"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

“A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.”  -Proverbs 17:4 [KJV] The natural man’s spiritual blindness is seen most clearly in his belief in salvation by works - the belief that God cannot or will not do something for me unless I first _________ ( fill in the blank ).  This demonstrates a complete ignorance of the character of God, thinking He cannot act until I first do. This demonstrates ignorance of my own sinful condition if I think there is something I must or even can do before God does something for me!     This manifests that I am in the dark with regard to salvation!  It is horrifically deadly to believe in salvation by works and deny salvation in Christ by grace . It is only the man that believes the Gospel that has been given an understanding of the true character of God, the sinfulness of man, and salvation by Christ alone.     -unknown preacher of righteousness

  "I will praise Thee, O L ORD , among the people: I will sing unto Thee among the nations." -Psalm 57:9 [KJV] Come, let us join our cheerful songs With angels ‘round the Throne Ten thousand thousand are their tongues But all their joys are One.   Worthy the Lamb that died, they cry To be exalted thus Worthy the Lamb, our lips reply For He was slain for us.   Jesus is worthy to receive Honour and power Divine And blessings more than we can give Be Lord forever Thine.   The whole creation join in one To bless the sacred Name Of Him Who sits upon the Throne And to adore the Lamb.    -old Gospel hymn, “O For a Thousand Tongues”  

" And be found in Him." -Philippians 3:9 [KJV] What! the heavenly-inspired, holy, self-denied Paul, who had the richest experience of grace, manifold gifts of the Spirit, been caught up to the third heaven, and laboured more abundantly than all the apostles,—has he advanced no farther yet, than to have no other hope and desire than such a worthless sinner as I? What! had not he arrived at perfection? Had he no inherent righteousness, no graces of the Spirit, no holiness, no fruits of good works, no sincere obedience, no terms and conditions he had performed to look to, rely upon, and desire to be found in at the bar of God?  No: but he had obtained precious faith in a precious Saviour . Therefore, he looks out of himself, out of all that was wrought in and done by him—he passes it all by— he looks through it all to Jesus — he renounces it all in point of justification before God, and puts the issue of his eternal life and salvation upon being found in Christ, a...

"The flower of the field." -Psalm 103:15 [KJV] Do I not behold Jesus here pre-eminently set forth above His fellows? Yes, dear Lord, Thy people, planted by Thy hand, do indeed flourish as a flower of the field; but never any like Thee. Indeed all their loveliness, fragrancy, value, all are only so, as derived from Thee.  Never did God our Father plant so lovely a flower, so sweet, so fragrant a flower in the field of His garden, in the heavenly paradise, or the earthly Eden, as when He planted Thee. Sweet plant of renown! aid my meditations this morning to contemplate Thee under this interesting view, as the flower of the field. And first, let me behold Thee as truly the flower of the field, because Thou art altogether of God's right hand planting, and not of man's. The flower of the field hath no father but God, and no mother but the virgin earth. Precious Jesus! Thou wert conceived in Thy human nature wholly by the overshadowing of God the Spirit, when...

“Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” -I John 4:13 [KJV] A right knowledge and living experience of the Person, grace and operations of the Holy Ghost upon the soul, is a very essential thing. Man is so deeply sunk, so utterly fallen, so unable to bring himself back, that he needs this holy Teacher to lead them into a saving, experimental knowledge of the truth of God; for we know nothing but by His giving, and are nothing but by His making.  The more clearly, then, that we are lead to see, and the more deeply we are taught to feel what we are as fallen sons and daughters of Adam, the more we shall feel our need of, and the more shall we value when realized, His blessed operations upon the heart and conscience. Now, in the case of Aaron, (viewed not only as a type of Christ, but as personally ministering at the altar of the tabernacle, and thus consecrated to the office of high priesthood,) it was not sufficient t...