FOUND OUT!
JONAH 1:4-9
FEBRUARY 14, 1999

Do others know you as you really are? Perhaps that is an uncomfortable question. For many people work diligently to mask the real person. But can such masking last forever? Our Lord declared, "But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known" (Luke 12:2). Paul explained in a passage addressing judgment that when the Lord comes He "will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts" (I Corinthians 4:5). Masks can be worn, but not forever.

Just a few months ago, a story was disclosed of a man who had worn a "mask" for twenty-five years. Earlier in life he had committed a crime. He fled to another state, assumed another identity, married and raised a family, and maintained his anonymity. But he could not run away from the voice of conscience that kept crying out for justice. Though he was considered an exemplary citizen in his community, he turned himself in to his local police department and confessed to the crime done two decades earlier. His mask was off. God is in the business of removing our masks.

Jonah had done a great job of hiding his relationship with God. He was contented to be just another passenger on this ship sailing across the Mediterranean, to what was then the remote country of Spain. But in the revelation of God in the stormy sea and in Jonah's confession, Jonah's mask was removed. The revelation of God exposed his heart as it also exposes our own hearts.

Are you laboring to cover up what is true of your heart? Be assured, as we consider the biblical example today, the Lord will expose the reality of our hearts. Let us give attention to this important truth today.

I. The backslider: identity concealed

We have already considered how Jonah was accustomed to being used of God. He knew the Lord, understood something of His mercies, and believed that God could accomplish whatever He desired. But something went awry in Jonah's life. Perhaps when the word of the Lord came to him to preach God's judgment against Nineveh, Jonah was in a spiritual lull. Perhaps it was simply the shock of going to Israel's enemy to preach that sent him plummeting spiritually. Whatever the case, Jonah--the believer, was a backslidden man.

Backsliding comes in two forms. First, the Bible uses this term or similar ones to describe the person who makes a pretense of true religion but gives way to sin. The failure of his profession becomes evident by his return to his sinful ways. A clear example of this would be Judas Iscariot, who having made a profession of Christ, proved out that his profession was empty. These are those whom the writer of Hebrews describes as "those who shrink back to destruction" (Heb. 10:39). The religious landscape of America is filled with this type of backslider. Literally millions of people have called themselves Christians, only to return to a perpetual life of ease with sin.

The second form of backsliding involves those who have first entered into a genuine relationship with the Lord. But for some reason, inexcusable as it may be, the believer has grown cold in his Christianity and has allowed the patterns of his old life to slip into the forefront of his life. He keeps himself from those spiritual disciplines of the Word, prayer, fellowship, meditation, and witness which would keep his heart warmed. He falls into sin and spiritual coldness, though all the while "a life of deviation and distance from God is not his element, nor can he enjoy himself in it" [Andrew Fuller, Works, vol. III, 636]. Peter, in his denial of Christ, offers a clear example of this type of backslider. The backslider is never satisfied being a backslider.

Andrew Fuller explains that the two types of backsliders are sometimes difficult to distinguish. "Whatever difference there be between a partial and a total departure from God, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the party himself, at the time, to perceive it. So long as any man continues in a backsliding state, the reality of his religion must remain uncertain....The Scriptures know nothing of that kind of confidence which renders men easy in their sins" [637].

Jonah was a backslider who certainly was not "easy" in his sins. No backslider of the believer- sort is comfortable boasting of his backslidden condition. He would rather cover it up, mask it, and pretend that everything is okay in his life. He battles against the wrestlings of his soul. For the Lord God presses heavy upon his life, disciplining the believer until he knows the light of heaven once again upon his life.

1. Sleep of despair

While the ship heading for Tarshish was about to break up, Jonah slept. "But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down, and fallen sound asleep." Some writers point out that the Hebrew expresses the idea that Jonah was snoring loudly over the roar of the storm. We could suppose that Jonah was simply ignoring what was taking place, but that is rather inconceivable. The storm was of such proportions that seasoned sailors, who were accustomed to weathering the unpredictable Mediterranean Sea, were absolutely frightened. Instead, it seems that Jonah had exhausted himself fleeing from God.

There is a lot of emotional energy demanded for the task of disobeying the commands of God, that is if you are a believer. You cannot just thumb your nose at God as if what He demands is of no importance. Jonah took seriously the word of the Lord. But his stubborn defiance pushed him over the edge into disobedience. He ran away, probably looking over his shoulder with each step, hoping that God would not stop him. When finally he arrived, he assumed that the good providences of the Lord had guided him to an anticipated haven. But he was soon to learn the important lesson: "Do not be guided by providences when you are refusing to be guided by God's Word" [Sinclair Ferguson, Man Overboard, 36].

The (Christian) backslider can never be comfortable with his condition. I have encountered those people who laughingly call themselves backsliders. They are not believers, but apostates. The man who has truly known the grace of God on his life finds himself in the most miserable of positions; being at odds with the God who has shown him grace through Christ. The roller coaster emotions of thinking he had thrown off some difficult yoke of the Lord only leads him into the plunging reality that the yoke only gets heavier for those who walk out of fellowship with Christ. Do you find yourself there?

2. Mistaken identity

The last thing Jonah wanted was for the men on the ship to discover that he belonged to Jehovah and that he was running away. A backslidden prophet is nothing to be proud of. As far as the captain and crew was concerned, Jonah was just another Middle Easterner, heading to a remote land for some unspecified purpose.

The most telling observation of mistaken identity is when the captain demands that Jonah "call on your god," little 'g'. Not, pray to the living God whom you know, but 'call on your god, whoever he may be.' Jonah was anonymous when it came to his relationship to the Lord God. That is characteristic of the backslider. If he can just not bring up the reality of the Lord! If he can just avoid any conversations which point to the Lord! Misery is his only companion.

God is never pleased with a Christian's anonymity. We are not to be secret disciples, blending into the woodwork of the world as though there were no distinctions in our lives. We are to be salt and light which makes its mark for the sake of Christ in this world. Do those around you truly know you to be a Christian? I still recall the time as a high school senior when I was rather shocked by my boss's disclosure that he was a Christian. I was working in a grocery store and had observed the behavior, attitude, and language of the store manager to be anything but Christian. In a discussion one day, he said he was a Christian and an officer in his church. I almost said, "You're kidding!"

It is the distinctiveness of the believer's life in Christ that should always keep him from being anonymous. "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, that you have love one for another" (John 13:35). "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother" (I John 3:10). If you are living in anonymity as a Christian then you are backslidden and in need of repentance.

3. Plight of prayerlessness

One thing the backslider does not want to do: pray. Yet this was the very thing which the ship captain called upon Jonah to do. In words strikingly similar to God's call (1:2), the captain said, "Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish." We do not have a record of Jonah immediately crying out to God in prayer. He knew that to do so was hypocritical on his part, for his willingness to repent of his sins had not gripped his heart. How could he ask of God when he was unwilling to obey? (cf. John 15:7)

A backslider would find a prayer meeting a very uncomfortable place. For there we find our hearts knit together in the presence of a holy God, who has welcomed us through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Our fellowship with the Lord grows in prayer. Our sense of dependence upon the Lord is expressed in prayer. But the backslider avoids prayer because he knows that he cannot linger long in the place of prayer without the floodgates of grief over his sin breaking forth.

Could it be that someone among us finds himself much like Jonah today? You identify with him in his despair because you are emotionally wrenched from trying to get away from God's hand. At school or on the job you are not even known as a believer because your behavior has so blended in with the world. And you find yourself increasingly uncomfortable around praying Christians. Yet the longing of your soul, the great hope of your heart, is that you might once again know the fire of God burning fervently in your bosom. Cry out to God even this day, that He might bring you back into His delights.

II. The world: identity revealed

Standing in sharp contrast to Jonah is the picture of the world as seen through the lives of the ship's crew. While Jonah slept, they feared death. While Jonah resigned himself to inactivity, they were doing everything they could to save their lives and even Jonah's, yet nothing worked. They were pragmatists to the hilt! They were searching for anything which might work to eliminate the discomfort which engulfed them. Jonah knew better. Notice what is clearly evidenced in the person who does not
know God.

1. Fear of death

We are immediately confronted by the fear of death. If we only could have seen their eyes, we would get the full picture. Here were men that knew what it was to be in bad seas. But they had never seen anything like this one! "Then the sailors became afraid, and every man cried to his god." The ship's captain was among their number, as he rebuffs Jonah, "How is it that you are sleeping?" I think that has to be read with not only a question mark but an exclamation point! He could not understand anyone
facing death and sleeping.

Ancient historians tell us that during the first century, when someone died there would be great lamenting taking place. Loud wailing would characterize the company of the deceased. The sorrow was one of great despair, hopelessness, and futility. That is why Paul declared to the Thessalonians, "Do not sorrow as those who have no hope" (I Thess. 4:13). Sorrow at death is a natural part of dealing with our sense of loss. But there is a sorrow of hope and a sorrow without hope. I have noticed both of these emotions at funerals over the course of my life. I recall one particular funeral of a man who did not know the Lord, nor did his family. The wailing, loud crying, and almost torturing of the body was terrifying to all who observed. There was only one reason for it. Their loved one faced death without God. And they were in the same position.

Christianity is certainly not just for your dying days. But it certainly does enable you to face death with totally different eyes. The believer is consoled to know that death is not the end, but only the wondrous beginning of an eternity with Christ in His presence. The unbeliever does not have that hope. He spurns God in his lifetime but when death comes, he dies with eternal hopelessness. He spends his life making a name for himself, accumulating wealth, entertaining his pleasures. But for what? He gives himself to the idolatry of things for a few transient years, only to sacrifice all eternity in the presence of the Lord of glory. He should fear death! But there is hope in the Lord. As Ezekiel wrote, "As I live! declares the Lord God, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?'" (Eze. 33:11).

2. Errant theology

The unbeliever has an errant theology. His whole understanding of God is twisted, distorted, shaped by his culture or even by his own way of thinking. The telling phrase, "...every man cried to his god," demonstrates that these men believed that each community or race or culture had its own god or gods. They were trying to appease whatever idea of a god they had in mind. These were men who probably gave only scant thought to their own tribal deity, but now in a crisis, they cry out to that which is no god.

If it was not so tragic, it would almost be humorous. Each man was trying to pray to a different god. Each one was trying to find the "magic bullet" which would work to stop the raging storm. Each one was hoping to hit on the right formula, the right mystical incantation, the right posture to appease this god who created the storm. They wanted Jonah to do likewise. He knew better.

I believe this reality, that unbelievers at heart have an errant theology, ought to be in our thoughts in personal evangelism. I have been discussing each week with my students at Crichton College, as we study cross-cultural evangelism, that the people we encounter, whether in France or in the United States, have wrong views of God. That is why much of what is passed off as evangelism in our day which offers no theological content, only gives unbelievers a false assurance that they will not face the wrath of God. Simply talking an unbeliever into acknowledging a couple of things, repeating a prayer, or signing a card does not create in him a new heart! The gospel begins with God! If a person's whole view of God is warped, then how can he understand that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..., that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself?" It was Jonah's brief explanation of the one, true God which arrested the attention of the sailors and pointed them to a true relationship with God. 

3. Inadequate religion

The religion of the sailors did not work. They tried everything they could. They exercised all the religious practice they could muster. But nothing worked. Their religion proved inadequate for the crisis they faced. How about your religion? Some people who attend evangelical churches are really no better off than these sailors. Their religion is lacking, inadequate for facing the demands of life. They give up on Christianity because they never really knew Christ. Their caricature of being a Christian falls short when faced with a tragedy or crisis.

We see the desperation in the sailors as they paused in the battering rage of the storm to cast lots. They approached this superstitiously. "Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah." We must give it to them. At least they understood that this was no ordinary Mediterranean squall! It was the Lord who hurled this storm upon Jonah and those who now were most unfortunately part of his fellowship. Solomon wrote, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Prov. 16:33). They did not know this verse. But they saw God's sovereign reality!

It was at this point that they started moving from their inadequate religion to embracing another God, "the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land." Have you been trusting in a false understanding of God? Have you developed your own way to God that has by-passed the cross of Christ and now you wonder what is wrong with your religion? Though Jonah was a backslidden prophet, the sailors still came to understand that his God is the true God. I hope this revelation has come to you as well.

III. The Lord: identity unveiled

There are many beliefs about God in our day. As a matter of fact, there are literally thousands of gods in whom people believe that have nothing to do with the one, true God. These gods are revealed by little statues or vague philosophical concepts or tribal superstitions or creative imaginations. Our God is too immense to fall into such worldly foolishness! How does God reveal Himself? Obviously, we have an entire Bible before us which has as its great purpose to reveal God to us by the illumining work of the Spirit. But let us focus on the small portion of Gods Word before us. How is the Lord revealed?

1. God of the storm

Our text tells us that our God is God of the storm. "And the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up." Insurance companies refer to natural acts of weather as "acts of God." We surely see this in the case with Jonah, for the word used, "hurled," is the same used to describe a soldier throwing his spear accurately at its target. And God did have a target: His rebellious child, Jonah. So the weather became God's instrument to arouse the attention of Jonah and even of those around Him. God testified of Himself in the midst of the storm. It is God alone who commands nature for His purposes.

When Jonah testified that it was his God who sent the calamitous storm, the sailors were stunned. O. Palmer Robertson offers an accurate testimony of Jonah.

Heaven, sea and land Jonah mentions. See the howling heavens swirling about you? My God made them, he says. Feel the sea heaving under your feet? My God made it. Sense the presence of the rock coast ahead, where you soon may crash? My God made it [Jonah: A Study in Compassion, 23].

All of the elements of the world belong to God. They are at His disposal, every atom, at His beckoning. The same God used another Mediterranean storm to testify of His power before a group of Roman soldiers transporting Paul to Rome. This same God stirred the winds and seas of Galilee while a band of frightened disciples attempted to row back to shore; only to come walking on the water to them. "Who is this, that even the winds and waves obey Him?" they asked. It is the Lord God, our Creator and Redeemer. Jonah saw again that the Lord who made him is also the Lord who saves him from the plight of his sin. It was the storm of God's discipline sent to arrest the backsliding prophet. Do you see that even the storm was a demonstration of God's mercy and love toward His child? "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11).

2. Transcendent Creator

Jonah wanted the sailors to know that his God was not just another local, tribal deity. These men had images in mind of local gods. But Jonah testified, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land." This was not a local deity! This was not an ordinary god made of stone or sticks! He is a God who is beyond us, "The Lord God of heaven." We describe this as Gods transcendence.

J. I. Packer, in his classic, Knowing God, has expressed with clarity what Gods transcendence is all about.

Today, vast stress is laid on the thought that God is personal, but this truth is so stated as to leave the impression that God is a person of the same sort as we are--weak, inadequate, ineffective, a little pathetic. But this is not the God of the Bible! Our personal life is a finite thing: it is limited in every direction, in space, in time, in knowledge, in power. But God is not so limited. He is eternal, infinite and almighty. He has us in his hands; we never have him in ours. Like us, he is personal; but unlike us, he is great. In all its constant stress on the reality of God's personal concern for his people, and on the gentleness, tenderness, sympathy, patience and yearning compassion that he shows toward them, the Bible never lets us lose sight of his majesty and his unlimited dominion over all his creatures [83].

Jonah makes sure that they separate in their minds all the wrong concepts of God which they owned. For he points out that this God is the one "who made the sea and the dry land." All the sea that was for their usefulness that now threatened to claim their lives, God made it. The dry land, which they longed to stand upon, God made it!

I believe this is a basic starting point that we must seek to address when witnessing to unbelievers. We often assume that people accept the fact that "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). But that is no longer the case. In a world that has been warped by the idea of evolution, many have no thought of God as Creator. If they cannot see Him as Creator, then they will likely have difficulty understanding Him as Redeemer. Before the sailors prayed to God, sought Him redemptively, and made vows to Him (1:14, 16), they recognized Him as Creator.

3. God of His people

Jonah identified himself as belonging to God with the words, "I am a Hebrew." The Jews were a despised people in that era, but here Jonah goes back to the reality before him that he belonged to God. He was one of God's people. He was different from the sailors who cried out to their puny gods. Though he was backslidden, he understood that God had come to him. Now, it might be for judgment. Jonah had no assurance that God would rescue him from the bottom of the angry sea. But he did know that whether by life or by death, he belonged to the Lord God.

Do you have that same assurance? You are not in a ship on a raging sea, but you are walking through life with all of its difficulties. Do you have the assurance that you, through Jesus Christ, are a child of God?

Conclusion

Have you been found out this day? Has the Spirit of God exposed your own heart being in rebellion against God? He takes no prisoners. Either you belong to Him or you are under His judgment.

If you are truly born of God, but have grown cold in your affections toward Christ, then I urge you to repent and return to the Lord. Run no longer. See that there is no place to run if you truly know Jesus Christ savingly. Plead for refreshing mercies today to restore to you the joy of knowing Jesus Christ.

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