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

“ He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” (I Peter 2:24). The flaming sword of God’s justice was quenched in the holy, loving bosom of Jesus! The most significant and appalling demonstration of God’s holiness that the universe ever beheld, infinitely distancing and transcending every other, is the sufferings and death of His only and beloved Son! Behold the most solemn display of God’s hatred of sin! Finding the sins of the Church upon Christ as its Surety, Substitute, and Savior, the wrath of God was poured out upon Him without measure! Finding the sins of His people laid upon His Son, God emptied upon His holy soul all the vials of His wrath due to their transgressions! Go, my soul, to Calvary, and learn how holy God is, and what a monstrous thing sin is, and how imperiously, solemnly, and holily bound Jehovah is to punish it, either in the person of the sinner or in the person of a Surety. Never was the Son of God dearer to the Father than at...

“ I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” -Philippians 3:8 [KJV] In this knowledge of Christ, there is an excellency above all other knowledge in the world; there is nothing more pleasing and comfortable, more animating and enlivening, more ravishing and soul-contenting. Only Christ is the sun and center of all divine revealed truths. We can preach nothing else as the object of our faith, as the necessary element of our soul’s salvation, which doth not some way or other, either meet in Christ, or refer to Christ. Only Christ is the whole of man’s happiness, the Sun to enlighten him, the Physician to heal him, the Wall of fire to defend him, the Friend to comfort him, the Pearl to enrich him, the Ark to support him, the Rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures - “ As a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary ...

Religion without heart, even true Gospel religion, is nothing more than hypocrisy (see Isaiah 29:13 ; Matthew 15:8). We must trust, follow and worship the Lord from the heart – with a sincere, honest heart, a convicted, broken and contrite heart - “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22). Yet, we are told in God’s Word that we cannot follow our hearts. Why? Because “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Our natural hearts can and will deceive us. This is why we must be given by the Holy Spirit in the new birth “a new heart and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 18:31; 36:26). But even the new heart must be guided by God’s Word. Even as born again sinners we cannot follow our hearts. We must submit our hearts to God’s judgments and ways revealed in His Word as we are continually led to ...

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" -Proverbs 1:7 [KJV] Happy the soul that has been awed by a view of God's majesty, that has had a vision of God's awful greatness, His ineffable holiness, His perfect righteousness, His irresistible power, His Sovereign grace. Does someone say, "But it is only the unsaved, those outside of Christ, who need to fear God" ? Then the sufficient answer is that the saved, those who are in Christ, are admonished to work out their own salvation with "fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). Time was when it was the general custom to speak of a believer as a "God-fearing man"-that such an appellation has become nearly extinct only serves to show whither we have drifted. Nevertheless, it still stands written "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him" (Psalm 103:13)! - Gospel report by preacher Arthur W. Pink, excerpt from ...

If God is pleased to bestow saving mercy, is that not His prerogative? And is it not also His right, if He shows mercy, to bestow it upon whom He will?  Mercy is not a matter of debt, but of royal kindness which God gives when and where it seems good in His sight,  "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy."   Though men balk at the thought of distinguishing kindness, their complaint has no merit. The King declares,   "Is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with Mine own?" - Gospel report by preacher Jim Byrd

Poor, weak and sinful though I am, I have a heav’nly Friend; Christ Jesus is His precious Name, He loves me without end. Though I was ruined by the fall, Christ bore my guilt and blame; He died and saved my sinful soul, His praise I will proclaim. In seeking grace my Brother-Friend Pursued this wand’ring sheep; He rescued me from sin and death, And He my soul will keep. Each day new blessings from above, My Friend supplies for me; He fills my heart with joy and peace, And guides unerringly. Someday my life on earth shall end And I will leave this place; Then shall the greatest joy be mine, To see my dear Friend’s face. Tune to "O FOR A THOUSAND TONGUES" CM Words by JIM BYRD ============================================== GOD’S PROMISE TO HIS NATION There is a promise that belongs to God’s redeemed and believing people in every age and in every circumstance.  It is the promise of peace.  Not peace without turmoil but peace ...

"There is therefore now no condemnation   to them which are in Christ Jesus." -Romans 8:1 [KJV] There is not a more blessed declaration than this in the whole word of truth. It is the sweetest note sounded by the gospel trumpet, for it is the very crown of the whole jubilee. Is not condemnation the bitterest drop in the cup of trembling? the most thrilling, piercing note of that terrible trumpet which sounded so long and so loud from Sinai's blazing top that all the people that were in the camp trembled? (Exodus 19:13, 16.) Condemnation is the final execution of God's righteous law, and therefore carries with it all that arms death with its sting and the grave with its terror. The apprehension of this; the dread and fear of being banished for ever from the presence of God; of being lost, and that without remedy; of sinking under the blazing indignation of Him Who is a consuming fire, has filled thousands of hearts with horror. And it mu...