Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a battle going on for the soul of me.
He's the warythvery But I'm saying, within the arms of God,
dear bride, she's the deeper and muscle Ye the Church
(00:21):
of Christ.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'll not Surreyvender. I'll not Surreyender. I'll not surredyender.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I know I'll be a godspel defender.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Ladies and gentlemen, Rick write in baw of the Gospel
Defender Ministries, this gospel message will encourage and equip those
who have ears to hear to be a Christian holds
with the armor of a gospel defender.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Out Aco, surrey.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Aha, surrey rid always be a godspool.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
There are forty eight verses in the four chapters of
the Old Testament Book of Jonah. Among other things, they
are the story of a very troubled prophet of God.
He was in trouble with God, and he was in
trouble with himself. This troubled prophet didn't like the evangelistic
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assignment he was given by God. He wanted no part
of it. But what God wants done, he gets done.
Such was the case in bringing the Great City of
Nineveh to repentance. Jonah Chapter four, Verses five through nine
is the account of Jonah's retirement. Although Jonah didn't want
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the Ninevites to be saved, he was the one who
worked the ministry that eventually led them to their repentance
and salvation. Even so, he refused to inhabit the city
while God worked his program through Jonah's preaching ministry. It
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is written in verse five, so Jonah went out of
the city and sat on the east side of the city.
There he made himself a shelter and sat under it
in the shade, till he might see what would become
of the city. After he did what he was commanded
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to do, he was finished. He left the city sulking
and pouting, hoping to see God rain down destruction on
a city and a people for whom he had no
sympathy or compassion. He was like Abraham. In Genesis nineteen,
verse twenty eight. There it is written that Abraham looked
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towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of
the plain, and he saw and behold the smoke of
the land, which went up like the smoke of a furnace.
But Jonah did not see what Abraham saw. Abraham saw
cities in sin burn. Jonah saw a city in sin
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turn to God. While waiting to see what God would
do to Nineveh, Jonah made himself a shelter and sat
under it in the shade, hoping to see a holocaust.
People are going to hell every minute of every day
of the week. No one has ever or will ever
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escape their appointment with death. Cemeteries have fresh graves drug
dug every week, if not every day, while in most
places local church members sit in the comforts of their
home watching whatever they watch on their television, their computer,
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or their dumb phone, waiting for the Sunday go to
church meeting to hear the gospel preach that is supposed
to be going to the whole world. Most Christians won't
even help support those who are doing the work of evangelism,
watching the world get closer to Hell every day. They
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say they want the world to be saved, but don't
do much personally to make it happen. That's where Jonah was.
He retires from any further service to advance God's word.
He built a shelter in the shade, had a pity
party for himself, sat down and watched what God would
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do next. God wasn't finished with Jonah, it has written
in verse six. And the Lord God prepared a plant
and made it come up over Jonah that it might
be shade for his head, to deliver him from his misery.
So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. We might
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wonder what God is doing. In chapter one, Jonah had
been commissioned by God to do some preaching, but he
ran away from it. It was not until he was
swallowed by a great fish that he repented and obeyed.
In chapter three, he had been commissioned again to do
the same job. He obeyed, but ran away from God again.
(06:00):
Why is God making Jonah's little shanty more comfortable by
growing a plant to shade him while he is in
his misery. Here is a hint from Romans twelve, Verses
seventeen through twenty one. Repay no one evil for evil,
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as much as depends on you, Live peaceably with all men.
If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty,
give him a drink, for in so doing you will
heap coals of fire on his head. Jonah may have
been finished with God, but God does not finished with Jonah.
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This is true of you as well. For whatever ungodly
unreasonable reason. You may be finished with God, but God
is not finished with you, either in this life or
the judgment to come. Ladies and gentlemen, God does not
do anything willy nilly. When God does something, there is
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a reason for him doing it. That reason will become
apparent before long. So we must proceed with the account
in verses seven and eight. But as morning dawned the
next day, God prepared a worm, and it so damaged
the plant that it withered. And it happened when the
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sun arose that God prepared a vehement east wind, and
the sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint.
Then he wished death for himself and said, it is
better for me to die than to live. Jonah one
seventeen says God prepared a great fish. Jonah four, verse
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six says God prepared a plant. Jonah four to seven
says God prepared a worm. Jonah four eight says God
prepared a east wind. You may not believe any of this,
but God did it regardless of what you believe, Ladies
and gentlemen. If God can create these things, it is
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no great feat for him to create anything, including you.
Despite what unbelieving evolutionists say or write, the reason God
created the plant was for the worm. The reason God
created the worm was to damage the plant. The reason
God damaged the plant was for the vehement east wind
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to do its work. The reason God prepared the vehement
east wind was to teach Jonah a lesson that would
bring him to repentance and restoration. Whatever God is doing
in your life, be it good or bad, from your perspective,
it is for a reason to save you from your
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sins if you are not a Christian, or to restore
you to Christ if you happen to be running from him.
Looking at Jonah's life can make a person dizzy. He
runs from God and then runs to God. He is
cold one day and hot the next. One day he's coming,
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and the next day he's going. God cannot do much
with Jonah in this back and forth condition, and he
can't do much with anyone else who is a flip flopper,
except to vomit them from his mouth. He can't do
much with a congregation in this condition either. The church
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in Leataicea was in that condition. Jesus said to them
in Revelation three verses fifteen and sixteen. I know your
works that you are neither cold nor hot. I could
wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you
are lukewarm and neither cold nor I will vomit you
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out of my mouth. When the sun came up, the
worm had damaged the plant that caused it to wither
a vehement Each wind blew, and the sun beat on
Jonah's head so that he grew faint. That's all it
took for him to pray a second time for God
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to kill him a withering plant. I have seen persons
wither on the vine of Christianity for reasons far less
than this, And it is a pathetic sight to behold, God,
it is better for me to die than to live.
God heard his prayer and answered it with a rebuke,
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Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?
And Jonas snapped back at God, it is right for
me to be angry, even to death. Jonah spoke as
a fool. He had no regard for the goodness, mercy,
and compassion of God toward himself or for the welfare
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of lost ninevites. He chose to go into retirement. There
are far too many Jonahs among twenty first century preachers.
They stubbed their toe spiritually and are ready to quit
the ministry to which they have been called by God.
God has given them a gift. And then because of
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some attack from Satan, they not only leave the ministry,
they leave the church that Jesus built. Pouting like overgrown babies.
They leave the Lord's church and never return. We also
witness this among Christian brethren. Something stupid, silly, or unspiritual happens,
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and people do not give us second thought in leaving
Christ and his church. It may be they were never
really added to the church in the first place. I
believe they might be those described in one John two,
verse nineteen. They went out from us, but they were
not of us. For if they had been of us,
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they would have continued with us. But they went out
that they might be made manifest that none of them
were of us. Apostle Paul found it necessary one time
to spiritually jack up his young disciple Timothy, who may
have been having a pity party for himself. He wrote
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to Timothy and two Timothy one verses seven through nine.
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but
of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore,
do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,
nor of me his prisoner, but share with me in
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the sufferings for the Gospel, according to the power of God,
who has saved us and called us with a holy calling.
There are those who are quick to respond with a yeah,
but you don't know what I have gone through. You
don't know what so and so said about me. You
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don't know what so and so did to me. Well,
that's right, I don't, but God does. Has any one
suffered as much as Christ has suffered for us? Has
any one surrendered his life for Christ? As much as
the apostles, who among us has been burned at the stake,
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been quartered, or hung by the neck until dead for
our faith. I have yet to meet any one in
this age who has suffered such treatment for Christ and
his word. When is the last time you sat by
some one in the holy assembly of Christ Church described
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in Hebrews eleven, verses thirty three through thirty eight, people
who through faith stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were tortured,
had trial of mockings, and scourgings, yes, and of chains
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and imprisonment, were stoned, sawn in two, were tempted, were
slain with the sword, wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins,
being destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandered in deserts and mountains, in
dens and caves of the earth. Twenty first century church
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members have got it so easy that their faith is
no deeper than the thickness of a fingernail. Take them
out from under their shade, from their comfort zone, and
they cannot handle problems in life common to all of
us without receiving counsel from psychiatrists who can't do anything
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but recommend self health programs that have steps that lead
to nowhere. We come to the final two verses of
this book. The Book of Jonah did not open pretty,
and it does not end pretty. It is not a
book for pouting preachers or cry baby Christians. It is
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for those who have the grit, gumption, and guts to
live for Christ in a world that has gone nuts,
a world that has left the rails, a world that
has surrendered its mind of common sense to those who
have no sense. Jonah closes with Jonah's rebuke. It was
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God who rebuked him in verses ten and eleven. But
the Lord said, you have had pity on the plant
for which you have not labored nor made it grow,
which came up in a night and perished in a night.
And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in
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which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons
who cannot discern between their right hand and their left,
and much live stock. Jonah received no congratulations for a
job well done. He wasn't given a plaque that recognized
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his evangelistic efforts. He retired without receiving so much as
a gold watch. Instead, he received a burning rebuke from
the God who sent him to Nineveh. Jonah, you have
more pity on a plant that died than on an
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entire city that was dying in sin. He had pity
for a gourd, but didn't want God to take pity
on a great city of one hundred twenty thousand souls.
A squash was more important to Jonah than souls. Jesus
ran into this same problem with people during his ministry.
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It happened in Mark chapter five. It is the story
of the gathererine maniac. This maniac had an unclean spirit.
He dwelt in a cemetery. No one could tame him,
not even by binding him with chains and shackles. He
cried out and cut himself with stones. He was possessed
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with demons. The one who spoke for them all was Legion.
They knew they were in trouble. When Jesus came into
their presence, they begged him to send them into a
herd of swine. Jesus accommodated them. They were sent into
a herd of about two thousand swine. They ran violently
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down the steep place into the sea and drowned in
the sea. Even the pigs couldn't stand being infested with
the monic spirits. Those who fed the swine told it
in the city and in the country, And the city
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and the country were upset. Jesus had destroyed their livelihood,
so they pled with him to depart from their region.
Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus doesn't stay where he is not welcome,
so he left the gas who had more concern for
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pork than a person, Jonah had more compassion toward a
gourd than he did people. Not much has changed in
some Sunday morning congregations. It might shock us to know
what people have more concern for, Especially as the clock
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begins to move toward the noon hour, when the dinner
bell rings in restaurants throughout the city or town, spiritual
hunger for God's word rapidly wanes. The minds of some
of the immature saints and seasoned ones as well, begin
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to think more about asparagus than the assembly, let us
salad than the Lord's supper, corn than converts, beats than baptism,
peas than prayers, spinach than scripture, and squash than souls.
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Bellies rumble throughout the auditorium while squirming in the seats,
members who can sit and eat for hours at home
want no more than a thirty minute snack of scripture tidbits.
Beloved Jonah could not answer God's rebuke then, and no
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one will be able to answer God's rebuke. At the
judgment of men for having such little appetite for God's
holy word, Jonah was brought to despair that he might
learn the lesson of God's infinite love for the souls
of men. John three point sixteen and seventeen are more
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than favorite verses to be memorized John three sixteen is
more than a verse printed on a piece of cardboard
and waved in an NFL in zone. It is holy truth.
God did so love the world that he gave his
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only begotten son. God did not send his son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. Jonah said he did well
to be angry, but he didn't do well. God said
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he did well to spare Nineveh, and proved it by
saving the thousands of souls who repented at the preaching
of God's word. The Book of Jonah is a book
that tells the story of God say a great city
of sinners. It is also a book that tells the
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story of how God dealt with one of his prophets, Jonah.
We do not know what happened to Jonah after this
episode in Ninevah. We would like to think that he
eventually learned God's lesson and really did repent indeed, and
not in talk only. Despite his disobedience, he was used
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by Jesus as being a type that illustrated the greatness
of God's son. God had the first word in this book,
and he had the last word also, and so it
will be at the end of this world, he will
have the last word. Then no one will be ready
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to meet the one greater than Jonah, except those who
have prepared in this life life to beat him. And
only those who have obeyed his word to repent and
be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins will be prepared.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
There's a battle going on for the souls of me.
That he's the wythvery But I am saying, within the
arms of God, dear bride, she's the keeper of the
soul cheers of Christ.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I'll not surreyender. I'll not surreyer. I'll not surreyyder.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
I allow it.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Be of God, Ladies and gentlemen, Rick Bright and bas speaking,
you have just heard another Gospel Defender Ministries radio broadcast
brought to you by the Church that Jesus built and
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preaches all of the Word to all of the world.
Jesus said in Mark sixteen, verse sixteen. He who believes
and is baptized will be saved. So find someone today
who will immerse you into Christ today, before it is
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everlastingly too late. Our mailing address is Gospel Defender Ministries
post office box five seven five CHILICOTHI C hi Lli
t h E Jillocothe, Ohio Zip four five six zero one.
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You can also contact us through the world wide Web
at Gospel dash defender dot org or by email at
a gozdeth A g O s d E f A
gosdeth at roadrunner dot com. At your request, a written
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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, so please take the time
to contact us today now until you and I meet
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again at this same time and at the same place.
Our prayer is that you will be steadfastly set for
the defense of the Gospel