Excerpts Taken From R.T. Kendall's

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in the United States startled his denomination when he made the statement that if the Holy Spirit were completely withdrawn from the church the work of the church would go right on as though nothing had happened. 

Now it may be easy for us here this morning to accuse those outside our walls.  It used to be that the Anglicans would accuse the Catholics and that those in the Free Church tradition would accuse the Anglicans and we may want to accuse other Evangelicals.  But as long as we justify ourselves and blame everybody else, I promise you, this work may go on just like it has without the unction of the Holy Spirit.  For I suspect that we are no different here.  If the Holy Spirit were completely withdarawn from us the work would go right on as though nothing had happened.  

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