Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

Friends there is only one God.  Though there are many false gods of the imagination of men,  there is only one true and living God.  And God here by the mouth of His prophet declares who He is, so that there is no confusion or mistaking Him for the gods of men.  God declares to us here that He is Sovereign.  God tells us that He is altogether in a class by Himself, for He has decreed the end of all things from the beginning.  Before anything was created, God dwelling alone in eternity by Himself, without the counsel of any of His creation purposed all things that should happen in time and eternity after the counsel of His own Sovereign Free will.  All things that have been done and all things that are being done, and all things that shall be done in time were purposed of God from eternity.

Therefore, seeing that the only True God has purposed ALL THINGS before any of them were made, who then shall prevent Him from accomplishing All His decrees?   If your god can be thwarted by the will or works of men, then your god IS NOT GOD!  Our God who is Sovereign in ALL THINGS (in the creation of the world, in the providence of time and especially in the salvation of His elect people that Jesus Christ has redeemed) nothing shall stop Him from Doing ALL His sovereign will.

God says that He WILL DO ALL His pleasure.  There is nothing that God was pleased to do that He has not or will not do.  God cannot deny Himself, for all He is and all He does is Holy and Good.

Therefore, consider that it pleased the Father to elect a people to be His Holy children. (Ephesians 1:3-6) It pleased the Father to give them to Jesus Christ the Son of God. (John 6:36-40)  It pleased the Father that Jesus Christ should be made all their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:30-31) It pleased the Son of God to accomplish all their righteousness and give Himself a ransom for their sins. (Isaiah 42:21; 1 Timothy 2:3-6) It pleased the Holy Spirit of God to come at the appointed time and give to us life and faith and to keep us until we are safe in heaven with Him. (John 3:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 1:3-5) This is our Sovereign God; Worship Him Alone for He Alone is God.

-Fred Evans

“Noah planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, and was drunk; and he was naked in his tent” Genesis 9:20-21.

Some condition for Noah, the only righteous man, the preacher of righteousness, to be found in! BUT WHAT IS MAN? Look at him where you will, and you will see failure – in the garden of paradise, he fails; in the church, he fails; he fails everywhere and in all things. His true name is not MISTAKE, but FAILURE. His advantages are great, his privileges are great; but he can only display failure and sin because there is no good thing in him. “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). Grace had covered all his sins and clothed his person with a spotless robe of righteousness. Noah displayed and exposed nakedness, but God did not see it; for He looked not at Noah in the weakness of his condition, but in the full power of Christ’s divine and everlasting righteousness. “We may have boldness in the day of judgment, because AS HE IS, SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD” (I John 4:17)

-Scott Richardson

“Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause.” Jeremiah 50:34

Behold the gracious covenant promises of God in Christ held forth to the full assurance of faith. The final destruction of all our adversaries is sure. Every child of God by promise, as Isaac was, may well join that hymn of old, and say, “So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might” (Judges 5:31). Remember, child of God, the issue of the holy war is not doubtful. Christ Jesus has conquered all in our name and nature; and he will subdue for us and in us all that oppose us.

He that is for us is more than all that are against us. He will rebuke all nations for his people’s sake. He will subdue the enemy and bring all their power to nothing for his own righteousness’ sake. His covenant promise is sure.

Throughout the Book of God Babylon represents all false religion, every form of free will/works idolatry. And throughout the Book of God we are assured that Babylon shall fall and that God’s elect shall be saved.

Rejoice, my soul, in God’s sweet promise to save his chosen. — “In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten” (Jeremiah 50:4-5). There are tears of joy, as well as tears of sorrow. Holy mourners coming to Christ with both (Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 5:4). Observe the beautiful order in the people’s return. They are said first to seek the Lord their God. This is the first work of grace. The second is they shall ask the way to God’s church, to Zion, desiring that they never forget God’s covenant, his mercy, and his grace. Was there ever a more accurate description than this of the heart of every poor returning prodigal, who by sin has run away from God, and is brought back by sovereign grace to seek the Lord’s face with broken heart? Let us ever extol the grace of our God, who gives such grace, such repentance, such returning to poor sinners. Without it we would never have come to ourselves, and come again to God our Savior. What marvelous, magnificent, matchless grace we have found in God, and experienced in the reception of our souls as poor returning prodigals, when we had nothing to bring and nothing to offer. Yet, in great mercy, our heavenly Father ran to, fell on our necks, and kissed us as the darlings of his heart.

-Don Fortner

Salvation is not a cooperation between the works of man  and the work of God.  All salvation is the work of God alone upon which man is the object and recipient. (Ezek.20:9; 14; 22; 44, Isa.11:11-17) Salvation was purposed and decreed of God the Father by Sovereign Election.( Eph.1:3-6; Rom 8:28-30; 2Tim1:9; Rom. 9:11-15) The redemption and righteousness of the elect were accomplished by the work of God the Son. (1Cor. 1:30; Eph 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb 9:12; 10:14)  And the Work of regeneration. faith, and all graces are of the Holy Spirit of God.  (Titus 3:5; John 3:5-8; 1 Cor. 2:9-12)

What part then has man in the salvation of his soul?  All men must believe to be saved for no one will believe for you. ( John 3:16; 6:35; 7:38) but even our faith is the gift of God. (John 1:12-13; 1John 5:1; Eph 2:8)  Must not a man be willing? (Rev. 22:17; John3:16) Yes they are all willing; all of the elect, redeemed and regenerated souls of men are willing because we are “made willing in the day of His power.” (Ps.110:3)  Must not we perform good works? (Titus 3:8;14; James 2:18; 3:13) Yes all believer’s must, but even our good works are ordained of God. (Eph 2:10)

So then what part has man in the salvation of His own soul?  No part at all, but Salvation is the Work of God alone.  Therefore all the glory and praise of it belongs to Him!

-Fred Evans

A Self righteous man seeks to merit the salvation of God, expects to be accepted of God, but in the end that man will suffer the wrath of God.  But the sinner comes seeking only the mercy of God, expecting the wrath of God, but will receive the grace and glory of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

“They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.” Psalm 107:4

    The true Christian finds this world to be a wilderness. There is no change in the world itself. The change is in the man’s heart. The wilderness wanderer thinks it altered—a different world from what he has hitherto known—his friends, his own family, the employment in which he is daily engaged, the general pursuits of men all seem to him different to what they were.

This however is the prominent and uppermost feeling in his mind—that he finds himself, to his surprise—a wanderer in a world which has changed altogether its appearance to him. The fair, beautiful world, in which was all his happiness and all his home—has become to him a dreary wilderness. Sin has been fastened in its conviction on his conscience. The Holy Spirit has taken the veil of unbelief and ignorance off his heart. He now sees the world in a wholly different light—and instead of a paradise it has become a wilderness—for sin, dreadful sin, has marred all its beauty and happiness. It is not because the world itself has changed that the Christian feels it to be a wilderness—but because he himself has changed.

There is nothing in this world which can really gratify or satisfy the true Christian. What once was to him a happy and joyous world has now become a barren wilderness. The scene of his former pursuits, pleasures, habits, delights, prospects, hopes, anticipations of profit or happiness—is now turned into a barren wasteland. He cannot perhaps tell how or why the change has taken place, but he feels it—deeply feels it. He may try to shake off his trouble and be a little cheerful and happy as he was before—but if he gets a little imaginary relief, all his guilty pangs come back upon him with renewed strength and increased violence. God means to make the world a wilderness to every child of His, that he may not find his happiness in it, but be a stranger and a pilgrim upon earth.

-J.C Philpot

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!”
(Romans 5:20)

      Dear Savior, in your sufferings I not only see the infiniteness of sin, but also the infiniteness of your love; so that, though I have cause with myself to be angry on account of sin, I need not despair. If the desert of my sinful folly is death—the merit of your sufferings is life! If my sins mount up to heaven—your mercy is above the heavens! Though my sins reach to the very throne to accuse me—there is ONE upon the throne who will not condemn me! My sins, in their seven-fold abominations, can rise no higher than the throne, but the rainbow of redeeming love and grace is both around and above the throne, and that in its seven-fold beauties—power, wisdom, justice, goodness, holiness, mercy, and truth. And as all the different rays meet in one glorious beam of light, so all the attributes, all the perfections of God, are summed up in LOVE! God is graciously pleased to be called by his favorite name, “God is love!” By the mingling rays of this beauteous rainbow, all my blackness is removed, and I am clothed with his beauty!

When I look to myself and see my vileness and necessity–I am confounded with shame! But when I look to you, and see your fullness and all-sufficiency, I am confounded with wonder! Am I weak? He is my strength. Am I foolish? He is my wisdom! Am I wicked? He is my righteousness! Am I impure? He is my sanctification! Am I in bondage? He is my complete redemption! Am I in misery? From him tender mercy flows. Am I deceitful? He is wholly truth! In a word, am I enmity itself? Then he is love itself which passes understanding! Mine is but the enmity of a creature—but his love is the love of God!

Sin may raise the tempest of wrath, but can do no more. But Christ not only calms the raging tempest, but gives peace of conscience, flowing from intimations of peace with God, and makes me heir of all things! Where sin abounded—grace did much more abound! Where misery has surrounded me—mercy has crowned me! Sin is too strong for me—but your grace is too strong for sin!

Why, then, am I so vexed with fears, doubts, and unbelief? Because I am sinful? On that very account, Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin—that I, who knew no righteousness, might be made the righteousness of God in him. But I am a great sinner! Then, he is a Savior, and a great One! Where is boasting now soul? See—it is great mercy in God, great merit in Christ—which saves a great sinner! Since rich and free grace builds the temple of salvation, let it have all the glory!

But I fall often into the same sin! That is my failing, over which I ought to mourn, and by which I should be driven out of all boasting in my own holiness, high attainments, and religious duties; and cry, with tears of holy joy, “Grace, grace to him that has laid the foundation, carries on the whole work of redemption, and will, with shouting bring forth the topstone!”

Now, law, what have you to do with me? Go to my Surety, Jesus. O curse! you have lighted on his head, that the blessing might rest on mine! The brandished

-James Meikle (1730-1799)

It has already been proved beyond all controversy that free-will is nonsense. . .I will go as far as Martin Luther, in that strong assertion of his, where he says, “If any man doth ascribe aught of salvation, even the very least, to the free-will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright.” It may seem a harsh sentiment; but he who in his soul believes that man does of his own free-will turn to God, cannot have been taught of God, for that is one of the first principles taught us when God begins with us, that we have neither will nor power, but that he gives both; that he is “Alpha and Omega” in the salvation of men.

-C.H Spurgeon

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful inn my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Isaiah 61:10.

Dear friends, let me tell you, once for all, that you cannot make yourselves fit for heaven, you cannot clothe yourselves with the garments of salvation, you cannot renew your own nature. Somebody says, “But, sir, you discourage people by telling them that they cannot change themselves.” That is the very thing I want to do. “Oh, but, I want to set a man working!” says one. Do you? I want to set him not working; that is to say, I want him to have done with any idea that salvation is of himself; I want him to drop that thought altogether, and just to feel that, if his salvation is to some out of himself, he has to get everything out of nothing, and that is not only difficult, but impossible. He has to get life out of his own death, to get cleanness out of the filthy ditch of his own nature, out of which it can never come. Discouragement of this sort is the very thing I always aim at in my preaching. I am afraid that there are many people who are made to believe that they are saved when they are not. My belief is that God never healed a man till he was wounded, and that he never made a man alive till he was dead. It is God’s way first to drag us down, and make us feel that we are nothing, and can do nothing, and that we are shut up to be saved by grace, that Christ must save us from beginning to end, or else we can never be saved at all. Oh, if I could but bring all my hearers, not only into a state of discouragement, but into a condition of despair about themselves, then I should know that they were on the road to a simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!

It is absolute helplessness and death that lays the sinner where Christ can deal with him. When he is nothing, Christ shall be everything. . . . When you become just nothing, when you have no good feelings, no good desires, or anything you can bring to Christ – when you come to Christ, not with a broken heart, but for a broken heart, then he will receive you, then you will be the kind of man that Christ came to save.

-C.H Spurgeon

“He will keep the feet of His saints.” 1 Samuel 2:9

The Lord sees His poor scattered pilgrims travelling through a valley of tears, journeying through a waste-howling wilderness—a path beset with baits, traps, and snares in every direction. How can they escape? Why, the Lord ‘keeps their feet.’ He carries them through every rough place—as a tender parent carries a little child. When about to fall—He graciously lays His everlasting arms underneath them. And when tottering and stumbling, and their feet ready to slip—He mercifully upholds them from falling altogether. But do you think that He has not different ways for different feet?

The God of creation has not made two flowers, nor two leaves upon a tree alike—and will He cause all His people to walk in precisely the same path? No. We have each our path—each our troubles—each our trials—each peculiar traps and snares laid for our feet. And the wisdom of the all-wise God is shown by His eyes being in every place—marking the footsteps of every pilgrim— suiting His remedies to meet their individual case and necessity— appearing for them when nobody else could do them any good— watching so tenderly over them, as though the eyes of His affection were bent on one individual—and carefully noting the goings of each, as though all the powers of the Godhead were concentrated on that one person to keep him from harm!

– J.C Philpot