The words of that hymn are very
appropriate for Jonah today. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for that could not be. "'His heart would still refuse
thee had thou not chosen me. "'From the sin that stained me
has cleansed and set me free. "'Of old thou hast ordained me
that I should live to thee. "'Tis not that I did choose thee. So I have this message, almost
a recapping message from Jonah chapter one today. But I'm concentrating on a verse
that's in chapter two. A verse we love to quote again
and again and again. So if you look with me at chapter
two, verse nine. The last sentence, Jonah declares,
salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. That is the testimony not only
of Jonah, and not only of Holy Scripture, but also every saint
of God, every believing sinner. Salvation is of the Lord. And simply put, that means that
God must do all the saving, and he does do all the saving. There
is an article, I think in the Bulletin, by our friend Gabe
Stornica. I won't read all the references,
but let me just give you the text. Gabriel writes, everything
concerning a sinner's salvation is of God. Nothing is of us. We don't begin the work of salvation,
he does. We don't perform the work of
salvation, he does. We don't finish the work of salvation,
he does. We don't call on him, he calls
on us. We don't seek him, he seeks us. We don't find him, he finds us. We don't accept him, He accepts
us. We don't produce our own faith
to believe on him. He puts his own faith in us and
causes us to believe on him. We don't earn any perfection
of our own. He earned it for us. It's not that we loved him,
but that he loved us. We don't keep ourselves in his
love. He keeps us there. Salvation
is totally of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Now, as plain as that statement
actually is, there are those who would say that man plays
a part, that mankind has a part to play in their own salvation.
When I was growing up, I remember a family member used to say quite
often, no, God helps those who help themselves. The truth is
that God helps those who cannot help themselves. What did the
Lord say? What did the Lord say? They that
are whole need not a position, but they that are sick. They
that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And the amazing thing is that
everyone that has been made truly righteous, truly righteous, declared
to be righteous by God the Father, they never think of themselves
as righteous, ever. They know who makes them to differ.
Someone once said, all the unrighteous believe themselves righteous,
and all the righteous believe themselves unrighteous. Friends,
if there is ever a lesson for us to learn, it's that sinners
have no righteousness of themselves whatsoever. The righteousness
they need so desperately must be found in another. It must
be given to us. My hope is that the Lord will
cause us to see His salvation is an all-sufficient salvation,
a perfect, finished work of God performed upon chosen sinners. So what led Jonah to make this
grand declaration? Almost everyone knows the story,
don't they, of Jonah, the biblical story of the man who was swallowed
by the great fish. The events, of course, as we've
seen, are recorded in chapter one. And then being in the belly
of the fish, we see the suffering of the prophet and his prayer
for deliverance in chapter two. And as Jonah makes his declaration,
the Lord delivers him up onto dry land. The fish vomits him
onto dry land. Salvation is the law of the law. So there are many things to consider
in these chapters and in an effort to see again the events that
caused Jonah to make this great statement. We'll keep chapter two for another
time, Lord willing. But what an amazing record this
is. What an amazing record. The underliving world scoffs,
don't they? They scoff at the idea that there could have been
a literal man named Jonah and swallowed by a literal fish.
And yet the Lord Jesus himself, the Lord Jesus himself refers
to the life of Jonah and likens his life to his life. You recall
the Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 11, which we read some weeks
ago. The Lord was being pressed by
the religious leaders for a sign, a sign that would satisfy them,
that he was who he claimed to be. And they demanded that he
prove himself. They demanded that he prove himself,
even though the Lord had performed countless miracles by that time.
The lamb walked, the lepers were healed, And although he did these
things, these things were completely lost on those who were set against
him. But each of these miracles are
wonderful things for us to read, the accounts and the Gospels,
and they give us more understanding of the person and character of
our Lord Jesus Christ and of God, and the way in which he's
pleased to save people. I especially love the account
of the Lord seeing a funeral procession of the young man in
Luke chapter seven. There was a young widow, a widowed
woman, walking out in a procession, and her young son, her only son,
was dead. He died. And she was weeping. And the Lord saw it and had compassion
on her and he went over to the coffin and he touched the coffin. But before that he said, woman,
weep not. Weep not. Now that would be a
heartless thing for us to go over and say weep not. She had
plenty to weep about. She was a widowed woman and in
those times a widowed woman had a hard time with life in general. And it was her only son that
had died. But he went over and said, weep
not, and touched that coffin. And that young man, that young
man sat up and started talking immediately. Now the people knew
that that young man was dead. They knew that there was no trickery
involved. But the Lord Jesus had the power, didn't he? He
had the power and the will to go and wipe her tears away and
turn her grief into joy. And the miracle shocked people. It really shocked the town. But
still, even with that amazing miracle, the people still did
not believe. They did not believe. But that
serves as a picture. That miracle serves as a picture
of how People say that it is a picture of salvation. It is
a picture of how sinners, dead in trespasses and sins, are brought
to life. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
our mantra today. And here the Lord must come to
us, mustn't he? What ability did this young man
have? He had no ability. Could he lift a finger before
God? Could he think a thought towards God? It would be ridiculous,
wouldn't it, to suggest that this young man needed to do something
in order for God to do something for him. And yet still I hear
people say, God has done everything he can and now it's up to you. And so the Lord Jesus in Luke
chapter 11 is dealing with these constant calls for a sign but
he never gave them one. He never stooped to their evil
demands. And the Lord said in Luke chapter
11, this is an evil generation, they seek a sign. These people
did not believe the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning
himself. His person was not impressive
enough They were dissatisfied with him. They wanted proof that
he was who he said he was, but the evidence was there with him
all the way. And what was the Lord's reply? Well, he said,
there shall be no sign given him but the sign of Jonas, the
prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto
the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation. There would be a sign. There
would be a sign given. The greatest sign of all. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
being that sign. Typified in the life of Jonah,
where a life is given for the life of others. One life given
for many. But blinded by unbelief, these
religious men desire still to see something miraculous. but there was a far greater thing
to desire than any miracle. Paul said the Jews require the
sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ
and him crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block
and unto the Greeks foolishness. So the problem for these unbelieving
men is they could not conceive, when they looked upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, they couldn't conceive that this lowly man, this man
of humble circumstances who kept company with sinners, how could
he be who he said he was? He claimed to be God. They could
not believe. Show us a sign that would settle
it. Then they would believe, but the signs were not believed
for the most part. And it says that in John chapter
12, let me just read a few lines out of John chapter 12. He said,
though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him. Why was that? Why was that the
case? The next verse says, well, because
he had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they
should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart,
and be converted, and I should heal them. See, people are not
saved by signs and wonders and miracles, are they? They're saved
by the preaching of the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. That's God's ordained way. The Lord said, No shrine shall
be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. And those he spoke
to had no idea what he meant. No idea whatsoever. So let's
quickly look through some of these things and recap what we
saw in Jonah chapter 1. And as we read through this passage,
I'd like you to cast your eyes beyond Jonah the man. We are
looking for our great Jonah. We are looking for our great
Jonah. Every time we read this word, we are looking for the
Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord Jesus give us eyes
to see him clearly. And may we see along the way
how it is that Jonah said salvation is of the Lord. So verse 1, Now
the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for
their wickedness is come before me. Now Nineveh was very well
known, as I said once before, very well known for its wickedness.
It was an awful place. But as bad as it was, really
it's emblematic of all sin, all sin in this world, be it great
or small in the eyes of men. Sin receives one penalty, one
penalty. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. It doesn't matter whether you've
committed one sin, highly improbable, or a million, still highly improbable,
it's far more than that. That's the penalty, the soul
that sinneth, it shall die. Even if you could keep every
law in this book and stumble at one, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. That's the penalty, and that's
what every sinner deserves. So we really need to remember
that we are not innocent victims in this. The prophet Job declared
that man drinks iniquity, like drinking water. Imagine that. Believers mourn their condition,
they mourn their condition of sin before God. It is always,
as bad as it seems, it is always worse than that. It is always
worse than we can imagine. We really have no idea the extent
of our sins and how they offend a holy God. But there is a remedy
to be proclaimed, isn't there? There is a remedy. That's why
we're here today. We're preaching the gospel. That's the remedy,
a word from God, preaching the word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ
is that word. Here's the gospel of God. And
so God in his mercy sends Nineveh, the city of Nineveh, a preacher
named Jonah. What a great mercy that is if
you ever get to sit under a gospel preacher. Think of it as a wonderful
mercy. But Jonah rose up to flee into
Tarshish, verse three, from the presence of the Lord and went
down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid
the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them under
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. All he wanted to do
was flee from the presence of the Lord. Now that's a picture
as well. So it's a picture as well. When
sin came to the garden, Adam and Eve, we hid from the presence
of the Lord. Our sin caused us to flee away
from the presence of the Lord, but no one can hide from the
presence of the Lord. In verse 4 we read that the Lord
sent out a great wind into 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, and cried unto every man unto his God. and cast forth the wares that
were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah
was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was
fast asleep." Does that remind you of anybody? Jonah was in
the ship and lay fast asleep. You remember, we're looking at
the Lord Jesus, you might recall in Mark Chapter 4 when the Lord
and his disciples boarded a ship. and set out and a great storm
came and threatened to sink the ship. And where was the Lord
Jesus in all this commotion? He was fast asleep in the hind
part of the ship. And they came and woke him up
and they said, don't you care that we're going to perish? And
of course we know how the Lord rose up and rebuked the wind
and everything ceased. There was peace, there was peace.
And this scenario here is a parallel, isn't it? It's a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 6, the shipmaster came
to Jonah and said, I mean, what means thou asleep? Arise, call
upon thy God. If so be that God will think
upon us that we perish not. Jonah was fast asleep in the
ship, just as the Lord Jesus was fast in the ship. And the
sailors wanted to know why this calamity had come upon them.
And in verse nine we read, and he said unto them, I am the Hebrew,
and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the
sea and the dry land. Then the men were exceedingly
afraid, exceedingly afraid. The imaginary gods that they'd
worshiped had proved absolutely powerless. And that's what imaginary gods
do, they don't do anything. And they were given a fear. They
were given a fear of the true and living God. Janice says,
the very sea you're floating on and the land, the dry land
that you desire so much after, that was made by Him. In verse 11, 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
them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall
the sea be calm unto you. For I know that for my sake this
great tempest is upon you. Jonah was told that there was
only one way, one way of salvation. But nevertheless, you see, look
what the text says, nevertheless the men rode hard to bring it
to the land. But they could not. They could
not. And again, this is a picture,
isn't it? This is a picture of works-based
religion. Works-based religion always tries
to do that which it cannot do. They could not do the works that
were required. They couldn't do anything against
that storm. Contrary to the teachings of
this world, there is only one salvation. There is only one
way of salvation. There is no other way. There
is only one sacrifice for sin. There is no other sacrifice.
There is only one offering. One offering acceptable to God,
no other offering. God has made one provision for
sin. He is looking to that provision
alone, a substitute, who takes the place of others. And so the
mariners were caused to cry out to the true God, Now to our shame,
aren't we most on our knees when things are tough, when things
are bad? Verse 14, wherefore they cried
unto the Lord and said, we beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee,
let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us the
innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah and cast
him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. The
Lord Jesus Christ gave his life. Gave his life a ransom for many. There must be a sacrifice. There
must be a sacrifice. Why? Because the wages of sin
is death. God is a righteous judge. Abraham
said, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Indeed
he will. Indeed he will. God will pursue
sin wherever it is found. And God will punish them wherever
it is found. We need to remember this. Both the sins of believers
and the sins of unbelievers must be punished. Both of us sin. Both types of people sin. One will be judged in their own
body while the other has already been judged. Already been judged. Completely judged at Calvary.
Judged in the substitute. The gospel truth is that the
Lord Jesus bore all the sins of all God's people in his body. He put them away in his own body
on that tree. He absorbed the wrath of God
against those sins in his body. And where are his people in all
this? Where are his people? The scriptures use a wonderful
term. Just two words, in Christ. In Christ. God placed all his
people in Christ before the foundation of the world. We're speaking
of that blessed union that exists between Christ and the church,
such that everything the Lord Jesus did, we did too. The Lord Jesus endured that fire,
didn't he? That fiery wrath from God against
our sins, and having quenched that fire, that fire is put out
forever. It can't be rekindled. The children
of God are bought with a price. They're bought with the blood
of God. And that blood of God will get what it pays for. So
we are chosen in Him and redeemed in Him. God does a choosing,
doesn't He? This is what it means. This is
what this declaration of Jonah means, that salvation is of the
Lord. It means that He does a choosing.
And that's exactly how believers love it. So in a world of uncertainty,
we need to be reminded that our God is sovereign. He rules all
things all the time. God is the first cause of everything. And being in the beginning, when
you go back and read Genesis, in the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. He perfectly ordered and created
everything and arranged it perfectly. And our God, our sovereign, infinitely,
Mindful God never ever lost control of it ever since. Now it's no
trouble having done that. It is no trouble for God to arrange
all the circumstances of our life to bring us to himself. Our God is a predestinating God.
predestinating God. Romans 8 says, For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Some years ago
I was in another place and I spoke to a man who just preached through
a passage, and the passage contained the doctrine of predestination.
And he passed right over it. He didn't say anything about
it. And I asked him why, and he said, well, that subject is
far too controversial for our congregation to hear. Brethren,
we ought not shy away from these doctrines. These are Bible doctrines. We don't run away from scripture,
we run to it. We run to it. Turn with me, if
you will, to Ephesians chapter one, just for a moment. 1. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. 1. According as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will. Salvation is of the Lord, isn't
it? Who does the choosing? Well, verse 4, it says it plainly
there, doesn't it? He hath chosen us. And we don't
leave out those two words that follow, in Him, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, as we've already mentioned. He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. It seems to me that we have nothing
to do with His choosing of us. Verse five, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Brethren,
these things are precious things. These are precious words, these
are precious doctrines. I hope you love the fact that
God does the choosing, he does the calling, he does the predestinating,
and that God predestinates. One of our commentators, wrote these words in terms of
our predestination. He says, our predestinating God
determined who would save, how he would save them, when he would
save them, and where he would save them. He does all that,
and he arranged everything necessary to bring that about. predestination
marked the house into which grace would come, paved the road by
which grace would travel to that house, and set the time when
grace would enter, and guaranteed that grace actually would come
and enter in at the appointed time. What's the difference? What's
the difference between a believer and an unbeliever? What's the
difference between a saved person and an unsaved person? The difference
is the difference that God makes. That's one answer. For who maketh
thee to differ from another? 1 Corinthians 4 says, and what
hast thou that thou didst not receive? If you've received,
if you've received faith, if you've received grace, that's
been a gift, that's a gift of God, that's what we thank our
God for, and it's not of ourselves. Verse 17 of our chapter and I'll
conclude. Now the Lord had prepared a great
fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the
fish three days and three nights. The predestinating hand of our
God. The Lord had prepared it beforehand. Our God doesn't merely know the
end from the beginning, He orders it, he wills it, the end from
the beginning. His will is unchangeable because
he is unchangeable. His will is a reflection of his
character. The Lord had prepared a great
fish to swallow up Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of that
fish three days and three nights, a depiction of his death. And
of course, what does that remind you of? It's another great picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ, a picture of our Savior. The body of the
Lord Jesus was laid in that tomb, in a new tomb, which had been
prepared beforehand. And then he was to be raised
on the third day. You recall, perhaps in John chapter
two, that the Lord said to the Jews, destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up. And they said, 46 years was
this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three
days? But he spake, he spake of the temple of his body. They
didn't have an idea what he was talking about, no idea. And this
is the sign of Jonah, the work of redemption that the Father
gave the Son to do, the redemption that by necessity must be won
by blood. So the hands of those sailors
picked Jonah up and they cast him into the sea just as the
Lord Jesus Christ was cast from the sight of the Father when
the sins of God's elect were found on him. And the Lord Jesus
cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But we know,
don't we? We know that our Lord Jesus Christ
was delivered. He was delivered by the determinant
counsel of God and full knowledge of God. He was delivered by the
determinant counsel and full knowledge of God, our Lord Jesus
Christ. These things were purposed in
eternity, performed in time, but purposed in eternity. All
for his glory and the good of his people. I hope you love that
truth. I hope you love that truth. That
salvation is all of the Lord. 100% of the Lord. His choosing. He does the choosing.
He does the calling. He keeps us in faith. And He'll
keep us Persevering, persevering to the end. And he's placed this
work, this work of redemption, this work of substitution, into
the hands of his darling son, into his precious son, who cannot
fail. And if he's done it all, if he's
done it all, then we've got nothing to fear. May these words be a
blessing to us today.