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

Thy works, not mine, O Christ Speak gladness to this heart; They tell me all the work is done, They bid my fear depart. Thy cross, not mine, O Christ Has born the awful load, Of sins that no, none else could bear, But our incarnate God. Thy death, not mine, O Christ Has paid the ransom due; Ten thousand, thousand deaths like mine Would have been all too few.   Thy righteousness, O Christ Alone can cover me; No righteousness can satisfy  Save that which is of Thee!    -Gospel hymn, 'I Love Thy Kingdom, LORD"     ==========   "Can These Bones Live?”   -Ezekiel 37:3   This was an impossible situation which met Ezekiel’s eye. A valley filled with bones, and the bones were “very dry,” destitute of life. And Ezekiel was to realize that this was a picture of the Israel of God. If ever there was a setting forth of impossibility, it was this.  “Can these dry bones live?” The prophet did not answer with the obvious, “No,” but, realizing the grea...

       One of the most beautiful gems of the Gospel message is that it reveals to us that in saving sinners like us, God has not surrendered, denied, or dishonored His just demands. Rather, He “sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10; cf. Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; I John 2:2). In the Lord Jesus we have all that God’s righteousness requires of us. Christ, the sinless one, standing in the place of His people, sinners, offered Himself without spot, based on their sins imputed to Him, in sacrifice and endured the righteous curse against sin. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law,  having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13) .  “He bore our sins in His body on the tree” (I Peter 2:24) and thereby satisfied the demands of justice against us. God “made Him Who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21). “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the ju...

"Fear ye not. Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD."   - Exodus 14:13 [KJV]   The people of God were now in a great strait, even at their wits end. Perish they must, to all human appearance. A wide ocean is before them. Inaccessible mountains surround them. An enraged monarch pursues them. Death in various shapes presents itself to them. Yet, for all this says Moses, “Fear not.” Peevish unbelief and carnal reason might suggest, what! not be afraid, when inevitable destruction must be our doom? Why will Moses talk to us after this mad, enthusiastic rate?    But in the view of apparent destruction, Moses tells them of a certain salvation, and commands them to stand still and behold it. We do not hear one word from Moses, to soothe their fears, or comfort their minds, from any considerations of what they were in themselves, what good works they had done, what terms and conditions they had performed to entitle them to the Lord’s favour, etc. No. Bu...

"How fair and how pleasant art Thou, O love, for delights!" -Song of Solomon 7:6 [KJV]   My soul! thou hast been refreshed, many an evening, through grace, in beholding thy Lord, both in His person, and in His comprehensive fulness for His redeemed; nor wilt thou be without refreshment this evening, if thy Lord, in His sweet influences, be with thee, to make what is said in this lovely scripture, life and spirit in thine heart. They are the words of Jesus; and they express the love and complacency of delight which Jesus takes in His church. Surely nothing can be more blessed, than to see the high value the Son of God puts upon the church, which the Father gave Him, endeared as it is yet more in being the purchase of His blood! But what astonishment is it to the soul of a poor sinner, to be told, and by the lip of truth, that sinners are fair in Jesus'  eyes! "Thou art fair, O love, yea, pleasant."    Now remember, my soul, and in that remembrance let...

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted." -Isaiah 54:11 [KJV]   The Lord here compares His suffering Church to a ship at sea, under bare poles, labouring in a heavy storm, driven out of her course by contrary winds, as was Paul's case in the Adriatic, and doubtful whether she will ever reach the harbour; as the hymn says, "Half a wreck by tempests driv'n." What a picture of a tempest-tossed soul! Sun and stars beclouded, compass lost, chart useless, pilot absent, and breakers ahead! Many, very many of the Lord's dear family are thus "tossed with tempest;" some with a tempest of doubts and fears; others with a tempest of lust and corruptions; some with a tempest of rebellion and fretfulness; others with a storm of guilt and despondency, or with gloomy forebodings and dismal apprehensions.    Thus they are driven from their course, their sun and stars all obscured; no clear evidences, no bright manifestations; da...