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

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for THE FAITH which was once delivered unto the saints. " -Jude vs. 3 [KJV] Those who are not earnestly contending "for the faith" (the gospel of God's sovereign and free grace in Christ) are only mere pretenders in a false refuge of lies (Isa. 28:15; Matt. 7:21-23). Those who are earnestly and eagerly contending "for the faith" are those that are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Rom.1:16-17). Those who fervently contend "for the faith" are those who publicly preach it (Acts 5:42; Phil. 1:27), faithfully support it (Cor. 9:7), zealously identify themselves where the gospel is preached (Heb. 10:25), ardently pray for God's blessing upon it (2Thes. 3:1), dogmatically defend it against all opposition (Gal. 5:1-5; Phil. 1:17; 1Tim. 6:3-5), and assertively insist...

In the Word of God, redemption was always for a specific people. In the garden of Eden, the animals that the Lord killed were for Adam and Eve, not for any of the fallen angels. When Abel offered to God the firstling of his flock, he brought it for himself and his family, not for Cain and his family. When the passover lambs were killed, they were sacrificed for the firstborn of the Israelite families, not for the firstborn of the Egyptian families. On the Day of Atonement when the high priest of Israel killed a goat and offered it to God upon the altar, that sacrifice was only on the behalf of Israel, not for any other nation. Even so, Christ came into this world to redeem a specific people, the elect of God. When He laid down His life, it was to satisfy justice for those given to Him by the Father in the covenant of grace. Let there be no misunderstanding here, we consider the teaching of universal redemption to be heresy because it is contrary to the Word of God and makes the...

"Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in T hee: yea, in the shadow of T hy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast."   -Psalm 57:1 [KJV]   The Psalmist speaks of what he calls “these calamities.”   All people experience “these calamities” of life whether they be afflictions, trials or troubles.  The difference that grace makes among men is demonstrated in where or to whom one goes to for comfort, help and refuge.  This is said to be a psalm of David when he was in the cave while hiding as Saul pursued him to take his life, David’s calamities were his alone as are ours.  But notice his plea, it is for God to be merciful to him.  He did not deserve God’s mercy as I don’t but, in Christ and through Him, we seek it and find it.  His trust was in God alone and as we know, God blessed him as He does all who trust in Him alone.  We have no confidence in the flesh and our tru...

"Look unto M e, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." -Isaiah 45:22 [KJV]   Till in soul feeling, we are at "the ends of the earth," we have no eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel what a glorious Mediator there is at the right hand of the Father. And the more we feel to be at "the ends of the earth," the deeper is our need of Him; and as the Spirit unfolds the mystery of the glorious Person of Christ, and reveals His beauty, the more does He become the object of the soul's admiration and adoration. And O what a Mediator is held out in the word of truth to living faith! What a subject for spiritual faith to look to, for a lively hope to anchor in, and for divine love to embrace! That the Son of God, who lay in the bosom of the Father from all eternity, equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost, the second Person in the glorious Trinity, should condescend to take upon Him our natu...

A wealthy and philanthropic individual visits a prison and approaches the dungeon in which a wretched captive lies bound with chains and fetters, and strongly secured within walls, and doors, and bars. He proclaims loud to the captive that he has brought gold sufficient for a ransom on condition that the captive will liberate himself from his chains, burst open his prison doors, and come forth. "Alas," exclaims the wretched man, "your kindness does not reach my case. Unless your gold can effect my deliverance, it can be of no service to me. The offer of it on such terms can do me no good." Now, although there is a great difference between physical and spiritual inability, yet one serves to illustrate the other. Man by nature is as spiritually unable to believe in Christ as the prisoner is physically unable to break his chains and open the prison doors; so that all this boasted sufficiency of the atonement is only an empty offer of salvation on certain terms a...

“ 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 ...