Jonah: When A Believer Is Away From God

Text: Jonah 1:4-16

Theme: When believers are away form God they become an embarrassment to the Lord.

In his book, 101 Hymn Stories, Kenneth Osbeck tells the sad story of Robert Robinson.

Robinson had been saved out of a tempestuous life of sin through George Whitefield's ministry

in England during the Great Awakening of the late 18th century. Shortly after his conversion, at

the age of twenty-three, Robinson wrote the hymn "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (one of my favorites).

Come, Thou Fount of ev'ry blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise:

Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above;

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, Mount of they redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come;

And I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to thee:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, Lord take and seal it, Seal it for thy courts above.

Sadly, that last stanza proved to be prophetic for Robinson. He wandered far from those

"streams of mercy" and, like the Prodigal Son, journeyed into the distant country of carnality.

One day, as he was traveling by stagecoach, he found himself sitting beside a young woman

engrossed in a book of Christian poetry. She came across a verse she thought was beautiful

and asked him what he thought of it. The verse she read to him was from the hymn he had

written years before: Prone to wander Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love. Bursting into tears, Robinson said, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then."

The story of Jonah teaches us that when a person runs from God it is a costly trip. And while that person is away from God his journey is filled with difficulties and detours he is unprepared for.

I. WHEN A BELIEVER IS AWAY FROM GOD, HE SLEEPS WHILE OTHERS PERISH

"The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up." (Jonah 1:4, NASB95)

1. the storms caused by a backslidden believer will cause others around them to get wet

"For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself;" (Romans 14:7, ASB95)

a. Paul reminds us that our lives are affected by and affect those around us

b. the choices and the decisions you make have consequences that spill over into the lives of those around you

2. if Jonah had been obedient to God the lives of these sailors would never have been put in jeopardy

a. this evening’s passage presents one of the many sub-plots in the story of Jonah that we can’t rush through

b. the sub-plot is Jonah and his relationship and impact on the sailors and their impact on him

1) do you see the exquisite irony here?

2) the whole idea of Jonah in fleeing is to get away from those despised heathens

3) he hates the Ninevites

a) he is proud of his own people

b) he is proud of his own pedigree

c) he is proud of his own faith

4) so he is fleeing from despised heathens, and now what happens is he finds himself surrounded by them

3. not only that, the whole idea is to get as far away from dirty pagans as possible, but as we shall see, he ends willing to die to save dirty pagans

A. THE EVENTS TOPSIDE OF THE SHIP PAINT A PICTURE OF THE LOST PERSON'S SPIRITUAL CONDITION

1. another typical commercial voyage has begun

a. hatches have been battened down

b. the sails have been hoisted

c. the anchor has been weighed

2. it will be a voyage of several months with stops at Salamis in Cyprus, Fair Havens in Crete, Syracuse in Sicily, Ostia in Italy, Massalina on the southern coast of France, Tarraco on the northern coast of Spain before finally passing through the ‘Gate of Hercules’ (Strait of Gilbralter) and sailing on to Tarshish, a Phoenician port on the southwest coast of Spain

a. God wants Jonah to go virtually due East to Nineveh to proclaim the judgement of God upon that city

b. Jonah goes virtually due West and twice as far in his attempt to run from God

3. after several days at sea a raging gale sweeps down upon the vessel

a. the weather started getting rough,

b. the tiny ship was tossed,

c. if not for the courage of the fearless crew ...

d. Jonah’s ship would be lost

4. the severity of the storm is revealed in the statement "All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god."

ILLUS. This is an out of the ordinary storm. The ESV calls it a mighty tempest. A tempest was a storm that produced violent winds, heavy rain, and lightening and thunder. It’s so violent a storm that it threatens to break up the ship. Vs. 5 tells us “Then the mariners were afraid ... “

a. these are undoubtedly seasoned sailors

b. they are well acquainted with the difficulty of life at sea and its dangers

c. they had weathered many other storms in their career

d. they do not frighten easily

1) this storm is so fierce that in desperation they have called out to their gods for divine intervention and then begin to lighten the ship by throwing its cargo overboard

5. what do these verses teach us about the spiritual condition of the lost person?

a. 1st, false gods cannot save them

1) every man is inherently religious according to Romans 1

a) the deepest need any human being has is to worship

b) we all have to have some over-arching religious goal or purpose that gives everything else meaning

2) they cry to their gods, but there is no answer

ILLUS. This story reminds me of a similar event in the Scriptures. It is the story of Elijah's confrontation with the Prophets of Baal on the top of Mount Carmal. Elijah has challenged them to a contest to prove whose god is really the God of Israel. The Prophets of Baal go first. They build an alter, sacrifice their bull and then begin praying for fire from heaven to consume the offering. Nothing happens. Their prayers go unanswered. Elijah even begins taunting them.

a) it’s very unlikely that every one of these sailors was equally religious, but in extreme conditions they all got religious ... fast!

3) the gods of a secular society: Materialism, Prestige and Influence have no more ability to come to the sinner’s rescue during their spiritual storms than did the gods these sailors cried out to

a) the prayer of the secular heart today is no different than the prayer of a secular heart 2,500 years ago ... “God, I’ll do anything if you get me out of this.”

b. 2nd, their own efforts will not save them

1) when their gods do not answer, the crewmen took matters into their own hands

2) they begin to lighten the ship

a) how typical of the lost man!

b) when their cries for help go unanswered they take it upon themselves to reform and throw out those very things they thought would make them rich and secure

B. THE EVENTS IN THE HOLD OF THE SHIP PAINT A PICTURE OF THE BACKSLIDDEN BELIEVER'S CONDITION

“ ... But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.” (Jonah 1:5, ESV)

1. the ship is about to sink

2. lives are going to be lost

3. the captain of the ship goes below to see if anything else is left that might be thrown overboard

4. what did he find?

a. Jonah fast asleep and ignorant of the peril

b. like Jonah, it’s easy to forget that there are other people in our boat

1) the other people in your boat are the people you live with, the people you work with, the people in your neighborhood, the people in your apartment building

2) your behavior as a Christian affects them all

5. our text paints a picture of the Christian who is away from God

a. Jonah is out of fellowship with God

b. Jonah is running from the Lord's will for his life

c. Jonah is concerned only about himself

d. Jonah has become a poor witness

6. people all around us are perishing in the raging sea of sin

a. backslidden and disobedient Christians never see it

1) they are like Jonah, sound asleep, and unaware of the danger his disobedience has placed his fellow passengers in!

ILLUS. A recent survey taken among Southern Baptists discovered that over 70% of our church members have neither talked to someone about accepting Christ as Savior nor cultivated a friendship with the aim of leading that person to Christ! Over 50% said that they had not engaged in any witnessing effort what-so-ever during the last year. More concerning than that, almost half of practicing christian millennials say evangelism is wrong.

7. When a Believer Is Away from God, He Sleeps While Others Perish

II. WHEN A BELIEVER IS AWAY FROM GOD HE CONFUSES THE LOST WORLD

"So the captain approached him and said, ‘How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.’” (Jonah 1:6, NASB95)

1. lost people often have many misconceptions of what it means to be a Christian

a. but by and large they realize that being a Christian means we ought to behave and act differently than other people

1) the Apostle Peter wrote that believers are to be a "peculiar people"

2) Jonah was being a little more peculiar than normal

a) it's not every soul that can sleep through a raging storm while his shipmates are throwing everything including the kitchen sink overboard

b) that's a pretty peculiar person

2. when you are a Christian and things are not right between you and God, even the lost people that know you will realize it

A. JONAH CLAIMED TO KNOW GOD YET REFUSED TO SERVE HIM

“Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.” (Jonah 1:8–10, ESV)

1. Jonah's shipmates were confused, and terrified

a. here was a man who claimed to serve the God of creation and yet was running away from Him

2. a lot of Christians are like Jonah

a. they say they "know God" but they refuse to "serve God"

b. they are straddling a fence and need to come down on one side or the other

ILLUS. They are like the little boy who had been told by his mother not to climb the chain link fence in the back yard. But, boys being boys, he could not resist. As he slung a leg up over the top of the fence, his jeans got caught and he couldn't get down on either side. His mother, looking out the window and not realizing her son's predicament yells, "I don't care which side you come down on, but get off the fence!" The boys response is, “I can't. I'm stuck in the middle."

c. a lot of Christians seem to be "stuck in the middle" when it comes to serving God

3. Christians who are stuck in the middle confuse the lost

a. the captain is certainly confused by Jonah’s actions and rebukes him

1) first of all, this heathen captain is rebuking Jonah for being a man of God who has no idea about the problems of the people surrounding him

2) secondly, he is rebuking him because he is not using the resources of his faith to help them’

b. Jonah is rightly rebuked by the captain

III. WHEN A BELIEVER IS AWAY FROM GOD, HE IS CAST ASIDE BY BOTH WORLDS

“Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.” (Jonah 1:11–16, ESV)

1. Jonah had decided to run from God and God's people

2. to his dismay he discovered that the lost world would not accept him either

a. in the final analysis his shipmates cast him aside just as he had cast God aside

A. WHEN BELIEVERS ARE AWAY FROM GOD THEY ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE LORD

ILLUS. Real revival at Calvary Baptist Church when one young man came and got right with God. Greg confessed that he had been an embarrassment to himself, and embarrassment to his parents, and an embarrassment to the church.

1. did you ever stop to think that you embarrass God when you are out of His will and running from Him?

a. Are you away from the Lord, and if so, why?

b. Are you sleeping while people all around you perish and you do nothing for them?

c. Are you confusing lost people around you about God and Christianity by the way you live?

d. are you like Robert Robinson: Prone to wander Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love

e. are you being cast aside by Christian friends and lost friends alike?

If so, you have only one course of action to take. Come back to Jesus and make him Lord of your life. You will never be satisfied until you do.