Appreciate the opportunity to be here this morning. I've enjoyed the fellowship of this church for quite a while. I do bring greetings from Redeemer Baptist Church. We have very much enjoyed the fellowship we share with Trinity over the years. It's been very profitable to us spiritually and very, very honored to be here in the Sister Church. Thankful for Brandon's work as well. It's been my privilege to serve with he and Robin on the GACBAC for a little while and see the work that they put in to the other churches as well. So your pastors are working hard even outside of this local congregation for the good of the churches. And they have a good testimony as well. So thankful for that. I want to preach to you this morning from the book of Jonah. If you'll turn with me to Jonah chapter 1. Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, in that region of your Bibles. Jonah chapter 1. Our focus will be verses 4-16, but I'm going to read the whole chapter this morning. Jonah 1. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 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 threw 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, had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and said to him, what do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on 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. Then they said to him, Please tell us, for whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation, and where do you come from? What is your country, and of what people are you? And he said to them, I am a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to Him, 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." Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this history. We thank You for the lessons that it teaches us. We thank You for what it reveals to us about Yourself. We ask that You would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, open our hearts to the Scriptures, and open the Scriptures to our hearts, that we might know You more. This is our prayer this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen. Now, if I asked you the question, what's a major feature of the book of Jonah, what would you say? A fish. It was a big fish. That's a pretty key part of the story. If I ask you who is a main character, who is an important character in the book of Jonah, what would you say? Jonah. Jonah. The book is named for Jonah. Jonah is a prophet on the run. He is a prophet living in sin. He is fleeing away from the Lord. And we see a lot about Jonah in this first chapter. He is going away from the presence of the Lord. He goes down into a ship, down into the bottom of the ship, and he lays down to sleep and he slumbers in his sin. And so we learn quite a bit about the direction that sin takes us. and God's purposes through this great fish. But we also learn a lot about God as well. The theme of the book of Jonah is really the sovereign mercy of God. A fascinating feature. As fascinating as the big fish is that God takes notice of wicked Nineveh. Their sin came up before Him and God had purpose to bring revival to this wicked city. It's really remarkable in any time. But when we consider the Old Testament and this little nation of Israel and how limited the revelation of God was in that time, that God is concerned for the city of Nineveh. That's how He closes the book. If you, Joni says, if you're concerned about this gourd that came up in a day and vanished in a day, Ought I not be concerned with Nineveh, that great city, these wicked sinners? God is concerned with them. It's a beautiful illustration of what we've already read this morning in Psalm 145. His tender mercies are over all His creation. And that's what Jonah The book of Jonah teaches us that His tender mercies are over all creation. He's concerned with Nineveh. He's concerned with Jonah in sin fleeing from Him. He would like to teach Jonah a lesson. He would like to draw him close to Himself. He would have Nineveh converted to Him. But I want us to look at some characters in the book this morning in the first chapter. that we often never think about, we never consider. We almost read right over it. And it's these sailors, these mariners, these men on their way to Tarshish, and they too, it says, are going from the Lord. And Jonah gets on a ship with them in his sin, and off they set sail. Man, I want us to think about their relationship to God. Again, we see something of the wisdom and might and power and grace of God, that while He has an intention to save Nineveh that is in one direction, Jonah flees in his sin in another direction, gets on a ship with these sailors, and sails off in the distance, off in the Mediterranean Sea in the complete opposite direction. And God has something to teach these sailors as well. He's reaching Jonah in here. He's reaching Nineveh there. He's reaching sailors over here all through the sin of Jonah. It's really remarkable. That is way more amazing than a big fish. That is way more interesting than how Jonah can survive in the belly of a big fish. It is amazing. It's really shocking to me as well. I think that was a theme, a word that kept popping up in my mind as I preached through Jonah. Jonah in our churches is shocking. Everything is shocking. It's shocking that God's concerned with Nineveh. It's shocking that he'll reach these sailors. It's shocking to me that he's going to reclaim Jonah in his great sin. It's shocking that he has a fish prepared. Now think about, for a moment, that fish, I don't know how long it takes a big fish to get big enough to swallow a man. Years, I suppose. And that fish was growing all along according to God's purpose. for Jonah. God had prepared a big fish. It's shocking. All of this is an illustration of the most important verse in the book. Salvation, Jonah comes to realize, is of the Lord. Chapter 2. So, I want us to look at these sailors this morning under three heads. Natural religion. Number two, utilitarian religion. And number three, true religion. And as we look at these heads, I want you to consider where you are in relation to God. What describes you? Would you fit into any of these categories? Natural religion, utilitarian religion, and true religion. There's a progression in the sailor's relationship to God. And I think that we often find ourselves in one of these groups. So first then is natural religion. And as we see, these sailors, they give no real thought to the true God. We don't read that there's any concern in their minds or hearts about the true God. They're packing their ship full of wealth and wares and they're getting ready to sail off to Tarshish. They're, in effect, minding their own business. They're going about their daily activities. They're gathering up things that will make them profitable. And this runaway prophet comes to them. And we've not read one thing about the sailors' intentions to honor God or to consider God or to think about God. They seem really, as the story progresses, they seem to have almost no knowledge of the true God at all. When they cry out to Jonah, who are you? And he says, I'm a servant of Israel. Yahweh, the Creator of heaven and earth, they tremble as if they had never thought of Him. They never considered Him. They never gave any attention to this true God. Certainly, they had never given any real thought to God. Probably, they had not given any thought to their own gods, lowercase g. We don't see them praying, do we? We don't see them as they load their ship down with wealth, which some experts say because of the length of the journey The destinations that they're coming from and going to was maybe many years income for them. We don't see them praying even to their gods. They give no thought to their God. They certainly give no thought to the true God. And in that way, they're very much like young men today, aren't they? Very much like some of us. They had no doubt pushed God out of their minds. They were very likely happy. Here they secured all these goods. Their ship is weighted down. They're getting ready to set sail. Their mission is almost accomplished. They were happy. I suppose they were probably laughing, joking with one another. All the things that you do when life seems to be going well for you. Life was good for these sailors. They were ready to pull out of port. They were full of cargo, full of wealth. They may have been counting their money in their mind. We have years of income here and we're going to set sail and we're going to go. No prayer. No asking of God. God's blessing on the trip, no asking of the blessing of their idols for their trip. They had patted one another on the back as they counted their money. They felt secure, maybe, and on top of the world as they thought about this wealth. You see, they had placed all their happiness in the things of this world, in this world's goods. They didn't give consideration to what Jesus would later teach in Luke 12, that one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. But they were living as if life consisted in these things, with no thought to God at all. God was not in all their thoughts. Even their gods were at best an afterthought. And I wonder how many of us here this morning would fit that description, thinking of careers, of jobs, of money and income. Maybe these young men were single sailors. They were thinking about future wives and all the things that they might possess with this wealth. And God was not in all their thoughts. They thought that somehow these things would bring them a lasting joy, a lasting happiness as they were on top of the world. And yet for all of their focus on the things of the world, and despite their lack of special revelation at this point in the story, they cannot push God out of their minds completely. They're distracted by the world. They see the shimmer and shine of the world. They want it. They've got their fingers on it. They've almost got it in their grasp. And yet for all of that, they cannot quite push God out of their minds. By one action of God, the sending of a storm, I think the ESV translates it, God hurled a storm at them. It's the same word that is used of Saul hurling a spear at David and pinning him to the wall. You see, God is not a random storm. He's hurling a storm at them in order to pin them to the wall to get their attention. And with this one action of God, this hurling of the storm, they tremble with fear. They cannot push God out of their minds. They're faced with death as they set sail out on the Mediterranean Sea. As the storm comes up, they face death and they're scared. They're fearful. They fear death. And we have to ask the question, why do the sailors fear death? What is it about death that concerns a people who have up to this point given no consideration to God? It's because they know by nature, first of all, that there is a God. You see, they have natural religion. They know that there is a God. They recognize that as they interact with Jonah and as they come face to face with God. They have some knowledge, not only that there are gods, but that there is one supreme being. Look at verse 6. So the captain came to him and said to him, what do you mean a sleeper? Arise, call on your God. Perhaps, and the Hebrew could read this way, perhaps the God will consider us so that we may not perish. You call on your God, Jonah. Perhaps the one God will hear us in your prayer. Perhaps He will consider us. They seem to think that if they all call on their individual gods, Jonah, you call on yours, we'll call on our localized deities. Maybe the one God will hear us. Maybe he'll save us. Maybe he'll do something for us. Maybe he'll help us. So they understand that there is a God. Secondly, they understand that this God is capable of hearing prayer. He is all-knowing. He is all-seeing. Out in the middle of the sea, as far as they can be from anything like civilization, this God can hear. Jonah called on Him. Perhaps He'll hear us. Perhaps He'll do something. Thirdly, they understand that safety and deliverance come from this God. It's not just fate. It's not just a random storm. They recognize that this God can control this storm. God can stop this. We are in a mess. We are throwing all our wealth overboard. We don't want it anymore. We got a light in the ship. Let's save our lives. But Jonah, The God can stop the storm. He can help us. He can fix this. And so they recognize these things about God. Fourthly, and maybe most importantly, they recognize and they know by nature that justice must be had, justice must be answered, justice must be served. And so they asked Jonah, what shall we do that the sea may be calm for us? Something must happen. An atonement must be made that the sea may be calm for us. They understand that payment for Jonah's wrongdoing must be forthcoming. Someone has to pay for the sin that Jonah has committed if the sea is to stop. They recognize, even by nature, that justice is demanded. These truths are engraved on their hearts, the Scripture teaches us. It's engraved on your heart this morning. Even if you're not a believer, you know these things to be true. Listen to what Calvin says. Calvin asked the question, how is it that these sailors cried unto God? Had they any new teachers who preached to them about religion? No, they knew it by nature. By nature it was engraved on their hearts. Romans teaches us the same thing. Because what may be known of God is manifested in them. For God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power in Godhead. The Gentiles, Romans teaches us, show the law written in their hearts. They feared death because they knew they were sinners. Because they knew that justice would be served. They knew that this God was powerful enough to cease the storm that was raging on the sea. They knew that He knew where they were. He could see them. He was capable of hearing them. These things they understood. And yet for all of that, they were lost. For all of that knowledge, They were not yet believers. For all of that knowledge, they were still in great, grave danger of perishing on the sea and eternally. These sailors were groping around in the dark, quite literally, groping in the dark. And so is everyone. Every man, every woman, every child, every boy, every girl, everyone, without the light of the Gospel, groping in the darkness. These sailors have a general conception of a supreme deity, but for all of that, it falls short of real Christianity. It was not enough to take away the greatest fear of mankind that has plagued men and women since the fall. Death. In the face of death, they feared and they trembled. What a contrast. What a contrast between natural religion and true religion. The one can never take away the fear of death. The one can never take away all our anxieties. When in the other, we are secure in Jesus Christ and we look forward to glory, to future, to the time when we will be in His presence without sin. You see, natural religion, for all that they knew of God, could not settle them in the storms of life. It couldn't do it. The storms of life hit them, a literal storm hit them on the sea and they trembled and they feared and they could not be settled in their conscience. No one knows the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son reveals Him. What a contrast between natural religion and true religion. Notice too the uncertainty of their prayers. They pray, they cry out. Joni, you pray. Certainly they were praying. But what do they say? Perhaps, maybe, there's a chance that your God will hear us. Also, what a contrast between true Christianity and natural religion. We know. Psalm 45 was read this morning in our hearing, and what did it say towards the end? He will hear when we call, and He will save. There's no perhaps. There's no second guessing. We pray as Christians, we pray in the will of God, and God answers us according to His will. There is no perhaps in that. But in natural religion, there's this doubt. They weren't quite sure how to approach the living and true God. So there's a great contrast. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. There is no perhaps in true Christian prayer. So I ask you this morning, do you see what God the Father has done for us in Christ? Are you beginning to see, even as we look at this first aspect of the sailors, what a glorious Savior He is? He has taken the believer out of darkness. He has removed the sting and fear of death from us, that we might have confidence in the very face of God, in the midst of storms, in the storms of life, when our whole life seems to be a shipwreck, We have confidence. We have confidence in Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful thing. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews again tells us, Jesus through death destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. The distinction between natural and true religion. We see it perfectly in the sailors at this point. This is the difference really between those who have some conception of God and those who rest in Jesus Christ. The problem is that our hearts are so deceptive that often we confuse a conception of God, a sting of the conscience, we confuse crying out to God in fear as these sailors did, we confuse that for true religion. So some of us do these things But we don't realize that they don't quite make us Christian. We don't realize that these actions are somewhat less than true Christianity. And so we think we're okay because when storms hit, we cry out. The story of Jonah and these sailors tells us that many cry out with a great deal of knowledge about who God is and something of His character, and yet fall short of being converted, being true Christians. I want you to consider that this morning. I want you to consider where you are. I want you to consider your prayers. I want you to consider your thoughts of God. Are you a Christian? Are you truly Christian? Or do you merely have a natural knowledge of God? Are you like the sailors at this point in the story? Secondly, we see then that the sailors progress from this. to what I want to call utilitarian religion. Utilitarian religion. I think we find a great many people, I'm afraid we find a great many people in the church who fit this category of people. You see, by nature and outside of Christ and the operation of His Spirit on our hearts, every single one of us are self-centered. We are the center of our own universe. We're self-seeking people. We sit on the throne. We are the center of our universe and everything must be about us. Everything must be about us. That's what we are apart from Christ. I would just state that categorically as a fact. That is true of every single person outside of Christ. And so we go astray often times. In the storms of life and even in religion, we often times go astray into utilitarian religion. What do I mean by utilitarian religion? What am I saying? I mean that as people who are so unbelievably self-centered, we are more than willing delighted even, to use the outward forms of real true religion, true Christianity, to serve and worship ourselves. It's a means, so we use the church, we use the scriptures, we're willing to use the true God as a means of serving ourself. It's really remarkable. how deceptive the heart is, and how often we can use true religion to worship ourselves. That is to say, we become religious when it's useful to us, when we can get something out of it. So as I said before, we don't find them praying to their gods when they left Joppa. But what do we find? We find them praying when trouble hits. Not before. Not before. But now that trouble hits, we'll pray. And maybe we'll have some blessing. Maybe God will bless us. They sought after their gods when they thought their gods would be useful to them. Their gods didn't require worship or receive worship beforehand that we know of. But now we'll worship. Now we'll worship our gods in the midst of trouble. I don't know that they consciously thought through that. I don't think they were on the ship thinking, well, let's use God for ourselves. No, I think it was a natural reaction of a selfish heart. The storm came and by nature they just said, let's use God. God will help us. God is for us. God will do these things. We'll receive the blessing. I'm sure they had not given any real consideration to the fact that their religion was utilitarian. I'm not even charging them with hypocrisy. It's just what the natural heart does. Our hearts are desperately wicked and deceitful. And I think many of us don't realize that that's what we do with true Christianity, that we use it for ourself. But that's what the sailors are doing. They're serving themselves with religion. Now, I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I don't want to say that we don't receive blessings. We do. We obviously do. Blessed is the man, so the scriptures read. There are many blessings that come to us in the service of the living and true God. He hears our prayers, we've already said. He answers our prayers. He blesses us abundantly. All of these things are true. God truly cares about the insignificant things of our life. whether it's the safety of a car trip to the store, or the stumping of a toe, all these things that seem so insignificant, God cares and is concerned. We are blessed in the service of God. And yet, for all of that, God is not a genie in a bottle. and he ought not to be treated as such as these sailors are doing as they turn to utilitarian religion. We're in trouble. Let's rub the bottle and get our three wishes and receive our blessings and we can go on with our life. God is there to help us in the hard times. I wonder if Unconsciously, sometimes we treat God that way. A genie in a bottle. He's the fixer. He'll fix our problems. But when things are going well, we don't think of Him or consider Him. He exists for us. Let me say it this way. You exist for God. Not the other way around. You exist for God. That is to say, God exists for His own self, His own glory. And the fact that He cares for you This great and glorious God who exists for His own glory, the fact that He cares for you and me and blesses me is in order that He might receive more glory. God does not sit on the throne and rule the universe for your happiness. God exists for Himself. He is the first and chief being. And that's what makes His blessings on us and upon us so great, that such a great God would condescend and come near to us that we might know Him and receive happiness in Him. But the sailors at this point, they're not concerned with the glory of God. That's not why they cry out. That's not why they pray. They're not concerned that anyone would see God's redemption of them in the storm that those people would come to him. They're not concerned that anyone see God's care in the storm as a bringing glory to him. They're only concerned with themselves. They don't cry out to God because they're interested in God's glory. They cry out to God because they love themselves. and they're fearful of death, and they know that there's troubles all around. They're not concerned with the glory of God. They're not even concerned with the glory of their idols. They merely want the blessings. They are practicing a purely utilitarian religion. Now, I want to be careful here as well. I'm not saying that we should serve God without joy. There's joy in the service of God. Christianity is pre-eminently a religion of joy. It brings us happiness and joy. There's joy in serving the Lord. But I don't want us to get these things backwards. Jonathan Edwards has a very helpful quote I want to read to you. Speaking of love, joy, and spiritual delight, he says this, The first foundation of it is not any consideration or conception of our interest in divine things, but it primarily consists in the sweet entertainment they have in the contemplation of the divine beauty of these things as they are in themselves. And this is indeed the main difference between the joy of the hypocrite and the joy of the true saint. The hypocrite rejoices in himself. Self is the first foundation of his joy. The true saint rejoices in God. The hypocrite has his mind pleased in the first place with his own privilege and happiness, which he supposes he shall attain to. The true saints have their minds pleased with the nature of the things of God." You see what he's saying? He's saying when the hypocrite takes pleasure in God, it's primarily in his relationship to God and what he will get out of it. Not the beauty and glory of God as it is in himself. That's where the sailors are as we read the story this morning. I wonder if some of you might be there this morning as well. The joy that you get from God is merely your relationship to God. the blessings that you will receive from God. He says again, Edwards, Indeed, the saints rejoice in their interest in God, and that Christ is theirs, and so they have great reason. But this is not the first spring of their joy. They first rejoice in God as glorious and excellent in Himself, and then secondarily rejoice in the fact that so glorious a God is theirs. Well, this is the sailor's religion. They're utilitarian in their religion. They didn't call on God. They didn't delight in God because of His character, but merely because they thought God might bless them. Because they might be bettered by praying to this God. You see, it's not only that the sailors were idolaters. It's not only that they had their own localized deities that each man goes to pray to. It's that ultimately, and all idolatry comes down to this, They ultimately were idolaters of self. They had placed themselves at the center. Their chief end, their chief goal was the love of themselves. But I wonder, can that be true of us here at Trinity this morning? Can that be true of us Reformed Christians? Is it true? Yes, I think the answer to that is undoubtedly yes. Yes, we can utilize the outward forms of Christianity, of true religion to worship self. One politician was asked recently if he'd ever asked God for forgiveness. Have you ever asked God for forgiveness? That was the question that came to him. He replied, no. But when I go to church, I happen to be a Presbyterian church, when I go to church and have my little wine and little cracker, I feel better about myself. And I guess that's some form of asking for forgiveness. Utilitarian religion. That's the point. He was quite willing to go to church and have a little wine and a little cracker to make himself feel better. That's the way we sometimes use the church, isn't it? It's the way we sometimes use God. It's so I'll feel better. So you'll feel better. So I'll get the blessing. So I think positive things about myself. Another person, this is someone I know personally, posted on Facebook a while back. When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion. Positive vibes, thoughts, and prayers, and all that good stuff. You see, they're willing to pray. It makes me feel better. This person goes on to say, that's my religion. I feel better about myself. Am I speaking to you this morning? That's the question I want to ask. I don't want it to stay out there. I want it to be theoretical. It can happen. Am I speaking to you? Do you use God in this way? Are you going through the outward forms of worship and prayer and even good works so that you'll feel better? Or are you here this morning because you're delighting God for who He is in and of Himself? That's the question we need to ask ourselves often, every day. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Is it because I love God for who He is? so that I can feel better about myself. It has application to the life of the church as well, not just to the individual. But how do we view the church? Is the church here for our entertainment? Do we come to hear a lovely song and great oratorical skills? Are we here to be entertained and kept busy? Or are we here to worship God? Why do we come? What do we think about when we leave? Are we evaluating and critiquing the sermons whether they were pleasing to me or not pleasing to me. And sometimes, even in our warped mind, that can take the place of hard sermons that are really convicting, and we feel better because we're convicted. And even those services are twisted around to make us feel better about ourselves. is prevalent in our day, utilitarian religion, and we must search our hearts, each one of us, and make sure that it's not present in us. You see, utilitarian religion isn't enough. It won't get the job done, even if it's flowing in the channels of outward, true, external forms of true religion. It won't save, it can't save, even in those forms. Some of you have moved beyond natural religion. I wonder if we've stopped short here at utilitarian religion. It will not save. But thirdly, we'll see the sailors as they come to true religion. We see again the great mercy of God displayed in the saving of these sinners. It's remarkable. The sailors are finally brought to true religion. Consider it for a moment. These young men with the cares of the world and all the things that the world brings, no consideration of God, they're out in the middle of the sea, they've given no thought to God, a storm comes, they attempt to use God, they cried out this utilitarian religion. They're quite fine if Jonah calls out on the true God. Yes, by all means, you make use of the true God to make us happy and to fix this problem. What a sin. What an awful thing to do. What an awful way to live. And yet for all of that, God is still determined to meet them with mercy and bring them to Himself. A people who have never given thought to Him before. As I said before, the word that comes to mind is shocking. It's shocking to me that He would do that for me, right? I mean, I lived this life. I lived a life with no consideration to God. I was willing to dip my toes into true religion in order to be happy and feel better about myself and in that way sin. And yet, for all of that, He found me. And many of you who are believers here this morning, this is biographical of you as well, God still comes to you with mercy. It's amazing. It's shocking. It is remarkable. The great mercy of God. They first hear of true God and the true religion. These people reject it for works. They chose to try to work out their own salvation. apart from God's grace, and yet He meets them with mercy. Look at what the text says. When Jonah confesses before the men that he's a Hebrew, he fears the Lord God of Heaven who made the sea and the dry land. They cry out, much like in the book of Acts, okay, what must we do? Essentially, they're saying, what must we do to be saved? How in the world will the sea cease to rage against us? And Jonah says, You're going to have to toss me overboard. You're going to have to throw me in. I'm the cause of the problem. I know that this great tempest is upon you because of me. He's giving them now the gospel in a picture. It's a picture prophecy. Jonah's a type. If you are going to be saved, I've got to go overboard. I've got to go out into the raging sea. It's the only way the sea will cease. And what do the men do? Do they receive the gospel? The text says so clearly. Nevertheless, verse 13, nevertheless, the men rode hard to return to the land. They rejected the message of the prophet. Here is how you will be saved from this storm. But they decide they're going to row hard. The Hebrew really reads this way. They dug in their oars. They were determined. Okay, we're going to be saved from this storm, but it is not going to be in the way. that the prophet tells us, we will dig in our oars. We will, through our physical might, bring this ship to dry land. We will be safe. The storm was raging. The ship was light to be broken. The cargo was overboard. The gospel was presented. And they decide they're going to work their way to shore. They were unwilling to die and unwilling to come to God. Salvation God's way. We find ourselves there sometimes, don't we? Many of you who are believers can testify to that. Many of you can say, this is biographical of my life. I dug in my oars. I finally came to see that I was practicing a utilitarian religion and I was unwilling to die. And here it was presented. But you wouldn't come God's way. You dug in your oars. You rowed hard. But they couldn't bring the ship to dry land. They couldn't do it. Verse 13, but they could not. God brought them to an end of themselves. This is the way salvation always comes. We must come to an end of ourselves. They were practicing a utilitarian religion to make themselves happy. Now they desire to be safe, but not God's way. They still must be the center of the universe. We will be the ones who row this thing to shore. But God brings them to an end of themselves. And it's only when they finally give in and recognize, we're never going to get this ship to shore. We're going to die out here on this thing. We will never row hard enough against this storm to bring it back to port. When they've come to an end of themselves, have they come to God as He would have them. Verse 14 is such an important verse in this passage. It's an important note. Look, therefore they cried out to the LORD, all caps, Yahweh. It's the first time in the text. Up until this point, they have not called on the true God. Now they've implored Jonah to do it, but they've not done it themselves. Now they say, They themselves call out to the Lord and say, we pray Yahweh, please do not let us perish here. They're at an end of themselves. There's no more self. Self is dying. Self is fading. They recognize we're sinners. We can't row it in. We can't bring it home. And they've called out to God. There's another important point in verse 14. They say, You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You. That terminology, that phrase is used three other times in Scripture. It's always, in every case, used in the sense of turning from idols to the living and true God. It is a rejection of idols in favor of the living and true God. This is how it reads in Isaiah. The idols have eyes, but they see not, and feet, but they move not, but you, O Lord, do as it pleases you. You see what the sailors have come to say? We're at the end of ourselves. Our idols couldn't answer. We couldn't be made happy by using the true and living God. We couldn't row the thing in to shore. We were about to be busted up. Now we recognize we must call on Yahweh for you in contrast to all the idols you see and hear and you do as it pleases. You. You see the focus has turned in the text in a major way. Up until this point, it was what will save us? How will the sea stop for us? What will be done for us? What blessings we will receive? You, God, You do what You want. You do what pleases You. They have submitted to the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ, to God, to Yahweh as He has been revealed to them. They've turned from idols to the living and true God. I would argue they have been thoroughly converted. And I hope that this amazes you this morning, that a people like this can be converted. You and I can be converted because we were like this. And so they tossed Jonah overboard. The sea ceases from a raging. And the men feared the Lord exceedingly. I think the timing is important. Then, after the storm ceased, they feared the Lord exceedingly. You know, one of the remarkable features of utilitarian religion is when the storm passes, the fear ceases and we move on with our life as we've always lived it before. One of the marks of true religion is even after the storms have passed, we continue to fear the Lord. We continue to live in His presence, giving thought and consideration to His desires and His will. After the storm had passed, they feared God. They feared God more in the calm than they did in the storm. It's a remarkable feature of the text. No more utilitarian religion for the sailors. Very much like Peter when the Lord Jesus Christ ceased the storm. And what happened? He feared. He said, I can't even be in your presence anymore. He recognized something in the ceasing of the storm about Jesus. These sailors have come to recognize something about Yahweh in the calm that they had not quite recognized in the raging of the sea. They're Christians. They're followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's, I don't know the literary term for this, maybe some of you do, but in the text there's this triple double. There's three times where they repeat something, double it up, and it says, Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish from this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. That's not the verse I'm looking for. They say they feared a great fear of the Lord is how the Hebrew reads. They sacrifice sacrifices to the Lord and they vow vows. Why are these doubles and triples? It's an indication that they're serious about it. They feared a great fear. It wasn't a little fear. They sacrificed sacrifices to the Lord. They vowed vows to the Lord. Again, it's an indication of the seriousness of the turn in their life from us to God. We feared Him. We sacrificed to Him. We vowed to Him. The whole orientation of our life is now in the direction of God for the first time. They vowed vows. They sacrificed sacrifices. They feared a great fear. Well, the theme of the book, the sovereign mercy of Yahweh, we see it in these sailors. They weren't looking for God. God was looking for them. God found them. God brought them to an end of themselves. He determined that they would be saved. He determined that Jonah would be the means by which they are saved. They had not lived up to the light of nature. in natural religion. They didn't live up to the light that they had by nature. They had changed the glory of God into the lightness of sinful man. They had made basically an idol of themselves, an idol of God. They made Him a genie in a bottle. God didn't save them because they made the best of their natural religion. He didn't save them because they used these outward forms of true religion to make themselves happy. He saved them because He's a merciful God and He determined to do so. He saved them that you and I might learn this morning that God's mercy reaches even to the depths of sailors in the darkness of sin. It reaches to people who are not looking for Him. Will God save you this morning? If you are a practicer of utilitarian religion, you better believe He will. You better believe He will. He delights in mercy. He delights in saving wicked, awful Ninevites. Wicked, awful sailors. Y'all, I want to say this. These sailors are real men. This isn't a story. It's not an allegory. It's not even a parable. It's a history. These are real men. I don't know their names. The text doesn't give us their names. These men were on the way to hell. And God saved them. And today, as we sit here and worship, they praise God in heaven. You think He won't save you? He'll do it. He has mercy. His tender mercies are over all His creation. Psalm 145 that we read this morning. They were real men. They're not a fictional character. They were truly idolaters. But God, rich, free, full of sovereign mercy saves them. Salvation, Jonah says, is of the Lord. What a God! What a Savior! Where are you this morning? Which category? Natural? Utilitarian? Or truly oriented to God? Let's pray. Father, I ask You this morning, plead with You, that you would help each of us to examine our life, to see which category we fit in. How have we oriented our life in relation to you? And I pray if we find, if anyone here finds that we are not truly religious, truly oriented to you, that they might have grace to turn, to fear a great fear, to come to you your way through the Lord Jesus Christ who has been in effect thrown overboard that we might be saved. I ask God that you would do a great work in our hearts. In Christ's name, Amen.