A Christian in Contempt of God's Will -- Part 1

The Request of God — (Vs. 1:1-2)

Word of the Lord

Hebrews 4:12 — For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

NINEVEH

In my opinion, if you want to fully understand the Book of Jonah, you have to understand just exactly where it is that God is sending Jonah. The Bible tells us here that the Word of the Lord comes unto Jonah and tells him to go to Nineveh, that great city and to cry against it for it’s wickedness had come up before the Lord!

Four times in the Book of Jonah, Nineveh is called a "great city" (1:2; 3:2-3; 4:11), and archaeologists tell us that the adjective is well-deserved.

It was great in history, having been founded in ancient times by Noah's great-grandson Nimrod (Gen. 10:8-10). It is one of the oldest cities listed in the Bible!

It was also great in size. The Wall that surrounded Nineveh covered approximately 1700 acres and had a circumference of around eight miles and boasted somewhere around 1,500 towers.

King Sennacherib who reigned from approximately (704–681 BC) made Nineveh his capital and initiated a building project that included a new city plan in which streets and squares were laid out anew.

The palace he built for himself bore the epithet “the palace without rival”—the floor plan of which was around 1,650 by 794 feet. This massive palace contained about 70-80 rooms depending on which source you read. The palace alone covered about 1.3 million square feet!

We think a 3,000 sq ft house is huge! Could you imagine a house 500 times the size of that!

The city was also great in splendor and influence, being one of the leading cities of the powerful Assyrian Empire.

It was built near the Tigris River which was a major trade route north to south and had the Khoser River running through it.

It also had a major trade route running from east to west on it’s southern border in the foothills of the Kurdish mountains.

These routes created an ancient highway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. Because of its location, Nineveh became one of the wealthiest cities in the world during the height of the Assyrian Empire.

Not only was it great in history, not only was it great in size, not only was it great in splendor, but Nineveh was also great in sin!

The Assyrians were known far and wide for their violence, showing no mercy to their enemies. They impaled live victims on sharp poles, leaving them to roast to death in the desert sun; they beheaded people by the thousands and stacked their skulls up in piles by the city gates; they even skinned people alive. They respected neither age nor sex and followed a policy of killing babies and young children so they wouldn't have to care for them. BEC & The Lexham Bible Dictionary

To say that the Assyrian Empire’s military was ruthless is an understatement! They had no regard for God or man and the people of it’s capital city Nineveh were just as wicked and the Bible tells us here that their wickedness had come up before God!

And so God calls on the prophet Jonah to go to this wicked, rebellious city and cry against it!

Before we move on, I want to take just a second and say, I believe that the same call that went out to Jonah is the same call that is going out to God’s people all across this world today!

I believe God is saying to His people...Arise! Go! Cry against the wickedness of the world that has come up before me!

But we come into our fancy buildings and listen to the message week in and week out and say to ourselves… “oh, someone else will tell them. The preachers will tell them. The Deacons will tell them. The Sunday School teachers will tell them! Someone will tell them!”

Friend, that someone is you! As Adrian Rogers used to say… “God hasn’t called you to sit, soak and sour but to serve!”

And there is no better way to serve the Lord Jesus Christ than to tell the lost of the world of their need for Him!

The reason this world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket is because it is!

We Christians have gotten lax on God!

We have sat down on God!

We have shut our mouths for God!

And many have shut their ears to God!

All the while, people by the millions are dying and going to hell every single day!

Listen to me this morning Church…it’s time for God’s people Rise Up & Go & Cry out to the Lost!

It’s time we start caring for those who are about to bust hell wide open any second!

Friends, Family Members, Co-Workers, Church Members!

If you don’t tell them who will?!

Jesus last command to this disciples was to...

Matthew 28:19–20 — 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

I posted a quote from Charles Spurgeon this week on my Facebook page and some of you may have seen it but he said this...

C.H. Spurgeon — “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go unwarned and unprayed for!”

That, my friend, is the fire and fervor with which the Church needs to care for the lost today! Their ought to be a burning desire within each and every one of us to see those around us be saved!

And my prayer this morning is that God will ignite that fire within each and every one of you sitting here or watching online!

Get on fire for God! Arise & Go & Cry Out against the wickedness of this world & tell someone about the Lord Jesus Christ!

So we see The Request of God to His Prophet Jonah. Now, let’s look at The Rebellion of Jonah.

The Rebellion of Jonah — (Vs. 1:3)

Jonah here is trying to shirk the responsibility of God’s call upon Him.

He doesn’t want to go to Nineveh so he decides he’s going to go the furthest place he can think of away from Nineveh which was Tarshish.

When you look on a map, Nineveh was only around 550 miles from Jonah’s location whereas Tarshish was around 2,500 miles away from his location!

He was literally trying to run from God but let me let you in on a little secret this morning....

It doesn’t matter how far you run or where you run, you can’t outrun God, Amen!

David said in...

Psalm 139:1–8

1 O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.

3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways.

4 For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thine hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain unto it.

7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

Listen, maybe you’re here this morning or maybe you’re watching online and you’re trying to run from God’s call on your life!

Well guess what…First off, you ran to the wrong place, Amen!

God knew you were going to be here today and He’s found you!

Secondly, it doesn’t matter if you’d of come to this Church or a Church across the country or you could of even done like ole Jonah here and boarded you a cruise ship to the Bahamas, listen, there isn’t anywhere you can go far enough, deep enough, high enough, or wide enough to escape God for He is the God of all creation, Amen!

Stop being a Jonah this morning!

If God is calling you to do something, quit running from God and run to God and you’ll save yourself a whole lot of trouble as we are about to see here.

Look next with me at The Ramifications of Jonah’s Rebellion.

The Ramification’s of Jonah’s Rebellion — (Vs. 1:4-6)

Here’s ole Jonah, and he thinks he’s got it all figured out. He’s laid up in the belly of this ship, taking himself a nice long nap when all of a sudden the ship runs into a storm and not just any storm but a storm initiated by the mighty hand of God!

The Bible tells us that the storm is so bad that the ship is in danger of being broken into and somehow, Jonah is sleeping through it!

The other men of the ship see the dire situation they are in and begin to call out to “their gods” and throw everything on board overboard to lighten the load and make the ship easier to control but what they didn’t know, was that it didn’t matter what they did to the ship, God was in control of their situation!

And this morning friend, what you need to understand is the fact that when storms come our way and it seems that things are out of our control, they are still under God’s control, Amen!

This is probably what allowed Jonah to sleep so well. Even though he was outside of the will of God, he understood that God was in control of every situation.

You can almost see this play out as well as we read on a little further.

The ship master comes and wakes Jonah up and says, “get up man and call upon “your God” and maybe He will hear us and spare us from perishing!”

Little did the ship master know, that Jonah’s God was the one and only true God and he was about to experience His great power!

So, here they are, the ship is being tossed to and fro and everyone is in fear of dying and calling upon their gods. Now, look at The Revealing of the Ramifications.

All is about to be revealed.

The Revealing of the Ramifications — (Vs. 1:7-13)

Now, let me begin to try and piece this little book together for you.

Here’s Jonah, he’s running from the presence of the Lord. He’s running from the call of God upon his life and the reason he’s running isn’t because he’s scared to go to Nineveh, it’s because he doesn’t want to see the people of Nineveh saved!

We will see that a little later on in Chapter 4 but the significance here is the fact that Jonah goes as far as to tell these men to just toss him overboard instead of taking him back to land!

He would rather die, than to go back to land and fulfill the commission that God had given to him!

And you know what, I believe there are probably some of you sitting here this morning and you’re just like Jonah!

You’d just as soon be tossed over board than to go and fulfill whatever commission it is that God is placing on your heart!

I don’t know what it is or who it is that God is wanting you to go talk to but you do and you know that God is calling you to do it but you’re ignoring Him and hoping that eventually He’ll just quit calling on you to do it…guess what…He ain’t going to stop calling until you willingly submit!

We are seeing that play out before our very eyes here with Jonah!

And here’s Jonah and he’d just as soon these men toss him overboard so he could die rather than go to Nineveh and declare the message that God had for them!

The thing that got me about this section is the fact that once Jonah told them who his God was, they were scared to death!

They were reverent to Jonah’s God! The Bible even says that they were afraid!

They were so afraid that when Jonah tells them to throw him overboard, they said, “you’ve lost your mind! We’re not throwing a man of God overboard!”

And they tried making it to shore to let him off the boat!

In their minds, they thought if they threw him overboard with the seas the way they were, he was a gonner but if they could make it to dry land they could let him out and maybe God would spare them but God had different plans!

Sadly, they did more for Jonah than Jonah WAS WILLING TO DO FOR HIMSELF!

So they try with all their might to bring the ship to shore but God wasn’t having it!

Next, we see The Repentance of the Sailors.

The Repentance of the Sailors — (Vs. 1:14-16)

The sailors begin to cry out to Jonah’s God, the one, true, God and they basically beg for their lives.

“God we’ve tried everything we can to get your man to shore but you aren’t having it. Please don’t hold this against us! Please don’t let us perish because of what we are about to have to do. We believe this is what you want and not us! We want to get him to shore but you aren’t having it so please don’t hold what we are about to do against us!”

Then they grab ole Jonah up and toss him overboard and immediately the sea stopped raging!

This was the final act needed to convince these sailors who the real God was!

The Bible says after witnessing the calming of the sea these sailors feared the Lord exceedingly and even offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows!

Now, we don’t know what those vows were but I’d like to think these sailors found a new God to serve!

I believe they vowed a vow of obedience to God almighty. The God of heaven and earth which hath made the sea and dry land!

And maybe you’re here this morning and God is dealing with your heart and you need to turn to Him!

Listen friend, you can turn to every other god this world can offer and you will come up empty and wanting but if you will turn to Jehovah this morning, you will find a God who is filling and fulfilling, Amen!

Before we move on, I want you to see here the irony of the story before us here!

We have a man of God running from God and men who knew not God running to God!

I’m telling you when you really begin studying ole Jonah there is a lot more than meets the eye!

So we see The Repentance of the Sailors. Now, look at The Reaping of Jonah’s Sewing.

The Reaping of Jonah’s Sowing — (Vs. 1:17)

Let me share with you something that jumped out at me that I’ve never paid attention to before.

Notice what the Bible says here....

“The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah!”

You see, Jonah thought he had a plan but what he didn’t realize is that The Master had a greater plan, Amen!

By telling the sailors to cast him overboard he thought he’d still get out of God’s commission for his life by drowning but God is always a step ahead!

God prepared this fish for just a time a as this! Isn’t that amazing!

How does a man live in the belly of a fish? When the fish was prepared by God for a special purpose in mind nothing is impossible!

Jonah’s wish was to die but God’s will was for him to prophesy!

Jonah was about to reap what he’d sown!

God was about to show ole Jonah what it feels like to be lost, helpless and hopeless just like the Ninevites he was commissioned to preach to!

The Bible says in...

Galatians 6:7–8 — 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Charles Spurgeon said that God never allows His children to sin successfully, and Jonah is proof of the truth of that statement. "For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives" (Heb. 12:6, NKJV) — BEC

For the next three days Jonah would get a chance to think about his decision and the call that God had placed upon his life and this time of reflection would lead to The Repentance of Jonah in our next section.

The Repentance of Jonah — (Chapter 2)

Notice what the Bible says here in Verse two about Jonah’s repentance.

I love what Warren Wiersbe said about this.

Warren Wiersbe — His prayer was born out of affliction, not affection. He cried out to God because he was in danger, not because he delighted in the Lord. — BEC

Even though his cry was a cry of affliction instead of affection God still heard it.

How many times have we called out to God because of affliction in our own lives?

I’m sure glad He hears those prayers too aren’t you?

“Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.” Speaks of turning from his own way and turning to God’s way.

He turns from his own cares, his own desires and turns to God’s will for his life!

I like how it speaks to the length of his repentance. “The waters compassed me about, even to the soul.”

When God wants to get your attention He usually does it by going to the deepest part of who you are!

SALVATION IS OF THE LORD!

This is the smartest thing Jonah has said all day!

Listen to me this morning Church...

Bro. Bobby can’t save you.

Children, your mother and father can’t save you.

Parents, Church membership can’t save you.

Water baptism can’t save you.

A priest can’t save you.

Money can’t save you.

Your title can’t save you.

Your great name can’t save you.

Your tithes can’t save you.

Your good works can’t save you.

Listen to me this morning friend, Salvation is of the Lord and no one or nothing else!

You come to the Father through the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ...

John 3:16–18 — 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

If you intend on making it to heaven friend you better understand this passage and understand it well.

He that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already!

Have you believed today?

If not, you need to!

As we will see next week, God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and yes that means even you!

If God is dealing with your heart today, trust upon His Son before it is too late!

Closing