Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] A couple of weeks ago, my family was around the dinner table and we were debating what would be the worst way to die.
[00:00:11] Now this is just Haskins discussion. Weird and awkward, morbid at times. And we were talking about drowning, dying in a fire, or falling.
[00:00:22] And ironically, my son named Jonah said these words, Drowning isn't a big deal, and I'll let you find him. And he can elaborate on his reasoning why, which, if you know him, it was crazy and bizarre, but it's true. Jonah has. My son Jonah has never thought or feared water, the dangers of water.
[00:00:52] He's always thought he could swim very well, even before he knew how to swim.
[00:00:58] On one of our very first trips to the beach, after he was a part of our family, we stayed in a condo. Someone had sent us to this condo, and it had a lazy river, if you know what I'm talking about, that went all the way around the condo. And that's where most people stayed during the day. Crowds of people are there.
[00:01:20] For me, that's kind of nasty. And I don't want to be in there a part of that.
[00:01:24] But for my kids, this is where they want it to be every day.
[00:01:29] And one day I'm sitting there and I watch all five of Jonah's siblings just run out and jump right into this lazy river. And here's Jonah. He couldn't have been more than three years old, and he does not know how to swim.
[00:01:45] But because his siblings did this, he runs right behind. And so there's plop, plop, plop, plop. And then plop, Jonah into the water. And again, you've seen these things. There's lots of people and there's a current going around. And I'm watching this and I begin to panic, and I run around and I finally get over to some steps and I pull Jonah to the side, and I look at him, I'm like, are you okay?
[00:02:12] And he has just sorta bobbed around this lazy river, jumping up and down, keeping his head above water.
[00:02:22] And I look at him and say, what are you doing? And he says, swimming.
[00:02:27] And I said, jonah, that's not what you're doing.
[00:02:30] You're drowning.
[00:02:34] And then around the same time, we were at a friend's house and they had a pool, and we were outside, and all of the adults are over to the side talking, engaged in conversation.
[00:02:48] And we turn around and there is an inner tube afloat in the deep end of this pool.
[00:02:55] And we see Jonah's two legs just kicking above this inner tube. And he just thought, man, that inner Tube is a target and I want to jump and see what's in that hole.
[00:03:10] And about three years old, can't swim yet he jumps in and thankfully he got stuck in the inner tube and we were able to see him in the commotion. And my friend jumps in and rescues him.
[00:03:24] No fear of water.
[00:03:26] And as we come to the book of Jonah, we have seen that this Jonah, the prophet Jonah has no fear.
[00:03:34] But it is no fear of God first and foremost.
[00:03:38] And up until this point he has no fear of drowning. Remember the story. The word of God comes to this prophet to go and warn Nineveh, this pagan city, of their sin against God.
[00:03:53] And the thought is if they hear of their sin and repent, they will receive the mercy of God.
[00:04:01] But the self righteous prophet says, no, I'm not going to do that. He hates the Ninevites, they are barbaric, they are sinful people. And so he refuses the word of God and he heads to a city, Tarshish.
[00:04:16] But God on the sea sends a storm, a violent storm after his prophet.
[00:04:25] And if Jonah is not tossed overboard, this storm will crush the boat, the ship on which he travels, and all of the sailors who are crying out for God's mercy.
[00:04:40] And the only thing God will accept is that Jonah would be sent overboard.
[00:04:46] And as Jonah is cast into the sea, the storm ceases its raging.
[00:04:52] And up until this point, Jonah has not been scared of God.
[00:04:57] And to be honest, he's not scared of water.
[00:05:01] Jonah made the conscious decision to walk the plank.
[00:05:05] Jonah is thinking in his mind that he's going to go over to the side of this boat and he's going to die.
[00:05:12] And he has no fear up until this point. But notice what God does. Again, Jonah finds himself safe in the serpent.
[00:05:23] Notice verse 17.
[00:05:25] And the Lord appointed. The word appointed means to arrange.
[00:05:29] So before Jonah goes over the side, God has planned something and it is a great fish. Now this is a generic word we have well that comes to mind. And it could very well be a well, probably the Leviathan that's mentioned elsewhere in scripture.
[00:05:49] But it's a generic sea creature. We don't really know what it is that is waiting on Jonah. But notice God has arranged it to swallow him up, to gulp him down.
[00:06:04] And notice. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. So he goes from the belly of the boat trying to escape God to now the belly of the fish in the plans and purposes of God headed toward Nineveh. Now I know one of the questions many of you are Asking is, did that really happen?
[00:06:26] I mean, this sounds very cartoonish.
[00:06:30] This sounds make believe.
[00:06:33] And first of all, I would say to you that there are lots of supernatural events and stories in moments in the Bible that to believe the Bible, you just have to accept that that really happened. You realize the Bible is one story, Genesis to Revelation.
[00:06:52] And to say one part of the Bible didn't happen, then why in the world would you believe any else, anything else that happened in the Bible to say that this didn't happen? Why would you believe in the resurrection of Christ?
[00:07:06] And Jesus himself, in referring to this story, referred to it as literal fact that Jonah spent three days in the belly of a fish and that eventually the Ninevites repented. He referred to it as fact. So if Jesus says it's fact, I'm going to believe it's fact.
[00:07:29] But notice where we find Jonah safe in the belly of a fish.
[00:07:37] This is God's plans and purposes. We might say he's safe in the arms of God.
[00:07:44] And in many of our minds, we think about Jonah at this moment, and we do think cartoonish thoughts.
[00:07:51] We do think that this, well, is kind of Toy Story. Well, hey, buddy, Jonah, you got a friend in me. I'm going to rescue you and get you to Nineveh.
[00:08:04] But let's think about what this would have been like for him.
[00:08:10] The storm, the raging of God on the sea. A storm like these sailors had never seen.
[00:08:18] And he's tossed into it, hoping when he hits the water, he dies, only to find himself still alive and watching the boat disappear into the night.
[00:08:35] And as he sinks to the bottom, the panic sets in.
[00:08:40] What have I done?
[00:08:43] It's over.
[00:08:45] And then all of a sudden, to be engulfed into the belly of a sea creature. And this isn't Pinocchio. There's no candle that he can light in there. If you've seen that Disney movie, he doesn't know what's going on.
[00:09:05] He's all of a sudden in the belly of a sea creature.
[00:09:11] Fluids, bile, whatever's there, Stitch smushed in what is happening to me.
[00:09:22] And notice what he does.
[00:09:24] He prays.
[00:09:26] And here in verses 1 and 2, we see his rebellion has led him to this desperate place. And to understand our sin, we have to understand how desperate of a place our sin has taken us. And this is where Jonah is. And this is why he is terrified in this moment.
[00:09:47] And notice what he does. He prays to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish. Now, he didn't want to do that on the boat. He's asleep.
[00:09:57] He doesn't want to call out to his God with the pagan pirates.
[00:10:03] But now he's in a desperate situation.
[00:10:06] And so he cries to the Lord, his God the Great, I am the one who keeps all of his promises, the one who told Moses, I am who I am, meaning I do what I say I will do. This is who he cries out to, because this is the only one who can help him in this moment.
[00:10:27] And he says, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, out of my affliction, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. This introduces a psalm of thanksgiving from the belly of the fish.
[00:10:45] But notice where Jonah understands himself to be the belly of Sheol.
[00:10:52] This is the place of the dead. This is the graveyard. This is the last stop for all humanity. This is where you go when it's all over. Jonah sees himself as good as dead. And notice he prays, he calls out, he cries out.
[00:11:11] This is desperation.
[00:11:14] When in your life have you cried out to God this way?
[00:11:23] When was the last time you cried out to God in this way?
[00:11:26] What moments or events in your life caused you to realize desperation and your helplessness in the reality that you could do nothing for your circumstances and you had no choice but to call out to God?
[00:11:47] Maybe out of nowhere there's an accident, and it's almost that guttural scream, God, help.
[00:11:57] Maybe working on your marriage, and you get to a point where I don't know what else to do, and you get on your hands and knees and you cry out to God, maybe in the face of sickness, and you realize there's nothing anyone else can do, but God is the only one who can bring about good in this moment. God is the only one who can heal and restore. And you cried out to God.
[00:12:26] Maybe it had something to do with your children.
[00:12:29] They were sick, they were lost.
[00:12:34] Maybe it was crying out for their salvation.
[00:12:38] And on your face you screamed, God, please just save them, because you realized you couldn't do it.
[00:12:47] When was the last time you cried out in desperation for God?
[00:12:52] Did it have anything to do with your sin?
[00:12:58] Have you ever come to terms with the fact that your sin has put you in the most desperate circumstance before God.
[00:13:08] Your sin has caused the most desperation before God. And you only scream out for help when you are convinced you desperately need help.
[00:13:21] And so have you ever felt that way because of your sin?
[00:13:25] I can do nothing about my sinful condition. I have to cry out to God.
[00:13:33] That's what faith Is faith isn't just this checklist. I go from one step to the next. Check the box.
[00:13:42] Faith is understanding the desperate consequences that your sin has caused before God and realizing he is the only one who can help. And you cry out to God for help. The reason we aren't desperate understanding our sinful condition is because we don't want to think about sin. In that way, we minimize our sin, our rebellion against God. We know what the word of God says, but we said, I'm going to do my own thing.
[00:14:11] Even convicted by the spirit, I'm going to do my own thing.
[00:14:15] I'm going to live for myself. We minimize sin.
[00:14:20] We act like it's just kind of eating unhealthy.
[00:14:24] I know that's bad for me.
[00:14:27] I know that extra cookie isn't good.
[00:14:31] We treat sin that way. It's not a big deal.
[00:14:35] We say things like, well, God knows my heart.
[00:14:38] He's going to give me the benefit of the doubt.
[00:14:41] We always add to that, yes, God does know your heart. He says, it's desperately wicked.
[00:14:46] You need to get away from your heart.
[00:14:50] We abstract sin.
[00:14:52] We make it as just a part of our doctrinal statement.
[00:14:57] To get in, you have to check that box that you believe in sin.
[00:15:01] To get in, you have to say, I'm a sinner.
[00:15:05] We generalize sin.
[00:15:07] We say things like, yeah, I know I'm a sinner, but everybody's a sinner.
[00:15:11] My kids, when we would discipline them, and I've heard stories from other people where this would happen and we would set them down, we'd say, you know you've sinned.
[00:15:22] Yes, Daddy, I know I've sinned. I don't think they called me Daddy, But, Dad, I know I've sinned.
[00:15:29] Yes, I know I've sinned, but everyone's a sinner. You're a sinner. Mommy's a sinner, Titus is a sinner, Nathan is a sinner, Isaac is a sinner, Anna is a sinner, Charis is a sinner. And I guess you know I'm talking about Jonah. So here we are.
[00:15:48] I didn't mean to do that, Jonah.
[00:15:51] I didn't mean to do that.
[00:15:56] Everyone's a sinner. And we convince ourselves it's not that big of a deal. We generalize it, look at the world around us. Everyone is like me. What's the big deal? But here's the big deal. Notice verse 3. Sin makes God your enemy.
[00:16:12] For you cast me into the deep. Notice you.
[00:16:16] Jonah, in this moment understands that God is above all gods. Lord of lords. And if this is happening to him, it's according to God's providence. So God has cast him into the deep, into the heart of the sea, into the middle of the ocean. No one's around this place of despair.
[00:16:35] And the rivers surrounded me like he pictures himself at this point in the judgment of God. Right in the middle of the judgment of God. And there's no way out.
[00:16:47] The floods, the rivers of your judgment, have the word here surrounded is like an army that's cornered me. I can't get away from your judgment. All of your breakers and your waves passed over me. So every ounce of water that is drowning him, he sees as from the Lord.
[00:17:08] This is what God has done.
[00:17:12] This is your judgment, God, upon my sin, my rebellion.
[00:17:17] Now, in Scripture, water is symbolic for judgment. Remember, in chapter one, God takes the wind and waves like a weapon and hurls them at the boat.
[00:17:29] We see this with the flood, where God destroys millions who are rebelling against him. And. And he uses water to do it.
[00:17:39] We see this at Exodus, in the Exodus, as the people of God walk through the Red Sea, and God wipes out Pharaoh's army with water.
[00:17:49] Water. This mysterious, chaotic place is used for judgment.
[00:17:55] And this is what we symbolize in baptism.
[00:17:59] That I have already been plunged into judgment, the waters of chaos, the fury of God's wrath in Christ, who is immersed in judgment for my sin. I've already been baptized into judgment and raised up. Water is symbolic for judgment. And Jonah knows that here, as he tastes the salt water, as he plunges, as he suffocates, this is what God is doing. Jonah did not accidentally trip and fall into this.
[00:18:33] God sent him there. This is God's justice. And notice, verse 4. Then I said, I am driven from your sight. You. You are the one driving me away, God. And it's the same terminology used in Genesis 3, when Adam sins. And Adam is driven like cattle out of the garden, away from the presence of God. In the garden, there was life and goodness in obedience to God's word. When Adam rebels, rebels against God, he is driven out of the garden. And Jonah sees himself in the same way. This is the consequence for his sin, to be driven away from his sight. Where is God's sight? Notice yet again, I will look into your holy temple. My only hope is to be accepted in your sight and in your presence. And that's in the holy temple. This is where God's presence resided with his people in the land.
[00:19:26] And Jonah feels himself so far away from this place, driven from the Blessing and favor of God.
[00:19:33] And notice the description continues. The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head. And the picture of the language here is just. He keeps sinking lower and lower. The water is at his neck. You could translate life neck. And then it is over his head.
[00:19:55] And then he's trapped at the bottom in the weeds.
[00:20:00] And so we've seen Jonah. If you go back to chapter one, he runs from the Lord and he heads down to get the boat. And then he's down in the boat and now he is sinking down, down, down.
[00:20:15] Ring of fire. No, just down, down, down in the water. I had to. That just came to my mind.
[00:20:24] But down, down, down is the narrative.
[00:20:29] And he's sinking lower than anyone could imagine going. And he's trapped there.
[00:20:35] The weeds are. He's a prisoner in the sea.
[00:20:39] And notice verse 6. The roots of the mountains. I went down to to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. There was the idea that mountains grew out of the ocean.
[00:20:52] And I went to the bottom of the mountains, these massive mountains that you see on. I was at the bottom. The roots of the mountains were like bars of a prison for me.
[00:21:04] There is getting, there's. He's not getting any lower here. There's no coming back.
[00:21:10] This is his desperate condition because he has sinned against God.
[00:21:15] And we see here your waves breakers, waters flood your sight.
[00:21:24] His sin has made God his enemy and so has your sin.
[00:21:30] I know this offends our self idolizing sensibilities that God has said this is good and this is right and I'm holy and I know what is good and right for you. And so I'm commanding you to do it for your good. And us saying no to him that he becomes our enemy.
[00:21:53] That can't be true, right?
[00:21:58] God is just so absolutely in love with me. How could you say he's ever been my enemy?
[00:22:04] Well, your sin is a personal offense against God.
[00:22:10] You get that, right?
[00:22:12] God is a person who has spoken good things to you and commanded you to do what's right. And you said no, it's not as though God just shrugs his shoulders and says, oh well, I'll try again later.
[00:22:27] No, this is the holy infinite God of the universe who you've said this little peon made out of dirt, finite creature. I know better than you, that's personal with God.
[00:22:43] Your sin, the ways you sin are personal with God.
[00:22:48] And it is to reject him. His word is his personal revelation of himself. And when you reject his Word you are rejecting him.
[00:22:58] The things in his word that you say, I ain't doing it. You are rejecting God, and he's infinitely holy and he's infinitely right. And so it's an infinite offense and you deserve infinite justice, which can only be experienced in hell forever.
[00:23:19] Just like Adam is separated from the life and goodness of God, from the garden. When you sin, you deserve to be separated from God forever, in death and eternal death, never knowing the life and goodness of God again.
[00:23:35] That's what hell is. Only knowing God's justice and judgment. That's what you deserve. That's an infinite justice for your infinite sin against an infinite, holy and perfect God.
[00:23:49] And we know how this works out in the world, right?
[00:23:53] If you sin against just a terrible person, a scumbag, people go, ah, that guy deserved it.
[00:24:07] Maybe you don't murder him, but you just, you know, don't pay him what he's owed, cheat him the way he's cheated others.
[00:24:18] People go, man, he deserves that.
[00:24:22] There's really no fury that comes from others.
[00:24:27] But what if you sinned against an innocent child in any way?
[00:24:34] People go, oh, no, you can't do that. What did they do?
[00:24:38] This helpless, innocent child that you sinned against?
[00:24:42] We automatically think there is some kind of justice you deserve for that.
[00:24:47] That fits the crime, right?
[00:24:51] What about God, who is pure and perfect and righteous and loves and commands you to do what is good and right?
[00:25:05] There's no sin within God.
[00:25:08] He is innocent, he is perfect, and you've sinned against him.
[00:25:15] That's who you've sinned against.
[00:25:18] Above any sort of illustration that we could come up with. God is holy and God is righteous. And you've got to understand that your sin is a personal offense against a holy and righteous God. That's what it is.
[00:25:32] And God sees it that way. And that's why Jonah is in the middle of the ocean, gasping for breath.
[00:25:42] But notice the text continues. We understand the gravity of our sin. We will understand only God can save us.
[00:25:49] Yet you brought up my life, meaning you delivered me from the pit. This is the pit of death.
[00:25:54] And he says, oh, Lord, my God. Now he wants to cry out to his God and give God credit and thanksgiving. Remember, the pirates are worshiping God, doing this very thing. Offerings of thanksgiving. And here Jonah says, I'll do it now.
[00:26:09] When my life was fading, no breath left. I remember the Lord and my prayer came to you in your holy temple.
[00:26:18] Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope. The word for vain here is empty, useless, vain.
[00:26:25] And so the pagans on the ship who are crying out to their. That was just. That was like grasping at sand.
[00:26:33] You weren't going to do. They weren't going to do anything for them. They were forsaking their hope of steadfast love. No, the God of Israel is the one who's made a covenant with Abraham's descendants. And he has steadfast love. And he will do everything he says he will do. He will fulfill all of his promises to. So why would you. Why would you look to a vain idol?
[00:26:53] It's like vapor. It's empty.
[00:26:57] But I will, with a voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed. I will pay.
[00:27:03] Now Jonah wants to do what he has committed to do. And why is this notice just this exclamation of praise?
[00:27:12] Salvation belongs to the Lord.
[00:27:18] This means that the Lord owns or possesses salvation. So if you're going to be saved, the Lord must do it.
[00:27:27] So in Jonah's desperate condition, the only one who owns or possesses salvation and can rescue him is the Lord. The Lord God of Israel, who created everything, who does everything he says.
[00:27:42] And Jonah sees himself as a part of the people of God, so he will rescue me. Even in this desperate condition, we go back to the idea of desperation.
[00:27:53] You only cry out when you realize how desperate you are, and you only cry out to God when you realize he's the only one who can save you.
[00:28:04] And this is the gospel, that salvation belongs to the Lord.
[00:28:09] You see, the truth is, because of our sin, we are dead.
[00:28:14] We are dead in our sin and trespasses. Ephesians, chapter two.
[00:28:19] What that means is I have chosen to separate myself from God and that spiritual suicide from his life and his goodness. And I'm going to do things my way.
[00:28:29] That is a condition of deadness.
[00:28:33] And we come into the world with dead hearts, a disposition to. Okay, I'm dead in my sin. And what I'm going to choose to do is to die even more and keep sinning.
[00:28:45] And this is the disposition of our heart.
[00:28:50] And the Bible says that only the Lord possesses the power to change your heart.
[00:28:58] And by the Spirit of God, the Lord is the one who possesses the power.
[00:29:05] This is where faith comes from, when our hearts are transformed.
[00:29:10] What the Book of John talks about being born again.
[00:29:14] What Titus chapter three talks about regeneration.
[00:29:18] You can't. Dead people can't make themselves alive.
[00:29:22] You can't make your dead heart alive to God. God is the one who possesses the power to do that for you.
[00:29:31] Salvation belongs to the Lord. He is the Only one who can awaken you from your dead condition. It is a desperate condition.
[00:29:40] You also find yourself guilty of infinite sin that we just talked about.
[00:29:45] And so how are you going to make that payment? You can't.
[00:29:48] There's only one whose life is perfect and pure who can be the payment for your infinite guilt. And it is Jesus. Jesus is the only one.
[00:29:59] The salvation belongs to the Lord.
[00:30:03] The perfect sacrifice in the Lord Jesus Christ belongs to God, who has given Jesus for you as a payment for your sin. He is the only sufficient sacrifice.
[00:30:16] And we understand that to get into heaven we must be perfect. And you go, I can't do that.
[00:30:23] Perfection does not notice belong to me.
[00:30:26] But because salvation belongs to the Lord, the righteousness that you need to stand before God belongs to Him. And he has given it in Christ.
[00:30:37] His perfect life. When you believe in him, when you trust in him is credited to you and it covers your imperfect, unrighteous life.
[00:30:46] This is how salvation belongs to the Lord. It is only in Christ that you can be saved. It is only through Christ that you will be sa of your sin. Not in yourself, not in anything else, not in anyone else, any other activity, any tradition, who you are, the way you were raised. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Only, and only in Christ will you be saved.
[00:31:12] See, a lot of times we think about salvation as God left heaven in a rescue boat and we were just out in the middle of life sea and we were trying really hard and we were fighting, but we just couldn't make it.
[00:31:29] And so God comes along in his rescue boat, he throws out a life preserver and we grab it and he pulls us in.
[00:31:39] That's not the gospel.
[00:31:44] The gospel is you dove headfirst into sin and your sin trapped you at the bottom of the ocean like concrete blocks and you couldn't do anything about it. You chose it. You chose that prison and you were suffocating and drowning and you were about to die.
[00:32:10] And Jesus dove in and swam to the bottom and busted the concrete blocks of your sin and has rescued you from the destruction that you chose.
[00:32:21] He does it all.
[00:32:24] Salvation belongs to the Lord.
[00:32:26] And the good news is all I have to do is look to him and say, yes, I can't do it.
[00:32:34] There's no way I even want to try to do it. God, there's nothing in me that can do it. I can't swim. You have to rescue me. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
[00:32:45] But one of the things we see in verse 10 is all of this is a rebuke to the self righteous.
[00:32:50] Notice verse 10. And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah upon dry land. And we say, yay, he's rescued.
[00:33:00] There's more going on here than that.
[00:33:02] We do see, God is sovereign over this sea monster. Again, he's controlled the whole thing. And here the fish. The significance of the fish in Jonah is just. It's his transportation to get him to Nineveh.
[00:33:17] But this word vomit is important.
[00:33:19] Vomit is important.
[00:33:22] The word means to spew with disgust.
[00:33:29] A lot of times we think he gets to the side and it's just kind of, gulp. Now Jonah's safe and he gets up and walks away.
[00:33:36] No, he was puked out of the fish.
[00:33:40] Disgusting.
[00:33:43] In Leviticus, this word is used in a warning to Israel that if they do not worship the Lord rightly, they will be thrown up from the land.
[00:33:53] And this is exactly what God is telling Israel. Here, this scene is a warning to Israel. If they do not repent of their fake artificial worship, they will be spewed up.
[00:34:04] It's the same thing Jesus warned the churches of in revelation of their lukewarm hearts toward him, that he would vomit them from his mouth.
[00:34:13] This isn't a pretty picture.
[00:34:15] This is disgusting.
[00:34:17] And the people of Israel would read it and they would go, jonah worshipping in a slimy, nasty, unclean fish. Ew.
[00:34:27] And then they would hear that he's vomited out of the mouth of the fish. And they would go, oh, what God is saying is just like your worship.
[00:34:38] Jonah's worship is disgusting to me.
[00:34:41] He is a self righteous prima donna prophet who doesn't love the Ninevites. As we're going to see. If you read chapter two in the context of Jonah, you go, I don't really understand what's going on here. Well, here's what's going on. God is rebuking Israel and saying, you can say all the right things and your heart be far from me, as far as the bottom of the sea. So what's missing here?
[00:35:07] Notice Jonah never mentions his sin.
[00:35:10] And in 2nd Chronicles 7:14, the famous verses that we talk about, if my people who are called by my name, they would humble themselves, and they would pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.
[00:35:26] The story of Jonah is not one who turns from his wicked ways.
[00:35:30] And Jonah strings together all these psalms. You can go and you can see all the psalms that he knows by heart.
[00:35:38] He's memorized them, but he leaves out a lot of psalms that would confess his sin.
[00:35:46] Psalm 32, 5, I acknowledge my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. And I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord. And you Forgave me. Psalm 51:3. For I know my transgression and my sin is before me against you and you only have I sin and done what is evil in your sight.
[00:36:07] Jonah doesn't confess his sin. And you've got to understand, salvation isn't generic rescue from the difficulties of life.
[00:36:15] We want to think about salvation that way because we don't want to acknowledge our sin.
[00:36:20] No, salvation, the good news is deliverance and rescue from your sin.
[00:36:26] The reality is Jonah knows good theology. By the way, Jonah has good theology. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
[00:36:34] Jonah knows all the songs of worship in context. Jonah is socially conservative.
[00:36:43] That's what gets him into trouble, by the way.
[00:36:48] And if you look at this passage, Jonah is basically saying, I'm not like the pagans who worship idols.
[00:36:55] That's what Jonah said. If you read back through, I deserve to be in the temple.
[00:37:00] I'm a good guy.
[00:37:02] The pagans, they're bad guys. They worship idols.
[00:37:08] Think about what's going on on the boat above him.
[00:37:11] A worship service by pagans to the Lord God. It's satire.
[00:37:16] God is making fun of Jonah.
[00:37:18] He's saying, you self righteous idiot, you don't get it. And it's a rebuke of self righteousness. And it's a rebuke to us today.
[00:37:28] And it's significant.
[00:37:29] I'm almost done. Listen to this, please. This is important.
[00:37:34] It's significant. When Jesus refers to Jonah, he does so in the context of self righteous Pharisees and scribes.
[00:37:42] Jesus is performing all of these miracles and they won't believe. The religious don't believe. And the disciples say, what else can you do? Give them a sign so that they would believe.
[00:37:55] And Jesus says, well, I'll tell you the sign I'm going to give them. It's the sign of Jonah.
[00:38:00] Just like Jonah was dead in the fish for three days. I will be dead in the ground for three days and the grave will vomit me out.
[00:38:10] It's significant. He tells that story in the presence of self righteous religious folks.
[00:38:17] Because what he is saying is, even if they see me resurrected, they won't believe because they don't see their sin.
[00:38:26] And it's the same message to Israel. Here you don't see your sin. And so you're going to be vomited out of the land onto dry land, away from the blessed land that I've given. You're going to be vomited out because you don't see your sin, your idolatry, and you won't turn from it.
[00:38:45] And the reality is the sign of Jonah stands before you today.
[00:38:51] And the question for you is, do you see it?
[00:38:55] Or is all of this just another badge of self righteousness in your life?
[00:39:02] You are here today mumbling through the songs just like Jonah. But it's no desperation.
[00:39:10] There's no desperation. You don't understand your condition. You've never. You've just kind of gone through the motions. And you thought, well, God has to love me if I do all of these things.
[00:39:21] And there's no cry of desperation to the Lord. And how do you do that? Well, you confess your sin.
[00:39:27] You understand where your sin has gotten you. You are an enemy of God in sin, and he is the only one who can rescue you. And you cry out to God in desperation and notice he hears your cry. He responds, he answers that prayer of confession and dependence upon him.
[00:39:45] Now we have the sign of Jonah before us in the gospel, where the prophet who obeyed the Lord is the one on the cross screaming out in desperation, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me as the torrents of judgment that you deserve? Send him to hell and Sheol, one who was rescued, why was Jesus resurrected? Because he wasn't dying for his sin.
[00:40:11] And that's the choice. When you come to the cross.
[00:40:14] Either he's dying for your sin or his sin.
[00:40:20] He's perfect, he's righteous.
[00:40:22] No, you come to the cross and you say, that's my only hope.
[00:40:25] That is, my only hope is that he has paid the price for my sin.
[00:40:32] You see, one of the dangerous things about Jonah, Chapter two is Jonah gives us a lot of gospel truth but misses his own sin.
[00:40:40] And we can't do that today here in worship. We can't move through this worship service and go through the right thing, say the right thing, have the good theology, have the good songs, have the right message and miss it ourselves because we don't understand our sin before God.
[00:40:55] So what does it take, it takes to confess. You know what the word confess means? It means to agree with God.
[00:41:03] God has declared very clearly what your sin has caused. Do you agree with him?
[00:41:08] Do you agree with God and then look to Christ?
[00:41:13] It's beautiful. In this passage that Jonah talks about the temple. And from the slimy mess of his sin, all he has to do is look toward the temple and the Lord will rescue him.
[00:41:25] And that's our condition today in the slimy mess of our sin. What we have caused, we Say, God, I caused this and I look to you to rescue me.
[00:41:35] And through Christ, while your sin has banished you from the presence of God, that prayer of desperation takes you into the presence of God.
[00:41:44] God accepts your faith and he credits you with Jesus, life and death in your place and rescues you.
[00:41:55] One of the things I do when I'm sharing the gospel with people and I genuinely struggle sometimes to I want to make sure they really believe what we've talked about, that they're a sinner, they have to look to Christ alone, trust in him to be saved from their sin.
[00:42:17] And I get to the point of response and that can always be an awkward time.
[00:42:22] Do I lead them in a prayer and tell them what to say?
[00:42:27] But before I do any of that, I always say, would you like to cry out to God for mercy?
[00:42:33] And I always, you notice different responses because some people are like, mercy, cry out to God. What, right here? And they don't get it.
[00:42:43] But then there are those who really understand their desperate need of Christ.
[00:42:48] And they're like, yes.
[00:42:50] And I'll say, you can do that quietly. You don't have to say anything. You can do that without saying words. But would you like to cry out for mercy?
[00:42:58] And if you'd like to just express what God's doing in your heart, feel free to do that.
[00:43:04] That's just my way of trying to figure out, is this real?
[00:43:10] And I want to challenge you today in these moments to cry out for mercy, cry out for mercy.
[00:43:18] In just a few moments, we're going to have a response time. You can come down to this stage. There'll be folks up here who would love to pray with you, but to cry out for whatever that is that's going on with you, to cry out to God for mercy, maybe you're here today and you need to repent of self righteousness. You kind of go through this with some casual view of sin. And there's no delight in the gospel. And you're wondering, why do I not delight in these things?
[00:43:41] Thomas Watson said, till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.
[00:43:46] Has your sin ever been bitter to you?
[00:43:50] And as great as your sin is, Christ is a greater savior. If you look to him, would you come to Christ today?
[00:43:58] Would you follow him as Lord and Savior?
