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

"Stand fast therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."   -Galatians 5:1 [KJV] Here is somewhat enjoyed, danger of being deprived of it, and the necessity of standing fast in it. Let us consider these three points, looking unto Jesus.    (1st.) What is enjoyed? Liberty . One of the most precious blessings in life. But this of all liberties, is the most precious. For, Christ hath made us free in our consciences.         (a.) From the guilt and power of sin.         (b.) From all condemnation of the law.         And, (c.) To have access to God as righteous persons. He hath washed away the guilt of our sins by His blood: and subdued the power of them by His Spirit. “He hath delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us , ” (Galatians 3:13.) So that “there is therefore no condemnation to us, being in Christ Jes...

"As the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory ." -Jeremiah 13:11 [KJV] See, my soul, the blessedness of witnessing to God, and witnessing for God. His people, the Lord saith, are called, and are, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, as lights in the world. Both Israel and Judah are included in what is here said; and by the figure of a girdle cleaving to the loins of a man, so close, so strongly bound, and extending all around, is shewn the nearness, and firmness, and the security in every way, and by every direction, in which the Lord's people are brought into relation with Him. Such, then, were the Lord's people of old, a people near to Himself; and as they were the Lord's own choice, so were they dear to the Lord; and as He had made the whole of the n...

"For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." -Hebrews 10:36 [KJV]  Why is patience needed? Because if we are the Lord's people, we are sure to have many trials. The Lord sends us afflictions that He may give us the grace of patience to bear them. But O, what a rebellious heart do we carry in our bosom! What perverseness, peevishness, and self-will dwell in us! How soon our temper is stirred up, and our irritable minds roused in a moment by the veriest trifle! How little patience have we under the trials that God sees fit to lay upon us! We thus learn our need of patience, and that it is not a fruit of nature's soil.    The want (-need) of it makes the soul follow after it; and when the Lord does give submission to His will, and enables His children to see how profitable these trials are for their souls, and how, but for this heavy ballast, they would certainly have been carried away into the world, they can s...