Now my text this evening is the
same as my text this past Wednesday, Jonah chapter 2. Jonah chapter 2. And I've been reading this passage
for several weeks now and I hope you've been reading it too as
we go through the book of Jonah. But this is a passage that summarizes,
I believe, in three ways the whole experience of grace, salvation
by grace, that's stated in the phrase in verse 9 that says,
salvation is of the Lord. Now, salvation means salvation
from sin, from death, from hell, and from judgment. And that salvation
is of the Lord. It's not of man. It's not conditioned
on man. It's conditioned on Christ and
Him alone. The word Lord there, the name
Lord, that title is Jehovah. Jehovah, the Lord our Savior. The God who saves by grace. The
God who justifies the ungodly. and salvation, and everything
that's included in salvation is of the Lord. So I've entitled
this message tonight, again, Salvation is of the Lord. This
is part two. And in studying this passage,
we're looking at Jonah in three ways, three ways that we can
see and learn from what God the Holy Spirit has for us in this
passage to teach us that salvation of the Lord is of the Lord. It
really means something. You know, a lot of people say
that. You ask the average person on the street who claims to be
a Christian, is salvation of the Lord? They'll say yes, but
it doesn't mean anything really. There's no substance to it. And
so what is it about this passage? of Jonah in the belly of the
whale, that gives substance to that phrase, salvation is of
the Lord. We talk about a sovereign God,
we talk about His sovereign mercy, His sovereign goodness, sovereign
grace, and that's truly, truly gospel truth, isn't it? God's
grace is sovereign grace. He will have mercy on whom He
will. He'll be gracious to whom He
will. He'll be merciful or have compassion
on whom He will. It's not of Him that runneth.
That excludes the works of men. It's not of Him that willeth.
It excludes the will of man as forming any part of the ground
or cause of salvation. But it's of God who showeth mercy,
who saves us. So what is the substance? Well,
consider this. Last time I dealt with this,
the first way you can view Jonah is simply this way, as a sinner
saved by the grace of God. Jonah is an example of a sinner
saved by the grace of God. Here's a man, a man of God, saved
by the grace of God, based upon the work of the Messiah who was
to come in Jonah's future, the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised
seed of woman, the promised Messiah, and here was a man who was a
prophet of God, gifted of God, and yet we see him in the opening
chapter of Jonah chapter 1 running from God, trying to hide from
God. He knew better. trying to work
out his own way and his own will instead of submit to God's will,
so he's a sinner saved by the grace of God. And we who know
Christ, we who know the grace of God, we who know our sinfulness,
we can certainly identify with Jonah in that aspect. That's
one reason I had Brother Bill read this passage over in 1 Peter
chapter 1, which it says in verse 18, There it says, for as much
as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. He mentions silver and gold from
your vain conversation received from your fathers. That states
the impossibility of salvation, of redemption, of being justified
before God based upon anything that's corruptible, such as our
works. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in God's sight. And Jonah was an example of that.
And here's the four things that I gave you about that. I'm going
to repeat these things because I pray that the Lord will seal
them in our hearts and in our minds now. The first thing we
learn about Jonah and about ourselves in this is that we are sinners
constantly in need of salvation by God's grace. There's never
a time. in my life as a saved sinner, as one who's washed in
the blood of Christ and clothed in His righteousness, there's
not one moment in my life where I can now look up and say, well,
now I deserve salvation. Now I've earned it. I'm constantly
in need of salvation by grace. We learn from this in Jonah's
experience and in our own experience, and by the Word of God, which
is the main thing, whether we feel it or not, whatever God's
Word says is true. Secondly, we're not yet righteous
in ourselves. Jonah proved that. We prove it
every day, don't we? The only way that I can say I'm
righteous before God is in Christ based on His righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to me. I'm not yet righteous in myself.
My best efforts to please God still yet fall short of the standard
of His righteousness and His holiness. And then thirdly, we
learn from Jonah's experience and from our own and again by
the Word of God. that if God did not keep us,
the God who saves us by grace, if He didn't keep us by His power
and His goodness and His grace, we would all fall unto eternal
damnation. Is that not so? Do you not see
that? As I said, you know, these people
who talk about being saved one day and lost the next, my friend,
they don't know the grace of God, I'm telling you. They don't
know what sin really is. If we could fall, we would fall.
But God keeps us, and then here's the fourth truth that I gave
you on that. As Jonah, as first of all, Jonah
being an example of sinners saved by grace, and that's this. God
will not let his people go. No matter how far away we try
to run, just like Jonah, no matter how Rebellious we get, even in our
own minds, you know. Think about David. He said, Lord,
restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. He lost the joy. He didn't lose salvation, but
he lost the joy of it. God will not let his people go. He said, no one shall pluck them
out of my Father's hand. He who begun a good work in us
will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And so we see
that. But now secondly, and I started
this in the last message and I want to get back into it on
this thing about the main reason, the main lesson, the main teaching
of Jonah and the whale. Jonah being in the belly of the
whale three days and three nights. And that is Jonah as a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember, I read these passages
last week. I want to read them again. Matthew
chapter 12. This is the Word of God. This is what God's Word
says as the Lord applies this passage, this experience of Jonah
as a picture and a type of his death, burial, and resurrection
to redeem his people from their sins. As Brother Bill read there
in 1 Peter chapter 1, we're not redeemed with corruptible things,
but we're redeemed how? With the precious blood of Christ. That blood speaks of his suffering
unto death for the purpose of establishing the only righteousness
whereby God could be just and justify the ungodly. That's what
that speaks of. And hear the Lord speaking to
the Pharisees, in verse 38 of Matthew chapter 12, he says,
Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying,
Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said
unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and there shall no sign be given to 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." Now, remember
I told you, that doesn't mean he was three days and three nights
in the grave, actually in the tomb. It means he was three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth, literally the grip
of the earth, the grip of sin. And that started in Gethsemane
when he began to suffer for the sins of his people imputed to
him, charged to him. Now, the Lord goes on to speak
of the men of Nineveh, and I'm going to hold that off until
we get to chapter 3, but look over at Matthew chapter 16, and
I'll come back to that passage when we see Jonah going to Nineveh. and what that means. But look
at Matthew 16 and verse 1. Here he's speaking to the Pharisees
and the Sadducees, religious men trying to establish a righteousness
of their own. And it says, the Pharisees also
with the Sadducees came and tempting desired him that he would show
them a sign from heaven. Looking for a sign. It's like
people today. They're looking for signs. something
beyond the Word of God. That's what that means. When
he says a wicked and adulterous generation are looking for a
sign, what that means is they're looking for something other than
God's Word to prove it to them. You see, we believe if God says
it, that settles it. Isn't that right? If God says
it, that's it. We don't need anything else but
what God says, God's Word. And so it says in verse 2, He
answered and said unto them, When it's evening, you say, it
will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning,
it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering.
O ye hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky, but can
you not discern the signs of the times? Now these signs of
the times that he's talking about have to do with what God has
revealed concerning these times. Listen to what he says. A wicked
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall
no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah,
and he left them and departed. Same sign. It's already been
given in God's Word. And this is Jonah as a type. as a picture of Christ. This
speaks of Christ in His suffering for our sins, for the sins of
His people. And I'll tell you another way
you can look at this, and I think this is very important. Men today,
they want to argue about this, and they want to go into all
kinds of different directions, mystically, with confusion and
ignorance. But I want you to look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now verse 21 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, I believe, can be stated as the heart of the gospel. It speaks of substitution. The
Lord Jesus Christ substituted himself in the place of his people. It speaks of imputation. I believe that's what this verse
teaches. Now, there's men who want to make more of it than
that, but I don't believe they can do it scripturally. And it
says, for he hath made him. And you see the term to be is
in italics. That means it was supplied by
the translators. Well, you can read it either
way and do no damage to the original. It says, for he hath made him
to be sin for us. Or you can read it, for he hath
made him sin for us. All right? Now, how was Christ
made sin? That's the issue that people
want to get into. Well, the Scripture teaches that
He became accountable for our sins. He became responsible for
our sins as God the Father charged our sins to Him. That's another
reason I have Brother Bill read 1 Peter chapter 1 and chapter
3. Christ suffered the just for
the unjust. And it says he did that for us.
Who are the us there? That's God's elect. That's the
church. That's his people. That's his sheep. He said, I
laid down my life for the sheep. He was bruised for our iniquities. All right? And he says, who knew
no sin? Christ who knew no sin. That
means his experience with sin was not a personal experience
in his own corruption. He didn't... Listen. This is
the thing. When Christ was on the cross,
He had no sinful thoughts, no sinful motives, no selfish or
self-righteous purposes or goals. It was totally for the glory
of His Father and the salvation of His people. He didn't have a moment of unbelief. And I know people go back to
the Garden of Gethsemane to try to prove that he did. That was
not a moment of unbelief. That was a moment what the script...
I'll tell you how the scripture refers to it, as the infirmities
of the flesh. There's no way that we can even
begin to imagine the kind of suffering in his mind and in
his soul and in his physical body as a man. A man without
sin, but as a man that he was going through in order to pay
the sin debt for his people. No way we can imagine that. And
so he says, who knew no sin. Now, the reason he did that is
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And that's his
righteousness imputed. Now, that's what that teaches.
Now, go back to Jonah chapter 2. And look at how, again, how
Jonah is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, we started
back up in verse 17 of chapter 1. where it says, 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. That preparation
there is the ordination of God. It's the purpose of God. And
Jonah is a type of Christ in this sense. Christ Himself was
set up from everlasting to be the Savior of His people. There
was a preparation, an ordination of God before the foundation
of the world. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He is the surety of the everlasting
covenant of grace. Salvation by the grace of God
in Christ is no afterthought. It's no plan B. It was God's
purpose all along. And then look at the first three
verses of chapter 2. It says, and incidentally, remember
we went to Acts chapter 2 where Peter brought that out, where
he holds sinful man accountable for crucifying and slaying the
Lord of glory, but he says, he makes it clear, that you did
no more than what God before determined to be done. This was
no afterthought. Now look at the first three verses
of chapter 2. It says, 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 or the grave cried I And thou heardest my voice, for thou
hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the
floods compassed me about, as thy billows and thy waves passed
over me." What a great picture of our Savior in the Garden of
Gethsemane, crying out unto His Father out of His affliction
for our sins imputed to Him, charged to Him. crying unto his
father, suffering and agony, sweating great drops of blood. You remember I mentioned that,
how I've suffered, you've suffered, but I've never sweat blood, but
he did. You see, as I said, somebody
told me one time, said, well, his suffering on the cross was
more than imputation, it was, but it was based on sin imputed. And Christ prayed unto his Father
out of the depths of sin. He said, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? The sins of his people made to
meet upon him whereby he became a... They were his sins. They
actually became his as they were charged him. He became responsible
for them. He became... He was our surety.
And he suffered and bled and died. And those sins, the guilt
of that sin charged to him as he was made sin alienated him
from the Father. And what an awesome thought that
is. Just like Jonah says here how
he himself was undone and cut off. Look at verse 4. He says,
Then said I, I am cast out of thy sight. That means literally,
I'm undone. Like Isaiah said, I'm undone.
I dwell, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips. It means I'm cast out. Christ
became alien, the Son of God incarnate, based on our sins
charged to Him, became alienated from the Father. And I can't
explain that to you, but I know it's so. He said it in Matthew
27. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Here he lived his life as a man,
and in his distress he called out to God, his Father, in Gethsemane
on the cross. He suffered all the infirmities
of the flesh, yet without sin in himself. He cast himself,
and this is an amazing thing. Think about this. I can't get
over this. This is why I keep repeating
it. He cast himself completely upon the mercy of his Father.
yet not without justice being satisfied by the shedding of
His blood. The soul that sinneth must surely die. We sinned, Christ
died. He was made sin, Christ who knew
no sin, for us. Our substitute. All the sins
that were laid upon Him brought Him to that distress and that
suffering and that agony that we cannot even begin to explain
and imagine. And he cried out from the cross
and from the grave unto his father. And he really died. It was no
hoax. He didn't pretend to die. He
actually died. That person who is God died. And that's to be attributed to
his humanity. Because God himself cannot die.
But at the same time, think about this, man cannot work out and
sustain and give out righteousness. But this person who is man did.
He's God-man. And it was no pretense. Not only
was sin imputed to him, but he suffered the full effects of
that sin, just like Jonah down in the belly of that whale. Look
at it again. He prayed unto the Lord, his
God, out of the fish's belly, just like our Lord did, out of
the grip of sin. He cried out by reason of mine
affliction, his affliction, unto the Lord, and he was heard. Jonah
was heard. You know why? Because he was
one of God's. Our Savior was heard in that he is the Son of
God incarnate. Out of the belly of the grave
he cried and he heard my voice. Oh, all of these. And notice
the language of verse 3 again. It says, For thou hast cast me
into the deep. and in the midst of the seas
and the floods encompassed me about. It reminds me of Romans
chapter five in verse 20 where it talks about where sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. That
literally means where sin drowned me like a flood. Grace did much
more abound. Christ was drowning in the sea
of the sins of his sheep imputed to him. And yet, by the power
of God, he was delivered. He didn't stay dead. He would
not suffer his Holy One to see corruption. He came out of that
grave. Well, the Bible tells us in Matthew
and in Luke that a greater than Jonah is here. That's speaking
of Christ. Here's Jonah's experience as
a picture of the greater person of Christ and the accomplishment
of our redemption by Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He
was made to be sin for us, He was swallowed up in the sea of
God's wrath and slain as our substitute. As a dead man, His
body was cast into the heart of the earth, the tomb of death,
just like Jonah was in the belly of the whale. But three days
later, the Son of God, our Redeemer, He arose from the grave victorious
over death. Look at verse 4 again of Jonah
chapter 2. He says, then I said, I'm cast
out of thy sight. And listen to what he says here.
I will look again toward thy holy temple. Think about that. Jonah looking toward the holy
temple. What is that holy temple a picture
of? That's a picture of the dwelling
place of God. That's what that temple was.
Remember the tabernacle and the temple. That was the house that
surrounded the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant
and the Mercy Seat was. And what Jonah is saying there
when he says, I look toward thy holy temple, it's like the old
publican. who came before God beating on
his breast saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. God be, literally,
you know that word mercy in there in Luke 18 is the word propitious,
comes from propitiation. What that publican is recognizing
is that not only does he need forgiveness and mercy from God,
but that he also needs forgiveness and mercy based on satisfaction. God must be just when he justifies. God must be right, he must be
righteous and holy when he justifies, when he forgives, when he delivers. And so he needs a substitute,
he needs a sin bearer, he needs a sin offering, he needs a blood
offering just like Abel. And that's what's spoken of when
it says, he looked again toward thy holy temple, the place where
God dwells, the place where God will meet with and commune with
sinners based on blood sacrifice. That's what it is, based on satisfaction
to law and justice. Where the high priest went one
time a year into the holiest of all, but not without blood.
What Jonah is actually saying there is I need Christ. That's
what he said, I need a righteousness I cannot produce. I'm in a fix
that I can't get myself out of. Somebody said, well, that's no
big news, Jonah's in the belly of a whale. Well, let me tell
you something, when you see what he's illustrating here and what
he's picturing here, it is a big deal, isn't it? Because my friend,
that's just exactly where we are by nature and by sin. And
here's a picture of Christ in the grip of sin, And he cast
himself totally under the power of his father to be delivered
after he paid the debt to our sins. Now, look back at 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. I want to show you something
here. The temple, that's the dwelling place of God. Now, remember
I told you last time that that doesn't mean that God lived in
the temple. You can't contain God. He's omnipresent. He's spirit. Christ told him
that you can't contain God in temples made with hands. You
can't confine God. But when it says the presence
of God in the temple, what does it mean? It means that's where
the Shekinah glory of God dwells. That's the greatest most effulgent
revelation of God that can be found on earth. And that's where
it was in the tabernacle and in the temple at the Holy of
Holies. If you wanted to see how every
attribute of God Everything about the nature of God, who God is,
in its fullness, working consistently together and being revealed in
its fullness, look to the temple, to the holiest of all, where
God justifies the ungodly through the blood sacrifice based on
the righteousness of the substitute. That's where you would go. Now
that temple was a picture of all that, a type of all that,
a prophecy of all that. Where is the Shekinah glory of
God literally dwelling? Now look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. He's talking about salvation here. He's talking about reconciliation.
How God justifies the ungodly. How God is reconciled to sinners
and sinners reconciled to God. He mentions the new creation.
Verse 17, look at it. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. That's a justified sinner. That's
what he's talking about. I'm not condemned in Adam. I'm
justified in Christ. Now, look at verse 18. He said,
all things are become new in verse 17. Verse 18, he says,
and all things are of God. Now, these all things are of
God. Salvation is of the Lord. And
all things are of God who hath reconciled us unto himself by
Jesus Christ. Reconciliation with God comes
by Jesus Christ. It comes by the cross, Colossians
chapter 1 tells us, the blood of his cross. And hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel message, all right? Now, look at verse 19. To wit,
or namely, that God was in Christ. You see that? God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing, not charging their
trespasses unto them. Well, what'd he do with those
trespasses? He didn't charge them to his
people now. Where did he charge him? He charged
him to Christ. He imputed him to Christ. And
he says, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now, what I want you to see is God was in Christ. God, the Godhead, you might say,
engaged everything that he is in the person and work of Christ
to save his people from our sin. Where is the Shekinah glory of
God now? It's in Christ. So when Jonah
back here, he says he looked toward his holy temple, we see
that. We look to Christ himself, the
very dwelling place of God. He said, in him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in him. Think
about it. Christ, the effulgence, the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And it's all seen in that great
work that he accomplished on Calvary when he died for the
sins of his sheep and brought forth an everlasting righteousness
that enables God to be just and justify the ungodly. Look at
it. Verse 5, he says, the waters
of Jonah 2, he says, the waters compassed me about even to the
soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped around
me. or about my head." In other words,
everything about Jonah in the belly of that whale left him
with no hope in himself. No hope in his works, no hope
in his wisdom, no hope in anything. He says in verse 6, I went down
to the bottoms of the mountains, the earth with her bars was about
me forever. In other words, not only was
I a depraved sinner, but I was in the grip of sin, I was trapped
by sin. Yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God. God delivers him. God delivers
him. Verse 7, he says, When my soul
fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. In other words, I had
no place else to go. I had nowhere else to turn to. I think about Peter when the
Lord confronted his disciples on this issue. And when the multitude
left him and he turned to his disciples and he said, will you
go away also? Peter basically said, to whom shall we go? We've
got no place else to go. I was talking to Brother Joe
and Brother Aaron back in the study. And you know sometimes
when we begin to examine ourselves, which we should quite often,
and we ought to do it scripturally, We wonder in ourselves, how do
I know that I'm really trusting Christ, the true Christ, and
submitted to his righteousness as my only ground of salvation
and my only entitlement to heaven? How do I know that? How can I
be sure of that? How can I be sure that I'm not
a false professor? And, of course, the way I believe
that believers are commanded to gain assurance is through
the Scriptures by the power of the Holy Spirit looking to Christ
alone. And it comes back this way every time. I don't care
how complicated we make it, how confused we make it, you know,
it's simply this. We've got no place else to go.
We've got no one else to turn to. What do you hope in right
now? What is your assurance based
on right now? You say, well, I had a good day
today. Well, you may have a bad day tomorrow. Probably will. The older you get, the bad days
seem to outweigh the good days, don't they? You say, well, I
feel good today. Well, you may feel bad tomorrow. I can't remember who wrote that
little poem, feelings come, feelings go. You say, well, I'm healthy
today, I must be doing something right. Well, you'll be sick tomorrow.
That changes, you see. How do I know I'm truly one of
God's children? It's simply this. And this is
what he's saying. This is what he's saying. When
my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in
unto thee, into thine holy temple. I have no hope, no assurance. No peace, no safety, as I talked
about this morning, except Christ and Him crucified and risen again.
His blood and His righteousness alone. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock,
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
You hear me repeat that quite a bit. I hope you don't get tired
of it because I pray to the Lord that if he lets me live long
enough and I get Alzheimer's that that's the only thing I
remember. I'll just sit and repeat that
and repeat scripture maybe. But that's it. I've got no place
else to go. I can't turn to anywhere else.
That's what Jonah is saying here. And that's a picture of Christ
on the cross. He turned unto his Father. Do
you know what he said in his last words? He said, Father,
into thy hands I commit my spirit. That's what he said. Look at
verse 8. He says, they that observe lying
vanities forsake their own mercy. What he's talking about there
is false hopes, false religion. My friend, if you turn anywhere
else but unto God, the God of grace, unto Christ himself, unto
God's holy temple where satisfaction for law and justice is made,
where righteousness is established, where the blood is shed and forgiveness
of sin comes by the blood of Christ. You turn anywhere else,
you're forsaking any mercy. There's no mercy from God without
Christ. Jonah recognized that. Our Lord
is the very mercy seat as He died on the cross of Calvary.
Look at verse 9. He says, "...but I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." Now
when it comes to a believer paying that which he has vowed, what
he's talking about is the obedience of grace and love and gratitude. You see, we don't owe God. As
sinners saved by the grace of God, we do not owe God a legal
debt. That debt's been paid by Christ
on the cross, but we owe Him a debt of love. But when it comes
to Christ, Jonah being a picture of Christ, when he says, I will
pay that that I have vowed, let me show you what he's talking
about. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. And listen to this. Now, this
is quoted from Psalm 40. And you remember I told you as
you read through Jonah chapter 2, you can pretty much, you could
go right back to several of the Psalms and see the same exact
language that Jonah uses. You could go to Psalm 22, you
could go to Psalm 40 and Psalm 69, and there are other Psalms.
But this right here in Hebrews chapter 10 is quoted from Psalm
40. And what he's talking about, now look at verse 6, or verse
5 rather. Well, let's go up to verse 4.
You think I'm going to read the whole chapter before it's over with.
Go to verse 4. Now, he says, For it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Now, the blood of animals cannot take away sin. The blood of animals
under the Old Covenant was a picture of the Lamb of God, Christ, who
alone, by whose blood alone we're redeemed and takes away sins.
He says in verse 5, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world,
talking about Christ, the promised seed. He says, sacrifice and
offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.
This is God, this is the Word made flesh and tabernacling among
us. And the reason he had to come
is because this is what it took, he is what it took to save us
from our sins. And he says in verse 6, in burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. In
other words, God was not satisfied in the blood of animals. He's
only satisfied in the blood of his son. But now look at verse
7. Then said I, I, lo, I come in
the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will,
O God. Now the volume of the book, that's
the volume of God, the book of God's eternal purpose and plan
to save his people through the Lord Jesus Christ and what he
would accomplish on Calvary. In other words, what he's simply
saying, I'm going to do what I promised to do. I'm going to
keep my promise. And that's our hope. That's our
surety right there. I'm going to keep my promise.
And he kept it. What did he do? He took into
union with himself a perfect sinless humanity. He was made
flesh. He obeyed the law perfectly.
He suffered unto death and bled and died on the cross. He was
made sin. He kept every promise that he
ever made. He's the perfect God-man. He's
the perfect sacrifice for sins. And so he says in verse 8, above
when he said, sacrifice an offering and burn offerings and offerings
for sin thou wouldest not neither hath pleasure therein which are
offered by the law Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will,
O God. Keeping his promise, he taketh
away the first, that's the old covenant, that he may establish
a second, that's the new covenant. By the which will we are sanctified,
set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. That's what that literally says,
once. One time he suffered. That's what Jonah is picturing
right here. Salvation is of the Lord. Now
look at verse 10. of Jonah chapter 2. Listen to this. It says, and
the Lord spake unto the fish. He spake unto the fish. Why do
you suppose He's talking to the fish? Why didn't He talk to Jonah? Why didn't He stand at the fish's
mouth and sing 50 verses of Just As I Am to Jonah? He didn't do
that, did He? Because Jonah was in the grip
of that whale. And he spake to the fish, and
listen to what happened, and it vomited out Jonah up on the
dry land. Threw him up out on the dry land.
What's that a picture of? The resurrection of Christ. The
Lord spake unto justice and said, let him go. I'm satisfied. The Lord rolled that stone out
of the way. You know that's who did that?
And he came out of the grave. Christ, in his obedience unto
death, finished the transgression, made an end of sin, brought in
everlasting righteousness, sealed up the vision and the prophecy,
and took his place as the anointed Lord of glory. Because justice
could not hold him any longer. Satisfied. Payment made. All the righteousness that God
requires of His people was established in Christ, and it's imputed to
each one of us who believe. What a picture of Jesus Christ.