Jonah 2
Salvation is of the LORD
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Sermon Text
Jonah’s Prayer and Deliverance
17 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.
Jonah’s Prayer and God’s Answer
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 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.
3 For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 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.
7 “When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.
8 “Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.”
10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Sermon Summary
Take Home Truth: "Shout and Sing, 'Salvation is of the Lord!'"
Jonah's Plight and God's Sovereignty:
Jonah's Descent:
Jonah is thrown into the sea and swallowed by a great fish prepared by God (Jonah 1:17).
Jonah's Situation:
Despite skepticism, we trust in God's miraculous power. Jonah's plight represents our need for divine intervention.
Despair to Hope:
Outline the Passage:
Petition and Answer for Salvation (Jonah 2:2a):
Jonah cries out to the Lord in his distress and is answered.
Crisis and Hope of Salvation - Part 1 (Jonah 2:2b-4):
Jonah describes his desperate situation and his determination to look toward God’s temple.
Crisis and Hope of Salvation - Part 2 (Jonah 2:5-7):
Jonah’s vivid imagery of drowning emphasizes his dire circumstances, yet he remembers the Lord.
Praise for Salvation (Jonah 2:8-9):
Jonah contrasts those who forsake God with his own vow to sacrifice and praise God for salvation.
Despair in Drowning (Jonah 2:2b-3 and 2:5-6a):
Jonah vividly describes his feelings of being overwhelmed and near death, recognizing God’s sovereignty over his situation.
Despair Turns to Hope (Jonah 2:4b and 2:6b-7):
Jonah expresses hope despite his despair, knowing he will see God’s temple again and acknowledging God’s deliverance from the pit.
Proclamation of God's Salvation (Jonah 2:8-10):
The Vanity of Idols:
Jonah declares that those who worship worthless idols forsake their own mercy.
Thanksgiving and Praise:
Jonah commits to sacrificing to God with thanksgiving, acknowledging that salvation is of the Lord.
Fulfillment in Jesus:
Jesus is the Greater Jonah:
Jesus references Jonah’s three days in the fish as a sign of His own death and resurrection (Matthew 12:39-41).
Our Response:
Recognize that, like Jonah, we cannot save ourselves. Trust in Jesus Christ, who perfectly fulfilled God’s plan for our salvation.
Proclaim and celebrate that salvation is from the Lord alone, and live in gratitude and obedience to Him.
Sample Bible Study
Scriptural References:
Jonah 1:17 - 2:10 - The main passage.
Matthew 12:39-41 - Jesus refers to Jonah as a sign of His own death and resurrection.
Psalm 3:8 - Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Historical Context:
Jonah, a prophet during the reign of Jeroboam II, is called by God to go to Nineveh.
Jonah initially flees from God’s command, resulting in his being swallowed by a great fish.
This passage highlights God's control over nature and His ability to deliver.
Key Points:
Jonah’s Disobedience and God’s Sovereignty:
Jonah’s flight from God's command leads to a divine intervention through a great fish.
God's sovereignty is displayed in controlling the fish and the events surrounding Jonah.
Jonah’s Prayer:
From the belly of the fish, Jonah prays a psalm of thanksgiving.
He acknowledges God’s role in his distress and deliverance.
God’s Mercy:
Jonah's experience foreshadows the ultimate deliverance through Christ.
Even in rebellion, God’s mercy and plan for salvation prevail.
Practical Applications:
Trust in God’s Sovereignty:
In times of distress, trust that God is in control and can deliver.
Reflect on personal experiences where God has shown His sovereignty.
Repentance and Thanksgiving:
Jonah’s prayer demonstrates repentance and thanksgiving.
Practice regular prayer, acknowledging God’s deliverance in your life.
Proclaiming Salvation:
Jonah’s declaration that “salvation is of the Lord” should inspire us to share the gospel.
Look for opportunities to tell others about the salvation found in Jesus Christ.
Westminster Confession of Faith:
Chapter 5, Paragraph 5 - God's providence may leave His children to temptations and corruption for a season to humble them and draw them closer to dependence on Him.
Shorter Catechism Q. 26: "How does Christ execute the office of a king? Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies."
Larger Catechism Q. 155: "How is the word made effectual to salvation? The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners."
Discussion Questions:
How does Jonah’s experience in the fish deepen your understanding of God's sovereignty?
What modern idols might be present in your life, and how can you turn from them?
How can you practically proclaim that “salvation is of the Lord” in your daily life?
Weekday Devotionals
Monday: Jonah's Despair and God's Sovereignty
Scripture Reading: Jonah 1:17 - 2:2
"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." (Jonah 1:17 - 2:2)
Jonah's story reminds us that God is sovereign over all circumstances. Despite Jonah's disobedience and his attempt to flee from God's presence, the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow him. This was not merely an act of judgment but an act of mercy and provision. Even in the depths of the sea, Jonah found that he could still cry out to God, and God would hear him.
In moments of despair and when we feel overwhelmed by our circumstances, we must remember that God is in control. He prepares a way for us, even when we cannot see it. Our afflictions are not beyond His reach, and His mercy is always available to us.
Prayer Prompt: Ask God to help you trust in His sovereignty, even when you are in the depths of despair. Pray for a heart that cries out to Him, confident that He hears and answers.
Tuesday: The Depths of Despair
Scripture Reading: Jonah 2:3-4
"For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all 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.'" (Jonah 2:3-4)
Jonah's vivid description of his plight—cast into the deep and surrounded by the floods—captures the reality of his despair. He felt as though he had been cast out of God's sight, a situation of utter hopelessness. However, even in this dark moment, Jonah declared his intent to look again toward God's holy temple.
This passage encourages us to lift our eyes to God when we are overwhelmed by life's troubles. No matter how deep the waters may seem, we can turn our gaze toward the Lord, trusting in His faithfulness and mercy.
Prayer Prompt: Pray for the strength to look toward God in times of deep despair. Ask for the grace to trust in His presence and His promises, even when you feel cast out of His sight.
Wednesday: God's Deliverance from the Depths
Scripture Reading: Jonah 2:5-6
"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." (Jonah 2:5-6)
Jonah's prayer continues to describe the severity of his situation: surrounded by waters, entangled by weeds, and feeling as though the earth had closed him in forever. Yet, in this moment of deepest despair, Jonah acknowledges God's deliverance. He recognizes that it is the Lord who brought up his life from the pit.
We too can find ourselves in situations that feel inescapable, where hope seems lost. Yet, the God who delivered Jonah is the same God who can deliver us. He brings life from the depths of despair and rescues us from our most hopeless circumstances.
Prayer Prompt: Thank God for His deliverance in your life. Pray for a deeper trust in His power to rescue you from any pit, knowing that He is always with you.
Thursday: Acknowledging God's Mercy
Scripture Reading: Jonah 2:7-8
"When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy." (Jonah 2:7-8)
Jonah's soul fainted within him, but in his moment of weakness, he remembered the Lord. His prayer reached God in His holy temple. Jonah contrasts this with those who regard worthless idols, noting that they forsake their own mercy.
When we turn to God in prayer, we acknowledge our dependence on Him and reject the idols that vie for our attention and allegiance. God's mercy is abundant and available to all who seek Him, but we must turn away from the idols that promise false hope and salvation.
Prayer Prompt: Reflect on any idols in your life that may be distracting you from fully relying on God. Pray for the strength to forsake these idols and embrace the mercy that God offers.
Friday: Salvation Belongs to the Lord
Scripture Reading: Jonah 2:9-10
"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." (Jonah 2:9-10)
Jonah concludes his prayer with a declaration of thanksgiving and a vow to sacrifice to the Lord. He acknowledges that salvation belongs to the Lord alone. In response, the Lord commands the fish to release Jonah onto dry land, signifying the end of his ordeal and the beginning of his renewed mission.
This powerful declaration, "Salvation is of the Lord," is a reminder that our deliverance and salvation come from God alone. We cannot save ourselves; it is God's grace and mercy that rescue us. As we reflect on Jonah's story, let us be grateful for God's salvation and commit ourselves to serving Him with thanksgiving.
Prayer Prompt: Praise God for His salvation in your life. Commit to living a life of thanksgiving and service, recognizing that your salvation is solely by His grace.
Reflective Article
Automated Transcript
Will you please turn in your
Bibles with me to Jonah, chapter 1. Jonah, chapter 1. We're going
to read, or Jonah 2, if it's on the same page. Page 817 in
your pew Bibles. If you remember last time, we
stopped at verse 16. We stopped there because, well,
in Hebrew, that's where the chapter break is. But we're going to
start reading Jonah, chapter 1, beginning at verse 17, and
we'll read through Jonah, chapter 2. Here now God's perfect word. 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. All your billows and your waves
passed over me. Then I said, I have been cast
out from your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The water 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 into 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
to the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. So the Lord spoke to
the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land. The grass
withers and the flower fades, but brothers and sisters, the
word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your word this morning. And Father, we pray that as it
is preached, that your spirit might even be working in our
hearts now. Lord, Though we may have naturally
hard hearts, Lord, we pray that you would soften them. Lord,
though our ears may be naturally stopped up, Lord, we pray that
you would open them. Lord, we pray that your spirit
would press the truths of this passage in our hearts so much
that we would shout and sing that salvation is yours. Lord, we thank you for your word,
and we pray that you would now make it effectual in our lives,
even through the preaching of your word. We pray these things
in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, there's times in which
people find themselves in imminent danger in situations where it
seems like they need to do something, but in reality, they're not the
people who should be doing it. Just in the last few years, there
was a man who caught himself, or he found himself caught in
a thunderstorm. And as he was in this horrible
storm, there was live electrical lines that had fallen on the
ground and he was in danger. And so his thought for how he
was going to deliver himself from this was to grab that live
electrical cord. You can imagine how that turned
out. Or there's a woman who found herself a year later. She needed
to get out of a flash flood. She was in her car in the middle
of a flash flood. The waters were upon her. She
didn't know what she was going to do. So she did the only thing
that could come to her mind was she started to swim across this
water, was swept away and died. It's tragic. Or a man who caught himself in
California in the midst of a wildfire. And as the forest was on fire
around him, he didn't know what to do. So he got in his car and
he tried to drive through the forest fire. Each one of these
people could not deliver themselves. They needed salvation and salvation
couldn't come from them. They weren't equipped to handle
it. They weren't prepared for what the task was ahead. And
at the end of the day, it cost them their lives. But yeah, I'm
going to suggest to you that in our spiritual life, this is
often how we deal with things. In our spiritual lives, often
we see a problem, we have an issue, and we want to be our
own deliverer. We want to be the one who saves
ourselves from the problems. We want to be the hero of our
own story. But what we find is a golden
thread throughout scripture is we're not the hero, and it's
not our story. What the scriptures bring us
to in Jonah chapter 2 and throughout the rest of scripture is that
we are commanded, we are invited, it is our privilege and our pleasure
to sing and to shout that salvation is of the Lord. And I hope that
you walk out of here this morning, and on Wednesday night, when
you've had a full meal, you can remember, you can take home this
truth that you are called by God to shout and to sing that
salvation is of the Lord. I'm gonna say that again, because
I need you to know the main point, right? What you're gonna take
home. Salvation is of the Lord. This is exactly where Jonah ends
his prayer. Notice in verse nine. I will pay what I have vowed
salvation is of the Lord." Jonah knew this and he gave thanks
to God for his salvation and so also we must do likewise. And so first as we as we just
kind of wrap our hands around this story I want us to first
consider Jonah's plight and God's sovereignty. Jonah's plight and
God's sovereignty, or God's ruling over what's going on here. When
we look at verse 17 of chapter 1, notice who the subject of
the sentence is. It's not Jonah. It's not the
fish. Once again, it's the Lord. And
now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. Right now, if there's anything
skeptics of the Bible will love, it's the story of Jonah, because
they think, oh, there's no way that this type of fish exists,
because people can't live inside the belly of a whale. Well, first,
it's not a whale, right? The Hebrew is just, dog, get
a load, right? Just a big old fish. And if you
don't think that there's big old fish that exist in the ocean,
just go onto Google. This is a dangerous thing, because
don't believe everything that's on the internet, right? There's
AI generated and Photoshop stuff, right? But just type in weird
things that have washed up on shore, or weird creatures that
have washed up on shore. There's good reason why there's
ancient stories all over from different customs that talk about
sea monsters, because there's some stuff down in the deep that
is just straight scary. And it seems like the Lord appointed
one of them or created might just be a one-off creation. The
Lord creates or appoints this fish who's able to sustain Jonah
in its belly. And well, the reality is, if
you're a Christian, we believe in miracles. Right? We believe
in a God who's big enough to either create or have the perfect
timing that just as Jonah feels like he's about to die, he'll
be saved in this miraculous way. So we don't need to be shaken
by people who say, well, there's no way possible that could happen.
Yeah, and there's no way possible that a million people walked
through the Red Sea on dry land either, but they did. Right? We believe it. We believe this
is a historical story because we believe in a God who commands
creation and creation obeys. We believe in a God who's in
charge of Jonah's situation. And as he's in the belly of this
great fish three days and three nights, by the way, that's just
a Hebrew idiomatic way for saying anything that touches three parts
of the day, right? D.A. Carson notes on this, any
part of three consecutive 24 hours of time is a Jewish idiom,
right? So it doesn't really matter if
it's what time of the day he was swallowed. If it's talking
about three days, three nights, somewhere in there, it's a three-day
period. But this is exactly the sign that Jesus is going to point
to that we read last week in Matthew chapter 12. When the
Pharisees are demanding from Him a sign, He says, you wicked
and perverse generation, you always want a sign, but I'm going
to tell you that Jonah is the sign you have. And Jesus is pointing
to Himself. that just like Jonah was in the
belly of the fish for those three days, so also the Son of Man
will be in the heart of the earth. But that's not going to be the
end of the story. Jesus is saying He's going to
rise again from the dead. I want us to kind of, now that
we've got our hands around the passage and what's going on here,
this is a psalm of thanksgiving that Jonah has. I'd like us to
look a little bit at the interior of what's going on in Jonah's
heart. Look with me at the despair to hope that happens in this
prayer, in this song, again and again. I've given you a little
outline I've created for this. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord,
his God, from the belly of the fish. And then the first part
of chapter 2, or verse 2, is a petition that he remembers.
Jonah is writing this petition years later. He remembers the
Lord hearing this. And he cries out to the Lord
in his affliction. And God answers him. But then as we get into this
passage, we see that where Jonah was in this crisis was a place
of absolute despair. Absolute hopelessness. As Jonah
cried out to the Lord because of his affliction, God answered
him. How did God answer him? Notice the rest of the prayer
isn't about God spitting him out of the fish's mouth. but
it's about the fish that swallowed him up. Deliverance was in the
form of this fish that had swallowed him up. Again, we think of Jonah,
right? And we might even think of veggie
tales, right? The sailors throw him off the
ship and he's right there on the surface of the water. Maybe
he's got his little rubber ducky floaty on him, probably not.
But a giant fish comes and on the surface of the water gobbles
him down. But that's not what Jonah says
his experience was. Notice what he says in his despair. Verse three, 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. Where is Jonah? He's not on the
surface of the water. He's drowning. He's worried his
lungs about to give out and if he opens his mouth and takes
a breath he's going to inhale his death. And he knows exactly why this
is happening. Notice again who's in charge
here. For you cast me into the deep
and your billows and your waves passed over me. This was God's
doing to Jonah. He knew that he was the one who
put himself in this situation, but he knew that it was God ultimately
who was doing these things for him because it's God's sea. It's
God's water. It's God's creation. So he can't
run away from this. And he knows that something greater
than himself is in charge here. And in verse five, he goes on
with this. The water surrounded me, even
to my soul. The deep closed around me. Weeds
were wrapped around my head. I mean, I got to tell you, I've
been in oceans before and they can be scary. I remember when
I was surfing in Southern California one time, my buddy, Brandon and
I, we drove to a specific surfing spot because it was supposed
to have really good waves. And we thought this is going to be
awesome. We're going to go. It's going to be a good time. There's
supposed to be 10 foot waves. This is going to be great. Those
are like medium sized waves. You know, we can handle this.
And I have never been beaten up by waves so bad in my life.
Every time you would go under the water and you'd come back
up so you could get a breath and go under the next wave and
you would paddle and you would paddle and you'd paddle to try
to break through the surf and get to the smooth water on the
other side. And every time I came up from under one wave, another
wave crashed down upon me and crashed down upon me and crashed
down upon me. All I could see in my eyes was
a little bit of sky and mostly water. And I wondered for a brief
moment, to die. I don't know how I'm going to
make it out of this. I put myself in this ocean, but I can't control
this ocean. I can't beat it. Now, I lived,
thank the Lord. But the point being, if you're
put in that spot where you don't know if your next breath is even
going to come, there's a point of fear in your heart that you
realize, I can't do this myself. And I remember even as I was
in that relatively safe environment, I could just let the waves push
me to the shore, thinking, God, you got to get me out of this.
I put myself in a bad spot. But notice what Jonah says. He
doesn't have that hope that he could just swim to the shore,
that things are going to be OK. He says, the floods are surrounding
me. You put me in the heart of the seas. You cast me into the
deep. It's like the waves are passing
over me and passing over me. The water surrounded me, even
to my soul. He's scared for his life. The
word there for soul is nefesh. His inner being, the water seemed
to be even encroaching in him. Is he swallowing water? Possibly.
And worse than that, it seemed like the sea was even his enemy.
The plants that God put at the bottom of the sea, the seaweed,
right? The slimy, nasty, coarse stuff. It seems like it's grabbing onto
him and holding him down and pulling him down. And he says
in verse six, I went down to the mooring of the mountains,
right? It's like he's imagining a tree
going down into the earth where the roots of the mountains reach
deep to hold on to the depths of the earth. He's all the way
down there. The earth with its bars closed
behind me, le'olam, forever. He thought he was good as dead. He's in absolute desperation. But why would God even allow
all this to happen? Why didn't God just send a strong,
westward wind and push the ship back to shore. Why did God choose
this way? So I'm very helped by the Westminster
Confession of Faith. I was talking about God's providence. The Westminster Confession of
Faith, Chapter 5, Paragraph 5 says, The most wise, righteous, and
gracious God doth oftentimes leave for a season his own children
to manifold temptations, and to corruptions of their own hearts.
It's as if the Lord said, OK, Jonah, you want to go to Nineveh?
You don't want to go to Nineveh? You want to go to Tarshish? Go
ahead. I'll let you go down to Joppa. I'll let you get on the
boat. I'll let you get in the Med. You'll go a couple hundred yards,
a couple hundred feet, maybe a few miles off the coast, so
far that you can't swim back. Because as the Confession says,
the Lord uses these to chastise us, his children, for our sins,
or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption
and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled, and
to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their
support upon himself. Put that into layman's terms.
God, in his governance of all these things, allows Jonah to
go follow his own heart, to go into the middle of the ocean,
into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, so he might have him sink
down to the depths, so Jonah would realize that he is not
his own Lord, but that he needed the God of his salvation. that
he needed to draw near to him. And you'll notice that there's
really like two poems put side by side or one on top of another. Notice the second half of verse
four. He thinks that I've been cast
out of your sight, but there's a beautiful word in the second
half. Yet. Yet I will look again toward
your holy temple. Jonah knows, even in his despair,
that whether he lives or whether he dies, he will see the Lord. And then again in verse six,
the second half of that verse, that beautiful yet appears again.
There's hope in the midst of the depths. Yet you have brought
up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. As he remembered the
Lord delivering him while he was in the belly of the fish,
remember verse one, Jonah's praying this while he's in the belly
of the fish. He knows that he should be as good as dead, and
yet somehow he knows that even in the belly of the fish, he's
going to live. You brought my life from the
pit, from that watery grave, oh Lord, my God. Jonah recognizes God's presence,
even in this horrible situation. And he recognizes God's deliverance,
his miraculous intervention, even while he's in the depths
of the sea. And God did this so that Jonah would know, verse
nine, salvation is of the Lord. Jonah had to be put into the
depths of the sea and miraculously swallowed up by this great fish,
so that he could sing and could shout even to the Ninevites,
salvation is of the Lord. I wonder in your life, are there
times in which the Lord has had to put you in hard situations,
in difficult places, where you feel like you've been put into
a place where it's not like God's completely, utterly forsaken
you, taken his Holy Spirit, you've lost your salvation, not that
type of stuff, but where maybe you've been in that pit of depression,
despair, or danger, and you look back and you remember, you know,
I think the Lord did that because he was teaching me that he was
still my God. He was still my Lord, and that
salvation came only from Him. And this is what Jonah learns
how to proclaim in verses 8 through 10. This is the proclamation
of God's salvation, point number three, the proclamation of God's
salvation. 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." Notice he starts off as the two kind
of despair to hope poems have gone on. Now he's saying something
different in verse 9. He compares himself with idol
worshipers. Why? Why, right? Because they're not actually
God. He had just been around a bunch of idol worshippers.
They were just the ones on the ship, the sailors, who were praying
to their various different gods. And if they had not repented,
what would they not have received? Mercy. Salvation. Favor. The word here is the word
chesed. This is the steadfast love of
God himself. Those who worship idols forfeit,
God has said, His mercy, His loving kindness. Now this is a hard thing for
us, right? When I was in India, this was an easy thing for me
to see and my heart to break when I saw idols after idols
as you walked along the street, as you went into people's homes,
as you drove along the road, there was temple and idols everywhere. And you would tell people about
Jesus Christ, and to be honest with you, most of them just didn't
care. Or they thought, oh, I could just worship Him as one God amongst
all my other gods. But no. Oh, right, those who
regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. Those who hear
the good news of Jesus Christ know the one true living God
and turn their back against Him forfeit. They make the choice
to forfeit God's mercy. But yet, I wonder in our own
lives how often we still do this. It's easy to think of people
who worship the Shintoism in Japan, or the Buddhism in China,
or the Hinduism in India. It's easy to think about those
idols there. It's really difficult when God says things like, our
own covetousness is idolatry. How serious are we about the
factory of idols in our own hearts? About our own lusts, our own
loves, our own covetousness, our own desire to be Lord and
to do things our way? To live life how we want it,
don't forsake your mercy. Don't forsake the loving kindness
of the Lord that is offered to you in Jesus Christ by turning
back to the idols that might even reign in your own heart.
Notice Jonah gives thanks and praise to God in verse 9. 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. Jonah knows, he doesn't know
all the specifics, but he knows somehow he's going to be taken
out of the belly of this fish somehow, and he's going to see
God's temple. He's going to be able to offer
sacrifices. He's going to be able to keep his vows. I wonder
if he took vows to be a prophet. I wonder if he knows that he
didn't go where the Lord told him to go. But no matter what, he ends with
what Ed Clowney, the former president of Westminster Theological Seminary
says, he ends with the golden declaration of all of scripture,
salvation is of the Lord. Now, we know this most of all
in Jesus Christ, don't we? You know, you can't rescue you
from your own sin. You can't offer enough bowls,
you can't offer enough sacrifices, you can't offer enough... Because
every time, this is what the high priests were supposed to
learn, right? Every single time they went to go make a sacrifice
on the Day of Atonement, guess what? They had to make a sacrifice
for their own sin, and then for the sin of the people. But what
would happen the very next day? There had to be another sacrifice.
Every morning, when the sun would rise up, and there would be the
morning sacrifice, there had to be a trespass offering. Every
evening, as the sun was going down, there was going to be a
sacrifice, and there had to be a trespass offering. Every single
day, there had to be a trespass offering. It was teaching the
people that they would never be done with sin by themselves. They could never be good enough
by themselves. But this is exactly why Jesus
came. This is exactly why Jesus died
for our sins. But I want to posit to you that
this is exactly why Jesus also had to go into the heart of the
earth. Because Jesus suffered even unto death. Unlike Jonah, who tried to run
away from his calling, Jesus ran toward his calling. And his
calling was the cross and the grave. And he knew that just
like God did an amazing miracle in the history of the past, making
that great fish vomit up Jonah, he knew that his Father would
not let his Holy One see decay. He knew that he would be delivered
from death. He knew that he would rise again.
He told his disciples this. Jesus is the fulfillment of the
sign of Jonah. So my question for you this morning
is, do you believe it? My question for you this morning
is, is Jonah just a little fable or fairy tale we pass on to our
children because it's a cute story and we put on Jonah on
the VeggieTale movie for a couple hours just to keep them quiet?
Or do we actually believe that Jonah was swallowed up by this
great fish? and that God did a miraculous
thing in swallowing up and in making that fish vomit him out
of his mouth onto the dry land because God was trying to give
a sign, would give a sign that eventually Jesus would come and
be the ultimate salvation. How would the Ninevites repent
if they had not heard? How would they have believed
unless God had sent Jonah? How would they have believed?
and turned from their sins unto life? How would we believe if somebody
had not told us the gospel? How would we have turned from
our sins unto life if somebody had not told us that salvation
is of the Lord? Do you love him? Do you cling to Jesus Christ?
Or are you still trying to be the hero of your own story? Are
you still trying to do enough good deeds to get yourself into
heaven? Or will you humble yourself like
Jonah and realize that it is only of the Lord that you can
be saved? And will that humility work in your heart such a gratitude
and such a thankfulness that you would sing and you would
shout to others that salvation is of the Lord and that salvation
is offered today in Jesus Christ. Our only hope in life and death. I don't have a cute conclusion
for this sermon. I just have that take home truth
for you. has God moved in your heart in such a way that you
would sing and you would shout with all your heart that salvation
is of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you work in history, that
you, the creator of the heavens and the earth, rule the sea and
the dry land. And that you, even while we were
yet sinners, sent your Son to die for us, that we might have
salvation, that we may have everlasting life. Lord, we thank you that
you did not spare your own Son, but you freely offered Him up
for us. And how shall you not with Him
also freely give us all things? Lord, please let your Spirit
work in our hearts. that we would treasure and proclaim that it
is your salvation. We pray in Jesus's name.