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

"And if a son, then an heir of GOD through CHRIST."   -Colossians 4:7 [KJV] St. Paul’s rational conclusions are enough to put all the sophistry (- faulty reasoning ) of men and devils, to confusion; and to silence all the unscriptural objections of unbelief.    (1st.) If a son of God by adoption and grace; then no more a servant under the law , working to obtain the favour of God, righteousness, justification unto life, and salvation by obedience to the law: or to dread its curse and condemnation, for transgressions against it. This truth will try you, whether you have the disposition of a son of God, or not. If not, you will cry, O this is fine doctrine! It suits my lusts exceedingly well. If I am not made a son by my works, nor continued a son for my works: seeing I get no good by obeying the law, nor any evil by transgressing it: I will gratify my lusts. This is the real language of carnal nature, not of a regenerate soul. Such plainly evince, that they h...

"(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)" -Philippians 3:18, 19 [KJV] My soul! hast thou not felt somewhat of the affliction of the apostle, in beholding how the great mass of carnal men live, and for the most part die? Nay, who can look on and view it without tears? The apostle hath enclosed the view within parenthesis, and it were to be wished, that indeed it was no where to be found but in parenthesis. But, alas! the truth is too striking, too palpable, and meets the contemplative mind at too many entrances and passages through the world, not to shew that it is far more general than is imagined. By our apostacy from God, man, that was originally exalted above the whole creation, is sunk below the whole: for no creature of God, among the brutes that perish, ever...

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." -I John 5:7 [KJV]   A spiritual knowledge of the Trinity lies at the foundation of all vital godliness. To know Father, Son, and Holy Ghost by special teaching and divine revelation, is the sum and substance of spiritual religion, and is eternal life; according to the Lord's own testimony, John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Thus, sooner or later, the Lord leads all His people into a feeling acquaintance with, and divine reception of this glorious mystery; and thus they come to know the Father's electing love, the Son's redeeming work, and the Spirit's inward testimony; and that these Three are One.    But how opposed to nature, sense, and reason is this glorious mystery; and how they all rise up in rebellion against it! How can Three ...

  Guilty as Charged , Part II D G Miles McKee   There is an awfully confused caricature of God which often crops up in the thinking of those who are not Gospel-centred. God is viewed, by them, as being the God of the clenched fist and angry frown who peers over the side of Heaven with a magnifying glass in one hand and a club in the other just waiting for us to step out of line. But nothing could be farther from the truth. For example, in Matthew 12:20 we discover some excellent truth about God.  Jesus, as you know, is the best self-portrait God ever painted and in Matthew 12 we discover that He will neither break the bruised reed nor extinguish the smoking flax. If anything was ever a picture of weakness it is the bruised reed. It's been walked all over and crushed. That's the way so many of us feel. We messed up! We failed! We couldn't keep the marriage together! We can't keep away from porn. We are guilty as charged. But the grace of God towards us is s...

"Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son."   -Galatians 4:7 [KJV] Why does St. Paul tell believers this, seeing he had in the former verse said, that the Spirit assured their hearts of it? We hence plainly see the necessity of the outward word of reconciliation, as well as the inward testimony of the Spirit: and if the witness of the Spirit within does not accord to the testimony of the word without, we do well to suspect it. Besides, from the working of a legal spirit, the prevailings of unbelief, the raging of corrupt lusts, an undue attention to the things of this life, and the accusations of Satan, children of God are prone to live below their glorious state and inestimable privilege. Hence, our loving heavenly Father has not the joy of our hearts, nor the glory of our lives. We do not always, as commanded, rejoice in Christ, our dear elder Brother. Therefore, St. Paul reminds, “thou art no more a servant.”    Consider, (1st.) what means he by a servant?...

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne." -Revelation 3:21 [KJV] My soul! let this evening's meditation be sacred, in contemplating Jesus, even thy Jesus, sitting down on the throne of His Father, having overcome all opposition, and triumphed by His cross, over death, sin, and hell! And in this contemplation, be sure that thou behold Jesus in thy nature; for it is in that nature the victory was obtained. The Son of God, as God, had no throne to obtain by overcoming; neither could a throne be given to Him; for all things were His in common with the Father and the Holy Ghost, in the one glorious essence of the Godhead, from all eternity. So that it is in the human nature of Christ, these triumphs are set forth; and as the glory-man Mediator, thou art called upon to behold Him, for His victories, and the merits of His redemption-work, as sat down in the throne.    Sweet thought...