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

“IT IS HIGH TIME TO AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP”       - Romans 13:11 [KJV]     Sleep looks like death.   A true Christian can look dead in trespasses and sins.   The five virgins with the oil in their lamps slept and slumbered. On the outside they looked no different from the virgins without oil.   How can a believer become like this?   Too many reasons to list, but it is still a fact that they can.       Wake up!   Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.   We do not have much time left!   There is absolutely no excuse for our letting ourselves get in such a condition.   Where do I begin to wake up?   Hear the Gospel again as you first heard it.   “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him” (Colossians 2:6) .   -copied

If a man is not a believer and hears preaching that makes him see that he is not a believer - that is a good thing.   It is only then that a man will cry for mercy.   This is what God will use to drive him from his false refuges and look to Christ alone!      But if a man is a believer and hears preaching that makes him fear that he is not a believer because he does not measure up to what the preacher says a believer should be, he is quite simply not hearing the Gospel preached at that time.   He is hearing a message that calls upon men to look within for evidence of salvation.  Hearing the Gospel gives peace, not lack of assurance!    Hearing the Gospel is really believing that Christ is All, and assurance arises from that. There has never been a sinner who asked for mercy who was denied.   I have had many people over the years tell me that they have asked for mercy and their prayer went unheard.   The reason their prayer...

"Ye are fallen from grace." - Galatians 5:4 [KJV] Awful words! Enough to excite in us a holy fear, a godly jealously, and this earnest cry, “Lord, uphold me by Thy free Spirit.”  What is here meant by grace? the doctrine of God’s free favour, to lost sinners in Christ? redeeming their souls from the curse of the law, by His blood; justifying their persons before God, by His righteousness, without any works of their own; and saving them, without any desert of theirs. O, my Lord! what rich, what matchless grace is this! My soul shall love and praise Thee eternally in heaven for this! No! but, stop: thy joy is damped:—thou mayest fall from this grace; lose the favour of God; fall into hell. Who says this? Some say, St. Paul here does. No; it is as impossible for a saint in Christ Jesus thus to fall, as for a glorified saint in heaven to fall into hell. Christ is God. It is impossible for God to lie. For Christ says, “My sheep shall never perish”   (see John 10:28....

"And one of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on Him, saying, If Thou be Christ, save Thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked him." -Luke 23:39-40 [KJV] My soul! thy morning meditation was directed to that soul-reviving, penitent, encouraging prospect, which the cross of Christ affords, in the recovery of the thief upon the cross, as furnishing the most illustrious example of the sovereignty of grace! Oh! what a trophy was there of the Redeemer's conquest! Now take thy stand again at the foot of the cross, and look on the other side, and behold the dreadful reverse, in the obduracy of the human heart. Here view the sinner dying in all the possibilities of a hardened conscience, railing and blaspheming; while the other departs in the most finished act of faith and repentance, glorifying the Lord. Pause over the contemplation, and then ask, what was it made the mighty difference? Who made thee, my soul, to differ from another? And what hast...

"Hold fast that which is good. " -I Thessalonians 5:21 [KJV] There are two things especially which every saint of God is called upon to hold fast: these are, first, the beginning of God's work upon his soul; and, secondly, his deliverance. Any manifestation too that you have had of the Lord Jesus Christ; any application of His atoning blood; any discovery of His glorious Person or shedding abroad of His love; hold that fast, for it is good. And so I may say, hold fast any promise you have ever had applied; any answer to prayer you have ever received; any felt blessing that may have been wrought in your heart by a divine power. All this is good. It comes from a good God; it works in a good way; it leads to a good end; it will make a good deathbed, and will land you in a most blessed eternity. Therefore "hold fast that which is good."  Everything which is commended to your conscience as really good; every good man; every good minister; every child of...