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

“ Although I am a sinner, yet I despair not; for Christ, Who is my Redeemer and my Righteousness, liveth. In Him I have no sin, no sting of conscience and no fear of judgment. In Christ there is no condemnation. I am indeed a sinner as touching this present life, but I have the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD which is above this life, Who is CHRIST MY LORD. In Him I rejoice.” - Gospel report by preacher Martin Luther  

The difference between a lie and the truth depends on who tells it.  Satan, in his deception of Eve, said to her concerning her sin against God: “ Ye shall not surely die” [GENESIS 3:4 ] . On the other hand, Nathan said to David after his sin in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, “ thou shalt not die” [II SAMUEL 12:13 ] . The words to Eve came from the “ father of lies.”   The words to David came from a man sent from God.  To Eve came words from one who cannot tell the truth.  To David came words from God who cannot lie.  Eve was deceived in her transgression but David was forgiven of his.  Men and women would do well to remember this and therefore seek to find out who’s talking to them in the messages and doctrines they have believed concerning their salvation from sin.  Are they the words of Satan, a lie of his own devising or are they the truth of God?  The Bible warns us that Satan and his messengers are transformed into “ ang...

"Then I said, I am cast out of T hy sight; yet I will look again toward T hy holy temple ." -J ONAH 2:4 [KJV]   When poor Jonah spake these words he uttered them in the very bitterness of his heart; he felt that he was cast out of God's gracious presence. But he must have known something experimentally of the sweetness of God's manifested presence; he must have tasted that heaven was in it, and that all his happiness centered there. He must have enjoyed this in order to know if God's presence were not felt in the soul, there was but one barren scene of gloom and death; and that to be "cast out of His sight" was the commencement of hell upon earth. Now here a living soul differs from all others, whether dead in sin, or dead in a profession. The persuasion that in God alone is true happiness; the feeling of misery and dissatisfaction with everything else but the Lord, and everything short of His manifested presence, is that which stamps th...

Christ + Something = Nothing by D.G. Miles McKee   It is a serious offense to add to that which Jesus says He has finished! He has saved us by grace ... is this not enough? Is what He has done for us in His doing, dying and rising again not sufficient? Acts 15:11 says, "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved." Salvation, therefore, is not received, attained or kept by our works or behavior. We are saved by grace through faith (see also Ephesians 2:8-9). Since we are saved by grace, it’s time to stop adding further qualifications to salvation. Listen to Romans 11:6, "And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it is of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” So, here’s the truth of the matter. Christ PLUS ANYTHING equals nothing! For example: If you are trusting in Christ plus your church membership you are not trusting Christ alone. This eq...