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

The Gospel is not an offer.  An offer presupposes a man’s ability to accept or reject the offer.  To offer life to one who is dead in sins would be absurd and insincere.  God does not offer life.  He gives it!  “And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.”  Did Christ offer life to Lazarus?  Of course not!  “Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth.”    *****               We read in Scripture of believing in Christ and believing on Christ.  We believe in Christ when we believe His Is-ness.  We believe He is as the Bible says He is. We believe on Christ when we are relying on Him in His Is-ness to save us.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”   *****               Any objection to God’s sovereignty is in reality denying God’s goodness in...

" Let the weak say, I am strong." -Joel 3:10 [KJV] Where is the weak, doubting sinner? Stand forth, my soul, thy Lord arraigns thee; He judges and passes sentence of reproof upon thee. “O thou of little faith, wherefore dost thou doubt? ” (Matthew 14:31.) Your doubts come from your little faith: your doubts prevent the increase of faith. You can easily believe the Lord is displeased at your sins. What is sin, but disobeying His commands? But did you never consider it as a sin, a great sin, not to believe when He commands?  Not to be obedient to His word, when He requires you to be strong in faith— “Strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus?” (II Timothy 2:1.) “Strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10.) O you do not enough attend to this! But you say, “I am so weak in myself.” Who is not? He who thinks he is not, is the weakest of all in self-knowledge. The great, the strong, the inspired Paul, gives this challenge. “Who is weak...

" Trust in the L ORD , and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the L ORD ; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  Commit thy way unto the LORD ; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.  Rest in the L ORD , and wait patiently for Him : fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass." -Psalm 37:3-7 [KJV]

It may be asked: when were the elect in Christ Jesus?  All the elect were in Him when they were chosen in Him.  As it is written: “Thine eyes did see My substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all My members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them”  (Psalm 139:16-17).   The substance of Christ mystical, (I Corinthians 12:12-27) that is, all His spiritual members were known and beloved in Christ when they had no being in themselves: yet they were the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.  As it is written: “And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all”  (Ephesians 1:22-23).         The chur...

" Put off the old man." -Ephesians 4:22 [KJV] People who love money better than a good conscience, make nothing of putting off base and counterfeit coin. Christian, you may safely imitate them, in putting off the base old man. The more the love of Christ is in you, the more will you do it.  What is meant by this old man? Corrupt nature, which was born with you, is part of you, lives in you, and will never be dead so long as your body lives. Though near six thousand years old, yet he is very strong and vigorous at times. Yea, though you are a child of God, and a member of Christ, he wants to have the mastery over you. You could never have conquered him, had not Christ crucified him. Though crucified, you can never subdue him, but by the strength of Christ.  Nor you cannot put him off but by the grace of Christ, for he clings and twines round you like a serpent; yet you are commanded to put him off. This is your duty from day to day. But it is not by your might, ...

"Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." -Psalm 107:10 [KJV] God's people are here represented not as sitting in death; were they sitting there, they would be dead altogether; but they are sitting in the shadow of death. Observe, death has lost its reality to them; it now can only cast a shadow, often a gloomy shadow, over their souls; but there is no substance. The quickening of the Spirit of God in them has destroyed the substance of death spiritually; and the death and resurrection of Jesus have destroyed the substance of death naturally. Yet, though the gloomy monster, deadness of soul, and that ghastly king of terrors, the death of the body, have been disarmed and destroyed by "Immanuel, God with us;" yet each of them casts at times a gloomy, darkling shadow over the souls of those that fear God. Is not your soul, poor child of God, exercised from time to time with this inward death? Deadness in prayer, deadness in reading the ...

"...which things the angels desire to look into." -I Peter 1:12 [KJV] My soul, what an argument ariseth out of this view, of the angels of light being inquisitive about man's redemption, to stir thee up to the same most blessed contemplation! If in the apprehension of those intelligent and exalted beings of light, the subject is so glorious, what ought it to be to thee? If, as the words represent, they fix their closest attention, and are lost in admiration, wonder, love, and praise; how is it that thou, who art so deeply interested in the blissful theme, shouldest forget it, as thou dost for hours together, and, even when thou thinkest of it, contemplate it so very coolly? Oh for grace more and more to study Jesus and His love, Jesus and His grace, Jesus and His great salvation! But among the wonders of redemption, is there not one point (and as it concerns thee, my soul, a marvellous one indeed it is) which may well be supposed to call forth the greater...