Jonah (Quality: Very good)

[0:00] Let's pray.

[0:30] Salvation is of the Lord. Last clause in the ninth verse of the second chapter of Jonah.

[0:45] Salvation is of the Lord. We were speaking from these words this morning.

[1:00] And we observe this fact, and it is indeed a tremendous fact, as the Lord in his word declares that salvation is of the Lord.

[1:23] But while it is a fact and a true one, no one can possibly rightly deny this truth.

[1:37] It is also a revelation. A revelation that is made to every individual believer.

[1:49] Which such have to learn. And have embedded in their very hearts.

[2:03] And when that is the case, you will very soon discover its effects in their lives.

[2:18] And what we have been trying to delve into this today has been this mighty fact before us.

[2:35] What pains the Lord God took to bring Jonah to this point. Because this really is the crowning point.

[2:48] It's the pivotal truth of this book of Jonah. Jonah. And as you notice, when Jonah was brought with that conviction to believe it, his troubles were partly solved.

[3:09] He was delivered from certain death and destruction by the mighty hand of God.

[3:25] Although, of course, Jonah had long believed, no doubt, this truth. Had received it perhaps more nominally than in deed and in truth.

[3:40] Had not fully entered into the greatness and wonder of it. God saw fit to teach him and to cause him to learn from his own heart and his experience what this truth really meant.

[4:08] salvation is of the Lord. It is a common fact, and I'm sure you will agree with me tonight, that among believers to Christian people, professors of religion, as well as those in the world, there's deep down, not always admitted, but deep down in their heart, there's a belief that this is, while it's true, is not all the truth.

[4:49] That there is some scope for the creature to act and something for the creature to accomplish in their own salvation.

[5:07] And while that is the overwhelming experience, such a person never really fully enters into the joy of the salvation of God.

[5:31] Never really see the fullness of that work which the Lord Jesus Christ finished when he died upon the cross.

[5:43] Let me divert for a moment. There's a very striking and wonderful psalm, the 22nd psalm. It begins with the first words that came from the lips of the Lord Jesus, the Redeemer, when on the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

[6:11] How wonderful it is the Holy Spirit sets forth in the Old Testament scripture. A thousand years before the time came when Christ would be crucified, it gives his actual words that were uttered by him on the cross.

[6:32] And then in the last words, it's not always so clear, but it says about those who shall be born shall know that he hath done this.

[6:48] Or as the Hebrew really sets it forth, it really means this, they shall know that he has finished.

[6:59] It is finished. So in that psalm then, we have the first words and the last words of that blessed, glorious person who was suffering for his people on the cross.

[7:16] It is finished. And you know, until we come to this place where God would have Jonah come, and where we must come by God's teaching grace, we never really enter fully into the great comprehension of what salvation really means.

[7:46] Now I want a night, I'm coming back to Jonah, we shall try and draw a few things from him as an example, but I want to, I was thinking since this morning, did I really put forth the truths about salvation?

[8:10] We were talking about Jonah, wonderful things God did with him and for him, the great provisions God made in keeping him alive in the midst of terrible dangers.

[8:25] salvation is, but do we know what really salvation is? Let me just be brief and speak a few words about this.

[8:39] Salvation is of the Lord, and when was salvation begun? It was begun in eternity, before time ever began.

[8:55] before the world, and all things in it were ever made. God then planned his glorious plans, and worked them out in wondrous detail, and his own dear son, in sweet and glorious harmony and consultation with God the Father, willingly accepted all the terms, conditions, that that salvation entailed.

[9:39] And therefore, that's the first great thing we must observe and emphatically pronounce in regard to salvation.

[9:51] salvation. And by whom was it carried out and accomplished? It was carried out by the dear son of God in our nature, in all the weakness of that nature.

[10:09] He was crucified, we read, in weakness. He was raised again in power. God but he accomplished it.

[10:24] And what he accomplished is far beyond our comprehension. I think last Lord's Day I was saying, how can we, we feel sometimes like this in our experience, how can we really know and understand and believe that all my sins that ever have been committed were charged and laid upon that dear spotless Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[10:58] And yet this is the very root of your salvation. salvation. If we deny this, we deny everything.

[11:11] We have nothing left. But indeed it is a truth that God will reveal to his people.

[11:22] I said at the beginning this is not only a truth but it's a revelation of God to all his believing people. then how wonderful and simple and plain and glorious the basic facts of salvation are.

[11:53] And we would notice this in regard to this man Jonah. The Lord was determined that he should know and live by this truth and he needed a great deal of revelation to enable him to embrace it, believe in it, and possess it in his own experience and life.

[12:26] Now we might think that surely God would not choose a man like this to teach the great fundamental truths of the gospel.

[12:39] He's a servant of the Lord, undeniably so. God acknowledges it. Everything in this man's life bears that truth out to the very fullest.

[12:51] and yet he had not as yet come to this place and point when he could see and hold that salvation was of the Lord.

[13:17] But he then is a servant and God is determined to make him see and save him from himself and to bring him great and wonderful deliverance.

[13:35] And you know, poor Jonah, in spite of all that the Lord did with him and for him, he still had that obstinacy of heart. Have you got any like that about you?

[13:49] do you find that one of the great troubles and weaknesses of your life is obstinacy? Or you cannot give way, you cannot submit, cannot bring your proud self down to acknowledge when you are wrong?

[14:09] That was a great trouble with Jonah, you see. After this all happened, we find him saying this twice. to the Lord, praying to him, he said, Lord, let me die and not live.

[14:28] You see, he calculated that death would be better than life. He had lost sight for a moment or two at least of the Lord's wonderful commission sending him forth on this errand of mercy to this great city of Nineveh.

[14:50] And when God had, after the preaching of Jonah, when he had reached this great metropolis of the Middle East, as I said this morning, Jonah undoubtedly would have to travel through that part of the world which we call Lebanon and Syria before he came into the province of the Assyrian Empire.

[15:20] and after all that that was done and God testified most wonderfully with his mission and his preaching, he only preached a few words but that was sufficient.

[15:39] When God is blessing a word, he will bless it, make it effectual and do the work that he intends it shall do in the hearts of his people.

[15:53] And what does he say? He says, but when the Lord said, I will not do unto this people at Nineveh what I had said I would do, then Jonah was displeased.

[16:11] I think that's a wonderful, striking revelation of the man. You see, he was so righteous, so full of self, so confident like the Pharisees were, that they were the only people really in the world that were the religious people.

[16:35] And all outside that, you know, he was a Jew, and you know what the Jewish nation were like. Lord Jesus had to call them hypocrites, whited sepulchres, because they could not tolerate the thought of any Gentile being brought into the kingdom of God.

[17:01] And Jonah would far more have desired to see the pouring out of fire upon this city of Nineveh, in the same way that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in the day of Abraham.

[17:19] He was displeased. We have to be wary, my friends. I'm sure that there's so much in this book of Jonah that is like a mirror.

[17:32] And if you come to it with all true reverence, desire, and prayer, you'll see some of the inward things of your own heart, reflected in the word of God and in the way that Jonah behaved.

[17:50] Displeased, displeased that a 600,000 city of inhabitants of a city should be saved from destruction and not destroyed.

[18:08] Oh, I know, when you see those around you who defy the God and gospel of his grace, you sometimes wish that you could wreck the vengeance you feel they deserve.

[18:24] I was rather struck with Mr. Gudgeon when he was here speaking to us the other week. He went out to Russia to visit some of the persecuted Christians.

[18:43] And he went into a place and when he came out, his car had been ransacked of everything that was in it. leaving him very much at a loss for there he was miles and miles away from his home with simply nothing left to carry on.

[19:05] And what did he say? He said, I wished I could find those people to wreck my vengeance upon them. And then he said, I was rebuked.

[19:19] And I came right into the very opposite direction. I had to pray for them. You know, when you can pray for your enemies who have really done you harm, that's a wonderful sign of recognition that salvation is of the Lord.

[19:45] And everything that goes with it, God's judgment is all part of it. His vengeance upon his enemies is all part of this.

[19:58] It's not in our hands. What a mercy it is. If things were in our hands, I don't know what we might do. We should wreck harm and wreck churches and do great damage to individuals and there would be no end to the strife that would be caused but it is not in our hands.

[20:25] Salvation is of the Lord. Well then God goes on with this man and he teaches him still in spite of the fact that he was still in that hard obstinate spirit that couldn't bear to see anything outside his own little circle being blessed or benefited by God.

[21:00] It was like those people you know in the Samaria when the woman of Samaria came to the Lord Jesus she was astounded that he even took the trouble to speak to her because he decided in her own mind it's not usual it's not the custom for Jews to have anything to do with the Samaritans that had grown up you see that was the common idea and oh what a separation and you know my friends a great deal of the church's trouble today is simply this spirit that abounds secretly or openly we cannot have these people stand thou from me for I am holier than thou we are on the way to heaven no one else is likely ever to find that way we ought to be praying that the

[22:14] Lord would open eyes unstopped deaf ears and bring sinners to his feet to find that salvation is of the Lord then another thing we find about Jonah is this that he was complacent you know terribly complacent going over from one part of the book to another when that terrible storm was on raging around the ship in which he had paid his fare and was being taken in all intent and purpose to Tarshish right at the other end of the Mediterranean as far off as he thought from God as he could possibly be he was quite complacent he went down the bottom of the ship and there he fell asleep and slept with a sleep of peace it was not real peace it was complacency my friends beware of mistaking complacency for peace there's a vast difference between the two you'll never get any rest with one but you'll get the sweetest rest with the other you'll find that rest we were reading our friend was reading this evening about that sleep which is given by the

[24:09] Lord well Jonah was there right in the bottom of the ship and the heathen mariner had to come to him and wake him up and bid him rise and call upon his God oh what a complacency there was with this man then we find also here with Jonah how the Lord still persisted with him when he went out of the city you know that's a very striking factor Jonah when after he had delivered the message he didn't mingle with the people he went out of this great city sat on the east side of it and waited to see the condemnation and destruction fall upon its people and

[25:20] God sent a vehement east wind wind I don't know whether east winds in the middle east are like the east winds in this country I'm sure they may not be but I know a vehement wind of any direction when it's coming into your back as it was with Jonah is something extremely unpleasant he built himself a booth to take shelter then God sent the sun to beat upon his head the wind took him off his guard he felt cold but he was not noticing how the sun was making him faint God raised up a gird which came up in one night and perished in one night and all this as we read it

[26:32] God made this gird he made a worm to destroy it a little thing but destructive in the extreme beware in our lives of having that which is not our doing or our making which we are utterly dependent upon God if we do not recognize the hand that gives the mercy that has been revealed in the giving beware little worm and that may be the very swift destruction of everything we depended upon and so poor Jonah said was very angry and he said to the Lord it's now come to the time when I must die and not live

[27:34] I say you see he was still under the hand of God still being dealt with God's patience patience is marvelous indeed it never wears out with those who fear him and love him it will continue to the end and although we are wayward like poor Jonah was miscalculating God's dealings with us at every possible turn God's goodness and patience will not change his purposes for us will not alter and he will go on as he did with Jonah to bring him where he is safest and best and that is to know from the very experience of his life and heart that salvation is of the

[28:46] Lord he does all the saving work of his grace is from the first to last the cause the power of all salvation this is a thing we need to preach and to believe until we can come to that point we are like poor Jonah we can't throw any stones at these people in the scriptures we are liable to the same temptations and it's possible that we though very near to the Lord perhaps in his mercy and goodness may fail and wonder and become unworthy but again I say this

[29:46] God's goodness and greatness of that goodness is revealed here in this portion of his word and it will be revealed in every believer's heart amen in system room 2 produce samuel 516 jesus the author is of true and living faith this blessed grace he gives and saves our souls death by facing him we live and view the wonders God alone can do 602 samuel 516 Naz cathedral saves s、 chlyb an whip tout of 逃 a p fil bond on t

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[34:33] CHOIR SINGS Let us pray.

[35:12] Maintain, O Lord, in us that power of faith, that we may view thy wonders for us, in us, around us.

[35:26] And may the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us now and evermore.

[35:40] Amen.