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

  Gospel Truth from the Philippian                         Jailer, Part II Last week we noted that Jesus was much more than a man. Here are some scriptures to further help us understand this great truth.  Isaiah 45:21b-22 reads “… there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."   Notice that there is only one God and Saviour and if we are to be saved, it must be through Him.   “But,” someone says, “those verses are not talking about Jesus! They are talking about Yahweh!”   Exactly! Jesus is Yahweh!     Follow what we are saying. Did you notice that the speaker in this passage is the Saviour?  What a giveaway!  Anyone who has read the New Testament will tell you that, according to its pages, Jesus is the Saviour. (Matthew 1:21;1 Timothy 1:15;Titus ...

"I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, L ORD , only makest me dwell in safety." -Psalm 4:8 [KJV] My soul! it is blessed, indeed, to lie down, or arise, when Jesus is thy rest and refreshment! But, void of security and safety in Him, both the day-light and the darkness have their horrors. And how unsatisfying is every thing where Jesus is not? This is strikingly exemplified, day by day, among all carnal characters. "There be many," saith the Psalmist (in this divine psalm), "there be many that say, Who will shew us any good?" Yea, the whole world, who know not the blessedness of Jesus, will thus say! What a busy life some men make of it? And what is it for? Be their pursuits what they may; let them be ever so much diversified, one object is the aim of all. The apostle hath said what it is; "...to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof," Romans 13:14 .   My soul! what is the first and last, the greatest and m...

"I will lay thy foundations with sapphires." - Isaiah 54:11 [KJV] Before we can stand firmly in the things of God we must have a good foundation, something solid for our faith, our hope, our love, our all, to rest upon. This God promises to lay for His afflicted Zion: "I will lay thy foundations with sapphires." "A gift," we read, "is a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it." Every testimony, then, that God gives to the soul, every promise brought into the heart, every manifestation of mercy, every visit of love, or application of truth, we may call, in a spiritual sense, a sapphire; for it is indeed a precious stone, radiant with heaven's own hue.   When God thus lays His sapphires in the soul, they afford a solid foundation for faith. And as they are laid by the hand of God Himself, they must be firm; as they are sapphires, they must be indestructible. These sapphires, it is true, may every one of them be buried in the dust of ...

"And they called the name of that place Bochim." -Judges 2:5 [KJV]   Surely it was enough to induce such an effect, when the preaching of an angel informed the people, that the Lord, for their sins, would not drive out their enemies before them. The place might well be called Bochim , and they themselves might hear the name Bochim, weepers . But, my soul, thou hast lately been to a place which is yet more calculated to make it memorable, by weeping, when thou didst attend Jesus at the ordinance of His supper. For there Jesus Himself was, and is, the everlasting Preacher, Who sheweth thee His hands and His side, pierced and streaming with blood, for thy sins. Didst thou not hear Him speak to thee Himself, in His own words, "They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for  Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born?" Zechariah 12:10 . Didst thou not weep in behol...

"Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours." - Isaiah 54:11 [KJV] By these "stones," which the Lord has promised to "lay with fair colours," I think we may understand the blessed truths of the gospel which are laid into the soul by the hand of God. The fair colours are deeply ingrained and embedded in the very substance of the stone, not artificially laid on. They are like beautiful marbles, in which every bright hue and vein penetrate into the deepest substance of the material. Such are the truths of God, beautiful throughout, penetrated with grace and glory into their inmost depths.   But these colours are hidden from view till brought out and laid into the soul by the hand of God. However fair or beautiful any word of God be in itself, it only experimentally becomes so as inlaid by His own divine hand into the soul. This brings out the fair colours. How often we read the word of God without seeing the least beauty in it! But let the very same p...

"How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!"   -Song of Solomon 7:6 [KJV] My soul! thou hast been refreshed, many an evening, through grace, in beholding thy Lord, both in His person, and in His comprehensive fulness for His redeemed; nor wilt thou be without refreshment this evening, if thy Lord, in His sweet influences, be with thee, to make what is said in this lovely scripture, life and spirit in thine heart. They are the words of Jesus; and they express the love and complacency of delight which Jesus takes in His church. Surely nothing can be more blessed, than to see the high value the Son of God puts upon the church, which the Father gave Him, endeared as it is yet more in being the purchase of His blood! But what astonishment is it to the soul of a poor sinner, to be told, and by the lip of truth, that sinners are fair in Jesus's eyes! "Thou art fair, O love, yea, pleasant."   Now remember, my soul, and in that remembrance let Jesus have ...

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted." - Isaiah 54:11 [KJV] The Lord here compares His suffering Church to a ship at sea, under bare poles, labouring in a heavy storm, driven out of her course by contrary winds, as was Paul's case in the Adriatic, and doubtful whether she will ever reach the harbour; as the hymn says, "Half a wreck by tempests driv'n."   What a picture of a tempest-tossed soul! Sun and stars    beclouded, compass lost, chart useless, pilot absent, and breakers ahead! Many, very many of the Lord's dear family are thus "tossed with tempest;" some with a tempest of doubts and fears; others with a tempest of lust and corruptions; some with a tempest of rebellion and fretfulness; others with a storm of guilt and despondency, or with gloomy forebodings and dismal apprehensions. Thus they are driven from their course, their sun and stars all obscured; no clear evidences, no bright manifestations; darkness above...