If you all would excuse me as
I have to go through the same things that you all go through
on this coughing and sneezing and all that. I think that we
ought to thank the Lord that we really dodged the bullet this
week with all that snow going up north of us and everything.
But hopefully we're close to the cold and flu season being
over. I hope so anyway. But then it
comes the sinus season, doesn't it? You know, what can you say? The Lord knows best. That's the
issue. All right, we're going to look
at Jonah chapter 2. Now, if one is a true God-sent
gospel preacher for very many years at all, that is preaching
the great truth and the only one true gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace in Christ. If one preaches that message
for very long and going through the scriptures, it's probably
a pretty safe bet that that person has within the list of their
messages a message or several messages entitled out of Jonah
chapter 2 and verse 9, salvation is of the Lord. And that's the
title of my message tonight, Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is not of man. Salvation is not of the church. It's not in the ordinances. Salvation
is not of the free will of man. Salvation is of the Lord. I recall in reading the book
of Exodus years ago, And then as I recall that reading just
recently again, that when Moses and the children of Israel stood
on the brink of the Red Sea and they looked back and they saw
Pharaoh's army pursuing them with the intent of wiping out
the whole nation, the people murmured and complained and feared
and yet Moses just simply preached this message in Exodus chapter
14 he said stand still and see the salvation of the Lord and
that's what I want us to do as we study this chapter of Jonah
chapter 2 and really the whole book of Jonah because that really
is the theme of the whole book of Jonah salvation is of the
Lord. The message of Jonah is one of
hope and salvation for the lost, for sinners who cannot save ourselves,
who cannot make ourselves righteous before God, who cannot wash away
our own sins. And it's a message of hope to
such as we are and in salvation because salvation is of the Lord
for let me tell you something if salvation were in any way
of man there would be no salvation and the book of Jonah is one
great example of that fact now we can view the book of Jonah
in one of three ways and I'm gonna talk about all three ways
and that's why I'm probably going to preach more than one message
on this subject of salvation is of the Lord. So I'm not going
to try to do it all in one message. But I want you to think about
this. You know, when we were growing up in our Sunday school
classes, we heard of the story of Jonah and the whale. And it's
an amazing story. It's not a myth. It's a true
story. This is history. I know a lot of people with their
today's supposed scientific knowledge and their scientific minds, they
can't fathom of how a great fish, or a whale as they say, the Bible
doesn't really say it's a whale, Matthew called it a whale, but
I think that's more of the translation of the King James translators,
but it was a great fish, whatever it was. But people cannot conceive
that a great fish could swallow a man whole when that man living
inside that fish for three days and three nights. And though
that's something that we scientifically can't figure out and wouldn't
believe, we have to understand in light of this truth that salvation
is of the Lord, that this is the book of God, not man. This
is not man trying to figure out ways to do these things. or get
these things done. This is God. This is God Almighty
who created this universe. And if He created this universe,
He can prepare a great fish to swallow Jonah. And the key is
right there in verse 17 of chapter 1. It says, Now the Lord had
prepared a great fish. Now that's your answer. You say,
How could that be done? I'll tell you how. The Lord prepared
a great fish. Now, if I prepared it or you
prepared it, it's a failure. But when God prepares it for
His purpose and to accomplish His will, it's a done deal. So,
keep that in mind. We're not going to argue over
whether or not this is a myth or true story. No, this is history. This is God's recorded history. This is one of those former things
of old. that Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah
46 that proves that God is sovereign, that God is just, that God is
wise, and that God is gracious and merciful, all according to
His purpose to save His people through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so as we look at Jonah, in growing up and hearing the story
of Jonah, we always had a lesson on disobedience and obedience.
And that's pretty much all it was. It was kind of like an object
lesson or story, a moral tale that taught that we should be
obedient to God. And listen to me, we should be
obedient unto the Lord. That's not an issue, that's not
an argument. In fact, I'll put it to you this way, we who are
saved by the grace of God in Christ, we ought to be the most
obedient. We ought to be the ones who follow
him without question. because of what He's given us.
We're not trying to save ourselves by our obedience. We're not trying
to make ourselves righteous by our work. We're righteous in
Christ and that's a gift. Romans chapter 5 speaks of the
free gift. What is that free gift? It's
the righteousness that God gives us in Christ. It's the forgiveness
of sins. It's eternal life and glory.
All of that is a gift from God. All of that is of the Lord. So,
listen. We should be obedient. There
is that lesson there. Jonah's journey, as it started
out, and we read this last time in chapter 1, Jonah's journey
began with disobedience, didn't it? And you might notice, I pointed
out in chapter 1, how many times it said, he went down here, he
went down there, he went down into the belly of the sheep. That's the direction of disobedience.
Down, down, down. In fact, if you want to think
about it, there's only one time that you can talk about anybody
going down in the sense that it was obedience, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ when He were condescended to be made
flesh. He came down, didn't He? And one other time we might talk
about is when God brings us down in humility to show our utter
dependence upon Him for all of salvation, to show us this very
fact that salvation is of the Lord. So, this is not arguing
whether or not we should obey. We should. And Jonah is a great
example that disobedience is not the way of the child of God.
And that God will overrule our disobedience. to accomplish his
purpose and he'll make us willing in the day of his power. But
when you look at this whole book of Jonah and you understand this
theme of salvation is of the Lord, you can view it in one
of three ways, all right? The first way has to do with
Jonah as a sinner saved and preserved by grace. A sinner saved and
preserved by grace. And the first message I preached
on this in chapter one was God's saving and preserving grace.
So I've talked about that a little bit. I'll give you just a brief
thing on it tonight. The second way that you can view
it, and this is the major way now. To me, this is the main
reason that this whole episode is even recorded in the Bible.
And I have the New Testament to back me up on this, and that
is Jonah as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah as a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm gonna spend most of my
time talking about that subject. But then the third way that we
can view this is Jonah as an illustration of God applying,
God saving His people in the new birth. Jonah as an illustration
of the new birth, and we'll see that in the next message. But
let's look at this. First of all, when we talk about
Jonah as a sinner saved by the grace of God, not only saved,
but kept, preserved by the grace of God, every true child of God
can identify with him. Now, can't you? We can identify
with Jonah. And we can learn the lesson over
and over again, and we need to learn it over and over again,
that once we see the reality of what we are and who we are
as sinners, saved by the grace of God and preserved by the grace
of God, that our whole new song, as it said there in Psalm 40,
our whole hymn is salvation is of the Lord. Isn't that right? You know that was the case with
me today. Salvation is of the Lord. That was the case with
me yesterday. You know what? It'll be the case
with me tomorrow. Salvation is of the Lord. Think
about this. Jonah, as a sinner saved and
preserved by the grace of God, is just one example that we can
identify in this sense. Number one, we are all sinners
in need of salvation by grace. There's not one person on earth
born of Adam who is qualified to enter into the presence of
God and receive his blessings. at any time, at any stage, to
any degree. And that, listen, that refers
to children of God, too. That refers to the elect. That
refers to those who are justified by the grace of God in Christ.
Those who are forgiven. Those who have been called out
by the Holy Spirit and been born again. Right now, we are just
as much sinners in need of God's grace as we ever were. And I've
said this before, Jonah is a great example to show us and prove
to us, and we know this by experience, and we know it because God's
Word teaches it, and that's the main way we know it, is that
at no time in my life as a sinner saved by grace can I look up
to God or look at you and say, now I deserve salvation. Now I've earned it. Not so. Here's Jonah, the prophet of
God, the man of God, running from God. How many times and
in how many different ways do we ever try to do that? Don't
look down your nose upon Jonah. Jonah's in the same boat we're
all in. sinners saved by the grace of
God. Secondly, Jonah is a great example
to prove to us, and again we know this by experience and by
the Word of God, that we are not yet righteous in and of ourselves. The only righteousness we have
is in Christ. It's His righteousness imputed,
charged to us by which we stand before God whole and just and
complete. Now, we're still sinners. And we haven't made it yet as
far as our own personal character and conduct. We may have some
times of general obedience, and we may have some times of disobedience,
but we never have a moment in our lives where we can stand
at this moment in time, I'm now righteous in myself. Now, the
Holy Spirit has done a great work within our hearts. We're
going to see that when we get to the third point, next message,
about Jonah being an illustration of the new birth. The Holy Spirit
does some wonderful, miraculous things. Listen, by the power
of the Spirit in the new birth, you and I, if we've been born
again, we are enabled to do things that we were never able to do
before. And the reason we weren't able
to do them is because by nature we're dead in trespasses and
sin. That's part of that ruination by the fall. Jonah illustrates
that. Man ruined in the fall. He went
down, down, down. That's why they call it the fall,
because it's down. It's not man going up to God. It's man getting away from God,
being alienated from God. And so, when we see a man like
Jonah, we know in ourselves that the Holy Spirit's enabled us
to do things we couldn't do before. We can see things we didn't see
before. Now think about this now. This
is important. I want to tell you something.
I think this is one of the greatest deceptions of false Christianity
today, is that God makes you righteous in yourself. I believe
that's a deception of false Christianity. And I'm going to show you why
now. Now listen to me very carefully. When you were born again, You
were able to see things you didn't see before. Isn't that right?
You were able to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You couldn't see that before
because your mind was blinded by the God of this world. Remember
2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4? In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. That's what
that is. You were able to see something
of your utter depravity and sinfulness and impotency in saving yourselves. Isn't that right? Jonah comes
to that in Jonah chapter 2. He's down in the belly of a whale.
What can he do? What could he do there? Nothing. He's helpless. And when the Holy
Spirit came into your heart and changed your heart and changed
my heart and gave us a new spirit We were able to see that. We
couldn't see that before. Oh, we saw something of our imperfections,
something of how we fell short, but we didn't understand sin
to the point that we see it now. And let me tell you something,
you know right now, you don't see it even now in its utter,
I guess you could say its utter darkness and depth, do you? We
don't, do we? So we can see things we didn't
see before, but the fact that I see things that I didn't see
before is not my righteousness before God. You see, Paul said
it this way in 1 Corinthians 13, he said, I see, but I see
through what? A glass, how? Darkly. In other words, I don't really
see the fullness of it yet, the glory of it yet. John said, Beloved,
it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know when Christ
comes, we'll see Him as He is and we'll be made like Him. He
said in Philippians chapter 3, Paul did, he said, I haven't
already arrived yet. We're able to believe things
that we couldn't believe before. After the Holy Spirit gives us
life, we're able to cling to Christ. But now let me tell you
something. Your clinging to Christ, your
efforts to cling to Christ, is that what makes you righteous
before God? No. No. You have to struggle to cling
to Christ, don't you? I do. It's a struggle to cling
to Christ. It ought not be Knowing what
we are. Knowing what we are, it's a struggle.
Here's Jonah, a prophet of God. What should he have done? What
should he have done? When the Lord said, go to Nineveh
and preach, he ought to have been on the next train to Nineveh.
But he struggled within himself because in the flesh, that remaining
sinful flesh, he struggled and he gave in, didn't he? How many
times do I give in? How many times do you give in?
You see, those things are not my righteousness before God.
What is my righteousness before God? Christ is. Christ is my
only righteousness. I plead His merits, His works,
His power, His goodness as my whole righteousness before God.
So Jonah, as a sinner saved by grace, testifies of that. Here's
the third thing. Jonah, as a sinner saved by grace,
shows us this. And again, here's something we
know by experience and we know from God's Word. He shows us
thirdly that if God did not keep us and preserve us, we would
all fall unto eternal damnation. What are you supposed to happen
if the great fish had not come and swallowed Jonah? Jonah would
end up in Tarshish, not where he was supposed to be. Isn't
that right? What do you suppose we'd be if
God didn't preserve us by His grace? We'd end up in hell. Isn't that right? How many times
have I said it? If we could fall, What? We would fall. So if God doesn't
keep us, we would fall. That's Jonah. Boy, what an illustration
of that here. What a testimony to that. You'd
think, well, he's one of God's prophets. If anybody could keep
himself, he could. No, none of us can keep ourselves.
And then here's the fourth thing. Jonah, as a sinner saved by grace,
proves That if we're saved by grace, chosen of God, justified
in Christ, redeemed by His blood, called by His Spirit, listen
to me, God will not let us go. He's not going to let us go.
Paul wrote in Philippians, I believe it's chapter 1, it says, He who
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1 and
verse 12, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that
he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. So Jonah, as a sinner saved by grace, and this is a
great lesson from this passage, proves that if God didn't keep
us, we'd fall. But God will not let us go. I'm telling you, Christ said
none shall pluck them out of my Father's hand. He will not
let... Listen, if you're a child of
God, saved by the blood of Christ, washed in His blood, clothed
in His righteousness, your Heavenly Father will not let you go, no
matter how hard you try to get away from Him. Think of Jonah.
Jonah was trying to get away from Him. God would not let him
go. Now, ideally, we shouldn't ever
want to try to get away from God, should we? But then again,
we have the struggle, we have the flesh. So that's the first
way of looking at it. And what does that show us? It
shows us the salvations of the Lord, doesn't it? Salvation is all of His power,
not Jonah's power. Jonah didn't have the power to
calm that storm on that ship. Listen, those men cast lots.
You remember they cast lots? Now, who determines where the
lot falls? Well, it's the luck of the draw,
luck of the die. No, no, God determines that. He didn't have the power to have
the lot fall on Him, but God did. He didn't have the power
to calm the storm. He didn't have the power to get
out of the belly of that fish. God gave it. It's all of God's
power. It's all of God's goodness. It's
not of our goodness. The blessings of salvation are
not of our goodness, it's all of God's goodness. Sovereign
goodness. Free, unconditional goodness
towards us who are so bad and not good. And it's all of God's
grace and mercy in Christ. Isn't that right? Sovereign grace,
sovereign mercy, sovereign love. Salvation is of the Lord. Isn't that precious? Now, look
at the second thing, and this is what I'm going to spend most
time on, and I'm going to pick up this the next time, too. But
I believe that this is the major reason. This is the pinnacle
of the book of Jonah. This is the zenith, as they say,
or some people say the Ebenezer. That's the highest point. And that's Jonah as a type of
Christ. Now, let me show you that. I
want to read you some passages in the book of Matthew. Matthew
chapter 12. And I believe this proves what I'm telling you about
Jonah as a type of Christ. And the main lesson here, again,
is salvation is of the Lord. Matthew 12 and verse 38. Now
listen to what our Lord says here. He's talking to the Pharisees
and scribes in Matthew 12, 38. 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, our
Lord goes on to speak of the men of Nineveh, but I'm going
to hold that off until we get to chapter 3. And then we'll
talk about that. I'll come back to this passage
and talk to you about what he means by referring to the men
of Nineveh. But the key here is that he's
showing that as Jonah was three days and three nights in the
belly of the whale, Matthew calls it a whale, but again I say it's
probably the King James translators more so than the original word,
the great fish. He was in the belly, three days
and three nights. He says, so must the son of man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And what
he's talking about is in that time period that Christ, the
God-man, was literally, and it says the heart of the earth,
now that doesn't mean the grave. You know, scholars argue about
this because they say, they say, well, Christ wasn't actually
in the tomb three days and three nights, and he wasn't. But that's
not what that's talking about when it says the heart of the
earth here. What that's talking about is
the grip of the earth. It's the grip of sin. And he
was three days and three nights in the grip of the earth, in
the grip of sin. Now when did that start? In the
garden of Gethsemane. When he said, Oh Lord, if this
cup could pass from me. That's when his actual suffering
from being in the grip of sin actually began. So it was three
days and three nights from Gethsemane to the resurrection. So don't
let all that stuff, you know, when people want to argue about
that get you down. But now look at Matthew 16. Matthew 16, verse
1. So Christ says, as Jonah was
in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights,
and then he came out of that fish, he, so to speak, was resurrected. What that speaks of, it's a type
of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. What he's telling
those Pharisees is you've missed the proofs that would prove that
the Messiah had already come. You're rejecting the true Messiah,
and that'll be your downfall. And here the proof is the sign
of Jonah. That's the resurrection. Now
look at verse 1 of Matthew 16. He says, The Pharisees also and
the Sadducees came, and, tempting or testing, desired him that
he would show them a sign from heaven. And he answered and said
unto them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather,
for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather
to-day, for the sky is red and luring, O ye hypocrites, you
can discern the face of the sky, but can you not discern the signs
of the time? A wicked and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it
but the sign of the prophet Jonas." And he left them and departed.
Now, there's also some passages in Luke chapter 11 that we'll
see next time. But that's what it's showing.
Jonah is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this, that's the
primary application. of the book of Jonah. All right. Now, let me just go through it.
First of all, verse 17 of chapter 1, he 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." First
of all, we see Jonah was in that fish by God's sovereign design
and decree and preparation. That's how Jonah got into that
fish. It was God's appointment. That's what that means. Some
say that God created this fish just specifically for this purpose.
Well, that's true. I don't know what kind of fish
it was. It doesn't matter. It was a big one. It was enough
to swallow a man whole and for that man to live in that belly
for three days and three nights. How did he do it? I don't know,
but I know this. The Lord prepared it. It was
of God's sovereign design and purpose and decree. Well, how's
that a type of Christ? Well, Christ was in the grip
of sin, in the heart of the earth, so to speak. The grip of the
earth by God's sovereign design and decree. He was foreordained
for that purpose. Peter wrote about this in Acts
chapter 2 and verse 22. Listen to what he said as he
preached at Pentecost. He says, you men of Israel, hear
these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know,
him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge, which
is literally foreordination of God, you have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. Christ was delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Now there are all kinds
of instruments in this whole process to accomplish what God
before determined to be done. Think about Jonah. Jonah disobeyed
God. He ran to Tarshish, he got on
that ship, a storm came, the men cast lots, all of those are
second causes because God had all along already foreordained
and appointed and prepared a great fish to do what? To swallow Jonah
and vomit him up on the shore where he would go do what God
commanded him to do. Now Christ was the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. In fact, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy
chapter 1 that the salvation that we enjoy by the grace of
God and based on the blood and the righteousness of Christ was
actually given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. I believe
that's 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9, before the world began. This
was no afterthought of God. This was no plan B. This was
the foreordination of God who prepared everything in its own
time and for its own purpose. And He even overruled all the
second causes which meant it for evil, the men who took Him
with wicked hands, crucified, slew Him. All of that wickedness
that man is responsible for and will be held accountable for
if they don't have Christ for a Savior and Lord. Now the difference between Christ
and Jonah is Jonah was an unwilling participant. Christ was a willing
participant. He said, I delight to do the
will of my Father. He said, no man takes my life
from me, I give it freely. He did it because he loved his
father and he loved his sheep. He loved his own until the end. John 13 and verse 1, until the
finishing of the work. So because Jonah is a type, you
can't make everything that Jonah did apply to Christ because Jonah
was an unwilling participant. But Christ came willingly according
to the four donation of his father. Look at verse 1 of chapter 2,
he 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, they surrounded me, and all thy billows and the waves
passed over me. Here's Jonah in the belly of
the well, out of his affliction, he's crying unto the Lord. And
that's where God brings His people into the affliction of our sin
and depravity to bring us to cry unto Him. That's what He
did with Jonah. That's what He did with you when
He brought you to see the glory of Christ and your need of grace,
your need of His blood, your need of His righteousness imputed.
for your whole salvation. You cried unto God out of your
affliction. You said, God, I've got no place
else to go. I can't get myself out of this
mess. If you don't have mercy upon me, if you don't show your
grace upon me in Christ, I'm a goner. I have nothing else. Well, Jonah is a type of Christ
in this sense. Here we see a picture of Christ
himself as God-man. in the infirmities of his sinless
humanity, crying out of his own suffering to the Father for our
sins. In fact, you know, the language
that Jonah uses here, you could apply that to the Psalms. If
we had time, we could go to a Psalm, several Psalms. and show these
Messianic Psalms how Jonah, probably, his language came directly from
the Psalms. Out of the depths I've cried,
out of my affliction, out of my distress, out of all the sin
and depravity. Can't you think about Psalms
that did that? And then you could go to Psalms
like Psalm 22, the Psalm of the cross. Psalm 69, turn back to
Psalm 69, look at this one. Psalm 22, as I said, is the psalm
of the cross, where it relates the actual experience of the
Messiah to come on the cross of Calvary, dying for the sins
of His sheep. And here's another Messianic
psalm that relates that same experience. Look at Psalm 69,
verse 1. This is Christ calling here. "'Save me, O God, for the waters
are come in unto my soul.'" Think about Jonah too, see? I sink
in deep mire where there's no standing. I've come into deep
waters where the floods overflowed me. And this language sounds
so similar to what we read in those first three verses of Jonah
2. I'm weary of my crying. My throat is dried. My eyes fail
while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of my head. They that would destroy
me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. You see, Jonah is a type of Christ. Here's Christ crying unto the
Father. Christ prayed unto the Father from the depths of our
sins imputed to Him. He was not made a sinner, though
the weight of our sins charged to His account bore down deep
upon His soul and His mind and His heart that He cried, in his
distress unto the Father. You believe that? Read about
it in Matthew chapter 27. That's exactly right. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Do you think Jonah felt forsaken
in the belly of the fish? I guarantee you he did. That's
what he's expressing. Sin imputed to our Savior alienated
Him from His Father. Look back at Jonah 2. Look at
verse 4. Jonah says here, Then I said,
I am cast out of thy sight. Now, there's no way that you
can literally be cast out of the sight of God. Isn't that
right? He is omniscient. He's all-seeing. You can't hide
from God. That's already been proven. That
was proven right after the fall, Adam and Eve. What does that
mean? It literally means, I'm undone.
I'm cut off. Do you remember another prophet
who cried the same thing? I'm undone. I'm cut off. I am a man of unclean lips. I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Isaiah chapter
6, recounting his conviction. But you see, when sin was imputed
to our Savior, He was undone and cut off from His Father.
I cannot explain that to you. And you can't explain it to me.
But I know He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Theologians of the past have
tried to explain it. And they go something like this.
That speaks of that legal separation between the Father and the Son
because of our sin imputed or charged accounting to Him. That's
okay. But it's a mind-boggling fact
to me. Somebody told me one time, he
said, well, what Christ went through on the cross was more
than just the imputation of sin. You bet it was. But everything that Christ experienced
in His agony, in His despair, in all that He went through,
His affliction, and we can't even begin to imagine what it
was like for Him in His mind, and in His feelings, and in His
very soul, His soul's suffering. Everything that He experienced
was because of our sin imputed to Him, charged to Him. It was
not, he did not become corrupt in his mind or in his heart or
in his soul. Listen, think about this. When
Christ was on that cross suffering for the sins of his people, at
the same time he was satisfying justice by the shedding of his
precious, precious incorruptible blood. Now what the scripture
calls it, incorruptible? Incorruptible blood. He, at the
same time, was establishing in his obedience unto death, that
means his death included, a righteousness that would enable God to be just
and justify the ungodly. Now, in order for him to establish
righteousness even in his suffering unto death, he could have no
impure thoughts, no sinful motives, no unbelief, You see, He could
not be corrupted within His heart, His mind, His affections, His
will, His soul by our sins. They were charged to Him, accounted
to Him. That's what the Bible means when it says He was made
sin. But it didn't just stop with imputation. He had to suffer. He had to cry out of His affliction. And it was affliction that we
can't even begin to describe. What the Son of God went through. He lived his life as a man, and
in his distress, he called out to God. That actually began in
Gethsemane, when he sweat great drops of blood. Could you imagine?
You know, I've gone through some despair, I've gone through some
anger, I've gone through some affliction, I've hurt physically,
I've hurt emotionally, but I've never sweat drops of blood. Have
you? He did. He sweat drops of blood. Not because his mind was corrupt
like ours, but because he was suffering under the penalty of
our sins imputed to him. Oh, Gethsemane. Just like Jonah
in the belly of the whale. Christ suffered all the infirmities
of the flesh without sin. Listen to this now. Christ, when
he was in the grip of sin, in the grip of the earth, typified
by Jonah in the belly of the whale, he cast himself completely
upon the mercy of his father. Yet, not without justice. That's why he had to die. That's
why blood had to be shed. Because without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sin. Think about it. All the
sins of all his people in all the world of all time were laid
upon him. What distress. And he died. He died. He really died. There was no pretense here. There
was no play-like here. Imputation doesn't mean God playing
like something is true when it's not. It was true. Christ became
guilty. Christ became a curse for us
because of our sin charged to Him. And He went to the cross
and He died. And from the cross, from Gethsemane,
from the cross and from the grave, He cried out unto the Father. He suffered the full effects
of our sin. Well, I'm going to close there
and we'll pick up there next time. But let me just say this. You read about Jonah there. Remember
what Matthew and Luke wrote in their Gospels on that subject.
Behold, a greater than Jonah is here. Who is that greater
than Jonah? Same one who's greater than Solomon.
Same one who's greater than David. Same one who's greater than Moses.
Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Christ the Lord, our righteousness.