The Old Testament lesson for the morning continues in the book of Jonah, the first chapter beginning at the 4th verse and reading through the end of the chapter.
But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid and every man cried out to his God and through the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load but Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and said to him, what do you mean sleeper? Arise, call upon your God. Perhaps your God will consider us so that we may not perish and they said to one another, come let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah and they said to him, please tell us for whose cause is this trouble come upon us. What is your occupation and where do you come from? What is your country and of what people are you? So he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord the God of heaven who made the sea in the dry land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, why have you done this? For the men knew that he fled 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 be calm for us. For the sea was growing more tempestuous and he said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to return to land but they could not for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, we pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man's life and do not charge us with innocent blood for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Gospel lesson is Matthew chapter 25 beginning at verse 1 and reading through verse 13.
Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed they all slumbered and slept and at midnight a cry was heard behold the bridegroom is coming go out to meet him and all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said to the wise give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered saying no less there should not be enough for us and you but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding and the door was shut. After where the other virgins came also saying Lord Lord open to us but he answered and said assuredly I say to you I do not know you watch therefore for you know neither the day or the hour in which the Son of Man is coming the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ thanks be to the Lord let us pray together Lord Jesus we bow before you to give you thanks that you have come and that you are coming again and you are coming for your people in the midst of great glory and our hearts will be full and our lips will sing your praises we rejoice to see the day of your arrival O Lord we ask you that you would have mercy upon us that you would give us grace to live before you that we might be found faithful when you come may we understand from your word and would you seal this to our hearts that as you have been faithful in the past so you are faithful now and you will be faithful to the end even so come Lord Jesus we pray in your name Amen you may be seated I have a new addiction don't be too concerned it's not life threatening but you've heard me mention in the last couple of months my little trip to Mississippi in which I was exposed to a very gracious way to the south and to the civil war and after having made that trip and having come back I pursued a lead that a new acquaintance over there in Mississippi put me on he had acquired and he said if you're going to acquire anything regarding the civil war this is the thing you need to acquire he had acquired the three-volume civil war narrative by Shelby foot massive work took over 25 years for him to complete 2500 plus pages that's my addiction I called the book club that he encouraged me to join and I said is there any way I can get a hold of this and the person I talked with said well I can't authorize that and I said well this is not characteristic of me I said is there someone else I can speak with yeah you can speak to my supervisor so I got the supervisor and the supervisor said well I'm not sure we have any of those sets still around and I said well could you please look for me because I'd really love to join your book club but what I really want is these three books so they agree and I sat weighted looked in the mailbox every day for about 10 days waiting with baited breath for these books to show up and they arrived about two weeks ago and I've disappeared I'm gone I'm consuming these things they are fascinating it's not dates and names and places it is truly a narrative and what's interesting about it is that it is in many respects the narrative of individual lives you get up close exposure to individual people and the amount of research that must have gone into this I can't begin to imagine but you begin to feel like you know these people and the thing which is occurred in the in reading this is that as you consider these lives these individual people there really are two things going on and I see those two things going on in the book of Jonah as well inspired history inspired biography there is the dynamic of the person the individual life and the things that are going on in that individual life the struggles the wrestling and in a certain very real sense the purpose of God in that individual life and what God does to refine and to shape and to produce character in the life of the individual you see that over and over and over again in this narrative of the Civil War Robert E. Lee is the person I'm coming to appreciate as a man of heroic courage great courage and heroic character great character Robert E. Lee was never pardoned by the United States government and Robert E. Lee never had his citizenship restored to him after the war and yet Robert E. Lee never badmouth spoke down to any or about any of his opponents fact in one conversation with a with a younger a person of a younger generation who was bad mouthing E. Lee defended him enormous character which was developed and which emerged in the life of that man and that against the backdrop of this other story the history of our nation in that four or five year period of time and all of these individuals like Lee and Grant are links in that chain in that unfolding history and you see a similar thing here in Jonah there are two stories going on here and both of these stories both what God is doing in Jonah individually and what God is doing through Jonah as a link in the unfolding history of God's people in the unfolding of the purpose of God both of those things both of those stories speak volumes to you and me about one thing the faithfulness of God the faithfulness of God and God's determination his unwavering unswerving determination to accomplish in history what he has set out to accomplish before history began first of all Jonah Jonah is someone with whom we can we can readily readily identify easily identify does anybody know anything about rebellion anybody in this room know anything about resisting the call of God the will of God the express desire of God Jonah did that we've looked at it just a little bit here you have a man who is a prophet set apart by God a person in Israel who is highly exalted a person who has had if you'll read the very very brief mention of Jonah in first Kings 14 who has had a fruitful ministry it was Jonah who prophesied the restoration of the borders of Israel and those borders were restored under Jeroboan II and then this one Jonah this very same one who when he hears the call of God to go to Nineveh and to preach the gospel to Nineveh runs as fast in the other direction as he can and we explored a little bit why it is that he might have fled why it is that he might have gone in the other direction because he had memories perhaps probably he had memories of the Assyrian Horde marching across his land people from these great and magnificent Assyrian cities like Nineveh he would have heard about things which happened 60 or 70 or 80 years before but visiting last week and took one of the RTS students with me and Doug Warren was telling me that his great grandmother grew up in Oklahoma she was born in a sod house born in a sod house a house cut out of the ground chunks of sod stacked with a roof over them and and adult skins on the front she was born in an environment like that and he used to go to her before she died with a tape recorder and listen to her as she told stories about life on the plane
Jonah would have heard stories about the Assyrian Horde marching across his land and ravishing his people and squashing them under the heat again we can't get back into Jonah's skin but that is the history those are the circumstances which entadate which precede what we're reading about in this man's life and then the call comes the call of God comes to Jonah that he is to go to the very people who have abused his ancestors and he's to preach to them forgiveness he is to take to them the gospel of God's mercy rather than obeying he he runs four times in the first chapter the phrase flee from the presence of the Lord is mentioned and I suggested to you last week what folly that is to think that you can escape the presence of Almighty God and I suggested to you that Jonah would have known his Psalms he would have known the Psalter he would have known Psalm 139 which says if I rise up on the wings of dawn if I travel at the speed of light from the east to the west across the Mediterranean and land in Tarsus if I go that fast you are there waiting for me it is folly it's crazy it's lunacy to think that we can escape to think that we can flee to think that we can bury ourselves in the bowels of a boat and sleep God out of existence can you relate to it I know what that's like I also know when I wake up who's in my face in my conscience to be sure but who's in my face so what is God's response what is God's response to Jonah the language is strong in this fourth verse the Lord hurled hurled lung a great wind out on the sea the same language is used to describe what Saul does when he hurls a spear at David God casts a storm God hurls a storm out upon the sea
and what is his intention what is his purpose what is the reason for the tumult what is the reason for the upheaval who is the object of God's assault and that's the language that's the kind of language that's used it's strong language who is the object it is Jonah it is Jonah it's not these pagan orsmen it's not these pagan sailors but it is Jonah God loves his people so much and God is so determined to accomplish in them and through them what he has set out to accomplish in them and through them that he will not allow them to escape he will not allow us to flee now admittedly in this context in this story in this life of Jonah Jonah is deliberately and consciously disobedient but folks when tumult comes when difficulty comes when the storms rage this is a recurring theme in the scriptures that's why it's a recurring theme up here if it's a recurring theme in the scriptures it needs to be a recurring theme here and if it is a recurring theme in the scriptures it is probably there because we need to be reminded about it again and again the tumult will come the storms will rage and when they do who is behind them who is behind the storm look through this text that we just read at every point when any key event occurs when anything happens whether it is the call to Jonah or the storm which is hurled upon the sea or the casting of the lots this game of chance this role of the dice is it a role of the dice is it a game of chance is there any uncertainty at all about anything in the entirety of the universe in which you dwell the answer is unequivocally no
and where does this great fish where does this great fish come from you see at every point with every event every episode throughout the entirety of Jonah's life and yours there is one who is super intending the whole process the whole process now that is hard and we wrestle with that and it is difficult I'm sure that Jonah wondered about it I'm sure that he had his moments of uncertainty and his questions just as you do just as you have had and just as you will again but if it is not God who has cast these things upon the seas of our lives and if it is not God who super intends and orders and orchestrates all of the events all of the circumstances of our lives for his good for his glory and for our good then what are we left with now this is crass this is a kind of a crass way to put it
but if who is mercy would you rather be would you rather be at the mercy of an all knowing all wise entirely good and glorious God or would you have the option the alternative which used to be at the mercy of randomness and chaos and uncertainty and sometimes when you wrestle with these things you sort of feel like Peter did you know when all of the people who had been following Jesus bolted they all sort of left and were going their various ways and Jesus looked at Peter representing the rest said what about you where will you go or will you leave also Peter sort of looked around him and it's not too hard to imagine him at least to himself saying I'm not sure I like the choices but where else is there to go where else is there to go you Lord Jesus you God of heaven and earth have words of life you are life and you govern life and you govern it based upon your character which is good and so there is Jonah whose life at this moment though he wishes to shut God out though he wishes to climb into the bowels of that boat and sleep God out of existence Jonah when he awakens knows who he is knows where he is and understands who is in control who is in charge God will not leave him alone just as he will not leave us alone will not leave you alone until he gets us where he wants us to be because his purpose is good his design is good the outcome is good for you as an individual and he's devised that he's designed it and he's orchestrating and super intending it and he will not leave you alone until he gets you where he wants you to be again I know that's hard but there's such great comfort and such great encouragement in knowing that God will not let go he will not let go of me and he will not let go of you until he accomplishes in you what he desires to accomplish and then there's the big picture and it's the same story there there's the individual life of Jonah and God's determination to get Jonah where he wants him to be but there is the big picture as well there is the larger story and in the larger story the same God is just as faithful what is the purpose of God for history what is the big picture what is the large story this is advent this is the christmas season this is the time when we celebrate and we accentuate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world and what do we celebrate when he comes we celebrate the coming of the Savior of the world and as we look ahead to his second coming what is it that we anticipate what is it that we long for when we're really right in our thinking and in our hearts what we long for is to be gathered about the banquet table with the lover of our souls to enjoy the feast and what is more frightening to us than anything that the person can possibly imagine is the prospect the prospect of being shut out like the five unwise virgins what is the purpose of God go back to genesis the twelfth chapter God's promise first of many promises made to Abram now the lord had said to Abram get out of your country from your family and from your father's house the word just like the word that came the Jonah get out of your place of comfort arise up go to a land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation I will bless you I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you Abram all the families of the earth shall be blessed the big purpose of God the big desire of God the big intention of God is that he might gather from every nation and tribe and tongue and people and language on the face of the earth one people for himself that has been his purpose from the beginning that is his desire right now and it was his desire in Jonah's day let me have you look at Isaiah 25 here's a repeat of the same promise centuries later I heard a sermon on this just this last week it was a wonderful sermon on this passage and the preacher was talking about how difficult it is sometimes to piece together all of these promises which you find in the scriptures and he says he it was a wonderful illustration he said you need to keep in mind that these are snapshots and if you take a snapshot of a city there's an awful lot that you can get into that frame into that picture but it's a two dimensional thing and you can't see the spatial relationships of things you can't see the exact relationship of one building to another or individuals who may be on the streets walking you can't get perspective on their relationship to build buildings off in the distance but what you get is a glorious picture what you get is a wonderful silhouette a skyline of a magnificent city and these promises which God makes to us are like snapshots and we get wonderful pictures wonderful snapshot pictures of what the final outcome is of what the final goal is of what the big picture is for all of history first one of chapter 25 of Isaiah oh Lord you are my God I will exalt you I will praise your name for you have done wonderful things your councils of old our faithfulness and truth where you have made a city a ruin a fortified city a ruin a place of foreigners to be no more it will never be rebuilt therefore the strong people will glorify you the city of the terrible nations will fear you for you have been a strength to the poor a strength to the needy in his distress a refuge from the storm a shade from the heat for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall you will reduce the noise of aliens as heat in a dry place as heat in the shadow of a cloud the song of the terrible ones will be diminished and in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces a feast of wines on the leaves of fat things full of marrow of well-refined wines on the leaves he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all the people and the veil that is spread over the nations the veil the covering is a symbol of grief and sorrow and sadness it's a sign of death and he will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces the rebuke of his people he will take away from all the earth and then there is this great statement this wonderful statement for the Lord has spoken the Lord has spoken that seals it that clenches it what is the picture here that Isaiah is painting you see it in verse three the city of the terrible nations will fear you when is that fulfilled where is that fulfilled it's fulfilled in Nineveh it's fulfilled through the the prophet who goes and who preaches the gospel and God demonstrates his faithfulness in that pagan city that place of unbelief that place where there is noise and blasphemy and raucousness and the prophet eventually goes and he preaches and the people repent in the city is saved and that terrible city in that terrible nation fears the Lord and God accomplishes what he sets out to accomplish he does what he sets out to do where is this promise fulfilled it's fulfilled in Rome in the day of Paul it's fulfilled in Philippi in the day of Paul it's fulfilled in Ephesus in the day of Paul and it's fulfilled today in soul South Korea and it's fulfilled today in Hamlet's in villages in third world countries in Africa where missionaries go and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and tens and scores and hundreds of tribal people are converted and the city of a terrible nation fears the Lord and it will continue to be fulfilled until the end of history and then those things which are prophesied in verses six and seven and eight will be fully and finally accomplished
folks God is faithful and God demonstrated his faithfulness in Jonas day by fulfilling in Nineveh so what he had promised in Genesis and what he reaffirmed in Isaiah's day and so you see whether you consider Jonah individually or and personally or you consider this large purpose of God the one message the one overwhelmingly clear message is that God is faithful and God accomplishes what he sets out to accomplish now this Advent season is no mere civic holiday it is a celebration of the ongoing faithfulness of God in the lives of countless thousands of individuals and it is a celebration of the faithfulness of God in the midst of this one grand human history in which he is gathering to himself a people from every nation and tribe and tongue on the face of the earth Advent is a time to celebrate Advent is a time to remember Advent is a time to glory in the faithfulness of God let's pray together Lord Jesus Christ give us grace give us grace to lift our eyes up
the rise above the storms and the unsettledness of things around us in order that we might see you as preeminent and glorious and ever faithful I thank you that you love your people you love them desperately I thank you that you love them so much that you will not allow one of them to escape your presence
but you will so order and direct the affairs of their lives that you will have them each one where you desire that they should be I thank you Lord Jesus that you'll deal with our character you'll refine and reshape and purify and cleanse us and I thank you that you will use us that we will be links in the unfolding purpose which you have for all of history and I thank you that your faithfulness is writ large across that history and I pray for your people for all of us that we would be given grace to rest in you believing always that you know what you're doing and you are accomplishing what is good press these things home to us O Lord seal them to our hearts that we might not forget but might live with confidence and courage and a great sense of expectation and now O Lord as we bring to you these gifts which are yours would you receive them and would you bless those who give we ask in your name and for your sake I'm there