We're going to hear about that in the sermon this morning, and all of grace, so we're looking forward to that. But I'd have you turn to Jonah, chapter 2. As we know, our brother's been working through Jonah, and he comes to one of the most precious verses in the book, and that's in chapter 2, and we'll be hearing about that. So Jonah, chapter 2. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall look again upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head. At the roots of the mountains, I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought me up by my life from the pit. O Lord, my God, When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. We thank the Lord for the reading of his holy word. Father in heaven, we come before you now again and ask for the blessing on the preaching of your word that you would meet with each and every one of us here this morning, and that we would leave this place as those who have grown in the grace and knowledge of our Savior, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Now please turn with me in your Bibles to Jonah chapter two, verse nine. Jonah chapter 2, verse 9. Now in his book, Something Must Be Known and Felt, Stuart Elyot writes, the three legs on which biblical religion stands are doctrine, ethics, and experience. God's revealed truth is believed It is lived out and it is felt. It impacts the soul. If we forget this, we eventually lose biblical religion altogether. Halyot says these three legs on which biblical religion stands, it's doctrine, ethics, and experience. And theologians have often made this distinction between the knowledge of the truth and knowledge of the power of the truth. And in Jonah chapter 2, Jonah's starting to understand this distinction. Jonah already knew about the truth of God's character. We saw last week in Jonah 4 verse 2, he said that the reason I fled to Tarshish, the reason I disobeyed your call to go to the Ninevites and proclaim this message, It's because I knew you were a merciful God. I knew that if I were to go there, you would pour out your mercy and your grace if they repented of their sins. So Jonah knew something about God's truth, of who God is, His glorious character as the God who's gracious and compassionate towards sinners. Throughout chapter 2, Jonah now sees personally, he knows the power of this truth within his very own soul. That in the belly of the fish, Jonah, he experienced the power of God's delivering grace. So as we look in Jonah chapter 2 again, Last time we saw that Jonah prays this prayer of deliverance, and there's much the same as a psalm in this prayer. And what we saw was that ultimately his prayer, his cry to God, was shaped and formed from the psalms. He quotes several different psalms as he pours out his very soul to God. If you look in verse 2-3 in chapter 2, there's the introduction to his prayer, much like the Psalms. He says, And then he gets into the crisis, and then we see God's deliverance in verse 4-8. He says, then I said I've been cast out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. He feels cast out from the sight of God, yet there's this hope of deliverance, of God's grace, that this rebellious prophet will again look toward the holy temple of God. And then in verse 8 and 9, we see that Jonah vows to worship. In verse 8 he says, those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. And then verse 9, but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I've vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. So what we've seen here, chapter 1 and chapter 2, is that Jonah's sin has cast him down into the belly of the fish, but God brought him up. Jonah's sin cast him out of the presence of God, but God brought him back in. In other words, God's grace pulled Jonah up from the pit of death and placed him on solid ground. If you look in verse 10, we see that. So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. There's this delivering grace that has happened to this prophet. And we see that this trial that he faced produce this sense of God's saving grace. He learned in this passage that not only is God the God of Israel, the people of God, not only is God the God of Jonah, but what he realizes is that God is a saving God, that God is a God who loves to save sinners. And so I wanted to draw your attention to that last phrase in verse nine. Salvation is of the Lord, Jonah cries out. Spurgeon writes helpfully on this passage that Jonah learned this sentence of good theology in a strange college. He didn't learn this in the seminary classroom. He didn't learn this in the church pew or the synagogue. He learned this in the belly of a fish, that salvation is of the Lord. Spurgeon says he learned the science of good theology in a strange college. He learned it while in the belly of a fish, at the bottom of the mountains, with the weeds wrapped around his head, when he supposed that the earth with his bars was about him forever. And then Spurgeon writes, most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble. Most of the grand truths of who God is and what He's done to save sinners often have to be learned by trouble. We think of that in our own personal life. How true is that? That it's often through our sufferings and our trials that God reveals Himself to us in a greater way, that we see more of His grace and more of His compassion towards us. Spurgeon said that these truths must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction. Otherwise, we shall not truly receive them. So, we understand this through the fiery furnace of affliction. That who is a pardoning God like Thee? Who is a God so rich and free? question is, as we look at verse 9, what does Jonah mean when he says, salvation is of the Lord? What is he getting at? Is he simply speaking of physical deliverance? Is that all that the passage is pointing us toward? Is that all that it's trying to get at? That God physically delivers His people and nothing else? Or is he simply speaking of physical deliverance from from death? Well, the word that's used here in the Hebrew is salvation. It's Yeshua. Yahweh saves. The Lord is salvation. That word, the Hebrew word, throughout the Old Testament, if you were to trace it, it's always in connection to God saving mercy towards sinners. Salvation. The Lord is salvation. Yeshua. That word is used in connection with God's delivering mercy. And what we see is that this word salvation is ultimately brought to its climax in salvation. That's within the Lord Jesus Christ and his cross work for sinners. Notice in verse 9 he says, is of the Lord. The word of is this preposition. It is possessive and so it could be translated, the ESV I believe puts it this way, salvation belongs to the Lord. In other words, it implies that salvation is God's sovereign work. It's of the Lord. It's God's majestic and sovereign work towards sinners. So I would suggest to you then that Jonah, in the belly of the fish, He's learning something about God's saving grace that salvation is not subjected to human manipulation. Salvation is not man's plan done man's way, but it is God's plan and it is God's Jonah attempted to manipulate God's saving grace towards the Ninevites. Go to Nineveh. Proclaim this message. Jonah says, no, I'm going this way. I'm going the opposite way. He's trying to manipulate the mercy of God. But what we see is that no one can stop God's saving mercy. Salvation is of the Lord. It's His will. He'll have mercy on whom He has mercy. The Ninevites are to receive mercy. This confession in verse 9, it's climactic. It reflects this Old Testament belief that the Lord of grace, He's the only one that can offer saving grace. If you look with me in the New Testament, Revelation chapter 7, Revelation chapter 7 verse 10, the apostle John picks up on this confession from Jonah in the New Testament on the other side of the cross. There's a multitude that no one can number standing before the throne. Revelation chapter 7 verse 9. I want you to see this same confession. John says in Revelation 7 verse 9, I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands." And what are they crying out? What are they praising God for? Verse 10, "...and crying out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb." All the angels stood around the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne, and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. So John here, he picks up on a similar confession. Salvation belongs to our Lord, to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. That salvation is of the Lord. Notice he says, who sits on the throne. That's God. Only God is the one who sits on the throne. Only God is the one who reigns on the throne of God and reigns supremely and sovereignly. It's His exclusive right to distribute salvation freely to whom He wills. God says to Moses in Exodus 33 verse 19, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So what we see here then is that Jonah had no right to restrict the message of God to the Ninevites. That the free offer of the message of salvation goes to all creatures. It goes to all sinners. The question is then, I want to ask you secondly, what is this salvation like? We see it is of the Lord, but what is it like? Well, I want to show you three things from this passage and drive in deep to it. What does it mean that salvation is of the Lord? Well, three things. First, I want you to see that salvation is from God. That's the first thing. Salvation is from God. That the plan to save sinners from the wrath of God was founded by God Himself. Salvation is of the Lord. It is entirely of God. Now, you know what it's like Build something. Maybe your wife comes along your side and says, well, I don't know if that really looks good that way. You should tweak this and you should tweak that. Or a friend comes along and says, well, maybe you should hang that painting this way or on that. Well, all you need to do is adjust this. It doesn't look good that way. This position looks better. Well, that's not like the plan of salvation for sinners. Man's not involved in the saving grace of God. Man doesn't contribute to God's saving mercy. We don't need the human intellect of man to contribute to saving sinners. Man doesn't come along God and say, well God, I think you should do that. I think you should go this way. I think you should go that way. It doesn't need any human intellect. It doesn't need any human intelligence to assist God in His planning. The plan of salvation harkens back to eternity past where it was God alone. It was founded within the Godhead where it was the triune God alone. God the Father. God the Son. God the Holy Spirit. Within the Trinity, the plan of salvation was devised before the creation of man, before the creation of the stars in the universe, before the angels, before all things. Revelation 13 verse 8 says that Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. Another translation might say before the foundation of the earth. Ephesians 1.4 says that He, the Father, chose us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. So what we see then is that this salvation that is of the Lord, it's founded back into eternity past where it was God Himself. Salvation is of the triune God. I wonder if you thought about that. The only reason you and I are saved by grace is because God is a triune God. Have you thought of that? If God was not triune, then we have no salvation. Michael Reeves in his book, Delighting in the Trinity, he helpfully unpacks this. So I'll read a lengthy quote on the triune nature of our salvation. Michael Reeves writes that the God who is love definitively displays that love to the world by sending us his eternally beloved son to atone for our sins. The father sent his son to make himself known, meaning that the love the father eternally had for his son might be in those who believe in him, and that we might also enjoy the son as the father always has. Reeves says that the Father so delights in His eternal love for the Son that He desires to share it with all who will believe in His Son. Ultimately, the Father sent the Son because the Father so loved the Son and wanted to share the love and fellowship. His love for the world is the overflow of His almighty love for His Son. Your salvation is the overflow of the Father's eternal love for the Son, that He saved you by grace to bring you up into the triune love of God, to participate in this love. Reeves writes that the more Trinitarian the salvation, the sweeter it is. For it is not just that we are brought before the Father and the Son, but we receive the Spirit with which He was anointed. And the Spirit takes what is the Son's and makes it ours." In other words, because God is triune, we are now fellow heirs with Christ. We're brought into this Trinitarian love, the love of the Father, the love of the Son. So when someone asks you, Why are you a Christian? How are you a Christian? How do you respond? Do you know that the only reason you are a Christian, the only reason you can know God is because God is triune. The only reason you can be saved from your sins is because God is triune. That it was founded in the Godhead before all creation in eternity past. You know that the only reason you've been lavished in His saving mercy and love is because God is triune? Do you know that the only reason you can sing this hymn, wonderful, merciful Savior, is because God is triune? Precious Redeemer and friend, who would have thought that the Lamb could rescue the souls of man? Again, Reeves says that the Father so delights in His eternal love for the Son that He desires to share it with all who will believe. The Father lavishes His eternal love for the Son upon those in Christ. And so, come, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and as you believe upon him, you will be brought into the love of the Father for the Son. Well, that's the first thing, salvation's of the Lord. What does it mean? It means that salvation is from God. The triune God. But secondly, it's also through God. God didn't just found this salvation and create this great plan of salvation for sinners, but it's also through Him. It wasn't just His planning, but it's also His execution. The question is, how would salvation be made possible? How is redemption secured? How is it accomplished? Well, I suggest to you the climax is that our salvation, the salvation for sinners, was accomplished through the person and work of Christ. Look with me in 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4, again we see the love of the Father sending His Son. 1 John 4 9-10 Again, a wonderful text. In this, the love of God was manifest towards us. The love of God in salvation. It's through God. That God sent His Son. His only begotten Son into the world. That we live through Him. And this is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us. And sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. J.R. Packer writes that the apostle is helping us to understand the magnitude of God's love in saving sinners. That God did not just send his only son, or he did not just send his son, sorry, but he sent his only son. He did not just send his only son, but he sent his only son to die. He did not even just send him to die, but to die a death that involved him satisfying the infinite just wrath of God against sin. So do you know that your salvation didn't just begin with God forming a plan of salvation, but it's carried through God himself. That salvation is through the Lord, through his work, through the person and work of Jesus Christ. We need to remember this again and again. It didn't just begin with God, but it's carried through by God and it's completed by God. No one had to help God to provide for this salvation. He didn't just form the plan and say, well, now you have to do something towards it. I didn't put that in my plan. Now it's your job to carry it out. No, no, no. We see that it's carried out by God. How? Well, first through the active obedience of Christ. Theologians often divide the person and work of Christ in two ways, the active obedience of Christ and the passive obedience of Christ. How is it through the Lord? Well, it's through the active obedience of Christ. We see that Jesus Christ came as the second Adam, the new representative of a new humanity. What did Jesus do? Well, His active obedience means that He perfectly fulfilled the demands of all righteousness in our place. And as sinners, those who have been born in sin because of original sin, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Now, all men, all women have transgressed against God and His law. It's impossible by ourselves to earn salvation. That's the great problem of Scripture. How does a sinful man get right with the holy God? And that's where the obedience of Christ comes into play. Galatians 4 v. 4 says that Jesus Christ was born under the law. He was born under the law. He was subject to its terms and conditions. He fulfilled it all in our place. He never sinned. He loved God perfectly with all of His heart, mind, soul, and strength. That where Adam failed, where you and I fail day by day, Jesus Christ prevailed through His obedient, sinless life. And so we see that we stake our eternity upon His sinless life. By faith alone we cling to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, have you beheld your representative today? You have a representative in heaven, one who's clothed you in His own righteousness. Satan comes to convict and to accuse you before the throne of God, and you have your representative right there. That He shows His hands and His wounds, that I've died for their sin. That I've absorbed their wrath in full. That the cup in which they deserve the wrath of God has been emptied. Have you seen your representative today? Do you know your mediator today? One who stands before man and God. We waver, we falter, we fall and stumble into sin, but our Savior, through His life, set His face like a flint to Jerusalem. He set His face to the cross. He went willingly and redeemed us from our sins. John 4, verse 38, if you look there with me, we see this obedient life. John 4, verse 38. Jesus said to them, He said to the people, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. That's the obedient life of our Savior. He says that the very food of His soul and life is to do the will of His Father. To do the will of Him who sent Me to finish His work. He didn't just have the desire to follow God and to do His will, but He was able to finish this work. If you look in John 6, verse 38. John 6, verse 38. We see again why Jesus came. For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me. that all of which he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at that last day. And then if you look in John chapter 17, verse 4, we see this work, this completed work. John 17, verse 4, Jesus says, I have glorified you on the earth. That is the Father. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. That's the obedient life of Jesus Christ. That's why salvation is of the Lord. It is through Jesus Christ and His sinless life. It's my will to do... It's my food to do the will of Him who sent me. I've finished the work, Father. I've glorified You on earth. So we see his obedient life, but secondly, his passive obedience. What does that mean? Not only did Jesus Christ fulfill all righteousness in our place, but he also came under the curse, the condemnation that was due our sin. John Murray writes that the wrath or the curse of God rests upon every infraction or violation of the law's demands. Apart from Jesus Christ, outside of Jesus Christ, we were under the wrath of God. We've sinned against God. There is every single infraction and violation of God's law within our own heart and life. Murray says, without deliverance from this curse, the wrath of God, there can be no salvation for sinners. Wrath must be poured out upon those who are dead in sin. Sin must be punished. And so how is salvation through the Lord, through His passive obedience? What we see is that Jesus Christ became a curse for us. If you look in Galatians chapter 3, Galatians chapter 3 verse 10, we see, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue, and notice, in all things which are written in the book of the law, and to do them." Paul says, cursed is everyone. That's a quotation of the Old Testament. Cursed is everyone. Everyone is under the wrath of God who does not continue in every single thing written in the book of the law. Now if we measure ourselves against that, outside of Jesus Christ, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. And notice in Galatians 3, verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. The question is, how has He redeemed us from the curse of the law? How does He set sinners free from condemnation? Well, look, it continues. By having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. 2 Corinthians 5.21, "...for he who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God." And so what we see here is that Jesus Christ became a curse for you, Christian, in your place, so that you would never have to be cursed. That Jesus Christ was forsaken from the Father, the One who has loved Him from all eternity, the One who has had perfect fellowship with His Father in the Godhead. He was forsaken. The Father turned His face away from Him. He was forsaken from the Father so that you and I would never have to be forsaken. Jesus Christ drunk the cup of wrath that you and I deserve. You can imagine the picture of Niagara Falls. You look upon the rocks and the canyon there, and you see the Niagara River pouring over and over and over, and it's as if it would look like the river would never stop flowing, that it's a continual water source. Imagine if a man were to stand at the bottom, he'd open his mouth wide and drink absolutely every single drop of water till there was nothing left. No more Niagara Falls, it's empty. That's what happened when Jesus Christ drunk the cup of wrath that we deserved. And He stood in your place, brothers and sisters. And the wrath of God was poured out, that He turned the cup over, and there was no drop of wrath left. The wrath of God was satisfied by His atoning death. Jesus says in John 10, verse 17, Therefore my Father loves me. Why? Because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again. This command I've received from my Father. He dies a criminal's death. He dies in the place of sinners. He's buried in the grave. He's raised gloriously. We know death was defeated then. Sin was paid for. Salvation is of the Lord. It's from God first. It is through God. And thirdly, I want you to see that salvation is perfected by God. Again, we see that it wasn't just God who began this work and carried it along to save us from our sins, but leave us behind at the last moment and we have to get from this point to glory. No, God, He perfects this work. He completes this work in us. If we're being honest, We have doubts sometimes. We struggle with assurance sometimes. Trials distract our eyes of faith. We cry out, how long, oh Lord? Will I ever actually be delivered from this trial? Will I ever put an end to this sin in which I repent day in and day out and try and crucify each day? Will death and pain ever be no more? Will I make it a glory? We ask those questions. Maybe not outwardly, but inwardly, our soul feels it from time to time. And Spurgeon writes, helpfully, that my salvation, your salvation, brothers and sisters, does not depend on my faith, but on the Lord. You see that? Salvation's of the Lord. My salvation. My inheritance and glory does not depend on the intensity of my faith, but on the object of my faith. On God who has completed this good work and will complete this good work. My salvation doesn't depend on my faith, but on the Lord. Spurgeon continues, my keeping does not depend on myself, but on God who keeps me. God keeps you. The reason you're a Christian today and you'll be a Christian tomorrow by God's grace is not because you hold firmly to God, but it is because God is holding firm to you. He's holding you on. He's keeping you by grace. This virgin writes, my being brought to heaven rests not on my own hands, but in the hands of God. You will, when doubts and fears prevail, fold your arms and look upward and say, now my eye of faith is dim. But I trust in Jesus, sink or swim. Either trials come and you feel like you're sinking, you trust in Jesus still. Salvation is of the Lord. He will complete this good work in me. I press on by faith. I put sin to death. I look towards God and seek to grow more Christ-like, more holy, more godly. But I press on knowing that He will keep me. This virgin concludes, as you were redeemed by grace at conversion, So you will be redeemed from death and grace by grace too. And you will enter heaven singing, salvation is of the Lord alone. Grace is a shoreless sea." We need to understand that. Our salvation in Christ depends on God. Us being kept in Christ depends on God. Our eternity in glory depends on God. The question is, if we have come to Him, we know that He will hold us fast. Now, what if you hear that and you say, yes, amen, but I still struggle with assurance. I still struggle with this. Well, I would suggest to you that a failure to understand God's perfecting work in us stems from a failure to understand who has saved us. There's this intimate connection with our knowledge of God in our Christian life, our Christian experience. Look at me in John chapter one. John chapter one verse 12. The passage says in verse 12, but as many as received him, as many embraced the Lord Jesus Christ by faith to him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Whoever believes in His name, whoever looks upon the Lord Jesus Christ, our passage says that God gives you the right to become children of God. So if you've believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you can know with certainty from this verse that you are indeed a child of God, and God is your Father. J.I. Packer writes that if you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father. Ask yourselves that question. Do I think about being God's child? Do I think about God being my Father? That's the heart of Christianity. That I'm no longer a slave to sin, but I am a child of God. That I know God not as an enemy or a judge, but as my Father in heaven. The one who has lavished me in His love. The one who has lavished me in His eternal love that He has for the Son. I'm now in Christ. He looks at me in Christ's righteousness. We know this, that knowing God as our Father is what gives us the deepest joy and comfort in life. We know that God welcomes and embraces us as his very own children, never to send us away, never to cast us out, never to forget about us. He doesn't offer some kind of love that He loves me, He loves me not. That one day your performance looks good, and so He loves me, and then the next day you've fallen and stumbled, and then He says, well, I don't love him anymore. I don't love her anymore. It's not some kind of He loves me, He loves me not relationship. This is the will of God. John 6, verse 40. Jesus says this is the will of Him who sent me. This is the will of my Father in heaven who sent me. that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day." You notice the promise. Everyone, everyone who believes in Jesus Christ by faith, they will have eternal life. And the promise is that he may not, it doesn't say he may not raise them up, or he may raise them up, but it says, I will. There's certainty. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ by faith will be raised on that last day. They'll be brought into the kingdom of glory. And so there's this promise, this glorious promise. For us as Christians then, that the God of grace, the one whose salvation is from him and through him and to him, he's the one that perfects us to glory. So we've seen those three things. To conclude then, how do we respond to God's saving grace? We've unpacked this verse, we've seen his glorious salvation. What is the demand of us? We'll look back in Jonah chapter two again. Jonah 2. How did Jonah respond as he experienced God's grace for his soul, delivering him from the belly of the fish? How much more should it stir our souls as we see what Jesus Christ has done on the cross for our sin and for our salvation? Well, Jonah, he concludes his prayer with praise. He says, I'll sacrifice to You. With the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay what I vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. That's how he concludes as he comprehends his delivering grace of God, as he understands God's heartbeat for sinners, a God of mercy. He ends in praise and thanksgiving. Well, that's our response. When you have heard this this morning, when you've heard it last week, or when you hear of God's salvation tomorrow or next week, is this your genuine response? Can you say with a hymn writer that all that thrills my soul is Jesus, that I glory in this cross work, I glory in this salvation, that I've determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The work of God and His saving grace doesn't end with the praise of man, but it ends in the praise of God. Again, look with me in Revelation 7, verse 10. Revelation 7, verse 10, this is you and I, brothers and sisters, in glory. And this is what will take place when all the redeemed are in glory, praising God. Revelation 7, verse 9 again, I'll read this passage. After these things, I looked and beheld a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. If you're in Christ, This is you. See your own soul here. See your own face here, a great multitude. Our brothers and sisters here at Trinity Baptist Church, standing before the throne of God, with all nations and tribes and peoples, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, cleansed from our sin once and for all. This is what will happen in glory. Eternity. Eternity upon eternity of worship and praise. And what we experience here as a church, corporately, is a foretaste of this day. As we worship God each week with God's people here in Burlington, we're working towards this glorious day. And so how can we worship today? When we worship today, that's preparing us for this great day of worship of all of eternity with God in His presence. So how can we worship today? Two things to conclude. First, we have to make personal and family devotions our priority. This is what we'll be doing for all of eternity. We better get prepared today. We better cultivate this worshipful heart now, in the present. Our society is trying to deconstruct the home. They're trying to separate husband and wife. They're trying to break down the structure in which God has built into creation. So what should we do to counteract that? Well, it begins by building a strong home, building a home that's founded upon Christ and His solid rock. We want to build a worshipful house. Find something simple. Find scripture to read each day. Something simple. Just read through scripture. Pray scripture. Work through prayer items together as a family. Find something helpful. A helpful book is Joel Beeky's Little Family Worship Book. It takes a little chapter a day from every book of the Bible and expounds a truth from it. Something to meditate upon for the day. We want to make family worship, personal worship our priority. We want to cultivate this heart. But secondly, we want to make corporate worship a priority. God has saved you not to be an individual, not to be a lone ranger in the household of God, but But He saved you into His house and brought you into His kingdom and into His church. And you have brothers and sisters that we work as a team together. That we all have different gifts and abilities that work perfectly. There's a head and there's a hand and there's feet. We all work together to advance God's purposes in this world by His Grace, everything we've been given has been given by grace for the edification of the church, for the building of it, for the salvation of the lost, for the glory of God's name. So our exhortation then is to think about eternity, to think about where we'll be spending eternity before the throne, worshiping God, and let that shape our present service. Let it impact our personal worship. Let it impact how we worship as a church. Let eternity shape your present service to the Lord. But what if you don't even know where you'll spend eternity? What if you don't even know if your sins have been forgiven? What if you haven't even believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you find yourselves dead in your sin? The stark reality is that that this won't be your case. If you die in your sins, if you die without the Savior, you will not be in glory, praising God with God's redeemed people, enjoying God's endless goodness. You'll be in the place of wrath, where God's presence is not there to bless, but to curse, to pour out His judgment upon those who have rejected the Savior. There won't be praising to God, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth under His eternal wrath. The question is, you're here this morning, why die in your sins? Why go to hell for all of eternity under the wrath that you and I deserve when free grace is offered to you again and again today? When the Savior says, all who come to me I will in no eyes cast out. Your call, if you don't know where you'll spend eternity, if your sins have not been forgiven. God says in his word, incline your ear and come to me, come to God. Confess your sin, have mercy upon me. A sinner, come to me, hear me and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. You come to Jesus Christ today and turn from your sin, believing upon him by faith, your eternity will be changed forever. You'll be brought into the people of God, clothed in his righteousness, cleansed from all of your sin. And we want you to be there with us on that day. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great plan of salvation, that it is of the Lord that you have begun this good work in us, that you are carrying it out, and that you will complete it on that day. We pray, Father, that you would help us to worship you, to sing of your glory and your praise all of our days. And we also ask that you would be gracious in extending your mercy to those who do not know you. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.