Well, I generally remove my jacket
for Bible class back home, so I feel at home. And then you
get to see my cufflinks too. My wife bought me one of these
French shirts from JCPenney. And so, as you know, we have
a little bit of style up there. Open your Bibles to the book
of Jonah. A little book of Jonah, if you would. Oh, there's that clock. What
time did you say the alarm goes off? 1035? I forget what time
you said. 1035. Thank you. Alright. The
book of Jonah. Well, if God the Spirit would enable me, I'd like to talk to you a little
bit about the Lord's salvation. The Lord's salvation, the restoration
of sinners through the doing and the dying of the blessed
Savior. It is obvious in this scripture
that Jonah knows what none of the men on the ship knew. He
knew that salvation was of the Lord. I hope that we know that,
that salvation is of the Lord. From old eternity, He purposed
to save a people. He picked out a Savior, the only
suitable one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in the Lord
Jesus, He picked out a people, more numerous than the stars
of the sky, more than the sands on the seashore. And our Savior
became legally responsible to the Father for us. I'm glad He's
always been responsible for my salvation, aren't you? He's always
been responsible for my justification. Nothing, nothing depends upon
us. I like it that way. It gives
me great joy. It gives me great peace. Our
message to the sinner is not do, it's not keep the law. It's
not, stop this wrong living or lay aside these bad habits. Our
message is, sinner, it's done. It's finished. That's what the
Savior said. He died bearing our sins in His
own body on the tree as the substitute of His people and His satisfied
divine justice. God is satisfied. Oh, good news. God Almighty is satisfied with
His Son and with His Son's work of redemption. Salvations of
the Lord. That's what Jonah says. Salvations
of the Lord. And then we know that salvation
is not only of the Lord and He planned it. He also bought us
with His blood. The Savior bought us with His
blood. The price is paid. The law of God held us for ransom. And it had to be paid. The wages
of sin is death. Death. God's going to get death
if He's going to be satisfied. Our Savior came into this world
He lived that life that was in full agreement to the law of
God. Every law he obeyed, parental law, the law of the state, God's
law. I rejoiced in his perfect life,
but that didn't put my sins away. He had to die. He had to pay
the price. Salvation is of the Lord. He
did what he promised to do. back yonder before the world
was made. He did exactly the work that the Father commissioned
him to do. And it was done to the Father's
full satisfaction. Salvation is of the Lord. And
it's also of the Lord in His power. You know, no man can keep the
law of God, right? Do you know no man can believe
the gospel either? We don't have the ability to
even believe the gospel. It's as impossible for us to
believe the gospel. I'm talking about the natural
man now. It's as impossible for us to believe the gospel as it
is to keep God's law. Isn't that right? It's impossible.
Oh, behold the power of God in salvation. The Spirit of God
using the word of the gospel. Using the word of the gospel.
And we're begotten again unto a lively hope. You say, how do
you know if a man will be regenerated? Well, he repents of his dead
works, false religion, all that stuff. He says, like the Apostle
Paul, I counted but done. It's all lost. All that stuff
I had confidence in. I thought God was really impressing
me. The more I prayed, the more I
read the Scriptures, and the more I gave, I thought that counted
for something. It's good to read the scriptures.
It's good to call upon the name of the Lord. But that's not salvation. It's not by works of righteousness
which we've done. It never has been. And it is
not now. But by God's mercy, He saves
us. And we're given the gift of faith to believe the Lord
Jesus Christ. And to see, to realize everything
God required of me. The Savior has already produced
for the Father. And I'm accepted. Listen, you
who are the children of God, you who are believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ, we are accepted in the Beloved, always. God's
not mad at you. He never has been. He never will
be. His attitude toward you is love,
everlasting love. And the theme of the book of
Jonah is just this, salvations of the Lord. You know that in
Jonah chapter 2 and verse 9. Now let me tell you a little
bit about this story. You know how that this of course
is a prophecy. The prophecy of Jonah. And really
it's more of an autobiography of a brief section of his life. The Lord gave him a commission.
Verse 1, chapter 1, Jonah. The Word of the Lord came to
Jonah. I tell you, if somebody is going
to talk to me about the things of God, I want it to be the Word
of the Lord, don't you? There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. I want a man sent from God with
God's Word. Don't get up here and read to
me out of even a commentary, maybe somebody that we respect.
You get up here and talk to me out of the Word of God. Read
to me the Scriptures. That's the power of God unto
salvation. The Word of the Lord came to
Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, we don't know much about Jonah.
Don't know much about his family. Don't know anything about his
family. We don't need to know about Jonah. We don't need to
know about him. He's just a servant of the Lord.
We need to know his master. Right? We need to know his master.
Look, he says, arise, go to Nineveh. That great city. Now watch this. What's the message? Cry against
it. You listen to people in modern
religion today, their first thing they tell people is God loves
you and got wonderful plan for you. And Jesus has died for all
of your sins and that forgiveness will be yours if you'll do your
part in receiving. And the Spirit of God wants to
save you. He's been knocking at your door for years and years
and years and it would be mighty nice. He sure would appreciate
it if you'd open your heart's door and let Him in. That's not the message God gave
to Jonah. He said you go to Nineveh and you cry against it. against it? Why? Look at the last statement of
the second verse. Because of their wickedness. Their wickedness
has come up before me. Their wickedness. The gospel
that we love of redeeming grace of God's everlasting love for
His covenant people in Jesus Christ. This gospel, this good
news, this glad tidings message of redemption in, through, and
by Christ Jesus, of justification in the Lord Jesus Christ, of
righteousness established at the cross. It will only be good news to
those who've been disturbed by the Spirit of God concerning
their wickedness. Right? You see, the only ones
who are really going to want and need a Savior are those who
have been made to realize they need saving. Well, what do we
need saving from? Wickedness! Wickedness. Cry against her wickedness. Her
wickedness has risen up to me, God says. And God's a holy God. And this religious generation
that we're living in now, they don't know anything about the
holiness of God. The righteousness of God. The just requirements
of God. All they hear is, God is love,
God is love. God wants all good things for
you. He wants you to be healthy and wealthy and He'll give it
to you. He'll give you a mansion. He'll give you a five car garage.
He'll give you millions and millions of dollars if you'll just believe
Him. You'll be well if you'll just believe Him. They put everything
on man. They make God out to be man's
valet. Oh, how wise the words are that
are found in Job. Acquaint now thyself with God. Let's find out who God is, right? Let's find out who God is. This
God who made us. This God to whom we answer. This
God who is holy and just and righteous in all His ways. Whose
purity. This God who hates sin. who despises
iniquity, this God against whom we've rebelled. We stuck our
fists in the face of God Almighty and our federal head Adam. We
dared to defy Him. We turned our backs on God. We
said we'll be God's ourselves. We got our free will. Our free
will. Jonah, you go cry against Nineveh
and you tell them, their wickedness has come up before me. And something's
got to be done about that wickedness. God's not going to sweep it under
the rug. Somebody's going to have to answer
for our sins. And we keep on coming back to
the blessed Savior. who made full satisfaction. Well, you know the story. Instead
of going to Nineveh, setting forth the Word of God, Purim
struck. Jonah, verse 3, rose up to flee
unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to
Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare
thereof. You rebelled against God, you'll
pay the fare. You're going to pay for it. He
went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord. Now let me give you several things
here as time allows. Number one, what was the root
of Jonah's problem? The root of Jonah's problem.
God gave him an assignment. Very specific. But he wouldn't
go. You know what his problem was?
His problem was sin. Now Jonah, we know Jonah sets
forth a disobedient child of God and led us as God the Spirit
enables us to obey God's revealed will, to walk in His Word and
walk as He instructs us. But Jonah is also a type of a
lost sinner. A lost sinner. Rebelling against God. Going
his own way. You see, sin is the root of our
problem. And really sin isn't, it's not
so much what we do. Sin's what we are. Right? It's what we are. That's why
you can lay aside the bad habits and these sorts of things. And
if you got some bad habits, you know, you ought to lay them aside.
And start doing some better things. But our Savior made it abundantly
clear in Matthew chapter 15. It's not what you're taking into
your body that's defiling you. It's what's coming out. You're
defiled already. Here's the situation. We all
got a heart problem. We got a heart problem. It's
defiled. It's hard. It's dead toward God. Dead toward Jesus Christ. Sin
is our problem. Sin is the problem. It's the
whole problem in the world. We went down to Andersonville
yesterday, all those grave markers. Sin is the cause of all those
wars. Sin is the cause of death and sickness. All of these things,
sin's the problem. God gave to Adam a law and he
broke that law. And here's the thing, Adam didn't
act as a private individual. He is a representative man. We
all know, I'm sure, Romans chapter 5 sets forth two representative
men, Adam and Christ. Adam represented his seed, Christ
represented his seed. And what Adam did affected everybody
he represented. And what Christ Jesus has already
done affected everybody he represented. That's such a key chapter in
Romans chapter 5. But verse 12 says, For as by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And
so death passed upon all men, you and me and everybody else,
our children, our grandchildren, all sinned in Adam. Sin's the
problem. It's the root of the problem.
You remember what Adam and Eve did after they had sinned against
God? They sewed fig leaf aprons together
to try to hide their shame. That's man's natural self-righteousness. Every man is naturally self-righteous.
Listen, free will, free will religion is the natural religion
of all of Adam's fallen race. It is. We got ourselves into
this mess and we'll get ourselves out. Well, we sure enough got
ourselves into it. But we've done something we can't
get out of. Though many have tried, all have
failed. And the efforts to make yourself
righteous before God is like smoke in God's nose. He despises
it because you put your righteousness in competition with the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, God will put you in hell for that. That's
so. God will absolutely put you in
hell for that. Because you are vying for His
glory. You are a competitor for Christ's glory. God is not going
to allow it. Let me tell you something else.
Here's the second thing I want to show you real quick. In this
world, all things are of God. Look at verse 4. The Lord sent
out a great wind. The Lord sent out a great wind.
Now, in this book of Jonah, in verse 4, He sent out a great
wind. Look at verse 17. The Lord had prepared a great
fish. So the Lord sent out a great wind. Then he prepared a great
fish. By the way, that word prepared
is appointed or assigned. He appointed, he assigned a great
fish. Turn over to chapter 4 and verse
6. The Lord prepared a gourd to
give Jonah shelter, shade from the sun. Verse 7. Then God prepared a worm. That
worm gnawed on the gourd and the gourd withered and he lost
his shelter. And in verse 8, the Lord prepared a vehement
east wind. The sun beat down upon the head
of Jonah. Learn this, in this world, all
things are of God. That's a vital lesson to learn.
Everything that comes to pass in this world, is by the hand
of God comes to pass according to His sovereign will. There are no storms in this world
except those which God sends. And there may be, I mean, I don't
know, don't know you folks very well, just talk with you and
I love you, had the opportunity to meet you and appreciate you.
But there may be some people going through some storms in
here. It may be a strong east wind blowing your way. You might
even feel like you've been swallowed by a great fish. I've felt that
way sometimes in the storms of life, the trials of life, the
troubles of life. And of course you thank God for
those times when he puts a gourd over your head. There are some
refreshing times in this life, and to me and all the children
of God, it's like we're under a gourd now. When we meet together
to worship our Lord Jesus Christ, it's just like sitting under
a gourd, under the shade, under the refuge of Jesus Christ our
Lord. And then God sends sometimes
some worms, and those worms kind of gnaw away at the things around
us. And then maybe sometimes a strong
east wind. But remember, all things are
of God. Romans 11 says, For of him, and
through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever
and ever. You say, you sure that's true,
preacher? That God's behind everything, that everything's according to
the will of God? Well, let's see. What did Job say? When Job lost everything he had,
he said, naked came I into the world, naked I'm going to live.
The Lord gave, but he didn't say the devil took it away. Oh,
the Lord used the devil, but our God's the first cause of
all things. He said, the Lord gave and the Lord took it away.
Blessed, blessed be the name of the Lord. I'm going to worship
God. I'm going to worship God. Say, what's the worst thing that's
ever happened in the history of the world? Let's see if God's
behind that. It's the death of his son. Was God behind that? Absolutely. You know he was. In Acts chapter
4, "...for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles,
and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and counsel determined before to be done." It's all
done according to God's eternal purpose. That's the worst thing
that's ever happened in the world. Well, if He was in control of
that, He's in control of everything. He reigns. Our God reigns. That
ought to bring some peace to the hearts of God's people. In
the midst of storms, when those winds are blowing, and it can
get mighty uncomfortable for the flesh down here sometimes,
if we can remember the Lord sent that wind, the Lord sent that
storm, the Lord sent that great fish, that'll help us, that'll
help us. Let me give you this real quick.
Here's something else. Here's the third thing. In the time
of trouble, most people get religious. Look at verses four and five. Chapter one now, again. But the
Lord sent out a great wind under the sea, and there was a mighty
tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then
the mariners were afraid. They cried every man under his
little G, under his God, the God of his imagination. They
all had their different gods. Call on their God to get them
through the storm. They cried to their own God,
but the problem was their God didn't send the storm. Their
God didn't have a hand in the storm. Why, their God could only
do what they let Him do. Isaiah talks about them toting
their gods around. They'd set them in a place, you
know, David wrote about them over in the Psalms. He said,
all these people have their gods, and then they say, David, where's
your God? We got our gods, we got them all lined up down here,
and we shine them, and keep the dust off of them, and every once
in a while we'll bring them out, and we'll give them a bowl of
rice, set it before them. Of course, they don't eat it,
but we'll put a bowl of rice before them, put a little money
out there, you know, and then we put them back in the closet
for the next time we need a good luck charm. Where's your God? David said, our God's in the
heavens. He's done whatsoever He's pleased. He went on to say,
those other gods, they have hands, but they can't do anything. They
ain't got feet, can't go anywhere. Pitiful little gods. Their gods couldn't save them.
They called on them, but they couldn't save them. Our Lord says in Isaiah 45, look
unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends there, for I am God.
These others are pretenders to the throne. They're fakes, they're
phonies. I am God. That one who saves
us must be God Almighty. Must be God Almighty. Watch this, here's the fourth
thing. When men begin to be aware that they're in trouble, instead
of turning to the Lord Jesus, They tried to save themselves.
Let's continue reading here in verse 5. They were afraid and
called every man upon his God. Then they cast forth their wares.
Going to throw some wares overboard now. We're going to lighten the
ship. Lighten the ship. This picture
is salvation by the efforts of the flesh. Surely if I toss my
bad habits overboard, God will take notice. God said, that's
a good thing there. Look at that, look what he's
quit now. He's quit this and he's quit that. And now he's
taken as his rule, touch not, taste not, handle not. No, God's not impressed with
that. God's impressed with his son. God's only impressed with his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. you go ahead and start lighting
the load. Just self-righteous rags. Self-righteous
rags. And by the way, you know what
they did then? Even after Jonah identified himself as being the
problem, look at verse 13. And he told him, he said, if
you want the storm to be over, toss me overboard. Verse 13,
nevertheless they rowed hard to bring it to the land. That's
the natural man. I can get there. If I row hard, I'm going to be
more determined than ever to get the land by rowing myself. No, you can't make it that way. You can't make it that way. Jonah. knew what these mariners
didn't know. That's why he made this confession
in chapter 2. Verse 9, salvation is of the
Lord. It's of the Lord. You know our Savior, turn over
to the book of Matthew. Hold your place now. And I'll
be brief here, but look at Matthew chapter 12. Our Savior made mention
of this in Matthew chapter 12. He made mention of Jonah. In Matthew chapter 12, verse
38. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 38. Then certain of the scribes and
of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from
thee, Matthew 12, 39. But he answered and said unto
them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.
There shall no sign be given it but the sign of the prophet
Jonas, or Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of
Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall
condemn it, because they repented not at the preaching of Jonah.
And behold, a greater than Jonah is here." Now let me show you
Christ Jesus in this passage in Jonah, then I'll quit. I want you to look back, back
in Jonah chapter 1. Because this is the key to understanding
the whole book. Jonah is like all the rest of
the Bible. It's a book about Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And we know that. So we've got
to see the crucified Savior here. Jonah chapter 1. In verse, well for sake of time,
let me just read, look at verse 11. Then said they unto him,
everybody's afraid, because they figure they're going to all perish.
They figured everybody on the ship was going to perish. And then they said unto him,
What shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said unto me, Take me
up, cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto
you. We're on this ship. God put us in His ship of electing
grace before the world began. But the only way we're going
to be saved is for one to die in our stead. See, all these
guys, death is certain for them. Now these are mariners, and they
have encountered, you know they've encountered life's storms out
on the sea through the years. Oh, crusty rough sailors, you
know. Why, they never experienced a
storm like this. And they all figured they going
to die. And they all will die unless one dies in their stead. And Jonas said, cast me overboard.
He said, well, why didn't he just jump? Well, I think because
of the typology here, our Lord Jesus was led as a lamb to the
slaughter. They took Him. They led Him to
the cross. Of course, He went willingly.
But He had to die in order that we would live. And as soon as
our Lord Jesus entered into the sea of God's anger and God's
wrath, You know, I read that one of
our Lord's seven saying, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? I've tried to stop even being dramatic in saying it because
nobody can say it like he cried it. He went into the ocean of God's
wrath with the weight of our sins upon Him. and wrath dealt
with him. The sword of justice was drawn
and plunged into his heart. That perfect savior. That immaculate
savior. That one who had an impeccable
life. The very son of God. God drew
his sword of justice and plunged it in his heart. And as it were,
he went into the waves of vindictive justice. And now, the seas are
calm. Jonah said to those men, the
only way you're going to be saved is if I die. Bless the name of
our Savior. There's our satisfaction. There's
our salvation. There's our Redeemer. There's
our justification. There's everything right there
in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, preacher, did He
stay dead? Well, did Jonah stay in the belly
of the whale? Spit him out three days and three nights later.
Even so, we know Christ did the job because He was raised from
the dead. Because of our justification, right? Because of it, the work
is done. Salvation of the Lord, isn't
it? We'll rejoice in Him. Alright, thank you.