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

“ Yet it pleased the L ORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the L ORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied…” -I SAIAH 53:10-11a [KJV]   God’s prophet accurately foretold of Christ over seven hundred years before His incarnation, obedience, suffering and justifying death. In the everlasting councils of the Godhead it was determined a limited and definite number of fallen man would be redeemed. And, it was determined that redemption would be effectuated by the suffering of the God-Man unto death. Christ agreed to fill that place, satisfy justice and be the S ubstitute for the chosen ones . Consider: Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him - Before us is God’s will and predestination. The bruising of Christ was not God’s callous delight but the fulfillment of His gracious purpose. It ...

“ And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation” -P SALM 107:7 [KJV] God’s thoughts are not as our thoughts - neither are His ways as our ways! This truth is strikingly exemplified in the manner in which He led the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land. We would have chosen the way that was nearest and most direct - but God decided otherwise. He led them round about through the wilderness, and that for the space of forty years! And not merely was it the most distant way - but it was the most dangerous way as well. It was a land of deserts and of pits - a land of drought and death - a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt. But, as strange as it appeared, we are fully justified in saying that it was wisely arranged. Their long detainments; their tiresome and circuitous wanderings; their fierce conflicts with the Moabites and the Amalekites; the bitter waters which they had to drink; and the fiery serp...

"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." - E PHESIANS 2:6 [KJV] There is a distinction between being quickened together with Christ and being raised up together with Him. Is not this true in the experience of God's people? To be quickened into divine life, to be convinced of sin, to have the fear of God planted deeply in the soul, is the commencement of a work of grace. But this is not a deliverance, not a being raised up out of darkness, bondage, doubt, guilt, and fear. This is not a knowledge of Christ, and the power of His resurrection; this is not a full coming out of the dark and silent tomb into the glorious light and warmth of day. But here is the great blessedness of a mystical union with the Lord Jesus Christ that, as by virtue of interest in H im there is a partaking of the benefit and power of h is having been quickened, so there is a partaking in the benefit and power of his having...