Month: March 2025

Each Monday morning I begin a list of items on my to-do list that is virtually the same each week. I must prepare a new sermon for a future day that is about two months or more away. I must polish a sermon I wrote about two months ago awaiting for this Sunday to arrive. I must prepare the Sunday order of services including the songs we will sing and the scriptures we will read. I must prepare a listening sheet that hopefully makes taking notes easier and helps leave an impression in your mind, and along with this a corresponding PowerPoint presentation so that with my fast speaking you do not miss the critical points I wish to make.

               Number 9 on my list of twenty items is the bulletin article. Almost every week I write a new one which often is the hardest task I face second only to sermon preparation. During the week I drafted this article, I was looking over old sermons dating back to 2003 only months after I became pastor of the church. If you are willing to allow the preacher a little pride, I must say that over twenty years as pastor has found my subject matter little changed, and the doctrine I preach remarkably consistent. I am trying to say I have not looked for new fads nor for reinterpretations of centuries old applications of the biblical text. With a God who does not change, our interpretations of doctrine should be as unchanging as God Himself. This is not to say our interpretations are always correct and need never change, but it does mean if I find multiple examples of change, if I find many wrong interpretations from the beginning of my ministry, I have done a great disservice to the people of God. I have led a generation of believers down the wrong paths.

               As I read and study from past generations of faithful preachers, I do not find radical reinterpretations of God’s word from one century to the next. How is it then that in the last five decades our opinions of morality have changed, the sound hermeneutics of the past have changed, the sanctification of believers seems barely existent, and those we expect to still be faithful are slowly fading away and are in situations where the Lord’s church and their service in it is nearly non-existent. We need not fool ourselves into thinking my ministry is not reaching its end. No—I am not making an announcement. I am simply reminding you how difficult it will be to find a minister who has not compromised with the world to satisfy a culture rapidly descending into the pit of hell. Who will stop it if our preachers have already joined it? Who will stop it when our preachers are not only acquiescing to it but are full of haste to lead the charge?

               With God’s help and by His grace, I intend to be that same preacher tomorrow who nearly a quarter of a century ago mounted this pulpit. I hope to die, succumb to a replacement, or fade in my health with my hands still on the reins of God’s truth. There is no mistaking that we are not popular when preaching God’s truth rather than man’s opinions. Writing bulletin articles may be number 9 on my weekly list, but I assure you number one each week is faithfulness to the truth. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever—why is this not our quest?

Pastor V. Mark Smith

               Today our worship begins with the reading of scripture and our first congregational song. We will sing Therefore the Redeemed of the Lord, and in keeping with the theme of this song our scripture reading to start the day is Isaiah 51:1-11. The 11^th verse of this chapter inspires our song: “Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”

               The scripture and song at once prophesy the return of Israel from their captivity in Babylon which in Isaiah’s time was still two centuries away. Amazingly, Isaiah looks even further away to assure God’s people that He will meet every adversity and preserve them as His people. As surely as God remembered His promise to Abraham when He brought the descendants of Abraham out of Egypt and made them His own nation at the foot of Mount Sinai, He will always stand and defend Israel until He brings forth the Messiah’s kingdom and firmly entrenches it across the entire world.

               The key to this success is faith in God. The key is to keep trusting God even when it seems God has failed or that we have failed too greatly to receive the promised reward. The truth is, this is what will happen, failure will happen if our dependence is upon a faith produced from our own resources. The faith we seek that will sustain is the faith that God gives. It is a type of faith that is as enduring as it needs to be until He glorifies us in His presence.

               The object of our salvation is to conform us to Christ so that we may glorify Him in all we do. To the degree we fail in our likeness to Christ, is the same degree of our diminishing His glory. If we would only believe that tarnishing the glory of Christ by disobedience is tantamount to blaspheming Christ, we would be far more adept at recognizing our sin, repenting of it, and pleading with Christ for a pure heart. Our sin does the devil’s work for Him. He also looks to rob Christ of the honor due His name. How sad when Christ’s own people are willing to help Him in this work—and we do so by often replying to the pleas of the Holy Spirit that we cannot help our sin.

               I encourage you to consider the first verse of Isaiah 51: “Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” This refers to the impossibility of outward circumstances. Abraham was past the age to be a father. Sarah’s womb was dry and withered so there was no possibility that God could make good on His promise. Sarah laughed when told she would have a child. The calculation of this entire passage is for us to always trust God and lean on His ability to transform us into the fully glorifying people of Jesus Christ.

               We leave most of the meaning of scriptures untouched. Often, we do it by not paying attention to the words of the songs we sing. Each song attaches to biblical truth. Explore beyond the presentation of the musical tunes you like to find the message God has for you in the song.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

          As I read my Bible each day, I often come across a verse, a sentence, or a phrase that prompts me to think I have just uncovered a wonderful text for a sermon. Most times these snippets do not make sermon status, but they may be the underpinnings of a sermon point. Lately, I have focused my mind on the direction of the small number of people left in our congregation and whether the small remnant will stick closely together and obey the Bible when certain liberal changes might help add to our diminishing numbers. As I thought on this dilemma a few weeks ago, my reading in 1 Samuel brought me to this verse in chapter 14. 1 Samuel 14:6:  “And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.”

          Jonathan’s comment to his companion regarded a much stronger enemy in the garrison of the Philistines who obviously had the power to defeat two foolish men who dared to challenge them. Although Jonathan lived much earlier than the prophet Zechariah, still his faith in God taught him what Zechariah would say years later: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.” Countless times Israel won victories that were impossible to win. God told the nation in the beginning not to worry about horses and chariots and the size of her armies. He does not need help to overcome the many adversaries Satan can line up against us.

          We can be sure of this—Satan continually gathers his army. We will never find ourselves in a superior position with the shear numbers of Christians we can call on to help us. We are always the physical minority and if we focus on our small number, we will never muster the courage to attack Satan on his own ground. We are, however, spiritually superior. God and one might as well be God and a million. All God needs is people willing to put up a fight against spiritual darkness. Once those people have surrendered to the power of God to work in them, they are an unconquerable force.

          I troubled myself in my thoughts when I thought how many more blows the church can withstand. I need not concern myself with it. I will not alter the outcome of any spiritual battle. Amazingly, the only way I sway a battle is if I do not become involved at all. If you are careless about service to God and you wonder what God will do with us, you have your answer without being a brilliant theologian. God works through His people. If they are not in the path of righteousness where He can use them, and if they are not concerned whether we should have a church at all, the Lord will respect our carelessness and withdraw. If we will stay in the fight, He promises to save no matter how many or how few are on our side.

Pastor V. Mark Smith