Christ Alone . ( Ephesians 2 v8 -9 )

 Jonah 2 v9 reads,'Deliverance belongs to the Lord',the word deliverance,or salvation ,Rosemary Nixon,writes,'That this is one of the most profoundly significant saying in scripture'.The religions of the world would not agree with those words,they all have their followers,doing something,in order to be saved,to gain their gods favour .Consider Jonah's situation,trapped in the belly slowly dying,he was totally helpless,in fact those who threw him overboard ,would have assumed he was dead,and indeed he was as good as dead.Again what could he do to save himself,the answer is nothing,he was in a state of utter hopelessness.A man once came to the apostle Paul, and his friend Silas.he fell down before them,and said,' Men , what must I  do to be saved?,their answer was this,' Believe on the Lord Jesus,and you will be saved', Acts 16 v31. Simple yet so many stumble at the simplicity of these words,are you prepared to believe on the Lord Jesus to save you?,you see he is called a Saviour, that means ,He saves, completely, 100 percent.On the cross Jesus paid the price for our salvation,if you try add anything to it ,it becomes null and void.

                                 '  Not what my hands hath done,can save my guilty soul,

                                   Not what my toiling flesh hath borne,can make my spirit whole.

                                  Not what I feel or do, can give me peace with God,

                                   Not all my prayers and sighs and tears,can bear my awful load.

                                  Thy work alone O Christ , can ease the weight of sin;

                                  Thy blood alone, O lamb of God, can give me peace within.'

                                                               ' Horatius Bonar'

                     

Mercy ( Psalm 145 v 8 ) 7

 So they took up Jonah, and threw him into the sea 1 v 15,so that was it,? no ,for we read,'And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah;and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.There he was in the belly of this great fish,one can only imagine ,how awful it was, but it was something of his own making.Then he did something he should have done earlier,he prayed o the Lord we read that prayer in chap 2.Even though he was in the belly of this great fish,he could still pray to God,we can pray to God anywhere ,and any time,you don't have to make an appointment.Here was this stubborn runaway person, in a death situation,the question is this, is he prepared to die physically,or is he prepared to die to self,and turn to God?.What would he choose?.well he chose to die to self,that was the only thing that would save him. and it did,God who later on would show mercy to the heathen Ninevites, showed mercy to his  disobedient servant, and rescued him.

                                                   'It is never to late to receive mercy'

                                                   ' Before the stirrup and the ground

                                                    I mercy sought, and mercy found'

Jonah 6Man overboard

 The men were to their credit were reluctant to do throw Jonah overboard,but the storm became worse,they realised they had to do it,so they prayed not to  be held guilty for what they were about to do.So they took Jonah up and threw him into the sea. After they did that the storm ceased,and this made a deep impression upon them,as one writer puts it,' No longer terrified by the sea,but in awe of God,they worshipped God,offered a sacrifice,and made vows'.So good did come out of it for them,although Gods people were Israel,He is still the God of all the earth, these dear people lived in spiritual darkness, but God opened their eyes,and revealed Himself to them,and they responded,and trusted in him.How precious is the salvation of a soul,as regards Jonah, he never denied God,and he spoke of Him to those in the boat ,Gods purpose went beyond a disobedient  prophet,Jonah just saw people as sinners,but God saw them as sinners that needed to be saved.Our dear Saviour was faced with a Jonah attitude continually,and challenged it continually,for that was His purpose in coming,to seek and to save that which was lost.

                                                          'For My sake and the Gospel's go

                                                          And tell redemption's story.'

Obeying. ( 1 Samuel 15 v 22 ) 5

 There is always consequences when one disobeys God,and the consequence affects others,just think how Adam and Eve's disobedience,has effected all of mankind,Think of the suffering brought about as regards unfaithfulness in marriage,or how a sons criminal act effects a family. The storm brought about by Jonah's disobedience was putting the whole ships company in danger.If you are tempted by whatever,be it in  financial,or the sexual realm,think of the consequences on others, especially those neatest and dearest to you. When Jonah revealed the true nature of why things were happening,they were really frightened out of their minds.Why did you do it they groaned?,for the storm was getting worse, and then they asked him what can they do to stop the storm?.Then Jonah tells them ,'throw me overboard into the sea and the storm will stop'.Very heroic,no it wasn't,all Jonah had to do was to get on his knees and pray a prayer of repentance,and obey God.It would have saved him the horror of ending up in the belly of a great fish. But no ,he was determined to  die rather than give into God's will,I will leave you with the words of a hymn by Mrs .C.H.Morris.

                                                 'My stubborn will at last hath yielded;

                                                  I would be Thine, and Thine alone;

                                                  And this my prayer my lips are bringing,

                                                  Lord,let in me Thy will be done.

                                                  Sweet will of God,still fold me closer,

                                                  Till I am wholly lost in Thee;

                                                  Sweet will of God, still fold me closer,

                                                  Till I am wholly lost in Thee'

Don't forget to pray. ( Mark 14 v 37 - 38 ) 4

So Jonah started on his journey, not to Nineveh ,but in the opposite direction to  a place called Joppa were.he found a boat that would take him Tarshish. He paid the fare and so started out on his journey. then things began to happen, the Lord sent a storm, that was threatening to sink the ship.As someone puts it, this storm was an agent of the divine will,it was aimed at Jonah ,and it would have a divine purpose for all on that ship.The people on the ship were religious and they each prayed to their god, but to no avail, there is only one God   Jehovah (Isaiah 44 v 6). The prophet of the only one God, was asleep, why was he asleep? he was wakened up and told to pray to his God.Then the question arose who among them caused this terrible storm, so they cast lots,and the lot fell on Jonah. The bible says be sure your sin will find you out,and so it came to pass,Rosemary Nixon writes,' God does not always address us through saints; he is just as free to use sinners as vehicles of His call. Surely Jonah must have been stung into remembrance'. Never once do we read in all this of Jonah praying to God,but there will come a time in which he will pray ,as we will see..

                                            'Could it be that it is time you prayed 

                                             to God?.'

He is everywhere . ( Psalm 139 )3

 When Moses received his call from God,he replied to God in negative terms ,and God patiently listened and reassured him.When Jeremiah was called he also replied in negative terms,likewise God listened reassured him.But when it came to Jonah,he did not want to speak to God,did not want to hear what God had to say.He had heard enough ,it was not what He wanted to hear,so he took up running,not as an exercise ,but to get away from  God. How absurd it was a race he could not hope to win,read Psalm 139,which clearly tells us that God  is omnipresent,He is everywhere.Later Jonah would say that he worshipped the God of heaven,who made the sea and the lamb (1 v 9).So why did he think he could run away from God?, sheer blind abstemious, but this would not be the end of the story,God would have the last word,and he would bring Jonah back into line. God will always have the last word,be it with his rebellious children,or with the ungodly.

                                                    'There is no escape from God'

Jonah went AWOL. ( Mark 5 v 1 - 15 ) 2

 As a young lad of fifteen I joined the army, as a boy soldier,I must confess I did not like it,and  I remember going AWOL,that means absent without official leave,well that's what Jonah did, he went AWOL.He was not prepared to do what God wanted him to do, there was a reason for this,Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria. Rosemary Nixon writes,' It is quite possible that we are meant to understand Nineveh as that which constitutes the very opposite of everything that Israel held dear. This view is vividly spelt out by the Jewish writer Hayyim Lewis.' The Assyrians were the Nazi storm- troopers of the ancient world. They were the pitiless  power crazed foe. They showed no quarter in battle, uprooting entire peoples in their fury for conquest. They extinguished the Northern Kingdom of Israel. For Jonah, Nineveh  was no ordinary city ; it carried doom - laden , tragic memories, it stood as a symbol, of  evil incarnate'. One other person writes,'To go to Nineveh means,for Jonah, to go to hell'.There are many people whom have felt the call of God to the most ungodly places,and may have said  ,'I cant go there'. 

                                                               William Booth.

                                           'Go straight for souls, and go for the worst.'