"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...

The Gospel is not an offer.  An offer presupposes a man’s ability to accept or reject the offer.  To offer life to one who is dead in sins would be absurd and insincere.  God does not offer life. He gives it!   It is written in Ephesians 2:1, “And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.”   Also in Colossians 2:13, "And you, being dead in your sins and in the uncirmcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all tresspasses." Did Christ offer life to Lazarus? Of course not!  Jesus cried out, “Lazarus, come forth.  And he that was dead came forth.”   -John 11:43-44   And that's the Gospel truth.

"Jesus said unto her, I AM the resurrection, and the life."   -John 11:25 [KJV] How often we sink into places where we are in our feelings dead men. Has sin never slain you? Have convictions never, so to speak, knocked the life of God out of your soul? Has Satan never come with his fiery darts, with all the artillery of hell, and sought to scorch up every gracious feeling and every living desire?  And have you not sunk at times in your soul into such miserable deadness of spirit, that it seemed that not only there and then you were devoid of all grace, but that it was an impossibility for grace ever again to renew and revive your soul? Here you were dead. I have often been here, which enables me to describe it to you. Yet with all this, there is a longing look, a heartfelt groan, a heaving sigh, a resisting unto blood, not an utter giving way, nor sinking down into miserable despair.  God the Spirit kept alive His work upon the soul, and Christ Himself as the...

"Is the LORD among us or not?" -Exodus 17:7 [KJV] A very awful question to proceed from the lips of any child of God. What was the cause of it? Why, the Lord tried their faith. That fails them: nature murmurs: the flesh wants gratification: they are athirst: they tempt the Lord: they chide Moses: he is in distress: he cries to the Lord, “What shall I do unto this people? they be ready to stone me.” Mr. Henry judiciously observes here, They do in effect suppose, that Moses was an impostor: Aaron a deceiver: the pillar of cloud and fire a mere sham and illusion, which had imposed on their senses; that long series of miracles, which had saved, rescued, and fed them, a chain of cheats; and the promise of Canaan, a banter upon them. It was all so, if the Lord was not among them.  Observe, it is a great provocation to God for us to question His presence, providence, or promise; especially for His people to do it, who are so much obliged to trust Him. Well might Moses...

"God, according to His promise, hath raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus." -Acts 13:23 [KJV] Mark, my soul, the blessedness of these words. Jesus is not only Israel's Saviour, and hath fully answered, in every point, to that glorious character, but here we are led to discover His credentials. This is faith's warrant. I believe in Jesus. Why? He brings with Him the name, the authority, the commission of God the Father. Jesus is the appointment, the ordinance, the method Jehovah hath sent forth for salvation. Sweet thought! So that, added to all that I behold in the Lord Jesus, adapted to my case and circumstances, I here see that Jesus as the Father's gift, the Father's sent, the Father's anointed, full of grace and truth. Jesus is therefore the great promise of the bible; for in Him are folded up and contained all the promises. And I see also, that God our Father was, and is, the great promiser.  And I see that God not only gave this rich Sav...

"And He is the head of the body, the church." -Colossians 1:18 [KJV] That the Lord Jesus Christ should have a people, in whom He should be eternally glorified, was the original promise made by the Father to the Son. "Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Psalm 2:8) .  This was "the joy that was set before Him, for which He endured the cross, despising the shame." This was "the purchased possession," "the travail of His soul , " and the reward of His humiliation and sufferings (Philippians 2:9, 10) .  This people form the members of His mystical body, all of which were written in His book, the book of life, when as yet, as regards their actual existence, there was none of them (Psalm 139:16) . All these were given to Him in eternity, when He was constituted their covenant Head in the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sur...