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

"Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the LORD JESUS."   -Colossians 3:17 [KJV] I have sometimes thought, how is it possible that a believer in Christ can ever willingly and deliberately commit any one sin? It is hardly to be conceived, that such can live and walk under the power of sin. I am sure all sin is as contrary to the nature of a new-born soul, as heaven to hell: yet nothing is more plain, from the word of God, and the experience of His saints, than that sin dwells in them. But they are solemnly forbidden to “let sin reign in them, that they should obey it in the lusts thereof”   (Romans 6:12.) And if our souls are not striving against sin, and pressing after holiness, I know not where to find one text, in the word of God, to encourage us to believe and hope, that we are the children of God. I dread not the Satanic grin of licentious Antinomians. Does their infectious breath pronounce this legal? It only proclaims their unregenerat...

"The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." -John 20:19 [KJV] There is a peculiar blessedness in this first visit of the Lord Jesus to the whole college of disciples (at least as many as were present of them) after He arose from the dead: and the manner of relating it is peculiarly striking also. It was the same day at evening; and it was the first day also; as if the Lord Jesus would again and again honour the day, as well in the evening as the morning of His resurrection, and make that day for ever memorable to His church, and among His people. My soul! thou hast celebrated thy Lord's triumphs over death, in the morning, both at home and abroad, in His church, at His ordinances, at His table, and among His disciples; but learn hence also, that at evening time Jesus will make it light by...

"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."   -II Timothy 2:3 [KJV] We often get into states and frames of mind, where we need something else besides consolation. A child would not grow, if it were always fed upon sweetmeats. It must have exercise, and be exposed to the weather, and have the cold winds blow upon its face, and be hardened, so as to enable it to bear the chill winter and the nipping frosts. So the child of God is not always petted, and fed upon love-tokens. He is not always carried in the warm bosom, or sucking the breasts of consolation, but he has to learn lessons to fit him to be a soldier. The soldier, we know, has to endure hardships. He has to lie all night upon the wet grass; to be pinched with hunger, parched with thirst, and nipped with cold; to make harassing marches; to hear the roar of the cannon and the whistling of the bullets, "the thunder of the captains and the shouting;"  to see the flash of the ...

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”  -John 1:14 [KJV]  The eternal God joined Himself to human flesh and He evermore remains inseparably God and Man. Let us rejoice with joy unspeakable and give unceasing thanks to God for this wonderful truth. When Christ came to give His life a ransom for His people, He did not cease to be God. When He finished the work of redemption, went back to the Father and took His seat upon the throne of universal dominion, He did not cease to be Man. Our Mediator and Great High Priest always shall be, “the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5).  —preacher Jim Byrd

This is a privilege of the highest nature, and an exercise of the highest delight; for glory in the highest perfection is due to the Holy Name of the LORD. “O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard ; ” (Psalm 66:8) ; and all nations are called to bless and adore Him; that is, so many as it shall please our God to call to the faith of His Son Christ Jesus, for they that love the LORD, can never cease from this work. “I will extol Thee, my God, O king; and I will bless Thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever” (Psalm 145:1-2.)   Everyone that honours the Father, honours the Son, for their glory cannot be divided; no glory can possibly be given to the one, that is not given to the other, for they are one; and to render thanksgiving and praise is the most direct and immediate way of confessing the God of all grace. In this way we confess the sensible feelings of our hearts, and breathe out th...

“And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.” -Exodus 25:22 [KJV]   The tabernacle of old was a revelation of the shekinah glory of God, which was the fullness of God’s revelation of Himself in the glorious Person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the full salvation of His people. This revelation was given not only in the preaching of the Gospel but also in the types and pictures of the elements of the tabernacle such as the mercy seat in the holy of holies.    Here we see Christ as the Surety, Substitute, and Redeemer of His people by the sacrifice of Himself as the Lamb of God in Whom and by Whom God justified His people and accepts them as righteous in His sight. The blood of the lamb sprinkled on this mercy seat pictured the blood of Jesus Christ shed for the s...