Let's read Jonah chapter 2 together. Jonah chapter 2, just 10 verses
in. 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 bid 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. So the people of Nineveh believed
God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest
of them even to the least of them. For the word came unto
the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne, and he laid
his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat
in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed
and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king, and
his nobles said, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock,
taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water.
But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily
unto God. Yea, let them turn every one
from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn
and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish
not? And God saw their works, that
they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil
that He had said that He would do unto them, and did it not. I'm somewhat anxious to get into
that whole chapter, but we'll just deal with two or three verses
this afternoon from the book of Jonah. And I was looking at
verse 1 here, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second
time. And the Holy Spirit makes a point
of putting that in there, the second time, Because we know
that in chapter 1 here, in verses 1 through 3, the Word of the
Lord came into him the first time. And we know what happened
when it came the first time. We know the rebellion of this
prophet. We can dress it up and call it
an error, or some pretty word like that, but really to be honest
with it, was it not just rebellion? And we see the loss that came
out of all that. What an awful predicament that
he got himself in here. The trouble that came on him
and these sellers. The misery that came on Jonah
and these sellers because of it. He would not listen to the
Word of the Lord. But here in this, we not only
see the hand of God, but we see the good hand of God, don't we?
The kind providence of God because these sailors, we don't know
how many they were. There may have been 30 or 40
or 100. We don't know how big a vessel this was. But as far
as we know, every one of these men were saved. That's amazing,
isn't it? We read over this and the reason
I say they were saved, they worshipped the Lord. They offered praise
unto Him. I think the Lord really saved
them. The Lord can take evil, can't He? And bring good out
of it. He took this prophet's disobedience and He brought salvation
to these men out of this storm. I love that old poem that says,
plants His footsteps in the sea, and He rides upon the storm.
Don't trust the Lord by feeble sense. Don't judge Him by feeble
sense. Trust Him for His grace behind
a frowning providence. And boy, that was a frowning
providence, wasn't it? But He hid a smiling face. So out of this evil, He brought
good out of it. Even when He chastens His people,
He brings good out of it for His glory and for the good of
fellow man. I bet you these soldiers, and
we know from chapter 1 that they were sympathetic to Jonah. They didn't want to throw him
overboard. They knew he'd got in trouble. They sympathized
with him. But you know, they praised God for the day that
this disobedient prophet stepped on their ship. Because it was
out of that that the Lord brought salvation to their soul. We see
a beautiful picture here of the Lord Jesus, don't we? In His
death, His burial and resurrection. As Jonah was three days and three
nights in the whale's belly, so must the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. We have been
preaching the Gospel from this. Here is the sufferings of Jesus
Christ that we can see in this very passage. Here in chapter
2 and verse 3, Thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst
of the seas, and the floods compassed me about, all thy billows and
thy waves passed over me." That's the language of Jesus Christ. That applies directly to His
suffering. Listen to Psalms 88, verse 6.
Here's what Christ said, "...thou hast laid me in the lowest pit,
in darkness, in the deep." Thy wrath lies hard upon me, and
Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy ways. Sort of the same language,
isn't it? Here's a beautiful picture of
the sufferings of Christ. And he said in chapter 2 in verse
5, The waters come past me about, even to the soul. The depths
close me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. And
the Lord Jesus said in Psalm 69, 1, Save me, O God, for the
waters are come in unto my soul. As you read the book of Psalms,
you see the sufferings of Christ all through. And Jonah says,
You cast me out of Your sight. And the Lord Jesus said in Psalms
22.1, You have forsaken Me. So we could have spent a week
or two, couldn't we, in Psalms chapter 2 looking at the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's something we learn here. And this is what good the Lord
has brought out of it. He saved these sellers out of
this prophet's disobedience because he didn't obey the first time.
Now He's given us a beautiful picture of the sufferings of
Christ and the burial of Christ and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But I think one of the most touching
things here that Jonah said is in verse 2. And when I think
of the Lord Jesus Christ when I read this, I tell you it's
very touching. He said, I cried by reason of
mine afflictions. I cried. And I bet you there
were some tears, don't you? I bet you if you saw Jonah down
under that whale's belly, he was sobbing and tears running
down his cheeks. Here's what the Bible says of
the Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews 5, 7. In the days of His flesh,
when He had offered up prayers and supplication with strong
crying and tears unto Him that was able, Strong crimes with tears. If everything had been written
about this man of sorrows that could have been written, I bet
you time and time again we would have read the little phrase,
Jesus wept. He wept at Lazarus' gravesite. He wept over that bunch of reprobates
in Jerusalem. He wept in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Wept upon the cross. Jesus wept. Oh Lord Jesus, how
we grieved, how we burdened Your heart. But how You must love
us to weep over us like this. Out of my afflictions, I cried
unto the Lord. So you know in a way, I don't
encourage disobedience from anybody. And this poor fellow here, he
lived to regret it. But look at the good the Lord
had brought out of him. We see something else here in
Jonah 2, the resurrection of Christ. This sea was the judgment
of God. And this judgment had swallowed
Jonah up. Had swallowed him up. But I like
verse 10 of chapter 2, when the whale vomited him out. On dry ground. On dry ground. I think the Holy Spirit put that
in there on purpose, don't you? You'd think as big as that well
was to swallow a man, maybe a hundred yards out, he'd have puked him
out and he'd have had to swim on to shore. But he went right
up on the bank and puked him out on dry land. That means something,
doesn't it? This water is the judgment of
God. And the Lord Jesus came under
God's judgment. That's what the sufferings of
Christ are about. Being punished for our sins.
But bad when He says it's finished. And they put Him in the grave.
And when they raised Him, resurrection ground is dry ground. When Jesus
come out, there was no more death. Death had no more dominion over
Him. He's not under the judgment of God anymore. He took sin,
the sins of these people, He took it and He suffered. But
when He raised from the dead, there was no sin. He died unto
sin once, but now He lives to the glory of God. And He'll never
die again, Shannon. Resurrected ground is dry ground,
isn't it? We would have never had this
beautiful picture either if Jonah had obeyed the first time, if
God had not been pleased to bring all this good out of it in chapter
1 and verse 15. And that is satisfaction and
reconciliation for us. I love this and I love what it
teaches us. In verse 15 of chapter 1, And
they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea
ceased from We've got the doctrine that Christ
has reconciled every believer to God. He has made peace for
every believer through the blood of His cross. We've got that
doctrine taught all through the Scriptures. But boy, here we
see a picture. And I tell you, a picture sometimes
is worth a thousand words, isn't it? As soon as we believe in
Jesus Christ, Crucify! There's peace with God. All of
this rage and all of this guilt and all the screaming conscience,
it's gone. It's gone. That's one of the
most amazing things about salvation, isn't it? Religion has us doing,
doing, doing, doing. It's like C. H. McIntosh's little
article. The old lady told a friend of
hers, said, the difference between my religion and yours is just
two little letters. Yours is D-O, D-O, D-O, D-O. And mine is D-O-N-E. Done. And when we look to Christ,
we see that it's done. And what does that do? Brings
peace, doesn't it? The conscience ceases to scream.
There's no judgment left. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. There's no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. And what a beautiful picture
we have that right here in our text that we've been studying. Something else here in chapter
3 in verse 1, and I'm so thankful for this, getting here to our
text. The Lord had chastened this man's
soul, for his rod had fallen heavy upon him because of his
disobedience. But after He brought him into
compliance, He still uses him. What a blessing that is! I want to be used of God, don't
you? I do. I think every child of God wants
to be used of the Lord to testify to people of His grace. But there
are some times when we miserably fail and fall, and one of the
fears that we have is He'll never use us again. Will He ever use
me again? And He chastens His soul because
of it. And we weep and we wait and hope. And then, what does He say? When
He's finished chastening us, when He's brought us back into
compliance, then He says, Go. Go. You remember how Peter felt when
he had been tempted and denied the Lord Jesus? The Scripture
says that he went out and wept bitterly. Boy, he found him a
dark corner, didn't he? and got along, didn't want to
be around anybody. Oh, here was a man that had preached,
a man that had cast out devils, and now here he was, a man that
had denied the Lord Jesus, and even cursed and swore. And then
he went out and he wept bitterly, and I just wonder if he didn't
think, that's it for me, that's it for me. He'll never use me
again. He'll never look in my direction.
Old Scott Richardson used to say, He won't even spit in my
direction anymore. That's it for me. But you remember
when the Lord Jesus raised from the dead? And He was talking
to Peter and He said, Peter, do you love Me? Peter, do you
love Me? Peter, do you love Me? And He
said, Lord, you know everything. You know I've loved you. What
about your fault? What about your denying Me? Lord,
I love you. And remember what the Lord Jesus
said to him? Go feed my sheep. Aren't you glad, brothers and
sisters, the Lord's not like us? Aren't you glad that He don't
take everything so personally? Aren't you glad He don't wear
His feelings on His sleeves, Randy? I just perceived that somebody
said something about me. I see the way you look. It just
hurt my feelings. I don't know if I'm going to
forgive you or not. Boy, it came a second time. I'm glad for that, aren't you?
And a third time and a fourth time. And He continues to use
you, sir. What a blessed, blessed lesson
that is. We see the effects of this chastening
here. I love this. In verses 2 and
verse 3, Arise and go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto
it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto
Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. We see the chastening
in verse 2, and now in chapter 2 and in chapter 3, we see the
effects of it, the results of this chastening. You know the
Bible says that no chastening for the present. Seems to be
joyous, but it's grievous. But afterwards, it yields the
peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby. And we see this illustrated in
this story of Jonah. Man, it's grievous what the Lord
put him through. But now, here's the effects of
it. Here's the results of it. Now
we're going to see how it's affected this man. And the first thing
we see about it is this. Boy, it made him tougher. It
made him tougher. Arise, go to Nineveh, and Jonah
arose and went to Nineveh. You say, Bruce, what do you mean
it made him tougher? Well, do you realize how far
it is from Joppa to Nineveh? It's 600 miles. Have you ever
thought of that? If this whale had spit him out
on the northern side of the Mediterranean Sea, it's still 400 miles. If
you take the distance between there, it's 500 miles. Arise
and go to Nineveh. So he arose and went. If you
were in Carmel where Brad lived, And the Lord said, Wayne, I want
you to go down to Atlanta, Georgia and preach to those folks. Well,
Lord, I'll call and get me a ticket and I'll head out that way the
first thing in the morning. You better get started now because
you're going to walk 500 miles. Can you imagine that? So see, it wasn't that easy,
was it? Maybe this was part of what entered
into it before. Lord, I can't walk 500 miles. I'm getting old. The robbers
that's in the way, the trials that's on the way, will I be
received when I get there? There was probably a need for
this man to be chastened. There was a need for him to go
through what he went through. It made him tougher. There's
things, brothers and sisters, that the Lord has put you through
to make you tougher. Some of the things you've suffered
in the last few years, you would have never been able to bear
it when the Lord first saved you. You were too tender. But
He toughens you up. He brings you to endear hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You fellows that's been in the
military, they don't call you from your mommy's house. are
from flipping burgers and send you off to a war in a foreign
country, do they? They train you. They send you
to basic. They toughen you up. And then
they send you to battle. That's what the Lord did with
this fellow. Made him tough. Made him tough. There's a little
pamphlet, Adoniram Judson. I don't know if there's any back
there or not, It's a wonderful little book. The chapel library
sent it to us. Randy and Esther picked them
up. Judson was born in 1788. He died in 1850. 62 years old when he died. But when he was 22 years old,
he felt like the Lord was calling him to go to India. India at
that time was very tribal. Man, they fought, killed each
other. Hindu religion. We talk about how peaceful the
Hindu religion is. Well, tell those people that.
If you went there and you preached something besides Hindu, they
killed you. And he said he felt led to go
to India to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
met a young lady by the name of Anne Haseltine. And he wrote
a letter to Anne's father. wanted to know if he'd be permitted
to marry Ann and take her to the mission field. And here's
the letter that he wrote to Ann's dad. Listen to this. I have now
to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early
next spring, to see her no more in this world. Whether you can
consent to her departure and her subjection to the hardships
and sufferings of missionary life. Whether you can consent
to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence
of the climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to
degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death.
Can you consent to all this for the sake of him who left his
heavenly home and died for her and for you, for the sake of
perishing immortal souls, and for the sake of Zion and the
glory of God?" And one fellow made this comment. He said, if
Anne were my daughter, I would tie her to the bedpost rather
than let her embark on such a harebrained scheme. And she put in her diary,
listen to this, this is what she said about it. She was 20
or so. Jesus is faithful. His promises
are precious. Were it not for these considerations,
I should, with my present prospect, sink down in despair, especially
as no female has, to my knowledge, ever left the shores of America
to spend her life among the heathens. Nor do I yet know that I shall
have a single female as my companion. But God is my witness that I
have not dared to decline the offer that has been made me,
though so many are ready to call it a wild romantic undertaking."
That's the way this started. A missionary to India. When he got there to preach,
it was six and a half years before he had his first convert. His
first child they had when they arrived there in India was stillborn. A year or so later they had another
child. He lived six months and he died.
Then Judson himself was arrested and put in the prison. They called
it death's prison. And the reason they called it
death's prison was, when they put you in prison in India in
those days, if your family or friends didn't come and feed
you, you starved to death. They didn't feed you. They had
war with Britain at that very same time, and seven out of eight
British soldiers starved to death. This was the prison he was in
for 19 months. And can you hear her? carry him
food and others to keep him alive. Judson was released after 19
months. He and Ann had another child
by the name of Maria. She was one year and nine months
old when Ann died. Six months later, she died. Maria
died. And about 13 years, Judson lived
there in India. This is what he wrote to his
mother-in-law. My little Maria lies by the side
of her fond mother. The complaint to which she was
subject several months proved incurable. She had the best medical
advice and the kind care of Mrs. Wade could not have been in any
respects exceeded by that of her own mother. But all our efforts
and prayers and tears could not propitiate the cruel disease.
The work of death went forward, and after the usual process,
excruciating to a parent's heart, she ceased to breathe the 24th
instant at 3 o'clock p.m., aged two years and three months. We
then closed her faded eyes and bound up her discolored lips
where the dark touch of death first appeared. and we folded
her little hands on her cold breast. The next morning we made
her last bed in the small enclosure that surrounds her mother's lonely
grave. Together they rest in hope under
the hope hopia tree, which stands at the head of the graves. And
together I trust their spirits are rejoicing after a short separation
of precisely six months. And I am left alone in this wide
world, my own dear family, Have I buried what remains for me
but to hold myself in readiness to follow the dear departed into
another world? Nobody left but Him, there in
India, of all of His family. We've grown soft, haven't we? We're so timid. We're so backward. We're so afraid to witness for
the Lord Jesus Christ. If something isn't just right,
if there's any opposition to it at all, what do we say? This
must not be God's will. God make us tough. God put us
through some trials like He did this man. Make us tougher that
we won't wear our fillings on our sleeves. If somebody does
reproach us, that's all right. Our main objective is Jonah's
objective. What is God's will? He didn't
look at the difficult task. He didn't look at the long journey.
He didn't imagine what was going to happen to him when he got
there. One thing that mattered, and what was it? God said, Go. Arise and go. Lord, help us,
brothers and sisters, to arise and go and be tough to witness. I am convinced of this. It seems
like this is a lesson that I've learned just recently. After
all of these years of being a Christian and following the Lord and trying
to preach, it seems like I'm just learning this lesson. If
there's no opposition, if there's no temptation, if there's no
struggle, it probably will come to nothing. But you say, Bruce,
if it's God's will, He'll open the door. I believe that. And
He must open the door. But sometimes He opens it after
we've stood and beat on it. After we've beat on it with our
prayers and our labors. Then He opens it. And then things
begin to happen. Every time I suffer opposition,
I begin to think, this must not be God's will. This is too hard. It's just too hard. You ever feel that way? I don't like to cancel service. It bothers me. It used to bother
me. I just wouldn't do it. I just wouldn't do it. Last time
I felt like I should have canceled the service was the Wednesday
night. We came here and we had the tornadoes. Maybe we had no
electricity. And I thought, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not
putting anybody's life in jeopardy on these slick days. But you
know, if I'm not careful, I'll get so soft. If I see a cloud
rising in the west, I say, let's cancel the service. If I go up
to witness to somebody and he looks at me cross-eyed, I ain't
going to say nothing to that man. Don't we need to be made tough?
Because I'm convinced, brothers and sisters, sometimes out of
this felt opposition, these temptations and struggles, is where God gives
the victory. Let me tell you, just finish
the story about Judson. In 1826 and 1827, that's the
period that Anne died, in those two years, they baptized four
believers. Beginning in 1828, almost two
years after she died, from 1828 to 1831, they baptized 353 believers. But get
this, in 1836 alone, they baptized 1,144 believers. there in India. And Judson's
name, the places that he preached and plaques are still throughout
that country over there that worships all those idols. But
he made his mark. You say, yeah, but look at his
loss. But look at the gain. Look at the gain. And that's
what I see in John. Yes, the Lord put him through
the ringer, and He taught him some things, but one of the things
He taught him was, you're going to have to be tough, Jonah. You've
got to be tough. Five hundred miles, then you
better get started quick. You're going to have to be tough.
And you know if we're going to be in His army, I'm telling you
what, we might as well get this armor on, because it's going
to be tough. If you start doing anything for His glory and the
good of your fellow man, you're going to suffer opposition by
devils. And by men, it happens. It happens. The second effect we have here
in verses 2 and 3, and He made Jonah to be faithful. He was
faithful. The way He said here, Arise and
go unto Nineveh, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. And he rose and went according
to the word of the Lord. He made him faithful, didn't
He? He was a man that you could trust. When He opened His mouth,
what was He going to preach? What God bid Him. What God bid
Him. There's a wonderful passage.
It's a good passage. It's a searching passage. In
John chapter 2, where the Lord Jesus was doing miracles, And
it said, many believed on Him when they saw the miracles that
He did, but He did not trust them. He did not commit Himself
unto them. He did not trust them. He did
not give Himself to them. Because He knew them. He knew
they hadn't been taught. He knew they were fickle. He
knew they'd betray Him at their first opportunity. And that's
what they did. When the Lord calls us to do
anything, He's at first to put us through some trials and heartaches
to bring us to the place where He can trust us. Now that may
seem crazy. That may seem like a bunch of
free willism. But it's not. Listen to how Paul
said it in 1 Thessalonians 2, 3. Our preaching was not of deceit,
nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, But as we were allowed of God
to be put in trust with the Gospel. God entrusts men with the Gospel. I have been as a pastor entrusted
with the Gospel. Why am I afraid to preach anything
else? God has made me afraid. Just
like He did Jonah. Just like He did the Apostle
Paul. Even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which trieth
our hearts. And at no time use we flattering
words, as you know, nor cloak of covetousness, God is witness,
nor of men sought we glory." How could a man stand in the
face of a rebellious world and tell them the truth of what God
said? God had so worked in his heart
to bring him to the place where God could trust him. That's amazing,
isn't it? That's amazing. I know I say a lot about Joel
Osteen. Sometimes when I'm watching preachers
on Sunday evening to see what's being said, sometimes I flip
on him and I can't keep... I want to know what these men
are saying. I think I told you about Ben down at Walmart the
other day and I saw one of his books. The Power of I Am. Did I tell you about that? The
Power of I Am. I thought, man, he's finally
got on to something. I am. I am that I am. And I picked it up and he said,
here's the power of I am. I am handsome. I am pretty. I am powerful. I am this and
I am that. And I thought, how awful, how
awful. Why does Joel Osteen, why does
he want to be patted on the back? Why does he court the praises
of men? Why won't he preach what God says? Why is he not faithful to the
truth? Why does he preach that silly stuff that he preaches?
One sentence, brothers and sisters, One sentence will tell you why.
He does not know God. God has not sent that man to
preach. When God sends a man to preach,
He teaches him, listen, I'm God. I'm God. And when I speak, and when I
tell you what to speak, you don't speak anything else. That's the
lesson he taught Jonah. When he said, you preach what
I bid you, Jonah would have darned said nothing else. Jonah, you go down and preach
and cry against the men of it. I'm not going. I'm fleeing. Okay,
you go ahead and flee. But I'm going to teach you something,
Jonah. I'm going to teach you who I am. I'm going to teach
you that I'm God. I'm going to teach you that I'm
your God. I'm the God of the sea. I'm the God of the sailors.
I'm the God of Nineveh. I control everything. And He
takes this hurricane in His fist and He hurls it out over the
Mediterranean Sea and He brings everything to chaos and there's
loss. And the Lord prepares this fish
and He says to the fish, swallow up that man and take him down
to the bottom of the mountains and don't you bring him up until
I speak again. And when he spoke again, out
he came and vomited him up. And Bud, when Jonah got out of
there, he said, You're God! You're God! And when the Lord
says, You speak what I bid you, Bud, he said with a trembling
voice, Lord, that's all I'll speak. He brings us where we'll trust.
He can trust us with what He commits unto us. You and I and everybody else
and everything else around us, brothers and sisters, are shut
up. We are shut up to what God has
said in His Word. If the Word pronounces us saved
and justified and forgiven, then we are in a happy and safe state. But if the Word shuts us out,
and pronounces us guilty, then no man or angels can help us. God's Word. What God has spoken. That's our only authority. Our
only rule. And He'll never go back on His
Word. And that's what He teaches His
preachers. Go and preach what I bid thee. And Jonah went according to the
Word of the Lord. All of us have heard that question
asked and maybe you've even had this question asked of you. Do
you think that all these millions of people are wrong and you're
right? Anybody ever asked you that?
That's not the way to phrase that question. Here's the way
to phrase that question. Do you think all of these millions
of people are wrong and God is right? That's the way to phrase it.
It doesn't matter what my opinion is or your opinion. What does
God say? And when He speaks, is He right? Somebody said, do you think that
all these scientists are ignorant and only God is wise? I'll let you answer that, as
He made Judah tremble at His Word. Do you think all of these
people who are living and dying in sin will perish because God
is so righteous and holy and just? Do you think it's possible that
man could be right in some cases and God be wrong? I have no trouble with these
questions, and you don't either, do you? Why? Because you tremble
at His Word. Why? Because you know He's God. Next time somebody asks you,
what do you fellas believe over there? Tell them what I tell
them. I answer it with one little line. What do you fellas believe
over there? We believe God is God. We believe
God is God. That's what we believe. That's
what Jonah preached. And here's where we'll start
next week here in verse 5. And here's why this is important,
to speak what God has spoken. So the people of Nineveh believed
God. They believed God. Why didn't
it say they believed Jonah? Who's Jonah? He's just a mouthpiece. There he stands, an old dirty
prophet, sweaty. He didn't love these people,
did he? There was no grace about him. There was no meekness about
him. He just went through there and
he says, Here's what God said. Never even said that. Paul says,
Forty days and none of us shall be overthrown. And boy, they
heard the voice of God. And they believed it. And that's what we'll pick up
next week.