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

"It was God who purposed our salvation in the past eternity.  It is Jesus Christ who wrought out our salvation upon the cross when the fulness of time had come.  It is God the Holy Spirit who convicts us and brings us to repentance and to a saving knowledge of the grace of God as revealed in Christ.   We cannot take any credit to ourselves for our salvation.  A little boy was asked, “Have you found Jesus?” He looked up and said, “Please, sir, I didn’t know He was lost; but I was, and He found me.”   We did not have to do the seeking after Him, He sought us because of the love that was in His heart from eternity." -preacher H. A. Ironside, ‘In the Heavenlies,’ p. 25

"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life." -I Timothy 6:12 [KJV] Soldiers of an earthly monarch are regularly enlisted to fight under his banner: they wear his livery, and are furnished by him with arms. In a day of battle, they prove their courage and faithfulness. So the Captain of our salvation chooses and enlists His own soldiers. He puts on them a livery, whereby they are known to His enemies. He puts an armour on them, and weapons into their hands.  From the moment they enlist under Him, they enter the field of battle. There is never any peace with the enemy. The fight is the good fight of faith. The prize is eternal life . The daily word of command is, fight. Stand to your arms. Give no quarter to the enemy. Beware of the least truce with them, for the danger is great, the effects will prove awful.  It is a good fight. It is in a good cause: under a good Captain, who gives good encouragement, and has assured us of certain victory over the w...

"To the chief singer on my stringed instruments." -Habakkuk 3:19 [KJV] My soul, take down thine harp from the willow; and now the night is past, let the first of the morn find thee going forth, in praise, to the chief singer on all the instruments of His grace, which He hath strung thine heart to use to His glory. And who is this chief singer, but Jesus? Doth not the prophet say, "The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk in mine high places?"   Surely He that is the LORD God of my salvation, is the Chief Singer, and Chief Musician of my song. And He that will be my portion, my everlasting portion in the upper world, will be my strength and song in this. Surely David would not have directed, as he hath, in such numberless places, his psalms to a singer among men, in the temple service, when the whole scope of the psalm itself treats of the Lord, and of His Christ. The root of the word singer...

"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ." -Hebrew 9:13-14 [KJV] What a mercy it is to have a conscience in any measure purged from dead works to serve the living God; to feel any free access to His gracious Majesty, any happy liberty in walking before Him, any deliverance from doubt and fear, any removal of those exercises which try the mind and often bring heavy burdens upon the soul!  Still, after all our wanderings, we must ever come to the same spot; after all our departings and backslidings, still again and again we must be brought to the same place to get the guilt removed, the mercy proclaimed and the peace revealed. For is not this the blessedness that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all ...