Well, we come this week to the
book of the prophet Jonah, just one message from it, at least
that is my current purpose. Jonah, of course, is the best
known of the minor prophets. There's even that song about
it, that old song of this world, it ain't necessarily so. You
know, Jonah, he lived in a whale. Jonah, he lived in a whale. The
things that you're liable to read in the Bible, it ain't necessarily
so. That's just the theme of this
unbelieving world. Don't be surprised by that. Religion looks at this,
even Christian religion, and says superficially Jonah, this
prophet, was disobedient to a clear command and got what he deserved.
Because surely it's all about just obedience, obedience. He
was disobedient to what God clearly said and got what he deserved.
And the simplistic lesson that religion teaches is this. You
must always obey, but we are flesh. We are sinful flesh. Easier said than done, isn't
it? if we really realise what we are in the flesh. No, there's
so much more to learn here than just that superficial lesson
of the need to obey God. Of course we should obey God.
Of course we should strive to obey God. But don't think for
one minute that any improvement in the sight of God is given
to us on the count of our obeying or disobeying. It isn't. It isn't. It's entirely the doing and dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ that is our righteousness, our holiness.
It's in Him that we're made the righteousness of God, not in
ourselves, not for sanctification, not for anything else. No, there's
a lot to learn here. Don't be deflected by this world's
doubting of God's truth. You know, the way they pour scorn
on this with that song. Don't be deflected by that. Don't
be deflected by it. The devil has always loved to
say, from the fall in the Garden of Eden, when he said to Eve,
has God said? Really? Come off it, you don't
believe that, do you? That's what he said, he says
it today, in this world. But God speaks to men. God speaks to us. God speaks. God is there, overruling all
things. God controls the weather. You say, oh, you don't believe
that nonsense, do you? We know how the weather works.
It's all these high-pressure and low-pressure systems circulating
round us, spinning. You don't believe that nonsense?
Absolutely. God controls the weather. He
is the one who has created all things. God directs a large fish. Was it a whale? Probably. I think
it was probably a whale. Great big cavernous stomach.
But I don't need to bother about rationalising into things I can
understand in this world. I believe that God did exactly
what he said in this book. the survivability of Jonah in
the stomach of the way. I have no problem believing that,
because God has said it. And God who spoke, let there
be light, and there was light, and God saw the light, and it
was good, is the same God that speaks all of these things, for
the accomplishment of his eternal purpose. Jonah, be in no doubt,
don't go looking down on this as a headstrong, disobedient,
naughty boy who needed to be punished and put straight back
on the track. This is what religion will teach you. No, Jonah was
God's prophet. You can read about him, we won't
look at it now, but in 2 Kings chapter 14, you will see there.
He was preaching the word of God in his evil generation. Jesus himself, in his ministry,
often referred to Jonas. That's the Greek, the New Testament
spelling of Jonah. He often referred to him. And
by implication, Jesus, our Lord Jesus Christ, 100% endorsed the
biblical account. Why wouldn't he? Of course it's
true, literally true, exactly as God has said. He was greatly
used was this prophet. You know, this naughty boy that
religion looks down upon and thinks that he needs to be punished
and put straight. This one was greatly used of
God in the plan of redemption. There was a great city, the capital
of the Assyrian Empire, a great city. They heeded the preaching
of Jonah and repented. They heeded it. Wow, you think
about it. You know, we say, oh, the Apostle
Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and 3,000, but these
are the Ninevites and the whole city repented and believed. Yet
he is portrayed, Jonah is portrayed as foolish, as fickle, as self-willed,
as irreverent. Arguing with God. You know, you
get to the third and fourth chapters that we won't look at. Arguing
with God. But he was God's servant. He was committed to God's course. Yet, as each one of us, living
in sinful flesh, You know, the Bible doesn't hide the flaws
of the saints. The saints, I mean the set-apart
ones. If you're a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, if He's called you to believe the gospel of
His grace, you're a saint. You're a set-apart one. You're
set-apart from the thinking of this world. You do not have the
mark of the beast of this world on your forehead. You don't.
You don't conform to its thinking, to its politics, to its views
on political correctness. You don't conform to it. You're
set apart from it all. And as I say, the Bible doesn't
hide the flaws of its saints, the sinful flaws. Noah, oh, Noah
found grace in the sight of the Lord. And by him and those with
him, life on this planet was preserved. But when he came out,
one of the first things he did was got impossibly drunk. Abraham,
Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife, or not being his wife,
that it went, he thought, to go well with him. Lot, Lot, who
is called in the New Testament Righteous Lot, whose soul was
vexed by the doings in Sodom, Righteous Lot, committed incest
with his daughters. Moses, in a fit of temper, murdered
the Egyptian taskmaster. David committed adultery and
tried to cover it up by murder. Peter, who, full of bravado,
said that everybody else can deny you, Lord, but I will never
deny you. Before the cock crowed, he denied him three times. It's
to show, why does God show us this? It's to show that saints,
those made the righteousness of God in Him, are nevertheless
still sinners in the flesh. That in the flesh, we are all
completely without strength to save ourselves. You know, nothing
in my hand I bring. Because why? It's worthless. In the court of God's justice,
anything we can bring will do nothing but condemn. were compelled
to cry to God for salvation. Salvation, as Jonah says at the
end of that chapter 2, salvation is of the Lord. It's not of me
in any respect whatsoever. First point, God's command and
Jonah's response. Verse 2 of chapter 1, Arise,
go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their
wickedness is come up before me. Go and preach in Nineveh,
the Assyrian capital, great empire. You know, there was Egypt, there
was Assyria, there was Babylonia, Chaldea, there was the Medo-Persian
Empire, there were the Greeks, there were the Romans, those
were the great empires of the world. You can read about them
in Revelation chapter 19, I think it is. This great empire, the
Assyrian Empire, go to the British Museum, I've told you many times,
you'll see many of the emperors of the Assyrian Empire, the archaeological
artefacts of there, in the British Museum. And this was its capital
city, Nineveh. And God says to his prophet,
who is used in many ways to give his message, go and cry against
them because of their wickedness. But Jonah fled. Jonah disobeyed,
he went the opposite direction. He went not to Nineveh, but tried
to go to Tarshish. So he went down to Joppa and
found a ship. Why did he do that? Well we know, we're told. In
verse 2 of chapter 4, chapter 4 verse 2, Jonah, well verse
1, it displeased Jonah exceedingly. What did? because the Ninevites
repented when he did eventually go and preach, they repented.
And God repented himself of the evil that he was going to do
to them, that he told Jonah to go and warn them of. And that
fact 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? This is the reason,
therefore, I fled before you to Tarshish. This is why I didn't
obey you, Lord. I knew... that you are a gracious
God, and merciful, and slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and repent as the... I knew that you would be gracious
to these horrible people. I hate these people, these Assyrians,
these Ninevites. They deserve the judgment of
God to fall on them as the fire and brimstone fell on Sodom and
Gomorrah. That's why I ran away. I didn't want to see this happen.
They deserve to be punished. He knew God intended to be gracious
to Israel's worst enemies. How did he know? He told Jonah
to go and preach to them. That's what he told him. Go and
preach to them. They're going to be destroyed, except they
repent. I know why, says Jonah. It's because you intend to be
gracious to them. I'm not having that, these people. So he fled. Horrified, he fled from the Lord's
presence. He fled from his felt communion. He fled from the place where
God spoke with him. Have you ever been like that?
Has there ever been a time where You know you've been hearing
God's voice through a preacher, probably, through something that
you've been reading, possibly. And knowing what you should do,
you fled from it. You stopped listening to that
preacher. You stopped reading that material of spiritual benefit
for your soul. You've run away in the opposite
direction. This is what Jonah did. He knew,
Jonah knew, Jonah knew the psalm we read at the start, Psalm 139.
He knew that psalm. Listen again, verse 7 of Psalm 139. Where shall
I go from your spirit? If this is just Jonah, the child
of God, admitting the situation, where can I go to hide from the
Spirit of God so that God who sees everything doesn't see me? Where shall I flee from thy presence?
Oh, I know, let's go on a journey. If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, oh,
Behold, thou art there, I can't escape from you by going down
to hell. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me
and thy right hand shall hold me. Wow, don't you feel, I feel,
it makes me tingle just reading these words. The influence of
the Spirit of God on this word. If I say, surely the darkness
shall cover me, even the night, even the darkest place shall
be light to me, for God is not fooled by darkness. He can see.
The darkness hideth not from thee. The night shineth as the
day. The darkness and the light are
both alike. You have possessed my reins.
You've covered me in my mother's womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. I will praise you. Marvelous
are your works. And this my soul knows right
well. So does yours. So does mine. We know this right
well. So he knew he couldn't flee physically from the presence
of God, but what it's meaning is he didn't feel the strength
to closely hear and heed God's word to him. It's like, as I
said, deciding to stop listening to a preacher, because God's
message that the preacher brings causes personal discomfort. Tell
us nice things. I don't like hearing this preacher. He always puts his finger right
on the sore spot of my conscience. I don't like listening to him.
So I'm not going to listen. That's the sort of fleeing from
the presence of God that Jonah did. And despite what he knew
were the odds against it, that it was impossible to flee from
God, he fled. Is that not how fickle and irrational
the flesh is in its own reasoning, as if he, Jonah, could frustrate
the sovereign purpose of God. You nor I, nobody can frustrate
the sovereign purpose of God. If God, in sovereign grace, has
determined to deal with you, What a privilege if he has. Then
nothing will thwart his purposes. Nothing that you can do in terms
of running away or not listening to that preacher, nothing you
do will thwart his purposes. So off he goes, verse 3 of chapter
1. But Jonah rose up to flee unto
Tarshish from that presence of the Lord. From that, he's speaking
to me, presence of the Lord. And went down to Joppa and found
a ship going to Tarshish, other direction. So he paid the fare
thereof and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord. He found the ship, he paid his
fare, he found a quiet place down in the hold, and he went
into a deep, deep sleep. Probably he'd been lacking sleep
for days. He'd been in anguish of soul.
He knew what God was saying to him, but he was fighting against
it. He hadn't had any sleep. He was
days and days without a decent night's sleep. And he went into
this ship and he went sound asleep, dead asleep. He had resigned
his position as a prophet of the Lord, as it were. He'd handed
in his notice. That's it. I'm finished with
it. I can't do this anymore. I haven't got the strength to
do this. I know what you're going to do. I cannot do it. I cannot
be a part of this. So he resigned his position.
Get somebody else to do it if you must, but I'm going to Tarshish
the other way. But God will not be frustrated.
He sent a violent storm. Verse 4, You know, when the scripture
says, as Romans 8.28 says, we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, who are the called according
to his purpose, it means exactly that. If you're a child of God,
if you're one of His saints, called by His grace, called to
see the salvation that Christ Jesus has accomplished for you,
on your behalf, that you might be made the righteousness of
God in Him, with the holiness that's required, without which
no man shall see the Lord, but you have it in Him, therefore
you shall see the Lord, and on your journey in this life, He
orders all events. for your eternal good. They may
not seem like your temporal good, it may involve loss of property,
it may involve loss of loved ones, it may involve loss of
all sorts of things, but the long-term goal of God is the
eternal good of his people. He will cause all things, all
things, without exception, not just what seem to you and me
the good things, all things, including the things that seem
utterly dreadful, terrible experiences, to work together for good, to
those that love God, who are called according to His purpose. He's in a ship, Jonah, with the
mariners. They're just heathen mariners,
all with their false religions. They all pray to their own God. I don't know if any of you remember
the Irish comedian, what was his name? Dave Allen, wasn't
it? And at the end, he always used to say, and may your God
go with you. This is the idea. Everybody's
got his own religion. May your God go with you. They
all were praying to their own God. And they ended up casting
lots to try and find out why it was that this dreadful storm
that's about to drown them all, because there's nothing they
can do about it. They'd thrown the cargo overboard. Nevertheless,
the ship was going to be wrecked and they would all be drowned.
And there is Jonah, and the lot falls on him. Of course it does,
in the purposes of God, of course it does. He causes that lot,
which is not random, he causes it to fall on Jonah, so that
Jonah knows, and all know, that this is the Lord's doing, to
stop Jonah from going his own way, and not doing that which
is in the purpose of God. He can't flee from God but he
feels as though he's without the strength to obey the command
of God. So God will bring him to the
lowest place and look where he brought him. Look in chapter
2 and verse 2. I cried by reason of mine affliction
unto the Lord and he heard me out of what he calls the belly
of hell. Out of the belly of hell I cried
and thou heardst my voice even from there. The only thing he
could do there was to cry to the Lord. The only, he had no
strength, he had no ability to do anything. He couldn't even
decide to go to Nineveh and obey the Lord. He couldn't go to Tash.
He's in this cavernous stomach of this great fish, probably
a great whale, and he's crying to the Lord, because that's all
he can do. And even there, even there, in the belly of the whale,
in the belly of the fish, in the belly of hell, as he calls
it, He can speak to God. He prays to God. There's no barrier
between the child of God and his God caused by anything physical.
And God heard him. God heard him. Of course he does.
He's the God who hears prayer. Proverbs 15, 29. He hears the
prayer of the righteous. Ah, you say, Jonah wasn't righteous
at this moment. He was thoroughly evil. No, you're
getting it wrong. If he's a child of God, if he's
a saint of God, which he clearly is, He clearly is. He's made righteous in Christ. That's how he's made righteous.
And God hears the prayer of the righteous. Look at his state
of despair, secondly. Jonah's state of despair. In
his prayer, out of the fish's belly, when he's in that situation
and he cries out of that belly of hell, He recounts his situation,
he confesses his situation, he knows that he's entirely dependent
upon God, at the disposal of Him, at the mercy of His goodness
toward him. He said, verse 4, I am cast out
of thy sight. He acknowledges, he knows where
he is, I am cast out of thy sight, not that God could not see him,
he knew that, he knew God could see him, but that Jonah had put
himself out of living communion, of walking with his God. Two
weeks ago, we looked at Amos chapter three and verse three.
Can two walk together except they be agreed? And we looked
at agreeing with God, living life in agreement with God, walking
like Enoch in agreement with God. Enoch walked with God and
he was not for God took him. What was it that pleased God
about Enoch? It was his faith. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. Jonah had put himself out of
that living communion, of walking with his God. Why? Can two walk
together except they be agreed? Jonah had disagreed with God. Regarding what? Regarding grace,
to that wicked people, the Assyrians. You know, the world knew about
them. They were powerful, they were mighty, they were brutal,
they were merciless, but they also were exceedingly wicked
in their practices. God had shown an intention of
mercy toward them, and Jonah disagreed with God regarding
that. How can he walk with God? We might disagree with God about
his purpose for us. You know, it might be rattling
around in your brain, in the quiet of the night, you might
hear that voice of God speaking, but you want to put it out of
sight, you want to be cast out of his sight because you don't
like that voice and what it's saying to you. He put himself
in that position. This isn't like a punishment situation. It's like, imagine a child who
is banished from the family house. Imagine that sort of feeling.
This is what it is to be cast out of his sight, and all because
of sin. What is sin? Disbelief of God. Daring to think that we know
better than God. being brought to realise that
we've walked into a maze. You know what a maze is? You
know, one of those things with hedges or even corn these days,
higher than we are, and there are paths in it and you get in
there and you just cannot find your way out. And this is where
Jonah was. It was of his own making, by
his own unbelief. Cast out implies feelings of
guilt. I'm cast out of thy sight, he
said. There's an implication of guilt
there, isn't there? There's an implication of a consciousness
of defilement, of filthiness before God, of being vile and
soiled in the presence of God because of the rebellion that
we've shown against God. And it brings with it feelings. For the true child of God, for
the one in whom the Spirit of God is working, feelings of misery. It's not a nice place to be.
Feelings of helplessness. You might lose a worldly position
or a worldly possession, whatever that might be. You might lose
it and you might be unhappy for a while. Yes, you might be unhappy. You hear some dreadful stories
of people and their losses and you think, oh gosh, that would
crush me if it happened. You might lose worldly positions
or possessions and be unhappy for a while. But to feel the
loss of communion with God for the child of God, for the true
child of God, with a hope of heaven in his soul, to feel the
loss of that communion with God, to feel the loss of the comfort
of his presence, of his oversight, to feel the loss of the hope
of eternal bliss to fear the day when some near and dear in
this flesh are taken and to know that you are left. Jesus said
this, you know, he warned of that day, we need to heed his
warnings. In Luke 17, 34 and in other places
he said, I tell you, He's talking about when the day of judgment
comes, when the end comes. In that night there shall be
two in one bed. The one shall be taken and the
other left. There shall be two grinding at
the mill. One shall be taken and the other left. And to have
that feeling that you are cast out of the sight of God and the
day will come when some near and dear to you, for you know
this is true, are taken to eternal glory, to the bliss of heaven,
and you are left. all due to your own disbelief
and fleshly weakness. Listen to how Jeremiah puts it.
God says, by Jeremiah, chapter 2 verse 17 of Jeremiah, what's
brought you to this condition? Hast thou not procured this unto
thyself? Haven't you put yourself in this
position? being cast out from the Lord.
Why? In that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led
thee by the way. That's exactly it, isn't it?
It's disbelief. But does that mean he was lost
and without hope? Does it mean that there is no
hope of recovery? Not a bit of it. Not a bit. The
very fact of his realization of his plight is evidence of
God's eternal purposes of good for him. That's what it is. You
know, I often refer to that hymn where there's the line that says,
a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
There aren't many sinners in this world, are there? Oh yes
you see, yes of course there are. All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. What I'm saying is there are
not many who know it. And to know it is a blessing
of God's Spirit to teach us what we are. A sinner who knows he's
a sinner is a sacred thing because the Spirit of God's been working
in his soul. In verse 7 he says, My soul fainted within me, and
I remembered the Lord. When his soul fainted within
him, when he ran out of any hope in himself, when he knew how
lost he was, he remembered the Lord. But where will hope be
found? This is the question that we
must deal with in the time that remains. The object of Jonah's
faith. In verse 4 he says, I am cast
out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. God's holy temple is where hope
will be found. The object of Jonah's faith was
God's holy temple. What does that mean? More particularly,
what on earth does it mean for us today? In this day and age,
we're not in Old Testament days. There is no temple standing in
Jerusalem. It was destroyed, never to be rebuilt in AD 70.
What does it mean that we look to God's holy temple? What is
it to look to that temple? How will that give him hope of
recovery from his condition? You see, religious folk all around
us in our day get superstitious about cathedrals, don't they?
I like occasionally, if we're in a place where there's an old
1200 AD, 1100 AD cathedral, we've got one just up the road in Winchester
from us here, a very ancient one, lovely old pile of stones,
beautiful architecture, stunning the ingenuity of man without
the modern earth-moving hydraulic machinery that we have today,
the steel work that we have today. They did it all by hand with
wheelbarrows and shovels and picks and cutting stones out
of rocks and mortaring them together. People get very, very superstitious
about them, don't they? You go there, and if you go to
have a look at the architecture, you'll find that the people that
are members of that cathedral, oh, they're in awe of the place. They're bowing down to worship
the place. But how can a pile of stones
change your condition? How can a pile of stones change
your condition? How can crossing your fingers
change the outcome of anything? How can it do it? How can it
do it? How can not passing somebody on the stairs, or walking under
a ladder, or seeing a black cat, how can it change a solitary
thing? All things work together for
good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose,
because He controls all things. Not your crossing of your fingers,
Not anything superstitious that you do. A pile of stones, which
is a cathedral, cannot change your condition. However, what
that temple symbolized to Jonah is fundamental, is absolutely
crucial. It's because of what the Holy
Temple in Jerusalem symbolized to Jonah. That's what it's all
about. What did it symbolize? It symbolized
the body of Christ. It symbolized the physical body. A body hast thou prepared for
me. That body when he came. You know, sacrifice and offering
you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. That's
the Spirit of God saying the words of Jesus concerning his
incarnation. A body prepared so that in that
body he could accomplish the redemption of his people by death
and by the shedding of blood. The human blood must be shed
for sin. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. He must have a body. That body
was prepared and that temple symbolized that body of Christ,
that physical body. The temple in Jerusalem was where
God said he would dwell. He dwelt in the temple, in the
Shekinah glory, in that holy of holies. He dwelt there. The
high priest could only go in once a year and only then with
an acceptable sacrifice. God dwells amongst his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. When he walked this earth, God
dwelt with his people. The reason why, it says in the
Old Testament, that if you saw the glory of Solomon's temple,
when you see the glory of the one that they built in the days
of Nehemiah and Ezra, it won't have anything like the glory
of that previous temple, but it says, oh, it will have greater
glory. Why? because the Lord Jesus Christ
will walk there. He will walk through its pavements.
He will turn out the money traders and the cheats and the deceivers. He will turn them out because
He is the one who makes that a greater temple. symbolized
the body of Christ, the presence of God. For Colossians 2 verse
9, Paul writes, for in him, in Christ, dwells the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. The temple symbolized the body
of Christ, the place on earth where God dwelt with his people.
He said he would. He did. It's where he was to
be found. It's where the proselytes came
from overseas to come to find God. They came to the temple
in Jerusalem because that's where they would find him. They came
to worship there. The temple represents the Body
of Christ, which is the Church of the Living God. It's His Kingdom
on earth, the Body of Christ. Look at 1 Peter chapter 2 and
verse 5. Ye also, speaking to believers,
ye also, as lively stones, living stones, are built up a spiritual
house, a temple. a holy priesthood to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. You could
read the same thing in Corinthians. You are the temple of the living
God. You believers, you church of
God, you are the temple. Ephesians chapter 2, towards
the end of it, a spiritual house, living stones. This is what God
is doing. This is his kingdom being established. To look towards God's holy temple
for Jonah, was to look to Christ and the redemption that He, who
is He? Christ, the woman's seed. Genesis
3.15, the promised seed of the woman, who for His people would
undo the effects of the fall. that He would come and accomplish
their redemption. Cursed is everyone that continues
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
Yes, we're all cursed, we're all under the curse of the law.
Galatians 3.13, but Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
the law. How? By being made a curse for
us. He bore the curse in the place
of His people. It was to see, looking to that
temple, I will look to your holy temple, it was to see the blood
of Messiah propitiating the debt of sin. Propitiating? Turning
away the just anger of God for sin. To see that, do you see
it by faith? It's what Abraham saw. It's what
Abraham believed. And what he saw was counted to
him for righteousness. Do you see righteousness established
in him, and which the redeemed ones are made in him? Follow
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Well, where
are we going to get it? Not in ourselves, but in him.
For he makes his people the righteousness of God in him. From the belly
of hell, as Jonah calls it, Jonah had been given faith by the Spirit
of God to see and to remember. And he says, I will look again
to thy holy temple. Again, again. This experience
that God brought upon Jonah was to underline lessons he already
knew. How the belly of hell must have
sharpened Jonah's sense of utter dependence on the grace of God. Do you know often we go through
great trials in this life as believers, but do you know what
they're for? They're the chastisement of God.
It's the hand of God upon us for good. He's teaching us lessons
that we can learn no other way. It's as it was with Jonah, sharpening
your sense of utter dependence on the grace of God. That's what
God chastens us for. That's why He puts us through
trials. That's why He brings us to see our true state in the
flesh, of residing in the belly of hell. For without His salvation
and grace, the belly of hell, the real hell, eternal hell,
is our sure end. Has he? Is he causing you to
look again at that which you know to be divine truth? You
might have heard it many, many, many times. Is he causing you
to look again to it? A look, not a glance, not a,
ooh, swift, right? No, a look, a longing look. I want that to be mine. I want
that to be my possession. I want that to be my comfort
and assurance. A lingering look. Not one that
you just fleet along, across and then you move on. A lingering
look, a faith to its object. This is what Abraham's faith
looked to. God revealed it to him. Abraham's
faith, his spiritual sight, his sight of the soul, looked to
it and he believed God. And it wasn't his believing,
as I've told you so often, it was what he believed in that
was counted to him for righteousness. It was that object that was counted
for righteousness. Religion, call it what it may,
sees nothing but command, Disobedience, punishment, reformation, learn
not to do it again. But where does that leave you?
It leaves you relying on your own righteousness. But do you
know what the true gospel says? Why we shouldn't listen to religion?
Why we shouldn't listen to the religion of this world, the false
religion of this world, but listen to what God by His Spirit has
said. By the Apostle Paul in Philippians
3 verse 9, he sums up the situation, not relying on your own righteousness.
He says, that I may be found in Christ. When? On the day of
judgment, when the books are open. That I may be found a member
written in the Lamb's book of life, not having my works judged
according to that which is written in the books. That I may be found
in Christ. not having mine own righteousness,
because I know it's no good, because mine own righteousnesses,
Isaiah 64 verse 6, are as filthy rags in his sight. Not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, which I earn,
whether you call it progressive sanctification or whatever, not
having that, but that righteousness which is through the faith of
Christ. Important. Not my faith in Christ,
the faith of Christ in accomplishing my righteousness and the righteousness
of all God's people. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. I apprehend it, I believe it,
I see it by faith which he gives. It's not my faith that makes
me righteous. It's what brings us into what Hebrews 10.22 calls
the full assurance of faith. It is well with my soul. I know
that. It is well with my soul. I know
that whatever might happen to me and my family and my things
and my possessions, if I am in the care of the eternal God,
whatever the appearance might be now, I know it is all for
eternal good. Believe me when I say it, don't
believe me, believe God when he says it. He says it, the full
assurance of faith, everything that happens. When we who are
the redeemed of the Lord arrive in eternal glory, it will be
all to the praise of the glory of his grace. What then is Jonah's
confident declaration? Verse nine, from the belly of
hell, from the darkest dungeon, he was enabled to remember the
grace of God. From a state of helpless despair
and inescapable doom, he saw God's just justification of sinners. Now you say, if he just let them
off, that would be unjust. No, it's just justification for
Christ bore the penalty due to his people. He experienced God's
providential ordering of events. Look, I will sacrifice unto thee
with a voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation from the just consequences
of sin is entirely the Lord's doing from beginning to end.
What is it? It's salvation to the uttermost,
entirely of Him, the response of the child of God. Hallelujah. Praise be the Lord for this.
Well, we'll sing our closing hymn now.