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

"Come and see." -John 1:39 [KJV] Thus replies the Lamb of God, to an inquiry after where He dwelt. How came these two disciples of John to make this inquiry? John had pointed them from himself, to Jesus, with Behold the Lamb of God . Just as though he had said, “Look at that dear man. Take special notice of Him. He has a whole world of sinners to save. He loved them from all eternity. He is come as an innocent, meek Lamb, to be slain as a sacrifice for them. And His precious blood taketh away all their sins."   You and I are poor miserable sinners. We have no object to look to, but that Lamb. Nothing can take away our sins; nothing can bring pardon to our hearts, peace to our consciences, and salvation to our souls, but His blood. Nothing can make us holy and happy here on earth, but, looking to, and living upon this Lamb of God. They believed this. No wonder then, that they followed Jesus, and asked Him, “Where dwellest Thou?”  He said, Come and see .  O w...

"Come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price."   -Isaiah 55:1  [KJV] Surely, no man can plead poverty as an excuse for not buying, when the things sold are not only without money, but without even the proposals for money; not only without ready money, but without any money. Here is not even a price given. My soul, remember this. The poorer the wretch, the more welcome to this market. But what are the things sold? Both wine and milk. A blessed variety in the gospel feast—wine to cheer, and milk to nourish. Yes, blessed Jesus, Thy love is better than wine, and Thy salvation more healing than milk: Besides, it comes free, it comes pure, it comes in plenty. And it far, very far, exceeds the strongest wine, and the richest milk. For though wine may remove a temporary heaviness, yet was it never known to raise the dead; but Thy love, blessed Jesus, hath raised, and will keep alive for ever, sinners dead in trespasses and sins, and preserve the languishin...

"But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel."   -Luke 24:21 [KJV] What a trial to their faith must the death of Jesus have been to His disciples and believing followers! When their Lord and Master died, their hopes, for the time at least, seem almost to have died with Him. And indeed to the eye of sense, truth, holiness, innocence, all fell crushed by the arm of violence as Jesus hung on the cross.  To the spectator there, all His miracles of love and mercy, His words of grace and truth, His holy, spotless life, His claims to be the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the Redeemer of Israel, with every promise and every prophecy concerning Him were all extinguished when, amidst the triumph of His foes, in pain, shame, and ignominy, he yielded up His breath. We now see that, by His blood-shedding and death, the blessed Lord wrought out redemption, finished the work which the Father gave Him to do, put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, r...

"Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity that is in me."   - Psalm 7:8 [KJV] What! is David become a self-justifier? Does he trust in, and depend upon his own righteousness? Does he plead it, even before the Lord, and expect justification by it? Hath he not elsewhere declared, “In Thy sight shall no man be justified” ? (Psalm 143:2.) Why then does he here talk of my righteousness? and why does he say, “The LORD reward me, according to my righteousness?”   (Psalm 18:20.)  It was far from David’s heart, to make his own righteousness the ground of his acceptance before God, or to place his hope of eternal life on it. He was a poor sinner. He knew it well. He confesses it constantly to the Lord. He declines it in point of justification, “I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine ONLY,”   (Psalm 71:16.) Why then does he here talk of his own righteousness? Let not this puzzle thy mind, nor pervert thy judgm...

"And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins." -Isaiah 11:5 [KJV] Mark these expressions, my soul, concerning thy covenant God in Christ. The Lord condescends by them to represent both His righteousness and faithfulness, as they are engaged to make good the purposes of redemption, in the Father and the Son. Jehovah's righteousness, and Jehovah's faithfulness, are blessed securities for this purpose; for so saith the Holy Ghost. "God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." Wherefore? Because "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." And do not overlook the striking figure of the girdle, which is chosen to represent it by; for as a man binds on the girdle round his loins, as a strengthener; so Jehovah takes to Himself the righteousness of His dear Son. "Let Him take hold," saith Jehovah,  "of My strength, to make peace with Me, and ...

"Make me not the reproach of the foolish." -Psalm 39:8 [KJV] Who are these "foolish?" I think the best answer to this question is given by our Lord Himself, in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. "The foolish" were those who had oil in their lamps, but none in their vessels. By "the foolish" in the text, therefore, we may understand those who have the light of knowledge in their heads, and the lamp of profession in their hands, but no oil of grace in their hearts.  They are "foolish," because they know neither God nor themselves, neither sin nor salvation, neither the depth of the fall nor the greatness of the remedy. They are "foolish," as regards themselves, in thinking that light and knowledge will save them, without life and grace; and they are "foolish," as regards others, for want of an experimental acquaintance with the heart. They know nothing, therefore, of the temptations of a child o...

The Question: What can a man dead in sins do before God apart from a prior work of God in Him? ‘I remember the day in seminary when my professor asked this question, ‘What can a dead man do?’ And with that one question it was like a rock was thrown into a large glass window, and that one rock shattered my entire world view in my understanding of human nature.     I was sitting on the front row, and I kept waiting for one of my classmates to answer this professor, what can a dead man do, and the answer came from the back row, ‘Stink.’ That is all that a dead man can do.  A dead man has no capacity whatsoever to respond.’     -preacher Steven Lawson, excerpt from ‘Total Depravity and the Clarity of Evangelism’