Jonah's Journey - message # 12

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a battle going on for the soul of me.
He's the wyvery. But I'm saying, within the arms of
God's dear bride, She's the keeper of the saugior to Christ.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'll not surreyender, I'll have Surreyender. I'll have Surrenyender.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I know I'll always be a godspel defender.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Ladies and gentlemen, reck writing ball of the Gospel Defender
ministries God. This gospel message will encourage and equip those
who have ears to hear to be a Christian. Hold
with the murmur of a gospel defender.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
Outuray a pot surrey at surrey.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Rid aw with a godspel.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Ladies and gentlemen. There are some people in this world
who you simply cannot satisfy. If you offer them a
free ice cream cone with three scoops, they want four.
If you offer them chocolate, they want vanilla with chocolate syrup.

(01:48):
Apostle Paul wrote in Romans twelve, verse eighteen about this
kind of person. He said, if possible, so far as
it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
Notice he said, if possible, there are people with whom
it is not possible. Welcome to Jonah, Chapter four. I

(02:13):
can think of no greater blessing than to be chosen
by God to preach his word. Jonah was chosen, but
he didn't like the audience to whom he had been
sent by his God, who chose him. This God saved
him from drowning in a tempestuous sea and from being

(02:34):
digested by a great fish, but it made no difference.
He still didn't like the audience to whom God sent
him to preach the message that would save thousands of people.
He was successful in his preaching campaign, but it made
no difference. He didn't want the Ninevites to be the

(02:56):
recipients of the success story. We wonder why God put
up with him, until we remember how God has put
up with us. The fourth chapter of Jonah is a
chapter about a pouting prophet. He had been used by
God in a magnificent way to save thousands of people,

(03:18):
but he pouted when God saved them. He didn't like it.
But more about this later in this message. We will
consider two of the four observations that can be made
about Jonah in this chapter, his repining and his reproof. First,

(03:39):
Jonah's repining. It begins at verse one with these words,
but it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. There
are several things that can displease a preacher and make
him angry. Whether or not I list a couple of
them in the order of their importance, I leave to

(04:03):
your judgment. But here are a couple. It displeases a
preacher and makes him angry when members of the congregation
he is trying to both lead and serve treat the
assemblies as if they are a take it or leave
it affair. It is difficult to achieve much of anything

(04:25):
that is of any spiritual significance. When congregational attendance fluctuates
from week to week. It displeases a preacher and makes
him angry when his ministry is consumed by putting out
internal congregation fires that are ignited by immature, unconverted members

(04:49):
of the flock. But there is one thing that never
displeases a preacher or makes him angry, and that is
when people obediently surrender their lives to the lordship of
Jesus Christ. Little is more rewarding to a preacher than
to see people repent of their sins and be immersed

(05:12):
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
their sins. But this is the very thing that displeased
and made Jonah angry. That this is true is revealed
in the last verse of chapter three. Jonah witnessed the
great city of Ninevites respond to the message of God

(05:34):
that he should have felt privileged to preach. They turned
from their wicked way, and God relented concerning the calamity
which he had declared he would bring up on them.
Jonah preached in chapter three, verse four, yet forty days
and Nineveh will be overthrown. But what he preached did

(05:58):
not come to pass. They repented, and God relented. Jonah
was angry not only with the people, He was angry
with God because God was merciful towards the people. Jonah
had hoped that the Ninavihetes would ignore the warning and

(06:19):
be overthrown, but it didn't happen. The underlying root cause
of his anger was his own heart. The heart of
most spiritual problems is the problem of the heart, and
that is where Jonah's problems were located. His heart was

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filled with pride when what he had prophesied did not
come to pass. His honor was at stake he had
preached the destruction of Nineveh as a certainty, but it
did not happen. What would the brotherhood think of him? Now?
He was in danger of being labeled as a false

(07:00):
prophet when what he prophesied failed to happen. Why if
this were to get out, he would lose his standing
among the other prophets in the brotherhood of his day.
Pride is a terrible disease. The inability to say you
have been wrong is a common heart disease, especially among

(07:24):
leaders of the church that Jesus built, especially preachers. Pride
might be the leading cause for which some preachers go
to a godless hell. The Book of Proverbs has much
to say about pride. For preachers who may be listening,
it would be well worth your time to listen. Proverbs eleven,

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verse two. When pride comes, then comes a shame Proverbs thirteen,
verse ten. By pride comes nothing but strife Proverbs sixteen,
verse eighteen. Pride goes before destruction Proverbs twenty nine, verse
twenty three. A man's pride will bring him low. There

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are six things the Lord hates, and many preachers are
guilty of the one that leads the list. A proud look.
Preachers have a reputation of liking to eat, but the
hardest thing for some of them to swallow is their
arrogant pride. The Parable of Luke fifteen verses eleven through

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thirty two is a familiar earthly story that has a
heavenly meaning for every church goer. It is the well
known story of the prodigal son who made a great
mistake when he demanded his inheritance and left his father's home.
After leaving and wasting his possessions with prodigal living, he

(08:59):
would have eaten pigs food if he could have found any.
It was only after he came to himself that he
swallowed his pride and admitted to himself that he had
made a great mistake. The rest of his story is
well known. He returned to his father, admitted his mistake,

(09:22):
and was godly accepted. The final eight verses of this
parable are about the pride filled son the pride filled
brother of the prodigal When he heard how his prodigal
brother was honored by being welcomed back into his father's home,
he was angry and would not join the celebration and

(09:46):
festivities held in honor of his prodigal brother's return. His
pride got in the way and he missed out enjoying
the celebration. We have no way of knowing, and only
God really knows how many people who wear the name
Christian will miss out on the great and married Supper

(10:08):
of the Lamb of Revelation nineteen because of their pride.
We are convinced there is a good number of people
who listen to this broadcast who know the Bible teaches
that immersion in water in the name of Jesus Christ
is a necessary condition of faith to receive the forgiveness

(10:31):
of sins. But they have too many years invested in
a religious group that denies that truth to walk away
from it and obey the truth. They have their pride,
You know, they would sooner go to hell than to
admit they and their family have been mistaken and their

(10:52):
denomination has been wrong. And so that is what they
will do, go to hell. Proverbs sixteen, verse eighteen, and
twenty nine verse twenty three are right. Pride does go
before destruction, and a man's pride will bring him law.
Pride is no respector of persons. It afflicts both the

(11:16):
small and the great. We think of King nebu Ca Nezar.
When we think of the great His story is told
in Daniel chapter four. There it is written that as
he was walking about the royal Palace of Babylon, he
spoke saying, is not this great Babylon that I have

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built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and
for the honor of my majesty. While the word was
still in the King's mouth, a voice fell from heaven,
King nebu Ca Nezar, to you, it is spoken, the
kingdom has departed from you. They shall drive you from men,

(12:01):
and your dwellings shall be with the beasts of the field,
and they shall make you eat grass like oxen, and
seven times shall pass over you. Until you know that
the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and
gives it to whomever he chooses. That very hour the

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word was fulfilled. There are many powerful men and women
who have the same problem. Nebukanezer and Jonah had p
R I d E. But Nebukanezer's story had a good ending.
There came a time when he lifted his eyes to
heaven and his understanding returned to him, and he blessed

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the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever,
just as the prodigal son came to himself. It is
written in Annual four, verse thirty six that it was
not until King Nebukanezzar's reason returned to him, not until
he regained his senses, not until he repented of his pride,

(13:14):
that his kingdom was restored to him in lack manner.
It will not be until the mighty, the powerful, the lowly,
and the powerless come to their senses, repent of the
pride that infects their hearts, and submit to the plan
of the almighty sovereign God, that they will be saved

(13:36):
from the consequences of their sins. Jonah's repining began in
verse one, and it continued into verses two and three.
He prayed to the Lord and said, Please, Lord, was
not this what I said while I was in my
own country. Therefore, in order to forestall this, I fled

(13:58):
to Tarsish, for I knew that you are a gracious
and compassionate God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness,
and one who relents concerning calamity. This is the second
prayer Joanah prayed in this book bearing his name. His

(14:19):
first was in chapter two, while in the belly of
a fish. That was a good prayer. It was prayed
in a bad place, but it was a good prayer.
And now he prays again unlike that first prayer. This
time he prayed a bad prayer, but in a very
good place, the city of Ninetah that had responded to

(14:41):
his preaching. These are not the only differences in the
two prayers. His prayer in chapter two came from a
broken heart. His prayer in chapter four came from an angry,
pride filled heart. The prayer requests were different. Also, in
chapter two asked God to save him. His prayer in

(15:03):
chapter four asked God to kill him. He was a
double minded man. James had something to say about a
double minded man. In James one, verse eight, he said,
a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
That describes Jonah. He couldn't make hip his mind whether

(15:24):
to live or to die. As a prophet, he wanted
to serve God, but in his own way, not God's.
As a prophet, he preached God's message but didn't want
it to work. As a prophet, he wanted people to
be right with God, but not the Assyrians. I heard

(15:44):
of a congregation who told a preacher who was being
interviewed for the Pulpit Ministry that they were satisfied with
the size of their congregation. They had forty members and
that was enough as far as they were concerned. Evidently,
if you were not already in, they were satisfied with

(16:05):
you staying out. They prided themselves as being godlike Bible believers,
but they weren't. They didn't really believe the Bible. Jesus
said in Mark sixteen, verse fifteen, go into all the
world and preach the gospel for them. Preaching the gospel
inside the four walls of their little auditorium was enough.

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Before we point fingers at that group, it would be
good to ask, is the average church any different than
that little self righteous group. How many congregations do you
know who are beating the bushes and going out into
the highways and byways preaching the gospel to the lost?

(16:51):
How many members of your congregation do anything personally to
communicate the gospel message of Christ. We remind our listeners
each week that this ministry is taking the Gospel to
the whole world. We never make a plea for financial help,
hoping that someone will get the message, but very few do.

(17:15):
The help needed to expand this ministry to the four
corners of this earth rarely shows up in our mail box.
The work that does get done, it's done with the
help of a small handful of people. The truth is congregations,
very few of them look beyond their own four walls.

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As long as the status quo is maintained, Evangelism is
not among their list of priorities. The Christian commission to
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things

(18:00):
that I have commanded you is all right to memorize,
but not worth putting in the practice. Jonah took God's
word to a group of Heathens, and when it worked,
rather than rejoicing, he prayed that the Lord would take
his life. There was another prophet of God who prayed
that God would take his life. His name was Elijah.

(18:24):
In One Kings eighteen, he had a part in having
a great victory over the prophets of Baal and Asherah
at Mount Carmel four hundred and fifty prophets of bail
and four hundred prophets of Asherah met for a spiritual battle,
and Elijah and his God won. But in spite of

(18:46):
that great victory, when Elijah heard that Jezebel was coming
after him, he prayed that he might die and said,
it is enough, now, Lord, take my life, because he
believed his own people were going to take his life.
He thought he had labored in vain. He thought he

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was the only prophet left. We might excuse Elijah for
praying such a prayer, but Jonah prayed to be killed
because his laborers were successful, as he knew they would be.
He reminded, God, was not this what I said when
I was still in my country. I knew you are

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a gracious and merciful god, flowed to anger and abundant
in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. I
knew you would save those dirty, rotten, low down ninevites,
ladies and gentlemen. I hate to say it, but I
have to say it because I have seen it. Some

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people are not all that welcome into the church that
Jesus built. By some people in the church that Jesus built.
It has been thus since the days of Jesus and
his apostles, sinners, publicans, tax collectors, harlots were welcomed by Jesus.

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He sat and ate with them, while the Pharisees and
scribes complained, saying, this man receives sinners and each with them.
James warned the twelve tribes that were scattered abroad in
James two to be very careful in discriminating among those
who came into their assemblies. Be careful not to make

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a difference between the haves and the have nots. Be
careful not to make a distinction between those you dress
well and those who do not. God doesn't. He is merciful,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness toward any
one who will believe and obey His only begotten son,

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Even those who do not look like you do right now,
but in the sweet by and bye may look better
than you do right now now. In verse four we
come to Jonah's approval. Then the Lord said, is it
right for you to be angry? Jonah? Does my doing

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well displease you? Are you angry that ninevites have been
saved from their unrighteousness except for the unfathomable continuing mercy
and grace of God Jonah should have been struck dead,
as he asked in his prayer. Ladies and gentlemen, does

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the congregation where you attend care if people, regardless of
their station in life, hear the gospel, obey the gospel,
and are saved by the gospel. Jesus said in Luke
fifteen seven, I say to you that likewise there will

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be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety nine just persons who need no repentance.
The sin of limiting the Gospel message to anyone is atrocious, unthinkable.
It is sin. The early first century Church did that

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for several years following Jesus's ascension, and it took a
special supernatural act of God Almighty to get the heads
of the apostles screwed on right until Cornelius and his
household were baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.
Followers of Christ thought gentiles were not even eligible to

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be saved by the Lamb's blood. We are far removed
from that. We have two thousand years to reflect upon
that mistake. There is no excuse for limiting the safe
being power of the Gospel to only middle income whites,
black men, red men, yellow men, and brown men. All
men of all cultures everywhere have sinned and fall short

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of the glory of God and need to be washed
in the blood of the Lamb. Thank God someone shared
the Gospel with us. Thank God for the Book of
Jonah that reminds the church that even men who are wicked, nasty,
and vile sinners are candidates for salvation.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
They're a battle God for the soul of me, the
heed of morvery.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
But I'm the.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Same within the arm of God, dear the ever of
the Lost Christ.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Under I'll have surry, I'll have surrender. I dollow with
me a God.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
Ladies and gentlemen, Rick Wright and Boss speaking, you have
just heard another Gospel Defender Ministries radio broadcast brought to
you by the Church that Jesus built and preaches all
of the Word to all of the world. Jesus said
in Mark sixteen sixteen, he who believes and is baptized

(24:42):
will be saved. So find someone today who will immerse
you into Christ today before it is everlastingly too late.
Our mailing address is Gospel Defender Ministries, Post Office Box five, Chilli, Coothy, C. H. I. L. L.

(25:04):
I C O. T H G Chilla, Cothe, Ohio ZIP
four five six zero one. You can also contact us
to the world wide Web at Gospel dash defender dot
org or by email at a gosdef A g O

(25:25):
S D E F A gosdef at roadrunner dot com.
At your request, a written transcript or an audio copy
of today's message will be sent to you free of charge,
with no obligation from you, now or in the future.
We need to hear from you as soon as possible,

(25:47):
so please take the time to contact us today now
until you and I meet again at this same time
and at this same place. Our prayer is that you
will be steadfastly set for the defense of the Gospel.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
A God, a Gode, Gode