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

“…and lose his own soul.”   -Mark 8:36 [KJV] No man can describe the loss of the soul as he should.   No man can paint this dreadful picture in its true colors.   You and I will never fully understand what it means to lose one’s soul until we pass through the valley of death and wake up in eternity.   Then, and not until then, shall we know the value of the soul.   The value of things will change greatly in that day.   The hour   is coming when money, bank notes, and bonds will be worth no more than waste paper.   The day is coming when our diamonds, silver, and gold, will be as dust in the streets.     The day will dawn when houses and lands will be as worthless as a child’s worn out toys.   In that day the fame, honor, and glory of this world will be worth no more than faded flowers and withered grass.   In that day, a man will be willing to trade all he knows and can imagine, for the privilege of hearing one Gospel sermo...

       The Pharisees constantly sought to catch Christ in His words.   They did not listen to learn; they listened to criticize.   We must guard against such a spirit - a spirit that is always looking for a fault, always waiting for a preacher to misspeak.   Faithful Gospel preachers are sinners saved by the grace of God. They are subject to the same weaknesses and infirmities of the flesh as those to whom they preach.   While they are called to proclaim God’s Truth, they are but sinners saved by grace.     Therefore, when we sit under the preaching of God’s Word, let us listen to be fed, encouraged, and instructed.   Let us listen to hear Christ exalted rather than searching for a fault.   We should be careful not to make a preacher “an offender for a word ” by focusing on a misplaced phrase while missing the message of Christ.   A critical spirit robs a person of the joy and profit that come from hearing the Word of G...

 Christ is the mystery of the Scripture - grace the mystery of Christ.   BELIEVING is the most wonderful thing in the world.   Put anything of your own to it, and you spoil it.   Christ will not so much as look at it for BELIEVING.   When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind your own righteousness and bring nothing but your sin ( Oh, that is hard!) ; leave behind all your holiness, sanctification, duties, humblings, etc.; and bring nothing but your wants and miseries, or else Christ is not fit for you, nor you for Christ.     Christ will be a pure Redeemer and Mediator, and you must be an undone sinner, or Christ and you will never agree.   It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness; that is to acknowledge Him Christ.   Join any thing to Him of your own, and you un-Christ Him.   Whatever comes in when you go   to God for acceptance, besides Christ, call it anti-Christ; bid it be...

  Brethren, let us join to bless Christ our Peace and Righteousness Let our praise to Him be given High at God’s right hand in Heaven.   Son of God, to Thee we bow Thou art Lord, and only Thou Thou the woman’s promised seed Thou, who didst for sinners bleed.    Thee the angels ceaseless sing Thee we praise, our Priest and King Worthy is Thy Name of praise Full of glory, full of grace.    Thou has the glad tidings brought Of salvation fully wrought Wrought, O Lord alone by Thee Wrought, to set Thy people free.    Thee, our Lord, would we adore Serve and follow more and more Praise and bless Thy matchless love Till we join Thy saints above.     -Gospel hymn: “Take My Life and Let It Be”      “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?   Then said I, Here am I; send me .”   -Isaiah 6:8  [KJV]   The Lord had already enabled Isaiah to see who He was!   ...

"The joy of the LORD is your strength."   - Nehemiah 8:10 [KJV]   This is a precious, evangelical chapter. Glorious gospel truths are here held forth to us. Lord, help us to see them, and feed upon them.    Here is, (1st.) a solemn observation of the feast of tabernacles. This was appointed by the wisdom of God the Father, (Leviticus 23:34.) Did God solemnly command the people to dwell in booths for eight days, but to some glorious end? Christ is the substance of the whole law: here is a shadow of Him. Here is typified, God’s beloved Son, Who was to tabernacle in our flesh, and all the Father’s glory to dwell in Him.    (2d.) “The people gathered together as one man.” So, “Unto Shiloh, the Messiah, shall the gathering of the people be” (Genesis 49:10.)    (3d.) Ezra the priest reads and expounds to them the law, in the open street: (much such another crime as field preaching) the people were convinced of sin, and wept. The law minis...

"A wedding garment."     -Matthew 22:11 [KJV]   My soul! let this evening's meditations be directed to the subject proposed in these few words: "a wedding garment." Very many are the instructions which the passage contains. The Lord Jesus is representing, under the similitude of a wedding feast, the rich provision God the Father had made in the gospel, on account of the marriage of His dear Son with our nature. And most beautiful, indeed, is the representation. For what feast, in point of fulness, richness, and satisfaction, can come up to that which is furnished for the poor, needy, and perishing circumstances of famished and dying sinners? This feast of fat things (as the scripture calls it) is indeed a rich feast, a royal feast, and a true wedding feast: for as Jesus, on whose account it is made, hath united our nature in general to Himself, so hath He united each individual of that nature in particular to Himself, who is truly, and in reality,...

"Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good." - Jeremiah 32:41 [KJV]     God rejoices as much in saving your soul as you can rejoice in your soul being saved. Say I "as much?" His joy is infinite, and yours is finite; His the joy of God, and yours but the joy of man. Do you believe that God rejoices to save, delights in saving? Why else should He have given His dear Son? Do the angels rejoice over repenting sinners? Is there no joy then in the bosom of God to save a sinner too? How this takes us up, as it were, into the very realms of bliss, and reveals to us the wondrous character of God in His Trinity of persons and Unity of essence, that there is a rejoicing in the salvation of the Church, so that God Himself, so to speak, is filled with eternal joy in the salvation of His people.    When His dear Son offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin, and thus put away the transgressions and iniquities of the Church by His own blood-shedding and death, ...