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

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints ." -Jude vs. 3 [KJV] In this day of blasphemy, lukewarmness, and indifference, we are seeing how few want the completed revelation of truth. Nothing is superfluous in the sphere of truth. Jude 3 states three important facts:  (1) This is God’s final gift of objective truth.  (2) It is once-for-all given.  (3) It is given to the saints of God.  Saints are to struggle in behalf of God-given truth. Giving up any part of truth makes a saint guilty of a breach of allegiance to Christ. Giving up any part of Scripture to please oneself, or in order to keep the company of its opposers, results in giving up other parts of truth. The Bible is the one and only standard. It is essential to maturity (see II Timothy 3:16, 17) , and it is not continuing to b

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment" (Philippians 1:9, KJV). Love is especially the effect of knowledge; and love we know is a fruit of the blessed Spirit. As then the Lord the Spirit is pleased to open up the precious truth of God to the soul, love embraces what the Holy Ghost reveals. Thus there is a knowledge of the only true God by the teaching of the Spirit. But our love is to abound not only in knowledge, which is the foundation of it, because if there is no knowledge of the Lord there can be no love to the Lord or His people, but also in all feeling, in all sense (- perception, discernment ) , in all experience. Spiritual knowledge, therefore, and experimental feeling are the two feeders of Christian love; the two streams, as it were, that run side by side out of the very throne of the most High, and meet and melt into that boundless river, love. And it is by this union of knowledge and experience

"They made me keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept." -Song of Solomon 1:6 [KJV] My soul, now the day is over, sit down, and look back on the employments of it. What a day hath it been? What portion of it hath been engaged in the service of thy Lord, and the improvement of thy soul? How wholly occupied in the busy and imperious demands of the world, the care of the body, and in procuring the bread that perisheth! Surely the complaint of the church is thine also. Keeper of the vineyards of others, thine own goeth to waste! And of what avail, in the path of grace, if though occupied by a thousand things in the aid of others, thou art making no progress in the heavenly road by thine own soul? Are not the peace of thy life, and the glorious expectation of a better, to be advanced in the knowledge and enjoyment of Jesus? If I lose sight of Thee, Thou dear Immanuel; if the lively actings of faith upon Thee be remitted, will the recollection of

" Forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." -I Corinthians 15:58 [KJV] Christian knowledge is the source of comfort, and the spring of obedience. The knowledge of God’s love to us in Christ, received into the heart by faith, animates us to be, and to do, what the Lord calls us to in our lives. St. Paul appeals to Christians, Ye know—what? that you are called, not to loiter, but to labour: not to stand idle, but to work: not merely to talk of the truths of Christianity, but to walk in the ways of the Lord. But what constitutes it the sweetest of all labouring, working, and walking, it is the labour of love, the work of faith, and the walk of hope. And we have Christ’s presence and power in all.  We know, we are fully persuaded, we are divinely assured, our labour is not in vain: for it is in the Lord. It is begun by His grace, tarried on by His power, IN sweet fellowship with Him, IN love to Him, IN dependence on Him, IN assurance that we a

" Is not My word like as a fire? saith the L ORD ." -Jeremiah 23:29 [KJV] How comforting this reflection? “We, who were sometimes afar off, are now made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13.) How happy is the soul, when it finds nearness of access to God, and enjoys sweet converse with Him? Then with Jeremiah it says, “Let me talk with Thee,” (Jeremiah 12:1.) Then the Lord condescends to hear and reply. As here, He appeals to the soul’s experience; and asks, What effect has My word had on thine heart? Is it not like fire? Let us consider this, that the word of the Lord may be glorified by us to-night.  (1st.) It is the property of fire to communicate light . So doth the word. “The entrance of Thy word giveth Light , ” (Psalm 119:130.) When we were darkness itself, how did the word enter, and shine into our hearts, and give us the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ? In seasons of darkness, how often has the word brought light

"Man did eat angels' food." -Psalm 78:25 [KJV] Yes, so he did, when the Lord rained down manna upon the people in the wilderness. But, my soul, what hast thou eaten, now thou hast. been at the table of thy Lord? What did Jesus there entertain thee with? "Wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth!" Thou hast feasted upon the body and blood of Christ! And this is food which angels never ate, neither was such a feast ever prepared for them. Pause over this blessed subject, for it is enough to call up the wonder, praise, and love of all thine intellectual faculties for ever! When man fell, the earth was made to bring forth thorns and thistles; this was all the inheritance then left us; man was to eat bread in the sweat of the brow. But Jesus interposeth, and removes the curse, in being made a "curse for us." The curse being removed by Him and His cross, the earth is made to bring forth its blessings, and "wine that maketh glad the

"I will strengthen that which was sick." - Ezekiel 34:16 [KJV] Peculiar maladies require peculiar remedies; but here is a general remedy, a family medicine. The Lord not only has strong remedies for desperate diseases; but in the divine medicine chest He has His restoratives and cordials. "Stay me with flagons; comfort me with apples," cries the Bride, "for I am sick of love." She was in a swoon, and needed a reviving cordial to restore her. So a poor fainting soul may come to hear the preached gospel, or may open his Bible, and say, "What is here for me? When I hear any deep experience described, that seems to cut me off as too deep; and when I hear great manifestations entered into, that cuts me off as too high. So I seem to be a strange being, a peculiar out-of-the-way creature, that can neither dive nor fly, sink nor rise." Well, you are sick; you are like one in a hospital, ill of a malady that puzzles all the doctors. At las

Some have said that to be “justified” is to be “just as if I’d never sinned.” But the truth is justification deals completely with the fact that I HAVE sinned. God being just, His justification has to have a just basis. When Paul wrote in Romans 8, “It is God that justifies,” he immediately followed with “it is Christ that died.” The death of a sinless Substitute for sin is necessary for God to justify a sinner. Justification is clearly an act of God. He declared all His people as having been “justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” All in Him are now without sin, but justification does not excuse sin or in any way diminish its vileness and offensiveness to God. No, justification declares the sinner righteous and also declares the Justifier as righteous. —preacher Gary Shepard

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." -II Corinthians 3:18 [KJV] When our desires and affections ascend to where the Lord Jesus Christ now is, when raised out of all the smoke and fog, din and strife, noise and bustle, cares and anxieties, pursuits and pleasures, sins and sorrows of this earthly scene, we can in faith and hope, in love and affection, live above and beyond all things here below, and beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, "are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" —this is being made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. When the Lord Jesus went up on high He entered into His glory. As then we behold Him in His glory in faith and love, there is the reflection of His glory, and saints thus favoured enter into heaven when still upon earth, and

"For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all whilst the testator liveth." -Hebrews 9:17 [KJV] Precious Lord Jesus! and was it needful that Thou shouldest die, that the rich legacies of Thy will might be paid Thy children, and Thy spouse, the church? Was the testament in Thy blood of no force until Thou hadst finished redemption by expiring on the cross And hast Thou now confirmed the whole, by this gracious act of Thine, when dying "the just for the unjust, to bring us to God ? " Sit down, my soul, this evening, and ponder over the unequalled love of thy dear Redeemer. Jesus died, and thereby gave validity and efficacy to His will. Now therefore it is of force.  Now the large estate of "an inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and which fadeth not away , " which Jesus hath purchased by His blood, is eternally and everlastingly secured. Yea, the will hath since His death, been proved in the court

"For Thou, O God, hast proved us; Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried." -Psalm 66:10 [KJV] The Lord's dealings with His people in the wilderness are very much to this purpose and to this end—to prove them, and to know what is in their hearts. Has the Lord implanted life in your soul? Has He touched your conscience with His finger? Has He begun a work of grace upon your heart? If so, in your travels through this wilderness there will be things from time to time to prove the reality of this work upon your soul.  You will have temptations; now, when temptation comes, it will prove whether you have the fear of God in your soul to stand against the temptation, or whether you fall under the temptation; or, if you fall under the temptation, whether you are ever recovered out of it. And if you are a living soul, the Lord will keep bringing circumstance upon circumstance, event upon event, one thing after another; and all these things, as they come upon you, shal

" He wist not that the L ORD was departed from him." -Judges 16:20 [KJV] What do I read? Sampson’s name enrolled in the list of the ancient heroes of faith? Hebrews 11:32. What! he who loved a harlot, and was so blinded by his lust, as to bring on himself the most dreadful evils, even unto death? Yes. Grace reigned then. It reigns still, through the righteousness of Christ unto sinners. What! That they should continue in sin, because grace abounds? God forbid! See the most awful evils it brought upon this man of God. Behold in him how sin blinds the eyes, hardens the heart, and stupefies the conscience. Think of this, and tremble at the first approach of sin and lust.  (1st.) Sampson’s lust to a vile, unchaste woman, had so blinded his reason, that he put his life into her hands three times. Yet he could not see that she had no regard for him, but only wanted to destroy him. Here was a judgment upon his sinful passions. The Philistines put out his eyes.  (2d.)

Did Jesus Die Well?   Part 1 by D.G. Miles McKee The more majestic Jesus appears to us, the more confidence we will have in Him in both life and death. Never was Christ more majestic than when He conquered death at Calvary. It was there, at the cross, He did away with sin, destroyed demonic authorities and brought about the ‘death of death’ itself.  As William Romaine observed, “Death stung himself to death when he stung Christ.” To grasp the awesome nature of the cross we must remember that Jesus and death were unrelated.  Jesus had life in Himself; He was not merely the giver of life but was life itself! (John 14:6). Death was for sinners, but Christ was sinless There was, consequently, no reason for Him to die! He had neither broken the Law nor disobeyed the Father thus death had no claim over Him. No power on earth could kill Him. He was not exaggerating when, speaking of His life, He said, No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it

" But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." -Hebrews 4:15 [KJV] O, says a soul in heaviness, through manifold temptations, surely no one was ever tempted and as I am: St. Paul answers to the contrary. “There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to men,” (I Corinthians 10:13.) Is this any relief and support to you? If not, consider the text.  (1st.) Temptation was common to Christ as man. He was tempted in all points like as we are. View Him beset by Satan. See the hellish arts he practised upon Him. He tempted Him to the lust of the eye—to self-murder—to idolatry—to distrust God—to tempt God—yea, in all points, like as we are. You cannot feel a trial or temptation, but what Christ felt before you. Though he had no sin in His nature for Satan to work upon, yet, He doubtless felt all the assaults, which the power and malice of hell could attack Him with, yet without sin . Therefore, temptations are not sin.  (2d.) Though as G