Author: Berean Baptist

In the past two weeks, our study of Mark’s gospel has been in the first part of chapter 5. This is the story of Jesus’ encounter with the demoniac of Gadara. This was a man inhabited by thousands of demons. The story is intriguing and piques our interest as we dive deeper into its components. Today, we will finish and next week we will move on to another subject. I am sure Satan will approve of us forgetting him for awhile as another subject occupies our attention.

Two weeks ago, I read an interesting article about how we may hear about Satan and his activities, and we are quick to acknowledge his existence and the horrible ways he works in the worst forms of evil we can imagine. Soon after, we lost our alarm. Yes, Satan orchestrates abortions, sex trafficking, pornography, drugs, murders, and all the vices that plague our society. These past two weeks I am sure you thought more about Satan than you have for weeks. Discussions of encounters with Satan filled our Sunday Afternoon Forum Class.

Next week when we move on from Satan, our thoughts of him will diminish and we will experience much less alarm with his works. Many will not think of him at all as you listen to news reports of evils that continually confront us. Satan’s presence will fade from our consciousness and with it our careful vigilance to beware of entrapment by what Paul calls “the wiles of the devil.”

In Mark 5, the frightful description we use is “demon possession.” This is a condition we think happens to others who are far out there and not close enough to concern ourselves with it. Another word that should concern us is “influence.” The Bible says Satan is “the god of this world.” What would the god of this world do? He would and does influence everything that happens in his world. He actively controls it to affect his purposes. We need more awareness of Satan’s presence and activities than a three-part sermon.

Where is Satan at work? I will give one example. I believe one of the scariest places is not a séance but in the heart of the beginning of society. I mean those who will shape our society in the future. Who are they? Our children. What is Satan’s means? Our educational system. He starts at the lowest level, influencing the way our children think. Gender dysphoria confuses children about who and what they are by purging their brains of their developing common sense. Left alone without influence, what happens to children? They develop their natural sexual inclinations, marry each other, and start families. We do not need to teach them about proper attraction. Humanity has survived thousands of years without the need to discuss sexual orientation. In rare cases it went off, either we made course corrections, or we separated the affected for the harm they do. After these thousands of years, why is there now so much confusion? It is not difficult and needs little research. It starts with teachers teaching something different. We call them “influencers” and “groomers.” Behind them is the god of this world laboring to suppress natural affection to destroy humanity—those made in the image of God. Imagine for a moment if for these thousands of years homosexuality was normal. You cannot because you would not be here to imagine it.

I have just hit a small part of the Titanic’s iceberg. With more time and space, the applications are as wide and varied as there are subjects. In one article, I told you to leave the devil alone. Leave him alone but never forget he is real, and he is here.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

In our study today, we return to Mark chapter 5 and Jesus’ encounter with the maniac of Gadara. This man’s problem was demon possession, a condition Jesus healed him of, set him free, and changed his life from the darkness of Satan to the light of the gospel. It is an incident recorded in the gospel style to show Jesus’ power over all things visible and invisible. The submission of demons to Jesus’ authority proved His superiority over the spiritual dimension.

A scripture that stands out in my mind is 2 Corinthians 11:14-15. The apostle says Satan transforms himself into an angel of light and his ministers do the same. They work the way Satan works. They do not show themselves as manipulators of evil but as ministers of righteousness. In last week’s message, I told you to look for demons in places you would never expect them to be. And truly in this country, there are more demons in church than anywhere we can look. Satan is not busy making atheists and agnostics. We do not confront Islamic proselytization, but there are certainly multiple false evangelists. The worst harm happens in the steepled church or in the one that rents warehouse space with blacked out ceilings and stage lights illuminating gyrating false worship and bad bands on the platform.

The messenger misses the gospel and inaccurately interprets (or ignores) biblical doctrines. He twists truth to be a near likeness but not close enough. Usually, the devil does not work with outlandish extremes. He hovers near what seems reasonable and has imagined support from the scriptures. We may think we can easily refute Satan’s ministers. We think the Bible is clear enough in the doctrines we know, but if we are not familiar with Satan’s abilities, we will be stuck in arguments we cannot win and potentially sucked in by lies ourselves. Jesus warned of this when He said if it were possible these false ministers could deceive the elect. He does not imply it is possible for saved people to be deceived to the destruction of their souls, but warns false prophets are good enough at what they do to cause doubts and mislead believers into losing their influence for truth.

Interestingly, in this verse of Matthew 24:24, Jesus said the deception will come through signs and wonders. Is not Jesus,’ John’s, and Paul’s warnings for the present-day church? Who practices signs and wonders? Who claims unknown tongues are evidence of salvation? Who claims a second work of the Holy Spirit to secure salvation or to reach a level of higher spirituality? Who claims extrabiblical revelation? And importantly, who claims to have greater ability to deal with Satan? On this point, I agree. Satan’s ministers know Satan better than all of us. Only Jesus stands above in the spiritual world. Only He knows more about Satan than them. Jesus said Satan does not cast out Satan or else his kingdom divides and cannot stand.

Whenever you hear and see the false prophets of signs and wonders rebuke Satan, be confident Satan has not gone anywhere. He only increases his deception and control of his own. Satan is a constant nightmare for those without Christ and a continual nuisance for those with Him. Christ will come again to end this. Until He does, be sure you know enough about the way Satan works that you can defend the truth against his wily deceivers.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Today, we begin our study of Mark 5 and another of Jesus’ miracles in which He showed God’s power over the supernatural powers of darkness. The apostle Paul spoke of this power in Ephesians 6 warning us that the Christian life is one in which we fight against a non-human enemy. We fight against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places. These enemies and this warfare are not imaginary. They are as real as flesh and blood as if we could see it and touch it. We are to take the warning seriously, but at the same time, we must be cautious how we engage it and careful about the misinformation spawned by these evil powers. They disguise themselves and hide their activities in places we do not expect to find them. What is their favorite hiding place? Look for demons in houses of worship.

Incorrect teaching about demons is common among those who believe they have special insight into and powers to deal with demons. When people become overly interested in the spiritual world, their minds are ripe for plundering and deception. An example is the charismatic churches who believe in speaking in tongues, healings, and surprisingly, the power to cast out demons. Erroneously, they teach there are demons of special sins like fear, alcohol, tobacco, depression—or anything you have trouble dealing with and cannot get rid of. The special powers of the one who exorcises these demons drives them out, and when they go out, there is a physical expression of their leaving. The late R.C. Sproul wrote: “Others say we can recognize the departure of a demon from a human soul by a manifest sign that is linked to the particular point of bondage. I have listened to recorded talks from well-known deliverance ministers (whose names I will not mention, to protect the guilty) in which they teach the signs of departure of the demon. A sigh, for example, indicates the departure of the demon of tobacco. Since the tobacco demon enters with the inhalation of smoke, he leaves with an audible exhale. Likewise, vomiting may be the sign of departure of the demon of alcohol. There are demons for every conceivable sin. Not only must each one of these demons be exorcized, but there are necessary procedures to keep them from returning on a daily basis.” I agree with Sproul who also wrote: “I have no polite way to respond to this kind of teaching. It is unmitigated nonsense.” This is true of much of charismatic teachings.

Without doubt, the doctrinal underpinning of the charismatic churches is the belief in tongues which they call a spiritual angelic language. The worst forms of it—beyond those who parrot or are faking or have hyped-up imaginations—are truly demon possessed. False teachers sometimes fool Christians and they mix them up with charismatic doctrines. Although fooled, a demon cannot inhabit them. The demon possessed are not Christians looking for deliverance but Satan’s plants to confuse and obfuscate truth.

Many, if not all the insistent proponent teachers of this wickedness fall into this category. Careful observation yields a mesmerizing spirit of demonic powers. Twisting the word of God with most unholy blasphemy is their teaching about the Holy Spirit, about prosperity, and being able to control demons, is the demon himself disguising his activities.

In today’s study, I will only scrape the surface of this problem as we look at Jesus’ encounter with the maniac of Gadara. I will introduce the subject by explaining demons. In no sense do I encourage you to do anything more than look at the biblical record. The world has nothing to offer on this but confusion and experiences that are unhealthy, unspiritual—quite frankly—demonic.

Thank God the true Christian has protection. We can learn truth without fear that the devil can shake us away from our faith. Best advice—leave the devil alone. Fight him when you must but otherwise let him and his followers continue to self-deceive. God will deal with them in His time.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Today’s message takes us into the Old Testament to learn the background of one of the New Testament’s most famous chapters. This is the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3. At the time of this conversation, there were no New Testament books which meant the entirety of scriptures was the Old Testament much of which the leaders of Israel committed to memory. Not having chapter and verse divisions and with scriptures written on long scrolls meant the religiously educated were very good in their knowledge of scripture. Jesus marveled at Nicodemus, a ruling elder in Israel, with his lack of understanding when He asked in verse 10, “You are a master in Israel, and you don’t know this?” The subject was regeneration and how God secretly affects it above our comprehension.

From this point, Jesus treated him as a man without understanding even though He well knew the training Nicodemus received in the scriptures. He asked, “If I have told you of earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you understand if I tell you of heavenly things?” And then, like a youngster, Jesus led him to the Old Testament account of Moses and the fiery serpents in the wilderness. To be fair, how would we understand this event in Numbers without Jesus’ explanation in John 3? He certainly put a new twist on it for Nicodemus. Jesus gave the true meaning of the symbol. The serpent on the pole was emblematic of Him whom God sent to the cross to bear the sins of all who trust Him. God must lift His Son as a sacrifice to die for forgiveness of sins and to reconcile us to God through His death. Through this sacrifice, believers would have peace with God and own eternal life.

The Bible does not record Nicodemus’ further reaction to this enlightenment. I believe it is a good assumption that either then or sometime soon after Nicodemus came to trust Christ as his Saviour. The Bible describes how he helped Joseph of Arimathea prepare Jesus’ body for burial. This was not the act of an unbeliever, for this action outed Nicodemus to the Jewish elders of the prestigious Sanhedrin of which he was a member.

The existence of the serpent of brass does not find its end in Numbers 21. Amazingly, Moses did not melt this fashioned serpent and make it into a bowl or drinking vessel. Israel kept the serpent as a memorial. Scriptures do not tell us its use and whether Moses at times would bring it out to remind them of God’s anger and His power to save them. It was seven hundred years later before the scribes wrote of it in the records of the Kings of Israel. When King Hezekiah returned Judah to the worship of the one true God, part of his reforms involved this serpent of brass. “He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.” (2 Kings 18:4).

Interestingly, in the centuries after Moses made the serpent, the people converted it to the opposite of God’s intention. They made an idol of it and worshipped it as a god with healing or divining powers. Nehushtan was its name, a descriptive name, meaning simply “serpent of brass.” In a sense, Nicodemus had no more sense of how to worship God than these ancient Israelites. He too trusted a religion of self—of his own hands. This religion is still alive in the world in greater splendor than the gleaming serpent. It is a religion that God will destroy with the brightness of Christ’s return.

The first Sunday of 2024 is a good time to strike down self, the perverted serpent of brass, and exalt Jesus Christ. Like Nicodemus, come out and identify with Christ. Own Him or He will break you in pieces.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

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

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