But once again, I want to return
to this subject of the prophet Jonah, and to consider with you
some of the thoughts that have arisen upon reflection in this
opening chapter. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke about
Jonah, and he told us that Jonah was a sign to us. The three days
and three nights that Jonah spent in the whale's belly was a sign
to us. But what does it signify? It
speaks of being taken away out of the presence of this world.
It speaks of being in a terrible place. It speaks of that judgment
that came from God upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are reminded
by the words of the Lord that all of these scriptures speak
of Him, that whether we're in the Old Testament or the New,
whether we're in the Prophets or the Psalms or in the Revelation,
it is all directing us to see and to think about and to consider
and to apply the lessons that the Lord Jesus Christ has brought
to us. And I think that once again,
it is a blessing for us to turn our minds to these experiences
of men of God from years and years gone by who yet speak to
us today and show us what it is to be one of the Lord's people
and what it is to be the recipients of grace and mercy from on high
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Twice in these opening verses,
twice in verse 3 of Jonah chapter 1, in fact, we have the phrase
that Jonah was endeavouring to get away from the presence of
the Lord, to escape to absent himself from the presence of
the Lord. And we reminded ourselves that
that was not the omnipresence of God. Jonah was a wiser man. He was a prophet of God. He was
one of the Lord's people. He had dealt with God. He had
interacted with God. He had worshipped God and served
God and prophesied to a wicked people on behalf of God. This
was a man who knew the Lord God Almighty and we cannot imagine
for a moment that he imagined that he could be out of the presence
of God simply by heading in the opposite direction when a command
came to him. No, what I think we are to understand
from Jonah seeking to be away from the presence of the Lord
is that he sought to be away from the evident symbols of his
presence. He didn't want to be in the temple
anymore. He didn't want to be standing
before the Ark of the Covenant anymore. He didn't want to be
in the midst of that people that worshipped God anymore. He didn't
want to be where God was praised anymore because he was saying
to the Lord, I can't do this anymore. I can't be here, I can't
be involved in this. This is too much for me to understand
thy ways and thy will and thy purposes. And from that, there is a lesson
that I think applies to each of us. That if God's word to
us comes between us and the place of worship, then we need to be
very careful about how we act in his presence. There are many
people who try to rid themselves of the claims of the Lord Jesus
Christ by absenting themselves from the place in which his presence
is manifested. Now think about what I'm saying
here. There are people who, when they hear the challenges of God,
they choose to be out of the presence of God, not out of his
omnipresence, but out of that place where they are challenged,
out of that place where whatever it is that causes them to doubt,
whatever it is that causes them to fear, whatever it is that
causes them to be anxious is removed. They simply absent themselves
from the presence of the evident symbols of God. I think that believers often
see that firsthand in the lives of their children, in the lives
of their families. We see that we raise our children
desiring that they might have an appreciation of the things
that the Lord has taught us. But we discover that very quickly
in their young lives, perhaps because they've got to go away
for school, or they've got to travel to get employment or a
job, or they have a relationship that develops that takes them
into another location, that they are quick to be away from the
hearing of the gospel. They are quick to absent themselves
from the presence of the Lord. They want to be out from under
the influences of godly parents, away from a church fellowship
where the Lord Jesus Christ is honoured, and away from his people. In many ways, that's exactly
what Jonah was doing. But you know what? I think that
the Lord gives us children so that we can see ourselves in
them very often. Because we are all prone to evading
the presence of the Lord when it doesn't suit us to hear what
he is saying. Perhaps we have been convicted
of sin or perhaps we have grown cold in our spiritual life and
relationship with Him. Perhaps someone has said something
that has annoyed us, tweaked our sensitivities. Where is the presence of the
Lord? Where is the presence of the Lord today, but in His church? but with his people, but where
the gospel is preached. We must be in the presence of
the Lord. No matter what it is that is
said, no matter what it is that is done, no matter what it is
that might annoy us, we need to be where the gospel is preached. And we need to take it as a burden
to ourselves that wherever the gospel is preached, we will endeavor
to be there because that is where the presence of the Lord is to
be found. We've said it before, indeed
many do. It's actually the only place
in all the world where God promises to meet his people. Where two
or three are gathered together in my name. And that doesn't
mean to say you can't have fellowship with the Lord in the quietness
of your own heart and the quietness of your own home. But this is
the place, this is the place where the Lord promises to meet
his people. And we have an incumbent obligation
to jealously guard every opportunity that there is to worship him. Do we take it for granted? Shame
on us if we do. The Lord can take away that candlestick. The Lord can take away that privilege
of worship. We wish our children would attend
church. We wish our children would be
in a place where the gospel is preached. We wish our children
had these same obligations. And therefore it behoves us to
live by example in a way that shows them that this is the most
meaningful thing in the world to us. and we're not going to
let anything come between us and being in the presence of
the Lord. Jonah found a ship going to Tarshish. You know, the going can be good
in the wrong direction. And that's exactly what happened
to Jonah. He went down to Joppa, and lo
and behold, the ship's there, ready to leave. And all he has
to do is step onto it. It almost seems that the good
providences of God were giving him a way out. Let us be careful
not to interpret the circumstances of this life in order for us
to do the things that we really want to do and not the things
that the Lord instructs us to do in his word. Once we begin hiding from the
gospel, there is plenty of opportunity for us to continue to do so. Excuses hang like leaves on trees. You just need to pick one down
if you're looking for a reason not to be under the sound of
the gospel. But let us be careful, because
just like Jonah, if you are one of his people, he will come and
get you. And that is the message of our
theme this morning. The theme of our message this
morning. God might send a cold wind into your life to blow away
those excuses. as he seeks honour for his name
amongst his people. And that's what God did to Jonah. He hurled a wind at Jonah. That's what the word implies. God doesn't have a gun cabinet,
but he has an armoury of purpose. and he fired a wind at that boat. The Jews have a story, according
to one of the commentators, that there was calm all around the
boat and that the wind was targeted on that little boat that Jonah
was in. Well, be that as it may, scripture
doesn't necessarily indicate that, but the idea is that that
wind was fired at that boat. It was a targeted wind. And of all the things we might
say, there is one simple truth comes out of this message this
morning. God showed grace to Jonah when
he chased him into the midst of the sea. And if God is going
to be gracious to his people, he will chase us and he will
not let us go. So much for Jonah's free will. Men talk about free will as if
we can choose whether we want God or not. And often we say,
don't think you can choose God. Don't think you can simply choose
God by the volition of your own will. Let me turn that around
and say this. Don't think you can not choose God. If you're one of his elect, You
can try and absent yourself from the presence of God all you like
and take this on board you who are parents of children who have
no desire after the things of the Lord. We want the best for
our children. But sometimes he might have to
fire a cold wind at them, right into their life's experience,
right into their relationships, right into their job prospects,
right into their family life. Maybe he has to send a cold blast
of icy wind in order to shake their life and show them who
is in control of the circumstances of their life's experience. And
whether that's the ones that we love or whether it's ourselves,
we will never mock God and God will pursue his people to the
ends of the earth. He chased Jonah when Jonah was
running away. Did Jonah go to Joppa? God went
to Joppa too. Did Jonah go down to the harbour?
God went down to the harbour too. Did Jonah go to sea? God chased him in his chariot
and he was seated upon a mighty wind. There is a beautiful picture
here of delivering grace. God loved Jonah and he would
not let him go. In this picture, in this type,
the Lord Jesus Christ says we find a sign. The Lord himself
is the antitype. The Lord is the fulfillment of
these pictures that we have in Jonah. And the Lord Jesus Christ
came seeking his people. In the eternal courts of God's
presence, a plan of grace was forged. A demonstration of love
would be made. And the purpose of the triune
God settled upon a people that were no people. A people that
he chose to love. A people that he willed unilaterally
to bless. A poor people. A weak people. A ragged, rebellious and lost
people. And who will recover and restore
and redeem these wandering lost people. Who will come to these
lost souls but loved by God? These sinners. In the covenant of peace, the
Lord Jesus Christ arose. And he said there in the great
halls of eternal purpose, Here am I, send me. It is as if the voice of God
declares, who shall I send? Who will go for us? And the Lord Jesus Christ took
that role. And he came into this world. And we are told that the Son
of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Sailor, runner, fleer from the
presence of God. The Lord Jesus Christ has come
to seek and to save that which was lost. like the little lamb,
like the sheep that wandered far from the fold. And the shepherd
goes out into the night, out into the weather, out into the
world in order to recover that which he holds so dearly. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
earth. He has come to this world. He has come to the cross. and
he comes to every chosen child of God, the Lord Jesus Christ
undertook to save his people and to become surety and substitute
for them. It's a matter of honour with
Christ. It's a matter of obedience to
the will of his Father. It is a matter of love between
the members of the Godhead and the people of his choice. And
the Lord God pursued Jonah into the midst of the sea upon a mighty
wind. And he will chase you too if
you seek to be out of his presence as a child of God. Isaiah 43
verse 1 says, And in Zechariah 10 verse 8 he says, That is,
I'll blow a wind for them. I'll blow this wind and it will
gather them all together. I will gather them for I have
redeemed them. And that divine wind, that Holy
Spirit that goes out into the world in order to recover the
Lord's lost sheep will pursue a man or a woman to the end. There's a great comfort in that. for those who have loved ones
who are careless about the things of God. Let us bring them before
his throne of grace and let us call upon them even if necessary
to send that chill wind of disruption into their life so that their
little vessel be wrecked if that is the price of saving their
precious souls. Such was this wind that the mariners
were terrified The ship, you're out in the sea, the ship is all
you've got. The boards under your feet is
all you've got. And their ship was breaking up. They began to shout out to their
God. They began to scream for fear
of what they saw happening to their boats. They did all that
sailors could do in the midst of that wild weather. And we
can but imagine the chaotic scenes As first the ropes began to snap
and then the mast began to break and they were aware that the
boards that were under their feet were not going to hold.
And they started throwing overboard everything that was movable,
everything that was causing the ship to be weighted down. These men had the fear of death
upon them. And they cried, we're told, every
man unto his God. And they cast forth the wares
of the ship. These men survived. I don't expect for a moment that
these were wealthy men. These were your jactars. These
were the guys that pulled on the ropes and cleaned the decks
and carried the stevedores, the guys that carried the wares aboard
and put it down in the car. These weren't wealthy men. This
was all they had. This boat was their livelihood.
This way of life was how they survived. And they put their
wares over the boat side. and they threw them into the
tumultuous sea. They gave up everything they
had in the face of their imminent disaster and death. And what are we told about the
man of God? While all this is happening,
Jonah is asleep. This book of Jonah is full of
miracles. And that's not the least of them,
that Jonah slept as all these men were crying to their gods
and jettisoning their wares. The water was coming over the
side. This wasn't just, let's steer
her into the wind and see if we can make our way around this
storm. This wasn't the captain taking
a solid view of what the best course of action might be to
get out of this storm. These were men in the midst of
absolute panic. And in the shouting and in the
crying and in the chaos that ensued, Jonah was asleep. I think the Lord is told as that
to indicate that this was in some way also his spiritual state. He had fallen asleep when he
should have been awake. He might have done some good
for the souls of these men, for the lives and livelihood of these
men, if he had been doing the job of a prophet and had been
interceding for the people. But he wasn't. He was asleep. Well, Jonah, you sleep on, because
this is the last wink you're going to have for three days
and three nights. you're going to be in the belly
of a big fish. And I don't know what that sort
of experience would be like, but I doubt very much if he got
much sleep. So he sleeps now and takes God,
the Holy Spirit, to waken those who are spiritually asleep. Men
cried to their gods. And that tells us that there
is natural light given to men and women that testifies of God. We don't doubt that. You can
look around the world anywhere you like and you will find people
engaged in worship. But worship of itself is not
true worship, nor does it lead us to God. And though there is
a natural inclination for men to worship God, we see it around
about us all the time. There is an easiness, there is
a desirability. in recognizing something greater
and grander than ourselves. There is a peacefulness that
flows from that and certainly for the hopes of appeasing this
God and pleasing this God and benefiting from this God. Men
are doing that all around the world. And that's what these
men did, but they didn't know the way of approach, and that
is key. We have to come by the blood
of satisfaction. We have to come by the death
of Jesus Christ. We have to come, Mitch was preaching
about it last night, by the door of access that God has provided. There is no other way. And these
men shouted to their gods, None understand the true God until
the Holy Spirit illuminates their life, until he grants them that
insight and understanding, that spiritual new life by which the
gospel can take hold and the gospel speaks to the need of
the sinner. Only revealed faith is true faith. And that Holy Spirit revelation
has to come personally. It behoves us as parents to lead
our children. in the ways of the Lord, to give
them the example that we can, to speak to them gently and encouragingly
about the gospel of Jesus Christ that means so much to us. But
don't be deceived about this. You cannot make your children
Christians. You cannot Christianise them.
It has to be a work of grace. It has to be a work of God. Let
that be our burden, to take them before his throne of grace and
to seek his face on their behalf. These men felt the wind. They saw the storm. They feared
what the waves would do, but they were still ignorant of the
true God. They were still strangers to
grace, though they were earnest in their religion. You can't
get any more earnest than standing facing death. with absolutely
nothing, having done everything that you can do, having steered
into the wind, having brought down the sails, having tightened
everything, then throwing everything off, and then you're left with
just you and a little piece of wood in the face of a storm.
There's nothing else you can do, and that's the point to which
these people had been brought. But this episode isn't about
the sailors, and it's not about the shipmaster. It's about Jonah. And God's grace walked the planks
of that little boat. And God's mercy was extended
to that little boat and the men that were in it because of Jonah's
presence there. God preserved the lives of all
these men, yet none knew him. because of Jonah's presence there. That's an amazing thing. Do you
know that the people at your work are blessed because you
work there? Do you know that the people in
your street are blessed because you live there? Do you know that
this town is enhanced immeasurably because it has a gospel testimony
in it. That little ship was blessed
by Jonah's presence there on it. Were these men, these Gentile
sailors, were they spiritually delivered from their idolatry,
their heathen religion, Does verse 16, read it with me. Then
the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto
the Lord and made vows. Does that reflect genuine conversion? You know, I think it just might. I think it does. Let me tell
you why. And I could be wrong. But let me tell you why. These
men heard Jonah's testimony. They heard Jonah's testimony.
Verse 10 says, 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. I don't imagine that these men
heard Jonah speaking and didn't once say, Why did you do that? Why would you do that Jonah?
Now Jonah was a man who was honest and we know why he did it. He
did it because he knew that God was a merciful God. He tells
us that later in his prophecy. He knew that God was merciful
and that's why he wouldn't go to Nineveh. So these men knew
from the lips of a true prophet of God that God was merciful. What else? They had their own pleadings
and prayers to God answered. At the beginning of this process,
they were told that they prayed to their own gods, but by the
end of it, We're being told that, verse 14, they cried unto the
Lord and said, we beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee, let
us not perish for this man's life. So they prayed to the one
true God and they had their prayers answered. These men had been relieved of
every valuable commodity that they possessed. Isn't that a
picture of what God does in grace? He has to strip away everything
that we've got. He has to take it away because
if he leaves one thing, we'll perch on that one thing. And
we'll think that that's the one thing that's made all the difference. These men had to exhaust every
effort And that's what they did. They were left absolutely bereft. They had nothing left. They'd
thrown it all overboard. And that's what it takes in a
sinner's life. Everything of our works, everything
of our righteousness, everything of our good, it has to be jettisoned. has to be let go because the
Lord will not bring us to himself if we think in any way our goodness
has recommended us to him. And these men had certainly witnessed
a tremendous example of the gospel. Substitution is what the gospel
is all about, the Lord Jesus Christ coming. And what was happening
here but that this man, Jonah, was going to be thrown overboard,
that their lives might be saved. Is that not a picture of substitution? They had seen a picture, perhaps
as clearly as any men in the Old Testament had seen a picture. It wasn't just a lamb that was
being sacrificed for them, it was Jonah that was being sacrificed
for them. And also in verse 14, at the
end of the verse, we discover that these men acknowledge the
sovereignty of God and his righteousness in every situation. They say,
lay not upon us innocent blood, For thou, O Lord, hast done as
it pleased thee. Thou, O Lord, hast done as it
pleased thee. Understanding that God is sovereign
is key to grasping the true nature of the gospel. Men who go around,
women who go around today with their religious practices thinking
that they are sharing in some way the work of the kingdom of
God with God and contributing and being part of a joint team
effort, haven't grasped what the gospel is about. We have
to see God in his sovereign purposes, accomplishing his aim and nothing
standing in his way. And these men did. And finally,
they sacrificed to God. I can only imagine that that
was when they were back on land because they didn't have anything
left to sacrifice with. But they sacrificed to God and
they made vows and promises to God. I don't know what else a
man could say to reflect the change that had happened in their
life. And just perhaps one final thought
about whether or not this was a genuine conversion, which I
guess you see I believe it was. The Holy Spirit must have told
Jonah about this sacrifice and the vows that these men had made
after the event. Because by the time they made
their vows and their sacrifice, Jonah was already over the side
of the boat. So the Holy Spirit told Jonah
about the testimony of these men. Why would the Holy Spirit
convey that to the prophet if it wasn't genuine and true? Jonah was already in the sea,
he was already in the storm being swallowed by that great fish.
But he afterwards learned that God had delivered those men on
the boat who had laboured so hard to save his life. And had not Jonah prophesied
And had not he predicted that that's exactly what would have
happened once he was thrown over. So the Lord was even gracious
to Jonah in this matter and he told him that what had been said
would be done was indeed what had occurred. Romans 10 verse
13 just brings me to the end of this little thought. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
as who he is, seeing their own nature and their own sin and
their own self for what they are, whosoever shall be brought
by God the Holy Spirit to call upon the name of the Lord for
salvation, they shall be saved. One more point I want to make
in our thoughts this morning. I want you to be sure of God's
sovereignty. Now maybe you say, well, we do
believe in God's sovereignty. That's the basis of this church. That's the reason why we are
here. Well, yes. But indulge me. Let me just rehearse
this one more time in your hearing. Because I don't know if there
is a more dramatic story in the whole of scripture than Jonah's
story that we have before us here. And you cannot read this
little book without seeing the hand of God moving powerfully
at every turn. We've already remarked that God
knew where Jonah was. Listen, if you had got to Joppa
five minutes after Jonah arrived in that seaside port, you wouldn't
have known where to look for him. Because he was already on
that boat and down in the hold. And you could have stood in the
harbour and looked across all the boats that were there and
you would never have seen Jonah again. He was out of here. but
God knew where he was. We can't flee from the omnipresence
of God. He sees, he knows all things. Let us never forget it. You children
that are here, don't ever forget that God sees and knows everything. Hagar was a runaway Egyptian
servant girl. And she declared in the midst
of the wilderness these words, thou God seest me. Jonah was pursued even to the
uttermost parts of the sea. Let us never think that we can
outrun God or that he does not know everything about us. Again, God both knows all things
and controls all things. He controlled an ocean wind. Remember when the children of
Israel were coming out of Egypt and he sent a wind to blow all
night and he parted the Red Sea that they walked across on dry
land. Remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ and his disciples were on the Sea of Galilee and the
storm arose and the Lord Jesus Christ had to stand there on
the board and say, peace be still. Remember when Paul was shipwrecked
on his way to Rome and ended up being cast onto the island
and all the things that happened from that? God controls natural
events. He controls the wind. We know
that the wind is blowing. We can feel its effect, but we
don't know where it's come from and we don't know where it's
going to. but God controls the wind and he uses the natural
phenomena to accomplish his purposes. He did then and he does now. He can send a flood. He can darken
the sun. He can destroy a nation with
hailstones. Do you know why Space has billions
of galaxies, each one containing billions of stars. Do you know why? Do you know
why there's billions of galaxies of billions of stars? Why is
space so impenetrably huge? for one reason, to show us here in this world,
to demonstrate that God the Creator has no trouble ruling this little
world. This tiny planet, this little
satellite that goes around a little sun, in the corner of one star
system. Our God has no problem controlling
this world in the immensity of everything else that he has done.
And that's why scientists will never get to the end of it. I
looked it up. I thought I better just make
sure that I'm not speaking wrongly here. So I said, how many galaxies,
Google? Said, 100 billion have been seen
by the Hubble telescope. 100 billion. But scientists expect
it to be 200 billion when they improve their telescopes. Further
down in the list I saw trillions of galaxies. Hey, there is no
end to this because there is no end to the infinity of God. God controls the throw of a dice. These men cast lots to see whose
fault this was. Here's the God who controls the
universe. And these men are saying, well,
we've got to find out whose fault this is. Let's throw some dice
and that'll tell us. And lo and behold, the lot fell
on Jonah. Isn't that amazing that God can
control the throw of a dice? Let's not be gamblers. Don't
be a gambler. Don't do that. God controls the
throw of a dice. He can stop the storm just as
quickly as he sends it. When Jonah hit the water, The
storm stopped. It was evidently a miracle. When he was cast into the sea,
as he informed the sailors would happen, the storm abated. So God knows the future as well,
and he organises and arranges it according to his purpose.
And God can prepare a fish to swallow his prophet. I like the
word prepare. We prepare fish, don't we, Mitch? God prepared a fish. Not in the
way we do. At some point in the history
of the world, that was just a little fish. And nothing ever ate it. Nothing ate that one. No fisherman
ever caught it. Unless he lost it, of course.
Mitch, we know about that as well, don't we? But you see,
God prepared that fish. And he brought it out of the
depths. It's an amazing thing to consider
that a fish swallows a man. But God arranged the location,
the circumstances, the movement of the fish, the movement of
those men on the boat. It's all choreographed. It's
all perfect. It just happens. And God is shown
to be the one who is behind it all. If you struggle in any way
with the notion of God's glory and God's power and God's sovereignty,
it's because your God is too small. How dare we sit in judgment
of Him? How dare we say, you're doing
it wrong, you've not got it right, it should have been different,
it could have been better. This is God's world. He is accomplishing
everything according to His glorious purpose. Hebrews 4 verse 3 says,
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight,
but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with
whom we have to do. I don't know what it felt like when Jonah hit the water. I don't
know what it felt like when Jonah hit the water. I don't know what
it felt like when he landed in that tempestuous sea. Then to feel or to sense the
flesh of some great creature enveloping him. The smell. The sound. The taste. The absolute darkness. A sense of plunging to the depth
of the sea. and yet he's conscious and he's
aware of it all happening. Could anything be more comparable? Is that not the pinnacle of our
imagination to be able to conceive of something like that? Is anything
in any way comparable with that? Well, yes, actually, the Lord
Jesus Christ compared his own death to Jonah's experience in
the whale. God prepared that great fish
to swallow his prophet, and God sent his own son into this world
to die for his people. Is Jonah's experience astonishing
and terrifying? Yes. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
willingly and voluntarily entered into death, willingly endured
all of the terrible things that were inflicted upon him by the
viciousness of man's brutality. And then he endured that separation
from God and the pouring out of the vials of God's judgment
against sin, our sin, our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ's soul
was made the receptacle of all of God's wrath. Blessed Savior, Let me not read
the narrative of Jonah without grasping the lengths and the
breadths and the depth and the height to which thou hast gone
to redeem my life from hell. Amen.