Adam and Eve Part 1: The Test of Faith

By John Foll, written between 9/14/2018 to 02/03/2019.
© Copyright 2018 John Foll

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“In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 KJV & NASB. ‘And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.’ Genesis 1:31 NASB77. This was the way God created this world - there was no sin; everything was good; everything was perfect. There were no animals killing other animals, no people killing other people or animals, or bloodshed or strife, all was perfect.

If everything was good that God created, how did life get so messed up on this planet then?

We want to contemplate what God did for mankind at creation, and what was lost, and how to get it back again.

God made this world perfect, Adam and Eve were perfect.
But they were born fully grown with no experience at life; they had no experience of sin or death or their need for complete dependence upon God. Complete dependence upon God was something they needed to learn.

The Test of Faith Given:

“Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:9 NASB. Then God created Adam. After God created Adam: “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” Genesis 2:15-17 NASB. God created everything that man needed, but He also put a tree in the garden to test him and show his trust. This was a test for Adam to prove his loyalty to Him. After God created Eve, this was a test for her also. It appears that Eve hadn’t been created when God gave this command to Adam to not eat from that tree, because she is not mentioned or addressed by God in this passage.

You may ask, ‘Why did God give Adam and Eve a choice to obey Him, which was to not eat from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

Why did He make the ability of living forever based on obedience? Why did He even give them a choice? Just make them be good! Sounds easy doesn’t it? To easy. This is a question many have asked. He made them perfect, so why did He give them a choice? God wants everyone to have a choice. He doesn’t compel any to love, serve and obey Him. Love doesn’t mean anything when it is enforced and there is no alternative. Love is not real, unless both parties of their own free will love each other; it must be reciprocated. God is kind and loving and does not force Himself on any, but desires all to obey Him out of love. To bring up what someone said one time, who we were discussing the love of God with: ‘God is a gentleman.’ This is to use ‘human terms.’ Would you appreciate someone demanding you do something against your will? Wouldn’t this make you resentful? Then why do some think that God would do this? What kind of a God would He be if He did this? Intelligent creatures come to resent compulsion if it continues too long, and causes rebellion! Forcing someone against their will to be good is not right. The only way someone could be forced against their will and not resent it, would be if they were stupid, and had no understanding; a brute animal. But many animals also have desires of what they want to do or not, and get upset or angry if they are coerced against their will, they just want to be free! We have observed this on several occasions. So not even many of the animals want to be forced to do something against their will either. But all intelligent beings resent compulsion. So compulsion is not an option for genuinely caring and loving beings, which is why God does not do this! God’s kingdom will be made up of those who want to be good, and have let God make them be good. God’s standards of love and perfection are so much higher than the standards of mankind that are so often trumpeted in society today, which are on display in the media through men of “learning” and in the teachings of many religions of this earth, and He is always 100% consistent. God is completely beyond all reproach. If it is wrong for someone to try to compel others against their will, it is wrong for God to do so too! See Genesis 2:18-25.

Adam and Eve were given everything they needed, and their test:

God gave Adam and Eve a simple test. He had given them everything there heart could want, and everything they needed. “Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18 NASB. Adam and Eve were made for each other. God truly provided for all of their needs. Since He provided for all of their needs, there was no need for them to fail the test. The choice of belonging to God, having eternal life, and all of the best blessings in this mortal life and the life to come depend on a willingness to love Him and desire to please Him.

So they needed a test to show their loyalty to Him and give them a choice. So the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was placed in the Garden of Eden. God made the test of their loyalty to Him as light as possible. Since God had given them everything they needed, there was no reason for them to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree. What need have you to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, if you can eat from the Tree of Life? How wonderful the Tree of Life must have been! If you eat the fruit of it, you will live forever! Do you know of any other food which can provide eternal life? After sin, God made this statement: “Then the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’" Genesis 3:22 NASB. So the Tree of Life had the ability of making the ones who ate from it live forever. So why eat from the other tree?

A Perfect World:

We believe that if they had remained loyal to Him, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would have been removed at some point. They had the advantage we do not have of being “perfect”, and living in a “perfect world”. Have you ever heard the expression: “In a perfect world…”? Well Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world! Adam and Eve had no sinful addictions, no predisposition to sin, no bad habits, etc. – they were perfect.

But Adam and Eve fell prey to sin, read Genesis 3:1-24 for this sad story. And so the human race inherited sin from the progenitors of the human race, Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were created perfect and had no sinful tendencies, yet they fell prey to sin, and thus the whole human race inherited their sinful tendencies from them.

How did Adam and Eve fall, since they were perfect?

They had everything they could want, plenty of food, an easy job (caring for the Garden of Eden), great beauty, and they had each other. Mankind has been going steadily downhill since creation. Think about it: they had the ability of living forever! Then after sin until the flood some lived up to 969 years (Genesis 5:27), then later down to 70 years. Eve would have been the most beautiful woman who ever lived, and Adam would have been the most handsome, the best man, and Eve the best woman – we are fairly certain of this. So they had everything they needed, lived in a perfect world, and they had each other.

Why did they want to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

Here we get to the heart of this article. The answer may surprise you! It is the same reason why we so easily fall prey into sin too!

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'" The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:1-6 NASB.

Satan lied to Eve: ‘he said, you shall not surely die!’ He was contradicting God, calling Him a liar! This is what Satan does, he contradicts God. You can tell whenever you hear any message from him, because sooner or later he contradicts God, sometimes very subtly, and sometimes in your face - boldly contradicting God. Satan said, ‘In the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God’. Satan indeed declared that she could be a ‘god’ here, knowing both good and evil, if she would disobey God. But she already knew God, and she already had eternal life. She had her husband, the perfect husband. And more importantly she was already like ‘God’. What? Adam was created in the image of God, and Eve in the image of Adam. ‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’. Genesis 1:26 KJV. “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.” 1 Corinthians 11:7 KJV. So Adam was created in the image of God and in the glory of God, and Eve was in the glory of man. And man was like God, and Eve was like Adam. Therefore Eve was like God too! So she was already like God, in her own human, finite way. (We are not saying she was an equal with God, but that she was already like God in her own human-finite sphere.)

Satan tricked her into thinking she was missing out on something big. Thus Satan tricked her out of being like God. When she fell for this lie, it started a chain reaction which caused the human race to fall into all sorts of sin and evil, which was anything but like God! Satan tricked her into thinking that she had to disobey God in order to be like God, when she was already like Him! What foolishness! He is such a trickster! His lie was utter foolishness! Those who really know and love God, will not seek after what God is already providing them. Thus the eating of the forbidden fruit was the first effort made by mankind to earn their own salvation apart from God - to be their own god and save themselves! (But God was already helping them to be like Him and saving them!) If she would have followed God’s plan, she would have become more and more like God, as time unfolded, as she learned to love God more and more. So what need did she have of the devil’s lie? We were all created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), and John tells us: ‘Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God’ 1 John 3:1 KJV. It was a sin of covetousness, wanting what did not belong to her; for something she should not have. She was offered something she didn’t have or need, something forbidden. She was not really in need of anything, because she had been given everything that she needed, for God had given them everything they needed to sustain their life, and they had each other. ‘The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;”’ Genesis 2:16 NASB77 and God had given her the perfect husband. There was nothing in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that she needed, it could only bring sadness, misery, sickness and death. Everything was perfect, except for the forbidden fruit on that tree, and the serpent entwining the tree. In the end, she gave into the devil’s temptation, ate the fruit and gave some to her husband to eat, and he ate.

Why did Eve fall? How do we know that Eve’s doubt of God led to her fall and sin?

The Devil lied to her. She believed the lie, which mean she doubted God, and ate the forbidden fruit. Because Satan contradicted God, and she believed Satan instead of God. You cannot believe what God says, and the exact opposite which is what Satan preaches, at the same time. They are mutually exclusive, one or the other. For Eve’ to believe Satan’s lies, in direct contradiction to God, shows that Satan had planted doubt in her mind that God really meant what He said. Satan told her, ‘You surely shall not die!’ And the Bible tells us that: ‘When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.’ So Eve must have decided that God was wrong, and that the serpent was right, meaning she doubted God.

Why did Adam fall?

He loved His wife and didn’t want to live without her. (He might have thought Eve would have died right away?) We think that he may have doubted that God would provide him another wife if she died. Think about it. If Adam had not eaten the fruit, in a few hundred years or so Eve would have died, then God could have created him another wife. But when his wife Eve gave him the fruit he did eat. There is no evidence that he resisted it when his wife gave him the forbidden fruit to eat, but that she gave him the fruit and he did eat. Herein is his sin: he meekly gave in to his wife and ate the forbidden fruit. No apparent thought about whether it was right or wrong, or an effort to resist it. He just ate what his wife gave him to eat.

What would have saved Adam and Eve from their fall into sin?

(Which would have saved the human race from inheriting sin.)

Faith. One simple word, but so full of grace and power: Faith in God! So what then was Adam and Eve’s greatest sin then? Doubting the plain word of God. Oh how many in our day are doubting the word of God too! Oh how many don’t really believe God when He said that ‘the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life?’ in Romans 6:23. Or when Jesus the Son of God declared: ‘he who overcomes, will I grant to eat from the Tree of Life?’ Revelation 2:7. How few really believe what Jesus or His Father declared here! Or when Jesus declared: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NASB. Thus it is clear from this that both our salvation and our ability of living forever is based on our faith in God and in the merits of Christ’s blood alone. This is all based on faith.

But you may say, ‘Don’t all Christians believe that the wages of sin is death, and that the gift of God is eternal life?’

Or you may say, ‘Don’t all Christians believe that those who believe in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life?’ Or you may say, ‘Don’t all Christians believe that only those who overcome, will Jesus grant to eat from the Tree of Life in Heaven?’ To all of those questions we say: No, unfortunately no! How do we know this? Without going into detail and possibly stirring up a spirit of debate, the answer should be obvious: Christianity in our day does not have the power to be good that it once had, as described in the Gospels and the book of Acts, and many other places in the New Testament. And there are many who believe that since we are saved by grace alone (Ephesians 2:5-9 and in other places), that this negates all other passages in the Bible that say that Christians need to overcome by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14; 12:11) and obey God. Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 13:4; 27:10. These passages in Revelation show that Christians have a need to overcome! These messages are the revelation of Jesus Christ! Revelation 1:1. (How could someone believe anything that contradicts what Jesus said? Which also includes Revelation 2:7.)

For the most part in the western world, Christianity in general is but a faint shadow of the way it used to be, as Jesus left it when He went back to Heaven after His death and resurrection. Christianity should be good, as ‘the good book’ says! And there is a great lack of faith in the miracles of God too! Without going into too much detail here, today there is not a big difference between a lot of those who claim to be a Christian, and those who do not claim to be one at all, other than rhetoric. You can’t slip a piece of paper between many of them! We know there are exceptions, but unfortunately they are not the norm nowadays. In general, there is a big lack of faith in God to do what He says He will do - a big lack of faith in both the promises and the curses laid out in the Bible. But Hebrews 11:6 declares that without faith it is impossible to please God! So unfortunately we see now that not all Christians really believe in the promises of God all-the-way, including Romans 6:23, Revelation 2:7, and John 3:16, for if they did, what a change there would be in this world today! What a blessing Christians would then be! What a wonderful world this would be, if they believed in the plain, simple word of God? But this is not God’s intent for this world or the way He wants Christians to be! He has a plan for all who will listen to fix these problems!

Many don’t believe the plain word of God as it reads, and seek out teachers who tell them that they are OK with no change of their heart or character needed, or that they do not need to do everything that He commanded them. Thus the greatest sin of our day is doubt too! It is an ugly word, that when cherished dooms the soul to misery, then eternal death, unless it is repented of. O reader, don’t be shut out of Heaven because of unbelief: Unbelief in the word of God! Satan definitely lied to Eve like he lies to so many today, saying that God didn’t really mean what He said; that He is withholding something from you - that if you eat that forbidden fruit you can become a ‘god’ too. And of course the devil also tempts people to all other sorts of evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds; stirring up as much strife and bloodshed as he possibly can.

So how could Adam and Eve have made it through this temptation?

Faith in God. If they had believed what God had said, and that He loved them, then they would not have fallen! But isn’t this why so many people fall prey to sin today? Doubt or lack of faith in God. How many people, who say they are ‘believers’, really believe all of His Words in the Bible? If they really believed what God said, they would be doing it. Because God gives the power and ability, to all who love Him, of becoming His son or daughter. He gives them the ability of obeying His Word, if they believe! God’s love and power are the ultimate, and are unimaginably powerful! They are beyond compare to anything in this universe. Jesus said, if we would have faith, we would say to this mountain, ‘move to yonder place’, and it would be moved! Matthew 17:20.  – Faith can move a mountain of doubt! To him or her who believes the word of God, they have a wonderful power changing them; they have help that is not available to those who doubt. Those who have learned that God is to be loved and trusted - truly have the power to become the son or daughter of God, because God’s supreme power can do anything good for someone who believes Him, helping them overcome a mountain of doubt! This faith does not take away our choice! Far be it! Our belief in God’s Word shows our choice to want to be His son or daughter! And God will honor our choice, whether to become His son or daughter and have eternal life, or to doubt Him and go our own way and do our own thing, which leads to eternal death.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” 1 John 3:1 KJV.

In conclusion, we learned that Adam and Eve had been given everything they needed, including each other, and they lived in a perfect world, yet they still fell to sin. We learned that because they doubted God that they fell prey to sin, bringing all of the woes of sin and evil into this world. We also learned that doubting God is the same reason why we fall too! If Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world, having everything they needed, yet they fell because of lack of faith, then how shall we escape from falling into sin unless we have faith in God too? Therefore it behooves us in our day to learn how to have faith in God, and learn to love Him, to help break us out of this endless cycle of sinning, misery and death. Because we definitely don’t live in a perfect world in our day, and we are all sinners who have inherited tendencies to sin, that unless saved and changed by God, we are doomed to be stuck in sin, misery and eternal death.

May you learn to trust in God and love Him all-the-way. May you gain victory over sin through Christ. May you believe in Jesus that you may have eternal life! May the grace of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all! Amen.

* In part 2 of this series you will discover how God provided the Holy Spirit for Adam and Eve before their fall, to help keep them from sinning, to help them be pure, Holy, good and His, and that after their fall they lost His full presence. And in part 3 you will learn of God’s plan to redeem mankind from this pit of ruin, misery and death, and restore them back to the way things were in the Garden of Eden, where everything was very good! So you will learn of God’s plan for your life, and how you can be restored as well, to what you were meant to be! You can regain what mankind lost after their fall, if you learn to have true faith in God! Amen. This is what we will study!

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03 The Call of Abraham - The Promise to Abraham (The Everlasting Covenant)

The Promise To Abraham:

In studying this promise, two portions of Scripture must ever be kept in mind. The first is the words of Jesus: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:39, 46-47 NKJV).

The only Scriptures in the days of Christ were the books now known as the Old Testament; these testify of Him. They were given for no other purpose. The Apostle Paul wrote that they are able to make men wise to salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3:15); and among those writings the books of Moses are specially pointed out by the Lord as revealing Him. He who reads the writings of Moses, and the entire Old Testament, with any other expectation than to find Christ, and the way of life through Him, will utterly fail of understanding them. His reading will be in vain.

The other text is 2 Cor. 1:19, 20: “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us — by me, Silvanus, and Timothy — was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” No promise of God has ever been given to man except through Christ. Personal faith in Christ is the one thing necessary in order to receive whatever God has promised. God is no respecter of persons: He offers His riches freely to everybody; but no one can have any part in them except as he accepts Christ. This is perfectly fair, since Christ is given to all if they will but have Him.

With these principles in mind, we read the first account of the promise of God to Abraham. “Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:1-3).

At the very outset we may see that this promise to Abraham was a promise in Christ. The Apostle Paul writes: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Gal. 3:8, 9). From this we learn that when God said that in Abraham all the families of the earth shall be blessed, He was preaching the Gospel to him. The blessing that was to come upon the people of the earth through him was to come only upon those who had faith.

Abraham and the Cross

The preaching of the Gospel is the preaching of the cross of Christ. Thus the Apostle Paul says that he was sent to preach the Gospel, but not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. And then he adds that the preaching of the cross is the power of God to them that are saved. (1 Cor. 1:17, 18). And this is but another way of saying that it is the Gospel, for the Gospel is the power of God to salvation. Therefore since the preaching of the Gospel is the preaching of the cross of Christ (and there is no salvation by any other means), and God preached the Gospel to Abraham when He said, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” it is very clear that in that promise the cross of Christ was made known to Abraham, and that the promise thus made was one that could be gained only through the cross.

This fact is made very clear in the third chapter of Galatians. Following the statement that the promise of blessing is to all the nations of the earth through Abraham, and that they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, the apostle continues, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:13, 14). Here we have it stated in the most explicit terms that the blessing of Abraham, which was to come on all the families of the earth, was to come only through the cross of Christ.

This is a point that needs to be well fixed in the mind at the very beginning. All the misunderstandings of the promises of God to Abraham and his seed have arisen through a failure to see the Gospel of the cross of Christ in them. If it be continually remembered that all the promises of God are in Christ, to be gained only through His cross, and that consequently they are spiritual and eternal in their nature, there will be no difficulty, and the study of the promise to the fathers will be a delight and a blessing.

We read that Abraham, in obedience to the call of the Lord, went forth from his father’s house, and from his native land. “Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants [“Unto thy seed” KJV] I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord” (Gen. 12:5-8).

It is best for us to perceive the real meaning of God’s promises and dealings with Abraham from the very start, and then our subsequent reading will be easy, since it will be but the application of these principles. In this last Scripture there are a few subjects introduced, which occupy a very prominent place in this study, and so we will note them here. First,

The Seed

The Lord said to Abraham, after he had reached the land of Canaan, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” If we but stick to the Scriptures we shall not have a moment’s difficulty in ascertaining who the seed is. “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “and to your Seed,” who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). This ought for ever to settle the matter, so that there could be no dispute about it. The seed of Abraham, to whom the promise was made, is Christ. He is the heir.

But we also may be joint-heirs with Christ. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:27-29).

Those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, and are therefore included in Him. So when it is said that Christ is the seed of Abraham, to whom the promises were made, all who are in Christ are included. But nothing outside of Christ is included in the promise. To say that the inheritance promised to the seed of Abraham could be possessed by any except those who were Christ’s through faith in Him, is to ignore the Gospel, and to deny the word of God. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). Therefore since the promise of the land was to Abraham and his seed, which is Christ and those who have put Him on by baptism, and who are therefore new creations, it follows that the promise of the land was only to those who were new creatures in Christ, — children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. This again is additional evidence that all the promises of God are in Christ, and that the promises to Abraham can be gained only through the cross of Christ.

Let this principle, therefore, never for a moment be forgotten in reading about Abraham and the promise to him and his seed, — that the seed is Christ and those who are in Him. This and nothing besides.

The Land

Abraham was in the land of Canaan when God said to him, “To your descendants [“Unto thy seed”] I will give this land.” Turn now to the words which the martyr Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, and his face shining like that of an angel, said to his persecutors: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, “Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you. ’Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell” (Acts 7:2-4).

This is but a repetition of what we have already read in the twelfth chapter of Genesis. Now read the next verse: “And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants [seed] after him” (v. 5).

We learn here that although it is sometimes merely stated, “To your descendants [“Unto thy seed”] I will give this land,” Abraham himself was included in the promise. This is made very evident in the repetitions of the promise that follow in the book of Genesis.

But we learn more, and that is that Abraham actually received no inheritance of land. He had not so much of the land as to set his foot on; yet God had promised it to him and to his seed after him. What shall we say to this? — That the promise of God failed?—Not by any means. God “cannot lie.” “He remains faithful.” Abraham died without having received the promised inheritance, yet he died in faith. We must therefore learn from this the lesson that the Holy Spirit wished the Jews to learn, namely, that the promised inheritance could be gained only through Jesus and the resurrection. This also is made very clear by the words of the Apostle Peter: —

“You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, “And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities” (Acts 3:25-26).

The blessing of Abraham, as we have learned, comes on the Gentiles, or all the families of the earth, through Jesus Christ and His cross; but the blessing of Abraham is connected with the promise of the land of Canaan. That also was to be possessed only through Christ and the resurrection. If it had been otherwise, Abraham would have been disappointed, instead of dying in full faith of the promise. But this also will appear more plainly as we proceed.

By E.  J. Waggoner — The Present Truth, May 21, 1896


Blog Edited by John Foll.

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If you were blessed by this article, why not read all of it starting from the beginning of it?
Click here to read Part 1 of the Everlasting Covenant.

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From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.

It is my prayer, dear reader, that God will richly bless you, as you learn more and more about His great love for you as presented by E. J. Waggoner in “The Everlasting Covenant”, as we continue to present more articles from it.

May the grace of God, and the priceless, precious fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, as you go down this journey of falling totally in love with God! Riches beyond measure await you, if you will just get to know Him and His great love for you!

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A Letter to a Friend: How to Overcome Doubt and Discouragement

Dear Friend:

I see you have had a lot of trouble since you became a Christian. You have had great trouble and were wondering why God wasn’t helping you. You haven’t had an easy life, and the enemy of humanity has been greatly troubling you and trying to put you down, and to steal your new life away from you. You don’t know why you can’t have an easier time, and not have so many problems.

I would like to tell you about my special friend whom you are starting to get to know. His name is Jesus. He knows what you are going through, the problems you inherited, and knows the battles that you are fighting. But He has won the battle for you at the cross and has been given all power and authority. Matthew 28:18. Just let Him fight your battles for you and rest in His strength. He is pleading on your behalf to the Father.

Sometimes you have felt like you were ready to give up. Are you ready to give up yet? Then let God take care of you. Then allow Him to save you from your doubts and fears. Are you ready to let Him do this? Believe it or not your life will get better when you totally give up, and fall into the loving hands of God. Giving up is not such a bad thing, if you will just rest totally in God’s love. In fact, giving up is the best thing you could ever do! Providing you trust in God totally. There is no room for doubts or fears when you give up and fall into His hands! When you fall into His loving hands, He will then take care of you, no more fear.

Gather up the fragments that remain of the good things and blessings God has given you. John 6:12. Don’t talk through your doubts, fears and mistakes, or the mistakes of others. Don’t dwell on them either. If you mention them aloud your ears hear them, reinforcing them in your brain. Don’t gather up all of your problems, doubts and fears and dwell on them or present them to others. Instead, gather up what Jesus and His Father have done for you, and do not lose any of these blessings. Think about what God has done for you, and the joy you felt when you were baptized and gave your heart to the Lord. Think about how far God has taken you from where you were, and the battles He has helped you to win! Think of all the changes for the better that God has helped you to do. Think about all the blessings you have received, and all the knowledge about God and the truth that you have acquired. Instead of thinking of all of your troubles, trials and fears, think about what God wants to do for you and for all the blessings He is giving you and wants to give you. Gather all of these up and thank Him for it! Gather up all of these and praise Him to others of what He has done for you. The antidote to doubt is to praise God and thank Him for all of His marvelous works.

How do you get rid of doubt or discouragement you may ask? You must get faith. How? Do what Paul declares here: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17 KJV. Where does faith come from? It comes from hearing. Hearing what? The word of God. What does it mean to hear the word of God? It means to read it, listen to it, receive it into your heart, and to do it by His grace. It means you don’t turn away from what God is telling you to do in the Bible. Is it really that simple to get faith? Is it really that simple to get rid of doubt? Yes! It really is that simple! There is power in the word of God. When God spoke and said, ‘Let there be light’, there was light. Genesis 1:3. And for each day of the week when God spoke and said something, His word created what He said. Genesis chapter 1. So how do you get faith? By hearing the words of God that He speaks, believing them and doing them. In God’s word is contained the power to perform what He asks, this is how you get faith.

But how this and how that? Stop asking how and start hearing His voice. Stop asking how, and start reading His word and believing. Stop asking how, and start really listening to His word and desire to keep it. I know that you want to keep His word, but listening to His word is the secret to how you can get rid of doubt and discouragement and to have faith! The power to get rid of all your doubts are contained in His words.

It is impossible for God to lie, therefore we have a strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. Hebrews 6:18. If you want to be happy and get rid of doubt study the many precious promises of God for you to claim, and ask Him to help you meet their requirements so that they become yours. Peter says, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4 KJV. Peter ought to know about these things since he had walked and talked with Jesus, and been changed by His love. He had denied His Savior when Jesus was arrested and taken away to the priest’s house where Jesus was being accused, but Jesus forgave him. Luke 22:54-62. After the cross Jesus told him to feed His lambs, letting him know that he had been forgiven. John 21:15. Peter died as an overcomer. He personally knew of Jesus saving grace, and the many precious promises for the believer. Peter had had such a change from his impetuous and bragging nature before the cross, to the kind and humble evangelist, taking care of Jesus’ sheep. If Jesus can help the apostle Peter, He can help you too.

Keep reading and studying the faith building stories throughout the Bible and make them your own. These stories can be your life story in some ways too, did you know that? When you read these exciting stories of people who were faithful to God and served Him with joy and delight, this story of faithfulness can be yours too. The life of the faithful person in the Bible days doesn’t have to be something you just read about, it can be your story too! If you would want to take part in God’s plan of Salvation, He would be delighted to share a peace of the kingdom with you (Luke 12:32). When you give yourself to God, and hear His word and receive it into your heart, this will produce faith in your heart and help you get rid of doubt, because this is the power of God! Just believe it. It is not really as hard as many people want to make it, it is really quite easy! How can that be true? People say that it is hard. But it is not only hard, it is impossible for anyone to become a new creature, which is to live a righteous life, by themselves. But it is easy when you let God, who is mighty to save, do it for you! It is hard and impossible for you to do it, but easy if you let God do it for you.

Continue to yield yourself to your Heavenly Father, until you yield completely. Obey Him in all things; pray for the ability of obeying Him all the way. When this happens you will be given great joy, which will help you to win this battle against discouragement and doubt. When this happens you will know that He loves you and that your salvation is secure with Him, because you kept confessing your sins and have received His Spirit, who will help keep you from falling. And then your whole life will change for the better, and you will devote yourself to Him, the one you love.


The conclusion my dear friend:

Great and marvelous are the works of God! Make Him your focus, and give Him the praise of your voice and heart, and receive great joy in your heart, then you will not worry about discouragement anymore, because God will be your fortress and your strength, and enable you to become an overcomer. 

“And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.’” Revelation 15:2-4 NASB.

By John Foll, written between 8/11/2017 and 8/13/2017.
© Copyright 2017 John Foll
 

 

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For We are His Workmanship, Created in Christ Jesus For Good Works

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB. Not only are we saved by grace, but we were also created in Christ Jesus for good works. According to Paul it’s not one way or the other it’s both: We are saved by grace AND created in Christ Jesus for good works.

'Wait a minute', you may say, ‘I heard that works are bad from a preacher or a book’. Are they really? Many of those who say good works are bad and think that Paul teaches this, apparently have not read the entire passage of Ephesians 2:8-10. To deny that we do not need to have good works is to deny what Paul is declaring here! Are we saying that you can be saved by your good works? Absolutely not. We have all alike sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), all we like sheep have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6) and are unable to save ourselves. It is the gift of God as Paul says above. But Paul also said that ‘we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works’. The key to what Paul is saying here is that ‘we are His workmanship’. Unless we have allowed God to fully recreate us, we are not yet fully ‘created in Christ Jesus for good works.’ Unless we are renewed by God’s grace and saved through faith, we can never consistently produce good works that are free from the taint of human pride, boasting, and selfishness that are true goodness. Some works may appear to be good to us, we can only see the outside of others, and sometimes we don’t fully comprehend the problems within ourselves as well, but God looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7. Only God can perfectly weigh both the actions, words, thoughts, and motives. “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:10 KJV. Unless someone has a vital connection with Jesus they can do nothing that is good. Jesus said, ‘Without me ye can do nothing’. John 15:5 KJV.

Let’s now focus on the last part of what Paul said in our theme text:  ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 NASB. Walk in what? God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in the path of good works. Much difficulty and error would be avoided by God’s people if they would read the Bible in context, taking the meaning as it reads, and not taking an interpretation that contradicts other Bible passages, especially when they are clear. The Bible explains itself. How has God prepared beforehand ‘that we should walk in’ [good works]? By the death of His Son Jesus for our sins, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us live holy lives and perform good works, with unselfish motives. This is the very heart of Christianity, the basics! To be a Christian is to confess your sins (1 John 1:9), believe in Jesus (John 3:16-17), and become born again. John 3:3, 5. Every Christian should know these things and do them; it is what is taught by the Bible, particularly in the New Testament, by Jesus in the Gospels and by the Apostles from Acts to Revelation. There shouldn’t be any question about this in Christianity. But Christianity in many cases has drifted far from the pure and holy teaching of the Apostles in the book of Acts and the teaching of Jesus, and need to be taught again the fundamentals of the truth. We believe that many in their heart who have read the Bible know the truth of this, but have allowed the voice of error to drown out this simple truth that is taught by the Bible. If people would just listen to the voice of God in the Bible, instead of listening to the clamor of men, then they would know the truth and not be deceived. Paul also said, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV. So the scriptures help you to become perfect and thoroughly furnished with the power and the gifts to perform good works, if you believe what you read and ask God for the power to be His son or daughter! What Paul is teaching here contradicts what is taught and believed by many people today. If you want to be furnished for all good works, believe what the Bible says and study it, and put what it teaches into practice, by God’s power. As you learn to love God more and more, and yield to His love, studying and performing all of His commands in the Bible will become a delight to you, and all of the Bible will then be joyous words of life to your soul, that you will greatly treasure above everything else in this life, because they are the words of God, whom you adore. God’s messages in the Bible will be a well of water inside of you springing up unto eternal life! John 4:14.

The truth is that doing good works can never be wrong, if you have given yourself to God, and have His Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart; this is the way you should live. Having good works in your life (that God helps you to do) is necessary for you to have, it shows God’s power in your life and brings honor and glory to His name; good works can only be done by you if you have Him dwelling in your heart. He helps you to carry out His will for your life and to serve Him and to help others to the kingdom too. You are saved by the merits of Jesus, but you must cooperate with God and allow Him to change you, then it becomes natural for you to do good works; as long as He dwells in you. The attempt to do good works by yourself will never save you, and it is utterly impossible that you can do good works without Him, without any taint of sin or selfishness, etc. But if someone doesn’t have good works in their life, that means they haven’t allowed God to change them and give them this power yet; this is an indicator that something is wrong in that person’s life or they haven’t learned enough of His love yet, or are still growing in grace, only God knows for sure. God gives us time to repent and yield ourselves to Him, that is what this life is for.

Some may think that we are contradicting ‘sound doctrine’ here that some teachers have supposedly ‘proven’ from the Bible. But any teaching that ignores parts (especially large parts of the Bible) is wrong. The fact that Paul’s says above in Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved by grace (or as some say by grace alone) in no way contradicts what we have stated in this article. But the belief that ‘all attempts to try to do good works’, and ‘obeying God is wrong’ are not. The belief that we have no part to play in our salvation is a lie. They say ‘by Christ alone’, and yes it is by Christ alone, but they fail to realize that it is also by ‘Christ alone’ that any can live a good Christian life. Their understanding of ‘by Christ alone’ completely ignores very many clear passages in many places of the Bible. It is by ‘Christ alone’ that we can be forgiven, and it is by ‘Christ alone’ that we can do good works. Some say it is not faith + works, it is by faith alone. This argument seems good on the surface but is not completely correct, it is omitting the truth if it is taken too far and used to put down or alter other clear truths in the Bible. The argument we are making is not ‘your faith in God’ + ‘your works’ equals being saved, not true. Our argument is that your salvation from beginning to end is from God: Your faith is from God, as well as your good works are from God. If it has any element of your human nature in it, it is unfit to be called totally good.

Some people’s idea of faith is really works. They have too much faith in themselves or in their own ability and willpower to do what is right, but it is worthless, human, self-righteousness and “filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6 KJV. Faith can be from God or from yourself. True faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23. If you haven’t been born from above, you cannot have true faith in its fullness, but if you decide to believe what God is telling you and it develops into true faith in God, you are becoming born again. You can bring nothing good into being by yourself, and since faith is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and allows you to get answers to your prayers and the victory, you can have none of these good things apart from God or apart from the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” John 16:7-11 KJV. So the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin and righteousness. We would not even know that we needed to change if it wasn’t for His voice whispering to our heart!

Some people’s idea of faith is really just belief, the belief that demons have that fear and tremble. James says, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” James 2:19-20 KJV. If you tremble because of your guilt, perhaps brought on by an endless cycle of sinning and feeling bad about it, then your faith is the same ‘belief’ that the devils have. If you have love for God and are clear before Him you will not have guilt or be afraid of Him. What you need is ‘saving faith’. See Hebrews 11:7 KJV for an example of saving faith. As a Christian you should not have any guilt, because God has made provision for it, all you have to do to get rid of the guilt is to humble your heart before God and confess yours sins to Him, then you will be cleared of them. And if you let God cleanse you from all unrighteousness, then He will help you break that cycle of endless sinning and feeling bad about it. (You may have to make something right in addition to confessing your sins.) If you have saving faith, you will have the power from God to overcome your sins, and He will help you break out of that endless cycle of sinning and sinful habits and give you a better attitude and take away your tendency to sin. The only part that you play is your choice to have faith, and your choice to love and obey God, but God supplies the power and the ability, by giving you the Holy Spirit. When you learn to love God all the way, and learn to trust Him completely to guide your life and protect you from all harm, this is saving faith! God will never violate your choice, but He may allow circumstances to happen to you, troubles and trials, to help you decide whether you will Have His salvation or not. If you will humble your heart before Him and repent from your sins, salvation will be yours.

The real truth does not contradict any portion of the Bible. The fact that Paul stated that we are saved by grace alone, and not by works, in no way negates any other passage of the Bible. The teachings of Jesus are the very pinnacle of what the Bible teaches, not some people’s misunderstanding of what Paul taught. There cannot be any authority higher than Jesus on this earth. Any idea that people think the Bible teaches which disagrees with anything Jesus clearly taught cannot be right. Later in this article we will share some of the statements of Jesus that clearly contradict the idea that you do not need to have good works to be saved, and that you can live a bad life and be saved without anything done by you on your part. Paul’s writings, when they are perfectly understood, read in their context, reading the whole verse and the whole section, not just one verse or one word, perfectly agrees with the rest of the Bible. You need to read everything Paul has to say on what you think he is teaching to understand what he really means, and compare it carefully with the rest of the Bible. His writings can help all know the important truths of God’s grace perhaps more clearly than some other places in the Bible. Paul’s writings can also help you to understand other parts of the Bible, when they are put together. There is a real harmony between all of the Bible, if people would only see it. Paul himself in Ephesians 2:8-10 contradicts this idea that people cannot be saved if they have good works, he says that we are created for good works, which means we should have good works – this is the path that God has laid out for His people. You need to read the whole passage in its context.

Our faith in God is necessary because it shows our choice to believe that God will save us. Our good works that we do, by living righteously and treating God and others with love can never be done in our own strength and power.

What are good works? What are bad works?
Good works are doing the right thing at the right time; living by all of the words of God in the Bible. I.e. righteousness. Bad works are works of sin, selfishness, or doing or saying any hurtful things to yourself, others or God; these are all violations of God’s Law of Love. Or trying to do ‘good works’ without completely consecrating yourself to God and allowing the Holy Spirit to produce these good works within you. Being good and doing good works are a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and proof that God is dwelling in your heart. Good works equals righteousness.

John gives us an important clue to the righteousness that God wants us to have: “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:7-8 NASB. Those who “practice” righteousness are righteous. Those whose ‘custom’ or ‘habit’ is to do the right thing are righteous. Those who ‘practice’ unrighteousness or sin are unrighteous. Those whose ‘custom’ or ‘habit’ is to do the wrong thing are unrighteous. Paul tells us: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 KJV. We all were unrighteous and sinners before we met God, but if we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and cleansed from all unrighteousness, then we are now sanctified for God’s glory and are being saved by Him.

The deacon Stephen also gives us a definition of bad works: “At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.” Acts 7:41 NASB. Those who set up idols in their heart, or think that they are able to take care of themselves or feed themselves by the work of their hands apart from God, or put anything before God are doing bad works. But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, so He wants to help you to practice good works, if you will let Him. The prophet Jeremiah gives us a message from God that we should not worship other gods or the works of our hands. God told His people: “And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.” Jeremiah 25:6-7 KJV. So if you are setting up idols of your own ability to help yourself, or idols of sin, you are hurting God and are hurting yourself, because this will eventually cut you off from eternal life if you continue doing this. But why hurt yourself when God wants to help you and give you eternal life?

How can you do good works? “Then said they unto Him [Jesus], ‘What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.’” John 6:28-29 KJV. The answer to how you can do good works is by believing in Jesus and His Father. You must believe in Jesus and His Father. See also John 3:16, 17 which teaches that you can only be saved if you believe in Jesus. What Paul said about good works fits perfectly with what Jesus said. It is by God alone that you can be forgiven and saved! It is by God alone that you can truly perform good works! (With pure, unselfish motives.) Being good or doing good is not within your ability to do; it is outside of your ability. Solomon also declared this truth when he said, “Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:3 NASB. So it is only by God that you can have good works! So commit your plans, ways, dreams and life to Him and salvation will be yours!

Your good works cannot save you, but you will be lost without them:
Paul tells us that those who do the works of the flesh shall not inherit the kingdom of God: “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery [or witchcraft in the KJV], enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21 NASB. Paul also tells us that the end of the wicked will be according to their works: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 KJV. The end of the wicked will be according to their works as Paul declared, but the salvation of the saved will be by the works of God; they will have good works. Jesus said, “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” Matthew 16:27 KJV. Everyone will be rewarded according to their works, as Jesus plainly stated. Jesus also said, “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matthew 7:16-19 NASB. What makes someone’s works good or bad depends on which spirit is dwelling in them. If they have the Spirit of God, then their tree will be good and their works will be good, but if they haven’t given themselves totally to God, if at all, then their tree will be bad and their works will be bad. Jesus plainly declares here that all who do not bear good fruit for God will be cut down and thrown into the fire. This is pretty serious. Jesus also declares in Matthew that all the stumbling blocks, i.e. those that have bad works and mislead others will be lost: “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:40-42 NASB.

Therefore the only question that remains is whether you or I will be a stumbling block or a tare? Or will we bear good fruit for the Master? See also Revelation 2:19, 23; 3:1-2 for more texts on the importance of works in our salvation, as given by Jesus.

Still believe that you can be saved and not have any good works?
Jesus said in Matthew 7:16-19 that you can only bear good fruit if your tree is good. A bad tree bears bad fruit and a good tree bears good fruit. Jesus also tells us that ‘only God is good.’ Jesus said, ‘No one is good except God alone.’ Luke 11:18 NASB. Therefore no one can have good works unless God gives it to them. We also know from a statement by Jesus that the Father wants to give us good gifts (Matthew 7:11) – He wants to give us the Holy Spirit, if we will ask! Luke 11:13. And under the power of the Holy Spirit we will gain the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), which enable us to bear good fruit for God! God really does supply all of our needs! “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 KJV. He will not only forgive you, but enable you to live a righteous life for Him, and have all the good works that you need, if you will continue to go to Him to get a fresh supply of His grace every day!

So do not believe preachers or others who try to tell you that you don’t need to have good works to be saved or that it is wrong to do good works. This is a lie! The very fact that it is necessary to write on this subject is ridiculous, considering that it should be common sense what we are writing about. But some have been so deceived nowadays that they seem to have lost all common sense about right and wrong. But if you ask some in the world, especially those that left the church, many will tell you why they left, ‘because of the hypocrites.’ So the devil deceives people into thinking that the way they live doesn’t matter, and then when they get totally discouraged, get tired and disgusted with it all, they leave the church, and start to say that the church is filled with hypocrites. But wisdom is vindicated by her children. Luke 7:35 NASB. They should have thought about themselves as being hypocrites before they left the church, then there would have been hope for them, because then they could have turned and repented, instead of being blind to their sins. And then they would have stopped being a stumbling block to others. There is no harm in admitting to God and to yourself that you are a hypocrite and have not always done what is right! Probably everyone has been a hypocrite at one time in their life. When you find out that you are a hypocrite, just turn to God and beg for mercy, and He will heal you. God will always listen to you if you admit that you are a sinner, confess, and plead with Him for His mercy!

Jesus dispels all these myths that you don’t need to be good or to do good works when He said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 KJV. If Jesus is your Master, you will be the salt of the earth and let your light shine for the world to see, to glorify His Father! Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.” Matthew 5:13-15 KJV. Likewise, if Jesus is your Master, you can’t help but love Him and let your light shine for all the world to see; you will be unable to hide the light that He has given you, and will joyously declare His and His Father’s love to a dying world!

How many good things must you do to be saved? This is the wrong question to ask. You are saved by grace as Paul declares in our theme text, not by any of your good works or anything you have done. If you truly love Jesus your heart will be overflowing with His love and joy, and will long to do everything that you can to help people make their way to the kingdom, or to help them with their needs, and will not ask how much you need to do to be saved, for we are saved by grace, not by works. But the desire to do good things for God and others is a change that only God can bring about when you cooperate with Him, and it will be only natural, once His love takes possession of your heart, to lay everything on the alter and serve Him with all of your heart, and mind and soul! It will be no burden to you to do this! It will bring you much joy! Amen!

Let’s close with a blessing that God pronounces on all who rest from their labours, whose good works follow them to Heaven:

“And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” Revelation 14:13 KJV.

My prayer for you dear reader is that you will consecrate and devote yourself completely to God; that your works will follow you on your way to Heaven, that your life will be a pleasing aroma to God. ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works’ Ephesians 2: 10 NASB. Amen.

May the grace of God be with you all!

By John Foll, finished 7/9/2017 to 7/16/2017.
© Copyright 2017 John Foll

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