Elder Josiah Bradley, Jr. from Cincinnati, Ohio. We're living in a day when many people are trying to escape the realities of life. Some people literally run away. We read about runaway teenagers. And sometimes runaway fathers who just no longer want the responsibility of supporting a family, the commitment of a marriage, and disappear. No one knows what's happened to them. Sometimes there are runaway wives who just say, I'm tired of filling this role in life. And I'm running away. But tonight we want to talk to you about a runaway preacher. We turn to the book of Jonah and read from chapter 1, beginning with the first verse. Now, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise! go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me.' But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa. And he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare thereof, and he went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." First it says, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah. The word of the Lord is the only authority about which we really need to be concerned. It doesn't matter so much what men have written, what people think, what ideas we may have, What really counts is the Word of the Lord. His Word says we ought to believe something, that's what we ought to believe. His Word says we ought to do something, that's what we ought to do. You may say, I don't feel like doing that. That really isn't significant. It doesn't matter how we feel about it. The Word of the Lord is what counts. Nothing takes precedence over that. Should not, certainly, in the life of the child of God. And the word of the Lord is sent to one of his servants, whatever the message, whatever the commandment, if it be to go to a place and preach, or to go to minister to a particular person, to try to assist them, encourage them, instruct them, warn them, rebuke them, that need to fill a particular role in life, to assume a special responsibility in his kingdom service, whatever it is, when the word of the Lord comes to us, we should be tremendously concerned about doing just exactly what he has bidden us. And I want to emphasize the point that this word that I have before me, this inspired record, is the authority For people will sometimes say, the Lord has told me to do this, that, and the other. But what they say they have been told to do is not in harmony with what this book says. Now, that individual has his wires crossed. He may have gotten a message, but it didn't come from the Lord. If the message you have is from the Lord, it will be in harmony with his inspired word. It's the final test about it. Well, that's difficult for some people, though, to lay hold of. They just feel thoroughly satisfied that here's something I ought to do, and the Lord has burdened me to do it and made it possible for me to do it, so it must be right. But it must be in harmony with this book. Our emotions are very changeable. Our ideas and opinions can easily be swayed. But God's Word is the same. Every time you go back to it, the same message is going to be there. Now, you may not have the clear insight to it every time you go, and there may be times that you see things you had not seen before, but the message hasn't changed. It's just your understanding of it. The Word of the Lord takes precedence. It is our only guide and authority. How important it is for us to know that when it comes to the doctrine. The doctrine that old Baptists love and preach is certainly not popularly received in the religious world. And occasionally somebody will get the idea that we need to improve our position in the world today, and one way to do it would be to water down our doctrine a little bit, to take off some of the rough edges where it wouldn't be quite so offensive to so many people. And we could preach salvation by grace, but we wouldn't have to get down to those little intricate details and make it clear that the sovereign God of heaven has made choice of a people and a covenant before the world began, and they alone are going to ultimately stand in his presence, and that Jesus Christ died specifically for them and purchased those that were given to him by the Father. If we could just kind of run all that together under the general heading salvation by grace, maybe it would go over better. See, there's a lot of people who will tell you they believe salvation by grace until you get down to the details of what grace is all about. There's no place for us to compromise the doctrine, to try to make it more acceptable to the world, because it never has been. The true gospel message has never been popularly received in the world. It wasn't popular when Jesus Christ delivered it, and you think we can improve on his effort in declaring the message? Certainly not. So the authority of God's Word is the only test. I respect our forefathers. I feel like I have been greatly benefited in my ministry from fellowship with older ministers. And I appreciate what older ministers have preached, what older ministers have written, what our forefathers have put down in articles of faith, but when it comes down to the final test, it's not what somebody said in Fulton, Tennessee, or what somebody said in Black Rock, Maryland. The final test is, what does the Word of God say? That's the authority. And certainly when it comes to what we are to practice in the Church, Oh, somebody will say, but times have changed dramatically. We're living in another day. We can't continue to do business like our forefathers did a hundred years ago. Well, now, if our forefathers missed the mark, if they missed the standard, if they weren't adhering to the authority of this book, then there is change in order, and there are some changes like that that ought to be made in some places. But just the idea that we can now incorporate any plan or policy that we want in the church because it might cause us to grow and to be more generally acceptable is certainly not valid, whatever his word authorizes. And we believe that's a simple practice, a simple course in which the name of the Lord is going to be honored rather than for us to marvel at the intricate organizational structure that man might erect to be able to carry out what he claims to be the word and work of God. And then when it comes down to the way we live, a lot of people feel pretty good about saying, yes, this book is the authority when it comes to what I believe and about what we ought to practice in the church. But now when it comes to what I do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and the rest of the week, I don't want you to get too nosy about that. I feel like I've got to make my own course in life. I want to make my own decisions. In fact, I've had people just come out and blatantly tell me sometimes, what I do is my own business. I don't think it's any business of the church what I do. Well, friend, it is the business of the church. It is the business of the ministry to be concerned about how God's people live. And when we come to the authority for how we're to live, we've got to come back to the book. We've got to come back to what the word of the Lord says. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, but Jonah didn't like it. Jonah didn't like the word. He didn't like the message. And he decided, I'm not going to do what God said. And I want to tell you, whether you're a preacher or anybody else, when you start down that road, you're headed for trouble, and Jonah was. No excuses, then, can be rightfully offered when the Word of the Lord is delivered. You read of something that you ought to be doing in God's Word, made reference last night to the subject of forgiveness, to be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake had forgiven you. So I don't like that part. I like to hear about the doctrine. I like to hear about the covenant of grace. I like to hear about redemption at the cross. I like to hear about heaven after hell. Don't talk to me about forgiveness now. I'm just fed up to my ears with that. You know, if a person doesn't want to do their duty, just hearing it once is too much. They think you've already overworked the subject. I don't like that word. Give me some other word, some other message. I don't like that. But if that's what the word of the Lord says, there is no excuse. People come around sometimes and try to explain to me, after I've touched on that subject, as to why they have a situation in their life that just doesn't fit. what the book says. They know what I preached was right and what the Bible says is right, but said, you just don't understand. I've been so deeply hurt. I've been so greatly offended. I've been so misused. There's no way I could forgive. But there's no excuses when the word of the Lord comes. It doesn't matter what your idea, what your opinion is, what your difficulty, what the complication in your state of affairs, the word of the Lord. is the authority. Read about some of the things you ought to be doing on a daily basis, knowing even as we enter this new year how important it is for us to be mindful of what's in this book. Talk about the word of the Lord being our authority, being our only rule of faith and practice. How are we going to draw from it if we don't know what's there? We've got to be acquainted with the book. The psalmist said, ìBy word have I here to my heart that I might not sin against God.î We need to be reading the book, praying for the Lord to open our eyes of understanding that we may get the message of it. Somebody says, ìYes, I know thatís right, and I plan to do that one of these days.î Right now, however, I've got so many pressures in my life, my schedule is so heavy, there's some things I've got to get out of the way. Once I get some of these present complications cleaned up, some of these things I've been working on for a while set aside, maybe I can get a good start at that next spring. Or maybe when summertime comes, I can work it into my schedule. Or maybe by next year. You know, we're always making excuses about what we're going to do later on. The Lord didn't come to Jonah and say, Jonah, if it ever fits your schedule, if it ever becomes convenient for you, I'd like for you to go and preach it in there, but I don't want to mess up anything else you have planned, you see. If your schedule is too tight, I'll certainly understand it. The Lord didn't talk to Jonah like that. Why do we get the idea he talks to us that way? As though when the preacher lays out the word of the Lord, we assume it's optional. I can either take it or leave it. I can either do it or not. It doesn't really matter. It's just whether, if it fits in, if it suits me, if it's something I like, if I feel that way, fine. If not, just set it aside. Excuses just don't stand up. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. And I'm sure that Jonah was a man of God, a prophet of God, and if you had inquired of him the day before this message came, Jonah, what is your attitude about God's word? If God speaks to you, if God delivers a message to you, how will you respond? Not knowing that there was going to be a message come that he didn't want to obey, he would have told you the day before getting it, whatever the Lord says, I'll do it. All the Lord has to do is just speak to me, direct me, guide me, I'm ready. I'm ready to serve and obey God. But as soon as God told him to do something he didn't want to do, he walked. And so he arose up to flee. Jonah rose up to flee. Suppose somebody had asked him the day before on this point. Jonah, being a prophet of God, maybe you can answer this question that's been on my mind a little bit. Do you believe that it's possible for a man to hide from God? It would have said why that's absurd nobody got from God. No, sir. You can't run from the Lord There's no way what a foolish question for anybody to think they can run from God But now when Jonah gets a word, he doesn't like what he do Gonna try to hide He do better than that Have you ever done anything you knew better than I been awakened in the midst of your folly and say, how could I, one who knows the truth and knows something about God, be so ridiculous as to entertain this notion or pursue this course, go this direction, neglect this duty, try to do things my own way when I know it's not right? It just shows us how when we're in the dark, when we're in a state of rebellion, as Jonah was here, we can do some rather absurd things. Are there not some things that have occurred in your life that even the memory of them bring you embarrassment? And you just think, how could it be? One who has been so blessed, one who knows as much of the truth as I know, one who has been so favored of God, that I actually could have taken this direction in my life. Look at what the psalmist says, Psalm 139, verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light, they are both alike to thee." Does it sound like David thought it was possible to hide from God? He said it doesn't matter how high you go, the Lord's there. How deep you go, the Lord's there. How far you travel, the Lord's there. Have you ever tried this? You got the idea at some point, maybe what I need to do is move. And you moved somewhere, across town, across state, across the country. And when you got there, you found out you hadn't been able to hide from God because He was there. He was still dealing with you. He still stirred up your conscience. He still convicted you. He still made you to see your sin. He still made you to recognize your folly. Sometimes people try to hide from the Lord by becoming very, very busy. Very active. Oh, I mean, they are running, they're doing something, they're involved, they join every kind of organization possible, whatever it is, they're signed up for it, they're just in a hurry all the time. They don't have time to slow down, they don't want to slow down. They're afraid they're going to hear the still, small voice of God. They're running from the Lord's voice. But you can only run so long. My friends, you cannot hide from God. And that's a lesson that we all know full well. I'm sure there's not a person in this house tonight that would disagree with what the psalmist said. You know you cannot hide from God, but I doubt there's a person here that hadn't tried it at some time or another. You just get the strange notion that there are certain situations you can just kind of cover it up and the Lord won't notice. Isn't that foolish for us to ever think that? He knows everything about us, our past, our present, our future, every thought we have, every motive that influences us, and yet we think we're going to hide something. We won't cover it up. We're going to be able to change some situations here, live on another street, live in another city, move to another part of the country, and get away from God. It just will not happen. It cannot happen. Jonah rose up to plead. Jonah wanted to avoid his responsibility as a prophet. What is the responsibility of a prophet of God? Is it not to deliver the word of the Lord? The word of the Lord came to him and said, go to Nineveh to preach. And Jonah did not want to accept that responsibility. You ever hear anything preached today that you really just don't care to put them into practice? You read some things in God's words, and I tell you, let me see if I can't find something a little sweeter than what I find in that lesson. Let me go over here and read the 23rd Psalm. I need a little comfort tonight. Because what you read convicted you, showed you some of your sins, some of your faults, some of the things that you needed to correct and change about your life, and you didn't want to change. You didn't want the responsibility. I believe that The reason some people linger outside the old Baptist church for years. And I've heard this question pondered ever since I've been around old Baptists. In fact, I've never run into this strange animal that old Baptists talk about being drylanders. I didn't know what that was until I came around to old Baptists. And I even found that there were people who identified themselves by that term. They'd tell you that's what they were. I'm a drylander. Somebody that gives evidence of having an experience of grace has testified that they believe this is the Church and they love this doctrine, but they just stand on the outside and have never been baptized. They're on the dry land, never followed the Lord, never have been identified with Christ in this open profession. People say, why? Why? Why does that happen? I remember being at a baptizing back in the hills of Kentucky and watching an old brother, 85 years old, brought up out of the creek. And as soon as he came up on the land, he told an old sister there, said, I don't know why you didn't tell me it was this good a long time ago. She said, I've been trying to tell you this for years, and you wouldn't pay me no mind. Now, there's been God's people trying to share their experience, and preachers been trying to tell you for a long time how good it is, and there's a blessing for you in obedience you can't find anywhere else. And I believe part of the problem comes out of this very point. People don't want to accept their responsibility. Sometimes they'll throw it off and think, well, I just feel unworthy. Well, that's all right. That's the only kind of people we want in the Church, is those who feel to be unworthy. If you ever graduate from that, you've rotted on the vine. It's too late. The Church won't have you. Just those who recognize and feel they're unworthy. But some don't want a responsibility. And they want the church to survive, they want it to be there so they can come when they want to, they want their funeral held there someday, so they want it to survive. But as far as having to be a member, support it, pray for it, when it has a problem, stay there and labor with it instead of running off and hiding until somebody else settles it, saying, you know, I don't want all this responsibility, I can do without that. Let me tell you something, when the word of the Lord comes, the word of the Lord commands us to go forward in obedience and do what he says do and accept our responsibility rather than try to hide from it. We can see much of that attitude in general in the world today of people that just don't want responsibility. Just kind of have the idea that the world owes them a living, just drift through life, everything's going to take care of itself. It's just not the way God's arranged things. There's a responsibility we have in the natural realm. There's a responsibility we have in the spiritual realm. We are to adhere to the word of the Lord and follow explicitly what he's commanded, no matter how we feel about it. Somebody said, well, if I don't feel like doing it, I don't think it'd be right for me to do it. Oh, no, that's not an excuse. The Lord never said, do what I said. No, if you feel like it, he said, do it. Do it. Obey him. And if you do it long enough, you'll get where you feel like doing it. But if you reject it and don't do it and don't even start, you'll sit there the rest of your life saying, well, I don't feel like doing this. Suppose the only time the preacher was up here in the pulpit were the days that he felt like it. You'd be a lot of times where there wouldn't be anybody up here. But you see, it's a man's responsibility to be instant, in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. Maybe Jonah was reluctant to heed the word of the Lord because he decided that the task was too big. Nineveh was a big city. It was three days journey across, about 60 miles across the city. You see, that wasn't just a little country town. That was a big place, especially back in Jonah's day. Now, when he got to thinking about this, go to Nineveh and preach. How on earth am I going to go to Nineveh and get anybody's attention? He might have thought, now, if this was about a few hundred years down the road, I might get me some radio time. I could buy me a spot or two on television, I could. But you see, this is a little early for that. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? How am I going to get people's attention? It's going to take a while. I'll have to organize me a group to try to help me get out there to get this message out. I don't know if I'll live long enough to get this job done. Just try to get the message to this many people. What am I going to do? People aren't going to pay any attention to me anyway. Where am I going to start? Am I going to just knock on the first door I come to when I come to town? Am I going to stop at the first street corner? Am I going to go down to the courthouse square? Where am I going to start? And he just may have felt overwhelmed by it. Me, one poor little prophet, go to a big city like that and try to preach? He might have felt, Lord, I'm a country boy. I don't want to go to Nineveh. That's no place for me. I'm not cut out for the job. I'm too little. I don't know enough. I don't know how to handle it. I can't do it. Therefore, Lord, I'm not going." Have you ever made some excuses like that? Has the word of the Lord ever come to you and you say, Lord, you've called on the wrong fellow? I can't handle it, Lord. Brother told me right on this trip that he went through some of Jonah's experience for several years before he actually started preaching. Well, I used to hear it said that all preachers had to go to Jonah's hell. I certainly don't believe that's the route to go. Plenty of them have been there. Some of them before they started and some after, and some have made a trip or two down in the low places. But the best route is when the word of the Lord comes go doing what he said. And the excuse that I'm too little or I'm too weak or I can't do it just doesn't hold up. See, that was the kind of excuse Moses was making when the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush. Moses said, Lord, I can't make a speech. I'm half tongue-tied. I can't get down there and talk in front of these people. Lord, I'm not the one. To paraphrase, it seemed like Moses was saying, Lord, if you'd have come to me about 40 years ago, I was ready. I was geared up for it. I was at that point in a position of influence. I could have been the man, but not now. Forty years on the backside of the desert, it's all over for me. Can't go. But the Lord was saying to Moses, Now that you know you cannot, I can use you. I'm ready now to bless you by my strength and my power. And some of you say, Boy, I'm sure glad he's preaching on preachers tonight. That leaves me out. I hope he really lays it on preachers. Let me tell you, there's a message in this not just for preachers, but for every person in the house. Has the Lord ever bidden you to do something and your excuse was, well, I'm just too little, I'm no so little, I'm so poor, there's just no way, on and on the excuses go. My friends, they just won't stand out. It doesn't matter how poor and how needy and how weak we are, if there's a place for us to fill, we ought to fill it. And the scriptures say a lot about the gifts that the Lord has put in the church, not just the gift of the ministry, but individual spiritual gifts that are given to the children of God that ought to be used and exercised on an ongoing basis. And many are negligent in those areas, putting up the excuse, I don't know enough, I'm too poor, I'm too weak. See, if you believe that it's by the power and strength of God that great things are going to be accomplished, it just doesn't matter how poor and weak and miserable you may be, you know where the blessings are going to have to come from. And the Lord has been pleased to use the weak and foolish things of this world to confound the wise and the mighty. Now, why is it we say that's what we believe, that's the way God works, and as soon as he calls on one of us poor little weak vessels, we say, well, Lord, no, not me, not me. I know you use weak things, but not this weak. No, that's just exactly what the Lord does. He has used the weak, fragile vessels of this earth that no flesh should glory in his presence. trouble Jonah here, he just plain old didn't like Nineveh, nor the people that lived there. I mean, Jonah was a crusty old Jew that didn't think very highly of Gentiles, and Nineveh was a city filled up with ungodly, unclean Gentiles, and that wasn't the place that an old Jewish prophet wanted to go exercise his gift. His attitude was, Lord, I'm perfectly willing to go and deliver your word. I'm happy to go and preach, but there are certain limitations now. I'm willing to go, but please send me where I want to go. Send me to a warm climate. Send me to friendly people. Send me to people that are related to me. Send me somewhere that I can feel like I'll fit in. I'm just not going to fit into the picture over there. How am I, Jonas, a Jew, going to get over there and have any influence on these people? And as a matter of fact, they're such wretched, ungodly people, I'd just as soon as get burned up anyway. So I'd just as soon stay home and not go over there and call on them to repent. I'd rather not do it. Suppose we ever get into any peculiar ideas along that line, and say, Lord, more than anything else in my life, I want thy will to be done. Whatever it is, Lord, I'm ready. Just show me the way, just guide me by thy Spirit, and I'm ready to follow, I'm ready to obey, I'll do anything, I'll go anywhere. But there are a few exceptions, Lord. I'll go anywhere as long as it's not more than 20 miles from home. I'll go anywhere as long as it's to people who have a southern accent. I'll go anywhere, Lord, as long as it's somebody I'm friendly with and love and appreciate and kind of got the same familiar background I've got. But, Lord, don't put me out there in some unfamiliar territory and some unpleasant surroundings. Well, I know Jonah wasn't the only preacher that ever had trouble along that line. The Apostle Peter had the same problem. The Lord told him to go over and carry the gospel message to the Gentiles. It's amazing how many times this issue comes up in the scripture in the Old and New Testament alike. where the Lord was sovereignly singling out either one Gentile, in the case of some of the healings that occurred, or a city of Gentiles to which to send the message, or a household of Gentiles to which to send the gospel. And those who were of the Jews were so prejudiced and so narrow in their view, they just couldn't imagine that these Gentiles ought to get anything as far as the attention and mercy of God. Peter said, Lord, I can't eat of these beasts that are let down in this great sheet. That which is common or unclean does not come into my mouth. But three times the Lord said, Arise and eat, and call not that unclean which God hath cleansed, making it perfectly clear God had already cleansed those Gentiles. Grace was already there. The Holy Spirit was already present in the life of Cornelius. Cornelius was a little too late to be a soul winner. He was a little behind schedule to have anything to do to get this family ready to go to heaven, my friend. Cornelius was already a praying man, and God had heard and answered his prayer, and Peter arrived there in answer to that prayer. And he said, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, for out of every nation under heaven, he that feareth and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. Not going to be. Then come over there and say, here, Cornelius, here's the conditions. If you'll do this, this, and this, you'll be accepted. He gets there and says, here's a man that fears God and works righteousness. Here's the clear testimony and evidence. He is, present tense, accepted of God. This is the evidence of it. Peter was reluctant to go. I mean, I don't know that we really get a clear picture in our mind about the prejudice that the Jews had against the Gentiles. I mean, this was a racial thing. This was a religious thing. You know how strong the feelings people can have as far as their prejudice against a particular race? They don't want to be together in many cases. They certainly wouldn't want to be in the same house, they wouldn't want to be in the same church, and here the Lord is telling Peter, go preach to a people of another race, of another religion, of another background, of another circumstance, a people that Peter didn't even like, and say, go preach to them! Peter wasn't out on a soul-winning campaign. He wasn't out knocking on doors trying to start a new work, friends. This came about because the God of heaven gave him a vision and says, here's where you ought to be. But you see, when the Lord manifests his presence, it made that a wonderful, wonderful trip. Because when Peter arrives there, he sees clear evidence that God has done a work in this man's life And even those that he took along to witness what would happen, because he knew full well what would occur as soon as he got back home, his good brethren are going to call him on the carpet and say, Brother Peter, where have you been and why? And knowing that, he took some along with him, so that sure enough, when he came back and hit the city limits, they were waiting on him. But he said, brethren, you testify what happened. And they said, we were right there and saw it, that the Holy Ghost came on those Gentiles just like he did on us at the beginning. But those good brethren, as soon as they heard that testimony, they said, it suits us. If the Lord is in it, we'll accept it. We weren't real happy about it. We were questioning this thing. But if God's in it, who are we to speak against? Well, see, we can get some very strong ideas about where we ought to be in our life and what we ought to be doing. We feel comfortable with people that are somewhat from our background, you know, somebody that's got roots out on the farm somewhere and somebody that's come up from a very simple life and somebody that's known a little bit about fundamentals of the Bible at least most all their life. But how do you handle it when you get out here with somebody that's brought up with a totally different philosophy of life, had a totally different background and experience, hadn't known a thing on earth about the Word of God, and yet there's evidence this person's got an inquiring mind, and they're willing to talk to you a little bit about the things of the Lord. Should we write a person off because they don't have our same roots and background, they don't have our accent and our particular experience and say God can't be in the matter? Of all things, we as old Baptists talk continually about what a big family the Lord has of people out of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation under heaven. And we of all people ought to be expecting from time to time that the Lord is going to bless some of his people from unusual situations to come into the light of the truth and rejoice with us in the gospel. You know, I believe there are still old Baptists today that really believe that any church in town is automatically inferior to the old church out in the country. That there's just no way that people that live in the big city can be as spiritual and committed to God as country folks can. Now, I grant you that there are some wonderful, wide-awake, lively, prosperous country churches. And all of us have been in some meetings in country churches sometimes, and we wouldn't pray for anything. But folks, the church started out in town. It didn't start in the country, it started out in the city. And some of the churches that you find in New Testament time that were the most prosperous churches were churches in the city. And the point is, if the Lord is the foundation head of the church and the church is made up of people, what difference does it make where they're located, my friends? The whole issue and question is, is the Lord there? And are we hearing and heeding and obeying the Word of the Lord? Don't let us get hung up on the idea that everything's got to be just exactly in the vein and category as we've always envisioned it. As a matter of fact, when I first started preaching among Old Baptists close to 30 years ago, There'd have been some of those precious old folks back in that day and if they'd have walked in this attractive building, they'd have raised an eyebrow and said, what's going on here in Birmingham anyway? They'd have felt like anybody had a padded pew had gone modern on. See, we can get the idea sometimes that everything's just got to be in a certain little pattern and mold because that's what we've been used to. But our final test and authority is not some little personal preference or custom or what may be our fault or even our prejudice, but what's the Word of the Lord say. And I think, furthermore, that as you read through the rest of the book of Jonah, it comes to light that Jonah knew God is a merciful God, and frankly, he didn't want to go preach to the Ninevites because he was afraid they would repent and God would have mercy on them. And he didn't want to see Ninevites get mercy. He wanted them to be burned up. I tell you, that's a preacher in a bad attitude. Once in a while I've heard a preacher that got up to whip people instead of feed them. Oh, my friends, the flock of God must be fed, the flock of God must be led, not driven, and not whipped, but instructed and fed. And any time you get the attitude, whether it's toward God's people in the Church, or those in his family outside of the church, or the most notable ungodly sinners on this earth, which indeed would have been such with the Ninevites, and your attitude is, I just wish God would burn them up because that's what they got coming to them, and you don't care about them repenting and don't care about mercy. You've gotten on Jonah's side, but you're not on the Lord's side. Have you ever had that thought about something? Have you ever maybe known somebody on your street, just the most ungodly, wicked cuss you ever saw, and you just see somebody live like they do, say some of the things they do, and say, I don't know why the Lord doesn't send a bolt of lightning and knock them off the face of the earth. If I was in control, I'd have bumped them off a long time ago. Have you ever had that attitude? You ever look around at some of the ungodliness situations in the world today and say, oh, the Lord sure is patient. If I was running this show, I'd have knocked that whole continent off in the ocean over there. I'd have burned this city up a long time ago. Folks are just glad you're not running the show, that's all. Aren't you glad that the sovereign, merciful God of glory is still on the throne and hadn't left it up to man to make the decision? I want to tell you that if we have a heart of compassion and a heart of love, as we ought to have, if our thoughts are as the thoughts of the Lord, we're going to be interested, as we might deliver the message of the Lord, whether it be to a city of thousands or to one individual, our concern is that we might see them repent, that mercy might be manifest, rather than to Say, I just hope they get what's coming to them. Do you want to get what's coming to you? My friends, we don't need justice, it's mercy! Mercy is what we need, and therefore we ought to delight in the thought of God's mercy, and to know that indeed his mercy is manifest when repentance is granted by his sovereign grace. I think Jonah was very selfish in this whole situation, concerned about his reputation. You know, the way that you were able to pick out a prophet, distinguish a true prophet from a false prophet, that is, when a man came in and said something was going to happen, if he was a true prophet, it happened. If he said it's going to happen and it didn't, you knew he wasn't much of a prophet. Now, Jonah was a little jittery. He felt like, if I come in to Nineveh and say, Lo, God's going to destroy this city! God's going to destroy this city! Judgment's coming! And then this bunch of heathen ups and repents, and God doesn't destroy the city, I'm going to get a bad reputation. People are going to say, I'm not much of a prophet, because I said, Judgment's coming, and it didn't hit! He was more concerned about what people were going to think about him, about his reputation, than he was about delivering the message of the Lord. And I want to tell you, we're treading on dangerous ground when that becomes our concern. Any time a preacher gets to the place that he's more concerned about whether somebody's going to like him, whether somebody's going to approve of him, than he is to deliver the word of the Lord, he's no longer the Lord's servant. He's serving himself or serving the people, serving somebody else. He's not serving God. The ultimate concern is that we serve the Lord. And I tell you, it gives me a great deal of comfort to know that it is only my responsibility. And I have to keep reminding myself of this a lot of times, because I get discouraged. But it's the responsibility of the minister of the gospel to be faithful in discharging his duty and bringing the message. The ultimate results are in the hands of the Lord. I get frustrated when people don't just ups and do it. When you deliver the Word of the Lord, you feel like, all right, here's the Word of the Lord, let's do something about it. And people just sit there and look at you, and sometimes you don't know what they're thinking. Sometimes they're looking at the light fixtures, and sometimes they're looking at the clock, and sometimes they're taking a little nap. Sometimes, you know, you don't know what's going through their mind. And some of them will get all excited and say, that's great, that's a wonderful message, I agree with you, I'm glad you preached that, and then go right out and do absolutely nothing about it. And you begin to wonder, what's the use even putting forth the effort? Why even try to deliver the Word? But that's all the Lord requires of His servant, just get over there and get the message out, get it delivered, deliver the Word. But when the Word's been delivered, when the message is preached, when the light's been given, you have a responsibility to walk in it, and the Lord's the one that'll deal with it if you don't. But what people think about us, is not really that significant. I've had conversations with several people in the last few months about something that troubles me. When I see the difference, and there are always, of course, exceptions to this, but the difference in general, in what I find in the churches of God today and what I observed 30 years ago, I found the people in years back that many times when they came to the house of the Lord were already in such a spiritual frame of mind, already so hungry, already so in tune with the gospel, that it just didn't take a tremendous amount of preaching to get to them. I mean, their buckets overflowed quickly. There were people that were ready to shout and let somebody know about how good they felt that the Lord was there and they wanted to praise his name and they really didn't care too much about what anybody thought. Really didn't care a whole lot about it. And I've heard sermons preached in this modern time that as far as the content of that message and the manner of delivery and what was said and so on, they were probably far beyond anything that was preached among the Old Baptist thirty years ago, and yet people sit there and just look at it. Well, that's a pretty good little sermon, wasn't it? Not a tear shed. If somebody did shout, they'd all grip like, Lord, what happened in this place? They wouldn't know what was going on. A little sister said something in our church the other day. She said, oh, I got something out of that message. And she said, I could have just burst out and just cried big and loud. But I just muffled it all in, just sniffled a little bit. I wish somebody would do something more sniffle once in a while. I'd like to see somebody just let it all be manifested. Yes, it's all right to cry sometime when the gospel comes in power. It's all right sometimes, not in a disruptive way, not in a way to attract attention, but in the glory of God, even to praise his name in a shout. But you know what the whole problem is? We're afraid somebody's going to think we're a little peculiar. Oh, I would be so embarrassed. What would somebody think of me? You know why? They go out and talk about me. So what? I mean, where do we get this thing that we've got to be so concerned about everybody thinking how great we are and how polished we are and how much we know? The thing that they were amazed at in the days of their disciples was that though these were ignorant and unlearned men by the world's standards, they took knowledge of them, they had been with Jesus. And that's what counts, and that's all we need in his Church and Kingdom today, is that it be clearly manifest and displayed that we have been with Jesus. So Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord. And he went down to Joppa, which was the opposite direction of Nineveh. I mean, he didn't just angle off a little bit. He just turned around and went the opposite way. And that's generally when somebody's trying to run from the Lord, they don't just adjust the steering. I mean, they just turn right around and go the opposite direction. And that's what he did. And boy, did he feel good about that decision. I mean, that's a pretty big decision to make, to decide. The Word of the Lord says, go here, and my decision is, I'm going there. I'm going the opposite direction. I mean, there's just no way you can dress that up and make that acceptable. That's just plain old rebellion, is what that is. But Jonah gets down here to the port, and here was a ship, a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it. Oh, he must have felt, things are going my way. I mean, you know, this can't be all that bad a decision because now there's something about this thing. Why would this ship be here if I wasn't supposed to go this way? See, things are just working out for me. I think it must be all right. This is providential because this ship's sitting right here ready to go. Have you ever tried to justify your disobedience like that? You knew good and well you had no business going where you were going, doing what you were doing, but say, boy, look how it's all working out. Why, the pieces of this puzzle are just coming together. God must be in it. Down deep inside you knew better. There's still a small voice of God saying, no, no, no, this isn't the way. This is the way, walking in it. But you say, this is all so easy. It's right here for me. Just because something's easy doesn't mean God's in it. Just because something's convenient doesn't mean it's right. There are a lot of sinful things that are extremely convenient. I mean, the devil puts his merchandise out on the shelf where you can get to it. He's making it as easy as possible for you to think wrong and do wrong. So just because it looks like everything's going great doesn't mean that it is. Jonah found this ship. He felt the desire to go. And he does now what he would have condemned somebody else for doing. Would this prophet have ever told somebody else, if God tells you to go one place, it's all right, if you don't want to go, just make your choice and go somewhere else? He wouldn't have ever advised anybody that. And if he'd heard of anybody doing that, he'd have said, shame on you, what a rebellious sinner you are, you shouldn't have done it. But he's doing it. Have you ever in your life Criticize somebody for doing something, talked about them, told other people about what they did, laid them low, tacked their hide to the wall for what they did, and then realized you had done the same thing or worse. I won't ask for a show of hands, but you ask down deep in your heart, has that ever been so? You can see a vivid example of it in the case of David. Nathan, the prophet, comes and says, King David, I want to share a little story with you. There was a man over here in your kingdom, rich man, had flocks and herds, everything he could ask for. He was in great shape. Had a neighbor, poor, poor man, didn't have much. One little ewe lamb. They nurtured that thing since it was a baby. Let that little lamb eat right up there at the man's table. Well, this rich man over here has company come in. A stranger comes in and he decides we want to fix lamb for supper. And he didn't take any one of them out of his flocks. He goes over there and takes that one little lamb from his poor neighbor. The only lamb he's got. Takes it and kills it. And puts it on the table in his house to feed his guests. I mean to tell you, David flew mad. He just went all over him. He said, I won't put up with it. I won't tolerate anybody in my kingdom living like that. It just must not be me. And the prophet says, Thou art the man. Talk about a man falling apart. Talk about his bones turning to water. And David got the story. He was ready to put somebody to death for stealing a little lamb from his neighbor. He had committed adultery and murder, but thought he had it covered up. Oh, how easy it is in our pride and self-righteousness to be very quick to condemn others. We have been guilty in a greater measure ourselves. We just started on this little story of Jonah. This is a rich book to me. I've been preaching a lot from it of late. And so we just touched a few points here in the first three verses. But what's the conclusion? What's the conclusion? Let us never try to run from God. And if you have, come back. That's the point I want to make in this message. Don't try to run from God. But if I'm talking to somebody tonight that's already bought their ticket to go down to Tarsus, tear it up. It's going to be a rough trip. I'm telling you in advance, you're going to wish you hadn't gotten on board. Tear up your ticket now. It's an expensive ticket to start with, but tear it up. And there's somebody that's already being rocked around on the sea of life saying, I just don't know if I can take it. But you realize you brought yourself into this tempest because of your disobedience. Over and over again, the message of the Bible is return, return, return. Aren't you glad that we believe in a God who says, return, you backsliding people? Oh, the world has a different attitude. Even many of God's people see this old runaway preacher and say, whatever he gets, he had it coming to him, I wouldn't care if he was ever delivered. But the Lord says, return. And some of your dearest friends may have been so disturbed with you in your wrong course of action that they've said, I don't care what happens to you. But I'm telling you about one tonight who still cares. God does. And he says, return. May God bless you to follow Him in obedience. If you would stand and take the handle of my sign, the number 276, and just multiply it by one, and this sign talks about coming. If you feel to be a saint, if you feel to be a believer, if you feel to be unworthy, and if you feel to be in need of God's mercy, you are welcome to come. We close and open the door to the church. And if you're in the Bible, in any way that we can see, please come. Number 576, Psalm 411. and wounded, dead, and sore. Jesus, pray he stands to help you, full of pity, love, and power. For I will arise and go to Jesus, He will embrace me in His arms. In His great arms, O my dear Savior, O my heart is bound undone.