Jonah

Just tell me one thing, you guys can't read my notes. Let's read please in the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah and chapter 1 and verse 1. Jonah chapter 1 and verse 1. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah.

My, if anything was significant, surely it would be this. The word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish.

So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord, the Lord hurled, is the idea? He sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them.

But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the ship master came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be, that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said, Every one to his fellow come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.

So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is come upon us. What is thine occupation, and whence comest thou? And what is thy country, and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew, and I fear the Lord.

Well, it's easy to say the words, isn't it? I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord. Really? If you like asking that question, what doest thou hear? The God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Verse 10.

Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? It was a good question. For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.

It was getting worse. And he said unto them, Take me up, cast me forth into the sea. I wonder if this wasn't some desperate attempt, still, that he wouldn't have to go to Nineveh.

It's amazing sometimes where our minds take us, whether we're believers or unbelievers. We have these characteristics that are just part of our nature, and he didn't want to go. He said, Cast me into the sea.

So shall the sea be calm unto you. For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not.

For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore, 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, 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. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed. Chapter 3 and verse 1. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city of days journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Trust that God will bless what we've read from this precious word.

It may seem an unusual passage to consider. I want to think of some lessons that we might learn from these passages, and some thoughts perhaps, well some observations, maybe even some principles. And we're just going to work our way down through and see what we can find here.

Because there are some tremendous lessons to be learned from the story of this man. Now the first thing I want to notice is that Jonah, he had a bad attitude. He had a bad attitude before it was evident.

And so I think perhaps maybe I should ask you today, how's your attitude towards receiving the Word of God, no matter what it might be. No matter what message it might be, and no matter where it might send us, what it might require of us. He had a bad attitude.

You've probably heard the story that Lincoln used to tell about two men that he knew, and one of them had been great friends with a man named Brown. And then something happened, and it destroyed that relationship. And they were enemies, bitter enemies.

But the first man got sick. He was laying on a sick bed, and the doctor told him he didn't have much time to live. And he asked for Brown to come in, because he thought it'd be an awful way to die, with this kind of thing going on.

And so the man spoke to Brown, and he told him how he's gonna die soon, and asked that they might be reconciled. Moved everybody in the room to tears. This man about to go into eternity, and wanted to have relationships right.

Is every relationship right in your life? And so he spoke to this man, Brown, and he spoke very humbly, it seemed, and Brown went over and gave the man a hug. Said he forgave him, and all was well. And he turned from that sick bed, a shattered man.

He's walking towards the door, when Brown kind of rubs himself up on one shoulder, and he says, hey Brown, see here, if I recover, the grudge is still on. What would it take to make you settle issues with your brethren? Or to change your attitude about things that really matter? To have a right spirit about you? This man had a bad attitude before it was evident, and God knew it. These people that he was going to be sent to were despised by the Jews for their cruelty, and I'm not saying they were nice at all.

But sadly, I think this is really sad to think, that what was evident amongst the common people was also evident in the mind and heart of this man, who was a man who was to speak for God. And sometimes those who are given responsibility for God's things, and I'm not coming here with any knowledge of any situation, so don't think that's the case, but sometimes those that have the responsibility for teaching and guiding and helping God's people, whether locally or in a larger sense, have got a bad attitude. And it affects what we do.

And it touches how effectively we can do it. Do you think his peers despised him? No, they didn't despise him. He was just like them.

He had the same attitude they had towards this heathen people. He fit right in. What a tragedy, brethren, if we fit in with our world.

We ought to be in stark contrast to them. I was thinking of those words in Philippians chapter 2, in verse 15, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke or blemish, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Is that what we're doing today? Are we standing out in our world and showing them something of the reality that we have found in Christ alone? Or have we grown callous and unconcerned and unmoved by a world around us that's perishing? We're just like the others.

Seeking our own, following our own will, living for what life can bring us. He had a bad attitude before it was evident. Another thing I think that we've oftentimes used in the gospel, at least, is that when you run away from God, you get to pay the fare.

Remember how he went down and he paid the fare? You know, when God takes you somewhere, he pays the way. He supplies the need. He bears us along, but sometimes we can pay a really high price for having our own way.

Child of God, if you take your own way, it's going to cost you. You say, but I'm doing well. If you take your own way, it's going to cost you.

You say, but life looks good and even why on the horizon it looks better. It might, but maybe you're looking too low. What about when we stand before him? What about when we're in his presence? What we hear is, well done.

What will we miss out? When we run from God, we say, I'm not running, but I'm just trying to avoid some of those sticky issues, you know. Sometimes when life just seems to box me in, or it seems as if God wants me to sacrifice, you run from God's will, you'll pay in loss of some kind. Maybe now, but for sure for eternity.

You know, the main character in this book is not Jonah, and it's not the great fish. The main character in this book is the same character who ought to be the main character in our life. It's God, 38 times over.

38 times over. God in the book of Jonah. Very real.

When you run from him, when you avoid his will and his purpose and his voice to you, when you duck, when his word is given and you say that's for someone else, you get to pay the fare. You're the one who loses out. Ah, here's a man who should have responded in prayer and an appeal to heaven, that God would give him a right spirit.

And that God would enable him with divine help to be able to do what God was calling upon him to do. You know, my Bible still says this, and I learned it a long time ago, when I was a boy. Those words, be sure your sin will find you out.

You know, those aren't words just for unbelievers. Those aren't words that are just for the ungodly. Those are words that sometimes come home to roost.

But you know how it starts out? It says, and behold, you have sinned against the Lord. And that's not talking about things that they did that were wrong. It's talking about things they didn't do.

And they should have done. Behold, you have sinned against the Lord. And be sure your sin, your attitude, your pride, your willfulness, your choices, they'll all be found out.

I think the third thing that I noticed in this passage very clearly is this. It's amazing how well sinners can sleep. And sometimes believers sleep with them.

My, what a tragedy. It's a world where we need to be awake. And sad that we are finding, like those in Matthew 25, prepared or unprepared.

Ready for heaven, for the return of the Lord Jesus or not. They all slumbered and slept. The good thing I can see about this is even though sinners can sleep so well, God was working while Jonah was sleeping.

He's still on the throne. He can still do all that is necessary. If he has to accomplish his purposes without you, he will.

But oh, how blessed to be able to say, I, as a worker together with God, saw his hand. Then I want you to notice how God took measures with his servant who was out of control. Now, my first thought was to say that God took drastic measures with his servant who was out of control.

It wasn't as drastic as it could have been. God could have cut him off from all future service, but God was working for his good in this too. It says he hurled a great wind, a great tempest.

And Jonah woke up in a nightmarish sea. And sometimes we are stirred because of things that God allows. He doesn't always hurl them at us.

But sometimes those things that come into our life, they creep in. Sometimes they come silently. But we're unaware of it.

God takes measures. You know, isn't it wonderful to see that he works with us until we submit to him. Works with us.

Wonderful. You know, God is trying to prepare our hearts. God is trying to prepare our will.

God is trying to prepare the part of us that really matters. And so he works with us until we're ready to submit. The main question perhaps is this.

How well do I respond to the word of God? How well do I respond? You notice what this man did? Just like that. He rose up to flee. If they preach that, I'm out of here.

I'm done. I'm going to take my bat and ball and go home. That's pretty childish, isn't it? If it's God's word.

But brethren, please make sure it is God's word. I hope it's not just some foolish thought of yours or something that maybe somebody said, well, we held that for years. You know what? People can be wrong.

This book's never wrong. When God guides us, he always guides us right. Don't go beyond his word.

Don't go less than his word. God took measures. Why God has spoken to this man.

What a blessing that was. Just stop and think about it. Isn't that why we came to this conference? So that God would speak to us? God has spoken to him.

And then God had to deal with him because of his response. He was out of control. He wasn't in the will of God.

Notice again, in this passage, when you disobey, you not only mess yourself up, you mess up others too. And you look at this man and those poor sailors, they had nothing to do with this mess. And they were pretty gracious, really.

When you think about what they were going through, considering what they found out about this rebel, who was supposed to be a Hebrew, who was supposed to fear the Lord. You know, sometimes as God looks on, I'm sure, it must grieve his heart to think how poorly we represent him. And I know we all have to confess.

We all have to acknowledge. We have failed him when God brought opportunities into our life. We have failed him when it came to his word being taken completely to our heart, first of all.

Think of the language of the one who could say, thy words were found, and I did eat them. Take them to your heart. Take its truth to your soul.

You know, like these ungodly sailors, sometimes ungodly people act more nobly than we do. They say, hey, you're awful hard on us today. Well, just think about it.

Sometimes ungodly people act in ways that are kind and generous and thoughtful and tender, in spite of the fact that they don't have the light we have, in spite of the fact they don't have the truth that we have. Sometimes they act far more nobly than we do. These men, they learned something about God in spite of the poor witness of this man.

Isn't that grace? I mean, perhaps you've had that experience. And you haven't been out and out. You haven't been all that you could be.

You haven't been as tender and compassionate as you should have been towards a world that was perishing. And yet sometimes someone has noticed something in your life that somehow was transformed by the marvelous and precious word of God, the grace of God working in us and through us. How nice to see that God worked in spite of him.

But how much better to think that God used me. He just touched me. I yielded in my weakness and even in my failure.

And how precious to think that God used what little skill or ability, what little he taught me, to somehow inject it into the life of another. Yes, it is true, brethren, when we disobey, we can mess up the life of others. And I know people who would say, I almost hate to say it.

If that person goes where you go, I'm not going there. Sometimes they recognize our values better than we do. They know sometimes there's not that much difference between them and us.

And yet, and yet, how true that God sometimes gives them light and understanding. How precious that must be. I want you to think how that sooner or later, what was evident to God about this man became evident to everybody.

The Bible tells us that some men's sins, they go before them unto judgment and some men's sins they follow after. Sometimes it's pretty obvious where all of this is going. And sometimes it takes further dealings of God to bring it all to light.

But one thing is sure, there is an accountability day coming. And sooner or later, what God knew about this man became evident to others. And here it is right in the Bible for us.

This man was running away from God. When you look at verses six to 10, he was running away from God. And no word of repentance crossed his lips, either to those ungodly sailors or to God.

How far can we go sometimes exercising our own will and independence? God spoke. What's our attitude to what he has said? Once you notice how Jonah didn't even begin to rebound until he got swallowed. Didn't even begin to rebound.

And some of us can be so determined to do our thing. And so willful that we won't do the right thing until we're forced to. Do you think God finds pleasure in that? Do you think when God speaks through his word and we dodge it? When God speaks through his word and we just outright won't obey it? When God touches the conscience of a young believer about baptism, just obeying his word, giving him honor in my life.

When God speaks in the quiet of my own consideration of his word, he touches my conscience about something. What is my attitude? Do I still keep going the way I am? Jonah didn't even begin to rebound until he got swallowed. Sometimes God allows circumstances that make my pathway so uncomfortable that the only rational, reasonable thing I can do is to run to God instead of away from him.

And if you've been taking a pathway away from God, isn't it time to turn around and say, Speak to me by name, O Master. Let me know it is to me. And then bow your will before him and accept his truth.

You know, God wanted to use his servant. That's pretty obvious. It was God who selected Jonah.

It was God who said, I've got a message for you to take. I have a message for you that needs to be delivered. God wanted to use his servant.

Is God speaking to you and to me today? Something he wants? You know, sometimes a child hears their mother say, Oh, I love those spring flowers. Now, who knows where they'll get them. But, you know, there's just something sweet, isn't it? About those grubby little hands, going out and picking those blooms, even if they're dandelions.

And with the look on that face, no mother could refuse them. You see what they're doing? They're doing out of love. They're doing because of an express desire.

And God expresses his desire towards us in these holy pages of Scripture. And God has a desire to use us. Are we willing to be used? It was in the belly of the great fish that Jonah became willing to preach to people that didn't want to hear.

You see, sometimes we're given a message and we can't see any possibility of it ever being received. But God changed his mind. Now, mind you, when you look at the story of Jonah, it tells us in chapter 3 where we read that Nineveh was a great city.

You know, that doesn't just mean it was big. It doesn't just mean it was vast. It means it was fair to God.

You say, how could a city like that? How could a city be so wicked and yet be fair unto God? Same idea as it says about Moses. Fair unto God. Jonah didn't think that, did he? His thoughts were a long ways from God's thoughts.

Isn't it a tragedy how sometimes our thoughts are so far from the divine? We're so far from grasping what God sees. Our minds are so dark to understanding what he wants us to convey. And while this city was great and fair in the mind of God, it certainly wasn't in the mind of Jonah.

In fact, even after God used the message, even after God used the message, he wasn't happy. In spite of all he went through and in spite of all that God had done for him, he still had a bad spirit. How about it all? Huh? It was exceeding evil, it says.

Chapter four, verse one. It was exceeding evil to Jonah. How sad.

Even after God has used him. After God has spoken. After God has refocused him.

After God has given him a second chance, and that's a wonderful truth that's here. God sometimes gives us second chances that we might grasp his will, that we might sense and support his standards, that we hear his word, and that we obey it so simply. You know, there's one thing that Jonah couldn't say.

He could not turn his heart heavenward and say, I delight to do thy will. Oh my God. How about it today? Jonah had a bad attitude at the start, and in spite of all he went through, in spite of all God had done, he still has a bad spirit.

May God have mercy on us. Sometimes our thinking isn't so far away from this man's. But oh, how blessed to think that God has sometimes spoken as some of the simplest believers.

Now, I don't mean simple mentally, but believers who are just simple and honest enough to hear what God has to say. And for us to simply acknowledge, you're my Lord. I'll go where you send me.

I'll do what you ask me. I'll live as you want me to live. And I want an attitude that pleases God to be able to say, yea Lord.

Yes. I'll go where you send me. Yes.

I'll do what you ask. Yes. I'll obey.

Lord. You're my Lord. May God bless this word.