Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12, verse 38
says, Then certain of the scribes and
of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from
thee. We want to see a sign from you.
But he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign. And there shall no sign be given
to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three
days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son
of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with this generation
and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching
of Jonas. And behold, a greater than Jonas
is here. I love it when our Lord says
that. A greater than Jonas here. We know because of the word we
just read that the account of Jonah was written for one reason
only. And that reason is to show us
the only sign God chose to give us of who our Messiah and Savior
would be and how he would save. How he would save. How he would
accomplish salvation. As Jonah was in the belly of
the whale for three days, even so would the Son of Man, the
Lord Jesus Christ, be in the heart of the earth for three
days. Now tonight I want us to look
at the whole story of Jonah. Okay? Start to finish. Whole
story. With an emphasis. As we look
at the whole story, with a focus, I'm trying to get to an emphasis
on the very last verse in the whole book. Chapter 4, verse
11. And we'll see it in just a minute. Alright? Go with me, if you would,
to Jonah chapter 1. Jonah chapter 1. I want to give you a four point
outline for this message tonight. There are four chapters and tonight
each chapter will be a point in this outline. Chapter one
is the sin. Chapter two is the remedy for
the sin. Chapter three is the declaration
of the remedy for the sin. Chapter 4 is the glory of the
declaration of the remedy for the sin. All right? Chapter 1,
verse 1. Now the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh,
that great city, and cry against it for their wickedness is come
up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa,
and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare
thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord." What an astounding three verses
of scripture. That's God's prophet. That's the one God used to pen
the book. That's His called prophet. God
said, do this. Do this. Jonah blatantly turned
his back on God and went and did the exact opposite of what
God said to do. God said, go to Nineveh. Jonah got up and went straight
to Joppa and he got on a ship sailing to Tarshish. The end
of verse 3 says, from the presence of the Lord. That right there
is bold sin. Is it not? That is not subtle
underhanded sin. That is open defiance, shake
your fist, spit in the face of God, sin. That's what it is.
And we all right now are welcome. We are absolutely welcome to
remove the name Jonah and write our own name right there in his
place. This is exactly how we have treated
the holy God who made us and owns us. And I was dwelling on
that today. It's true. It's not just a statement. It's not just the beginning of
an outline. It's true. This is how we have treated the
holy God who made us and owns us. And he's not going to allow
it to go unpunished. Jonah is a picture of Christ. Our Lord said he was, but all
through this story, Jonah is also a picture of us all the
way to the end. He's a picture of us. All right. So that's what Jonah did. Verse
four says, 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. Jonah put his trust in something
that was not the Lord. He went and got in this ship,
and the Lord revealed to him immediately, don't put your trust
here. There's no trust in these things. If a man turns his back
on God's Word and tries to make his own way, He's going to end
up broken. His way is going to end up broken.
There is a way that seems right to man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death. Always. Verse 5 says, 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. That is man's works. That's man's works. That's exactly
what man does as soon as he realizes he's in trouble. We've realized
that before, haven't we? As soon as he realizes he's in
trouble, he goes to work throwing stuff out. We're going to have
to get rid of some of this stuff. We're going to have to start
throwing stuff out. We've got to stop doing this
and stop doing that. And we're going to have to lighten
the weight of sin. We're going to have to make it
so that God will be happier with us. What they don't realize is,
what men and women don't realize is, once the sin is committed,
the sin is committed. What's done is done. You cannot
undo what's done. You cannot undo what's done.
Verse 5 goes on to say, But Jonah was gone down into the sides
of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster
came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper?
Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon
us, that we perish not. And they said every one 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. Then said they 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 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.
Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why
hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled
from the presence of the Lord, because he told them. They asked
Jonah the same question God asked Jacob. What's your name? Who are you? Who are you? God asked Adam, where are you? God is going to put his people
in a position where they have to confess their sins before
him. They have to acknowledge the
truth before him. Jonah had to acknowledge exactly
what he did. Jonah had to acknowledge exactly
what he deserved. Look at verse 11. Then said they
unto him, what shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm
unto us? For the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, take me
up and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm
unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is
upon you. Is that not where God puts every
single one of us? The fault is mine. Man naturally knows that the
fault is sin. Everybody in religion knows that.
That's why they're in religion. They know the fault is sin. But
when God gets a hold of a sinner, and aren't we so glad God gets
a hold of sinners? Aren't we so glad God truly works,
God truly lays his hand on us? When God gets a hold of a sinner,
That sinner realizes it's not just sin, it's me. It's not just sin, it's my sin. Sin is not just the problem,
I'm the problem. My sin. And Jonah said, I know
what it's going to take. for God to be appeased. Verse
12, He said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the
sea. So shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for
my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless, the men
rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for
the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. Man has good religious
intentions of saving himself, and saving others. He has good
religious intentions of that, but it is not possible. They
rode and they rode and they rode and they got nowhere. It is not
possible. None can deliver out of His hand. None can stay His hand or say
unto Him, What doest thou? Verse 14, Wherefore they cried
unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee,
let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent
blood, for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they
took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased
from her raging, Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly,
and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. Now
the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and
Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."
Now, this is where Jonah represents
Christ. Jonah represents us. Jonah represents
Christ. pointing us to our glorious Savior,
told these men, you throw me in and you'll all be saved. What's going to happen to us?
What must we do? How do we get out of this? How
can we be saved? How can we be delivered? He said,
throw me in and every one of you will be saved. And they said,
God be merciful to us and threw him in. And the sea was calm,
and God prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. By one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. Every man in that boat,
because of Jonah the man, representing us, because of one man's sin,
he got in that boat and everybody was in trouble. Even so, by the
obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. Sacrifice
me, you'll all be saved." This is the only remedy for sin. This is the only remedy for sin
against God. This is what God required as
a payment. What's done is done, can't be
undone. You can't just get out of it. This is what God requires
as a payment to satisfy his wrath against sin. Chapter 2. We see
Jonah here get what he deserved. suffered God's wrath against
him, but he did it in the person of his substitute. Christ said,
Jonah is a sign of the Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, Jonah points you to
me. Alright, let's read this chapter. We're just going to
read these ten verses here. Listen to the voice of the Savior.
Listen to him in the depths of our hearts. torment, our wrath,
our punishment. Listen to him speak to his Lord
and God and Father. Chapter 2, verse 1. Then Christ
prayed. Jonah prayed, pointing us to
Christ. Unto the Lord his God, out of
the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction
unto the And he heard me, out of the belly of hell, cried I. Is that not amazing? You know
what you and I deserve. We deserve to go to hell. Listen
to our substitute. Out of the belly of hell, I cried. And thou heardest my voice, for
thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and
the floods compassed me about. These floods will not compass
us about. They compassed him about. All
thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast
out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about
even to the soul. The depth closed me round about
The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottom
of the mountains. You think about the High Holy
God of Heaven, the King of Mount Zion, coming all the way down
to Mount Calvary and all the way down to the bottom of the
mountains, as low as the mountains can go, down in the depths. He
said in verse 6, I went down to the bottom of the mountains.
The earth with her bars was about me forever. Yet hast thou brought
up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted
within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee
into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish,
and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. For three days
our Savior was in the heart of the earth. And when he arose,
he cried unto the Lord, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
or suffer thine holy one to see corruption. And he said, God
heard my cry out of the pit. He delivered me. And when he
arose out of that grave, it was over. I mean, it was over. Completely finished, the great
transaction was done when he arose, Jonah arose with him. We arose with him, all of God's
people arose with him, and now he says to Jonah, representing
every single one of us, every one of his people. Now he says
redeemed sinner is finished. It's done. Christ suffered it.
He endured it. Now, redeemed sinner, it's time
for you to go declare the good news. That is all we're doing
in the preaching of the gospel. That is the mission of the preaching
of the gospel. We are here to declare the good
news. Isn't that right? We're here
to declare the good news. We're not here to go beg anybody
to do anything. We're not here to go start fundraisers
and yard sales and all kinds of things. We're here to declare
the good news of what Christ endured in our place. Happy news. Good, good news.
It's done. He said, now go declare it. Chapter
three. Verse one, in the word of the
Lord, came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto
Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching
that I bid thee. Cry the gospel cry. You run with
the declaration of the remedy of man's sin. You run with it
and you declare it. Verse 3, So Jonah arose and went
unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord, Now Nineveh
was an exceeding great city of three days' journey, and Jonah
began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried
and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."
He went into that city, he traveled a whole day crying, the end is
coming. Judgment is coming. That's where
the declaration starts. Judgment's coming. Men and women
will never enter into the good news if they never enter into
the bad news. Never. The end is coming. Verse 4, Jonah began to enter
into the city a day's journey and he cried and said, Yet forty
days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Now watch this. So the people
of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from
the greatest of them even to the least of them. For the word
came unto the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne
and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth
and sat in ashes." They believed God. Can you believe it? This
great city, it takes three days to travel through this city.
He went through crying, judgment is coming and every single one
of them believed God from the least all the way up to the king.
He said his own robe aside covered himself in ashes. Why do we have ourselves so convinced
that men and women are not going to believe God? Why do we have
ourselves so convinced? Well, you know, I'll tell you,
but you're not going to believe it. I'll tell you the truth,
but you're not going to believe it. Lord, keep me from that attitude. May God teach us to leave faith
in His hands. Just go declare what He told
us to declare. You just go cry it. Jonah went, he did what God told
him to do, and he cried, God is about to judge this place
for all the sin that has been committed against him. And the
people believed God. We do too, don't we? We believe
God. They all feared the warning of
the true and living God. They all fell down in dust and
ashes, crying for mercy. Verse five, so the people of
Nineveh believed God. and proclaimed a fast, and put
on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of
them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose
from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered
him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be
proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the
king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd
nor flock, taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water,
but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily
unto God. Yea, let them turn every one
from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from
his fierce anger that we perish not? You know what that's called?
Repentance towards God. All of a sudden the gospel message
came through and God's Holy Spirit blessed the message and those
people received a changed mind. Wait a minute. What are we doing? God be merciful to us sinners. That is repentance toward God
and belief of the truth. And it is the goodness of God
that leads any sinner to repentance. If any sinner repents, God led
that sinner to repentance. Verse 10 says, And God saw their
works, that they turned from their evil way, And God repented
of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them, and
He did it not." This message truly saves. They cried, God
be merciful to us, and He was. He didn't do it. Believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ truly does save. The truth of what Christ
accomplished really will set men free. It truly will. Now,
Jonah being the sinner that he is, he's going to do what we
sinners do best, okay? This is what Gabe Stoniker does
best. He's going to complain. Chapter
4, verse 1 says, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was
very angry. Now this question right here
needs to be asked to two people. This question needs to be asked
to two people, Jonah and Gabe Stoniker. Now, what are you so upset about? I'm sorry, I don't understand.
What are you so upset about? Verse 1 says, It displeased Jonah
exceedingly, and he was very angry, and he prayed unto the
LORD, and said, I pray thee, O 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.
He said, I knew you were going to have mercy on him. I knew
you were. You told me to go cry. Judgment
is coming. You told me to stand up and cry
to all of them. Judgment is coming. And I knew
you were going to be gracious. I knew you were going to be patient.
I knew you were going to be kind. I knew you were going to make
them bow and cause them to cry out for mercy. And I knew you'd
hear their prayer. I knew you'd deliver. I knew
you would. I'm sorry, now what are we so
upset about? What are we so upset about? Can
we not say that the only thing we have received from our God
is graciousness and patience and kindness and mercy? Isn't that all we have received? What are we so upset about? Gabe
Stoniker, what are you so upset about? What are you so upset about?
What have you received of your Lord? Graciousness, kindness,
mercy, patience, peace, love, tenderness, compassion, provision,
protection. Verse 3 says, Therefore now,
O Lord, Jonah said, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it
is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord,
Doest thou well to be angry? Do you do well to be angry? Verse
5, So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the
city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow,
till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord
God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah, that
it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his
grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of
the gourd. He was so glad for that gourd.
And if you have a center reference in your Bible, you'll see it
says rejoiced with great joy. He sat there rejoicing in that
gourd that was shading his head from that sun beating down on
him. And God right here is going to teach Jonah something about
his graciousness. and His kindness and His patience
and His mercy. That's what He's going to do
right here. Verse 7 says, But God prepared a worm. God prepared
a gourd. And Jonah, oh, he loved that
gourd. Verse 7 says, But God prepared a worm when the morning
rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. God prepared a gourd to give
Jonah that shade. But God prepared a worm to make
the gourd wither and die. I dwelled on the fact that God
prepared the gourd and God prepared the worm. The Lord gives and
the Lord takes away. Isn't that right? Blessed be
the name of the Lord. Verse 8, And it came to pass, when the
sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the
sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in
himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than
to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest
thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well
to be angry even unto death. He said, I'm mad about this gourd. I'm mad that it was destroyed.
I delighted in it. I was pleased it was there. It brought me joy. And I'm angry
because I didn't want it to be destroyed. Verse 10, Then said
the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou
hast not labored. Neither madest it grow, which
came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I
spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than six score
thousand persons? that cannot discern between their
right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle. In that
verse, that's my favorite verse in the whole text. This is my
favorite verse in the whole text. In that verse, this is what our
Lord is saying. This is, here's the glory in
the declaration. Here's the glory in the declaration. Here's the glory, we got this
declaration, it's a good declaration. Here's the glory, here's the
wonder, here's the amazement of the declaration. In that verse,
he's saying, shouldn't I show mercy? Jonah, shouldn't I show
mercy? Shouldn't I show compassion? Isn't that what goodness and
love does? Ought not Christ to suffer these
things? Ought I not to suffer these things? We declare this remedy for sin. We declare the suffering substitute
to Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of the Declaration
is this. God's desire to do it. His desire to do it. He told
his disciples at his last supper. Here he is, he gives out this
bread, he gives out this wine, he's going to the cross. He said,
this cup is the cup of the New Testament in my blood. This represents
the covenant that you have in my blood. And he said, with desire,
I have desired to drink this cup with you. He asked two of
his disciples, can you drink the cup that I'm going to drink
of? And they ignorantly said, yes, we can. And he said, you
will. And Jonah did, and we have. We
died with him. We were buried with him. We rose
with him. We endured our suffering in him,
with him, in union with him. He said, you will drink that
cup with me. And at His table, He said, with desire, I've desired
to, I love you. I love you. Ought not Christ to suffer these
things? Our Lord endured the cross. He endured our redemption for
the joy set before Him. the happiness set before him. Should not I spare Nineveh? The answer is, Lord, if that's
your heart's desire, absolutely. Have thine own way, Lord. And
that's what he did. That's exactly what he did. For
God so loved. I don't know if we'll ever enter
into the love God had for his people, those sinners like Jonah,
by sending his only begotten son down into the depths for
us. For God so loved, He sent His
only begotten Son to the heart of the earth, the grave, death,
hell, separation from God. That every soul that He causes
to believe on Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life, everlasting life. That is where the writing of
the book of Jonah ends. That's where the recording stopped.
The penman was writing and that's where God had him stop. I couldn't
help but wonder this though. I wonder if our Lord said to
His prophet right then, if there would have been a verse 12, or
if there would have been chapter 5, verse 1. I wonder if our Lord
told His prophet right then and there, now go to the next city. You keep going. You spread this
gospel to all the world. You just keep declaring it. You
just keep preaching it. You keep telling every soul,
you've sinned, but there is mercy through the cross. the substitution of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Mercy. Stand together with me.