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

God of grace and God of glory, Grant that we would worship Thee; Thou hast gathered us together, Now reveal Thy majesty. Send to us Thy sovereign Spirit, Speaking through Thy Word in might; Showing us the blessed Savior, Making Him our one Delight. Prophet, Priest and reigning Monarch, Friend of sinners, what a Name; Word of God made flesh for sinners, Came to bear our awful shame. See the perfect, blameless Savior, Bearing guilt, sins not His own; Sacrifice of God most precious, For His sheep He died alone. By the blood of the Redeemer, All our sins were washed away; He arose and death was conquered, For His sheep who went astray. Saints of God bow down and worship Him who purged our sinfulness; Let us joyfully adore Him, Jesus Christ our righteousness. - Gospel hymn, “ Love Divine” ===================================   COME TO THE LORD JESUS! Our Lord often spoke of coming to Him. "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (27-29JUL18) Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in "SO GREAT SALVATION" by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace -God's unmerited favor- from their sins and from Hell. For your serious and prayerful consideration UDT/SEAL Team-mates, neighbors and friends: "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" -Jeremiah 23:6 [KJV] While believers always trust Christ and submit to His righteousness as the sole basis for our acceptance before God, there are four times when we must be especially certain that we are looking to Him Who is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." 1. When we have sinned and experience feelings of shame, conviction, remorse and despair we must look to Christ and His righteousness. The life of a child of God is lived with the realization of personal guilt, but remember, "the blood of Jesu...

"Our gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much ASSURANCE" - I Thess alonians 1:5 [ KJ V] Sin, salvation, death, judgment, eternity, though matters of the highest moment and utmost importance to us, yet we naturally think of them with little concern, speak of them with great indifference, and treat the consideration of them as Felix did Paul, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will send for thee" ( Acts 24:25 ) . And yet perhaps such have long sat under a preached gospel; hugely cry up and applaud the preacher, and are ready to condemn others who do not see and admire the excellency of the man. But, alas! what are the most excellent words of man without the power of the Spirit? Light as air, ineffectual to soul-saving purposes, as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. The grand question is, Have I inwardly known and felt the power of the gospel? Our gospel came U...

"And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on My name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God." -Zechariah 13:9 [KJV] It is a mercy to be in the furnace, and it is a mercy to be brought through it. The Lord's promise to the third part is, that H e will bring them through the fire. They must therefore, according to H is own word, be put into it, and yet not left in it. It is "through the fire"—right through it from beginning to end, whether it be a long and slow one or short and fierce one. The Lord knows exactly what we can bear, and it is not always the hottest fire which produces the most softening effects. Some metals indeed are so stubborn, and the dross is so deeply engrained into them, that they seem to require a hotter fire than others. But after the law has done its work, and the dros...

"There is not a just man upon the    earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" -Ecclesiastes 7:20 [KJV] The word "just" means righteous. We know that the Lord’s people are righteous in Christ, and yet, the inspired writer says that not even a justified person "doeth good and sinneth not." All believers are aware of our sinfulness knowing that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6), therefore we petition the Lord for fresh supplies of pardoning grace (1 John 1:9). While the reality of our wretchedness is ever before us, let us rejoice in the deliverance of sin by the sacrificial obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ which is the sole basis upon which God remains just and justifies the ungodly. It is certainly true that, "in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18), and therefore nothing good can come forth from me. However, it is also true that I am accepte...

When our Lord hung in agonies and blood on the cursed tree, He cried with a loud voice, " IT IS FINISHED. " One would think that such a statement made by the very Son of God would carry a reasonable weight. Yet, there are those who proclaim that the work is not truly finished unless they give their nod of faith which miraculously makes the work really effectual. Setting aside that such thinking is utterly foolish, consider, for a moment, the arrogant presumption of such an incredible notion. Apply this convoluted musing to any other finished work. Go to a contractor after he has finished a building and is getting ready to turn the key stand before him, and in your most audacious voice, say "Wait a minute, it is not finished unless I believe it is finished!" Go to the composer who has spent his life in pursuit of the classic score. After he has signed his masterpiece and the conductor is about to wave his baton stand up in the audience and cry in your mos...

Christ spoke the parable in Luke 18 to the Pharisees who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others" (v. 9). What we say about others and how we treat them often reveals more about us than it does them. Sad as it is, all people, even believers, are by nature like these Pharisees. Self-righteousness plagues us all our days. Often we manifest this self-righteous spirit in our attitude toward others. Christ said they believed themselves to be righteous and "despised others." Christ illustrates this in the parable of two men that went up to the temple to pray. "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." His prayer was really about his superiority over others. Listen to how he speaks of the man: "this Publican." His speech revealed contempt for a man he probably didn’t even know. He probably put the m...