Speaking for the help of the
Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to the prophet Jonah. Jonah chapter two, I'm reading
for our text just the last part of verse nine. Salvation is of the Lord. The whole verse reads, but I
will sacrifice unto thee With the voice of thanksgiving I will
pay that that I have bound. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah 2 and verse 9. This account of Jonah, the account
of him being three days three nights in the fisher's belly
or whale's belly, we read of our Lord, saying that this was
the only sign that was to be given to that generation in which
he was with on earth. As Jonah was assigned unto the
Ninevites, so should our Lord also be assigned to that generation. And we might ask, how was it
that Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites? In the first chapter
of Jonah we would have read of how the Lord commissioned him
to go and to preach to the Ninevites to warn them that in 40 days
that city should be destroyed. But Jonah, he flees, he doesn't
want to go. We are told in the fourth chapter
that this, he said, was my saying while I was yet in my own country. Therefore I fled before unto
Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, a merciful
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. the thoughts that God should
give the nation of Assyria, that was the sworn enemies of Israel,
repentance and blessing, but passed by Israel, he ran away. What a solemn thing. If the Lord's
servants think, well, I don't want that one to be blessed under
my ministry, and I don't want that one to be, we're to be his
servants and to leave the issue unto the Lord. and those of us
that are here as well, and not to think, well, why did the Lord
bless him and not me? And why does he bless this one
or that? God is sovereign who he blesses. Jonah knew if the
Lord sent warning, if he sent a preacher, there was the blessing
that was to follow. That's a good expectation too,
where he has set forth a preacher, a minister, that there will be
a blessing. The Lord sends his servants not
just on an errand that he will not promise to bless. He doesn't
send them forth for labour and say you'll have no fruit from
that labour at all. Again, may that be a real expectation. As you come under the sound of
the gospel, the word will be blessed, may be blessed in thee.
May my soul be blessed, may I hear for eternity. which only runs
away. The Lord meets him, the Lord
deals with him. And he, because of the winds
and the waves, he says to those mariners, cast me into the sea. And they cast him into the sea.
And we read that the sea ceased from her raging. And the men
feared the Lord exceedingly, offered a sacrifice unto the
Lord and made vows. And then we read of the Lord
preparing a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Jonah was in the belly
of the fish three days and three nights. And our text comes to
just before as Jonah has prayed unto the Lord, and knows that
salvation and deliverance is of the Lord. The Lord then speaks
unto the fish, vomiting out upon dry land. And then he's commissioned
again, and then he goes to the Ninevines. How was he assigned
to the Ninevines? By no doubt, those of the mariners,
he had told them what his mission was. He had told them where he
was going. and what he was to preach. They
would have said, they would have got word to those in Nineveh,
there was a preacher coming to you, there was one warning you
from God that your city would be destroyed in 40 days, but
instead of him coming, we threw him into the sea, he was destroyed,
he is dead, he will not appear to you, and suddenly Jonah appears. The one that they thought was
dead. One that they thought was not
going to come, He comes. That is the sign to the Ninevites,
and that is the sign with the Lord. They thought that they
had killed Him, done away with this deceiver. They crucified
Him, they buried Him, and they thought that that was the end
of Him, and tried to make every effort that that was so. But
then the Lord appears. He appears first to His dear
disciples, not to all the people. But He has said that greater
miracles shall ye do because I go to the Father. When our
Lord was on earth, He raised the dead, He healed the sick,
He worked those miracles. But He said greater will you
do, the apostles. Elijah was taken up into heaven,
and Elisha wanted a double portion of his spirit. He said, it was
a hard thing, but if thou seest me when thou hast parted, then
it shall be given. The disciples, as they saw the
Lord, they were communing with him, speaking with him, he was
parted from them into heaven. They saw it, the same thing. And then we find, like Elisha,
were quite twice as many miracles as Elijah, And we find the disciples,
they are raising the dead all in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They are working these miracles,
but more than that, they are preaching Christ crucified and
risen again. And that's why you find the Apostle
Paul, especially in Acts, more than one place, but Acts 17,
he is sending before them the true and living God, in that
he hath been raised from the dead as an evidence there will
be a day of judgment. Because really, only half the
judgment settled is done. The Lord has paid for his people's
sins, but what of the rest? And so the resurrection of the
dead is vital, vital for the Church of God, a great sign for
the Ninevites, and a sign that we're so blessed in the early
church. that thousands, 3,000 at Pentecost
were saved and brought to believe. And it was through this sign,
sign of Jonah. Well, Jonah, as he is in this
dark and low and dismal place, he is brought to cry unto the
Lord and comes to this point, salvation is of the Lord. And there might be those of you
here in a dark and dismal place, cast out from the Lord, banished. He says that Thou hast cast me
into the deep, Thine cast out of Thy sight, and yet there's
yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple. That hope, like
in the Psalms, hope Thou in God for I shall yet praise Him. An
impossible situation for man, impossible for Jonah, And we
need to remember this, until man is brought to the end of
himself, until he cannot deliver himself, until he cannot save
himself, he will never look to God, he'll never value a salvation
that is all of the Lord. He clings, as Paul points to
those of his countrymen in Romans 10, here they cling to their
own righteousness and to their own deeds and works. What good
would Jonah's works do here in the fisher's valley? How could
he help himself here? It was only the Lord that could
deliver him. And that is so with every one
of the people of God. Dear friends, do not despair
if the Lord brings you into a place where you find no deliverance
and no help. Because you come into the hemriter,
no help in self I find, and yet have sought it well. The native
treasure of my mind is sin and death and hell. To Christ for
help I fly. And there is the help, and there
is what Jonah was brought here to look for that salvation in
the Lord. Well, what is salvation? What is salvation? It's a deliverance
from, it's a deliverance to. It's a deliverance from the consequences
of sin and sin's just deserts and it's a deliverance unto heaven
and to glory. It's not just a deliverance from
hell, it's a deliverance to be with God forever and ever. We must be certain on this, it
is not a half salvation. The Lord doesn't do things by
heart. He doesn't just choose a people
in eternity. He comes and suffers for them.
He doesn't just suffer and bleed and die for them. But He calls
them and quickens them by grace. And not only does He do that,
but He calls that they persevere through life and at last they're
brought with Him in heaven above. That is salvation. Not to lose
any link, any part. in that. Nothing is entrusted
to man as if, well I've done my bit, says the Lord, but you
do your bit. Our text says salvation is of
the Lord. So, who is it of? Who is speaking here? The Lord
is in capitals. It is Jehovah. He's God the Father,
He's God the Son, He's God the Holy Spirit. All three. The Father himself loveth you.
All three were part in the raising of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father who raised His Son from the dead, the Spirit that quickeneth
the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ. I have power to lay down my life
and power to take it again. In Scripture, it is the whole
of the Trinity that are involved in the salvation of the people
of God. Thine they were, thou gavest
them me. The Father's people, thou gavest
them me. The Father sent the Son, the
Son obeyed, and the Son came. And the Holy Spirit is the author
of the Word of God and of the new birth. It is all of God. So when we have in our text,
salvation is of the Lord, we look at that complete saving. of a lost, ruined sinner in the
fall, with no help in themselves, as helpless as Jonah was, and
being delivered so that they are part of that innumerable
number in heaven, praising the Lord forever and ever when time
shall be no more. And it is this salvation which
is of the Lord. Time to look with the Lord's
help at three points. Firstly, the plan of salvation
is of the Lord. And then secondly, the making
salvation possible is of the Lord. And then lastly, the bringing
it about in the case of each individual sinner is of the Lord. Jonah chapter 2 verse 9, the
last part, salvation is of the Lord. Firstly then, the plan
of salvation is of the Lord. The Lord does have a plan. Any of us here in work situations
would never think of going about doing something at work with
no plan, without sitting down and thinking, what will I do
first? What comes next? What needs to
be done? Many of us, like myself when
I was in engineering, the literal plans, drawings, every nut and
bolt of a machine was all ordered, all designed. so that I could
go from the drawing board and I could go to the workshop and
see the finished article and it would be just as I planned
it. There it is made. And then go and see whether it's
installed and see it working. And this was the plan. And so it is with our God. When Paul writes to the Ephesians
and he writes to those that already are believers, but he'll have
them to know what was done in them and that this didn't just
happen in a moment, but it was a plan. He says in the first
chapter, verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery of
his will, according to his good pleasure which he had purposed
in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we
have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, his own plan, he is working out. We have in
one of our hymns, God moves in a mysterious way, his purposes to bring about,
and it is this plan that he is going to in all that he does. And we see through these scriptures
the very clear evidence that there is such a plan. When Adam and Eve fell, then
the Lord gave a promise, the seed of the woman that should
bruise the serpent's head. He wouldn't give a promise if
there wasn't a plan of it being carried out. And of course it
was going to be some 4,000 years later that that would come to
pass at Calvary. So all of the promises, they
have the stamp upon it, there is one who has made a plan, who
is ordering that plan, who is governing that plan. Another
indication is when things are foretold. Really, you might say
prophecies. We think of with Abraham, it
was told him that his seed should inhabit that land of Canaan.
They would be. A stranger in a strange land,
they would afflict them. That is in Egypt. And in the
fourth generation, they would come out again the iniquity of
the Amorites, those in Canaan, was not yet full. But when it
was full, then they would come out and they would dispossess
them and go into that land. And this is told at least 430
years before they actually came into that land. And every step
of it then was to be worked out. But the foretelling of it, every
prophecy, all the prophecies of our Lord Jesus Christ, You
think of Psalm 22, how it begins, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? A thousand years before Christ,
and we have his very utterances upon the cross, there in prophecy,
God has a plan. He tells what is going to happen.
When our Lord was crucified and rose again, it was said that
the scriptures might be fulfilled. that those things intimated in
God's plan were going to come to pass. Providence, that also
tells us of God's plan. You think of Joseph and going
into Egypt, and I've often said that, many of the Lord's people,
and it's right, that when we come into situations, we want
to know the Lord's will. What shall I do? Shall I do this
or shall I do not that? and we need to be guided and
directed what to do. With Joseph, there was hardly
a time, you might say, that he ever had to decide. It was taken
out of his hand by Providence. He obeyed his father and all
of the next steps were taken out of his hand. His brothers
took him, they cast him into the pit, they sold him, he was
sold to Potiphar and his wife, falsely accused, Then he goes
into prison, and from out of prison, he comes to Pharaoh. And every step was ordered by
the Lord. We read in Psalm 105, until his
time came, the word of the Lord tried him. But Joseph had had
those dreams, and even in the dreams, there is an intimation
God has a plan, and he's intimating to you, Joseph, you are part
of that plan. It's going to come in your life,
those things that will bring your brothers and your father
to bow down themselves to you. And these shall happen in the
timing of my plan. Many times things are not told.
Jacob wasn't told. Joseph didn't know the details
of it. But these things exercised him. He watched, no doubt, and prayed
that he was in the plan of the Lord. I wonder how many of you
here have this, that it is a comforting thing to feel that you are in
the plan of the Lord, that where you live, where you worship,
what you do for work, who you're married to, your children, all
things, that they are part of God's plan, and you're able to
see God's ordering and God's providence in it. At the end
of Psalm 107, throughout that psalm, we have those that go
down to the depths, just like Jonah here, right into the depths. There's none to help, they fall
down. They do like Jonah, they cry
unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saveth them out of their
distresses. And that happens not once, but
again and again. And then at the end, we have
this. Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they
shall understand the love and kindness of the Lord. This is
the Lord's plan. This is part of the Lord's plan
with His people. Job says in his afflictions that
many things are with him. Those things that Job was walking
through, they weren't individual to him. Many of the Lord's people
had known tribulation and trouble. and being brought down and brought
up again is this poem of God's plan. Part of that which our
Lord said, in me you shall have peace, in the world you shall
have tribulation. And it is the Lord's plan and
purpose that that should be so. Another way we can really tell
of God's plan is the types and shadows in the Old Testament.
We have the Passover, Nine signs in Egypt, they weren't delivered
from Egypt. But the Passover, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. Our Lord comes, He says with
desire, I desire to eat this last Passover with you before
I suffer. And then He introduces the Lord's
Supper, this too in remembrance of me. He is the Passover Lamb,
but there He had been shown forth in the types of the Passover
hundreds of years before he actually suffered. And in the types of
all of the sacrifices going right back to Cain and to Abel. Abel's sacrifice the Lord had
respect unto. Why? Because it was a blood sacrifice. So the types and the shadows
of the Old Testament all have the stamp on it God, the Lord
Jehovah, has a plan, and he has, from the beginning of time, been
working out that plan, part by part, each in its time, each
fitting into its place at the right time, and that shall result
at last in that glory in heaven. So, we have the working of the
Lord in this way, that even it is said in Isaiah, that it hath
not entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for
them that love Him. He is preparing. He is preparing
a people here below, but He's also preparing a place above. It is a perfect plan. May we
remember that. When we're engrossed in it, when
we're in affliction and in trial and in uncertainty, The Lord
knows what He is doing. He knows the next step. He is
in control. He is able to do exceeding far
above all that we can ask or think. One who has a plan that
no man, nothing, can put in, as it were, we might say, a spanner
in the works and cause it not to work and not to come about.
The Lord will order all things. Even when Satan thinks, I'm going
to destroy Job, even when Satan thinks that I'm going to destroy
the Lord, I'm going to tempt him in the wilderness where the
Lord was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to prove
he could resist Satan. But even in the crucifixion,
when wicked hands thought they destroyed them, that was used
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, he was
delivered up by God. I, he said, have power to lay
down my life and to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. The sovereignty of God is a great
truth that must be held solidly unto. And the fact that he has
a plan that none can change and none can alter, and that he uses
Satan, he uses men who think they are fighting against him
for his good. And we think of the case of David
numbering Israel, when on one account we read that the Lord
moved David to doing because Israel had sinned, Another account
we read that Satan stirred up David because he had to go against
Israel and to go against the Lord. When David was convinced
of what he'd done as a sin, he doesn't blame the Lord, he doesn't
blame Satan, he says, I have sinned. For you and I and what
we go through, we must walk according to the revealed will of God,
never fashioning our works, thinking This might be the Lord's plan.
It doesn't matter if it doesn't fit with the Word of God, or
if it is against the Word of God, it might be in the Lord's
plan. No. The secret things belong unto
God. The things that are revealed,
they belong unto us and our children. And so, we are not to pry into
this. We are to know it is to be a
comfort, that we are to walk according to the light of the
Word of God, obedient to His Word. and walk by faith, believing
that there is a God of which nothing can change His purpose
or His plan. And sometimes there are those,
no doubt there are those of us here, where we have made mistakes
and we've known it has been a mistake, and the Lord's overruled it,
and we've been thankful and blessed the Lord for it. Mistake on our
part, not on His, He's overruled it for good. So the first point
then, a plan, the plan of salvation is of the Lord. The second point is this, that
the making salvation possible is of the Lord. When our first parents sinned,
The sentence of God was enacted upon them, and the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. When that was enacted, man
was banished from God. Though he was given still much
wisdom to do many things, to know God and to approach unto
Him was taken from him. Paul says this to the Corinthians. It pleased God that through wisdom
man cannot find out God, but it has pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. But what is
to be preached? How can it be possible to say,
God is a just God, a holy God, He has enacted a sentence Can
He, with His almighty power, just come and say, well, this
group of people that I've chosen, I just decide I want them to
come to heaven with me. Doesn't matter about their sin.
Doesn't matter about justice. Doesn't matter about righteousness.
I'm going to use my almighty power to save them. That is not
our God. He's a holy, He's a just, He's
a righteous God. There had to be that done. that
makes salvation possible, possible even to God. We might think,
well, with God, all things are possible, the word declares it.
He cannot lie, he cannot deny himself, but he cannot save a
sinner outside of Christ. And say it reverently, there
must be the debt paid, there must be If it is to be a complete
righteousness, a complete salvation, a righteousness brought out to
give to them to hide their nakedness. The blood of Christ cleanseth
from all sin. Christ's righteousness makes
meat for heaven so that they can stand faultless before His
throne. And so in that it was vital that
the Lord Jesus Christ should come. And so in making that possible,
the steps that were involved in that, we read of the Lamb
of God slain from the foundation of the world, the Lord's plan
and purpose as well, that this should be so, was then to provide
a near kinsman, one that was born of a woman made under the
law and made like unto those whom he was to redeem. And the
law of God provided that one could redeem another. There could
be a substitute, one to pay the debt of another. And that provision,
salvation is of the Lord. Remember what Abraham said to
his son Isaac as they were walking up Mount Moriah? And Isaac, he
says, my father, we have the fire, we have the wood, but where
is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham's answer was, my
son, God will provide himself a lamb, pray burnt offering. Not God will provide a lamb,
that is true, but himself, he was to be the lamb. Emmanuel,
God with us, God manifest in the flesh, he would lay down
his life for us, but first he must be made man and dwell among
us. Our Lord said, Abraham saw my
day and he rejoiced at it. He saw what God was going to
do in the substitutionary offering of the ram that was caught in
his thickets, substituted instead of Isaac. And Isaac, as it were,
raised from the dead. We are told in Hebrews that in
effect, by faith he received him as risen from the dead. This then is to make salvation
possible, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. What an assurance
really to all men. God commendeth his love toward
us that in while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If we said of Jonah, the fact
that a preacher could be sent to a people indicates God favoured
if you saved them, how much more can we point that if God intends
to save, He sent His Son, His Son being sent, His Son coming,
living a perfect life to be able to give us a righteousness to
His people, dying the accursed death upon the tree, rising again,
Would He do that and there not be salvation? There not be a
people to save? Where the Lord says, I lay down
my life for the sheep. The making salvation possible
shows us there was a plan and shows us there will be those
that are saved. Our Lord was spoken of as the
firstfruits from the dead. Firstfruits do not remain alone. The Lord prays in John 17, Father
I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. And how they can be, the way
it is made possible is from his death on Calvary's tree, what
he has done for them. But there's other things as well
that make it possible, the gift of the Holy Spirit. If the Lord
had just died, put away his people's sin at Calvary and then said
to men, now it's up to you. You have got to hear what I have
done and you have got to accept this and believe it to If you
don't, you'll be lost. But men are dead in sins. They
haven't got hearing ears. They haven't got spiritual life.
So there's another thing. Made possible that there be salvation. The gift of the Holy Spirit.
Without which the disciples, the apostles, they weren't to
preach. They weren't to go out. No use without the Holy Spirit. So another gift. that are so
vitally necessary, so that salvation is of the Lord. Another aspect
is this, a prepared place in heaven. How could there be salvation
to save from hell and to save from our sins and save from condemnation,
but nowhere to go? The world is to be destroyed,
the wrath of God, but nowhere to go. But the Lord says, I go
to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am, there you may be also. Heaven is a prepared place
for a prepared people. And that is done so that there
may be salvation, that there may be not only deliverance from
hell, but a place with the Lord. to be with Him forever. And there's
another one that I'd mention as well. And that is bringing
you and I, bringing every one of the Lord's people into this
world. I know some like dear Joe, in
all his afflictions, he cursed the day that he was born. He
wished he'd never been born. But you know, unless we are born
into this world, We cannot have the second birth, and we cannot
be brought to heaven. Now those that would say, look
upon a babe and mourn of what they've been brought into this
world, yes, that is so. But the Lord who gives that first
birth, the time, the place, the family, all the circumstances
is all in His plan, and that is vital first. Where there is
life, there is hope. To be given conception, to be
given natural life first, is a preparation, is a vital thing
that the Lord must do, that salvation be possible. May that be real
encouragement to us. We are alive here. Maybe there
are those of you grown under a body of death. You feel your
sins. You feel what this world is, you may enter into one. Solomon
said, vanity of vanity, said the preacher, all is vanity.
But where the Lord has given life. And this really was the
only message of hope for those at Nineveh, wasn't it? The message
was the city would be destroyed. The Lord knew what he would do. What was giving them hope was
they were given 40 days. 40 days of life, 40 years in the
wilderness, 40 days the rain descended in Noah's day, 40 days
from when the Lord rose from the dead and when he ascended
up into heaven. 40 is a testing time, 40 is a
time in which there is hope, in which there is life, and where
we have life, no sinner must despair. Even the thief upon
the cross, there in the very hour of death, only one that
none might despair, one that none might presume. But there
is hope, and so if there is one here that feels so hopeless,
and perhaps passed by, no hope for you, the Lord hasn't cut
you off yet. He's given you life, and you
are in the day of grace, and you sit. under the Gospel and
under the Word of God, that salvation is of the Lord. That's true. We are like Jonah,
to look for Jonah when he realized the position was in. Then he
cried unto the Lord. Do you cry unto the Lord? Do
I? Do we pray? Remember Paul when
the Lord began to deal with him? Behold ye prayer. Life in the
soul will bring that soul to cry unto the only one that is
able to save unto the uttermost. Prayer is a weapon for the people.
Prayer is a weapon for the publican. God be merciful to me a sinner. Prayer unlocks that power of
the Lord. Prayer has been ordained as part
of the plan of the Lord. I will be inquired of by the
house of Israel to do it for them. Salvation is of the Lord. He gives life. I give unto them
eternal life. He gives everything necessary
to fully save their soul. And so I want you then look at
our last point. The plan of salvation is of the
Lord, in bringing it about in the case of each of His dear
people. If it were not so, then there
would be no certainty of that plan. So the bringing it about
in the case of each of His people is of the Lord. God saved Jonah,
that was of the Lord. God saved the Ninevites, He didn't
destroy them, that was of the Lord. And the Lord Jesus Christ
prayed the Father to send the Holy Spirit. And He speaks in
John 3 of those that are born again of the Spirit. Gives the
illustration of the wind. You hear the sound of it, but
you cannot tell where it's coming from or where it's going. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit, gently distilling No great fanfare noise. You think of this time of year,
I always love it, that the Easter time, remembering the resurrection,
is at the time of spring. And you have everything dead,
but then everything is coming to life. And all the new buds
on the trees. Can you hear it? You can't. Can you perceive it? Yes, over
a period of week, we look out our window at home, you see the
silver birch opposite, and it starts all round, and then slowly
it's getting a sheen of green, and more and more. But if you
sat there and you watched it hour by hour, or even day by
day, you'd probably not be able to discern a difference. But
given a distance of time, you see what's being done, with no
noise, no commotion, no trouble. That's God's work. And that's
what He does. Despise not the day of small
things. line upon line, here a little,
there a little. That's how the Lord works. He
plants in the seed and that seed begins to grow. First the blade,
then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. That's the Lord's
work. The Lord's time, it is in His
time. A set time to favour Zion, to
pass by His people and to bid them live and to quicken them
into life, this is the Spirit's work. It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
will give it life, the flesh, provident nothing. You have He
quickened, says Paul, to the Ephesians who were dead in trespasses
and sins. By grace, yes, through faith
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. This comes
from God's plan. of salvation. But the Lord uses
means, and the means are the preaching of the gospel, the
word of the Lord, and He can use anything as means. The ordinary
means is through the preaching, but He may use many different
things to use the first quicken into a concern for the soul,
a desire for the things of God, to change the heart, renew the
will, to turn the feet to Zion's hill. The blessing of life is
to be given a hearing ear. All the blessings of God for
his people come through the word. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. In all the parables of
the Lord, he finishes them with, he that hath an ear, Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto
the churches is what he finishes the letters in Isaiah with his
parables. He that hath an ear, let him
hear. But it's the same word. There needs to be a spiritual
ear. In all the days of my unregeneracy,
brought up under the sound of the truth, even though I sat
in chapel, I never heard the word, sometimes not even literally,
because my mind was miles away planning out the next week's
activities. I didn't even bother to listen
to anything in the house of God. But even if I had, I wouldn't
have understood it. But as soon as the Lord gives
life, and gives the hearing ear, then you start to understand.
It's the Lord that gives that understanding. The Lord said
to the disciples, why is it? How is it that you speak in parables? To you it is given, to them it
is not given. That's the great difference.
My sheep, they hear my voice. They follow me. And the Lord
then is using means. May we be really mindful of that
as we come into the house of God. We say, I'm a poor sinner. I am feeling the dead sinner,
I'm feeling in such a low helpless place, but I come to the means
of grace, not designed by man, not appointed by man, but chosen
by God, and the servant sent by God, and the word that I preach
is the inspired, infallible word of God, and we come with the
expectation that as that word is preached, then the Holy Spirit
will bless it. will apply unto the heart, and
that it will bring forth life. My word shall not return unto
me void, it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it. The Lord gave the word, great
was the company of them that published it. Another means,
or what the Lord does for his people, is to give them faith. He is the author and finisher
of faith. By grace ye are saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. And it
is that faith then that is joined with the word. It's really a
circular thing, isn't it? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. But without faith it is impossible
to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And
he readeth those that were did not profit them, being not mixed
with faith in them that heard it. The Lord must give that faith. That is what He gives to His
people, to ensure that salvation, ensure they are saved. It doesn't
come from themselves. Salvation is of the Lord, every
part of that. He gives also repentance. The
Lord Jesus Christ is exalted. to give repentance and remission
of sins. It is vital that you and I repent,
that is, turn. We've all gone our own way. Well,
if we continue going our own way, we're going to perish, we'll
be destroyed. It is absolutely vital that we
are turned from our idols, from ourselves, and to the true and
living God, and brought to trust and lean on Him. And that gift
is given by the Lord. to His people. He gives repentance,
He gives sorrow for sin, He gives that turning, He works it in
the hearts of His people. That which is vital to take place,
He ensures it will take place, for He gives that repentance.
You should never think, well this is something I am doing,
I know it's wrong in the Word of God, but until the Lord gives
me repentance I'm not going to stop doing it. If you have that
attitude, you're in most solemn place. If the Lord has given
you an eye to see and know what is wrong, then we have to use
every effort to turn away from it, and in trying to turn away
from it, we'll prove our own natural weakness and inability
and cry to the Lord, Lord, give me repentance. Turn me and I
shall be turned. And there's a looking to the
Lord for salvation. God's people don't only learn
that they have an inability, they feel it, and they know it,
and they know that salvation must be of the Lord, or otherwise
their soul would not be saved, that they would still go on,
and they would still continue. Why was I made to hear thy voice
and enter while this room, while millions make a wretched choice
rather starve than come. And it is that sweet love of
God and grace of God, and that is another gift, the grace of
God. And you know the grace of God
and the faith of God, they're all used in the perseverance
of the people of God. They that are kept by the power
of God through faith and through salvation, says Peter. And the
Lord uses every time we come, under the sound of the truth,
we're hearing the We're having reproofs, we're being guided,
and faith uses that word. And that's how the Lord teaches
people from sin, from evil. How many times perhaps we've
been intent on doing something, and we've come into the house
of God, and after the service we say, no, I can't do that.
The Lord has stopped us, or perhaps he's dropped part of his word
into our hearts, and forbid us from doing what we wanted to
do. That is what the salvation of the Lord does. He gives us
faith, the Spirit brings the Word to remembrance, faith trusts
the Word, says, I'm not going to my feelings and my thoughts,
I'm going to obey the Word of God. And so did not I because
of the fear of the Lord. And so the bringing it about,
the quickening into divine life, the keeping in the way, the growth
in grace, The giving of assurance, the persevering right to the
end and bringing it last to heaven is all of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. Trembling soul, who fears that
Satan will get the mastery over you, or fears that your own wicked
heart will overcome you, remember this, salvation is of the Lord. While there is our God upon the
throne, His people cannot be lost. The Lord says in John 10
that none shall pluck them out of my hand. My Father that gave
them me is greater than I and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. This word is a precious word
of which Jonah went through very literally deep waters, great
trials to be able to come out of it in the end and declare
Salvation is of the Lord. And I hope that those of us here
can also say, Salvation is of the Lord.