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

  "Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He  called, them He also justified:and whom He justified, them He also glorified." -Romans 8:30 [KJV] The justified sinner stands the closest to God of any created being in the universe. Nearer to the throne of the Eternal, he cannot stand. What marvelous love! Who will dare assert that salvation is not, from first to last of free, sovereign grace!   Let your eye pierce the veil which falls between earth and heaven. Behold that shining, worshiping being, standing so near to the throne of glory, bathed in the overpowering effulgence of its rays!   Who is he? He was once a sinner upon earth, the vilest of his race, the dishonored of his generation, forsaken by man and abhorred of God.   But Jesus met him, and divine love drew him, and sovereign grace rescued, pardoned, and saved him! And now washed from all his guilt by the blood, freed from all condemnation by the righteousness of C...

"And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith ." -Luke 17:5 [KJV]   Did the apostles need so to pray? Then well may I. Oh! Thou great author and finisher of our faith! I would look up to Thee, with thankfulness, that Thou hast granted even the smallest portion of faith to so unworthy a creature as I am. Surely, my soul, it is as great a miracle of grace that my God and Saviour should have kindled belief in thy stony heart, amidst all the surrounding obstructions of sin and Satan which lay there, as when the miraculous fire from heaven, in answer to the prophet's prayer, came down and consumed the wetted sacrifice. I praise Thee, my God and King, this day, in the recollection of this unspeakable, unmerited mercy. And though this faith in my heart still be but as a grain of mustard seed; though it be but as a spark in the ocean; though it be but as the drop of the dew, in comparison of the river; yet, blessed, precious Jesus! still this is faith, and...

" The Breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them." -Micah 2:13 [KJV]   Pause, my soul, over this precious scripture, and ask thine own heart who this Almighty Breaker can be, except the Lord Jesus Christ; for He, and He alone, answers to such a divine character. Was it not He which came up as the Breaker from everlasting; when, in the council of peace, the divine decree was broken open, and the Son of God stood forth the sinner's Surety? Was it not He whom John saw by vision, who alone was found worthy in heaven to open the book, and loose the seals thereof? Was it not the same precious Holy One, who, when in the volume of the book it was found written of Him, that He should fulfil the law of Jehovah for sinful man, cried out, "Lo, I come?" And was it not Jesus, even thy Jesus, my soul, that in the fulness of ...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands   (23-25APR21) 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: THE PERFECT SACRIFICE Christ our Surety, in the covenant of grace, became legally accountable for the sin-debt of all those given to Him by the Father, and on the cross the sinless One "gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor" (Ephesians 5:2). "For such an High Priest became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people’s: for this He did once, when He offered up Himself" (Hebrews 7:26-27). The reason that all of the animals offered...

"Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” -Matthew 24:28 [KJV]   My soul! these are the words of Jesus, none of which should be suffered to fall to the ground. No doubt much instruction is contained in this passage. An eagle is a bird of prey: and Job saith, that the eagle hasteneth to the prey as the swift ships, Job 9:26. In all birds of prey there is great sagacity, a vast quickness of scent to smell their proper food afar off; and thus natural instinct, added to a rapacious appetite, compel those creatures to fly swift to their prey, and to devour the carcase. Is there nothing in all this that suits thee, my soul? Oh yes: If Jesus hath given thee a real principle of life in Himself, which becomes a spiritual quickening from day to day, and from one hour to another, thy hungering and thirsting for Jesus will be as earnest and as importunate as the instinct of nature in those birds for daily food.       Pause, my soul, ...

"With true faith that worketh by love, there follows inseparably a true right evangelical zeal of God's glory, whereby we feeling how by our original corruption, .. we find both ourselves and all our works and best actions to be so shut up under sin {Galatians 3:22} that being truly humbled with a vile esteem of ourselves and all our best works, we do grant not with lip and tongue only {as many do,} but do feel in our hearts in deed and truth, that all our righteousness is as foul, stained and filthy rags {Isaiah 64:6}. Whereupon our hearts are so inflamed with such an high prizing and only esteeming of the wedding garment of Christ's obedience and righteousness perfectly justifying us, and all our works; that not only every true minister of the Gospel, but also every true Christian ceases all contention about works, and is carried with a zealous affection to know nothing among God's people except Jesus Christ and Him crucified to justify them {I Corinthians 2:2} by wh...

"The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one.” -John 17:22 [KJV]   Those are sweet views of Jesus which point to our oneness and union with Him, by which alone we derive an interest in Him, and are made partakers both in His grace and glory. By virtue of this it is, that the glory the Father gave Jesus, as Mediator, all His people are interested in, and truly enjoy. For though like the heir of a kingdom, when an infant, the babe is unconscious of his dignity, yet is not the less entitled to his high birth and rank: so the seed of Jesus, while in this childhood of existence, though they do not live up to their high privileges through the weakness of their faith, yet their claim in Jesus is not the less. Jesus hath given them the glory of being brought within the covenant, the glory of redemption, the glory of the Holy Ghost's gifts and influences; and, in short, all the glory which a state of grace implies, and which ...