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

  Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (02-04SEP22 A.D.) 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 - Almighty God's unmerited favor - from our sins and from Hell: "The only way of access to God is through the risen Christ and based on the merits of His obedience unto death as Substitute and Surety of His people. The only way of access to Christ is by the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal Him in His glorious Person and finished work of redemption to make reconciliation for the sins of His people and to establish a righteousness that enables God to be just and Justifier of the ungodly. It is required of men to believe the Gospel, not as a condition they must meet to attain or maintain salvation, but as the God-ordained means to lay hold of Christ, Who by Himself has met all conditions for salvation...

"This is His name whereby He shall be called, The L ORD our Righteousness ." - Jeremiah 23:6 [KJV] What a sweet view does this give of Jesus! We look sometimes at Christ's righteousness as distinct from Christ. Shall I use a figure? We look at the garment as distinct from the maker and wearer of the garment. We look at the righteousness so much, that we scarcely look at Him who wrought out that righteousness. Now, we must not separate Jesus from His righteousness. We must not look merely at the garment, the imputed robe, and forget Him that wrought it out, that puts it on, and that keeps it to this day in firm possession. But when we can see, that not only the obedience of Christ, but Christ Himself—all that Jesus is—all that Jesus has, as head of His Church, as the risen Mediator, as the great High Priest over the house of God—when we can see that this God-man, Immanuel, is made unto His people righteousness, how it expands the prospect! Then we look, not merely at the...

  Nada, Niente, Zilch! (Nothing) by D.G. Miles McKee I have often been told by professing Christian that we are not declared in right standing with God until our life is characterised by obedience.  Accordingly, Christ’s death on the cross was essential for right standing before God, but so also is our life of obedience. To which I say, “What a hodge-podge of confusion twice confounded!”   Although we strongly believe that the believer’s life is characterised by obedience, our obedience is in no way part of the ground of our justification (acquittal before God). To teach that our obedience constitutes any part of our acquittal is to indirectly teach that Christ’s doing and dying are insufficient to take us to heaven.   Are our works and obedience as Christians the condition for receiving God’s ‘not guilty’ verdict? No! Do we yet need to add our obedience to Christ’s in order to guarantee our admittance to heaven? No! Does our Justification depend on our moral transfo...

"Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies." -Song of Solomon 6:13 [KJV] It is the church that is here called upon to return, and most likely by the daughters of Jerusalem. Some have thought the church is so called, as being of Salem, or Shulem, the shortened word for Jeru-salem. And some have thought that Salem is the same with Solomon, as the feminine of Solomon, the wife. And others have supposed, that as Jerusalem means peace, the church is called so, on account of her loveliness. And no doubt, in each sense, the church may well be called so, being married to Christ; being of the "Jerusalem that is above, which is the mother of us all;" and being beautiful, peaceful, and lovely in Jesus, as Jerusalem is the praise of the whole earth, Psalm 48:9 . But wherefore is the Shulamite called upon to return, to be looked upon, and with such earnestness, as to cause th...

"As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy ."   -I Peter 1:14-16 [KJV] Grace lays us under the greatest of all obligations to its free and bountiful Giver, and especially to render a believing obedience to His revealed will and word. It is His free, sovereign, and distinguishing grace alone which makes and manifests us to be His children, and therefore it demands of us, as a feeble and most insufficient tribute of grateful praise, that we should walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, and glorify Him in our body and spirit which are His. He that has never known and felt this knows nothing of the riches of God's grace in the manifestation of mercy and love to his soul.  Such a one knows, that do what he can, he can never do enough to show forth the praises of Him who hath c...

"Thus saith the L ORD , the Holy One of Israel, and His Maker, ask M e of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands command ye Me." -Isaiah 45:11 [KJV] Nothing can give a higher proof of the love of God, than what the scriptures reveal concerning Him. He opened a way of access to Himself, when man by sin had lost the way; and in His dear Son He has made every provision for bringing us nigh by His blood . The throne of grace He hath opened for their approach; the assurance He hath given of accepting them in the Beloved [ JESUS CHRIST the LORD ]; the very tender and kind expressions which issue from the throne; and the answers which have been given to thousands, and are continually given to thousands who come there; yea, the promises with which they are surrounded, that "before they call, He will answer, and while they are speaking, He will hear:" all these are full of endearments, to shew forth the love of God in Jesus Christ to all His...

"He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions." - Psalm 107:20 [KJV]  What an effect a word from God can produce! Be it in reading; in hearing; on the knees; or in secret meditation; when a word drops from the Lord's mouth with any divine power into the soul, what a change it produces! And nothing but this divine power can ever bring a poor sinner out of his miserable condition. When this comes, it does the work in a moment; it heals all the wounds which sin has made, and repairs all the breaches in the conscience that folly has produced. One word from God heals them all. The Lord does not come as it were with plasters to heal first one sore and then another. He heals now as in the days of His flesh. When He healed then, He healed fully, at once, completely.   The earthly doctor heals by degrees; he puts a plaster on one sore, and a liniment on another; and heals one by one. But when the Lord heals, it is all done in a moment. The balm of ...