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

What is Faith? Is it Necessary? by D.G. Miles McKee (1) Is faith necessary? Yes indeed, faith is necessary.  For example, we can´t get a hold of our salvation without faith. The Bible says, we are saved by grace through faith and not of ourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8) . Grace, therefore, is the explanation of our salvation and faith is how we take a hold of it. But what are we saved from? Among other things, we are saved from the wrath of God (see Romans 5:9) and this amazing, saving salvation is all "by grace through faith . " Salvation by grace through faith is an excellent truth and we learn to take a hold of it by faith alone.  Self-righteous people reject this. They want to be saved by their own morality. But what do the Scriptures say? The Scriptures say that salvation is  “not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast ” (Ephesians 2:8-9) . I love what the hymnwriter, Stewart Townend, says....

"There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." -II Corinthians 12:7 [KJV] I dearly love St. Paul’s experience. For there is so much of the artless simplicity of the poor humble sinner; such a dread of self-glorying, while it ever exalts the rich grace of the dear Saviour. Let us make a few remarks on it, and pray our gracious Lord to bless them.  (1st.) Here is a painful experience, a thorn in his flesh. What was that? Fanciful men have entertained strange ideas. Some have said the cholic: others the ear-ache, others the head-ache, etc. If it were a bodily pain, we might as well guess, the gout in his great toe. But would the apostle have been thus anxious to have a bodily pain removed? Would the most excruciating pain prevent soul exalting?  Surely it was something more. It was the heart-ache. He plainly tells it was, “the messenger of Satan to buffet him.” His very soul was harassed...

"How much owest thou unto my lord?" -Luke 16:5 [KJV] My soul, if this question, which the unjust steward put to his lord's debtors, was put to thee concerning that immense debt which hath made thee insolvent for ever, what wouldest thou answer? Never couldest thou conceive the extent of it, much less think of paying the vast amount. A debtor to free grace for thy very being; a debtor to free grace for thy well-being; ten thousand talents, which the man in the parable owed his master, would not be sufficient to reckon up what thou in reality owest thy Lord, for even the common gifts of nature and of providence.  But when the calculation goeth on in grace, what archangel shall write down the sum total? To the broken law of God, a bankrupt exposed to the justice of God; to the dreadful penalty of everlasting death; to the fears and alarms of a guilty conscience; to the worm that dieth not; to the accusations of Satan, unable to answer one in a thousand! My sou...

"His going forth is prepared as the morning." -Hosea 6:3 [KJV] It is to the living soul walking in darkness, and unable to find God, that this text speaks: "His going forth is prepared as the morning." There is an appointed time for the Lord to go forth and this is sweetly compared to the rising of the sun. Does not "the dayspring know his place?" (Job 38:12.) Does not the sun rise every day according to the minute before appointed? Is he ever before his time, or ever after his time?  Did the free will of the creature ever hurry or retard his rising for a single second? Thus it is with the going forth of the Lord for the salvation of His people, the going forth of the Lord in the revelation of His presence and His power, the going forth of the Lord from the place where He has for a while hidden Himself, to come down with light and life into the soul. All His glorious goings forth are as much prepared, and the moment is as much appointed, a...