We're gonna begin our, we're
gonna begin our second service by standing and singing Sweet Hour of Prayer 361. Sweet Hour of Prayer. Is the
temperature okay in here for everybody? I think I'll just
maybe keep it off unless it gets kind of warm, but. Okay, just
hit the on, it should work. I got it all set up. Sweet hour of prayer, 361. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at
my father's throne make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief,
my soul has often found relief. An oft-escaped attempter's there
by thy return, sweet hour of prayer. ? Sweet hour of prayer,
sweet hour of prayer ? ? Thy wings shall my petition bear
? ? To him whose truth and faithfulness ? ? Engage the waiting soul to
bless ? And since he bids me seek his face, Believe his word
and trust his grace, I'll cast on him my every care, And wait
for thee, sweet hour of prayer. Hour of prayer, sweet hour of
prayer, may I thy consolation share. Till from Alpisca's lofty
height, I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh
shall drop and rise to cease the everlasting prize and shout
while passing through the air, farewell, farewell, speed out
of prayer. If you would, turn to 300. More secure as no one ever. 300. More secure is no one ever than
the loved ones of the Savior. Not yon star on high abiding,
nor the burdened home deciding. God is omnipotent and nourish,
in his holy courts they flourish. Like a father kind he bears them,
in his loving arms he bears them. Neither life nor death can ever
from the Lord his children sever, for his love and deep compassion
comforts them in tribulation. Little flock, to joy then yield
thee, Jacob's God will ever shield thee. Rest secure with this defender,
At his will all foes surrender. What he takes or what he gives
us shows a father's love so precious. We may trust his purpose wholly,
kiss his children's welfare solely. Thank you. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians 13. This is the third
time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three
witnesses shall every word be established. I told you before,
and foretell you, as if I were present the second time, and
being absent, now I write to them which heretofore have sinned,
and to all other that I have come again I will not spare.
Shouldst ye seek the proof of Christ speaking in me, which
to you, Lord, is not weak, but is mighty in you. For though
he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of
God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him
by power of God toward you. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates. But I trust ye shall know that
we are not reprobates. Now I pray to God that ye do
no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that we should
do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. For we can
do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we are
glad when we are weak, and ye are strong, and this also we
wish, even your perfection. Therefore I write these things
being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness according
to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification and not
to destruction. Finally, brethren, farewell,
be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Greet one
another with a holy kiss. All the saints salute you. The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning.
We ask that you set aside anything that's on our minds other than
the gospel. Father, you know our issues and
our concerns. Father, we just ask that you
please set those aside so we can listen, understand and hear. Father, we ask that you watch
over the pastors that are bringing the message this morning. Father,
that you specifically watch over our pastor as he brings the message.
Have him bring the words that you'd have us to hear. Father,
we ask you to watch over those that are sick. Father, just please
be with with all of your people throughout. the world. Father,
just watch over him. Care for him. Open their eyes
and hearts this morning to hear the message that you would bring.
Father, we just ask that you watch over and care for us in
Christ's name. All right, we're gonna return
to our study in Jonah. Jonah chapter one. And we'll
be looking at verses five through 10. Jonah one, five through 10. Now when we left off last week,
we saw the mariners that were in the ship there with Jonah,
they were under great distress. They were troubled. And that's
because a very, very powerful storm, a great tempest had come
upon them suddenly, was cast upon them. It actually says in
verse four, but the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea
and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was
like to be broken. And we looked at either that
The Lord had done it in such a way that the storm struck them
personally, just their ship among other ships that were there in
the sea, or it would have just come upon them so suddenly, so
ferociously. You know, where they're looking
out and there's blue sky and then suddenly it just becomes
dark immediately and a great storm comes upon them. Whatever it was that the Lord
did, the mariners who were experiencing it interpreted it as judgment
has come upon us. We're being judged. Someone here
on this ship has brought judgment to all of us. And so this storm
proved to provoke them to seek a remedy, a remedy of safety,
and that actually led them to Jonah, a gospel preacher. led them to Jonah, and they discovered
both the God and the reason for the trouble that had come upon
them. I've titled this message, A Notorious Sinner Among Them,
A Notorious Sinner Among Them. All right, so with this storm
now upon them, I wanna go back to verse five where we left off.
We just looked at a couple points there, but let's go back to verse
five. Then the mariners were afraid,
and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth the wares
that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into
the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep." And
we saw how that the one who should have been most sensible of his
sin was the one who was insensible, completely insensible of the
fact that it was for his sin that this storm had come upon
the men there in that ship with him. It says that Jonah lay and
was fast asleep. And we also saw last week, we
were looking at how the Lord was teaching us here. This was
a prophecy showing us that the Lord was going to take the gospel
from the Jews and bring it to the Gentiles. That this actual
book here shows us and teaches us prophetically that that's
exactly what the purpose of God was to do. that he would take
it from those who sought righteousness by their own works and instead
would bring it to the Gentiles who weren't even seeking God,
they weren't looking for the true and living God. And so Paul
would declare this truth to us later in Romans 9, verses 30
and 31, saying, what shall we say then? that the Gentiles, which followed
not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even
the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. The law of righteousness being
that if I am righteous, God shall pronounce me justified. but they
were seeking that end goal of being justified by God through
their own works, not by faith. They weren't looking to righteousness
by faith. All right, so this ship here
is a microcosm of the gospel. It's just a small little sampling
of how the Lord's gospel goes forth and shall reach every one
of his elect children, all the remnant that he's determined
to save. And you think about it, there
was many on that ship, and we know just from history that typically
a ship would attract people from every nation who had no options
or no real wealth there where they were coming from, and they
went into working on the sea because it would provide them
opportunity and a living and they could be nobodies and sometimes
make a good living there for themselves and so many different
people came and became mariners there on the sea and likely in
this very ship. There's some who say that they
believe that there was someone from each and every one of the
70 nations that was believed to be in existence at that day,
right? I don't know if that's true.
I don't even know how you could verify or prove that that's so.
But we do know that our Lord saves some out of every kindred
and tongue and people and nation. So there probably was a good,
healthy mix of men from all sorts there on that ship. And so, what
we're getting to, we won't get there today, but I'll speak to
it to some degree, that we see in this account of Jonah, salvation
by substitution. We know that salvation, we're
saved by another, not because of what we have or haven't done.
We're saved in the Lord Jesus Christ. and these men were going
to witness that same salvation, that Jonah was going to die in
their stead, in their place, and that fruit would be produced
as a result of that death, and so we see here the mystery of
godliness being unveiled to them perhaps not to the same degree
of brilliance that we see and understand it today in the person
of Christ, but they were here, they were going to witness salvation
through substitution, and God would use that to produce fruit
in these men, fruit of Him. And so, before Jonah and his
God were made known to these mariners, We first see in this
fifth verse a picture of just religion in the world. We see a picture of exactly how
we are apart from the grace of God unveiling his light and glory,
right? We see a picture of that. Turn
over to Acts 17. Acts 17, this here is an account
of Paul, and he's preaching the gospel to men in Athens who were
groping about in religion themselves, that were searching about and
trying to discover and know the truth of God by their own works
and their own wisdom. And so he says, he's speaking
of, he's declaring to them in verse 23, the unknown God, right? Because none of us knows the
true and living God until he's revealed to us. And he's revealed
in his son, Jesus Christ. And so he says in Acts 17, 24,
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he
is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. Neither is worshipped with men's
hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life
and breath and things." See, we don't know that by nature,
we don't think of ourselves and our relation to God in that way.
We do think that we know God by the works of our hands, right? And so people build immaculate,
gorgeous stone temples and things that look like they can't be
shaken and they have this awe-inspiring architecture and whatnot, all
meant to help us feel like the presence of God is there and
that we're lifted up into some heavenly realm, even though we
ourselves are no different, really. In reality, it's just a play
on our imagination. But the truth of God declares
that we don't know God by our works. We can't work our way
to a relationship with the only true and living God who created
us and made all the things that we see. And he says, he hath,
verse 26, he hath made of one blood all nations of men for
to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the
times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that
they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after
him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of
us." And then verse 30, and the times of this ignorance God winked
at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, and that
repentance isn't just how religion teaches us repentance, right? Religion tells us, well, you
need to stop doing what you're doing today, these sins, and
start doing, don't do them anymore. That's repentance, right? Put
down a pack of cigarettes and don't ever go back to smoking
cigarettes again. That's true repentance, right? That's what
they talk about as repentance. Don't drink anymore. Stop that. Don't go to parties or go to
movies or all manner of things. They tell you stop doing this
and start doing this. And that's man's repentance.
But the repentance that we see the gospel declaring, Paul declaring
here is stop trusting in your works for salvation and look
to Christ. Believe Christ. He is our salvation. He's our righteousness. Not because
we stop doing this or that and started doing this thing over
here. That's not salvation, right? And it's believing on Christ. There are some things the Lord
will turn us from, but that's not salvation. That's not our
salvation. Salvation is Christ, and Christ
alone, alright? So, with that, we see that Paul,
the way Paul's speaking is, all of us, by nature, are in darkness,
just fumbling about, groping about, trying to find God, and
doing the best we can, and it's never good enough. We're not
going to find God by our groping about. And so, these mariners
in our text were doing the same thing. They're groping about
trying to please God, trying to know who God is and please
him. And so, they weren't seeking God until this storm comes upon
them, right, a storm comes upon them in verse 4, and then we
pick up here in verse 5 that their response was one of fear,
right, and it says the mariners, then the mariners were afraid,
right, so there was this initial wave of fear that came upon them,
and we see this all the time. We're famil and we're familiar
with i happen, they suddenly com afraid. All right, we ei we lose a job
that's been people, you know, people of getting sick and you
kn Probably when they had any little
allergy, they thought, oh no, I've got the Rona and I'm going
to die, and they got afraid or they lost their job or something
like that. The same thing, people get in
trouble for various things. We say something foolish to somebody
and then they say they're going to beat us up or something like
that. We get scared and suddenly we realize maybe I'm getting
a little careless with my behavior here. And so one of the first
things that religious people do is they get to doing religious
things, right? And they begin to first call
upon their false god, and that's what we see here. Then the mariners
were afraid and cried every man unto his god, right? They began to cry out to god
and pray to him again, right? And that happens as well, but
if the situation doesn't last long, as many things come and
go pretty quickly, same thing with your fear and your crying
out to God, that all passes very quickly in most people as well. They begin to cry out to God
and become afraid, and it isn't before long, when things quiet
down, that suddenly they go back to enjoying life the way they
used to, and they forget all about their God again. But if
those hard times continue, right, and they continue to get pressed
out of measure, that's when they really begin to start examining
their life and their lifestyle, right? And they start doing things
to try and improve their lifestyle. And that's what these mariners
do here as well. They want to make God happy or
keep God happy with them. And so they start doing what
these guys did, where they cast forth the wares that were in
the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. Have you ever done
that when you were troubled? I have. I started casting forth
my bad behaviors, getting rid of those things and casting them
into the sea in the hopes that God will be happy with me or
stay happy. with me, because I thought, well,
this is going to help me find some relief from my trouble if
I stop doing this thing. I was kind of questioning whether
that was a bad thing. Now I know it's bad. Let me stop
that now for a while. And so, again, here we see that
this didn't do it for the mariners either. You wouldn't just cast
your wealth into the sea like that unless you thought it was
going to help you, and it didn't stop the storm from raging. And
so while this is going on, all the while there's someone there
on that ship that is going to be used by the Lord, and the
Lord's gonna make himself known to these superstitious mariners
by this one there that's on the ship. While they're busy groping
about and trying to deliver themselves from the wrath of God, God has
already determined to reveal himself to them by this one that
is on the ship. And it's a man who should be
awake, who should be very observant and aware of what's going on,
but he's living the dream life, literally. Like he's there sleeping,
dreaming away and unaware and indifferent to everything that's
going on around him. He's just totally in his own
little dream world, not aware. And it says, but Jonah, verse
five, was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay
and was fast asleep. Now we know Jonah shouldn't even
be there, right? He shouldn't even be on that
ship. He should have been off doing what the Lord told him
to do in the first place and not even be there. But we do
see how the Lord in his wise providence does work all things. Whether or not these men were
truly ever saved, it's certainly a sweet picture of salvation,
and perhaps they were. He's a gracious God, and he did
declare the gospel of substitution to these men, but regardless
of that, I don't want to get caught up in that. Jonah is there. God has purposed and put Jonah
there, in that place, even though he should not have been there,
but he is. He's there, and he's going to be used to help these
men. He's going to be used by the
Lord. And not only that, but it's going
to work grace in Jonah's heart. Jonah's going to learn and be
taught what he needs to be taught as well. So it's good for these
men and good for Jonah also because the Lord uses it to direct him
back into walking, looking to his God and trusting him. Alright,
and so this all begins though when the Lord actually sends
an unbeliever to Jonah. He sends this unbelieving shipmaster
down to find Jonah and That's amazing because Jonah is a prophet
of God. This shipmaster isn't a prophet
of God. Jonah's been sent of God to go
preach and declare. the true and living God to the
greatest monarch in all the known world, which is Assyria, the
greatest kingdom in all the known world, and yet before that prophet
goes there, he gets rebuked by this shipmaster, right? This
prophet is rebuked by a shipmaster who doesn't even know the true
and living God, and the Lord will do that for his people at
various times. I don't know about you, but I
know that there's been times where I've been rebuked by the
likes of an ass, like Balaam's ass, which backed up and crushed
his leg against the wall because there was an angel of the Lord
standing in the way that would have slain Balaam. And there
are times where even people who don't know the truth or providential
things that come that do wake up the people of God and cause
us to consider and realize, where am I? What am I doing? What am
I doing here in this world and just doing my own thing? But Jonah was rebuked. God had purposed that Jonah would
be rebuked by this unbeliever. So it says in verse six, Jonah
1.6, So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, what meanest
thou, sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if
so be that God will think upon us that we perish not. Or, if
so be that God will have mercy on us and we perish not. Pray that God would have mercy
upon us. We see that there's so few, I
mean it's a good reminder for us that there are so few, it
would seem, in this world that know the truth of God, that rest
in the simplicity of Christ and believe Him. And how few have
that knowledge and that plainness of speech to declare Christ and
Him alone, and yet how often we just are so wrapped up in
ourselves and our eyes on the things of this world and not.
mindful and thoughtful of our God and the fact that how few
of us really know the truth just like Jonah in his day. And so remember that we know
the gospel of Christ, we know the hope of salvation, we know
how God saves his people and he's given us a hope in Christ
alone and how precious that is and yet how many are seem content
to be asleep in this world and in this day and we don't want
to be like that. We don't want to require a heathen
being raised up by God to shame us to put us in mind that we're
not doing or where we should be. the truth. I know everything's
in the providence of God but he uses those things to teach
us those lessons and to show us that truth. Paul would say
in Ephesians 5, Verse 14-16 He said, Wherefore he saith, Awake
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee life. See then that ye walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the times, because the days are
evil. And Paul said that in his day.
How much more in our day, right? It's the same thing to us. Wake
up, oh sleeper. It's not all just about this
life and having things in this life. It's about serving our
God. There's only how many days left?
We don't know, but serve the Lord and let us be usable or
to declare his gospel faithfully. And again, in Romans 13, 11,
and that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake
out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed. The night is far spent, the day
is at hand, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness
and let us put on the armor of light. And he would go on to
say, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision
for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Because we all
do it. We all have the lusts of this
flesh because we're all still in this flesh. We all have it.
The flesh has improved. Our knowledge of Christ has improved. And the grace which he's shown
to us is made more clear to us all the time. We get, we do such
foolish things and the Lord shows us and teaches us through common
and simple things even in this life. And so even the disciples,
right, had come to the most critical moment in the history of mankind
there and the Lord said to them, why sleepy? Rise and pray lest
ye enter into temptation. And so that's a word for us to
hear, right? And we know that the battle of
salvation is won. Christ is won and his people
shall be delivered by his blood and his glorious salvation. We
are righteous in him. We know that. That's not in question
at all. But we know that those who are
called to serve him will experience difficulties and trials, fiery
trials and persecutions. Paul would say to Timothy, 2
Timothy 3, 12 and 13, He reminds him, saying, and all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil
men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being
deceived. And so Jonah needed to hear this,
and he did hear, right? He was obviously moved because
he got up, and he probably prayed and realized, look, it hasn't
disappeared yet. Winds are still blowing and there's
still a great trouble. So he found no relief and so
he goes up with the ship master and they're there with the other
mariners and verse seven says, and they said everyone to his
fellow, come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose
cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots and the lot
fell upon Jonah. Now, one thing that's amazing
in there is that every one of them knew they were a sinner. That's why every one of them
drew a lot. They were all brought to know
that it could be me that's been the cause of this, right? They're
all sinners. They all drew the lot. No one
sat there and said, well, I know what you did when we were back
at Portland. It's gotta be you. No, they all drew the lot. They
didn't spend their time blaming everybody. They were all sinners. together there, and so they all
drew the lot, but it fell upon Jonah. It fell upon Jonah, and
so the Lord was willing to use this folly, this superstition
of them in drawing the lot, and he did that because he had purposed
to reveal the gospel to them, as well as to Jonah. Now, all
these men are aware that they're sinners, And they discover, this
is Jonah, why we're going through this. But watch how they talk
to Jonah, these sinful men. Listen to what they do here in
verse eight. It says, they said unto him,
tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What
is thine occupation? And whence comest thou? What
is thy country? And of what people art thou? And so these men know that for
Jonah's sake, they're all gonna perish there. As far as they
know, death has come upon them. They're all going down to a watery
grave and each one's gonna have to answer for their own sins
there when they die. And if they died, it would have
been just, right? Who can say, Lord, why are you
doing this? None of us, we all know that
if we die, God is just in our perishing and in our dying. but
none of them are victims, right? They're all brought there by
the Lord, and they're all there in that ship together. They're
all either sinking or sailing together, because they're all
in it together, even though it's for one man's sin. Because they
threw in their lot with Jonah when Jonah threw in their lot
with them, right? When he paid the fare and went
down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord. But, being a type of Christ,
we know that He's going to be made a picture, a sign for us
of the substitution of Christ, when He would be picked up before
them all and cast into the wrath of God there in the sea, pictured
in the sea, raging and tumultuous as it was, and that He would
perish. They would see that. That man died in our place, so
that we didn't perish with him. They were all in it together.
They all should have gone on down, just like in Adam, we all
died. When he sinned, we sinned in
Adam. We're all guilty of sin, and all guilty of the same offense
of rebelling against the God who created us. And we don't
worship Him, as He is worthy of being worshipped. We're all
guilty of that same sin. And so, the Lord uses this, and
it's just amazing to me just how gentle they were to him,
knowing that it was clearly for his fault, like his specific
sin, even though they were all sinners, they were in this predicament
because of him, and yet they spoke so kindly to him and I
think this is actually the most tender part of the whole message
is over this verse believe it or not because you look at that
they said tell us we pray thee for whose cause this evil is
come upon us." And I think that's such a gentle answer, such patience
and kindness that they showed him for whose cause, they said,
this evil is upon us. And they wanted to know, what's
your occupation, where do you come from, what's your country,
and of what people art thou? So that we read that and say,
wow, what gracious words are proceeding out of their mouths.
What gracious words. When they're speaking to Jonah,
the sinner, that notorious sinner for whom death was come upon
them. And then when you think of that,
these men know that they're dying thanks to Jonah, right? and how
kind they speak to him, and then you're reminded, well, how did
we speak to the Lord? And we read in Luke, it says
that all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words
which proceeded out of his mouth. All right, Jonah's a sinner,
and these other men are sinners, and gracious words are proceeding
out of their mouth, and they're kind to him, for whose cause
this evil has come upon them. But now we come to Christ, and
all bear him witness that he spoke with words of grace coming
out of his mouth. And yet, how did they speak to
Christ? Not like these sinners, the mariners
spoke to Jonah. They spoke to Christ with great
familiarity and great rudeness. They asked, is not this Jonah's
son? Right? We know his occupation.
Is not this the carpenter? We know who he is. And they know
his people, right? They said, the son of Mary, the
brother of James and Joseph, and of Judah and Simon, and are
not his sisters here with us? and they were offended at him. And some asked him another time,
shall Christ come out of Galilee? We know this man's occupation.
We know his people. We know where he's from. And
you think, why is Christ, who only spoke graciously and had
no fault of his own, why is he so hated of man? when you can see how sinners
can be so kind to Jonah, for example, whose cause, the evil,
had come upon them. And yet they were asking him,
who are you? Where are you from? What are
your people? What's your occupation? And to
Christ, who did no evil, did nothing wrong, but actually did
much good for the people, They said, we know who you are, we
know what you do, we know who your people are and where you're
from and you can't possibly be the Christ. And so he was hated
and shamefully treated by his countrymen. though He did nothing
but good for them. And so we see there that this
one, the Lamb of God, was purposed by God to come and bear the sins
of His people. He was determined before the
foundation of the earth that He should be the Lamb of God,
that He would be the means of our deliverance from the wrath
of God. Each one of us who are deserving
of damnation and condemnation and our destruction and hell
and separation, worthy of separation from God forever. Christ came
to lay down His life for such sinners as we are, alright, and
He effectually accomplished our salvation. You know, when Pilate
said to them, what should I do with this one whom you call Christ? You know, he's done nothing wrong.
Should I let him go? And they said, no, crucify him.
Crucify him. You sure? He's done nothing wrong.
Crucify him, they cried. Just get rid of him. We don't
want him here anymore. And so Christ, according to the
determinate counsel of our God, went willingly to the cross,
bearing the sin of his people. and lay down His life to make
us righteous, to put away our sin, that we should find forgiveness
with God through Christ that loved us and gave His life for
us. And so, that's all made known
and brought to His people. in God's kindness and in His
grace and mercy, even as He sent Jonah out of His way to come
here and to declare this very truth to these men. And we'll see that more next
week, what happens there. But we see a picture there of
our Savior, who willingly bore that hatred and enmity against
Himself, though He did nothing wrong. And yet, You just see
a contrast of that between him and Jonah. Jonah, who is a type
of Christ, was spoken to kindly, and all the same things were
spoken to harshly, and with hatred in their heart against Christ,
who was good and kind, and healed the people. All right, now verse
nine says, and he said unto them, I am in Hebrew, and I fear the
Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry
land. And so Jonah. says, well I'm
not a Jew, I'm not of Judah, and he didn't want to say I'm
an Israelite because at that time they were just steeped in
idolatry, and so he says, I'm a Hebrew, and he feared the Lord,
right, that's all capital letters there, Lord meaning Jehovah,
and he describes to them that this is the supreme God, there's
only one God who is in the heavens, he's the God of the Lord of the
heavens, he's the God who, he's the Lord over the, dry land and
the sea right and they understood whoa this is this is the true
and living God and so Clearly the Lord had begun to work in
Jonah's heart again, to remind him, remember Jonah, who I am,
and he began to declare the true and living God, even though Jonah's
walk didn't show it, right, even though he would flee from the
Lord, yet the Lord in grace pursued him and brought him to see and
remember again Lord, you are the true and living God, and
he does that for his people in mercy, right? Even through difficulties
and harsh providences, we're brought to remember that he alone
is God, and he's done this for me. A sinner, unworthy, was fleeing
the opposite direction from him. He did this to bring me to know
that he is the true and living God, and there's none like him. And so, our God had arrested
Jonah, stopped him dead in his tracks, brought him to the end
of himself so that his confidence left him, and the Lord was declared
and revealed in him. And it says there, he even used
Jonah to declare this truth to the men, and it says in verse
10, then were the men exceedingly afraid, a different fear than
what they had before, and they said unto him, Why hast thou
done this? For the men knew that he fled
from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them." That
just tells me all the more that verse 8 there, what we see, the
questions they asked of Jonah are meant to remind us of how
we spoke against Christ so harshly. Because this important detail,
when he told them that he had fled from the Lord, was left
out, what he said there, but it was recorded what they said
to him. And so I really believe the Lord's showing us of how
harsh, how the enmity that's in us naturally against our God
until he has mercy on us and delivers us from our death. Now, next week we will look more
at the substitutionary work of our Lord. You've heard what Christ
has done for His people. You see His tenderness, His love,
His grace for His people, that He came to this earth in the
likeness of this sinful flesh, and yet He Himself was without
sin, though every one of us is full of sin and enmity against
Him. And so he's declaring to you
this day, look to me, he says, trust me, your works and casting
out wares from the ship and trying to make it right and better will
never work. It will bring you no salvation
and no peace with God. But you look to the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall find peace and rest in your souls from your
laboring and that which you cannot do for yourselves. The Scriptures
say to him, give all the prophets witness, including Jonah, one
of the prophets of God, that through his name, the name of
Christ, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of
sins. You shall receive forgiveness
for your sins in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to him, call upon
him. Believe Him, trust Him, rest
in Him that His work is the work which God provided in purpose
for your very help and salvation and deliverance from the wrath
of God to come. I pray that the Lord would grant
you, and hear me this day, repentance from dead works to look to and
trust in the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission
of your sins. I pray you bless that word to
your hearts. Amen. All right, brethren, we're gonna
pray and then, brother, you close us with the final hymn. Our gracious
Lord, Lord, please have mercy upon us. We ask that your spirit
would fall upon us and help us, Lord, to hear this word and to
receive it, that it would not be taken away, that we would
not soon forget it, that we would not fear persecution from others
or or that this word would be choked out with the weeds and
cares of this life. But Lord, that you would make
it effectual in our hearts. Cause us to see your son, Jesus
Christ, the hope of sinners and the salvation you've provided
for your people. And you would call us out of
darkness to walk in the light of Christ, to believe on him. Reveal this faith in the hearts
of your people. We pray this in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, number 386, All for Jesus, 386. ? All for Jesus, all for Jesus
? All my being transom powers ? All my thoughts and words and
doings ? All my days and all my hours All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
all my days and all my hours. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
all my days and all my hours. Let my hands perform His bidding. Let my feet run in His ways. Let my eyes see Jesus only. Let my lips speak forth His praise. ? All for Jesus, all for Jesus
? Let my lips speak forth his praise ? All for Jesus, all for
Jesus ? Let my lips speak forth his praise ? Since my eyes were
fixed on Jesus ? The sight of all besides ? So enchained my
spirit's vision ? Looking at the crucified ? All for Jesus, all for Jesus
? Looking at the crucified All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
looking at the crucified. No one wonder how amazing Jesus,
glorious King of Kings, Thanks to call me his beloved, lest
we rest beneath his wings. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
resting now beneath his wings. All for Jesus, all for Jesus. Resting now, be deceased, please.