Sealed With The Spirit - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Sealed With The Spirit

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

With whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephsians 1:13).Most careful commentaries of the Bible make it clear that the words “after that,” in the above passage, actually have an immediate result in view. Upon hearing (or heeding) we believed, and upon believing we were sealed with the Spirit.

What is perhaps even more important to note, is the fact that upon believing “the gospel of… salvation,” we are “sealed with” the “Holy Spirit,” not “by” the Spirit. There is a difference between the two, which can be simply illustrated.

Here is a housewife, let us say, who is “putting up” jam or preserves and sealing each jar with wax. Now, the jars are being sealed by the woman, but she is sealing them with wax. Thus the Holy Spirit does not merely cause believers to be sealed and made secure. Rather He Himself is the Seal that keeps us eternally secure as God’s beloved children. We are sealed, not “by the Spirit,” but “with the Spirit,” — the Spirit Himself the Seal!

It is wonderful indeed to know that before the bar of God, the simplest believer in Christ has been fully justified (Acts 13:38,39). But this is a court action, a matter of law and justice. Besides this, the Spirit, who first brought the sinner under conviction, now gives him life — eternal life. This is why Rom. 8:2 tells us that “the law of the Spirit, [that] of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Thank God for the Spirit, who convicts, regenerates and seals every believer in Christ!

 Earthly Kingdom vs The Body of Christ

 By Les Feldick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx88plHGCp8

 

 (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

 

E-mail this BIBLE STUDY to all your friends 

Your Labor Is Not In Vain in the Lord -- Or Is It? by Pastor Ricky Kurth

  
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58).

Many years ago, my good friend Pastor John Fredericksen gave me a plaque engraved with this text, a plaque that sits on my desk here at Berean Bible Society to this day. As I labor for the Lord, it is such an encouragement to me to know that, no matter what, my labor is not in vain in the Lord.

But if that be so, why did Paul tell the Galatians,

“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain” (Galatians 4:10,11).

And what about what the apostle told the Philippians:

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings…that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (Philippians 2:14-16).

And don’t we find the same thought in I Thessalonians 3:5?

“…I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.”

If it was possible that Paul’s labor for the Lord might have been in vain, how could he tell the Corinthians that their labor could not be? How could the labor of a godly apostle be in vain, but not the labor of the carnal Corinthians?

We believe the answer is found in the context of the verse, where right before telling the Corinthians that their labor was not in vain, Paul spoke to them about the Rapture (I Corinthians 15:51-57). In that day, when we stand before the Lord at the Judgment Seat of Christ, no believer’s labor will be in vain, for all of our labor for Him will be richly rewarded.

And so it is that, if the Galatians persisted in their legalism, if the Philippians continued to do things with murmurings and disputings, if the Thessalonians abandoned the faith, Paul’s labor among them would have been in vain in this life, but not in the next life! And if you are feeling discouraged about your labor for the Lord because people whom you have led to Him have departed from the faith, or believers to whom you’ve introduced the grace message have turned their back on that blessed truth, you too can rejoice that your labor is not in vain in the Lord!

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
cspivey1953@gmail.com

E-mail this BIBLE STUDY to all your friends 

God's Faithfulness And Ours - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Standing Whatever The Cost

Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

 

Many people suppose that salvation is God’s reward to those who do their best to live good lives. This is not so, for God’s Word says of those who are saved:

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (II Timothy 1:9).

Referring to this “salvation which is in Christ Jesus,” St. Paul says:

“It is a faithful saying, for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him” (II Timothy 2:10,11).

In other words: The believer, viewing Calvary aright, has “died with Christ.” Viewing the Cross, he has said: “This is not Christ’s death. He was no sinner. He had no death to die. He is dying my death!” And so by faith he is “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). The penalty for all his sins has been fully paid, for he died — in Christ, and thus has also risen with Christ “to walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3,4).

This is all God’s doing, and only now is the believer in a position to do good works that will please God. Thus the Apostle writes of believers, in II Timothy 2: “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He also will deny us” (Ver. 12). When the believer’s service for Christ is reviewed some, indeed, will “receive a reward,” but others will “suffer loss,” though they themselves will “be saved, yet so as by fire” (I Corinthians 3:14,15).

It will be deeply embarrassing, in that day, for unfaithful Christians to face empty-handed the One who gave His all, Himself, to save them. Yet salvation is by grace, thus the Apostle hastens to conclude his statement in II Timothy 2, with the words:

“If we are unfaithful, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself” (Ver. 13)

Thus our rewards as believers depend upon our faithfulness, but our salvation, thank God, on His!

What Grace Is - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

  What Grace Is  

 by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Never let the devil deceive you into supposing that God planned sin as “a gracious means to a glorious end,” for then salvation from sin would be simple justice, not grace. No, you cannot legitimately charge God with your sin. It is to the guilty, the undeserving, far and wide, that God offers “the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

There are two significant phrases in Ephesians 2 which shed clear light upon the character, the nature, of grace. They are found in Verses 2 and 3, which speak of the unsaved as “children [Gr., huiois, full-grown sons] of disobedience” and “children [Gr., tekna, born ones] of wrath.”

Meditate for a moment on these phrases: “Children of disobedience” and “children of wrath.”It is against this dark, black background of deserved wrath, that we read further:

“BUT GOD, who is RICH IN MERCY, for His GREAT LOVE wherewith He loved us,

“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us [given us life] together with Christ (BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED),

“And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

“That in the ages to come He might show THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE IN HIS KINDNESS TOWARD US THROUGH CHRIST JESUS” (Ephesians 2:4-7).

Somehow it takes a load off one’s heart and mind to come to the end of his rope, as it were, and admit that he is a sinner, deserving God’s wrath. How sweet to the ears of such is the wonderful message of redemption by grace, through the finished work of Christ at Calvary. We were all the “children [full-grown sons] of disobedience”: and therefore “by nature the children [born ones] of wrath”: “But God!” When hope seemed gone, He intervened and now offers salvation to all by grace, through faith.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).



Les Feldick All Day Seminar From Tulsa, Oklahoma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m569ol9hFcg&feature=player_embedded

(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      
 

E-mail this BIBLE STDY to all your friends

 

The Secret Of Spiritual Victory - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

  The Secret Of Spiritual Victory

Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Believers in Christ have been made “free from sin” by race (Romans 6:14,18) in the sense that they need not, indeed, should not, yield to sin when temptation arises (Romans 6:12,13). Believers have also been made “free from the law of sin and death” (Roans 8:2) for Christ, in grace, bore the death penalty for them.

But no believer is free from what Paul calls “the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:23), that is, the old Adamic nature, with its inherent tendency to do wrong. Nor is he free from the conflict with the new nature which this involves. If the Christian would be truly spiritual and deal in a scriptural way with the sin that indwells him, he must clearly recognize its presence; he must face the fact that while, thank God, he is no longer “in sin”, sin is still in him.

But this conflict should not discourage us, for it is one of the true signs of salvation. It is unknown to the unbeliever, for only the additional presence of the new nature, along with the old, causes this conflict, for the Bible says about these two natures: “these are contrary the one to the other” (Galatians 5:17).

But not only is this conflict within the believer a sure sign of salvation; it also creates within him a deep and necessary sense of our inward imperfection and of the infinite grace of a holy God in saving us and ministering to us daily in helping us to overcome sin. And this in turn gives us a more understanding approach as we proclaim to the lost “the gospel of the grace of God”.

Paul’s epistles show clearly that there is nothing that will so help us to overcome sin and live pleasing to God as an understanding and an appreciation of what He has done for us in Christ. As we are occupied with these “things of the Spirit” we find ourselves “walking in the Spirit”, and Galatians 5:16 says: “WALK IN THE SPIRIT, AND YE SHALL NOT FULFIL THE LUST OF THE

FLESH”. How much better to have our lives transformed by occupation with Christ (IICor. 3:18) and our position and blessings in the heavenlies with Him (Col.3:1-3), than to assume the hopeless task of trying to improve the “old nature”; always engaged in introspection; always occupied with the flesh!



Les Feldick All Day Seminar From Tulsa, Oklahoma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m569ol9hFcg&feature=player_embedded

(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      
 

E-mail this BIBLE STDY to all your friends

 

Spiritual Understanding - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Honest, prayerful study of the Word brings us to spiritual maturity and understanding. But does it not require superior intellectual powers to understand these “deep things of God”? No indeed. Superior intellects among unsaved men are unable to appreciate even the “simple” truths of the Word, for “they are spiritually discerned” (I Corinthians 2:14). And as to the “mystery” made known to Paul by the glorified Lord, the Apostle declares that it is now “revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:5).

The mystery is not merely something more difficult to grasp intellectually, for the Apostle specifically states that it is “not the wisdom of this world” but “the wisdom of God” (I Corinthians 2:6,7), and that only by the Spirit of God can it be understood and appreciated. This explains why many of the humblest believers rejoice in the mystery and understand it so clearly, while so many great theologians and religious leaders fail to grasp it and keep confusing it with God’s prophesied program regarding the kingdom of Christ.

The mystery is not “hard to be understood” because men are slow of mind to understand, but because they are “slow of heart to believe,” because the devil, who “hath blinded the minds of them that believe not” also seeks to keep God’s people from seeing and rejoicing in the truth of the mystery with its riches of grace, its “one body” and its “one baptism.” This is why the Apostle prayed so fervently that the believers to whom he ministered might be given “spiritual understanding” to take in the glorious message he was commissioned to proclaim (See Ephesians 1:16-19; Colossians 1:9,10).

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
cspivey1953@gmail.com

Share this Bible Message with your  friends

　

　

The Primaries and Christian Faith - by Pastor C. R. Stam

The Primaries and Christian Faith  
 by Pastor C.  R. Stam

The presidential primaries are now in full swing, with nearly all the candidates talking confidently about winning, but it has long been a question just how much these primaries mean. Some, indeed, have started by winning in the primaries and have gone on to become president. But others have done well in the primaries, yet have never even come close to being nominated by their own parties.

It’s something like this with faith. The primaries are like mental assent, or intellectual faith. Before a person can be saved he must, of course, know about sin and salvation and must give mental assent to what the Bible says about these things. He must agree that Christ died for man’s sins.

But while intellectual faith is a good start, it is not enough to save you. You must go on from there to trust yourself to Christ, who died for our sins (I Cor. 15:3), otherwise your intellectual faith has done you no good.

God wants our heart trust; it is this kind of faith that honors Him, and it is this kind of faith that saves. In Romans 10:9-13 He says:

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith: Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If Christ is not a risen, living Savior, He is no savior at all. We must believe this in our hearts if we are to call upon Him for salvation.

Thank God that “He showed Himself alive, after His passion, by many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3) and that millions have indeed found the peace and joy of sins forgiven through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His redemptive work at Calvary.

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

E-mail this BIBLE STUDY to all your friends