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

  Cities of Refuge, Part 5 -  Ramoth by  D. G. Miles McKee To date, we have considered 4 of the 6 Cities of Refuge, … Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron and Bezer.  These were cities to which a person guilty of manslaughter could flee and find safety. Each of the cities, in their individual name, point us towards Christ. Today we encounter a fifth city, a place named Ramoth.   We don’t know a lot about Ramoth.  It was, it is thought, situated in Gilead about 20 miles east of the Jordan and it is believed that it was a heavily fortified stronghold. So, does the name RAMOTH tell us anything regarding Christ?  Yes, it does.  Ramoth literally means EXALTATION.  Jesus, we say, without fear or contradiction, is the true Ramoth.  When He came to this earth He was despised, rejected and brutally murdered.  However, now He is exalted on the throne of the Universe as our glorious King.  He is exalted. All heaven exalts Him...

"For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that He hateth putting away." -Malachi 2:16  [KJV] And well is it for thee, my soul, that He doth: for if the Lord God of Israel had dealt by thee once, as thou hast been dealing with Him always, thou wouldest have been ruined for ever. But what is the cause of thy mercies? Is it not the covenant faithfulness of God thy Father, founded in His own everlasting love, engaged in His promise and His oath, to Jesus, and secured in His blood and righteousness? And is this the cause why the Lord God of Israel hateth putting away? Is this the cause why God resteth in His love? Oh for grace to see the cause, to adore the mercy; and where the Lord God of Israel rests, there, my soul, do thou rest also.     See to it, my soul, that thy life of faith, and thy life of hope, are both founded in Jesus, and not in the sense thou hast of these precious things. The things are the same, how different soever, at different times, thy view of them may be...

"And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter." -Luke 22:61   My soul, hath that eye that looked so graciously upon Peter, looked graciously upon thee? Pause and determine the point by the effects. "Peter went out and wept bitterly." Hath such impressions of grace been upon thee, my soul? Hast thou wept over the recollection of sin and a ruined nature, which is continually manifesting itself in the same faithlessness and worthlessness as in the apostle? Moreover, hast thou ever looked with an eye of faith and love to Jesus? If so, it must be wrought by this eye of Christ upon thee, my soul: for, mark it, we never look to Him with an eye of faith, until Jesus hath first looked on us with an eye of love. If we love Him, it is because He first loved us.     Sweet testimony this, if so be thou hast it in thine experience, that He that turned and looked upon Peter, hath looked on thee also. Moreover, any thing short of this glance of Jesus's eye, is short of all to i...

"The praise of all His saints." - Psalm 148:14  [KJV] And who is this, my soul, but Jesus? Is He not indeed both the praise and the glory, the delight and the joy, the portion and the happiness of all His people? His saints, doth it say? Yes, saints, made so by His righteousness and salvation, when taken from among sinners; and when themselves sinners, He hath washed them in His blood, clothed them with His garment of salvation, and granted them an inheritance among the saints in light. And is He not their praise? Indeed, is there any other the object of their praise, to whom they look up, in whom they delight, but Him, in whom God their Father hath made them accepted in Him, the Beloved?     Say then, my soul, is He not thy praise this day; and will He not be thine everlasting, unceasing praise, every day, and all the day, and through the endless day of eternity? Who shall be thy praise but Jesus; His beauty, His glory, His excellency; in whom all divine perfections cen...

"A just God, and a Saviour." -Isaiah 45:21  [KJV] My soul, hast thou learnt, from the teaching of God the Holy Ghost, to contemplate Him, with whom thou hast to do, under these blessed united characters? If thou hast, thou hast found it a blessed and an approved way of opening communion with God, and maintaining that communion alive in the soul. Thou knowest, then, that God, as a just God, can admit of no pardon to sin, but upon the footing of a complete satisfaction; for, without this, His truth and justice would still be violated by unatoned sin.     But if thou beholdest God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, and hast been taught by the Spirit that Christ hath redeemed thee from the curse of the law, being made a curse for thee; that, as thy Surety and thy Representative He hath paid thy debt, and restored that which He took not away; here thou beholdest indeed "a just God, and a Saviour," and hast learnt that precious, blessed truth, how God can be j...

"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD." -Jeremiah 9:23, 24  [KJV] And didst thou, my poor, proud, vain, sinful heart, after so much as hath been said to thee of Jesus, and so much as thou hast been feelingly taught thy want of Jesus, didst thou need this precept? Oh yes, my soul; every day it had need be sounded in thy ears, and wrote over again by the Holy Ghost upon thine heart.     Now it is, Lord Jesus, I learn from hence why Thou art so suited to a poor convinced sinner. Thou, and Thou only, art the Lord our righteousness: and therefore let those that know not their own worthlessness, nor thy glory, boast in what they may; let others talk of what they will, I see plain enough there’s nothing out of Thee for a poor soul to rejoice in.     The wise men hath no wisdom, b...

  Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands   (03-05SEP21) 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 to save us  from our sins and from Hell: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”  -John 4:24 [KJV] True worship is founded upon the glorious Person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, for God can accept no one’s person, worship, or service except in Christ and upon the basis of His obedience unto death to satisfy justice and establish righteousness to enable God to be just and Justifier. When we come before God in true worship we come by faith as sinners saved by grace, washed clean from our sins in the blood of Christ and clothed in the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.  True worship is ...