Our studies I would like to bring
before you in our Bible study will be from the book of Jonah,
but to set that table, to continue setting the table
that Mike just put before us, would you turn to Luke chapter
24 with me for just a moment before we go to Jonah. Luke chapter 24. We set the Lord's name before
us, as Mike read there. It is every pastor, every preacher,
every teacher, every man who the Lord appoints to stand in
front of his pulpit and preach to his people. It is our responsibility
to bring Christ out as best we can in scriptures. Our pastor
has said many times, Get on the path to Christ as
quickly as possible. Luke chapter 24, looking at verse 27. Our Lord
Jesus had just spent some time with two of his disciples on
the road to Emmaus. They did not know who he was
at that time. In verse 25 he says, Then he
said unto them, O fools, and slow to heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into his glory? And then verse 27,
And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets he expounded, explained,
taught, preached unto them in all the Scriptures, the things
concerning himself. The New Testament interpretates the old. Look down
in verse 31, and here's the result of that very thing, the expounding
of scriptures, all the things concerning of Christ. And their
eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their...
Oh, wait a minute, no, I'm sorry. Yes, I'm sorry, that's right.
And he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us? As Kathy and I were traveling
across the country, and I've shared this with you before,
one of the most enjoyable moments of our vacation that year was
coming in to meet people. that we had never met before
that love the Lord as we do. They love to hear the gospel
preached. They love to hear about Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Their hearts burn within them
the same way it does us. And they said one to another,
did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by
the way and while he opened us to the scriptures. Now turn over
to Jonah, chapter 1, if you would, please. May your hearts this morning
burn as we look into the God's word and see Jesus Christ. Jonah 1, 1, it says, now the
word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, And I want to stop there for
just a moment because I'd like to look at this on a verse-by-verse
basis, some possibly even as a word-by-word basis. So we begin this study with these
important words just as the Word comes to all of God's people.
In Romans 3.11 it says, There is none that understandeth, there
is none that seeketh after God. When our Lord Jesus asked Peter,
Whom do you say that I am? Peter was declared blessed. Our
Lord said to that man, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but my Father who
is in heaven. I stand before you this morning
declaring God's Word, but it is not me who brings this Word
to you. It must be the Holy Spirit who
brings it to your heart and reveals the truth to you. There are thousands
of people who are reading this very exact same book that we're
reading right now, Declaring the same things that I'm declaring
to you who have no idea who Christ is. In fact, they walk out the
door of their church thinking, I've accepted Christ today. I
got smarter. I've seen Him. I've even visited
those churches when I was looking for one that might be a little
closer to me. I'm thankful the Lord didn't show me anything
closer to me. The Word of the Lord comes to
all of His people in the day of His power. Our Lord uses sinful
men to preach the Good News, the Word of God, to sinful people
that He may give life to His elect. But that Word does not go out,
does not come to everyone. You don't need to turn there,
but allow me to read a couple verses from John 10, starting in verse
24. Then came the Jews round about
him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly, it says. And Jesus answered them,
he says, I've told you. And ye believe not. The works
that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. He raised
people from the dead. They saw it before their very
eyes. And they did not believe. But ye believed not, because
ye were not My sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand. I and my father are one. But
it doesn't stop there, folks. It continues. It says in the
very next verse, then the Jews took up stones again to stone
him. They wanted to kill him for declaring
himself to be God in the flesh. And that's the truth about it.
Now, there's a lot of people out there declare Christ to be
God in the flesh, but they don't believe it. They don't believe
it at all. But the sheep do. The Word of
the Lord comes to His sheep, and that Word, as it says in
John 1, 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. This Word came to Jonah, and
it came to him in the form of instructions. It says in verse
2, arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it,
for their wickedness has come before me. Oh, how often our
Lord's word comes to us in the forms of instructions. Again,
you don't need to turn there, but allow me to read some verses
from Romans 13, starting in verse 8. Oh, no man anything. but to love one another. For
he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this thou shalt
not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet. And if
there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in
this very saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no will to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling
of the law. I do believe. And you know, folks,
I know, sometimes I I don't mean to break down and
stutter with a tear in my heart as often as I do, but I can't
help it. I fail at every one of these
things I just read to you. James 2.8 says, if ye fulfill
the royal law according to the scriptures, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself, ye do well. I try. I try. But oh, how I utterly fail at
these very instructions, even to the point that I may sometimes
run from them. Yet, as we will all see here
in our future studies, we do have an advocate. One who is sitting on his throne
in heaven, ruling over all that is. This advocate took the sins
of his people, the sins of myself, the sins of every one of his
people forever, all who were given unto him before the world
was, and he was made to be sin for them, that they might be
righteous in him. Consider our dear brother Jonah.
These instructions were to go and to cry out against this great
city of Nineveh, a city that was so great it would take three
days to cross it on foot. Imagine the instructions coming
to you. Go out and cry unto these ones
who call themselves Christians. This great country that we call
a home, these great so-called churches that are scattered throughout
this great land we live in. Go out and cry unto them. Tell
them you have sinned, you have made yourselves to be gods. You
have declared yourselves to be above the Lord thy God by declaring
it is your will above His. You declare the Lord a liar saying
that Jesus loves everyone. You declare His blood atonement
worthless when you say it is your choice. Your wickedness has come up before
the Lord. Can you imagine what that would
be like to go stand in the Crystal Cathedral? and tell the thousands
of people who show up there four times a day on Sunday morning
that their wickedness has come up before the Lord. To do so
would be quite frightening, wouldn't it? And how many of you would
think it to be useless? That's what came to my mind. Or a waste of time. I'm not trying
to tell anyone here that they should go out and stand in the
congregations around us. That's between you and God. But we better be very clear to
those who God brings into this place that he has provided for
us. Very clear. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Salvation is of the Lord from start to finish. Either you bow
down to Jesus Christ the Lord right now, bow down to the God
that is in flesh, the one who sacrificed himself for his people,
or you will bow down before him in judgment. In John 1 verse
3 it says, but Jonah rose up to flee. Or Jonah 1, I'm sorry. Verse 3 it says, Jonah rose up
to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and he went
down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid
the fare thereof and he went down into it to go with them
unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Now the first thing
that jumps out at me here is he went down. He went down to
Joppa and he didn't stop there. He went down into the bowels
of the boat. Down into the darkness. I don't know if you've ever been
in an old boat or not, but if you've ever been in one, they
don't smell good. The wood's pretty musty. And
if there is light down there, especially light in the kind
of light they had those days, it's not very bright. A lot of
shadows. Interesting. We loved the darkness
that we were in. Now, I don't understand this
next point very much, so I'm just going to read it for you,
and pray to the Lord might show you what he means by this. This name Joppa, it comes from
another word, and I cannot pronounce it. It's Greek. But the word
which I cannot pronounce means complainers. He went down to a town of complainers
and then into a ship. You take that for whatever you
want, but I did think that was important just to let you know
that's what the name of that town means. When we leave the instructions
our Lord gives us, we tread the path downward. That's the path
the world is on. It's the path to destruction.
Sometimes our Lord and Savior allows us to walk that very path
again so that we might see our need of His grace. We sing this
song. I'm prone to wonder, Lord, I
feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. We walk that path when our Lord
allows it so that we can look back up to the only one to look
to, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to remember that we are
no different in the flesh than all who have walked this earth. Oh, how I tend to wonder, yet
He brings me back to this wonderful promise, to His wonderful promises. He says, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. He says, I have paid the price
for you. He says, I will be your God and
you will be my people. He brings me back to looking
to Christ, my substitute. Even when the waves of life come
up against me, they are to show me my Lord is all, is Lord of
all. One of the points that our brother
Mike brought out in his Bible studies, when the little girl,
a young woman, went off her own way, was raped, or willingly
allowed herself to be taken of another man, Mike finished that
Bible study with a wonderful blessing, an absolutely heart-wrenching
blessing, and that is The Lord did not leave her there. The sons, her brothers, came
and took her back. The Lord will not leave his people.
I will not forsake you, he said. I will never leave you nor forsake
you. When the winds come up about
me, I know they're for my good. Verse 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." Oh, how often those waves we
bring upon ourselves when we turn away from the instructions
of the Lord. Many say that their Lord rules
the waves, but then they deny His power over themselves. Is
your Lord, Lord of all that is? Can you look into your heart
and say He rules over you? Either Jesus Christ is Lord of
everything or He's no Lord at all. The Lord Jesus Christ is declared
to be God from cover to cover of holy scriptures. Anyone who sat in these pews
and heard our brother Mike over these last few months bring out
Christ in every lesson of Genesis. I believe what God has been gracious
to reveal to me in this word. I believe his word when he says,
the Lord sent out, in verse 4. I believe that when he says,
all things are for my good, even the waves that he sent out
are for my good. Lord help me in my unbelief.
Turn to Romans chapter 8 and we'll close. Familiar verses from everybody.
I have no doubt Pastor Gene could speak them from heart without
reading. Lord help me to be able to speak
these words someday from the heart without reading them. What shall we say in verse 31?
What shall we say then? What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? What wave
can encompass our bodies? What wave can encompass our minds? Yeah, they're tossing a little
bit out here. Splashing up against, a little bit coming into the
boat. So I was talking to somebody just here the other day. We were
talking about a flat, I think it was Bill, about a small boat. And some people, oh, we were
talking about those two men that almost died out here in the lake
because the waves splashed up over the boat. So what? I have nothing to worry about.
Let the waves come on. They're for my good. I'm going
to learn something from them because I know the Lord says
everything's for my good. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies it. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Have you got a bulletin with you this morning? Look under food for thought. Pastor Todd Knight writes, When
I look for evidences of salvation in my attitude and conduct, I
fear that I am not saved. Does that hit home with anybody
here? When I look to Christ only, I have full assurance. Wait a minute, though. As soon
as I think I have assurance, It leaves. The Lord will not allow us to
trust anything but Him. Here come the waves, folks. Here
come your waves. Christ but Him, Christ alone,
nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. Praise the Lord.