It's time now for the Chapel Hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Today's message was preached during the 2007 Bible Conference. Following the introduction by Dr. Bob Jones III, our speaker will be Dr. Brian Green, pastor of Calvary Free Grace Baptist Church in Middlesex, England. The title of his message is How God Deals With Disobedient Christians. The text is from Jonah, chapter one, verses one through 17. At this time, I would like to introduce our guest speaker all the way from London, England. With his wife, Pat, is with us these days, and we are most grateful. Dr. Brian Green is a dear man of God that I love like a brother. We have been together all over the world in conferences. He's a man of wonderful sense of humor. But a man with a burning love of Christ in his heart that shows in everything, conversations, pulpit, relationships, he loves the Lord. A very gifted preacher of the word of God. His first church was in the Baptist Union of England, an apostate group. After four years, he came out of that group, separated from them in loyalty to Christ, and for 45 years has thereafter pastored an independent Baptist church in London, England. My admiration for him is great for his courage. For his faithfulness to Christ. He's the general secretary of the British Protestant Council of Churches. He's an author, newspaper publisher. So we're very happy to have him here, have him back. He's a part of us, part of the University family. I want you to turn with me, if you will please, in the Word of God to the Book of Jonah. I'd be much concerned that the Lord would give me the message for the occasions when I'll be here speaking to you. But I've had a hard time trying to come to the right message for this morning. I don't know why that is. Sometimes the Lord keeps us in that suspense. Dr. Page is not like me. He seems to have his message all planned out long before. And he'll ring you up, and he'll tell you all about it, and he'll go right through all the points, even though it's a week before he's actually going to preach it. Well, I'm not like that, I'm afraid, and it was only last night that the Lord really did lay this message upon my heart. And I pray that the Lord will be pleased to bless it through each heart and life. But I'm going to read you some of the words that come from this wonderful book of Jonah. 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 went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep. So the ship master came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God. If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not. And they said one, every one to his fellow, come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause is this evil upon us? What is thine occupation, and whence comest thou? What is thy country, and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you. For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to land, but they could not, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said, We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee. So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Let us all pray. Loving Father, as we bow before Thee, we thank Thee once again for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His sacrifice for us upon the cross at Calvary. We thank Thee for the precious blood of Christ which brings forgiveness of sins to our hearts and to our lives. As we bow in thy presence, we come now and ask a blessing upon thy word. We pray with all our hearts, speak, Lord, in the stillness while we wait on thee. Hush our hearts to listen in expectancy. Grant, gracious God, that each one of us, as we bow in thy presence, may be spoken to and that we may not just be hearers, but that we shall be doers of the Word of God. Lord, help us to do that which is the good and perfect will of God for our lives. Bless us now, for Jesus' sake. Amen. I think it was once Havner which said that every preacher should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And I want to try and do that this morning as I bring to you the Word of the Lord. But out of that chapter that I've read to you, what verse can I bring you that will comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable? Well, I want you to look at verse 6. So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God. What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise and call upon thy God. I want to suggest to you that this is a remarkable text in a remarkable book. I'm very conscious of the fact that every person who's listening to me this morning will know the story of Jonah. But I want you to be careful that you really do know the story and the message of this wonderful book of Jonah. I'm sure you've all heard of the young preacher who wanted to preach about Jonah. And he prepared a message, but when he looked at it and he went over it and he even practiced it, it only really lasted about seven minutes. And so he thought he better add a little bit to it. So when he got up to preach, he gave out his title. He said, I want to speak to you today about Jonah and the whale and a few thoughts about Balaam's ass. Well, I've got enough to preach to you this morning from our verse and I trust that it will be a blessing and a challenge to each one of us. I never feel that when you speak or preach from the Word of God that is of any value unless it's got an application to our lives. Unless it's got something in it that will make us challenge Why are we here? We want to be challenged by the Lord. And I want to say to you, as I begin, that this book and the message of this book is not about Jonah and the whale. Remarkable as that story is, Campbell Morgan, the great preacher who preached in London and also preached here in the States in a pastorate, said this. He said, too many people are busy taking a tape measure to the fish's belly than to realize the main message of this particular book. You see, the main message of this book is Jonah's mission to Nineveh. If you like, it's about Jonah, the rebellious prophet. And I'm going to give you a title as well to add to those. How God deals with disobedient Christians. How God deals with Christians who disobey. Now you know the modernists and the liberals love to attack this book. If there's one book that they attack out of the Old Testament and in fact in the New, it will be this book of Jonah. And they'll try and tell you that really this book is a fairy story. You don't have to take it literally, but what you have to do is you have to take the moral out of this book, and then you'll get the message. My friend, this book is true. And every detail in this book is true. You will remember that the Lord himself actually spoke about this book. I'll just turn to it and read you one or two verses which comes from Matthew's Gospel and chapter 12. And in Matthew's Gospel and chapter 12 and verse 40 it says, or Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. You'll notice there that the Lord believed that Jonah was an actual person. And the other thing that you'll notice here, he was speaking about his death and his resurrection. Little wonder the old devil attacks this book. because it's a sign of the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. My friend archaeology has confirmed that there was a place called Nineveh. And natural science supports the possibility of a man being swallowed by a whale. Although, let me say that the fish in this book was not necessarily a whale, it was a fish that was prepared by the Lord. And so if there was a fish prepared by the Lord, of course it could swallow Jonah. There's no question about that. What is my reason for bringing to you this message that you know so very well? Well, it's twofold. First of all, I believe that this book contains a message for this day and age in which we live. In fact, I would go further and say to you that it contains a message for every young person and older person that is in this congregation this morning. What do I mean? Well, it speaks about a prophet who was called to give this nation of Assyria and this particular city of Nineveh one last chance before judgment comes. And if he failed, that one message, that one last chance would not be given. And he failed. My friend, I believe we're living in those sort of days. And maybe this could be the last generation before the Lord come. Perhaps these young people here will be the last people that are thrust out into the harvest field. And this is America's last chance. This is Great Britain's last chance. This is the word of the Lord for the last chance of these nations. How important that message is then, isn't it? And there's a second reason here as well. My second reason is that this book shows us the wonderful way of great blessing and revival. This book contains the story of perhaps one of the greatest revivals that the Bible speaks of. Thousands and a million people were saved because one man finally obeyed the Word of God. And if there's one man here, one woman, who will really dedicate their lives to God and believe that they are God's man, God's person for this day and hour, what could God do in this country? What could God do in this world? My friend, time is going on. And it seems to me that this whole world is in trouble. And we need men and women, young people, who are prepared to give all for Christ and lay all upon the altar and go where God sends them. And God will bless and send a mighty time of blessing and revival to that person. You see, here was a nation that was blessed because one man was prepared and was ready. It's not a book of prophecy even though it's found in what we call the minor prophets. This is the history of a prophet and a backsliding one at that. But God still used him. I want you first of all to consider with me the man, Jonah. We're not told very much about Jonah, are we? We're just told in that first verse that the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai. But you know, we're told enough there to give us some sort of understanding of this man. Bible names are very important and you should always look them up and try to find what the name really means. In this case, The name Jonah means a dove. Now, of course, you know exactly, perhaps in your mind, what that means. Some actually refer this and say that it could mean a dove because of the Lord. Other people say, well, no, a dove is a symbol of peace and therefore his name really means peace. Now you come to his father, Amityai. Amityai actually means the truth of God. And somehow I see in this that the biblical principle which is confirmed here, that you can only have peace if it comes from truth. You can't have a son without the father. The Puritans used to say, I wish everybody's father was truth. because then we would know peace as well. But let me try, if I can, to show you, first of all, this man's designation. He was a prophet. But you'll notice once again, if you read this book carefully, that we don't know that he was an actual prophet from this particular book that we are considering together. We have to go way back in the Old Testament to 2 Kings. And in 2 Kings, and chapter 14, and in verse 25, we read this. He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath, unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He spoke by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amitai, the prophet. Now, what you may say, what do you really see in that? Well, you see something very, very important, because there's an order there which we must understand. And the order is that he was his servant, that's the Lord God of Israel, the prophet. His servant, the prophet. There are many people who want to be a prophet before being a servant. But the Bible way is, be a servant, and God will call you to be a prophet. Being a servant means sacrifice. And you must sacrifice before you know anything of status in your life at all. Humility must come first, and then God will give you a position. But the one thing I want you all to understand is, Jonah was in the Lord's service. God had set him apart. God had put his hand upon him. And here was God's man for this particular hour in which he lived. We all must understand that. Why have we been born in this day and generation? We might have wanted to have been born a hundred years ago or some other time. But we weren't, were we? We were born for this day and for this generation. We were born for this time and therefore God has put his hand upon us so that we should live now and that we should be God's man, God's woman for this particular hour. He was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom. Jeroboam II was king at that time, and he was probably a contemporary of Amos and Hosea. And if you read those books, you will know that they were bad times in which he lived. In fact, even the introduction of a prophet, it seems to me to be indicative of the fact that the people of God had backslidden themselves, and they had become apostates. God's normal way with His people was through the priest. And when you read in the Word of God, then God sent a prophet, you will know that the people had gone astray. And that was certainly true. Now you'll see that in this first verse, it says, now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah. It was, of course, the prophet's job to receive the word of God and to convey the word of God to the people at that time. But first of all, Jonah himself must be subject to the word. We must remember that. How can we be preachers? How can we be witnesses? How can we give out unless, first of all, we receive in? And everything that we do must be subservient to the Word of God. Wherever we live and whatever we do, our cultural habits, our contemporary trends, our natural reasoning, our own ideas, our will must be subject to the Word of God. And the Word of God, of course, is the source of every blessing. And the knowledge of the Word of God is the source of blessing. I always wonder at the fact that the Word of God is always practical. The Word of God is always appropriate, and the Word of God is always appropriate and applicable to us as we read it for ourselves, as you read the Word of God this morning as you got up. Didn't you find that that word met your every need? That it was just the word that God wanted for you at that time? Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah. And every day of our lives we should open this book and know that as we turn to whatever page or whatever portion we're reading, now the word of the Lord came unto me. How wonderful that really thought is. Now, I want you to notice, secondly, in this subject of the man, his directive, verse 2, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me. Jonah was chosen to be the first prophet to the Gentiles. And God had selected this one man to do this task, How remarkable this really is when you consider this. Nineveh was a great city. Assyria was the great power of that day. Assyria had conquered the world and the capital city was Nineveh, what he was called. And the Bible says, that great city. Nineveh, of course, as you may know, was 200 miles from what we now call Baghdad on the Tigris River. And the actual place of Nineveh was Mosel that we have on the news so very often. There's a statue there today to the prophet Jonah. They still remember his preaching after so many years. Imagine that. And there's a statue erected in that very place. This city was great in age. If you want to look at it, you'll see it's in Genesis chapter 10, verses 9 to 12. And you will note there that this is before the time of Abraham. It was built by Nimrod, the rebel, who also, of course, had a great deal to do with Babylon. It was a great area, a great area of city, 350 square miles. It took three days to cross the city. It would be 60 miles around this city. It was great in its numbers. One million people lived in this city. That was a great number in those days. 120,000 were children who lived there. They had great buildings. There were palaces. The walls of the city roundabout were 100 feet high and they were wide enough for three chariots abreast to race along the walls. It was great in its learning. It had a library of 16,000 clay tablets. You may say if you had 16,000 books that wouldn't be too big, but you imagine clay tablets, 16,000 of them. It was great in its cattle because In the last chapter of this book it speaks of how many cattle were actually there. It was self-supporting in its food supply. And God calls this man to go to this heathen city and to preach there. He calls for extreme sacrifice. Notice every word in the Word of God that can speak to us, because it says here, Arise! Stop there for a moment. Why did he say, Arise, to this prophet? Well, he may have been sitting down. He may have been laying down. Maybe he was a sleepy prophet, because you will know that later on in this chapter, he's having another sleep, isn't he? He could be called the sleeping prophet. But one thing we know, that he's in a comfort zone. He's in a comfort zone. And so God comes to him and he says, Arise. Oh, how very much like us. We live in a day when we have every convenience and every technology. We glory in the fact of Hudson Taylor who went to China, and to those who went to India, and to those who went around the world. Listen, do you know how they lived? Do you know what real resources they had? They had nothing that you and I have actually got. How remarkable then that God should take these people and that they should have faith and that they should go into such a place and be used of God in such a manner. Oh yes, we like the idea that we're Christian soldiers, don't we? But what we don't like is when we say, onward Christian soldiers. Oh yes, we like to prefer to sit back and to watch and to cheer others who go. And we say, Lord, send somebody else. And God says, arise, go to Nineveh. But how could he go to Nineveh? Listen, Nineveh was probably 500 to 600 miles away. He would have to travel through the desert. If you've traveled through desert, you know what that's like. But you imagine in Jonah's day, he'd have to walk. Perhaps he would have to ride a camel. Have you ever ridden a camel? Well, you wouldn't like to ride a camel for 500 or 600 miles, would you? You imagine that God calls this man to do this. It would take time. It would take labour. It would be lonely. It would be boring. Let me warn you today, you can't skip sacrifice. in the service of God. When God calls a man or a woman, He says, take up the cross and follow Me. Something that would be hard, something that would be cruel, something that would bite into the back. And God says, take up the cross and follow Me. And there's always sacrifice if you're called to the service of God. But look at the message. We go on to the next part of this. It says, and cry against it. Cry against it. My, here's the message. What was the reason for this? It was because of the wickedness. And what this really says is God sees and God knows the wickedness of every nation. He knows the wickedness of this nation. He knows the awful wickedness of my nation. God knows, but God cares, because He's going to send a prophet. He's going to send a witness. Nineveh was a cesspool of wickedness, licentiousness, witchcraft, barbaric methods. And God says, try out against it. Oh, we don't like this, do we? We like to be positive. And we like to say, well, I'll tell them God loves them. God says cry out against them for all these sins. But we don't like that, do we? My friend, I want to tell you that we're called as prophets in this day and age, if you like, as ministers of the gospel, as witnesses for Jesus Christ to cry out against what we see. Think of the false religion round about us. Cry out against it. Think about the devil worship. Cry out against it. Think about the sodomy. Cry out against it. Think about the abortion, the atheism, the pleasure-seeking nation. Think about the glorifying of the flesh. Think about the rejection of God. God says, Arise! Go to Nineveh. Cry out against it. My friend, are we willing to do that? Are we prepared to do that? All this needs resolution, doesn't it? You need to be resolved to do this sort of thing. The journey is long. The task is impossible. One man preaching to a million? Think of the difficulties. Think of the dangers. My, you need resolution. But you see, we don't know anything about Jonah. We only know this one thing about him. This was his life's work. If he never did another thing, this was what God called him for. This is what God brought him into the world for. And he's got to give it everything. Isn't that what God's saying to us today? This is what God brought us into the world for. This is what God has selected us for. This is what God has brought us here for. This is what God has given us this message for. This is our life's work to cry out against it, and we've got to give it everything. We're living in a day of Christian failure, when we're quite content with what we've got, and we think it's wonderful, and we think it's lovely, and so it is. But a world is going to a lost eternity, and this world of ours is going to hell. And what are we doing about it? Only one life. That's all we've got. Only one life. And only what's done for Jesus will last. Because this one life will soon be past. in the 92 Barcelona Olympics. I remember seeing a paraplegic in a wheelchair how he was sitting there with a bow and arrow in his hands and he had the arrow to light the torch above that Barcelona stadium. He only had one arrow and he only had one opportunity and he took it back and the arrow flew in the sky light flamed up and everybody cheered. My friend, you've only got one hour. You don't have a second hour. You've only got one life. It will soon be past. Only what's done for Jesus will last. Francis Ridley Haverhill wrote lots of hymns that we sing. And she formed a fellowship in her day of young people and she called it All for Jesus Movement. And if you belong to that, you were prepared to give everything to Jesus. Whatever you did, wherever you went, it was All for Jesus Movement. If we formed that today, would you be prepared to say, yes, I'll belong. All for Jesus Movement. But I want you now to see the third thing here and that is the disobedience of Jonah. You know the sad story. Look at verse 3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Do you know there are three buts that I want you to notice in these verses? Verse 3, but Jonah rose up. I'll come back to that. But verse 4, But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. That's the but of intervention. And then in verse 5, in the last part of that verse, But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. That's the but of indifference. But we come back to this but in verse 3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. That's the but of intention. He intended to run away from God. It's a sad picture, isn't it? A sad picture of a prophet refusing God's dictates. I want to warn you today, every person who's listening to my voice, It's a serious thing to disobey God in every detail, in any detail. Look back in your Bible and you all know Genesis 3. And what was the sin in the Garden of Eden? The sin of disobedience. Think of the life of Israel as they go through the wilderness into the promised land, and the whole history of Israel seems to be one word written across it, and that is disobedience. If you went to a court today, a criminal court, and you witnessed every case that came before that criminal court, it would be concerning different crimes, wouldn't it? different things people would be arrayed for. But all really, it's one thing, isn't it? Every crime that comes before our courts is the sin of disobedience. And that's a great crime before God. Notice the swiftness of what he does here. And take note of what it says. God says, Arise, go to Nineveh. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish. We are, if you like, we obey at a snail's pace, don't we? So slowly we say, we have to think about that, or we have to consider that. We'll think about it another time. But if we're backsliding, it's like a sprint race. And as far as Jonah's concerned, he's there sleeping, laying down, and God said, arise, go to Nineveh. And he went to Tarshish. Think about the success of this. He found a ship in Joppa. Some people waited three months for a ship before a ship came in. But the old devil assists him alright. And if we're backsliding, oh the old devil will help you, there's no question about that. Things will work together and you'll feel okay. Because all these things seem to be alright. It's important to remember that Tarshish was the most westerly of the whole then known world. whereas God had sent him to go east. And so he went as far as he could in the opposite direction. And he felt alright. But you know, the old devil gives us that sort of feeling, doesn't he, when we sin, and when we compromise, and when we disobey, and when we go astray. And it surprises me that he tries to flee from the presence of God. Did he really believe as a prophet he could run away from the presence of God? Here was a man who lived in the presence of God, just like the angels, awaiting orders, waiting commands. Did he believe in a localized God? That if he left this one campus and got outside, God wouldn't be there? Did he not believe in the omnipresence of God? Ah, my friend, we think that God is a God who can't see and can't know. if we're outside of other people's presence. But God can, can't he? And God sees our secret thoughts. He knows our secret actions. He knows everything about us. And Jonah is a disobedient prophet and somehow his mind is mixed up and he runs away from the very presence of God. Perhaps it's just like Adam and Eve who hid themselves in the Garden of Eden. Imagine trying to hide yourself from the Lord God Almighty and trying to hide amongst the bushes as if God couldn't see you, as if God didn't know where you were. I remember a friend of mine who was a preacher and he came to a point in his life where he backslid and went astray. and John Shoesmith was his name, and he decided he'd leave England because he'd had enough of it. He caught a boat and he went on the boat to South Africa. He was going to a new life, he was going to become a businessman, he was going to get lots of money, he was going to run away from all religion and anything to do with it. And on the boat he felt good, he felt comfortable, he felt okay. And then he came to South Africa, and here was this new land of opportunity. And he was coming down from the boats, and as he came down, he heard a music. It was a Salvation Army band. It was right down the bottom, playing all the hymns he knew and loved. And by the time he got down the stairs to the very bottom, his heart was broken. God had met with him. You can't run away from God. You must remember that. I must hurry. There's so much in this story and I must convey it to you because it's on my heart. The second main thing I want to show you here is the mystery. What mystery is in it? The mystery is found here in the verse, verse 5, and the last part of it. And he lay and was fast asleep. This is strange. But you know the sin of disobedience lulls the mind, hardens the heart, deadens the conscience, sends us to sleep. And you know that's dangerous sometimes. If you're driving a car and you feel sleepy, don't carry on. If you should nod off, you could be in a terrible accident and cause other people to be killed. It's dangerous. And you know, people dream when they sleep. And sometimes they walk in their sleep. Sometimes they talk in their sleep. They don't even know they're doing it. And they become insensitive. This man is asleep. Asleep at this time? Think of the storm. This is no ordinary storm. This chapter tells us it's a great wind. It's a mighty tempest. Verse 13 says it roared. That means it grew worse. And in verse 15 it speaks of the raging. This is supernatural. God has sent it in His judgment. Jonah had disturbed God and now creation was disturbed. Sin doesn't bring tranquility. Sin brings turbulence. One man has the answer for this storm. Where is he? And he lay and was fast asleep. Today we're in a storm of judgment around us, in our countries, and Christians are asleep. How can you sleep in this day in which we live? And this world is coming to an end. How can you sleep when the coming of the Lord draweth nigh? Look at the storms of apostasy. Look at the violence and the drunkenness and the drugs and the pornography and the sodomy and the gross sin all around us. And Christians are asleep. And we sing, you in your small corner and I in mine. Oh dear, my friend, a pygmy awake is stronger than a giant asleep. And we need to awaken before it's too late. Look at these sailors, their lives are in dangers. They're experienced mariners, but they're panicking. And they're trying to get rid of all that was in the ship, and they're praying to their heathen gods, their non-existent gods. And one man knows the answer. One man knows the true God. Where is He? He's asleep. Asleep. My friend, can't you see the answer? Can't you see the answer? I remember as a young man seeing a picture that an artist had painted And this picture was there of people walking towards a cliff, and they were all coming towards the edge of a cliff and then dropping off, one by one, dropping off. And you went nearer to the picture and you could see they were all blind. They couldn't see. They didn't know the danger. And over here, there's another picture of a little group, and these were a group of Christians, and they're making daisy chains. I don't know if you understand that, but with flowers making little daisy chains. And that's what Christians are doing. And look over here. Men and women are going to a lost eternity, going to hell. And they're dropping off. They don't know the danger. They don't realize. They're blinded by the God of this world. And where are the Christians? They're asleep. And look at this ship. There's a chain reaction. Jonah disobeys. God is angry. The sea is disturbed. The sailors are in peril. The ship is about to be broken. One man is guilty. And it's Jonah, just like Adam, just like Achan. This is not a little boat. The ships of Tarshish in Psalm 48 were known for their strength and reliability. This ship is a picture of the church. And sin breaks the greatest of ships, the strongest of empires. The powerful men can be broken by sin. Powerful David can slay Goliath, but be weak before a beautiful woman. Samson lifts the gates of a city, slays a lion, kills a thousand with a jawbone of an ass, but he's weak before sin. The unthinkable Titanic is broken by an iceberg, and sin could break your life, can break your fellowship with God, hinder your service to God. Oh, my friend, are you asleep today? God says, Arise! Go to Nineveh! My final point is concerning the message. What meanest thou? O sleeper, arise! Call upon thy God! Here's an alarm call for Jonah, and I trust it's an alarm call for every person who's listening to me today. Notice the origin of this alarm call. It's from an ungodly, heathen shipmaster. Here's a rebuke from the world. Isn't it awful when you get a rebuke from the world and they say, oh, I thought Christians didn't do that? And you think, no, they don't really, do they? And yet I am doing it. Even the world can tell a backslider. And the mission is humbling, it's harsh, and yet it's needed. It's an emergency. You wouldn't expect a fire engine to be playing a lullaby when it's going to a fire. You wouldn't think an ambulance down the road is playing classical music. It rings the bell! And it rings the bell! And we need to realize this is a bell being rang. Times are desperate. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Eternity is almost on us. And the days slip by. And this old world seems to me to come into an end. What about the obligation? Call upon thy God. This one man knows the answer. He must call upon his God. The prophet ought to have been saying this, but he didn't. Oh, my friend, here's Jonah who shows a lack of desire, a lack of interest, a lack of will. But we must be calling upon our God. Jacob wrestles. Moses hasted to go into the presence of God. Elijah prayed passionately. Isaiah speaks about stirring up himself to take hold of God. And we read so often in the Scriptures about boldly coming to the throne of grace in prayer. Our forefathers knew what it was to pray. We ought to get into that place as well. Obedience. We're not told that the prophet prayed. We're not even told that he was willing to pray. But God was going to still deal with him. He makes a confession to the sailors. They throw him into the sea. He's swallowed up. And then he comes in submission, doesn't he? And it's there in the belly of the fish that he repents and he's broken before God. And God is now going to use him. Look at verse 1 in chapter 3, and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time. The second time. I'm thankful that the word of the Lord comes a second time to some of us, aren't you? Some of you here, there was a first time, wasn't there? But we've disobeyed. And so the word of the Lord comes a second time. Now Jonah broken, bended, blessed, but now he's used. You've been listening to the Chapel Hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Our speaker was Dr. Brian Green, pastor of Calvary Free Grace Baptist Church in Middlesex, England. For a cassette or compact disc copy of today's message, send a check for $6 to Campus Store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. Be sure to mention the name of the speaker and today's date. The Chapel Hour has been sponsored by Bob Jones University.