1. Mercy speaks by Jesus' blood;
Hear and sing, ye sons of God;
Justice satisfied indeed;
Christ has full atonement made.
Christ has full atonement made.

2. Jesus' blood speaks loud and sweet;
Here all Deity can meet,
And, without a jarring voice,
Welcome Zion to rejoice.
Welcome Zion to rejoice.

3. Peace of conscience, peace with God,
We obtain through Jesus' blood;
Jesus' blood speaks solid rest;
We believe, and we are blest.
We believe, and we are blest.
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The Only Perfect Work
If I build a house, I will afterwards find something defective, something that needs to be altered or changed. There is continually something that may be improved for the better. If I write a book, I find it imperfect. Some error of the printer, some defect in the language, something to add, something to take out. So it is with all human works and efforts. The work of Christ's righteousness and redemption is the only finished, the only PERFECT WORK, that ever was wrought among men.
--Henry Mahan
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Forgiveness
"If Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared" (Psalm 130:3-4).
This forgiveness that is with God, is such as becomes Him; such as is suitable to His greatness, goodness and all other excellences of His nature; such as that therein He will be known to be God. What He says concerning some of His works of providence, "Be still, and know that I am God," may be much more said concerning this great effect of His grace; "still your souls and know that He is God."
It is not like that narrow, difficult and limited forgiveness that is found amongst men - but it is full, free, bottomless, boundless, absolute; such as becomes His nature and excellences. It is, in a word, forgiveness that is with God, and by the exercise whereof He will be known so to be - God Himself doth really separate and distinguish His forgiveness from anything that our thoughts and imaginations can reach unto; and that because it is His, and it is like Himself.
Forgiveness is an object for faith alone which can rest in that which it cannot comprehend. Faith is never safer than when it is, as it were, overwhelmed with infiniteness. --John Owen

*****
"Blessed is the people
that know the joyful sound:
they shall walk, O LORD,
in the light of Thy countenance"
(Psalm 89:15).
Why is the gospel news of salvation called the "the joyful sound?" Because it is the vehicle of making known to us that God is love, and that He has (in the blood and righteousness of Christ) opened a channel for His love to exert itself in the salvation of the unworthy. The lost are found; the blind see; the deaf hear; the lame walk; the leprous are cleansed; the dead are made alive; and all "without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1).
--Augustus Toplady

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Arms
Some say that "religion is a crutch." "True religion," as James calls it, is that and more. It is the very arms of God under each of my arms. Arms called grace and mercy! They lifted me out of my sin, set my feet on the Solid Rock and carry me every day to eternal glory. Grace and mercy are the arms of God extended to me in the arms of the man Christ Jesus! "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. 33:27).
--Pastor Gary Shepard