This is one of the clearest statements of sound doctrine in all the Bible: “salvation belongs to the LORD!” From beginning to end, there is hardly a truth that is more plainly presented in the Scriptures. Who is the architect of our salvation? It is the Father who chose us in Christ before the foundation of the earth. Who is the accomplisher of our salvation? It is the Son who loved us and gave himself for us through his death and resurrection. Who is the one who applied our salvation to our souls and keeps us to the end? It is the Spirit who awakened us to respond with repentance and faith and sealed us with the assurance of eternal life. Our lot is hopeless and our own strength is insufficient to save us from sin and death. Beloved, “salvation belongs to the LORD!”

And as he fled from the LORD, this would be the lesson our brother Jonah would come to learn and be held out to us as illustrative evidence. He was hurled from the ship’s deck in a storm, only to be swallowed into the belly of a great fish in the heart of the sea. When he had counted his life as loss, when the buoyant ship of worldly hopes had given way to the flooding waters of despairing depths, it was only then that the soil of his heart might finally be prepared to cry out to Him who alone can deliver, “salvation belongs to the LORD!”

In the realm of grace, there is not a single square inch of salvation over which man may put his name. Our fall was too great a distance, our separation too great a chasm, our debt too great a price, our sin too powerful a slavemaster that anything other than the strong and saving arm of the Lord Jesus Christ might pull us up to resurrecting life. Only when Jonah was hopeless according to himself was he finally able to find hope according to Christ. Beloved, this is the gospel that we cherish, that buoys us from sinking in drowning despair, and that, with a sacrifice of thanksgiving, we praise and proclaim in our homes, community, and among the nations. “Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

It is no small wonder that King Nebuchadnezzar was filled with astonishment as he looked upon his fiery furnace. Just prior, this idolatrous and egotistical tyrant had decreed to the entire nation that they must fall down and worship before his golden image and acknowledge the greatness of his kingdom. He had come to personify “the god of this world”, setting up his own kingship in opposition to the true King of kings. And just like the father of lies whom he followed, Nebuchadnezzar stopped at nothing then to get the full worship of his entire nation, so the defiance of these three young Jewish men sent him into a furious rage.

And what a brave faith these three must have had! They had been promoted to prominent positions, but now they faced losing it all for the sake of being faithful to their God. Nebuchadnezzar couldn't hardly fathom that someone would believe in a kingdom with higher authority and majesty than his own, so when these three refused to bow, he ordered that his fiery weapon of fear be turned up seven times hotter than normal.

All of this was designed by Nebuchadnezzar to show the world the greatness of his might, but such was the setup by our great God to show the power he possesses over the nations and kings of the earth. Nebuchadnezzar threw three bound men into the fire, but what his eyes saw were four unbound men who were walking unhurt in the midst of the fire. And though he thought highly of himself, he couldn't help but notice that the fourth man in the fire had an appearance like a son of the gods, for this was no ordinary man.

Dear Christian, let the lesson of these three not be lost on us today. It is better to be in the fire with Christ, than far from worldly flames without him. It is better to have the leader of a nation against you, than to stray from faithfulness to the King of kings. It is better to die in this life while holding our confession, than to deny Christ who alone can save for all eternity. For though He may or may not choose to deliver us temporarily from the kings of this earth, the fourth man in the fire alone is able to deliver us unto salvation.

Here John gives a succinct and profound definition for what is at the heart of true love. He points his finger in a particular direction. “In this is love,” he says. But before saying what it is, he tells us what it is not. True love, pure love, love as it actually is, does not originate in the hearts of men. "Not that we have loved God." Human love is never original, says John, for it is supplied from a source of divine origin. So try as we might to define love according to our own human experiences and efforts, John says we must open up heaven’s dictionary if we wish to behold love in its genuine state.

And so John pulls the divine dictionary from the shelf, turns to the proper page, and puts his finger on the word love. “In this,” he says. And what is written there? It is God's heart for his people expressed through the sending of his Son. "God loved us and sent his Son." To look upon Jesus is to see the Father’s heart and to see the Father’s heart is to behold the wellspring of true love.

Well how is it that the sending of his Son expresses divine and authentic love? It is that his love pursues the loveless. “Not that we have loved God.” The expression of his love was not calculated according to those he sought because it sprung forth from his very own heart. Love, therefore, says John, cannot be understood until we realize it is a thing we must first receive. We must see its stream flowing down from the heart of heaven in Christ, pursuing us in our cold and loveless state.

Yet we may also say that as we look at his Son, we see that true love is God providing for the sinner. Not only does Jesus enter a loveless world, but this loveless world despised and rejected him all the way to the cross. Yet the love of God triumphed, for God in his infinite wisdom and power took that which was the grossest display of human lovelessness and turned it to the grandest exhibition of his love. So behold the Son whom he sent, beloved. For in this is love, God in Christ pursuing and providing for the loveless, whom he loves.

Here the great apostle Paul petitions his brother Philemon on behalf of his brother Onesimus. Apparently, as a runaway slave, Onesimus had wronged Philemon and in so doing had incurred a great debt to him. From a human perspective, forgiveness and reconciliation between these two men seemed highly unlikely. Yet the providential grace of God was on the move. God so orchestrated the lives of these two men that they came to share in a common relational denominator, a gospel preacher named Paul.

Paul knew that if Philemon was going to receive Onesimus back with a no-strings-attached forgiveness, if he was going to be willing to forgo his right to demand repayment of his debts, he would need to be reminded of the beautiful truth of the gospel he had first received from Paul, the same truth of which Onesimus had himself now received. So with great pastoral wisdom and care, Paul puts the gospel on display before Philemon by willingly standing in the gap between these two men with a plea and a promise. He appeals to him by saying, "Receive him as you would receive me." How would Philemon have received Paul? According to Paul, Philemon owed him his very life, so every reception of Paul would, for Philemon, become an opportunity to roll out the red carpet of gratitude with extravagant rejoicing and generous hospitality. And he also makes a promise: “Take all of his wrongs and debts and charge that to my account!” What sort of account did Paul have with Philemon? Because of his role in leading him to Christ, Paul had with Philemon a credit account with no limits; a debit account that could never overdraft. 

And so says Paul, you Philemon who may be tempted to struggle with forgiveness and reconciliation, remember what it is that you have in Christ. You have received a welcome reception before your heavenly Father as if you were the Son of God himself. And you have seen the record of your debt of sin charged to the account of another. How then can you withhold freely bestowing forgiveness and offering reconciliation? For such is the power of divine grace at work in human forgiveness and reconciliation.

What a desperate and exasperated cry from the heart of the man sitting upon the pinnacle peak of worldly gain! Here is a man that is on the highest summit. He has every attainment known to man at the disposal of his fingertips. He is a man without barriers or hindrances. He comes and goes as he pleases, and the world is to him an unending buffet of temporal indulgences. Yet he appears to have recently received a crushing epiphany that has utterly altered the way in which he assesses his own life’s work and status. “Vanity,” he says. “All is vanity.” 

It is a great mercy of God when worldly success is exposed for what it truly is, temporal and fleeting. It is a mercy because this is not how the world first appears to our natural eye. Apart from the Spirit's work, we see the world as glittering with promises, offering hope and comfort to our weary and insecure souls. We long for relief from the brokenness of our fallen existence and are easily persuaded to believe that creation and created things hold the ultimate answers. And so, like Solomon, we fix our gaze upon those things which are “under the sun,” and with frenzied energy, we set about toiling with all our might to gain that which has charmed us most.

But wisdom cries out from “the Preacher” who had it all. True and lasting profit is unattainable in created things. Eventually, everyone loses everything. And so blessed is the man who discovers the shocking truth that all earthly gain will vanish like a mirage at the end of our lives. It is then, and only then, that he will begin to look for a gain that is “beyond the sun.” And if he seeks with the eye of faith, he will discover a Treasure whose worth far surpasses the value of the entire world combined!

The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ offers an extravagant promise of life to those who meet its one condition—"look and live!" The one condition that must be met if abundant and eternal life would be ours is that we look. And what a desperate need for a saving look the people of God had in the wilderness! Though their Redeemer had delivered them from Egypt, their sin-bitten hearts had pumped the poison of impatient pride through their veins and their spiritual necks had grown stiff. God's judgment came against them in the form of fiery serpents whose bite brought the sting of death, but also produced a softening effect that prepared them to experience His mercy and grace. Moses set a bronze serpent on a pole, as God had instructed, and lifted it up among God's people. In the midst of his judgment against their sinful complaining and dissatisfaction, God provided an object of his promise that would cure their venomous disease under one condition—those who had been bitten must “look and live.”

So too, we are called to a life of looking and living, beloved! Apart from faith-filled looking, the poison of sinful pride courses like a noxious weed through every thread of our lives. Apart from faith-filled looking, we grow impatient against God, and our lips raise complaints against him and his messengers whom he graciously sends to us. And apart from faith-filled looking, we find ourselves trading away the eternal comfort that only our Redeemer can give in exchange for the death-producing relief that slavery to sin temporarily promises. We who have been bitten by the fangs of sin and death need a faith-filled look toward the object of God’s promise of life.

And what an object we have to behold in the cross of Christ! Where else could we look that would silence our bitter complaining? Where else could we look and be convinced that God's provision alone can satisfy? And where else could we look to know for certain that death has died? The great promises of the gospel are available to you if you would but "look and live!"

The true nature of the saving gospel message of Christ is to be rediscovered by the Christian over and over again. The Apostle Paul here exhorts us to take up a great tool by which this rediscovery can happen. We must consider our calling. We must contemplate upon the personal state we were in when the glorious grace of God came upon our lives with a great flood of divine mercy. When we first heard the glad tidings of the gospel trumpet, when the good Shepherd's voice called us by name, we lacked those certain standards by which worldly men measure one another. Not many of us were holding positions of academic prestige when the cross of Christ first captivated us. Not many of us were being treated with the privileges of a VIP status when we felt our desperate need for the Lord. Not many of us were destined to inherit a birthright of worldly nobility when the rich inheritance of Christ first appealed to our hearts.

Yet it has been the electing wisdom of God throughout the history of the ages that he should look upon the fools and the weaklings of this world, the lowly and despised, to be his set apart people. The Lord chooses his own not according to the measurements of men, but of his own free and gracious will. The pride of men is put to shame when that which he finds most impressive is revealed to be eternally bankrupt. In the gospel of the cross of Christ, our great humiliation must be that all of our trophies of entitlement, that the world confers and celebrates, is brought to nothing in the priceless presence of God's electing grace.

Where then is your assurance and security, brothers and sisters? What are your papers of qualification? What have you brought to offer in the presence of God? It is only this: you are in Christ Jesus! Do not be troubled if you are despised and overlooked by carnal men and do not become blindly drunk if they massage your ego. Consider your calling and you will find an all-satisfying desire to boast only in the Lord.

There is no evidence that is more convincing that someone has saving faith than love for Jesus Christ. Only real, Spirit-empowered faith can lift the sinner's heart to such a cosmic height. All true faith finds its pinnacle when the heart finds Jesus Christ to be more desirable than all the riches of the world combined. Just as a mountain climber seeks the stunning view of the peak, so it is the aim of the Spirit of God to take us, through the instrument of faith, to behold the wondrous excellencies of Him who is our salvation. And we will know that the climb of faith is over when we sense an overflowing love for Jesus.

Yet we know that the great challenge of faith is that we must receive Something to be true of which our physical eyes have not yet seen. How can we love a person whose physical presence we have yet to enjoy? God in his wisdom has so designed the world that he is to be known in the person of his Son by faith.  Beloved, there is more to reality than what our five natural and human senses can comprehend. 

This is the unique relationship we are called to enjoy that is unlike any other relationship we will ever have. The great and many promises of the gospel must be received by faith. To know Jesus Christ is to believe in him and to believe in him is to love him, for all the fullness of his loveliness is found in his saving of our souls. What keeps you this day from having inexpressible and glory-filled joy? Today is an excellent day to exercise your faith in him! For a day is quickly coming when faith will have its final outcome and we will see by sight him whom we now believe in by faith.

What a hopeful scene! Is this not the end to which all earthly faith looks to and longs for, that moment when all the redeemed are gathered together around the Lamb and His throne? With great anticipation believers long for this day! But our attention is drawn here not just to the gathering, but to the size of those numbered among the gathered. They are “myriads of myriads” and “thousands of thousands,” a great sea of people to be seen and heard around the everlasting throne. It is no easy task for government leaders to accurately number their citizens for a national census, but we may be very sure that the One who sits upon the throne gazes among the innumerable faces, delighting in their collective voice, and has each and every one numbered in His heart. He has no need of counting the gathered number for He has already engraved their names upon His hands and written them by His blood in His book of life. What more could we desire than to be counted by the Savior as His very own?

But see also that they have gathered around the throne to sing. With hearts of flesh that are filled with the Spirit of Christ they sing the song of the redeemed, a song whose central theme is the worthiness of the slain Lamb. In this life men will often covet when people gather to celebrate another's worthy accomplishments. His heart will whisper to him of his own merit and a jealous lust for the praise of men will seek to devour him. Praise God it will not be so at the coronation of our King! Every heart among the numbered, with eyes beholding our sin-bearing Sacrifice, will be so enthralled by the incomparable weight of this glorious sight that not a single one among them will doubt that the Lamb alone is deserving of such a reception. All envious appetites for acknowledgement and all self-flattering murmurs of the heart will at once seem ill-founded and frivolous. For who can lay claim to honor before Him who is always just and true and gracious? Or who might flaunt their beauty before Him who attracts the nations by His majesty? And who can boast of strength before Him who holds universes together by the power of His word? Let us then turn our faces unto the Lamb and add our voices to the myriad who sing of His unrivaled and everlasting worth!

The great sign of which our Savior displayed his saving power was the sign of Jonah. You’ll remember that it was upon Jonah's sin that the LORD hurled a great wind and a mighty tempest. It was the LORD’s judgment that threatened to break the ship. It was while Jonah was sleeping in the inner part of the ship that the captain implored all of the men to cry out to their own gods. It was on Jonah whom the lot fell. It was Jonah who was hurled into the sea that caused the raging to cease. It was Jonah who was in the belly of the great fish for three days and nights. It was Jonah who was vomited out upon the dry land. And it was through Jonah's preaching that the pagan nations repented and came to know the mercy and grace of God.

When our Savior was upon the earth, unbelieving hearts were unimpressed by his humble countenance and demanded, "Perform a powerful sign and then we will believe." Yet the one sign that Jesus came to give was the one sign that those puffed with pride can’t bear to receive. The proud want a sign that keeps their sin far from the presence of God, but only the sign of Jonah confronts our waywardness with the fierceness of its consequences. The proud want a sign that is not personally disruptive, but only the sign of Jonah threatens to break up all securities we have apart from Christ. The proud would receive a sign from any god who might deliver them from temporarily perishing, but only the sign of Jonah can deliver unto eternal life. The proud try to row themselves out from beneath God's judgment, but only the sign of Jonah can be hurled into the sea to cease its raging. The proud believe they can attain life, but only the sign of Jonah is able to defeat death. The proud care little of the fate of the nations, but only the sign of Jonah pursues them with a merciful and gracious heart. 

Let us then with humbled hearts receive from God the one sign we have been given, the sign of Jonah, and then proclaim among the nations, “Something greater than Jonah is here.”