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

" This people have I formed for Myself: they shall shew forth My praise." -Isaiah 42:21 [KJV] What says the world, of God’s new formed creatures? “These men turn the world upside down , ” (Acts 17:6.) Well, if they do, is it not right? Seeing the devil by sin turned it upside down once, Christ, by the power of His grace, turned it upside down again, then it is turned into its right state. The Lord is here about to perform a wonder of grace. He calls for our special attention to it. “Behold, I will do a new thing.” (verse 19.) He was going to take those who were not a people, to make them His people. The eminent displays of God’s grace, should be the admiration of our hearts, and the glory of our souls.  See (1st.) the description of this people . They are compared to the beasts of the field, to dragons and owls. Yet the Lord calls them “My people, My chosen.” My soul, remember what thy nature is. As filthy as a beast, as fierce as a dragon, as stupid as an ...

"But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ." -Ephesians 2:13 [KJV] Of all the vast alterations made upon our nature by grace, that which is from death to life seems to be the greatest. I do not think the change would be as great, if Jesus were to make a child of God, after his conversion, at once an archangel, as when, by His blessed Spirit He quickens the sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, and brings him into grace. My soul, contemplate the sweet thought this morning, that it may lead thee, with thy hymn of praise, to all precious Jesus! First then, my soul, think where you then stood, before this vast act of grace had quickened you. You stood on the very confines of hell— unawakened, unregenerate, uncalled, without God, and without Christ. Supposing the Lord had not saved you; supposing a sickness unto death had, by His command, taken you; supposing that any one cause had been commissioned to sign your dea...

"But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." -Romans 6:17 [KJV] What reason have we to bless God that He so instructed His apostle to set forth how a sinner is justified! For how could we have attained to the knowledge of this mystery without divine revelation? How could we know in what way God could be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly? How could we see all the perfections of God harmonizing in the Person and work of Jesus? His law maintained in all its rigid purity and strictest justice, and yet mercy, grace, and love to have full play in a sinner's salvation? But the Spirit of God led Paul deeply into this blessed subject; and especially in the Epistle to the Romans does He trace out this grand foundation truth with such clearness, weight, and power, that the Church of God can never be sufficiently thankful for this portion of divine revelation. His grand o...