All right, Jonah, we'll be looking
at chapter two today. This morning we looked at the
prayer for other believers, a loving prayer we have for the saints
in this world. We will look at this chapter
of Jonah, Jonah chapter two, next week as cross prayer. This is our Lord speaking. But
today I want us to look at it as Jonah's prayer. as our prayer,
my prayer. That's how we learn things in
steps, isn't it? We start out as little children.
We say, this is a Bible. Then we learn that there's books
in the Bible. And then we learn that there's a book called Jonah.
And then that's something about Jonah and a whale. And then we
start learning, you know what? Jonah is me. And then as we grow,
Lord shows us that's our Redeemer. Someday, in glimpses as we're
fortunate, as He's gracious to us, we'll say, my and my Redeemer
are one. Made one with Christ. We look
at the Psalms. Some people say, well, there's
some messianic Psalms. All the Psalms are our Lord speaking. We may not see it, may not be
given eyes to see it, but all those are penned by David. David
spoke those. There's many of those I can read,
and I say, that's me. He's felt what I feel. And that's
our master too. But today I want us to look at
Jonah's prayer. And I want to do that because there's some
people in this room, may listen to this message, probably in
a trial. I don't know a believer, one
that's not currently in some kind of trial. We may have a
physical trial. Our bodies may be hurting us
or bothering us. We may have a worldly trial. different companies or something.
We may have an emotional trial. Or we may have a trial of temptation. That to me is dangerous because
most of the time I don't see temptation. I see opportunity,
don't I? We may have a trial of temptation.
Maybe you're getting tempted. But here in chapter 1 of Jonah,
we looked at last week, we see Jonah at the top of that first
Adam. He received one commandment from the Lord. He said, Arise
and go to Nineveh. And he disobeyed. And he went
down to Joppa, a town of beauty, and he booked a one-way ticket
to Tarsus, the opposite way from where the Lord told him to go.
And when he got on that boat, because of his disobedience against
that one commandment of God, everyone in that same boat was
getting the same wrath from the Lord. They were all in the same
boat together. And then we saw in chapter 1,
Jonah is atop of Christ. All those mariners said, what
do we need to do to you to make these waves stop? Those waves
of the sea are a picture of the Lord's judgment, His wrath. I
said, what do we have to do? And John said, you throw me overboard.
And you throw me over and the waves of judgment will immediately
subside. It'll be over. He says there
in chapter 1, verse 15, So they took up Jonah and cast him forth
into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. That happened
immediately. Those mariners, after they saw
that happen, they worshipped the Lord. They saw that salvation
from death and from sin was only found in Christ, our substitute.
Jonah preached to them on that boat. We don't know how many
days they were on that boat and how long that hurricane lasted,
but he preached to them. He told them. And they saw Christ
was our substitute. And they no longer prayed to
those lowercase g gods. They didn't keep rowing harder.
They didn't keep throwing things overboard, trying to get rid
of sin, make it easier on them. They looked only to it crossed
our propitiation, that bloody sacrifice that was necessary
for us to live, crossed our life. That's who they saw. And the
death of one, many shall live. Now, Jonah just got cast overboard. And then in verse 17, Jonah 1.17,
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. I'm sure you've heard the expression,
if you make your bed, you've got to lay in it. That's true. Jonah got himself
into this mess. It's not the Lord's fault. It
was his disobedience. He owned it. But the difference
here is, because Jonah was a child of God. The Lord in His perfect
providence, in His perfect wisdom, He prepared a great fish. He intervened in Jonah for Jonah
on the way to Tarshish. He was on a one-way trip to eternal
damnation and the Lord ordained a fish. That's what the word
prepared means. The Lord appointed. He ordained the fish. Now the
bed's Jonah's. The trial's his. But the Lord
is going to make him lie in that bed while he's on this earth
and not in Tarshish. Not in damnation. Men, women,
and children, every one of us walking this earth right now,
we are living in direct disobedience to God's commandments. Every
one of us. We're all in that same boat to
Tarsus. And most people will not know the Lord's judgment
against sin until that final day. Until they see Him. They
will bear the rage and the wrath of His holy judgment. But God,
who is rich in mercy, He ordained a fish to swallow up Jonah. Isn't that what He does to every
one of His children? You're just going on this sea
of life. Everything's sunny and wonderful
and the Lord comes to you and He shakes you up. He ordains
a fish for you, ordains a trial for you, to convict Jonah of
sin, to convict him of Christ's righteousness, and to convict
him and prove to him that salvation is accomplished, that the eternal
judgment, that eternal wrath of condemnation and waves has
been satisfied. in Christ. He doesn't suggest
it to Jonah. He doesn't send this fish to
recommend it to him, to offer it to him. He effectually teaches
his children. You who are being chastened by
the Lord, you who are in a trial, a heavy trial right now, in body
and mind and life, aren't you thankful that the Lord doesn't
correct every one of our errors at once? I could learn something of that
as a parent. I'm nitpicky. I correct one thing, correct
another thing, correct another thing. Boy, he deals with us
tenderly, doesn't he? In loving kindness, long suffering. What wisdom and patience it is.
If he chastened us fully for all things, we could not bear
it. We don't even know what we're
in error of. And now on the other extreme,
If no trial ever comes our way, never comes upon us, we would
not call out upon Him. We wouldn't trust Him. We wouldn't need Him, and we'd
swell up in pride, every one of us. And all this disobedience
that Jonah had and this trial that he's given, he was the child
of God. The Lord sent the storm to him. He gave him this storm. It says
there in chapter 1, verse 4, But the Lord sent out a great
wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea,
so the ship was like to be broken. The Lord sent that storm to Jonah. Think how many ships have made
that passage from Joppa to Tarshish and never hit a rough wave. That
was a trade route. A lot of business went up and
down that way. If it was like that all the time,
they'd have picked another route, wouldn't they? They'd have went
over land or something. But for His child, for His elect, He
sent a storm. He sent a trial. And verse 17
there, the Lord prepared the fish. He ordained, He appointed
that fish for Jonah. Our trials that each one of us
have, they are appointed by our God from start to finish. and they are sent to correct
us from looking to ourselves and looking to this world and
for us to look only to Christ our Savior. Turn over to Psalm
89. Chastening is a good thing. The
Hebrew writer told us in Hebrews 12, 11, he says, Now no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. No, chastening
is fun. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. The Lord exercises us through that. Chastening is a good thing. So
often we hear Solomon misquoted. He says, spare the rod and spoil
the child. That's from the poet Samuel Butler
in the mid-1600s. He put that in a poem and they
just assumed that Solomon wrote it. That's a gentle way of putting
it. Here's what Solomon said in Proverbs
13. He said, He that spareth his rod, hateth his son. But he that loveth him, chasteneth
him betimes. That means early. He nips it
in the bud. He loves him. Now there in Psalm
89, if God loves everybody like the world says, we would be a
much more well-behaved society, wouldn't we? If the Lord chastens
those He loves, and He loves everybody, this would be a nice
place to live. Thanks be to our God that He loves those He purposed
to be made like Christ, to be just like Him. Psalm 89, verse
24. But my faithfulness and my mercy
shall be with Him, that's the Father speaking of Christ. And
in my name shall His horn be exalted. I will set His hand
also in the sea and His right hand in the rivers. He shall
cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also, I will make him my firstborn,
higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for
him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His
seed also will I make to endure forever." An incorruptible seed
of Christ put in his children, it will endure forever. And his
throne as the days of heaven. Now verse 30, if his children
It's me and you, those born of God. If His children forsake
my law and walk not my judgments, if they break my statutes and
keep not my commandments, we do and will do this until the
day that this body of death passes away, every one of us. Verse 32, then will I visit their
transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Ain't you glad it doesn't end
there? You break my commandments. My children don't obey me. I'm
going to chase them. I'm going to meet their iniquity
with stripes. My rod will be used on them. But that's not
the end of it. Verse 33. Nevertheless, my loving
kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant will I not break
nor alter the thing that has gone out from my lips. He will
prove to his children his faith through the trial that he sends.
Lord will correct his child, every one of us, by showing us
in that trial that he's faithful to what come out of his lips.
To the covenant that he makes, his faithfulness and his covenant
will not be broken, will not fail. Now back to our text there
in John. Jonah has a picture of the first
Adam, has a picture of you and me. We did not keep the Lord's
commandment. We didn't believe Christ and
love our brethren. What's that look like? Well,
that could be apostasy. What we would consider apostasy.
We could take our toys and go home, say, I don't believe that
gospel. That's wrong. And they storm
out and we don't see them for years. And the Lord works in
their heart. Send a trial to them. Not loving
the brethren. That could be a fistfight in
a parking lot. It may be bad. But it could be
something small, too, that the Lord corrects. One time I spoke
to y'all know Brother Cody Henson. We was at a conference and I
said something to Cody. Nothing mean to Cody. Nothing
really that bad. But it just weighed on me the
way I worded it. I really wish I'd have worded it different.
And it wasn't nothing horrible. And I didn't sleep a wink that
night until we got back the next morning. And as soon as we got
there, I bee-lined for Cody. And I said, oh, Cody, I'm sorry.
Buddy, I wish I wouldn't have worded it that way. Oh, I'm a
wreck. He said, what are you talking
about? I'm thankful that it didn't. He said, oh, no, I understood
what you meant. He said, I know what you was getting at. But
I was chasing the times. I was chasing early in that. When we do that, when we don't
always look to Christ, when we get worried about this world,
and we don't love our brethren as Christ loved us, which is
any time, isn't it? When we do that, our Father that
loves us, He will chasten us, and He will do it swiftly by
giving us a trial, great or small. That's what He'll do. When a
heavy trial comes to a child of God, what will we do? What's
his child gonna do? What did Jonah do when this trial
came to him? Look here in chapter 2, verse
1. Jonah 2, verse 1. Then Jonah
prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and
said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and
he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried
I, and thou hearest my voice. Where was Jonah when he prayed
to the Lord? He was in the fish's belly. It was during that trial. And what a heavy trial that was,
wasn't it? Do you think Jonah remembered this after the trial? Do you think that come to mind
every now and then? In 1995, I was in a pretty heavy
trial. And I cried. Tears came out. I cried to the Lord. That trial's
over. I haven't forgot that trial.
25 years later, I remember them tears I cried. He cried while
he was still in the trial. Why do we cry to the Lord when
we're in trials? Why did Jonah pray to the Lord
his God? It says in verse 2, I cried by
reason of mine affliction. On the way down to Joppa, the
Lord had to send this trial to him, didn't he? For him to cry
unto the Lord, the trial was necessary. The fish was ordained
and it served its purpose. It was necessary. Whenever he
went down to Joppa and he booked that ticket to Tarsus, it doesn't
say that Jonah prayed to God. No, we're in there in chapter
1. He might have had some things to say to God. He might have
commented on the availability of tickets. Oh, look at that,
Lord, this must be what he meant. There's a boat there. There's
tickets for it. They've got space available. It must be for me."
He might have thanked him. Oh, thank you, Lord. Now I really
know what you mean. I know you said Nineveh, but you meant Tarsus.
Thank you for clearing that up. He may have thanked for the traveling
mercies. Oh, what a beautiful day it is.
It was calm before that storm, wasn't it? Oh, the sun's shining. The birds are chirping. Thank
you, Lord. What a wonderful day. There wasn't an effectual trial
yet. He hadn't cried to the Lord.
Getting on that boat, when that storm came, when that crew singled
him out, they cast lots and looked at him. And they cast him overboard. Nowhere does it say that Jonah
cried to the Lord. He hadn't cried yet. But when
that effectual rod of chastening came, he was in that trial, in
that fish's belly, Jonah cried. When our trials are so great
that it feels like death is imminent, or death really is imminent,
We truly cry. By reason of the trial, it was
necessary. The Lord sent that storm. He
sent that fish. He did it on purpose, as He does
all things. And when we truly cry to the
Lord, He hears us. When we truly beg for mercy,
He hears us. Turn over to Psalm 34. Psalm 34. There in verse 1. Psalm 34, 1. I will bless the
Lord at all times. Do I bless the Lord when the
sun's shining? Yes. Do I bless the Lord whenever
it's raining and your joints ache and that trial of age is
getting to you? Yes. I will bless the Lord at
all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me
and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He heard
me. and delivered me from all my
fears. They looked unto him and were
lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried."
I hope you read that as you, as me. I read that, this poor
man cried. and the Lord heard him and saved
him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamped
round about them that fear him and delivereth them. We are surrounded
and overtaken and hedged about in love and grace by the angel
of the Lord, by Christ himself. Then the psalmist pleads for
us to look to Christ. There in verse 8, Oh, taste and
see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye saints,
for there is no want to them that fear him. You ever met a
saint that was one of the Lord's elect, a blood-bought child of
God that's in just horrendous trials? I mean, just a horrible state
of affairs. Long-lasting trials. Now, they're
going to have days where they're down. That's going to happen. But whenever Christ compasses
them about, He lightens their burdens. What do they say? Oh,
taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in Him. Turn over just a few pages there
to Psalm 65. Psalm 65, verse 1. Praise waiteth
for thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto
thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities prevail against me,
as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest. and causes us to approach unto
thee. How does he cause us to approach
him for mercy? By reason of the trial. Causes
us to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts. We
shall be satisfied with the goodness of thine house, even of thine
holy temple. We'll be happy. Happy don't cover
it. Happy comes from the word happenstance. That means every now and then.
We're going to have joy. We're going to have contentment and peace
in Christ when He brings us. He calls us, chooses us, and
makes us come to Him. Like Paul said, we delight in
our afflictions because we were brought into remembrance of our
Savior. Now some afflictions, some trials,
saints have, they last a lifetime. Some of us are born with illnesses
or sorrows or whatever it is. Sometimes they last a lifetime.
But these thorns in our flesh, they are given by God for our
good and for His glory and for the benefit of the saints, for
those around us. Three times Paul asked our Lord,
said, Lord, take this thorn out of my flesh. Remove this trial
from me. What did he say? My grace is
sufficient. I always think of Don, he says,
my grace is sufficient, you live with it. He's probably more tender
than that, wouldn't he? Through chastening, we are shown
not only grace, but that the grace of God is sufficient. Through that chastening. What
a blessing. What wisdom we get. What's that worth to know that
the grace of God is sufficient? Is that worth that finger? Is
that worth that leg? Is that worth this life? Anything
in it? His grace is sufficient. Back
to our texture in Jonah. We remember, from the fish's
belly, Jonah truly cried. Because of being in the fish's
belly, Jonah cried. There in verse 3. Jonah 2, 3, for thou hast cast
me into the deep. Who put Jonah in that water?
Well, those mariners did. The Lord cast him in the deep.
He didn't blame anybody else, did he? It might have been their
hands doing it, but it was the Lord's will moving their hands.
I was thinking while inside that belly too, if the Lord puts us
in a trial, I mean a trial, not like, nah, it's an inconvenience.
If we're aching and crying unto the Lord, Jonah didn't say, well
my dad, he went down to Joppa too. He didn't look to anybody
else, did he? He only looked from his heart
to his Savior. That's the only one he did. For
thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the sea, and
the floods compass me about, and thy billows and thy waves
pass over me. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight. I've been forsaken. Yet, I will
look again toward thy holy temple. Remember that prodigal son? He
was eating swine feed, and he said, He's forsaken. He's in a hog pen. And he said,
you know, the servants in my father's house eat better than
this. I'm going to look to my father's house. Gomer saw how
rough shape she had got in. And she said, I'm going to go
back to my first husband. It was better with him than it is now.
Who was the deciding factor in Jonah looking towards God's holy
temple? for that son returning home.
Forgone, we're going back to Hosea. Verse 5. 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. I wasn't exalted
no more. I was underneath the mountains. The earth with her
bars were about me forever. Yet hast thou brought me up,
my life from corruption, O Lord my God. Jonah was brought all the way
down and the Lord preserved him. The Lord turned his eyes back
to His holy temple. How low was Jonah? He was under
the sea. That really happened. But he
fainted. It says there in verse 7, When
my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came unto
thee and to thy holy temple." When he was fainted, when he
was without strength, when he was helpless, then he remembered
the Lord. What did he remember? The Lord's
mercy for his people in Christ. He remembered redemption. The
Lord bought me. And it wasn't for silver and
gold. It was in His blood, in His life. He purchased me. He makes me
persevere. That vessel of honor that He's
made, He's bought, it's His possession. He will not lose it. He will
not forsake His covenant. His faithfulness will not fail.
Then in verse 8, They that observe lying vanities forsake their
own mercy. He remembered the Lord and the
Lord's mercy. And he says anybody else is looking
to any mercy anywhere else, any other kind of mercy, a doing
mercy, an asking mercy, an accepting mercy, whatever's on man's part,
it's lying vanities. That's a lie and it ain't nothing
but a smoke screen. It ain't gonna do you any good.
Now Jonah's still in the belly of that fish, isn't he? Verse
nine, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord. It's dark. Man ain't seen daylight in three
days. Seaweeds wrapped all around him, choked him to death, and
the ribs of that fish was like the bars of the earth squeezing
on him. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. I will pay that that
I have vowed, salvations of the Lord." What was Jonah's only
hope coming out of that fish at that moment? The Lord had
to save him. And he said, you're the God of
salvation. Salvations of the Lord. Turn over to Genesis 32. I was thinking of Jacob when
I was studying this. I hope the Lord teaches us both.
Me especially, I don't like pain, I don't like suffering. Which
He'd teach me by not sinning trials, but that's not always
the case, is it? It's not necessary. He knows what's needed. Genesis
32, beginning verse 24. And Jacob was left alone, and
there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day. And
when he saw that he prevailed not against him, the man touched
the hollow of his thigh. And the hollow of Jacob's thigh
was out of joint as he wrestled with him. He popped his hip out
of socket." The pain that would be. Verse 26, that's the Lord
he's wrestling with. And he said, let me go for the
day breaketh. The Lord spoke to Jacob. And
then Jacob says, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
And the Lord asked him, said, what's thy name? And he said,
Jacob, deceiver, nothing, worthless, dead. And he said, thy name shall
be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince thou
hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And
Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And
he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?
You don't know who I am yet, Jacob. And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of
that place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my
life is preserved. What's that mean? I was saved. Salvations of the Lord. He saw the Lord. Knew himself,
he saw the Lord and salvations of the Lord. My life's been preserved.
Back in our text here in Jonah. What happened when Jonah was
brought to see he deserved death and to cry out for mercy for
the Lord, he told the truth. He witnessed, he said what he
saw. He thanked the Lord and he declared
salvation is all of him. Lord, salvation's of you. And
he says in verse nine, that I will sacrifice unto thee 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 up Jonah upon the dry land. when Jonah was
brought all the way down to the feet of Christ. made helpless. He then cried for mercy and he
was heard of the Lord. The Lord heard his plea. And
in a gracious act, he was given a heart that declared salvations
of the Lord. And then when that trial was
over, as the Lord saw it was fit to be over, the Lord spake
to that fish that he ordained, that he appointed, and Jonah
was vomited on dry ground. I hope we can get this. He was
not released from that trial back to the seas of judgment.
That'd be torture, wouldn't it? If it accomplished the purpose
that that trial set out forth, and that whale bombed him back
in the ocean, he was in the same predicament he was in before,
wasn't he? He was put on dry ground to walk on, to rest on,
and to not have to endure the waves of judgment anymore. When
the trial of this life is over. For those that are chosen of
God, those that are brought to have Christ revealed in them,
chastened and proclaimed over and over that salvation is of
the Lord. When this trial of life is over, we will be on dry
ground. There is no more condemnation
to be seen. No more waves of judgment. The
waves of wrath are over because the Lord who gave the commandment
brought the storm, he ordained the fish, and gave a new heart
to believe Christ. He is the God of our salvation.
Look to the Lord. We say of the psalmist, right
there in Psalm 34, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth. in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye
saints, for there is no want to them that fear him." Do we
want now? We have trials now. We want these
trials? Oh, of course we do. Especially the trials that's
raged on for years, decades, or may rage until we die. Maybe
it'll be the trial that takes us home. But oh, what a precious
blessing it is to be put on dry ground. That's the salvation
of our Lord. There's no condemnation to them
that love Him, to them that know Him, believe Him, and look to
Him. Look to Him. Won't be disappointed. Amen.