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

" There is no fear in love. But perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment; he who feareth is not made perfect in love." -I John 4:18 [KJV] The wild fire of nature’s passions are often mistaken for heavenly love. These have hurried people into dreadful delusions. Some have pretended to be so perfect in love, as to have nothing but pure love in them, and that the being of sin was entirely taken out of them. But they have soon given awful evidence, that they “deceived themselves, and that the truth was not in them” (I John 1:8.)   Be wise by other’s harms. Study the word of God: abide by that. Live upon the perfect love of God: glory in that alone. For you are, and ever will be, while in the body, the subject of sin, therefore subject to that fear which hath torment: to fear God as an enemy, armed with almighty vengeance and vindictive wrath against you, a sinner. How is this tormenting fear to be cast out? By love; the perfect love of God in Chri...

"Being confident of this very thing, that He which began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).   If God began a thing, it was not begun in time. If it is realized in time, it began with God in eternity. So, the salvation, the grace that these believers received, began before the foundation of the world. We know from the clear revelation of scripture that the eternal aspects of grace are Christ’s Suretyship, election unto salvation, predestination of conformity to Christ, calling, justification and glorification.  Along with this is the eternal mechanism of providence that orders all things to their appointed end. I feel for those who think that what they do or do not do somehow affects the outcome of history. It is He that has begun this good work, and who can disannul or turn it back? The work is called a “good work .”  There is no doubt it is good for the believer. However, the reason it is good is because He ...