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

     "We cannot be spiritually strong unless we know truth and then act upon the truth we say we love. As a man loves so he lives. If a man loves his wife, he lives for her, provides for her, and protects her. If a man loves his church, he lives for it. If he loves Jesus Christ, which precedes everything, he lives for Christ. As a man believes so he behaves. If his love is the love that has been shed abroad in his heart in regeneration, he will love Jesus Christ and will love living for Christ. Faith and love will not spoil the believer in any kind of secular work. It will make him sacred in the midst of all the dangers of secularity." -preacher Wilbur Elias Best, excerpt from a message entitled,   Letter to the Church at Sardis

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry." -Habakkuk 2:3 [KJV] My soul, there is always a set time to favour Zion. It may not be so early as we could wish; it may not come at the time we look for it; yea, it may be deferred until our impatience hath given over the very expectation of it; nevertheless, "it will surely come; it will not tarry." We are like children, who wish to gather the fruit before it is ripe; but there is no haste with God. He stops until the mercy, intended to be given us, is fully prepared, and our souls as fully ready to receive it. And what endears the mercy ( be it what it may ) yet more, is, that from everlasting it hath been appointed . "The vision is for an appointed time." So that, however tedious it may seem in coming, it will neither go a moment beyond the appointment, nor come a moment before: and ...

"Ye are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of GOD."   -Colossians 2:12 [KJV] Who are risen with Christ? All the members of His mystical body. He is their head and representative. They are all mystically risen with Him. But they have no knowledge or comfort of this, till another resurrection is experienced by them. This is what the apostle here alludes to. This is by faith. As soon as any poor sinner knows, understands, and believes, that Christ died for our offences, and was raised again for our justification, that soul is actually risen with Christ. Here, behold,    (1st.) the preciousness of faith.    (2d.) Whose operation it is.    (3d.) The glorious effects it hath upon the heart and life. It brings Christ into the soul. Faith causes the soul to ascend up to a risen Saviour. Thus, this living, powerful, influencing grace, which is the work of the Holy Ghost, is distinguished from a dead faith, a lifeless assent, a barren notion, whi...

"Brethren, farewell." -II Corinthians 13:11 [KJV] To fare well, spiritually understood, is to have everything that God can make us happy in. All God's people will eventually fare well. They all stand complete in Christ: nothing can touch their eternal safety; for they are all complete in Him, "without spot, or blemish, or any such thing." In this point of view, they must all in the end and for ever fare well. But when we come to the matter of experience, we often find that those very times when God's people think they are faring ill, are the seasons when they are really faring well; and again, at other times, when they think they are faring well, then they are really faring ill. For instance, when their souls are bowed down with trouble, it often seems to them that they are faring ill. God's hand appears to be gone out against them: He has hidden His face from them; they can find no access to a throne of grace; they have no sweet testimonies from the L...

Ref: II Thessalonians 2:13-17 [KJV] -preacher Henry T. Mahan (28 minutes):    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQHXHrXpEQE

"My soul fainteth for Thy salvation: but I hope in Thy word."   - Psalm 119:81 [KJV]   David’s words furnish us with these observations:    (1st.) That it is a sure evidence, that that sinner is savingly convinced of sin by the Spirit of God, when the salvation of Jesus is the desire of his heart.    (2d.) That the soul, though destitute of the joy of faith, in the assurance of interest in Christ’s salvation, yet may have the grace of hope in lively exercise .    (3d.) That in fainting frames of soul, the word of the Lord is the sure support of hope. Study these points: settle them in your hearts. The Lord give comfort from them! When a person faints, the blood returns to the heart: it ceaseth to flow through the veins. Hence, the spirits sink; nature fails; life and strength depart; the eyes see not; the hands cannot hold; the feet cannot walk. Have you not experienced it thus with your souls? Have you not found things at a very low ebb with you,...

"By faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones." -Hebrews 11:22 [KJV] See, my soul, the triumphs of faith in this lively instance of the patriarch Joseph! How many have I known, who, though they have given up their souls, with full assurance of faith, into the hands of Jesus, conscious of an interest in Him, and of redemption in His blood; have, nevertheless, felt fears and alarms for the moment in which the soul separates from the body, and have wanted faith "concerning their bones!" Look at the patriarch when dying, and learn from him whence to derive strength and comfort for every emergency, and for every concern. "By faith : " is the one universal charm.  Jesus is in every thing, and for every thing the believer can possibly need or require, all the way home; in death, as in life; concerning the bones, or concerning the soul. In Him the soul goes forth boldly from t...

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones ." -Isaiah 57:15 [KJV] O what a mystery that God should have two dwelling-places! The "heaven of heavens" that "cannot contain Him," and the humble, broken, and contrite heart! But in order that the Lord of heaven might have a place in which He could live and lodge, God gives to His people gifts and graces; for He cannot come and dwell in the carnal mind, in our rebellious nature, in a heart full of enmity and wickedness; He therefore makes a lodging-place for Himself, a pavilion in which the King of glory dwells, the curtains of which are like the curtains of Solomon. His abode is that holy, divine nature which is communicated at regeneration— "the new man, which after God is created in righteous...

Head of Thy church and Lord of all, Hear from Thy throne our earnest call; We come Thy promised grace to seek; We come, O Lord, to hear Thee speak. Without Thy presence, King of saints, Our purpose fails, our spirits faint; Thou must our wavering faith renew, Ere we can yield Thee worship true.   “Lo, I am with you” – that sweet word, Lord Jesus, grant it to be heard; Give exercise to faith and love, And send Thy blessings from above. Lord, send a message from Thy word, That will great joy and peace afford; May Thy blest Spirit now impart Thy grace and love in every heart! -old Gospel hymn, "Doxology"   -------0-------   When an arrow of conviction is at any time shot by the hand of God into thy conscience, by which thy peace and quiet is disturbed, whither dost thou run for ease and relief? The man that is "married to the law," runs to the law for relief and ease. The law is the thing that heals him; his prayers, his tears, his reformation, is that which stops the...

     A naked sinner can be clothed, but a sinner covered with his own righteousness must be stripped. This is always true. We must be stripped of all that has to do with self, or we cannot be clothed with that which pertains to God. We are called to live by faith; we can see nothing with the eye of sense. The Lord Jesus has gone up on high, and we are told to wait patiently for His appearing. God's Word carried home to the heart in the power of the Holy Spirit is the basis of confidence in all things: temporal and spiritual, present and future. He tells us of Christ's completed sacrifice. We by grace believe and commit our souls to the efficacy thereof, and we know we shall never be disappointed.    -preacher Scott Richardson

"Those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified." -Romans 8:30 [KJV]        The justified sinner stands the closest to God of any created being in the universe. Nearer to the throne of the Eternal, he cannot stand. What marvelous love! Who will dare assert that salvation is not from first to last of free, sovereign grace? Let your eye pierce the veil which falls between earth and heaven. Behold that shining, worshiping being, standing so near to the throne of glory, bathed in the overpowering effulgence of its rays! Who is he? He was once a sinner upon earth, the vilest of his race, the dishonored of his generation, forsaken by man, and abhorred of God.  But Jesus met him, and divine love drew him, and sovereign grace rescued, pardoned, and saved him! And now washed from all his guilt by the blood, freed from all condemnation by the righteousness of Christ he stands before the throne "blame...

     Christ is the Rock of the church, the foundation stone upon which the church is built and the chief cornerstone by which the church is measured and held together. The elect of God are the little stones which make up the walls of the church.  The grace, truth, and love of Christ make up the mortar by which all the little stones are held together. In all this, we see how “the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in Whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21-22) .  When men deny or ignore the grace of God in Christ, when they leave the truth of God in Christ, or when they act  without grace, truth, and love in Christ, the church is divided. But rest assured that the true church of the living God cannot and will not be destroyed because as Christ goes, so goes the church – “upon this Rock I will build MY church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt...

"Forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."   -I Corinthians 15:58 [KJV] Christian knowledge is the source of comfort, and the spring of obedience. The knowledge of God’s love to us in Christ, received into the heart by faith, animates us to be, and to do, what the Lord calls us to in our lives. St. Paul appeals to Christians, Ye know—what? that you are called, not to loiter, but to labour: not to stand idle, but to work: not merely to talk of the truths of Christianity, but to walk in the ways of the Lord. But what constitutes it the sweetest of all labouring, working, and walking, it is the labour of love, the work of faith, and the walk of hope. And we have Christ’s presence and power in all. We know, we are fully persuaded, we are divinely assured, our labour is not in vain: for it is in the Lord. It is begun by His grace, tarried on by His power, IN sweet fellowship with Him, IN love to Him, IN dependence on him, IN assurance that we are accepted ...

"They made me keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept." -Song of Solomon 1:6 [KJV] My soul, now the day is over, sit down, and look back on the employments of it. What a day hath it been? What portion of it hath been engaged in the service of thy Lord, and the improvement of thy soul? How wholly occupied in the busy and imperious demands of the world, the care of the body, and in procuring the bread that perisheth! Surely the complaint of the church is thine also. Keeper of the vineyards of others, thine own goeth to waste! And of what avail, in the path of grace, if though occupied by a thousand things in the aid of others, thou art making no progress in the heavenly road by thine own soul?    Are not the peace of thy life, and the glorious expectation of a better, to be advanced in the knowledge and enjoyment of Jesus? If I lose sight of Thee, Thou dear Immanuel; if the lively actings of faith upon Thee be remitted, will the recollection of attention...

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment."  -Philippians 1:9 [KJV]   Love is especially the effect of knowledge; and love we know is a fruit of the blessed Spirit. As then the Lord the Spirit is pleased to open up the precious truth of God to the soul, love embraces what the Holy Ghost reveals. Thus there is a knowledge of the only true God by the teaching of the Spirit. But our love is to abound not only in knowledge, which is the foundation of it, because if there is no knowledge of the Lord there can be no love to the Lord or His people, but also in all feeling, in all sense, in all experience. Spiritual knowledge, therefore, and experimental feeling are the two feeders of Christian love; the two streams, as it were, that run side by side out of the very throne of the most High, and meet and melt into that boundless river, love. And it is by this union of knowledge and experience, of divine light and heavenly life, of t...

He Will Make It Good   Look to Christ and not to yourself! He is our Surety from everlasting to everlasting. In the covenant of mercy He assumed full responsibility for our, redemption, and He will make it good. His righteous­ness is perfect, and in Him it is mine. His atone­ment is sufficient to cleanse me from all sin. His intercession, based upon His person and work, must prevail with our reconciled God. " By His stripes we are healed ."                        -preacher Henry T. Mahan     Disobedience     One word explains sin: Disobedience.   Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…”   One man. One act of disobedience. And through that one act, many were made sinners. All sin is, at its core, an act of rebellion against God. Because of Adam’s disobedience, sin entered the world, and there is nothing any son o...

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags...” (Isaiah 64:6) I came before God with nothing to offer Him. Even my righteousness was nothing but filthy rags. But what I could never provide for myself, Christ provided for me. He took my sin and gave me His righteousness. He took my guilt and gave me His peace. He took my poverty and made me rich in grace.   “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” —II Corinthians 8:9 Salvation is the great exchange: my rags for His righteousness, my debt for His payment, my poverty for His riches.   I brought nothing to Christ but my need. He gave me everything in Himself.                               -preacher David Eddmenson

“Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation (- atonement ) for the sins of the people."   - Hebrews 2:17 [KJV]   Those who are blessed to hear and believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ do not embrace or prescribe to a theory of atonement. In the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified we have a glorious atonement for all our sins by His precious blood (I John 4:10) . We don't have an "attemptment" we have an effectual and full atonement. Here are four things we know about His redeeming sacrifice and High Priestly work.   1). It is particular. The Lord Jesus laid down His life for His covenant people, all those chosen and given to Him in eternity (Matthew 1:21; John 6:37; 10:15-18; Ephesians 1:3-6) .   2). It is powerful. His blood sacrifice puts away all sins of His elect to the complete satisfaction of the holy Law and in...

"Is not My word like as a fire? saith the LORD."   -Jeremiah 23:29 [KJV]   How comforting this reflection? “We, who were sometimes afar off, are now made nigh by the blood of Christ , ” (Ephesians 2:13.) How happy is the soul, when it finds nearness of access to God, and enjoys sweet converse with Him? Then with Jeremiah it says, “Let me talk with Thee of Thy judgments , ” (chapter 12:1.) Then the Lord condescends to hear and reply. As here, He appeals to the soul’s experience; and asks, What effect has My word had on thine heart? Is it not like fire? Let us consider this, that the word of the Lord may be glorified by us to-night.    (1st.) It is the property of fire to communicate light. So doth the word. “The entrance of Thy word giveth Light , ” (Psalm 119:130.) When we were darkness itself, how did the word enter, and shine into our hearts, and give us the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ? In seasons of darkness, how often has the ...