Jonah's Rebellion

Amen. Thank you for that song.

We do not yet live in that final day of great rejoicing, but we can certainly look to it with great expectation.

! It seems so often that sickness and sadness reigns in this day, but our God does indeed.

I think today we're going to have to accept as part of the normal noise of the room, our typical children,

being in the service with us, which we're so happy for because we love children.

I think we're also going to have to include in that coughing and sniffling, which we don't love so much.

It's part of that in-between, part of the curse that we deal with such things.

I'm really glad to be back with you in this manner this morning, able to preach as I've been in and out and sick.

We had the Advent season the past four weeks, so we took some turns preaching,

and the turn I was meant to have, I had to give up.

Clay very graciously preached on my behalf as I was diagnosed with pneumonia just two weeks ago,

and I'm gaining in strength.

I think I've felt a bit obligated to say that each time I've seen you that I've been getting a little bit better.

I know last Sunday I told Stan that I was at 80%, and then at 90, I saw him at the grocery store last night,

I said 95%. I'm probably being a little generous in all of that.

Sometimes I'm feeling like I'm drowning from the inside,

so forgive me if I take a moment and a break in the midst of preaching to clear myself in that way.

Prior to Advent season, we were working through the book of Ecclesiastes.

And I think, if I'm not mistaken, we were seven sermons in.

I think we got to chapter 2, verse 8, somewhere in that realm as we were marching through the book.

We're going to take a break from it.

We're going to stop preaching in Ecclesiastes.

And here's why.

The book of Ecclesiastes is an interesting book.

It's written. It's unique in all of biblical literature.

Certainly unique as a wisdom book.

And it's a difficult book to lay some bearing on because it has no real discernible outline.

It at times really seems like the ranting of a madman.

And you have to, in each and every time you pick up the book of Ecclesiastes,

you really need to either read it in a sitting or in the preaching of it.

You've got to get to the conclusion.

You've got to bring some sanity to what the preacher is saying in the book.

And his summary of it, we find in a single verse in Ecclesiastes 12, 13,

he says,

The end of the matter, all has been heard, fear God, and keep His commandments.

For this is the whole duty of man.

And he gives us some reason for that in verse 14.

Verse 14,

For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

And so he's saying to us that we need to rightly recognize,

we need to understand that we are created beings,

and we have a creator who has a standard.

This is the fear God, and we are meant to keep that standard.

The book of Ecclesiastes just drips with the gospel because it presents us with the great problem.

And all of the things in the world, all of the vanities, all of the pointlessness of the world,

he brings us this summary of this,

and we're left with this issue of fearing God and keeping commandments.

This is our duty as people, certainly as Christian people.

So we're going to take a step away from the book.

And we're going to go to the book of Jonah.

So let me invite you to turn there.

The Old Testament prophet Jonah.

As an example of a man that didn't do this well.

The book is characterized by Jonah's rebellion against God's command.

And it so well for us serves Jonah's life as a wonderful backdrop to consider the character of God

as we consider what it means to fear Him and to keep His commandments.

And so, kind of hear this as a continuation of our time in Ecclesiastes,

as a biblical example of how this is meant to work out in our lives.

Now, my apologies to you if this is incredibly disappointing,

if you were really hoping to work all the way through the book of Ecclesiastes.

So to that, I would just say, if that's a desire of yours, stick around.

Maybe build a house in the area.

If you're young, get married and have children.

And maybe at some point we'll revisit together the book of Ecclesiastes.

I'll make no promises, but likely we will at some point get into it.

But for the next three weeks, I want to preach from the book of Jonah.

I want to structure it in this way.

The first week being this morning,

we're going to look at the rebellion found in the book,

the theme of rebellion in the book of Jonah.

This morning we're going to look at chapter 1, verses 1-16.

Secondly, so next Sunday,

we're going to look at the repentance that's found in the book of Jonah

by looking at chapter 1, verse 17, through chapter 3, verse 10.

And then finally, on the third week,

the regret found in chapter 4.

So let's look at together, as I read to you,

Jonah chapter 1, verses 1-16.

Jonah 1:1–16

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying,

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it,

for their evil has come up before me.

But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.

So he paid the fare and went on board to go with them to Tarshish

and away from the presence of the Lord.

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 and was fast asleep.

So the captain came and said to him,

What do you mean, you sleeper?

Arise, call out to your God.

Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish.

And they said to one another,

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?

And of what people are you?

And he said to them,

and I love this,

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 that 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 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 called out to the Lord,

O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life,

and lay not on us innocent blood,

for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.

So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea,

and the sea ceased from its raging.

Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly,

and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

I think that most of us are fairly familiar with the story of Jonah.

We at least know the plot line of the story of Jonah.

We're aware of his rebellion,

and therefore what happens to him as he's swallowed up by a great fish.

But the rebellion in the story of Jonah goes beyond Jonah himself.

It's not just Jonah's rebellion that we ought to see together.

And so I want to look at that,

and then I want to step away from that a bit to look at God's character,

as we see in these first 16 verses.

So notice first, Nineveh's rebellion.

Chapter 2, the word of the Lord to Jonah is,

to arise and go to Nineveh, that great city,

and call out against it,

for their evil has come up before me.

The people who lived in Nineveh were Assyrians,

and they were wretchedly wicked,

as I will show you in just a moment.

So they were rebellious against the Lord God.

Jonah's message, you'll see in chapter 3, verse 4,

is yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

So God is bringing judgment,

and a call of judgment down on Nineveh,

unless they repent and turn from their ways.

Notice also the Mariner's Rebellion,

those who are sailing the ship.

As they're in this storm,

they call out to all of their gods.

It seems that they all have a god of their own making,

apparently.

These gods are silent,

they do not answer,

but yet they don't worship the one true God,

and are also in need of repentance.

And we see them in this text,

they do in fact repent,

and we'll talk a bit more about that next week.

And then certainly highlighted in the midst of all this

is Jonah's rebellion.

Jonah's given a very clear command.

I love how the author,

we don't know who the author of Jonah is,

but gets right to the point.

In this first couple of verses,

there's a call to Jonah to go to Nineveh,

and then very quickly in verse 3,

but Jonah.

Despite what God had commanded him to do,

but Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish

from the presence of the Lord.

What caused Jonah to run in the other direction?

Was it the size of the task?

It's a major task that God put before Jonah.

Nineveh, called that great city in chapter 1, verse 2,

took three days to cross.

Chapter 3, verse 3,

probably because they're counting the suburbs

around Nineveh as well.

Nineveh itself was 18,000 acres

within the city walls.

It contained parks and a zoo.

It was the Assyrian capital in that day.

The wall was 100 feet tall

and 30 feet thick.

In chapter 4, verse 11,

God says that there are 120,000 small children,

we presume.

Persons who don't know their right hand

from their left hand.

Hopefully, we know about what age that is.

Small children, 120,000 of them.

What a task for a single preacher.

Would you be overwhelmed by such a task?

Was that the issue before Jonah?

Was it the danger of the mission?

The Assyrian people were extremely wicked.

In Nahum's prophecy, chapter 3, verses 1-4,

he's speaking out against these very people

that Jonah's been asked to go to.

And he writes,

Woe to the bloody city,

all full of lies and plunder,

no end to the prey,

the crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel,

galloping horse and bounding chariot,

horsemen charging, flashing sword,

and glittering spear,

hosts of slain,

heaps of corpses,

dead bodies without end.

They stumble over the bodies,

and all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,

graceful and of deadly charms,

who betrays nations with her whorings

and people with her charms.

Incredibly evil,

incredibly dangerous people

that Jonah is asked to go to

as a solitary preacher

and preach to them destruction.

Were these the reasons that he didn't go?

The size of the task

or the danger of the mission?

No.

These weren't the reasons.

So why then?

Why then did Jonah go

in the opposite direction

from the place that God had asked him to go?

Nineveh is about 600 miles northeast of Jerusalem.

It's modern-day Mosul, Iraq.

Joppa is 30 miles northwest,

which is modern-day Jaffa, Israel.

And Tarshish, we're not sure about,

but it's likely located in Spain.

So get that picture.

He's meant to go one direction.

He walks out of the front of his house,

and rather than turning right

to head down the road,

he turns left.

He goes in directly the opposite direction

to get on a ship

and to sail far away

across the Mediterranean.

Why did he flee in this way?

Why did his flight take this course?

The book of Jonah answers that for us.

In chapter 4, verse 2,

after we see the repentance of the Ninevites,

he said,

O Lord, is not this what I said

when I was yet in my country?

That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish,

for I knew that you are a gracious God

and merciful,

slow to anger,

and abounding in steadfast love,

and relenting from disaster.

Jonah hated the Ninevites.

They were enemies of Israel,

and he knew of God's character

that he was merciful,

and that if he were to go

and preach destruction to these people

and they were to turn from their ways,

that God would show them mercy.

And he did not want that to be the case.

I fear that in so many ways,

we do this as a people.

James Montgomery Boyce,

in his commentary on Jonah,

says,

we can understand the geography

and Jonah's motives

if we can imagine the word of the Lord

coming to a Jew who lived in New York

during World War II,

telling him to go to Berlin

to preach to Nazi Germany,

and instead of this,

he goes to San Francisco

and takes a boat for Hong Kong.

And this is the issue before us.

This is the life of a man

that we ought to filter

our own lives through.

Who are your Ninevites?

This could be on a grand

and political scale.

This could also be interpersonal,

an individual that you just don't care for,

or a group of people

that you just don't care for.

I remember back to my high school days.

I was not a big fan of the jocks

at our school,

with some good reason.

But it's God's mercy

not good for them

should they not also repent

and believe.

And we categorize people

and we break them up in this way

and we should not.

So I want to show you,

with that as the backdrop,

three things about our God.

I want to show you God's purpose

in this text,

God's power,

and God's presence.

And God's purpose in this world,

I want to sum up in this way,

is to make Himself known.

To seek His own glory,

His own acclaim,

to make Himself known

primarily through the merciful redemption

of His people.

Let me give you some text to this end.

Isaiah 43, 6 and 7.

God says,

I will say to the north,

give up,

and to the south,

do not withhold.

Bring My sons from afar

and My daughters from the end of the earth.

Everyone who is called by My name,

whom I created for My glory,

whom I formed and I made.

God has always had

worldwide intentions

for His glory.

He has always intended to save peoples

from every tribe

and every nation

and every tongue.

This theme maintains itself

all throughout the Old Testament.

God didn't just intend

to have Israel as His people.

The book of Jonah

is a wonderful expression of that.

Go to the great city of Nineveh

and preach destruction

that they may turn to Me.

There's always been an inclusion

in God's people.

Habakkuk 2, 14.

God says,

For the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory

of the Lord

as the waters

cover the sea.

For time,

there's two Old Testament

examples for you.

This has always been

God's intention.

How is it that He accomplishes

this great work

of the glory of His name

by the redemption

of His people?

He accomplishes it

through preaching.

And I don't mean

only this kind

of preaching.

I mean the kind of preaching

that's so often

translated in that way.

The Greek word means

gossiping.

Like in Acts 8, 4.

When the early church

is split up

because of persecution,

it says that they went

about preaching

the Word of God.

It means that they told

anybody and everybody

as they're dispersed

back across

the known world

about the good news

of Jesus Christ.

How is it that we find

Christianity

on three continents

in one generation?

Because God's people

preach the good news

of Jesus Christ.

They saw that they were

meant to go

and to make disciples.

Romans chapter 10,

Romans 10 · chapter mention

13 through 17.

Beloved, hear me.

I often read

these common texts

and I think,

oh, I need to come up

with more creative texts.

Right?

That people haven't heard

so much.

But I wonder if I say

Romans 10, 13 through 17

if you go,

I don't read that.

You should.

Okay, so hear me.

You should.

For everyone

who calls

on the name of the Lord

will be saved.

Do we care about people

to that degree?

Right?

Even our Ninevites

that we would want people

to have what we have.

Right?

The mercy of God

to us in Jesus Christ.

Everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord

will be saved.

How then will they call

on Him

in whom they have not believed?

And how are they

to believe in Him

of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear

without someone preaching?

This is that Greek word.

Don't think that this

excludes you.

Right?

This isn't just a text

for the pastor.

This is a text

for the believer.

And how are they to preach

unless they are sent?

As it is written,

how beautiful are the feet

of those

who preach

the good news.

But they have not all

obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says,

Lord,

who has believed

what He has heard

from us?

So there's not a promise

that everyone's going to turn

to Christ.

Right?

We can see that here.

Right?

But there's a command to go.

Verse 17,

So faith comes from hearing

and hearing

through the word of Christ.

Jonah seemed to understand this

better than we do

so often.

He didn't want to go

because he knew

they probably would believe

that God would save

their souls.

Psalm 96.3,

the exhortation,

declare His glory

among the nations,

His marvelous works

among all the peoples.

Matthew chapter 28,

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

another text

you should be very familiar with.

Right?

Just the first part

of verse 19,

Go therefore

and make disciples

of all nations.

Acts 1.8,

You will receive power

when the Holy Spirit

has come upon you

and you will be

my witnesses

in Jerusalem,

in all Judea

and Samaria

and to the end

of the earth.

If we are disciples

of Jesus Christ,

we will care about

what Jesus Christ

cares about.

Luke 19.10,

For the Son of Man

came to seek

and to save

the lost.

This is the means

by which

He carries the Gospel

to all peoples.

And don't hear me

just making a mission call.

Certainly include that

in this.

Some of you may need

to go

and go to the ends

of the earth,

to the weirdest

and most remote places

where people live.

All of us need to go

to wherever we're going

this week.

To see that we are

first and foremost

disciples of Jesus Christ.

Everything else

falls underneath that.

Everything else

is subservient

to the fact

that we're God's people

and we're meant

to take the good news

of Christ

to everyone

everywhere.

To be messengers

of the mercy

of God.

And this book

just drips

with that.

God displays

abundant

mercy

toward mankind

in the story

of Jonah.

I am always

so thankful

for the conjunction

but.

You see that

this command

is given to

Jonah.

Verse 3,

but Jonah.

He's given a command.

Instead,

he goes and does

this thing.

And instead of God

doing the warranted

thing for Jonah's

rebellion,

right?

I read these first

three verses

and in my mind

I want God

to smush Jonah.

Be done with him.

Right?

Ah, rebellious.

Go on to the next guy.

Right?

Somebody else

in Jerusalem

certainly would have

gone.

But verse 4

says,

but the Lord.

And there's this

great intervention

on his behalf.

He sends a great

wind and a great

fish because

he loves

Jonah.

Because he's

merciful toward

Jonah.

He's got this

mission for him

that he intends

to carry out

and he does not

need him to

accomplish this

thing.

Could God not

in some other

way preach the

good news to the

people of Nineveh?

Certainly he could.

But he chooses

to use Jonah

and to express

his mercy

through the

work of Jonah.

He shows this

abundant mercy

to him.

And he does it

on more than

one occasion.

He does it

again in chapter

4.

Again, I want

Jonah to be

smushed by the

thumb of God.

But God

stays his

anger toward

him.

He shows mercy

to the mariners.

We see their

repentance and he

stays the storm

for them once

they throw Jonah.

overboard.

And he

certainly shows

mercy to the

people of Nineveh

as we see the

greatest revival

that has ever

happened in all

of history in

the book of

Jonah.

We see God's

purpose in

Jonah.

The redemption

of people from

every tribe,

every nation,

and every tongue.

This includes

all of the ways

that we section

ourselves out.

This includes

the hipsters.

God's power.

The second thing

I want you to

see.

God's power.

There's a number

of things that we

see in the text

that we can speak

about God's

power.

He calms a

storm.

Think about

Jesus speaking

to the storm

on the Sea of

Galilee and

calming it.

He commands

a great fish.

He's got power

over the

creation.

We see that

he changes

hearts.

We see that

the Ninevites

and the mariners

turn to God.

We see all

this expression

of God's

power,

but I'm

referring

specifically

when I talk

about God's

power from

this text

to God's

sovereignty.

His ultimate

and complete

reign over

all things.

Nothing

escapes

God's

control

and power.

And we seem

as a people

to have no

trouble with

God's sovereignty

in the natural

order of things.

An example

of this

would be

gravity.

Have you ever

heard a person

complain?

That God

is in control

of the way

in which

we stay

on the ground?

I never have.

I'm thankful

for it.

I can rest

in that fact

that I know

that I'm

on the ground

and gravity

is going to

function and

continue to

work.

This is under

God's purview.

He is in

control of

this right

now that

we're where

we are.

We're held

together.

You're not

going to float

up out of

your seats

all of a

sudden.

Unless the

sermon gets

real good.

You're going

to stay put

in your seats.

We have

no trouble

with this

kind of

thing.

We say,

oh sure,

God is

sovereign and

in control

of that.

The orbit

of the planet.

Yes,

God is in

control of

that.

But we

seem to

really struggle

with it

when it

comes to

the experience

of life.

Suddenly we

become,

because we

experience

something

different,

we become

gods in

ourselves.

And we

say,

oh,

we couldn't

possibly be

sovereign over

all things.

we struggle

with it,

with things

like a

wayward

saint.

I think

all of us

have been

around long

enough that

we've seen

a person who

professes faith

in Christ,

who shows so

much evidence

of that,

and then just

seems in so

many ways to

rebel against

God.

To run

off.

People are

coming to my

mind that

have been

here and

have left.

And this is

not the

magical place.

You've got to

be here if

you're a

Christian.

But they

go off and

with their

life,

they just

kick against

God.

Does God

not have the

ability to

actually crush

our wills?

Certainly He

could,

and sometimes

I just

wish that

He would.

That He

would just

actually make

me a

robot.

I would

be fine

with that.

Help me

to walk

in righteousness.

So we

struggle in

this way.

Jonah speaks

to this.

Jonah speaks

to this.

God is

in control.

His providence

raised.

Look at the

way that He

deals with

Jonah.

to accomplish

His purpose

with Jonah

indirectly.

Could God

have, and

certainly He

has, there's

some accounts

of it in

the Scripture,

of changing

somebody in

a way that

causes them

to do a

thing?

Couldn't He

have done

that here,

right?

Couldn't

verse 4

read,

but God,

but the

Lord,

as He

was turning,

as He

was going

toward Joppa,

changed His

heart and

caused Him

to walk

the other

direction

to

Nineveh.

Certainly,

He could

have.

But here,

God works

indirectly.

He works

through

circumstance,

a great

storm and

a great

fish.

Jonah

recognizes

God's

intervention

in His

repentance,

which we'll

talk about

next week,

and does

the thing

that God

had said

Him about

doing.

His

providence

reigns at

all times.

It never

does it,

even if our

experience

doesn't seem

to affirm

that.

Beloved,

the Scripture

is our

great high

authority,

not our

experience.

Psalm 115.3,

Our God

is in the

heavens.

He does

all that

He pleases.

Proverbs

16.9,

The heart

of man

plans his

way,

but the

Lord

establishes

His steps.

Proverbs

21.1,

says of a

king,

and it

says it of a

king because

the king

was in

absolute

control in

the mind

of the

people over

everything that

was under

his reign,

right?

But the

king's

heart is a

stream of

water in

the hand

of the

Lord.

He turns

it wherever

he will.

Effortlessly

he turns

it.

And certainly

this gives

application

to us.

God is

sovereignly in

control of

all things.

Now I

don't want

to even

try to

work out

all the

implications

of that

with you.

I don't

think we

will on

this side

of glory.

I think

it's a

thing that's

far too

high for

us to

completely

understand.

How it

is that

God is

sovereign over

all things

and yet we

are responsible

for our

actions,

I don't

want to

try.

I don't

want to

try.

Listen to

this quote

from Charles

Spurgeon.

This is on

the front of

your bulletin

that you

don't have

because it's

sitting in

the hall.

So I'll

try to read

it carefully

and you

can go

back and

reread it

if you

manage to

pick one

of those

up.

He once

said,

opposition

to divine

sovereignty

is

essentially

atheism.

Men have

no objection

to a

God who

really is

no God.

I mean

by this

a God

who shall

be the

subject

of their

caprice

or temper

tantrums,

who shall

be a

lackey

to their

will,

who shall

be under

their

control.

They have

no objection

to such

a being

as that.

But a

God who

speaks

and it

is done,

who

commands

and it

stands

fast,

a God

who has

no respect

for their

persons but

does as

he wills

among the

armies of

heaven and

among the

inhabitants of

this lower

world,

such a

God as

this they

cannot

endure.

Oh, I hope

we're not

those people.

I hope

we're a

people who

rest in the

sovereignty of

God over

all things,

who believe

the promises

of Scripture.

The same

way that we

rest in the

sure promise

of gravity,

we can rest

in the sure

promise that

God is

sovereignly in

control of

everything.

Young

people,

this should

help you

as you

consider what

comes next

in the future.

I know this

is one of the

great questions

on your

mind.

What am I

to do

next?

What is

God's will

for my

life?

God

accomplished

it with

Jonah,

even when

Jonah was

running in

the opposite

direction.

He'll do

the same

for you.

I'm not

saying don't

be wise,

I'm not

saying don't

seek counsel,

walk in the

way of the

Lord,

pray about

what you

should do,

but rest

in the

fact that

God is

in

control.

Thirdly,

God's

presence.

God's

presence.

There's

an interesting

little phrase

in this

first chapter

expressing

what it is

exactly that

Jonah is

fleeing from.

It doesn't

say the

command of

God.

It says

that he's

fleeing from

the presence

of the

Lord.

It's twice

in verse

three,

it's once

in verse

ten.

He's

fleeing

from the

presence

of the

Lord.

What does

that mean?

It's such

an interesting

thing.

I think

we all

understand

that God

is omnipresent.

The scripture

affirms that.

Psalm

139,

7-10,

which Jonah

should have

been aware

of.

He's a bit

of a later

Old Testament

character.

The Psalms

were completed

at this

time.

They would

have been

canonized.

They would

have existed

and distributed

at this

time.

I believe

he would

have been

familiar

with this

text,

which says,

where shall

I go

from your

spirit?

Or where

shall I

flee from

your

presence?

If I

ascend to

heaven,

you are

there.

If I

make my

bed in

Sheol,

you are

there.

If I

take the

wings of

the morning

and dwell

in the

uttermost

parts of

the sea,

even there

your hand

shall lead

me,

and your

right hand

shall hold

me.

But yet,

it's recorded

that he was

fleeing from

the presence

of God.

It seems

that Psalm

139,

7-10 was

written for

Jonah.

Once again,

we get this

dwelling in

the uttermost

parts of

the sea.

Who has

ever done

that except

for Jonah

for three

days?

James

Montgomery

Boyce

suggested he

liked to

imagine the

name of the

ship that he

got on,

which we

don't know

was Wings

of the

Morning.

He took

the wings

of the

morning,

and he

later dwelled

in the

uttermost

part of

the sea.

Maybe this

is the

text.

Maybe this

is the

way that

God spoke

to him

as he's

in the

belly of

that great

fish.

That even

in these

places,

God's hand

was leading

him,

and his

right hand

was holding

him.

So what

does it

mean that

he was

fleeing the

presence

of God?

Jeremiah

7-23,

God speaks

and says,

obey my

voice,

obey my

voice,

and I

will be

your

God,

and you

shall

be my

people,

and walk

in all

the way

that I

command

you,

that it

may be

well with

you.

And I

think what's

happening in

the book of

Jonah,

and the

reason for

this record,

is not that

Jonah could

actually flee

from God

himself.

God is

going to be

present in

those places.

But what

they're trying

to express

is that out

of Jonah's

disobedience,

he was

fleeing from

communion with

God,

with God's

pleasure with

him,

that he was

severing that

which was good

in the garden,

which was so

beautiful and

precious about

the garden.

It was

paradise,

there was no

evil,

there was no

death,

all of those

things.

But the

beautiful thing

about the

garden is

that Adam

and Eve

had communion

with God.

He walked

with them

in the

garden.

And this

is something

that ceased

at the fall

as their

cast out

of the

garden,

they're

cast out

of the

presence

of God.

Christ brings

us back

to that.

That's what

the great

restoration

is for us,

that we get

to be back

in relationship

with God.

But even

as those

who are now

positionally

back in

that place,

we can still

sever communion

with the

Lord by our

disobedience.

We walk

in evil

ways.

We don't

walk by

the Spirit.

He is

always there,

but yet we

shut him

off.

And I

think that's

what's

trying to

be

communicated

here.

The author

of Jonah

is trying

to say

that Jonah

by fleeing

from the

will of

God was

fleeing

from the

relationship

with God.

It's good

to be with

the Lord,

even if

He's saving

our enemies,

that we

would walk

with Him

because He's

our greatest

good.

Psalm 119.

35

says,

Lead me in

the path

of your

commandments,

for I

delight in

it.

It is good

for the

people of

God,

to be

with

God.

John

writes in

1 John 2,

3-6,

and by

this we

know that

we have

come to

know Him.

We've

positionally

changed.

We know

that we have

come to

know if

we keep

His

commandments.

We don't

keep His

commandments

so that

we can

know,

but we

know that

we know

because we

keep His

commandments.

Whoever

says,

I know

Him,

but does

not keep

His

commandments,

is a

liar,

and the

truth is

not in

him.

But whoever

keeps His

word in

Him,

truly the

love of

God is

perfected.

By this

we may

know that

we are

in Him.

Whoever

says he

abides in

Him,

ought to

walk in

the same

way in

which He

walked.

This brings

us back

to God's

purpose.

God's

purpose,

God's

power,

and God's

presence.

So let me

ask you a

couple of

questions in

conclusion this

morning.

Are you

a rebel

this morning?

Are you a

rebel

positionally?

Have you

never believed

in Christ,

His person,

His work,

His perfect

sacrifice,

on your

behalf?

Do you

stand as

the

Ninevites

or the

mariners

stand,

never knowing

God,

being cut

off from

Him?

The call

to you is

to repent

and to

believe.

Destruction

is your

end unless

you repent

and believe.

Or are you

a rebel

functionally

this morning?

Have you

repented

and believed?

Are you

positionally

found in

Christ and

yet you

don't walk

in His

way?

And don't

think that

you're waiting

for the

word of the

Lord to

come to

you.

That you

need a

vision for

Him to

speak to

you for

what you

should do.

You have

His word

already.

He's given

you command

to walk

in.

Do you

love the

purpose of

God?

Do you

believe in

the power

of God?

Do you

walk in

the presence

of God?

Of course,

to all of

these things,

all of us

should say

imperfectly

no.

Imperfectly,

I hope

yes.

And in

this,

as you ask

the Lord

to search

your heart,

the call

to you

is repent

and believe.

Turn from

your sin

and turn

to Christ.

Don't be

Jonah.

And we'll

look more

in the coming

weeks.

What the

rest of

the book

has to

say to

us about

our God.

Let's pray

together.