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For the past few weeks, I have used my nighttime devotions to review the doctrines of the faith in the format of systematic theology. Some of you may not understand these terms and are not clear what we mean by systematic. Do not feel too bad about not knowing this technical term because you are not alone. I remember speaking to a pastor at the Shepherd’s Conference a few years ago who was making his first trip to this type of conference. As we discussed the differences between the Shepherd’s Conference and the typical conferences he regularly attended, I mentioned that the Shepherd’s was far more beneficial to me because of their commitment to systematic theology fit my method of preaching. He looked at me strangely and said, “What is systematic theology?” If you do not know the meaning, you have plenty of company.

Before I answer this question, it is necessary to understand the meaning of theology. A simple definition requires breaking the word down into its two Greek roots which are theos meaning “God” and logos meaning “word.” Often you hear me say that Jesus Christ is the divine living logos, which means the divine living word. The written word of God is the Bible, and it is from the Bible that we derive systematic theology or the organization of the teachings of the Bible into similar themes. For example, sections of systematic theology would include such topics as the Trinity, the doctrine of Christ (Christology), the doctrine of man (Anthropology), the doctrine of the church (Ecclesiology) and one that for many people is the most popular, the doctrine of the end times (Eschatology). A systematic theology divides each of these into subtopics that describe the various aspects of the category. There are more than I have mentioned, but these help you understand that systematic theology is not complicated in concept but only involves gathering doctrinal topics from the Bible and organizing them into their shared areas of study.

Most Bible students will readily recognize the advantages of this type of study because in the process we learn the entirety of the Bible on its many subjects. We learn how these many different topics mix and complement each other and blend into the whole picture of God’s relationship with man and how He works in His entire creation. As we study the word of God this way, we learn the complete Christian faith and the complexity of it.

Although you might not recognize the term, members of this church most certainly recognize that systematic theology is our method. For years we have broken down the doctrines of the faith into preaching series and even in our verse-by-verse expositions of the Bible I separate the doctrines encountered as we go through each chapter and explain what these doctrines mean in the context of each narrative and their relationship to other parts of the word of God. When you hear me call out scriptures that take us back and forth across the pages of the Bible, you are hearing the unfolding of the doctrines of the faith.

One of the blessed advantages of studying the Bible this way is to reach a better understanding of our God. Many Christians are content to know they are on the way to heaven but are not too much concerned about the intricacies of God’s marvelous plan for getting them there. This is not my time to preach, but at least you should be pleased to know that from here to eternity God marked a path to follow and whether you understand every detail, He will not fail to accomplish the completion of the journey for your good and His glory.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Last week’s message brought us to the ending of Mark chapter 8 in which Jesus introduced the radical thought that He would soon die on the cross. If you will allow me to expand, I want to take us back there. As we examine verse 34, Jesus did not directly say His manner of death would be a cross, but rather that anyone who would follow Him must be willing to deny himself and take up his cross. Whether the disciples fully understood His abstract usage of cross was a sign of His literal manner of death is debatable. Although Jesus had spoken of the reality of His death, He had not yet defined the method by which He would die. If this way of speaking struck no chords of meaning during His life, they certainly did when the Holy Spirit came to teach them and cause them to recall all the words Jesus had spoken.

               The disciples learned that cross-bearing is a sign of true discipleship, for the one who rejects this call upon his life rejects the will of the Father to exalt Jesus Christ as Lord of all. Salvation means agreement with the Father and submission to the Saviour as the one who has ultimate control over the sinner’s life. There is no salvation unless there is commitment to Him as Lord. This statement is fundamentally basic, simple, and plain, yet much of the evangelical world rejects a gospel that says the sinner must receive Jesus as Lord of our lives. They erroneously claim we can receive Him as Saviour without the necessity of knowing Him as Lord.

               For the good faithful members of Berean, this thought is as foreign to us as hearing the Mormons preach that one day we will live on and rule our own planet. Yes, rejection of Christ as Lord is almost plain silliness if it not for the tragedy that many who have Baptist over their church doors believe and teach this. Thus, the plea to lost sinners goes out: “Will you receive Jesus as your Saviour?” However, the Bible never asks this question. The scriptures call Jesus Saviour ten times, while over seven hundred times they call Him Lord. Paul wrote in Romans, “Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” and Jesus said, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” The connection to Jesus as Lord is the connection of doing the will of the Father. In other words, receiving Him as Lord is indispensable to the salvation of our souls.

               Taking us back to Mark chapter 8, Jesus demanded for the sake of their eternal lives, the disciples must assume a life of dying to their old desires and walking in the newness of life in Him. There can be no shame or reservation in following Him else the Saviour whom we reject as Lord will reject us in the presence of His Father.

               Many commentators describe Mark as a fast-paced gospel. Mark hits his doctrinal nails squarely on the head and drives them home without repeated or glancing blows. When the doctrine is this concise and spoken with such clarity, there is little room for conjecture and argument. Who can read these last verses of Mark and conclude Jesus does not demand absolute full commitment to Him? Neither the disciples nor anyone else will accept the way of the cross unless they sell out their lives fully to Him.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

               Our Sunday morning subject last week and again today relate to the command of the Lord Christ to hoist up our cross, to take it up and follow Him. We learn in these messages that living for Christ is not an easy road to travel and will often leave us scarred, harried, and worn out from the struggles of mounting obstacles that are nearly impossible to overcome. When we think of the cross, the picture comes to mind of Christ carrying the cross that was built for Him by cruel men who beat Him unmercifully and then demanded in His painful, weakened condition to carry that same cross to the place where they would nail Him to it, raise it into the air, and drop it a hole with a bone jarring thud. It is utterly amazing that anyone seeing such a spectacle would think for a moment it is the life they would choose.

               This description of the cross is one needful for us to hear because none of us has seen such a horrible event. Our justice asks for no cruel and unusual punishment, while demanding a man on death row should receive the finest last meal and then have the sentence of death conducted as painlessly as possible. In fact, we shudder at the pain suffered in death sentences to the extent that extremely few criminals receive a sentence of death.

               People in the first century were well acquainted with death on the cross as Rome executed their sentences to strike fear into the hearts of those who dared resist Roman rule. The cross was not a piece of jewelry to wear around the neck but a frightening proposal for all who dared think of it. This view of the cross is what challenged the apostles daily as they spoke of Christ the Godman who did in fact suffer this cruel death. Imagine this vivid picture in the mind’s eye of a potential convert and then for God to task you with the responsibility of convincing them this is what they should choose for themselves. None of us would think we could do it—and we are right. My description, though, is not quite right. Yes, the apostles were responsible to speak the necessity of Christ’s death for the salvation of souls, but they did not have responsibility to convince anyone to believe. This is impossible and requires divine intervention by God’s Holy Spirit.

               The same is true of taking up our cross to follow Christ. We will not do it in our natural human strength. We cannot lift this heavy load any more than Christ could physically lift His cross in His excruciatingly painful weakened condition. To lift our cross requires the Holy Spirit to fill us and to deaden our natural senses until we can resist the pull of the world on us. The evil forces of darkness against us implore us to forget our commitment to Christ and to follow our natural desires. They never encourage us to forsake self and give all to Christ. To do this, we must always remember, “Greater is He that is you, than he that is in the world.”

               Following Christ faithfully without wavering from the path of righteousness is beyond difficult. To endure the difficulties, the place reached by treading this path must be exceedingly better and grander than the place we leave behind. I have no trouble with this part. We have our incentive to endure to the end because of God’s promise of the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and never fades away. We must pick up our painful cross, but then the Holy Word of God promises we will at last lay it down in in the glorious victory of the triumphant cross.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

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

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

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

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

Pastor V. Mark Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pastor V. Mark Smith

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

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

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

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

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Over the years, there were times I used the bulletin space to add comments to sermons I preached previously, or to emphasize a point in more detail for the sermon I preached on that Sunday morning. Today, I look back to last week and the sermon A Sad Day for Galilee. There is not a true Christian who does not wish that Christ were present with us at this very moment. We long for Christ to come, but also wonder what it would be like if we could live in the physical presence of Jesus as the disciples in the first century did. Would we immensely enjoy His presence and understand all His words, or would we be shortsighted and weak in faith as the disciples often were?

         The answers to these questions are not difficult. We not only have sufficient samplings of Christ teachings in the Bible, but we also have the advantage of the Bible authors’ examination and explanations of His teachings. Along with these are centuries of solid commentaries written by faithful expositors of the scriptures. These extra availabilities are the work of the Holy Spirit using men to guide us into the truths of God’s word. We can know Christ because looking into the scriptures is like looking directly into His eyes. When we examine what we have compared to what the disciples did not have, there is no excuse for us to fall short of their understanding of Christ’s words.

         What is our excuse for not experiencing the same types of advancements that caused Christianity to circle the globe and become the greatest religion known to earth’s inhabitants? There is no excuse. Our failure centers in our lack of dedication to spend time learning the word and gaining strength by our fellowship with God’s people in His church. Our failure is weak discipleship without conviction to live as Christ commanded.

         This reminds me of the rich man in hell and his conversation with Abraham. The rich man suffered torment and asked Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead as a warning for his brothers to believe in Christ and avoid the awful punishment of that place. Abraham told him his brothers had Moses and the prophets as their witnesses. If they would not believe their witness, they would not believe the warnings of one returned from the dead. There are extensive important teachings from this story in Luke 16. One of these we should not miss is that the Bible is the best and only way to obtain knowledge of Christ. If the scriptures are not sufficient, we have no hope of salvation.

         Would we be better Christians if Christ sat in front of us and conversed with us daily? No, there is no proof we would. Like thousands in Galilee that were only interested is satisfying selfish lusts, so we reject the brightest light we have. Thus, we have gross lifestyles that have infiltrated the church and threaten to destroy it from the inside. We punch holes in the bottom of salvation’s boat and expect we will never sink. We are sinking. Christian feet are wet while we claim we ride in Jesus’ boat. It is a sad day for us as our boat goes down. Salvation looks us in the eyes while we are too busy to do anything other than look at us. The world says to look for our authentic self. Christ tells us to reject all such thoughts. The Christian life hides with Christ in God. Unless you are what Christ is—unless Christ is what you claim to be, you neither know Him nor your authentic self.

         Would you be better off if Christ were within sight of your physical eyes? No, only further condemned for aggravated rejection of His truth.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

               It is a welcome, exceptionally good feeling to return to our home church this Sunday morning. We have greatly missed the fellowship of those in our covenant relationship within the Lord’s church. We thank God for your continued faithfulness to Him and the work He calls us to do. Often, the times and the seasons discourage us but thank Him for His promise never to leave us or forsake us.

               We love this church because of your love for God’s word. With the diversity of opinions about what passes for acceptable preaching, it is difficult to gauge the value of the thirst for it. The most prominent desire of hearers is earthly pleasure and whatever satisfies felt needs. Churches center their attention on their core figure—easily identified as self.

               The first part of today’s message reminds us of what Christians should live for. We enjoy the blessing of living in the freedom of the United States and with our economic prosperity as a bonus. These are benefits that most Christians throughout the centuries have not enjoyed. There is little doubt these advantages have captured our hearts leaving us with a lesser reward than what should be the pursuit of our lives. We should reshape our driving motivation for the Lord’s work by living in the hope of Christ’s return.

               The Second Coming impresses us with the urgency of reaching out with the gospel. If we believed what we preach, our attitude about sharing the good news would be much different than it appears now. We sing songs and preach sermons that speak of the imminent return of Christ, and yet there is not an intense concern that today could be our last day. If it were our last day, the focus would not be on us and what happens to us. We know the answer to this delightful question. The answer is not the same and is vastly unappealing to those who have not heard and believed the gospel. We do not urgently pursue conversions because from pulpit to pew we live with much less expectancy.

               The scriptures also use the Second Coming as encouragement for our moral lives. John said we should live so as not to be ashamed when Christ appears. I remember hearing this as a child growing up in church. These types of messages motivated me more than any others. I was far less afraid of hell than of Christ finding me doing what I should not be doing. When the preacher made Christ’s coming real enough, I wanted to be careful of every move I made. A simple child-like faith is often more sensitive than what many believe is mature faith. Our mature faith says we know too much to be excited with guesswork.

               Peter also encouraged us to godliness by the theme of Christ’s return. He asked, “What kind of people should we be considering the world and everything in it will be burned up?” Likewise, Paul used the same motivation. He wrote, “When Christ who is our life shall appear…” He follows this with a significant list of our former sins and commanded us to put to death these sins that cause God’s wrath on children of disobedience.

               I will add one more reason to think on Christ’s return. This strikes closer to home and is a daily prayer at our house. We want our Lord to return because it results in our transformation. This earthly body ravaged by sickness will transition into a glorified body made like that of Jesus Christ. John said we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. It is true that death will bring the same relief from pain but with infinitely less spectacle. I would rather pray for the return of Christ than the death of my wife. One I will do, the other I will not do.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Psalm 44

          In the last few weeks, my daily Bible reading has centered in the Old Testament books of the Pentateuch. The great prophet Moses wrote these first five books of the Hebrew scriptures which chronicle the accounts of creation and the history of the beginning of the nation of Israel. The story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and their wanderings in the wilderness consumes four of these five books and contain within them miraculous works of God’s deliverance. Israel’s experience with divine providence in the exodus is an often-repeated theme in both Old and New Testaments.

          Psalm 44 gives us one of the varieties of usages for the exodus theme. Have you ever felt abandoned by God, and you lack a discernable reason for it? Have you examined your heart for sin and found you have done your best to serve God, and yet despite your best-efforts, you cannot find Him? If this is how you feel, you have just hit upon the author’s dilemma in this psalm.

          We do not know the author although we do know he was a descendant of Korah. This means the time of writing falls into the 1000-year period from the exodus to the end of the Old Testament. Israel had just suffered a stunning military defeat, and the psalmist did not understand the reason God did not come to their aid. There were times in Israel’s past when the reason for defeat was clear. These times connected to obvious sins, usually the sin of idolatry, when Israel fell into the worship of false gods. This was not one of those times nor of other known sins which makes their defeat more puzzling.

          The psalm divides into three parts. The first eight verses are about the past as the psalmist remembers the stories told by his forebears about the Almighty God’s marvelous deliverances from their enemies. This section ends with the admission that each victory was because of God, not because of Israel’s military might.

          The next section (vv. 9-22) is about the present. This is the psalmist’s lament as he tries to understand their defeat and why God did not care. The third section (vv. 23-26) is about the future as the psalmist is sure that God would not forget them, and he expected God to help. He cries out for God to awaken from sleep—a metaphor for God’s inattention.

How much this reminds us of that fearful night when a boisterous sea tossed the disciples’ boat. While they rowed and worried, Jesus slept in the boat. The tumult of the sea did not bother Him. The disciples’ fearful pleas for help awakened Him. A hymnist expressed their words this way: “Carest thou not that we perish? How canst Thou lie asleep, when each moment so madly is threatening a grave in the angry deep?” Jesus was not troubled. He awoke and said, “Peace be still.”

          The psalm does not give the explanation for this instance of God’s refusal to help Israel. However, we know the character of God. He said He would never leave us or forsake us. If we think He has, we know it must be for His divine purposes. Sometimes trials come upon us simply because Christ calls us to suffer for Him. Peter wrote: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:12-13).  Paul also often mentions the sufferings of Christians, even his own, as being divine providence. This is often hard for us to understand just as it was for Christians in the early centuries who suffered under extreme persecution. We notice, however, they always held on. They were firm and steadfast and waited for God’s deliverance. Sometimes the deliverance was death—but death is no problem when the destination is the glories of heaven.

Christians today need to do what the psalmist did. Look back to the past and remember the victories we have won in Christ. Examine yourself in the present to make sure sin is not your problem. Consider the future because you know God will never abandon you. When your feelings tell you God is not with you, be sure His Spirit testifies He is. He is closer than in your boat—He is in your heart. Another hymnist related the sentiments of God’s heart: “Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed, for I am thy God, and will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.”

Pastor V. Mark Smith

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? (Psalms 42:2)

          As the chosen children of God, we should truly desire to meet God. Deep in our souls there should be anxiety to meet Him, but not the dreaded type of anxiety we usually think of when we use the word. Our anxiety is of a different sort. It is eagerness. It is not anxiety pent up as if to meet God is to face our doom. Instead, it is like a child who cannot wait on Christmas Eve to open all his presents. The 42^nd Psalm expresses this eagerness in another way by using the term thirsteth. The psalmist’s desire to see His Lord was as a man dying of thirst in the desert and seeing a beautiful flowing spring in the distance.

The psalmist said, “My soul thirsteth for God, the living God…” You might suppose “the living God” would not need to be an often-repeated phrase in scripture for surely nothing is clearer than the fact we serve a living God. The first chapter of the Bible does not announce the existence of the living God. Rather, the author assumes there must be a living God who made this marvelous universe. God’s majesty is evident across the heavens, so do we really need a chapter that explains there is a living God?

          The theme of this section of the psalms is deliverance. It corresponds to God’s deliverance of Israel during the exodus. This phrase “the living God” appears in the book of Joshua as the Israelites were ready to cross the Jordan River to attack the fortified city of Jericho. This is the point where they would begin the conquest of Canaan.

In front of them was their first obstacle. How would they get an army across the river when it was at flood stage? In chapter 3 verse 10, Joshua explained that they were about to see the evidence of the living God, or as a direct quote, “the living God is among you.” The evidence announced itself when the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant stepped their feet into the waters of the Jordan River. The river immediately stopped flowing and they crossed on dry ground. This was no small feat—a miracle at any time—but especially since at this time of year the river overflowed its banks. A torrent of water cascaded down the channel making it impossible to cross.

To stop the water at their crossing point, meant that God must also stop all the tributaries from flowing as well. In the 16th verse, this is what happened. Joshua said, “The waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.”

          The significance of the phrase “the living God” in Joshua is Israel’s confrontation with an enemy that also had their gods. The enemy was formidable and certainly more warlike than the children of Israel. One of the fears of Israel when they attempted to conquer Canaan was the Canaanite’s iron chariots and their plentitude of horses. Israel did not have these and were at a great disadvantage—except for the living God. Canaan’s fortified cities and armaments were no match for the living God. The gods of the Canaanites were dead gods of stone, and their horses were mere creatures that God created with the spoken word. He could as easily destroy them all with only a thought.

          This kind of genuine deliverance makes this section of Psalm 42 fit its section’s motif. Trust in the living God is the foundation of our great hope. The living God ensures the reality of our faith. This is the God that we shall see—as Job said, “In my flesh, shall I see God” (Job 19:26). He ever lives and is working in the world to bring us to Him.

          The psalmist said in this verse that his soul thirsted for God. How do we satisfy this thirst? There is only one way—we drink from the wells of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). Living waters from the living God—what can be more satisfying?

Pastor V. Mark Smith

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand. (Psalms 37:23-24)

Each day we walk through our difficult life, we think about our confidence in Christ. Others wonder how we think like this when our journey here should be much easier than it is. As the scriptures say, they will mock our hope in Christ’s return, and they think it foolish that we give up so much to serve a dead man. The 37^th Psalm reflects on the hardships of the Christian life and how we regularly fall behind in the prosperity of the world. The Word encourages us not to despair because this life is as good as it gets for the wicked. Though the evil man may appear to be prosperous, his prosperity is a mirage. He may clutch his title deed to the earth for a while, but soon God will take everything he has away. The earth belongs to God and is the inheritance of His people (v. 11).

          The psalm fills the troubled Christian with hope, but none is better than the words of verses 23 and 24. Think carefully on this phrase: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD…” These are the most hopeful words you will ever read. They speak of two great doctrines of the faith—God’s divine providence and God’s sovereign predestination. There is not a step you will ever take that God did not know you would take. He knows because He is the one that puts one foot in front of the other.

          When God formed the world by His spoken word, He knew a race would inhabit it that He had chosen for His name. The beginning of man was in the predestination of God, and we dare not think that after He created, He abruptly relinquished His divine providence. The fall in the Garden was not a surprise to Him and neither was how He would restore everything lost in that devastating event. If God should have relinquished control at that awful hour, there is not one soul that would ever have hope of redemption. Through the fall, we became completely corrupted. It radically altered every faculty of man so that sin consumes us through and through. This radical corruption is what we call total depravity, and it left man in such a state that we are incapable of looking up to God and helping ourselves in any way. We will not look because we care not to look. The scriptures say we became the enemies of God and of His righteousness. If God should leave us alone in our depravity, we are hopeless because we do not have the power or will to escape it.

          The scriptures do not present a God who has abandoned us. We are enabled to come back to Him for one reason—His marvelous grace. In regeneration, He changes our disposition from hostility against His grace to openness to receive His grace. He orders the steps of repentance and faith. If you trust Christ as Saviour, you owe your trust to a sovereign act of the Holy Spirit. You did not change your mind; He changed your mind. Our statement of faith accurately says: “[He] secure[s] our voluntary obedience to the gospel” (Article 7). God’s method leaves Him alone responsible in all ways for our salvation.

          With the tremendous costliness of salvation requiring the death of Christ for sin, how can we imagine that God who bought our redemption with blood should permit us to fall permanently? When we fall, God does not cast us off. In the bleakest hour of our deepest despair, God still has His eye on us. He fully intends to raise us again and put us back upon the solid rock. The timing of His lifting is also His alone. We know it cannot be too long because the time of life is nothing compared to eternity. Our long time is God’s brief time.

          The promise is providentially intact. He sees with His eye but goes much further—He holds with His hands. We know we can never sink too low to be beneath His tender embrace. We often say, “Keep the faith!” We shall because it is God’s power not ours that keeps us (1 Peter 1:5).

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded… Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. (James 4:7,8,10)

In these past few weeks, I have been thinking about the relationship between the trials we experience and the righteousness of our lifestyles. The psalmist asked God to try his heart to see if there was wickedness in it, and if found to lead him from it and into the ways of everlasting life. These thoughts lead me to the epistle of James, one of the most practical treatises on Christian living found in scripture.

James has answers to common problems that plague Christians. He addresses issues such as persecution, poverty, sorrows, and pain. He says in the first chapter, “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” He speaks of the equality of the saints in chapter two by telling us we should not unduly favor the rich over the poor which is an example of how prone we are to bad judgment. Chapter three is about a foul mouth, and in this culture, it is obvious evil speech is pervasive.

         Chapter four is no different as James addresses the most fundamental of all Christian problems; that is, we are in a constant battle with Satan as he tempts us to deny our faith by living in the sins of our old nature. All sin is the result of temptation, and the yielding to temptation exemplifies our forgetfulness to consider the purpose of our salvation. Christ saved us for a life of holiness and righteousness which results in unceasing dedication to His will for our lives. Living in the will of God is to live by His commandments which enable us to reach ultimate fulfillment of our purpose. Our salvation is for God’s glory. Paul says, “Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

         Since temptation is a daily ongoing problem, we must learn what to do when tempted. James provides a practical outline that if followed brings guaranteed success. The Bible does not tell us to try things to see if they work; it commands us to do them because they will work. The first step in overcoming temptation is to submit to God. Put yourself in God’s hands and be pliable enough to listen and act according to His words.

Sin is the transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4), so it makes sense that if you obey God’s commandments you will not surrender to sin’s temptations. When James says to submit to God and to resist the devil, he is speaking in military terms, but he is not speaking of hand-to-hand combat. He means to focus your attention on what God as commander has commanded, and then letting God’s word energize your mind to combat temptation. The Word is the sword of the Spirit and if you want to defeat Satan you must wield the sword.

         The example set for this kind of combat is the Lord’s own temptation in the wilderness. In each temptation, Jesus recalled words of scripture and replied to Satan “it is written.” The scriptures were His source of strength. The Psalmist said, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psa. 119:11).

         Secondly, James says “draw nigh to God.” Isaiah says that sin separates us from God. The way to get close to God is to repent of our sins. We do this by going to God in prayer and asking for His forgiveness. He is always faithful and acts justly in the forgiveness of our sins and promises to cleanse us of unrighteousness. James expressed this by “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts…” How do we do this? None of us can cleanse our own hearts; only God can. However, we can take the action which will lead to its accomplishment. You must “humble yourself in the sight of the Lord,” and then the promise follows: “and he shall lift you up.”

         David knew there were actions he must take when God searched him and found sin. James provides the outline for walking in the ways of life everlasting.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Psalms 81:10-16

         Recently I someone asked a question about Matthew 23:37 in which Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” This question concerned the ability of man to decide to believe in Christ. Is salvation a matter of the will in making a pure rational decision of the mind, or is man incapable of choosing Christ because of the depravity of his will? Still another way of asking is, “Was the will of man debilitated by the fall to the extent he is spiritually incapacitated?” These questions are important because they address the ordo salutis (order of salvation).

         This is an interesting query that would take quite a bit of time to explore fully. There is an interesting parallel to Jesus’ words in Psalm 81. The parallelism helps to explain what Jesus meant. His lament over Jerusalem is identical in thought to God’s plea for Israel in verses 10-16: “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”

         Notice the parallels: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee.” This corresponds to “Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!” How did God speak to Israel? He spoke through the same prophets that Jesus said they killed. Jesus said, “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings.” This speaks of His power of protection which is echoed by God’s words: ”I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.”

         The response of Israel in both cases was “They would not.” It is clear in the Old Testament that God is speaking of the temporal blessings Israel would have enjoyed in the establishment of her kingdom as the dominant government in the world. He would have filled His people with everything they needed (v. 10), but Israel would not listen (v. 11). In the context of Matthew 23, Jesus speaks the same. The result of Israel’s rejection, specifically the rejection of the religious rulers, was the destruction of Jerusalem and the loss of any significant role for Israel until the Second Advent. Christ did not begin His earthly kingdom during the First Advent because Israel rejected their Messiah King.

         The importance of this interpretation of scripture is to show the will of man in salvation is not under consideration in this passage. It is critical to keep scripture in context rather than wresting it from its context to support mistaken doctrines. It is far better to examine scriptures that are without doubt dealing with the question at hand. For example John 1:13:  “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Does anyone have an issue interpreting this to be a salvation verse? Another is John 5:40:  “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Is salvation a matter of the will? Most certainly, and nothing is clearer than “Ye will not come to me.” How can this verse be cast positively to argue that man’s will enables him to come when Jesus said you will not come?

         There is neither time nor space to explore this question in depth. A little reading in John chapter 6 would certainly further our understanding of the matter. It is wise for every Bible student to be sure to keep scripture in context lest you run afoul of its plain declarations.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

During my long absence this past summer, it was natural for me to think about the faithfulness of our Berean members. As God’s chosen people, fellowship in the gospel church is our highest priority. It is in the church that we receive instruction in God’s word and learn what we should do to honor and glorify Him. In the New Testament, the apostles were busy about the business of winning souls to Christ and then teaching the new disciples to band together in local assemblies. These assemblies are the same as what we call churches. Thomas Paul Simmons wrote in his systematic theology, “When one is saved, the next consideration that should claim his attention is the church. Gratitude to God for salvation should make him as conscientious about church affiliation as about matters pertaining to salvation.” This is an accurate assessment of the value placed upon church membership by the apostles in two ways. As Simmons states, there should be conscientiousness about affiliation. His primary meaning is that each Christian should carefully choose a church that is faithful to New Testament doctrine. To this we would add, a Christian should be conscientious about becoming a church member at all! Neither the apostles nor Simmons would imagine a Christian not being a part of a church.

In the Great Commission, Christ told the apostles to preach the gospel, to make disciples, to baptize them, and teach them to observe the commandments of Christ. Thus, we emphasize again a great reason to become a part of the Lord’s church. The church is the place for the teaching of God’s word. Paul explained in Ephesians that God put pastors and teachers in the church for the purpose of building the faith and knowledge of His people. Contrary to the thinking of many, the church is not primarily a place for evangelism. Teaching those who have already received Christ is our primary mandate. Since God has predestined our conformity to the image of Christ, He has given His church as a place for us to receive instruction that we might come “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).

Additionally, I would like to point out the fellowship of the church. The church is a place for Christians to come together to encourage one another. Hebrews says, “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another…” (10:25). Church membership identifies you with other Christians and is acceptance of the responsibilities of your faith. Church membership is commitment to the cause of Christ and accepting the personal responsibility of conducting the commission that Christ gave to His disciples. Our Lord gave the Great Commission to the apostles as they constituted His first church. He commissioned them as a church for the perpetual work of evangelism. It is your responsibility as a child of God to assist in obeying the commission through the work of the church.

Instructions for the church fill the New Testament. Paul wrote nine of his epistles specifically for local congregations. He wrote three for instructions to pastors and deacons and for church order. The Revelation written by John begins with a message for seven local churches. Acts is the history of the growth of the church in the first century. These books along with the gospels and the general epistles center on the church. We cannot escape the reality that the local church is the plan and purpose for God’s people today. I encourage you to be thankful for your true Bible believing church and serve God faithfully by committing yourself to its ministry. Be conscientious about your choice of affiliation. Be sure your choice is a church that is committed to sound doctrine. I can think of none better than Berean Baptist Church! Help us as we minister to this community and send the gospel around the world.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother. But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together… (Psalms 35:14-15a) 

         If I were to give a name to the 35^th Psalm, I would call it the psalm of the ungrateful. The title would not be given because David was ungrateful, for the psalms are replete with his praises and thanksgiving for the Lord’s wonderful works. Rather, I would look at the underlying issues depicted in the psalm. This is David’s plea for God to turn back his adversaries whom he once befriended but were ungrateful for his friendship. They were people he honestly cared for and prayed for, yet they turned on him and spread lies about him. I hardly think a more loyal and trustworthy friend than David could be found, but though receiving benefits from him they did not value his friendship.

         I think you can see in this assessment a striking parallel to the ungratefulness of the Jewish people that turned their backs on the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus stated clearly that He came to save them. He demonstrated boundless love and compassion by expending Himself to the state of exhaustion as day after day He healed the helpless multitude. What was His reward? “They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul” (v. 12).

         With all the helping and healing, it was very difficult, in fact impossible, to find fault in Jesus. This was exceedingly frustrating for His enemies because when seeking charges against Him they could never find any legitimate accusations. What did they do? Just as David was lied against when they said he was against Saul, so Jesus was lied against when they said He was against God and the government. The psalm says: “False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not” (v. 11).

         At the time Jesus was taken to the cross, there were plenty in Israel that had been helped by Him. There were so many they could have easily overcome the mob that was against Him. But where were they? Were they thankful? We would scarcely believe they would come to His aid when His own disciples forsook Him and fled. Despite the constant rejection of Him by Israel’s leaders, Jesus still uttered words of compassion. He truly desired even His bitter enemies to repent, and He would gather them to Him in loving forgiveness. Still there was no gratitude for His concern—only relentless attempts to murder Him.

         This psalm is a lament against such ingratitude. However, it is also a plea for true justice. Those that refuse Christ’s friendship, who live for personal gain, who care little to thank Him for their very breath—this psalm heaps upon them their righteous reward.

         We cannot help but think the same attitude prevails today. In a world that is strangely tolerant of every evil harmful to man, there is intolerance for what will do us the best. We partake of the Lord’s benefits every day, but as the old proverb goes, we bite the hand that feeds us. The psalmist says: “Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me” (v. 26). God will not tolerate ingratitude indefinitely. The second advent of Christ will not end like the first. The ungrateful will meet their demise while the righteous grateful will magnify the Lord forever. Ingratitude is a serious sin, so do not be party to it. Praise the Lord and give Him the thanks He deserves.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Reprinted 07.14.24

         The sermons and articles of the past few weeks may leave you feeling trounced and beaten to a pulp. When we preach scriptures dealing with the natural moral condition of mankind, we will not go away from them thinking too highly of ourselves. Neither should we because the scriptures force us to see ourselves as God sees us.

         In the sermon on the Memorial Day weekend, I mentioned I had been reading from the last chapters of Job. At the close of chapter 37, Job’s “comforters” had exhausted their speeches without offering Job any relief from his misery. In God’s place, they announced their wisdom and judged and condemned Job as a vile wicked sinner. Surely, the chastisement of God was on him proved by the terrible calamities he experienced that practically ruined his life.

         After these condemning speeches, God’s voice came out of the whirlwind and His scathing words seemed to confirm the assessment of Job’s comforters. This continued from chapter 38 through chapter 41. What could Job do but say, “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6). As Job’s comforters heard both God and him speak, they must have felt justified with an “I told you so” attitude. As if hearing God speak audibly in the wind was unexpected, hearing next what He said to these three wisemen of the East was the least expected of the entire ordeal. God said, “I am angry with you because you have not spoken what is right as did my servant Job.” Then God commanded each of them to offer a burnt sacrifice and ask Job to pray for them. After God burned their best wisdom to ashes like the sacrifices they would make; after obliterating their self-congratulations; this command to ask the one they eviscerated to pray for them was the ultimate humiliation. However, they knew the Lord and knew they must obey. Did they grumble at the requirement and act as if God was unjust to treat them this way? No, there is no recording of more speeches.

         In my sermon on the holiday weekend, this was in my mind as we discussed the Syrophonecian woman in Mark 7. She gladly accepted Jesus telling her she was a dog. I quoted Matthew Henry’s commentary on the reaction of Job’s three friends after God exonerated him and told them make their sacrifices. Henry wrote: “Peace with God is to be had only in his own way and upon his own terms, and they will never seem hard to those who know how to value the privilege, but they will be glad of it upon any terms, though ever so humbling.” Henry commented on a much different event than in Mark 7, and yet the underlying issue was the same.

         My thoughts were that we will never come to the type of faith God requires, until we accept how truly wicked we are. The suffering Christ endured on the cross reached its infinite intensity in view of the measurement of our crimes against God. It is beyond our ability to understand how far we are beneath the holiness of God. When we admit our sinfulness, it is not as if there is a light dusting of grime on our souls. A sense of the seriousness of our plight without Christ leads us to Henry’s conclusion. Anything God asks of us no matter how far we think it is beneath us is a valued privilege to do. We rejoice in God’s demand of humiliation—an accepted humiliation when the word of God describes exactly what we are.

         I do not preach to beat up on anyone. I preach the doctrines of the faith of Jesus Christ to exalt Him and never to let us think we deserve anything at God’s hand but judgment. If God grants the ability to miss the judgment of hell, are the terms too steep?

Pastor V. Mark Smith

          Today’s message concludes Mark 7, a chapter in which Mark carefully crafts a synopsis of Jesus’ teachings and demonstrations of the moral condition of all people. The summation is the 21^st through the 23rd verses: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” Jesus used the familiar term “heart” as the moral repository of all people. In His description was not one word of commendation for the goodness of anyone but rather the identity of a holding place for evil that may at any time erupt into the performance of immoral acts. This is one of many scriptures that signify the sinful potential of every person.

          The scripture I chose for our congregational reading is Ephesians 2 which most remember for verses 8-10. These verses tell us our salvation is by grace through faith and not by any good works we may do. Most will eagerly quote these verses without explanation of the reason they must be true. The first part of the chapter paints the dismal prospects of our moral condition. We are dead in trespasses and sins and under the control of the prince and power of the air. This power is Satan who aggravates and stirs up our evil hearts to keep us bound in its corruption. We are without desire or ability to remedy this condition. Additionally, scriptures spoken by Jesus and others say that Satan blinds us to the light of the gospel. He means Satan obscures our spiritual understanding leaving us unable to decipher the cause and the truth of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. This results in children who are not destined for eternal happiness but for the eternal destruction of hell.

          For the salvation of any person, a power greater than Satan must overcome the sinner’s natural blindness and affect a change of his sinful disposition. This power is not in us nor is there any ability to do better or to see beyond the darkness of the back of our eyelids. God must do this for us which is the reason Paul said grace, faith, and salvation are gifts of God. There is no merit in our work because no good works proceed from a corrupt heart. Thus, Jesus’ teaching of the heart’s terrible condition in Mark 7 concurs with Ephesians 2. With more space to fortify the argument for man’s total depravity and total inability, I could mention Jeremiah’s assessment of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the heart, or I could include the scripture in Job: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” Anywhere we turn in scripture, we vainly search for anything about the good moral nature of anyone without Jesus.

          It is the gross misunderstanding of this deplorable condition that leads to a more favorable reinterpretation of the method of regenerating the totally depraved. The famous, or should I say the infamous, Robert Schuler, redefined original sin as the lack of self-esteem. His redefinition affects the meaning of “born again” which he also needed to redefine. He wrote, “To be born again means that we must change from a negative to a positive self-image—from inferiority to self-esteem, from fear to love, from doubt to trust.” As Bereans, search the scriptures carefully. Do you see Jesus speaking to anyone about changing from a negative self-image to a positive one? Jesus supplied the correct definition of our moral condition. To be born again is not to change our self-esteem. It is to esteem Christ as our righteousness and ourselves as our hopelessness. Why are we not a part of the solution? It ensures we do not boast, and God receives all the glory.

                                                  Pastor V. Mark Smith

         Have you wondered how and why I chose the subjects for bulletin articles? Often, they tie into the sermon for the day and may help explain details I do not have time for in the sermon. At other times, the subjects seem random and are nothing near to the sermon subject or any event that currently affects us. These articles are the ones I struggle with the most.

         The prompt for today’s subject was our sermon text—or should I say two words in the text caused me to think. These two words are the names of Gentile cities which defined the general area where Jesus visited in Mark 7. Both are north of Israel in present day Lebanon. They are seaports on the Mediterranean Sea which entertained visitors from all parts of the Middle Eastern world. Each were wicked cities with a sordid past in their relationship with Israel. Interestingly, sailors from almost anywhere represent some of the worst of human depravity. At least this is their reputation and not without convincing evidence. Tyre and Sidon boasted of their sea power, and this of course relied on these same notoriously wicked sailors.

         These two cities were off-limits to the proud self-righteous scribes and Pharisees and were neither an obvious choice for Jesus to visit. This reputational prejudice is clear in our sermon text today as Jesus referred to the citizens of these cities as “dogs.” This was not an uncommon moniker as the Syrophoenician woman did not bristle at Jesus’ use of it.

         What brings me to the mention of Tyre and Sidon? It is a rather obscure connection. You will recognize the name of a former resident of Sidon. Her name was Jezebel who married King Ahab of Israel during the time of Elijah. She was the daughter of the Sidonian king and in today’s terms we would call her an influencer. She influenced Ahab in the worship of the heathen god Baal, who was perhaps the most prevalently notorious god of many heathen nations. This is a strange way to describe this false god as he was truly nothing. He was a god of the imagination without power to help or hurt anyone. As Paul would later say, an idol is a dumb thing and is nothing. And yet, idol worship ruled not only all the peoples of Canaan but all the other nations as well. Israel was the loner—the standout without an image to worship.

         Returning to our thoughts of Jezebel, she claims the top post, first place among wicked women. Throughout all the history of Israel, she was infamous enough for Jesus to name her in the Revelation one thousand years after her notorious life. Anyone with only a smidgen of religious background knows the name, and many others recognize her as a historical figure and a substitute description for the character of treacherous women.

         I mention Jezebel today because of the Sidonian connection to our story and the constant reminder of how womanhood has degenerated. The idols of old were wood and stone and had no power or thoughts of any kind. The imaginations of their worshippers energized them. Make no mistake, these idols are not gone from the imagination. The middleman, so-to-speak, rationally disappeared. The stone idol is gone with false worship commandeered by self, the replacement human idol. The result is the same—the rejection of Christ and the elevation of human reasoning.

         Three thousand years ago, it was child sacrifice to appease false gods (Baal, Chemosh, Ashtoreth, et. al.). Today it is child sacrifice to appease the selfish god of inconvenience. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The need of the Syrophoenician woman is the same as women need today. What do women need? Jesus Christ and the salvation of their souls is primary. Secondly, men with more backbone who act like men.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

         This week, our study in the Gospel of Mark continues with Jesus’ answer to the scribes’ and Pharisees’ inquiry concerning His and His disciples’ habit of ignoring the opinions of the revered elders of Israel. Jesus never disobeyed any of God’s commands, but He was not averse to disobeying any and every command meant to obfuscate God’s law.

         Because of Jesus intense popularity, He posed a threat to the authority of these elders and their monopoly on the spiritual control of daily life in Galilee and Judea. It was not unusual to see violations of their customs as if every person cared what the spiritual leaders in Israel thought. Just as there is a segment of our population (a rather large one) that does not care for religion, the same types to a lesser degree lived in Israel. Matthew was such a Jew who before following Jesus cared nothing for the rules and regulations imposed by the sanctimonious religious police force. Men like Matthew were not much of a threat to the system because they had influence only with friends and a few other rogues like them. Jesus was more like a nuclear threat with His supernatural abilities and the attention of nearly everyone from the poor to Roman government officials. His wisdom in how to answer puzzling questions coupled with superior understanding of the scriptures, enabled Him to thoroughly refute and humiliate these supposed experts in Jewish law.

         The question on this occasion pertained to the custom of washing hands before eating. As I explained in an earlier message, their concern was not good sanitation habits, but rather sanctification by their perfect obedience to outward forms of religion. The Jews’ entire religious system centered on rigid self-righteousness that they believed gave them access to the inheritance of God. If this means was truly the way to reach God, His holiness is nothing higher than the level of mortal men. A god reached by self-effort is not worth the effort to make the connection. We are no better off than if we worshipped each other.

         Though this is true and clearly defies the God of scripture, still it is the default position of most people who say they are Christians. The idol artist who makes his god of wood or stone and carries his idol to wherever he needs it, is far more powerful than his creation who does not speak, hear, perceive, act, or do anything the idol’s creator can do.

         The Jews in Jesus’ time prided themselves in the rejection of heathen idols. Since the end of the divided kingdom five hundred years before the New Testament era, Israel was under foreign occupation, a consequence of their forefathers’ disobedience to the warnings of the prophets. To restore Israel to God’s favor, they long ago laid their idols aside and resumed their observance of the ceremonial laws. However, for every form resumed, there was a corresponding perversion. For example, the priests at the temple made sacrifices as the law commanded, but they also owned the sacrificial animals which they sold to the people at exorbitant prices. Having the authority to inspect and refuse any animals not sold by them, they controlled the market amassing great wealth in the process.

         Now, the purpose of our brief foray into this history comes to its conclusion. Jesus’ unraveling any of the fabricated laws of the elders had the potential of destroying the wicked schemes that made these religious charlatans rich. Thus, there is a delegation sent to Galilee to intervene before Jesus did irreparable harm. As we all know now, crucifixion was their final solution. They killed the man, but His resurrection ensured He will never cease to plague manmade religion. If this religion is yours, when you wash your hands, do not forget to wash your idol too.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

         Today’s message begins the seventh chapter of Mark and another confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish leaders from Jerusalem. In our text, Jesus was still in Galilee but apparently, He proved too much for the local scribes, Pharisees, and rabbis to contend with. Since Jesus’ popularity extended across the entire land of Israel, everyone was aware of His activities and defiance of their customs and laws. It is important for us to note Jesus never opposed God’s laws but most certainly resisted the gross misinterpretations of it by these self-righteous leaders.

As I surveyed our text, I thought of the cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith. You have heard me speak of cardinal doctrines and I may announce different doctrines as cardinal doctrines. If I settle on one, I must say in the context today, it is the doctrine of justification by faith. The battle over law and gospel between Jesus and these people was the method by which God accounts us just and free from the condemnation of the law. One of the clearest, easiest definitions that underlines the various aspects of justification is this quote from a systematic theology: “Justification is that instantaneous, everlasting, gracious, free, judicial act of God, whereby, on account of the merit of Christ’s blood and righteousness, a repentant, believing sinner is freed from the penalty of the law, restored to God’s favor, and considered as possessing the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ; by virtue of all of which he receives adoption as a son.”

         Most would call this the Reformed perspective of justification linking it to the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation was far too late to be the source of this doctrine. This is Jesus’ doctrine, His disciples’ doctrine, Paul’s doctrine, and the doctrine of the true New Testament church. Comparing this definition to Mark 7 and this encounter with the Jews, we can see there is no room to fit the Jewish interpretation of justification. And what the Jews believed was not unique to them. It is the natural default interpretation of all other faiths contrary to the faith of Christ. To receive justification from God, requires human effort, good works, trying to be a good person, following the rules, and on it goes. For many, simply dying is enough to account oneself right with God. The fundamental difference is reliance on self-generated righteousness not the righteousness of Christ.

         Paul often contended with the same thinking of Jewish leaders after Christ called him to the ministry. There were many called Judaizers who followed him to Gentile preaching posts with attempts to destroy the faith by restoring at least some of the old Jewish traditions. Though it seemed a compromise might be possible, Paul steadfastly rejected their attempts knowing that any compromise on justification renders Christianity, the cross, and Jesus Himself null and void. He termed the Jews doctrine another gospel, a perverted gospel, an accursed gospel (Galatians 1:6-9).

         The Protestant Reformation accentuated the differences between Roman Catholic teachings of justification and the correct scriptural presentation at a time when Catholicism persecuted true believers and distorted the gospel of Christ. The same sham gospel taught by Roman Catholics in the 16^th century still goes on today. It is fraught with more compromises as Catholicism learned to embrace the heresies of all religions to make them comfortable if they would come under the umbrella of their universal church.

         The cardinal doctrine of justification is still the barrier between Christ, the Jews, Roman Catholics, and all the rest who do not accept the correct definition. If there had been a sign of Roman Catholicism in the days of Jesus, He would say to them, “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.”

Pastor V. Mark Smith

         Today, our journey through Mark brings us to more of Jesus’ healing miracles. Our scripture does not concentrate on a specific individual who received healing but rather an entire area of the Galilean region that experienced Jesus’ powerful and unique ministry. These were people who had never seen Jesus, although news of His miracles in Capernaum, Nazareth, and even from the southern region of Judea reached them bringing hope that someday He would make His way to them. The news that filtered into their area was that a man helped people in ways no one had ever seen. They heard that He asked nothing in return and that merely touching Him or Him touching them was enough to give them thorough and lasting wholeness. It did not matter the defect or disease; Jesus managed all cases. It is interesting that just the slightest touch would do. No need to hug Him, to embrace Him, or to have Him do the same, but only to touch the hem of His clothing.

         My great interest in this type of healing is not so much the New Testament form, but the Old Testament implications. The border of His garment was the target area which had special significance in God’s methods of dealing with His people. I hope our church is more familiar with this part of Jesus’ clothing because you have been with me through extended studies of the Old Testament tabernacle worship.

         God gave Israel a plan for worship when He was with Moses on Mount Sinai. We usually think of this event as the time and location for Israel’s reception of the Ten Commandments. Indeed, it was, but God included far more. He gave an entire judicial system of laws and a mandate for worshipping the Holy God which distinguished Israel from all other nations. The Ten Commandments were the foundation of moral law and built upon these commandments were laws for religious ceremonies as well as dietary laws for health and well-being. These laws sanctified Israel and set them apart from other nations. Food, clothing, health, sacrifice, and behavior—all that His people needed—God gave.

         This religious system was complicated and rich in symbolism. We spent months exploring and learning the meaning of these symbols and applying them to New Testament truths. Our text today reminds us of their clothing. Mentioning the border of Jesus’ garment is not incidental. There are several Old Testament passages to examine, one of which is the high priest’s clothing. I hope you remember the significance of the bells on the fringe of his robe that constantly rang as he performed his duties on the Day of Atonement. I do not have time and space to discuss it today, but how enlightening would it be to show Christ’s high priestly intercession through it?

         I will take you rather to Numbers 15:37-41. I feel a sermon coming on and I regret not making this thought the most important part of today’s sermon presentation. As briefly as I can explain, God commanded each Israelite to make their clothing with a ribband of blue around the fringe. The purpose was to use it as a daily reminder of God’s commandments. The false worship of Canaan’s idols would tempt them, and this clothing was to remind them of the true God they were to obey.

         There are multiple lessons to learn from this in relation to our story in Mark. I leave you with this. God built our salvation on obedience to His law. We are incapable of keeping these laws to God’s satisfaction. As Jesus was the only hope the people in Gennesaret had for healing, so our only hope of spiritual healing is the perfection of the law fulfilled in Jesus Christ. By faith, we touch His ribbon of blue and partake in the satisfaction He made to God by perfectly fulfilling God’s commandments. Through the touch of faith, Christ’s perfect obedience becomes ours and God counts us as compliant. Christ satisfied God’s justice for us. Gennesaret was helpless without the touch, and so are you.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Last week while contemplating the subject of today’s article, I came across the title of another’s article that seemed worthy of stopping to read. The title was, “Is Paedocommunion Biblical?” You may not recognize this word and it is certain you will not see it except in a theological context. You may be familiar with the term paedobaptism but far less common is to see paedocommunion. Both terms relate to the participation of children in the life of the church. The more common term for paedobaptism is infant baptism, while paedocommunion refers to the inclusion of children baptized as infants in the observance of the Lord’s Supper.

You are already much aware that we do not believe paedobaptism is biblical. Baptism is a church ordinance enacted only upon a credible, volitional profession of faith. Infants are incapable of this, although older children who have come to understanding of repentance and faith and have professed Christ may receive baptism. Since the church agreed to their baptism and admitted them into the membership of the church, they are eligible for communion.

I remember when I first became pastor of Berean, there were practices concerning baptism and communion that I believe needed correction. The first was the participation of non-members. I have said multiple times we believe in restricted communion. The Lord’s Supper should be observed only by the membership of each individual local church. We do not question the salvation of any other Christians as this practice is not a salvation issue. Membership is the qualifier.

The other problem was the participation of children without profession of faith and baptism. Member parents would pass the communion trays down their row and would allow their young children to take from the trays and if they were too young to manage the task themselves, their parents would reach in and hold the elements for them. These would be the circumstances for us to say we do not practice paedocommunion!

Who, then, uses this term and finds it necessary to argue for or against it? It would be those churches that practice infant baptism and believe the baptized infants of adult believers are members of the covenant community (their terms) and are thus members of the visible church. If you understand our doctrine, you know we do not use the term visible to distinguish the local church from the non-existent invisible church (a subject for another day). This is the rub for churches practicing infant baptism. How do you exclude from communion those you have admitted into the covenant of the church? I am thankful we need not concern ourselves with arguments over this issue since anchoring the use of both terms is baptism. If the baptism is not valid, certainly participation in communion is invalid. The reformed churches and others who practice infant baptism very well understand the distinctions Baptists make concerning this. Our practice of excluding them from our communion should not offend them since their exclusion comes from logical deduction. Both we and they agree the unbaptized are not eligible for communion.

Controversies concerning the Supper spread across the wide spectrum of Christianity. The practice of restricted communion has no shortage of detractors, although they may not find fault in any other aspect of our observance. There are arguments about the presence of Christ in the elements, whether the Supper is a sacrament or a memorial, and is communion a means of grace. If so, how so? We do not advocate for the recognition of every group as true churches of Jesus Christ. What they do and how they agree or disagree on the Supper is of no consequence to us if they are not under the headship of Christ. Paedobaptism and paedocommunion are indicators of serious theological illness. The presence of those doctrines in a church means we are not dealing with valid churches.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

On this Sunday morning, God’s people across the world gather to focus their attention on the most important event in world history. Only days ago, most Christians’ thoughts were on the crucifixion. Which of these, the cross or the resurrection, is the most significant? This is not necessarily a point of debate since each is indispensable in the salvation of sinners. There are those who wear a crucifix almost daily which seems to me their focus is a dead man hanging on a cross. There is no symbolism of God in their depiction. It would be more difficult to devise a trinket that expresses the resurrection since an empty grave does not seem to be suitable for jewelry. However, the empty tomb is our symbol that Jesus Christ was both man and God. Joseph carried a dead, lifeless human body and placed it in a tomb and three days later it came back to life by its own power. The power of the resurrection is the ultimate symbol that Jesus is God.

These are facts presented in the Holy Scriptures and leaned on by the apostles as their incentive to risk their lives and give their lives for a man who died whom they believed to be alive. When Felix stated Paul’s disposition to Herod Agrippa, he described the controversy by saying Paul had many accusers but their accusations were not of the sort he anticipated: “Against whom [Paul] when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed:But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.” (Acts 25:18-19). Throughout Paul’s ministry in both missionary work in Acts and in his epistles, he affirms belief in the resurrection as a primary reason for our justification. The proof that the death of the cross was propitiatory is that God raised Christ from the dead.

In his explanation of the gospel and his emphasis on the necessity of the resurrection for it, he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ’s death was for our sins. In other words, His death was a substitution for ours. He follows this with the assertion that He was buried and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. Without the resurrection, Christ did not fulfill the scriptures and thus the promises of God through Christ’s death are meaningless.

An interesting aspect of Paul’s claim that Christ arose according to the scriptures is what many consider a futile attempt to find any Old Testament proof of this promise. As one author wrote, and I paraphrase, they do not know what to look for as proof. The proof is the promise made to Abraham that God gives life from the dead. Paul leans into this in Romans 4:16-25. The promise was concrete in Abraham’s experience as he and Sarah had a child in the deadness of his and Sarah’s bodies. Abraham held on to this promise later when he would try to sacrifice Isaac. He believed God would raise him from the dead.

The question for us to consider today is whether the resurrection of Christ is our firm undergirding of faith. Is our faith built on the same foundation as the apostles? The resurrection drove them; it motivated them as it provided their confidence in God. I believe it does much less for us if we casually approach Resurrection Sunday. We are soft on such important principles. I doubt most Christians think any more of this day than a time for bright clothing and an obligatory church day. What does it mean to you? Is all your hope dependent on it? To properly understand the day, it must!

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Every Sunday morning, the Berean Baptist services begin in a familiar repetitive way. We start with the Call to Worship which is a scripture reading that usually corresponds to the theme of the first congregational song. Next is Bro. John Bunn’s greeting— “Good morning, Bereans!” John addresses two principles with this greeting. We are Bereans because the name of our church is Berean, and we are Bereans because we love to study the Bible to learn the truths of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We take our name from the believers in Acts 17:11 who readily received the word and regularly researched the word. It is always a pleasure to preach to those who are interested in the scriptures and who faithfully take their Bibles and follow as we read and study.

Each of the Bereans here on Sunday morning attend church because of the common bond we have in Christ. Some attend who are here for curiosity and want to learn more about us and what this church believes. But by and large, most are well acquainted with each other, and the faithful core is always here eager to hear God speak through His word and worship Him in hymns, prayer, and preaching.

When I think of the core of the church, I equate this with their faithful attendance, faithful support, and faithful service. Some meet one or two of these areas—attendance and support—while we can name far fewer as servants of the church. As numbers dwindle, we must have more of our membership active in all three areas. In a discussion a few weeks ago, I remarked that those who are present for our afternoon class are members who enter the room, take their seats, and open their Bibles with well-worn pages covered with markings, underlines, and notes. I know their adventures in the Bible are frequent and not limited to the information they hear from me. They are Bible students throughout the week researching what I say on Sunday mornings and reading for themselves to learn the scriptures and achieve better knowledge of them.

As I survey this group on Sunday afternoons and see their heavily used Bibles, I recognize they are mostly the people who are the servants of the church. I am not sure who among them are monetary supporters other than the ones I casually see as I glance while leaving the pulpit for the offering. I have little doubt all of them give which only John Bunn our treasurer and Taber Jarrell our financial secretary can confirm.

My primary purpose in this article is to explain what I know regular Bible reading and study will do. The word convicts the heart and tells us what kind of Christians we should be. It is difficult to be doers of the word as James commanded without doing anything. The word makes well rounded Christians. They attend worship and study sessions. Our core is here, and it is our main support. The scriptures prompt our core to more prayer and study, and thus better acquaintance with word and the God of the word.

I believe each member should ask themselves, “Am I a part of the core of the Berean Baptist Church? If I am not, why am I not?” Which is better—a partially devoted Christian or one who surrenders all for Christ?

I know my definitions cannot be strictly exclusive. I also know each believer can evaluate what they read here and apply accordingly. Where do you stand? Does the Lord agree with your assessment?

Pastor V. Mark Smith

In January of last year, we were early into our study of Mark’s gospel when we had opportunity to examine the ministry of John the Baptist. John appears early in all four gospel accounts because of his baptism ministry. Before Jesus began His public teaching, it was necessary for Him to inaugurate His ministry with the New Testament right of the church which is baptism in water. Of course, there was no church when John started baptizing, but it appears the apostles chosen as foundational building blocks of the church were all baptized by John. Before choosing Judas’ replacement in Acts 1, Peter said the new apostle must be qualified in this respect—he must have accompanied the ministry of Jesus since the baptism of John. The New Testament stressed John’s baptism as well as the Old Testament in mentioning how John would prepare Israel for the coming Messiah.

Although appearing only in the New Testament, Jesus named John as the last Old Testament prophet. Apparently, God saved the best of those types of prophets until last. Jesus said there was no greater man born of women than John the Baptist. It is a superlative statement especially since Jesus Himself was born of a woman. I will leave you to research and decide on His meaning.

The last we saw of John in our study was in chapter 2 when the Pharisees complained that he and his disciples fasted when Jesus and His did not. It was a convenient comparison for them as they tried to drive a wedge between Jesus and John while knowing the people considered John to be a prophet. The Pharisees had no use for John except as they could use him against Jesus. It is hardly imaginable they favored John when he called them vipers and called them to repentance from their sins. It was not a good look for John to call them self-righteous sinners. It was also useless for them to try to exalt John above Jesus. He recognized Jesus’ authority and said he was not worthy to untie the sandals on Jesus’ feet. Jesus applauded John for his strong stand on the truth of God’s word, an immovable position since prison did not deter him from outing Herod and his wife for their immorality.

The first messages on John last year were The Baptist Bulldozer and The Baptist’s Baptism. We conclude the saga of John the Baptist today with The Baptist Beheaded. John met an ignominious end as Herod treated him as an enemy of the people. He certainly was Herod’s enemy—at least an enemy of his sin. He called him to repentance not only because his responsibility was to rule in righteousness, but also because his soul depended on it.

Herod never repented of his sin and later Caesar exiled him and stripped away much of his authority. A man who dined fabulously in a palace and could speak a word to dispel his enemies now burns in the flames of an eternal hell. Such is often the end of the world’s mightiest men. John’s legacy was that of a nomad traversing the desert in rough camel hair clothing and dining on grasshoppers. And yet, we know him better than Herod because of His trust in the Messiah and his faithful obedience to truth. John’s life teaches us not to be afraid of what people can do to us. Service to Christ yields honor at the proper time.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

In my sermon today, I will use a word you have not heard from the pulpit for several years. It is not that the word is unimportant, it is simply that the teaching has taken us in a different direction in which I have not needed to explain the doctrine expressed. To give you an introduction to the word, I invite you to walk down the hall leading to the older part of the building. Most of you will not need to because your memory of what is there will serve fine.

On the right-hand wall under spotlights are the portraits of all the pastors who have served this church over the past fifty-five years of our existence. I am the last in the line and have the distinction of serving longer than any of the earlier men. Some may lament this, but I doubt my record run will end soon. This brings me to the word I want to use later, and when I do, you will be quite sure of its meaning and have the visual expression of it in your brain. The word is perpetuity. Applied in our setting, it means the continuous uninterrupted existence of the church. Concerning this local body of Christians, Berean Baptist Church has continued the ministry here for fifty-five years. We are a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but our history is not the total years of Christ’s church as you well know. In our study of Mark’s gospel, we read of Christ’s choice of twelve men appointed as His apostles and serving as the foundation stones of His church with later scriptures explaining that Christ Himself anchored this foundation with Him as the chief cornerstone.

Armed with this truth and two thousand years of history, we may confidently say the church of Jesus Christ has existed in perpetuity for twenty centuries. This accords with Christ’s promise in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. In Matthew 28, Jesus commissioned the church with the gospel and commanded His disciples to make more disciples, to baptize them, and teach them to obey everything He commanded. This would ensure His promise of perpetuity and that His church would be here until the end of this age. Until Christ returns, the church continues and brings more of God’s people into its fellowship. Each of the pastors on the wall have done their part to support this legacy of ministry in Rohnert Park.

Across the world, there are many groups who are pretenders claiming to be part of the church founded by Christ. They bear His name and claim His blessings. We do not agree to the validity of many of these claims. We judge the claims of The New Testament church by its connection to the doctrines taught by the original church with each generation checking their close adherence to these doctrines. The apostolic doctrines of the church do not change. The word of God does not change; Christ promise does not fail. Therefore, we believe churches built on the model of the New Testament still exist. We are responsible to compare and associate ourselves only with those churches.

The apostles are long dead but the truths they taught remain. These are unalterable no matter how much time passes or how much the culture in which we live may be different from the time of the apostles. Number one on the list of pastors of Berean is Harry Buerer. Pastor Buerer planted this church in 1969 from the doctrinal seeds of churches preceding him. I stand at the end of the line still holding the truths taught in 1969, and more importantly checking those doctrines to make sure they follow what God says in His word.

Listen for the word perpetuity today and for reason I use it. We are the church of Jesus Christ in Rohnert Park. We intend to stay that way.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

If I were to write a description of the Berean Baptist ministry over the past two decades, I would enthusiastically say we are a church concerned with truth, doctrinal exposition of truth, and refusal to compromise the truth. There are no perfect churches this side of Hebrews 12:22-24, so we do not claim to be. I suppose others favor a different balance of ministry, but prayerfully, we are consistent in our doctrine and the desire that people should know the Christ of the Bible through the doctrines taught in scripture.

In these two decades, my sermons tended towards explaining doctrinal positions and how they affect our knowledge and understanding of God. I am thankful for those who have grown in the faith with this approach and the kind words as they express their thanks for better understanding of the Almighty sovereign God we serve. This change in thinking is most evident in what we would describe as a different worldview. It is the shift of focus from a man-centered religion to a God-centered one. While there are few who openly claim to have a man-centered religion, they do not realize they in fact do. They do not realize it because they do not know what God-centered religion is. There are multiple ways to express God-centered religion because all our doctrines have Him at the center. In only a brief space, I would go back to the beginning of the creation to explain. The emphasis in Genesis 1 is God-centered religion. It is not that God was lonely, that God needed us, that God must have someone to love Him, that God is not complete without us, etc., etc., etc. God is supremely holy and happy in Himself.

The emphasis in Genesis 1 is “In the beginning God…” “In the beginning God…” The purpose of the beginning was not to create man so that God would have someone to love, but to create for His ultimate glory. He magnifies Himself through the creation. God is not determined to bestow free will on anyone as if the ultimate expression of love is for God to receive it as a free choice. And yet, we repeatedly hear that God wants us to love Him only if we want to love Him. This would be the main tenet of man-centered religion. In other words, the will and determination of the creature supersedes the will and determination of God. Without our cooperation and choice, God cannot fulfill the design of the creation. In this view, the election and predestination of God spins out of existence in favor of salvation conditioned on a moment in time choice. God does not control this choice, and thus all the plans of creation rise or fall on an uninfluenced, undetermined choice that can go for or against God. Therefore, the sacrifice of Christ provides only a possibility of options, one of which, because of multitudinous hindrances, is logically and manifestly more than frequent failure to accomplish its purpose.

God-centered religion avoids this preposterous dilemma. Those in man-centered religion insistently and persistently argue they have a God-centered religion while at the same time holding to a worldview that is a world-view. The message today expresses the problem of a man-centered view. It always ends with rejection of Christ because without the active monergistic God, the greatest miracles and the most eloquent preaching cannot do what salvation requires. Only God can change a heart and bring dead sinners to life. There is no person who chooses to love God without an act of God upon a heart fettered with sin. When GOD breaks these chains, there is one and only one free will choice. This choice is God. In God-centered religion, God is first…always first. “In the beginning God.”

Pastor V. Mark Smith

This week, we begin a new chapter in the Gospel of Mark. The sixth chapter begins with skepticism over the inexplicable knowledge of Jesus and the impossibility of the volumes of miracles He did. One miracle should have been enough to convince people that He was more than a man, but a healthy volume of miracles was no better than one to convince people of who He was. If I were to reduce the first six verses of Mark 6 to one overarching theme, I would call it the power of unbelief. We often speak of the power of faith, and we know the Bible presents the concept that faith can move mountains. Jesus narrowed His description to stay faith is powerful enough that the equivalent of a grain of a mustard seed can move mountains.

Most times, we will extol the supreme virtue of faith without discussing too much about the power of no faith, or said more commonly again, “the power of unbelief.” The scriptures are no less descriptive of this than the power of belief. Unbelief was powerful enough to cause Jesus’ enemies to deny His miracles even while they watched Him do them. If they did not outright deny them, they at least illogically attributed the wrong source to them. Some of Jesus’ strongest condemnations were because of unbelief. He told residents of Capernaum that if He had done His miracles in Gentile cities or in the Old Testament bastions of the worst immorality, Sodom, and Gomorrah—if there, if those people had seen them, they would have repented at once and come to Him for salvation. There would be no trouble finding ten righteous people in them after His displays!

We use multiple excuses for not attending church or helping in the Lord’s work. There is always a complaint of some sort when our failures are truly more owed to unbelief than any other cause. I thought of this when surveying Matthew 11. The first section of the chapter ends in verse 19 with Jesus’ comparison of His and John the Baptist’s ministries. Though He and John had different approaches, neither satisfied the people. No matter what He or John did, they were not satisfied. John was not personable, he did not drink, he and his disciples fasted, while Jesus was a party animal and was always buddies with the fun crowd. Jesus said, when we dance, you don’t like it; when we cry, you don’t like it. If we fast or feast, you don’t like it.

The root cause of their discontent was their unbelief. People will never be satisfied with God. The late James Montgomery Boice spoke of the restless in the church who are always looking but never staying. He said: “God has many messengers with many varying gifts. Some are powerful speakers and can move a crowd to tears. Others are intellectual; they make a careful case for Christianity and present many powerful proofs of the gospel. Some teachers are outgoing, talkative, people oriented. Others are retiring and thoughtful. Some write books. Others lead movements. Still others speak on radio or appear on television. Some are old and teach with the wisdom of their years. Some are young and proclaim the truth with youthful vigor. Some are prophetic. Some are analytic. None of this matters to a generation of determined sinners who say in opposition, ‘This one is too loud. That one is too quiet. This one is too intellectual. That one is too superficial.’”

These folks have no interest in serving or knowing God well. Their offense is not a church’s method or doctrine. It really comes down to the gospel. The gospel offends, and nothing but the power of God will overcome the power and persistence of unbelief. As the Jews of Jesus’ time could not fool Him with their pretended devotion to the Law and thus to God, neither do we fool Him by wandering endlessly to find the church that is pure enough for us. It is neither here nor there. Open your eyes to see that most complaints are preferences and have nothing to do with devotion to Christ.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

When I wrote this article, it was the 26^th of January near the end of a stressful week. These are my thoughts several weeks ago as I tried to express the topic on my mind. A few days before, I discussed with a friend my interest in historical arguments concerning the doctrines of the faith. In this instance, it was the development of the premillennial eschatological viewpoint of Christ’s return. Each time I preach on the Second Coming of Christ, interest in the subject peaks and it seems the congregation pays more strict attention to the exposition from the pulpit. There is rejoicing in remembrance of Christ’s glorious appearing, how He will come, and the results for both believers and unbelievers.

I understand the reason for the excitement, and I believe the miserable times in which we live heightens this reaction. Dissatisfaction with churches, politics, economics, immorality, and the general demise of Christianity in America contributes to our uneasiness in waiting for Christ’s return. We do not face our earthly future with the hope we once had. Thus, the Second Coming of Christ is the bailout for our depressed lives.

I believe the New Testament authors expected the coming of Christ with great anticipation. Their hope was not dissimilar to ours. With the daily threat of persecution, who would not hope the coming of Christ was not soon upon them? This anticipation was real enough that believers in Thessalonica had determined they had missed His coming and were living in the aftermath of the return. Imagine the stress of such a thought! Their confusion was the cause of two important letters from Paul to correct their misunderstandings. In these letters, he tempered their expectations, gave them an order of events, and did this without destroying their hope that having Christ return immediately was a necessary component of their peace and happiness.

With the troubles we experience daily, it is gratifying to believe that Christ may appear at any moment. When He comes, He will relieve us of our worries and show us that patiently waiting was well worth the time and effort. There is enough in this reality of hope to sustain us through every hardship we meet. It is worth noting that when the Bible speaks of our hope in this way, it is not “hope so, but maybe not.” It is hope that is in every way steadfast and sure. Our hope is an accomplished faith that ends in sight. It is possible for us to live happy fulfilled lives with two seemingly conflicting perspectives. Christ may come today, or we may die before He does. Death for the youngest among us may be another fifty years or more away. We must not forget each of us was at that stage once but here we are these many years later still waiting for Christ and living in the expectation of His return.

The Lord wants us to labor to keep this feeling. When Peter spoke of the dissolution of this world and its systems, he asked, “Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness… (2 Peter 3:11). True confidence in Christ’s return will fix us in holiness. Knowing the exact date will not. In the model prayer, Jesus instructed the disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” The same prayer should be on our lips every day. Daily expectation of the Kingdom keeps us sharp and on our toes for whatever day Christ may come.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Twenty-five years ago, when I was new to Berean, I began my ministry teaching a new Sunday School class called The Sunday Morning Forum. I did not want this class to be the usual Sunday School meeting with a structured lesson format that kept us confined for weeks in a typical lesson plan. At times, we had these, but each lesson in our class was meant to stimulate participation in discussions. In time, the class developed into the format we have now with open discussions on any biblical topic spurred by questions from class members.

This format meant that I, as the teacher, would need to be well-versed on most Bible doctrines and have a good working knowledge of the text. I have spent my life developing this knowledge leaning on the grace of the Holy Spirit to guide me. After these years, I confess there are times questions perplex me and I do not answer all questions well. In those times, I defer, and my next move is to find the answer and report back. It is always best not to answer rather than give a wrong answer. Despite my best efforts, I may want to appear smart and answer anyway. In those times, I ask for the Lord’s and your forgiveness. 

There are also times when topics are uncomfortable, and I would rather not deal with them. However, I made a commitment long ago not to slip and slide around difficulties to get me out of the chair and cool my backside. Two weeks ago, one of these topics came before us. It was an unavoidable discussion and we needed to discuss it because it is one of the most volatile subjects we face today. This is the topic of homosexuality. With lightning speed, what society once considered the bottom rung of immorality has not only become morally acceptable but considered a higher morality than strict opposition to it. Not to accept homosexuality as a normal lifestyle and even a preferred one for a segment of the population is to be immoral and abnormal. Most Christians have come to grips with it and rather than rock the boat have taken a laissez-faire, live and let live philosophy. I have a short reply to this. It is not Christian, it is not harmless, it is not godly, it is not a matter of indifference, and it is not acceptable according to the word of God. Regardless, too many Christians have made their peace with it and will not be vocal in opposition to it. They have chosen their friends from among them as if no harm, no foul. There is harm and it is a foul upon decency, and both are deadly serious.

The reality is this sin was so sickening, twisted, and perverted that it caused fire and brimstone to pour out of the sky. It caused the death of thousands among Israel and their enemies. It helped to ruin their morality and incited forays into idolatry that led to Israel’s captivity. Neither Old Testament nor New Testament allows God’s people to accept this sin. There was never a “go along to get along” attitude in any period of church history until the overwhelmingly gigantic push of the last two decades. The demand for tolerance and acceptance is formidable enough to shut preachers’ mouths or risk abandonment by this society. Morality is 180° upside down with most tiptoeing around it with fear they might offend sinners. Some ask why we treat this sin differently. The answer seems all too obvious to me. What sin, what work of Satan has changed an entire worldview and flipped our churches and the laws of our country on end to accept what we dared not accept as anything but one of the most heinous, shameful sins we can commit? We treat it differently because of its demonic power. We do not advocate hatred or harm to homosexuals. We do advocate refusing to mix and mingle with it. Those who do risk what we have already seen. Softening, accepting, and silencing for fear of offense. We must deal with sin and sinners. This is what the church does. Christ saved us from sin, and so they must and may be. We will only help legitimize their cause by friendship and normalization. “Friendship of the world is enmity with God.” When confronted, deal with it biblically and move on. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” (Psalms 1:1).

Pastor V. Mark Smith

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

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

In last week’s article about the apostle Paul, I mentioned the dust-up between him and Peter over Peter’s hypocrisy among the Galatian churches. I am sure you did not think too much about this, but I am concerned I could have left the wrong impression about Peter’s faith. At no time were Peter and Paul in disagreement over the doctrine of justification by faith.

It is important to understand this because both Peter and Paul received the call of apostleship directly from our Lord. Their steadfast faith was critical for the establishment and indoctrination of local churches. All Christians can be sure that arguments among the apostles were not signs they were unsure of their own faith in Christ or of the clarity of the gospel. It is tempting to make Peter and Paul adversaries and call this conflict. It did not rise to the level of two Christian leaders in a debate about doctrine. The problem was Peter’s dissimulation in treating Gentile Christians differently than Jewish Christians. The method of their salvation was not in question. However, Peter’s actions could have easily led to the misconception that Gentiles must conform to Old Testament law in the rite of circumcision before acceptance into the fellowship of Christian churches.

If you were to question Peter on this matter, he would not hesitate to state and even to elaborate on the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone—plus or minus nothing. Peter was the first apostle to preach the gospel to Gentiles when after a vision he went to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea. When salvation came to this household, Peter reported to the church in Jerusalem that the Holy Spirit had fallen on the Gentiles when they believed. There is no mention in the text that any other requirements were necessary or met for their baptism. Neither did the church in Jerusalem ask, “What about circumcision?” Later, the apostles settled and sealed this matter when confronted by a certain group, we now call Judaizers. These were Jews who claimed salvation by grace through faith but were still holding on to the custom of circumcision and other Old Testament laws as qualifiers for identification with the people of God.

The apostles hashed this out in Acts 15 after Peter’s testimony before them of his personal experience in the conversion of Cornelius. In Acts 15:8-9, Peter explained: “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” This leaves no uncertainty where Peter stood or of his consistency in the clarity of the doctrine of justification by faith.
In the Galatian passage, Paul wrote another confusing statement. He said the problem with Peter arose when certain men came from James. The wording appears to say James entered the disagreement by sending representatives from the Jerusalem church to correct the Galatians and turn them towards a more Jewish path. And yet, we read in Acts 15 that James, the spokesman and pastor of the Jerusalem church, specifically commanded there should be no burden of circumcision placed on Gentile converts. James spoke this in consideration of the ministry of Paul and his companions who preached among the Gentiles (Acts 15:13-29). This matches the language in Galatians 2:12 that “certain came from James.” Obviously, James did not send them. They were Judaizers who before were contentious in the Jerusalem church.
We need not fear that those we trust most in scripture were doubtful or were less than stalwarts of the faith. They never gave an inch to false doctrine. We must, however, acknowledge they were not perfect men who never made mistakes, although there is no mistake in their Holy Spirit inspired writings. How we respond when confronted with our mistakes is also important. Peter did not get angry nor shake his fist at Paul. He owned the rebuke and wrote that Paul was a brother in Christ. This is a lesson for us. Give up our stubbornness and examine ourselves closely. Make sure we hold the truth without compromise.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

              In the past few weeks of our study in Mark’s Gospel, I have taken our sermon time to describe Jesus’ selection of the twelve apostles. We are nearing the end of this interlude and will finish with the one disciple who was notorious and never converted to believe in Jesus. We finish next week with Judas Iscariot, who is probably the most infamous person in history.

           In this article, I want to speak briefly of the most famous apostle and yet was not chosen at the same time as the original twelve. This is Paul, the converted Benjamite from the city of Tarsus. Five hundred words is a pittance to spend on him but permit me to make a few brief comments. Paul wrote more of the New Testament than any other author, and except Jesus, is the most quoted character in the Bible. The proof of many of our doctrines of the Christian faith relies heavily on the epistles Paul wrote. Today, on our bulletin cover is Galatians 6:14, a verse that summarizes Paul’s ministry: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” While this verse stands representative of Paul’s passion for his life and could be attached to any of his letters, it has specific meaning within its context.

              In the first part of Galatians, Paul defended his apostleship by stating his commission was given directly by Christ, who in a post resurrection appearance called him to preach the gospel. His office was not conferred upon him by the consensus of the apostles but by Christ Himself. After establishing his credentials, he goes on to confront the insidious growth of a false doctrine impressed upon the Gentiles who were taught by Jews among them that for them to be saved and a part of the church, they must submit to the Jewish rite of circumcision. Curiously, Peter was caught up in this as he hypocritically withdrew fellowship from Gentiles fearing reprisals from Jewish leaders who came from Jerusalem. Though Peter was not held in unbelief, he stumbled and failed to maintain a firm grip on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Favoring circumcision as a condition added to the singular work of Christ for the salvation of the soul, denies the finished work of Christ on the cross. Paul began Galatians by emphasizing this is not the gospel of Christ.

              From the point of Paul’s rebuke of Peter, he goes on to make a defense of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. This defense is one of the most significant undergirding of this cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith. In conclusion of the matter, Paul wrote Galatians 6:14. While others may boast of the work they do for Christ or seek to commend themselves to salvation by these good works, Paul rejects any claims of reliance upon self and gives all glory to Jesus Christ.

              This theme resounds throughout Paul’s writings. He is never shy of self-deprecation if it serves to exalt Christ and hide himself behind the cross. Such statements are humbling and yet abhorred by today’s Christian leadership. This is the day of celebrity. With media opportunities that trumpet the names of favorite preachers, the competition for recognition exceeds the determination to glorify Christ and Him alone.

              I have mentioned several times in this series how the apostles would be appalled at worship directed towards them. Statues and patronages were no part of any of the apostles’ objectives. They were Christ’s men who were not fed by their egos. Do we wish to make a name for ourselves, or do we want to glorify Christ? If we learn all there is to know about the apostles and miss this about them, we know nothing at all.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

               A few weeks ago, in my introduction to the apostles, I spoke of Peter’s impertinent question posed to Jesus. Our Lord finished a conversation with the rich young ruler telling him that his salvation was dependent upon keeping the commandments, selling all his earthly goods, giving the proceeds to the poor, and finally, coming and following Him. This is quite a list and fulfilling it would not guarantee a better earthly return above what he surrendered. Peter heard this answer and in turn asked the Lord, “What shall we get?” In other words, Peter and the other apostles believed they had forsaken all and honored the required list. Peter wanted to know what the benefit would be of doing exactly what Jesus told the rich young ruler to do.

               Again, the answer Jesus gave to Peter had no promise of immediate gain. The promised reward was in the future kingdom which He termed the regeneration. Two thousand years later, the kingdom is still an unfulfilled promise although in the interim, the apostles no longer ask, wonder about, or doubt the promise. Their presence in heaven awaiting the resurrection of their bodies is complete satisfaction. Time means nothing to them now and waiting is not an adverse consideration.

               With their understanding of the promise secured, what was their present experience? It was to forsake houses and lands, to endure the rejection of family and friends, persecution from their enemies, and for most of them, martyrdom. They were not to consume themselves with promised thrones in the millennial kingdom but with what Jesus required of them now. This was service to the present kingdom, a kingdom that by faith was in their hearts.

               Jesus told them they were to serve Him and others. This life of service would secure greatness in the future. Greatness is a common pursuit for most of us and it was for the apostles. I do not want to be a mediocre preacher—I want to be a great preacher. We all know I am not, but you would surely find disappointment if I told you I put no effort in my sermons because it does not matter, and I do not care if you groan at them or gain by them.

               When James and John showed Peter-esque impetuousness, they asked for seats on either side of Christ’s throne as a demonstration of their greatness. Their ask was inappropriate, but Jesus did not rebuke their desire. Greatness should be our aspiration yet not to aspire it merely for our benefit. Our objective must be to glorify God in the best way possible. Thus, being a great preacher is a worthy goal if the purpose is for people to learn more of the glories of Christ. The result of Peter and John’s bold preaching was recognition they could have preached no great sermons if they had not been with Jesus. All attempts at greatness should be for the better advancement of the Kingdom in which we now live. Be great on your job, regarding it as service to the Lord (Colossians 3:22-24). Be great as a parent, be great as a husband or wife, be great as a church member. Serve Christ now as a great servant who will receive a hundred-fold more in the future kingdom of God.

               Years ago, there was a song in which the author asked the Lord for just a little cabin in the corner of glory land. There is not much aspiration for greatness there, and less understanding of the blessed, unimaginable inheritance of the saints.

Pastor V. Mark Smith