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

  Now may the Lord reveal His face And teach our stammering tongues To make His sovereign, reigning grace The subject of our songs. No sweeter subject can invite A sinner’s heart to sing Or more display the glorious right Of our exalted King. Grace reigns to pardon crimson sins To melt the hardest hearts And from the work it once begins   It never once departs. ’Twas grace that called our souls at first By grace thus far we’ve come And grace will help us through the worst And lead us safely   home.     -Gospel hymn, “O God Our Help In Ages Past”    *****     “There is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”   -Proverbs 14:12 [KJV]     ***** THE DOCTRINE OF NEED   The doctrines of grace, or the five points of grace, or even more accurately the doctrine of grace or the doctrine of Christ:    (1) As a result of Adam’s fall all men are totally depraved.    (2) Go...

"So will I go unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish."   -Esther 4:16 [KJV] What a noble act of the soul is faith! Who, indeed, but the Lord Jesus, can be the author or giver of it? Ponder it well, my soul, and see if thou canst discover the smallest possible degree of it in thee. To have the least portion of it is an evidence of an interest in Christ; for it is said, that "as many as were ordained to eternal life believed , " Acts 13:48. And Oh! what an honour is it to give credit to God the Father's testimony of His dear Son!   Sit down, my soul, this evening, and pause over the subject. There are more difficulties to the exercise of it than are generally considered. The case of Esther, in the court of the Persian king, will serve, in some measure, to explain it. By the law of Persia, every individual, whether man or woman, who ventured into the inner court of the king's presence uncalled, was condemned ...

" Therefore, behold I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall that she shall not find her paths."   - Hosea 2:6 [KJV]   Here is a contest between the 'free will' of the sinner, and the free grace of the Saviour. Why therefore? This alludes to what was spoken before. O how strong it savours of cursed, freewill pride! I will go after my lovers, etc. What says the Lord to this? Go, and destroy yourself, I will leave you to your own will? O ye patrons to the notion of free-will, a greater curse cannot befall you on this side hell than to be thus left. Though you have such pride, yet the Lord has more grace.    Therefore He says, Behold . Take special notice of this. Your will is to leave Me, and destroy your souls. But I will not suffer this. Grace reigns. Free will shall be conquered: My glory shall be exalted. I will hedge up thy way with thorns. Mind: it is thy way, not Mine. I will set the briers of troubles, and the sharp thorns of afflictions,...

"And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest."  -Isaiah 32:2 [KJV]   Who is this man? Need I ask the question? Is there not a response in every God-fearing breast? It is the man Christ Jesus—the man who is God's fellow. How blessed it is to have a scriptural and spiritual view of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, to see Him not merely as God, truly essential God, one in essence, glory, and power with the Father and the blessed Spirit, but also man, made in all things like unto us, sin only excepted.    And what a suitability there is in the humanity of the Lord Jesus, when we view it in union with this glorious Deity! As man He suffered, as man He bled, as man He died, as man He stands a Mediator for His fellow men between God and man; as man, He has for human distress an affectionate, compassionate, sympathising heart; as man, He obeyed the law in every particular; as man, He bore all the sufferings of humani...