Two Minutes With The Bible

[Ambassador4Christ]

SOBER CHRISTIANS

By Cornelius R. Stam

"Let us, who are of the day, be sober..." (I Thes. 5:.

Many people entertain the erroneous idea that truly spir-
itual Christians must always be solemn and long-faced. In
fact, they suppose that such Scripture passages as the above
teach this.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, for the word
"sober," in our English New Testament does not mean
solemn, but completely under control. This is also true of
the original Greek word from which the English word
"sober" is translated.

Sobriety in Scripture, as in modern English, is the op-
posite of drunkenness. This is brought out in the rest of the
passage cited above. Along with its context, the above ex-
hortation reads as follows:

"For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken be drunken in the night.

"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.

"For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

"Who died for us that... we should live together with Him" (I Thes.5:7-10).

Thus those who are "of the day," and know Christ as
their Savior, should not "sleep" on the one hand, or "be
drunken" on the other, but should be awake and alert, their
faculties completely under control, so that they might wit-
ness the more effectively to the saving grace of Christ.

If ever there was a time when true Christians should
"watch and be sober," it is now.
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Two Minutes With The Bible By Pastor Stam

Mailing Address:
Berean Bible Society
N112 W17761 Mequon Road
P.O. Box 756
Germantown, WI 53022

Web Site:
http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/
Gospel Books, Materials, & Free Mailings

Email: berean@execpc.com

[Ambassador4Christ]

THE END OF THE WORLD

By 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 Feb-
ruary 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 re-
fers 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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Subscribe at:
http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/twominut.html
Two Minutes With The Bible By Pastor Stam

Mailing Address:
Berean Bible Society
N112 W17761 Mequon Road
P.O. Box 756
Germantown, WI 53022

Web Site:
http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/
Gospel Books, Materials, & Free Mailings

Email: berean@execpc.com

[Ambassador4Christ]

GRACE AND PEACE

By Cornelius R. Stam

For many years this writer, along with the mass of reli-
gious people, supposed that the Bible phrase "grace and
peace be unto you" was simply a beautiful, spiritual sal-
utation. Thank God we have come to learn that it is much
more than a salutation. It is an official proclamation.

Every single one of the epistles signed by St. Paul opens
with the declaration: "Grace be unto you and peace, from
God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." This was
the theme of the message which he, as a duly appointed
ambassador, had been sent to proclaim.

To appreciate this fully we must remember that God had
declared in prophecy that He would reply to the world’s
rejection of Christ with judgment. Psa. 110:1 pictures the
Father saying to the Son: "Sit Thou at My right hand, until
I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." Psa. 2:5 declares:
"Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them
in His sore displeasure."

After the crucifixion and ascension of Christ it seemed
that all was ready for the judgment to fall. As the signs of
Pentecost appeared Peter declared: "This is that which was
spoken by the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:16) and it did indeed
look as if the rejected Lord was about to return to "judge
and make war," as Rev. 19:11 puts it. But now, instead of
judgment and war, St. Paul proclaims grace and peace. Does
this not indicate that in grace God interrupted the prophetic
program to bring in the present dispensation under which
God’s ambassadors proclaim with Paul:

"But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned... so might grace reign" (Rom. 5:20,21).

Indeed, Paul the former persecutor was himself the living
demonstration of God’s grace to a Christ-rejecting world. In
I Tim. 1:15,16 he declares:

"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.

"Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting."
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Subscribe at:
http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/twominut.html
Two Minutes With The Bible By Pastor Stam

Mailing Address:
Berean Bible Society
N112 W17761 Mequon Road
P.O. Box 756
Germantown, WI 53022

Web Site:
http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/
Gospel Books, Materials, & Free Mailings

Email: berean@execpc.com

[Ambassador4Christ]

NOTE: This my last day on ChristianUnite

Grace & Peace

GOOD WORKS

By Cornelius R. Stam

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

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

It is interesting to compare Tit. 3:5 with Tit. 3:8:

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

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

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

"For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
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Subscribe at:
http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/twominut.html
Two Minutes With The Bible By Pastor Stam

Mailing Address:
Berean Bible Society
N112 W17761 Mequon Road
P.O. Box 756
Germantown, WI 53022

Web Site:
http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/
Gospel Books, Materials, & Free Mailings

Email: berean@execpc.com

[Brother Love]

One of my many favorites:

Two Minutes With The Bible

THE CAUSE OF RETARDED GROWTH

In the physical realm retarded growth may be due to
some mishap or may be simply one of the results of the
curse, having no direct bearing on the behavior of the par-
ents, and certainly not of the child itself.  In the spiritual
realm this is not so.  God has made abundant provision for
every child of God to grow to spiritual manhood, and Paul
rebukes the Corinthian believers for not having grown.

The trouble with the Corinthians was that they did not
have much appetite for the Word; they did not have a pas-
sion to know and obey the truth, for the babe in Christ who
"desires" the pure milk of the Word will surely "grow there-
by."  This was the trouble with the Hebrew believers too,
for when the Apostle would have gone further into the
great subject of Christ as "an High Priest forever after the
order of Melchisedec," he was forced to write:

"Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull [Gr., nothros, slothful] of hearing" (Heb. 5:11).

This is precisely the cause of the carnality among be-
lievers today.  During World War II there were several
occasions when parents came to the writer with letters from
their sons in the armed forces, explaining that a code had
been arranged by which "Johnny" could let them know to
which theatre of war he had been sent, but that now it was
difficult to understand his letter.  Together we would sit
down and study the letter in detail in an effort to make out
exactly what it was that "Johnny" was trying to make his
parents understand.

Such interest and concern over a letter from "Johnny"!  
And appropriately so, but do the majority of believers show
such interest in the Word of God to them?  They do not.  
They are satisfied with "the simple things," with knowing
only a few passages which "warm their hearts."  This is the
root cause of the spiritual immaturity in the Church today.

Brother Love

<))><

[Evangelist]

But doesn’t Rev. 21:1 predict "a new heaven and a new
earth"? Yes, but the context clearly indicates that this re-
fers 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

Rev 21:1   And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

Rev 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful

2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

2Pe 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

Not to be too picky, because Bro. Stam does have some wonderful points and insights, but:
Context definitely says a "new heaven and a new earth", which is in stark juxtaposition to a "renewed heaven, and a renewed earth". Additionally, it says clearly that the first (original) heaven and earth were passed away.

Specifically, the word "new", kainos, means:
1) new
     a) as respects form
1) recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn
     b) as respects substance
1) of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of

and "passed away", parerchomai, is
c) metaph.
     1) to pass away, perish


It appears, by context, word usage, and consideration of other scriptures, that the clear indication is that the heavens and the earth are going to be destroyed, and brand new ones will be re-created.....in other words, all NEW things, instead of all things renewed (or refreshed).

No recycling here.