Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. If you could go to please stand with me, turn to song number 194.
"Since Jesus came into my heart," song number 194.
194, on that first verse.
What a wonderful change in my life has been brought Since Jesus came into my heart
I have lied in my soul for which long I had sought Since Jesus came into my heart
Since Jesus came into my heart Sweet billows roll my wandering and go
Jesus, picture me away My soul like the sweet that is dead
Now my path is pure Since Jesus came into my soul
Like the sweet billows roll The sweet billows roll
The sweet billows roll That's him into the sweet
Thank you for this wonderful and beautiful night that you've given us.
Thank you for the opportunity and privilege it is.
And truly it is a privilege to come into your house and be able to hear your word.
We are so honored to be able to hear your word and I pray that we be attentive and please
bless the preacher with your Holy Spirit.
And of course may our singing glorify you.
We love you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Song number 160, crown him with many crowns, crown him with many crowns.
Song number 160 on that verse, crown him with many crowns.
Singing welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be song number 41.
Weep by and by if you want to get that ready in your song book, song number 41.
If you did not get a bulletin, raise your hand, one of the ushers can get one for you.
Information on there, of course, we welcome you to come not this week, but the following
week to our Thursday evening service.
And the reason I say not this week is because we're switching our services this coming week
to Friday.
And I'll give you more info on that in just a bit.
You see the soul winning times in teams, the list of expecting mothers and the stats for
salvations and baptisms there at the bottom left hand corner.
On the right hand side is the upcoming church events.
Of course, tonight we have our watermelon Sunday and that'll be after the service.
So it's basically the way we did it last week.
Just everyone line up right here through that door and there'll be people there to kind
of lead you and guide you into where the watermelon is at.
And then of course, just please pick up after yourself.
So we keep it nice and clean in here.
And then we have our youth rally coming up this Friday, July 18th.
And as I mentioned, we're not going to have a midweek Bible study on Thursday.
That'll be switched to Friday for our youth rally.
And so keep that in mind.
That'll still be at seven o'clock and the schedule is still the same for the youth rally.
If you have any questions about that, just go to the guest center.
All the schedules there.
And if something's not on there that you have a question about, you can talk to myself,
my wife or brother Hernandez and we can help you out with that.
But we're looking forward to the youth rally.
It'll be our first youth rally.
And so there'll be preaching at 1030 in the morning.
And then of course the evening preaching at seven and Camelot in between.
So we're excited about that.
Mini soul winning marathon will be next Sunday on the 20th.
And so we're going to go to Pomona and the soul winning will be from 130 to three and
service will begin a little later, 530, because we're going to have lunch for everyone when
they come back.
And we had a great successful soul winning marathon, mini soul winning marathon when
we first did it in the beginning of the year.
And so we're looking forward to this one pray that we get a lot of people saved and we're
looking forward to it.
TJ mission trip is on Saturday, July 26th, leaving the building at 915 AM and just make
sure you bring your passports and if you have any questions about that, you can see brother
Hernandez.
Of course, the van leaves here at nine o'clock approximately and so or 915.
And so if you need a ride, just you can catch that with us.
Just make sure you talk to brother Hernandez.
I do want to mention one last thing here, brother Hernandez, if you can mute it on the
live stream because we buy and buy heavenly shore on that first, there's a land that
is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar, for the fowl, the whale, the shore,
the sweet, shall sing on that beautiful mellow song of love.
If you'd just come forward for the offering, please turn to your Bibles of Jonah.
What do you mean to not run Jonah chapter 1?
Jonah chapter 1, the Bible reads, "Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son
of Amittai, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their
wickedness has come up before me.'
But Jonah arose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to
Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish.
So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from
the presence of the Lord.
But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the
sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth the wares
that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them.
But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay, and was fast asleep.
So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper?
Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
And they said, Every one to his fellow, come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for
whose cause this evil is upon us.
So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us.
What is thine occupation, and whence comest thou?
What is thy country, and what people art thou?
And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which
hath made the sea and the dry land.
Then were the men exceeding afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this?
For the man knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
Then they said unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto
us?
For the sea wrought and was tempestuous.
And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be
calm unto you.
For I know that, for my sake, this great tempest is upon you.
Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea
wrought and was tempestuous against them.
Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee.
Let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou,
O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.
So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from a raging.
Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and
made vows.
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly
of the fish three days and three nights.
Let's pray, dear Lord God, just thank you for the King James Bible, Lord, and the truths
that we find in your word, Lord.
Just thank you for Pastor.
Please bless him right now as he preaches your word unto us, Lord, and we pray this
all in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, we are in the book of Jonah this evening, and the title of my sermon tonight is A Stubborn
Prophet.
A stubborn prophet.
We're going to give a synopsis of the book of Jonah tonight.
We're going to go through each chapter.
Of course, it's a very short book, but this is an incredible story, and of course, it's
reiterated in the New Testament to signify the death of Jesus Christ and the fact that
his soul went to hell for three days and three nights, but we're going to look at some principles
tonight from the story of Jonah and look at some of the things that we can learn from
his disobedience, his trial, his obedience, and of course his attitude thereafter.
Look at verse number one, it says, "Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son
of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their
wickedness is come up before me."
Now the first thing I want you to notice here is the fact that hard preaching, condemning
preaching can save a nation, right?
Because of the fact that the Ninevites are very wicked, obviously it's a nation that's
going to be destroyed, God's judgment is going to come upon that nation, yet God comes to
Jonah, he tells him, "Hey, go and tell them that they're going to be overthrown."
He's not telling them to go over there and preach lightness and exhortations, and everything's
going to be okay, and God's not mad at you, no, in fact, he goes to them and he tells
them, "I'm going to destroy you, I'm going to overthrow this nation."
What does that teach us?
It teaches us that we need negative preaching.
Basically we understand that we need exhortations, we need positive preaching, we need to be
encouraged in the Lord, we need to be exhorted and encouraged not to quit the Christian life,
to continue to go forward, that a just man falls seven times and rises up again, but
let me just be real honest with you, the majority of preaching that we need as Christians are
rebukes and reproofments.
Why is that?
Well, because of the fact that our natural inclination is to disobey God.
Our natural inclination is to commit sin.
Our natural propensity is to do that which is displeasing unto the Lord.
And so we need a prophet to come to us and tell us we're wrong.
Fornication is evil.
Adultery is wicked.
Don't gamble.
Don't drink.
Don't run with those that do.
Why?
Because destruction can come upon your life and you shall be overthrown, right?
So the point that I'm making here is that condemning sermons can save a nation.
And let me say that condemning sermons can save a church as well.
You know, if you don't preach hard sermons in a church, sin will permeate that church.
You know, a little leaven, leaven at the whole lump, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter
5, and in its context it's referring to fornication.
If fornication goes unfettered, unchecked, people are unrepentant, people are not excommunicated
or threatened to be excommunicated for the sin of idolatry, for the sin of fornication,
of drunkenness, of railing, guess what happens?
Aside from the fact that that person will end up destroying their own lives, they end
up affecting other people in the church because then other people see, well, I guess I can
commit that sin and nothing will happen to me since nothing's happening to them.
But the Bible tells us that they, that sin, rebuke before all that others may fear.
So aside from the punishment that comes upon the person who's committing that sin, other
people see that punishment and say, oh man, I'm going to depart from evil because I don't
want to suffer the consequences of my sin.
I don't want to suffer the consequences of disobeying God because this may come upon
me.
But think about it my friends, the Bible is filled with condemning content.
So how do you know?
Well let's just talk about hell for example.
Hell's mentioned old New Testament and in fact it is the driving factor as to why people
get saved.
Right?
They get saved because they don't want to go to hell.
They believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because of the reality of a literal hell where the
fire is not quenched, where the worm dieth not, it's an eternal punishment.
Hell is a very negative message.
But yet it moves people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
And the point that I'm making here is that sometimes people think, "Well, if you preach
like that, you're going to scare people away from church."
No, quite frankly, we end up scaring people to God because of the fact that knowing the
judgment of God, people are led to repentance.
The Bible tells us that of some have compassion making a difference, others save with fear
pulling them out of the fire, right?
She's saying that hell is often used as a great motivator and incentive for people to
be saved.
I don't know about you.
When I read the Bible, there's times when I read some pretty crazy stuff and I'm just
like, Lord, search me, examine me, Oh Lord, see if there be any wicked way in me because
I don't want to fall under the same condemnation that other people fell into because they were
unrepentant.
The Lord is telling Jonah, Hey, go to Nineveh and tell them they're going to be destroyed.
Why?
Because God knows that that message will hit home and people will get right with God.
So the word of the Lord came into Jonah, the son of Amittai and of course, Jonah is a prophet
that's mentioned one other time in second Kings chapter 14 and he's a great preacher.
He's a prophet of the Lord.
He has this responsibility to go and preach the word of God to Nineveh and you would think
that he would behave as in other times or behave himself like other prophets and just
go and preach, right?
But no, what do we see?
Look at verse number three, but Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord and went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish for he paid
the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord.
So right off the bat, God's like go preach and he's just like, no, I'm going to Tarshish.
Now why did he disobey?
Well, obviously we can speculate as to why, obviously he's just stubborn and disobedient.
But based upon the entirety of the story, all four chapters, it sounds like Jonah just
doesn't like Ninevites.
He's like anti Ninevite.
You know what I mean?
He just has this thing against Ninevites.
He's like a racist against Ninevites.
He has this prejudice against him for whatever reason.
He has like a bone to pick with them.
And the only reason I would say that that's probably the case is because of the fact that
even though he still goes and he preaches to them and they repent, he's like mad that
they repent.
He's mad that they get it right with God.
And he's just like, man, I just wish they were destroyed or something, you know?
And it's obviously a wicked attitude.
And it's causing him to disobey the word of the Lord, right, because of his prejudice
against the Ninevites.
And let me say this, you know, you may have your opinions about other races, okay, it's
not an opinion, it's pattern recognition or whatever, but let me say this, hey, keep your
opinion if that's what you want, but let me say this, may never hinder you for going out
and preaching the word of God to them though.
For God is no respecter of people, you know, the gospel is the power of God into salvation
to everyone that believe it to the Jew first and also to the Greek, you know, and God is
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
So you know what?
Who cares?
You have your opinion.
All right.
But let me just say this.
First and foremost, may not hinder you from preaching the gospel to them when you meet
them at the door.
Okay.
From expressing the love of God into them, you say, well, of course, pastor, aren't there,
you know, isn't that what every Christian believes?
Folks, I remember being in the city of El Monte when our church first started and we
were going, we're having a marathon, a soul winning marathon in Compton.
And Compton is primarily black, some Mexicans there, cause Mexicans, we just take everything
over.
But there's black people there, you know, and, and, and there's, I announced to the
church, we're going to Compton because you know, we want to preach the gospel to those
in Compton.
And there's a guy who was just like Compton.
He never came back after that.
He left the church and never returned.
And that's not the only time that happened.
I mean, one time, I think it was South Central that we were going to and we're going to go
to South Central.
There's a guy in our church who refused to go to South Central because he was white and
there's black people there.
And it was like, oh man, don't you know what's going to happen if I go there?
I'm thinking to myself, yeah, you're going to get people saved if you preach the gospel.
Plain and simple.
You know, he was fearing his own shadow and you know, lo and behold, this guy was like
a hardcore racist.
I mean, this guy just like hated black people and this wasn't known until after he left
our church, but this man had these opinions and it hindered him from actually reaching
out to black people to preach the gospel to them.
You know, and so it's just like, it's nonsensical to have this type of attitude to say, well,
you know, because I don't like this group of people, or I have these opinions about
this ethnicity, they don't even deserve to be saved or something.
That's a wicked attitude.
Preach the gospel to everyone because at the end of the day, let me tell you something,
it doesn't matter how white you are, if you're not saved, you're going to split Hill white
open and the black person that you hated that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ will enjoy
the eternal presence of God, not because of his skin color, but because he believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ.
It makes me think of J. Frank Norris.
J. Frank Norris was like a fundamental Baptist of the 1920s and he had two of the largest
churches during that time in Fort Worth, Texas, and another one was, I think it was in Detroit.
And he had these large churches and he attracted a lot of Ku Klux Klan members.
He had a lot of Ku Klux KKK members in his church because they really liked his preaching
against the Catholics.
But they had this one beef with him and that was that he saved and baptized his janitor
that was black.
They're like, "I can't believe you're going to baptize this guy."
And he got up there and he's like, "Oh, this man's skin is as black as coal.
His heart has been made white by the blood of the lamb."
And he baptized them.
People think, "Oh man, they shouldn't be allowed in our church.
These types of people."
Folks, if you don't like it, you're not going to like heaven because heaven is filled with
different ethnicities of every tongue, nation, and tribe.
At the end of the day, it's just important, are they saved?
And I have more in common with the guy from India who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not the food, but I'm saying the guy who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love him more and have more in common with him than the nationalist American who's not
saved and believes on the Lord Donald Trump or something and rejects Christianity, okay.
The point that I'm making here is the fact that Jonah has a wicked attitude.
He's not going, he's literally disobeying God because of his prejudice against the Ninevites.
Now I want you to notice here that when he's commanded to go and preach to Nineveh, what
does he do?
He flees from the presence of the Lord.
Now this is pretty nonsensical, is it not?
Why?
Because you can't really flee from God's presence.
God is what we would refer to as being omnipresent.
You know, if I make my bed in hell, thou art there.
You know, if I go up to heaven, if I ascend into heaven, thou art there.
If I make my bed in hell, thou art there, Psalm 139.
God is everywhere at all times.
And in fact, we obviously know that God's presence is distinctly different in different
situations.
For example, in the house of God, he's meeting with us here because we're two or three are
gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst, right?
But we also know that God permeates all of society.
His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, beholding the evil and the good, referring
to his omnipresence, his omniscience, right?
So it's kind of nonsensical to think that, oh man, he thinks he can run away from God.
But I submit to you that when it says that he's running from the presence of the Lord,
the presence of the Lord is synonymous with his word.
Okay.
How do I know that?
Well, think about back in Genesis chapter three, when Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden
fruit and then say apple, so the forbidden fruit, right?
They eat of the forbidden fruit.
They recognize that they're naked.
And then the Bible says that they hear the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in
the midst of the day, right?
They hear the voice of the Lord.
And what do they do?
They hide from the presence of the Lord, showing us that the presence of the Lord is clearly
tied to the voice of the Lord, the commandments of God, because what is he running from literally?
He's running from the precept, the commandment to go and preach the word of God to Nineveh.
So he's fleeing from the presence of God in that way.
He's disobeying the word of God.
And you know what?
It's the same today.
Think about this.
When someone gets out of church, they backslide, they're essentially running from the presence
of the Lord.
Why is that?
Because they don't want to hear the preaching of God's word.
You know, when they backslide, what do they do?
They stop reading their Bibles.
Why?
Because they're fleeing from the presence of the Lord.
That's strongly tied into his word.
You know, they don't want to come to church because they know they're going to hear preaching
that's going to provoke them to get right with God, to get sin out of their lives, to
get saved or whatever it may be.
They're fleeing from God's presence, which is synonymous with his precepts, his statutes,
his commandments.
So Jonah is running from the commandment of the Lord.
Okay.
Another thing I want you to notice here is that when you flee from God's presence, when
you disobey God, there's only one direction you can go and that's down.
You're going down.
Look what it says in verse number three again, Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the
presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish.
So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from
the presence of the Lord.
Skip down to verse number five, it says, then the mariners were afraid and cried every man
unto his God and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it
of them.
But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep.
Jonah had given us this picture here that Jonah is not doing well spiritually speaking
because he's going down.
And we see later on that he goes further than just the ship, he actually goes into the ocean,
into the depths, he's swallowed by a whale, he's swallowed by a great fish.
And so what's the point that I'm making here is that when you backslide, when you choose
to disobey the word of the Lord, there's only one direction you can go.
"Well, no, I'm disobeying the word of the Lord so I can make more money on my job.
So I can move up the ladder."
No, you're going to go down the ladder.
"No, no, no, no, you don't understand.
I'm going to stop coming to church.
I'm going to stop reading my Bible.
I'm going to take a break from Christianity so that I can move up in life.
I can move up in my finances.
I can move up and improve myself.
There's only one direction when you flee from God's presence and that's down.
You're going down."
So we see here he's going down.
He's fleeing from the presence of the Lord.
Look at verse number four.
"But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the
sea so that the ship was like to be broken."
Now, I want you to notice here that when you flee from God's presence, his word, God often
sends trials.
Because the wind in the sea, the mighty tempest in the sea is often synonymous with symbolic
of trials and tribulations, right?
When everything just seems to be overflowing, you seem to be overwhelmed, you're drowning
in financial problems, you're drowning in depression, you're drowning in relational
conflicts.
Yeah, that's the tempest that God is allowing into your life to kind of wake you up, which
is exactly what it needs to do to Jonah since he's down in the ship sleeping.
What's God trying to do?
He's trying to wake him up.
And the sad thing about this is that he doesn't wake up.
Who wakes him up?
The unsaved people wake him up.
The unsaved people have to come to him and say, "Hey, wake up, we're about to die in
this thing."
Now look, folks, this is not to say that as a Christian, you're not going to experience
trials and tempestuous wind.
We all do, even when we're serving God, right?
When you're serving God, when you are in church, when you are reading your Bible, you're
winning souls to Christ, you will experience tempestuous winds, trials and difficulties.
You will feel like you're drowning in trials, for a fact.
Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that shall try you, the Bible says.
Why?
Because it's going to happen to you because, "Yea, all that will live God in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution."
The difference is often trials come into our life, number one, because maybe we might have
sin in our lives and God is trying to sanctify us.
He's trying to get us to get right with Him.
But number two, even if you don't have some secret sin in your life, maybe you're not
disobeying the Lord.
God is pruning you to make you more useful and meet for the master's use.
And you know, how does God use someone?
Well, they have to be humble and you know what humbles us?
Trials.
Because you know what trials do?
It exposes our vulnerabilities.
It exposes how weak we really are.
It shows us that we're not all that we thought we were cracked up to be.
And so wins and trials and tempestuous things come upon us, even as a Christian, but there's
a difference though.
The difference between our trials and their trials is God's trying to get Jonah to get
right with God.
To obey the Lord and go to Nineveh and go preach the word of God.
So the mariners come to him and they see him sleeping, look at verse number six.
So the shipmaster came to him and said to him, what meanest thou, O sleeper, arise,
call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not.
And they said, everyone to his fellow, come and let us cast lots that we may know for
whose cause this evil is upon us.
So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah.
Then said they unto him, tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us.
What is that occupation?
Whence cometh thou?
What is thy country?
And of what people art thou?
So what's going on here?
So the shipmaster comes and he's like, wake up, call upon your God.
This doesn't mean that the shipmaster is a believer in the God of the Bible.
What he's dealing with are polytheistic people, right?
So you got this dude calling upon Baal, this other guy's calling upon his false God.
So they're just thinking, oh, hey, what are you doing?
Wake up and call upon your deity to save us from this.
They're being superstitious about this whole thing, okay?
So obviously he gets up and they begin to cast lots in order to determine whose fault
is it that we're in this mess in the first place.
Now we don't know exactly what casting lots would look like.
The Bible doesn't really give us a very strong visual description of what casting lots is.
We would think of like drawing straws, right?
You guys ever drew straws before?
You got four or five straws or whatever and you have one that's really short but you kind
of level them out when you stick them out of your hand and whoever has the shortest
straw is a loser, right?
Well in this case is they cast lots and the way the lat falls is supposed to determine
you know okay this is the person that's going to go, this is the person that's going to
be the apostle as with Matthias and this is a common practice in the Old Testament
in order to determine the will of the Lord and you know coincidentally it actually does
work and it falls upon Jonah so they want to know whose fault is it that we're in this
mess and the lot is fallen upon Jonah and you know the Bible talks about that the lot
is cast into the lap of the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord so you know obviously
we don't cast lots today because of the fact that we don't need to figure things out by
chance or you know by straws we have the Bible like if we need to make a decision we just
go to what the Bible says we don't go to our feelings we don't go to our emotions and in
fact the Bible literally says lean not into thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge
him and he shall direct thy paths it begins to say trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not into thine own understanding you know a lot of people are like oh no just
follow your heart oh that's funny because the Bible says that the heart is the seat
of above all things desperately wicked who can know it it sounds like the heart is not
very reliable to lead us in different matters therefore we need the word of God to override
our logic override what we think is best and just go with what the word of God says so
we don't cast lots today but that's what they're doing and it falls upon him and you know they're
just like hey you know so what's going on where are you from what is your occupation
look at verse 9 he said unto them I am a Hebrew and I thought this was funny and I
feared the Lord oh really the heck are you doing here the God of heaven and
here's the kicker which hath made the sea and the dry land so you know
obviously throughout the Old Testament you hear different descriptions of the
Lord as being the creator the God of heaven and earth hear Jonah saying that
he's the one who made the sea and the dry land well that sea part you know
kind of hits them and it's just like oh man his God is the reason why we're in
this mess to begin with and again they're not believers in the God of the
Bible they're superstitious people but because he said that his God is the God
of the sea therefore they're like oh that lends veracity as to why we're
experiencing this we're in the ocean there's a tempestuous wind we're
suffering because of this guy's God verse number 10 says then were the men
exceedingly afraid and said unto him why hast thou done this for the men knew
that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them then said
they unto him what shall we do unto thee that the sea may be common to us for
the sea wrought and was tempestuous he said unto them take me up and cast me
forth into the sea so shall the sea be common to you for I know that for my
sake this great tempest is upon you now you got to give it to Jonah right to
even say that like here's the solution just throw me overboard me I would have
been like I don't know okay can't help you there you know even though you know
you're the problem right now what's the principle that we can learn there well
you know obviously not everyone is a Jonah but sometimes you got to throw out
a Jonah because sometimes Jonah is the reason why the church or the group or
the family is experiencing tempestuous seas and trials and tribulations and
sometimes you just gotta throw them overboard right you cast out the
scorner and the simple will be where right and so you know he's like throw me
over and everything will be alright now these guys are pretty should I say
empathetic they're compassionate towards Jonah because they actually
refuse to do so because it says in verse 13 nevertheless the men rode hard
to bring it to land but they could not for the sea wrought and was tempestuous
against him so even after he tells them like hey just throw me over they're just
like nah we're not gonna do that bro that's messed up you know we're just
gonna try to make it to land I think everything will be alright well no it's
not gonna be alright verse 14 wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said we
beseech thee oh Lord we beseech thee let us not perish for this man's life and
lay not upon us innocent blood for thou O Lord has done as it pleased thee so
they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea and the sea ceased from her
raging then the man feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto
the Lord and made vows now I still don't believe that they became believers in
the Lord I still think they're just superstitious people they obviously
recognize that God the God of the Bible even though they wouldn't refer to him
as such that he's the one responsible for the tempest but he's also responsible
for the calming of the sea after Jonah was cast out so they in a ritual
ritualistic manner are offering this you know thing unto the Lord to appease him
okay now I want you to notice verse 17 it says now the Lord had prepared a
great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days
and three nights so he's cast into the ocean okay and you know within the ocean
is not calmer than what's on top of the ocean so you have these waves crashing
because of the wind it's even more wild in the actual ocean itself so you know
this guy Jonas tossed over and I'm sure he's being pummeled in the ocean but God
prepares a great whale to swallow him up now I do believe personally that this
whale is possibly referring to Leviathan okay and I preach other sermons in times
past in that regard when you look at the Genesis account for example in
Genesis chapter 1 God talks about in Genesis chapter 1 the creation period
and he describes all of creation but he gives a very general description of what
he's making for example he makes the beast of the field he doesn't give a
specific species a specific type or a specific kind of beast he just says the
beast of the field however when you get to the marine life it almost as though
it seems as though he actually does get specific because he calls it the great
whales and I always thought that was interesting like he's so general about
all of the other creations but when it comes to the marine life he says the
great whales which we would classify as you know a specific type of marine life
blue whale you know sperm whale things of that nature killer whale we think
that that's what it's referring to referring to you know a mammal of the
ocean right but what I believe is taking place in the Genesis account is
that God classifies any marine life specifically if they're very large or
as the Bible puts it great as being a whale okay because the whale is just the
way you describe something that's very enormous right so when he says he makes
a great whale he's referring to marine life that is just very large and so and
I preach other sermons about why I believe when the Bible talks about
Leviathan he's actually could would be classified as being a great whale
because he's a very large marine life creature and we also see from a
spiritual perspective then when God punishes the righteous he sends Satan to
go and punish them right I mean we see that with Job even though he wasn't in
sin you know Satan was given access to go and plague Job and
persecute him and destroys flesh and his family and we see that you know Leviathan
in the Old Testament though a literal creature also symbolically represents
Satan right various instances where that takes place so I do think that this is
possible that this is referring to Leviathan that God prepared to go and
swallow up Jonah in order to punish him for his disobedience okay now this is
going to show us here that even though Jonah disobeyed the Lord he's in
complete rebellion to the Lord he's refusing to go to Nineveh all things
work together for good to them that love God and you said why is that well
because his disobedience led him to getting swallowed up by a whale which
would ultimately picture and represent the Lord Jesus Christ going to hell for
three days and three nights which is why it specifically says that he was in the
belly of the fish three days and three nights oh pastor fish you know you keep
saying a whale but it says fish God just calls him fish you know anything in the
ocean is just a fish or a great well okay so he's in there looking for
chapter two now now you know I don't think that Jonah was like Geppetto
where it's like there's all kinds of space in the whale and he's just in the
boat there and waiting for Pinocchio to come save him or whatever you know and
obviously there's instances even today where literal whales swallow up people
and end up spitting them out and there was even a video circulating like a
couple years ago of someone who swallowed up by well in a I think it was
a kayak and ended up spitting them out or whatever so it is definitely possible
for this to happen the supernatural occurrence here is that he actually
stayed in the belly of the well and that he ended up coming out now we can
conjecture all day long that he really died I would say possibly he didn't die
but it's possible that he did we don't know the Bible is not very clear
regarding that I would say that he probably stayed alive the entire time
but he is in the stomach of the whale and if you're in the stomach of the whale
you're essentially bathing in aside from all of them I'm not trying to be like
nasty here but you know everything that that that marine life has eaten but also
the stomach acids because stomach acids are meant to break down whatever is
being consumed so if he's there for three days and three nights he's
essentially sitting in stomach acid that entire time which would eventually just
completely destroy his body right remove his pigmentation you know just make
him look like a freak okay and and I'm gonna say more about that later because
I do think there's some significance to that now look at chapter 2 verse 1 it
says then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said I
cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the
belly of hell cried I and thou heardest my voice this is powerful so first and
foremost just to kind of show you how stubborn Jonah is bro waits until the
third day in the third night to pray unto the Lord okay I mean did anybody
think about that you know if I got swallowed up like immediately and I knew
it was because of my disobedience I would want to get right with God like
immediately like I'm just like slithering in there I'm just like God
get me out of here but it sounds like according to the passage he didn't cry
out to God until the third day or the third night right the third night excuse
me you know he's there and then he's just sick and tired of being in there
and then he ends up crying unto the Lord to rescue him and what does the Lord do
he actually does save him from that now let me give you a biblical principle
that we can learn from this God is long-suffering very patient patient with
you he's patient with me and you know God as high as the heavens are from the
earth so great is his mercy towards them that fear him the Bible says you know
what God's mercy is not getting what we deserve right and you know this should
be a lesson to you and a lesson to me that when someone backslides and gets
out of church or maybe they're excommunicated maybe they're being
chastised by the Lord in that manner you may think to yourself like man why
doesn't this person get right with God already it's been so long well it's
probably because God's just being really merciful to that person and God in his
foreknowledge understands that this you know it's gonna take some time for this
person to get right with God now if you're that person you might get right
with God one day in you might be the person that gets right with God two days
in but there's Jonah's out there they don't get right with God until the third
night so you got to understand these people out there it takes time for them
to get right with the Lord and this is not to say that we should enable them
right we should never be enablers of people who have been kicked out of
church or involved in wicked sin we need to make sure that we don't enable in
them we don't approve of what they're doing they need to receive the full
chastisement the punishment of their doings but at the same time we need to
recognize God may be merciful to this person he's being gracious to them
because at the end of the day the Lord loves them and believe it or not you
know the Lord loves Jonah as stubborn as he is as rebellious as he is the Lord
still loves him and so he's just kind of waiting the fish is just you know the
whale is just in the ocean just doing his thing and then Jonah's just in there
just soaking in in in stomach acid and you know there's people out there that
are just soaking in sin they're soaking in the stomach acid of the consequences
of their actions they're burning away the pigmentation of their flesh losing
their hair just miserable as the day is long and God's just waiting for them to
get right with God and obviously there's there's various ways that people get
right with God you know as we see with Jonah here sometimes people just need to
recognize the goodness and forbearance of God leadeth us to repentance right
and you know I would much rather get right with God just because I recognize
his goodness in my life but some people need to are like Jonah though or they
need to spend a couple nights in the wells belly in order for them to realize
man I need God to save me from this now that's one thing I want to mention but
the second thing I want you I want you to notice here is the fact that this is
reiterated in Matthew chapter 12 to talk about the death of Jesus Christ because
in Matthew chapter 12 you have the Pharisees coming to Jesus Christ
demanding for him to perform a sign a miracle right and the Lord says that a
wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no
sign be given into it but the sign of Jonas the prophet for as Jonas is three
days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth so he's making a parallel here
to Jonah and this shows us that Jesus Christ when he died went to hell for
three days and three nights you see how do you know well because if he's calling
back to Jonah in Jonah chapter 2 Jonah specifically said in verse number 2 out
of the belly of hell cried I that is symbolically representing the Lord Jesus
Christ because Jonah did not go to hell right Jonah wasn't in hell he was in the
whale's belly but he's prophetically prophesying of the coming Christ that
would eventually descend into hell for three days and three nights just as he
was in the whale's belly for three days and three nights as well you say oh man
that's crazy I can't believe that you would say that Jesus went to hell for
three days and three nights well here's the thing folks is that if the Bible
says that if the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is our substitute that he
took our place that would mean that he took our punishment as well and if you
died to pay for your sins where would you go you'd go straight to hell and
you'd be there for all of eternity okay and so the substitute that Jesus Christ
made is that when he died we like oh no he just paid for our sins you know
that's all that was necessary for our salvation well that's interesting
because the Bible says in Romans chapter 4 that he was delivered for our offenses
and listen to this and raised again for our justification clearly showing us
that we need both right so everything of Jesus Christ is needed to be saved the
perfect life of Jesus Christ is needed to be saved his obedience to God's
command is necessary to be saved his sinlessness is necessary to be saved his
death is necessary to be saved him going to hell is necessary to be saved
because the Bible specifically says in the book of Isaiah that his soul was
made an offering for sin so he went to hell and look folks this is why the
sacrifices of the Old Testament were perpetually made they were burned to
signify the fact that Jesus Christ would go to hell for three days and three
nights you know he is the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the
world and you know what people like to preach that all the day long but can we
also accept the fact that those offerings were burnt just as Jesus
Christ would suffer that and we obviously know we have a ton of
scriptures to back this up Psalm 15 being one of them that would not leave
my soul in hell neither without suffer that holy one to see corruption
reiterated in Acts chapter 2 and it says this spake he of the resurrection
right referring to the fact that though David is penning down those scriptures
in Psalm 15 he's prophetically referring to the fact that Jesus Christ would
resurrect from hell and let me just say this you in my opinion it's hard for you
to make a case of being King James only when you don't believe that right because
what what is the alternative of that interpretation although he didn't go to
hell he went to Abraham's bosom but it says hell though my King James Bible says
hell and in the original language it says hell as well okay there's no such
thing as the second compartment of hell referred to as Abraham's bosom Abraham's
bosom is Abraham's chest cavity that you know Lazarus went to and he was hugging
him and he's in his bosom like this it's not a second compartment of hell and
you know that doctrine is nonsensical for various reasons one being that they
call it prison but they also call it paradise which one is it how do you
call prison paradise it's like a motel in hell or something like that you know
but we see that this signifies the fact that Jesus Christ went to hell for three
days and three nights okay he says in verse 3 for thou had cast me into the
deep in the midst of the seas and the floods can pass me about all thy billows
and thy waves passed me over then I said I am cast out of thy sight yet I will
look again toward thy holy temple the waters can pass me about even to the
soul the depth closed me round about the weeds were wrapped about my head I went
down to the bottoms of the mountains the earth with their bars was about me
forever yet has thou brought up my life from corruption oh lord my god so you
know obviously Jonah is given this visible description of what he's
experiencing in the Wells Bell and you can think about the fact that the
whales going deep into the ocean he's going into the marine trenches to the
to the depths of the mountains in the ocean but in like manner when Jesus
Christ went to hell he went below that right he went to the depths and the
Bible specifically says in Ephesians chapter 4 what is it that he referring
to Jesus ascended I want you to notice this but that he first descended into
the lower parts of the earth okay and so he's obviously referring to the fact
that that's where he went into the heart of the earth referring to the earth's
core which would be rightly described as being hell even scientists can tell you
that there's lava brimstone and fire in the in the center of the earth
regardless of what flat tards think about that verse 7 says when my soul
fainted within me I remember the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into
thy holy temple they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy but I
will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving I will pay that that I
have vowed salvation is of the Lord and so we see you know Jonah singing a
different tune now you know he's talking about the mercy of the Lord he's talking
about the voice of thanksgiving he's like I have paid my vow salvation is of
the Lord I mean he's in there like saying all this stuff so what does God do
he shows him mercy and verse number 10 the Lord spake into the fish and it
vomited out Jonah upon the dry land so this is great you know the the whale
apparently beaches itself or something and just throws up Jonah into the beach
now I'm sure Jonah's really happy right he's like I'm alive he's alive he's not
dead he's you know he's just he's no longer in the well's belly but you know
he probably smells really bad and he looks worse right I mean wouldn't you
agree with that he probably looks absolutely he looks like Michael Jackson
right and who knows maybe there's some deformities in his flesh because of all
the stomach acid he smells but let me say and we said what's the point you're
trying to make with that pastor well the point that I'm making is that you know
sometimes when people get right with God it's great but it doesn't come without
consequences it doesn't come without scars and you know what if you decide to
flee from the presence of the Lord it's possible the fish might vomit you out
yeah for sure it's possible that God will show your mercy but it's also
likewise possible that you're not gonna look at like your former self why because
the whale chewed you up and spit you out Satan chewed you up and he spit you out
and you know what one thing that God can't remove is the consequences of
your actions that you face while you're out in the world disobeying God right
now praise God you know he's out of the whale
praise God he's he's gonna go back and preach the word of God but hold on a
second bro lost his pigmentation I'm sure there's some major health you know
problems that he has and you know what the same goes for anyone who gets out
of the will of God they flee from the presence of the Lord they will Lord
willing they'll come back but I'm just gonna tell you right now they're gonna
come come back with baggage now they can work through those things amen they can
work through the problems work through the baggage but there's still baggage so
let me just say this stay right with God just stay in church just keep reading
the Bible if you're depressed just be depressed and serve God and it'll
eventually go away if you're sad if you're distressed if you feel disillusioned
keep serving God because I'm just telling you right now as difficult as it
is serving God in that particular state it's just a thousand times better than
what you'll get if you get out of God's will and you come back to church looking
like Jonah because you might get a second chance for sure but you're gonna
have some scars you're gonna have some some some problems you're gonna have
baggage you can have disease you can have health issues you're gonna come
back looking like Jonah I think God if you come back but I'd rather just I
rather have just gone to Nineveh in the first place put it that way if I'm
gonna get some scars may I get scars from serving God right if I'm gonna go
through hardships I'd rather go through hardships because I'm serving the Lord
Jesus Christ if I'm gonna suffer some consequences maybe the consequences of
being a Christian you know I rather suffer the consequences of a bombed
building because I preached against the sodomites I'll gladly take that I bear
in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ and one of them is a bomb
building but I rather get that than a drive-by because I disobeyed the Lord
and I'm at some party or something doing that something I'm not supposed to be
doing and you know someone takes my legs or something and I'm paralyzed for the
rest of my life you know what I'm saying but the point that I'm making here is
that at least he came back but let me let me just be real honest with you you
probably have some baggage along with that look at chapter 3 now and I love
this verse here in chapter 3 and the word of the Lord came into Jonah the
second time ain't that great you know he's like go to Nineveh is like nope he
goes this whole series of disobedience he's punished of God he gets right
with God and what happens next God the word of the Lord came a second time you
know what this shows me is that God can still use Jonah and you know what maybe
you're the person who did come back and the world did chew you up and spit you
well here's here's your second chance you can serve God again the word of the
Lord you know God can use you once again not just in your family not just with
your friends but with your church and complete strangers God can use you in a
great way as he used Jonah the second time because the word of the Lord can
come back to you the second time and you know what let me just say this is that
sometimes people don't come back to church because they're ashamed they're
ashamed right they've been out of church for so long they're like oh man I was
gonna be asking so where you been are you fine decided to come back but you
know what quite frankly that's not gonna happen when you come to our church
people don't shame you if you've been out of church for a long period of time
most likely you're just gonna hear that people missed you the transition for you
to come back we'll just pick up where we left off so he comes the second time
look at verse 2 arise go to Nineveh that great city and preach unto it the
preaching that I bid thee so Jonah arose and went into 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 he had 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown now one thing I want you to
notice here is that even though Jonah was backslidden he gets right with God
and he still preaches hard he said what's the point what are you trying to
say sometimes when people backslide and they get back in church they can get a
little soft right because they're like well I messed up so how can I preach
against sin if I messed up but hold on a second the Lord is bidding you to do it
though right he's telling you to do it and in fact often you can carry more
weight in your preaching carry more weight in your admonishments because
you're an example of someone who disobeyed God was punished and guess
what now you're right with God so it's like don't do what I did right and you
know the speculation as far as verse four is concerned about like is this the
only thing that he said I would possibly say that it probably was the only thing
he had to say okay some people say no there's more in this sermon than just
that I'm sure he preached an hour-long sermon I personally think that he
literally just said that 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown you so how do you
know because once everyone looked at Jonah right he's just like I mean he
just looks like trash and everyone's like and and I'm sure someone in the
crowd was like bro looks like he was overthrown you look like you're
overthrown off a ship and then you look like a whale swallowed you and overthrew
you out of its mouth so they're probably thinking like you know oh I'm assuming
this is all he had to say and one of the reasons I believe that is because in
Luke chapter 11 when it talks about Jonah being swallowed by the whale when
Jesus Christ talks about it he the wording is a little different it talks
about the fact that Jonah was the sign right there so no sign be given to it
but the sign of Jonah's the prophet but then in Luke chapter 11 it says that
Jonah was the sign essentially saying that he himself was that epistle known
and read of all men right the way he looked probably communicated a message
of being overthrown you understand what I'm saying so he's like Nineveh shall be
overthrown yet 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown verse 5 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 I'm assuming that known Jonah
probably looked like trash because they were so highly motivated to get right
with God to the point where the leader will see it just a bit he even makes the
animals repent now that's some repentance they're putting sackcloth on
the animals are pouring ashes on the chihuahua like everyone's repenting it's
a powerful message here now some people think that this is referring to the fact
that like Noah not Noah Jonah got everyone saved in Inaba I don't believe
that I don't believe he's preaching salvation of individual people I believe
what he's preaching is the salvation of the nation okay because the nation is
being wicked and the salvation of the nation is not referring to the
justification of the individual it's referring to the fact that nations need
to get right with God by turning from their wicked sin and God will not suffer
them to you know to have that punishment of their nation being overthrown and
destroyed okay so it doesn't say anything about the salvation of the
individual Nineveh was spared from God's judgment now when you read Nahum
you actually see that Nineveh eventually gets destroyed so even though Nineveh
was spared at this time eventually he got destroyed now what does that tell us
it tells us that we can save America in our generation but it doesn't mean the
next generation will you know that it will be spared sometimes we can only do
enough righteousness to withstand the judgment of God withhold the judgment
of God for a few generations but eventually judgment will come okay so
they proclaim a fast they put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even
to the least of them verse number six for the word came into the king of Nineveh
and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him and covered him 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 noble saying 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 everyone 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 so this is what's commonly we would commonly
refer to as a reformation right because it may not be that the people here were
in agreement with the king but they're obeying the king causing them to fast
repentant sackcloth and ashes this is an outward reformation which is still good
we want outward reformations in our country as well we want people to do
right even if they don't think you know the Bible is right about this we want
everyone to behave in a certain way and this ultimately turns God's wrath from
them now verse number 10 is a key verse here it says in God saw their works and
I want you to notice this that they turn from their evil way now what can we
learn from that well we see here that when they turn from their evil way that
is also known as what repenting right and according to the Bible repenting or
turning from your evil way is considered a work to work you know people often
preach a false gospel and they say oh you have to repent of your sins to be
saved we tell them well that's a work no no that's not work yes it is God
literally viewed it as a work now obviously repentance in the Bible varies
based upon its context right so we're not saying that repentance only means a
change of mind there are instances where repentance means to turn from sin or to
turn from you know committing a certain action or even a good action repentance
just means to turn the context of what we're turning from is what's what's
debated the point that we're making is that it doesn't mean to turn from your
sin conclusively all the time throughout scripture because the Bible records God
repenting and in fact the proof of that is actually found in verse 9 who can
tell if God will turn and repent right well if repentance meant to turn from
sin what do we have here we have God turning from sin God can't sin okay so
this is proof that turning from your evil way meaning repenting of your sin
is considered a work according to the Bible now the reformers and stuff they
hate that they hate when you bring up Jonah 3 10 because it completely
demolishes their false gospel as it should it says and God repented of the
evil there you go again that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it
not so God is very much concerned for the welfare of Nineveh now let me just
say this before I before you conclude with chapter 4 and chapter 4 is not
very long and that is that the reason it's important for a nation to repent
of their evil deeds is not just so that nation is not overthrown but it's also
because it creates a culture that is conducive or receptive to the gospel
okay when you create a society a culture that is fearful of the wrath of God you
create individuals that are ultimately receptive to the gospel right and you
know I think of for example the nation of Belize and we're gonna go to Belize
in March to go preach the gospel there but when we first started going to
Belize man we would consider it to be like a Christian nation because there's
just like King James scriptures everywhere the kids that we preach the
gospel to can recite the Romans road they just weren't saved but there are
God-fearing people though when you would ask the people what's a really bad sin
they're just like adultery I mean when will you ever hear that out here it's
like what is a really bad sin that disobeying your parents God-fearing and
it's for that reason that a lot of them got saved because of the fact that they
were right for the picking now I will say that as the years have gone by you
know more tourists are going there it seems that they're being more I don't
know gentrified or whatever and more American cultures coming and it seems
as though they're less receptive whereas when we started going in 2019 it was
just a lot more receptive to the gospel because of the fact that the Word of God
permeated the society point that I'm making here is important for a nation
to repent to remove wickedness from their land because ultimately it
produces individuals in that culture who are receptive to the gospel now look at
chapter four so God spares Nineveh and Jonah throws a party no this is but it
is pleased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry and he prayed unto the Lord
and said I pray thee O Lord was not this my saying when I was yet in my country
therefore I fled before unto Tarshish for I knew that thou art a gracious God
and merciful and slow to anger and of great kindness and repentance thee of
the evil therefore now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me for it is
It's better for me to die than to live.
What a stinking crouch.
The nation gets spared.
He's like, man, I knew it.
I knew that was gonna happen.
How'd you know?
'Cause God is gracious.
God's merciful.
And I knew if I went, the preaching was gonna work.
And you know, he's praying this to God.
He's like, I knew you were gonna do this.
And this is why I believe that he's probably
prejudiced against the Ninevites.
He didn't want them to be spared.
He wanted Ninevah to be destroyed.
That's what he wanted.
He wanted India to be destroyed.
He wanted Israel to be destroyed, right?
He wants this to happen.
He's just like, I just know that God's going to be merciful,
though, and he's not going to do it.
And let me just show you the extent of his prejudice.
Because let's just put ourself in his sandals real quick.
And let's just say we hold that same prejudice
towards Ninevah.
And we're like, I knew that was going to happen.
We would just walk away and be like, whatever.
Have a nice life, bunch of Ninevites, and walk away.
No, what does he say?
Can you just kill me now?
I'd rather die than see Ninevah get saved.
I mean, this is strong prejudice, right?
I'm like, Jonah, you know, really?
Why don't you just go home?
Let's go back to Israel.
Just go back to your homeland, you know,
get some coverings, you know what I mean?
Get some plastic surgery or something.
Move on with it.
He's like, I'd rather just die.
Crazy.
Now, why is he like this?
Because he's just a grump.
Bro's just a disgruntled, stubborn prophet
who obviously has strong prejudice against the Ninevites,
and it's affecting the way he's thinking.
Luke in verse 4 says, "Then said the Lord,
'Doest thou well to be angry?'"
Man, God is gracious.
Like, God's being nice to Jonah.
You know, Jonah's just like, "I can't believe you.
I knew you were gonna do this.
I knew it.
So just kill me."
And what does the Lord do?
Hey, do you think you have a right to be angry?
Like, God is like super, like, God can just be like,
just pick him up and throw him back into the ocean
if you wanted to.
But he's like, "Do you think you're doing right
to be angry?"
So Jonah went out of the city.
He didn't even answer God.
What a rude man.
So Jonah went out of the city
and sat on the east side of the city,
and there made him a booth
and sat under it in the shadow
till he might see what would become of the city.
Crazy.
So, you know, he leaves the city.
He makes a little makeshift booth
'cause it's hot out and he doesn't wanna burn
'cause now he has no pigmentation.
He's Michael Jackson.
And he's just sitting there
and he's just hoping that something bad
is still gonna happen to Nineveh.
He's like, "Let's see what happens."
Crazy.
And the Lord God prepared a gourd
and made it to come up over Jonah
that it might be a shadow over his head
to deliver him from his grief.
So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
It's like, on top of the fact that the guy's just a grump,
he's just stubborn, he's angry, he's disgruntled.
God allows a gourd to supernaturally grow quickly
in order to provide shade for Jonah to protect him
because he's obviously burning very easily,
which is why I believe his pigmentation
is just completely gone.
He's burning a lot.
And Jonah's just really happy
because of God knowing he's happy for the gourd.
So at least there's some relief in this whole thing.
And you know, God has a sense of humor.
Why? 'Cause look what it says.
But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day
and it smote the gourd that it withered.
So it's just like, this guy's not even gonna be grateful
for the gourd I just made.
I'ma create a worm, just eat it up
and you just burn and get some burn.
And it came to pass when the sun did arise
that God prepared a vehement east wind
and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted
and wished himself to die and said,
"It is better for me to die than to live."
God said to Jonah, "Do a style well to be angry for the gourd."
And he said, "I do well to be angry even unto death."
Man, boy, better chill out.
What's wrong with this guy?
Well, I think the Lord is trying to teach him like,
you know, you're getting upset over the wrong things here
and your value system is just completely mixed up.
You seem to be more happy over the fact that
you have a gourd that's protecting you
over the fact that there's an entire nation
that will spare the wrath of God.
And you know what this kind of shows us here
is that we need to make sure we get our priorities
straight as Christians.
And let me tell you, you need to get mad
about the things that God gets mad about
and allow your heart to break over the things
that break God's heart and set your prejudices,
your ideologies aside, okay?
"Oh no, I can't believe the Epstein files
and Trump and all, what am I gonna do?"
I'm not even batting an eye at that, I don't even care.
I just use it for memes, just make good memes.
But I lose no sleep over it.
You know why?
'Cause I don't care for the gourd, care for Nineveh.
You know what the problem with Jonah is?
He's too concerned about things that just don't matter, right?
The gourd doesn't matter.
No, you don't understand, though.
Pastor Mejia, you know, it probably means
that President Trump was on the Epstein list.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So what are you gonna eat afterwards?
What are you guys going after?
You know, I don't really care.
It doesn't really bother me.
But if it bothers you, it's because your priorities
are mixed up.
Because the things that should bother you
are the things that bother the Lord,
like souls going to hell, right?
Prioritize things that are actually important
in the eyes of God.
And the reason I say this, because you know,
on social media, you have all of these Christians online
that are super pro-Trump.
They're all about defending Trump,
and they're all about, they're gung-ho about Trump
and everything, maga this and maga that,
and the name of Christianity.
All of a sudden, this stuff comes out,
and then these same people are like,
you know what, I'm just gonna start a Bible study.
Oh, very noble of you that studying the Bible
was an afterthought.
It was on the back burner.
Why didn't you do the Bible study before that?
Why didn't you go to church before that?
Why didn't you go read the Bible before that?
I'll tell you why, because it's not as important to you.
That's why.
But now that one savior didn't work out,
you're kind of falling back to your previous savior.
Do us that well to be angry for the gourd?
God's trying to tell them like, gourd means nothing.
It's temporary.
It's to offer you temporary relief.
Your house means nothing.
It offers temporary relief.
Your vehicle means nothing.
It offers temporary relief.
Your money means nothing.
It offers temporary relief.
It's things that we need while we're here,
but let me just remind you that we're to be eternally minded.
He says in verse 10, "Then said the Lord,
thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not
labored, neither made it grow, which came up in the night
and perished in the night."
He's like, you're getting mad for things
that you can't even control.
Oh, man, I just can't stand black people,
as if they can control being black.
You think people can control where they were born?
You think people can control how they were raised?
You know, if you ain't white, you ain't right.
You can't even control that you're white.
You just came into this world as such.
Do us that well?
You can't control that.
How are you going to brag about something
and you just had no pardon?
The only thing you had a pardon is finding the egg
and that was it.
And even then you don't remember that.
The Lord is telling them, why do you have pity on the gourd?
You've not labored for the gourd.
You didn't do anything to earn the gourd.
I made the gourd for you.
I put you in that family.
I put you in, I gave you that job.
I gave you the resources.
I gave you that mind.
Verse 11 says, and should not I spare Nineveh,
that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons
that cannot discern between their right hand and the left hand
and also much cattle.
Now, here's the thing I love about the Bible.
There's no happily ever after.
The story just ends.
We don't even know if Jonah got right.
Bro, it's like sunburn right now.
And that's the last thing you heard.
And he probably walked himself back to Israel or whatever,
wherever he's from.
And you know, and that's it.
God is leaving us with this thought.
You need to make sure that you value souls
more than the gourd and more than your own prejudice
and ideologies that you've been molded to believe
because of your upbringing or whatever.
We need to value souls a lot more,
is what he's saying here.
So what's the sermon tonight?
The sermon is simply this, you know,
be a Jonah and that you obey the Lord
even when you don't feel like it.
You know, you might be like a prejudiced person,
but you're still gonna go to Compton and preach the gospel.
You're still gonna go to South Central
and preach the gospel.
But you know what?
Have a better attitude about it though.
Don't be such a grump.
Don't be such a sour puss.
You know, serve the Lord and recognize
that the gourd is not that important.
The city that was spared is important.
Rejoice over the fact that people get saved.
Rejoice over the fact that, you know,
people are believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
and being turned to righteousness.
Don't be a person that just wishes that just,
oh man, I just wish they were just completely destroyed
'cause I just can't stand them.
Obviously there's haters of God out there
that deserve to be greatly punished.
And you know, they deserve the wrath of God.
But you know what?
The vast majority of the world is not like that.
And so don't be that way.
Don't be like, don't be a stubborn prophet like Jonah.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for the example of Jonah.
Help us as your people not to be stubborn.
And maybe we were raised with certain prejudices
and opinions and ideologies.
I pray that you would help us
and the spirit of God that dwells within us
to transcend those ideologies.
And that it would not hinder us
from preaching the gospel to every creature, every person,
to have the love of God in our hearts for them.
And I pray that, Lord, you would use us as Jonah
to be a sign unto the Ninevites, Lord,
to bring a lost and dying world to Christ.
We love you, we thank you, we pray these things
in Jesus' name, amen.
- Psalm number 185, my Savior's love, amen.
Psalm number 185.
Psalm number 185, on that first verse.
♪ I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene ♪
♪ And wonder how a sinner condemned unclean ♪
♪ Shall ever be wonderful ♪
♪ It's my Savior's love for me, I saw the glory ♪