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Jonah
Jonah 2:9

'Salvation is from the Lord'

Are you afflicted with the 'Sunday school syndrome?'

'The what,' preacher?

The 'Sunday school syndrome;' the spiritual disorder that deduces mere moral lessons from prominent passages of the Bible. Almost always, with this syndrome, there is a malnutrition of the soul. It gradually becomes lean and weak. Instead of receiving plentiful doses of needed, strengthening grace, the soul imbibes mere moral lessons that, although true in themselves, go no further than addressing the external behavior of the person. The chief symptoms of this syndrome are anything from a slight to a serious hardening of the heart, as well as a stunting of growth. And if the 'Sunday school syndrome' is not properly treated, it will eventually run its full course. And that course? The formation of a person who has become impervious to grace.

Paul described it well when he asked, 'Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?' (Galatians 3:3). The Galatian church was full of people with the 'Sunday school syndrome.' It was full of moralists, legalists, and people who viewed the Christian life as mere do's and don'ts; people who conformed to an expected outward appearance, but knew little - if anything - of life transformation from the heart by grace.

The book of Jonah, with no fault to it, has been the stone on which many have stumbled, the occasion whereby many have brought on themselves the 'Sunday school syndrome.' Perhaps it began in Sunday school (of all places). Perhaps it was furthered by many a kind of preaching that says 'just do these things,' or 'just try harder' or whose substance is no more than 'live more righteously.' They became Christians in mostly an outer sense, in many ways failing to see 'the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,' rarely 'commended to the word of His grace which is able to build up.' To use Jonah as an example, they were somehow taught that what they must see from Jonah is that whenever God tells you something to do, you better do it. Don't run away from God, or things are going to get really hard. Just do as you're told and nothing bad will happen to you. Or if they got a more spiritually oriented message, perhaps it was that the gospel must be brought to distant lands. And so, give to the mission fund. Go on mission trips across and around the world, etc. (Now these are commendable truths that the Bible sets forth, in certain ways. But that is not the heart of the book of Jonah).

The main point of this Bible book, the major comfort from this minor prophet is found at 2:9, 'Salvation is from the Lord.' That is the main point of Jonah. That is the main point of God.

That 'salvation is from the Lord' is not a remote teaching of Scripture, tucked away in obscure, seldom visited books of the Bible. It is the Bible's central message. It is the flashing light openly set at the middle of an intersection, beckoning the attention of all who come before it. The Bible says, 'The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord' (Psalm 37:39). 'Surely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel' said Jeremiah (Jeremiah 3:23). The great redeemed multitude from every tongue, tribe, and people that stand before the Lamb ascribe, 'Salvation to our God,' again, 'Salvation and glory and power belong to our God' (Revelation 7:10 / 19:1). Hosea, with other prophets, preached, 'there is no savior besides [the Lord]'(Hosea 13:4 / Isaiah 43:11). The message of the Bible is that 'salvation is from the Lord.' It is entirely of God, who Himself is the 'first and last, Alpha and Omega' 'Author and Finisher of faith.' In the words of Paul, salvation is 'from Him and through Him and to Him' (Romans 11:36). And that word echoes and reverberates throughout the whole of the Bible.

If 'salvation is from the Lord' then salvation is not from man. Psalm 108 says, 'Salvation by man is in vain' (v.12). I.e., there is nothing in or about man that can bring about or secure salvation. He is unable, unfit, and unworthy. He is not helpful, but helpless; not useful, but useless. He cannot be a savior, because he himself needs a Savior. And so the clarion call sounds and echoes - even throughout the book of Jonah - that 'salvation is from the Lord.'

And as we consider that theme today, we do so by considering it in terms of two features:

1. The book of Jonah

2. The plan of salvation

Notice the sailors' salvation from God's storm (1:1-16)

Jonah, of course, was commissioned by God to go to the godless Israel opposing nation and preach the message of judgment. What does Jonah do? He goes in the opposite direction. He said, in essence, 'I'll have nothing to do with that.' A prophet of God, but one going in the opposite direction; not to Nineveh, but to Tarshish. And he takes means to fulfill that sinful departure from God. He goes down to Joppa where the ship is, finds one, pays the fare, goes down, and goes out as Cain did, 'from the presence of the LORD.' You say, 'That's a prophet of God?' Yes. He is as Gordon Keddie called him, a 'preacher on the run.'

And you see that as he gets in the boat, because of his sin, the Lord hurled a great wind; a great storm on the sea that leads the boat that is going to Tarshish to break up. Then there are the sailors. They probably sailed all their lives. They had probably never encountered a storm like this! There they became afraid. So much that every man cries to his own god. And if you had asked them that morning as they were preparing to go, how the day will unfold, they would likely not have said, 'We're going to bring a disobedient prophet on board and get stuck in a storm sent by his God, a God in whom we do not believe.'

But salvation is from the Lord. And it just so happens that Jonah is there in that boat and these sailors are recipients of that storm. The boat begins to break up. The cry to their god, and the captain, approaching the quarters where Jonah is sleeping, does a double take. He is stupefied that Jonah is sleeping! Everybody is out on board throwing cargo off the ship to save their lives. And here is Jonah in the hold of the boat sleeping. Of all things, sleeping!. Even if he did have a guilty conscience, how can one sleep with a conscience like that? There's Jonah sleeping. And the captain comes by and says, 'How can you be sleeping?' He probably woke him up, with the way he said those words.' Get up! Call on your God! Maybe your God will be concerned about us that we not perish. Our gods are not working! They're not listening, the ship is breaking up, our cargo is dropping. Can your God do something? Anything?

Well Jonah came up top, each one was saying to his mate, 'Come let us cast lots that we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck. They cast the lots. And there's Jonah - aroused from his sleep now; seeing the situation for what it is. The lots fall to him. It is Jonah. And all the sailors' eyes, now large, turn to him - a prophet of God, commissioned to be back distantly in the other direction, but one hiding in the hold f the boat going due west. And all these people, who don't know anything of the true God say, 'Tell us now on whose account has this calamity struck? What is your occupation, etc. etc.' And Jonah says, "I am a Hebrew and I fear the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land' (Imagine how he might have said that). Would he have said boldly, 'I'm a Hebrew, you godless heathen?' The words no doubt came forth in much weakness and humiliation.

And you can understand their response, 'How could you do this?!' They're beginning to know the truth - you don't run away from the Lord. Amazing that Jonah would have told them even before. So they ask what to do. They want their lives spared, but the sea becomes increasingly rough, and Jonah says, 'Pick me up and throw me into the sea' - it'll end your problem. And then as they see that they are dealing with the God who Himself made the sea (which they now don't like) and the dry land (which they now long for), the God who commissioned Jonah, they are being told to throw him into the sea.

They don't take to these things easily. And as a last but unsuccessful last ditch effort to row in to the shore, they call on the name of the Lord. They call on the true God! They call on the God of Israel with earnest prayer, 'Do not let us perish on account of this man's life, and do not put innocent blood on us, for You have done as You pleased O Lord.' They picked up and threw Jonah in and the sea stopped. And they saw the witness that God was true, even if it came from a disobedient prophet. The sea was made still. 'They feared the Lord greatly.' You think they were fearful before! They truly feared now. They feared the true God. They made vows. They took this God as their own God because he was real. He answered in their desperation. He saved their lives. 'Salvation is from the Lord.'

They connected the dots. They put the pieces together. The reason they were in that boat is so that they could come to a real knowledge that salvation is from the Lord, the God of Israel. And if you were to interview them when they arrived at Tarshish they would have been hopping wild that they encountered the God of the sea and dry land. They would say that they were out doing business as usual when they were brought face to face with the awesome, gracious God from whom salvation is; a God who saves from death itself; that a people who were not seeking God were brought to find and own Him. 'Salvation is from the Lord.'

And wasn't that the case for you, child of God? There was a point when you were going about business as usual, and there God brought the message of the gospel of Christ to bear upon your soul. And at the point of your desperation in the storm of sin and guilt, you cried out to Him. And He heard your cry. And you've come this morning to say, along with the sailors, ' Salvation is from the Lord.'

Or perhaps there is one who is still today going about his business as usual. You care little - if at all - for the things of God, Christ, the Bible, and the Church. And yet like the sailors you find that God is 'rocking your boat' with affliction and hard times. You call to your gods, but they do not save you. And the word comes to you, as it does now, that if you will but call on the God of the Lord Jesus Christ with a heart desperate to find refuge from the storm of sin, He will save you. Come, seeing in Christ that innocent blood was shed for sinners. But yet come with a holy trembling that His innocent blood was shed that sinners like you might know peace with God.

'Salvation is from the Lord.' And it is for people caught in the storm of sin, people not looking for God, but yet finding Him in their desperation. Will it take a hurricane of affliction for you to come? Will it take a tornado of sickness or calamity for you to bow before Jesus Christ?

The sailors were saved from God's storm, for 'salvation is from the Lord.'

But notice also Jonah's salvation from God's fish (1:17 - 2:10)

The sailors hurled him into the sea. Jonah took responsibility for his sin. He said it was because of him that the storm had come, and to cast him, the guilty party, into the sea as a means of atonement for sin. And as he did so, there he was in the sea slowly making his way down. The Lord appointed a great fish. [You know some of the narrative is not presented in chronological order between chapters 1 and 2. It doesn't read chronologically. The prayer of chapter 2 is what Jonah uttered while in the belly of the fish. But it encompasses his thoughts while he was there in the water going down, down, down]. There he was in v.5, slowly coming to the bottom, water encompassing to the point of depth, the great deep engulfing him. He came to the bottom. Weeds were wrapped around his head. (You think brushing up against seaweed with your legs is bad, try having it wrap around your head as you're lying at the bottom of the sea ready to die)! 'I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever.'

And what is the testimony of Jonah? It is that the Lord will not allow His people to stray in disobedience beyond the point of return. They may come to the very bottom of the sea, as it were, but there God puts within them the thought that if they return, they will be received. There is Jonah at the very bottom. Farther than he had ever gone. He thought to go to Tarshish, but there he is at the bottom of the sea, his life about to be ended on account of sin.

But there he remembers and turns his gaze toward the holy temple, remembering the Lord. And the Lord 'brought up his life from the pit' (vv.6-7). And from there the Lord sent (of all things) a sort of enormous, bottom feeding fish. (Although Martin Luther translated it as a 'whale,' it is better understood as a fish). Imagine that - a huge fish going about its business as usual and coming across Jonah, scooping him up, and ironically provided the means of safety for his life as the Lord's answer to Jonah's prayer. God not only sent the storm, he sent Jonah into the deep (2:3), and it was the Lord who appointed the fish to swallow Jonah (1:17). God is sovereign in matters of salvation. 'Salvation is from the Lord.' And Jonah was learning this as a type of Christ who would be and show an example of resurrection, coming from the realm of death to life again, because of the salvation of God.

'Salvation is from the Lord.' It comes in strange ways, it seems: people not expecting the Lord find Him. They run face to face with a saving God. Jonah, thinking that he could run away from God, is there at the bottom of the sea in the belly of a great fish being saved from death. Yes, 'salvation is from the Lord.'

And as soon as those very words come from Jonah's mouth, according to the text, 'the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land' (2:10). At the moment of repentance and faith salvation is received. The storm was sent as a call to repentance. And through it Jonah came to repentance and faith. And after three days and nights in the belly of the fish, as a type of the Christ by whom he was saved, he was brought to newness of life above the waters of death on the land of the living.

Can you imagine that sight? You're walking along the beach, and suddenly you see a huge sea creature run aground trying to cough up a prophet of Israel on the beach! And out comes Jonah - hair wet, clothes drenched, the stench of rotted, partly digested sea animals all around him; a slimy lotion all over his skin. There on the beach, he learned in a new way that salvation is from the Lord, even as the sailors did, having learned that there is no place or possibility of escape from God. Jonah is an illustration that God loves His people more than they love their sin - and that is a major comfort. God will go to the greatest length to save them from it and from the death it deserves.

Perhaps you are here today, and although you are here in the public worship of God, it is in reality the hold of a boat to you. You are not running externally, but internally your heart is Tarshish bound. Like Jonah, you are running from God. And your God-fleeing heart sleeps amidst the stormy waves of God's threatening Word. And surprisingly, you are lulled to sleep by the very means that are designed to stir you up to repentance and faith! And I say to you that possibly only a severe storm and the cold seawater of affliction will awaken you to spiritual responsibility.

Or perhaps you recently have been in the hold of the boat. Your sleep has been pleasant, even amidst God's storm. But in God's grace he has sent a sailing commander, as it were, to awaken you to responsibility for sin. And as you chose the hold of the boat, he then placed you in the heart of the sea, and then the belly of a fish. And there you are now - wretched in the consequences of your sin. Will you not call on Him? Will you not look to Him? Do you not know and believe that 'salvation is from the Lord?' The darkness of the fish's belly will give way to the light of the beach's sand for everyone who looks to the Savior Jesus Christ, who Himself has gone on before us in these very matters through His death and resurrection!

'Salvation is from the Lord.' The sailors were saved in the storm of God. Jonah was saved from the fish of God. And then the Ninevites were saved from the wrath of God:

a) Nineveh's salvation from God's wrath (3:1-10)

Everybody is being saved! 'Salvation is from the Lord!' Sailors on a sea, at first calling on their own gods, call on the true God. Jonah, who went through these experiences, sees his God in a new way. And now the Ninevites, those who cared nothing of God, and even less of His people, hear Jonah speak of God's wrath and are changed by it. It seems Jonah omitted any hint of grace in his preaching to them (see 4:1f.). That's why he went to Tarshish because he didn't want God to be the God of compassion. And even though he learned of it in his own personal experience, his prejudice ruled his heart. He went to Nineveh, preached judgment, but became upset with God when they repented under the preaching. And true repentance it was! Don't be sidetracked just because they, unlike the sailors, came to acknowledge 'God' and not 'the LORD.' Jesus said that the Ninevites of Jonah's generation would stand up on the Judgment Day and judge the 1st century Jews. It was true repentance. They were saved.

What is the implication in this? If Jonah thought he could frustrate God's saving purpose by preaching an imbalanced message, he learned otherwise. God is so sovereign He can even save through an incomplete message like Jonah's. He is sovereign over even the circumstances that lead to salvation. Some of you are here in this room today, you think because of your own coordination of things. But you are here because the God who sends storms, the God who appoints fish, the God who appointed Jonah to preach to the Ninevites - that God - has placed you here; right here, right now for the purpose that you would hear His proclamation. All your circumstances are perfectly coordinated that you might know that 'salvation is from the Lord.' The Ninevites may have said, 'We don't want Jonah.' Jonah would say, 'I don't care to go to them.' But here is God coordinating all things that people might see that 'salvation is from the Lord.'

Indeed, 'salvation is from the Lord.' And you see that from the book of Jonah. But you must take a step back for a broader view, because 'something greater than Jonah is here,' as Jesus said. 'As Jonah was in the belly f the fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights' (Matthew 12:40-41). It's a picture of the gospel. And God coordinated this, not only so that sailors would be saved, not only so that Jonah would know salvation in a new way, not only so that Ninevites may be saved, but that there might be an ever abiding testimony to God's salvation in Jesus Christ and the gospel. Something greater than Jonah is here. Sop step back and look at it not merely from a lens focused on Jonah through the book of Jonah, but by a lens focused on Jesus through the whole of Scripture.

a) God arranged salvation for sinners.

Salvation is not from man, from people 'deciding' to follow the Lord. It's because of God arranging salvation, even as He arranged sailors, Jonah, and Ninevites. God is the One who arranges that. This from the very lips of Jesus Christ, '' (John 17:2). That is very specific. That teaches that God from all eternity arranged that there would be certain sinners given to Christ as glorious gifts of the Father's love to Christ. Oh, He would love sinners, but he would love them because of His own Son. Jesus said, '' (John 17:6; cf. v.24). God is the One who arranges salvation for sinners. It is particularly designed for particular sinners. That's why the writer of Hebrews could say '' (Hebrews 2:13b). God arranges salvation for sinners. It is 'from the Lord.'

There was the Son of God in eternity in council with God the Father, receiving the plan that sinners would be given to Him; and yet knowing that if sinners were to be given to Him, that He Himself must become a man. And so there He was in eternity, saying as it were, 'Here am I. Send Me. I will go.' And the Son of God then, at the right time, took to Himself man's form in the incarnation, being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin, Mary; bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh.

b) God appointed sinners to salvation.

We know from the words of Acts 13:48, 'When the Gentiles heard, they began rejoicing and glorifying the Word of the Lord (because it had come to them) and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.' Note that - 'as many as had been appointed believed. There were some that were appointed to believe. Paul said in Ephesians 1, 'just as He chose us in Christ.' God arranged salvation for us, and so what did He do? 'In love He predestined us' (vv.4-5). He appointed us, He determined, He fixed that we would inherit that He had arranged. Even as the earthly father carefully insures that his wife and children will receive all the benefits of his estate, so has God done for us in our predestination. He appointed sinners to salvation even as He arranged salvation for sinners.

c) God accomplished salvation for sinners (John 17:4 with 19:30)

He arranged salvation for sinners. He appointed sinners to salvation. And He accomplished salvation for sinners. He accomplished that which they need. 'Salvation is from the Lord.' Again, John 17, from the lips of the Lord Jesus, as Jesus is there in the shadow of the cross, praying to His God and Father, 'I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.' Who accomplished the work of God? It was not man, but Jesus Christ. He said, 'I have accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.' Who accomplished the work of God?

It was not man, but Jesus Christ. He said, 'I have accomplished the work which You gave Me to do.' You look at other references in the Gospel of John and Jesus spoke of what we would call His active righteousness, His obeying the Law of God in the place of sinners. Sinners need righteousness. They have to have it before Almighty God. And there is Jesus Christ, with sin and the onslaught of the devil in His temptation accomplishing the work of God. He lived 'not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' And He obeyed. And He obeyed. And He obeyed - at every point. He accomplished the work which God gave Him to do in the place of sinners.

And then Jesus, as He was looking to the cross, was there knowing that sinners not only need righteousness, in place of their sin, but that their sin needs to be removed, to be forgiven. It needs to be taken away. And so Jesus lived in their place, and then died in their place. He took the penalty for their sin at the cross. And so Jesus said, as thought it was as good as done, 'I have accomplished the work which You have send me to do.' And what did He say on the cross? Stretched out, and shedding His blood: 'It is finished.' (John 19:30). 'I have accomplished Your work in My living, and now I have accomplished Your work in My dying.' Into God's hands He committed His spirit. No, it is God and not man, who accomplished salvation for sinners.

d) God applies salvation to sinners.

If you're going to make a table, and you have it all built, sanded, and ready, you put the stain on it, or the preservant. You take a brush or cloth, place it into the can, and apply the stain or finish to the table. In the same way God applies salvation to the sinner by means of the Holy Spirit. In John 16, Jesus taught:

it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you (vv.7-15).

I tell you, no sinner has a conviction of sin unless the Holy Spirit is at work in him and applies His work to him. No sinner is interested, of himself, in repenting from sin. He needs the Spirit of God to come and convict him and give him faith for salvation; to come alongside and strive with him saying, 'You, like Jonah, have strayed from God. And you like Jonah, are at the point of death.' The Spirit convicts them. And it's all in the context of His making them able to see and hear; to have a heart that is able and willing to receive Christ.

God arranged salvation for sinners. He appointed sinners to salvation. He accomplished salvation for sinners. And He applies salvation to sinners. He calls them by the preaching of the Word, makes them alive in Christ to turn from sin to take Jesus' righteousness and so become children of God to be bathed and clothed in that righteousness, having fellowship with God in Christ now and forever, just as it was planned. The sinner is as Jonah was on the beach - in the slime and stench of sin and iniquity. And there needs to be a thorough cleaning which only God Himself can do. 'Salvation is from the Lord.'

e) God upholds sinners in salvation.

But what happens if they stray again? Will they ever fall away from the faith God gave them. No. Jesus said in John 6: All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 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 Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day (vv.37-40).

They will be there on that last day to hear those soul-delighting words, 'Enter into the joy of Your master; come you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for You from the foundation of the world.' 'For this is the will of My Father that everyone who beholds the Son, and believes in Him will have eternal life. I myself will raise Him up at the last day.' Peter said that we are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time' (1 Peter 1:5). The redeemed will persevere to the end because God preserves them to that end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, and those of you who may not yet believe, 'salvation is from the Lord.' You've seen it with sailors. You've seen it with Jonah. You've seen it with Ninevites.

Why would you continue down the broad and busy road to destruction and hell when 'salvation is from the Lord?' Why, when there is a God who not only arranged salvation for sinners, appointed sinners to salvation, accomplished salvation for sinners, applies salvation to sinners, but also upholds sinners in salvation? Why would you refuse this offer made to you today? If I presented you with a valid check for 1 million dollars, and you had a bone fide representative of the bank next to me telling you that it was a legitimate check, would you refuse it? Why would you refuse the Savior's mercy and grace when the Holy Spirit urges you that it is true mercy and grace which is able to save you into eternal bliss?

It is not because of God, or a predestination that pushes you away. It is because of you. It is because of your own pride and your own unbelief in your own heart. But 'salvation is from the Lord.' And if salvation is from the Lord, then there is major comfort in possessing it.

I urge you all to these things. Amen.