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

" But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who were sometimes afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ." -Ephesians 2:13 [KJV] If any one were asked, Do you live near the court? Have you free access to his majesty? Did you ever kiss the king’s hand? Who would hesitate one moment for an answer? Consciousness would instantly dictate one. Pray, is Christian experience so dark and doubtful a matter, that if asked, are you brought nigh to God? Do you live near God? Have you free access to God? That we cannot answer, with some degree of knowledge and certainty.  O my dear fellow Christians, though we are brought nigh to God, yet we do not live near Him. Hence our doubt and uncertainty. Our hearts and affections too much rove in the high roads of earthly honour, riches, and pleasures. Here clouds of dust rise. They so dim our sight, and cloud our views, that we can hardly see our way, or tell where we are. Here we are reminded,  (1st.) That we “were sometimes afar off.” Awf...

"The LORD said unto my Lord." -Psalm 110:1 [KJV] Some have called this Psalm, David's creed . Certain it is, that there is scarce an article of a true believer's faith, but what is in it. My soul, look through it this morning, if thou hast time, and see whether it is thy creed. If not, look at this precious portion of it, and ask of the Holy Ghost to teach thee the blessed things contained in it. "The LORD said unto my Lord:" that is, Jehovah said unto my Adonai . Observe, my soul, that here, as in many other parts of the bible, one of these words Lord is in capital letters, the other in small characters. This no doubt was done by the translators, by way of telling the English reader that the two words in the original Hebrew are not the same. They had no better method of explaining the difference. But by using different sized letters, they meant to say that there is a difference, and the difference seems to be this: the word LORD, whenever use...

"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us." -Romans 8:34 [KJV] As the soul is led and taught by the Spirit, it follows the Lord through all the various acts and sufferings of His life. The first spot to which the Holy Ghost takes the poor sinner is the cross of Jesus. That is the first real saving view we get of the Lord of life and glory; the Holy Ghost taking the poor guilty sinner, laden with the weight of a thousand sins, to the foot of the cross, and opening his eyes to see the Son of God bleeding there as a propitiation for sin.  To be brought there by the power of the Holy Ghost, and receive that blessed mystery of the bleeding, suffering, and agonising Son of God into our hearts and consciences, is the first blessed discovery that God the Spirit favours us with. But we pass on from that to see Jesus sleeping in the sepulchre; for we have ...

“The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.  Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.” -Psalm 97:1-2 [KJV]   -------O-------     God reigns on high let saints rejoice, O praise Him people of His choice; He reigns forever over all, The Lord reigns over great and small.   God reigns upon this earth below, No matter whether friend or foe; He reigns and works His sovereign will, He reigns with wise, unerring skill.   God reigns His purpose to fulfill, He reigns, who can resist His will? He reigns o’er angels, devils too, Our God reigns over me and you!   God reigns His wondrous grace to give, He reigns to make dead sinners live; He reigns to make the darkness light, He reigns in saving love and might.   God reigns, cheer up ye troubled saint, He reigns, fear not or ever faint; He reigns, so let your soul be still, He reigns to work His perfect wi...

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgement and justice in the earth.   In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. " - Jeremiah 23:5-6 [KJV]  The righteousness of God is the absolute and essential perfection of His nature.  Our Lord Jesus, the God-Man, came into this world to “magnify the law and make it honourable” (Isaiah 42:21) and establish righteousness for His people by suffering the penalty of the Law which was His substitutionary and sacrificial death.   We know that the thrice holy God can only accept into His presence those who are righteous.    “It must be perfect to be accepted”   (Leviticus 22:21).   “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD?  Or, who shall stand in His holy place?  He that hat...

" God be merciful to me a sinner." -Luke 18:13 [KJV] I often reflect on what a perfectionist once said to me, upwards of twenty years ago: “Do not go to hear such preaching; you will get such a notion of sinnership, as though you were to be a poor sinner all your days.” Truly, after being so long in Christ, when I look into the glass of God’s law, I see myself just the same poor sinner I was at first; striving against sin, and looking to Christ for salvation.  I thank my Lord, I do not trust in myself that I am righteous: yet am as righteous in myself, as any poor sinner on earth is; and as righteous in Christ, as any saint in glory is. O the humbling joy of faith! it brings boldness of access to God into the heart, while it destroys self-righteous confidence. Many poor souls are apt to say, I am afraid to approach God, I am such a sinner—I tremble to think what will become of me—I fear God will cast me off for ever; and damn me eternally, for my sins.  No, sa...

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth ." -Matthew 28:18 [KJV] Hail, then, Thou Sovereign Lord of all! I have lately been following Thee in sweet and solemn meditation through the seasons of Thy humiliation; now let me behold Thee on Thy throne. And here I'm called upon to contemplate my Lord and my God as possessing universal dominion. Ponder, my soul, the vast extent.  Thy Jesus, as God, as one with the Father, possesseth in common with Him all power from everlasting. This is His, as God, essentially so; not given to Him, for by nature it is His, being "one with the Father, over all, God blessed for ever. Amen , " said Paul; so let it be; so shall it be. And so say I, and so saith all the church; Amen, Amen . But what thy Jesus saith here, in these blessed words, is of a power given to Him; and that is a power as the Head of His church and people. And although had He not been God, one with t...