Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. The Lord provided the great fish. It is very clear. that this great fish was at the right spot at the right time by the Lord. This was a miracle.
So the main question isn't so much the size of the sea monster, isn't so much even the size of its throat But the size of our God. Welcome to the verdict. featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. Senior Pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. What do you think of when you think of Jonah?
The size of the big fish? Today, we're going to think of this famous Bible story and realize that we should be focusing on the size of our God.
So now, let's join Pastor John Monroe to introduce his new message titled A Whale of a Tale. Jonah may be the most ridiculed book of the Bible. It's sometimes used to demonstrate that the Bible is full of fairy tales rather than historical incidents. What do you think? Is your God big enough to create a sea monster to swallow a man?
This is what happened to Jonah when he was running away from the Lord. Yeah. Isn't that wonderful? that in his deep distress Jonah cries out to the Lord. White Jonah Today, you may find yourself in a seemingly impossible situation.
Learn today that no problem is too big for the Lord. He helps those who cry out to him. in humility and sincerity. Last week we left Purjona. in the stomach of the great fish.
The text doesn't say that it was a whale, but the question is inevitably asked. Is there a sea monster big enough to swallow a man? I used to wonder if that great fish referred to in Jonah The fish that Swallow Jonah was an ancient ancestor of the Loch Ness monster. But the problem is not so much the size of the whale or the size of the sea monster. There are apparently whales and sea creatures, certainly big enough to contain a man.
The real question is the size of the throat.
So Nese and her ancestors must be eliminated because Loch Ness Monster, as you know, has a very narrow throat.
However, We are told that there are whales, particularly sperm whales, with throats which can expand to eight feet in diameter. There are historical counts. Of individuals being swallowed. by whales. Here is one of them.
written by Francis Fox in his book in sixty three years of engineering. He gives the following accounts. In February 1891, the whaling ship Star of the East. was in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands. And the lookout sighted a large sperm whale three miles away.
Two boats were lowered and in a short time one of the harpooners was enabled to spear the creature. The second boat also attacked the whale. But was then upset by a lash of its tail so that its crew fell into the sea. One of them was drowned, but the other, James Bartley, simply disappeared without trace. After the whale was killed, the crew set to work with axes and spades removing the blubber.
They worked all day and part of the night. The next day they attached some tackle to the stomach, which was hoisted on deck. The sailors were startled by something in it which gave spasmodic signs of life. And inside was found the missing sailor. doubled up and unconscious.
He was laid on the deck and treated to a bath of sea water, which soon revived him. At the end of the third week, he had entirely recovered from the shock. and resumed his duties. His face, neck, and hands were bleached. to a deadly whiteness and took on the appearance of parchment.
Bartley affirms That he would probably have lived inside his house of flesh until he starved. for he lost his senses not through lack of air, but through fright. You better believe it. You imagine being swallowed. by a whale.
Now, interesting although these accounts are. of men being swallowed by whales. I think they largely Miss the point. That's why I began a reading in chapter 1, verse 17, where the text says, Did you notice it? that the Lord appointed.
A great fish. The Lord provided the great fish. It is very clear that this great fish was at the right spot and At the right time by the Lord. This was a miracle.
So the main question isn't so much the size of the sea monster, Isn't so much even the size of its throat, but the size of our God. When I was in my teens, I read J.B. Phillips' book, Your God is Too Small. Let me ask you: is your God big enough? to create A sea monster which can swallow a man.
The size of your God determines the size of your faith. Got a small God, small faith. Large God, large. Faith. If you believe, as I do, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth And as we've been singing about the greatness of God.
We believe that God is so great That he spoke the worlds into existence. As Amish says, he speaks and is done. He commands and it stands fast. That's a great God. And if you believe that God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth, God has no difficulty in specially creating a sea monster which was there in the Mediterranean just waiting.
For his disobedient runaway prophet, this character called Jonah. And in the New Testament, as we've seen over the last couple of weeks, in Matthew chapter twelve, our Lord Jesus links this story of Jonah to his own death, burial and resurrection. What is the greatest miracle in the Bible? The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. God is able to do that.
And if God in the beginning can create the heavens and the earth, And if God is so powerful that He can raise His Son from the dead, who was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, as our Lord predicted in Matthew chapter twelve, He is certainly able to create a sea monster able to swallow His runaway prophet. And when Jonah was thrown overboard in the storm. In the middle of the Mediterranean, it seemed that his death was certain. His situation seemed hopeless. He could do nothing to save himself.
Yet, as we've read here in Jonah chapter 2, the Lord preserved him. The Lord. saved him. If you ever find yourself in extreme circumstances in life. Facing almost certain disaster.
Your world, your life unfolding right in front of you. Everything that you've known, everything that you thought was foundational in your life, has now gone, and you find yourself fighting for survival. Any of you ever been like that? Of course you have.
Some of you may be in such circumstances right now. A feeling of hopelessness, there seems no way out of your dark hole. You're in the middle of a dark tunnel, and there is no light at the end of that tunnel, and the sense A deep sense, a deep foreboding of despair is gripping your soul. We learn that Jonah heard the word of God, but disobeyed the word of God. And because of that, he finds himself in deep difficulties.
But this morning we will see that God. acts in supernatural deliverance. of his disobedient prophet. That's a great God, isn't it? Because this God is not only great in His creation, this God is great in His compassion and great in His grace.
And if I Summarize this morning's message, this is it. God delivers those who cry out To him. Do you get that?
Someone told me that their child had fallen asleep this morning's message. entirely believe it. But if you're gonna fall asleep, Before you fall asleep, get this. This is what I want to communicate to you this morning. This is what God is telling us from His word from Jonah chapter two.
That God delivers those who who cry out To him. God always delivers those who cry out to Him. The focus of our passage this morning is not on the size of the fish. is not on the size of the throat of the fish. The focus this morning is on Jonah the prophet and his relationship, yes, his living relationship with the great God, the great Lord of the universe.
And because of that, because of the greatness of our God. We can. have and always must have hope In the Lord, we are people of hope, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of hope.
Now, as we look at Jonah chapter 2, There's four things. I want to share with you this morning. First of all, Jonah's problem. Secondly, Jonah's prayer. Thirdly, his preservation.
And fourthly, his praise. His problem, his prayer, his preservation and his praise. First of all, Jonas Problem. Jonah had quite a problem, didn't he? He is verse two in distress.
I called out of my distress. Jonah is in the deep. Verse 2: He's in the heart of the seas, he's at the very bottom of the ocean. Verse two, I cried for help from the depth of Sheol, the place of death. The place where the departed dead go.
Verse 5. He says, Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me. Weeds that seaweed were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains, going deep, deep down in the Mediterranean.
The earth with its bars. Was around me forever. I am. He is thinking as he's going down, down, down, he's in this prison. The sea.
is like bars around him. And he thinks, I'm going to be in here forever. There is no way I can get out of this prison. There is no escape. I'm clearly going shortly to be going to Sheol.
I'm going to be joining the dead. But at the exact moment He is sinking into the deep. He realises his predicament. He realizes his spiritual problem. He had fled from the presence of the Lord.
He had Said something very, very foolish to the Lord, something that you and I say, and that is no. He had rebelled against the living Lord of the universe, and now he's facing certain death. But in his hopelessness, in his desperate Situation. He did. a very sensible thing.
He cried out. To the Lord. He's in the most serious of predicaments. and problems. And he recognises it.
Do you recognize this morning That you have a problem? You say, Well, I'm not sure what I mean. I realize there are people around me that may have problems, but For me life is pretty good at the moment. I don't necessarily acknowledge that I have a problem. Every single man, every single woman, boy and girl, young person in the sanctuary this morning, all of us share the most serious of all problems.
That all of us, like Jonah, not necessarily as spectacularly, but all of us, like Jonah, have turned our back on God. God has said, Go this way, and we say, No, God, I'm going to go this way. We are like sheep, each one of us having gone astray, going our own way, the Bible says. We have turned our back on God. We have done our own thing.
And God has said, here is my standard, here is the target that I want you to hit. And all of us, without exception, have come short of that target over and over again. The coming short of that target is what the Bible calls sin. All have sinned, Paul says in Romans 3, verse 23. All have sinned, that is, all have missed the target and fall short.
And the verb means also continue to fall short. It's not that we just come short of it once. No, we continue to come short. We continue to miss the target which God has set. My father used to illustrate it this way to myself and my brothers.
He said when he was a young man, there was a police force in Scotland. which was applying for police officers But they had a very strict qualification to And one that they never ever granted an exception. The qualification was that all police officers had to be at least six feet tall. We wanted big police officers to to be able to deal with these terrible Scottish criminals. And so they said the standard is six feet.
Now supposing all of us applied to that police force. Supposing my wife applies. She is Five feet two. And so She is lined up against the standard. Here it is, six feet.
Goodna, you want to be a police officer? Please stand here. She comes very, very Far Short. Cute. But short.
Don't want you to be on my side when we go into the Scottish pub dealing with these hooligans. No, next person applies. My father was five feet ten and a half.
So he would say, if he's lined up against the standard, he would come short. Certainly closer to the standard than my wife, but still short. Here is someone else who is 5 feet, 11 and 3 quarters. They try and get on their tiptoes. No, please stand, take your shoes off.
Six feet. No, you cannot become a police officer in this particular police force.
Now I have to tell you in all modesty I am the perfect height six feet so I just get in. And some of you get in as well. But the standard was immutable, it was unchanging. And you see, in our society today, when we think of the holiness and the righteousness of God, we want to move the standard. We want to say that God over the years has mellowed a little bit.
He's not a harsh God that we have in the Bible. And he graves in the curved. He's very curved. He's very understandable. And so, although we may come short, all of us come short.
And God is very understanding. He says, no. All of you. Without exemption Every single one of us Fails to hit the target, we've all come short. And the message, the clear message of the gospel, and the message we learned from Jonah chapter 2 is that before you can be saved, Before God can bless you, Before God can use you and help you, there must be a humble recognition that you are in distress, that you have rebelled, that you have turned from God, and that you have sinned.
Harry Ironside, the great Bible expositor, says, A man is a long way on the road to recovery. When he's ready to own the righteousness of his chastening, and when he sees that is under the hand of God. And the Jonah chapter 2. Jonah begins to understand that he is under the hand. of God.
Do you see the hand of God in your life? The hand of God in your life bringing you to this point. Can you understand that your greatest problem may be the source of your greatest blessing. Because God As we'll see next week, he is graciously going to use Jonah. He's not going to discard Jonah, although that's what Jonah deserved.
Jonah's problem. leads secondly to to his prayer. Verse one Then Jonah prayed. to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish. Notice how we praise.
He prays to the Lord. He is God. In chapter one, verse nine, when he's talking to the pagan mariners, he refers to God as the Creator who made everything. But now he refers to God in a personal way. It is the Lord, His God.
The end of verse six. You have brought up my life from the pit. O Lord, My God. Do you get it? Psalm twenty-three, David says, The Lord is my.
Shepherd. Not just the shepherd, not just our shepherd, but my shepherd. And it has been well said that the difference between religion and Christianity is the personal pronouns or the personal pronouns. Many people would say they're religious. Many people would say they go to church.
When I talk to people, many people are quite happy. Most people are quite happy to talk about God. And to say even that they pray to God. And they might even say that God has answered my prayer. But the question is Do you know God personally?
When you're praying to God, can you say like Jonah? The Lord is my God. You say, Well, how can I say that in a authentic way? God in his revelation of Scripture tells us That Jesus Christ, who is God, who is the perfect revelation of God, comes onto the scene in His incarnation and says, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father apart from me.
That is the only way that you can have a personal relationship with God and know God not just as Creator, not just as a one who is out there, but one who is at work in your life. is through Jesus Christ.
So, the old theologians used to talk about embracing Jesus Christ, embracing the Saviour. Beautiful picture, isn't it? If I embrace my wife, that That's indicative of a close personal relationship. I don't embrace someone I don't know.
So the question is, have you embraced Christ? Do you know Jesus Christ as your Saviour As your Lord, as your sin-bearer. And Jonah here in verse 2 calls out to the Lord, I called out of my distress. to the Lord. I cried for help from the depth of She all There's 7, he says, I remembered the Lord.
You can't remember someone you've never met. He remembers the Lord because he knew the Lord. and his prayer came to the Lord. I'm saying to you this morning. very pointedly.
In your distress, Will you cry out? to the Lord. In times of distress, in times of trouble. In times of despair, Do you look to the Lord for help? Do you look to the Lord for wisdom?
And direction? Or the pride and self-reliance and independence, do they keep us from trusting the Lord? What happens when we have problems in our life? Oh, we talk about our problems, we discuss them. We might even deny that we have a problem.
We may well be overcome by self-pity and bore people with all of our problems. We may go for therapy, we may look for someone to blame. But often we are so slow, aren't we, to cry out to the Lord. And as I meet with couples whose marriages are in difficulty, I have discovered over the years. That they talk about their problems.
They argue about their problems, they even fight about their problems. They go to secular counselors, they may go to Christian counselors. But in most cases, In the majority of cases, at least in my personal experience, they have not cried out to the Lord for divine help, for divine intervention. They have never got down on their knees before God and humbled themselves before the Lord and cried out to the Lord out of their distress for divine help. You say, why wouldn't they do that?
Don't they believe in God? Oh, yes. By far the majority of them are believers.
Well, let me ask you. Why do you find it so difficult? Why am I so slow? To cry out to the Lord. in my distress.
What is it? Self-reliance, pride. Why do you and I not call out more to the Lord in distress? In your problem. In your distress, wherever it is this morning, will you cry out to the Lord?
Then will you be still and see the Lord at work? The wonderful good news is this. Do you hear me this morning? That God delivers those who cry out to Him. If you this morning cry out to the Lord, humbly cry out to Him out of your distress, out of your problem and need.
He will deliver you. This is the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever. but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God.
To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. Through this special resource, John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity. Get your copy today by visiting our website at theverdict.org. While you're there, consider making an investment in this Bible teaching ministry. Whether it's $5, $50, or more, your gift today helps cover the cost of sharing these gospel messages to listeners around the world.
And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Verdict Podcast, featuring John's weekly podcast exclusive called Avizandam. It's available wherever you get your podcasts, or simply go to our website. Again, that's theverdict.org. The verdict is a ministry of Calvary Church in South Charlotte. We're located on the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road.
If you've been looking for a church home or a community to help you grow in your walk with Christ, We invite you to join us for our Sunday services. For more details about Calvary and our service times, visit theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? What's the worst situation you've ever found yourself in? The death of a loved one. a serious illness, Loss of employment. Financial ruin.
Whatever your situation, remember the story of Jonah. The Lord is still watching over you. He cares. He's all powerful. and is in control.
So Cry out to him. in the middle of your pain, your fear and distress.
Next time we'll learn how the Lord not only preserves Jonah, but in the grace of God recommissions Jonah to preach to the Ninevites. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
