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Lesson 16 Rom.8:28 Jonah 1:1-4:11
Many people say that they believe that God is All-mighty and that He is all powerful, but then they contradict themselves with other words and other actions. Sovereign: “Above or superior to all others; chief; greatest; supreme, a person who possesses sovereign authority or power.” This is the Lesson for Jonah and this is the Lesson for us: God is Sovereign, He is Boss—in all things. Many people think that they are Sovereign, but they are not. Young people often think they can do what they want, but again everything is under the power of God. I want to quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon (on a sermon from Matt.20:15 taken from A. W. Pink’s “Attributes of God”: Chapter 6 on the Sovereignty of God): “There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought most earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation—the kingship of God over all the works of His own hands—The Throne of God and His right to sit upon that Throne. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth. And we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne whom we must preach.” And to that I do say, “Yea, and AMEN!” Jonah did learn of God’s Sovereignty. It is a true Sovereignty: one that is not subject unto any other. We speak of many things as being Sovereign: Countries are sovereign (another country cannot tell them what to do, but they can be forced to do things through embargoes). Homes are to be sovereign (but homes are forced by laws of states into doing things). But God, He is truly or Verily Sovereign—for there is not one thing, not one person who can force God or keep God from doing what He so pleases (Eph.1:11; Isa.46:10)—God is God in fact, as well as in name. Lessons Jonah Learned: 1) God is Sovereign in Salvation—Jon.2:9 2) God is Sovereign in Service—Jon.3:1-3 3) God is Sovereign in Teaching/Chastisement—Jon.1:4; Jon.4:1-11
These are the object lessons of Jonah. These are the things that I believe that Jonah learned and I believe he learned them to the point of no reply to God (Jon.4:11—the abrupt stop of the book: no more complaining from Jonah. Compare w/ Rom.3:19). God’s Sovereignty: I) In Salvation—Jon.2:9—“…Salvation is of the LORD”. Salvation is wholly and solely the act of God. Rom.11:6—“And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” God is Sovereign in that He chose (before the foundation of the world) whom He will save. Whom the blood of Jesus shall be applied to, whose scarlet sins shall be made white as snow. God is Sovereign in that there is not one thing that anyone can do to earn His favor, His unmerited favor (grace). God is Sovereign in that He chose how He would save those whom He elected unto Salvation. The means by which redemption was obtained was through the sacrifice of the Blood of Jesus. God did this for the purpose of bringing honor and glory to Himself. Could God have done it another way? I’m sure He could have. But it is through the sacrifice at Calvary, the shedding of the Lamb of God, that God Divinely and Sovereignly appointed, and chose for men, women, boys and girls to be saved! God is Sovereign in that those men, women, boys, girls whom God chose to save, could not resist God calling them unto Salvation. They could not resist the loving-kindness with which He drew them to Himself (Jerm.31:3). And He drew us with cords of a man, with bands of love (Hos.11:4). This is often referred to as “Irresistible Grace” and certainly it is irresistible for God has decreed you to believe and so you shall. My friend we are not “Fatalists—who believe whatever will be will be”. No, not so whatsoever—we are those who believe in a Sovereign God—who believe that God can and does do whatsoever He pleases: that ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD (Lk.1:37). God is Sovereign in that once God has performed a work it is not undone. Nothing that man can do, this world can do, or Satan can do will ever defeat the Sovereignty of God. God has said, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Jn.3:18. God said it, God decreed it: that makes it so. Use to be a saying: God said it; I believe it; That Settles it. Well, I want to tell you, whether you believe something or not is irrelevant to the Sovereignty of God. When GOD SAID IT—THAT IS WHAT SETTLED IT! Why? Because He is Sovereign!
II) In Service—Jon.3:1-3 w/ Jon.1:1-3. God had given Jonah a place to serve Him. He said Nineveh is going to be your sphere of influence…Nineveh is the place that you are to be my witness, my prophet, my servant. God has given us as individuals, this church as a body, a sphere of influence, a place where we are to be witnesses, a place where we are to be servants and prophets, teachers and preachers: In your own homes, in your workplaces, in your own towns and villages, and unto the uttermost parts of the world. This is our service. People say, “well if we don’t do it, God will get someone else to do it.” How do you know? He may bring you through some very difficult times. Jonah went into the belly of a fish. God has a work for you; a specific work for you and only you. God is a personal God and He has servants that have work for those particular servants. I think it is an amazing thing that God only requires of His stewards, His servants to be “Faithful” (1Cor.4:1,2). God said that His word will not return to Him void (Isa.55:11). It is going to go forth and accomplish whatsoever He chooses. Now your earthly bosses they want you to be faithful—but they also want results. In our “stewardship” to the Lord—He takes care of the results. Acts.9:16; Jn.21:18; Matt.14:1-14—Paul, Simon Peter, and John the Baptist all found out of the Sovereignty of God in service. Neither one could resist the Lord’s bidding for them. Whatever He called them to do they did it. And each one was killed for it. Paul said, “yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” 1Cor.9:16-19). Jerm.20:9—“Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” III) In Chastisement/In Teaching—Jon.1:4; 4:1-11. God’s purpose of chastisement is to teach His servant a lesson; to correct them; the Shepherd His wayward sheep/lamb. a. In Chastisement—Jon.1:4…”But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea.” God was Sovereign over the wind and the sea. He would use it to bring Jonah back to where God had Divinely decreed for Him to be. God used the wind and the storm to save the mariners as well. In chastisement God did soften the hearts of the mariners, and the heart of Jonah. If God willed, He could have easily hardened their hearts like He did with the heart of Pharaoh. God can show His Sovereignty in the hardening of a person’s heart (Ex.10:1,2) or He can show His Sovereignty in the softening of one’s heart (1Kgs.18:37). God can break the stony heart. First, if it pleases God, He can harden your heart and then He can turn it into a heart of flesh. I know He did that to me for several years until the 2nd Sunday in May, 1999 when He made it a heart of flesh. b. In Teaching—Jon.4:4,9—God teaching Jonah, God teaching us. God was Sovereign…making a gourd grow where no seed had been sown. Making a gourd grow where no water was found. Then putting a worm there to smite the gourd so that it died. Then stopping the wind or bringing up a violent one. All shows the Sovereignty of God. It’s an amazing thing that the lower creatures (animals, insects, etc.) and plants do the Lord’s bidding—and we who have been effected by the same sin as they were, but have now been purchased with the precious blood of Jesus do not do the bidding of the Lord. i. “And the Lord God Prepared a gourd” Jon.4:6 ii. “And the Lord God Prepared a worm” Jon.4:7 iii. “And the Lord God Prepared a vehement east wind” Jon.4:8 iv. “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” Jon.1:17 These are four things that God prepared and all four of them did as the Sovereign Deity, the LORD God prepared them to do. The Lord Prepared Nineveh to repent through the preaching of Jonah and so they did repent. The Lord God prepared their hearts to receive it and if God had not chosen to save them…He could have just as easily hardened their hearts. Now what has God prepared you to do? Have you done it? I think God has prepared our hearts to seek Him!
“For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek The law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” Ezra.7:10.
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