Well, I'd like to start by thanking you all for your kindness to modern myself and to my family as well, and especially Derry and family we know quite well. It still seems an amazing thing to me that you have been shown as such This is on? Yes. Well, I'd like to start by thanking you all for your kindness to Mara and myself and to my family as well, and especially Derry and family we know quite well. It still seems an amazing thing to me that you have been shown us such kindness and love and it really is quite overwhelming and we we are grateful you know as I'm getting on I don't know how much longer you know this can go on but uh it's been so so lovely and even if I This is on? Yes. Well, I'd like to start by thanking you all for your kindness to both myself and to my family as well, especially Derry and family we know quite well. It still seems an amazing thing to me that you have been shown such kindness and love. And it really is quite overwhelming, and we are grateful. As I'm getting on, I don't know how much longer this can go on, but it's been so lovely. This is on? Yes. Well, I'd like to start by thanking you all for your kindness to Mara and myself and to my family as well, and especially Derry and family we know quite well. It still seems an amazing thing to me that you have been shown such kindness and love, and it really is quite overwhelming. We are grateful. You know, as I'm getting on, I don't know how much longer this can go on, but it's been so lovely. And even if I'd only been allowed to come once to the United States, I would have been very grateful. We do appreciate your kindness, but it's just that we have made friends, you know, as well, that you are more than just a church I come to, it's almost like coming home in a way. It's a lovely thing. And I love your minister, if we say minister faster, and his wife and the family too. And pray God's blessing upon you. I was asked to call one of our members today. with a message regarding an island called Malta, because we've been there, and if there were any evangelical churches, well, it's quite a problem in Malta, so I gave him the information, and he said, who's speaking? I said, do you mean to tell me that you don't know my voice? He said, well, yes, he said, but you see, you all have the same voice. And we do, and I said, well, just a minute, I'll check if it's me. Yes, I said, it's me, I'm the older version. He said, I don't believe you. He said, is Derry or Allen speaking and putting on an American accent? I said, I'm not putting on an American accent. I just say, hi, y'all. Now, when I first came here, I went home, I did a very daring thing for me in my church. I went up to the pulpit on Sabbath morning, and after we had our introductory, I said, I looked around at them all, and I said, hi, you guys. It took them by surprise. I didn't have much time for my sermon. Anyway, I said to them, I think my impression is that they've got a Welsh accent now, but have I got an American accent? Well, I don't know, you know. Anyway, that's that. It is lovely. Thank you very much for just everything. It's great. Now, I thought tonight, you know I've been, well, you know, I've been taking characters, but not just as characters as such, but rather to show how there are people like ourselves, and people are feeling, and we're talking of believers now, aren't we? and that they have times when they are low. I have met Christians and they say to me that they've never had a problem and they've never had a time of a low ebb. And quite honestly, I must think they belong to another planet or something because I have lows, you know, and also highs as well. And you can remember times when you felt quite low And he lifted you. And I think this is why I love hymns so much, and I really do love hymns. And since I spoke to our young people, it's quite strange. Our hymn book is a very lovely hymn book. It's a nice one. And when we have a wedding and a funeral, the first question they ask me when they're arranging the service, how many hymns can we have? Now, just imagine, young folk now, how many hymns? Is it too many to have five? Well, I say, is this a bit on the numerous side? Well, we want more than two. And you may wonder, well, why is that? I think this is why. I mean, there are some hymns you love more than others. I know that. But I think it's because if you look at the Bible, in any Bible, which book do you find most thumbed? Is this Psalms? Am I right? Psalms really is a kind of a hymn book. and really quite violent statements and psalms, but then we have violent feelings. And there are lovely statements and lovely promises of God. We love them because we, I don't know which of the words you use, but we use both, experimental or experiential. Do you use both? You know what I mean by that. Applied theology, where what you believe is the reality in your life. And I'm going to indulge tonight. I'm going to read my favorite hymn. And then start. Do you mind? Since it's my last night, can I have a special favor? I'll write my favorite hymn. You see, some of the old hymn writers used to say, what people sing, they will believe. So if you sing a thing that hasn't got a lot of substance to it, That doesn't sum up really, you know. You know you have these things that it's only nice to say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. It's just a sound, is it really? There must be a substance. Listen to this one. It's by William Gadsby. Mind you, he's quite a character. Because he wasn't very happy about the hymn books, he wrote a hymn book of his own with a few thousand, well, a thousand and a half hymns in it. But here's one of them. Immortal honors rest on Jesus' head. My God, by the way, before I go on, when we sing this, everybody closes their hymn books. You know why? It's moral, it's our national anthem in our chapel, all right? Immortal honors rest on Jesus' head. My God, my portion, and my living bread. In him I live, upon him cast my care. He is saved from death, destruction, and despair. He is my refuge in each deep distress. The Lord my strength and glorious righteousness. Through floods and flames he leads me safely on. And daily, now listen to this, and daily makes his sovereign goodness known. What do you think of a line like that? and daily makes his sovereign goodness known. My every need he richly will supply, nor will his mercy ever let me die. In him there dwells a treasure all divine. Now listen to this one. In him there dwells a treasure all divine, and matchless grace has made that treasure mine. Wonderful line. And much this grace has made a treasure mine. Oh, that my soul could love and praise him more. His beauty's trace his majesty adore. Live near his heart upon his bosom lean. Obey his voice, and all his will esteem. It just so happens, and it wasn't intentional, my character tonight is all to do with obedience. Now, that is just accidental there now. Obey his voice and all his will esteem. The character is Jonah. The story is well known. I needn't go much into the details of the story, only where it is relevant. Now, Jonah is a name known to us all. And perhaps it's known to us particularly because the story of Jonah is such a dramatic one, such a... Well, you can't forget it. As children, when you're told a story of Jonah, it's one like David and Goliath is one of the stories that you remember. and we are aware of the details. But we can sometimes miss out on why it's in the Bible and what is its lesson, or one of its lessons anyway. And we can overlook the importance. The importance of it is the response of a believer to God's will. That's it really. I don't know, there's one of the hymns we sing has a little kind of refrain to it, trust and obey. Do you know it? For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. And although it's a very simple hymn, it's perhaps one of the great ones. You have to have the twin. They are twins, trust and obey. They have identity, yet they are inseparables. Trusting, regarding our faith and so on, and if there's no obedience there, has there really been any trusting? And if there is trusting, will there not be obedience? So they are very closely linked. Now, for ourselves here tonight, we are God's children, and we love God, and we have had the experience of knowing Jesus Christ our Savior, and the peace of knowing that we have our sins forgiven, and that we are his. Now, let's look at Jonah. He is a believer. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, and said, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me." Now this is what God is interested in. He said, I want you to get up and I want you to go somewhere. I have a special mission for you. I want you to go to Nineveh because its wickedness is so great that it has come up to me like clouds of A horrible, horrible feeling, a stench in a way, in his nostrils. I'm sure God says that about many cities today, you know. They're famous and they're infamous, aren't they? But not only cities, I find that even in the smallest of villages, the fingers of sin have reached everywhere. It is easy to sin today, in the sense that we can, it's so available, and so many things are available, but we cannot cheat God. Now then, let's look at Jonah's disobedience. No, he didn't want to go to Nineveh. Why? He did not like Nineveh. He had no feeling at all for Nineveh or the Ninevites. And so he decides that he will run away. Now, are you familiar with Psalm 139? Do you remember? If I run this way or that way, I'll make my bed here, there, or anywhere. Behold, thou art there. The inescapable God. Once we are the Lord, there is no way that we can escape God. Well, he didn't like it never, so he went down to the place where, to the docks, and there was a ship, and it was going to a place called Tashish. And so he books to go on that ship. And I'm giving you these details, I know that you know them. But things go wrong. A most terrible storm and a violent, a wild storm. And everybody there is calling on his particular God. And I'm sure that if you went round the people on that boat, that one would say, well, I've got four gods. Another would say, well, actually, I've got six here. I've got a favorite God. You know, they'd have their gods. Incidentally, that's why at the beginning that Christians were called atheists. Do you know why they were called atheists? You see, with all this kind of worship of idols and so on, everybody had something on a bench or on an altar in the house to look at and worship. Well, here were Christians worshipping an invisible God, you know. which to them was a great puzzle. And it caused a great deal of offense to people in that early century because they said, well, look, we all have to believe in something. We believe in this God or that God or the other. But these Christians, they haven't even got an altar in their house or any kind of idol or anything to worship. What kind of people are these? They are atheists. Now in a way you can understand the logic, can't you? We have a hymn that says, a sovereign protector I have, you probably know it, a sovereign protector I have, unseen yet forever at hand. Now then, these are worshipping their various gods, but what is Jonah doing? Then we have the next verse or so. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay there fast asleep. Now that is the amazing thing, is that he's totally disinterested in where he's going really. He only wants one thing. He wants to get away from God. He wants to escape the eye of God. He wants to get away from the presence of God. And this is very irritating to the other people. Here's everybody on their knees praying whatever position they took in a particular form of worship and calling on their gods and this was very commendable in their view. And look at this man. He wasn't praying and worse than that, he wasn't even bothered. He was sleeping. And so they wake him and they say in verse six, what meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God. If so, be that God will think upon us that we perish not. Maybe you have a God that is so powerful that can help us, but sleeping, this is offensive to us. And you can understand why they were upset. And very often in the story of John, we forget how upset these people were. They were very upset. In the funeral, everybody has something that they believe in, something that they hold on to. We've never met a man like this in a storm as violent as this, that he merely goes to sleep. And so they decide that they would cast lots to find if there was somebody on this ship that had done something very wrong. that angered one of the gods or all the gods or whatever it was and it was not an unusual thing for a very long time you know to cast lots and the lots fell upon Jonah and just this And so it's in verse eight, they say to him, tell us, we prairie, for whose cause this evil is upon us? What is thine occupation? What's your job? And whither camest thou? What is thy country? And what people are thou? Who are you? What's your occupation? What do you do for a living? Where do you come from? Who are you? And he answered something that they would all recognize, and they would be a little bit afraid. I am a Hebrew, and I fear the God of the Hebrews. They fear the God of the Hebrews, because they'd heard about this God. This was a God that has had a reputation of doing remarkable things for his people, so they all felt a little anxious when he said he was a Hebrew. So then they go on, then were they exceedingly afraid because of that. Not that they believed in God, in Jehovah, but they knew of his reputation. And they were exceedingly afraid and said unto him, why hast thou done this? Why have you offended your God? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord. Listen to the little details in the Bible, because he had told them. He told him that, you see. He said, I'm running away. I'm running as hard as I can. And I'm going as far as I can from this God. I know He's God. I am a believer, I know his God, but I do not want to look him in the face. I do not want to do what he's asked me to do. I'm running away. That's all I'm doing is quite an ordinary thing. It's none of your business. I'm running away and I paid my passage and I just don't want to know about this God. And they said, but what shall we do? What shall we do? That the sea might be calm. And he said, cast me into the sea. Because he knew that he brought a tempest upon them. He says, do not get rid of me. You see, he so doesn't want to go to Nineveh, and so doesn't want to face God in this matter. He says, well, if I'm causing you such trouble, just throw me into the sea. Now then, what I see here, they call on their gods, but they fear to sin, you know. And it's an amazing thing here how the disobedience of one man who is a believer can bring so much sorrow to many people. Have you thought of that? You know, a Christian who is disobedient is really doing a great deal of harm and can bring much sorrow upon many people. And he's bringing sorrow here upon a people, you know, as far as ordinary innocence is concerned, they were innocent and in great despair. But they didn't want to do what he was asking them to do. But it's something we should think about. in our lives. Disobediences, small disobediences, big disobediences. When we say that we want the will of God, but we replace it with our will. You know, I've had that many, many times. Not only with young people. People that have come to me and said, the Lord has told me. I said, how interesting, you know. The Lord has told me. And I'm quite plain with them, you know, I say. you mean that you're telling me what you want the Lord to tell you. You know, I don't find it so easy to say, the Lord has told me like that. That isn't as easy or as straightforward as that, and we wouldn't be as presumptuous as to say so definitely. When I talk about the Lord's will, I would say I believe with all my heart and really with humility of heart that he's guiding me in a certain direction and I wouldn't dare talk with that kind of presumption but they do and often it hides disobedience that's what I found it hides what they really want and they don't give the real reason anyway Jonah is disobeying now we come to the despair of Jonah as we come to his all-time low He is thrown into the sea. They're very reluctant to do it, you know, but they do. And we know of a great fish and that he is swallowed by this fish. Now then, I don't think we need to guess at the name or what kind of fish, but it was a big creature that swallowed him. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, out of the fish's belly. Well, you know, to come to how to pray there. At last, there's a turn of events. If you could talk to Jonah now, well, Jonah, how are things? And he said, well, they couldn't be worse. My disobedience has brought me to a strange place, a terrifying and a horrible place. And the dealings of God sometimes in our lives, when we are disobedient, can lead us into the dealings of God that we had wished that we had obeyed Him in the first place. Our lives are not our own. We are bought with a price, and we belong to him. And said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heard my voice. And I stay there for a moment. This is a very wonderful thing. For thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compass me about, and all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. There is a literal thing there but also take it in any person's life. When a person is disobedient, he feels out in a situation that one of great sorrow and great difficulty and so hopeless and helpless and we cry out. What do we learn there? God's arm is not shortened. Once we are the Lord's, He will never let us go. That's a great comfort, you know. In one way it's frightening. In one way. Because when we want to run away from Him, we can say, hey, come back, you know. In one way it is, when we want to indulge in our disobediences. But in another way, it's a very wonderful thing, where we can say, well, despite what I've been, He will never let me go. Never ever lets me go. So he calls on God then. And the verses I find are interesting too. The waters compassed me about even to the soul. The depths closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains and earth with her bars was upon me forever. Yet has thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. You know, this is what I would call a soul or a heart cry. Now, verse 7 is the one that really fascinated me. When my soul fainted. Now, what a description. How would you describe that? Well, we know what our soul is. I've described a soul, and you're aware of the soul. A soul is immortal. A soul is incapable of death. It cannot die. And whether it is hell or heaven it goes to, it is there forever because it cannot die. And when my little body grows older, My soul remains in the same kind of situation. You know, it is an amazing and astonishing thing that we see ourselves getting older, but I'm sure all of us here now, if we had a time of sharing, and, you know, taking that you feel fairly well in your health, that kind of thing, because that does affect us, and I say, how old do you feel? And you might say, well, I feel very old. But you might just be saying, well, how old do you feel? Do you feel really any different from when you were 20 or 15, really? It's still you, isn't it? It's still you. And are you not surprised sometimes that when you pass one of these big mirrors in a shop, and it's a shop called Wolvers, you know it probably, it's an American firm, and it has mirrors without any tint at all. You know, it's a brutal mirror, you know? And I say, is that old man me? I think it's just ridiculous. You know, absolutely ridiculous. You can't believe it. And when you hear people saying about you or your wife or whatever saying, I saw an elderly person. I remember the shock that came to me first once. My parents had retired and gone to Westmales to live. And I went to the barber shop for a haircut, and if you go to a Welsh barber shop, by the end of the time he's cut your hair, he knows everything about you, you know, and all your parents and your grandparents, and everything that's possibly to be known. And, you know, you want to be there. I didn't want to talk. And he said, been here long? I said, all day. Familiar with the place, are you? reasonably. Have relatives here? Yes. Oh, I wonder if I know them. I have no idea, I said. I have no idea. He said, whereabouts do they live? In the town. What's the name of the street? Oh, he said, that elderly couple actually go to church every Sunday. My father and mother, elderly, they'd only just retired. And you know, it came as a shock. I never thought of them as elderly. They were mom and dad, you know. But others look at us, you know, and we age, but our soul does not. It does not. It has its faculties. mind, memory, affections, will, conscience, you know, it's sensibilities, it's there, and although the little body may age, the soul is there. But here is the thing, the soul is having a hard time. My soul fainted. Now I think I can understand that. You know, when you're in a situation where, as if you're in cold all over, You know, it has gripped you through and through, so the very utmost parts of your being, it has affected you so, so deeply. You know, I think I took Job one night, and where his friends saw that his grief was very great. When it's something really important, you can say, well, my soul, it doesn't die, but it kind of, as if it fainted within me. You put yourself in that position. That's how Jonah felt. When my soul fainted within me, now what did he remember? Now look at the all time low, now here we come to the curve, alright? I remembered the Lord. Isn't that lovely? Well I think it's lovely. You know, when his soul was fainting, You can't get much more down than that. I remember the Lord. And my prayer came in unto thee, where? Unto thine holy temple. Oh, that's a fantastic thing. Because he knew that he was very far away from the temple. I mean, if you describe where he is, I suppose it would be the most horrible description if it was described in that way. The main thing about this description is he was very, very far from the means of grace. You know, this can happen, can't it, to any one of us. I say, how have I found myself so far? from the worship of God and the means of grace, it can happen. When we go into disobedience, it leads to another disobedience, and to another, and to another, and to another. And it's a strange thing sometimes when you talk to people, you feel that they were not the Lord, and in conversation, suddenly, you find perhaps a tear in their eye, and you realize, this person's the Lord, but he's been wandering for a long time. Well, where did this prayer go? Well, to the Old Testament we know, particularly, it was towards the Holy Temple. the presence of God. For us, we wouldn't express it the same way, would we? We can go immediately into the presence of God, you know, a throne of grace, a place where we obtain mercy. Do you like that verse? It's lovely. We come to a throne of grace, a place where we obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So we can lift our hearts, wherever we are, whether it is a fish, or whether it is in some place as far away from God, we can lift up our soul and call on God. And however feeble a cry, He'll hear it. That's the amazing thing. You know, He doesn't say, now louder, I can't hear you. Louder, clearer, Grovel? No. However feeble the cry, he hears us. Because his eye never left us. That's a wonderful thing. And so it is with Jonah here. Then in verse eight, but I will, this is what I'm going to do. I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I shall come to the right place, and I'll come with a heart of thanksgiving. I will pay that I will have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. At last, you see, he's coming to his spiritual senses. And then, what happens then, something very violent, sudden happens. The fish vomits him out of his body, and he's out. Now, does the story finish there? It's not. The duty of Jonah. So after all that, what has God got to say? Well, he says in 3 verse 2, arise, go unto an inevitable. And you could almost hear Jonah saying, oh, I thought he'd forgotten, you know. Or he wished he'd forgotten. No. arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. That is, I'm going to give you your text. So now we have more detail. And the text is really quite a frightening one. I wonder if any one of us would like to have preached what he did. And so Jonah arose and went into 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, now here's the text, Yet forty days and never shall be overthrown. Not very a popular message, is it? In forty days you will be destroyed. Well, you can't just say that unless God has really shown the indication here. So God gives him that text. But what is the amazing thing is this, and it is an amazing thing. Listen to the response when God is in something. That has always amazed me. Let me give you an example. I preach a lot. Now, I don't suppose the counties of England and Wales mean a lot to you. You know how many counties, areas? There's a place called Cornwall. It's a very lovely old county. It used to be part of Wales, and this is a very special kind of place. And I've always liked it. And I preached there, I don't know how many times, in missions and, you know, all these various things. And it is a place that I've seen in the old days, great, very, very great revivals. It's quite a special place. And I like it there. Now, I can't tell you how many times I've been there. But I can tell you how many people, roughly, have come to the Lord. I'm doing this deliberately. You can see it's certainly not boasting afterwards. I'll give you a couple of examples. In one mission, a whole week, no one. Crowded out, no one. Friday night came. And a very smart lady in her 40s, she was a businesswoman, very successful, and her husband also. And she said, I want to see you. She said, I tried to avoid coming. I've done my best to avoid coming. And well, I've come. Well, I said, thank you. It's very nice of you to come. Well, I haven't finished, she said. Can we find some private place? And she said, I'm a very capable person. I'm sure you are, I said. Then she said, lead me to him. It's brief, but you know she came. When I went next time, she said, I want to introduce you to your spiritual grandchildren, my husband. my children, their husbands, their wives. She would do her rhyming or whatever it was, and she'd have my horrible little voice blaring in the house. It was inescapable, you know. Now, that's one example. Not a lot, is it, but one. Another couple felt very, very guilty that they hadn't kept their word. And so they said, well, listen to a tape then. And it was on, this man was born here from, you know it. They came back the next day and said, it's happened. It's happened to us. Well, that's all I can record you, a few incidents like that, and I've been dozens of times there. John Wesley went there 33 times on horseback. I went in a nice car, right? on horseback. Cornwall had a population then of 400,000. 10,000 would vaguely sometimes go to a place of worship. They would be Episcopalian and Congregational. 390,000 never thought about it. By the time he finished his 33rd visit, and when you think of the hundreds of places he went to, 60% of that county where Christians follow the things of God. And what's the difference between my little visits and the occasional converts? Well, God was with him. I'm not saying God was not with me, don't mistake me. But God was with him in a mighty way. And that's what we want today, that God might be with us. Now, Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh. But you know God was with him. And listen to the response of this horrible city in verse 5 chapter 3. 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. So they didn't mock at him, they didn't laugh at him. Look at the difference when God's will is there in a powerful way. 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, herd 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 every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hand. Who can tell If we repent, you see, 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 and they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not. Now, aren't they astonishing words? You know, they're astonishing words. And that the city is so evil, you might say, for me, I find it comforts, he can do it. He can. In places the size of New York, he can. Or Chicago, or San Francisco, or Los Angeles, all these big names, you know, and you know more of them than I do, but he can. And that is the amazing thing. And in one way, it is but a small thing for him. Because this planet is only a tiny little thing, in a little solar system, in the vastness of it. I saw some numbers for how many galaxies there are, and I can't remember the numbers, they're so huge. And then have they really counted? Because it was on forever and ever and ever and ever, and time without beginning or end, so you cannot measure God. And so you can say to God, well, this big city is really only a dot for you, Lord. And he can move the hardest hearts. He can move the hardest hearts. And that is a wonderful thing. Now then, Jonah was absolutely overjoyed. He was not. You know, God has trouble with us. We take some handling, don't we? So the duty of Jonah, we've had that, rise, go to Nineveh. Now we come to another part. This displeas Jonah. and he was very angry at this. He'd done his duty, and God had done this, and his attitude was, well, I knew you'd do it. That's the kind of God you are. You're a God who forgives iniquity, you're a God of mercy, you're a God, this is what you are like, and he was displeased. God then has to deal with Jonah. Let's look at chapter 4. And displeased Jonah exceedingly. Listen to this. And he was very angry. Can you believe it? Can you believe it? He was furious that Ninevites should be saved. He didn't like them. So he was furious at this. And he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying? I said it. When I was yet in my country, therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew thou art a gracious God, and merciful, and slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentant of the evil. Now look what he's saying there. I told you what you were like, Lord. Now you remember what I said before I went to Tarshish. But look at how he describes God, it's absolutely beautiful. Therefore I fled unto Tarshish for I knew that thou art a gracious God. Well, that's wonderful. That thou art a gracious God and of great kindness and repentancy of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live. I'd rather be dead than enjoy this. Well, you might say, well, sure, nice. I wonder why God puts up with him, don't you? I often wonder why God puts up with me. Do you wonder with yourself how God puts up with you? Then said the Lord, dost thou well to be angry? See, we haven't come to the high, you know. He takes a while here. He's got quite a task. Do you think you're right to be angry? Is it right? So he brings a circumstance. So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth. He said, I'll watch all this, see what's going on, see if it lasts, you know? So he decides to sit outside the city. Made him a booth, a kind of a little shelter, a temporary shelter. and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah, kind of a planter, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief, his discomfort. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. seeing that it had grown up and had big leaves and so on and because it was so very, very hot and I've got to learn what hot is, alright because it was so very hot and probably humid as well, you know he thought, well, I appreciate the God I appreciate that little touch of loving-kindness from God But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it smote the goat and it withered. So that thing that was so useful is now destroyed. And Jonah's got something to say. Well, he's got the same. And it came to pass when the sun did rise that God prepared a vehement east wind and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted. Now he fainted physically this time, right? That he fainted and wished himself to die and said, it is better for me to die than to live. So he's keeping to his desires. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry? Are you right for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. I think Jonah's a very difficult man. Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd, that little plant, for the which thou hast not labored, neither made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. If you're sorry for that, that little thing that came up in the night and perished in the night, you got feeling for that little thing, which you didn't do anything to plant it or to make it grow, in fact, quite independently of you. And should not I spare Nineveh? This is where I believe Jonah must have come to his senses. And should not I spare Nineveh? That great city wherein are more than 6,000 persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle. Do you not see, John? These are men and women with immortal souls hurtling full throttle to hell, and you weep over a plant. And I weep for a city. Are you right to be angry? Now then, it took that lesson, I believe, for Jonah to come to that place where God lifted him into understanding something of the loveliness of the will of God. Our disobediences bring great sorrows to people that we don't know even. Our obediences bring great joy. You see, he did obey. I know you might say he reluctantly did, but he did obey. He did obey. And more than that, God had to show him the value of a soul. He had to learn that before it could be brought up. You see, the value of a little plant, but the value of a soul. And I am convinced of this, that unless we see The value of one's soul. God cannot trust us with that. The value of one's soul. That's a very wonderful thing. And it takes a bit of understanding. When I was in the country, I'm not saying it was an ideal village, but at that time it was a very beautiful village. a grey stone village with little narrow streets. You could talk from one room to the other, you know, opposite houses. And where there was great love for the elderly people and for the sick and the lonely. And if there was a funeral, it really absolutely overheld me. I remember if something like the High Sheriff was an elder in the church, the church would be packed. It was quite a big site. It held about 800 people. It would be packed. And a funeral then took, you know, three or... In the country, it just takes... You can forget everything else that day, anyway. But even when a villager who hadn't got his full faculties, all right, and had to live on the kindness and the mercy of people, died, the church was packed. Do you see what I'm saying? Reverence for life. People counted, whoever they were. I'm not saying they didn't have their rows and their difficulties. I'm not saying that. I did learn that about them, you know, this respect for one. And I think James is saying that, you know. He says, when you see an ordinary person come in, don't be dismissive. It's a person. It's an immortal soul. Well, Jonah had to learn that. You feel for a plant, I ache for souls. I'm going to close with a hymn here about our will. It is by Matheson. Now, you're bound to know it. Well, you may not know this one. Does anyone not know, O Love that will not let me go? I should imagine you all know it, don't you? O Love that will not let me go. It's a great hymn and a well-known one. He also wrote other hymns. And here's one on our will. Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. Now, look at the contradictions here. They're not. Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. We're going to be prisoners anyway, either to Satan or to God, so make your choice, you see, in a way. Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. Force me to render up my sword, and I shall conquer a being without my sword. I sink in life's alarms when by myself I stand. Imprison me, listen to this, imprison me within thine arms and strong shall be my hand. It's a lovely picture. Imprison me within thine arms and strong shall be my hand. My heart is weak and poor until its master find. It has no spring of action, sure it varies with the wind. It cannot freely move till thou, you see he's using the example here of a clock, all right, very unusual. We usually say wind here, but it's not right. My heart is weak and poor until its master find. It has no spring a clock spring, of action sure, it varies with the wind. It cannot freely move till thou has wrought its chain. Enslave it with thy matchless love, and deathless it shall reign. A strange thing, isn't it? Where captivity is freedom. My will Now, this is the important stanza. My will is not my own till thou hast made it thine. Now, let me stay on that. I can't think straight until you've got charge of my will. My will is not my own till thou hast made it thine. If it would reach the monarch's throne, it must its crown resign, obviously. It only stands and bends amid the clashing strife, when on thy bosom it has lent, and found in thee its life. That's what Jonah had to learn. Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy goodness to us, Thy grace, Thy mercy, and what Thou art. Bless us all, O Lord, for Thy name's sake. Amen.