Jonah

  I once knew some Dutch people very well.  And they told me that for a long time they sincerely believed that God spoke Dutch.  Since I have been in this country I have found out that some think God speaks English, with an English accent!  Jonah thought that God spoke Hebrew and Nineveh was hardly on Jonah's prayer list.  But God's prerogative to do what He wills with whom He wills the way He wills is something that we need to learn.  And after all, God can do it differently from the way He has done it in the past.  Peter was told by Jesus on one occasion how he was going to die.  You know what Peter's question was immediately:  What about John here? (John 21:21).  And it could be that God will want to do something in the world with a nation that you had not thought of, or with an individual you would not suspect.  And God may actually want to do something through you, and you ask:  Why me?  Why not this other person?  Why not that one?  You see God may deal with you in a

  God then not only has a claim over every life, but now back to the question:  Why Nineveh?  Well, God has a claim over every nation.  Perhaps one of the most unexplored areas in theology is the matter of the relationship between God and nations.  God's purpose in the world iis much broader than merely dealing with individuals.  We are told in Isaiah 40 : 15 that the nations to Him are but a drop in the bucket.  And God is dealing with nations, not merely individuals - nations. There is that very interesting verse in Matthew 25 where we are told our Lord has come to set up His throne in His glory and the words are: 'before Him shall be gathered all nations' (Matt. 25:32).  God has a claim over every nation.  Now, it is quite right for you to believe ant God is interested in all the details of your life; your marriage, or whom you will marry, who you should keep company with.  Boys and girls, it is perfectly all right for you to ask God to help you with your school work.  G

  The book of Jonah shows us that God's prerogative is to do what He wants to do.  God has a work for you to do and perhaps when it first comes to you that this is His will your question is: Why me?  You'll be a wise person if you begin now to obey.  Don't get into a lot of trouble, arguing with God, rebelling against Him, because, I remind you, I warn you, God has a way of getting His way. You see, God has a claim over every man; You are bought with a price, your life is not your own (1 Cor. 6 : 19-20).  Oh, I know what it is to be situated in a very comfortable situation and then have God interrupt that state.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  To be comfortable; to be happy and then God interferes and you rebel.  We don't like the thought that we are not our own, but I remind you that you are not.  You are bought with a price and God has a claim over your life.  I don't care who you are.  So, you are not to argue.  But we don't care who you are.  So, y

The highest state of grace to which you will ever attain is loving the glory of God.  When William C. Burns was leafing Scotland for China one put it to him sarcastically: 'I suppose you are going to China to convert the Chinese/' He replied" 'No, I am going to China to glorify God.'  May God hasten the hour  when we all have devotion like that, when we see that God has a will of His own and that the ways of the Lord are right. Well then, the book of Jonah shows us that God's prerogative to do what He wills may not be on our schedule.  What God wants to be done may not be that which we anticipated. Now, I raised the question: Why Nineveh?  But I want to put another question: Why Jonah?  We don't know much about this man Jonah.  He is only referred to one other time in the Old Testament.  You will find that in 2 Kings 14:25 Jonah had once been used of the Lord.  Perhaps not in a spectacular way but Jonah nonetheless had seen God use him.  But then, why would

  The Glory of God is that which no man can see and live (Exod. 33: 20).  So we are told that we can only see the glory of God by reflection, as in a mirror, and in that mirror we see the face of Jesus Christ (II Cor, 3:18-4 : 6).  For in Christ dwells al the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col.2 : 9).  'He that hath seen me hath seen the Father' (John 14 : 9).  The glory of God, then, mist be understood in this sense so  that directly it is that which no man can see. The second sense, though, in which we use the term 'glory of God' is to be as seen as the dignity of His will.  God you see has a will of his own, and I suspect this is the most painful lesson that we have to learn. God has a will of His own.  The church is in its present state because it has not recognised this. We have wanted to go one way while Go has a will of  His own, and we don't like it.  The glory of God is the dignity of His will and the greatest thing that can ever happen to a man is to se

And then there is that third big word, God's omnipotence.  That is, He is all-powerful.  That means, God can do anything, and the book of Jonah shows us this, how that God is even in control of nature.  It was God who sent out a great wind into the se3a - God is all-powerful. Now, I ask you: Would you want God to be any other way?  There are those who don't like the fact that God knows everything but I ask you:  When you are in trouble, when you are desperate, how would you feel then if you were calling upon a God who didn't know His own mind, much less the mind of others?  I tell you, there is nothing more comforting in a time of distress and turmoil than to rediscover  that God knows all, that He is everywhere and can do anything. But I also mentioned the character of God.  Will go a little more deeply into this question, Who is God?  For the book of Jonah is full of this.  You see, God is essentially to be understood as a God of glory.  Now, the glory of God is to be und

 The  BOOK of Jonah gives us a sharp profile of the character and the attributes of God.  Now, when we think of the attributes of God, we should know that theologians refer to God's omniscience; He is all-wise.  He knows everything.  Did you know that God cannot learn?  But don't feel sorry for Him; it is because He already knows.  And you see, God does not make mistakes; God does not err; God is perfect in every way.  He not only knows all from the stand-point of having all knowledge, but He is all-wise.  So that, what God  purposes is right and even what God permits is right.  God does not err - God does not misfire.  God does not have to say: 'I made a mistake', for God is right from the beginning, NS and   Paul tells us that God has dealt with us in al prudence (Eph,  1:8).  So that you can be sure, you can be positive, you may have assurance that God's guidance over your life is perfect.  We then, God is all-wise but there is an attribute called the omnipresenc

Listen, if God can save you He can save anybody.   If God can save you He can save anybody.  Can you think of anybody more difficult than yourself?  And you don't know whom God is going to save next, and it could be the person you are wanting to see converted seems so far from God.  Many times we give up because we think the task is so great; we say: 'It is too much.  But God can do it and when God tells us to do something we'd be better off to begin to obey at the beginning. But we are told that Jonah had other thoughts.  Despite the fact Jonah was given the word of the Lord, despite the fact that God came to Jonah in such an intimate way, calling him by name, knowing his background, singling him out - such a favour God did Jonah - we are told that Jonah wanted to do other things: Jonah rebelled; Jonah disobeyed; Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord.  Jonah had other thoughts. When Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord that might have been the

'   God may ask you to do something and it doesn't make sense to you.  God.   God may have a plan for you and you are trying to figure out the end from the beginning.  Why would God say to Jonah: 'Go to Nineveh'?  We don't always know why God picks certain places to do things.  You don't know why you were born where you were born and not in another country, under different parentage, on a different date in history.  And God may be directing you in a certain way you don't understand.  It may be the thing that God is asking you to do.  You say, 'I can't do it.  It's too big for me, it's too great.  That step would be a giant step and I am not big enough to do it.  I am afraid.  I can't take that step.  I cannot go that direction.  Besides, I can't understand why God would say: "Do that", You see, God knows all places and you never know what God is going to do next.  would have thought that God had any plan for a place like Nin

  Your Creator invites you to take Him as your partner.  Do you not have a partner?  Maybe you have a partner and don't trust  your partner.  Or, it may be you have a friend who has turned his back on you.  God wants to be your partner: your partner in business; your partner in school; or your partner in the home.  Is your marriage in trouble?  God wants to enter your home and bring you back together.  Most marriages can be saved.  Oh yes, God is interested in those things.  You can go to a psychiatrist, or a psychologist (and I do not underestimate their help), but what will give you personhood is when you realise that your Creator would come to you and bring you in and deal intimately with you and be your partner in your frustration with your financial problem, with your sickness, with your disease, with your trouble.  That is the kind of God who calls.  And so, the word of the Lord goes forth familiarly.  'The word of the Lord came to Jonah.' We are told that the word of

When Isaiah gave the prophecy to Israel the word were: 'Fear not, O Israel, I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by the name'(Isa. 43:1).  You see, when God  singles you out, He calls you by your name.  It's like that story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19ff).  We don't know the name of the rich man but we know the name of the man who ent to heaven.  An you will remember when Jesius was resurrected form the dead and the angels had a word to those disciples that came to the empty tomb, the angels had a word to those disciple that came to the empty tomb, the angels said: 'Look, go your way, tell His disciples and Peter' - singling him out by name - 'that He goeth before you into Galilee'  (Mark 16:7).  'God deals familiarly with men,' It is Christianity that gives you personhood, that gives you authenticity, that gives you purpose.  Do you wonder why you are alive, why you have been thrown into the world?  As the existentialists put it:

But do you know something?  When God speaks to men He speaks in a personal  way to them; He speaks familiarly with them.  One old Puritan in the seventeenth century on his death bed uttered these words to those who had come to say good-bye.  He said  :'One   thing that I have learnt is that God  deals familiarly with men.' We are told that the word of the Lord came unto Jonah and it identified him, 'the son of Amittai',  Maybe you are living in a world that does not care about you.  Do you know what it is to walk from this place, go to the Underground, but nobody knows your name?  You can go home and nobody all the way will know your name.  You can  go home and nobody all the way will know your name.  You can go to work and  on the way nobody knows your name.  A large city like London can be the loneliest place in the world.  you feel nameless.  Nobody knows you, much less do they care.  Listen!  God calls you by your name.  He knows who your parents are, He knows your

  There is a third reason that I have chosen the book of Jonah.  This book, this story, shows in many ways how God converts a sinner to Himself.  I cannot think of a more evangelistic book than the book of Jonah.  It shows how God saves men.  How many of us went the opposite way when we first heard the word of the Lord.  How many of us heard it and rejected it, until finally, like Saul of Tarsus, we found that it was 'hard to kick against the pricks.' (Acts 9:5).  How many of us have experienced the severity of God's wrath in our rejection of Him.  I have known some to hear the Gospel, reject it and go on and on in their rejection for weeks and months and sometimes years, and eventually find out that God is going to have His way.  You see, you may win the battle but God will win the war.  And when God gets His hook in our jaw you may fit like a giant blue marlin; you may take off in the sea and run in the other direction; but God has a way of reeling you in, and this may be

  Lets be honest, we are all Jonahs.  We know what it is to be thrown overboard; to be swallowed up until finally we surrender and admit that God's way is right.  You see, Jonah is ilustrative of how God keeps His own.  What a great doctrinal truth underlies this whole book.  I possibly shall be saying more about this than anything else-that God has a way of preserving His own.  In reformed theology we call  it 'the perseverance of the saints'.  Southern Baptists call it 'eternal security' and there is the cliche over there 'once saved, always saved'.  Fair enough.  I defend it.  Jonah is a proof of that.  God has a way of getting His way. There is a song that we some times sing in the States and I suggest that this be our motto, that God does not compel us against our will but makes us wiling to go.  Now, I may be talking to someone who is truly converted to the Lord Jesus Christ but you are not living like it.  You lmay well be a Christian but one would ha

  You may be able to accuse anybody else but may God hasten the hour when you see this folly and begin to accuse yourself, not your wife, not your husband, not your mother, not your father, not your children, not the one sitting next to you, not that one you are inviting to church.  You must accuse yourself. The fact is we are bankrupt.  We are, in fact, little if any different from the world outside.  The world laughs at us.  The world does not respect us.  Are we to be on the defensive?  And prove why we are good?  I think not.  The hope of the world is that God in mercy will prepare a great fish, as it were, to swallow us up and make us see our folly and repent. There is a second reason that I have chosen the book of Jonah. I identify with Jonah.  I confess before you openly.  You are looking at a man who knows what it is to be a Jonah.  I know what it is to have the Lord come to me 'the second time saying: Get up now, go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it' (

Jonah. I will go a step further.  The trouble with the world today is to be traced to the sad state of the church.  YOu remember what Jesus said, speaking to the church.  'Ye are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt has lost its savour it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men' (Matt. 5:13).  These are the words of Jesus, our Lord, to the church.  We are the salt of the earth but when we've lost our savour we are god for nothing.  Jonah became good for nothing and had to be thrown overboard.  It is time for all of us to accuse ourselves, to see that it is our own fault that the world does not repect us. We are like Jonah - good for nothing and we deserve the world's rejection. A few years ago one prominent minister in the United States startled his denomination when he made the statement that if the Holy Spirit were completely withdrawn from the church the work of the church would go right on as though nothing had happe

Jonah   Jonah 1 : 1-3 Why should I choose the book of Jonah to inaugurate this ministry?  The book of Jonah is one of the most relevant books for the present time.  First of all, it is analogous to the modern church.  It presents a story that ominously parallels the situation at the present time.  I am referring to the church, speaking generally.  The church today is in retreat.  It is not really in the battle.  The church has an inferiority complex and, like Jonah, who ran toward Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, has determined to run from God and go in another direction.  The church has done this: the church has been given a message to preach but is not preaching it.  The church has been in rebellion to the revealed will of God and has missed her calling.  The church has looked to Tarshish and not Nineveh.  The church is like Jonah who paid the fare to sail on the ship going in the opposite direction from what God demanded.  The church has spent its energy, its time and its mon