Alright, thank you so much for being here.
We're going to turn our hymnal to song 199 and we'll get started for the evening.
Thanks for coming to Purits Baptist Church. Song 199, Let the Joy Overflow.
Song 199, Let the Joy Overflow.
There's a clear fountain flowing from the bright throne above
and its waters are glowing with the sunshine from above.
Take the blessed consolation which the Lord will bestow.
Take the cup of salvation, let the joy overflow.
Oh the joy, with his wondrous salvation, be our hearts all the glow.
Oh the joy, let the blessing run over and joy overflow.
Many hearts need the story or a thirst for his grace.
Fill to them with his glory shining out from your face.
Tell of Jesus your savior, if his mercies you know.
Show the light of his favor, let the joy overflow.
Oh the joy, with his wondrous salvation, be our hearts all the glow.
Oh the joy, let the blessing run over and joy overflow.
Be our lives freely yielded to the savior's command,
by his care ever shielded and upheld by his hand.
In the pathways of sadness, sweetness lilies may grow.
Let us sow seeds of gladness, let the joy overflow.
Oh the joy, with his wondrous salvation, be our hearts all the glow.
Oh the joy, let the blessing run over and joy overflow.
Brother Mo, would you lead us in prayer this evening please?
...
Amen. Let's go to song 191, just flip back a few pages, 191.
In my heart there rings a melody.
...
I have a song that Jesus gave me, it was sent from heaven above.
There never was a sweeter melody, tis a melody of love.
In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with Emmett's harmony.
In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love.
Christ who died on Calvary, for he washed my sins away.
He put within my heart a melody, and I know it's there to stay.
In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with Heaven's harmony.
In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love.
To be my endless theme and glory, with the angels I will sing.
To be a song with glorious harmony, when the courts of heaven ring.
In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with Heaven's harmony.
In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love.
Thanks so much for coming to Pure Words Baptist Church.
If you need a bulletin for the branding can get you one.
It does have the inside information which is important.
For some reason the front page got a little wonky.
On the inside we have our service and soul winning times as well as our church stats.
I know I had a couple people report some extra ones for me.
Is there anything outside soul winning numbers that haven't been reported that need to be counted?
Another couple over here, great.
Keep up the great work on soul winning.
Continue to pray for the Darnells who are expecting in June.
Hottest month of the year, that's great.
And then also we have our upcoming guest preaching.
Brother David Keeper came out this past Sunday and that was definitely a blessing to have him out here.
He said he really enjoyed it.
He hopes that if there's another opportunity maybe he can come back because he just said it was great seeing you guys and being here.
And so I appreciate y'all for being here, those that came.
Seemed like I got a pretty good crowd Sunday night.
About 50 people is what I was on the stat sheet so that's great.
And then May 15th, Brother Ben Naim is going to be coming out here.
He'll be preaching for us.
And then July 7th, we're having Pastor Steven Anderson from Faith Board Baptist Church.
Don't want to miss that one.
And then also upcoming events.
May 7th is a Mother's Day Tea from 5 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.
I believe there's been emails about that so make sure to follow up with my wife if you have any questions about that.
I know that she was definitely wanting everybody to make sure they RSVP for that.
May 21st, a soloing marathon in Austin, Texas.
Who's planning on going to that? Anybody planning on going to the Austin one? Okay.
We definitely have a lot of people coming down from the DFW area.
So if you want to, if you can make it, please try to make it out there.
Prayer requests.
Continue to pray for our church family up there in the DFW area.
The Goodwin family, Brother Edward is health.
Liberty's daughter-in-law, Mother Catherine.
Brother Joel.
And also Faith Board Baptist Church.
Pray for them as well.
We can say a quick word of prayer for those that were mentioned.
Thank you Heavenly Father for Pure Words Baptist Church.
Thank you for allowing us to be here gathered together.
I pray that you'd be with our church members that aren't able to make it this evening.
That you'd give them strength, give them comfort.
I pray that you would just bless all of our friends and family with the opportunity to get the gospel.
That we need to get them saved.
I pray that you would just bless us with opportunities.
Bless others to sow seeds in their hearts that will be watered by the word of God.
And that they would choose to be saved.
And we just thank you so much for all the blessings that you've already given us.
And we pray that we continue to be faithful this week.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
That's pretty much all I have.
Four announcements at this time.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
Let's go ahead to 195.
195.
Dancing around on the 190.
I will sing of the mercies.
Song 195.
I will sing of the mercies.
December 9, 2001
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing.
of the mercies of the Lord.
With my mouth will I make known
Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness.
With my mouth will I make known
Thy faithfulness to all generations
Because of the mercies of the Lord
Forever I will sing of mercifully
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord
Forever I will sing of the mercies of the Lord
Very good, let's go to our book of the Bible, Jonah
If you turn to the book of Jonah
Brother Brandon is going to read for us, Jonah chapter 1
And we'll pass the offering plate along to Jonah chapter 1
Alright, Jonah chapter number 1 of the Bible reads
Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittah
Saying, Arise, go to Nineveh to the great city and cry against it
for their wickedness has come up before me
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord
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 them unto Tarshish 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 likely 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
to lighten it of them
But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep
So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him
What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God
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 not lot fell upon Jonah
Then said they unto him and tell us, We pray thee for whose cause this evil is upon us
What is thine occupation and which comest thou?
What is thy country and 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 that he had fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them
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 rode hard to bring it to the land but they could not
For the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them
Therefore 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 this 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 seas ceased from her raging
Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly
And offered to sacrifice unto the Lord and made vow
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
Amen. So we're in the book of Jonah and it's a really famous story
It's probably a lot of children's favorite stories in the Bible
One of the greatest books of the Bible
As far as just the storyline, it's really iconic
A lot of people that have never even read the Bible know the story of Jonah
A lot of people that haven't read very much of the Bible, at least they know Jonah
When it comes to the Minor Prophets, you have to think that Jonah's probably the most popular of the Minor Prophets by far
And it's for good reason, it's a great story
There's a lot of great symbolism in this book
And it's one that I often will read to my children on a regular basis
I try to keep to some of the books that are a little bit easier for them to understand
And I feel like Jonah's a really good story
My children love the story of Jonah
And so I'm really excited to kind of preach through the book of Jonah
And kind of draw out some of the symbolism and some of the life lessons that we get from this book
But it says here in verse number one
Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Methai saying
Arise go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it
For their wickedness has come up before me
And one of the things I really like about the book of Jonah is
It's a really famous story
Notice that the purpose of Jonah
Or the main plot of Jonah is to preach against sin
And it seems like today's culture, seems like today's Christianity
They've forgotten that the job of preachers and the job of pastors is to preach against sin
Not to make everybody feel good
Not to be some kind of a motivational speaker
Not to try and get money
In fact, nowhere in this book of the Bible do we see Jonah making any money
In fact, the exact opposite, he has to pay to go his way to end up preaching God's message
And really when you're a messenger of God
It's not about the money, it's not about the accolades
It's not about anything superfluous or something carnal
It's really just you're supposed to just obey God
And you could look at it this way that the money that God has blessed you with
Was the money that he's given you to accomplish his will anyways
But when we talk about Jonah specifically
He doesn't want to do this, does he?
Look at verse 3
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish
So Jonah doesn't want to do this preaching
Now there's probably a lot of reasons
But here's one of the reasons that's probably why he doesn't want to do this
Keep your finger here and go to John chapter number 7
It's not necessarily fun to preach against people
And you have to understand that when you preach against people
They can sometimes have a pretty visceral reaction
Or they can be very angry with you
In fact, they can attack you, assault you
Perhaps you may even have to suffer physical violence
Just for simply preaching against someone
And in America today, that's very true
It's becoming more true that you can say something about someone
Tell them they're doing something wrong
Say that they're wicked, point out their problems
And your life could be at risk
People may end up hurting you because of what you said about them
And this is what ultimately was the demise of Jesus Christ himself
In the fact that what he said caused the Jews to be so angry at him
That they wanted to kill him
Look at John chapter 7 verse 7
The world cannot hate you
But me it hateth because I testify of it
That the works thereof are evil
So when you tell people that they are evil
When you tell people that they're wicked
When you preach against their sin
What is their reaction?
Their reaction is to hate you
And when someone hates you
Often the sky is the limit as far as what they may do to you physically
And we see this consistently throughout the Bible as a theme
Of the man of God is the prophet of preaching against people
Preaching against even his own people
And they end up hurting them
Casting them in the prison
Throwing stones at them
Killing them
A lot of evil happens to God's preachers
Even though they're simply just a messenger from God
They're just telling them what God had to say
Isn't it interesting that people are so interested
Hey I want God to talk to me
Or they would pay all this money to hear from God
But then when they actually hear from God
They are really angry about it
And now they don't actually want to hear what God had to say to them
And it's really no different here in the story of Jonah
Where Jonah has a message from the Lord
But he doesn't want to deliver it
Now when we get later in the book of Jonah
We have other motivating factors as to why Jonah really didn't want to preach this message
And we get a little bit more insight into Jonah's mind
Of some of the reasons why he didn't preach
But one thing is for sure that you have to count the cost
If you're going to preach the Bible to anyone
If you're going to tell them about their sin
They may despise you or hate you because of that
It can even happen when you come with a very good message
I mean this is arguably not that great of a message
Okay he's crying against their wickedness
But even when you go out to preach the gospel
And you're trying to tell people how to go to heaven
That doesn't sound bad but in order to get them to heaven
You have to explain to them that they're a sinner
And by explaining to them that they're a sinner
They can sometimes become very angry at that
Or suggesting to them that they're not even saved
This also will make people very angry
When you say hey are you going to heaven
Like yeah I'm a good person
And then you have to basically tell them
Well unfortunately no one's a good person
And you're not saved
That's necessary to get them to the point where they realize they need to be saved
Because if they don't realize they need to be saved
Why would they get saved if they already think that they are
That's what false religion tries to do
Is to lull people asleep with a false sense of security
A false salvation, a fake plan of salvation
So that they don't actually strive for real salvation
They don't actually strive for the true gospel
Now if we keep reading it says in verse 3
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord
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 them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord
So notice again he has to pay money
Also you could look at this as a kind of a little bit of symbolism
The fact that when you sin it costs you something
You know he's having to pay money to literally run away from God
And often sin is an expensive habit
If you think about our world today
Most sin has a financial detriment attached to it
You know drinking alcohol is expensive
You know I don't even know what the rate is anymore
But if you go to a restaurant I mean I have some idea there
You look at the menu I mean it's typically the most expensive things on the menu
Especially in a beverage category
You know you think fresh orange juice is expensive
How about a mimosa right or how about a margarita
Or how about a cocktail or even just a beer is very expensive
At a restaurant it could be 5, 6, 7 dollars
You go to a football game or a baseball game
I mean people are going to professional sporting athlete type events
Their drinks are 7, 8, 9, 10 dollars a drink
And of course for some reason people can drink way more alcohol than any other beverage
I mean if I said hey will you drink these 10 water bottles
They'd be like that's going to take me a week
But then they'll drink 10 beers in one sitting won't they
And it's kind of crazy how they can consume this alcohol at such a high rate
Even though it's extremely expensive
You know people go to the bar and they'll rack up 100, 200, 300 dollar bar tabs in one night
You know in just one going just a very expensive habit
Smoking, smoking is also a very very expensive habit
People are shelling out hundreds a week even months
You know they're just going through all of these cigarettes
Drugs, expensive habit
And not only do these sins have an immediate fare that you have to pay
They also often times have other bills associated with them
When you have to go to the hospital because you injured yourself
Or because you got in a car accident
Or because you injured someone else
Or because you're damaging your body so much
You're constantly in and out of the hospital trying to fix your liver
Trying to fix your lungs or cancers
You know cancers of the mouth because of your dipping habit or whatever
I mean there's all kinds of negative consequences to sin
And often you have to pay for them
Prostitution, you got to pay for that
You know there's this association of money with that
I mean when it comes to sin today it's an expensive habit
Sometimes people they think like how am I going to afford all of how to live
It's like well stop sinning
You know how am I going to afford you know kids
And how am I going to afford college or whatever
Well first of all don't worry about college right
That's a good way to cheapen that part of your life
But I mean there's all kinds of areas that people are literally just wasting money
That are just sin related
You know sin is an expensive habit
Sin has lots of problems with it
And often you're paying all these fares for things where you wouldn't have to pay
I mean Jonah's just literally throwing money away by going onto this fare
And he's not going to make it to the side
You know this boat ride is not going where he was planning on going
So you end up paying for something and you don't get what you wanted right
You know you pay for a good time at the bar
But then you throw it all up three hours later
You didn't even get your money's worth right
And they never like scrape it up and give you a doggy bag to take home or whatever
Like hey you're leaving all this good merchandise behind right
I mean you know you pay for a good time at the casino
But then they throw you out and you lost all your money
I mean sin is an expensive habit and a lot of times you don't even get what you paid for
You pay for this fancy boat ride you know across the town
But that's not how it's going to end for Jonah is it
And I'm telling you when it comes to our lives
You know the less you sin the less expensive it's going to be
Just your life in general
The more you have to spend on good things
You know hey I don't want to have alcohol
I'll have extra steak right or I'll have a nice dinner right
Instead of going to the cheap place where they have the cheap drinks
I'll just not drink and I'll go and eat good food
You know and have actual organic food or nice food or prepared food
Or you know we'll buy really good food from the store and prepare it at home
That's even better
I mean the best food is always the food that's cooked at home
That's my personal opinion
I unfortunately eat out more than I would like to
Especially traveling and all this kind of stuff
And I get to the point sometimes where I like to test eating out
Like I just don't even want it
I just like eating out just sounds so repulsive to me
That all I want to do is eat at home or you know eat something else
But sin is just an expensive habit that if you avoided
You could then put that money into something that's beneficial like a child
You know people are like oh children are expensive
Yeah well your sin habit is expensive you know
And at least the children will eventually reap rewards
Maybe not in the immediate future
But you know eventually coming down the road you'll get grandchildren
That's a great blessing
And that's something that you don't have to pay for
They have to pay for
So you know you can just spoil them or whatever right
But another thing that's interesting about this is
He's leaving supposedly to leave from the presence of the Lord
Now it's kind of an interesting concept
How can you escape the presence of the Lord right?
And it makes me think of passage of the Bible
Go to Psalms 139
Psalm 139 is going to bring up a passage about
Essentially the presence of the Lord in one capacity
It says in verse 1
For thou has searched me and known me
Thou knowest my down sitting and mine up rising
Thou understandest my thought afar off
Thou compasses my path and my lying down
And art acquainted with all my ways
There is not a word in my tongue
But lo O Lord thou knowest it all together
Thou hast beset me behind and before
And laid thine hand upon me
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me
It is high and I attain unto it
Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I send up into heaven, thou art there
If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea
Even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me
So, and I'm not going to belabor the whole passage
But you're getting the presence that the Bible's giving this idea
That you can't get away from God
And that is true
So when it talks about Jonah fleeing from the presence of the Lord
It's not in contradiction to Psalms 139
I believe what the Bible is teaching is that there's varying levels
Or different ways that we can understand the idea of the presence of the Lord
Because in one capacity
We understand that you can't escape God
From a perspective of him knowing what you're doing
Or where you're at
He's there, he's in some kind of influence of your life
This would be kind of like
And this is kind of my parable, as it were
But if you think about presence
Sometimes you're in the presence of the government
In the sense that
You're in a government building
And you're around government officials
So that's like one aspect of their presence, right?
But then there's another aspect of their presence
Where they're just monitoring us
Constantly through, you know, cameras
Through, you know, the IRS
Through the telephone, you know
Like all these different technology devices
You know, the government's kind of monitoring
And spying on its citizens
And it's really almost impossible to get away from their presence
In that sense, isn't there?
So you kind of have like different layers
To someone's presence
Or perhaps even
You're at home
And you could be sitting right next to your mom
Talking to your mom
You know, interacting with your parents
Or you could be
Like in your own room
Doing your own thing, right?
But you're still kind of in their presence
In both situations
It's just a varying degree of that presence, right?
Because if you start being really loud
Mom and dad might be like, hey, shut up, I'm there, you know
Or don't do that, or don't make that noise
Or go to bed, or whatever the noise is
So you didn't really escape their presence
Necessarily, okay?
But at the same time, there's a difference between
Being like right next to the person
Talking to them, interacting with them
Having fellowship with them
The same is with God
In the sense that you can never escape
His presence
In the sense that he knows that you're on the earth
And you're there
And he's within reach
And he can direct your steps at any moment
But there is another layer
Of his presence that's more of like
A personal intimate relationship
Go to Genesis chapter 4
Go to Genesis chapter number 4
And look at verse number 16
The Bible says, And Cain went out
From the presence of the Lord
And dwelt in the land of Nod
On the east of Eden
So, again, the Bible brings up
The idea that Cain left the presence of the Lord
So, what does that mean?
It's not necessarily saying that
God doesn't know where Cain's at
Or God doesn't see what Cain's doing
Or God doesn't still know all the hairs
How many hairs are on Cain's head
Or anything like that
But it's denoting a difference in relationship
Because initially
Cain is offering sacrifice to the Lord
Cain's talking with the Lord
Have you not noticed in the Bible
All of a sudden Cain's just talking with God
The Lord's sitting on Cain and they're like having this conversation
So, it's kind of like a different
Picture of their relationship
Go, if you would, to
Revelation chapter number 3 now
Go to Revelation chapter number 3
And
When we come to the house of God
In the church
We're talking about a different
Presence of God
Than just everyday presence
Because we know no matter where we're at
I mean, at any moment in our lives
We could just call out to God and God would hear us
Because God is literally
Able to see here
And experience everything
All at the same time
He's omniscient, meaning all knowing
He's omnipotent
Meaning that he's all powerful
And omnipotent is a word drawn
Straight from the text
Omniscient is one that we kind of glean
From passages like Psalm 139
Which basically instructs us
Like, he knows everything
He even knew every word
And we get other passages that talk about
He knows even the number of the hairs on your head
And he's basically
Throughout the scripture we can see
He basically just knows everything
He understands everything
Even every thought
Every idle word that men shall speak
They'll have to give an account there on the day of judgment
Illustrating at what microscopic level
God
Has knowledge
It's just all encompassing
But there's still a desire
For God to have more of an intimate
Relationship with you
An intimate presence with you
Revelation chapter number 3
Look at verse number 20
Behold I stand at the door and knock
If any man hear my voice
Open the door
I will come in to him and will sup with him
And he with me
So notice Jesus has this desire to have
Like a personal intimate
Relationship, fellowship
With the children of God
With his servants
And it's at our discretion
If we're going to allow him to have fellowship with us
Notice that it's not automatic
He doesn't force it
And it kind of also makes me think of
And again this is not in relation to Jesus
But this is in relation to understanding this concept
Think about
Sometimes there's this idea of like a stalker
Or this kind of this creepy guy
That wants to be dating
This girl
And he'll like
Put posts on social media
He'll like go and stand kind of like near her
And like take a picture and you'll kind of like see him in there
And he'll be like we're hanging out at the park
But it's not like they're
They're both at the park
But they're not really hanging out at the park
Or sometimes people will go to the store
Or they'll go on a plane
Or they'll go somewhere and they'll run into a celebrity
Like a celebrity to be at that location when they're there
And they'll try to take a picture
Like they'll kind of creep up on them
And they'll just kind of like take a picture with them
And they'll be like yeah just hanging out with Michael Jordan
At the store you know
I just hear at the plane
And here's the thing
You can technically say that
They're in the presence of them
Because they're both in the same airplane
At the store or something like that right
So from that perspective
You're always in the presence of God
Okay
Yeah you could take a pic of you no matter where you're at
The top of a mountain
In the bottom of the sea and be like hanging out with God
You know in that essence
You're in his presence
But at the same time is it really that you're like
In the presence of that celebrity
If you're just on the plane
But like ten rows behind them
Or is it the person that's sitting right next to them
And talking with them
That's a completely different layer to the presence
Being in their presence isn't it
And you could say
Let's say someone's getting a little too starstruck over here
And just starts rassing the celebrity
They have this
The flight attendant comes up and says sir
You're going to have to leave your seat
And we're going to have to move you to this back row
Couldn't someone say that you're leaving the presence
Of that person
Like you're no longer in their presence
But at the same time
You're still on the plane
And in another context you're still what
In the presence of that person
So there's layers to this understanding
Of the presence of the Lord
So when Jonah's leaving the presence of the Lord
What are we talking about
We're not talking about Psalm 139
We're not talking about the fact that he literally
Escaped God and God doesn't know where he is anymore
And God can't see him
And God doesn't know the number of hairs on his head
And doesn't know the words that he's going to speak
What it's saying is
He's in a tight relationship with the Lord
He's in an intimate fellowship with God
He's supping with the Lord
He's having this close communication with God
And he's walking away from that
To go unto the world
Now as a separate note
Tarshish is kind of a place of prosperity and wealth
So one way to kind of illustrate this
Is it's like going back into the world
And forsaking God
So you could be
In a situation in your life
Where you're reading the Bible
You're praying
And you have just the presence of the Lord with you
On a regular basis
You have a really close fellowship with the Lord
And you decide to forsake that
And start going back into the world
And not reading the Bible
And not going to church
And in essence you're kind of like
Fleeing from the presence of the Lord
You know some people decide
To forsake church
That in my opinion
Is a way to describe
Fleeing the presence of the Lord
Because you don't want to come in here
And hear the word of God being preached
You don't want to be in his presence
Because when the word of God is being thundered forth
When you're reading the Bible out loud
That's a different layer of presence
Than just being out in the world today
Than going to a music concert
Or going to a movie theater
Or something like that
The presence of the Lord is not down in Hollywood
That's not the real presence of the Lord
We know that God still sees what goes on over there
But he hates what's going on over there
Whereas he looks down at a church
That's worshiping God and he's pleased
He likes that
And the Bible even talks about a different layer of presence
Go to Matthew chapter 18
Matthew chapter 18
Because see God was knocking
At the door of your heart
Saying hey I want to have fellowship with you
Are you going to let me in?
I mean every morning
Jesus is sitting there knocking at the door
Your Bible is just sitting there knocking on the door
Hey I want to talk to you
Hey I want you to read me
Hey I want you to pray to me
That is literally every day
Jesus is sitting there knocking at the door
But unfortunately a lot of people won't answer the door
That doesn't mean he doesn't know what's going on inside
That doesn't mean that you can
Escape from God
Can't get away from God
Literally everywhere
Even from in hell he knows what's going on
Now look at Matthew chapter 18
And look at verse number 20
Now isn't that a little bit closer
In proximity
Than what we're describing in some of these other cases
So that's a really close presence of the Lord isn't it?
When he's literally sitting there with you
When he's on your side
You know you could say that the disciples
They had a different experience
With the presence of the Lord
Than the 5,000
Why? Because they're in a closer proximity
Closer relationship with Jesus
So Jonah is walking away from this close proximity
This close relationship and fellowship
He has with God
Because he doesn't want to do what God had
For him to say
And this happens
Some of us will be challenged
By God to do something
That we don't want to do
And what is going to be our response?
Will we walk away from the presence of the Lord?
Because in order to maintain
Fellowship with God
In order to maintain that close proximity
You have to continue walking in the direction
That he wants you to walk
But many Christians will walk in the other direction
Many Christians will walk away
And that's where you
Go into a bad place
That's where you have a lot of consequence
You know some people think like
Oh well you know what
I'm just going to take a break from church
Like who cares you know
But it's like is that really not
Going to be a big deal for Jonah?
I mean let's see what happens to Jonah
When you just walk away from God
And here's the thing
It's not like God asks him to do something easy
But here's the thing
When God asks you to do something
When God's telling you to do something
You just do it
Whether it's easy or not
Whether it's difficult or not
You're just supposed to do it
Because that's what God expects
You want to try it?
Would you like to do it?
When did that happen?
When in the Bible is God saying like
Hey I have this cool idea
I was kind of hoping maybe you might want
Is your calendar open?
What do you got going on in June?
How does July look?
Or does it just say
Hey go and preach against them
But then what does he do?
He says nah I'm going to go and flee
I'm going to go to Tarshish
But he doesn't want to do it
Verse 4
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
Notice immediate consequences
Notice that as soon as he gets on this ship
A huge storm
One thing that's really interesting about the Bible
Is the storms in the Bible are almost always
If not a hundred percent associated
With God's direct dealing
And that makes me believe
That every storm is in God's hands
Now whether or not he's directly
Causing it or just allowing these things
To happen I'm not going to get too dogmatic
But he's certainly
In control of the storms in the Bible
And he can do whatever he wants
To the storms and often intervenes
In people's lives through storms
Or through the weather
Or all kinds of crazy events
Every single storm or weather
Pattern or anything that's happening in the climate
It's always like God doing it
Sending a flood to destroy the entire earth
That was God's direct hand wasn't it?
When you have changes in the weather patterns
In Egypt
I'm coming from the sky and fire
I mean that was what?
God's hand wasn't it?
And you constantly see this drought coming
Because God wants drought to come
Famine or maybe even just a prosperous season
It's still God's hand that's leading
And so God's just in control
Of the climate of the weather
And often he uses this to picture
A metaphor
Of our lives
Because while we might not always have
The weather physically harming
Us or hurting us
There's sometimes just storms in our life
And it's not necessarily physical rain
It's a different kind of rain
There's a different kind of wind
Or things that are troubling us
And the Bible uses kind of this language
To denote problems
Look at Psalms 55
Psalms 55
It's easy for me to picture this
Driving here because I had to go through
Some wicked storms to get down
In fact I was driving at one point
And it was like a low ditch
And I hit this ditch
And the flood waters just came
All the way in the windshield
And my windshield wipers were just going like
And it covered the entire windshield
Where I was blind for like five seconds straight
And of course I'm by all these semis
And other cars
I didn't even know what to do
All of a sudden you're just driving
And then you just can't see
But here's the thing
I know enough that you don't want to
Slam on your brakes or anything
Because the people behind you
If they don't stop
They're going to smash you
So typically the best thing to do is
Keep doing whatever you were doing
To the best of your ability
But you don't know if the person in front of you
I mean it's not a good feeling
I'll just say it that way
And you might say choice words
I'm not saying what I said or didn't say
But I'm just saying like sometimes
You know it's a really intimidating situation
But what I am saying is this
That's not fun
I don't want to be in this situation where I'm literally
Just blind and it's scary
And think about it
When you're on a boat in the middle of the sea
And then all of a sudden it's just storming
And raining and the waves are crashing
Or whatever
I mean this is a scary situation
It's an intimidating situation
And this is life without Jesus
When you're not on God's path
When you're not walking by faith
When you're walking by sight
You know and then you lose that sight
It's just like a terrifying experience
Because you don't really even know what to do
How does anybody in this world
Literally even know what to do anymore
I mean if you're not following the Bible
I honestly don't know how you drive
The car of life
I mean to me
It's just as normal as just putting on blindfolders
And just start driving today
I feel like I would just wreck instantly
And that is how people are living their lives today
Is they have blinders on
They're not using this as their source
Of how to live their life
And so what are they doing
It's just like demolition derby
I mean they're just running their car into the wall
And running their car into their cars
And just destroying themselves
Because there's no way to know how to navigate your life
Without the Bible
Later in life a lot of times they have a lot of scar tissue
They have a lot of damage
From their past
Because they didn't know what to do
Or they didn't have the light of scripture
And so they ended up
Wrecking a lot of times
And of course there's consequences
To those accidents that they had
But look at Psalms 55
And I want to give a little context
Before I get to my verse
But look at verse 1 it says
Turn to my complaint and make a noise
Because of the voice of the enemy
Because of the oppression of the wicked
For they cast iniquity upon me
And in wrath they hate me
My heart is sore pained within me
And the terrors of death are falling upon me
Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me
And horror hath overwhelmed me
And I said oh that I had wings like a dove
For then would I fly away and be at rest
Lo then would I wander far off
And remain in the wilderness sea-lo
I would hasten my escape
From the windy storm
And tempest
Destroy O Lord and divide their tongues
So we have here
And the reason why I'm bringing up this passage
We just have an example of this guy going through a really hard time
A really difficult time
And he's kind of talking about
His enemies
His enemies are oppressing him
They're casting iniquity upon him
They have this wrath
He has all this pain
The terror of death is coming upon him
He's overwhelmed
And then he uses kind of this metaphor
Saying I wish I was like a bird
So I could just kind of like fly away from danger
And then he describes
As danger as what?
A windy storm and a tempest
Meaning that he wishes to do this to burr
So he can just fly away and get away from the storm
You know some birds can even fly above the clouds
When you're above the clouds you know
You don't have to worry about the storm do you?
You're above it. Like an airplane
An airplane a lot of times they want to get through that turbulence
They want to get through the clouds
Because if they get high enough
They can basically fly over the storm
And they don't have to go through that storm
And what is he saying
That this tempest is like though
It's like trouble
It's like an issue
It's like problems
It's whatever is going on in your life
And this could be persecution
Or it could be consequence to sin
But ultimately what it is though is just problems
And so I'm just showing you that
We need to exist to illustrate problems
Or to illustrate issues in our life
And so Jonah fleeing from the presence of the Lord
Is going to bring tempest on his life
And for us
If we decide to avoid God's presence
If we decide to run away from God's presence
And chase other things
Or disobey God's word
There will be consequences to those actions
Now it may not be a literal storm in the ocean
Because you may not go in the ocean
Or maybe you do and that would be really scary
Or maybe it's just driving
But look God could take our lives like that
We never know when we're going to die
And we should be terrified
That the Lord will punish us
When we disobey him
Go back if you would to Jonah chapter number 1
Jonah chapter number 1
One of the big lessons of Jonah is that
Disobedience has its consequence
And we are to be obedient to the Lord
Whether we like it or not
Whether we want to do it or not
God demands obedience
God doesn't suggest obedience
He doesn't say maybe this is a good idea
He just says do it
And we're supposed to do it
We're supposed to obey
When the commandments of the Lord are coming down
That's why we need church
Why we need preachers
So they can remind us
So they can warn us
So they can try to help us
Avoid the consequences
That are going to be passed down
When we do rebel
So if I don't learn the Bible
And I don't go to church
Then I can't disobey
But God expects us
To follow all of his commandments
Whether you read the Bible or not
God doesn't say well
You know I know you didn't know about murder
So I'll let you get away with murder
No
There's certainly clear examples of this
King Herod is one that I often refer to
But King Herod is not a Jew
So you say oh well he doesn't have to abide by Jewish law
But here's the thing
Whenever John the Baptist rebukes
King Herod
He brings up the law of God
Saying that it was not lawful for him to be married
To his brother's wife
And again that seems like a pretty specific
Custom
That doesn't even necessarily seem like as universal
As the Ten Commandments
Like lying, stealing, adultery, murder
I mean that's a pretty granular
Commandment found in the scripture
But notice he still rebukes
Herod and tells him that's wrong
Because you know what every person
Is supposed to obey all the commandments of God
Period
And of course
Some commandments are specific to some people
And not to others right
Like obviously some commandments are for men only
Some commandments are for women only
Some commandments are for children
Some are for parents
Some are for different situations
Some are for the married
Some are for the unmarried right
There is no every commandment if it doesn't apply to you
But there is no
Well I'm not a Jew so it doesn't apply to me
Or I'm not a Christian so it doesn't apply to me
No
It doesn't apply to you only if it was
Specific to something that you're just not
Right
Like if it's for men okay that doesn't apply to you
Because it's for men right
If it's for women well that doesn't apply to you
Because it's for women right
Certain commandments that even Paul brings up
He talks about widows
He says that if they're under the age of 60
They're supposed to get married
But if they're not
If they're above 60
Then that doesn't apply
So of course there is always
An application aspect
To the commandments of God
And don't hear me wrong
But if it does apply to you
There is no wiggling out of it
You must obey
You must follow God's commandments
Exactly as instructed
I'm not clearly being commanded to go to
Nineveh
I mean Nineveh is not really a place today right
So I'm not like in violation of God's
Word for not going to Nineveh to
Preach
But here's an application
What if I am reading the Bible and I'm studying it
And God lays it on my heart wickedness in the city of Houston
And I decide not to preach against
Houston
I believe that could apply to me
Or in any area of our lives
Where we have clear instruction
If I have a great opportunity to preach the gospel
To someone and I say you know what
I just don't want to preach the gospel today
I don't feel like preaching the gospel today
I'm just not going to preach the gospel anymore
Then yes
This could apply to me where I'm going to
Receive the same kind of persecution
Not persecution I'm sorry
The same punishment that Jonah
Is receiving here
Verse 5 the Bible says
Then the mariners were afraid
And cried every man unto his God
That were in the ship into the sea
To lighten it of them
But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship
And he lay and was fast asleep
So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him
What meanest thou O sleeper
Arise
Call upon my God
If so be that God will think upon us
That we perish not
Now it's funny because
There's all these problems
There's all these issues
The tempest right
What do the other men
Go to
They go to their God
They go to their religion
As it were
But notice Jonah's not
Now why do you think Jonah's not
He's running away from God
It's kind of weird for him to then seek the Lord
When the whole reason why he's on the boat
Is to get away from God
And this is really the danger
Of fleeing God
Is you end up not seeking him
And what I mean by that
Sometimes people
They'll decide well I'm going to stop
Coming to church
For whatever reason
I don't care
What the reason is
But then they'll have a serious issue in their life
And instead of seeking help at the church
They just don't
Because the whole reason they're in that problem
Is because they fled church
And then it's like
You don't realize how much you're hurting yourself
Because you're just not even
Going to church
And so when we flee God
We're literally fleeing our only lifeline
We're fleeing our only help
We're fleeing our only shelter
And this is just a very dangerous place
To be in in our lives
Even if we're screwed up
We want to just at least still try to serve God
No matter how screwed up we are
How many problems we have
Or things we're working out
It's better to just keep trying
Than the Lord
Because then you just have no help
Then you have no resource to go to
And the unsaved
They're going to go to their
Methods of help
But there is no help
When the unsaved have problems
And of course they do
Drinking, alcohol
Fornication
Marriage problems
And they seek Judaism
They seek Islam
False gods, they seek Hinduism
They seek the new age
They seek all these things
That doesn't help them
That doesn't provide them any relief
It's completely vain
And they end up having usually worse problems
They end up having more problems
Than they started with
And this is kind of what's pictured here in this chapter
Is how the unsaved
Is striving to
Have peace in their life
But they're never going to have it apart from God
They're never going to have it apart from the Lord Jesus Christ
And
We have the one person
That can give them that peace
We have the one person
That can assist them
And he's sleeping on the job
And you know what, there's a lot of Christians today
That are asleep at the wheel
That they've basically forsaken the presence of the Lord
They're not really serving God
And they're just sleeping
While they have all these problems
They're just living their own life
Like, hey, I'm fine just destroying my life
And everyone around me
Because I'm fleeing the presence of God
And you know what, that is a selfish attitude
It is a selfish attitude for a Christian
To not warn people
And preach the gospel and do what is right
I mean, how can you not be selfish
When you say, well, I'm on my way to heaven
So nuts to everybody else
You know, let's just get on the boat
Called the United States and let's just
Sail into hell, you know
Because I'm not going to go there even though you guys are
I mean, how many Christians a day
They're saved, but then they
You know what, they do nothing for God
They're only living for themselves
They're only chasing money
Or they're just literally just a do-nothing Christian
You know, what a shame that there's so many
Do-nothing Christians
And they look down on Jonah
But they themselves aren't willing to serve the Lord
They're not willing to do something that's difficult
And you bring up, hey, why aren't you going to church?
And why aren't you getting so many?
Oh, that's hard, oh, this is all this work
Oh, I got all these other things going on
And it's like, okay, I guarantee that
That's easier than what Jonah was commanded to do
You know
Well, I don't want to drive that far
How far is Tarshish?
We don't even know
He doesn't have an electric vehicle
Or something to just drive him automatically
He doesn't have a gas-powered vehicle
That he can drive himself
He doesn't have cruise control
He doesn't have air conditioning
I mean, he can't just get on a boat
He can't, I'm sorry
Well, he can't get on a plane
Okay, he can't get on a train
He has to get on a boat
And he's going away, right?
But what I'm saying is
It was harder for them to travel than it was for us
And it's kind of sad when people complain about traveling
To serve God, or spending money
Or doing all these things
It's like, why did God give you money and legs anyways?
You know, one of the main aspects of preaching the gospel is your feet
Is what the Bible always brings up
But I guess you just want to take naps all day, right?
Be like a Jonah Christian
And just sleep it all away
And just do nothing
And it's funny because even the unsaved
Are like, what are you doing?
Like, why aren't you calling on God?
Why aren't you serving God?
You're a Christian and you don't even go to church?
You know, it makes me think of these atheists
I'm pretty sure they're atheists
I think they're comedians or something
Pen and Teller, anybody know who I'm talking about?
Pen and Teller, they're kind of like these famous guys
I think they had a talk show or TV show or something
But I remember one of them saying he had no respect
For Christians that wouldn't try to evangelize him
That wouldn't try to give him the gospel
Because he's saying, you really believe that I'm going to go to hell
And that everyone in this whole studio is going to go to hell
And the whole world is going to hell
And you won't tell anybody about it
He's like, I don't even believe you
He's basically mocking the fact that you think you're a Christian
Or you are a Christian and you believe that
But you're doing nothing about it
He's like, man, you have no faith or something
Such a weak faith or such a stupid faith
It's kind of like James 2
Faith without works is dead
You're just this sleeping Christian, a do-nothing Christian
And it makes me think of another person
Go to 1 Timothy 5
Since we're talking about this
You know, James 2
I think too often
We're so concerned with preaching against works-based salvation
That we don't preach what James 2 is actually about
And it's trying to tell do-nothing Christians
To get off their butt and actually do some works
Right?
Actually go out and have some works to go along with their faith
And James 2 needs to be thundered forth
From pulpus today
Not teaching how to go to heaven
But teaching to do something for God
You know, oh vain man
You know, oh I have faith
Show me your faith by your works
Right?
You know, I'll show you my faith by my doctrine
How about show people your faith by your works
Isn't that what James 2 actually says?
I mean it's going to be a lot more convincing
When you're going out and you're preaching the gospel
And you're compelling people to get saved
And you're telling them why it's so important
To believe only when you're doing the works
Because think about it
People are sometimes confused, they're like
You guys seem to be like dressed, you know
Conservatively and you're going to church
And you're reading the Bible
Why are you doing all these works if salvation is a free gift?
And it's like
Well because I want rewards, you know
Because I'm supposed to
And I think it makes it easier for people to still believe us
And believe us by faith alone
When they see us doing so much work
And we don't believe it has anything to do with getting to heaven
They're like
Well I mean I guess this person really believes that though
I mean they have to expect and assume we're pretty sincere
When we're doing that, don't they?
But those that are doing nothing
Notice how the Bible describes them
It says in verse number 6
But she, and this is talking about a widow
That liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth
Meaning, hey, even if you're saved
If you're just living in this world
If you're just on the boat to Tarshish
You know what, the Bible says you're like dead
Why? Because faith without works is dead
Hey, arise, sleeper
Call upon God, you know, get right with God
And you know what, there's never a bad time to get right with God
And you know what, there's a lot of Jonah Christians in this world
We know who they are
And you know what, they should call on God
They should get right with God before they have what's about to happen to them
And if we go back to Jonah chapter 1
Look at verse number 7
And they said 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
It's funny, casting lots is kind of like a silly carnal thing
It's not really a biblical thing
The Bible doesn't necessarily say cast lots or something
But it's just funny how God, in my opinion, has like a sense of humor
And it's just like, you know, these unsaved people are like
I don't know what's going on, let's just cast lots
And it's just like, oh, it's Jonah
It's like, God's like, hey, I want everybody to know it's him
You know, and God just kind of has this sense of humor
To always like just make sure that everything just points to you
You know, it's never like this random thing you don't know
It's just like, Jonah's probably just sitting here like
Oh, I hope it doesn't land on me
And he's like, oh, it's him for sure
And I was like, oh, man, you can't escape God
God can just do whatever he wants, you know
And God will find you out
Be sure your sin will find you out
Is what the Bible says
And it's just funny to me
It'd be funny to see how this happened
Like, I don't know, there's like angels down there
And they cast a lot and they're just like grabbing it like, Jonah
You know, like, I don't even know how it worked
But, you know, it's obviously some kind of a miracle or supernatural
You know, an intervention here
And God will do that to you
You know, I've heard people, I've heard Christians even tell me these things
You know, they like do something bad or they screw up or whatever
And their punishment, they're like, I just know God just did that to me on purpose
Just because of my, just because of what I did
And God will do that
It says in verse number 8
I also think this is interesting
Think about how these are just unsaved people
These are not children of God
They don't necessarily believe the Bible whatsoever
Yet they know, they just know
That this storm is because of somebody on the boat
Think about that
Isn't that kind of interesting?
That they just know that this
They didn't say like, I wonder what's causing this storm
It's probably global warming
Yeah, it's probably, you know, you're eating too much steak, aren't you?
You know
No, no, they just know someone's not right with God
They know someone has sinned
Isn't that interesting?
Yet today, we'll have huge natural disasters
And it's like, we don't know what caused it
We don't know what the problem is
And it's like, how about it's just a sin issue
And someone's not right with God
I also think that this storm must have been really unnatural
Like, it's not a normal storm
It's something that's just really clear to people
And I've seen this happen in people's lives
Where I went into a bookstore
And I was trying to buy a Bible
And a guy walked in there real frantic
He didn't even know what he was doing
And he's just like, looking up books
And picking up big ones
And I'm just like, I said, looking for a Bible?
And he's like, yeah, I don't even know what I'm
I don't even know what I'm looking for
And I said, okay, what kind of Bible do you want?
He's like, I don't know
He's like, I was in a car accident two weeks ago
And I almost died
And I think it was a miracle of God that I didn't die
And I think he wants me to seek after him
And I was just like, well, you know, if you died today
Are you sure you go to heaven?
And he's like, no, I don't know at all
And I said, would you like to know?
He's like, yes, show me
And then I just like, pulled a Bible off the shelf
Just showed him how to
And he was like the easiest person I've ever gotten
To save my life
But what I'm saying is, even this guy that's not saved
Just knew like, hey, this event that happened in my life
I think God's trying to talk to me
Or I think that there's something happening
And they can basically see God's hand in this world
You know, don't watch too much TV
Because you watch so much TV
And you think like, everybody's an atheist or something
That's not the reality
Most people are religious
Most people understand and can see the handiwork of God
They see God's moving
And notice when this storm's coming
They're like, obviously God is mad or something
Like there's something serious happening
This is a spiritual thing that's happening right now
This is not a natural occurrence, okay
It's not some global warming phenomenon, okay
He says in verse 9
And he said to them, I am a Hebrew
And I fear the Lord, the God of heaven
Which hath made the sea and the dry land
Then the men were, then the men exceedingly afraid
And said unto them, why hast thou done this?
For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord
Because he had told them
So he's like, oh yeah, so God told me to go preach
And I said no
And I decided to run away and I got on the boat
So that's why there's this storm
And they're like, oh no, like why'd you do that?
Why didn't you obey God?
You're a Christian and you didn't do what God said?
And you know what? That perplexes the world
The world is perplexed when they say, oh you're a Christian
And you just lie and steal and cheat and commit adultery and do all this wicked stuff
You know what? It approaches Christ
It approaches God when we don't actually do what the Bible said
And then it's perplexing them like
Why do you even claim to believe in the Bible if you don't even do it?
Why are you a Christian and you don't even go to church?
Why are you a Christian and you've never read the Bible?
Why are you a Christian and you've never told a single person about Christ?
You know, it's just perplexing to them
And you know what? It's perplexing to everyone
Like, why?
It says in verse number 11
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
Now this is interesting
I don't know exactly what's going on in Jonah's mind
But he's like, Hey, the only way for you guys to survive is for me to die
Just throw me in the sea
And it'll somehow be calm
And it says in verse 14
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, has done as it pleased thee
This is interesting
You know, it's like, Hey, just kill me
In their mind, essentially
And they're like, Okay
But before we do
We're gonna pray to God
And we're gonna say
Please don't cause more storm or more problems unto us
For killing this guy
We're trying to do what you want
We're trying to basically
If this is what you want, if you want us to throw this guy into the sea
Then fine, we'll do it
But please don't harm us
We're not trying to hurt him
We're just doing what he said
Okay, we just want to throw this guy in the sea
Makes me think of another passage where there's a man of God that says like, Smite me
And the guy refuses to do it
And the Lord just kills him
He kills the guy that won't smite him
So it's like, even if the man of God says, Hit you
You know, hit him
It's like, Okay
Just rear back and be like, Let me get a good one in
You know, or whatever
It's like, Hey, throw me in the sea
It's like, Alright, let's go
And it says in verse 15
He took up Jonah and cast him forth in the sea
And the sea ceased from raging
Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly
And offered a sacrifice to 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
So they get them up
And they're like, Alright, throw them in
And then all of a sudden, the storm just completely ceases
And they're just like, Whoa
Like, God is someone to fear
We don't want to mess with God
And they end up making some kind of a vow
You know, I'm guessing that they're going to serve the Lord
Or I don't know what it is that they made
But they made a vow
And then it says that the Lord basically didn't allow Jonah to die
But rather picked a fish
A great fish, which we know is a whale
In the New Testament, to swallow up Jonah
And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights
Now what's really cool about this story
Is, even though this all happened, it's a real story
It pictures the gospel
And it pictures the gospel of Jesus Christ
Now Jesus, you know, go to Matthew again
And we'll find the passage where Jesus relates himself to Jonah
I believe it's in Matthew, what, 12?
Verse 40
Matthew chapter 12, look at verse 40
It says, For as Jonas 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, what the Bible teaches is that Jonah was a picture of Christ
And I believe that Jesus is a picture in all of the books of the Bible
But, when you have one where Jesus is saying it with his own mouth
I mean, that one you can just take to the bank
I mean, that one, there's no guessing if Jonah pictures Jesus
Now, what is that picturing?
Well, if Jonah is in this whale's belly and Jesus is in the heart of the earth
That's signifying what part of Jesus is life
This is picturing him going to hell
And in Jonah chapter 2, which we'll talk a lot more in detail
You know, it even says, Out of the belly of hell cried I
So, it's very clear in the Bible that Jesus descending down into the lower parts of the earth
Is him going to hell
Acts chapter number 2 makes this very clear in several verses
It's not even just one
It makes it very clear that he was afflicted and suffering in hell
And that he didn't stay there, but he rose again
So, if we know that him being in the whale's belly is hell
Then let's back up, let's go backwards
What happened before Jesus went to hell?
He died on the cross
As what?
A sacrifice unto all mankind
What happened with Jonah?
Tossed into the sea, as what?
As a sacrifice unto all of these men
As soon as he's thrown into the sea, what happens?
All of the tempest ceases
What is this a picture of?
The fact that Jesus paid all of our sins
And that we can escape the consequence of our sins
Through his sacrifice
So, just like Jonah's being tossed in there
Is the same picture of Jesus Christ dying for all mankind
Also, go to Isaiah chapter number 53
Whenever they prayed
They said, hey, don't impute basically this sin, this innocent blood upon us
This is essentially what they're kind of paraphrasing, praying
And they said, because we're trying to do what pleases you
Well, that's interesting that they're talking about what pleases God
Because look at Isaiah 53
And let's read a few verses and then I'll get to the verse I'm talking about
But it says in verse number 3
He is despised and rejected of men
A man of sorrows and equated with grief
And we hid as it were a face of him
He was despised and we esteemed him not
Surely he hath borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows
Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted
Now, when it talks about Jesus here in Isaiah 53
Notice he's saying he's smitten of God and afflicted
Isn't that what's happening with Jonah in the sense that he's being afflicted by God and he's being smitten?
Now, because Jesus is perfect
No man in the Bible will ever be a perfect example of Jesus
God uses the downfall of men to illustrate things about Jesus
But Jonah is deserving of affliction
Jonah did something wrong and that's why he's being punished
Jesus never did anything wrong
So that parallel will never be the exact same
But what did happen is Jesus is being afflicted
Like Jonah's being afflicted
But for our wrongdoing because he's taking our wrongdoing upon himself
But look what it says in verse 10
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him
He hath put him to grief
So notice it said that God was pleased
The Lord was pleased with Jesus' sacrifice
Also, God was pleased with Jonah's sacrifice
Now, why did Jonah say to throw them in the sea?
We don't know, we don't know exactly what was going through on Jonah's mind
We have no real place in scripture to suggest that Jonah knew he was going to survive
So it's kind of like a self-sacrifice to what? Preserve others
Same as the picture of Jesus having the self-sacrifice to preserve others
Another thing I like about this parallel
If we're thinking about the gospel
Is that what Jonah did saved everyone on the boat
And it gave them an opportunity to become saved
But we don't know that they all got saved
And that's the same with Jesus in the sense that he's the ransom for all mankind
That he should taste death for every man
Meaning that Jesus truly did die for every single person
And gave them all the opportunity to have reconciliation with God
But then they still have the choice afterwards to then believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
To then call upon the Lord and get saved
And so even though he's a sacrifice for all
They still have that option of basically accepting the Lord, getting saved and everything like that
And the same with Jesus, Jesus is the savior of all mankind
Especially of the belief
And we also have the fact that these men
They were never going to get any kind of salvation for what?
Them calling on their gods and doing all of their religious exercises
Meaning that there's only one savior and that's Jesus Christ
Because there was only one rescuing from that tempest
Go back to Jonah and I want to show another thing here
That's a great rebuke
It says in verse number 12
So when Jonah said to sacrifice them, they didn't initially do it
They initially tried to just get there on their own
But here's the thing, this is like your works
This is your works trying to get saved on your own
Trying as hard as you can
But here's the thing, your works will never get you there
You can never be saved by how hard you can row
Or the efforts that you have
Your sin, that tempest is just too strong for you
And so therefore the only thing that can rescue you
Is the sacrifice of Jonah
Which is the picture of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ
The only thing that will save you is faith alone in Jesus
And the only way they were going to be saved is by believing what Jonah said
Because they didn't have to throw them in the sea, did they?
But by them throwing them in the sea is kind of the picture of
You decide, hey, I'm not going to trust my works anymore
I'm going to stop rowing, repentance from dead works
And faith toward God
And I'm going to trust what the Lord said
And I'm going to throw Jonah into the sea
And I'm going to be saved by faith
And notice that the salvation, immediate
Notice that it's like, hey, as soon as you trust in Christ, just salvation
You didn't have to wait, it wasn't this process of salvation
It was an immediate salvation
It was immediate rescuing
And of course you couldn't write this book
Jonah, just a simple little book about a simple story
Think about how many parallels this is just of all these biblical doctrines
Salvation is a moment in time
It's just by faith, it's not of works
It's what Jesus did
We have the Jesus' death, we have him going into hell
And then as we get later in the story we'll have the resurrection
Because it has the entire gospel message in this book
It's also hard for me when I hear someone suggest the idea that the gospel didn't exist
In the Old Testament
And I'm like, what do you mean?
All of the Old Testament is the gospel, it's just the gospel over and over and over again
You're going to tell me that holy men of God, filled with the Spirit of God
Weren't able to discern the gospel in these books
As they would read them and preach from them
That they're just sitting here like, I don't know what the story's about
Don't go in the sea when it's stormy
No, no, no
They were getting up, filled with the Holy Spirit
Preaching the coming Messiah
Preaching about his sacrifice
Preaching about him going to hell
Preaching about him being risen again
Preaching the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ
I mean, to say that the gospel didn't happen until the gospel is foolishness
Because Jesus himself preached the literal death, burial and resurrection
While he was alive on this earth before it ever happened
And people were believing the gospel and getting saved then
So of course they believed the gospel before that
And they got saved
And the gospel's always been preached
I mean the gospel's clear in Isaac's sacrifice
It's clear in all kinds of different stories and pictures in the Bible
And this is no different
In my opinion, this is probably one of the easiest stories to show someone
You know, this would be a great thing to show a new Christian or show a family member
Hey, did you see the gospels in the book of Jonah?
And I think this one's one where you can kind of help people see this picture
And then say, hey, you know what?
It's like that in every book of the Bible
You should come to church, you should learn about all the different pictures in the Bible
You should learn, you know, these stories
And you should read it on your own
And when you read it on your own, lots of times God will reveal himself in the pages of the scripture
He'll show you, hey, that's me that the Bible's talking about
Hey, when David was talking in the psalm, he was talking about me
He was talking about my death, he was talking about my burial, he was talking about my resurrection
He was talking about faith, he was talking about your life circumstances
You know what? That's how God likes to communicate with us
Is through the Bible
You know what? When the word of the Lord comes into us and asks us to do something
Cry against this wickedness
You know, it's not for us to decide, well, I don't know if I want to do that or not
We're supposed to just do it anyway
And there's been times in my life and in my ministry where I've kind of wondered
I had this foolish thought, like, should I really preach that?
And it's like, well, here's the thing, is it in the Bible? Yes
You know, we don't want to have this, well, my life's harder because of that
No, my life could have been way harder if I didn't preach it
And we think our lives are hard, but we don't even know what our lives could have been if we disobeyed God
So let's continue to stay on the straight and narrow so we're not swallowed by a whale
Alright, let's close in prayer
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this story
Thank you for giving us this example
Thank you for the sacrifice of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ
And that all we have to do is trust in him
We can never row our way to heaven
By our works and vain efforts, they're meaningless
We thank you that you give us free gift of salvation that's eternal
And I pray that we would not just take that free gift for ourselves and be selfish with it
We wouldn't just take a nap
Rather, we would go out and we'd share the gospel with others
We'd preach the word of God
Whether it's good news or bad news, whether it's popular or unpopular, whether it's for or against
That we would just be obedient servants under the word of God
So that you could be pleased with us
And I pray that you continue to guide us through the tempests and storms of this life
So that we wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of sin
In Jesus' name we pray, amen
Let's go to song 44 in our hymnal, song 44
We'll work till Jesus comes
That's a good one to end on
It doesn't say we'll sleep, it says we'll work, alright?
O land of rest for thee I sigh
When will the moment come
When I shall lay my armor by
And dwell in peace at home
We'll work till Jesus comes
And we'll be gathered home
To Jesus Christ I fled for rest
He bade me cease to roam
And lean for succor on His breast
Till He conduct me whole
We'll work till Jesus comes
And we'll be gathered home
I sought at once my Savior's side
No more my steps shall roam
With Him all brave deaths chilling tight
And reached my heavenly home
We'll work till Jesus comes
And we'll be gathered home
Thank you so much for coming. God bless.
You already missed one other note I did.
We already got the church directories ordered.
So hopefully we'll get them in a couple weeks.
And they're going to look really nice.
Thanks to those who participated.
Even if you didn't take a picture,
we put your picture in the rain.
I'm just kidding.
But we got one for you anyways.
So God bless and good night.