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

"And H e said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven ." -Luke 10:18 [KJV] It deserves our utmost attention and prayerful consideration to see, by the eye of faith, the display of wisdom and power shining forth in the way in which the all-wise God sent his dear Son "to destroy" or, as the word is in the original, to unloose "the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8) . Satan had, so to speak, spun a ravelled knot when he cast the cords of sin round man's heart. This tangled and tight-drawn knot could not be cut through as by a sword of omnipotent power; but had by infinite wisdom and patience to be unravelled through its whole length. The work which Satan had done was to be undone. Disobedience had to be repaired by obedience—the voluntary obedience of the Son of God, and therefore of infinite value. Sin had to be atoned for by sacrifice—the sacrifice of the nature which had sinned, in union with the Person of the Son of God, and therefore...

"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me " (Isaiah 49:15-16) . This is a revelation of the Lord’s everlasting concern for and faithfulness to His people; here is our eternal security. How delightful to meditate upon our Lord’s unceasing care and concern for His children. If we could by faith behold the Lord’s unending designs of grace toward us, then like Paul we would be joyful in the Lord even in the midst of dark trials. We would lean upon His word of promise, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5) . Pay special attention to those words, "I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands." Our names are not painted on His hands lest we might think they could be rubbed out. Neither are our names said to be written on His hands lest we concl...

Then learn one thing! Jesus Christ is ALL in our justification before God! Only through Christ can a sinner have peace with the Holy God. Only by Christ alone can a sinner be accepted and admitted into God’s presence. HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS is the only robe which will cover us. HIS BLOOD is the only mark that will save us from eternal death. HIS NAME is the only name by which we shall obtain an entrance through the gate of eternal glory. I pity those who try to obtain God’s favor by their works; and I sound a clear warning—you are building on sand; you are spending money for that which is not bread; you will hear Him say, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23) . BUT THIS I KNOW—not one person has ever entered heaven’s courts with any testimony but this: “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood—to Him be the glory” (Rev elation 1:5, 6) .   -preacher Henry Mahan http://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=mahan

"Blessed is the man whom T hou chastenest, O L ORD , and teachest him out of T hy law." -Psalm 94:12 [KJV] We may observe in the words before us, that the Lord puts chastening before teaching. Is there not something remarkable in this? Why should chastening precede teaching? For this reason. We have no ear to hear except so far as we are chastened. It was so with the prodigal. Until he was brought to his right mind by strokes of hunger, he did not think of his father's house; he had no heart to return; but a mighty famine sent him home. So it is with God's children; as long as they are allowed to wander in their backslidings, they have no heart to return. But let the rod come; let them be driven home by stripes; then they have an ear to listen, while God teaches them to profit, instructs them by His blessed Spirit, and speaks into their heart those lessons which are for their eternal good.   "And teachest him out of T hy law." "The law" in th...

  “ A debtor to mercy alone, Of covenant mercy I sing; Nor fear with Thy righteousness on, My person and offering to bring; The terrors of law and of God, With me can have nothing to do; My Savior’s obedience and blood, Hide all my transgressions from view. The work which His goodness began, The arm of His strength will complete; His promise is Y ea and A men, And never was forfeited yet; Things future nor things that are now, Not all things below nor above, Can make Him His purpose forego, Or sever my soul from His love. My name from the palms of His hands, Eternity will not erase; Impressed on His heart it remains, In marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure, As sure as the Earnest is given; More happy, but not more secure, The glorified spirits in heaven.” -preacher Augustus Toplady, 1771 A.D.

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations." - II Peter 2:9 [KJV] Few will sincerely and spiritually go to the Lord, and cry from their hearts to be delivered from the power of a temptation, until it presses so weightily upon their conscience, and lies so heavy a burden upon their soul, that none but God can remove it. But when we really feel the burden of a temptation; when, though our flesh may love it, our spirit hates it; when, though there may be in our carnal mind a cleaving to it, our conscience bleeds under it, and we are brought spiritually to loathe it and to loathe ourselves for it; when we are enabled to go to the Lord in real sincerity of soul and honesty of heart, beseeching H im to deliver us from it, I believe, that the Lord will, sooner or later, either remove that temptation entirely in H is providence or by H is grace, or so weaken its power that it shall cease to be what it was before, drawing our feet into paths of darkness and evil....

"By H is knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew." -Proverbs 3:20  [KJV] When the Lord said, "Let there be light," instantly there was light. So when the Lord says, "Let the earth open," the heart immediately opens, the conscience is made tender, and the soul hears and receives what God speaks. And what follows this opening? The heart receives the dews and showers of God's grace that fall into it; and these dews and showers of God's grace communicate to it softness, fertility, and productiveness. O how we have to learn this by painful experience! Is not our heart as hard sometimes as the nether millstone; and to our feelings, utterly destitute of light, life and power, without one grain of brokenness, contrition, godly sorrow, spiritual desire, or fervent breathing after the Lord? This painful experience the Lord's people have to pass through perpetually, that they may know that "in them, that is, in their f...