Man is nothing.

Galatians 6:3 “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”

People are by human nature prideful, and conceited. Some people are in other people’s minds as heroes, good natured, good moral values. Even in the world of Christians some people look at themselves as great, smart, valuable, good, and in some, even pride exist and in other, they are conceited. Some Christians think they can do God’s work and they fail to credit God where His credit is due. Some Christians fail to even credit God with salvation as though He had noting to do with it. God said, “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” Romans 1:25 Some even say they are working their way to heaven, as though they have that power in themselves to do that, eliminating Jesus Christ as Saviour altogether. Pride and conceit are two of Satan’s most powerful tools. But God said people are nothing, that we deceive ourselves. God tells us in Galatians 2:6 “But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:” The Lord warned us as Christians not to think more of ourselves than we ought too. Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” In God’s eyes no man is great, we are as nothing, we are only what God has made us. Never on their own will a person ever do anything to please God, we are only what we are in Jesus Christ. Our greatest example in the bible is the Apostle Paul, he wrote 13 and maybe more books of the bible. He served the Lord faithfully for some 40 years in his ministry. He blessed God with ever know move he made after salvation. However, just before his death Paul wrote these words, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul was given much grace from God and that is how he accomplished everything he did for God. Paul said all the grace that God “…bestowed upon me was not in vain;” meaning he took advantage of everything God used him for. Even while in prison Paul wrote letters to churches from His cell, and when it was all finished Paul said, “by the grace of God I am what I am”. Paul also wrote these words, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;” 2 Corinthians 3:5 Man on his own is nothing, we can be proud, we can be arrogant, we can convince ourselves that we are something and that “we did that” but we are only fooling ourselves. If God’s grace did not carry us just as it did the Apostle Paul and all other great Christians in history, not one single soul would have accomplished anything. Praise God for His wonderful grace.  

The Fall of Adam and Eve Was the beginning of a war.

Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

The word “enmity” means “war” therefore God said, “And I will put hatred between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed” The fall was not something that just happened, it was God’s created creatures obeying Satan’s sly temptation against God. I believe this hatred is between God and Satan, not mankind and Satan. Her seed, I believe is referring to Jesus Christ and not mankind in general. Mankind does not have a battle with Satan, God does and because God does Christians and churches do. This battle is good versus evil, and mankind has been conquered by Satan at the fall. The fall in its entirety was a war against God, a war against holiness, and a war against right and wrong. The world is pitted against each other, the saved verse the evil, because every lost soul is evil in their heart. If you will remember back to the flood God explains why He flooded the earth, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” Genesis 6:5 – 6 God punished mankind for their evil and defeated the sin that was ruling the earth. God hates sin and God hates the people that sin against Him because sin is a human war against God that started with Satan, Adam, and Eve. Satan is at war with God and Satan uses God’s people to battle God. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” 1 Peter 5:8 Satan is not the lost persons adversary, he is the believer’s adversary, he is the churches adversary. Satan is an enemy against Christians because he hates us, he wants us to sin so that he can accuse God’s children before God. This is the same reason Satan challenged Job, in an attempt to defeat God, but he failed. Satan will do anything in an attempt to get even the slightest thought of a victory against God. However, God cannot be defeated, Satan did not defeat God in the fall, he did not defeat God in the account with Job, nor with the temptation of Jesus, and not even at Calvary was God defeated. Evil never understands God, He will always be victorious. Someday after the coming of Jesus Christ again through the workings of the Anti-Christ, the false prophet, the great Dragon himself all will fail to defeat God. God will cast them into hell’s eternal flames in the hottest parts and Victory will be God’s. God cannot be defeated; He will forever be victorious because a created creature will never defeat the Creator. And in the end, God will only defeat Satan He will also defeat sin and those that are at war with Him on this earth. “And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Revelation 20:8 – 10 So Satan battles with us, the believer, and God tells us to “Be sober, be vigilant…” because Satan is after us because we are the soldiers of the Lords army, therefore we are supposed to be fighting the “good fight” and if we are not clear minded and watchful, we will lose the battle and become a tool of Satan in the fight against our own Lord. The battle is ours also, let us be good servants of God and fight the “good fight”. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:11 - 13 Fight The Good Fight, Never Surrender To Evil!

Righteousness is the blessing of God.

“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, (7) Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. (8) Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Romans 4:6 - 8

The word “righteousness” means – justification – Vines defines the word this way, "the character or quality of being right or just" then God says, “the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness”. So now let us understand the word “imputeth”, -"to reckon, take into account," or, metaphorically, "to put down to a person's account," according to Vines. Now to get the full explanation and a full understanding we must understand what words mean. We can see verse 6 is a quote from David in his writings from the Psalms, “…Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” Psalms 32:1 – 2. So, we see here that a person is blessed of God, if God “imputeth righteousness” meaning He has put righteousness down on our account. Exactly how did God do that, He done it by the blood of Jesus Christ. God goes on to say in verse 6 “without works,” or without merit on the part of the person that God imputed the righteousness. Since our righteousness was imputed by God and it was without works on our part then we are blessed because it was a gift and a blessing from God. David also said “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” how many sins, all our sins are covered by God washing our sins in the blood of Jesus Christ. “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” Revelation 1:5 The blessing to us who are saved is that God redeemed us through the blood of His own Son, Jesus the Christ. Then God makes sure we understand this is His blessing on us and not because of any deed on our own. It is so sad when people attempt to make the blessings of God, gifts of God to us as merit based. Words like mercy, grace, gifts, and blessing are from God and cannot be bought with merit or even money. We must also recognize that the Old Testament Jews were under the same blessings we are. God said David was, He said Abraham was, so were all Old Testament saints. All throughout the scriptures, Old and New Testaments alike people were blessed by God with righteousness by faith and not merit. Therefore, it was by this blessed gift of righteousness that David said, “Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” Psalms 32:11 This scripture should be in the heart of everyone who God has blessed when He “imputeth righteousness without works”. This wonderful gift of our blessing was by God the Father sacrificing His own Son. Not by our merit, not with works which we have done, but by the choosing of the Father to bless us with His grace to forgive our filthy transgressions, in which He was pleased to give. “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:10 – 12 No, God did not just impute His righteousness to us, oh no, it was God putting our sins on the Son as He was brutally beaten beyond recognition, humiliated, spit on, called names like “the devil”, stripped naked, a crown of thorns was put on His head, and He was crucified on that cursed cross between two thieves. This is the merit that Jesus did so that our God could “imputeth righteousness without works” to us who should never have been righteous in any way. This is the blessing of God to every believer from the Old Testament thru the New Testament times and to the coming of the Lord Jesus, and even to a remnant in the Tribulation period. So, you can understand what a disgrace it is when some attempt to make our gift of righteousness merit based on our part, it devalues the merit of our Saviour and takes His glory and gives it to man. Rom. 1:25 Therefore, let me leave this thought in your heart exactly the way God left it, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”