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

Faith is not the impulsive or moving cause of Justification. It is an act of pure and free grace, without any motive in the creature: Therefore the Apostle saith, "...being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ" [ E PHESIANS 1:7 ] . But this benefit would not be of grace, but of works, was our faith the impulsive cause of it: because faith is a work or act of ours, as we learn from the words of Christ: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent" [ J OHN 6:29 ] . Salvation is not of works, in any branch of it; "for by grace are y e saved, through faith; that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" [ E PHESIANS 2:8-9 ] . From whence it is evident that Justification, which is a considerable part of salvation, cannot be by works. The grace of God eminently appears in contriving the way of our Justification by Christ...

Just as the Samaritan came to the beaten and wounded man so “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners " [I TIMOTHY 1:15 ] . Jesus came to save sinners. What an unspeakably welcome fact. In spite of the truth that we, like Paul, often consider ourselves the chief of sinners [I TIMOTHY 3:16 ] we as believers are learning to look outward to the glorified Man, the Son of God, who has passed through death and resurrection on our behalf [ see H EBREWS 12:2 ] . He came! He, the Creator, came— He became human and suffered, ignominy, crucifixion, and death! [JOHN 1:14; J OHN 19:18 ] . He came! He was raised out of death, ascended to Heaven, and is now crowned with honour and glory [ see Revelation 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:14; 1 Corinthians 15:7; 1 Corinthians 15:8; Matthew 27:63-66; Luke 24:45-46; 2 Timothy 2:8; Acts 4:10-11; John 20:26; Luke 24:34; Acts 17:31; John 21:1; Mark 16:9; Mark 16:19 ] . He came! Why did He come? He came to save. He came and gave H...

"That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ." -PHILIPPIAN S 1:10 [KJV]   If divine light has enlightened your mind, divine life quickened your heart, and you love the Lord and His people, you must approve of the things that are excellent. For they are so commended to your conscience that you can no more do otherwise than you can tell a deliberate lie or call black white. And as you approve of them, you will disapprove of everything which is contrary to, or falls short of this excellency.   Now this is what distinguishes us from the world and the spirit of it, and from all whose eyes are blinded by the god of this world—that whilst they approve of the things God abhors, we approve of the things that God loves . Here is the mind of Christ; here is the teaching of the Spirit giving us in some measure to see as Christ sees, to feel as Christ feels, to love as Christ loves, and to approve as ...

"For the L ORD of hosts ha th purposed, and who shall disannul it ? and His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?" -I SAIAH 14:27 [KJV] To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in heaven and earth so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will. Whatever takes place in time is but the outworking of that which He has decreed in eternity. The sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible and infinite! We insist that God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases! "But our God is in the heavens: He ha th done what so ever He ha th pleased" [ P SALM 115: 3] ! " Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places " [ P SALM 135:6 ] ! "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, ...

THE DOCTRINE OF PREDETERMINATION When I consider the absolute independency of God, and the necessary total dependence of all created things on Him, their first cause, I cannot help standing astonished at the pride of impotent, degenerate man, who is so prone to consider himself as a being possessed of sovereign freedom, and invested with a power of self-salvation, able, he imagines, to counteract the designs even of infinite wisdom, and to defeat the agency of Omnipotence itself. "Ye shall be as gods," said the tempter to Eve in paradise; and "ye are as gods" says the same tempter to her apostate sons. One would be apt to think that a suggestion so demonstrably false and flattering, a suggestion the very reverse of what we feel to be our state, a suggestion alike contrary to Scripture and reason, to fact and experience, could never meet with the smallest degree of credit. And yet, because it so exactly coincides with the natural haughtiness of the h...

"For H e hath made H im to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in H im." - II CORINTHIANS 5:21 [KJV] Our blessed Lord offered Himself for sin; that is, that He might put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself— "Who H is own self bare our sins in H is own body on the tree" [I PETER 2:24 ] . It was absolutely necessary either that the sinner should suffer in his own person, or in that of a substitute. Jesus became this Substitute; He stood virtually in the sinner's place, and endured in His holy body and soul the punishment due to Him; for He "was numbered with the transgressors." He thus, by the shedding of His most precious blood, opened in His sacred body a fountain for all sin and all uncleanness [ZECHARIAH 13:1 ] .   The cross was the place on which this sacrifice was offered; for as the blood of the slain lamb was poured out at the foot of the altar, sprinkled upon its horns, and b...

“…As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” -DEUTERONOMY 33:25 [KJV] Here is a precious promise for a trying day! It belongs to every Christian who is traveling to the Celestial City. It provides for every part of life's journey; for every day — as each day may require. It is especially suited to the dark days, the wintry days, and the trying days — when all our earthly props fail us; the days when our fellow man cannot help us. Fellow pilgrim! Are you dispirited, depressed, and cast down? Are you looking back upon the past with sorrow — and forward into the future with fear? Cheer up! The Lord will not lay on you more than He will enable you to bear — nor will He allow any other to do so. However weak you may feel in yourself, however rough the road you may need to travel, however heavy the burden you may have to carry — God will supply you with sufficient strength for the day! He has never allowed you to be crushed yet, though you may have staggered under so...