Salvation Is of the Lord

Psalm

Psalm 18:1–6 ESV

1 I love you, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; 5 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

Prayer

Introduction

Jonah 1:17–2:10 ESV

17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 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. 3 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. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Matthew 12:

Last week, we ended our study of Jonah with Jonah in a bit of a lurch. If you’ll recall, God called Jonah to go to preach to the perennial enemies of Israel, and Jonah said nope and headed off in the opposite direction trying to sail to Tarshish. God hurled a storm at the ship and Jonah is eventually thrown overboard, the sea immediately calms down and the once pagan sailors worship God. That is where we stopped, and really that is where the book of Jonah could have stopped. Jonah has been thrown overboard and received the just penalty for his rebellion against God. Jonah deserved death, and that is exactly what throwing him into the raging sea would normally give a person. Death

Matthew 12:38–41 ESV

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just 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. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Scripture

So, we pick up our story in and we will read through chapter 2 verse 10. If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word. We stand to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these are the most important words that we can hear today since they are God’s very Words. says,

Jonah 1:17–2:10 ESV

17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 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. 3 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. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Thank you, you may be seated.

The first thing I want us to notice is that God has acted again. God commissioned Jonah, hurled the storm, and now has appointed a fish by which to deliver Jonah. And perhaps we should also address the elephant in the room – or address the fish in the story. This story is remarkable. A giant fish swallowed a man and he was in it for three days and three nights.

We live in a time of skepticism and unbelief. Throughout the centuries many scholars have tried to deal with this story of Jonah and the great fish in different ways. Some have rejected it outright saying that it is just a story to teach a lesson and could not have actually happened. Those scholars are mistaken and implicitly or explicitly deny the truthfulness of the Word of God. Others try to turn the story into an allegory claiming it is true in some way, but as an analogy, not literally, again they are mistaken for the same reason. They deny God’s truth in doing so.

On the positive side, some Bible scholars have sought to find various species of marine life from the Mediterranean Sea that would have been able to swallow a man and him survive for three days. And still others have looked throughout history seeking to find similar accounts where people have been swallowed whole and survived. These approaches can be helpful and they take seriously what God has said in this passage, and we should appreciate and utilize that.

The harsh reality, though is that no amount of proof or evidence or anything else cause a person to believe something they have already decided to reject. I want to look for just a moment at . It says,

Matthew 12:38–41 ESV

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just 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. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

What’s going on in that passage is some Scribes and Pharisees – some of Jesus’ antagonists – are rebelliously seeking a sign. They are not asking for a sign in good faith. Jesus has been doing all kinds of signs already. In fact, earlier in Matthew chapter 12, Jesus healed a man who was demon possessed and you know what the Pharisees response was? “Oh, well yeah, but Jesus must have done that by the power of the Devil.” You see the problem? The problem is not with the story or the facts, the problem is with the heard heartedness that rejects the truth. These Pharisees had seen the truth face to face and rejected it. This is the problem. We can prove all day long that fish can swallow men and they can survive three days inside of it and spit them out onto land, but do you know what the unbelieving heart says? The unbelieving heart says, okay, so what? Fish swallow people, whatever, that doesn’t mean God had anything to do with it. Storms happen at sea, that doesn’t mean God sent the storm. That is the nature of the wicked and rebellious heart. The wicked and rebellious generation.

What we ought to do is take God’s Word for what it says. It says God appointed a fish to swallow up Jonah. There’s species capable of this? That’s cool, maybe God used one of those species. We don’t know of any sea creatures capable of swallowing a man alive and him remaining alive? No problem at all because the God who created everything out of nothing is big enough to create a single fish for a single mission. You see, people either believe what God has said, or they reject what God has said. Throwing evidence at them isn’t going to change their mind, a new heart will change their mind.

God provided for Jonah deliverance from his sin. From the consequences of his sin. That deliverance came from a divinely appointed fish. Chapter 2 verse 1 tells us that Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. Finally! Throughout chapter 1 the pagan sailors kept telling Jonah to pray to his God and Jonah never would do it. He was still fleeing. Even the sailors prayed to the One True God before Jonah did! But finally, Jonah does call out to God in his distress, and he records his adventure. Jonah while in the belly of the fish is giving thanks for God hearing his prayer for deliverance.

is a psalm of thanksgiving. There are a number of Psalms of Thanksgiving in the book of Psalms, and this one of Jonah’s falls exactly in line with them. In fact, Jonah uses some of the exact same words and phrases in other Psalms. Jonah realizes that God has appointed this fish as a means of deliverance, and so he gives thanks.

Jonah sings of how he was as good as dead. There was no hope for Jonah. He was at the bottom of the sea. Remember how in Jonah there is this recurring theme of fleeing the presence of the Lord. Jonah was trying to go as far westward as he could as far from his commission as possible, but there is also a theme that as Jonah flees God’s presence, his relationship with God becomes estranged from God and that is represented by the “down” language. He went down to Joppa to get a ship, down into the ship, down into the belly of the ship, then tossed down into the sea, then, now down at the bottom of the sea. Yet even at the depth of rebellion and sin, as estranged from God as Jonah could get, God rescued him. Look at the middle of verse 6. Yet You brought up my life from the pit O Lord my God. Jonah had much to be thankful for indeed and so he sang of God’s deliverance. Jonah knew that he didn’t deserve God’s grace or mercy, Jonah was sinking down receiving what he actually deserved. But God was merciful to him through a fish that swallowed him and subsequently vomited him out onto land.

God didn’t have to save Jonah. Even faithful servants of God die in terrible ways. In the book of Acts, God left James in prison to be martyred, and rescued Peter. God manages His servants and the rest of His creation according to His perfect and holy will. In fact, that is another major theme in the book of Jonah – God is sovereign. That is God has the right and the power to do with every aspect of His creation as He sees fit. We see this from the beginning of Jonah when God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. God has the right to tell someone to go do something – even something they don’t want to do.

We also see it in the storm that God hurls. God has the right to do with the sea and the boat and Jonah and the sailors as God sees fit – and the power to accomplish His will. Look in Jonah’s Psalm of Thanksgiving - Chapter 2 verse 3. You cast me into the sea, Your flood, Your waves, Your billows. Jonah ultimately sees the hand of God working and moving in both the actions of men and the works of nature.

Jonah closes his Psalm of thanksgiving by proclaiming, “Salvation is of the Lord.” This statement really serves as the central, main theme in the story of Jonah. All the extra aspects of giant fish and mighty storms; distant lands and wicked people all of those things point to one main point – Salvation is of the Lord! God teaches Jonah this fact by saving him from himself, and God saves the wicked Ninevites and grants them repentance.

I fear that sometimes we have become too accustomed to the idea of salvation. I fear that we have become so man-centered in our thinking that we expect salvation, that we think we even deserve it. Listen, God did not need to save Jonah, not did God need to send anyone to the Ninevites. He could have rightly destroyed both, and it would have been good, and righteous and praise worthy.

Have you ever been walking through Wal-Mart and at the other end of the aisle, you see a parent and child, and that child is just absolutely disrespectful and rebellious? The kid is an absolute brat. I don’t know about you, but when I see that, I have a visceral reaction. It bothers me. Children ought to obey and respect their parents who “brought them into this world and can take them out”. Parents feed and house and clothe and nurture their kids, and the children should respond in love and appreciation. In obedience and respect.

How much more should God’s creation obey Him? God creates and sustains us. Blesses us with all kinds of good things in life, and what do we do? We disobey. The wind and storm obeys. The fish obeys. Later in the story, we will see the worm obeys. What do we do? Disobey. This is not some small, oops I messed up type of thing. We are not merely disobedient children who do not know any better. We are traitors and rebels against the Sovereign King of the Cosmos.

If we can hear something like “Salvation is of the Lord”, and simply think, well that’s nice, I’m glad God saves – and not be moved to a greater sense of awe and worship, then there is something terribly wrong. The problem usually stems from a low view of God and a high view of man. We have things backwards.

Salvation is no small thing. It is costly. As the Sovereign King, God cannot ignore traitors. Because God is a good King, He is a just King and justice demands death for rebellion. Jonah deserved death, the sailors deserved death, the Ninevites deserved death, you deserve death – physical and spiritual death for eternity.

How can God be both just and savior? Through Christ. God in His great mercy sent His Son Jesus – which means savior, by the way. You shall call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins – God sent Jesus to obey God perfectly. Jesus lived a perfect life, never once rebelling against God, always doing the will of the Father. But then Jesus gave Himself up to be crucified. He bore the just wrath and punishment of God. Where Jonah figuratively dies and is in the belly of Sheol, Jesus actually dies and descends into the grave. Jesus bears the punishment of His wicked people and it carries Him to the pit.

Because God accepted Christ’s perfect atoning sacrifice, God raised Jesus from the dead. This is the sign of Jonah. Jesus is the one who stands as one greater than Jonah because Jonah, like you and me, deserves the pit, but Christ returned from the grave so that everyone who is in Christ will too. Salvation is of the Lord!

You want a sign? You want evidence? You have it. Christ who died, was raised and now sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. Look to Christ! There is your sign. There is your miracle. God made flesh, obeying the law you couldn’t bearing the guilt you couldn’t, raising from the grave you should be in. Stop rejecting the truth in front of you. The problem is not with the evidence. The problem is with the rebellious heart that doesn’t want to see the truth. Look to Christ.

Conclusion

If you are here this morning and you are a believer. You have already looked to Christ; I want you to refocus on Him. We can easily become distracted. We often slide towards a low view of the Sovereign King and in so doing we elevate man – often ourselves. If your love and awe of Christ has grown cold, that is sin. You cannot love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and not be in absolute awe of what Christ has done. So, believer, repent of that. Repent of your misplaced affections. Pray that God give you a fresh glimpse of the majesty of Christ. If there is sin in your life that you are still holding on to. If you are still playing the rebel in some ways, reject it. Repent of that. Christ died so that you wouldn’t have to be a slave to sin any more. I pray that you will find Christ so precious that sin becomes distasteful.

If you are here this morning and you realize that you are a rebel against the Sovereign Lord, call out for mercy. Like Jonah, call out to the Lord in your distress and He will answer you. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord in humble repentance and faith will be saved. Turn from your rebel ways and look to Christ. See Him as the all satisfying, perfect Savior and Lord that He is.

We are about to transition into a time of worship through response. We believe that any time we hear the Word of God, we respond in one of two ways: worship, or rebellion. This is an opportunity for us to worship by repenting of our cold affections towards Christ. This is a time to worship by repenting of our rebellion and rebellious nature. This is a time to worship by praising God and singing of His great mercy and Salvation. Whatever you do, please cease the rebellion and turn to Christ in worship.

I will be on the front row worshipping with you. If you need anything at all, please feel free to come get me. I would be happy to pray with you and talk with you. You are always welcomed to pray up front as well. I will also stick around after the service if you would like to talk then. Whatever you do, I hope it is worship. Let’s pray.