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

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”  -John 1:14 [KJV]  The eternal God joined Himself to human flesh and He evermore remains inseparably God and Man. Let us rejoice with joy unspeakable and give unceasing thanks to God for this wonderful truth. When Christ came to give His life a ransom for His people, He did not cease to be God. When He finished the work of redemption, went back to the Father and took His seat upon the throne of universal dominion, He did not cease to be Man. Our Mediator and Great High Priest always shall be, “the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5).  —preacher Jim Byrd

This is a privilege of the highest nature, and an exercise of the highest delight; for glory in the highest perfection is due to the Holy Name of the LORD. “O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard ; ” (Psalm 66:8) ; and all nations are called to bless and adore Him; that is, so many as it shall please our God to call to the faith of His Son Christ Jesus, for they that love the LORD, can never cease from this work. “I will extol Thee, my God, O king; and I will bless Thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever” (Psalm 145:1-2.)   Everyone that honours the Father, honours the Son, for their glory cannot be divided; no glory can possibly be given to the one, that is not given to the other, for they are one; and to render thanksgiving and praise is the most direct and immediate way of confessing the God of all grace. In this way we confess the sensible feelings of our hearts, and breathe out th...

“And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.” -Exodus 25:22 [KJV]   The tabernacle of old was a revelation of the shekinah glory of God, which was the fullness of God’s revelation of Himself in the glorious Person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the full salvation of His people. This revelation was given not only in the preaching of the Gospel but also in the types and pictures of the elements of the tabernacle such as the mercy seat in the holy of holies.    Here we see Christ as the Surety, Substitute, and Redeemer of His people by the sacrifice of Himself as the Lamb of God in Whom and by Whom God justified His people and accepts them as righteous in His sight. The blood of the lamb sprinkled on this mercy seat pictured the blood of Jesus Christ shed for the s...

"Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen: let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation."   - Judges 10:14 [KJV]   A severe sarcasm from the Lord to apostate sinners! It causes a hell upon earth to a renewed soul, to hear and feel just upbraidings from the Lord of heaven: this is one of His severest chastizings to His children. Here is an awful charge, and a severe reproof: the Lord keeps us clear of the one, that we fall not under the other.    Consider, (1st.) the charge: it is idolatry. They had gods of their own choosing. For the Lord’s sake, and for our soul’s sake, let us not think, we are in no danger of falling into this sin! It is committed by professors every day. Aged Paul wept over such. Though they professed Christ, yet they were enemies to His cross: their belly was their god: “Their hearts were set upon earthly things” (Philippians 3:19.)    Such are not content with Christ as their own; to live in fellowship with Hi...

"Having loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." -Acts 2:24 [KJV]   My soul! thou hast been in contemplation to the tomb of Jesus this morning, and seen the place where the Lord lay; now sit down, and ponder over what this blessed scripture saith, that "the pains of death were loosened, because it was not possible for Jesus to be detained a prisoner by it." And if there were no other scripture, but this one, in proof of Christ's godhead, this in itself would be unanswerable; for it could be nothing but the godhead of His person which made it impossible. It was this which, from the union of the manhood with the godhead, preserved His soul from sin, and His body from corruption; for though the human nature that Christ took was subject to all the sinless infirmities of nature, and to feel hunger, weariness, and the like, to the full, being part of the curse on the fall, which He came to bear and do away;...

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." -Hebrews 13:8 [KJV]   The eye of our faith must be ever fixed on Jesus, for the Person of Christ is the grand object of faith, and to lose sight of Him is to lose sight of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Is He not the same Jesus now that He was on earth? He is exalted, it is true, to an inconceivable height of glory, so that when John saw Him, even as if in some measure veiled, he fell at His feet as dead. But He is the same Jesus now as when He was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as He wears the same human body, so He has the same tender, compassionate heart. All that He was upon earth as Jesus, He is in heaven still.    All that tenderness and gentleness, all that pity to poor sensible sinners, all that compassion on the ignorant and on those that are out of the way, all that grace and truth which came by Him and were manifest in Him, all that bleeding, dying love, all that sym...