Two Minutes With The Bible

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Columbus The Believer
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Everybody knows that Columbus discovered America, but few people know Columbus the sincere believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who braved the dangers of the ocean vastness mainly because it was his deep desire to bring the gospel to the Indies. His perseverance in the face of almost insurmountable odds should be a lesson to God’s people. Centuries before Columbus, Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers:

    “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (I Cor. 15:58 ).

This stirring appeal of Paul to Christians everywhere (I Cor. 1:2), implies that there is a tendency to abandon the work of the Lord through discouragement or carelessness, for he pleads with us to be “steadfast,” and “unmovable” — not easily shaken, reminding us that our “labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

How we need the exhortation!

We do not soon abandon our businesses or our homes. We work on in spite of difficulties and obstacles, and when the outlook is darkest we often toil the hardest. Sometimes our bodies suffer for it, but we do not immediately give up.

If this is so where our own affairs are concerned, how much more should it be so where the things of God and the needy multitudes about us are concerned! If it is so where temporal matters are concerned, how much more should it be so where eternity is involved!

Christians, let us awake! Let us “buy up the time!” Life is too short to fritter away the precious moments. Let us rather neglect our own affairs than to neglect the work of the Lord and the perishing souls about us.

[nChrist]

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The Spirit Of Sonship
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption [Lit., sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15).

The position of the believer in the family of God is amply illustrated for us in the Epistles of Paul. In Gal. 4:1-5 the Apostle alludes to the fact that in the life of every Hebrew boy there came a time, appointed by the father, when the lad was formally declared to be a full-grown son, with all the rights and privileges of sonship.

It was now assumed that the young man would no longer need overseers to keep him in check. There would be natural understanding and co-operation between father and son. And so the “adoption” [Gr., son-placing] proceedings took place, indicating that the child, now a full-grown son, was no longer under law, but under grace.

    “And because ye are sons,” says the Apostle, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a [full-grown] son” (Gal. 4:6,7).

This is the position of every believer in Christ. He may, like the Corinthians, still be a babe in his spiritual experience (I Cor. 3:1), but in Christ he occupies the position of a full-grown son, and to grow spiritually it will do him no good to go back under the Law; he must rather recognize his standing before God in grace. This is why the Apostle says in Rom. 8:15:

    “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption [sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

A recognition of this position will do far more to help us live godly lives than will the “dos and dont’s” of the Law.

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That Blessed Hope
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


For believers in Christ it would be the most blessed of all if this year turns out to be the year of our Lord’s coming for His own. How long the present dispensation of grace will be prolonged we do not, and cannot, know. Even St. Paul, who was commissioned to make known the glorious truth of the rapture of the Church, did not know. He never dreamed that God would linger in mercy for more than 1900 years, for in I Thes. 4:16-18 he says:

    “We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall be caught up…”

Thus instructed Bible-believers in every generation since his day have rightly been on the alert for their Lord to come for them, for they know that “the days are evil” and every hour is an hour of grace.

To the Philippians the Apostle wrote: “We look for the Savior,” to the Thessalonians: “[Ye]… wait for His [God's] Son from heaven,” and to Titus he says that we should be “looking for that blessed hope, and the appearing in glory of …our Savior, Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20; I Thes. 1:9,10; Tit. 2:11-13).

With the Lord’s coming and the close of “the dispensation of the grace of God” so much nearer than it was in Paul’s day, we say to the unsaved: “Receive not the grace of God in vain…. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation” (II Cor. 6: 1,2).

And to the saved we say: “Buy up the time,” take advantage of every opportunity to win the lost to Christ, for “the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16) and the day of grace may soon be brought to a close.

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The Spirit of Holiness
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “… Jesus Christ… was… declared to be the Son of God… according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:3,4).

What does it mean that the Lord’s resurrection declared Him to be the Son of God according to the spirit of holiness? Well, have you ever heard it said that there is a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law? When you drive 66 m.p.h. in a 65 m.p.h. zone, you are breaking the letter of the law, but you are not breaking the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is for you to drive safely and responsibly. This is why most police officers will not ticket you for going one mile per hour over the speed limit.

The letter of the law of holiness is expressed well in Proverbs 17:15:

    “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.”

But isn’t that what God did at the Cross, when He condemned “that Just One” (Acts 22:14) and justified wicked sinners such as ourselves? In so doing, He surely broke the letter of the law of holiness.

Or did He? For those who would argue that God was not acting in accord with the law of holiness, we would reply that when God the Father took your sins and placed them on the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, He justly condemned the One who was made wicked (II Cor. 5:21). Then when you believed the gospel, God took His righteousness and put it on you, enabling Him to justify the ones who were made the very righteousness of God in Christ (II Cor. 5:21). The resurrection of Christ then proved that this was also done in perfect accord with the spirit of holiness, for Christ’s sacrifice surely satisfied the just demands of God’s righteousness.

If you haven’t yet trusted Christ as your Savior, however, God has not yet given you the righteousness that is available only in Christ. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul says,

    “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

The forgiveness of sins purchased by Christ’s blood is only available in Him. If you are not in Christ, you are still “in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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David's Blessedness
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:6-8 ).

Obviously David knew no more about the present “dispensation of the grace of God” than did Abraham, and he certainly did not live under the dispensation of grace. He lived under the dispensation of the Law, when sacrifices were required for acceptance with God. Had David said that the offering of sacrifices was unnecessary, he would have been stoned according to the Law.

But David, unlike many today, understood the purpose of the Mosaic Law: to bring man in guilty before God. In Psalm 130 he said: “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee.” He did not know how God could righteously acquit a guilty sinner, but he believed it to be a fact and rejoiced in Psa. 32: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered… unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity…”

Thank God, we now know the reason! God has revealed through Paul, the chief of sinners saved by grace, how He can be “just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). It is because “God hath made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, [Him] who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).

David’s blessedness may be ours too, if we will but do what David did: trust in Him who graciously forgives sin and (as we now know) justifies believers on the basis of the redemptive work of Christ.

[nChrist]

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One Thing
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Referring to the great Temple of God, which King David so earnestly hoped to build, he said:

    “ONE THING HAVE I DESIRED of the Lord; that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple” (Psa. 27:4).

Similarly, when Martha of Bethany complained to Jesus that Mary “sat at [His] feet and heard His Word” while she was left to serve alone, the Lord answered:

“Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but ONE THING IS NEEDFUL, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41,42).

Today, with regard to the message of grace from the ascended, glorified Lord, the Apostle Paul exhorts us: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly”(Col. 3:16). Wonderful results follow such a determination to know Christ through the Word.

When the Lord Jesus opened the eyes of the blind beggar, the poor man was immediately persecuted by the religious leaders of the day. He could not answer all of their questions but he could answer the one most important to himself:

    “ONE THING I KNOW, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25).

The rest of the narrative relates how the blind beggar also received spiritual sight as, face to face with the Son of God, he exclaimed: “Lord, I believe! …and…worshipped Him” (Ver. 38 ).

But what about our conduct after spiritual sight has been bestowed? The most consecrated believer will acknowledge that he often fails to live up to the light he has received. St. Paul, by inspiration, gives us the solution to this problem also, saying:

    “THIS ONE THING I DO: forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press [strain] toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3: 13,14).

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Our Only Boast
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Gal. 6:14).

St. Paul was once a proud Pharisee, smug in his self-righteousness. In Philippians 3:5,6, he lists some of the things in which he took great pride:

    “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

But everything was changed since that day when the Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Suddenly he had seen himself a lost, condemned sinner in the sight of a holy God and had tasted the matchless grace that could reach down from heaven and save even him. He knew now that he could not stand before God in himself, or “on his own two feet,” as we say. His only safety before the bar of God was to take refuge in Christ, as he says in Verse 9:

    “And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

Now he knew, as we all should know, that he really had nothing to boast of as far as his own standing before God was concerned. For the rest of his life, however, he did constantly boast of one thing: the cross, where the Christ he had so bitterly persecuted had died for his sins that he (Paul) might be justified before God. All else of which Paul boasted was embraced in the cross of Christ. This too is really the only thing we have to boast of and the most godly saint will enthusiastically join Paul in saying:

    “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.”

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A Successful Church
by Pastor John Fredericksen


In our day, it’s easy to be wrongly programmed to equate numbers with a church being successful.  Certainly, we want to grow.  However, the Lord has a far different standard for success that we need to embrace as our standard.  Paul said, “… it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (I Cor. 4:2).  Faithfulness to the truth of the Word, rightly divided, is paramount, as is faithfulness in service and worship.  The church at Thessalonica was extolled for two things.  They had a genuine love for one another which the Lord wanted to see “increase and abound” still more (I Thes. 3:12).  They also had a regular, consistent, aggressive outreach to the lost with the gospel (I Thes. 1:8 ).  Before the Lord, may we strive to have this kind of successful church.

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How Do You Want To Be Remembered?
by Pastor John Fredericksen


On April 7th, 2012, newsman Mike Wallace, who anchored the program “60 Minutes,” died at age 92. For several days, the media paid tribute to him, recounting his career. The recurring theme was that the most memorable thing about Mike Wallace was his aggressive, confrontational style of journalism, of asking hard or offensive questions. Once Mike was asked, “How do you want to be remembered?” He responded, “Tough, but fair.”

Since all of us will one day face death, we should decide now how we want to be remembered. Perhaps the best way to be remembered was as Joshua was. When he died, he was called, “the servant of the Lord” (Judges 2:8 ). Such a legacy is a testimony of spiritual priority —- godly influence on others, and a life lived for something eternally important. How do you want to be remembered? Each of us basically decides by decisions we make now.

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The Bible A Confusing Book?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


We ran across an article recently, entitled: “Yes, the Bible is a Confusing Book.”

The article did not even attempt to dispel this “confusion,” or in any way help its readers to understand the Bible. It did not suggest even one basic rule of interpretation. Nor did it explain why the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles constantly exhorted men to study the Bible.

The Bible is indeed a very large Book, so that the greatest of us will never understand it all. Moreover, it is God’s Book and must necessarily contain much that is “hard to understand.” But this makes it the greater challenge to the believing heart to seek divine aid in exploring its depths and the greater joy when precious stones are brought up from this exhaustless mine.

God does not reward lazy and indifferent Christians with light from His Word, but confusion invariably vanishes as we prayerfully obey His command:

    “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Tim. 2:15).

In studying the Bible there are basic distinctions to be observed; e.g., between the twelve apostles and Paul, the apostle for this age; between the “gospel of the kingdom” and the gospel for our day: the “gospel of the grace of God,” etc., but meantime there are many passages of Scripture so plain and simple that a child can understand them and no theologian can explain them away. For example, in John 3:35,36, we read:

    “THE FATHER LOVETH THE SON, AND HATH GIVEN ALL THINGS INTO HIS HAND.

    “HE THAT BELIEVETH ON THE SON hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

At the other end from the spiritual poverty experienced by those who deem the Bible “a confusing Book,” we have what St. Paul, by divine inspiration, calls “all [the] riches of the full assurance of understanding” (Col. 2:2).

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Good Works
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Millions of people are striving to make themselves acceptable to God by good works. Such people can never be sure of salvation, for the simple reason that they can never be sure whether they have done enough good works or whether they have done them in the right way. Some suppose that heaven can be won if our good works outweigh our evil works, but this does not make sense either, for good works are what all of us ought to do and even one evil deed would prevent a just and holy God from justifying us or admitting us into His presence.

Let’s not put the cart before the horse. God does expect good works from His children but not as payment for salvation, for eternal life and glory could not possibly be bought at any price. “Christ Jesus came into the world,” says the Apostle Paul, “to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). Then, having saved them by grace, He expects them to do good works out of gratitude.

It is interesting to compare Titus 3:5 with Titus 3:8:

    Titus 3:5:”NOT BY WORKS of righteousness which we have done, but ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US.”

    Titus 3:8:” …these things I will that thou affirm constantly, THAT THEY WHICH HAVE BELIEVED IN GOD MIGHT BE CAREFUL TO MAINTAIN GOOD WORKS. …”

Faith is the root; good works the fruit. Thus we read in Eph. 2:8-10:

    “For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

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The Baby Jesus And The Lord Of Glory
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Each year at Christmas-time, the “baby Jesus” is the subject of discussion and attention. Indeed, all year long the Babe in its mother’s arms and the dying Sufferer on the cross are kept constantly before the masses, while our Lord’s resurrection, ascension and present glory in heaven are given but scant attention. This is because so few have taken note of the great message of the Apostle Paul about the glorified Lord in heaven. In II Cor. 5:16, the Apostle wrote:

    “…yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.”

It is sad that so many still know only “Christ after the flesh.” They love to discuss the “gospel stories” about the “Man of Galilee,” but find themselves strangers in the great Epistles of St. Paul.

Paul was the apostle for this present “dispensation of the grace of God.” It is he who presents Christ in His present glory as the great Dispenser of redeeming grace, through the merits He won at Calvary. In Eph. 1:15-23 we have recorded for us the Apostle’s prayer that we might be given “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ” that we might come to experience…

    “What is the exceeding greatness of [God's] power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power,

    “Which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.

    “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world [age], but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1:19-21).

Let us thank God that the baby Jesus died for our sins and became the risen, living Savior at God’s right hand, abundantly “able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Heb. 7:25).

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The Purpose Of The Law
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


How little most people know about the Law, the Ten Commandments!

First, most people have a hazy idea that the Law was given to Adam; that it existed as long as the history of man. This, of course, is wrong, for in John 1:17 we read: “The law was given by Moses.” Moses lived some 2,500 years after Adam, about 1,500 years before Christ. So for about 2,500 years mankind lived without the Ten Commandments.

Second, most people suppose that the Law was given to mankind in general, while the fact is that it was given to Israel alone. It was a covenant made between God and Israel. Before giving it God said: “Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people” (Ex. 19:5). This is not to say that the Law does not affect all men, for, as the divine standard of righteousness it affects us all.

Third, most people think that the Law was given to help us to be good. Even some clergymen teach this, though the Bible itself states again and again that the Law was given to show us that we are guilty sinners and need a Savior. Note the following Scripture passages.

    Rom. 3:19: “Now we know that what things soever the law sath, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be brought in guilty before God.”

    Rom. 3:20: “By the law is the knowledge of sin.”

    Gal. 3:19: “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions….”

Thus the Law can only condemn the sinner. But thank God, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3:13).

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The Forgiveness Of Sins
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Some three thousand years ago, and about one thousand years before Christ, the Psalmist said:

    “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee…” (Psa. 130:3,4).

The Psalmist did not explain, however, upon what basis a just and holy God could forgive a guilty sinner. This was to be proclaimed one thousand years later by the Apostle Paul, himself once “a blasphemer, and a persecutor and injurious”; the “chief” of sinners, but forgiven and saved by the infinite grace of God (1 Tim. 1:13-15).

Preaching Christ at Antioch, in the province of Pisidia, Paul declared:

    “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that THROUGH THIS MAN IS PREACHED UNTO YOU THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, AND BY HIM ALL THAT BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED FROM ALL THINGS, FROM WHICH YE COULD NOT BE JUSTIFIED BY THE LAW OF MOSES” (Acts 13:38,39).

But even this does not fully answer our question, for we must still ask: On what basis does God forgive sins through “this Man”? The answer is: on the basis of His payment for our sins on Calvary’s cross. Thus the Apostle wrote to the Romans, explaining how we may be…

    “…justified freely by His [God's] grace, THROUGH THE REDEMPTION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS” (Rom. 3:24).

Now, thank God, through Christ’s finished work, there is not a sinner who needs to remain unforgiven, for:

    “In [Christ] we have redemption, through His blood, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE” (Eph. 1:7).

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Your Labor Is Not In Vain in the Lord -- Or Is It?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (I Cor. 15:58 ).

Many years ago, my good friend Pastor John Fredericksen gave me a plaque engraved with this text, a plaque that sits on my desk here at Berean Bible Society to this day. As I labor for the Lord, it is such an encouragement to me to know that, no matter what, my labor is not in vain in the Lord.

But if that be so, why did Paul tell the Galatians,

    “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain” (Gal. 4:10,11).

And what about what the apostle told the Philippians:

    “Do all things without murmurings and disputings…that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (Phil. 2:14-16).

And don’t we find the same thought in I Thessalonians 3:5?

    “…I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.”

If it was possible that Paul’s labor for the Lord might have been in vain, how could he tell the Corinthians that their labor could not be? How could the labor of a godly apostle be in vain, but not the labor of the carnal Corinthians?

We believe the answer is found in the context of the verse, where right before telling the Corinthians that their labor was not in vain, Paul spoke to them about the Rapture (I Cor. 15:51-57). In that day, when we stand before the Lord at the Judgment Seat of Christ, no believer’s labor will be in vain, for all of our labor for Him will be richly rewarded.

And so it is that, if the Galatians persisted in their legalism, if the Philippians continued to do things with murmurings and disputings, if the Thessalonians abandoned the faith, Paul’s labor among them would have been in vain in this life, but not in the next life! And if you are feeling discouraged about your labor for the Lord because people whom you have led to Him have departed from the faith, or believers to whom you’ve introduced the grace message have turned their back on that blessed truth, you too can rejoice that your labor is not in vain in the Lord!