God At The Helm

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

Returning to Jonah and the Main Theme of the Book

Okay, well, good afternoon everyone. It's good to see everyone again. It's good to see Alicia Corey. It's good to see little baby Charlotte. What a sight to the sore eyes. Yeah, as our brother Ed, we're back in Jonah.

Last week, we went through the first part of Jonah, and we are taking a break in the New Testament. We were in the Gospel of Mark, and we're studying other parts of God's Word. We're in the Old Testament right now.

So as we saw last week, Jonah stands out, especially, I guess, in the midst of the Old Testament canon, as one of the more nuanced books of the Bible. It's a very particular book. It's also a very common book people seem to know about, especially when it comes to Bible stories.

And while everyone remembers the big fish, and people argue about whether or not it was a whale or not, that seems to be something that people seem to remember most, it turns out this book is profound.

There are so many profound truths in this book as you come to study it more and more. So while a lot of these different elements of Jonah will come out in the coming weeks as we study it, we're going to hone in on one particular facet of this gem quite a bit today.

This theme that we're looking at today is so obvious, but it's also perhaps so hidden, especially in the midst of modern Christendom, that you may not have ever considered that this is one of the main topics or the main points of Jonah, instead focusing on some other element or some other theme that emerges if you ever heard this book preached.

Jonah is the most prominent character of the book. The book is named after him. But he isn't the only one, the only character, and fortunately for us as believers, he's not the most important. Our passage today is going to demonstrate that Jonah was foretelling.

So he was describing current events in his day. There was a purpose for his time in his day. But more importantly, he was foretelling of a greater story of redemption that would take place hundreds of years later in the New Testament in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God, who is the main character of this book, will use different means to tell his story, right down to his prophets, for example, Jonah, the sailors, and even the raging seas. All the while he's doing this, his sovereign omnipotence will bring about his will and his goodness.

As our passage today is going to demonstrate, it'll show God's purpose will be done, which in the end is unmerited love towards us. It's the good news. This is the thrust of today's message. And as we learn from the characters, from Jonah and the sailors, it sometimes means that it's going to happen the hard way, although it doesn't always have to.

God's Sovereign Will in Scripture and in Jonah

Before we get into the text, let's pray. Dear Father, dear Abba Father, Lord, we thank you for your sovereign and holy grace. Lord, we stand here, Father, in awe of you as you are seated in your throne, Lord, and you do as you please.

Lord, we know you to be good and unchanging. Lord, you are the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. Lord, it was always your will that you would bring weary sinners to repentance, Father. It was your will to save those who were opposed to the cross, enemies of yours, by the blood of your Son.

Lord, it was your sovereign will that brought this about. Lord, you have seen our evil acts, our acts of disobedience, and yet, Father, it pleased you to crush your Son, Father, for us. So, Father, I ask, Lord, we plead for you this day, Father, that you would open up our eyes and our hearts, Lord, that we would, Lord, that we would not delay, Lord, that we would have our eyes opened and our ears hearing, Father, what is being preached today.

Lord, this is your word, this is your sovereign will that we are learning about. And, Father, that we would not struggle against it, but, Father, that we would submit to the Lord and that we would do his will.

Lord, we thank you for your perfect and holy and awesome will, and we pray, Lord, that we would not have deaf ears to hear. So, Father, we pray for wisdom and guidance this day. We pray these all in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, I don't know if I was able to get my notes out in time for the presses, but anyway. So, the first point that we're going to look at today is not my will, but thine. That's our first point. We're going to look at, as we're looking at the book, I wanted to look at the first couple of verses, verses 7 to 10.

And I wanted to study, actually, I wanted to demonstrate that it is God that is in control throughout this entire book, and that his sovereign will will not be overruled. So, just for clarity, I'm going to give you a proper definition of that sovereignty, and it's this.

So, God possesses all power and is the ruler of all things. God rules and works according to his eternal purpose, even through events that seem to contradict or oppose his rule. So, I'm going to give that definition one more time, because we have to get our definition straight here, because this is the doctrine which we are going to see taught to us in his book.

However, not just in his book, but also in the Psalms. If you're looking at Psalm 135, verse 6, it says this,. For I know the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

So, you're seeing this theme emerge, and we're looking at just one more place. If you're going to take notes, I want you to note this one down. Daniel chapter 4, verse 34 and 35, it says this,. Nebuchadnezzar writes in this chapter,.

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever. And then he says this,. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, What have you done?

These are just two verses, but we're looking at, again, the sovereignty of God. God is in control of everything. God does not relent on his will. However, even in the midst of trying circumstances, God remains in control.

So, turning back to our passage, and as we get into it, we may not have realized upon first reading Jonah that this is preached from the beginning to end, but we're going to see it in full display in verses 7 to 10.

So, let's read those.

It says,.

And they said to one another, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us.

What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country, and of what people are you? And he said to them, I am a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, What is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he told them. Looking at verse 7, right from the very beginning, we see God's sovereignty at play.

We see everyone casting lots. So, we see this a handful of times in the Old Testament and some in the New Testament. We see this in the Scriptures, and it's a practice that we don't see done today. It was sometimes used to determine decisions or settle disagreements, or even as a use of divination to determine the will of the gods.

It was a cultural practice. We even see certain instances of this taking place in the Bible. For example, in the Old Testament, we have Aaron who used it to determine which goat would be the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement.

If you guys remember that, that's in Leviticus 16, verse 8. It was used to determine the first king in Israel. In 1 Samuel 10, verses 20 -24, it was part of the process, as King Saul was determined to be the king of Israel.

And lastly, perhaps the example that we're most familiar with, the one that we know and point to most often, is the one in Acts 1, verse 26, when the disciples cast lots to fill Judas' empty seat as the twelfth disciple in Matthias.

The lot fell on Matthias in Acts 1, verse 26, and the Lord used that. So we see this casting lots as practice, that it's practiced sometimes in the Bible, but we have to make something clear. This is not prescriptive.

Just because it happened doesn't mean that this is how we conduct ourselves. If you're looking at Proverbs 16, verse 33, it says this, The lot is cast, but it's every decision is from the Lord. Every decision is from the Lord.

So we look back at Jonah 1, 7. The lot wasn't used or cast to determine God's will. Jonah knew the will of God quite clearly from verse 2, when the Lord said, God's will is clear. They're not using the lots to determine that.

However, the Lord allowed the use of lots in order to demonstrate His authority and His control to all those present, the sailors and Jonah, and that even in things that seem random to us, God has control over them as well.

If we continue down our text in verse 8, once they figure out who it is to blame, the lot falls on Jonah, the sailors begin to question him, and he responds. So tell us on whose account this evil has come to us.

This is the sailors asking Jonah, what is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And what people are you? And Jonah replies by saying, I am a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

This response from Jonah in verse 9 is very distinct. He tells them, I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. So in other words, I worship the Lord. I worship. That word fear can be literally translated as to worship.

I worship the Lord who is in control of all creation. Including this present storm that they are in. If you remember from last week, the sailors and all those on the ship were praying to their gods. They were doing all that they could to reach someone that would hear them.

And here Jonah is declaring quite emphatically that whether it was Baal, the sky god, or Dagon, the fish god, or whatever god these sailors were adhering to, these Phoenicians, which is likely this group that were these sailors, whatever group, whatever god these people were, Jonah is declaring, my God stands supreme over all these gods.

He's in control of all creation, including this storm. And they all pale in comparison to God's awesome and holy power. I will say it is ironic that Jonah is the one claiming this. He's the one claiming the sovereignty of God and yet he's running to find somewhere on earth where he's going to hide from the face of God.

And adding insult to injury, if it's not ironic still, the sailors, not knowing more than what Jonah told them, with what limited knowledge they knew of the Lord, have a better understanding of the power of God.

This God of Israel that even Jonah, a prophet, didn't understand. But before we talk about those responses, the responses to sovereignty, the responses to God's awesome and mighty will, the good and the bad, before we look at that, we need to be really clear about what it means that God is sovereign.

I think I preach to the choir essentially because we take comfort in the sovereignty of God. We love that God is sovereign. We know that to be true. The scripture makes it really clear. But it's a comfort to us that God is sovereign even in the midst of trying circumstances.

We take comfort in joy knowing that God is always in control despite the circumstances at hand. If you think for a moment about all the terrible things that take place in a given day. Think about all the seemingly random acts of evil that go on in a sin-stained world.

God is in control yet of those circumstances, even if the circumstances seem completely helpless or even contrary to God's good will. He still reigns. To illustrate this, I think some of you may have heard this before in the past, but this is the story that I stumbled upon.

It's just a great reminder that even in the midst of trying circumstances, God is in control. And that doesn't always mean that it looks good for us as the believer. I want us to be really clear about that.

In 2001, there was a missionary named Jim Bowers who was in Peru with his wife Veronica and son and infant daughter, Corey and Charity, respectively. This particular day, as they were flying in a small Cessna, it's a small plane, they were going on their route to a destination.

As it happened, they were flying close to the Peruvian and Brazilian border. During this flight, their plane was mistaken for a cartel plane that was possibly smuggling drugs. There was a big problem back then and probably still remains to this day.

Although to the best of their abilities and the abilities of the pilot, the Bowers plane was unable to clear any of the confusion in the air as another plane came and began to tailgate them. In the midst of this chaos, in the midst of unable to clear the communication and make their case before this plane, eventually the plane is shot at.

And it is shot down and it crashes into the river. They make a crash landing. Jim and his son survived, but both Veronica and their infant daughter, Charity, were killed. Sometime later, as Jim Bowers would speak at the memorial service for his deceased wife and daughter, this is what he would say.

I just want you to hear about these words. He said, most of all, I want to thank my God. He is a sovereign God. I'm finding that out more now. Some of you might ask, why thank God? Of course, after hearing some people speak tonight, you are realizing why maybe.

Could this be, could this really be God's plan for Ronnie and Charity? God's plan for Corey and me and our family? I'd like to tell you why I believe so. Why I'm coming to believe so. Jim Bowers is speaking at his memorial service for his dead wife and dead daughter.

You can imagine as parents, as people with little ones, and you guys, I can't even imagine what the pain this might be. But Jim, at this service, would go on to list 15 examples as to why he believed the Lord did what he did that day.

We're only going to list one. I'm only going to go into one, but I do encourage you to read those. This is what Jim said. He said, One thing that convinces me that God did this to Ronnie and Charity is the profound effect this event is having on people around the world.

The interest in missionary work, I'm hoping, will now result in an increase of missionaries in the future. I'm sure it will. People are challenged now to go and do what Ronnie did. Ronnie and Charity were instantly killed by the same bullet.

Would you say that was a stray bullet? It didn't reach Kevin, the pilot, who was right in front of Charity. Remember, this is his infant daughter. It stayed within Charity. That was a sovereign bullet.

This is what joy looks like in a sovereign God. This is a reminder that despite how difficult things may be, they will be difficult, brothers and sisters, that the Lord has not left our sight. We are within His sight.

This is what taking joy looks like in the midst of difficult circumstances, and this is what sovereignty allows us. And we need to remember that it doesn't always look good for the believer. These things are terrible, and they seem contrary to the goodwill of God.

We know Him to be good. However, the Lord is still sovereign. He will still use this, so we can take joy in the Lord. However, this is sovereignty at play. This is sovereignty in the hands of God. What does it look like for us?

What do we do with that? This is where we're going to turn back to our text, and we're going to look at two groups in particular. We're going to look at Jonah, and we're going to look at the sailors, and we're going to look at each response, and we're going to understand what each one does and how it is that we apply that to us.

Our Response to Sovereignty: Jonah’s Rebellion and the Sailors’ Submission

So we're going to continue on with our text. We're going to go back to verse 11. Our second point is our response to sovereignty. If God is sovereign, if God rules and His dominion rules over every circumstance, what is our response?

This is what we're going to learn in our text. And there are two ways that we can respond to God's sovereignty. There are two ways that are revealed here. To understand them both, we're going to look at the response first from Jonah, and then we're going to look at the sailors.

So picking up from verse 11, it says this. Then they, the sailors, said to Jonah, What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, Pick me up and hurl me into the sea.

Then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land. But they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

Therefore they called out to the Lord, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood. For you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So like I said, we're going to start with Jonah.

If we're going to start, and we're going to examine what our response should be, we're going to start with Jonah. Because Jonah is the wrong approach. The wrong approach to sovereignty looks like this.

It's hypocritical. And we see that as early as verse 9. Although Jonah firmly states in verse 9 that God sees all and that he cannot run. This is the sovereign God who he worships. Jonah's running. In verse 10 it says, for the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of God.

In more literal terms, he's fleeing from the face of Yahweh. He's running from the gaze of Yahweh. Because this is what Jonah told them. He told them this. He admitted this. So Jonah's running from the gaze of the Lord, and by all accounts, if you look at his circumstances, he's doing so unsuccessfully.

As the storm continues to worsen. So recognizing this in verse 12, Jonah explains that they're going to have to throw him overboard. That's his solution. Jonah says, well this is what I'm telling you to do.

Throw me overboard because I'm the problem. And then the seas will come. But we can't be confused here. This isn't a sacrificial act of any kind. This isn't sacrificial. This isn't pious. This isn't good.

Jonah knows where the Lord wants him to go. He wants him to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. Jonah wants to go into the water. In other words, Jonah would rather die than go to Nineveh and preach repentance as the Lord commanded him.

The Ninevites were not a nice people. If you remember, Shane gave us an introduction to the book last week, and he also talked about the Ninevites and the nation of Assyria. This is not a kind place. At this time in history, they are the enemy of Israel.

They are a cruel, cruel people, and they were cruel in war. Especially in regards to their enemies, and they're even worse still to their prisoners. There's not enough kids, but maybe I'll ask the two here that are here.

Imagine for a second, Noah, maybe I'll put you on the spot. If you think of someone you might not like, let's just give you an example. Picture that person in your mind. Imagine at some point that you are tasked or you're told that you have to do something extremely kind or charitable to this person, and you don't like them in particular.

I want you to think about that. At least you as well. I want you to think of one person that you might not particularly like, and the exact same thing is told to you. Can you feel what that might feel like?

Can you imagine what that might? That's not the first thing that you're going to want to do. You don't like this person. You're not going to want to do that. But now, let's up the stakes a little bit.

Now imagine God is the one who's telling you to do that. God commands you to do well to someone else, to respond evil with good.

That's right.

Not something that we want to do. That's not our first instinct, right? I have to be honest to the two kids here. It doesn't get easier as you get older. Maybe I'll look to the parents, maybe the adults.

If we turned maybe to Romans 12. Romans 12, verses 14 to 21. Think about what Paul tells the marks of a true Christian.

This is what Paul says.

If this was told to you of someone that you don't like, could you do this? Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. Think about this. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry. Think about this. If your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Think about all the people that you wouldn't want to do that with.

Think about that commandment, how clear it is. This is our sovereign God speaking.

Could you do it?

And this is where we find our application, at least for the first part. We can't be like Jonah. If we're going to look at the character of Jonah, don't oppose God's will. Don't oppose it. This application is easy.

It's simple to understand, but hard to do. If God said in his word, if it was commanded by God, if it's in his word, do it.

Follow it.

Because if you don't, if we've looked back at our text, and we disobey, and we go against the sovereign will of our God, it will not get better. Our God is too mighty to disobey. We can't get away from him.

So don't oppose God's will. But this isn't all of it. This is only half of it. Because the Christian life is not just about don'ting, about not doing. It is about doing. It is about doing what is true, what is good.

So if we're not to oppose God's will, if that's on one end of the spectrum, then by the reverse, if we go to the other side, we are to submit to his command. Looking back at our text, so we're back in Jonah.

If we look back, ironically, it is the sailors that get it most. In verses 9 to 10, when Jonah tells them of the God that he worships, as an Israelite, the sailors, they hear what Jonah tells them, and their response is to be exceedingly afraid.

In verse 13, while Jonah is happy to be cast into the raging seas and neglect the people of Nineveh, the command that the Lord sent to him, the sailors, on the other hand, err on the side of caution for the potential loss of potential innocent human life.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard. I actually like the annotation at the bottom of this. The men dug in their oars. They doubled down. They rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

Therefore, in light of everything that took place, they called out to the Lord. O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood. For you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.

They couldn't overcome the seas. They couldn't overcome the storm. Having been convinced this was the will of God, they righteously revere the Lord and they do his will and they hurl Jonah overboard into the seas.

What was once fear gives way to worship. That word, as we'll see that word at the end of verse 16, they feared the Lord exceedingly. It's the same word Jonah used in verse 9. They worshiped him. Unlike Jonah, who opposed God's will, who has been running throughout the entirety of this book, we need to learn what these pagan sailors did with what little knowledge they knew of the Lord.

Think about how much we know. What little they knew, they obeyed and they fulfilled his command. This needs to be true of us. This needs to be true of you and I. Don't oppose God's will and submit to his command.

Christ, the Greater Jonah, and the Call to Repentance

As we look at our passage and as we're getting near the end here and we're looking at something called typology, we're looking at what it looks like to be a type. Before we get into that, there's a couple questions that we might already be asking.

I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but we need to think about why the sovereignty of God matters and our approach to it. At this point, you might be thinking, we have talked about this one attribute.

We've talked about the sovereignty. I've said it maybe over a dozen times at this point, but you might be leading into thinking, so what God is sovereign? What does this mean for me? Why should I care?

Isaiah 53, 10 to 11 says this, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when all his soul makes an offering for guilt. We shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.

The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

The will of our God was that he would bring salvation to Gentiles, sinful men and women like you and me, and that that sin that plagued all of humanity, beginning from the seed of Adam all the way until the point of Christ's death on the cross, that that sin would finally be dealt with.

And that eternal death would no longer touch his beloved saints. If you turn with me to Luke chapter 11, verses 29 to 32, Jonah is a type of Christ. Christ associates himself with Jonah. But notice what he says here.

Luke 11, 29, he says, when the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

The Queen of the South will rise up to the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment of this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Brothers and sisters, as Bible-believing, Christ-preaching, blood-bought saints, we cannot talk about Jonah without making much of Christ.

We can't look at this book and ignore all that Christ has to say within these pages for us. Shane said it last week and it bears saying again. Our third point, that everything that Jonah is not, Christ is.

Everything that Jonah isn't, Christ is. God's sovereign will is that He should bring to repentance sinners, enemies of the cross, that whether through ignorance or willful disobedience, they march towards the fiery gates of hell.

We need to understand, in the end, it wasn't the seas that terrified the sailors most. It was God's wrath. It was God's wrath that feared these sailors most. The righteous judge that our Lord is, none were required to be spared for their sin.

Jonah for his disobedience, the sailors for their pagan gods and their worship, the Ninevites, as we'll see later on, for their wicked evil. And least of all, you and I, who before the grace of Christ came to us, brought nothing more than our guilt and our shame to Him.

Nothing but dirty, filthy rags. And yet, and yet, it pleased the Lord to crush our Savior for our iniquities and our sin. Like Jonah, being hurled into the waters of God's wrath and that saving the sailors from their destruction was our Lord Jesus Christ hurled upon the cross to die for our sins and calm the sea of God's wrath towards sinful man.

In both cases, love and mercy from our sovereign God made a way for us to follow Him. It was God's goodwill to save people. It remains His will. We'll look at our last two verses, verses 15 and 16. I just soaked these in.

So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. What was once fear gives a way to worship, gives a way to praise.

As we come to the end of our passage, as we look at what the Lord has done for these sailors, what He's done for us, as we think about all that we've done to Him and through Him and what we brought to Him before our sin was redeemed in the blood of Christ, we need to ask ourselves, brothers and sisters, those in Christ, those of us who sit in these chairs right now, where is your Nineveh?

Who do you neglect in preaching the gospel to bringing about the good news? Are there family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, sports teams, people who do not yet know the sweet grace of eternal life that we neglect and we neglect to tell them of their condemnation, but for a holy and righteous God, who do we have in our lives?

Are we truly seeking to see sinners come to faith? Or do we withhold the precious gift of salvation to those the Lord desires to set free? Matthew 28, 18 says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Brothers and sisters, preach the good news. Meditate and pray about those that you have in your mind, those within your midst, those within arm's length, and take this sweet gospel to them. Run to them.

Preach the good news. Preach it. And to those who hear this gospel, who hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, his perfect fulfillment of the law, his redeeming of our sin on the cross by his death and resurrection on the third day, you hear this message and have not yet believed.

If you come to him and you don't believe him, if you don't put your faith in him, if you don't surrender all that you are to him, why do you hold my master at arm's length? If this message has come to you, if you've heard it, why do you keep him at arm's length?

Look at the danger that you're in. Look at the danger. Perhaps you don't see it, but you're about to be consumed by the ways of God's wrath. Our God is a righteous fire. Are your eyes not open? Do you not see what's happening?

Do you not see that? Open your eyes. I plead for your souls.

Turn from your sin.

Turn from every weight and sin that binds you to this world. Turn from it and run into the loving arms of my master. We're going to end with a quote from George Whitefield. Just hear this out. It says, if your souls were not immortal and you in danger of losing them, I would not thus speak unto you, but the love of your souls constrains me to speak.

Methinks this would constrain me to speak unto you.

Forever.

If you see the cross and Jesus Christ cast upon it and your sin is not within him, if you are not covered by Christ, don't delay. You're commanded to repent. Don't delay a second more. Run to Christ. Let's pray.

Oh, sovereign, loving Father, Lord, it was your goodwill to crush your son, Jesus Christ, for poor and lowly sinners like ourselves. Father, to save us from an eternity of fury and wrath of weeping and gnashing of teeth, that we might enjoy the greatest splendor of all.

Fellowship with you. That we would no longer approach the sovereign holiest of holies as enemies, but as sons and daughters. That we would have a relationship so sweet, so perfect, that if nothing else were to come to us, Father, we are rich.

We are rich in mercy, rich in grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are absolutely rich. It pleased you to save sinners. As Jonah was cast into the waves, Lord Jesus Christ, cast upon that cross for us. Father, I thank you.