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Colin Smith: The more I think about the mystery of God's saving work in my life, the more staggering it gets. And I find just an increasing sense as I think about these things of worship welling up inside and saying, "Salvation comes from the Lord." It's helped me more than anything else in deepening worship.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you can join us as today we wrap up our series on Jonah and Colin, a great topic for us to be drilling down on today, that salvation comes from the Lord.

Colin Smith: Yes, and that lifts us to worship and it motivates more than anything else that I know, prayer, and it motivates evangelism. This is a great message today. If you have a loved one who is far from God and you may have been praying for them for some years and they show not the slightest interest in the things of Jesus Christ and you're anxious for them, and you say, "Well, what hope is there?

If I'm looking at their free will, well, their free will seems already to be made up. They've made their decision, they're going the wrong way. Where is their hope?" Well, here's where there's hope: salvation comes from the Lord. And God doesn't need a person's permission before he steps into their life. And I think that's the great hope of the gospel and the hope of every person who prays and who engages in evangelism.

Steve Hiller: Well, we're going to dig a little bit deeper into that. I hope that you'll grab your Bible and join us in the book of Jonah, chapter 2, and verse 9 as we continue our message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: I find it helpful to see that the Bible speaks about salvation in three tenses. I hope you'll find this helpful. The Bible speaks about salvation first as a completed transaction. Ephesians 2:8, "it is by grace that you have been saved," completed transaction, "through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

But the Bible speaks about salvation also as a continuing process. For example, 1 Corinthians 1:18, "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." So clearly here, salvation is a continuing process. My salvation has begun, but it is not yet complete.

I am not yet, you are not yet what we will be. We struggle with the flesh, we fail in many ways, yet we are not who we were. Salvation thirdly is a future hope. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 5, "You who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."

So now salvation is something that's still to happen. It's future, it's for the last time. And again, our hope of future salvation comes from the Lord, because our future salvation lies here. Paul says, "The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command and with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God. The dead in Christ will rise first."

And when we are brought into the presence of the Lord, we are caught up to meet him in the air, and then we'll be with him forever. Revelation tells us what happens. "God will make his dwelling with men. God will wipe all tears from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or sorrow or pain."

Why? Because God says, "I am making everything new." So our future salvation comes from where? It comes from the Lord, from his coming and from his new creation. And the future tense of our salvation, the Bible often calls glorification.

So if you want to think how to relate these words together, salvation comes from the Lord: past, present, future; justification, sanctification, glorification, salvation in three tenses, and it all comes from the Lord. Now that's the teaching of Jonah chapter 2 and verse 9.

Now I want for the rest of our time to focus in on just one very critical and most important question and it's this: how does this help us? What difference does it make to know that salvation comes from the Lord? And I want to speak for a few moments, perhaps a little more personally than I do at other times, and I hope that that will be helpful.

But the reason for doing that is that I was a Christian for about 20 years before I really came to appreciate the truth that Jonah saw so clearly. And I have to tell you honestly that it has been for me one of the most life-transforming truths. Since about 20, 25 years ago, it dawned into my own soul in a fresh way, and it has helped me so much that I covet that many would share the same help and joy, and know already that many do.

But here is how it has helped me to know that salvation comes from the Lord. And I've isolated three ways, and they run very deep because they go to core issues in a Christian's life. Number one, grasping more clearly that salvation comes from the Lord, more than anything else has helped in my experience to deepen my own worship.

It really has, and I hope that this might help you in the same way. Let me try and put it to you this way: it is a good thing to know that God is love. It is a greater thing to know that God loves me. Big difference. I am moved to know that Jesus died on the cross for sinners. I am more deeply moved to know that Jesus died on the cross for me.

And that is the language of the Bible. If you think about Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, the apostle Paul says, "The son of God loved me and gave himself for me." It's very personal. That's the language of the Bible. It's not, he died generically out there for people in a general sense. Paul says, "No, I've understood this, that the Lord Jesus died specifically, pointedly for me."

In other words, when Jesus came into the world and when he died on the cross, he did more than provide a way of salvation for people in general. I find it helpful to think of it this way: that when Jesus came into the world and when he died on the cross, he came to save people with names and faces. And here's where my own heart just gets lifted in amazement and wonder: one of them was me.

When he was born, he lay in that manger for me. When he died on the cross, he hung there for me. When he carried sin, there were sins that I can think about in my own life that he carried for me. And when he entered hell, that I cannot even begin to imagine, he took hell and entered hell for me, my hell.

I tell you, the more I think about the mystery of God's saving work in my life, the more staggering it gets. And I find just an increasing sense as I think about these things of worship welling up inside and saying, "Salvation comes from the Lord." It's helped me more than anything else in deepening worship.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the final message in our series, "How to Avoid a God-Centered Life," a series where we've been taking a look at the life and the story of Jonah. And if you missed any of the broadcasts in this series, you can always come and listen online at openthebible.org, or you can order the entire series on CD.

Ask about "How to Avoid a God-Centered Life" when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. Or you'll find ordering information online at openthebible.org. Back to the message, here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Here's the second way in which it's helped me, and this goes very deep as well, and I hope it might be a particular help to some this morning. It has helped me so much in strengthening my assurance, in other words, my confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ with regards to final salvation. And here's why it has been so helpful to me.

See, if my salvation boils down to my decision to follow Jesus, if ultimately that's really what it's about, if it boils down to my decision to follow Jesus, how in all the world do I know I can keep that up? If my salvation boils down to my decision to follow Jesus, frankly, the best I can do is to say, "Lord, I'll do the best I can to keep it up. I'll give it my best shot." Thank God my salvation doesn't depend on my best shot. Don't you agree with that?

So I find such assurance in being able to say with Jonah, "Salvation comes from the Lord." Because if God is saving me, really think about it, if God is saving me, I can trust God to keep me. Let me just read these words, some of you will know them well, written by Augustus Toplady. Died at the age of 38 and wrote these amazing words:

"The work which His goodness began, the arm of His strength will complete." He's talking about his salvation. "For His promise is 'yes' and 'amen,' and it never was forfeited yet. Things future, whatever the future holds, nor things that are now, nor all things below or above, can make Him His purpose forego."

If He's determined to save me, He's never going to drop on His purpose and nothing will sever my soul from His love. And then this is so beautiful: "My name from the palms of His hands eternity cannot erase." See what he's saying? If it's really true that Jesus bore my sins on Calvary, he came into the world to redeem me, if that's really true, then how could he ever let go?

How could that hand let go of one for whom that hand was pierced? "Eternity won't erase my name from the palm of His hand, no, impressed on His own heart it remains in marks of indelible grace." And then he says, "Yes, I to the end shall endure, for as sure as the earnest, the first down payment is given, more happy but not more secure the glorified spirits in heaven."

See what he's saying? The Lord Jesus who died to save you, lives to keep you, and he will never let you go. You see how assurance flows from being able to say with conviction with Jonah, "Salvation comes from the Lord! God saves."

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message entitled, "Reduce God's Salvation by Crediting Your Response." And I love that challenge that Pastor Colin gave us just a little bit ago, to get your eyes off yourself and your own inability to change, get your eyes fixed on the Lord and His ability to save.

Our message today is the final in our series, "How to Avoid a God-Centered Life," where we've been taking a look at the life of Jonah. And if you missed any of the broadcasts in our series, you can listen online at openthebible.org. Well, Open the Bible is able to be on this station, make the podcast, the app, and all the ministry tools available because of your generosity.

And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we'd love to send you a copy of Martyn Lloyd-Jones's book called *Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure*. And Colin, who is Martyn Lloyd-Jones and why should we read this book?

Colin Smith: Well, Martyn Lloyd-Jones is one of my favorite preachers and writers of all time. By wide consensus, he was one of the greatest preachers in the 20th century. He's with the Lord now, but we have the legacy of his writings that are certainly among my treasured possessions. *Spiritual Depression* is his best book. It's my favorite book of all the many that he wrote.

I'm actually on my third copy of this now, Steve. I bought my first copy in 1976, the year I went to college, and I'm on my third copy now because the first two are just about falling apart. And so I'm delighted that we're able to offer a new edition of *Spiritual Depression*. It really is a spiritual classic.

Lloyd-Jones was a medical doctor in London, and a prestigious medical doctor, very successful in London, before he became a pastor. But he felt the calling of God into Christian ministry and became an expositor of the word of God. But you can see the way in which he uses his background as a medical doctor, applying skills of diagnosis and prescription.

So the subtitle here, *The Causes and Cure of Spiritual Depression*, and chapter after chapter he just goes through one cause after another for darkness and discouragement that comes into the experience of a Christian believer. So I think folks will find as you read through this that sometimes you'll say, "Well, that's something I recognize but it's not where I'm at now."

You keep reading and then you get to a place where you say, "Oh, that's exactly where I am now and he has diagnosed that precisely. Now what's he going to say about the cure?" It's a wonderfully, wonderfully encouraging book and there's a reason why I've been going back to it for more than 40 years and will continue to do so.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you a copy of this book, *Spiritual Depression*, as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or you can call 1-877-673-6365. It might be easier to remember as 1-877-OPEN-365, or visit the website openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.

Guest (Male): This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible. At Open the Bible, we're grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the gospel around the world. And to that end, I'd like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints.

You know, in the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress. That's a clear command, but it's not always clear how we should obey it. And this is where Global Fingerprints comes in. Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you. They're focused on equipping the local church to care for children, and where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you'd like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website openthebible.org/gf. That's openthebible.org/gf.