Well, I'd like to invite our intern up now to the pulpit, Adam Phillips. Adam just finished his second year at Westminster Seminary, California in Escondido, and he's going to be with us this summer, bringing God's Word to us and continuing to practice his gifts and graces for ministry. So it's my pleasure to welcome Adam to our pulpit. Thanks. Give us Christ. Good evening. Our scripture reading this evening will come to us from Jonah chapter 1, reading verses 1 through 10. If you'd like to turn there again, Jonah chapter 1, reading verses 1 through 10. Give attention to God's Word. Now the Word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found his ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. And then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship, and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish. And they said to one another, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. And then they said to him, Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you? And 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. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, what is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them." Thus far ends the reading of God's Word. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we pray That as we hear you speak to us tonight through your word, that you would grant us receptive hearts and receptive minds to what you have to say to us. Father, we pray that you would enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we might know the hope to which you have called us and the immeasurable greatness of Christ's power toward us who believe. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Beginning a book through the Bible always presents its own set of challenges. We have to juggle all the parts that present themselves to us in the book while at the same time keeping in mind the whole of what's going on. We have to keep in mind the forest as we look at the trees and vice versa. We want to capture the various themes that string themselves about through a book. And this evening, we are beginning a series, a brief series, through the Book of Jonah. It's a four-chapter book, and I imagine that from those of us here tonight, both the church and the unchurched are at least vaguely familiar with it. It's a memorable story. Most Sunday school lessons will go through the Book of Jonah, and things might stick out in our minds as we think about it, about a big fish that swallows, or a big whale that swallows Jonah. We might think of a big city called Nineveh who repents when Jonah preaches to them. We might think of the prophet who is strangely opposed to what God desires of him. And so as we begin Jonah this evening, I want to spend a little bit of time giving us the big picture A sort of introduction of what the Book of Jonah is up to. You think about when you read a book or you watch a film, there's always that temptation to read the blurb on the back. It gives you sort of a big picture of what you'll be reading. And I hope to accomplish that for us tonight. We'll do that by looking at two things specifically that I believe are central and basic to the Book of Jonah. The first one is the Lord's character. Specifically, the Lord's character as a God who is, on the one hand, merciful, and gracious, and forgiving. And, on the other hand, is just. Who is full of wrath towards sin. And we're going to do this by looking at a couple passages. We read Jonah 1, verses 1 through 10. And we'll be coming back to Jonah 1 next week. But we'll use this text to give us a sort of launching pad into the book. And we'll also look at some various texts in the Old Testament. that I believe are helpful. My hope is that by addressing these things, it will give us something to hold on to and to stand upon as we work through Jonah in the next four to five weeks. Now, I assume that all of us here know for certain that life brings about changes and adaptions. Think about children. Children grow up. They go from toddlers to young kids to young adults to adults and old adults. We dress differently than our grandparents did. You probably don't wear the same things your grandparents or your great-grandparents did. Your car is probably a little bit faster than the horse and buggy. Technology is rapidly changing. Even our own desires and our own plans and our own goals change. When we come to the Scriptures, we see the same thing. For example, in the beginning of Genesis, God works with particular people and families. Adam, Abraham. And then God works with bodies of families, with Israel. And now, in this time, God works with families abroad, in the entire world. Maybe another example. Israel had a physical temple. And at this temple, we're offered physical sacrifices. But now, Jesus Christ, our Lord, has come as the true sacrifice, and He is that true temple. Things in the world and things in the Scriptures change, and they adapt. But there is at least one thing that does not change, and that is God. And that's something that we see all throughout the Old Testament. Something that we even see in the prophets. Something that we'll see in Jonah. That the Lord is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow. That the Lord has worked in various ways and continues to work in various ways. But He has not and He will not change. And because of this, the Lord's plans The Lord's goals do not change. If you're familiar with the Gloria Patri in our hymnal supplement, I love the way that it says, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Because that is true of our Lord, isn't it? And because our Lord does not change, neither does His character. And probably the place to go to in the Bible that the Lord reveals this unchangeable character is in Exodus 34. Moses has just taken Israel out of Egypt. They've come to Sinai. Israel has sinned and Moses finds himself on top of Sinai and he asks the Lord to show him his glory. And the Lord complies. And the Lord declares His name to Moses. And as Moses declares His name, the Lord is declaring who He is through His name. I'll read. It starts in v. 6 of chapter 34. This is the Lord declaring to Moses. The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and to the fourth. Did you catch the attributes that the Lord reveals about himself there? On the one hand, he is merciful, and he is gracious, and he is slow to anger, he is abounding in steadfast love, and he is a forgiving God. But on the other hand, he will not clear the guilty. He will indeed punish the guilty. I think we can sum this up by saying that the Lord is one who is merciful, and just. He is not either or. He's not more merciful than he is just, but he is equally the same, all at once, both merciful and just. And when you think about that, there's sort of a tension that presents itself, isn't there? If someone breaks the law, should the courts be just or merciful to them? Just. They should punish the crime with the just punishment of that crime. But if someone that we love has wronged us and returns to us with repentance, should we be just? Or should we be merciful? I think we can say as Christians we should be merciful. We should forgive them. In love, we should fully accept them. So these two things, mercy and justice, seem to be opposed to one another. How can God be both of these equally at the same time? And this is indeed a tension that works itself out through the Bible. It's ultimately something that's worked out at the cross. As the Father sends Jesus to pay for sins fully. Justice paid. And the Father in turn, because of Jesus' work upon the cross, graciously shows mercy to us. Without giving up His justice. And now He can be merciful because of Christ. And we start here because This idea that the Lord is merciful and just is central to the book of Jonah. It runs through each chapter. It's a reality that each character in the book of Jonah encounters. In fact, in Jonah chapter 4, as we'll see a little bit later and in a few weeks, Jonah actually quotes Exodus 34. Not only is this truth about God central to Jonah, but it's central to each part of the Old Testament. You have the early, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. In the writings, in the Psalms, you see Exodus 34 reverberating all throughout the Psalms. In the prophets, in Jonah, this is something that is central. And as you look at what we call the 12 prophets, from Hosea to Malachi, you see this idea that the Lord is merciful and just. Again, reverberating throughout the witness of the twelve prophets. But there's also another thing grounded in the way the Lord is towards us because of His character. This unchanging Lord does not only intend to intimately know Abraham in Genesis and to stop there, or to intimately love and to know Israel and to stop there, but also the nations. The Lord never desired to only include Abraham or Israel, but he always had his eyes set for the entire nations. Abraham, if you read in Genesis 12, will be blessed so that he may be a blessing. The Lord will make Abraham's name great. And he will indeed bless Abraham. But Abraham is to be a blessing as well. And through Abraham all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now think about what Abraham, if you're familiar with Genesis, what he does when the Lord comes to him in Genesis 18 and says, I'm going to destroy Sodom. Do you remember what Abraham does? He falls to his knees and he pleads before the Lord. That if there's a righteous one in Sodom, the Lord would indeed spare them. You see, Abraham has in his mind what the Lord desires, that Abraham would be a blessing to the nations. It's interesting when you compare that to Jonah, who, as we saw in Jonah 1, the word comes to Jonah, and what does he do? He flees. But what was true of Abraham? That he was to be a blessing was also true of Israel. Like we said, Israel never existed for itself. Isaiah will even declare that Israel is to be a light to the nations. The Lord has always had his eyes set upon the nations. And this is something that we will see Abraham wrestling with and rubbing up against continually throughout the book of Jonah. I think one Reformed Old Testament theologian, I think, crystallizes this theme that runs throughout the book of Jonah. when he writes that the theme or the main purpose of Jonah is that the Lord is a God of boundless compassion, not just for us, i.e., Jonah and the Israelites, but also for them, as we'll see, the pagan sailors and the Ninevites. The Lord is unchanging. He is for us, He is for Jonah, He is for Israel, He is for us as the Church, and He is also for them, those in the world who have not yet called upon His name. Having looked at a couple things about Jonah or about the Lord in the book of Jonah, let us turn to Jonah. Because I believe that as one theme is that we have the unchanging Lord who is gracious and merciful but also just. We also will see something about Jonah continually throughout the book and his challenges that he presents. If you remember as we read through chapter 1 or verses 1 through 10 of chapter 1, as I said earlier, I think it captures One theme of this book, that Jonah struggles with the Lord's mercy and justice. Jonah's ongoing struggle to let the Lord's character shape his own heart and his own desires. And so we see that the Lord is merciful and just, and that Jonah rubs up against this. He doesn't necessarily desire the same things the Lord desires. And these two things, I think, converge in chapter 1, verses 1 through 10. And we'll see this, and let us look real briefly about the calling of a prophet. Moses meets the Lord at a burning bush in Exodus 3 and Exodus 6. Isaiah finds himself, if you're familiar with Isaiah 6, beholding the Lord on his throne. And Isaiah is sent to speak to Israel on behalf of the Lord. The word of the Lord in Jeremiah 1 comes to Jeremiah. And do you remember how the book of Jonah opens up? It says, The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for the evil has come up before me. And the next thing we read is that Jonah hightails it to get away from the Lord. He's like a fugitive trying to get out of town. It says, but Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. You see here, Jonah is called to go northeast to Nineveh. And instead, Jonah goes west. As far as Jonah can go. In fact, in terms of a map that they might have had back then, Jonah is going as far west as that map captures. And look at verses 1 through 10 really quick with me. And note how many times the text describes Jonah attempting to get away from the Lord. Look at verse 3. Jonah rose to flee the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa. He went down into the boat. to get away from the presence of the Lord. You see, he's fleeing from the presence. And then again, that's repeated, that he flees the presence of the Lord. Verse 5 reminds us that he went down and that he was sleeping. In verse 10, we learn that Jonah had already told the sailors what he was doing. He was fleeing from the Lord's presence. You see, this repetition in these first few verses are to grab our attention. Kids, when you want your parents to know what you want for your birthday, what do you do? You ask them, and you ask them, and you repeatedly ask them, and tell them, that's what you want. And that's sort of what the author here is doing. He's grabbing our attention by saying that Jonah is fleeing from the Lord. And we're told again, he's fleeing from the Lord. The author is trying to make us see that Jonah does not want to do what the Lord has told him to do. And He is going to get as far away as He can. And as we think about this, a question that's probably raised in our mind is, what's wrong with Jonah? What's Jonah's deal? Why is he fleeing from the presence of the Lord? Why does Jonah stand out among the prophets as the one who flees? If you're familiar with the prophets, usually they'll somewhat object. Lord, I'm not worthy to go. Lord, who am I? But the Lord sends them, and they eventually go. But Jonas sticks out, because he immediately flees from the Lord. As you can imagine, when there's a question like this raised in the Bible, there's always theologians jumping to answer the question. And sometimes we get multiple answers to that question. And I want to spend a few minutes looking at how these are answered, because I think they'll give us a helpful scope as we look at Jonah in the next few weeks, in answering, why does Jonah flee? There are some who say that Jonah is afraid of unfulfilled prophecy. What happens when a prophet in the Bible speaks and it doesn't come to pass? He's a false prophet. And some say here that Jonah knows that the Lord will not judge them, but he will show mercy upon them when they repent. And so Jonah flees because he does not want to be labeled as a false prophet. Some also say that the reason Jonah flees is because he fears that if he spares Nineveh, or the Lord spares Nineveh, that Nineveh will come and be a threat to Israel. Nineveh is in a region, as we would see later, as Assyria. We know that Assyria is not necessarily Israel's friend. They actually take God's people into exile. Another one would be that people say that Jonah thinks that for the Lord to show mercy upon Nineveh would be morally objectionable. That the Lord should carry out His justice upon the Ninevites. Because if He does not, then the Lord is not morally upright. The fourth one is that Jonah is just mere selfish. Jonah does not want to share the Lord's mercy with anyone else, and so he flees. Now, I don't know if you caught that all of these at least share one thing in common, regardless of what position you take. All of these have in common the idea that they presume God's mercy. All of them are getting at the idea that Jonah knows that the Lord is merciful. Jonah knows that the Lord will be merciful upon them. Jonah knows that the Lord is in the business of showing mercy to wicked people. You think of the first one, Jonah fears he'll be a false prophet because he presumes that the Lord will be merciful. But Nineveh can only pose a future threat because they'll exist because of God's mercy. Jonah fears there'll be a lack of justice because the Lord will indeed show mercy to Nineveh. And Jonah becomes selfish with his Lord and the mercy he's been shown because he presumes that the Lord will show mercy. And so to answer the question, what is Jonah's deal? What is Jonah's problem? Why does he flee? Because Jonah knows, Exodus 34, Jonah knows that the Lord is a God who is merciful and gracious. But Jonah has not allowed this knowledge of who the Lord is to fully seep into his own heart and to become his heart. He knows that the Lord is in the business of extending mercy and grace, but Jonah is not ready to be a part of that business. And if you look up to Jonah chapter 4, if you'll turn there with me briefly, Jonah chapter 4 verses 2, I think this is fully in a line with this idea we've talked about, that Jonah is opposed to the Lord showing mercy. See if you can catch the similarities to Exodus 34. And he prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, is this not Is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster." Jonah has fled because the Lord is merciful, because the Lord is abounding in steadfast love. I think we can all understand or are familiar with what it means to know something very, very well, and yet to not actually understand it. To know something extremely well, but to not actually understand it. And to use a personal illustration, when I was a kid, my dad taught me piano. He was a piano player, really desired that I would play. And I never really wanted to learn to play the piano, so I just sort of learned to pick up how to play by ear. But when he put music in front of me, I didn't know what I was doing. So on the one hand, I was playing the piano, but I actually didn't know anything about the piano, anything about musical notation. Or think about when we teach our kids the Catechism from a very young age. Our desire is to teach our children to be able to memorize of the words in the Catechism. We don't expect them to fully comprehend and understand immediately. But our hope is that as they memorize and as they grow older and ask questions, that they will take it to their own heart. And that what they confess in this Catechism will be what they believe and what they love and desire. Jonah, A prophet of the Lord knows that he is loved by the Lord. Jonah knows that the Lord has been merciful to him. And he knows that the Lord has a desire to bless the nations. Jonah's familiar with Scripture. He's familiar with what the Lord has said about himself. Maybe we could say that Jonah has a confessional knowledge. He knows his stuff. He knows his facts. But Jonah does not yet fully understand and grasp these things about the Lord. His heart is very distant from the Lord's heart. We can say that Jonah has a decent theology. He can even recite Exodus 34 like we saw in chapter 4, verse 2. But he doesn't get, and he does not want what the Lord wants and desires. If you think about it, That the Lord is merciful to those who don't deserve it. Those who are deserving of wrath. Abraham is undeserving. Israel is undeserving. And even Jonah himself has received the mercy of the Lord as someone who is undeserving. And his theology has not yet clicked for him. And so not only is Jonah a book about the Lord's character, the Lord who is a Lord of mercy and justice, The Lord who has his eyes set to the nations. It's also about Jonah's learning process. As Jonah struggles and as he tries to apprehend who the Lord is and what the Lord is about. Jonah narrates the Lord's long suffering and patience with Jonah as Jonah wrestles with the Lord's character. In chapter 1, as we'll see next week, Jonah flees from the Lord's presence down as far away as he can get. In chapter 2, he finds himself in the belly of a big fish. And he's rejoicing. He has a high point of repentance and trust in the Lord. And then in chapter 3, he willingly goes obediently to Nineveh. But then in chapter 4, after Nineveh, all of Nineveh has repented. What do we find? Jonah is complaining that the Lord has shown mercy. We see the law, the prophets, the writings, the Psalms that we've been looking at, they witness to this reality that the Lord is the God of mercy and justice. It also witnesses to the Lord's desire to bless the nations, not just Abraham, not just Israel, but all the families of the earth. And as we read Jonah, As we read Jonah in the next handful of weeks, we will constantly be reminded of the Lord's mercy and how it has been poured out upon us, the families of the earth. If you're familiar with Paul in Ephesians 2, listen to what he writes in verse 4. But God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and our trespasses made us alive together with Christ. And he writes nine verses later, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope without God in the world. But now Christ, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, have been brought near by his blood. And you see, in Christ, blessing us in Christ, he has not set aside his justice. In fact, He has fully satisfied His wrath by the death of His own Son. Our Lord Jesus came in our flesh. Our Lord came and kept the law perfectly for us. He bore our sin and He bore our shame, and He died the death that we deserve. Justice was paid in Christ's death. And because the Lord Jesus has satisfied His Father's wrath, The Father now shows mercy freely and pours it out upon us for the sake of Christ. As Pastor Austin said this morning, that the Lord is both the just and the justifier. Simultaneously, at the same time, He does not set aside His justice, for He is just. But because of what Christ has done, He can now freely justify us by His grace. That is the good news of the Gospel. In the next few weeks, in Jonah, the Lord desires to encourage you with this. By reminding you, again, every week, that the Lord has pursued you and poured out His mercy upon you, like He did to Jonah, and to the sailors, and to the Ninevites. The Lord desires to encourage you that He is the unchanging Lord of mercy and justice, and that He has seen fit to deal justly with our sin at the cross. The Lord desires to encourage you that you are not an afterthought, but the very reason the Father would send His Son into the world. And as the Lord encourages us in this, as He shows us His character as the God of mercy, we will also be challenged to be people that reflect the very heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, sometimes people read Jonah and think that Jonah was an unbeliever. Jonah flees from the Lord. Jonah disobeys the Lord. Jonah lacks compassion. Jonah is seen to complain to the Lord. With all these things brought up against Jonah, how could the Lord love Jonah? But as we see Jonah struggling with fully coming to a knowledge of who the Lord is, we should see ourselves. How often do we flee from the Lord when He desires for us to do something? How often in our days do we disobey the Lord? Do we not often lack compassion and mercy for those who don't deserve it? Are we not often the ones that instead of showing mercy or desiring to see mercy, we desire to see justice paid upon those who we love, those who treat us poorly? Yet the Lord is patient with us. He continually pours out His mercy upon us because of His Son, Jesus. And as we see Jonah struggling, and as we see the Lord's patience with him in the book of Jonah, we should see ourselves as ones who constantly need the Lord's patience and the Lord's mercy. And while Jonah knows a lot about the Lord, Jonah struggles to let it seep into his own heart, which is something we also struggle with as well. And Lord willing, in our time in Jonah, we will be challenged in the same way that Jonah is challenged in every chapter of Jonah. That we can bring our theology of who God is into our life. That our theology of who the Lord is will affect our actions and our affections for people. That as we reflect upon the Triune God of mercy and justice, as we see this Triune God in the face of Jesus Christ for us, that we will then reflect our Lord Jesus Christ. That we will let the cross-shaped Gospel shape our hearts into cross-shaped hearts, that we reflect Jesus Christ. Because we are ones who do not deserve the Lord's mercy. but He has been merciful to us. And we know that the Lord does not stop short by just forgiving us, but the Lord promises to change us and to transform us in our hearts. In the Lord's mercy and grace, He has purposed to recreate us in the image of Christ. And may the Lord use our time in Jonah to continue that work in us. Let us pray. Gracious Father, we rejoice and we are thankful that you saw fit to pour out mercy upon us by sending your Son into this world to pay for our sin upon his cross and to show unmeasurable grace and mercy to us because of it. Father, may you continue to build and strengthen our faith. Father, would you continue to impress upon our hearts this message of the gospel Father, may you continue to remold and reshape our hearts into the hearts of Christ. Father, as we reflect upon your character in the book of Jonah, would you by your work, through the power of the Spirit, be working in us? And we pray these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is exalted and given the name above every name. Jesus, amen.