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

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (15-17APR22) Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in   SO GREAT SALVATION by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace - Almighty God's unmerited favor - from our sins and from Hell: “ I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” - II Timothy 1:12 [KJV] A number of well-meaning people (I suppose they mean well) have put a lot of emphasis on when a person is saved. They insist that one should be able to pinpoint the time and place when they were delivered from darkness to the kingdom of God's dear Son. Some may be able, like the apostle Paul, to recall a Damascus Road experience. Others, like the apostle Peter, may recall a more drawn-out process; the initial meeting and first confessions, but then struggles to learn, impulsive claims, even doubts and d...

“And the people stood beholding; and the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him, and offering Him vinegar, and saying, If Thou be the king of the Jews, save Thyself." -Luke 23:35-37 [KJV] My soul! thou art not tired, I hope, of taking thy stand, night by night, and morning by morning, at the foot of the cross. Surely it is blessed to sit down by the Fountain, which was opened by the soldier's spear, in the heart of Jesus, and contemplate, one by one, the mercies which flow in it to the souls of His redeemed. There are more to be seen, more to be discovered at every renewed review; for in the death of Christ, is the life of the soul. It is not the smallest part of the excellencies which Jesus discovered in His death, that it was "the death of the cross;" for the apostle joins this with His sufferings. He not only endured the cross, but He d...

"As having nothing, and yet possessing all things."  -II  Corinthians 6:10 [KJV] How do we possess all things? In possessing Christ Who is Heir of all things. If we possess Christ, what have we not in Him? We have wisdom to teach us, righteousness to justify us, sanctification to make us holy, and redemption to deliver us from sin, death, and hell. If we have Him, we have the favour    and love of God; we have the pardon of our sins, the reconciliation of our persons, the casting behind God's back of all our backslidings, and a title to a heavenly crown. If we have Him, we have everything in Him, for Christ is ours, and Christ is God's. Therefore in Him we possess all things. We shall have in providence things sufficient to carry us to the grave. He will give us everything that is for our good, and keep back nothing that is for our benefit. If we possess Him, what have we not in Him?   Now the world, when death comes, what has it? Nothing to look to but the ange...

"His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption."   -Acts 2:31 [KJV]  Two sweet, but distinct thoughts, arise out of this scripture: one, concerns the soul of Christ; the other, respects His body; and both are most blessed to the believer in the review. My soul! Thou hast attended to the parched state of thy Redeemer, as represented on the cross, and made it the subject of thy morning meditation; do thou now behold what this scripture states, under all His humiliating circumstances, that neither hell nor the grave can have dominion over Him. His soul shall not be long in a way of separation from the body, in the invisible state; for very shortly it shall arise from hades, the hell here mentioned. And His body is too holy, harmless, and undefiled, to admit of putrefaction; yea, it must be presented before the Lord for a sweet-smelling savour.   Precious thought to the believer! Jesus needed not to lie long under the dominion of death: He had fully paid...

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."   -I Corinthians 15:20-22 [KJV] Christ risen is the firstfruits of that mighty crop of buried dead whose remains still sleep in the silent dust, and who will be joined by successive ranks of those who die in Him, till all are together wakened up in the resurrection morn. The figure is that of the sheaf of the firstfruits which was waved before the Lord before the harvest was allowed to be reaped (Leviticus 23:10, 11) . This offering of the wave sheaf was the consecration and dedication of the whole crop in the field to the Lord, as well as the manifest pledge that the harvest was fully ripe for the reaper's sickle.   The firstfruits represented the whole of the crop, as Christ is the representative of His saints; the offering of them sanctified ...

Jesus: The Wonderful One by D.G Miles McKee His name shall be called ‘Wonderful’ (Isaiah 9:6). “Wonderful” comes from the root word “wonder.” It can also be translated as ‘amazing,’ ‘surprising,’ ‘astonishing’ or ‘awe-inspiring.’  Jesus is all these things!  Does Jesus bring wonder to our lives?  I hope so!  May we always find wonderfully surprising and astonishing things in Him.   Being that His name is Wonderful it is not strange to see there are so many wonderful things associated with Him.  Salvation, for example, belongs to Him and He gives it to lost people (Luke 19:10). He doesn’t charge them, He freely gives. That’s wonderful.  Not only so, but look at those to whom He gives this Salvation … He gives it to the ungodly (Romans 4:5). That again is wonderful!   There has never been anyone as wonderful as Jesus. But, think about it, He was either wonderful or arrogant.   He came and pointed out our sins but acknowledged no sin of His ow...

" And one of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on Him, saying, If Thou be Christ, save Thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked him." -Luke 23:39-40 [KJV] My soul! thy morning meditation was directed to that soul-reviving, penitent, encouraging prospect, which the cross of Christ affords, in the recovery of the thief upon the cross, as furnishing the most illustrious example of the sovereignty of grace! Oh! what a trophy was there of the Redeemer's conquest! Now take thy stand again at the foot of the cross, and look on the other side, and behold the dreadful reverse, in the obduracy of the human heart. Here view the sinner dying in all the possibilities of a hardened conscience, railing and blaspheming; while the other departs in the most finished act of faith and repentance, glorifying the Lord.   Pause over the contemplation, and then ask, What was it made the mighty difference? Who made thee, my soul, to differ from another? And what hast thou, which...