God Is Good.

 I want to be good.

I want to do what is right.

I wish I were someone who never thought a bad thought, or ever told a lie, or ever felt ungrateful, or ever felt oppressed, or ever spoke a snide reply, or thought a bitter thought.

I wish I never coveted what another possessed.

I want to be good.

The truth is, I find no good thing in me, not a single good thing. 

If by happenstance any good comes out of me, that good comes from something other than me producing the goodness. 

I am wretched, miserable, poor, blind and spiritually naked on my own, of my own self I am nothing. 

There is NOT a single work I can do to merit goodness in me.  There IS a work GOD can do in me and that alone is goodness, GOD. 

By GOD'S mercy and grace He works in me because JESUS the man-God sacrificed Himself for this to be possible.

God can work in me, not because of anything I do, but because of what Jesus did. All I must do is BELIEVE.

(Excerpt)

"Being justified by faith, we have peace with god through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5:1.

Since faith is the depending upon the word of God only, for what that word says, being justified by faith is simply being accounted righteous by depending upon the word only.

And since the word is the word of God, dependence upon the word only is dependence upon God only, in the word. Justification by faith, then, is justification--being accounted righteous by dependence upon God only, and upon him only because he has promised.

We are all altogether sinners--sinful and ungodly. We are, therefore, all subject to the judgment of God. Rom.  3:9-19. Yet for all of us there is escape from the judgment of God. But the only way of escape from the judgment of God is to trust in God.

When David had sinned in numbering the people and so had incurred the exemplary judgement of God, the Lord gave him his choice as to whether there should be seven years' famine or he should flee three months before his enemies or there should be three days' pestilence. But David would not choose at all. He deferred it all to the Lord, for Him to choose, saying, "Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great." 2 Sam.  24:11-14.

When depending upon God alone, in His word, for righteousness, we have peace with God, because thus we really obtain righteousness and "the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever." Isa. 32:17.

When depending upon God alone in His word, for righteousness we have peace through our Lord Jesus Christ,  because "He is our peace, who hath made both" God and man "one," "having abolished in his flesh the enmity" "for to make in himself of twain--of God and man--"one new man, so making peace." Eph. 2:14,15.

Further: when depending upon God alone, in His word, for righteousness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, because God has "made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself . . . whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproachable in his sight: IF ye continue in the faith"--if you continue to depend only upon God alone is His word. Col. 1:20-23.

When He has made the way so plain, the justification so complete, and the peace so sure to all, and asks all people only to receive it all by simply accepting it from him and depending upon him for it, why should not every soul on earth be thus justified and have the peace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ?

This is "what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of exercising faith." Are you exercising faith? Are you justified by faith? Have you righteousness by faith? Have you peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ?

"Have faith in God." Mark 11:22.

February 14, 1899 A.T. Jones Excerpt

God Alone.

 God Alone.

"To HIM that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom. 4:5.

This is the only way that anybody in this world can ever become righteous. First admit that he is ungodly, then believe that God justifies, counts righteous, the ungodly, and he is righteous with the very righteousness of God.

Everybody in the world is ungodly. "Ungodly" means "unlike God." And it is written, "All have sinned and come short of the glory [the goodness, the character] of God."

Anybody, therefore, who will admit that he ever came short of being like God in anything, in that confesses that he is ungodly.

But the truth is that everybody, in everything, has come short of being like God. For "they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Rom. 3:9-18.

Then, as there is not one on earth who is not ungodly, and as God justifies the ungodly, this on God's part makes justification-- righteousness, salvation--full, free, and sure to every soul on earth.

And all that anybody needs to do to make it all sure to himself on his own part, is to accept it--to believe that God does justify, personally and individually, him who is ungodly.

Thus, strange as it may sound to many, the only qualification, and the only preparation, for justification is for a person to acknowledge that he is ungodly.

Then, having such qualification, having made such preparation, all that is required of him to obtain justification,  full, free, and sure, is to believe that God justifies him, the ungodly one.

It is quite easy for many to believe that they are ungodly and even to acknowledge it, but for them to believe that God justifies them--that is too much.

And the sole reason why they cannot believe that God justifies them, is that they are ungodly, so ungodly.

If only they could find some good in themselves or if only they could straighten up and do better, they might have some courage to hope that God would justify them. Yes, they would justify themselves by works and then profess to believe in justification by faith!

But that would be only to take away all ground for justification, for if a man can find good in himself, he has it already, and does not need it from anywhere else. If he can straighten up and do better of himself, he does not need any justification from anywhere else.

It is, therefore, a contradiction in terms to say that I am so ungodly that I do not see how the Lord can justify me. For if I am not ungodly, I do not need to be made righteous; I am righteous. There is no half-way ground between godliness and ungodliness.

But when a person sees himself so ungodly as to find there no possible ground of hope for justification, it is just there that faith comes in; indeed, it is only there that faith can possibly come in.

For faith is dependence on the word of God only. So long as there is any dependence on himself, so long as there is any conceivable ground of hope for any dependence upon anything in or about himself, there can be no faith, so long there is no place for faith, since faith is dependence on "the word only."

But when every conceivable ground of hope of any dependence on anything in or about himself is gone and is acknowledged to be gone; when everything that can be seen is against any hope of justification, then it is that,  throwing himself on the promise of God, upon the word only, hoping against hope, faith enters and by faith he finds justification full and free, all ungodly though he be.

For forever it stands written, "To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ." "Whom God hath set forth . . . to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past."

This is what it is to exercise faith. Are you exercising faith? For "understanding how to exercise faith: this is the science of the gospel."

February 7, 1899 A.T. Jones Excerpt

Through Faith We Understand That God Made the World.

 Did you know the kingdoms since Ancient Babylon-- Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the divided kingdoms since were all predicted to occur in the Old Testament writings before they occurred? Granted most people are probably not familiar with ancient Babylon, or Medo-Persia, but Greece- well, Greece still exists in name so obviously most are familiar with Greece. Ancient Greece was conquered by Rome and was not its own individually run country any longer. After Rome the lands were divided so that no longer would any one ruling kingdom control so much of the Middle East.

The Bible is a book of prophecy that most don't concern themselves with today.  Every Christian should be concerned though. Jesus was predicted right there in the first few chapters of Genesis. Jesus when He ministered upon earth was all about prophecy- His entire message was one of the prophesied last trumpet sounding - the end of all evil and the eternal reign of His Kingdom.  Jesus preached salvation towards that end, so people would be able to choose eternal life through His mercy and grace. Eternal life is a prophecy. One day He will return and sound the Last Trumpet and those who died with Him as their Savior will rise, and those who are left living who are His will rise too. Prophecy. 

How wondrous it is to know that God's word to us has allowed us to know so much of our future.  

Some will hold fast to the things we cannot know, the mysteries that are God's, and claim He doesn't exist simply because they haven't been made aware of all His ways. People will make up all sorts of things as they fumble about denying God. They ultimately land on there was nothing and from nothing came something- all very scientifically- somehow. Nothing. That word nothing by its very meaning does not allow for anything at all whatsoever. As soon as someone tries to say something came from nothing they've lost all credibility having instantly contradicted themselves. Something came from Someone, the nothing was dispelled by Someone, not nothing creating something from nothing. 

We have an amazing God who has so many wonders for us, so many, if we'd but seek to know Him

Heb_11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Ecc 3:11  He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. 

Ecc 8:17  Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it. 

Job 11:7  Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? 

Mat 11:27  All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 

Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 

Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 

Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. 

Trust God.

 Trusting, No Matter What.

(Excerpt - A.T. Jones)

"January 31, 1899

When Abraham and Sarah had cleared themselves of all the scheme of unbelief which had produced Ishmael and had stood upon faith alone--dependence on the word of God alone--Isaac, the true child of the promise, was born.

In harkening to the voice of Sarai (Gen. 16:1), Abram had swerved from the line of strict integrity to the word of God, from the strictness of true faith, and now that he had returned to the word only, to true faith, he must be tested before it could be certainly said of him that his faith was counted for righteousness.

He had trusted the naked word of God as against Ishmael and had obtained Isaac, the true child of the promise of God. And now, having obtained Isaac, the question must be determined whether he would trust the naked word of God as against even Isaac himself.

Accordingly, God said to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

Abraham had received Isaac from God by trusting the word of God only. Isaac alone was the seed promised by the word of the Lord. After Isaac was born, God had confirmed the word by declaring, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Gen. 21:12. And now came the word of God, Take thy son, thine only son Isaac, and offer him for a burnt offering.

God had declared to Abraham, Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven for multitude. "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," and now, Offer Isaac for a burnt offering!

But, if Isaac is offered for a burnt offering, if Isaac is burned up, what will become of the promise of the blessing of all nations in him? What will become of the promise, Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven innumerable?  Yet there stood the word, Offer Isaac for a burnt offering. Abraham had trusted the word of God only, as against Ishmael, but this is more than trusting the word of God as against Isaac--it is trusting the word of God as against the word of God!

And Abraham did it, hoping against hope. God had said: Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven; In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Offer Isaac for a burnt offering. Abraham did not insist that God should "harmonize these passages." It was all sufficient for him to know that the statements were all the word of God. Knowing this, he would trust that word, would follow that word, and would let the Lord "harmonize these passages," or "explain these texts," if any such thing were needed.

Said Abraham: God has said, Offer Isaac for a burnt offering. That I will do. God has said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." And, Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven for multitude. I interfered once in the promise and hindered it till I repudiated all that I had done and came back to the word only. Then, by a miracle, God gave me Isaac, the promised seed. Now He says, Offer Isaac, the promised seed, for a burnt offering. I will do it. By a miracle God gave him at the first, and by a miracle God can restore him. Yet when I shall have offered him for a burnt offering, he will be dead, and the only miracle that can then restore him is a miracle that will bring him back from the dead. But God is able to do even that, and He will do it, for His word is spoken, Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven for multitude, and In Isaac shall thy seed be called. And even the bringing back of Isaac from the dead will be to God no more than He has already done, for, as to offspring, both my body and Sarah's were as good as dead, and yet God brought forth Isaac from us. He can raise Isaac from the dead, and He will. Bless the Lord!

It was settled. He arose and took his servants and Isaac and went three days' journey "unto the place of which God had told him." And when on the third day he "saw the place afar off," "Abraham said unto his young men,  Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you." Gen. 22:5.  Who will go? "I and the lad will go." And who will come again? "I and the lad will go . . . and come again to you."  Abraham expected to have Isaac come back with him as certainly as that he went with him.

Abraham expected to offer Isaac for a burnt offering and expected then to see Isaac rise from the ashes and go back with him. For the word of God had gone forth, In Isaac shall thy seed be called, and, Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven for multitude. And Abraham would trust that word only, that it could never fail. Heb.  11:17-19.

Heb 11:17  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 

Heb 11:18  Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 

Heb 11:19  Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. 

THIS IS FAITH. And thus "the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness." James 2:23. 

But yet above this, "It was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed; if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification." Rom. 4:23-25.

To trust the word of God only, to depend upon the word of God only, to depend upon the word of God, even as against the word of God--this is FAITH. This is the faith which brings the righteousness of God.

This is what it is to exercise faith. This is "what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of exercising faith. And "understanding how to exercise faith," this is the science of the gospel. And the science of the gospel is the science of sciences.

Faith Must Prevail.

 Cultivating Faith.

Choosing to believe the Word of God when we have no understanding of our own. We love to lean to our own understanding as if we can understand the ways of God. As long as we understand something we seem to accept our understanding for what it is. Time and again we've had something we've understood turn out to be something completely different- revealing our understanding was flawed for one reason or another. I can tell you I understand, and after a bit of thought find myself not truly understanding. I thought I understood, but my understanding wasn't complete. We are told to …

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 

Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 

LEAN NOT to our OWN UNDERSTANDING. We think we have some kind of right to understand simply because we exist. We hold ourselves to be so important, all important just because we live. We pride ourselves on our lives, living to our own understanding, but our understanding is extremely flawed and terribly imperfect. We know this to be true- every time we are proven wrong about something, or are forced to recognize we are wrong in some way we have to KNOW that we are flawed creatures! As flawed creatures we cannot trust our own understanding it would be futile to do so. If we were never wrong about anything at all, then maybe just maybe we'd think differently but we are not only wrong occasionally, but often. Why do we insist upon understanding so much that is beyond our ability to do so? We toss and turn and keep ourselves in a state of anxiousness as we struggle to understand the whys and wherefores of our lives. We are told by our Creator, NOT to lean to our own understanding. We are to trust the LORD with all that we are, He alone has the perfect understanding. 

I can recall there being moments in my life during various crisis when I just say over and over, I don't understand, I just don't understand… I can't understand. And I do that, I announce my inability to understand as if I should be able to understand. I want to understand, I seek understanding, but that is when FAITH has to step in and I have to TRUST that the LORD has everything in HIS control. I may not understand the horrors or why they are allowed to such innocents, but I have been given the knowledge through CHRIST JESUS that I can understand that ALL the horrors are temporary. This knowledge alone allows hope for the end of ALL horrors for all one day, and a lifetime of endlessness without any suffering. I must believe this! If I try to lean to my own understanding, I'm lost entirely. Faith must step in, faith must prevail. All by the grace and mercy, the love of our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST, now and forever!

Amen!

*******

January 24, 1899  AT Jones Excerpt-

"The knowledge of what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith is more important than any other knowledge that can be obtained."

Faith is the expecting the word of God to do the thing which that word speaks and the depending upon the word only to accomplish the thing which that word speaks.

Abraham is the father of all them which be of faith. The record of Abraham, then, gives instruction in faith--what it is and what it does for him who has it.

What shall we say, then, that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the faith, has found? What saith the Scripture?

When Abram was more than eighty years old and Sarai his wife was old and he had no child, God "brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be."

And Abram "believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." Gen. 15:5,6. 

Abram accepted the word of God and expected by the word what the word said. And in that he was right.

Sarai, however, did not put her expectation upon the word of God only. She resorted to a device of her own to bring forth seed. She said to him, "The Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her." Gen. 16:2.

Abram, for the moment, swerved from the perfect integrity of faith. Instead of holding fast his expectation and dependence upon the word of God only, he "harkened to the voice of Sarai."

Accordingly, a child was born, but the whole matter proved to be so unsatisfactory to Sarai that she repudiated her own arrangement. And God showed His repudiation of it by totally ignoring the fact that any child had been born. He changed Abram's name to Abraham and continued to talk about making him the father of nations through the seed promised and of making his covenant with Abraham and the seed that was promised. He also changed Sarai's name to Sarah, because she should "be a mother of nations" through the promised seed.

Abraham noticed this total ignoring of the child that had been born and called the Lord's attention to it, saying,  "O, that Ishmael might live before thee!"

But "God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year." Gen. 17:15-21.

By all this both Abram and Sarai were taught that, in carrying out the promise, the fulfilling of the word of God,  nothing would answer but dependence upon that word only. Sarai learned that her device brought only trouble and perplexity and delayed the fulfillment of the promise. Abram learned that in harkening to the voice of Sarai,  he had missed the word of God, and that now he must abandon that whole scheme and turn again to the word of God only.

But now Abraham was ninety-nine years old and Sarah was eighty- nine. And, if anything, this seemed to put farther off than ever the fulfillment of the word and called for a deeper dependence upon the word of God--a greater faith than before.

It was perfectly plain that now there was no possibility of dependence upon anything whatever, but the naked word only; they were shut up absolutely to this for the accomplishment of what the word said. All works,  devices, plans, and efforts of their own were excluded, and they were shut up to faith alone--shut up to the word alone and to absolute dependence upon that word only for the accomplishment of what that word said.

And now that the way was clear for "the word only" to work, that word did work, effectually, and the promised "seed" was born. And so "through faith," through helpless, total dependence upon the word only--"Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised."

And "therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude,  and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable." Heb. 11:12.

And thus was fulfilled the word spoken to Abram, when God "brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. . . . So shall thy seed be."

This is a divine lesson in faith. And this is what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith. For this was imputed to Abraham for righteousness, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith.

Yet "it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed,  if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification." Rom. 4:23-25.

And all "they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." All they who, excluding--yea, repudiating--all works, plans, devices, and efforts, of their own, depend in utter helplessness upon the word of God only to accomplish what that word says--these are they which be of faith and are blessed with faithful Abraham with the righteousness of God.

O, "understanding how to exercise faith: this is the science of the gospel"! And the science of the gospel is the science of sciences. Who would not strain every nerve to understand it?

Joy In Believing.

 

Believing.

Does believing in a thing always make it reality?  No, absolutely not. You could believe a lie, and because you believe that lie when you realize it was a lie you believed in you comprehend that you were wrong to believe. What you believed in wasn't a reality. People like to have facts to back up their beliefs. People don't want to be caught believing lies. People feel like fools when they've allowed themselves to be duped. To tell someone to believe when you have very little tangible proof, is asking a lot. However… if what someone is telling you to believe is not something that could ever hurt you in any way- to believe-  how are you duped?  But if you don't believe you will be hurt in the worst way ever- do you risk choosing not to believe?

I'm not talking about our temporary life.  Yes, you'll get a lot of people who believe this life is all there is to life and it all ends when they die. My heart goes out to those people because they choose to only believe in a life filled with all kinds of heartache and pain, when it costs them NOTHING to believe in something more.  Some might say it could cost them their life now to believe in that something more, and they're right- people die to believe all the time. Those people who do die, count that cost worth it in order to believe. They believe in hope, in eternal hope, everlasting life, love unending and to believe in such amazing things takes nothing from them, because even if they're called to give their lives for those beliefs, those beliefs give them joy now. 

You've heard of the saying- there is no down side- well, there is no down side to believing in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, none. Joy now in believing, and joy when that belief is realized.

Faith in the joy of salvation in Jesus Christ is in no way foolish.  The only foolish ones are those who do not allow themselves the hope, the joy through believing.  

A.T. Jones- Excerpt-January 17, 1899

Faith is the depending upon the word of God only, and expecting that word only to do what the word says.

Justification by faith, then, is justification by depending upon the word of God only and expecting that word only to accomplish it.

Justification by faith is righteousness by faith, for justification is the being declared righteous.

Faith comes by the word of God. Justification by faith, then, is justification that comes by the word of God.  Righteousness by faith is righteousness that comes by the word of God.

The word of God is self-fulfilling, for in creating all things, "he spake and it was." And when He was on earth, He stilled the raging sea, cleansed the lepers, healed the sick, raised the dead, and forgave sins, all by His word:  there, too, "he spake, and it was."

Now the same One who, in creating, "spake, and it was", the same One who said, "Let there be light, and there was light," the same One who on earth spoke "the word only," and the sick were healed, the lepers were cleansed, and the dead lived--this same One speaks the righteousness of God unto and upon all that believe.

For though all have sinned and come short of the righteousness of God, yet we are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth . . . to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God."

In creating all things in the beginning, God set forth Christ to declare the word which should cause all things to exist. Christ did speak the word only, and all things were. And in redemption, which is creation over again, God set forth Christ to declare the word of righteousness. And when Christ speaks the word only, it is so. His word,  whether in creating or in redeeming, is the same.

"The worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Once there were no worlds, nor was there any of the material which now composes the worlds. God set forth Christ to declare the word which should produce the worlds, and the very material of which they should be composed.

"He spake, and it was." Before He spoke, there were no worlds; after He spoke, the worlds were there. Thus the word of God spoken by Jesus Christ is able to cause that to exist which has no existence before the word is spoken, and which, except for that word, never could have existence.

 

In this same way precisely it is in man's life. In man's life there is no righteousness. In man there is no righteousness from which righteousness can appear in his life. But God has set forth Christ to declare righteousness unto and upon man. Christ has spoken the word only, and in the darkened void of man's life there is righteousness to everyone who will receive it. Where, before the word is received, there was neither righteousness nor anything which could possibly produce righteousness, after the word is received, there is perfect righteousness and the very Fountain from which it springs. The word of God received by faith--that is,  the word of God expected to do what that word says and depended upon to do what it says--produces righteousness in the man and in the life where there never was any before; precisely as, in the original creation,  the word of God produced worlds where there never were any worlds before. He has spoken, and it is so to everyone that believeth: that is, to every one that receiveth. The word itself produces it.

"Therefore being justified (made righteous) by faith (by expecting and depending upon the word of God only)  we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5:1. That is so, bless the Lord! And feeding upon this blessed thing is cultivating faith.

We Choose. We Are All Given A Measure of Faith.

 God PUT an enmity between man and Satan.  There was no enmity until God put it there. Think about that for a moment. When Eve and Adam took and ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they aligned themselves with the seducer, Satan himself. To align themselves with Satan meant not aligning themselves with God. They had been in alignment with God from the moment of their creation, they had every advantage of that alignment but the seducer used his formidable wiles to test their alignment with God. Being overcome by the seducer, mankind abdicated their alignment with God and could not get it back of their own accord. That they were ashamed of what they'd done is on record. They knew instantly they'd made a grave error in judgment. Their regret had to be overwhelming. They immediately lost the light of God's pureness, their heavenly covering, a part of their alignment with God. As the veil of purity was wrenched off them, they were horrified by what was revealed beneath the Holy covering. They'd been changed from the sinless, to the sinful instantly, and sin is ugly, sin is an abhorrence. They knew they were different right away and not in a good way.  They knew they'd left the alliance with God and traded it for an alliance with something evil, something shameful. Mankind was NOT created to die. In order to die mankind was instantaneously altered from sinless creations to something awful, sin-filled. Make no mistake the way our bodies are now, are not the way God intended them to be. We made the choice and that choice changed us in ways that have allowed us to decay, to get sick, to be injured, to have deformity and so on. Our mere bodily system of normal functioning can make us ill, we have refuse in us that needs to be eliminated constantly- this was NOT how we were created to be. Sin changed us. The loss of immortality through God's pure light and love, took all that was of God and immortal from us. We became creatures of sin.  

But God didn’t want to lose us eternally. God knew that within us where part of Him dwelt in spirit, a part of Him allowed to remain by His mercy and grace, we could be restored to Him one day. God PUT an enmity between US and SATAN. We would be allowed to choose. Such love! Such awesome LOVE. We each get to choose, every individual capable of deciding can choose. Those incapable of choosing are God's through His mercy, His love and only He knows truly who are those incapable. 

*******

 Excerpt A.T. Jones- January 10, 1899 -

"The knowledge of what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith is more essential than any other knowledge that can be acquired."

Notice that it is the knowledge of what the Scripture means as to the "necessity of cultivating faith"--not particularly having faith but cultivating it.

There is not much said in the Scriptures about any necessity of our having faith, while very, very much is said about our cultivating faith.

The reason of this is that to all people there is given faith to begin with, and all they need to do is to cultivate faith. 

Nobody can have more faith than is already given him without cultivating the faith that is already given.

And there is nothing known to man that will grow so fast as faith, when it is cultivated--"faith groweth exceedingly."

2Th_1:3  We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth

Faith is the expecting that the word of God itself will accomplish what that word says, and the depending upon "the word only" to accomplish what the word says. 

To cultivate dependence on the word of God, "the word only," itself to do what the word says is to cultivate faith.

Faith is "the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8), and that it is given to everybody is plainly stated in the Scriptures.

 "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Rom. 12:3.

This measure of faith which "God hath dealt to every man" is the capital with which God endows and starts "every man that cometh into the world," and every man is expected to trade upon this capital--cultivate it--to the salvation of his soul.

There is no danger of ever lessening this capital when it is used; as certainly as it is used at all, it will increase. It will grow exceedingly. And as certainly as it grows, the righteousness, the peace, the joy, of the Lord, are assured to the full salvation of the soul.

Again, faith comes by the word of God. Therefore, it is written, "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach." Rom. 10:8. Thus faith, the very word of faith, is in the mouth and in the heart of every man.

How is this? Thus: When the first pair sinned in the garden, they wholly believed Satan. They gave themselves wholly to Satan. They were taken completely captive by him. Then there was perfect agreement and peace between them and Satan. But God did not leave it so. He broke up this agreement; He spoiled this peace. And He did it by His word, saying to Satan, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed." Gen. 3:15.

"It is God alone that can continually put enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent's seed. After the transgression of man, his nature became evil. Then was peace between Satan and fallen man. Had there been no interference on the part of God, men would have formed an alliance against heaven, and in the place of warfare among themselves, carried on nothing but warfare against God. There is no native enmity between fallen angels and fallen men. Both are evil and that through apostasy, and evil, wherever it exists, will always league against good. Fallen angels and fallen men join in companionship. The wise general of fallen angels calculated that if he could induce men, as he had angels, to join in rebellion, they would stand as his agents of communication with men to league in rebellion against heaven. Just as soon as one separates from God, he has no power of enmity against Satan. The enmity on earth between man and Satan is supernaturally put there. 

Unless the converting power of God is brought daily to bear upon the human heart, there will be no inclination to be religiously inclined, but men will choose to be the captives of Satan rather than to be free men in Jesus Christ. 

I say God will put enmity. Man cannot put it. When the will is brought into subject to the will of God, it must be through man's inclining his heart and will to be on the Lord's side." Unpublished Testimony.

This enmity against Satan, this hatred of evil, which God puts in every person by His word, causes each soul to long for deliverance, and the deliverance is found alone in Jesus Christ. Rom. 7:14-25.

Thus this word of God, which plants in each soul enmity against Satan, this hatred of evil that calls for deliverance which is found alone in Jesus Christ, this is the gift of faith to men. This is "the measure of faith" which God has dealt to every man. This is the "word of faith," which is in the mouth and in the heart of every person in the world.

This "is the word of faith, which we preach: That 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." Rom. 10:8-10.

Therefore say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven, to bring faith to us? Neither say, Who shall descend into the deep, or, Who shall go far off to find faith and bring it to us? For "the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach." Deut. 30:11-14; Rom. 10:6-8.

Say that--and exercise the faith which God has given to you, as to every other person in the world, for "understanding how to exercise faith, this is the science of the gospel."