Some Remove Landmarks

Introduction:

In ancient Israel there were landmarks that were visual posts that marked the boundaries of the land of their family, tribe, or against foreign peoples.

This was something which the Law of Moses required of the children of Israel; the land of Canaan was to be viewed as the inheritance of Israel and they were not to treat it lightly; it was God’s gracious provision - ;

Deuteronomy 19:14 NASB95

14 “You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess.

Deuteronomy 27:17 NASB95

17 ‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary mark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

The proverbs talked about keeping the ancient landmarks - ;

The prophets encouraged to keep the boundary markers; the Lord punished those who would move the boundaries - ;

This is the background to when Naboth refused to sell his family’s inheritance to King Ahab, then being killed by Ahab and Jezebel’s plot. He said “The LORD forbid me...” -

There is a lesson behind these instructions to the children of Israel. God expected faithfulness to the covenant He had made, He expected them to not move the boundary of the inheritance of God’s gift to them. Israel was to be unmoved and never forget what God had done.

Yet, as Job lamented with those who did wrong—they removed the landmarks -

Job 24:2 NASB95

2 “Some remove the landmarks; They seize and devour flocks.

There are landmarks and boundaries which govern the Lord’s people today that we should not give up! However, pressing it may be with people all around us removing the ancient landmarks, we must be sure that we keep the boundaries that God has given to us.

A cappella Singing

As true believers in God and Christ, we must worship God how He desires -

The New Testament teaches we are to sing to one another and offer praise to God through our singing -

Admonishing one another

Singing with thankfulness to God

We are to make melody in our hearts to the Lord Jesus -

The instruction is clear from Paul’s writing: we are told to “sing and make melody with our heart” but we are not told to make melody through the playing of an instrument.

The New Testament is silent on the question of using instruments in worship to God.

A couple of objections are usually made about this point.

“But they used instruments in the Old Testament” — yes, but they did that in the temple worship because God commanded it -

“The New Testament does not tell us using instruments is wrong” — no explicit prohibition is needed; the type of music God commanded was “singing.” When God specifies what He wanted then that consequentially prohibits anything else.

God explicitly and specifically told Noah to build an ark of gopher wood. That eliminated any other type of wood.

God prescribes congregational singing in the midst of the assembly -

Our singing should be enthusiastic and heard -

Turning music into a form of entertainment is not what God prescribed, described, or desired. We must remain firm; we cannot practice something that is wrong.

Let’s keep the ancient landmark of a cappella singing!

The Work of the Church

A second ancient boundary that the church needs to keep unmoved is the landmark of the work of the church.

This is one that people have removed and changed over many years, especially in churches of Christ.

We must remain firm that the work of the church is not in providing entertainment and food - ,

The work of the church is to teach and edify our members through teaching God’s word -

Acts 20:32 NASB95

32 “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Building kitchens/fellowship halls/family life centers, or designating areas in a church building for places for social meals is not a part of the work of the church.

That does not mean hospitality and eating together is wrong or sinful; on the contrary, but it is to be the work of individual Christians, not a collective work of the church -

The work of evangelism is charged to individual disciples and the local church - ;

There is no outside organization like a missionary society that we send our money to for them to disperse for the work of evangelism.

Neither do we send our money to another congregation or eldership to send money/preachers out.

Each congregation is autonomous and should have its own elders. Simply because someone is a spiritual leader/elder in a church does not mean we have the authority to give up our responsibility and pass it on to someone else for convenience or possibility of bigger/larger efforts in evangelism. Elders do not have any jurisdiction over the work or funds of this congregation -

Each congregation will be judged on what it does with what it has available to do. No more and no less.

Another aspect to the work of the church is benevolence. We are commanded and expected to be benevolent to faithful Christians - ;

The local church is to help those who are in spiritual fellowship with them and who share in spiritual things -

This spiritual fellowship may be extended to fellow Christians in other places when they are in need after disaster strikes -

Some appeal to this example of benevolence and argue that it is can serve as an example of church sponsored evangelism organizations—however, it is only an example of benevolence and not an example of evangelism.

We must remain firm and true to these ancient landmarks and we should not move them, even when others may do so - cf.

Inspiration of the Bible

The Scriptures are inspired of God and are intended for our salvation -

2 Timothy 3:14–17 NASB95

14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Inspiration comes from the Greek word theoneustos (God + wind/breath). Etymologically speaking, it means “God breathed.”

The Scriptures are the words of God revealed to mankind.

They are intended for parents to teach their children so they grow up in respect to salvation.

The Scriptures are meant to help each of us become fully mature and equipped for good work -

When speaking of inspiration we mean that there are no contradictions of matters of revealed truth, doctrine, and practice. What God has revealed is free from contradictions!

There may be contradictions recorded in the Bible, but there is only one revealed true word - cf. ; ,

What God has said, there are no contradictions -

We may be confused by the Scriptures or we may find them hard to understand -

This is not a weakness of God -

Our misunderstanding or confusion speaks about us and our flawed thinking and ways of understanding the Scriptures - cf.

We may have to change our mind about our understanding of the Scriptures, but that does not mean God’s word is flawed and changes.

If we study the word of God carefully and honestly, we can understand the Bible -

Ephesians 3:1–4 NASB95

1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,

We can never quit learning, we can always be confused, whether we are 12 years old or whether we are 82 years old.

Recognizing God’s word as inspired is necessary to believe, we can understand it when we look for:

Direct Statements

Approved Examples

Make Necessary Conclusions

This is how we recognize God’s authority and begin to make application in our life and in the Lord’s church.

Conclusion:

Naboth would not sell his vineyard. We may wonder why—surely the money was good. Couldn’t he take the money, buy another piece of property, and just get out of Ahab and Jezebel’s hair? Sure, he could have done those things, but it would have been a lack of unbelief.

Naboth did not reject Ahab’s offer for just family sentimentality; he said “The LORD forbid me!”

There are things that the Lord has forbidden us to mess with and change.

Job was sorrowful that people would remove the landmarks. He saw it as a violation of righteousness and goodness.

If we do change the ancient landmarks then we are asking for God’s wrath -

Hosea 5:10 NASB95

10 The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary; On them I will pour out My wrath like water.