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

"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD... I also have heard thee, saith the LORD." -II Kings 22:19 [KJV]   This tenderness of heart was a mark in Josiah, on which the Lord, so to speak, put His finger; it was a special token for good which God selected from all the rest, as a testimony in His favour. The heart is always tender which God has touched with His finger; this tenderness being the fruit of the impression of the Lord's hand upon the conscience. You may know the difference between a natural conscience and a heart tender in God's fear by this, that the natural conscience is always superstitious and uncertain; as the Lord says, it "strains out a gnat, and swallows a camel." It is exceedingly observant of self-inflicted austerities, and very fearful of breaking through self-imposed rules; and whilst it will commit sin which a man who has the fear of God in his heart would not do for the world, it wil...

     "Before I had considered the grace of God, I was afraid of my own convictions.  I durst not scrape too deep in that dunghill which lay before my door:  there was enough already apparent that I knew not well what to do with.  But the general consideration of the grace and mercy of God encouraged me to look farther.  I thought thus: there is a remedy to be had, let things be as bad as bad can be; there is a Physician, and many promises of pardon and assistance.  Whence I concluded that I might safely venture to know the worst of myself." -preacher Augustus Toplady

Hands Up all ye Self-righteous , Part III by D G Miles McKee In the previous 2 Wednesday Words I told you about a church I once pastored and how some of its members subtly opposed the Gospel, They hadn`t grasped the truth of righteousness in Christ alone. They didn´t know there really is nothing we can bring to God to commend us but the doing and dying of Jesus Christ. This brings us to the 3rd type of self-righteous sinner. They are the  ‘Trusting in Repentance’ , Self-Righteous Sinners . Self-righteousness is not always as obvious as the types I encountered in that church.  At times self-righteousness was very subtle and quietly hidden. This is one of the reasons why the Gospel needs to continually be preached to the believer. I discovered that certain self-righteous church people can be very hard to spot. Here’s the way they thought. They said, “ We cannot boast of anything, we confess we are sinners; Lord, we thank you that you have put away our sin beca...

"The great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come, who were ready to perish."   -Isaiah 27:13 [KJV] One trumpet has been blown, at the giving of the law, on mount Sinai: the voice of it sounded long, and waxed louder and louder. It made even Moses to fear and quake exceedingly, and all the people tremble. Soon, very soon, (who knows but it may be the next moment, in the twinkling of an eye?) the last trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised (see I Corinthians 15:52.) Tremendous voice! most solemn sound! The prophet asks, “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?” (Amos. 3:6.) If the alarm of war, and the approach of an enemy should be sounded in the dead of the night, what fear and terror would seize us! Must we hear the sound of the last trumpet, calling us to judgment?    Blessed, eternally blessed be our God, for the blowing of this great trumpet: it is the sound of great love: it proclaims salvation—to whom? Even ...

"Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field: let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves." -Song of Solomon 7:11,12 [KJV]   My soul! wilt thou do as the church here hath done, and invite Jesus to come with thee into retirement, to enjoy sweet fellowship and communion, and to tell Him how exceedingly thou lovest Him, or desirest so to do? Jesus invites thee repeatedly to this, and why shouldest not thou invite Him? It is blessed to catch the gracious words of thy Lord from His mouth, and to say to Him what He first saith to thee. See Isaiah 26:20 , Song of Solomon 2:10 , Matthew 11:28 & Revelation 22:17 .    And where wouldest thou have thy Lord to go with thee? Surely thou wilt say, to the field of His own scriptures, and to the villages of His own people, and to the vineyards of His own church; t...

"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." -I Thessalonians 5:6 [KJV]   Here sobriety is opposed to sleepiness, and is connected with walking in the light and in the day, as sleepiness and its frequent cause, drunkenness, are connected with darkness and night. One of the greatest curses God can send on a people and its rulers, its prophets and seers, is a spirit of deep sleep, as the prophet speaks: "For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath He covered." But to be sober is to be awaked out of this sleep, and, as a consequence, to walk not only wakefully but watchfully. It implies, therefore, that careful, circumspect walking, that daily living, moving, speaking, and acting in the fear of God, whereby alone we can be kept from the snares spread for our feet at every step of the way.    How many have fallen into outward evil and ...