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

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do ." - Luke 23:34    My soul, art thou still taking thy stand at the foot of the cross? Art thou still looking up to Jesus? If so, listen now to His voice. There were seven expressions of Jesus, which were His last words, which He uttered on the cross. The last words of dying friends are particularly regarded: how much more the last words of the best of all friends; even the dying friend of poor lost perishing sinners. Those which I have chosen for the portion of the day were the first; and they contain the strong cry of Jesus to His Father for forgiveness to His murderers.    And what endears those expressions yet more to the heart are, that they are not only the first upon the cross, but they are wholly, not for Himself, but the people. During the whole painful process of suffering, when they scourged Him, crowned Him with thorns, smote Him with their hands, and mocked Him, we hear no voice of co...

  Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands   (09-11APR21) 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  our  sins and from Hell: CHRIST JESUS OUR SUBSTITUTE! "From whence this fear and unbelief? Hath not the Father put to grief His spotless Son for me? And will the righteous Judge of men Condemn me for that debt of sin Which, Lord, was charged to Thee?   Complete atonement Thou hast made; And to the utmost Thou hast paid Whatever Thy people owed; Nor can God's wrath take place If sheltered in Thy righteousness, And sprinkled with Thy blood.   If Thou hast my discharge procured, And freely in my place endured The whole of wrath divine, Payment God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding Surety's hand, And then again at mine!" * Since all men by nature hav...

"He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." - Philippians 2:8 [KJV]   My soul, dost thou not feel, at every step towards Calvary, somewhat of the angel's words when he cried, “One woe is past, and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter,” Revelation 9:12 . Surely, never was there a manifestation of the holiness of Jehovah, nor the utter detestation of God against sin, as was set forth in the crucifixion of Jesus. Would men, would angels, see what sin really is, let them go to the cross of Jesus. The casting rebellious angels out of heaven, the curse pronounced upon the earth, the drowning the old world by water, the burning of Sodom by fire; nay, the millions of miseries among men, and the unquenchable fire of hell; though all these may make the souls of the awakened exclaim against sin, yet all these are slight and inconsiderable things, compared to the wrath of God poured out upon the person of God's own Son, when He died...

  "He hath poured out His soul unto death." -Isaiah 53:12  [KJV]   My soul! from the garden to the cross, follow Jesus. Behold Him apprehended and hurried away, both to judgment and to death. He who struck to the ground the band that came to take Him, might surely, by the same breath of His mouth, have struck them to hell, and prevented His being apprehended by them. But one of the sweetest and most blessed parts of Jesus's redemption of His people, consisted in the freeness and willingness of His sacrifice. Yes, Thou precious Lamb of God! No man (as Thou Thyself hadst before said) had power to take Thy life from Thee; but Thou didst lay it down Thyself: Thou hadst power to lay it down, and Thou hadst power to take it again. Delightful consideration, to Thee, my soul! Now, my soul, let this day's meditation be sacred to the view of thy Redeemer pouring out His   soul   unto death.     And tomorrow, if the Lord give thee to see the morrow, let the sole...

  It Is Finished: Part 2 D.G. Miles McKee   Here’s some good news about Christ’s Finished Work … all that Christ did in that work, He did as our Substitute. If we believe this, we will be transformed.   He was born for us. “ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace ." -Isaiah 9:6   The eternal God entered into time and history in the person of the Lord Jesus. Unto us a child is born.  Wonder of wonders, the Creator became a creature. What immense humility!   He humbled Himself, yet the world scorned Him. He humbled Himself, but they called Him Beelzebub, He humbled Himself, but they called Him a bastard----an illegitimate child. He humbled Himself, but they said He was just "the carpenter's son." At His trial one man could only refer to Him as "this fellow" (Matthew 26:61). What a...

  "Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am He . And Judas also, which betrayed Him, stood with them. As soon then as He had said unto them, I am He , they went backward and fell to the ground ."  -John 18:4-6  [KJV]   What a glorious scripture is this! Ponder it well, my soul; for of all the miracles of thy, Jesus, there is not one more sweet and satisfactory to contemplate. Yesterday thou wast looking at thy Redeemer under a heavy cloud. Look at Him as He is here represented, for He is still, in this transaction, in the same garden of Gethsemane; and behold how the Godhead shone forth with a glory surpassing all description. Observe what a willing sacrifice was Jesus. He knew the hour was come, for He had said so. He doth not wait to be taken, and by wicked hands to be crucified and slain: but He goeth forth to surrender Himself. Ye...

"Being in an agony ." -Luke 22:44    My soul, art thou still in Gethsemane? Look at Jesus once more; behold Him in His agony; view Him in His bloody sweat, in a night of cold, and in the open air, when we are told the servants, in the high priest's hall, were obliged to make a fire of coals to warm themselves. In such a night was thy Jesus, from the extremity of anguish in His soul, by reason of thy sins, made to sweat great drops of blood. Look at the Lord in this situation; and as the prophet, by vision, beheld Him coming up with His dyed garments, as one that had trodden the wine fat; so do thou, by faith, behold Him in His bloody sweat; when, from treading the winepress of the wrath of God, under the heavy load of the world's guilt, His whole raiment was stained with blood. Sin first made man to sweat: and Jesus, though He knew no sin, yet taking out the curse of it for His people, is made to sweat blood.       Oh Thou meek and holy Lamb of Go...