A Saint Asleep In The Storm Series

A Man Asleep In The Storm

Jonah 1:4-6

Intro.

We saw last week how a sovereign God chose to send a man with a message to a chosen city. The man rebelled and fled; yet God did not forsake him nor pass over him. He persued him, to bring him to the place of the will of God. We will now look at how God deals with Jonah.

God’s word says, “Be sure your sins will find you out.” Also “They have sown the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind!” Also in

Amos 9:2-3, “Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:”

I. The Storm:

Take note the Bible does not say, “A great wind arose.” The Lord is the designated sender. In the Bible it always recognizes the Lord as the controller of events. While God has established the laws of nature, he does not leave them to themselves, he controlls them.

Many today want to attribute all this to nature. Some believe in the giant clock theory. That God set everything into motion and he sits back and takes no part in it. However, the Bible says, “All things consist by him.” The earth and the heavens would flee from his presence if he would give them leave to.

Some would deny God’s rulership by stating how they can predict things in nature, yet this only proves all the more that the supreme ruler has charge. “He is not the author of confusion.” If he sits not upon his throne nature would go beserk.

The scripure always gives credit to God for his control of nature

Ps 107:29, “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.”

When someone is first converted they recognize God in every part of nature. In the flowers, animals, even the stars and the moon. Later they listen to the world and then they stop seeing the hand of God in all things.

II. The Cause Of The Storm:

Isn’t it plain in the word and yet if you were sailing today and ran into a violent storm would you believe that a passenger asleep down below was the cause of the storm?

One man’s disobedience brings a storm upon many others. Those on the ship with him as well as other ships upon the sea are affected. God in his sovereignty can do all of this, and still be righteous and holy. But Jonah cannot escape his responsibility and guilt to them.

1. The Righteousness Of God Easily Vindicated:

Some might want to charge God foolishly, but remember how long-suffering God is with all…and “every sin deserveth God’s wrath and curse, both in this life and the one to come.”

Although these men knew nothing of Jonah’s sin that brought the storm, yet their own sins were enough to warrant God’s wrath. The aim of the storm was at a particular offender, yet all were offenders. They would be brought to recognize this, “Living God Jehovah.” It is all a part of God’s divine plan.

2. Jonah Was Responsible Even For These Others:

He could not blame God, for he knew it was God’s right to deal with men as it pleased him. No matter what happened they deserved God’s wrath as we all do. And yet Jonah was accountable for their lives, for his sins brought the storm.

We all have difficulty with this God is sovereign. He has foreordained all things either by declaration or permissively. And yet man is responsible for his actions.

(Ill.)If a man was drowning and you stood and watched knowing you could save him. Some may say,”Well I guess it must be his time to go or else God would send someone to save him. No! We are responsible for our actions or lack of action.

We are responsible for our families, “Raise up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This we should not take lightly, look around you at the failings.

If God is not blessing our home or our church can it be laid to us? It is the sins of God’s people that causes God to withhold blessings or send the storms.

God does not chasten the lost in this lifetime they shall stand before him on judgement day.

III. The Lost Praying: Jonah 1:5

What a picture a saint is asleep during this storm and the lost sailors are praying. “Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.”