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

 The sovereignty of God is absolute.  To acknowledge this truth is at once to acknowledge that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass; that nothing else can come to pass; that predestination is a fact; that God does rule in the kingdoms of men; that all human ties, bonds and relationships are Divinely appointed and formed;  that salvation rests solely, fully and only in God’s election; that salvation is by God’s grace and His grace alone; and, that no part of man’s salvation is of himself either in origin or execution.   Where men get the idea that man’s will is the all-determining factor or moving cause of his salvation is hard to see.  Certainly they do not get it from the Bible…  “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”   (John 1:11-13) .  Any sermon that does not have Christ in the beginning, the middle, and the end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execut...

"They crucified Him." -Matthew 27:35 [KJV] A short sentence, replete with the greatest importance to a world of sinners: each word in it contains matter of sorrow, wonder, and joy. Here is a fund for meditation. O Christian, time can never explore its depths. It will be the glory of eternity to sing of, wonder, and adore a once crucified Jesus. Let us consider the agents—the work—and the subject.  (1st.) The agents—they. Who? Angels? No: they gaze and wonder at the cruel, awful deed; but share not in it. Devils? No: they instigate to it; they shout and applaud the deed, but effect it not. No, the work is done by beings, little lower than the angels; yet not devils, but men. Men of devilish natures, cursed passions, and wicked hands. With these they seize the innocent victim, doomed to direful agonies, and an ignominious death.  (2d.) The work. They crucified. O the bloody deed! Heaven that hour let fall a tear. There hangs— who? A man like us? Yes, but immacula...

"The beloved physician." -Colossians 4:14 [KJV] My soul, catch a thought of what the apostle hero speaks of the servants to think of the Master! If Luke the physician was beloved, how much more so ought Jesus to be by thee in this sweet character. The Son of God came, as the great Physician of the soul, to heal all that were diseased, to bind up the broken heart, to give sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. My soul, dost thou know Jesus in this tender and affectionate office? Hath He examined thy case, made thee sensible of thy disease; and art thou, through His mercy, restored to health? Though, through shame and fear at the first, you would never have made known your case to Him, had He not first, of His own free accord, called upon you, yet hath He done so? Have you heard Him ask the tender question, "Wilt thou be made whole?" And have you rejoiced to come under His care? Do y...

"They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten ." -Jeremiah 50:5 [KJV] "Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD." Does this imply any power in the creature to join himself to the Lord? No; but it implies this—that when the Lord unites us to Himself, then we unite ourselves to Him; when the Lord brings the believer into a manifested union with Himself, then there is a leaping forth of the soul, a going forth of the affections, a cleaving to Him with purpose of heart, a believing in Him with all the powers of the mind, and a solemn renunciation, a casting aside, a trampling under foot, a rejection of everything but that which stands in the power of God, as made known to the soul by the Holy Spirit. It is not spoken in a presumptuous way: "Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD." It does not indicate any bold presumptuous cla...