Month: February 2024

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:41-42)

For the past month, our study in Mark has been Jesus’ parables in the fourth chapter. These parables are about growth in God’s spiritual Kingdom as we wait on our Lord to return. Our wait now encompasses about 2000 years and each Christmas reminds us of it. We know how long the wait is because our dating, our time, relates to the birth of Christ. Each Christmas that rolls around is another year of waiting passed and we start another year in anticipation of His return.

While the parables of Mark 4 concern the Kingdom, I have reminded you that the church and the Kingdom are different. The church exists within the Kingdom but does not replace it nor does it transcend it. The glorious expectation of God’s saints is for all God’s people to live in a kingdom where God’s righteous rule not only dominates but is the law of the land. Jesus said to pray for the Kingdom to come, for then we will do the will of God on earth as saints do in heaven.

During the time we wait on the Kingdom, we have the church which is God’s mechanism for the growth of the Kingdom so that God has more of the world’s population to worship Him as their sovereign Lord and Creator. The recognition of the true God and the worship of Him is the solution to crime, justice, peace, goodwill, and genuine happiness. To proclaim Christ and His church is to put people in the position to receive earthly benefits and heavenly rewards. Witnessing for Christ is the best activity you can do for yourself and others. It is no wonder the New Testament begins with four gospel accounts. This is the good news of Christ that changes the outlook for the entire world. Thus, Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

I want to make it clear that growth in the Kingdom happens simultaneously with the growth of the church. Our Lord Christ put the church between His ascension to heaven and His glorious return in His Second Advent. It is His design for all Christian work to take place through the activities of the church. When the church and the Kingdom are confused or conflated, the true church of Jesus Christ loses ground and the expected growth and design for growth in the Kingdom is not as God planned. The Kingdom itself does not uphold truth. The Kingdom is a domain while the church is a living organism. It is the church that is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15). When Christians marginalize the church, they are weak. There are no ordinances without the church, thus obedience suffers. There is no missions plan to begin more churches without the church itself. Our job in these years of waiting for Christ is to replicate the church that Christ began with His twelve apostles. When the Holy Spirit empowered the first church on the Day of Pentecost, the result was steadfast continuance in the apostles’ doctrine, in fellowship, in the Communion, and prayer. Soon, the church sent out missionaries and the result of their efforts was new churches throughout the Roman Empire. This is what Christ planned. The apostles did not start new kingdoms. They began churches because the church is the plan for the propagation of the gospel. It is the method of Kingdom growth.

I hope you see through this that merely attending church is not enough. Christians without church membership are in the Kingdom but without a way to ensure that God’s plan for Kingdom growth will survive until the day Christ breaks through the Eastern sky. Consider carefully what God intends for you as a believer. It will not be different from the first ones who became part of the Jerusalem church.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

In the past two weeks, much of my Bible reading has been from the Old Testament in Samuel, the Kings, and the Chronicles. In only a few chapters, the authors cover hundreds of years of Israel’s history from the inauguration of David as king to the captivities of the Assyrians and Babylonians. If we read only about the life of David and assume he was typical of all Israel’s kings, we would be terribly mistaken. The prosperity of David lasted forty years until his son Solomon ascended the throne. Solomon’s reign was spectacular but his incomplete obedience to God’s commands set the stage for the division of the kingdom and leading to the previously mentioned captivities.

Since decades and centuries progress in only a few pages of scripture, we may be confused, thinking the time between events is more compressed than it is. Many of the forays of Israel into idolatry occur after miracles, revivals, and rededications. The next page or next few verses find Israel in the same condition as before or perhaps even worse. My point in bringing this to your attention is that falling into sin does not usually happen immediately after the Lord’s blessing, but gradually drifts downward as we continue to neglect our worship of God. It is difficult to imagine that after God obtained a great victory over Israel’s enemies that the next scene finds them worshipping Baal or Molech. Likewise, in our rededications to the Lord, it takes time for us to become apathetic towards His work again. Yet, it does happen if we are not diligent every day to pray and read His word. The mind emptied of the good thoughts of salvation is fertile ground for Satan’s schemes.

While we clearly understand Israel is not emblematic of the United States, we are still able to apply her lessons to our circumstances. I will not argue for calling this country a Christian nation, but it is certainly true that Christianity has been our dominant religion, and our founders applied principles of Christianity and the scriptures to the formation of our government. When the scripture says God enthrones kings and deposes them as well, it is obvious not all these rulers are Christians. There must be some expectation that government leaders will act with righteous principles. This is true because people who lead governments have God’s law written on their hearts. They instinctively know what is moral and what is not. Abandoning their base morality and denying it is a product of immoral education and time. Educating perversely for lengthy periods sears the conscience and renders it inoperable.

The heading of an article I recently viewed said, “Civilization will never escape the descendants of Cain.” This is true. Thus, there are unthinkable atrocities committed from the river to the sea. Crimes without conscience or mercy are too common. One people intent on destroying others stems from a different worldview from those who are descendants of Seth. Much like ancient Israel, our downward trajectory has taken an accumulation of years with no education in God’s ordained principles. When a politician says we can find his worldview in scripture, perhaps we should listen and not fall into captivity.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

This week as I prepared to write the bulletin article, there were dozens of thoughts in my head but nothing that clearly stood out as a topic for this article. We began the week preparing for Pam’s surgery which involved multiple doctors’ appointments with each one saturated with dozens of questions. How would the doctors address her complications in both pre-operative and post-operative settings? Amidst these preparations was the weekly list of church duties that I must fulfill to allow the usual conduct of the services. One of these that may seem insignificant is the bulletin article, a task I can sometimes quickly fulfill and at other times seems a forever task. This week it was the forever task at a time when it was least convenient.

I experimented with several ideas before settling into thoughts of the first series of sermons I preached from the Berean pulpit. This series was from the epistle of Jude, chosen for its brevity. In my introduction to the epistle, I claimed I would finish in three sermons. I titled these three sermons, Occasion of the Letter, Occurrences of Apostasy, and Occupation of Believers in Times of Apostasy. Those of you who now know me well would never imagine I could finish a book of the Bible in three weeks and in three sermons. It did not happen. It took seven months and twenty-eight sermons. Jude set the tone for how my ministry would go. In the twenty-one years since, we have never taken surface glances at the scriptures. It seems every word, phrase, and thought needs careful examination. This explains my method and helps you to understand the reason it will be quite some time before we finish the study of Mark’s gospel on Sunday mornings. I suspect this is not too much of a surprise to any of you.

While thinking about the Jude series, I remember the reasons it attracted me and why I chose it to be my first book. It hinged on a major doctrine of scripture. One of my favorite Bible verses has always been Jude 24. The verse begins, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling…” Jude finished his little letter the same way he began. In his salutation of verses 1 and 2, he inserted this phrase: “…preserved in Jesus Christ, and called…”

I said my choice of Jude hinged on a major doctrine. There were rather two that have been bedrock doctrines in my ministry. These are the election of God’s people to salvation and their perseverance in the faith. There is too much on these two intertwined topics to explain in this article—and thus Jude turned into a marathon.

In our Forum Class two weeks ago, we ended with a discussion of God’s election and predestination. Many of you may not recognize that found in the first verse of Jude is God’s election. The word “called” alludes to this. Arising in the conversation was the subject of the call of the gospel and whether it is indiscriminate in its invitation to the sinner. Does God make a distinction in whom He calls? It is clear Jude was not speaking of the general call of the gospel as the preacher broadcasts it to all people. This is a determinate call, for Jude said this call has sanctification within it. It has preservation within it. It has the power of God within it to keep the called from falling.

When studying the scriptures on these subjects, be sure to look for the right words and how the author uses them. It is difficult to overlook the inward, effectual, discriminate call of God in salvation. Only God’s chosen people respond to this call. They are the only ones who hear it.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Since I was old enough to talk, we regularly sang this hymn in our church. I grew up with it, but as I have grown older, I seldom hear it, and neither is it a part of our current programs for worship. I do not believe our attitude towards the message of the song has changed, nor do we sing it less because we no longer believe it is true. If there is a culprit for less inclusion, it may be because we too often give into the world which many times has more power over our lives than Christ. We do not owe our failure to any insufficiency in Christ to overcome our sin but to the fact that we are not as active in the disciplines that make us react the way we should when confronted with sin. Jesus addressed this issue by referring to the allegiance of a slave to his master. The language is difficult in our culture because we at once reject such a socially unacceptable comparison. Master-slave relationships are taboo, and yet out of this New Testament cultural norm comes some of the most powerful concepts of our relationship with God.

Jesus said “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24). Our separation from the world to live apart from the world and for Christ comes from the action of service. We cannot “serve” two masters. “Serve” is a word with more depth of meaning than we understand in the English language. In this place, it means a “slave.” Christians are literally slaves of Jesus Christ. It is uncommon and practically unheard of for a slave to have two owners. They bought a slave, they paid a price, which transferred ownership of the slave from one party to another. With this price came the obligation of service and resolute obedience. This is the language Paul used in 1 Corinthians 6:20: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” “Bought with a price” which gives Christ every right to demand all our time, attention, and energy for His service. The price paid was steep, which enhances the value of ownership and increases the levels of expectations.

We must also consider how in our slave relationship to Jesus He does not force obedience which makes us miserable without our freedom. As children of God our freedom is in Christ, and we never feel restricted. Our happiness is not in self-satisfaction but in “trying to please Him in all that we do.” The heart attitude is “yielding allegiance glad hearted and free,” which marks, “the pathway of blessing for me.”

We would never think from our cultural viewpoint that we would want slavery. The blessing is that Christ does not treat us as slaves to order but as children to love. He treats us as heirs to honor and as princes to exalt with Him in glory. The incentives of voluntary dedicated service are too good to abandon for self-satisfaction. With sinful hearts not yet renewed to perfection, the world will always have the stronger attraction unless we give ourselves fully to the Master’s control. The method of embracing which makes them more attractive than the world is the voice of God spoken through the word and the ears of God reached through our prayers. Speaking and hearing are the pathways of understanding that overcome all of sin’s allure. The hymn ends: “I own no other master; my heart shall be thy throne. My life I give, henceforth to live; O, Christ for Thee alone!”

Pastor V. Mark Smith