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

1. ’Tis a point I long to know,   Oft it causes anxious thought;   Do I love the Lord, or no?   Am I His, or am I not? 2. If I am, why am I thus?   Why this dull and lifeless frame?   Hardly, sure, can they be worse,   Who have never heard His name! 3. Could my heart so hard remain,   Prayer a task and burden prove;   Every trifle give me pain,   If I knew a Savior’s love? 4. When I turn my eyes within,   All is dark, and vain, and wild;   Filled with unbelief and sin,   Can I deem myself a child? 5. If I pray, or hear, or read,   Sin is mixed with all I do;   You that love the Lord indeed,   Tell me, Is it so with you? 6. Yet I mourn my stubborn will,   Find my sin, a grief, and thrall;   Should I grieve for what I feel,   If I did not love at all? 7. Could I joy His saints to meet,   Choose the ways I once abhorred,   Find, at times, the promise sweet,   If I did not love the Lord?...

I left the pulpit one night and a fellow asked me, “Do you believe ‘the law’ to be a believer’s rule of life?” He seemed surprised when I told him I did not. His very next question was, “How do you know how to live?” I told him immediately that I lived just as the Apostle Paul, “The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God , ” (Galations 2:20) . This was the rule of life for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Abel and all others who have nothing but Jesus Christ to live upon.      Someone would say, “You mean you live as you want to?” I wish I could: I’d be filled with the Spirit, I would never sin again, all my motives would be pure, I’d be delivered from this body of death. Oh, I wish I could live just like I want to. The closest thing I have found to living just like I’d like to is living by faith upon Jesus Christ the Dear and Blessed Son of God. -copied

  When the religious accuse us of being lawless, what they are really saying is: “If I believed what you believe, I would be lawless.” They would have nothing to restrain their sin.     Being under the law, they know nothing of the constraining love of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:14)   Being in the flesh, they know nothing of the power of the Spirit of God. (Romans 8:12-14) Being under the judgment of the law, they know nothing of the law of liberty. (James 2:10-12)       Their accusations are not based on what they see in the believer’s life, but rather on what they fear in their own lives. "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ ." (1...

" These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me." -Luke 24:44 [KJV] Christ’s work was to fulfil all Scripture. It is ours to believe, that the Scriptures are all fulfilled in Christ. Hence we are filled with all joy and peace in believing (Romans 15:13.) We complain of the weakness of faith. We neglect the means by which it is strengthened. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. By it faith is strengthened. That which comes not from the word, and is not supported by the word, is not faith, but phantom. It will soon evaporate. Our Saviour was now risen. His work was finished. He appeals to the understanding of His disciples. He refers them to what He had spoken to them, before He died for them.  Understanding the word in the heart, is like the stomach receiving, and digesting the food for the whole body. All part...

  Upon the cross of Calvary, The Savior took my blame; He suffered untold grief and pain, To put away my shame. The wrath of God poured out on Him, While hanging on that tree; The condemnation for my sin, He bore it all for me.   ‘Twas in this way the Lord of all, Could justly make me whole; Forgive my sinfulness and guilt, And save my wretched soul. The blood of Christ poured out for me, My pardon has secured; For all the vengeance due my sin, The Lord Himself endured.   Who can condemn the sons of God, Since Christ for us has died? The Father sees our Substitute, And we are justified. Washed in His sin-atoning blood, The Savior’s Name we bless; Christ Jesus is our all in all, He is our Righteousness!

" I said in my haste, All men are liars." -Psalm 116:11 [KJV] We are prone to be too hasty in our censures of others, while the greatest fault lies at our own door. David here brands all men, with being liars, when he himself was the greatest liar of all, if we take the words in this sense. Here, he even charges Samuel the prophet of the Lord with a lie. For he had anointed him to be king, and assured him of the kingdom. But he spoke in haste, without due thought and deliberation— unadvisedly, under temptation, when he was off his guard, and fled from the rage of Saul.  Though some think, David rather uttered the bold language of confident faith. I said in my flight, that notwithstanding all the fury of Saul, and all the suggestions of my enemies to the contrary, “Let God be true, and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4.) The Lord will surely preserve me. I shall certainly be king. David was the subject, both of faith and unbelief: of a hasty spirit, which exalteth...

King David was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write many psalms, some of which are classified by Bible scholars as messianic, meaning that David spoke both of himself literally and of the Lord Jesus Christ typically and prophetically. Psalm 69 is a messianic psalm. When we read verses like Psalm 69:5, which says, “O God, Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from Thee,” we can easily see how such language applies to David as a sinner saved by the grace of God in Christ. Like all true believers, David confessed that he in himself was a foolish man who had no wisdom but Christ and the Word of God in Christ. He confessed that, even as justified by God based on the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ and though not charged with his sin by God (cf. Psalm 32:1-2; Rom. 4:6-8; 8:33-34), in himself he was still a sinful man. He knew his sins were not hidden from God’s view (2 Sam. 12:9; Psalm 51:4).  But how could these words in any way apply to our Lord and...