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

Jonah’s Flight and the Storm at Sea

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 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.

The Sovereignty of God Over Jonah’s Disobedience

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. 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 and to 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 It only one of those two is he actually even named is verse 4. 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 asked 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 were an evil people their distress being this the best translation there.

I think it's 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 troubles component 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.

The Far-Reaching Consequences of Sin

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 for 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 could 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 the 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 gonna take me and Here's my fare. They were culpable. Now Jonah brought the 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 learned my lesson.

A Wife fails to properly respect and obey her husband. She says why are my children disobedient 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 men 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 in 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 him. They gnashed their teeth against him 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 fighting 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 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 God's which were not God's 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. This is chastising had not as 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? My sheer superstition is the quickest answer. Ecclesiastes 311 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 1st 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. The answer by straining harder. The late RC Sproul speaking from Romans 1 about men suppressing the truth. He speaks of where 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 gonna spring back and blow you apart.

That's all from RC 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? That'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 they had the sailors not obeyed and thrown a Jonah out of the ship. That the ship would have been torn apart and they would have drowned.

And You read commentators on Jonah and they're 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 work and 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 he 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. No, 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. 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 prophets 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 too 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.

There 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?

Yeah, 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 sea, but nailed to a cross. They 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.

No, not saved from a storm but from eternal damnation. Not saved to go home once and have to explain why we're penniless. But save so that all the wealth of Christ is ours that his victory in the cross.

Ours 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 at 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. What to 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 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 and 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 is 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. Let's think this way. Let us Consider the table in this way as we come to it.