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

  Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (09-11OCT20) 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: GOD tells us that His people are ACCEPTED IN CHRIST (Ephesians 1:6) . If a person is without Christ, then he has nothing that God will accept! God tells us that no man CAN COME unto the Father but by Christ; therefore, if a person is without Christ, he has no ground upon which he can approach God. Christ said, " I am the way, the truth, and the life ." If He is THE WAY, there is no other way; if He is THE TRUTH, everything else is a lie; and if He is THE LIFE, everything apart from Him is death.  Those who HAVE CHRIST have His blood for pardon, His righteousness for justification, His fullness for every need, His strength to support us, His promises to ch...

"Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." - Hebrews 12:2  [KJV] No one can ever run the race set before him, except by looking unto Jesus. He is at the head of the race; He stands at the goal; holding the crown of victory in His hand, which He puts upon the head of the successful runner. And we can only run on as we view Jesus by the eye of faith at the right hand of the Father opening His blessed arms to receive us into His own bosom at the end of the race.   Nor indeed can any one really look to Him but by the special gift and grace of God. He must be revealed to the soul by the power of God; we must behold His glorious Godhead and His suffering manhood by the eye of faith; and we must view Him as the incarnate God; the only Mediator between God and man. We must see the efficacy of His atoning blood to purge a guilty conscience; the blessedness of His obedience to justify a needy, naked soul; the sweetness of His dying love as an inward balm and cor...

"I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek T hy servant; for I do not forget T hy commandments." -Psalm 119:176 [KJV] If the Lord did not seek us, we should never seek the Lord. That is most certain. If you are one that seeks the Lord in prayer, in supplication, in secret desire, with many a heartrending groan, and often by night and by day, be well assured, that you would never have sought the Lord, had not the Lord first sought you . He is now seeking you. It may be (as you fear), some time before He finds you; but He will find you at last.   How sweetly the Lord has set this forth in the parable of the lost sheep! The poor sheep has gone astray; and having once left the fold, it is pretty sure to have got into some strange place or other. It has fallen down a rock, or has rolled into a ditch, or is hidden beneath a bush, or has crept into a cave, or is lying in some deep, distant ravine, where none but an experienced eye and hand can find it out. And so with the Lord...

  “ But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” -Galatians 6:14 [KJV] In the cross of Christ we see the rights of divine justice maintained, the designs of divine mercy revealed, sin appearing exceedingly sinful, the law magnified and honored, and the law-breaker pardoned and delivered! At the cross, God and sinners meet and a reconciliation takes place. Here, man drops the weapons of rebellion, and God lays aside the sword of divine displeasure. Here, the works of Satan are destroyed, and the gates of paradise are thrown open. Here, the creditor is discharged, his every crime is atoned for, and everlasting righteousness is completed! Here, God is "just, and the justifier of him which believeth Jesus" (Rom ans 3:26) . -preacher James Smith

  "Brethren, farewell." - II Corinthians 13:11 [KJV] To fare well, spiritually understood, is to have everything that God can make us happy in. All God's people will eventually fare well. They all stand complete in Christ: nothing can touch their eternal safety; for they are all complete in Him, "without spot, or blemish, or any such thing." In this point of view, they must all in the end and for ever fare well.   But when we come to the matter of experience, we often find that those very times when God's people think they are faring ill, are the seasons when they are really faring well; and again, at other times, when they think they are faring well, then they are really faring ill. For instance, when their souls are bowed down with trouble, it often seems to them that they are faring ill. God's hand appears to be gone out against them: He has hidden His face from them; they can find no access to a throne of grace; t...

“ Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” - Titus 2:13 [KJV]   When the Lord saved me, many years ago, it seemed that at every Christian meeting I attended they were speaking about the Second Coming of Jesus.  I don’t hear so much about that wonderful subject anymore unless, that is, the meeting has to do with End Time Bible Prophesy.  Even then, the emphasis is not usually on the Lord Jesus but about supposed events and geographical predictions.  However, mark it down, write it large in your heart:  Jesus Christ  IS  coming back in person and in power!   Jesus is coming back!! Listen to what He announced to His disciples late in His earthly ministry. He said, “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in M e.  In M y Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare ...

"Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever." -Psalm 28:9 [KJV] David in this last verse of this Psalm closes with a sincere and fervent prayer for the Lord's people. He prays for vital things that we as sinners desperately and constantly need. Let us make this our prayer! 1). Save Thy people ….Who are these people? They belong to Christ by electing love (John 6:37; Ephesians 1:3-6) . They are His by redeeming blood (Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18-20) . They are His by an effectual call of grace (2 Timothy 1:9) . What do Christ's people need? Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, for "all we like sheep have gone astray." Our Lord came to seek out and to save His lost sheep (Luke 19:10) . 2). Bless Thine inheritance , those who are the heirs of salvation, (Romans 8:17) . In Christ we have a blessed and eternal inheritance; "AN INHERITANCE INCORRUPTIBLE, AND UNDEFILED, and that fadeth ...