Is the written word of God sufficient for you?
What will it take to confirm your faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and the only way to be saved?
That is the burden of my message today.
For those who were not here for the first three sermons on Jonah allow me to very quickly set up the situation where our text [1:17] begins today.
Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the Messiah. But the scribes and the Pharisees questioned His authority and asked Jesus for a sign.
Keep in mind that Jesus had clearly demonstrated His power by cleansing the leper, healing the centurion’s servant, He stilled the raging sea, He cast out demons, and He raised the dead to life, and other such signs!
Why do they still ask for a sign? Surely you know the answer!
Jesus answered:
Matthew 12:38-42
38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."
39. But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. 42. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
The sign of the prophet Jonah, among other things, was chiefly the sign or type of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
Not only was Jonah the sign to the scribes and the Pharisees Jonah was the sign to the Ninevites. Luke adds a most important detail about Jonah.
Luke 11:30
For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.
Jonah as a type of Christ was able to testify to the power of God to kill and make alive. Jonah was able to prophesy of the Messiah who would make the sufficient atonement for the sins of His people.
Matthew 1:21
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."
The Book of Jonah begins with Jehovah speaking to His prophet Jonah whom God had previously used to announce relief to Israel from the oppression of Syria. [2 Kings 14:25]
Later God told Jonah to go and preach to that great and wicked city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. But Jonah fled from the presence of the LORD. The “presence of the LORD” we saw was the place consecrated to the worship of Jehovah. “Cain went out from the presence of the LORD.”
Jonah was not stupid and he was not trying to physically hide from God.
We also saw that the reason that Jonah disobeyed God was in a vain attempt to protect the honor of God. God told Jonah to preach:
“Yet forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”
God had not given Jonah any equivocation or qualification, just:
“Yet forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”
Jonah knew that if he went and preached that message that God would grant repentance to those heathens and it would look to the scoffing and blaspheming world that God had changed His mind!
After the most successful missionary campaign in all of history Jonah tells God his reason for disobedience in Chapter 4.
Jonah 4:1-3
1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.
2. So he prayed to the LORD, and said, "Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.
3. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!"
Then in 1:4 we saw the absolute sovereignty of God introduced in the Book of Jonah. The sovereignty of God is revealed throughout the Bible but here is where it is introduced in the Book of Jonah.
“But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea…”
We have “But Jonah…”
Thank God for His sovereign mercy there is “But the LORD…”
If the Book of Jonah teaches anything at all it teaches that God is God and that He does what He pleases.
Job 9:12
Who can say to Him, 'What are You doing?'
God is sovereign over the wind and the sea and the ship and the sailors and the casting of the lots and the great fish and the heathen in Nineveh and the hot sun and the vine that sprang up and withered and the worm that caused the vine to wither! God is sovereign!
Nothing “Just Happens!”
In my message from Jonah 1:4-16 I said, “You show me something that is not under the absolute control of God and I will worship that because whatever God cannot control is more powerful than God!”
The only God worthy of worship is the sovereign Creator and whose providence governs everything!
Then we saw that the natural religion of those pagan sailors could do NOTHING to deliver them! Every man cried out to his god but the storm continued to get worse and the ship was sinking!
The problem was with Jonah! Who are you, where are you from?
And then Jonah preached his first missionary sermon about the only true God who made the sea and the dry land. The truth about the Creator was revealed to those sailors. They heard the word of God and they believed the truth and God granted them repentance and God saved them. We know from the text that God really saved those sailors because they offered a sacrifice and made vows AFTER they were delivered from the terrible storm!
Jonah, who did not want to preach to pagans in Nineveh, did not even get to see the mercy of God toward these sailors, because Jonah had been thrown into the raging sea.
But God had prepared a monster that was swimming beneath that ship and Jonah was about to be swallowed by a great fish.
Jonah 1:17
Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Brother Carl asked me several weeks ago if I thought Jonah had died and come back to life. To be honest my first impression was, “No, I don’t believe that Jonah died and came back to life.”
You can find commentaries that “prove” Jonah did not die and that Jonah died. Either way it was God who either preserved Jonah’s life or brought him back to life.
However, on further meditation and prayer I do believe that this is a vital part of the sign of the prophet Jonah. There are several instances in the Bible of a man dying and being restored to life. It is always the power of God that restores life.
Jesus died and came back to life in His own power.
John 10:17-18
17. "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
18. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."
Jonah did not have the power to raise himself, as did Christ. But God used Jonah as a type of the resurrection to the Ninevites and to the scribes and Pharisees.
Yes, life after death is not only possible, it is certain. The question for each of us is what will be the quality of that life? We will live as long as God lives and we will live somewhere. We will either be in hell or with Christ and that will be forever.
So, Yes, I believe that Jonah died in the belly of the fish and was in the very lowest pit of hell. Jonah was in a virtual hell in the belly of that fish in the same way that Jesus suffered the torments of hell on the cross.
There is somewhat of a difficulty here and I do not want to suggest that anyone may hope for a second opportunity to be saved if you die as an unbeliever.
We will see later that Jonah is actually converted in the fish’s belly.
Do not assume that every person that God uses to accomplish His sovereign purpose is a saved man. The fact that God had used Jonah before He saved him does not mean that Jonah was a regenerated soul before the great fish swallowed him.
This message today is a lesson in the continuity and the sufficiency of the Scripture. By continuity I mean the NT explains the OT. By sufficiency I mean the rejection of any and all extra-biblical content.
In our studies in the Book of Romans we saw that Paul declares that the Gospel of God is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. To Paul and the other writers of the NT, the Scriptures are the OT. If a preacher cannot preach the Gospel from the OT it is simply because he doesn’t know the Gospel.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said that the prophet Jonah was the only sign that would be given to declare His authority as Messiah. That does not mean that Christ is not revealed in all of the OT.
Christ said, “Moses wrote of Him.” Jesus revealed Himself to the two on the road to Emmaus through Moses and the prophets and the psalms.
“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah."
Let’s first lay aside the jeers of the scoffers and the intellectual fools and the liberal theologians who hoot and laugh at the story of a man being swallowed whole by a “whale” and his body surviving the gastric juices in the belly of this great fish for three days and three nights and living to tell about it.
If God’s word said Jonah swallowed the great fish I would believe that!
Now the text doesn’t say it was a “whale” in the OT or in the NT.
What it says is:
Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
The KJV in Matthew 12:40 uses the world “whale” but in the Book of Jonah even the KJV says “great fish.”
In my studies of Jonah I have read that the sperm whale has a throat large enough to swallow a man. The sperm whale swallows squid that are larger than men. But the truth of the Bible does not stand or fall on such arguments.
It may have been a whale but whatever it was the LORD prepared it and used it for His purpose. If you can believe “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If you can believe “In the beginning was the Word … And the Word became flesh,” you won’t have any problem with the LORD preparing a great fish to swallow Jonah.
If a person has decided not to believe the Word of God that itself is an act of faith and no amount of “proof’ will change his or her mind. The person who accepts the authority and sufficiency and the absolute truth of God’s word needs no such “Proof.”
“And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Much has been written by scholars to say that “three days and three nights” doesn’t mean 72 hours or actually “three days and three nights.”
They say that it only requires part of a “day” and part of a “night” to amount to “three days and three nights.” To me that is a compromise to protect the Roman Catholic tradition of “Good Friday” as the day on which Jesus was crucified.
If you are interested I have prepared a study called “Crucifixion Week” which lays out the Roman calendar [a day is midnight to midnight, which is what we use today] and the Jewish calendar [sundown to sundown is a day] side by side and this chart will show you that Jesus was actually crucified no later than what we call “Thursday” on that week. He very likely was crucified before sundown on Wednesday and was resurrected before sunrise on Sunday.
Now in the belly of the fish with no hope of escape Jonah prays to God using God’s own words. Jonah quotes parts of seven psalms and alludes to many more and also quotes from two other prophets, Hosea and Jeremiah.
When a man is desperate all that will really comfort him will be the word of God and Jonah prays God’s own words.
There is much in Jonah to reveal the Gospel of Christ. Yes, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, but in our text today we have Jonah quoting from the psalms and the prophets.
The significance of the psalms and the prophets that Jonah quotes from is that they not only describe the plight of Jonah in the belly of the great fish, but they reveal the agony of Christ on the cross taking sin on Himself and dying for sinners!
This is the nature of prophetic Scriptures. There are events in the life of men like David and Jeremiah, et al that are types or pictures of the Christ.
Jonah was okay with his abandoning God but when Jonah thought God had abandoned him he was in great distress of soul. Do not concentrate so much on what happens inside the fish and miss the true miracle of what happens inside Jonah! [J. P. Boice]
Follow along with me as we examine Jonah 2:1-10.
Jonah 2:1-2
1. Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly.
2. And he said:
"I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction,
Psalm 120:1
In my distress I cried to the LORD,
And He heard me.
Our Lord Jesus was in distress of soul as the sinless Son of God took on the sin of His people.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
"And He answered me."
Psalm 65:2
O You who hear prayer,
To You all flesh will come.
John 12:32-33
32. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself."
33. This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
"Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice."
Psalm 88:6-7
6. You have laid me in the lowest pit,
In darkness, in the depths.
7. Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
And You have afflicted me with all Your waves.
In the lowest pit, in darkness, in hell, the wrath of God is poured out on the Christ.
3. For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
Psalm 42:7
Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
Waves of pain and suffering wash over Jesus as He hangs on that bloody cross like a great waterfall and billows of waves.
4. Then I said, 'I have been cast out of Your sight;
Psalm 31:22
22 For I said in my haste,
"I am cut off from before Your eyes";
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
When I cried out to You.
The sun refused to shine and it was as if the Son of God was hidden from the sight of the blasphemers.
Luke 23:46
And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit.'" Having said this, He breathed His last.
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.'
1 Kings 8:38
38. whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple:
Jesus the Christ knew why He suffered on the cross and He trusted in the word of the Father that He would be restored to the glory that He had with Him before the world began.
The temple in Jerusalem is gone forever but the tabernacle and the temple were only pictures of the true temple of God in heaven.
5. The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head.
Lamentations 3:54
54. The waters flowed over my head;
I said, "I am cut off!"
Jonah was sure he would never see the light of day again.
But Jonah was learning to trust God and not circumstances.
6. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.
Psalm 16:10
10. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
Every student of the Bible knows that Psalm 16 refers to the resurrection of Jesus.
Peter quotes from Psalm 16 among other psalms at Pentecost.
Acts 2:29-33
29. "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,
31. he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
32. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
33. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
7. "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.
Psalm 18:6
In my distress I called upon the LORD,
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.
This may be somewhat repetitive but I don’t believe that God ever tires of hearing souls cry out to Him by quoting from His holy word.
8. "Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy.
Jeremiah 10:8
8 But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish;
A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.
We saw from Jonah Chapter One that the false gods of the sailors were helpless to save anyone. Those who worship anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ forsake the mercy of God.
9. But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving;
Hosea 14:2
Take words with you,
And return to the LORD.
Say to Him,
"Take away all iniquity;
Receive us graciously,
For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.
Hebrews 13:15
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
I will pay what I have vowed.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-5
4. When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it;
For He has no pleasure in fools.
Pay what you have vowed —
5. Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.
Jonah did not know that the sailors had been saved and that they had offered a sacrifice and made vows. Now Jonah has come to the end of himself and his rebellion and is resigned to trust God and not in circumstances.
Salvation is of the LORD.
Jeremiah 3:23
Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills,
And from the multitude of mountains;
Truly, in the LORD our God
Is the salvation of Israel.
Every sinner that God saves comes to the place in his spirit where Jonah is now. He is helpless and condemned and agrees with God that he is getting what he deserves. The guilty sinner agrees that it would be right and just if God sent him to hell! But when God brings a person to the end of himself or herself only then can they be saved.
Salvation is not God doing His part and the sinner doing his part.
Salvation is of the LORD!
Psalm 3:8
Salvation belongs to the LORD!
Jonah had thought that he was better than those heathen in Nineveh and now he takes his place along side of them. [J. P. Boice]
The LORD hurled a great wind and the LORD saved some pagan sailors after they tossed Jonah into the raging sea. The LORD prepared a great fish that swallowed Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights and Jonah cried out in his affliction.
After Jonah recalled the mercies of God to His servants David and Jeremiah and Hosea he too was granted repentance and was enabled to see the true gospel:
Salvation is of the LORD!
What is the nature of the Salvation of the LORD?
By that I mean is the salvation of the LORD entirely of God and is it a complete and sufficient salvation?
Remember from Romans Chapter Four where Paul is making the case for justification by faith apart from works and he told about how Abraham was justified or declared not guilty.
Romans 4:23-25
23. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
24. but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25. who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Several times in this message I have mentioned the authority and sufficiency of the written word of God.
*******Because of my burden for the authority and sufficiency of the written word of God I want to share with you my concerns about the current phenomena, “The Passion of the Christ”.
Will you listen to me with calm and unemotional attention?
Salvation is of the LORD!
In this series on Jonah we come again to the definition of justification. Does God justify the ungodly sinner by fiat, i.e., imputed righteousness or does God infuse righteousness through some means?
We are talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how God saves sinners.
That said I want to caution you about some aspects of Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ.”
It is obvious that the evangelical Christian community has unreservedly accepted this film as the greatest thing to ever come along.
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Rev. Jack Graham referring to the bloody portrayal of Jesus’ crucifixion in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” said, “It is rated R for reality.”
A letter, signed by Rev. Rick Lance, from the Alabama Baptist State Convention, was sent to all Alabama Southern Baptist churches telling us how churches could promote this film.
This is better than WWJD?
This is even stronger than the “Prayer of Jabez.”
This is more popular than “Left Behind.”
In a meeting of Grace Pastors on Thursday, February 26, 2004 I asked if anyone beside myself was disturbed by the almost universal acceptance of this film by the evangelical community. A lively discussion ensued after a couple of pastors said that they were promoting the film.
One pastor made the point that the apparent lack of discernment from the Christian community was due to the absence of expositional preaching. Most church people have not been taught the Bible.
My first reaction to the enthusiasm over this film was:
Luke 6:26
“Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
For so did their fathers to the false prophets.
Although I have not seen the movie I have read a number of articles about this movie in Christianity Today and other publications. I do plan to see the movie. If you do go see this movie, as a believer in the authority and sufficiency of the written word of God, watch for these things.
Mel Gibson is a medieval Roman Catholic. His brand of Catholicism takes you back to the days of the drama. There was no need for the written word of God when you could observe a spectacle.
What you have in “The Passion of the Christ” is indeed a spectacle much in the same sense as the Tridentine Latin Mass and calls Mary co-redemptrix.
The Roman Catholic Mass is a spectacle in which Jesus is “crucified” at every “mass.”
In “The Passion of the Christ” in the sacrifice of the Christ it is Mary who offers her son and not the Father who gives His only Son.
In “The Passion of the Christ” there are many extra-biblical events such as Mary wiping up the blood of Jesus and Jesus killing the “seed of the serpent” by stepping on the head of a snake that enters the scene.
There is a veiled woman who is the personification of evil speaking extra-biblical words to Jesus.
In Roman Catholic theology there is forgiveness of sin but there is no absolute demand for a sanctified and a holy life as a result of being justified. All you need to do is continue in sin and go to a human “priest’ and he, according to Roman Catholic theology, has the power to forgive sin. You may be given a penance, some act that you must do to atone for your sin.
“The Passion of the Christ” is Mel Gibson’s penance for his former life of debauchery. He said as much in his interview with Diane Sawyer.
Mel Gibson also said in his interview with Diane Sawyer that there are other ways to be saved besides Christianity.
In Roman Catholic theology justification is a continuing process dispensed through the sacraments of the church and infused righteousness is the result of the sacraments instead of a once and forever act of a sovereign God who justifies the ungodly by fiat, i.e., imputed righteousness.
There are Second Commandment issues raised by this portrayal.
Exodus 20:4-6
4. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image — any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
5. you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6. but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
In Roman Catholic theology as well as in the vast majority of evangelical churches the emphasis is on a religious experience versus believe in objective truth and alien righteousness imputed to the guilty sinner.
There are many NT passages that speak to the necessity and sufficiency of the written word of God.
Romans 10:17
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Luke 16:31
But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
3. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4. and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
Luke 24:25-27&31-32
25. Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
26. Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"
27. And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
31.Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32. And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"
Galatians 1:6-9
6. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
7. which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
9. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
This film will no doubt cause many people to feel sorry for Jesus and many will have their “religious experience.” But the Gospel is not “feel sorry for Jesus” and trust in your “religious experience.” The Gospel is “Christ died for sinners.” What did Jesus say about feeling sorry for Him”
Luke 23:27-31
27. And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him.
28. But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
29. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!'
30. Then they will begin 'to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"' 31. For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?"
If God uses this movie to cause anyone to search the Scriptures and to repent of their sin and come to the Christ of the Scriptures then glory hallelujah!
There is a movie, “The Gospel of John, the Film,” which is only the written word of God. Yes, it too is a drama, but the dialog is only the written text of the Gospel of John.
It is no surprise to me that “The Gospel of John, the Film” is virtually ignored compared to the promotion of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”. Contrary to what Rev. Jack Graham said, this film is not “reality” it is Mel Gibson’s spectacle.
What I am saying to you is that God may use “The Passion of the Christ” in spite of its extra-biblical content. But at bottom-line it is a Roman Catholic film and it is a Roman Catholic “gospel.” As the police sergeant on an old TV show used to say: “Be careful out there.”
*******10. So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
If by God’s great mercy we are spared until next Sunday we will study the “The Greatest Revival the World has Ever Seen!”
We will be dealing with what Jonah was so afraid of that he fled from the presence of the LORD. Jonah was afraid that God might change His mind and that the pagan world would think that Jehovah is a changeable God.
Does God ever repent? Does God ever threaten and then change His mind?
There are those who teach that God cannot know anything until it happens.
There are those who believe and teach that God does, in fact, change His mind. With God’s help I will show you why men choose to believe this error and how to interpret those passages of Scriptures that seem to indicate that God can change. Do not be led by false teachers.
There may be some “Jonah’s” out there this morning that have been running from God. Has God been gracious to you to show you what sin and rebellion will carry you? Are you going to wait for God to put you in the belly of the great fish?
Just come to Jesus with no promises and bargains in mind. God is not in the business of bartering. Salvation is not “You do something and then God will save you.”
Salvation is of the LORD!
