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Paul, The Master-builder
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In I Corinthians 3:10, the Apostle Paul declares by divine inspiration:

    “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise [instructed] master-builder, I have laid the foundation,and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.”

In what sense was Paul the master-builder of the Church, and what “foundation” did he lay? Did he not himself say that “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”? Yes, he did — and in this very passage! He sought to lay no other foundation than Christ, but God had chosen him to proclaim Christ in a new way.

Some years previous our Lord had asked His disciples: “Whom say ye that I am”, and Peter had instantly replied: “Thou art the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). This is how believers in general had recognized Him at that time (John 1:49; 6:69; 11:27; 20:31). Indeed, the Messianic kingdom was to be established upon Christ as God’s anointed Son (Messiah means “anointed”).

But with the raising up of Paul, God began to form “the Church which is Christ’s body” (Eph. 1:22,23; Col. 1:24,25). This is the Church of today, and it is founded, not on Christ as King, but as the exalted Lord and Head of the “one body” (I Cor. 12:13).

Paul does not present Christ as Messiah, but as Lord. In Romans 10:9 he declares:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as LORD, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Again in I Corinthians 12:3: “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit”. And again in Philippians 2:9-11, he declares that God has highly exalted Christ and given Him a name above every name, “that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.

Have you confessed Him as your Lord and Saviour?

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Is God Dead?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand…” (I Kings 18:15).

Is God dead? According to the above passage He certainly was not dead to Elijah, who knew Him intimately as the living God. The prophet had used similar phraseology on a previous occasion when he had declared to the wicked King Ahab:

    “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” (1 Kings 17:1).

Elijah’s prediction had come horribly true. For three years and six months there had been no rain nor even dew in Israel. Rivers and brooks were drying up. The land lay parched and cracked in the sun. There were no crops, nor any grazing land for the cattle and they had been dying like flies.

The king himself had been brought down from his throne to search for a bit of green grass along the remaining streams “to save the horses and mules alive,” lest they “lose all the beasts.” The king’s humiliation had in turn enraged the haughty Queen Jezebel, so that she hated Elijah with a deep and bitter hatred.

Indeed, so intensely was the prophet hated by Ahab himself that the king had sent far and wide to find Elijah and had not given up until he had taken oaths from the heads of the surrounding nations that he was not to be found. It was under these circumstances that “the word of the Lord came to Elijah…saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab…” (1 Kings 18:1). God was about to use the prophet to publicly expose the sham and impotence of Jezebel’s god Baal.

As the prophet went to look for Ahab he met Obadiah, the governor of the king’s house, and said: “Go tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here” (1 Kings 18:8.). Obadiah shuddered at these words and begged Elijah not to make him go. He knew the bitter hatred which the king harbored toward Elijah and he feared that while he went to convey the news the Spirit of God might take Elijah away to some other place.

It was now, when it meant far more than it had meant three and a half years before, that Elijah replied: “As the Lord God of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him today” (1 Kings 18:15). As we know, he kept his word.

Is all this now changed? Some say yes, that God died in Christ at Calvary and is now dead! They also deny, of course, that Christ rose from the dead. But if this be true, then the story of Elijah is but a stirring memory and the Christian today is actually an ambassador, a representative of no one!

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How Small We Are!
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Just behind me, in the supermarket check-out line, were two little boys. I noticed that the older one kept looking up at me and then down at his brother again several times in succession. Finally, nudging his little brother and pointing up at me, he said: “Hey, Joey, look how little you are!”

Those who have seen me in the flesh know that I am not exactly small, physically, and I can easily imagine that, standing next to these little fellows, I made them look small indeed!

But all this pertained only to the physical, and as I left that supermarket, I began asking myself: “How big are you, actually, in the sight of God?” I thought of Psalm 8:3,4, where David mused over the same question:

    “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man that Thou art mindful of Him…?”

Yet we are so important to the heart of God that He entered the stream of humanity, as it were, and became one of us in Christ, Son of God and Son of Man. Why? Hebrews 2:14,15 gives us one important reason:

    “…that through death [His death for our sins] He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Moreover, insignificant as we are in ourselves, He would use us mightily to His glory for, according to I Cor. 1:27,28, He has “chosen” the “foolish,” the “weak,” the “base,” the “despised,” and those who “are not” to accomplish His purposes and to bring to naught the plans of the world’s great ones.

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Call Me Crazy
by Pastor Kevin Sadler


    “For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God…” (2 Cor. 5:13).

The Greek word translated as “beside ourselves” means, in this context, to be out of one’s right mind, insane, or mad. Because of his zeal for the truth and constant drive to live for the Lord and get the gospel out to the lost, the Apostle Paul was viewed as being crazy. With his fervor for serving the Lord, he seemed like a man out of balance and fanatical to the world.

In Acts 26:4-23, we learn how Paul shared the testimony of his conversion before Governor Festus and King Agrippa. In verse 24 of this passage, we read that “Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.” This statement put Paul in the best of company. People also said our Lord was “beside Himself” and “mad.” Mark 3:21 tells us, “And when His [the Lord’s] friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on Him: for they said, He is beside Himself.” Likewise, in John 10:20: “And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad….”

Being called crazy for the sake of Christ is not an insult, but a compliment for the believer. If people think we’re crazy because we live for the Lord, that’s a good thing. It shows we’re following the Lord and His Word. Following the Lord and living by His Word will make us appear different to the world because we’re not going with the flow and we are not living “according to the course of this world” (Eph. 2:2), and so it seems to them that we’re a bit off and crazy.

Dogmatism, belief that the Bible is absolute truth, also makes people think you’re crazy. Dogmatism is uncommon and unacceptable in a society that demands tolerance. When you say that, based on the Word of God, something is the absolute truth, the world will think you’re crazy. The Word of God, however, is an absolute. It is our authority. When it says that there is only one way to God, and it’s through the Lord Jesus Christ, that’s the truth, and we must proclaim it, even if people call us crazy.

As we follow Paul as he followed Christ (1 Cor. 11:1), we too, like Paul, should have a deep-seated devotion for the Lord, consumed with a zeal for the things of God, living for unseen, eternal things. This will make people think you’re out of your mind, but that’s good. It’s good to be called crazy for the Lord. Like Paul, we remember that if we appear to be out of our right mind because we hold nothing back and are zealous and dogmatic, “it is to God,” it’s to please, honor, and glorify Him.

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God's Waiting Room
by Pastor Kevin Sadler


    “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psa. 27:14).

The half-joking prayer, “Lord, I need patience, and I need it RIGHT NOW,” isn’t too far removed from how we approach matters of spiritual growth and living out the will of God in our life. Life is full of waiting: waiting for your phone to charge; waiting in line at the grocery store; waiting in a traffic jam; waiting for a job; waiting for the right spouse; waiting for test results; waiting to be old enough to drive. Steve Farrar of Men’s Leadership Ministries says, “Waiting is like eating gravel. Nobody in their right mind wants or likes to do it.” Waiting is difficult.

The culture we live in is one that doesn’t like to wait. We like instant and fast everything—instant downloads, instant messaging, instant coffee, instant prints, fast-food restaurants, faster internet, fast phones. However, there are many times along our journey through life when God says, “Wait here.” And what looks like 15 minutes turns out to be 15 months, or even 15 years.

The Bible provides numerous examples of people who waited on the Lord. Abraham waited for decades to have the son that God promised him. Joseph had to wait in prison. Moses waited for 40 years on the backside of the desert, tending sheep, before leading the children of Israel out of captivity in Egypt. The Israelites then had to wait 40 years to enter the Promised Land. Simeon waited for the birth of the Messiah. Paul waited during his time of preparation in Arabia.

Waiting is a part of God’s plan and purpose in our lives, and resisting God’s timing and trying to get ahead of the Lord can have serious consequences. Abraham and Sarah found this out when they ran ahead of God, with Hagar bearing Ishmael instead of waiting on God’s promise (Gen. 16).

God works while His people are waiting. Time is not wasted in God’s waiting room. Waiting on the Lord renews our strength (Isa. 40:31). God often uses these times of waiting to prepare us for what lies ahead. Oswald Chambers writes, “We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching…We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something.” In those waiting times, God both teaches and makes us something; in us He cultivates patience, Christlike character, and hope as we trust Him through those times. As we read in Romans 5:3-5a,

    “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed.”

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Paul Tells Others About His Gospel
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


It is true that now there is but one gospel and God’s anathema is pronounced upon any who would presume to proclaim any other (Gal. 1:8,9), but those who suppose that Paul proclaimed the same good news which the twelve before him had proclaimed, should carefully read Galatians 2:1-9.

The twelve had been proclaiming our Lord’s kingdom rights in “the gospel of the kingdom”. The kingdom having been rejected, however, God raised up Paul to proclaim “the Gospel of the Grace of God” (Acts 20:24). In Galatians 1:11,12, this apostle declares:

    “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

This is only one of many passages in which he declares that he was commissioned to proclaim a special message by the glorified Lord Himself (Eph. 3:1-4; Rom. 16:25; etc.).

Now in Galatians 2:2, the apostle states: “I went up by revelation[God sent him] and communicated unto them [the apostles and elders at Jerusalem] that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles….” But was he not merely checking to make sure that he and they were preaching the same good news? No, for he goes on to say: “But [I went] privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain”.

Verses 7 and 9 then go on to tell how “they saw” and “perceived” the grace that had been given to Paul, so that they publicly and officially gave him “the right hands of fellowship”, acknowledging him as the apostle of grace, sent to the world with a message of grace:

    “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

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Who Shall Separate Us From Christ
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom.8:35).

There have been individuals who thought the doctrine of the believer’s eternal security in Christ to be a dangerous heresy. They countered every Scripture on the subject with another to refute it. But in each of these cases it was this great truth, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ”, that finally persuaded them.

It is significant that the Apostle Paul never tells us about his love for Christ, but he is always telling us about Christ’s love for him and for others! The Law commands: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God”, but grace puts it the other way, telling us how deeply God loves us — and this begets love in return. The Apostle experienced discouragements that would have caused him to give up the work of the Lord a thousand times, but he could not. Why? He says, “the love of Christ constraineth us?”(II Cor. 5:14); it bore him along like a strong tide. No doubt he had this very thing in mind when he continued writing in Romans 8.

    “For Thy sake we are killed all the day long…accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Ver. 36).

And therefore defeated? Far from it!

    “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Ver. 37).

Not only do we win the battle; we are “more than conquerors”, for these adversities serve to draw us into still closer fellowship with Him, thus enriching our Christian experience.

When people or nations engage in battle, generally no one wins; both lose. But Paul’s personal experience serves as the foremost example that in the Christian life, “tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril [and] sword”bring us more than victory when borne for Him who loved us.

Thus this great chapter opens with “no condemnation” and closes with “no separation”, and the Apostle, gathering all the forces of creation together, whether they be time, space, or matter, declares that none of them can separate us from “the love of God, which is [manifested] in Christ Jesus” (Vers. 38,39). Whether it be death or life, heavenly principalities, things present or things to come, height or depth or any other created thing — none of them, nor all together — can threaten our security or separate us from the love of God, which He has manifested to us in Christ Jesus.

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What About Me?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Hebrews 2 states that unbelievers are, “through fear of death… all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Ver. 15). How often they must ask themselves: “What will become of me: finally become of me?” The best they can hope is that God will be merciful to them and accept them at last, but God cannot do this without a just basis, and since unbelievers have rejected His gracious payment for sin, they must remain under its condemnation. Many hope that physical death will be the end for them, but they fear that the Bible may be true and that death will not be the end.

This writer once talked with a profane barber who had boasted that he was his own “God,” and would be until they put him “six feet under.” To this we replied: “The Bible says that ‘it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this is the judgment.’ You may not believe this, or accept it as the Word of God, but you can’t prove it isn’t so, and I would urge you to look into it carefully, asking God to give you light.”

Here we ask the reader a very personal question: Are you saved? Have you accepted Christ and His payment for your sins, now standing before God “justified from all things,” and “accepted in the Beloved”? If not, we beg you: do not delay. These are serious times and who knows how soon God will take His own away and bring this dispensation of grace to a close. Then it will be too late, so we urge you, face up to your sinful condition now, and place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who, in infinite love and grace, bore the burden of your guilt and condemnation at Calvary. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” (Acts 16:31).

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Slavery And Liberty
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


We thank God for Abraham Lincoln and for his part in emancipating the negro slaves in the United Sates. Yet, in a deeper sense, there is a slavery from which we all need to be emancipated.

The children of Adam are slaves by birth. Partaking of his fallen nature they find it an uphill fight to do right and easy to do wrong. No mother has ever had to teach her child to tell lies, or to steal or to disobey. Every child does these things naturally. All, by nature, are slaves to sin.

Some, on the other hand, have sought to make themselves slaves to the Ten Commandments in order to overcome their natural tendencies toward evil, but this does not produce the desired results. God did not give the Law to help us to be good, but to show us that we are bad and need a Savior. In Rom. 3:19 He says that He gave the Law “that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become [be exposed as] guilty before God” and in Verse 20 He says that “by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Only believers in the finished work of Christ are liberated from sin and its results. This does not mean that it is not possible for them to sin, but that it is now possible for them not to sin — to have victory in any given case. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14).

In grace Christ died to pay for our sins and in response to that grace believers seek to live for Him, just out of sheer love and gratitude for what He has done for them. This is the secret of victorious living, and God would have us keep it that way. Gal. 5:1 says:

    “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Yet, he also cautions believers, who enjoy this wonderful liberty:

    “Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak” (I Cor. 8:9).

    “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13).

    “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth” (Rom. 14:22).

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Who Can Be Against Us?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


We have shown in a previous article that God is for sinners and desires their good. We have shown how He proved this by paying for their sins Himself as God the Son at Calvary. But if this is true, how much more must it be so with regard to His own children who have trusted Christ as their Savior?

How often — and how significantly — the Apostle Paul uses the words “for us” in this connection!

In Eph. 5:2 we read that “Christ… loved us, and hath given Himself for us.” In Rom. 5:8 we are told that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In II Cor. 5:21: “[God] hath made Him to be sin for us.” And in Gal. 3:13 we read: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”

And the love that brought Him down from heaven to die in shame and disgrace for our sins is not affected by our many failures as Christians now. In Heb. 9:24 we read that our Lord has ascended to heaven “now to appear in the presence of God for us.” In Rom. 8:34 we learn that He is “at the right hand of God” to “make intercession for us.” And in Heb. 7:25 we read that He is able to save us “to the uttermost” because “He ever lives to make intercession for us.”

Our failures now, after having trusted Christ as Savior, may — and should — trouble our consciences and thus hinder our fellowship with God, but this does not change the fact that we are God’s dear children through faith in Christ, who died for all our sins. Unworthy though we still may be, therefore, God would have us come into His presence to be spiritually renewed.

    “What shall we then say to these things? IF GOD BE FOR US WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?” (Rom. 8:31).

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A Gift For You
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

In the light of the Pauline epistles these well-known words have become more appropriate than when our Lord first spoke them. Through Paul, Christ’s redemptive work at Calvary has been proclaimed and fully explained. In this light, then, we suggest that our readers take the time to really meditate on this passage about God’s greatest gift to man.

Think of the love that prompted it! “God so loved….” We were the “children of disobedience” and “by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph. 2:2,3). We deserved judgment, “but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,” gave His best, His all, to save us (Eph. 2:4).

Think of its priceless value! “His only begotten Son — everlasting life.” Christ, the holy One, had to be given up to disgrace and death in order that our sins might be justly dealt with, and that we might become the rightful heirs of everlasting life (Rom. 3:25,26).

Think of your need of this gift! “…that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish….” How perilous not to accept “the gift of God, eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23)! What folly to spurn or ignore a gift we need so sorely!

Finally, think how gracious the offer! “…that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Whosoever believeth! Any sinner may have this gift by simply believing, accepting in simple faith what God says about Christ paying for our sins at Calvary. In fact, this is the only way we can become the recipients of this wonderful gift, for Rom. 4:5 declares:

    “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith [believing] is counted for righteousness.”

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The Spirit Of Truth
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).

How blessed to know that the Author of the blessed Book which has changed so many hearts and lives and homes is “the Spirit of truth.”

The Spirit did not, of course, reveal all truth at one time. “The Law was given by Moses;” later the prophesies were penned by men of God as they were “moved by the Holy Spirit” and still later our Lord uttered truth “kept secret since the world began.”

But even our blessed Lord, while on earth, did not lead His followers into all the truth which God would have His people know. “I have yet many things to say unto you,” He said, “but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16: 12,13).

But when the Spirit came at Pentecost, did He immediately lead the disciples into all truth? Not yet. They still proclaimed the prophetic program, the message which our Lord had taught them and committed to them (Luke 24: 45; Acts 1:2,3).

It was not until some time later that the glorified Lord revealed “God’s purpose and grace” to and through the Apostle Paul, and the Spirit in turn caused others to understand it (Gal. 2:2,7,9; Eph. 3:1-5; II Tim. 1:9).

The glorious message revealed to Paul is the capstone of divine revelation, thus he says that it was given to him to “fulfil [complete] the Word of God” (Col. 1:25).

St. Paul wrote more books of the Bible than any other writer and in them we have the fulness of divine truth as God would now have us know and understand it!

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But Now
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The words “but now” are found in many places in the Bible, but most often in the Epistles of Paul. These two words are deeply significant, for they indicate a change in program. If my secretary is transcribing some dictation and I say: “But now I would like you to take a letter,” this indicates a change in program.

So it is with this phrase as we find it in Rom. 3:21: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.” Prior to this time God’s people were under the Law. There was no other way to approach Him. But though under the Law, they constantly broke the Law, so that those who sought salvation by the Law stood before God condemned rather than justified. Thus the Apostle says in Verse 20:

    “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

    “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested”(Ver. 21).

How can this be? How can a man be declared righteous apart from the Law? The answer, the only answer is, by grace through faith in Christ. Though perfect and sinless, Christ died for sin. Whose sin? Yours and mine. Thus as Paul declares in Acts 13:38, 39:

    “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all who believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

    “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28.).

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What's in Your Treasure House?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


The Persians kept the records of the executive orders issued by their kings “in the king’s treasure house” (Ezra 5:17), right alongside their riches of silver and gold (Ezra 7:20). Obviously, they considered the commandments of their king to be of equal value as their jewels and other treasures.

At the risk of sounding like a Capital One commercial, what’s in the treasure house of your heart? Can you say with the psalmist, “I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies, as much as in all riches?” (Psa. 119:14)? Or have you matured in the faith to where you can honestly stand before God and say to Him, “I love Thy commandments above fine gold” (Psa. 119:127), “more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold” (Psa. 19:10). If not, it might be time for a prayerful reevaluation of the spiritual portfolio of your soul.

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Romans 13 -- Civil Government or Church Government?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “Is Romans 13 about obeying civil government or church government, as some are saying?”

In the context, it is true that Paul just finished speaking about “he that ruleth” in the local church (12:8.). But the “rulers” in Chapter 13 bear a “sword” (v. 4) that cannot refer to “the sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:17) borne by church rulers, for he that bears it is called “a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (13:4). That doesn’t fit the role of rulers in a grace church, but it is an apt description of civil rulers. In the more immediate context, Paul has just finished quoting God as saying, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay” (12:19). So when Paul then goes on to call the bearer of the sword “a revenger,” he is explaining that God takes vengeance on evil doers in the dispensation of grace by the sword of civil government.

In return for their civil service, we are told to pay these rulers “tribute,” something paid to kings (Matt. 17:24,25; 22:17), not rulers in grace churches. The Jews paid tribute to Israel’s religious leaders (Num. 31:37-41) because they were a theocracy, a government ruled by God, and so paying tribute was just giving God His due. But the word “due” (Rom. 13:7) speaks of what is owed as a debt, and so “tribute” is a word that cannot be used of giving in the local church. Under grace, our giving is not done “of necessity” (2 Cor. 9:7).