Would you turn with me to the
Book of Jonah? Jonah, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah,
and Micah. The Book of Jonah. Regarding this man, Jonah, he
was first and foremost a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
not guessing this. This is what the Lord himself
said. The Lord said, for 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 the Lord himself tells us
that Jonah is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jonah was also
a man. He was God's man. He was God's
prophet. But he was also a disobedient
prophet. When God commissioned him to
go and preach to the Ninevites, He left the presence of the Lord. He fled from the presence of
the Lord. He did not want to do what God
told him to do. And his reason for fleeing exposes
some serious problems with this man. Look in chapter 4 of Jonah. Now, this is after Nineveh repented
at the preaching of Jonah. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was very angry. He would rather see them fry. He would rather see them fry. What kind of attitude is that?
Look what he says in verse 2, 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? Here was his reason for fleeing
from the presence of the Lord. He says, therefore, I fled before
unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful
and slow to anger. and of great kindness and repentance
thee of the evil." I knew you would do that. I knew you'd do that. That's
why I didn't want to go. Now I want you to think of that. Therefore now, O Lord, take I
beseech thee my life for me. Go ahead and kill me. You see,
Jonah didn't want to look bad. He was going to preach, if you
don't turn in 40 days, God's going to kill you. No, he didn't
say if you don't turn. He said in 40 days, this place is going
down. And he thought, it makes me look bad. I said it's going
down in 40 days. You repent of the evil you're
going to do. You have mercy on and you make
me look bad. I just assume you kill me. Now, what kind of attitude is
that from Jonah? I have entitled this message
the peevish prophet. And that is indeed what he was.
Jonah was an angry man. Look in verse 4. Then said the
Lord, doest thou well to be angry? He was angry at the mercy the
Lord extended toward the Ninevites. Look in verse 9 of chapter 4.
And God said to Jonah, doest thou well to be angry for the
gourd? I look at Jonah as this red-faced
man who's always getting mad, always getting upset over something. the peevish prophet. Now, let's go back to Jonah chapter
1. Now, the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah, the son of a Mitai. Interestingly, Jonah's name means
a dove. He doesn't seem much like a dove,
does he, in his attitude? And God says to Jonah, go to
Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness
is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." You see, when the
Lord sends a preacher, He does so with the intention of mercy. All he has to do is leave them
alone, and they'll go to hell. And that's what they deserve.
But Jonah knew this. And Jonah did not want this to
take place. He didn't want to look bad. He
didn't want to say, God's going to do this, and then it not happen,
and then look how bad I look. And he didn't like the Ninevites
anyway. He would have rather seen them under God's judgment. So he flees from the presence
of the Lord. Verse 3, And went down to Joppa,
and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare
thereof, and went down into it, to go with him unto Tarshish,
from the presence of the Lord. But, you know you can't flee from
the presence of the Lord, can you? David said, Whither shall I flee
from thy presence? If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings and go to
the uttermost morning, even there thou art with me." He couldn't
flee from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a
great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in
the sea so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners
were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth
the wares that were in the ship into the sea, the liken of them.
But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he
lay and was fast asleep." I think that's more than him being physically
asleep. He entered a state of spiritual
sleep. What do you look like when you're
asleep? You look like you're dead. You appear to be dead. Here he is asleep in the bottom
of the ship. Verse 6, So the shipmaster came
to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise,
and call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us,
that we perish not. And they said, Everyone to his
fellow, come and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose
cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot
fell upon Jonah. Jonah is the reason for this
storm. Then said they unto him, Tell
us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is
that occupation? And whence comest thou? what
is thy country, and of what people art thou? And he said unto them,
I am in Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which
hath made the sea, and the dry land. 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, Jonah is the reason for this story. Now, let's
go on reading, and we're going to see how Jonah is a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ, even before he's in the fish's belly. Look
in verse 11. Then they said unto him, What
shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? For
the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me
up. and cast me forth into the sea,
so shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake
this great tempest is upon you." Nevertheless, the men rowing
hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea
wrought and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto
the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee,
let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent
blood. For thou, O Lord, hast done as
it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast
him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging. When he was cast in, The raging
ceased, because there was no reason for there to be any raging. And in that, when the Lord Jesus
Christ died on Calvary's tree, all the raging of God's wrath
ceased, because there was no reason for it. Sin was put away. Jonah is thrown into the sea,
and there is a great calm. Verse 16, Then the men feared
the Lord exceedingly. Don't you reckon they did? I
would too. They feared the Lord exceedingly
and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Now,
the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Did that literally take place?
Yes, it did. Now, how could a man be swallowed
by a fish and deal with those gastric juices and all the things
that would be in the fish's belly? How could he live for three days?
I don't know. But with God, nothing shall be
impossible. And I believe God. I love what
Donnie Bell said. If the Bible said that Jonah
swallowed the fish, I'd believe it. And I do too. I believe the
Bible's the word of God. There's a lot of things I can't
explain. I'm okay with that. This is God's revelation of himself. This is God's book. And yes,
our Lord spoke of this as literally happening. He didn't say it was
figurative. He said as Jonah was in the well's
belly, for three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man
be in the heart of the earth." Yes, Jonah spent three days and
three nights in this fish's belly. Now, can you imagine a much more
miserable environment? I can't. In the stomach of a
fish or a whale or whatever it was, we don't know. Dark, talking
about hopeless. If you were in a fish's belly
for three days, would you even have any hope of getting out?
What a horrible condition this man was in for three days. And then we read in verse one
of chapter two, then Jonah prayed. unto the Lord his God out of
the fish's belly. Now, when we look at this prayer,
I want us to consider two things. First and foremost, this is the
prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ from the cross. This is the prayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ as he's going through whatever it is
he's going through for those three days. I have no idea what
all was going on at that time, nor does anyone else, but this
is part of what our Lord was doing as the sinner's substitute. And the reason that I know that
primarily these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ is because
of verse 9, where he says, But I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that that I have vowed. Who's the only one who could
say that? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who could say,
I'll pay that which I vowed. You vow something, you're not
able to pay it. If I vow something, I'm not able
to pay it. It's all talk. It's all religious
talk. But when he speaks, he says,
I'll pay that which I vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. So
let's look at this as the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
it's also Jonah's words. as he is in that fish's belly. Try to imagine yourself in a
situation like that as we read this prayer. Then 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." Now, I can see that
as the Lord and His great faithfulness even on the cross, and I can
also see this as Jonah's words. He says in verse 3, For thou
hast cast me into the deep, and into the midst of the seas, and
the floods compassed me about, all thy billows and thy waves
have gone over me. Now Jonah knew his own sin brought
this on him. He knew that the reason he was
cast out was because of his own act of disobedience. That's why
he was in the fish's belly. That's why all of God's waves
and billows of wrath are going over him. It's all his fault. And he knew it. But, you know,
these are also the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, because understand
this, everything there is to experience about sin, with the
exception of the commission of it, he experienced. And all of
this was happening to him. He felt all the waves. and the
billows of God's wrath going over him, because he was guilty. When my sin became his, it became
his, so that he was guilty of it, and he was experiencing everything
he speaks of, of all the waves and billows of God's wrath going
over him. Beloved, he's experienced things
that every believer will never have to experience. Aren't you
thankful for that? What he did? Verse 4, Then I
said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward
thy holy temple. Here I believe the words especially
apply to Christ. While he was cast off, he never
stopped believing. Me and you, we'd stop believing.
Not him. He said, though he slay me. Yet will I trust him. He believed
God completely in utter darkness. Then I said, I'm cast out of
thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. Verse
five, 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." You know, the Lord experienced
all the equivalents of eternal hell. He says, language like
forever. Now, it wasn't forever, but it
was forever. He experienced the full equivalent
of eternal hell as the sinner's substitute. I went down to the
bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about
me forever. Yet, as thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God, When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. Now, I know this. It is only
when my soul completely faints within me and I am brought to
helplessness and hopelessness that I remember the Lord. Now,
it's a blessed thing to be brought to helplessness and hopelessness. You don't have anywhere to look
for yourself or in yourself. You're made to look to Him. He said, When my soul fainted
within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee,
into thine holy temple. They that observe, that word
observe has something to do with religious trust. It's the same
word that was used with reference to observing the Passover. They
that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Now what are
these lying vanities? It's any form of salvation by
works. Doesn't matter what it is. Doesn't
matter what it comes under. If it's salvation dependent upon
you in any way to any degree. Let me tell you this about it.
It's a lying vanity. And when you observe something
like that, or if I observe something like that, I cut my own throat.
I forsake my own mercy. Our Lord tells us, they that
observe lying vanities, any form of salvation by worse, forsake
their own mercy. Verse 9, But I will sacrifice
unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed
salvation. is of the Lord. Salvation. What is salvation? Well, here's the way I'll answer
that. What do I need to be saved from?
I'm talking about me. What do I need to be saved from? I know exactly what I need to
be saved from. I need to be saved from my I need to be saved from
my sins, because there's nothing I can do about my sin. I am a
sinner, and I can't change that. And I need to be saved from my
sin. Matthew 121 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. You see, my sin brings me into
condemnation. God would be just if He condemned
me And I believe that. He would be just if he condemned
me eternally. And I need to be saved from the
penalty of sin. And that's what the Lord did.
He bore it for me. Salvation is of the Lord. I need to be
saved from the power of sin because I can't prevent my sin. I can't
stop sinning. I can't just up and, well, I'm
going to turn this thing around. I can't do it. I must be saved
from the power of my sin or I won't be saved. Salvation to the Lord
in that sense. I need to be saved from the presence
of sin to where I don't sin anymore. That's what I need to be freed
from sin. Salvation. That's salvation from
sin. Salvation is of the Lord. Now that is everything we believe,
isn't it? Salvation. Salvation from sin. Salvation from the condemnation
of sin. Salvation from the power of sin. Salvation from the presence
of sin is of the Lord. And let me tell you what that
means. First of all, the planning of salvation is of the Lord. He planned. He purposed. Who would be saved? Now, I think it interesting is
not the right word. But he didn't plan to save everybody.
If he did plan to save everybody, everybody would be saved. Isn't
that so? He's God. But he didn't plan to save everybody.
Somebody says, how can that be fair? Why didn't he just go ahead
and save everybody? If I was God, I would have saved
everybody. No, you wouldn't. That's just talk. You wouldn't.
As a matter of fact, if you were God, nobody would be saved. You
can just be sure of that. Nobody would be saved. Oh, I
know we talk big, but let somebody make us mad enough times and
sin against us over and over and over again. We'll say, I've
had it. There's only one who saves this way, and that's the
Lord Himself. Salvations of the Lord in its
planning when He chose who would be saved before the foundation
of the world because He's gracious, because He's merciful. Salvation
is of the Lord in the execution of the plan. Now, He planned
salvation, but not only did He plan it, He executed it. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, when the Lord was on the cross, We read this description
of him in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, when he had by himself, now
catch that, when he had by himself purged us of our sins, he sat
down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Why did he sit
down? Because his work He by Himself, no creature aid,
no help from me, no help from you, He by Himself purged us
of our sins. Salvation is of the Lord in its
execution. He did it all. And salvation
is of the Lord in its application. He is the one who applies that
salvation. I don't apply it. That's what
most folks believe. Most folks believe that God wants
to save everybody. Christ died for everybody. He
made salvation possible for everybody. But it's up to you to apply it,
or what He did will not work for you. That's foolishness.
God applies His salvation by the regeneration, the new birth. He gives me the grace. to believe. He gives me the grace to repent.
He gives me the grace to receive. He applies it. It's not a work
of man's will. It's a work of God's will. To
as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the
sons of God, even to them which believe on his name, which were
born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man, but of God. Salvation is of the Lord in its
application. And salvation is of the Lord
and sustaining power. The fact that I still believe,
and listen to me, if I had to keep myself for one second, I
couldn't do it. If he brought me all the way
to the pearly gates, for lack of a better word, and all I had
to do is make the final step, of myself, I'd fall away and
perish forever. Salvation is of the Lord in its
sustaining and salvation of the Lord in its final glorification. When I'm made just like Christ,
it will be clear that salvation was utterly of the Lord. Now, since salvation is of the
Lord, and this is something that rejoices my heart, since salvation
is of the Lord. And it is. That's what the scripture
teaches. Salvation is of the Lord. Don't you reckon Jonah
understood that when he was in that whale's belly? The only
way I'm going to get out of here is if the Lord gets me out of
here. There's nothing I can do to get myself out of here. Jonah
understood that. Salvation is of the Lord. Now,
there's two things that this safeguards against us, two great
evils this safeguards us against. And those two great evils are
pride and despair. Since salvation is of the Lord,
there's no room for pride, and there's no room for despair. Obviously, there's no room for
pride, because He did it all. Not unto us, not unto us, but
unto thy name give glory. for thy mercy and for thy true
sake. He did it all. What do you have? Who makes you
to differ from another? And what do you have that you
didn't receive? Now, if you received it, why
do you glories if you didn't? You see, there's no room for
pride. He did it all. But thank God. There's no room
for despair. I don't care how sinful you are
or I am. I don't care how far off. I don't
care how helpless. I don't care how impossible the
situation with God. Nothing shall be impossible.
There's no reason for despair because salvation is of the Lord.
He can reach down and pick you up and bring you to Himself no
matter how low you are. Salvation is of the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? Salvation
is of the Lord. Now look back in our text. Verse
10, And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah
upon the dry land. God never will forget hearing
Henry Mahan say once, even a whale can't stomach a Calvinist. And that is so. I always hate
using that term, but sometimes I do. And there it is. The Lord
spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. Can you imagine how Jonah felt
as that fish spit him out? Chapter 3. And the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that
great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee."
Now, isn't that the subject matter of all true preaching? Preach
unto it the preaching that I bid thee. And let me remind you,
the Lord has a purpose in sending a preacher. Mercy. You see, if he hadn't sent Jonah,
he could have just left Nineveh to themselves and they would
have went to hell. But he had a purpose of mercy. Verse 3,
So Jonah rose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the
Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey.
It was so big that it took three days to walk from one end to
the other. Now that's a very large city.
As a matter of fact, we know from the end of this chapter
it had millions of inhabitants because it had 120,000 who were
described as not knowing the left hand from the right. Children
that were under two years of age. So there were millions of
people in this city. It was an exceeding great city. And Jonah began to enter into
the city, verse 4, a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty
days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Now notice, he doesn't say anything
about mercy, does he? He doesn't say anything about
faith. He doesn't say anything about repentance. He doesn't
say anything about what God will do if you do this. He just simply
said, Nineveh is going to be overthrown in forty days. Now
here's the point. We won't ask for mercy. Until
we see we're under the righteous judgment of God. And when I see
that I'm under the righteous judgment of God, there's one
thing I'm going to do. Have mercy on me. He didn't say anything about
mercy. He said in 40 days it's over. Verse 5. So the people of Nineveh believe
God. What's that? faith. The people of Nineveh believed
God and proclaimed to fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest
of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the
king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid
his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth and set in
ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed
and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and
his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock,
taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water,
and let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily
unto God. Yea, let him turn everyone from
his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands, the evil
way of their religion and the wicked way of their works. And
then he says this in verse 9. Who can tell? Who can tell? And there's always
reason for optimism. Who can tell? If God will turn
and repent and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish
not. Who can tell? You see, God is
merciful. That's His nature. God is gracious. God delights in mercy. Who can tell? He doesn't have
to as far as an entitlement to me, but who can tell? Perhaps
He'll turn from this fierce anger. Verse 10, And God saw their works,
that they turned from their evil way, And God repented of the
evil that he said that he would do unto them. And he did it not. Forty-one days later, they were
still there. But, chapter four, it displeased
Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. I think that has something to
do with why this message is entitled, The Peevish Prophet. He would
rather see them fry than him look bad. That's Jonah. He was displeased exceedingly. and was very angry. And he prayed
unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my
saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before and to
Tarsus, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take I
beseech thee my life for me, for it's better for me to die
than to live. I've lost all credibility. Nobody's
going to listen to me anymore. Just go ahead and kill me. I
don't want to live anymore. Then said the Lord. Doest thou well to be angry?
Do you have a justified reason for being angry? So Jonah went
out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there
made him a booth. He made him a little lean-to,
and he sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would
become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, a small
palm tree, and made it to come up over Jonah that it might be
a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah
was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm, when
the morning rose the next day, and it smoked the gourd, that
it withered. And it came to pass, when the
sun did arise, that small palm tree being gone, that God prepared
a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah,
that he fainted, and he wished himself to die, and he said,
It's better for me to live than to die. Now, the Lord prepared
a gourd, and the Lord prepared a worm, and the Lord prepared
a vehement east wind. God prepares our comforts. They come from him. It's what
made Jonah glad. And God prepares our losses. He prepared the world that caused
Jonah to lose what made him so happy, and God sent the vehement
east wind. God sent the trials, and every
trial you have, it comes from above. God sends your comforts,
God sends your losses, and God sends your trials. And you know
what, I'm glad it's that way, aren't you? I'm glad he's in
control of all that. God prepares all things. Verse 9, And God said to Jonah,
Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do
well to be angry even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast
had pity on the gourd. For that which thou hast not
laboured, neither made it to grow, when it came up in a night,
and perished in a night. You had pity on that. You wanted me to spare that gourd. And should not I spare Nineveh,
that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand,
a hundred twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their
right hand and their left, and also much cattle? Should I not spare Nineveh when
they repented? Now, what I thought of was James
and John. Remember when they, when the
people didn't pay any attention to the Lord and they said, will
thou that we command fire to come down and consume them as
Elijah did? But he turned and rebuked them
and said, you know not what manner of spirit you're of. For the
Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. You see, God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved. You see, we're condemned already.
God doesn't have to send His Son to condemn us because we're
already condemned by our sin. And all the Lord has to do is
remove His hand from you, or me, and leave us alone and will
end up being as bad as the devil. That's all that it takes. He
didn't send his son to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. Jonah, may we be given grace to realize
that instead of being angry It's the Lord. It's the Lord. Every loss, every
comfort, the Veminese wind, it's the Lord. And men are already
condemned, just like us by nature. And may we love men enough to
tell them, regardless of the cost to us, that salvation is
of the Lord. That's our message. Salvation
is of the Lord. We have a message of love and
grace. Salvation is of the Lord. Now,
if you observe lying vanities, you forsake your own mercy. You
cut your own throat. But salvation and Every aspect
of salvation is of the Lord, and He is a strong and mighty
hand, and He can save the very chief of sinners. That is our
message in this town and this generation and in our homes. Salvation is of the Lord. Aren't you thankful? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that salvation
is of the Lord.