Let's turn again in our Bibles
tonight to the book of Jonah chapter 1. Jonah chapter 1 and let's begin
our reading in verse number 6. So the shipmaster came to him
and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call
upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish
not. And they said every one 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. Then said they unto him, Tell
us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is
thine occupation, and whence comest thou? What is thy country,
and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an
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. Then said they 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 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 cast
him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men 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 and
Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. I ended my message last week
by pointing out that Jonah gave the remedy to these mariners. And it is typical of the gospel
of substitution and satisfaction. We see substitution in his words
where he said, take me up, take me up. And I thought about The
words of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they're recorded in John chapter
18, when they came to arrest him that night in the garden
of Gethsemane, he said, if therefore you seek me, let these go their
way. In other words, take me and let
these sheep of mine go their way. And Jonah says the same
thing. Take me and cast me into the
sea. Now, that's a picture of substitution,
isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ had to
die in the stead of his people, just like Jonah had to be cast
overboard in order to the salvation of these mariners. So the Lord
Jesus Christ, he had to die in the place and in the stead of
his people. We see substitution, but we also
see satisfaction in his words when he said, cast me forth into
the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you. The gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ is the message of substitution and satisfaction. Don't we love to hear those two
truths? And when the gospel is preached,
we will always hear those two truths. We will always hear of
substitution, one dying in the stead and in the place of God's
covenant people, and we will also hear of satisfaction. He
satisfied the justice of God on behalf of those he represented. Now before we move on, I want
to call our attention to the reluctance of the mariners to
take Jonah's life in verses 13 and 14. He gave them the remedy. How are we going to be saved?
How may we be saved? He said, take me up and cast
me into the sea and the sea shall be calm unto you. But we see
here that these men, they may have been very rough hard, hardened
type men. Sailors usually have that reputation. I don't know if it's always so
or not, probably not. But you see their reluctance
to do what Jonah told them to do. It says, nevertheless the
men rode hard. They rode hard to bring it to
land, but they could not. And 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. There is in the heart of most
men, now depravity We know every person is totally depraved in
the sense that in the fall, the heart of man, which includes
the intellect and the will and the affections, was hardened
or destroyed in the fall of man. But total depravity doesn't mean
that every person is as wicked as he could be. And what I'm
saying tonight is there are some people, not many, thank God,
but there are some people who think nothing of shedding someone
else's blood, of killing someone, murdering someone. There are
some who are that hardened in sin. They think nothing of it.
But most men, most people, it's a great thing. It's a great matter,
and I'm glad that it is, to take the life of another person. It's
a very serious thing, isn't it? A very serious thing to take
the life. In fact, it's so serious that
when Noah came out of the ark with his three sons and their
wives and his wife, God gave him this command. God told Noah,
whoso sheddeth man's blood, whoever, Whoever takes the life of someone
else, sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. In other words, a person who
murders someone, then the penalty for that crime is his life, her
life is to be forfeited. And God tells the reason why. They were made in the image of
God. And that commandment has never
been repealed. You know, that's justice. That's justice. They're not trying
to re-habitate the person, but he's punished. or she's punished if they take
the life of another individual. And it shows to us justice. The mariners did all they could
not to take Jonah's life. They did not want to be guilty
of throwing him overboard. They rode hard, but they could
not defeat God's purpose. And their purpose was, let's
get this ship to land. We don't want to be guilty of
taking this man's life. They rode hard, but they could
not overcome God's purpose. The justice of God was seeking
and had found the culprit, and that was Jonah. and he was going
to be punished. Through the centuries, think
of this, over the many centuries, there have been many men who've
been buried at sea, and women also. I've seen pictures, I'm
sure you have, movies where they bury a person over the side of
the ship, and there's been many people who've been buried at
sea. At the last judgment, we are
told, we're told this in more than one place, and the sea gave
up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man
according to their works. Someone might ask, well, if a
person's buried at sea, is he going to escape the judgment?
No, no. Whether he's buried at sea, buried
on land, no matter where. The scripture says, it is appointed
unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. And no one's
going to escape that judgment. We all shall be there. We all
shall be there. In Jonah's case, in the minds
of these sailors, they were not only burying his body at sea,
they were executing him. And notice the scripture says,
when they cast him overboard and the sea ceased from raging. Can you picture that? I mean
this, as I said last week, this was a storm they were in. Maybe
a hurricane, I don't know. But the sea was boisterous. I
mean you can just see those big waves and read about it in Psalm
107. Those that go to sea, they do
do business in deep waters. And these men were in this ship. It was a tempestuous sea, boisterous
sea. And I can just see them in my
mind picking this man up, Jonah up, and trying to get over to
the side of the ship. And the ship is rocking, you
know how it is, in a storm. And finally, they make it over
there. And just as soon as he hits the
water, There's a calm. There's a calm. A display of
God's power. Not only the sea was calm, but
you know the wind was blowing, was stirring up the sea. The
wind was still. I just imagine it was very quiet
on that ship. This made a lasting impression
upon these men, and they did three things. Notice what the
Scripture says. First of all, it says, So they
took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, verse 15, and the
sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly. The first thing they did, these
men who witnessed this, these men who cast him overboard and
saw how that the sea ceased immediately. It's roaring. The first thing
that happened is they feared the Lord exceedingly. Was this, and I asked this question
tonight, Was this the fear of the Lord which is the beginning
of wisdom? Was this the fear of the Lord
which is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death? Was this the fear of the Lord
by which men depart from evil? I asked those questions from
those Proverbs, but I can't answer. I hope, I hope it was that kind
of fear, that reverential fear, not that slavish fear that some
men and women have of God, but that reverential fear, that fear
that is a product of God the Holy Spirit working in a person's
heart. The fear of the Lord, which is
the beginning of wisdom. Reverencing God, respecting God,
not talking about God, not using God's name lightly and flippantly
and jokingly as society, we see this, it's so common, isn't it,
in society. And yet the scripture says that
we are to revere the name, the person of God. We're not to take
his name in vain. That's the first thing that we
see that happened to these men. They feared the Lord exceedingly. Number two, they sacrificed unto
the Lord. And I ask this question, was
there anything left on board this ship to sacrifice? We know
They had already thrown the cargo overboard at the very beginning
of this storm. Or was it when they returned
to land, and especially when they came to Palestine, to the
land of Israel, did they go to the temple? Because you remember
it was only at that brazen altar in the temple that God had ordained
that sacrifices be offered unto him, that blood be poured out
at that altar, and the fat of the sacrifice be burned, and
the Lord would smell a sweet-smelling savor." Was that what happened
when we read here, they sacrificed unto the Lord? Again, I can't
answer that. I hope it was. I trust it was. The third thing we see that they
did, they made vows. Did they vow to worship the Lord
and Him alone? I pray they did. We can hope
that they did. They vowed, we will never again
worship these gods that we've always called upon because here,
here this is the Lord. Jonah's God. He is God. Ruler. of all things, of all
creation. He only is worthy of worship. We find in the book of Revelation
chapter 5, that's the occupation in heaven, isn't it? Worthy is
the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and honor and glory and blessing. Now, realize that as far as these
sailors were concerned, as far as they were concerned, Jonah
was dead. They couldn't think of anything
else. They couldn't imagine anything else. They threw him overboard. He was drowned in the sea. And
I mention this because I want to point out to us, they saw
part of God's work but only a part. They saw part of God's work,
but only a part. And this is true of men at all
times. We only see a part of God's work. Many men see God's work in creation. They're forced. In fact, in Romans
chapter 1, the apostle Paul tells us that God did not leave himself
without witness. That all men in creation know
there is a God. They see His power and they see
His wisdom in His creation. But many who see only part of
His work. They do not see His work in salvation. These mariners, they only saw
part of His work. And you and I, at all times,
we only see part of God's work in His providence. And because they saw only part
of God's work, they came to a wrong conclusion. They had to come to a wrong conclusion. What did they conclude? Jonas
did. Jonas did. They saw part of God's
work. Them throwing him overboard and
then the sea being calm. They had to come to this conclusion
because they didn't see that God had prepared a great fish
to swallow him. All they saw was He's in the
water. He's drowned in the sea. We see only part of God's work
in providence and many times we come to the wrong conclusions. And I think, and I've used this
many times, but I would remind us of Jacob as an excellent example
when he said, all these things are against me. All these things
are against me. And yet all of these things that
he mentioned were all working together for his good. And he
eventually saw all of his sons again together. But he saw only
part of God's providence. You see what I'm trying to say
tonight to remind us of? That when we see things and when
we experience things, We may be upset, we may be anxious,
we may be doubtful, but remember this, we are only seeing part
of God's providence. We're only seeing part. We're
not seeing the whole of His providence. They did not see this part. They did not see that the Lord
had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Verse 17. Now the Lord had prepared a great
fish to swallow up Jonah. They didn't see that. All they
saw was we threw him overboard and the sea became calm. They did not see that God would
preserve his life. That God had prepared a great
fish to swallow him and that God would preserve his life inside
that fish for three days and three nights. Now this is the
first of four things. The first of four things in the
book of Jonah where we are told the Lord prepared. First in our
text tonight, verse 17, the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow
up Jonah. That's the first thing that we
see in this book, that the Lord prepared. But now look in chapter
4. In chapter 4 and verse 6, We see that the Lord God prepared
a gourd. That's the second thing that
He prepared. He prepared a gourd to deliver
him from his grief. Notice that in the remainder
of verse 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd
and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over
his head. Notice, to deliver him from his
grief. So first God The Lord prepared
a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Second, the Lord prepared a gourd
to come up over Jonah to deliver him from his grief. Third, in
the next verse, verse 7, but God prepared a worm. God prepared
a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the
gourd that it withered. And then number four, in the
next verse, and it came to pass when the sun did arise that God
prepared, here's the fourth thing that God prepared, a vehement
east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah. that he fainted,
and wished himself to die, and said, It is better for me to
die than to live." Now I have three things that I believe we
should see in looking at these four things that the Lord prepared. We should say, and I know we
know this, but I'll just remind us of it once again, we should
say that salvation is prepared for sinners. The Lord God prepared
this fish to swallow Jonah. Salvation of sinners is the work
of the Lord. that He has prepared. Keep your
places here, but look with me in the New Testament at this
parable our Lord gave in Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14 and beginning with
verse 16. Then said he unto him, a certain
man made a great supper and bade many, and sent his servant at
suppertime to say to them that were bidden come, for all things
are now ready. Now he didn't send his servant
out with a message You fix some things and bring what you can
and we'll have a potluck supper." No, no. He sent his servant out
with this message, all things are ready. Everything's prepared. And that reminds us of salvation. All things are prepared. First
of all, for the salvation of sinners, God prepared a Savior. He prepared us a Savior, someone
who is both God and man, man that He might suffer and God
that He might satisfy. Just as God prepared this great
fish to swallow up Jonah, to save Jonah from the sea, so the
Lord God has prepared a great Savior to save sinners. It's His work. It's his work,
isn't it? He doesn't ask these men, he
sends out his servant and tells them to come for all things are
ready. Come. But notice, and they all
with one consent began to make excuse. Well, I don't guess anybody's
going to come to this supper. Well, you guessed wrong if you
guessed that. No, there's some people. There's
some people that God not only has prepared a Savior for, but
He has prepared for the Savior. There's some who are hungry.
There's some who are thirsty, even though these first, oh,
they had something better to do. They were not hungry. They didn't need a Savior. They
were not sinners. That's the application, isn't
it? And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first
said unto him, I've bought a piece of ground, and I must need go
and see it. I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I've bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to
prove them. I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I've married
a wife, and therefore I cannot come. I can't tell you over the
years how many men have blame their wives for something they
don't do. Well, here's one here in the
Scripture. Goes all the way back to Adam,
doesn't it? I've married a wife. I cannot
come. So that servant came and showed
his lord these things. And the master of the house,
being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor. Anybody spiritually
poor? He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. I'm not talking about materially
poor, but spiritually poor. If salvation costs two pennies,
two cents, I can't purchase it. I have nothing, nothing in my
hands I bring, nothing. Go out. quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed,
persons maimed, he's not able to walk correctly. And that's
a picture of all of us, isn't it? We cannot walk. Yes, we can
learn God's commandments, we can memorize God's commandments,
but we do not have the ability to obey. We're maimed, spiritually
maimed, and the halt And the blind, we cannot see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When sinners, when God who commanded
the light to shine in the beginning, shines in our heart, then we
see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and we run to
Christ. We run to Him. And the servant
said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded and yet there's
room. There's room. Let me tell you, there's room
in the heart of God for every sinner, isn't there? There's
room. There's a plenteous redemption
that the Lord Jesus Christ has wrought. Go out into the highways
and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be
filled. For I say unto you, that none
of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. But the point being, the supper
was prepared. It was prepared. Come, come. The Lord prepared a great fish
to save Jonah, to swallow him up. So the Lord God has prepared
a Savior for every sinner who needs a Savior. The second thing
that we should see, that God's providence is a mixture of bitter
and sweet. And I see that because I see
these three things. The gourd, now that was sweet. Don't you know Jonah, oh, he
was so pleased, he was so happy that gourd grew up and covered
him to relieve his pressure and everything that he was experiencing. But then the next morning, here
comes a worm along and helps himself to the gourd, and the
gourd withers. And then there's this east wind
that begins to blow, hot air. So I say we should see that God's
providence is a mixture of both bitter and sweet. Do you remember,
and let's look over here to Ecclesiastes. I'm sure you remember this passage
of Scripture when we read it. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, beginning
with verse 1. To everything there's a season. There was a season for that gourd
to come up, wasn't there? And there was a season for that
worm to come and destroy it. And a time to every purpose under
the heaven. A time to be born and a time
to die. A time to plant and a time to
pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to
heal. A time to break down and a time
to build up. A time to weep and a time to
laugh. A time to mourn and a time to
dance. A time to cast away stones and
a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and a time
to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to
cast away. a time to rend and a time to
sow, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love
and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace. What
profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? I have
seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be
exercised in it, sweet and bitter." Solomon said, I have seen the
travail which God hath given to the sons of men, to be exercised
in it. He hath made everything beautiful
in his time. Also he hath set the world in
their hearts so that no man can find out the work that God maketh
from the beginning to the end. No man is able to understand,
to comprehend all of God's providential dealings. I know that there's
no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in
his life. And also that every man should
eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift
of God. Remember also that Job said,
man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble.
Even so, even so, as I thought about the fact that this providence
is sweet and bitter mixed together. For most people, I think this
would be the majority, if not all people, but at the end of
our life, if we could look back over our days, we would see that
there have been many more good days than bad days. Many more pleasant days than
hard days. Many more days of sunshine than
days of clouds. Number three, we should say that
we walk by faith and not by sight. And let's turn to 1 Corinthians
and we'll close here. 1 Corinthians chapter two. So God prepared salvation, and
God prepares providence, both sweet and bitter. And notice
here in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 9 and 10, the apostle said, But
as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. One thing that we know
that God has prepared for them that love Him is a place in the
Father's house. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. I will come again. If I go to
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto
Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." He's prepared
a place. That verse, they tell me, actually
means many dwelling places. In my Father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling places. And there's a place there that
has your name on it. if you're one of His tonight.
And He's prepared that place for you. Not for anyone else.
It's specially prepared for you. The Lord prepared it. He prepared
it by going to the cross and shedding His blood that we might
have entrance into the Holy of Holies with the Lord God. He's prepared a place for us. Just like He prepared the fish,
the gourd, The worm and the east wind, the Lord has prepared all
things for his people. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts to those of us here tonight.