We continue our studies this
morning in the book of Jonah. Just past Amos and Obadiah, then
comes Jonah. Our third lesson we've taken
upon us in this book of Jonah We've looked at a couple of points.
We've looked at how the Word of the Lord came to Jonah just
as the Word of the Lord comes to all of his people through
the revelation of the Father. As it says, as Peter said to
the Lord Jesus, Thou art the Son of the Living God. And then
our Lord Jesus turned to him and said, Blessed art thou, Simon
of Arjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee,
but my Father in heaven. Yes, sir. We close with verses
8, 9, and 10, and we looked at the confessings of one's sins.
We know that he confessed his sins because in verse 10 it says,
for the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the
Lord because he had told them. But there was also another confession
that was made, one that was just as, if not more, important. Look at verse 9 with me if you
would, and He said unto them, I am in Hebrew, born to the people
favored of God. Would not the stories of the
great miracles of God's people, the ones that God performed in
Israel, would they not be known then as they are now? Would they
have not heard of the flood then as we have heard of it now? You
know, it's funny, if you mention the flood of Noah's time, Even
the inregenerate, even those who don't believe in any god
at all, even those who believe in other gods, such as Buddha
and so on, have heard of the flood of Noah. This people who were favored
from the days of Abraham, the days of Jacob, the days of Isaac,
he confirms this very thing in his next words. And he says,
and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the
sea and the dry land. Do you hear his confession? The
confession of God Almighty, sovereign ruler over all things. That's
his confession here. Unlike the world that imagined
many gods for many things, this people chosen of the true and
living God knew that there was only one God. We who have been
called of God have this same confession. There is only one
God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. I will admit to
you that I'm not smart enough to explain that in a way that
may be understood by you. But I know that it is declared
throughout scriptures, from beginning of the book to the end of the
book, and I believe God's word. The word also declares all the
fullness of the Godhead as seen in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. or the Messiah as He was known in the Old Testament.
The New Testament declares Him as the Word in John 1, where
it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made that was made. And then in verse 14, And the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. When Jonah declares
he fears the Lord, he is declaring his reverence for the One who
is Sovereign Creator, the Ruler over all that is. It's like standing
before a king. You know you're not worthy to
stand before this king. You fear Him, not with the fear
of shaking like, oh, terribleness is coming upon me, but fear that
I am not worthy to stand before this King. It's a reverence fear. It's an understanding of how
small we are and how great He is. It's not the same fear we see
in these mariners who became exceedingly afraid when they
heard his words as we see in verse 10. 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 had told them. The world has every reason to be afraid of
God's word, for it is clear he's going to destroy the wicked. He must. For He is a holy God,
so holy He cannot look upon sin. And all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Who can stand in the wrath that
is to come? We've seen the wrath of God in
the destruction of the world in Noah's day, haven't we? We've
seen the wrath of God in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
in the days of Lot. We've seen the destruction of
a great country, the Egyptians, when the Lord closed up the Red
Sea on them. Yet that was after He opened
it up and had His people walk across on dry land. These men feared for their lives.
They feared the wrath of God for the disobedience of this
one man. Turn to Romans chapter 3 if you
would. Hold your place there in Jonah. And while you're turning here,
allow me to read from Psalms 14. In verse 2 where it says,
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone
aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good, no not one. This is a description
of natural man. For all have fell in the Adam. We deserve God's wrath, each
and every one of us. Are you with me in Romans? Romans
3, look at verse 10. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are all together become unprofitable. There is
none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open
sepulcher, and their tongues, and with their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way
of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. There is no reverence. They fear
the destruction. They fear the wrath that's come
upon them with the waves that are splashing over the boat,
so much so that they threw everything that they had over side. And
now they're talking about throwing the one whose cause, who this
storm has been brought upon because of. They're talking about throwing
him over. These men feared for their lives. They feared the
wrath of God for the disobedience of this one man. Yet God will
have mercy upon whom he will have mercy. Our Lord told Moses
this in Exodus 33, 19. And all blessings, and that's
what mercy is, folks, it's a blessing, come from and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is for His sake that God has
mercy on any. Remember, God is so holy that
He cannot look upon sinful man, yet He does look upon those that
were chosen before the world, those who would be the recipients
of his love, those whose names was written in the book of life.
He looks upon them for Christ's sake. Because our Lord became
a man and he walked this earth in perfect obedience to God's
law, establishing a perfect righteousness for his people, oh, how wonderful
a thought that is for me. I know I have no righteousness
of my own. I know that if I was left to
my own, I'd be stumbling around right where I was back in 1999,
probably getting drunk, probably waking up this morning with a
hangover. Because our Lord became a man
and walked this earth in perfect obedience to God's law, he established
a perfect righteousness for me, for his people. And then as my
substitute, as our substitute, he committed himself to the cross
of Calvary. He sacrificed himself in our
stead, paying the price for sin, the price of death. Great devotion you brought there,
Mike. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. God sees us
as though we had never sinned because of him. He sees us in
Christ. And all that the Father giveth
him shall come to him." Why? Because death could not hold
him. He's God. We were mentioning that in the
men's meeting this morning. To be called God, he has to be
sovereign over everything. It's not a big mystery that he
knows every hair on your head. Some of us have a little more
than others. It's not a mystery at all. He's
God. And He sits right now, this very
moment, on His throne, ruling all things after the counsel
of His own will. He doesn't need you or I. He
doesn't need our advice. He's perfect in all that He does.
This is the same one that Jonah declares to be his Lord in verse
9. This is the one who is called
the Messiah, the Savior. This is the one called Jesus,
for he shall save his people. This is the one who makes this
Jonah to differ from these Mariners. Is not God
the potter? Hath not the potter over the
clay? of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another
unto dishonor? Who are we to say to God, what
doest thou? And just because you can't wear
this out, here's another one. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Let's continue in our text, shall
we? 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 temptuous." Notice these men
go to their natural instinct. What must we do to be saved? Again, I say natural man does
not understand the things of God, for he cannot. The natural
man is enmity against God, against the things of Christ. We're born
into this world and taught from the days we were babies, you
can do it. You're a good person, you can do it. Just got to try
harder. What must I do to be saved? First time I sat in this church,
I heard that there was nothing. It was all of Christ. Salvation
is of the Lord. The things of Christ must be
revealed by Christ Himself. That's why we opened these studies
in the beginning, if you'll remember, in Luke 24, where Christ expounded
the themes concerning Himself to the two men on the road to
Emmaus. That's a picture of God speaking
to each and every one of His elect, each and every one of
His call, revealing Himself in Scripture to them. And then we see a picture of
a sort of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus that he made for his
people here in verse 12. 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. I'd like to save this comment
for what Robert Hawker wrote, so if you'll allow me, I'll quote
a section of commentary from his book. In throwing Jonah into the sea
as the only means to abate the storm, we behold the total helplessness
of anything short of Christ, saving our whole nature from
the wrath of God. In Jonah's being thus giving
for a ransom, the storm was instantly ceasing. We behold how Christ
hath borne the sins of many, and by his voluntary offer of
himself thus once offered, he has satisfied divine justice,
made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in an everlasting
righteousness. It is true indeed, Jonah himself
was the sole offender of this storm, and the Lord Jesus Christ
altogether holy, yet as Christ became the surety of his people,
he stood forth with all the guilty of his people before Jehovah,
and both bore our sins and carried our sorrows, and in this state
was strikingly represented by Jonah when cast into the sea.
Wonderful working God is our God, whose ways are not our ways,
nor his thoughts our thoughts." End of quote. I thought that
was well stated. But I would like to add one thing
to this. Notice that it says, for I know that for my sake this
great tempest is upon you. I read several of the commentaries,
and I had to actually call our pastor to make sure what I'm
about to say is true. There is a difference where the
storm was sent because Jonah was running from God. And the
difference is that Christ never did anything wrong. The storm
was never sent against him for anything that he had done. Yet
Christ took our storm upon himself because we were running from
God. All of our sins and iniquities
were laid upon our substitute. The full wrath of God came down
on him. For his sake, he was made to
be sinned for us. If you think about Christ saying,
for my sake, it's the same as him saying, for my glory. Are
not all things for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ? Even
the fall of Adam? All things will glorify the Son
of the living God, Christ Jesus. Glory to His name. Allow me to bring this to a close.
I'd like to read an article. Do you have one of today's bulletins
with you? On the inside middle page, right-hand bottom corner,
you'll see one that was written by Pastor Gene Harmon. And he
titles his article, The Testimony of a True Believer. We opened
this morning's study with looking at the testimony of Jonah. He confessed that Jesus Christ
was his Lord, that he was feared, the Lord, God of heaven, the
creator of all things. Pastor Gene writes, because they
do not have the spirit of Christ dwelling in them, unregenerate
men and women cannot give any testimony that pleases God. Why? Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. Enoch had this testimony. He
pleased God. Our Lord Jesus is the one who
created true saving faith in Enoch. That was God's doings
and anything God does pleases Him. Enoch's testimony did not
draw attention to himself. Did you hear anything in that
testimony from Jonah that brought attention to himself? No. He feared God, creator of the
heavens and earth. nor to anything that he had done
in the flesh. That would not have been a true
testimony that would not have pleased God. So it is with every
true believer. We echo the words of Paul, the
apostle, for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. By the grace of God I am what
I am. The testimony of a true believer
will always give a true confession of our spirituality, our spiritually
dead, helpless, and hopelessness, lost condition, before we experience
the miracle of the new birth. With unspeakable joy, we praise
our Heavenly Father for choosing us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Praise Jesus Christ, our Savior,
for obtaining eternal redemption for us by the supreme sacrifice
of himself. And praise God, the Holy Spirit,
for giving us eternal life under the preaching of his gospel.
We confess those truths in believers' baptism. And for the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess our faith to others as we have
the opportunity. Have you had the opportunity
to confess who your Lord is? Glory be to Him, our Lord Jesus
Christ.