Open your Bibles with me, if
you will, to Jonah chapter 1. We know that at the end of our
last visit to the book of Jonah, we saw that the men picked Jonah,
took Jonah up and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased
from her raging. And the men feared the Lord exceedingly. We see that in verse 16. And
offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. The thing that causes sinners
to trust Christ and to believe on the Lord is when they see
what the Lord has accomplished. When they saw the sea stop raging,
they feared the Lord exceedingly. And they offered a sacrifice
unto the Lord. How do you think? You know, Jonah
wrote this. How do you think Jonah knew that?
He was already in the sea. How did Jonah know they made
vows? Offered a sacrifice. What did they offer? They threw
everything overboard. I reckon they offered the calves
of their lips. That's what God's pleased with. a broken and a
contrite spirit. Verse 17 says, Now the Lord had
prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the
belly of the fish three days and three nights. Know it causes
a sinner to rejoice after affliction, and God has prepared salvation.
We see it. so much better in affliction,
don't we? After we've gone through a trial,
we see the Lord's hand so much better, so much more clearly. Jonah had fled. We know that. And James tells us that if a
man is tempted, he's led away in his own way, That's not the
doing of the Lord. That's a man being led away by
his own lusts. And that was the case with Jonah.
Jonah left because Jonah wanted to leave. He didn't like what
God had to say and he wasn't going to bow to God. But there's
a glorious verse of Scripture in Hebrews chapter 12 that tells
us in verse 6, Whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. He did his own son, and he does
all his sons. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? Verse 11 says, Now no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous, it is grievous. Nevertheless,
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby." I don't imagine that Jonah saw
much of a future for peaceable fruit of righteousness when he
went into that sea. When he saw that storm come upon
him and saw what had come upon other people because of his rebellion
against God. I doubt very seriously that he
saw very much peaceable fruit of righteousness in that. Any.
Any at all. But when Jonah comes out of the
water, he has a whole new outlook. Peaceable fruit of righteousness.
He comes out saying something different than he did when he
went in. We know from what our Lord said
in Matthew 12.40. Look over there with me. Matthew
12.40. We know clearly that Jonah is
a picture of Christ being in the grave. 12.40 says, As Jonah was three days and three
nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth." So we know clearly that this
is a type of Christ. Jonah being gone into the fish
that swallowed him up and being in the belly of the fish three
days and three nights. We know this is a picture of
Christ. Robert Hawker said, None but Jonah among all the sons
of men ever experienced a state like this. It was none but the
Lord Jesus Christ that ever experienced the sole agonies of the garden
and the cross. And as Jonah remained here the
exact time which the Lord Jesus in after ages remained in the
heart of the earth, so Christ expressly declared that this
was in Jonah a sign of Jonah's Lord. This was a type of Jonah's
Lord. The title of our message is Our
Faithful God and Savior. Jonah prayed unto the Lord. Jonah prayed unto the Lord his
God out of the fish's belly. I wonder if that was a heartfelt
prayer. I reckon that was a a cry for
mercy. Jonah prayed unto the Lord his
God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of
mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me out of the belly
of hell, cried I, and thou heardest my voice. If this is a type of
Christ, and we understand that Christ went to the grave, where
was it that Christ cried these things out of the fish's belly,
out of the belly of hell. Then I said, I'm cast out of
thy sight. That's what verse 4 said. Death
is separation from God. The wages of sin is death, but
it's much more than just this flesh dying. Death, spiritual death for an
unbeliever is separation from God. It's being cast out of His
sight. We need to consider what Christ
knowingly promised to endure and that He willingly suffered
for those given Him of God. And it was more than the agonies
of the flesh. Verse 5, The waters compassed
me about, even to the soul. The depths closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about
my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with
her bars was about me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God. The Lord suffered even to the
soul. He made His soul an offering
for sin. He shall see of the travail of
His soul. Of the people, there was none
with Him. He tread the winepress alone. The one thing that made
our Redeemer's suffering even worse is He knew it was at the
hand of God. Look here in verse 3. For thou
hast cast me into the deep. Thou hast cast me into the deep. All thy billows and thy waves
passed over me. Why was the Savior cast into
the depths? Why did God's billows and waves
wash over Him? He was cast out in justice. He
was cast into the deep, in the midst of the seas. The flood
compassed Him about and all God's billows and waves passed over
Him. We saw in an earlier lesson in
Jonah how when the tempest came upon the sea, It was a manifest
token of God's fury, His wrath. He's chastening Jonah in loving
kindness. But in that storm, we see the
fury of God's wrath, the power of God's wrath. When our Lord
went to the cross, He was made sin for us, made a curse for
His people, and stood before justice on behalf of His brethren
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Romans 3.21 Now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there
is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God set forth, God set Him forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare,
I say at this time, His righteousness, that He might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. There's no boasting
then. It's excluded by the law of faith.
So holy judgment and justice is being magnified when our Lord
was made sin for His people. God spared not His only Son.
It's justice. Justice. Why would we ever want
to flee from God? Why would we want to do anything
but let our conversation Why would we want to conduct ourselves
in any way but that which is becoming the gospel? Do we see
the holy justice and judgment of God? Do we think we can stand
before God on our own, in our own merit? We know we have to
have Christ. We have to be justified in Christ.
And when we see what Christ did at Calvary, when we see Jonah
cast into the depths, being an eminent type of Christ, and we
see the billows wash over him and over him in justice, why
would we ever want to depart from our God? Do we see what
Christ did for us? Oh, we are Paul says, mortify
the deeds of the flesh. He said, make them dead through
the Spirit. He said, mortify them. We don't
walk after the flesh, we walk after the Spirit. Why? What constrains us? What moves
us? What motivates us? What gives us a heart to walk
after Him? We see God saving a people by
giving His only Son and pouring out justice on Him in their room
and their stead. What? If that don't move us,
if that don't move us to want to serve Him and love Him and
honor Him and glorify Him, nothing will. Nothing will. Secondly, He was cast out because
of grace and love. That's why He was That's why
He cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? You
want to see grace? You want to see love? Look to
Christ. That's where we see grace and
love. God gave Him His only Son, and
His Son willingly, willfully, saying, Because I love the Father,
because I love my brethren, up let us be going. Let us go to
the cross. Do we want to love God? Do we
want to honor God? Do we want to love our brethren? Look how Christ loved His people
and gave Himself for them. Look how He loved the Father
first and foremost and gave Himself to honor the Father. Is it a
light thing for us to go through this life and neglect reading
His Word? Is it a small thing for us to
let Did anything and everything in this world come between us
and Christ? What did He say on the cross?
Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Think of all the
multitudes from the beginning of this creation till now that
have just passed by Him. Gone through life with blinders
on. Gone through life just trying
to get as much as they can get, Get all they can and put it in
the can and sit on the can, as Brother Tim James said. That's
what men do. We don't look to Christ. One day I'll come to a point
when I'm done living it up, I'll look to Him. We won't ever look
to Him. We won't ever look to Him if
that's the case. If grace and love exhibited at the cross of
Christ doesn't draw us to Christ, nothing will draw us to Christ. If the grace and love of Christ
exhibited at the cross doesn't make us want to be with His people
constantly, to worship with His people, to protect His people,
to take up for His people, to defend His people, to defend
His preachers, to defend these little ones and to teach them
and raise them up in the same nurture and admonition that Christ
raises us up. If the love and grace of God
shown in Christ at Calvary doesn't motivate us, nothing will. Nothing
will. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by? Grace. Magnificent fullness of
grace hung there between heaven and hell. And us sinful, wretched, foul,
God-hating rebels turned thumbs down on Him, passed by Him. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. The captain of our salvation
stood in the gulf between you and justice to deliver you who
were bound. And we let the least little thing,
our job, as if the manager who manages us at our work is more
powerful than the God we serve. Tell him you're not going to
be there. Tell him you've got to worship God. I just believe God will
bless him. He turns the king's heart withersoever he will. We're
going to conduct ourselves in a manner of becoming Christ,
becoming the Gospel? Let's show it to the world. Let's
be lights in this world. Let's be salt, preserving salt
that preserves this world. By all means, let's do that.
And if the grace and love and mercy of Christ at the cross
doesn't do it for us, doesn't show us and motivate us and move
us, what will? What will? Thirdly, Christ endured this
casting away to prove what a worthy, conquering Savior He is. In the
faithfulness of Christ the Lord, here in His righteousness revealed,
Christ faithfully fulfilled the covenant He made with God the
Father, even when it meant separation from the ones He loved. We looked
at this in the Hebrews, and I referenced this, chapter in Jonah, when
we were going through Hebrews chapter 5, and looking that though
He were a Son, yet learned He obedience in the things which
He suffered. And being made perfect, being
proven perfect, being perfectly consecrated as our High Priest,
He became the author of eternal salvation unto whom? All them
that obey Him. All them that look to Him and
trust Him. He's the conquering Savior. He's Lord in Christ. He's sovereign. He's King Jesus. He's Lord Jesus. We just can't
call Him that unless the Spirit of God gives us a heart to call
Him Lord and to bow to Him as Lord and to trust Him as Lord. All the trials that come upon
us and all the tribulations that come upon us, Jonah, go to Nineveh. I don't know about going to those
Gentile dogs. I think it would be better. That's
where he messed up. Me thinking, that's where I mess
up. Leaning to my own understanding, that's where I mess up. What
is faith? What is trusting God? Is it not
casting all our care on Him who cares for us? Isn't that what
Christ did? He who was equal with God made
himself of no reputation and came to where we are and became
obedient unto God even unto the death of the cross as a servant,
serving God, ministering to His people. He came and laid down
His life. Is that mind in us? The second
chapter of Philippians says you have the mind of Christ. We have
the mind of that old man too, don't we? We have the mind of
that old nature too, don't we? Which one are we going to walk
in? The lust of the flesh? The pride
of life? We're going to let our eyes covet
everything we see and run after those things? We're going to
be single-minded. We're going to have a single
eye for Christ and follow Him. Which one is it? Which one is
it? Are we going to love our brethren
and lay down our lives for our brethren? Or are we going to
look out for number one? Are we going to serve God or
are we going to serve this world? Which one is it? We can't serve
them both. Christ has got to have the preeminence. He is the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. All fullness dwells in Him. You
know what that means to me and you, brethren? Sinners saved
by grace. You know what that means to us?
There's nowhere else to look. What fullness do you need? Look
to Christ. What do you need? Look to Christ. You want these children to hear
the Gospel? Look to Christ. Let them see
you looking to Christ. Let them see you walking to Christ.
Let them see nothing's coming between you and Christ. And they'll
see who's preeminent by example. Are you sick? You need health?
Look to the great physician. If He cured us of our sickness,
of our transgressions against God, if He took all of the ordinances
out of the way and nailed them to His cross so that we're complete
in Him, whole, made whole as He is, so are we right now in
this present evil world. If that's the case, brethren,
and it is for every one of His that He died for, That's the
case, brethren. If He gives us health, it'll
be good. We'll enjoy it. We'll continue
worshiping Him. We'll remain in the body, as
Paul said, and we'll continue serving His people, ministering
to the needs of His people. We'll continue doing that. But
if He doesn't give us health and we die, like Paul said, we'll
go into His presence and rejoice in Him. face-to-face. So what
I'm saying brethren is it don't matter if we have a lot or if
we have little. It don't matter if we're sick
or if we're healthy. It don't matter if we've got
a job or we don't have a job. We've got Christ. I was in a position one time
I got fired from a rabbit barn. Tending rabbits. and was brought
down to the lowest limb a man could be brought down to. I couldn't
support my family. I couldn't provide for my bride.
I couldn't do those things that are honoring to Christ that Christ
did for His church, for His people. I couldn't do those things. You
know the only thing I had? Christ. I had everything. I had everything. And if there's
anything God taught me through that trial, you know what it
was? That in Christ I have everything. Oh, we've got everything in Him. This conquering Savior. What
did Jonah do when he goes into this fish's belly? What does
he do in verse 1? Jonah prayed unto the Lord his
God. What did Christ do? He prayed. We see how often you see Him
praying. He prayed continually. When He
was at Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed for strength. When
He went to the cross, He prayed to God. He prayed, prayed, prayed,
prayed to God. He's faithful. There was no guile
found in Him. There was no malice. There was
no evil, no sin at all in His mouth. Nothing coming from His
heart that was sinful. He's faithful. even in the midst
of the sorest trials. He's faithful. Verse 2, he said,
I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord. Verse 7, when
my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in
unto Thee and to Thine holy temple. Our Lord Jesus Christ, brethren,
is faith. He is faith. He's the faithful
one. He's faithful. God's pleased
with him. He's faithful. He pleaded the covenant. He pleaded
the promises of God the Father. He pleaded God's own faithfulness. What do we plead? When we go
to Christ and we cry out to Him in our affliction, what do we
plead? We plead God's promise, His covenant promise in that
everlasting covenant. And we plead it looking at Christ's
blood. Because it's sealed. It's ratified. It's complete in Christ's blood.
And for God the Father to turn to not answer us and not keep
us and not deliver us is to deny His own faithfulness. For Christ
not to plead for us and make intercession for us is for Him
to deny His own blood. That can't be. He can't deny
Himself. We know that. He said, I've called thee in
righteousness. I'll hold thine hand and keep thee and give thee
for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.
God the Father said that to God the Son. I'll give you for a
covenant to the people. Do you have Christ? I hear so
many people talking about covenant. The old covenant, the new covenant.
There's only one. It's Christ. He's our covenant. He said, I'll give him to the
people for a covenant. He's the everlasting covenant.
All the promises of God are yes and amen in Him. They're not,
well, maybe and maybe not. They're yes and amen in Him. He said unto me, God the Father
speaking to Christ, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom
I will be glorified. This is what Christ pleaded.
This is what Christ prayed when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Father, You said in Your name I'm going to be glorified. I'm
the one in whom You're going to be glorified. Father, the
hours come. Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee. That's the covenant promise.
That's the promises between God the Father and God the Son. Oh,
but He comes to His own in the season of His love and He says,
and I'll make an everlasting covenant with You. even the sure
mercies of David. I'll reveal Christ in you. I'll
give you the hope of glory. Let this world do what it may.
Let us be persecuted. That's okay. You know what we
learn when we're persecuted for Christ's sake? Don't think it a big thing if
you're persecuted for doing wrong, but when you're persecuted for
doing right, when you trust Christ and you're persecuted. You know
what's proven? That you're His. You're His. Lock, stock and barrel, you're
His. Now, don't miss everybody goes through tribulation. Everybody
goes through trial and affliction. That doesn't necessarily mean
we're God's children just because we go through it. But if we come
out the other side of it and we're still crying upon Him and
trusting Him alone and stayed upon Jehovah, It's by the power
and wisdom of God. It's by the faithfulness of our
God. It's by Christ who pleaded in the midst of the severest
agony. Do you see the height of His
faithfulness? And let's not forget the faithfulness
of God the Father. Verse 2 says, Thou heardest my
voice. Not only did I cry. If I cried
and there was no answer, it wouldn't be any big deal, would it? If
our Lord would have cried but wouldn't have been answered,
it wouldn't have mattered. But he cried, and God heard his
voice. The Father heard his voice. God
the Father always hears the voice of His well-beloved Son, and
He hears those who cry out to Him in His Son, through His Son,
by His Son. Verse 6 says, Yet hast thou brought
up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. Notice here. He's not
out of it yet. He's not out of the fish's belly
yet. He's not been delivered out of
the fish's belly, but he's speaking in the past tense. You've delivered
me. You've delivered me. He was in
the midst of agony in the garden. And he wasn't out of that agony.
He was going to that agony. But he stood up and said, now
let's go. You've delivered me. Isn't that our case, brethren?
We enter into affliction. and we cry out to Him, and He
strengthens you, and the affliction won't even be over, and you'll
be praising Him already and thanking Him for the affliction. Lord,
thank You. Thank You for sending this to
me. Are you thankful? Are you thankful for affliction?
David was. All God's saints are thankful. They're not pleasant at the moment,
but thankful for them afterwards though, aren't we? Look here. What did our Lord say in Psalm
16.9? Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also rests in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
that holy one to seek corruption. The Lord, verse 10. The Lord
spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
There was a great earthquake. But the angel of the Lord descended
from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door
and He sat upon it. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Faithfulness went to that cross. Faithfulness bore that cross.
And faithfulness went into the tomb. And faithfulness came out
of the tomb. And is seated at the right hand of God. You see
the promise of God the Father. You see His faithfulness. He
didn't forget His covenant. Do you think He forgets the covenant
now? He doesn't forget His covenant.
Not at all. Well, I'm running out of time. Let me finish it up. Here's today's
lesson for you. Do you long? Is there a sinner
here? Is there any sinners here? That ought to cover us all. Everyone
of us. Do you long to be found faithful? To be complete? To be whole?
You know, we long for that when God first shows us Christ. We
long for that in every trial that we go through. We long. It's like being incomplete in
a trial. It's like something is broken. It needs to be healed. We long
for Him. Believe on Christ. Believe on
the Lord of glory. Trust Him. Do you long to be
saved from the curse of sin? To be saved to walk in newness
of life? Look to our resurrected King
of glory. He conquered death and hell for
His brethren. How can we walk any longer in
sin and rebellion against Him? Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid! Shall we sin because
we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid! Do you long to grow in grace?
Do you long to have some wisdom, to know more of Him, steady and
steadfast and have constancy the next time that you face the
next trial to be not moved away from Christ? To be lured away
by the lust of the flesh as Jonah was here? Then we must trust Him. We must
ask Him. When our Savior asked the Father,
the Father heard Him and strengthened Him. Do you think anything that one
of his own asks in his name, in faith, without wavering now? Are you set on Christ? Do you think that God will not answer
that prayer? He will. He will. He hears His people. And He answers
them. He answers them. May He put the
song in our heart this morning to say with Jonah, look here
in verse 8. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy, but I'll sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving. I'll pay that I have vowed, salvations
of the Lord. Salvations of the Lord. Look
over at Hosea 14.2. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord and say unto Him, take away all iniquity and receive
us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. Psalm 51, 15 says, O Lord, open
thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou
desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. May He give us His psalm, may
we sing with Isaac Watts, He raised me from the depths of
sin, the gates of gaping hell, and fixed my standing more secure
than it was before I fell. And to the believer's song, Christ
says from the throne of glory. Turn to Song of Solomon, chapter
4, verse 11. I love this right here. When
you come to Christ with the calves of your lips, thanking Him, praising
Him, pleased with His offering as God is pleased with His offering.
Satisfied. Listen to this. This is Christ
speaking to His bride. Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as
the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under thy
tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of
Lebanon." The sweetness that He's put in
our mouth is His own lovingkindness, His graciousness to us. The garments
that smell so fragrant to Him is His own righteousness, the
garment of His own righteousness. Now brethren, I don't know, I really don't
know what there is that could make the believer more sincere in his daily life,
make him put down the flesh, our selfishness, deny ourselves,
give ourselves wholly to our families, to the church? I don't know of anything else
that can make us do that. Christ has to do it. If we see
Him by the Spirit and grace of God, if we see Him and behold
Him, what is it at the end of every trial that calls it? What do you think calls Jonah? When he was brought out, what
do you think caused Jonah the most sorrow? He sinned against his Lord. He
fled the presence of his Lord. Every time that we are disorderly,
any time that we are led away by the lust of this flesh, we
dishonor Him. We dishonor Him. We do an injustice
to our children. poor example to our children. I just hope brethren, I hope,
I pray, I hope that as we grow in grace that Christ becomes
so much everything to us that we walk as if He's right in front
of us and we're looking right into His face every step that
we take. The next time friends call you
up and say, you know, we're going to the Phillies game on Sunday.
Go with us. That you might see Christ and
say, you know what? There's something a whole lot
more important to me than baseball. I'm going to hear my Lord. I'm
going to hear Him speak. Oh, that He give us a heart to
conduct ourselves in a way that's becoming to His honor, His glory. He deserves If God's given us
His best, He deserves our best.