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

"He MUST Increase, but I MUST Decrease" -J OHN 3:30 [KJV] This was spoken of the Redeemer by His forerunner John. And it is not to be considered as the language of complaint or sullen agreement as if he would say, "I dislike it; but it is unavoidable. It is my grief; and I must bear it." No. It was as agreeable to his feelings as it was firm in his belief. And it showed a fine and a noble soul in John. The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy. We love to be distinguished above others. We wish to rise, even by the fall of others. It is trying, even to a good man, to withdraw, and see a successor filling his place better than himself, and, as the honors he has worn are transferred to another, to say, "He must increase, but I must decrease." It is not an easy thing to go down well, or for a setting star to exult in a rising sun. But it was thus to John. He knew his rank and approved his place. He was the servant, not the Master: the friend, ...

Often people ask this question to find out about our religious background and heritage. As if to say that it doesn't really matter what persuasion we are or what we believe, just as long as we are sincere and make some sort of confession. Those to whom the Lord has been pleased to reveal the gospel, are fully convinced and totally persuaded of what God in His grace has been pleased to teach them from the scripture. Believers are no longer tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, they are committed and addicted to the truth [EPHESIANS 4:14 ] . Have you been fully persuaded by God the Holy Spirit? It is not presumption to believe all the precious promises of God [II PETER 1:3 ] . It would be presumption to believe that God is going to save wretched sinners, if He did not tell us in His Word that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners [MATTHEW 9:13 ] . Let me give two examples of believers who were fully persuaded. Abraham did not pres...

"Man's goings are of the L ORD ; how can a man then understand his own way?" -P ROVERBS 20:24 [KJV]   Does not your heart sometimes quake with fear lest you have nothing but a nominal profession, lest the god of this world be blinding you, and lest your conscience be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin? It is good to have such fears. He who feareth not, who has no solemn apprehensions, no anxious inquiries, who is never exercised with some internal trepidation of soul, it is much to be feared has never known what it is to have "the candle of the Lord searching the inward parts of the belly."   But if God has quickened your soul into spiritual life, and you have ears to hear, I would just put two questions to you: Have you obtained righteousness by a manifestation of Christ's righteousness; pardon by the application of Christ's blood; love by a shedding abroad of love; deliverance by a discovery of God's outstretched hand? M...

  Is there a difference between regeneration and justification? If we live in the poisonous fog of false doctrine we will answer…NO! Some folks view regeneration ( being born again ) as being the basis and ground for approval before God…. But this cannot possibly be so. True, the Holy Spirit regenerates us, sets us apart and gives us faith. But this is not basis of our acceptance before God. This is not the gospel. The gospel is objective. It happened outside of us, in history. It is finished! Much popular preaching, nevertheless, tells us that the gospel is about God changing the heart of the sinner This theory, however, is but a regurgitation of medieval Roman Catholic teaching on salvation. It´s alarming that our condition and state should once again be the overwhelming preoccupation of much of our thinking today! The great truth of justification by faith, however, does not deal with the acts of God within the believer, but rather with the saving acts of God outside of ...

Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle, experienced the mighty work of God’s Spirit. God brought this rebel sinner to bow before Him in the dust and revealed Himself in Paul. He gives confession of this in his letter to the Galatians: “ But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood” . This all came to pass at God’s appointed time (“when it pleased God”) and according to His purpose and power of grace (“called me by His grace”). But what did God do in this man and what was the result of this great work? God revealed the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul says, “in me.” The result was that Paul never stopped talking about, believing in, glorying in and preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. At the center of his experience was the revelation of Jesus Christ! While his experience was the same experience for all who are...

"I the L ORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." -I SAIAH 27:3 [KJV]   The Lord Jesus Christ, who lives at God's right hand, has to send down supplies of His grace continually to keep your soul alive unto Himself. Without this life being kept up and maintained by these continual supplies of His grace, you cannot pray, or read, or hear the word, or meditate with any feeling or profit. You cannot love the Lord and His blessed ways; you cannot submit to His righteous dealings; or hear the rod and Him who appointed it. You may approach His throne, but your heart is cold, clouded, and unfeeling; your spirit sinks under the weight and burden of the trials and difficulties that are spread in your path; nor are you able to do anything that satisfies yourself, or that you think can satisfy God.   By these painful but profitable lessons, you are experimentally taught that you want the life of Christ as wel...

“ And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature .” - MARK 16:15 [KJV]   God’s preachers preach the message of God’s grace in Christ Jesus to undeserving sinners, the Gospel, because they’re obedient servants. They preach because they’re convinced of God that there’s no other message that the Holy Spirit shall bless to the salvation of a sinner except that Gospel [ R OMANS 1:16 ] . And they know, by Divine revelation, that there’s a remnant according to the electing grace [ROMANS 11:5 ] that shall hear with new ears, see with new eyes and believe on Christ with a new heart, [EZEKIEL 36:26-28 ] , because they are born from above [JOHN 6:37 ] .    -Gospel report by preacher Marvin Stalnaker