Thank you Levi. I'm grateful
to be here too. Turn back to Jonah. Hold it there. Jonah. And chapter two. I appreciate Levi reading chapter
one. This is not a story we're unfamiliar
with. I remember as a little boy going
to a movie theater and they always had a cartoon between the double
feature. And Disney had made this cartoon
of a take-off of Jonah and the Whale where Pinocchio played
Jonah and Jiminy Cricket was with him. And it was so ridiculous.
And yet we were entertained. But we need to realize this is
not a make-believe thing. This actually happened. This
is recorded in God's Word. and is real. And by God's grace,
we can learn something from this about what happened. Look at
Jonah 2 and verse 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord
his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of
mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly
of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hast cast
me into the deep and the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed
me about. All thy billows and thy waves
passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters
compassed me about, even to the soul. The depth closed me round
about. The weeds were wrapped about
my head. I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever,
yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my
prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple. They that
observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice
unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that I have vowed. is of the Lord." When Jonah realized
the truth of these five words, salvation is of the Lord, is
when it turned. Jonah, we do realize, was dead
in the belly of that fish. When those bars about him he's
talking about are the ribs of that great fish that closed around
him. Seaweed was wrapped around his
head. The fish had gone to the bottom of the sea. Jonah was
dead. And yet, the Spirit of God caused
him to cry out and reveal what it is the Lord revealed to him
through this whole process. And I'm going to go just word
by word and do my best as I can, as simply as possible, for us
to try to understand what Jonah understood here or came to see.
Jonah's condition is the same as all of us is by nature. We
are dead in trespasses and sin. Unless God comes to us as he
came to Jonah on the bottom of the sea, unless he comes for
us and does for us what he did for Jonah, we will perish in
our sins. So what did God do for Jonah?
The first thing he did is he showed him salvation. Now, the
word salvation means simply to be saved, to be saved. But I've got an illustration
to try to make that clear for us. In order to be saved, that
implies and means specifically a person's got to be saved from
something. OK, now, what is it that you and I need to be saved
from? Because we not only need to be
saved from something, we need to be saved to something, and
we need to be saved by someone. You know, a person who's gotten
in water over their head and is floundering, can't swim, they
need to be saved from that water. And they need to be saved to
the shore. Well, who do they want for that? They want a lifeguard,
right? I've seen people on the beach
actually get taken out with a current And they're in trouble. And fortunately
it was one of these guys up on a big white stand and he leaps
down and runs out there and gets them back. They're saved from
the water to the shore by a lifeguard. Now, if you get caught in a burning
building, you need to be saved from the fire, right? To the
outside. Well, who do you want? You don't
need a lifeguard. You want that fireman to show up, don't you?
If we get desperately ill, We need to be saved from the disease,
restored to good health. Who do you want for that? You
want a physician, right? You want a doctor who knows the
case. Well, what's our case? What is it you and I need to
be saved from and to and by whom? We need to be saved, in one word,
from our sin. Sin is where our problem is. And the Scripture says, As by
one man sin entered into the world, that's when it came to
us, when it entered into the world. In Adam, in the Garden
of Eden, as our father, he represented us. And when he sinned, when
he partook of the fruit from which he was forbidden, he became
a sinner. And he and all his children are
sinners. As the descendants of Adam, we're
sinners. It's what we are. It's not something
we get once we're in this world. We're born with it. Y'all are
about to find out, these babies. How much time did you spend teaching
them to say, no? You don't have to do that, do
you? They're born knowing how to do that. What's wrong with
them? I'm sorry they're born in sin. It's what we are, disobedient
by nature. As by one man's disobedience,
all were made sinners. So we need to be saved from sin. But what is it we need to be
saved to? In one word, it's righteousness. Romans 5.19 says, By the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. And by the righteousness of one,
the free gift came upon all men unto the justification of life.
And the one who accomplishes the saving from sin to righteousness
is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why He's called the Savior.
He saves us from our sin to His righteousness. Now, how does
He do that? That's the question. How does
He do that? Well, folks are confused about why the Lord Jesus Christ
came to this earth. Lots of religious folks don't
understand. He came here and lived as a man for 33 years.
What was he doing here? Was he showing us how to be nice?
No, what he came here to do, listen to this. He came here
to do everything you and I are supposed to do if we expect to
be accepted in God's presence. He came here For this purpose, all that a
perfect man should be is what he did. Does that make sense
to you? Everything God could expect or
ask of a man or woman, Christ did. That's what he was doing
here for 33 years. He then went to Calvary to put
away the sin from which his people need to be saved. And as such,
that makes him the two-fold substitute Now, that's a word we need to
be familiar with. We know if we play sports at
all, we know that the guy is playing second base and the manager
comes out and says, OK, take him out and put him in. A substitute
goes in and plays the rest of the game for that person. Well,
folks, if our problem is we need to be saved from sin to righteousness,
I can't do either one. I better have a substitute who
can get it done. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ here came to do as a two-fold substitute. Through His substitutionary
life, we get the righteousness we need to be saved. And through
the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, He gets the sin
I need to be saved from. And that makes Him the only Savior
of God's people. And all of that is according
to God's perfect justice, which has to be satisfied. We just
can't take the sin we have and raise up the rug and sweep it
under there and think that's good enough. God sees through
the rug. Do we understand? It doesn't
matter what we do outwardly, God sees what's going on in here.
How often in our life does somebody ask us a question and we give
them the answer they want when inside we're totally... Out on the outside we're doing
this and on the inside we're going... God sees that. God's holy law, it must be honored. It can't be. outward appearance. It's got to actually be done.
And the Lord Jesus Christ was at Calvary saving us, His people,
from our sin to His righteousness by His own blood. Romans 1.16
says, The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. So that's what salvation is,
being saved from sin to righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. So
Jonah learned that. The next thing Jonah learned
was salvation is. Is? That's a little bitty word.
What's with that? Turn to Hebrews 11, and let's
see if I can't show you something about the word is. We ought to learn not to look over little words in the
Scripture. Let me give you an example of
that. The little word, am? It's just two letters, isn't
it? Am. Is that a word to just be
overlooked? I don't think so. Moses on the
mountain said, who should I tell him sent me? What did God tell
him? Tell him, I am. I am sent you. We need to find
out. He's not, he's, I, the great
I am. It's who God is. So the little
word, is, let's not ignore that. Look at Hebrews 11, verse 6. It says, without faith it is
impossible to please Him, please God. For he that cometh to God
must believe that He is, that He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. It says right here, we need to
learn that He is. Now, let me expound on that.
If I say to you, if I say, Joe, I'm a world-class weightlifter. When you get through Chucklin,
Joe says, I don't think he is. He is not that. He may be a lot
of things, but he is not that. So, you know, when God says,
I am, Our answer better be, He is. When He says what He is in
this word, as an example, when God says, I am Almighty God. Do you know what believers learn
to say? He is Almighty God. In His word, He says, I am holy. Do you know what believers say?
He is holy. He is holy. When He says, I am
your shield, we best say, He is my protector. The Word says,
Know that I am the Lord thy God. We say, He is. When He says,
I am thine inheritance, we say, He's all I need. He is. When
He says, I am the way, we say, He is the way. When He says,
I am all and in all, He is. He is. He is all. Is establishes
both the fact and the reality of salvation. as He is, so salvation
is. You know, salvation, people think,
is some ethereal concept. I mean, religion talks about
being saved without attaching it to the person. It's not just
salvation. Jesus Christ is salvation. I can't lay hold on salvation,
but I can lay hold on Christ. The Scripture tells me I can.
And you're not with these hands, but with this heart. The heart
lays hold on Christ. If we see Him as who He is, what
He's done, why He did it and where He is now, we lay hold
on that. And that's what this means. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's a present, actual condition
and place and person. Salvation is now. Right now. Salvation was planned in the
Council Hall of Eternity. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. They planned all this. We understand
that. It was done back there. According
as He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
But also, salvation was accomplished at Calvary when the Lord said,
what did He say? What's going to be finished No,
he said, it is finished. It is done. Salvation was assured
by the resurrection. Scripture says he must rise from
the dead. Salvation was and always will
be secured by Christ sitting at the right hand of God the
Father. Nothing happens without His approval and His oversight. It's in His hands. Salvation
will be revealed fully some day. Do we understand? Listen to this
scripture. All flesh shall see the salvation of God. That means,
you know what we need? We need to see it now. We do
understand everybody some day is going to come into God's presence
and go. You're going to find the same thing Jonah did. Salvation
is of the Lord. It is. But it's going to be too
late. Do we understand that? We need to see right now that
salvation is of the Lord. To you and me, salvation is right
now. Now is the accepted time. Now
is the day of salvation. That's what it says in 2 Corinthians
6. If we want to be saved, today's the day. Where's yesterday? You young people aren't too young
to realize whatever you did yesterday, well, it's done, isn't it? It's
gone. Yesterday's done. You can't get it back. You make
a mistake back there, you can't get it back. Well, the problem
is we've been making mistakes our entire life. And we need
to be saved from them. And salvation is of the Lord. It's a present thing we need.
Today, now. He said to the thief, today thou
shalt be with me in paradise. The redeemed have been saved
in the mind and purpose of God. The redeemed will be saved when
Christ returns. But the redeemed right now are
being saved because salvation is. It is. It's a very present
condition for those of us in Christ. You say, man, are you
going to spend that much time on these other three words? I
won't, I promise. But let's not overlook these
little words. They're important. They mean
something. Everything in here means something to God's people.
Or God wouldn't have put it here. But salvation is of. I'm not an English teacher, but
I do know this. Of is a preposition. And you
know what a preposition is? It's part of a prepositional
phrase. And the prepositional phrase here is of the Lord. Every
preposition has an object. Did you learn that in school
somewhere? Every preposition has an object. Well, it may not
have meant anything at any time in this life to you, but it means
something now. The object of salvation is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And notice it's not a compound
preposition. Did you have that in school?
When it says, he ate a dinner of rice and potatoes, that's
a compound preposition. Rice and potatoes. I'll tell
you, there's no compound preposition in of the Lord. He's the sole
object of it. It's not, therefore, well, if
you'll take the first step, he'll do the rest. That's a compound
salvation. Do we see that? It's not, you're
saved by the Lord and the best you can do. That's a compound
preposition. You know, it's not the Lord and
your good works. It's not you take the first step
and He'll do the rest. The sole object of salvation
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And also, did you learn that
a preposition can be a person, a place, or a thing? It's not
a place. Salvation is not in the Holy
Land. Salvation is not in a certain church. It's not in a pool. It's not down front. It's not
any of those places. Salvation is in a person, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, salvation is not a thing
or things. It's not in the wafer and the
wine. It's not in certain doctrines. It's not in certain traditions.
It's not in any of those things. It's in a person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. See, that didn't take so long.
Salvation is of, and then the, the, the Lord. It's important
here to notice that it does not say salvation is of a Lord, or
some Lord, but it's the Lord. The means one, just one. He's the only Lord. Christ the Lord is the only Savior
and there is none other. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 11. The is a scriptural term. Let me give you a few examples.
Our Lord said, I am... What did He say? Did He say,
I am a way? I am some way? No, he said, I
am the way. That means one. He is the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. He is the Great High
Priest. He is the Holy One of Israel.
He is the Lord of Lords. He is the One Mediator between
God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus. He is the King of Kings. And salvation is of the Lord. If you've got 2 Corinthians 11,
look at verse 3. But I fear less by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. Do you know
what simplicity means? If you look it up, it means one. If I give you five choices, that's
tough. But if I say the only choice is Christ, that's pretty
simple, isn't it? And that's salvation is of the
Lord, the one and only Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation magnifies the attributes
of our Lord and shows that no one else could have planned or
brought to pass this great salvation. And therefore, the reason for
that is really very simple. If Christ did everything, if
Christ is everything, then Christ gets all the glory. If I just
put my pinky on it, that's not all of the law. Then I've got
a part in it. And the whole reason man by nature
runs after that is that we want glory. I mean, what are the Olympics
about? What's our braggadocious attitude? We crave that glory. We want
some of the credit by nature. And that's what religion runs
to. But the simple truth is Christ
will have all the glory in the saving of His people. And it
doesn't matter what attribute of God you look at, whether it's
wisdom. No one but the Lord could have
devised so wise a plan of salvation. Men in his day didn't see the
wisdom in God's salvation. You know the evidence of that?
They crucified Him. Because He told them the truth
about who He was and what He did and why He did it. He told
them the truth about salvation, so they crucified Him for it.
And men in our day don't see the wisdom in it. It's foolishness
to them. Y'all prepare for that. You do
realize that the more you do this, the more you insist on
the truth of this Word, the more foolish and ignorant people are
going to think you are. And yet, all the wisdom of God
is in Christ in the salvation of His people. This whole thing. God created this world. God brought
man into it for the purpose of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. What about mercy? Scripture says,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy we're saved. We better be glad that salvation
is not dependent on the mercy of man in any way. Let me illustrate
that for you. I went out one morning in the
summer and took the lid off the trash can. Ever had this happen? These little white wiggly things
are everywhere. Everywhere. And when the lid
comes off, oh, they spill out on the driveway, they're all
down the side of the can, they're everywhere. Now, I'm sure you
do what I do. I go and get a little cup and
I start picking them up and I put them in that and I take them
inside and I, you know, spread out some food on the kitchen
table and I dump them out there and say, now you guys eat it
up, have a good time. Is that what you do when you
find maggots? I mean, you know they're just
poor little wiggly maggots, and we need to have mercy on them.
No. You know what I did? First thing
you do is you start stomping on the ones that are right there,
you start knocking them away, you go get the bug spray and
come out and spray everything, kill every one of them you can,
can't you? That's the mercy of man. Now you know what you and I are? We're the little wiggly maggots.
All we do is feed on death. We love it so. Rotten flesh. We better be glad salvation is
not dependent on the mercy of man, but on the mercy of God. He who was holy and perfect,
undefiled, came here and became a man, and then the maggots,
he traded places with us. That's what substitution means.
God said, I'll become a maggot, that these maggots might become
the sons of God. And that's what substitution
is, and that's what this is all about. Who would have the wisdom
to determine such a thing? And who would have the mercy
to actually do it. It's one thing to talk about
taking one of your boys out here and trading places, say, I'm
going to put one of these boys in the penitentiary out here
on death row for the man there who murdered all these people.
And you let him go and kill my boys. You don't have any part
of that, are you? I'm not either. I'm not sending my boys to do
that. Why? I don't have the mercy and the
heart for it. I don't have the desire. I don't love that man
that much. God so loved the world of His
people, He gave His Son to die in their place. Now, folks, that's
mercy. That's mercy. That's the mercy of God. And
it doesn't matter who's holy and righteous enough. Remember,
it requires perfection. Who's immortal enough? Only an
infinite, immortal being could endure the infinite wrath of
an infinite God for a finite people. That's a lot of words,
but did you get that? Our Lord did at Calvary just
that thing. Who else would have or could
have done that? Let me give you one more. Turn
a few pages to Ephesians 1. And I'll ask who had the power
Who has the power to raise himself from the dead and to raise us
from the dead also? Only Christ who is God. You see
here in Ephesians 1 verse 19, And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe, according to the working of his
mighty power, which he wrought in Christ? when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly
places." Now, you all ever been to the funeral home? Seen somebody
laying there in the coffin? What are they? They're dead.
They're dead. It does not matter. When my father
died, I had a brother who ran up there and threw himself on
the casket. and wept and screamed and cried. He wanted our dad back. I'm telling
you. He couldn't raise him from the
dead. He didn't have the power. He
didn't have the ability. It was nothing he could do. Listen, when you and I go into
that coffin, and we will, we do understand. I know you young
folks, you think, I'm going to live forever. I remember thinking
on that diving board at 16, it didn't matter whether I broke
my back going off that thing doing a double flip or not, I
was going to live forever. Well, I'm wrong. I now see, I
mean, that coffin for me is just right over the horizon. It may
be on the way home. It's coming. It's real. I am
two years past, almost three past, two score and ten. That's
all the Word promises. Death's coming. So what then? What then? Well, I'll tell you
what we're not going to do. We're not going to raise ourselves
from the grave. We're not going to have to. God's
got to do that. And He's going to raise us one
of two ways. He's going to raise us with our
sin or with Christ's righteousness, one or the other. Is that clear? Is that plain? Which will it
be? Well, death is of me. Salvation is of the Lord. I can
go this route all by myself, not caring about God's Word,
God's people, the preaching of the Gospel, caring about nothing
but myself. That's my natural way. But God
in His wisdom and mercy and grace has provided salvation in His
Son. And He's chosen a people and
put them in His Son. Now that's the gospel. As simple
as I know how to present it. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
one who wants to save you and can't. It's not He'll save you
if you let Him. It's not He'll save us when we're
ready. It's not He'll save us if we'll
let Him into our heart. It's not you and I will do anything. The question is if the Lord will
do something for us. I tell you, He'll save us if
He's pleased to, or He'll pass us by. Salvation is in His hand. This is what Jonah learned. God
told Jonah, you go down there and preach the Gospel to these
people. And he said, I'm not doing it. He said, I'm not going
to Nineveh. I'm going to Tarshish. And the
Lord put him in the belly of that fish so he'd learn this
lesson. Do we have to go into the belly
to learn this? Or can we learn it by reading
God's Word and the Spirit of God coming to us and teaching
us? That's where I think most of
you are now. You've learned it's not what
you do. You spent your religious lives in something saying, you
can get out of the belly of that fish. You've just got to dress
right. You've got to do this. You've
got to do that. You've got to do the other. It won't happen. It won't happen.
Jonah could not get out of the belly of that fish by himself.
But when he finally got to the place where he realized, I'm
dead in trespasses and sin. I need to be saved from that
sin. I need to be saved from the belly of that fish. I need
to be on the shore. And I can't get there. And he
cried. He said, Lord, have mercy on
me. And what happened then? Go back to Jonah. Go back to
Jonah. And do we see in verse 9, it
says, he said, I'll sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. He said, I'll admit who and what
I am, and Lord, I'll cry unto you to help me. I'll pay that
that I have vowed. He said, salvation of the Lord.
And as soon as that came out of his heart, look what happened. Verse 10, And the Lord spake
unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah, upon the dry land. Now, I had a child one time. I taught Sunday school to kids
for 30 years. I had a child one time go, oh,
yuck! He got vomited? Vomit? Vomit? Yeah, and you know what? He was happy to be in the vomit. This world is, I'm sorry, it
stinks of vomit and so does our sin. And that's who and what
we are. But I tell you what, the Lord
cleaned up Jonah okay. He washed him off and set him
on his feet. Jonah probably walked down the
shore and rinsed off. And he stopped going. The Lord said, Jonah, you go
down to Tarshish and preach the gospel. Everybody got it backwards?
Anyway. And Jonah said, uh-uh, I'm going
this way. God said, no you're not. And
He put him in the belly of the fish. And that's us. We're going
the wrong way. We are not headed to the Lord
Jesus Christ by nature. We're not. We're headed the wrong
way. God has to come and arrest us
and show us who He is and who we are and what salvation is. And when Jonah got vomited out,
he washed off, I'm sure, not because he thought he was going
to be clean enough to come into God's presence, by the way, but
he didn't want to go preach the gospel stinking like that. He
turned around and he went where God told him. And that's all
in Christ are one day going to be where God would have them
be. And that's in His Son, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is of the Lord. That's what Jonah learned. And
I hope that will bless you this morning. I guess we'll take a
break now.