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

“Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” What is it to call on the Name of the Lord?  It is to call on the Lord Jesus Christ for all of our salvation, start to finish!  “Call His Name Jesus: for HE shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21) .   To call upon Him for salvation is to call upon HIM and NOT my religion.  It is to call upon HIM, and NOT my devotion as a Christian.  It is to call upon HIM, and NOT my good, moral obedience to the law.   It is to call on HIS will and purpose in ALL things, and NOT my will or decision in anything!  It is to say: “I can’t save myself, YOU must save me!  This is not in my hands, this is in YOUR hands alone!  I plead YOUR finished work!  I beg for YOUR abundant grace and mercy, through the shedding of YOUR own blood!”   It is to believe in the heart: “Lord, I can’t even call on You unless You call on me first.”  That is calling upon the Name ...

" Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.  My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.  God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day." -Psalm 7:9-11 [KJV]   “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6) .  What, then, is the new birth? It is not the removal of anything from the sinner nor the changing of anything physical or fleshly in the sinner; instead, it is the communication of SOMETHING NEW to the sinner. The new birth is the impartation of a NEW NATURE. When we were born the first time, we received from our parents their nature; so too, when we are born again, we receive from God His nature. The Spirit of God begets within us a spiritual nature (Galatians 5:17; II Peter 1:4) . That which is born of man is human; that which is born of God is divine and spiritual (I John 3:9) . N...

" Above all, taking the shield of faith." -Ephesians 6:16 [KJV] When Christ has the heart, it will say, if I can see nothing of Christ in the text, that text is nothing to me. Here is a shield of defence. What is it? A mere assent of the mind? A cold consent of the tongue, to some certain propositions? Is this the shield of faith, which will cover my head, and defend my heart in the day of battle? Is it believing a system of doctrines, without having the heart warmed with love, or the life influenced by the power of them, that the apostle exhorts me above all to take?  O no, nothing less is this shield of faith than Christ, precious Christ. Never, never have any idea of faith, without including its author and object. Otherwise it is a mere non-entity: a notion which has no real existence but in fancy. When we hear people insist, that faith is our righteousness—that faith is imputed to us for righteousness, we are led to think they take up, and are in love with ...

“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” -II Corinthians 3:17 [KJV] Paul encourages all believers to stand fast in the liberty and freedom we enjoy in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1). Consider these brief thoughts on the believer's freedom in Christ: 1). Where Christ in the gospel is, the Spirit of illumination in our heart, there is freedom from darkness. "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12) . "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son" (Colossians 1:13). 2). Where Christ in the gospel is, the Spirit of regeneration in our heart, there is freedom from the bondage of sin. "And ye shall know the truth, and the t...

Salvation is not a question of feeling, as so many would make it. It is entirely a matter of faith in a person, in an accomplished fact faith wrought in the soul of a sinner by the power of the Holy Ghost. This faith is something quite different from a mere feeling of the person or an assent of the intellect. Mere feeling and sentimentality (or emotion) can never rise above the source from whence they come and that source is self; but faith has to do with God and His eternal Word, and is a living link, connecting the heart that possesses it with God Who gives it. Feelings and sentiments can never connect with the soul of God. No doubt, faith will produce feeling and sentiments (spiritual feelings and truthful sentiments)—but the fruits of faith must never be confounded with faith itself. He can only be known by His own revelation and by the faith which He Himself imparts. -preacher Scott Richardson

Believers on the one hand are nothing but sin, and on the other hand they have no sin. This is one of the great mysteries of the gospel that keeps God’s people humble, yet hopeful. It causes them to cast all their care on the One that cares for them. It leads them to have no confidence in the flesh, yet to come boldly before the throne of grace. It is the reason they can mourn and rejoice at the same time.  It shows them their inability to satisfy any part of God’s law, and it frees them from the condemnation of the law. It causes them to bow in humble worship as mercy beggars, yet they hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. They are nothing, yet have everything. They are hell deserving, yet heaven bound. They are in abject poverty, and they are infinitely and eternally rich. To the natural man, these things are a contradiction. To the child of God... they are his life.             ...

"... and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." -Ephesians 6:15 [KJV] Soldiers of Christ, you are not only commanded to stand against every enemy, but to march on: to follow the Captain of your salvation, in the way to eternal glory. Here you must expect the enemy will strive to retard your march. He will strew the road with difficulties and entanglements—with briers and thorns—make it rugged, and almost impassable, as though every step was upon sharp stones and goading spikes. Your feet must be shod, or you will halt when you should march: turn back when you should go forward.  "No one can make a shoe to the creature’s foot, so as he shall go on easy, in a hard way, but Christ. He can do it to the soldier’s full content. How doth He it? Truly, no other way than underlaying it: or, if you will, lining it with the peace of the gospel. What though the way be set with sharp stones? If this shoe go between the Christian’s foot and them, th...