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

"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him.  For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.  As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth . "     - Psalm 103:13-15 [KJV]   THE SUM OF OUR GOSPEL   "CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY." This is the sum and substance of our gospel and is the great article of faith (Romans 5:6) .   WHO DIED? Christ, the only-begotten, well-beloved Son of God in human nature (Romans 8:34; Matthew 3:16-17) .   HOW DID HE DIE? A death of shame, under the wrath and judgment of God (Philippians 2:8) .   WHY DID HE DIE? He died for, in the stead of, and as a sub­stitute for all God's elect in order that God might be just and justifier (Romans 3:24-26) .          FOR WHOM DID HE DIE? " For the ungodly , " not for righteous men, nor religious men, nor deserving men, but for those who are ungodly in nature a...

"Then said one unto Him, LORD, are they few that be saved ?"   -Luke 13:23 [KJV] Peter’s fervent prayer, “Lord, save, or I perish!” was much better than this curious question. It was an unprofitable one. Suppose our Lord had given a direct answer to it, assured him there were but few that would be saved, and told him the exact number, what good would this querist have got by it? Learn hence,    (1st.) that unprofitable questions are to be avoided. They proceed from a vain curiosity, and are proposed to gratify the itch of a speculative humour. Indulge no thoughts in thy mind above, beyond, nor contrary to what is written. They may amuse and perplex, but cannot edify thy soul. Observe,    (2d.) the wisdom of thy Lord. He does not give a direct answer to this vain question, but improves it to general usefulness. As though He had said, Friend, thy question is impertinent. Thou art prying into a matter that concerns thee not! Thou hast a notion of salvation in thy...

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you ." -John 16:23 [KJV] My soul, do not fail to remark, in this blessed promise of thy Lord, how He hath secured the accomplishment of it. Here is a double verily if one will not do. And this is said by the Faithful Witness, and the Amen of heaven. Had Jesus said but the words themselves, without a single verily, His bare word was enough to give confirmation to faith; but when He says, "verily, verily," repeating it twice over, how gracious and condescending, as well as comforting and confirming, ought it to be to our dependance upon what He hath said.    But the promise itself comes in with a blessed shall and will ; and that not to any limited request or petition, but extended to a whatsoever ; as if Jesus threw the reins of government into His people's hand. In some parts of scripture we find a may be for our encouragement. "It may be," said the prop...

"Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place." - Isaiah 28:17 [KJV] Wherever God the Holy Ghost begins and carries on a work of grace in the heart, He will weigh up, and mete out, from time to time, all a man's religion and try every inch of the way whether it lies straight and level with the word and will of God. Depend upon it the Lord Who "weigheth the spirits" (Proverbs 16:2) , and by Whom "actions are weighed" (I Samuel 2:3) , will put into His righteous and unerring scales both nature and grace, both human and divine teaching, and make us know which is full weight in heaven's court. The religion of the present day is too much to confuse everything of an experimental nature; to cover and obscure the work of grace in the heart.    But there can be no question that God will never suffer our religion, if, indeed, He has ...

"My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me."   -Psalm 63:8 [KJV]   David was no advocate for the merit of good works. He ascribes no glory to nature’s power and free-will. Free-grace Paul says, “I laboured more abundantly than they all.” But he immediately corrects himself. “Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me , ” (I Corinthians 15:10.) So if David’s soul followed hard after God, he gives grace the honour of it: “Thy right hand upholdeth me.” This is the way both to improve and to enjoy lively frames of soul, to see and acknowledge the Lord’s hand to be the cause of them. O it is delightful when the soul follows hard after God. For,    (1st.) It implies such a discovery of the love and grace of the Lord, that the mind is fixed upon Him, the heart drawn out after Him, and the affections cleave unto Him. The language is, “What is there upon earth that I can desire beside Thee?” O, says the soul, “I am in His eyes as one that foun...

"And they feared as they entered into the cloud." -Luke 9:34 [KJV]   My soul, here is much instruction for thine evening thoughts to be employed upon. Sit down, and take a leisurely view of the situation of the disciples of Jesus, at this hallowed season, on the mount. The Lord Jesus was about to manifest to them somewhat of His glory. But the prelude to it was infinitely solemn. "They feared as they entered into the cloud;" though, when there, Jesus was going to open to their souls the richest enjoyment of Himself. And is it not so with all the sweetest manifestations which the Lord makes to His people?   Seasons of sickness, bereaving providences, afflictions from the world, disappointments, crosses, and the like; these are like the cloud to the disciples, as we enter them; but what gracious events have we found folded up in them, and when opened to our view, how much of Jesus' love, and grace, and glory, have come out of them, which, but for the dispensatio...

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." -I John 3:8 [KJV] There will be no thorough destruction of sin within until the body drops into the grave, and the soul mounts aloft to be with the Lord; nor a full destruction of its effects in the body until the resurrection morn, when the body shall be raised from the sleeping dust and changed into the glorious image of the body of the Son of God, meet companion for the immortal soul. Then will the victory be complete; then will Christ appear, shining forth with the lustre of a million suns; then will be the glorious manifestation of the Son of God, and the works of the devil thoroughly destroyed.  The burden of heaven's anthem, the grand theme of eternal adoration, will be the manifestation of the Son of God to destroy the works of the devil. The redeemed will look down from the battlements of heaven and see what works have been executed by the devil; they will see million...