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

" I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." —Romans 12:1 [KJV] Just before our dear Saviour left his apostles, He gave them this commission, "Preach the gospel;" glad tidings of the everlasting love and mercy of God, in Christ, to poor sinners. By this truth, through the power of the Spirit, souls are brought to repentance, faith, and salvation; and by the sweet force and constraining influence of the same truth, believers are to be exhorted, animated, and stirred up to glorify God in their souls and bodies which are His. This was the apostles' practice. With what affection and love do they address the members of Jesus!  The sound of wrath and terror, the thunderings of hell and damnation are not used to soldiers in the camp of Jesus. No; they are exhorted by love and mercy. So we delight to hear: and from these most powe...

" Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah ." —Psalm 3:2 [KJV] Had David's foes said of him, He deserves no help from God; he would readily have owned this as a great truth. As God's children are comforted by the truth, so the enemy advances lies to distress them. When he attacks their faith and comfort, he boldly impeaches the love and faithfulness of their God. "No help for me in God!" O, my soul, wilt thou listen to this suggestion? Canst thou indulge such a thought one moment? Art thou beset with distress of soul, and surrounded with troubles and difficulties? Art thou singing a melancholy note? Selah , saith David: pause, consider this; lift up thy mind to attend; how dishonorable to thy God, how destructive to thy faith, peace, love, and holiness, is this!  Know the voice of thy enemy. Hear the voice of thy Saviour. His word is adapted to thy circumstances, however distressing or desperate. "Thou ha...

  7 Gospel Mercies, Part 1    by D.G. Miles McKee For the believer, true guilt-free, victorious living can only be realized through continual exposure to the gospel and its benefits. There are no techniques or formulas for freedom. The true victorious life comes from beholding Christ alone . Far from being merely for the unsaved, the gospel is actually the essential message for every believer. Alas, in this day and age of formulas and the quick fix, this truth is missing from many of our pulpits. However, as the gospel is preached, applied and its mercies understood, God’s people will walk in the freedom and joy of their "SO GREAT SALVATION." Let’s begin to look at seven gospel mercies which pour out of the finished work of Jesus the Christ.   Forgiveness. The first gospel mercy we want to consider is that for the believer there is total forgiveness for every sin. The Scriptures say, ‘ Through this man (Jesus) is preached unto you forgiveness of sins’ ...

" If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." —John 13:17 [KJV] Jesus is a Prophet to teach, a Priest to atone, and a King to reign by love in the hearts of all His subjects. So a Christian receives the Lord Jesus. Faith in Him begets an ear of love to His doctrine, and a heart of obedience to His commands. Let no one call evangelical obedience, legal bondage. For, every precept that drops from the mouth of Jesus, flows from love to us. When He saith, "Do this;" it is for thy happiness and good, O soul. "Avoid that:" love is careful of thee, "Do thyself no harm."   This is pleasant to the renewed soul to hear, his happiness to obey. Faith in Jesus makes all things easy. "His commandments are not grievous." To know them is our privilege. To do them is our happiness. Say, O Christian, is not this thy experience? Art thou not happy in doing the will of Jesus, who died for our sins? Art thou not delighted in obeyin...

" Jesus said unto him, Wherefore didst thou doubt?" —Matthew 14:31 [KJV] The best of men are but men at the best. The most eminent saints of God have experienced doubting, fearful frames, as well as believing, joyful ones. We have many instances of this in the bold and courageous Peter. Now, at the command of his Master, we behold him walking safely on the surface of the great deep. Here he honored his Master's word, was very safe and comfortable while he believed His power. To see Peter walking upon the liquid ocean, is not more beyond the power of reason to comprehend and account for, than to see a poor sinner comfortably living and walking by faith on the Son of God, in spite of all the raging waves of unbelief, lust, and corruptions.  But as it was with Peter, so is it often with the believer. The workings of Peter's natural senses, the suggestions of his carnal reason, opposed the actings of his faith; he heard the roaring winds, he saw the boistero...

"Afflictions do not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. Sorrow cannot come until God bids it. Until God in His sovereignty permits—health cannot fade, wealth cannot vanish, comfort cannot decay, friendship cannot chill, and loved ones cannot die. Your time of sorrow is His appointment. The bitter cup which it may please the Lord that you shall drink this year will not be mixed by human hands. In the hand of the Lord is that cup!  Some treasure you are now pressing to your heart, He may ask you to resign. Some blessing you now possess, He may bid you to relinquish. Some fond expectation you now cherish, He may will that you should forego. Some lonely path, He may design that you should tread." -preacher Octavius Winslow

" My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." —Galatians 4:19 [KJV] Many sincere disciples, who are convinced of sin, hope in themselves cut off, and have fled to Jesus for refuge , are often distressed because they have not been under such dreadful terrors of legal wrath which others talk of, and are mistaken for the pangs and travail of the new birth. But there is no authority from scripture to conclude we must have such great terrors of hell and damnation ere we come to and believe on Christ. Nay, the law may work great wrath in the conscience, and yet the soul never be converted to Jesus and the holiness of the gospel.  The Spirit is a sovereign Agent. Enlightened, convinced souls are differently wrought on; some feel more, others less terror; but each see the sinfulness of sin, their lost state by nature, the spirituality of the law and the preciousness of Jesus before they will come to Him. On such the dear Saviour ...