America Needs a Jonah

I reckon I've preached out of the Book of Jonah so much that I thought I exhausted its truths. But the scripture is like the ocean, it's unfathomable. We will be in the Book of Jonah this evening, friends, because we need a man like Jonah for our day.

We are deeply familiar with the Book of Jonah, so I will just go over some highlights for us. Assyria became dominant in the land of Palestine when Israel was carried into exile in 722 BC. The Assyrian Empire was at its zenith of power when Jonah paid them a visit on his call from Almighty God.

I want us to peer into the life of the prophet Jonah this evening, friends, and study how the great wicked city of Nineveh was brought to its knees in repentance before God. The title of my message today, friends, is America Needs a Jonah. And we will begin our text in the second chapter of this remarkable book, which Jesus treated this book as historical fact.

Any egghead out there who wants to doubt it and doubt the veracity of Jonah can take it up with Jesus at the last judgment. But there are some striking aspects in our text that I'd like to draw out before us. Number one, when Jonah ran away from God, he learned you can't run from God and get by if God has placed a call on your life, friend, and you fight it.

God will do what he has to do to get your attention, even if it means throwing you in the ocean as well. Number two, the disobedient prophet had to pass through the waters of affliction before he was ready to proclaim God's message. In Jonah 2-2 we read, I cried by reason of mine afflictions unto the Lord, and he heard me.

Number three, before the wayward prophet could preach repentance to the Ninevites, he had to exercise it himself. Oh, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. The evangelist John Song was once asked, why are your sermons so powerful? To which John Song replied, the answer is found in my constant repentance.

Number four, Jonah was a prepared instrument in the hands of God to call a wicked nation to repentance. And lastly, America has become a very wicked nation, much like Nineveh, and it sits on the brink of destruction for her multiplied sins. America needs a Jonah today.

I believe this with all my heart, friends, that one man entirely sold out to God can make all the difference in the world, that today at this desperate hour, that God is looking for a man like Jonah, who will emerge from the deep waters of purging and preparation to become God's man, who's truly revived and will cry out against the sins of a nation, and in God's name, call that very nation to repentance. One man brought Nineveh to its knees, and the right man today can call America to repentance and bring this nation to its knees before it's completely destroyed. Oh great God, send us such a man.