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Part 5 Jonah 3, Jonah's missionary journey and his amazing success as an evangelist By Graham Miller

 chapter of the prophecy of Jonah and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the
second time saying arise go unto Nineveh that great city and preach unto it the
preaching that I bid thee so Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the
word of the Lord now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days
journey and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried
and said yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown so the people of Nineveh
believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of
them even to the least of them for word came unto 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 nobles saying let neither
man nor beast heard 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 and God saw their works that they turned from
their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do
unto them and he did it not may God bless the reading and now the meditation
upon his holy work I believe you have been learning in these recent days that
Jonah has many names he possibly is called in this convention Jennifer it
may be he's Gerald but you just think rather personally about it now the one
who was given his commission by God who fled from the will of God who was
arrested and hurt by the wounds of a friend and brought at the last ultimate
point of human rebellion and backsliding to see that God's love is an everlasting
love and that the love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind he
brought him back when he didn't want to be brought back Nineveh and the
discovery of Nineveh a hundred years ago was just a sentence bigger sensation
in the circles of archaeology and biblical studies as the discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls was in the year 1947 all the references to Nineveh its
greatness in the Old Testament were very definitely questioned up till about 1840
the reason for this was the troublesome fact that the Greek history
historiographers of the fourth and fifth century BC who were past these areas
had no reference whatever to Nineveh as a city Strabo Herodotus Xenophon they
marched past Nineveh with the Greek armies but no reference whatever is made
to the city it wasn't until 1841 that Layard doing excavations and
archaeological survey work in the footsteps of a Frenchman called butter
investigated some mounds on the bank of the Tigris River he drove a tunnel down
through a mound on which a few straggly huts had been built by Armenian or
Nestorian Christians who were refugees from the Turkish Muhammadan communities
in driving this shaft through the mound he found odd trinkets of a great culture
many of them showing an Egyptian origin as they went further they uncovered
monuments with inscriptions on which were wedge shaped characters the wedges
being thrown together in different arrangements obviously implying
hieroglyphics of a language which at that time could not be deciphered as
time went on Rawlinson and other scholars deciphered this Babylonian
script a Syrian script and found the clue in the monuments to the greatest
source of contemporary evidence for the historicity of the Old Testament
scriptures they found as they went on with the decipherment of these tablets
monuments obelisks and sections of great walls references to Hiram king of Tyre
Jehu king of Israel Ben Haidar of Syria and then there's a strange silence
concerning the outcome of the famous Assyrian invasion of Judah when the
Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold her cohorts all gleaming with
silver and gold you remember it it's interesting that the Babylonian or
Assyrian historian mentions the expedition but not the sequel a summary
of the history of Nineveh and Assyria is this that it reached its peak as a major
gangster nation comparable in world influence at that time with the USSR
today about the year 780 BC that was about the time of Jonah's command to go
to Nineveh 50 years later the prophet Nahum prophesied its downfall you'll find
a reference to that in Nahum chapter 3 verses 1 to 7 it was eventually captured
by the Babylonians and Medes about the year 606 BC it was completely
devastated by fire everything was destroyed the walls were tumbled down
the place was made uninhabitable and that was the reason why when subsequent
armies only 200 years later passed the site they said where is this famous
legendary city this Nineveh that once shook the world well that's by way of
historical background for the chapter which gives to us the record of the
Billy Graham of the 8th century BC preaching with greater fruitfulness than
any crusade which our present contemporary servant of God has hand
chapter 2 which we studied yesterday closed the first great continuous
miracle of Jonah's preservation in the great fish you notice the last words
were and the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry
land no doubt Jonah found a conveniently placed stream gave himself a good cold
bath washed off the slime and gastric juices of the great fish and looked
round and said well now where's East and where's West this time I'm going the
other way and you'll notice that the first verse of chapter 3 is and the word
of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying arise go into Nineveh that
great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee the last time
I'm sure mark was grateful for God's second time bring mark said Paul for he
is profitable to me in the ministry I'm sure Peter was grateful for Christ's
second time go tell my disciples and Peter but you know what we attempted to
do we attempted to say what get her we tried her out in the kindergarten at the
Sunday school you couldn't depend on but it depends what kind of a her it is has
he been to God has he been to the convention then God's second time may
find a different servant this time all fruitful obedience has to be rooted in
surrender otherwise we obey to show off our new frock or we obey because our dad
and mum said it's nice to teach Sunday school or we obey because we've got a
lot of powers there some of them boys who are rather attentive to us we've got
all sorts of mixed motives until God sorts them out and sifts them and the
great sifting moment is the point of full surrender Jonah has reached that
point he's not going to argue anymore he's found the place where to obey is
better than sacrifice you'll notice too as I noticed as a lad of 16 that the
moment of full surrender is frequently the moment when God communicates to us
the place and purpose of his will for our life it was 11 years after I was led
at the same convention where I discovered these wonderful truths that
you've been hearing from mr. Harris and others at this convention it was 11
years after I discovered those and kept saying to myself now I wonder why dad
didn't ever preach about these things he did but I didn't have any years to heal
them and you're saying that here I wish our minister had half the life these
people in consumer have he has but you've never given him any encouragement
you listen when you go back he'll be saying the same things as you have heard
here the only difference is God has brought you here to get you into
position into a position where you can listen and obey you're going back now
like Jonah the second time with a surrendered heart and consequently our
willing heart to do what God wants you to do failure to respond is often an
unwillingness to surrender all to Christ and when we do surrender all
immediately there comes low this has touched thy lips and thou art clean and
I heard a voice saying whom shall I send and I said here am I Lord send me and it
may be a long time between the offering of your life in service at this
convention and the day when your friends will gather out of Kingsford Smith
Airport sing as the plane revs up and you'll wave to them from the side
window it may be a long long time but it's not too soon to offer now Moses a
very solitary and isolated man when the call came Gideon a violent conflict in
his mind as to whether he could possibly do this work
Isaiah Jeremiah God confronted the moral at the same moment with the necessity
for full surrender and with the privilege of obedience in service and
that's the reason why tomorrow and Saturday you're going to see a stronger
and firmer accent on the life of full-time service now here are the side
here's a summary of the way in which I felt we could deal with chapter 3 of
Jonah first we find Jonah's power for service then we find his perspectives
for service and then we find the pattern of his service and finally we see the
response to his service the power the perspectives the pattern and then the
response and all the way Jonas work presupposed a dedicated tranquil and
surrendered life that is will art and mind under the tuition of God and let's
look first of all at the power for Jonas service in Nineveh there's a
threefold reality here there was the power of gratitude for a great
deliverance gratitude for a great deliverance secondly there was the power
of the fulfillment of a solemn vow thirdly there was the power of obedience
as a submissive servant the first strand in this threefold cord was Jonas
gratitude for a great deliverance we didn't have time yesterday morning so
we'll spend just a moment now looking at the last the very last sentence of his
prayer or some out of the Fisher's belly chapter 2 verse 9 be I will pay that
that I have found salvation is of the Lord now any of you who've got a
marginal version will probably find there that he doesn't really mean that
it wasn't a statement in cold prose it was an exclamation of triumph what he
said was that's exactly what he was saying he came to the end of his son it
rose into a corral of praise and as his corral came to a close he couldn't think
of any better one at way of posing it than saying praise the Lord and that's
literally what the Hebrew is salvation is of the Lord is literally praise be
to thee O Lord it's all your work you hold that hurricane at me you gathered
me into your care when I was unconscious in the depths of the sea you've changed
my heart the greatest miracle of all you've given me another chance hallelujah
praise be to God so he began his new ministry with a sense of gratitude for a
great deliverance I wonder if you have that deep sense in the depth of your
spirit this morning do you know what you've been delivered from are you aware
of what you've been delivered to because that will be a motivating power in the
service of the Nineveh to which God will send you of course it was deliverance
from death that's obvious and external it was deliverance from the belly of the
fish it must have become increasingly uncomfortable after the first few
hours you may remember the words of the farmers in Psalm 40 you can note them
down because I think it could almost have been written by Jonah and he may
have had it in his heart as he thought of these words I waited patiently for
the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry he brought me up also out
of a horrible pit out of the mirey clay and set my feet upon a rock and
established my goings he put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our God
many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord and that's exactly
what they did in Nineveh coming back from the old country after war service
with the Navy my younger brother dropped in at Colombo and went up to the Keswick
guest house in Colombo after being entertained very hospitably by those
gracious ladies he was invited to sign his name on the visitor's book and he
found that there had been a naval rating had signed his name just about where he
signed and the naval rating and put as his text Psalm 116 verse 60 Oh God O
Lord O Lord I am thy servant thou hast loosed my bones you may know too that
those are the words with which Augustine begins chapter 10 of the Confessions the
whole of the Confessions of Augustine are not a metaphysical treatise although
he has a marvelous chapter on the power of memory it's not an exposition of
scripture although there's a marvelous exposition of Genesis chapter 1 the
whole of the Confessions of Augustine are an oratorio of praise in the spirit
of the last words of Jonas Antle praise be to God and he opens you may remember
the last part of book 9 of the Confessions tells us how broken under
the power of sin in his soul he had gone into the garden disgusted with his own
weakness against temptation and he'd heard the children next door prayer
saying tole lege tole lege and he took and read and he read the words in
Romans chapter 13 not in chambering and wantonness not in drunkenness but put
you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to obey the
lusts thereof and he begins the next chapter with the words O Lord I am thy
servant thou hast loosed my bones are they really loosed have they all gone is
it any wonder that your service is going to be motivated by gratitude for a great
deliverance then the second motivating power was the fulfillment of a solemn
vow in chapter 2 verse 9 he had said I will pay what I have done I will do what
I have promised to do looking back over the years to that event when I was 16
years of age I can remember the missionary meeting at that convention in
the south of New Zealand when we were invited to signify our willingness to
surrender for full-time missionary service by coming forward at the meeting
and I can remember the senior one of the senior workers at the convention
gathering us together and saying now it would be a good idea if you kept
together corresponded with one another and we'll have a secretary and he'll act
as a clearinghouse for your thoughts and ideas and helpful suggestions for your
growth I'm not quite sure how many of us reached the mission field or full-time
service and we readily ground the overruling hand of God in some cases but
I'm quite sure that it might have been two out of twenty what a strange thing
but so few are able to say I will pay what I have that and others say Lord
what will thou have me to do please don't show me just yet Lord who will
thou have to go for thee my sister's very well trained it is better not to
vow than having vowed not to perform the third motivating factor in his service
in Nineveh was a new obedience as a submissive servant of God contrast the
two words with which chapter 1 verse 3 commences the first and chapter 3 verse
3 chapter 1 verse 3 was the first symptom of a quarrel with God it begins
with but but chapter 3 verse 3 is the heart of a changed servant and it begins
with so and there's all the difference in the world because it was the same
command which in the one case he reacted to with but and in the other case with
so Jonah obey what's happened those two tiny words represent a vast difference
within the soul of the man Nineveh is the same God's the same physically he's
the same it's the heart that's been changed from fear and misgiving of God
to glad and full surrender now a world or two about the second main section the
perspectives for Jonah's service and the first thing is I think that he we need
to notice that his perspectives before he was a surrendered man were all wrong
now this accounts for the fact that you have many Christians who just can't see
outside their own congregation and when the minister or someone keen says now
look there's a new housing area just a mile or two down the road we need Sunday
school teachers you'll say but I've got my little class here I don't want it to
be disturbed Jonah had that kind of perspective he
thought got heifer was a wonderful place he was building a new brick church it
was going to be a model church he didn't want anybody disturbed a little begonia
plants around the church he had the whole thing beautifully tied up there
was a picture of it in the Saturday pictorial issue of the gap at times and
he hated the thought that God would involve him now in renouncing that
lovely little church which had come into existence under his skilled ministry to
have to go out to some barbaric community Israel is his homeland
get heifer with his hometown and it's just like that with most Christians God
has to give us new perspectives and the great way in which he does it is to give
us a new heart a surrendered heart which says Lord where's my enemy then the
second thing to notice is that he gave him a new perspective on the privilege
of overseas service in chapter 3 verse 3 we read so Jonah arose and went unto
Nineveh according to the word of the Lord now Nineveh was an exceeding great
city of three days journey an exceeding great city is an attempt to translate
the Hebrew idiom which reads like this now Nineveh was a city ever so great in
the eyes of God the Hebrew metaphor in the face of or in the eyes of God is
what is translated thereby exceeding great and if I mention that God's name
occurs there you'll know that the heart of Africa is an exceeding great country
in the eyes of God you'll know that the whole heart of Central Europe is an
exceeding great country in the eyes of God may I tell you a little personal
incident we were passing through Sydney in 1944 wartime no possibility of
announcing our coming we've got a birth on a little boat from New Zealand on our
way back to the New Hebrides from furlough we landed on the dock down
there somewhere at Sydney Harbour they all look the same to me when no Leon
Norgay took me around there the other day we've got onto the telephone I rang
up I think in succession eight different homes and said look we're just drifted
missionaries we need somewhere to stay tonight we've got a small boy who's
crying here and the milk's gone sour in the bottle what can we do and they said
well we're very sorry there's there's really no room here until eventually on
about the ninth call we got round to the Strathfield Bible Training Institute
and a little lady with a Scots voice said we'll make room for you somewhere
and we got into Strathfield Bible Institute and had a wonderful three
weeks there dr. Rose took the opportunity to get a sore throat and
made me do a bit of work for him and I can remember the happiness and the wonder
of those two or three weeks the students were there and we mingled with them at
all the meal tables a little table comprised just three or four students
and myself perhaps my wife I can remember a royal-bound Australian from
somewhere out in the West saying as he's as I was speaking about the pubs in
George Street I think it had been Anzac Day that's right it was Anzac Day and
all the old diggers were around the pub corners and I can remember saying at the
table my word I didn't realize how many pubs there were in George Street and he
said this Australian not long converted he said all I can see when I walk up
George Street is sin s I see and there was a little Chinese last at the same
table and she said I feel so sorry for they don't understand you see Jonah had
the first attitude rub them out God drop your Thunderbolts on them and he had to
get to the second position where he was moved with compassion upon the multitude
or they were a sheep having no Shepherd that word compassion is the emotion most
commonly ascribed to Christ in the Gospels when he saw blindness he was
moved with compassion when he saw men groping for the truth he was moved with
compassion when he saw me a physical hunger he was moved with compassion of
we that compassion give me the love that leads the way the hope that nothing can
dismay the faith no disappointments tire the passion that will burn like fire let
me not think to be a clod make me thy fuel flame of God as for me said John
Williams I cannot think that the confines of a single reef could ever
suffice me for a mission field and John Wesley's parish was the word think about
it it's a matter of perspectives are you going back to till the begonia garden
around your little Sunday school or are you going back to say Lord where's Minny
where's Minny the third thing we need to notice out of the passages the pattern
for Jonas service the first thing to see is that a surrendered servant can face
impossible tasks he couldn't face them before but he's a surrendered man now
and the impossibility is now a possibility the tasks the same the man's
different four times in chapters three and four we read about Nineveh as that
great city in verse 3b we read about it as a city of three days journey and you
may have wondered whatever does that mean did he walk around it did he walk
through it did he zigzag up and down the main promenade how did he manage to take
three days getting into this city according to dr. Hart Davies who wrote
his book on Jonah about 25 or 30 years ago a trigonometrical survey showed the
size of Nineveh was about 350 square miles about the size of Greater London
recently in mr. John Thompson's little and excellent archaeological survey of
the Institute of Archaeology archaeology I noticed a reference to the recent
excavations at Nineveh by professor Malawian of the University of London
Institute of Archaeology they've been excavating the dock area of part of
ancient Nineveh and they've confirmed by their discoveries the immense size of
these Assyrian capitals it seems clear that the Nineveh to which Jonah went was
the greatest city which embraced the adjacent cities of Nimrud and
Khorsabad and Nineveh proper about 61 and a half miles in circumference and
one solitary mission an impossible task impossible and yet Jesus later said when
he cursed the fig tree because it was barren he made an explanation that he
hadn't any intention of discussing why he cursed barren fig trees but he did
make this explanation have faith in God for if you shall have faith verily I say
unto you if you shall have faith nothing shall be impossible unto you and you
know how that text meant everything to Hudson Taylor as he walked up and down
Brighton Beach way back there was it in about 1864 have faith in God it read in
his Greek Testament that it means hold fast the faithfulness of God you can't
find any faith in your heart all you'll find there is seal leaves and a bottom
and an empty bin the faith is God's he gives it to us the very faith with which
we believe as a gift Ephesians 2 verse 8 by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God the faith to believe as a
gift and the faith to do great things for God as a gift and the gift is given
as the life is surrendered and as Jonah surrendered his faith grew mightily the
faith which God imparted to him it was John it was Hudson Taylor out of
experiences such as the one I've mentioned who said that there are three
stages in every great work of God first it's impossible then it's difficult and
then it's done the second part of the pattern of Jonah's service was that a
surrendered servant must speak with royal authority verse 4 and Jonah began
to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried and said yet 40 days and
Nineveh shall be overthrown he didn't call a conference of the city council
and say now I've got some bad news for you but I'll see if I can get a
modification of it if we can talk this thing over and you decide to build some
churches will will negotiate a compromise he didn't do anything like
that he took the sharp flinty message which God communicated to him hid behind
the authority of his Imperial God and King and gave them the message
undiluted in its crude brief peremptory form there are two things to notice here
that in speaking with royal authority Jonah began the job immediately he
conferred not with flesh and blood he didn't go into running a lot of
counseling classes excellent as they may be in our generation but if he'd stopped
to do that he would never have done his job nor did he go along to the morning
paper and say now how much would a full page cost for one week I want to get
this message across before I actually preach great faith means prompt
obedience we don't count heads we don't estimate danger we don't weigh possible
difficulties when we go with royal authority we go to the task with
immediacy and confidence and secondly we go with fearlessness there was one man
in a savage community a community notorious as the gangster community of
today liquidating and snuffing up the little nations turning them into chaff
making their cities run with blood and he was an unarmed man walking through
the streets of this savage gangster nation the thing is such a ludicrous
contrast if it were not that this man was clothed in the immortality of his
sovereign God he addresses them to not with a message of hope but with a
message of doom condemning their way of life and yet clothed in the sovereignty
of God's servant that powerless to help to hurt him you remember the phrase that
man is immortal till his work is done and of course he's immortal when it's
done to Peter Milne was one of the great missionaries to the New Hebrides he went
out and then 50 in 1870 to a little island called Muna just near where this
great hurricane has struck the New Hebrides in the last two days the last
part of his area to turn to God was the little island of a mouth with about 300
or 400 people the natives on that island had captured several black birding
schooners killed and eaten the crew they had every intention of resisting
the gospel Peter Milne went in a native canoe and landed on the beach utterly
helpless the natives had prepared a plan for his death as a rule native murder or
assassination was done by stealth the coward who did the job hid behind a tree
while some other person simulated friendship and took the man along the
path and the other fellow shot the arrow from behind a tree then while the
victim was writhing on the ground he was clubbed to death Peter Milne was
invited up through the jungle and from the beach at a mall where the lagoon is
up to the village Mungarunga in the middle of the island he walked with
complete confidence with the man who was his decoy up the track which was to be
the path of death the missionary walked armored with the full panoply of God he
didn't know what was planned it was until years later the people of Amal
when they'd become Christian said we had men with muskets posted behind the trees
to shoot you but we saw the way you walked and we knew God was with the day
before I left to come over in the plane I met the member of Parliament for our
electorate in the street of Papakura he's just a nominal Presbyterian we
haven't been able quite to make him what we want him to be but he turns up
occasionally at church we get him along to open new churches and halls to
represent the the government but I had noticed that as chairman of the Auckland
Electricity Commission he'd been involved in some exchanges in the House
of Representatives and one or two members of Parliament who had less
respect for truth than they did for cracking the other fellow over the back
of the neck with a bit wordy battle had been tearing into him in the House of
Representatives and this exchange of harsh words had appeared in the press
and I'd noticed that Mr. Allen had said nothing I've noticed that the opposition
member had spoken of him in such a way that he wanted to get his heckles up and
get back a retort that he could use and enjoy but Mr. Allen had said nothing
when I met him on Christmas Eve in the street in Papakura I said by the way I
want to congratulate you on your silence in the House of Representatives under
the aggravating criticism of that member from Westland he said if you knew the
member from Westland and the way in which he has to hang on to his bench
when he stands you wouldn't worry but he said I did go to him afterwards and tell
him that anything he said to me wouldn't worry me well I said just before we
part Mr. Allen and as a Christmas thought when you get home would you look
up the last verse of Isaiah chapter 54 he said what is it Isaiah chapter 54 the
last verse yes that's it I said when you go home no weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper and every voice that is raised against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn this is the heritage of them that fear thee try it it works you
have nothing to worry about if you have the sovereignty the incorruptible power
of God with you and it's always with you when you're in the path of surrender
and obedience I have to mention one more point here and that is the sign which
Jonah carried with him it was as one miraculously preserved from death the
Jonah appeared as a preacher of doom in Nineveh you notice in the New Testament
in Luke 11 29 to 30 we read about there shall no sign be given them but the sign
of the Prophet Jonah now Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites how was he
assigned to the Ninevites did he tell them about his watery experience or was
it that as he rolled up his sleeves they could see there the skin just coming
back under the plastic surgery of God where the caustic and the do acid juices
of the of the Beastie had burned them off his off his arms and legs we don't
know but there was something about that man's appearance that convinced them
that he was a sign from God like a resurrected man from the tomb he carried
the sign with him do you carry the sign of one who was dead and is alive again
with the immortality of the Christ life with him it'll be seen in the way you
shake hands it'll be seen in the way you look in the
decorous way in which you conduct yourselves in the way you stand aside at
the lift and say you go first these are the sign to Nineveh your name that
you've been dead and are alive again now the fourth main heading is the
response in service to Jonas preaching we're told that they believe God not
that they believe Joe in fact from this point on Jonah is lost in the stage
arrangements and God takes the whole platform it's a wonderful thing the more
blessing a servant of God gets the more God puts him out of sight until the
point comes when the people say I wonder where this blessing came from it
seemed to be without any human agency lest any man should boast they believed
God verse 5 and from the grassroots up the whole community repented it got from
the people to the palace and they even put sackcloth on the beasts and it's a
beautiful thought that Calvin has that every time a sheep bleated for water it
was like the cry of penitence in the heart of the nation and every time a
kettlebeast load for food it was like the heartbeat of the nation on the thumb
of God as he felt the pulse of repentance we remember the words of the
Sermon on the Mount blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted
and Calvin insists that their repentance was a true repentance of faith and not
merely an outward natural panic in the expectation of these Thunderbones hence
God's repentance is mentioned in verses 9 and 10 and God saw their works that
they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said
that he would do unto them and he did it not I want to mention just in closing
that success was granted to Jonas preaching in innovative on a scale which
has never been granted to any evangelist since and yet success is not
the test of our obedience to God it's not the mark of God's favor in our work
Jeremiah was just as faithful as Jonah perhaps more so and yet the heavens for
him were as brass and the faces of the people to which he went were as iron and
he didn't make a convert so far as we know through the long trying ministry of
his prophetic work and the Lord Jesus deliberately keeps us from counting
numbers and from saying you know I've got a wonderful church that's my Bible
woman doesn't she look beautiful on the screen we can't call any convert mine we
can't call any church mine we can't call any work our work the curse of much
missionary service is that a missionary says this is my village this is my
island this is my translation we immediately choke the ministry of God
the Holy Ghost through ourselves well I'm just about
posed but here's the thought Jonah must often have said as he walked up and down
in Nineveh giving his sermon of doom I wonder how God can use me in view of
what I did to him before and some of you are saying to yourselves I know I know
I'd like to be like that I'd like to be able to go back to the office and the
oil company where I work and feel that it'll be different this time but they
all know me so well I know how I used to get into tensions they know how I'm so
jolly unworkable well would you just remember this that the enabling comes
from God and at the very unworkability of your temperament before is to be the
sign now of a changed life you're going back to the office next week and when
they bring back the typing to you and say now look do it again you're going to
smile and say thank you when do you want and that's going to be the sign of the
prophet Jonah in your office never doubt this that every part of your
backsliding in a mysterious way of God is now made as it were a stepping stone
for the testimony in your post backsliding experience the most
wonderful Christian servant of God in the island of Tonga an elderly native
woman named labia mutua of her one of the Chiefs said to me one day you know
miss he said that woman loves much because to her much was forgiven and
it's only out of the depth and abandonment of our souls in the period
of backsliding that the sign can be vivid to those who knew us before and
now know us as changed men of them is there a sign in your life it may be in
the skin it may be in the eyes it may be in the lips it may be in the soul it
may be in the resiliency of your step but there'll be a sign and there'll be
blessing in your name let us pray grant our father that we may not despair of a
God who could work this miracle in Nineveh we may not despair of thee that
thou will do the same mighty works in the place where we have to go in a few
more days our home where we feel we're so misunderstood put about embarrassed
Lord may we carry the sign of the Prophet Jonah of an old life destroyed a
new life granted all linked in with a surrendered heart and a serene obedience
to thee for Jesus sake amen this recording is
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