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

Who Exactly is the First and the Last ? Part I by D. G. Miles McKee To Yahweh belongs the title, ‘The First and the Last.’ We know this because in Isaiah 44:6 He gives us His self-description. There we read,   “Thus saith the L ORD the King of Israel, and His redeemer the L ORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God.”   Then in addition the Lord declares,   “Hearken unto Me, O Jacob and Israel, My called; I am He; I am the first, I also am the last.”  (Isaiah 48:12) .   How fascinating to find then, in the New Testament, the title First and the Last and the equivalent term, ‘Alpha and Omega’ being attributed to the Lord Jesus. Notice how in the following scriptures the one who is the Alpha and Omega is the same one who is the ‘first and the last,’ the ‘beginning and the end.’  Revelation 1:17-18 , “I am  the first and the last  I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,...

" I, even I AM HE, Who blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." -Isaiah 43:25 [KJV] With tears of joy and emotions of love, my once dearly beloved and much honoured friend, now with Jesus, the late  Mr. Jones, minister of St. Saviour’s, told me, The awful charges which precede, and the free and unmerited grace which is proclaimed in this text, made the first impressions of the Saviour’s love upon his heart. O that the Lord of all grace may give us some comfort from it to-night! Here grace shines with meridian splendour; here grace gloriously reigns, over all the aboundings of sin: here grace sweetly triumphs over all the baseness and unworthiness of the sinner.  In the two former verses, God arraigns the culprit, reads a black catalogue of indictment against him, and concludes with, “Thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities.” The sinner is struck dumb. He dare not deny it. Th...

"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God ." -Matthew 4:4 [KJV] "Man shall not live by bread alone." There is heavenly food to support his soul, as well as natural food to support his body. If a man is supported spiritually by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, if this be the only food the Lord's people enjoy, how little they have! If you and I have no more religion than that which comes from what God has spoken into our soul; if that be the bread we are to live upon; if that be the strength of our heart; if that be our living portion and our dying sufficiency;—how it narrows up our religion into so small a compass, that sometimes we seem to require a microscope to see whether we have any or not. But thus we learn this lesson, "that man liveth not by bread alone." He cannot live by doctrines in the head. He cannot live by bodily gestures. He cannot live ...

"Wherefore glorify ye the L ORD in the fires, even the name of the L ORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea." -Isaiah 24:15 [KJV] My soul, hast thou ever considered, in how many ways, and by what a variety of means, every poor sinner called by grace, is furnished with ability to glorify God in Christ? It is blessed to see this, and doubly blessed to be employed in such a service. The poor sinner not only glorifies Jesus, actively, when he is praising Him; but passively also, when his wants and necessities afford occasion for Jesus to be glorified in giving out of His fulness to his relief. And how is the Lord glorified in the fires? Evidently when in the furnace of affliction, or in the fire of temptation, the poor exercised soul glories in his infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon him! when he can, and when he doth receive all, and take all, and feel happy under all, from the consciousness that the Lord's hand is in it, and the Lord's...