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

The Gospel is the message of glad tidings that everything a holy God required for the salvation of fallen sinners was fully accomplished, finished and completed by the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,”  which obedience was rendered to the Father on the behalf of those given to Him in the covenant of grace.   When Christ poured out His soul unto death, the Father’s justice was fully honored and the law’s demands were upheld.  The death of Christ paid the ransom price for all of those in whose stead He laid down His life.  The gospel is not a declaration that Christ made salvation a possibility if men will only add their faith or work to it and it certainly is not the message that permeates religion today which says, “Christ has done all He can do and the rest is up to you.”   The gospel is the truth of redemption obtained, of what God in Christ Jesus has already done for unworthy si...

God’s forgiveness of our sins in and by Christ is not partial, but complete.  He has forgiven all our sins: past, present, and future. So thorough and complete is our Heavenly Father’s forgiveness that He will never impute sin to us to any degree or for any reason.  So absolute is the forgiveness of our sins that our God will never treat us any the less graciously for having sinned!  -unknown preacher of righteousness

“Fear not Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” -Genesis 15:1 [KJV]   The word reward is also translated wages, hire, price, work, and fare.  Wages earned!  We realize we did not earn the Lord by our works of personal merit. And it is equally true by virtue of the work of Christ on our behalf, making the way for God to be just and justify the ungodly, we are given what God owes us!   The believer’s reward is Christ Himself!   To view our reward in any lower terms such as a higher position in heaven received because of works done here on earth is to debase the reward and deny that salvation is all of grace.  Christ Himself, the unspeakable gift of God Himself, is the reward given to every believer. -unknown preacher of righteousness

  With harps and with vials there stand a great throng In the presence of Jesus, and sings this new song To Him who hath loved us and washed us from sin To Him be the glory forever! Amen!   All these once were sinners, defiled in His sight But now in pure garments in praise they unite To Him who hath loved us and washed us from sin To Him be the glory forever! Amen!   He maketh the rebel a priest and a king He hath bought us and taught us this new song to sing To Him who hath loved us and washed us from sin To Him be the glory forever! Amen!   Aloud in His praises our voices shall ring With the ransomed in glory to Jesus our King To Him who hath loved us and washed us from sin To Him be the glory forever! Amen!    Hymn: “How Firm a Foundation"

" Thine heart lifted thee up to boast." -II Chronicles 25:19 [KJV] How despicable, how contemptible does pride make a man look in the eyes of his enemies? Amaziah sets out with the first step to idolatry, confidence in an arm of flesh. He next falls into the most gross and absurd idolatry. Reproof leaves him under it. As he had forsaken the Lord, the Lord cast him off. His destruction is near. A haughty spirit goes before a fall. Let him who thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.   One sin brings on another. When the Lord leaves a man, He exposes his pride, and makes himself ridiculous. Amaziah, being flushed with success at his victory over the Edomites sends a message to Joash, king of Israel, saying, “Come let us see one another in the face.” A challenge to war. Face me, if you care. Alas! he little thought that the Lord was departed from him, that he was given up to hardness of heart, and to seek his own destruction.  How different his language from...

"But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark." -Genesis 8:9 [KJV] What a restless being is a tempted child of God! How unable he often is even to rest locally, to take his chair, and sit quietly by his fire-side! Like Noah's dove, he can find no rest for the sole of his foot on the floating carcases of a ruined world. It is recorded of the prisoners, who in the first French revolution were awaiting in their dungeons the summons to the dread tribunal of blood, that some passed nearly the whole of their time in walking up and down their cells. So sometimes under trials and temptations, we pace up and down the room as if we sought to dissipate the exercise of our minds by the exercise of our bodies; or rush into the streets and fields to pour the heart out in sighs and groans, the restless mind acting and reacting upon the body. And as an exercised child of God often cannot rest locally, so cannot he rest spiritu...

"To remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive ." -Acts 20:35 [KJV] My soul, do not forget these words of thy Lord, after the Holy Ghost had been pleased thus sweetly to give them to the church. It is extremely probable, that Jesus had more than once expressed Himself in those gracious words to His disciples, though none of the evangelists have recorded them. But God the Holy Ghost would have them communicated to the church, and therefore the apostle Paul folds up his parting sermon to the church at Ephesus with them. And blessed be that eternal Spirit for this, among a thousand other instances of glorifying the Lord Jesus! And now, my soul, do not forget the words of thy Lord, but bind them as frontlets between thine eyes, and beg of the Holy Ghost to engrave them on thine heart. Is it, my Lord, more blessed to give than to receive? With Jesus, indeed, it hath been for ever thus: for Thou canst receive nothing...