Two Minutes With The Bible

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The Father Of Believers
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:3).

Has it ever occurred to you that the most loved, the most honored, the most respected person of all history is — not Christ, but Abraham. Christ ought to be most loved, honored and respected, but Abraham is. Besides the millions of professing Christians there are untold millions of Jews and Mohammedans who speak with reverence of “our father Abraham.”

Clearly this is why God used this man to show how to be saved and justified before a holy God. As Paul is God’s great example of grace, so Abraham is God’s great example of faith — saving faith.

“If Abraham were justified by works,” says Rom. 4:2, he has something to boast about — but not before God, who sees and knows all. But Abraham was justified. How? “What saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness” (Ver. 3).

God, of course, had planned salvation through the redemptive work of Christ and has always saved anyone who simply trusts Him and takes Him at His Word. Since Abraham, of course, more of God’s Word has been revealed and we know the details of Christ’s death for sinners. If we now take God at His Word and simply trust Christ as Savior we are completely justified, for salvation is not; cannot be, by works:

    “But to him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5).

    “…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).

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Catch the Wave
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


As I write these words, the cause of Christ has suffered yet another embarrassing setback, as yet another prediction for the Rapture has come and gone without fulfillment.  The damage that has been done is far too extensive to fully document in this brief space, but you’ve all heard the stories.  The faith of sincere believers has been shaken.  Some who spent their life savings to warn the world of the end are now left to pick up the pieces of their shattered financial lives.  And since the media referred to the man who made this prediction as a “Bible scholar,” unbelievers now have yet another reason to scoff at Christianity, laugh at the Bible and Bible teachers, and dismiss anyone who tries to share anything from the Bible with them.

In the past, those who have tried and failed to date the Lord’s coming have sought to account for their failure in two ways.  Some have explained that the date they set was accurate, but that the Lord’s coming was a “spiritual” coming.  Others have scrambled to cover themselves by admitting to a miscalculation, and setting yet another date.  The Bible teacher behind this latest debacle has resorted to both excuses, and now warns that the end will come in October.

Thankfully, we serve a God who proved He can bring good out of bad when He took the worst thing that ever happened, the crucifixion of Christ, and turned it into the best thing that ever happened, the salvation of our souls.  And so we trust that you will join us in prayer that the disillusioned followers of this discredited ministry will now begin to question its leader, and that grace believers everywhere will be able to use this sad event to lead these brethren to an understanding of the truth.

There is something we can learn from all this.  Christians who believed that the Lord was coming on May 21st were spurred to live for Him as never before, enthusiastically telling their friends and loved ones to be ready.  While this failed prediction has no doubt left some questioning if the Rapture will come at all, we who “love His appearing” still believe that we should be “looking for that blessed hope” (II Tim. 4:8; Titus 2:13).  With that in mind, may each of us catch the wave of this misguided enthusiasm, and may His coming find us all busily redeeming whatever time we have left in the service of the Christ that loved us, and gave Himself for us.

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An Old-Fashioned Doctrine
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


How many there are whose hearts would be thrilled if they understood the old-fashioned Bible doctrine of sanctification!

Sanctification is not a negative matter: “Don’t do this” and “Don’t do that.” It is rather the positive truth that God wants us for Himself as a sacred possession, much as a bridegroom considers his bride his very own in a special, sacred way.

Bible sanctification is a twofold truth, affecting both our standing before God and our spiritual state. In one sense every true believer in Christ has already been sanctified, or consecrated to God, by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Thus we read:

    “…God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit…” (II Thes. 2:13).

    “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit…” (I Pet. 1:2).

This has nothing to do with our conduct. God did it. Sanctification begins with Him. Thus Paul could write to even the careless Corinthian believers and say: “Ye are sanctified” (1 Cor. 6:11; cf. Acts 20:32; 26:18.), i.e., “God has set you apart for Himself.” This phase of sanctification is based on the redemptive work of Christ in our behalf, for Heb. 10:10 says: “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

But now God would have us appreciate this fact and conduct ourselves accordingly, consecrating ourselves ever more completely to Him. This is practical, progressive sanctification. “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification” (I Thes. 4:3). Hence Paul’s benediction: “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly” (I Thes. 5:23), and his exhortation to Timothy to be “a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet [fit] for the Master’s use” (II Tim. 2:21).

How can believers be more wholly sanctified to God in their practical experience? By studying and meditating on His Word. Our Lord prayed: “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17), and Paul declares that “Christ… loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:25,26).

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The Law Misunderstood
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


There are three misconceptions that most people entertain about the law of God and its Ten Commandments:

    Most people have a vague notion that the law always was in existence and that it must have been given to the first man, Adam, or soon after. Actually, God gave the law to Moses for Israel about 1500 B.C., after about 2500 years of human history had elapsed (John 1:17). So mankind lived on earth for about 2500 years without the law or the Ten Commandments.

    Most people suppose that the law and the Ten Commandments were given to mankind in general, while, in fact, it was given to Israel alone (Deuteronomy 5:2,3).

    Most people suppose that the law and the Ten Commandments were given to help us to do right. Even some clergymen teach this, although the Bible clearly teaches that they were given to show us that we are guilty sinners.

It is true that the law, while given to Israel, also shows the Gentile that he is a sinner. This is why Romans 3:19 says:

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

But most important of all: Few people realize that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins to deliver us from the just condemnation of the law. This is taught in the following Scriptures:

    “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us…” (Gal. 3:13).

    “For God hath made Him to be sin for us, [Christ] who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).

    “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are NOT UNDER THE LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE” (Rom. 6:14).

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Miles And Miles Of Scripture
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


How much, I wonder, do the Christian parents among our readers show their children their love for the Word, and for Christ, and for the souls for whom He died?

For many years I worked with my father, first full-time, then part-time, as a city missionary in Paterson, N.J. All during these first years dad and I walked to work together each morning — a little over a mile.

Do you know how we invariably occupied ourselves on the way? By quoting Scripture passages on some particular subject. One morning we would quote as many passages as we could on the deity of Christ, another on His death or resurrection; others on His love, power, grace, or other attributes and characteristics. Sometimes, for days or weeks on end dad would use these morning walks to ply me with questions such as: “What Scriptures would you use to deal with a blaspheming unbeliever?” or “a self-righteous person” or “one who rejects Christ on intellectual grounds?”

In this way we covered “miles and miles” of Scripture, as it were, and this in addition to Scripture reading before every meal at home, and again before we retired for the night. And all this again in addition to the oral and written Bible teaching of many of the great Bible expositors of that day, whose teachings we studied with deepest interest.

What a precious heritage! We wish that more of our Christian young people today were as well off. Parents: it’s strictly up to you. What are your priorities? What are you willing to pay — in terms of pleasure, ease or financial “success”? Do you set an example to your children — and others — by really putting God first?

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The Captain of Our Salvation
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Years ago a man of God was asked to preach at the funeral of a young soldier whose parents were unsaved.

During the course of his message the preacher sought to impress upon his hearers the basic fact that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

This greatly upset the parents. After the service they complained: “This is embarrassing. Our boy was not a sinner.”

The truth was that shortly before his death this young man had done what every true, born-again Christian has done. He acknowledged himself to be a lost sinner and, trusting Christ as his Savior, had been so gloriously saved that his parents were mystified that he could be so happy in the face of death.

The simplest believer in Christ understands all this. He knows that for the “old man” the death of the body is indeed a “dishonorable discharge” for laws broken, orders disobeyed, responsibilities unmet, and trusts betrayed. But for the “new man the death of the body is the vestibule through which he is ushered into the blessed presence of “the Captain of our Salvation,” the One who “by the grace of God tasted death for every man” that He might “bring many sons unto glory” (See Hebrews 2:9,10).

This is why we read in Hebrews 2:14,15:

    “Forasmuch, then, as the children [of Adam] were partakers of flesh and blood, He [Christ] also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

    “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

No wonder St. Paul’s simple message of salvation was: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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The Triumph Of Faith
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (I John 5:4).

There are many who look upon faith as an abstract sort of thing. Some suppose faith is merely looking on the bright side of things; to others it is will-power; still others confuse it with a person’s view-point.

In the Bible, faith is simply believing God. “Faith” is the noun and “believe” the verb. This is seen in Rom. 4:5, where the Apostle Paul declares:

    “To him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

The above passage from I John 5 also makes this plain, when seen in its context:

    “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

    “Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (Vers. 4,5).

It is, then, the believer in Christ, and only the believer in Christ, who can overcome the world. Unbelievers are swept away by the attractions and the pretentions of this world-system, but the believer in Christ need not be.

St. Paul declared by divine inspiration that unbelievers follow “the course of this world,” directed by Satan, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2).

We do not mean to imply that believers are not often tempted to follow “the course of this world.” Indeed the world would sometimes entice or intimidate us, but “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

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The End Of The World
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


There has been a great deal of discussion lately about some Hindu astrologers who have predicted that this world will come to an end this February. The fact is that some sincere Christians fear that these prophets might be right, since our Lord did speak several times about the coming “end of the world.”

These Hindu astrologers, however, are wrong. This February will not see the end of the world, for according to the Bible the world, or earth, will never come to an end. The word “world,” which our Lord uses in this connection, does not refer to the earth, or even the people on it. It is the old Greek word aion, or age. Several ages in God’s program have already come to an end, and others will, but no matter what destructive weapons man may devise, the earth will never be destroyed. In Isaiah 45:18 we read:

    “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens: God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it; He created it not in vain; He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is none else.”

But doesn’t Rev. 21:1 predict “a new heaven and a new earth”? Yes, but the context clearly indicates that this refers to the future renewing of the present heaven and earth, not the creating of different ones. Verse 5 says:

    “He that sat upon the throne: said, Behold I make all things new.”

Note: He didn’t say “I make all new things,” but “I make all things new.” There is a difference.

We should not be concerned about the end of the world, but rather about the end of this present age in which we live under “the dispensation of the grace of God,” for God has never promised how long this will last. Every hour He delays the return of Christ to recall His ambassadors, is an hour of wonderful grace, in which men may be saved by grace, through faith in Christ who died for our sins. This is why Paul urges us:

    “We then, as workers together with [Christ], beseech you also that ye 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).

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You're Welcome!
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


Like many Americans, I used to spend Sunday evenings watching 60 Minutes. My favorite part came near the end of each week’s show, when Andy Rooney would voice his complaints and opinions about things. Since his complaints were often aimed at new things, I figured he was just a crotchety old man who didn’t like change. Now that I’m about the age that he was then, I’m finding that I’m not so crazy about change myself, and there is one societal change that I find particularly vexing.

When I was a boy, I was taught that if someone says “thank you,” the polite way to respond is to say, “You’re welcome.” In recent years I have noticed that “you’re welcome” has been replaced by “no problem,” or “not a problem.” I’m not sure why this vexes me, but in true Andy Rooney-like fashion, it does!

Maybe it is because, if we think it through, this response isn’t nearly as good. Saying “you’re welcome” after a kindness means that the person who did you the kindness feels that you are a good person who is welcome to such kind treatment. “No problem” just says, “Being kind to you didn’t inconvenience me;” it says nothing of your worthiness to be treated so well.

If God were speaking aloud these days, one wonders how He would respond when we thank Him for all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ (Eph. 1:3). I doubt He would say, “No problem, being kind to you didn’t inconvenience Me,” for the price He paid at Calvary to procure these blessings was too high. We feel He would rather respond to our thanks with, “You are welcome to such blessings.” Of course, we are not worthy of these blessings because we are good people in ourselves, but rather because of who He has made us in Christ. As difficult as it is for humble Christians to accept, now that we are children of God, we are welcome to the same treatment from God that He gives His own Son. As Paul put it, we are “joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17), and so “how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (v. 32).

Remember every day to thank God for all that He has done for you in Christ. Anyone can thank Him for “life, and breath, and all things” of that nature, for these “He giveth to all” (Acts 17:25). Only the child of God can thank Him for “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” If we don’t thank Him for these things, who will?

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Is The Mystery In The Old Testament?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


No, of course not! Then why does Paul often quote the Old Testament to substantiate the Mystery (e.g., Rom. 15:9-12)? Let’s start in Acts 26:22, where Paul testifies:

    “I continue unto this day…saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.”

This statement seems to belie Paul’s insistence that his message was “hid from ages and from generations” (Col. 1:26). However, he explains himself in the next verse:

    “That Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:23).

The death and resurrection of Christ was not a mystery, nor was God’s plan to show light unto “the people” (of Israel) and “to the Gentiles.” Thus Paul is saying that while his message did not fulfill the prophets, generally speaking it did not contradict the Old Testament. We see the same in Acts 15, where the leaders in the church met to decide what to make of Paul’s new gospel. James concluded:

    “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets…” (v. 14,15).

James didn’t say that Paul’s new message fulfilled the prophets. Rather he said it agreed with them, i.e., God always intended to visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. Of course, according to Prophecy this was supposed to happen through Israel’s rise (Isa. 60:3), not through her fall (Rom. 11:11). Someday in the kingdom it will. But in the meantime, James could not deny that generally speaking Paul’s new message was in accord with the Old Testament.

When most New Testament writers quote the Old Testament, it is to show fulfillment of prophecy. However, when Paul quotes the Old Testament, it is to show harmony, not fulfillment.

Let’s close with an example. In Romans 10:19 Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:21, where God vows to provoke Israel to jealousy by “a foolish nation.” This cannot be the Gentiles, for they are “the nations,” plural. Peter rather identifies the believing Jews to whom he wrote as the “holy nation ” that God originally used to provoke the apostate nation of Israel to jealousy (I Pet. 2:9 cf. Matt. 21:43; Luke 12:32) and fulfill Deuteronomy 32:21. But in the next chapter of Romans, Paul says,

    “…I am the apostle of the Gentiles…if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh…” (Rom. 11:13,14).

Here Paul declares that God was now using the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy. Not in fulfillment of Deuteronomy 32:21, but certainly in harmony with it!

So while the Mystery is not in the Old Testament, Paul can quote it freely to show how his new message was in agreement with it.

[nChrist]

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How to Get to Heaven from Your Current Location
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


MapQuest® is an ingenious website that many have probably used at one time or another.  Simply type in where you live and where you want to go and, voila!  It gives you step-by-step directions to your final destination.  Of course, it cannot give you directions on How to Get to Heaven from Your Current Location.  Only the Word of God can give us these instructions.

The year leading up to the conversion of George Whitefield, the famous English Evangelist, is a good example of how God will have nothing to do with good works or acts of self-denial for the salvation of a lost soul.  Both are repulsive in His sight.  Shortly after entering his third year at Oxford, young Whitefield underwent a spiritual crisis.  It was said of him:

“The life of God in his own soul was what he craved and must have—but how to obtain it!  The thought of his sins caused him to sweat and groan.  He shunned all company, wandering the fields and woods, deep in prayer—sometimes lying all night upon the freezing ground.  He wore the shabbiest of clothing; his only fare [meals], dry bread and tea.  In time even his prayers seemed to become sinful.”  (George Whitefield and the Great Evangelical Awakening by Anthony Beaurepaire, The Protestant Truth Society, London, England, Pg. 13).

It wasn’t until Mr. Whitefield came to the end of himself that he began to reflect on his reading of Christian literature, how it was “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”  With the burden of his sin greater than he could bear, he turned to Christ, the great Sin-Bearer, and was gloriously saved by the grace of God.  In his own words, he gave this touching account of his conversion:

“God was pleased at length to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold on His dear Son by living faith…Oh, with what joy, joy unspeakable, even joy that was full of, and great with glory, and my soul was filled when the weight of sin went off, and an abiding sense of the pardoning love of God and a full assurance of faith broke upon my disconsolate soul!”1

Perhaps you are like Mr. Whitefield prior to his conversion, trying to find acceptance with God apart from Christ.  Your defense may be, “I’m not so bad.  After all, I’ve never murdered anyone,” as if God will accept you because you never committed the act of murder.  But which sin is worse, murder or lying?  According to Proverbs 6:16,17, lying is the greater violation of the two in the sight of God—because lying leads to murder!  We need to remember and remember well, all sin has eternal consequences for those who reject Christ as their Savior.

Perhaps your pursuit of God has taken you down the path of religious rituals.  Surely here you will find favor with God!  Interestingly, it is in this area that Satan has done his most effective work to blind men to the light of the glorious gospel.  He uses religion!  If men think their religious service will gain them acceptance with God, he has accomplished his purpose to keep them eternally damned.

Here is a short list of religious practices that men do, hoping to earn their way to heaven: church attendance, water baptism, first communion, confirmation, reciting the Lord’s Prayer, responsive readings, doing the sign of the Cross, confessing and receiving forgiveness of their sins from a priest, etc.  Before his conversion to Christ, Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran Church, visited Rome, where he climbed the steps of Scala Santa on his knees.  The Scala Santa is believed to be the stairway the Lord ascended to reach Pilate’s Judgment Hall on the day of His crucifixion.  The Catholic Church supposedly had it brought from Jerusalem to Rome.

As a Roman Catholic, at the time, Luther believed such acts of self-sacrifice would increase his chances of entering heaven.  But it wasn’t long thereafter, in a monastery at Wittenberg, he saw things in a whole new light.  As Luther was reading Romans 1:17, where it states, “The just shall live by faith,” he paused a moment, and then it suddenly dawned on him that salvation was by faith.  Up to that point he had tried to earn his salvation through religious observances, but never felt he had done enough.  Now, for the first time, he saw that a lost soul is declared eternally righteous by God through faith on the basis of the finished work of Christ.  He was delivered from the bondage of his sins and indescribable joy flooded his heart.  So dramatic was the change in his life that Luther went on to be the spark that ignited the great Reformation.

If you would like to get to heaven from your current location, simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  We want you to know that God loves you and Christ died for your sins (Rom. 5:8.).  You see, the day Christ died at Calvary, He wasn’t dying for His sins.  He knew no sin.  Instead, He was dying for the sins of the world—my sins and your sins.  God has made a provision for all, but to receive the benefit of this provision you must believe that Christ died personally for you and rose again (I Cor. 15:3,4; I Thes. 4:14).  Salvation is in a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ!  He alone can save you from your sins!

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True Evangelism
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In St. Paul’s mighty Epistle to the Romans he declares “the gospel [good news] of God… concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:1-3).

The good news which Paul proclaimed was essentially about Christ. He was always talking about Christ. His epistles were filled with Christ. In his message Christ was everything.

This is in striking contrast to much of modern evangelism, which is not Christ-centered, but man-centered. Dr. A. W. Tozer, shortly before his death, wrote:

    “The flaw in current evangelism lies in its humanistic approach… It is frankly fascinated by the great, noisy, aggressive world with its big names, its hero worship, its wealth and pageantry… This gross misapprehension of the truth is back of much… of our present evangelical activity…

    “This concept of Christianity is a radical error, and because it touches the souls of men it is a dangerous, even deadly, error… It is little more than a weak humanism allied with weak Christianity to give it ecclesiastical respectability… Invariably it begins with man and his needs and then looks around for God, while true Christianity reveals God as searching for man to deliver him from his ambitions.”

Tozer was right in this. God’s good news for the world is about Christ and His power and love in defeating Satan, overcoming death, nailing the Law to His cross and paying for man the just penalty for sin, so that all who believe might be justified. This is why Paul’s gospel is called in Scripture “the gospel [good news] of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) and “the gospel of the glory of Christ” (II Cor. 4:4).

To enter experientially into the truth of this good news is the greatest blessing one can possibly enjoy.

[nChrist]

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The Rightness Of God
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


St. Paul’s great Epistle to the Romans has much to say about “the righteousness of God”; in fact, this is the theme of the Book of Romans. Sad to say, however, the Bible is so little read and studied of late that many people do not even know what the word “righteousness” means.

Actually, every man, woman and child should know about the righteousness of God — or, to simplify the word — the rightness of God. It is most important to understand that God does always and only that which is right. He can do nothing and will do nothing that is not right.

Thus God cannot and does not merely forgive sinners and smuggle them into heaven, for this would not be right. As Job 8:20 says, “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will He help evil doers,” for neither would be right.

It was Bildad who said this to Job, and Job replied, almost exasperated: “I know it is so of a truth, but how shall a man be just with God?” (Job 9:2). In other words, how can a holy God look upon a sinner and pronounce him righteous? With this background let us consider Paul’s great declaration in Romans 1:16,17:

    “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth…. for therein is the righteousness [i.e., the rightness] of God revealed….”

True, the love of God is also revealed in the gospel, but what made Paul so proud to proclaim the gospel is the fact that it tells how God dealt “righteously,” or rightly, with sin, paying its just penalty Himself at Calvary so that He might offer salvation to all by free grace.

Thus the Apostle declares in Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death [this is its just penalty] but the [free] gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

[nChrist]

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The Grace Of God
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In the Bible, the grace of God is His loving favor toward fallen man. St. Paul has more to say about grace than any other Bible writer, opening every one of his epistles with the declaration: “Grace be unto you and peace.”

Little wonder, for he himself was God’s greatest demonstration of salvation by grace. In I Tim. 1:13,14, he says:

    “I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy… and THE GRACE OF OUR LORD WAS EXCEEDING ABUNDANT….”

After years of service and suffering for Christ, he declared:

    “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify THE GOSPEL [GOOD NEWS] OF THE GRACE OF GOD”(Acts 20:24).

Salvation is wholly by God’s grace, not partly by man’s works, for in Rom. 11:6 we read: “…if [it be] by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.”

And in Rom. 4:4,5: “…to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Thus salvation is “not of works” but “unto good works” (Eph. 2:8-10). Good works is the fruit, not the root.

“All have sinned,” says Rom. 3:23 but, thank God, all may be “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

Thus it is God’s purpose “that in the ages to come He might show THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).

[nChrist]

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How To Have Boldness
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


Scripture Reading:

    “And [pray] for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
    — Ephesians 6:19,20

In our modern day there is a great demand for instant success. We read frequently of how many have risen to fame and fortune practically overnight. Seldom, however, do we hear of the hours of labor, practice, sacrifice and discipline it took to build that career. Most times we only hear and see the end result. Many have been deceived and disillusioned to think that they can have fame and fortune with little or no effort.

In these days in which we live, the world seems to have a powerful influence over the lives of many believers. For this reason many members of the Body of Christ are looking for that book, conference or seminar that will be a shortcut to spiritual maturity. When it comes to our spiritual lives and having boldness of faith we want instant results with little or no effort put into it. As a Pastor, I would have to say that to have boldness in the faith as the Apostle says, there must be three key ingredients.

Time:

Just as physical growth takes years, spiritual growth also takes time. As we come to spiritual maturity we become more and more confident to speak out for the Lord. It takes time to learn that we have to take our eyes off of ourselves which causes us to be reluctant to speak because of the fear of men.

Discipline:

It takes discipline to sit down with the Word of God and study to acquire a knowledge of the Scriptures. We don’t mean just reading the Bible devotionally. It is said that we retain only about 20 percent of what we read. But, if we read and study, we retain about 60 percent when comparing Scripture with Scripture. The better equipped you are in the Word of God the more comfortable you will be to share the truth, rightly divided.

Consistency:

If we are to gain the respect of others in order to more effectively minister the gospel, we must be consistent with the truth. Don’t sound an uncertain trumpet, be able to substantiate what you teach with the Blessed Book. Not only should we speak the truth in love consistently, we must also live the truth. Our lives are the only Bibles some men see. That’s why the Apostle Paul warns us to put “away lying, [and] speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another” (Eph. 4:25). True boldness in the faith does not come naturally, it is something we grow into as we increase in the knowledge of Him Who has called us into the glorious light.