Yuba-Sutter Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. The scripture for our sermon
today is Matthew 16, verses 1 through 4. We read, The Pharisees, also
with the Sadducees, came, and, tempting, desired him that he
would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them,
When it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather, for
the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather, for
the sky is red and lowering. O you hypocrites, you can discern
the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the
times. A wicked and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it
but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he left them and departed.
There are at least four lessons here we must learn. First, gospel
compromise is a deadly poison. The Pharisees and Sadducees came
together against Christ. Second, it is wicked to seek
a sign. It is wicked to seek anything
besides the testimony of Scripture concerning Christ as the basis
of our faith. Third, there is one sign we must
not miss, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scripture, that he was buried, that he rose again in glorious
triumph according to the scripture. Christ must be the sole object
of our faith. And fourth, if we turn from Christ
and his gospel in willful unbelief, we will suffer the wrath of God
without mixture. Let us now consider these lessons
one at a time. First, gospel compromise is a
deadly poison. In verse 1, the Pharisees and
Sadducees join together in an unholy alliance against Christ. In our day and every day, religious
groups are willing to compromise their own differences because
they do not believe Christ and his gospel. Ecumenism is the
term used in our day. Ecumenism is an attempt to unify
churches by compromise. Only those who do not believe
the gospel of Christ are willing to compromise the gospel. Compromise
of God's word is the devil's tactic. In Genesis 3, the devil
asked Eve, Yea, hath God said you shall not eat of every tree?
That was compromise. The Apostle Paul wrote to the
Galatians, There be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached to you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel to you than that
you have received, let him be accursed. Galatians 1 verse 7-9
Later, in that same letter, Paul said, a little leaven leavens
the whole lump. Paul understood that even a small
compromise of the gospel corrupts the entire gospel to the damnation
of men's souls. These two groups, the Sadducees
and the Pharisees, had no problem compromising their own differences
because Christ was their common enemy. The old saying, the enemy
of my enemy is my friend, applies here. Though enemies, the Pharisees
and Sadducees became friends in their common cause against
Christ, their greater enemy. They tolerated one another in
order to overthrow him. Sadducees and Pharisees were
on the same wrong side of the gospel against Christ. There
are really only two sides. Christ's kingdom and the devil's
kingdom. Christ and his gospel and the
world and its religion. Jesus said, I am the truth. John 14, 6. Jesus must therefore
be God. We either believe Christ as he
is revealed in the gospel or we oppose him. And the second
big lesson here is that a wicked and an adulterous generation
seeks for signs. These men could read signs in
the sky and predict the weather, which was of little importance.
But they completely missed the one thing of eternal importance,
the truth of how God now stood before them in human nature.
They tempted Jesus. They asked him to give a sign.
What is a sign? A sign is simply a miracle. They
said they would believe in Christ if only he would perform a miracle
from heaven. They blamed Christ for their
unbelief. But Jesus teaches us that to
seek a sign as the basis of faith is a great evil. In the book
of Isaiah, God told wicked king Ahaz to ask for a sign. In verse
10 of chapter 7, he said, The LORD spake again to Ahaz, saying,
Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God. Ask it either in the depth
or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask,
neither will I tempt the LORD. Though Ahaz was wicked, he was
wise enough to know that it was evil to ask a sign of the Lord.
Why is it evil? Because asking a sign from God
requires him to do something to prove that his word can be
trusted. When we doubt someone, we ask
for evidence to verify that they are telling the truth. We hold
men suspect if we think they are liars. To ask a sign of the
Lord is to hold God suspect as a common liar. This is the definition
of unbelief. Unbelief is refusal to believe
God's word concerning Christ. When God told King Ahaz to ask
a sign, Ahaz refused to tempt the Lord. Then the Lord said,
Hear ye now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to
weary men? But will you weary my God also?
Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,
which means God with us." Isaiah 7, verse 13-14. The only sign
God has given men is His Son, sent from heaven, born as a man,
living and dying in the place of sinners, rising again in glorious
triumph, and reigning for their salvation. Emmanuel means God
with us. These Pharisees and Sadducees
therefore denied Christ as the eternal Word of God. They denied
the One who is the source and fulfillment of all of Scripture.
In John 5, Jesus said, Search the scripture, for in them you
think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify
of me, and you will not come to me that you might have life.
These men had Scripture. They had the testimony of John
the Baptist. They had Christ's own testimony.
They had the witness of His miracles, yet they wickedly preferred their
unbelief to the truth. They could not see beyond the
veil of Christ's human nature to see that He was the Son of
the Highest standing before them. In the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus in Luke chapter 16, the rich man asked Abraham to
send Lazarus back from the dead that his family would believe
and not come into the place of torment. But Abraham told him,
If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Luke 16.31 We must
not seek more than what God has said in scripture as our basis
for believing Christ. We must not seek miracles. We
must not seek spiritual gifts, spiritual experiences. We must
not rely on science or any additional evidence more than the bare Word
of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Romans 10 and 17. The third lesson
here in Matthew 16 is the lesson of all of Scripture. It is Christ
and Him crucified, the sign of the prophet Jonah. In Matthew
12, Jesus said, 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 sign of the prophet
Jonah is the Gospel. And the final lesson is a warning.
If we will not believe the testimony of Scripture concerning Christ
and Him crucified, risen and reigning and coming again, even
as the thief on the cross did, then we will perish along with
these pretenders and haters of Christ. After Jesus spoke these
words to the Pharisees and Sadducees, He left them and departed. What
a warning this is to us! There is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Acts 4.12 If
we leave Christ in unbelief, there is no other Savior. If
we turn in willful unbelief from Christ, there is no more sacrifice
for sin. Hebrews 10 We must come to Christ
and submit to Him as everything in our salvation. We must trust
His obedience as all of our righteousness before God. Romans 10 verse 3-4
We must worship and trust and serve Him as our great God and
Savior, for so He is. In light of this solemn warning,
let us consider further the sign of Jonah. We can summarize the
book of Jonah as follows. Jonah was a prophet of the Lord.
A prophet is a man who speaks for God to men. We normally think
of a prophet as God's mouthpiece, and that is true. But what is
also true about prophets is that not only their words, but their
lives are God's message to men. Hosea spoke God's word, but he
also married a harlot to illustrate God's message. Jonah was such
a prophet. It is both what happened to Jonah
and his words that was the message from God. And this is infinitely
more true of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah was God's prophet. God
chose him. God sent him. God gave him a
message to preach to the Ninevites, these Gentiles, these Assyrians,
the enemies of Israel. Nineveh was under the sentence
of God's judgment. God told Jonah to preach. Yet
forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. Therefore, Nineveh
was a city under the condemnation of God. Yet God spared that city. In the same way, God spared His
people in Christ. Ephesians 2 says that we were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who
is rich in mercy, for His great love, wherewith He loved us,
even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with
Christ. For by grace are you saved. Ephesians 2 verse 3 through 5.
We learn from Jonah that salvation is by the will of God, as Ephesians
2 says, but God. God determined to send Jonah
to Nineveh. They were sinners, but Christ
came to call sinners to repentance, Matthew 9.13. Therefore, the
first thing we see here is that God saves by His will. God saw
the wickedness of Nineveh. God, not Jonah, determined to
spare that city. God commanded Jonah to go there.
God told Jonah what to preach. And the second thing we learn
is that God saves by His command. He told Jonah, go to Nineveh,
that great city. Jonah 3.2. In Psalm 71.3 it says,
Thou hast given commandment to save me. And our Lord Jesus says
in John 10 verse 15 and 18, I lay down my life for the sheep. This
commandment have I received from my Father. And then also, see
that God saves his people by sending a man to preach. Jonah
was God's prophet. God told Jonah, preach unto them
the preaching that I bid thee. The Apostle Paul said the same
thing. We are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech
you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead
be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him, Christ,
to be sin for us. who knew no sin, the Lord Jesus
Christ knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him, in our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 verse
20 and 21. As God sent Jonah to preach to
Nineveh, Christ sends his ambassadors to preach the gospel. But the
heart of the message of the book of Jonah is seen by what happens
between the time that God sends Jonah and the time when God spares
that great city. Jonah is determined not to go
to Nineveh. Instead, he pays the fare to
take a trip in the opposite direction. But while he is in the ship on
the sea, the Lord sends a great storm. The mariners with him
on the ship fear for their lives. They cry to their idols. They
lighten the ship. They begin to ask themselves
why this great storm has come upon them. And they search the
ship. They find Jonah sleeping. They
ask him all sorts of questions to find out if there is something
evil about him that God would destroy them in the sea. Who
are you? Where are you from? Who are your
people? What is your business? Tell us for whose cause this
evil has come upon us. And Jonah said, I am a Hebrew.
I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which made the sea and the dry
land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, why hast
thou done this? For the men knew that he fled
from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then
said they unto him, What shall we do to thee, that the sea may
be calm to us? These men worshipped idols, yet
when Jonah spake to them, they knew that his God was the true
God. Throughout time, men refused
to acknowledge and worship the true God who made heaven and
earth. The Creator of all is Himself uncreated. He is before
all things. He is eternal. He has all power,
for He created everything by His Word, and He administers
everything in this world to bring about His purpose. He upholds
all things by the almighty power of His Word. The true and the
living God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the creator of
all things. Isn't that what Thomas said in
John chapter 20, when he bowed before the Lord Jesus and said,
My Lord, my God, John 20.28. The men knew Jonah was God's
servant, so they asked him, What shall we do unto thee, that the
sea may be calm to us? Jonah said to them, Take me up,
and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm to you.
For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Jonah
1.12. Now, even though Jonah told them
to cast him into the sea, these men were afraid to do so. So
they prayed to the Lord. Never presume upon God. Come
to Him in Christ. These men feared for their lives
and for their souls. They cried to the Lord. They
said, We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee. Let us not perish
for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for
Thou, Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee. Two things should be noticed
here. First, they called Jonah innocent. Second, they said that God did
what pleased Him. So they took up Jonah and cast
him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. Here
is a most significant truth. Not only does God save by His
will, not only does He save by His command, but He saves by
a substitute. The judgment of God raged against
these men in the ship. They said Jonah was innocent.
They knew that God sent the storm and required Jonah to be cast
into the sea. It was God's will. Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, and
in the seas, and all deep places. Psalm 135.6 Why didn't Jonah
throw himself into the sea? Why did God require the mariners
to cast him in? Because it seemed good to God
to deliver His Son into the hands of wicked men. Because it pleased
God to make His Son an offering for the sins of His people, to
pour out His wrath upon Him at the hands of transgressors. And
therefore, He, our Lord Jesus Christ, was numbered with transgressors. Isaiah 53, 12. He came to save
sinners, but to do so, He must take their sins. Jonah was an
innocent man. Christ is the just one. Yet he
died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. In Acts 2,
Peter said, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you
by miracles and signs and wonders, which God did by him in the midst
of you, as yourselves also know, Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God you have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. And Pilate said of the Lord,
I find no fault in him. The mariners knew Jonah was not
worthy to die, yet God told them they must cast him into the sea
by his prophet Jonah. Just so, throughout scripture,
God's prophets have told how Christ must die at the hands
of men. In 1 Peter 1, verses 10-11, it says, Of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied
of the grace that should come to you, searching what, or what
manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. The entire message of scripture
is summarized as the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow. As Jonah told the mariners they
must throw him overboard, God prophesied that the Jews and
Gentiles would put Christ to death. In Psalm 2 verse 1 it
says, Why do the heathen, the Gentiles, why do the heathen
rage, and the people, the Jews, imagine a vain thing? When they
threw Jonah into the sea, the sea was calm. This is salvation
by a substitute. Christ satisfied God's justice
and appeased His wrath against His people by offering Himself
for them. Psalm 85 says, Thou hast taken
away all Thy wrath, Thou hast turned Thyself from the fierceness
of Thine anger. Isaiah 12 says, In that day Thou
shalt say, O Lord, I will praise Thee. Though Thou wast angry
with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me.
Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become
my salvation. Isaiah 12 verse 1 and 2. The
Lord Jehovah is become my salvation, and Christ is the only name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Therefore,
Jehovah God the Son was born of a virgin and was made under
the law to save his people from their sins. God spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all. Romans 8.32 No words
can convey this act of God. Without controversy, this is
the center stake in all of God's will and work. Christ substituted
himself for his people. He knew no sin, yet he was made
sin. His soul was made an offering
for sin. He was cursed of God. God sent
Christ into the world. He is the prophet. who not only
spoke God's will, but he himself fulfilled that will when he offered
himself to God for the sins of his people. This is the sign
of Jonah the prophet. The mariners cast Jonah into
the sea. No doubt, when they did, they
lost sight of him. Yet God prepared a great beast
in the sea to swallow him up. Just so, men crucified the Lord
Jesus Christ according to the will of God. Yet God brought
upon His Son an even greater punishment than the physical
sufferings with which men afflicted Him. Jonah prophesies of Christ
by his prayers. He says, Out of the belly of
hell, cried I, Jonah 2-2, and thou hast cast me into the deep.
All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. I said, I am
cast out of thy sight. The waters compassed me about,
even to the soul. And in Psalm 88 it says, Thy
wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all
thy waves. The mariners cast Jonah into
the sea, but it was God who prepared a beast in the sea that would
swallow him up. Men afflicted Christ in his body,
but God afflicted him in his soul. In the garden, our Lord
Jesus sweat great drops of blood, even before men laid a hand upon
him. And he was sore amazed and very
heavy. Mark 14, verse 33. And he feared. In Psalm 88, he says, I am afflicted
and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer thy terrors,
I am distracted. And on the cross, our Lord Jesus
was in anguish, it says in Isaiah 53, verse 4. He was plagued. He was forsaken by God. He said,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Psalm 22, verse
1. Because he suffered for us, we escape all those things that
he suffered. His bodily sufferings were but
a picture of his soul sufferings. And when we hear Jonah's prayer,
we hear our Lord Jesus Christ suffering for our sins under
the wrath of God. After Jonah had been three days
and three nights in the belly of the sea beast, God spoke to
that beast and it spit Jonah out onto the dry land. After
Christ suffered the wrath of God for our sins, after he lay
in the tomb three day-night units of time, God raised him from
the dead. Death is the punishment for sin.
Life is the reward for righteousness. Christ bore our sins in his own
body up to the tree, 1 Peter 2.24. He fully suffered all that
God's justice demanded. He made propitiation to God for
our sins by his own blood. Having made satisfaction, God
raised him from the dead. His resurrection is proof that
all for whom He died are justified by God. Thus, we learn that we
are saved by the will of God, by the command of God, by our
Great Substitute, and we learn that we are raised with Christ
because we are justified from sin. Because He put away our
sins, God raised Him from the dead. Death is the wage of sin. Death, therefore, has no hold
on the righteous. Romans 4.25 says, Our Lord Jesus
Christ was delivered for our offenses, and He was raised again
for or because of our justification. Christ justified His people by
His own blood, saving them from the wrath of God. Romans 5.9
Because they are justified, because we have been raised with him
in his resurrection, therefore God raises us to spiritual life
when we hear the gospel. Ephesians 2 verse 3-6 The people
in Nineveh were under God's sentence of condemnation, but God sent
Jonah. Before Jonah preached to them,
he must first be cast into the sea, swallowed by the sea monster,
then spit out on dry land. Then God sent him to preach to
Nineveh. in the same way, it was the eternal will of God that
Christ make atonement for the sins of his people by his own
death. He was buried and lay in the
tomb three days and three nights. Having justified them by his
blood, God raised him from the dead and them with him. And our
Lord Jesus Christ, having risen from the dead, was exalted to
heaven's throne as God and man. Our Lord sent His disciples,
His ambassadors, to preach His gospel to sinners throughout
the world, both Jews and Gentiles. When the Ninevites heard Jonah,
they believed God. And this teaches us another important
truth. We are saved by the will of God,
we are saved by the command of God, we are saved by our substitute,
we are justified with Christ in His resurrection, and we are
saved through preaching. And finally, we are saved in
believing. We are converted from unbelief
to faith. We believe Christ as all in our
salvation according to the gospel. One preacher explained repentance
well. He said, Repentance is a change
of mind that comes from a change of masters that results in a
change of motives and a change of manners. When we hear the
gospel of Christ, that we are under the just condemnation of
God for our sin, but that God in Christ has purged the sins
of His people and established their everlasting righteousness
by His obedience, When God gives us repentance to the acknowledging
of this truth by His Spirit, then we believe. Our mind is
thoroughly changed. We worship God. We rejoice in
Christ. We take no confidence in the
flesh. As the Ninevites, we are delivered by God from so great
a death. Being now justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him. We must not miss
the one and only sign God has given. That sign is Christ, and
Him crucified as declared to us in the Gospel from Scripture.
We are saved by the eternal will of God. God chose and gave His
people to Christ before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1. We
are saved by the command of God. God commanded His Son to lay
down His life for the sheep, and He commanded our salvation.
We are saved by a substitute. Christ offered Himself in the
place of sinners whom God purposed to save. We are saved because
Christ made atonement. God justified Him and all of
His people with Him when He raised Him from the dead. and we are
saved through preaching. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. And finally, we are saved in
believing and repenting. God sent His Son to save a condemned
people, Jews and Gentiles, throughout the world. We must hear God's
Son. We must believe Him. We must
change our mind by seeing Him with eyes of faith in the Gospel.
Is Christ all of your salvation? From the belly of the great fish,
Jonah cried, salvation is of the Lord. If God has saved you,
he has taught you this in your own soul. There is only one name
under heaven by which we must be saved. It is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the one sign God has given. By himself, he saved his people
from their sins. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at ysgracechurch.com.