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

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." -P SALM 139:23, 24 [KJV] The people of God cannot take their religion upon credit; they cannot be satisfied with the endorsement of this or that good man. They must have it wrought by God Himself. They are often exercised as to whence their religion came. Do you not find it so, and that it costs you many exercises? If, for instance, you are cast down, you are exercised whether it spring from godly sorrow for sin. If you are comforted, you cannot take the comfort for granted; you must have it weighed up in the gospel balance. If you meet with providential deliverances, you cannot take them as so many certain evidences that all is right with your soul. So that every step you take you have to examine, and weigh it whether it be of God. The dead professors, the hypocrites in Zion never have their religion tried and weig...

Augustus Toplady (author of the hymn "Rock of Ages" ) wrote a hymn in 1772 A.D. on the subject of SUBSTITUTION. It exalts the effectual, particular redemption of our Lord. From whence this fear and unbelief? Hath not the Father put to grief His spotless Son for me? And will the righteous Judge of men Condemn me for that debt of sin Which, Lord, was charged to Thee? Complete atonement Thou hast made; And to the utmost Thou hast paid Whatever Thy people owed; Nor can God's wrath take place If sheltered in Thy righteousness, And sprinkled with Thy blood. If Thou hast my discharge procured, And freely in my place endured The whole of wrath divine, Payment God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding Surety's hand, A nd then again at mine ! Since all men by nature have stony hearts, all the threatenings in the world will do no good; the stony heart of natural man must be pierced by THE POWER OF GOD in order to be tender! One with a tender hea...

"Keep yourselves in the love of God." -Jude 21 [KJV] When Christ is made known to our soul by the power of God, we have views of truth in Him, of happiness in Him, and of deliverance. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in H im." We receive Him as the Son of the Father in truth and love; we receive Him as suitable to our wants and woes; we receive Him as putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and endearing Himself to our heart in the sweet manifestation of His Person, goodness, and love. Now as long as Christ and the soul are together, there is no place for error, and no place for evil. He makes the soul tender, the heart upright, the spirit broken and contrite, truth precious, error hateful, and sin loathsome and detestable. And whilst He and the soul are engaged together, error cannot approach nor evil find an entrance, so as to get any standing-ground in the heart. But error is very subtle; it addresses itself ...

Morality is something society needs in order to survive. We should encourage each other to be moral, ethical, honest, honorable, just, generous, kind, compassionate, all of which should be efforts to love our neighbors as ourselves. But we must never confuse morality and godliness. A person can be moral in all the areas, not perfectly but to the best of his/her abilities, and still not be godly according to God’s definition of godliness. Godliness in the Scripture has to do with a believer, a justified sinner, one who is in Christ, washed in His blood and clothed in His righteousness. Godliness describes only those who have been born again by the Spirit and who have spiritual life as evidenced by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance of sin. Godliness, then, in the Scriptures refers to the motives and efforts of a believer’s seeking to obey God, to love God and to love his neighbor, acceptably. The motives for the morality and obedience of a truly godly person are ...

IT IS NEEDFUL THAT WE UNDERSTAND that the entire eternal inheritance is the gift of God’s grace. Everything from faith to heaven is said to be a gift. God’s elect are blessed with all spiritual blessings, even eternal life being a gift. Christ did not purchase that which was already freely given. But all these gifts are given to a people who are enslaved, imprisoned, blind and spiritually dead. They are not in a position either legally or spiritually to enjoy them! They require a work to release them and a work to make them alive to enjoy them. The first is the work Christ accomplished. He redeemed His people from the bondage of Satan, sin and the curse of the law. His death and sacrifice was the ransom payment and the satisfaction of divine justice against them. By His cross death Christ purchased them and thus afforded for them a complete liberation from all that would keep them from the total enjoyment of every gift of God. His redeeming blood even accomplished a r...

Man's entire apostasy and death in sin, so that he cannot save himself; and God's entire supremacy, so that He saves whom He will; are doctrines exceedingly distasteful to human pride. But they are Scriptural. Why was one thief saved and the other lost? “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight. All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal H im” ( M ATTHEW 11:25-27 ) . “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.”God was not bound to save the one thief, and He had power enough to have saved the other thief, and neither thief could save himself. What made the difference? The Sovereign Grace of God! “For who maketh thee to dif...

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost." -Jude 20 [KJV] By the words "most holy faith," we may understand chiefly the grand truths of the everlasting gospel which are revealed unto and embraced by faith. And they are called "our most holy faith," because they are imbued with all the holiness of God; and not only so, but as they are received into believing hearts, communicate sanctification, because they have a liberating, sanctifying efficacy. The words "build up" assume that there is a foundation laid. Christ is that foundation which God hath laid in Zion, a chief corner-stone, elect, precious; and where Christ is revealed to the soul by a divine power, a foundation is laid in the heart on which every subsequent truth is to be built up. The grand thing to be clear of in our own experience is, whether Christ has been laid as a foundation in our souls or not, and if He has, we have ...