Go ahead and take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Jonah. We'll be in chapter 1. Jonah chapter 1 and verses 4 and 5 will be our text this afternoon. Would you stand to your feet with me out of respect for God's Word and the reading of it? So you remember, Where we've read to this far, God gave a command to Jonah to go to Nineveh, and instead he goes to Joppa and takes the ship to Tarshish. And verse 4 says, 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. 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." Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we ask again this afternoon that You would give us eyes to see and ears to hear, and minds to understand, and hearts to feel and to respond to Your Word in the right way. We pray that You would help us as we consider the life of this prophet, that we would take to heart his mistakes, that we would consider what he did right, And that those would be exhortations to us by example of how we are to follow You and obey Your call in our lives. I pray that we would be known as lights and blessings to those that we are around and not the reason for cursings or judgment. That You'd make our church and each of us individually lights and blessings to our communities. that You would show grace and favor on this country by giving contrite hearts and repentance, particularly to Your people. We ask all this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Thank you for standing. You can be seated. Verse 4 opens up for us in some fateful words that may cause you to think of some other Bible passages, or it may cause you to think of some other truths, or maybe you haven't given much thought to it at all before, and hopefully that will change as we consider it this afternoon, but the Lord. But the Lord. Our book opens with God giving a command to Jonah. And that is going to set the foundation, that's going to be the premise off of which the rest of the book builds. Everything else in this book is going to center around the fact that God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. And everything else that happens now is going to be how Jonah related to God on that, and how God related to Jonah in His response, and how Nineveh related to Jonah going. All of these things hinge on the opening two verses of God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh. So that's our opening premise, is the first two verses. And then verse 3 gives us a contrast to that. But Jonah. Okay, not AND Jonah, or NOW Jonah, but BUT Jonah. And you might recognize that connecting word as contrasting the following clause with the previous clause. So we begin with the premise, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, and verse 3 contrasts what happens in verse 3 with that. Instead of obedience, BUT Jonah did the opposite. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, but Jonah went to Joppa, and from there toward Tarshish. And then we get another one in verse 4, but the Lord. Contrasting to what Jonah had just done. Now, imagine that verse 3 was the last verse in this story. Because this, but the Lord, seems severe. It seems harsh. But the Lord sent out, literally cast out, He purposefully, directly, threw, sent, pushed a wind into Jonah's path that was like to sink the ship that he was in. Now we look at that and we think, well, that wasn't very nice of God. But imagine if he hadn't have done that. Imagine if our story ended at verse 3, and Jonah makes it on a serene and tranquil lake, or sea, all the way to Tarshish, and what he does from there, who knows? It would have been just another one of those paragraphs like we read so many times in the Kings, and the Chronicles, and Samuel, and Judges, and other places, where we just get this little blip about a certain person, and we never hear anything else about them. No great purposes achieved. No entire cities with millions of people converted. No miraculous happenings of God's intervention through His creation. And so I have it in my notes that this, but the Lord, is a severe kindness of God. And many times, but the Lord, in spite of what we're doing, is a severe kindness. Many times when we're going about to directly oppose the premise for which God has made us, which is what? To glorify Him. To enjoy God and glorify Him. That's the premise of what man was created for. The chief duty of man. glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And when we're not doing that, but Joshua did this. God said, do this, but Joshua did this. That happens to me every day. I struggle with a passion, or a thought, or an action, or a word that is but Joshua, after what God has said. And then things happen in my life and I wonder, why is this happening this way? Why would God allow this to happen in my life? Why would God bring this into my path? And if we would step back, if I would step back and look at the entirety of it, what a severe kindness that, but the Lord put this in His path to bring Him back to where He wanted Jonah. To where He wants me and where He wants you. But Jonah did what but Jonah wanted to do. But God got the last word in. But the Lord sent a great wind. And so, what beautiful phrase that is. And maybe it causes you to think of that Scripture that tells us that but God who is rich in mercy, for the love wherewith He loved us. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But God, but the Lord, in spite of what we were doing, in spite of the path that we were on, in contrast to the fact that we were disobeying His Word, God intervenes and does all His holy will, and it turns out to be for our good and for His glory. and how thankful we can be that we have that severe kindness of the sovereignty of God. Kind of along that same train of thought is moving just past the, but the Lord. We see, but the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. And this rides on the coattails of everything we've been learning, or we learned in Job. And that is that the storms that come up in our life, the trials and the tribulations that we pass through, the difficulties, the sufferings, the sorrow, the grief, the tears, the hurt that we deal with, the times when the sea of life seems to be cast up on every side and we wonder where God is in it, it's God who governs that storm. It's God who sent that storm. It's not simply that the storm came up and God said, OK, I think I'll let it happen. But God sent the storm. He holds the winds in His treasuries, and He sends them forth at His decree. And just as the Lord created the great fish for Jonah, so He sent this storm for Jonah. And in the midst of the storm, when all the sailors are crying out to their gods and casting off their wares and thinking they're sure to die at any moment, their ship is sure to be cast back up upon the rocks and broken to pieces and they'll drown or be dashed against the rocks by the waves, that storm was sent by God. He had just as much control over that storm as He displayed while He was here on the earth. When at a moment He could say, Peace, be still. And it was. And we see that displayed here when immediately after they throw Jonah overboard, it's calm. God sends the storm, God rescinds the storm at His timing. And according to His good will and His good pleasure. this storm that the sailors were suffering. And almost ironically, and we'll get to that here in just a moment, Jonah is the only one who doesn't really seem to be suffering from it. But the principle remains the same, that the storm that Jonah was riding through was sent by God. That even when Jonah was in rebellion against God, God was governing every wave, every raindrop, every gust of wind to bring Jonah exactly where He wanted him to be in accordance with His divine purposes. Fourthly, we see in verse 5 that the mariners were afraid. The mariners were afraid, and Jonah wasn't. In fact, Jonah was asleep. Perhaps the most opposite you could be, to being afraid. To be in a sound sleep. Now I don't think this has as much to do with a firm faith and trust in God as when Jesus slept in the boat, as it does a hardened conscience. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. But I think it's something that verse 5 tells us that the mariners were afraid. And it takes us all the way to get to verse 9, before Jonah says that he fears God. Look down at verse 9. The captain's come down into the ship. He's woken Jonah up. Jonah's come up on deck, or they've come down to the cabin, wherever he is. They've cast lots. They've found out that it's Jonah. They said, what have you done? And Jonah says in verse 9, I am in Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven which hath made the sea and the dry land. His words didn't very well match up with his actions. Finally, after being held down and questioned directly about it, Jonah says, well, I fear God. But his actions didn't show that he feared God. When all the storm was raging, even the mariners were afraid, and Jonah wasn't. Makes me think of the New Testament Scripture. I'll believe that there is a God, I'll do as well. The devils also believe and tremble. They fear God. And what a convicting thought that the heathen might fear their idea, what they know of God, more than we fear what we know of the true and the living God. and show it in their actions. Turn over the book of Ecclesiastes if you want to with me. Back a few books. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12, we're told nothing less than that fearing God is part of our whole duty. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, And verse 13, as the preacher finishes up his book, he tells us, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. And the mariners were afraid, and Jonah finally later on says he feared God, but he didn't display that. And how often are you and I guilty of being a Jonah? If we're finally really put into a corner and demanding an answer, we'll say we fear God. But our lives don't reflect that. In the middle of the storm, we're not there with the mariners praying to our God. In the midst of the storm, we're not there telling the mariners about the true God. but rather we're content to simply lie asleep in the bottom of the boat and let the boat wreck and let them all be damned for our foolishness while we sleep, while we slumber." What a frightful thought and a convicting thought if we're honest with ourselves or if I'm honest with myself. So the mariners feared. The world was an example to Jonah. The heathen made a pattern of what God's person should have been doing. He should have been fearing God, and he didn't. He was rebelling against Him, and rebelling against God is a sure sign that you don't fear God. Those two don't mix. Likewise, all the heathen prayed while Jonah slept. Not only did they fear while Jonah didn't fear, but they acted upon their fears while Jonah continued in his slumber, happy and content to be by himself down on the sides of the ship, caring nothing for the lives of the other mariners or even his own life seemingly, happy to sleep the storm away while they did all of the work. while they were the ones who continued to fear, while they were the ones who continued to pray. Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 29 speaks a little bit to this issue, but really, It seems to me that it actually raises more questions than it answers when laid alongside this passage of Scripture. Proverbs 15 and verse 29 says, "...the Lord is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayer of the righteous." So what happens when the wicked are praying and the righteous aren't? Because that's what's happening here in Jonah. Now the wicked men, the mariners, the heathen, they're praying to all the wrong gods. They don't know the true God, who governs heaven and earth. But the one man who could have shown them, and who finally later on does show them, who they ought to be praying to, who really controls the wind and the waves, He's not there teaching them how to pray. He's not praying at all for Himself. He's not like faithful Daniel, who, in spite of every command to the opposite, continues to pray to his God. Jonah is the antithesis to that. In the time when it would seem most easy to pray, in the time when everyone is begging him to pray, the heathen come to him and say, wake up and pray to your God. And he's sleeping. He doesn't pray. How do our prayer lives match up? Are we closer to the heathen mariners, or are we closer to Jonah? And again, what a shame that the world would set a pattern for the people of God, or at least so-called. We also find in our text that our sins have a direct effect on those that are around us. Jonah was in a ship with men of all different backgrounds. You see that in verse 5. They cried, every man unto his God. Now what that seems to tell us is that there wasn't unified God or even gods among the people who were manning that ship. But it seems as though everyone had his own individual God. And so you have a man from Ethiopia praying to his Ethiopian gods, and you have the man up in the rigging who's from Egypt, and he's praying to his Egyptian god, and you have the man at the helm, and he's from Asia Minor, and he's praying to his gods from Asia. And all these men, and the Jews actually, in their extra-biblical writings on this, say that there was here represented someone from every one of the 70 nations that were then there on the earth. Now, the Bible doesn't tell us that there was quite that much diversity. Maybe there was, maybe there wasn't. But here's this great diversity of men from all different places of the world with all their own religious cultures and backgrounds and environmental influences that had brought them to this point. And every one of them are affected less by their idolatry, and more by Jonah's rebellion. It's not for their idolatry that God was sending the ship. Now, am I saying that their idolatry was okay? No. Their idolatry was abominable. It would send them to hell. But Jonah's rebellion is what brought them into that temporary, tangible situation that they were currently in. We quoted this last week, I think, that he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed, Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 20 tells us. And here is the astonishing thing about this story, as we continue to deal with the complexities of someone who claims to be one of God's people living in rebellion, Jonah shouldn't have cast his lot in among the heathen. And even more so, I would say, by the morals of this story, the heathen shouldn't have accepted a Jonah among their number. Now think about that. The heathen shouldn't have accepted a prophet of God among their number. Why? Because he wasn't about God's work. Just the opposite, he was in rebellion to God. He was seeking to flee from God, as we looked at last week. To run from the presence of the Lord. And when we cast our lot in among those who are in rebellion against God, whether they claim the name of the Lord or not, we're asking for trouble. Because a companion of fools, proverbially, will be destroyed. And as we said last week, so it would have been the case here for all of these false God-worshipping mariners. They would have all been destroyed because of Jonah's sin had God not so kindly and miraculously intervened. Verse 5 tells us that they cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea. And this was a common practice. We see it again in the New Testament when the apostle Paul is on a ship that's about to be shipwrecked. They're casting all of their load off into the sea. Of course, the more wares you have on your ship, the lower it's going to ride in the water. And when you have huge waves and big storms, the lower your boat rides in the water, the more likely it is to get swamped and to sink. So you cast your wares off in order to make your boat ride higher on the waves and less likely that the waves would completely swamped your ship and caused it to sink. But little did they know yet that the heaviest load on their ship was the man sleeping below. And more specifically, his sin. his rebellion. That is what had brought this storm on. That is what caused this ship and the providence of God to ride low in the water, not the salt or the silver or the gold or the spices or whatever else they may have been carrying in their ship that they were offloading as they threw it over the sides, but they come to find out that it's throwing Jonah over the side that lightens the ship, and more specifically calms the storm. Psalm 38, verse 4. The psalmist speaks of his sins in this very picturesque way. He likens it to a sinking ship. Psalm 38, verse 4. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head, as in heavy burden they are too heavy for me." And that causes the imagery to come to our mind of this ship. It's heavy. The iniquities are rising up over his head and he doesn't have any way to get buoyancy. His sins weigh him down, cause him to sink down below the service. And so it is with Jonah and with these mariners. And the lesson that I think this teaches us is that changing the tangibles won't fix the spiritual. The mariners throw all the load, all the wares overboard, and it doesn't change anything. The storm's still there, the ship's still on the verge of sinking. They've done everything they know to do physically possible to change their situation, to change their circumstances, and it doesn't change anything because it hasn't yet addressed the root problem, the spiritual problem, Jonah's rebellion, what has brought about this judgment from God in the form of this great storm. And we hear it said again and again, and I think sometimes we don't hear it enough. But turning over a new leaf does nothing if the heart isn't changed. Getting a new set of friends, wearing new clothes, hanging out with new people, going to new places, taking up new hobbies, getting a new job, none of that will ultimately fix the storm that you're riding out if the heart hasn't been affected. If there hasn't been true repentance and change brought to the heart, then change all the tangibles you want to and be amazed when the storm is still there. People do it every day. I've been guilty of it before. It's our human nature to want to try to fix things ourselves without humbling ourselves. without causing ourselves to be laid low before the God of the universe who commands all these storms in the midst of our lives. And lastly, I want to look at four things about Jonah being fast asleep, as the Scriptures say. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. How hard of a conscience does it take to sleep while everyone around you is about to die for your sins? That's the situation that Joan is in. The ship is about to be broken to pieces. It's about to be sent to the bottom of the ocean with all the mariners on it, and it's for Jonah's sake. Jonah knows it's for his sake. He immediately says it's for his sake when he awakens, and yet he sleeps. This made me think of the story in 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 3 gives us a story that although Solomon had many judgments, this story is known as the judgment of Solomon. And in the judgment of Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 3, we read this famous story starting in verse 16. Then came there two women that were harlots unto the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, O my Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also. And we were together, there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead. But when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay, but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No, but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. Then said the king, The one that saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead. And the other saith, Nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king, and the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son. And she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. She is the mother thereof. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment." Now we read that story and we think, wow, that was really wise of Solomon to think of that. But this is that principle that Solomon was working off of under the divine wisdom that God had given him. The one who really loved those around them wouldn't want them to die. And the one who would say, I don't care if they die, is the one who has no love. And that's how he decided to mother. Now, apply that to Jonah. Jonah lies asleep and cares nothing for whether all the other mariners in the ship with him die. Where is the love that is supposed to be evidence of God dwelling with His people there? You know, that's one of the evidences. Even in the Old Testament, in trying to determine whether someone was really a child of God or not, what was their love toward God? What was their love toward their fellow man? David was a sinner. But he loved God, he loved Jonathan, he honored the king. Saul was a sinner and we read none of that about him. So what do we discern? The one has love for God and his fellow man and the other does not. And Jonah is in no wise displaying the effects of a true child of God here. Now whether this is a temporary rebellious, backslidden, whatever you want to call it, state, whether this is indicative of something deeper, I cannot judge. But certainly it's something we want to consider that is never said of us. That our hearts become so hardened that we're just fine with seeing everyone around us perish while we sleep, especially when they're perishing because of our foolishness, because of our rebellion. The fact that he could sleep at all, secondly, tells us that he was in a spiritual slumber before he was ever in his physical slumber. Romans chapter 11 and verse 8 tells us about this spiritual slumber that comes on some. Romans 11, speaking of those who were blinded, Israel obtained the election, the election obtained it, and the rest were blinded. And verse 8 says, according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And this seems to be the spirit that Jonah was under. a spiritual slumber that causes him to be rebelling against God, that causes him to be completely disconcerned with his fellow man, hateful toward Nineveh, caring less about God and the other men on the ship, completely oblivious, completely self-centered. What does Jonah want? What will make Jonah happy? What will make Jonah look good in the eyes of the people of Israel? Caring nothing about God or his fellow man, that is proof of a spiritual slumber. Some have suggested, and based on all the rest of the context of the book of Jonah, I don't know that I particularly see it this way, much more learned and godly men than I have suggested, that perhaps this was a sleep of sorrow. In Luke chapter 22 and verse 45, when Jesus is praying in the garden, and He comes back to find His disciples sleeping, it says of them that they were sleeping for sorrow. In Luke 22 and verse 45, he came back and he found them sleeping for sorrow. And so some have suggested that perhaps Jonah's conscience was so heavy now and he was so grieved in his heart of his sin against God that his slumber was actually not a sign of his hardened conscience, but was rather a spiritual, emotional, and physical fatigue. that have completely come together to cause him to sleep in the sides of the ship. And, like I said, perhaps that is the case, perhaps it's not. You can consider that and lay it against Scripture and decide. But lastly, in application for us, let us be vigilant that we do not sleep while God judges all those around us, particularly when it's for our sins. We speak much of the judgment of God that deserves to come on this country for the wickedness of those who are outside of Christ. God ought to judge America because of all the babies they're killing. God ought to judge America because of the homosexuality and the sexual sins that are prevalent throughout our government and throughout our land. And I don't say that those aren't deserving of the judgment of God. But think again to that principle that I pointed out. God wasn't judging this ship for the idolatry of the heathen. He was judging it for the disobedience of his prophet. And perhaps there is judgment impending over our country because of the failure of God's people to obey. The Church, whether it be so-called or real, and their apathy, that we've grown very comfortable in Egypt, that God's people have become apathetic in Babylon, and when the doors are opened for them to see their home country, they're happy just to stay right where they're at. I heard quite a bit this weekend as I was listening to some teaching. We looked at 1 Peter, and the theme, it seems, of 1 Peter is that we are living as exiles. We are living as aliens, as foreigners. This world truly is not our home. We really do have citizenship in another country. We really do serve another king. And yet the professing people of God in this country have become very apathetic, blending just as well with the world as Jonah did with the rest of the mariners in the ship. And the judgment of God hangs over that ship, and it's not for the idolatry of the mariners, but for the rebellion of Jonah. And we would do well to heed the words spoken prophetically in 2 Chronicles, both to Israel and I think to us today, if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land." The healing of the land, there wasn't a need for a healing of the land because of the wickedness of the world, but because God's people needed to pray and turn from their wicked ways. Let us not be found as Jonahs, happy to sleep, while judgment comes. But let us be found vigilant, awake, alert, watchful, redeeming the time for the days are evil, calling the nation to repentance, not being satisfied with the slope that we're going down, but calling the church to repentance and back to God, and calling our culture to repentance and to turn to Christ equally. Let's pray. Father, we don't want to be like Jonah. We want to be like the one who Jonah typified in the belly of the whale. We want to be like Your Son, the Lord Jesus. We want to always be found faithful in calling all around us to repentance. in calling ourselves to repentance. Oh Father, give us eyes that are able to objectively consider, examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith. Give us Hearts that love you and that love those around us so much that we are not content to sleep while the ship sinks. But let us be ever found doing the will of the Father. Let us follow the example that our Lord set for us. Let us live in the reality which has been purchased for us. that we would be found faithful. That on the final day, through Christ, it could be said of us, well done, thou good and faithful servant. So give this church boldness, wisdom, vigilance. Give each of us as individuals, give the fathers and the heads of the households the ability to lead their families in such a way that we would have direct impact as your people on the culture that's around us. We ask, again, that you would do all of this for your own glory. In Jesus' name, Amen. God bless you. Hope you have a good afternoon, and I'll see you Wednesday night, if not before.