Author: Berean Baptist

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

This morning, we are happy to return from our vacation to enjoy the fellowship of our own church. Visiting other churches while traveling is a good time to help us remember the many reasons we love our church so much. Other churches may offer more programs, they may have more professionals on staff, and they may have better aesthetics than we experience here. The major truth about their superlatives is that these peripherals are not what makes a church. The church consists of people who love each other and are common in their commitment to serve the Lord in their community. A beautiful building is not integral to this experience. Pastor Wilson Maungo, our missionary in Kenya, selects a tree and gathers the church under its branches to hear the word of the Lord. New churches do not come with new buildings. If a building could do the trick, none of the members who moved from here would achieve anything but success in finding not one church but many. Sadly, their nearly unanimous experience is weeks, months, and maybe a lifetime finding nothing like what they left. My point is we enjoy hearing the word in other churches, but none, as good as they may be at many things, is as good as home.

I wanted to say this to you before reaching the purpose of this article. Four weeks ago, the bulletin article paralleled the sermon I was to bring on that day. Instead, Pam went to the hospital, and I had to postpone the sermon until now. I find myself in need of a new article for the same sermon. We will discuss parables today as Mark chapter 4 records four parables Jesus used to teach His disciples. We note these parables were not easy illustrations that everyone could understand. Jesus explained them to His disciples privately while He offered no explanations as He taught publicly. Jesus told His disciples He intended the truths taught in the parables for them and for no others. Quoting from Isaiah, Jesus said the people would see but not perceive and they would hear but not understand. Because they rejected Him so often, He turned off the light of spiritual understanding and left them in the dark. We might not like the implications, but we cannot deny the results. He said it Himself. He did not allow their conversion nor the forgiveness of their sins.

The import of His actions shows that salvation is not possible unless God grants repentance and faith. The person who hears the gospel should not mistake that he cannot at any time he chooses begin to follow Christ and obey His teachings. The first problem is that no one wants God’s ways. Secondly, no one loves God. Thirdly, no one listens to God in a way that makes a salvific change in him. Fourthly, salvation comes at God’s decree and by God’s choice not ours. Clear examples of this are Jesus’ quotation from Isaiah and the message a few weeks ago from Ezekiel. The prophet stood before a valley of dead dry bones and told them to hear the word of the Lord. It will not happen until the day and hour that the Holy Spirit uses the word to penetrate the spiritual darkness that blinds everyone to the truth. It will not happen until the Spirit breathes spiritual life into those dead in sin and dull in their understanding.

The parables in Mark 4 make sense to you because you have heard them many times. Theologians write books to explain them. Read a few of them and you will discover widespread disagreements. The truth remains that Holy Spirit guidance is still necessary. Only God can open the sinner’s eyes to perceive and his ears to understand. When He grants perception and understanding, the result is always conversion and forgiveness. We are pleased Berean teaches these truths when so many do not. It makes all the difference in which church we want to attend.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Fourteen years ago, I decided to write a weekly article for our bulletin. You are aware that in 2019, several of our families secretly conspired to compile these articles and publish them in a beautiful volume of over 700 pages. The book was a surprise gift and I placed it prominently among far lesser works on my bookshelf. This volume is the product of hours and weeks of labor which continues as you read this article. Discovering my subjects is often difficult and so it is today as I began the week with a migraine headache on Sunday night which still abides on Thursday afternoon. Concentration is difficult and keeping thoughts in order is challenging. This happened to me in 2020 while video recording a sermon during the church shutdown. To my dismay, I had my Bible upside down while trying to read which was more than a little confusing. I am sure you often think this must be my problem. Today, I see words backwards and cannot keep my hands in the proper position on the keyboard. All this makes for great difficulty completing this article. Ah, but I made the commitment, and I must.

As I thought about this, it drew me to the subject of last week’s sermon. I spoke and wrote on the valley of the dead dry bones in Ezekiel 37. I compared this to the spiritual condition of every sinner who without divine power has no ability to hear Christ, understand Him, and come to Him. He is no more capable than a body left to decay over many hot summer days in the blazing desert sun. All flesh has rotted from the bones. Wild animals scattered them, disjointing them without a complete skeleton found among them. The picture is stark and the comparison frightening.

With more thought, my current state of mind supplies another example of helplessness. I cannot think straight with this headache. Pain strains my cognitive abilities (more than usual). Like disjointed bones, I struggle to connect thoughts. This is also the condition in which Christ finds the sinner. Do you recall in your lifetime rationalized denial of incontrovertible facts as if centuries of human advancements have disappeared? Yesterday, my wife found a man in the women’s restroom at Kaiser—discovered by seeing feet turned the wrong way underneath the adjoining stall.

Is this normal? Well, yes, in a sense it is. It is normal for a reprobate mind. It is normal for skulls with brains dried up from roasting in the overglow of hell. Mutilating bodies, gender switching, pride in perversion, pedophiles cross-dressing for the entertainment of preschool children—it’s all normal for the crowd that will populate the underworld.

So, I sit, and I write, and I think my confusion from a headache is not normal for me. I cannot think very well because of a medical condition. I will get over this, or at least from experience I believe I will. However, I know from God’s word that these others who see the world opposite of the way God created it will never recover. They have never been right and never will be unless awakened spiritually and remade with fresh brains, with bones connected and flesh covering them and operational as they should be. For too long, the skull connection was at the wrong end of the body. This much I can clearly perceive.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

I remember writing an article a few years back about the advantages of a long tenure as pastor of the church. The average pastorate today is only about 2-3 years, and I am happy to have met and exceeded that statistic many years ago. In 21 years, I have ministered to hundreds of people. As you see, most have moved on, but I am pleased to report their absence is not mostly because of dissatisfaction with the church. Death claims some, politics takes others (California’s not ours), retirement, job opportunities, economic conditions, fear surprisingly—there are many reasons. I hope and pray those still living remember me teaching them the word of truth. If this is the case, God deserves the glory.

Most of these relationships are memorable. Except for a few in the beginning who never took hold in a meaningful way, there is hardly anyone I have forgotten. There are only a few the church is better off without but that assessment is ultimately God’s not mine. Again, happily, I call those who left, friends, and I hope in glory to reunite with them, if not before.

Another great blessing of lengthy ministry is the volume of sermons prepared and preached from this pulpit. The number is better than 2500. You would scarcely think I would preach this many messages and not deal with the same subject many times. I certainly have and continue to. This is the nature of teaching scriptures. I must bring you back to the same fountain many times. God designed His word with repetition in mind. You cannot read it once, hear it once, study it once, and expect to keep it in memory. If you could, we would have exhausted the value of the Bible in a few short years. Rather, this fountain is deep and wide. We could apply verses from Ezekiel 47 to describe it—waters to the ankles, waters to the knees, waters to the waist, waters deep enough to swim in, and finally, a river impossible to cross.

All this brings me to my point—2500 sermons and 2499 forgotten. I am pleased if you have remembered last week’s exposition. With so many forgotten sermons, I am free to repeat. I chose to do this today. I have favorite sermons on which you may not concur (honestly, you don’t remember). This one from Ezekiel takes me back too many years. Hundreds, or more like thousands of preachers have preached from this unusual text. It is a passage with wonderful spiritual applications apart from the literal past partial fulfillment and the still yet future perfect fulfillment. One day, Christ’s literal glorious Kingdom will come to this earth. No one will need to move then for any reason. The entire world will be a Garden of Eden with every need met and universal happiness. Groaning creatures will groan no more. Ezekiel 37 predicts the reunification of Israel’s kingdom with the restoration of the Davidic throne. David’s last and everlasting descendant will sit on it.

The spiritual application is my subject today. Spiritually, we are born dead. We are as dead as bleached dry bones left under a hot burning sun. No life, no ability, no thoughts, no activity, no hope of understanding who, why, and what we are. In other words, we are nothing, we have nothing, we expect nothing. The only way we do is by the power of an external, eternal living being. He gives us life. This is what I hope to show you today. When I am through, I hope you say, “Blessed be God for Jesus Christ!”

Pastor V. Mark Smith

              In today’s message, I will give you an introduction to parables. This message precedes a series of five messages on the parables of Mark chapter 4. Some parables are simple enough on the surface, but only because we are already familiar with them from other studies. However, some are quite difficult, and their meaning is the subject of much debate. I suppose the worst abuse of parables is interpretive abuse. This often happens in eschatological debate, especially among those who try to prove millennial positions with them. Too often they read meaning into the parable that is more than the original intent.

              I want to focus in this article on interpreting the Holy Scriptures and the abuse of them. Whether parables or any other literary form in the Bible, we are not free to attach any meaning we like. Indeed, this is the claim of many who reject the truths of the Bible. They say, “Well, that’s your interpretation, and here is what I think.” What either of us thinks is not the question. We want to know what the Bible says. What ways can we avoid this claim, that is, the claim of those who have self-serving interpretations? How do we avoid mistaken interpretations of scripture used to support false doctrines? We ought not to believe it is not a problem, hence the reason we still have the name Baptist on our sign. The name should distinguish our doctrinal interpretations from those with differing viewpoints of scripture.

              The best approach is to let the Bible speak for itself. Read the text and look for the obvious. Often, reading more than one verse helps because a verse taken out of context can fit with self-serving doctrines. We more often find the explanation in the surrounding text; thus, we cannot overemphasize reading within the context. The Bible is a marvelously complicated book only understood by those with Holy Spirit enlightenment. It is certainly smaller than an encyclopedia of religion. It is a volume with more intricacies and essential connections than any book or books written by the most prolific authors. It is small wonder that theologians have written many commentaries with multiple multiplicities to explain it and yet I assure you tomorrow will bring another one.

              For you, it seems a daunting task. We need not believe we can approach the Holy Writ casually with little effort and come away with its truths. Even the fundamentals are the subject of vast controversies. For now, as we look at this literary form, parables, in scripture, be aware of forced overbearing interpretations. We run into trouble when the only support for our pet doctrine is a scrambled parable with a forced unintended meaning. If you have the right interpretation, it will not force other scriptures to fit with it. God is too great to make the mistakes we make with His word. Johnny Cochran, by no means a theologian, said, “If the glove doesn’t fit…” You know where to take the analogy from there.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Today the church is privileged to sit at the Lord’s Table for our last observance of the year. Another year of remembrance is past and reminds us of our connection to the first church that observed what Christ would do, not what He already had done. The first Supper began as the Passover meal. The disciples practiced and attended these each year since they were children. Although they walked with Jesus for three years, they were mistaken and unaware of the meaning of what He told them so many times before. In Mark 10:33, Jesus said, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.”

In Mark’s narrative, it seems the disciples took little note of this as James and John preferred to discuss their desires with Jesus. Instead of agonizing with the same agony in their spirits as He did in His, they asked for better positions in glory. How Jesus would achieve this glory was either a small matter or completely missed by them. The cruel suffering of the cross was unimaginable. If they could know it by experience, all they would know is what criminals went through as they as mortals suffer and die. No one knows the compounding of suffering Jesus experienced. Placed on Him were the sins of generations of sinners and the aggregate suffering they would endure in the fires of infinite eternal hell. This measurement lies outside the realm of human understanding. Though we should live a million years in heaven, we will never fathom what Jesus went through.

Jesus told them only briefly at the last Supper. As He held up the bread, He said, “Take eat, this is my body.” And then the cup, “This is the blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.” Startling words but not enough understanding for them to inquire more deeply. He finished by telling them each would take offense because of Him, and they would flee from Him. More demonstrably, Peter would deny Him three times before the night was through.

Despite their protests to the contrary, they proved their weakness when they followed Him to the Garden of Gethsemane. He asked them to sit and wait while He went off by Himself to pray. He returned to find them asleep. He went off twice more and returned to find the same result. “Could you not watch with me one hour?” How could they go with Him on the cruel journey He was about to make? While they slept, He prayed in agony so great His Father dispatched an angel to keep His body from expiring before the cross.

As we sit at this table today, we scarcely have more understanding than theirs. We partake of the symbols of body and blood but there is no reenactment of the scene. We do not crucify Christ again. He asks only our faith that He did all His Father needed from Him. Though each of us must have extreme gratitude for His incomparable sacrifice, we will always fall short of knowing its unmeasurable value. For this, Christ says to return here often enough to refresh ourselves in what little we can understand. We purposely limit our approaches so as not to become too familiar and rote in its observance. We should look forward to it with hope and expectation that the Lord who died for us will soon return for us.

On that night, Jesus told His disciples, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there you may be also.” Let us partake with this sincere promise fresh in our minds as the anchor of our faith.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. (1 Samuel 2:1-2)

If you remember, I took our Call to Worship last week from 1 Samuel chapter 2. I thought it might be good to make a few comments about the reading since I do not usually make comments about our first reading of the day. Think back to it if you will. The first ten verses of the chapter are the prayer of Hannah as she praised God for the gift of a child. This child was Samuel who was a unique man in Israel’s history. We hope that most Christians would aspire that God use them in at least one special way, while Samuel held multiple offices of service for God’s people. He was a priest, a prophet, a judge, a military commander, and God’s choice to anoint both Saul and David as kings of Israel.

I could spend much time with Samuel and there are two books of the Bible named for him. Rather, I choose to speak of his mother Hannah, who in the time of the Judges, was a godly believer. This was unusual when so many refused to listen to God and chose their own way rather than obey and worship the Lord. Even the High Priest of Israel, Eli, was unreliable as a good example, moral influence, or faithful leader for Israel. When he saw Hannah praying silently at the tabernacle, he assumed she was drunk. Such were the expectations because drunken women in those days must not have been that unusual.

Hannah’s prayer after Samuel’s birth is a model of faith, thanksgiving, and devotion. She knew her God and she knew what God designed for her. She was a woman who wanted nothing greater than to be a mother. For years she tried but was unable, for God did not see fit to open her womb. Hannah’s desperation caused her to vow a special promise that she would give up her son for God’s service if God would allow her to have a child. God’s pause for so many years to grant her desire was to bring her to make this vow. She kept Samuel only until she weaned him from her breast and then took him to Eli at the tabernacle. As long as he lived, he belonged to God. She only came to visit him at the time of the yearly sacrifice. Otherwise, he stayed in Eli’s care to become God’s servant. Thankfully, he listened more to God than to Eli. Because Hannah kept her vow, God did not leave her sorrowful without her child. He blessed her five times over by giving her three more sons and two daughters.

As you would expect, I come to this story with purpose of a contemporary nature. It was on the day I wrote this article that I read in the news about the renewed efforts of this government administration to push for more access to abortion. They claim that women should have power over their own bodies to choose which children should live or die. This administration says it is not the purview of males or the government to make laws prohibiting this. We do not need to make laws about childbirth because God declared His law long ago. Hannah said, “My horn is exalted in the Lord.” This is strange language for us but common in the scriptures. A horn is a sign of strength. Hannah referred to the strength God gave her to bear children. Her choice was not her choice but God’s.

Despite Supreme Court justices unable to define a woman, we need not despair for God supplies the definition. Though this is not the only characteristic, a woman has in her body strength a man does not have. He may have brute strength as amazingly and surprisingly noted by the dominance of transgender (?) athletes, but he has no power over his body for this. God made the womb for the implantation of a miraculous zygote that attaches and begins the growth of a little human who bears the image of God. Heaven forbids anyone to destroy God’s image because a baby is an inconvenience.

The actions of this administration are a Romans 1 problem in so many ways we lose count. Who is better? I do not necessarily have a name, but it cannot be anyone with determination to kill the innocent by government fiat. It would never work for Israel, and it cannot work for us. Choose this day whom you will serve. Is it your politics, or is it God?

Pastor V. Mark Smith

A few days ago, I sat in my office at home working on an upcoming sermon. Variations of this duty fill most of my days. It takes time to prepare sermons and make all the peripherals of the sermon come together for the Sunday morning service. The material for the printed outlines, the PowerPoint presentation, choice of scriptures for our readings, writing the bulletin articles—these are just a few of the necessary parts for conducting the service. As you can see, the tasks at hand will not allow my mind to stray too far away. Each day plants me squarely in the middle of scripture.

On this day, it was cool enough to leave the window in my office open. It was shortly after the local schools dismissed their students in the afternoon when I could hear the conversations of these young people as they walked along the sidewalk in front of my house. Their conversations are at times breathtaking. In my day, we used to comment that some people “curse like a sailor.” We understand the expression despite some sailors do not curse. Jarred rudely from my concentration in my studies, this is what came to mind. What I heard was not the filthy talk of sailors but some of the worst language I have heard any adult speak. These were school children in their normal conversation. There was no anger. No one was fighting. It was their regular fare, just their normal vocabulary.

As I thought about the sermon for this week, the evil speech of the scribes in Jerusalem constructed parallels. They were part of the religious ruling class of Israel who used nothing less than the worst language imaginable. Their comments were not about ordinary affairs but directed towards the activities of Jesus. Our English translation spares us from the details of intended meanings. However, make no mistake the original readers of Mark’s gospel well understood their intent.

In today’s message, I will tone it down to the G-rated version. These comments were against the Holy God whose purity defies our ability to understand. To compare the Christ to demons or working with the power of demons is beyond the depths of our minds. We do not know the nature of our crimes if we take part. This is so deep in the well of mire and filth that no daylight exists. Indeed, Jesus said there is no forgiveness for it.

Returning to the speech of the school children, I dare say they speak what they know by watching television, listening to their music, buried in their phones, and yes, hearing their parents in their normal conversation at home. Neither parents nor child knows the weight of sin contained in their speech especially if God’s name is there. The third commandment prohibits this language. I find it hugely interesting that in Mark 3, Jesus mentioned the Holy Spirit. The speech of the scribes offended the Holy Spirit. Listen to Paul in his letter to the Ephesians: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice…” (Ephesians 4:29-31).

Many Christians have no clue what they do when they lace their conversations with filthy language. What comes out in speech is the same as thoughts lodged in the heart. Read Mark 7:20-23 in conjunction with these thoughts. We hear so much filth every day from Christians and non-Christians that we consider it normal speech. God does not. It is the territory of the unforgiveable. Think carefully before you open your mouth. Speak no evil.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Today’s message from the Gospel of Mark delves into questions about the way Jesus treated His family. Our text in chapter 3 at first appears that Jesus showed disrespect to His mother and brothers. While Jesus was addressing the multitudes of people always following Him, His family came asking others to inform Him they were outside waiting to talk to Him. Upon hearing this, Jesus said, “Who is my mother, or my brethren?” In our English translation, it appears as a curt, disrespectful answer. Would Jesus show such insolence, or would He always keep the commandment to honor His father and mother?

For those who want to find fault in Him and thus disqualify Him from being the sinless Messiah, any port in a storm will do. The truth is that Jesus would never break any of the commandments especially one that stands at the head of the second table of the law. This is the fifth law that commands us to honor our father and mother. This commandment is the first relating to societal order which takes up the duty of believers towards our fellow man. The second table begins the fulfilling of the second greatest commandment which is to love our neighbor as ourselves. If there is a social gospel, this is it. The true social gospel is faith in Christ that works outwardly towards the treatment of our fellow man with love and respect, and to honestly wish his best welfare. God loves people, and to be like Him we must love them too.

I speak this cautiously because loving souls is different from saying we must be tolerant of evil lifestyles and to live and let live. We do not love our neighbors if we do nothing to correct them. We do no favors for anyone by letting them continue in a lifestyle that is against the Holy Word of God. We are to warn offenders about the wrath to come.

I wonder sometimes what people think the warnings of God’s word are for if God says we are to keep quiet and tolerate every evil perversion. What could we warn people against if there are no consequences for their behavior? How could we love anyone that we care too little about to warn them that sin brings destruction and eternal death in the fires of hell? To love a person is to bring him to Jesus Christ. To love him is to tell him to turn from his sins, to repent of them, and to trust Christ who is the only one who can save him. To love him is to teach him to worship God in spirit and in truth. This means forsaking sinful lifestyles that God so clearly says are against His holiness.

The social issue that Christians are most concerned with is our action towards the lost unbelievers of this world. It is not our judgment that counts. It is God’s judgment, and the word shows us how to judge righteous judgment. It not only shows us; it demands that we do it. God does not tell us to tolerate sin but to purge it from us. It is not governmental action that will do this. Its solution is to plead with the heart through the grace of God for repentance and faith.

The sum of this is that rejection of God’s commandments is rejection of God. There is no peace and prosperity in the rejection of God. There is only this—the bypassing of the blood of Christ and trampling beneath the feet His holy sacrifice. We will not circumvent God’s righteous retribution by preaching tolerance. To live and let live is a fantasy. It is live and let die if we do not fight for the justice of the commandments. Leaving people alone to die in their sins is not love. When most say peace and love, understand they mean let everyone do their own thing. To do so without intervention is to condemn lost souls to eternal hell.

Pastor V. Mark Smith