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

To those who struggle with assurance, saying, "There are so many times that I do not feel saved," I would remind you that, before you came to Christ, there were many times you did not feel lost! Did your lack of "lost feeling" that time mean that you weren't lost? Of course not! For feelings have nothing to do with whether or not we are lost. Do you not see that it is the same with respect to whether or not we are saved? Martin Luther said it well when he wrote: "For Feelings come and feelings go, And feelings are deceiving; My warrant is the Word of God; Naught else is worth believing." There it is! God's Word! There is our foundation. The Scriptures never instruct us to feel, but to believe. If you do not feel, believe anyway! It does not say, 'For by grace are you saved through FEELINGS.' Feelings are a look inward, at ourselves. Faith is a look outward at Christ. Feelings change because they look at a changing object...

"In all these things we are more than conquerors through H im that loved us." -R OMANS 8:37 [KJV]   Those who know nothing of their own heart, of their own infirmities, of their own frailties, of their own inward or outward slips and backslidings, know nothing of the secret of superabounding grace, nothing of the secret of atoning blood, nothing of the secret of the Spirit's inward testimony. They cannot. Only in proportion as we are emptied of self in all its various forms, are we filled out of the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. Now you, perhaps, (I address myself personally to some poor, tempted child of God, that in touching one, I may touch others,) are a poor, tempted creature; and your daily sorrow, your continual trouble is, that you are so soon overcome; that your temper, your lusts, your pride, your worldliness, your carnal, corrupt heart are perpetually getting the mastery. And from this you sometimes draw bitter conclusions. You say, in t...

“ All the ground of a believers righteousness and salvation, and exemption from the Law, sin, and the curse, is from the nature, office, and transaction or work of Christ, and Gods accounting, or imputing. Christ stood clothed in our nature, betwixt God and man, and in that with all the sins of believers upon Him, God having laid on Him the iniquities of us all. In His Office He obeyed, suffered, satisfied, and offered up Himself, and now sits as a Mediator to perpetuate or make His sacrifice, obedience, suffering, and righteousness everlasting; and thus bringing in everlasting righteousness; and God accounts, reckons or imputes all that is done in our nature, as done by us, calling things that are not, as if they were; and in His person, as in our person; and thus He is made sin for us W ho knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” - Gospel report by preacher John Saltmarsh, 1649 A.D.

"But this man, after H e had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God." - HEBREWS 10:12 [KJV]   It is a fundamental article of our most holy faith, that the man Christ Jesus is now at God's right hand, a very man, not a shadowy, aerial substance. "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." God looks at Him as such with eyes of intense delight, with ever new approbation and love; and views Him as the representative of all that are interested in Him; He being the Head, the Church the members; He the Bridegroom, the Church the bride; He the great High Priest, and the Church the house of God. As living for her at the right hand of the Father, He is ever presenting on her behalf the validity of His intercession. The fact, the reality that He is there, is the Church's joy, as it is all her hope and all her boast. "Because I live, ye shall live also." To Him, then, d...

"For all the promises of God in H im are yea, and in H im Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now H e which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." -II C ORINTHIANS 1:20-22 [KJV]   Paul is reminding the believers at Corinth and us today that all that God has promised us in His word is as certain and sure as His own name and character [II TIMOTHY 2:19; T ITUS 1:1-3 ] . These promises were all made according to His own will and purpose [ E PHESIANS 1:11 ] . The scriptures teach, that which God has promised He is able to perform [ROMANS 4:20-21 ] . All these precious promises display the qualities of God who gave them [II PETER 1:3-4 ] . Notice several particulars that the apostle points out. 1). The range and scope of these promises, "All the promises of God." There is not a need any guilty sinner has that the promises of God does not meet [ P ...

"Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." -I SAIAH 40:4 [KJV]   IF IN YOUR ROAD HEAVENWARD, no valley ever sank before you; if no mountain and hill ever rose up in sight; if you encountered no crooked path through the dense wood; and no rough places, with many a rolling stone and many a thorny briar in the tangled forest, it would not seem that you were treading the way which the saints of God have ever trod, nor would it appear as if you needed special help from the sanctuary, or any peculiar power to be put forth for your help and deliverance. But being in this path, and that by God's own appointment , and finding right before your eyes valleys of deep depression which you cannot raise up; mountains and hills of difficulty that you cannot lay low; crooked things which you cannot straighten; and rough places which you cannot make smooth; you are compe...

Poor, weak and sinful though I am, I have a heav’nly Friend; Christ Jesus is His precious Name, He loves me without end. Though I was ruined by the fall, Christ bore my guilt and blame; He died and saved my sinful soul, His praise I will proclaim. In seeking grace my Brother-Friend Pursued this wand’ring sheep; He rescued me from sin and death, And He my soul will keep. Each day new blessings from above, My Friend supplies for me; He fills my heart with joy and peace, And guides unerringly. Someday my life on earth shall end And I will leave this place; Then shall the greatest joy be mine, To see my dear Friend’s face. Tune to "O FOR A THOUSAND TONGUES" CM Words by JIM BYRD