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

  The Shepherd does not go in search of the lost sheep in order to make them His own, but because they are His already.  The sheep were His when they became sinners due to Adam’s transgression.  The good Shepherd said,  “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand”   (John 10:27-28).    The sheep did not suddenly become the property of the Shepherd upon hearing His voice and following Him.  The Shepherd called them unto Himself, they hear His voice and follow Him because they are already His sheep .  On the other hand, those who die in unbelief do not become goats by their refusal to believe Him.  Their unbelief is evidence they were never His sheep.   “But ye believe not, because ye are not of My Sheep, as I said unto you”   (John 10:26) .       ...

" I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me ." -I Corinthians 15:10 [KJV] When we meet with journals, diaries, experiences, etc. which do not exalt the riches of the grace of God, but set off the self-importance of the writers of them, they are as nauseous to the mind as tainted food to the palate. They remind us of the poet’s observation, “And I the little hero of each tale.” Not so St. Paul, in speaking of himself. No sooner had he brought this little great "I" upon the stage, but he instantly caused it to disappear.  Hence, the doctrine is plain, The grace of God makes a person labour for God, and yet keeps him humble before God. Consider, (1st.) To have the grace of God with one, is to have a lively sense of God’s free favour, in Christ, upon one’s own soul. Without this, we go on heavily in the ways of God; soon tire in His service; and turn back and walk no more with Christ. This was the life and ...