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

"Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest." -J EREMIAH 31:21 [KJV] To look at the past is often a blessed encouragement for the future. If we are travellers in the way Zionward, we shall have our various waymarks. A conspicuous call, or a signal deliverance, or a gracious manifestation of Christ; a promise applied here, or a marked answer to prayer there; a special blessing under the preached word; a soft and unexpected assurance of an interest in the blood of the Lamb; a breaking in of divine light when walking in great darkness; a sweet sip of consolation in a season of sorrow and trouble; a calming down of the winds and waves without and within by, "It is I, be not afraid" —such and similar waymarks it is most blessed to be able to set up as evidences that we are in the road. And if many who really fear God cannot set up these conspicuous waymarks, yet they are not without t...

  “ Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5). Good gracious, that is an audacious statement, but it is perfectly correct and accurate. God justifies the ungodly! Why the ungodly? Because there is no other kind of people for Him to justify. All outside of Christ are ungodly. As Romans 3 explained, “There is none righteous and none that doeth good.”  NONE! That’s comprehensive if you ask me. So, let’s say it again, if God did not justify the ungodly, no one would be justified ( acquitted ). All are ungodly, some are very ungodly; but none are too ungodly to be justified.  Why so? Because justification, ( acquittal ) is by grace— sheer unbounded grace, and not because of merit ( what we deserve or earn ). At Calvary, infinite grace met unbounded demerit and grace triumphed. Notice, we are not even told...

The religious and self-righteous Pharisees surrounded the Lord on this occasion with malice in their heart to destroy Him. We read in M ATTHEW 22:15 , "...they took counsel how they might entangle Him in His talk." The religious came at Him with many needless and unnecessary questions about religion and politics [MATTHEW 22:17 ] , about future events [MATTHEW 22:25-28 ] and about the law of God [MATTHEW 22:36 ] . The Lord Jesus Christ put them all to silence with this one heart searching and all important question, "WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?" I trust that every one of us will seriously ponder this question and ask our sovereign Lord to give us honest and scriptural thoughts of Him. So then, what do you really think of the Lord Jesus Christ? Consider these things about Him: 1). What do you think of the Lord Jesus Christ in His blessed person? Can you say with Thomas that He is my Lord and my God [JOHN 20:28 ] ? The believer trusts His soul salvati...

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." -P SALM 90:12 [KJV] Casting our eyes back upon the year now past and gone, are there no mercies which claim a note of thankful praise? It is sweet to see the Lord's kind hand in providence, but sweeter far to view His outstretched hand in grace. Are we then so unwatchful or so unmindful of the Lord's gracious hand in His various dealings with our soul as to view the whole past twelve months as a dead blank in which we have never seen His face, nor heard His voice, nor felt his power? "Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness?" [JEREMIAH 2:31 ] , the Lord tenderly asks. Has He been such to us also for twelve long and weary months? What! No help by the way, no tokens for good, no liftings-up of the light of His countenance, no visitations of His presence and power, no breakings-in of His goodness for all that long and dreary time—for dreary it must ...