Ribbons and Markers

Berean Baptist on June 30, 2025

(We originally published this article in February 2025)

Knowing I must write articles with timeliness to meet printing deadlines, I sometimes write far in advance. I am sure you noticed last week that I must have written before my dear wife Pam went to be with the Lord, which left some of the wording a little awkward. I will never come up against such a date again, so I chose to leave the article as it was hoping you would understand the primary intent. It was not just about Pam and what I am doing but more so what you should do regarding prioritizing family. Now that she is gone, my time away from you may seem a little selfish. I want to keep emphasizing how blessed I am that my church cares to give me time to grieve. The many notices I have received made this clear even though I assume no official action of the church was taken. 

Now, I hope to move on although my wife of more than fifty years will always be with me. I still have something to say before I do. Bulletin articles have become harder as of late since my mind has been flooded with too many thoughts to calculate. After meeting with the funeral director, I came back to my daughter’s house with a list of items that needed attention. Clarissa took care of most of them, but some required personal attention. Two were difficult—a brief comment for the ribbon on the casket spray and likewise for the gravestone marker. “Loving wife” and “devoted mother” are quite common and exceedingly true for Pam. Somehow, they were not the direction I wanted to go. I sat for a few minutes after my sister asked if I had decided on the ribbon. She was taking care of the flowers and had her deadline. At that moment thoughts of who to thank, who to be most grateful to because of the gift Pam was, led me to say, “I think the ribbon should say, ‘To God be the Glory.’” Clarissa suggested a variation that I was most pleased to accept—“Soli Deo Gloria.” My sister questioned whether many would understand what this meant. “Not in my church,” was the reply: “Glory to God alone.” I decided this would also be on the gravestone.

I have given my life at Berean to expounding the doctrines of Soli Deo Gloria, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, and Sola Scriptura (Glory to God Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone, Scripture Alone.) It is not difficult to believe that during the apostles’ ministry and then immediately after their deaths, the old serpent, Satan, was at work to destroy belief in God’s work alone in our salvation. A system of works righteousness headed by men and perpetuated by an apostate church introduced a meritocracy by which the guilt of sin could be removed but not the punishment of it. Christ death was not enough therefore this church introduced a requirement of purgatory for punishment until each person completed the suffering required which Christ death did not satisfy. This apostate church grew rich selling indulgences for sin (and they still do—see Jubilee) and set the price through the centuries for families to pay to retrieve their loved ones from this awful place and grant their entrance into heaven.

I could spend countless time and energy explaining the horrible harm the doctrines of this church have done to millions and how they have trampled the blood of the atonement of Jesus Christ beneath their feet. True suffering in the lake of fire from which no one ever escapes awaits those who live and die in this system. No amount of good works in this life will ever attain to the worth of Christ’s blood. When I put the praise of Soli Deo Gloria on Pam’s casket and tomb, it is her testimony that she is now, immediately in the presence of Jesus Christ. He is her Saviour who died that no guilt or punishment would be assigned to her. Grace alone and faith in Jesus Christ alone is her guarantee. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)   When she received Christ at 15, she was alive unto God forever. Thus, I will end today. My wife never preached a sermon in her life, but she preached a remarkable one in her death.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

The Righteousness Of The Saints

Berean Baptist on June 9, 2025

(Original January 2025)

As I sit to draft this article early on Sunday morning, I look out the window to see snow falling leaving a fresh blanket of white across the valley behind my daughter’s house. This is where Pam and I spent last summer with her in the hospital and then in this same house trying to get her strong enough to return home. She would be delighted to see the snow as snowy days were the ones she loved the best. As I sit here, Pam’s funeral is a few days away and I must fulfill my duty of producing a bulletin article for the coming week. Thoughts are difficult to form, and I think you might expect that what I produce would lean heavily on the exact things that run through my mind. Naturally, these are thoughts of her. At the same time, I do not want you to regard the next weeks of bulletin articles as the Pamela Smith Memorial Anthology.

If you will indulge me today, I look at the snow, I see the bright white cleanness, and I think of the purity of a place called heaven where Pam enjoys her everlasting fellowship with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The scriptures often use white to represent both the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and the righteousness of the saints whom He makes this way because He washed them in His precious blood. Pam was a member of the Lord’s church, which the scriptures call the Lamb’s wife. Revelation 19:8 tells us about the church in glory: “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”

I am sure you and I could sit and commiserate for a good while on the imperfections each of us has and we would be here for hours if we tried to list them all. It is difficult for us to think that in heaven we can sit for eternity and stare each other in the eyes the whole time and not think of one thing we would like to see done differently in the eternal lives of our companions. We find nothing to criticize because the righteousness of the saints is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Every blemish of the lives we lived here were buried with Him in the grave over which He gloriously triumphed.

Reading further into the Revelation, there is a promise that nothing defiling will ever enter the heavenly city that would spoil the blessed peace and contentment of that exquisite place. The curse of sin is forever gone, the throne of God is in the midst of it, we see the face of Christ, and His name is written in our foreheads to show we are His servants who live forever under His powerful protection.

I am happy to sit here at the table looking out the window at the snow. If thoughts of Christ occupy my mind while I think of my love gone away, I am blessed. I know most will lose or have lost their loved ones and no such thoughts ever cross their minds because they never lived with the peace that passes understanding. I sorrow, this is for sure, but sorrow is tempered when I think of Pam wearing white while gorgeously reflecting the perfection of her Saviour. If you will, give me this peace to contemplate for a while for surely the Lord intends it for my comfort as I too belong to Him.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Home And The Bible

Berean Baptist on June 2, 2025

              In the past few weeks, our studies in Mark have taken us to the family matters of marriage and children. The timing may seem odd for us since most of us are beyond the years of children in the home where we raise them and give them our guidance. Though my children left the home years ago, I am legitimately concerned by the amount of biblical teaching my grandchildren receive. If I can help in that process, I want to be of as much use as I can. I believe our practices here at Berean concerning God’s word are good models to use in the home. If you can pass these along for use with your grandchildren, you can maintain the good influence you would like to have. I appreciate these pointers from a recent article I read on Ligonier.org that paralleled much of what I preached from our pulpit.

               I believe the first practice that will help us is to encourage the reading of the entire Bible. Many parents buy their children Bible story books which is not a bad practice, but it is not where you want to leave them once they are old enough to learn more. However, many adults keep the same practice in their adult years. They always gravitate to familiar passages such as Old Testament stories, the Gospel adventures, or well-travelled scriptures on favorite doctrines. We avoid this in the Berean pulpit ministry by using verse by verse exposition. We cover every scripture without avoiding the more difficult portions of the word.

               Another good practice is praying through the Bible. Our congregational readings take us through varied portions of the Bible. After we read our selection, we consider parts of the readings in our prayers and ask God to fulfill its various meanings in us. This causes us to contemplate scriptures, to meditate on them, and take them deeper into our souls for sincere guidance.

               I would be remiss not to insist that hearing the word of God preached is critical for our sanctification. We should take children to church for regular instruction in the Word and its application in everyday life. For this to be effective, we must live the word in the presence of our children. Hypocrisy will turn them away. What does not work for us is not likely to convince them the Bible is the best path for them. It reminds me of our discussion in Deuteronomy 6 and the quotation of the shema. Moses commanded Israel to keep the commandments of God always on their minds by talking about them in the home, discussing them when away from the home, and speaking of them in all of life’s activities.

               I remember the example of my parents when I was a child. Every Sunday we had an hour and a half trip to church and the same time returning afterwards. My sister and I often fought in the back seat, but we also had plenty of times of singing and rehearsing the stories we heard. I can confidently say out of our constant practice of reading, singing, and praying the word, we learned the grand objective: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” This is what it takes for the word to be more than external. It becomes internal and takes its place in our heart.

Pastor V. Mark Smith