The Message - [Jonah 3:1-4]

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It's too good to be true. When things are too good to be true, you better watch out.
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When Mrs. Nairobi dies and she says, her husband says in this email that if you just send your banking information and routing information to Nigeria, you'll get a lot of money.
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Online pop -up, just register for this free iPad, send in your information.
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Walking downtown Boston with the Johansons and there's a little sign on a bicycle, a nice carbon fiber bicycle, a
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Greg Lamond bicycle, $80, call this number. It's just too good to be true. Almost everything that comes across like that seems to be too good to be true.
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Just pay $20 for this scratcher and get $80 gazillion. It's just too good to be true.
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I like to teach my kids that. You know, immaturity and naivete doesn't understand that not everybody in this world is out to help them.
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Some things are just too good to be true. But you know, there's an exception. The gospel isn't too good to be true.
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I mean, out of anything, if it's too good to be true, this should be too good to be true because can you imagine? The God who made every one of you and expects perfect obedience, expects reverence, thanksgiving, praise.
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This God who made us knows we've sinned, knows every one of our sins. Every time we failed,
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He knows our shortcomings. He knows our transgressions. He knows our trespasses.
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He knows our iniquities. He knows every one of those. We try to hide them in the closet. We try to hide the skeletons and bury them deeply.
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But He knows every one of them like we committed them right before His face. And He's just.
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He has to punish every sin that's ever been committed. Do you know there will be no sin unpunished?
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Jesus will have to pay for them. Our people will have to pay for them in hell. But even though we're corrupt and fallen and foolish,
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Jesus is righteous. Jesus is a reconciler. Jesus is a redeemer. Jesus is a representative.
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He's a substitute and He's been raised from the dead. And for those that put down their weapons of warfare and repent and trust, can you imagine every sin forgiven?
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Aren't you glad you're forgiven? Wouldn't you like to be forgiven? It's too good to be true that there's a
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God who should discipline us and chasten us and punish us. Yet He loves us and He's demonstrated that and continues to demonstrate that toward us that while you were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. It seems to be too good to be true. That God can save wicked people.
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That God justifies the wicked. It's too good to be true. You mean I can have all my sins forgiven?
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All those sins in the past, sins now and in the future forgiven? Yes, because Jesus is a great
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Savior. It's not too good to be true. Let's turn our Bibles to Jonah chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4 today.
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Why did I say that? Well, I was going to say chapter 3, but we're going to read some in chapter 1 and 2 as well. Today, I'd like to talk to you about the
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God who saves sinners and evangelism. The God that can save sinners and evangelism.
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I think there are many things Bethlehem Bible Church does by the grace of God that could be commended if Jesus were to write a letter to our church like in Revelation, you know, the seven letters.
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There might be some chastening, but there would probably be a few things that we would do well by His Spirit's power.
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But I'm positive that we could be better evangelists. I'm positive that we could more regularly tell people about Jesus and forgiveness.
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My old pastor once said he'd fly around the world and people would sit next to him and they'd say, what do you do for a living?
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And he'd say, well, I fly all around the world and tell people that you could have your sins forgiven, all of them in Christ Jesus.
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Are you interested to talk about it? Can you imagine forgiveness? When's the last time,
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I'll ask you the question, when's the last time you told someone about Jesus and how they could be forgiven? Now, there's a great commission.
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God the Father sends the Son into the world to rescue His bride. But there's a lesser great commission, small g, and that's the great commission, go make disciples, right?
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Lo, I'm with you always. If this is the great commission, then it'd be a great sin not to do it. When's the last time you said to someone, in spite of all your sins, you could be forgiven?
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By the way, when you do talk to people about forgiveness, it's one of the most exciting, thrilling things that could ever happen to you.
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Now, Jonah was a preacher. Jonah got to evangelize, and that's what we're going to look at today. But to catch us up to chapter 3, what's happened so far in the story of Jonah?
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Well, chapter 1, Jonah, go preach for me. He's a prophet.
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He's been redeemed. He's been commissioned. He's been given a message. He's been given a duty. And all of a sudden, it's, no,
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I'm not going to go. And so he tries to run away the wrong way. He goes down to Tarshish. He finds a ship going in the opposite direction, and he tries to get on it.
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He does get on it. Everything just works out seemingly perfectly. There's the big issue with the sailors and the storm, and the sailors throw him out of the boat, out of the ship.
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And it says in verse 17 of chapter 1, the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
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Then, chapter 2, verse 1, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish saying, if you move down to verse 9 of this psalm of Jonah in Jonah 2, he now does what the pagans did at the end of chapter 1.
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How do you worship God? With a voice of thanksgiving. I will sacrifice to you what
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I have vowed I will pay. The theme of Jonah, the theme of the Bible, the theme of the universe, in Christ Jesus, salvation belongs to the
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Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited
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Jonah out upon dry land. Then, chapter 3, the word of the
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Lord came to Jonah the second time. Now, what would you do if you were
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God? What has God often done to prophets who would say, no way, stiff arm.
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I don't care what you say to me. I'm not going to do it. I don't care that they're going to go to hell. Let them go to hell.
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Now, I think my dad might say something like, Mike, I've had it up to here with you.
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It's amazing. While we regularly say God's the God of the second chance,
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God's the God of the third chance, the hundredth chance. When a prophet goes before God and says, no, what happens?
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Well, turn your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 13. And let me just give you an illustration. Here's what's happening in the book of Jonah.
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Jonah knows if he goes to the Ninevites, it's 1 Kings 13. Jonah knows if he goes to the Ninevites, God's patient and kind and gracious and slow to anger.
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And he'll save those wicked people. Now, Jonah deserves to die for saying no to God.
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And other prophets have died for saying no to God. But God is teaching Jonah the lesson that he's patient, that he's gracious, that he's slow to anger, and he's kind.
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But take a look at 1 Kings chapter 13. We'll pick it up in verse 11. If you don't regularly read the
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Old Testament, may I encourage you to do that for lots of reasons. Here's one today.
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Now, an old prophet lived in Bethel, 1 Kings 13, 11. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel.
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You're going to regularly see in this passage, man of God, man of God, man of God, man of God. That's a title, really, for preacher, for proclaimer, for prophet.
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No wonder Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, that all scriptures God breathed.
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It's profitable for all kinds of things that the man of God is adequate, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
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That's for preachers. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king.
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Verse 12, their father said to them, which way did he go? Son showed him in the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone.
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He said to his sons, saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it.
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And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. He said to him, are you the man of God who came from Judah?
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You're the preacher. You're the prophet. Yes, I am. Come home with me and eat bread.
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I may not return with you or go in with you. Neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.
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For it was said to me by the word of the Lord. You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there.
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Nor return by the way that you came. I also am a prophet as you are.
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And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord saying, bring him back with you into the house that he may eat bread and drink water.
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The word of the Lord said, don't do it. Yeah, angel told me to do it.
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The end of verse 18, but he lied to him. So he went back with him and he ate bread in his house and drank water.
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And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah.
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Thus says the Lord, because you've disobeyed the word of the Lord, prophet, and have not kept the command that the
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Lord, your God commanded you, man of God, prophet, but have come back and have eaten bread, drunk water in the place of which he said, you eat no bread and drink no water.
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Your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. And after he had eaten the bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet for whom he had brought back verse 24.
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And as he went away, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And it wasn't because he was hungry.
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And his body was thrown into the road and the donkey stood beside it. The lion also stood beside the body and behold, men pass by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body.
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And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived. And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, it's the man of God who disobeyed the word of the
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Lord. Therefore, the Lord has given to him the lion, which has torn him and killed him according to the word that the
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Lord spoke to him. See what's going on here. I saved you. I redeemed you.
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I commissioned you. I give you the mantle of profit. You do what I say. Yes, sir. He didn't do what he said, and the lion eats him.
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But for Jonah, because God is gracious and long suffering and kind, and he's going to exhibit that in the life of the
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Ninevites. No lion swallows Jonah, but a fish does instead to rescue him.
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Let's go back to Jonah chapter three. We always think God is the God of second chances, and many times he is.
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But Jonah, in spite of himself saying, I'd rather die than go preach and have these people get saved, doesn't get his wish.
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And the word of the Lord, Jonah 3, 1, came to Jonah the second time.
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Amazing. Amazing in this passage, this book about love and sovereign grace and redemption and salvation and the character of God, grace towards sinners.
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We get a little resolution in these verses one through ten in chapter three.
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Let's pick it up and look closely at chapter three, verse one. Then the word of the
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Lord came to Jonah. What do you mean then? What was the previous verse? What's the connection? The Lord spoke to the fish, chapter two, verse ten.
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It vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. What was the timeframe between getting spit out and regurgitated by a fish to off to preach?
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One month journey to get over to Nineveh. What's the timeframe? The point is we don't really care about the timeframe.
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It's that the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. We don't really know when. It's important that he got the call, not how long did it take?
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Yeah, but did he have to have physical recuperation? What about all that gastric juice of the fish that's on his face?
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And he's going to have a bleached out face look, some kind of, you know, weird look and he wants to look better.
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What's the point? Because of disobedience of Jonah, God's will is not going to change.
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I want these Ninevites saved and they're going to be saved. And he could have picked a different prophet, but he's going to use
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Jonah as a great illustration for Jonah, for the Ninevites and for us to see.
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Verse 2. It's going to be kind of deja vu, by the way. It's going to sound exactly like chapter 1, verse 2.
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Arise, one, two, arise, go to Nineveh, one, two, go to Nineveh.
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That great city, one, two, that great city and call out against it.
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One, two, and call out against it. And now it changes the message that I tell you.
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You're going to preach my message. And so you failed ordination number one, ordination number two.
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Here's the recommissioning. I want you to rise. I want you to go. And I want you to preach. And I'll tell you the message. You preach my message. The message that I give you, go herald.
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That's the job of a prophet. That's the job of a preacher. I was looking at some one ads quite a while ago.
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I think I've shared these in the past. One ads for pastors. Now, one day,
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I'm going to die. You're going to have to promote within or hire from without. Let's say Steve and I and Harry and Pradeep and everybody dies altogether.
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So we don't have to worry about who's on first because we'll all be in the grave. And you have to hire a new pastor.
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What would you look for? Well, lots of churches, they do this. Well, what Mike was good at, he had some weaknesses.
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And so let's hire somebody who was strong to complement Mike's weaknesses. And so how do we hire a new pastor?
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And you can pay a lot of money to research firms to figure out how to hire a new pastor. Michael Horton got some one ads for pastor.
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I don't know if this was from monster .com or where this was from. But these are some things that you should look for in a pastor.
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He's a people developer. We want someone who is a team builder.
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We want someone who's innovative, progressive, change initiating. We want somebody who's a problem solver.
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We want a good administrator. These are all want ads for pastors. We want someone who's approachable, who's dynamic, who's catalytic.
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This is a true one. We want someone able to lead worship through drama, audiovisual technology, banners and dance.
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I thought I was good at that. What's the most important thing for a prophet, for a proclaimer, for a preacher, even for an evangelist?
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Most telling, one ad, degrees in music are business required. A degree in theology, preferred.
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Jonah, you have one job in your life, one privilege, and it's to proclaim the message.
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You can hear almost echoes thousand years later when Paul writes to Timothy, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, even of Christ Jesus, who's going to judge the living and the dead.
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Preach the word. That's your job is to preach a formal proclamation. And that's what the word is in Jonah chapter 3 verse 2, to go proclaim.
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There's an announcement. I have talked to the king, received his message, and now
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I proclaim the message of good news to you as an ambassador. I speak for the king.
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That's why you proclaim, by the way. I don't proclaim to you because I'm better, because I'm worse.
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But I have a message from the king. If it's my own message, then I'm going to share it with you.
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If it's my own message, we'll have a nice talk. But I have a message from the king. It's like Ehud coming to Eglon.
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I have a message for you. And so Jonah is going to go into the city and he's going to preach.
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Chapter 3 verse 3. Heralds must preach. Prophets must preach. Evangelists must preach.
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So Jonah arose. Wow, it's so different now than chapter 1. It's different. He's not disobeying.
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This time he arose and went to Nineveh. If you go by camel, if you go by donkey, if you go by caravan, it's going to take a month to get there.
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It's going to take longer if you walk. And now he's going to do the right thing according to the word of the Lord. Yes. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city.
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The way the Hebrew is, it's a God -sized city. It's a city of God. Yes, even this Ninevite city, it's a city of God.
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There are people there who were the image bearers of God. They're eternal souls in Nineveh.
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It's a God -sized city. It's three days journey in breadth. Now, there's all kinds of ink spilled about what's that mean.
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It takes you three days to walk across the city. And, you know, if you stopped in the middle and preach some, we could see that.
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Take three days to walk around the outside of the walls. Take three days to walk around the outside kind of the environment.
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It's almost like saying, go to Worcester and preach. But he walks around Princeton and he walks over to where, who else needs preaching?
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Holden, you people live in Holden need preaching. Fitchburg especially. And so it doesn't really matter how big the city is.
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Nineveh was bigger than Jerusalem. And there's some Old Testament illustrations of, if you say, go to some city, it means the environment around it as well.
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The neat thing is Jonah went to preach according to the word of the
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Lord. Verse four, Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey.
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What was his message? He called out, he preached, he proclaimed, he has a message from the
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Lord. He called out, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
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Five simple Hebrew words and the original 40 days of purpose right here.
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In case you missed it before. Forty days over and over and over and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
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Not three points in a poem. Judgment. Now you say, wait a second, is it all judgment?
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Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be sacked. The word is to decimate, to destroy total destruction.
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It shows the thoroughness of the destruction. It's the word used in Genesis 19 .25 with Sodom and Gomorrah.
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It was totally destroyed. Same word here. Forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
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There's not grace in the words, but there's grace in the time period. You've got 40 days to repent.
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Lot had a few hours to get out of Dodge and then the city's destroyed. You've got 40 days.
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That is gracious. That is slow to anger. That is kind of the Lord. That is gracious of the
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Lord. This city, Nineveh, this, as one man said, this
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Sodom of a city gets a message. Repent. Now, I don't know how much time took place between the vomiting and the preaching.
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That's kind of a funny thing to say, isn't it? I never thought I'd say that publicly in my life.
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What's the time period between the vomiting and the preaching? I don't know, but I bet you his face still looks bleached out.
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I bet you he still looks pretty funky. And now he's coming preaching and now you've got the seaweed turban headed, bleached out face prophet and he walks in.
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Forty days, your city's going to be overthrown. Can you imagine getting the marching orders? Here's your marching orders. Go to Baghdad before the
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Americans took over and just start walking around telling everybody Jesus is the Savior and Muhammad is a false prophet.
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And by the way, make sure you get some of that kind of like whitening stuff on your face. I know you're thinking about Michael Jackson.
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Stop it. I know you are. Stop it. Sin is serious.
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Judgment is on its way. Repent now. Consider your soul. Finally, by the way, the mariners are obedient to God.
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The winds are obedient to God. The whale, the fish, in other words, rather is obedient to God.
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And now we have Jonah who's going to do the right thing. Forty days and then judgment.
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Now, let's talk about something for a minute. The world is saying this to Christians.
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You better shut your mouth. Idaho, there's that marriage place where a pastor and a pastorette marry folks, some kind of marriage chapel.
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You better marry homosexuals or else. Military, I thought about being a military chaplain years ago, but decided not to do it for a lot of reasons.
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If I was in there now, it's you better shut your mouth. The world, you can just see it. I used to think to myself, well, you know, by the time they're going to throw me in jail for saying
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Jesus is the only savior and even died for the sins of homosexuality and all kinds of other sins. By the time they do that to me,
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I'll be retired. I'm going to make it. I'll let my kids go to jail, but I'm going to make it.
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It is coming so fast and furious. The world is saying you better muzzle your mouth.
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You better shut your mouth. And if you don't. We're going to restrict you.
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We're going to jail you. You know what? It's OK. It's like China with communism. You can believe whatever you want.
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You can be a Christian, but you can't tell anybody. Just believe it in your minds. Jonah was told, look at chapter three, verse two, again, the message that I tell you.
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And I want to just stop here for more than a moment. Christianity depends on a message that is proclaimed.
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The way people get saved is always the same. These days,
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Abraham's days and our days, there's a message that must be proclaimed. Faith comes by hearing a message about Christ Jesus.
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We are a proclaimer. We might not have the office of pastor or prophet or something like that, but we proclaim.
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And now the world is saying you shut your mouth. So we'll shut it for you. And so simultaneously, liberal
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Christianity has gotten into the door of main evangelicalism.
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And hurting evangelicalism in a big way with things like this.
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Friends, you are the message. You are the fifth gospel. Just live your life in such a way that you be the message.
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Let people see your life changed. And then you be the fifth gospel. Four gospels they've never read, but they might read you.
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There is a coming together of the pressure from the world and liberal
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Christianity, which is no Christianity at all. I mean, some of the people that say this might be Christians, but it's liberalism.
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And by the way, liberalism in 1930s, it was kind of a guy with kind of dumb looking glasses.
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And he wore wingtips or something. And, you know, he had flutters on. You're like, no, of course, I'm not going to believe you because you just look dumb.
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But now they're coming in and they're the cool ones. They're the hip ones. They're the, I don't know if we're in Gen X now or whatever.
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I mean, some of them don't look so cool. I mean, some of them wear capris and toms as men. And so I just want you to know, don't ever do that because you're fired if you do.
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I wear capris and toms. Who are you? But that's a different sermon. The world pushing down, be quiet.
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And evangelicalism because they're buying into liberalism, which is be the message. And it is a imperfect, unperfect, unholy storm.
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There's a new book out called Be the Message. An evangelical publisher publishes it.
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Be the message. It says in the brochure, I'm tired of hearing sermons. I want to see one lived out.
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Every pastor wants to see his church move beyond just hearing a sermon. They want to see their congregations live out their faith.
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Now, it is true that we as Christians should live lives that are not full of hypocrisy, that are full of godliness and love and kindness.
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And we should be set apart people and we are to be godly. But when this book says you are the gospel, my spider senses don't go off.
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My red flags don't go off. I say that's a lie. That's a lie. But if it's so perfectly, just be the message.
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Okay, so let's say I'm the message. Because you know what? When I watch Mike's life,
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I observe what he does and how he says things. You know, some things are just too good to be true.
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Is that what you think? You should see your faces. You don't think that. If I'm the message, we're in a lot of trouble.
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If you're the message, we're in even more trouble. No, we're in equal trouble. No, we're in... We aren't the message.
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You mean to tell me that when you watch my life, you say, huh, I don't know what to do today.
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I could either read the gospel of John or watch Mike's life. Ty, the book's promo material says, they discovered that the gospel message is really about a life message.
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Your life lived out. Be the message opens up a new world of understanding about what
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God calls you to. What would happen? This is a quote from the book. And everything in my mind just says, it's a lie.
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It's liberalism. But it tastes so good. It feels so good. Because then I don't have to open my mouth and cause my neighbors not to like me.
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Then I can just say, I'll just live my life and everything will be worked out perfectly. What would happen if we talked about God less and walked with God more?
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Well, from the human perspective, then nobody would be saved. We would have no good news. My life isn't good news.
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Now, I want to live a life again. That's nice and good and warm and wonderful.
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But what happens when I'm short with my wife? What happens when I exasperate my kids? What happens when... What happens when...
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Trying to think of some funny little comment to make about the little blah, blah, blah, blah. When you look at my life, that's what you would hear.
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By the way, I like to hear those sounds. So leave that baby in here. Maybe I could use the baby for an illustration.
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Jesus lives the perfect life. He's the message. And even he's a preacher. God had one son and he made him a preacher.
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Turn your Bibles, please, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want to remind you of something quickly and thoroughly.
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Because I want you to be an evangelist. And friends, I've got news for you. Lifestyle evangelism is a lie.
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Lifestyle evangelism, Mormons do it better. Should you be kind and loving and warm?
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Yes. But that is not evangelism. That's called, I'm just living out my Christian faith. Yes, I want to live my life in a way that people will see
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I'm different. Hallelujah. But you've got to open your mouth. But we're afraid of people and we fear a rejection.
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And we don't want people to think we're some kind of crazy people. That Jesus is the only Savior and they can only have their sins forgiven in him.
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We just think this way. But we ought not to. We have a message from the
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Lord. The message that I gave you. God is a proclaiming
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God. True? Yes. He proclaims his wisdom and his power and his might through nature.
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God's a revealing God. God reveals his mind specifically through Scripture.
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Salvation in Jesus Christ. Substitutionary atonement. Wages of sin is death. All these intricacies. And when you see
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Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. If you don't like it that I say lifestyle evangelism is a lie.
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Paul would say something much worse. Chapter 15 verse 1.
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Say, Mike, you always go back to 1 Corinthians 15. Why? Answer. Because it talks about the most important truth in the universe.
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And the most important truth in the universe ought to be regularly talked about. Because if we assume this truth, our next generation is going to lose it.
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Now, I would remind you, brothers, of the good news, the gospel. That I, ESV says, preach to.
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But the Greek is gospeled to you. The gospel is to be gospeled.
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I got the gospel and I'm going to gospel it to you. It's good news in content. God forgives sinners through the perfect work of Christ Jesus.
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His death, burial and resurrection. Repentance and faith are the response to that gospel. And I gospel it to you.
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I tell you, I'm like a runner in the military. I run up to the front. We're winning. I run back.
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I tell the general, we win. There's gospel language. Victory over Nazi Germany.
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We win. Ronald Reagan reelected.
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I almost said we win. Whenever I'm out of town and talk to other congregations,
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I say, well, I'm from Massachusetts. I want you to know two things about Massachusetts. There are Christians there. They're like, yeah.
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Number two, in Massachusetts, not only are there Christians there, Republicans in Massachusetts are even
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Democrats. So I just want you to know those two things about Massachusetts. You don't live the gospel.
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Paul wouldn't know what to do. He'd say, you proclaim the gospel. When you watch news at night, let's just flashback.
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Maybe you don't watch news anymore. But if you used to watch Walter Cronkite, for instance, we talked about Art Linkletter last week.
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So now Walter Cronkite. And JFK has just been assassinated. And Cronkite gets on the news.
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Remember, he takes his glasses off for looks. And here's one thing I know. He's going to tell me the news.
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Cronkite, you're not the news. Well, let me just kind of act out this thing. I'm seated here on the back of the car.
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And then the shots come. And he kind of dramas this out. Michael Horton said, instead of reporting the news, we become the news.
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In fact, today we hear Christians speak of living the gospel, being the gospel. As if anything we do and can be are considered a supplement to God's victory in Christ Jesus.
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And 1 Corinthians chapter 15 does tell us the good news. And don't you love it? It's not about you.
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It's not about me. It's about Jesus. And the subject of all these verbs, except for a couple, is
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Christ. Verse 3, for I deliver to you as the first importance. This is the most important truth, what
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I also received. Christ died. The Messiah died. Not for his sins.
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He was sinless. For our sins. That's substitutionary atonement language. And it's not just found in the
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New Testament. In the Old Testament, too, in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried. He was dead. He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture.
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And that he appeared. It's about Jesus. And the message has to be about Jesus.
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The object of faith has to be about Jesus. And so the world is going to say, no, don't say anything.
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And it's going to feel so good. It's so wonderful. It appeals to our laziness. And it appeals to our desire to be liked by the unbelievers.
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I won't say anything because my life's the gospel. No, if your life is like mine. That you sin.
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That you're vile. That you're wicked. That you fall short. And this is all even as Christians. Because in my flesh there dwells what?
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Enough goodness to live out the gospel. Of course not. Listen to these modifiers of the gospel found in the
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New Testament. The gospel of Jesus Christ, Mark 1. The gospel of Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 9. The gospel of his son,
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Romans 1. The gospel of the grace of God, Acts 20. The gospel of the kingdom, Matthew 4.
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The gospel of peace, Ephesians 6. The everlasting gospel, Revelation 14. And not one time do you find in all the scriptures.
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I've looked. Not in Greek. Not in Aramaic. Not in Hebrew. Not in any other language that the gospel is me.
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I'm the gospel. I pity people that think I'm the gospel. God is the
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Savior. But everything just starts getting warped in. You can just...
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If there's some kind of centripetal force. Some vacuum that has a black hole -like effect.
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And we just keep getting drawn in on ourselves. Curved in on ourselves, that Luther would say. And this fits perfect to that thinking.
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Herman Ritterbos said, while in Calvin and Luther. All the emphasis fell on the redemptive event that took place with Christ's death.
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And resurrection. Later, under the influence of pietism, mysticism, and moralism.
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The emphasis shifted to the individual appropriation of the salvation given in Christ.
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In other words, when you used to preach the gospel. You'd say, Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners like you.
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Through repentance and through faith. You believe in the risen Savior. And now we preach the gospel like this.
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Well, this is how my life changed. You know, my marriage used to be bad. And now it's good. And I used to be a tempered man.
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And now I'm not so ill -tempered. I used to be angry. And I'm not so angry. I used to be prideful. And now
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I'm not. And the focus slowly drifts. Because of our own sinful thinking.
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Away from the object of our faith. And I determined to know nothing among you. Except Mike Abendroth and his lifestyle.
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I mean, it just sounds so weird, doesn't it? Who would do that? Getting saved.
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If I ask you the question, tell me how you got saved. I wonder how you would respond. This is what
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Jesus did for me. Or this is how I let Jesus in my heart. And there's just this God -centered way to approach it.
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And a man -centered way. I ask you this question. How do you live this message out without words?
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He who did not spare his own son. But gave him up for us all. Romans 8. How do you act this out in your lifestyle with your neighbors?
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Who gave himself for our sins. To deliver us from the present evil age. Galatians 1.
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How do you live out this? Titus 2. Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.
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You can't live it out, so you have to proclaim it. And Jonah was no neo -evangelical liberal.
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By saying, I'm just going to go there. And the proclamation is my life. And by the way, this is so good, congregation.
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Because what do you do if you're like me? Far from perfect in practice. Struggling with sin and temptation and failure.
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How could God ever use me to evangelize? Answer, because it's not about me.
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I'm the messenger. And that's why when people say, I don't go to church. Because there's a bunch of hypocrites there.
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Well, that is just such a farce. Because people will use any excuse not to go worship Jesus. Including that lie.
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But I'm not here to tell you about me. I'm not the hero of all my stories. I'm here to tell you about, there's a captain.
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There's a man, a God -man who's going to come back. Triumphant on a white horse.
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And he's bringing victory. His name's Jesus. Let me tell you about Jesus. If I were to walk up to you and say, you know.
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Do you just watch my life for the next hour? And you will never, ever again think of the slogan. That's too good to be true.
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There's another book called The Fifth Gospel. Bobby Conway. It starts off with a quote of someone you might remember.
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Gypsy Smith. He was a British evangelist a couple hundred years ago. There are five gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the
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Christian. But most people never read the first four. The good news isn't about me.
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The good news is about what Jesus has done. Who Jesus is. And you say, Mike, I get it all.
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I know you get it all. But I'm reminding you. Because the world is going to say, shut your mouth. And then an easy default, if we're not careful, is.
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Okay, I will. And I'll just live my life. Name me one great evangelist.
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A woman who preached good news often in Calabar, Mary Slessor. Or someone else,
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Adoniram Judson, who comes from Salem, Massachusetts. The first missionary sent from this soil.
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Every evangelist that you love had a common theme. Jesus Christ saves sinners like you.
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And proclaiming the message. Because that's how God saves people. What I do and who
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I am is just as important as the gospel of Matthew. You should look for a new pastor in monster .com
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if that's the case. The gospel isn't about me. They came to Jesus and saw a demon -possessed man.
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And the one who had had the legion sitting there clothed and in his right mind. They were afraid. Those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon -possessed man.
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And to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. He was getting into the boat.
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And a man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him, but said to him,
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Go home to your friends and be the message.
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Go home to your friends. You're the fifth gospel. Go home to your friends and tell them how much the
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Lord has done for you. And how he has had mercy on you.
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And he went away. And he began to proclaim in the Decapolis 10 cities, 10 gentile -run cities, how much
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Jesus had done for him. And everyone marveled.
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Should we live holy lives in front of our neighbors and mow our lawns and those kind of things? I hope we're the best neighbors.
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But the good news for us is when we fail at work, in our neighborhood, in our marriages, there is one who does not fail.
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And Jonah was to go proclaim a message that God had given him. And our job is to reject the message and say,
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No, I'm just going to live my life. The world is going to say,
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You better be quiet. And liberal evangelicalism is saying, It's perfect because we'll just live our lives.
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But the God of the universe is telling you, You ought to say to people, There is something too good to be true.
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And that is Jesus Christ saves sinners. Would you like to be forgiven?
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How would you like to be forgiven? I know who can forgive you. Father, I would ask for this dear congregation that you would give every one of us an opportunity in the next week to open our mouths and tell people about the object of our faith, about the object of our desire, of the object of our worship.
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Father, humanly speaking, seems like an impossible task. Yet even with the disciples, even with the apostles, they turned the world upside down, not because of their lifestyle, not because that they were good, not because they lived out a life and they were the fifth gospel.
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But they told people about Jesus Christ and the man who's fixed a day of judgment and has proven it because he's been raised from the dead.
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They talked about Jesus Christ, the man exalted to the right hand of God as prince and savior.
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They talked about the man, Jesus Christ, who redeemed sinners, who reconciled sinners, who was raised from the dead.
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Father, I pray that Bethlehem Bible Church would be a preaching church, not just from the pulpit, but we would proclaim the truth to others.
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Father, help us to run from the sin of wanting people to go to hell like Jonah, one of the
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Ninevites, but also help us to run from the sin where we will not open our mouths because we're afraid.
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And Father, I will admit on behalf of the church that we are cowards many times.
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We are afraid. We do fear people instead of you. And we're thankful we have a savior who never was afraid to tell the truth, never was a coward, and we stand before you in his stead.
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But in light of that, would you help us to be courageous? I think of 1 Corinthians 16, act like men.
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Father, it's a wicked world, and we want people to honor you by repentance.
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So grant us steadfast courage, grant us an audience for preaching, and help us just tell people about this wonderful savior who is gracious, long -suffering, slow to anger, just like Jonah knew.