INTRODUCTION
“Call me Ishmael” (Moby Dick)
In the great novel by Melville, the sermon preached in the chapel, the preacher said:
’Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters -- four yarns -- is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet what depths of the soul does Jonah’s deep sealine sound! what a pregnant lesson to us is this prophet! What a noble thing is that canticle in the fish’s belly! How billow- like and boisterously grand! We feel the floods surging over us; we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the waters; sea-weed and all the slime of the sea is about us!
As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the sin of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of God -- never mind now what that command was, or how conveyed -- which he found a hard command. But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do -- remember that -- and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.
GOD BROUGHT JONAH TO YIELD TO HIS WILL. This is a study of the doctrine of repentance. In the past, the Reformed Church has confessed:
Second Helvetic Confession (Swiss) Bullinger
What Is Repentance? By repentance we understand (1) the recovery of a right mind in sinful man awakened by the Word of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit, and received by true faith, by which the sinner immediately acknowledges his innate corruption and all his sins accused by the Word of God; and (2) grieves for them from his heart, and not only bewails and frankly confesses them before God with a feeling of shame, but also (3) with indignation abominates them; and (4) now zealously considers the amendment of his ways and constantly strives for innocence and virtue in which conscientiously to exercise himself all the rest of his life.
Heidelberg Q88: In how many things does true repentance or conversion consist? A88: In two things: the dying of the old man,[1] and the making alive of the new.
Q89: What is the dying of the old man? A89: Heartfelt sorrow for sin, causing us to hate and turn from it always more and more.[1]
Q90: What is the making alive of the new man? A90: Heartfelt joy in God through Christ,[1] causing us to take delight in living according to the will of God in all good works.[2]
God grants repentance but that repentance is brought through a variety of means.
REPENTANCE THROUGH ABANDON 1:12
REPENTANCE THROUGH AFFLICTION 1:17, 2:2
REPENTANCE THROUGH ACCEPTANCE 2:9
1) SEEK REPENTANCE THROUGH ABANDON 1:12
ADULTS, FATHERS, MOTHERS, YOUTH, CHILDREN
self abandonment - surrender - self divesting
God molds and shapes the human heart to see the end of the foolish paths we choose for ourselves in opposition to his purposes.
When still green it is like a persimmon. It may result in bitterness and irrational action.
It does not appear that Jonah’s first step of repentance was very ripe.
11 Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?" -- for the sea was growing more tempestuous.
12 And he said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me."
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.
14 Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, "We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You."
15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows.
2 SEEK REPENTANCE THROUGH AFFLICTION 1:17, 2:2
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.
NKJ Jonah 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, And He answered me. "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.
He will hammer out obedience on the anvil of hardship.
Pro 26:10 The great God who formed everything Gives the fool his hire and the transgressor his wages.
KJV Proverbs 13:15 Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.
Here we need eyes to see the many mercies of God in our adversity. Do you believe in severe love?
Jonah was put in a God induced prayer closet, rather than a miry grave.
How many backsliding hard-hearted Christians have found themselves repenting in the jail cells? I met a man recently with that very testimony.
Make Jonah’s story here a vicarious narrative of your own life.
Is this all about fear? No, it is ultimately about love.
We are bent toward Backsliding/ Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.
In the belly three days and three nights, THEN, he prayed
3 SEEK REPENTANCE THROUGH ACCEPTANCE 2:9
2:7 "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.
8 "Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD."
10 So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
ACCEPTANCE OF GOD’S PURPOSES AND WILL
Notice the rich language of prayer Jonah had.
We must learn that language, which is the Psalms.
Psalm-like prayer -
Psalm 120:1 A Song of Ascents. In my distress I cried to the LORD, And He heard me.
Psa 88:6 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. Selah
8 You have put away my acquaintances far from me; You have made me an abomination to them; I am shut up, and I cannot get out;
9 My eye wastes away because of affliction. LORD, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You.
Psa 42:7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
John Newton’s “dissenting mother” taught him the Shorter Catechism and when his mother died. The memory of the Word of God hid in a more faithful time are recalled: John Newton. John Newton - how by 9-10 he became hardened even though his mother, before her death taught him the truth.
THOMAS BROOKS said,
Repentance is a grace, and must have its daily operation, as well as other graces. A true penitent must go on from faith to faith, from strength to strength; he must never stand still or turn back. True repentance is a continued spring, where the waters of godly sorrow are always flowing. ’My sin is ever before me’.
CONCLUSION
In the chapel, MAPPLE said: “And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment. And how pleasing to God was this conduct in Jonah, is shown in the eventual deliverance of him from the sea and the whale. Shipmates, I do not place Jonah before you to be copied for his sin but I do place him before you as a model for repentance. Sin not; but if you do, take heed to repent of it like Jonah.’
We learn this:
God molds and shapes the human heart to see the end of the foolish paths we choose for ourselves in opposition to his purposes.
