Jonah chapter one, verse four through nine. We read God's word. Remember this word has authority over our lives. But the Lord sent out a great wind of the sea and there was a might tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken up. When the mariners were afraid, Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried out to his God and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea. So they lightened the load. But Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and said to him, what do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God. Perhaps your God will consider us so that we may not perish. And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, please tell us, for whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation, and where do you come from? What is your country, and of what people are you? So he said to them, I am a Hebrew, And I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. Let us pray now. Lord, your word speaks to us when we read it. And Lord, we pray that your word would also teach us this evening about the life of Jonah and how his life can inform our lives and the things that we do and the things that we do as a church. O Lord, help us, O Lord, to grasp, O Lord, to what was your intent when you put this book, O Lord, in your word, in this scripture, in this canon. O Lord, help us, O Lord, to be humble As we listen, O Lord, to the life of Jonah, so that, O Lord, our faith may grow, so that, O Lord, your word may direct us how to live our lives for the glory of your kingdom. O Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. On November of 1892, D.L. Moody, the great preacher and evangelist, and his son, Will, deported to the ocean at Southampton, England. Moody had just finished a revival meeting in London including spending eight days preaching in the church of Charles Spurgeon. And now he was returning to New York. He was returning home. But at some point in his return, the ship drive shaft broke, putting a hole in the hull. The ship began to sink. And after several days, on the ocean without no hope for help. Moody, he entered in what he called one of the darkest moments of his life. After all these days, he felt desperate. And on his own words, he said that he could not endure what was happening in that ship. He said, I must have relief. And that relief came when he prayed. And he said, God heard my cry and enabled me to say from the depth of my soul, thy will be done. He says that after that moment, sweet peace came to his heart. He said, let it be Northfield of heaven. It made no difference now. I want to go to bed. And he went to bed. He fell asleep most immediately. And he says that was one of the precious time of sleep that he had in his life. He said, I never slept more soundly in all my life. This evening, we are going to see another man of God, another preacher, another revivalist, who was also on a boat, on a ship. But he's sleeping, not because he trusted in God like Moody did, but because he was in defiance to God. Remember last week we saw how Jonah's life was a life filled with mercy. How Jonah's life, he experienced mercy in his life in a way that we cannot even describe. But this week we find that the Lord, He comes after Jonah. The same Lord that came after him telling him what to do. now comes to address him again. He makes Jonah a target, as we saw in verse four last week. And now he takes the initiative again to come after Jonah, to come after him, and to teach him a lesson, a lesson that he had to learn. So as we examined here, this passage of Jonah verse 4 through verse 9. There are two things that I want you to see in this passage. First is that we find here a sleeping prophet and second is that we find here a self-contradicting prophet. So as we see here in verse Five, this man is sleeping in the midst of a storm. He's kind of out of touch with the reality and what was happening here. The marines or the sailors, they see that storm coming and they're terrified. And remember, this man, they had experience. In order for you to do this kind of travels at the time of Jonah, it required training, it required courage, it required experience from these men. They knew what they were doing. They carried with them precious Precious goods of them, precious cargos of them. They couldn't just get on a boat and go in their way. They studied the weather. They knew that there was just a few moments every year that they could actually make this trip work because of the conditions of the weather and the ocean. They had seen storms before. They had been in difficult times before. But now they find themselves in such a storm that verse 4 says, this was a mighty storm on the ocean. That these men, they find themselves in this situation that they don't think anymore, well I just need to do this and I just need to be patient. But when they see that situation come in front of them, They are terrified. That's what the word says. They're terrified about the storm. They see it. They see that the boat is about to broke. And they see this is not like any other storm. And in that desperate situation where they're terrified, they only find two things that they can do to resolve that situation. They only find two solutions. And the first one, as we see on verse five, is that they seek, the first solution is to seek supernatural help. They cry out in desperate, each one to their gods, because they don't see in any human way how to fix and how to get out of their situation. And remember, we're talking here about pagans, about people filled with paganism in their hearts, people that don't even know who God is, but they know that what is happening can only be reverted by a supernatural act of God. So that's their first solution. The second solution that they find is what we read In verse 5, that they threw all the cargo away. So the second solution for them is to lose everything. Remember that cargo was expensive. It's not cheap to make a trip like that. It requires someone to pay to bring their cargo all the way to the other part of the world as they are doing this trip. So it's not something that's cheap to do. It's something expensive. These trips are very expensive. And by throwing everything away, can you imagine when they go to the gate, where they need to get, and they face the people that hired them to move this cargo, what are they going to say? Well, I threw everything away. Is that acceptable? When these men are throwing everything away, this act of desperate, do they even know and imagine that they might get in debt, that they might need to pay a big sum of money to someone for doing that? So their solution is, or God helps me, we're gonna throw everything away, there's nothing else that we can do. And for our surprise, we find Jonah, that despite the suffering that was happening right in front of him, this man, he goes to sleep. He sees all the sailors suffering, desperate, not knowing what to do, and he goes to sleep. This man, Jonah, he's literally in the same boat as this man they are. He's basically facing the same thing that they are facing, death, but he goes to sleep. He sees this man crying out each one to their God. And instead of preaching the gospel to them, instead of explaining about the Lord to them, to this man who is about to die, who never heard the gospel, what does he do? He doesn't care. He doesn't care if they're going to die and go to hell without ever knowing God. He goes to sleep. He knows that whatever is happening here is his fault. That's why he says in verse 12, I know it's my fault. But he doesn't care. Now we need to stop here and pause for a second. And we are to reflect that this man, what he's doing here is what something that we often do ourselves, don't we? We see people dying every day. We see people in desperate situations. And what do we do? We go to sleep. We ignore them. How many times God has put situations in our lives to use us, to explain or to share the gospel with some people and we just ignore. How many times we walk on the road and we see people crying? It happens often. We see people sad and desperate in front of us, in desperate situations in their lives, and they don't know what to do. And what do we do? We act like they're sleeping prophets. But pay attention to this text that he's not only sleeping despite their suffering and desperate situation, he's also sleeping despite his rebellion and his sin. What this text reveals to us here is that the sin of Jonah has created this wall between him and God. He's not sensitive to God anymore. The sailors are crying out for delivery and Jonah goes to sleep. He wants to escape that reality. This unrepented believer He's exhausted and drained out by guilt. And the only thing that he can do to alleviate his guilt is to go to sleep. Some people, they do whatever they can do to avoid being confronted with their own sin. And that's the case of the prophet Jonah here. This situation not only informs us that this man is so insensitive to what's happening, to what's happening to the life of the sailors, but also informs to us that he had really a misconception of the gospel, a misconception of salvation. He's like those kind of people that they think, well, I'm just going to do whatever I want to do. I want to sin. I want to do all this stuff because God is going to forgive me. I'm elected. God saved me. Now I can do whatever I want to do. I'm safe. And that's exactly what's going on here with Jonah. But the captain comes to him and asks him, what do you mean? What are you doing? Pray. The pagan man is turning to God's prophet and telling him to pray. What a misconception of salvation. This man, he doesn't think that he can pray anymore. He doesn't answer. He doesn't pray. He's just silent about all of this. The idolater understands we need to pray. We need a supernatural action. We need God to change this. God is doing this. But the prophet of God refuses. Why he does not want to pray? Because he's not willing to repent. Because there is this wall of separation between him and God and he's not willing to repent and turn to God in a time of need because his sin does not allow him to do that. Now this text, in Jonah's situation, It provides a great picture for us as a church. I think all the commentators that I read that was preparing for this sermon, they point out to the same fact. They all comment on the same thing. That the picture here is the picture of the relationship of the church and the world. How is that so? When the church is awake, When the church is preaching the gospel, when the church is witnessing the gospel, when the church is praying, things, they go well in the world. God, he delivers his people and the nations around them, and even the pagans among them. But when the church is sleeping like John is sleeping here, the story repeats. when there is no preaching, when there is no faithfulness to the gospel, when there is no prayer. Don't expect that things to go well. Don't expect that God is gonna bless that. And the same picture that we see in the life of Jonah, we see in the relationship of the church in the world. Now the Bible, I also talk about the story of another prophet who slept on the boat. And we can't go through this text without reminding ourselves that there is one who is better than Jonah, that there is one who also slept on a boat not because he had any sin in himself, he was sinless. that there is one that people could turn to Him and ask Him for help and deliverance because He had the power to deliver them. We cannot forget that our Savior Jesus Christ also slept on a boat and that He is able to give life and deliverance to anyone who turns to Him. He's able to sympathize with you when you are in the midst of a storm. He's able to answer your prayers. Maybe we could even name the sermon in a different way, not the sleeping prophet, but the prophet that as he sleeps, he points to Christ. Because as we see that in man there is no deliverance, we also see that in God, in Jesus Christ, we find deliverance in the midst of the storm. But notice that this prophet, who is a sleeping prophet, is also a self-contradicting prophet. We see here the unbelievers, we find here the unbelievers, in verse 7, they want to cast lots, they want to know the will of God. Not the prophet. The prophet who should be revealing the will of God. He doesn't want to pray, he doesn't want to have anything to do with God. But the unbelievers, they want to cast lots and they want to know why is this happening. So if you've never heard about that word or this action of casting lots, that is a common thing that happens, a common practice that happens in the Old Testament. We find in several parts of the Old Testament, like Leviticus 16, Judges 20, 1 Samuel 10, where the people of God are instructed to cast lots. And the instruction is that they shouldn't expect that casting lots is some magic or mystical thing happening. But as they cast lots, they should trust that God's providence would be working through the casting lots. So apparently the other nations of the world that at the same time they have a similar practice. And they do this on verse 7. And they cast lots. And God answers. They wanted to know what is causing this. And God tells them. They want to know who is causing this trouble on us. And as they cast lots, the lots they fell on Jonah. And this man now, they want answers. What have you done, Jonah? What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And what people are you? These men, they have one purpose. They want to know this prophet's identity. Because by knowing his identity, they could know who was his God, or who his God was. But here's where we find the contradiction. Because the prophet, he answers them with a very beautiful and nice confession. I'm a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, creator of heaven, the creator, the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. But as he makes this beautiful confession, What we see is that he does not hold that confession in his life. They want to know where he came from. They want to know what did he do. They want to know what his occupation. The last question that they answer is, what people are you? But that's the first answer that he gives them. I'm a Hebrew. One may argue that for this man Jonah nationality came before his identity with God. One may argue that for this man being of such nation was more important than his faith. And maybe that's the answer for why he doesn't want to go away and preach to the Ninevites. because of his nation in his heart was more important than God himself. But then the second thing that he tells the sailors about him is that he fears the Lord. But that's such a contradiction, isn't it? A man who fears the Lord is running from the Lord. A man who fears the Lord doesn't want to obey the Lord. What kind of fear is this one? He does not care about doing the Lord's will. He does not care about obeying the Lord. He does not care about praying to the Lord. He does not even care about doing the will of God. He's running away from Him. What a contradiction to this prophet. And then he goes ahead and the next thing that he informs to the sailors. that this Lord is the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Basically what he's answering here is that he doesn't serve any God like these people did. That he serves the God, the one who created everything. And as he confesses that, He's still the same man who thinks that he can change God's will, that can put God on his pocket and run away from God. The same man that tells the sailors that God, the God that he fears, created all things, is the same man that thinks that by running away from that God, he's gonna change God's will and he might be free from that call that God gave to him to go and preach. What a man full of contradictions. We have been seeing in our morning services, in the book of Titus, how our lives as believers, they can bless the gospel, they can adore the doctor of God, or they can be a blasphemy to the doctor of God. I think something really similar is happening here in the life of Jonah. We find here a man who can be orthodox. That's an orthodox confession. In Hebrew, I fear the God who created all things. But at the same time, he can act as an atheist, as if God did not exist, as if he could just run away from God. And the picture that we have here is that through Jonah's fall, The Lord uses his sin and his transgression to proclaim to these sailors the true God. This confession is a proclamation of who God is. And maybe for the first time, these sailors, they're hearing this confession of faith. So even though this man is running from God, even though he's disobeying God, even though he's not upholding his confession, God is using his life to proclaim the gospel among Gentiles, doing exactly what Jonah doesn't want to do. But maybe the big picture that we can see here And the big picture of redemption, the whole scripture, is what Paul, he talks about on Romans 11, when he says, in talking about the Israelites, the people of God, but through their fall, to provoke them, salvation has come to the Gentiles. And that's the greatest picture, the big picture of redemption that we see in this passage of Jonah. Through the fall of this man, salvation is being preached to Gentiles. Through the fall of Israel and their failure to acknowledge the Messiah as their king, salvation is proclaimed to every one of us. And that is the greatest picture of this passage. the greatest and the big picture of redemption. We have in this passage the picture of two men, Moody and Jonah, one who trusted in God's will and another one who ran from God's will and received the consequences. But the question for you, Christian, this evening, is what will you do when the time to trust in God and obey His will comes in your life. When you know what you must do and you don't want to do it. Know that the storm always comes. The storm will come to your life, to my life, to all of our lives. But what we may learn tonight is to trust in Christ when the storm comes. Let us pray now. God our Father in heaven, Help us, O Lord, to trust in You. O Lord, we know that there are situations in our lives where we are confronted, where we realize that we are not doing Your will. O Lord, help us to repent. Help us, O Lord, not to be as the sleeping prophet, not to be as the self-contradicting prophet, who preaches one thing and does something else. And especially as a church, help us, O Lord, to be as a church, a church that is awake, that's praying, that's preaching the gospel, that is being a witness to the darkness of this world. O Lord, we can only do all these things with the help of your Son. O Lord, when the storm comes, Remind us, O Lord, of Jonah. Remind us, O Lord, of not being like him, but being like Christ, and to turn to Christ in the midst of this storm. O Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us now worship the Lord with another song. 92. Let's stand to sing Him 92. A mighty fortress is our God. 92.