Good morning and welcome to the Berean Break.  My name is George Sinkie and I am so glad that you have joined me this morning.  I encourage you to open your Bible and check out what is taught here this morning.  I believe that you will find it to be truth as revealed in the word of God.  If you have any question or comment or believe that there is an error in what I say than I want you to contact me.  This week starts the South Dakota State Fair in Huron.  I encourage you to visit the booth that the churches of Christ in South Dakota sponsors at the Fair.  We are located in the Family Living Center.  I challenge you to try our computer Bible quiz.  It is improved again this year with more questions and more choices.  As we begin this morning let’s go to God in prayer:

Almighty God in heaven.  We are truly thankful to You for this day.  Without You and Your lovingkindness we would not exist.  Since You have blessed us with this day, may we return it to You by living for You today.  As we gather around Your word this morning, may we recognize and accept only Your word as the guide in our lives.  The greatest gift You have given to us is Your Son.  As He submitted to Your will, may each of us obey Your will so that we can be saved.  In Jesus’ Name we pray,  AMEN !!

     Imagine with me if you will that for years you have been planning to build your dream home.  You have considered different styles and floor plans.  As you have traveled, you have observed the different materials for interiors and exteriors.  Your dream home may be a log cabin home nestled in a valley surrounded by trees.  Or it may be an ultra modern home of glass and steel, perched on the top of a hill.  After years of drawing and redrawing and even more years of saving, you are finally able to build “Your House.”  You investigate builders and decide on one that is honest, hard-working, and fair.  You lovingly turn over the plans to him, these plans you share with him each and every detail of what you want — the materials, the dimensions, the colors, where each door and window and plugin and switch is to be.  You agree on a date that it is to be done and as much as you want to see the progress you wait until the appointed day.  As you drive out to your property you are excited and nervous.  Finally you come around that last turn and pull up into the driveway.  Your first impression is wow.  But then you notice a window that you cannot recall being in the plans.  The carpenter is there to greet you and hands you the keys.  You unlock the door, knowing what you are going to see, because you have seen it a thousand times in your mind’s eye.  But again something is strange — the carpet is a different color.  As you go through “Your House,” you see more and more things that are changes — walls where there should be no walls, rooms where the plans showed no rooms, colors, materials, design, and decor are all changed.  This is not “Your House.”  When you confront the builder he says that he liked these things better and so he changed them.  You are not standing in “Your House,” you are in “His House.”  Let me ask you, How would you feel?  Betrayed?  Cheated?  Sad?  Angry?  Yes you probably would feel all of these things.  Now let me ask you another question, Why?  Now you may be thinking, “George, you are crazy.  I feel that way because he did not follow the pattern that I gave him.  All the plans, all the blueprints, all the time and effort that I put into designing ‘My house,’” was ruined.
     We are justified in being upset at the changing of our plans.  Now think about how God feels.  When Noah was told by God to build the ark, did Noah have the choice to build it the way God said or to change it — he had the choice.  But the only God-pleasing choice was to do it the way God said.  Consider what it says in Genesis 6:22

   22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

And also in the very next chapter it says, in Genesis 7:5

   5 And Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.

     Years later as Moses was about to build another ark — this time the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle that went with it, we see the same attention to detail.  First we see it in a warning to them in Exodus 25:9

   9 According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.

Then we see it in the people’s faithfulness to God, check out Exodus 40:16

   16 Thus Moses did; according to all that the Lord had commanded him, so he did.

But not only was Moses faithful but the people were as well, as we see in Numbers 1:54

   54 Thus the sons of Israel did;  according to all which the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did.

     Did the people have a choice — of course they did, and they choose to do as God commanded.  But later on we see that they choose to disobey God as well.  One example of this is seen in Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron’s sons.  Let’s read Leviticus 10:1-2

   1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.
   2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

     What was wrong with the fire they used?  Physically I don’t know, but spiritually it was not what God had commanded.  And since they did not follow the pattern God had given they were punished by God.  Now the thing that we must remember is that on throughout the Old Testament we see the Jews corrupting God’s religion for them — but God does not consume them with fire.  We must not make the conclusion that God did not care that they changed His will.  All those who changed God’s will, will one day have to give an account of it before God.

     In the last two Berean Breaks we looked at the sin of making substitutions in what God had commanded.  We concluded that lesson by looking at how Jeroboam had changed the pattern of worship when the kingdom of Israel divided.  Let’s look at some more of the pattern God gave for His church and also some of the sinful corruptions that man has made to the Pattern.
     Last week we looked at how the Pattern teaches that lost people who believe in Jesus and want to be saved were buried in baptism.  God’s word teaches this in Mark 16:16 and Colossians 2:12.  Man teaches a number of doctrines that are contrary to God’s pattern.  Beware of the following false doctrines:
     That sprinkling or pouring water on a person is baptism.  Satan presented this doctrine initially as matter of convenience.  If a lot of water was not available or the person was in too poor of health, then Satan taught that sprinkling or pouring would do.  But note the source of this doctrine — it is NOT from the will of God and therefore its source is Satan.
     Another common variation from the Pattern of God is who should be baptized, or immersed as that Greek word means.  This variation has two extreme positions.  First is the man-made doctrine that infants need to be baptized.  Satan uses this doctrine to keep a lot of people deceived that they are right with God.  Note again the words of Jesus, who is giving us God’s pattern, turn to Mark 16:16

16 He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

Look at that closely, back in verse 15 Jesus has told His followers to go and preach the gospel.  Now He says, “He who has believed.” This is something that they have done already.  This would not apply to infants because they do not yet have the capability to believe and understand the gospel.  Now look at verse 16 again.  “He who has believed AND” — “and” is a conjunction that joins two equally important parts in this sentence.  “And” what?  “And has been baptized.”  It is important to note that both belief and baptism are in the past tense here, they are something that the person has already done.  The next phrase is in the future tense, “shall be saved.”  If believing the Gospel and being immersed are not in a person’s past then salvation is not in their future.
     As I said there are two extreme positions of error with regard to God’s pattern for who should be baptized.  One extreme is to say babies need to be baptized even though they have no need to be baptized and cannot believe so as to be baptized.  The other extreme is that people are saved before baptism and then are baptized to show that they are saved.  Just like the “strange fire” that Nadab and Abihu offered to the Lord was rejected by God, so this “strange baptism,” is unacceptable to God.
     Many people sincerely follow these false doctrines, but since they are not following the pattern, they are sincerely wrong.  If our desire is to be right with God, then we will have to follow the Pattern shown to us in the New Testament.
     Another area that God has given the pattern for is the musical worship that we are to offer up to Him and to encourage one another with. Let’s look at two places that God gives instruction about this.  The first is Ephesians 5:19

19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

and the other is Colossians 3:16

16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Notice what we are to do in our singing — teach, admonish, and speak to one another.  Are you listening?  How are we to teach, admonish, and speak to one another?  By “singing” it says in both of these passages.  Now we need to understand that in the Greek “singing” is a specific type of music, it is vocal and does not include the use of instruments.  As Ephesians 5:19 points out we are to make the melody in our hearts.  From a historical point of view it was not for over 500 years before men began to mess with God’s pattern for how the church was to sing.  Gradually instruments were added, but they are still without God’s approval.  This makes it a decision time.  We can decide to sing with the use of instruments and follow man’s pattern — or — we can stay with God’s pattern and sing acappella which is with no instruments.  Even the meaning of acappella supports this — acappella means “in chapel style” or “as in the chapel.”
     Remember how you felt when your pattern was changed for your dream home.  Imagine how God feels when man changes His pattern after He sacrificed His Son to establish the Pattern.