"Purpose and Providence" a Study on the Prophet Jonah part 2
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He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.
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: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
Introduction.
Introduction.
Jason Birthday.
If you listen to the Sermon titled “Souls that are in Prison Now” Bro. Branham talks about how a Prophet’s ministry has three pulls to it, and the third pull is to the lost. (Attitude-Altar Call)
Throw it in deep water, pull it slow (1st) pull it away from the little fish to attract the attention of the little fish (2nd) Set the hook (3rd)
(Pull = Attraction)
Noah’s ministry, all ministries, done the same. 63-1110M - Souls That Are In Prison Now
Nineveh in the big picture was a type of God’s mercy to the Gentiles.
At the end of the gentile age there had to be a prophet with a third pull ministry.
During the Third Pull Ministry mercy is over for a certain group, but not for the elect. Only for the big fish.
This is what Jonah didn’t understand, so he ran from his responsibility. Lets remember that word. Responsibility.
During the first and second pull of his ministry, Jonah was very popular, the people loved him, his meetings were well attended, but the third pull would be different. He ran from his Third Pull responsibility. (70 disciples)
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
The reason, the principal reason, that I believe that he did this great thing here, was because Jonah was a Jew. And he was asked to go to a Gentile city, to cry out against it; thinking that he would not be received.
Because, the Gentiles would think, “What’s this Jew got to do with us?” But, you see, another thing, it gives us a great thing here to see, that God not only is God of the Jew, but He’s God also of the Gentile. He is God of all people. 65-0217 - A Man Running From The Presence Of The Lord
And here we find an example of all of us. Every one of us, we always are running from something. We run from trouble. We run from responsibilities.
We, we’re all prone to do that. We, we are, we are more prone to run than we are to stand and face it out. See, we just…We find ourselves running. 65-0217 - A Man Running From The Presence Of The Lord
1. The Prophet’s Responsibility
1. The Prophet’s Responsibility
A Prophet is responsible top God.
Cry aloud, spare not, Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, And shew my people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.
Bro. Branham is talking about himself and the Marriage and Divorce Question.
He could put it off under the first and second pull but under the third pull all the loose ends had to be tied up.
Jonah’s responsibility:
Travel to a foreign land.
Preach to Gentiles.
Be rejected, either by the Gentiles or his own people.
He knew he had to do it, but he just couldn’t face up to it.
How many of us have responsibilities we don’t want to face!
Moses had to do it, and Elijah had to do it. Every prophet in his age had to stand up and face these responsibilities. But many of them didn’t do like Jonah. He run; they didn’t.
John the Baptist was very unpopular in his age. He cried out against his age. He said to the king, the potentate of the land; he had, he married his brother’s wife.
He had to preach on marriage and divorce, one morning. So he cried out against it, he said, “It’s not lawful for you to have her.” It cost him, his head to be cut off, later, but he cried out and he stood to his post of duty.
He never took a ship to Tarshish, and said, “Well, I’ll agree with you, Herod. It’s all right. As long as you think she’s a nice woman, she’s making you a nice wife, go ahead.”
Oh, mercy. Them dishrags, you see, yeah, just every little thing…Why, it’s nothing but to clean dirty plates with.
But, notice, John wasn’t that way. He faced right up to it. He said, “It’s not lawful for you to have her.” Yes, sir. And he stood out against it. 65-0217 - A Man Running From The Presence Of The Lord
Paul faced his responsibility.
Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
If you never hear my voice again…But, God willing, I’m setting to Africa, in a few hours. I may never return. I don’t know. But I tell you, with all my heart, I’ve told you the Truth.
I haven’t shunned to declare to you everything that God has told me to say. And I’ve said It in the Name of the Lord. 65-0429E - The Choosing Of A Bride
He fulfilled his responsibility.
2. A Preachers Responsibility
2. A Preachers Responsibility
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
Even, many times, we find…This is hard to say, but it’s true, that ministers, many time, shirk a responsibility for standing for the true Word of God when they’re confronted with It. They’ll shirk that responsibility.
But even as I said, ministers, they’ll come face to face with Truth, and then walk away from It. See, they’re just have…There seems like there is something that they don’t want to face up to it.
You don’t have to be a prophet to have a responsibility to the Message.
“He said, “The lion has roared, who can but fear? And God has spoke, who can but prophesy?” When you see God doing something, you say…
“I might not be a prophet…” Jonah said…“I might not be a prophet, or the son of a prophet. But God has spoke, who can but prophesy?”
I might not be a prophet, I might not be this, that, or the other. When I see God doing anything, and I see it here in the Word, and He promised it, who can hold their peace and keep still? Sure, He’s done it. 65-0217 - A Man Running From The Presence Of The Lord
3. Parents Responsibility
But to face up to responsibilities, sometimes it takes the very hide off of us, to do that.
As a father, to face up the responsibility, to give your child a whipping. Them little fellows, you don’t want to do that.
But as a father or a mother, you’ve got to face the responsibility of raising that child, because the Bible said, “Spare the rod and you’ll spoil your son.”
And that still stands good in the sight of every psychologist there is in the world.
That still remains God’s Truth. If there had been more of that practiced, we wouldn’t have had so much juvenile delinquency and stuff, and the rot we got in the world today.
But the old golden rule of the home has been broken, long time ago, and they let the kids do whatever they want to. 65-0217 - A Man Running From The Presence Of The Lord
He that spareth his rod hateth his son: But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
Did you know the scriptures never put the primary responsibility for discipline on mothers?
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
No mention of the mother.
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Fathers and mothers need to face up to their responsibilities.
It’s a joint responsibility.
Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Because Meda wasn’t Billy’s real mother she never spanked him. (Complex family situations)
“I seen his mother give him a spanking when he wasn’t six months old, but Meda has never touched him at all.
She ought to have done a little more maybe, or maybe it’d been different. She left it all up to me.
Some people say they don’t believe in spanking them, but you know the Scriptures says if you spare the rod you spoil the son, so I believe in correcting children, making them mind.
If we had more of that, we wouldn’t have too much juvenile delinquency. 61-0426 - Micaiah The Prophet
4. People’s Responsibility.
4. People’s Responsibility.
We all have a responsibility to this Message.
(Men pricked in their hearts)
Any man that comes into the Presence of God is responsible before God, from that minute on, to tell somebody else.
Look at Abraham, look at Moses, look at Peter, look at Paul. The moment they come into the Presence of God, recognized themselves “sinners,” and sealed their testimony with their life.
Look at the little lady, she couldn’t stay no longer, she went to the city and told the men, “Come, see the Man that told me the things I’ve done. Isn’t this the Messiah?”
They could not deny It, because It was Scriptural. Certainly. Yes, they’ve got to do it, a man, when we got a responsibility of telling others as Moses did, as Peter did, as Paul did.
After these things, you’ve seen It and come into His Presence, you’re responsible for the Message to get to somebody else. You just cannot sit still with It. You must take It to someone else. 62-0909E - In His Presence
Many times I’ve had people come, say, “I know that’s right, Brother Branham, but if I did that, they would kick me out of the church.” What of it? If you don’t, they’re going to kick you out, up There.
So you got to be kicked out, somewhere, see. So you might as well face up to it, instead of running from it and say, “Well, I’ll go over here. I won’t go back.” Go back, sure, listen to some more of It.
Search the Scriptures. Jesus said, “Search the Scriptures, for in Them you think you have Eternal Life, and They are They that testify of Me.” But we find that people won’t face up with that.
Being brought to, into the Presence of God, and see when God made a promise, and God is obligated to that promise.
And when He brings that promise to pass, then people are afraid to face up to the responsibility of coping with the Message of the hour. We find that everywhere.
And when you see then, in this day now, when the Word of God has made these promises of things that we see happening now, then we’ve got the responsibility to either face up to It or get away from It.
You just can’t stay neutral. You’ve got to do something about It. …Some move has got to be made.
You can’t come in that church door and go out the same person you come in. You’re either further away, or closer to God, every time you come in or go out there.
Now when we find these things, though, when we’re confronted and come into a meeting, and see the Power of God moving and doing things,
and doing supernatural works, and see it performed, and look in the Bible and see that it’s promised for this hour;
then when we see those things, then we are confronted with the responsibility to either accept it, I mean, as for ourselves.
Now, many people sympathize, many people say it’s right. But that don’t make it what…That ain’t the thing that you’re responsible for.
(Example: Marriage)
That’s the same thing the Message is. You might say, “It’s right, or this, that, or the other.” And say, “I sympathize with It. I believe It’s the Truth.”
But you’ve got to accept It; and It’s got to become a part of you, and you a part of It. You’ve got…Then, It’s yours.
When you marry this certain woman that you have chosen, you are one then.
And that’s the way you are with Christ. When you see Him manifested and made real, then you are a part of Him, and He is part of you. And, together, you’re a part of the Message.
And so we find out that we have many easy ways to go, ships going down to Tarshish, for it’s easy, the unresponsibilities.
It just flows in, you have everything coming; everybody likes you. Nobody disagree with you; you disagree with nobody. Now, if that ain’t a dishrag!
How wishy-washy, that’s what’s too many Christians today, are so soft-soaped and everything, until they think all they do is join a church, go in somewhere, put their name on a book, or do a little something, jump up-and-down, shout, or something like that, and call it Christianity.
Christianity is a everyday, rugged life, living for God in this present world. It’s a constant burning of the Fire and love of God, in the heart, that sets you afire and puts you out yonder with the people, and making converts to Christ.
But it’s easy to go the way the world goes. It’s easy to flow down the stream.
Go out there and set down in the river, with your boat. You get your oars and start pulling up against the current; you don’t make much time, and it goes hard.
But you just once let loose the oars and watch how fast you pass the trees, going down, but look where you’re going!
When things are floating easy, remember, you’re going towards a great cataract down there, of some sort. You’re going towards the falls, and it won’t be long you’ll be going over that falls.
Just floating with the world, easy, the way it goes, you don’t want that. No, sir. But you must …accept your responsibility.
And the responsibility that God has given us in this day, to bring this Message! And as I get older, and I know my days are shortening up, I feel the responsibility greater than I ever felt. Pressing on, we must do it!
We must get down to it, in everywhere we go, and tell the Message; and tell the people that Jesus Christ is coming, that He’s God and He’s coming soon. There’s not a hope left in the world but the Coming of the Lord. 65-0217 - A Man Running From The Presence Of The Lord
Conclusion.
Conclusion.
This is our responsibility.
When the phone rings, answer it.
(New boss and maintenance man )