Jonah

Excerpts from the Sermon by Lester Roloff

Turn with me please to the Old Testament. I want us to visit a young man that got in a lot of trouble. He did the very same thing that many people are doing today. The devil hates this Book by the way. It’s short—I read the entire Book this week in just a few moments because there are only four chapters. This fellow was a preacher, and he got himself in trouble because of his disobedience. God called him and said, “I want you to go to a certain place—it’s a mighty bad place. There’s a heap of Gentiles down there. I want you to go there and tell them how wicked they are and tell them to repent.” Now what’s that man’s name? Old Brother Jonah. Let’s go to chapter 1: “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.”

I know one thing: that wasn’t a positive message. The world says, “we need a positive message.” But this was a negative message. Go down there and cry against sin. That’s a wonderful opportunity for a preacher, to preach a city-wide revival. I hear people with a defeated spirit say, “I’m a Jonah,” as if it is a bad thing. But boy, I’d be a Jonah if it meant that a whole city would repent.

Now there’s nothing we need like the presence of the Lord. But right away, we see Jonah run from it. He’s going in the opposite direction! Now that’s as old as Adam—Adam ran from the presence of the Lord. And when we run from the presence of the Lord, we are running straight for trouble. And here’s another thing: God identifies Himself with His Word. When we forget and refuse to obey God’s Word today, we are running from the presence of the Lord.

I’m going to tell you something else: there’s a lot of ships going to Tarshish. I mean they’re loaded with rebels and disobedient people. “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.” Now that’s the next thing I want to get over to you: when you run from God, you are going to pay the bill. You are going to go down just like Jonah did—down to Joppa, down into the ship, and down to the bottom of the sea (Jonah 2:6). I mean you’re going to foot the bill for your disobedience.

Now you know that we don’t have you come in here just so we can fuss at you—we all have sinned. I’ve had to learn a lot of things in my life, especially since I’ve been a preacher. And I believe I’ve learned enough in experiences to understand every mistake that people make—and never fall out with them but be patient with them. So here it is: sometimes we have to experience heartache before we can understand the heart-broken. You show me a preacher or any Christian who’s never had a broken heart, and I’ll tell you: it’s hard for them to minister to the broken-hearted.

I don’t know when I’ve heard more broken hearts and weeping on the phone than I have the last seven days. So many young people find themselves broken-hearted and disappointed in people, despairing of their own life. They ask, “What do I have left to live for?” and I say, “Jesus!” When everybody turns against you, and everything fails but Jesus, and you have nothing left but Him—for the first time, you’ll realize He’s all you need.

Jonah said he wouldn’t go, so God sent a storm. And not a man on that boat had a god who could handle a storm, but Jonah served the God who sent the storm. And of course Jonah is sound asleep. You know what that is a picture of? It is a picture of the church today. The heathens are all scared to death, and the old Church is snoring away. Oh, they have a few dinners, a few little, old fellowships and socials. Now if you fit in with the world, the world will invite you back every time. But Paul and Silas, they didn’t get an invitation to come back to Philippi. I tell you, Philippi knew a couple preachers had come through there. Boy they left a wrecked jail, did you know that? But Jonah had yet to make a splash— the heathen had to come wake the preacher up. The average preacher today is unstirrable. Never getting stirred up about anything unless it’s a football game or television program. “Call on your God if you’ve got one. We’ve already talked to our gods and can’t get any help, so if you’ve got a god, talk to him.” Jonah says, “Oh me, I’ve sure got one all right.” Boy that’s the alarm clock we need today. A backslidden preacher caused that storm, and I believe we’re in the storm we’re in today because of preachers who don’t preach—we’ve got too many Jonahs. And listen, I want to be the first to say that there were times when I was a Jonah and I was going to a Tarshish instead of Nineveh. But it’s never too late to get off that ship and head to Nineveh.

Now think about these unfortunate sailors for one moment. They called a prayer meeting, but they had to wake the preacher up. They cast lots, and God pinned Jonah down. They had to ask his occupation because Jonah hadn’t told them. Isn’t it sad that a preacher would be on board that long and they couldn’t tell he was a preacher? I don’t believe a preacher needs to announce it wherever he goes, but I don’t believe anyone should be surprised when they find out what he is. Jonah admitted he was to blame, but the sailors still rowed hard. Isn’t that what the world does? It rows hard. They didn’t want to kill a preacher, but they wanted to live. After the storm ceased its raging, they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. Look at that. They said, “I believe we’ve found the right God now.” I imagine they said, “We better be done with all the gods we’ve been talking to because our gods certainly didn’t help us when we were in that storm. We threw everything overboard and lost our profit. But our lives were spared.” That was their hand-shake with “the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.” I’ll tell you this: I would not want to carry a rebellious preacher with me in my plane. Especially going the wrong direction—there’s danger in that. I also wouldn’t want to take off in an airplane with unsaved people in my plane until I had witnessed to them.

I never will forget a story about a barber who had committed in church to witness to somebody before the next Sunday. Well, the week was just about gone, and his last customer walked in for a shave. And this barber was a young Christian—scared to death to witness to a stranger. So he went and locked the door behind the customer before lathering his face. He picked up his razor with trembling hands and asked, “Are you ready to die?” Now that’s just about the way we do it sometimes—holding a big razor over someone with the door locked. Why are we so shaky and timid?

“They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” What was wrong with Jonah? Vanity. I think he had denominational pride, going down to that old, Gentile city to ruin his reputation. He didn’t want to go. The average preacher is so stuck on his little fellowship that he won’t be obedient to the Lord. And that’s where he misses the blessing. Disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft. Stubbornness is as idolatry.

Jonah is probably one of the greatest revival Books of the Bible. It’s also one of the most questioned books of the Bible. People laugh at it, poke fun at it, and call it a myth. Some people say that God couldn’t build a fish that could swallow Jonah. But I’ve never met a born-again believer that doubted the record of Jonah—not someone who was saved. After God performs that miracle on us, we aren’t surprised by the miracles of the Bible. How big is your God? I believe that the eternal security of the believer depends on that. Is God big enough to save you? Yes? Well, then is He big enough to keep you?

“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” –Jude 1:24

When Jesus got through saving me that just about settled all my doubts. And especially when He called me to preach and let me see what I’ve seen for 40 years, I wouldn’t have any doubt about what God’s able to do. Now Jonah was in the belly of the fish just like Jesus was in the grave—three days. No wonder the devil hates this Book. And then Jonah prayed—he had his own prayer meeting in a strange place. God didn’t set up an air-conditioned apartment for Jonah. Jonah didn’t need a bed because he had already been woken up. But he did have a good bit of praying to do. Jonah knew he was a castaway, a backslidden preacher, but he decided to look again to God’s holy temple.

Many of us have never come to the end of ourselves. Many of us have just experimented with Jesus and religion and salvation and church. We’ve just had ourselves a little touch and taste. How many of you can say, “Having food and raiment, I’m therewith content. I’m glad I’m on the mission field.” Now our lives are to be one continuous installment of serving God. And there are moments where a revival will come if we will only get alone and look again to God’s holy temple.