OK, turn in your Bibles to the
Book of Jonah. We are going to have a brief
look at Jonah 2 this morning. We hear a lot about men's free
will, men's choices, men's rights in the world. It seems that even
our children are being taught at the moment that it doesn't
matter what they are born, they can choose whatever sex they
want to be. It doesn't help that the religious
world continues to encourage that same sort of thinking. They
speak of free will in regard to salvation. They speak of having
the right before God to determine their own lives. In a sense they
invert the whole thing, so that they dethrone God and they elevate
men. They puff men up into a position
of being God themselves. It's as far from the truth as
the East is from the West. We are born into this world in
bondage and sin. We are born of and into corruption. Ephesians 2 makes it clear we
are dead in our sins and transgressions and we are by nature children
of wrath just like everyone else. Romans 6 makes it clear that
we are born into this world actually as slaves of sin. And we've been enslaved to Satan
since we walked out of the Garden of Eden in our Father Adam. In regard to salvation, men need
saving. And there is only one truth about
that salvation, and that is that it's found in Christ and Him
crucified. We need to be saved. and we need
to be sustained. Our lives, the lives of God's
children, are a testimony to His faithfulness in our sanctification. We all know the story of Jonah. He was commanded by the Lord
to cry against Nineveh. I don't know if we all know,
but Nineveh was the capital city of the superpower at the time,
and they were enemies of Israel. Many judged Jonah, and in a sense
rightly so, but we can understand with that gravity Jonah's response. He fled from the Lord. We know
that he got into a boat and just happened to be there. We just
need to be careful about providence, considering providence as a way
of escaping the Lord or contradicting His Word. But it really was a
ship of providence, just not the way Jonah thought naturally,
not the way the world thinks, but we'll see. It really was
a ship of providence. So he was cast into the sea eventually. as a result. And we need to remember
that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ for His people began in
eternity in the everlasting covenant. And in spite of what our life
looks like, in spite of what we look like, that grace has
continued and will continue for eternity. Jonah was cast into
the sea, and again this is another good example, I guess, where
the seas used to remind us of the tossing and
throwing of the world under the consequences of sin. It's not
the only place that's used and in a sense it is used here in
a spiritual view of a circumstance. I want to begin in verse 17 of
chapter 1 because we're reminded there
that no matter where we go, the Lord is with His people, just
like in Psalm 139. Chapter 1 verse 17, Now the Lord
had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was
in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. It's a great picture of our Saviour
and us in Him. It's a great picture of his time
in the grave and our time in the grave in him. And it's a
great reminder that when he was raised in victory, we were raised
in him. So chapter 2 begins, Then, after
Noah had been cast into the consequences of his sin, After he had been
overwhelmed with the consequences of his sin, then Jonah prayed
unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. And he said, I cried by reason
of my afflictions. If anyone thinks God's not sovereign
and working for the good of his people in the greatest of our
afflictions, they need to go back and read the Bible. It was
those afflictions sent from God which drove Jonah back to the
Lord and back to prayer. I cried by reason of mine affliction
unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly of hell. See, there is a historical perspective
here, but there's also a spiritual perspective. I want to really
encourage everyone. I studied this and I preached
on it about four years ago. And I was really thorough and
I looked at a lot of commentaries and I listened to a number of
sermons and spent a lot of time in it and had a lot of discussions
with Angus over it. I read this the other day and
there's just so much more to it. Please, even if you know
a passage, go back and read it and ask the Lord to continue
to open your understanding. His Word is infinitely deep. and it's living and active and
applicable for every moment of your life. Out of the belly of hell, he
cried, and thou heardest my voice, for thou had cast me into the
deep. It's amazing, isn't it? Jonah
was cast into the deep and his whole process was about running
away from the Lord. And yet the truth is the Lord
was driving him to exactly where he wanted him. For thou hast
cast me into the deep, in the midst of the sea, the sea of
the world and the consequences of sin, and the floods compassed
me about." He was overwhelmed. We are overwhelmed when we fall,
when we fire, and when this world is too much for us. But it's come from the sovereign
hand of God, hasn't it? All thy billows, it's God's doing,
it's God's seed. It may seem like chaos to us,
but it's well in control under the hand of a sovereign God.
Thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight. It's interesting, isn't it, that
The big issue, when all the other issues get whittled down, the
big issue for a Christian is the presence of God, the desperate
desire for communion with the Lord. That's the big issue. I'm
cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. Just like Peter and John 6 we
heard last week. Where else do the saints go? Everyone else, if the Lord's
not working in their hearts, runs, and they run to all sorts
of refuges of lies. But there's only one place that
the saints are driven by the Lord, and that's back into his
temple. The waters had compassed me about
just like the world does to us, even to the soul. The depth closed
me round about the weeds were wrapped around my head." The
weeds, the entanglements of this world, the things that would
draw us away from the Lord. I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains, the lowest of low. The earth with her bars,
was about me forever. It's a great picture of the earth,
isn't it? It is truly. Without the Lord, this earth,
this world is a prison with its enticements and its entanglements. Yet has Thou brought my life
up from corruption. This is the only true salvation.
We hear so many different stories about the way men gain favour
with God, the way they earn merit before
God and earn their salvation, and yet there's only one way
of salvation and that's cross and being crucified. You've brought my life up from
corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord. And my prayer came in unto thee,
into thine holy temple. There is only one way that men
prevail with the Lord, and it's by the advocacy of the Son and
the Spirit. We don't know what to pray for,
but the Holy Spirit intercesses with His groanings, and our Lord
stands as that lamb slain in the midst of the throne. ever
presenting our justification before His Father in Heaven.
These are the grounds by which we approach God. These are the
only grounds and this is the only truth. Look at verse 8 there. They that observe lying vanities. It's a wonderful description
of false religion, isn't it? Anything Anything other than
the truth of the Gospel in any direction is a lie. But it's not just a lie, it's
a lie that puffs men up with vanity, isn't it? It dethrones God and it puts
man on the throne of his own salvation. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy. But, and here's the contrast, but
I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. That's
all we can do. If salvation is of the Lord,
that's all we can do. And even then we need his grace
to thank him. I will pay that that I have vowed. How do we pay our vows before
the Lord? That's our witness, isn't it? It's glorifying him
in our salvation. It's interesting that these people
with their lying vanities are trying to gain access to God. But the true witness, the true
witness of faith is a declaration of access achieved in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when we come to this place,
because this is the purpose of our trials and our afflictions
and all the things that would assault us in this world, all
the things that overwhelm us, the Lord has used this here and
He uses it in our lives to bring us back to this place. where
we completely rely on the Lord Jesus Christ for everything. And that's why in verse 10, the
Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon dry land. The sea is a graphic representation
of the world tossed to and fro by sin, but this dry land Jonah
has been deposited back on the rock of his salvation. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
thank you that you are a merciful God. Thank you that in the midst
of our great frailty and all the things that would have sold
us and set themselves against us, that they might set themselves
against you, Heavenly Father. They are all in your sovereign
hands. They're all used by You, Heavenly Father, for our good.
And what is our good? To be in relationship with our
Saviour. Thank You, Heavenly Father, that
no matter how far we stray and how far we fall and how far we
drift, You draw us back again and again and again. Thank You,
Father, that You do that by the power of Your Spirit and by the
blood of our great Saviour. Father, remind us, when we start
to drift into this world again, whether it's open wickedness
or whether it's into a false religion and a false understanding
of who we are, stop us ever, Father, please, and just bring
us back to Yourself and remind us again of the amazing faithfulness
and security that can only be found in our great Saviour. Thank you for your mercy upon
us. I pray your blessing today in Christ's precious name.