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[0:00] Jonah chapter 2 verse 9, in part it says, Salvation is of the Lord. You can picture Jonah coming out of the whale's belly.! Just before he was evacuated from the whale, he said, Salvation is of the Lord.

[0:18] He realised his great need, his great want of salvation. A number of things about salvation. Firstly, to think about our need, our great need of salvation.

[0:29] Firstly, we've got a great need of a sacrifice because of the guilt of our sins, because of our great condemnation that we've transgressed God's law and we deserve condemnation.

[0:42] There's a great need for sacrifice. We see there's a great need for propitiation. Now propitiation means that we're under the wrath of God, under his anger, his holy anger.

[0:53] And his eternal condemnation, his wrath is upon us. And we've got a great need for that anger to be propitiated, to be satisfied. Thirdly, we see there's a great need for reconciliation that arises from our alienation from God.

[1:11] We're alienated, we're separated from God. And reconciliation is our great need, to be rejoined with God. For that enmity on our side and from that indignation on God's side to be resolved and a reconciliation to happen.

[1:28] And fourthly, our great need for redemption. Another great Bible word. Redemption is born of our bondage to sin, of our bondage to Satan, and our bondage to God's justice system that we're guilty.

[1:43] We're bound in custody, awaiting punishment. We've got a great need of redemption. And redemption really is the picture of the slave market and of slaves being redeemed, purchased, bought by a person who frees them and brings liberty.

[1:59] That's the picture there of redemption. So the question is, who does salvation come from? We see in that first one, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord.

[2:12] It says in 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, Who have saved us? Talking of the Saviour. Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according to our own works, but according to His own purpose and grace.

[2:26] Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He saves. He is the one who saves. It's not our work, it's His work.

[2:37] He has saved us. And it's not of works of righteousness that we have done. It says in Titus 3 verse 5, Not according to our righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy.

[2:49] He saved us. There's that phrase again. He saved us. Salvation is the work of Almighty God. Matthew 1 verse 21, it tells us of the Saviour who came.

[3:01] It says of the Lord Jesus, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, For He shall save His people from their sins. We need a Saviour from our sin. A Saviour from our condemnation.

[3:14] And He is that one. He saves us from our sin. He gives us great deliverance. Great liberty. And we need the Saviour. We need Him so much. So greatly. His grace brings salvation.

[3:26] In Titus 2 verse 11 it says, That the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. He saves. And we can just grasp that simple truth.

[3:36] That salvation is of the Lord. It's by His work. It's by His grace. And another Bible word is substitution. Substitution. It means another has been substituted.

[3:50] Has taken our very place. In 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 it tells us, For He, God, hath made Him, Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin.

[4:02] That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He has made Him sin who knew no sin. That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

[4:14] It's the word substitution. It means another person has been put in our place. An innocent victim has given his life for the guilty. We see that right through the word of God from Genesis.

[4:27] Right back in Genesis 3 verse 21. God killed the animals as a covering to clothe Adam and Eve. In Genesis 22, a ram was the sacrifice for Isaac.

[4:41] In Exodus 12, the Passover lamb was the sacrifice, the substitute, slain for each Jewish household. And then in Isaiah 53, we see pictured for us the great lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

[4:57] The one, the innocent suffering lamb. The innocent lamb as we can picture it. The one perfectly innocent who was the one who had to bear our punishment for our sin.

[5:12] Another Bible word is redemption. It means a payment for sin. Mark 10 verse 45. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life.

[5:26] To give his life a ransom for many. Redemption is a payment of a price. A payment for a price for a slave to be set free from their bonds.

[5:38] To be set free by the one who has bought him and set at liberty. And it's also got a picture of being released from the power of someone else to buy back or deliver from a situation where one is powerless to liberate themselves.

[5:54] Or for which the penalty was so costly that they could never hope to pay the ransom price. At this time of the world, there were six million slaves.

[6:06] Approximately six million slaves in the Roman Empire. And buying and selling them was a big business of the day. And if a person wanted to free someone who was a slave, they had to go to the slave market and bid for them.

[6:20] And pay the redemption price to purchase them or redeem them. To redeem that slave for themselves and grant them freedom. And they did so by deliverance of a written certificate.

[6:32] That's the actual meaning of the word redemption. What it signifies. Another Bible word is justification. You think about a courtroom situation.

[6:43] This is a legal word. It means legal acquittal. It means, as I said, where the judge strikes the gavel, as it were, on the judgment bar and says that we are justified.

[6:56] We are declared to be free of guilt. It says in Romans 3 verse 24, being justified freely by his grace.

[7:08] Justified freely through his grace. And he is the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. It goes on. Justifying. Here's a declaration. It's a declaration that comes from the mouth of the judge.

[7:22] A judgment of a Roman forum is the significance of the sense of this word. It's a forensic word. A word that is in the law courts. It signifies acquittal, vindication, acceptance before the judgment seat.

[7:37] It's a wonderful legal word that God has declared that you are just. That you are justified. Isn't that wonderful, Jim? Jim's a just man today because God has declared him just.

[7:50] Julie is justified. Justified. Justified. Justified. By the grace of Almighty God. Freely. By his grace. God has declared a verdict.

[8:01] A verdict has been declared that you are righteous. That you are without guilt because of what he has done on our behalf. It's a verdict. A pronunciation.

[8:12] A pronouncement. It is God's word for you. God has declared that you are just. A verdict of pardon has been made. That's what justification means. And moving on to another Bible word.

[8:25] Propitiation. Propitiation. Another big Bible word. Propitiation. What does it mean? It means that God's wrath has been satisfied. As we can pray, we can get through to God.

[8:37] There's forgiveness now as we pray and receive. Because God's wrath, God's anger against our sin has been dealt with. It's been satisfied. The punishment has been fully borne.

[8:48] And Christ bare it for us on the cross. It's what happened really between God the Father and Christ the Son at the cross. An atoning sacrifice was made. As Christ bled and died, he satisfied or appeased the anger, the wrath of God.

[9:03] Friends, today, the world's main problem. It's not the climate change. The real problem of the world today is sin. Yeah, you've got it. Sin. Our world's main problem is sin.

[9:16] It stains every life. It disturbs every relationship. It brings suffering, war, death, and ultimately hell. Sin. Sin. It brings misery.

[9:28] And makes us children of wrath, the Bible says. We're enslaved to sin. We're under its lordship. We're under its domination. Sin renders us unable to love God, to please Him.

[9:39] Sin is lawlessness. According to 1 John 3, verse 4. It's a violation of God's law. God's holy. And He will punish sin.

[9:50] He must. And unrepentant souls, it says, they're storing up wrath. They're accumulating it. They're storing it up for the day of wrath. That's Romans 2, verses 5-6.

[10:03] Those who do not repent will come under God's just punishment. Under God's wrath. And that's why we must flee to Christ.

[10:14] We must repent and come to Him for forgiveness. And then we can be released from that wrath. God's opened the way that no one may endure that. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished.

[10:26] He must punish sin. That's Psalm 7, verse 11. And it says He is angry with the wicked every day. But thank God He's provided a way of escape from that anger.

[10:37] From that hopeless state. From that hopelessness of being under His condemnation. And it says 1 John 2, verse 2. And He, Christ, is the propitiation.

[10:49] Isn't that wonderful? That the Lord Jesus, He is the propitiation. He is the one who satisfies God's anger. He is the one who's appeased that wrath of God. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

[11:03] And 1 John 4, it says, Herein is love not that we love God, but that He loved us. And He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

[11:15] That same word. That propitiation, it means satisfied. The anger of God has been satisfied and appeased. God is no longer angry with you. Isn't that great?

[11:26] He loves you. And He welcomes you into His family with open arms. His anger has already been resolved. It's been taken by Christ and His punishment on our behalf.

[11:37] And it's the same word used when you have the two men who went up to the temple to pray. One was there, a proud and pompous Pharisee. And was bragging on all the things that he had done and how good he was.

[11:49] And looking at the other man saying, Oh, he's a lousy sinner, this tax collector. But the tax collector, the humble man, he was there just beating his breast.

[12:00] God be merciful to me, the sinner. God be merciful to me, a sinner. And that word merciful is the same word, propitiation. It means there's mercy.

[12:11] And thank God there is mercy today. There is propitiation. God is merciful and kind and forgiving to us because of what He has done. He's taken away God's anger at the cross.

[12:22] Another Bible word is reconciliation. A reconciliation means that the enmity, the hatred has been removed. In Romans 5.10, it tells us for, If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

[12:43] But reconciliation, isn't that wonderful? It means that you are joined with God and God is joined with you. There's no more separation. There's no more distance. There's no more barrier between you and God.

[12:55] You're close. You're hand in hand with Almighty God because of the work of Christ. The finished work of the cross has a threefold aspect. We can think about propitiation, the wrath of God.

[13:10] So God work. From God's perspective, the wrath of God, the anger of God has been dealt with. The cross dealt with the anger of God against our sin. The wrath of God is no longer against you.

[13:23] Then the next aspect is redemption. Our enslavement by sin. We're enslaved and entrapped by sin. Every man is born in sin.

[13:34] Born sinful. This deals with the sinward aspect. The sinward aspect. Christ dealt with sin at the cross. And redemption is there. It means that you can be made free, liberated, no longer a slave, no longer trapped, no longer behind prison bars, trapped and chained in sin.

[13:54] The door is open for you. Redemption, freedom, liberty has been purchased for you by Christ's work. And thirdly, we're seeing the reconciliation there. The manward work of the cross.

[14:06] The work of Christ, the finished work of Christ, directly relates to our relationship with God. And it means that there's a complete change that happens.

[14:16] It's the act of God that brings man into a completely changed relationship. So we're taken from that sin into a wonderful relationship, into a wonderful fellowship. We're taken from that hostility and hatred to friendship and harmony and closeness with God.

[14:35] That's what reconciliation pictures. Christ took our place. He was the sacrifice. He was the atonement for our sins. He died in your place and mine. He suffered as your substitute to compensate for our guilt, our punishment, our sin.

[14:53] It was covered. God is angry and fairly so and rightfully so in holy wrath against our sin. Sin is a danger to all creation and the wrath of God is against us.

[15:06] God will judge and punish us or break his law unless they accept the atonement. It's about accepting what Christ has done. It's about accepting that finished work.

[15:18] And Christ said, it is finished. Everything that had to be done was done and finished. A done deal. It was done and dusted. Completely done. Everything that had to be done was done.

[15:31] Paid in full. And all we have to do is receive that work on our behalf. The guilt of the sinner can be removed and we can have that reconciliation with God.

[15:42] Adoption is another truth. Ephesians 1 verse 5 says that having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

[15:58] That's what God has done. You're adopted into God's family. As a Christian, your father has changed. You're no longer a child of the devil and in his kingdom and reign and rule and bondage, you're in the liberty and freedom and family of the father, God the father.

[16:19] And you're counted his son, his daughter. Adopted. Isn't that wonderful to have that adoption? To know that you belong, that you belong to the eternal heavenly father.

[16:30] You belong to God Almighty as his cherished son and daughter, his child. That can be your experience and it's according to the good pleasure of his will.

[16:43] Another Bible verse tells us of regeneration, the truth of regeneration. It tells us in John 1 verse 13, telling us of those that as many as received him, to them gave him power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name.

[17:02] And verse 13, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Born of God.

[17:13] Regeneration. Regeneration. It's like, as you can picture a butterfly, a new creature. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.

[17:26] Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Regeneration means you get a brand new star, a brand new heart, an eternal life, brand new, forever.

[17:36] And another truth is, not only does he save us, but he secures us. He secures us. He holds us safe and secure.

[17:48] It says of God's people who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

[17:59] You're secure and safe and held and kept in the hands of God. And it says of the Lord's work in Jude 1, Now unto him that he's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

[18:17] He is able to keep you. And he assures us of that. Not only does he save, but he secures. And also, he sanctifies.

[18:29] He sanctifies. There's a wonderful sense that you've got a new position. You've got a new status. A new standing. No longer are you counted lost and guilty.

[18:42] You're counted a saint, a son, a member of God's family. And there's a wonderful change of position that you've been set apart for God. And with sanctification, there is that positional sanctification that you're counted holy.

[18:58] And there's also that practical sanctification that should live out in our lives as a process thing. But we know that Christ is our sanctification. It says in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30, it says, Christ is, amongst other things, Christ is made unto us sanctification.

[19:16] He's made unto us your holiness is Christ. And Hebrews 10 verse 14, it says, For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He's perfected you forever.

[19:28] That's Hebrews 10 verse 14. So the question for every one of us is, On what does our salvation depend? Look at this little baby in the parents' hands.

[19:39] We are totally dependent. It's not just that little baby pictures for us. On what does our salvation depend? It depends upon Christ and his work for us.

[19:50] It's holy of God. Not depending on ourselves. It's not something that we can depend on ourselves for. We cannot rely on our own works.

[20:02] It must be God's work entirely and truly. God's finished work. God's grace. God's salvation. Upon which we're utterly dependent. And so we can say glory to God.

[20:14] Glory to God. The reformers of old had a number of sayings. Five sayings here listed. And it's really doctrinal truth about salvation.

[20:29] And about the work of God. And they used these five Latin words. And we'll give the English equivalents. This is what the reformers of old had as their statement of faith.

[20:41] Their stand of doctrine. Christ alone. Christ alone. Christ alone. Christ alone. Christ alone. As our saviour and lord. Secondly, scripture alone.

[20:51] Not tradition. Not writings of men. Not practices that are man made. But scripture alone. The Bible alone. Must be our guide and stand our rule of faith and conduct.

[21:04] Thirdly, grace alone. Grace alone. Grace. It's by God's grace. God's grace saves. And our response. Faith. Faith alone.

[21:15] Our trust in Christ. Our reception. By our hearts crying. In receiving his gift. Faith alone. And fifthly, glory to God alone.

[21:26] Glory to God alone. Because God is the saviour. He is the saviour of the world. He saves. He secures. He sanctifies. It's all his work. His finished work.

[21:37] And our simple response is our simple reception of that wonderful gift of his eternal life. That wonderful grasping of what he has done on our behalf for us.

[21:48] Let us pray. Lord, we thank you that you are the saviour of the world. You are the one to whom we can flee from the wrath to come. We know that we can find shelter. And we can find peace and freedom.

[22:01] Salvation. Lord, you declare us just. You declare us set free. And Lord, you help us to live in that walk of holiness. You help us, Lord. You secure us.

[22:12] And give us a state of peace and quiet, of trust. That we can know for sure that we have a home forever in your family. Lord, we thank you for that.

[22:23] By grace we are saved through faith. It's not of ourselves, lest any man should boast. We want to give you all the glory, Lord God. And Lord, if there's any present, any hearing just now that know you're not.

[22:34] They'll put their trust squailing totally upon you as their saviour. And Lord, they're only sacrificed for their sin. That they can trust and receive and be saved.

[22:46] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.