Most of you are familiar, I think,
with the Bible story of Jonah and the whale. Many of us from
our youth heard that story, and today we're going to revisit
it, and in particular consider a profound declaration made by
Jonah as he prayed from the belly of the great fish. Some of you
with a good memory may recall about nine years ago I brought
this message, but it's kind of been on my mind, and I wanted
to revisit it again this morning. With five simple words, he, Jonah,
declared a truth that sadly glossed over and are misunderstood by
so many. And so I hope this morning that
we'll all gain a proper understanding and a greater appreciation for,
listen, the eternally vital significance of the truth set forth in this
real simple statement when Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. That's the title I've chosen
for today's message. Now the story begins in the first
chapter of Jonah, and I'll encourage you to read that later on your
own in the interest of time, and just to be sure we're all
up to speed on the context, I'll briefly paraphrase the story
and refresh our memories. As chapter one begins, God instructs
his prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh. It's described as a city that
was very wicked. It was a Gentile city. It was
the largest city of the Assyrians, and they were enemies of Jonah's
people, the nation Israel. And we're told Jonah reacted
to God's command to go to Nineveh by attempting to flee the presence
of the Lord. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh.
Different folks speculate as to exactly why. Some think that
Jonah reasoned that this reaching out to the Gentiles would be
the beginning of the end for the nation Israel. So bad for
them. Perhaps he was just thinking, why there, Lord, this wicked
city, this city that has no interest in you, Jonah's God. And so regardless of what the
reasoning was, the fact is Jonah fled and he first went to the
city of Joppa. And there he bought a ticket
on a boat heading to Tarsus. Tarsus is a place that hasn't
ever really been identified for sure as a city. Some think it
means just the Mediterranean Sea. Others think it's the place
that later became known as Tarsus, Saul of Tarsus, you'll recall.
It was Saul's or Paul's birthplace. But regardless, it was going
in the exactly opposite direction from Nineveh. And as it tells
us, he was fleeing the presence of the Lord. So they set sail. We're told that the Lord sent
out a great wind into the sea and So the weather started getting
rough and Jonah's ship was tossed, and if not for the, no, they
didn't end up on Gilligan's Island. But just like that fictional
story, the storm was so bad that the sailors were fearful that
the ship would actually break into pieces. And so we're told
they all cried out, each one to their own gods. And then they
proceeded to throw their goods overboard to kind of try to lighten
the load. Meanwhile, Jonah, he was down below deck fast asleep
and the shipmaster or the captain, he goes to Jonah and he says,
Jonah, you get up and you go pray to your God like the rest
of us and maybe he'll spare us. It kind of reminds you of those
folks that kind of embrace almost any and every doctrine or any
and every religion, figuring they're going to just cover all
their bases, I guess. We're told that the mariners
then cast lots. That's their way of seeking a
divine answer. They knew this storm was of divine
making. And so they did that in order
to identify who among them had brought this trouble on. And
the lot fell on Jonah. So they started questioning Jonah.
They asked him what was his occupation, where was he from, who were his
people. And he said, I'm a Hebrew. and
I fear or reverence the Lord, the God of heaven." He said,
the creator who made the sea and the land. And so as the story
continues, we're told the mariners, they became more afraid. In their
questioning of Jonah, they learned that he had fled from the presence
of the Lord. He admitted that to them. He
says, I'm the man at fault who has forsaken God's command. So
they asked John and said, well, what shall we do with you to
calm the sea? And John says, well, throw me
overboard and the sea will calm, for I know the storm seas are
the cause of me, because of my disobedience. Well, even at that,
we're told the sailors, they rode even harder. They were hoping
to reach land and beat the storm, but that proved to be to no avail. So then they prayed to the Lord,
to the one true God, Jonah's God. They prayed that they would
not perish, and they prayed that he wouldn't hold Jonah's blood
against them as that of an innocent man, because after all, the storm
was there because Jonah was not innocent. It was because of his
disobedience. And so with that, they threw
Jonah overboard and the sea immediately calmed. And when we get, they
actually, after that, they offered a sacrifice unto the Lord. And
in the final verse of chapter 1, verse 17, we read this, 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. Now, chapter 2 opens
with Jonah's prayer. while in the fish's belly. And
our text for today, verses seven through nine, is the end of this
prayer. Beginning in verse seven, Jonah
prayed, 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 that I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord. In reading John Gill's commentary
on this passage, he made an interesting observation about that word in
verse 9 that's translated salvation. In the Hebrew, it has the same
basic meaning as it's translated elsewhere. It's a word that means
deliverance. But here, the original word translated
salvation is spelled with one more letter than is typical.
And Gill explains that this increases the sense of the word so as to
be referring to all kinds of salvation, salvation in every
aspect. So when Jonah prayed, salvation
is of the Lord, his intent there was to express his knowledge
that salvation, it wasn't just his deliverance from the belly
of the whale. But it included that. It included his temporal
deliverance, his soon-to-be deliverance from the belly of the whale.
It includes spiritual deliverance or salvation, as we sometimes
use the word, meaning that deliverance from the spiritual darkness and
the blindness, which characterizes all of us initially. That's what
God's word testifies of us. That is, prior to the new birth
and prior to God-given faith, And then certainly, as we most
commonly use the word, he's referring to eternal deliverance, deliverance
into heaven's glory for those who are saved, graciously delivered
from the guilt and the condemnation which their sins would have deserved.
But not relying merely on Gil's observation, we know for certain
that Jonah is a type of Christ and of salvation in him. We know
from the words of Christ himself, as recorded in the New Testament,
that he said he compared it to the three days that Jonah spent
in the belly of the fish, compared that and set it forth as a picture
of his own burial and resurrection on the third day. You can read
that in Matthew 12. And I just mentioned it this
morning to make sure you see that This is not a stretch in
any sense in spiritualizing Jonah's deliverance from those temporal
circumstances as a depiction of eternal salvation. See, God
the Son did this spiritualizing for us. He himself applied Jonah's
deliverance from the well to his own work of salvation, whereby
his people are eternally delivered. Well, from our text, I want you
first to notice the dichotomy that's set up between verses
8 and 9. In other words, the observation
that Joan is describing in verse 8, the observing of lying vanities,
that occurrence is mutually exclusive to. In other words, it's in opposition
to. It can't be occurring at the
same time as that which is voiced and observed in verse nine. Look
at that again, beginning with verse eight, Jonah prayed, they
that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But now in your
mind's eye, I underline that word, but in other words, Jonah
saying, now I'm going to tell you something contrary to observing
lying vanities. 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. My point in all that is that
observing lying vanities is to entertain thoughts directly opposed
to embracing the profound truth that salvation is of the Lord. In other words, he is set forth
here as we can either we believe a lie in observing lying vanities,
or we believe that truth, that salvation is of the Lord. Now, that phrase lying vanities,
that's an interesting phrase. The adjective lying, we know
that means he's referring to falsehoods. It speaks of observing
lying vanities. So we can know it refers to giving
credence to falsehoods or lies that shall prove to be in vain. That is, as in a false expectation
that will fail to be realized. Now, we can easily apply this
to eternal salvation and we should readily see this stark contrast
between observing lying vanities and embracing the truth that
salvation is of the Lord because it says what? To observe lying
vanities is to forsake mercy. The mercy that's shown to all
who are saved. And listen, that forsaking mercy,
that's what we all did and sadly many still do when we believe,
as I want to suggest, we all initially do by nature, that
salvation was not solely of the Lord. I recently had received
an email from a guy who had listened to one of my messages, a very
kind email, but he He mentioned to the fact that he often hears
from my preaching and others' preaching this fact that we always
refer to that which we repent of. You know, and he says that's
not, he kind of indicated that wasn't his story because he came
to see the truth that salvation is of the Lord, for example.
He said solely of the Lord. He said, and I wasn't a religious
person, I just started seeking and I never embraced some free
will notion that it was conditioned on me. And in my response to
him, I shared what I've often shared with folks who are raised
under the gospel. They go, well, I didn't believe
all that false religion that you believe, necessarily, Randy.
But even if you're raised under the gospel, when you first get
interested, what do you do? We all, we go, OK, I want to
go to heaven. I wonder what I got to do. no
matter how much you've heard grace. The Philippian jailer
is a perfect example of that. Here he is, he wasn't religious,
he wasn't interested in anything until God started dealing with
him and he turned to Paul and Silas and says, what must I do
to be saved? And their answer to him was,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Paul
and Silas wasn't giving that jailer something to do. No, he
was saying there's nothing you can do. You've got to believe
on the doing and the dying of another. And so I just want to
say that because oftentimes our listeners, I think, have a hard
time grasping what we feel and know when we say we all initially
by nature approach God thinking salvation is really not solely
of the Lord. Considering this now, observing
lying vanities from the context of Jonah's own circumstances,
we can see that to observe lying vanities is to think, is to act,
is to respond in ways inconsistent with the truth, with a lie. Inconsistent with the truth of
who God is as he is revealed to us in the Bible, as he had
been revealed to Jonah the prophet. The Lord, this speaks of the
triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit. Father, Son, and
Spirit, who's one, the sole author of salvation, two, who's the
executioner of salvation, and three, who is the applier of
salvation. And we're going to look at those
three descriptions of the Lord as we consider in more detail
now this one of whom salvation is said to be, the Lord, our
triune God. But for now, Know this, whenever
a true believer, like Jonah, acts in ways inconsistent with
the knowledge of God as he's revealed in the word, as he's
revealed to us in the person and work of Christ, when they
act as Jonah did in fleeing his presence, there's a sense in
which we likewise can be said to forsake our own mercy, just
as Jonah did and landed him in the belly of the whale. I think
it's interesting he used that phrase, their own mercy they
forsake. And I think that's one reason
he had in mind his own disobedience. In other words, he was including
himself as one who knew God had been eternally merciful unto
him, so he could rightly call God's mercy his own, but who
concedes that he temporarily forsook it. as he thought and
he behaved, as if God was really altogether different than he
actually knew God to be. So in using that phrase, he's
conceding, I think, this to be what he was doing. He, God's
prophet, one who had been enlightened, who had come to the Lord as a
sinner saved by grace, but who foolishly presumed here he could
flee the presence of the Lord. Think about that now. He fled
as if he could escape the presence of the omniscient, all-knowing,
omnipotent, all-powerful, listen, omnipresent, the ever-present
God. So how foolish was he in observing
by his actions such lying vanities concerning God? And in doing
so, he was typically forsaken his own mercy. He was forsaken
the very goodness of God which belongs to all the objects of
God's mercy and grace. And I say he was forsaken his
own goodness for a reason, and let me explain. Your Bible, like
mine, may have a cross-reference in verse 8 of our text to Psalm
144. There, beginning in verse 1,
the psalmist David wrote, blessed be the Lord, my strength. which
teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight. And then
look in verse two how he continues to describe the Lord. He calls
him my goodness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer,
my shield, and he in whom I trust who subdueth my people under
me. The reason this was put there as a cross reference is the same
word translated mercy in verse eight of our text is translated
here in Psalm 140. For two, as goodness. David calling
him my goodness and my deliverer. He's David's salvation. So when
we entertain thoughts inconsistent with God as he truly is, when
we think or we behave as if we believe lies about God, and I'm
talking about those who have been given the gift of faith,
who know better Well, there's a sense when we do that that
we forsake, at least temporarily, the goodness or the mercy that
God has for the objects of his everlasting love in Christ. And
before we judge Jonah too harshly, I kept, I was saying, just think
of how foolish he is. Well, think of how often we act
as if God isn't present. as if he doesn't know our every
thought and action in which we indulge. I was thinking about
this this morning. I try to have a regular time to pray each day,
and I find myself so often daydreaming, my mind wandering while I'm trying
to pray. You see, when that happens, I don't have in view God as he
is, that ever-present, all-knowing God that's there. I wouldn't
be distracted by my thoughts of the upcoming day. I believe that harboring such
a lying vanity by acting like that is mutually exclusive to
having in view that truth that our salvation is of the Lord.
See, many sinful things that I may have thought or I've said
or I've done would have never taken place, I don't think, if
at that time my mind had been on the all-knowing, ever-present
Lord. He's here with us today. Think
about that. And our hearts ought to be focused
on Him and His glory and the praise of Him. And if our thoughts
were on that mercy and grace that He's shown us in delivering
us from the just desserts of our sins, boy, I don't think,
I think it'd be hard to harbor a thought contrary to his revealed
will simultaneously, is my point. And when we follow the dictates
of our own natural senses and disobedience, or look in neglect
of the revealed will of God, in the means God has given us
to meet, to worship, to study, to pray. In other words, when
we jump on the ship to Tarsus, so to speak, we too observe lying
vanities. And in doing so, we rob ourselves
of our own chief good. We forsake our own mercy, that
which is good for us. See, sin often has its consequences,
even for true believers in this life. Think of King David and
the consequences he endured. Here he is, a child of God, a
sinner saved by grace. But he endured consequences due
to his sin. But for a believer, it's not
punishment. It's the chastisement of a loving
father. You see, thank God, the guilt,
the condemning power due unto the sins of true believers has
been completely removed. It's been borne away because
the debt before the justice of God has been paid in full for
them by the death of their substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
good news for us sinners, isn't it? Well, before we leave verse
8, I want to share with you what I found in my previous study
on this. Many equate the observing of
lying vanities with the worship of idols, and that seems very
appropriate because typically the word vanity, when it's found
in the Old Testament, when it's used in the plural, as it is
here, lying vanities, it refers to vain idols. And, you know,
if we think about it, given Sometimes we think idolatry is the stereotypical
graven image etched in stone or made out of wood that some
native is bowing down to or something, you know, and worshipping an
inanimate object. But idolatry is ascribing to
others, inanimate or animate, qualities that only belong to
God, or it's failing to ascribe qualities to God. not knowing
him as he is, that do belong to him. And so in not knowing
him as he is, we have an idol of our imagination. Well, you
can see then how this characterization of that phrase could apply in
the temporary sense to Jonah as well. And I just mention that
because far more important than that temporary failure in observing
lying vanities, is to persist in that failure spiritually.
As we look to the ground or basis of our salvation, you see, for
to observe a lying vanity there has eternal ramifications. All sinners who are saved, they
start out observing lying vanities in that sense. In other words,
with a vain idol in their minds. How can it be any other way when
the scripture describes us as coming in this world in darkness?
As none understandeth, as none that will seek him, all gone
out of the way. But by God's grace, under the
sound of this gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ, you
see, they are spiritually delivered. His people are, so as to see
that their eternal deliverance is solely of the Lord, the one
true and living God. Look again at verse 9. Jonah
ended his prayer saying, but I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed
salvation is of the Lord. Here Jonah is speaking of a sacrifice,
a sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving. He's speaking of
a spiritual sacrifice. praise and thanksgiving. As the
psalmist wrote, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. From Jonah's prayer, we see this
describes him as he came to remember the Lord, remember when his soul
fainted. He's acknowledging God as he
is now in contrast to that lying vanity. He's saying, I will pay
that or I will ascribe to the Lord what he is due. I will ascribe to him that which
I vowed as in my profession of faith when I saw that salvation
in every aspect is truly of the Lord. And that's the manner which
Jonah's addressing here in his voice of thanksgiving. He's thankful
that salvation is of the Lord. That's not forsaking mercy. No,
that's showing a desperate need for it. This is voiced by one
who, he's been reminded, hasn't he, of that desperate need for
mercy. And he's one who's now banking
on it. So we're going to spend the rest of this morning just
considering this glorious truth that salvation is of the Lord.
For salvation is of the Lord, the Lord who is sovereign. God does as he pleases. He does
according to his own purpose and will in all things, including
salvation. You know, whenever one of the
objects of God's everlasting love is put in the spiritual
sense, put into Jonah's position, and listen, put we are, they
too will turn to God. with complete recognition that
salvation is solely and totally of the Lord. Remember again in
verse 7, Jonah said, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered
the Lord. God, we read, had prepared this
fish. And in his, Jonah's desperate
circumstances, his soul fainted. He was brought to remembrance
that he was at the mercy of the Lord. that he could do nothing
to deliver himself from the belly of this fish just as he could
do nothing to save himself eternally. His salvation was entirely of
the Lord. And likewise, God puts his people
at some point in their lives in a place where their souls
faint, where they come to recognize the utter impossibility of saving
themselves and so they They recognize, whoa, I really do need mercy
now. God says of himself through the
prophet Isaiah that he's a God that declares the end from the
beginning. He providentially orders every circumstance of
the lives of his people to ensure that they all will, without fail,
they're going to come to Christ. They're going to come to know
him as their merciful savior. And listen, if you're here today,
Or for any who hear this message, just as sure as he put Jonah,
he prepared that fish for Jonah, he puts you here. He puts his
people all at some point in time under the sound of the gospel
of grace. And by his grace, they'll come
to him for all their salvation in recognition. And listen, as
we heard in the 10 o'clock hour, in submission to. Submission
to this truth that salvation is solely and totally of the
sovereign Lord. Somebody's putting in Jonah's
position of helplessness in the spiritual sense. So as to discover
they really cannot do one thing to even contribute towards saving
themselves when their souls faint. They then will submit to God's
sovereignty in salvation. And then in thanksgiving and
praise, with a broken spirit. They'll rejoice that they have
been given, that God-given understanding that their salvation is indeed
of the Lord. He brings us to see that there
in salvation accomplished by Christ alone and only there is
there true assurance. Think about that. There's a certainty
of salvation. Because it's all conditioned
on one that cannot fail, God himself, God manifested in the
flesh. And so as such, they no longer
forsake mercy. No, they've got to have it. They
become mercy beggars. The word that's translated Lord
in verse 9 is the word Jehovah. You often see it in my Bible,
you see it in all capitals often. And when you see that, it's referring
to Jehovah, the self-existent Eternal God that saves and all
a salvation is of him the eternal triune Godhead Listen all salvation
all temporal deliverance from our difficulties all eternal
deliverance is of him and by him and through him that he might
receive all glory forever and Now we see clearly from God's
Word how salvation is of Jehovah in all three persons of the Godhead. Salvation is of Jehovah, God
the Father, of Jehovah, God the Son, and Jehovah, God the Holy
Spirit. Salvation is of Jehovah, God
the Father, as to its origination. God chose a people. As we read
in 2 Timothy 1.9, It speaks of God who has saved
us and called us within holy calling, not according to our
own works, but look, according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. How could you have anything to
do with saving yourselves? You weren't even born then. In
what is called the everlasting covenant of grace, God the Father
chose a people unto salvation in Christ. We see that further
in Ephesians 1, beginning in verse 3, we read, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Look at verse 4. According as he hath 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 into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. And then skipping down to verse
11, in whom, speaking of Christ, also we have obtained an inheritance. I love that word. You can't earn
one of those. You have to be born into an inheritance. Being predestinated according
to the purpose of him, God the Father who worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. You know, several times
I've been told by someone, I just can't go along with your doctrine
of election. Look at these words. As you can
see, it's not my doctrine. It's God's doctrine. It's only
my doctrine because I've been graciously shown it's God's doctrine. And that ought to be good enough
for you to make it your doctrine. For those who refuse to embrace
this unmistakably clear doctrine of the Bible, I suggest this.
Think. Think about the alternative. In fact, think about the implications
of denying election. I ask you, who then is your salvation
of? See, one who denies the doctrine
of election, they can't reasonably claim to be that their salvation's
by the grace of God. Because grace means a favor that
is totally unmerited, unearned by the recipient. And so that's
not salvation that is of the Lord. And it's a God altogether
different from Jonah's God, from the true and living God of the
Bible. This one we just read of, who worketh all things. after the counsel of His own
will, the sovereign God of this universe. You know, many like
myself in years past, I thought I believed that God was sovereign,
that He does as He pleases in many ways. And you know, that's
typically brought on by some circumstance in life where you
figure out, you know, I'm really not in control. But if you don't
believe God is sovereign in all things, listen, including and
especially in salvation. By default, you're relegated
to believing that then it's got to be conditioned on you, at
least in some way. And that's trusting in salvation
by something that comes from you, your own works. Now, like
me, you can call it grace. You can call it grace all you
like, but calling it grace doesn't make it so. Let's be willing
to really examine what our thoughts are about the ground and the
basis of our salvation to see if it's grace. Salvation condition
in any way on the center is not salvation by grace, and it's
not to believe that salvation is of the Lord. What it is is
to observe a lying vanity. It's forsaking, listen, the mercy
of God that is so full so free, so graciously brought near to
you in this God's gospel, in his way of salvation by grace,
a way that's all based on his doing and dying, whereby he gets
all the glory. It's based on his righteousness,
not something that proceeds from you, a presumed righteousness
of your own making. You know, continue to think on
this. I've said in the past, you've
heard this, grace necessitates election. If you deny the biblical
doctrine of election, you're forced then to believe in a way
of salvation that's not the way of grace, not the way set forth
in the Bible. And hear me out. It's really
simple. If it is not all of God, then
what's left? The only thing left is to presume
there's got to be a distinction which lies with you, the sinner.
Something that you do or comes forth from you, which you presume
then to make the real difference in your salvation. And if that's
the case, you don't need mercy and grace. You just need to meet
whatever that prescribed condition is. Accept Jesus as your personal
savior, invite him into your heart, profess him before me
and get baptized, whatever. But by that way of thinking,
you simply, in your mind's eye, you've got to just exercise that
which now, listen, we didn't think of it this way, but which
exposes you now to be a better sinner than someone else, at
least better enough now to earn or merit God's favor for yourself
that someone else wouldn't do. Do you see? That's not God's gospel. It's
not his way of salvation by grace. It's a false gospel. You know,
the natural reply to these scriptures, I know I had this very same thought
myself when I was confronted with them. These scriptures that
make it so clear that God is the sole author and originator
of our salvation The response is why, wait a minute, that would
mean God's not fair. And you say, well, what do you
mean by that? Well, what you're saying is there's nothing I could
do to get saved. Think about this. Here's another
way of saying it. We didn't put it this way. In
other words, we were saying God wouldn't be fair if my eternal
destiny really was totally dependent on the mercy and the grace of
God. And Paul dealt with that very
objection in Romans 9. In verse 13, he had made note
of the record of the Old Testament of how it says, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau, his twin brother, have I hated. And we read right
before that that he said this was true before they were ever
born, when neither one of them had done any good or any evil. And when we get to verse 14,
Paul asks them the rhetorical question that's always on all
of our minds by nature. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? In other words, is God, is He
being unjust in His sovereign choice of a people? Is He being
unfair? And look at His answer. God forbid,
for He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
We, you know, by nature, we just don't like to submit to that.
And he says, so, then it is not of him that willeth. So much
for your free will decision to accept Jesus. It's not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, nor is it anything,
any effort from you, but of God that showeth mercy. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's not conditioned on the sinner.
It's not conditioned on his will. It's not conditioned on his efforts.
But salvation is totally of the Lord that showeth mercy. It's
of Jehovah, God the Father in the origination of it. And secondly,
it's of Jehovah, God the Son in the execution of it. You know,
if you're going to see the real necessity of Christ's work here
on earth, if you're going to see the certain efficacy of his
work here on earth, it's important to understand what God requires,
what's required for a sinner to be saved. And the Bible teaches
that our holy God requires perfection, perfect satisfaction to his law
and justice. That's righteous, that's what
righteousness is, justice satisfied. Acts 17 teaches that God will
judge the world in righteousness. Now, how righteous do we need
to be? Well, it says there He's going to judge us by the righteousness
of the one He appointed, the one whom He raised from the dead.
We must be then as righteous as Christ, God manifest in the
flesh, the spotless, unblemished, sinless Lamb of God who knew
no sin. All who are saved, yeah, must
have a righteousness that measures up to his. And listen, I can't
produce that, and you can't either. Remember in Christ's Sermon on
the Mount, how he told them, unless their righteousness, Bill
covered that in the 10 o'clock hour as well, how it exceeded
that of the most moral of their day, the scribes and the Pharisees. He said, except it exceed theirs,
you'll in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. That begs
the question, doesn't it? Well then, how righteous do I
need to be? Well, he tells us in the last verse of Matthew
5 how much it must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees
when he says, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect. See, God's holy and he can't
accept nothing less. We need to quit worrying about
have you accepted Jesus and get our minds on how can a holy God
accept me, a sinner, a God who's holy? He requires perfection.
See, only the Lord Jesus Christ, by his redeeming substitutionary
obedience unto death, could and did satisfy perfectly the justice
of God the Father. And he did it in the place of,
as a substitute for, all of the chosen objects of God's everlasting
love and mercy and grace. And see, thereby God's aim to
be glorified in the hearts of those he saves is realized. As
they see God's glory in the person and work of Christ, they see
God as he is in a way that they don't see in creation. They don't
see in the other acts of God that they uniquely see in Christ
where every attribute, all those qualities that we must describe
to God if we're not worshiping an idol. They see all of them
set forth. They see there how he can be
both a just God and a Savior. In other words, we see how he
could save sinners not by saying, well, if you'll do your part,
I'll just overlook your sins and dispense with my holy justice? No. No. He deals with their sins. His justice being perfectly satisfied
by Christ's obedience unto death. Christ paid the debt in full
that was owed unto the Father's justice for the sins of his elect. See, salvation is truly of Jehovah
God the Son because he fully accomplished what the Bible says
he came to do. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. He has saved his people from
their sins. Back in Ephesians 1, beginning
at verse 6, we read, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein
he hath made us accepted in the beloved, that's Christ, the beloved
Son of the Father, in whom we have redemption through his blood. the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. Only the death of the God-man
could and did get the job done. But it's Christ that did that,
not you or me. He did that. How does that which
he earned and merited do you or me any good? Well, for that
answer, look in 2 Corinthians 5. Beginning in verse 17, we
read, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, that is, made one
with him, put in Christ from all eternity, as we just read,
made, accepted in the beloved. He's a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ. And he hath given, he's speaking
to the believers here in Corinth, he says he hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation. To wit, or namely, that God was
in Christ reconciling the world, the world, you remember, only
the Jews prior to this had had the gospel in those pictures
and types under the old covenant. He's saying now he's reconciling
the world, Jews and Gentiles, people from every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. That
means not charging them with their own sins. And he hath committed
unto us, the believers, the word of reconciliation. That's the
gospel. So now then, we're ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech or
beg you by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, be you reconciled
to God. Well, how, on what basis? For
he hath made him to be sin for us. Him who knew no sin. God the Father made God the Son
to be sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. In Romans 4 verses 6 through
8, David speaks of those who are blessed, those to whom God
imputes righteousness and does not impute sin. God's imputed
or charged, see, the guilt and the merit of all the sins of
all he saves to Christ's account. And in turn, he's imputed or
charged the merit of Christ's perfect work of obedience unto
death, his righteousness to their accounts. Now that's what 2 Corinthians
5.21 declares to us. And listen, hereby we know, we
can see how salvation is truly of grace. That is how it's unmerited,
unearned by those who are saved, and we see how it's so because
we see how it was most certainly earned and merited for them by
their Savior, Jehovah God the Son. As we've taught from the
opening verses of Romans 10, if we're ignorant or refuse to
submit to His righteousness as the only ground or basis of our
salvation, By default, we're trying to meet the conditions
or requirements ourselves. It says there, it describes it
as going about to establish a righteousness of our own. Well, that's self-righteousness. That's a lying vanity. And it
will prove to be in vain because it falls terribly short of meeting
the requirement of a holy God. And so to think that, to go about
to try to meet a condition yourself, that's a denial of grace and
it's forsaken the mercy of God in salvation. If salvation's
any other way than based solely on the merits of Christ's person
and work, in other words, that perfect obedience to the law,
all of God's revealed will and His death, you see, for He did
that for sinners. The payment in full, due unto
the justice of God, had to be paid for all those he saved. And only his infinitely valuable
blood could do that. A sinner's suffering in hell
forever never pays that debt. And listen, if salvation's any
other way, It's not God's way of salvation by grace. It's a
false gospel. It's a denial that salvation
is truly of the Lord. Salvation, though, is of the
Lord, of Jehovah God in the origination of it. Salvation is of the Lord,
Jehovah God the Son in its execution. And then finally, salvation is
of the Lord, of Jehovah God the Holy Spirit in the application
of it. Looking again in Ephesians 1,
in verse 13, it speaks of Christ. in whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. There's
that inheritance again. Can't earn one of those. The
earnest of it until the redemption of the purchased possession.
You see, those who are saved are a purchased people, paid
for by the blood of Christ. unto the praise of His glory.
This is speaking here. Here's what's going on. He's
saying after you, as you believe, you're sealed. If you come to
trust in Christ alone for all of your salvation, looking to
His righteousness alone, it's only by God's intervention, the
work of the Spirit that you can do that. And by that work, and
coming to Him in faith, it's like you've got the earnest money.
You've got the guarantee of the redemption, that is, redeemed
to heaven's glory of what Christ paid for on the cross. Paul continues
in verse 17, he exhorts them to pray that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Here's what
happens in regeneration and conversion. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, the saints, those set apart from all eternity. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe, and how do we believe? according
to the working of His mighty power, that same life-giving
power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead
and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.
Without this life-giving work of the Holy Spirit, and applying
to our hearts a love for the truth, the gospel of God's grace,
this, His way of salvation, Without the Holy Spirit's intervention,
not a single one of us will come to Jonah's God, the God of this
Bible, because it's just not in our nature to do so. As I
mentioned from Romans 3, Romans 3.12 says we've all gone out
of the way. Prior to that, it says that there's
none that understands, there's none that seek after God. So
if left to ourselves, look, we might get some religion, and
many do. But unless God intervenes, we'll
all choose the broad way that leads to destruction. Let me
close with this. Like Jonah, God has a command
for you. He commands all to come to Christ
and plead his righteousness for salvation, nothing more and nothing
less, and to repent of any other notions. He says in the scripture,
believe in your heart, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved, but he adds in Romans 10.10, For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness. Well, after Jonah ended his prayer
from the fish's belly, in verse 10 of chapter 2 we read, and
the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon
the dry land. Jonah was delivered from the
belly of that great fish that God had prepared for him, and
all God had to do was just speak, and it happened. Jonah, see,
was delivered by the same almighty power that spoke the world into
the existence. It said, let there be light,
and there was light. And that same all-powerful God will speak
to the hearts of all his people at some time in their respective
lifetimes, and he'll do it through this preached gospel. And I hope
he's spoken to yours today.