I please God to bless us together
this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the book
of Jonah and chapter 2 and we'll read verse 4. The book of Jonah
chapter 2 and reading verse 4. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight. Yet I will look again toward
thy holy temple. Well I'm sure the account of
Jonah is familiar to us all I expect and as we've read the first two
chapters together this evening we've obviously covered part
of this little book And there is a lot of instruction to us
as we read the account of Jonah. And very simply, what we find
is that Jonah was disobedient to God. And we should realize
that you and I cannot be disobedient to God and get away with it. We may be disobedient, but you
won't get away with being disobedient. God marks it. God marked it with
Jonah. Jonah decided he wasn't going
to go and preach to the people at Nineveh. He reckoned that
might be obviously a difficult thing to do. They weren't a very
godly people. and obviously he didn't want
to so he thought he would run away you and I might want to run away
sometimes but God knew where Jonah had
run and he knows where we would run none of us can hide from
Almighty God God is in every place He knows precisely where
we are. He knew precisely where Jonah
had gone. And of course, poor old Jonah
thought he'd done all right. Because he got the money and
he paid for the fare to go to Tarshish. He found a ship, very
convenient. And he was so satisfied with
what he'd done that he went to sleep on the boat. And even when
there was a great storm, he didn't wake up. See how putting it in these terms,
we can become gospel hardened. Doesn't matter what happens,
what's said, doesn't have any effect upon us. Well, that was
the scene with Jonah. But the Lord knew what he would
do with Jonah. And the Lord knew how the name
of God would indeed be wonderfully exalted. justified through this
account of Jonah and it is a very encouraging account it's a very
amazing account to think that God made this whale or great
fish whichever it was probably was a whale great fish with mouth
big enough and a stomach big enough to swallow and absorb
Jonah and then for enough oxygen to be in the stomach of Jonah
so that he didn't die. And there he was. Amazing, wasn't it? To think
that God had prepared this great fish. And we should realize that
in our little lives, no doubt it wouldn't be like a great fish,
but we might think that we can escape, we might think we can
go and do things, And yet, you see, God knows about us, and
God can prepare things in our lives which we never expected. Because we come to a great, almighty
God. What a wonderful truth that is. And it's good, I often think,
to read accounts like this. It's very familiar what it is
to some of us, I hope it is to most of us. A very familiar account,
and we can read it. really not take it in, but it
was and is relevant then and it is for us today to realise
that we have to deal with this same God. So we read that God
prepared this fish and when Jonah was thrown overboard, the fish
swallowed Jonah. And what we're told is this,
Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And that would be a pretty long
time, you know, considering that it was dark down there. And we're
told the weeds wrapped around his head would have been a pretty
miserable experience for three days and three nights. And we
would think, we would think that the first thing that Jonah would
do would have been to pray to God. But it would seem from this
account that it wasn't. Now remember Jonah was a preacher. Jonah was familiar with the word
of God. He was familiar with the truth
of God. He was familiar with God. God
had spoken to him and told him what he must do. Jonah here then
doesn't pray to God. And it would appear there's three
days that he doesn't pray at all. Jonah then, we're told,
Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. Now let's just notice, first
of all then, there is no place, no place, where you and I cannot
pray. No place. Wherever we may be
found, there is always an opportunity to pray to God. And let us always
be encouraged by that. And as we spoke very recently,
a case of Nehemiah, in the days when the children of Israel were
coming back from Babylon. And Nehemiah was in the presence
of the king Ahasuerus. And he was sad. And the king
noticed that he was sad. And he asked him what the problem
was. And we are told that there, in
the presence of the king, and before he answered the king,
he prayed to the God of heaven. So let us realize that there
is always the opportunity to pray to God. Whatever the situation
is we find ourselves in, there is always the opportunity to
pray to God. So then we're told Jonah prayed. And why did he pray? We're told, he said, I cried
by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord." Unto the Lord,
his God. He wasn't praying to the unknown
God like the Athenians were that Paul found in Athens. He went about and he saw that
there was that statue to the unknown God. No, but here, we
find that Jonah was praying to the Lord. And he said, I cried
by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. The word of God tells us this.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man evadeth much,
or woman, of course. So we should never fail to come
to our God in every time of need, whatever it may be, however small,
however great. We have many examples in the
word of God to encourage us. And so here he was, he heard
me out of the belly of hell, that's what he describes it as,
it no doubt appeared to him To be like hell, we believe that
hell is a place of darkness. And here was poor old Jonah in
this place of darkness for these three days and three nights.
But then he is wonderful to read, cried, I and thou heardest my
prayer. You see, here we have Jonah's
account of what occurred. It was firsthand from Jonah. And he tells us, therefore, and
he cried, and the Lord heard his voice. And he tells us, for
thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and
the floods compassed me about, all thy billows and thy waves
passed over me. Well, it wouldn't have been a
very convenient situation, would it? And we're not told very much. about him, but he must have been
very fearful of what was going to really happen to him if he
was ever going to escape out of this whale's belly. But we
now see one of the reasons why Jonah had to go into this condition,
because we have the testimony of his experience. Now it's good
when you and I can trace out our experience, when I say that
I mean principally our spiritual experience with the people who
are recorded in the Word of God. And when I say that you can think
of the many cases in the book of Psalms that David and Asaph
And Moses wrote and how, as you and I may read those, we find
their echo in our heart. Hey, here's a person that understands
what I'm going through. And what does that produce? It produces an encouragement
to us to realise we're not walking an unknown path. We're not walking
a way which nobody's walked before. We walk that way which is ordained
by Almighty God. And so Jonah tells us, he says,
then I said, in that whale's belly, is what he said to God,
I am cast out of thy sight. Well, he deserved to be cast
out of God's sight. He deserved to be in that position
where God would never look upon him, would never hear his cry. He turned his back upon God.
He disobeyed God. He wouldn't do that which God
had told him to do. He thought he could escape. He
says, I am cast out of thy sight. Well, sometimes we may feel that
we're cast out of God's sight. God seems to take no notice of
us. And it may be that when you and
I sit down quietly and analyse it, we realise that that word
of God is very true. If you walk contrary to me, I
will walk contrary to you. That means that if we're walking
in an opposite direction to what God would have us to walk in,
we shouldn't be surprised, therefore, if we find the way very difficult. In actual fact, the opposite
to what we want. Yes, Jonah had to pass that way
and said, therefore, I'm cast out of thy sight. Well, tonight,
if you and I feel perhaps cast out from God. And when I say that, I really
mean this. When we then try to pray, it
doesn't seem as though our prayers are entering in to the mercy
seat. They don't seem to come up to
God. There seems to be a barrier between us and God. I wonder if you understand what
that is. It's not easy. When you try and
pray and it seems your prayers bounce back at you. It just seems
as though in front there's a solid wall. And it bounces back. And I remember, in my life, a
very clear position like that once. And it seemed that my prayers
just didn't break through. They just bounced back at me. And it came to me like this.
Well, you should pray for Jesus Christ's sake. And I did. and the barrier, the wall, disappeared. And I felt, and I knew, my prayers
entered in to God himself. How? Through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that made the Saviour very
real and very precious. And it is our great and glorious
privilege to be able to come to our Father, the Holy God,
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And when you think of the picture
we have in the Old Testament, we have a picture there of the
tabernacle, and then of course the temple, and there was the
holiest holies and that was the central piece and it really represented
heaven and in there was the Ark it was called the Ark of the
Covenant and it was a box a rectangular box covered in gold and inside
was the Ten Commandments those stones which Moses had been given
on Mount Sinai many years ago and then there was a lid the
lid was solid gold and it was called a the mercy seat, and
God came and dwelt in a cloud over the mercy seat. And once
a year, the high priest, there was only one high priest, was
ordained that he could go into that holy place to seek the forgiveness
of his sins and the sins of the people. But there was one requirement
for him to do that. He had to go in to that holy
place with Bilad. And that was Bilad of a sacrifice,
the slain sacrifice, which was to be offered up. If he didn't
go in with that, he would have been struck down dead. So every
time he had to go in there, now then, The wonderful picture of
the Gospel is this. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
crucified upon that cross at Calvary, and when he uttered
those glorious words, it is finished. At that very moment, the veil
of the temple, and that was the veil which separated the holy
place from the most holy place, which the high priest had to
pass through once a year, and it was torn, rent, from the top
to the bottom. An amazing, amazing thing had
occurred. God had torn that veil to show
that now there was no need for an earthly high priest, because
there was a glorious high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we,
today, can come to Almighty God the Father through the merits
of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I hope you may know the
wonderful blessing of what we might term access in prayer,
to come to God the Father. And it's not as though you're
praying and there's a brick wall in front of you, but there's
a way through. And that's through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, you see, Jonah said here,
I am cast out of thy sight. He felt he was, there was no
hope. There was no way that he could pray. Does he give up? I'll tell you this. If we are a needy sinner, we
won't give up just because prayer seems to be impossible. We pray
on for Jesus Christ's sake that our prayers may be accepted and
it's a wonderful privilege and a wonderful blessing and a wonderful
confirmation that we are a true believer when we have that understanding
that our prayers have come up to almighty God. It's a very
humbling experience, because we are unworthy of any blessing. Why should God take notice of
us? You know why? For Jesus Christ's
sake. That's the way of entry to God. Well, here was then Jonah, he
said, I'm cast out of thy sight, but he doesn't give up. And what
does he say? Yet, I will look again toward
thy holy temple. Now, I don't believe that was
the physical temple. I believe it was the heavenly
temple, where God was. And what a wonderful truth it
was. I will look again. He didn't give up. And may you
and I, my friends, today not give up. It may appear to be
almost impossible. Jonah must have remembered what
he'd done. He must have thought, well, there
really is no hope for me. I really have failed. I really have disobeyed God. I really have turned my back
upon God. But no, he says, yet I will look
again. I will look again. you know it may be in our lives
sometimes it seems almost the last time we may have said well I'm not going
to pray again I'm not going to pray again well what a blessing
if you do look again again the blessed work of the Holy Spirit
encourages you to look again. And as we went down this very
simple account, Jonah tells us, when my soul fainted within me. Now, when we almost faint, we've
almost reached a stage where we can't pray. When my soul fainted
within me, I remembered the Lord. I remembered the Lord and my
prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. Yes, he had the answer in his
own heart that God had heard his prayer and that
it was because God brought back to his remembrance, himself. Sometimes we seem to forget God. Well, he tells us this, I remember
the Lord. What a blessing it is, isn't
it? When you and I are brought to that situation, when we remember,
We may be hasty, you know, David was very hasty and came to a
wrong conclusion. And we can be very hasty, but
in the book of Psalms, in the 31st Psalm, we read in the 22nd
verse, For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine
eyes. Nevertheless thou heardest the
voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. Now this is a psalm of David
and that was his testimony and then he goes on to say, and it's
always good for us to just read on a bit in the Word of God.
He says this, O love the Lord, all ye his saints, For the Lord
preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud
doer. Bear good courage, and he shall
strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. Well, David's hope was in the
Lord. Jonah's hope was in the Lord. And it's a good and wonderful
favour if our hope is in the Lord. I don't know. You know
whether that is so. I don't know. God knows. He looks
into your heart and he knows tonight whether your hope is
in the Lord or not. Isaiah tells us similar things
and words of encouragement. This is what he says in Isaiah
49 verse 13. Seeing, O heavens, and be joyful,
O earth, break forth into singing O mountains for the Lord hath
comforted his people and will have mercy upon his afflicted
but Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten
me well he goes on and he says this he makes this analogy can
a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb yea they may forget unlikely but they
may forget yet will I not forget thee the Lord didn't forget Jonah he didn't
forget David and he doesn't forget the church of God today and then
he tells us this wonderful statement behold I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hands. Thy wars are continually before
me. That means that our names, our
unworthy names, are engraven on the palms of the Saviour's
hands. He does not forget us. Isn't
that wonderful? To think that we have such a
kind, gracious, merciful God. So we should rejoice tonight
with such words and be encouraged. As Jonah said, although he felt
he was cast out, he says, I will look again toward thy holy temple. Well, it's good, isn't it, if
you and I are found looking to Jesus. Jonah was looking to the
Lord, and it's a good thing if you and I are found looking to
the Lord. You may remember in the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews
as we come towards the end, the 12th verse, 12th chapter rather,
having in the previous 11th chapter given that long account of all
those people who were blessed with believing faith, He comes
and says, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which doth so easily beset us. We won't want to make excuses
for what we might call besetting sins. And the sin which doth
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us there is a race and we all have to run that race
and it's not an easy race and there's many obstacles and there's
many things to distract us distract our attention and yet you see
the Apostle comes and says the race that is set before us but
we don't stop there This is what he says, looking unto Jesus. That's how we are to run the
race today. That's how really Jonah was to
run this race. He says, I will look again toward
thy holy temple. Don't give up. Looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of our faith. I think it's wonderful
how the words run on, because it speaks about our Saviour. And we have here a glorious example. This is what we're told. Who
for the joy... This is who we're looking at. Who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame. and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds. The tendency is to say, well,
I don't think anybody has had such a difficult path as me.
My path is extreme. Well, that's why we have a word
like this. That's why we have the case of
Jonah. That's why we have the glorious
words here in this 12th chapter of Hebrews. We are to consider
Him. You consider the Saviour. You
think what He endured in order to redeem our souls, the path
that you and I walk by comparison, is really very light, isn't it?
The Lord Jesus Christ, what he endured, no tongue can really
tell. What agonies he passed through
as he walked on this earth, remember, he left glory, he'd been there
from eternity, he now came down into this sinful world, in order
that He might redeem your soul and my soul, that He might pay
the price, and that He might make the way whereby you and
I can approach unto our Father in heaven. And the cost was tremendous. He endured the cross, not only
physical, despising the shame. what shame he endured for you
and me. Crucifixion is the most painful
death. The Lord endured it. And therefore the encouragement
for us today is to consider him. Consider what he endured so that
we might possess the wonderful, wonderful blessing of eternal
life. Well, yet, when I look again
toward Thy holy temple, let us never give up. Let us never give
up. No, we are to remember the great
and glorious words of the gospel. Indeed, a very familiar word,
which is one that I quite often quote in the 45th chapter of
Isaiah, and verse 22. And it tells us this, look unto
me and be saved. Are we worried about being saved? Or put it this way, are we worried
about being not saved? And here is the gracious encouragement.
Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God and there is none else. There's no one else to look to
who can save our soul. There's no one else who's paid
the price of our redemption. It's our great and glorious God.
And what a mercy and what a favor. To be found then, even tonight. It's a gracious word, isn't it? It's not surprising, is it, that
often Isaiah is referred to as the gospel of Isaiah. Because
these are glorious gospel words, aren't they? Look unto me and
be saved. See there, joins together. And
it's good for you and me blessed with living faith to come to
God, believing as we look to Him to redeem our souls, to believe
that we shall not be disappointed. No, God's people are never disappointed
because God brings about that which is for His honour and for
His glory. Well then, Jonah here. What a blessing it is that we
have this little account. It's very short, isn't it? But
there's so much wonderful gospel in it, isn't there? To recognize
how blessed it is. And you know, the good thing
is that in this verse, we're told, yet I will look again toward
thy holy temple. And then clearly, As he looks
back and realises what God had done for him, as we've already
mentioned, we are to remember the Lord. And my prayer came
in unto thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy. Don't observe lying vanities. What does that mean? Don't listen to the devil. The devil will say, the way you're
walking is just too difficult. It's just too hard. Don't follow
that way. Don't follow that way. Well,
you can tell the devil this great truth. The Lord Jesus said, when
he was on the earth in the upper room with his disciples, it is
through much tribulation that we shall enter the kingdom, but
be of good joy I have overcome the world. That's good news,
isn't it? And you can tell the devil that
when he tries to make you give up, when he tries to stop you
praying, when he tries to tell you there's no hope for you,
you're just too bad, you've just gone too far. No one's gone too
far, no one's too bad. Mercy is welcome news indeed. to those who guilty stand. And so they that observe Lymanites
forsake their own mercy. And this then is what Jonah says. But I will sacrifice unto thee
with the voice of thanksgiving. How often are we really thankful
to God? How often are we really thankful
to God for our salvation? I'll be really thankful as we've
sung, as we thought upon this morning, the grace of God, amazing
grace. Do we stand and say, it is to
me, amazing that God should have saved my soul, that he should
have blessed me with his grace. As I told you, the free, unmerited
favor of God. What a glorious truth. And then
he says, I will pay that which I have vowed. I don't know whether
anybody has vowed a vow to God. If you have, you are to pay that
vow. You're not to say, well, I'll
just think about it. It's not a point of thinking
about it. You are to pay that vow. And so Jonah says here,
I will pay that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. Well, it's a great blessing tonight
if you and I can really be thankful for the great work of God, for
the glorious plan of salvation. Here we are, sinners on the earth,
going headlong to a lost eternity. What a mercy of God. puts his
hand, puts his finger upon you, and says, thus far shall they
go, and no further. He's gone far enough. Now look
unto me, and be ye saved till the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and there is none else. He will then come and say, what
a Savior, what a glorious Savior I have. who should have looked
upon me and saved my soul. I can recognise the truth contained
in this little account of Jonah and be able to say, well, it's
just how I felt, cast out of God's sight, not worthy that God should take any notice
of me, but, blessed be God, he gave me faith. living faith to
once again look toward his holy temple and then to be able to
recall the Lord's mercy, the Lord heard and answered your
prayers so that you're able to come even tonight and rejoice
and say, salvation is of the Lord. Well, glory to God. Amen.