Two Minutes With The Bible

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The True Bible Church
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Many people have truly come to know Christ as Savior after having been sincere, religious “church members” for years. Though faithful supporters of some earthly church organization they had never experienced the truth of II Cor. 5:17: “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation.”  It is possible to be a member in good standing of some church organization, yet be outside of the one true Church of which the Bible speaks.

This is because the true Bible Church is not an organization but a living organism, a spiritual body, with a living Head and living members. Again and again St. Paul, by divine inspiration, calls the Church, the Body of Christ. He says: “We being many, are one Body in Christ…” (Rom. 12:5). “Ye are the Body of Christ, and members in particular” (I Cor. 12:27). “We are members of His Body” (Eph. 5:30).

How do we become members of this true Bible Church, the Body of Christ? First, we must acknowledge ourselves to be sinners in God’s sight, for Ephesians 2 relates how Christ died for sinful men that He might “reconcile” them to God “in one Body” by the cross (Ver. 16). Thus, when believing sinners are reconciled to God by faith in Christ, they are regenerated, given a new life, by the Spirit, and by the Spirit are baptized into the Church, the Body of Christ.

    “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

    “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body” (I Cor. 12:13).

Every one of us should ask himself: “Have I been baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ?” If not, trust Christ as your Savior and become a member of the one true Bible Church. Then associate yourself with some local assembly where Christ is honored and the Bible taught, “rightly divided.”

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Cremation
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


    “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” — Psalm 90:10

With the rising cost of funerals these days many families are faced with the decision as to whether or not cremation should be considered as a viable option to burial. Many have concluded that this is an acceptable alternative since the matter is not addressed in Paul’s epistles, and we are living under grace. While there does seem to be liberty here, perhaps it is the better part of wisdom to consult the whole counsel of God.

In Biblical times cremation of the body was primarily identified with the pagan nations of the world. According to the Old Testament there were a few isolated occurrences of this practice, although they always seem to be associated with judgment or cases of emergency rather than merely disposing of the body (Josh. 7:25,26; I Sam. 31:6-13).

Consequently, cremation was more the exception than the rule.

Throughout the Scriptures it is said that they buried their dead.

    “Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah…”

    “Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”

    “And the young men arose, wound him [Ananias] up, and carried him out, and buried him.”

In keeping with the Word of God, we believe it is preferable to bury our loved ones even though we may have liberty to do otherwise. Of course, the additional financial burden can be eased by planning ahead for our inevitable departure. The services that normally accompany a funeral bring the unsaved face to face with their own mortality.

Thus, the occasion, heartbreaking as it may be, has often been used of the Lord to bring many sons to glory. Whatever your conviction may be on the matter, it is important to heed the words of the Apostle Paul:

    “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Rom. 14:5).

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Who's To Blame?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


This writer was a bit irked, recently, to read the following paragraph in one of our leading Chicago newspapers:

“Professional thieves and joy-ride-happy teen-agers are not to blame for most auto thefts. It’s true that they are the ones who do the stealing — but the careless motorist must bear the blame… When not in use, cars should be locked.”

Just think this through: More than 1,000 cars stolen every day throughout the nation, but those who steal them should not be blamed — the owners should be blamed for not making it impossible for the thief to steal his car!

Man has always been a master at “blame shifting.” Adam said to God, in effect: “It’s not my fault; it’s that woman you gave me.” Eve said: “Don’t blame me. The serpent deceived me,” and ever since, the descendants of the first couple have been adept at shifting the blame.

But now it’s getting so that the courts defend and protect the criminals and even blame the innocent for not making it impossible for the criminal to act! It is a shame that we have to lock our cars against theft — and it is a stigma on our society. Some judges don’t see it that way, but God does. Read Romans 2:2:

    “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who commit such things.”

We may all be grateful, though, that it was the very justice — as well as the love — of God, that caused Him to take on Himself human form and pay for our sins at Calvary. God cannot overlook sin, yet He loves the sinner. This is why He paid for all our sins at Calvary, and this, too, is why we may now be “justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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Birth, Death And Rebirth
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


St. Peter declares that to obtain eternal life we must be born again, since by nature we were born but to die.

    “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away. But the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (I Pet. 1 :23-25).

Our Lord emphasized this same fact to the Pharisee Nicodemus. “That which is born of the flesh,” He said, “is flesh… Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again” (John 3:6,7).

Nicodemus was devoutly religious, and he even recognized Christ as “a teacher come from God” (John 3:2). But he was not saved. He had not been “born of the Spirit,” and “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” even though it is “religious flesh.” Therefore it must die. Nicodemus, like many sincerely religious people today, needed to be born again — of the Spirit, by faith in the Word, of which the Spirit is the Author.

Some suppose that Paul did not teach the new birth, but they are wrong. He taught it consistently, and nowhere more clearly than in Titus 3:5, where he wrote by divine inspiration:

    “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration [re-birth] and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

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Whatsoever Is Not of Faith
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “What does Paul mean when he says that whatsoever is not of faith is sin”?

    “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).

We know that faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). The Word of God through Paul says that we can eat all things (1 Tim. 4:4), but he who is “weak in faith” (Rom. 14:1) doubts this and limits himself to eating “herbs” (v. 2). His faith has not yet matured to believe Paul when he says he can eat meat, so “he that doubteth… if he eat…he eateth not of faith.”

But if he wouldn’t eat it “of faith,” why would he eat it? Well, in this passage, he might eat meat trying to follow the example of his stronger brother. This is why Paul encourages strong brethren not to eat meat in front of a weaker brother (v. 15), which might make “the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat” meat (cf. 1 Cor. 8:10). If he eats meat to try to walk in the footsteps of his stronger brother, rather than eating it because “of faith” in God’s Word, it will cause him to stumble (Rom. 14:13,21) by doing something that bothers his conscience.

Back to our question. How come “whatsoever is not of faith is sin”? It is because “to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean” (v. 14). God actually adjusts the definition of what is unclean to agree with a weak brother’s conscience. Since his faith does not yet believe that he can eat meat, “he eateth not of faith,” and whatsoever is not of faith is sin to him.

Why would a weak brother “be damned if he eat”? Well, the word “damnation” doesn’t always refer to eternal damnation in Hell. If all damnation was eternal, the Lord was being redundant in speaking of “eternal damnation” (Mark 3:29). Likewise, if all damnation was to Hell, He would not have had to add the words “of Hell” when He spoke of “the damnation of Hell” (Matt. 23:33). The word “damnation” simply means condemnation or judgment of any kind. Those who resist the government “shall receive to themselves damnation” (Rom. 13:1,2), the judgment and condemnation of the government. So when a weak brother eats meat that he believes is unclean, it is sin for him, and he is condemned by his own conscience, since he judges what he has done to be sinful.

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Wrath or Respite
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


When natural disasters such as hurricanes and tsunamis take their toll in death and destruction, many preachers insist these calamities are the result of the wrath of God on sin, pointing to such verses as Ephesians 5:6, where speaking of the sins of Verses 3-5, Paul says:

    “…for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.”

Since the Greek word for “cometh” here is in the present tense, we believe Paul is saying that while God’s wrath is coming, it hasn’t yet arrived. Consider: after the Lord announced that His betrayer was “at hand,” we read that “immediately… cometh Judas” (Mark 14:42,43). However, we know that Judas had not yet arrived, for Verse 45 tells us what happened “as soon as he was come.” You see, the word “cometh” means that something is presently on its way, but the word must be in the past tense for us to understand that whatever is coming has arrived.

While many preachers declared that Hurricane Katrina was God’s wrath on New Orleans for the debauchery of Mardi Gras, others surmised the catastrophe was rather an example of God’s mercy, for thousands more would have died had the levies broken during the storm rather than after. Herein lies the problem in determining what God is doing or not doing by trying to interpret circumstances, which are always subjective and open to speculation.  The only sure way of knowing what God is doing is from the Word of God, and God’s Word tells us that even when God was judging men for their sins, the presence of even ten believers in Sodom would have prevented God from destroying it (Gen. 18:23-33).  Surely there were more than ten believers in New Orleans, so when catastrophe struck the city, I don’t know how we can conclude that it was the judgment of God, even if we apply the standard God used in Sodom, which God is not using today under grace.  And so while even insurance companies call tornadoes and earthquakes “acts of God,” the Bible asserts that we are living in the dispensation of grace (Eph. 3:2), an age in which God is dispensing grace, not wrath, an age in which mankind is experiencing a respite from His judgment.

But if the reader of this page is not saved, please don’t think you will get away with sin forever. Romans 2:5 describes you as one who “treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath.” You may not have an account with any bank, but you have a sin account with God. His wrath on your sin is not being revealed today, but the day of the “revelation of the righteous judgment of God” is coming. Why not “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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Do We Make Too Much of Paul?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


Here at BBS we recently received yet another email informing us that we make too much of Paul, and elevate him above the Lord Jesus. But in exhorting believers to follow Paul as he followed Christ (I Cor. 11:1), we are not making too much of Paul, and we can prove it! Do you remember when the Lord said,

    “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do…” (Matt. 23:2,3)?

Was the Lord making too much of the scribes and Pharisees when He told His followers to observe their words? Hardly! Was He elevating them above Himself? Of course not! He was simply pointing out that these spiritual leaders should be followed because they taught the Law of Moses, and the Law was God’s program for that day. Today God’s program is the program of grace, and it is not making too much of Paul to point out that he is the apostle to whom the dispensation of grace was committed (Eph. 3:1-5).

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How They Shine!
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Years ago, while preaching the Word at a Bible conference, I noticed a young lady in one of the front pews who wasn’t listening to a word I was saying.

I could understand, however, for evidently she had just become engaged to be married. Her eyes were focused on the ring on the third finger of her left hand, and her heart and mind, evidently, on the young man who had placed it there.

With a pleased look on her face, and cocking her head from one side to the other, she gazed at that diamond from every angle. No matter how she looked at it, it shone — entirely apart from the quality of the stone. It shone because it spoke to her of him and of his love for her, and was the symbol of her betrothal to him.

For some time after I had concluded my message, my mind went back to that scene. The ring that had so occupied this young lady’s attention, made me think of the Bible, the very Book we had been studying that night. Examine that blessed Book ever so carefully; look at it from any angle and it shines! It made me think too of the grand Subject of that Book, the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we believers have been “espoused… as a chaste virgin” (II Cor. 11:2). Unlike any earthly friend, He shines no matter how one looks at Him. Examine His words, His deeds, His personal attributes, from any angle and ever so carefully, and no matter how you look at Him He shines!

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The Purpose of Prayer
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The question is sometimes asked: If God’s will and purpose are unalterable, why pray? The answer is simply: Because the divine purpose, which any answer to prayer must represent, includes the prayer itself. It is enough that He “who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11) invites and exhorts His people to “come boldly unto the throne of grace” to “let [their] requests be made known unto God” (Heb. 4:16; Phil. 4:6).

But prayer is not merely petition, as many suppose. It is one aspect of active communion with God (meditation on the Word being the other) and includes adoration, thanksgiving and confession, as well as supplication. Hyde, in God’s Education of Alan, Pp. 154,155, says: “Prayer is the communion of two wills, in which the finite comes into connection with the Infinite, and, like the trolley, appropriates its purpose and power.”

We have an example of this in the record of our Lord’s prayer in the garden, for, while He is not to be classed with finite men, yet He laid aside His glory, became “a servant” (Phil. 2:7) and “learned obedience” (Heb. 5:8; Phil. 2:8.). In this place of subjection He made definite and earnest requests of His Father, but closed His prayer with the words: “Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42) with the result that He was “strengthened” for the ordeal He had to face (Ver. 43).

Thus prayer is not merely a means of “getting things from God” but a God-appointed means of fellowship with Him, and all acceptable prayer will include the supplication — as sincerely desired as the rest: “Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, be done.”

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Not Ashamed
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The Apostle Paul uses three wonderful phrases in Romans One: “I am debtor” (Ver.14), “I am ready” (Ver.15), and “I am not ashamed” (Ver.16).

As God’s appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul declared: “I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise”.

The gospel now was no longer to be confined to Israel, but was to go to all nations, and Paul felt himself a debtor to proclaim it, first because God had appointed him to do so, and second, because he held in his hands that which would save the lost. He was morallyobligated — and so are Christians today.

Notice: the Apostle did not say, “I am debtor, but” and then begin to give a thousand excuses, as so many Christians do. He said: “I am debtor…SO…” and his fidelity to his call is seen as he adds: “So, as much as in me is,I am ready to preach the gospel” (Rom.1:15).

Oh, that the millions of Christians today would join Paul and say: “I AM READY to preach the gospel with all that is in me”.

But in Verse 16, the Apostle explains why he was ready to put his all into proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles:

    “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; unto the Jew first and also to the Greek [Gentile or Nations]” (Rom.1:16).

Many thousands of Jews had already come to trust Christ as Saviour, but the good news of Christ’s finished work of redemption was — and is — “the power of God unto salvation to EVERY ONE that believeth”.

Surely there is no other way. None of the pagan religions can give the assurance of salvation. They all represent efforts to find or earn salvation. Only the gospel, the good news of our Lord’s payment for sin can give us the knowledge, the assurance and the joy of salvation from sin.

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The Visiting Preacher
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Paul and Barnabas had seated themselves in the large synagogue in Pisidian Antioch. They were soon recognized as “clergymen,” however, for “after the reading of the law and the prophets” they were asked whether either of them might have some word of “exhortation” for those who had gathered.

These details are important, for as Moses, in giving the Law, had declared God’s moral standards, the prophets had for centuries challenged the people to obey the Law and had warned them of the dire consequences of breaking its commands. Hence, in the synagogues passages were generally read from the Law and the prophets, and the religious leaders would then “exhort” the people to heed the prophets and obey the Law.

Paul and Barnabas, the visiting preachers, therefore, were asked whether either of them had a “word of exhortation for the people.” Paul responded to the invitation but, rather than merely exhorting his hearers to keep the Law, he proclaimed Christ, who in love had died for all lawbreakers, closing with these words:

    “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).

How we need this message today! We may forever exhort one another to keep the Law, but who of us has not already broken it? Let us thank God, then, that He is a loving Savior as well as a just Judge and that as God the Son He paid for our sins Himself at Calvary so that we might be “justified freely by His grace.”

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

    “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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The Son Of A Virgin
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Behold, a virgin shall be with child” (Matt. 1:23).

Mary was highly honored that she should be chosen to be the virgin mother of Messiah. This was a distinction for which every Jewish woman had hoped and prayed. But — now that she had heard the glad news from the angel Gabriel, she was to find herself in the most embarrassing position of an unmarried maiden with child. Little wonder that Mary hastened to the hill country to visit Elisabeth, the mother-to-be of miraculously-born John, later called John the Baptist. Who, in such a case, would better understand, or be better fitted to give sympathetic advice to Mary?

Mary remained with Elisabeth for about three months, or until the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:36,56), but now the real test lay ahead, for she must return to her home in Nazareth to face her relatives and acquaintances — and Joseph, her love. What would they say? And above all, what would he say? How could they be expected to believe her story? An angel had appeared to her, indeed!

In the record of Joseph’s reactions we are given light as to the extreme embarrassment in which Mary now found herself. Consider Joseph’s position. Mary was his “espoused wife.” Why had she gone away — and stayed so long? And now, what is this? She is found with child — not by him. Her explanation, if indeed she offered it to him, must have seemed most unsatisfactory. He could have charged her with adultery and had her stoned, but “being a just [Lit., “fair-minded”] man” he “was minded to put her away privily” (Matt. 1:19).

But “while he thought on these things,” with a heavy heart, “the angel of the Lord appeared unto him” and Joseph learned the truth; that she was indeed to be the honored mother of the Messiah of Israel, the Redeemer of sinners.

It was because our Lord was the Son of God, born into the world by a virgin and not partaking of Adam’s sinful nature, that He could go to Calvary and pay the full penalty for our sins. He “suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (I Pet. 3:18.).

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A Template
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


With the knowledge of good and evil man came into the possession of conscience. A sense of blameworthiness smote him when he committed, or even contemplated committing, evil. This has been so ever since. The Bible tells us that even the most ungodly and benighted heathen “show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another” (Rom. 2:15).

It is true that man’s conscience can be violated so often that it becomes calloused or, as St. Paul puts it: “seared with a hot iron” (I Tim. 4:2), but events or incidents can take place which suddenly awaken the conscience and make it sensitive again. Many a person has indulged in “the pleasures of sin” more and more freely until, suddenly, his sin has found him out and his conscience has caught up with him to condemn him day and night and make life itself unbearable.

The Bible teaches that all men outside of Christ are, to some degree, troubled by guilty consciences and certainly most are “through fear of death… all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:15). But it also teaches that “Christ died for our sins” so that our penalty having been paid, we might be delivered from a guilty conscience.

The works and ceremonies of the Mosaic Law could never accomplish this, but sincere and intelligent believers in Christ, having been “once purged”, have “no more conscience of sins” (Heb. 9:14; 10:1,2). They are, to be sure, conscious of their sins, but they are no longer tortured by a forever-condemning conscience, for they know that the penalty for all their sins, from the cradle to the coffin, was fully met by Christ at Calvary.

This is not to imply that even a sincere believer may not be troubled about offending the One who paid for his sins, but he knows that the judgment for these sins is past. Thus he earnestly seeks, like Paul, “to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man” (Acts 24:16).

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Paul And The New Birth
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The Pauline revelation leads us into glorious truths respecting both our position and experience as believers. Indeed, the new birth itself, as it takes place in the believer today, is directly related to the divine baptism by which Christ and the believer are made one.

How was Christ made one with mankind? He was baptized into the human race. He did not merely come to dwell with men. He became man. How? By being born into the race. Was this by natural birth? No, by supernatural birth. He was begotten of the Holy Spirit. But His baptism into the human race did not end with His birth and life on earth. So fully did He become one with man, that He even died man’s death on the accursed tree. He was baptized into death (Luke 12:50) and, as we now know, into our death.

And it is there, at the Cross, that we become one with Him. The moment one looks in faith to Calvary, acknowledging: “He is no sinner; I am the sinner. Christ is dying my death”; that moment he becomes one with Christ; baptized into the crucified, risen Lord Himself (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:26,27) not only positionally, in the reckonings of God, but exponentially, by the Spirit. And thus a new life is begotten.

By natural birth? No, by supernatural birth. Some hold that the Epistles of Paul do not teach the new birth, but this is an error. His familiar word teknon, generally translated simply “child” in our English Bibles, means literally, “born one.” And he uses this word with regard to our spiritual relationship to God.

Furthermore, the Apostle teaches the very truth of the new birth in Titus 3:5, where he says:

    “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.”

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A Little Leaven And Lost Blessing
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine from Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, just what the Galatian believers thought the rite of circumcision would accomplish for them spiritually. We doubt that they knew themselves, but the Judaizers had come in among them and had captured their attention so that these, who had been so gloriously saved by grace, now “desired to be under the law” (Gal. 4:21). They did not deny the efficacy of the finished work of Christ, but they were interested — just interested — in submitting to a religious ceremony which would in itself be a denial of the all-sufficiency of His redemptive work (3:1; 5:2-4). Result: the blessing was already vanishing (5:14) and the Apostle had to warn them: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (5:9). You can’t admit a little leaven and expect it to stop there.

With the Corinthians it was rather a case of countenancing moral wrong. One of their members had been living in grievous sin. But then, their number was large, and he was just one, and the congregation as a whole abounded in spiritual gifts. Feeling quite satisfied with themselves, therefore, they simply overlooked this disgrace to the name of Christ. But listen to Paul’s — God’s — view of the matter:

    “And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you” (I Cor. 5:2).

    “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a lithe leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

    “Purge out therefore the old leaven…” (Vers. 6,7).

In these days when both spiritual error and moral wrong are made so palatable, when apostate unbelief and worldliness are presented so appetizingly, we do well to take heed to the Spirit’s warning to quickly purge out the “little leaven” that threatens to permeate the whole loaf.