Our reading, again, is found in Jonah, and
as you look for that little book of
prophecy, let me remind you of the little
circle of listeners that we created yesterday morning
in our imagination.
They've heard about Jonah, his disobedience.
He was thrown into the sea, and then
they have heard the talk he composed of
worship and praise to God while still in
the inward parts of this great fish.
They must be wondering what was going to
happen to Jonah, and the last verse of
chapter two of Jonah reads as follows, And
the Lord spake unto the fish, and it
vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
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 did 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 a day's journey, and he
cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh
shall be overthrown.
Again, it is our prayer that God will
speak to us tonight from this portion of
his word.
I mentioned this morning that God does not
always give a second opportunity.
I know many of us here this evening
have left our youth behind.
Any who might be young, it's good to
remember that in the Scriptures there is no
automatic guarantee of a second or third or
fourth opportunity.
The very opposite is true.
There are some key stories in which apparently
the basic lesson is that God often does
not give any further opportunity in the face
of disobedience.
There is a very fun story in the
first book of Kings.
It takes place around the beginning of the
kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam I.
He not only separated a great number of
tribes from Jerusalem, but he also set up
a competing system of religious worship.
They built another altar, and Jeroboam himself is
present standing at the altar.
When a man of God is sent from
Judah, he comes by the word of the
Lord, and he comes right up to King
Jeroboam who stands by the altar, and he
denounces the altar as being false, and that
the judgment of God will eventually fall on
him.
He not only gives this message of condemnation
in the very presence of the king, but
he adds that there will be a sign
from God, for the altar will break and
the ashes will be scattered abroad.
As this man of God speaks in the
presence of the king, King Jeroboam raises his
arm and he says to his trusted men,
take him.
And then, when he tried to put down
his arm, he could not move his arm,
and he realized the presence and the judgment
of God.
And as he stood there by the altar
with his arm outstretched, the altar broke, and
the ashes were scattered everywhere.
Just having called on his men to take
the man of God, now he turns to
the man of God and he asks for
his help and his prayers.
And sure enough, God intervenes, and the king
is able to put down his arm.
And then he turns to the man whom
he was about to destroy, and he invites
him into the palace, into his home for
a meal.
Now, notice very carefully that the man of
God said, no, for the word of the
Lord came to me and told me I
must not eat or drink.
And after I've given the message, I must
not return by the same way.
I must go back by a different way
and promptly to Judah.
I cannot go.
Even if you give me the half of
your household, for the man of God, in
obedience to the word of God, he turned
and began to make his way back to
Judah.
Now, there was an old prophet who lived
in Bethel, for this took place in Bethel.
And when he heard from his sons about
the man of God who had come with
such great power and authority and spoke against
the king, the old prophet got on his
donkey and went down the road to find
him, and he found him under a great
tree.
And he said to the man of God,
I would like you to come back to
my home and be my guest.
And again, the man of God answered, no,
by the word of the Lord, I cannot
go back.
I cannot stay.
I cannot eat or drink.
I must go by a different way right
back to Judah.
Now, if you know the story, the old
prophet lied to the man of God, and
he said to him, no, for the Lord
has spoken to me with a new message,
and he's given permission for you to come
back.
And the man of God stood up and
went back with the old prophet, no doubt
into a very humble home, for a very
plain meal.
And as they sat there, the man of
God might have thought about the invitation to
eat with the king.
It would be like a banquet in comparison
to the meager meal with the old prophet.
But as they ate together, the word of
the Lord really came to the old prophet
and told him that the man of God,
precisely because of his disobedience to the word
of God, he would never be buried in
the tombs of his fathers.
The old man, the old prophet, is somewhat
disturbed.
He shares it with the man of God.
They quickly finish their meal, and the old
man gives him his donkey, and the man
of God starts his way home.
But a lion found him and killed him.
Most interesting to note is mentioned twice that
the lion killed the man of God.
It did not touch the body.
That is, it did not eat the man,
nor did it touch the donkey that stood
there beside the lion.
And the people came by, and they saw
the dead man of God and the lion
and the donkey, and they wondered what had
happened.
And Yusuf, of course, came to the prophet.
Eventually he went and brought the man of
God back, and he buried him in his
own tomb.
Now, I share the story with you for
this reason.
That man of God received a double message
from God.
First of all, to go before the king
and denounce the author as being false and
the coming judgment of God.
And if you read the story in 1
Kings 13, you'll find that the man came,
and he did so with great authority, without
any fear.
We're talking about Jonah, who was being sent
to Nineveh, a great and wicked city.
This man of God was sent into the
presence of Jeroboam I, who was a wicked
man.
He made Israel to sin, and if he
had his own way, he would have killed
the man of God on the spot.
But God intervened.
The young man was a brave man, the
man of God.
He gave the message with power and authority.
But the other part of the message for
him was for himself individually.
It had to do with his personal allegiance
to the Lord, and his personal obedience to
the word of God, and that's where he
failed.
A very solemn message for all of us
who are preachers and teachers and elders and
Sunday school teachers and witnesses for the Lord.
How often we can stand up and denounce
to others the word of God, but the
key factor is if we take the word
ourselves and put it into practice in our
own life, there the man of God fails.
And because of that disobedience to the word
of God, he died before he ever got
back to Judah, back to his family and
those who served with him in the service
of God.
God gave him no second opportunity.
I take that story very literally and seriously.
Never count on a second opportunity.
We have no right before God.
We don't come and demand or claim.
All that we have received, and all that
we are, is by the free grace of
God.
And if we abuse our opportunities and privileges,
there is no guarantee of a second opportunity
in the service of God.
Now, why God gave to Jonah another opportunity?
Take this into the mysteries of the sovereignty
of God.
There are a number of portions in the
word of God where similar things happen.
Take the nation of Israel that sinned so
grievously before God.
You find that the Lord says in Hosea
14, these beautiful words, I will heal their
backsliding.
Jonah was a backslider.
He disobeyed the word of God.
So was Israel as a nation.
God says, I will heal their backsliding.
I will love them freely.
And then he adds, for mine anger is
turned away from him.
In Spanish, it does not read, I will
love them freely, but it says, de pura
gracia, which means pure grace of God.
No explanation, no reasoning behind it that we
know of.
Just by the great grace of God, he
forgives their backsliding and his anger turns away
from them.
Jonah disobeyed defiantly the word of God.
God's grace reached him, and in the grace
of God, he was brought back to dry
land and he was given a new opportunity.
If you would like some words from the
New Testament, remember all of us who are
Christians tonight, something we must never forget.
Paul says to us, yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead.
We ought to be dead.
If we are alive spiritually today, it's again
by the grace of God, and Paul says,
now yield yourselves to God as those that
are alive from the dead.
That takes us back to our fundamental salvation.
We were dead in sin, we've been made
alive.
But when we look backward and think of
so many failures and shortcomings, we really stand.
We ought to serve God as those that
are alive, and we really should have been
dead.
In the grace of God, then, Jonah is
given a second opportunity.
Now, when you come to it, the second
opportunity, please notice that right away you have
a repetition of what God said to him
the first time.
I have a brother who, when he was
in school many years ago, you may not
do this in the United States of America,
but in Canada, in years gone by, it
was rather common a bright young boy or
girl was sometimes allowed to skip a grade,
and so you might be in grade two
or three, and then you find yourself in
grade five.
It's not always the best thing.
I think my brother has some regret.
There are certain basic things in life you
miss when you don't go through the regular
educational process, but let me share with you
tonight that in the school of God you
can't skip any courses, not once.
And here is a man who did not
learn to obey the word of God.
When the grace of God brings him back,
gives him another opportunity, it doesn't teach him
another lesson.
Right back to the failure, and the word
of the Lord came to Jonah the second
time, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh and
denounce that city.
I have checked this out in the New
Testament.
This happens over and over again, and in
the Old Testament also.
Let's notice for a moment the story of
Peter.
You remember how he denied the Lord?
We all know that.
Perhaps not all of us remember that in
his denial, it was a double denial.
He not only denied the Lord, he denied
his fellow disciples.
Remember that for Peter said, or they said
to Peter, Aren't thou also one of his
disciples?
He denied it and said, I am not.
I don't belong to them.
I'm not part of that group, nothing to
do with them.
It is also true that one said to
him, Did I not see thee in the
garden with him?
And there again he denied the Lord Jesus
personally, but it was a double denial.
He denied the Lord, and he denied those
that belong to the Lord, his fellow disciples.
Thus, after the crucifixion, when the Lord Jesus
meets him, you remember what he said to
Peter, Simon, lovest thou me more than those?
And he said unto him, Yes, Lord, thou
knowest that I love thee.
Now, that's the reconciliation with the Lord whom
he had denied.
But the Lord Jesus turned to Peter, and
he said unto him, Feed my lambs.
You denied them too.
Now, Peter, you come back to me, and
you assure me of your love.
Now love them and care for them.
Three times he is encouraged to feed the
lambs, to feed the sheep, to care for
the people of God, for he denied them
when he denied the Lord.
And it was on the basis of that
reconciliation which dealt with his problem, the double
denial, that Peter became one of the great
shepherds in the early church.
As he served the people of God, he
learned to love them, and to care for
them, and to shepherd them.
Probably he never forgot the moment when he
denied the Lord, and he never forgot the
moment when he denied his brethren, those who
served with him as disciples of the Lord
Jesus.
Mark, whom we have referred to sometimes called
John Mark, if you remember his problem, after
he returned home when Paul and Barnabas decided
to go on a second missionary journey, they
met together, and Barnabas wanted to take John
Mark.
And there was a great argument between them,
a great, great argument.
If any of you remember Harold Fingen, whom
I never met, but about whom I've heard
a great deal, and have one or two
of the very few books he ever wrote,
in his book on Mark, Dealing with John
Mark, Harold Fingen notes that history gave the
verdict to Barnabas.
That is, Barnabas was right.
Mark was potentially a great servant of God.
It's true that he failed at the beginning,
and in connection with the failure, this was
Paul's complaint.
He went not with us to the work.
That's where he failed.
He did not dedicate himself wholly to the
work of God.
When Paul is now an old man, he
writes these words, "'Take Mark and bring him
with thee, for he is profitable to me
for the ministry,' exactly where he failed.
He proved himself later on, and Paul, who
denounced him the first time, recognizes now he
is profitable in the work or the ministry
of God.
Now, Jonah failed in connection with the word
of God.
It came to him in fullness and in
power with a specific message, and he said
no.
All that he went through, God in grace
brought him back, but the message was the
identical message, and God wanted to see the
obedience which was missing in the first opportunity.
Now, between the word of God and our
obedience, there is a relationship that never ought
to be broke.
Every time the word of God comes, there
ought to be prompt and ready obedience to
that word.
Notice very carefully in Jonah chapter 3, the
opening words, "'And the word of the Lord
came unto Jonah the second time,' and then
verse 3, "'So Jonah arose and went unto
Nineveh.'" The word of God, that's the revelation
of God.
That's God pouring out his heart to us,
the word of God.
Now, that word of God does not stand
in a vacuum in some far-off place.
It's been brought right down to where we
are.
It came right down to Jonah.
I don't know how God spoke to Jonah.
I don't know if it was in an
audible voice or in a dream, how it
was, but the word of the Lord came
to Jonah.
Now, when Jonah arose, there's the beginning of
his response to God, and when he went
to Nineveh, that is the full obedience to
the word of God.
The lesson is so obvious it need not
be labored tonight, but the word of God
comes to us, not in a limited sense
the way it came to Jonah.
We hold in our hands the whole counsel
of God, given to us by God in
love and in sovereignty.
One thing that God requires of us is
that we stand up in reverence before his
word, our response to the word of God,
and that we go not in the sense
of being a missionary overseas, but the word
of God is worked out in our lives.
We hear it, we know it, and we
obey it day by day, not legalistically like
the Pharisees, but the warmth and the fullness
of the word of God is worked out
in our lives by the way we think
and talk and the things that we do.
It fills our hearts.
Paul talks that way about the word of
Christ dwelling in you in fullness, abundantly, that
word of God which fills our hearts.
Well, Jonah, he received the word of God
the second time.
He stood up and he went to Nineveh.
Now, take verse 3 again, according to the
word of the Lord.
I think that's very important.
I don't want to take just little things
and make them too big, but remember it
was the word of the Lord that came
to him, and all of his obedience that
followed in the immediate verses down in this
chapter, what he did was according to the
word of God.
By that, I think it was not a
partial fulfillment of the word of God.
He stood up and he went right down
to Nineveh, and all that he did was
according to the word of the Lord.
There is such a thing as partial obedience,
of listening to the word and taking it
in part, not in its fullness.
That's a very beautiful phrase.
All that he did was according to the
word of the Lord.
That is, the word of the Lord guided
him and filled him at the beginning of
his ministry.
Now, Jonah, in doing this, very sad to
notice that of all God's creatures, man seems
to be the most rebellious.
You see, you find that the great wind,
it obeyed the Lord.
The mighty tempest was under the control of
God.
The great fish did exactly what God said,
swallowed Jonah, then it vomited him up on
the beach.
Finally, at the end of the list, it's
man who now obeys God and acts according
to his word.
That ought to cause a great deal of
sorrow and shame in our hearts that the
one who has created all things and placed
man at the head of this world at
the crowning glory of his creation, man is
the last to obey the word of God.
Jonah is much like Noah right at this
particular moment, for when the word of God
came to Noah, Noah by faith he built
an ark, and the Bible says in Hebrew
he was moved with fear.
The thought, again, is godly fear.
Received the word of God with respect and
reverence, acted in godly fear.
He built the ark for the saving of
his household, and he was a testimony to
the world of righteousness and of condemnation.
He was moved by godly fear.
Jonah was not moved the first time by
godly fear, he was moved by selfish interest.
He defied the word of God, now he
is moved by godly fear.
I don't think we read into the story
anything when we make the suggestion that all
that he saw in that storm of the
power of God brought into his heart, perhaps
as never before, a reverence and a gnaw
for God.
You cannot put God off or put him
aside, and now moved by fear, godly fear,
he acts in accordance with the word of
God.
Now, to me as a missionary, and a
missionary is not a special person, he's a
man of like passion of all others of
God's people, but notice in this story, for
me this is one of the most beautiful
things.
When you obey the word of God, you
come very close to that which is nearest
to the heart of God.
Disobedience takes you away from God, from the
things that are important to God.
When you obey the word of God, then
you get caught up in the passion of
God, in the love of God, those things
that God has very dear to his heart.
Now, notice what this chapter says, verse 2,
"...arrived, going to Nineveh, that great city."
Verse 3, the last part.
Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city of
three days' journey.
Now, this phrase, an exceeding great city, is
the translation of a superlative in the Hebrew
language which is very difficult to translate in
English.
It really means, great before God.
You see, in English we talk about something
that's great, something that is great, or something
that is very great.
I understand in the old Jewish communities, the
greatest superlative of all was to describe something
as great before God.
Now, that's the literal meaning of the word.
Nineveh was great before God.
Very difficult to understand in what way when
you first hear the phrase.
You may remember that we who are men
and women, we have great opinions about ourselves
and the peoples of the world and the
nations of the world, and we sometimes think
we're very great.
But back in the book of Isaiah, this
question is raised, to whom then will ye
liken God?
And then the answer comes, this is only
part of the answer, it is he that
sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and
the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, small and
insignificant before the greatness of God.
And yet, this city Nineveh, so wicked, perverse,
and filled with violence, was great before God.
Now, I want to notice with you that
Nineveh was great in different ways.
It was great in its time, great in
its wickedness, and in its sin.
But here's the suggestion I leave with you
tonight.
This city of Nineveh was great before God
because it was the object of his love.
God loved the city of Nineveh.
I don't think Judah loved the city of
Nineveh.
I don't think Israel cared very much for
Nineveh.
Nineveh represented one of the powers that was
directed against them.
But God loved the city of Nineveh.
That may just be a foretaste in the
Old Testament of the New Testament truth, God
so loved the world that he gave its
only begotten son.
Mystery is beyond our comprehension, but God really
loves us.
He really loves the world.
And when I talk about us, I don't
mean those of us gathered in part of
the palms.
I mean all the people that live in
all parts of the world God loves, and
he loved the people of Nineveh.
And though it was a wicked and violent
place, and it merited the judgment of God,
that was the message that was sent, but
that city was loved of God.
Don't let the message of judgment detract from
the fact that God loves the whole world
today.
It's under the wrath of God.
The judgment could fall at any time, but
if it hasn't fallen, it's another testimony to
the fact that God still loves, and he
loves, and he loves, he loves to the
uttermost, and his desire is to see the
world run and brought back again to the
Lord Jesus.
This great city of Nineveh, it was great
before God.
It was the object of his love, and
when this man, Jonas, decided finally to obey
the word of God, he got caught up
in one of the great missionary stories of
the Old Testament.
And in his ministry, even though he rebelled
again later on, he was the instrument in
taking a message of judgment to a city
that brought the city to its census, and
the city became the object of the salvation
of the Lord.
They were spared at that time the wrath
that was about to fall on them.
In conclusion tonight, think once more about Nineveh.
I've made one or two suggestions.
It was a great city.
The end of verse 3 says of three
days journey.
Very difficult to understand just what that means,
because three days journey would be approximately the
distance of 50 miles.
The Jews calculated a man could walk about
17 miles a day, so you're up around
50 miles.
Nineveh is undoubtedly one of the greatest, the
greatest city in the world at that particular
time.
Even the ruins that the archaeologists have found
are rather astounding.
It was a large city, but it was
not 50 miles across.
That would be an extremely large city, and
the only possible suggestion was that at that
particular time there was an administrative center in
that part of the kingdom.
Nineveh was the key city, but there were
two smaller adjoining cities, and across that triangle
there was the distance of approximately 50 miles.
In other words, it was the very center
of the world that long ago.
It was great in science, but it was
also great in population.
120,000 people lived in the city of
Nineveh, but it was great in its need.
There's a very tender phrase in the last
verse of the prophecy of Jonah where you
read about the six score thousand persons that
cannot discern between their right hand and their
left hand.
That speaks of their need.
They were not Jewish people.
They had not received the law of God.
They knew nothing about the sacrifices.
They knew nothing about the promises of a
coming savior.
Spiritually, they were ignorant people in tremendous need.
So, the city is great in size, it's
great in population, but especially it is great
in need.
And I can't miss the point tonight.
We live in a great world as far
as size is concerned.
Don't forget that the great commission of the
Lord Jesus is just as true and vital
and necessary today as it was 2,000
years ago, if for no other reason than
the reason that the population of the world
today has never before been as great as
it is today.
That is, the need is great, and the
world that we live in spiritually is an
ignorant world in darkness, in superstition, and in
fear.
Now, Jonah loved Nineveh, and I don't have
to remind you tonight that God loves the
world that we live in.
I want to quote the verse again, for
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son.
Those of us who are Christians and now
belong to the Christian community, you often hear
in our communion services, he spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for a
song.
Many remember the words in 1 John, the
Father sent the Son to be the Savior
of the world.
The more you read through the whole Bible,
and especially the New Testament, you find God's
great interest in the world.
He loves the world.
The world that you read about in the
newspaper that's filled with crime and hate and
corruption, all of the awful things that happen
in our world.
God doesn't love the sin, but he loves
the people of the world, and we must
love the way God loves.
And as the Father sent the Son, it
was the Lord Jesus who said to us,
as the Father has sent me, even so
send I you.
And I remember listening to John Stott many
years ago as he spoke to us at
the World Congress on Evangelism, that great Bible
scholar from the Anglican Church in England, the
Church of England.
And speaking on that verse, he asked the
question, how did the Father send the Son?
He sent him right down into the world.
Now, the Lord Jesus said, as the Father
has sent me, even so send I you,
not to live in isolation, not to forget
the world that's outside, but to love that
world.
And as we come into contact with it
to witness for the Lord Jesus, the Lord
Jesus actually lived in the world and walked
with people.
Well, as my Father has sent me, he
said, even so send I you.
Not to live in a monastery, but to
rub shoulders with the people of the world,
not to be contaminated with them, but to
witness to them to the truth of the
gospel.
And above all, the Lord Jesus, to accomplish
that mission, he was sent to the place
called Calvary, where he gave his life and
he died for the world.
Not many of us are called upon to
die, but as the Father has sent me,
the Lord Jesus said, even so send I
you.
And many of you know of sacrificial service
for God of many people.
We saw in that film the other night
a man in spite of poor health who
for long years, against all odds, served God
faithfully, and apparently still is in his work
of translation, for he loves the way God
loves.
Now Jonah, and we're not going to get
to the end of the book of Jonah,
Jonah never learned to love that way.
When he saw the love of God come
down on that great city in forgiveness and
in restoration, he was very upset and he
murmured against God.
And it seems to be that the whole
point of the story of Jonah is that
not all of those of us who serve
the Lord share the outlook of the Lord.
Not all of us who talk about the
love of God really know the way God
loves, nor do we love in that way.
Not all of us who talk about the
great price that the Lord Jesus gave when
he bought our salvation know what it is
to serve and sacrifice to the Lord Jesus.
It's so easy, like Jonah, to be a
professional prophet, to know all the terms and
the vocabulary, but not to grasp the love
and the heart of God.
And this man Jonah, though he obeys at
the beginning of chapter three before the end
of chapter four, he is again complaining against
God and he is out of step with
God.
One verse then, as we leave our service
this evening, remember that God said through his
prophet so long ago, not by might nor
by power, but by my spirit, saith the
Lord of hosts.
The reason I leave the verse with you,
there are so many Jonas around the world
today, and many of them are missionaries.
When I left Vancouver in 1947 to go
to the Dominican Republic in the great mercy
of God, before I ever reached the Dominican
Republic, and the stories are a secret that
I never intend to share with anyone.
Before I ever reached the Dominican Republic, God
disillusioned me about missionaries, for I built such
a great concept in my mind of those
who were almost superhuman in their holiness and
saintliness and service for God.
If I'd never learned the lesson, I don't
think I would have ever survived 30 years
in the Dominican Republic.
Most missionaries, in some way or other, are
very much like Jonah.
We have our downfalls, our problems, our failures.
But if that great city of Nineveh, in
that generation, was one to God, it wasn't
through the eloquence of this man Jonah.
It wasn't because of his faithfulness.
It wasn't because of any of his natural
resources.
This is the principle, not by might nor
by power, but by my spirit, saith the
Lord of hosts.
And I know today around the world there
are many men and women, missionaries and national
Christians, who've had their testimony like Jonah.
But God is working through them.
God did not work through Jonah because he
was a great, great man.
He was a man of life passion, as
most men and women God worked through him
through grace and in the power of his
spirit.
And if you read in Romans about a
national conversion, all Israel shall be saved.
And if you know about personal conversion, you
may remember this is the only municipal conversion
we know of in the Bible.
A whole municipality, a whole city, from the
king right down to the most humble person
in the city, they turned to God.
The whole city was brought back to God,
not through the greatness of Jonah, but through
the power of God.
For Paul is right.
We are earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not
of us.
Please take in your hymn book this evening,
and as we conclude our service, we will
sing hymn number 596.
Go labor on, spend and be spent, thy
joy to do the Father's will.
It is the way the Master went, should
not the servant tread it still.
Hymn number 596.
Shall we stand to sing this closing hymn?
Go labor on, spend and be spent, thy
joy to do the Father's will.
It is the way the
Master went, should
not the
servant tread
it still.
Hymn number 596.
Shall we stand to sing this closing hymn?
Go labor on, spend and be spent, thy
joy to do the Father's will.
It is the way the Master went, should
not the servant tread it still.
Hymn number 596.