Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Who's Been Good To Whom? - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

 

Who's Been Good To Whom?

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

As I once left a restaurant, the cashier and part owner asked how “the pastor” was feeling. I replied: “Fine. The Lord has been very good to me.”

With this she began to tell how good the Lord had been to her. She had come to America from Greece and had raised a family and prospered here until now, with her family, she owned and operated a good-sized restaurant. “So”, she said, “the Lord has been good to me”, and after a moment’s hesitation, “but then, I’ve been good to Him too!”

Imagine! How He needed her! It is sad, but this is the low conception of God held by many religious, but unsaved people. They entertain the strange notion that if they put a few dollars into the Church, God ought to bless them — or the still more foolish notion that if they are good to others, He ought to be good to them!

But He owes us nothing just because we may have been good to others! And even if we sought only to please Him, this would not make Him our debtor. He does not need us. There is nothing we can do to enrich Him. This is why Ephesians 2:8-10 declares that salvation is “not of yourselves”, and “not of works, lest any man should boast”.

No, we cannot gain His favor by “being good to Him”. Yet, it is true that His children will be rewarded for faithfulness to Him. This is not a dispensational matter; it is a promise that God has always held out to His people (Dan.12:3; Matt. 25:21; ICor.4:5; IThes.2:19; IITim.4:7,8; IPet.5:1). But such rewards are “rewards of grace”.

Let us who know Him, then, seek above all else to be faithful in our service to Him, not to gain acceptance with God, for He has already “made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph.1:6), but rather out of love and gratitude to Him who gave Himself for us.



 Transformed By Grace  -
Kevin Sadler


Transformed By Grace #1 - Unity in Christ
Transformed By Grace #2 - One Body in Christ
Transformed By Grace #3 - The Apostle of Grace
Transformed By Grace #4 - The Gifts of Christ


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Monday, January 30, 2017

Mercy Upon All - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Mercy Upon All

Pastor 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). 

Recovery Of Truth - O'Hair - YouTube

How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
ead Acts 16L31 Romans 1:16, and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


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 Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
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Saturday, January 28, 2017

Our National Frustration - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam




  Our National Frustration
 by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

The administration has been launching a counter-attack against what it calls “the rising mood of national frustration” over the contest with the Soviet Union.  This “mood of national frustration” is reflected daily in the press and over radio and TV. So much of the news, lately, is disheartening; so little encouraging. But this national frustration is not basically the result of Soviet saber-rattling; it is the result of our own moral and spiritual decadence, for the same newspapers that carry so much bad news about communism, are filled with reports of drunkenness, rape, murder, corruption in business and government, and all kinds of immorality, vice and crime. And what is the reason for all this wickedness?  America is getting farther and farther away from the Bible and its message about Christ  and His redeeming work. While proclaiming man’s inherent goodness, men are  demonstrating their inherent badness and their need of salvation.

True Christians are not frustrated by the present circumstances, however. Acknowledging  that they are unworthy in themselves and confessing Christ as the One who “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (I Peter 2:24), they rejoice that they stand before God “accepted in the Beloved [One]” (Ephesians 1:6). “Therefore, being justified by faith, [they] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1) and claim His help in all they do.  Far from being frustrated, the true believer in Christ exclaims with Paul: “Thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ” (II Corinthians 2:14).

Do men consider him the loser because he is despised and sometimes persecuted by those who do not share his concern about sin and salvation? He replies: “Nay, in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS, through Him that loved us” (Romans 8:37). Is he afraid? Not at all. Enjoying a personal relationship with God, he says:“HE HATH SAID: I WILL NEVER LEAVE THEE, NOR FORSAKE THEE, SO THAT WE MAY BOLDLY SAY:… I WILL NOT FEAR WHAT MAN SHALL DO UNTO ME” (Hebrews 13:5,6).



(1Video) Plan of Salvation
By Les Feldick
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/300896818828475886/?autologin=true

 King James Bible
The Preserved and Living Word of God


(A 10 Minute Video)
 
 Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
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Friday, January 27, 2017

Is Sunday the Sabbath? - by Pastor Kevin Sadler

 Is Sunday the Sabbath?

Pastor Kevin Sadler

No, Sunday is not the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a distinctive part of Israel’s program that God gave the chosen nation at Mt. Sinai.

Neh. 9:13,14: “Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath…”
The Lord instituted the Sabbath as a gift for Israel. The word Sabbath means “rest.” God gave His people Israel a day of rest each week to rejuvenate their bodies and minds. It was to be a time of rest, feasting, and enjoying family. More importantly, He gave it in order to break the day-in, day-out cycle of life, so that Israel would not forget their God and would worship and give thanks to Him on that day.

According to Exodus 20:11, the Hebrews were to cease all work because the Creator “rested” after the sixth day of creation on “the seventh day.” So Israel was to follow the Creator’s example for their week, making the Sabbath a day to commemorate the Lord’s creation of the world and to celebrate His provision.

Ex. 31:16,17: “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath…for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested.”
The Sabbath was a sign, a distinguishing mark, of God’s chosen people. It was “a sign between [God] and…Israel.” The Sabbath was for Israel, and it was given to Israel under the Law.

Today, we are not under the Law, we are under Grace (Rom. 6:14). We are not Israel; we are the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22,23). The Sabbath is not to be observed under Grace. Paul gives no instruction for the Body of Christ to observe the Sabbath. Instead, he speaks of the Church gathering “upon the first day of the week” (I Cor. 16:2). Sunday is not the Sabbath and should never be called the Sabbath. Doing so confuses what “the first day of the week” signifies under Grace, and what “the seventh day” signified under the Law.

The Sabbath speaks of rest after work and relates to the Law and the work required by those under the Law in Law-keeping, with the works, observation of feasts, and sacrifices that Israel was commanded to do continually by faith. The Sabbath foreshadows the rest that Israel will enjoy in her end times, in her millennial rest within the earthly kingdom.

Sunday worship on the first day of the week speaks to a rest that takes place before work and relates to Grace and the rest we, the Body of Christ, have in Christ and His finished work right up front. Having trusted that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again (I Cor. 15:3,4), we are “complete in [Christ]” (Col. 2:10). Salvation is a “gift” that we receive the moment we believe; it is “not of works” (Eph. 2:8,9). For most working people, our work week follows after the first day of the week. And under Grace, because we are saved, “works” follow after out of joy and gratitude for our accomplished salvation in Christ (Eph. 2:10).

The Sabbath commemorated the Lord’s creation of the world, while our Sunday worship commemorates the Lord’s resurrection each week, who rose again on “the first day of the week” (Luke 24:1). Thus as we meet on Sundays each new week, we do so in worship of our living, risen Savior, and the newness of life we have in Him (Rom. 6:4).





King James Bible

The Preserved and Living Word of God




(A 10 Minute Video)


  Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
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