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

"And for their sakes I sanctify M yself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." - Jesus Christ, “The LORD our righteousness” as per John 17:19 [KJV] Christ is made to His people sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30) . What am I? What are you? Filthy, polluted, defiled; are we not? Do not some of us, more or less, daily feel altogether as an unclean thing? Is not every thought of our heart altogether vile? Does any holiness, any spirituality, any heavenly-mindedness, any purity, any resemblance to the Divine image dwell in our hearts by nature? Not a grain, not an atom. How then can I, a polluted sinner, ever see the face of a holy God? How can I, a worm of earth, corrupted within and without by indwelling and committed sin, ever hope to see a holy God without shrinking into destruction? I cannot see Him, except so far as the Lord of life and glory is made sanctification to me. Why should men start so at "imputed sanctification?" Why should not C...

“ I will greatly rejoice in the L ORD , my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness” -Isaiah 61:10 [KJV] 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. - Gospel report by preacher Scott Richardson

“ Ye that fear the LORD, praise Him ” -Psalm 22:23a [KJV] One fire puts out another. Nothing so effectively kills the fear of man as a genuine abundance of the fear of the LORD! When the fear of men would tempt a servant of God to compromise or take the offense from the cross, the fear of the L ORD gives him even greater boldness . -Gospel report by preacher H. T. Mahan

“ And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see H im of a long season, because he had heard many things of H im; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by H im.” -Luke 23:8 [KJV] When Pilate tried to wash his guilty hands from his dealings with the Lord Jesus Christ, he sent the Lord to face judgment before Herod. Herod was a notorious guilty man. He had murdered John the Baptist to satisfy and please his family. But when he stood before the Lord Jesus Christ, he did not beg for mercy, nor did he repent of his sins, nor did he ask to have his guilt removed. He was just excited and curious to see something pleasing to the flesh, h e hoped to see a miracle done by Him. Sadly, the same is true of so many guilty sinners today. When they hear of the Lord Jesus Christ, they do not see in Him a Saviour to remove the guilt of sin or a Redeemer to deliver from the power of sin to condemn. But they are only interested in some miracles to please the...

"And the L ORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night " -Isaiah 4:5 [KJV] There is an allusion here to the cloudy pillar which rested upon the tabernacle. It was as a cloud by day, but as a pillar of fire by night. The reason of this is evident. By day, the cloud and the smoke were sufficiently visible; but not so in the night season. In the night, therefore, it was a pillar of fire, that the presence of the Lord might be distinctly seen. Spiritually viewed, this night may signify dark seasons in the soul; for there is night as well as day in the experience of God's saints. Now when they are in these dark seasons, they want clearer and brighter manifestations of the Lord's presence than when they are walking in the light of day. Thus this "shining of a flaming fire by night" may represent the shining in of the Lord's clearer, fu...

“ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on HIM the iniquity of us all.” -Isa iah 53:6 [KJV] We trust Christ our risen Savior Who died on the cross to put away all our sins. All our sins, not one omitted, were laid upon Him, and He died under the justice of God’s law for us. He became accountable for ALL our sins (sins of omission and commission), all our evil deeds, thoughts, and motives, all our iniquities were “laid on Him.” When He died, did He put all our iniquity away, or did He leave part of it to be borne by us? Praise God, He put it all away by His one sacrifice for our sins! How can we know this for certain? HE IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD! We trust Christ, “ Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” ( Rom ans 4:25 ). By His experience on the cross in His actual suffering the full punishment due unto all the iniquity of all His sheep, He brought in the ri...

Our Lord said to the Jewish leaders of His day, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye WILL NOT come to Me that ye might have life" ( John 5:39-40 ). While many are quick to defend the freedom of man’s will, our Lord essentially dashed that heresy to pieces with these words. No man has ever or will ever, by his own defiled volition, come to Christ to be saved by His blood and righteousness. Man’s natural will is free only in the sense that it is at liberty to do whatever his evil heart desires, subject of course, to the sovereign purpose of God. It would be far more accurate to say that man’s supposed freedom is merely the freedom of slavery. He is in bondage to sin; Satan holds him captive at his will ( 2 Timothy 2:26 ). Man, uninfluenced by free grace, has neither the desire nor the ability to draw near to Christ by faith. "No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent ...