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

"Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him."   - Romans 5:9 [KJV]   All heresies are founded in pride, and spring from ignorance and unbelief of the Lord’s word. Some strike at the glory of the free grace of God. Others at the divinity of the Son of God. Others at His atonement and righteousness, whereby our sins are pardoned, our persons justified, and final perseverance to eternal glory is secured to every believer. St. Paul, under the influence of that Spirit, who foresaw every heresy which would spring up, divide the church, dishonour Christ, and distress His members, here sets himself against that pernicious heresy, That souls once justified and pardoned by the blood of Christ, may afterwards perish, under the wrath of God.    (1st.) What is meant by being justified by the blood of Christ? Just the reverse of being condemned for sin by the law. For His blood takes away sin, which is the cause of conde...

"Perfect in Christ Jesus."    -Colossians 1:28 [KJV]   Sweet thought! And where should perfection be found, but in Christ Jesus! My soul! turn the subject over and over again; look at it in every point of view; consider it as it relates to the life that now is, and that which is to come; and where wilt thou find any perfection for grace here, or glory hereafter, but in Christ Jesus? Oh! what heart-aches would it have saved me, had I but learned this sweet lesson when the Lord first took me into His school. Had I but thought aright when the Lord passed by, and saw me in my blood, and bid me live, that a creature so polluted, and so poor, could never recompense such fiches of grace, it would have tended to hide pride from mine eyes.   But I was delighted with myself, and the supposed improvement I should make; all my views were directed how to requite the Lord's goodness, and how to shine above others in the attainments I should make in the divine life: an...

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." -Ephesians 1:17 [KJV]   Revelation means literally an uncovering or unveiling of a concealed or covered-up object. It is used, therefore, sometimes in the sense of manifesting, making known, or bringing to light, what had before been hidden in darkness and obscurity. This revelation is, therefore, either outward in the word, or inward in the soul, and the two strictly correspond to and are counterparts of each other. Immediately that, by the power of divine grace, a poor Gentile sinner turns to the Lord, the Spirit of revelation removes the veil off the Scriptures, and off his heart. Have we not found it so? What a sealed book was the word of God once to us! How we read or heard it without one real ray of light to illuminate the dark page; and what a thick veil was there of ignorance, unbelief, prejudice, self-righteousnes...