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

"And Jesus said, Who touched Me? When all denied, Peter, and they that were with Him, said, Master, the multitude throng Thee, and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me; for I perceive that *virtue is gone out of Me ." -Luke 8:45, 46 [KJV] *see notation below   What a most interesting passage is here! What an evidence does it afford of the clear knowledge of the Lord Jesus; and, by an undeniable conclusion from such a proof of His omniscience, what a testimony does it bring with it of the Godhead of Christ! Pause, my soul, over the portion, and mark it well. Next pass on to another sweet improvement of it, and duly consider what a beautiful distinction is here drawn between the violent pressure of the throng, and the gentle touch of faith. Multitudes crowd to churches, and they hear of Jesus; but the personal knowledge and enjoyment of the Lord Jesus, is this touching Him?   Oh! for grace to have this right disc...

"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him." -Psalm 62:5 [KJV]   I believe that the Lord, before ever He communicates a real blessing to the souls of His poor and needy children, not merely convinces them by the Spirit of the depth of their poverty, of their truly ruined and lost state by nature, of the destitution of everything good in them; but He opens their eyes in a mysterious manner to see certain blessings which are stored up in Christ; for instance, righteousness to cover their nakedness, blood to atone for their transgressions, grace to super-abound over all the aboundings of sin, faith to be the evidence of things not seen, hope to anchor within the veil, and love to be a foretaste of eternal bliss.    These and similar blessings the Lord presents before their eyes, and gives them a spiritual understanding that these mercies are stored up in Christ; and as He gives them this perception of what the blessing is, and shews them ...

Divine Sovereignty: There is no doctrine more comforting to a self-condemned sinner than this: that Salvation is of the LORD . And yet, this same truth unsettles a man, until he has nothing left to stand on. As long as he imagines there is something in himself to distinguish him, something that makes him more worthy than another, sovereignty will feel harsh, even offensive. But when he is brought low, stripped of every imagined distinction, and sees his own wretchedness without excuse, what once troubled him becomes his only hope. For if salvation rests in God’s sovereign will, then it does not rest in anything found in him. For that reason, this doctrine is either deeply offensive or deeply comforting, depending on whether a man still trusts himself, or has come to see that he has nothing at all. Sovereignty is not an abstract truth to be weighed and considered at a distance, but the very ground of a salvation that brings a man to the end of himself and shuts him up - n...

     The old gospel preachers took as their essentials, "The scriptures alone, grace alone, and CHRIST ALONE." What did they mean, "CHRIST ALONE"? I believe it was Isaac Watts who wrote: "Christ as our Mediator stands  Between our souls and God;  Upon both parties lays His hands,  Presenting His precious blood.  Christ is my rock; on Him I build My life,  my hope, my all; His promise shall be  fulfilled; He will not let me fall." All spiritual blessings that the sovereign, gracious God has for sinners are IN our Lord Jesus Christ, BY the merits and blood of our Lord, and FOR the glory of our Redeemer. Simply put, CHRIST IS SALVATION ! It is Christ, not the cross, who saves. It is Christ, not the church, who justifies. It is Christ, not my faith, nor my confession, nor my profession, who unites me to God. It is the Master, not the mother, who is our Mediator. It is His blood that cleanses, His obedience that sanctifies, His lov...

"And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father."   -Revelation 1:6 [KJV]   Christ has done a great work for us. But does He only call us to believe it, and then leave us just as we were, under the dominion of sin, Satan, and the world? No. He not only washes us from our sins, which He hates, in His blood, but He also dignifies our person, which He loves, by His power. Hail Jesus, lavish of strange gifts to man! Thine all the glory; man’s the boundless bliss. O miracle of grace! Christ hath made us kings and priests.    (1st.) Kings to rule over sin, the world, death, and hell. Sin brought death into the world. Death reigned over all that sinned. “But they who receive abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life, by one Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17.) O believer, do not you too often forget your real dignity? Then you do not honour your King of kings. Consider, you are made a king to reign in life. A spiritual life, ov...

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law doth he meditate day and night." -Psalm 1:1, 2 [KJV]   It is blessed to read every portion of scripture which speaketh of perfection in our nature, as referring to the person of the God-man Christ Jesus; and then, from our union with Him, and interest in Him, to mark our connection as His people, and our concern in all that is said or written of Him. In the book of Psalms, particularly, there are numberless passages, which say that of holiness, which can be said of none among the fallen sons of men with the smallest shadow of truth.   Who is the man, and where to be found, that hath never walked in the counsel of the ungodly; nor yet, which is more than walking, hath stood, as one not distressed at it, in the way of sinners; nor yet sat down, which is worse tha...