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

" From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." -John 6:66 [KJV] Thus was fulfilled that word, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3.) This chapter is like a touch-stone. Herein our Lord tries His disciples, to see who are real sterling, and who not. Many are His professed, but few His real disciples. Sifting times will come. They make manifest. The hottest place in hell is prepared for those who turn their backs upon the Son of God on earth.  Lord, grant that our faces may be set like a flint towards Thee. For, blessed be Thy name, Thou hast said of those who continue with Thee in Thy temptations: “I appoint unto you a kingdom: ye shall eat and drink at My table” (Luke 22:29, 30.) But those who are not agreed with Christ, have not the mind of Christ: will not walk long with Him. See this exemplified.  (1st.) Some of these disciples followed Christ for the loaves and fishes, vs. 26 . Those who follow Christ, t...

"Then ceased the work of the house of God." -Ezra 4:24 [KJV] Ah, how distressed was Zion, when this decree took place; and yet the history of the church plainly proves that the hand of the Lord was in it. My soul, are thine exercises sometimes similar? Doth it seem to thee, as if the work of God in thee was at a stand? Nay, as if it was totally over? Pause; recollect there is a set time to favour Zion. Thy Jesus is of One mind, and who can turn Him?   He is everlastingly pursuing the designs of His love. And as Zion was graven upon the palms of His hands, and her walls were continually before Him, when she appeared in her most desolate circumstances; so the work of His grace, in the hearts of His people, doth not remit, though, to thy view, all thy promising beginnings seems to be blighted, and, as it seems in thy apprehension, thou findest growing imperfection.  And is not Jesus, by this very means, emptying thee of self, and all the pride of self-attainments? ...

“Surely, shall one say, In the LORD have I righteousness and strength .” -Isaiah 45:24 [KJV] Have you learnt that you are a sinner in the sight of God? Have you ever felt the length, breadth, and spirituality of his holy law? Do you feel in your very soul that without Christ’s righteousness being imputed to you, and His blood being sprinkled upon your conscience, you must die in your sins and never reach the heavenly shore? Has this ever been, or is it still a matter of solicitude to you?  Has it ever caused sighs and groans to come out of your heart? Has the spirit of prayer ever been given, to make you plead with the Lord for the forgiveness of your sins, through the merits of a crucified Saviour? And have you any hope but in His blood, righteousness and finished work?   Now if the Lord has been pleased to exercise your soul on this way, if He has not yet granted the longing desire of your heart, He certainly will in due time reveal His dear Son in you as the Go...

The faith that brings a sinner to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for all salvation and the repentance by which that same believing sinner turns away from himself, his dead works and idolatry, are both gifts of God’s grace, goodness, and power given to all His people by the Holy Spirit and from the Lord Jesus Christ by Whose righteousness he has been justified.  Many today. who claim to be “Christians,” erroneously think that faith and repentance are acts of man’s “free-will” decision as if man, even as fallen in and by Adam into sin and spiritual death and depravity, retains a spark of goodness by which he has the ability to choose that which is good and right when it comes to salvation.  But God’s Word tells us otherwise – “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Corinthians 2:14; cf. John 6:44; Romans 3:10-12) .  God’s Word tells us that ...

" Honour the LORD with thy substance." -Proverbs 3:9 [KJV] O may this be the daily study of our hearts, and the constant practice of our lives! “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to the Lord: for the marriage of the Lamb is come.” (Revelation 19:7.) He is our Husband: we are espoused to Him by faith. Consider the work of honouring the Lord, and the reasons for it.  (1st.) The work. What! can I, a worm of the earth, honour the Lord of heaven: Yes; thou art called to it, and formed for it. This honour have all His saints. It is our greatest honour on earth to honour our Lord in heaven. “All Thy works shall praise Thee, O LORD! and Thy saints shall bless Thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power: to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom” (Psalm 145:10-12.)   So they honoured the Lord of old, in displaying the glory of His grace. This work you are called to, if you have seen...

"Such an one as Paul the aged." -Philemon 1:9 [KJV] And what was Paul in the moment here represented? Verily an aged servant of his Master, but not retired from the scene of action. Paul, though grown old in the Lord's service, was still as hotly engaged as ever in the Lord's battle. Art thou such an one, my soul, as Paul was! Then learn from hence, that however many, or however heavy, former campaigns have been, there is no rest for thee this side Jordan, no more than for Paul: no winter quarters for the true soldiers of Jesus Christ. Until thy Captain undress thee for the grave, the holy armour in which He hath clad thee is not to be taken off.  Art thou "such an one as Paul the aged?" Then, like Paul, see that thou art strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. And how sweet the thought! Thy Jesus, Who hath borne thee from the womb, and carried thee from the belly, knows well the burden of thy increasing years, and all the infirmiti...

“That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.” -Luke 1:74, 75 [KJV ] The grand point of all true religion is to be brought by the blessed Spirit into that happy spot where we can serve the living God free from that guilt, bondage, darkness, doubt, and fear which often possess our mind, and are the worst enemies of our soul’s peace.  But though they are such enemies to all true peace and happiness, yet are they mercifully overruled for our spiritual good, to convince us from whence our help must come, to strip us thoroughly of all creature help and hope, and bring us to the spot where the Lord meets the soul in mercy, sheds abroad His love, and brings near a precious Christ. We have no reason to thank bondage, guilt and the law, still less sin and Satan, for any work they have done which God has overruled for our good. And yet without...