Salvation Belongs to the Lord

Good morning, Watermark. The scripture reading today comes from Jonah chapter 1, verse 17 to Jonah chapter 2, verse 10.

Jonah 1:17 Jonah 2:10

! If you're using the church Bible, you can turn to page 726.

Starting in verse 17, we read,

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.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 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.

For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me.

All your waves and your billows passed over me.

Then I said, I am driven away from your sight.

Yet I shall look again upon your holy temple.

The waters closed in over me to take my life.

The deep surrounded me.

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

I went down to the land whose bards closed up upon me forever.

Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

When my life was fainting away, I remember the Lord.

And my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of stuff as love.

But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed, I will pay.

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

And the Lord spoke to the fish, and he vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

This is the word of God.

Great. Thank you, Iris.

Let's pray briefly as we come to God's word.

Lord Jesus, your word is perfect, infallible, unbreakable.

My words are not.

And so, God, we want to hear your words, not just my words.

I pray, God, open our eyes to see what you want us to see in your words.

Help us to hear from you.

Help us to see the great hope which you offer us, Lord Jesus.

In your great name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

So, March the 10th, 1748, many, many years ago.

A British merchant ship by the name of the Greyhound was sailing from Sierra Leone in Africa to Portsmouth in England.

And it came upon a violent storm.

And aboard that ship was a young man, 23-year-old John Newton.

He was a sailor on that ship.

And the storm was, heavy seas were tearing parts of the ship away.

John Newton was woken up in the middle of the night with someone crying out,

She's sinking.

And so, all hands on deck, they all run upstairs to save the ship.

And John Newton was immediately told to go downstairs, grab a knife to cut the ropes and the sails.

As he turns to go downstairs, a wave comes and knocks the man standing next to him overboard, never to be seen again.

John Newton writes,

The sea had torn away the upper timbers on one side and made the ship a mere wreck in a few minutes.

Taking all the circumstances into account, it's miraculous that any of us survived.

And so, for the next couple of hours, John Newton and his crew are pumping water out of the ship trying to survive.

And after 11 hours of doing that, they're exhausted.

And John Newton cries out, he says,

If this will not do, the Lord have mercy upon us all.

And immediately, two things happen.

Firstly, he's instantly struck by his own words.

This is what he writes.

This thought, spoken without much reflection, was the first desire for mercy I had breathed in many years.

It instantly came to me.

What mercy can there be for me?

I thought there never was or ever could be such a terrible sinner as myself.

My sins were too great to be forgiven.

Secondly, the storm starts to subside.

Over the next few hours, the wind quietens down.

The waves start to subside.

And for the next four weeks, this ship, broken as it is, hobbles along the coast until they find a port in Northern Ireland where they dock.

For the rest of his life, John Newton would remember the 10th of March, 1748.

And would remember this day, the day that God had saved him from a certain death, but also saved his soul.

He writes this many years later.

On that day, the Lord sent from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.

About this time, I began to know there is a God in heaven who hears and who answers prayers.

Friends, I'm sure many of us have never had such a dramatic experience.

But I wonder, what is the most dramatic experience you've had in your life?

What have you been rescued from or saved from?

Christmas Day, 1994, I was swimming in the sea and I had to be rescued by lifeguards.

A rip current was taking me out.

That's about as far as dramatic as I've ever got.

What about you?

What dramatic experience have you had?

How did you come out of it?

Who rescued you or got you through?

And how did it change your life?

At the heart of Christianity is the idea of rescue, of salvation.

As we saw last week, our sin leads us into a storm, a storm of our own making.

And Christianity is all about the great rescue plan, the salvation plan that God has put in place to rescue us from the storms of our own making.

But this is a rescue that we could not organize or orchestrate ourselves and certainly could not accomplish on our own.

At the heart of Christianity is the idea that those that have been rescued, those that have been saved, are no better than anyone else.

They're not smarter, more intelligent, more righteous, more deserving than anyone else.

But those who, like Jonah, like John Newton, have been rescued from a deadly storm from which we could not save ourselves.

That's what Jonah 2 wants to show us.

That's what we're going to see today.

And friends, the depth to which we understand or grasp this truth is the degree to which our Christian faith, for those of us that are Christians, will be life-transforming and deeply soul-satisfying.

Friends, if there's anything to understand about Christianity at all, if our faith is going to be life-transforming and the power of Christianity is going to change us,

we need to appreciate the desperate situation from which we were saved.

We need to understand our utter inability to save or rescue ourselves.

And we need to see just how great God's rescue plan is.

And so that's what we see in Jonah 2 in his prayer.

Now, many of us will know the story of Jonah.

Remember, Jonah is a prophet.

He's meant to represent God.

But he runs away from the God that he's meant to be representing.

And he runs instead of going east to Nineveh, he goes west down to Tarshish on the ship.

And by running away from God, he runs into a mighty storm.

The ship that he's on is about to break up.

And he says to the sailors, the only way you can save yourselves is throw me overboard.

They don't think that's a good idea.

So they try and row harder.

But their efforts get nowhere.

And so eventually they conclude, our only hope is to do what he says.

And they hurl Jonah overboard.

And immediately the seas are calm and peace is restored.

But Jonah sinks to the bottom of the sea.

And as you know, at this point, God sends a ginormous fish, probably some kind of whale,

which swallows him and in doing so saves his life.

Now, brief pause.

What should we do with the fish part, right?

Because, let's be honest, this is unusual.

Not too many people get swallowed by whales.

It does happen from time to time.

Normally they are, you know, spat out straight away, regurgitated straight away.

It happened in the seas just about a year ago.

But this is pretty unusual.

What do we do?

Some people ask, did this really happen?

Well, two brief thoughts.

I want to encourage us not to discard the parts of the Bible

too quickly that are unusual or difficult to understand.

Two reasons for that.

The first is this.

There are often actually good reasons for believing the parts of the Bible

that at first are hard to understand.

Often with enough reading, enough research, enough thinking, talking to people,

actually we find there's more reason to believe than first meets the eye.

I think a good example of this is the empty tomb.

Jesus rose from the dead.

Now, normally people that are dead don't rise from the dead after three days.

But actually if you investigate the historical evidence, look at the data,

you'll see there's more than enough reason to believe this really happened.

This is a fact of history.

So don't discard it too quickly.

Look into it.

Research.

Understand.

Read up about it.

You'll find just because there's not a reason that first comes to mind

doesn't mean there's no good reason.

But secondly, and more importantly this,

disregarding anything from Scripture which is unusual or challenging

will leave our faith anemic, shallow, and unsatisfying.

What I mean by that is this.

If your requirement for believing what the Bible says

is that it must align or correspond with what you automatically already believe,

you're going to disregard anything that is outside of your current experience.

The God that you are left with is going to be very small, very shallow, very powerless.

Outside of mystery, no room for mystery, no room for incomprehensibility.

And you'll never experience the power of the God that is beyond time and space.

Does that make sense?

So as we saw last week, if we do not fear, if we're not in awe of the God that is beyond our understanding,

the God we'll be left with is safe, predictable, small, non-mysterious,

actually comprehensible, and powerless to actually change our lives.

Powerless to satisfy the deepest questions of our hearts.

Unable to help us when we come face-to-face with the hardships and the realities of life.

And so don't be too quick to discount the parts of Scripture that are unusual.

And so in Jonah 2, actually at the end of 1,

God, as is his custom, brings about a very unusual means of rescuing and saving Jonah from a certain death.

And there in the depths, God rescues Jonah.

And having encountered God's saving grace, Jonah prays this prayer of thanksgiving.

And so let's look at it together.

In this prayer, Jonah shows us two things that we all must grasp deeply if Christianity is going to make sense at all

and if it's going to have any life-transforming power in our lives.

Okay, two things we must grasp.

Firstly, our true condition.

Secondly, our spiritual insufficiency or our utter inability.

Okay, our true condition and our inability to save ourselves.

Let's dive in and look at that.

So, firstly, our true condition.

In this prayer, Jonah acknowledges that his situation is one of his own making.

Now, it may not be obvious at first, but look at the language that he uses here.

Having been rescued by the God that he's tried to run away from, Jonah comes to the realization he's not just unlucky.

He's under judgment.

Jonah is not in the situation he's in because of his circumstances.

He's there because of his sin.

And the reason that he's drowning is not just unfortunate circumstances.

Actually, it's his rebellion.

Look at what he says here.

Look at how he describes himself in his prayer.

Look at verse 2.

He says,

Sheol is the Old Testament word for the place where the dead go.

But it's not just the generic place of the dead.

It's kind of a place of divine judgment.

It's a place of the morally corrupt.

It's the place you don't want to go once you die.

And Jonah says,

Out of that place, out of the belly of Sheol, I cried out to you.

Jonah realizes he's not in a good place.

Look at verse 3.

He says,

You cast me into the depths of the heart of the sea.

Your waves and billows passed out over me.

It's not just the sailors that threw Jonah in here.

It's not just the storm that caused him into the depths of the sea.

He realizes God is the one who's done this because he's under the judgment of the sovereign God that he's been trying to run away from.

Verse 4.

He says,

I'm driven away from your sight, from your presence.

What does that make you think of?

Where else in the Old Testament are God's people driven from his presence?

Remember in Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve sinned grievously.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And God drives them out of the Garden of Eden.

Same word in Hebrew.

Out of his presence as a result of their sin.

Jonah is coming to the realization that actually it's his sin.

It's his running away from God that's caused him this situation.

If you know the story of Jonah, in many ways this is the turning point of the story.

After this, Jonah is going to go to Nineveh.

This is the turning point of his life.

Now, Jonah is not the perfect example of a wonderful Christian after this.

He still has a lot of stuff to work through.

As do we all.

But this point, it seems like the turning point when God gets a hold of him and turns him around.

Here, Jonah comes face to face with his depravity, with his lostness.

The fact that he is a sinner in the hands of a sovereign God,

deserving of the watery grave in which he finds himself.

And having come to this place, his life begins to turn around.

And Jonah's prayer is a confession of his sin against God.

Friends, I wonder how do you feel about confessing sin and acknowledging your lostness?

How do you feel about acknowledging the fact that you and I have sinned?

The Bible tells us again and again that this is where redemption starts.

This is where healing begins.

This is the place where we can find restoration.

That healing and restoration begins.

That the path to salvation begins with acknowledging the depth and the extent of our sin.

You may remember King David.

Remember David in the Old Testament, the greatest king of the Old Testament.

He sins grievously.

He has an affair with another man's wife.

She falls pregnant.

In order to cover up his steps, he has her husband killed.

So that the husband can't say, it's not my baby.

So he has an affair, calls her to be pregnant, kills her husband.

He tries to cover his steps, but he can't cover up his steps.

And he's confronted by his sin.

And how does David respond?

Does David say, I'm a victim of my circumstances.

It's not me.

It's the government.

It's my advisors.

It's big tech and social media, right?

It's my childhood.

It's my upbringing.

No, look what he says.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.

Cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions.

My sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only have I sinned.

And done what is evil in your sight.

So you are justified in your words.

You are blameless in your judgments.

Or friends, think of the prodigal son.

The son that runs away from his father.

He comes to his senses.

He turns around and he returns back home.

And what does he say?

Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you.

Or think of the apostle Paul.

The greatest Christian missionary leader in the New Testament.

How does he describe himself?

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.

But I receive mercy for this reason.

That in me, as the foremost of sinners, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience.

As an example to those who were to believe in him.

Friends, think of John Newton.

That sailor who was caught in a storm in 1748.

He later writes a song describing his salvation.

Not only from the storm, but of his soul.

And he writes,

Amazing grace.

How sweet the sound.

That saved a pretty good guy like me.

No, no, no.

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found.

Was blind, but now I see.

Friends, I wonder, are you able to say this?

Have you ever come to a place of seeing your lostness?

Your true condition?

Friends, your moral bankruptcy.

Your rebellion against the God who made you to know him and love him.

And be in relationship with him.

This is where Jonah comes to.

And it's the starting point of his life turning around.

Friends, if you're a Christian and your faith has become shallow.

Anemic.

Lifeless or dull.

If there's no real bearing, no grit, no gravitas to your faith.

Could it be that you've never really understood the depths from which God has saved you?

Could it be that maybe you heard and thought about it years ago, but you've long since forgotten.

And you've become so familiar that it doesn't have any bearing on your life.

Friends, this is the starting point for those who want to experience the life transforming power of God to own and acknowledge our true condition.

But in Jonah chapter 2, that's not the only thing we see.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

We see something else.

Not only our true condition, but our inability to do anything about it.

Look at what happens here.

Look at the obvious language here.

It's not just the dark and desperate place that Jonah's sin has got him into.

It's his complete powerlessness.

His inability to solve it or fix it.

That's what really comes through in the prayer here.

Because in this prayer, notice the only thing that Jonah does.

The only thing he does is he cries out to God for mercy.

Look at verse 2.

He says,

Look at verse 5.

Jonah describes the way that he finds himself in a kind of dungeon, a deep dungeon under the sea.

And it's like a land where the bars have closed in on him forever.

There is nothing he can do about it.

He says,

Not only was he physically drowning, he is spiritually dead.

Verse 3.

You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea.

The flood surrounded me.

And Jonah's point is,

There is no way that he can rescue himself from this place.

He is utterly unable to do anything about it.

He can't go down to Joppa and buy a one-way ticket to Tarshish.

He can't negotiate his way out of this mess.

He can't talk himself out.

He can't buy himself out.

He's not strong enough to muscle his way out.

There is nothing that he can do about it to get his life back from the pit.

To save and rescue himself.

He is utterly powerless in his lostness.

Except,

There's one thing he can do.

He can get on his knees.

He can admit his powerlessness.

He can cry out to the God who loves to hear the cry of the helpless.

And who loves to save those who cannot save themselves.

Friends, this is the message of the Bible from beginning to end.

That we all, like Jonah,

Are by nature spiritually dead and lost in our sin.

And utterly powerless to do anything about it.

To save ourselves.

Now, some people say,

This is the reason I don't like all the Old Testament.

It's so, you know, angry and wrathful.

Can't you just give us the New Testament God, right?

Like, all this judgment stuff.

Let's move on.

Let's get to Jesus.

Friends, let's listen to the Apostle Paul in the New Testament.

Apostle Paul, greatest writer, writes much of the New Testament, says this.

As for you, as for me, we, we were dead in our trespasses and our sins.

Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan,

carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, we were by nature children of wrath.

There's Paul.

Well, that's our true condition.

That's our situation.

And notice what he says here.

He says,

We were slaves.

Slaves to our desires.

Slaves to our sinful nature.

Slaves to the devil.

Always doing things that we don't want to do.

Why do we keep on doing the dumb things that we hate doing?

Because we cannot do anything about it.

Friends, if you've been alive for more than a week, you'll know how true that is, right?

He says,

We were slaves.

Paul says,

This is our nature.

This is our disposition.

We are,

This is who we are deep in our souls.

We are bent on loving and serving ourselves.

Not just a few bad actions.

This is our disposition.

And that means we are spiritually dead.

Not just unwell.

Not just sick.

Not just lazy or unlucky.

Unable to rescue or save ourselves.

But, says Paul, verse 4,

But God, who is rich in mercy,

Because of his great love with which he loved us,

Even when we were dead in our sins,

When we had nothing we could do,

This great God, because of his love,

Made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God,

Not a result of works,

So that no one may boast.

Friends, Jonathan Edwards famously said,

You can no more save yourself

From the consequences of your sin,

Than a spider's web can stop a boulder

Tumbling down the mountainside.

This is our inability.

Friends, we could no more save ourselves

From divine judgment

Than Jonah could rescue himself

From the storm

Or from the bottom of the ocean of the sea.

There's an old hymn called

The Rock of Ages,

And I love its words.

Listen to what he says.

He says,

Not the labors of my hands

Could fulfill thy law's commands.

Could my zeal with no respite,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone,

Thou must save,

And thou alone.

And it's in this space,

In the bottom of the sea,

In the gut of the whale,

In the darkest moments of his life,

Jonah's eyes are open

To see himself clearly,

To see who he is,

To see where his sin has gotten him,

And how utterly powerless he is

To do anything about it.

Friends, again I ask you,

Have you come to this place?

Is this true of you?

Do you know your true condition?

Do you know how powerless you are

To save yourself?

Friends, are you still trying to cling on

To some semblance of morality or goodness?

You can no more save yourself

From the judgment of sin

Than a spider's web can save

A bouldering tumbling down the mountainside.

You know, I've shared this story before,

So many of you would have heard this,

But I grew up in a Christian family,

A very wonderful family,

And a very loving Christian home,

I was very involved in church from a young age,

I believed in Jesus from a young age,

And as a teenager,

I didn't do too many bad things,

I was generally a relatively good kid,

And I thought,

That made me a great person,

And someone that God would love to save,

Right?

And so, not perfect,

But pretty good,

And I kind of,

In the back of my mind,

At a subconscious level,

I thought,

If there's one kind of person

That God would save,

It would be someone like me,

Someone who would be safe

From divine judgment,

I wasn't perfect,

But I was good,

I could give you a list of a lot of bad people

That needed saving,

Sure,

Okay,

They needed grace,

But I was on the right track,

I was one of the good guys,

And you know what that did?

It did three things in my life,

Firstly,

It made me profoundly arrogant,

And self-righteous,

Profoundly arrogant,

I would look down my nose,

At anyone that wasn't good enough,

Or anyone wasn't like me,

And I would judge people,

And those who couldn't get their act together,

I just thought they were weak,

And not strong enough,

And they needed to sort themselves out,

Paradoxically,

It also made me profoundly insecure,

Because my identity,

Was based on the fact that God loves me,

Because I'm a good person,

But what happens when I wasn't such a good person?

And if God's love for me,

Was based on my performance,

What happens when I didn't perform very well?

And so my assurance of God's love,

Was up and down like a yo-yo,

I was profoundly insecure,

And what that meant,

Was that my faith,

I had a faith,

My faith was very shallow,

Very superficial,

Very weak and anemic,

And then one day,

Two things happened at the same time,

I came to see my true condition,

I came to see the depth,

Of my sickening moral bankruptcy,

I came to see how arrogant,

And self-righteous,

And self-centered,

And self-opinionated I was,

I wasn't one of the good guys,

I felt like John Newton,

I could say,

I thought there never was,

Or ever could be,

Such a terrible sinner as myself,

My arrogance,

My self-righteousness,

My self-superiority,

My hypocrisy and snobbery,

Were laying bare,

And it was disgusting,

I remember feeling like,

It doesn't matter how long I shower,

I'm never going to be able to get this grossness off of me,

It was like deep inside of my soul,

And yet I saw a second thing,

I saw friends,

That Christ Jesus went to the cross,

For a sinner like me,

That Jesus was plunged into the sea of darkness,

That Jesus was in an ocean of judgment,

On the cross,

In my place,

So that I didn't have to,

Christ did for me,

What I could never do for myself,

Christ went to the cross,

To take my sin,

To give me his righteousness,

In order to save me,

And rescue me,

From the depths of my arrogance,

That I could not save myself,

You see friends,

It's not that there's no hope whatsoever,

It's just that there's no hope in ourselves,

It's not that there's no salvation,

It's that we can't save ourselves,

But that doesn't mean there's no salvation,

There is salvation,

Because look at what Jonah says,

Look at how the passage opens and closes,

Jonah's first line,

As he says,

It begins with Jonah's voice,

Crying out for mercy,

In his distress,

And his utter helplessness,

And it ends with Jonah's voice,

Crying out for thanksgiving and praise,

Look at the final verse,

Of Jonah's prayer,

With the voice of thanksgiving,

I will sacrifice to you,

What I have vowed,

I will pay,

Salvation belongs to the Lord,

Friends,

Many people have said,

There is the Bible,

In five simple words,

Salvation belongs to the Lord,

In five words,

The message of the Bible,

Salvation is all of the Lord,

Salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Who would go to the cross,

For sinners like me,

Sinners like Jonah,

Sinners like John Newton,

Sinners like you,

Friends,

Salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ,

Who was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

To die for all those who would trust in him,

Salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ,

Who on the cross cried out,

My God,

My God,

Why have you forsaken me?

And his cries were not answered,

Unlike Jonah,

His cries fell on deaf ears,

God did not save Jesus on the cross,

So that our cries would be heard,

And would be answered,

That God would save us,

Salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ,

Who died for our sins,

And rose for our justification,

Who ascended to heaven,

And who will return in glory,

You know,

John Newton's very last recorded words,

Just a few days before he died,

His friend,

William J.,

Goes to visit him,

And John Newton says this,

I am an old man now,

And my memory is almost fading,

But I remember two things very clearly,

I am a great sinner,

And Christ is a great savior,

Salvation belongs to the Lord,

Friends,

In Jonah chapter 2,

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

We see a mirror of all of humanity,

And a mirror of those that have come to know him,

We see our true condition,

That we are in the despair that we are in,

Not just because we are unlucky,

But because we are under judgment,

Not just because of our circumstances,

But because of our sin,

Because we have rebelled against the God,

Who made us to know him,

And love him,

And follow him,

Be in relationship with him,

And we also see our utter helplessness,

Our complete inability,

To save and rescue ourselves,

Because salvation is all from the Lord,

So,

What should we do about this?

How should we respond?

Well,

A couple of thoughts,

Firstly,

Friends,

Receive God's great salvation,

Receive it,

Friends,

If you are here this morning,

And you are not a follower of Jesus,

We have nothing to offer you,

We have nothing to offer you,

Other than Jesus Christ,

We cannot tell you how to succeed in life,

We cannot promise you health,

Wealth or prosperity,

We cannot promise you,

That life will always be easy,

If you become a Christian,

And life will always go well,

We cannot promise you,

Your children will be safe from sickness,

Or that all your relationships will work out,

Or that God will give you the perfect spouse,

Friends,

We cannot promise you,

You will be free from mental health challenges,

All we have to offer,

Is Jesus Christ,

God of very God,

The God who came to us,

And for us,

To die on the cross,

To save us,

To do for us,

What we could not do for ourselves,

Friends,

Will you receive it?

Will you accept him?

Look at verse 8,

In the Jonah's prayer here,

He says,

Those who cling to vain idols,

Forfeit the steadfast love,

That could be theirs,

Friends,

What vain idol,

What false God,

Are you hoping in?

What are you trusting in?

What are you putting your confidence in?

To rescue you,

In this life,

And forever,

Jesus Christ,

Is the only hope,

You and I have,

To be rescued,

From the storm,

Of our own sin and shame,

And from the power of death,

And the power of hell,

Receive the great salvation,

But secondly,

Rejoice in God's great salvation,

Friends,

For those of us who are Christians,

How precious is the good news of Jesus to you?

Have you become blasé,

Or familiar with it?

Friends,

Has the glory of the gospel,

Become unremarkable to you?

Are we those who sing the words,

Of amazing grace,

How sweet the sound,

That saved a rich like me,

And just sing it,

As if it has no meaning,

Unmoved and indifferent,

To the grace that we sing about?

Jonah says,

With the voice of thanksgiving,

I will rejoice,

In the God of my salvation,

Friends,

What about you?

Does Jesus' salvation,

Still astound you?

Does it bring you to your knees?

Does it bring tears to your eyes,

And gratitude,

And joy and appreciation?

Those who cling,

To worthless idols,

Forsake the steadfast love,

That could be theirs.

Friends,

Even as Christians,

We can cling to worthless idols,

False gods that cannot save.

In a few minutes time,

We're going to sing,

Of the great chasm,

That Jesus crossed over,

To rescue us.

We're going to sing,

Of this amazing grace.

Friends,

Can I ask you,

Don't just sing the words,

Meaninglessly,

Don't just mumble along the words,

Like any other song,

Rejoice in the God,

Of great salvation.

Finally friends,

Rest in this great salvation,

Receive God's great salvation,

Rejoice in it,

Rest in it.

Friends,

Are you a Christian,

That's always anxious,

And worried,

Always trying to,

Prove that yourself,

Do you feel unworthy,

Inadequate,

Like you're never good enough?

Friends,

Are you someone who thinks,

When I'm a better Christian,

Then I'll get baptized,

Then I'll really serve God,

Then I'll do what he asks me to do.

Friends,

Do you sometimes feel inadequate,

Like your report card to God says 70%,

And you're waiting for God to say,

What happened to the other 30%?

Friends,

Do you feel insecure,

About God's love for you?

You could not save yourself.

Jesus saved you,

From what you could never rescue yourself.

Rest in the arms of the God,

Who loves to save sinners,

To restore,

Redeem,

Inadequate people,

Like me,

And you.

Friends,

Jonah was brought to the place,

Where he could no longer fight,

He could no longer wrestle,

He could no longer run,

He was brought to the end of himself,

And in order to finally discover,

The hope and the salvation,

That God is offering him,

Jonah had to be brought,

To that place.

And in that place,

He discovers his true condition,

And he discovers he can't save himself,

But he discovers the God who can.

Friends,

What about you?

Receive this great salvation,

Rejoice in it,

And then rest in it.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus,

In some ways,

The message of Jonah,

Is the message of the Bible.

It's so simple,

And yet it's so challenging,

That we could not save ourselves,

But you can.

God,

I pray,

Won't you write that message,

Deep,

Deep in our hearts.

God,

Some of us have been Christians,

For 30,

40,

50 years,

Some of us have been Christians,

For a few weeks,

Some of us are not yet Christians,

At all.

Lord,

I pray this morning,

By the power of your Holy Spirit,

Open our eyes,

To see these things,

And to rejoice in you.

That you God,

Are the one,

Who loves to do for us,

What we could never do for ourselves,

To save and rescue us.

Lord help us,

We pray,

In your great name,

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.