“We cannot be part-time Christians. We are all in full-time Christian service, or we should be. A man who is faithful to his wife most of the time is not faithful at all. A man who is a Christian and something else is not a Christian. The friend of the world is the enemy of God. Billy Sunday used to say, “There is no such thing as a worldly Christian. You might as well talk about a heavenly devil.” “

~Vance Havner

In This Edition:

The Captain of Our Salvation

LACKING “ONE THING” OR “NOTHING”

The Triumph Of Faith

The End Of The World

THE CONSTRAINT OF CHRIST

You’re Welcome!

Is The Mystery In The Old Testament?

PERSONALIZING THE PROGRAM

“We have come all the way from burning hearts to itching ears, from “Amen” to “So what?” “

~ Vance Havner

“We cannot be part-time Christians. We are all in full-time Christian service, or we should be. A man who is faithful to his wife most of the time is not faithful at all. A man who is a Christian and something else is not a Christian. The friend of the world is the enemy of God. Billy Sunday used to say, “There is no such thing as a worldly Christian. You might as well talk about a heavenly devil.” “

~ Vance Havner

The Captain of Our Salvation

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Years ago a man of God was asked to preach at the funeral of a young soldier whose parents were unsaved.

During the course of his message the preacher sought to impress upon his hearers the basic fact that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

This greatly upset the parents. After the service they complained: “This is embarrassing. Our boy was not a sinner.”

The truth was that shortly before his death this young man had done what every true, born-again Christian has done. He acknowledged himself to be a lost sinner and, trusting Christ as his Savior, had been so gloriously saved that his parents were mystified that he could be so happy in the face of death.

The simplest believer in Christ understands all this. He knows that for the “old man” the death of the body is indeed a “dishonorable discharge” for laws broken, orders disobeyed, responsibilities unmet, and trusts betrayed. But for the “new man the death of the body is the vestibule through which he is ushered into the blessed presence of “the Captain of our Salvation,” the One who “by the grace of God tasted death for every man” that He might “bring many sons unto glory” (See Hebrews 2:9,10).

This is why we read in Hebrews 2:14,15:

“Forasmuch, then, as the children [of Adam] were partakers of flesh and blood, He [Christ] also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

“And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

No wonder St. Paul’s simple message of salvation was: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

“Paul was often in chains, a minister in manacles, a prophet in prison. The only stocks and bonds he knew were stocks for his feet and bonds for his wrists. But…Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage…Though often chained in prisons dark, he was in heart and conscience free. He was an ambassador in bonds not of his own making. Alas! we languish today in fetters of our own forging.”

~ Vance Havner

LACKING “ONE THING” OR “NOTHING”

By Vance Havner

Lacked ye anything?
Luke 22:35

One thing thou lackest.
Mark 10:21

When the disciples went forth at the bidding of Jesus without purse or scrip or shoes, they lacked nothing. The rich young ruler had purse and scrip and shoes, but when he went away he lacked one thing, and, lacking that, he lacked everything.

When we obey our Lord’s orders and go forth by His commission we find His grace sufficient and our needs supplied through God’s riches in glory by Christ Jesus. But a man may have all else, yet if he be not willing to abandon it all for the Master, he is a pauper. The supreme thing in this life is to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. A man may have kept other commandments, but if he will not cut loose from his dearest earthly treasure at the bidding of the Lord, he has failed at the vital point and is still a rebel.

Nothing matters but this: does Jesus have the utter absolute first and final say in your life? If He does, you will lack nothing.

The Triumph Of Faith

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

“This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (I John 5:4).

There are many who look upon faith as an abstract sort of thing. Some suppose faith is merely looking on the bright side of things; to others it is will-power; still others confuse it with a person’s view-point.

In the Bible, faith is simply believing God. “Faith” is the noun and “believe” the verb. This is seen in Romans 4:5, where the Apostle Paul declares:

“To him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

The above passage from I John 5 also makes this plain, when seen in its context:

“This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

“Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (Vers. 4,5).

It is, then, the believer in Christ, and only the believer in Christ, who can overcome the world. Unbelievers are swept away by the attractions and the pretentions of this world- system, but the believer in Christ need not be.

St. Paul declared by divine inspiration that unbelievers follow “the course of this world,” directed by Satan, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).

We do not mean to imply that believers are not often tempted to follow “the course of this world.” Indeed the world would sometimes entice or intimidate us, but “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

The End Of The World

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

(Readers please note — Pastor Stam passed on many years ago and this contemplation was composed many years ago, but its message, its content apply as aptly, perhaps more so than when Pastor Stam first wrote it and published it — because it is founded upon God’s immutable living unchangeable Word).

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 February 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 Revelation 21:1 predict “a new heaven and a new earth”? Yes, but the context clearly indicates that this refers 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 Corinthians 6:1,2).

THE CONSTRAINT OF CHRIST

By Vance Havner

We love him, because he first loved us.
I John 4:19

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. II Corinthians 8:9.

Christ is the true motivation of Christian conduct. We do not love Him because we ought but because love begets love. He loved us and our hearts respond. We love others because His love constrains us, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

Likewise, we give, not because we ought and not because of the need primarily, but because He gave. “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.” Freely we have received, freely we give. Not grudgingly or of necessity, but cheerfully. Witness a drive for church funds, a pitiful plea on Sunday to wangle a few dollars of “church dues” and you will perceive how far we have left the New Testament way. The stunts, picnics, bazaars, the moth-eaten jokes, the high-pressure – “Who’ll give ten dollars?” God forgive us! God will never accept such money wrung from church misers. It is the gift without the giver, a vain oblation.

You’re Welcome!

by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Like many Americans, I used to spend Sunday evenings watching 60 Minutes. My favorite part came near the end of each week’s show, when Andy Rooney would voice his complaints and opinions about things. Since his complaints were often aimed at new things, I figured he was just a crotchety old man who didn’t like change. Now that I’m about the age that he was then, I’m finding that I’m not so crazy about change myself, and there is one societal change that I find particularly vexing.

When I was a boy, I was taught that if someone says “thank you,” the polite way to respond is to say, “You’re welcome.” In recent years I have noticed that “you’re welcome” has been replaced by “no problem,” or “not a problem.” I’m not sure why this vexes me, but in true Andy Rooney-like fashion, it does!

Maybe it is because, if we think it through, this response isn’t nearly as good. Saying “you’re welcome” after a kindness means that the person who did you the kindness feels that you are a good person who is welcome to such kind treatment. “No problem” just says, “Being kind to you didn’t inconvenience me;” it says nothing of your worthiness to be treated so well.

If God were speaking aloud these days, one wonders how He would respond when we thank Him for all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). I doubt He would say, “No problem, being kind to you didn’t inconvenience Me,” for the price He paid at Calvary to procure these blessings was too high. We feel He would rather respond to our thanks with, “You are welcome to such blessings.” Of course, we are not worthy of these blessings because we are good people in ourselves, but rather because of who He has made us in Christ. As difficult as it is for humble Christians to accept, now that we are children of God, we are welcome to the same treatment from God that He gives His own Son. As Paul put it, we are “joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17), and so “how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (v. 32).

Remember every day to thank God for all that He has done for you in Christ. Anyone can thank Him for “life, and breath, and all things” of that nature, for these “He giveth to all” (Acts 17:25). Only the child of God can thank Him for “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” If we don’t thank Him for these things, who will?

Is The Mystery In The Old Testament?

by Pastor Ricky Kurth

No, of course not! Then why does Paul often quote the Old Testament to substantiate the Mystery (e.g., Romans 15:9-12)? Let’s start in Acts 26:22, where Paul testifies:

“I continue unto this day…saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.”

This statement seems to belie Paul’s insistence that his message was “hid from ages and from generations” (Colossians 1:26). However, he explains himself in the next verse:

“That Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:23).

The death and resurrection of Christ was not a mystery, nor was God’s plan to show light unto “the people” (of Israel) and “to the Gentiles.” Thus Paul is saying that while his message did not fulfill the prophets, generally speaking it did not contradict the Old Testament. We see the same in Acts 15, where the leaders in the church met to decide what to make of Paul’s new gospel.James concluded:

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets…” (v. 14,15).

James didn’t say that Paul’s new message fulfilled the prophets. Rather he said it agreed with them, i.e., God always intended to visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. Of course, according to Prophecy this was supposed to happen through Israel’s rise (Isaiah 60:3), not through her fall (Romans 11:11). Someday in the kingdom it will. But in the meantime, James could not deny that generally speaking Paul’s new message was in accord with the Old Testament.

When most New Testament writers quote the Old Testament, it is to show fulfillment of prophecy. However, when Paul quotes the Old Testament, it is to show harmony, not fulfillment.

Let’s close with an example. In Romans 10:19 Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:21, where God vows to provoke Israel to jealousy by “a foolish nation.” This cannot be the Gentiles, for they are “the nations,” plural. Peter rather identifies the believing Jews to whom he wrote as the “holy nation ” that God originally used to provoke the apostate nation of Israel to jealousy (I Peter 2:9 cf. Matthew 21:43; Luke 12:32) and fulfill Deuteronomy 32:21. But in the next chapter of Romans, Paul says,

“…I am the apostle of the Gentiles…if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh…” (Romans 11:13,14).

Here Paul declares that God was now using the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy. Not in fulfillment of Deuteronomy 32:21, but certainly in harmony with it!

So while the Mystery is not in the Old Testament, Paul can quote it freely to show how his new message was in agreement with it.

PERSONALIZING THE PROGRAM

By Vance Havner

Ye shall be witnesses unto me.
Acts 1:8

What we say is a witness, too, but people are moved by the living witness as well as by the spoken testimony. It is slow business getting a congregation warmed up to a missionary program. But let a real live Spirit-filled missionary embody that program and see the difference! We have degenerated into money-raisers for a project or a budget, and what a weariness it is! “Next Sunday we must raise an offering for the orphanage, the church paper, the college.” The causes of Christ do not strike fire until we incarnate them. Dutifully soliciting funds for a church enterprise is hard going. One orphan can be more eloquent than an hour’s speech about the orphanage.

Christianity suffers today because it has become merely a big business in the minds of some and now we must raise the funds to keep the business going. It goes best when it is embodied in flaming witnesses. Christ is a Person, and He reaches other persons through persons, not merely through plans and propaganda. We are propagandizing the faith instead of propagating it.