Summer of Jonah 2019 Part 1, Episode II: How Sovereign Is The LORD? - [Jonah 1-4-16]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Every pastor has a hobby horse.

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Every pastor has a few topics they like to talk about all the time. And when I'm dead and gone,

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I hope that you say, you know, Mike always talked about the person and work of Christ Jesus, and he always talked about the sovereignty of God.

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He just kept plugging away at those two topics. Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is this great sovereign

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King. Turn your Bibles to the book of Jonah this morning, and we're going to see the sovereignty of God in the book of Jonah.

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The ruler of all, still be my vision, O ruler of all. The sovereignty of God in the book of Jonah, one of my favorite topics.

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R .C. Sproul said, if you were God, your favorite topic would be the sovereignty of God. And then he said,

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God's favorite topic is the sovereignty of God. And so I love to talk about it. Why? Because life is difficult.

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Issues happen in our lives. Sin and sickness and all kinds of things.

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And it's good to be reminded that God's sovereign. You read Joseph in Genesis 37 to 50, and you'll say this.

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It is obvious that God's sovereign. It is patently obvious. It is obviously obvious. It is so real that God's sovereign.

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I see that. Why is it set up that way? Because when you look at your life, when you look at your lives, it's not so obvious.

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It seems like everything could be messed up. And why did this decision happen? And why did that happen? And what about, and what about, and what about?

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But here's the great thing. God is immutable. He doesn't change.

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There's no mutation in God. He's always the same. And the God who's sovereign over Joseph is sovereign over you.

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And the God who's sovereign over Jonah is sovereign over you. And the God who's sovereign over creation is sovereign over you.

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The God who's sovereign over your life and your death. The God who's sovereign over every molecule of the universe.

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Is there any molecule in the universe, proton, neutron, electron? What else is small?

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Some quark or something? Or is that some dessert you eat in Germany? I think it is. But whatever small thing, whatever

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God, whatever big thing, it's all underneath the sovereignty of God. And as Kuyper said one time,

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God looks at the universe and he says, mine. It's all mine.

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I'm sovereign over it all. And that's why Pink said, in every pulpit it needs to be continually thundered forth that God reigns.

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God's sovereign. And when you look at the book of Jonah, you're not going to be able to say, you know, God's sovereign, but.

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I know God's sovereign, but. You know, you don't quite understand my situation, this unique trial that I'm in.

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I think he's sovereign over everything, but you don't know my boss. He's sovereign over everything, you don't know my spouse.

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He's sovereign over everything, you don't know my kids. He's sovereign over everything, but you don't know my parents. He's sovereign over everything, but you don't know my pastor.

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God's sovereign over everything. Psalm 103, his sovereignty rules over what?

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But here's the rub before we look at Jonah. While it so comforts us, it is the pillow that you lay your head down when you go through a massive trial.

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But it pushes up against us because if God is sovereign.

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That means. I'm not. It goes against our pride.

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So today we're going to look at Jonah. Last week we did verses 1 through 3. Today we're going to look at verses 4 through 16 and you're going to see that God is so sovereign.

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So I don't want you to ever think any idolatrous thoughts about God. And what's an idolatrous thought about God?

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Thinking something about God that's not true. When you think of God, I want you to think he's the king of kings.

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He's the lord of lords. And he owns the earth and he owns heaven. And he does whatever he pleases.

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As often as he pleases. Always as he pleases. And only as he pleases. Now that's a God who.

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I want to worship that kind of God. I don't want just a God who's sovereign over West Boylston, but he's not sovereign over Worcester.

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I want the God who's sovereign over the land and the sea. And when you look at this God, you're going to say, he deserves my worship.

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He deserves my thanksgiving. God, why am I anxious? God, why am I worried?

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Now some people automatically are thinking, what about free will? I don't want to be a robot.

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Maybe if you're from England, I'm not a robot. I'm not some kind of puppet. Here's the best way to solve all your problems about the sovereignty of God.

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Are you ready? Just read your Bibles. Because if you read your Bibles regularly and often,

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God's sovereign. He sits on the throne. He does whatsoever he pleases. Psalm 50. If I were hungry, God said,

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I wouldn't even tell you. He's just the king. He does whatever he wants. Sovereign. He reigns and he rules.

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And he's not a president where we kick him out every eight years. He's not a constitutional monarch that just does what

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I don't know. He is the king. Take that out of the tape. A tape.

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The kid goes, what's a tape? Take that out of the 8 -track. Actually, side note.

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I talked to someone and they said, we have some reel -to -reel classes that S. Lewis Johnson taught at Dallas Seminary that aren't recorded anywhere else.

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Do you want the reel -to -reels? I said, I sure do. It's nothing to cry about.

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No accident. No chance. No luck. No serendipity. No fortune.

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No fate. And what we're going to see in Jonah, contrary to the view of Allah, the

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Islamic view of God, who runs everything, who rules everything.

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What about the personal nature of God? What about the human touch of God? What about the incarnation?

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What about God? Does he love or is he sovereign only? You're going to see both today. Let's go to Jonah chapter 1, verses 1 to 3 as a review.

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And then we're going to move into verses 4 through 16 with the desire to see what is said here and the desire to remember that God's sovereign no matter what, so that you walk by faith and not by sight.

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And it starts with a bang, remember? We've only got 48 verses in English, so there's not a whole lot of time for character development.

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Now, the word of Yahweh came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying. When you see all capitals, it means

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Yahweh. It means a covenant -keeping God, a personal God. It should remind you, I am the Lord, your

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God, that brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It's the God who makes promises, a

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God who saves. It's the triune God. We read the Old Testament and the New from this perspective, that the

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Lord Yahweh, he is a triune God. The only way you can think about God is a triune

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God. One God, three persons. The Father, Son, and the Spirit. And this triune

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God reveals himself, and he said to Jonah, as we saw last week, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach.

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Call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. And as you would all know, that these

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Ninevites are accountable to God. It doesn't matter that they're not Israelites. They're still accountable to God.

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Every person that's ever been born is accountable to God. You're accountable to God. I'm accountable to God.

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One day we'll stand before God, the creator and judge. But thankfully, wonderfully, he's a savior too.

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And how does God save sinners? Faith comes by hearing a message about Christ.

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God could just save people. You're saved. Or he could say, I have a different way. I save people through preaching.

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And so Jonah, there's some people there that need to be saved. You go and you preach. They're accountable before me.

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And every person who's ever lived is going to stand before God.

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And then there's going to be judgment. We know that from Acts chapter 17. The times of ignorance

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God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Because he has fixed a day, judgment day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness.

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By a man, Jesus, whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

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Jonah's accountable. Nineveh's accountable. Israel's accountable. We're accountable. And God didn't owe it to Nineveh to send anybody there.

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The wages of sin is death. They earned it. They earned justice. But God doesn't leave the fallen human race to perish alone without salvation, without a remedy.

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What did Jonah do? I call this Jonah's stiff arm. Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish.

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Instead of going over that way, east, northeast, to Iraq, what we call

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Iraq. Now past the Euphrates, up big city on the Tigris. I'll go the other way.

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And I'll go to Spain. I'll go down to Gibraltar. A couple thousand miles away.

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From the presence of the Lord, he went down to Joppa. You can just feel these verbs make you want to just kind of cascadingly go faster.

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And you can feel the haste. As he says in chapter 4, I was hastening to flee.

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I got to run. Down to Joppa, found a ship.

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He paid the fare, went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. I want to say his favorite hymn included the words, prone to wander,

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Lord I feel it. Except it wasn't wandering, it was rushing. I got to rush as fast as I can.

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And as I said last week, from the presence of the Lord. What do you mean he doesn't know that God is omnipresent? Of course he knows that.

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But here's what presence of the Lord means. A king calls someone, one of his priests or one of those who works for him.

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Come into my presence, I'm going to give you some marching orders. I'd like you to do thus and such. And then the person says, yes sir,

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I'll go do it. And off he goes to do what the king wishes. And so, that's exactly what's going on here.

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The prophet stands before the word of the Lord that comes to him. Jonah, son of Amittai, go preach.

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I don't want to preach, I quit. He's not saying I'm trying to get away from the presence of the Lord. He knows

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God makes the land and the sea and the moon. He's a good prophet. But I quit, I resign. If I do what you say

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God, I'm going to go to Nineveh. They're going to repent because I know you're gracious. I know you're slow to anger.

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I know chapter 4, what I say about you later. It's all true about you. And they're going to repent.

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They'll be stronger, their army will be stronger. You're going to bless them. And they're going to be stronger to punish

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Israel. In 1 Kings 19, when you're going to use Assyria to punish us, they'll be stronger.

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I don't want that. No. Stiff arm. God just goes, okay, whatever you want.

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Do whatever you'd like. But this is the

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God you can't ignore. This is the God you can't ignore. They couldn't ignore

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Him. You can't ignore Him. Everybody loves well -behaved kids, don't they?

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At least I do. I've been around kids sometimes that obey and some kids that don't.

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And when I'm around kids that obey, I'm very happy and thankful. And when I'm around kids that don't obey, I think, shame on you.

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But shame on the parents. Because that's what Solomon would say in the book of Proverbs. I've been in airports and kids are trying to dump over my coffee.

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And it's really a sin if it's Pete's coffee. But they're trying to do stuff to me. And I try to be patient.

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I try to be grandfatherly. One time

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I finally just had to say in Denver, Would you please control your children? I didn't want to say it.

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I was leading up to it. I know you can't ever imagine me saying that. But, see, I think I'm the pastor of the

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Denver Airport as well as BBC. Denver Airport Bible Church. Then later

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I heard Chuck Swindoll say on the radio. And he was talking about disobedient kids. And he said, once I was at an airport and I even heard a man say to some parents,

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Would you please control your children? I'm like, Chuck Swindoll's quoting me.

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Probably wasn't me. But, see, God, even though He's sovereign,

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When you pray the disciples' prayer, it starts off what way? How does it start?

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Our Father. He's a kind Father. And He's a good Father. And He's not going to let the kids disobey.

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Because it's not good for them. And Jonah's on the run. And God could say, you know what?

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I'll get a different prophet. And He could. I'll make the rocks cry out to Nineveh. And He could.

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I'll send an angel to Nineveh. And He could. But you know what? Jonah, I love you.

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I care for you. You're one of mine. You're redeemed. You're regenerated. You're a believer. And here's the Father's kindness to discipline the son.

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Aggressively pursuing. Here's the God you can't ignore. Verse 4. But Yahweh, this triune

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God, hurled a great wind upon the sea. That's the language of throwing something really hard.

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Standing on the pitcher's mound and throwing a baseball across home plate.

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I didn't know how fast it was in the first service. But somebody told me, Nolan Ryan, 108 .1

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miles per hour. Fastest recorded pitch. Winding up and throwing the pitch right down the alley.

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Target Jonah. He hurled a great wind.

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Look at the sovereignty of God. Is God sovereign over the weather? Why is it that Scripture almost always says

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God sent rain instead of it rained? God sent the rain.

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Why? Because he's sovereign over it. And here comes a storm. A perfectly devised storm. There was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up.

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Now, in English I would say, God hurled a great wind. Often in Hebrew you'll say, hurled

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God the great wind. Just be a little change. But this is opposite of the normal Hebrew to try to put the focus on, it doesn't matter what

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Jonah does, God's in charge and God will do as he pleases. You can't ignore

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God. There's a mighty tempest on the sea. It's a supernatural tempest.

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I think what we have here coming, brewing, is what we call a teachable moment. And Jonah loves to use the word great.

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Great wind, great city, great storm, greatly feared, great fish, greatly displeased, greatly happy in chapters 1 through 4.

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Here we have the great wind sent by the great savior Yahweh. Jonah's like, no way.

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There's a big thing going around evangelicalism now. There's a brand new book out about it even. It's called Be the

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Message. Don't preach to people so much. Be the message. I wonder how that would work with Jonah.

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Jonah, be the message. Not so well, I think. But God saves people in spite of sinful messengers.

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Aren't you glad? He hurled the wind. This is language of 1

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Samuel 18. Saul hurled the spear at David to try to pin him against the wall.

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Supernatural storm comes up. And look at the ship. It threatened to break up. The ship here, the language of the

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Hebrew is the ship is personified. The ship's like a person. And Jonah's determined not to go.

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But the ship is determined to obey God and break up. Because that's what the sovereign is implying.

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Jonah disobeys. The wind obeys. The ship obeys.

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The fish is going to obey. Then, verse 5, the mariners.

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N .A .S. says the sailors. The original language is the old salts. Why do you call them an old salt?

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Because they're the crusty old salts. They're the sailors. Pagan sailors, by the way. They were afraid.

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They're out in boat all the time. Out in a ship all the time. And now it's not just a storm. It's a great storm. It's a supernatural storm.

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It's the perfect storm. And they're afraid. And what do you do? When Jonah didn't like something, he should have said,

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God, help me. God, give me wisdom. God, give me repentance. God, give me faith.

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Jonah doesn't pray. The pagans pray. And there's time for more hurling.

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And they hurled the cargo. It's just a general word. They hurled a bunch of stuff that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.

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But Jonah went down in the inner part of the ship and laid down and was fast asleep.

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Oh, Poseidon, help. Oh, Neptune, help. Oh, Baal, help. I've never done that before in the pulpit, just made that sound.

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That was the first time. Job security.

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Don't do that again. Once every 17 years. I feel sorry for these guys.

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That's exactly what the narrator wants you to do, to feel sorry for them. It's all because of Jonah. They didn't do it.

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They didn't earn it. And Jonah's fast asleep.

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Notice the text. He's gone down below in the hold of the ship, laying down, falling fast asleep. That word's not just regular word for sleep.

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It's hypnotic sleep. It's deep sleep. It's the sleep in Genesis 221, where God says,

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Adam, time to be under anesthesia, divine anesthesia. And you're going to go to sleep.

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I'm going to do some surgery on you and your rib, and you're going to wake up married. How's that work?

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Divine anesthesia. That's what it's like. I mean, he is really out of it. So indifferent.

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So the captain came and said to him, I would imagine there's a lot of wind. I would imagine it's loud.

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I would imagine he'd have to raise his voice. What do you mean, you sleeper? Now think very carefully here.

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Doesn't this sound familiar? Arise, call out to your God. Wasn't this told to Jonah just earlier?

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Arise, go and call out. This is like a nightmare for Jonah. And he wakes to the words from a pagan sailor that are so similar, if not exactly the same as what

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God told him. Call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give us a thought or give a thought to us that we might not perish.

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This is like somebody at work that you work with who's a druid, who's a moon worshiper, who's a

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Satanist. And they come to you and say, you know, this is really a bad situation.

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Would you pray? The pagans are going to the prophet to say it's time for you to pray. They knew something's going on.

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There's somebody sinning in the boat. They said to one another, verse 7, come let us cast lots.

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We may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. Let us cast lots.

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Now what would they do? Well, one of the ways that they would put lots together to determine something,

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I mean, what do our kids end up doing? I don't know what kids do these days anymore. I remember going to South Africa, and I wanted to shake hands like the cool guys.

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And it's, when I used to shake hands, we had a certain thing we'd do and playing basketball and shaking. And then I got to South Africa, and it was shake this way, then that way, then this way, then do all this kind of stuff.

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And I'm like, Luke, you just be my vicar. I can't figure this out. I'm not cool, but I want to be. There's certain ways to do things, and for our kids it's like rock, paper, scissors, shoot.

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Who is it? Well, they would get little rocks, and they would put like on one side of the rock a light color, on the other side a dark color.

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And if you wanted to have a yes or no question answered, you'd take those two rocks, light on one side, dark on the other, and you'd throw them two light side up, answer is yes, two dark sides down, answer is no, a light and a dark, or a dark and a light.

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The answer is shoot again. But here we don't know exactly what they did.

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Maybe there's 20 guys on the ship, and there's 20 rocks, and which one, you know, everyone, the purple one equals

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Jonah, and whatever comes out, but the lot came on Jonah. That's what the text says.

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The lot fell on Jonah. As one man proclaimed, man throws a dice, but God makes the spots come up.

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Proverbs 16 .33 talks about casting lots for decisions. Land is divided this way in Numbers 26.

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A king is chosen this way in 1 Samuel 10. Achan was found out in Joshua 7.

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Apostles are determined by this in Acts 1. God's sovereign over everything.

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He's sovereign in salvation. I want to save Ninevites. I ask you the question, when were you saved if you're a

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Christian? I love it when somebody says, Mike, when were you saved? Because then you just get a launch into preaching.

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Well, in eternity past, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit got together for a divine council.

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And according to Titus chapter 1, there was a promise that was made before the world began. To whom were the promises made?

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It had to be within the triune nature of God to go rescue a bride. The Father said, I'm going to arrange a marriage for you.

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Here's your bride. And then, Mike, when were you saved? Well, I was saved in eternity past. I was saved at Calvary when the

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Son went. He cloaked himself with humanity. He lived a perfect life. He died as a substitutionary atoning sacrifice on Calvary, was raised from the dead.

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I was saved then. I was saved in eternity past. I was saved at Calvary in 1989.

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I'm running the opposite way of God. And God intervenes and God brings people into my life to preach the gospel to me.

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Their names are John MacArthur and Kim Avendroth. No wonder I love those two so much, but not in that order.

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And I got saved in 1989. And by the way, I was saved in eternity past at Calvary.

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In 1989, I'm being saved now, that is, sanctified. And I will be saved when God takes me home to glory.

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What salvation are you talking about? And here's this God who plans everything out. And he's sovereign over the

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Ninevite salvation. He's sovereign over the preacher to get there. He's sovereign over the wind. And he's sovereign over the lots.

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And you ought to ask yourself this question. So why would I act in any other way than recognizing

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God's sovereign in my life, too? Shouldn't I just, for once and for all, say that the sin of anxiety is replaced by trusting in this

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Yahweh with all my heart? And the more I can see the sovereign hand of God in the life of people in Scripture, the better it's going to be for me.

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I'm telling you, the most difficult times in your life will be helped by the pillow of divine sovereignty.

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Haley's born. Everything's fine. Luke's about to be born. He's two weeks late. So he decided there's going to be, you know,

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Pitocin given, all that. They're going to induce. And so I said, you know, we'll just go in. We'll have the baby. Or you'll have the baby,

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Kim. And then I'm going to teach the Bible study at night. And you go into the hospital. The baby's born. They show you the baby like this for about three seconds.

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Here's your son. He had like the negative 92 APGAR. Whatever it was, it was bad.

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Off to NICU. Will he make it? Won't he make it? And what's the pillow of comfort when you drive away from the hospital with no baby?

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What's the pillow of comfort then if he didn't make it? What's the pillow of comfort when you bury your husband?

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You bury your grandpa. You bury your children. You bury your spouse. What's the comfort?

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And friends, that's why it's such a prominent thing in Scripture, the sovereignty of God.

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If I said to my children, I'm sorry, children, that I haven't been able to provide food for you.

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And sorry, we're sleeping outside. I can't give you housing. And I can't give you food. And I would feel bad.

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But I would feel worse if for 20 years I provided everything my kids needed.

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And they would say, Dad, I'm worried. They're biting their nails. Why are you worried? Well, because I don't know if you're going to provide for me or not.

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I don't know if I'm going to have anything to eat tonight. I don't know if I'm going to be safe tonight. I would think, what a shame that I haven't taught you these things.

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Have you not forgotten my track record, weak and frail as I might be, the track record of faithfulness?

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Your daddy does care for you. Your daddy does provide for you. And if a non -sovereign daddy can provide for kids, then how much more can a sovereign

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God provide for you? This isn't some story for kids.

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It is for kids. But it's for people who suffer. It's for people that need to be reminded.

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God is so good, yet He slay me, I'll trust in Him. Yet I bury my kids and bury my mother and bury my friends and be on my deathbed.

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I'm still going to say, He's worthy to be praised. Verse 8,

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Then they said to Him, I still imagine it's loud because the storm's going on. Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us.

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And now here comes the questions. One, two, three, four. What's your occupation? Where you come from? What's your country?

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And of what people are you? We know you're the problem because you just won the lottery.

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Okay, you lost the lottery. I'm surprised they're even asking these questions.

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Because if it were me and I was a pagan, the lot falls on Jonah. Here we go.

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Let's keelhaul him first. Now they're asking more questions. Here's the backdrop.

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Don't miss it. The kindness of the pagans to Jonah. Contrasting with Jonah's hatred of pagans.

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Way back in eternity past and in the garden and at Calvary and in the

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Abrahamic covenant, God has a wide salvation. Not just for Jews but Gentiles.

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And He's going to save pagans. Aren't you glad? Ever been a pagan? He saves pagans.

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He's kind to pagans. He gives His Son for pagans. He demonstrates

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His love towards us that while we're yet pagans. Ninevites, our worse, our enemies.

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His Son dies on the cross for us. And God has a love for the Gentiles. And Jonah has a hate for Gentiles.

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And it's exacerbated by the irony that the pagan Gentiles are being nice to Jonah. He deserved it.

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Throw him in. But they're still talking. They're still answering questions. And look what Jonah does. If I were to ask you, tell me about yourself, what you'd probably do is this.

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Hi, my name is Mike Abenroth and I'm a pastor. Because that's how we identify ourselves.

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Hi, I'm a plumber. I'm a CPA. For Jonah, he should say,

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I'm a prophet of the Lord. But he puts his ethnicity, easy for me to say, his ethnicity first.

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Then the theology. What's he say? I fear the

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God of the Hebrews first. That would have been okay. But he says, I'm a Hebrew. Let me tell you about my nationality first.

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And I fear the Lord. If I ask you, are you an American or a

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Christian? For those of you who are American citizens, I wonder which one you think you're more of. Of course, I'm an

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American and a Christian. But I'm a Christian first. Why aren't there any

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American flags up here? Because Christianity has nothing to do with America. Absolutely zero.

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Zilch. Nada. You say, but there's one back there. Oh, there's two back there. Well, that's another story.

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Those are for Awana. I love America. I love Israel. But you can tell in his disobedience,

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I'm a Jew first. And I worship the Hebrew God later. Now look what he says.

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And I fear the Lord. And you should obey him. The God of heaven.

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Pagans talk like that. We worship the God of heaven. These Ninevites would talk that way. We worship the God of heaven.

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But then he makes it sure that he's not just worshiping a pagan God. The God of heaven. And he throws this in.

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Who made the sea and the dry land. God's sovereign over the sea and dry land.

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While the pagan Phoenician sailors would worship Baal Shaman.

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Lord of heaven. Jonah adds this. Jonah augments it to say. But there's this one

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God and he rules everything. He reigns over everything. You might worship a sky

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God. I worship the God who made everything. Oh, well then, if that's the case.

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Then what do you think you've been doing? Verse 10. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him. What is this that you've done? If you're going to disobey such a

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God. There's bad things that are going to happen. For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord. Because he had told them.

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Why would you displease such a great God? They're appalled. Verse 11.

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Then they said to him. And still they're nice. They haven't thrown him in yet. What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us.

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For the supernatural storm that the Lord hurled earlier. Is growing more and more tempestuous.

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N .A .S. The storm was. The sea was becoming increasingly stormy. I don't know about God's rules.

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Said the pagan sailor. But now I do. We got to get rid of you. The pagan sailors are rebuking the prophet of God.

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Sounds eerily familiar to Abimelech saying to Abraham. Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife?

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Remember Abraham? She's my sister. Verse 12.

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He said to them. Pick me up. Hurl me into the sea.

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Sea will become quiet for you. It will quiet down for you. For I know it's because of me that this great tempest has come.

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Upon you. I deserve to die. And by the way. I'm not going to Nineveh.

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I told you I'm not going to Nineveh. So you might as well kill me now. And I don't have to go to Nineveh. I'm not going.

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Verse 13. The kindness of the pagans. The kindness of the

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Gentiles is shown in stark contrast. To Jonah's hatred.

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To Jonah's disobedience. Nevertheless. The men rode hard to get back to dry land.

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But they could not. For the sea grew even more and more tempestuous against them. Even stormier.

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Now, when you sit in a canoe. And you have an oar. And you're teaching a kid to oar or to paddle.

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You put your hand on the top. And then you put your hand down here by the oar. Where kind of this thin thing goes to the wider part of the paddle.

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And you tell the kids to what? Huh? Row. Row. Okay, good.

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What else do you tell them? What would I tell them? Dig. Steve was here first service.

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The Hebrew words dig. You're digging. They're trying to help.

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They don't want to throw them in. The kindness of the pagan. My old pastor said,

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Heathen sailors had more concern for one man than Jonah had for tens of thousands at Nineveh. So, verse 15.

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They picked up Jonah. There's hurling everywhere in this story.

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Hurled him into the sea. And the sea ceased from its raging. And the light switch just went off.

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Except it wasn't lights, it was the sea. What would you do?

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Verse 16. This is all language of what Jonah should have done.

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This is all language of what a pious Jew would do. This is all language of conversion. This is all language of, this is how a saint would act back in the

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Old Testament. Were they saved? I think so. Then the men feared the

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Lord. Exceedingly. They offered a sacrifice.

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And they made vows. Show me a believing Israelite and I'll show you somebody who feared God. I'll show you somebody who made a sacrifice.

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And I'll show you somebody who made vows. You say, well, how do you know they're saved? Well, the burden of proof is on you.

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This is how people act who are saved. They fear the Lord. They make sacrifices and they make vows. That's what they do back in Israel.

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They get it. Wasn't it said in Mark chapter 4, who is this that even the wind and the sea, what?

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Obey him. Jonah should have been fearing the

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Lord. Jonah should have been making sacrifices. Jonah should have been making vows. Timmer said in the

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D .A. Carson edited book, to fear God in the Old Testament consistently describes those who have and maintain a healthy relationship with Yahweh.

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Now let's talk about the sovereignty of God just for another second. Jonah, go to Nineveh to talk theologically.

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I've got some unregenerate elect people there. Jonah says, no, I'm not going to go. God could have said, okay,

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I'll send somebody else. But God is sovereign over sin. Do you think God is sovereign over sin?

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I hope you think so. Because if you don't think he is, then I'll just prove it with one simple event.

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The crucifixion of Jesus. Where they killed the innocent one, to use the language of Stephen, the righteous one.

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He didn't deserve it. He didn't earn it. But by his own good pleasure along with the spirit and the father, he decides to die in place of sinners on their behalf, in their place as a substitutionary sacrifice.

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Was it not sin to crucify Jesus? Was it not sin to mock him? Was it not sin to scourge him?

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Was it not sin to spit in his face? Was it not sin to rip out his beard? Was it not sin to put the thorny crown on his head?

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Was it not a sin to put a bag on his head and hit him? Tell us, prophesy, son of God, who hit you?

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The answer to every one of those questions is yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And God was sovereign over it all.

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Because Acts 2 and Acts 4 says that was according to the pre -determined what. And now just think for a quick second.

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Jonah says, I'm not going to be a missionary. Okay, you don't want to be a missionary to the

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Ninevites? I've got some unregenerate elect people on a boat. The USS Whale, I don't know what it was called.

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I know it doesn't say whale in the Hebrew. Just made up the ship's name. Listen to a commentator.

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Jonah's anti -missionary activity has ironically resulted in the conversion of non -Israelites, preparing the reader for the shocking contrast between Jonah and God that comes fully into view in Chapter 4.

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You want me to go preach to Ninevites and pagan people and enemies? I'm not going to do it. Oh, yes, you will, but they happen to be in the boat, and I'll get those people saved first, and then off to Nineveh you're still going to go.

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I thought that's amazing. Who does that? Think about your own life. How many, if then, statements and people and situations did it take for God to arrange your regeneration, arrange your salvation so you responded with faith and repentance?

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How did He do it all? If you look back in your life, you might recognize a few things, but maybe you won't recognize them all until you get to heaven, and you're like,

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God is sovereign. No wonder they're singing, He's the King of kings and Lord of lords. How could He do all that to get me to the point where I would say,

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Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Who did He bring in my life? I think about guys in my life. I'm driving down the street.

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I'm in a car. We're coming home from church. There's about six of us. I'm only going to church for one reason.

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Well, two reasons, assuage my conscience and meet girls. Those are my reasons. And a guy looked at me in the front seat when

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I was telling him that I was a Christian, and he looked at me and he goes, you're not a Christian. You tell me you're a Christian? I think

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I told you this story before. I wanted to hit him. I'm not really a hitter. Somebody else in my family, one of the little kids,

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I called them the hitter. Not a hitter, but I wanted to hit that guy. Who are you to tell me you're not a

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Christian? I don't know his name. I wish I could remember his name. I wish I knew him. I wish

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I could call him up and say, God providentially put me in that car on Sunset Boulevard, coming home from that watered -down church with no girls that I could see.

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He arranged it all.

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He arranged everything. Every single detail all arranged because every single elect person is going to believe.

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Every single one. Whether they live in Nineveh, whether they live in West Boylston, or whether they're in that boat.

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Because God's sovereign over all. We live in a day and age, God, I know you're sovereign over my parents, my skin color, when

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I was born, where I was born, how old I am when I'm going to die. Sovereign over the weather, over the rain, over the wind, over my job, over my kids.

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But you're not sovereign over who goes to heaven and who doesn't, because the idol of free will will keep that nice and handy over here.

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Friends, if God wasn't sovereign in salvation, the bondage of the will would always stiff -arm

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God. But God can't be ignored. He won't be ignored. Here we have a

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Father who cares enough to discipline, and through the discipline, saves other people.

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That's no reason to be disobedient. But I want to worship a God who's sovereign over good and evil and sin.

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Isaiah 46 .10, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.

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Who is like this God, Yahweh? Let's pray.

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Father, thank you for an account like this. It never gets old. See new things all the time.

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The riches of your scripture, the nuggets that are found in it, the drama of redemption. Who is a

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God like you? And Father, if truth be told, we're a lot like Jonah, probably worse.

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Yet you love us, you discipline us, and all your purposes will be accomplished through us, getting work done with crooked sticks.

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Thank you. Thank you for being a God who's worthy to be worshipped, to get down on our knees and say, worthy is the lamb who was slain.

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I pray for anyone who's here today, who's trusting religion, good works, morality, ethnicity.

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I pray that you would give them no sleep and no rest until they find their rest in you, the savior of sinners.

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And I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church. I pray that you'd help us not worry. You're sovereign.

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I pray that you'd help us not to complain. You're sovereign over these situations.

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I pray that you'd help us to praise you. Although we look at the world's newspapers and the headlines on the internet, who could undo these things?

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Who could make sense of them? Only you could. So Father, help us to trust in you with all our heart and to lean not on our own understanding.

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I pray this in Jesus' name. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.