Let's turn to Jonah 2. Brethren, it's good to be with you. My heart is just encouraged to hear you singing. It helps me, and I hope it helps you to sit in the midst of singing. Our glorious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He is so good, isn't he? He's rich, favorable toward sinners like us. And I'm thankful for that. And I hope you are as well. And I hope that what you're hearing today and you know, you're not hearing the full the full message. No one, two, three messages can present the whole message of scripture. But I trust that everything that is being presented is truth and it will settle in your soul and be a help and encouragement to you. We're all coming from different places. And, you know, different thoughts in our minds. And many of you, perhaps most here, have a relationship with the Lord. I don't presume that all do. And so may the Lord just speak to our hearts as we have need today and speak to mine as I seek to relay a message to you today. I want to begin by just reading the chapter. We read it last week. We'll read it again here. Beginning in verse 17 of chapter 1, now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the fish's belly. And he said, I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, 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 floods surrounded me, and your billows and your waves passed over me. Then I said, I have been cast out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The waters surrounded me, even to my soul. The deep closed around me. Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains. The earth, with its bars, closed behind me forever. Yet you have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer went up to you, unto your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. So the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Today, I want to draw attention to what is likely the most familiar statement that Jonah made. It's the conclusion that he drew just prior to being catapulted from the fish back to the shore from which he had sailed just a few days before. The Lord recovered his runaway prophet in the belly of the fish. And by the way, lest I forget to say it later, it was brought to my attention, and I think it's a point worthy of being made, it was brought to my attention by one of you. That there was there was another storm on another ship that affected a servant of the Lord who wasn't running away. The Apostle Paul and this brother suggested, and I thought it was a valid well, it is a valid point, and it's a point, but it doesn't it's not Jonah, but it is a valid point. It may be that God sends a storm your way, and it's not because you're running away from the Lord. That's because he is doing something that God is always working. God is always working in his providential dealings in our lives. So don't immediately jump to the conclusion that you you're off course if you're in the belly of a fish. But it could be that you are. One thing I do know that the Lord loves his own enough, his mercy is great enough and it's sovereign that he's going to come after his own. if they are running. It's really a thought that will be pressed this morning. When the Lord in mercy assigns a deep affliction in your life that redirects your wayward course, if that be true of you, and brings you back in line with His will, one thing you will do is you will be thankful. You will thank Him for that. And you will recognize what Jonah concluded. Salvation is of the Lord. Remember that an experience that is to any degree like Jonah's experience, and there is no duplicate of Jonah's experience, one of a kind. And there's reason for that. And we're going to look at that this morning. But if no matter what the experience is, if it's anything like Jonah, you need to be assured that it is not for your destruction, that God is bringing that into your life. It's a means of restoration. As I said last week, it's not the destination. It's the restoration. Many of us can testify to this, just like Jonah. But Jonah declared a fundamental truth of God's revelation. Salvation is of the Lord. He had attempted to run from God's intentions to warn Nineveh. In running, he encountered what he thought would be death. But he learned experientially that salvation is of the Lord for himself. But also for more than himself. For Nineveh. When we read the word salvation here in verse nine, it refers to all deliverances of the Lord and that we made application of that last week in this deliverance that God brings to our lives when we're in places of great difficulty or darkness. It could refer to a temporal deliverance. It could refer to a spiritual deliverance. It could, and I believe ultimately applies to that eternal deliverance. And in this message, I'm especially focusing upon salvation in the eternal sense. You see, deliverance from a sickness or deliverance from a financial crisis or a deliverance from some affliction without deliverance from the penalty and power of sin is only temporary. And we need a deliverance that is not simply a temporary deliverance. The wages of sin is death, the salvation of the Lord is life and it's life with him now. and forever. Salvation. That's what we need. Salvation is of the Lord. It belongs to Him. It's of the Lord. It belongs to Him. It is unique to Him. He is a delivering, saving, redeeming, God. Salvation is of the Lord. And this is the revelation of Scripture. And this is the revelation of Scripture that brings hope to sinners like us. And this is the foundation of every believer's hope this morning. This is not a message. This is not necessarily an evangelistic message, though there may be an evangelistic tone to it. I'm telling you that if you are walking with the Lord, if you're a child of God, this is a message that needs to assure your heart. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah teaches us by example And by type that the Lord saves whom he pleases. And he saves in the only way that it is possible to be saved and only he is able to save. And those are the three points I want to press home to you in this message. First of all, he saves whom he pleases. The God of mercy. You notice that in verse eight, he says, those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. This is God. God is referred to as mercy. He is the one who is covenant, loyal, steadfast love. And he saves whom he will. Now, Jonah was prejudiced. Jonah was bigoted. And God taught him that salvation is not limited to his scope, to his viewpoint. It wasn't limited to his own nation, his own people group. While national Israel was unique in God's redemptive plan, God's purpose to save was never limited to national Israel, and we see this really throughout The history of redemption, don't we? And we see it here in the story, the account of Jonah. We've already seen that Jonah witnessed the salvation of those idolatrous Phoenician mariners who cried out to the Lord and he heard them cry out to the Lord before they threw him overboard. Those were Gentiles. And they cried out to Yahweh, not just to the gods that they were crying out to. They became very specific and cried out to Yahweh, the God of Israel. And it seems to me, I know there are those who will say this isn't true, but it seems I don't believe they just added Jehovah to their plethora of gods. I believe they truly became worshipers of Yahweh. And Jonah saw that and it had to affect him. You see, God is not, of course, we know that God's going to teach Jonah even more when he goes to Nineveh and shows him that he actually God actually has a heart for Gentiles, for Nineveh, for those that Jonah didn't have a heart for. And see that that's a problem, sometimes that's a problem for you and me. God is not bound to any ethnicity. He's not bound to any culture. He's not bound to any nationality. And sometimes a sense, a spirit of nationalism can actually get in our way of seeing things as God sees things. Salvation is of the Lord. And I just want to encourage you. I don't want to belabor this point, but don't let a spirit of nationalism limit your view of the reach of God's mercy. He may, in fact, save some of the illegal immigrants that have come into our country. Oh, preacher, are you against borders? This is not a message about that. It's not a message about politics. But what I do know is that God saves. The Lord saves whom He pleases. And it may be that there are even illegal things that happen to bring people under the sound of the gospel. That can happen. And we don't want to rule that possibility out. That doesn't mean we shouldn't tighten our borders and et cetera, et cetera. We should. There are boundaries. And there are those in the world who hate Americans. Do we wish, do we pray, are we concerned at all for the salvation of those in the world who may hate us? because we're Americans. I'm just saying, don't take on a Jonah spirit that was not willing until God gets done with him to go and actually preach to a despised nation in his day. Jonah also learned experientially what he perhaps knew intellectually about his own personal salvation. What did he learn about his own personal salvation? Well, he would have got he would have never Jonah would have never been saved apart from divine intervention. It wasn't enough that he was just born of the physical stock of Abraham, salvations of the Lord. It wasn't enough that he knew doctrine, salvation is of the Lord. The Lord had to deliver him. He was brought to a place, as we saw last week, of utter helplessness. And if he was going to be delivered, it was going to be the Lord that delivered him, not because he was a Jew. Not because he knew certain nocturnal things. He learned experientially that salvation is of the Lord. And it was when he came to that place of surrender and actually giving thanks to God and confessing salvation is of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to the fish and vomited Jonah onto dry land. And isn't this true in our lives as well? I'm talking about what we know experientially. Our testimonies of conversion are not all the same, are they? I've actually heard a couple of testimonies of conversion over the last couple of days, and I've just marveled at how many differences there are in our testimonies, not in the truth, not in the doctrine, not in the Christ who saves, but in the experience of conversion. Some of you came to saving faith in such a way that you never doubted that salvation is of the Lord. You knew from the beginning That you would have never chosen Christ, you would have never chosen God had he not chosen you. And so when you read that in God's word, the salvation is of the Lord, your heart resonated with that very powerfully because you knew you knew from your own experience you were running. You were you were not seeking him. You were there was not in some of your cases, not a religious bone in your body. And so you. Your conversion was such that you knew and you believed from the beginning that salvation is of the Lord. And that was because of that experience, because of the way that you came to faith in Christ. We all, anyone who's saved comes to faith in Christ. But the way, the details around your conversion were such that your faith has been solid and certain. And you really had full assurance from the very get go. Salvation is of the Lord. You have never doubted that. But not all of us can say that. Others of us came to faith in Christ maybe quite early in our lives, and not having deeply rebelled against God in our experience. There's no experience of you running, sowing your wild oats, so to speak. I remember as a teenager, I worked for a guy my senior year in high school, and I had a testimony of faith in Christ. And he would say to me, he'd say, You need to sow your wild oats while you're young. And I just said, well, I don't really have any interest in sowing wild oats. That's not where I was in my life. I had a relationship to Christ. I had high school buddies that would say, listen, if you're going to be a preacher someday and you're going to deal with people, you've got to know how they live. Come out to our parties. Come drink with us. Come get a taste of what it's like so you can minister to people who are... What I'm telling you is my own testimony. There was a sense in which I came to Christ with a sense of my sin, but it was in some ways a simple... there wasn't great difficulty surrounding it. I was delivered from some life of debauchery or a life where I was outwardly working out those wild oats. And you may have a testimony similar to mine. And we know intellectually that it was His sovereign mercy that drew us. I have never doubted that. I've known that since I was a teenager, that I was utterly dependent upon the sovereign mercy of God. I knew it in my head. I knew it intellectually. That's what I'm getting across to you. It was a doctrinal, part of my doctrinal creed. But at some point, And maybe this is your testimony as well, but at some point through a hard trial that we might call a crisis of faith. In fact, I would suggest that perhaps that's what Jonah was experiencing, a crisis of faith. And in a situation like that, we learned experientially that salvation is of the Lord. That's my testimony. And that may be some of yours. In fact, coming to the place where I saw, you know, I know that the faith I have, it was not just a mama or papa taught faith. I know it's a faith that God worked in me. How do I know that? Because I'm still believing here today. Because I know what it's like to be tested and come to that crisis. where you wonder, is this true at all? True at all. But through that experience, you learn it is true. Salvation is of the Lord. That's why I am still in the faith. And so it was with Jonah. He ended up on dry land, stable land, and was turned around because salvation is of the Lord. And brethren, the truth for all sinners For all of us is that God will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy. Do you believe that? It's true. And He does have mercy. Do not listen to that. Do not listen to salvationists of the Lord and think, well, there's no hope for me. No, that's the only reason there is hope for you. And He doesn't have mercy just upon those who are born in Christian families or those who are born in Christian cultures, but sinners of all kinds. So be thankful that salvation is of the Lord. You know, if it were up to you, if it were up to me to deliver ourselves from the curse and bondage of sin, none of us would have been saved from the wrath to come. Not one single one of us. But there is plenteous mercy with the Lord. There is. Listen, when you listen, when you hear those who are salvations of the Lord, be encouraged. We sang it. Well, maybe we didn't sing it, Psalm 145 talked about the grace and the compassion of the long suffering, but there's another song that talks about the plenteous mercy, Psalm 86, I believe it is. He is plenteous in mercy. He saves unlikely candidates. And as I'm looking across the landscape of even my own family, that gives me hope. He saves unlikely candidates. Unlikely candidates like you and me. He saves those we think are unsavable. Saul of Tarsus. Jonah. No one is too far gone for God to reach. Someone was telling me about someone who's kind of seems to be departing from the faith right now. And that's a story that's not uncommon, sad to say. But I will tell you that even those individuals, we must believe, are not too far gone for God to recover, to restore. Right? It's true. Salvation is of the Lord. He saves whom He pleases. And He saves how He pleases. And by this, I'm saying he has determined the way of salvation. There's not multiple ways that God saves, not this eternal salvation that we're talking about. And this is typified in Jonah's experience. God was revealing in this ancient and remarkable event his way of salvation. for Jew and Gentile. Jonah's burial at sea and salvation pointed to eternal salvation through God's own Son. Jonah was, in essence, put to death and resurrected, wasn't he? In chapter 1 and verse 15, so they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging. The details that are given in this story are not just dropped in there for an interesting story. There is something being communicated. And in verse 17, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And then in chapter 2, verse 10, so the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Now, maybe if we were reading this account without the help of Jesus, we may not come to the same conclusion that Jesus leads us to, but on the authority of Jesus' own words, we can look at what is going on here as a type of the salvation of the Lord, the way in which the Lord has chosen to save. Jesus says that Jonah was assigned to Nineveh in a way that his own experience would be to the Jews and by implication to us all. In Luke chapter 11, You're familiar probably more with Matthew's account of Jesus' words about Jonah. But in Luke chapter 11, it was sort of eye opening for me. It was helpful for me. I hope it will be helpful for you. In Luke chapter 11, verse 29 and 30, while the crowds were thickly gathered together, he began to say, this is an evil generation. It seeks a sign. And no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah, the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation." What was the sign? Well, perhaps it would be better to ask, who was the sign? Did you notice how Jesus said what he said, the sign of Jonah, the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites. So also the son of man will be to this generation now in Matthew, chapter 12, it is specifically stated. Jesus says a sign, no sign will be given to it, this generation, except the sign of the prophet Jonah, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart. Of the earth. So Jonah became a sign. Jonah's message. was a warning of judgment. But his experience in the belly of the fish and reviving to life after three days was a sign. That is what spoke. And I believe that spoke more loudly than actually the warning of judgment. And as I'll emphasize in another message, the warning of judgment was necessary. But it was Jonah that was the sign. It is what happened to Jonah that was the sign. And apparently that was communicated to the Ninevites somehow. They knew he was essentially brought back to life after three days and nights buried at sea. In fact, some have speculated that the mariners were witnesses. In fact, they may have come back to the shore to Joppa and said, hey, amazing what happened. And they may have been ones communicating this to others, and the word may have spread to Nineveh even before Jonah got there. But whether that's true or not, somehow they knew that the man that was proclaiming the message to them of warning was a man who had essentially been buried at sea and was brought back to life. And Jesus appeals to Jonah as a type of himself. As Jonah, so the Son of Man. The resurrection of Jesus would be the greatest sign of the salvation of the Lord. And there's a sense in which the resurrection sort of encompasses all the whole story. But the resurrection was the vindication of Jesus. It was the vindication of everything he said. It was the vindication of everything that he did, just as Jonah being vomited forth from the great fish was a vindication of his message, the vindication of everything that he was representing to the Gentile people. Now, of course, resurrection presupposes death, doesn't it? So I ask the question, does Jonah fulfill that part of the type? Did Jonah die? And I would say, if not literally, and by the way, some actually suggest that Jonah literally died in the fish, so there's no sense in even talking about how how was he kept alive in the fish? Actually, the record doesn't say he died. It just says he was in the belly of the fish. And I I'm borrowing that from J. Vernon McGee. But apparently there were others, there are others who have contended that he didn't that he did actually die in the belly of the fish. But whether he did or not, his prayer certainly expresses, expresses language of death, doesn't it? In verse three, no, verse two, out of the belly of Sheol. That's death, that's the grave. Out of the belly of Sheol, I cried. In verse six, the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. That's language of death. Of cessation. It's the end. But here's the thing that strikes me more than that. is that Jonah was cast into the raging sea as a substitute to save the lives of the mariners. Did you pick up on that in chapter 1? Go back to verse 12. Jonah said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you. Me for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of Me." You may be troubled in your mind there at that point, but just hang on. Try to connect a thought there. And then you go to verse 15, So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. One of the differences that we think in our minds between Jonah and Jesus is that Jonah was being thrown into the sea. In fact, he said, throw me to save you, cast me into the sea to save you. It was because Jonah was guilty. Right. And Jesus was not guilty. Jesus chose to go to the cross, Jesus chose. to be a substitute. Jesus agreed to be a substitute, not because of His own sin. But beloved, what did He become? He became sin for us. So in this sense, Jonah, the sinner, is the type. It answers the type. and cast into the sea as a substitute to save the mariners, he fulfills the type. So Jesus, right? Jesus became sin for us, not only bore the punishment, And I know this is mysterious, perhaps, but he was united in our flesh. He took on that sinful flesh and he hung upon that cross, bearing the load, bearing the guilt. And like Jonah. Like Jonah and the fish, the grave seemed to end. The grave seemed like Who would have thought that Jesus was going to come back from the grave? Who would have thought that Jonah was going to be spit up on dry land? You understand, there was this sense of the disciples thought it was over. And yet, you see, in Jonah's prayer in chapter 2, verse 6, yet you have brought up my life from the pit, from destruction. Oh, Lord, my God. And so when the Lord spoke to the fish, the fish had to release Jonah, vomiting him out, releasing him from that watery grave, releasing him from Sheol, releasing him from destruction. So it was for Jesus. Death could not hold him. Psalm 16 and verse 10 is actually, I think, probably referenced here by Jonah. And, you know, it's quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up, of which we are all witnesses. So Jesus said His resurrection is the sign. It's the sign. Jews, you unbelieving Jews, you adulterous generation. You have no faith. You're not believing me. Look at all the works that I've done. Look at all that I have done. Look at the life that I have manifested as I've walked among you. You don't believe me. You're seeking for, you're asking for a sign. There's only one sign. And it's the greatest sign of all. It's the greatest sign of all. This sign of Jonah was the sign of the salvation of the Lord accomplished in Jesus. And so as the raging waters were calmed when Jonah was thrown overboard, so the wrath of God against sinners was absorbed by Jesus Christ on the cross so that there is peace with God for every single believer. There's placid, calm, still waters in Christ because of Him. The sign that this is true He's the risen Christ. The salvation of the Lord is only by way of the humiliation of the cross and grave. Jonah was humiliated. And you might even say that being vomited forth was a kind of humiliation, words kind of humiliation. Vomited forth. And yet through that humiliation, have you ever thought about that? The power of the cross. The most humiliating thing this world has ever seen is the very Son of God joined to humanity hanging upon a cross. The most humiliating thing in all of human history. And it's referred to as power. The power. The power of the cross. And what was accomplished there on the cross was confirmed by the glory of resurrection power as Jesus bodily brought forth from the grave and united with His spirits, which we have preached on in recent messages in Matthew. His death, listen, I think this is an important point. His death was not merely a show of God's just hatred against sin and his great love. I don't think there's anything wrong with talking about that. And some will say, you know, how do you know? How do you know how much God hates sin? How do you know how much God loves? Well, look at the cross. That is a true statement. But that's all that you say, you haven't said enough. Because he actually did something on that cross. He actually satisfied justice as He, in infinite love, bore our guilt, removing the curse of sin. You understand what I'm saying? Something was done there. Just as something was done when Jonah was cast into the sea. The waters were calm. So it was. In the death of Jesus Christ, this is why this is why death could not hold him. This is why that if we can make the parallel here, that the fish had to vomit him out. God raised Jesus from the dead. Because he actually fully satisfied the justice and the love of God in his death. The risen Christ is the sign. You can't make too much of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The entire good news of salvation hinges on the resurrection. Apart from the resurrection. He would have just been one of three dying on a cross that day. It is the resurrection that screams it is finished. As Paul said, if Christ be not risen, if He is not risen, your faith is futile. You're still in your sins. But now Christ is risen from the dead. Hallelujah! He is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. And this is what you see typified in Jonah. Three days, three nights in the great fish, vomited forth to dry land. And the Lord, this Lord is The only one who can say this Lord who spoke to that fish, this Lord that is typified by Jonah, this Lord, it is God who raised him from the dead, the father satisfied with his son, the spirit engaged with that resurrection. Salvation is of the Lord, he alone can save by way of Jesus Christ, the greater than Jonah. And this is important. And I know you might think, well, you know, maybe you're thinking, isn't this something that we're already settled on? I don't know if you're settled on it or not. I don't know. I'm telling you, salvation is not simply that God loves or that God hates or that God... Salvation required God to do something. And it requires that he continue to do something. God's only way of salvation from sin's judgment and to be reconciled to him now and forever, it depends upon Jesus bearing our sin on the cross. Coming forth from the heart of the earth to establish a new and living way that we heard about in the last hour for his people. By the way, We don't see this in Jonah's account, but the Holy Spirit being sent forth on the day of Pentecost just screams. It screams to the world. And all that the Holy Spirit has been doing for 2,000 years screams to the world that the Father and the Son are satisfied. And you have access to the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. And He's doing that. He's doing that for you. He's doing that for me even to this day. But you take away the cross. You take away the grave. You take away the resurrection. And you have none of that. We are brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ. We experience peace through the Prince of Peace. And so the message, the message, the message of the apostles was the message really of the sign of Jonah. And you read it, don't you? And in the book of Acts, everywhere they went, they spoke of the resurrection. Let me just give you one example. Paul at Antioch. Therefore, he also says in another song, you will not allow your holy one to see corruption. This is Acts 13, 35 through 38. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep and was buried with his fathers and saw corruption. This is essentially the message Peter preached. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name given under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." Do you hear the message of Jonah? Does it resonate with you? You say, well, I believed a long time ago. I believe, I believe. No. Does it resonate with you? Sometimes we who are believers, we sort of lose connection with that which is the very foundation. May the Holy Spirit move in us and move in me. To hear the message of Jonah, salvation is of the Lord, it is not of you, it is not what you can do. We heard that in the last hour or two, didn't we? It's of the Lord. And because that's true. Oh, because that's true. There is salvation. Right? There is salvation for lost sinners from every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation. It's the same message. World without end. And so that's why Jesus said after He arose and before He ascended, go into all the world. It's not a unique message for every people group. It's the same message. It's a message of salvation. Salvation is of the Lord, their salvation for you, because this is true, the best and the worst of sinners have hope. Why would I say the best and worst of sinners, because there are degrees, aren't there, in our experiences? But the best and the worst are still sinners and there is hope, there's hope for you and there's hope for me. Because salvation is of the Lord. Because this is true. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's as simple as that. As simple as that. Don't ignore the sign. Don't ignore the sign. The sign is the Son of Man who rose and lives today to make intercession for all who come to the Father through Him. Father, would You bless