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

“Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.”   -Ecclesiastes 5:1 [KJV]   Let’s examine this verse, line by line.   1.  “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.”   Solomon takes for granted that we will go to the place of public worship where the children of God meet together to honor Christ.  In addition, he admonishes us that when we enter into the place of worship, we must do so with reverence and an awareness of the greatness of the One we desire to worship.  One writer said, “Ponder the path of thy feet.”  You are entering a place designated for worship, be it a church building, a private home or anywhere that God’s people gather to read His Word, seek His face in prayer, sing His praises and take heed to the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God.  Enter with the prayer that the Lord grant gra...

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light”   -I Peter 2:9 [KJV]    The Lord has set this  “peculiar people”  apart for Himself, in a particular and special way.  Yea, He has so set them apart for Himself as to bid defiance to all the roarings and dreadful powers of hell, and all the bubblings and workings-up of sin and pollution both within and without, to separate this people from God’s bosom and God’s heart.  His solemn Majesty has said, when speaking of them,  “This people have I formed for Myself; they shall shew forth My praise”   (Isaiah 43:21) .   “O yes,” says free-will; “they shall have a chance to do it, if they will .”  But God says  “they shall.”   Unbelief says “you shan’t;” carnal reason says “you can’t;” and inbred corruption says “you w...

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.” -Colossians 3:15 [KJV]   Jesus Christ has made peace by the blood of His cross; and if you believe what the God of truth says of it, peace should rule in your heart always; for all things are well ordered for you and sure in the everlasting covenant. On the part of God, all is unalterably fixed and settled! What is it, then, which unsettles you? Is it something you find in yourself? Is it indwelling sin and corruption, or from the  weakness of your faith? What? Have you forgotten that from all these the “blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth” ? Is it from suspicion that your peace is not right because it varies?  This should humble but not discourage you, because there is a gracious provision made to remove your suspicion. God has taken  the charge both of you and your peace. He keeps both by His mighty power. As it is written, “The peace of God which passeth a...

O how highly favored are the people of God’s covenant mercy, since His exalted and glorified Son calls them, “My brethren” ! “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be  called the sons of God” (I John 3:1) . While this sonship embraces sinful people, it is in the sonship of the Son of Man and in His holy life and Divine nature; for the sinless Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God, and in His righteousness only are we the sons of the Father Who is Holy .  That the people whom the Father gave Him in the perfect covenant should be made the holy people, the Holy Son of God came to them in the flesh and under the law, and, thus, is He their near-kinsman and beloved Brother. In Him was the right of redemption. The noble and compassionate Boaz, the near-kinsman of the widowed Naomi, who represented the state of the Jews and as betrothing Ruth unto himself, as representing the Gentiles.  He redeemed them both and made them rich, in which he...

When we say that all of our salvation was conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ and not on sinners, it is not to imply that our salvation was ever uncertain. It is to show that our salvation was, is, and ever shall be a sure thing because the Lord Jesus Christ is, and always has been, the SURETY of the covenant of grace .  There was never any doubt that Christ would perfectly and fully meet every condition and  requirement of God’s holy law and justice to attain and maintain the complete salvation of all for whom He lived, died, and arose from the dead. All the conditions of the salvation of God’s elect can be summed up in one word – righteousness . Christ had to fulfill all righteousness by His substitutionary death on the cross as the Surety of His people. He always has been and always will be the LORD our righteousness .  If salvation, or any part of it, were conditioned on us, sinners, we would all be damned forever because we have no righteousness and can produce no ...

“O LORD, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name; for Thou hast done wonderful things; Thy counsels of old  are faithfulness and truth.”   -Isaiah 25:1 [KJV]   I cannot be brought lower by the accusations and charges of men than I was brought to when I died in Christ; nor can I be lifted up higher by the praises of men than I am already exalted in Christ. Nothing alters my state as a justified sinner in Jesus Christ. Having eternal life in Him, I cannot be threatened with death nor can I be enticed by promise of reward since I have Him who is all. As a man in Christ, why would I want to be somewhere else? What more could you give me? God in grace put me where I am!    —preacher Gary Shepard   

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." -Romans 9: 14 [KJV]   ‘Often I hear people exclaim that it is so hard to live the Christian life.  No, it is not hard; it is impossible! The Christian life is only possible by Christ living through us. Therefore, no man can follow the Spirit unless the Spirit is within him. And, according to Romans 8:9, the Spirit is not there unless that man is saved!’ -Harold Hunter, ‘Romans,’ p. 150, self-published 1990 A.D.

"Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die: believest thou this?"   -John 11:26 [KJV] Under great declining of strength, dejection of spirits, and in consideration of the near approach of death, these precious words of our dear dying Lord were brought to my mind: they were as a comforting, reviving, draught to my spirits. Lord! I bless Thee for them. O, my soul! dwell on them. Am I a sinner, born to die? Is death the wages of sin? Must these eyes, which now read Thy precious sayings, be soon closed by death? Must the hand, which now directs this pen, be shortly still and motionless? Yet dost Thou, my Lord, say, “Living and believing in Thee, I shall never die?”  Dost Thou ask me, “Believest thou this?” “Lord, thou knowest all things!”  knowest, that, by Thy grace, I can say, “Thou art the Son of God” —Thou hast fulfilled Thine own promise, “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction”   (Hosea 13:14.) “Death is swallowe...

"The man which had the withered hand."   -Mark 3:3 [KJV] Surely the man in the jewish synagogue, which had a withered hand, will, in the history of his disease and cure, furnish me, this evening, with a very improving meditation. Do Thou, blessed Jesus, the great Healer both of soul and body, render it profitable, by Thy gracious instruction to my heart. This poor man had a withered hand, not only sinew-shrunk, but wasting away. He attended divine worship, for Jesus found him in the synagogue. But we do not read that he asked the mercy from Christ. It was Jesus that first looked upon him; and not he on the Lord Jesus. "Stretch forth thine hand , "  said the Son of God. Instantly the poor man found the powers of nature restored, the shrunk sinew became lengthened, and the hand which had wasted away, was restored. Pause, my soul! look at the subject as it concerns thyself. How long didst thou attend the means of grace under a withered soul? And to this ho...

"God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord."   -I Corinthians 1:9 [KJV] When God calls His people by His grace, it is to make them partakers of the highest bliss and the greatest glory that He could confer upon the sons of men. And this not only in eternity, but in time; not only beyond, but this side of the grave. He appeals, therefore, to them by His prophet. "Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness?" (Jeremiah 2:31.) When the Lord calls His people out of earthly pleasures, is it for no other purpose than to lead them into paths of affliction and sorrow? Does He make them leave the flesh pots of Egypt to starve them in a waste howling wilderness? This was the complaint of the ancient murmurers, that Moses had brought them up out of Egypt to kill them with thirst (Exodus 17:3) . Does He take them from earthly delights to abandon them to misery and despair? O no! He calls them even in t...