Good evening. Just in case anyone didn't know, our pastor and Hannah are in Lexington, Kentucky tonight, where he's preaching at Todd's Road Grace Church. If you would open your Bibles back to Jonah, chapter two. Jonah, chapter two. The title of this message comes from that last phrase in verse 9 of Jonah 2 that says, salvation is of the Lord. This is a phrase that in a way is a summation of what this entire book is telling us, that salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe that if we went out into the world and asked just about anybody who said that they were a Christian, and said, do you believe that salvation is of the Lord? That almost unanimously, you would get the answer, oh yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely, I believe that. But I sometimes think this phrase, along with others, is often, in religion, just read over. It's a phrase that people say and they just rolls off the tongue without really even thinking about what it means.

An example of this is one day I was somewhere at a sports field. One of my kids was playing a game and there was somebody that I knew through that, didn't know them before but just had seen them and they were wearing a religious t-shirt. And on the back of that t-shirt had a verse written, and I don't even remember what the verse was, but it was largely written across the back of the shirt. And I saw it, I didn't know what the verse said off the top of my head, so I pulled my phone out real quick and read it. I was like, okay, that's what it means, or that's what it says, and that's why they have that on their shirt. And a few minutes later, in a conversation with them, they said something, and it was, the Lord had just made them say something to where I immediately thought to myself, wow. And I said something from the verse that I had just looked up that was on their shirt. And they looked at me like, huh? And I was like, yeah, yeah, like, like the verse on your shirt. And they were like, huh? And I was on the back of your shirt. There's a Bible verse.

And they were like, you know, looked at like, oh, and I was like, yeah, I just said what was in the verse. And they were like, oh, oh, I don't know. And I just was like, so you're wearing a shirt that has religious stuff on it with a verse on it, and you are openly saying that you have no idea what the verse says and had never even heard anything about it. And that sums up religion in a lot of ways. We just say things and go about our business and do things and just, it is what it is.

Salvation's of the Lord. But often if we get a little deeper into these phrases, Sometimes minds are changed. If we said, do you believe salvation is of the Lord? By that, it means that if you're going to be saved, it's going to be by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, I think some people might, hmm, you know, you might lose somebody on that. Or what if we said salvation is of the Lord in its origination? You know, our Lord planned and purposed the redemption of his people from the beginning of time. Well, I feel confident that you would lose some people in that one. What if we said salvation is of the Lord in its execution, in the performance of it, that God the Father is the first cause of all that took place in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, I think you'd find some people that were like, oh, I don't know about that one. And what if we went a little farther and said, Salvation is of the Lord in its application. That God's people are made willing in the day of His power and you have absolutely nothing to do and your will plays no part in salvation. Well, I think we all know that we'd get a lot of people who might bristle to that one. But that's just what salvation is of the Lord means.

I think it's very important that we often take a moment and focus on ourselves when we have these kind of issues. I just said that there's a lot of people who might find fault with this or this or this when it refers to salvation is of the Lord. Well, the one thing that really matters to you and I is what do I think about salvation of the Lord? I'm gonna take a few minutes. I'm just quickly gonna go through stuff. And I want us each individually, while I'm going through this, I want to think about it. And I want you to think to yourself, do I believe that salvation is of the Lord? Now what I'm going to say, almost all the words are going to be verses of Scripture and things from this book.

So it's the truth. And don't just hear that I'm going to say the truth and you're like, well, I'm going to believe that. I mean, don't we often find out that we believe things that were not the truth? Just last night, an 8, 9, and 10-year-old said something to me, and I immediately was like, well, that's not true. And they were like, yes, it is. And I said, no, it's not, guys. Not even giving them the consideration that it was true. And a few minutes later, one of them persisted and said, just look it up. And I was like, fine.

I'm going to show you I'm right and you're wrong. Well, I pulled it up, and the first thing that came to my head is, well, how can I turn this to make it like I was actually kind of right? Because they were right, and I was wrong. Just because something's the truth doesn't mean we believe it. So I'm going to tell you what the Word of God says, and for a couple minutes, listen to this and think to yourself, is this what I believe?

Salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ in its origination. Our Lord planned and purposed the redemption of his people from the beginning of time. In 2 Thessalonians 2.13, it says, We are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. He chose you from the beginning to salvation. Our Lord Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Salvation is too splendid and too wise to have been the product of any mind except the one which could accomplish it."

Listen to this. This is from an older pastor. Suppose that God had called a council of angels together and declared to them, the man that I shall create will rebel against me. I will punish all sin. My justice and my law demand that I do so. But I intend to show mercy because God is love.

Tell me, how can my law be honored and the demands of my justice be fulfilled that mercy may reign? Where shall mercy and truth meet together? Where shall righteousness and peace kiss each other? How can God be just and the justifier of sinners who believe? those angels would still be sitting there in silence today.

Only God can plan and accomplish salvation. Turn with me to Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46. What I'm saying here is that the greatest minds in the world that have ever lived could not even fathom or come up with one singular tiny little part of what God did in salvation. Let alone accomplish it, but I mean just come up with the concept of it.

Isaiah 46 verse 9 says, Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it." He says, it's not just that I speak it, but I'm also the one who will make it come to pass. I'm not just the one who purposes it to happen, I will be the one who does it.

Salvation is of the Lord in its origination. Now, what about salvation is of the Lord in its execution? God the Father made the beloved, God the Son, and only begotten Son, our surety, our representative, and the federal head of an elect people, chosen in Him and given to Him to redeem and bring to glory. Turn with me real quick to John chapter 10. John chapter 10, verse 14 of John chapter 10.

I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." Look at verse 24. Then came the Jews round about him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believe not.

The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

In Adam we died, in Christ we live. Romans says, wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sin. In Adam, we were made sinners. In Christ, we're made righteous. It says in Romans 5, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, many be made righteous. And in Adam, we were separated from God, but in Christ, we are brought to God. In 1 Peter, it says, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins. The just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.

The Father is the first cause of all that took place in the work of our Redeemer. Listen to this verse. He hath made him to be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. Now, I'm going to read the verse again, but I'm going to clarify this because it's important we know who is who in this. He, the Father, hath made Him, the Son, to be sin for us, the sinner, who knew no sin, because Christ was perfect, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. End that verse. God, the Father, and the Son do everything. We're the sinners, and what do we get? That we are made righteousness in Christ.

It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Even those who planned His death, those that betrayed Him, tried Him, scourged Him, nailed Him to the cross, and put Him in the tomb, did exactly what God determined before to be done. Christ died not as a reformer, nor an example, nor to gain the pity of men. He died as the substitute, the sin offering and sacrifice for His people. As the blood atonement on the mercy seat of old was offered before the Lord, Christ Jesus, by one offering before the Lord perfected forever them that are sanctified.

The Father ordained and pictured for us in the Old Testament all that our Lord would do for our redemption, and He died according to the Scriptures. He did that. Now lastly, salvation is of the Lord in its application. The freewheeler might say, no, no, God has done all that he can do. He's given his son, he's provided salvation, now it's up to us to want it, to seek it, to accept it. Can the dead sinner give himself life? Can the lost sheep find itself? Can the unregenerate begat themselves? Can the Ethiopian change his skin?

No, his people The Lord's people are made willing in the day of his power. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. It's his word that does it. We receive Christ and believe on his name because we are born of God. Paul summed up his call in these words found in Galatians 1. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son, All of that was hopefully a little deeper so that we can understand what it means when we say salvation is of the Lord.

Now, I want to take a few more minutes, the rest of my time, and I want to look at this story. Now, my focus is not going to be on Jonah, yet we need to know the story of Jonah. So I'm gonna give us a quick one to two minute refresher of what happened to Jonah in this story. So if we look back in Jonah, let me tell you this quickly, and I know I'm gonna skim over some of these things, but we just have to know the basics for what the part I really want us to see.

The Lord came to Jonah and said, go to Nineveh. I want you to go there and tell those people, cry against them and tell them their wickedness has come up before me. Jonah got up the next morning and fleed unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Jonah was told something very specific to do, and he did not do it.

And it says here, he fled from the presence of the Lord. The margin there gives a scripture, and it's when Cain fled from the Garden of Eden in the area there where the Lord created for Adam and Eve, when he fled. This is not he's disobeying. This is he wants to leave from God. Now, kids, let me give you guys an example. Listen to me here real quick, okay? Now, I know you guys are all really well-behaved, but let's imagine, okay? Let's just imagine that you do this, okay?

One day, your mom or dad comes to you and says, I want you to go to your room right now and I want you to clean it. I want it to be perfect. I have to go outside to do something, but I want you to go into your room right this moment and clean it up. And not just move a couple things around. I want you to clean your room. Okay? Don't do anything else. Don't come out of that room until you're done. So your mom or dad turns around, leaves, walks out the door, and they're going to do something outside. So you immediately turn around from your room, walk to the other side of the house, turn the TV on, and start watching a TV show.

Now, do any of you children in that moment have a really good excuse for what you did? Now maybe you guys thought when they said, go right now and clean your room, that what they actually meant was, you go do what you want to do. You think that's what it is? Or maybe you thought to yourself, you know what?

This person doesn't realize that I'm the parent here, and they're the kid. I'm in charge around here. Or maybe you thought to yourself, well, I'm going to go watch TV. And when they come in here and they try to punish me, I'm going to let them know who's in charge. I'm going to show them who has the power. I'm going to put them in time now. You know, if they get really crazy with me, I might just give them the spanking. I'm going to show them who's in charge.

Now, I know you kids are too smart that you'd never do anything like that, right? I mean, that just sounds crazy, doesn't it? You would have no excuse when your parent came in and found you watching TV, your room wasn't picked up, you couldn't say any of that stuff.

You knew that you were wrong, right? Well, do we think Jonah, in this moment, thought to himself, when the Lord said, go to Nineveh, he thought, you know, I think he really wants me to go to Tarshish. Or do you think when he got up in the morning, he thought, you know, I'm the one who knows best about what we're going to do here, so I'm going to go where I need to go. Or do you thought that maybe he thought, I'm the one in control, I'm in the power, the Lord can't do anything to me if I go where I want to go. Of course, that's all just complete foolishness, right?

And thankfully, that not only does the Lord not let us flee from him, but he brings us and makes us to say later on, from the heart, salvations of the Lord. He doesn't let us flee. He doesn't let us go away. But do you know what we actually need? What we need is sometimes to be told what we already know. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the truth. Sometimes we just have to be shown who's in control. Sometimes we have to be reminded who has the power.

I promise, kids, if when I just said that you thought that was crazy, I'd never do that, you're gonna do it. Everyone in this room has done it. We have all been told something, knew exactly what we were told to do, knew exactly what we wanted, and we just decided that we were gonna do what we wanted to do. Our sinful nature makes us do things that it just makes no sense whatsoever. And again, thankfully, our God will not let us go. We're in His hand. He keeps us. So Jonah thought he'd go where he would go. He bought a fare on a ship to Tarshish, and he went on that ship, and he went below deck, and he went to sleep.

Now I don't know about you all, but when I do something I shouldn't do, when I'm stressed about something, when I'm worried about something, I can't sleep. Jonah had no second thoughts about what he was doing. Just sleeping. Not just sleeping, this isn't three o'clock in the morning, you're really tired and you're in your bed and you're comfortable. No, he's in the bottom of a ship and there's a hurricane outside. All the men on the ship were panicking, and the captain of the ship ran down, and what did they call him? Oh, Sleeper. You sleeper. That's all they know about him.

They say, get up and call upon your God. If so be that God will think upon us that we won't die. So they brought everybody together, and Jonah comes up, and they're casting lots. Now for you kids, what this basically is, is say there's a group of you and you're going to play tag.

And you can't figure out who's going to be it. Everybody wants to be it or nobody wants to be it. So you take a pencil and you swing it up in the air and it lands on the ground. Whoever it's pointing at, that person's it. Well, this is kind of what they did. They're thinking, somebody did something wrong. We're going to figure out who it is. So we'll just leave it up to chance. Well, who did it point to? Jonah. Jonah hadn't said a word yet. I think he realized what was going on here, but he didn't say a word. But when the lot was cast on him, they said, who are you? What do you do? What's going on here? He said, I'm a Hebrew.

I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Let's not forget, Jonah is a prophet of God. The Lord went to him specifically and told him to go speak to people. This is not just someone who, you know, just learned what was going on or someone who's not sure whether... This is someone the Lord had sent to speak on his behalf.

And he told them who he was and what he'd done. And they said, why'd you do this? He said, what are we going to do? So Jonah said to them, take me up, cast me forth into the sea, so the sea shall be calm unto you, because I know that I'm the reason why this storm is here. He says all that, and you know what they do?

They throw him in the water. They throw him to his death. And what happens? Jonah being thrown overboard, he's a willing sacrifice for all those people. He is going to be tossed over, and he knows what's going to happen. He's thrown into the middle of the sea. He's thrown to his death. He knows what's going to happen.

Well, a whale comes along and swallows him, and he's in the belly for three days and three nights. I'm not a marine biologist, but I feel very confident that if I were in the belly of a whale for three days, I would not come out unscathed. He's in there for three days, three nights, and the Lord brings him out, spits him up on the shore, and what does Jonah do?

He says all this in verse two that we heard, and at the end he says, salvation's of the Lord. No matter how much I fought it, no matter how much I hate it, no matter how much I want to be in charge and control whatever, the Lord has shown me salvation is of the Lord. Now that story is wonderful. I love illustrations and pictures of salvation being of the Lord. But I want us to look at the other people in this real quick. It won't take very long. We'll go through this quickly. Who are the other people in this? The people that are on this ship. These sailors. These people on here. Why does everything in our lives have to be so elaborate and bizarre and strange and unpredictable? Why are they all that way? Well, one, because we're not smart enough to see everything in the big picture. But two, it's because the Lord does all these things for His glory and for our good.

Could the Lord have made Jonah go to Nineveh when He told him? Of course He could have. Of course He could have. Jonah could have got on the wrong ship and He could have made the wind blow and that ship go right to Nineveh. He could have done anything He wanted to make him go to Nineveh, but He didn't. And why didn't He? Because these sailors on this ship Turn back here to the beginning.

In verse 3 of Jonah 1 says, Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa. He found a ship going to Tarshish. Just so happened on this day there was a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid his fare to get on it and went down into it and that's when he went to sleep. Verse four, but the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. These sailors were going to Tarshish. These were experienced sailors. This is what they did. They sailed on the sea.

A storm came up, and the description of, so that the ship was like to be broken. In my margin it says, so that the ship thought to be broken. This ship could not be broken, because the Lord didn't want it to be broken. Think about it. These men on this ship were 100% convinced the ship was going to break. It says they thought it was going to be broken. The wind was blowing like the ship would be broken. They're thinking to themselves, at any second, this ship is going to break and we're going to die. Verse 5, then the mariners, the sailors, were afraid.

They cried every man unto his God, little G, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. This storm was so bad that they all immediately just started praying to any God they could think of. In the same way that there are plenty of people who have no interest in any God or religion whatsoever, but put into a certain situation and immediately it's like, God, please save me.

God, please save me. When we get in these situations, we're desperate. What did these sailors all realize in this moment? I can't save myself. At any moment this ship's going under, and this is desperation, somebody please, your God, my God, I don't care whose God it is, somebody save me.

Then they started taking everything on the ship that wasn't attached and throwing it over. They had stuff on the ship to protect themselves. They were throwing out all their weapons, their defenses. They had plenty of supplies on the ship for the whole journey. I don't care about the rest of the journey, we got to make it through the next five minutes. So they started throwing everything overboard.

They have food that they've got to have in order to survive the rest of the journey. Who cares about the food? We've got to survive right now. Let's throw the food overboard. They threw every single thing they could throw overboard. What could it be? But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.

Verse 6, so the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, what meanest thou, O sleeper? What in the world are you doing? How are you doing it? How are you still asleep in this? In these ships, they oftentimes had beds and things that would move a little bit with the water. But when the ship is turning sideways, I mean, he's being thrown everywhere. There's no way you could sleep through this. They say, what are you doing?

Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that that God will think upon us that we will perish not. They all had been chanting and praying and yelling to all the gods they could think of, and they thought, wait a minute, there's one more person on this ship. Maybe they know of a god that they can pray to and that'll save us. Verse 7. And they said, everyone to his fellow, they said to each other, come, we're desperate.

We have no idea why this is happening. This is not a storm that we can explain. This is something totally different. For them to think in this moment that what they need is to cast lots, they realize this is not, we can't do this ourselves. We need some kind of intervention here.

So they say, let's cast lots and we're gonna find out who the person is who's caused this evil. How desperate do they have to be? They're just going to draw numbers, spin a stick, figure out who on this ship we're going to kill. Who's the person we've got to get rid of?

Because something's got to happen. They'll cast lots and verse seven, come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots and a lot fell upon Jonah. You notice that Jonah had been brought above board and told to pray. We can't figure out what's going on here, why this is.

Jonah didn't say a word. He didn't say anything. He knew what was going on. He didn't say a word until they cast lots. And I don't know how many people were on this ship, eight, 10, 20, I don't know. But you know Jonah in the moment that happened and it fell to Jonah, he thought, I guess I have to admit this. I guess I have to say what I've done.

Verse 8, When the lot fell on him, they said unto him, Tell us, please, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is your occupation? What's your job? Where did you come from? What's your country? What people art thou? Tell us. Why is this happening to us?

Verse 9, and Jonah said unto them, I'm a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. And he tells them what he's done. He tells them the story. Verse 10, they say, then were the men exceedingly afraid. A few verse ago, they were afraid. Now they're exceedingly afraid, with great fear.

And said unto him, why hast thou done this? He told him what he did. God told me to go to Nineveh, and I didn't. I came here instead. And they're all looking at him like, why did you do that? Isn't it easy in hindsight often to think, well that was such a dumb thing to do. Well, we just don't know better. were just sinners. They were exceedingly afraid, and why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he told them, verse 11, then said they unto him, what shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous? They understand from what Jonah has told them, this is the reason. And they look at him and say, what are we going to do? We've got to do something. Verse 12, and he said unto them, take me up, and cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." I feel pretty confident all of those sailors were pretty shocked by this sentence of him. I know me personally. I'd have been like Joan on the front end, and I would have not volunteered any information. And the lot fell upon me, I would have said, well, you didn't toss it high enough. Like, that's not, that wasn't mine. That was, that was this guy right here. You, that's the wrong person. It's not my fault. I am not saying all these things.

And then for him to say the truth and then to say, I'm willingly going to sacrifice myself for all of you. He says, throw me overboard. He said, and everything will be okay. Verse 13, nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not. These sailors, Jonah told them, throw me overboard. It's going to be fine. And they didn't do it right away. They tried again. They thought, you know what? Let's give it one more go and see if we can save ourselves. Let's row hard. Let's do this. We can do this. We can survive this without doing that.

But they couldn't. They couldn't do it. They could not, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them." It says, it was more and more tempestuous. Do you know what this meant? This means that the harder they rode and the harder that they tried to get to safety and to save themselves, the storm got worse. All of these things I'm saying, I'm hoping you're seeing this is such a picture of us. that boy, the harder and harder we try to save ourselves, the more we're swimming upstream and the recourse is gonna be awful. If we're a child of God, he is going to correct us. But the more we row upstream, boy, it's gonna be worse and worse. So they couldn't do it.

They finally came to the place, they cried unto the Lord, and they said to him, now this is capital L, this is now these men on this ship are no longer talking to the little G-gods, they now are talking to this god of Jonah. And they say unto the Lord, we beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon our innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased. They're saying here, don't put this on our hands. We're going to have to kill this man. We're going to have to throw him overboard.

He says, but they've come to this great realization that the Lord makes all of us see. Oh, Lord, you have done as you please. Nothing I can do to stop you. There's nothing I can do to control anything. You are in control. You're the one who's done what you please. So in verse 15, so they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea. Jonah didn't fight it. He let them pick him up, throw him off the ship. And the moment that Jonah went under that water, the sea ceased from her raging. The sea stood still. So in this moment, these men are being tossed back and forth on the ship. And for a while now, they have thought to themselves, any second now, this ship is going to crumble and we're all going to die.

Never seen a storm like this, ever. And if any of you have ever been in a storm, When a storm is really bad, what do we do? We look for a break in the storm. We try to find, well, it's died down a little bit. Maybe it's ready to stop. We look off in the distance and we see some sunlight. We think, ah, maybe it's going to pass soon.

The moment Jonah went under that water, And you know, they watched him. You know, those men on that sea, when they tossed him overboard, they knew what they were doing to him. They watched him as he went over and they saw him go under the water. And the moment they saw him go into the water, they went. Where'd the clouds go? Where'd the rain go? The water's like glass. What just happened? They were seeing in this moment.

Through this story, they had already realized, I can't save myself. They had realized that the disobedience to the true and living God had one outcome, and it's death. The wrath of God that is pictured here as this huge tornado, this huge hurricane, this crazy wind, can only be satisfied with blood, with a willing sacrifice. That's the only way for us to survive. That's the only way.

And they saw when he went down that they were safe. I think that those men throwing him overboard thought to themselves, I don't know if this is going to work. Has there ever been a moment in the history of sailing on the open seas, and this type of stuff happened all the time, has there ever been a moment where they're all in the middle of a storm thinking they're going to die and they're going to blame somebody, and the moment they blame that person, everything was good. This, I think, was the only time in history anything like that ever happened. And why did it happen?

Verse 16, then the men feared the Lord exceedingly. The beginning of this, it talked about how they were so afraid. They were fearful. And then it talked, they were exceedingly afraid of this storm and what was going to happen to them and all these things. What are they afraid of now? The Lord Jesus Christ. They've been shown who he is. They've been shown his power. They've been shown what he can do. The men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Why did Jonah do what he did? Why did he disobey God? Why did he do that? He meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

These men on this ship, these sailors, were shown who they were, were shown who God was, and were shown that salvation is of the Lord. This story and the way this happened of Jonah is one of those stories as a child, when we hear it, we think to ourselves, come on. Like, did that really happen? It's hard to believe, it really is, if it weren't in this book and if it weren't from our Lord. But this was all done for the good of these people in this story and for His glory. And in closing, I want us to think about this.

I don't know the path of these sailors. I don't know what their life entailed. I don't know what happened to them. I don't know where they went. I don't know what they did. I do believe that from their words and because of who our Lord is and a loving, just merciful God that would do all this for their sake, that they did believe that he saved him. But think about this. You know that they saw Jonah go into that water.

They never knew what really happened. The rest of their lives, they live with the fact they threw him overboard and he sacrificed himself for them. Little did they know that they tossed him overboard and he was dead to the world for three days. And then in three days, he came back. And one day, in glory, these men all saw that. They lived the rest of their days thinking to themselves, we killed Jonah. They didn't know that they didn't kill Jonah and that all of that was for their good. And so that they could know salvation is of the Lord. All these things that happen in our lives, every crazy thing that happens to us, everything we think is, why did it happen?

I wish it wouldn't have. All of these things. We all know that Jonah would have preferred for the Lord to come to him when he was getting ready to get on that ship and say, Jonah, go that way, and for him to do it. But he didn't. He went through that trial, through all of that stuff, all those things. And do you know what? On the other side of that, Jonah, when he went under the water, he believed that the storm would stop. But he didn't see the storm stop. So one day, he got to see that the Lord did all of that. He went the wrong way, disobeyed God, fleed from him, so that these sailors on the ship, all of them, would all end with one thing. Salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ.