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

THE TRADITIONS OF MEN    The Pharisees were very offended that some rag tag fishermen would follow Jesus and teach contrary to what they taught. They said to Christ, "Why do Thy disciples transgress the traditions of the elders?" (Matt hew 15:2) . A tradition is something that is passed down from generation to generation and with the Pharisees it was the oral law. It was not the scriptures but what they (and those like them that preceded them) said about the scriptures and the rules they added to them. They could not defend their teachings from the scriptures alone so they accused the disciples of teaching contrary to "the traditions." Our merciful God spoke audibly from heaven on one occasion some very important words. "This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him..." The Word of God supersedes all the teachings of men, especially what they teach about the Word! Christ said to these Pharisees, "Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may k...

"For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."   -Hebrews 10:36 [KJV] Why is patience needed? Because if we are the Lord's people, we are sure to have many trials. The Lord sends us afflictions that He may give us the grace of patience to bear them. But O, what a rebellious heart do we carry in our bosom! What perverseness, peevishness, and self-will dwell in us! How soon our temper is stirred up, and our irritable minds roused in a moment by the veriest trifle! How little patience have we under the trials that God sees fit to lay upon us! We thus learn our need of patience, and that it is not a fruit of nature's soil. The want of it makes the soul follow after it; and when the Lord does give submission to His will, and enables His children to see how profitable these trials are for their souls, and how, but for this heavy ballast, they would certainly have been carried away into the world, they can see His me...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands(16-18OCT20) 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: JUST ONE WAY! God will give no man any wiggle room here, freewill won’t do, works won’t do, merit has no place, and law keeping won’t be accepted.  The Lord God said it this way, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36) . I am so thankful that God the Father brought me to the place where there was no way out from under the guilt and condemnation of my sin and revealed the ONE WAY in which He would accept and make me righteous. That Way is through and by the Lord Jesus Christ. -preacher Donnie Bell

 "We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to enquire. We know that THE WAGES OF SECRECY ARE CORRUPTION. We know that in secrecy ERROR, undetected, WILL FLOURISH AND SUBVERT." -J. Robert Oppenheimer, as quoted from an address to the Science Talent Institute, March 6th, 1950 A.D. Friends, in regards to upcoming nation-wide elections, with us casting our "lots" or votes, remember that it's written, "THE LOT IS CAST INTO THE LAP; BUT THE WHOLE DISPOSING [Hebrew for 'verdict,' 'sentence,' 'formal decree,' & 'divine law'] THEREOF IS OF THE LORD." -Proverbs of Solomon 16:33 [KJV] Flee to Christ JESUS today, friends. He alone is "The LORD our righteousness!" Cheers...

“ And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” -Matt hew 11:12 [KJV] Many view this verse as saying that men, by sheer force of their own power, goodness, and will, can gain salvation and enter the kingdom of heaven. This is far from the truth. This verse speaks of the desperation God the Holy Spirit brings God’s elect to in conviction . It is when we as sinners are brought to the point that we see no other hope but the grace of God in Christ – no hope of forgiveness but by His blood and no hope of justification but by His righteousness imputed. When the Holy Spirit reveals to us our sin, impotence, and depravity, we in desperation by God-given faith lay hold upon Christ, and we cannot and will not let go of Him. This is not forcing Christ to save us, but it is the force of conviction that causes us to cling to Him for our lives . Like Jacob wrestling with the Angel (a preincarnate appearance of Chri...

" That I may win Christ ." -Philippians 3:8 [KJV] What is it to "win Christ?" It is to have Him sweetly embraced in the arms of our faith. It is to feel Him manifesting His heavenly glory in our souls. It is to have the application of His atoning blood, in all its purging efficacy, to our conscience. It is to feel our heart melted and swooning with the sweet ravishments of His dying love, shed abroad even to overpowering. This is winning Christ. Now, before we can thus win Christ, we must have a view of Christ, we must behold His glory, "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." We must see the matchless dignity of His glorious Person, the atoning efficacy of His propitiating blood, the length and breadth, the depth and height of His surpassing love. We must have our heart ready to burst with pantings, longings, and ardent desires that this blessed Immanuel would come down from the heaven of heavens in which He dwells ...

“ Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.” -Hebrews 2:17-18 [KJV] The Son of God, in our nature, having finished His redemption-work, and returned to heaven, wears that nature in an everlasting union with His GODHEAD. So that as God and Man in one Person, He hath a perfect sense and apprehension of what constitutes the nature of both. He knows as GOD. He feels as MAN. Hence, it follows, that His consciousness of what our nature is by His own, cannot but make Him enter into an intimate concern and fellow-feeling, in all that belongs to His church. He knows all, enters into the concerns of all, and feels for all His afflicted people. -preacher Robert Hawker (1753 – 1827 A.D.)