Salvation Belongs to the Lord! (Jonah 2:9)

Father in heaven, we give you praise for the gift of this

gathering. This time to veil ourselves the

means of grace, to have our eyes fixed upon the glory of our

risen King Jesus, to be reminded of the power of the Holy

Spirit's role in our life, rebuking us, correcting us,

training us in righteousness. Father, we pray that as we open

your word, You would feed our souls that you would make us

different. That we would hear things that

we have not heard before, see things that simply we've not

seen before, and because of the power of this living word would

leave this place unable to stop speaking about You and the

things that we have seen and heard.

All for your glory. We pray this and for our good in

the name of Jesus, Amen. Remain standing as I read the

passage today, which is one verse we are concluding our

study of the book of Jonah. Last week, Pastor Paul Goble did

a remarkable job really of leading us all the way through

the end of that chapter, 48 verses.

And today we're going to come back to one verse that is so

critical to the whole book and actually the whole Bible.

And it's a verse that Jonah prayed from the belly of the

fish. If you're new to our church, we

believe that there was a real man named Jonah who was a

prophet who had fallen. He'd rebelled, and it's God's

restoration, in God's Providence, in God's pleasure.

He finds himself in the belly of a well, and from that place,

reaching rock bottom, he cries to the Lord.

And this is what he says at the end of his prayer, the last

thing he says from the belly of the fish, verse 9 of Jonah

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. But I, with the voice of

Thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will

pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Please be seated. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

A remarkable summary of this remarkable small, minor prophet

48 verses. But it's also a remarkable

statement about all of Scripture from beginning in Genesis to the

end of Revelation. It's about the salvation that

belongs to God. During our announcements, I made

a comment about the 2025 ministry impact.

I know some of you weren't here yet.

This is just something we report every year.

It has a lot to do with the finances of the church, how

money is being spent, giving patterns, things like that.

I would love for you to grab one of these in the Grand Hall, or

you can download it off of our website or off of our PCPC app.

There's wonderful things to celebrate inside these pages,

but what I want you to hear for just a moment is that on every

page, behind every person, behind every effort, is the

truth that salvation belongs to the Lord.

In everything we seek to do, we want to bring God glory by

proclaiming that Jesus Christ our King alone is the way of

salvation. There is no other way.

It's been an amazing month. As I mentioned at the beginning,

the first Sunday in November, we had the Global Mission

Conference here at PCPC. On that Sunday I was in Nagoya,

Japan preaching in a church having attended the Christ Bible

Institute 20th anniversary. That Friday and Saturday I was

invited as a guest preachers incredible honor.

I preached on the woman at the well from John 4.

But that Friday night, October 31st, I was overwhelmed by what

I witnessed as 500 to 600 registered guests, mostly

Japanese, gathered in an auditorium to worship for most

of these. When I say most, 90% plus they

had never been in an auditorium or anywhere with that many

Christians praising the Lord. This was the first and not

likely something that will happen soon.

Again. The soil in Japan is so hard.

Less than 1% Christian. And then the Goya where Christ

Bible Institute is located. The 8 reached least prefectures

are in that area. But what I witnessed was

overwhelming because these brothers and sisters in Christ

who had been saved by God's grace were lifting their voice

loudly, raising their hands and praising the Lord.

One of the songs that was most moving to me had this refrain

from the mountains to the valleys.

Let the song of the resound filling all the nations with

praise and Thanksgiving. I didn't understand a word of it

until they put up the words Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

I just listened. Hallelujah.

God is at work. He's saving his people.

But in Japan, a church for most of the Japanese brothers and

sisters and the missionaries that are, they're serving a big

church, is 25 members. The church I preached in had two

services. They have their own building.

It's quite old now, but they can only hold 40 people and they've

grown past that. The first service was at 8:30,

and I preached to about nine people.

Around 35 showed up at the later service.

We sing Jesus loves me in Japanese, Amazing Grace in

Japanese. In between the services, I met

with their three elders. Their three elders handed me a

piece of paper and said this is the vision that we believe God

has given us for this church. This little church is tucked

away in a neighborhood. If you didn't know it was there,

you would never know. They're praying that God would

help them sell that building and buy another building where there

was more exposure to Christ and the people of Christ.

They talked about their vision as they've sought the Lord's

face. A sweet Presbyterian flock.

But what struck me most was their humility and their sense

of purpose truly to bring God glory.

And then in a paragraph near the end, it says we believe God is

calling us to be a mega Church of 200 people.

That would be a mega church. I hope we will pray fervently

for that to happen and give as the Lord enables us.

The pastor there is a very faithful, lovely man, saturates

deep in the gospel. He's been there 25 years, and

for every year he's been there, they've had one member at it.

On average, God alone has the power to save a person.

It takes no more power to save a Japanese teenager than it did to

save the apostle Paul when his name was Saul.

But it takes God's power. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

God's going to do it His way, His will accomplished.

That's what Jonah is seeking to teach us.

This small book, 48 verses, reveals so much about the glory

of God and about God's plan of salvation.

In order to help you follow along, especially children, I

want you to do this. I want you to take the bulletin.

You'll probably have to move off your zest quest for a moment and

I want you to go to the page that says sermon notes.

It looks like this. And then there's actually a

little spot right behind the words of assurance and comfort

of the gospel and adult or children.

What I want you to do is I want you to draw your hand.

I'm going to give you 5 statements that we are being

taught from this one statement. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Now as you're drawing that, I want you to think about this for

a moment. This prayer coming out of the

mouth of Jonah from the belly of the well is when he is at rock

bottom. If you don't don't have your

Bible, grab the Blue Pew Bible and turn to Jonah 2.

Jonah 2 is where this prayer is recorded.

Jonah describes his life this way.

Jonah 2 verse 5, The waters closed in over me to take my

Jonah 2:5

life. The deep surrounded me.

Weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains.

That's how he's describing his life.

You can't get lower than the roots of the mountains.

And that's where he is. And from this place Jonah is

coming to the end of himself. And from this place the last

thing he praises. But I, with the voice of

Thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will

pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

What does Jonah mean by that? What does God want us to

understand about that? So I'm going to give you 5

things in the poem. Simply write salvation belongs

to the Lord. And now I'm going to give you 5

phrases. Each of them end with a word

that starts with Pi. Did not do that on purpose.

I don't actually like it when that happens, but it's helpful

to remember. Here's the first one.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. What does it mean?

It's His sovereign plan. Sovereign means all powerful,

all knowing, in full control. When we celebrate Christ the

King, he's our sovereign King. He's not just somewhat in

control. He's not just someone with some

power. He has it all.

This is our Lord, sovereign, Lord, sovereign plan.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Charles Spurgeon says no human

intellect and no created intelligence assisted God in the

planning of salvation. He contrived the way even as he

himself carried it out. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

It's his plan. It's his idea.

We could never come up with it, and we would never come up with

it. God's plan is so much larger, so

much more grand than we can imagine.

His plan communicated to Jonah was that I'm going to actually

save this wicked, evil, violent people, an enemy of my people,

the Israelites, the Ninevites. I want them to hear my word.

That was not Jonah's plan. It was God's plan.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. First point.

It's His sovereign plan. If you were in Christ Jesus, it

wasn't your plan if you were in Christ Jesus.

If you were in Christ Jesus, it wasn't your idea.

God initiates. God pursues the second P, His

sovereign proclamation. When I say proclamation, I'm

referring to God delivering His word to us.

Notice in Jonah 1 chapter 1 verse one, it says now the word

of the Lord came to Jonah. Jonah chapter 3 verse one, same

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

thing. Then the word of the Lord came

to Jonah the second time. But this is not the first time

God's word had been revealed. Go all the way back in your

Bible to the very beginning. In the beginning God created the

heavens and the earth, and when God gets around to creating man

and then woman, He proclaims His word and His word to them is all

of this I have given to you. Tend to it, take care of it.

It is for your pleasure. And it was perfect.

There wasn't one thing wrong. There wasn't one thing broken,

not relationally, not in nature, Nothing was wrong.

But He proclaimed this all is yours except for this one tree.

Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

That was it. The first question in the Bible

is not a question from God. It's question.

It's a question from Satan in the form of the serpent.

Serpent comes up to the woman Eve, and the very first thing he

attacks is the word of God. And here's his question.

Did God really say? Eve responds by saying yes, this

is what God said. He continues to tempt her, and

it's the same way he tempts you and tempts me every day.

Did God really say this is the way I'm to think of myself?

Did God really say I'm not to put my trust in my wealth or my

reputation? Did God really say I'm not

supposed to look at worthless things?

And there are lots of worthless things we can look at, not just

pornography. Did God really say I'm supposed

to give my money this way? Did God really say I'm supposed

to obey this law? Did God really say that's how

Satan works? His first question in the Bible,

Eve responds by saying yes, this is what was proclaimed.

But as he continues, she and Adam succumb to the temptation.

They take the fruit and they eat it.

And as soon as they eat it, their eyes are opened, Sin is

entered in. Their relationship with each

other is broken. The relationship with God is

broken. God's first question.

Now comes the first question from God in the Bible is really

interesting. Where are you?

That's a question he's asking to Adam and Eve.

Where are you? It's not a question that he

doesn't know the answer to. Because he's omnipresent.

That means he's everywhere. Present.

There's nowhere he is not present.

It's not a lack of knowledge because he's omniscient.

There's nothing God can ever learn about anything about you,

about your children, your grandchildren, nothing.

It's not a question of his power, but he asked where are

you? And listen to the response.

Adam says we were afraid. They'd never known fear before.

Think about that. They'd never known fear.

They'd never known shame. They'd never known guilt.

All of a sudden it rushes in them.

We were afraid because we were naked, so we hid.

Now comes God's second question. First, where are you?

We were afraid because we were naked, so we had Second

question, Who told you you were naked?

Have you eaten? Third question, have you eaten?

Have you eaten from the tree? The one tree that I commanded

you not to eat from Adam's response?

The woman you put here with me. Do you see the brokenness?

God's word proclaimed? Salvation belongs to the Lord.

He has a sovereign plan. His sovereign plan is proclaimed

by His sovereign word being delivered.

Notice again in Jonah one it comes to Jonah.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah.

Jonah rebels against that word. He rejects that word.

He thinks he can hide and flee from the Lord, but the Lord

continues to pursue him. Verse 3 of verse 1 of chapter 3.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

Do you see what's happening in God's plan of salvation?

Salvation belongs to the Lord. In His sovereign plan.

He's bringing His sovereign proclamation.

So what he's doing is this. The word now came to Jonah.

Jonah rejects it. God continues to bring his word

to him. And then God does what only God

can do. He takes the word that comes to

Jonah, and now the word comes from Jonah.

The word comes to Jonah. He rejects that.

It comes to him again after he spit out of the well and it's

time he obeys. And in God's Providence, the the

rebellious prophet now is the one taking the word that he

heard the first time and the word that he heard the second

time. And he's going into the city to

proclaim it to a people that are violent, evil, vile people.

Part of God's plan of salvation is the proclamation.

And now consider this, thousands of years later, literally

thousands, on November 23rd of 2025, a flock of God's people

are hearing the same word proclaimed.

It's coming from God to us and it's meant to go from us all

over this world. That's God's plan.

It's God's proclamation, and it goes with here's the third P His

sovereign power. In the 48 verses of Jonah, most

people are fixated on the fish. But in 48 verses, this little

book does so much to show the power of our sovereign God.

First, God will always accomplish His will.

He is going to accomplish His plan the way He wants to

accomplish it. And it's His will to use a

fallen, rebellious prophet of God to bring His message of

grace and forgiveness to a Pagan people, and that same word to

Himself in His sovereign power. Notice what happens in this

small book. God exercises his power over

nature. First, he appoints a storm.

He appoints a storm to come up on the boat that is holding

Jonah. Jonah is asleep.

The sailors are trying to save their lives.

Don't you care? Is essentially the question to

Jonah. God has brought the storm to

this one particular place that it would overwhelm the sailors

and the boat that they're on. He appointed the storm.

He's a power over nature. Secondly, He brings the fish.

This blows my mind when we give it time to think deeply about

it. This fish that God made, this

fish that Christ himself made, He's the Creator was created at

a time it would grow into the fish that even when it was

created, the Lord knew. This will be the one.

This will be the one who is going to swallow up my

rebellious prophet who has been thrown over the edge of the boat

to keep him from dying so that he might receive My mercy and My

grace, my sovereign power. This fish is going to swallow

him, and for three days this fallen prophet of mine is going

to live in that fish. But from the belly of this fish,

this prophet is going to pray to me, and he's going to end his

prayer by saying salvation belongs to the Lord.

We couldn't make this up. So Jonah goes, he is restored.

He is recommissioned. He goes into the city of Nineveh

and proclaims exactly what God told him to proclaim.

He's faithful, finally. But then God does what Jonah

suspected he might do. He shows a people that Jonah

despises, that Jonah hates mercy and grace, and from the least to

the king there's repentance. That city repents and Jonah's

angry. Jonah leaves the city.

He finds himself in a position pouting.

That's not one of the peace, but he finds himself in a position,

pouting, angry, and the Lord appoints a plant.

A plant that he himself designed, that he himself then

created, that he himself then grew on that particular patch

that would come over his fallen prophet Jonah to give him shade.

And then the Lord, exercising his power over nature, creating

this massive fish, uses a small worm that devours the plant.

His power is seen and how he appoints nature to accomplish

his will, but it's also seen in how he uses people just like

you, just like me, just like Jonah who have fallen to

accomplish his means. 4th P is his sovereign pity.

This book and this study has been personally very convicting

to me and I've heard from many of you the same.

And most of the time it's centered in this area where the

Lord and His grace towards you has shown you that you do not

have the same pity and care for the lost nations, the lost

people that the Lord has. You're like Jonah.

I'm like Jonah. We want our people to be saved.

We want our nation to be protected, but I don't really

care that much about the people who aren't walking in Christ.

You do not get grace. I'm going to be very direct if

that's where you are. There's something missing in

your theology. You do not get grace because the

people who are acting like non believers because they are non

believers have hearts that were just like yours.

If you're in Christ, they were dead.

They're not morally sick, they're spiritually dead.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. The only way someone is going to

come to faith is if the Lord opens up their eyes and their

ears and causes that dead heart to be, which is what he did for

you if you're in Christ. And if you don't want others to

receive that news, you're missing grace.

The grace that was shown to you. God has pity.

The same God who asked those three questions to Adam and Eve

is the same God asking Jonah these questions near the end of

his book. His last question to Jonah's

found in 4-9. But God said to Jonah, do you do

well to be angry for the plant? And he said, yes, I do well to

be angry, angry enough to die. And he meant it.

That's how sad his condition is. And the Lord said to Jonah, you

pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make

it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a

night. Verse 11 And should not I pity

Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than

120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their

left, and also much cattle? The Lord shows us pity.

He shows us compassion. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

If you are saved, it's not because you initiated this plan.

It's not because you proclaimed it to yourself.

It's not because you suddenly made your dead heartbeat.

It would be like Lazarus coming out of the tomb after Jesus,

raising him from the dead and saying I've been raised from the

dead. Salvation belongs to the Lord

and it also belongs to me. I made my dead heartbeat.

It's ridiculous. We don't 'cause our dead heart

spiritually to beat. You cannot cause your child's

dead heart spiritually to beat or your grandchildren's.

You can't, but God can. And in God's plan of salvation,

God's plan of salvation, salvation belongs to the Lord.

It's His proclamation, His Word, and it's His power, and it's His

sovereign pity. Last P.

This is so encouraging. It's His sovereign perseverance.

One of the great truths of the Christian faith that is so

different than other religions in the world is that God is the

one who initiates. That's why his first question

is, where are you? It's not that he didn't know,

it's that he's saying I'm coming for you.

You're my people. And if you're 1 of God's people

and you've come to faith, it's because He came for you before

all time. He knew He was going to come

after you. And at the age, whether young or

old, you receive Christ as your Savior.

The promises for those who all are, are truly in Christ is that

you and I will persevere to the end.

And it's not because of the vows we make.

It's not because of our strength or our stamina.

It's because of God's faithfulness to us.

You see in the book of Jonah, God's pursuit.

When Jonah felled in chapter 1, the Lord could have wiped him

out, but he didn't. It wasn't His plan.

His plan was to use His Word to proclaim His truth, to reveal

His power, showing His pity even for Jonah.

And by His grace, Jonah spit up on the shore.

Now Jonah goes, Jonah falls again, this time complaining,

displaying his anger at God for the grace that God showed the

Ninevites. And then the book ends in such a

strange way. Let me read it one more time.

And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there

are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand

from their left comma and also much cattle question mark.

The end. Do you know why Jonah ends that

way? Because that's how God wanted it

to end. It shows us what can happen to a

person not just once, but multiple times.

And it shows us God's perseverance of those who

stumble and fall, just like me, just like you.

And it shows us that God continues show His grace and

mercy. If the book was to go on, it

would it would have to have another chapter like 2 where

once again Jonah will be coming to the end of himself.

Readers frustrated that it ends this way need to be reminded

that this is how God wanted it to end.

In his closing chapter of his book called The Prodigal

Prophet, Tim Keller ends the same way he ended his sermons on

this series. He says this.

As we have seen, the book of Jonah ends with a cliffhanger.

We are never told how the prophet responded to God's final

appeal. I propose, however, that we can

make a reasonable guess about how Jonah ultimately responded

to God. How do we know Jonah was so

rebellious, defiant, and clueless?

How do we know that he made that unbelievable statement?

I hate the God of love speech. How do we know about his prayer

inside the fish? The only way we could possibly

know these things is if Jonah told others.

What kind of man would let the world see what a fool he was?

Only someone who had become joyfully secure and, might I

add, thankful in God's love. Only someone who believed that

he was simultaneously sinful but completely accepted.

In short, someone who had found in the gospel of grace the very

power of God. If it can change Jonah, it can

change anyone. It can change you, but you

cannot change yourself. Salvation belongs to the Lord,

but the one who ordained salvation also ordains the means

of salvation. And the means of salvation are

God's sovereign plan, His Word being proclaimed, His power,

sovereign power on display, His pity present, and the promise of

His perseverance also true. So do we have any response, any

responsibility? Well, the answer's yes.

And you see it in what Jonah wrote in the final sentences of

his prayer from the place that is at the roots of the

mountains. Jonah proclaimed verse 9 again.

But I with the voice of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to

you what I have vowed I will pay.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. I'm really struck by the first

part of that verse. But I with the voice of

Thanksgiving from the belly of the well.

He didn't know he was going to be spit up.

He didn't know he was going to hear the word of God a second

time. I'm one of five children.

I'll see all of my siblings this week.

My mom and dad have both gone to heaven.

Still grieves us though. It's 15 and 20 years ago.

Whenever me or my brother or one of my three sisters came home

from the event, whether it was individual or corporate, my mom

cared about one thing. Her first question isn't what a

lot of our questions might be today.

Did you have fun? I don't think she cared whether

we had fun or not. What did you learn?

She didn't ask that. She had one question.

Did you say thank you? We were taught to say thank you.

We were reminded before we left. When you come home, don't forget

to say thank you. And we did.

But one time, maybe because I'm the middle child, I decided to

answer differently. When I walked through the door

and my mom said, did you say thank you?

I said no. And I never did that again.

Never. And it wasn't even true.

I did say thank you. But soon I was on the phone

calling the people that had dropped me off, telling them I'm

sorry that I didn't say thank you, but you did.

But my mom thinks I didn't. Why does she think that?

Because I told her I didn't. Why did you do that?

I don't know. Pray for me.

I wanted you to laugh a little bit because I want you to hear

this. I'm very concerned that our

gratitude looks like a little boy who's just simply checking

the box saying, yeah, I said thank you.

Thank God for all the provision he's given you.

Thank God for the blessing. Even thank God for the hard

times, the word, if God tells us to do that.

But as those who have been redeemed, whose plan of

salvation has rescued us from something worse than the belly

of a whale, of a fish, we must always ask God to awaken the

appropriate gratitude in our hearts for what He did to save

us, sending His only Son. That was His plan.

Who is the Word? He's the proclamation with His

power. Power to raise people from the

dead, not just Lazarus, but all who are spiritually dead.

Who would trust in Him, His pity being shown with tears, and the

persistence of our Lord, all the way to the cross and all the way

to the grave, and from the grave ascended to heaven, till Christ

is told to come again. Thank him with gratitude, just

like Jonah when he said, but with the voice of Thanksgiving.

But there's more. Jonah said.

I, with the voice of Thanksgiving, will sacrifice to

you what I have vowed I will pay.

You've made vows. Jonah made a vow, whether it was

when he was called to be a prophet or from the belly of the

fish or both. When he is ending his prayer,

not knowing what will happen next, he says I will sacrifice

to you what I have vowed. I will pay.

We don't obey like Jonah did and then didn't in order to be

saved. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

But when we are saved and we see all that has been given us so

that we could be saved, gratitude and a desire to obey

the Word proclaimed is in us. It's what we want.

I didn't know it until it was pointed out at the 8 O clock

service when I ended this way, that gratitude and obedience,

Jonah's response spells go. And that's what we're called to

do, not to earn our salvation, but because we've received it

and we just can't get over that. Thank you Father, for saving me

from hell. Father, I do pray that thank You

for Your word proclaimed to us even this day.

Thank You for the feast of this word that anticipates the

perfect feast, and we will be with You forever.

Give us eyes for that, even as we close in song about that.

And Lord, continue to do what only You can do.

Save us for your glory, for our good, we pray in the name of

Jesus, Amen. Please stand.