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

PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS ! -by D G Miles McKee   Humanly speaking, one of the reasons people don’t come to Christ is simple … they think they don’t need to. After all, in everyday life it´s only sick people who need the doctor. Then there are others who feel they are decent and good and, therefore, qualified to approach God.  But as Spurgeon says, “ There are people who quite misunderstand the gospel; they think that their righteousness qualifies them to come to Christ; whereas sin is the only qualification for man to come to Jesus.” When we are keenly aware of our sins, it is then that we see our need for the Saviour. The more we understand of the holiness of God, the more we see the necessity of being clothed in the flawless righteousness of Christ. We see that nothing but a perfect righteousness is suitable for our approach to God. Either we are covered in our own sins and failures or by His righteousness alone. So, let’s look again at Jesus. See Him once more at...

" Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness." -Jude 4 [KJV] From what the bee extracts honey, venomous insects will draw poison. The word of God, which is food to gracious hearts, is the sport and contempt of profane wits. An ungodly heart will convert the most wholesome truths of God’s grace into the most poisonous effects. There ever were such men: there are such at this day, who hold forth some of the most precious truths concerning the Lord Jesus, and the grace of God abounding to sinners in Him, and yet with these maintain the most damnable heresies: they are “the fools who make a mock at sin” (Proverbs 14:9.)  Personal holiness they hold in the greatest derision: they declare their sin as Sodom—‘Say unto the wicked, it shall be well with them. Tush! the Lord careth not about our walk and life: if we have lusts, better gratify them than burn with them.’ And they swallow up every unscriptural error in that damnable heresy, All men shall b...

"And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities, into a land not inhabited. " -Leviticus: 16:21, 22 [KJV]   Pause, my soul, and behold the tender mercy of thy God, in thus causing to be represented to the church of old, by so striking a service, that grand and most momentous doctrine of the gospel, which, in after-ages of the church was fully set forth and completed, when Jehovah laid upon our Lord Jesus Christ the iniquities of His people. And do, my soul, attend to those several most interesting points here graciously revealed. As first - this was at the express command of God. Yes, who but God could transfer or permit a change of persons in the transferring of sin?...

"That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." -I Corinthians 2:5 [KJV] True faith I may call the grand tidal wave of the soul. I will endeavour to explain the expression. We see the river Thames day by day ebbing and flowing. What causes this change? You answer, "It is produced by the sea in the Channel alternately coming up and retiring." It is a true explanation. But what makes the sea of the Channel alternately come up and retire? There is what is called "a grand tidal wave" that comes across the Atlantic Ocean, which, as it ebbs and flows, affects all the minor tides of the neighbouring seas; and thus the tide of the Channel, and that of the river Thames, ebb and flow in unison with this huge Atlantic wave. In the same way faith is the tidal wave of the soul; and all the graces and fruits of the Spirit ebb and flow just as faith rises, or just as faith sinks. If faith rises in the soul, all the graces a...

"Thought," says a Christian church father, "is the sleepless lamp of the soul." It is a lamp, indeed, that burns with varying brightness – flaming up in moments of intense study and utterance, and dying down in sleep till there is only the pale glimmer that remains in dreams. But it is a lamp that is never really quenched, for however profound the slumber, it only requires a word to wake us and to bring all our mental powers into instant activity. Thus must it be with the holy lamp of watchfulness – always trimmed and burning, but not of necessity shining always in full strength. That is to say, we need not be every moment thinking of Christ's return, talking of it, and preaching it. There should be ever in our  hearts the calm certainty and the sober hope that keep us ready for this event at any moment. But this hope should rather minister to us than be ministered to by us. Instead of perpetually dwelling on it and reiterating it, we should be ...

" Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art the L ORD our God." -Jeremiah 3:22 [KJV] Peter was an awful backslider: his crimes deserved hell: so do yours and mine . Both he and we should be sent there, if love did not reign in heaven, and grace abound to sinners on earth. One look of love from Christ broke Peter’s heart, made him weep bitterly, and return to a crucified Saviour earnestly. A bone broken and set, is stronger than it was before. This I am sure of, a heart broken by forgiving love, grows stronger in love: having much forgiven, we love much. I have often thought, fresh love added speed to Peter’s feet, when he ran to the sepulchre, to see his dear, his crucified Lord (John 20:4.)   See the happy effects of loving speeches and gracious words from a loving Lord. We saw the backsliding children arraigned, and their conduct condemned, in our last meditation. What was the sentence passed on them? Was it “Go ye cursed, vile wretches! ye have gone from Me in...

"And this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ." -Jeremiah 23:6 [KJV] Begin this month, my soul, with contemplating thy Jesus in this glorious distinction of character; and beg of God the Holy Ghost, Who hath here declared that, under this character, Jesus shall be known and called, that every day through the month, and through the whole of life, thou mayest find grace and strength so to know and so to call Jesus, as to be everlastingly satisfied that thou art made the righteousness of God in Him. And first, my soul, consider Who and what this Holy One is. He is the Lord Jehovah. In the glories of His essence, He is One with the Father. In His Personal glories, He is the Lord thy Mediator.  And in His relative glories, He is thy righteousness. For, by virtue, of His taking thy nature, what He is as Mediator and as the Surety of His people, He is for them . Pause over this blessed view, and then say, What can be more blessed than thus to ...