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

How do we know that the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Surety and Substitute of God’s elect,  conquered death? It is because He lives in His mediatorial resurrection glory ever living to make intercession for us.  How do we know that Christ established righteousness by which God justifies His people? It is because He arose from the dead and, again, intercedes on our behalf based upon the merits of His obedience unto death for us.  This insures the spiritual resurrection in the new birth of all for whom Christ lived, died, and arose. Because Christ lives, we live, and we live forever. Though we will experience physical death, Christ has conquered death for us –   “O death, where is thy sting? O grave,  where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” -I Corinthians 15:55-57   –preacher Bill Parker Gospel Audio Sermons here: https://www.sermo...

Christ is risen, let us sing, Glory, honor, praises bring; Law and justice magnified By our Lord Who bled and died.    Christ is risen, O what grace, To our God alone we trace; Peace with God and blessedness Through imputed righteousness.    Christ is risen, blessed hour, In God's plan, by sovereign power; For His sheep that they might live, Them eternal life He gives.    Christ is risen, O what love; Now He reigns and rules above; Sin and death no victory, Christ alone has set us free!   -Gospel Hymn, "Take My Life"     “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14.)   For his own part, the apostle was determined to glory in nothing save the cross of Christ. He had gone out to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, and like Moses, he counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. The cros...

"If today we are blessed with an absence of severe testing here in this country, we must know that this is not the case with many Christians throughout the world, whether in this generation or in each and every previous generation extending back to the beginning of Christianity.  Given the dominant structure of the Old Testament prophetic messages, the example of Jesus Christ, and the consistent experience of God’s people throughout history, it is difficult to believe that any future great tribulation will not also include God’s people." -Richard S. Hess excerpt from, 'The Future Written in the Past, The Old Testament and the Millennium,  A Case for Historic Premillennialism, '  Edited by Craig L. Blomberg and Sung Wung Chung, p.28

When my son was a young soldier stationed in Kuwait, I met a young lady his age from Franklin, Tennessee who impressed me as godly in her conduct, sweet in her disposition, and attractive in her appearance. I thought she would make a good wife for my son. I therefore emailed him and told him that, when he returned home from Kuwait, I would take him to Franklin to meet his wife. He returned. They met. They fell in love. They married. They enjoyed marital bliss all the days of their marriage. Young man or young woman, I suggest you not disregard the counsel of your wise father or mother regarding the person you should or should not marry.      This is especially true in the spiritual realm. God the Father chose a wife for His Son, Jesus Christ. Through God’s blessings to her, she is godly in her conduct, sweet in her disposition, and attractive in her appearance. Jesus came from heaven to earth to meet her. They met. They fell in love. They married. The...

"Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness."   - Jude 4 [KJV]   From what the bee extracts honey, venomous insects will draw poison. The word of God, which is food to gracious hearts, is the sport and contempt of profane wits . An ungodly heart will convert the most wholesome truths of God’s grace into the most poisonous effects. There ever were such men: there are such at this day, who hold forth some of the most precious truths concerning the Lord Jesus, and the grace of God abounding to sinners in Him, and yet with these maintain the most damnable heresies: they are “the fools who make a mock at sin” (Proverbs 14:9.)    Personal holiness they hold in the greatest derision: they declare their sin as Sodom— ‘Say unto the wicked, it shall be well with them. Tush! the Lord careth not about our walk and life: if we have lusts, better gratify them than burn with them.’ And they swallow up every unscriptural error in that damnable heresy...

"I pray Thee let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." - Deuteronomy 3:25 [KJV]   What a very lovely and interesting view doth this sweet scripture afford of Moses, the man of God! Look at him, my soul, as the Holy Ghost hath here represented him, and pray for grace to gather some of those blessed instructions which this part of his history particularly affords. And what was it that made Moses so anxious to go over and see the good land? It was but a type of heaven , even in its highest glory; and surely the type or representation of any thing cannot be equal to the thing itself; and Moses knew, that if he had not the type, he should have the substance: if debarred Canaan, he should be in heaven.   There must have been some other cause, which made Moses long for the sight of it. I venture to think (we may at least conjecture) and this scripture, I confess, leads me to the idea: "Let me see (said Moses) ...

"I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." -Isaiah 48:10 [KJV]   According to God's own testimony, it is "through much tribulation" that we are to enter into the kingdom; and therefore there is no entering into the kingdom of grace here or the kingdom of glory hereafter without it. But let this be ever borne in mind, that whatever affliction befall the saints, it is laid upon them by the hand of God, and that for the express purpose of putting them into a situation and of making them capable of receiving those comforts which God only can bestow. None but Jesus Himself and the Father can comfort a truly afflicted heart.    And He can and does from time to time comfort His dear people by a sense of His presence; by a word of power from His gracious lips; by the light of His countenance; by the balm of His atoning blood and dying love; and by the work and witness of the Spirit within. And as they receive this consolation from the mouth of God, ...