FOR TO ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST, AND TO DIE IS GAIN - By C. R. Stam

I eased myself down on the couch in our living room to prepare for my upcoming Sunday school class. Matt, our seven year old, curled up next to me as Joshua, our ten year old practiced at the piano. The crackling fire, the cat perched atop his climbing tree, and the dog at my feet completed the picture of a perfect family evening. I opened my Bible to the first chapter of Philippians anticipating Paul's refreshing perspective on life.

Matt became increasingly interested in my study and began to peer over my arm at the passage. I asked him to read verses twelve through eighteen. We talked about Paul's imprisonment and how God was in control of every circumstance. It was exciting to share how Paul had used the opportunity to minister to the palace guards and how his example stirred up the courage of the brethren. Josh, jealous for equal attention, migrated from the piano to the couch to be with us. I asked him to read verses nineteen through twenty-seven. We talked about Paul's perspective on life and death; his desire to be with the Lord and yet his desire to be of service to the Philippians. We saw how Paul saw death and the avenue into the presence of the Lord, a gain of incalculable value.

Little eyes were heavy now. The boys were tucked in and kissed good night after we closed our day in prayer. I returned to the living room to complete my study. My wife, weary from her heavy load as a student, had gone to bed early. Our home was comfortable, warm, and quiet on this wintry evening. As I sat down, Paul's words in verse twenty-one kept ringing in my mind. "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." I meditated on the passage and evaluated my own mind and heart.

What is it for me to live? For Paul his life was inseparable from the life of Christ. His will was to do Christ's will. What Christ valued, Paul valued. The members of his body were the members of Christ's. I recalled Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians and his words that we who live should no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died and rose again on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:15). Then my mind turned to Romans 12:1-2 and I found that because of God's manifold grace and mercy I am to present my body, my mind, my life as a living and holy sacrifice to God. This is how I am to worship Him. I am not to be conformed to this world but I am to be transformed by the renewing of my mind in order that I might prove that perfect will of God (Rom. 12:1-2). Was I truly yielded to His will?

I prayed, "Lord, transform and renew my mind. Cause me to yield to your perfect will and to allow you to possess all that I have, all that I am."

I now considered the second half of that twenty-first verse, Philippians chapter one, "and to die is gain." Did I really desire heaven over this life? Did I see death as gain? I remembered a recent episode with Joshua. Josh suffers from allergy-induced asthma. As he struggled for breath late one evening, he gasped, "I wish I was dead." I was shocked and hurt. How could my son, surrounded by a loving family, experiencing a happy childhood, wish to be dead. Then I thought of what I teach week in and week out; heaven is a wonderful place; this life is full of trouble; when we are absent from this body we will be at home with the Lord and be physically seated with Him in the heavenlies. My son saw death as I taught it, as the door into the presence of the living God. What I thought was his death wish was really a wish for a release from the sufferings of this life and a longing for the inexpressable joy of life eternal. I should have rejoiced at the faith of this child.

I prayed, "Lord, transform and renew my mind. Give me the faith of a child to see beyond the temporary securities of this life. Let me seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Cause me to set my mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Lord, give me your perspective on life that my hope might not rest on the things which are seen but on the things which are not seen.

The house was quiet as I moved off toward bed. I realized that God's Spirit must continually wage war with my flesh for control of my mind. Yet my spirit was at peace as I claimed His promise that He who had begun this good work in me would perfect it until the day of Christ (Phil. 1:6).

Grace Bible Church  (Click Here)

How God Saves Men

Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.

Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.

Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4

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Jesus is JEHOVAH The One True GOD (Click Here)

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The Seventh From Adam - by Pastor Paul M. Sadler

The Seventh From Adam

by Pastor Paul M. Sadler

Scripture Reading:

    “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.”
    — Jude 14

About two weeks prior to teaching the Dispensation of Conscience in my Dispensational Survey class at the Berean Bible Institute, I raised the following question to the student body. What is the significance of Enoch being addressed as “the seventh from Adam”? The entire class drew a blank — they were stumped!! Although it may seem rather insignificant at first glance, the Holy Spirit has added this phrase for good reason. In fact, this phraseology is only used in reference to Enoch.

A number of the students gave some thought to the matter and even ventured a couple of explanations, which were true, but not the answer I was looking for. Finally, one student eventually got two or three hints out of me and came up with the answer. Upon arriving at the fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of Genesis, I explained to the class that there were two Enoch’s before the days of the great flood. Therefore, we must carefully distinguish between the Enoch who descended from Cain, and the Enoch who was the “seventh from Adam” (Genesis 4:16-18 cf. 5:22-24). The first Enoch walked in the way of Cain — his descendants were morally bankrupt.

God would have us follow the example of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who walked in the way of faith. Thus “Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found [implying everyone searched for him], because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5). In addition, the path of the coming Redeemer would pass through Enoch, the seventh from Adam, not Cain’s Enoch (Genesis 3:15). So then, a seemingly insignificant phrase suddenly helps us better appreciate that:

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:16).

 The Kingdom of Christ on Earth - Les Feldick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sow1V-ocuk4&feature=share

   

How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4

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How Small We Are! - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

 

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.


Grace Bible Church  (Click Here)

How God Saves Men

Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.

Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.

Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4

Read the KJV BIBLE in large print (Click Here)

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Jesus is JEHOVAH The One True GOD (Click Here)

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CEPHAS" AND PAUL'S GOSPEL - by Russell S. Miller

The name "Simon," and this phrase, "whose surname is called Peter," is found some six times in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. But "Cephas," this name, is found only in Paul's epistles, and John 1:42:

"...And when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone."

Having established that Peter's name was to be changed to Cephas, we can now consider the subject before us, "Cephas" and Paul's Gospel. Thus it is essential that we realize that when Paul speaks of Cephas in his epistle to the Galatians, he is actually referring to the Apostle Peter:

"And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision" (Galatians 2:9).

This is most significant because, although our Lord had changed Peter's name to Cephas, he is referred to as "Simon Peter" some nineteen times in the Gospels. However, it is also interesting to note that the Apostle Paul refers to Peter as Cephas four times in First Corinthians (ICorinthians 1:12; 3:22; 9:5; 15:5). And these are the only passages where this name Cephas is found. But what's more interesting about the gospel that Paul preached is that in the context of I Corinthians 15:3,4, the Apostle of the Circumcision, "Cephas" (ICorinthians15:5), had come to understand that salvation today is "through faith" in Christ's shed blood -- Romans 3:25; I Peter 1:18,19. In early Acts, Peter had only preached the resurrection of Christ to sit upon the throne of David's prophesied kingdom (Acts 2:25-31). He did not know what the crucifixion of Jesus Christ had accomplished (Luke 18:34). There he only knew that "by wicked hands [Israel] had crucified and slain" the Son of God (Acts 2:23). Even as late as his visit to see Cornelius in Acts 10, the Apostle Peter had not understood the preaching of the cross. It is through Paul's Gospel that Peter came to see what the finished work of Christ actually accomplished, and through this knowledge he became a stalwart for the truth. And this is why he is called Cephas in Paul's epistles, a "PILLAR" for the truth of God's Word "rightly divided."

According to the Apostle Paul then, Peter and all believers, Jews or Gentiles, are instructed to leave the so-called Great Commission with its repentance and water baptism, and come on unto "perfection" through the Pauline revelation (Hebrews 6:1,2). And having seen this, Peter obeyed, and gave to Paul and Barnabas "the right hands of fellowship" (Galatians 2:9). Again Peter's own words later written in his first epistle:

"For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (I Peter 1:18,19).

Again, in the context of I Corinthians 15:3,4, Paul goes on to say: "Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed" (ICorinthians 15:11). In Acts 15:7-11 Peter had declared that Jews are saved exactly the same way Gentiles are saved today. No longer does the law, nor repentance and water baptism save.

Would to God that all our Baptist friends would come to see the truth of the Mystery as Peter had. These are not the words of Paul and Silas in Acts 16:31, but Peter's own inspired words, to his own countrymen at that Jerusalem Council:

"BUT WE BELIEVE THAT THROUGH THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WE SHALL BE SAVED, EVEN AS THEY" (Acts 15:11).

Paul not only "received" this Gospel from the Lord Jesus, but he also "delivered" that same Gospel, which he had "received" to the Corinthians.

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you... For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES; And that He was buried, and that He ROSE AGAIN the third day ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES" (ICorinthians 15:3,4).

And this, beloved, is consistent with the Apostle Paul's words in Romans 16:25,26, that Christ's death, burial, and resurrection (ICor.15:3,4) was "according to his gospel, AND THE PREACHING OF JESUS CHRIST, ACCORDING TO THE REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY, WHICH WAS KEPT SECRET SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN, But now is made manifest, AND BY THE SCRIPTURES OF THE PROPHETS, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to ALL NATIONS for the obedience of faith" (Romans 16:25,26).

This also explains how John 3:14-16 is so greatly used of God today. Peter and John had both come to see "the grace that was given" to the Apostle Paul in all the types and shadows of Calvary's cross (Galatians 2:7-9; II Peter 3:15-18; I John 1:7).

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. 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 3:14-16).

Grace Bible Church  (Click Here)

How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4

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Jesus is JEHOVAH The One True GOD (Click Here)

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Accepted - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Accepted

Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

In Ephesians 1:6 the Apostle Paul sings a doxology, as it were, “to the praise of the glory of God’s grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved”.

In the story of the Prodigal Son it is touching to see the father accept his wayward son back to his bosom — and so generously! He does not merely admit him back into his home; he clothes him with his best robe, puts a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet and kills for him the fatted calf so that they call all to “eat and be merry” in celebration of his return.

But the prodigal was after all the father’s son, whereas Paul bids us “Gentiles in the flesh” to remember that originally we were “without Christ…aliens from the commonwealth of Israel…strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians.2:12).

Hence it is even more touching to contemplate God’s gracious acceptance of us who were not sons but “aliens” and “enemies” (Colossians 1:21).

The word “accepted” in the above passage actually comes from the word “grace” (Gr. karis) with which the verse begins: “…His grace, wherein He hath engraced us in the Beloved One”.

Thus God looks upon us now with delight; He delights to favor and bless the believer because He sees him in Christ, His beloved Son.

This passage reminds us how God once broke through the heavens to declare: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). And now He is delighted with us and blesses us with “all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies” because we are in Christ, the “Beloved Son”. Not that we have attained to this position, far from it, for “HE hath MADE us accepted” — HE hath engraced us in the Beloved.

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.

Read Acts 16L31 Romans 1:16, and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4

Read the KJV BIBLE in large print (Click Here)

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Jesus is JEHOVAH The One True GOD (Click Here)

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Is Revival Possible? - By C. R. Stam

We have received responses from several friends who conclude from such passages as II Timothy 3:1-13 that there cannot possibly be a revival before the Lord comes for His own.

We have never concurred in this view. Verses 2-7 of this passage describe the condition of the ungodly about us. These have "a form of godliness" but not the reality and it is these who will "wax worse and worse" (Vers. 5,13). "From such" the Spirit exhorts us to "turn away" (Ver. 5).

But why, in the midst of these "perilous times" should the Church not be strong and united? The Word of God often shines brightest when the days are darkest.

It is true that our Lord said about the coming "tribulation," that "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matthew 24:12), but this was a prediction concerning a particular situation, and while similar causes often produce similar effects, this is not always so. Not infrequently the wickedness of the world has driven saints to their knees and to the Word, with blessed results.

True spiritual revival takes place in the blood-bought Church of God not in the wicked world about it. That which is dead cannot be revived but that which has life can and should be. We know of no Scripture that should deter us from praying for a true spiritual awakening among God’s people. Indeed we must be careful lest we cease praying and toiling for a revival on the grounds that "times are getting worse and worse and there’s not going to be, a revival."

It seems to us that one of the surest ways to grow spiritually indifferent ourselves is to conclude that God will not grant us a spiritual awakening no matter what we do.

Grace Bible Church  (Click Here)

 How God Saves Men

Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.

Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.

Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4

Read the KJV BIBLE in large print (Click Here)

(A 10 Minute Video)

Jesus is JEHOVAH The One True GOD (Click Here)

Posted By Cecil  and Connie Spivey 

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Christ And Politics - By Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Christ And Politics 

By  Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Astronaut John Glenn in politics — running for the U. S. Senate! It seems odd to think of him in a political role, but evidently he feels he can serve his country best in politics.

But did you ever think of Christ’s relation to politics? He came into this world, remember, as a King. The very opening words of the New Testament are: “Jesus Christ, the Son of David…” (Matt. 1:1). This emphasizes the fact that He came from the royal line. John the Baptist had gone forth as the King’s herald, to prepare His way, and the twelve apostles proclaimed His royal rights as they preached “the gospel of the kingdom.” This was all in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy:

    “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David…” (Isa. 9:6,7).

Instead of crowning Him King, however, they nailed Him to a cross and wrote over His head His “accusation”: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

Actually our Lord had come especially, this first time, to be rejected and crucified for the sins of men. Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 and other Old Testament passages had predicted that at His first coming He would be despised and rejected. Matt. 20:28 says of this coming: “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Our Lord did not die an untimely death; the cross was not a useless sacrifice. He knew that man’s greatest need is moral and spiritual — that his sins must be paid for if he is not to be condemned forever before the court of eternal Justice. So in love He came to be rejected and suffer and die “the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (I Pet. 3:18).

He will come again to judge and reign as all prophecy indicates, but for the present He deals with mankind in grace. Eph. 1:7 says that “in [Him] we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace” and Rom. 3:24 declares that believers are “justified freely by [God’s] grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Les Feldick Galatians teaching on the two Gospels - …

 

How God Saves Men

Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.

Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.

Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4

Read the KJV BIBLE in large print (Click Here)

(A 10 Minute Video)

Jesus is JEHOVAH The One True GOD (Click Here)

  Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
https://www.facebook.com/cecil.spivey

   

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