Jonah by RT Kendall June28

 Jesus said that we must be like children (Matt. 18:3).  Children take things at face value, and we as mature Christians must accept the simple promises of God's Word; such things as 'Preach the Gospel to every creature' (Mark. 16:15) and 'holiness without which no man shall see the Lord' (Heb. 12:14).  It doesn't surprise me one bit that God is using Pentecostals today and passing up most of us.  It doesn't surprise me.  God honors those who believe in the simplicity of His word.  Perhaps the reason God is withholding some of the deep things of His word from the church is because of what it has done to some.  So, I suggest to you, Jonah was a victim of the folly of over-familiarity with holy things.


Jonah was also a victim of the folly of ingratitude.  Jonah should have been thankful that God gave the commandment to go to Nineveh.  He should have been thankful that God saw the sins of Nineveh and was going to discover them and there were a hundred and twenty thousand souls there to be preached to.  But Jonah was unthankful.  The doctrine of sanctification is sometimes called the doctrine of gratitude.  (I would have thought iit is an assumption that we don't think we are saved by being sanctified - that would be a theological error.  It is rather true that we are sanctified because we are saved.)  But some os us tend to underestimate how much God wants our gratitude.  What do you think all the Psalms are about concerning praising the Lord, giving praise to Him; showing thankfulness to Him?  We show our gratitude by the way we live, by our obedience to Him.  But there is the folly of ingratitude; the folly of running from God and thinking that we can get by with it.





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