The book of Jonah. We've got
Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah. Many times, we're quick to walk
past a field that's full of precious stones. You ask somebody on the
street, have you ever heard of Jonah? Oh yeah, he disobeyed
the Lord, and he made a whale for Him, and he went into the
belly of the whale three days, and then he said salvation to
the Lord. That happened, but there's a
wealth of gospel in this book. Lord willing, starting next Sunday
evening, for the next four or six weeks or so, we'll go through
the book of Jonah, but tonight I want us to look at the book
of Jonah. Let's do a quick overview of
the whole thing. I'll have you turn to one scripture at the
very end, so try to stay with me. Verse 1 begins, Now the word
of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai. That's the greatest
blessing that can be bestowed upon any human being ever. The word of the Lord comes unto
you. Who does that come unto? It says,
Jonah the son of Amittai. Amittai means truth. Jonah was
a son of truth. That was established before this
world was. And that's who the Lord's Word
comes to. In verse 2, arise. Go to Nineveh, that great city,
and cry against it. Like the Lord told John the Baptist,
prophesied there in Isaiah, He said, you cry unto her. Go cry in the wilderness. All
flesh is grass. for their wickedness has 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 to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Now from Joppa to
Nineveh was about 550 miles across land as a crow flies. And from
Joppa to Tarshish was about 2,500 miles. The Lord spoke to his
prophet, the child of God, and he said, you're going to go to
Nineveh for me. And that rebellious child went
down to the port and booked the first ticket on a boat leaving
as far away as he could get. And it cost him a fare, didn't
it? Every time a child of God disobeys
our Heavenly Father, when we willfully rebel against the Word
of God, against Him, there's a price to be paid. There's going to be a fee from
us. on a coming chastisement. 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. The Lord chastens
His people, His children. And whenever He breathed on that
ocean, He sent that mighty storm. Everything that Jonah was relying
in, what he thought was his refuge, what he thought was his safety,
what he thought was his smooth ride will be broken. Anything
other than coming to the Lord in Christ, Christ our ark, it's
going to be shattered. It's going to be broken. Verse
5, then the mariners were afraid, those sailors, 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. Here's a picture of sinners
being saved. They see the judgment of God. They see God's wrath on sin. And they begin praying to their
lowercase g gods. Anybody they can speak to. Praying
to what they don't even know. And you know what they do? They're
burdened by the heavy weight of sin when they see the Lord's
wrath. And those weirs that's in their
boat, they're throwing every one of them out. Is that what
we do? Judgment's coming. Oh, get rid
of drinking. Stop going to the picture show.
Get it out of there. It's got a lot in the load. Won't
help them. It says, But Jonah was gone down
into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. This rebellious child that knew
the Lord. Knew that he was the Lord over
that sea, wasn't he? He was resting. Even in his rebellion, he was
resting. Resting in the Lord. Verse 6, So the shipmaster came
unto him, the captain of the ship, and said, What meanest
thou, O sleeper? Arise and call upon thy God,
if so be that God will thank upon us that we perish not. Why
ain't you working like we are? Why ain't you working hard enough?
Get up. Pray. We're all going to perish. And
they came every one to his fellow, and said, 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." Here's a picture of the
first Adam. The judgment of God was coming
upon all these fellows in the same boat. And it was because
of the offense of one. Now they went and they rolled
the dice, they cast lots, however they did it, to find out who
it was, whose fault it was. And it landed on Jonah. And they
said unto him, Tell us, pray thee, for whose cause this evil
is upon us, that thine occupation, what is thine occupation? Whence
comest thou? What is thy country, and what
people art thou? Those other men saw that they
were all going to die. And they said, who are you? Where
did you come from? What do you do? Who's your kin? Like every rebellious child of
God, we are caused to admit what we are and declare the Lord. Then when the Lord came to Adam
in the garden, He said, Adam, where are you? Christ wrestled
with Jacob. And He said, what's your name?
We're going to confess what we are. 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." Jonah starts preaching
to him. He said, you know this big storm
that's coming, this tempest that's raging on? The Lord made the
sea. He controls the sea. He controls
the weather and the dry ground and everything. And that's who
I fear. I'm a child of God. Then were
the men exceedingly afraid and said unto him, why hast thou
done this? Here's unregenerate men That's
fearful. That looks to the child of God
and says, why did you leave him? Why would you do this? They knew
it was nonsense, didn't they? That was foolish. Why do we? For the men knew that he fled
from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. There's a whole lot John had
told these people. It's not recorded. But Jonah told them of the Lord.
He said, I'm His, that's who I fear, and I left Him. I sinned
against God. Verse 11, Then they said unto
him, What shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto
us? For the sea is wrought and temptuous. The wrought there means it's
growing rougher and rougher. It's so temptuous that the waves
are breaking on each other. It's coming over the boat now.
Here we see Jonah as a picture of Christ. So far, that's been
a picture of me. That's been a picture of every one of his
children. You can take Jonah's name out and put my name in there.
Lord, I've sinned against you. I'm yours. I didn't obey. what judgment I deserve, what
chastisement I receive. That's me. Now we see Jonah as
a picture of Christ. It says in verse 12, And he said
unto them, Take me, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall
the sea be calm unto you. You want this judgment to be
ended? One has to die to save all the other ones. That's what
has to take place. For I know that for my name's
sake, this great tempest is upon you. You are aware of the judgment
that you deserve. You're aware of the judgment
that's coming for my name's sake. Don't ever one of us wander this
earth ignorant of God's wrath, of his judgment, of death to
come, what we owe, the law we've offended, in ignorance. Blissful ignorance. We're just
happily going about being married and giving in marriage and everything
else, not knowing. But for Christ's namesake, to
His people that He died for, one died so that many could live,
we're made to know the wrath that we deserve. The first time we hear that,
what's our nature do? Verse 13. Nevertheless, the men
rode hard to bring it to land, but they could not, for the sea
wrought and the tempest was against them." Christ died for sinners,
true sinners, rebellious, undeserving sinners, that unconditional election,
nothing in us. That's who he came to save. That
great physician came to heal the sick. How quick do we hear
that and nevertheless we grab our oars and row just as hard
as we can. I'll get to dry land myself.
We just got to do it quicker. Hurry up. Trouble's brewing. I can get myself out of this
mess. But it won't profit. That sea
grew greater. It rocked greater. The waves
crashed harder and they got bigger. We went from a storm to a gale
to this is a full-blown hurricane. We can't get out of it. Verse
14, Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech
thee. Now remember the first time they
cried to the lowercase g, gods. Now Jonah come to them. Jonah
preached to them. Now they cried to the Lord of
hosts. The Lord. They said, we beseech Thee, O
Lord, we beseech Thee, let us not perish for this man's life. Lord, save us because we're casting
one into the sea, into the depths. And lay not upon us innocent
blood. Lord, when You purge us with
that blood, make it effectual blood. Not just a pretend. Not just a blood that is anybody's
blood. Make it your blood. For thou,
O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. Could all that be a picture
of Christ? He said, I'll provide myself
a lamb. Salvation is of the Lord in its conception, in its execution,
in its sacrifice, and in it ever been of it. It pleased Him. Well, that's a confession from
a bunch of commercial fishermen, isn't it? From a bunch of old
sailors. Lord, shed Your blood for us.
So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the
sea ceased from her raging. Immediately, when that one that
died for many, when Jonah, our Christ, went into that sea of
God's judgment, immediately the sea stopped. It was flat. All justice has
been satisfied. All wrath has been consumed by
Him for His people. And whenever that sea stopped
and that calm came, so therefore now no condemnation. Something's
changed, isn't it? Verse 16, then the men feared
the Lord exceedingly. That's not, they weren't afraid.
They honored the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto
the Lord and made vows. What vow did they make? Like
Paul said, against that day, I know whom I've had believed
and I'm persuaded he's able to keep unto me against that day,
what I've committed unto him against that day. That's what
they vowed. Lord, salvation's of you. 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. The Lord prepared the fish. This
wasn't the doing of the fish. It wasn't the doing of the ones
in the boat. It wasn't the doing of Mother Nature, Lady Luck. The Lord prepared the fish that
Jonah was going to go into. And what happened? Just like
Psalm 31, there in chapter 2, verse 1. Then Jonah prayed unto
the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. Inside that fish's belly,
he prayed 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. The word hell there could be
grave. Out of the belly of the grave, I cried, and Lord, you
heard me. For thou hast cast me into the
deep, in the midst of the sea, and the floods compassed me about.
All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said,
I am cast out of thy sight. Lord, I've been forsaken. My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I'm out of your sight. Yet
will I look again toward thy holy temple. The whole time,
without sin, with no guile in His mouth, bearing our sin and
our shame on that cursed tree, He looked to the Lord's temple,
looking to the Father. 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 bottoms
of the mountain. Where did the Lord go down to?
He ascended from on high, descended from on high. He was on His throne
in heaven. He come to this earth. He went to Mount Calvary and
then was buried into the side of a mountain, wasn't he? The
earth and her bars was about me forever. The bounds of that
law, just like the ribs of that fish wrapped around Jonah. Christ was born as a man. Walked this earth as we did under
the confines of the bars of God's holy law. Yet hast thou brought
me up brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When
my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer came
unto thee and to thine holy temple." How was that? Who could approach
the Lord and the holy temple? The high priest could. The Lord
had to come praying on our behalf. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving, willfully coming to this earth, willfully
going to the cross, with joy redeeming his people. I will
pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." What
did Christ vow to pay before time was? He said, I'll be the
lamb. God's first elect. And in Him,
He said, I'll redeem that people. I'll obey the voice of my Father.
Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish
when He was satisfied. And it vomited out Jonah upon
the dry land. That picture of Christ doesn't
end there. That's a beautiful picture. But
something else happens. The work has been finished, but
there's still something that happens in believers' lives,
isn't there? Look here in verse 3. And 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.
Nineveh is a picture of the Lord's kingdom, of His spiritual Israel,
of all His elect, His church as a whole. And he's saying,
you go preach to them. Go speak to their hearts. So
Jonah arose and went into Nineveh according to the word of the
Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. This was a big town. That doesn't
mean it was three days away. That means it was three days
across. They estimated about 60, 65 miles across. It would
take a long time to walk across that, wouldn't it? Big town.
We'll see how big at the end. But this was a large town. Verse 4, chapter 3, verse 4.
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey. And
he cried and said, Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Like that voice crying into wilderness. All flesh is grass. Judgment's
coming. He made it 20 miles into that
city. preaching all day long, salvations of the Lord. What
was the result of that? Verse 5, So the people of Nineveh
believed God and proclaimed a fast, put on sackcloth from the greatest
of them even to the least. They said, stop consuming everything
we're consuming. Take off all your garments, put
on sackcloth, worship the Lord. And it says, from the greatest
of them to the least, from the educated to the uneducated, from
the rich to the poor, male and female, and to the king, the
greatest of those people. What did he do? The greatest
shall become the least. Look there in verse 6. 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. The greatest man in that city,
he came from his throne, and he took that robe of righteousness
off, If it's a sinner, we might look at this two different ways
in a couple of weeks. If it's a sinner, we take off our robe
of righteousness, don't we? We put on that sackcloth, old
burlap sack. Lord, I'm nothing but filthy
rags and I'll set in ashes because this world is going to be consumed.
There's nothing solid that we sit on and we look to You only.
And then the King of Nineveh, the King of the Lord's church
and His body, He came from His throne on high, gave us His robe
of righteousness, and became humble for our sakes. And He
caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout 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. Don't consume anything. Don't
even drink water. But let man and beast be covered
with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Don't consume anything. Don't
drink anything. Don't do anything by your hand.
Cry only to the Lord. Yea, let them turn everyone from
his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. Every child of God will be turned
from their evil way. We'll all be turned from our
violence, from the corruption we want to commit. The violence
against God's holy high command, against His law, we'll all be
turned from it and pointed to the Lord. Verse 9, who can tell
if God will turn and repent and turn away from His fierce anger
that we perish not? Lord, if you will, you can make
me whole. That whole city, this big, great
city, cried, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. If you will,
you're able. If you so choose, Lord, if you're
satisfied with the sacrifice you provided, you can save us.
but holy is your name." Verse 10, and God saw their works that
they turned from their evil way. They turned from their religion,
they turned from their doing, from their consumption, and they
turned to Christ. And God repented of the evil
that He had said that He would do unto them, and He did it not. That had already been performed,
hadn't it? To punish the wages of sins, death. Without blood,
there'll be no remission of sins. Boy, Jonah come preaching. crossed
our substitute. One died for many. And as a man,
he came there and said, I got threw off a boat. And everybody
in that boat was saved. Those that looked across, fellows
in the same ship, saved the same way. Now isn't that a miracle? We'll see in a minute, there's
120,000 children Little ones, like infants in
this city. That's a big town. Sixty miles
across. The whole city bowed to God. Lord, we're nothing. Oh, if you
will, salvation to the Lord. Save us, Lord. Could you imagine
walking up and down the streets of that city? You think there's
any road rage or to stop signs? Hey, brother. Hey, sister. Oh, let me help you. Boy, what
a pleasant place to be, isn't it? As a man, as the Lord's prophet,
God used Jonah to preach through that city. So often we think, well, nobody's
going to hear us. Look what a small flock we are here. That's about
the size of this county or this metropolitan area. What if in
one day the Lord was pleased to let one of us just tell who
Christ was? Tell what He accomplished at
Calvary. Tell who man is. Tell them where Christ is now.
And all of San Diego took off their robes of righteousness,
put on burlap sacks and said, Oh, you're the Lord. Praise be
to God. What a miracle! Wouldn't that
be something? Wouldn't it be a nice place to
live? What do you think the response to this? People said that, I
don't like the term, but they say, oh, well Jonah was a backslider.
He knew the Lord and he went away, or he wasn't saved yet
until he came out of the well. But we know that saints, we're
still trapped in this flesh, aren't we? What won't a believer
do? They won't apostatize. They won't
eternally go from the Lord because He won't allow it. What else? What else would we do? Anything.
Anything that this flesh could do. We'll do anything. Now this
miracle just happened. The Lord saved a whole city. From the king to the babies.
All of them. Every one of them. And you know
what this prophet of God, this chosen elect child of God, one
that Christ died for, what did he respond with? Chapter 4, verse
1. Now we know, we've already come
out of the well. This is a child of God. It's the Lord's prophet.
Chapter 4, verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was very angry. Would you have guessed that if
that was the first time you ever read Jonah? He was mad. He was displeased. Why? Look at verse 2. 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? Isn't that what was in my heart?
Didn't I already say this? 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 evil. Lord,
I knew you was going to save your people. John was a fatalist. But if the Lord's got people
in there, he'll save them. I don't need to do any work.
I'm going to go vacation in Spain. I'm going to go to Tarshish.
He don't have to use me. I don't have to obey Him. If
they're the Lord, they'll be saved. The Lord's going to use
means. He'll use men and means to save
His people and cause His people. And Jonah said, Therefore now,
O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life for me, for it is better
for me to die than to live. Lord, just kill me now. Take
me home. I'm unprofitable. That's my heart's
desire. Go vacation somewhere. Peter,
I want to go back to fishing. I want to take me out of here. Then said the Lord, Doest thou
well to be angry? How's that working out for you,
Jonah? Did it do any good for you to be mad? One of the references
there in the margins, Matthew 20, that's where it says, Can
I do with my own as I see fit? This is the means I've chosen
to do, Jonah. How does the Lord save his people? Through the
preaching of the gospel? You're going to be a preacher, Jonah.
Go preach to them people. I don't want to. You're going
to save them anyway. Go. He made him. He just saved all his people
on a ship, put him in a well for three days, made him declare
salvation to the Lord, saved an entire city. And Jonah's mad. What won't a believer do? But the Lord is going to teach
him. Here in verse 5, So Jonah went out of the city, sat on
the east side of the city, and there he made him a booth and
sat underneath the shadow that he might see what would become
of the city. He said, I'm going to take my ball and go home.
And he went to the outskirts of that city. I'm going to sit
down and we'll see if the Lord is going to save this town or
not. I'm going to watch it, see if it burns or if he makes it
thrive. But I'm just going to be on the sidelines. I'm going
to have no part in it. I'm just going to witness it.
I'm just going to watch it. Do you think the Lord let us do
that? If He purposes for His people to serve Him, is He going
to keep you from praying? Is He going to keep you from
supporting the works? From attendance? From loving
your brethren? It won't happen, will it? Verse 6, And the Lord God prepared
a gourd. I always think of kudzu. Have you ever seen a gourd? You
know what gourds are. Big old vines and it grows One
of those fruits, you cut them up, you can dry them, make a
spoon out of it sometimes. My uncle had one, and he smoked
Winstons, and he'd stick a lot of cigarettes, stick it on the
vine of that gourd, and before that cigarette went out, it would
wrap around it. We count how many times it'd wrap it. It'd
be like 10 times. They grow fast, certain kinds of them. But the
Lord prepared, just as He prepared that whale, just as He's prepared
salvation, just as He's prepared everything. The Lord 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 exceedingly glad of the gourd. The Lord gave a great blessing. You're out here in this desert.
It's hot. He made a big old shade grow
right over the top of your head. And Jonah was exceedingly glad
in the gourd. My prideful flesh, my self-righteous
flesh said, I'd have learned by now. No, I wouldn't have. The Lord
keeps teaching us, don't He? He teaches us all the way until
He takes us home. God prepared that gourd, verse
7. He giveth, doesn't he? The Lord
giveth, but the Lord taketh away. Chapter 4, verse 7. But God prepared
a worm. When the morning rose the next
day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered. The Lord gave
him a great material, physical blessing. And just as fast as
he gave it to him, and Jonah rejoiced in that gourd, the Lord
took it from him. Verse 8, And it came to pass,
when the sun did rise, that God prepared a vehement east wind,
a hot wind from the east. And the sun beat upon the head
of Jonah, so that he fainted, and wished himself to die, and
said, It is better for me to die than to live. He's ready
to end it all. Give up. Throw your hands up.
It's back to being bad. And God said unto Jonah, Doest
thou well to be angry for the gourd? Is it going to do you
any good? Are you mad over that gourd?"
And here's what Jonah said. He said, I do well to be angry
unto death. I'm mad and I'm going to be mad
because this blessing was taken from me all the way until I die. Oh, I'm mad. Fighting mad. Here's what the Lord does for
His people. Went through all this. Teach us something. Verse 10. Then the Lord said,
then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd. Pity there
in your Mars reference can be translated as spared. You wanted
to spare that gourd. You wanted to have pity on a
gourd. For the which thou didst not labor. You had this blessing.
You wanted to spare it. You didn't work for that. Neither
madest it grow. You didn't water it. You didn't
plant it. You didn't water it. You didn't
make it to grow, which came up at night and perished at night.
This blessing came to you when you were unaware. And when it
went away, you were unaware. You didn't know it's coming and
it's going, did you? Verse 11, And should not I spare
Nineveh? You're ready to be mad for the
rest of your life over something you didn't labor for, you didn't
water, you didn't make grow. The Lord said, Nineveh, I've
watered, I've planted, I've labored for, and I've made to grow. That's
mine. Should I not 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? He asked Jonah, he said, you're
so concerned about this one blessing that I gave you after everything
you've seen, and you understand your concern. This is my city,
my people I've labored for, I've purposed, and I've cared for. I've watered, I'm gonna spare.
And it says there are six score thousand persons that cannot
discern between their right hand and their left hand. First time
I read that, so that's 120,000 people that don't know their
left hand from their right hand. And that's what it feels like
a lot of times when you first hear the gospel. I don't know
really what all this stuff means. There's a whole lot of these
doctrines of grace like we looked at this morning. I kind of got
a handle on that one. I really don't know what this
one is. How does all this apply to me? How can I use this through
the week? How can I put it in shoe leather?
I don't understand. But it was more than that. One of the commenters
said that was a small baby, a little toddler. Which one's your right
hand, which one's your left hand? They don't know. That's just
the children. How many people's in that city
of Nineveh? The sands of the sea? An innumerable people? That's who the Lord sent to save. Save them and much cattle, all
the things to provide for them. for their labors, for their benefit
to sustain them, everything. That's what he taught Jonah.
Well, my brother said, that's the last recording we have of
Jonah. That's where it stops. He said, you know what I bet
you, if there was a verse 12, what it'd say? Now you go to
the next city. That's what's going to happen.
We get this picture of Jonah. We see ourselves in Jonah. We see the gospel going forth
saving sinners. We see the Lord preserving His
whole church because of His prophet, His priest, and His king, because
of Christ, who He died and sacrificed for His people. We get this picture
recorded for us in this four short chapters. The Lord's preserved
this throughout time for us to have. He'll continue to preserve
it. But if all we got was the story, it wouldn't be much for
it, would it? It'd just be something we'd tell
the children when they went to bed. Maybe scare them from going
out on the ocean, becoming fishermen or something. Turn over to Matthew
chapter 12, and we'll close. Hopefully throughout this book,
we'll see a Lord's rebellious children will see Jonah as the
first Adam. What it is when sinners are saved,
these pictures of Christ. Christ affectionately calling
all of his church, providing for that church. How often we
become angry and we complain and we murmur. Children of God,
how quick we are to murmur. And we're an anti-type of Christ. Man has to have two natures.
The Lord is going to save him. Like Paul said, there's a war
going on in me. And that's why in one person Jonah, we have
a picture of every sinner that walks the face of the earth,
and we have a picture of Christ at the same time. Christ dwells
in his people, doesn't he? And we'll see salvation accomplished.
But here in Matthew 12, beginning verse 38, Then certain of the scribes and
of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from
thee." Perform a miracle. Convince us. Verse 39, but he
answered, said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign, and there shall be no sign 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 there
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Just
as the prophet Jonah foretold Christ is going to be in the
belly of the earth. Verse 41, the men of Nineveh
shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn
it. All the saints of God. Because they repented at the
preaching of Jonas. They turn from themselves at
the preaching of Christ. And behold, a greater than Jonas
is here. That's the one that speaks to
us. This beautiful picture, I could preach until I'm dead. I can preach 40 years out of
Jodah and not scratch the surface. And that's just the written word
that we have. We have a person. We have a Savior
and He is much greater than what we see. I pray we can look to
Him. Let's pray together.