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

The grand controversy between corrupt nature and the Almighty is, W ho shall have the glory of salvation, God or the creature? The pride of man says – “The glory of salvation is due to me, for I can save myself.” But Jehovah takes the glory of salvation to Himself, and says – “I will have all the glory thereof; for it is by My sovereign and efficacious grace that men are saved.” Thus pride is a principal cause of the enmity there is in the carnal mind against God; it is at the bottom of all the opposition made to those doctrines of Scripture which illustrate and advance THE ALMIGHTY POWER AND FREE GRACE OF GOD IN THE SALVATION OF SINNERS . — Gospel report by preacher Augustus Toplady (1740–1778 A.D.)

“ WHEREFORE DOTH A LIVING MAN COMPLAIN?” - LAMENTATIONS 3:39 [KJV] 1. God commands me never to complain [ P HILIPPIANS 2:14 ] . 2. God commands me to give thanks in every circumstance [I THESSALONIANS 5:18 ] . 3. God commands me to rejoice always, especially in trials [I THESSALONIANS 5:16; J AMES 1:2 ] . 4. I always deserve much worse than what I am suffering now; in fact, I deserve hell [LAMENTATIONS 3:39; L UKE 13:2-3 ] . 5. In light of the eternal happiness and glory I will experience in heaven, this present trial is brief and insignificant, even if it were to last a lifetime [ R OMANS 8:18; II CORINTHIANS 5:19 ] . 6. My suffering is far less than that which Christ suffered, and He did not complain [I PETER 2:23 ] . 7. To complain is to say God is not just [GENESIS 18:25 ] . 8. Faith and prayer exclude complaining [ P SALM 34:4 ] . 9. This difficulty is being used by God for my good and it...

"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." -P ROVERBS 16:32 [KJV] What a foe to one's peace is one's own spirit ! And what shall I call it? It is often an infernal spirit. Why? Because it bears the mark of Satan upon it. The pride of our spirit, the presumption of our spirit, the hypocrisy of our spirit, the intense selfishness of our spirit are often hidden from us. This wily devil, self, can wear such masks and assume such forms; this serpent, self, can so creep and crawl, can so twist and turn, and can disguise itself under such false appearances, that it is hidden often from ourselves. Who is the greatest enemy we have to fear? We all have our enemies. But who is our greatest enemy? He that you carry in your own bosom; your daily, hourly, and momently companion, that entwines himself in nearly every thought of your heart; that suggests well-nigh every motive; that sometimes...

“ Just as the sinner's despair of any hope in himself is the first prerequisite of a sound conversion, so the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth in grace.” - A rthur W. Pink

"And this is life eternal, that they might know T hee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, W hom T hou hast sent." - JOHN 17:3 [KJV] How many are anxious to know what is the way of salvation, how eternal life is to be obtained, and how to "flee from the wrath to come." But the Lord Jesus has shewn in one short sentence in what eternal life consists, that it is in the knowledge of the "only true God, and of Jesus Christ, W hom H e has sent." He therefore that knows the Father and the Son has eternal life in his soul. The Lord Jesus, in the sixth chapter of John, quoted this amongst other passages of the Old Testament, and says, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto M e." He lays this down, then, as one especial fruit of divine teaching, that it produces a coming unto Him. The Spirit, Who teacheth to...

When the Hebrew servant's liberty was proclaimed, he was delivered from his master, from the command of his master, from the threatening of his master, and from the service of his master, he was a free man; and yet this man, that went out at the year of jubilee, is, says God, My servant. "For they are M y servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen" [LEVITICUS 25:42 ] . So the believing sinner is delivered from the law, that being dead [ROMANS 7:6 ] from the command of the law, for the letter killeth; from the curse of the law [GALATIANS 3:13 ] and from the service of the law, for he shall "serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." He is a free man: "if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed;" and yet he that is this free man is Christ's servant [I CORINTHIANS 7:22 ] ; for though he is not under the law, yet he is not without l...

In Proverbs 13:10 we read a statement that should be a rebuke to most of us: “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.” Did you really hear that? “Only by pride comes contention”? Strong’s Hebrew dictionary defines the word for contention here as “strife, debate.” Here is one more of its three uses in the Bible: “He loveth transgression that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction” [PROVERBS 17:19 ]. Then there is one more: “Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high” [ISAIAH 58:4 ] . At the root of all contention, strife and debate is PRIDE, period! God says “only.” Whatever our stated reasons might be, pride is the real reason. The scriptures say that with pride comes shame and it is pride that precedes destruction and a haughty spirit that precedes a fall. But contrasted to that it says, “...