Untitled Sermon

THE FIRST COMMISSION OF JONAH

JONAH 1:6 - 8 Number 4

INTRODUCTION

We have been looking at the opening verses in Jonah Chapter 1.

We have looked at:

1. Jonah the man

2. Jonah’s mission

3. Jonah’s mutiny against the Lord’s command

We have noted that Jonah was a faithful servant of the Lord and was a true prophet in Israel.

But he was given a very difficult mission to go to Nineveh:

- Not only were the Ninevites the arch enemies of the Israelites…

- But they were an exceptionally cruel, violent, arrogant and idolatrous people.

- And Jonah was expected to call them out for their extreme wickedness that “had come up before the Lord.”

- They were also gentiles and therefore outside of the covenant with Yahweh in the eyes of the people of Israel.

- And so we saw that this mission was as much a prophesy to Israel as it was to Nineveh: Israel was being judged for their own unfaithfulness and idolatry by evoking a covenant curse found in Deut 32 – giving their privileges to a people who were not the people of God.

And so this mission was a two-edged sword:

- A prophesy against Nineveh.

- And a prophesy against Israel.

And so, Jonah determined to flee the presence of the Lord and he took a series of steps into sin and rebellion:

i) He decided to flee and not obey

ii) He went down to Joppa on the coast

iii) He found a ship there that was going to Tarshish

iv) He “paid the fare”

v) He went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish – the opposite direction to that which the Lord had commanded him to go.

At the end of each step, Jonah had the opportunity to stop and repent and turn back to Yahweh. But instead, he relentlessly continued, step by step, further from the Lord’s calling.

Then last time we looked at the initial responses to this mutiny from the main players in this drama set out in verses 4 and 5.

We looked:

1. At the Lord’s response in verse 4.

We saw that, initially, the Lord does not intervene with Jonah’s program of rebellion.

And we noted how often the Lord lets us have our own way for a time, so that we may know our own sinful heart and see how dependent we are on His preserving grace in us.

But eventually, the Lord breaks His silence, and His response was to lead his servant on a path of painful discipline in order to bring him to repentance.

- The Lord disciplines the son whom He loves.

- And if we don’t respond to His discipline, He just ups the ante until He gets our attention!

And so verse 4 says:

“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 [a]break up.”

- IF we think we can run from God and not deal with Him, we are so wrong.

- He can stir up a storm in our lives!

- He can hurl a great wind at our ship!

- And He will do that to discipline us for no other reason than that we might come back to Him!

That was the Lord’s response. Then we looked at….

2. The Sailors initial response

We looked at verse 5:

“Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the [b]cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it [c]for them.”

Firstly, it says, they became afraid!

Clearly the storm was exceptionally violent and that terrified these professional sailors.

The Lord of Creation was targeting them, and they knew it. It felt personal and it was. Unbeknown to them, the target was Jonah.

And that caused them to take the second action: they started to call upon the pagan gods.

And we observed how many unbelievers suddenly become religious when things are going wrong, and their lives are threatened.

- Suddenly they start to pray or ask others to pray for them

- Some even go to church

- Others try to ‘clean up their lives’, even though they have no idea this makes no difference to their eternal salvation.

And so these sailors, rough and ready as they no doubt were, started to cry out to their lifeless idols.

- But the sad thing is such prayer is useless because they do not know the true God nor how to approach Him, by faith, through Christ, our Saviour, our Advocate and our Intercessor.

But the other thing these sailors did was they began to throw their cargo overboard.

Their affliction in this storm made them reconsider all their priorities. The cargo was nothing, compared with the priority of saving their own skins.

And when we come face to face with death, it surely makes us consider our eternal destiny.

Then, finally, we observed…

3 Jonah’s initial response

Verse 5 concludes:

“…. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.

And I put it to you that:

- He was not sleeping in self-security.

- Nor was He apathetic or lazy.

- Nor is there any evidence that he was neglecting the things of God – in fact, just the opposite. He was on this ship because he had been confronted by His God about going to Nineveh.

The problem was he was being disobedient and that resulted in him:

- being deeply troubled in spirit

- his peace was gone

- he was a fugitive, running from God

- he was now in the category of being a disobedient son

- And that surely weighed heavily upon his soul!

- And so he slept: weary in body and soul from running from God.

Jonah should have been alert to what God was saying through the storm. He needed to do as Jesus exhorted the disciples: watch and pray least you give in to temptation.

Well, today we are going to start looking at Jonah being confronted and interrogated now by those around him:

1. Frist, by the Captain.

2. And then by the Sailors.

What we should see is that God often uses the means of other people to speak to us and challenge us – and that too is part of His disciplining process.

- The Lord’s discipline isn’t just the wind and the waves.

- It came through the words of those who were with him.

- They were determined to get to the bottom of this exceptional storm.

And so we will focus on the captain this morning, and just start looking at the sailors – leaving most of their interrogation until next time.

1. What does the captain of the ship have to say to Jonah?

Look at verse 6:

So the captain approached (Jonah) and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

Now you will notice that his words contain two things:

a) A Rebuke

b) An Exhortation

He says to Jonah, “How is it that you are sleeping?” – that’s the rebuke.

The exhortation is: “Get up, call on your god”.

Here they are in the trial of their lives:

- The wind is hurled at them

- The sea is tumultuous

- The ship is about to break up.

- Everyone is working as hard as he can to save their lives.

- But God’s servant and prophet of Israel is asleep!

I am sure that you are aware that there is a natural hatred and enmity between the unbeliever and the believer that finds its roots in the hatred that that mankind has for God.

Hatred towards God, evidences itself very quickly as enmity towards God’s children.

Jesus Himself warned about this, did He not?

Jesus told His disciples: “If they have hated Me, know they will hate you.”

- So what the non-Christian does is he or she looks for faults in the child of God.

- Satan is the accuser of the brethren, and he uses the unbeliever to point the finger to accuse and ridicule and try to destroy faith. That’s how he works, is it not?

- Look how quickly any hypocrisy found in the Christian is highlighted. The unbeliever just loves it!

- How easily the finger is wagged at us when we say something or do something judged to be inconsistent with what a Christian is expected to say or do.

But, my friends, how much worse it is when weput our failures on display to the world!

- When we are asleep whilst others are praying.

- When lives are on the line, and you appear not to care a toss.

What can you expect except either rebuke or ridicule?

Theologians often talk about sins of commission and sins of omission.

Sins of commission are those sin you commit by deliberately doing what God says NOT to do.

Sins of omission are those sins you commit when you FAIL TO DO what He says you should do.

Jonah sinned in both ways. But what he was demonstrating mostly by sleeping was sins of omission:

- He was not bearing testimony for His God.

- He was not exhibiting trust in His Lord.

- He had a great opportunity to speak up for God:

o he could have told them about the God who made the sea and dry land and everything in the world.

o He could have told them about God’s sovereignty.

o He could have led them in prayer

o He could have been salt and light.

But he did none of those things!

- Sins of omission: not speak up for His God and not praying and interceding for their lives.

- Sins of commission: sleeping when he should have been awake and speaking God’s word as a prophet of Yahweh.

Apply:

I wonder if you have ever considered what sins of commission or sins of omission exist in your life!

I think very often we focus on sins of commission and think we aren’t too bad because we are not being openly rebellious.

But what sins of omission that slip under the radar unnoticed?

- What opportunity do you have to speak to others about Christ, but you neglect to speak up? (A sin of omission.)

- What opportunity do you have to show the grace of Christ and minister to someone, practically, but you choose to spend the time on yourself? (A sin of omission.)

Jonah had a huge opportunity for the Lord amidst that storm, did he not?

Think how the Apostle Paul used exactly the same opportunity in Acts Chapter 27 when aboard a ship bound for Rome.

- He didn’t sleep.

- He didn’t use the fact that he was a prisoner as an excuse to do nothing.

- He heard the Lord’s voice amidst the storm, and it promised no one would be lost if they stayed on board the ship.

- He demonstrated faith in His God at the moment of trail, when lives were on the line in very similar circumstances.

- He encouraged them to eat and drink, to gain physical strength – he took a lead.

- Then he broke bread with them and called upon the name of the Lord in the midst of their great trial.

Jonah slept; Paul prayed!

Jonah was conflicted; Paul trusted His God!

Jonah was rebuked by unbelievers; Paul led unbelieves to the foot of God’s throne of grace!

And so, the captain rebukes Jonah: “How is it that you are sleeping?”

Jonah, as a prophet of God, should have been pointing them to God’s Word; to passages such as Psalm 46:1-3:

God is our refuge and strength, [b]A very present help in [c]trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the [d]sea; 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. [

But Jonah was sleeping and was in no fit state, spiritually, to tell these sailors wonderful truths that would have saved their souls.

And so the Captain rebukes Jonah: How is it you are sleeping?

Apply:

My friends, have you ever been rebuked by a non-Christian?

Has the world ever pointed the finger at the church for its failures?

Because that is what is going on here, is it not?

The unbelieving captain is sitting, rightfully, in judgement upon a disobedient believer.

Let me apply it to myself:

- When I was charged with serious offences and I stood before a judge, he rebuked me for those offences.

- And the whole nation rightfully pointed its finger at me.

- My unfaithfulness to God led to my sins being placed on display before the whole world

- And I say to my shame: I brought the name of the Lord into disrepute by my disgraceful behavior.

That was part of God’s discipline upon me.

Perhaps you haven’t sinned to the extent that I have.

But have you ever had a non-Christian tell you off because of something that you said that you should not have said as a Christian?

Or have you ever failed in a Christian grace or duty - and some non-Christian took you to task about it and pointed it out to you?

Is that not the same as is going on here?

- “How is it that you are sleeping?”

- Why are you letting your God down?

- Why are failing to act as a Christian when the world is going to hell?

- Why are you behaving as an unbeliever?

Brothers and sisters, we are to be salt and light, according to Matthew 5:13, but if the salt has lost its effectiveness, it is worth nothing but to be trampled underfoot by men.

How terrible when the world rebukes a Christian or the church is silent when it should speak up to sound a clear message to a perishing world!

How terrible it is when a prophet is fleeing from a commission to reprove a wickard city and is instead found being reproved by unbelievers!

My friends:

We are living in unprecedented times!

- Our nation is in the midst of a great spiritual battle.

- We are becoming more and more liberal.

- We are increasingly embracing pagan beliefs and mythology that belongs to the dark ages.

Will we dare to speak up? Write letters? Publicly criticize political correctness that undermines our faith?

Are you willing to show that you are salt and light amidst the tide of liberalism that is sweeping the country?

Or will we prove to be no better than Jonah: sleeping and neglecting our duty?

Well, the Captain goes on….

He not only rebukes Jonah for sleeping, but he issues an exhortation in verse 6:

“Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

Here is a man who does not know God; he believes in many gods, but he assumes that Jonah has a God and that that God may well be able to save them.

And this raises the question: why does he think like that?

We touched on this last time, did we not, when we saw the sailors praying to their pagan gods?

The old commentator, Hugh Martin, has some good thoughts on this:

(It gets a bit theoretical but it is important to understand the non-Christian mind and heart.)

He points out that there are two great truths that the captains exhortation raises:

i) On the one hand, all mankind has in their nature certain principles of religion that are inescapable and immovable. Why? Because we are all made in the image of God.

ii) But on the other hand, this revelation from nature is altogether insufficient to guide us into a relationship with God – we need His Word and Spirit. Without that we are utterly dead in our sins and cannot interpret nature or natural religion correctly.

And we see these two truths playing out in this exhortation of the captain.

If we don’t have the Word of God and the Spirit of God, what can natural religion or general revelation do for us?

a) Well, it can tell you that there is a God or a higher Being. Reason can tell you that because there has to be a cause for anything to come into being.

· Things don’t just come into being by themselves, do they?

· Logic tells us that there must be a cause behind all that we see and experience.

· Even if you believe the “big bang” theory, something must have created the material for the big bang and something must have caused the big bang – that is something scientists simply avoid!

· You need, do you not, a self-existent Being to create all things that exist.

So natural religion and general revelation tells us that there is a God and He is the cause of all we see around us.

b) It can also tell you that this Being can have a relationship with a human being. If He has bought human beings into existence, does not reason suggest that He can relate with what He has created?

Both of those things are seen in the captain’s words, are they not?

The captain may demonstrate that he and his men have many gods, yet he unconsciously believes that there is only one true God who might be concerned enough to save them.

The text literally says:

“Perhaps God (singular) will be concerned about us that we will not perish.” (The Hebrew doesn’t have the word “your god” but simply “Perhaps God will be concerned about us”.)

- He is admitting there is a true God.

- The captain could see the hand of that God in the great storm that raged and threatened them.

- He knew, instinctively, that only One God could save him.

- James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe and tremble!

But that is not all. The captain’s words show that he thinks this God might well be able to show concern for them and save them.

He thinks it possible, even likely, that there can be a relationship between this God and mankind. He says:

“Perhaps God will be concerned about us”

Oh what a true word is spoken, not in jest, but in utter desperation!

- How ironic: here was the very thing that Jonah was running from the presence of God.

- That God was such a God.

- That He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness, and One who relents concerning calamity. (Remember chapter 4:2 – that’s the reason he gives for fleeing from going to Nineveh.)

But, my friends, despite natural religion telling us that there is One true God and that He is capable, and yes, even wants a relationship with mankind, natural religion stops short of what we really need, doesn’t it?

Natural religion might conclude there is a true God, but it does not know: God!

And there is a world of difference between the two, is there not?

Reason tells me that there is a God from what He has made, but we need special revelation; the Scriptures; the Word of God, to make us come to know Him personally.

Let me give you an example:

If I go into an art gallery, I will see many different pictures or paintings:

- My reason can infer that there is a painter; these did not come into existence by themselves.

- Further, I can examine them one by one and find similarities: there might be similar themes; similar styles; and these give me some insight into his or her ability.

- But I still do not know the painter, do I?

- I don’t know anything about his or her character, or mind, or heart or circumstances.

- But, meet the painter face to face, and let him talk with me and tell me about his painting, I start to get far more insight, although I will still not know everything there is about the painter.

Well, the same is true with God. You only come to know God personally and intimately when the Scriptures reveal Him to you experientially and the power of the Holy Spirit gives you a new heart so that you can understand the Scriptures and interpret nature correctly.

Only then you get to know about:

- His love.

- That He can do no wrong.

- That is all powerful and created all things.

- That He is righteous, and good, and just in all His ways.

- And that He wants to have a relationship with you and so He sent His Son to make that possible by dealing with our sins on the cross – so you could come to Him.

Only then, will the captain’s exhortation to Jonah to pray in order to be saved be lifted to a new level:

- from mere wishful thinking;

- to have substance which faith can cling to and trust.

Do you see what I mean?

It is one thing to know about God (from His works of Creation; from general revelation as we call it), but it is another to know Him from the special revelation He has given in His Word and by His Spirit!

In the Scriptures He shines forth in a way that is infinitely brighter than creation.

- There I see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ – as Paul puts it in 2 Cor.

- There we find that He bought His Son into hell, to save us creatures from the wrath to come and deal with our guilt.

- There we find salvation is NOT only possible but is SECURED by the blood of Christ.

BUT I need the Holy Spirit to open my heart to that revelation by which alone I many come to know Him personally and experientially.

Then read the Scriptures and you will find the terms on which God actually hears prayer.

- We saw this with the other sailors and their prayers to dead idols…

- Reason tells you that when you are in the midst of a storm, that prayer is needed to remove divine anger.

But reason does NOT tell you HOW that prayer is possible or WHY it might change circumstances.

- I can only cry out to some nameless Being.

- My prayer is but a vague wish that God will be favorable to me in my trial.

But I put it to you the prayer of the Christian is entirely different:

He or she prays, not because he or she IMAGINES God might be favourable and tires to win His favour, but because God, in Christ, IS favourable and he or she knows that.

- The Christian knows and believes Christ has paid the price for sin and bought reconciliation between God and sinner.

- The Christian knows what Jesus said is true: “No one comes to the Father, but by Me”

- Only through the Scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit, can we know the terms of free grace and the wonderful gift of imputed righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

My friend:

What sort of relationship do you have with God?

- Do you only know He exists because your reason tells you that must be so?

- Is He just some impersonal force?

- Some great, nameless, Being?

Or do you truly know Him?

- Personally?

- Intimately?

- Trustingly?

The captain was right to rebuke Jonah for sleeping and exhorting him to pray, but he needed the greater Jonah, Jesus Christ, who died for them both and ever-lives to intercede for them, to really know Him and pray to Him.

But what about the others on board?

2. How do the sailors confront Jonah?

Well, we have seen they are in a flurry, trying to change their circumstances. It was not ‘action stations’ for them, but ‘panic stations’!

But we need to see is their words and actions arepart of God upping the ante against His disobedient servant.

God is discipling the child He loves:

- First there was the wind and the storm hurled against the ship.

- Then there was the captains rebuke and exhortation to pray.

- Now there is more coming Jonah’s way from these sailors.

God is sovereignly and powerfully pointing His finger at Jonah and saying, “Thou art the man!”

How does He do it?

Well, the sailor’s confrontation with Jonah consists of two parts also…

(We are only going to focus on the first part this morning and merely mention the second.)

What were the two parts?

a) First, they decide to cast lots; and then

b) They conduct an interrogation of Jonah.

Look at Verse 7:

“Each man said to his mate, “Come, let us cast lots so we may [d]learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.”

It is easy to focus on Jonah and miss that this business of casting lots. Yet it tells us a whole lot (no pun intended) about the sailors and about the unbelieving heart, does it not?

No one, in their right mind, would suggest casting lots unless they believed two things:

- They believed the practice would work to establish justice; AND

- That they thought they were innocent of any crime against the gods.

Clearly, although they were rank pagans, they were just like their captain: they believed in a higher power or sovereign Being who would speak and apportion blame through the drawn lot.

The Reformation Study Bible says, “The casting of lots was a common form of divination in the ancient world, a device used to discover the will of the gods.”

They clearly believed in a sovereign God or deity who would see to it that justice would be done.

But equally clearly, they demonstrated that they thought they were innocent and did not deserve to go through this ferocious storm.

They are disowning their own guilt and wanting to point the finger at others – otherwise they would not have suggested this course of action.

And is not that the mark of the unconverted heart, my dear friends?

At the center of this is unbridled pride.

- Far from saying in humility and lowliness, “Is it I?”

- “Am I the one that this God is angry with?” ….

- They do just the opposite: they are refusing any responsibility or criminality.

- They simply refuse to make an appeal to their own heart or conscience.

- Instead, they want to point the finger at others. “Who’s the culprit?”

My friends, the truth is you can always find someone who is worse than you. (And is it not true we love to do that to alleviate our guilt?)

Should not these sailors have been asking:

- Am I not a great sinner?

- Would God be unjust to send such trouble on me for my wickedness?

- Could all this be about my sins?

I’m sure that they would admit that they were sinners.

Unbelievers are quick to say, “Well, no one is perfect”. And “Everyone is allowed a second chance.” (Even though the truth is we have had thousands of chances!)

But what these sailors could not tolerate was the thought that THEIR SINS were so great that they deserved this trail!

- They could not accept that!

- They must find someone else and hold him responsible for this affliction!

Sinners simply do not think their guilt is serious enough to send them to hell for eternity!

- to be banished from the presence of the Lord forever!

- to be tormented in the lake of fire for eternity!

- “Surely my sins are not that serious!!!”

Why do people think like that?

Because the heart is wickard and deceived and full of pride!

- We think ourselves better than we really are.

- We prefer to compare ourselves with other sinners rather than the holiness of a pure and sinless and righteous God!

My dear friend, if this is you, you need the Holy Spirit to come into your heart and open your eyes.

You need your pride to be swept away and you need to stop pointing the finger at others and look up to Christ…

– He’s your only hope!

- OR you will reap the eternal storm that comes from God righteous anger against your own sin!

Well, these sailors think they are innocent and appeal to their pagan gods or to luck or to chance or to blind suspicion, to find the culprit by drawing lots!

What do we make of using lots to decide something?

I just want to make a few comments on this because we live in a day when lotto and lucky draws and raffles – don’t we?

There are even Christians who think that there is nothing wrong with a little flutter.

And let’s be honest: who of us have not felt the temptation to get rich quickly, and join the world in a game of luck and chance?

Proverbs 16:33 sets out for us the key principle of how we should view the casting of lots:

“The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.”

The Scriptures clearly teach that God is sovereign over everything that happens, without Him being responsible for sin or evil.

There is no such thing as luck or chance in God’s economy.

That means to engage in games of luck and chance is to test the Lord:

- He is the One who gives us our wealth.

- He has made us stewards of all we have.

- And to Him we are accountable for how we use what He gives.

There is no place for us to waste our money and time on games of luck, justifying it that God makes the decision and therefore it is harmless.

That is to put the Lord our God to the test!

Having said that, God does allow the use of lots to decide all sorts of things in the Scripture:

- In Lev 16, the lot was used to decide which goat was to become a sin offering and which would become the scapegoat and sent out into the wilderness.

- In Numbers 26 and Joshua 18 we read of how the promised land was to be divided amongst the tribes of Israel by lot – that is how God apportioned His inheritance to the children of Israel.

- In Joshua 7:16-18 we find that Achan’s sin was discovered by drawing lots when he took stuff that which was under the ban.

And in case you think I’m only quoting the OT:

- In the NT, in Acts 1:26 we find that lots and prayer are used to choose Matthias to the apostleship, filling the vacancy left by Judas Iscariot’s suicide.

The point is there is no such thing as chance or luck in God’s economy. His providence rules overall. He is able to use the lot to reveal His will.

But it is one thing to use the lot in a frivolous game to enrich yourself and another to seek the Lord’s will, soberly and seriously.

The principle is this:

When the lot is used as part of a solemn appeal to the Lord to indicate His will, in a matter that cannot be decided in any other way, then it is entirely in conformity with Scripture.

That’s the principle.

- If there is another way to decide a matter, it should be used.

- But when there are two choices that can’t be decided between, then it is not wrong to pray and ask God to sovereignly direct the outcome by lot.

But between these two extremes of a game of chance or luck, on the one hand, and seeking the Lord’s will in a solemn way, on the other, is a host of situations that frankly come down to a matter of conscience!

As I said before, I’m trying to widen the issue out for you, to help establish boundaries.

Well, the sailors clearly believed that some supernatural power would find the culprit and God used this meansto point His finger at Jonah.

- God is sovereign!

- God is discipling the son whom He loves!

- God made the decision the lot showed!

And now Jonah stood on trial before the whole crew.

And that is when the inquisition started that we are going to look at next time, DV.

Just to give you a taste: Look at verse 8:

Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

Can you see what’s happening?

God is putting the thumb screws on Jonah to bring him to repentance:

- First the storm

- Then the captain

- Then the lot falling to him

- And now the inquisition.

Apply:

I want to leave it there but let me just say this:

If we try to run from the presence of the Lord or from His call on your life or a command He has given, He will just turn up the heat:

- He loves us so much that He pursues us.

- He will leave the 99 sheep and go after the one straying – not willing for any to perish.

- He will wait patiently at the end of the road for the prodigal to return after he or she has gone through many trails.

Dear friend, if you are living away from God, or if you don’t know God personally and intimately, the message is clear:

- The sooner you repent, the less He will need to do to seek you out.

- Come to Christ

- Confess and repent of your sin.

- Why? Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Conclusion

Jonah’s disobedience resulted in the Lord’s discipline:

- He hurled a great wind at the sea and stirred up the forces of nature.

- The captain rebukes him for sleeping when lives were on the line and exhorts him to call upon his God.

- The Sailors end up casting lots and the lot shouted: Jonah, thou art the man!

Brothers and sisters, I finish with the words of Hebrews 12:5 and 6:

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; 6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.

PRAY