I really want to begin reading
in chapter 1 and verse 11. The storm had come upon these
sailors because of Jonah's disobedience to the Lord. And they finally
asked him in verse 11 of chapter 1, Then said they unto him, What
shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? For
the sea wrought, and it was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me
up, and cast me forth into the sea, for so shall the sea be
common to you. For I know that for my sake this
great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rode 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 they cast him forth into the sea, and the
sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly, and offered sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. 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. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord
his God out of the fish's belly and said, I cried by reason of
my afflictions unto the Lord, and He heard me. Out of the belly
of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice. For Thou hast cast
me into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods can
pass me about, and all Thy billows and Thy waves pass over me. Then
I said, I am cast out of thy sight. Yet will I look again
towards thy holy temple. The waters can pass me about
even to the soul. The depths closed about me round
about. The weeds were wrapped around
my head. I went down to the bottoms of
the mountain. The earth with her bars was about
me forever. 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
and to thy holy temple. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with
a voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed,
salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish,
and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." I am trying not
to get bogged down in this book, but I don't love another book
in the Old Testament. that so clearly sets forth such
beautiful pictures of so many aspects of the gospel. You and
I saw some things last week there in chapter 1. I begin reading
in verses 11 through verse 12. This is the gospel of substitution. And I'm going to keep referring
back to this because this has been on my heart for 43 years. I've studied the Bible and I
can't get away from substitution. And we find it here in this passage. Pick me up, cast me into the
sea, and the sea shall be calm unto you. And they picked him
up and threw him in the ocean. And what happened? There was
a calm. That's substitution. I want to say more about that,
hopefully, in this message. And then in chapter 4, verses
1 through 2, we looked at this last week just a little bit.
The stress that the Lord puts upon preaching. God had purposed
to save the men of Nineveh by preaching. The men of Nineveh
repented at the preaching of Jonah. Now that's amazing, isn't
it? That's amazing. That's the way God saves men.
Through the foolishness of preaching. Believe in the preacher. Not
what you do. It's not what we do that saves
us. It's to believe in what we hear. That's what saves us. He may be sitting here this morning,
lost as you can be. If the Holy Spirit is pleased
to bring the gospel to your heart and grant you grace to hear,
then you'll be saved. You'll be saved without moving
a muscle, without shifting your body up to the front of the church,
without making a decision, hearing and believing what you hear.
They repented at the preaching of Jonah, and a greater than
Jonah is here. And then we find also, and we
will deal with this in chapter 3 verse 5, justification by faith. Saved by faith. The men of Nineveh
believed God. Now there is a message in that
and we will get to it. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. Here we see justification by
faith. And then also the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
found this year in chapter 1, verse 17, Jonah was three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth, or in the whale's
belly. And He said, as Jonah was three
days and three nights there, the Son of Man must be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Then He's
going to raise from the dead. We saw that. And then the resurrection
at the last day. The men of Nineveh shall rise
in judgment. with this generation, and shall
condemn it." The resurrection of the body, the judgment in
the last days. So this book teaches us so many things, and so many
things hopefully we can still see in it. I want to try to see
three things this morning, if you'll be patient with me. And
I'll try to get through these without wearing you with them.
But there's three more things that I want to see in this book
of Jonah this morning. We touched on just a little bit
of it, last Sunday afternoon. But I want to look at this again,
and that is the Lord is going to correct Jonah. We would call
it chastening. We often call it chastening.
Sometimes we just call it whipping. The Lord is going to whip him.
But what chastening means simply is teaching, correcting by teaching
him. And the Lord is going to correct
Jonah's straying, his rebellion, if you want to call it that,
his disobedience. And he's going to do it for two
reasons. There's two things that we see
here in the book of Jonah. The Lord is going to correct
Jonah for two reasons. Here's what this chastening of
the Lord has to do. First of all is this. Jonah had
brought a reproach on the Lord's name. He had brought it publicly
before these men. He told them who he was. He says,
I'm a child of God. I'm a prophet of God. I'm a covenant
child of God. I'm a Hebrew. The Lord has taken
me into covenant with Himself. He's made me His child. And I'm
fleeing from the presence of the Lord. In other words, I'm
living in disobedience to my covenant God. And they could
hardly believe this. They said, man, what have you
done? Ain't that what they said? Remember that? What have you
done? What are you doing? Fleeing and disobeying your covenant
God. That's what Jonah tells them
here in chapter 1 in verse 9 and 10, that he's fleeing from the
presence of the Lord. And here's the thing. Here's
the thing. God is going to farm In the mind
of these sailors, His character as the God and Father of this
errant child. They said, we know that you're
living in disobedience to your God. We know you're fleeing from
His presence. What kind of God is your God?
What kind of Father is your Father? And there is what the Lord is
going to prove to these men, the kind of father He is to Jonah. Jonah had sinned publicly, and
God was going to publicly clear his name by correcting Jonah
in the sight of these sailors. One complaint that the Lord often
had against the children of Israel, they were His people. He took
them out from the land of bondage and redeemed them out of the
house of Pharaoh. And one of the complaints that
he had against them was this, the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you. By your unfaithfulness, by your
sinning, my name is a reproach among the Gentiles. You remember
David and David's sin? Remember how David had committed
an awful sin with Bathsheba? And he had her husband killed. And he thought he had this hid.
And when Nathan the prophet came to him, Nathan said, basically,
David, others know about what you've done. God knows about
it. You've not hid it from Him. The
angels know about it. Devils know about it. Joab knows
about it and other people know about it. And you've given great
occasion to the enemy to blaspheme, to reproach the name of the Lord.
Now that's what chastening is about. When someone, when a child
of God, when a dear heaven born child of God sins publicly, and
they bring reproach upon the name of their Lord and Savior,
upon the name of their Father, sometimes the Lord is going to
vindicate His name. And He's going to show publicly
what kind of Father I am. Boy, how we correct our children
goes a long way in telling the kind of character I am as a parent. Do you know that? Have you ever
been in the store or in the someplace out in public, and you see this
child, and they're old enough to correct, but boy, they're
screaming, they're crying, they're kicking. They wanted a toy, and
the parent wouldn't let them have it. And they've gone all
out of control, and everybody's watching them, and everybody's
embarrassed, but the parent can't handle them. We've all seen that,
haven't we? And we begin to think, what kind
of character is that dad? What kind of character is that
mother? Don't they love their children?
And it's out of control, and the way that child is permitted
to act, and the father or mother just along for the rough ride,
ain't they? Everything's out of their control
and they can't do nothing with it. And after a while we begin
to think, man, what a weak-minded parent. They don't even love
their children enough to correct them. Well, see, that's what
happens when Jonah sins publicly against his covenant God. These
sellers begin to wonder, what kind of God is He that He would
let you commit this sin against Him? Well, the Lord is going
to vindicate His name before these sellers. He's going to
show them what kind of God He is, just like He showed the public
when David had sinned. And David finally came to himself
and said, Oh, my soul, I've sinned against God. I have sinned against
God. Look at the reproach I brought
on His name publicly. And Nathan said, I know you've
sinned against God, but He's put away your sin. You're not
going to die, David, but listen to this. God's going to vindicate
His name in what you've done. The child that you've begotten
by this woman is going to die. And everybody's going to know
what kind of God your God is. that he hates sin wherever he
sees it, in the world or in his children. And he won't tolerate
it. Men are going to know that he's
holy and that he's just and that he's right. So what's he going
to do? He's going to publicly vindicate his character. He's going to take your child.
And that's what we find here in Jonah. It's almost like the Lord's just
left him alone and he's brought shame on the Lord's name. But
now the Lord has sent this storm. These guys have wrung this confession
out of him of who he is. And now, what are they going
to do? What are they going to do? Here's what the Lord had
commanded. Pick him up and throw him overboard
into the sea. Nothing else is going to satisfy
me. I'm going to vindicate my name. And he did, didn't he?
He did. You know, sometimes when we sin
privately, when our sin is just in our heart and nobody knows
about it, the Lord chastens us privately. It becomes a heart
thing. But boy, when we've slipped up
in public and it's become publicly known, as Jonas had and as David
had, then He's going to vindicate His name. He's going to farm
in men's minds what kind of God and what kind of Father He is. That's the first thing we see
about chastening. Heart sins are bad enough, aren't they?
Falling and bringing reproach on the Lord's name in public
is much worse. The second thing about chastening
is this. Here's the second thing we see
about chastening. Jonah had broken this sweet communion
with the Lord. On his part, this sweet communion
with the Lord had been broken. Sinning publicly was a reproach
on the Lord, breaking this communion with the Lord is a grief to the
Lord. It grieves Him. You'll notice
here from this first chapter of Jonah, from verse 3 through
the rest of this chapter, nothing is said about Jonah praying. He never prays. You never see
him calling upon the name of the Lord. From the time he fled
from the Lord, To the time the Lord put him in that whale's
belly, he had broken this sweet communion with the Lord. The
storm came. He didn't pray. He heard these
other men calling on the Lord. They're throwing everything overboard.
He didn't pray. The man came down and said, Rise
and call on your God. But he didn't, did he? And what chastening is about
is this. When we break this sweet communion
with our Heavenly Father, He takes in hand to restore it.
And that's what chastening is about. He took in hand to restore
this communion. And boy, I tell you what, it
took something drastic, didn't it? See, the Bible says that
when the Lord saves us, God is our Father. God sends forth the
Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And we cry, Father, Father. That's
this sweet communion Clarence was talking about this morning
between the bride and her husband. And that communion is never to
be broken. God would not have that to be
broken. He said you've not received the
Spirit of bondage again to fear. that you receive the Spirit of
adoption. But I tell you what happens sometimes
when we sin, when we sin, and when we get the bit, as I said
last week, in our mouth and we go on, we break this sweet communion
we have with the Lord. And He won't have that. He won't
stand for that. He's called us into the fellowship
of His Son. And no matter what we do, were
to confess it, to repent of it, and He forgives it. And on our
part, this sweet communion is restored. But sometimes to restore
this communion, boy, He brings the rock on us hard, doesn't
He? I remember one time, this was
so drastic, so dramatic to me in my conscience. It's been probably
40 years ago and I still haven't got it. forgot it to this day.
I remember I had did something, I don't know what it was, but
I remember I was aware that my Heavenly Father was chastening
me. I was aware of that, I remember that. And I went to Him in prayer
and instead of addressing Him as my Father, I consciously addressed
Him as God. I started to say my Father, but
instead of saying my Father, I said God. And boy, The Holy
Spirit rebuked my conscience. He pricked my conscience over
that. And it was almost like He spoke to me and said, God
is your Father. And no matter if you feel His
chastening hand upon you, no matter if you are aware that
you have sinned, He is still your Father. And He will not
have that sweet communion broken by you. He is not going to break
it. And He won't have you break it.
And that's what this chastening was about. And boy, when this
whale swatted up Jonah, look here, look here what he says
in chapter 2. Then, then Jonah prayed unto
the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. And he said, I cried by
reason of my affliction to the Lord and He heard me. And then he goes there in verse
3 and verse 4 and he prays again. But what has this affliction
done for him? It has brought him to repentance
hasn't it? It has restored this sweet communion
between Jonah and his Lord. And he says there, verse 9, I
will sacrifice unto thee with a voice of thanksgiving. See what the Lord was doing with
Chaston? This is what Chaston is for. When this sweet communion
is broken on our part, it brings us back to our Lord in this humble
and sweet communion. I tell you, Jonah still had his
difficulties. You go on here in chapter 4 and
look here in chapter 4. He still had his difficulties.
But I want you to notice, he learned a lesson about this communion.
In chapter 4 verse 1, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was very angry. Is he going to quit praying again?
Is he going to break this sweet communion again? No, sir. He
learned a lesson from that. So look 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 own country? Therefore
I fled into Tartarus, for I know that You are a gracious God,
and You are merciful, and You are slow to anger." He had his
difficulties, but he realized this, if I will keep up this
sweet communion and this humble communion on my part with my
Heavenly Father, then I can approach unto Him in my difficulties and
talk to Him just about anything and everything, and He'll hear
and listen as long as I maintain this humble and sweet communion
with Him. That's important, isn't it? That's
important. I tell you, you can go to the
Lord, and I tell you, you can get personal with Him. If somebody's
done you wrong, you can go tell Him. If you're in difficult times
and you're in trials and you're upset about something, go right
to Him and tell Him. Cast your burdens upon Him as
long as you'll maintain this humble and sweet communion with
Him. That's what He's concerned about.
That's what He's concerned about. Moses complained to the Lord,
didn't he? Lord, don't send me to preach. Lord, I can't preach.
There's all these stammering lips. And he just complained
and almost argued with the Lord. And the Lord let him go on for
a while until finally he told him, No, you're going. You're
going. Gideon didn't want to go, did
he? He allowed Gideon to approach him and say, Lord, I can't do
this. I'm the least in my father's
house. And remember when the Lord appeared to Ananias and
said, Ananias, you go lay hands on Saul of Tarsus. He said, Lord,
I can't do that. I'm scared to death. Lord, please
don't send me over." I tell you, we can approach Him to the Lord,
and He's a tender Father to us, and He's dear to us, and He'll
fellowship with us, commune with us, if we'll humble ourselves
before Him and maintain this sweet communion with Him. That's
what He's after. That's what chastening is about.
So the next time you feel His hand heavy upon you, chastening
you, Just remember this, there's a reason for it. There's a reason
for it. Don't break off this sweet communion
with your Father in Heaven. The second thing we learn about
Jonah is this. I don't know, maybe we can connect
these, or maybe you can connect them in their own mind, or maybe
they're completely separate. But I see a connection here,
and it's this. The second thing we learn about
Jonah in this book. God is able to preserve a man. God is able to preserve His work
and His grace and His gifts in a man, no matter how trying the
circumstances may be. Don't we see that here in the
book of Jonah? The believing church of Jesus Christ is the
standing miracle in this world. That's what a statement that
is. That's what we see here in this story of Jonah. Why were
these sailors hesitant to throw him overboard? Now why? If you were there, why
wouldn't you want to throw him overboard? He's going to drown,
isn't he? There's no chance in the world
he's going to survive this storm. And if they saw him at all, all
they saw was something that removed all doubt that he was gone. They
saw him in the mouth of this large well. They said, man, man,
we thought he may be able to swim out, or somebody might find
him, but he's gone now. He's gone. And down, down, down
Jonah went to the bottom of the mountains. All the pressure of
this ocean, and it didn't crush him. All the acid in the digestive
system of this whale, and it didn't eat him up. It didn't. Ain't that amazing? That's astounding. It's a miracle,
isn't it? It's a miracle that his faith
never failed. He never lost his gifts. I want you to look at his faith.
Look in chapter 2, verse 4. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight, yet will I look again towards Thy holy temple." Now
brothers and sisters, that's faith. That's faith that's not
gotten by flesh and it's not maintained by flesh. You go down
to the bottom of the mountains in the belly of a whale and if
you have grace then to look up to Him, I'm telling you that's
faith that you didn't get on your own and you don't maintain
it on your own. It's maintained by heaven. Have
you ever been to a place where you thought, this trial is going
to kill me? I can't even believe anymore. But you could not believe. Why? The same One that gave you
that faith is maintaining it in your heart. And man, it's
dark. It's dark. But still, what do
you do? You look to Him, don't you? You
look to the One who saved you. Why? Somebody is upholding you
apart from yourself. And thank God for it. And he
said there in verse 7, when my soul fainted within me, then
I remembered the Lord. That's grace, ain't it? That's
grace. Oh, salvation is not a work of
flesh. Heaven begins it and heaven carries
it on. And no matter how trying the
circumstances may be, it may be a trial from hell itself.
It may be a severe trial of this world. It may even be a trial
from heaven. But the darker the trial, the
brighter grace shines in that darkness. And that is what we
see here in the book of John. We saw in those three Hebrew
children that the fire could not burn it. We saw in the book
of Daniel that the lions could not devour it. And now we see
here in the book of Jonah, the depths of the sea cannot quench
it. Not the grace of God when it
begins in the heart. I was reading the trials of the
Apostle Paul this week, and I was just struck by how a man could
endear what this man endeared. And let me read some of them
to you. He said, In all things we approve ourselves as the ministers
of God. in much patience, in afflictions,
in necessities, in distresses, in stripes and imprisonments,
in turmoils, labors, watchings, fastings. And then the next two
chapters he says this, in labors more abundant, in stripes above
measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often, Of the Jews
five times received I forty stripes, save one. Three times was I beaten
with rods. Once was I stoned. Three times
I suffered shipwreck. A day and a night have I been
in the deep, in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers. in pearls by my own countrymen,
in pearls by the heathen, in pearls in the city, in pearls
in the wilderness, in pearls in the sea, in pearls among false
brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger
and thirst and fastings, in cold and nakedness, And besides all
of these things that are without, those things that come upon me
daily, the care of all the churches." And I read that and I thought,
my soul, that's impossible for a man to endear all of that. How can he do it? The Lord Jesus
told him in the very next chapter, Paul, my grace is sufficient
for thee. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. That's it, isn't it? That's it. A man can endure anything if
God upholds it. And once God begins a work of
grace in a man's heart, nothing can quench it. When He gives
faith, nobody can take it from Him. That's amazing to me and
so encouraging to me. I don't know what I may have
to suffer before this world is over. I don't know what you may
have to suffer. I don't know what this world
may put upon us, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we
know this. We know this. If we're His, nothing
can harm us. Nothing can hurt us. I was thinking
about an old song. I marked it here by John Peterson. Listen to this song he wrote.
All things work out for good. All things work out for good.
Listen to this. All things work out for good we know. Such is
God's great design. He orders all our steps below
for purposes divine. Now this is how He said, I react
to this, knowing this. This is the faith that keeps
me still, no matter what the test, and lets me glory in His
will. For well I know it is best. So
now the future holds no fear." Listen to this. God guards the
work begun. He guards the work begun. Why
didn't this well hurt Jonah? Why didn't the pressure hurt
him? Why didn't the digestive fluids hurt him? How did He live
through that? How did He continue to look and
believe? God guards the work that's begun. And mortals are immortal here
until their work is done. We don't have to fear any trial,
do we? The church will never be defeated.
The church of Jesus Christ is meant a victorious church. God always causes her to triumph
in Christ. Why? Because He guards. The work
begun. In the last verse, Mr. Peterson
said, Someday the path He chose for me will all be understood. In heaven's clear light I'll
see all things worked out for good. Can you imagine these sailors
finally got to shore All their cargo had been thrown overboard. And they got to shore and they
put their anchors down. They got up on the bank overlooking
the seacoast. And they were talking about,
man, how the Lord delivered us. Isn't He a wonderful God? Aren't
you glad He made Himself known to us? Bless His holy name. And
suddenly one of them said, what is that? And they looked out
there and there came this old big fish swimming. And he just
kept on swimming. And he went right up on the bank.
And he opened his big mouth and vomited Jonah out right on the
dry land. And they said, what in the world
is this? And Jonah is down there in the water washing the weeds
off of him and the scum and trying to clean up. And they said, no
way this man could be alive. No way he could have endeared
this. But he did, didn't he? And there you see him cleaning
himself up and he heads to Nammath. And there he is in Nineveh preaching
the grace of God to these people. And they've come to repentance.
And he hasn't lost his grace, he hasn't lost his faith, and
he hasn't lost his gifts, not a one of them. And the only reason
we can trace it to is this, God guards the work that's begun. And I tell you when I think of
that, brothers and sisters, the future holds no fear for me either,
does it you? It holds no fear. Let it come
what will. He guards the work that's begun. And that's what we see in this
man. But let me go ahead lastly. One more thing. One more thing.
Three things I wanted to see this morning. And the fourth
thing is this. The fourth thing is this. I wanted
us to see this. The comfort that comes from the
reality of substitution. the comfort that comes from the
reality of substitution. I'm not going to say much about
that this morning because I'm going to deal with it probably
in every message. But Jonah said here in verse 12 of chapter 1,
take me up and cast me into the sea, so shall the sea be calm
unto you. Now I wonder how he knew that.
And isn't it amazing that he predicted, if you did this, here's
going to be the effects of it. And why he was willing to do
that, isn't that amazing? Pick me up, cast me into the
sea, and that's the way you're going to be saved. Isn't that
such a beautiful picture? One aspect of substitution is
this, that it was predicted hundreds and even thousands of years before
it ever happened. The one who died predicted it
all through the Old Testament. The Bible says somebody is coming. Somebody is coming. The Son of
God is coming. He is going to be born of a virgin.
His name is going to be called Emmanuel. And He is going to
grow up before the Father as a tender plant. And this is what
He is going to do. Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24
tells us. He is going to make an end of
transgression. He is going to put an end to
sin. How is He going to do that? By putting it away. by offering
Himself for sacrifice. He's going to make reconciliation
for iniquity. He's going to reconcile us to
God by His own death. And He's going to bring in an
everlasting righteousness. And all through the Gospels,
the Lord Jesus was telling His disciples, listen, I'm going
to suffer. I'm going to suffer. I'm going
to be betrayed, I'm going to be put to death, and I'm going
to be raised again. The very one who died was predicting
that he would die. This is my blood of the new covenant
which is shed for many for the remission of their sins. Brothers
and sisters, substitution is older than the world itself.
You go all the way back through the Old Testament, then you jump
off of the edge of the world before time, and you go back
into eternity. And what do we find there? Jesus
Christ was a Lamb slain from the very foundation of the world.
He knew it! He knew it. He had all eternity
to think about it. He had all through the Old Testament,
4,000 years of history, to think about His dying and what He would
do. And when he came, born of a virgin, he thought about it. He knew about it. That's one
of the blessings about it, isn't it? It didn't slip up on him.
He knew what he had to do. And in spite of all the afflictions
and the suffering that he was going to have to endure, he had
it all planned out beforehand. Just like Jonah. Just like Jonah. The second thing about this is
this. You find it here in verse 14 of chapter 1. These men began
to pray, Lord, we beseech Thee, we beseech Thee, don't let us
perish for this man's blood. For Thou hast done as it has
pleased Thee. Here's something else about substitution.
This is the way God was pleased to save sinners. Ain't that amazing? See, it wasn't that God was so
upset about having to do it this way. The Bible says in Isaiah
53 that it pleased God to bruise him. It pleased God to smite
him. He was pleased with the suffering
of his own son. Why? Substitution is the only
way you can save a man. And he said, I'm pleased to do
it that way. God was pleased to do it that way. Jesus Christ
was pleased to do it that way. He said, Lord, I come. In the
volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do your will,
O my God. One preacher said, isn't it sad
that God is satisfied with him and his work? Jesus Christ is
so satisfied he's seated there at the right hand of God. And
the only ones that's not pleased with it is you. Isn't that something? The angels are pleased with it.
They sang to Him about it. The saints in heaven sang to
Him about it. But it's these poor people on
the earth that's not pleased with it. But He is pleased with
it. And thirdly about substitution
is this. Boy, the comfort that's in the
reality of it. He says here in verse 15, They
took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased. from her raging." Why did this storm come anyway?
This is one of the most beautiful pictures of the way sin came
into this world and the way sin was put away. Jonah tells them here, he says
in verse 12 of chapter 1, This tempest has come on you."
What's he saying? This judgment. What was this
tempest? It was God's judgment, wasn't it? And he said, this
judgment has come on you because of me. And you know why the judgment
came on this world? The judgment was on this world,
brothers and sisters, before you and I ever came into it.
And it was upon you and me when we came into it. Why? Through
one man's offense, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. This storm came on these sailors
because of Jonas. The judgment of God came upon
all humanity because of our first Father who sinned down in the
garden. But, just as the judgment came
through one man, salvation came through one man. In Adam, all
died. Even so, in Christ, shall all
be made alive. That's what this book is teaching
us. Jonah said, it was for my fault
this judgment came. But now, through you throwing
me overboard, this judgment of God is going to be pacified. I want to show you a passage
over in Ezekiel right quick, and I'm almost done. Look in
Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16. And look in verse 62 and verse
63. As soon as Jonah's body hit that
water, there was a great calm. And what does that teach us?
The judgment of God was pacified. He said, I'm satisfied. There
is no more wrath in me. I am not angry anymore. The very
fact that you threw this man overboard has pacified me. And that's what he's telling
them here in Ezekiel chapter 16. And look in verse 62. I will
establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am
the Lord, that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open
your mouth any more because of your shame, when I am pacified
toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord. This word pacified, it means
conciliatory. It means to restore, to make
peace. That which is adopted to reconcile
differences. I was looking at that on the
internet and it said that's why they named the Pacific Ocean
the Pacific Ocean because it's not susceptible to these to impetuous
storms like the Atlantic is. So they said, let's call it Pacific
because it's pacified. It's quiet. It's quiet. And that's what the Lord is saying
here in verse 63. I'm going to be pacified towards
you. I'm going to be reconciled. My
anger and my wrath is going to be pacified and I am not going
to be angry with you anymore. Jesus Christ, by His doing and
dying, by His bloodshedding, by the merit and worth of His
person, was adapted to reconcile God and Aaron's children. He was adapted to make peace
between us and God. And listen, when He says it's
finished, there was a calm in heaven. There
was a calm in heaven. Do you believe that? I mean,
the sword was out. And God was angry. And God cursed
His own Son. Smote His own Son. And He put
the sword. You think that soldier stuck
the sword in His side? He did. God stuck the sword of
justice in Him too. And when He pulled it out with
Emmanuel's blood in it, He said, I'm satisfied. I'm pacified. There's no more wrath in me."
And he laid the sword down and there was a great calm in heaven. And here's the fourth thing about
this. These men experienced this. They
experienced that. They were amazed. Then, it said
in verse 16, then, when the calm came, then, They feared, they had this deep
reverent respect for the Lord and they offered sacrifices unto
Him. Here is the way you and I experience
this calm, brothers and sisters. And we have to experience it.
We have to see it. Just as we see the raging sea,
we have to see this calm. We have to see the court of heaven
is satisfied. We have to see the judgment of
God is not on us anymore. How can we see that? How can
we know that? Ain't but one way to know that,
and that's to believe it. That's to believe it. No other
way. When Jesus Christ died upon Calvary's
tree, He put away sin. He atoned for sin. He satisfied
the justice of God. And He brought in an everlasting
righteousness. And He gives it to those who
believe on Him for it. One of the most amazing and mysterious
things I ever think about in my life, that while I see myself
with all these sins, I have no sin. And while sometimes it feels
like though God is angry with me and He's going to crush me,
He has no fury against me. There's a calm in God. And he
says, I have no fury. Bruce, I have no fury. I have
no fury. I just believe Him. I just believe
Him. And there's a calm. And when
I feel sin raging in me, and it's stirring up all this enmity
against God, and I feel it, I just look to Him and convince myself,
no, this is not God. This is not the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible is not angry with me anymore. His Son has
pacified Him for my sins. Now that's the Gospel, brothers
and sisters. And we have to experience it. And we experience it by believing
it. Believe in it. Believe in Him. Is your conscience a calm? Is
there a calm in your conscience? If God is not angry with you,
for Christ's sake, it don't matter what other people say, does it? He's the highest court. You may argue and debate theories,
but you can't argue fact. And when this man was thrown
overboard and that sea became calm, that was a fact. You can't
argue that. Somebody over yonder on land
may say, I don't believe that at all. I don't believe that's
what happened at all. It don't matter what you believe.
It don't matter. The God who made heaven and the
earth and the great sea calmed the sea. And that's all that
matters. And if you're in Christ and God
has been pacified on your behalf by His Son, no court can bring
anything against you. Who is He that condemneth? It's Christ who died. And nobody
can charge you with anything. You talk about facing death on
a peaceful bed. I don't care to face God if He's
not angry. I don't care to face God if I
have the righteousness of His Son on me because He's at peace
with me. And no matter what death says
when I come to die, death can accuse me. God is greater than
death. Is He not? The devil can accuse
me. God is greater than the devil.
My past can accuse me. God is greater than my past.
And God says, I have nothing against you. And when I see you,
I see the righteousness of my Son given to you and spread over
you to cover your neck. Oh, you just can't quit talking
about this. That's why you can't hardly tell
it in 30 minutes. It takes 49 minutes. in 38 seconds. Then you have to force yourself
to quit. But we'll pick up there next time. The Lord's willing.
Let's pray.