A Whale Of A Story

Tom Shrader examines Jonah's experience in the belly of the great fish, addressing questions about the historical reliability of this account while emphasizing the spiritual truth it reveals. He highlights how even pagan sailors showed more concern for Jonah than Jonah showed for the Ninevites, and concludes with Jonah's prayer and the foundational truth that salvation comes entirely from God, not from human effort.

“Salvation is of the Lord - in my judgment, this is the most important statement that we find in the book of Jonah.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Jonah (2004)

Recorded: 2004 at Cannon Beach Conference Center

Duration: 56 min

Themes: obedience, rebellion, grace, salvation, repentance, judgment, mercy, providence, running from god, struggling with obedience, questioning scripture, new believer, doubting faith, facing consequences, needing forgiveness, pastor

Scripture: Jonah 1:11-17, Jonah 2:1-9, John 1:12, Ephesians 2:1-5, 2 Samuel 24, Genesis 22

Theological Themes: soteriology, salvation by grace, divine sovereignty, biblical reliability, old testament narrative, repentance, divine judgment, covenant faithfulness

Full Transcript

Well, good evening! I hope you're doing well. Did you have a good afternoon? I had a nap. Not so good, slept hard, and did some reading, so it was great. I hope you're doing well. This is going to be a great night. The worship is terrific.

Evan's leaving, and I don't know if they mentioned that, but he's heading back into Vancouver to lead worship tomorrow, so that's a big deal. He's driving back to lead worship, and then he'll be back tomorrow night. So I'll be praying for him as you hit the pillow tonight, and you're thinking about him, and safe travel, and then just a lot of work. It's a special day at their church. They have a new pastor there tomorrow, so that's a big deal.

Tonight, the only thing standing between you and enjoying Johnny Ray is me. I'll get out of the way just as quickly as I can. John and I are going to actually sing a duet tonight. Old Man River. So when we're done tonight, we're halfway through this weekend, and I hate to see that happen, because this has been a great time. What extraordinary weather. This weather is just unbelievable, and it is so good.

The Heart of Jonah's Story

Open your Bibles to Jonah. There's a little bit of Jonah in all of us. Jonah is a guy. It's a fascinating story. It's a fascinating book. It has an extraordinary ending, and we'll talk about that on Monday morning.

You know the story of Jonah, and there are some phrases that we've tried to pop out for you. Let me just highlight them. If you've got your Bibles, maybe circle them, mark them, underline them or something, so that they'll always bring something back to your mind.

Verse 3, he paid the fare. If you're going to sin, you're going to run away from God, you're going to pay a price. Sin is going to take you further than you want to go, and have you stay longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to invest in it. It's a magnificent thing.

The captain says in verse 6, "How is it you're asleep?" There's all sorts of application here. Some of the commentaries will talk about that's really the church and the culture. That's a significant thing.

The Church Asleep

Again, with Randy here at the beginning of the week, Randy has two or three things that really are important to him, really three that I see reoccurring in his teaching. I guess missions would kind of come in there a little bit too, but he talks a lot about possessions, he talks a lot about heaven, and he has, in my mind, really written the definitive work on the abortion issue with the pro-life arguments to pro-choice questions. That is a magnificent work. He's got another new book coming out here in just a couple of months that's kind of a handout book, about 40, 45 pages, talking about abortion.

I personally think that we are on the edge of really seeing something happen in the area of abortion. I don't mean legislation. I don't think so much in legislature, but I think there's a changing of mind, and what our ally is in this is technology.

About a year ago, Oprah did a show where the theme of the show is "we're going to take you places you've never been," and one of them was into the womb. There was this baby that had been conceived about two weeks prior, and it was extraordinary. Back in 1973, when Roe versus Wade was really enacted and all of those things took place, you didn't have that technology. When Susan and I went and we got an ultrasound, I remember the ultrasound for Sarah, Sarah's 24, and they put this up, and they go, "look at this." There's the head, and I'm going, "what is that?" It's a gray blob is all it is. But now you see those fingers, and you see that formation, and the majority now of college freshmen would declare themselves to be pro-life. I think there's something that's ready to take place in that whole process.

The phrase was "where you've been asleep," and I think of the church. When I used to picket, and we used to be very much in the face of the Planned Parenthood organization and so many other things, and the church has kind of been asleep at the wheel. We've watched a million, million and a half babies slaughtered every year, and the church is asleep in a lot of places.

I think we make a mistake sometime, and I'm a political guy. You need to know something. I'm a political junkie. I love politics, but I think we make a little bit of a mistake when we start to wait for the political system. We just love one another, and we care for one another, and we touch the world a person at a time. If the politics comes along, great, but that's what we do. I think we can even say to some churches, "How is it that you're sleeping?" That was in verse 6.

The World's Higher Standard

Verse 10, "How could you do this?" These guys are frightened, and they say to Jonah, "Well, what's the deal here? How could you possibly do this thing?" We just touched on it. The world has, by and large, unbelievers, have a higher standard for your life than you have for your own.

My background is commercial real estate. I never went to school, never been trained, never spent a day. I wasn't much

of a student to start with in regular school. Mark Twain said I never let school interfere with my education, and that was kind of my approach. School kind of got in the way for me a little bit, and so I never went back to seminary, and I've never even taken a class. I don't say that's the way to go. I'm just saying that's what I did in that whole process.

When I got converted, I was in the commercial real estate business, and my conversion was radical, and everyone around me saw it. I remember one day, I'd been a Christian for a year or two, and I'm standing at the front door of the office in this discussion with another guy. We're negotiating. I'm losing the negotiation, so in a moment like this, you kind of crank up the language a little bit, and so I let it fly. About this time, a lady came around the corner, and she said to me, "Tom, I didn't know that Christians talk that way." I said, "Well, they generally don't, but I'm right." It was interesting because she had a different and a higher standard. How can you do this? That's a great question.

The Sailors' Desperate Question

Where's where we left off? Verse 11: "So they said to him, What should we do with you that the sea might become calm for us? For the sea was becoming increasingly stormy." What do you want us to do here? We've cast lots. We've identified that you're the problem. The reason we have this storm is because you have sinned. What do we do?

Here's what Jonah says. Verse 12: "Pick me up and throw me into the sea." An amazing thought. "And the sea will be calm, for I know that on account of me, this great storm has come upon you." Jonah here is not in denial. He understands that it's his sin that's brought this on.

It's sheer speculation, but if Jonah would have just simply said, "Turn the boat around and go to Nineveh," it's reasonable to assume that the storm would have stopped at that moment. But Jonah is determined to see that message not come to those Ninevites. He's willing to die for it, apparently, or at least be cast into the sea.

When Men Become Helpless

"And the men rowed desperately to return to land, but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them." These guys are now at the end of their rope. They're helpless and they're hopeless. Everything in us is kind of touched by that attitude, an attitude of helplessness and hopelessness. But let me tell you, that sometimes is a great place to be.

Somebody has said that you and I can live about 90 days without food, about three days without water, about three or four minutes without air, but we can't live a second without hope. We need hope. We need to trust in something. If you go down to Bill's Tavern here on the main drag, which has a great cheeseburger, by the way, there's a sign behind the bar that says, "Everybody needs to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." There's another great sign that says, "Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder." Everybody needs to believe in something. A little bit of truth there.

Everybody needs to have some hope. I have to believe in something. It may be as futile as believing in this exercise program or believing if I just get that thing. That's what life is - kind of a series of these things that we commit ourselves to. "If I can just get through this to get to vacation, if I can get this project done."

God Works Best in Hopelessness

God works best—in fact, He works in the life of the unbeliever only when we become hopeless. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Now, that word "poor" is literally "bankrupt." When we think of beggars, we're talking about spiritual beggars. When we think of beggars, we think of walking down the street and somebody kind of brazenly saying, "Hey, you got any spare change? You got any money?" That's not what these were.

Beggars in that day and age were a group of people that would literally sit in the corner. They would literally cower in the corner and they would beg. They wouldn't even look up. They were totally dependent upon the people that walked by for their whole substance. They couldn't survive a day without people who would come along and support them.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit." Blessed are you and me when we understand that there is not one thing we can do in and of ourselves to deal with the issue of salvation and therefore really we're helpless and hopeless in all areas of life. That's what Evan read about when he read about the king of Brunei. What he read you is exactly true. This guy essentially every day takes his 727 and just flies it in a circle and back to his island. He's a very wealthy man. There has to come to that point where they're desperate.

The Sailors' Compassion vs. Jonah's Callousness

Here's what's interesting. These sailors have more concern for one man, Jonah, than Jonah demonstrated for all 600,000 people of Nineveh. I can't get by Jonah. This Jonah is an interesting fellow. So they're going to row and row and row and row and row and row and row.

It's interesting, again, if you look through this, you see how God is at work in all of this. Verse 4 of chapter 1: "The Lord hurled a great wind." Verse 17 of chapter 1: "The Lord appointed a great fish." Verse 10 of chapter 2: "The Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah on the land." You don't think the Lord can use anything?

Look at the end of this book. Look at chapter 4, verse 6: "The Lord appointed a plant." Verse 7: "The Lord appointed a worm." Verse 8: "The Lord appointed a scorching east wind."

God is the Main Character

We look at this book and say it's the book of Jonah. We might sit around and say this is a book about Jonah. But the main character in this book is God. He's the main character in this whole book, the Bible. This is not a story about you and me, although we're part of it. This is a story about God and His grace and His holiness and His mercy. This is a story about how man has

sinned and turned away from God. It's a story not about religion, for God hates religion. By religion I mean us trying to somehow appease a holy God, doing what we can to reach out to Him. It's a story about God reaching down to man.

There's a great popular song that's probably about a year or two old and you hear it all the time. Kids hear it all the time. "What if God were one of us?" You hear that song? "What if God were one of us? What if He were a slob like me?" It's a fascinating song, especially for us to come along and say He was one of us. He did walk on this earth. He was different than us. He was like us in every way except sin. He was here. He was one of us. And He came for a purpose.

An angel appears to Joseph and says you will name your son Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. That's why Jesus came. That's why Jesus was here. At least in our area, the Passion of the Christ was a huge issue. I had some friends who had problems with some theology and all of this. One of the great things about that movie is that when we worked our way through Easter this year, nobody was talking about even whether Jesus lived or died. In the past we'd have to argue. It's like everybody all of a sudden said, "Well, there was a Jesus. He did die."

The Question of Why Jesus Died

What that movie hints at, and certainly for us as Christians who know some scripture we can see it in there, but what we'd love to see even more blatantly is why did He die? That He died is a historic fact. No one but a fool disputes that. That He died is a fact. But why did He die? He died so you and I might have eternal life. That's what we're going to talk about as we close today.

They call upon the Lord. Verse 14: "And we earnestly pray, O Lord, don't let us perish on account of this man's life. Do not put innocent blood on us, for Thou, O Lord, has done as Thou has pleased." God, You're the one who has done this. They have previously, did you notice, called on their own gods. They now call on the Lord and they pray and they pick up Jonah and they throw him into the sea. When they throw him into the sea, the sea stops its raging. All of a sudden, all of those things that they thought, suspected, maybe even believed were validated. This was a supernatural thing. This was God that was at work.

The Progression of Fear

Now there's kind of a progression in the minds here of these sailors. If you look in verse 5 of chapter 1, the sailors became afraid. The Lord had hurled a storm. They were afraid. Verse 10 of chapter 1, they became extremely afraid. But now as we work our way down into verse 16, they now are in calm seas, so you would say, "Oh, they're relaxed." Verse 16 says, and now they're greatly afraid.

Very similar to what happens when Jesus is with the disciples. Remember in the Gospels, He's asleep in the boat and there's this great storm, and they go and they wake Him up and they say, "What's the deal? You need to wake up here. We've got issues. We've got problems. We need your help." They were afraid, the scripture says. And Jesus says, "What's the problem here, you of little faith?" And He says to the sea, "Be still." And it was like glass. And then it said, "And now they were very much afraid." What kind of guy is this? We thought He was a mortal man. We thought maybe He was a great prophet. But all of a sudden He can say to the sea, "Stop"?

One of the magnificent things to me about the ocean is the ocean doesn't care what time it is. It doesn't care what day it is. It doesn't care if it's Christmas or Thanksgiving. It just keeps coming and coming and coming and coming and coming. It just keeps rolling in there. Doesn't matter, does it? Imagine going out there and being able to say, "Be still." And it's still. You see it all in Jesus' life.

The Blind Man as a Display Case

So in John 9, He's walking into town and there's a man who's blind. And the disciples give us the conventional wisdom of the day. They said, "Well, who sinned? This man or his parents?" Because that's what they thought. They were pretty convinced that some illness, as radical as that, was caused by sin. And the speculation was that this guy must have sinned or his parents must have sinned. And Jesus' answer was it was neither. But that this man might be a display case for the work of God.

And Jesus says, "Listen, do you want to see?" And he says, "You bet I want to see." And He puts it on his eyes. And all of a sudden, he goes and walks around and now he can see. He becomes a display case for the works of God. So all the religious leaders are coming around and they're saying, "What about this and what about that?" And what's he say? "I don't know. I was blind. Now I can see. I don't understand much more than that. I couldn't see. I can see."

And now they want to go, they want to say, "Well, what about this and what about this?" And he's puzzled. And he says, "Well, what, can't Jesus do?" "No. We just want to understand what's going on there. And he must be the devil." And they said, "How could the devil do that? I don't know much. I was blind. Now I see." Something's going on there. And this man becomes a display case. That's a great phrase.

Display Cases in Our Lives

Every time Susan and I walk into a Dillard's or a Nordstrom's, or down in our area, a Robinson's, every time we walk in, I'll say the same thing. "There must be a fortune in cosmetics." It blows me away. Every time I walk in, there's the prime space and it's cosmetics as far as you can see. With a dozen gals in white jackets with all their hair pulled straight down. Every time, it blows me away. And I look and I'm saying, "There must be a fortune in cosmetics."

Well, then you move and you see other section like that, and the closest section is the jewelry section. And you see this jewelry on display. Or even as you walk down Hemlock, which seems ironic. As you walk down Hemlock and you see these stores and they put this magnificent art or this jewelry on display. Now, hang on. We're going to make a jump here to you. Just as that blind man was a display case for

the work of God, so are you. Because you were lost and now you're found. You didn't do anything and He did everything. Now you walk and you are a fool if you draw attention to yourself for your own sake. But when people say, "You know what? There's something different about you. There's something unique about you. There's something special about you," you have the privilege of saying, "It's not me. It's the God who dwells in me. It's not me. It's the God who saves me."

These guys have reached the end of the rope. They pick up Jonah. They throw him in. Verse 16: these men feared the Lord greatly and they make a sacrifice and they make a vow. We're not going to get all tangled up in this, but this is an Old Testament picture of atonement, of commitment, of promise.

The Sailors' Transformation

In the Gospel of John in the first chapter in the twelfth verse, John writes this: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name who were born not of blood nor of will of flesh nor of the will of man, but of the will of God." He said there's something about these people. They believe Jesus is who He was.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul writes and tells us we were children of wrath. He says that we were, in verse 2 of chapter 2, sons of disobedience. That we too formerly lived in the lusts of the flesh, but God in His rich mercy because of His great love which He loved us, He has died so that we have eternal life. Isn't that terrific?

That's what these guys begin to understand—that there is this God and He is in control and He's hurled this storm. He stopped this storm. They don't know what's going to happen next. They're filled with fear.

Into the Fish

Verse 17: God doesn't back away. The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Now, we have to stop here because it raises the obvious question: do you really believe this? I mean, do you really believe this happened? We can become so sidetracked with that discussion that we miss the point of the story. Thomas John Carlyle wrote this: "I was so obsessed with what was going on inside the whale that I missed seeing the drama inside of Jonah." So we don't want to miss it but I don't want to ignore it either. I'm not afraid of it.

It's certainly not something that happens every day, but did this fish swallow a man? Could this fish? Can a person actually live?

Scientific Evidence

Let me read to you—and I am a poor reader and this is a long passage so hang in there—this is from Grace W. Kellogg in a work titled "The Bible Today":

"There are at least two known monsters of the deep who could have easily swallowed Jonah: the sulfur bottom whale and the whale shark. Neither of these monsters have any teeth. They feed in an interesting way by opening their enormous mouth, submerging their lower jaw, rushing through the water at terrific speed. After straining out the water, they swallow whatever's left. A sulfur bottom whale, 100 feet long, was captured off Cape Cod in 1933. His mouth was 10 to 12 feet wide, so big he could have easily swallowed a horse. These whales have 4 to 6 compartments in their stomach and any one of them is roomy enough for a man to find free lodging. They might even have a choice of rooms. In the head of the whale is a wonderful air storage chamber and enlargement of a nasal sinus measuring 7 feet in height, 7 feet in width and 14 feet long. If it has an unwelcome guest aboard who gives it a headache, the whale can swim to the nearest land and get rid of his offender as he did with Jonah."

Modern Cases

The Cleveland Plain Dealer quoted an article by Dr. Ransom Harvey who said that a dog was lost overboard from his ship. It was found in the head of a whale 6 days later alive and barking.

The French scientist M.D. Plavel writes of James Bartley—we want to remember that name because we're talking about him again later—who in the region of the Falkland Islands near South America was supposed to have drowned at sea. Two days after his disappearance the sailors caught a whale. When they cut it open, much to their surprise they found their missing friend alive but unconscious inside the whale. He was revived and had been enjoying the best of health ever since the adventure.

Dr. Harry Reamer, President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, writes of another case. In the Literary Digest we notice an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic whale shark in the English Channel. Briefly the account stated that in an attempt to harpoon one of these monster sharks the sailor fell overboard and could not be picked up again. The shark turned and engulfed him. 48 hours after the incident occurred the fish was sighted and slain. When the shark was opened by the sailors they were amazed to find the man unconscious but alive. He was rushed to the hospital where he was found to be suffering from shock alone and a few hours later was discharged being physically fit. The account concluded by saying the man was on exhibit in a London museum at the price of a shilling admittance being advertised as the Jonah of the 20th century.

In 1926 Dr. Reamer met this man and writes that his physical appearance was odd. And again I want you to remember this: his body was devoid of hair and patches of yellow brownish color covered his entire skin.

The Real Question

Whether or not a man could live in a great fish, we have on record documented 48 hours of survival with only shock. If a man could live and is recorded surviving 48 hours, do we think God could have any trouble preparing a fish for a man to be swallowed by him and live for 72 hours?

You see the issue is not whether a man could be alive in there—it's already been demonstrated that it's possible. Common? No. Happened? Yes. I'll tell you an interesting discussion: when you get in and study this—and I'm not that intellectually curious but a lot of my

friends are. A more interesting question is was he alive or dead in that? There are two schools of thought.

Janet last night was talking about the great heritage here and I want to reinforce that because I go on the website at Cannon Beach probably a couple times a year. If you go on you will find this list of all of the people who have stood on this platform and spoken. One of them is J. Vernon McGee. J. Vernon McGee teaches and believes with all of his heart that Jonah actually died in the stomach of this fish. There is a whole school of thought that would subscribe to that. There's another school that says no he didn't—he was simply unconscious there. I don't care; it's fun to think about it anyway.

Part of the discussion revolves around verse 1 of chapter 2. If you look at chapter 2 in your Bible, essentially what you see is that chapter 2 is a prayer. Minus this introduction here in verse 1, verses 2 through 9 are all a prayer. Verses 1 and 10 are kind of the bookends of this chapter. Both of those we see God actively at work.

It says this: "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish." What people would say is well he was alive in there because he's praying in there. Let me just say—and I don't have a horse in this race, I don't care—I don't think it's significant particularly. Although I do think that when Jesus says "as Jonah was in the stomach of the fish so man will be in the earth three days and three nights," it's significant. Jesus wasn't unconscious, was He? He was dead. So we could build a case and you can see that.

When Did Jonah Begin to Pray?

But what sets them off is this word "then." "Then Jonah prayed." The idea they see is they see Jonah kind of in this fish and now he's sitting around and he's looking around and he's going, "Wow, this is incredible. What do we do here? What's going on?" And so now he begins to pray.

Think with me just a second. When do you think Jonah was praying? Because my suspicion is he was praying right away. I don't think he sat around there for three days and then all of a sudden said, "Well, let's pray." I can't imagine that to be the case. I've got to believe that he's all over this.

If you're in an airplane and that plane's jumping up and down and jumping up and down and jumping up and down, you don't wait until you land and get off and go, "Okay, Father." If you get a call from the doctor and the doctor says, "We need to have you come in because there's a spot on this X-ray," you're praying on the way down there. If you get the call that your child has been in an accident—Susan and I have had that experience. Our daughter—we got a call. It was one of those weird times we were both out of town and we actually were in separate locations. She went to visit her mother and I was doing a men's retreat.

We were driving to the airport and Susan said, "I'm uncomfortable about this." I said, "Susan, nothing's going to happen." Then that night I got a call that our daughter had been in an accident, and they emphasized that her life is not in danger but she's pretty beat up. Then as I'm driving back I get a call and say, "It's much worse than we thought. She's had a brain seizure and there are some problems." Well, you don't wait until you get there and then start to pray, right?

Prayer from Underwater

So my guess is that Jonah's praying right away. When Jonah's swallowed by this great fish, Jonah's praying. Our daughter Haley said, "I remember the first time I realized—and I don't know what made kids are incredible—I remember the first time I realized God could hear prayers from underwater. I was in a swim class and I'm swimming and swimming and swimming, and I'm thinking there's no way I'm going to get to the end of this. I started praying, 'Jesus, Jesus help me, help me, help me,' and I got to the end." It's kind of interesting for a four or five-year-old.

Jonah's there and I believe he begins to pray. I think he's saying "Amen" by the time he's in the belly of the fish, pouring his heart out.

"I call—look at verse two—I call out of my distress to the Lord and He answered me, and I cried for help from the depth of Sheol and You have heard my voice." He cries from this place, this place in the deep. When we look at this whole idea of Sheol, it has all sorts of meanings. It's an Old Testament designation of the place of the dead, a point of no return, a place of extreme degradation and sin. He's in this place and he cries out.

Honest Prayer in Desperate Times

My guess is that his prayer was a prayer of honesty. I saw a movie the other night—I think it was made in the '50s and it was called "A Night to Remember"—and it was the story of the Titanic. The Titanic's going down and it was a really interesting scene because here were these people in these lifeboats. There was the Titanic going down and here were the people in the water. The guy in the boat says this: "Let us pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." I'm thinking the guy out in the water isn't going, "Our Father." He's going, "God, I'm in serious trouble here right now. I'm in real trouble, I'm in jeopardy. You're the creator God of the universe, and I know we've got adoration and confession and thanksgiving and supplication. We're heading toward the supplication one tonight. We're starting with this: Get me out of this."

Isn't that how you pray? Jonah prays, I'm guessing, in an honest way. That's what he says: "I cry out of my distress." He's not saying, "Now I lay me down to sleep." He's pouring out his heart. He's scared. He cries out.

Acknowledging Personal Responsibility

Verse 3—as I said, he's not in denial: "For You have cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea, and the current engulfed me." He understands his sin. He understands it's not the sailors' fault.

There's a great subpoint here and I didn't make it today. Look at how the sin of the believer affects those around them. These sailors are going through all this. Why? Because of the sin of Jonah.

There is a sense, and I understand it, that when we read "if my people will call upon me and pray upon me I will heal their land," I know that's a promise to Israel, but do you see the implication to you and me as well? When you sin, those of you who are parents, when you sin, when you're disobedient, when you decide to ruin the marriage, you decide to put forth something that's less than a God-honoring marriage, I guarantee you—I don't care what they say or what you say—I guarantee you your kids suffer. They do. People suffer all around you when you sin and you bring pain to other people, and Jonah acknowledges that. You hurled me in here. You caused this storm and you did it for a reason and you were justified in all of this. Our sin begins to affect those around us.

David's Census: The Far-Reaching Impact of Sin

In 2 Samuel chapter 24, there's a great scene. Do you remember it? It is when David takes—remember what he does? He takes a census. Now what's the big deal? He takes a census. We do it every 10 years. He takes a census.

Now his buddy comes to him and says, "No, no, no. Don't do this." You know what he says? "Don't do this. Don't do this because God has said I don't want you counting all this stuff." But he takes a census. Why? Because he wants to know how much power he has and how much strength he has, and now David begins to put his faith and his trust in himself rather than in God's provision.

At the end of this, I don't know if you remember the story how it ends. At the end of this God says, "Okay, you're going to be punished. I'll let you pick the punishment. You may have 7 years of famine or 3 months of defeat by your enemy or 3 days of pestilence." And David comes with the census and said, "I'm not going to pick, God. I'm better off with you picking." And so God brings the enemy, and do you remember the result of that? 70,000 people are killed.

Now for some of you that's a new story. For others of you, I want you to listen with me for a second as though you were hearing it for the first time because I want you to think about it. You're telling me that all he did was take a census and 70,000 people are killed? In fact, if you're going to kill somebody, why wouldn't you kill David? I don't understand it. Don't you find yourself saying, "Hey God, what's the big deal?"

How We Misunderstand the Scale of Sin

Now here's what I want. This is a big thing. That's always how we view sin. Go back with me to the garden. What does Adam do? Well, he eats a piece of fruit. In fact, if he goes to his doctor, his doctor would probably say, "That's a good deal. Keep you regular. Keep you flowing. Eat the fruit. It's a smart deal." He eats a fruit. How big a sin is that?

Play with me. Is it this big a sin? Is it this big a sin? Is it this big a sin? It's about like this, isn't it, in our scale? It's about like that. That's how big a sin it is. So God says, "Alrighty Adam, you blew it. Now you've got to be punished. And here's what we're going to do. We're going to plunge all of mankind into the condition we're in now."

How big a punishment is that? This big a punishment? I don't think so. This big a punishment? This big a punishment? It's beyond what my fat little arms can get out there to tell you how big a punishment is. And we're looking at it and going, "The sin is this big and the punishment is this big." That's how we always see sin. We always see it as sin is that big and God, your punishment is this big. But that tells you we don't have an accurate view of how God sees sin.

I read the story in 2 Samuel. I said, "That just doesn't seem fair." But you see—and this is really important, and you don't need to write this down, you'll remember this—God is not messing around.

God's Patience Has Limits

Now He may be gracious and merciful toward you. And so you and I, because we're kind of slugs, we interpret grace and mercy as though He really doesn't care, or as though it isn't that big a thing. So we'll let it go and let it go and let it go.

I remember one time we're sitting around, and we're sitting around praying out loud, and that was kind of a new thing because I came from a background, religious background, we didn't pray out loud at all. If we did, it was like "Our Father" type thing. So we're praying. So they say, "Tom, we'll start over here and you'll be last." Well, that's a terrible place to be because when you go last, all the good prayers are taken. I mean it really is. And then all the prayers are gone. There's nothing left to say.

So the first guy will say, "Father, you're a gracious God. Thank you for what you're doing here at Cannon Beach. And God, you just work in a great way." And the next person will say, "Father, you're a great God. You work here at Cannon Beach, but you don't just work here at Cannon Beach. You work really in all of Oregon. You're alive in all of Oregon, and even maybe even sort of into Washington." And so like the next guy will say, "Father, you're a God—Father, you're a God not just of the Northwest. You're a God of the continent of the United States and the Northern Hemisphere. God, you're a great God."

And the next guy will say, "Well yeah, you're not just a God of North and South America. You're a God of all of the continents and all of the world." And then the next person will say, "God, you're not just a God that's limited to this planet. You're an intergalactic God. You can touch people all over the thing." And then He gets to me and I go, "Well God, I just echo all that's been said before me. Amen." I mean there's nothing left to say.

And then the next guy will say, "Father, you're a great God. God, you're a great God," and then there's nothing left to say. I remember this guy praying and here's what he said: "God, thank you for your infinite patience." And I thought, "Uh oh," because He's not infinitely patient, is He? He's patient. He's merciful. But there's a day coming when that patience is gone.

There's a day when we're dealing with His people. He says, "That's enough." That's what Paul tells us when he talks about communion. He said there's some that are asleep because they've abused the communion table. They're dead. He took them home. He said, "You know what? You're mine, but that's enough. I can't handle it anymore." And to those that aren't—

Christians, He allows you to move and to move and to do whatever you want to do. But there's a point coming when you will die and you will discover that He's not a God of infinite patience.

He prays: "You've cast me into this deep. All the breakers and the billows pass over me." Verse 4: "So I've been expelled from thy sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward thy holy temple."

Jonah's Faith in Future Restoration

What I believe Jonah's talking about in this whole equation here is that like many of the Jews in the north, he would probably on an annual basis go down to the temple in Jerusalem. I think that Jonah in the midst of this whale is somehow demonstrating to us that he believed that he was going to get out of this. Maybe even in the resurrection.

Interesting thing. We see it in Genesis 22. Remember Abraham and Isaac. Here they go. The word of the Lord comes to Abraham and it says "I want you to sacrifice your son." Is that what it said? No, it really didn't say that. Because if it would have said "I want you to sacrifice your son," Abraham would have said "Ishmael. Ishmael, we got a trip to take." It didn't say that. He said "I want you to sacrifice your son, your only son, Isaac."

So he says "Alright, Isaac, here we go." And they make the trip. And now it's time to go and to sacrifice Isaac. And there's a strange little thing that takes place there in Genesis 22. They got all the servants with them. And Abraham says "You guys stay here." And words are important. He uses a plural personal pronoun, not a singular. And he says "We will return."

That's odd. Because we know when he gets there, he has every intention of killing him, doesn't he? He has the knife raised and he's ready to kill him. Somehow Abraham, consciously, unconsciously, God put it in there, somehow Abraham demonstrated his belief in the resurrection. Because he's going to kill this kid, and yet he's saying "We'll be back." I think in the same way Jonah is at least lending himself toward that belief here. "I'll see this temple again. I'll be back again."

The Physical Reality of Jonah's Situation

"And water encompassed me to the point of death," verse 5, "and great deep engulfed me. And the weeds wrapped around my head." If you walk down the beach, some of the beaches, you'll see that seaweed. You'll see how long it is. And it's wrapping all around him now.

"I descended to the roots of the mountain. The earth with its bars were around me forever. But thou hast brought me up my life from the pit, O Lord my God."

Remember I mentioned to you that guy Bartley that had survived that time in the whale? Here's another account. Bartley affirms that he would probably have lived inside the house of the flesh—he's talking about the fish—until he starved, for he lost his senses through fright and not from a lack of air.

Bartley's Account from Inside the Whale

He remembers the sensation of being thrown out of the boat and into the sea. He was then encompassed by great darkness and he felt he was slipping along a smooth passage of some sort—I'll be being swallowed now by the fish. A smooth passage of some sort seemed to move and to carry him forward.

The sensation lasted but a short time, and then he realized he had more room. He felt about him and his hands came in contact with a yielding slimy substance that seemed to shrink from his touch. And it finally dawned upon him that he had been swallowed by the whale.

He could easily breathe, but the heat was terrible. It was not of a scorching, stifling nature, but it seemed to open the pores of his skin and draw out his vitality. His skin, where it was exposed to the action of the gastric juices—his face, his neck, his hands—were bleached to a deadly whiteness and took on the appearance of parchment and never recovered its natural appearance.

Jonah's Prayer from the Depths

So there's Jonah in the belly of this fish. Verse 7: "While I was fainting away"—again I think this prayer could have easily taken place right after he swallowed—"While I'm fainting away, while the air is running out, while all of a sudden I'm moving into this unconsciousness, maybe in this first two or three minutes. I'm fainting away. I remember the Lord, and my prayer came to me in thy holy temple."

"And those who regard vain idols"—and this is a weird verse, verse 8 and 9—"forsake their faithfulness." Here's what he's saying: idols are vain. They're empty. They forsake their faithfulness. They forsake their promises.

The Nature of Promises and Trust

We've got to wind this down, but think with me now. A promise is only as good as the person or the entity that makes it. You might have at home a set of Ginsu knives with a lifetime guarantee. But if you can't find Bobby Ginsu, it doesn't do you any good when the knife breaks, right? It doesn't do you any good because the promise is only as good as the entity that makes it.

So you're going to have some people—and you know that—they're just going to flat lie to you. They're going to tell you they're going to do something and they won't. But there's also, and this is important, there's also people who make promises who have every intention of keeping it. But something happens. Something invades their life and changes things, interrupts things. And all of a sudden the greatest intentions can't be met.

I remember my friend Larry had mentioned that he had this guy in his Bible study who was getting married. And this guy had asked Larry to marry him. And so Larry—and you've got to know Larry, Larry's not a detail type fellow—so on Thursday he's saying to the guy "Hey! Hey! Wedding's Friday. Here's Saturday. Wedding's Saturday. Hey! I'm going to be there. You're going to be there. Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Well Saturday night, he's sitting down getting ready for Sunday and he says "It seems like there was something I was supposed to do today. There was something I was supposed to... I was supposed... I don't know what it is." And he opens his book, and now it's about 8:30 at night, and he sees "wedding 4 o'clock." Now he had every intention of the world in being there, but he didn't pull it off.

See, that's what he's saying. Here are these vain idols. You see these people trusting these gods, gods that they make in their own image. And you're trusting them. But you know what? They can't do what you're trusting them to do. God is...

The Trustworthiness of God

Our faithful God is a trustworthy God. He is worthy of your trust. When you place your faith, your trust, when you place your life, your future, all that you have, all that you are in His hands, you're in good hands. Not with Allstate, but with the Lord Jesus Christ, with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, because they can do and will do exactly what they say. When He says "I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you," take it to the bank, my friend.

Now let me touch on this point I mentioned last night. There may be times when it feels like He's left, but He hasn't.

Jonah's Declaration of Faith

So He says here in verse 8: "Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness. But I will sacrifice to thee with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay." And here you go - this is in its entirety the message of scripture - the last part of verse 9: "Salvation is of the Lord."

Again, I mentioned J. Vernon McGee. He writes this: "Salvation is of the Lord. In my judgment, this is the most important statement that we find in the book of Jonah." I think this is very, very important. Notice what he says: "I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." He's speaking of deliverance.

I want to close with that thought. I want it in front of you. There's some key words there. Look at them in verse 9: sacrifice, thanksgiving, a vow. There are things that happen in our life. There's an idea of commitment. There's this idea of action. There's a promise, there's a vow. I repent. But all of salvation, all of deliverance is from God.

A Grammar Lesson on Salvation

Let me take you through this. When I was in school - I don't know if they do this anymore - when I was in school, we diagrammed sentences. Perhaps one of the stupidest things I'd ever done. So I remember coming home one day. My dad was short on mercy and patience, and I remember one day saying, "Dad," because he was a banker, I said, "You diagram sentences at the bank today?" And he said, "What are you talking about?" And I said, "Well they got us diagrammed sentences. I don't want to do it." And he said, "Bam. Okay, I better diagram this sentence."

So here's what we learned. We learned some basics. We learned that there are nouns and verbs, that there are subjects and predicates and direct objects. Let me give you a three-word sentence. We're going to diagram it: "God saves sinners."

God is the actor, the noun, the one doing the action. "Saves" is the verb, the predicate. The actor initiates an action. God saves. God saves what? Sinners. A sinner in this sentence is a direct object. And I always thought if I was in a sentence, I want to be a direct object, because they don't do anything. They have no responsibility. They're not the actor. They're not the action. They don't have to do anything. All the direct object does is hang around. Just kind of, "I wonder what's going to happen?" Bam, there it is.

God - the actor. Saves - what's He save? Sinners. Sinners don't save themselves. They're the recipient of God's grace and God's mercy.

The Clear Teaching of Scripture

The Bible doesn't stutter and stammer at this. The Bible's very clear that the Lord is the initiator, the provider of salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. There's nothing you can do to save yourself.

So we have things like the Ten Commandments, and they're really helpful. They're helpful for this: they give us kind of a moral code. But they're helpful for this: they're a tutor. They show us how we can't measure up. The Jews couldn't measure up, so they had these rules and they have a subset of rules.

And then Jesus comes along. And here's what Jesus says: "Here's what you've heard said: don't commit adultery. But I say to you" - because a guy can go, "You know what? I'm doing pretty good here. I haven't committed adultery. Never been with a woman" - and Jesus says, "Take it a little bit deeper. You've heard it said don't commit adultery, but I say to you, don't look on a woman with lust."

So He comes along and what does He do? He adds depth to all of these commandments to emphasize it's not a matter of just the action, but it's a matter of the heart. It's not whether you did it or not - it's where's your heart.

The World's View vs. God's Truth

So salvation comes along, and if you go down - we mentioned Bill's Tavern - you go down to Bill's Tavern and you get ten people and you say, "What do you got to do to go to heaven?" I guarantee you these ten people, the majority of them, are going to say what? "Be good. Just be good. Do the best you can." And they're going to say, "First of all, I don't think I'm that bad. Osama Bin Laden's bad. Jeffrey Dahmer's bad. Those are bad people. But I'm not bad."

But God said we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It doesn't take any more grace to save Jeffrey Dahmer than it does to save you or me.

The Power of Grace

And Jeffrey Dahmer is a great example because you want to see an example of grace? There is Jeffrey Dahmer. By all indications, in prison Jeffrey Dahmer became a Christian. Now think of this: Jeffrey Dahmer is molesting little boys. He's cutting them up. He's eating them. This is a bad dude. And if the stories are accurate, he was baptized in prison. There are those who would testify that he came to Christ in repentance of faith.

I don't know if that's true or not, but if that's true, Jeffrey Dahmer is going to be in heaven with a mansion right next to yours. So get an alarm and lock your doors.

But see, I love that illustration. I love that illustration because it makes me come to grips with God's grace, that it's about God's grace.

I have the flip side of that where I say Mahatma Gandhi's the nicest man in hell. Now I base this - okay, we'll end with this because it's a little controversial - I base this on the idea, but here's what Gandhi said. Gandhi said, "I read the gospels every day. I follow the teachings of Christ. But I refuse to believe that Jesus or anybody else could die for my sin."

Well, we're not saved by following the teachings of Christ. We're saved by believing in Jesus Christ, and subsequently then we follow the teaching of Christ. You see that?

The Heart of the Gospel

So we have all sorts of those illustrations around us. Salvation is of the Lord. There's the message. Jonah gets it. Here's Jonah. He's in the belly of the whale.

Salvation Is Of The Lord

And finally he gets it: Salvation is of the Lord. Do you understand that? Do you see that in your life? I pray that you do. I'm sure most of you do. Most of you would say you're Christians. But even then, do you really understand that it's a work of God in your life? It's not something that you did or that you willed.

Isn't that what we read? Let me just close with this. Isn't that what we read in John chapter 1? In verse 12: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believed in His name, who were not born of blood." They weren't born into this like a Jew would say, "Well I'm just a Jew, I'm saved. Look at my pedigree here."

"Nor born of the will of the flesh." It's not like they made a disciplined decision here. "Or the will of man." They didn't make a decision, but it was the will of God. Salvation is of the Lord.

The Response Of Worship

So how would I respond? It's there in verse 9: I'm filled with sacrifice and thanksgiving. See, if you want to see your worship life explode, then you understand that God saves sinners. Put your name in there. God saved you. And now you don't have to conjure up worship. You don't have to stir people into some sort of a frenzy because all of a sudden your heart is filled with thanksgiving and praise. Because oh how great He is! How great He is!

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for that truth. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for blessing us. Thank you that although in life we will sin and walk away from you, as your people you'll never walk away from us. God, I pray for those of us who are here tonight who may need to hear exactly that message because our life's kind of messed up and maybe we've messed it up. God, remind us that we just come back to you again and you'll forgive us and you give us strength to go to live a life that's not filled with sin.

And for those that are here who don't know your son Jesus, Father, I pray that tonight might be a time of salvation. That you touch their hearts, their lives. They would come to you and repent in faith and they would experience the joy that comes from knowing you. God, I pray that to you tonight in Jesus' name. Amen.