Berean Break
April 26, 2015 broadcast
Following the Pattern
by George Sinkie
[printable PDF of Following
the Pattern][audio MP3 of Following the Pattern]
Good morning and welcome to the
Berean Break. My name
is George A. 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. 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 loving-kindness 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 Your word as the one
and only 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 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 changed 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, 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,
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, where God says, 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 Moses' faithfulness to God, check out Exodus
40:16, 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, 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 chose to do as God commanded.
But later on we see that they
chose 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,
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. 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? 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.
We are going to go into a study
of the book of Acts, emphasizing it as the history of the church
of Christ. As the history
of the church of Christ it is the pattern we should follow.
One of the most important
things that we will see is how a person can be saved. 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 deviation 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, 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, 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, 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.
This Berean Break is brought to
you, in love, by the church of Christ that meets at 1600 East
First Ave. in Mitchell SD. You
are welcome to meet with us at 10 AM Sunday Mornings for our
assembly followed by a Bible Study, also at 2:00 Sunday afternoons
and Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm for additional times to study
God's Word. If you
live outside the Mitchell area then please contact us and we
will help you find a congregation of the Lord's church near you.
Also, if you have a comment
or a sincere Bible question, please phone us at 605-770-5555.
We also want to remind you
of the non-denominational TV program, KNOW YOUR BIBLE
on KDLT-TV at 9:00 this Sunday morning. This is George
A. Sinkie for the Lord's church, here in Mitchell, good-bye for
now. Remember that we care about you and may God bless
you as you do His will.
[EGW editors note: Next article in this series on the
book of Acts Acts 16:6-12]
[printable PDF of Following
the Pattern][audio MP3 of Following the Pattern] |