Beloved radio friends, we greet you in the ever precious and the worthy name of our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus. Humbly but earnestly, we pray that your hearts are interested to listen to the story and the exposition on the story of Jonah, the prophet of God long ago. We continue our story in the first chapter and read today chapter one verses fourteen through sixteen, that we might consider the final scene of Jonah within the midst of the storm, where he experienced the wrath of God because of his disobedience. We read in verse fourteen these words: Wherefore they, that is the sailors, they cried unto the Lord and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Is it not strange that these even men, though the storm was worse, call upon God not to lay innocent blood to their account? They had more concern for the life of one man, Jonah, than Jonah had for the thousands and thousands of people who lived in Nineveh, where God had commanded his servant to go and preach. Though these sailors knew nothing about the laws of the God of Israel, they realized that the circumstances of the lot that had pointed out guilty Jonah, the words of the prophet himself, as also the fierceness of the storm, all of these things were indications of the sovereign will of God in and through it all. And they confessed that God had done exactly as it had pleased him. This is what they discerned, and it was an excellent discernment. The experiences through which these terrified sailors passed, in my humble and candid opinion, brought a hundred percent conversion to Jehovah, the God of Israel. The conversion of the whole ship's crew. It took the fear of God and his mighty omnipotent power to bring these heathen men to confess Jehovah. One may wonder today what is really needed to awaken and to shape the hearts and the consciences of men and women that they will turn to the Lord. To so many today, the storms and the distressing circumstances of life do not seem to awaken them and cause them to turn to the Lord. Many are more like Jonah was, as we saw him in the fifth verse, when the ship had come into the midst of the raging storm, we read, but Jonah was gone down into the ship, and he lay, and he was fast asleep. He was absolutely insensible to the storm and its danger, until the shipmaster came and said, what meanest thou, O sleeper? Rise, call upon thy God. Radio friends, I wonder if any of you may be unaware of your danger if you're unsaved. Do you not see that the storms of divine judgment are getting nearer, and the clouds are getting darker in the world today? And the pressures, the very storms of life, don't they have any meaning to your soul? The perils of so many different kinds, and the pressures upon the hearts and the minds of this present day, do they never speak to the conscience of your need of God? How you need his salvation? How you need the promise and the power of God to save you from an eternal hell, and only through the atoning death of his beloved Son? And yet there are many that sleep on. To many we would say, what meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God. Call upon the Lord while he may be found, said the prophet. Call upon him while he is near. Call upon him before you find your soul sinking down forever into an eternal grave of doom. God is merciful. God is gracious. And if it takes the sweeping power of trouble and distress to awaken you to your need of him, it is his way to save you from eternal fire and eternal judgment. Yet again we say how many keep on sleeping. May God, in the power of his Holy Spirit, still arouse many lost sinners to call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the Lord shall be saved, we read in Romans ten and verse thirteen. It was a never to be forgotten experience these sailors were passing through. But may I say their experience that they passed through was worth it. It brought every one of them to confess the living and the true God. It awakened the conscience and the soul, not only of the sailors, but of God's disobedient servant, ultimately. And the mariners prayed. God heard their penitent prayer. Who of us could fully enter into their prayer and their action? As they picked Jonah up bodily, one can feel the very prayers of their souls rising to Jehovah to forgive them for having to do this. And they pick up Jonah bodily, and they cast him forth into the sea. That was no easy thing to do. They had been most unwilling to do it, but now they find it was inevitable. There was no other way of deliverance for them. And just as soon as Jonah's body hit the waves of the sea over the side of the ship, the sea ceased from a raging. There was a perfect calm. Immediately, the storm was over. What an experience. Now it was the hand of God. Believe me, I say. The storm itself was the hand of God in divine judgment and chastening upon his disobedient servants, in which, unfortunately, the innocent savers were caught. But the ceasing of the storm was just as miraculous. It was the hand of God, and the result was greater still in the hearts of these heathen sailors. For it brought to them godly fear, and it brought from their hearts worship. For we read, then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and they made vows. Now, do you think that the lives of these men were changed? Well, I most certainly do. We have no record of what e- after events might have been concerning this ship, nor concerning the sailors. The account of our book of Jonah deals chiefly and mainly with Jonah. But we may speculate and wonder just what these men did and where they went when the storm ceased and they were delivered. Now, one thing we can certainly understand from the story, with a careful reading of it, there was no use going to Tarshish, where they were bound. They had dumped the cargo overboard. They had no merchandise to take to the port. It had been all thrown overboard, and there was no sense in going on in that direction. It may be they turned back and returned to Joppa, but wherever they went, what a story they had to tell. The strangest report that they could and did carry back. It may have been, now this is, I know this is speculation, but I sometimes wonder as to possible truth about it. Perhaps the very people of Nineveh heard about what happened to Jonah before Jonah even got there to preach his message. One thing, if they heard about Jonah when he came preaching his message, I'll tell you, it made his preaching a lot more effective. But now listen, friend, let's get something into our hearts regarding a lesson we can learn from this incident. As Jonah was willing to sacrifice himself, and he was cast into the raging sea to save the lives of these sailors, there was a greater sacrifice that was made for you and made for me, which we would consider. And it was the sacrifice of the Son of God, when he went down, where his soul plunged into the raging storm of divine judgment, when he was upon the cross of Calvary to save us. I would like to invite you upon, to dwell upon the sacrifice of Christ, your Savior. He was not disobedient as Jonah was. He was obedient, the Word of God declares in Philippians two and verse il- and verse ten. He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. My beloved, could you ever tell the experience of having been delivered from eternal death because of a man, the man that came from heaven above, going down into death and judgment to save your eternal soul? For this is a greater sacrifice. This is a greater salvation from a greater danger. When Christ went down into the waters of death and his own soul was made a sacrifice for your sins and for mine, to save us from an eternal doom. It was only the mariners upon the ship, in the case of Jonah's story, who was saved from this, this destruction, and the sea became a great calm. But oh, may I say, millions of people have found, by the grace and the power of God, a greater calm, a greater peace in their souls when they came to Christ and trusted his death, his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. Peace, perfect peace in this dark world of sin, wrote the poet. The blood of Jesus whispers peace within. Oh, my radio listener, do you want to go down to hell? I'm sure the obvious answer is no, but make sure that you're trusting the one who went into death for you. For as one has said, on a life I have not lived, a death I did not die, another's life, another's death, I stake my whole eternity. Oh, my beloved radio friend, if Jonah by his sacrifice, was willing thus to be cast into the ocean of the fury sto- furious storm to save these sailors, think of a greater sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, the Son of God himself, and say with the Apostle Paul, he loved me and he gave himself for me. Oh, blessed Father, may the Holy Spirit open the eyes and hearts of many to see the Savior dying for their salvation. May they trust him today for his name's sake. Amen.