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

       "The motto upon the escutcheon of the Earl of Lonsdale, is Magistratus indicat virum : ' the magistracy shows the man .'  Office-holding is a test of character.  He who can resist the temptations to injustice, fraud, deceit, and self-aggrandizement generally, which beset one who either inherits office or obtains it by the popular suffrage, is unquestionably a person of deep convictions of truth, and of high moral principle.  For this reason, public life would not be sought by one who distrusts himself.   He who puts up the petition, “Lead me not into temptation,” would be thankful for the providence that should forever keep him in the quiet and independent walks of private life.  Should the will of God oblige him to assume the responsibility  of a judge, a magistrate, or a legislator, he would enter upon them, not because he preferred them, but because duty must be discharged toward God. It was in this spirit ...

      "Those for whom the Savior shed His blood and so redeemed them by price, are by-and-by redeemed by power .  The Spirit of God finds them, like other men, fond of sin; like other men, blind to the beauties of the Savior, deaf to the commands of Christ; but if Christ has bought them with His blood, He never paid for what He will not have.   The price was too precious to be paid for those who are not saved.  If Christ has paid for a soul with His blood, He will have that soul.  Neither will God’s honor rob Him of His purchase, nor will Christ be content to lose what He so dearly bought."                                                                                     - preacher C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892 A.D.)

          "It is impossible to preach:   1.  That man is both  totally and partially depraved.   2.  That election is both  conditional and unconditional.   3.  That regenerating grace is both  irresistible and resistible.   4.  That redemption is both  limited and unlimited.   5.  That perseverance is both  certain and uncertain.        Nor can there be a modification of one by the other; it is impossible to blend the two .  History records such efforts in the past; but despite the efforts, sovereign grace and 'free-willism' will not mix, nor can they walk together in peace, nor can those holding either system force the other to take their view ."                                  ...

THE LAMB SAVES FROM SIN The Lord of glory, Son of God, Whom cherubim obey; The bosom of the Father left, To dwell in human clay. Yes Jesus came into the world, The Messenger of grace; The Lamb was slain upon the cross, To save His chosen race.   Christ Jesus died for helpless men! Who can such grace explore? O let us trust upon the Lord, And on Him praises pour! Since Jesus was our Substitute, We ever are secure; For by His sin-atoning blood, He made salvation sure.   We trust no other but the Lamb, Who was for sinners slain; His blood has washed us from our sin, And cleansed us from all stain. Sing praises to the Lamb of God, Who came to save the lost, O magnify His precious Name, He paid our ransom cost .     TUNE: “There is a Fountain”   CM/double Words by Jim Byrd -------O-------          “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the be...

            From the evidence of the Bible, we know that all men are sinful.   “There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.”  And it is written,  “The heart of the sons of men is full of evil”   (Ecclesiastes 7:20; 9:3).   From the evidence of man’s sinful actions we know the same thing.  Bloodshed, violence, theft, lying, deceitfulness, lust, malice, pride and anger abound.    Since the fall, man has always been and always shall be wicked.  What do these things prove?  They prove that no man could be saved if left to himself and that if any are to be made righteous and therefore fit to stand eternally before the holy Lord of glory, God Himself will have to do the work .   “Salvation is of the LORD.”   - Jonah 2:9 [KJV]  -preacher Jim Byrd of Thirteenth Street Baptist Church  -Christ-honoring audio Gospel sermons here, friends:   https:/...

"If God be your Father, you can want nothing that is good: but the determination of what is good must be left to His wisdom; for we are not so fit to judge of it nor to discern our own good.  We should therefore commit all to His Fatherly care and wise providence.  Indeed, He chooseth rather to profit us than to please us, in His dispensations; and it is our duty to refer all to His wisdom and faithfulness."   -preacher Thomas Manton

"The secret of the LORD is with them who fear Him, and He will shew them His covenant."   -Psalm 25:14 [KJV]   Who would trust the secrets of his heart with an avowed enemy? David could reveal all that was in him to Jonathan. Why? Because he was his loving, faithful friend. He could trust his very life in his hands. There was a secret between them two, which no one else was privy to. When Jonathan shot the arrows as a signal to David, even the lad that gathered them up, “Knew not any thing; only Jonathan and David knew the matter” (I Samuel 20:39.) Some professors are like this lad. The Lord will not trust them with His secret: they would abuse it. It is common to hear such lads in religion say, Well, if I were sure that God loved me with an everlasting love, had chosen me from eternity, and would keep me by His power, through faith unto salvation, what need I care how I live? Do not such discover that they are strangers to the love and fear of the friends of G...

"Look when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?" -II Kings 6:32 [KJV]     It is blessed to watch every dispensation of the Lord's providence, as well as His grace; for Jesus is in all. So that when messengers of heaviness come, and with sad tidings, as in this instance of the prophet, if we shut to the door as they enter, and suffer them to open their commission, we shall hear the sound of their master's feet behind them, confirming every one. There are no events which can happen to a child of God, but they ought to be thus dealt with. They are like letters personally directed, and speak, in their whole contents, the causes for which the king's post hath brought them; and they cannot be mistaken, if they are well read, and pondered over; for they point to the individual, as the prophet's servant to Jehu. "To which of all us, (said Jehu) is this errand?...

"Jesus saith, Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." - John 20:17 [KJV]   Why your Father? Because My Father. Why your God? Because My God. As His only-begotten Son from all eternity, God was the God of our Lord Jesus Christ; as the Father's messenger and servant, doing His will upon earth, even in His lowest humiliation, God was His God; and now that He is risen from the dead and gone up on high to be the great High Priest over the house of God, now that He is entered into His glory and ever lives to make intercession for us, God is still His God. This view of Jesus is most strengthening and encouraging to faith. The great and glorious God, the great self-existent I AM, the God in whom we live and move and have our being, the God before whom we stand with all we are and have, the God against and before whom we have so deeply and dreadfully sinned—this great and glorious God is "the...