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

“I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only”   -Psalm 71:16 [KJV]  Wise travelers provide things needful for their journey, and guard against such as lie in wait to rob them.  Our gracious God calls not His dear children to forsake their native country to travel to the heavenly city without furnishing them with a rich supply of all things necessary for their comfort, and also strength to protect them from the power of every enemy.  No soldier of His goeth a warfare at his own charge.  Christ being both their righteousness and strength, they can want (- lack ) nothing.  Hence, they go on from day to day, glorying in Him as their richest treasure, and trusting in Him as their almighty strength; and this is their constant song in the house of their pilgrimage, and all their journey through: “Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength” (Isaiah 45:24) .   Jesus’ ri...

  THE WORK OF REDEMPTION   Our Lord is incomparable in the work of redemption and truly this work is His masterpiece, pure workmanship.  Indeed, all His works of creation and providence are subordinate to this.  All His attributes sparkle most gloriously in this (Psalm 102:16) .  All His angels in heaven admire and adore Him for this (Revelation 4:10-11) .  This is the work of all His works, which He is so mightily pleased with and reaps so much glory and praise from (Isaiah 42:1; 43:21) .     No angels, no men, no, not all together, could with their united worthiness redeem one soul.  “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever” (Psalm 49:7-8) .  None beside God had pity enough for man’s misery, or wisdom enough to find a remedy, or power enough for His recovery.  None had pity enough for man’s misery.  Boundles...

     Peter the apostle tells us that ignorant and unstable people pervert the Holy Scriptures to their own destruction (II Peter 3:16) . Such people are found especially among those denying God’s omnipotence and sovereignty, and affirming the necessity of man’s “free will” in salvation and his ability to thwart God. One such person, a denominational head and seminary president, is quoted as saying: “Knowing God as I do through the revelation He has given me of Himself in His Word, when I am told that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, I know it means that the Triune God has done, is doing, always will do, all that the Triune God can do to save every man, woman, and child on this earth. If it doesn’t mean that, then tell me I pray you, what does it mean? What is hell? It is an infinite negation. It is infinite chaos. And it is more than that. I tell you, and I say it with profound reverence, hell is a ghastly monument to the f...

"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" -Amos 3:3 [KJV]   There was a time, child of God, when the world held in your heart the chief place. It was not so in God's heart. You and He were therefore at variance. But now, through grace, you are brought to make eternity your chief concern. You and God are agreed there; for in the mind of God eternity as much outweighs time as the stars in the midnight sky outweigh a grain of dust. There was a time when you loved the world and the things of time and sense; and earth and earthly things were your element and home. You and God disagreed upon that matter; because the Lord saw that the world was full of evil, whilst you saw it full of good.    The Lord saw the world under His curse, and you loved its favour and its blessing—seeking madly and wickedly to enjoy that which God had denounced; therefore you could not agree. Thus you see that in order to be agreed with God, we must have God's thoughts in our heart, God's...

"Stand fast therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."   -Galatians 5:1 [KJV] Here is somewhat enjoyed, danger of being deprived of it, and the necessity of standing fast in it. Let us consider these three points, looking unto Jesus.    (1st.) What is enjoyed? Liberty . One of the most precious blessings in life. But this of all liberties, is the most precious. For, Christ hath made us free in our consciences.         (a.) From the guilt and power of sin.         (b.) From all condemnation of the law.         And, (c.) To have access to God as righteous persons. He hath washed away the guilt of our sins by His blood: and subdued the power of them by His Spirit. “He hath delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us , ” (Galatians 3:13.) So that “there is therefore no condemnation to us, being in Christ Jes...

"As the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory ." -Jeremiah 13:11 [KJV] See, my soul, the blessedness of witnessing to God, and witnessing for God. His people, the Lord saith, are called, and are, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, as lights in the world. Both Israel and Judah are included in what is here said; and by the figure of a girdle cleaving to the loins of a man, so close, so strongly bound, and extending all around, is shewn the nearness, and firmness, and the security in every way, and by every direction, in which the Lord's people are brought into relation with Him. Such, then, were the Lord's people of old, a people near to Himself; and as they were the Lord's own choice, so were they dear to the Lord; and as He had made the whole of the n...

"For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." -Hebrews 10:36 [KJV]  Why is patience needed? Because if we are the Lord's people, we are sure to have many trials. The Lord sends us afflictions that He may give us the grace of patience to bear them. But O, what a rebellious heart do we carry in our bosom! What perverseness, peevishness, and self-will dwell in us! How soon our temper is stirred up, and our irritable minds roused in a moment by the veriest trifle! How little patience have we under the trials that God sees fit to lay upon us! We thus learn our need of patience, and that it is not a fruit of nature's soil.    The want (-need) of it makes the soul follow after it; and when the Lord does give submission to His will, and enables His children to see how profitable these trials are for their souls, and how, but for this heavy ballast, they would certainly have been carried away into the world, they can s...