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Resistance of a Racist Rebel Msg 2 9 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Jonah.
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  Speaker 1: Way back in the Old Testament among the minor prophets,
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  Speaker 1: minor only in the sense that they are, for the
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  Speaker 1: most part, smaller, shorter than the major prophets. These minor
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  Speaker 1: prophets often have a major message for all of us,
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  Speaker 1: and this one perhaps more than most, speaks to us
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  Speaker 1: in our times. Jonah chapter one, I'll be reading verses
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  Speaker 1: one through 12 in the New Living Translation. As we
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  Speaker 1: follow along in our Bibles, please stand for the reading
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  Speaker 1: of God's word. The Lord gave this message to Jonah,
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  Speaker 1: son of Amittai, Get up and go to the great
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  Speaker 1: city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it, because I've
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  Speaker 1: seen how wicked its people are. But Jonah got up
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  Speaker 1: and went in the opposite direction to get away from
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa,
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  Speaker 1: where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought
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  Speaker 1: a ticket. and went on board, hoping to escape from
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  Speaker 1: the Lord by sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord hurled
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  Speaker 1: a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm
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  Speaker 1: that threatened to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives,
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  Speaker 1: the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help. and
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  Speaker 1: threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all
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  Speaker 1: this time, Jonah was sound asleep, down in the hold.
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  Speaker 1: So the captain went down after him. How can you
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  Speaker 1: sleep at a time like this? He shouted. Get up
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  Speaker 1: and pray to your God. Maybe he will pay attention
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  Speaker 1: to us and spare our lives. Then the crew cast
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  Speaker 1: lots to see which of them had offended the gods
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  Speaker 1: and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the
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  Speaker 1: lots identified Jonah as the culprit. Why has this awful
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  Speaker 1: storm come down on us? They demanded. Who are you?
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  Speaker 1: What is your line of work? What country are you from?
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  Speaker 1: What is your nationality? Jonah answered, I am a Hebrew
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  Speaker 1: and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who
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  Speaker 1: made the sea and the land. The sailors were terrified
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  Speaker 1: when they heard this, for he had already told them
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  Speaker 1: he was running away from the Lord. Oh, why did
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  Speaker 1: you do it? They groaned. And since the storm was
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  Speaker 1: getting worse all the time, They asked him, what should
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  Speaker 1: we do to you to stop this storm? Throw me
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  Speaker 1: into the sea, Jonah said, and it will become calm again.
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  Speaker 1: I know that this terrible storm is all my fault. Lord,
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  Speaker 1: our God, who made the sea and the land and
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  Speaker 1: all things pertaining to it, we need your help this day.
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  Speaker 1: These friends in our country, most of whom we've never
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  Speaker 1: met and may never know, are in desperate straits. Some
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  Speaker 1: have lost their homes. Many of them have lost some
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  Speaker 1: of their possessions. perhaps all of them. And today, they
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  Speaker 1: look to you for the help that they must find,
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  Speaker 1: for relief, for encouragement, for a reason to go on,
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  Speaker 1: how we pray for them, for your compassion to have
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  Speaker 1: mercy upon them, for you to bring a cessation to
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  Speaker 1: the rain and the flooding, and relief for these who suffer.
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  Speaker 1: Protect those, Father, who are in a vulnerable place, on
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  Speaker 1: hospital beds, the infirmed, the aged, those who are defenseless,
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  Speaker 1: cannot take care of themselves. Give extra strength and courage
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  Speaker 1: to those who bring rescue, both on land and at sea. Provide,
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  Speaker 1: we pray, in ways that only you can meet these needs.
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  Speaker 1: We trust you for this. Surely, goodness and mercy will
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  Speaker 1: follow those who walk with you, so bring those reliefs
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  Speaker 1: to these today. We commit them to you, just as
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  Speaker 1: we commit our offerings, which we bring to you now.
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  Speaker 1: trusting you to use them for your greater glory and
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  Speaker 1: in your own divine purposes. In the name of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: we pray and we give. And all God's people said, amen.
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  Speaker 1: Please be seated. Jonah was a prophet called of God.
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  Speaker 1: Make no mistake about it. But to complicate things, Jonah
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  Speaker 1: was a rebel prophet. That doesn't mean he hated God,
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  Speaker 1: but it does mean that he hated where God was
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  Speaker 1: sending him to go. Because, frankly, he hated the people
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  Speaker 1: who lived at that place. So let me say it straight.
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  Speaker 1: Jonah was a racist rebel. Instead of being wide open
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  Speaker 1: and willing to go wherever God told him, he was
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  Speaker 1: a prejudiced, narrow-minded Jewish prophet who wanted nothing to do
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  Speaker 1: with those Gentiles living in Assyria, especially the Ninevites. George Matheson,
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  Speaker 1: who lived back in the 19th century, was a Scottish
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  Speaker 1: pastor and preacher. Became blind early in life and left
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  Speaker 1: in his legacy not only great sermons but also a
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  Speaker 1: number of books that he wrote. Among them, a series
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  Speaker 1: of four volumes on portraits of Bible men and women.
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  Speaker 1: Three of the volumes, Bible men and one of them
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  Speaker 1: Bible women. The second in the series includes 25 pages
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  Speaker 1: on the prophet Jonah. I found it interesting what he
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  Speaker 1: titled that particular chapter. He called him Jonah the Narrow.
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  Speaker 1: Jonah the Narrow. I suppose back in the 19th century,
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  Speaker 1: narrow was more appropriate than the word prejudiced or even
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  Speaker 1: a sharper term, racist. Let me unpack that for all
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  Speaker 1: of us. What is racism? Racism is prejudice. discrimination or
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  Speaker 1: antagonism directed against someone of a different race. It is
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  Speaker 1: based on the belief that one's own race is superior.
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  Speaker 1: One can be a white racist, a black racist, a
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  Speaker 1: Mexican racist, an Asian racist, or one of those can
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  Speaker 1: be a racist toward one of those races. You know
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  Speaker 1: in your heart if there is racism. If there is,
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  Speaker 1: you were not born with it, you were taught it.
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  Speaker 1: It is a learned sin. Tragically, it still exists. You
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  Speaker 1: can be a Jewish racist. You can be a Gentile racist.
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  Speaker 1: Jonah was the former. He hated those Gentiles who lived
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  Speaker 1: in Nineveh, mainly because he did not want to see
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  Speaker 1: them hear of the God of compassion, lest they repent
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  Speaker 1: and God forgive them and in Jonah's thoughts let them
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  Speaker 1: off light. while they deserved great judgment for their wickedness.
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  Speaker 1: But back to the term itself. Philip Yancey, back in 1997,
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  Speaker 1: wrote a splendid book you should read. It's titled, What's
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  Speaker 1: So Amazing About Grace? In it, Philip is vulnerable as
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  Speaker 1: he writes of his own life years and years earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Listen to his testimony as it appears in that book.
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  Speaker 1: I grew up a racist, writes Yancey. Although I am
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  Speaker 1: not yet 50 years old, I remember well when the
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  Speaker 1: South practiced a perfectly legal form of apartheid. Stores in
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  Speaker 1: downtown Atlanta had three restrooms, white men, white women, and colored.
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  Speaker 1: Gas stations had two drinking fountains, one for whites, the
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  Speaker 1: other for coloreds. Motels and restaurants served white patrons only.
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  Speaker 1: And when the Civil Rights Act made such discrimination illegal,
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  Speaker 1: many owners shuttered their establishment. Lester Maddox, later elected governor
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  Speaker 1: of Georgia, was one of the protesting restaurateurs. After closing
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  Speaker 1: his fried chicken outlets, he opened a memorial to the
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  Speaker 1: death of freedom, as he called it, featuring a copy
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  Speaker 1: of the Bill of Rights resting in a black-draped coffin.
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  Speaker 1: To support himself, he sold clubs and axe handles in
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  Speaker 1: three different sizes, Daddy, Mama, and Junior, replicas of the
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  Speaker 1: clubs used to beat black civil rights demonstrators. Yancey continues.
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  Speaker 1: In the 1960s, the church I was a part of,
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  Speaker 1: the deacon board mobilized lookout squads. And on Sundays, these
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  Speaker 1: took turns patrolling the entrances, lest any black troublemakers try
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  Speaker 1: to integrate us. I still have one of the cards
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  Speaker 1: the deacons printed up to give to any civil rights
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  Speaker 1: demonstrators who might appear. When Congress passed the Civil Rights Act,
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  Speaker 1: our church founded a private school as a haven for
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  Speaker 1: whites only, expressly barring all black students. A few, quote,
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  Speaker 1: liberal members, quote, left the church in protest when the
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  Speaker 1: kindergarten turned down the daughter of a black Bible professor.
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  Speaker 1: But most of us approved of the decision. A year later,
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  Speaker 1: the church board rejected a Carver Bible Institute student for membership.
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  Speaker 1: Yancey then adds something I would call shocking. I'd never
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  Speaker 1: read this anywhere before. He writes, I visited the Holocaust
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  Speaker 1: Museum in Washington, D.C., and was deeply moved by its
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  Speaker 1: depiction of Nazi atrocities against the Jews. What struck me
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  Speaker 1: most personally was a section early in the exhibit that
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  Speaker 1: demonstrated how the early discrimination laws set up by the
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  Speaker 1: Nazis against the Jews, the Jew-only shops, the Jew-only park benches,
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  Speaker 1: the Jew-only restrooms and drinking fountains were explicitly modeled on
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  Speaker 1: segregation laws. in the United States. These are uneasy words
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  Speaker 1: for you to hear. Trust me, they're difficult words for
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  Speaker 1: me to speak. Yancey's childhood and mine are similar in
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  Speaker 1: the sense of age. I'm a little older than Philip,
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  Speaker 1: but I remember similar scenes. that disturbed me then and
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  Speaker 1: break my heart today. They arouse emotions within us, but
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  Speaker 1: I decided to take time for that so we could
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  Speaker 1: all understand that Jonah wasn't simply stubborn. He wasn't just carnal.
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  Speaker 1: Jonah was a racist rebel. Jonah's resistance was based on
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  Speaker 1: that racism. He wasn't about to go to Nineveh. He
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  Speaker 1: wasn't about to give those people any sense of hope,
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  Speaker 1: lest his God of compassion change their hearts and relieve
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  Speaker 1: them of the judgment they deserve in his mind. For
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  Speaker 1: they were a despised enemy to the Jews, brutal and vicious,
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  Speaker 1: deserving of nothing but the worst kind of future. The
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  Speaker 1: last thing Jonah wanted them to hear was of God's forgiveness.
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  Speaker 1: That is at the basis of Jonah's going in the
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  Speaker 1: opposite direction. The Lord's commission to Jonah was clear. We
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  Speaker 1: see it in the first two verses of the first chapter.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't uncommon for the Lord to speak to prophets.
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  Speaker 1: He does it here. Before the Bible was complete, God
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  Speaker 1: spoke to prophets audibly. And sometimes through circumstances, how he
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  Speaker 1: reached Jonah's ears, we're not told. We're only told that
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  Speaker 1: the Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of Amittai,
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  Speaker 1: get up. That's not a new message for Jonah. He's
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  Speaker 1: a prophet. He lived with a pack on his back
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  Speaker 1: and shallow tent pegs. Prophets were often on the move,
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  Speaker 1: moving here, moving there to deliver God's message whether it
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  Speaker 1: be warning or a disturbing word of conviction. One wag
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  Speaker 1: has put it that it was the prophet's job to
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  Speaker 1: afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted. And Jonah
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  Speaker 1: had no doubt done both, but he wanted nothing to
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  Speaker 1: do with this calling because when God finished the sentence,
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  Speaker 1: get up and go to the great city of Nineveh,
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  Speaker 1: Everything in Jonah's mind screeched to a halt. He got
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  Speaker 1: up all right, and he went all right, but he
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  Speaker 1: did not go toward Nineveh, which was 500 miles to
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  Speaker 1: the east from where Jonah lived. He first went to
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  Speaker 1: the port city of Joppa. If you ever have the
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  Speaker 1: privilege of traveling to the land of Israel, you will
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  Speaker 1: land in Tel Aviv, most likely. Just a bit south
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  Speaker 1: of Tel Aviv, there still exists the ancient port town
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  Speaker 1: of Joppa. He goes to this port town, and he
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  Speaker 1: finds a ship, buys a ticket, gets on board the ship,
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  Speaker 1: that is leaving for Tarshish that is 2,500 miles to
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  Speaker 1: the west. That's the full length of the Mediterranean Sea
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  Speaker 1: from Israel shores to the tip of Gibraltar at the
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  Speaker 1: southern end of Spain, just west of the Rock of Gibraltar,
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  Speaker 1: is the ancient city of Tarshish. It's as far as
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  Speaker 1: you could go in the civilized world. He wanted to
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  Speaker 1: go there. Why? He tells us, verse 3, to get
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  Speaker 1: away from the Lord. Did he understand the call? Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: Did he realize he was going in the opposite direction?
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  Speaker 1: Of course he did. He bought the ticket, took the ship,
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  Speaker 1: got on board, And soon found his way to the
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  Speaker 1: hold of the ship where he curled up in his
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  Speaker 1: prophet's mantle and went fast asleep. He hoped to escape
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  Speaker 1: from the Lord. I underscore that because it is mentioned
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  Speaker 1: twice in verse 3. He got on board to get
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  Speaker 1: away from the Lord and he hoped to escape from
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. I never know those who hear what I
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  Speaker 1: have to say when I stand to speak, but I
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  Speaker 1: am convinced that some who are listening right now are
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  Speaker 1: running away from the Lord, which is an impossibility, not
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  Speaker 1: just for prophets. It's an impossibility for anyone. The Lord
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  Speaker 1: our God is everywhere at once. The Lord who made
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  Speaker 1: each one of us knows everything about us. From the
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  Speaker 1: moment we rise up until we go to bed at night,
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  Speaker 1: he knows every movement of the day. He knows our
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  Speaker 1: every thought, even before we have it, every word, even
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  Speaker 1: before we speak it. God is ever aware of each
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  Speaker 1: one of our lives at all times. Jonah knew better.
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  Speaker 1: But when you are in this state of affairs mentally,
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  Speaker 1: You block out what you know to be the better
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  Speaker 1: judgment and you go with your gut. In this case,
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  Speaker 1: he was going away from Nineveh. God told him, by
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  Speaker 1: the way, to announce his judgment against it. No one
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  Speaker 1: knew his God. Once that judgment was announced, no one
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  Speaker 1: knew it would be enough for them to hear it
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  Speaker 1: to be terrified with the message and to repent, and
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  Speaker 1: then God would move in with compassion and bring his
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  Speaker 1: gracious forgiveness. He knew his God's heart, which was a
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  Speaker 1: heart of compassion. Nevertheless, he's on board the ship bound
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  Speaker 1: for Tarshish. Isn't it interesting that the beginning of verse
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  Speaker 1: 4 begins with, but the Lord. It isn't surprising, it
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  Speaker 1: is interesting. But Jonah, verse 3, followed by, but the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: I've titled this section, The Lord's Hounds of Heaven. in
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  Speaker 1: my outline that I gave you in your worship folder.
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  Speaker 1: That needs a little explanation if you don't remember your
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  Speaker 1: English literature class from years gone by. Francis Thompson, back
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  Speaker 1: in 1893, wrote a haunting poem titled The Hound of Heaven.
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  Speaker 1: Strange title, startling at first until you realize what he
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  Speaker 1: has on his mind. And written in beautiful poetry, he
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  Speaker 1: describes one who is running from God. Listen to the
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  Speaker 1: opening lines. I fled him down the nights and down
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  Speaker 1: the days. I fled him down the labyrinthine ways of
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  Speaker 1: my own mind. and in the midst of tears I
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  Speaker 1: hid from him. And on and on he goes through
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  Speaker 1: 182 lines in this poem describing what it would be
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  Speaker 1: like for hounds chasing a hare with relentless, constant pursuit,
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  Speaker 1: unperturbed as a soul flees, attempting to flee from divine grace.
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  Speaker 1: And the writer writes this so that you will see
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  Speaker 1: there is an unwearing process of God's constancy as he
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  Speaker 1: comes after us, stays with us, does not get us
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  Speaker 1: out of his sight. This poem led to an old
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  Speaker 1: Scottish proverb, the Lord God sets the hounds of heaven
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  Speaker 1: after the souls of men. That is exactly what is
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  Speaker 1: occurring in the life of Jonah. The hounds of heaven.
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  Speaker 1: I laugh because I imagine when I was preparing this
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  Speaker 1: that the storm may have barked. Not really. You look
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  Speaker 1: at me like I'm losing it. Really, I may be,
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  Speaker 1: but a little imagination keeps it alive. And here's this storm.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, get it straight. It wasn't the result
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  Speaker 1: of Mother Nature. Mother Nature has never existed. It wasn't
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  Speaker 1: the result of global warming. I'll leave the rest with you.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't the rest. It wasn't the result of a
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  Speaker 1: freakish weather pattern over the Mediterranean. No. The one who
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  Speaker 1: is the God of the sea set the hounds of
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  Speaker 1: heaven in the form of a storm. Do we have
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  Speaker 1: a biblical basis for that? Check out another minor prophet
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  Speaker 1: named Nahum, N-A-H-U-M, chapter 1, verse 3. Listen. The Lord
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  Speaker 1: has his way in the whirlwind and the storm, and
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  Speaker 1: the billowing clouds are but the dust of his feet.
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  Speaker 1: Check it out. Nahum 1.3. The Lord has his way
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  Speaker 1: in the storm that struck the ship on the Mediterranean.
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  Speaker 1: The Lord was going after Jonah, who is in this
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  Speaker 1: ship that is on this sea. And the Lord's hounds
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  Speaker 1: of heaven are after him. No one knew it better
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  Speaker 1: than Jonah. He may have been a racist, but he
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  Speaker 1: was no atheist. He knew it was his God coming
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  Speaker 1: after him. He's no novice. He's a mature adult prophet.
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  Speaker 1: He knows what he's doing. But even though he's adult,
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  Speaker 1: even though he is old enough to know better, He
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  Speaker 1: has the audacity to test his God. Now watch what happened.
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  Speaker 1: Verse 5, fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted
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  Speaker 1: to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard
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  Speaker 1: to lighten the ship. We're sitting in this calm place.
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  Speaker 1: There's no water around. There's no storm going on here anyway.
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  Speaker 1: And so it's easy for us to sort of yawn
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  Speaker 1: our way through verses like this. This is one frightening place.
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  Speaker 1: When our troop ship left San Diego, bound for Yokohama
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  Speaker 1: and ultimately Southeast Asia, in my particular case it was
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  Speaker 1: the island of Okinawa, there were 3,500 Marines on board
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  Speaker 1: that were being taken overseas and would be Spending months,
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  Speaker 1: in my case 16 months, on foreign soil, we would
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  Speaker 1: call it back then, in Southeast Asia. Four days at sea,
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  Speaker 1: we hit a storm. This is a troop ship that
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  Speaker 1: is massive. It is 3,500 people. People are birthed on
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  Speaker 1: this ship, not born, but sleep on this ship. And
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  Speaker 1: these sleep seven deep. How do I know it? My
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  Speaker 1: birth was the top seventh cot, or hammock. The good
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  Speaker 1: thing about it is, when everybody got sick, nobody vomited
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  Speaker 1: on you. You could vomit on everybody else, but And
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  Speaker 1: we hit this storm at sea, and it was so rugged,
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  Speaker 1: so rough, that our skipper said later, after some calm returned,
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  Speaker 1: except for the North Atlantic, I've never been on a
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  Speaker 1: sea that rough. The nose of our, the bow of
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  Speaker 1: our ship drove into the wave, and I understand 50,
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  Speaker 1: 60-foot waves crashed across the ship. It creaked, it groaned,
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  Speaker 1: even though it was mainly steel. This ship is a
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  Speaker 1: wooden ship. It's a small sailing vessel, and it's breaking apart,
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  Speaker 1: and they're throwing the cargo over to make it lighter
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  Speaker 1: so that it could perhaps stay on top of the
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  Speaker 1: water rather than go into it. They're scared spitless, and
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  Speaker 1: so they scream out to their god and nothing happens,
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  Speaker 1: and so they run down below. Why would they do that?
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  Speaker 1: Why would they go talk to an unknown passenger on
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  Speaker 1: board the ship? Let me jump ahead and show you
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  Speaker 1: verse 10, and you'll understand why. The sailors were terrified
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  Speaker 1: when they heard this, for he had already told them
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  Speaker 1: he was running away from the Lord. Maybe you never
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  Speaker 1: saw that before in reading through the story of Jonah.
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  Speaker 1: But when he got on board ship, he told somebody,
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  Speaker 1: Maybe several of them standing along there. Maybe somebody who
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  Speaker 1: took his ticket. Hey, I'm running from the Lord. Give
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  Speaker 1: me a place to hide. Give me a place to sleep.
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  Speaker 1: And they remembered that. And when all hell breaks loose
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: on the sea, they remember somebody running from somebody's God.
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  Speaker 1: And since their God doesn't answer, they thought they would
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  Speaker 1: try his. So they come to him and they said
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  Speaker 1: to him, verse 6, How can you sleep at a
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  Speaker 1: time like this? Get up and pray to your God.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.
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  Speaker 1: Come on, man, give us a hand here. If you
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  Speaker 1: know anything about prayer, then pray. And so they pelt
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  Speaker 1: him with questions. Look at the questions. Why has this
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  Speaker 1: awful storm come down on us? And again, in verse 8,
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  Speaker 1: who are you? What is your line of work? Uh-oh.
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  Speaker 1: What country are you from? What is your nationality? Jonah answered,
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  Speaker 1: listen to the honesty. I'm a Hebrew. Was he? Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: I worship the Lord. He does. He did. He did.
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  Speaker 1: except for this interlude of madness. He's a Lord worshiper.
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  Speaker 1: He's a God worshiper. I worship the Lord, the God
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  Speaker 1: of heaven. Notice the next line. Who made the sea
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  Speaker 1: and the land. Ah, the sailors are terrified. If he
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  Speaker 1: made the sea, for goodness sake, get on your knees
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  Speaker 1: and pray to the God who made the sea. Isn't
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  Speaker 1: this interesting? Pagan sailors are telling a Jewish prophet what
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  Speaker 1: he ought to do. Pray. Pray. So Jonah hears them
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  Speaker 1: and realizes, and I mean this sincerely, it isn't time
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  Speaker 1: for prayer. It's time for action. You don't see Jonah
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  Speaker 1: praying here. You see him praying later. But here the
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  Speaker 1: sailors terrified since he had told him he was running away.
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  Speaker 1: And since the storm is getting worse all the time,
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  Speaker 1: they ask him, what do we do with you to
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  Speaker 1: stop the storm? What on earth do we do with
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  Speaker 1: someone like you running away from a God who made
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  Speaker 1: the sea? And you've got to give him high marks
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  Speaker 1: for his answer. He doesn't hesitate. Throw me into the sea.
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  Speaker 1: Throw me into the sea, Jonah said. It will become
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: calm again. I know this terrible storm is all my fault.
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  Speaker 1: Is it ever? When you run from the Lord, others
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  Speaker 1: are hurt as a result of your running. They suffer
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  Speaker 1: the consequences along with you. You're a family person, your
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: family will suffer. Your friends will suffer. Others who have
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  Speaker 1: relied on you for whatever will suffer when they see
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  Speaker 1: your faith failing you. So he says, let's just make
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  Speaker 1: it simple. I need to get out of this ship
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  Speaker 1: and I don't see any other way of being rescued.
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  Speaker 1: And so I'm going to tell you what to do.
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  Speaker 1: And of course, we're going to see next time that
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  Speaker 1: this to them was anathema. That's murder. They've never read
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the Book of Jonah. They don't know what's going to happen.
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  Speaker 1: And in fact, I don't believe they ever knew he
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  Speaker 1: was swallowed by this great fish. All of that happened
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  Speaker 1: in the sea. Jonah didn't know that would happen either.
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  Speaker 1: He simply says, throw me overboard. I'll take care of
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  Speaker 1: the storm, and I'm going to trust God some way
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  Speaker 1: to have mercy on me and his grace to take
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  Speaker 1: care of me. I am the reason the storm is
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  Speaker 1: all my fault. If you want calm, toss me over.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the message so far, it's not complicated. You
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  Speaker 1: can run, but you cannot hide. We say that glibly,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: but here's a perfect example. There's not a place on
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  Speaker 1: the planet you can hide from the one who made you.
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  Speaker 1: Jonah is wide awake. Jonah is not insane. He is
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  Speaker 1: probably now closer than he has been before to his
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  Speaker 1: God when he says, It's all my fault. Blame me.
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  Speaker 1: Throw me into the sea. It's as far as I
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  Speaker 1: want to go this time, but I don't want to
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  Speaker 1: leave it without a couple or three lingering lessons that
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: go along with what we have just been seeing in
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the passage. Here's the first one. Grace allows us complete
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  Speaker 1: freedom to disobey. That may make you uncomfortable to hear
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  Speaker 1: that because you have always linked grace with only good things.
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  Speaker 1: Grace provides you with all the room you can imagine
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  Speaker 1: to obey or disobey. I mean, you think there wasn't
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: grace at work in his disobeying? Why, think about it.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't stopped in his tracks when he made his
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: way to Joppa. He wasn't suddenly paralyzed and unable to walk.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't struck down or struck dead. God didn't stop
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: all the ships from coming into port. God didn't stop
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: the ships from leaving the port. God didn't even keep
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: him from going to sleep. He sound asleep in the
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: hold of the ship.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: The grace of God. God didn't even disturb his sleep
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  Speaker 1: for a while. You can be lulled into believing that
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  Speaker 1: all is well in your running from the hounds of
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: heaven because of the grace of God that doesn't strike
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: you down. Grace allows us complete freedom to disobey. But
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: let me add quickly the second lesson that goes with
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: the first. When we disobey, grace does not cancel the consequences.
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  Speaker 1: God doesn't pat Jonah on the head and say, sleep well,
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  Speaker 1: my son. It's okay. You'll learn someday the importance. No,
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  Speaker 1: he doesn't do that. He brings the storm. He causes
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  Speaker 1: that storm to break that ship down. He terrifies the sailors.
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  Speaker 1: He gets our attention. He shows where the fault lies.
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  Speaker 1: This terrible storm is my fault. The hounds have caught him.
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  Speaker 1: He cannot hide. Neither can you. Neither can I. When
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: we disobey, grace does not cancel the consequences. Here's the
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: third lesson. Not until we face and accept reality will
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: grace bring the calm. Not until we face and accept
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: reality will grace bring back the calm. Jonah actually makes
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: a prophecy here. He says, you throw me into the
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: sea and it will become calm. That's a prophecy. That's
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: a promise. And it's true. As a matter of fact,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: the very first thing we read after throwing him in
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: is that the the sea became instantly slick and calm.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Jonah reassured them after he had admitted his own guilt.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: He didn't know what the future held, but he knew
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: for them there would be a calm sea, and he'd
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: be out of the picture, off the ship, in the drink,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: at the mercy of his God. Can you hear the
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: barking of heavenly hounds in your life? They all sound
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: different to different ones, depending on you and your circumstance.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Don't be so foolish as to think that he doesn't
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: know where you are. That's laughable. You can run, but
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: you cannot hide. How great is the grace of our God,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: giving us room to make a decision freedom to choose,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: and when we choose what is right, how blessed we
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: are for it. How great is that calm? I'd like
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: us to bow our heads for the next few moments,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: and I'd like you to set your notes aside, close
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: your Bible, and examine your life. Our Lord invites us
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  Speaker 1: to come to his table, but he never wants us
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  Speaker 1: to come with dirty hearts. He wants us to clean
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: up before we eat his meal. And that's done by
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: searching our souls to make sure we are walking in
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: the light. I can't do that for you, nor can
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: you do that for me. As you look back over
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: your days, can you track your journey to where you
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: are right now? Can you see the decisions you made
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: that led to the consequences you're enduring. It's the grace
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: of God that's kept you alive, the grace of God
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: that's brought you to this moment. And as we hold
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: in our hands a piece of bread that represents our
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Savior's body, before we eat that bread, we need to
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: make sure that we are walking in the light. just
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: as Christ is in the light. Before you put that
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: cup to your lips to drink that juice that represents
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the Savior's blood, make certain that your heart is clean,
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: that you're walking with the Lord. You may have to
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: admit you've never met the Lord. He's a stranger to you,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: but a perfect moment for you to trust in the
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ as your own Savior and Master and
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Lord right now, right there. Dear Father, make this time
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: especially meaningful as we continue to search our hearts. Find
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: us willing to acknowledge, just as Jonah was, whatever is
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: my fault, to say so, to admit it, to bring
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: it before you and to claim the forgiveness that you
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: provide by your grace. And then as we together participate
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: in this meal, make it meaningful. For we bring before
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: you our lives. And we are to be refreshed from
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: this time around the table. So quiet us as we
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: prepare ourselves to eat the bread and drink the cup
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: in remembrance of your son, Jesus. I ask in his name. Amen.
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: The preceding message, Resistance of a Racist Rebel, was copyrighted
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: in 2018, 2019, and 2025, and the sound recording was
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: is strictly prohibited.