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

‘Acts 13:48  ... and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed . The cause [of life] is not faith, but ordination of God.’  -John Gill The text of Acts 13.48 is God’s word.  The interpretation of it by John Gill is as concise as it can be stated.  Is this my doctrine, is this the doctrine of my church? Or do I have another doctrine, a doctrine that is nothing more than of man’s opinion?  Look at this portion of the verse again.  The subject is ‘ as many [Gentiles] as were ordained to eternal life .’  The verb is ‘believed.’  So first we may reduce this to the simplest terms, ‘They believed.’  Now let’s look again at who they are that believed? They are the ones ordained [appointed, set, determined] to eternal life. In this verse the Gentiles that were appointed to life believed.   See the order?  First, there is life (eternal life), then faith.  IT IS NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND, FAITH THEN LIFE. ...

"It is true that I have sin in me, but it is pardoned. God has forgiven me all trespasses. I stand before Him in my Redeemer, Who undertook for me, and I am perfect in Him. The Father chose me in His Son: He looks upon the face of His beloved, and sees me in Him. In Christ He is well pleased, so He is with me! As He loves Christ, He loves me! This is the glorious privilege which by faith I now enjoy. I deny sight and sense, and I believe the Word of God! I adhere strictly to the Word of God concerning me, believing myself to be dead indeed unto sin in Christ, and in Him absolutely freed from guilt and condemnation. The Father is at peace with me, and He loves me in His son, with the same love with which He loves Christ – His Father and my Father. With this persuasion I go to war with my corruptions. They are fighting against everything that is dear and precious to my soul. But having the promised grace of the almighty Savior for my help, I desire to set upon them i...

"Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me." -Psalm 38:4 [KJV] Though there may be pleasures in sin for a season, yet at the last, “it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”  O come hither and see, how the venom of sin has overspread poor David’s whole frame. Read this Psalm. Mark the anguish of his conscience, and the distress of his soul; and say, is not sin exceedingly sinful? What pain, out of hell, can be compared to the anguish of a guilty conscience?   But better, infinitely better, to smart for sin here, than to cry out under the smart of sin and hell. Conviction of sin by the Spirit, is in order to cleansing of sin by the blood of Christ. Better to roar from disquietude of the soul on earth, than to sleep secure in sin, till we drop into and roar for sin in the bottomless pit. One or other will be the portion of all flesh. Two similes are before us, expressive of David’s distress.  (1st.) “Mi...

"That ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." -Exodus 11:7 [KJV] Who shall mark down all the properties of distinguishing grace? What a vast difference doth grace make, in this life, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth Him not! And what an everlasting difference will be made in the life which is to come. My soul, make this thought the subject of thine unceasing meditation.  Thou canst not walk the street, nor go to public worship, nor watch the Lord's dealings in all the vast and numberless dispensations going on in life, in the wide world of providence and grace, but what every thing speaks, in the language of the morning portion, of the difference there is still put between the Egyptians and Israel.   Every thing proclaims it, every event confirms it. And do not overlook the great point of all- it is the Lord that doth all this. "Who maketh thee to differ from another?" Oh for grace to...

"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." -Romans 5:5 [KJV] How the Scriptures speak of "a good hope through grace ; "  and call it "an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil."  What a blessed grace must that be which thus enters into the very presence of Christ! How, too, the word of God speaks of it as the twin sister with faith and love (I Corinthians 13:13) ; and declares that it "maketh not ashamed,"  because it springs out of the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost! Now we learn what   "a good hope through grace" is, by being tossed up and down on the waves of despondency, and almost at times sinking into despair. Evidences so darkened, the heart so shut up, the mind so bewildered, sin so present, the Lord so absent, a nature so carnal, sensual, idolatrous, and ad...