Now tonight we're going to begin
preaching through the book of Jonah. Jonah chapter 1 will be
our text. And the title of the message
is God's Saving and Preserving Grace. God's Saving and Preserving
Grace. But before we go to the book
of Jonah, I want you to turn in your Bibles to John chapter
7. Turn to John chapter 7. I want to read a portion from
John 7 beginning at verse 37. There are several things about
this passage that will lead us into a study of the book of Jonah.
First of all, this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking here. It
says, in the last day, verse 37 of the book of John, that
great day of the feast, that was the Feast of Tabernacles.
Remember, that was one of the Jewish feasts. That was the one
where they dwelt in tents or booths. Sometimes it's called
the Feast of Booths. And that was commemorating the
time that Israel spent in the wilderness, 40 years, between
Egypt and Sinai and the Promised Land. And so that was the Feast
of Tabernacles. So it was a religious time. It
was a time of reflection. It was a time of repentance.
It was a time of thanksgiving, all of these things. But it was
a religious time. And he says here, Jesus stood
and cried saying, if any man thirsts. Now that's the emphasis
I want you to see tonight. If any man thirsts, let him,
any man who thirsts, come unto me and drink. If any man thirsts. Now there are no Ethnic fences
to build here are walls. There are no conditions. There's a qualification, we can
say it this way. What he's talking about here,
he's not talking about literal water, you know that. He's talking
about spiritual water, just like he talked to the woman at the
well. Rivers of living water, springs of living water. We sing
that song, drinking at the springs of living water. And he who drinks
of this water will never thirst again. The abundance of living
water. He's talking about spiritual
salvation, spiritual life in Christ. That's what he's talking
about. And the qualification here is to be thirsty. Now that
doesn't mean, we're not talking about a conditional salvation
or a salvation conditioned on the sinner because by nature
we're not thirsty. By nature we can't make ourselves
thirsty. It takes the spirit of God. to
make us thirsty for the water of life. And just like the hungry
for the bread of life, all of that. So that is a qualification
that the Spirit of God brings to us as He convicts us of sin
and of judgment and of righteousness and of judgment. He convinces
us of our need of Christ. I must have Christ. But the emphasis
I want you to see here in line with our study of the book of
Jonah all the way through all four chapters is that Christ
says here, and listen to this, if any man thirsts, not just
Jewish people, not just Americans, but just any man, any man, Jew
or Gentile, and the emphasis here is that God has a people
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Are you thirsty
for the water of life? That's the question. It's not,
are you a Baptist? Are you an American? Are you
Southern? Are you Northern? Are you Jew? Are you Gentile?
Are you thirsty for Christ? Do you hunger and thirst after
righteousness? Because if you do, I'm telling
you, there's nothing to stop you from drinking at the fountain
of living water. Jesus Christ himself. Nothing.
No hindrances. No obstacles. No qualifications,
no conditions. Doesn't matter who you are. And
the reason that's important for a study of the book of Jonah
is Jonah is the story of a Jewish prophet whom God gave the message
of the gospel to take it to a Gentile nation. And he didn't want to
do it. He didn't want to do it. He's
called the reluctant prophet. Well, there's another thing here.
You know, Jonah is a type of Christ. We'll see that as we
go through our study. But here in this day when Christ
was speaking, the day of our Lord's earthly walk and ministry
was much like Jonah's day. In Israel, it was a day of physical,
economic, and political prosperity. Even though the Jews in Christ's
day were under a foreign government, the Roman government, The land
in and of itself was very prosperous. Herod was a... And when you speak
of economics, King Herod was a good king for Israel economically,
trade-wise, prosperous, all of that. Religiously, he was anti-Christ. He was awful. He was everything
that a king of Israel shouldn't be. He wasn't even in the line
of Judah. But economically, they were well off. Religiously, they
were in poverty. The same way Israel was in Jonah's
day. They were very prosperous under
Jeroboam II in Israel economically, but religiously they were in
poverty. Poverty. And this is the generation
that he spoke to. Look at verse 38. Now this living
water, he says, he that believeth on me as the scripture hath said
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. That's the promise
of God to every thirsty sinner who comes to Him to drink at
this fountain. Well, as we progress through
John 7, let me show you something else. The religious leaders came
to Him. Look at verse 45 of John 7. And
the people, even before this, the people began to speculate
about Him. Who is this fellow? Who is this man? All of this. Is he Christ? Some in verse 41
here it says others said this is the Christ, but some said
shall Christ come out of Galilee You know Jesus of Nazareth came
out of Galilee, but he was born in Bethlehem That's what the
what's what the scripture says the Messiah would be born in
Bethlehem but he went by way of Nazareth came out of Galilee
and they They said in verse 42 here, it says, Hath not the scripture
said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the
town of Bethlehem where David was? So there was a division
among the people because of him. They didn't realize at this time
that they were talking to one who came of the seed of David
out of the town of Bethlehem, even though his reputation was
such that he came out of Galilee. And they knew that the Messiah
was not to come out of Galilee, but let's go on. It says in verse
45, then came the officers to the chief priest and Pharisees,
and they said to them, why have you not brought him? They wanted
him to stand before them, their court. The officers answered,
never man spake like this man. We haven't heard anybody talk
like this. Isn't that amazing? Then answered them, the Pharisees,
are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the
Pharisees believed on him? How could you even give any credence
to this Galilean? Because none of the religious
leaders believed on him, and if none of the religious leaders
believed on him, you sure can't believe on him, how can you?
You might be thirsty, but don't drink at that fountain because
the religious leaders haven't. Now you get the picture here?
What's going on here? Don't let any man do your thinking
for you. Not even me. I'm a guide. I'm a spiritual guide as I lead
you through the scripture. But you think about these things
and consider these things and search these things out for yourself.
That's the lesson here. Well, verse 49 says, But this
people who knoweth not the law are cursed. They don't know the
law, the Pharisees were saying. Well, look at verse 50. Nicodemus
comes back on the scene. You remember Nicodemus back in
John 3? Nicodemus saith unto them, he that came to Jesus by
night, being one of them, doth our law judge any man before
it hear him, and know what he doeth?" In other words, are we
using the scriptural procedure here to judge a man? To judge
what he says? Well, verse 52, "...they answered
and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look,
for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." And every man went
unto his own house." Now, what's wrong with that? Well, they do
err, as Christ said, not knowing the Scriptures. They said, we
know he's not a prophet sent from God because you can search
and find out this out in the Scriptures that no prophet come
out of Galilee. Hold on. 2 Kings chapter 14. 2 Kings chapter 14. Look at verse 23. It says in 2 Kings chapter 14
and verse 23, in the 15th year of Amaziah, the son of Joash,
king of Judah, remember that's the southern kingdom, Judah.
At that time, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, began
to reign in Samaria. Samaria was the northern kingdom's
capital. So here's Jeroboam, the king
of the northern kingdom, and he reigned 41 years, and he did
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He was not a godly
king. Now remember I said, you know, we studied a little bit
about this Jeroboam in the book of Amos and in the book of Hosea
because they prophesied during his reign too. Very prosperous,
very well off, very fertile land, Remember God sent Prophet Amos
and Prophet Hosea to tell them that God was going to bring a
disaster upon the land, that Israel was going to be destroyed,
but this is the same time. So Jeroboam, it says, he did
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He didn't lead the
people in the ways of God, in the ways of truth, in the ways
of grace. And it says, He departed not
from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that's the
first Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, who set up idols in different
places in Israel, this other Jeroboam. So, in other words,
this Jeroboam II followed his namesake. As the first one set
up idols in different places and corrupted the worship of
God, Jeroboam II followed right in suit. It says in verse 25,
He restored the coast of Israel from the entering in of Hamath
Hamath being a place in Syria named after an old king that
David had dealings with. And then what he's saying here
is he expanded Israel's borders. So geographically, economically,
politically, they were well off. He did good that way. He said,
Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the
Lord of Israel, this was prophesied, which he spake by the hand of
his servant Jonah. Now, you know that's the only
other place that Jonah's mentioned in the Old Testament as saying
anything prophetically. He told King Jeroboam that the
Lord's going to expand your borders. Well, who was Jonah? Well, he
was the son of Amittai, the prophet Amittai. Jonah's father was a
prophet, and he was of Gath-hepher, or hepher. Where's Gath-hepher? Gath-hepher is in Galilee. The
Pharisees were wrong. There had been a prophet come
out of Galilee. His name was Jonah. Now turn to Jonah chapter
1. It's also said that it's probably that the prophet Nahum may have
come out of Galilee also. But we know from scriptural testimony
that Jonah came out of Galilee. So they did err not knowing the
scripture. Now that wasn't their only problem
with not knowing the scriptures, was it? The main problem is they
didn't know Christ. As the Lord said in John 5 and
verse 39, you search the scriptures, you pore over them, you read
them, you study them, but you're ignorant of them. They are they
which testify of me. And they were ignorant of that.
Well, Jonah was a prophet of God in the northern kingdom during
that long and prosperous reign of Jeroboam II. He probably lived
around 780 to 800 years before Christ. That gives you an idea.
He prophesied just prior to Amos. Jonah, the son of Amittai, of
Gath-Hephir in Galilee, And it was a time of religious confusion,
corruption. Again, it was a time, as I said,
as the Lord spoke to His generation in John chapter 7, where they
were very religious, but they had no truth, they had no heart
for it. no grace, mainly no Christ. They didn't see that that law,
the law of Moses, was a schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ. And
the book of Jonah tells the story of a specific period in Jonah's
life. Now, you know, some people say
that Jonah is really not a prophecy because, really, the only prophecy
of the future that you find in the book of Jonah, as they say,
is in chapter 3 and verse 4. And that's where he predicts
the destruction of Nineveh. The destruction of Nineveh. But
I want to show you something in four ways. I want to show
you how Jonah is a prophetic book. Number one, Jonah is a
testimony, not only to the future, but of the past and the present
in this way, that the providence and grace of God is active in
every way. God is in control of this world.
God is working all things after the counsel of his own will.
God gave Jonah a command. Jonah, a child of God, a prophet
of God, refused to obey that command. But you'll find out
as you read the book of Jonah, and most of you know this story
anyway from your childhood growing up in Sunday school, you'll find
out that Jonah did exactly what God sovereignly willed to be
done. And that's not only prophetic,
that's just reality. God governs our lives. He rules
by His power and His goodness and His grace, even in the chastisements
and the corrections of His people because of our sin and our disobedience,
even in our rebellion in many ways. You know Jonah is a message
and an example of saving grace, not only in the Ninevites, who
you'll see later on come to repentance by the power of God, but in Jonah
himself. And that's why I titled this
message, God's Grace and God's Salvation in Preservation and
Grace. It's all according to his word. It's all according to his grace. His grace is saving grace. His
grace is preserving grace. Not only did he save Jonah by
grace, he preserved him. Because if it had been up to
Jonah, he would have ran and hid from God. That's what he
was trying to do. You say, well, Jonah ought to
have known better. So should we. So should we. Secondly, it's a testimony that
we, as the people of God, And in this prophecy you see this,
we as the people of God who are saved by His grace are to be
servants of righteousness, we're to be obedient people. Obedient
to His revealed will by way of commandment. And we cannot get
away from this fact. There is absolutely no time in
Scripture There is no warrant in Scripture or mandate in Scripture
that gives any child of God an excuse to disobey God. Now, that's
not to say that we aren't at times disobedient. We're always
sinners. While in this life, we'll always
be sinners saved by the grace of God. And our only hope of
salvation now and forever will be the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. There's never a time in your
life as a child of God that you can wake up and say, well, I
had a sinlessly perfect night. Or you come to the end of the
day and say, I had a sinlessly perfect day. You can't do that,
and if you think you can, you're just fooling yourself. We're
always sinners. But at the same time, we're to
be obedient people, the obedience of love and grace and gratitude. Somebody said, well, we're to
try to be perfect people. Yes, but we're not going to be.
We're not. We're failures at that. That's
why our salvation is conditioned upon and secured by one who is
not a failure. That's what Brother Stan read
in Isaiah 42. I had you read that because that
talks about the salvation of the Gentiles so much. Talking
about Christ, it says that he'll bring judgment to the Gentiles.
That's the gospel. That's when God brought judgment
to me, he brought to me the gospel of his grace in Christ, showing
me how that Christ put away my sins by the sacrifice of himself
and enlightened my mind to his glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
But it also says he shall not fail. He shall not fail. So we're to be obedient people.
We're not to try to obey God in order to save ourselves or
in order to keep ourselves saved. That's the work of God, but we're
to do so as willing, loving bond slaves. And then this is a prophecy,
thirdly, because it's a prophecy in picture of the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ. Jonah was a type of Christ in
several ways. You know, the word, the name
Jonah means dove or peace. The dove being a symbol of peace. Well, who's the Prince of Peace?
Christ is the Prince of Peace. Who made peace between the Father
and His people? Christ did. He was made sin.
Christ who knew no sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And His ministers are bearers
of good news of peace. Peace through Christ. Peace through
the cross. It's what we preach, and therefore
we're called peacemakers in that sense. Then lastly, it's a testimony
in this way, that God's grace and mercy in Christ is for any
and every sinner who wants it. That's right. The doctrine of
God's sovereignty does not teach that sinners may want salvation,
but God won't give it to them. The doctrine of election does
not teach that somebody may really want to be saved, but God won't
let them. No, sir. Oh, if any man thirst, Christ
said, let him come to me. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. that any sinner
who turns to Christ in God-given faith and godly repentance shall
be saved." Even Gentiles, even Ninevites. The eternal promise
of God made to Abraham is for both Jew and Gentile. It's for
all spiritual Israel. And Jonah was the only prophet
of God in the Old Testament, you'll find, that was ever sent
to the Gentiles. And you know what God is showing
there? You know now the times of the Gentiles that the New
Testament speaks about is our time. But God is prophesying
of that time in sending Jonah to the Gentiles in Nineveh. and preaching the gospel to them.
Now look at Jonah chapter 1. Here's the commission that God
gave Jonah. He says, Now the word of the
Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, saying, Arise,
go to Nineveh, that great city. It was a large city. It was a
capital city. And cry against it. Now, he doesn't
give us all the details, but Jonah's message was to be a message
of the judgment of God against sin. And he says, cry against
it for their wickedness is come up before me. God is taking an
account of their wickedness. Now Jonah, as this book opens,
he was already a prophet of God, he was already a man of faith,
he was already a servant of the Lord, but he had a lot to learn,
as we all do. His message, as I said, was of
divine judgment because of the Ninevites and their sin. Nineveh
was one of the capital cities of Assyria. And you know that
was the great army that was going to eventually destroy Israel. These Assyrians, these Ninevites,
they were known in history for their brutality, their sinfulness,
all of that. And Jonah's message was to be
God's judgment against sin. But we must know this, that it
was also a message calling them to repentance, calling them to
faith. So his message was more than
simply divine judgment. He must have spoken of divine
mercy. Let me show you that. Turn over to chapter 4 and look
at verse 1. And this passage, these first
two verses show you, I believe, prove that Jonah's message was
more than just judgment against sin, but that it also included
a message of the gospel of God's mercy and God's grace in the
coming and promised Messiah. But now Jonah himself, what it
shows about Jonah here is not good. Look, it says, but it displeased
Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry. 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? Therefore I fled before unto
Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful,
slow to anger, which means that God is forbearing. and of great
kindness, and repentest thee of the evil, therefore now, O
Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it's better
for me to die than to live." Now, we'll get into Jonah a little
bit on that issue when we get over there. But what's Jonah
saying? He's basically saying, I didn't
want you to have mercy on those Ninevites. I didn't want you
to be gracious to them, but I know you. I know you, God. I know who you are. I know you're
the God of the covenant. I know you're the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the promise. I know that you're
the kind of God that sovereignly and effectually and eternally
saves such sinners as those Ninevites. And he's admitting before God
and before us in this prophecy. I didn't want him to do it. It
made me angry. Made me angry. Well, Jonah was
a sinner saved by the grace of God. You know, that's why we
don't do the electing. God does. God's election is truly
of grace. Ours wouldn't be. I'd just choose
those I like and those I hate and just get rid of them, you
know. That's the way we are. But God's not like that. He's
sovereign. He does what's right, He does
what's good, He does what's fair, He does what's merciful, and
He does what is just. He's a just God and a Savior.
A Ninevite? Lord, send me anywhere but Nineveh.
That's about what Jonah was saying. And he didn't want to go. So
look back at Jonah chapter 1, look at verse 3. Here's his flight,
the flight of Jonah. We saw the commission of... You
know, what did the Lord tell his disciples to do? He said,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. What did he
tell Isaiah? He prophesied that Brother Stan
read there. He's going to be a light to the
Gentiles. He's going to go to the isles. That's a way of saying
it breaks past Judaism. He's going to go into the sea.
That was a way of talking about going far to the Gentiles. The
gospel is going to get to God's people. You mark it down. Even when we are reluctant to
go and preach it or to witness it, He's going to get it to His
people. Don't you ever despair that God is not saving His people. He is. Well, He says in verse
3, But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish. That was a long
way from Israel. Some say, I don't know how long,
some say a thousand miles. But now Nineveh wasn't that far.
Maybe a couple hundred miles. So Jonah said, I'd rather run
a thousand miles and not preach to those guys than go a couple
hundred miles and preach to them. So 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. He was going to get
there one way or the other. So he paid the fare thereof.
One old preacher, I was reading a message on this, he said, he
said, yeah, he's getting ready, he's getting ready to pay the
price here. And he went down into it. Notice the language
here of scripture. Everywhere Noah, Noah, everywhere
Jonah goes, he goes down. And that's the way it is when
we disobey God. We get farther and farther down,
don't we? And he says, to go with them unto Tarshish from
the presence of the Lord. Think about that. Think about
that. Now, he didn't want to go to
Nineveh probably for two reasons, and one of them was the Assyrians
were great enemies of Israel, and Jonah knew that they were
going to attack and eventually destroy Israel, so if they would
repent, then God would not destroy them. But mainly, I believe it
was because of the prejudice that he had as a Jew against
the Gentiles. Now, that's not far-fetched.
I heard a preacher say one time, that's kind of far-fetched to
say that. Well, now look, read the book of Acts, folks. You
know, the first Bible conference that was ever held is recorded
in Acts chapter 15, and do you know what it was over? It was
over the issue of how God can save a Gentile. Because certain
false brethren came down saying they've got to be circumcised
to be saved. They've got to really become
Jews first before they're qualified to be saved. And Paul and Peter
and James, all three stood up and supported one another in
issuing forth the decree of grace saying that there are no qualifications
except this, God saves sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. He shall save His people from
their sins. And He doesn't have to make a
Gentile a Jew or a Jew a Gentile. He doesn't have to change anything
in that sinner, ethnically, sexually, or any way in that sense. In
Christ, there's neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, bond
nor free, but Christ is all and in all. There's only one qualification
that God really requires for justification and salvation,
and that's righteousness. And there's not a Jew who's ever
lived, living today or ever will live, that has it by nature.
And there's not a Gentile who has lived, living today or ever
will have it by nature. There's only one place that you're
going to find righteousness to stand before a holy God, and
that's in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, by God's grace. His righteousness imputed. So
there were prejudices. And we're to preach the gospel
of Christ to all whom God gives us commandment and opportunity,
no matter who they are. God chooses whom He will. We
have no right to pick and choose who we preach to or who we don't
preach to. Somebody asked me one time about going to a particular
place. Well, why would you go there and preach? I wouldn't
go there and preach. I told them this. I said, I've got no choice.
I don't anticipate getting on a boat, but I don't want to end
up in the belly of a whale. If God says, go preach here,
you go preach. They say, well, they don't believe
nothing there. Well, maybe they will if the Spirit of God is
pleased to move. How about that? Do we doubt that the Spirit of
God ever moves upon people to bring them to faith in Christ?
Didn't He do it with you? Did he do it with me? Stephen stood up to preach to
a hostile crowd. Didn't. Nobody was saved that
day that we know of. But one was later saved, wasn't
he? Named Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. And the Lord
used him greater than any other apostle in the edification of
the church and the planning of church. Think about things like
that. You see, we don't have the wisdom
or the knowledge to determine things like that. If God says,
go preach in Ashland, Kentucky or wherever, go preach there. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved, if any man thirst. That's what he's saying. Now
Jonah here was acting in the flesh. He's thinking he could
flee from God's presence, thinking he could put down the mantle
of the prophetic call in office. But he couldn't. Remember Adam
and Eve? They tried to flee from God,
didn't they? Hide from God's presence. You can't hide from
God. Everything's open and above board to him. He knows the heart. You can't hide from God. You
know, this is the only recorded Example of a prophet refusing
God's commission. That's interesting. Now, Jeremiah
tried. You remember when Jeremiah said,
well, I'm tired of this. I'm gonna quit. Nobody's listening
to me. And then he said there, as recorded
in Jeremiah chapter 20, he said, but I couldn't shut my mouth.
And the reason he couldn't shut his mouth is not because he was
such a talker. The reason he couldn't shut his
mouth, he says, because the word of God burned within his heart. It was like a burning. and he
could not stop. He had to tell the message of
God's grace in Christ. You can't flee from God. David
in Psalm 139, read that sometimes for yourself. Psalm 139, he said,
where shall I hide from thee? Where shall I flee from thee?
If I ascend into the heavens, thou art there. If I ascend into
the grave, thou art there. You cannot hide from God. But
here's where Jonah's troubles began. He disobeyed God's revealed
will by way of command. Not the secret sovereign will
of God. All the time. Think about that.
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing about God? The true and
living God of the Bible. Here is a man, a man of God who
is openly rebelling against God's revealed will by way of commandment
while all the time unknowingly he is doing the sovereign decreed
will of God. He just went the long way around,
but he got right there. The secret things belong to God,
the revealed things belong to us. You see, God chose and redeemed
a people in Christ for Himself, to honor and to worship and obey
Him as willing, loving, bond servants, bringing forth fruit
unto God, not to be rebels, not to be those who think we can
determine our own path and our own way, but to bow to Him. And whenever children of God
rebelliously go against His plain commandments, we can expect chastisement
now. Mark it down. That's not payment
for sins. There's no payment for sin except
what took place on Calvary's cross. That's the only payment. But there are consequences, aren't
there? Well look at verse 4, here's the pursuit of Jonah.
He says, but the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. Now
look, who sent it out? Who sent the wind out? Not the
weatherman. Not mother nature. the Lord."
And who's the Lord there? That's the Lord Jehovah there,
the Lord God of salvation, the Lord God of promise. He sent
out a great wind into the sea. There was a mighty tempest in
the sea, so that ship was like to be broken. That ship was about
to be ditched. And it says, then the mariners
were afraid and cried every man unto his God. They were idolaters
at that time. And they cast forth the wares,
they emptied that ship, it was too heavy, it was going to break
down, that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them.
But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he
lay and was fast asleep. I see in Jonah there a type of
Christ. You remember when the disciples launched out into the
body of water there, and a great swelling tide came, a storm came,
and our Lord was asleep, and they were all afraid. And they
said, Lord, wake up. Don't you care that we perish?
Listen to what they said here, verse 6. So the shipmaster came
to him, came to Jonah, and said unto him, What meanest thou,
O sleeper? That's probably something all
of us preachers should say real loud every now and then. What
meanest thou, O sleeper? And he said, Arise, call upon
thy God. If so, be that God will think
upon us that we perish not. Just a thought from God. Think
about that. Just a thought from God. That's
all it would take. Even this old fellow recognized
that. Pray to your God, Jonah. We've been praying to our gods.
Look at where we are. That's where idolatry will get
you. Nowhere except death. Pray to your god, Jonah. I don't
know why he looked at Jonah necessarily. Maybe he noticed that Jonah was
asleep and wondered, how in the world could this fellow be so
calm during a storm? I don't know. But they didn't
want to perish. He says in verse 7, it says,
and they said unto everyone his fellow, come and 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.
Boy, what chance, what luck. Now, why do you suppose that
lot fell on Jonah? Because God's in control. Am I right? And I think about
our Savior. Our lot in sin and wrath fell
upon our Savior. And that's why He went to the
cross and died for our sins. Our sins were imputed, charged,
laid to His account, and He died for them. And it says in verse
8, Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause
this evil is upon us? What is thine occupation? And
whence comest thou? What's your work? And where do
you come from? What is thy country? And of what people art thou?
Now listen to what Jonas says here. He says, Well, he said
unto them, I'm in Hebrew. That was a common way of referring
to the Jews in that day. And I fear the Lord. I worship
the Lord of the covenant, the God of promise. the God of heaven,
which hath made the sea and the dry land. He's in control of
all that you're seeing around you. Then were the men exceedingly
afraid and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the
men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because
he had told them. Now, we don't have it recorded here, everything
that Jonah told them, but I'm going to tell you, if you read
this carefully, you'll see he must have told them a lot more
than what's recorded here. But look at this, look at verse
11, it says, then said they unto him, what shall we do unto thee
that the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought and was
tempestuous, the sea was rough. And Jonas 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 sake this great tempest
is upon you. Isn't that amazing? Jonah is
of his own will offering himself as a substitute. What a picture
of Christ. Remember when they came to seize
him in the garden? And he said, whom seek ye? And
they said, we seek Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. And they fell
back. They couldn't have touched him.
Isn't that right? They could not have touched him had he not
been willing to go and die for his sheep. And you remember what he said?
He said, well, take me and let these go. That's substitution. That's what Christ did on the
cross. The wrath of God consumed him in full. Why? So that we could go free. And
look what happens here in verse 13. Nevertheless, the men rode
hard to bring it to the lamb, but they could not. They tried
by their works to save themselves. That literally means they rowed
as hard as they could row. This is probably the hardest
rowing these mariners ever did in their life, but they couldn't
bring it to safety. My friend, you cannot work your
way into salvation no matter how hard you row. Row, row, row your boat. As hard
as you want to row it, it will not get you to shore in the realm
of salvation and acceptance before God. It will not make you righteous. It will not pay for your sins.
It will not bring you forgiveness no matter how hard you row in
religion. It says, for the sea wrought
and was tempestuous against them, and verse 14, wherefore they
cried unto the Lord. Now they cried to Jonah's God. Notice who they cried to, not
their gods, before they cried to their gods. Now they're crying
unto the Lord, and that word Lord, there's Jehovah, the God
of promise, the God of salvation. And they said, we beseech thee,
O Lord, we beg 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. They recognized who was sovereign
in this thing. That's the way it is with a child
of God. You don't have to argue with a child of God over the
sovereignty of God. Just like these fellows. We know
you've done what pleased you. What does God do? Whatever pleases
God. He's not at our beck and call
and at our will. He doesn't change and react towards
us. He does His will. Verse 15, it
says, So they took up Jonah, and they cast him forth into
the sea. And listen, the sea ceased from her raging. When
Jonah was cast into the sea, the sea stopped. When our Savior
was cast into the sea of God's wrath on the cross, the wrath
stopped. You know why the wrath stopped?
Because the payment was made. Justice was satisfied. Righteousness
was established. God's wrath is not for His people. It was upon His Son. You want
to be out from under the tempestuous sea of God's wrath and death
and hell? Then you look to Christ. Run
to Him, rest in Him, submit to His blood and righteousness as
your only way of salvation. Look at what they did, verse
16. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly. Just like Jonah.
That's the same word that Jonah used. I fear the Lord. That means
they worshiped God. And it says they offered a sacrifice
unto the Lord and made vows. Now the word sacrifice there
is the same word that refers to a blood sacrifice. Same word
as the word sacrifice in Exodus chapter 12, which speaks of the
Passover lamb. So they made blood sacrifices.
They knew God had to be just to justify what this generation
today doesn't know. You go talk to the average person
today who calls himself a Christian and ask him about how God can
be just to justify the ungodly. Most of them will tell you, well,
what does that have anything to do with anything? What does that
mean? Or that he can't. But you see,
that's what Jonah spoke to these men about the Lord God. And they
knew that satisfaction had to be made by a suitable sacrifice. And then they made vows. That's
symbolic of obedience. You see, obedience doesn't bring
salvation. Obedience springs from salvation. See the difference? And then
it says, and I'm going to start here next time, in verse 17,
because more goes with the next verses, but it says, 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. He was already prepared. What?
Who prepared it? The Lord did. Child of God, do
you realize that our lives are really already prepared by God,
appointed by God for His glory and our good, and you wouldn't
want to have it any other way, would you? Well, we'll talk about
Jonah and the great fish next time on Salvation is of the Lord.