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

Men often ask this question. Holy Scriptures answer it thoroughly.       1.  God does not love every sinner alike   (this truth is contrary to a popular opinion.) For God Himself said of certain twins, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated” (Romans 9:13; Malachi 1:2f). God loved one of these sinners, but hated the other.       2.  God loved His people when they were sinners (Ephesians 2:4f): “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses ....” He tells them that “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you” (Jeremiah 31:3). God loved His chosen sinners enough to draw them from sin to Himself.       3.  God loves His people even when they sin – and proves His love to them by chastening them (Proverbs 3:11): “My son, do not despise the chastening of Jehovah,...

"God can either bestow or refuse to bestow blessings on the children of men without prejudice to any of His attributes. He arbitrarily does as He pleases. God is the cause of the effect. God, the first cause, cannot create a first cause. God cannot create God. Everything He created is the second cause. How can the second cause let the first cause do anything?  The first cause planned, prepared, created, and controls everything. He is either God or He is not God. Although most people give the Son of God the name of Jesus Christ, they know nothing of His person and characteristics. The foundational truth of all truths is the absolute sovereignty of God."   -Wilbur Elias Best, excerpt from  'Is God the Author of Sin?'

"From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the LORD’s name is to be praised."   -Psalm 113:3 [KJV]   Praise is the incessant employ of glorified saints in heaven. There they fully see and eternally sing of the electing, redeeming, sanctifying, glorifying love of the blessed Trinity. May our souls catch some of the heavenly flame of love, and imitate them in our praise to-night. This is the work of an humble heart. Pride is the parent of murmuring and discontent.    A sense of the blessings of the Lord, and a sight of our unworthiness of them, excite praises in the heart. This is the language of a praising soul, Why me, Lord? Why am I singled out from the ruins of a fallen race, to partake of thy special grace, peculiar love, and precious salvation? Am I better than others? Have I done more to deserve thy mercies than others? Have I a greater right to challenge thy favour than others? O, Lord! why me?     Thus, while the soul sink...

"And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all." -Hebrews 9:3 [KJV] The veil of separation between the two tabernacles, no doubt, typified Christ's body, which, in the moment of His death, by an invisible hand, was torn in twain from the top to the bottom, thereby intimating that now all separation was removed, and true believers were permitted to enter, by the blood of Jesus, into the presence of God, He having obtained eternal redemption for them. The second or inner sanctuary, had several very interesting particulars, by way of distinction, belonging to it. The veil of separation, under the Jewish dispensation, intimated, that it was impossible for any to draw nigh to God, but by a mediator.   When Jesus threw down the separation, and opened a new and living way by His blood, access was obtained to God in Christ; and Jesus, first for Himself, and then for His people, led the way into the holy of holies . The veil of separati...

"Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that Thou bearest unto Thy people: O visit me with Thy salvation." -Psalm 106:4 [KJV]   How is a man brought and taught to want to be "visited with" God's salvation? He must know something first of condemnation. Salvation only suits the condemned. "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost ; " and therefore salvation only suits the lost. A man must be lost— utterly lost—before he can prize God's salvation. And how is he lost? By losing all his religion, losing all his righteousness, losing all his strength, losing all his confidence, losing all his hopes, losing all that is of the flesh; losing it by its being taken from him, and stripped away by the hand of God.    A man who is brought into this state of utter beggary and complete bankruptcy—to be nothing, to have nothing, to know nothing—he is the man, who in the midnight watches, in his lonely hours, by his fireside, and at t...