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

Noah planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, and was drunk en ; and he was naked in his tent (see Genesis 9:20-21). As you read this, you may say, “What a condition for Noah, the only righteous man, the preacher of righteousness, to be found in!” BUT WHAT IS MAN? Look at him where you will, and you will see failure. In the garden of paradise, he fails; in the church, he fails; he fails everywhere and in all things. His true name is not MISTAKE, but FAILURE. His advantages are great, his privileges are great; but he can only display failure and sin because there is no good thing in him. "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God" (Genesis 6:9). Grace had covered all his sins and clothed his person with a spotless robe of righteousness. Noah displayed and exposed nakedness, but God did not see it; for He looked not at Noah in the weakness of his condition, but in the full power of Christ's divine and everlasting righte...

What is His work? The work which the Father gave Him to do; the work covenanted from before the world began, the work that shall crown Him with glory and honor for ever and ever; the work of fulfilling, of magnifying, and of honoring the holy law of God; the work of satisfying it and sheathing the sword of inflexible justice in His own heart; the work of vanquishing the powers of darkness, bruising the old serpent’s head, spoiling principalities and powers, taking away the sting of death, and removing the curse forever from all the election of grace. That is the work of God; that is the work of Christ, and it is freely given to the believer. - Gospel report by preacher Joseph Irons