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

  “We cannot keep our eye too exclusively or too intently fixed on Jesus. All salvation is in Him. All salvation proceeds from Him. All salvation leads to Him. And, for the assurance and comfort of our salvation, we are to repose believingly and entirely on Him. Christ must be all! Christ the beginning; Christ the center; and Christ the end. Oh sweet truth to you who are sensible of your poverty, vileness, and insufficiency, and of the ten thousand flaws and failures of which, perhaps, no one is cognizant but God and your own soul! Oh, to turn and rest in Christ; a full Christ; a loving Christ; a tender Christ, whose heart's love never chills, from whose eye darts no reproof, from whose lips breathes no sentence of condemnation! Christ must be all!” -Gospel report by preacher Octavius Winslow (1808–1878 A.D.)

  “Then drew near unto H im all the publicans and sinners for to hear H im. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them .” -L UKE 15:1-2 [KJV] While the self-righteous Pharisees and Scribes withdrew from the Lord Jesus Christ and then harshly criticized Him, many publicans and sinners drew near to hear Him. What a blessing from the Lord to have a willingness to draw near to Him [JOHN 6:44 ] and then to have ears to actually hear a word from Him [ACTS 10:33 ] . His words are words of life [JOHN 5:24 ] . His words are words of salvation [ROMANS 1:16; H EBREWS 4:12 ] . The worst thing the Pharisees and scribes said of the Lord, “This man recieveth sinners, and eateth with them;” is the best thing any sinner could hear. It is not sin that keeps a man from hearing the good news of the gospel of Christ, it is his presumed righteousness he is going about to establish by his religious deeds [ROMANS 10:1-4 ] . No ma...

"They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them." -J EREMIAH 31:9 [KJV] Until God is pleased to pour out upon us the spirit of grace and of supplications, we cannot worship Him aright; for God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth; nor can we without this spirit offer up that spiritual sacrifice which is acceptable to Him through Jesus Christ. When this spirit has been once given and kindled in a believer's breast, it never dies out. It is like the fire upon the brazen altar, which was first given by the Lord Himself from heaven, and concerning which God gave this command: "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out" [LEVITICUS 6:13 ] . This fire might sink low; it might be covered with the ashes of sacrifice, but it never was suffered to go out for want of supply of fuel. So at times it may seem to you as if there were scarcely any spirit of pray...

  Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (31JAN-02FEB20) Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in SO GREAT SALVATION by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace - God's unmerited favor - from their sins and from Hell: “ Though a believer in Christ, you are still a naked sinner in yourself. You have no righteousness of your own which you have wrought out, which can screen you from divine justice, answer all the demands of God’s law, and entitle you to His favor. Your own righteousness is no better than filthy rags, too ragged to hide your shame; too filthy to endure the piercing eye of God’s purity; but must be burnt up by the fire of His justice. True, in Christ you have an infinitely perfect, and everlastingly glorious righteousness, to appear in before God. But it is as true, you can only enjoy the comfort of this, by putting on Christ in your mind, memory a...

"Who worketh all things after the counsel of H is own will ." -E PHESIANS 1:11 [KJV]   By these words the apostle brings before our eyes God's omnipotent power as carrying into effectual performance the counsel of His own will towards the objects of His distinguishing favour. An especial blessing is couched in this. Next to a believing view of the purposes of God's grace, and a sweet persuasion of our interest in them, nothing is more strengthening and encouraging than a realising apprehension of the power of God to carry them into full execution .   Feeling, as we do, our own miserable helplessness, sinking under the pressure of our daily weakness, mourning over continual failures, and grieving on account of perpetual backslidings, encompassed by foes, and distressed by fears, how strengthening it is to our faith, thus tried to the utmost, to believe that H e who has purposed has power to perform . This persuasion of the almighty power of God w...

“ Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, A SURE FOUNDATION: he that believeth shall not make haste.” -ISAIAH 28:16 [KJV] People are no different in Isaiah's day than in ours. Religious lost men still love to brag and boast of their agreements, pledges, decisions and covenants they have made with death, hell and the grave. Therefore we need to constantly warn every one of the certain and eternal destruction of all those who rest in their refuge of lies [ISAIAH 28:17-18 ] . They willfully choose to disregard THE ONLY FOUNDATION on which the guilty sinner can find peace with God and go about to establish their own righteousness by their deeds [ROMANS 10:1-4 ] . Our Lord Jesus Christ is plainly set forth in scripture as THE ONLY PROVIDED AND SECURE FOUNDATION upon which guilty sinners can rest and find peace with God [I CORINTHIANS 3:11; I PETER 2:2-7; II CORINTHIANS 5:18-21 ] . Isaiah des...

"The king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework." -P SALM 45:13-14 [KJV]   This is a beautiful description of the bridal garments of the Church as the queen. The gold was to be wrought into her clothing, the raiment to be of needlework, intimating that her robe of justifying righteousness was wrought, as it were, as in needlework, stitch by stitch; yet that every thread was embroidered with gold. Here we have the thread of the humanity in union with the gold of Deity, and yet each in such close union that the thread is but one. In gold thread the beauty, the value is in the gold; yet how close the union. Gold by itself could not be made into embroidery. So Deity cannot suffer, bleed, or die; but humanity can in union with it. Thus, as our blessed Lord went through the whole work which the Father gave Him to do, His Deity, being in union with His obeying, suffering humani...