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

THERE IS A SUBSTITUTE   The “ good news” of the gospel is that there is a Substitute Who has stood in the place of every repentant sinner and bore the wrath of God in his place. He did this for all whom the Father had given Him from all eternity. It is for them that He prayed in John 17. They are “ His sheep.” The Father gave them to Him, and He died for them (John 10:15, 29). Substitution is the very heart of the gospel. Christ did not simply give His life to make salvation possible for those who contribute their part to what He has done by repenting and trusting Christ. He it is that gives repentance and faith (2 Timothy 2:25; Ephesians 2:8). Christ did not say to the religious Jews of His day that they were not of His “ sheep” because they did not believe; rather, He says, “ Ye believe not because ye are not of My sheep” (John 10:26). If they had been His sheep they would have believed. The “ good news” is that all whom the Father has given to the Son, and for whom He...

   The desire for immediate results and numerical success has brought many preachers to preach a gospel that is what Paul called “ another gospel.”   It is less offensive to man because it is a man’s gospel.  God’s gospel comes from God as He is to man as he is.  Thus, it has an immediate offensiveness to the sinner because it declares salvation entirely the work of God alone.  This offends sinful, powerless man who wants a part in saving himself.  He wants a part because he wants the glory of it which God will not share!  When men leave out the essential doctrines of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ, they have a less offensive message but they also have an ineffectual message.  They preach a god that cannot save.  In the true gospel man meets the God of the Bible who has predestinated all things after the counsel of His own will, the God who has chosen a people unto Himself before the world began, the God who is just...

Complete in Christ the Lord. No trusting in my best. Wrapped fully in the garment of Imputed righteousness. Complete in Christ the Lord. By faith His fullness known. The Father looks at me and sees One as His very own. Complete in Christ the Lord No better could be had. For none can by their doing here To His completion add. Complete in Christ the Lord. Though circumstance be grim. Above it all does God declare, "Ye are complete in Him." To the tune: I Love Thy Kingdom - Short Meter 66.86 Words by Gospel preacher Gary Shepard -------0------- “ SOUND DOCTRINE” I Timothy 1:10 [KJV] There are but two schemes of religion in this world. One is true the other is false. One is saving the other is damning. These two schemes of religion are free grace and "free will." Free grace declares that salvation is the work of God alone (Jonah 2:9). Free will declares that salvation is, at least in part, the work of man. Free grace declar...

"And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not" -Jeremiah 45:5 [KJV] These are personal words of encouragement from Jeremiah to his scribal friend, Baruch. We all need encouraging from others, especially in a situation like Baruch's, when he was suffering mental anguish from being associated with the prophet Jeremiah. So, as Jehovah's messenger, Jeremiah assures Baruch that he will be spared from the coming judgment on the land, and that there is no need to "seek great things" for himself, the Lord favoring him in sovereign mercy. I often think of this text when I consider my "low" position in life. That is, if I begin to question why I am not cast among the so-called "great ones" of earth (whether politicians, businessmen, popular preachers, etc.), I am here reminded, "Seek them not." That settles it, for I know it is wrong to seek to be "great" in this world. Only our God an...

"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" -Psalm 85:10 [KJV] This matter of our salvation is so wisely structured that God can show mercy upon poor sinners without compromising the righteous demands of His justice. In the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, mercy and truth are so met together, and righteousness and peace have so kissed each other, that it is now not only an act of lovingkindness and tender mercy for God to pardon our sins and receive us, but it is an act of strictest justice. God has accepted the righteous obedience of Christ Who made full satisfaction to divine justice on the behalf of all His fallen sheep. -Gospel report by preacher Jim Byrd

“ For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” -Philippians 2:13 [KJV]   When God has worked in a man "to will," and not only worked in him "to will," but also worked in him "to do;" when He has made him willing to flee from the wrath to come; willing to be saved by the atoning blood and justifying righteousness of Jesus; willing to be saved by sovereign grace as a sinner undone without hope, and glad to be saved in whatever way God is pleased to save him; willing to pass through the fire, to undergo affliction, and to walk in the strait and narrow path, willing to take up the cross and follow Jesus, willing to bear all the troubles which may come upon him, and all the slanders which may be heaped upon his name; when God has made him willing to be nothing, and to have nothing but as God makes him the one, and gives him the other:and besides working in him "to will," has worked in him "to do,...

"For God is my King of old, working  salvation in the midst of the earth." -Psalm 74:12 “Nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass otherwise than God has eternally purposed. Here is a foundation of faith. Here is a resting place for the intellect. Here is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or Devil, but the Lord Almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory .” -excerpt from “The Sovereignty of God,” by Arthur W. Pink, 1918 A.D. "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not,...

When God looked from heaven to earth He saw disasters, wars, murders, envying, faithlessness, lying and wickedness and more.  The evil-doing had begun when our first parents Adam and Eve sinned and ran away to hide. Humans have been busy hiding ever since. Here’s something worth considering.  As God from eternity observed the mess of humanity, He did not ask us to do something about it.  He didn’t look to humanity for solutions for the chaos. No indeed! He had already, before time, chosen to rescue a people for Himself and at just the right time He came to save and deliver them (Romans 5:6-8). And how did He do that? Did He demand that we do something?  No! Nothing! But surely there was something He required us to do in order to save ourselves? No! When Jesus arrived on earth, He did not come bearing a list of demands.  Not at all! When Christ came, He was blessing and grace incarnate.  He came to seek and to save, not to demand and damn. He cam...

Ten Things I Know about God’s People 1. We are an elect people, chosen unto salvation by God the Father before time had its beginning. "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). 2. We are a redeemed people. "Ye were redeemed...with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19). By His death, Christ made satisfaction to divine justice for all the iniquities of His people. 3. We are a regenerated people. "And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins" (Ephesians 2:1). We were born from above by the power of the Holy Spirit. 4. We are a people brought to believe on the Name of the Son of God. " As many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48). 5. We are a justified people. [1] The origin of our justification is the eternal, sovereign and unchanging grace of God. "...justified freely by His grace" (Romans 3:25). [2] The sole basi...

"For such an high priest became us..." -Hebrews 7:26 [KJV] Here is the High Priest perfectly adapted to our needs. The salvation of God in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only salvation for such a one as myself. Others may think they find a lesser one that is sufficient for them but not me. This salvation which is in Christ who is the Wisdom of God is suited for both God and me. It satisfies God in what He requires and if God is satisfied then surely I can be. First, the “choice” in salvation is God’s. This suits me for as the songwriter said, “Tis not that I did choose Thee, For, Lord, that could not be; This heart would still refuse Thee, but Thou hast chosen me.”   It was God’s choice and He made it before the foundation of the world. He chose me “in Christ” and “unto salvation” and this made things sure! See Eph. 1:4; II Thess. 2:13. It was also a salvation of sinners! “Christ came into the world to save sinners: of whom I am chief.” (I Timothy 1:15)...

“ For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed .” -Malachi 3:6 KJV These words are sweet comfort to the Lord’s people who live in this changing world. To keep us from getting too comfortable in ourselves and our situations, our wise God “stirs the nest.” “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him” (Deuteronomy 32:11-12). Like the eagle, who stirs the nest of her young ones removing some of the soft feathered outer lining to expose the sharper sticks below, the Lord does changes things so that we remember that we can only trust Him. He rearranges our comfortable little “nests.” All human comfort and confidence fails. He brings us into situations and circumstances in which we are made to know that He alone is our Strength and our Salvation . Like the eaglet out of the comfortable n...

By divine sovereignty we mean God reigns supreme in creation, providence and salvation. This is the clear declaration of Scripture:  "Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places" -Psalm 135:6  "But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased" -Psalm 115:3   "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure" (Isaiah 46:10). "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion" (Romans 9:16).  How utterly foolish for man to contend with God for exercising His right to do what He wills with His property? Did He not make all things by His power and for His pleasure and glory? Is He not free, therefore, to dispose of all things according to the good pleasure of His will?   "Is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with Mine own?" (Jesus Christ the LORD - see Matthew 20:15). What ...