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

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD   "Our first postulate is that because God is God He does as He pleases, only as He pleases: that His great concern is the accomplishment of His own pleasure and the promotion of His own glory.  That He is the supreme Being, and therefore sovereign of the universe." -A. W. Pink

"The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the HOLY GHOST."   -Romans 14:17 [KJV] How much did our dear Saviour bear, what pains did He take with His first disciples, to teach them the nature of His kingdom? Their notions were carnal and worldly: His kingdom spiritual and heavenly. We are just like them. Blessed be His name, the Lord is the same in patience and love to teach us also. There ever was, now is, and ever will be a cry with us, Lo, here is Christ. Lo, there is the kingdom of God .  It consists in this external mode: that outward rite, ceremony, or institution. Just like those ministers, the dry-vines of this day, every subject they preach upon is to save you. If they preach, what is called a charity sermon, even the gift of money is to entitle you to God’s kingdom. But what says our Lord? Behold, take special notice, “The kingdom of God is within you”   (Luke 17:21.) It consists in nothing carnal, or externa...

"For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God." -John 16:27 [KJV] See, my soul, how thy Jesus hath endeared to thee the Father in the assurance of His love. And wilt thou not feel thine whole affections going forth in continual love after Him? Was it not thy Father which, from everlasting, gave thee Jesus as thy Saviour, and gave thee to Jesus that He might redeem thee? Was it not from the same precious source that Jesus came as a Saviour, and a great one, to redeem thee and other great sinners? Is it not thy Father that hath adopted thee into His family in Jesus, and given thee the Spirit of adoption, whereby thou criest, Abba, Father ? And doth He not accept thee in Jesus, bless thee in Jesus, nourish thee with the body and blood of Jesus, clothe thee with the righteousness of Jesus, and give thee all temporal, spiritual, and, by and by, will give thee all eternal blessings in Christ Jesus! Nay, even H...

"The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."   - Matthew 26:41 [KJV] Why is flesh so weak? Because it is fallen, because it is sinful, because it has an alliance with the temptation which is presented to it. It is weak against temptation for the same reason that a man who loves strong drink is weak against the offered dram. If we had no inward lusting after evil, no pride, no rebelliousness, no fallen nature, no carnal mind, no vile affections, nothing in us earthly, sensual, or devilish, need we fear temptation? No; for then we should be proof against it; it would be like dipping a match in water.  Here our weakness lies. If we could always resist we should conquer, but resist we cannot, except by the special power of God. This is a lesson we all need to learn. The weakness of the flesh manifests itself continually in compliance, in nonresistance, in giving way, in yielding, often almost without a struggle, nay, sometimes in acting a worse and more wic...