Jonah chapter 2. I want to begin
reading in verse 1 and read down through verse 10. Jonah chapter
2. My subject this day is salvation
is of the Lord. And I want to begin this morning
and I want to finish it in the afternoon service, the Lord's
willing. In verse 1, Then Jonah prayed
unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. And he said,
I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried
I, and you heard my voice. For thou hast cast me into the
deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about. All your billows and your waves
passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of
your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The
waters can pass me about even to the soul. The depths close
me round about. The weeds were wrapped around
and about my neck, my head. I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains. The earth with her bars was about
me forever. hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came unto you, unto your
holy temple. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with
a voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. And
the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon
the dry land." Salvation is of the Lord. That
was Jonah's confession. That's what he vowed. It's been
said that we learn theology two ways. We learn it from Scripture. That's a must, isn't it? We learn
theology at all, if it's correct. We learn it from the Scripture.
From a child, you've known the holy scriptures that's able to
make thee wise unto salvation. All scriptures given by inspiration
of God, and it's profitable for doctrine. We learn theology from
the scriptures. But it's also been said we learn
theology from trouble. We learn it from our affliction. Out of the belly of the whale,
we learn theology. Jonah learned it when he was
down in the bottom of the mountains, and his head was wrapped around
with weeds. And he said, your bars, these
bars of the earth, the mountains are round about me, and they've
enclosed me for what he thought was forever. But there in his
trouble, he learned to say this, and he learned it very well,
salvation is of the Lord. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
when our experience and the Word of God agree together, we have
learned well. We have learned well. Hold your
honor, and I want to show you that in Psalms chapter 119 and
verse 71. Someone said that most of the
grand truths of God have to be learned in trouble. And they
have to be burned into our hearts with the rod of affliction. I found that so in my experience,
and I bet you found it so in your experience. And David teaches
that in his Word. I want you to turn to Psalm 119
and look in verse 71. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes." How many
have been laid on the bed of affliction, or how many have
been brought into darkness in their understanding, or in afflictions
in their souls, but in that affliction the Lord has been pleased to
teach them good theology. I tell you, I'm not for praying
for afflictions. I never have been, and I doubt
I ever will be. But I know that God has taught
me more in the times of my trouble than when I've been well. And
you can say the same thing, and Jonah did too. Salvation is of
the Lord. Now, that's my subject this morning.
And let's begin like this. What is salvation? If salvation
is of the Lord, then we want to know what it is to be saved. And I think of all the definitions
that I've ever read of what salvation is, the shortest definition I've
ever read of it, and the most concise definition, the best
definition, was given by Mistress Spurgeon. I know this is in a
nutshell. You can expand upon it. You can
enlarge upon it. I know your mind can broaden
the thought of it out. But see if this, in essence,
is not what salvation is. Here's what Mr. Spurgeon said.
The whole of the work whereby men are saved from their natural
estate of sin and ruin, and are translated into the kingdom of
God and made heirs of eternal happiness. Now isn't that salvation? Delivered from this estate of
sin and ruin and translated into the kingdom of God and become
heirs of eternal happiness. You can enlarge that thought. Salvation is of the Lord. My first point this morning is
this. This salvation that's of the
Lord is of the Lord in its planning. In its planning. Who planned
such a salvation? It was God. Only the mind of
God Only the wise mind of God could think up such a plan of
salvation if we could possibly say that God thought it up. It was in His heart from all
eternity how He would save. And you know what He did? Before
time, before there was ever a creature to consult with, He thought this
up. Listen to Isaiah chapter 40.
And verses 13 and 14, who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord?
Or who, being his counselor, hath taught him? With whom doth
he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the paths
of judgment? And taught him knowledge, and
showed to him the way of understanding? Well, it's obvious, isn't it?
It's a rhetorical question. Nobody taught him. Nobody could
enlighten his understanding. He's the all-wise God that thought
up this in his own heart. Can you imagine? Could you even
begin to think of a way that the Lord was going to deliver
Jonah? When Jonah rebelled against Him, Can you think up a way,
if you had been sitting there talking and discussing this,
how in the world am I going to bring this man, this rebellious
prophet, back into subjection to me where he will comply with
my will? How would you have thought to
do this? Would you imagine bringing a storm upon the sea? Would you imagine preparing a
fish to swallow him? and take him down to the bottom
of the mountains, and there teach him to say, if I ever get out
of here, salvation is of the Lord? Nobody had ever thought
of that. They even tried to resist doing
it, didn't they? Salvation is of the Lord in its
planning. I think sometime if the Lord
had made the holy angels, and He had told them what was going
to happen, if He had sent mighty Gabriel down and He said, I'm
going to make man. I'm going to make him upright.
But he's going to fall. He's going to rebel and fall
into sin. And my judgment's going to come
on him. My wrath's going to burn against his sin. And my justice
has to be satisfied. But yet it's my purpose to show
mercy and to save him. Don't you think he'd have had
Gabriel scratching his head as to how in the world this could
possibly be accomplished? It's of the Lord, isn't it? Salvation
in its very planning is of the Lord. I tell you, we talk about
the wisdom of God when we look at creation, and there we see
it. We talk about the wisdom of God when we look at ourselves,
even though we're fallen. We're mystery only. Our minds
are a mystery. Our digestive systems are a mystery
to ourselves. Medical science still can't totally
figure out how simple things like our digestive system works. We're a mystery. God in his wisdom
made us. We see it, but where do we see
the wisdom of God like we see it no place else? Oh, and this
very thing, how God can be just and justify the ungodly. How can he be a just godlin and
be a savior? Well, he figured it out, didn't
he? Salvation in its planning. I tell you, he's the architect. He's the architect. He sat down
and he put it all on paper and he drew it all out as it were. The planning is of the Lord. That's why he asked Job, where
was you when I created the foundation? Where were you? Lord, I wasn't
around. I wasn't around. Nobody was.
Salvation, secondly, is of the Lord in its execution. Now, just about anybody can draw
up a bunch of plans. I imagine there's a lot of blueprints
that have collected dust on somebody's shelf or in somebody's drawer
that they've never had the means to execute their plans. But it's
not so with the Lord. When he drew up these plans,
he had the ability, he had the wisdom and the will and all the
means to execute his plan of salvation. He drew it up, and
now he executes. And this execution is of the
Lord. You know, he not only purposed
how he was going to deliver Jonah, but when it come time, he executed
it. Did you notice that? You've read
this before. Did you notice when it come time
there was a ship available for Jonah to get in and go down to
Tarshim? And somebody would have said,
boy, what a lucky prophet he is. What a lucky fellow he is.
He just happened to find a ship to go down to Tarshim. And the
winds began to blow and the waves come up. Well, who caused that? What is going on? The hand of
God is working, isn't it? What's he doing? He's beginning
to execute what he had planned, to bring this prophet back into
subjection to himself, to obey his will and his voice. Then
what does he do? Well, he prepares this great
fish. And then what does he do? He leaves these fellows without
any choice but to throw Jonah overboard. They tried their best
to steer that ship and row it to shore, but they couldn't.
I tell you, when the Lord begins to execute His purpose in salvation,
nobody is going to stop Him. He has the power. Salvation in
its execution is of the Lord. They said, we're not going to
throw you overboard. Oh, yes, you are. Yes, you are. Why? Because God's done prepared
the fish to swallow it. God has purposed it, and now
God is executing. And, well, we're going to throw
all our wires overboard. We're going to throw all of our
tackling overboard. We'll stir this ship to shore.
We're not going to throw him overboard. Oh, yes, you are.
Yes, you are. And finally they did. They threw
him overboard. This large fish swallowed him
up. It takes him down to the bottom
of the mountains until he finally says, salvation is of the Lord. And brothers and sisters, I'm
saying this, when Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, that second
person of the blessed Trinity, came to this earth, He came to
execute God's purpose in redemption. And how people tried to hinder
him. One of them betrayed him. One
of them denied him. And they all at first forsook
him. Those that could have comforted
him wouldn't comfort him. Most of what He did, He did not
because of man, but in spite of man. And thereupon the cross
of Calvary, He secured the eternal redemption of God's people. Did He not? And He did it all
by Himself. Nobody brought this wind. This
was not something that just happened. This well didn't exist before. God prepared everything. This
execution of salvation is of the Lord. Nobody was there when
He drew up the plans, and nobody helped the Lord Jesus Christ
when He came to obtain eternal redemption. He did it all by
Himself. Listen to Psalms chapter 69 and
verse 20 and 21. Here's what the Lord Jesus said.
Reproach has broken my heart. That's the way He felt when He
was upon the cross. I am full of heaviness. And listen,
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none. I looked
for comforters, but I found none. They gave me gold for my meat,
And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. I looked for
some. I tried to find somebody to help
me. There was nobody to help me.
Listen, not even the angels were there to help him. Not even God was there to help
him now. Nobody to comfort him. He hanged
there alone. executing the judgment of God.
And listen to Isaiah chapter 63 and verse 3. Listen to this
wonderful verse. Here is what he said upon the
cross. I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there
were none with me. I looked for help, and there
was none. I wondered that there was none
to uphold, therefore my own arm brought salvation. Isn't that
wonderful? He did it alone. Salvation in
its execution is of the Lord. Those are two wonderful things
that I often think about anymore. And if you're here this morning
and you're a child of God, these things ought to encourage you
extremely. Get these things in your heart.
And think upon these things, what a blessing these things
are. First one is this, before you were ever born, before you
had ever began to sin, you know when you began to sin, do you
remember your first sin? I don't even remember when I
first sinned. I have sinned all my life. Sometimes my sins are
like mountains. Did you ever feel that way? They
just keep getting higher and higher. All I've done all my
life is sinned. I'm a sinner by my nature, by
birth, by practice, by choice. I can't help it. I cannot not
sin. And to say anything else, I'd
be lying to you. Do you feel that way about yourself?
Well, listen to this. Before you ever begin this course
of sinning, Two thousand years ago, on a cross outside the city
of Jerusalem, your sins were already purged away. Can you imagine that? While you
confess them to God, while they burden your poor conscience,
while you sometimes weep over them, you can't sleep for the
grief of them, they were all purged away. What a blessing! And you had nothing to do with
it. It was of the Lord. Salvation in its execution is
of the Lord. What a blessed thought that is.
And think about this. While you're in this body, struggling,
saying with Paul, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The foundation the sheer foundation
of your eventual redemption of the body was already laid. When Jesus Christ rose from the
dead, never to die again, that assures you that someday, though
the worms devour this body, He'll be raised in fashion, likened
to His glorious body. Because the Scripture says, not
by blood of bulls and goats, but by His own blood, He entered
in once unto that holy place, to heaven itself, in the presence
of God, having obtained eternal redemption for you. It's accomplished. It's accomplished. Redemption has been accomplished. by Jesus Christ the Lord. What
a blessed thought. Salvation in its execution is
of the Lord. And I'm telling you, it's a wonderful
thing to think about. Sometimes we have to learn this
lesson in great affliction. But oh, when we learn it, what
a joy it is. How much we render thanks to
our God that salvation is of the Lord. Let's go on to this
third point. Not only in the planning of it.
Not only in the execution of it. But the application of salvation
is on the Lord. I know Jonah prayed. I know he
prayed. And I tell you, I encourage people
to pray. He cried unto the Lord. And I
tell you, when it comes time, God wills to save a man, that
man will start praying. He'll start crying. I know that. I know a man prays. I know Jonah
cried. But over and above all of that,
when was he delivered? You see prayer, though you'll
do it. Prayer never gives life to anybody.
Crying never regenerated the first man. laboring and calling
and seeking never did give life to the first poor soul dead in
trespasses and sin. When was Jonah delivered? When
the Lord spake to that whale and said, Let him go. That's
when he was delivered. The Lord spake to the fish and
the fish vomited Jonah out up on dry land. And you notice,
you notice how this, you notice how this is graduating here?
Every step of the way, the Lord is doing it. If He stops any
word, if He stops any word and says, I'm going to leave it up
to Him now, I've purposed salvation, I've executed it, and now I'm
leaving it up to Jonah. Well, if God executes it, And
God purposed it. And He leads it up to Jonah to
apply it. Jonah dies at the bottom of the mountains. What if Jonah
could have got out of the whale? I tell you, the safest place
he was was in that whale's belly. If he'd have got out of the whale's
belly at the bottom of the ocean, he'd have immediately been crushed
by the pressure of the water. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
I know a man believes. I know a man comes. I know a
man repents, but he does nothing till God begins the work in him.
He's just like the earth was back there in the beginning when
God began His work on it, and it was without form and void,
and darkness was upon those waters. The next essential thing that
must take place was light. But when does the light come?
When God said, Let there be light. And there was light. Charles Spurgeon told about the
old legend that Catholicism had about St. Dennis. It's funny,
I can't keep laughing every time I think about this, but they
used to come up with a silly legend back in the dark ages,
and everybody believed it. Everybody believed it. They came
up with this legend about St. Dennis, and somebody cut his
head off. And St. Dennis reached down with
his hands and picked up his head and walked for 2,000 miles. And one dear old saint said that
he could walk 2,000 miles, I have no doubt. It's that first step. I just don't believe. If you'll take the first step,
God will take the second. That's the first step, ain't
it? That's the step we're concerned about. Jonah, I've done everything
I can now. The next move is up to you. No,
sir, brothers and sisters, it's not that way. Salvation in its
application is of the Lord. Why did you come when you did? Because He drew you, didn't He?
Why was your heart opened? Because He opened it. Why were
you crushed? Why were you broken? Why were
you sorrowful over your condition? Because He put a heart in you
to be. When I was first converted, I
had a pastor who didn't know very much at all, didn't believe
very much at all. And I asked him one day after
he preached, probably shouldn't have said anything, but I couldn't
have it. He knew nothing about effectual calling, and he should
have the experience. And I asked him one day when
he finished preaching, I said, Why do some people come to Christ
when they're called, and others don't come? And here's the way he explained
it to me. He said, well, he said, Bruce, he said, the gospel is
like a magnet. And some people are like steel,
and some people are like nickel. He said a magnet will draw steel,
but it won't draw nickel. In other words, some people are
inclined by their natural disposition to come. They're more tender. They're more responsive than
others are. And therefore, they come and
others don't. Does that make any sense? I've always thought it strange
that Jonah got out of this fish's belly and went to preach to a
bunch of Ninevites that were inclined to nothing but ungodliness
and open and profane sins. They were so bad that their sins
had come up to heaven. Did they seem tender to you?
Did they seem naturally inclined to come and repent? No. Natural inclination has nothing
to do with coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. We come for one
reason. God has begun to apply that which
Jesus Christ accomplished, which God the Father purposed before
time. That's it. That's it. We had a... Joel and I had a
friend. He's more Joel's friend than
he was ours. He was mine. I thought, I used to think he
was sort of sissy because he hung around with Joe and her
friends all the time, but really he wasn't. He just didn't want
to put up with macho fellas like myself. I was always in trouble. My friends were always in trouble.
I don't blame him for not wanting to ramble with advice. He was
a very tender young man. I remember when I, my dad had
to force me, literally force me to go to service, to the worship
service. I mean, I went at the point of
the limb almost every Sunday. And I'd sit there looking out
the window thinking, man, if I ever get out of this sorry
place. And here my friend was up there
singing. He's singing. He was a religious little fellow.
Very tender. It wasn't long after he and I
graduated from school And I went back to see him, see him and
his brother. And he had went off into the
military. And I'm telling you what, he was meaner than a snake.
I couldn't believe it when I saw him. I mean to tell you, he got
pretty rough. You wouldn't believe it. You
haven't seen him. He got rough. Somebody told me, said, you wouldn't
know that boy. Here, the Lord brought me to repentance. He
brought me to faith in Christ, the open and profane and rebellious,
stubborn sinner who had no inclination for anything but sin, and that
tender little churchgoer is off in open and profane sin. Why? One reason, brothers and sisters.
And it wasn't because of what was found in me or what was found
in him. It was because salvation is of
the Lord. That's it. That's it. If you and I had to go around
waiting to see some inclinations in somebody before we preach
Christ to them, I don't think we'd be preaching Christ to anybody.
The Lord didn't say, go into all the world and look for natural
inclinations of people. When you go into the world, you're
not going to find nothing but a bunch of sinners. They may be religious
sinners. They may be tender sinners in
their natures. They may be open and profane
sinners. But we're all sinners. And no man can come to Christ,
or no man will come to Christ. until God begins to speak and
deal and stir up His heart. He has to apply it, doesn't He? And when we talk about applying
salvation, we're not just talking about our initial salvation,
our initial coming to Christ, but we're talking about the application
of it every day of our believing. Aren't you glad the Lord didn't
save you and said, no, you can make it? Jonah, I've prepared this well. Now get yourself out of there.
You can do it! No, he can't. And parents, you
can't take one spiritual step without him, can you? You told
us that this morning. What if the Lord told you, child,
I've led you this far. But this valley here, it's not
too deep and it's not too long. But I'm going to leave you and
let you get through it for yourself. I'm going to scare you to death. Oh, you'll never get through
it, would you? Here's a hill, and it's pretty steep. But I'm going to see if you can
do it in your own strength. Well, you'll never make it. You'll
never make it. What keeps you hoping? What keeps
you cleaving to Him? What keeps you praying? He's working in you, is He not?
To will and to do of His good pleasure. I love to amplify it. Some people call it a Bible.
I don't even call it a Bible. I don't think it's a Bible, but
I think it's the best commentary you'll ever read in your life.
David's got one. He knows. I love to read it.
Read it almost as much as anything else. And I was reading yesterday
in Philippians chapter 2 and 13, it is God which worketh in
you. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling for it's God which works in you both to will
and to do. And here's what the Amplified
said of that. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
that is with self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of
conscience, watchfulness, timidly stricken from whatever might
offend God and discredit the name of Christ. Not in your own
strength, for it is God all the while effectually working in
you, energizing and creating in you the power and the desire
both to will and to work for His good pleasure and the satisfaction
of His delight. He's doing it. God has begun
to apply salvation to you, dear Christian, and He will never
cease to work. He will never cease to work until
Jesus Christ descends from heaven and changes your body and fashions
it like His glorious body. I preached a few weeks ago on
apostasy. left feeling like a dog, that
I didn't emphasize two verses in Hebrews chapter 10. That's
an awful chapter. It's a fearful chapter to think
about. But the writer of Hebrews summed that passage up like this. The just shall live by faith.
But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
him." And then he quickly and immediately adds, but we are
not of them who draw back to destruction, but we're of them
who believe to the saving. We just keep believing, don't
we? We keep believing. Why? Because salvation is of
the Lord. That's why. Somebody might say, Bruce, such
a doctrine as this will cause men to be unresponsive. Well,
I'm not responsible for how men react to my preaching. I wish I could remember that.
I wish every preacher could remember that. My responsibility is this,
to preach the truth. And salvation is of the Lord,
and that's the truth. I have no doubt that men will
abuse the truth of God if God don't save them from it. They
always have and they always will. If we preach free grace, they
say, let us sin then, that grace may abound. What made Jonah willing
to preach to the Ninevites? What made him willing to preach
to the Ninevites? Oh, you say, Bruce, he had trouble
doing it. Yes, he did. And you'll have trouble too.
But what made you willing to come to Christ? What makes you
willing to follow Him wherever He leads you in spite of all
the trouble that you're having? What is it? that brings such
a thing to pass. It's just this. Salvation is
all. Nothing else will secure our
obedience. And brothers and sisters, if
this is true, what I've told you this morning, that salvation
is of the Lord, then I'm going to meet you in heaven. I'm going
to meet you in heaven, bless God. There's nothing that can
keep us from meeting there around the throne. and worship in Him
as we long to hear because salvation is of the Lord. Well, I'll finish it this afternoon. Let's pray.