children’s brains. I do not intend to ban cellphones from the services, but I much prefer the rustling of pages to the sounds of clever rings.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

            As I write this, I think of my wife who is in the bedroom enduring an episode of serious pain. Unlike her, I do not endure pain with much other than constant complaints. While I want to be a man, I find my wife is a much better example of strength through pain than I could hope to be. When the woke-boots come to persecute believers, she will be the one left standing in our family.

            This opens the question of the ability of God’s people to withstand physical pain inflicted by persecutors throughout Christian history intent on breaking the will and destroying the faith of the redeemed. I remember a few years ago discussing this in one of our classes and I noticed several horrified looks when explaining how faith enables one to endure watching one’s children killed before their eyes because the parents would not deny Christ. This is not hypothetical speech because it is both historic and contemporary as believers across the world experience it in countries without religious freedom in general, and certainly none for Christians in particular.

            Enduring persecution works in much the same way as enduring death and threats of it. We cannot latch onto the fortitude of faith needed just yet because we do not experience it. This changes when the prospect is immediately in front of us. God’s grace will envelope us in that moment to see beyond the immediate to the blest future that lies beyond.

            In Hebrews 11, the author speaks of faith that was strong enough to endure every trial the subjects faced. When nearing the conclusion of his examples, the author gives a brief summation of many others not mentioned by name. He wrote, “They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented…” (Hebrews 11:37). This verse has always struck me as beyond imaginable. In fact, it is. I do not believe Hebrews 11 was written to applaud the intestinal fortitude of those willing to die for Christ. Unfortunately, chapter breaks often divide the text with unkind separation from the author’s main purpose. Chapter 12 drives the point home as it identifies the source of uncommon faith. The one to applaud is Jesus Christ who is the author and finisher of this great faith (12:2).

            What makes uncommon faith? Though addressing a different subject, Paul gives an applicable assessment of our thought as well. In 1 Corinthians 4:7, “For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” Christ is the author of every gift. Another word of encouragement comes to mind. Jesus knew the trials the apostles would face because of their faith. He told them, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do… (Luke 12:4). “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” (vv. 11-12).

            The answer to this dilemma is the power of the Spirit of Christ who indwells every believer. He gives strength in the hour of trial that is beyond what the human will can conceive. If He gives enough strength to face a torturous death, what is to fear of a doctor’s operation when after that (sic), there is much more he can do. The Holy Spirit supplies doctors and nurses and medications and care that help soothe the pain. Progress in medicine is another enabling by God’s good graces. For the unsaved, it is born in God’s common grace. For you and I who know Him, it is appreciated more as it is accompanied by assurance that Christ is our Great Physician.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: ^[4] In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

William Ernest Henley was a late 19^th century British poet and editor who introduced the world to the famous authors Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, and William Butler Yeats. A quick review of his life on Wikipedia reveals an interesting little factoid. He had one leg and was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s character Long John Silver in his book Treasure Island. As you can see, Henley was acquainted with some of the literary giants of Victorian England.

Henley was a sick man inflicted with crippling tuberculosis of the bone. Though disadvantaged in many ways, he lived an active productive life writing many books of poetry. We might well imagine that despite his handicaps his uncommon willpower must have been the impetus that drove him to success. It seems likely that Henley’s most famous poem Invictus was a product of his determined self-reliance. Henley wrote:

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

This poem was the product of a godless man who was blinded by the power of unbelief. In many pulpits this morning, preachers will speak of the power of faith. They will take examples from the scriptures such as the heroes in Hebrews 11 and they will tell their congregations how faith can move mountains, faith can part seas, faith can destroy enemy fortresses, faith makes the impossible happen. Not too many will speak of how powerful determined unbelief can be.

William Ernest Henley had his own version of faith. His faith was in himself which caused him to express what he thought was his ability to control his life and steer his soul to its own purposeful end. The character of Henley’s faith was of course quite different from the faith we preach from this pulpit. And yet, Henley was right. His faith piloted his soul as surely as does ours. He was the captain of his soul who charted his ship to its inevitable destination. Our faith is powerful enough to change our destination, while Henley was driven by the power of unbelief which was steadfastly resistant to a change in destination.

Henley bragged about his unbending will as if he was an uncommon specimen who was far above average. His fame, fortune, and social circles were not determinative. The truth is he was no different than every baby born in this world. He was natural not supernatural. He lived no differently than any person who is unaffected by the Holy Spirit. He was born to his destination while we are born again to ours. In other words, he charted a course that needed no steering. He was in a rut, a track impossible to pull out of much less one needing an unbending will to remain in.

This, friends, is the power of unbelief. In its own realm, it is as powerful as our faith is in ours. Faith in Christ is a course that leads to one place and one place only. Neither do you have power to change it for as Peter says we are kept by the power of God through faith. You will not change the natural course of your life. It is impossible. Stay the course and join Henley as the master of your fate or pray that God will be merciful to your foolishness. May he grant you the power to say, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

                                                                        Pastor V. Mark Smith