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

"...and take the helmet of salvation." - Ephesians 6:17 [KJV]   It is excellently said, “Resolve for hardships, or lay down thine arms.   Few come at the beat of Christ’s drum to His standard. Many that list by external profession under Him, after a while drop away and leave His colours. It is suffering work they are sick of. Many men are more tender of their skin than of their conscience. They had rather the gospel had provided armour to defend their bodies from death and danger, than their souls from sin and Satan.” -Gurnal’s Christian Armour   All this is, because they have not on the helmet of salvation. What is this? “For an helmet, the hope of salvation” (I Thessalonians 5:8.) Do not all naturally hope to be saved? Yes, some in one way, and some in another. But all natural hopes are false hopes. Therefore they die and perish. But this helmet is a supernatural and divine hope. All men have not faith. Therefore they have not Christ, who is the helmet of...

"And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work, and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD our God hath cursed ." -Genesis 5:29 [KJV]   I still think, and believe that I always shall think, that holy men of old possessed great superiority of faith to new testament believers, in the attention they paid to the choice of names given to their children. Our choice, for the most part, is from caprice, or respect to our relations or earthly connections; they had an eye to heaven. Thus, in the instance before us, Lamech evidently called his son, Noah, which signifies rest, in reference to "the rest which remaineth for the people of God;" and, as such, had an eye to Christ, the promised seed, in whom alone that rest was to be found. I do not presume to suppose that Lamech thought this child to be himself the promised seed, as our first mother Eve did at the birth of Cain, when she said, "I have gotten...

"The substance of a diligent man is precious." -Proverbs 12:27 [KJV] If the Lord has done anything for our souls by His Spirit and grace, and given us anything to taste, handle, realise, and enjoy for ourselves, we know there is a substance and reality in the things that we believe. Religion is our chief employment; our daily meditation or exercise—the main concern of our thoughts and what lies with the greatest weight upon our minds. And justly so; for it is our all. If we have religion, the religion of God's giving, it will be uppermost in our heart. It is true we are surrounded with and often hampered by a body of sin and death; we have many worldly cares and anxieties which will intrude upon our minds; and those engaged in business have many things especially to drag them down from heaven to earth. Still, religion will be for the most part uppermost in a man's soul, where God has begun and is carrying on a gracious work. Not but what he is often very...

     "Evangelical repentance is the gift of free Grace. Faith is the Gift of God. What is God’s, as a gift to bestow, cannot be man’s duty to perform as a condition of salvation. Those who are summoned to look to Christ, to come to Him for salvation, are very minutely described – they are the weary and heavy laden with sin, the penitent, the hungry and thirsty soul. These are the characters who are called to come to and believe in Christ"  ( Matthew 11:28 ; Isaiah 55:1 ; Mark 2:17 .)     —preacher Christopher Ness (1621-1705 A.D.)

       The faith of the justified is that “common faith” binding together every true believer.  Titus 1:4 – “To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.” It is common in one sense only. It is found only in and exercised by those whom the Father sent the Son to redeem. It is wrought of God in the believer and is fixed on its object, the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness imputed as all the sinners’ salvation. All other faiths are counterfeit. There are three qualities common in the common faith:   (1) It sees no merit in the sinner. By nature, even God’s elect are all too ready to boast in  their faith. This “common faith” looks away from the sinner to another for salvation. God given faith never commands the sinner to look to himself for any part of salvation.    (2) It sees all merit in the Savior. God given faith looks only to “the LORD our...

     To worship God is an awesome privilege that only His true people, saved by His grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, can enjoy. It is only through Christ as our Redeemer and Mediator that we can worship God acceptably. It is on the basis of Christ’s merits that God accepts our praise, our prayers, and our obedience. We meet with our heavenly Father at the mercy-seat, and Christ is our true Mercy-Seat.    True worship is not just “going to church,” singing hymns, and listening to morality messages. True worship is, first and foremost, acknowledging the living and true God as He reveals Himself through the Lord Jesus Christ according to His Word, the Bible. As we who know Him savingly as the God Who justifies the ungodly by His grace through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord, we worship Him in spirit and in truth. Whatever He says of Himself in His Word we believe to be true. Much of what God reveals of Himself astounds our minds so t...

  Sing aloud this hymn of praise, Hallelujahs let us raise; Bless the Lord of earth and skies, Let our praises ever rise, Let our praises ever rise.   View His great creative might, In the morning’s glor’ous light; Study providence and see Proofs of His great sovereignty, Proofs of His great sovereignty.   Yet a greater work appears, What relief to all our fears! God for sinners gave His Son, Jesus, the Anointed One, Jesus, the Anointed One.   Lo He came the lost to save, His own life He freely gave; God was fully satisfied, When Christ Jesus bled and died, When Christ Jesus bled and died.   From His throne Christ reigns on high, By His grace He brings us nigh; He our sin has washed away, Turned our darkness into day, Turned our darkness into day.   So this song of praise we sing, Unto Christ our God and King; We are filled with thankfulness, For the Lord our Righteousness, For the Lord our Righteousness.     -Tune:  “Take My Life and Let it ...

“Scripture Alone” will always be   For us our sole authority; The words of men may serve us well, But God’s Word does them all excel.   And “Christ Alone” is all we need, For He all others does exceed; To Him alone our souls shall cling   As God’s one Prophet, Priest, and King.   “By Grace Alone” the Lord has saved His people when they were depraved; For nothing that we say or do Will merit favor in God’s view.   “Through Faith Alone” we’re justified From all our sins and sanctified; No law will give us righteousness, Nor make us holy, we confess.   “Glory To God Alone” we sing, For all our praise to Him we bring; And these Five Solas will always Be held by us through endless days.   -preacher Daniel Parks   *******0*******   BELIEVING THE POSSIBLE Contrary to our critics, we do not believe the impossible. Rather, we believe, as Jesus Christ declared, that things impossible with men are possible with God (see Matthew 19:26 ...

"Above all, taking the shield of faith." -Ephesians 6:16 [KJV] When Christ has the heart, it will say, If I can see nothing of Christ in the text, that text is nothing to me. Here is a shield of defence. What is it? A mere assent of the mind? A cold consent of the tongue, to some certain propositions? Is this the shield of faith, which will cover my head, and defend my heart in the day of battle? Is it believing a system of doctrines, without having the heart warmed with love, or the life influenced by the power of them, that the apostle exhorts me above all to take? O no, nothing less is this shield of faith than Christ, precious Christ. Never, never have any idea of faith, without including its Author and Object. Otherwise it is a mere non-entity: a notion which has no real existence but in fancy. When we hear people insist, that faith is our righteousness—that faith is imputed to us for righteousness, we are led to think they take up, and are in love with so...

"Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." -Revelation 2:10 [KJV] My soul! thy last evening meditation, by faith, was on Pisgah's top. This evening, do thou attend to what thy Saviour speaks in this scripture of the prospect of a prison. This forms the state and condition of the believer. The transition he is sometimes, and suddenly, called to make, is from the house of feasting to the house of mourning. He is here but in a wilderness at the best; and whatever accommodations he meets with by the way, the apartments of joy and sorrow are both under the same roof, and very often it is but a step from one to the other: yea, sometimes, and not unfrequently, when Jesus hath been feasting with His people, and they with Him, before the cloth hath been taken away, and the bl...

"The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." -Jeremiah 31:3 [KJV] There can be no new thought in the mind of God. New thoughts, new feelings, new plans, new resolutions continually occur to our mind; for ours is but a poor, fallen, fickle, changeable nature. But God has no new thoughts, feelings, plans or resolutions; for if He had He would be a changeable Being, not one great, eternal, unchangeable I Am . All His thoughts, therefore, all His plans, all His ways are like Himself, eternal, infinite, unchanging, and unchangeable. So it is with the love of Christ to the Church. It is eternal, unchanging, unchangeable. And why? Because He loved as God. Never let us lose sight of the glorious Deity of Jesus. He loved her in eternity as the Son of God, prior to His incarnation. That was but the fruit of His love. We can, therefore, assign no beginning to the love of ...

  Cleansed from all Sin by D G Miles McKee     “ The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from  all  sin.” – I John 1:7 [KJV]   This verse tells us that the blood cleanses us, not just from some sin, but “from all sin.” Where is our original sin (Romans 5:12) , the sin received from the Fall of Adam? ---it’s gone! How? The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Where is our inherited sin, the sin with which we were born (Psalm 51:5) ? It’s gone! How? The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin! Where is our actual sin, those vile disturbances of filth that erupt from deep within. The penalty for them is gone! How? The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin. The blood cleanses from all sins, big sins, small sins, sins of commission, sins of omission, deadly sins, sins of lust, sins of adultery, sins of lying, stealing, pride and arrogance--the blood of Jesus cleanses them all. Surely this one verse, (1 John 1:7) when be...

"...and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace."   - Ephesians 6:15 [KJV]   Soldiers of Christ, you are not only commanded to stand against every enemy, but to march on: to follow the Captain of your salvation, in the way to eternal glory . Here you must expect the enemy will strive to retard your march. He will strew the road with difficulties and entanglements—with briers and thorns—make it rugged, and almost impassable, as though every step was upon sharp stones and goading spikes. Your feet must be shod, or you will halt when you should march: turn back when you should go forward. "No one can make a shoe to the creature’s foot, so as he shall go on easy, in a hard way, but Christ. He can do it to the soldier’s full content.    How doth He it? Truly, no other way than underlaying it: or, if you will, lining it with the peace of the gospel . What though the way be set with sharp stones? If this shoe go between the Christian’s foot a...

"The top of Pisgah." -Deuteronomy 34:1 [KJV]   There is somewhat truly interesting in this account of Pisgah, to which Moses ascended before his death. The relation, no doubt, was intended to convey seasonable instruction, of a spiritual nature, to all true believers in Christ, in their Pisgah contemplations of the promised land. My soul! sit down this evening, and see what, under divine teaching, thou canst make of it. Probably thy Lord, thy Jesus, may grant to thy faith, sights yet more glorious than even Moses beheld in open vision, when he went up to Mount Nebo. "The top of Pisgah" afforded to the man of God, a beautiful prospect of Canaan; and as we are told, that "his natural force was not abated, neither his eye become dim;" he might possibly view the boundaries of Israel's dominions; which, in point of extent, reached but little more than fifty miles in one direction, and about three times that length in another.    Indeed, we ...