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

     "One does not evidence that he has salvation until he is interested in and is influenced by doctrine. Not until then is he equipped to give the message of God to others that the regenerated elect may be brought to the knowledge of their salvation."   -preacher Wilbur Elias Best, excerpt from The Elect Bring Forth Fruit

"But ye have not so learned Christ."     - Ephesians 4:20 [KJV]   Believe, and live as you will. Love, and walk as you please. Will any say, This is fine licentious doctrine? We answer, Such do not know, nor consider the power of faith, nor the influence of Christ’s love. They are strangers to His teaching. Christians are His scholars. Christ is our one Master. He graciously condescends to teach us. He kindly says, “learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls ” (Matthew 11:29.)    Our grand business is, to sit at His feet. We have no just ideas of the sinfulness of sin, the vileness of our nature, nor the preciousness of His person, but what we learn of Him. Christian, what hast thou learned of Christ this day? If thou hast not learned somewhat of the heinous nature of sin, so as to abhor it, and of the preciousness of Christ’s person and salvation, so as to cleave to Him, verily, thou hast lost a day. Thou d...

Justified by Faith | The Bible’s Clear Teaching on Salvation Message from preacher Henry Mahan (27 minutes). Link:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JroW3ZwtVwo Romans 5:19 is one of the clearest declarations of how God justifies sinners: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”  This sermon explores the contrast between Adam and Christ, and the glorious truth that salvation comes not by our obedience, but by Christ’s perfect obedience on our behalf. In this message, you will learn:   • What Paul means by “the obedience of One”  • How Adam’s sin made humanity guilty  • How Christ’s obedience restores righteousness  • Why justification is rooted in Christ’s finished work  • The difference between being made righteous and becoming righteous  • How Romans 5 shows the heart of the Gospel  • Why our assurance rests in Christ—not in ourselves  This sermon ma...

"Woe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first ripe fruit. The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men." -Micah 7:1-2 [KJV]   Is not this lamentation as suited to the present times, as when the prophet delivered it? Were the interests of Zion ever at a lower ebb than now? Did the waters of the sanctuary run less in a stream in any period of the church than the present? Surely it is like the in-gathering of the fruits of the earth at this season of the year; the choicest are gone; the trees are unladen. It is only here and there, as "the shaking of an olive-tree; two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough," Isaiah 17:6. The Lord hath been calling home His chosen. Death hath been housing the servants of the Lord. And even those that remain, alas! Are they not more like the gleanings, than like ...

"That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 5:21 [KJV]   This is the mercy for mourning saints who are sighing and groaning under a body of sin and death, that God has decreed that grace not only may reign, but that it must reign . Were it left to us, we could no more rescue ourselves from the dominion of sin than the children of Israel could deliver themselves from the house of Egyptian bondage. But they sighed and groaned by reason of the bondage, and their cry came up unto God. He had respect unto His covenant, and looked upon them and delivered them (Exodus 2:23-25). So God has determined on behalf of His people that sin shall not be their eternal ruin; that it shall not plunge them into crime after crime, until it casts them at last into the gulf of endless woe, but that grace "shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life."     But it must rei...