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

Are We Saved by Faith?   by D.G. Miles McKee   Are we saved by faith?  What a great question. Before we answer it, however, we should establish the meaning of the word FAITH. First, we need to state that faith has nothing to do with what we feel about God, but rather it is believing what God feels about us. Horatius Bonar, the 19 th  century gospel preacher, helps us understand what it is to have faith.  He boldly says that, “To have faith means to be accepted despite being unacceptable. Faith believes that we have absolutely no righteousness before God but Jesus Christ.  By Faith we confess that the only thing about us which is good is that God has pronounced us righteous out of sheer mercy and for the sake of Jesus Christ. Faith acknowledges the complete absence of all goodness in us and saves, because it owns the complete salvation of Christ.” (H. Bonar, Everlasting Righteousness ). God has declared Himself in the person and finished work of th...

" Wherefore look ye so sadly to-day?" -Genesis 40:7 [KJV] A sympathizing spirit at all times becomes Christians. They are called “to rejoice with them who do rejoice, and to weep with them who weep” (Romans 12:15.) Joseph could not observe the sad looks of his fellow prisoners, without inquiring the cause. They said, “We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter for it.” Mind the use Joseph made of the distress. He refers them to the Lord. “Do not interpretations belong unto God?” O may the Lord help us to make some improvement of this.  Consider, (1st.) Christians are all fellow prisoners in a body of sin and death.  (2d.) We are all subject, at one time or another, to have cause for sad looks.  (3d.) We should imitate Joseph. Be of a sympathizing spirit. Feel for one another’s distress. Inquire the cause of our brethren’s sad looks.  (4th.) As he did, so we should refer to the Lord. Aim, as enabled by the Lord, to speak a word in season, th...

" Hear now, O Joshua, the high-priest, thou, and thy fellows who sit before thee: For they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth My Servant, the BRANCH ." -Zechariah 3:8 [KJV] Say, Christian soldier, did the Captain of thy salvation ever deceive thee? Did He not tell thee, before thou listed under His banner, who were His enemies, and what treatment thou wast to expect from them. His word speaks full and express on this point. Almost every page furnishes accounts, how the men of this world look upon the children of God. Here is Joshua the high-priest, with the prophets and people of God, wondered at. Jehovah Himself takes notice of it, and acquaints them with it. Sweet to observe, there cannot be a disdainful frown, a contemptuous sneer, nor a reproachful word cast upon God’s people, but He notices all.  But why are we so much wondered at? Why truly, we are a set of visionaries. We see invisible objects; walk by faith; and have our conversation ...

"Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. The just shall live by faith." -Romans 1:17 [KJV] It is but lost labour, that poor sinners rise up early, late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, in order to make themselves righteous. The Lord makes His beloved people righteous, in a very different way. Righteousness is already perfectly wrought out, to the honouring and magnifying God’s law: it is fully brought into the court of heaven, to the satisfying God’s justice. It is clearly revealed in the gospel, for the hope and encouragement of poor sinners.  Observe, (1st.) By way of eminence it is styled “the righteousness of God.” Not as it is essential to His divine nature. For what comfort, what hope can a guilty sinner take from that? The more plainly that is revealed, the more clearly that is known, so much the more miserable must it make the unrighteous sinner. But it is the righteousness with which God is well pleased, and for th...

"...a nd hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father." -Revelation 1:6 [KJV] Christ has done a great work for us. But does He only call us to believe it, and then leave us just as we were, under the dominion of sin, Satan, and the world? No. He not only washes us from our sins, which He hates, in His blood, but He also dignifies our person, which He loves, by His power. Hail Jesus, lavish of strange gifts to man! Thine all the glory; man’s the boundless bliss. O miracle of grace! Christ hath made us kings and priests.  (1st.) Kings to rule over sin, the world, death, and hell. Sin brought death into the world. Death reigned over all that sinned. “But they who receive abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life, by one Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17.) O believer, do not you too often forget your real dignity? Then you do not honour your King of kings. Consider, you are made a king to reign in life. A spiritual life, over all th...

" Unto Him Who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood." -Revelation 1:5 [KJV] Paul denounces the most dreadful curse upon every one who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 16:22.) Why does any sinner love Christ? Because he believes the love of Christ to sinners. See the awful curses of unbelief. It rejects the love of Christ: It sets at nought His salvation: It seals the sinner under the curse of his sins, the wrath due to his sins; and binds him over to eternal damnation for his sins. But the unawakened sinner smiles at all this: For he does not believe one word of it. Lord, leave not my soul under this sin of sins, of all sins the most heinous and cursed! O help my unbelief!  (1st.) See the preciousness of faith. It works by love; even by the love of Christ manifested to us. It receives and embraces His love to the heart: there it works peace in the conscience, delight in God, access to God, boldness before God, joy in God, f...

" But that on the good ground, are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." - Jesus Christ the L ORD , as per Luke 8:15 [KJV] Disciple, tread warily on this good ground. Speak cautiously about it. Lest thy soul be lifted up, and thou shouldest say, I made myself to differ. My nature is better to receive the seed, and my heart more honest and good to retain it, than others. Know thyself by nature upon a level with wayside, stony-ground, and thorny hearers. See what is predicted of these blessed hearers. Examine if we are of the happy number: if so, let us fall down in humility, and cry, What hath God wrought! Let us give all the glory to the God of all grace .  ( 1st .) “ That on good ground. ” It is made good by the labour of the husbandman: tilled, cultivated, and made fit to receive the seed, by the grace of the Spirit, in an honest and good heart. No man has such a heart naturally. The he...