Really? th th th Yeah, I was just kind of going
from memory. Oh, OK. I was going to say, because
I just did it about last week. So I was like, oh. Right, and
then Joe went, I think. Yeah, so it should have been
me, right? It is you. Well, you and I must have seen
an old bowl. Yeah, we just had one. That was a good thing, wasn't
it? I love the rock you put out. Thank you. Oh, I did, too. He said it was unconsciously,
but I think it's pretty cool. The stone, that's what
happened. I don't know how I see my own
bulletin. I must have just got confused
in my inbox. I had last week's or something. I just wanted to make sure. We're going to open our second
service singing number 62, Crown Him with Many Crowns, number
62. ? Crown Him with many crowns ?
? The Lamb upon His throne ? ? Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
? ? All music but its own ? ? Awake my soul and sing ? ? Of Him who
died for thee ? and hail him as thy majesty through all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side, rich wounds yet visible above, in beauty
glorified. No angel in the sky can fully
bear that sight. But downward bends his wandering
eye at mystery so bright. Crown him the Lord of life, who
triumphed o'er the grave. ? Who rose victorious to the
strife ? ? For those He came to save ? ? His glory's now we
sing ? ? Who died and rose on high ? ? Who died eternal life
to bring ? ? And lives that death may die ? Crown Him the Lord
of heaven, one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through
Him given from yonder glorious throne. To Thee be endless praise,
for Thou for us has done, Be Thou, O Lord, through endless
days adored and magnified. Our second hymn will be number
352, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, O my Savior, hide till the storm
of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Leave, O leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I long
for. ? More than all in Thee I find
? Praise the fallen, cheer the faint ? Heal the sick and lead
the blind ? Full said, full of sin I am ? Thou art full of truth How simple a sin I am, Thou art
full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sins. ? Let the healing streams
abound ? ? They can keep me pure within ? ? Thou of life, the
fountain of life ? ? Freely let me take of thee ? ? Spring thou
up within my heart ? ? Rise to all eternity ? Thank you. Morning. Morning. I'm going to
be reading this morning out of Isaiah, chapter 55. Isaiah 55,
starting in verses 1. Ho, everyone that thirsteth. Come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come. Buy wine
and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto
me. Here in your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified
thee. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.
And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not
your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. For my
thoughts Then your thoughts. As the rain cometh down, and
the snow from heaven, and returneth not to thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word
be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto
me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in things whereto I sent it. For you shall go out with
joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall
break forth before you in singing, and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come
up the fir tree. Instead of the briar shall come
up the myrtle tree. And it shall be to the Lord for
a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Father,
Thank you for giving us a place, Lord, to come and worship you,
Lord. We pray that you'd send your
word out today, Lord, through your messenger, Lord. Direct
our hearts, Lord. Give us hearts to receive the
word this morning and look solely upon Christ, Lord, and look savingly
upon him. We pray for those who weren't
able to make it today, Lord, and for your people everywhere
and all your preachers today that are bringing your word.
Lord, that you'd look after them and encourage their hearts. Morning. We're going to be in Jonah. Jonah chapter one. And I want
to look at the first five verses with you this morning. And I
hope that this is the first of a number of messages from the
book of Jonah with you. Now, I'm aware that there's a
lot of foolish ideas and notions in the world about the book of
Jonah. And I'm aware that there are
scholars who think that The Book of Jonah didn't literally happen,
but that it's just perhaps an allegory to teach us of some
morals or some religious truths about it. But the reality is
that Jonah is not a fictitious character, and his account here
is not fiction. It's not an allegory. It literally did happen, just
as the Lord said it happened. And we'll see that Jonah is actually
a prophet. He's a prophet of the Lord. And
we know that Jonah is a sign. He is a sign to us. The Lord
tells us that. And we also see, as we go through
that, he's a type. He's a type. He's a picture and
a type of the church in several ways. He's a type of the members
of the body in the church and there are times where he's a
type of the head of the body. which is Jesus Christ, our Lord
and Savior. And so as we go through it, you'll
see we're only going through the first five verses, and that's
because just in the first chapter alone, there are so many types
and pictures that are a blessing to the people of God who are
made able to see it and given a heart to see it and to see
what our Lord is teaching us through His Word and so I have
no doubt that it's both divinely inspired and that it really did
happen as the Lord said and He gives it to us to teach us His
Gospel and to reveal our Savior to us in His Word. Now just To
begin, let's just look at verse 1 here for a moment, and it says
in Jonah 1, verse 1, Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah,
the son of Amittai. And the word Jonah, the root
word there, means a dove. means a dove, and him being the
son of Amittai, Amittai, that word, its root signifies the
truth, the truth, that which is true. And so we even have
two senses of meaning just there, alone for us, that we see right
in the beginning verses of Jonah. One sense being that as we look
at Jonah here, we see how keysy it is for the Word of Truth to
come to the Lord's people and how easily it flies away, how
easily it goes from us and disappears from us that we should not obey
it. We read there in the first couple
verses that the Word of the Lord came unto Jonah But Jonah rose
up to flee. Jonah heard it and rose up to
flee. And then we see that our God
is actually stronger than our will. He overcomes the disobedience
and the rebellion of his people so that he's not deterred or
put off by our rebellion or our sin. because what the Lord actually
does is even though we ourselves would flee from the Word of God
and fly away and let that Word just fly away, let that truth
just leave us in an instant, yet the Lord takes the truth,
His truth, His Word, and He carries it on the wings of a dove even
to a people yet sitting in utter darkness and rebellion against
the truth of God. So that God paused his word to
be carried upon the wings of a dove out to the most darkest
kingdom and largest kingdom known upon the face of the earth at
that time, it being Assyria. And so our God does this in order
to show us that He's able to save all His people whom He foreknew,
whether Jew or Gentile. Now, if you were with me this
morning, you'll see some truths presented here, revealed to us
here, that we actually heard this morning, that I never saw
in Jonah before, but now see them more clearly. So, we'll
uncover that as we go. Now, I've titled this, Jonah,
a Type in Salvation. Jonah, a Type in Salvation. So, let's look at verse one together.
Jonah 1.1. Now, the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying. Now, the word of God
came to Jonah because Jonah is a prophet of the Lord. He really
is a literal prophet of the Lord. Over in 2 Kings 14.25, This confirms it for us that
Jonah is a real man, a real prophet of the Lord. It says that he,
speaking of King Jeroboam, right? So this means that the kingdom's
already divided. There's now King Jeroboam in
Israel. And he, it says, restored the
coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the
plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which
he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the
prophet, which was of Gathipher. All right, so Jonah's a prophet
of the Lord, and it would appear that he was sent to the people
of Israel rather than the people of Judah. He was in the 10 tribes
that rebelled against the house of David, and that's where God
had him largely ministering to the people there. But the word
of the Lord comes to Jonah and it says in verse 2, Arise, go
to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their
wickedness has come up before me. And so the first thing that
we as the church, as the people of God see, is that there's a
great need in our day, just as there's a great need in every
generation that lives upon the face of the earth. So that we,
as we see laid out in the scriptures, we are to go and carry this word
of our God faithfully declaring what He has shown us and told
us to speak, to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's who
we're to speak of. We're to speak of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not just of religion, not just
of morality, not about ceremony and doing things that we might
make ourselves righteous or keep ourselves moral. but were to
preach and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, and were to faithfully
declare what he himself accomplished on the cross for His people,
how that He came willingly in the likeness of this sinful flesh,
yet being without sin, He Himself is a perfect sacrifice, a perfect
Lamb of God, spotless, having no sin, no blemish, no guile
in Him, and He, for His people, made himself an offering to the
Father to make atonement for our sin, to put away the stain
of sin and the guilt of our conscience and the guilt of our offenses
against holy God. He died as the substitute of
his people And as their surety, paid to God all the debt that
we owed to Him. And thereby, He makes us righteous. We have no righteousness of our
own. And he's satisfied and pleased God well in all things, even
the very sacrifice of himself for his people and putting away
their sin. And so we speak of him and declare,
you're not going to please God by your own works of righteousness.
Look to the Son. Look to his salvation. Believe
him. That's how we come to the Father
and are accepted of him, through the blood of the Son, Jesus Christ. For he is our righteousness. Okay, so we preach Christ to
sinners and like we see here both sinners that are far far
away and sinners that are near. Meaning those that are far away
in their own heart and in their own mind and have no desire or
thought for the Lord as well as those who do seem to be seeking
and seem to know that they are sinners and have a need of salvation. Preach it to all. Preach it to
all. Lift up the Lord Jesus Christ
before all men and women. And that's because the sin of
man, the reason why it's necessary is that the sin of us all rises
up before the throne of Him who is holy God over all things. God of heaven and earth, things
upon the earth, beneath the earth, in the sea, and everything all
around. He is the God of all things. Paul, when he was writing to
the Colossians, noted to the brethren there in Colossians
3 verse 5 and 6 he tells us mortify put to death therefore your members
right because we are yet in this flesh he says put to death these
things that are in your members these lustful things which are
upon the earth and he numbers a few of them he says fornication
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, which is
lustful desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Don't entertain
these things because they are in our flesh. They are there.
They're in our heart, and in our thoughts, and in our mind.
They're in this flesh. And he says, don't dwell on those
things and just provoke those things and feed those things.
Let those things die by the Spirit. And so then he says in verse
6, for which things say the wrath of God cometh upon the children
of disobedience. And so again, he's reminding
us, he speaks to us this way because our inheritance is isn't
in with the sons and daughters of Adam. That's not our inheritance. That's not our part. They're
going to suffer the wrath of God. But you that believe Christ
and hope in him, that yet have the weakness of this flesh, that's
not your inheritance to be destroyed with them in God's wrath. So don't feed those things, because
they have no part in you or for you. It's not your inheritance.
Our inheritance is in the body of Christ. and not in the body
of death and sin. Alright, so wrath is coming and
we're to preach the gospel because there is only one hope of salvation
given among men whereby we must be saved. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why we speak of him as
faithfully as God enables us to be, because it's not many
roads that lead to heaven. It's not just because we're trying
our best to be good people. And it doesn't matter which religion
you follow or which moral code you follow. There is one hope
of salvation, and we're never going to rise up to it. It's
only the Lord Jesus Christ who makes us righteous in Him. So
this is why God sent Jonah. But then we read this in verse
3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord. And so here we begin to see,
wait a minute, it's not just the Gentiles that have a problem
with rebellion, but we see that rebellion is even in the heart
of his people. Even in this prophet here of
the Lord, he hears the word of God and he rises up to flee from
the presence of the Lord. And so you have these Gentiles
in Nineveh of Assyria that are rebelling against God and their
awakeness is coming up before them and now we see this rebellion
in Jonah as well. And so all are sinners. Every one of us is a sinner.
None of us is righteous. None of us is able to please
God by ourselves or our works. We're told in Romans 3, 9, Paul
says, we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are
all under sin. Jew and Gentile, every one of
us is under sin. You can take that to today, whether
you're a believer or an unbeliever, all are under sin. None of us
can stand up and boast and say, not me, I'm perfect in my works. I don't need what you guys need.
I can just take or leave what I want because it's not important
for me because I'm so special and so different. No, you're
not. We're all sinners in need of the grace of God. As it's
written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understand it. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. And so we ever depend upon the
grace of God, we ever depend upon His Spirit to keep us and
to teach us and to feed us and to turn our hearts from the lusts
of the flesh and delighting in those things, ever to keep coming
back to Him and crying out to Him for mercy and grace and keeping
us looking to Christ, keeping us rejoicing in Him and believing
Him and serving Him faithfully. All right, so what's Jonah's
problem? Jonah gets up and he leaves when
the word of the Lord comes to him and says, go preach to these
Gentiles there in Assyria. Why did he refuse to obey God? Well, there's actually a prophecy
that's revealed to us in what Jonah did. And you wonder, when
you're reading the New Testament, and you're seeing these things
that they knew, that they understood, that were revealed to them throughout
the Word of God, and you're like, I didn't see that until they
made it clear to me here in the New Testament. Well, this is
actually one of those things. There's a prophecy here in what
Jonah does in fleeing from the Word of God. And what I mean
is that we see, if you think about it, Jonah didn't want to
preach to Gentile dogs. He didn't want to go preach the
Word of God to the Gentiles. That's really what he was angry
about. He did not want to go preach the truth of God to the
Gentiles. He was of Gathipher, which is
in Zebulun. Zebulun was in Israel. And Israel at that time was part
of the ten tribes that rebelled against the house of God. And
Jonah believes God. He trusts Him. And yet, his people,
Israel, are rebelling against God. They're looking to two cows
that were formed for them to worship, so that they wouldn't
go back down to Jerusalem, like the Lord said, in the Temple.
So his own people aren't even believing what God has said. They need the gospel. They need
to hear the word of God. And Jonah's thinking, you're
going to send me to Assyria, the enemy of God's people, to
go preach the gospel to them? And my own people need to hear
this gospel? I don't want to do that. I don't
want that word to go out to them. And he was jealous for the word
of God. He was jealous that it was going
out to them because God was taking his prophet and his word, taking
them up, sending them outside of Israel to go preach to the
Gentiles. You see that? He was preaching
to the Gentiles. Look at Jonah chapter 4. Look
at Jonah 4 verse 2. Here's his problem, he said,
oh Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country?
Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou
art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and repentest thee of the evil. And he's saying, I knew that
you weren't sending me to go there, tell them that God's going
to destroy them, and then I was going to go up on the hill and
watch you destroy them. I knew that's not why you were
sending me there. I knew that as soon as I went there, you
were sending me to preach the gospel and to save those filthy
Gentile dogs. I didn't want to do it. And here,
here you are doing it. You're sending the gospel out
to these Gentiles. And that really angered him.
It really made him Jealous. He didn't want to do it. He didn't
want to preach the gospel to them. And so not only was the
fact that the Gentiles were going to be saved, but additionally,
it meant that Israel wasn't here. God wasn't even giving that word
of salvation to his own people, Israel. They were going to continue
on in their rebellion, worshiping cows instead of golden calves,
instead of going down to Jerusalem to worship God like they were
supposed to. See that, why it angered him and made him upset
about it? And so I say this is a prophecy
because this is exactly what happened in the apostolic age,
right? This is exactly what God did
when Christ came and then Christ rose up and began to implement
the will of God on the earth through his apostles. And the
word left Israel and went out to the Gentiles. It was a prophecy
showing that this is exactly what God intended to do. Right
there, seen in what we have there in Jonah. And so let me show
you this in just a few signs, and why I say this was showing
us what God was doing. Look at verse 3 with me, Jonah
1, verse 3. Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa. He went down to Joppa. All right,
well that's kind of curious that he would go to Joppa and that
would be highlighted for us where he went, to Joppa. Go over to
Acts 10. Acts 10 and look at verse 1.
And you'll see what I'm saying, how the Lord reveals in his word
what he's doing. This is how they understood.
By the Spirit, they saw, wait a minute, God was showing us
these things all throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. And
now we see the truth of it. And now we, having the New Testament
as well, see it even more clearly what God was doing. So Acts 10.1,
there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius. Now we know
he's a Gentile. He was a centurion of the band
called the Italian Band. a devout man and one that feared
God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people
and prayed to God always, he saw in a vision, evidently, about
the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming into him
and saying unto him, Cordelius, And when he looked on him, he
was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto him,
thy prayers and thy noms are come up for a memorial before
God. And now send men to Joppa. Send to Joppa some men and call
for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. So that we see now
in the New Testament how that the first Gentile in the apostolic
church, right? We know that Christ revealed
himself to a few Gentiles. But now as the church, Christ
having risen above and seated on the throne, he now has the
first gospel preacher that goes to the Gentiles sent for from
Joppa. just where Jonah fled from the
presence of the Lord. He went to Joppa. And now the
Lord says, all right, I'm going to take Joppa, just like I revealed
back there in Jonah, and show you that I'm going to send my
gospel out to the Gentiles that they may hear it. And so we see
it there. And then also look in verse 3,
and he found a ship going to Tarshish. And most scholars,
most people understand Tarshish is Tarsus in Cilicia. That's Tarsus in Cilicia. And what do we know about the
city of Tarsus? What's so special about that
place? Well, Paul says in Acts 22 verse 3, he says, I am verily
a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, right? So Paul's saying, I was born
in Tarsus, right? Or Tarshish. That's where Jonah
was trying to get to. And what do we know about Paul? What's so special about the Apostle
Paul? Well, in Romans 11, 13, he says,
For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle
of the Gentiles. He's the apostle of the Gentiles.
I magnify mine office. And so everywhere that Jonah,
where it was marked out that he was fleeing to or wanted to
get to, God made a marker, if you will, saying, all right,
there's Joppa. Now it was all done because this
is what God intended to do, but there's Joppa and there's Tarsus. And from those things, we see
that the first Gentiles in the Apostolic Church heard the gospel
from a man sent forth from Joppa, and that the apostle to the Gentiles
was born and raised up in Tarsus. And I sent him out to preach
the gospel to the Gentiles." All pictured and prophesied in
Jonah, who was sent out from Israel to go preach the gospel
to the Gentiles there in Nineveh of Assyria. Man can fight and rebel and kick
and scream all he wants, but God just displays His glory and
His power as it pleases Him, revealing that He is in complete
and utter control of His Word. He's going to save whom He will
and send for them if He has to from the ends of the earth or
out to the ends of the earth to preach and declare this truth. All right, now another thing
that we see is also in verse three, where it says that Jonah
paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them
unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And the Lord's showing
to us that there's a price to pay for disobedience. There's
a price to pay for disobedience. You know, all the inhabitants
of this world are happy to pay that price and to go down into
it. They go on down into hell and
ruin and utter destruction. And so man, just like you see
Jonah doing here, he sets his heart on a place like Tarshish. He sets his heart on a place
like Tarshish, believing that it will get me out from the presence
of the Lord. you know, many who set their
hearts on this world will find that they one day will come to
themselves and realize I'm far from the presence of the Lord. That would be a mercy, that would
be a grace if they come to see that they're far from the presence
of the Lord because many won't know it until they wake up in
hell. eternally separated from the
presence of the Lord. And so for you and me that hear
the gospel, that have the gospel preached to us, the word that
we're to seek here is that we're not to go down to Tarshish. Don't go with them down to Tarshish
fleeing from the presence of the Lord. The Lord's warnings,
don't do that. Don't seek to fly from the Word
of God. Don't put yourself and set yourself
up so that you won't hear the Word of God and be delivered
from that Word and the blessing of that Word and what we need
to hear. Our Lord said in Matthew 7 verse
13 and 14, He tells us, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for
wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat. because straight is
the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few
there be that find it." He's warning us. He's letting us know
everybody's fleeing to Tarshish. Everyone's going down into it,
paying the fare that they might flee from the presence of the
Lord. But don't you do that. Don't do that. You stay upon
the Lord and trust Him. You go in through that straight
and narrow gate. under the sound of the gospel,
looking ever to your Savior, Jesus Christ. Believe Him. And so, pray that the Lord keep
our hearts. Pray that He keep us, that we
not be a demons who, having loved this present world, have left
the brethren, that He might serve His own lusts and pleasures in
the world. Pray that He give us an ear and
a heart for His gospel word. There's many times in our life
where we want the Lord to honor us, and yet how shameful it is
to think of how we honor Him, or lack thereof. We don't want
to honor Him, but we want Him to honor us. And so it's a shame
when we're brought to see how, like Jonah, The Word of the Lord
comes to us, but we're so quick and willing to get up and head
on down to Tarshish to flee from the presence. of the Lord. And so when the Lord hears our
cry, when He hears our cry, like He said in verse 2, the cry of
their iniquity has come up to me. When the Lord hears our cry,
is it the cry from us crying Hosannas and shouting His name
and praising Him and seeking Him? Or is it that cry against
us because our wickedness has come up before the Lord? What is it? doing here and in
our actions and thoughts and deeds. And it's a hard thought,
right? It's not something that we like
to think about or dwell on, to see it in us. But we see this
so often in the scriptures, how there's people blessed to hear
the Word of God, and yet they have no heart or desire for it. I mean, Paul says in Romans 10,
verse 21, the last verse in Romans 10, he said, but to Israel he
saith, all day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient
and gainsaying people. And so, is that us? Is that an
appropriate word for us? Is that true of us? That we're
the gainsaying, hard-hearted people that just won't hear?
And just keep on paying the fare to head on out down to Tarshish
for the love of this world. Well, what's going to change
that? How is our heart changed? And how are we turned from the
love of this world? Because I know, naturally, We
hear it and we say, yeah, that's me. But we know that we don't
have the strength and the power in us. But did Jonah have the
strength and the power in him? Did he suddenly come to himself
and turn himself around? No, he didn't. And I don't say
that to recommend anybody to just go on out and live like
the devil and do what you want, knowing that if you're going
to be saved, it's going to be God that saves you. And so you just
press it and press it and press it in the hopes that you get
saved by the skin of your teeth. And you think, why didn't I hear
this when I was 89 years old and then believe on my deathbed
so I could have had my cake and then eat it too? Why did that
happen to me? Why do I got to hear it so early?
Well, I don't know, but that's what God intended. He intended
for us to be laborers in his kingdom, believing him for many
of us at a young age, right? He's called us to that. And how
can we say to our God, why am I treated like this? Why can't
I be one of those you know, like the thief on the cross and saved
at the last moment. Well, I don't know, but we're
not. We're called now. We hear it now. Believe him and
trust him. But what we do see is that it
was that God turned Jonah's heart. He dealt with Jonah. He delivered
Jonah and retrieved him. It says in verse four, We see
that it's God who does it. Verse 4, Jonah 1, 4, 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 that there is a picture of
God's grace in delivering us in coming for you, in pursuing
you that are His people, that you should hear and know the
Lord, that you should not hear the word and flee, but hear the
word and be turned to your God, to know Him and to serve Him
and to be obedient unto Him. And so Jonah The sweetness, the
comfort for us is that, yeah, Jonah was rebellious. And we
see our own rebellion, right? Each of us can think, yeah, I
can see me and my thoughts and my own heart. We see it. As much
as Jonah is in utter defiance and rebellion against God, we
see the grace of God being undeterred by his rebellion and pursuing
him. Just like you've been seeing
in Isaiah 41, verse three, he pursued them. He pursued them. And thankfully, our God pursues
us and won't let us go. He pursues us. In fact, in Ephesians
2, We see in Ephesians 2, in verse 4, after Paul's described
our walk, after he's laying out what we are in our own nature
and in ourselves, how we walk according to the course of this
world, and how our conversation in time past was in the lusts
of our flesh. That's us, how we walk. But here's
the difference. Verse 4, but. God. But God who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, right, with hearts set upon Tarshish, making a mad
dash to flee from the presence of the Lord, he hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace you're saved, and hath raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus." Right? So there in Jonah's case, the
Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. And there was a mighty
tempest in the sea. So it's falling right there on
Jonah. It's just coming down upon Jonah's
ship. All falling down there on him. If you've ever looked at Jonah
or looked at some commentaries, usually they point out that the
Jews traditionally say it was only falling upon Jonah's ship. And when I would read that, not
touching the other ships that were there in the sea, just upon
the ship Jonah was on. And I would read that and be
like, that's unnecessary, that's silly, they don't gotta say that.
But really, when you think about it, is how often does that happen
to us? Where you're sitting there in
the midst of all these people and the Lord brings upon you,
your heart, your thoughts, your mind, a whole tempest of a storm
just whips up And you're in it. You know the Lord's dealing with
you. Even if others around you aren't
hearing it and aren't being dealt with in that same way. But the
wind comes upon you and the Lord puts his finger upon you and
deals with with you and breaking your heart and causing you to
know, Lord, I am so far from you. I need you, Lord. Have mercy
upon me. He deals with us in that way. And so that's why it's not so
far-fetched and crazy that it could be that the mariners who
were there in that ship understood something is unnatural here because
I see those guys over there and they're fine, but we're about
to be destroyed. The Lord's after somebody here
on this ship. The Lord's gonna deal with them
and he's putting his finger on them. And so we too see that
to be true of us. And there's even another sense
there we see in, well, verse five. So having said that about
the individual, We also see something for us as a body, as a body of
believers. Isaiah 41, verse 5 says, then
the mariners that were there in that ship, that were a part
of that body there with Jonah, says, they 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."
Now, I don't have time to deal with everything in this verse
this week. We'll come back to it next week. But I was just
going to notice just a couple small things here. In one sense, we see how the
one who should have been sensible to the whole thing, to whom the
Lord was pouring out this tempest and wind upon, they were the
ones who were most insensible. Jonah's laying down there fast
asleep. He's not worried about anything.
Everything's fine for him, and the whole body is all in fear
and terrified because the whole ship's like to be broken up. There are times when we're like
that in our sin nature, right? We're just dead and insensible
to what the Lord is doing in our midst. And we should hear
it, and we should be sensitive to it, and we're not. And the
Lord's dealing with it. And I was thinking this morning,
as I was thinking about the notes here, how there's even a picture
of that in the body, right? As a body of believers that I
really believe from my experience when we first called Clay as
our pastor to even now me being called here that I trust and
know that the Lord is dealing with us. He's teaching us. Some
of you, based on what you've said and
your knowledge of the gospel, your first church, your first
part of being a church is actually here. You sat in churches that
you now look at and say, that was just dead religion. That
wasn't the truth. And that wasn't a pastor. And
they weren't speaking the truth. You were in religion, yes, but
you never sat in the gospel church and how the Lord deals with his
people and how he first settles us. You know, we've had some
people come and become part of our body, but very few. And that, I believe that's part
of me and my own immaturity. Right? And just where I am in
being taught by the Lord. And I believe it's also because
before he starts bringing in a whole body of people, he's
settling his, he's making a rock, a foundation of his people. And
so we're all going through the tempest and the wind. And each
one of us is being brought to pray to the Lord, Lord help us,
help us to hear and help us to be settled. You know, I didn't
really have time to look at it, but When the church, right, when
they were in the wilderness, everyone was moved to give an
earring, right, one of their earrings to the church, to the
building of what they were doing there in the wilderness with
Moses. And I was thinking, you know, that's so true of us. The first thing we are to give
is our ear, right? Just, Lord, help me to hear.
Just help me to be faithful to preach Christ and exalt Him to
the people, and help your people to hear. And help me to hear.
Help us to hear what you're saying to us. And so, because that's
how He's teaching us. He's settling us as a body, and
then who, Ed? to the church daily such as should
be saved in his time in his appointed time and I really believed that
and I witnessed that with with the brethren in New Jersey as
well that's very slow because we had a whole bunch of and we
were pretty tough on our pastor when he came and very careless
and indifferent to come in and hear in the gospel and you know
just had so many other things to do and the Lord was so patient
and so gracious to us and just keeping that word coming out
faithfully that we may hear not through beating and whipping
in the law but through his grace and mercy and kindness in the
Lord Jesus Christ and he melted our hearts and and just brought
us together in Him. And so I trust that that's what
He's doing here. I believe it. I absolutely, 100%
believe that and trust the Lord is doing what He will. And so
we're to pray and say, Lord, help me give my ear. to the truth
of the word. And Lord, settle me, teach me
what I need to hear, that you may use us in this dark part
of the country as well. And the Lord will do it. I know
he will, and that's how he does it. Not because of us, because
that's what he's doing in our midst. That's how he does it
and what he does. Here's Jonah, he's laying fast
asleep, and the tempest of God's roaring down upon them. But the comfort for us is that
our God has a people for whom he foreknew, and he's working
his gracious purpose in the midst of his people. And by His Spirit,
He's going to wake up Jonah. We'll see that next week. We'll
look at a little more in this verse and see what He does for
Jonah, because He saves him in mercy. And Jonah's going to be
brought to confess salvation is of the Lord, right? Jonah
2-9. He's going to say that, just
like He brings us to see from time to time, wow! how far away
I was, and yet now I'm reminded, salvations of the Lord. I heard
of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee,
and I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." He does that,
just like in Job there. Brethren and sinners, are you
troubled by a tempest come from God? Is He stirring up your heart
and causing you to know that you're like to be broken up and
sunk to the bottom of the sea in hell? Is He dealing with you
in that way? I pray that He is. I pray that
He wakes us from our slumber and make us to hear and to know
our need of Him and what He's doing in our midst. But if you
are being dealt with in that way, he says, look to my son. You cry out to him. You cry out
to him and confess your sin and beg him for mercy and believe
that Christ is the salvation that God's provided. He doesn't
just shake you to utterly destroy you. He shakes you and makes
you to know that you're being shaken to save you, right? don't even know, and just die
and perish at the bottom of the sea, none the wiser. But you
that are made wise, made to know your sin, it's not to destroy
the flesh, yes, but not to destroy your soul. It's to cause you
to cry out to Him and believe Him by faith. Believe Him, trust
Him, trust Him, and He'll calm the sick. Trust Him to do it,
and He will, because that's what He does for His people, by grace.
So, I pray the Lord bless that word to your hearts and comfort
us in Christ. And I pray next week, Lord willing,
we'll come back to it and see more of His grace revealed to
us just in Jonah here, in the first chapter. So, the Lord bless
you. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, Father, we pray, Lord, trusting that you are working
in our midst, that your spirit is here. Lord, that you have
poured out your tempest, your wind upon the hearts and minds
of your people whom you are dealing with, causing us to see our need
of you, that we cannot save ourselves and that we're far from the Lord
and have just been fleeing from the presence of the Lord. Father,
we ask that you have mercy on us, that you would turn us like
you turned Jonah, that you would deliver us from death and darkness
and bring us into the kingdom of your light, of your dear Son,
Jesus Christ. And Father, we ask that you would
be with each one, that you would help us, Lord, in our infirmities,
in our sicknesses, in our strugglings and fears and worries and doubts. And Lord, that you would build
us up in Christ, that you would indeed fit us together each stone
as one united stone in the building of this local assembly here that
we would love you give our ear to hear you lord and that you
would teach us and that we would learn to serve and love one another
in the spirit of joy and gladness trusting you it's in the name
of our lord and savior jesus christ we pray and give thanks
amen Our closing hymn will be number
128 in the hardback 128, Wounded For Me. Wounded for me Wounded for me
There on the cross He was wounded for me Done my transgressions
and now I am free All because Jesus was wounded for me ? Dying
for me ? Dying for me ? There on the cross ? He was dying for
me ? Now in his death my redemption I see ? All because Jesus was
dying for me Risen for me, risen for me Up from the grave He has
risen for me Now evermore from death's sting I am free All because
Jesus has risen for me Living for me, living for me. Up in the skies, He's living
for me. Daily He's pleading and praying
for me. All because Jesus is living for
me. Coming for me, coming for me. One day to earth He's coming
for me. Then with what joy His dear face
I shall see. Oh, how I praise Him, He's coming
for me. Thank you. It's good. They got in late last night.
Yeah. From San Francisco. From San
Francisco? Yeah. That's right. They look
good, so. Are they back yet from San Francisco? Yeah. Thanks. Was the trip okay? Was everything good? Yeah. That's
just a hot seat for the last one to be at right now. Yeah. I actually will. Oh, really? I wouldn't mind going. It's like the same.