All right, turn back with me
now to the book of Jonah. I want to talk to you for the
next little bit on this subject. Jonah swallowed up in an angry
sea. Now, if I read, I looked at this
for the longest time. 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. And if I read and accept
the words of this book as the testimony of God, I am immediately
confronted with something I have no natural ability to comprehend. How can a man be swallowed up
of a whale and carried to the depths of the sea, and there be preserved for three
days in the belly of this great fish? When I opened this book, it's
not just the book of Jonah. It just came to me as I looked
at this. Unbelievable how naturally, un-understandable,
un-comprehendable this verse of Scripture is. You just, boy,
just like that, it just hits you in the face when you're in
it. But when you open this divine
book in Genesis chapter 1, you're confronted with the same thing. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. Is that any easier to believe
than a whale that swallowed up a man? You see, this is the thing about
the Bible that is so different from anything else we read. I
love to read the old writers, but the old writers are not divinely
inspired. And I read them, and I read a
lot of foolishness with what they wrote. And I suppose there
is a lot mixed in with mine, only time will tell. But there's
no foolishness interwoven into the Word of God. Everything in
this book is divinely inspired, and I open it up and pow, right
off the bat, I'm hit with things that I cannot comprehend. They're
just so far above me and so far above our ability to comprehend
that we just stand and look at them and awe. Anybody who can
read this book and just read it like a newspaper don't know
God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and
the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And the Lord said, Let there
be light. And there was light. Can you comprehend that, John? I sit out here at night sometimes,
especially down in Yucatan, Mexico. The one thing that impressed
me about that place was that night sky. You could look up
and you think you see stars here. We don't see a third of the stars.
You get down there out of that smog and out of the factory smut
and stuff and way out in those Yucatan jungles where that night
sky is so clear out over that Mediterranean. I'm telling you,
the sky is full of stars. And you look up there and past
where you can look is even more stars. You can't comprehend the
depths of the heavens. The Lord prepared a great fish.
That's what I want you to see. At least get your thoughts and
your minds turned toward the divinity of the things of this
book and how incomprehensible they are. And just even having
a glimpse into them, how blessed we are to just have a glimpse,
John, just a tiny little glimpse. You know when we gather together
to preach the gospel that the angels of God gather around to
hear what you say. They just want a glimpse into
this. These things are divine. These
things are just not even comprehensible. And boy, when God does give us
a little glimpse into them, how we sit and weep and bless His
name for the things that He allows us to see. I discover when I open this book,
The God of Glory, creating out of nothing. all that I see and
smell and hear and taste. I discover a power that brings
his creation into accountability." Think about it. Into accountability. Judges every creature by his
own standard of righteousness and judgment and asks no man's
opinion. I discover one whose name is
revealed throughout history and almost always by an unexplainable
miracle. By the hand of just a nobody,
really, he was a cashed out. He was a nothing. He was run
out of Egypt, and by the hand of this man Moses. God went down
to one of the most powerful, wasn't one of, it was the most
powerful nation on the face of the earth, and without a weapon.
With just the words of this man that God spoke through him, he
said, I'm going to make you a god before Pharaoh. That's power. That's authority. I discover a power that divides
seas, causes rivers to run backwards, preserves in a wilderness, makes
sweet the bitter waters, defeats a foe that's undefeatable. takes
a band of slaves and raises them up to make them the greatest
nation on the face of the earth. The Queen of Sheba came in the
days of Solomon when God had raised Israel to its peak. She
came just to get a glimpse of the kingdom, and when she saw
it, she said everything just went out of her. It was so much
more than what she had expected to see, she said, the half has
not yet been I find a power over flooding
the earth with a flood, covering it up, overcoming walled cities,
great cities, with a blast of a trumpet, bringing down giant
warriors with a sling and a smooth stone, just a pebble. I find
the invisible God coming into a man and yet maintaining all
his fullness. I'm confronted immediately when
I open this book, and as I turn these pages, I'm confronted time
and again, over and over, with things that I just can't comprehend. They're things supernatural,
supernatural. And if I read and accept this
book as a testimony of God, I'm confronted with a power and an
authority and a person beyond anything. that I have ability
to comprehend. And then secondly, if I accept
this book as a testimony of God, I'm confronted with a purpose
for its existence. Why would such a book be written?
Why should such miracles be told? Why should such things be demonstrated? What's going on? Surely there
must be a purpose behind this book. Surely there must be a
purpose behind the things that are recorded and the testimonies
given and the prophets raised up and the great miracles done,
surely there must be a purpose. Is there another book from the
beginning of time to date that records such things? Nothing
even close. Nothing even close. Well, over
in 1 John chapter 5, Here's what it says. It says, if we receive
the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is
the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son. That's
what these things are all about. That's what that creation was,
when God spoke light and there was nothing but darkness, when
God created out of nothing. when God gave promise, when God
flooded the earth, when God tore down the tower, when He confused
the languages, when God raised Israel up, went down into Egypt
by Moses and delivered them out. All these things have to do with
His Son, the purpose of God concerning His Son. And he says, These things have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life, and that they may
believe on the name of the Son of God. It is unto him give all
the prophets witness. I am confronted with a power
and a wisdom and a will far above my comprehension, and a purpose in the name of
this power to save sinners for his glory through a man who be
both God and man in one person. Now, I said all that to say this. All of our arguments and questions
and unbelief of this gospel arise from a nature that cannot and
will not believe in a power beyond their comprehension. They want
you to explain it, to explain it. And what I've labored to
point out in my introduction to you this morning, that there's
nothing in this book you can explain. Huh? He that cometh unto me must believe
that I am. That's what he said. And if he brings you to faith,
you believe that he is. Oh yes, you will. and that I am a rewarder of those
who diligently seek me." If we can't understand it, we're not
going to believe in it. But he said, "...faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Faith is believing
God. It's believing those things that
we cannot explain. You just look at it and twist
it and turn it. Brother Mayhem one time, I believe
he was talking about Martin Luther, and he was looking at this thing
of Christ dying on a cross and the judgment of God falling down.
And he said, God killing God. He said, who can understand this? Who can understand that? Oh, we'll just take a little
glimpse at it. Faith takes God at His Word. It understands that
God is God. That's the problem with this
generation. They don't have a God. He's no God at all. How often
in the book of Isaiah did the Lord talk to them about Himself? He said, I am God and beside
me there is none other. He said, you take a piece of
wood and a craftsman and you go down there and you chisel
out a nose and some eyes and an ear. and all this stuff and
you make yourself a God. He said he can't hear, he can't
talk, he can't function, he don't do anything. That's no God. Well, listen to what's being
preached, brethren. I heard a man get up the other
day talking about God has no hands but your hands and no feet
but your feet. What kind of God do you got? He's God. He's God. Keep thy foot when thou enterest
into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to offer
the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil."
He said, For I am in the heaven. God is in the heavens. He rules things. He creates things. By Him all things consist. He is God. And it is with God
that we have to do. See, it's what Jonah didn't realize. Jonah didn't realize who God
was. He never got on the ship. Huh? God told him to go down there.
He didn't realize who God was. You know, we packed our little
determination up and come down the aisle and make our little
profession of faith and go back and we're going to do this and
we're going to do that and we're going to go here. That's what
Jonah did. Jonah went down and he looked around a little bit,
pulled his wallet out and, well, I've got enough to go to Tarsus,
okay? So he paid his fare and they
handed him the ticket and he went down to a bunk that he paid
for and laid down and took his rest. Got on the ship and it
left and sailed smooth for so many days. So many days. But he had no idea who God was. He just knew in word. He just
knew a little bit. He didn't know the whole truth.
And see, that's how we are. We make our professions of faith,
and we like to talk about our relatives, this one being okay,
and this one over here being a little shaky. Do they know
God? You see what I'm saying? I don't
care what you believe. I don't care what kind of doctrines
you've got. Do you know God? That's with whom we have to do.
That's what Jonah was totally ignorant of, who God was. And
he got on that ship, and he took his ease, and he went to sleep.
And he laid down there in that bed the whole night before Jonah
ever got on the boat. God had prepared this fish. This fish was waiting on Jonah. It was prepared, listen to this,
the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. That's
what he was there for. Before the ship ever sailed,
before the storm ever came, before ever there was a reason to have
a fish, God prepared this fish for this purpose, to swallow
him up. Swallow him up. And Jonah got
on the ship and took off, and God sent the storm. Why did He
send the storm? Because on that ship was the
chosen vessel of God. That's right. That's right. Jonah and the whole crew. The whole crew. All right, here's
Jonah. He's out on that. There he goes
in the ship. It's interesting where he got
on the ship. He got on the ship in Joppa. Joppa's the happy place. That's where most of us got on
the ship, ain't it? Huh? They got up and played the
guitars and beat on the drums a little bit, or they got up
some high-pressure evangelist and began to talk and to reason
and to cry and tell sad stories about a dog and somebody's mother
and all this mess, and down the aisle would come Make our little
professions of faith. That's how Jonah got on there.
He started out in a happy place. Everybody was happy. Smile, God
loves you. Started out in a happy place.
Headed for the blessed place. That's where he was headed for.
That's what they told him. Put your arms around him and
said, man, we're going to Tarsus. You will love this place. This
is the blessed place. This is where we're going. Streets
of gold. Gates of pearl. The pie in the
sky and the sweet by and by, and away they went on the ship.
Jonah went down and just said, soul, take thine ease. And he
laid back in that thing and forgot all about God. And God sent a storm. Now, that's
what I want you to understand. When God sets his eye on a vessel
and he sets his eye on him before the foundation of the world,
that's when he sets his eye on him. That is when he determines
to have him. He sets his eye on him, and he
prepares the fish to swallow him up, and he prepares the storm
to arrest him. Yes, he does. Because the time
is going to come. It is time now for God to go
and arrest his man. Take him out of his pleasure
that he thought he was headed for. Take him out of his happy
journey. Take him out of the smooth sailing,
here comes the storm, and it begins to pound the vessel, and
he arrests him. And on this vessel, we could
just go on and on and on with the tides. I've never seen them
as clearly as I have in these studies here lately, but all
the faculties of man is represented on that ship. You've got the
captain, that's the mind and heart of the ship. All the way
through this story, he tries to defend the vessel and tries
to defend Jonah and tries to defend this. He's the mind and
heart of the vessel. And then you've got the first
mate. Whatever the mind and the heart tells him to do, here's
the will right here, the first mate. He's going to carry out
the commandments to all the rest of the ship. And then you've
got the whole crew there. Who are they? That's the feet,
the hands, the nose, the eyes, the ears. Everything's here. Everything about the sinner is
represented. And I tell you this, this ain't speculation. I was
in the Navy, and everything that pertains to the sinner was represented
on that crew, too. Yes, it is. His whole nature,
attitude, and spirit represented in that crew, I guarantee it.
Full of idolatry. Every man call on your own God.
They all had a different one. Huh? Of course, that's what we've
been told. We're all just folks in the wheel.
We all go in the same direction. We all lead the road. Ain't that
what they tell you? I know you go to Baptist Church
and I go to Methodist Church, but we're all brethren, aren't
we? Aren't we? That ship was filled with ideas.
It was filled with speculations. Let's lighten the load a little
bit. That's what men do. Let's roll. Let's get the oars
and roll. Let's don't listen to God. We're going to get through
this thing. No, you ain't going to get through
it. Now, if God sends you, you ain't going to get through it.
God sent a storm. The rest of that ship shook it
until it was about to go down. And when He shakes the ship,
it takes Him to shake it. I can't shake it, but He can. And when He does, then you begin
to question the old sleeper down inside. And then you come to
find out that he has to be taken up and thrown over the side. Now, I want you to see this. And this is the first thing that
I want to talk to you about. When God awakens the sinner,
and causes him to see his rebellion and pride and self-will and makes
him aware of the storm. He was the only one on the ship
who wasn't aware of the storm. He was safe and nestled in his
little refuge down there inside the ship, and he didn't even
know there was a storm until God woke him up. I preach to folks. They come
in here almost every week. Sit here in the pews and listen
to you, and you tell them, you're going to meet God. You're going
to meet God. There's a storm. The wrath of
God abideth on you. And I quote that Scripture time
and again. And I talk to them about it.
And I plead with them about it. And I weep over them at the house.
And I weep over them here. And it goes right in one ear
and right out the other because they're fast asleep in their
little refuse. But I do know this. I know there
comes a time when God has set his eye on an individual, that
eye that was set on him before the foundation of the world,
and he determines to send that storm and arrest that man and
awaken him. And when he is awakened, he realizes
that he is in a jam. He is in a mess. There is a storm
all around him, and he has nowhere to run. All the roads, there
was plenty of roads out there to run when there wasn't no storm.
He could go any direction he wanted to. So he picked him one
out and that's the way he went. But when God sends the storm,
he surrounds the ship. Now I don't care what side you
look over, there's nothing but waves and wind and salt blowing
through the air. You can't see anything. You can't
feel anything. You just get and throw this away
and throw that away. Run for this and that don't work.
Grab ahold of this, that don't work. You're about to perish. That's what you know. Then you
start to get serious. And you find out you've got to
go over the side. You've got to go over the side. Well, here's what I want you
to see. When he awakens that sinner, causes him to see his
rebellion and pride and self-will and makes him aware of the storm,
He must submit himself to the sovereign will of God. He's got no way out. He said, you're taking away all
my connections with God. That's what the storm does. That's what the storm does. It
takes away all these silly, sentimental decisions, and all these things
that we've done, and all these little experiences that we had. All them things is gone now.
All them things is gone. There ain't nothing there but
an angry God, an angry sea, and it's all around, and there's
no way out. Now, I'll tell you where God's
going to put you. I'll tell you where you're going to tell folks
to put you. Throw me into the deep, because that's where you're
going. What's the deep? That's God. Huh? That's God. That's God. You're going to have to throw
yourself on the mercy of God. Sovereign. No guarantees. I guarantee you, if you didn't
know, there ain't no guarantees. Jonah didn't have a guarantee,
did he? Doesn't say anything about it. Fact is, I can't find
one positive thing on there that Jonah had. Jonah had to be thrown
into the sovereign will of God. That's where he had to go. God went down and awoke that
righteous, that self-righteous rebel up, and took him up in
the hands, and here's all the faculties, the mind, the heart,
the affections, everything, standing on the deck, looking out at the
angry waves. And they all had to pick him
up in unison and throw him into the deep. And that's what they did. That's
what they did. And that's what you'll do if
God ever sends the storm. You'll be like that leopard that
fell down at his feet and worshipped him and said, Lord, if you will,
you don't have to. I've got no guarantees, but if
you will, you can make me clean. Throw him into the sovereign
will of God. Oh, I'll never forget the first
time the Lord gave me a glimpse into his sovereignty. I stood
there with my mouth open, started to flip these pages, and it was
on every page, every page. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doeth that.
Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Does not the potter have power over the clay of one
vessel to make? So he can make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor? Who art thou that replies against
God? It is not of him that willeth,
or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." Have
you ever been there? Has God ever surrounded you with
a storm? That is what I fear. I fear folks
are just like Jonah. They come in here, and some of
you have went to sleep in the pew. And you've never experienced
the storm. You've never been thrown into
the deep. You've never experienced that sovereign will of God that
just consumes you. And that's what happens when
God sends the storm. He casts him over the side. And
they all stood there in wonder and watched him as he went into
that blackness of that tempest. And then something happened that
they didn't Had never even thought of that. Rising up out of that
deep abyss came a fish prepared of God and swallowed him whole. Swallowed him whole. Now, brother,
you can say what you want to. I've read everybody's book I
can get my fingers on. But I'm telling you, that whale
is the Lord Jesus Christ. God surrounds a man with that
storm of his sovereign will and that power and authority that
he can't resist, and he casts himself on it. And the gospel
of God's sovereign grace, Christ swallows him up. I bet you a
dollar to a cow and a calf that Jonah's feet never hit the water.
When that man went over to the side, you know what that word
fish, I looked it up in the original, because he calls it a whale in
the New Testament. The Lord Jesus called it a whale.
But you know what it means in the old Hebrew, or chavir, or
whatever that word is back there in the Old Testament? It's not
just a fish, but it has to do with a vibrating tail, it said,
a squirming, squishy tail. If you've ever watched these
wildlife channels, you know how these whales, they start down
deep and they come up out of that water and their whole body
nearly comes up out of that water. That's what I believe. That's
what I believe that word was describing. It had to be a mariners
word for fish. But he's talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ coming up out of the angry deep, out of the blackness,
out of the Out of the justice and judgment and righteousness
of God are things that we can't even comprehend out there in
the deep. And he came up, and that man
falling into the deep, and swallowed him up. Swallowed him up. See, that's what happens. This
is why folks, they want to talk about imputation and impartation
and, well, you can't impute sin and you can't do... That's because
you don't understand that union. That mystical union between Christ
and that sinner who swallows him up. Everything Jonah learned,
he learned in the fish's belly. He didn't learn it on board ship,
he didn't learn it in his bed, and he didn't learn it before
he left. He learned it in the belly of the whale. He sure did. Look at this in
Jonah chapter 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord
his God. How did he learn how to pray?
in the fish's belly. Where'd you learn how to pray? Huh? I used to say words when I was
just a little kid. I'd get sick or something and
I'd get down on my knees or get scared and try to pray because
that's what I was taught to do. And I'd say my words, you know.
I'd go through the motions. I didn't learn how to pray until
God followed me That's when you learn how to pray. That's when
you can call on God, when he swallows you up. This
is where Jonah learned something about affliction. Look here in
verse 2. He said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto
the Lord. He was cast into the deep. He
was cast right into that raging tempest. And let me tell you
something. When the Lord swallowed him up,
John, he took him down into the depths, and down in that depth,
in the belly of that fish, in union with Christ. Can you hear
me? In union with Christ, in the belly of that fish. That's
where he learned something about judgment and justice and wrath. Down in that pit. Read chapter
2. Fifteen little verses. Read that this afternoon. And
see on there how Jonah went down there and he experienced the
weeds wrapping about his head and going down to the bottoms
of the mountains. And down there at the foot of
hell, out of the belly of hell, he said, huh? What do you know
about hell? I don't know anything about hell.
I'll tell you what I know about it, what I experienced when he
swallowed me up. I'll tell you what I experienced.
I experienced a rebellion in my heart that I couldn't overcome,
that I couldn't stop. I had no control over it. All
of a sudden, I realized I had no control. I had no authority. I had no power. I had no righteousness. I had nothing to recommend me
to God. I began to see that there was
a separation between me and God. That God wasn't okay with this
thing. He wasn't going to overlook this thing. God was angry. Huh? Where do you learn that
at? You learn that when God swallows you up. He swallows you up. In the gospel, He comes and He
swallows you up. And you learn something about
that separation from God. Oh, they thought they were safe
on board that ship, didn't they? You know what our Lord said?
He said, the nations are but a drop of the bucket to me. The
nations. Asia. Huh? Europe. The United States. South Africa.
South America. The nations. He said, you know,
old-timers, we used to draw water. I ain't that old, but we did.
We'd draw water up out of a well, and we got it in a bucket, Pour
it into another bucket. And when we got done, there was
drops in the bucket. Well, we didn't stand there shaking
that bucket. Huh? That drop didn't mean nothing.
It went back to the well. That's what he said the nation
was to him, just a drop in the bucket. Just a dust, a small
dust, he said, of the balance. That's all that was. And we think
we're safe in our little bed in the vessel. Consider this vessel that you're
in. It's just a vessel of clay. I talked to Johnny about a month
ago. He came by my house and talked
to me. Next time I went to see Johnny,
he was in a bed. He didn't know who I was or anybody
else. A week later, he was dead. He was gone. Mr. Olive, I went to see him
about two weeks later. Next time I seen him, he was
in a box. That week, boy, Jonah felt safe down in that big vessel,
that big sailing vessel. It was probably a big thing.
It wasn't big to God. It wasn't big to him. He didn't
have any problem catching up to it. I tell you, He said it's
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
That's where Jonah was at. That's where you learn that fear.
You learn who God is. Throw it over the side. And then listen to this. Here's
the second thing I want you to see. This great fish prepared long
before the storm was sent, come up, swallowed up Jonah down at
the side of this ship waiting on him. all this time, taught him how to pray, learned something about affliction. Listen to this. In Jonah 2, verse
2, out of the belly of the great fish, God heard his servant's
voice. He didn't hear him up on the
vessel, did he? But he heard him in the belly of the fish.
In the belly of the great fish of God's preparation, Jonah experienced
the wrath of God in a substitute. Listen to this, Jonah 2, verse
3, For thou hast cast me into the deep and the midst of the
seas, and the floods compassed me about. All thy billows and
thy waves passed over me. found his separation from God. Verse 4, Then I said, I am cast
out of thy sight. In the belly of the fish, Jonah
remembered the temple of God. Isn't that something? Yeah, he remembered where God
lives. And I'll tell you something else,
Jonah's self-righteous hope died in the belly of the fish. It died in the belly of the fish.
That old self-righteous hope. Jonah said, I'll pay that I have
vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
of the Lord. It's of the Lord. He said, The
waters compassed me about, even to the soul. The death closed
me round about, and the weeds were wrapped about my head. I
went down to the bottoms of the mountain. The earth with her
bars was about me forever. Listen to Apostle Paul in Romans
chapter 7. He said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Isn't
that what Jonah was praying down there? Huh? That's what he was
praying. All his old reason and logic
and worldly hope died in the belly of the fish. Then listen to the rest of verse
6. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord
my God. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came unto thee. What Jonah learned in the belly
of the whale, he learned sovereign mercy. He didn't have anything else
preached, did he? The belly of the fish. And the Lord spoke to that fish.
Having taught him what he needed to know, He spoke to that fish
and told him to put him over there on that way to Nineveh. I taught him what he needs to
know now, and he's going to go down and preach the preaching
that I bid him to preach. And he vomited him up there on
the beach. right outside of Nineveh, that great city. Out of the belly of the great
fish, Jonah learned how to worship. I can't give you the broken verse,
but the Pharisees were talking to him, asking him for a sign.
And here is what the Lord told He said, An evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given
it except that of the prophet Jonah, who was three days and
three nights in the belly of the fish. Now listen to what
he says, Even so must the Son of Man be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth. How did Jonah, where did he say Jonah was? In
the belly of the fish. How did he go down to the heart
of the earth? In Christ. That's a picture of
Christ who went down into the heart of the earth, having died
for our sins three days and three nights. And who was in that belly? Who was in him? Preserved of God. And when God
raised him from the dead. That's what I read to you there
a while ago. Where was it? Over in Colossians
where he talks about that faith of the operation of God who had
raised him from the dead. That's what that faith is. It's
that faith that swallows you up and takes you down to the
depths and teaches you something about his wrath and his justice
and his righteous anger. And then reveals to you something
about His mercy. His mercy is sovereign mercy.
His grace is sovereign grace. He bestows that grace on whom
He will. And whom He will, He hardens.
And that's just the way it is. And you can argue about it until
God sends you to hell. But even in hell, you're going
to learn sovereign mercy.