Can you go out there and sit
in a comfortable chair? I think I've been sitting all day actually
or laying on my back or whatever. Let's turn to Jonah chapter 2. Jonah chapter 2. We're kind of winding down on
our lessons, Old Testament pictures of Christ. Jonah chapter two. And what we have in the middle
of this book is a statement for the ages, a statement for the
ages, and that's found in the latter part of verse nine of
Jonah chapter two. And it's let me read the whole
verse, but I will sacrifice unto thee. With the voice of Thanksgiving,
I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. And I'm going to borrow Henry's
outline as far as is topical on this verse. So we're going
to look at four thoughts. as they are related to such a
grand and glorious statement as this is. Salvation is of the
Lord. Now, briefly, Jonah in chapter
one, he's told to go preach to a city named Nineveh and preach
against it. He decided he wasn't going to
do that. He fled. He left the area. Well then as you know how the
story goes, the Lord obviously is going to have his way, his
purpose is going to be fulfilled. Jonah tried to flee. He tried
to get on a ship. The crew knew that something
wasn't right. The lot came upon Jonah. They
cast him overboard and a great fish swallowed him. And then
as he is in the belly of this fish, we find chapter two, then
Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, out of the fish's belly. And actually this whole chapter
would be good to come back or you can take a look at it. It's
the cry of Christ. It's a cry of Christ. some say upon the cross, is definitely
in a time of anxiety, in a time of affliction and pain and suffering,
this prayer. And it's interesting, then, after
the fish spits him out, he doesn't preach against Nineveh. Look at how it's worded in Jonah
1, verse 2. Arise and go to Nineveh, that
great city, and cry against it. Cry against it. And, let's see, in verse 2 of
chapter 3, after Jonah had went through this glorious humiliation,
He says, verse two, arise, go into Nineveh, that great city,
and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. And Henry made
a statement that I, you know, I've never heard anybody else
say this. I thought it was very interesting how It's easy to
stand up and just preach and point fingers, preach against
it. Just, you know, out of perhaps no experience, just stand up
there and tell people what's wrong with the country, what's
wrong with to just be antagonistic. But after God takes you, takes
me, takes the believer through a series of trials and difficulties,
life's lessons. Then he didn't preach again,
but he stood up there and preached. He preached the gospel. He preached
the gospel of God's grace and God's hope and God's glory. And
many today, it's very easy to stand up and preach against,
you know, immorality, smoking, all these different things. And
that's what preachers, you know, most of them stand up and preach
about things. But when God teaches a sinner
his truth, his sovereignty, then when we say something, We speak
from experience and we speak the truth. We speak of the gospel.
But we're going to look at this statement that he says right
before he gets, verse 30, he gets vomited out. The fish vomits
out Jonah upon dry land. He makes this statement for the
ages. Salvation is of the Lord. First
thing, what do we mean? What is the scripture? What does
the scripture mean when it says salvation is of the Lord? What
that means is that salvation is in God's hands. He has salvation
to give or to withhold. No other person can dictate salvation's
usage, only our Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
not in the hands of man. It's not in the hands of the
Pope. It's not in the hands of this creature. It's not in the hands
of any elder, it's God's hands. The work of salvation is entirely
the unaided and unassisted gift of Jesus the Christ. Henry Mahan
makes this comment, the banquet house of salvation has only one
host. The banquet house of salvation
has only one host. And we can look at Matthew chapter
22 when he talks about the wedding feast. And the owner of the feast,
the owner of the wedding, the owner, the one who was overall,
he invites guests and he clothes them. He has the food prepared.
That's what we mean. Salvation is of the Lord. The
banquet house of salvation. He owns salvation. He prepares
the food for this banquet of salvation. We don't prepare it.
He has it. It's like to come out. Somebody
would come out. We're getting ready to have a
wedding. coming up here we've had a wedding it would be it's
just when we went there to the like the rehearsal dinner and
the wedding walked in I walked in I was looking for my name
tag I wasn't I didn't go I didn't didn't look for the kitchen I
could smell the food I could see the people preparing it I
just I just wanted to find where I was supposed to be seated but
if we look at that illustration Illustration of the wedding to
come, the wedding that you all had. You invited us. You prepared the
food. You provided everything so everybody
would be comfortable and have everything they needed. There
was a certain attire that was required pretty well. We knew
all these things. We came. We did nothing. Salvation is of the Lord. He
owns salvation. He prepares the food. Our Heavenly
Father in the Lord Jesus Christ prepares the food. He calls the
guests freely. Now, what do they respond? He calls. It's not this RSVP. He says, you come and we come.
Christ makes his people willing to come and receive the food.
He then sustains all those that he has called to this banquet
by his rich, free grace. And incidentally, he also places
the best robes upon all the guests that he has chosen and that he
cares for. He is the host and he prepares
everything. Salvation is of the Lord. All
the work of salvation from conception to fruition is the work of the
beloved Son of God. That's what we mean when we say
salvation is of the Lord. Man, we're included, but man
has no input whatsoever. There's no decisions. There's
no confirmation classes. There's no age of accountability. There's no walking aisles. There's
no baptism in the kingdom. There's none of these things.
It's salvation of the Lord. Secondly, salvation is of the
Lord in its origin. Who thought up this? Who thought
up this marriage feast? Who thought up this beautiful
plan and scheme of salvation? Turn to Ephesians chapter 1.
Ephesians chapter 1. Salvation is of the Lord, secondly,
in its origination. Planned and purposed by God Himself. Ephesians 1, verses 3 and 4,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Salvation of the Lord is origin,
planned and purposed, worked out and wrought out by Him. 2
Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2 Verse 13, But we are bound to
give thanks always 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. Salvation is of the Lord in its
origin, planned, purposed, worked out, wrought out. It was set
and planned and purposed before time and during time, Revelation
chapter 13. Revelation chapter 13 and verse
8. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Christ
was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
That means this covenant of salvation, this covenant of grace was already
set in motion, purpose, plan, ordained before he spoke this
world into existence. Salvations of the Lord in its
origin. There's no way, there's no way
that man could think up a scheme like this. And that's what makes
those who preach free will, Arminianism, It aggravates them because they
want to get some kind of glory out of it. But when it's of the
Lord and His origin, it's hands off. It's all of Him. Thirdly,
salvation is of the Lord in its execution. In its execution. Romans 5. Not only did God the
Father choose a people, But Christ came for those for whom the father
chose and the spirit is going to quicken those for whom the
son has bled, suffered and died. Salvations of the Lord is thought,
conception, origin and its execution. We could not make this wheel
of salvation turn. See, that's the part of people,
a lot of preachers, they preach God's done everything. Now the
rest is up to you. That's not that sounds like we
have to make it executable. That means that that's not like
to me that we have to render that which he did. We must finish
it off. No salvation of the Lord is thought. And it's execution. Romans five,
verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. The prodigal
and the father. The father, the prodigal left
the home, spent everything he had, and by the drawing power and
love that the father put in his heart, he said, I'm going to
go back home. And when he came back home, the father did everything. They slaughtered the fatted calf. He put on his ring. He kissed
him. He put on the best robe. He executed everything necessary
for the security and peace and well-being of the son. The doing and dying for us was
all accomplished by the same wisdom in the same person for
all God's elect people. And verse 18, for Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, there's the execution, the just
for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. It's not enough
to think up of salvation, to work a plan of, it's got to be
activated, it's got to be carried out, it's got to be executed.
And Christ suffered for us the just for the unjust and he that
he might he did bring us to God because he would put the death
in the flesh. We can turn to. Second Timothy, chapter 1, verses
9 and 10. Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 9
through 17. As in all the Old Testament types
and symbols, in those rituals, those sacrifices, you had the
execution of it. The priest actually slit the
animal's throat. They actually applied the blood.
They didn't just think of it. They said, OK, if you bring an
unblemished animal, And then it stopped there. No, the animal
must die. The execution of the offering
must take place. And the Lord Jesus Christ, not
only was the salvation is of him from its origin, from his
conception and the covenant of grace from before the foundation
of the world, but Christ in the fullness of time came. flesh of our flesh, bone of our
bone, under the law, and He redeemed them. He redeemed us who were
all of our life under bondage to sin and the law. Fourthly,
salvation is of the Lord in its application and final consummation. Salvation is of the Lord in its
application. Here's what I'm saying. Okay,
so God thought of salvation. He's God. We'll give Him that.
And then Christ came down and died on the cross. But I have to apply the blood,
I have to believe in order to make it effectual. That's worth
salvation, that's free willism. There's again, salvation is of
the Lord, everything. Alpha to omega, start to finish,
A to Z, it's all of him. Before the foundation of the
world, He sent his son to die and when he died, he accomplished
redemption for his people. He didn't leave it done and then
we had to apply it. No, blood was shed. Now it must
be applied by grace in the heart, not our free will. The blood
is not activated once we do something. No, God has already accepted
us in the beloved. Then he causes us, makes us willing
to believe, repent, rejoice in that sacrifice. He does everything. Ephesians chapter two. Verses one, this is basic Basic
doctrine and lessons that the gospel teaches us Ephesians chapter
2 It's salvations of the Lord is in some application It's got
to be the blood isn't just sitting there and then we have to reach
out and grab it and you have he quickens He hears it's all
of grace and it's his application you have he quickened who were
dead and trespasses and sins and we've talked about this time
and time again a dead person and cannot make one movement
to life. Talking spiritual death here
and salvation is spiritual. We were created spiritually to
the believer. We're dead. We're dead in trespasses
and sins and we cannot move a muscle. We cannot walk a step. We cannot Breathe a breath of
life. It must be. Applied. Remember, we looked at that lesson
several months ago, the Valley of the Dead Bones, their salvation. The father said, you preach to
these bones. The Lord said to the prophet, preach to him. He
said, I just did what I was commanded. I preached. He could sit there
and preached all day until the spirit of the Lord started a
movement. And they got everything, the bone, bone upon its bone,
flesh upon its flesh, sinew upon sinew, but there was a great
army, but they were lifeless. And then God caused the breath
of life. He applied that which he had
started. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. That's why later on in this chapter in Ephesians, he
says, for by grace, are you saved through faith? And that's not
of yourself. It's the gift of God. I've asked some people say,
well, what is what is that of yourself? Grace? It's not of
yourself. Faith? It's not of yourself.
Not of works, he says in verse nine, lest any man should boast. And that's what we would do if
we had anything to do. with our salvation, we would
boast. And then he goes on to say in verse 10, we're his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. His workmanship. His workmanship. Look at James chapter one. And this is, you know, the free
willers get all upset. They said, no, I had to activate
my will. I had to do something. No. Again,
let's make good on that statement. What does the scripture say?
James chapter 1 and verse 18. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, with his own will, not our will. We have a
will, but spiritual matters is dead. It's dead and it can't
do anything that God will accept at all. That's why salvation
is of the Lord. Totally. And looking with me at Galatians
chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. When will
a person believe then? How will they believe? What will
they? Well, we'll see. Paul answers this question for
us too. Verse 15. Galatians 1 verse 15. Paul was
religious. Paul exercised his will. He wasn't
free. He didn't know that. He's going
around slaughtering and murdering the saints. And he says, but
at that time I got appointed. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the
heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. But
the point here is Salvation is on the Lord and it's application.
Paul was religious. Paul was a preacher. He didn't
know anything about the truth. And God had to stop him, knock
him off his horse. And when it pleased God to do
all these things, he showed Paul that Paul was separated. He called
me by his grace. And revealed his son in me. Somebody
says they're called by God's grace and they don't mention
anything about the son. It's not the grace of God. When
God calls a sinner by His grace, He immediately reveals His Son,
Jesus Christ, to us. This is when we will believe
and turn to Him and come to Him for life, love, and grace when
it pleases God. So back to our text in closing, salvation is of the Lord. That's what we mean in its origin, in its execution, its accomplishment
and its application. It's got to be that way. If it's
not that way, then salvation is not of the Lord. It's 90%
of Him and then 10% of whoever. But if it's of the Lord, that
means it's going to be sure to those whom He calls. And those
whom He calls will believe and will come, repent, desire to
be baptized, And follow Him like the New Testament in the book
of Acts. It's so beautiful there. They said that, you know, they...
Then after that, what did they do? Well, every time they gathered
together, they broke bread, they sang hymns, and they spoke a
hymn. There's our example laid out
for us. They understood that salvation
is of the Lord. It's not a new doctrine. It's
the old, old story. We just... We revel. We desire to speak it over and
over again. I'm never tired of it. Matt,
would you close us?