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

"Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. Will He plead against me with His great power? No; but He would put strength in me." -Job 23:3, 4, 6 [KJV]   My soul, are these thy breathings? Dost thou really long, and, like David, even pant, to come before the throne of grace? Art thou at a loss how to come, how to draw nigh? Wouldest thou fill thy mouth with arguments, and have thy cause so ordered as to be sure not to fail? Look to Jesus! Seek from Him the leadings of the Spirit; and while thine eye is steadily fixed on thy great High Priest within the vail, still wearing a vesture dipped in blood, see to it that thy one great plea is, for a perfect and complete justification before God and thy Father, upon the sole footing of righteousness. Yes, my soul, plead earnestly, heartily, steadily; and, like Jacob, wrestling with God, upon the sole footing of righteousness: Wouldest...

  "And Israel strengthened himself, and sat up on the bed." -Genesis 48:2 [KJV] This was an interesting moment in the life, or rather the death, of the patriarch, and may serve, my soul, to shew what ought to be the conduct of the believer in his last expiring hours. The imagination can hardly conceive any situation equally momentous, in every point of view, both as it concerns a faithful God, a man's own heart, and the church the dying saint is going to leave behind. What can form a more lovely sight than a dying saint, sitting up in the bed, (if the Lord permits the opportunity) and recounting, as Jacob did, the gracious dealings of the Lord, all the way along the path of pilgrimage - "The God which fed me," said Jacob, "all my life long unto this day: the angel (and who was this but Jesus?) which redeemed me from all evil." Pause, my soul. Anticipate such a day. Figure to thyself thy friends around thee, and thou thyself strengthened, just to sit...

Gospel Mercies, Part 2 by D.G. Miles McKee The gospel comes to us with many benefits.  These are what we call Gospel Mercies.  In the first of this series of messages we discussed ‘Forgiveness’ as one of the excellent mercies from the Throne of Grace.  Today we will consider ‘Accepted as Righteous’ and ‘Adoption.’ Accepted as Righteous . Because of the doing, dying and rising again of Christ we are accepted as being righteous. Think about it.  We are not merely declared innocent; we are beyond innocent.  We are declared righteous and all because of the work of another.  We are accepted, in Heaven, because we are in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:6).  Righteousness is a wonderful gospel benefit whereby God looks at us and says we have done everything right.  We are righteous!   We have been acquitted of all charges and Christ’s actual righteousness has been reckoned to us.  This is like getting our past expunged and being ...

O what a mystery,  Descending from His throne; The Son of God comes down to earth, To seek and save His own. ‘Twas not for righteous souls, That He a Man became; For guilty sinners Jesus came, O praise His precious Name.   This was the only way, God could in justice save, Those sinners chosen by His grace, That He to Jesus gave. So bearing all our sin, The Savior bowed His head; And put away our guilt and shame, Expiring in our stead.   I find my rest in Christ, Who for me bled and died; He rose and mediates for me, And I am justified. Soon with Him I shall be, To see His blessed face; There I will sing redemption’s song And praise Him for His grace. - TUNE: "SALVATION BY GRACE" SM/DOUBLE WORDS BY JIM BYRD

"The man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day." -Ruth 3:18 [KJV]   Behold! my soul, in this scripture history, some sweet features by which the disposition of Jesus's love, and the earnestness in His heart to relieve poor sinners, is strikingly set forth. When a poor sinner is made acquainted with the Lord Jesus, hath heard of His grace, goes forth to glean in His fields; at the ordinances of His house, and under the ministration of His word, lays down at His feet, and prays to be covered with the skirt of His mantle; Jesus not only takes notice of that poor seeking sinner, but gives the poor creature to know, by some sweet and secret whispers of His Holy Spirit, that He is not unacquainted with all that is in his heart. And when such have lain long, and earnestly sought, even through the whole night of doubt and fear, until the morning of grace breaks in upon the soul, yet may they be assured, the God-man, Christ Jesus, will not rest until that...

  "Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD. And he said, Who am I, O Lord GOD! and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD ? ” -II Samuel 7:18,19 [KJV]   The language of David, under the overwhelming views he had of divine goodness, as it concerned himself, is suited to the case of every child of God, as he may trace that goodness in his own history. Surely, every awakened soul may cry out, under the same impression, - "Who am I, O Lord God! and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? "My soul! ponder over the sweet subject, as it concerns thyself. Behold what manner of love the love of God is from the manner of man. View it in each Person of the Godhead. What is the highest possible conception any man can have of the love of God our Father to us? Was it not, when, as an evidence of the love He had to our nature, He put a robe of that nature, in its pure and holy state, upon the Person of His...

  "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself." -John 17:19 [KJV]   Let thy morning thoughts, my soul, be directed to this sweet view of thy Saviour. Behold thy Jesus presenting Himself as the surety of His people before God and the Father. Having now received the call and authority of God the Father, and being fitted with a body suited to the service of a Redeemer, here see Him entering upon the vast work; and in those blessed words, declaring the cause of it - "I sanctify Myself." Did Jesus mean that He made Himself more holy for the purpose? No, surely: for that was impossible. But by Jesus sanctifying Himself, must be understood (as the Nazarite from the womb, consecrated, set apart, dedicated to the service to which the Father had called him), a voluntary offering-an holy unblemished sacrifice. And observe for whom: "for their sakes;" not for Himself; for He needed it not.     The priests under the law made their offerings, first for themselves, and the...