The book of Jonah, chapter 1, we'll read the first three verses. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for the wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Every time I read this book of Jonah, I think of two sermons I heard. The first was from chapter 3, verse 1. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. The second time. Isn't it wonderful that God comes to us the second time? He came to Jonah the second time. God, the Christian God, is the God of second chances. And do you know what I love about it? It's not just that He gives you a second chance. It's the number of second chances which God gives us. Isn't that wonderful? That's the Christian The God who gives us second chances. But he can only do that through Jesus. There's another sermon that always comes to my mind when I read the book of Jonah. And it was preached in this pulpit. Several years ago now by Norman McIver from Tarbert. I can't actually remember what his text was, but I do remember how he started off. He said, the book of Jonah tells us of a wonderful revival in a city of 120,000 souls. A revival! You say, man, what a book! Shouldn't we be absorbing this book? We want revival in our town, don't we? We want revival on our island, don't we? Well, here's the story of a book where there was a revival in a city of 120,000 souls. But then he said, do you notice how much time is spent speaking about the revival? One verse. one verse. The whole book of Jonah, four chapters, a revival taking place. And God, remember God's the author, God gives it one verse. You see, the book of Jonah, it's not really about Jonah. The book of Samuel, Two books of Samuel. They're not really about Samuel. Boys and girls, you know about the book of Daniel, don't you? You know, the book of Daniel is not really about Daniel. Do you know what these books are about? They're about God. The whole Bible is about God. It's not really about man. And we have to remember that. We have to remember religion is about God. The most important thing in the universe is not really, not really our conversion. If the most important thing in the world is your conversion, my conversion, our conversion, then what is at the centre of our religion? We are. But listen, we are not at the centre of our religion. God is. God is always to be at the centre. The glory of God is the most important thing in the universe. We might say of And I've heard it said of ministries, there was no blessing. He was faithful and he stayed there five years, but there was no blessing. Nobody was converted. The most important thing in the world is God's name is being glorified. Now here's the good news for Christians. God is glorified through the conversion of sinners. And in one moment, you can glorify God more by repenting of your sin and turning to Christ. You can glorify God, your Maker, more in that one moment than all your lifetime. That's wonderful. But that's what the Gospel can do for sinners. And that's why the last instructions God gave to this church was what? Tell everyone, tell every creature the good news that a Saviour has come into the world. Well, let's have a look at these three introductory verses of Jonah. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. How can you tell if God still interested in converting you. How can you tell? Well, here's one way. He leaves his word with you. He leaves his word with you. As most of you know, we've been on a trip to the Holy Land, or the cradle of Christianity as it was called, and we've been to Ephesus. and we had a lecturer, a preacher with us on the tour and before we went to Ephesus he says, I want you to note there will be two things you won't find in Ephesus. He says, first of all you won't find the temple of Diana. Remember the great cry, Great is Diana of the Ephesians and you should see her temple. It was called one of the seven wonders of the world. Massive place. But all you can see now is one pillar. That's all you can see. The greatest things that men can do in history, God can just wipe them out like that. But then he said, there's something else you won't see in Ephesus. He says, you won't see a church. And my Bible tells me there was a church at Ephesus. Why is there no church there now? Well, read Revelation chapter 2. And you will find Christ addressing His church. And He says, repent. Return to your first love, or else I will remove my candlestick, my lampstand. Did they? It seems they didn't. So there's no church in Ephesus today. Now there are believers. They can't meet together as a church. Oh, you say that's because of persecution? Oh yes, of course it is. The means God uses is not important. It's the Word of God that's important. Unless you repent and return to your first love, I'll remove my candlestick. You see, the church in Ephesus, it seems at that time, They knew their stuff, but they lost their love for Christ. And you see, it's not all about the Christian religion. At the heart of it is love. They did not return to loving Jesus. Now as I said, wonderful Christians there, but they can't meet together publicly like we do. God may have a purpose of returning here, but this is one of the things I was saying that I want to point out is this. Note the word the Bible uses. I will remove my candlestick. He does not say I'll snuff out the candle. He does not say I'll put out the lamp. He says I'll take the candle and put it somewhere else. God is going to spread the Gospel whether you will have it or not. And if we reject it, He will take it somewhere else. Rather than stop the Gospel going out, He'll send the Gospel somewhere else. The Word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai. Why does he say the son of Amittai? I mean as far as I know there wasn't another Jonah around. Especially a prophet of God called Jonah. So why does he say it? Well, you know, God makes every single one of us uniquely. God did not want Jonah to be under the impression he was just a number. God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh. He wanted Jonah to go there. No one else. And God wanted to tell Jonah, I know all about you. I know who you are. I know your father. You, Jonah, the son of Amittai, you go to Nineveh. I want you to do it. We might very well say, well, there are plenty of other Jonahs, isn't there? Plenty of other prophets. Why Jonah? Not for you to ask Jonah, your Maker, your Master, your Saviour, your God. He says, Jonah, the son of Amittai, you go too many there. When God wants us all to do something, he uses the word whosoever in the authorised version, or whoever in more modern translations. The original word is very significant. The original word means without exception. If you're here today and you're not a Christian you should take tremendous encouragement that you have in front of you today a Bible and you can open it in John 3, 16 and hear God saying to you whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. Whoever's son you are Whatever daughter you are of, whoever calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. Whoever repents of his sin will be saved. It doesn't matter who you are. But God can say to him, I want you, as he said to Jonah, the son of Amittai, you are to go to Nineveh. But the glorious gospel is a gospel to whoever will listen whoever will hear without exception all and any are commanded believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will definitely be saved Jonah the son of Amittai arise go to Nineveh I wonder why he asked Jonah to go to Nineveh Because I can tell you this. Jonah was a praying man. He was a prophet. And he actually was a successful prophet. But I'll tell you this. The Nunavites were not on Jonah's prayer list. The Nunavites weren't simply Gentiles who hated the Israelites. The Ninevites were rank idolaters. They were cruel, and they were cruel just for the sheer pleasure. They destroyed and killed people, not because they wanted their possessions, but just because they enjoyed it. They got a kick out of it. They were a terrible lot. They were into witchcraft big time. They actually plotted against God. God said to Jonah, that's where I want you to go to preach. As I said, Jonah was a successful prophet. You'll find him in 2 Kings 14 25. He preached the word of the Lord. God is teaching something to Jonah here. He says, Jonah, see these Ninevites? Bad lot. Bad lot, Jonah. But Jonah, I want you to go and preach to them. I want you to go and preach to them. Jonah, I've noticed their sin is rising up against me. Jonah, God of them. Now before we just look at what he was to say to them, there's two things Jonah could not complain about. Jonah could not complain. God was silent to him. Could he? Do you ever hear people saying to you, God never seems to speak to me. I've been praying for this and praying for that and I don't get any answer from heaven. God could not say that. Jonah could not say that. God spoke to him. Second thing Jonah could not complain about was this. That God's message was unclear. Do you know what it's like? Are you like me? God seems to take a word of scripture and he speaks to me. He's got a message here. But I'm not just all that clear. Is it here? Is it there? Is it this? Is it that? Jonah couldn't get out of this. He said, Jonah, son of Amittai, I want you to go to Nineveh. What does God want him to do to Nineveh? What's his message? I remember hearing from Hebrew people, Hebrews, who know Hebrew, eight words in Hebrew, his message. He says, I want you to cry out against it because their wickedness has come up before me. You would say, well, the Ninevites were Israel's enemies. Wouldn't Jonah just laugh, preaching to them, you're going to be destroyed and I'm going to watch, I'm going to love watching you be destroyed. Wouldn't that be the logical thing? If Jonah had such a hatred in his heart to the Ninevites, wouldn't you think he'd love preaching that? For eight days you'll be destroyed! Oh, I'll look forward to seeing you get up in smoke! No. No. That's not Jonah's response. He's not at all happy. I wonder why. Why do you think it is? Why isn't Jonah pleased that he's to go to these enemies who are so cruel to Israel and say in 40 days you'll be destroyed. Do you know why? Because Jonah had a sneaking hunch. God's got a purpose of mercy toward them. I've not been sent to Nineveh for nothing. God's heart is bigger than my heart. God must be planning to forgive them. God must be sending me with that message to them to give them repentance. Isn't there a lot there for you and me to learn? God's purpose very often in uncovering sin, in challenging sin, His purpose is very often to forgive it. God convicts of sin, but it's to forgive. God wounds, but it's to heal. God exposes, but it's to cover. And one thing What we can draw from all this is that one of the greatest curses that we can have is for our sin to remain hidden. Now God can cover sin, and only God can cover sin. But before He covers it, He wants us to uncover it. He wants us to expose it to Him, to show it to Him, to confess it to Him, to say, I have sinned, O Lord, against you. So He sends a prophet, convict them of their sin, point out the problem. There's no point in going with a remedy if there's not a problem. no point in going with healing them if there's nothing wrong. But you see there's plenty wrong with sinners and we've to learn what it is and we've to be convicted of our sin, we've to confess our sin, we've to repent of our sin. God wounds but he wounds so that he can heal and restore and forgive. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish. Sad, isn't it? These buts. Very important in the Bible. But. The message is clear. The message is specific. But Jonah arose to flee Now if you get a map out, a Bible map, you'll see that Tarshish is almost directly opposite. Almost, not quite. If Tarshish was at 4 o'clock, sorry, if Nineveh was at 4 o'clock, Tarshish was about 9 o'clock. Not directly opposite, but just about. Here's the thing. Nineveh was 500 miles to the east. Tarshish, or where Jonah ran to, was in the west about a thousand miles. See? He went double the distance to get away from God. Isn't that so like sin? Doesn't the devil make a monkey of us? Can't He make a fool of us? We expend twice the energy in disobeying God than we would in obeying Him. I always remember, I think it was a professor of criminology, I didn't know there were such things, but I remember, I can't remember, did I hear it or did I read it? And his point was something like if criminals would just spend the same amount of time, the same amount of energy, the same amount of resources in righteous living, they'd be far wealthier. And all the time and energy and brains and intelligence goes into crime. Spend it in righteous living, you'd be far better off. What a fool Satan makes of us. We learn again, sin isn't just self-destructive, it's actually foolish. Isn't it interesting how Jonah, a servant of God, how he could have used providence in his sight. It's amazing, isn't it? I mean, there's at least three things here that's really quite providential in Jonah running off to Tarshish. First of all, ships did not normally, at that time of year, sail because of stormy weather. Not normal. Second providence you might say, there's a spare room. There's a spare bunk room for Jonah. He just happens to go down to there, just ready to go up. There's a spare room Jonah. Providence, God sending you there, eh? But then there's a third providence. We read it there. He paid the fare and went down into it. Jonah had money to pay the fare. That's interesting now. It's very interesting. Do you know why? Because prophets didn't get paid. Priests did get paid, but prophets didn't. He's put money in his pocket, all the providence! God must want me to go to Tarsus, eh? Otherwise these things wouldn't fall out in providence, eh? Eh? Why was it wrong when all these providences pointed to Jonah ran into Tarshish. Why was it wrong of him to go? Very simple, actually. Because the word of the Lord said, Jonah, son of Amittai, go to Nineveh. Go to Nineveh, not Tarshish. When you've got the word of the Lord, You don't actually need corroboration. Now it is hugely encouraging when providence makes it easy to go. Hugely encouraging when God opens doors in providence. Do you know what I've noticed in life? I've noticed Satan makes it very easy at times to disobey God. God tells you to do something specifically and clearly. Satan puts obstacles in your way. But, if you decide, I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to go East instead of West. I tell you, I think you'll discover Satan taking out obstacles, clearing your path. That's His work. He's full time engaged in bluffing sinners, making it easy for them to disobey God, making it difficult for them to obey God. That's His work. He's full time at it and He raises up all the powers of hell to help him in that dastardly work he has. The word of the Lord. Well, isn't it sad reading? Isn't it? That last bit of the clause. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish. from the presence of the Lord. Isn't that powerful? From the presence of the Lord. Now I don't know my Hebrew very well, but those who do, tell us that the verb used here, to flee from the presence of the Lord, is used as a euphemism for going down to your death. And isn't that exactly what Jonah was doing? Running away from the presence of the Lord, going down to his own What a foolish, foolish thing it is to try and run away from God. Well, I conclude with three things, briefly, very briefly. Trying to run away from God is like trying to run away from air. You can't run away from God. You know the doctrine of God's presence. All of His presence is everywhere, all of the time. You can't run away from God. Any more than you can run away from air. And supposing it was possible, what would you be doing? You'd be doing yourself out of oxygen. be running to your death. Don't consider it. Let God speak to you. Go to Tarsus. Obey my word. Follow me. Secondly, there actually is good news in this chapter. You say, a lot of bad news, Lord, a lot of bad news. A lot of bad news in this chapter, but you know there's good news. Do you know what the best news in this chapter is? It's in the next verse, verse 4. But, oh, get these buts in the Bible. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish, verse 3, but God's got a better but. But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea. This news in the chapter is God sent a storm. A storm to recover Jonah. Any storms in your life right now? Are you trying to run away from God? Is there a storm brewing? I wonder if there are any storms brewing? God sends storms. His own people. It is. God's not going to lay His own true, real people away. He goes after them. Jonah has fled, but God is in hot pursuit. Finally, you might say, hey, this is all for Christians. This is all for God's people. not here for me. Listen friend, if God can use a storm, if God can use wind to save Jonah, He can very very easily use His word to save you. One word from God and He can renew you. make you a new person in Christ. And God's word does come to you today. And it comes in mercy. And when he says, repent and believe the gospel, it's in mercy, it's in love, it's in compassion. He said, I've given my son, I've sent him to the place called Calvary. so that you might be saved. Repent and believe the word of the Lord. May God, the Holy Spirit, make his word effectual to every one of us this morning. Let's bow our heads in prayer.