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

"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." -M ATTHEW 26:41 [KJV] The entering into temptation is a different thing from temptation itself. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." A temptation presents itself, draws near to us, or we draw near to it. If conscience sound an alarm, and we keep, so to speak, to the windward of temptation, we are for the present safe. Temptation is a lee shore on which the wind fiercely blows; it is a coast strewed with a thousand wrecks, and with the bleached bones of innumerable drowned mariners. Keep the ship's head to windward, and she may weather the point; neglect sail and helm, and she will go ashore. David and Joseph were exposed to a similar temptation. David entered into it, and fell; Joseph was kept from entering into it, and stood. In the country you often see a footpath across a field; if we keep in it we are safe. But we may be tempted by various objects to diverge a little, to gathe...

God formed all people, they are all the workmanship of God; but there are a few characters set especially apart as a little group, whom God has ordained to glorify; and to them He says, " This people have I formed for M yself, and they shall shew forth My praise" (I SAIAH 43:21) . "O yes," says free-will, "They shall have a chance to do it, if they will." But God says, "They shall." Unbelief says "You shan’t;" carnal reason says, "You can’t;" and inbred corruption says "You won’t." But when God says "You shall," and when He speaks the divine "shall," it comes with an invincible energy to the conscience, and that blessed truth is made manifest that "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill" (P SALM 113:7) . – Gospel report by preacher William Gadsby (1773–1844 A.D.)

  “Y e that make mention of the L ORD , keep not silence” -I SAIAH 62:6 [KJV] How can the redeemed of the Lord keep silent about the Lord Jesus? How can we keep silent about Him when His name is so beautiful? How can we keep silent about Him when His work of redemption is so glorious? How can we keep silent about Him when His person is so perfect? As followers of Christ we have embraced five words concerning Him. They are, “My King and my God” (P SALM 5:2) . How can we, therefore, keep silent about Him? How can we be silent about the everlasting truths of the Gospel? How can we, for example, be silent that God was manifest in the flesh? ( I T IMOTHY 3:16) . How can we be silent when we think of how He suffered for us? “Oh, think of Jesus, as He stands before Pilate Condemned as a villain, when from sin He was clean Though they wrongly accused Him, and cruelly used Him Yet He spoke not a word, though the tears filled His gaze Think h...

"Wherefore in all things it behooved H im to be made like unto H is brethren, that H e might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." -H EBREWS 2:17 [KJV] God gave the persons of the elect into the hands of H is dear Son, as Jacob committed Benjamin into the hands of Judah; and as Judah accepted Benjamin, so Christ accepted the Church and undertook to bring it unto God, or H e H imself would bear the blame for ever. But how this faithfulness was tried! Men tried it; devils tried it; God tried it; but it came gloriously through all. Yet what loads were laid upon it! How the very knees of Jesus, so to speak, staggered beneath it!  How, as Hart says, He had "Strength enough, and none to spare!" How H e had to sustain the curse of the law and the load of imputed sin! How H e had to drink up a very hell of inward torment! How H e had to be agonised in body and more than a...

My God! How cheerful is the sound! How pleasant to repeat! Well may that heart with pleasure bound, Where God hath fix'd His seat. What want shall not our God supply From His abundant stores? What streams of mercy from on high An arm almighty pours! From Christ the ever-living spring, These ample blessings flow: Prepare, my lips, His name to sing, Whose heart has loved us so. Now to our Father and our God Be endless glory giv'n, Through all the realms of man's abode, And through the highest heaven. -Tune "O for a Thousand Tongues" ==================================== "For He saith to Moses, I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I WILL HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I WILL HAVE COMPASSION. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy ." -R OMANS 9:15-16 [ KJ V] The doctrine of God's sovereign power and will to save HIS people according to His purp...

Once in Christ, ever in Him. Having taken up His habitation in the heart, He never removes. None can untie this happy knot. Who will dissolve this union? Will He Himself? No, He will not; we have His word for it, "I will not turn away from them" (J EREMIAH 32:40) . But perhaps the sinner will do this mischief to himself? No, he shall not; "they shall not depart from Me," says their God. Can devils do it? No, unless they be stronger than Christ and His Father too; "Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand," says our Lord (J OHN 10:28) . "And none is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand" (v s. 29) . But what say you of death, which parts husband and wife; yea, separates the soul from the body? Will death do it? No: what saith the apostle? "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other cr...

"Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him" (I PETER 3:22) . The resurrection, enthronement and universal authority given to Jesus Christ provide us with undeniable evidence that He accomplished, to the Father’s full satisfaction, the work He was sent to do. What was that work? It was that work laid upon Him from all eternity, that work which He delightfully accepted to accomplish - to save, redeem and satisfy divine justice for all of those people given to Him by the Father in covenant grace before the world began. The Savior’s abiding presence in the Father’s house shows that real, substantial and everlasting peace has been made between the Lord and His fallen people by the blood of the cross of Christ. The Holy Spirit said "this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God" ( HEBREWS 10:12) . Among the seven pieces of fur...