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

  Nada, Niente, Zilch! (Nothing) by D.G. Miles McKee I have often been told by professing Christian that we are not declared in right standing with God until our life is characterised by obedience.  Accordingly, Christ’s death on the cross was essential for right standing before God, but so also is our life of obedience. To which I say, “What a hodge-podge of confusion twice confounded!”   Although we strongly believe that the believer’s life is characterised by obedience, our obedience is in no way part of the ground of our justification (acquittal before God). To teach that our obedience constitutes any part of our acquittal is to indirectly teach that Christ’s doing and dying are insufficient to take us to heaven.   Are our works and obedience as Christians the condition for receiving God’s ‘not guilty’ verdict? No! Do we yet need to add our obedience to Christ’s in order to guarantee our admittance to heaven? No! Does our Justification depend on our moral transfo...

"Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies." -Song of Solomon 6:13 [KJV] It is the church that is here called upon to return, and most likely by the daughters of Jerusalem. Some have thought the church is so called, as being of Salem, or Shulem, the shortened word for Jeru-salem. And some have thought that Salem is the same with Solomon, as the feminine of Solomon, the wife. And others have supposed, that as Jerusalem means peace, the church is called so, on account of her loveliness. And no doubt, in each sense, the church may well be called so, being married to Christ; being of the "Jerusalem that is above, which is the mother of us all;" and being beautiful, peaceful, and lovely in Jesus, as Jerusalem is the praise of the whole earth, Psalm 48:9 . But wherefore is the Shulamite called upon to return, to be looked upon, and with such earnestness, as to cause th...

"As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy ."   -I Peter 1:14-16 [KJV] Grace lays us under the greatest of all obligations to its free and bountiful Giver, and especially to render a believing obedience to His revealed will and word. It is His free, sovereign, and distinguishing grace alone which makes and manifests us to be His children, and therefore it demands of us, as a feeble and most insufficient tribute of grateful praise, that we should walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, and glorify Him in our body and spirit which are His. He that has never known and felt this knows nothing of the riches of God's grace in the manifestation of mercy and love to his soul.  Such a one knows, that do what he can, he can never do enough to show forth the praises of Him who hath c...

"Thus saith the L ORD , the Holy One of Israel, and His Maker, ask M e of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands command ye Me." -Isaiah 45:11 [KJV] Nothing can give a higher proof of the love of God, than what the scriptures reveal concerning Him. He opened a way of access to Himself, when man by sin had lost the way; and in His dear Son He has made every provision for bringing us nigh by His blood . The throne of grace He hath opened for their approach; the assurance He hath given of accepting them in the Beloved [ JESUS CHRIST the LORD ]; the very tender and kind expressions which issue from the throne; and the answers which have been given to thousands, and are continually given to thousands who come there; yea, the promises with which they are surrounded, that "before they call, He will answer, and while they are speaking, He will hear:" all these are full of endearments, to shew forth the love of God in Jesus Christ to all His...

"He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions." - Psalm 107:20 [KJV]  What an effect a word from God can produce! Be it in reading; in hearing; on the knees; or in secret meditation; when a word drops from the Lord's mouth with any divine power into the soul, what a change it produces! And nothing but this divine power can ever bring a poor sinner out of his miserable condition. When this comes, it does the work in a moment; it heals all the wounds which sin has made, and repairs all the breaches in the conscience that folly has produced. One word from God heals them all. The Lord does not come as it were with plasters to heal first one sore and then another. He heals now as in the days of His flesh. When He healed then, He healed fully, at once, completely.   The earthly doctor heals by degrees; he puts a plaster on one sore, and a liniment on another; and heals one by one. But when the Lord heals, it is all done in a moment. The balm of ...

"The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me."   -John 14:24 [KJV] My soul, hast thou ever fully and thoroughly considered that sweet and precious teaching of thy Lord, which, as Mediator, when upon earth, in all His discourses and conversations with His disciples, He was perpetually shewing them? I mean, that all He was, and all He had; and all He dispensed, were the blessings and gifts of His Father, in Him, to His people. If thou hast been meditating upon this most blessed point of the gospel ever so fully and closely, it will still afford new glories for every renewed attention to it; and therefore, sit down this delightful summer's evening, and take another view of it.   Jesus comes to His people in His Father's name, and He saith in this charming scripture, that His very words are not His, but the Father's; so much of the heart of the Father is in Christ, and in all of Christ, in all He saith, and in all He hath done. So that what ...

"And stablish you in every good word and work. " -II Thessalonians 2:17 [KJV] The living family of God need to be established in the truth, so as not ever to be "children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine." It is not sufficient for a building to be reared: it must be established before we can know whether it will stand. The most anxious moment of the builder is to see how it will settle; how the walls will bear the roof, and every part stand firm and good without bulging or slipping. When the centering is taken away from a newly-built arch, how the architect looks to see whether it will settle well and the extent of the drop, if there be any.   So in grace. It is not merely making a profession that will serve. Many a building stands well as long as the scaffolding remains; many an arch looks firm whilst the centering supports it. So many seem to stand well in early days, when upheld by zeal and earnestness, or strengthened by the support of others. But...

"The desire of our soul is to Thy Name, and to the remembrance of Thee." - Isaiah 26:8 [KJV]  How sweet and expressive is the phrase,  "The desire of our soul!"   How it seems to carry our feelings with it! How it seems to describe the longings and utterings of a soul into which God has breathed the spirit of grace and mercy! "The desire of our soul," —the breathing of our heart, the longing of our inmost being; the cry, the sigh, the panting of our new nature; the heavings, gaspings, lookings, longings, pantings, hungerings, thirstings, and ventings forth of the new man of grace— all  are expressed in those sweet and blessed words, "The desire of our soul!" And what a mercy it is, that there should ever be in us " the desire " of a living soul; that though the righteous dealings of God are painful and severe, running contrary to everything nature loves; yet that with all these, there should be dropped into the heart that mercy, love,...

  "If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise."   -I Corinthians 3:18 [KJV] The fruit and effect of divine teaching is,  to cut in pieces, and root up all our fleshly wisdom, strength, and righteousness.  God never means to patch a new piece upon an old garment; he never intends to let  our  wisdom,  our  strength,  our  righteousness have any union with  His;  it must all be torn to pieces, it must all be plucked up by the roots, that a  new  wisdom, a  new  strength, and a  new  righteousness may arise upon its ruins. But till the Lord is pleased to teach us, we never can part with our own righteousness, never give up our own wisdom, never abandon our own strength. These things are a part and parcel of ourselves, so ingrained within us, so innate in us, so growing with our growth, that we cannot willingly part with an atom of them till the Lo...

  Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (26-28AUG22 A.D.) 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 - Almighty God's unmerited favor - from our sins and from Hell: GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE “ Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18). The divine councils went before creation. As a builder draws his plans before he begins to build, so the great Architect predestinated everything before a single creature was called into existence. Nor has God kept this a secret locked in His own bosom; it has pleased Him to make known in His Word the everlasting counsels of His grace, His design in the same, and the grand end He has in view. When a building is in course of construction onlookers are often at a loss to perceive the reason for many of the details. As yet, they discern no order or des...

"And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river-side, where prayer was wont to be made." -Acts 16:13 [KJV] What, had they no church, no synagogue, no prayer-house, in the city? Was it like another Athens, wholly given to idolatry? My soul, think of thy privileges, and learn rightly to prize them, and use them to the glory of the great Giver. It was "on the sabbath." What a mercy to poor fallen man is the sabbath? And yet what multitudes slight, despise, and never profit by it! My soul! think again, in this view also, of thy mercies; and bow down to the dust in the deepest humiliation of soul and body, that the sabbath is precious to thee. "Who made thee to differ from another?" By and by thou wilt enter into the everlasting sabbath of heaven. There is somewhat very interesting in what the apostle here saith of going out "by a river side." Probably it was in the recollection of the church, that in Babylon, where the people were captives,...

"Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."   -I Peter 1:9 [KJV] What a blessed, what a glorious end is this; what a prize to win, what a victory to gain, what a crowning consummation of all that faith has believed, hope expected or love embraced! Whatever doubts and fears may have harassed the mind, whatever sore temptations may have distressed the soul, whatever deep afflictions, painful trials, heavy guilt, and hard bondage may have sunk it low, so low sometimes, as if it never would get over them or rise out of them, still that faith, which is God's gift and work, lives through all, and there is a blessed end in store for it—the salvation of the soul .   And O, what does this not comprehend and imply? Think of what salvation is from; think of what salvation is unto. Neither the one nor the other can be fully known on this side of eternity. You may have had some glimpses of hell, you may have had some glimpses of heaven; some taste of the wrath...

  The Perfect Christ and His Perfect Gospel, Part II   by  D.G. Miles McKee    Consider this! The blood-shedding of Israel's sacrifices could not take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). Although the Old Testament sacrifices pointed towards the truth of the sinner’s substitute, these sacrifices were, in effect, more of a remembrance of sins than an act that took them away.   The Old Testament sacrifices demonstrated that before sin could be forgiven, an innocent life must be taken. However, the continual repetition of the same kind of sacrifice year after year actually exposed the weakness and insufficiency of the Old Covenant. A more powerful and effective sacrifice was needed to, fully and finally, put away sin.   But where could a new more powerful and effective sacrifice be found? The answer is “In Christ Alone.” One man and one man only, the God/Man, has accomplished and finished the final blood sacrifice.  In Christ, a perfect life has been presented...

  "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." - John 4:10 [KJV] We cannot know the  nature,  though we may know the  necessity,  of the gift of God, till we experience its power as revealed and shed abroad in our soul.  Then  we know some measure of the gift of God when we feel eternal life flowing through our spiritual veins. How do I know I live naturally? Is not my participation of natural life known to me by an internal consciousness that I possess it? I know I live, because I feel that I live. And so, if we have spiritual life, there will be, at times and seasons, an internal consciousness that we have it; we shall feel the spiritual heart beat, and the spiritual lungs breathe, and the spiritual eyes see, and the spiritual ears hear: in a word, we shall be internally conscious of those emotions and sensations which are peculiar t...

"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."  -II Thessalonians 2:13, 14 [KJV] The first work of grace is to kill rather than to make alive; to wound rather than to heal; to bring down rather than to lift up; to reveal the law rather than the gospel. For "balm is useless to the unfeeling." Salvation with all its superabounding grace is but an empty sound to those who have never felt themselves cut off from all help or all hope. So, in a sense, there is a calling under and through, if not by the law, in the first teaching and operations of the Spirit of God, bringing the soul under its condemnation as a ministration of death. But when the law has done its office, and the sinner is slain by its killing power, then ...

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." -Revelation 12:1 [KJV] My soul! as the beloved apostle was invited to see those precious visions, which the Lord favoured him with, for the church's good, so do thou, this evening, attend his ministry, and gather, under divine teaching, instruction from this great wonder, which John saw. Surely, the woman here spoken of, means the church, the Lamb's wife, clothed in her husband's righteousness; and the moon, like that planet which ministers to our world, under her feet: and the crown, with which her head was adorned, sets forth how the church is made glorious by the ministry of the twelve apostles in the gospel of salvation: for what can be more suitable for the church to be crowned with, than the blessed truths contained in their writings?   Now, my soul, as every representation of the church not only sets forth the...

"Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of."   -II Timothy 3:14 [KJV] Various hindrances meet the child of God in his path heavenwards. And their tendency is such, that but for the grace of God, they would effectually succeed in driving him from the faith. When, then, he has to meet a head wind blowing right in his teeth, when the storm and hail beat roughly upon him, when the waves rise high and the stream runs strong, there seems no getting on; and he fears that he shall be like "the children of Ephraim, who, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle." And yet there is that grace implanted in his heart, there is that faith which God the Spirit first created and still keeps alive in his soul, that though he may for a moment be driven aside, he yet never turns his back upon the truth; though retarded for a moment, his face is still Zionwards.   I can say for myself, that all the trials I have passed through...