Feb. 4, 2018 PM Sins Dreadful Reach by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Well if you care to read along with me as we continue in the book of Jonah We will come to verses 4 through 16 this afternoon

Jonah 4 through 16 Excuse me a second.

Jonah is a short book and it's easy to Page right past it It's only two pages in my

Bible Jonah chapter 1 verses 4 through 16

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up Then the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his

God and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them

But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down it was fast asleep So the captain came to him and said what what do you mean you sleeper arise go out call out to your

God Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish Then 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? And where do you come from? What is your country of what people are you?

They said to them. I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land

Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him what is this you have done For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the

Lord because he had told them Then they said to him. What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us for the sea grew more and more tempestuous

He said that 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 cried out to the Lord. Oh Lord, let let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood for you

Oh Lord have done as it pleased you So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased its rate from its raging

Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows

I'll begin by noting to you a well -known fact of the Bible that rebellion is according to Scripture as the sin of witchcraft

So learned Saul Israel's first king from Samuel Israel's greatest judge

And with this truth in hand we can look at the Prophet Jonah and we could see how severely the Lord looks upon his journey away from his command

The Lord in the verses that we just read has stymied the prophets flight He is the

Lord who made heaven and earth and both heaven and earth and all that they contain bend to his will a

Successful escape from him would require that a haven be found outside of his boundaries it would have to be somewhere with a wall too strong for God to bring down or a city too far for him to be aware of its existence or some such thing or maybe it would need to be far enough away that as the

Lord's power was exerted toward It that power would dissipate sort of like the phasers that the starship

Enterprise would fire And they were only powerful for a time then they would fade away Of course

None of that could possibly be with our Lord could it is there a place too far for the

Lord to have knowledge? Is there a place that is too far away that his power cannot reach it in its fullest power that he would have is there?

Anywhere that the Lord is unaware and able to exert his will of course not

Our Lord knew Jonah's departure west before he did So we can ask ourselves.

Why did God not choose another? Why not raise up for himself a more faithful or courageous man?

He did that with Saul did he not he raised up David because of Saul's deficiency

Why not raise up a prophet because of Jonah? Our Lord is sovereign.

He does only what he pleases and God pleases only what is right God normally works his word by means by which we mean

God works his miraculous divine and powerful word By using means it seemed to be sort of ordinary

Many people can testify that they came to Jesus Christ By the words of another person

God working his power through the means of human speech that sort of thing

We know that God normally works that way He uses men to proclaim his word and then he follows that word with the power of the

Holy Spirit without whom there's no benefit to any word that we could speak And further when

God chooses to work through men his selection is limited to what? To sinners to sinners

Isaiah cried out that his lips were no more clean than those to whom he was sent Habakkuk felt rottenness enter into his bones as he looked at a rotten people to whom he needed to preach

Jeremiah claimed to have been deceived and Jonah stands with them

He having a spirit like ours. He stands in a sense with us As we look at Jonah this afternoon in his escape pod if you will

We'll see a sovereign God on full display as he sends the storm that holds the ship's progress

And then we will consider the reach of sin We will think about how far the consequences of sin actually extend

God is going to have his way The reluctant prophet will end up right where God wanted him which will be

Nineveh And there he would preach just what God wanted him to And as we'll see that message had exactly the effect on exactly the people that he the

Lord God intended But to sum all that up In a word

God is what? He's sovereign God's sovereignty is

Permeated in this book. It is God. He hurled the storm He decreed that Jonah's death would a still the storm and be save the sailors

He our sovereign God caused the lot to fall on Jonah. That's what proverbs 16 33 would teach us

In verse 17 where we will begin Lord willing next week. He God appointed the fish

And later he will command the plant to suddenly grow and give Jonah shade and then decree.

It's just as sudden demise now the

Lord appears In this part of the narrative really only in two places And in only one of those two is he actually even named is verse four

But the Lord hurled a great storm upon the sea and then we're 15 Where he's not named but it's obviously him

God Yahweh throughout this book who causes the sea to cease from its raging

We have no clue As to when this voyage was begun what time of year is what

I mean? But we have to assume that these sailors being seasoned professionals would have chosen a season where calm seas were the most probable

The storm comes suddenly violently it's literally out of the blue it's hurled upon them

Yahweh did this and in verse 8 they ask on whose account has this evil come upon us

And this word evil is the same as we have up in the beginning Here in verse 2 arrives go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it for their evil

Has come before me you remember a few weeks ago I told you that this word evil in the original language could also be translated as distress or trouble

Which I prefer because of the end of the book where God Says should I not be concerned about them also meaning all those people and all the cattle

And so the idea of Nineveh's distress though, they weren't evil people their distress being this the

Best translation there. I think is consistent and here They ask on whose account has this evil and I think if we call it this trouble this distress this calamity

I think fits the context again A little bit better. See they knew that that storm shouldn't be there

They knew it shouldn't be there. They wouldn't have left in a season where there was any chance of storms at least the smallest chance

They don't ask why this freak weather occurred or how they misread the signs They ask why this

Calamity why this distress why this trouble has come upon them has come upon them And I want us to answer this

I want us to answer this question that the sailors ask And to answer it we need to leave for a moment thoughts about god's sovereignty just for a moment

And consider something that we don't often think about when we read of jonah and this storm

And it's this You see the consequences of our sin are shared far beyond what we usually will think the consequences of our sin extend further

Beyond what we normally think it's not a private matter It's not a matter where we in our own power can limit and say okay.

I know I did wrong and this far goes no no We can't do that And the way sin normally works it seems god would have us recognize our sin by seeing that it does go further than we might normally expect

You'd ask ourselves. What had these sailors done? to deserve such terrors

We can answer that They ran from the lord The sailors were running from the lord.

The sailors were disobeying the lord. You might say no Jonah ran not these poor sailors

But look again at verse 10. Do you still have your bibles open to jonah 1 Verse 10 tells us that they were culpable in this

They knew that jonah was fleeing from the presence of the lord because he had told them Jonah told them that he was fleeing.

Yahweh. That's the name of god used throughout this book Now, maybe they smirked

Maybe they patted him on the head and laughed at such a superstitious man To be fleeing from a god that they couldn't see and handle as they could their own gods

Never mind that they weren't of israel and raised with the law and the covenants and the oracles and all that Jonah told them

He told them this They accepted his portage and his fare knowing that he was in rebellion against the lord

They were culpable Brethren do you know That when you tell your friends your brother your sister your mother father

When you give your testimony about your faith in the lord Jesus christ when you tell of the forgiveness of sins that he won for us on the cross

When he suffered and died for others When you explain that god raised him up for our justification.

Do you realize that you are delivering more than just words? This is the gospel you're giving them the power of god to for salvation you're also giving them the basis for their judgment

For god's judgment upon them We often say that god judges us by the light given

And we give them the light of jesus christ. That is the basis they knew

You're giving them the basis of their judgment like those sailors of old They were told by the prophet

I'm running from yahweh. I need your help to escape He wants me to go here.

I'm going there and you are going to take me And here's my fare They were culpable

That was jonah brought the storm storm on the sailors But they're not innocent

You think of what the lord jesus christ said in luke chapter 13 Do you think that these galileans were worse sinners than all the other galileans because they suffered in this way?

No, I tell you but unless you repent you will all likewise perish Or those 18 on on whom the tower in siloam fell and killed them

Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in jerusalem? No, I tell you But unless you repent you will all likewise perish

So why should these sailors die Verse 10 says that they were culpable

That they knew that they were helping jonah resist the lord. God who made heaven and earth remember abimelech in genesis chapter 20

The one who tried to take abraham's wife sarah and god comes to him in a dream And does he say to him?

Poor abimelech. I know what abraham has brought into your country Abraham is guilty and you know

No What does he say to abimelech? You are a dead man because of the woman that was sarah because of the woman whom you have taken

He's a dead man. He protested. He didn't know and god agreed. Yes, you didn't know

Now said god return her and beseech him to pray for you or you're dead Why?

because of his sin Why did they perish when the tower fell on them because of their sin?

Why were jonah's shipmates about to perish no different answers available to us because of their sin

As he said to the seas in job chapter 38 and verse 11 this far you may come but no farther

And here your proud waters must stop. So he says to jonah as it were but he says to the ship

No further shall you go this journey stops Here because they made no more progress once the storm was hurled at them

So they asked why has this calamity why is this distress and trouble come upon us? It came because when jonah told them of his rebellion and named the god that he was fleeing

They aided and abetted him So now let's come to a halt with the ship let's stop there

Let's think on how far and how quickly the consequences of my sin and your sin actually spread

I mean my personal sin. I mean yours Jonah was the initiator here, but the leaven leavening a whole lump dragged others along with him culpably

You know a man who needs the lord's chastening hand may well bring the correcting providence upon his whole family

The wife might say why is our checking account so low we can't afford groceries And perhaps he'd have the courage to say well the lord the lord has hurled the storm against me to halt my gambling

And now you must ride it out as I learn my lesson A wife fails to properly respect and obey her husband

She says why are my children disobedient and rude without seeing the plain words of scripture and blazing before her very eyes

We need to learn from jonah That we carry our sin to others

We carry our sin to others My sin is mine I am culpable for it and not for yours and vice versa, but how quickly

It permeates everything We need to keep short accounts with god.

We need to go often to our savior jesus for forgiveness and for cleansing And limit the amount that we drag others into what we've done

As others pay the consequence with us Ships in that day stayed within sight of land

They ventured only as far to see as necessary to have enough water beneath the keel to stay afloat

And to be free of the eddies and the currents that occurred nearer the shore that were very dangerous and unpredictable

So when they tried all the harder to row to safety Think of this Remember, they strained even more against the oars

They could see the land It was right there. There is safety Just a couple of good strokes and we'll make it.

It's we've done this before man row harder. You can see it I don't know how far it was.

I couldn't find in a commentary how far except that they could see it How far do you have to be away from the shore before you're clear of those eddies and those unpredictable currents?

300 yards maybe i'm just guessing but I know they could see it But again, they sin

Again, they sin and they seal the indictment of their own execution Now, how is this?

I would suggest two things first each cried out to his own god small g Now just imagine the wind is howling

So they have to scream at the top of their voice with the prophets of baal Oh baal hear us and answer us and save us they're screaming because of the howling wind and it's crashing waves

But the storm rages on and on Isn't this pride isn't this hubris to say

I can feed this obviously supernatural storm They said call out to your god, maybe he'll have regard for us they're calling out to their own gods

They're wondering what do we have to do to some person on the ship meaning they knew that this storm shouldn't be there

Isn't it pride to say that I can stop this storm? I can row against it They knew it was unnatural and does not god say in his word that he resists the proud

People love to say that god helps those who help themselves. There's nothing that could be further from the truth than that expression

God doesn't help those who help themselves. God helps those who've despaired of helping themselves

This is a very sad thing for us to watch men resisting the lord You and I who know christ we know what a joyous day it is when his gospel finally breaks down the last bricks in our mighty fortresses

But what of our neighbors our friends our loved ones they strain against them They gnash their teeth against them even knowing with the men in revelation that their sufferings were from god

Why not stop now? Why not surrender then? You are not stronger than he is

Admit defeat flee to christ jesus In him there's forgiveness in him. There is peace defeat will come to you

If not in this life, then your demise will be an eternal one Admit that you've lost your struggle come to christ and there find victory find his victory over sin and ultimately over death itself

Now, what does he do with us when we come to him like that? Here we are been straining against those oars biting against that storm getting nowhere

We're exhausted and finally our pride is in tatters. Our weapons are discarded for the useless weight that they are

Uniforms are smudged. We're just a mess What does he do?

Stills the storm Gives us the benefits of his victory on the cross But they sin and sin these sailors

We don't often don't often think of that But they're calling out to their own god. They knew it was yahweh.

They were resisting they sinned by resorting to gods Which were not gods at all joining jonah

After jonah told them what he was doing in verse 10 joining him in his rebellion jonah's sin now spreading

To everyone on the ship, so that's the first thing that makes them culpable.

The second is they disobey god's direct word If they were somewhat passive or naive in helping jonah on their way or on his way

Here they have the word of the prophet Hurl me into the sea and what did they do?

They ignored it And that's when they fought all the more against yahweh who had been declared to them by the prophet

As they strained more and more on the oars trying to get to the land Just there

Just another stroke or two just break past this little part of the squall and maybe we'll be free

Don't think when they didn't want to throw jonah overboard that they were displaying some sort of sort of civic goodness and unwillingness to commit murder

They were disobeying yahweh They were disobeying yahweh. They did that when they helped jonah escape or so they thought

And by refusing to throw him overboard at the word of yahweh through the prophet of yahweh, they disobeyed him

They're culpable How hard we work against our god Even for us, you know, jesus says one thing and we answer by rowing harder and harder going our own way following our own whim

This is where i'm off to to that city where I will sell and trade and make a profit and then a tempest denies it to us

God lets the goal come tantalizingly close Almost in our grasp yet.

He keeps us from it And what is this if you're a child of christ? It's his providence is his chastising hand not his judging hand, but it's his goodness to us that does that How did the men know that to do something to jonah would quiet the storm?

Sheer superstition is the quickest answer Ecclesiastes 3 11 says that god has put eternity into men's hearts, which means he's put a knowledge of god into all men's hearts

There's a culpable knowledge of a creator psalm 19 and romans 1 would say in everything you see

You are made culpable nevertheless, they wrote hard I think of first corinthians 10 22.

Shall we provoke the lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? They've heard that it is.

Yahweh who made the sea in the dry land. They answer by straining harder The late r .c.

Sproul speaking from romans 1 about men suppressing the truth He speaks of or he spoke of the constant effort the back -breaking exertion needing to hold down god's truth

To keep it away from you like holding down a great spring and the further you push it the more energy is wrapped up in It so if you ever let go of it, it's going to spring back and blow you apart

That's all from r .c. Sproul. I didn't make that one up. I love that picture though Why would they not just stop immediately upon hearing this truth

Stop and say what shall we do to you? And do it It's because men love the darkness because it hides their evil deeds

Because while many of the false gods invented by men demanded sacrifice, so they had some knowledge of a sacrifice

None of those gods make any moral demands on anyone What do men do?

They row uselessly they row exhaustedly they do anything But to submit to god becomes a matter of it's almost better to Drown than to repent.

I think that had the sailors not obeyed and thrown Jonah out of the ship That the ship would have been torn apart and they would have drowned

You read commentators on Jonah and are kind of divided on whether the crew was actually saved

It says how they made vows. They made sacrifices to god. Were they actually saved the way we mean as christians?

Or was it just a superstitious acknowledgement that some deity was working They will give a sacrifice and a vow to that particular deity but keep their own

As I look at this text as we consider the importance in scripture of making vows and sacrifices to god

I can't really tell To paraphrase what Calvin often wrote. I have nothing against those who believe this way or that But that said

I I don't think these men were saved I think their sacrifices and their vows to Yahweh were superstition

Perhaps they put him at the apex of the gods, but they kept all those below him it seems

They saw the lord's awesome power When the storm stopped so suddenly and their lives were spared remember they threw jonah in and it just stopped

But still sin has a price what jonah brought to them still has a penalty. The whole journey is a disaster

For the sake of their lives they threw the cargo in which resided all their hope of profit into the sea And that swallowed it up with some greed.

So they go home. What they go home penniless alive, but broke Now we need to understand that the lord's business with you

It's not always yours alone, at least not the effect of some of the consequences of the things that we do

Maybe this is why james tells us to confess our sins to each other I've often wondered about this

Is he thinking of two brothers in private and one says to the other I have misdeeds to confess Will you hear me and help me to pray?

Or is it a church matter? and it's Something that we relinquish a responsibility we perform at something like a wednesday night prayer meeting

The lord hurls a great storm at you, but others are carried along in your journey from disobedience to repentance

There is an effect And so not always as limited as we might think it would be

I said when we started this series that jonah ranks with the greatest of the prophets

His residence in the fish is according to jesus a picture of his own death and burial and resurrection

As we wonder at the prophet's misdirection Let's remember that if the entire prophecy occurred

For no other reason than for jesus to be able to refer to the sign of jonah if all the jonah went through his flight from God going west instead of east his three days which will get to soon in the belly of the fish his resurrection

And being vomited back out on the land and then preaching if all that occurred for no other reason than for jesus

To point to the sign of jonah That's enough But as we prepare for the table

We need to understand that jonah prefigures christ in another way And this way is unique to all the prophets

Jonah gave his life So that others might be saved I can't find that in any other prophet in the scripture other than obviously our lord jesus christ

The parallels between jonah and jesus We can't press them very far because they fall apart pretty quickly if we go point for point

Because jonah was running from the lord and jesus said himself steadfastly to go towards the lord in all his life

And jonah the spirit like ours Was a sinner Sent by god on a mission but a sinner and jesus of course tempted in all ways like we are

Yet without sin, so the parallels come apart pretty quickly. We're not going to press them except for this

There's no other figure that we can find in the bible other than our lord

Whose death was beneficial to others? Isaiah spoke of a suffering servant whose death was powerful to save others.

But jonah in this one limited sense in this one picture Analogous to jesus.

He lived it now. That's the great difference

Jesus tempted at all points as we are yet without sin Jonah's death stopped the storm

But that was all Our lord calls us to come to him matthew 11 20 says come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden

And I will give you rest What's the message is to set the oar in the socket reef your sail?

See stills the storm that his father so mercifully sent We come to the table this afternoon

We partake at the table and we think not of jonah Who's being tossed into the sea saved about a dozen sailors about the size of those ships then?

and our lord wasn't tossed in the sea, but nailed to a cross and he saved not a dozen but an innumerable host of people predestined by the father to come to the gospel

And to know eternal life by faith in his son jesus Now not saved from a storm but from eternal damnation

Not saved to go home once and have to explain why we're penniless But saved so that all the wealth of christ is ours

That his victory in the cross Hours as we spoke of this morning to live a right life and to live in the power of the holy spirit his way

So we come this afternoon As we think about jonah the sign of jonah that precursor

Fulfilled by our lord jesus christ in his death on our behalf As jonah tossed in the sea just to give us a slight glimmer of a picture of our lord.

Jesus christ on the cross And our lord's body broken for us

Which will be the bread his life poured out for us which will be the wine representing his blood his life for others

I trust as we come to the table And if we have thoughts about jonah

And tie them to this table Yes the sign of jonah as our lord jesus christ said

But let us as we partake of this table and we think of the awful price of sin. Let us think also of the extent of sin

How jonah's sin brought this trouble upon these sailors? Jesus christ died for sin

And let us think what the dreadful price must be if our sin can affect so many others as jonah's did the others on the ship

What price? What agony on the cross did our lord jesus christ pay as his father paid it poured out his wrath for all sin?

upon him And that's the lord we come to at the table in a few moments As we think upon these things.

I think that's a worthy way to think As we consider just how dreadful sin is and how much further it escapes from our control than we ever imagined