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

" He will guide you into all truth." — John 16:13 [KJV] Our Lord here gives His disciples a farther exhibition of the covenant of grace, and a fuller display of the grace of the covenant. Here is a full proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit, and also of His sovereignty in His operations and influences upon His members. Christ did not tell His apostles, as some ignorantly talk, "If ye will but be yielding and tractable, and suffer My Spirit to lead you, ye shall enjoy His kind assistance." No: this were to degrade the glory of this divine agent, to exalt the pride of the creature, and render the gracious guidance of the Spirit dependent upon the will of the flesh . As though instead of being the cause of life, He was to be only a mere auxiliary to aid and assist man's pious motions and good dispositions. Far be such thoughts from our hearts. All glory to this heavenly paraclete, "He will work, and who shall let Him?"   He WILL GUIDE ...

"The L ORD is in His holy temple: Let all the earth keep silence before Him." — Habakkuk 2:20 [KJV] What God's people of old were favored with in type and figure, we now enjoy in reality and substance. The temple of old was an eminent type of the body of Jesus. In it Jehovah made His presence known. Here troubled consciences sought relief. The mercy-seat was set up for poor sinners to approach to. Here Jehovah was consulted. From hence He spoke in grace and love to His people, and silenced every guilty fear. Thus God was in His holy temple: thus God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Was this ministration glorious in the eyes of spiritual worshippers? How doth ours exceed in glory! The fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Jesus. This is the temple in which God delights to dwell. Hence grace is dispensed, peace communicated, mercy bestowed, life and salvation freely given. Here, Christian, believe and adore; behold and wonder; look and admire;...

" Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life; and few there be that find it." —Matthew 7:14 [KJV] So Jesus taught. But teachers in every age have taught a broad way and wide gate. The greatest part of professors have readily received their doctrine. This is a melancholy truth. Therefore Jesus adds, "Beware of false prophets." It is the sole prerogative of the King of saints to open a gate and make a way to His own kingdom. Glory to our God, who in sovereign grace and everlasting love hath done this. The gospel proclaims, FREE WELCOME: COME WHO WILL: ENTER FREELY, WITHOUT MONEY AND WITHOUT PRICE.  Jesus is the strait gate of God's love, the only gate of righteousness: by Him we enter with access to God, stand perfectly justified and graciously accepted before Him. Jesus is the narrow way. By the blood of His cross He hath made peace, atoned for the sins of transgressors by one offering. Hence called strait and narrow, because the only way...

  Justice v Love by D.G. Miles McKee   “ For God hath made Him ( Jesus ) to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” -II Corinthians 5:21 [KJV]   God is Love, but He is also Just.  In His Justice, God demanded the death penalty for those who had sinned (Romans 6:23). But, at the same time that Justice called for the death penalty, Love called for Mercy. Now, here’s the problem, Mercy cannot be granted at the expense of Justice.  He who sits upon the Throne is "the high and lofty One, that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy." (Isaiah 57:15). The Holy God must ruthlessly punish sin because He is Just.   Now here is a divine fact that can’t happen in a human courtroom.  A man comes in to stand before the Judge. He is a lawbreaker. He is guilty; therefore, he must pay. But God takes this person’s sin and charges it to someone else and that other person has no sin of his own....

"And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night to Him, though He bear long with them?" — Luke 18:7 [KJV] This question implies the strongest assertion. Thus our Lord concludes a parable He had delivered to this end, "that men ought always to pray and not to faint." Our Saviour well knew how ready His disciples' hands are to hang down and their hearts to grow languid and faint, so as to be remiss in this duty. Therefore His loving heart would stir up and encourage them to a constant perseverance in prayer; assuring them that God's ears are ever open to their cry, and His omnipotent arm would most certainly avenge the enemies of His own elect, and surely deliver them from all their troubles. Hath the Lord loved His people with an everlasting love? hath He chosen them in Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world? hath He given them the precious faith of His own elect, and the cry of His children, Abba, Father? and sha...

" And now, little children, abide in Him; that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." — 1 John 2:28 [KJV] 'A burnt child dreads the fire:' so a soul who has fallen into any snare of the enemy, when rescued by grace, fears the same evil and wisely cautions his brethren against it. I fell, do you beware. So it was even with the beloved disciple John. He did not abide by Jesus in the day of trial; but, with the rest of His disciples, forsook Him and fled. But who can tell the sorrow of his heart? who can paint the distress of his mind and the shame of his face, when Jesus appeared to them, and John said, "It is the Lord?" — John 21:7 . And is Jesus gone but for a season? will He assuredly come again and take all His little children home? and do we expect His appearance? do we believe we shall shortly see Him in the glory of His Father and of His holy angels? What constancy and courage should t...

" When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the L ORD : and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple." — Jonah 2:7 [KJV] In the prophet Jonah's conduct we have a true picture of human nature, in its strong opposition to the power and grace of God. Though Jesus clothes His saints with righteousness, and the Spirit sanctifies and renews them in the spirit of their minds; yet pride, obstinacy, and self-will still dwell in their corrupt, fallen nature. The Spirit of truth and wisdom hath discovered the vile sins of His eminent prophets and faithful people, as well as their holy graces. This proves as a touchstone to us, to try whether we have received the true grace of God in our hearts. A regenerate soul will never draw any encouragement to indulge himself in sin and rebellion against God, because he reads of David's complicated sins of murder and adultery; of Jonah's fleeing from, and provoking behaviour to God; or of Peter's sad deni...