Two Minutes With The Bible

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"LOVE WITHOUT HYPOCRISY"
by Russell S. Miller

    "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good" (Rom.12:9).

    The Pauline epistles have much to say about "Love Without Hypocrisy". The meaning of hypocrisy is simple enough -- playing a part rather than actually living the part. The television is clearly an instrument of hypocrisy. The world is full of actors, all pretending to be somebody they’re not, whereas believers in Christ ought to be living a true life for our Saviour. The love with which Timothy’s mother and grandmother cherished him, however, was most assuredly not produced by Hollywood. What a testimony his life and character was to the truth of God’s Word. See II Timothy 1:5:

    "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also."

    The word "unfeigned" is translated "without dissimulation" in Romans 12:9 and "without hypocrisy" in James 3:17. It is also found in II Corinthians 6:6; I Timothy 1:5; and I Peter l:22.

    The word "love", of Romans 12:9, was not produced in Hollywood either. It is that "love of God" (Rom. 5:5,8; 8:35) that eternally secures believers in Christ with "all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies" (Eph. 1:3). But our local assemblies would do well in "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts" (Tit. 2:12). This would produce so much more for the cause of Christ through "His constraining love" (II Cor. 5:14). If believers of all walks of life would only "be filled with the Spirit" (Eph.5:18) they would not "fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal.5:16). This is why Paul writes Timothy:

    "Now the end of the commandment is charity [agape] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned [without hypocrisy]" (I Tim. 1:5).

    Peter wrote to the Jewish remnant, "scattered throughout" Asia Minor, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" (I Pet. 1:22).

    "A pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith" produces the kind of true love, that balance in the Christian life, that brings forth fruit, unto God.

    "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal.5:16).

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HELP IN TIME OF NEED
by Cornelius R. Stam

    Our Chicago papers, recently, carried two interesting front page items; one about Timothy Nolan, a Chicago policeman who pleaded in vain for help while he battled two toughs. Sixty people stood about, watching him fight for his life, but not one of them helped him or even bothered to call another policeman. They just stood and watched.

    The other item was about a twelve-year-old girl, named Susan Benedict, who had come from Clinton, Wisconsin, to visit Chicago. As Susan sat in the Greyhound Bus Station at Clark and Randolph, a thief grabbed her purse and ran. Perhaps it was because she was a sweet, defenseless twelve-year-old, but in any case, about a dozen people who witnessed the incident, followed the thief until one got a policeman, who caught the thief and returned the purse to the little girl.

    It is a very frightening thing not to be able to find help when it is desperately needed -- and just as wonderful to have help when it is needed.

    Thank God, He is always ready to help us in our deepest need -- the salvation of our souls. Are you afraid that your many sins have placed you in a position beyond help -- that you have sinned too greatly for God to forgive you? Then listen to Eph. 1:7, where the Apostle Paul says, by divine inspiration:

    "We have redemption through [Christ’s] blood, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE."

    Rom. 5:20,21 will give further encouragement along this line:

    "...WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND, THAT AS SIN HATH REIGNED UNTO DEATH, EVEN SO MIGHT GRACE REIGN, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord."

    Paul knew this by experience, for he was the leader of the world’s rebellion against Christ, but he was saved in one moment by the grace of God. This is why he says:

    "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Tim. 1:15).

    If God saved the "chief of sinners," He is surely willing to save you, "for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13).

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MERCY UPON ALL
by Cornelius R. Stam

    Have you ever wondered how the pagan world got that way: idol-worshipping, wicked, gripped by superstition and fear?

    The Bible supplies the answer in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Three times in Chapter 1 we read of the Gentile world: "He gave them up... He gave them up... He gave them over...." Why? Because they had given Him up: "And even as they did not wish to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient [becoming]" (Rom. 1:28).

    It would have been difficult to believe 30 or 40 years ago, that our young people would be dancing to the wild, exotic music of pagan lands (if this can be called music), or that our studios would be selling the twisted, hideous paintings of pagan art (if this can be called art).

    When you wonder why the lovely melodies and harmonies of yesteryear have given place to the noise and din of today’s "music"; when you wonder why the beautiful paintings of those days have been largely replaced by the masterpieces of chaos that surround us now -- why in so many ways we seem to be reverting to paganism -- read Romans 1.

    All this is the natural result of a departure from God and His Word. Yet there is hope and assurance and joy in store for any individual who will yet heed the message of God -- particularly in the Book of Romans. Here we read how Jew joined Gentile in rejecting Christ, and God had to give them all up. But listen to this passage from Rom. 11:32: "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief THAT HE MIGHT HAVE MERCY UPON ALL."

    That is, He gave up the Jewish and Gentile nations so that He might show His grace to any individuals who might turn to Him by faith in Christ, thus reconciling both (Jewish and Gentile believers) unto Himself in one body, by the cross (Eph. 2:16).

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THE HOLY SPIRIT AT PENTECOST
by Cornelius R. Stam

    The one hundred twenty disciples in the Upper Room had, of course, been much like any other group of believers in history. They had not all been equally spiritual or devoted, or faithful. Some had been more so than others, and where some had excelled in one virtue, others had excelled in another. Yet now they were all FILLED with the Spirit, from the least to the greatest of them.

    The thoughtful student of Scripture will, of course, ask why all these believers were now filled with the Holy Spirit. Was it, perhaps, because they, as a group, had been more godly than those before them? The gospel records prove that this is not so. Peter boasted, Thomas doubted, James and John sought personal gain, and when our Lord was taken prisoner, "they all forsook Him and fled."

    Was it then because they had prayed long enough or earnestly enough for the Spirit to come upon them and take control? No; they had been instructed to go to Jerusalem, not to pray for the Holy Spirit to come, as some suppose, but to "wait for the [fulfillment of the] promise" regarding the Spirit (Acts 1: 4,5) -- and right here is the answer to our question.

    The believers at Pentecost were filled with the Holy Spirit, not because they had prayed long or earnestly enough for the Spirit to come, but because the time had arrived for the fulfillment of the divine promise. The Old Testament prophets and the Lord Jesus had promised that the Holy Spirit should some day come to take control of God’s people (Ezek. 36:26,27), and that day had come. They were filled with the Spirit because God, according to His promise, had baptized them with the Spirit (Acts 1:5).

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CHURCH-GOING
by Cornelius R. Stam

    There is an important passage on church-going in Hebrews 10:23-25:

    "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.... And let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is... "

    We are often urged, these days: "Go to the church of your choice." The implication is that one church is as good as another -- just so you go to church. But this is not so.

    The Scriptures teach that the true Church is composed of those who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior who died for their sins. Such are told to "hold fast" the faith which they have professed, without wavering. This must come first, for it is only those who have first exercised such faith who can meet together with unity of mind and purpose to encourage each other "to love and to good works."

    It is a truly blessed experience for those who have been saved by the grace of God, to assemble to express their praise together in song, to lift their hearts together in prayer and to join together in the study of God’s Word so as to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

    In these days of tension and confusion there is a tendency for even the most sincere Christians to be so occupied with temporal things that they deprive themselves of the encouragement and spiritual uplift that comes from getting together with other Christians. But these are just the times when true believers need the encouragement of each other’s company and should particularly remember the admonition of Scripture not to forsake "the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is."

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THE GIFT OF GOD
by Cornelius R. Stam

    Men have given many gifts to each other down through the ages, but in James 1:17 we read that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above," and comes to us from God. The greatest of these gifts is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the redemption He has purchased for us. In speaking to the sinner-woman at Sychar’s well, our Lord drew a picture, contrasting the barrenness of her own life with the refreshing joy of salvation, saying:

    "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water... Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst..." (John 4:10-14).

    By nature we are all sinners, but by the grace of God we all may be saved.

    "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).

    "For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9).

    Thus St. Paul speaks of "the gift of the grace of God" (Eph. 3:7) and constantly emphasizes the fact that salvation is a free gift.

    But a gift is not possessed until it is accepted. Thus the Apostle, in Rom. 5:17, refers to those who "receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness." Those who receive Christ and the salvation He has wrought for them, find it natural to exclaim with Paul-

    "THANKS BE UNTO GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFT!" (II Cor. 9:15).

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TWO ANXIOUS MOTHERS
by Cornelius R. Stam

    Some time ago, in Chicago, a little baby was kidnapped right out of her mother’s arms in a hospital room, while another mother left her baby in a cardboard box on top of a garbage can.

    We have the feeling that in all probability the woman who abandoned her baby -- and it probably was a woman -- was just as much beside herself as the one who had her baby stolen from her arms.

    A Registered Nurse told us some time ago that the proportion of mothers who do not want their babies is becoming alarming. We do not believe that these women wouldn’t want their babies under normal circumstances. Everybody loves a baby! But in such cases sin has come in to bring trouble and shame and misery. Some of these mothers are unwed and have been disgraced; others are separated or divorced from their husbands or would have to bring their babies home to nothing but bickering and trouble. Still others have passed diseases on to their babies and wish that they had never been born.

    This is how sin wrecks lives and homes, but it is wonderful to know that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," as we read in I Tim. 1:15. How does He save sinners? First He bore the penalty of sin for us: "Christ died for our sins" (I Cor. 15:3). But He will save us from sin’s control too, if we let Him. Rom. 6:14 says to believers in Christ: "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace," and millions have proved this to be true.

    Salvation is more than a religious term, or a feeling or sentiment, it is actual deliverance from the penalty and power of sin, through the redemptive work of Christ on Calvary, where He "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" for every one who simply but sincerely trusts Him as Lord and Savior.

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GRACE, FAITH AND SALVATION
by Cornelius R. Stam

    The largest segment of the organized Church has long opposed the teaching that salvation is by grace, through faith alone. She teaches that it is by grace, through faith and good works, protesting that we do not place the proper stress on good works, and that she does place as much emphasis upon grace and faith as we.

    One advocate of this religious denomination agrees that men cannot be saved without Christ or faith or grace, but objects that the grace of God, accepted by faith in Christ, is not enough to save.

    He says: "All men are born in original sin, and all must be cleansed by Baptism. In Baptism, Grace is implanted in the soul by God and confers the right to heaven."

    But what about the thief on the cross, who looked to Christ in his dying moments and never had an opportunity to be baptized? Was he not saved? (See Luke 23:42,43).

    If, according to Heb. 10:4, it is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins (even though required by God), could this writer explain to us how any amount of water could possibly wash away one sin or right one moral wrong?

    But one might gather from the above quotation that the baptized soul at least is safe and secure, since the grace implanted by God "confers the right to heaven." But not so. "The Church" never gives her devotees true peace or assurance; never sets them free. "The right to heaven," conferred upon the baptized person, is the right to strive for it! This writer goes on to say, "We worship God by the practice of our religious duties in order to obtain our salvation."

    How satisfying and reassuring is the Word of God itself on this subject:

    "Now to him that worketh [i.e., for salvation] 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" (Rom. 4:4,5).

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A JEALOUS GOD
by Cornelius R. Stam

    We heartily thank God for every politician, athlete, actor or even criminal who comes to know Christ as Savior. But conversion alone does not qualify one for a place of prominence in Christian service. This, especially in Paul’s epistles, is reserved for mature believers, wholly separated to God and established in the truth (See especially II Tim. 2:21).

    When hearts beat faster because of the presence of some glamorous personality on the Christian platform; when such personalities receive adulation which belongs rather to the Christ who died for them, God is dishonored and displeased.

    True, the motive in procuring such "crowd-getters" may have been to reach greater numbers for Christ, just as some of our spiritual leaders become yoked together with apostate unbelievers in evangelistic endeavors in order to reach souls for Christ, but the end does not justify the means. It is never right to do wrong to accomplish some good end.

    Have we forgotten that God’s Word says: "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God" (Ex 20:5) and "I will not give My glory unto another" (Isa 48:11)? True we quote here from the Ten Commandments, but remember, Paul in his epistles quotes all the Ten Commandments except one (re the sabbath). The covenant of the Law has been done away but not the moral law itself, and God is the only Being who has legitimate and urgent reason to be jealous of His glory. Christian leaders are playing a dangerous game when they give glory due to God alone to prominent personalities so as to swell their audiences.

    It is time for the Church to realize that salvation is the work of God and that true and lasting results will follow only when we conduct His work in His way.

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SO SOON
by Cornelius R. Stam

    How highly the Galatian believers had esteemed Paul; how heartily they had loved him when he had first come to them proclaiming grace! The Apostle recalls it in Galatians 4:13-15:

    “Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.

    “And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

    “Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.”

    How happy in grace, how thoroughly blessed, had the Galatian Christians been — when Paul was with them! But let the Apostle turn his back, as it were; let the legalizers come courting on the morrow and suddenly these same believers were ready to go back under the Law. “So soon” had they fallen from grace! The Apostle was dumbfounded! “I marvel,” he says, “that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” (Gal.1:6).

    How unspeakably sad! And how natural that, hearing the news, the Apostle should sit down immediately to write them this urgent epistle, in large letters.

    The temptations to “fall from grace” are as great today as they ever were. It would be well, therefore, to read this letter to the Galatians often so that we might be among those who “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Gal.5:1).

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 January 30, 2007

POWER PERFECTED IN WEAKNESS
by Cornelius R. Stam

    To Paul was committed the greatest revelation of all time. He was divinely commissioned to proclaim the glorious all-sufficiency of Christ’s redemptive work, God’s offer of salvation by free grace to all who trust in Christ and their heavenly position, blessings and prospect.

    Lest he should become puffed up by the glory of these great truths, God gave him what he calls “a thorn in the flesh”, an aggravating physical infirmity of some sort. “For this thing,” he says, “I besought the Lord thrice [three times], that it might depart from me” (IICor.12:8 ). But the Lord knew better than Paul what was best for him:

    “And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (Ver.9).

    How right God was! Every Christian knows that with brimming health and “good fortune” comes the tendency to forget our need of Him, while infirmity causes us to lean harder and to pray more and this is where our spiritual power lies. Every believer should acknowledge this and say with Paul:

    “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities…for when I am weak, then am I strong” (IICor.12:9,10).

    Infirmities of the flesh are common even to God’s choicest saints. What satisfaction there is, then, in just believing God’s Word: “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness”.

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 January 31, 2007

THE UNCERTAINTIES OF LIFE
by Russell S. Miller

    Are you prepared to meet the Lord? Have you trusted Christ as your Saviour? Or will you meet Him as your Judge?

    September 11, 2001: The news reports that terrorists had attacked the World Trade Center, and demolished it, in New York City, and attacks on other government buildings in Washington, and elsewhere, shocked the nation and the world.

    Such unbelievably horrifying news should certainly awaken America! It is our prayer that the entire world will be awakened spiritually to real faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. (This could have happened to your city, your place of business, and your office!) Have you been troubled by the uncertainties of life? Death comes to all, whether in the city or quaint little towns. Death is but a breath away, a heartbeat, and we have all broken God’s Laws, ignored His righteous standards, and have gone our own way. In short, as we read in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

    "FOR ALL HAVE SINNED, AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD" (Rom.3:23).

    And...,

    "THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH; BUT THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD" (Rom.6:23).

    In the midst of all of life’s uncertainties there is one constant, The Love of God.

    "BUT GOD COMMENDETH HIS LOVE TOWARD US, IN THAT, WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US" (Rom.5:8 ).

    God’s great love continues to delay His judgment upon the wickedness of man’s sin (Acts 17:31). And for now, He extends, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom.1:2). Individually, by faith in Christ, "WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE" (Eph.1:7). If you will simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, God will save you, and then, when this life ends, you will be forever in Heaven with the Christ of glory.

    God has made the plan of salvation very simple. When the jailor at Philippi asked Paul and Silas, "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30), the Apostle Paul replied:

    "BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED..." (Acts 16:31).

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 February 1, 2007

THE VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY
by Cornelius R. Stam

    "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (II Tim. 3:15).

    Timothy was a fortunate young man. His father was not a believer in Christ, but his godly mother made up for this lack as, day after day, from his earliest childhood, she taught him the Word of God. As a result he came to know Christ at an early age and later became St. Paul’s faithful co-worker and close associate in making known the wonderful "good news of the grace of God."

    In his very last letter the great Apostle Paul recalls Timothy’s "unfeigned faith... which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice" (II Tim. 1:5).

    If only we had more such mothers and grandmothers today, with husbands to help them! If only our American children were not set adrift on a restless sea of human speculation, but were taught the eternal truths of God’s Word, the Bible!

    We all need to "know the Holy Scriptures," not only because they teach reverence for God and build moral character, but most of all because they "are able to make [us] wise unto salvation through faith... in Christ Jesus."

    The theme of the Bible, the Old Testament as well as New, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the riches of whose saving grace are unfolded to us in the Epistles of Paul, the chief of sinners saved by grace. It was to Paul that God committed the preaching of the cross of Christ. He it is who tells us about the riches that flow from Calvary. He it is who tells us, by divine inspiration that:

    "...WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH [CHRIST’S] BLOOD, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE" (Eph. 1:7).

    "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).

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 February 2, 2007

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE BELIEVER TODAY
by Cornelius R. Stam

    Grace and faith are the characteristic features of the present dispensation. Not only is salvation now declared to be by grace, through faith, but the Spirit also operates in the believer by grace, through faith. He does not take possession of us and cause us to do what is right, but dwells within each believer (I Cor. 6:19) to provide needed guidance and the strength to withstand temptation, and we may avail ourselves of this provision by faith.

    The Spirit, Who first imparted life to us will also impart strength to withstand temptation and overcome sin. In our inability to even pray as we ought, "the Spirit... helpeth our infirmities" and "maketh intercession for us" (Rom. 8:26). In our weakness we are "strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man" (Eph. 3:16) and God even stoops to "quicken [our] mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in us" (Rom. 8:11).

    "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh" (Ver. 12).

    The implication from the above passage is that though sorely tempted we are debtors to the Spirit who dwells within and provides overcoming power.

    The question, in times of temptation, is generally whether we truly desire to overcome, for we may overcome in any given case by grace, through faith. In the present dispensation it is not true that it is not possible for the believer to sin, but it is blessedly true that in any situation it is possible for him not to sin, for the Spirit is always there to help.

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 February 3, 2007

THAT BLESSED HOPE
by Cornelius R. Stam

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

    "We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall be caught up..."

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

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

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

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

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