Introduction

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the fundamental question of Jonah's nature, refuting the idea of it being an allegory or myth, and asserting that it is 'straight, plain, unadorned narrative'…

Martin uses Pilgrim's Progress to explain what an allegory is, contrasting it with Jonah's historical narrative and noting how children sometimes struggle to distinguish between allegorical characters and real people.

Is it sort of an inspired pilgrim's progress? An allegory containing very vital and profound spiritual lessons? This is one of the problems we've had in reading through Pilgrim's Progress in family worship in times past. It's hard at times for children to get hold of what an allegory is.

12:23 - 12:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A type is a shadow cast on the pages of Old Testament history by a truth whose full embodiment or antitype is found in the New Testament, New Testament revelation.

He illustrates the dangers of fanciful allegorical interpretation by describing how some early interpreters would spiritualize the four rivers of Eden into four virtues, rather than accepting the plain geographical meaning.

And this kind of interpretive philosophy early plagued the church. You had early interpreters who said, well, you have the surface meaning. That's the one that anybody can get. But then you have the spiritual meaning.

18:58 - 19:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A type is a shadow cast on the pages of Old Testament history by a truth whose full embodiment or antitype is found in the New Testament, New Testament revelation.

Martin uses the metaphor of a spotlight casting a shadow of his arm on a curtain to explain the concept of a 'type' in Scripture, where the Old Testament event (shadow) points to a New Testament reality (substance).

You see what the author is saying? There are these spotlights shining in the direction of this pulpit. If I put my arm, a substantial reality, between that light and this curtain, now we can get it,

21:27 - 21:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be ashamed of Christ or His words, especially concerning the miraculous elements in biblical narratives like Jonah, in the face of a skeptical and anti-God generation.

He describes a hypothetical scenario in a public school where a teacher might bully children into being ashamed of believing the literal story of Jonah and the great fish, illustrating the intellectual climate that pressures believers.

If in the average public school, the Bible is discussed, and if the story of Jonah should ever come before the discussion, someone will be present, probably the teacher, to say, now, is there anyone here who goes to a Sunday school and a church that really believes that a whale swallowed Jonah? No, nobody here really believes that, do you? In other words, it will be said in such a way as to bully you into feeling if you were really stupid enough to believe that, you'd be a fool to let anyone know about it. The whole

25:20 - 26:01 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are out of Christ, hear the message of Jonah and the Lord Jesus: one has come back from the dead to preach mercy, and He stands ready to save the vilest of sinners who repent and believe.

Martin shares a recent, tragic anecdote of a young man, a friend of one of their church's youth, who was suddenly killed by his father, to underscore the brevity and uncertainty of life and the urgency of responding to the gospel.

And then to plead with God that we would be instructed from this portion of his word. But oh dear friends as God has sovereignly reminded us of the brevity of life. I cannot assume that we'll all be gathered together again next Lord's Day evening. Death has broken into the ranks of one of our families.

48:44 - 49:06 Read in full sermon