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

"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." -Hebrews 4:15-16 [KJV] What heart can conceive or tongue recount the daily, hourly triumphs of the Lord Jesus Christ's all-conquering grace? We see scarcely a millionth part of what He, as a King on His throne, is daily doing; and yet we see enough to know that He ever lives at God's right hand, and lives to save and bless. What a crowd of needy petitioners every moment surrounds His throne! What urgent wants and woes to redress; what cutting griefs and sorrows to assuage; what broken hearts to bind up; what wounded consciences to heal; what countless prayers to hear; what earnest petitions to grant; what stubborn foes to subdue; what guilty fears to quell! What clemency, wha...

“ Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel” -I Corinthians 9:16 [KJV] Any sermon that does not have Christ in the beginning, the middle, and the end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution. And I heartily say, “Amen!” The apostle Paul never said, “Woe is unto me if I preach not”, but “Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel.” And he told the Corinthians, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Any man who stands before men and women in the name of God and does not plainly, clearly, and consistently preach the Gospel of God’s glory and grace in Christ Jesus is the worst sort of a criminal! He is a deceiver and murderer of the souls of men and women! -Gospel report by preacher Scott Richardson

Particular Redemption, or No Gospel at All    ELECTION and PARTICULAR REDEMPTION are the heart of the Gospel of grace. Without these truths as your foundation, any doctrine of the cross of Christ and salvation by Him will fall flat on its face. We had rather deny the Gospel — deny the cross work of our Lord, and deny the necessity of salvation — THAN TO DENY THE ONLY METHOD AND MEANS WHEREBY THE SALVATION OF A POOR LOST SINNER CAN BE EFFECTED. The God who loves everybody, who calls all men to salvation, who gave His Son to redeem (or make possible a redemption for) all men — is not the God of the Bible . Modern religionists have “another gospel” (Galatians 1), “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4). We will not bow to their “god,” but desire to present the GOD OF THE BIBLE, the Sovereign God “ W ho works all things after the counsel of H is own will” (Ephesians 1:11). The choice is clear: Either we have a gospel of works and self-salvation, which is n...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (28-30SEP18) Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in "SO GREAT SALVATION" by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace - God's unmerited favor - from their sins and from Hell. GRACE TO SUBMIT God is King. That is who God is. We are creatures made of dust. That is who we are. The only proper relationship the creature can have with God the Creator is to bow and submit to Him. What do I do when God’s way of salvation by grace through faith in Christ crosses the desire of my flesh to be saved by works? If I would be saved I must SUBMIT. No one will be saved until they submit to God. “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom ans 10:2-3). What do I do when the way God has arranged the eve...

"Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted." -Psalm 89:15-16 [ KJV ] The psalmist alludes to the jubilee-trumpet, which was sounded throughout the land on the great day of atonement. This was an ordinance of the Lord (Lev. 25:10). It was a joyful sound of liberty to God's people. This is a true type and just emblem of the blowing of the great trumpet, and THE SOUND OF THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL restoring life, liberty, and salvation to perishing captive souls. Has the gospel thus proved the power of God to the salvation of our souls? Surely then, we must esteem it, as the most joyful sound that ever saluted our ears! Joyful, that it is not clogged with any terms and conditions: Joyful, that it is not, as some call it, a milder law, proposing mercy on easier performances than the legal yoke. No! such notions are ...

Twas not my answer to His call That saved me from my sins; But sovereign grace in Christ then shown, Before the world begins. Twas not my choice of Him that saves But His own choice of me; His covenant made all things sure, In old eternity. Tis not the work that I have done Or any I will do; Christ’s righteous death upon the cross, Alone can make me new. For “He hath saved us” is the news, Christ all the work has done; Then as He purposed by His grace, He calls us and we come.   86.86 Lyrics by G ary Shepard To the tune of “ According To Thy Gracious Word”   ================================== A FORTRESS OF TRUTH " Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which H e hath purchased with H is own blood ." - Acts 20:28 [KJV]   I am always amazed how just one verse of scripture i...

“ Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him:   God is a refuge for us.” -Psalm 62:8 [KJV] “ There was not a speck of sin on the conscience, nor a principle of sin in the nature of His people, for which Christ was not judged on the cross; and they are now looked upon as having died with Christ, lain in the grave with Christ, been raised with Christ, perfectly accepted in Him, their sins, their iniquities, their transgressions, their enmity, their uncircumcision, having been entirely put away by the cross. The sentence of death has been written on the flesh; but the believer is in possession of a new life, in union with his risen Head in glory. What rest, perfect rest, for the heart and conscience is here! What full relief for the burdened spirit! All our sins buried in the grave of Christ, not one even the smallest left out! God did this for us! All that His searching eye could detect in us, He laid on the h...

"I am H e that liveth, and was dead;  and behold, I am alive for evermore,    Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." -Revelation 1:18 [KJV] O what a mercy that He who was dead lives at God's right hand! that He lives as a risen head; that He is not a dead Saviour; but a Saviour that lives for evermore; that can and does bless; that can and does comfort; that can and does bring the soul safely through all. He is not a Saviour that stands as it were upon the brink of a river, and pulls us out when we have swum half way out ourselves; He is not a Saviour that will take us half way to heaven, and then, as Rutherford says, let us "fend" or shift for ourselves. He must take us to heaven throughout. We are nothing, we have nothing without Him. He must be, as He is, our "all in all." We value Him in His death, nothing but His death could reconcile us to God; we value Him in His life, nothing but His life can save. We want sal...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (21-23SEP18) Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in "SO GREAT SALVATION" by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace - God's unmerited favor - from their sins and from Hell. WHAT GOD ALONE CAN DO Man cannot save or redeem himself. God alone can do this by His own power and grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Man cannot convert himself. God alone can do this by His power and grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a good lesson for godly parents to remember. Godly parents cannot convert their children. God alone can do this. But godly parents can lead their children to Jesus Christ and bring them up in the fear of the Lord. They can bring them under the preaching of Christ which is the means the Holy Spirit uses in the new birth ( see James 1:18 ). And when they have done this, they have done ...

"Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off."   -Proverbs 23:17-18 [KJV] The Lord is here addressing Himself to a soul labouring under temptation, and passing through peculiar exercises; and this is the exhortation that He gives it: "Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long ; " watching His hand, submitting to His will, committing everything into His care and keeping; not hardening your heart against Him, but looking up to Him, and worshipping Him with godly fear; "for surely there is an end." You may be tempted, exercised, and surrounded with difficulties, and see no outlet; but "surely there is an end;" and, when the end comes, it will make all plain and clear. This quiet submission, this watching and waiting, a man can never be brought to unless he has seen an end to all perfection; an end of his own strength, wisdom, and righteousne...

The Wednesday Word SAVED “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be  saved ” - Acts 4:12     SAVED! What a great Bible term. Some people say it is antiquated, but I disagree.  It means deliverance instead of destruction, life instead of death, acquittal instead of punishment and rescue instead of ruin. Saved! What a wonderful multi-faceted word! May we never drop it from our vocabulary. We are saved! And how did we get saved? We got saved on the basis of Christ’s finished work outside of us in history (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Believers have been delivered from damnation (Romans 5:1). We are saved. Believers are no longer under wrath (Romans 5:9)…..we are saved.  Jesus said, ¨I am the door: by M e if any man enter in, he shall be  saved , and shall go in and out, and find pasture¨ (John 10:9). Again, In Acts 2:21 we learn that “whosoever shall call on...

"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."  -Luke 19:10 [KJV] "The Son of man is come." What a blessed coming! The Lord Jesus seems to have taken to Himself, with the tenderest condescension to our wants, that gracious title, "the Son of man." He was the Son of God, and that from all eternity; but He delights to call Himself the Son of man. We want one like ourselves, wearing the same nature; carrying in His bosom the same human heart; one who has been, "in all points, tempted like as we are, yet without sin" and therefore able to sympathise with and to succour those that are tempted. A sinner like man, when made sensible of his pollution and guilt, cannot draw near unto God in His intrinsic, essential majesty and holiness. Viewed as the great and glorious Being that fills eternity, Jehovah is too great, too transcendently holy, too awfully perfect for Him to approach. He must therefore have a ...

My God! How cheerful is the sound! How pleasant to repeat! Well may that heart with pleasure bound, Where God hath fix'd His seat. What want shall not our God supply From His abundant stores? What streams of mercy from on high An arm A lmighty pours! From Christ the ever-living spring, These ample blessings flow: Prepare, my lips, His name to sing, Whose heart has loved us so. Now to our Father and our God Be endless glory giv'n, Through all the realms of man's abode, And through the highest heaven. -Tune "O for a Thousand Tongues" ==================================== "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." -John 8:31-32 [ KJ V] "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." -Psalm 91:1 [ KJ V]

"The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule   by their means; and My people love to have it so: and   what will ye do in the end thereof?" -Jeremiah 5:31 [ KJV ]   We live in a day much like that of the prophet Jeremiah's day - preachers and politicians tell lies, and the leaders in religion join with and assist them in these lies. What is really sad is that the vast majority of people "love to have it so." People complain about lying politicians, but if one comes along and simply speaks the truth, he would not be elected. I know it is not deemed politically correct in our modern society to say this, but truth is truth. For example, consider what is so great about our Gospel, true Christianity, that lifts it far above other religions? IT IS THE REVELATION OF GOD'S GRACE IN THE GLORIOUS PERSON AND FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST. Other religions have one or more "great" prophets who claim to speak for their god(s). ...

"For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto them that call upon Thee." -Psalm 86:5 [ KJ V] The sinner who has saving faith believes that there is a fullness of salvation in Christ for poor sinners "Wherefore HE is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by HIM..." (Heb rews 7:25). In the word of the Gospel Christ is held forth as an able Saviour - able to save men from their sins and from the wrath of God. His merit is a sufficient shield against the tempest of wrath which incensed justice is ready to exact against transgressors. The sinner who has saving faith knows that the righteousness Christ fulfilled as the condition of the Covenant of Grace is so valuable in itself, and in the eyes of the Father, that it is sufficient to procure justification, sanctification, and all other saving benefits to sinners who in themselves deserve death and damnation. So they are happy who are in Him. They shall neve...

“ I am not in the least doubt, whether salvation be of faith or of works; whether faith be of our own power or of God’s operation; whether Christ’s obedience, or our own, be the just ground of our hope; whether a man can truly call Jesus Lord, but by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. I have no more hesitation about these points, than I should have were I asked whether it was God or man who created the heavens and the earth.” –John Newton

Not what my hands have done, can save my guilty soul; Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do, can give me peace with God; Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear the awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin; Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within; Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee, Can rid me of this dark unrest and set my spirit free. Thy grace alone O God, to me can pardon speak; Thy pow’r alone O Son of God, can this sore bondage break. No other work save Thine, no other blood will do; No strength, save that which is divine, can bear me safely through. I bless the Christ of God, I rest on love divine; And with unfalt’ring lip and heart, I call this Savior mine. His cross dispels each doubt, I bury in His tomb, Each thought of unbelief and fear, each ling’ring shade of gloom. I praise the God of grace, I trust His truth and might; He calls me His, I call Him ...

"Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end." -Proverbs 19:20 [KJV] What lessons we need day by day to teach us anything aright, and how it is for the most part "line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little .” O what slow learners, what dull, forgetful scholars, what ignoramuses, what stupid blockheads, what stubborn pupils! Surely no scholar at a school, old or young, could learn so little of natural things as we seem to have learnt of spiritual things after so many years' instruction, so many chapters read, so many sermons heard, so many prayers put up, so much talking about religion. How small, how weak is the amount of grace compared with all we have read and heard and talked about. But it is a mercy that the Lord saves whom H e will save, and that we are saved by free grace, and free grace alone, through the blood and righteousness of the Son of God . "He of God is made unto us wis...