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

"If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it."   -Exodus 20:25 [KJV]   This chapter abounds with legal terror. Here, the glorious Jehovah is giving the law with thunderings and lightnings, and the sound of a trumpet. The mountain smoking. Poor sinners, trembling and fleeing, saying, “Let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Most awfully tremendous! Well might St. Paul call it, “the ministration of death and condemnation,” (II Corinthians 3:7, 9.) But blessed, blessed be God, it contains precious gospel-grace to law-condemned sinners. Here, rejoice, and say, Let God speak, and we live . For here is an altar commanded. God is accessible to us. “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me.”     Here is gospel-grace. That beloved Son typified, Who was made like unto us, and appeared in our earthly nature. Thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings and peace-offerings upon it. “Our God is a consuming fire , ” (Hebrews 12:29.) Yet, “we have an altar , ” (Hebrews ...

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD." -Isaiah 55:8 [KJV]   My soul, hast thou ever considered the blessedness in this verse, as it concerns the great work of salvation? Ponder over it, this evening. There is nothing, perhaps, in which there is a greater and more striking difference than there is between our crude and contracted notions of redemption, and the perfect and unerring thoughts of Jehovah on this point. Our conduct towards each other is so limited on the score of pardon, that though we may forgive a first or second offence, yet if it be repeated too many, nature revolts at the offender, and seems to take a kind of justification in withholding any farther acts of clemency. Hence; we frame the same standard to judge by, concerning God.    But with God, abounding sin calls forth abounding grace, and, like the tide, riseth above high water-mark, yea, overflows all the banks and surrounding ground; so much so, indeed...

"O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?" -Hosea 6:4 [KJV] Most of the Lord's people have some peculiar thing that they want to have granted. Most living souls have some peculiar temptation from which they want to be delivered. If some of the Lord's family could sum up all their desires in one petition, it would be to have the pardon of their sins sealed upon the conscience .    If others of God's people could crowd up in one sentence all the wants of their soul, it would be to be brought into the enjoyment of gospel liberty . If others could condense in one short prayer the chief desire of their heart, it would be to be delivered from some powerful temptation, or be preserved from some peculiar besetment. And if others could get into one request the longings that heave in their bosom, it would be to be relieved from some special trial or trouble that at times seems as though it would weigh them down to the dust.    When the Lord, then, does but enable them to come...

     "Whence is it that the doctrines of special election, of efficacious grace in regeneration and conversion, of justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, and of the infallible perseverance of the saints, though so clearly revealed and so strongly proved in the word of God, and, notwithstanding, so generally denied, opposed, and ridiculed?  Because they give all the glory to God, and will not allow man so much as to boast a little ." -unknown preacher of righteousness 

The Message of the Cross / Who Is Jesus? Why Did He Die & Where Is He Now? -Message from preacher Henry Mahan (27 minutes)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fyt992dTfk   The Message of the Cross is a biblical message from Matthew 27:33 –37 that centers on the death, identity, resurrection, authority, and saving work of Jesus Christ. Everyone knows that Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross—but what does His death actually mean? This message examines four crucial questions:  1. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Jesus Christ is revealed in Scripture as the Son of God, the Lamb of God, Emmanuel—God with us—and God manifest in human flesh.  2. Why did Jesus die on the cross? His death was not an accident or merely an example of suffering. Scripture presents Christ’s death as God’s appointed plan to redeem His people, satisfy divine justice, put away sin, justify sinners, and purchase a people for Himself.  3. Where is Jesus Christ now? Christ is risen, glorified, and seate...

"Death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours."   -I Corinthians 3:22 [KJV] “O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man who is at rest in his possessions; unto the man who has nothing to vex him, and who hath prosperity in all things!” O death, how sweet is the remembrance of thee, to a man who is alive to God, dead to the world; who longs to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord; to see the glory of Jesus, and to reign eternally with Him! Christian, here is a precious legacy left thee by the Lord: a covenant-gift from the God of thy salvation: “Death is yours.” He is your conquered enemy; your faithful friend.    (1st.) Your conquered enemy. You need not fear him. He has neither strength nor sting. Christ, the victorious Captain of your salvation, has disarmed him of both. He can neither destroy nor wound your soul. Yea, “He hath abolished death” (II Timothy 1:10.) There is no substance in him; he is changed into a shadow. It i...