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

     "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 ...