Alright brother, we're going
to be in Jonah, the first chapter this evening, but if you will,
turn to Romans chapter 5 first. Romans chapter 5. The title of my message this evening
is 2 Adams. 2 Adams. Here in Romans chapter 5, we'll
look at verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. We died in Adam spiritually. Verse 13, for until the law sin
was in the world, before that law was given, Mount Sinai, sin
was in this world, but sin is not imputed when there is no
law. You can't break a law if there ain't one. But how about
dying Adam? Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses. If someone wants to know if they're
a sinner, are you going to die? That's our proof. Is there cemeteries in our city?
That's proof that man died in Adam. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that
was to come. Well, we didn't do what Adam
did. No one can get to that tree.
The Lord cordoned it off. Well, I couldn't send the way
He did. That's not the similitude. We can't do that. We'd still
die from it. We'd fail in it. People would get mad and say,
that's not fair. That's hope. If we have a federal head that
represented us in our fall and what we are, making us who we
are, we have hope that we have a federal head in Christ, someone
to make us righteous. Look down at verse 19. Romans
5.19, For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Same as we
fell in Adam, it's the same way that Lord makes his people righteous. We wouldn't err when it happened.
Alright, now let's look there at Jonah. You have Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah. There are several theologians
that say that Jonah wasn't a real man, that this is an allegory,
it's a lie to tell people a moral story. And as Don always said,
that's the silliest thing I've ever heard of. I teach my moral
lesson by telling a lie. But Jonah was a real man. Jonah really was a prophet of
God. You can read that in 2 Kings
14. His father was a real man. He was a real man. He was really
the Lord's prophet. And Matthew and Luke, both of
them, record our Master's words. Look at that at the end. You
want a sign? Jonah is a sign you have. So
I think if it's recorded in Kings, Jonah's got his autobiography
here, and our master referred to him. He's a real person. This
really happened. What's recorded in this word
happens as it's read, and I have no doubt about that. In the book
of Jonah, as we're going to begin going through that on Sunday
evenings, we're going to see the city of Nineveh. Now that's a real
city. That's on the northeast side
of Mosul, Iraq now. That was a real town. But this
is a picture, spiritually, this is a picture of the Lord's church.
Of all His saints throughout time. Picture of us. Now we're going to see Tarshish.
That's a picture of hell. Damnation. Separation from God. It's a physical location. It's
on the southern coast of Spain. It's a whole lot nicer, in our
opinion, than Mosul, but the physical location doesn't matter.
In the scriptures, Tarshish is anywhere that's not Nineveh.
Wherever we find some place that's not the Lord's people, that's
not the gospel, that's damnation. It's certain. And Jonah is a
picture of several different things we're going to see. And
the first four verses here, he's a picture of Adam. The first
Adam. There in chapter 1, verse 5,
all the way up until you start chapter 3, he's a picture of
Christ, the second Adam. And he's a picture of all the
Lord's prophets. And he's a picture of sinners. Me and you. Sinners saved by grace. Now we're
going to begin there in verse 1, Jonah 1-1. Now the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah. The son of Amittai sang. That's a great blessing for the
Lord's word to come to us. But it came unto Jonah. The name
Jonah is translated dove. Dove. We remember the first use
of the word dove was in Noah's Ark. They opened up that window
and they sent a raven out. And the raven didn't return because
a raven can eat dead flesh. It can feed off a death. But
a dove can't. A dove has to live off of something
that's alive. An unregenerate man can feed
off a dead religion. We can feed off our dead works.
But the child God cannot. We need truth. We need life. Something with life in it. We
have to have it. Next, the dove was shown as a sacrifice. Whenever
they had to sacrifice a lamb. Even in our day, lambs ain't
cheap. Lambs ain't free. So some families couldn't afford
a lamb to sacrifice, so they were allowed to sacrifice a dove.
So a dove was something anyone could afford. It was available
to anybody. Available to all of us. And a
dove signifies peace, it's a symbol of peace in the scriptures. The
gospel we believe is the gospel of peace. Our master can only
be in the presence of truth, of life, because he is truth
and he is life. He is the sacrifice that poor
sinners need and it's available to the poorest of us. And through
that sacrifice of himself, through him being the truth and the life
that we have, we have peace with God our Father. Some people have that symbol
of a dove on stained glass windows. Do you even know what that means?
It's a lot more than a painting, isn't it? And Amittai, his father,
means truth. A father of truth only begets
children of truth. And the Lord spoke to Jonah,
and he said there in verse two, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great
city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up
before me. Wait a second, I thought Nineveh
was a picture of God's saints. How they wicked. That's every
one of us. They're just like everybody else.
Ain't no different. The Lord said in Genesis 6, and
God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Not poor
men, not Gentile men, not tall, short, wealthy men. All mankind. He saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We
don't think so. That's what my Sunday school
teacher told us when I was a young fella. He said, you know, if
you forget to put deodorant on, you might smell a little bit
bad to yourself, but you smell a whole lot worse to everybody
else. That's true. We don't think we stink that
bad, do we? We don't think that our imaginations are evil continually. That's our illness. And we stay
that way, unless the Lord is pleased to send us His word through
His messenger. We will perish like every other
person born of Adam. We'll head straight to Tarsus,
fast as we can. But God was pleased to send his
prophet to Nineveh, to his people. Just as he's pleased to send
his preacher to his children in this day. Nothing's changed. He sent them saying, how does
he send them? Arise. Go to Nineveh. Stand on your
hind two legs and go tell my people there's comfort. Comfort in Christ. Now we're
going to see the first Adam. Here in verse 3, Jonah 1 verse
3. But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord and he went down to Joppa. Joppa means beautiful. He went to a nice place. We're tempted so many times by
the devil of something that's rewarding, not something that's
restrictive. giving us a nice place. He went down to Joppa
and he found a ship going to Tarsus. So he paid the fare thereof
and went down to it to go with them on to Tarsus from the presence
of the Lord. Jonah is a rebellious child and
he paid a price to be that way. And anytime we openly willfully
rebel against God, against his word, there'll be a price to
pay. There'll be a fee. But the Lord gave a command.
He gave just one command. Go to Nineveh. And Jonah did
the exact opposite. Cardinal directions, he went
west instead of east. Went the exact opposite way.
What did Adam do when the Lord told him not to eat of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil? Gave him one command. Eve came
to him and said, this fruit's good to eat. Do you want some?
He goes, yeah. And he ate it. Jonah tried to flee from the
Lord. What did Adam do when he knew
he was naked? He tried to hide from the Lord. He tried to hide
his nakedness. But you can't hide from God. You can't fight
God and win. You can't run from the Lord.
He's omnipresent. He's all-knowing, all-powerful,
everywhere it wants. How could Jonah or Adam even
consider, even think that they could ignore God and run from
God the same way I can and the same way you can. They're just
one of us. And Jonah tells us later there
in chapter 4 the reason he ran. He said, I ran to Tarshish because
I knew you was going to save that city. He said, you're gracious,
you're merciful, you're slow to anger, But Jonah was mad because
that was a Gentile city. It was Assyrians back then. And
he was a Jew. And he didn't think they ought
to be saved. We'll see this more in a minute. This isn't uncommon
either. But there in verse 4, But the Lord sent a great wind
into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the
ship was likened to be broken. It was the first thing that happened.
The Lord sent this storm. He chastens His child, chastens
His people. And in doing so, He was right
to send that storm. He was just to send that storm,
and He was holy in sending that storm. Oh, I wish you'd be with me through
the week. We get a lot of storms in our lives, don't we? Oh, we either get frayed or we
get mad. Or we have a disappointment of some kind. You have stormed,
the Lord sent the storm. But He was just in doing so,
because what Jonah did was wrong. Jonah disobeyed God. It was wrong.
It was wicked what he did. And he did it willingly. He did
it on purpose. He willfully disobeyed God. He
meant all that for evil. Lord, if He wants to save that
city, He can save them. I'm going to Spain. I'm getting
out of here. But the Lord meant it for good.
That's everything in our lives. There's been several things in
my life I meant for evil. I justified it in my head. I guarantee you, John got down
there to that town of Beautiful, and he said, well, there's a
boat heading east. I must have just misunderstood the Lord.
I'm going to go to Tarsus. That's probably what he really
wanted. If not, he wouldn't have put a boat here. We justify our
rebellion by any cause that we can. And I've justified my rebellion. What I meant for evil, the Lord
meant for good. He meant for every one of us for good, for
His glory. But now knowing that, that doesn't excuse our sin.
We shouldn't make light of disobedience. The Lord saved us and gave us
a knowledge of Him. We should never take our sin
lightly. But the man does not hinder the Lord. We don't affect
God Almighty. We can't throw a monkey ranch
into His plan. God doesn't have a plan for your life. He has
a providence for your life. It's going to be executed. It's
going to be performed to the utmost. But Jonah washed his
hands of what the Lord told him, and he bought a one-way ticket
to Tarsus, and he was leaving it all behind. And it says there,
but the Lord. But God. He had some of His elect
children on that ship to Tarshish that must be saved. He had His
children there in Nineveh, that whole city. They must be saved. And you and I, we're given this
beautiful picture in this book of our Lord and Savior, cross
Jesus, and His saints in our day. They must be saved. Remember that in this part of
chapter 1, John is the type of the first Adam. Because of his
disobedience, because of his sin, those in the same boat,
those fellows in the same ship with him, they were in the same
storm he was. They were in that storm because
of him. Remember we just read there in Romans 5, 13-4, "...until
the law of sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed, for
there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that
is to come." So these men didn't even offend God the same way
Jonah did. The Lord didn't speak to them. Why are they in this
storm? We didn't eat of the fruit of
the tree like Adam did after that similitude. We didn't sin
the same way Adam did. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam until Moses, until that law came up. How have we fared if Adam hadn't
fell, if I was left to myself? How have I fared in this life?
If I couldn't blame Adam, if I couldn't pin it on him, Did
I cry when I was a baby? Have I sinned enough today to
send me to Tarsus forever?" Nevertheless, these men in this
boat, they were gainfully employed in the ferry boat to hell. That
was their occupation. They wonder why this storm is
on us. But when those in the same boat as Jonah see the Lord's
judgment, they're physically afraid. They see these seas rising,
this huge hurricane coming, and they get physically scared. And
when sinners in the same boat as Adam, in our nature, we see
the reality of God's judgment for sin. He's really going to
punish sin. Sin's no joke, and justice for
sin's no joke. This is going to happen. We become
physically scared. We fear the Lord physically.
We're convicted of sin. and what that entails. Spirit
comes to us. Now we see the second Adam here
in verse 5. Then the mariners were afraid
and cried every man unto his God, lowercase g. That's what
we do when we get afraid. I've seen a lot of folks get
afraid. I've seen some storms and bumpy airplane rides and
I've seen some fires and bullets. People start praying to anything
they can get a hold of. to the ones they don't even know.
And every man cried unto his God and cast forth the wares
that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. All
the things weighing them down, all their sin, get rid of it,
throw it away. Lighten this load, it's too heavy
for me. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and
he lay and was fast asleep. He knew God. He wasn't afraid
of them waves. That boat wasn't going to sink,
was it? And if it did, he'd be with the Lord. He was patient.
This is where our second Adam, the picture of Christ, comes
in. Turn over to Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4. Adam got us into this mess. We
got ourselves further in this mess. And who's the only one
that can save us? Who's the only one that can be
our help in time of need? Look here, Mark 4, verse 37. Mark 4, 37. And there arose a
great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so
that it was now full. It's got swamped. There's knee-deep
water in this boat. And he was in the hinder part
of the ship. Christ was in the hinder part of the ship asleep
on a pillow. And they awake him and said to him, Master, carest
thou not that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the
wind and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased
and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are
ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?
And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What
manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"
Wow! Those Pharisees wanted a sign. They saw the Lord God Almighty
calm his seeds. Physically, Jonah is about to
tell us that Christ has power over the seas, over the dry land. Spiritually, Christ is the only
one that can calm the sea of judgment, of pain, of the anguish
that we deserve in God's wrath from the hand of the just and
holy God that we offended. The only calming of that sea
is Christ. And that's our true need. I'm
back to our texture in Jonah chapter 1. Verse 6, 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. He was just going down through
the sleeping quarters and kicking every bed he could find. Wake
up! Pray! Verse 7, And they said, every
one to his fellow, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know
for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, they
rolled the dice, and the lot fell upon Jonah. What brought
their attention to Jonah? The same one that brought this
storm. The same one that spoke to Jonah. We read there in Proverbs
16, The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing
thereof is of the Lord. Lord purposed for them to know.
And to know Jonah was the cause of this. Verse 7, And they said
every one to his fellow, Come, 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. And they said unto him, Tell
us, we pray thee, for whose cause is this evil upon us? What is
thine occupation? And whence comest thou? What
is that country, and of what people art thou? Now we're going
to see this more in chapter four when we get there, but Jonah
didn't want to go to Nineveh because they were Assyrians.
It's Mosul, Iraq. And he was a Jew, and he didn't
want to go preach to them Gentiles. He was looking down his nose
at them. They don't deserve this gospel. And here these men want
to know who Joni is, where he's from, and what his nationality
is, because everyone looks down on the ones that ain't like them. Physically, I guess we ought
to think our country's the best if you don't think it's the best
movement. When we do that, we think, well, we look down on
other countries. Might like some of them, but I like this one
the best. They're looking down on the ones
that's not like them, and it's not our fault we're going to
drown. Whose cause is this? It couldn't be me. It couldn't
be the reason this boat's going to go down. It's somebody else.
You tell me whose cause it is. But who caused the storm? Lord
sent the storm, didn't He? Because of our sin, Adam's sin,
of our transgression. But these men wanted to know
if all this was a conspiracy. Are you a spy? What nation are
you from? Because they said, who caused
the storm? They were still praying to those lowercase g gods, didn't
they? Man doesn't control the weather. He doesn't control the
seas. He doesn't control the dry land. That's superstition. In the scriptures, the word superstition
means overly religious. Oh, I think something's going
on. That's religion. You're putting man in the place
of God. We can't control those things. Verse 9, and he said
unto them, I'm in Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven,
which hath made the sea and the dry land. I didn't catch that
until today. He's answering their questions
in reverse. They ask, where'd you come from?
What's your country? What people are you? He asked
pretty much the same question. Where are you from? Who are you? He
said, I'm in Hebrew. That's where I'm from. And they
said, what's your occupation? He said, I fear the Lord. I wish that could be my occupation. Why has this evil come upon us?
The living God sends judgment, and he sends peace as he will.
He controls the sea of judgment, and he controls the dry land
of safety. Jonah's preaching to these mariners. He tells them
who God is, tells them who man is, what we deserve, why we deserve
it, and the only source of hope that there is. He's preaching
to them. What's the result of that? Verse
10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why
hast thou done this? For the men knew that he had
fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
Now they did not physically fear the Lord. They feared Him out
of honor and respect. And they knew something of His
sovereignty. They knew something of who He was, something of who
man is. And since being taught in their heart of who God is
and who we are, the natural question comes to mind. Why wouldn't you
obey God? If I have a brother or sister
openly living in sin, and they say, why do you think this is
going so bad? The Lord said, don't do that. I want to start
there. Why wouldn't you obey? Verse 11, Then said they unto
him, What shall we do unto thee that this sea may be calm to
us? For the sea is wrought, and it was temptuous. We don't want
to face judgment. Because we can't live through
it. What do we need to do? And he said unto them, verse
12, take me up and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea
be calm unto you. For I know that for my name's
sake, for my sake, this great tempest is upon you. Notice there
it doesn't say, because of me, this great tempest is upon you. Because of what I did, this great
tempest is upon you. It says, for I know that for
my sake, this great tempest is upon you. That verse right there,
there's the gospel. Christ our substitute, if he's
cast into divine judgment of God on our behalf, The judgment
is over. The seas cease and it's for his
sake. For his great namesake, for his
glory. Verse 13, nevertheless, the men
rode hard to bring it to land, but they could not for the sea
wrought and was temptuous against them. Physically, earthly, they
didn't want to kill Jonah. Jonah said, you want to solve
all these problems, you throw me over the side of this ship. I'm a
picture of Christ, and that's what's going to calm His judgment."
And they said, well, maybe we can hold off on that. And they
gave it all they had to get to shore, to do something other
than watching Him die. And it didn't profit them any.
The Son of Man must die. Verse 14, Wherefore they cried
unto the Lord, and said, We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee,
Now that's not praying to a lowercase god. They're believers now. They
know the Lord, and they call on Him, and they say, Oh Lord,
hallowed is Thy name. 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. You've done anything you wanted.
You're God. If He didn't, He wouldn't be
God. And they beseech the Lord. They're not praying to God. They're not physically afraid. They're honoring Jehovah. Capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital T. They're honoring Him. It said,
For thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. They knew He
was sovereign. They knew of their sin and the
wrath that it deserved. And they knew something of obedience
to the Lord. They knew something of who to
pray to and what to ask Him. Now verse 15, so they took up
Jonah and cast him forth into the sea and the sea ceased from
her raging. Like that. They threw him in
and as the scripture said in other places at the very same
hour. Guarantee you right then them seas calmed down. When Christ
died for the elect chosen in him before time began, the wrath
of God has ceased from raging. Right then. There's therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ. It's done. Now, to say that Jonah was cast
over into the sea and that all storms for everyone throughout
time have ceased, that's not true. We've had, I don't know
how many hurricanes go through the Gulf of Mexico this year
alone. Well, that's not happened. There have been boat wrecks since
Jonah, ain't there? That's the same as to say that
Christ died for everyone throughout time. It's not true. Jonah died
for those in that ship. Christ, our ark, died for those
that are in Him. Brother Joseph Murphy down in
New Caney, Texas, in his bulletin, I didn't see a name at the end
of it, I assume that he wrote it, and if he didn't, I'll give
him credit for it, but he said, you imagine in Noah's day, when
those floods came, Just torrential rainfall coming down, killing
everything. And everybody in that ark, that
ark starts just bearing down on all that weather, that judgment
of God. We see these bumper stickers driving around our day, God loves
you. So would you put that on the outside of the ark? Or would
you put that on the inside of the ark? If you put it on the outside
of that ark, that ain't going to do them no good. That ain't truth, is it?
The Lord loves His people, it's in Christ. The only place He
loves them. And to say that Christ died for everybody is a lie,
but to say that the storm ceased, all rage was consumed, and judgment
is satisfied. The storm's over. We're on a
calm, flat lake. And to say that there's something
more we need to do to stop the storm. Make the waves stop. It's flat as a pancake. Make
the waves stop. That's a lie. The work's done. The storm's over. The raging
has ceased. Now verse 16, Then the men feared
the Lord exceedingly, and offered sacrifice unto the Lord, and
made vows. They honored the Lord. They offered
sacrifices to Jehovah, and they made vows. Do you know what those
vows were? Lord, by your grace, I'll never pray to one of them
gods I used to pray to. Lord, by your grace, I'll obey
you. Lord, by your grace, I'll pray for those that I should
pray for and be with them. Verse 17, now the Lord had prepared. That word's ordained. The Lord
had ordained a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was
in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah
was in the belly. Jonah's still not in the belly
of that fish, is he? He come out. Christ is not still in the
tomb. He was in the tomb, but he's
not now. We have an empty tomb. If Christ
didn't rise from that grave, that means that propitiation
wasn't accepted. Our sacrifice, our substitute,
wasn't accepted by the Father. He wasn't approved of. But He
is. He was in the tomb. He's seated
at the right hand of God now. Let's turn over to Matthew chapter
12 and we'll close. Matthew chapter 12. Again in
verse 38. Matthew 12, 38. Then certain
of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we
would see a sign from thee. I called him Master, but you
proved us who you are. Show us a sign." Verse 39, 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 Jonah. For as Jonah 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 judgment with this generation." The Lord
says His people will judge with Him in that final day. But in
this generation, the scribes He was speaking to, those men
of Nineveh, those that knew the Lord, they rose up against Him.
And they said, don't you know who Jonah was? This is a picture
of Christ. That's the Christ you're talking
to. They professed to Him. Because
they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater
than Jonah is here. It's an outstanding picture of
our Redeemer, and our Redeemer's here. It ain't a picture no more. You don't hug a picture, you
hug the one that pictures up. Cling to Him. My friend Donnie
Bell, Two things always stick out in my head of Donnie. When
I was a little tiny fella in the early eighties, he had a
dog named Rambo and I thought Donnie was the coolest man that
ever lived. He had a dog named Rambo. But speaking of Jonah,
he said, if the Bible said that the whale swallowed Jonah, I
believe the whale swallowed Jonah. And if the Bible said that Jonah
swallowed the whale, I would believe that Jonah swallowed
the whale. Lord said so. He preserved his word. I think
it's true. I believe that Jonah was really
in that whale's belly for three days and three nights. I believe
it was miraculous, and I don't know how it happened, but I know
it did. I don't know how he breathed. I don't know how those stomach
acids, the bile, the stuff didn't consume him. How he wasn't corrupted
in that tomb of a whale. I don't understand exactly how
that happened. I believe that Christ was in the earth for three
days and three nights. I believe that it was miraculous.
I believe that He satisfied the wrath of God on my behalf. I believe the storm has ceased
and that there is nothing for me to add to it. I don't know
exactly how that happened. But for His Nineveh, for His
chosen people, it did. It's the truth. I believe Him
because He said so. I pray you do too. Let's pray
together.