Month: July 2026

               In this week’s study of the Gospel of Mark, we finish the exposition of the Last Supper. Our subject for this sermon is the benediction as our Lord and His apostles ended their fellowship meal with the singing of a hymn. Mark wrote, “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” Today’s exposition is a brief journey into the type of hymn they used and the possible subjects of the verses they sang.

               Hymnology has been a significant and special part of the worship of Jehovah God since Israel began formal worship in the construction of the tabernacle, a place where He would meet with His people. Moses instructed formal songs in Exodus 15 and Deuteronomy 31:19, 30 with the words of the former in chapter 32. In Numbers 10 during the wilderness wanderings, musical instruments received approval to enhance worship. God specifically chose Levites for them and all worship duties in the tabernacle and temple. Thus, when David formalized worship duties in preparation for building the temple, the order was specific and proceeded with strict protocols (1 Chronicles 25). At the dedication of the temple by Solomon, he used David’s arrangement with the Levitical singers dressed in fine linen accompanied by 120 priests blowing trumpets (2 Chronicles 5:12-14). The scene and sounds were overwhelmingly magnificent. A cloud of the glory of the Lord followed their refrain of praise, “For he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.” The cloud filled the house of God preventing the priests from their ministrations. Hundreds of years later, Hezekiah restored David’s original musical arrangements in his reforms. The notation follows that the commandment was from the Lord (2 Chronicles 29:25-28).

               This is a remarkable history which shows that singing songs and playing instruments in the worship setting is well-pleasing to God. The New Testament church did not abandon this practice. Ephesians 5:18-21 says the filling of the Holy Spirit will result in worshipping God in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Colossians 3:16-17 parallels this thought that singing is by the grace of God. I would ask you to remember Moses received the worship order of the tabernacle and temple as a pattern of the heavenly (Hebrews 9:23). We should not be surprised that music would be a part of heavenly worship (Revelation 5:9, 14:3, 15:1-3).

               What impression do we receive from these inspiring examples from scripture? If you conclude the singing and instrumentation of the church should sound like back-alley trash cans banging with musicians and artists (?) who are without an ounce of understanding or godly consecration when entering God’s presence, we get what today’s churches mostly have. None of it needs to be professional, much less does it need those who think they are professionals. What musical performances in churches do you think would rank with God’s commands in Exodus or 2 Chronicles, or would pass the barest muster of angelic review?

               If music were our greatest concern, we might well fix it with thoughtful adjustments. Sadly, the music permitted in churches stems from the preaching permitted in pulpits. The scriptures speak of people with “itching ears” who want weak, unsound doctrine to satisfy their lusts rather than hearing godly reprimands for their sin. Will they do something more substantial and praiseworthy with music? No, the tin sounding beer-swilling of a honkey-tonk will do. This would be amusing and unimaginable in our minds if it did not ring so true.

               I have heard magnificent choirs and trained soloists and other musicians in churches. I thank God for the beautiful, sweet sounds of both them and enthralling congregational singing. My article is not purposely critical of them. As desirable as they may be, God gifts churches differently. Our worship is not less sweet than theirs when we say, “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.”

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Deuteronomy 32:7a

               After each vacation, I can heartily say that I am pleased to return to the pulpit of the Berean Baptist Church. The time away induced more reflection than usual. While we always trust the Lord as our strength and sustenance, discouragement happens when longing for seemingly better days in the past. Obviously, visits to Kentucky provoke misty-eyed remembrances of marriage and the birth of our children. A self-imposed honorific visiting the gravesites of my wife and of my father and mother are important parts of the Kentucky rituals. This trip also included solemnizing a wedding and seeing dear old friends which broadened my reflections of the past.

               Although I have now lived in California for thirty years, the greater part and most active parts of my life were in Kentucky. Those were the formative years which you may blame for my peculiarities. Experience, though, is a different matter. Being a pastor means intimately experiencing the difficulties of varied lives. You manage yours and your family’s while applause or blaming for the joy/grief of otherwise strangers is either my fault or my talent. Too often, godly counsel and direct preaching receive the blame for messy situations God’s people are unwilling to clean up. Shooting the messenger is their easiest solution.

Unless you choose psychiatry or psychology as a profession, no one cares to own these types of responsibilities. There are observers who tell me they would like to have my job perhaps because they want authority and recognition while others truly desire more advanced opportunities to serve the Lord. In his explanation of the duties of pastors and deacons, Paul encouraged this desirable determination by saying, “For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree…” Likewise, pastors achieve approbation: “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.” The Bible never discourages us from desiring rewards for our labor. Our Lord offers them for incentive not for a greedy heart but for the sincerity of those who will endure heartache for faithful service.

The deceptive allure of authority and recognition are not eternal but temporary rewards. They lead to dishonesty, situational ethics, and ultimately heresies. It would be counterproductive for me to encourage distrust of pastors. Understanding this, I caution you about pastors who want all authority, who intrude unnecessarily into private lives and decisions that normally lie beyond the purview of the pastorate, and who instead of warranted godly respect prefer adulation and hero worship.

The scriptures make us aware of the dangers of pride. No one in the church has more potential for it than the pastor. Peter issued a solemn warning countermanding the too frequent narcissism of haughty leaders: “Neither as being lords over God’s heritage…” Pulling in the young, inexperienced, and impressionable, he encourages the proper response to the godly pastor who first molds himself to his own teaching. “…be subject one to another…be clothed with humility…God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”

The remembrances of former years are part of what I used to guide my learning experiences in the pastorate. Father, mother, wife, family, and godly friends have been my solid companions. The Lord uses them now to ward off disappointment, depression, and discouragement. This sounds too much like an alliterated three-part sermon I do not care to write.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

               Before panicking about my title, consider it may take two weeks to understand it fully. In the past month, I have finished another readthrough of Exodus, the second book of Moses, as he recounts his personal experience of guiding Israel out of Egypt and into their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. During this time, God gave Israel their centuries-long form of tabernacle/temple worship. In the past twenty-four years, I have used more sermon time on tabernacle worship than any other single subject. Of course, the tabernacle was not a single subject as it affects nearly every Bible doctrine, especially soteriology which is the Bible’s most important.

               The lessons gleaned about how God works in this world are abundant. I remember our first foray through the tabernacle in 2005. In those days, it was new to the congregation and perhaps a bit puzzling. To some it was overly redundant, and yet the redundancy is one of the Bible’s primary emphases. God never changes. He will not act differently from one situation to another. At times, it may appear so, but these are accommodations for human understanding. Remember, we sit beneath an incomprehensible God. His ways are past finding out, and neither does He require us to inquire beyond what the Bible is pleased to tell us.

               As I read the middle chapters of Exodus, Israel had escaped Egypt by God’s powerful miracle of parting the Red Sea. Who in modern times has not read this with the vision of Charlton Heston (Moses) holding his staff with arms outstretched over the sea and the wall of water standing on each side as Israel passed through on dry ground? A column of cloud/fire held Pharaoh and his army back until Israel was safely across. Pursuing after them, Moses closed the sea upon the Egyptian army. The path vanished, and men, horses, and chariots struggled beneath the surface as they drowned in the catastrophe. Exodus 15 is Moses’ song of deliverance that praises God for the miracle of Egypt’s death and Israel’s survival.

               Beginning here after seeing the mighty hand of God working in their lives, comes years of doubt and disobedience finally culminating in the death of the entire generation that left Egypt before Joshua completed the desert sojourn. This failure of faithfulness came amidst the most demanding and symbolic representations of the holy God that any civilization has seen. There is as much outstanding doctrinal teaching here as any place in scripture. The extreme radical depravity of the human heart is set against the incomparable righteousness of the holy God. It underlines a critical truth of scripture: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

               In the wake of this inescapable conclusion, stands a claim that salvation in the Old Testament was different than in the New. The claim says Israel labored in a dispensation in which faith and works were both requirements for salvation. Only in the new dispensation of the New Testament is faith the only requirement. I plan to refute this woeful misinterpretation and prove it destroys the gospel. Sadly, I have worked my way to the limit of bulletin space. I need to return in the second part to finish what I began. Since the immutability of God and the consistency of His salvation has headlined so much of my ministry of nearly a quarter of a century, I feel like a failure if this teaching were to gain any standing in this church. Israel’s glaring fifteen-hundred-year failure accentuates the accomplishments of Christ at the cross.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

               Good morning to the Berean Church of Rohnert Park! I am sorry I am personally unable to say these usual words of salutation from the Berean pulpit. I explained my absence in last week’s article, and if all went as expected, the wedding is over and a new family begun. Otherwise, I am probably in a deep counselling session wiping away someone’s tears or beating the life out of them. No need to burden you with this since my premonitions are not really that good.

               I always feel a sense of deep gratitude for you who continue without me. Perhaps I overestimate my value to the church, nevertheless I am happy that duty coincides with desire. You can do this without me, but I have no desire you should. As I get older, I realize sooner than later this will be our reality. Pastoring the church is an everyday learning experience. It is a test to see if I believe relinquishing personal control will not matter because it meshes with the Lord’s control. If I step outside that box, it is best I am not here.

               Perhaps you wonder how I start well and then become melancholic. It is both physical and spiritual, which for me may be in the wrong order. Physically, the longer I sit looking at the computer screen, the sicker I become. I wrote this on the first day at the computer after receiving a prescription change in my glasses. It was dizzying like an amusement park ride. There was nothing at all amusing and you may feel dizzy reading this. Neither is it an excuse for a change in mental focus that you should need to bear. Rather, I will place the blame on the spiritual. As I wrote, a wandering thought came into my head. I recently read Joseph’s oath imposed on his brothers at his death: “And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.” I have read these verses countless times. This time they had their impact as I sat staring at them. There are multiple reasons for Joseph’s request, but why are they so important to me? And why is it important now and not so much at the other multiple visitations to the same text?

               The scriptures tell us to read and meditate. Our meditations do not need to come in high doses immediately upon laying our Bibles down. At what seems to be the oddest times, we recall scripture. This is when they have their highest value because it means scripture is then ruling our lives. What does a promise to carry up ancient bones mean to us? It means we have not forgotten God’s promises and that we laid a solid foundation that still supports. Thus, if I am gone, carry-up my bones. It is another way of quoting the apostle Paul: “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

               Whew! Nearly four hundred years is a long time to remember me. Look at the pictures of pastors on the wall in Buerer Hall. Who was number 3? Less than sixty years and not a single bone remains. Even the picture refreshes no one’s memory. I believe you can guess the reason being melancholic is not so unusual after all.

Pastor V. Mark Smith