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

"What is it which made, and will forever continue to make, Christ’s righteousness so infinitely meritorious and successful in producing the divinely intended result?  It is the divinity of His glorious person.   All the created beings in the universe, whether angelic or human, unfallen, fallen or restored, would never by their endeavors united, be able to furnish out and make up a righteousness of sufficient value to claim the favours of God upon the footing of justice and merit, or to present anyone of the chosen seed blameless before the burning eyes of infinite holiness.   Such power belongeth only to the righteousness of the God-Man, Jehovah incarnate!  Nothing but that all-perfect and everlasting merit, which is the complex result of His obedience and of His sacrifice, can exalt and retrieve us to the dignity and suitability of heaven."                           -preacher...

  Jesus is the Friend of sinners, Bless His holy, precious Name! Let believers praise the Savior, Joyfully His worth proclaim! By His blood He washed and cleansed us, Made us whiter than the snow; For our sins the Savior suffered, To pay all the debt we owe.   Though for sin the law condemned us, From its curse we are set free; Jesus honored law and justice, When He died on Calvary. Let all those who love the Savior, Who adore and trust this Friend; Magnify our great Redeemer, Sing His praises without end.   Do you know our Lord and Savior, Who alone from sin can save? Jesus bled and died for sinners, His Own life He freely gave. O may God the Holy Spirit, Quicken sinners dead in sin; Granting faith to trust the Savior, Piercing darkness with the Light.     Tune: “Love Divine” 87.87 double Words by Jim Byrd

The law of God demanded nothing less than a perfect Sacrifice to satisfy its justice and put away our sins.  An attempt at perfection would not suffice; perfect obedience was required.  Not only outward morality, but an inner purity; not an occasional concern for the glory of God, but a ceaseless desire that, “not my will, but Thine be done.”   Offended justice required, not a few drops of blood, but blood shed to the death to satisfy the edict, “The soul that sinneth shall die.”   And while it must be man’s blood, it required that the victim be equal in holiness to the Judge against whom man has sinned.  The only One who could answer the conditions laid down by the law, satisfy the justice of God and meet the needs of the sinner was the Lord Jesus Christ.  “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift”   (II Corinthians 9:15).   None but Jesus could accomplish the salvation of sinners.             ...

"It is ignorance of doctrine which is mainly responsible for thousands of professing Christians being captivated by the numerous fallacies of the day. It is because the time has now arrived when the bulk of our churches ‘ will not endure sound doctrine ’ (II Timothy 4:3) that they so readily receive false doctrines. Of course it is true that doctrine, like anything else in Scripture, may be studied from a merely cold intellectual viewpoint, and thus approached, doctrinal teaching and doctrinal study will leave the heart untouched, and will naturally be ‘dry’ and profitless. But, doctrine properly received, doctrine studied with an exercised heart, will ever lead into a deeper knowledge of God and of the unsearchable riches of Christ.” -preacher Arthur Pink , excerpt from  The Sovereignty of God

"...then is the offence of the cross ceased." - Galatians 5:11 [KJV] Another version reads the words as a question, Is the offence of the cross ceased? No, nor ever will, while there is a Christian upon the earth. The cross is put for that ever-loving Jesus, Who hung upon it as a curse for our souls, and an atonement for our sins. O let us be ever jealous of, zealous for, the glory of the cross, for the sake of the Lamb, Who finished our salvation upon it.  The cross of Christ is the Christian’s glory. The offence the world takes at him, is a proof that he has taken up the cross of Christ, and is following Him . This no man can do faithfully, but he must give offence. Settle this well in your mind. Sit down and count your cost. Are you willing to be Christ’s glory, and the world’s scorn?  Do you expect all from the cross? Then give up all for the cross. Here nature recoils. Flesh and blood rebels. Carnal reason pleads, that worldly prudence may be attended to. ...

"The Master is come, and calleth for thee."   -John 11:28 [KJV] My soul, mark how gracious the Lord is to His people in the special and distinguishing tokens of His grace. Jesus doth not barely send His gospel to the church, or house, or family; but He speaketh by the soft, but powerful whispers of His love, to the individual soul. To thee is the word of His salvation sent.   Hence the soul who feels the sovereignty of His word in the constraining influences with which it is accompanied, cries out, I shall never forget Thy word, for by it Thou hast quickened me. But besides the calls of His grace in His house of prayer, in how many Ways, and by what a variety of methods, is the Lord Jesus calling upon His people. My soul, I hope that thou art always upon the look out, and art getting to thy watch-tower to hear what the Lord thy God hath to say to thee, by His word, by His providences, His chastisements in love, and in all the gracious manifestations of His favour...

"...that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." -Ephesians 3:17 [KJV] God bade Moses receive from the people oil for the light, and to set up a candlestick with seven lamps, ever burning with this oil, to illuminate the holy place. This light was typical, no doubt, of the Holy Spirit, but as it is only by His own gracious light that the Lord Jesus is made known, we may still say, that as Christ dwells in the heart by faith, faith giving Him a place in the bosom, He dwells in the enlightened understanding of His saints, in the gracious light of His own manifestations. Have you not seen at times wondrous beauty in the gospel? Has not a sacred light shone, from time to time, upon the holy page, when it testified of Christ? Have you not seen wondrous glory in a free gospel, a gospel that saves the sinner, and yet magnifies and glorifies the justice of God; a gospel that reconciles every apparently jarring attribute, brings justice and mercy to kiss each other, a...